(massive spoilers) Booker, Comstock, Burial at Sea, and what makes them who they are.

[Geo]

I went about replaying Infinite and both episodes of Burial at Sea and had an arguement with a friend over whether you should count the player character of Burial at Sea Episode 1 as a Booker or a Comstock.

I am in the Booker camp. While on the surface he seems to just have been a Comstock who escaped the Columbia timeline(s) destruction, I say it goes deeper into the very psychology of Booker and Comstock.

What makes Comstock and Booker different is a single thing: The ability to accept guilt. Booker accepts his guilt for the horrible things he has done and lives with the burdens it brings. Comstock refuses to admit guilt and believes that he is incapable of doing wrong in any way.
In the main game, Booker constantly voices deep self loathing and regrets about his past. To paraphrase him: "There are sometimes terrible need for folks like Fitzroy, because of folks like me.....". Comstock on the other hand tries to glorify his past, turning horrors into things to be admired and believes himself incapable of doing wrong.

Back on the Booker in Burial at Sea, he fled there to escape his guilt yes, but there is a flash back of him looking into a baptism bowl yet it never shows him entering its waters. To me that symbolized a reversal of sorts of his original baptism. He is trying to go back and "refuse" the baptism in a way. The very next scene is him shaving off his beard, more of a symbol of his conversion back into Booker DeWitt. While he was in Rapture, he lead a life very similar to that of his alpha counterpart: alcoholic, gambling addict, living in a 2 bit office as a washed up private investigator. But to me, what really put him back as a Booker is his caring for Sally. He regrets losing track of her while gambling (similar to other Bookers heavily regretting selling Anna) [this is evident by him keeping part of Sally's favorite doll as a reminder] and jumps at the chance to reunite with her (again similar to the Bookers who were offered the chance by Robert). When Elizabeth suggests truning up the heat in the vents to flush Sally out, Booker staunchly refuses to, as he doesn't want to hurt Sally. This is opposed to Comstock who gleefully tortured Elizabeth if he thought that was best for her and his vision.

But there is 1 main thing Rapture!Booker did that completed his conversion back into Booker DeWitt. 4 simple words: "I am so sorry.". This is something Comstock would have NEVER said. Booker fully accepts his guilt and part in Anna's death.

In the end, Elizabeth didn't kill the final Comstock. She murdered a Booker. Comstock was already dead and gone.

A last bit of evidence is that she regrets reorphaning Sally. "I never should have left you there....". Karma came back in the form of the same Big Daddy that killed Booker killed her and forced her to lose her powers in order to save Sally. Which Sally would have been safe, had she not killed Booker.

[Solarmech]

Originally posted by Remi:

But there is 1 main thing Rapture!Booker did that completed his conversion back into Booker DeWitt. 4 simple words: "I am so sorry.". This is something Comstock would have NEVER said. Booker fully accepts his guilt and part in Anna's death.

If Comstock had truely accepted his guilt and taken responsibility for his action, he would never have left Columbia and he certainly would never have had his memory of events wiped. He says he is sorry and he is, but he still refused to face what he did. He ran away the same way he did at the Baptism when he became Comstock. And that is why he is still a Comstock and not a Booker. sm

[Geo]

When he went to Rapture, he was still transitioning between being Comstock and Booker. As a "full" Comstock wouldnt have ran, he would have tried to justify his actions.

[Solarmech]

Originally posted by Remi:

When he went to Rapture, he was still transitioning between being Comstock and Booker. As a "full" Comstock wouldnt have ran, he would have tried to justify his actions.

He couldn't justify his actions even to himself. Getting Anna was "prophesy" when it failed he had nothing to fall back on, no lie he could tell himself. And rather than face it, he ran.

The Luteces

"Comstock was never one to own up to his errors, was he, brother?"
"Never comfortable with the choices he made..."
"Always seeking someone else's life to claim as his own..."

Comstock was imitating Booker. His drinking, gambling, even how his office was set up. It's all just a copy of Booker from before he went to take Anna. Nothing more. Comstock was trying to claim Booker's life. sm

[Geo]

But in the end he did own up. He tried to apologize. No Booker is comfortable with the choices they make, they all live in regret. He even admits his own guilt for losing Sally, his adopted daughter (he atleast fed and cared for her). Every Booker tries to run from their guilt, even alpha Booker took to drinking to try and forget.

[Solarmech]

Was Booker drinking to try to forget? We never saw him hide from what he did or deny it. In fact he freely admits it and warns Elizabeth away from him early in the game. Booker's drinking seems much more to be a result of his PTSD. (Along his his anger issues and gambling, ALL symptoms of PTSD).

Comstock only apologised AFTER having his face shoved into what he did and he could no longer hide from it as he had done before. Booker may be uncomfortable with what he did, hate it even, but he didn't HIDE from it and that's what Comstock did. First at the Baptism and then when Anna was killed because of what he did. Comstock ran again pretending to be Booker. But by wiping his memory and calling himself Booker he proves he is still Comstock as he refused to take responsibility for his actions. Changing your memories does not change the person you are. If Cosmtock had not been killed he would have just gone and found some other way to hide, probably by splicing. sm

[Ivlichnov]

There was an audio log (I think in the Clash in the Clouds expansion), where Rosalind Lutece says that Booker started out playing the role of a prophet, but somewhere along the line, he got lost in the role.

Bookerstock returned to being Booker early enough (Booker left Columbia in 1893), so now he is a Booker, with not quite remembered guilt about the things he has done.

Elizabeth saw him only as Comstock, but afterward saw that he was trying to save Sally. Liz stated that she was working for her clients* in bringing this final Comstock to justice.

So he had been a Comstock, but returned to being Booker. But Elizabeth was too angry to make that distinction.

And Bookerstock had to die, so that Sally and the Little Sisters could escape. But after returning to Rapture in BaS Episode 2, Elizabeth could not remember that fact.


*All of the versions of Elizabeth, who were wronged by versions of Comstock.