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SPOILER WARNING: Do not read this piece until you've finished playing BioShock Infinite. George Washington's all over BioShock Infinite. From the gold bust you see in the stairwell of the game's opening location to the mechanised killers who chase you through later levels, chattering out sound-bites as they shoot, Irrational has a lot of fun with the weird iconic pliability of this particular founding father. By and large, though, Washington seems to be employed as a symbol of America's grand contradictions - contradictions that have been exaggerated on the fantastical floating streets of Columbia, but which have very obvious origins back on the ground.
Along with the likes of Franklin and Jefferson, Washington was founding a country based on the tenet of individual freedom while simultaneously owning slaves. This is one of the main reasons, presumably, why this fated trio are turned into angels by the racist prophet Comstock, while one of their eventual successors, Lincoln the abolitionist, is depicted as a spindly devil who led America astray. Speaking of devils and angels, Washington is also used to explore one of the game's deeper retconnings of history: what would America look like if its early government hadn't separated church and state, but had sought to truly blend them? Why not have Father Washington? Why not give him vast wings, a tablet bearing the ten commandments, and a glowing sword? Why not motorise him - this is the 20th century after all - and turn him into a holy Terminator?
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