"…but there's a very subtle joke in one of the shots…A shot was put together that a had a rock coming in front of a TIE ship.
The roto department was asked to do something with it. When the
rock goes in front of the ship and it blows up, there's a little
thing that flies off to the left hand side of the screen.
If you were able to see it frame by frame, you'd notice
that this object is actually a little cel-animated man. It's
the pilot of the TIE ship flying out of his cockpit! It goes by
very fast. And it's really violent! As he flies out, he's in one
piece, but as he starts to leave the frame, he breaks up into
pieces and catches on fire!…"