This is so stupid to me. First of all, how is this a debate? Until the special edition, Han shoots and kills Greedo before Greedo can get off a shot, period. Early drafts of the movie are just that, early drafts. All sorts of things change from one draft to the next, and even while filming. The only thing that matters is what ends up on the screen, and not what ends up on the screen when the director decides to go back and bastardize the original film.
This was never even open for debate.
It's not even really a debate. You watch the film. Han shoots Greedo. That's that.
I think the only reason this came up as a debate is the sort of mythology floating around about what Lucas said he "always intended" or "always wanted" or "was never satisfied with" and such.
And you know what? Most of that, I think, is down to the
fans, not Lucas himself. Lucas has said stuff about what he intended at different points, yeah. And he has changed his tune on some of that, as well as having his statements directly contradicted by what appeared on screen.
But the more I think about it, the more I think it's the
fans -- myself included -- that gave him credit as this master planner who knew all the details and structure and background info for everything, and had this grand plan for what he was going to do with everything, why he made every decisions, etc. We also credited him as a
singular auteur, rather than one (critical) part of a larger creative process.
And it was the prequels that dropped the scales from our eyes, basically. Well, the prequels and the special editions, and the interviews that followed. The whole sense of "GOTCHA!!! You SAID this, but then you LATER said THAT!!" comes as a result of our disappointment with the prequels, as well as George's unwillingness to say "Yeah, that was a mistake" in some way that acknowledged the fans were right. So when he defended some of his positions by saying what he "always intended," the fans jumped on it to prove him wrong (as if that'd matter somehow?). Like, we so wanted to
catch him and shove in his face how
wrong he was, as if that'd (A) vindicate our disappointment, and (B) I dunno, make him go change it back the way we wanted? Of course, that'd never happen.
Lastly, I think that while Lucas has said in a handful of occasions that he "always intended" this or that, the
attitude that he always intended something has probably been more widely attributed than it should've been. And again, I think that's down to us. I don't think Lucas has pronounced what his intentions were for every little niggling detail in the films, nor has he responded to every challenge made to him about why XYZ was different. Midichlorians? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I read how he actually addressed that. Han shooting first? I think that was more about "it always kinda bugged me a little" but we've turned that into "always intended." Basically, I think fans have attributed a notion of "I'm never wrong, it's my world, and if you don't like what I do, you can eat bantha poodoo," to pretty much everything he's done, and I just don't think he's actually
said that much on so many subjects about the films. Some stuff, yeah, but not everything.
Mostly, though, at this point, I just don't think it really matters what he's said. It's not his stuff anymore. He's not holding the creative reins. He's just a guy with some ideas, and while he is the creator, his ideas don't necessarily mean "And that's exactly what'll happen." As the creator of the world, he's got some insight into what he intended or how he imagined stuff, but it doesn't matter because the people writing the stories are going to do it their way.