History BioShockInfinite / TropesQToZ

* StockholmSyndrome: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This was to have been Elizabeth's feelings toward Songbird]], which, during development, was described as being in love with a domestic abuser. It's mostly cut out of the final game.
** Near the end of the game, [[spoiler: despite the fact that her feelings towards Comstock are best described as "murderous rage", she seems visibly upset and conflicted as you drown the old man in his baptismal font. She even goes as far as to make a feeble attempt to stop you while you just keep laying into Comstock, out of your mind with fury]].

* RevolversAreJustBetter: While you do get a [[CoolGuns Mauser C96]] as your first sidearm, this trope pops up with the Paddywhacker revolver -- a gun so powerful, it's actually referred to in-game as the Paddywhacker HandCannon.

* ViolenceIsDisturbing: The game intentionally juxtaposes harsh, bloody, and [[LovecraftianSuperpower grotesque]] combat against the bright and colorful Americana aesthetic of Columbia, highlighting just how unwelcome Booker is in trying to complete his mission to rescue Elizabeth. Elizabeth ends up undergoing [[BreakTheCutie a particularly brutal arc]] as her [[ThePollyanna her wide-eyed innocence]] clashes with the intense violence and death happening around her, some by the people trying to recapture and imprison her, some [[TerrifyingRescuer by the person trying to protect and rescue her]]. You, the player, may likely stop doing brutal melee takedowns, if not for the messy up-close results, but probably because of Elizabeth [[YouBastard screaming and whimpering in fear at what you're doing.]]

* TakeThat: The game serves as a massive assault on the US civic religion, worshipping the founding fathers and assuming that they are the shining city on a hill from the Bible and can therefore do no wrong. It thus also serves as an attack on the strands of Christianity that have adopted Americanism as part of their faith and for Mormonism, which did so from the very beginning and then doubled down on it as a way to be accepted by the US during Utah's struggle to be adopted as a state. All of this despite the studio's efforts to ''avoid'' this sort of comparison by eschewing most of the overt religious iconography of Christianity, opting for a more Greco-Roman depiction of the founding fathers and Comstock as saviors.

* SceneryPorn[=/=]SceneryGorn: When you first enter Columbia, it resembles Heaven, almost literally. It slowly becomes Hell, almost literally.

** SuperEmpowering: The Boys of Silence are revealed to have Tear-inducing abilities similar to Elizabeth's [[spoiler: in the BadFuture. These were likely introduced to them at a young age through the intervention of that reality's Elizabeth, for the purpose of controlling the inmates of [[BedlamHouse Comstock House]]]].

** PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:[[MyGreatestFailure Literally]] with Vigors and related enhancements. It turns out that they are modified Plasmids, with the origin of the technology (Dr. Suchong's blueprints) being obtained through "[[RealityWarper tear-creating]]" powers siphoned from Elizabeth through her [[GirlInTheTower tower]]. Also, upon the destruction of the Siphon, we don't see any use of similar powers except by Elizabeth]].

** A police officer calls Elizabeth "Annabelle" at one point in order to verify her identity. [[spoiler:Not only is this a clue to Elizabeth's original name, Anna, but also the name of the character her actress played in an episode of Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer.]]

* TheTwentiethCentury: The game takes place in the TheEdwardianEra of 1912.

** There's also one Vox alighned female

* SequelDifficultySpike: Definitely harder than the previous two games. Death is no longer a slap on the wrist since you lose money and enemies regenerate their health when you die, upgrades are ''much'' more expensive, game breakers are fewer and farther in between as well as less breaky, enemies are more aggressive and take longer to kill, and that's not getting into [[SelfImposedChallenge 1999 Mode]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The game repeats the same scenario as Rapture in Columbia. The city is a miracle of technology, presenting itself as a divine haven far from the sins of the world below... [[DeliberateValuesDissonance with the same racism, imperialism, antisemitism, and xenophobia as 1912 America]]. So not only does it get used as essentially a floating WMD ([[spoiler:more than once in the BadFuture]]), but despite in theory being only open to [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASPs]] they still need labourers, hence the oppressed underclass of "negroes" and "potato eaters", and the inevitable civil war that boils over because of their treatment.
** Songbird is big, he's powerful, he lurks as a threat in the background of most of the game, he's intimately tied to the backstory of the deuteragonist, and everyone with even a passing knowledge of VideoGameTropes expects him to be fought in a big ClimaxBoss or even FinalBoss battle. But Booker, for all his tricks, is still just a single human, and Songbird is still a [[GiantFlyer giant flying]] LightningBruiser that's ImmuneToBullets, so every time they cross paths Booker barely escapes with his life, incapable of doing the slightest shred of damage to Songbird. He's only defeated by [[spoiler:a temporary HeelFaceTurn and then by dropping him at ''the bottom of the ocean'' since Songbird was not designed to withstand water pressure. Any timeline where Booker tried to fight Songbird directly quickly ended with Booker being torn to pieces]].
** The US government wasn't aware that Columbia had weapons capabilities. When the city got involved in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion Boxer Rebellion]], Congress was ''not'' happy with Comstock, and ordered him to return to the US. And when Comstock refused to return, the government declared that the entire city of Columbia had gone rogue, and cut all official ties with it. Even in the early 20th century, such a massive weapon would be a major liability to any sane government.
** After Elizabeth killed [[spoiler:Daisy Fitzroy]], the Vox Populi don't simply [[DecapitatedArmy pack up and surrender]]. Not only did the character's death fail to stop the Vox Populi's actions, but they are now even a bigger threat since [[spoiler: Daisy is no longer controlling them]].

* UpToEleven: The powers in this game are much flashier, faster, and stronger than the ones before it. The civil war and the open setting (as opposed to Rapture's environment) means larger-scale combat with more 3-dimensional movement (best exemplified by sky-rail combat).