Alright in hindsight I mistake and thought she subverted her one redeeming feature but after talking with an expert on Discord I decided that yeah, she needed to be cut. So sorry and given it was my mistake I'm going to swallow my pride to get this over with.
What is the work?[]
BioShock 2 is a sequel to the original and the character is basically the exact opposite of Andrew Ryan in goal, while Ryan wanted to make Rapture an opportunist paradise Sofia wanted to make a world that lacked free will to where everyone would work towards "the common good".
Who are they and what have they done[]
Sofia Lamb was a woman who Andrew Ryan invited to Rapture (an underwater city) because while he didn't believe in psychology as a real science felt it would put the citizens at ease to which Sofia gladly agreed. You see as she had come to look down on the majority of humanity due to their use of nuclear weapons and saw them as practically suicidal in their self-destructive nature. She eventually founded a cult/group that let her gain some power in the city to the point Ryan felt threatened, so he used a mole to imprison her. After getting out she found out her daughter, Eleanor, was experimented on and had most it undone but later in life found it useful for her experiments to create a "true Utopian". For those who are wondering her version of a Utopian is infusing a lot of ADAM, a substance that grants great power but also degrades the mind and if absorbed keeps part of their consciousness inside it after they die, into an individual. Her hope was with this she could create an intelligent and godlike being that lacked any free will that would "work for the common good", after doing this to a man who was in love with her that failed due to not having the tolerance required, she simply left him to his fate of mutating into a hideous monster that was going insane. She also has Subject Delta mind controlled in front of Eleanor who saw him as a father figure commit suicide in front of her so she could take back her own daughter much to the little girl's horror.
Subject Delta is brought back to life by Eleanor a decade later as her mother decided to use her for the next test subject to become a Utopian, something Eleanor obviously doesn't want so due to her bond with Little Sisters (little girls who are practically immortal and what she used to be before the experiments were reversed) she does what she can to have Delta help save her. Sofia regularly tries to kill Delta and the player can choose to spare certain characters, if you spare them she claims "no one is selfless" and she knows "it's an act and she won't be fooled so easily", if you kill she calls you a heartless monster. One of these people who's fate is in your hands being Stanley Pool, the one who killed her old group while she was locked away and responsible for Eleanor being experimented over a decade ago, she claims to of "forgiven him" long ago until he risked her plans by having Delta help him. Now as the game goes on Sofia decides she needs to kill Delta for good, due to him having a literal bond with Eleanor keeping him alive Sofia smothers her own daughter. Eleanor does recover but Delta is severely weakened due to the bond being disrupted. It is then revealed Sofia had captured one of Delta's allies, Sinclair, who she has turned into a Big Daddy (people that are heavily modified through experiments into a golem like being) under her control while allowing him to keep his voice. Sinclair makes it clear he's in agony to the point he begs Delta to kill him while Sofia forces him to fight. After Sinclair is killed, Sofia tells Eleanor that she can join her in her a submarine to go to the surface and continue her plans but that no matter what everyone in Persephone (a section of Rapture) including Delta. As her minions arm explosives which will destroy Persephone the two make their way to confront her, this leads to setting off the explosions before Sofia can escape but her fate depends on the decisions that the player has made.
Why she needs to be cut[]
In short: she genuinely loves Eleanor to an extent. Now before someone asks if obvious why she was ever proposed let me explain: throughout the game she treats her daughter more like property and is essential to her goal due to her ADAM tolerance. While her goal did involve turning her into the first "Utopian" which is kind of a fate worse than death due to being intelligent yet lacking free will, Sofia might not see it as that way as she does say Eleanor will be something greater than anything that has ever existed. Personally this, much like her goal of making all humanity similar beings comes across as just pure misanthropic delusion even if she hates nuclear weapons. That said two things kind of seal it for cutting: the first is an audio log that she is the most emotional she is at all in the game made before she smothers Eleanor in which she wonders if she can go through with it and if she can live with herself afterwards. The second is a little more subtle in terms of emotion but it's her asking Eleanor for forgiveness right as she goes through with the act.
When I got made the proposals I felt it was subverted and just thinking of her a tool due to all the abuse, what she planned to do to her daughter and hypocrisy. I was in hindsight wrong; those two facts are painted as more genuine given both the other main villains in the games don't hesitate or show that much emotion when they have their child tortured or in Fontaine's case killed. She is a terrible parent but after re-thinking and talking about it on Discord I don't think we can see it as just an extension of herself either. If someone wants a comparison I guess one would be Norman Osborn with Harry, it is abusive and twisted but there is some genuine love/care.
Verdict[]
Cut.