1. I mentioned the Strength Through Leisure antecedents in the last video's comments, but it occurs to me at the very beginning of this video that we might see more support for the "ultra-racist, gender-progressive" nature of Columbia here. The man and woman at the beginning of the video on the beach are wearing nearly identical bathing costumes. Both are the ludicrous turn-of-the-century striped monstrosities that were common to the time, but the woman is not sequestered into a private section of the beach, nor made to use a swimming carriage, nor any of the other Victorian/Edwardian-era contraptions that were in common use among "civilized" folk back then. Could be nothing, but it caught my eye.
   
   
2. You know, given that several flying city blocks, including one of the most recognizable landmarks in Columbia, just exploded overhead, these beach-goers are awfully calm.
   
   EDIT: And the reason for this would be that they just haven't seen it yet, as will become clear in about ten minutes or so.
   
   
3. According to the voxophone you find on the beach (does any game ever bother to explain why these things are just left sitting around?), Comstock's background is a complete fabrication that he won't talk about prior to his baptism. This means that not only did he come to religion late, but that he probably did not-so-nice things prior to it. We know he, like Booker, was involved in Wounded Knee, so my theories from before about Comstock being Booker's Commander (or Father) would seem to be supported by this.
   
   
4. The young woman that Booker approaches while looking for Elizabeth mentions that she's "without an escort". An obvious pickup line, but goes to the gender-progressive bit from earlier. Young women in bathing costumes simply were not without "escort" on public beaches in 1912. The more I see, the more I think the comment about Misogynists from that cop from before was not an accident.
   
   
5. This is completely speculative, but might "Battleship Bay" have something to do with the Battleship Maine? That incident took place only fourteen years ago, while Columbia was still part of the Union, and was a major milestone on the manifest-destiny-American-Empire road. No evidence yet, just a thought.
   
   
6. The worker complaining about his pay is quite obviously Irish. The head of the Vox Populi's name was, if I remember correctly, Fitzroy. Another Irish name. In this time period, the Irish were not considered "white" yet (the process whereby that happened was long and complicated). It would not astonish me if other racially "undesirable" elements were common within the Vox.
   
   EDIT: This would seem to be confirmed with the comment from later on about "stirring up the paddies and the negroes". Frankly, given Columbia, I'm surprised the N-word wasn't used instead, but then I don't know that the game could have been released with that in it.
   
   
7. The existence of surfboards in Columbia is not precisely anachronistic (Henry Huntington introduced the Hawaiian sport to California in 1907), but very, very close. It also poses certain mechanical questions. The ocean here, someone mentioned before, is an Infinite Pool. But how do you generate waves large enough to surf on in such a thing? Perhaps they're merely used flotation devices?
   
   
8. Did... did that man in front of the changing wagon proposition Booker?
   
   That's a daring thing to do in a society like this, especially vis-a-vis a man he doesn't know. But then again, given Columbia's attitudes towards women's rights, my read on their tolerance of homosexuality could be completely off as well. Columbia's already shown to have a very mix/match attitude towards progressive and period mindsets after all. I hope we see more on this subject.
   
   Oh and incidentally, they plainly do have the changing wagons here, but at least are not using them the way the Victorians did.
   
   
9. Now... why would the lifeguard be concerned about being overheard talking about Darwin? I mean, the racism of Columbia would seem to be based at least in part on the "Scientific Racism" of the turn of the century, which relied, at least in part, on a narrow interpretation of Darwinian "inherited characteristics" theory. The Phrenology study from a few videos ago would indicate that much. At the same time however, Darwin's evolution model was then, as now, considered in opposition to scriptural accounts of the creation of life in specific and humanity in general. Given Columbia's strong religious undertones (and overtones), I could see Darwin being somewhat of a bad word here. But plainly they are paying him some mind...
   
