SPOILERS: Poetic's Bioshock Infinite Theorum

Now I bought Bioshock Infinite on Thursday morning, and loved it so much I'd completed the entire story campaign by just after 11pm on the same day. The ending BAFFLED me at first, but after some thinking I put together the information from the cut-scenes and the audio logs to come up with my own explanation of just what the fresh monkey nuts happened during the whole thing. After realising all the symbolism, I went on to study the theory further, concocting my own thoughts on exactly how the multi-verse ideology in Bioshock works and what it possible means for the rest of the Bioshock universe. Or should I say universes? It's all a matter of perspective really. Played, will play, has played.



Now I use the picture of the Luteces here for a reason. You see that sandwich board he's wearing? Heads has been flipped 122 times counting the tallies on the front and back. Now if you recall, the number combination you enter into the lighthouse door on the bells at the start of the game is 1-2-2. This symbolises the 122nd time you have entered Columbia as a result of the universe being stuck in flux, which means it's looping over and over until the cycle is broken. The Luteces however, can travel between time and space, therefore stepping in and out of the cycle and can remember each attempt, hence why they have the board showing all the times you've met them. The piece of paper containing this code is handed to you in the box on the boat by your employers, who are later revealed to be none other than the Luteces. You see, Ms Lutece was the person who created the machine that could open tears, within Comstock's universe at least, and Mr Lutece is actually Ms Lutece, but in another universe where she was born a man instead of a woman. They communicated with each other between universes in morse code, until Mr Lutece travelled through a tear to the universe you spend a majority of your time in to meet Ms Lutece, where they claim they are twin brother and sister. Comstock of course betrays them (if you listened to the audio logs like moi) and tries to eradicate everyone who knows the truth about where he obtained Anna, including Lady Comstock. and the Luteces. Now, he succeeds in having the Luteces killed by Fink, as shown by their graves which they are standing in just after you beat the "ghost" of Lady Comstock. But, in another universe, they still exist, a universe where they weren't killed, so they still have the knowledge of how to pass through universes in the universe where they weren't killed, and are able to travel to your universe where they were killed to help Booker. Hence, died, will die, has died. It isn't until 1984 Elizabeth gives the note to Booker to give to 1912 Elizabeth that this cycle is broken, meaning no 123rd attempt, or any attempts at all because the events of Infinite never happen, meaning any multiverse involving Comstock dissapears.



Now like Booker/Comstock, everybody has a parallel personality in each universe. As you're travelling through the sea of doors, Elizabeth tells you that in each universe there's always a man, always a city, meaning Columbia/Rapture and who knows what else! Now, Songbird, Elizabeth's protector, is meant to be half machine, and actually half man, if you pay attention to how Fink managed to design and create such a creature in his audio logs. During the original Bioshock, a man called Fitzpatrick is playing a piano, the notes: C A G E whilst wearing a bird mask. PRETTY FREAKING EERIE RIGHT. Know what's creepier? If you go back and replay the moment in the game when he dies, you can hear Songbird's dying screeches in the background. I'M DEAD SERIOUS.



^ There he is, right there. This has led me to believe that Fitzpatrick, in Comstock's universe, became a part of Songbird, and his parallel personality in Rapture is the pianist pictured above. You may also know that when Rapture is in lockdown, only Andrew Ryans, it's creator, can access the Bathyspheres to the surface using his genetic code. But, you may have noticed Booker can easily activate a Bathysphere to get him and Elizabeth to the surface. What does this mean? Well, it's simple, Booker becomes Andrew Ryan in another universe. Now I couldn't find a picture of it online, but there's a police sketch being drawn in one of the buildings during the initial journey to Monument Island of what a woman describes Booker like. The picture the artist creates to resemble Booker looks EXACTLY like Andrew Ryans.

A lot of people are also confused about the ending, so I may as well explain that too. Basically, Comstock is Booker, but unlike DeWitt, after the Battle of Wounded Knee he went through with the baptism, and became born again. He never went on to get into gambling debt, and instead envisioned and built Columbia, with the belief that he was now a prophet, born again to "start the world over" like the flood in Noah's Ark, he would burn the "Sodom below" of humanity and repopulate it with the citizens of Columbia. He eventually realised he would not live long enough to see this through however, so he needed an heir. But, after staying too long around the machine which Ms Lutece built that kept the city suspended in the air by using the tears, he became infertile and couldn't get his wife, Lady Comstock pregnant. Yet, he still needed a child of his own genetics. So, he sent the Luteces to go fetch his possible daughter that he could have had from another universe. This universe just so happens to be where Booker Dewitt is in a lot of gambling debt, so the Luteces use it to blackmail him into giving them his child, Anna Dewitt. They meet back with Comstock at the tear, where DeWitt realises his mistake and chases after them, only to just miss them and Elizabeth gets her pinkie finger cut off by the closing tear. In anger, he brands himself with the initials "AD" on the back of his hand, Anna DeWitt, the mark of the False Shepard. When the Luteces come back to seek his help after realising their mistake in trusting Comstock, they bring him through a tear to the docks that the boat sets out from to the lighthouse leading to Columbia, causing him to lose all his memory of the universe he comes from. Hence, when he tries to remember in Comstock's Zeppelin, his nose starts to bleed because there's two conflicting memories. Anna becomes re-named Elizabeth by Comstock. As there are many different choices in the universe, Elizabeth and Booker need to stop the one event which causes all the Infinite universes to occur, therefore killing Comstock everywhere for good. This means drowning Booker where he made the choice to either run, or accept his baptism, as he would neither become Comstock, or go on to carry on life as Booker DeWitt and become the father of Anna.

As for a lot of Fink's advanced technology you see everywhere like the vending machines, and all the plagiarised music like versions of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" or "Tainted Love" you hear everywhere, he and his brother stumbled across tears of their own. Fink stole blueprints of technology through tears, while his brother stole music through tears and gave it a 1910s genre twist. You can visit his music shop near Lady Comstock's cemetery and see one of the tears he used for yourself.

And there you have it folks. Hope this was interesting for you.

 

Yeah, I think that's probably more plausible.

As for scientific multi-verse theories, I could go on for hours. In short terms though, universes are like waves, forever flowing but with some interference from other waves. When that wave is converted into particles, physical apparitions can appear like Mr Lutece, and the floating city itself. Being the great physicists that they are, the Lutece twins found out how to make this conversion.

I think what's also worth noting is that in the Sea of Doors, there's a couple of times where you can choose which door you head to. But, both doors lead you to the same place anyway. This is to symbolise there is no choice, as the universe is in an unbroken state of flux, and it always has to be that way. It's the illusion that you do have a choice, but you actually don't. It's all about perspective. Heads, or tails?

And Booker's never heard of Columbia because he's from a different universe to it.

One thing though...



Who the hell was this guy?!