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Bioshock Infinite Ending Impressions (MAJOR SPOILERS!)
12 years ago
General
So yeah, below here everything can be considered a spoiler. I should be sleeping right now but after seeing that I doubt I'll find rest until I get these thoughts on paper... well, on something anyways.
So yeah, Booker defeats Comstock, saves the girl, and escapes... except not really... the girl gets Songbird, the giant mechanical parrot monster, to break the syphon that was stealing her powers and manages to open a massive tear that takes her and Booker to... well... a city on the bottom of the ocean.
Thats right, in the end they wound up at Rapture. Andrew Ryan plasmid splicer Somewhere Beyond the Sea Rapture. It was only for a little bit before the game took a turn for the surreal.
It was then that the game explained why Booker wound up in Columbia, how Elizabeth had the power to open tears, what happened to her pinkie on her right hand, and such, but in my mind it also went into an overreaching concept.
Stories, and how they repeat themselves.
Its no co-incidence that Columbia is so similar to Rapture in so many ways. A city above the clouds, a city under the sea... Sealed away from the rest of the world where only those deemed worthy can enter, ruled over by a man who some see as a visionary but others see as an oppresser. Columbia IS Rapture, the city's opposite but at the same time so very very similar.
Its more than that though.
Prophet Comstock and Andrew Ryan aren't just similar, they are the same man from different directions. The same with Jack (the hero of Bioshock) and Booker. The same with Finkerton and Frank Fontane. The same with Daisy, the leader of Vox Populi (in english, Voice of the People), and Sophia Lamb who preached "For the Rapture Family".
The same with Songbird, with his copper-colored body and glowing yellow eyes, and the big daddies of rapture... and the same with Elizabeth and her blue dress, and the little sisters who the big daddies protected at all costs.
The same with the Lion King and Hamlet, the same with Moses and Harry Potter.
The prince will always avenge his father.
The chosen one always loses his parents and rises to greatness despite this.
The princess (Peach, Zelda, Leia) will always be kidnapped by the dragon (Bowser) or the evil wizard (Ganon) or the emperor (Palpatine) and be rescued by the hero (Mario, Link, Luke Skywalker).
The details are different, the stories are the same. They repeat endlessly and only upon reflection do you see the connections. Bioshock Infinite was very subtle in this, I didn't make the connections until it all came together at the end and then, well, I've been trying to sleep for a few hours now, so yeah.
In both stories a man connected to the villian came to the faraway city, defeated its corrupt leader, and rescued the girl (or girls)... though in this case some details are different. Comstock was Booker, but from another universe. In that one Booker was born again after the war and found religion in a big heavy way. Its why Booker didn't know about a city beyond the clouds (in his world Booker never became Comstock and never founded Columbia, thus it didn't exist. A city in the sky is hard to miss after all), its why Comstock knew he was coming and why he saw him as a False Shepard (he WAS Comstock, from another world), its why Comstock was convinced Elizabeth had to take his place when he died because his line had to keep the throne of Columbia (Comstock was sterile, but Elizabeth was Booker's daughter, Anna, who he gave to the twins to cover his gambling debts).
Even at the end, with how the game ended, its hard to tell if Booker really did go to the city to rescue his daughter, or if he was just hallucinating all that happened and drowned himself in an act of suicide. I'm not entirely sure after all that.
I'm not sure if the story wasn't just one big metaphor, I'm not sure of anything about it... except that I want to play it again.
So yeah, Booker defeats Comstock, saves the girl, and escapes... except not really... the girl gets Songbird, the giant mechanical parrot monster, to break the syphon that was stealing her powers and manages to open a massive tear that takes her and Booker to... well... a city on the bottom of the ocean.
Thats right, in the end they wound up at Rapture. Andrew Ryan plasmid splicer Somewhere Beyond the Sea Rapture. It was only for a little bit before the game took a turn for the surreal.
It was then that the game explained why Booker wound up in Columbia, how Elizabeth had the power to open tears, what happened to her pinkie on her right hand, and such, but in my mind it also went into an overreaching concept.
Stories, and how they repeat themselves.
Its no co-incidence that Columbia is so similar to Rapture in so many ways. A city above the clouds, a city under the sea... Sealed away from the rest of the world where only those deemed worthy can enter, ruled over by a man who some see as a visionary but others see as an oppresser. Columbia IS Rapture, the city's opposite but at the same time so very very similar.
Its more than that though.
Prophet Comstock and Andrew Ryan aren't just similar, they are the same man from different directions. The same with Jack (the hero of Bioshock) and Booker. The same with Finkerton and Frank Fontane. The same with Daisy, the leader of Vox Populi (in english, Voice of the People), and Sophia Lamb who preached "For the Rapture Family".
The same with Songbird, with his copper-colored body and glowing yellow eyes, and the big daddies of rapture... and the same with Elizabeth and her blue dress, and the little sisters who the big daddies protected at all costs.
The same with the Lion King and Hamlet, the same with Moses and Harry Potter.
The prince will always avenge his father.
The chosen one always loses his parents and rises to greatness despite this.
The princess (Peach, Zelda, Leia) will always be kidnapped by the dragon (Bowser) or the evil wizard (Ganon) or the emperor (Palpatine) and be rescued by the hero (Mario, Link, Luke Skywalker).
The details are different, the stories are the same. They repeat endlessly and only upon reflection do you see the connections. Bioshock Infinite was very subtle in this, I didn't make the connections until it all came together at the end and then, well, I've been trying to sleep for a few hours now, so yeah.
In both stories a man connected to the villian came to the faraway city, defeated its corrupt leader, and rescued the girl (or girls)... though in this case some details are different. Comstock was Booker, but from another universe. In that one Booker was born again after the war and found religion in a big heavy way. Its why Booker didn't know about a city beyond the clouds (in his world Booker never became Comstock and never founded Columbia, thus it didn't exist. A city in the sky is hard to miss after all), its why Comstock knew he was coming and why he saw him as a False Shepard (he WAS Comstock, from another world), its why Comstock was convinced Elizabeth had to take his place when he died because his line had to keep the throne of Columbia (Comstock was sterile, but Elizabeth was Booker's daughter, Anna, who he gave to the twins to cover his gambling debts).
Even at the end, with how the game ended, its hard to tell if Booker really did go to the city to rescue his daughter, or if he was just hallucinating all that happened and drowned himself in an act of suicide. I'm not entirely sure after all that.
I'm not sure if the story wasn't just one big metaphor, I'm not sure of anything about it... except that I want to play it again.
