Line #128 BioShockInfinite/TropesQToZ


1	[[VideoGame/BioShockInfinite Main Page]] \| BioShockInfinite/TropesAToH \| BioShockInfinite/TropesIToP \| '''Tropes Q-Z''' \| ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea''
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3	!!!''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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5	[[foldercontrol]]
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7	[[folder:Q]]
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9	* QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything: All the superpowers, SchizoTech, MindScrew, and even the floating buildings in the game? It's all done with quantum mechanics... though the way the Lutece twins mention how it's done, it almost sounds like they don't believe it either - most of the technology, as well as most of ''pop culture'' is actually the result of using quantum mechanics to spy on other realities. It's still a well-researched and presented example, though, particularly the part about [[MundaneUtility particle levitation]], as well as this exchange:
10	-->'''Robert:''' Dead is dead. ''[holds a coin between him and Rosalind]'' \
11	'''Rosalind''': ''I'' see heads.\
12	'''Robert''': And ''I'' see tails.\
13	'''Rosalind''': It's all a matter of perspective.
14	* QuickMelee: The skyhook can be immediately brought out by pressing "V" on the PC, "Y" on the Xbox 360, and the triangle button on the [=PS3=].
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18	[[folder:R]]
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20	* RageAgainstTheHeavens: A metaphorical take on it, especially once the Vox takes center stage. Columbia is set up as being Heaven and Comstock as God of that Heaven. The members of the Vox start wearing devil costumes and covering their faces with blood or red paint when they start their revolution to bring Columbia to its knees. Even more appropriate, Booker is considered to be Satan/the Anti-Christ (the "False Shepherd") by Comstock.
21	* RandomDrop: Several of the Gear pickups Booker finds will be different on each playthrough, and even in different loads of the same file, although others are always the same.
22	* RandomTransportation: Elizabeth and Booker travel to alternate realities during the course of the story due to Elizabeth's ability to open tears. It's implied, however, that she has no control over ''which'' reality the pair enters until near the end of the game.
23	* RealityWarper: Elizabeth's powers. [[spoiler:And, through power siphoning, Comstock's visions and the Vigors and Infusions themselves]].
24	* RecursiveAmmo: The Murder of Crows Vigor can be upgraded so that its victims' corpses become Vigor Traps. It's probably one of the most efficient ways to kill off a bunch of enemies with the least amount of Salts.
25	* RecycledInSpace: ''[=BioShock=] Infinite'' is ''[=BioShock=]'' [-IN THE SKY-]. Or, going further back, ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' [-NOT QUITE IN SPACE-]. In the ending Elizabeth points out [[spoiler: a number of elements remain constant in each of the alternate universes. There's always a man, a lighthouse and a city.]]
26	* RedEyesTakeWarning: The Songbird. It has three settings, shown via its eyes: green for at ease, orange for on guard, and red for hostile. Guess what color its eyes are for most of its screentime.
27	* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Elizabeth's powers. While they're a big deal, the game initially leads you to believe that they're the reason she's important and why everyone wants her. In fact, they're the result of a totally unrelated accident -- Rosalind Lutece was able to use the devices you see in her lab to open tears even without her (that was how she got her brother and Elizabeth in the first place), while Comstock wants her solely because he believes that he needs a daughter of his bloodline to rule Columbia after his death]].
28	* RedRightHand: Inverted. Our ''heroes'' have identifying marks that give them away to anyone looking for them. Booker has the letters '''AD''' branded on the back of his right hand, and Elizabeth has lost most of her right pinky finger very early in her life.
29	* ReducedToRatburgers: Rats can be seen on the dinner plates of Columbia's poor in [[CompanyTown Shantytown]].
30	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Vigors are implied to be used for their MundaneUtility and are commonplace (Vigors can be found sitting in the street), however, other than two of the Heavy Hitters, no enemy mooks choose to use Vigors against Booker (despite the Vox explicitly capturing a facility that manufactures them).
31	* RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth: Played straight, though Booker does not begin with the shield part until a little way into the game. The shield in question is {{handwave}}d as some kind of Vigor which generates a [[BulletDodgesYou bullet-deflecting magnetic field]].
32	* [[RenegadeSplinterFaction Renegade Flying City]]: Columbia "seceded" from the US after what happened in Beijing, China, although there are hints suggesting that relations between the government and Comstock's Founders were growing strained until that point. Despite splintering off, Columbia follows an extreme, idealized version of American Exceptionalism.
33	* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: One interpretation of the ending.
34	* ResurrectionSickness: If someone dies in one universe and then you use a Tear to travel to another universe where the dead person is still alive, their minds get merged. This unfortunately, causes the person to remember their deaths, which breaks their minds and leaves them catatonic.
35	* RetGone: [[spoiler:In the end, [[EvilMeScaresMe Comstock]], Columbia and Elizabeth as we know her due to Booker's HeroicSacrifice destroying Comstock, who would go on to build the city in the first place. As this would also prevent Booker from ever selling his daughter, that would mean the entire plot doesn't happen either, which may be a plausible explanation for the after-credit scene. The implication is that the only Booker [=DeWitts=] left to possibly exist are ones that never saw the point of baptism or didn't have the inclination to go through with it]].
36	* {{Retraux}}: To fit the theme, [=GameInformer=] drew [[http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/irrational/bioshockinfinite/infinitespreadv2.jpg two]] [[http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/bioshock-infinite-game-informer-cover.jpg covers]] in the style of ''The Saturday Evening Post'', popular in 1912.
37	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tMjyGJdzwk Two of]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zin6aKnJM5Q the trailers]] went for the feel of a [[TheSeventies 1970's]] conspiracy television show in the style of ''Series/InSearchOf'', with grainy visuals, crackling audio, and a VanityPlate at the beginning.
38	** In-game Kinetoscopes continue this trend, being short silent propaganda films with only piano music.
39	** The Vigor Kinetoscopes are done in the style of period film shorts and commercials.
40	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The Vox Populi winds up no better than the Founders.
41	** One Vox soldier is heard instructing his fellows to shoot anyone who "looks like they might be trouble. Anyone with a gun, anyone with glasses..." Pol Pot reference!
42	** This quote from a Vox Motorized Patriot, considering [[DirtyCommunists what it]] [[Literature/AnimalFarm alludes to]].
43	-->'''Motorized Patriot:''' ''The farm is now run by the pigs!''
44	* RevolversAreJustBetter: While you do get a 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.
45	* RightWayWrongWayPair: Dimwit and Duke. These children's characters are meant to teach Columbia's youth about the Columbian ways of life, with Duke representing the "correct" way.
46	* RoaringRampageOfRescue: Booker [[spoiler: busting Elizabeth out of Comstock House]].
47	** This part of the game even becomes one for the ''player'', as the game's writing and character development attempts to invoke such an emotional response.
48	** [[spoiler: The whole ''game'' turns out to have been one once you reach TheReveal]].
49	* RuleOfCool[=/=]RuleOfFun: Why don't Booker or Elizabeth or anyone dislocate their shoulders when leaping from rail to rail? Who cares!
50	* RuleOfSymbolism: It's not a Ken Levine game if it wasn't! Plenty is made of Christian symbolism (and perversions thereof), motifs of red representing the Vox, the "lamb", et cetera.
