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[HP_Wuvcraft]

I believe they have fairly good command over the process of creating and manipulating tears. It's not natural for them though. I think there are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding them though. That's some awfully complex science to be messing with at that point in history. Even developing the science behind a city in the sky is something that shouldn't have happened. I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle.

I loved the line from Comstock: "You will use your science!".

Why does Booker change so much after he gets baptised? From what I understood he was a bad man and wanted to cleanse himself and when he went through with it to become Comstock he seemed to change radically. Like a religious nut spouting all kinds of crap.

Some people willingly give in to their crazy.

 

[QuantumBro]

Yeah, I'm still completely confused about the whole NYC thing. Can anyone help explain that to me? Was the final battle of the game on the airship set above NYC? I swear I could see the Manhattan Bridge from the bow of the ship, just below the clouds...

No, the final battle takes place about 6 months after the songbird takes Elizabeth.

 

[MotionBlue]

I'm not even sure how the post-credits sequence fits into the story chronologically...).

Atonement and rebirth are pretty big overarching themes, I thought it was pretty obvious what they were trying to imply. Hell, Elizabeth even tells you outright that Compton must be erased before Booker can be reborn.

 

[symphonask]

Thanks for the replies.

So, Elizabeth, with unbridled power, is basically a god and could help Comstock rain fire upon modern New York? How would Comstock achieve this without the aid of Elizabeth if this is always his ultimate goal - because on taking her away from Booker as a baby, he wouldn't have known she possessed such powers.

 

[jacksepticeye]

Yeah, I'm still completely confused about the whole NYC thing. Can anyone help explain that to me? Was the final battle of the game on the airship set above NYC? I swear I could see the Manhattan Bridge from the bow of the ship, just below the clouds...

I think Liz went mad and got angry at Booker cos he never showed up to save her. It was like 6 months for her after 5 minutes for him so she grew old and grew to resent him I think. So she burned NYC cos that's where he was from.

Not too sure. It's all a little up in the air still. Totally confusing

Thanks for the replies.

So, Elizabeth, with unbridled power, is basically a god and could help Comstock rain fire upon modern New York? How would Comstock achieve this without the aid of Elizabeth if this is always his ultimate goal - because on taking her away from Booker as a baby, he wouldn't have known she possessed such powers.

This seems more like it. She hated Booker and grew to love comstock so she helped him.
I don't think he always wanted it, because he said he was always trying to protect her. Just once she started to like him she would do his bidding if he let her have all her powers. I dunno really

 

[iMax]

No, the final battle takes place about 6 months after the songbird takes Elizabeth.

I thought that was 6 months in 'her' time? If not, how was the delay explained? Also, yeah, I just realised my mistake as the NYC scene was clearly post-1970 due to all the matrix signs and stuff. But what exactly was it depicting? I'm guessing a future where Booker fails to stop Comstock?

 

[iMax]

I think Liz went mad and got angry at Booker cos he never showed up to save her. It was like 6 months for her after 5 minutes for him so she grew old and grew to resent him I think. So she burned NYC cos that's where he was from.

Not too sure. It's all a little up in the air still. Totally confusing

 

[RkOwnage]

Could be the wrong place to ask, but does anyone know the name of the song Courtnee Draper sang when you play the Guitar later on in the game, and if you do, is it available for a download?

Thought it was awesome, and during the credits, really enjoyed listening to it.

 

[jacksepticeye]

lol never even noticed I mean... yeah great pun me

Could be the wrong place to ask, but does anyone know the name of the song Courtnee Draper sang when you play the Guitar later on in the game, and if you do, is it available for a download?

Thought it was awesome, and during the credits, really enjoyed listening to it.

Will the circle be unbroken

It's an old sort of religious song

 

[iMax]

Do we know what point in time Booker and Elizabeth went to Rapture? It might be interesting to revisit BioShock and BioShock 2 to see if there are any Infinite Easter Eggs, you know, similar to the Destiny teases back in Halo 3: ODST.

 

[Horse Detective]

Can someone link me to a place to read about the ending because I feel retarded for not understanding a single second of that.

 

[jacksepticeye]

Do we know what point in time Booker and Elizabeth went to Rapture? It might be interesting to revisit BioShock and BioShock 2 to see if there are any Infinite Easter Eggs, you know, similar to the Destiny teases back in Halo 3: ODST.

