Especially the Christmas Special
I know the movies retconned this badly, but measuring the “speed” of a hyperspace capable ship with distance makes a lot of sense…
At the direct “normal” space distances these ships travel, on conventional drives, going from one galaxy to the next would take more than a human lifetime. The maximum velocity of the ship makes a, well let’s not say negligible, but rather immaterial, difference in the time it takes for the ship to arrive. A hyperspace drive effectively brings two points in space closer together. The “faster” the drive is, the closer it brings those two points, and thus the MF’s impressive run is a measure of distance instead of speed.
I read that as “the mother fucker’s impressive run” and not “the Millenium Falcon’s impressive run”
Why not both?
I thought the fan theory was the route included a near pass by a black hole or something, and 12 parsecs would be the shortest “sane” route that didn’t either
- Require bravery/luck verging on stupidity
- God tier course charting to get the orbital routing just right
So to do it in less than 12 would just be generally unheard of
They show it in Solo, and it’s pretty much that.
You can be forgiven for forgetting that exactly that was canonized in the Solo movie.
Yes. It was a stupid thing the old EU did to retcon what was much more naturally (and at least one marked-up copy of the script says so) a shady smuggler trying to get one over on what he presumed were a couple of rubes. The old EU was infamous for taking every line completely seriously, turning every idle turn of phrase into a galaxy-wide convention, and ascribing galactic importance to every extra or creature that anyone noticed.
The fact that Solo doubled down on it was a mistake.
You can even see Obi-Wan give Han a kind of, “What do you think we are, idiots?” look after he says the line,
I thought it was because Obi-Wan knew Han was boasting about a supposed lie about the Falcon, not that he was trying to lie about what a parsec was.
You would think Luke would also know what a parsec was during that scene as he’s a pilot. That seems like it would be more basic knowledge there than it would be here on Earth.
My gut still tells me Lucas didn’t know or care. The novelization back in the day says “standard time units” instead of parsecs… which would indicate it was an error in the script.
its funny how “never tell me the odds” turned into all corellians hating odds
yet han solo also calls lukes death star shot “one in a million”
Ah never saw it
You could go even close, making the distance shorter.
But it would involve even more danger of your space ship getting ripped apart.
Solo explained the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs, and Skeleton Crew has confirmed the Christmas Special is canon. Life day was also referenced in the new Sequels, but Skeleton Crew used recreated footage of the circus holovid.
My favorite “theory” about this is based on the fact that they shot a reaction cut of Obi-Wan looking suspicious, implying that Han thought they were a couple rubes that wouldn’t know what a parsec was. That would mean it wasn’t a mistake, and you don’t need to come up with the convoluted shit other people have to justify it.
it’s not a theory, it’s in the script!
HAN Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon? BEN Should I have? HAN It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs! Ben reacts to Solo's stupid attempt to impress them with obvious misinformation. HAN I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?Obvious misinformation doesn’t sound the same as a nonsense.
Yup and Obi Wan is like “I don’t have time for this, this is what we’re going to pay you…”
I’m probably going to upset a few Star Wars fans with this, but in the original version that I saw of the New Hope / Ep4, both Han and Greedo have their blaster pistols drawn under the table, and Han shoots Greedo first.
I’ve seen the entire internet argue about who shot first, but the irony is that if he didn’t shoot first he would get shot by Greedo and the story would end right there.
It wasn’t murder, it was quickdraw. :)
That’s the joke. Greedo shooting first was a poor edit made in later editions, because god forbid the smuggler plays a bit dirty sometimes. If you look closely Han’s head just shifts to the side like someone cut it out in Paint. It was the start of the downfall of the originals tragic remaster journey.
Yeap, this is pretty much fully justified and explained.
my question is whether it was a mistake they were able to fix later on or if it was never a mistake to begin with
I always liked the theory that Han was intentionally using nonsense jargon, to see if Obi Wan would pick up on it. To see how gullible he is. And Obi Wan just went with it cause he was kinda desperate to get off the planet, what with the stormtroopers snooping around looking for the droids.