51	* RuleOfThree: Booker is drowned three times. Once at the beginning when he's baptized, after getting Elizabeth when they splash in Battleship Bay, and at the end [[spoiler: when he's drowned by Elizabeth]].
52	** Booker is baptized three times - on entry to Columbia, after Wounded Knee (the first chronologically, the second in-game), and [[spoiler:when Elizabeth drowns him.]]
53	** There are many other instances of this in the game. For example, [[spoiler:you must find three truths to bring Lady Comstock to peace, you visit three distinct versions of Columbia, three interconnected characters get drowned to death in the story, and so on]].
54	** There is also a recurring visual motif of three heads side by side, seen with Comstock House's Mount Rushmore-like entrance, and at the end of the game, when [[spoiler: Booker is drowned by three alternate reality Elizabeths]].
55	** Songbird has three modes, peaceful (green), guarding (orange) and attacking (red).
56	** The Founding Fathers of Columbia are three, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, and are associated with the Sword, Key and Scroll, respectively.
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58	[[/folder]]
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60	[[folder:S]]
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62	* TheSavageIndian: The Wounded Knee [[http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130416121304/bioshock/images/5/5b/Tukfutkfyu.jpg exhibit]] at Hall of Heroes portrays Native Americans as savages with glowing eyes.
63	-->'''Motorized Patriot''': With hue and cry, with hatchet red, they danced among our noble dead. But when our soldiers took the field, the Savage horde can only yield.
64	* ScareChord: Since combat always has music, chords are used as both a dramatic effect and audio cue to let you know you made a kill, or your shield is lost. Even the sound that confirms that all enemies are dead is one.
65	* SceneryPorn: When you first enter Columbia, it resembles Heaven, almost literally.
66	-->'''Booker''': Where am I?\
67	'''Parishioner''': You're in Heaven, friend, or at least as close as we'll get 'til Judgement Day.
68	* SceneryGorn: [[spoiler:Columbia is in an utterly deplorable state in the game’s final act due to the Vox Populi’s uprising. Emporia has you place through the devastated city while the final battle on board The Hand of the Prophet is set against a backdrop of Columbia as a smoldering ruin.]]
69	* ScenicTourLevel: Hoo boy. The game starts off with one of the longest in recent history, with not just the entrance into Columbia from a lighthouse overlooking a stormy sea, but also you spending a good deal of time walking round trying to get your bearings. Even if you're rushing it'll take about 20 minutes to get to the first combat. And in later levels this pops up ''again''.
70	* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Certain enemies do this when you use a Sky-Line Strike on them.
71	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Related to OutOfFocus. Eventually, pretty much all Booker and Elizabeth care about is escaping Columbia and letting it implode before it can take them with it. Though not without trying to take out Comstock once and for all.
72	* ScienceIsBad: Don't let the Founders' religious zealotry fool you, they fully embrace science. The worst kind of science out there. Just look the cruel experiments Elizabeth was forced to endure both as a child and an adult.
73	* SecretTest: When Booker is about to enter the Good Time Club, the villain Fink tells him over the PA system that "The best kind of interview is one where the applicant doesn't know he's being evaluated." When Booker enters the audience area he attacked by a series of opponents. After the end of the fight he learns that Fink was testing him for the job of Head of Security for Fink Enterprises.
74	* SeeTheInvisible: The city of Columbia has a number of telescopes scattered around it that Booker can look through. If Booker looks through the telescope in the Town Center he can see the spectral Luteces, though he can't see them when he isn't using it.
75	* SelfDeprecation:
76	** Elizabeth comments on the newest Duke and Dimwit cabinet.
77	---> '''Elizabeth''': Look! ''Flawless Flintlock''. It's the newest one in the series. [[DevelopmentHell I heard it was delayed three times]].
78	** [[spoiler:In the ending when Elizabeth teleports the two to Rapture and they head topside]].
79	--->'''Booker''': [[spoiler:City at the bottom of the ocean]]? [[ArbitrarySkepticism Ridiculous.]]
80	* SelfFulfillingProphecy: [[spoiler:What all of Comstock's prophecies boil down to. He's using the Luteces' machine to see into alternate realities. He sees that his daughter will eventually lead Columbia, but using the machine has made him sterile, so he decides to buy his daughter from an alternate self who never became Comstock. It's [[MindScrew a little confusing to wrap your head around at first]] since it also qualifies as YouAlreadyChangedThePast and YouCantFightFate]].
81	** There's a hint that this is entirely intentional on his part; [[spoiler:one of Rosalind Lutece's Voxophones notes that Comstock doesn't realize that Tears only reveal possibilities and not absolute certainties]].
82	* SelfImposedChallenge: The rare official variety, which was added to combat ComplacentGamingSyndrome. Veteran gamers who didn't like the instaspawn of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' can play [[http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/16214/veteran-gamers-will-get-a-system-shock-with-1999-mode-in-bioshock-infinite 1999 Mode]]. Gotta pick specializations, and stick with them, for better or worse. If you don't have the resources when you're killed, it's GameOver (which is a homage to ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', where same thing happened if you didn't have enough nanites).
83	** That's not all. You can get an achievement for completing 1999 Mode without buying anything from Dollar Bill machines. Given that they sell health packs, salts, and ammunition (and are the only machines that do), it's fitting that the achievement's called "Scavenger Hunt." Because you'll be hard-pressed to get through without scrounging for every bag of chips, soda pop, and bullet you can find.
84	* SenselessViolins: In the [[spoiler: ticket booth]] ambush, some Founder soldiers hide shotguns in violin cases in order to look like normal civilians.
85	* 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]].
86	* SequelHook: Possibly. [[spoiler: TheStinger after the credits has Booker waking up in his office and running to check Anna's crib, but cuts off before we see her. However, as noted elsewhere on this page, there are several other ways to interpret this scene]].
87	* SequenceBreaking: The second half of the ScenicTourLevel[[note]]i.e. purchasing the Possession Vigor, the heads-or-tails dialog with the Luteces, participating in the LotteryOfDoom, acquiring the Sky-Hook and Devil's Kiss[[/note]] can be easily skipped by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9qFzCme-Q using the Possession billboard as a platform to jump out of bounds]], which drops you later in the game (where you'd normally fight the EliteMook who drops Devil's Kiss) with no enemies. Of course, this also means that the already frustrating EarlyGameHell becomes even more so; since you don't have a pistol or Vigors, you have to do the Blue Ribbon level armed only with a low-ammo machine gun from the first Mook you [[DeathFromAbove Skyline Strike]]. Thankfully, the game gives you the Sky-Hook during its tutorial, and the Possession and Devil's Kiss vigors can be purchased from Veni Vidi Vigor.
88	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Downplayed, though traces of it are present in texts and even dialogue. Justified in that the game (largely) takes place in 1912, when such Victorian-esque tendencies were still fairly common.
89	* SetAMookToKillAMook: Once you acquire the Possession Aid upgrade, you can turn people into allies. Once possessed, they will attack all the enemies they can until they are either slain during combat or the effects wear off (and kill themselves).
90	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler:The reason the Luteces brought Booker to the Columbia timeline in the first place, which he doesn't remember: to save his daughter from Comstock after having sold her away for his debts. The only way to do this is to [[HeroicSacrifice break]] the StableTimeLoop leading to Comstock's existence]].
