NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Bastion from the animated series. The mainstream version can be found here: Bastion (Marvel).
| “ | Bastion: Oh, Sinister. You and the villains of old have been failing since '92 to destroy these pests. What you would do is my roadmap for what not to do. Mr. Sinister: You were one of those villains once. Bastion: Hm, yet unlike the rest of you, I... evolved. |
„ |
| ~ Bastion speaking to Mr. Sinister. |
| “ | Nifty bop, right. I've had to be... bad lately, but heat, like music, it soften things. Softens follicles, hmmm... opens pores, makes the flesh pliable. This way, once I have to get to work, ahh... smooth as butter. So long as you stay still. So long as you don't resist. Simply listen and obey. See? You were born for this. | „ |
| ~ Bastion to Magneto as he shaves him in an abandoned barbershop. |
| “ | As I told Dr. Cooper right before she betrayed me and her kind, people are good. Too damn good. Thus, to protect humanity, I must protect humanity from itself. From the hearts that start dripping red at the latest token underdog. From seeing themselves in those who would use their same hearts against them. Tolerance is extinction. But even worse is empathy. | „ |
| ~ Bastion's speech to the X-Men. |
Sebastion Gilberti, better known as Bastion, is the main antagonist of Season 1 of the Disney+ animated series X-Men '97, the sequel series to X-Men: The Animated Series.
He is a human-Sentinel hybrid born from Nimrod's technology and the director of "Operation: Zero Tolerance", as well the mastermind behind the Wild Sentinel's attack on the mutant nation of Genosha, resulting in the deaths of thousands of mutants and heightening tensions between mankind and mutantkind. Bastion is in league with Mr. Sinister, Henry Peter Gyrich and Bolivar Trask in a plot to start a war between humans and mutants and had some sort of past with the mutant Forge.
He was voiced by Theo James, who also played James in The Inbetweeners Movie and Hector in Netflix's Castlevania.
Biography[]
| “ | I see a child who could hear things. Not thoughts. Machines. […] And the boy's father, school janitor, being infected by something from the future. Sentinel technology, Nimrod; creating something new, parts, past, present and future. […] He's descended of every Sentinel, from Master Mold to Nimrod. Mutated, evolved, born. | „ |
| ~ Jean Grey upon discovering Bastion’s origins. |
Sometime in 1959, after the events of "One Man's Worth", the surviving remains of Nimrod, previously thought to be destroyed by Bishop, instead possessed a college janitor, whose would marry and conceive a child, a son named Sebastion Gilberti, who would inherit his father's techno-organic Sentinel genetics and would grow up corrupted by Nimrod and Master Mold's influence overtime, becoming Bastion.
In 1997, after Professor Charles X, the leader of the mutant superhero team, the X-Men, was seemingly assassinated by Henry Peter Gyrich, Bastion partnered with him and the mad scientist Mr. Sinister, the latter of whom collaborated with Bolivar Trask, in a plot to both create a new breed of human-like Sentinels named the "Prime Sentinels" cause a war between mutants and humans, forming the faction "Operation: Zero Tolerance" to carry out their plans. He likely had a hand in Sinister's creation of Madelyne Pryor and, by extension, her and Cyclops' son becoming Cable and had Trask transformed into a Prime Sentinel.
Bastion would later send a Tri-Sentinel to the mutant nation of Genosha as it was being accepted into the United Nations, with it massacring thousands of mutants until it was destroyed by the X-Men member Gambit, resulting in his death in the process. During the aftermath, Bastion abducted a presumed dead Magneto from the ruins of the country and imprison him in an abandoned barbershop.
Gambit's grieving lover Rogue proceeded to go on a vengeful rampage across America in search of the Tri-Sentinel's master, eventually finding Gyrich in Mexico and looking through his mind in search for answers, resulting in him getting hospitalized. Bastion found his hospital room and suffocated him to death for almost giving away his plot. Afterwards, Bastion and Sinister would meet in a mysterious location where he revealed to him that Xavier had survived his seeming death and that mutants had been hiding this information from humanity, with him plotting to expose it in order to ruin mankind's trust in mutantkind and wage war against them.
