I recommend reading the novel: “Bioshock: Rapture”, it’s prequel book that goes into more detail on how Ryan developed Rapture, how it was before the games time, and how it was doomed from the start even before the discovery of Adam.
Minor gripe: the farm in Kansas was never an actual place. Jack was just sent to the surface to live for a little while, while Atlas tried to take rapture conventionally. He remembers the farm because Fontaine had most of his memories of rapture replaced, making him think he’d been born on the surface.
I always just assumed the farm being in Kansas was included as a reference to The Wizard of Oz, because Jack "isn't in Kansas anymore." As for your comment though, I don't think Fontaine had Jack's memory of Rapture erased, did he? I know he had memories implanted of the surface, childhood, and of a family, but I don't remember any dialogue referencing Jack's memory being erased. I remember Jack was genetically engineered to age super quickly, and he was raised by Tannenbaum before he was sent to the surface, but wasn't Jack being conditioned in secret at that time? Segregated from the rest of Rapture and hidden from Ryan and his police force by Tannenbaum and Fontaine? How could he have memories of Rapture if he never saw it outside Tannanbaums lab, before being sent to the surface? I could be wrong of course, would love to be corrected if I am. It has been over a decade since I played the game, maybe I'm getting a little confused. Cheers, and happy holidays. 👍
@@lexus8018 I feel like rapture CAN be saved. Tenebaum did eventually figure out A cure for adam addiction. It may not show it much, but rapture did have alot of people left. It will take years but it can be revived
In terms of pure aesthetic alone, Rapture looks like a nice place to live. Just needs less exploitation and supernatural drug-fuelled murder and it'd be perfect for me. Hats off to the game's design team.
it would need a giant glass dome with a full forest on it, i would miss the forest and trees of the surface, and maybe create a giant light source or focus sunlight into a single point to create a sun like thing
To think that all these complex characters, ideas, concepts, were written by a small team of developers, is absolutely mind blowing. The background of Andrew Ryan, and not only him but all the characters, businesses within Rapture, etc. are all filled with information. Shows how much of a masterpiece the Bioshock universe is.
having beaten the game for tye second time today, there are even instances where ryan would seem to recognize his flaws, only to instantly go back on his mentality.
I think you could still argue he is one, a capable man who could have thrived, and for a time did, but because of his bias’s against collectivism and socialism, which he experienced at its absolute worst as a child in the form of the soviets stealing his families company before killing them. He ended up running 180 degrees in the other direction, creating a society that embodied the absolute worst of individualism and capitalism.
They do allude in the game even before the discovery of ADAM, Rapture was fated to self destruct; Andrew Ryan had become everything he originally despised, so a bloody civil war even without superhuman mutants was assured.
Oh yeah Ryan was doomed to fail. He was just too paranoid and scared from his past experiences. He seemed to not want direct competition in business yet wouldn’t want people to scrounge he’s literally the things he hated.
Fontaine ruined Rapture. Remove him from the equation and none of this would have happened. No one acknowledges this because they’re too busy hating on his philosophy as opposed to understanding what actually happened.
A big part of it was him for sure However, the biggest factor was the philosophy by which he ruled the city A stateless society, with a completely unrestrained free market economy, with cramped living conditions, that you cannot leave and with no welfare state or government support people who are desperate and unemployed is a powder keg waiting to explode Adam, Fontaine, Atlas, Splicers etc only made a really bad situation even worse - they did not cause Raptures fall (as I initially thought when I played through the games many years back)
@VladHaterade He betrayed every ideal he claimed to stand for. He nationalized Fontaine futuristics, killed anyone who spoke against him(suppressing freedom of speech), and used pheromones to rob people of the freedom he claimed to love and adore so much. He was a hypocrite too full of himself to realize just how far he’d fallen.
@VladHaterade Fontaine had power but he didn’t own the city like Ryan did. Fontaine was a bad dude yes, but he had nothing to do with tarnishing Ryan’s reputation: the man did that himself
Excellent lore video. One thing you could have mentioned though was how Fontaine created his 'Homes for the poor' and soup kitchens in an Al Capone style attempt to curry favour with the poorer masses. He also created "power to the people' weapon upgrade stations to arm them for the uprising.
Fontaine was one smart ass nigga, man. Multiple identies and all well acted, getting people on his side, foot holds in small and big business, fronts for hidden operations, and just schemes upon schemes.
@@MightyGuts7423 he was just very lucky he invested in the plasmid trade before some racist elitist did. They would have turn a bunch of underfed and downtrodden slaves to workers as a resource to supplant anyone who complains and send the defective ones out of a pressure tube to the depths
@@maineman5757 Capone was at the height of his power in the 1920's/30's, Bioshock is set in the 60's, so almost 30 years after Capone's era. Otherwise, your right in saying Fontaine was definitely inspired by prohibition era mobsters and bootleggers like Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Waxey Gordon, etc. I would argue his personality isn't inspired by Capone though, Capone was a lot more hotheaded and impatient than the calculating and manipulative Fontaine.
Andrew Ryan also saw the sea slug and the ADAM were part of the problem; however, he didn't take action when he had the chance. He thought if he told the people to stop using it and outlawed it, he would become the very thing he hated. He believed the people free will and choice and thought the people will stop using it willing; however, their minds were long gone. Another reason why Rapture was doomed. He saw the warning signs, but refused to do anything about it.
people seem to forget humans are just self conscious animals. We are still guided by our own instintics, and prone to think irracionally. This is why you have laws to prevent people from going crazy; mental health doctors, so they can help you heal your mind and so on. These are also all prone to failure, but at least there is an incentive not to drug yourself to death.
@@AH-is5yg I think the implication is that Ryan's ideology blinded him when it came to Adam. If he had regulated it, he would have hated himself for using parasitic tactics and halting Scientific Progress. The irony is that he gave in to power and parasitism anyway later on.