   
10. This is just a sidenote, but you had the option of drinking a boy's sodapop to gain more salt.
    
    
11. All right, this is just me gushing, but I half expected Booker to play the grumpy stick in the mud who drags Elizabeth away from the dance party because "Serious Business", but that little exchange about Paris to convince her to come with him was just amazing. The dynamic they seem to be going for here is hard for me to describe, but I love that they seem to be stepping beyond making one character or the other insufferable. Just because Booker's a Pinkerton badass who kills dozens of men at a time doesn't mean he has to be an unfeeling bastard. It's Elizabeth's first time hearing live music and dancing, and I like that he seems to recognize that.
    
    
12. Thank you for mentioning the Cyndi Lauper song, because I couldn't recognize it with the carnival-organ style of the music. Yet more musical anachronism. What does it all mean?
    
    
13. So Elizabeth has never actually seen Comstock before. How then was he to assume that she would become his heir? She doesn't seem to have been brainwashed into accepting his dogma. In fact she doesn't seem to know much about his dogma at all.
    
    
14. These two again. Who is the man with Lutesce (I think it's been established extremely well that the woman is Lutesce) here? Someone in the thread called him her brother, but we've seen no evidence of that yet, to my knowledge. Moreover, Sundowner, I'm afraid I don't see why the Cage is more thematically appropriate than the Bird at this juncture. I would have assumed the opposite, but then perhaps you know something about the ongoing themes here that I don't.
    
    
15. Another reference to the Songbird from one of the bystanders. Which means none of them saw the bird when it pursued Booker into the water. Then again that much should have been obvious from their lack of reaction after Booker woke up.
    
    
16. That's a brilliant little switch when you walk in on the servant cleaning the floor. Note how he speaks in perfect King's English to himself, and then lapses into minstrel-show Jive-talk when he sees two white people enter. It would stand to reason that he does this is self-preservation. Educated, intelligent blacks in Columbia would most likely attract the attention of the police.
    
    
17. Teach me to assume things. So Daisy Fitzroy is not Irish, but Black. I like the HUAC Red-Scare style radio announcement in the same room, trying to smoke out the Vox. I wonder if there might not be a Communistic element to their philosophy, but that goes beyond the evidence thus far.
    
    
18. Now how did that interracial couple from the raffle wind up in Battleship Bay? Moreover, if you choose to throw the rock at them, I assume they do not show up here?
    
    
19. I can't tell what the original poster that the graffiti was splashed on says. I think it might be "The Father" which would make sense with "... of lies, sees nothing." But I can't be sure.
    
    
20. Duke and Dimwit are obviously Columbia's version of Goofus and Gallant from Highlights magazine, a cartoon that got its start in 1948 with the same premise. Two boys, one rude and selfish, one good and kind, designed to teach children by example how they should behave. The concept is older than the magazine, so I suppose this isn't precisely anachronistic, but I'm honestly surprised, given the racism theme, that they didn't make Dimwit black (or Irish). Maybe the very notion of white children thinking of a behavior model who was black, even as a negative example, was anathema.
    
    
21. Why do the waiters have to apologize before offering you something? Even for a racially-caste-based system like Columbia, that just seems strange.
    
    
22. I'm fairly certain we've actually seen those historical kinetiscopes before. Still interesting to look over.
    
    
23. Interesting that Elizabeth doesn't seem to know why there's a different bathroom for white and non-white people. Again, for someone who was supposedly intended to inherit rule of Comstock, she knows astonishingly little about Columbia's prevailing theories, racial or otherwise. Perhaps the intention was for something else?
    
    
24. I mentioned before that this is before the Irish were considered white. That kinetiscope about the "Irish problem" could have been drawn directly from English pamphlets I've seen from the 19th century. Irish workhouses were a common thing in Britain and along the East Coast of the US, a "solution" to the "dissolute" Irish mucking up the slums.
    
    
25. That was indeed odd. Why would that woman (Esther) mistake Elizabeth for someone named Annabelle?
    
    Wildly Unsupported Theory #16: Elizabeth has a twin sister named Annabelle, who lives free in Columbia.
    
    Yeah, sorry, I have no idea what that means. I never said these were particularly good theories, after all.
    
