Sander Cohen

* See also SanderCohenArt
* See also Culpepper
* See also Ryan
* See also Fort_Frolic
* See also Entertainment_In_Rapture
An Example of Artists in Rapture ...
"Why Even Ask ?" ( Public_Address_Announcement/Advertisement ) - "Can anyone ever make you feel like Sander Cohen can ? Rapture's most beloved musical artist returns with "Why Even Ask? ", his greatest album yet. Songs of love, songs of joy, songs of passion. Buy "Why Even Ask ?" and invite Sander Cohen into your home, today." 
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Sander Cohen brings a special kind of artistic madness, that is also genius at the same time. To say he is interesting is perhaps an understatement. Aside from your dealings with him, you can explore his paintings, diaries, poems, music and short films for extra entertainment.
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His 'Minions' :
How did Sander Cohen get/keep so many minions under his control ? There are a number he obviously commands and issues Orders to,  Ex- the ones ordered to attack you several times.   Is it likely HE manhandled the guy onto that Piano he blows up when you first meet him ??  Did he get access to some of the Pheromone Control, or just his 'winning personality' ( or something worse than ADAM he concocted and has them addicted to ?? )
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Sander Cohen (one of the most popular characters and levels in BS1) is gone.  Or is he like Dracula,"Always comes back" ?  ( BTW did you kill him in BS1 ??  I thought I did, but then he was back again. )   Some pretty weird stuff happened there in Fort Frolic, and more that we never saw.  It was largely sealed off even back in those BS1 times (circa 1960).  Splicers have many rumors about what happened there, and many refuse to go anywhere near that place.   Sounds like a fun setting to delve into ( You want 'Twists' ?  We can find your 'Twists' there ...  --  Fort Frolic should have been called "Fort Twisted" ... )
Here's another scenario for the MMORPG :
How would you like to play AS Sander Cohen ( back in the 'fun old days' and/or 'the new back from the grave, days' ) ?  Is that weird enuf ?    What kind of deranged narrative would you have to play by and 'missions' to get 'points for' ?   Remember this MMORPG is modular, including the game mechanics, which allows many different playing environments, modes and creative compositions.
Fort Frolic and Poseidon Plaza,  extended with the MP level area, and my usual 'normalization' filling out the logical/needed bits --- means bigger and better fun.
The "Plaster Master" Achievement ..   The "Big Concert" ..  The Flame (Little Moth, yada) ..  A "New Masterpiece", The Kickettes Return, etc ...
Sounds like potential for another Player-creation 'contest' collaboration ( more minds equals more twisty goodness ... )
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Will he (you) be able to draw new minions to be under his(your) spell ?   Any of his 'Old Guard' still around awaiting his return ( half wistfulness, half dread )?
Is Cohen seeking new "audience members" to dismember ??   ( Come this way, Little Moths ... )
Did he go into some suspended-animation thingee to surface once again 10 years later ???   Emerging from his (plaster) shell to menace Rapture, again ??   That's the only 'Timetravel' I would allow - No stupid third-rate BS paradox-ignoring plots HERE in the MMORPG ...
The Sander Cohen Show is 'Back On The Air' and the Fleet Hall is back in Business.
Still playing under the MMORPGs 'real rules'... What is the 'crazy' without the 'mundane' ?  What resources to keep people alive (Splicers can't eat plaster after all).  Can YOU, as Sander Cohen, re-achieve your "greatness" ( or even set NEW heights ???)?
How long could Sander Cohen's troupe of Splicer Minions subsist on a stockpile of Candy-bars, Popcorn and Booze (with a soda chaser)???
There were still connections to the rest of the City in BS1 ( Cohen was able to get back to his Ritzy apartment in Olympus Heights as we saw ... ).   He obviously controlled access via Bathysphere at that time, and there also was the Trolley/Street/AE and Submarines.  His minions were likely not limited to those in the Fort Frolic area.   He still no doubt had his ostentatious Limo Sub 'Showboat' to take him home ( the mundane simply wont do ... )
Lots of possibilities ... Control outside - the extended Fort Frolic cluster, what other weirdness to find ...  The alleged Viking Funeral ....
