(I promise, I'll stop posting more replies now, haha) Last of all, even if none of these suggestions are true, it's still true that preventing the twins from meeting Comstock would not necissarily change that much. Keep in mind that there is an infinite number of universes, and of these there is bound to be at least one (thus an infinite amount of varieties on this) world where Comstock could be even worse than the one we know. The Luteces' main concern in the story was to bring back Elizabeth as to avoid catastrophe - even if Comstock wouldn't ever get Elizabeth or build Columbia or become the Prophet, who is to say what he would be capable of in so many universes? Bringing back Elizabeth would be all for naught if such universes still existed. The Luteces most likely knew this, Elizabeth knew this. In the end, the fact remains that the only way to ever be rid of the danger of Comstock would be to prevent him from ever existing. This, along with the possibility that the twins wanted to give Booker the chance to get to know the girl he would eventually realize was his daughter, could very well be the reasons for them to be doing this. I'm gonna stop it here though, since, in the style of the game, there is an infinite amount of possible answers, and I doubt anyone wants to hear all of them. So yeah, this is basically a thread where I end up answering my own question, which is... Well, it's something, let's leave it at that.
A fifth and last possibility I thought of is that the difference between preventing the Luteces from meeting Comstock and killing Booker is the nature (in more than one way) of the two events. See, when Booker is at the baptism, he makes a choice - run away or go through with the baptism. Going through with the baptism would eventually lead him to meet Rosalind Lutece, something that, in the scope of Comstock's universe, would always happen - a constant in Comstock's universes. We don't know anything about their meeting, but we do know one thing: Rosalind will always, no matter what, choose to go with Comstock and eventually help him launch Columbia, find Anna etc.. It is a choice that isn't a variable, it is a constant - and from this constant, we know that she will always go to help Comstock and find her 'brother', Robert. Thus we are unable to directly change the situation, or any of the aforementioned situations. The reason that a red thread runs from the baptism of Booker to the rest of the events of the game is that it all spawns from this one single variable - whether Booker becomes Comstock or stays Booker. From this, the loop will always appear, no matter what, but the difference here is that it is changeable, because it is a variable that there is control over. This is because, as said, it is a choice Booker makes that will always vary. Whereas Rosalind will always go with Comstock, Booker will not always become Comstock, so it is a changeable event by its own nature. They can directly change this event, thus preventing the rest of the events from ever happening, because they all spawned from this one variable. The constants are not changed directly, but rather effected by removing the one variable. So basically, as I see it, the baptism is the catalyst for everything else, as we know it is, but it is also the spawn from a bunch of events that are, in a way, locked to their reality, as long as Booker goes through with the baptism. By changing that variable, it will effect all other universes from that moment on. Variable = Directly changeable. Constant = Cannot be changed directly. In the end though, we know what we know from what the game tells us. The only way Comstock could ever be prevented from doing anything at all would be if he never even existed, and as far as we know, it is the only thing that could work. It all goes as the plot requires it to, and there's nothing wrong with that. Enjoy BioShock Infinite, everyone!
There are two possibilities. 1) They only killed the Booker that would eventually would become Comstock. If they killed Booker at that moment, he would never go and do things he would do, making it a constant, thus ending the loop. 2) They had to kill Booker before he was able to make the choice, so that an infinite variety of universes wouldn't spawn from it. As for the Luteces, after hours of thinking about it, I have found that the most probable explanation is one of the four here. 1) As long as Comstock exists, he will always meet the Luteces, no matter what. This is an unchangeable event, since it is connected directly to Comstock. The difference between killing Booker and killing the Luteces would be that the Luteces are constants in both worlds, thus it would be unchangeable. However, killing Booker would change this, since the Comstock universe in itself is a variable, thus changeable. 2) Very simple: constants and variables. Even if they went back and prevented the Luteces from ever meeting Comstock, the fact that he is Comstock is vital. Comstock desiring to fund scientists would not change because the Luteces were gone - in an infinite variety of worlds, there is bound to be at least one where Comstock met scientists the likes of Luteces, who would eventually help him get Anna. So the Luteces are a constant, even if it is not necissarily "them". 3) The fact that the Luteces are from two different universes. As long as the other exists, there will always be the other. Remember, it was actually only Rosalind who met Comstock and later found the variable of herself, Robert, from the same world as Booker. Killing her before she met Comstock would change nothing, since there would still be her parallel self, Robert, and as long as he exists, there will always be at least one Rosalind - thus an infinity of Rosalinds. The same applies for killing Robert first. Therefore, you would have to get rid of them the moment both of them were in Columbia, but at that time there would already be an infinity of varieties where they would go through and do all the work for Comstock. Therefore, trying to get rid of them would be completely pointless. 4) This theory circles around the possibility that the twins are of the same superhuman state as Elizabeth during the ending. They are, as Rosalind suggests, scattered across all realities. Preventing them from ever meeting Comstock would be physically impossible, because it would prevent them from being scattered across all universes - something they are, as the theory suggest, permanently. An attempt to prevent them from meeting Comstock would basically be like dividing by zero: impossible (or maybe som black hole or some shit). This is a bit of a stretch though, since a lot of this is based solely upon theorizing. It could very well be (if they, in fact, are godlike) that they would still be scattered across time and space even if they were prevented from meeting Comstock. Personally, I prefer theory 2 or 3, but it would be interesting to see what other people are suggesting. In any case, I am certain that killing Comstock would ultimately achieve both the Luteces as well as Booker and Elizabeth more, since we have no idea what would happen if only the Luteces were prevented from meeting Comstock. For all we know, it wouldn't change a damn thing. By killing Booker/Comstock, we know that the circle was broken, but with the Luteces we can't be sure. At least this is my interpretation of the matter.
*Again guys, spoilers here* I understand that to end the loop (being that one Booker stays Booker, and one Booker becomes Comstock who steals Anna/Elizabeth from the other), Booker had to be killed in order to never become Comstock - but theoretically though, wouldn't killing the Luteces (or preventing them in any way from ever meeting Comstock) also break the loop? Keep in mind that without the two of them, Comstock wouldn't be able to see through tears, since he wouldn't have the machine required for it, and thus he would never see the 'prophecy' that would lead him to steal Anna from Booker - meaning that the loop would end right there. I may be overthinking this way too much, but I can't seem get the thought out of my head - any thoughts on this?
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