Sorry to be so late into this, I saw the point I wanted to address and didn't expect there to be another half dozen pages before I got here. Prophets are down today, it seems (no change there, then).
Anyway, I just wanted to go back to the Kessel Run bit and at the same time highlight the distinction between ad hoc fanficking and drawing on available evidence. As DP pointed out, the Kessel Run Moment is, prima facie, an infamous script blunder which has fed into fan speculation and critical scorn for decades. Whole stables of literature have been bred from that single line. But is it as it appears?
I have an actual reproduced copy of the shooting script, published many years ago. Though not to hand and memory being what it is, I can nonetheless recall the gist, if not the verbatim text, of that scene.
Han is boasting about his ship and his piloting skills. He is blustering. He makes his comment about parsecs, then the direction goes something to the effect of "Kenobi reacts to this obvious misinformation". It's not just in the script; the scene was filmed exactly as written - Alec Guinness tilts his head and gives a withering "wtf? Tell me you didn't just say that!" expression. In other words, Lucas knew it was bad science and the gag was a throwaway glimpse into Solo's character; but more importantly, he expected the audience to know it too.
It's like my favourite gag of the entire film, when they go down to the detention block. They step into the lift and face the door. Inside, they have their bit of banter about how this is a bad idea ("Why didn't you say so before?" "I did say so before!"). Then the lift stops and the other door opens behind them. They go to step forward, realise the door they entered by didn't open, and look around in confusion before getting it. That's it - no jokey dialogue, no comedy music, no wacky sound effects. Just a bit of business with the set design which may have been improvised on the day (for comparison, see the mouse droid scene a few minutes earlier, which is as subtle as an air raid).
So after all that, I hope the illustration has been made that devising ad hocs to fill in plot holes is only necessary where there are actual holes requiring filling (giggety). Other than that, this was a thinly-veiled attempt to be part of the conversation.
Anyway, I just wanted to go back to the Kessel Run bit and at the same time highlight the distinction between ad hoc fanficking and drawing on available evidence. As DP pointed out, the Kessel Run Moment is, prima facie, an infamous script blunder which has fed into fan speculation and critical scorn for decades. Whole stables of literature have been bred from that single line. But is it as it appears?
I have an actual reproduced copy of the shooting script, published many years ago. Though not to hand and memory being what it is, I can nonetheless recall the gist, if not the verbatim text, of that scene.
Han is boasting about his ship and his piloting skills. He is blustering. He makes his comment about parsecs, then the direction goes something to the effect of "Kenobi reacts to this obvious misinformation". It's not just in the script; the scene was filmed exactly as written - Alec Guinness tilts his head and gives a withering "wtf? Tell me you didn't just say that!" expression. In other words, Lucas knew it was bad science and the gag was a throwaway glimpse into Solo's character; but more importantly, he expected the audience to know it too.
It's like my favourite gag of the entire film, when they go down to the detention block. They step into the lift and face the door. Inside, they have their bit of banter about how this is a bad idea ("Why didn't you say so before?" "I did say so before!"). Then the lift stops and the other door opens behind them. They go to step forward, realise the door they entered by didn't open, and look around in confusion before getting it. That's it - no jokey dialogue, no comedy music, no wacky sound effects. Just a bit of business with the set design which may have been improvised on the day (for comparison, see the mouse droid scene a few minutes earlier, which is as subtle as an air raid).
So after all that, I hope the illustration has been made that devising ad hocs to fill in plot holes is only necessary where there are actual holes requiring filling (giggety). Other than that, this was a thinly-veiled attempt to be part of the conversation.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