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For Allegedly being 'a Hack', Sander Cohen seems to have been Rather Successful :
All the advertising signs (some quite large) cost money, the Fleet Hall Theater, his Art Galleries ...  So there must've been some substantial profits being made by him ( or he made previously on The Surface ).   Cohen may have diversified into other media like TV ( and we saw Comic Books mentioned in DLC ) which all could make profits to support his other 'more artistic' activities.   His position also probably would place him to act as 'agent' for other talent ( like those 3 he had Jack assassinate in BS1 ).
Cohen Sander may have owned a company that made Plaster ( cut out the middleman ) which was also a common material for housing interiors.
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"Everybodies a Critic"  That Old Phrase....  "
For someone insane (ie- Sander Cohen)  then it makes a perfectly good reason to kill 'everyone'/anyone.
'An artist once said, "All critics should be assassinated." I just might take him up on that.' -- Sander Cohen (BaS1)
SO, we later see corpses aplenty coated in Sander Cohen's signature white plaster....
Weird (appropriately) would have been a few corpses in his Apartment behind a busted up plastered over wall -- Showing Cohen was up to his tricks LONG BEFORE things got so chaotic in Rapture which allowed him to be more extravagant (and free) in his 'artful' murders.
Why should Cohen ask Ryan to have Culpepper killed ? ( Why would Ryan comply without it being something more along the lines of 'her' conspiring with Fontaine over the Jasmine Jolene embryo thing ? )
Cohen would have done in Culpepper himself ( no smoking gun proof in Audio Diaries that it really was Sullivan who did it - and it doesn't say for what reason ... ) in some suitably 'Artistic' manner later ( perhaps MMORPG a Audio Diary might be found detailing some 'twisted' ideas Cohen was having for doing just that ... )
Such as : A String Quartet playing some classic chamber music while "Atlas's Thug in a Clown Outfit" slowly drowned Culpepper in her bath, with Cohen sitting there sipping Champagne, painting the scene and shouting "More Feeling !!!" ( and we find the painting in his apartment later and maybe also as a Warhol-like video 'artpiece' ... )
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 "What Andrew Ryan Feels About Cohen?" It is Pretty Vague in the Game : 
It seemed mostly nostalgia for the type of music for Ryan's formative years in the US in the 1920s.
Cohen and Ryan probably met in New York when they were younger. Cohen playing 1920s style music and created theatrical productions into the 1940s with Ryan's patronage. Sander Cohen had (probably) largely become a 'has been' on the Surface, and Ryan gave him a new start with his Patronage in Rapture. 
It seems the writers try to 'dis' Ryan as being an enabler/apologist of Cohen's murderous antics, but those things was (in the game) AFTER things in Rapture turned chaotic, and Cohen had gone insane from ADAM overuse, and when Ryan had far more important Priorities ( especially with Cohen locking himself away in at Fort Frolic ).
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In The MMORPG - You Could Play AS Sander Cohen :
Yes, he seems to be well gone by New Rapture's time (1971), but his popularity with game fans might yet have him reappear  ( Heck, Delta was Mulch for ~10 years and came back ... ).   Either way, that wouldn't stop Flashbacks to Rapture's Golden Age, or to the times of earlier events ( Kashmir Incident, or when Jack runs into him ) which could be recreated ( many Rapture Flashback episodes would be likely for Players to Create ).   The MMORPG could handle many 'side' scenarios that are not part of the Main New Rapture Game plotline ( if all else fails - many imaginary/funny scenes ).
How does Sander Cohen see The World if you looked through his eyes, at different times ?   Looking at some of his SanderCohenArt|'Art']] might give you a clue.  His growing madness might be made obvious as the scenario plots move forward.  ( Player's action options for Cohen's crazy antics expands as time goes on - as you accumulate 'Insanity Points' ... )
Being Him, you might hear his internal Thoughts taken from his Crazy Perspective ...
Whole sets of Missions might be created centered on his many activities, which would expand on what we know about him and his 'Art'.  Tapping into the Players' imagination is what this MMORPG is all about, and no doubt a decent imaginative job could be done on this popular character's roleplaying.
At what point did Sander Cohen finally 'flip' and become the sociopathic murderer, which the fans love and worship ??
All will be revealed ?     
" An ADAM cocktail, A gallon of Plaster and Thou (tied to a chair) " - Sander Cohen
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Misc
Sander Cohen was "planned" (for BS2) at one point to return as a "20-foot-tall Freudian monster bunny"Concepts Talked About : Alot of odd things are thought of and rejected ... : Sounds like a plan.