Bastion later unleashed the Prime Sentinels into the world, capturing and killing mutants until Magneto was released by a disillusioned Valerie Cooper, setting off a global electromagnetic pulse, shutting down the sentinels. He later created more Sentinels to fight the X-Men.
After capturing Beast, Morph, and Storm, Bastion taunted the three mutants, stating that OZT was in its final phase. However Jean Grey then rose from the water, becoming the Phoenix. She reassembled the collar and placed it on Bastion, shutting down his Sentinels. Despite this, Bastion was able to overpower and knock out the three mutants with a blast of energy, before destroying Cable's cybernetic arm and integrating the T-O virus into himself, transforming and growing wings.
Bastion ranted that his cybernetic evolution of humanity was him trying to be merciful, but blocked from control of his Sentinel "family," he concedes that instead he will send Asteroid M crashing down onto Earth, to wipe out both mutants and humanity. Before he could make there, he was intercepted by Rogue and Sunspot. He was sent crashing down to the Moon, before overpowering them both and flying back to the asteroid. He then fought Nightcrawler, Cyclops, and Jubilee. They were able to hold him off until a Sentinel which was hijacked by Beast, Storm , and Jean crushed him. All the X-Men then prepared to fight him until Cyclops told the rest to stand down, not wanting to continue fighting Bastion. He then attempted to appeal to Bastion's human nature, but Bastion refused, admitting that humans and mutants are monsters.
In response to the threat of the asteroid falling, President Kelly sent two missiles up to the asteroid to destroy it, however, the explosions only triggers its fall instead. As the X-Men started to scramble, Cyclops tried to convince Bastion to come with them, but Bastion refused again, mocking at their irrationality of them offering mercy to one who massacred thousands of their people. He was then presumed to be disintegrated by either the explosion or sucked in by the singularity, leaving it ambiguous on whether he is still alive or not.
Appearance[]
Bastion is an evolved Sentinel that takes the form of a humanoid with fair skin, blue eyes and white hair with a goatee. He wears a black latex bodysuit with a pinkish-purple triangle around its neck. He also has an outlet at the back of his head that he can plug a cable to a computer set into.
After stealing Cable's cybernetic arm and integrating it into himself, he grew a pair of wings similar to Archangel's.
Personality[]
| “ | Bastion: You just had to let the dog out. Do you understand the futility of your bleeding heart? Of fighting the future? Dr. Val Cooper: You're a monster. Bastion: I was born this way. |
„ |
| ~ Bastion and Dr. Val Cooper's exchange after the latter betrayed him. |
As a child, Bastion was tormented by his technopathy, as the noises from countless machinery flooded his mind; as such, he remained isolated from other children. He was prone to sobbing and despair over struggling understand his own nature.
As an adult, Bastion retains a clinical, essentially emotionless demeanour, although with a constant small smirk and air of smugness. He is manipulative and deceptive, as he fails to reveal the reality of the human-Sentinel program to volunteers, as he dismisses their loss of both humanity and autonomy as necessary for destroying mutant-kind. He is also highly intelligent and persuasive, as he convinces not merely human bigots, but government agents, and egomaniacs like Mister Sinister, into supporting his plans. Bastion withholds most of his psychopathic inclinations, but is quite open with Sinister, perhaps due to knowing that the latter couldn't be fooled, and understanding that they are using each other for the time being.
Bastion has a god complex, believing his actions are completely justified, even as he "defends" humanity, by turning countless humans into something no longer natural, and killing innocent people en masse. He also looks down on other *villains*, considering them foolish and weak for failing to destroy the X-Men. Despite his ancestor Nimrod being one of them.
