10 Facts Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Star Wars

2. The Parsecs Line Makes No Sense

The Misconception: "You can type this s**t, but you can't say it" said Harrison Ford to George Lucas on the set of Star Wars, exasperated at the directors sci-fi mumbo-jumbo dialogue. But while he may have struggled with "Greedo" and "don't get cocky", to fans his most erroneous line is that he "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs". You see, a parsec is a measure of distance (3.26 light years to be precise), not time, making that line the most nonsensical sentence in the whole saga.

The Truth: Because everything to do with Star Wars is over-thought there's plenty of solutions to this scientific faux pas. Lucas has suggested it was merely Han trying to swindle Luke and Obi-Wan, bamboozling them with complicated words, which really plays into his rogue character. The fourth draft even had evidence of this - Obi-Wan scoffs at the use of the word in this context.

The EU, however, offers an involved, but quite interesting, alternate explanation. The Kessel Run isn't a conventional A to B trade route, but a smugglers hyperlane used to avoid Imperial ships by going close to the Maw, a cluster of black holes. It's conventionally 18 parsecs, but thanks to Han's savvy piloting skills and the Millennium Falcon's fast engine, he's able to go closer to the Maw and thus shorten the distance.