Why the Good Ending to BioShock is the canon ending (Major spoilers regarding all 3 games)

[Skelly Man]

So, you may be asking yourself 'why?'. I'll tell you why. At the end of BioShock, assuming you saved every Little Sister you came across or saved, you got the good ending - Jack takes five cured Little Sisters back to the surface with him, where they grow up into adults and live full lives. They are there at Jack's deathbed as a family - a family he never truly had. If you decided to be mixed or just plain out merciless towards them, you got the bad ending - Jack takes Fontaine's genetic key, takes over Rapture himself and becomes the King of Splicers. Shortly afterwards, a scene plays where a missle launcher comes out of the ocean while some fisherman are examining the lighthouse, implying he is going to leave Rapture and move onto the rest of the world.

The next game, BioShock 2 focuses on Subject Delta, an Alpha series Big Daddy. On New Year's Eve as Rapture is in the middle of the Civil War, Sofia Lamb uses the Hypnotise Big Daddy plasmid to make Delta shoot himself and allow her to take Eleanor back. Ten years afterwards, he is revived at a Vita-Chamber and BioShock 2 begins. As Delta moves around, he can hear Splicers everywhere talking about Jack and the battle between him and Fontaine. One Splicer in particular says that he is on the surface, 'high ballin' it with all the cancan girls.' with another stating he saved the Little Sisters and went up 'happily ever after'. Both these quotes seem to state that Jack did indeed save the Little Sisters and go back to the surface with them. Also, Sofia Lamb takes over as the leader of Rapture with both Fontaine and Ryan out of the way, which is why she was able to convince the Splicers and Big Sisters to kill Delta.

This brings us to BaS Part II. When Atlas tells Elizabeth to find the 'ace in the hole', he is refering to the trigger phrase that Suchong created that is used to make Jack do what he says - 'Would You Kindly', followed by whatever action he wants him to do. After Atlas clubs Liz in the head with a wrench, Sally can be seen with her in her final moments, still a Little Sister. Then, just before her death, Liz has a vision of Jack on the surface, approaching a Bathysphere with Sally and some other Little Sisters inside, indicating that Jack saved them instead of killing them for ADAM.

For those of you who think this is bogus, just remember the rules that came with Infinite - There's always a lighthouse, always a man, and always a city. Constants and variables. For those who don't understand, this means there are an infinite number of universes, for all the different combonations and choices we make. This example is used HEAVILY in Infinite, and who's to say that the alternate endings at the end of both the first and second game aren't just alternate universes caused by constants and variables?

Anyway, it's just speculation. Don't try to take it seriously.

[RockSpoon]

Unfortunately, sequels of games with major choices are generally written so that it doesn't really matter which you choose.