91	* ShootTheShaggyDog: The entire game is a desperate attempt to avert this, [[spoiler:with the implication that it has gone this way in an infinite number of other universes, and that the best outcome is for the story to never have happened in the first place]].
92	* ShopliftAndDie: This happens if you try to steal from the Graveyard Shift bar, or if you even go near an infusion in Shantytown.
93	* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted. The shotgun is still pretty good at medium range.
94	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: You are gonna get quite attached to the China Broom. There's also the Vox Heater, a blunderbuss that blasts napalm all over everything in a wide cone in front of you -- difficult to use with proper timing, but a real street-sweeper when you do.
95	* ShoutOut:
96	** 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''.]]
97	** [[https://benlo.carbonmade.com/projects/4115314 A cover]] of ''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'' featuring the game has Booker and Elizabeth standing in front of wanted posters of themselves in a homage to [[ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast Uncanny X-Men #141]].
98	** At one point the Luteces can be heard discussing [[Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse the grammatical tense implications of time travel]].
99	** The part where Booker opens the door at the top of the lighthouse is one to the end of Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind.
100	** The year [[spoiler: Columbia attacks New York]] is [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]].
101	** The Barbershop Quartet in the beginning of the game is named [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons The "BEE" Sharps]] in an earlier build.
102	** At one point, Elizabeth says that if Daisy Fitzroy gets her guns, there would be a revolution like in ''Literature/LesMiserables''.
103	** The code used to activate a locked elevator is [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution 0]][[VideoGame/DeusEx 4]][[VideoGame/BioShock1 5]][[VideoGame/SystemShock 1]].
104	** Two seemingly unimportant characters who wander in and out of the narrative, having disjointed philosophical conversations about the meaning of fate and flipping a coin which always turns up heads, and play a part in [[spoiler:an absolute MindScrew of the ending]]? [[Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead You don't say]].
105	** At one point a sentient gate is unswervingly cheerful despite mistaking Elizabeth for [[spoiler:her mother]] Lady Comstock, who's been dead for years, and remarks that it's nice she took the trouble to come back. Makes you wonder if it has a [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Genuine People Personality prototype]] installed.
106	** The government of Columbia, which encourages its people to remain content and keep their mind off any real problems, employs police enforcers known as [[Literature/{{Fahrenheit 451}} "Firemen" whose job is to start fires rather than put them out]].
107	** [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130401100959/bioshock/images/8/86/Motorized_Patriot.jpg Motorized Patriots]] bear a similarity with the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''. Their [[MoreDakka Gatling gun]] is a dead giveaway.
108	** The indoctrination video, with hideously distorted classical music, demoralizing voiceover, and subliminal messages, is one to ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' and ''Series/{{Lost}}''.
109	** The ''Infinite'' title is one to ''{{VideoGame/Marathon}}: Infinity''. Both have a fair number of dimensional hopping, {{mind screw}}s, alternate timelines, events being repeated, [[spoiler:a MindScrew ending where a character who's been with you the entire time muses on all the multiverses and the main character's death, as their universe collapses]].
110	** The sandwich board Robert Lutece wears in one of the encounters [[spoiler:implies Booker has been slain 122 times, the same number of multiversal victims killed in Film/TheOne]].
111	** Daisy, at one point, says the only advantage colored children get is that they are "invisible" - ignored by society. This is the definition used in Literature/InvisibleMan - a minority completely ignored by society.
112	** It's [[VideoGame/Persona4Arena not the first time]] a guy voiced by Creator/TroyBaker has encountered a powerful, other-dimensional girl in blue named Elizabeth. In Japanese, both Elizabeths are voiced by Creator/MiyukiSawashiro.
113	** Probably a coincidence, but Creator/TroyBaker just can't seem to get away from [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity coin-flipping.]]
114	** Comstock and [=DeWitt=] are two characters that can be found in a book in ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2''.
115	** The [[spoiler:ending wherein the protagonist realizes that his very existence is causing all kinds of problems for a girl and chooses death to break the cycle]] is somewhat similar to [[spoiler:one of the endings of]] ''Film/TheButterflyEffect''. In a twist, however, [[spoiler:the girl's existence is also undone by this act... well, possibly not entirely]].
116	** The open-ended aspect of both the ending and TheStinger is reminiscent of ''Film/{{Inception}}'', with both works using a SmashCut to black to maintain the possibilities of different interpretations.
117	** During the section where the game is showing off Elizabeth's powers to open Tears, she opens up one with a view out to the streets of Paris. In the top right-hand corner, a theatre appears to be showing "[[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi La Revanche Du Jedi]]". (Shortly afterward, Booker even mutters, [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack "This job's getting worse all the time."]])
118	** On the beach, when Elizabeth runs off, she runs off and starts dancing to old-timey music with a group of people. [[Series/{{Firefly}} What other series had a girl with phenomenal powers experimented on by an evil government entity, be rescued, have a thing for dresses and leather boots, and having been planned to be used as a weapon, as well as do that?]] Right. Firefly, with River Tam doing all of that. [[spoiler: Bonus points: it's a family member who rescues her in both situations.]]
119	** Right outside the first shop you are likely to check out after entering Columbia there is a toy/child-sized "ordinary" (penny-farthing) bicycle. [[Series/ThePrisoner1967 Those were going out of style 25 years before 1912, I wonder what it means?]])
120	* ShownTheirWork: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkl6HrlP1zw The 2011 VGA trailer]] used a rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" by the lead voice actors, which drew ire from [[MoralGuardians religious groups]] for removing a lyric with the word "lord." That's an error; the lyric was added in the Carter Family rendition "Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)", [[NewerThanTheyThink recorded in 1935]]. The devs merely used the original hymn unaltered... and it's also possible that they knew exactly what they were doing.
121	** The absence of the added lyric also becomes obvious when one discovers that it's being used by the Founders' religion, who worship "Father" Comstock and the Founding Fathers of America instead of Jesus Christ.
122	** Ken Levine actually [[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-videogames-protest-idUSTRE7AM2M220111123 visited the Occupy Wall Street protests in Boston]] in order to make the atmosphere of the protests depicted in the game more authentic.
123	** The throwaway barbershop cover of "God Only Knows" is much more than that: it was written by Clay Hine, a world-champion barbershopper, and performed by his quartet Category 4, using stylisms and musical vernacular accurate to the 1910s. (They have also recorded it for modern audiences, and the differences in pacing are quite obvious even if the notes are the same.)
124	* ShowWithinAShow: The Dimwit and Duke series of arcade machines and advertising posters, which are meant to teach kids to be good patriots and how to and how not to do things.
125	* SignatureStyle: Ken Levine's writing for ''[=BioShock=] Infinite'' echoes some of the things shown in his previous works. For example, the idea of taking a setting in a particular era and finding a way to [[RippedFromTheHeadlines tie it into something contemporary]] (stem-cell research in the original ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' and political extremism in ''Infinite'') so as to better connect the audience with the story. His penchant for {{deconstruction}} shows up here to, deconstructing MissionControl in ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' and ''[=BioShock=]'', utopianism in ''[=BioShock=]'', and American Exceptionalism in ''Infinite''.
