- The way the story smoothly transitioned her into central character focus, after making her retrieval the actual goal/game objective of the first act of the story, then a carefree NPC, then things got more interesting, she started showing more sides to her than just "uwu waifu mode".
She was dynamic. Very slick.
She's a better developed Eleanor, tho Eleanor was also a cool character who pulled strings too.
Actually, deadass?
A lot of the Bioshock ladies one way or another was (co-/independently) lowkey running shit or making moves.
Sofia Lamb,
Bridget Tenebaum
Julie Langford
R.Lutece
Eleanor Lamb,
Daisy "mfing" Fitzroy
Fuck that "girlboss" shit.
These ladies were beyond that, they were professionals, experts in their individual fields. From Biology, Quantum Physics, to social psychology, to just knowing how to lead.
They were qualified, not strong FEMALE characters, just solid CHARACTERS. Without the derivative labels. Love that shit when it’s done right.
And it's apparent in all three games, so it's not a fluke, the writers knew what the fuck they were doing. (But if it got a TV show now post 2020? That whole subtle well executed consistency would be turned into some dumb shit on behalf of women, when it helps the political zeitgeist quotas more than how women & girls look to society.)
And some of em are npc's, not even that deep, most prolly forgot some were in the game, but they were cool.
Usually you got characters just doing shit perfect nowadays because they:
- Believed in themselves
- Or somebody told them how special they were all along
Vs these Bioshock characters have ***credentials***, Hollywood needed more of that energy in the writers room. Still do.
In a poetic sense, Elizabeth, with all that power+knowledge, was like the accumulation of all of those characters before & technically after her, for both better and for worse.
- Cause she, our dear Elizabeth, did some questionable shit to get what she wanted sometimes.
- Just like Daisy is no stranger to bloodshed, nor Sofia.
They're flawed, that's why they're believable.
They're not perfect little angles who represent some feminist overtone, while the men look like idiots.
Example: There's a recording in the "Sofia Lamb - Ryan vs Lamb: Religious Rights" Pauper's Drop level in Bioshock 2 where Ryan & Sofia are having a live debate. Ryan basically states you can have religious rights but keep it to yourself, because in Rapture a man's (that includes womb-man) obligation is to himself, not tribalist convictions overriding a persons rightful state of self-affirmation.
Her comeback was basically how is his persecution of religion or disdain justified: when his "Great Chain" as a symbol (the same one on Jack's wrist) is no less a symbol of faith than the cross itself.
Ryan was technically correct, Sofia made a confident false equivalence, because faith in some messiah is not the same as having a grounded belief in your tangible work and what you earn with your own hands is the basis of your existential fortitude vs something you can't see. Which is all Ryan sought for people with Rapture in concept, you are your own master, period.
And yet Sofia got more applause from the audience because of how she cleverly used appeal to emotion to contradict his statements, which is easier for people to accept because not only is she a woman (& that by default lowers people's defenses whether it be comfort or underestimation just as a biological rule) but she also weaponizes maternal approach to give people a sense of false security vs Ryan's cold, harsh inflection as a seasoned older man with very little capacity for empathy or even feigning compassion.
Sofia is a genius; i 100% believe she could somehow get all those splicers to work for her under the pretense of "family" & "we" collectivism/even socialist-esque mindset, the very thing Ryan did not want in Rapture: the symbol of capitalism.
See- Sofia not even on her best day, could ever hope to make a Rapture of her own. But she can corrupt & take it over, just like socialism doesn't found a U.S.A but it can definitely destroy empires after the hard work is done on part of capitalism.
The parallels in this respect is eerie in how similar it is, and I can't unsee it when I replay Bioshock 2 these days, because it works so well without making one side the entire problem.
Tl;Dr She undermined the man in his own damn city, & you can hear it in his voice in various recordings that he recognizes that she is a problem. It wasn't cringe because she's not some 14 yr old mary sue, she's a seasoned psychologist that was SOUGHT OUT specifically by Ryan's council because of how good she is in her field, and Ryan only saw how dangerous she was after she was in the city & made it clear she wasn't going to fall in line with Ryan's core beliefs.
She knows what to say, how to say it, and why she says it because she knows how to play people like instruments.
She defied an secular egotist, but she herself is a raging condescending narcissist; the reason why she works is because she's no better than Andrew Ryan & in many ways, leagues worse than he ever was.
Everyone, one way or another, has issues.
Welcome to BIOSHOCK, enjoy your stay.
Thus, the beginning and end of Bioshock, Anna Dewitt. (Hopefully Bioshock 4 doesn't fuck up what was &/is still a open and shut & done /complete story.)
This character is pretty decent.
It's a crime she's not more appreciated on "female character" game lists. Likely too much good writing and not enough midriff, fanservice, waifu mode, D.I.D, & skintight clothes for the peons to project onto.
Infinite didn't vibe with me at first, I actually did NOT like it when finished (Still have my complaints, entirely with the enemy designs & lack of boss diversity) but "Burial At Sea" was just a trigger moment where I really looked back at what I just played & how overqualified Elizabeth is but still grounded:
Full circle, I'm a sucker for well executed time loops (because it's quantum shenanigans Bioshock 1-3 technically isn't a paradox) or perpetual cycles that don't make me roll my eyes.
Probably played BAS: Part 2 more times than I did the first game.
And as of 2025, I have played both Infinite & BAS combined more than the first 2 games and technically the 2nd game is my favorite, protector trials and everything.
And while Bioshock Infinite is not a better game than Bioshock 2, Bioshock 2 is not packing the story that Bioshock Infinite has, Bioshock 2 doesn't have Elizabeth, the quantum lore, the twins, the parallels.
Technically you playing the games over and over again is a canon event in the story itself in meta.
The difference between a girl and woman is "blood", jfc RIP to the homegirl, she was about that life to the end.
Won't spoil who died tho, if you know, then you know.Play the game.
Since Levine (original Bioshock writer) is NOT on the project of the 4th game (And for a very understandable, even respectable reason to boot) but for some reason the 4th is being made anyway, this is screaming studio mandate than it is an organic "necessity" for the story.
Which is just MATRIX4-GREED all over again: Sure the first 3 was a complete story, but WHAT IF? We made a 4th one for no fucking reason at all?
It's a complete story, not sure where they want to take it beyond that.
All they gotta do is just fit it in after Bioshock 2 chronologically & follow Eleanor maybe or something, or what the heck is Jack up to?
Both are questions we actually don't need answers to tbh, but I sincerely hope Bioshock 4 doesn't fuck up the loop or the point of the original games frfr.
If anything they should use the 4th to fill up the 10 years between Bioshock 1 & 2 after Jack left with those Little Sisters, during Sofia's rise to power, after Delta's self-execution. That's one of few ways they could 'not' mess this up.
- 2023
No comments:
Post a Comment