Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II[]
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is an action-adventure platform video game developed and published by Lucas Arts. It is the second installment of the The Force Unleashed multimedia project, and the sequel to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008). The game was released in the United States on October 26, 2010, and throughout Europe on October 29 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii consoles, as well as the Nintendo DS and iOS portable devices.
Players control a clone of Starkiller, who himself was a secret apprentice to Darth Vader in The Force Unleashed. The clone embarks on a quest to find his identity and find Starkiller's love interest, Juno Eclipse. Production for The Force Unleashed II transpired over an approximate period of nine months; while it possesses some similarities to the previous game, producers modified several aspects such as the sound effects and gameplay.Sam Witwer again provides the voice and likeness for Starkiller, and several cast members return to voice and provide likeness to their respective roles.
The Force Unleashed II produced varying responses from critics, who despite adulating the sound design and aesthetics, were concerned with several gameplay elements and an underwhelming storyline. Aggregate scores range from the 40–70% range at websites Game Rankings and Metacritic. During the first few weeks after its release it placed fifth or higher in sales for several regions.
Darth Vader[]
Name: Darth Vader
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male
Nationality: Germany
Anakin Skywalker was a Force-sensitive Human male who served the Galactic Republic as a Jedi Knight and later served the Galactic Empire as the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Born to the slave Shmi Skywalker in 41.9 BBY, Anakin was conceived by midi-chlorians, the symbiotic organisms that allowed individuals to touch the Force, and he and his mother were brought to the desert planet of Tatooine to be the slaves of Gardulla the Hutt. They soon ended up as the property of the Toydarian Watto, and Skywalker exhibited exceptional piloting skills and a reputation for being able to build and repair anything even at a young age. In 32 BBY, Skywalker encountered thecJedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Padmé Amidala, and he helped them secure the parts they needed for their starship by winning the Boonta Eve Classic podracing event—only to learn that he had also won his freedom in doing so.
Reluctantly leaving his mother behind, Skywalker accompanied Jinn and his group to the Republic's capital of Coruscant and participated in the Battle of Naboo, helping to free Amidala's homeworld from the armies of the Trade Federation. While Jinn was killed during the battle, Jinn's student Obi-Wan Kenobi followed Jinn's wishes and took on Skywalker as his Padawan, and much of the Jedi Councilbelieved that Skywalker was the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy: one who would bring balance to the Force by destroying the Sith Order. Skywalker and Kenobi had a number of adventures during the Padawan's decade of training to become a Jedi, but as the Separatist Crisis threatened to tear the Republic apart in 22 BBY, Skywalker was reunited with Amidala when he was assigned to protect her from assassins. The two grew close during the course of the assignment, though they were caught up in the Battle of Geonosis and the beginning of the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Losing an arm during the fighting, Skywalker received a cybernetic replacement, and he and Amidala were secretly married in the days after the battle despite the Jedi Code's restrictions on romantic attachments.
During the Clone Wars, which raged for the next three years, Skywalker was granted the rank of Jedi Knight and became known to the public as the "Hero with No Fear." Taking on the Togruta Ahsoka Tano as his apprentice, Skywalker fought alongside Kenobi and his fellow Jedi in scores of battles, and his friendship with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine deepened despite the Jedi Order's wariness of Palpatine's rapid acquisition of further powers during the Clone Wars. Throughout the Clone Wars, Skywalker's anger and sense of loss pushed him ever closer to the dark side of the Force, and his visions of Amidala dying in childbirth in 19 BBY made him desperate to find a way to save his wife. Palpatine, who was in fact the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, manipulated Skywalker into becoming his apprentice with the promise of saving Amidala, and Skywalker became the Sith Lord Darth Vader as Palpatine transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire and eradicated the Jedi Order.
Vader and Kenobi clashed on Mustafar after Vader attacked his wife in the belief that she had betrayed him, and Vader was left limbless and ravaged by fire at the end of their battle. Encased in a suit of life-sustaining black armor and believing his wife to be dead, Vader embraced his role as the Emperor's right hand and enforcer, hunting down Jedi survivors and enforcing the will of the Empire for years to come. The Sith Lord trained a number of secret apprentices and Dark Jedi, though his plans to overthrow his master had not advanced far when the Galactic Civil War erupted between the Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic in 2 BBY. In 0 BBY, the Death Star—the Empire's greatest super weapon—was destroyed by a young Rebel pilot despite Vader's efforts, and Vader became obsessed with discovering the pilot's identity, only to learn that it was Luke Skywalker: his own son, born before Amidala's death.
