Why The Ending of Bioshock Infinite Really Doesn't Work

first and foremost even though this video deals with some fairly glaring gaps in Bioshock Infinite's plot structure the game itself is excellent and very smart throughout which is honestly the only reason I'm pointing out its flaws here there is really no news story and pointing out that for instance the chief antagonist and God of War is Kratos his own crippling stupidity everyone knows we've gotten over it because the games also contain naked bosoms but the Bioshock series is different it's an intelligent franchise and confronts philosophical issues on a level most games don't even aspire to it's one of the games we hold up in the air when we're trying to convince non-gamers that games can and should be taken seriously so when the game has flaws in its logic it's in everybody's best interest to acknowledge and address them this video deals with events at the very end of the game so if you haven't played it yet this is your last chance to turn back everybody gone who's going okay at the end of the game your character booker dewitt finds out that he's actually the father of his multi-dimensionally empowered sidekick Elizabeth reunion celebrations are dampened however by the additional reveal that he actually sold Elizabeth as a baby and that in several other dimensions booker actually became the primary antagonist of the game nationalist cult leader Zachary Hill Comstock who just happened to be the person that Booker's sold baby elizabeth ii who didn't actually play to the end did you I told you to leave no sleep for you tonight realizing that the disastrous Transfiguration of Booker in the Comstock could be traced back to a time when Booker's past when he sought out religion as a means to assuage his guilt about his participation in the Wounded Knee Massacre are you still here will play the game you [ __ ] Elizabeth convinces Booker that the only way to stop all the bloody and terrible events of the game is for him to die before he makes the choice and so Booker allows her to drown him something that would frankly take a bit more convincing if I were in his shoes but that's not what we're discussing today no today we discuss why the ending of BioShock Infinite really doesn't work and the big problem here is what science is named the Hayden Christensen dilemma which states that in the same way one tragedy cannot turn whiny Stu Anakin Skywalker into smooth awesome Darth Vader there simply is no way that a moment of religious enlightenment can turn Booker DeWitt into Zachary Hale Comstock first off the name the game would have you believe that Booker took the name Zachary Hill Comstock following his epiphany a sort of personal religious Transfiguration except religious Transfiguration doesn't work that way it's not the witness protection program in the same way that Abram became Abraham the names change is not just symbolic but specifically symbolic representative of the individuals new position in God's plan while it can be argued that Zachary is a corruption of the Old Testaments very minor prophet Zechariah the name Comstock is plain old Welsh all this is to say that a person who believes himself to have experienced religious Transfiguration may take the name Elijah truth bringer but would not take the name Dirk Stevenson second Zachary Comstock was instrumental in founding the city of Columbia how again see he didn't come up with a revolutionary technology that allows the city to float that allows the opening of rifts and time and space no that was all from the quantum scientist Rosalind / Robert the timeline is important here Roslyn the no-nonsense scientist decides that her best collaborating partner for a revolutionary city of the future is not a captain of industry is not a government agent not an engineer no Rosalyn decides to hitch your wagon to a guy that's already a religious fanatic and well on the way to becoming a crazed cult leader and keep in mind this was a Roslin who hadn't yet met her quantum twin who hadn't begun engaging quantum experiments as a form of recreation at some point Rosalind by the way is not American sincerely decided that an ultra nationalistic lunatic was the best man for the job I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that probably wouldn't happen in real life third and most importantly Booker DeWitt simply wouldn't have become Zachary o Comstock as we see him in the game at all and certainly not as a tangential result of baptism here's the problem with Booker DeWitt becoming the ultra-nationalist racist Comstock literally the only thing the two men have in common following their quantum split is the crushing guilt from participating in the Wounded Knee Massacre that guilt was the impetus for seeking religion in the first place it makes absolutely no sense that Comstock ever do an about-face on the issue even if completely given over to cult fanaticism Comstock in the course of the game doesn't simply try to cover up his wounded the involvement he actually celebrates it parades it as an example of divine providence where would that have come from keep in mind this is the religion that Comstock himself made up purportedly after being visited by an angel named Columbia and the religion itself is one of the weakest parts of the narrative the game can't decide whether Comstock is a believer or a charlatan he would have to be a believer to pursue his vision of moral purity even beyond his own death but at the same time is seen trumpeting numerous events to the public that he himself knows not to be true despite the subject matter BioShock Infinite does not come across as inherently anti religion the best good guy character Elizabeth wonders aloud towards the end of the game if God will forgive what they've done and even Booker's drowning is a symbolic baptism a washing away of sins although young parishioners should probably not take this particular instance as a practical model for training purposes and yet the game insists that Booker's original baptism is the absolute hinge between Booker DeWitt and Zachary Comstock well here's an idea instead of killing Booker how about just going back before Wounded Knee and shooting him in the foot so he has to sit out the battle no guilt no dramatic transformations in Oakland via in order for the game's narrative to work that baptism has to inexorably lead to Booker's transformation it's not meeting Rosalind later it's not the visitation by the angel apparently Booker has enough street smarts that he'd engineer a crazy floating battle station that threatens the world all by himself just as long as he goes through with one old-timey baptism it's either an enormous plot hole where Ken Levine is a really strange idea about what goes on at Southern Baptist picnics

Channel: spookingtons

Views: 779,292

Keywords: Bioshock Infinite, Bioshock, Spookingtons, Sketchbook, Norman Von Scott, Norm Scott, gaming, spoilers

Id: _c2LM-xIvSg

Length: 6min 20sec (380 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 01 2013