Elizabeth (BioShock)

The idea for a character like Elizabeth came about due to both System Shock 2 and BioShock being "solitary experiences", due to other characters either being behind glass or dead.[8] Having Elizabeth to bounce off the player helped reduce the sense of "[re]treading water".[8] An A.I. character was decided on as the developers felt it had not been done well since Half-Life 2's Alyx Vance.[9] Ken Levine's, creative director and lead writer on BioShock Infinite, described Elizabeth as the "emotional center" of Infinite.[10] BioShock's Big Daddies and Little Sisters provided the groundwork for the A.I.[9]

Earlier versions of Elizabeth were mute, in part due to anxiety in making her "work", being more of a "Gibson Girl".[11] The player character, Booker DeWitt, would also be mute, and so conversations between them would be non-existent.[11] One of the reasons this was changed was to allow more freedom to the player (rather than having her grab Booker to point at things) and to allow her to have a presence even when off-screen, in addition to giving her more personality.[11] Another change made was to Infinite's beach scene, due to negative reactions to the character. Originally, she just left Booker after the crash, but this made her seem like a "flighty nutjob" and parts with Elizabeth trying to resuscitate Booker before getting permission to leave were added.[8][12]

Elizabeth was more scripted originally.[11] The team tried to ensure she would almost always be on screen, while at the same time ensuring she didn't get in the way of the player.[11] The developers made a "Liz Squad" group, in charge of the character and dedicated to populating the world with objects for Elizabeth to interact with, which was claimed to be led by either Amanda Jeffrey or John Abercrombie (who also did the AIs of the first BioShock).[8][9] In order to properly react to things, Elizabeth had to have emotions.[10] Some of her scripted animations had to be cut, as they were coming off too similar to Rapunzel from Walt Disney Pictures' Tangled.[13]

Designing Elizabeth proved very difficult, and repeatedly the team wanted to simply cut her.[14] Troubles included expressing her childlike curiosity, making her act with a believable sense of horror to Booker's more violent actions, while keeping her out of the player's way.[14] Similar issues were had with the Big Daddies, with the team being unsure what to do with them.[14] Despite this, her role in Infinite "deepened" as development progressed, due to the team liking the character. This led to her becoming more of a partner, and she gained additional abilities such as being able to lockpick doors within gameplay (originally a one-time event).[15]

In the second episode of "Burial at Sea", Elizabeth becomes the player character. Being more of a thoughtful character than Booker, her gameplay focuses more on strategy and avoidance of direct combat, more like a survival horror game.[7] It was important that Elizabeth did not feel simply like Booker "in a dress".[7] Jeffrey noted that Elizabeth was the main character of Infinite and Rapture the main character of the first game, and so "Burial" involved "our two leading ladies playing opposite each other".[3] Lead animator Shawn Robertson felt that Elizabeth's presence helped tie Rapture with Infinite.[3] In a 2016 interview, Levine contrasted Elizabeth to most of the other characters he created for the BioShock series; many of these characters had been oppressed and subsequently once freed of that oppression, became oppressors themselves, but Elizabeth was written to break this cycle of oppression.[16]

Early faceless concept art played with posture and her costume.[2]

Numerous concept art was made for the character.[2] Early sketches tried different ways to portray her personality through posture and clothes, using the "clean, bright, and iconic" costumes of comic books as inspiration.[2] Different art explored Elizabeth at all different ages, and varied her in demeanor, disposition, and look.[2] Artists also experimented with the design for a "more aloof, princesslike" version of the character.[2]

Elizabeth has a "stylised and 'hyper-realistic'" appearance, meant to allow the player to see her body motions and expression easily from a distance.[17] Elizabeth's original Gibson Girl appearance had a normal-looking face, having normal facial feature proportions and using motion capture for her expressions.[17] This was changed to hand-keyed animations and a more exaggerated look when playtesters ceased to notice her over other parts of Infinite.[17] In order to form an emotional connection with the character, players had to "see what she [was] thinking at all times".[17] Hand-keyed animations also allowed them to change expressions to fit with changes or current ideas, rather than being stuck with motion captures shot months ago.[17] For the exaggeration, inspiration again was taken from comic books as well as animated films, and Irrational's artists studied classic animators' works to see how they portrayed emotion.[2]

