In Han Solo's introduction scene he claims that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs with the line “"It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.” which sounds ludicrous at first because a "Parsec" is a unit of length not time. Which has led many fans to speculate that Han was simply boasting or that it was mistake in the filming; however, there a few theories on the subject that might explain this discrepancy. After listening to the commentary track by George Lucas and various others on the DVD of Star Wars, he clearly explained the reasoning behind the statement. In space a ship has to navigate around objects (planets, asteroids, ect.) in hyperspace routes and either through Han's skill as a navigator or the Falcon's navigation computer he made the Kessel Run in a very shorter distance. On the other hand, in A.C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy, the Maw cluster of black holes distorts space and time, therefore the length of the route is shortened by flying close to it. Another possibility is that he was simply boasting and later information was changed to make that statment true. Because in the revised fourth draft of Star Wars in 1976, the description for "Kessel Run" is put as follows: “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. “This would imply that Han’s claim is only "misinformation", not truth, and it has nothing to do with the nature of the Kessel Run in any aspect. Even in the final edition of the script, the parentheses added to Han's line states that he is "obviously lying." I believe that Lucas’s answer is the most logical, although I assume he only thought of this well after he filmed Star Wars. What are your thoughts on the debate? Please comment below.
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Interesting debate over this. I agree that he's lying, most likely, but there's no real telling with space, since we aren't a hundred percent sure on how it works. Plus, Obi-Wan's face makes me think that he's reading Han's lie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post!
Best,
Alexandra~
PS: I'm new to this blog, so saying hello!
I know, it has never really how fast the Falcon is. But I agree Obi-Wan definitely thinks he is lying.
Delete-James
Heehee, I like to think that Han really did make it that quick. I think he actually does have the skill to do, it's just hard to tell with his type of braggish personality. XD Good post, James!
ReplyDelete~Jamie
Thanks Jamie! :) I agree it is hard to tell, especially at that point when Han is much more of a scoundrel.
Delete-James
Never thought about that! That's really cool. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks! :D
Delete-James
That was really interesting! I have that scene with Greedo pretty much memorized (I was trying to make a Lego version)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I do as well, even Greedo's Huttese dialogue.
DeleteThat would be very cool, I have thought about making a LEGO version althouhg it would be quite difficult.
-James
Very interesting discussion :); I had never really thought much about it before. I'll probably go with A.C. Crispin's description of what happened since that was the first thing I heard regarding him making the Kessel Run. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks. :) Ah yes, but I wonder why he changed what Lucas said before.
Delete-James
I never really thought about that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and for following Edessa's blog.
Delete-James
I never really thought about it too, but now that I thought about it, it's really interesting!
ReplyDeleteIn ANH novelization, it was said that it was a lie, and I'll think of it that way :)
I have always heard about but I really did not know all the different ways it has been explained until I did some research. :) Haven't read the ANH novel, but I think that I should.
DeleteThank you for bringing this matter up. It's so nice to find people who don't look at me weird whenever I mention subtlties like this. And I love the original Han Shot First scene...
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that Han was trying to impress the old man and whiner boy, but also the Falcon's computer actually is actually a good nav computer so that it did make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. It's just less impressive than Han makes it out to be...
That's what true life long fans like us live for, all the little things matter. And I love the original Han scene as well, best introduced of a character after Vader in my opinion.
DeleteI agree, at least in the original take of the movie he was lying. At least Lucas didn't change the dialogue to "Standard time units" in the special edition.
Also thanks for the comment on my blog, I enabled the comments again. Hopefully it will work for you now.
-James
I personally lean towards Crispin's explanation. It gives Han Solo and the Falcon a sort of legendary quality, the fact that they did make the Kessel Run in a shorter distance than those who avoid the Maw at all.
ReplyDeleteI think the scripts are only canon in certain places (like video games). If I am remembering correctly, the shooting script for ESB, the one David Prowse, Mark Hamill, and the rest of the cast had, did not reveal Vader as Luke's father. It came as a surprise even to the cast when they saw it in theaters. Because James Earl Jones recorded his lines later, nobody knew.
That was a little tangent that has little to do with the topic at hand. I understand that Lucas's stuff is considered "G-Canon" and is supreme to Crispin's work, but I like Crispin's explanation rather than Lucas changing his mind.
Good point, although there really does not seem to be a true correct answer.
DeleteYes, you are correct. Prowse had no knowledage of his lines until after Lucas showed the crew the film.
Yeah, considering that Lucas' canon would mean that Greedo shot first and not Han, it is probably best that anything he says after he original filmed the movies should be discarded.
-James