126	* SignificantMonogram: The initials 'AD' on Booker's right hand stand for [[spoiler:the name of Booker's daughter, Anna [=DeWitt=], whom he sold to pay off his debts]].
127	* SkyCell: The citizens of Columbia have done this to themselves out of extreme xenophobia. Booker is infiltrating it to get what may be the only sane person left out.
128	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: '''Firmly''' on the cynical side as shown under YouCantFightFate. TheMultiverse is a brutal and heartless place, and it's only by sticking to the ultimate sacrifice can you even ''hope'' to atone for your past sins.
129	* SmokingIsCool: The "Minor Victory" brand of cigarettes use this. The citizens of Columbia still don't smoke as much as the citizens of Rapture did.
130	* SniperScopeGlint: Enemy snipers' rifles will produce glints that help the player to target them.
131	* SniperRifle[=/=]SniperDuel: The first time you encounter a sniper, Elizabeth grabs a sniper rifle so you can Counter-snipe, but you don't need to accept it.
132	* SoiledCityOnAHill: Columbia. City of progress, of beauty, of... unbridled and unapologetic racism.
133	* SoloSequence: You play as just Booker, without Elizabeth, at two occasions: before you find her (obviously) and late in the game, when [[spoiler:she is finally recaptured by the Songbird and taken back to Comstock's labs]]. The latter section also doubles as a StealthBasedMission, since you are strapped for ammo without Elizabeth resupplying you and the enemies are numerous, yet easy to bypass with the right timing.
134	* SpySpeak: Only obvious in hindsight, but you'll see a few instances of this just before you walk into a trap, as some characters making small talk are trying to be inconspicuous about the fact they're watching you. One guy trying to order a hot dog casually but stumbling through it, for example.
135	* {{Squick}}: In-universe example, every time you brutally murder someone with the Sky-Hook melee weapon, Elizabeth says things like, "Oh my God!". Kind of appropriate given you're typically tearing people's heads off.
136	* StableTimeLoop: Despite dimension-hopping shenanigans, the major events and set pieces of the game do not change all that much, and Elizabeth says outright there's [[spoiler:"always a man, always a lighthouse, always a city."]] In the end, it's revealed [[spoiler:the entirety of the events are caused by Booker attending the baptism -- which spawns countless iterations of the game's events. The only way to stop it is drown Booker at his baptism]].
137	* TheStationsOfTheCanon: An ''official'' example. Practically the Laconic of this game as a whole. They even count as ArcWords.
138	* StatusQuoIsGod: After Elizabeth [[spoiler:is tortured by Comstock and kills multiple surgeons with a tornado]], it's easy to think she TookALevelInBadass. But once the fighting starts again, she returns to being the girl who throws health kits and Salts. Arguably justified in that Elizabeth clearly doesn't seem to have the stomach for murder like he does.
139	* StealthHiBye: The Luteces have a tendency to do this.
140	* StealthPun:
141	** One of the ambient NPC conversations at the fair says that before the Lamb was born, Monument Island had been the waystation for immigrants to the city. [[VisualPun It's an island]]... [[DontExplainTheJoke in the shape of an angel]].[[note]][[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Immigration_Station,_Angel_Island Angel Island]] was the immigration waystation for immigrants, primarily Asian, entering San Francisco at the turn of the century.[[/note]]
142	** There's a voxophone by Robert Cunningham that was made after the Luteces informed him they [[spoiler:were killed by Fink]]. What is the voxophone titled? "The Customer is '''Late'''"
143	* StealthSequel: Takes place before ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', doesn't take place in Rapture, no ADAM, no Big Daddies or Little Sisters, it's not apparent that it's anything more than a SpiritualSuccessor to ''[=BioShock=]'' until [[spoiler:Elizabeth teleports you to Rapture]]. However, the DownloadableContent shows it's more of a [[InvertedTrope Stealth Prequel]].
144	* SteamPunk: Columbia was made as flying monument of American Exceptionalism, [[spoiler:and a secret superweapon]]. The inhabitants live in a Edwardian Era steam punk society, [[spoiler:mixed with some bits from the modern era, which are taken from Tears, that lead to the future]].
145	* TheStinger: Reviewers advise players to stick around after the credits. [[spoiler:We get a short scene set in Booker's office in 1893, in which he gets up and checks Anna's room; however, the scene ends right as the crib (but not Anna) comes into view. It's ''extremely'' open-ended, hence the numerous theories about it scattered across this page]].
146	* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: In the lighthouse, when the chair with the very obvious automatic manacles on its arms appears, Booker plops down and perfectly places his wrists to be trapped, despite probably every player yelling at the screen to keep his arms to himself. Granted, they're actually just safety restraints - if his hands ''weren't'' strapped in, he would have fallen into the engine - and the rocket may well be wired not to fly without wrists inside them, but you can't even attempt to avoid getting restrained.
147	* StylisticSuck: While it doesn't "suck" by any means, a behind-the-scenes clip shown during the game's credits of Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper practicing "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" ends with Levine asking them to sound less professional, more like the amateurs their characters would be. In the final version, Baker is casually strumming (and no longer singing backup), Draper's voice cracks a couple times, and their rhythms don't always sync up.
148	** There's an amusing exchange in the clip where Levine tells them not to sound so much like "Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow," and Draper makes a big show of being offended that Baker gets to be Eric Clapton while she's just Sheryl Crow.
149	* 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]]]].
150	* SuperpoweredMooks: The Firemen use the Devil's Kiss Vigor, the Zealots use the Murder of Crows Vigor, and the Handymen are powered by Shock Jockey.
151	* SurplusDamageBonus: The aptly named [[NoKillLikeOverkill Overkill]] gear allows Booker to shock several enemies when making a kill with more damage than necessary, thus making it even easier to score an Overkill on them.
152	* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: Wide open spaces filled with tears are a surefire indication that ''something'' is going to try to kill you, and will probably have significant backup.
153	** If you find a Sniper Rifle lying around, chances are you'll need it very soon.
154	** If you see a Tear for a Gun Turret or a Patriot, not only will you need it, but activating it will cause it to start the fight, which is good for early-jumping ambushes.
155	** Whenever you pick a new Vigor, chances are that you'll need to use them very soon.
156	* SymbolicBaptism: Zachary Comstock's baptism after partaking in the [[UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans Wounded Knee Massacre]] marks his StartOfDarkness as he reforms into a radical with murderous zeal. After TheReveal that [[spoiler: protagonist Booker [=DeWitt=]]] is Comstock from an alternate universe who wasn't baptized, Elizabeth decides to prevent Comstock from being "born" and drown all possible versions of him at his baptism.
157
158	[[/folder]]
159
160	[[folder:T]]
161	* TakeMeInstead: After Booker wins Columbia's "raffle", it turns out his "prize" is the "honor" of being the first person to throw a baseball at a mixed-race couple who have been tied up. This trope ensues when the "groom" of the couple keeps asking everyone to let the bride go, ''he's'' the one they want. He's rather vague as to why he would be more "guilty" in their eyes than the bride, but it can be inferred that he may have been the first one to confess his love and thus have "made the first move" to begin the relationship.
162	* TapOnTheHead: At one point Elizabeth hits Booker in the head with a wrench and knocks him out cold for a while. When he wakes up he's been captured by Daisy Fitzroy's Vox Populi troops.