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To have THE Ears or NOT to have THE Ears, THAT is the Question ... :
Did Sander Cohen carry out his planned Viking Funeral and sealing off of Fort Frolic with all his followers trapped inside
OR
Did he immerse himself in a large vat of Plaster infused with specially prepared ADAM chemicals ( which he had been experimenting on for years to use in a plan to preserve himself for future generations to worship ) ??
Play the BIOSHOCK MMORPG to find out if everyone's favorite villain not only survived, but "returned" to seek his glory ....   "Did you miss me, Little Moth ?? "
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Colonel Sander's Fried Rabbit ...
Actually Rabbits might be a viable farm animal for Rapture - being fed silage left over from other crops. The Novel mentions "People getting sick of eating Fish", but there would have been other meat grown in Rapture from the start - Smuggling never could work for any significant number of peoples 'meat' cravings ( smuggling would be too expensive except for the very best cuts of beef/whatever at ridiculous prices - WHICH in Rapture's environment of entrepreneurship would have solutions being found for such a business opportunity very early ).
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Sander Could have played Hercule Poirot ( Agatha Christie's detective ) OR this actor could play Sander Cohen in the BioShock Movie. A little more hair, pancake makeup, thin the mustache and Viola - Sander Cohen.
Sander Cohen killed in his apartment. No doubt somehow Sander Cohen will manage to be back for the MMORPG.
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MrGumpTheClown.jpg
FortFrolicCohen.jpg
Childhoodilicious.jpg
SandersRecurringNightmare.jpg|Sander's Recurring Nightmare
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SanderCohenArtist.jpg
SanderWithApple2.jpg
Cohen55.jpg
CohenWantsToForget.jpg|That hated job which Sander had during the Depression years
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CohensCocktails.jpg|Sander Cohen was one of the 'Early Experimenters' with ADAM as a 'Recreational Drug'
Sanders.jpg|Something Sander would have in his Apartment
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Why Not Have Sander Cohen be a Technical Genius Too - Everyone Else Was ... :
Absinthe just didn't have the 'kick' it had previously, so Sander Cohen set out to improve his favorite liquor. He personally experimented with various ADAM products to find those with the best 'kick'.
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Dueling Pianos (Oops, saw which way THAT weirdness went in that Mad Max remake) :
Against Sander Cohen !!!! IF YOU DARE. If he loses, then YOU wind up on his 'Shit List', and he has you later killed in vengeance for upstaging his 'genius'.
Flashback where YOU are that guy strapped to the Piano with dynamite ... ( Slo-Mo on the explosion )
Ryan's big control thing in his office - We shoulda seen him playing it like a big organ ( that old time villain cliche ). "Would You Kindly dance the foxtrot, boy !!!" ( and other Splicer delusions ).
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My Good Barkeep, A Round of Ears for the House !!! :
Rabbit Ears on BD in Fort Frolic ( to be seen in the MMORPG ) - a missed opportunity in BS1 ...
How could they have missed this ( except their obvious Asset budget limitations )?? ( Sander Cohen could have paid for some 'body guard' "Armored Escorts" ... ) 
Party with ears ( we saw some of this in BaSx in "COHEN'S" )
If the Little Sisters fell under Sander Cohen's controlMentioned in Burial At Sea DLC, then shouldn't THEY (or some) be wearing Rabbit Ears/Suits ??
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Sander Cohen's Fort Frolic Follies of 1958 :
"Follies" were Review Shows with Celebrities doing Popular 'bits' (songs, skits, dances) in a overall choreographed stage show.
Sander was running a business there, and its not likely he would last without making some profit (no handouts from Ryan, who didn't believe in that). He could own theaters, but they don't do too well unless there is something to see in them. TV in Rapture would be eating into the theater audiences ( The TV programming has to be more limited than current era people expect today out of TV ). 
In my 'Head Canon', I have Sander having TV shows, so well before 1958 these 'Follies' would be something video recorded and played back (repeatedly) later to fill-in daily airtime, as would various stage productions. With the dearth of talent in Rapture, just about anything might be used ( even 'mediocre' beats out 'amateur' crap ).
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Sander Cohen Always Comes Back !!! :
I recall that even if the Player kills Sander Cohen in Fort Frolic, you see him again in Olympus Heights.   And if the Player leaves the dancers alone (in his apartment) then it is entirely possible for Cohen to survive the events of BioShock".
