eldavojohn's Journal: The Kessel Run in Under 12 Parsecs

Alright, after reading an outbreak of people arguing over the Kessel Run comment that Han Solo makes in Star Wars: A New Hope & after seeing Family Guy parody it, I'm going to have to speak up and make a statement. In my youth, I read many a Star Wars book from the expanded universe. The word 'kessel' is German for cauldron or kettle and a 'kessel run' was actually used to refer to German Luftwaffe pilots trying to bring aid via air to stranded German troops in the Battle of Stalingrad (Operation Uranus). It was met with disaster.

In the Star Wars universe, the Kessel Run refers to series of dangerous areas a smuggler or wanted person would take to escape pursuit which included the Maw black hole cluster. The shorter you made the distance, the closer you came to the black hole and oblivion. A sign possibly only of impressive stupidity or cases of extreme need when the Imperial forces are after you.

So effectively, either George Lucas had this planned out or authors helped him cover his ass after the mistake. It's hard to say but in the novelization of "A New Hope," Han uses 'standard time units' instead implying guilt on George Lucas' part.

Operation Uranus

[powerpants]

Let's consider the preceding lines of dialog:
HAN: Han Solo. I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon. Chewie here tells me you're looking for passage to the Alderaan system.
BEN: Yes, indeed. If it's a fast ship.
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!

Even if we accept your explanation of the Kessel Run as being other-than-bandaid, Han's response still wouldn't make sense unless he were tal

Re:

[geekboy642]

A slower ship may well have been required to leave far larger margins around the multiple black holes in the region. Having enough thrust to escape a black hole at closer distances == fast ship.

An alternative explanation

[Rob T Firefly]

I like to think it was just Han the roguish scam artist trying to show off to and/or have fun at the expense of what he saw as a couple of rubes who he figured wouldn't know the difference. Sort of like a Slashdotter telling his grandmother that they can fix a computer by "increasing the ethernet megahertz and defragging the Javascript." In this version of events, there doesn't even need to really be such a thing as the "Kessel Run," in fact it's funnier if there isn't.