Ah, but you are missing something vital there.FatherJack wrote:And my main issue is with the last bit:Spoiler:The two choices made: be baptised or not result in either becoming Comstock or not. By choosing to take a third option he supposedly destroys the possiblity that he will ever become Comstock in all possible universes. I don't how that's the case - what about all the other universes where he didn't take that option? It's the way it presents itself as a "there, I fixed everything" outcome when it just isn't.I'll concede it is a resolution from the player's perspective, though.Spoiler:Sure, he's made a new branch free of Comstock and Columbia, as well as Anna and himself - as misery was inevitable in all the previous branches, but it's only salvation in that one stream. I assume the final scene is in his head - a final happy memory as he dies.
Spoiler:
It's not just parallel worlds, it's *branching* parallel worlds. In other words before he gets baptised there is only one world, then the decision he makes there creates two branches, one where he went through with it and one where he didn't. By drowning him as soon as he goes through with it they have changed the choice from "booker or Comstock" to "booker or dead". With no Comstock to come kidnap his daughter, the whole thing is undone. The entire game didn't happen.
This partly has to do with your other question: a side effect of the twins' "death" is that they are unglued from space and time, hence their being able to apparently teleport around the place and know what's going on. By the end Elizabeth has gained the same ability which is why she can take you back to the baptism. there's a big debate between the twins that essentially boils down to a question of determinism: the bloke thinks its not all predetermined so is insisting on going through the loop over and over till they manage to break it whilst the woman thinks its all just going to happen the same way every time. I think thats the point of the coin toss at the beginning: the guy has a count and every one of them is heads (or was it tails? I forget) because he keeps hoping that one of them will be different but the woman thinks it will always be the same.
At the end the loop has been broken: between you and Elizabeth you have changed the choice at the baptism so there is no comstock, which means there is no Columbia because the lady-twin (I can't remember their names, ok?) never got funded by Comstock which means there is no portals which means Elizabeth and Booker get to live thier lives in peace. It still doesn't make a paradox though, because the Elizabeth you broke the loop with (along with the twins presumably) is outside of time so would continue to exist even after the loop has been closed.
This partly has to do with your other question: a side effect of the twins' "death" is that they are unglued from space and time, hence their being able to apparently teleport around the place and know what's going on. By the end Elizabeth has gained the same ability which is why she can take you back to the baptism. there's a big debate between the twins that essentially boils down to a question of determinism: the bloke thinks its not all predetermined so is insisting on going through the loop over and over till they manage to break it whilst the woman thinks its all just going to happen the same way every time. I think thats the point of the coin toss at the beginning: the guy has a count and every one of them is heads (or was it tails? I forget) because he keeps hoping that one of them will be different but the woman thinks it will always be the same.
At the end the loop has been broken: between you and Elizabeth you have changed the choice at the baptism so there is no comstock, which means there is no Columbia because the lady-twin (I can't remember their names, ok?) never got funded by Comstock which means there is no portals which means Elizabeth and Booker get to live thier lives in peace. It still doesn't make a paradox though, because the Elizabeth you broke the loop with (along with the twins presumably) is outside of time so would continue to exist even after the loop has been closed.
Spoiler:
What I can't decide is whether this leaves it super-open to DLC (alternative worlds ahoy!) or DLC is kinda impossible (by the end of the game the whole thing never happened)
