'Overwatch' Animated Short 'The Last Bastion': Ganymede And Omnic PTSD Enshrined In Lore

Today at Gamescom , Blizzard premiered their newest animated short, “The Last Bastion,” all about the lovable robo-turret that runs on salt and tears. “The Last Bastion” didn’t tell us much we didn’t already know, but that little bird, Ganymede? Adorable. And Bastion’s PTSD? Real.

Check out Overwatch ’s latest animated short, straight outta Gamescom:

“The Last Bastion” starts with the most innocent, sunshiney music imaginable as the world’s sweetest, prettiest little bird persistently pecks at Bastion, who randomly whirrs to life. As he gets to his feet, flowers, dirt and grass fall off his shaking frame. The bird tweets and whistles, watching Bastion as he tromps diligently through a magically beautiful forest.

It’s some Disney or Studio Ghibli type animation out here as Bastion holds out his hand palm-up in the rain, just in time for Ganymede to perch on his fingertips and take a sip of the water pooled there. Bastion pokes at his own reflection in the river, watches Ganymede hunt a worm, and sits still as butterflies perch on him. Ganymede even starts building a nest on his shoulder, and Bastion peacefully offers him a twig to help.

That’s when the woodpecker starts hammering away at a tree. Bastion sits up in a hurry, and the music grows tense. The woodpecker’s loud pecking sounds very much like gunfire.

Unable to locate the source of the sound, Bastion’s blue light turns red and he engages turret mode, destroying everything in a circle around him. He pops out of turret mode, his red light flashing back to blue in a stuttering fashion. Bastion’s body language is that of fear and dismay: he stares at his gun, his hand opening and closing helplessly as he sees Ganymede’s ruined nest on the ground, surrounded by ammunition. He glances up for his bird friend, booping, hand partly out-stretched, but his moment of PTSD has left him quite thoroughly alone in what was a beautiful, magical, and safe place.

Can robots get PTSD? Well, it seems that Omnics can. The sound of gunfire triggered Bastion to lash out in combat, forgetting where he was and doing harm to a place we’ve seen him explore with nothing but interest and curiosity and creatures he has only treated with gentleness and affection. If Omnics are a step-up from dumb robots and have a complex AI that grows and learns with their experiences, it stands to reason that Bastion can have PTSD from his learned experiences just as a human might. It’s inarguable from both the music cues and Bastion’s reaction that he neither expected nor wanted to go into combat mode.

Bastion’s HUD appears to be directing him repeatedly to a city ( the city of Stuttgart ). Now Bastion trudges toward the target on the map. The music is hopeless and sad, and Bastion’s tromps seem dispirited, slow. As the thick forest give way to flat plains, Bastion turns his head back towards the woods in what seems like longing. His tromp forwards is interrupted when he finds the battered shell of an Omnic that looks just like him. He reaches out delicately and activates its memory card.

He experiences the Omnic’s last memory: an army of German Crusaders facing off against an army of Bastions. Combat planes fly overhead, the sky is a boiling red, and all Bastions’ lights are crimson as human and Omnic fall. Bastion comes back to himself once the memory ends, but his light turns red -- and stays red. He marches towards the city, this time with his gun out, emitting not his curious beep-boops but a curt, military robotic noise.

Enter Ganymede, who lands on his gun arm with a twig and lays it down. Bastion looks towards the city. Caught halfway between the woods and the city, he picks up the twig carefully. His red light flickers to blue and flickers tensely back to red for a few moments, its flashing indicating Bastion’s internal struggle before it remains blue and he places the twig on his shoulder instead. Ganymede flaps in delight around him, causing Bastion to twirl around trying to track him before the bird perches on Bastion’s outstretched finger.

The short is dedicated to Yvain Gnabro, an animator for Blizzard who passed away recently in a motorcycle accident. Some of his work is available to view on his demo reel here . “The Last Bastion” is a fitting piece in memoriam of a talented 3D animator: done wordlessly, it rides on its music, Bastion’s body language and the tension of his red-to-blue face light to convey emotionality and affect the viewer. It ends on a positive note, with Bastion turning his back on his combat programming and heading back into the enchanted forest that has been a source of such refuge and peace.

As for “The Last Bastion” and its contribution to lore, the entire animated short is basically a rendering of Bastion’s official bio . The look back at Reinhardt’s comrades in action is equal parts thrilling and horrifying, especially when set against the clean bright depiction of the war in Overwatch’s cinematic trailer.

How did you feel about “The Last Bastion”? Did you get caught up in your feelings, or do you scoff at the concept of a robot with PTSD? Planning to pick up that Ganymede plush once it comes out? Let us know in the comments section below.