In the Developer Insight about Vader’s touch up, it’s mentioned that Vader can be counterattacked while Merciless is active and that attacking a Merciless Target grants a bonus turn to Vader. Through gameplay, I realized that Vader will still trigger bonus turns for enemies, such as Malak and JKA, and that those bonus turns will take place before Vader’s next bonus turn.

1) Since this technically is not a counterattack, was this actually intended?
2) Was testing done to verify that the game doesn’t get tm locked if Vader is defeated during an enemy’s bonus turn while Merciless is active?