For those of you who haven't played Bioshock Infinite, go ahead and do that before reading any further. Or at least watch a let's play, because I'm about to spoil a whole lot of stuff.
When you finish the game, you're left understanding that Booker, our originally lovable protagonist out to save his daughter, is in fact the evil Comstock who, on top of having a shitty name, is also the mastermind behind Booker's daughter's disappearance to begin with! As a matter of fact, Booker even gave his own daughter away as part of a deal to pay off some debts - what a scumbag, right? At the end of the game, Booker decides to end Comstock once and for all by ... letting himself get drowned by several iterations of his daughter, who has since grown up, and will probably have to struggle with an odd Oedipus complex for the rest of her (short) life.
But it's not that simple.
Were you just running and gunning throughout the game, or did you stop and listen to the dialogue?
Did you notice how Booker continued to get nosebleeds over time?
Did you catch that little tidbit of dialogue about what happens to someone when they're stuck in an alternate dimension, or were you busy dealing with the profoundness of there "always being a lighthouse," and that bird-in-a-cage no choice bullshit?
Strap your little ass into your seat, kiddo, because I'm about to bring you into a whole other world of sad.
Booker. Isn't. Comstock.
(Not this version of Booker, anyway).
After being trapped in this alternate timeline for so long, the memories of the alt-timeline Booker (Comstock) begin to merge in our Booker's head. Eventually, those memories start waging a war to take over, or fight for dominance with those real memories that he's earned over time. The nosebleeds are a sign of this.
Do you know what this means?
That means that Booker, our hero, was actually a good guy all along. His real memories, of his daughter going missing, of his debt, are slowly overwritten by the memories of bad Booker, who comes to be known as Comstock.
Throughout all of this, Booker still fights to save Elizabeth and keep her from harm, something that only a good hearted soul would do, even if he has a debt to pay.
And his reward?
Death
Booker allows himself to be drowned, in the hopes that this action will lead to the final death of what an alternate version of himself COULD become. Ultimately, he is an unfortunate puppet in the grand machinations of an unseen enemy that is manipulating the very fabric of reality. His last acts are those of a good man who wants to right his wrongs, even if those wrongs are nonexistent.
A man chooses, a slave obeys
It goes further. We're lead to believe that Booker is a different person in Burial at Sea, specifically meaning that he is always Booker, pre-Comstock, and not a non-Comstock Booker. We're lead to believe that he has to die in order to stop Comstock from becoming Comstock. But this isn't the case, either. In Burial at Sea, we realize that the Luteces placed that version of Booker there, which helped the events unfold.
And that's where we find the true villains of the story.
The mother fucking Luteces.
Smug little assholes
Smug little assholes, with their bird and cage narrative, spinning coin bullshit. OF COURSE the creepy twins talking in cryptic verses without full context had something to do with it. They have the power to jump dimensions in a much more seamless way than Elizabeth ever could. They can control it at will. Such power. Such great power.
And power corrupts.
We're lead to believe that they're just neutral scientists, maybe trying to right a wrong. EEEEEEP - incorrect. The Luteces may have been responsible for all sorts of horrible things throughout history, and for some reason, they decided to pick our Booker to be the fall guy during this particular story: a damned war hero* that had to survive unspeakable horrors in various bloody battles back as the United States was trying to pull itself up by the bootstraps. A man who lost his own daughter, perhaps through some other unfortunate circumstances. Infinite possibilities, but only one outcome: he became a fall guy, in this alternate reality he was dragged into.
There's always a Lighthouse. There's always a Man. There's always a City.
But is there hope? Can good-Booker be saved? Does it have to end this way?
The last chronological event in the Bioshock series is the original entry: Boishock, wherein Jack's plane crashes into the area just outside of Rapture's lighthouse.
Jack manages to destroy Rapture's version of Comstock, as well as other ne'er do wells, even though he was initially a pawn at the outset of the series.
Jack is a pawn. Booker is a pawn. I see some sort of theme here.
I don't know where the story will go in the next entry, but I know one thing: the game goes out of its way to misdirect on the true intentions of the Luteces, and the moral questions of what would happen if you could control the very fabric of reality. Whether or not the twins are the true source of all this dimensional rift foolery or not, one thing is for certain: follow them as the bread crumbs, and we'll be able to find the true evil behind Comstock/Booker, and end the whole Lighthouse/City/Man Saga.
Do you agree? Will you save Booker DeWitt?
*Not sure if war hero is an appropriate term for some poor schlub who probably got flim-flammed into a genocide against native Americans, but hey, let's role with it.
One of my favorite games...Bioshock Infinite is a visionary piece of entertainment where the gameplay, characters, art style and story all come together to make what undoubtedly will be considered one of the best games of the franchise. The story has stirred me speechless and compelled me to think.
Yes you are right.its One of the most Beautiful Games. :)
wow ... investigative...i played it once and I did not fully understand the story...thx for the post :)
Bioshock Infinite is the best game of all time to me! It is a masterpiece of the 21st century.
Yeah, I dug it. I think I had a better time playing the original, but I think that's also because my play style changed over the years (I tend to rush through games a lot more, now. Back then, I stopped to smell the roses a lot).
What did you think of the DLCs for infinite?
Sorry for the delay - dealing with a few things on my end. The DLCs weren't bad in terms of play style, and I liked going to Repture again, but they got me thirsty for more story. Sad ending :'(
Yeah it was sad. I hope the story can somehow continue.
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I like your post! Never played Bioshock though, but your writing is awesome.
Thank you! Sometimes I worry that I'm just talking into the breeze. Comments like this help me define my writing style. Thank you!
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