1 Vader: So you're telling me that because of orbital physics we can't get around this planet any faster to destroy the Rebel base?
2 Imperial Officer: That's right, Lord Vader.
3 Vader: Hmmm. Now if only we had, oh, I don't know, some sort of super weapon that could blow up the planet so it wasn't in the way?
4 Imperial Officer: Oh, er...
4 Vader: Right. Get on it.

A bit of a follow-up to #507.

There are some feasible reasons why the Empire wouldn't just blow up Yavin to get to the Rebels faster, namely:

1. The Death Star's superlaser might take a long time to recharge for another shot.
2. The debris of Yavin might make it hard to target or shoot the moon with the Rebel base.
3. Yavin may have something the Empire would like not to destroy.
4. Probably the best one: Yavin is a gas giant, not a relatively small terrestrial planet like Alderaan was. Gas giants would take a heck of a lot more energy to blow up than a terrestrial type planet (which leads to other problems, see #153 and #160). So the Death Star might simply not be powerful enough to do it.

And I'm sure some readers will think of others. But I still think the gag is pretty funny.

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2013-06-18 Rerun commentary: On the other hand, if they could blow up Yavin, that'd probably do enough damage to everything in the vicinity to destroy its moons and the Rebel base anyway.

Man, those Rebels are doomed! I can't see any way they could possibly survive this.