WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?

So, I obviously haven't made good on my "try to post once a day on my blog" promise I made to myself. But for good reason.

What's that good reason?

BioShock Infinite, of course! 

I've always loved video games. Yeah, sometimes it's hard to make time for them because there's so much to do in life. But since I quit my job, in regards to time... Well, I've got plenty.

Now, if you haven't played the game and you're planning to - STOP READING. RIGHT NOW. Don't be tempted to read just because your eyes are already glued to the page. Opposite of Nike - Just Don't Do It.

On the other hand, if you have no idea what BioShock Infinite is, then by all means go ahead and read on, just be prepared to be more confused than your grandmother trying to use an iPhone.

Since this post will be talking about BioShock Infinite's ending, from this point on...

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***

I'm pretty sure that red letters in all caps in bold with asterisks on both sides is the universal symbol for "warning" when posting on blogs. So don't say I didn't warn you :)

MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE GAME

With the help of reinforcements when needed *aka* the bf, I was able to shoot, decapitate, light on fire, electrocute--and other cool ways of dealing death--my way to the very interesting/confusing ending to BioShock Infinite. 

When I first saw the preview for BioShock Infinite inside an issue of Game Informer, I was pretty intrigued. I wasn't a fan of BioShock 1 and 2, just knew the setting of the game was underwater and there were a lot of deranged humans running around you had to kill. Sounded too dark and dirrty for my taste. I'm not really one for first-person shooters either. Generally, I like to stick to action/adventure (like Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, etc.), platform, and RPG. The most experience I've had with a first-person shooter game was one week where I tried to learn how to play Counter-Strike (this was more than a decade ago, and the term "fail" doesn't even cover it), and also the brief moments in the game UNCHARTED where you had to make your way to a cave or tomb, and even then I would get pretty frustrated. 

But something about BioShock Infinite just made me want to play it--maybe it was the artwork, maybe it was the story, or maybe it was because the game takes place in Columbia, a city in the sky. Who doesn't like a floating city? 

Remember the floating city Laputa in one of the most beloved Studio Ghibli films Castle in the Sky?

Laputa from the movie Castle in the Sky

Well, Columbia makes Laputa look like...how should I put this...

Columbia is to Laputa as Hit-Me-Baby-One-More-Time Britney Spears is to Current Britney Spears.

Columbia

Laputa

Yes, that different. Just see for yourself.

The Beautiful Columbia

What? They made a statue of me? How thoughtful!

This is what I call traveling in style

Wish Cali had a bridge like this. And did you notice? No freeways! Meaning no traffic!

Yeah, definitely not Laputa.

Makes you want to sing, "Oh beautiful for spacious skies...from sea to shining sea! Columbia the Beautiful!"

If that didn't win me over already, the tons of 10/10 reviews I kept reading with an emphasis on how great the story was made me take the plunge. 

So I dedicated every spare moment I had to playing the game, desperate to get to the end to find out what the hell was going on, and finally, after a lot of frustration, a lot of "WTF, I died? F--- this, this stupid controller is broken!", unnecessary cuss words, and calling in the reinforcement for a final time to help beat the "boss" fight, the end came.

And it confused the bejeezus out of me. 

Instantly, I grabbed the iPad and looked up "understanding the ending to BioShock Infinite," which led me to this article from Venture Beat.

The article was great! I sort of understood the story now, but only partially. I kept thinking about it, like how most of us felt after watching the movie Inception. It had that type of story/ending. I think the hardest part about understanding the story/ending is that nothing is really explained. Yeah, you get somewhat of an explanation at the end, but most of what you learn about the story is through little clues in the game, dialogue (but not explanations), viewing short history films from various kinetoscopes, and finding/listening to Voxophones, which are short recordings of characters basically talking to themselves and taken out of context. The rest is up to you to fill in the blanks.

Even in my sleep, I was dreaming about it, and also dreaming that there was a never-ending stream of bad guys that kept coming at me no matter how many I killed. It was never enough! That part was more of a nightmare, really.

But this morning, I was able to somehow sort it all out in my head, and I really think I have a great explanation that might answer a lot of the bigger questions people have. I also posted the same explanation in the comments section of a related blog from the author of the Venture Beat article.