163	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: After learning what Booker wants with her, Elizabeth wants nothing to do with him. But they still have to cooperate to escape Columbia.
164	* TemporalSickness: "Reconciliation sickness", a condition that results from trying to reconcile memories of two different timelines. Symptoms can be as minimal as a simple nosebleed to more extreme cases of being torn being two existences while bleeding from every orifice.
165	* TemporalSuicide: It's revealed that [[spoiler: Booker Dewitt and Father Comstock are the same man, the only thing separating them is a decision. After the battle of Wounded Knee Booker refused his baptism while Comstock went through with it. Near the end of the game Booker drowns Comstock on his airship before allowing himself to be drowned moments later to kill Comstock in other timelines where he exists.]]
166	* TestYourStrengthGame: One of the attractions at the Raffle fair is a High Striker. Booker can pick up a large mallet and hit a board, which will send the weight up and hit the bell.
167	* ThatSoundsFamiliar: The four notes Booker plays on the Whistler [[spoiler:to summon the Songbird to destroy the siphon tower]] are similar to the starting notes of the Christian hymn "The Holly And The Ivy".
168	* TheEndingChangesEverything: '''Good God.''' The ending of the game is the most talked about feature of the game and it comes as no surprise when the ending reveals that: [[spoiler: Comstock was Booker in an alternate reality where he didn’t decline the baptism. Comstock took, either by force or through buying, Booker’s daughter, Anna (also Elizabeth). Booker went on a cycle of trying to get her back that never ended and always ended up the same. In the end, he let himself be killed at the point where he turned into Comstock, and thus everything “Comstock related” died. He became himself in his last pure, Comstock-less memory, which was him with baby Anna.]]
169	* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Naturally part of [[spoiler:Elizabeth's first murder]], though the words aren't spoken aloud. The "wiping the blood off" aspect of the trope is symbolized by her [[spoiler: changing out of her blood-covered clothes]] afterwards.
170	* ThisIsADrill: The Sky-Hook is a spinning three-hooked deal that attaches to your left arm; not a ''standard'' drill-arm but a conceptual cousin to it. It's seen being used as a melee weapon long before its intended actual use, riding around on the sky-rails. It can grind its way through people's faces or snap their necks with relative ease. [[MythologyGag The first kill even has the same animation used by Big Daddies, and the sound effect of the slooooow whirring is very close to a drill]].
171	* ThoseMagnificentFlyingMachines: The Mosquitoes. These are flying turrets suspended by balloons. They will [[MoreDakka repeatedly fire upon you]] as soon as they spot you.
172	* ThrowAwayGuns: Given how low the spare ammo count on weapons is and the [[AvertedTrope aversion]] of HyperspaceArsenal, this will likely be done by the player frequently, discarding spent weapons to pick up another fallen weapon. This can be somewhat mitigated by Elizabeth scavenging ammo for Booker or the use of vending machines, but these are not always an available option.
173	* ThrowTheBookAtThem: Elizabeth's first reaction when Booker comes crashing into her library? Pelt him with books! Well, they were her most immediately available weapon.
174	* TigerByTheTail: While Booker is infiltrating Monument Island to rescue Elizabeth, he learns that the rulers of Columbia have expended a great deal of money and effort to imprison her. She has tremendous power they want to control, but are also scared of. He finds a voxophone left by a janitor who works there. Its message explains the dilemma the Columbian leaders are in.
175	-->'''Ty Bradley:''' But I can tell they scared out of their wits by that thing they got locked upstairs. Yes, sir. They got a tiger by the tail, and they don't know whether to hang on...or run.
176	* TimeTravelTenseTrouble:
177	** Robert and Rosalind Lutece have this argument [[spoiler: once you realize they're pretty much UnstuckInTime]]. At one point they even say that they need a grammar professor as this is the kind of thing they would love explaining.
178	--->'''Robert:''' I told you they'd come.\
179	'''Rosalind:''' No, you didn't.\
180	'''Robert:''' Right. I was ''going'' to tell you they'd come.\
181	'''Rosalind:''' But you didn't.\
182	'''Robert:''' But I don't.\
183	'''Rosalind:''' You sure that's right?\
184	'''Robert:''' I was going to ''have'' told you they'd come?\
185	'''Rosalind:''' No.\
186	'''Robert:''' The subjunctive?\
187	'''Rosalind:''' That's not the subjunctive.\
188	'''Robert:''' I don't think the syntax has been invented yet.\
189	'''Rosalind:''' It would have had to have had been.\
190	'''Robert:''' "Have had to have..?" That can't be right.
191	** Then they say this:
192	--->'''Robert:''' If we could perceive time as it really was--\
193	'''Rosalind:''' Then what reason would grammar professors have to get out of bed?
194	** And in the very beginning of the game they get into a confusion about whether Booker rows the boat or whether Booker rows the boat, in the form that Rosalind thinks that Booker ''will'' be doing ''something'', but not rowing, while Robert says that Booker ''won't'' do anything, and that includes the rowing.
195	* TinyHeadedBehemoth: Although the procedure that turns people into Handymen seems to bloat their heads to an unnatural size, they still appear small atop their massive, ape-proportioned bodies.
196	* TomatoInTheMirror: the revelation that [[spoiler:Booker and Comstock are alternate universe versions of each other]].
197	* TownWithADarkSecret: Columbia gives off this vibe no sooner than you set foot in it. It's at first seems quaint and wholesome as you walk around and enjoy the scenery, as long as you take nothing from the odd religious imagery. Then you reach the fair and notice the games have an odd fixation with devil motifs. Then you finally reach the "raffle" and win it [[spoiler: where the prizes turns out to be a public stoning of a interracial couple with you throwing the first stone (or baseball in this case)]]. After this all pretense of Columbia being a nice place is dropped quickly and [[FromBadToWorse it goes downhill from there]]. As it is a ''[=BioShock=]'' game, it doesn't really come as a surprise.
198	* ToxicPhlebotinum: The Lutece Fields (eventually Tears) allow its users to peek or to travel into other timelines. Prolonged exposure to them causes cancer, [[spoiler:sterility and rapid aging]].
199	* TragicDream: Paris. Elizabeth constantly mentions it throughout the game, not knowing that Booker wants to take her to New York instead. Eventually, Booker warms up to Paris but by then the narrative has made clear that the two are in too deep to simply escape. Also in a HourglassPlot, Elizabeth eventually abandons the dream of Paris about the same time Booker starts clinging to it.
200	* TragicMonster
201	** The Handymen, who are described this way in both the "Heavy Hitters" video focusing on them and the official artbooks. It turns out that they were physically crippled or disabled people whose heads/brains and hearts were involuntarily removed from their original bodies and implanted in massive, ape-like clockwork bodies, to create cyborg slaves. According to what they say while you're fighting them, it's also ''extremely painful''[[note]]"Every step feels like coals" indeed[[/note]]...
202	** You can pick up a Voxophone which belonged to a woman who was forced to turn her husband into one of these to save him from stomach cancer. She is very... conflicted on the matter. Later [[spoiler:in a different timeline]] you can see her husband [[spoiler:killed in Shantytown by the Vox with two Vox members posing beside while another takes a picture]] and with him a Voxophone from his wife telling him uplifting words and encouraging him to play it whenever he feels down.
