Ron Swanson is not only the best character on TV right now, he's one of the best of all time.

"Whitney, I think you're death was sudden and surprising, and I'm happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Michael Jackson had the most sudden and surprising death of all time. OF ALL TIME!"

WHHHHAAAAATTTT?!?!?!

OKAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

YEEEEAAAAAAAUUUUUUHHHHH!!!!!

Yeah, it's never clearly stipulated if the bounty on Han is for dead or alive. I just always assumed it was live, so Jabba could take the pleasure of making Han suffer if he couldn't pay what Jabba owed him, either through physically punishing him or suffer through stealing or destroying his ship.

I don't think Greedo's necessarily a bounty hunter, but specifically works for Jabba. Han knows him on sight and says he's getting ready to, "go see your boss." I think Greedo's hired muscle looking to make an easy buck. He was hoping he could take a bribe from Han.

Greedo: Jabba's put a price on your head so large, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you. I'm lucky I found you first.
Han Solo: Yeah, but this time I've got the money.
Greedo: If you give it to me, I might forget I found you.

The implication being, give me the money you owe Jabba to keep for myself and I won't take you to Jabba right now. You can take your chances with other bounty hunters who might not be as accommodating as me.

I think he was just holding the gun on Han so Han didn't try any funny business. But yes, the scene works to build up Han's character and make the final parts of the movie, where he comes back to save Luke, all the more satisfying.

Yeah, blasters do have stun settings in the Star Wars universe. A stun blast looks like concentric blue circles being fired, like how the Stormtroopers blast Leia with a stun blast (There's one! Set for stun.) at the beginning of Episode IV while she is still aboard her ship, right after she loads the Death Star schematics into R2-D2.

There was an early game for the N64 called Shadows of the Empire that takes place between Episodes V and VI, and you can pick up a stun setting for your blaster that has a similar effect.

True, you could argue that, but in the Special Edition, the shot Greedo fires is a regular looking blaster shot. A stun blast looks like concentric blue circles being fired, like how the Stormtroopers blast Leia with a stun blast (There's one! Set for stun.) at the beginning of Episode IV while she is still aboard her ship, right after she loads the Death Star schematics into R2-D2.

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you, at least in part. Suffice to say, I feel it changes Han's character significantly if he's not willing to fire first in self defense.

And I like the idea of the addition of the Mos Eisley scenes. This was supposed to be a bustling spaceport. Obi Wan calls it a wretched hive of scum and villainy. No sense bothering with such a moniker if it's a mostly empty place with few people there.

The concept is good. But as you rightfully point out, the execution is poor. Prat falls and screeching Jawas? Another instance of George needing someone willing to stand up to him and restrain his more outlandish ideas.

The difference is that Spielberg realized what a mistake that was and has admitted that it was a mistake. His BFF Lucas could learn a thing or two from Spielly.
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/09/spielberg-re...

I have a theory about Lucas. He decides he wants to make some changes to the original movies, scenes that he truly felt were a part of his original vision but he didn't have time or the resources available to him at the time to make them a reality. Or perhaps he had people that actually stood up to him at the time and told him that some of his ideas weren't that good and shouldn't be a part of the final cut. (God knows he could have used someone like that for the prequel trilogy films).

At any rate, he makes the changes and is honestly, genuinely surprised when not everyone agrees that these are good changes. In fact, some of the fans are vehemently opposed to the changes. They make passionate, and well thought out arguments about how some changes are less than spectacular. If I had to take a guess, it probably upset him to a certain degree. But rather than be humble, swallow his pride and let his ego deflate a little, he's now dug in his heels out of spite. "They don't like the changes I've made? Well, that's too bad, because I'll never release a cleaned up, high definition version of the original movies!"

You know, I was thinking about this today. It should never make sense for Greedo to take a kill shot at Han. There's a bounty on Han's head and Greedo only presumably collects if Han is delivered alive so Jabba can exact revenge.

This especially makes sense in light of The Empire Strikes Back. Boba Fett is very concerned that Solo makes it through the carbon freezing process alive ("He's no good to me dead."). Vader even tells him to chill, that he'll be compensated if something goes wrong. The implication is that Solo needs to be delivered to Jabba alive (or successfully frozen in carbonite) in order to collect on the bounty. So why would Greedo want to fire a kill shot at Han's head? Holding a gun on him makes sense, sure. But firing a blaster straight at Han's head at point blank rage makes no sense. Whatsoever. But that's just me.

Plus Han firing first in self defense makes him a total badass who doesn't take crap from anyone. And I totally agree with you about the establishing shots of Han surreptitiously drawing his blaster underneath the table.