Other elements that needed to change in order to stand out were her silhouette, and her colour scheme took on an almost two-tone look.[18] Levine was disappointed in the online community's mainly focusing on her breast size and chest, believing people should be more interested in her as a person rather than her appearance, and considered the expressive eyes the most important part of her design.[18] Artists such as Claire Hummel helped work on her dress, intended to look "age-appropriate" and fitting for 1912.[19] Her choker had many variations tried before they finalised it as a "more simple, elegant" one.[2]

Elizabeth's design was modified for Burial at Sea. Prerelease materials showcased her new more mature design, with one shot having multiple angles to help any cosplayers who wished to dress up as the character.[20][21] Elizabeth's femme fatale appearance was inspired by approximately seven different people of the era, including actresses Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall,[22] and Veronica Lake.[23]

Courtnee Draper voices the character. Levine commented that Draper was able to both capture Elizabeth's enthusiasm and dark background.[10] Levine, Draper, and Booker's voice actor Troy Baker worked collaboratively, and would talk about scenes and improvise new lines.[24] Though Baker was more experienced in game acting, Draper had appeared in very few, offering a perspective Levine considered an advantage.[24] Draper has said she would be interested in playing Elizabeth again if a BioShock film were ever made, and had talked to Levine about it.[25]

Motion capture was done by Heather Gordon, who often had to rely on her imagination when performing, being in an almost empty room. Elizabeth had to do numerous physical acts that Gordon would not do in her everyday life.[10]

Russian cosplayer Anna Moleva (right) had recreated the character of Elizabeth (left) so accurately that Irrational hired her to be their live-action Elizabeth.

Russian cosplayer Anna Moleva was brought on to be the "official face" of Elizabeth for the box cover, key art and an advertisement, after developers saw her dress up as the character, citing her dedication and resemblance to the character. Moleva had been a fan of the BioShock franchise, but before seeing Elizabeth's final design hadn't found many cosplaying possibilities for it. Levine contacted her on Facebook with an offer, before telling her to get in touch through e-mail.[10] Moleva was told to sit still and pull various faces, which were then scanned into a computer.[10]

At the start of Infinite, set in 1912, Booker DeWitt is sent to Columbia by the Lutece twins to recover Elizabeth, claiming that they will wipe away his debts with her return. Booker is quickly discovered as the "False Shepherd" that will take the Lamb away, and is set on by Comstock's troops. Booker frees Elizabeth, and both narrowly avoid an attack by Songbird that destroys part of the statue. As Elizabeth accompanies Booker, she discovers that her abilities to find and manipulate tears have grown stronger, and uses them to help Booker fight through Comstock's troops.

Elizabeth is initially doubtful of Booker's intentions, but comes to trust him over the other residents of Columbia. When trying to track down a man who reportedly holds a key to helping them escape, they find the man already dead; Elizabeth uses her powers to pull them into an alternate reality where the man is still alive, but this has unintended side effects in that others around them suffer from nosebleeds and mental anguish, and Elizabeth becomes fearful of her abilities. They eventually board an airship to escape, but it is brought aground in Columbia by Songbird, who kidnaps Elizabeth. Booker gives chase, but is pulled into the future of 1983 by an elderly Elizabeth. She shows him that without his rescue, she will become like Comstock, inheriting the city and using it to lay waste to the surface world below. Before allowing Booker to return to his time, the future Elizabeth gives him a message to give to "his" Elizabeth to help her control Songbird and allow them to escape.

Booker frees Elizabeth from an observation laboratory and the two make their way to confront Comstock. Along the way, they learn that Elizabeth has been kept under control of the Siphon, a machine built by the Luteces into the statue to nullify her tear powers; they also learn that Elizabeth is not Comstock's biological daughter, though oddly shares his genetics, and Comstock killed his wife and attempted to kill the Luteces to hide this conspiracy. They reach Comstock and Booker confronts him about Elizabeth's identity. Comstock says Booker already knows it and the reason for why Elizabeth wears a thimble in place of her little finger. Booker kills Comstock in anger, but Elizabeth calms him down and says they need to finish destroying the statue and the Siphon to fully realize her powers. They do so by controlling Songbird, but when Songbird turns on them, Elizabeth transports them to the underwater city of Rapture, where Songbird is destroyed by the outside water pressure.

