[troutman]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

Han Solo would do the journey in 6000 parsecs.

Forbes actually argued that Han Solo did do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchama.../#5f9383143785

The quote has become an easy target for pedants to point out that a 'parsec' is a unit of distance, not time.

Ironically, it's the parsec pedants who are mistaken -- about a great many things. First and foremost, they're wrong about language: a 'run' is not always a race against time, the word is also a synonym for 'route', as used when parents make the school run or a courier makes delivery runs. Han Solo is a smuggler, not a sprinter, and the Kessel Run is not a race track.

So how did Han manage to make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs? As he says in Solo: "Take a shortcut."

Although the shortest distance between two points is a straight line (without using a wormhole), the movie states "You can't plot a direct course to Kessel." This applies at a small scale, flying through normal space in places like the Maelstrom, but also to a large jump across the galaxy in hyperspace, as there are many dangerous obstacles to avoid, everything from tiny micrometeoroids to huge star clusters. So instead of going directly from A to B, a ship would have to travel from A to Z via points B, C and D etc, meaning that ships could take different paths to Kessel.