InFAMOUS (series)/WMG

Zeke was actually in on the whole thing, working with Kessler to help mold Cole
Zeke actually knew who Kessler was, and was working with him. Since Kessler was around for decades before they were born, he would obviously know who Zeke was before birth, making it easy for him to track him down. Before the blast, Kessler contacted Zeke, clued him in on the whole thing. It took him the usual time-traveler friend schtick for him to accept that he was Cole from the future. Or perhaps...Zeke is now a member of the First Sons long before the blast...He wears stars on his clothes.... Either way, Zeke worked with Kessler, which was why Zeke tried to activate the Ray Sphere and left with Kessler, it was to completely destroy Cole's sense of trust, and to cut an emotional bond with Cole, preparing him to harden his heart to be able to go into battle against the Beast unhindered. Zeke also seems to suspiciously know a bit about Cole's powers, like him needing to charge after throwing off a lot of energy. Zeke also seems to know a lot about electricity, conveniently for Cole, who runs off it, and having made an electrified platform for Cole to use in the prison against the Dustmen. Zeke actually planned to have Alder escape on his watch. Hoping to incite further fury in Cole, Zeke shooting at Kessler was an act, making Cole think that he killed his best friend from blasting him into the Stanton building ruins. Or Zeke though he gone too far, and decided to break it off with Kessler for the sake of Cole.

Cole will eventually gain Kessler's time-travel ability.
This isn't necessarily a given; it's implied that the Ray Sphere has set Cole on a different power-path than Kessler had, especially considering the myriad of non-electrical things Kessler could do in the final boss fight. But the visual effect when Kessler is shown using his time-travel power is very much in-style with how Cole's electricity is depicted; how electricity can manipulate time, this troper is going to think about as much as he thinks about electricity making Cole immune to falling damage, but even if it's not electrical, Cole might naturally evolve into it anyway despite his new, differing power set.

Going off of this, Kessler's time-travel ability is a textbook Chekhov's Gun; at some point in a future installment, Cole will be faced with a problem where being able to go back in time will seem like a solution, or he'll have two problems to solve and he'll have to choose between them because the time-travel power, as was explicitly said in the ending, only works once. Perhaps this will be how the next game's Sadistic Choice is presented?

Finally, it's worth considering that with time travel involved and the restrictions on it, we may very well end up with some combination of You Can't Fight Fate, Screw Destiny, and / or Stable Time Loop.
 * I'm pretty sure it was said that using the ray sphere over-rides whatever you would have developed without it.
 * According to the comic it adds to your abilities and doesn't take them away.
 * Many of the "non-electrical" attacks Kessler does are really just more powerful versions of Cole's attacks: energy grenades, powerful single-shot blasts, memory transfer, shockwaves, etc.
 * They're really not; the grenades have more in common with fire than electricity. The energy blasts and the memory transfer both come from his metallic arm, which is clearly some sort of active machinery, suggesting he has to use technology to get the electrical effects Cole can produce naturally. His shockwave contains no static electricity like Cole's, suggesting it's telekinesis instead. The only time any of Kessler's powers is ever shown with an actual electrical element is his time-travel.
 * They certainly seem like they could be. At highest resolution, Kessler's fireballs are opaque glowing orange/red balls which let out sparks, and its ambiguous whether they are electrical or thermal in nature (though their explosions closely resemble Evil Cole's grenades). During the shockwave, you can clearly see blue sparks and static surround him as he charges up and pounds the ground. Another attack has him charge up and shoot white lightning, which he does with both hands. The weird clone things he sends at you also have white electricity crawling over them, and even attract electricity from surrounding electrical outlets. The little shock wave he uses to punt Zeke doesn't have any visual clues pertaining to electricity, but it's the same visual effect as when Cole deflects projectiles (which is manipulation of magnetic fields).
 * I thought that Kessler was using his electrical powers to power his metallic arm. Given how similar his attacks were to Cole's, if he wasn't supposed to have the same kind of powers, I'd honestly think that was something of an asspull.
 * If Kessler is powering the arm, then what's the arm for? He doesn't do anything with it except fire off an attack. If he had electrical powers to power it, why bother? Again, note the above; none of his other powers actually involve electricity (seriously, youtube the fight; in addition to the above notes on what his powers look like, his grenades aren't ball lightning like Cole's are, either, they're made of fire,) so the reasonable conclusion is that he's not capable of manipulating it and the arm is a technological alternative for things Cole can do naturally.
 * Almost all his powers involve electricity, many blatantly so. His teleporting, fireballs/ball-lightning, and shockwaves are the only ones that are debatable, and Cole can do the shockwave thing on a small scale.
 * Or maybe Kessler is so much more experienced than Cole that they just don't look electrical in nature. The ray sphere would simply explain why Cole was able to win despite this difference.
 * The arm is for having a second arm. Kessler is encountered three times in the game, and in one of those, he's too far away to be seen clearly. The other two times, he's talking and then fighting. Not exactly the time to see him perform household tasks with it.
 * I've always assumed the arm and that mechanical device were some sort of high-tech generators. Notice Kessler never has to absorb any electricity during the fight.
 * Don't forget the Game Informer article that had the developers mention that Cole is going to get ice powers (they also say that he's going to still be electric man, however)
 * Jossed via inFamous 2. (Also, the Time Travel power doesn't "only work once". They said it was one-way.)

