Bioshock: Metaphors, Mr. Bubbles!

Welcome to Pixellated Culture. This week's topic is the literary aspect of Bioshock.

The obvious theme of Bioshock is that an objectivist run city is just silly. However, the developers themselves has stated that is was supposed to be a stab at extremism in general. They explain much of their intent on a Making of Bioshock DVD, which sadly I don't have so I have to work with word of mouth...or internet. Personally, I think they chose objectivism to lampoon because, let's face it, it was pretty easy to lampoon. The sequel helped address the broad angle.

But there's more to Bioshock than just objectivists. If you look closely you can see jabs at broad extremism around you. The most obvious in my mind is Mr. Bubbles... I mean, the Big Daddies. While not as obvious a reference as Big Sisters, Big Daddies are probably meant to evoke the Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984. Big Daddies are the toughest enemies in the game and are in every area except the end game. These are the only semblance of order left in Rapture: They do their job of protecting the Little Sister and nothing else. They do only their assigned mission and keep their Little Sister safe. Even the Splicers, who seem to have no problem attacking you or anything else, are afraid of Big Daddies. The most dangerous thing in the game, even tougher than the final boss. And Big Daddy is always watching you, he's always aware of where you are and if you get too close he'll "unzip" you. Yes, that's what the Little Sisters call it. Isn't it adorable?

Another stab at extremism is the two scientist: Dr. Suchong and Dr. Tenenbaum. One is portrayed a bit more sympathetically in game. Both of them share one motivation for all of their actions in the game's backstory: SCIENCE! Now, I know this could be taken as an example of objectivism, as Ayn Rand did include letting scientists do whatever they want, but their backstories do include them acting like this before Rapture. An argument could be made for Suchong being an objectivist, but he never seemed to care about anything except the next great discovery. Tenenbaum also is now repenting as she realized everything has a limit, so she has become more moderate as opposed to extreme. Suchong and Tenenbaum created the Little Sisters and Big Daddies, with Tenenbaum finding ADAM, the thing that supplies Rapture with Plasmids and such, and Tenenbaum the head of creating Big Daddies and their bond to Little Sisters. Suchong is portrayed as a heartless maniac, willing and able to do anything to discover and make some cash. He is dead before the game begins, having died by a Big Daddies drill as his work was successful. Tenenbaum's backstory includes her working with the Nazis, helping them with their experiments when she was a young girl in the camps. She is directly responsible for the Little Sisters and owns up to this throughout the game. Realizing the damage her finding ADAM and creating the Little Sisters has caused, as ADAM has made all the people in Rapture insane drug addicts, she is now repenting. She discovered the Plasmid/tonic given to the player to save the Little Sisters and has saved some herself, as indicated in the sequel. Tenenbaum is repenting and trying to save what she can in Rapture. So the game, through the tale of the two scientists, insists on one thing: moderation and morals or extremism and death.

Of course, this is just a couple examples. Please, if you think of anymore leave them in the comments. Also, I would be happy to discuss the literary or historical aspects of Bioshock 2 or Bioshock Infinite at some point in the future.