Vader continued to pursue both Skywalker and the Alliance over the next three years, finally luring his son into a trap on the mining colony of Cloud City in 3 ABY where the two dueled. Vader revealed his identity to Skywalker, though his son refused to join him and escaped. When Darth Sidious learned of Skywalker's existence, he set in motion his own plans to recruit Skywalker and thereby replace Vader, but Skywalker surrendered himself to Imperial forces on the forest moon of Endor in 4 ABY in hopes of redeeming his father and turning him back to the light side. In a final duel on the second Death Star as the Battle of Endor raged around them, Skywalker and Vader fought each other, and Vader refused his son's attempts to redeem him, learning that Skywalker had a twin sister named Leia in the process. Skywalker defeated his father but refused to kill him, and when Sidious attempted to kill the young man, Vader—moved by his son's love—abandoned the dark side and sacrificed himself to destroy the Emperor, fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One. Mortally wounded, Anakin made peace with his son and became one with the Force, though his reputation, his legacy, and his family endured for decades afterwards.
Starkiller[]
Name: Galen Marek
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Nationality: Germany
Galen Marek, pronounced /ɡeɪlən ˈmæɹɛk/ and codenamedStarkiller, was a male Human apprentice of the Sith Lord Darth Vader. A powerful Force-user who lived during the era of the Galactic Empire, Marek originated from the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyykas the sole offspring of two Jedi Knights—Mallie and Kento Marek—who deserted the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. Following thedeath of his mother, the young Marek's father was killed in battle byDarth Vader. Though only a child, Marek possessed an exceptionally strong connection to the Force that the Dark Lord of the Sith sought to exploit.
Thus, Darth Vader abducted Marek in order to train the orphan in the ways of the Sith Order. Although the Sith were limited to only two members at any given time, Vader nonetheless trained Marek as a secret apprentice during his own apprenticeship to Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord who ruled the galaxy as Emperor Palpatine. The physical and psychological trauma of Vader's unforgiving training regimen resulted in Marek's immersion within the dark side of the Force as his Master intended. With his childhood memories suppressed and his original identity forgotten, Marek only knew himself as the Dark Lord's apprentice; a Sith assassin who operated under the codename "Starkiller" and a living weapon to be deployed against the enemies of Darth Vader.
In addition to the assassination of numerous targets that included Vader's many rivals, the apprentice trained for years in preparation for the day when he would be ready to aid his Master in a confrontation with Darth Sidious. This singular goal became Starkiller's obsession as he longed to become a true Sith Lord. The pinnacle of Starkiller's training saw him deployed against Jedi targets for the first time in his life in 3 BBY and culminated in victories against the fugitive Jedi Masters Rahm Kota, Kazdan Paratus and Shaak Ti. With the death of Ti, one of the few members of the Jedi High Council who survived Order 66, Darth Vader declared that the time had come to execute their plan to overthrow the Emperor. Elated at the prospect of finally fulfilling his sole purpose in life, Starkiller rendezvoused with Vader on the Executor only to be betrayed andseverely wounded by his Master who claimed that Sidious's spieshad discovered the existence of the secret apprentice. Pressured by the Emperor, Vader demonstrated his loyalty by seemingly killing Starkiller. In truth, the betrayal was a ruse that allowed Vader to save his apprentice's life.
Upon Starkiller's full recovery in 2 BBY, Vader revealed his contingency plan: the creation of a full-scale rebellion against the Galactic Empire. The apprentice was instructed by his Master to assemble an army of rebels and dissidents in order to distract the Emperor's attention with a civil war, hence allowing them both another opportunity to assassinate Sidious. Though bitter and resentful toward Vader, Starkiller complied and searched several parts of the galaxy for influential contacts that would be crucial to the formation of an insurrection on a galactic-scale. Through Starkiller's efforts, three disillusioned members of the Imperial Senate—Bail Organa, Garm Bel Iblis and Mon Mothma—convened on the planet Corellia where they agreed to join their resources together in opposition to the Emperor's rule. However, the mission proved to be another deception on Vader's part; the Dark Lord betrayed Starkiller once more and captured the senators. Outraged by the discovery that his Master was unwilling to challenge Darth Sidious with Starkiller's aid, the former apprentice journeyed to the incomplete Death Star and intended to rescue his new-found allies from execution. Abandoning the persona of Starkiller, he re-embraced his Jedi heritage as Galen Marek through the partial recovery of his suppressed memories.