I was curious too. When in rapture it was, nothing seemed to be happening there and the bathysphere was up already.

 

[adamsapple]

Yeah, I'm still completely confused about the whole NYC thing. Can anyone help explain that to me? Was the final battle of the game on the airship set above NYC? I swear I could see the Manhattan Bridge from the bow of the ship, just below the clouds...

No. The NYC thing is meant to be a double edged derivation. When booker see's it at the beginning of the game, you can assume it's just Booker's dream, but Comstock is known to have a lot of prophecies, some of which supposedly do come true, so it could be some remnant of his prophetic nature that showed him one possible future as a dream scenario. Though that doesn't come to pass in the actual game since you change that timeline.

When you're there in the actual game, with Old Liz, at that time the thing you see from NYC is just one possible future after Songbird snatches away Elizibeth. Liz makes it very clear (old liz that is) that Booker tries to save her and fights songbird, but he looses. Old liz pulls Booker to the future to make him see the consequence of failing, and gives him an alternate solution to avoid this future entirely (the note she hands him).

In this scene, remember that after songbird snatches away liz, you run into some fog, and come out in heavy snow. Booker mentions that it's July and Snow shouldn't be there at all, that's because he's been pulled into the future.

No, the final battle takes place about 6 months after the songbird takes Elizabeth.

No.

The final battle doesn't take place after six months, it takes place after a little while. The six month thing you hear from one of the tears, it's in the future timeline where old liz pulls booker into the future. That's just some old tears (relevant to that time) detailing how time is passing and Booker isn't coming to save liz .. (because he's been killed by songbird at that time already).

The actual final battle doesn't take place much long after the Songbird snatches away Liz, the Comstock crew had just put her into the machine to begin work on her.

Unless I completely missed something there, that's what I derived from it.

 

[symphonask]

I think Liz went mad and got angry at Booker cos he never showed up to save her. It was like 6 months for her after 5 minutes for him so she grew old and grew to resent him I think. So she burned NYC cos that's where he was from.

Not too sure. It's all a little up in the air still. Totally confusing


This seems more like it. She hated Booker and grew to love comstock so she helped him.
I don't think he always wanted it, because he said he was always trying to protect her. Just once she started to like him she would do his bidding if he let her have all her powers. I dunno really

Yeah, what throws me off and makes it seem like it's his ultimate goal is all the signs and banners in Columbia about how the 'the seed of the prophet will rain fire on the sodom below' or something to that effect.

 

[SGRemy]

I thought that was 6 months in 'her' time? If not, how was the delay explained? Also, yeah, I just realised my mistake as the NYC scene was clearly post-1970 due to all the matrix signs and stuff. But what exactly was it depicting? I'm guessing a future where Booker fails to stop Comstock?

There was a diagram at the beginning of the game showing her different growth rate. She aged faster than normal people

 

[Magnus]

Also, does the whole Lutece

Spoiler

(hope I spelt that correctly — all I see is 'lettuce')

"would have been", "will be", "has been" stuff mean anything particular other than the multiverse theory... or am I just reading too much into it?

Yeah; the whole ending seems to suggest a kind of determinism; everything's already happened. But also is happening. And also will happen. And that comprehending space/time properly is accepting all occurrences, possibilities and events at once...I think? Sort of like acknowledging that the flip of a coin can result in both heads and tails. Seeing it land as both heads and tails is an acceptance of the multiverse theory Lutece is postulating/proving.

I THINK.

Again, I'm going to go watch Sliders again tomorrow. MOAR PARALLEL DIMENSION BS PLZ.

 

[Lingitiz]

So do Rapture and Columbia coexist? Elizabeth said that there are things about both in every universe that persist. Are they trying to say that each timeline always creates with a similar place to Columbia or Rapture? That whole part with multiple towers was quite confusing.

Also I guess the only place left to go is space. Even then, System Shock 2 had that covered pretty damn well. Wonder if we'll see another Bioshock branded game.

 

[jacksepticeye]

Yeah, what throws me off and makes it seem like it's his ultimate goal is all the signs and banners in Columbia about how the 'the seed of the prophet will rain fire on the sodom below' or something to that effect.