He is racist against mutants, but also disdains humanity, aiming to pit them against each other in an effort to weaken them, enabling the smoother ascension of artificial intelligences like his "father" Nimrod; therefore, his Prime Sentinel program isn't so much to give power back to mankind from mutants, but to turn humanity cybernetic to exterminate both species. He finds the base concept of empathy as a weakness and disgusting, considering it as not merely a mindset, but a genetic failure that ensures extinction; if compassion is offered to him, he reacts with amusement and contempt.
Despite his sociopathic and megalomaniacal nature, he displays a strangely sentimental side; after Magneto unleashes an electromagnetic pulse across the world, deactivating all electronic machines, including the Prime Sentinels, Bastion carries his Prime Sentinel mother - he gently places her on a bed, with tears flowing out of his eyes, displaying a level of compassion that is contrary to his regular personality, thus showing that in spite of turning his own mother into one of his weapons, he has some sliver of humanity that makes him care about her. Despite this sense of humanity however, he still hates both mutants and humans as a whole, even calling them monsters before his demise.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
Hybrid Physiology: Bastion is a Human-Sentinel hybrid. As a result, he possesses a wide variety of superhuman powers.
- Superhuman strength: Bastion is incredibly strong, being able to choke to death humans like Henry Gyrich, overpower and restrain Rogue as well as fighting against the X-Men.
- Nigh-invulnerability: Bastion's cybernetic body is also incredibly durable, being able to take Rogue's attacks, Jubilee's explosions, Cyclops' optic blasts, as well as being crushed by a hijacked Sentinel. However his durability does have its limits
- Regeneration: Bastion can efficiently self-repair, however, his repair does have is limits as he wasn't capable of fully regenerating after Jubilee blasted him in the face. His self-repair is not as powerful as Nimrod's, most likely due to being part human.
- Infinite endurance: As part machine, Bastion can survive in extraterrestrial environments, such as the vacuum of space or on the Moon.
- Superhuman speed: Bastion is incredibly fast and can react to the X-Men's attacks and also launch attacks of his own.
- Levitation and Flight: Bastion can normally levitate using jet boosters, but after gaining the T-O virus, he was able to grow a pair of metallic wings. He is fast enough to fly all the way up to Asteroid M.
- Technopathy: Bastion's primary power is his control over all forms of technology, even as a child.
- Sentinel control and creation: Bastion demonstrated control over his Prime Sentinels as he commanded them to capture and kill mutants across the globe. He also can control regular Sentinels as well.
- Technomorphing: Bastion can implement technology into himself, as seen when he absorbed Cable's techno-organic virus into himself.
- Shapeshifting: Bastion can shape his body into different forms. For example he can turn his human form into a more robotic look. He can also form weapons and other shapes such as blasters from his shoulders.
- Energy Projection: Bastion can fire purple energy beams and blasts out of his chest, hands, and even his mouth. They are powerful enough to incapacitate mutants as well as match Cyclops' optic blasts
- Teleportation: Bastion can teleport mid fight like when Rogue tried to attack him.
- Portal creation: After traveling to the destroyed Xavier mansion, he was notified by Sinister of Val Cooper's betrayal. He then created a portal to teleport back to his headquarters.
Abilities[]
- Genius-level intelligence: Bastion was intelligent as a result of his heritage, he was able to develop Prime Sentinels with the help of Sinister
- Master Manipulator: Bastion was able to convince not only US government officials to join Operation Zero Tolerance, but several world leaders and supervillains such as Baron Zemo II and Doctor Doom, as well as Mister Sinister, He was also able to run Operation Zero Tolerance without the knowledge of other world governments.
- Master Tactician and Strategist: Bastion was able to plan different phases of OZT as well as outwitting the X-Men several times.
- Expert Combatant: Bastion was able to put up a great fight against the X-Men using his powers.
