I have often come to the inFAMOUS wikia pages to see other people's opinions concerning theories and ideas about incidents within the Infamous setting. One such theory being who the beast was and having made my judgment almost immediately after beating the first game (as John) I looked on these pages to find I wasn't the only one who though that (though I was late to the party). So today I come to see what people's opinions are on the possible continuatino of the seres based on the, "I saw that SuckerPunch!" concept of the lightning in the good ending possibly reviving Cole.
To this end I found many theories describing why conduits may or may not be dead or how the lightning only revives Cole and no one else etc etc. Then there are the others that make the comment that the RFI did indeed kill all conduits one even going as far as to say that it could have possibly, "removed the conduit gene" (how?).
This is why I titled this as misleading assumptions. This is both the assumptions of the players and the characters in the game itself. I will try to section it off for easy reading but I often screw this up because my mind is here and there so let’s begin.
Ray Sphere - Created by the First Sons in an attempt to jump evolution so to speak. The first sons are aware of conduits though in the first run through of this situation (with Kessler) they likely were not entirely clear on the concept (as in this time the technology was clearly a new field of research). Assumptions that some players might make:
Ray Field radiation is unnatural and as such only created by the Ray Sphere.
-- No matter how you look at it this cannot be true. Human beings are inventive and creative but we usually don't just "create" things that don't exist out of the blue. We usually find an example in nature and expand on it.
The conduit gene has no purpose until activated.
-- This is likely untrue via an idea of evolution (which is obviously at play within this setting). The concept of evolution is primarily driven by that of adaptation and survival. The conduit gene was probably less of an attempt at human evolution to shoot lighting and more a development to deal with latent RFR in the natural world which had been gaining over time. Those who have the conduit gene may show some enhanced abilities but these are probably a side effect of a bodies attempt to rid itself as the excess energy. Those who don't have the conduit gene will likely get sick after too much exposure (though the levels without the ray sphere would likely be too low to cause the plague).
Assumptions about Kessler's timeline made by players:
The beast could have been someone other than John (hence the excessive destruction and lack of new conduits).
-- Unlikely in that no matter how the timeline plays out the NSA did understand roughly about the conduit gene and that is why Lucy Kuo and John White were picked to infiltrate the first sons. Kessler stopped John in the present day from running away with the ray sphere. In Kessler's time this likely did not happen. John, having taken a bit longer to rise through the ranks finally got his hands on the ray sphere (an inferior version) and escaped. Likely due to it being unstable it went off during the escape. Conduits were created by the almost half as powerful ray sphere (possibly even weaker) and if there was a plague it was much less destructive than the one in current day. The unstable ray sphere explodes and draws John into it leading to him trying to recreate himself. However, due to the weaker power of the ray sphere his resurrection is... less complete meaning unlike in the current day he never gains control over his impulses. So instead of saving people from the likely less lethal plague he just destroys everything he finds out of fear or anger.
Kessler develops the same powers as Cole.
-- There is a severe lack of understanding concerning HOW conduits will manifest their abilities under exposure of RFR. Especially under a less potent dose or less pure dose. Kessler through years and years of using his abilities developed them while a member of the First Sons. However, his likely took an entirely different route than Cole's which were generated from a much more potent Ray Sphere blast in which he was at the direct center (not likely in Kessler's time). It is likely that due to these differences that Kessler developed a much different (as shown in inFamous) power set than Cole including the ability to travel through time.
Ray Field Inhibitor - Created by Dr. Wolfe primarily as a way to cure the plague but also as a way to help subdue the beast (or s the ending shows remove the abilities of all conduits).
Assumptions made by characters in the game:
Cole and Kuo both upon discovery of what the RFI was actually capable of decide that Wolfe knew for a fact that this would kill all conduits when he instructed them to make it.
-- While this is a possibility based on Wolfe stating he created a device that would solve, "both our problems" the other member there likely being Bertrand whom wanted to "kill all conduits" . It is not nearly as large a possibility as it seems as one Bertrand, knowing what the RFI could do, would probably have just given Cole the blast cores and said go ahead and two, the nature of new technologies always has room for error. Wolfe likely at most had an educated guess to what would happen. He had just finished it roughly before you arrive. There is little likelihood that he had time to test it on anything concrete.
Player assumptions based on Cole and Kuo's assumption:
The RFI killed all of the conduits when activated in the good ending.
-- While this is possible there is one thing that leads me to believe that this isn't true. It is indeed possible however that many did in fact die due to being unable to cope with what happened. Allow me to explain how I came to this conclusion.
-- 1. Ray Field Radiation is NOT required for human bodies to function. It is there and as the plague shows it is harmful and even in conduits it is likely not required for them to live long lives in fact it's the conduit gene that makes it more likely that they will live long lives as there will be no build up of excess RFR.