@@campfortson4387 That is the case, it's just that Ryan should have seen the dangers of Adam and take actions while it was still small. He would have save Rapture despite what he had to do. There is a saying, "Rules are meant to be broken." There was another reason for Rapture's downfall, Ryan was really a businessman not a politician. Ryan can run a company, but not a city.
@@AH-is5yg It's ironic that, at first, Andrew didn't act against Fontaine, the Plasmids and the obvious discontent building in Rapture becase he was all in favor of free will. However, once these things grow large enough to be a threat to his control over Rapture, he pretty much goes all full tyrant. Curfews, auto-turrets, ID cards... Deep down Ryan was all about freedom as long he stayed on top. Everyone was free to do as they pleased as long they followed his rules.
It's sad that all these people who lived in Rapture wanted to be free and achieve their dreams that they ever wanted but it turned into a nightmare and they all died because of Ryan and Fontaine
This was so well done that I genuinely thought the intro was about a real person (that influenced BioShock) before they said he changed his name to Andrew Ryan. Very good.
Haven't played BioShock for a long time but IIRC there was an important part of the lore where wielders and construction workers were put into miserable conditions, living in the slums and barely making any money, because their services were not required anymore (I guess all maintenance was done by obedient Big Daddies working for free). And, as a cherry on top of this shitcake, those of them who tried to escape Rapture were eliminated out of fear that other governments will discover Ryan's secret. Yet another reason why Fontaine won popularity among workers so easily.
Yeah that’s exactly true, they became the ones living in poverty because of the lack of work, then as some tried to leave Ryan’s paranoia got worse and so he closed off their escape as well as killed some of those who wanted to leave. I should have included that in the video but yes that is true
@@TyyylerDurden I mean look at the global history of monarchies/aristocracy. The most successful ones were longsighted and socially mindful. Many of the most disastrous ones were governed by petty personal (often competing) interests with no care for the long term well being of their nations or people.
Everyone has deep philisofical reasons about why Rapture failed but my 12 year old self thought "of course this place is destroyed, IT"S SITTING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN".
This is really impressive. I love the clips you've add from the game and from real life as well. You are a great storyteller and I love your voice. I've played the games and I've seen many theory videos already but I love how you stitched everything together. It really explains things clearly and beautifully.
@@haustyl12 Yeah but looking at how splicers mind their business most of the time, it’s odd they didn’t just ignore Jack unless he did something to them.
You missed the part about the technology he invented that blew the water out of the buildings. He submerged the buildings in prebuilt sections and let them flood and guided them down into place, then "popped" the water out with a (science fictional) technology that expanded air pockets. I liked that part of the storyline, it basically said that the Bioshock world exists because of several unknown (to us) technologies.
@@RogueJinxel I think the book, but in bioshock 2 when you go to the history museum you can read all the exhibits and the exhibits show how rapture was made, this part included. It talked about how first the bases of the buildings were drilled into bed rock, and how each piece was shipped over the right spot and then dropped into the ocean and guided down into place
I think I found an Easter egg, but the uprising in Rapture happened around the same time as the Cuban Revolution. The war was progressing in favor Castro during late December 1958 and it wasn't until early January 1959 he entered Havana to the shock of the wealthy Cubans and American tourists. Would this mirror Fontaine's AKA Atlas' revolution in Rapture?
Except Fontaine was pretending to be a Socialist Revolutionary by the name of Atlas so he could build an army to conquer Rapture for himself. Fontaine was also an evil and miserable Capitalist worm who stepped on everyone to get what he wanted. Castro believed in what he was fighting for and he fought for a better future for Cuba and Cubans. Fontaine fought only for himself and only for his own greed and vision! He didn't even want Rapture but to take it's inventions like ADAM and Plasmids, go back up to the surface and sell them to become an insanely wealthy business tycoon. Capitalism is the root of all evil.
It's not said enough how well the team behind this worked. The music, the 'camera' movements, the world building, are all top class. Then there's you putting it together, well done!
Andrew Ryan: “I will work hard to become a great man”, finds oil on his land and basically just wins the lottery to become rich. Ah yes what a inspiring story on path to success, just find valuable stuff where you live, why doesn’t everyone just do that? Better yet just be born to wealth and cut out the luck part, it’s so easy when you do that.
@@jtrain9926 But luck does play a factor. There are those born with the resources,connections to do great things. While there are those born with next to nothing,work their hardest to get to the top but never gain any closer in achieving their dreams. Then you have people who just ride life while things just go their way even though they show no passion or drive for work or success and others are just baffled at how that person made it to the top so fast.
One thing is having an oil, another is knowing how to use it to become filthy rich. On the other hand he could simply use money to pay people who have more expertise in oil business, deluding himself into belief that all of hard work and success was his only, from his "wonderful" management.
I’ve played all the games, read the book, all the added parts tens of times, not a thing I’ve missed. There really is something about the world of the bioshock games that I find so interesting.
Really incredible! I've heard a lot about these games but never knew the details and background lore of the city. Amazing and informative vid. Well played.
My uncle co-founded irrational games along side Ken Levine and was one of the leads for the game. He broke off from them after bioshock 2 and started his own indie studio. But now im at the age where I can really see the game for what it is, not just a shooter with a big plot twist but the world building and lore behind it. And now we can have discussions about it and how the team and him came up with all these great ideas. Cos of amazing videos like yours it really lets me appreciate his games so thank you and Ill be sure to show him this
In case anyone hasn't figured out who the inspiration for Andrew Ryan was: *Andrew Ryan* > And Ryan > RAnd yan > RAnd ayn > *ayn RAnd* Also, the undersea city of Rapture is a parody of the hidden libertarian "paradise" of Galt's Gulch. All of this lore is just an extrapolation of "Atlas Shrugged".
I, on the other hand, am not a huge gamer. The reason I saw this video was because I wanted to hear music/score. But I got immersed in the story telling. Very good vid I might add. Truly enjoyed it. Now, I will search for what I was looking for originally. Thank you.
