Because Han Solo says "I'll see you in Hell" in ESB, there's now a mythology explaining what hell is

I don't see the big deal on some author expanding on the word "Hell"

 

It's " less than twelve parsecs," not "eight parsecs." Let's start with getting our numbers right.

 

How wasn't it clear? When I write "I think (...)", then it's my opinion on the matter, not someone else's.

Lack of argument?! Please, justify your claim.

Yes, I did:

What exactly do you assume I'm talking about when I write "I think"? If I was treating it as fact, I wouldn't need to write what I think.

Source?

I did meant it as an opinion and my own comments prove that (read above). You can say that it seems otherwise, but the evidence proves you're wrong.

It was meaningful to quite a few people who happen to agree with me, as seen in my OP.

There is no copout. My comments are clear enough to show that it's my take on the matter. But please, continue with your cherry picking crusade by making baseless accusations and ignoring parts of my comments on purpose.

 

I'm on a cherry picking crusade! NI!

You DID say think. Good job.

Best evidence yet: stating your evidence proves something.

You're like an argumentation master, unlike us lowly straw men (and women) who can't even understand the depths of your deep thoughts about...cheap things.

sent from my MOTO X-Wing

 

Wow, what a long bow to draw! How do they come up with this stuff?!

 

Cheap!...I think, that is.

sent from my MOTO X-Wing

 

RIP fully realized and in-depth GFFA.

 

Hey, just because he's obviously into BDSM doesn't mean he's gay.

 

I think the nonsense about "parsecs" just boils down to Lucas thinking it was a spacey,sci-fi unit of time. Note that the novelization uses "standard timeparts".

 

Alexrd taking umbrage when people don't agree with his EU bashing or PT fawning? I never thought I'd see the day!

 

As one of the people who agreed with your original post, I would like to clarify. I DON'T agree with your criticism that is is "cheap" (this didn't appear in your OP - see below). I just agreed with your conclusion that is was ridiculous. My reasoning is completely different from yours - I don't like the idea of a primarily Christian concept being inserted into a primarily Eastern mythology where it doesn't seem to fit (my opinion) based on the use of an Earth turn of phrase.

I have two trains that can get me to work. I take the faster one. It goes directly to where I work and makes fewer stops, the other goes all over town en route to my work. They both have the same max speed. I don't have a problem with a ship with a more advanced nav-computer being considered faster, I do have an issue with Han being an accomplished pilot who can't tell his speedometer from his odometer. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they said there is a universal hyperspace velocity, and having a better computer is the ONLY way to go faster.

Okay, full disclosure: I drive to work. I live in LA, there is minimal public transportation and I've only been on a train like 3 times in my life (a couple more if you count the subway on vacation in NY).

 

Shouldn't the plural be "nerves"?

 

Lucas has argued for a while that his conception of interstellar travel isn't based around speed but navigational ability, and that therefore the ship able to compute the shortest route between point A and point B was thus the fastest ship. Making the Kessel Run in the shortest length of distance therefore makes the Millennium Falcon the fastest ship to have made the Kessel Run.

The Essential Atlas goes with this explanation, and I would argue that this is supported in the film's dialogue itself: "Travelling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy. Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova, and would end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"

 

Could work either way I guess.

 

I think that ranks with Lucas explaining how there's no wheeled vehicles in Star Wars, or how Han would be an inhuman monster if he didn't let an opponent get off a shot at point blank range before firing his own gun.

 

I don't. I actually believe Lucas this time.

 

I don't think Lucas is lying in any of those occasions. I just find his explanations to be awful.

A side question: when did Lucas provide the answer about the "parsec" quote?

 

I would guess it's in the Making of Star Wars, but I don't care enough to look. And for all we know he had that thrown in there recently like the midi-chlorian reference.

But the fact that the dialogue in the films supports the interpretation suggests to me that mid-seventies Lucas came up with the idea. The idea is there in the original film. I think Lucas is sometimes(rarely) capable of something resembling subtlety or nuance. Mostly 1970s Lucas.

 

I'd be curious, then, about what happened with the novelization, since the quote has as "standard timeparts" in place of "parsecs".

 

2004 OT DVD commentary, I think. He's probably just covering for a mistake.

ADF went off the reservation?

 

Alan Dean Foster was as confused as we were.

I'm just saying I believe the explanation. Maybe it's a post hoc rationalization on the part of Lucas, but it's a pretty good retcon in that sense if it is, given the idea was already present.

 

That's a possibility, although Lucas may have wanted to have perhaps gone over the manuscript for corrections if he was going to have his name put on it as the author.

 

Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that Lucas originally just didn't know what a parsec was. And I think he was conspicuously trying to make up for his mistake by using the term correctly multiple times in the prequels.

If you ask me, this is just another example of people holding Lucas to absurd standards just so they can mock him. He never said there were no wheeled vehicles in Star Wars. He was speaking off the cuff about examples of the kinds of things people would consult him on, and one of those things was apparently telling them when it was appropriate for a vehicle to have wheels and when it wasn't. The vast majority of the time, it isn't appropriate, which is why we only see one example in all six movies.

 

Specifically in AOTC, right? In describing the distance from Kamino to the Rishi Maze and in having Geonosis as less than a parsec from Tatooine.

I suspect he thinks a parsec is larger than it is, but at least he's using it as a unit of distance now.