History Headscratchers / Bioshock1

** You forgot one thing. It’s 1960. These things weren’t nearly the risk they are now. He’s popping up in a sub, he hardly is entering the country legally. You’d think that’s an issue, but it’s 1960. America wasn’t really all that responsible about people having documentation. As long as Jack never got arrested or tried to run for office, nobody was looking too hard. Many Americans his “age” had no birth certificate, as they were home births somewhere far from any place to get one. As such, it wasn’t too hard to claim to be a citizen and get new papers saying so. The PaedoHunt society hadn’t begun, so nobody was gonna be looking at him like that for having some daughters. Furthermore, he has science mom with him, so they just look like a normal het couple, and she does have papers of existence somewhere, so she could claim to be a refugee from WW2 who just never really got good documentation. It’s not really a lie. The US government would be chomping at the bit to hire her, as would every corporation, so funding wasn’t an issue. Jack has her for his medical needs, too. We know based on the ending cutscene she succeeds at that, as Jack’s daughters age to around their 40s before his death. On top of all that, yeah they have PTSD. In Jack’s case, he’d be more suspicious without it. The draft wasn’t abolished yet and we were still heavily involved in the Asian theater, so basically every man of his “age” has PTSD. As for his daughters? They were born in the early 50s. You’ll find more girls who were abused growing up in the 50s than weren’t thanks to the massively misogynistic culture, so once again, they’d be weirder without PTSD. Back in the 1960s, flying under the radar was so easy it was harder to not do it. After all, who was the Zodiac Killer?

** You forgot one thing. It’s 1960. These things weren’t nearly the risk they are now. He’s popping up in a sub, he hardly is entering the country legally. You’d think that’s an issue, but it’s 1960. America wasn’t really all that responsible about people having documentation. As long as Jack never got arrested or tried to run for office, nobody was looking too hard. Many Americans his “age” had no birth certificate, as they were home births somewhere far from any place to get one. As such, it wasn’t too hard to claim to be a citizen and get new papers saying so. The PaedoHunt society hadn’t begun, so nobody was gonna be looking at him like that for having some daughters. Furthermore, he has science mom with him, so they just look like a normal het couple, and she does have papers of existence somewhere, so she could claim to be a refugee from WW2 who just never really got good documentation. It’s not really a lie. The US government would be chomping at the bit to hire her, as would every corporation, so funding wasn’t an issue. Jack has her for his medical needs, too. We know based on the ending cutscene she succeeds at that, as Jack’s daughters age to around their 40s before his death. On top of all that, yeah they have PTSD. In Jack’s case, he’d be more suspicious without it. The draft wasn’t abolished yet and we were still heavily involved in the Asian theater, so basically every man of his “age” has PTSD. As for his daughters? They were born in the early 50s. You’ll find more girls who were abused growing up in the 50s than weren’t thanks to the massively misogynistic culture, so once again, they’d be weirder without PTSD.

** Not all of the tech is absolutely absurd. The drones are basically [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 Manhacks]] with guns, a small single bladed helicopter. It’s actually a pretty crap design, which is why modern drones (and helicopters) don’t do it. One blade is extremely unstable, and that’s actually accurately represented in their movement (same with the aforementioned Manhacks). The “security cameras” are only show to record by having lootable film. The other job of theirs is just motion detection. The DNA work is all explained by the work with ADAM and a lack of ethics allowing another ten years of Nazi-style science led by someone who openly rejected the pseudoscience eugenics beliefs of the Nazis without rejecting their lack of ethics, considering them effective but stupid. A competent mind with unlimited funding and no ethical constraints could make a lot of progress in the 1950s. The rest could be explained by Ryan poaching 1/3rd of the Nazis that Russia and America poached in the real world, as well as 100% of the ones that fled to South America. The same is likely true with Unit 731 of Japan and similar Imperial Japanese groups. Since the top scientific minds in the city weren’t led astray with pseudoscience and likely had these people working under them, it’s quite reasonable to assume they could use the talent of their poached scientists with as much effectiveness as the Soviet Union and America, without even the minuscule ethical constraints the superpowers occasionally chose to obey.

** Functioning security is nearby, which might explain why nobody’s managed to take over. How the hell is he not man soup yet? A few weeks of rot is enough to be more liquid than solid.

[[folder: Why did Jack have to become a big daddy?]]
* Why didn't one of the purified little sisters open the door like they did at the hideout? even on the evil path there are still the sisters Tenenbaum saved herself.
[[/folder]]

*** I can imagine that making it ''necessary'' instead of optional to kill a young child was the reason they cut it... although it would have been insanely awesome to have Big Brothers

[[folder: Why Were Little Sisters Wondering Rapture?]]

* In-universe, the Big Daddies were first created to repair Rapture from the outside and thus needed the suits to stand the high pressure (the reasoning for grafting the wearer's organs to the suit and altering their minds to create an armored monster is questionable) and later someone else got the idea to pair them with Little Sisters as bodyguards due to them being both heavily armored and equipped with tools that could double as weapons.

* Okay, so you've got these little mutant children going around sucking Mutant Juice out of corpses. Fine. And now you need bodyguards to protect them from wackos and pedophiles. Fine. And so your idea to engineer a bodyguard for this purpose is to... skin someone alive and steam-weld them to the inside of a diver's suit? I'm sorry, ''what?''

* Okay, so you've got these little mutant children going around sucking Mutant Juice out of corpses. And now you need bodyguards to protect them from wackos and pedophiles. Fine. And so your idea to engineer a bodyguard for this purpose is to... skin someone alive and steam-weld them to the inside of a diver's suit? I'm sorry, ''what?''

