Comstock

* See also Comstocks Cult
* See also Comstock_The_Prophet and The_Prophesy_Business
* See also Lady_Comstock
* See also Elizabeth
* See also Sucha_Bizarre_Made-Up_Society
* See also Tear_Via_Machine
* See also Luteces 
An Important/Primary Character in the Infinite BS game. *SPOILER* : He is the same person as Booker DeWitt, except he went down a different life path in some parallel dimension/universe."parallel dimension/universe" which according to the basic hypothesis ( the writers pretended to base the game cosmology on ) there are INFINITE OF - so every combination/possibility would exist - including the Player favored CLOWN MODE universe...
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 "Mr Comstock Goes To Washington" :
Booker DeWitt was the man who dimension-alternately turned into Comstock.
The Game's Story says Comstock went to Washington and swayed a whole lot of crafty career politicians into spending millions on some 'pie in the sky' project. 
SO, What's some hick from the Midwest supposed to do to impress a bunch of jaded politicos in Washington DC ? ( And that's to get them to hand out a huge amount of "their" 'hard to obtain' tax-payer's CASH ... )
Sorry, Comstock's tiny religious Cult ain't mainstream ( not enuf votes to matter to any politician ), and he probably 'Wouldn't Get the Time of Day' -- Let alone millions of dollars of taxpayer money from them. Seriously, did any of the writers/designers actually take any American History ( or were they all recent American public school students ) ? None of this writing is 'cleverly done'.
This is supposed to have happened less than 3 years after 16-year-old Boy Trooper Booker massacred Injuns ( "War Hero" ... Right ...), and he's now just 19 years old :
* Then he has a whirlwind career as a 'Preacher-Prophet ( Consider the timeframe : Massacre 1890 -> Exposition 1893 ) ???? Was Booker into 'Bible' before he was in the Army ( to have become fluent in that subject enough to fool people who have thoroughly Read the Bible 'all their lives' ) ? Did some Sioux mentor teach him to read in his (un-detailed) Frontier home ? Prophesies ( a big thing in The Bible ) to gain 'a following' and bundles of money ?? 
* When did Comstock meet the Luteces to access this magic ''Tear' machine so to Prophesy from ??? Wasn't Lutece just tweaking 'particles' thus far ? And we should suppose Rosalind didn't have a working 'Tear machine' yet OR the money to build such a machine ? ( Or are we to assume she built it simply out of "Stone Knives and Bearskins" with Rosalind's 'sewing money' )???
* Has Booker ALREADY radiation burnt himself lookin' thru Tears yet ( to look older ) ?? ( Such that a 'wet-behind-the-ears' 19-year-old would NOT be laughed out of Washington, or soon figuratively lose his CA$H to some scam artist selling 'Magic Beans' there ). 
SERIOUSLY, We may have to discard Comstock's early history as 'Made up To Fool the Rubes' ( more like 'village idiots', if they believe that 'When Being Just 16 Years old' in the Army tale ). 
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Zachary Hale Comstock - The Jim Jones of 1893 ... :
Jim Jones of the Guiana Mass Suicide fame had required his cult followers to turn over all they owned to him and his church.
But I'm sure Jimmy's cultism was a bit closer to Christianity than Comstock's Faux-Christian Idolatry, with himself playing the 'god' part ( Kennyboi really knows very little about American religiosity/Religion apparently - He even admits it ( in one of those endless interviews ) - But THAT IS NO EXCUSE for such a misrepresentation as is shown in this game ).
It Is Preposterous : That any large number of Americans would fall for Comstock's Pseudo Religious Charlatanry - THAT is one of the biggest bits of Bad Fantasy in the whole Infinite BS game ( and it reeks of either massive ignorance, or intentional divisiveness on the writers' part ).
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Premise : Tears - "They Helped Comstock open Tears into the Future Hence His Prophecies" 
This story 'logic' has some Issues :
Comstock supposedly got a reputation and a large following ( Followers = CASH) BECAUSE he was a 'Prophet', which would only be AFTER he had access to the Lutece's Tears ( and the machine to enable those 'Tears' ) to look through ???? 