Following from the above, Player-Cole will go back it time to stop/kill Kessler before he sets off the Ray Sphere.
This will allow the existence of a Cole capable of fighting the Beast, while also allowing a Cole to be happily married. Also, I doubt that Evil Cole would be satisfied with killing Kessler just the once.
 * Sorry, but play the second game. If you select the Good ending, no more Cole exists to go back in time. Additionally Evil Cole would know that Trish is doomed anyway because non-conduits can't handle Ray-Sphere radiation; Zeke is a prime example. Not to mention that Cole would need the Ray Field Inhibitor from New Marais to weaken the Beast. Luckily if you are Evil, you can become the Beast. But then you wouldn't want to go back in time because you ARE the Beast and would kill Trish if you went back in time.

The Heroic ending is canon, and the Beast is another alternate Cole, one that took the evil path.
The coming threat has a silhouette that bears more than a passing resemblance to Cole, and his powers manifest in blood-red like evil Cole's electricity (a point against; the illustration doesn't actually look like electricity so much as fire.) Think about how the bad ending plays out, with evil Cole giving a monologue about how he doesn't give two shits about anything, and how his powers are only good for taking what he wants because no one can stop him. Going from this to a terrible monster burning the world down just for the lulz isn't too much of a stretch.

And it gets worse; if Cole went evil, became the Beast and destroyed the world, it prompts Kessler to go back in time and try to fix it. His interference changes how his past self grows, and the Cole we play as becomes heroic instead of becoming the Beast; there's some irony in this, because heroic Cole is not quite what Kessler intended, but is nonetheless the solution to his plight, and he unquestionably achieves his goal of hardening Cole for the troubles to come

It seems that once someone travels into the past, they're protected by changes in the timeline, as evidenced by Kessler still existing even after he has Cole use the Ray Sphere, drastically altering his own past. So, from the original future, evil Cole / the Beast has used his time travel power to chase Kessler. This could mean that Kessler has actually been royally, tragically screwed by You Can't Fight Fate, because in trying to fix things, he's changed things so that the Beast will emerge before it originally did, possibly before Cole (Heroic Cole, the player's character,) is strong enough to oppose him. Simultaneously confirmed and Jossed. The Heroic endings to both games are canon.
 * Just one little problem here. Namely, how can evil Cole go back in time to chase Kessler if Cole and Kessler are the same person?
 * If you take Cole's choices between good and evil as literal and not just a game mechanic, you have a classic "one or the other" choice that will spawn an alternate timeline so both choices can exist. My admittedly poor wording on the matter was meant to imply some use of a Timey-Wimey Ball when needed; a third alternate Cole could exist because the plot wants him to, and time just happens to work in a conveniently incomprehensible way so that, given the right circumstances and timeline abuse (thank you, Kessler,) different versions of the same person start getting spat out in a single reality. Admittedly, this is the kind of thing most people hate about time travel, I like to think of it as a blank check for doing crazy stuff, so long as the silly explanation is handled well enough. The writing already seems like it's willing to take time-travel with a grain of salt for the sake of plot, considering how Kessler is immune to changes in the timeline.