203	** Vox-aligned Handymen may sometimes say that they ''weren't'' sick, and that Comstock had them abducted and turned into Handymen against their will. At least the ones who were sick seemed to have some choice in the matter.
204	** The Firemen may also qualify as well. Some of their non-combat lines include "Let me out, it burns, it burns!" and "There's no forgiveness without sacrifice!" Sometimes they sound pained and exhausted even if uninjured. So... what kind of effect has constantly being steeped in Vigors had upon them?
205	* TransformationDiscretionShot: Trying the Bucking Bronco vigor for the first time results in Booker's hands suddenly [[BodyHorror cracking open with bloody fissures]], shown in full detail; however, rather than actually showing these deformities healing as is the case with the other vigors, there's a flash of light, and when it fades, Booker's hands appear to be back to normal.
206	* TrashcanBonfire: Several of these can be found in the Shantytown area.
207	* TrippyFinaleSyndrome: So much you'll be forgiven for believing it's a GainaxEnding... [[spoiler:After the Siphon is destroyed and Elizabeth gets full control and understanding of her powers, she and Booker spend the final minutes jumping through time and space from an area with infinite lighthouses that lead to infinite universes]]. Of course, it's probably only trippy if you've been ignoring all the other weird stuff that's been hinted at throughout the game...
208	* TruthInTelevision:
209	** Sadly, several American towns and regions really were as racist and self-righteous as Columbia, and while most lynchings were done secretly and at night, some were very public affairs [[spoiler: like what you see at the raffle]], a-la Jesse Washington and Henry Smith. That said, most victims of lynching were those suspected (but never tried) for murder or rape, as opposed to [[spoiler: interracial couples who were minding their own business. (On the other hand, the Supreme Court didn't strike down all miscegenation laws until ''1967.'')]]
210	** Think the marble statues of the Founders in togas are ridiculous? [[http://eyelevel.si.edu/2010/07/george-washington-wearing-a-toga.html This sculptor in 1841 didn't]]. When the United States gained independence, neoclassicism was in full swing in the European art scene. There were actually lengthy discussions about whether the commissioned art from Europe should depict the Founding Fathers wearing ancient Greek robes or contemporary clothing.
211	** Finkton, a city where workers can never leave, bid on who can do jobs the fastest, have very long work days and low salaries, have their free time closely regulated, pay a ''percentage'' of their income instead of a given price, and are paid in scrip that can only be spent at stores owned by their employer - an obvious and egregious exploitation of workers that, in the real world, would be stamped out immediately, right? It's actually a fairly run-of-the-mill [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town company town]], which were endemic throughout the early 20th century and took a long time to eliminate due to the political influence that the moguls who ran them maintained.
212	* TurnToReligion: The plot is kickstarted when BigBad Comstock finds God, seeking atonement after taking part in the Battle of Wounded Knee, and preventing this conversion is the key to making sure that none of the atrocities he's responsible for never happened. Unfortunately, because of {{Alternate Universe}}s, [[spoiler: PlayerCharacter Booker Dewitt ''is'' Comstock with Comstock's Baptism the point of divergence between the two. Drowning Booker at his Baptism is the only way to kill Comstock once and for all.]]
213	* TurnedOnTheirMasters: The Vox Populi, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized which is leading a violent insurrection]] in one of [[AlternateTimeline the tears Elizabeth has opened,]] is comprised of numerous ethnic minorities who were either duped into going to Columbia, or were transferred from prisons on the ground, [[MadeASlave to perform all the menial tasks the non-Irish white class of Columbia believed themselves to be above of.]]
214	** The Vox Populi have reprogramed several [[{{Cyborg}} Handymen]] to fight for them, and propped up several [[MechaMooks "Devil" Abraham Lincoln statues to gun down their enemies.]]
215	* The20thCentury: The game takes place in the TheEdwardianEra of 1912.
216	* TwistEnding: [[spoiler:After the FinalBattle it is revealed: Rapture from ''[=BioShock=]'' is part of the same [[TheMultiverse multiverse]] as ''Infinite''. Elizabeth is actually Booker's daughter Anna, who Booker forgot he sold to Comstock 20 years ago due to getting his [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memories jumbled]] traveling through a rift to save her. "Comstock" is actually an alternate reality Booker who accepted a baptism in his youth that Booker rejected]].
217	-->There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man, there's always a city...
218
219	[[/folder]]
220
221	[[folder:U]]
222
223	* UnbrokenFirstPersonPerspective: The game never breaks from Booker's perspective, until [[spoiler:Booker's death.]]
224	* UncleSamWantsYou: Jeremiah Fink wants you to attend the July 6th raffle, as seen on signs everywhere in the streets.
225	* TheUnfought: Several named antagonists are never actually fought by the player. [[spoiler: Specifically, all but Slate and Lady Comstock; Daisy Fitzroy kills Jeremiah Fink, Elizabeth kills Fitzroy, Comstock is taken out by [=DeWitt=] in a non-interactive scene and Songbird ends up assisting the player in the final battle before Elizabeth sends it to die at the bottom of the ocean. Also, Slate is a pre-scripted ZeroEffortBoss who summons a few mooks, then runs away and collapses from exhaustion offscreen. Lady Comstock is the only named character in the game who's fought in a proper battle]].
226	* UniqueEnemy:
227	** There's exactly one Vox Populi-aligned Handyman in the main game. All others belong to the Founders.
228	** There's also exactly one Sniper fighting for Slate's heroes, and one Sniper fighting for the Founders. Most others seem to fight for the Vox Populi.
229	** Fink's head of security has his own custom model with a nice hat, but one way or another he's little more than a mook, and most players don't notice any difference until Elizabeth points it out.
230	* UnlockableDifficultyLevels: In order to play in the much harder 1999 mode, you must either beat the game in regular mode or enter the KonamiCode.
231	* UnreliableNarrator: An extremely rare FirstPersonShooter example, and this time ''not'' caused by LaserGuidedAmnesia. [[spoiler:Booker's mind is explained to have altered its memories in response to the dimension-hopping. Thus, the game is justified in dancing around the fact that Anna was his daughter (players would tend to assume she was his wife, and the game just goes "SureLetsGoWithThat") and in not making the connection between her RedRightHand and Elizabeth's.]]
232	* UrbanSegregation: Present in Columbia, which thanks to its scattered nature necessitating rails and airships to get around, is easily enforced. Comstock assures the population that "[[ExactWords there are no menials in Columbia]]", which is why all the underclasses are forced to live in the industrial ghetto of Finkton. Most of the residents there are black or Irish, fitting with the DeliberateValuesDissonance of [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Columbia's Founders]].
233	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Comstock goes farther than either Andrew Ryan or Sophia Lamb in trying to make his vision of Eden a reality, ultimately plotting to have his utopia destroy "the Sodom Below."
234
235	[[/folder]]
236
237	[[folder:V]]
238
239	* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Comstock House fits the description; it's huge, ominous (it looks like it's been built on top of a ''thundercloud''), it houses some of the creepiest, most resilient Mooks in the game... [[spoiler:In a way, it both fits and doesn't fit the 'Final Dungeon' bit, since Booker's initial trek through it is during a BadFuture timeline. When Future Elizabeth sends him back to the present, the ''true'' last leg and final battle of the game take place on another VDFD contender; Comstock's enormous flagship, the ''Hand of the Prophet'']].