Ryan hated corruption but also wanted freedom. Well the freedom to be corrupt is part and parcel of being free, and by extension of free market capitalism as well.
Rapture could have been a paradise if Ryan didn’t forget one thing, the workers are the foundation of any capitalist society. I’m pretty sure all of what happened could have been avoided if Andrew Ryan and the Rapture council established a minimum wage or made housing free. Edit: Correction, he should have established a minimum wage or made housing cheap and extremely affordable.
It seems a lot of employers forget that workers are the foundation. There's no incentive for a worker to show loyalty or do more than the minimum required to do their job if they'll be laid off anyway just so the company can please investors with a little bit more profit. Though things might be different now that there's a labor shortage. Once things start returning to normal, don't be surprised if workers are treated as expendable again. Unfortunately, Ryan was an extremist. Things like minimum wage and affordable housing went against his principles. In his eyes, the only people who deserve housing are those that can afford it.
His Rapture was nothing but old-fashioned hide-away for rich away from poor. Too bad he (and many others) forgot that taking away the top pyramid and moving it somewhere else makes previously high layers new low layers. That pyramid does not float in the air. In Rapture chemist developing penicillin synthesis (massively important invention) is reduced to making aspirin (introductory chemical synthesis) and surgeon developing limb transplants is reduced to lancing boils.
Found your channel 2 days ago this great man I love lore videos about games and movies all that you’re voice is good for narration and you keep the story interesting good shit man
Mild criticism: Frank Fontaine didn’t get into the plasmid business, he invented it. All of the reputable scientists and researchers turned Brigid Tenenbaum away when she presented her discovery of ADAM, so she turned to the then-smuggler and fisherman Frank Fontaine to fund her research. Fontaine was more than happy to aid her since he sensed the lucrative opportunity to do business off of ADAM that would make him rival even Andrew Ryan.
That was an awesome prequel narrative on an awesome game. When I started playing it I thought was very odd and unseemly but I got into it and now love playing Bioshock remastered. It crashes frequently though. None of the fixes I tried seem to work. There were four published by a tech savvy user on the Steam message boards
@@Lazarus1095 That is what confuses me. Andrew Ryan is a guy that wants to be a dictator/liberator. I see nothing of Ayn Rands ideas in his philosophy or actions. So why are you saying that they are comparable? My guess was that you know nothing about her ideas. But now you are suggesting you read all her books. Where do you see the similarities?
@@Ferdinand208 Because Ayn Rand preached independence, self-reliance and personal responsibility whilst demanding total obedience and slavish devotion from her followers- at least two of whom she sexually exploited. She saw charity, government assistance, and legally enforced limits on human behavior as immoral- and the pursuit of her philosophy benefitted the powerful at the expense of the powerless. By the time of her death she was a cult leader in all but name.
@@WiseFish I know there was a film at one point, but personally i would prefer to see a prequel series about the rise and fall of rapture. Such rich lore!
My only gripe with the game is that it would be impossible to build a city the size of Rapture within 6 years, even if they were pre-fabricated and then sent down. An easy explanation to this would have been to extend the time to about 30 years and say that Ryan had found a way to extend his life with Adam.
This is exactly what's it's based on, the creator of bioshock even said so. So Kevin knew her society would eventually collapse, which is why Rapture falls apart.
I'd love a follow up or a continuation leading into the second game. You earned a like and a sub, I like these kinds of videos 👍 can't wait to see what else you'll look into!. The Metro Exodus one looks interesting
@@WiseFish I’m glad you enjoy making them, makes it far easier to put up with rendering and what not. Honestly, in a few months you’ll be celebrating 10k subs, and then it’s upwards from there
The theme i got from Rapture and Andrew Ryan is that "freedom and free will are great gifts but without limits and when they intersect with someone else's freedom. Results in total anarchy"
This video was awesome! not only is your voice so calming and easy to listen to, but you also found a way to make even the least interesting pieces worth listening to (totally grabbed my attention).
I am afraid Q and Quark would have strongly contrasting ideals "Look at you Ryan, trying to build a little capitalist paradise of your own because you couldn't challenge the big government up top. Meanwhile I controlled them, their robots they use to wage war? Mine, the computers used to bring nukes down on each other? Mine. your ideals have proven to be nothing more than wishful daydreams of a young boy who build a little playset in his room hoping his brothers don't and ruin it." "And look at you House, your little kingdom is besieged from within and without, no one else will carry on your legacy after you are gone House. No one lives forever and even though you try to use whatever technology required to survive. Your time will come House when age takes you and I will show your employees how to get their act together."
Ironically Frank Fontaine was the only one of the few people who didn’t buy into Ryan’s bullshit. He made a valid point that “Somebody’s gotta scrub the toilets.” There’s always gotta be the one to do the dirty work
I would love to see a Bioshock series but not about the game itself, but from the beggining and fall of Rapture, going through the civil war and ending it with Atlas finally getting his Ace in the hole 🥹
I love these kinds of videos that go into the setup and lore and such. There was another channel that did one on Half-life I saw a few months back that was awesome too. This was very good stuff.
