I think one of the Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels attempted to spackle over that faux pas. Something about the Falcon being fast enough to allow its pilot to fly a shorter course around a gravity well.
I think it was the “Jedi Academy” trilogy. There’s a large black hole cluster near the planet Kessel. Smugglers fly as close as possible to it without falling in in order to evade Imperial patrols.
Yeah, I’m a huge SW nerd, so what? :0)
I think one of the Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels attempted to spackle over that faux pas. Something about the Falcon being fast enough to allow its pilot to fly a shorter course around a gravity well.
That was “I, Jedi” I believe: Idea is - as you summarized - that Kessel was in the midst of the Maw cluster of black holes. The faster the spaceship, the “straighter” that it could fly through the winding path going between the black holes. Thus, an average ship might need a path 60 parsecs long. A faster ship can get through with a shorter path - 50 parsecs long. A very, very fast ship then only needs the 30 parsec length.
Kind of like a teenage driver claiming his “time” in a 1/4 mile rather than the speed. Or a claim for 0-60 in ___ seconds, rather than an actual acceleration. A football player talkin’ about his time in the 40 yard dash.