240	* VictorGainsLosersPowers: Subverted mostly as a majority of available Vigors in Columbia can be either purchased from a Veni Vidi Vigor machine or simply found throughout the rest the city, but played straight with at least three that Booker can acquire and utilize; he first defeats a Fireman for Devil's Kiss, then a Zealot of The Lady for Murder of Crows and he must get past Slate and all of his followers in The Hall of Heroes to claim Shock Jockey.
241	** This is justified in the case of Shock Jockey, as, upon further investigation, Elizabeth and Booker come across a backroom where countless Shock Jockey bottles have already been consumed (presumably by Slate himself) which ultimately [[ButThouMust forces the duo to go up against Slate's followers]] to acquire the only full bottle in the area.
242	* VideoGameCaringPotential: Elizabeth is considered to be a highly endearing character to a lot of players.
243	** A lot of players have said that once they noticed that Elizabeth didn't like seeing the melee executions (she would occasionally scream or whimper if she sees it), they stopped doing them altogether just because it apparently upsets Elizabeth; even though there are no actual consequences for continuing to do them.
244	** You can loot the bags of the people waiting to get into Finkton, but you'll feel so bad for them, you won't want to. On a similar note, you can have Elizabeth open up a tear full of food in a street full of starving people.
245	** Early on in the game, there's a shop that goes by the honor system -- you can take what you want but the owner expects you to leave the money behind to pay for it. Booker scoffs, but there's a button prompt that allows you to do just that if you should eat one of the items there. On subsequent replays, however, [[PayEvilUntoEvil looting the place blind]] seems like a rather principled approach.
246	** After Booker wins the raffle presided by Fink at the start of the game, we see that the prize for it is being allowed to throw the baseball with the winning number on it at an interracial couple before the rest of the crowd stones them to death, all while they're tied to posts and the groom tries to plead for mercy. Booker can go ahead and try to throw the ball at them, but you'll more than likely want to try throwing it at Fink, though Booker will be stopped before he can throw the ball regardless of his choice. Thankfully, the couple will be alive and well if Booker tried to target Fink.
247	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Whenever you enter a populated area, it's possible to murder pretty much every civilian around, with the exception of children (who are invincible). Elizabeth or the game never even calls you out on it.
248	* VideoGameVista: Booker is introduced to Columbia in a manner [[AlternateUniverse deliberately very similar]] to Jack's introduction to Rapture in the first game, with an airship flying past Booker's capsule in the exact same way a whale did back in ''VideoGame/BioShock1''.
249	* ViewersAreGoldfish: Certain notices about things like vending machines, gear, and so on show up every time you boot up the game.
250	* VillainousDemotivator: Fink frequently quotes the slogan "Simplicity is Beauty." In this case, "simplicity" means being content with your lot and NOT complaining about the 16-hour work days or poor pay.
251	* 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 [[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.]]
252	* VirtuousBees: Jeremiah Fink has a great fondness for the tireless and hardworking bees, or so he claims in the propaganda he broadcasts to motivate his workers:
253	-->'''Jeremiah Fink:''' What is the most admirable creature on God's green Earth? Why, it's the bee! Have you ever seen a bee on vacation? Have you ever seen a bee take a sick day? Well, my friends, the answer is no! So I say, be... the bee! Be the bee!
254	* VisualPun: After defeating [[spoiler: Lady Comstock]], the Luteces suddenly appear. Depending on where you are when they appear, they may appear standing in two graves while they dig them. The gravestones both read "Lutece". They're literally digging their own graves.
255	* VoiceOfTheLegion: Comstock often speaks to Booker through a microphone that creates a slowed-down, delayed echo of his voice, presumably for dramatic effect. The First Zealot, leader of the Fraternal Order of the Raven, also speaks (without any kind of mic!) in a bizarrely resonant, buzzing sort of voice that seems to have some kind of static-like noise behind it.
256
257	[[/folder]]
258
259	[[folder:W]]
260
261	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Technically Elizabeth goes through the last half of the game without a shirt on, though she still has underwear, and the era's underwear was more modest than it is these days.
262	* WalkingSpoiler: Reading anything online about Booker, Elizabeth, Father Comstock, or the Twins is a good way to spoil a ''huge'' chunk of TheReveal and the ending, as the spoilers are a core part of each characters' background. In fact, merely starting to type "Booker [=DeWitt=]" into Google will unfortunately reveal a major storyline spoiler via Google's auto-complete search functionality.
263	* WantedPoster: In the basement beneath the Good Time Club there are three wanted posters on a wall: Labor Agitator ($1,000 reward, Dead or Alive), Vox Anarchist ($5,000 reward, Dead or Alive), and Daisy Fitzroy (Leader of the Vox Populi, $30,000).
264	* WeirdHistoricalWar: Columbia flew to China and defeated the Boxer Rebellion.
265	* WeirdnessCensor:
266	** Unlike the first ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' game, Columbia's population is still mostly alive, [[spoiler:at least, before the civil war]]. Which makes it weird that Booker can walk around holding machine guns and rocket launchers with no one batting an eye. Given the population's highly jingoistic nature, this may simply be the (il)logical extension of the Second Amendment. None of the civilians seem to actually carry firearms, however.
267	** Similarly, the Vigor effects (Booker's left hand turning to flames, for example) go completely unnoticed.
268	* WhamEpisode: It starts [[spoiler:when the player ends up in Rapture]].
269	** To a lesser extent, the point where [[spoiler: Songbird kidnaps Elizabeth away from Booker and he chases after them into the BedlamHouse marks when the story officially decides to go off the rails]]. And even before that when Booker and Elizabeth attempt to track down a gunsmith and the [[spoiler: dimensional hopping/alternate universe kerfuffle]] aspects of the plot get introduced.
270	** [[spoiler:The raffle, when our initial perception of Columbia is violently turned on its head, followed by Booker being exposed as the False Shepherd and the game's transformation into a bloodbath. All in the space of about a minute]].
271	* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"He's Zachary Comstock." "He's Booker [=DeWitt=]." "No... I'm both."]]
272	** "Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt." Said throughout the game? Yeah, but only at the end do you hear the rest: [[spoiler:"The debt's paid. Mr. Comstock washes you of all your sins."]]
273	** [[spoiler:"GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER!"]]
274	** "Cage! C-A-G-E! It's not a word, Booker, "[[spoiler: it's a ''song!'']]"
275	* WhamShot: [[spoiler: Several. When you see Elizabeth in the BadFuture. When you see Anna [=DeWitt=] lose her pinky finger. After which you get another glimpse of Booker's hand with "AD" etched on them]].
276	* WhatBeautifulEyes: Elizabeth, as a key aspect of her character design.
277	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Fink's son runs away and disappears after [[spoiler: Elizabeth kills Daisy Fitzroy]] and we never see him again. [[FridgeHorror Given that the area is crawling with Vox soldiers, the implications aren't pretty]].
278	** Aboard the ''Hand of the Prophet'', to clear the sky-lines and give him access to the upper decks, Booker has to drop the Motorized Patriots holding up the lines. One wonders what happens once they land.