Cos he thought he could see the future but all he was seeing was that particular tear in time. An alternate outcome in another dimension.So he expected Liz to do that later on in life I guess.
The Luteces said he thought it was the future he always saw but then said it was just the probability, not the actual outcome

 

[Angelus Errare]

So do Rapture and Columbia coexist? Elizabeth said that there are things about both in every universe that persist. Are they trying to say that each timeline always creates with a similar place to Columbia or Rapture? That whole part with multiple towers was quite confusing.

Also I guess the only place left to go is space. Even then, System Shock 2 had that covered pretty damn well. Wonder if we'll see another Bioshock branded game.

She's saying there's always going to be a tower and a man. Rapture and Columbia don't coexist within the same timeline, they are but variations. So in one timeline there might be a city named Lincoln in say 1930 and how you get there is by Lighthouse, in another universe there might be another city called "Bill" but you still get there by lighthouse and there will always be a man who has to go there.

 

[SGRemy]

Just curious, in the scene with old Elizabeth, did anybody notice if the symbol on her choker is the same one you picked?

Would be interesting if it wasn't

 

[iMax]

I was curious too. When in rapture it was, nothing seemed to be happening there and the bathysphere was up already.

It was definitely post-civilisation, as the city was totally empty. And IIRC, there was only one of two bathyspheres there, and no evidence of an aeroplane wreckage. I guess this puts it just before the events of BioShock? I haven't finished BioShock yet — but I'd be interested to see if the location depicted in this scene of BioShock Infinite is present in BioShock — and if there's anything of interest there.

In this scene, remember that after songbird snatches away liz, you run into some fog, and come out in heavy snow. Booker mentions that it's July and Snow shouldn't be there at all, that's because he's been pulled into the future.

The final battle doesn't take place after six months, it takes place after a little while. The six month thing you hear from one of the tears, it's in the future timeline where old liz pulls booker into the future. That's just some old tears (relevant to that time) detailing how time is passing and Booker isn't coming to save liz .. (because he's been killed by songbird at that time already).

The actual final battle doesn't take place much long after the Songbird snatches away Liz, the Comstock crew had just put her into the machine to begin work on her.

Unless I completely missed something there, that's what I derived from it.

Doesn't this explain the whole six month thing? After all, six months from July is January — middle of winter.

Yeah; the whole ending seems to suggest a kind of determinism; everything's already happened. But also is happening. And also will happen. And that comprehending space/time properly is accepting all occurrences, possibilities and events at once...I think? Sort of like acknowledging that the flip of a coin can result in both heads and tails. Seeing it land as both heads and tails is an acceptance of the multiverse theory Lutece is postulating/proving.

I THINK.

Again, I'm going to go watch Sliders again tomorrow. MOAR PARALLEL DIMENSION BS PLZ.

Sounds a lot like Lost's "Whatever Happened, Happened".

 

[disappeared]

So do Rapture and Columbia coexist? Elizabeth said that there are things about both in every universe that persist. Are they trying to say that each timeline always creates with a similar place to Columbia or Rapture? That whole part with multiple towers was quite confusing.

Also I guess the only place left to go is space. Even then, System Shock 2 had that covered pretty damn well. Wonder if we'll see another Bioshock branded game.

Rapture and Columbia do coexist. It's hard to put into words, but basically everything "Bioshock" seems to exist in the same "universe." The quick stint to Rapture basically describes that there are multilple (infinite) threads in the universe.

I like to think that in every "Shock" universe there are men/protagonists who carry out terrible deeds and are forced to repeat those mistakes until they are learned from.

Infinite gave us the ultimate gut-punch in showing that no matter how many times we/the protagonist try, we are fucked. Utterly fucked. Some things are never meant to be saved or rectified.

In our own minds we relive mistakes we've made. We dwell on them, and relive them. We think we've got the answer/the fix, but it doesn't matter because we've already fucked up.

 

[jacksepticeye]

So do Rapture and Columbia coexist? Elizabeth said that there are things about both in every universe that persist. Are they trying to say that each timeline always creates with a similar place to Columbia or Rapture? That whole part with multiple towers was quite confusing.

Also I guess the only place left to go is space. Even then, System Shock 2 had that covered pretty damn well. Wonder if we'll see another Bioshock branded game.

Yes, they coexist with millions of different version of themselves and other societies like them. Those worlds have different outcomes and other worlds have cities and leaders like those two as well.
Basically you have a million worlds that all have their own million outcomes. It's terribly confusing.