SO funding the Luteces ... This funding of the Lutece's Tech Goodies is a bit of a "chicken and the egg" situation. It is rather tightly 'wedged' into the timeline below :
:1890 (Dec 29) Wounded Knee (Booker = 16) 
:1891 "Baptism" soon after ? Rename to "Comstock", Luteces & Prophetizing ( best get startin all that as Columbia launched by 1893 ) (Booker/Comstock = 17) 
:1892 Funding Columbia (Comstock = 18) That 'Whippersnapper' goes to Congress ...
:1893 Columbia flying BEFORE the Exposition (Comstock = 19) 
:1894(?) Elizabeth Kidnapped ( to have game Elizabeth be a useful 'princess' age for game ... Comstock ~19)
:1912 Game Date ( Comstock/Booker = ~38), Booker should have looked older - being a burned out drunk and Comstock - did his Tear-Burnt aging just suddenly stop ? ) 
This timeline illustrates that SO MUCH ( including building of Columbia ) happened in LESS than 3 years' time ( A RATHER SHORT TIMELINE ). Almost more Fantasy than a floating city.
Originally a 'young whippersnapper'-ish Comstock ( still with fresh Army Cavalry saddle sores ), he allegedly is Cultifyin converts' ( whole lotta Converts were needed to MAKE that initial CASH ). Consider that he was ONLY 'Tear burnt' to look like a Biblical 'Prophet' AFTER the Lutece Tear machine was working. ( The ordinary good/experienced 'Revival Tent Biz' does not make much money ).
THEN (supposedly) Comstock managed to get some HUGE Federal Government Funding ( at a time when building Real Battleships were bankrupting governments ) - thus obtaining some stupendous amount of money to 'simply' just build Columbia'Just Build' - some wholy new technology within very little time, with no trained engineers for something not done before. Some floaty model demonstrating the "Lutece Effect" ain't the same as proving how a whole City is to work enough to plan the real thing. The gamemakers shat on logic/reality making all this incredibly happen in just 3 years. .
For Columbia to get built, Comstock & Co (Luteces) had to have that Floatyshit(tm) thing working WELL ( Much Cash/Time/Effort in the Real World is required to develop it all ... ). They needed to be able to Demonstrate it to sell the idea to the Politicos BEFORE getting a dime from those Very Clever Politicians ( Who do NOT want to look like Inept Buffoons 'IF it did not work or catastrophically failed, NOR to give up funding THEIR OWN already existing politically advantageous government projects. )
I have an idea to alleviate the ridiculously expensive/half-arsed game-seen hugeness.
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A Corrected Comstock :
Some of that backstory regarding the 'Hero' Comstock, and how he came to be on Columbia ( launched in 1893 - only 3 years after that 'battle' ) -- Might have seen 'The Hero' as a 'Stage Act' in the Flying Exposition of 'American Exceptionalism' ( the Exposition 'Show City' which Columbia started out as ). That after he failed in politics (being a hack/fraud) in the US. His takeover (?) of Columbia may have been the result of festering ambitions for which he never had the ability/character to do in the Real World.
His Real name being "Melvin Lieberwitz" ( another of Levine's "Authentic Diversities" ... )
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NOTE - Any alleged 'heroism' at "Wounded Knee" 1890 (Real World) was more the product of politics and newspaper hype, as it was hardly a 'battle' (even with 30 Army casualties), and more an account of bothersome 'Indians' being 'put in their place' to assuage public concerns and worries ( There were still Apaches elsewhere making real trouble down in Arizona Territory at that time ).
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COMSTOCK THE PRETENDER :
Comstock is a Liar about his Past ( Aggrandizing his own roles in dubious events ) 
So why take other things he claims 'as gospel' ? Does Booker, who no doubt knows all about lies and deceit, ever correct Comstock much ( at least so far as for when they had the same past ) ? This Booker character perhaps has had half his mind burned out by alcohol abuse.