    
26. We've seen several signs now for something called "Shock Jockey". What is it? At first I thought it was literally a "shock jock", ala Howard Stern, but even in Columbia I think that's too anachronistic. Some kind of machine perhaps? And tied, once more, to Fink Industries.
    
    This leads me to something else. Previously, I spoke about a reference to "Finkertons", which I took to be an obvious homage to Pinkertons. I think it's clear that I was mis-hearing a reference to "Finkton", which is plainly the heavy manufacturing district of Columbia, run by this "Fink" character. The women in the Arcade mentioned that a friend of theirs who was expecting a child but had no husband should disappear to Finkton for a while and return with nobody being the wiser. Finkton would therefore seem to be some sort of East End cognate, or New York's Bowery, a poor, immigrant-heavy place wherein people can disappear or engage in scandalous behavior without marring their reputation. Every city has one.
    
    
27. What was that song that Elizabeth (I think) was humming just after Booker passed through the turnstile?
    
    
28. Holy poo poo...
    
    "See the very dress worn by A. Comstock herself."
    
    Could A stand for Anna?
    
    Wildly Unsupported Theory #17: Anna DeWitt was Booker's wife, until she either left him or was taken from him (probably the former) and joined Comstock as his wife. Anna's therefore the connection between Booker and Comstock. She's how Comstock knows all about Booker. She's why Booker was chosen to come to Columbia in the first place. She's why Comstock knew that he would have an AD on his hand, and was able to predict that he would eventually arrive. She's the key to all of this!
    
    In fact...
    
    Wildly Unsupported Theory #18: Elizabeth is Anna's daughter. The ages are right, if she's roughly middle aged, and the portrait shows what I think to be a clear resemblance between the two of them. Comstock locked her away in the tower for purposes presently not in evidence, but clearly this had something to do with her special abilities to rip time portals open.
    
    And if that's true, then that means...
    
    Wildly Unsupported Theory #19: Elizabeth is Booker's daughter. I don't know why I didn't think of this possibility before, but it seems to fit. Anna was pregnant with Elizabeth when she left Booker. Perhaps this was the plan all along. Perhaps Comstock knew that Booker's daughter by Anna would be special, and had her get pregnant and then leave. Or perhaps something else was going on here. Either way, I don't think either Elizabeth or Booker know any of this yet. But it means Booker's trying to retrieve his own daughter from a totalitarian sky-fortress run by a dictatorial prophet for the benefit of some unknown party. Perhaps Lutesce? Where does she fit into all this? Need more evidence.
    
    
29. Something very odd in that conversation with the hot dog vendor. The man asks for Sauerkraut the way I might ask for illicit drugs. Is Sauerkraut illegal? Germans were not held in the highest regard either originally, but that had more or less ended by 1900 (new immigrant waves arrived to take the opprobrium). Moreover, the hot dog vendor tells the man the dog will be one dollar when the sign above his head clearly says that hot dogs cost $2. Is this all some kind of elaborate euphemistic drug deal? But then why would the dog be cheaper?
    
    
30. Wonderful use of sound design in the ticket station booth. The music stopping and the clock ticks echoing through the place. It seems clear now that Esther was a plant all along to get Elizabeth to tell her her name, so that she could run ahead and warn the authorities that Booker and Elizabeth were coming. So much for Theory 16. It might be that the strange hot dog conversation was two undercover agents trying, and failing, to act natural. Slightly annoying that Booker takes so long to catch on to what's happening here, but still a well designed sequence.
    
    Oh, and does anyone know what the violinist was playing before you entered the station? I couldn't recognize the song.
    
    EDIT:Esther was a plant then. Probably everyone in that last sequence was. A very nice Sting operation, that only failed because Booker has Protagonist Shields. It happens.
    
    
31. For a guy who just got stabbed through the hand, Booker sure doesn't have any problems shooting a gun with the same hand, now does he? And why exactly did Elizabeth run off? Did she just slip between the bars of the cage? I couldn't tell.
    
    
32. That may be the first time ever, in any context, I have heard someone refer to Congressmen as "righteous".
    
    

Sundowner fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Sep 11, 2013

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