Headscratchers / Sins of Sinister

• Are the Quiet Council simply brainwashed, or are they mental clones of Sinister?
  • The answer isn't that simple. When they are revived their DNA is polluted with Sinister's, leaving the resulting mutant as a relentless, amoral and less restrained version of themselves.
    • Sinister's mastery of genetics is so advanced that he can code for specific personality traits, which is why modern Sinister is a fabulous snarker with a deep knowledge of popular culture rather than the humourless megalomaniac supervillain he was back when he debuted, it's something he did to himself to appear less dangerous to the X-Men. The pollution of the Resurrection Protocols was supposed to overlay each resurrected mutant with a copy of Sinister's own amoral personality, so they'd be themselves, but with Sinister's 'whatever works for me' (im)moral code. Hope's presence in the Five stymied this genetic tampering until he found a way to kill her and resurrect her with a little bit of him in the mix. After that, no one was safe.
  • It also seems that the more they died and are revived, the worse they get as the stronger the Sinister 'gene' in them becomes more influential and unlocks the worst possible version of themselves. For example, compare how Xavier still appears genuinely remorseful, or at least capable of convincingly faking it, after killing non-contaminated humans after ten years of being influenced by Sinister compared to how he's basically a narcissistic genocidal megalomaniac after 1000 years.