SPOILERS FOLLOW. Seriously, if you haven't beaten the game,
don't read this. It's the kind of thing that you need to experience for
yourself. Also, a lot of this is my interpretation as a result of playing the
game and talking with other people who have done the same. I've found some
theories online that have been pretty comprehensive, but this is what I got
from it. Of course, Ken Levine could come out a month from now and tell us that
the whole thing was about aliens, so who knows.
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| Imagine this, but with Ken Levine (I'm bad at Photoshop) |
Where do I even begin? The "beginning" of the game
isn't really the beginning of the story, so I guess some background would help.
The story of Bioshock Infinite isn't even really about Booker DeWitt, the
protagonist, it's about Rosalind and Robert Lutece, the twin
physicists-turned-demigods and their quest to right their wrongs and satisfy
the insatiable boredom that comes with quantum immortality.
Wow, that's one hell of a topic sentence.
The "original" Lutece is Rosalind, who was the
physicist funded by Comstock and the United States to develop the technology
that led to the creation of Colombia. She discovers through quantum physics the
existence of the multiverse, and the infinite spectrum of worlds that exist
there. She soon makes contact with "Robert", herself from an
alternate universe that is nearly identical, except that she is born a man. The
Colombian propaganda machine hand waves Robert as being her brother, and the
two go on to study the effects of quantum tunneling, the process used to see
and travel to other universes.
As a direct result of the quantum research, Comstock is
rendered infertile, and suffers from premature aging. Needing an heir, Comstock
petitions the Luteces to find an alternate universe in which he had a child,
and acquire that child for him. The Luteces find protagonist Booker, buy baby
Anna from him, and give the baby to Comstock, who is raised as Elizabeth. As
Elizabeth grows up, it is revealed that she has the power to manipulate quantum
tunnels, or "tears" without the use of a machine. The Luteces suggest
that her abilities result from the loss of her finger during the transition
from her original universe. The Luteces reach an impasse, however, when Robert
insists that Elizabeth be returned to her original universe, as her powers
could lead to widespread destruction. Comstock learns of the reasons for
Elizabeth's powers, but wants her to remain, so she can fulfill a prophecy he
saw involving Colombia and the destruction of modern society, so Comstock
decides to kill everyone who knows about where she came from, his wife and the
Lutece twins. He murders Lady Comstock by his own hands, and blames it on Daisy
Fitzroy, the leader of the Vox Populi, a band of revolutionaries and a
convenient political scapegoat. Meanwhile, he has one of his subordinates,
Jeremiah Fink, sabotage one of the Lutece's experiments, which causes their
consciousness to be scattered across the multiverse.
Still with me? Good, because this is where it gets nuts.
Rosalind and Robert are now literally demi-gods, able to see
across time, space, and multiple universes simultaneously. The reason they seem
so disjointed in their speech throughout the game, is because they have to
really focus in order to communicate their ideas to one person in one universe.
It would be like trying to explain tax law to a four-year-old, you would have
to talk slowly and use big easy concepts because you would have no way of
knowing what the kid understands and doesn't understand, there's no frame of
reference for someone so beneath you on an intellectual level. They are also
"immortal", since they exist "outside" time. That doesn't
really explain it well, but there really isn't a way to explain being
"outside" time. The closest example would be the ideas explored in
Edwin Abbott's "Flatland", a novella about a two dimensional world
called Flatland, which is occupied by people who exist as a variety of shapes
and lines. One day a sphere comes to visit Flatland, and tries to explain the
existence of Spaceland, a three dimensional world, but the citizens of Flatland
cannot even comprehend the idea of a world that exists "beyond"
theirs.
Being "outside" of time, the Luteces have an
opportunity to think, and come to the conclusion that Elizabeth needs to be
returned to her own universe, as her powers are highly volatile. Well, honestly
we don't really know why the Luteces take the actions they do after this point.
The prevalent theory is that they feel guilt over stealing Anna/Elizabeth from
her original universe, but the fact of the matter is that they are so beyond
mortal reasoning that no one really knows. What we do know is that they come to
the conclusion of letting protagonist Booker loose in Colombia, with the mission
of getting Elizabeth back from Comstock, but leaving him unaware that she is
his daughter. Thanks to the scene with the coin flip (the Luteces appear before
protagonist Booker and ask him to pick heads or tails on a coin flip, the coin
comes up heads, and a mark is added to the tally, which shows 122 previous
flips, and results), we know that they have made multiple attempts to
"fix" Elizabeth with different Bookers, but this is where things get really hazy:
If the Luteces can see "outside" time, and all
eventualities, are they aware of the way the end of the game plays out? Was
their plan for Booker to rescue Elizabeth and return home no problem, or were
they trying to get booker to destroy the Siphon, so Elizabeth's power would be
unleashed, and the events at the end of the game would take place? After the
Siphon is destroyed, Elizabeth seems to be similar to the Luteces, in that she
can "see" across time and space, and she causes the events at the end
of the game to play out the way they do directly. She is even the one who
personally drowns Booker. Is this caused by the ability to see across
universes, so she has the same goal as the Luteces, or is she simply going
along with the idea to kill Comstock before he ever existed? If she is just
going along with her own instincts, did the Luteces' know that she would reach
that conclusion, and is that why they sent protagonist Booker to free her? If
the Bookers of many worlds all make different choices in Colombia, which leads to their varying levels of
success and failure, are all of the events of the game simply the latest set of
"constants and variables" being tested? It seems so, as evidenced by
the coin flipping scene, but shouldn't the Luteces' know when and how the
various Bookers with succeed or fail, by virtue of being able to see
everything? Are they creating new universes by manipulating the Bookers? If so,
why not create a universe where Booker would clearly succeed, or one where he
has ALREADY succeeded. Perhaps they tried this, but still found the results
inconclusive. The objective is apparently to stop Comstock from ever existing,
but the Luteces' presumably can't take care of him themselves, or they could
risk undoing their own existence, but Elizabeth does it anyway, and they don't
stop her. Thanks to the after-credits scene, we know that life goes on for at
least one Booker somewhere, but doesn't that mean that the capacity for
Comstock still exists too?
I don't even know where to begin untangling these ideas. Multiple
universes AND time travel? I'm going to go lie down.
Totally check out our new YouTube channel though, fun people
playing games, and NO quantum physics.
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