Did anyone else notice that both Finn and Rey use the wrong switch to ignite Anakin's lightsaber? All of the promotion images I have seen also have Rey holding the saber oddly...

Was Disney unable to find some sort of Star Wars technical consultant for continuity on this film? It wouldn't irk me that much, but the first time the saber is ignited, its framed so you can clearly see Finn use the wrong knob to ignite the saber. The original trilogy, all lightsabers (Anakin's, Vader's, Obi-Wan's, and Luke's) share a common activation box (its that protruding box from the hilt with the circuit chip). This is clearly what ignites the saber, it even says so in the Star Wars Technical Journal published in the 80's.




All characters seem to use this box to ignite the sabers in the original trilogy films.



So while I understand the Anakin's light saber comes from a graflex flash off an old camera, and there is a knob with red button towards the end of the hilt that would originally be used to flash the flash bulb... this isn't the ignition knob of the saber as per Star Wars continuity.

So why all the sudden does Finn and Rey both use this knob to ignite the saber? Also all of the promotion images I have seen of Rey holding that saber, she is clearly not holding the area around the ignition block....

Ummm.... 4 Billion for a franchise and they can't get their facts straight... way to go Disney!

I read where the TFA Skywalker lightsaber is closer in appearance to Anakin's in ROTS lightsaber than Luke's in ANH and ESB lightsabers.

In general, Abrams doesn't seem to sweat technical issues. I'm sure that Lucasfilm's Story Group tried to point out such no-no's. However, Abrams and Disney got to ignore or overall at the end of the day. They're the real stakeholders.

Personally, I have more of an issue with ROTS Vader being ESB Vader and not ANH Vader. Oh well, there are much more important things to worry about.

I believe the button is the physical activator for the LED blades used on set.

Can't say I noticed this.

It's not nearly as obvious, imo, as the constant flipping of frames in the other films, in which R2's projector is on the right side in one scene, then on the left side in another scene.

I know this comes off sounding like a total apologist, but whatever...

Changes in Vader's costume can reasonably be accounted for in the 19 years between ROTS and ANH.

What's less acceptable to me, is inaccuracies in what is being passed off as an identical item from one film to another, this case, the ROTS Anakin-ANH/ESB Luke saber being utilized in TFA. It doesn't come close to ruining the film for me (unlike the fart-joke-in-the-prequels crowd) but there's no reason this detail couldn't have been properly executed.

The lightsaber hilt used in TFA was closest to the ESB one(s). The Replica Prop forums guys have discussed it since seeing it in the the trailer back in April. They are very OCD about this stuff, and they were happy that it was a graflex or very close replica much like ESB was used. TFA one actually looks more like ESB than it does ROTS. There are differences in the props even in the context of the same films. You just don't see close-ups very often. So don't even go there.
Most of the time people turn the saber on with the rectangular box panel near the grips. But it could be possible that the higher button could be a duplicate activation switch that Finn uses, it is stated that Rey uses it too, but I've seen the film 8 times now and she activates it with the box near the grip like usually done. The knob part around it serves as "Blade Length Adjust" as shown in the Visual Dictionary. Pablo Hidalgo https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo is the head of Lucasfilm Story Group/Creative Executive and he writes the Visual Dictionaries and such. He also advised JJ on the film, as JJ stated in interviews including this one. http://www.thereporter.com/article/zz/2 ... /151206558
This following link is the saber from TFA, though the scene it's shown in here was cut. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/ ... xlarge.jpg and here at the top of the cover of the TFA Visual Dictionary. http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/sta ... 0926003658

Does it really make a shit? Lightsabers are fake. All they need to do in the movie is turn on, and that requires special effects not which button they press on the prop.