And I think Bioshock is finished. There is nothing new they can show now to surprise you. You know the secret behind all the Bioshock worlds now. it's pointless to make another

 

[Brinbe]

That location from Bioshock is the very beginning lol

 

[Magnus]

One of the first Voxophones for Comstock, pre-Raffle.

Heavily paraphrased: "How does one know if the man lying face down in the waters is a saint, or a sinner, until he is presented to mankind; perhaps he is both."

 

[Horse Detective]

Alright, these have most likely been answered, but i'll post for the heck of it:

-Why did Booker have to die at the end?

-How could he turn into Comstock?

-What is "Anna"? Is that Elizabeth's real name or something? How could she be his daughter?

-What was the point of killing song bird? Just to give Rapture a cameo?

-who/what are the British people that show up throughout the game? Can't remember the names.


I completely understand if no one wants to answer these, I just don't get any of this.

 

[iMax]

Just found a slightly suspect thread on GameFAQs. Someone on there thinks they remember encountering an NPC in BioShock 2 named 'Lutece', a quantic physicist. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

 

[Magnus]

Yes, they coexist with millions of different version of themselves and other societies like them. Those worlds have different outcomes and other worlds have cities and leaders like those two as well.
Basically you have a million worlds that all have their own million outcomes. It's terribly confusing.

And I think Bioshock is finished. There is nothing new they can show now to surprise you. You know the secret behind all the Bioshock worlds now. it's pointless to make another

A multiverse theory isn't the 'secret' behind the Bioshock universe. It's a theory in real quantum physics and a popular one that asserts itself in tons and tons of fiction. I don't think it's inclusion in this game precludes future Bioshock games at all! If anything, this ending gives us a launching pad for why another story of a man, a lighthouse and a city could be told and have greater meaning, being part of a collection of stories with similar tropes.

If you're gonna shut down future Bioshocks based on the last half hour of infinite, may as well shut down all Marios for featuring a plumber jumping on turtles.

 

[jacksepticeye]

That location from Bioshock is the very beginning lol

I kow it's the first area in the game but I want to know WHEN it is in Bioshock 1's timeline that liz and booker go back there. Is it ebfore or after B1? Don't think it matters though.

Also I was sad when the songbird died Elizabeth comforting it was sad

 

[iMax]

That location from Bioshock is the very beginning lol

<facepalm> Of course it is, completely missed that haha. I'll have to replay and pay more attention!

 

[SGRemy]

Just found a slightly suspect thread on GameFAQs. Someone on there thinks they remember encountering an NPC in BioShock 2 named 'Lutece', a quantic physicist. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

Deny. Pretty sure I'd remember a name like that....and I don't....

 

[MotionBlue]

Has anyone figured out the point of the choker selection yet?

 

[jacksepticeye]

A multiverse theory isn't the 'secret' behind the Bioshock universe. It's a theory in real quantum physics and a popular one that asserts itself in tons and tons of fiction. I don't think it's inclusion in this game precludes future Bioshock games at all! If anything, this ending gives us a launching pad for why another story of a man, a lighthouse and a city could be told and have greater meaning, being part of a collection of stories with similar tropes.

If you're gonna shut down future Bioshocks based on the last half hour of infinite, may as well shut down all Marios for featuring a plumber jumping on turtles.

What I mean is you know there will be a city, a guy who's done bad and an evil leader to confront. All the while knowing in another universe the same thing is happening to Booker and silent protagonist no.1 too.
It doesn't discredit the appeal for a great story I suppose but I think it takes some of the sheen away from it. And I think Ken showing us this after 3 games and calling it Infinite is a nod to "I could write this story an infinite number of times and it's always gonna be the same more or less"

 

[Blastoise]

Did anyone find the studio footage during the credits a bit cringe worthy?

The singing was beautiful though.

 

[adamsapple]

Doesn't this explain the whole six month thing? After all, six months from July is January — middle of winter.

No.. see that's the FUTURE timeline, old liz pulled him forward into that snowy timeline.

Once you are BACK from that timeline, it doesn't snow anymore. All the final areas are snow-less. The actual ending stretch doesn't take place long after the Songbird snatches away liz, you visit future liz, come back, then proceed to save current liz.

