A Bastion Analysis - Part 2: Structures, Symbols, and Metaphors

Hello everyone, and welcome. This is part 2 of my two part write up of a video game I recently played and completed that goes by the name of Bastion. For the first part, I focused on the ending of Bastion, and how that fit so well with its entire story and video game format. For this part, I wanted to focus on Bastion’s entire story and characters, and point out some theories and key things I noticed about its narrative. I will be discussing its structure and how it might all flow together, and also take a look at each of its characters; seeing what they might represent with respect to the story, and its important choices at the end. So without further ado, let’s dive into Bastion’s magical world again, and explore its many wonderful pieces that I just can’t stop thinking about.

To start, let us take a look at the structure of the story, which I’ve hinted at in Part 1. Bastion’s story as a whole I think can be divided into three parts, all of which connect to form a nice progression of things. The first part is that of Construction, discovering the world, discovering its characters, meeting them all, and constructing the Bastion. It’s where we first meet the world and its characters, and where we begin to help build it all and connect with it.

The second part then is Destruction. It begins when Zulf turns on the Bastion and destroys it. It features the fall of the Bastion, as well as its characters. It even features the truth about the calamity, the truth about how it was done by its own people, making the destruction phase not just sad physically, but also morally, as you learn the great troubles of the past. The Bastion is also attacked a second time by Ura soldiers during this part, and even Zia leaves, and things as a whole begin to look quite grim.

Which then leads to the third and final phase of the game, which happens most prominently when you go off to save Zia with the Calamity Cannon, Reconstruction. The reconstruction phase however, has been subtlety present throughout the entire game. The entire adventure of the Bastion features it being reconstructed after the calamity destroyed it and the world. The reconstruction however, never becomes a huge theme until you set out to save Zia and reconstruct your friendship, as well as set out to gain the final shards, finish the Bastion’s reconstruction, and choose to either reconstruct Zulf’s bond, or leave it to be destroyed.

This 3 act structure of the games entire world, story, and characters is what leads to both endings. The Evacuation’s ending has a clear theme of reconstruction, since you are taking many things you gathered on your quest and using them to reconstruct the broken world you’ve been living in. One might even be able to argue that the Restoration ending has themes of Reconstruction, since you are reconstructing the world, or at least it seems like that, though in reality you are simply going back to when it was first constructed, never being able to move on past the destruction phase. And this theme of not being able to move on pass the destruction phase, this theme is also present if you choose to abandon Zulf, further serving to connect the two choices together, and show that once things are destroyed, you cannot repair them.

This whole 3 act structure is something used and done many times in stories, and seeing it done so well is always something that I love to see. Bastion’s use of this technique to have 3 distinct parts of construction, destruction, and reconstruction is done beautifully, and helps add more to the progression and connection of the entire story and its themes.

And now, to finish things off for Bastion, I would like to briefly discuss each character, and their significance and contribution to the core narrative, and what they all say and mean. So without further ado, let us begin with the most enjoyable character of the entire game, who’s eccentric and fun manners of speaking will be remembered for a long long time to come.

Rucks is the first character in the game you are presented to. Yes, because you hear his narration just before seeing The Kid, he is technically the first, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. :p

And Rucks is an important character to the whole of Bastion, with his vast knowledge bank and ability to say so much with so little. He tells us about the world we’re exploring, about the people we encounter, and he is our guide to everything.

Still, Rucks is more than just a guide, he’s also a symbol. For at the very end of the game, when you are to make the choice of Restoration or Evacuation, Rucks is the one who urges you to choose Restoration. For this reason, Rucks is a representation of the past.

Rucks is old, he has been through a lot, seen a lot, and has the largest past of the characters. Rucks is also the character to have affected the current world the most, since he worked on both the calamity and the Bastion. In symbolizing the past, he has affected the present most of all. Rucks is also the most knowledgeable and wisest of the characters, which of course comes from having a large past that breeds much experience, and with that experience breeds knowledge. All the past events of the world you are unaware of, as well as the world itself, are told through Rucks voice and knowledge, because he has seen the past more than anyone, since he is the past itself.

To contrast Rucks in the final choice, Zia urges you to choose the Evacuation. While Rucks represents the past, Zia represents the future.

While Rucks has made a lot of mistakes in the past, and wants to go back to the old world and make the right choices, Zia doesn’t want to go back to the past at all. Even though she also made many wrong choices in the past, she sees no reason to go back, and instead wants to continue living in this world with the people she’s met. She tells The Kid that all the journeys she’s had and enjoyed and wants to remember are the ones that happened after the calamity, in the present. She can embrace the present and let go of the past much easier than the other characters, making her perfect for representing the future.

Zia is young, maybe even the youngest of the 4, if not for The Kid. But more than that, she’s optimistic and full of hope. Throughout the game she is the one who takes care of the animals you save and nurtures them. Like the future itself, she is young, innocent, and essential for helping the Bastion turn into the bright future it can become.

And if Rucks represents the past, and Zia the future…then what of The Kid? Is there any sort of significance to his character with relation to the choices and their themes? Well, yes of course, while Rucks is the past, and Zia is the future, The Kid represents the present.

The Kid is not just a character, he’s us, he’s who the player plays through, and who they enter the world as. And indeed, don’t we play games in the present, not knowing much about their past like Rucks, and not thinking much about the future like Zia? The Kid symbolizes the present because he’s the character who is always on screen, is always in the present, and is always with us.

And this is also why The Kid does most of the work in the game, and makes the final choices. For the future stands ahead of the present, urging it onward, and the past stands behind it, filing it with knowledge and experience. And in this same way, Rucks provides knowledge and wisdom to The Kid and us, while Zia helps their cause to move forward at the Bastion, lending her support and guidance. But The Kid is the one who does all the acting. He is the one who finds the cores, the shards, and who decides where to go, because the present is where everything gets done. It is where everything changes, and where we get to choose which path to follow.