279	* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: At one point, if you can decrypt a coded message you are given a clue that mentions "midnight". If you turn a nearby clock's hands to 12:00, it opens a hidden compartment filled with goodies.
280	* WhiteMansBurden:
281	-->'''Zachary Comstock''': No animal is born free, except the white man. And it is our burden to care for the rest of creation.
282	** The audio diary that you can find in the Fraternal Order of the Raven's headquarters also has him denounce Lincoln for freeing the slaves from "their daily bread, honest work, and the patronage of a wealthy white person that will sponsor them from cradle to grave."
283	* WithThisHerring: All Booker is given at the start of the game is a box containing a pistol (which he loses ''minutes'' later), a key, a postcard of where he'll find Elizabeth, a single picture of her, coordinates to take her back to, and a picture showing how to summon the rocket. Apparently, he wasn't even given an awful lot of instructions, apart from "Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt."
284	-->'''Booker''': ''(stranded on an island lighthouse)'' "Hey! Is somebody meeting me here?"\
285	'''Gentleman''': ''(rowing away)'' "I certainly hope so." ''(There isn't)''
286	* AWizardDidIt: The "[[Memes/TouhouProject Forbidden Template]]" applies here.
287	** How does Columbia float? Luteces say it's "[[{{Technobabble}} quantum mechanics]]".
288	--> '''Rosalind:''' Critics call it "quantum levitation", but it is nothing of the sort. Magicians levitate; [[InsistentTerminology my atoms simply fail to fall.]]
289	** Why does AnachronismStew exist [[BioShockInfinite/TropesAToH here?]] Lore says that the tears gave an influence.
290	** Why do the Luteces show up randomly? [[spoiler:Because they are at a point where they can transcend reality, so they [[RealityWarper can bend reality to their will up to a point]]]].
291	* TheWonka: The Lutece twins, who like speaking in nonsensical riddles and like randomly hopping in and out to... play baseball, paint, listen to waltzes and dance in the middle of Columbia getting torn apart.
292	* WordAssociationTest: In the e-book ''Mind in Revolt'', Dr. Pinchot perfoms this test on Daisy Fitzroy, and becomes disturbed by the "blasphemous" answers she gives, like associating the word "prophet" with "liar" and "faith" with "flatulence".
293	* WretchedHive: Finkton, compared to the rest of Columbia, is very close to this: a grimy, run-down shell of industrial misery under Fink's watchful eye, overrun with the sick, the starving, and the bandits trying to hoard whatever they can.
294	* WrittenByTheWinners: The entire point of the confrontation with Slate through the Hall Of Heroes is to highlight this. Whoever has the power controls the narrative. [[spoiler: Is it any surprise, considering that section of the game, that TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized]]?
295	--> '''[[spoiler: Fitzroy]]:''' You? You just confuse the narrative.
296
297	[[/folder]]
298
299	[[folder:X]]
300
301	* {{Xenafication}}: Averted with Elizabeth - although she does [[spoiler:kill Daisy Fitzroy]] when push comes to shove, she does not take violent action in the game.
302	* XRaySparks
303	** In the animation used to demonstrate how to use the Shock Jockey vigor, when the imp is electrocuted his skull is visible through his head.
304	** When the Shock Jockey vigor is used against opponents, their bones show through their bodies.
305
306	[[/folder]]
307
308	[[folder:Y]]
309
310	* {{Yandere}}[=/=]MurderTheHypotenuse: WordOfGod is that Songbird is programmed to be one, which is why he jealously seeks to murder anyone who tries to help Elizabeth escape her captivity. He's explicitly likened to an abusive partner by the devs.
311	* YellowPeril: The [[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18kcf4575bzo2jpg/k-bigpic.jpg Boxer Rebellion]] [[http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/afYcnZ62Wso/maxresdefault.jpg exhibit]] at the [[http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/684842373361048230/1460BAFE816AFBD16C06E15DD0E3B9BD5CA9CA4C/ Hall of Heroes.]]
312	-->'''Motorized Patriot''': 'Twas yellow skin and slanted eyes,
313	That did betray us with their lies,
314	Until they crossed the righteous path,
315	Of our Prophet's holy wrath!
316	* YouALLLookFamiliar: Columbia seems to be populated mainly by clones. This is especially obvious in the calm scenes where you can take your time and examine all the civilians strolling about.
317	* YouBastard: [[DownplayedTrope A pretty benign example]] for ''[=BioShock=]'', but an example nonetheless: performing [[FinishingMove melee takedowns]] on opponents -- usually resulting in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutal and messy executions with the Sky-Hook]] -- tends to freak Elizabeth out and causes her to scream or whimper at the sight of them. This has no mechanical bearing, and the executions are useful for finishing off enemies (and a few pieces of Gear actively reward you for doing them), but you might be inclined to stop them just because Elizabeth's reactions will be convincing you that you're doing something wrong.
318	* YouCantFightFate: [[spoiler: In the end, Booker realizes that Elizabeth is always going to be taken from him and he will always become Comstock.]]
319	* YouHaveFailedMe: Jeremiah Fink does ''not'' tolerate failure from his head of security, or someone better waltzing into his property. You get to find his former head of security murdered and nailed to the top of the local club with a sign reading "SACKED".
320	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Using the Possession Vigor on a human enemy causes them to commit suicide when it starts to wear off.
321	** MyGodWhatHaveIDone[=/=]DrivenToSuicide: The description of the Vigor actually describes it as this, saying the subject commits suicide out of grief for what they did under your control. Even if they didn't kill any of their allies, the whole idea of being forced to side with the [[TheDreaded False Shepherd]] is probably enough to inspire such conclusions from the psychotically devout citizens of Columbia.
322	** Also, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnLfQPZBSC4 reversing the sounds emitted by the Possession Vigor ghosts]] reveal they're whispering Shakespeare... specifically, Romeo and Juliet. How does that end for those characters, again?
323	** In another note, this trope is also why Comstock [[spoiler:eventually had the Luteces killed in a staged "accident," in part to cover up the truth about Elizabeth]]. It didn't exactly work as planned.
324	* YouMonster: Elizabeth calls you a monster after the first time she sees you kill people.
325	* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Comstock is actually only 38 years old, even though he looks almost twice that age. His prolonged exposure to the tears has really done a number on his body]].
326	* YourHeadAsplode:
327	** Killing shocked {{Mooks}} makes their heads burst like fireworks before their bodies disintegrate.
328	** It also happens when you headshot an enemy with a sufficiently powerful weapon, like the shotgun or sniper rifle.
329
330	[[/folder]]
331
332	[[folder:Z]]
333
334	* {{Zeerust}}: Columbia manages to feature even more strange Zeerust than [[VideoGame/BioShock Rapture]] while it also wallows in Victorian steampunk. What makes it especially bizarre is the patchworkiness of the Zeerust... one location combines somewhat accurate-to-period aesthetics with, of all things, a Fifties ice cream shop. Selling soft-serve. Justified in [[spoiler: Comstock's use of the Siphon to control the Tears, seeing into multiple futures and gleaning technology, music, and information from them]].
335	[[/folder]]
336

Context BioShockInfinite / TropesQToZ