* Why the "would you kindly?" spoken by [[spoiler:Ryan]] TAKES AWAY control of the player completely but NOT when [[spoiler:Fountaine]] does it? We wouldn't have a game if we started the game and immediately loose control on the very beginning after hearing those words, i suppose? In fact, if the plan was to control the player with that, then how is it possible for [[spoiler:Ryan's]] use of that to be even MORE powerful than the one who actually planned to use it? AKA [[spoiler:FOUNTAINE]]

'''NOTE: If anyone has enough free time for it, please find some way to divide up this page, such as by sorting these questions into folders, or something like that.'''

* Did Sigma[[spoiler:/Porter]] ever have a Little Sister?
** WordOfGod is no, he never did. According to [[http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?78622-Introduction-time!-Steve-Gaynor-writer-Lead-Designer-of-Minerva-s-Den/page22 this thread]] over at the 2K forums, Sigma never got that far in the development stage. Maybe he was deemed unsuitable for some reason, or maybe by that point the Alpha Series had pretty much outlived its usefulness.

* A fairly minor one, but...in [=BioShock=] 2, while you're in Siren Alley, the part where you get locked in the maintenance area and have to defend yourself from a swarm of Spider Splicers? Sinclair sends you some items through the mail tube to help you defend yourself...except he's still trapped in that wrecked train car. How does he have access to a mail tube?
** Turn on radio. Call up [insert Rapture denizen who owes Sinclair a favor here]. Give him/her instructions and a pneumo address. Presto.

*** Re: Splicers swarming Jack in the Proving Grounds. The level is a training course for Daddies and Sisters, to make sure that all their mental conditioning stuck and that they were able to gather safely in Rapture's volatile environment. Maybe Splicers are kept in there specifically to attack the Sisters while they gather.

* Sparing Alexander, and condemning him to be a bloated fetus creature wracked with pain and insanity, is considered a good act. What the ''FUCK''.
** If anything, it comes off as a good act to kill him. I had no change in the ending when I killed him and when I spared him.
*** However, to get the achievement for being incredibly nice, letting him live is considered the good act. To me, it was a stark contrast to the other two non-Little Sister choices. Those were both choosing to turn the other cheek to someone who had wronged you, though not out of any actual malice. Killing Gil, on the other hand, came off strongly as a MercyKill. It just seems odd to judge that one as an evil act.
*** Yeah, that's my complaint as well. It just seems so arbitrary compared to the others, especially as he's trying to kill you just like the other Splicers!
*** Discussing about euthanasia is very risky business. There is a similar sub-quest in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' where you have to choose between disconnecting a brain-dead dude or leaving him be. No matter what you choose, your teammates will always say that's the right decision. By doing so, both in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' and in [=BioShock=] 2, the developers can hide their true beliefs. Thus, no one can say they are evil murderers or cruel bastards who leave people to suffer.
*** But this game doesn't do that; it goes the "evil murderers" route. Letting him live is good, and killing him is evil.
*** Umm, no, I did kill him on my first playthrough, let that black woman and that little asshole live, save the sisters and still get the good/best ending.
*** You can still get the good ''ending'', it's just the action itself that isn't considered "good". See the first two bullet points under the original issue. Also, if you look up the ways to get various endings, "killing people" and "sparing people" are clearly lumped together without regard for specifically which people are killed or spared (e.g. killing him and allowing the others to live can be enough to get you an evil variant on some endings, while you can get the "best" ending if you spared him, even if you killed the other two.)
*** I think the reason is because if you kill him, it seems like you believe that he's a lost cause. letting him live looks like he can be cured. Or just the fact that the sea will eventually reclaim the area and kill him, and killing him yourself just isn't good enough.
*** I think Gil Alexander's life parallels Johnny Topside's. After ADAM and plasmids changed them, they were completely different beings. If Johnny Topside didn't want to risk his life to save the daughter of his worst enemy, or didn't want to live as a mutated freak at all, then Delta wouldn't give a crap. Therefore, Gil Alexander's opinion should not affect your dealings with Alex the Great (although you might argue he should be killed anyway since he's irreparably insane and murderous).
*** Besides, killing isn't about "good" or "bad" - it's about mercy. IIRC, saving or killing people makes Eleanor decide that it's alright or not to kill people - the reason is what varies with the Little Sisters part. If you're a savior, she wants Lamb to redeem herself, and if you're evil, it's a bit of cruel mercy. Alternatively, she would also kill Lamb either out of justice or vengeance.
*** Actually, it's been stated that letting him live was supposed to be the evil option. It's because of a bug that letting him live in agony was the "good" option.
*** You know, now that I've gone through this stage myself, I have to say it's not as straightforward as it seemed, and I'm not so sure at all it can qualify as MercyKill. Yes, Alex was clearly not sane, but I didn't notice any indications that he was actually suffering. On the other hand, when you're about to pull the plug, what does he do? He ''pleads you to spare him''! If he values his own existance, what right do you have to dismiss it? Sure, Gil was urging you to kill him, but as he admitted himself "this man is long gone". Well then, this is a different person, and he doesn't get to dispose of his life. And besides, it's not like Alex was helpless. If he'd wanted to die, he could've easily pulled that plug himself. So, all in all, I didn't see much difference in his case from the previous ones - hell, that slimy prick whatshisname had personally betrayed you and caused your condition, so if I'm not killing him, then neither am I killing Alex, who hadn't done anything wrong to me personally (I don't count trying to kill me, for obvious reasons).