Quotes[]
| “ | Henry Gyrich: Bravo. Just as you dreamt it. Bastion: Yet you nearly ruined my surprise. |
„ |
| ~ Gyrinch final words before getting stragled by Bastion. |
| “ | Bastion: Admit it. You're impressed. Mr. Sinister: Impressed by your masterpiece tipping our hand to the X-Men? How does this help you deliver the prize you promised me? Bastion: Trask was a rough draft and his tussle with the gene-freaks gave us invaluable tactical data for my real masterpiece. Mr. Sinister: The X-Men will learn from this too, you blithering fool. You should've waited until roll out and overwhelmed them. |
„ |
| ~ Bastion and Mr. Sinister discuss Prime Sentinel Trask's defeat by the X-Men. |
| “ | Bastion: Here. The next bit's a pill for your antsy. My techs repaired a damaged alien satellite the X-Men used to chat with their allies, the Shi'ar. Mr. Sinister: They said Gyrich killed Xavier. Bastion: Our merry band of muties have been selling the world a very big lie. And so have I. |
„ |
| ~ Bastion reveals to Mr. Sinister that Charles Xavier is alive. |
| “ | Valerie Cooper: You should've warned us about Genosha. Bastion: Well, I did. But I also said, "Bully an underdog too long, and people start feeling sorry for them." Like when our village idiot, Gyrich, made a martyr of Xavier and... tolerance, but really, guilt. So I hand humanity Genosha. Overload their bandwidth, too much to compute. Because when your skin's not in the game, apathy is your answer. |
„ |
| ~ Bastion and Valerie Cooper discuss the Genoshan genocide. |
| “ | Alliterative allure aside, Genosha's not genocide. It's time management. In a hundred years, mutants outnumber humans ten-to-one. And generations later, human extinction. It's like the scary ozone stuff in the news. "Act today to save tomorrow." Enter Operation: Zero Tolerance. Trask Sentinels... well, they're too blunt. Mutants spot them a mile away. We need something deadly, but discreet. Before today, this fellow was your average Joe. With all this mutant-loving, people like Joe turned to dialup chat rooms to speak freely, to connect. Builders lay off a dozen workers and hire one mutant with the strength of 10 men. What's a taxi driver supposed to do when a teleporter gets you there in a blink? The human community is scared. Of course, they are. They've been told over and over that the future is leaving them behind. But I invite them to be relevant again. | „ |
| ~ Bastion reveals his plans to Valerie Cooper. |
| “ | Mr. Sinister: That human wretch let Magneto out. She's lost her mind! Bastion: Of course she did. Still, too little, too late. |
„ |
| ~ Bastion learns about Valerie Cooper's betrayal. |
| “ | Finally quiet, mother. | „ |
| ~ Bastion mourns the loss of his mother. |
| “ | They approach. Open the silo! | „ |
| ~ Bastion senses the X-Men's arrival. |
| “ | Try as you might, X-Men. You cannot stop me and my kind. | „ |
| ~ Bastion talks to the X-Men, via his Sentinels. |
| “ | Poetic, isn't it? The inevitability of my vision. Even now, Professor Xavier must pave the path to my dream in order to honor his own, a dream as crippled as its dreamer, built to die. You mutants lost at birth, too. The Neanderthal 2.0. Buggy stillborns, flapping upstream, draining yourselves dry so that the tide can more easily drown you. See, me. The future's tide. Despite this little toy you X-Men would use to abort the bond to my creations. | „ |
| ~ Bastion as the Prime Sentinels are reactivated. |
| “ | Bastion: Think, had the good Professor taken me in when Mother begged him, I'd be hanging here with you freaks in the name of peace, tolerance and equal opportunity suicide. Even then, fate got my back. Storm: Charles Xavier wanted to help you. He came to your mother, but she was too afraid. You would have been one of the first... |
„ |
| ~ Storm reveals the truth to Bastion. |
| “ | Did you just try to appeal to my humanity? Look at me! | „ |
| ~ Bastion shows Storm his "humanity". |
| “ | Bastion: Speaking of pity, the little temporal orphan who could... Error, couldn't. Parents likely punted you to time to skip the shame of rearing a repeat mistake. The clone was psychic. How many times did you fail to stop me? Fail to save your carbon copy mothers? Make him speak, Sinister. Mr. Sinister: How many times, my writhing thing? Cable: Two hundred. Two hundred times! But how's your mommy, Sebastion? |
