Comstock question(s)

[Eat3n]

-How did Comstock know about the AD brand to warn people about the "false shepherd"? Didn't Booker give himself the brand after he lost Anna?

-How did Comstock know Booker would come? There is no logical reason why he would. Booker doesn't have a tear device and for Comstock the only people who know how to use or make one, The Twins, are "deceased".

[Vegas]

It is possible he experienced this all before as a younger man and Booker DeWitt keeps coming after him in various stages of his age. Notice he was chased after when Anna was a child and she lost a finger. That Booker was not the same one that you play but all the memories are starting to merge because of Elizabeth folding Booker's alternate realities into this particular consciousness. Yeah, hardcore science fiction at play here ... she's a borderline Goddess.

[Solarmech]

Comstock knew that Booker was coming to Columbia because he was a Prophet!

Really though. Comstock had a early version of the Lutece Device that allowed him to open "windows" through time and space. You couldn't pass through them, but you could look through them. So basically Comstock was looking into the different futures to try and figure out what was going to happen. sm

[Ivlichnov]

Comstock might have pieced together the sequence of events in Bioshock Infinite, before he sabotaged the Lutece tear machine.

And he knew about Booker and Elizabeth, but he didn't seem to know that the Lutece's still existed.

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by Solarmech:

Comstock knew that Booker was coming to Columbia because he was a Prophet! :claugh:

Really though. Comstock had a early version of the Lutece Device that allowed him to open "windows" through time and space. You couldn't pass through them, but you could look through them. So basically Comstock was looking into the different futures to try and figure out what was going to happen. sm

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense, thanks!

Originally posted by Ivlichnov:

Comstock might have pieced together the sequence of events in Bioshock Infinite, before he sabotaged the Lutece tear machine.

And he knew about Booker and Elizabeth, but he didn't seem to know that the Lutece's still existed.

Even if he pieced the events together that wouldn't have given him the ability to warn people about AD.

[Ivlichnov]

If Comstock saw through a tear that Booker had branded AD on his hand, then that might be enough for him to identify Booker.

He would then have to create the story, that a False Sheppard would have AD on his hand.

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by Ivlichnov:

If Comstock saw through a tear that Booker had branded AD on his hand, then that might be enough for him to identify Booker.

He would then have to create the story, that a False Sheppard would have AD on his hand.

Gotcha! Thanks for clearing that up.

[D4RK1]

Honestly, I'd just credit it to relatively bad writing. I mean (SPOILERS) if you completed the game then you should also be asking why Dewitt had to die in the end. I mean they already established beforehand that something affecting one world probably wouldn't affect another and that some things in one world happen while in others it does not. Which means killing Dewitt was for absolutely nothing because they already killed Comstock. Another thing that should be questioned is exactly how do the rifts work? I mean they seem to try to pass it off as different dimensions, but in the end it seems like they're also trying to tie in time travel. So I believe the actual answer would be plain and simple: Bad writing.

[Unraed]

Booker became Comstock because he was baptized. In the timeline where he acepeted the baptism he became very devout, changed his name to Comstock and founded Colombia. In the timeline that you play him in he rejected the baptism and became the man you know him as. By killing Booker at the Baptism or P.O.D. (point of divergence) they succsesfully eliminated all timelines in which Comstock existed. When Booker killed Comstock it was only the Comstock of that timeline, not all the possible variations of Comstock. Hopefully this should clear up your questions regarding why Booker had to die in the end, D4RK1.

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by D4RK1:

Honestly, I'd just credit it to relatively bad writing. I mean (SPOILERS) if you completed the game then you should also be asking why Dewitt had to die in the end. I mean they already established beforehand that something affecting one world probably wouldn't affect another and that some things in one world happen while in others it does not. Which means killing Dewitt was for absolutely nothing because they already killed Comstock. Another thing that should be questioned is exactly how do the rifts work? I mean they seem to try to pass it off as different dimensions, but in the end it seems like they're also trying to tie in time travel. So I believe the actual answer would be plain and simple: Bad writing.

I don't know about all of that, but in general i think Infinite did suffer from a lot of bad writing. The seem to take a lot of liberties with thing and when it brings up questions they just pass it off as "infinite variables, infinite universes" or other such nonsense.