The Beast is John.
The Ray Sphere didn't leave a body, after all.
 * It would explain why Kessler didn't simply go back in time and kill the beast in his cradle. As a slider from another timeline, there would be no information about John in Kessler's timeline until he appeared and started killing people.
 * It was explicitly stated (at least, if you chose the heroic path) that John was ripped to pieces by the Ray Sphere, so there wouldn't be much of a body (or anything, really) left to find.
 * Both the good and evil paths say that the Ray Sphere rips John apart, and that both John and the Ray Sphere were "reduced to ashs".
 * The defense would like to present Exhibit A: Dr. Manhattan sometimes being reduced to subatomic ash is only the beginning.
 * I've been thinking this could be the case. John is like Manhattan, except insane and evil. The ray sphere and him did vaporize, to some other place of existence where they merged, possibly the implied entity within the sphere hijacking John's body. That would explain his near godly powers, he's basically a walking incarnation of the sphere itself, an ever evolving force that jumps in power in leaps and bounds.
 * This does actually make sense if you think carefully about it and compare it to events that have happened in In Famous 2. Kessler's meddling with the timeline has caused the Beast to arrive earlier than anticipated. Judging by the fact, as stated in the first game, Kessler accelerated the construction of the Ray Sphere and upon use/destruction of it near the end of the game John is swept up in its vortex that nothing is left of him. Now picture this, the Ray Sphere has incredible power within it. Whether John snatched it away or was simply caught in the warp doesn't matter, the fact is he was drawn into its massive energy build up. This could mean he was merged with the Ray Sphere's incredible power and energy and thus warped into the monster that is the Beast. Combine this also with John feeling like he's been abandoned after his mission in Empire City plus being drunk on power or his mind warped to the point of insanity, it would make sense he's the blood thirsty destructive monster we know as the Beast.

The Beast is Alex Mercer.
Sucker Punch secretly owns Radical Entertainment; Prototype is the story of In Famous' true villain, and both games' sequels will be one crossover game.
 * Slightly less wild guess; Sucker Punch simply learned about the slaughterfest that Prototype would turn out to be from publicly available developer interviews, and started throwing anvils into In Famouss Karma Meter, right down to Cole's Private Eye Monologues on moral choices, quotes about the use and abuse of power, even writing Alex Mercer an amoral butcher into the ending' as a Take That against Prototype's obligatory sociopathy.
 * It may not be true, but there's some definite similarities between Mercer and the Beast. If you look at one of the images of the apocalyptic future that Kessler showed you, you can see a bunch of people impaled on spikes. That's one of Mercer's special moves in Prototype; though it might just be coincidence or a quirky nod on Sucker Punch's part.

The Beast was Pariah
The player never finds out where Pariah is during Prototype, however, he apparently has the ability to infect and murder at will and his apparent lack of regard for human life. I mean, if you really think about it, the Supreme Hunter died, Alex Mercer wouldn't commit such violent acts after the course of his game (supported by the fact that he saved NYC from being blown up by a nuke), and Elizabeth Greene is dead. The only one with the destructive power and the sociopathic tendencies to be "The Beast" would have to be Pariah.
 * Seems unlikely. The images of the Beast's true form is very different from Pariah's.
 * Actually, I decided to use that in my mashup-fic, though I think that was just us thinking along parallel lines.