The main issue Rapture fell wasn’t much more than restriction- the very same Andrew fled, not much more in my opinion. First he falsely advertised to workers- because he wanted more workers for it to be made faster. He then was controlling who entered and what they could do to some degrees which made people wonder if it was a free market- especially since it’s locked up and isolated from other trade… mercantilism (probably spelling it wrong, it’s what Canada has ‘the market is to serve the state and ‘zero sum’ fallacy belief restrict it) Now they could also leave if they so wished. As for charity being labeled parasites, not really charity is the best and vibrant version of the free market, however in Gary’s Gulch ‘give’ ‘can I have’ something like that isn’t quite allowed; a reverse of ‘Athem’ a pretty good dystopian novel by Ayn Rand. It was a powder keg, with Atlas being thermite to light it - No free market trade. - Controlled mercantilism (auto correct corrected it) - no export for people who are discontent (Mexico has this along with most western nations) - Anti charity (free market)
@@fxmorin439 mercantilism basically became known now as protectionism and they practice the same policies pretty much. Discouraging imports, and so on ‘to save our jobs’ and to tax people to subsidize them- ‘too big to fail’ The link would go here but youtube hates it. Canada is more free market than what America is. We can get everything we get from China- for less of a price if we get it from Mexico due to shipping costs…this would also solve the illegal immigration problem by making Mexico a lot better in theory, or not depending on actions… we have free money to China and the USSR and choices taken didn’t improve much, if anything. Ironically Canada is more free market than America. Sri Lanka, Botswana and Rwanda are three countries. Sri Lanka is the most free market of the world, the other two are up and coming; promoting free markets in Africa and are the fastest growing economies in Africa- if I can remember… this was before 2020’s pandemic panic.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
If you liked this video, would you kindly give it a like to help with the algorithm! Cheers boyo!
Gotchu
You should cover Bioshock 2 or infinite at some point as well!
wait where is him burning down the forest talked about the games or a comic?
I'm a Fink in the sheets and a divide in the streets. 😊
Gave it a like because you actually said honestly why you want a like.
I recommend reading the novel: “Bioshock: Rapture”, it’s prequel book that goes into more detail on how Ryan developed Rapture, how it was before the games time, and how it was doomed from the start even before the discovery of Adam.
I’ve read half of it, great book. Love the Bioshock lore so much
@@WiseFish Should do a video on it.
A very good book!! A must read if you like Bioshock
It was a fantastic read. I highly recommend it the book as well!
Still reading it
Minor gripe: the farm in Kansas was never an actual place. Jack was just sent to the surface to live for a little while, while Atlas tried to take rapture conventionally. He remembers the farm because Fontaine had most of his memories of rapture replaced, making him think he’d been born on the surface.
I always just assumed the farm being in Kansas was included as a reference to The Wizard of Oz, because Jack "isn't in Kansas anymore."
As for your comment though, I don't think Fontaine had Jack's memory of Rapture erased, did he? I know he had memories implanted of the surface, childhood, and of a family, but I don't remember any dialogue referencing Jack's memory being erased. I remember Jack was genetically engineered to age super quickly, and he was raised by Tannenbaum before he was sent to the surface, but wasn't Jack being conditioned in secret at that time? Segregated from the rest of Rapture and hidden from Ryan and his police force by Tannenbaum and Fontaine? How could he have memories of Rapture if he never saw it outside Tannanbaums lab, before being sent to the surface?
I could be wrong of course, would love to be corrected if I am. It has been over a decade since I played the game, maybe I'm getting a little confused.
Cheers, and happy holidays. 👍
To this day whenever I play Bioshock, I still get chills when I see rapture from the baythosphere as Jack descends.
Same!
Same. Under rated story with some real shit to think about.
We all do my friend
It still breaks my heart to play Bioshock 2 and walk around the flooding city whitch is now completely beyond repair
i’d argue it’s beyond repair by the time of the first game
@@lexus8018 I feel like rapture CAN be saved. Tenebaum did eventually figure out A cure for adam addiction. It may not show it much, but rapture did have alot of people left. It will take years but it can be revived
In terms of pure aesthetic alone, Rapture looks like a nice place to live. Just needs less exploitation and supernatural drug-fuelled murder and it'd be perfect for me. Hats off to the game's design team.
>a nice place to live
let me guess, you still live at home?
it would need a giant glass dome with a full forest on it, i would miss the forest and trees of the surface, and maybe create a giant light source or focus sunlight into a single point to create a sun like thing
@@_KillerD_ - The sun thing is a good idea. That's one of the many reasons they ell ended up going insane. People missing the sun.
I would love to live in a rapture that's not full of murder. I've played bioshock 1 and 2 sooo many times just cus of how much i love the atmosphere
@@kitano47 yes where else do we live besides our home
To think that all these complex characters, ideas, concepts, were written by a small team of developers, is absolutely mind blowing. The background of Andrew Ryan, and not only him but all the characters, businesses within Rapture, etc. are all filled with information. Shows how much of a masterpiece the Bioshock universe is.
If only they still made games like this
@@chickenchaser8822 fr
@@chickenchaser8822what do you mean?
The basis for this story is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged its a good but difficult read
When I was young I saw Ryan as the tragic villain, when I grew up I realized he was part of the problem
having beaten the game for tye second time today, there are even instances where ryan would seem to recognize his flaws, only to instantly go back on his mentality.
I think you could still argue he is one, a capable man who could have thrived, and for a time did, but because of his bias’s against collectivism and socialism, which he experienced at its absolute worst as a child in the form of the soviets stealing his families company before killing them. He ended up running 180 degrees in the other direction, creating a society that embodied the absolute worst of individualism and capitalism.
He's basically Magneto. He's doing the bad thing but it's understandable why he is like this.
@@somerandomschmuck2547 Yeah he tried way to hard to be the opposite of soviet union to the point he became way worse then they had ever been
Blame communism and socialism.
They do allude in the game even before the discovery of ADAM, Rapture was fated to self destruct; Andrew Ryan had become everything he originally despised, so a bloody civil war even without superhuman mutants was assured.
Oh yeah Ryan was doomed to fail. He was just too paranoid and scared from his past experiences. He seemed to not want direct competition in business yet wouldn’t want people to scrounge he’s literally the things he hated.
In the end those who consumed by fear doomed to be damned for sure
Just like Ryan who build his ideal country but ruined it at the end
Fontaine ruined Rapture. Remove him from the equation and none of this would have happened. No one acknowledges this because they’re too busy hating on his philosophy as opposed to understanding what actually happened.
The philosophy is trash, and so are those that believe in it.
In the end, Ryan was the parasite he so loved to hate.