 

[iMax]

I kow it's the first area in the game but I want to know WHEN it is in Bioshock 1's timeline that liz and booker go back there. Is it ebfore or after B1? Don't think it matters though.

Also I was sad when the songbird died Elizabeth comforting it was sad

As far as I can make out, it's either just before the events BioShock... or long after. Or, and I don't want to throw another spanner in the works here... — but there's every possibility it could be an alternate Rapture, similar to the multitude of alternate Columbias, where the events of BioShock never actually took place.

 

[jacksepticeye]

Has anyone figured out the point of the choker selection yet?

Different universes? In Comstocks she's trapped, in Booker's she's free. That was my initial thought but it doesn't make much sense.

 

[adamsapple]

Btw, did anyone notice that the first thing the preacher says you you at the beginning "Is it someone new ?"

same thing the first splicer says in Bioshock 1 "Is it someone new ?"

ZOMG FULL CIRCLE !! [/NOLAN]

 

[iMax]

No.. see that's the FUTURE timeline, old liz pulled him forward into that snowy timeline.

Once you are BACK from that timeline, it doesn't snow anymore. All the final areas are snow-less. The actual ending stretch doesn't take place long after the Songbird snatches away liz, you visit future liz, come back, then proceed to save current liz.

How does Booker get pulled out of the future timeline? I can't remember now!

 

[Guess Who]

Alright, these have most likely been answered, but i'll post for the heck of it:

-Why did Booker have to die at the end?

Because in some universe he will become Comstock after the baptism, so the only way to stop Comstock from existing - and thus stop Elizabeth from ever having to suffer - is to kill Booker before he ever has the possibility of becoming Comstock.

-How could he turn into Comstock?

At the baptism, in our universe, Booker turned down the baptism. In another, he accepted the baptism and became a born-again Christian and took up a new identity (Comstock) to leave his past sins behind. Comstock is this other-universe Booker.

-What is "Anna"? Is that Elizabeth's real name or something? How could she be his daughter?

Anna is Elizabeth's real name. In Booker's universe, he had a daughter (Anna), and sold her to the Luteces and Comstock (who was sterile, and could not have a child of his own) in exchange for wiping away his dangerous gambling debts. Comstock then raised her into Elizabeth. Booker has his memory of this wiped by the Luteces when he is dragged into Comstock's universe.

How does Booker get pulled out of the future timeline? I can't remember now!

Old Liz sends him back along with the note instructing her younger self on how to avoid becoming her.

 

[disappeared]

I kind of like to think that Inifinite is Levine's love-letter to the Shock series, and quite possibly the end of the franchise. Elizabeth told us everything we need to know about B1 and BI. It's over. Unless of course 2K gets greedy again and decides to farm-out another sequel.

Ken is an interesting storyteller, and I'd like to hope that in the future he will lend his hand to other stories in other universes. Bioshock is simply one chapter in a web he's helped to weave.

 

[jacksepticeye]

As far as I can make out, it's either just before the events BioShock... or long after. Or, and I don't want to throw another spanner in the works here... — but there's every possibility it could be an alternate Rapture, similar to the multitude of alternate Columbias, where the events of BioShock never actually took place.

Yeah could be a different rapture where everything is dandy and chaos never broke out. Or maybe their presence their sparked something? but they didn't do much.

Man oh man this game is gonna be talked to hell and back

 

[Angelus Errare]

Alright, these have most likely been answered, but i'll post for the heck of it:

-Why did Booker have to die at the end?

In order to stop Booker from being baptised and becoming comstock

-How could he turn into Comstock?

Because he choose to be baptised and born anew

-What is "Anna"? Is that Elizabeth's real name or something? How could she be his daughter?

Anna is Booker's daughter. In Booker's timeline he doesn't get baptized and has a daughter. Comstock (Booker who accepted baptism) takes Anna from Booker's timeline into his (Comstock's) timeline.

-What was the point of killing song bird? Just to give Rapture a cameo?

No real songbird explanation has been given, but Rapture is cameoed to explain the multiverse

-who/what are the British people that show up throughout the game? Can't remember the names.

Rosalind and Robert Lucete, Rosalind is the one who discovered the quantum particles that allowed the city to "float" and Robert is actually Rosalind an alternate universe. They are the ones who discover and experiment with tears.

