i've been meaning to do a follow forever for ages and since i've recently discovered loads of amazing blogs, i thought i'd do one now. blogs in bold are people i've spoken to and are lovely, or some blogs that i really adore and wish i could be friends with :3

So I was looking at the typically excellent screengrab by thefalseshepard, and a query addressed to that blog afterwards, and thought I’d propose my own meta theory.

SPOILERS, obviously.

So, this gent  is often cited as one of the possible plot holes in Infinite. Many tend to think that if the first note that Booker fixates on (“bring us the girl and wipe away the debt”) does not mean what Booker first thinks it does, then “Don’t Disappoint Us” has no real meaning. .  Ie., it can no longer be a message from some nonexistent debt collectors, since we find out later that Booker has already paid off his debts.

Who the corpse is, and who left it, are never explained. Let us briefly investigate the crime scene.

The first note, “Bring us the girl,” is now tacked to the door of the lighthouse, and is clearly meant for Booker himself (it has his name on it, after all), even if it is a kind of a ruse. We can safely, I think, assume that “Don’t disappoint us,” is meant for him, as well, even if it is meant to capitalize on Booker misunderstanding the first message.  There are all kinds of signs that he is expected: the notes meant for him, the freshly killed corpse, and the fact that the phonograph has been left running.

I’m not sure who killed this individual, although I think I know who did. Probably, the Luteces hung the sign on him, not only because the plural ‘us’ is befitting them more than, say, Comstock, but also because they know more than anyone else about how the ‘mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist..”. The second sign requires the misunderstanding of the first sign to have any meaning, and this is a misunderstanding that they deploy knowing exactly how to exploit.

The corpse: note the two features of the body that we can’t see: his face and his hands. These are covered and bound, making us think that this was your garden variety execution. But they are also the two features used to identify Booker DeWitt: a hand which is marked AD, and the face that we have just seen in the washbasin.  My theory is that this is a previous Booker, from another neighboring parallel, in which Booker also gave up Elizabeth. One that the Luteces pulled through, and who DID fail, whether through weakness or lack of will, and thereby ‘disappointing’ whoever left the signs (probably the twins).

It is a cruel, but apt joke, not only on the part of its perpetrators, but also on the part of the game’s developers. One which fits perfectly with their meta-thematics about video game narrative and the infinite lighthouses at the game’s end.

‘There is always a man,’ but sometimes he dies before completing his task, and has to restart.  To be resummoned by software or a pair of deus ex machina dimension hoppers. Notice that Rosalind Lutece, on the boat, tells her twin that the experiment is pointless because it has already failed. Remember also the coin flips. They have seen this scenario—of Booker walking through the gates of Columbia—many many times, and they will see it again and again until it—until he—is successful. That is, until Booker and Elizabeth close the loop forever at the end of the game.