diff --git a/include/light/light.h b/include/light/light.h
index f4fda795..5c7ab3ce 100644
--- a/include/light/light.h
+++ b/include/light/light.h
@@ -259,7 +259,6 @@ extern int oversample;
 extern int write_litfile;
 extern int write_luxfile;
 extern qboolean onlyents;
-extern qboolean parse_escape_sequences;
 extern qboolean scaledonly;
 extern uint32_t *extended_texinfo_flags;
 extern qboolean novis;
diff --git a/light/entities.c b/light/entities.c
index e7b4bacd..d41a6e38 100644
--- a/light/entities.c
+++ b/light/entities.c
@@ -1329,6 +1329,7 @@ WriteEntitiesToString(bsp2_t *bsp)
 
         for (epair = entity->epairs; epair; epair = epair->next) {
             const char *value;
+            const bool parse_escape_sequences = true;
             if (parse_escape_sequences) {
                 value = CopyValueWithEscapeSequencesParsed(epair->value);
             } else {
diff --git a/light/light.cc b/light/light.cc
index 55c16754..0dfb5f77 100644
--- a/light/light.cc
+++ b/light/light.cc
@@ -92,7 +92,6 @@ int oversample = 1;
 int write_litfile = 0;  /* 0 for none, 1 for .lit, 2 for bspx, 3 for both */
 int write_luxfile = 0;  /* 0 for none, 1 for .lux, 2 for bspx, 3 for both */
 qboolean onlyents = false;
-qboolean parse_escape_sequences = true;
 qboolean novis = false; /* if true, don't use vis data */
 debugmode_t debugmode = debugmode_none;
 
@@ -1338,9 +1337,6 @@ main(int argc, const char **argv)
         } else if ( !strcmp( argv[ i ], "-onlyents" ) ) {
             onlyents = true;
             logprint( "Onlyents mode enabled\n" );
-        } else if ( !strcmp( argv[ i ], "-no_parse_escape_sequences" ) ) {
-            parse_escape_sequences = false;
-            logprint( "Parsing escape sequences disabled\n" );
         } else if ( !strcmp( argv[ i ], "-phongdebug" ) ) {
             CheckNoDebugModeSet();
             debugmode = debugmode_phong;
@@ -1360,7 +1356,7 @@ main(int argc, const char **argv)
                "             [-light num] [-addmin] [-anglescale|-anglesense]\n"
                "             [-dist n] [-range n] [-gate n] [-lit|-lit2] [-lux] [-bspx] [-lmscale n]\n"
                "             [-dirt] [-dirtdebug] [-dirtmode n] [-dirtdepth n] [-dirtscale n] [-dirtgain n] [-dirtangle n]\n"
-               "             [-soft [n]] [-fence] [-gamma n] [-surflight_subdivide n] [-surflight_dump] [-onlyents] [-sunsamples n] [-no_parse_escape_sequences] [-phongdebug] bspfile\n");
+               "             [-soft [n]] [-fence] [-gamma n] [-surflight_subdivide n] [-surflight_dump] [-onlyents] [-sunsamples n] [-phongdebug] bspfile\n");
         exit(1);
     }
 
diff --git a/man/light.1 b/man/light.1
index 9083c495..f9145ab4 100644
--- a/man/light.1
+++ b/man/light.1
@@ -81,8 +81,6 @@ if your map uses any switchable lights. All this does is assign style numbers to
 switchable light.
 .IP "\fB\-sunsamples [n]\fP"
 Set the number of samples to use for "_sunlight_penumbra" and "_sunlight2" (sunlight2 may use more or less because of how the suns are set up in a sphere). Default 100.
-.IP "\fB\-no_parse_escape_sequences\fP"
-Disables parsing escape sequences.
 The "\\b" escape sequence toggles red text on/off, you can use this in any strings in the map file. e.g. "message" "Here is \\bsome red text\\b..."
 .IP "\fB\-surflight_dump\fP"
 Saves the lights generated by surfacelights to a "mapname-surflights.map" file.