During the apprentice's infiltration of the nearly-complete battlestation, Galen Marek confronted and defeated his former Master in battle. Sidious hoped to claim Marek as his new apprentice and goaded him to kill Vader. Instead, Marek attacked the Emperor in a move to provide the senators with enough time to escape the Death Star. His plan succeeded, but ultimately cost the apprentice his life. Nevertheless, his sacrifice facilitated the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War. The early founders of the Rebellion remembered the apprentice as Galen Marek, the original architect of the Rebel Alliance, and honored his memory by adopting the Marek family crest as the official emblem of the Alliance.
Unknown to the Rebels, Darth Vader preserved his former apprentice's corpse as a genetic template for the creation of a more powerful and obedient version of the original Starkiller. But due to the inherent difficulties ofcloning Force-wielders, coupled with the flaws of a modified version of the Kaminoan technique, the initial results were less than satisfactory. Vader was forced to replicate his fallen disciple on multiple occasions in a bid to gradually correct the imperfect procedure. Approximately six months after Marek's death, the Dark Lord's experiment—conducted in secret within the Timira City Cloning Facility—produced hundreds of abject failure sand a rogue clone who escaped from Kamino. Despite such setbacks, Darth Vader ultimately succeeded in his goal to engineer the perfect clone of his former apprentice. A far more powerful version of Marek, the clone successfully purged himself of the emotional imprints that undermined his precursors.
Juno Eclipse[]
Name: Juno Eclipse
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Nationality: Germany
Juno Eclipse was a Human female who served the Galactic Empireas an Imperial officer and pilot during the Great Jedi Purge. Her exceptional skills in leadership and combat were noticed by several high-ranking officials in the Imperial Military, including the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Rising through ranks in record time, Captain Eclipse was personally chosen by Vader to lead his Black Eight Squadron. Although she initially considered service under Emperor Palpatine's right-hand man to be the highlight of her career, her role in the Bombing of Callos caused her to doubt some of the Empire's policies.
Although her beliefs wavered due to the mass genocide and complete sterilization that rendered Callos uninhabitable, Captain Eclipse was unwilling to abandon her allegiance to the Empire, nor her hard-earned position under Darth Vader's command. However, Vader came to the conclusion that Eclipse lacked a certain quality in ruthlessness that he found necessary in those who served him. As a consequence, he reassigned her to a highly confidential detail. Hence, in 3 BBY, Eclipse became the latest pilot of the Rogue Shadow, a stealth vessel that was piloted by several individuals in turn. The purpose of her top secret assignment was to transport Darth Vader's agent to wherever his missions required him to go. During that time, she was unaware that the mysterious young man was Vader's secret apprentice, codenamed "Starkiller."
Although she learned that Starkiller was a Force-sensitive assassin, who was tasked with hunting down the last of the Jedi, her attempts to learn any personal information about him were met with failure. Upon inadvertently discovering Vader's plot to kill Emperor Palpatine with Starkiller's aid, Eclipse's loyalties became divided between her Emperor and her immediate superior. Nevertheless, she continued to carry out her orders from the latter of the two, and took great care to not allow the apprentice to learn of her accidental discovery. But when Vader unexpectedly betrayed his disciple at the behest of the Emperor, the Dark Lord branded Captain Eclipse as a traitor due to her association with Starkiller. Stripped of her rank and all that she worked hard to gain, Eclipse was imprisoned on the Empirical.
Six months later, Juno Eclipse was freed by Starkiller, whose apparent death was faked by Darth Vader in order to continue their assassination plot against Palpatine. Eclipse, forced into the life of a fugitive, reluctantly renounced her allegiance to the Galactic Empire and joined with Starkiller on his mission to create the Rebel Alliance. However, she was unaware of the fact that the apprentice remained loyal to his master; nor did she realize that the Rebellion's purpose was to distract the Emperor's attention in order to create a new opportunity to kill him.
During their adventures, Eclipse and Starkiller gradually developed a rapport that eventually turned into love. When Vader betrayed the apprentice for a second time, Starkiller denounced the Sith and embraced his Jedi heritage. By that time, Eclipse learned that the apprentice's birth name was "Galen Marek." However, their relationship was brought to an untimely end when Marek perished in battle against Emperor Palpatine by sacrificing his own life in order to save the founders of the Rebel Alliance.
Shortly after Marek's death, Eclipse witnessed the official founding of the Alliance to Restore the Republic onKashyyyk. She chose to honor the fallen apprentice's legacy by joining the Alliance Fleet as one of its first officers. Less than a year later, Juno Eclipse was commissioned as the captain of the Rebel flagship, the Salvation.