It didn’t help that he though in term of black and white with it alll not think there sometime nuance
A big part of it was him for sure
However, the biggest factor was the philosophy by which he ruled the city
A stateless society, with a completely unrestrained free market economy, with cramped living conditions, that you cannot leave and with no welfare state or government support people who are desperate and unemployed is a powder keg waiting to explode
Adam, Fontaine, Atlas, Splicers etc only made a really bad situation even worse - they did not cause Raptures fall (as I initially thought when I played through the games many years back)
"A Man choses, a Slave obeys." -R
@VladHaterade He betrayed every ideal he claimed to stand for. He nationalized Fontaine futuristics, killed anyone who spoke against him(suppressing freedom of speech), and used pheromones to rob people of the freedom he claimed to love and adore so much. He was a hypocrite too full of himself to realize just how far he’d fallen.
@VladHaterade Fontaine had power but he didn’t own the city like Ryan did. Fontaine was a bad dude yes, but he had nothing to do with tarnishing Ryan’s reputation: the man did that himself
Excellent lore video. One thing you could have mentioned though was how Fontaine created his 'Homes for the poor' and soup kitchens in an Al Capone style attempt to curry favour with the poorer masses. He also created "power to the people' weapon upgrade stations to arm them for the uprising.
Fontaine was one smart ass nigga, man. Multiple identies and all well acted, getting people on his side, foot holds in small and big business, fronts for hidden operations, and just schemes upon schemes.
@@MightyGuts7423 he was just very lucky he invested in the plasmid trade before some racist elitist did. They would have turn a bunch of underfed and downtrodden slaves to workers as a resource to supplant anyone who complains and send the defective ones out of a pressure tube to the depths
There was nothing in the game to indicate that they were racist. Elitist? Probably, but that’s about it.
@@MightyGuts7423 Fontane sounds like he was inspired by Al Capone or a combanation of gangsters in that ara.
@@maineman5757 Capone was at the height of his power in the 1920's/30's, Bioshock is set in the 60's, so almost 30 years after Capone's era.
Otherwise, your right in saying Fontaine was definitely inspired by prohibition era mobsters and bootleggers like Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Waxey Gordon, etc. I would argue his personality isn't inspired by Capone though, Capone was a lot more hotheaded and impatient than the calculating and manipulative Fontaine.
Who would've guessed that a society build on unlrestricted selfishness would end up falling apart?
The gilded age created a playbook for a plutocracy
Ryan would have loved Ayn Rand.
@@Xehanort10 Absolutely. It's fairly obvious Rapture is based entirely on her ideas.
@Xehanort10 His name is an anagram of hers after all
It's almost like real life is replicating BioShock or something
Andrew Ryan also saw the sea slug and the ADAM were part of the problem; however, he didn't take action when he had the chance. He thought if he told the people to stop using it and outlawed it, he would become the very thing he hated. He believed the people free will and choice and thought the people will stop using it willing; however, their minds were long gone. Another reason why Rapture was doomed.
He saw the warning signs, but refused to do anything about it.
people seem to forget humans are just self conscious animals. We are still guided by our own instintics, and prone to think irracionally.
This is why you have laws to prevent people from going crazy; mental health doctors, so they can help you heal your mind and so on.
These are also all prone to failure, but at least there is an incentive not to drug yourself to death.
@@zeynaviegas that is true. You are so right. Ryan saw the warning signs and chose not act. If did act, Rapture wouldn't have fallen.
@@AH-is5yg I think the implication is that Ryan's ideology blinded him when it came to Adam. If he had regulated it, he would have hated himself for using parasitic tactics and halting Scientific Progress. The irony is that he gave in to power and parasitism anyway later on.
@@campfortson4387 That is the case, it's just that Ryan should have seen the dangers of Adam and take actions while it was still small. He would have save Rapture despite what he had to do.
There is a saying, "Rules are meant to be broken."
There was another reason for Rapture's downfall, Ryan was really a businessman not a politician. Ryan can run a company, but not a city.
@@AH-is5yg It's ironic that, at first, Andrew didn't act against Fontaine, the Plasmids and the obvious discontent building in Rapture becase he was all in favor of free will.
However, once these things grow large enough to be a threat to his control over Rapture, he pretty much goes all full tyrant. Curfews, auto-turrets, ID cards...
Deep down Ryan was all about freedom as long he stayed on top. Everyone was free to do as they pleased as long they followed his rules.
It's sad that all these people who lived in Rapture wanted to be free and achieve their dreams that they ever wanted but it turned into a nightmare and they all died because of Ryan and Fontaine
This was so well done that I genuinely thought the intro was about a real person (that influenced BioShock) before they said he changed his name to Andrew Ryan. Very good.
Ayn Rand
He’s literally Ayn Rand if she actually got to implement her wack philosophy
@@TryinaD It's not wack, just... ok yea I got nothing it's wack
His epitaph reads as follows: "In hindsight, it probably wasn't such a good idea."
Haven't played BioShock for a long time but IIRC there was an important part of the lore where wielders and construction workers were put into miserable conditions, living in the slums and barely making any money, because their services were not required anymore (I guess all maintenance was done by obedient Big Daddies working for free). And, as a cherry on top of this shitcake, those of them who tried to escape Rapture were eliminated out of fear that other governments will discover Ryan's secret. Yet another reason why Fontaine won popularity among workers so easily.
Yeah that’s exactly true, they became the ones living in poverty because of the lack of work, then as some tried to leave Ryan’s paranoia got worse and so he closed off their escape as well as killed some of those who wanted to leave. I should have included that in the video but yes that is true
I love how Rapture couldn’t survive more than 10 years before it self-destructed.
Just like nazi Germany
Who knew a city full of egotistical and selfish people would turn into a hellscape
How can you be so sure? Because of a game? You certainly must do something with your logic.
@@TyyylerDurden I mean look at the global history of monarchies/aristocracy.
The most successful ones were longsighted and socially mindful. Many of the most disastrous ones were governed by petty personal (often competing) interests with no care for the long term well being of their nations or people.
