Bioshock Infinite
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Well, since we are ok with no spoilers, I'll answer things as best I can, since a lot of this is still fresh in my mind. If i have to edit it into spoiler tags later I can.
It takes a little reading between the lines, and listening to a lot of the phonographs, but what i gathered about Comstock was this. When Booker went to the baptism after the Massace at Wounded Knee, he was full of doubt and self-loathing over what he had done. The Booker DeWitts are the ones who rejected the baptism, they internalize their pain. This leads him to the pinkertons (more bloody violence) which leads a spiral of alcohol and gambling.
The Comstocks are the ones who take the baptism, they come out of it truly believe that their sins are forgiven (the blood on their hands is washed away). they externalize their pain: "Its not my fault, its the world that is rotten, the Lord has saved me!" This leads them to instead pursue a nationalistic/religious life, where they become wealthy/powerfully connected within the growing American Govt. They meet Rosalind Lutece, who is working on her science, leading to the idea of the floating city, the jewel of the great America. But when Columbia is involved with the (IIRC) Boxer rebellion incident, the American govt tells Comstock to come back and he tells them to fuck off. Its at this point that Rosalind has, with his funding, gotten her technology to where they can open the tears and see other realities. Comstock uses this and starts his decent towards 'the world shall burn' schtick, since he now feels not even America can live up to his impossible standards. He needs a child to continue what he has started, because excessive passage through the tears has aged him and left him sterile. Thus the plot to get Anna from the Booker DeWitt reality. Basically, Comstock is a jerkass who blames everyone else for his mistakes and decides to destroy the world because it cannot be what he wants.
As for the ending, the way I see it is that at the moment of the 'Final Baptism", 'our' Elizabeth has her full power (We were the only reality to destroy her Siphon, thus giving her full strength). This allows her to see across all the various realities and change things by her will alone; so she finds all the Booker's who would accept the baptism and become Comstock. She uses her power to, how do I want to say it, tie them to that exact moment; in essence 'our' Booker is now all of those Booker's in one being (represented by all the other Elizabeth's who appear). 'Our' Booker, devastated by all the realizations he has just been shown, allows them to drown him so that none of those Comstock's ever live. This allows her to cut off all those realities from ever existing, which also causes the Elizabeth's to disappear, since they will never come to be.
Side Note; I will say that I don't believe 'our' Elizabeth disappeared tho. They certainly were not holding back on the punches at that point, and having 'our' Elizabeth not disappear but instead have the screen fade to black is a copout. I'm too goddamned Genre Savvy to take that at face value 2K. At that moement, she is practically God, you can't tell me that she just up and poofs too!
Caliane
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Rosalind opened the doors BEFORE meeting Comstock.
She already was talking to her brother 2 years before wounded knee. (he might have even crossed over before then)
"The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist" Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel, -R.Lutece, 1889
First of all, at the end of the game, the Robert echos those words. That R. Lutece may be Robert, not Rosalind as you would assume. Additionally, they can only know that, if Robert ALREADY dimension hopped. And this was published in 1889. BEFORE wounded knee.
It was one of my complaints. the timeline there is very very short/odd.
Rosalind starts talking to her twin as a child. 1880ish.
Robert hops timelines-1889
Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel is published. 1889
Wounded knee-1890
1891-1892 Booker attends a baptism after Wounded Knee. unknown exactly when. best to assume immediately after.
1892 Anna is born. So, right away, we have Booker getting married almost immediately after refusing the Baptism.
1892 comstock meets the Lutece's.
1893 Comstock starts building Columbia.
october - Booker has build up gambling debts, and agrees to give up Anna.
Anna is kidnapped.
Comstock as aged 20 years in 2-3 years, "due to exposure to portals". something no one else is shown to.. Pretty sure there is more to tell here. Granted, I think its a problem with the story being rewritten, as Comstock was not originally booker.
1895 lady comstock murdered.
1900 columbia officially launched.
1912 is start of the game.
She already was talking to her brother 2 years before wounded knee. (he might have even crossed over before then)
"The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist" Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel, -R.Lutece, 1889
First of all, at the end of the game, the Robert echos those words. That R. Lutece may be Robert, not Rosalind as you would assume. Additionally, they can only know that, if Robert ALREADY dimension hopped. And this was published in 1889. BEFORE wounded knee.
It was one of my complaints. the timeline there is very very short/odd.
Rosalind starts talking to her twin as a child. 1880ish.
Robert hops timelines-1889
Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel is published. 1889
Wounded knee-1890
1891-1892 Booker attends a baptism after Wounded Knee. unknown exactly when. best to assume immediately after.