[Solarmech]

And sometimes it's not bad writing, but people not paying attention to what is said or not really thinking or not wanting to understand. Some people's minds also just work the proper way to understand the concepts being used. Quantum Physics violates what most people think of as common sense and some people just can't shift their way of thinking.

Booker killing one Comstock does only one thing, kill one Comstock. That leaves a million million others out there and even one remaining will eventually lead to all of humanity being destroyed. (When Old Elizabeth's Columbia got done with that Earth see see being destroyed they will move on to alternate realities) So you have to get rid of all Comstock at the source, which is the baptism.

To do this Elizabeth takes Booker back in time to that baptism and he lets himself be drown. Now this is not happening for just one reality. The Last Baptism is a combination of *all* the baptisms that could produce a Comstock. (and Booker a combination of all the Bookers at that baptism with the Booker we play as in control.)

Here are some things that people often miss. When Elizabeth and Booker hop realities in BSI, they really aren't doing that. What is happening that Elizabeth is merging two different realities together, kind of a mix and match type thing (which is why you have people with Tear Sickness). She does not have full control over this due the Syphon. At the end Elizabeth is at her full power and DOES has full control. And it's just not a single Elizabeth creating the Last Baptism. But a lot of them, millions of them. That is an immense amount of power to work with. sm

[ghost]

The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist...

[Solarmech]

Those who seek to understand will be put upon those who refuse to understand. sm

[guppy]

At the beginning of the game the "twins" ask you to choose - heads or tails, you may notice that there are quite a few marks on the black board - that's the number of times that their experiment has been run ( and presumably failed ) it stands to reason that with all the upheaval that has caused that Comstock has figured it out

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by Solarmech:

And sometimes it's not bad writing, but people not paying attention to what is said or not really thinking or not wanting to understand. Some people's minds also just work the proper way to understand the concepts being used. Quantum Physics violates what most people think of as common sense and some people just can't shift their way of thinking.

Booker killing one Comstock does only one thing, kill one Comstock. That leaves a million million others out there and even one remaining will eventually lead to all of humanity being destroyed. (When Old Elizabeth's Columbia got done with that Earth see see being destroyed they will move on to alternate realities) So you have to get rid of all Comstock at the source, which is the baptism.

To do this Elizabeth takes Booker back in time to that baptism and he lets himself be drown. Now this is not happening for just one reality. The Last Baptism is a combination of *all* the baptisms that could produce a Comstock. (and Booker a combination of all the Bookers at that baptism with the Booker we play as in control.)

Here are some things that people often miss. When Elizabeth and Booker hop realities in BSI, they really aren't doing that. What is happening that Elizabeth is merging two different realities together, kind of a mix and match type thing (which is why you have people with Tear Sickness). She does not have full control over this due the Syphon. At the end Elizabeth is at her full power and DOES has full control. And it's just not a single Elizabeth creating the Last Baptism. But a lot of them, millions of them. That is an immense amount of power to work with. sm

I get all that, and it would be fine if the game ended at the baptism scene but it doesn't which throws all that stuff out the window. If the drowning is to kill all Comstocks then where does BaS come from? One just got away? That's where it's bad writing.

[Solarmech]

The one Comstock that survived the Last Baptism did so because he was in a different reality from his own. It's the same thing that causes Tear Sickness oddly enough. When you hop from one reality to another you become part of that new reality and the causality connection with the old one is broken. That's why when Booker entered Comstock's reality the first time his memory got screwed up. Reality was dumping Comstock's memories into his head, trying to MAKE him into Comstock (His dream of New York being destroyed was one of Comstock's memories). You can defend yourself from this though. The same thing happened to Booker again in the Vox reality when he saw that he was dead in that reality. He started remembering the actions the dead Booker took.

So when Comstock left Columbia from Rapture, he became part of the Rapture reality and no longer part of the Columbia reality.

Note: Comstock didn't have a problem when he entered Booker's reality because the Lutece Device creates a portal which has slightly different attributes than a normal Tear created by the Luteces or Elizabeth. While the Portal is still active if forms a link between the two realities. But when the Portal is shut down, Tear Sickness will hit in. sm