@@TyyylerDurden common sense, jeesus fucking christ :DDD
@@TyyylerDurden Common logic?
@@MrRawrCEO except rapture was not a monarchy
Everyone has deep philisofical reasons about why Rapture failed but my 12 year old self thought "of course this place is destroyed, IT"S SITTING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN".
Well they were apparently pretty depressed from getting no sunlight so 12 year old you wasn't entirely wrong.
This is really impressive. I love the clips you've add from the game and from real life as well. You are a great storyteller and I love your voice. I've played the games and I've seen many theory videos already but I love how you stitched everything together. It really explains things clearly and beautifully.
Thank you!! That means a lot to me, really glad you enjoyed the video!
Ryan also distributed a pheromone throughout rapture that made the Splicers subservient to Ryan, thus ending the civil war at the cost of free will
Does that explain why they attack Jack a lot and are okay with other people?
@@fulcrum6760 pretty much. Ryan ordered the splicers to stop Jack and Atlas, and once Fontaine took control, the splicers were subservient to him
@@haustyl12 I mean they were still attacking Jack even before Ryan gave out the order.
@@fulcrum6760 pheromones or not, they’re still junkies willing to do anything for Adam. Not to mention all splicers are insane
@@haustyl12 Yeah but looking at how splicers mind their business most of the time, it’s odd they didn’t just ignore Jack unless he did something to them.
Somebody needs to do a video on the story of Bill McDonough; probably the most 'human' person in Rapture.
Interesting! I’ll have to look him up and see what I can find
Loved him in the book!
@@blackkitty369 aye, that's how I came about him.
That badass definitely deserves his own vid, I was rooting for him back in the book, despite knowing what would happen to him in the end.
You missed the part about the technology he invented that blew the water out of the buildings. He submerged the buildings in prebuilt sections and let them flood and guided them down into place, then "popped" the water out with a (science fictional) technology that expanded air pockets. I liked that part of the storyline, it basically said that the Bioshock world exists because of several unknown (to us) technologies.
Is this in the book like dang imma have to get it it if so I had no idea that's how rapture was built
@@RogueJinxel I think the book, but in bioshock 2 when you go to the history museum you can read all the exhibits and the exhibits show how rapture was made, this part included. It talked about how first the bases of the buildings were drilled into bed rock, and how each piece was shipped over the right spot and then dropped into the ocean and guided down into place
I think I found an Easter egg, but the uprising in Rapture happened around the same time as the Cuban Revolution. The war was progressing in favor Castro during late December 1958 and it wasn't until early January 1959 he entered Havana to the shock of the wealthy Cubans and American tourists. Would this mirror Fontaine's AKA Atlas' revolution in Rapture?
Except Fontaine was pretending to be a Socialist Revolutionary by the name of Atlas so he could build an army to conquer Rapture for himself. Fontaine was also an evil and miserable Capitalist worm who stepped on everyone to get what he wanted. Castro believed in what he was fighting for and he fought for a better future for Cuba and Cubans. Fontaine fought only for himself and only for his own greed and vision! He didn't even want Rapture but to take it's inventions like ADAM and Plasmids, go back up to the surface and sell them to become an insanely wealthy business tycoon. Capitalism is the root of all evil.
It's not said enough how well the team behind this worked. The music, the 'camera' movements, the world building, are all top class. Then there's you putting it together, well done!
We need a combo video with you and Skyrionn, I’ve been really digging this BioShock series of videos that I’ve gotten in my subscription feed lately.
Funny enough we’ve been talking about a collab soon. Just gotta work out what we cover. I may get him to talk about Columbia
Andrew Ryan: “I will work hard to become a great man”, finds oil on his land and basically just wins the lottery to become rich.
Ah yes what a inspiring story on path to success, just find valuable stuff where you live, why doesn’t everyone just do that?
Better yet just be born to wealth and cut out the luck part, it’s so easy when you do that.
Luck is never something that "successful" people will attribute to their success.
@@jtrain9926
But luck does play a factor. There are those born with the resources,connections to do great things. While there are those born with next to nothing,work their hardest to get to the top but never gain any closer in achieving their dreams. Then you have people who just ride life while things just go their way even though they show no passion or drive for work or success and others are just baffled at how that person made it to the top so fast.
One thing is having an oil, another is knowing how to use it to become filthy rich. On the other hand he could simply use money to pay people who have more expertise in oil business, deluding himself into belief that all of hard work and success was his only, from his "wonderful" management.
Indeed. Self-pulling bootstraps, truly inspirational.
I’ve played all the games, read the book, all the added parts tens of times, not a thing I’ve missed. There really is something about the world of the bioshock games that I find so interesting.
What a beautiful piece of world building, amazing effort by all the writers involved.
The narrative you've put together here, was one of the best I've seen.
Definitely subbing here
Really incredible! I've heard a lot about these games but never knew the details and background lore of the city. Amazing and informative vid. Well played.
Thanks dude glad you liked it! You should deffo give Bioshock a go :)
My uncle co-founded irrational games along side Ken Levine and was one of the leads for the game. He broke off from them after bioshock 2 and started his own indie studio. But now im at the age where I can really see the game for what it is, not just a shooter with a big plot twist but the world building and lore behind it. And now we can have discussions about it and how the team and him came up with all these great ideas. Cos of amazing videos like yours it really lets me appreciate his games so thank you and Ill be sure to show him this
Tell him he created my favorite game of all time.
This has got to be in the top "wish I could go back & play it through for the first time" games.
Andrew Ryan was right about the nukes used against Japan the US government were beginning peace talks when the nukes were dropped
Cause the Democrats want to own Japan
In case anyone hasn't figured out who the inspiration for Andrew Ryan was:
*Andrew Ryan* > And Ryan > RAnd yan > RAnd ayn > *ayn RAnd*
Also, the undersea city of Rapture is a parody of the hidden libertarian "paradise" of Galt's Gulch. All of this lore is just an extrapolation of "Atlas Shrugged".