1892 Anna is born. So, right away, we have Booker getting married almost immediately after refusing the Baptism.
1892 comstock meets the Lutece's.
1893 Comstock starts building Columbia.
october - Booker has build up gambling debts, and agrees to give up Anna.
Anna is kidnapped.
Comstock as aged 20 years in 2-3 years, "due to exposure to portals". something no one else is shown to.. Pretty sure there is more to tell here. Granted, I think its a problem with the story being rewritten, as Comstock was not originally booker.
1895 lady comstock murdered.
1900 columbia officially launched.
1912 is start of the game.
Intrinsic
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Being nit picky and coming at it from a slightly different angle, do we have to infer from the book titleBarriers to Trans-Dimensional Travelthat she has accomplished it? Or would it be titledEffects of Trans-Dimensional Travelif she/he had accomplished it and observed the impact to the mind, age, or what have you. Like people postulating what would happen if we broke the sound barrier. Granted they were eventually proven wrong and the Lutece were more or less correct. Then again the actual date of the first hoping may not even be that relevant as it had to be executed between 1889 and 1893 and Comstock didn't meet the Lutece's until 1892.
Caliane
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Its relevant in the sense, the Lutece's dimensional hopping is not tethered to Comstock. They will do their time shifting with or without him.
Them getting dislodged in time/space, should have been in theory. since that was his fault. Although, they don't seem to care, suggesting you killing Comstock won't erase them from time/space. which can also probably be said for the god-anna at the end as well. And as such pruning that branch in the timestream, will not effect the Lutece's or Anna who have spread out to the ocean already.
Them getting dislodged in time/space, should have been in theory. since that was his fault. Although, they don't seem to care, suggesting you killing Comstock won't erase them from time/space. which can also probably be said for the god-anna at the end as well. And as such pruning that branch in the timestream, will not effect the Lutece's or Anna who have spread out to the ocean already.
According toRosalind_Lutece, "On October 15th, 1893, Rosalind successfully opened a Tear for the first time, bringing Robert through it into her universe.". They were communicating before through the Lutece Field, but she didn't bring Robert through until Columbia was built.Ii think this is the difference between the 2 of them: In Roberts (Booker's) reality, he doesn't have enough funding to do much more than work on the atoms, whereas Rosalind got funding from Comstock and was able to push her technology further, to create the tears.
Comstock unnaturally aged because he wasn't just viewing the tears, but constantly passing into other realities. Whereas others like Fink were just looking through them.
See, i don't think so. Rosalind only got enough funding through Comstock, otherwise she would only have been able to manipulate the atoms like she and Robert were up till then. I do think, that while the Lutece's will not disappear even though we stopped the Comstock timelines from happening, this does create a paradox, in that the events which led to their current condition no longer happened, yet the universe is unable to erase them. What happens then?
Caliane
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well that is clearly a problem.
Anna is kidnapped Oct 8th. 1893.
How can Robert and a 40 year old looking Comstock have stolen Anna on oct 8th 1893, if Rosalind has not created tears for another 7 days?
That said, "Brother, what Comstock failed to understand is that our contraption is a window not into prophecy, but probability. But his money means the Lutece Field could become the Lutece Tear -- a window between worlds. A window through which you and I might finally be together."
Does say, it was after meeting comstock they opened the tear.
The more contracted the timeline becomes there, is then reverse for the aging comstock. if its only been 3 weeks.. how did comstock age 20 years exactly in 3 weeks?
Potential for story there.
OU Ariakas
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DLC announced today and guess where 2 of the 3 take place?
This is disappointing to me because the interview makes it sound like Levine really wants to focus on the story of Elizabeth and the biggest letdown in BS:I for me was the lack of exposition around Columbia explaining the circumstances surrounding Elizabeth and Booker. Shit, I'm still going to play it because I think Rapture is the single best environment that has ever been created in a game but it is disappointing that we won't be learning anything about Columbia and its denizens for at least the first two DLCs.
This is disappointing to me because the interview makes it sound like Levine really wants to focus on the story of Elizabeth and the biggest letdown in BS:I for me was the lack of exposition around Columbia explaining the circumstances surrounding Elizabeth and Booker. Shit, I'm still going to play it because I think Rapture is the single best environment that has ever been created in a game but it is disappointing that we won't be learning anything about Columbia and its denizens for at least the first two DLCs.
Wingz
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I guess that answers the question of whether or not Elizabeth Prime survived.
TrollfaceDeux
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I think it's been said in the game that:
1) Every time you go through the portal, you lose "part of you" that makes you different from other "world's Comstock/whatever version you are."
2) Portal use (excessive use) has side effects and one of them is rapid aging.