SO he IS still alive ... Potentially ( by the time of the Rapture Reborn MMORPG ) - Consider he was that strange within a year of the so-called 'civil war' starting --- So what's HE gonna be like 8+ years later ????)
Even with a fake Viking Funeral (done for effect), and sealing many of his minions into his 'Tomb', Sander Cohen can manage to 'hack' his way back into notoriety in post-Lamb Rapture.
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Another Twisted Nightmare : Sander Cohen Administering a Trans-Orbital Lobotomy ON YOU :
* Being Told : "Little Moth, The way your body contorts will give me inspiration for new Dance Numbers".
* Afterward your mind starts seeing everybody with the face of Elizabeth wearing rabbit ears. And then YOUR realization - ITS NOT A NIGHTMARE .... ITS REAL !!!!!! 
* Sander Cohen Game Mode ( a multiverse where everyone wears 'the mask' (with ears) and hops around ) - giant Carrot Club optional. A Big Daddy dressed as a Chef with a BIG knife runs about shouting " Kommin Sie Hier Du Gutten Hasenpfeffer !!!"
* Batshit Crazy is (after all) a 'relative thing' ... ( 'Alice Through The Looking Glass' was tame Victorian era entertainment ).
* Sander Cohen's disembodied voice* "AND THEN THERE ARE THE CARROTS !!!!!" 
* At the End you hear Brigid Tenenbaum's voice "... I tink dis un ist finally comingk bak to die real worlt .... Up die Voltage NOW, unt standt back !!!"
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Ears of the Devil ( "The Devil in The Watery City" ? ) :
Flashback in Stark Terror Themey-Goodness --- You see some of Sander Cohen's signature bunny ears. After he got started in his mass murders, they became a symbol of great fear and terror in many parts of Rapture. We know ( in BaS ) that Cohen somehow had something to do with the orphanages, so the linkage there is strong that the Flashback witness could have been any Little Sister potentially, or even just some other child who witnessed the very disturbing events in Rapture.
The smell of wet plaster was often later capable of causing violence-hardened Splicers to soil themselves in fear.
Part of Sander Cohen 'art' was talking so calmly while his heinous performances played out - Particularly with a 'compelled' audience in attendance. The horror of the living victim as the plaster closed over their eyes and mouth was felt by that audience as if it were them.
Threat of some Trans-orbital Lobotomy ???? I raise you : Sander Cohen with his bucket of plaster.
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Sander Cohen's - "Strange" is Only a Word :
Rumors have begun to surface that Sander Cohen had been using various concoctions of ADAM Plasmid/Tonics in experiments to try to create a "Rabbit Splicer".  That he employed strange mixtures, often from bootlegger ADAM brewers, in these bizarre activities.   No doubt tests on some of his plaster 'Art' may turn up hard evidence.
Perhaps some newly recovered Accu-Vox Audio Diaries and other documentation will shed some light on these murky events from the Past.
As mentioned before, it may turn out the Show called "Sander Cohen" may not yet have made its final performance.  ( How can we pass up THAT set of content for this game ? )
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Happy Chappy Rides Again - Recreating Performances :
A truly monumental Asset for some Player to create would be : [[Rapture_TV}TV]] recordings (possibly on film taken at the earlier times)  of some of Sander Cohen's Playhouse 'masterpieces' (his  Broadway-like plays).   These would infrequently be played on New Rapture's TV stations (nobody would actually care to stage this at the later date, and there is limited things to show, so far).  
The MMORPGs Stage Direction Scripting mechanism would make compositions like this (and for MUCH better Player Created shows) possible, but it would still take some creativity/imagination to generate something like Cohen would have produced in the 'old days'.   The same mechanism would be used to create commercials, TV shows and historical recreations (newsreels) for the Player's media feeds.  In-game Live performances of all kinds ( including a cappella on the Streets ) could also be played using this.   I've seen Players having music concerts In-Game for several years in some MMORPGs, and this is taking it a few steps further.
Hmm, I suppose it is possible (Someday), employing Voice Generation, to simply import a Shakespeare play's text ( saute it a bit with added directives -- Like more detailed character movements/actions and voice inflections ) and create a 'Play' Asset which could be performed in-game.  ANYTHING with a similar scripting form could be done the same way.