I, on the other hand, am not a huge gamer. The reason I saw this video was because I wanted to hear music/score. But I got immersed in the story telling. Very good vid I might add. Truly enjoyed it. Now, I will search for what I was looking for originally. Thank you.
Ryan hated corruption but also wanted freedom. Well the freedom to be corrupt is part and parcel of being free, and by extension of free market capitalism as well.
When you really think about it, Rapture is basically underwater Detroit.
Rapture could have been a paradise if Ryan didn’t forget one thing, the workers are the foundation of any capitalist society. I’m pretty sure all of what happened could have been avoided if Andrew Ryan and the Rapture council established a minimum wage or made housing free.
Edit: Correction, he should have established a minimum wage or made housing cheap and extremely affordable.
Ryan would scream with rage at the word free
Free Housing is socialism
@@militaristaustrian fair point. I’ll reiterate, he should have made housing cheap.
It seems a lot of employers forget that workers are the foundation. There's no incentive for a worker to show loyalty or do more than the minimum required to do their job if they'll be laid off anyway just so the company can please investors with a little bit more profit. Though things might be different now that there's a labor shortage. Once things start returning to normal, don't be surprised if workers are treated as expendable again.
Unfortunately, Ryan was an extremist. Things like minimum wage and affordable housing went against his principles. In his eyes, the only people who deserve housing are those that can afford it.
His Rapture was nothing but old-fashioned hide-away for rich away from poor. Too bad he (and many others) forgot that taking away the top pyramid and moving it somewhere else makes previously high layers new low layers. That pyramid does not float in the air. In Rapture chemist developing penicillin synthesis (massively important invention) is reduced to making aspirin (introductory chemical synthesis) and surgeon developing limb transplants is reduced to lancing boils.
Found your channel 2 days ago this great man I love lore videos about games and movies all that you’re voice is good for narration and you keep the story interesting good shit man
This would make a killer mini series
I wish they would've kept going with rapture. Maybe a remake with today's visuals would be amazing. Bioshock is pure nostalgia at this point.
Bioshock Remastered is pretty good is you ask me, no need to remake it.
Mild criticism: Frank Fontaine didn’t get into the plasmid business, he invented it. All of the reputable scientists and researchers turned Brigid Tenenbaum away when she presented her discovery of ADAM, so she turned to the then-smuggler and fisherman Frank Fontaine to fund her research. Fontaine was more than happy to aid her since he sensed the lucrative opportunity to do business off of ADAM that would make him rival even Andrew Ryan.
I love putting these on as I go to bed, I know every inch of rapture and the timeline but your voice and the quality is just so charismatic.
This series is one of the best ever
I love the documentary format.
I loved everything about this.
Happy to hear dude!! Thanks for checking it out
+1
Great video! Very accurate and objective history on Rapture. Showing everything Rapture did right and where they went wrong.
With more videos like this you are gonna make it big one of these days
And now it looks like i'm going to re install and play again, because i have no choice after being blown away by the story again.
That was beautiful, majestic, spectacular, and right on the money - thank you for taking the time to create this. I am thankful. :)
So glad you did one of my favorite games!
Also your video style is really well done.
Andrew Ryan is that one kid who can play Monopoly for hours and not get bored
That was an awesome prequel narrative on an awesome game. When I started playing it I thought was very odd and unseemly but I got into it and now love playing Bioshock remastered. It crashes frequently though. None of the fixes I tried seem to work. There were four published by a tech savvy user on the Steam message boards
So... basically Andrew Ryan was Ayn Rand if she'd been born a guy in a steampunk setting.
The name itself give away regarding Andrew Ryan as a reference to Ayn Rand
If you asked a socialist what Ayn Rand was about you would get Andrew Ryan.
Did you know she wrote books? You can actually read about her ideas!
@@Ferdinand208 I am aware, yes. You do understand that I disagree with those ideas?
@@Lazarus1095 That is what confuses me. Andrew Ryan is a guy that wants to be a dictator/liberator. I see nothing of Ayn Rands ideas in his philosophy or actions. So why are you saying that they are comparable?
My guess was that you know nothing about her ideas. But now you are suggesting you read all her books. Where do you see the similarities?
@@Ferdinand208 Because Ayn Rand preached independence, self-reliance and personal responsibility whilst demanding total obedience and slavish devotion from her followers- at least two of whom she sexually exploited. She saw charity, government assistance, and legally enforced limits on human behavior as immoral- and the pursuit of her philosophy benefitted the powerful at the expense of the powerless. By the time of her death she was a cult leader in all but name.
Fantastic video! Just want to add to the people saying to read the book Bioshock: Rapture. It goes into so much detail.
It really does. I wanted to go into more but the video would have been soooo long otherwise haha
well done my friend. I really enjoy this "fictional" yet authentic documentary style video on Rapture.
Great story. I never played the game but its been in pop culture so thanks for the breakdown.
Who can deny what an absolute genius Ken Levine is? This is insane. Way better story than I remembered
Lets go! Bioshock video!!!!
I am loving the lore videos!
Thanks dude, I'm loving making them so I'm happy people are enjoying them!
This was a great video! I love the way you explain things.
Hoping to see more bioshock content sometime in the future :)
This deserves more views
Thanks!
Really well done! Thanks for the upload!
Beautiful video mate! Keep it up!
Thanks dude really appreciate it as always!!
@@WiseFish Not a single problem! Stay safe!
this needs a TV series!
There were rumours about one I thought but no sign of one. I’d love to see one personally
@@WiseFish I know there was a film at one point, but personally i would prefer to see a prequel series about the rise and fall of rapture. Such rich lore!
@@happy2bhardcore420 I mean it's taken them this long to make a uncharted film and halo film sooo I have hope
Honestly I would love to see a bioshock TV series that splices together flashbacks showing the fall of rapture and the main story of bioshock.