This great metaphor with the three characters is used at the end of the game where the present chooses between returning to the past to make it better, or moving on to a new future, and it works beautifully. But if these 3 characters all represent a part of time, then…..

 

What of Zulf? He who is most definitely the most tragic and most fascinating character of Bastion, he who provides such a central role to the entire plot and its final choices, where does Zulf fit in to the themes of time?

Well, I must confess, not even I’m completely sure. He’s certainly the most interesting piece of the puzzle. But after much thinking, I did reach a theory, one that…I think makes a lot of sense. First, let’s look at the other 3 characters again. You may have noticed that, while they all represent a part of time, they also seem to mainly represent its positive qualities. Rucks is very knowledgeable and wise, as a result of him having such a large past. And he uses this knowledge to help The Kid advance, to help him use the past for a better future. Zia is optimistic and hopeful for the future, and provides a great path for The Kid to follow. And The Kid is always helping things get towards a better future. He’s always helping the Bastion, and always making sure that the present is good, and one that will lead to a better tomorrow.

Zulf’s relation to the three of them is that, he is the polar opposite of them, but not just for one of them, but all three. For while Rucks gives knowledge to The Kid to help him move forward, Zulf prefers to keep his knowledge a secret, so that eventually Rucks has to tell The Kid why Zulf did what he did. Zulf constantly keeps you in the dark about what he’s doing, and uses his knowledge not to help the present, but to hurt it. And while Zia looks to the future with hope and optimism, Zulf does with hate and disgust, wanting only to destroy the Caelondians. Zia’s path takes you to a bright future, while Zulf’s would have only led to darkness. And finally, Zulf acts in the present just like The Kid does, only, instead of helping the world, he hurts it, causing nothing but suffering. Zulf is a dark contrast to all 3 characters, and shows the dark side of the past, present, and future. The past is cruel when it cannot help and only brings conflict. The present is cruel when it does nothing but hurt others, and isn’t fighting towards a better future. And the future is cruel when it has no hope, when it seems like progressing is pointless, and when we have nothing to gain from living.

And all of these statements sum up Zulf perfectly, the last one more than ever; for Zulf is the one who lost everything from the calamity, even hope. And he again loses everything when the Ura turn on him, and his quest for revenge leaves him alone and utterly hopeless once again. He is what happens when the past, present, and future aren’t good to you, something that, unfortunately, can happen in the world.

And with that in mind, let us now take one final look at the choice The Kid makes with regards to Zulf. For we know that the second choice is about choosing between the past and the future, but what of the first? It is of my belief that, the choice to save Zulf symbolizes, the choice to accept the past, present, and future as it is, or to abandon it to try and pursue an ideal past, present, and future. Accepting the ways of time means accepting all the problems and dark things that come with it, while choosing to abandon time represents just that, abandoning the ways of the world, and saying that there will always be times when we must turn away from the past, present, and future so long as they remain as they are.

Zulf didn’t just do the most damage in the present, he also had the most tragic past of the four characters, as well as the loneliest and saddest future to look forward to. In being the worst of the three, Zulf represents the past, present, and future at their worst, and the times when this way of life we live by makes us frown. And choosing to accept him, means accepting the system and the ways of time as it is, rather than trying to abandon it and create our own new system.

In this way, it lets the abandon Zulf choice connect even more to the choice of Restoration and Evacuation. If Zulf is not just time at its worst, but people and the world at its worst and most tragic, then choosing to save Zulf is choosing to accept the world as it is, rather than tossing it aside, in favor of finding some new perfect world out there. In being so broken, so lost, and so hopeless beyond repair, Zulf symbolizes the world after the calamity. He, like the world, has been destroyed, and utterly defeated. Choosing to accept things at their worst and most broken, and continuing to hang on to them to try and help repair them, this is exactly what the Evacuation choice was about. And choosing to deny them, to say that the world is not okay as it is, and that sometimes we must toss it aside, this leads to Restoration, in which time itself and the world are battled against, to see if they can be changed and brought to some ideal perfect world. Pardon this, as it is a weird thing to say, but I can’t help but see the final choices as that of western and eastern thinking clashing. Fight on for that perfect system, or take what you’ve got and focus on that.

This theory ties things together quite well I think, and it gives Zulf that key role in the story, who’s goal in the narrative isn’t meant to be a choice of one thing or another, but rather, the dark side of life, and whether we choose to accept it or not. 

In Conclusion

To conclude, well…I love Bastion. I love it as a game, I love it as a story, and most of all, I love it as a way to speak to the player. Bastion does so many things right that you just don’t see much these days, and it makes it an altogether incredibly memorable experience. It uses choice in such a way that encourages the player to really think about what they choose. It creates two different endings to the same story, but not having one be more right than the other; it allows the themes and messages associated with each ending to be littered throughout the story, and does so in such a beautiful way that both endings make sense, and both connect the story together wonderfully. But in the end, what connects the story together even better, and makes it sit atop others as one of the shining examples of great narratives, is the fact that it has not one but two great endings, and how they connect and fit together in the entire tale is such a wonderful new way of doing storytelling.

But on top of that, Bastion creates a beautiful world, with many intricate unique characters, and a simple structure that all contains so much depth, that so many interpretations and theories can be reached by examining it. Bastion is able to craft a tale that will make you think, and will teach you more about yourself and the world, and above all, allows for a very enjoyable experience to be had. And that experience, consisting of all its fun themes and characters, will not be leaving you for a very long time. Thank you Bastion, thank you so so much.