The recent debate about which faction best suits Darth Vader has got me thinking about all the other minis in wierd or unlikely factions.

I can think of:

Lumiya (why Sith instead if Imperial)
Yoda, Force Spirit (why New Republic affinity?)
Darth Sidious, Sith Master (Huh? This one makes my head hurt)
Gha Nachkt (Why not a Separartist?)
Kreia (Fringe? Why not Sith?)
Darth Caedus (He led the GA which in minis terms is NR)
Aurra Sing, Jedi Hunter (Why wasn't she Fringe?)

What others bother you?

Sidious hologram... should be seps

#1 on my list.

Let's see how I do answering some of these (or at least explaining).

Lumiya (why Sith instead if Imperial) - No idea, agree this one was probably a mistake on some level. But if I had to guess, Rob stuck with the Traditional "Imperials" of the era and just stuck her in Sith.

Yoda, Force Spirit (why New Republic affinity?) - After his death at the age of 900 years old, Yoda retained his individuality in the Force. As a so-called Force ghost, he would look down on Leia and the Solo twins when they were first born. His teachings would become the basis for what Luke taught his New Jedi Order. Since Yoda's teachings to Luke were rushed, most teachings of the Jedi Order were lost until the New Jedi Order began to find ancient holocrons, or, in some cases, libraries like the one on Ossus.

Darth Sidious, Sith Master (Huh? This one makes my head hurt) - He was the apprentice of a Sith Lord, killed him, took his place, and built his own empire. He used any group of people to get what he wanted (i.e. Republic, Separatists - then finally Imperial). Before any of those, he was also a Naboo Senator and instigated a war via a group called the Trade Federation on his own planet to gain power in the Republic. I can perhaps agree that the abilities of this particular figure don't necessarily match, but that's a pretty small point. This one represents a pre-Episode I Sideous for the most part.

Gha Nachkt (Why not a Separartist?) - Umm, let's not get started on how bad of a character Gha was, or pretend that if he was a Sep figure only, that this would have made his stat set better :). Needless to say, a guy with one episode of Clone Wars hardly tells you which side he was on. All he did was work for the Seps for a really short time right? More like a hired grunt for a job, then he was offed :)

Kreia (Fringe? Why not Sith?) - Because as "Kriea" she was not Sith, but a companion of a fringe or lightside Exile and others. She was Sith in hiding as Kriea. Darth Traya is her as a Sith, just as Palpatine is Imperial and Republic, while Sideous is Separatist and Sith.


Darth Caedus (He led the GA which in minis terms is NR) - Because him fighting alongside the New Republic character is so much more wrong than the Sith faction that it's not funny. The mistake here was not DC exactly, as much as it was not giving GA characters affinity for him. He should not have been NR in any way.

Aurra Sing, Jedi Hunter (Why wasn't she Fringe?) - This goes right back to the argument made with Gha - The reverse applies here. She was hired by the Seps to do a job. You can't argue that Gha should be Sep, and that Aurra should be fringe, that's illogical.

Darth Maul, Sith Apprentice - Because he was dead long before the formation of the Separatist army, so Rob decided to make one version for the Sith faction representing his pre-Episode I self - same as Darth Sideous Sith Master.

Sidious hologram... should be seps - Same as Maul and Sideous SM. This character represents a figure (from episode I) that existed long before the Seps. But with that said, the answer here is simple. Rob said, "it was overlooked". :)

I don't see it. Especially with how KOTOR ended. He's not a Jedi, despite his training. He doesn't serve the Republic. He is there to help people, on either side. And he is willing to work with various people to do it. Fringe isn't just for the criminals. Early on, perhaps he should've been OR. But pretty much after the Covenant, he is Fringe.

Remember, this is Darth Cadeous we are talking about. The one that already killed Mara, and the one that's going to fight Jaina. Was Ben working with him after he became DC? I can't honestly remember. Either way, I see way more problems with DC being played with Luke, Mara, Jaina than with Malak :) Malak as an example, is no more problematic with DC than say with Boba Fett BH - never happened, couldn't happen without a time machine or a clever comic advertisement, but could be fun. Playing him with Mara just seems wrong :)

The problem with anti-affinity is that it was never done in a well thought out manner (see Kota as the major example).

What I mean by this is that WotC took the easy way out, making the character one faction, and not allowing the affinity to work if such and such was in the squad.

In this case, you are arguing for a NR character in an NR squad, but can't be if X is in the squad - that's entirely different. We have 0 cases of any in faction characters that cannot be in a squad with anyone else in their own faction.

But the point is made by both of us respectively. DC doesn't fit the NR or the Sith well, but certainly I'll bet we can both agree he wasn't a fringe figure either. So of the two options, Rob had to pick one, and I'm guessing, but I'd say he thought playing with Mara and Jaina was much more the lesser of two evils. As to what happened with the GA affinity, like I said, bet they just "overlooked" it :)

I have to agree with Bill. There is already two Jacen Solo to represent his affilation to the NR. Now, he is Darth Caedus, enemy of the New Republic, and it wouldn't make sense to me to have be able to play among them. Essentially, to beat a dead Bantha, it's a matter of light side versus darkside. Fringe are fringe because not because they are criminals, but because they would work for either side. Maybe if the Empire had treated the Ewoks better, they would have sided with the Empire, I mean they were going to eat the heroes.

And the version we have from KotOR appears to from fairly early in his career. :)

Honestly, though, I think you may be over-simplifying the matter. One of the recurring themese of the KotOR comic relates to the nature of the Jedi and the question of "What is it to be a Jedi?" Krynda's Covenant is a different "take" than the Revanchists, and both are different that the "baseline" Jedi, as represented by Vrook and Vandar. Zayne Carrick is simple another version of what it is to be a Jedi.

In terms of helping people "on either side," sure, he'll ally with the Mandalorians briefly, but I don't see that as anything different than someone like Kenobi being willing to ally with a neutral party for the greater good. Heck, in the current FotJ series, Luke Skywalker is working alongside Sith, but that doesn't change his faction.

Having said all that, though, I have to admit that I was much more inclined to agree with your viewpoint prior to the DARK TIMES set. Virtually everything you've said about Zayne can be applied to Jax Pavan, Ferus Olin, and Dass Jennir, yet not a one of them is Fringe.