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How can they (as the same person) exist in the same universe dimension without 'Merging' ?? ( Magic Fantasy - CONSISTENCY ISSUES APPLENTY ). ( HMMMM - What happens when the person you 'merge with' has half their brain burned out ??? )
So VERY many things can be different between Comstocks universe ( "[Effect]" Times A Billion ),_ and whatever one out of the 122 ( so far ) the Luteces have scooped up this Pawn Booker from ??? 
Was one of those 122 a 'Clown' Booker ?? A hermaphrodite Booker ? A robotic Booker ?? That will be something to explore for the REDO.
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As many Americans at that time who agreed with Comstock's line on 'immigrants', the truth is that most Americans would still call Comstock a Cultist and Charlatan to his face. How stupid the people who went to Comstock's Columbia must have been - that is pretty hard to understand ( and consider how fast anyone there would have bailed after HE took over with the outrageous BS he then enforced ). Sorry Levine, YOU HAVE A VERY STRANGE WARPED IDEA ABOUT AMERICA or AMERICANS.
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Comstock Claims to Have Met Booker Before ?? :
Perhaps he was 'Remembering Buying Anna(Elizabeth)' - Where blood was spurting everywhere from a severed pinky, it might have made it memorable ... Though that was like 17 years earlier, and Comstock was on the other side of a dimensional 'Tear'.
It might be unlikely that Comstock COULD 'know him' ( in Comstock's contrived life history ) whilst an Army Officer, and Booker was (allegedly) only a lowly 'green' 16-year-old Trooper. Such persons generally didn't mix socially, nor much professionally. Now IF Booker had disciplinary charges against him (went AWOL ?), THEN he might have 'met' Comstock. But then, there were many other officers who might have such a task. EXCEPT - Comstock WAS Booker - and Comstock is just saying this.
With 122(?) other Bookers before 'this' one ... ( But with the variances of appearances you will see within a Herd of Elvis Impersonators - similar to this picture of a bunch of Elizabeths seen at the end of the game ). So Booker probably does seem familiar to Comstock.
Easy enough to write detail things like this in stories ( But it DOES take more skill/knowledge/effort to actually DO THEM properly. )
BTW, what happened to all the other 'failed' Bookers ??? ( A Comstock's "Trophy Wall" somewhere ?? )
BTW, Remember all that 'Merge' stuff they have elsewhere in the game - How does it happen that there are Two of the same person in the SAME universe/dimension ( There is a similar problem with the two Luteces coexisting ). (( JUST more of "The Cuz Factor" of poor story telling ... )) 
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Comstock, Family Man ?
As for Lady Comstock's past, in the society of that day, would a well bred woman be likely to marry an upstart cult leader ( He was like 19 in 1893 if you can believe the timeline ) -- Or rather would her family allow her to marry such a dodgy character ??? I don't remember when his Conversion/Degeneration into an old man took place, which would also could be a problematical detail. 
Perhaps her 'past' was as fabricated as his was. Maybe all the 'putting on airs' the game story detail contains are ALSO ( like Comstock's ) alot of Charlatanry Charlatan - a person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill; a fraud. .
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Comstock Being Drowned :
Booker: "She's your daughter, you son of a bitch! And you ABANDONED her! Was it worth it?! Huh ? Did you get what you wanted?! Tell me! Tell me!"
Comstock: "It is... finished."" Comstock: "It is... finished." : Sad (sick), if this is some intentional reference to Jesus's last words as he was dying on the Cross "
Booker: "Nothing is finished! You lock her up for her whole life! You cut off her finger, and you put it on me!"
: Except Booker was a monster himself, and he cannot put THAT on Comstock. 
: Booker basically shows what a hypocrite he is. (( Is this "Projection" - angst by Levine about this shoddy game ??? ))
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No doubt Alternates will have Delta getting his hands around Sofia Lamb's throat in a BS2 REDO ???
