Y’know, I would’ve been fine never seeing a Big Daddy’s face beneath the helmet

This freaky old Big Daddy concept art is making the rounds, and the face cannot be unseen

If I went through the rest of my life without ever seeing a Big Daddy’s face underneath its suit, that would’ve been A-okay — but fate had another idea.

Courtesy of a late-night tweet from Andy Kelly, there’s this fresh-to-me hell: a glimpse of BioShock‘s main squeeze without the cool suit masking its face. I cannot turn away.

Good morning to everyone except the BioShock concept artist who drew this image of a Big Daddy without a helmet. pic.twitter.com/VjI31ouaXE

— Andy Kelly (@ultrabrilliant) July 6, 2021

It’s pretty wild to me that I’ve somehow never come across this art before.

It’s a simple “Big Daddy without a helmet” search away — one of many pieces of concept art that will pop up for BioShock — and I guess I just never bothered looking. That said, some questions are probably best left unanswered, and officially, it’s clear that the game’s creators would rather leave the canon look of the Big Daddy’s face up to our imaginations.

It’s hard to differentiate their bodies and their suits considering that Protector Program candidates’ “skin and organs were grafted and integrated into their suit, to become one functional unit.” The stuff you learn in-game, forget about, and get reexposed to years later on wikis, I swear. No one ever said Rapture was a kind place.

Apologies for opening such a fleshy can of worms here. We’re in this mess together.