No.

The final battle doesn't take place after six months, it takes place after a little while. The six month thing you hear from one of the tears, it's in the future timeline where old liz pulls booker into the future. That's just some old tears (relevant to that time) detailing how time is passing and Booker isn't coming to save liz .. (because he's been killed by songbird at that time already).

The actual final battle doesn't take place much long after the Songbird snatches away Liz, the Comstock crew had just put her into the machine to begin work on her.

Unless I completely missed something there, that's what I derived from it.

There's definitely a passage of time that happens, Booker frees Elizabeth and asks her how long it's been. She answers it's been a while. It's not 6 months because at that point she lost hope, but time definitely passed.

 

[Angelus Errare]

How does Booker get pulled out of the future timeline? I can't remember now!

Old Liz sends you back.

 

[jacksepticeye]

Anna is Elizabeth's real name. In Booker's universe, he had a daughter (Anna), and sold her to the Luteces and Comstock (who was sterile, and could not have a child of his own) in exchange for wiping away his dangerous gambling debts. Comstock then raised her into Elizabeth. Booker has his memory of this wiped by the Luteces when he is dragged into Comstock's universe.



Old Liz sends him back along with the note instructing her on how to avoid becoming her.

Ok question. How did they know to find Booker for the child? I could say Comstock knows cos he IS him but wouldn't that mean he had a child already? and he wouldn't need to steal Anna? If he just wanted a child couldn't he have just opened a tear anywhere and taken one?
I'm so confused now lol

 

[Magnus]

Alright, these have most likely been answered, but i'll post for the heck of it:

-Why did Booker have to die at the end?

The realization comes to Booker and Elizabeth that the only way to get rid of Comstock is to prevent him from coming into existence. Booker says he'd go so far as to smother him in his crib. When the revelation hits that in some timelines/universes (whatever term you want to use), Booker becomes Comstock, killing him (before that moment of truth where he heads down the path to becoming Comstock) erases Comstock from...existence? I guess. But a true multiverse theory suggests that there'll always be realities out there where this act didn't happen, and an infinite number of Comstocks and realities with Comstocks still exist and always will.

-How could he turn into Comstock?

Many have postulated that baptismal rites and 'being reborn' after traumatic events (Booker's participation in war) could seriously turn a man nuts.

-What is "Anna"? Is that Elizabeth's real name or something? How could she be his daughter?

She is his daughter, one that he (the protagonist, Booker) sold to pay off a gambling debt. In the ending, you see that he tried to change his mind as he relives the moment, and tries to get her back from Lutece and Comstock. Being pushed around between realities has fucked Booker's mind; his nose bleeds for the last half of the game, like the soldiers you've killed who are dealing with multiple realities/outcomes in their brain. The first quote in the game from Lutece (and one printed on the inside of the game's box sleeve) suggests Lutece's theory of the mind manufacturing new memories to deal with missing ones, or something like that. We can theorize that Booker created new memories to replace the gaps and trauma created by losing Anna, I suppose, which is why he forgets about that all for the majority of the game.

-What was the point of killing song bird? Just to give Rapture a cameo?

I...suppose. I mean, it ends Liz' story well; she's free. Destroying the tower itself was crucial. The siphon was destroyed with it, releasing all the energy drained from her back to her body, allowing her to become omniscient again.

-who/what are the British people that show up throughout the game? Can't remember the names.

Oh boy. These are the Luteces. They're kind of super-pivotal to everything that happened. The suggestion is that Robert is the parallel version of Rosalind from another reality, one where his Y chromosome was present and thus, was born a man.

Rosalind was the scientist who met Comstock, and developed a) Columbia/floating cities, and b) Tears/Quantum Physics. She was the catalyst for the whole game's events, basically.

 

[Guess Who]

Ok question. How did they know to find Booker for the child? I could say Comstock knows cos he IS him but wouldn't that mean he had a child already? and he wouldn't need to steal Anna? If he just wanted a child couldn't he have just opened a tear anywhere and taken one?
I'm so confused now lol

Comstock may not have had a child already, but he - or the Luteces - probably figured that there exists a universe where

A) Booker has a child
B) He lives in a place that Comstock-Booker knows where to find him (his detective office).

And thus the Luteces, with their awesome knowledge of how tears work, helped open a tear to such a universe.

