#a spiraling self-gaslighting man who is pushing away the woman he loves

[something-in-the-seas]

Bioshock Infinite rewrite, let’s go:

Part 1: Booker and Comstock

- Booker did not scalp women and children at Wounded Knee because that’s just, like, heniously evil. He started off as a hopeful, young teenager in the cavalry just wanting to work with horses, but after refusing to fire on and attempting to rescue women and children, the brutality of Slate and his men turns him jaded. Comstock is the one who slaughtered at Wounded Knee and accepted the baptism.

- He’s definitely more of an Arthur Morgan type in which he seems gruff and a stupid thug for whoever hires him, but is actually very intelligent and sensitive once he opens up. He thinks he’s stupid and bad and is actually openly remorseful about how he’s done bad things and hurt a lot of people, but wants to try to make things better.

- Booker’s baptism isn’t about washing away his guilt, though there is guilt over not being able to save anyone. It’s about embracing the white supremacy pushed onto him by becoming the man Slate would want him to be or remaining true to himself.

- He goes more into his past more with Elizabeth in the Hall of Heroes and Shantytown. At one point, when he tells her about how he burned himself trying to grab children through the flames, he does choke up.

- Him being part Sioux is extremely important to the story. He actively speaks Sioux to several Vox members and translates for others, his heritage is also brought to light by Comstock and pushes him to make an alliance with the Vox since they’re all in the same position. He embraces who he is while Comstock violently rejects it.

- Besides selling his baby, Booker’s shit moment comes from his time in the Pinkertons. He was already on thin ice when he was sent in to infiltrate workers planning a strike, but blew the operation after beating one of the strikers nearly to death in anger. It’s simplified for Elizabeth, but it’s a complicated story. The Vox, though, are suspicious of him being a rat for Fink given his past.

- Annabelle is mentioned more. Booker has regrets over not being a good husband and that they were both “stupid kids way over there head.” His anger and gambling really tore a huge wedge in their relationship, especially towards the end. The worst thing, for him, was when she completely gave up trying to salvage the marriage and was planning on leaving him after the baby was born.

- Unlike Comstock, though, he doesn’t take it out on her and feels like a piece of shit. It makes the Siren boss fight, in which multiple versions of Lady Comstock/Annabelle are coming through, poignant. One, because he recognizes that she’s his wife, and two, because he gets to apologize to her.

- Comstock’s hatred for New York is really explored in depth. He hates New York not only because it’s one of the most multicultural cities in the world but also because he believes it houses “degenerates” like DeWitt. It’s everything wrong with America in his eyes.

- Comstock is very active in Elizabeth’s life and is constantly gaslighting and manipulating her. She’s terrified of failing and angering him at first because he’s convinced her he’s the only one who will ever love and accept her.

- Comstock does feel guilt for what he did at Wounded Knee, he knows he was wrong. Instead of owning his sins like Booker and trying to do better, he clings onto God and justifies what he’s doing as God’s will. The realization and fear of having to answer for his crimes on Judgement Day causes him to further spiral down the rabbit hole and makes him actually believe in what he says. He convinces himself that Wounded Knee was God’s plan and he is divinely inspired to rid the world of “evil.”

- Comstock and Columbians believe that America, specifically New York, is “The New Eden” while Columbia is “Another Ark for Another Time.” In their eyes, enacting an apocalyptic event will trigger the End Times and cause Jesus to return to “rightfully judge” and “send to hell” anyone they see as the enemy. Then, only when the wicked have been smited, the “pure can inherit the Earth.”

- It’s a mass genocide. But, Comstock is convinced that God will reward him, forgive his sins, and bless his family line. Elizabeth and her children and their children will sit by the right hand of Christ with the Founding Fathers for all of eternity, ensuring peace in The New Eden. He even takes part in the brutality personally himself.

- Comstock has a scar on his left hand while Booker has the AD scar on his right. In Christian scripture, the righteous will stand at God’s right hand while the wicked stand at his left. It is known that Fitzroy was the one who tried to stab the prophet, attempting to kill him in a frenzy after he tried to restrain her following the murder of Lady Comstock.

- Going by the Daisy statue in the Hall of Heroes, Comstock strangled Lady Comstock to death. However, Daisy sees the murder happen and stands in the doorway in horror. Comstock then attempts to strangle her as well.

- The only reason why Daisy survives is because Comstock notices the Madonna and Child statue that Lady Comstock kept, glaring down at him. His moment of weakness gives Daisy the opening to slash his hand with a piece of broken glass from the tea cups she dropped.

- The statue in the Hall of Heroes depicts Daisy as a powerful grown woman. When Booker and Elizabeth see the event unfold through a tear, it’s revealed she was thirteen-years-old.

- Booker being Sioux is also extremely important to Comstock’s story and the self hatred he has. The realization that he’s further brainwashed and isolated himself with fascists who would treat him like he treated so many others if they knew the truth causes him to further lose his sanity. It’s a hell of his own making.

#bioshock #daisy fitzroy #elizabeth comstock #booker dewitt #zachary comstock #abuse// #Comstock should have been scary as hell #which is funny because it’s beat over the head with all the religious imagery and that he’s got a one way ticket there