-- 2. The device is called a Ray Field "Inhibitor". This means that the device and the energy generated are meant to reduce, block or suppress ray field energy/radiation. Not remove it. What this means is that nothing is being done physically to the conduits. They are just suddenly without their abilities and the energy that powers them. Which much like with John/The Beast can be a very bad thing.
-- 3. Based on the fact that the energy is just, "blocked" not removed then genetically nothing has been done to actually kill the conduits. What might kill them is the fact that their bodies cannot deal with the stress of being suddenly deprived of something they are used to. An example would be human beings don't need Nutrient B but Nutrient B is found in high levels in food. Nutrient B also helps increase stamina and mental acuity to high levels. Now, feed someone Nutrient B for years and then take in away cold and provide none of it for them. There are three possible situations for how that will go. 1. They go through withdrawal and recover. 2. They die from the withdrawal symptoms. 3. They go into a coma or hybernative state as their body shuts down in attempt to save their lives. The last option is what I believe happened to the stronger conduits and the first is what I believe happened to some of the conduits who never activated. The stronger ones might appear dead and may physically be so (due to being activated their "coma" may be closer to death than that of a normal human).
What this means for Cole and the idea of Infamous 3:
Cole could very well be revived by the lightning bolt at the end of Infamous 2. As he has already been activated as a conduit it would only take a minor amount of RFR to jump start him from his "coma" (though his powers would likely be reduced drastically). What better source of condensed natural radiation could possibly exist than electricity? Even if the electricity itself isn't RFR it could be carried with it (meaning Cole is the easiest one to bring back).
So how does this work in favor of Infamous 3? First, humans now having "suppressed" RFR in them may have a higher chance of activating naturally (if they have the conduit gene) or ending up with the conduit gene in later generations (due to evolution doing its job as it was with the conduit gene in the first place). There is also the fact that as with any comic book style setting any ill intentioned person who becomes aware of the "coma" state in conduits could start awakening them and using them towards his or her own ends. Giving Cole yet another villain to take down.
There is also the worry in that because the radiation is suppressed and not eliminated then the plague itself could return under the right circumstances as nature has a way of ruining even the finest of mankind’s plans. This leads to a whole new possibility for Cole's abilities. Being as he already has the ability to rip out the whole of electrical impulses from people (bio leech) it could be a chance for him to develop a non-lethal counterpart to that ability that only removes the RFR thus disabling dangerous conduits, curing reoccurrences of the plague and in the process increasing his own powers.
Granted most of this is just as much of an assumption as anything else however it is a theory made knowing that nothing is concrete in the setting of inFamous. SuckerPunch is clever in their use of comic book clichés in that you usually get a feeling of nostalgia or homage when you note them and not the wretch feeling you normally would. They are also clever in that they hide obvious truths in ways that make people think. As I said, I had no doubt John was the Beast almost immediately when beating inFAMOUS. It made perfect sense to me that John was a conduit (as he got into the first sons after the "tests") who was likely to become the beast. He is there in both timelines regardless of anything else and likely met the same fate via different context and the beast "appears" sometime later in the future. He didn’t show up, walk in, fly from the sky, hit the earth like a meteor or rise up from the ground. Everything I gathered from the first game made it seem like he appeared, warped or FORMED in empire city. Which as you watch John get sucked into the Ray Sphere and broken apart it makes sense. Though, many may not have seen it that way because it was many different aspects.
Though this does bring up one very vital piece of unexplored territory.
John comments about how when he held the Ray Sphere during a test once he could feel it pulsing as if it were alive. Now here is the unknown part. Was this feeling John's abilities as a conduit manifesting themselves in reaction to the RFR or is there indeed something "alive" about the condensed energy in the sphere that lead to John's becoming the beast.
Theory: The original timeline with Kessler did not have this abundance of energy. With this in mind it could be that the reason the Beast in Kessler’s time was so wild and destructive is because without the proper amount of energy to bring himself back fully the "living thing" in the Ray Sphere took control of his body instead of him. Leaving him with no way back. Or is it the fact that the improved Ray Sphere in the present time had such a possibility that John was able to complete his rebirth with the help of this living thing.
One last possibility concerning that is that John wasn't "sensing" the ray sphere at all. We know this much. John is the Beast and the Beast is nearly deity level in its abilities. Assuming that much like Kessler the Beast has time manipulating abilities or at least a time echo/presence. John very well could have been sensing his future self’s destructive nature and that's why holding the sphere disgusted him so much. He "felt" the Beast he would become and subconsciously wished to remove that part of himself. I consider this highly likely considering his power set.