The more I think about this whole MMORPG Stage Direction Scripting mechanism I'm talking about : With its general Real-World uses - A MMORPG could be the LEAST thing you could actually do with something like it. ( Imagine it being added to HTML 7 ... )
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As a Tribute to the Canon Breakage in the Burial At Sea DLC :
We see one of Sander Cohen's "Plasterpieces" which is obviously Elizabeth, who like Cohen's other 'disciples' was disposable, and in HIS Mind, being Best employed as PART of his 'Art'. 
Perhaps a Songbird 'fished out of the drink' might be seen in a scrap pile, or being cooked by Splicers for dinner. 
DONT CRITICIZE - Or YOU will Wind Up one of Cohen's 'Plasterpieces'.
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Whiteface :
Sander Cohen's makeup (and his standing still long enough for you to see it, versus running at you attacking like every other Splicer) made his face more distinctive/observable. Makeup used in the silent films was similar to make the actors face and facial gestures more discernible in the limited lighting/filming environment/media.
You actually directly interacted more with him than any other character in BS1/BS2 (except Eleanor ??).
The makeup abstracted the face somewhat preventing the off details from a normal face ( alot of various Splicer face detail was pretty awful, but they generally didn't stand still long enough or close enough to get a particularly good view of them ).
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Disappointment ... 
What a plain toilet Sander Cohen had in his rather plain bathroom in his Apartment ( maybe the Musical Accompaniment and Confetti feature was broken by then ?? )
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Interesting Idea : Sander Cohen to Narrate Some of your MMORPG 'Dreams' : 
* Flashbacks, effects of your 'cure', etc... 
* His Pithy commentary ( but also diverging off into his narcissistic viewpoint ) 
* Need a good voice actor to mimic the original ( or a carefully crafted 'FUTURE' Synthetic Voice to be created )
* Lotsa use of the term 'Little Moth', and the faint smell of wet plaster.
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Player Observation : "Does it seem Sander Cohen was Modeled on Ken Levine ??? So many similarities ..." 
Uh, no.
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There may be Additional reasons why Sander Cohen was leaving The Surface ...
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When Sander Cohen is back, in the MMORPG, he will have some new tricks for you ...
Sander Cohen might also make a crossover appearance in Columbia in the Infinite REDO, which being the mad hallucinations of a mental patient getting a Lobotomy, actually makes this picture fit in to that right well. 
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Absinthism :
Active ingredient Wormwood - side-effects : Repeated ingestion may result in 'Absinthism' - a Syndrome characterized by digestive disorders, thirst, restlessness, vertigo, trembling of the limbs, numbness of the extremities, loss of intellect, delirium, paralysis, and death.
Six bottles of Absinthe in Sander Cohen's apartment -- But then, he is so far past that point because he probably uses it as mouthwash.   Hmmm, yet another 'Role-Playing' scenario : "Being Sander Cohen - The Ride of True Greatness" 
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Sander Cohen Somehow Involved in Little Sister Kidnappings/Abandoned Orphanages ( Mentioned in BaSx ) :
He was supposed to be an serious ADAM-User - likely Addicted ( But perhaps taking his 'Tonic Cocktails', he didn't suffer as many negative effects as those who quaffed Plasmids ... )
He seems to have 'snapped up' all those Orphans ( not 'Little Sisters', as Ryan needs those still for the ADAM they produce to keep the ADAM-Heads from going insane ). Cohen doing that then would require ADAM Slugs, and then his own facilities to generate and collect the ADAM produced. It is likely there were a few 'out of work' Fontaine Futuristics ADAM technicians who knew what needed to be done, and could make Cohen's own ADAM-Farm work. ( Note - This would have to happen in either the few months after the Fontaine's demise, or had been going on at a small scale for long before. )
So Sander Cohen did feed his Lil Sisters with Absinthe to make them upchuck their ADAM ?? ( and what THEN does he do to it ???? - Does he have his own full BOOTLEGGER ADAM setup ( not illegal so 'bootlegger' is hardly appropriate )?? Why have a bathtub full of slime and a Slug when you could get 20-30 times as much ADAM this way ? Sander Cohen could find a way.
BTW - When a Little Sister is 'Saved' and you get some ADAM, in what form/process is that done as a 'present' ? Really, what process form is it when you Harvest them to be of any use to you ?? 
 
(( Yes, Game Expediency, but in the MMORPG these things are realistically 'a bit more involved' and explained ))
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