Did the Millennium Falcon *really* make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs?

Question

From the new canonical novelization of Episode IV: A New Hope:

Han scoffed. “Fast ship? You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon ?”

Ben raised a white eyebrow. “Should I have?”

“It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs!”

The kid, like most people who heard the tale, looked impressed. The old man was not, however, “most people.”

“Anyway,” Han said, before he could be called out on his lie.
- Star Wars - New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy

So the question is:

Did the Millennium Falcon make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, or was Han blowing smoke?

Answer 1

This is an interpretation of a scene in Episode VII, but when Rey is informed by Han that she is in the Millennium Falcon, she makes mention of the Kessel Run. She overstated it (as 14 parsecs from memory, sorry I don't have the novelisation of the movie), but clearly she was impressed by this figure. Han corrected her to 12 parsecs by muttering it under his breath.

Han's claim of 12 parsecs seems to be accepted as widely-known fact, at least in the Outer Rim, who would likely have a fair idea of whether it sounded like bantha pudu. Even his correcting Rey's mistake back to the same figure some 30 years later gives credibility to his claims rather than it being simply an off-hand comment to impress an old man and a farm boy.

If you read the quote again:

The kid, like most people who heard the tale, looked impressed. The old man was not, however, “most people.”

There is no mention in that passage that Obi-Wan didn't believe it, merely that he didn't wasn't particularly impressed by it. Nowhere does it state that the tale wasn't true.

Answer 2

Legend answer:

Yes, Han Solo did the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. This event is told in the Rebel Dawn novel by A. C. Crispin.

This is the summary of the Kessel Run story as told in the novel (from Wookieepedia):

Desperate for money, Solo and Chewbacca took a spice smuggling run from Jabba (who had inherited his aunt's criminal empire) through the Kessel Run. However, the duo were met mid-Run by an Imperial patrol, and were forced to abandon their cargo in deep space while the Falcon was searched and escorted to a nearby world. When they came back to look for the cargo, however, the two discovered it had disappeared. The smuggler tried to explain what happened, but Jabba — in a drug-induced haze — turned his back on Solo and demanded compensation for the lost spice.

And, from the Kessel Run Wookieepedia page:

The Kessel Run was an 18-parsec route used by smugglers to move glitterstim spice from Kessel to an area south of the Si'Klaata Cluster without getting caught by the Imperial ships that were guarding the movement of spice from Kessel's mines.

[...]

he was referring to the shorter route he was able to travel by skirting the nearby Maw black hole cluster, thus making the run in under the standard distance. By moving closer to the black holes, Solo managed to cut the distance down to about 11.5 parsecs

I can't copy direct sources from the book - I read it in French and remember clearly Han being astonished by doing the Run so fast.

Canon answer:

There is no formal confirmation yet AFAIK but I strongly suspect this will be in the upcoming Solo movie.

Answer 3

If this passage is "canonical" then yes, it was a lie. Says so right there.

(I don't know or care what makes something canonical for you, but if you say it's canonical, then I accept that you hold it to be canon)

Answer 4

It certainly is plausible that Han was telling the truth, and that Ben simply did not care for Han's bragging.

Parsecs could actually represent how many jumps are made (and their distance), and not how long it took. Since FTL travel in Star Wars involves hyperspace, and they have to avoid the gravity wells of planets and stars and other bodies and perhaps even other large ships (all of which are in motion), it means they have to have a precise route to avoid colliding with something. Perhaps the challenge was using the least amount of jumps around a densely occupied solar system and the shortest route, rather than the actual time it took.

Saying he did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs is like saying I did the Milky Way Run in 3.11 billion miles, where the "Milky Way Run" means you fly by every single planet between Earth and Pluto. The trip is only 3.11 billion miles ONLY if all the planets are aligned, otherwise it will take a much longer distance to actually visit every planet on the way to Pluto since you'd have to zig zag more to hit them all.

So the challenge is to do it in the least amount of distance, which means precise calculations and timing. Think launch windows in our own space program, except with hyperspace and faster than light travel.

Answer 5

But in the Return Of The Jedi reimagined Novel "Beware The Power Of The Dark Side" Han says that "They have the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs".

Answer 6

Don't forget than Ben is a Jedi. The same Jedi who trained Anakin Skywalker, and who witnessed anakin win the pod races. I am willing to bet Ben felt he knew some people who could cut that run even closer than Han did.

I.e. I think Ben was simply not impressed by Hans posturing.

Answer 7

The Kessel run involves passing through the Maw, a collection of black holes created by the Celestials to imprison Abeloth.

If the safest route took let's say 22 parsecs, so about 88 light years, then Han Solo with his 12 parsecs run was skirting dangerously close to some black holes, and likely insanely close.

It's like saying "I crossed the Nile jumping on top of only 12 crocodiles, with my eyes closed"

Han Solo is most probably lying and bragging about this run. Considering who he is, that Kessel run most likely involved running away from the Hutts( Jabba the Hutt was the main owner of the spice mines on Kessel) and jumping blindly through hyperspace.