...some of which go back to Bioshock 1, such as Songbird's dying screech being audible in an area of the game.
The numbers are mind-numbing, too. Combination to unlock the capsule in the lighthouse? 1-2-2. Number of heads thrown in the coin-toss? 122, yours being the 123rd. Alludes to 122 dead or failed Bookers, IMO. Constants and variables, indeed.

And again, Ayn Rand gets a sideways nod with the name of the Vox Populi. Considering how the revolutionaries act once they are victorious, it appears as if someone (understandably) really doesn't like her (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

For example, infinity Elizabeth could have shot Booker in the foot before Wounded Knee, forcing him to sit it out, forcing him to miss out on the experience for which he required redemption, keeping him from needing it at all. Or alternatively, she could have killed Comstock immediately AFTER the baptism, saving Booker, an innocent man. She did neither, because the baptism is an exciting and symbolic moment.

The only theory I've seen which does address all of the bothers is that Elizabeth is actually using Booker as an Elizabeth-creation machine. Save Elizabeth, kill that Booker, send Booker on to rescue the next Elizabeth, etc., ad infinitum, with each rescue adding one more Elizabeth to the quickly growing army of omnipotent universe-jumping Elizabeths. Then it makes sense that they're killing him; they're tying up lose ends or preparing him for the next jump. It makes sense also why universes which violate the self-consistency principle still exist; because she's not killing baptism Comstock at all. She NEEDS Comstock for Elizabeth to be made omnipotent. But she needs the illusion of killing him in order to subdue Booker. The post-credit scene is Booker back as the host for the next Elizabeth, as the cycle begins again.

I didn't get that from the ending at all.

The game was centered around choices. It wasn't until Booker CHOSE to allow himself to get drowned that Elizabeth Infinite actually did the deed.

Also, since the whole point was to eliminate Comstock from ever coming into existance, the post credits scene to me was showing a world where Comstock never came to take Elizabeth/Anna away, and thus never creating the sequence of events where she loses her pinky and becomes a cross-dimensional creature. Thus giving her and Booker a fresh start.

By "I didn't get that ending at all", are you referring to the theory I describe in my second paragraph? No, I didn't get it like that at all either until someone else put that theory forward and I read it. It's the only theory I've seen so far that's internally consistent.

It could indeed be about choices, but the point is, the choice to die then and there is one chosen for dramatic effect and art, but logically doesn't make sense. Again, Booker could have gone back in time and CHOSEN not to participate in Wounded Knee, equally destroying Comstock. If I take Bioshock as a piece of art which is beyond logical review, I agree with you. But I think they could have done better, so it is both a beautiful metaphor AND internally consistent.

As for the post-credits ... It's not internally consistent. Anna was born after the baptism. We know that because Comstock couldn't have a baby. However, if Booker died at the baptism, he couldn't have gone on to have Anna. It's not clear what should happen to Elizabeth either. The other Elizabeths disappear, presumably because they cease to have existed, so ours should as well. If she doesn't exist, who drowned Comstock?

A game-producer can't separate cause and effect and say 'wooo! Time travel!' Especially not for a group of college-educated adults, which is a majority of Bioshock's audience. I mean, if it was just a dumb action-shooter, sure. But it wasn't. It was clearly made to be a cerebral game. I just don't think they did a very good job of it.

Infinite Universes though. In a finite number of universes Booker goes to the baptism and either accepts it (becomes Comstock) or refuses it (storyline as Booker recalls it). There are universes where Booker never even went to the baptism and Anna was also born. So I'd say it's rather consistent in that regards.

The idea is that, every version of Booker DeWitt who went through with the baptism, became Zachariah Comstock, founded Columbia, and turned into the despotic, fanatic Prophet.

So, every last version of Booker DeWitt who went through with the baptism, has to die. At that very moment, that very point in time. Drowned in the very spot of that baptism, so that the "birth" of Zachariah Comstock can never come to pass.

...

I happen to disagree with the causality of that, but I believe it is what the writers intended.

OH, also note: the Elizabeth who drowns you at the end? IS NOT "YOUR" ELIZABETH. She's missing something, on her neck. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Betcha didn't notice that, eh ...?

So, how long did it take you to figure out the reveals? When I was fighting Slate, I idly wondered if Comstock would turn out to be a version of Booker DeWitt, but I didn't take it seriously. I didn't see the "Anna = Elizabeth" thing coming at all, and I never made the connection between the AD brand on the back of Booker's hand with the initials of Anna DeWitt. I assumed Anna was Booker's wife, and that she had either died or left him. I twigged to the fact that the two Lutece's were alternates of each other fairly early on, shortly after rescuing Elizabeth. As soon as I realized the woman was Rosalind Lutece, I knew the man had to be another version of her; remembering the statue of R. Lutece that changed from a man to a woman confirmed it for me.

The theory that nezumi quotes about the Elizabeths using Booker to make more Elizabeths doesn't jibe with the ending at all. As Booker drowns, the Elizabeths disappear one by one, to the accompaniment of single notes; the last note plays just as the scene fades to black, implying that the last Elizabeth vanished as well, since with Booker dead, none of the events in Columbia can have happened, including her life to that point.

Both episodes end with the player character dying.