Continuity mistake: During the Sidious and Yoda battle, the Emperor throws down several pods at Yoda that pile up on the floor.The pile changes in the number and position of the pods between scenes. This is especially noticeable when Yoda's lightsaber is shown falling to the ground, almost no pods are on the floor verses many pods when Yoda falls.
Continuity mistake: When Mace Windu departs to confront Palpatine, after he steps inside the ship, the round part of its shadow changes position between shots. (01:06:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Anakin and Padmé discuss the war and the Republic, some of the pillows on the couch change position slightly between the first two shots. (00:38:35)
Continuity mistake: When Obi-Wan kills Grievous and Grievous falls to the ground we see, in the wide shot, Obi-Wan lowering his weapon. When it cuts to a close-up he lowers his gun again. (01:04:35)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of Anakin and Padmé's conversation on Mustafar, as Padmé says, "I was so worried about you.", Anakin's hand is on her waist. In the next shot, his hand is on her back. (01:30:40)
Continuity mistake: After the crash landing on Coruscant, Anakin, Kenobi, and Palpatine take a shuttle to the Jedi Council. In the first shot as the shuttle is landing, all shadows are parallel with the edge of the landing area. In the next shot when the shuttle doors open, all shadows have shifted 45-degrees clockwise.
Continuity mistake: In the shot where Anakin as talking with Senator Organa, C3-PO is walking behind Organa. When it cuts to behind them and we see Padme, C3-PO is now a few feet ahead of Organa. (00:24:35)
Continuity mistake: When Obi-Wan and Grievous are fighting, Grievous punches Obi-Wan through the air. Obi-Wan's stick then lands by his feet. When it cuts the stick has moved further up lying right next to him. (01:03:40)
Continuity mistake: In the first shot of the scene where Yoda leaves Kashyyyk, as Tarfull begins to walk towards Chewbacca, Yoda is several metres away from them. In the next shot, he is much closer to them, and Tarfull, who is still walking, is further away from Chewbacca than in the previous shot. (01:22:20)
Continuity mistake: As Anakin is reentering the elevator from the top, you can see the hole being very close to the entrance door of the elevator. As we see from the subsequent shot, Anakin is landing between Obi-Wan and the aft elevator wall (Obi-Wan does a half turn to face Anakin), whereas according to the hole, Anakin should have landed either directly on top of Obi-Wan or between Obi-Wan and the elevator door. (00:10:30)
Continuity mistake: After Yoda says "At an end your rule is. And not short enough it was" he flips toward the doorway to block the Emperor. Yoda's wooden cane that was on the floor in previous shots is now missing for the remainder of the scene. (01:45:40)
Continuity mistake: When Obi-Wan gets back to where he killed Grievous, in the overhead shot, you can see Grievous lying dead at least ten feet away from the ship. When it cuts to Obi-Wan climbing inside the ship Grievous is only a few feet away. (01:23:30)
Continuity mistake: When Obi-Wan gets on the intercom with R2 the first time on Grievous' ship, as it cuts to R2 backing up against the corner hiding from the droids we can see that there is no light casting his shadow. When it cuts to R2 again two shots later, bright light suddenly appears, casting his shadow. (00:09:10)
Continuity mistake: When Anakin, Obi-Wan and Palpatine are falling down the elevator shaft and use the hook grip to swing themselves in the elevator door, the land on the light on the floor from the ceiling. When it cuts to them getting up they have moved two feet away from the light. (00:16:45)
Continuity mistake: When Bail Organa is standing on the landing platform of the Jedi Temple, a clone trooper says, "I'm sorry sir. It's time for you to leave." and points his blaster at him. In the next shot, he is holding it much lower than in the previous shot. (01:21:15)
Continuity mistake: When R2-D2 shows the hologram of Palpatine's whereabout in the spaceship, we can see R2-D2 is looking to the right. When it cuts to a wideshot he is looking to the left. (00:07:45)
Continuity mistake: When Anakin and Palpatine are running down the elevator shaft as the ship stabilizes we see Palpatine falling on his left side while sliding down. When it cuts he is sliding on his right side. (00:16:10)
Continuity mistake: In the first shot of the scene where Luke and Leia are born, Padmé's head reaches the top of the black area of the bed. Her head is seen in all the following shots, and her position doesn't change. But when she says, "Oh, Luke", her head has moved about 10 cm down from her previous position. (02:00:30)
Continuity mistake: When Count Dooku ignites his lightsaber, his arms are up and the saber is pointing right. In the next shot, his arms are down and the saber is pointing left. (00:11:55)
Continuity mistake: When Padmé is waiting for Anakin by the giant column, her position by the column differs between shots, seen from its design. This also happens to both her and Anakin as they're talking. (00:24:40)
Chosen answer: Powerful force users seem to have some degree of control over their bodies even after death. In the later series, Luke's wife Mara Jade Skywalker only allows her body to disappear when her killer, and nephew Jacen Solo arrives at her funeral as a clue. Thus it appears that a powerful force user can simply choose if they wish their body to disappear.
Darius Angel