Greedo Really Did Shoot First?

Hey everybody, McMovieman here. I've been perusing the Internet today and I see over on Hollywood Reporter a little Q&A with George Lucas. He finally clears up that age old Han vs Greedo and the matter of who shot first. According to Lucas it was always Greedo. Here's the full quote:  The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first."

I've seen the original cut of A New Hope. Han very clearly shoots first. It's feeling more and more like Lucas is trying his damnedest to sell this lie. Lie is a harsh word. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Lucas. Star Wars is one of my all time favorites, but it would feel much more genuine if Lucas would come out and say "I changed the Greedo/Han exchange because I wanted Han to appear more heroic or less flawed or blah blah blah." Instead he's sticking with this, dare I say, delusion. From my perspective it makes Han Solo more of a character if we meet a Han Solo at the beginning of A New Hope who shoots first and asks questions later and then grows as a character as the franchise progresses. He then becomes a stronger character who is very flawed in the beginning, but grows into the hero. Hell, he's promoted to a General in Return of the Jedi. If growing from a trigger happy space pirate to a General in an army isn't growth, I don't know what is. It's what you might call a character arc. It is what it is, however. It is never going to sway my love of Star Wars, as I doubt it will any other Star Wars fan, but it is still moderately annoying for me to see Lucas sticking to this alteration so steadfastly. Anyway, that's my two-cents on this little story. File this away under random nerd ramblings.