I read that initially JKR wrote it correctly then one of her editors wrongly said she had it wrong, so she “corrected” it without verifying that her editor was right.
I think this information comes from her official website, but I’m not sure.
For the movies section, isn’t there a fanwank to cover Han Solo’s misuse of the term ‘parsecs’?
Man, if you’re going to talk about Enterprise why not bring up the very first episode (aka the only one I’ve seen).
What a coincidence that our model/Vulcan officer has to strip off and rub gel all over herself to “decontaminate” or whatever.
A couple of them. It might be a sign that Han Solo doesn’t really know what he’s talking about. Or perhaps it’s a test to see if Luke and Ben are smart enough to catch this mistake. My favorite explanation, however, is that there’s a black hole in the path of the direct route to/from Kessel. Most pilots give this black hole a wide berth, adding a considerable amount of extra distance to their runs, but the more daring pilots run closer to the hole. Normally, a 12-parsec run is way too close, and only the Millenium Falcon’s extreme speed kept it from getting sucked into the black hole.
This last fanwank has, in turn, inspired a couple of sub-wanks concerning whether Han Solo made a 12-parsec run deliberately, or whether it was an accident (caused by a faulty navigation computer or somesuch), and Han just lets people think that he did it deliberately.
They’re missing the most obvious explanation: Han Solo comes from a Galaxy Long Ago and Far Away. They use different units there, and a parsec is a unit of time.
I must admit, I’m unfamiliar with the term ‘fanwanking’ used in this context. You might want to distinguish ‘fanwanking’ from what goes on on Fandom_wank for clarity’s sake. Interesting term, I’ll have to use it more…
That the term for a fan created explination of a mistake is a “No-prize”
Oh, and btw, I am in the camp that claim that fan-wanking is when the author gives a shout-out to the fans, such as trying to place a original novel within the series, a la most “New Adventures of The Doctor” novels.
No, that’s what Marvel gave out to acknowledge good ones. You don’t come up with a no-prize, you earn one.
The lamest plot-hole explanation I ever heard was the supposed reason for the difference between the Star Trek TOS Klingons and the version seen in the movies and subsequent series: that their forehead ridges didn’t show on those “low-res 20th century screens”. :rolleyes: :dubious: :smack: 
<in an affected, snotty voice>
I know the origin of the phrase just fine, thank you very much, my good sir.
However, I have seen it used among members of multiple fandoms for explination they believe should receive a no-prize, if only it actually had to do with Marvel comics, rather then novels.
Sure, but that particular fanwank came from what was probably the second-worst writer to ever do a Star Wars EU story.
-Joe, avoided “Crystal Star” thanks to friends
I’ve always associated the term fanwank with masturbation: something you do for yourself because you can’t get someone else to do it for you. Creating your own “content” for an established franchise/intellectual property that the original creators have failed or refused to supply is a fanwank, such as explaining what Han Solo meant when he said “parsec.” The other proferred definition of the term seems much weaker to me. Fan service is a better term for that, because it still has certain sexual overtones, but in a more sterile, business oriented sense. A girlfriend is someone who has sex with you because she loves you. A prostitute services you because she wants your money. Fan service, therefore, is something gratuitously added just to please fans, not because the creator felt it was important to the work.
Damn, I wish I’d written that.
Well, the black hole (actually, several of them clumped together) along the Kessel Run seems to show up in quite a few of the Star Wars novels, so until George Lucas says something different, it’s canon.
He has said something different, in so far as why Solo said Parsec. In the ANH commentary he says it’s because Han was trying to sound impressive, but clearly didn’t know what he was talking about.
I’m not sure I trust that to be the real truth, it seems a bit retconned to me, but that’s GL’s official word.
Hmm… guess it can go either way. I think the rules are that anything written by Lucas override anything else, but I’m not sure if that includes commentaries.
Even with the scenario from the novels (Han managing the run only by loosing deck plating from the bottom of his ship and ejecting his cargo, leading to his money problems later on) it’s easily seen as Han making himself sound perhaps more impressive than he is, so it’s not really important either way.
At the risk of making myself infamous, I think that much of the Legion Help File that I created (and has quite a nice circulation amongst Legion fandom) qualifies as “fanwank.”
From “FtG’s Compleat Dictionary of Circular References”:
Fan: See wanker.
Wanker: See fan.
Ergo I must conclude that “fanwanking” is somewhat redundant. 
Miller pretty much nailed it. Fanwanking is obsessing over the smallest details of a show and explaining away inconsistencies, as pleasurable as wanking for the obsessed fan.
Fan service is a Japanese term. Seebisu or サービス (which is basically the English word “service” in Japanese) means extra free stuff. Fan service is stuff thrown in to make the fans happy. In anime, it usually means the addition of cute, busty girls in short skirts. Or as with Gundam Wing. The creators threw in a bunch of cute, angsty teenage boys and only a couple of female characters. Consequently, Gundam Wing was hugely popular with teenage girls.