As for why they didn't just take any random child, I believe it's mentioned that for some sciencey reason or another, Comstock needed a biological child of his.

 

[disappeared]

Ok question. How did they know to find Booker for the child? I could say Comstock knows cos he IS him but wouldn't that mean he had a child already? and he wouldn't need to steal Anna? If he just wanted a child couldn't he have just opened a tear anywhere and taken one?
I'm so confused now lol

It loops.

That's the most basic way to describe it.

Even the "debt" could be described as Booker having utterly destroyed Comstock's/his own vision of Columbia. So Comstock/Booker uses the Luteces to create a tear and warp back to Booker in 1912 to demand that Booker give up Anna to them.

"Your debt to Mr. Comstock is absolved."

So Booker goes "back" to Columbia for the ~150th time (if you look at the Lutece heads/tails chalkboard for how many times Booker called "heads" in the coin toss) and still makes the exact same mistakes.

Comstock talks to Booker right at the end about "self punishment."

Everything in the game alludes to Booker simply repeating and repeating and repeating the same story over and over. The post-credits cutscene suggests this also.

"Will the circle be unbroken..."

 

[Angelus Errare]

Ok question. How did they know to find Booker for the child? I could say Comstock knows cos he IS him but wouldn't that mean he had a child already? and he wouldn't need to steal Anna? If he just wanted a child couldn't he have just opened a tear anywhere and taken one?
I'm so confused now lol

Comstock is Booker so naturally he would know where to look. As for your other question you have missed a very important part of the story if you're confused. If Booker accepts baptism then he goes on to create Columbia thus he never meets his wife in NYC and he never has Anna. Being around the tears have rendered Comstock sterile so he can't have kids. Tears allow you to look into other alternate timelines. He doesn't want any random child, since Comstock IS Booker by extension Booker's child is his.

 

[The Elite]

Ok, so there are two universes. BLUE and RED (I'm just using random Fringe colours).

My crazy read of things right now.

In Blue Universe (The Prophet's Timeline):

- Booker/Comstock is the hero of Wounded Knee/Boxer.
- Booker/Comstock accepts Baptism for his sins in the war.
- Booker/Comstock meets the Rosalind Lutece and Columbia is funded/created
- BOOKER/COMSTOCK NEVER HAS ANNA IN BLUE UNIVERSE because he took a completely different path with Columbia
- Rosalind Lutece discovers a way to create tears in time and space.
- Booker/Comstock unable to have children due to radiation poisoning from Lutece's technology asks that a tear be created to an alternate universe where a version of him has a child.
- Booker/Comstock offers to pay off RED UNIVERSE Booker's debts for the child.
- Booker/Comstock concocts a story about the child being born in seven days and positions her as a saviour.
- At some point Rosalind Lutece discovers her male counterpart from the other universe.

In Red Universe (The False Prophet's Timeline):

- Booker fights at Wounded Knee/Boxer.
- Booker seeks Baptism but ultimately turns down having his sins washed away.
- Booker has a child named Anna. Booker's wife eventually dies.
- Booker turns to a life of gambling.
- Booker is given the option by male Lutece to pay away his debts by giving up Anna.
- Booker changes his mind and tries to get Anna back. Anna's finger is cut in the process. The possible split of her existence between two universes is what gives her the unique abilities she has?
- Both Luteces, seeing what Booker/Comstock is going to do decide to drag Booker from Red Universe to Blue Universe to stop Booker/Comstock. They say that ultimately the chain of events set in motion will eliminate all Bookers/Comstocks in the multiverse. This will have the added benefit of eliminating all Anna/Elizabeths. Essentially they're dividing by 0.

I know the biggest point of contention will be whether or not Blue Universe Booker/Comstock had his own version of Anna. I think there is certainly room for the argument that he did. The timing seems off if he did though.

Go crazy and attack this theory.

The divide by 0. Elizabeth/Anna killing Comstock/Booker at the Baptism eliminates both possibilities. The one when he has the child and the one when creates Columbia. Thus eliminating their existence.

One thing I'm starting to waver on here is how Elizabeth/Anna got her abilities. I think it has less to do with the finger being split between two universes and more to do with the Luteces experimenting on her at a young age, at Comstock's request.

Just watched the Sea of Doors again. That ending is going to give me chills for a long time.