My only gripe with the game is that it would be impossible to build a city the size of Rapture within 6 years, even if they were pre-fabricated and then sent down. An easy explanation to this would have been to extend the time to about 30 years and say that Ryan had found a way to extend his life with Adam.
Make this guy a thing is Voice is amazing and the explanations are amazing
So basically, this is pretty much "Atlas Shrugged," just underwater. Got it.
This is exactly what's it's based on, the creator of bioshock even said so. So Kevin knew her society would eventually collapse, which is why Rapture falls apart.
I'd love a follow up or a continuation leading into the second game. You earned a like and a sub, I like these kinds of videos 👍 can't wait to see what else you'll look into!. The Metro Exodus one looks interesting
How bio shock isn’t a movie by now is beyond me ….. a trilogy I’d watch
4:00, So Ryan was soo Selfish and on the oblivious side of the spectrum that he did not realize that the Great Depression had hit?
I would love to see some more bioshock videos from you!
I love the tone of this video. thanks for this production man. great job
Great job. loved hearing the lore. Thanks.👍
Freaking amazing job. Looking forward to see what else you have out and put out.
This channel is such a gem, great video as ever man. This channel is going places
Thanks so so much dude!! I hope so as I am loving making these videos
@@WiseFish I’m glad you enjoy making them, makes it far easier to put up with rendering and what not. Honestly, in a few months you’ll be celebrating 10k subs, and then it’s upwards from there
The theme i got from Rapture and Andrew Ryan is that "freedom and free will are great gifts but without limits and when they intersect with someone else's freedom. Results in total anarchy"
This video was awesome! not only is your voice so calming and easy to listen to, but you also found a way to make even the least interesting pieces worth listening to (totally grabbed my attention).
Very cool to see it all laid out like this.
I feel like Andrew Ryan and Robert House would get along really well.
I am afraid Q and Quark would have strongly contrasting ideals
"Look at you Ryan, trying to build a little capitalist paradise of your own because you couldn't challenge the big government up top. Meanwhile I controlled them, their robots they use to wage war? Mine, the computers used to bring nukes down on each other? Mine. your ideals have proven to be nothing more than wishful daydreams of a young boy who build a little playset in his room hoping his brothers don't and ruin it."
"And look at you House, your little kingdom is besieged from within and without, no one else will carry on your legacy after you are gone House. No one lives forever and even though you try to use whatever technology required to survive. Your time will come House when age takes you and I will show your employees how to get their act together."
I love your channel so much man!
I really enjoyed this one. You smashed it out the park like always
Cheers my man! Glad you liked it :)
This is why private ownership by companies/corperations of a city/civilization is doomed to fail especially when even the air you breathe costs money!
Ironically Frank Fontaine was the only one of the few people who didn’t buy into Ryan’s bullshit. He made a valid point that “Somebody’s gotta scrub the toilets.” There’s always gotta be the one to do the dirty work
I’ll watch it when I get the chance but bioshock is great so looking forward to it!
Hope you enjoy it when you do get to watch it :)
I would love to see a Bioshock series but not about the game itself, but from the beggining and fall of Rapture, going through the civil war and ending it with Atlas finally getting his Ace in the hole 🥹
There should be a video game sequel called BioShock III: Return to Rapture!
Your voice sounds like a warm cup of black coffee on a cold winter day.
Great video as Always 👌
Not SHOCKing
I see what you did there! Thanks for watching :)
Despite how shit went... I'd still wanna live there.
Really awesome overview, thank you.
You have a great narration voice.
Thank you dude I appreciate that :)
Ryan forgot the most important thing.
Not everyone can be a buissness owner, someone has to bring money in.
It is technically possible if all businesses were worker cooperatives.
But Ryan would definitely hate those.
I love these kinds of videos that go into the setup and lore and such. There was another channel that did one on Half-life I saw a few months back that was awesome too. This was very good stuff.
I feel so bad for the people irl who looked at Rapture and Andrew Ryan and said "this guy was on to something"
The main issue Rapture fell wasn’t much more than restriction- the very same Andrew fled, not much more in my opinion.
First he falsely advertised to workers- because he wanted more workers for it to be made faster.
He then was controlling who entered and what they could do to some degrees which made people wonder if it was a free market- especially since it’s locked up and isolated from other trade… mercantilism (probably spelling it wrong, it’s what Canada has ‘the market is to serve the state and ‘zero sum’ fallacy belief restrict it)
Now they could also leave if they so wished.
As for charity being labeled parasites, not really charity is the best and vibrant version of the free market, however in Gary’s Gulch ‘give’ ‘can I have’ something like that isn’t quite allowed; a reverse of ‘Athem’ a pretty good dystopian novel by Ayn Rand.
It was a powder keg, with Atlas being thermite to light it
- No free market trade.
- Controlled mercantilism (auto correct corrected it)
- no export for people who are discontent (Mexico has this along with most western nations)
- Anti charity (free market)
Snore zzzzz
Good read man
Canada is not a mercantil state xD
@@fxmorin439 mercantilism basically became known now as protectionism and they practice the same policies pretty much.
Discouraging imports, and so on ‘to save our jobs’ and to tax people to subsidize them- ‘too big to fail’
The link would go here but youtube hates it.
Canada is more free market than what America is.
We can get everything we get from China- for less of a price if we get it from Mexico due to shipping costs…this would also solve the illegal immigration problem by making Mexico a lot better in theory, or not depending on actions… we have free money to China and the USSR and choices taken didn’t improve much, if anything.
Ironically Canada is more free market than America.
Sri Lanka, Botswana and Rwanda are three countries.
Sri Lanka is the most free market of the world, the other two are up and coming; promoting free markets in Africa and are the fastest growing economies in Africa- if I can remember… this was before 2020’s pandemic panic.
It failed because objectivism doesn't work, it's that simple
The futuristic version of the 1940's and 50's setting of Bioshock is interesting.