Welcome to the first Spoiler Post! This is where I talk about something that's a complete and total spoiler from a game, and if you don't want to get spoiled, go away, close your eyes, PLEASE DO NOT LOOK! Please! I hate getting things spoiled, and I don't want it to happen to you!
Today's topic will be the ending - and a bit about the rest of it too - of Bioshock Infinite.
Let's start at the beginning of the end, shall we? Rapture. Elizabeth takes you to freakin' Rapture. That was awesome. Creating that link between the games was awesome. It gave me such high hopes for the end of the game... it's just too bad that it only got worse from there. I get that the tears (which I can't seem to stop reading as the crying kind, not the rip kind) are doorways to infinite possible universes and realities, but did they really have to blow that out so far for the ending? And it kind of confused me during the game as well. There are two spots where Elizabeth completely opens a new reality that you step through - once to one where the weapons guy is not dead, and another where the guy's equipment is back at his shop, but he's dead again. So now we're two realities away from the original one, and the Vox Populi are actually fighting as an army or something. But Booker and Elizabeth are still talking about goals and stuff that could very easily no longer exist or apply to this twice-removed reality. Why should anyone even care? I just... I dunno. When I stopped thinking about it, it was fine. Yet it was always there at the back of my mind, bugging me.
Okay, back to the ending. So you wander around lighthouses - both like the ones from Bioshock 1 and Infinite - and eventually you find out more about Booker's backstory. And that the two people (referred here to Man and Woman, because I can't remember their names and don't really care to find out) who keep appearing/disappearing throughout the game are the ones responsible for... pretty much everything. Also, the AD on the back of Booker's hand stands for "Anna DeWitt", which is his daughter, who is actually Elizabeth. But for some stupid reason, Booker handed him over to the Man, but he decided not to do that, but was far too late, because the Man, the Woman and Comstock all jumped through a time portal (or something) and took her away anyway - except for one of her fingers was stuck outside, so it got cut off. Thus Elizabeth's thimble-finger. Also, I guess Booker was Comstock? I guess it makes sense in the context of the Hall of Heroes, since that means he really WAS at those battles and places, but I don't see any other hint towards that being the case. But that also means that there are two Bookers/Comstocks in the same reality, and that shouldn't be possible, unless one of them purposely crossed over, but they never say that that happened. So... bluh. This is like thinking about time travel shenanigans. It just can't be reasoned with.
So in the end, Elizabeth - and a bunch of alternate Elizabeths - drown Booker, because he's supposed to become Comstock (and yet he can't, because he's the one that didn't make the choices that make him into Comstock, so he should have been able to live out his life without issues, the problem is an even further back-in-time Booker from an... alternate... past...? I don't know, screw trying to think about this.) and he supposedly dies. Honestly, this sucks monkey eggs because you go through all of this game, and Booker - although being an obviously flawed man with much he regrets in his past - shows just how good of a man he is. He will continue to do dirty acts, just to try and keep Elizabeth clean and pure. And what does he get? Drowned by her. Was it really too much to ask for a happy ending? I don't care if it's "cliche", I like them, and I feel like it would have been a better ending. Just don't ask me how it would have happened, I'm not much of a writer of fiction, plus it's not my world and characters. Doesn't stop a lot of other people though I guess.
Let me make something clear here too, it's not necessarily a "bad" ending. It was a major twist, and one I feel that was - generally - well conceived and written. It's nice to see them being bold and "different" the ending, and also well tied-up, unlike Battlefield 3's horrible, horrible ending. I mean seriously. It really wasn't an ending at all. Anyone who complained about Mass Effect 3's ending should go see that ending, and then shut up about ME3's ending, because it really wasn't that big a deal, and it's over with, so stop bringing it up. But I'm getting off-topic. It's not a "bad" ending (aside from the alternate reality/time travel issues I mentioned above), it's just not the one I expected or wanted. I'm man enough to realize that's selfish. Doesn't change the fact I wanted a nicer ending. Guess it was too much to ask that Booker and Elizabeth get to go home together and attempt a normal life... *sigh*
If you have any thoughts that agree/disagree/expand upon my thoughts here, please feel free to comment below.
Very well written. It was a really awesome game, and I kinda freaked out in the end when you got sent to freakin' RAPTURE. At the end...with all the wibbley wobbley, timey wimey stuff I got waay too confused and didn't know where I was anymore or what had happened. At least I'm not the only confused one.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the confusion and general 'meh' feeling as to the ending, but I think you missed a few points that weren't expressly stated in a linear fashion that explain Booker's actions and how some of the world-overlap was able to happen.
ReplyDeleteAs for selling his kid to the Luteces (who had been hired by Comstock-Booker, thus requiring their death later on), he had had his freak-out moment at the baptism, leaving him with the guilt and weight of what he'd done during the war(s), taking trophies and glorifying the violence much like Slate did. As he spiraled down into depression and desperation, he agreed to sell his daughter (to the people who knew that he could be talked into doing so), but began to think better of it as the reality sank in. In the end, he was left in they alleyway, unable to stop Comstock-Booker and Male-Lutece from slipping into the other reality (where Booker was baptized and eventually got cancer) and leaving him with just a pinkie finger.
As the Luteces were capable of traversing the possible timelines and Comstock was able to see them through tears, the Prophesies were made and, I imagine, branded-Booker was nudged through to that reality by the post-death Lutece twins, allowing him to inhabit the world where he became Comstock and eventually 'invade' it, as Comstock had foreseen. In fact, seeing this event is probably why he tried to kill the Luteces.
As for why drowning our Booker solved anything, I believe it has something to do with the way the game forced you to go through with the actions of each reality. Once in place, Booker became that world's Booker, and anything done to him would stick until he left. Elizabeth tried to warn you, but you step through, become pre-Comstock-Booker, and have to commit suicide to at least prevent his rise to power in that reality, and possible every reality that branched off from that point. Think of Booker's history like the Map of the Internet, and it begins to make sense that killing Booker there could prevent /all/ Comstock histories.
Your one gripe that I agree with is the point that Elizabeth and Booker stick to goals made in realities that don't seem to apply later on. When the Vox is made to be successful in their uprising, why is Booker still trying to get their Airship? It's possible that he fails to comprehend the ramifications of their world-jumping, even when faced with the fact that an alternate version of him is dead, but I imagine that it was meant to show his one-track-mind nature at the time, which softened a fair bit once he dropped any notion of taking Elizabeth to New York and was simply out to help her.
So, in the end, I see the ending as a sort of exploration of their version of the Multiverse, before destroying the portions of it that would allow Comstock to rise to power by killing/assisting in the suicide of Booker before he could undergo is spiritual 'rebirth' as Comstock. It was a noble sacrifice that, in a way, invalidates the entire game you just played, but also has the potential to be a happier story in some respects. Assuming Anna had already been born at that point (questionable), Elizabeth might actually have gone on to still be able to hop realities, and could show up in future games... At the very least, Irrational has now laid the foundation for any game they might want with a similar 'this city should be impossible' setting. I'm hoping it's in space, next :P
Hmm... things to think on I suppose. I should replay the game knowing the ending (and keeping in mind these points) and see if I see something new.
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