@starvinggamer: I'm still not sure I get it. That Booker already made that decision, so is that instance supposed to be actual time travel and not just dimension travel? Everything I'm about to say is more a question than a statement. I'm not really trying to refute, more just understand.
Also, there are supposed to be infinite universes, correct? And the existence of at least 123 baptism rejections is acknowledged right? So if splits only happen where a choice is to be made, the baptism scene would become 2 timelines, and taking into account the rest of the game, not many more timelines would have been created over the course of the rapture journey, so most of the timelines would have to have been created before then? Or is it safe to assume that with infinite timelines comes infinite possibilities. Elizabeth mentions how songbird keeps stopping Booker. And some have interpreted dying as that timeline ending and then being dropped into another. Could we assume that every possibility for difference in events creates a new timeline? Even down to something so simple as to whether or not he picked up a silver eagle? To your coin example, the result is always heads, but does that mean Booker always selected tails? Again, I don't really know. It's very possible I don't understand the laws of the universe.
That stuff aside, I don't understand how drowning that one Booker would eliminate the other timelines. Especially considering he already made that choice. It might make a bit more sense to me if it somehow broke the loop and prevented timelines created out of the timeline central to the game from having Comstock and Columbia, but I don't get how it works retroactively. Unless they travel back to some sort of "Alpha" timeline. But even then, I don't see how drowning that Booker would help. Wouldn't you have to drown the Alpha Booker?
Sorry if this is a bit confusing. I'm confused so just kinda saying whatever's coming to mind.
In short, the "Alpha timeline" explanation is probably the clearest, and most significant in terms of player-Booker accomplishing anything of note on a multidimensional level. It is possible to argue that due to the infinite nature of fractal reality models, it's impossible for Booker to actually stop anything on a multidimensional level, but we'll leave that aside because it keeps me late at nights.
Essentially, the Baptism is a flashpoint. There's a very good video in the original post that explain "Many Worlds" quantum mechanics, but one of the basic understandings of is that for every decision that we make, there is a theoretical other existence where we made the other decision. The near-infinite element of this comes into play when you start stacking these decisions on top of each other. If I choose to have PB&J for lunch today or not branches into two worlds, and from those two worlds spring four worlds on if I decide to have a glass of milk or not, and from those four world, eight more based on if I decide to have desert or not. In this way, I've created eight separate but nearly identical realities before the afternoon, and that's only taking in account the decisions that I've made. If you add all of the decisions being made independently from anything to do with my lunch, the math becomes so convoluted that at a point it's best to just say that there are infinite possible theoretical existences, again many with very negligible differences between them.
However, there are major decision points that create dramatically different realities in their wake. I refer to these as flashpoints. Imagine a world where Hitler didn't choose to kill himself, or enlist in the German army but instead pursue his art career. The Baptism is represented as one of these Flashpoints, as it is the "birth" of Comstock and the figurative death of Booker DeWitt. In any of the resulting universes after DeWitt's baptism, Comstock exists; in every existence where he rejects the baptism, a Booker remains. Keeping in mind the above infinite variables of seemingly minor decisions, there are endless Comstocks, endless Bookers, and endless Luteces of both genders to play through the Elizabeth scenario; 123 barely scratches the surface.
Now keep in mind this reading requires a few accepted but unstated aspects of the finale of the game:
A) The Baptism is indeed a unique Flashpoint that occurred only once in the vast multiverse, at least in regards to being the birthplace of Zachary Comstock. DeWitt may have had other baptisms in his infinite existences, but only this one gave birth to the man that would eventually become the creator of Columbia. As stated above, there are infinite moments that are spawned by out inconsequential decisions, not just our significant ones, so this is a bit hard to swallow if you take a "hard science" approach (as hard as you can get anyway, with something this wildly speculative), but I think it works from a narrative perspective.
B) Elizabeth/Anna can time travel. Again, it isn't enough that this is stopped in one potential reality that exists sideways in terms of temporal expediency; this has to be THE Baptism, not A Baptism. In some ways, this makes the whole game make more sense to me. The Luteces frankly know what needs to be done to stop Comstock from existing, but their limited reality hopping abilities stop just short of being able to move back in time. But super ripper Anna does have that ability, thus why it is important for Booker to free her, release her god-like power, thus enabling her to in turn stop Booker from ever becoming Comstock...and erase her infinite existences.
Also interesting thing to consider: Comstock can't counter-engineer what Booker is doing because to stop Booker from ever existing past the Baptism means that he's also killing Anna/Elizabeth, depriving him of the heir that he's so desperate for. Thus he's stuck just trying to stop Booker, but realizing due to the infinite nature of time, reality and eventual probability, a Booker will eventually free a Elizabeth from a Comstock, thus setting into motion the final moments where Comstock is smothered at birth. In short, Comstock can't win while Booker eventually has to. The coin will come up tails eventually.
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