Elizabeth guides Booker to the bathysphere lighthouse, revealing she can now see all possibilities based on choice as evidenced by an infinite number of lighthouses they can see. Elizabeth explains the nature of choice to Booker, revealing that Booker and Comstock are the same person: in one reality, Booker ran away from a baptism ceremony after his atrocities at the Battle of Wounded Knee, while in another, he accepted it and became the religious Comstock. Elizabeth reveals she is also Booker's daughter, Anna DeWitt, whom Booker had sold to the Lutece twins to pay off gambling debts. They in turn were working for Comstock, who needed a blood heir for Columbia, having been rendered sterile by the twins' reality-warping experiments. Booker later had a change of heart and chased down the Luteces as they stepped through a Tear, severing the tip of Anna's finger, which gave her awareness of multiple realities. Elizabeth asserts that there has been an endless cycle of Bookers and Comstocks, and the only way to end this is to prevent the creation of Comstock; she takes Booker to the site of the baptism and drowns him with the aid of other Elizabeths from alternate timelines. The Elizabeths begin to wink out of existence, with the game fading to black on the one throughout the game.

"There were some Columbia ideas we kicked around, but I think we also got to the point where we felt like that was the story that we had just told. We had told it to the extent we wanted to tell it. But I had this image in my head of this moment in this detective's office, Booker’s office. Elizabeth walking in dressed like Veronica Lake. And I just fixated on that." — Ken Levine[23]

In Burial at Sea, Elizabeth approaches Booker – in this reality, a private detective in Rapture – to help them find a missing girl named Sally. They trace her whereabouts to a derelict department store, during which Booker suffers flashbacks to his baptism, but unable to explain them. When they finally find Sally, they find she has been changed into a Little Sister, and Booker suffers more flashbacks, recalling his daughter Anna, before becoming aware of his true nature: he had been one of the Bookers that became a Comstock, but in his attempt to get Anna from another Booker, she was killed. In his remorse, this Comstock reverted to his birth name of Booker DeWitt and had the Lutece twins transport him to Rapture, a reality where neither Anna nor Columbia existed. Elizabeth makes sure that Comstock is killed by a Big Daddy before she passes out.

When she comes to, she finds Atlas has Sally and demands she help them escape the store to return to Rapture in exchange for her. As she sets out to do this, she is guided by visions of Booker, and later learns that she herself had died earlier in Rapture; she made a deal with the Lutece twins to combine all her quantum selves and memories of future time into one mortal body to return to this place at this time to rescue Sally, effectively leaving all alternate versions of herself in their own respective universes. She struggles with this, and further learns that Dr. Suchong of Rapture had worked with Jeremiah Fink from Columbia to collaborate on technology. Suchong forces her to briefly return to Columbia via a tear to obtain a Lutece particle that will raise the sunken Rapture building, where she further learns that the Luteces had convinced Daisy Fitzroy to threaten Fink's child to make Elizabeth kill her as to mature her. She returns and amid an attack by Andrew Ryan's men, completes the task. Atlas launches his war against Ryan and tortures Elizabeth in an attempt to extract the location of his "Ace in the Hole". In a flash of panic, she is able to remember the location, and Atlas makes her go retrieve it. The Ace is revealed to be a piece of paper with a coded message. She willing gives it over to Atlas knowing that he plans to kill her, but is privy to one last memory from before - that of seeing Jack on the plane that would crash near Rapture, and the note containing Jack's trigger phrase "Would you kindly". Atlas uses this to start his last attack and fatally strikes Elizabeth's head one last time. Elizabeth dies holding Sally's hand, smiling in knowing Jack will soon come to help the children of Rapture escape the violence.