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Kids! Don't miss the next episode where we try to unveil what happened to the true Villiers at this same dump-network at this same dump-hour.

The real Richard Villiers becomes the elusive "Master" of a group of cybered fanatics who inflict a genocidal war upon the whole Inner Sphere world?

Who do you think Villers is? Kerensky?

Actually, that was a reference to Thomas Marik and "Thomas Marik"

Hmmm.... I thought that the Tourneys were canon.
Something about a dead DC dragon, if I recall.

Probably nothing is canon, since it's a SR3 scenario (so probably set before 2070), it ends with the situation getting publicly known and there has been nothing about it in any SR4 products.

It only becomes public knowledge if the players help Villiers to become a ghost in the machine. If Villiers is dead and the clone took over everybody would be none the wiser -- ok, there would have been a public announcement of his designated successor, but that easily be reconciled with canon by saying that this was too insignificant to mention before

...but in the other case the Villiers clone nominate Jenkins as is successor, then will be quietly removed some times later.

Since a Villiers "in the flesh" is still around and still CEO, the "canonicity" of the whole affair in the SR4 official timeline seems somewhat dubious.

That... that is a very good question. At first stab going to say "None what so ever not even a little bit". But then again, stranger things have happened.

If Richard Villers passes away what about his ex-wife, Samantha?

Well, without the Japanese influences, she could inherit. But more likely his daughter now that she's kicked the chip addiction. Mostly.

This could explain why Lanier has dissapeared...

What Japanese influence ? Novatech and JRJ International now belongs to the Neonet group, a Canadian-American-British-Scandinavian megacorporation.

Back in the days of Fuchi, Richard Villers had to legally divorce himself from his Daughter to keep the Japanese happy. Now that NovaTech/NeoNET is around, perhaps he brought her back into the fold.

He was married to his Daughter?

You can divorce members of your family. Child Stars divorce their parents all the time. Usually after they've siphoned 9/10 of the money they made on a sitcom on blow, over-pretentious houses, and Italian/British Sportscars.

It's basically a legal declaration that you're no longer legally responsible or connected to said person, despite being related to them, which has legal precedence for all kinds of things.

There's also Face to consider (Remember, corporate Japanese), and the outright and public statement of being outcast from the family. "I HAVE NO SON!" "Damn, we came all this way and got the wrong guy." "That wasn't meant as a literal statement."