New Bioshock: Infinite - Page 19

In some worlds, Booker was baptised into Comstock, who then created Columbia. The prophecy he was given states that Columbia will last as long as his bloodline stays on the throne. However, Comstock became infertile for some reason (exposure to some machinery somewhere, IIRC), so he asked the Lutele siblings to stepover into an alternate universe where Booker was never baptised into Comstock to ask for Booker's daughter in return for clearing Booker's gambling debts. Booker accepts. During the handover into Comstock's world, Booker changes his mind and grabs at Anna, resulting in the missing fingertip, but she passes into Comstock's world anyway. She is then locked into the tower where Comstock keeps a watchful eye on her. All her special talents regarding crossing over worlds is theorised by the Lutele siblings to be due to part of her body (her fingertip) being stuck in her original world.

To destroy any evidence that Elizabeth is not Comstock's true daughter, he has his wife and the Lutele siblings killed. The Lutele siblings do not completely die, but are instead scattered across time and space due to their exposure during their work.

Years later, the Lutele siblings offer Booker the chance to cross worlds to meet Anna/Elizabeth again. When crossing over into Comstock's world, his mind gets addled in the process. He forgets about his past (the daughter) and mixes his new objective with his earlier bargain of getting the girl to clear his debts.

At the end of the game, the tower is destroyed and all the restrictions on Elizabeth's power are lifted. She is finally able to peer into ALL the alternate worlds, crossing them at will. She then realises that Booker = Comstock, and although Comstock is dead in this world, the events are still proceeding as normal in many other alternate universes. She tells Booker that Comstock is still alive, asking if Booker is completely committed to ending the chain by killing Comstock at his 'birth'. Booker still has not realised that Comstock is just himself reborn, and commits to it. He walks into the scene of Wounded Knee, where he had just previously refused baptism (and forgiveness for his past sins). He finally realises the truth, at which point several other Elizabeths appear, showing just how many of them have suffered due to his transition into Comstock. They smother him in the water and he dies without resisting; the chain is broken and the other Elizabeths disappear.

- What happened at the lighthouse at the beginning? Who set up the sign/dead guy inside?
- Exactly how does killing Booker pre-baptism in just one world kill ALL the Comstocks in all the worlds?

Time travel does not seem to work well with parallel universes!

1. The game assumes that if Booker isn't alive to make the decision to become Comstock, it effectively severs the entire branch of Comstock alternate universes within the multiverse. This includes the alternate future where they find pieces of Columbia in 1981, because if Comstock never existed then Columbia was never built. In a trippy way, this makes the Bioshock universe a possible parallel to our own.

2. But however! the game doesn't address the fact that Elizabeth's climactic act of killing Booker results in a branch in the multiverse right there! You have to account for the fact that there are universes where Elizabeth doesn't kill him, or Booker refuses to die. In those situations, they have created yet another alternate branch of possibilities where Booker can still become Comstock.
Essentially, Bioshock's resolution only works assuming one given timeline, not a multiverse. With Bioshock's "infinite" universes, the idea of you traveling back in time to kill yourself is no longer a paradox. (The paradox is that if your future self kills you, then who's going to time travel back and kill you? The answer is simple: an alternate version of yourself that can travel between parallel universes. These outcomes can simultaneously exist because in some universes you die, in others you don't.)

3. What it boils down to is this: Elizabeth killing Comstock is a classic time-travel scenario, but time-travel stories typically don't encompass the multiverse, because with infinite universes, you can't actually change the future since all possibilities simultaneously exist. There are, right now, universes where Comstock never took Anna and she is living happily ever after with Booker as her dad. Elizabeth never had to kill Comstock for that universe to exist. It's just that she's one of the unlucky Annas in a horrible parallel universe. Which leaves us with the question, is Elizabeth's attempt to change the past (and all the events of Bioshock Infinite) ultimately futile?

Does that make sense?

Unless there is something we've missed, I suspect we'll have to be content with the knowledge that we've at least ended the chain of events in our current reality, which we're most invested in.

There was initially only one Lutece person in each world. In Comstock's world, it was a lady. In Booker's world, it was a man. They were both born on the same day, only one chromosome separated them.

In lady Lutece's work with multiple worlds etc, she came into contact with her male counterpart. She asked him to approach Booker with the 'girl for the debt' message, which is why Booker never sees lady Lutece in the flashbacks. The Lutece siblings only come into contact when they pass Anna over, where you see the male Lutece cross over first before Comstock.

My theory is that this explains why, at the very beginning of the game, when you walk through Columbia you see the statue of Lutece change from a man (your initial universe) to a lady (current universe). It also explains why they finish each others sentences etc, because they are essentially the same person.

There was initially only one Lutece person in each world. In Comstock's world, it was a lady. In Booker's world, it was a man. They were both born on the same day, only one chromosome separated them.

In lady Lutece's work with multiple worlds etc, she came into contact with her male counterpart. She asked him to approach Booker with the 'girl for the debt' message, which is why Booker never sees lady Lutece in the flashbacks. The Lutece siblings only come into contact when they pass Anna over, where you see the male Lutece cross over first before Comstock.

My theory is that this explains why, at the very beginning of the game, when you walk through Columbia you see the statue of Lutece change from a man (your initial universe) to a lady (current universe). It also explains why they finish each others sentences etc, because they are essentially the same person.