Vader's Secret Apprentice in SOUL CALIBUR IV?

Money grab.

almost? Are you doubting Lucas' integrity? For shame.

You're right, what was I thinking.

Lucas is only giving the people what they want... reminds me of an old Kinks tune.

Hey, hey, hey...
Give the people what they want

Well, it's been said before, the world is a stage
A different performance with every age.
Open the history book to any old page
Bring on the lions and open the cage.

Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
The more they get, the more they need
And every time they get harder and harder to please

The Roman promoters really did things right.
They needed a show that would clearly excite.
The attendance was sparse so they put on a fight
Threw the Christians to the lions, sold out every night

Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
The more they get, the more they need
And every time they get harder and harder to please

Give 'em lots of sex, perversion and rape
Give 'em lots of violence, and plenty to hate
Give the people what they want
Give the people what they want

When Olswald shot Kennedy, he was insane
But still we watch the re-runs again and again
We all sit glued while the killer takes aim
"Hey Mom, there goes a piece of the president's brain!"

Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
Blow out your brains, and do it right
Make sure it's prime time and on a Saturday night.
You gotta give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
Give the people what they want
Give the people what they want
Give the people what they want

WOW. This guy just typed the whole song.

Ummm... can somebody explain how Darth Vader can have an apprentice? That's just not something that can happen. There's always one Sith Lord and one Apprentice. Once the Emporer was killed, Darth Vader ceased being an Apprentice, and then he immediately died, so there was no time for him to have an apprentice. This is ignoring the fact that, hello! He's turned back to the good side in his waning moments. This is crazy. And stupid.

This is a SECRET apprentice. He's stepping out on the Sith Lord. Which proves how far into the Dark Side Vader had ventured, i.e. he wouldn't even follow the one Sith Lord / One Apprentice rule. What a rebel. We'll, actually, not a SW rebel...


: )

Yeah, definitely a secret.

How come Lucas is the one getting bashed for being money greedy? I mean, I'm used to it from here and everywhere else after the prequels, but....this is Namco Bandai's title and major release. They're the ones who have say and are putting the characters in to help sell their title.

Lucas is an easy target whose greed is alienating his older fan base?

Playing Devil’s advocate, Namco or any developer would be hard pressed not to take advantage of any Star Wars tie-in Lucasfilm dangled in front of them. It’s obviously one of the best know commodities out there and an easy gimmick to exploit. That said, I’m sure there was more than one developer at Namco yellin’ “Sweet” when this deal went down out of pure fan boy giddiness. Namco doesn’t own the properties though, and ain’t whoring them out. They’re just John’s looking for some action and the folk buying Soul Caliber on this basis are just helping to get a nice three-way going.

In actuality I kinda dig this kind of cross-promotion. I went with the easy snark here cuz Lucas has done such a great job at setting himself up for it (more on that in a sec) and I was feeling a little lazy at work. But I really don’t have a problem with it personally. Back in the day, mind ya, we wouldn’t even know about the SW characters until after the release and they were discovered as mad cool easter eggs. But easter eggs are quickly going the way of the Dodo now that people realize the Power Of Marketing. Things like this were rewards for dedicated gamers. Now they’re gimmicks. Such is the sorry state of affairs that is post-modern life.

But why is Lucas the focus of ire here and not Namco? Because Lucas’ greed is alienating his older fan base. There are innumerous ways for him to expand his SW Empire and a lot of then are really cool and I’m a sucka for a bunch of them… and happily so in many cases. I love Star Wars. What’s not cool is him releasing version after version of his films, always tinkering with them but holding out in some bizarre way from giving us that final, definitive product. The argument that he’s fine-tuning his vision is, for me, bunk. He’s fine-tuning his hucksterism. Bullshit we are never going to see the original version of A New Hope on DVD in remastered glory. I believe that as much as I believe he never had any intentions of making the final three movies. We won’t see that or those until he’s done milking every other versions of these film he can. As talented as he once was, the guy is a liar who will take advantage of his loyal fan base. He should have spent a hell of a lot more time fine-tuning Phantom Menace. A lot of folk felt let down by the last three films. And so, what you see here on Mania all the time is backlash from that. Lucas bashing as a knee-jerk reaction to feeling exploited by someone who really has no need to exploit anyone at this stage in his game. Right or wrong he really has made his own bed in regards to this.

Just my opinion. I certainly can't speak for everyone and I’m obviously holding a grudge.