„ |
| ~ Bastion and Mr. Sinister taunt Cable for the death of his mother. |
| “ | Mr. Sinister: What is this?! You promised this pup as my prize, Bastion! Bastion: An example must be made. Cable will stop at nothing to undo the one true future, for he is as blind as his deadbeat dad and as doomed as... |
„ |
| ~ Bastion breaks his deal with Mr. Sinister and orders his Prime Sentinels to execute Cable. |
| “ | WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!?! My Sentinels and I were meant to SAVE the future, but now... You have sealed humanity's fate! Think, Nathan. I could have used slaves, camps, or death marches. But instead, I killed Genosha in 4,621 seconds. | „ |
| ~ Bastion as he begins to beat Cable to death as revenge for ruining all of his plans, as he also absorbs his hand, upgrading him. |
| “ | I will tear that rock from the heavens and hurl it to Earth, granting humans the same mercy I granted your clone mother. A quick extinction. | „ |
| ~ Bastion flies to Asteroid M to bring it down and destroy Earth. |
| “ | You call yourselves a team? A family? But a family that can't save itself merely works together to die alone. Behold... my family. | „ |
| ~ Bastion as he taunts the X-Men about being a family. |
| “ | Cyclops: Your mother lied. The Professor came to you, Bastion. Bastion: If she did, IT WAS TO PROTECT ME! Cyclops: Parents are human, too. They mess up. I know how it feels to have the things you trusted, the future you were building, crash down on you, and refuse to let go even as you're buried by what should've been. You're not alone. Bastion: [Laughs] This is what she was protecting me from? I massacre you freaks and you're recruiting me?! You're suicidal! Rogue: Fella, we could say the same about you and this dyin' duck fit of yours. |
„ |
| ~ Bastion's breakdown as the X-Men try to save him. |
| “ | Bastion: Humanity is going extinct. Jean Grey: No. They're having babies, and more and more of them like us. Bastion Well, there’s just one pickle, dear. Humanity would rather DIE than have kids like us! |
„ |
| ~ Bastion's last words before Asteroid M's collapse. |
Trivia[]
- Whenever Bastion appears, the song "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley plays as his leitmotif. The song is likely a reference to his Sentinel kin, with them being the "purple people eaters".
- Bastion origins in both the comics and show are extremely different. In the comics, Bastion is the human form of the merging between Nimrod and Master Mold when they were pushed into the siege perilous, which brought Bastion into existence but as amnesiac adult man, who was adopted by a women named Rose Gilberti. He's programing only started when he was exposed to anti-mutant sentiments. In the show, he was born naturally with pieces of Nimrod/Master Mold merging with his biological father because of this, he gain powers of technopathy but the programming trying to force its way into his mind. The programming only completely took over his mind when his mother lied to him about his nature and told him that Xavier never wanted to see him.
- Beau DeMayo has confirmed that Bastion's mother was the racist waitress from the episode "Ones Man Worth". In that episode Bishop and his sister, Shard, team up with the future counterparts of Wolverine and Storm to prevent Nimrod assassinating a young Charles Xavier. In one scene, they were in a restaurant talking to Xavier, but the waitress and her boss did not react well when finding out that Wolverine and Storm are an interracial couple.
- Presumably, Cable has also tried to go back in time to kill Bastion as a child or even his parents. But he kept getting repelled by the universe for attempting to stop a fixed point in time. Thus explaining why Cable was willing to snark at Bastian about his mother.
- Arguably, he is responsible for President Kelly losing support and faith. Due to the fact Bastion tried to drop Asteroid M on Earth, which lead to Kelly unnecessarily helping endanger everyone by launching missiles that destroy the floatation power core.