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When You Think About It -  'A Dying Dr Zhivago and His Tram' Could Have Taken Out 'Columbia' :
What the heck am I talking about ?? Seriously, going after a bunch of rebelling Chinese who still had muskets isn't really saying much. Dropping bricks on them ( and any of the trapped Ambassadors ) is most of what Comstock might do -- He is Big on 'Talk' - Remember ...
That is Assuming Comstock was even in Control of Columbia at that point ( Boxer Rebellion was between 1899 and 1901 ). The US Government wasn't amused, and with Public Outcry shouting at the politicians, action was taken ... ( Many Alternate Comstocks were publicly hung within 6 months in MOST universes having these events ).
Doom would be coming for Comstock and his Mutineers sooner than later.
(( Disturbing Thought : Suchong was able to provide WMD Nerve Agents for Use on those 'Chinese Barbarians'. ))
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Something to Consider For People Who Think Columbia Coulda Attacked New York City 1984 ... :
United States Army Nike Missile Tests in 1963 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUe9IglVQPk
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?&q=nikex+test+sprint+missile
V V V
https://youtu.be/msXtgTVMcuA
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Infinite BS page
Comstock's Aging Is Just Bullshit - SO Weak :
WHY is it that ONLY Comstock is shown to be affected with this 'Aging' phenomenon ???
The 'Aging' is allegedly due to 'Tear' exposure for his 'prophet' activities, which in the story justifies his 'influence' (gravitas) to be able to further the HOUSE OF CARDS plot : For him to have a 'big' following, and to talk career-Politicians into giving up some of their precious Taxpayer-Money to fund Columbia, so he can later steal it, then populate it with his cultish followers, and then Set up a racist Police State, so Booker can have a Shoot-em-up Slaughter-fest, etc ... 
(( So easy to knock any one of those 'cards' to send the whole dim plot crashing into the morass of ignorance it inhabits. ))
Why wasn't Rosalind Lutece, who had to put significant time into developing/testing her 'Tear' machine, herself having a great deal of exposure to them, likewise 'Aged' ???? You'd think she would, no ? (( Oh, it doesn't fit with the concept of having the two creepy people keep showing up, saying odd things and doing their strange antics. Having the Rosalind character be an ugly skeletal crone would NOT 'appeal' to the Players ))
Seriously, Comstock ( to fit that VERY cramped timeline ) is like age 19 in 1893, and his 'aging' was simply (and clumsily) contrived by the writers to make him look 'important'/'distinguished' ( and different than Booker, who had to be presented with a certain age - So they picked 1912 ) -- ALL Forced to Fit an already decided plot sequence/situation ( AND it had to meet Levine & Co's caricature/cliche-thinking of what a religious 'Prophet' is supposed to look like ).
The Story has No Proper explanation for this rather obvious gaff/inconsistency. It is just one of many unexplained magical contrivances - Simply being written into the Story for the Players to swallow. In Infinite BS there is a general lack of coherent 'Way-Things-Work', (even) within its Fantasy story, full of seemingly hastily and ill-considered pieced-together details. (( It earns a "Failz Minus" on the Mark-Twain Scale ))
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This 'Aging' was to make Comstock 'look different' from Booker, and to give Comstock 'gravitas' in his role as 'Prophet'. (( Hmmm - Another manipulation to hide a story/plot Twist )) 
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Fredrick Douglas Was At the 1893 Exposition :
And they had a 'Colored Day' at the 1893 Fair ...
What did Comstock think about that ?? ( What he said might not be overly 'Politically Correct' to relate in this game ... )
Remember Though : Realistically, Comstock would NOT have been in charge at that time.
But if you are going to have actual racism, you can't 'cotton candy-coat' it.
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We Shoulda had a much more interesting Death Scene for Comstock - With Freaky Effects at least 'on par' with the various Lady Comstock scenes.
MERGED Comstocks - Not so Easily Killed !!!
Think - It is Booker Fighting Himself - One of those Fiction Mechanisms
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Elaborate how Comstock might possibly get some further rank from Private ( especially in a 'Peace Time Army')
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WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO : THEY JUST HURRIEDLY SHOVED ALOT OF SHIT TOGETHER 
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