Sebastian and Marcus are on basically the same level of evil and I’ll prove it.
Bad Dads: Douglas my absolute beloved but he wasn’t great to Marcus, and with the timeline we get the only thing that makes sense is that Krane also had a hand in raising him. Marcus chose to be evil but the way he grew up left him no other option.
And of course, Sebastian had Krane and he was mind controlled probably most of his life.
In conclusion: Fuck Krane (no Douglas not like that)
Relationship with the Rats: Marcus sought them out specifically for the purpose of capturing them, it worked like a charm because they really wanted friends. We didn’t see much of it but he integrated himself enough to become their bestie. It was a plan from start to finish. (Side note: In Concert in a Can when he meets Donald for the first time and is like “omg you’re Donald Davenport!!” I like to imagine that Douglas told him “yea just stroke his ego a little. He’ll be putty in your hands)
The first time Sebastian meets the gang (we’re ignoring Secret Soldiers for this purpose because actions under mind control don’t count) he’s bonded with Adam like a baby duck, trying to find a home for his siblings. When they’re at the academy he’s super into the learning and wants to go on missions! Then he learns about Krane, and when he stages his rebellion he manipulates Chase into helping the same way Marcus did, just with less planning.
Crimes Begin: Marcus tried to murder Leo many times before the first Showdown to get him out of the way—the self-driving car, the robot in the lair, and then many times in Showdown. Leo’s only alive because he’s extraordinary clever, and because they weren’t gonna kill the protagonist on a Disney show.
Sebastian tried to kill Donald as a method of revenge—“a father for a father” type thing.
Crimes Continue: In Showdown, the goal was to abduct Adam, Bree, and Chase and make them bionic soldiers. Marcus then tried to shove Chase into a giant meat grinder (which we don’t talk about enough wtf) and tried to kill Leo again. Basically, doing what his dad had trained him to do for as long as he’s been alive. It’s bad but he doesn’t know how to be good.
I honestly don’t know what the goal of Rebellion was, but I’ll take the worst interpretation and say Seb wanted to kill the Rats + Donald and break everyone off the island. Not great but there’s very likely some residual brainwashing lingering there. I’m thinking about that scene in Screaming Skull where Adam tells Bob “oh right, you’re a blank slate cause of Krane’s mind control” when he doesn’t know what Halloween is. It’s possible the soldiers have been under his control most of their lives, and I can’t imagine what that kind of constant exposure to the Triton app would do to their brains. Anyway, in his head, Davenport wiped out his father and then took him and his siblings and made them into his soldiers. Which is basically Bionic Showdown from the Rats’ perspective. Again, not good, but can see how he got there.
Ending: Marcus got crushed by the rubble, then brought back, then killed again, then killed again. No that’s not a typo it happened twice.
Sebastian went to prison, and based on what we learned about the virus in One of Us it’s possible he blew up.
Neither of them got vindicated by the show.
Anyway I don’t know what the point of this is but I wanted to share it.