Bass, known as Forte is a Robot Master created by Dr. Wily to imitate Mega Man's design, along with Treble, an imitation of Rush's design. He was created based on a research conducted on Mega Man with the intention of surpassing his power sometime during or before the events of Mega Man 6, and made his debut in Mega Man 7. Bass is the prominent anti-hero of the Mega Man classic series, and his goal is to become the most powerful robot in existence. Although Bass and Mega Man are rivals, at times they team up to take down mutual enemies of the two. Despite being created by Dr. Wily, Bass frequently rebels against his creator, usually for his own purposes.
Appearance[]
Bass' design was made in mind to be a polar opposite of Mega Man's. Bass is adorned in black armor with gold lining. On his chest, there is a triangular blue-ish purple crystal (with some artworks showing an "F" for "forte" engraved inside its center). He has purple stripes running down from his eyes and extending down his cheeks. He has distinct red eyes (usually with pink retinas). His helmet features large yellow fins that resemble that of a cobra, giving him a slightly taller appearance than that of his rivals and a cross-shaped blue jewel on the forehead.
Personality[]
Bass is presented as an extremely smug, bad-tempered, egotistical, rebellious, fiercely independent and arrogant individual who believes that he's the strongest above all else. Bass is very prideful and thinks quite highly of himself, labeling everyone else around him as inferior "junk robots". He has always been shown to hold a rivalry with Mega Man, but aside from him, Bass happens to have hatred for every robot that was created by Dr. Wily (with the possible exception of Treble, Reggae, and, needless to say, himself), since he feels that they're standing in the way of his goal to destroy Mega Man and become the strongest. Bass looks down on them, believing himself to be superior to them in every way, shape, and form.
However, a notable aspect of his personality he showed in Mega Man & Bass was that he seemed to have some degree of respect for humans, since they created robots. Duo says that there is goodness in Bass (even going so far as to say that he has "justice energy"), which the latter ignored, saying that he only wants to fight, claiming that his only concern is who the strongest happens to be. Despite his rivalry with Mega Man, he is willing to work alongside him if it is to his benefits, as evidenced by Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters and his aiding Mega Man in defeating Rockman Shadow's forces. The latter instance also implied that the aftermath of the battle left Bass with some respect for Mega Man. There's a possibility that Duo's claim of there being goodness in Bass is true, since he was able to use the Evil Energy Capsules in Mega Man 8 without dying. During the events of Mega Man & Bass, he even began to show some form of concern for King.
Bass appears to care for Treble and vice versa, Bass always welcomes the fierce Treble despite the confidence in his own abilities, his robotic wolf-like companion seems to understand all his commands and is very loyal to him, even bringing Bass a cure for Roboenza when he was infected.
Despite being extremely powerful, Bass' faults that usually lead to his downfall are his arrogance and overconfidence. According to Proto Man, it's because he has "nothing to fight for". The reason that he's continuously defeated by Mega Man is because of his selfish motive, which is simply to prove himself as the strongest, as opposed to Mega Man's desire to "fight for everyone's future" and bring peace to the world.
Trivia[]
- In Tabby's Adventures/The Tabbic Forces' Adventure Chronicles, even though Bass was a villain, he is considered as a neutral character. Though, there are some specials that may consider Bass as a hero, anti-hero, or a villain
- In Season 22, Bass now teams up with the heroes to stop The Nightmare Nine from invading the Multiverse.