Bastion (Overwatch)
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Bastion, SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54 |
| Occupation: | |
| Relationships: | Torbjörn Lindholm (Creator) |
| Fandom: | Overwatch |
| Other: | Omnic |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Bastion is a playable character from Overwatch, a first-person shooter game by Blizzard Entertainment.
Canon
Bastion used to be a soldier fighting in the Omnic Crisis against humanity. When the war ended, Bastion was left for dead - but was actually lying dormant. In the Overwatch animated short The Last Bastion, a small yellow bird called Ganymede wakes Bastion up in a forest.
Reaction to The Last Bastion
Reactions to 'The Last Bastion' were varied. A large point of discussion was Bastion displaying many aspects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. During the animated clip, Bastion hears a woodpecker and mistakes it for the sound of gunshots. This triggers its programming and sends it on a rampage. Fans were impressed by Blizzard Entertainment's true-to-life representation of PTSD in a video game character.
Overwatch Reddit user jimmysaint13 said:[1]
PTSD can have many different forms and many different triggers, but the most common sufferers of PTSD are veterans that have been to war.With wartime-related PTSD you can be triggered by something that your brain perceives as a threat, even something that you consciously know is safe.
You then fall back on your trained response in order to deal with that threat. Very much like Bastion went into self-defence mode and assumed his turret configuration when he thought he heard gunfire.
Gender Controversy
A noted point of discussion and controversy is Bastion's gender, and the gender of other in-game Omnics including Tekhartha Zenyatta and Orisa. While all robotic characters are somewhat humanoid, Bastion cannot speak and does not have any masculine or feminine features.
After the release of the character Ana Amari, arguments arose about one of her Arabic voice lines. It seemed as if she referred to Bastion as a 'she' when she nano-boosted it. This argument was proven false, however, when Arabic fans explained that non-human nouns in Arabic were considered grammatically feminine.[2]
It was confirmed by lead writer Michael Chu on Twitter that Bastion does not have a gender and that the pronoun officially used for the character is 'it'.,[3] however almost all Overwatch fans refer to Bastion as 'he/him' in general discussion, even when they consider Bastion to be agender.
Fandom
Tropes within fanworks include:
- Headcanon fanart of what Bastion would look like as a human
- Bastion being an inanimate object (e.g. a cash register or a toaster) in fanfiction
- Bastion having a good relationship with the other Omnics
- 'Disney Princess' Bastion, due to its love of birds and woodland animals
Art with Bastion almost always also includes Ganymede.
Shipping
Bastion is almost never seriously shipped with other characters in the Overwatch universe. This is largely due to its non-humanoid appearance. Parody ships of Bastion/Zenyatta and Bastion/Torbjörn are somewhat popular.
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
[Examples illustrating common tropes; gen works; pairings other than those with their own articles]
Fanfiction
- Bastion and Ganymede by Thixotropic
Fanart
Bastion by Ayyasap
Bastion by Snatti89
Bastion by Chrissie-zulio
Bastion Communities and Archives
- Bastion works at the Archive of Our Own
References
- ^ "Bastion PTSD Discussion - Reddit". Archived from the original on 2018-11-12.
- ^ "Bastion Gender Discussion - Overwatch Reddit".
- ^ "Michael Chu - Twitter". Archived from the original on 2021-09-28.