So here's my take on the ending and what it means. Again, those who aren't familiar with the story or didn't play the game might be confused. However, you can just read the article from Venture Beat which summarizes the plot nicely :)

MY TAKE ON EXPLAINING THE ENDING

I used to be really confused about time travel until I read a little book called When You Reach Me (by Rebecca Stead), which had THE BEST explanation about time travel ever. Even though it's considered a kid's book, I highly recommend it! And I think the same theory can be used to explain BioShock Infinite's multiverse.

First, it's crucial to understand that all the different worlds/possible outcomes in the multiverse exist AT THE SAME TIME. They are not linear, meaning they are not created one after the other at the time Booker makes choices in another world. In these other worlds, Booker has already made that choice and is living in parallel time to all the other worlds.

This is the part where the time travel theory from When You Reach Me comes into play. Think of each world/lighthouse as a picture. Let's say all these pictures are hung up on your wall, existing side-by-side. Once taken, a picture by itself cannot be changed. Even though people are living entire lives in these worlds, the events that happen in that particular world cannot be changed, it will just keep repeating and repeating.

So, in Bioshock Infinite, when the Lucete twins make a tear and lure Booker into jumping into a different dimension and going to Columbia to save Elizabeth, I believe THAT IN ITSELF IS A WORLD. As in, in this world, Booker didn't really change dimensions; him "changing dimensions" is already incorporated into that particular world because regardless of where the Lucete twins originally came from, once they were there, the "picture" was snapped and could not be changed. Therefore, in that world, Booker is stuck in an infinite loop of seemingly jumping dimensions (though he's really still within the same world) and trying to save Elizabeth. (I also believe this is why the game is called Bioshock Infinite ^_^)

In addition, I believe the Lucete twins (Rosalind and Robert) don't have as much power in regards to tears compared to Elizabeth. They can do some things with the help of a machine, like open tears and maybe bring some items/people from one world to another, but it doesn't seem they can fully interact with the people and the surroundings in the different worlds the way Elizabeth can. Otherwise, why wouldn't the twins just try to get revenge on Comstock by themselves in some other way? It seems the best they can do is observe things here and there, but in order to truly interact with the environment they need to go through Booker or Elizabeth to do it. I believe this makes sense because throughout the game, they only interact with Booker or Elizabeth, and nobody else in that world. Elizabeth, however...

She seems to be able to fully interact in whichever world she's in, like easily pulling out flowers from a tear (like in one of the elevator scenes), without the help of machines, which is what makes her so special. It seems Elizabeth has full control of jumping from universe to universe, creating tears, pulling things from one tear to another, interacting and subsequently changing the environment, etc., where as, the Lucete twins didn't. Which comes to my next point: If the different worlds are pictures, then Elizabeth--and only Elizabeth--is PHOTOSHOP.

Yes, like digital image editing software, Elizabeth is the one thing that can change the photos, or worlds in this example. She doesn't have to follow the rules of the multiverse like everyone else. She is special--she has photoshop abilities that can change the pictures. Therefore, I believe that in the end, when she takes Booker to "the picture"/world of when he is baptized, because she can actually interact with the world and not just observe--unlike the Lucete twins--she is able to successfully drown Booker before he turns into Comcast and change that picture/world forever. But because this is not really a true choice (since it was done only by Elizabeth's power, and not a true choice of life at the time, meaning Booker didn't decide to drown himself when he was there the first time), I don't believe new worlds were created because of this incident. I believe in the very end, the world where BioShock Infinite takes place (the looped world) is now forever changed. Meaning, Anna is in the crib, but since Comcast died, the Lucete twins never come and lure Booker to try to save Elizabeth, and as a result that world, or picture, has been forever changed because of Elizabeth's photoshopping skills. I also think the other worlds where Comcast/Elizabeth exist didn't just disappear; the worlds are still there, only Comcast and Elizabeth and any events related to those characters have now been "photoshopped" out of the picture, leaving the remaining picture/world untouched. And hopefully, a happy Anna and happy Booker are now photoshopped into whatever world/picture they now exist in.

Of course, I could be totally wrong, but this is what makes sense to me :)

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, I'm very happy I played the game, and I think it's an experience that will stay with me for awhile. 

I also really appreciate all the little details the game developers thought of. Even the song Booker and Elizabeth sing together in the game, called "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?", seems to fit the story line perfectly.

I also can't get the song out of my head. The voice actors of Booker and Elizabeth are so freaking talented! Love this video of them singing together in the ending credits.

Not to mention, I finally picked up some first-person shooting skills. Yay!
So BioShock 4--Bring it!