The Beast was the Supreme Hunter
Player actions aside, Mercer isn't the kind of person to just destroy the world. The Supreme Hunter, on the other hand, was not near as so nice. If it had eaten Mercer, it would have gained the ability to survive nuclear annihilation and be well nigh invincible. Of course, Mercer managed to kill the Supreme Hunter in this time line, but in the unaltered one, since the military didn't have the Empire City incident to divert their resources, they managed to slow Mercer down enough for the Supreme Hunter to kill him.

Incidentally, the reason that Kessler thought that the Beast was a human was because everyone who saw the Beast in its true form died.

The Beast is James Heller.
When the Beast shows up in, he is a rampaging monster, but, well James should be the real deal.

The Beast will be the main character of the sequel.
You'll control the young Beast awakening to his (fire?) powers, being antagonized by a Well-Intentioned Extremist good-ending Cole who believes you to be evil incarnate despite the evidence. You may or may not prove him wrong, depending on your choices. This allows the developers to both avoid having to explain any contrived Restart At Level One while also allowing them to play around with a different power set.
 * Jossed. Your still in control of Cole.
 * inFamous 2 spoiler -

The Beast will be the main character of the sequel and the evil path is canon in In Famous
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero for Kessler. He has push Cole too far and now evil Cole is bent on destroying/enslaving the world. The second Ray sphere's blast will cause his powers to grow stronger and stronger at an exponential rate after the end of In Famous. Soon, Cole takes over the remnant of the First Sons, Dustmen and Reapers, with help from his new girl, Sascha and her hypnotic abilities. An army of conduits led by Cole is soon unleashed on the world at large. It Got Worse, as Cole is trying to recreate the Ray sphere from the schematics of the First Sons, hoping to pull A God Am I. As the government is losing control of the situation (not that they have any control to begin with), they are left with one, last hope: a young conduit with pyrokinetic (or whatever else) abilities, used for experiment with the government variant of the Ray sphere's technology. Hadn't Kessler screwed thing up the way he did, this young conduit would have become the beast. Now, the role are reversed, except it's not too late to save the world this time. The karma system will be more or less the same, and will be determined by the young beast ability to accomplish his missions without destroying anything in his path (good) or to just slaugther everything (evil). The good ending will be canon, and what should have been the world's destroyer will be instead hailed has the greatest of the hero.
 * The final battle will be between two Physical God, as both Cole and the Beast reach the pinnacle of their power.
 * Jossed You need to get Blast Cores to power the Ray Field Inhibitor in order to weaken the Beast, and before you use it you need your side-kick to help you. The fight literally takes place between a god and two strengthened normals, and the god pretty much kicks your ass if you don't heal regularly.
 * Zeke will die, whoever kill the bastard will get a super Popularity Power.
 * Zeke doesn't die unless you choose the Evil ending where all non-conduits die.
 * Sascha will try to seduce the young beast as he become more powerful, it won't work and Cole will fry her out of anger and will thus Kick the Dog.
 * As for Cole himself, he will probably finally suffer a Phlebotinum Overload of huge proportions while trying to become a god-like being.
 * Alden will be an important ally, having learned in the meantime that Cole=Kessler, though he may or may not try to backstab you at the worst moment.
 * Nope, Sucker Punch already said Cole will come back as the main character, but as of the time of them being interviewed for the Game Informer article, they had no idea what to do about what you did in the first game, but he'll look (and sound) very different.
 * Cole is the main character. You gain slight bonuses (Experience, Karma, and Energy) depending on how much you did in In Famous 1. You do get a sidekick for periods, but Alden isn't mentioned or even seen.
 * Ironically, this was confirmed, more or less, for Prototype. The new lead is a character similar to Alex who is hunting him down.

The Beast is Kratos.
Few characters in videogames are truly the embodiment of hates all life as well as Kratos, and fewer still canonically have the pure power needed to take this vengeance upon the world. Having destroyed his own world in God of War III, Kratos uses the threads of the sisters to find a new world to vent his terrible fury. He finds the modern world. That also explains the tough choices - given how Kratos regenerates magic, health and rage and gains experience from killing everything around him, the only way to stop him growing stronger is to kill them first.

This could also be the setup for a new crossover fighter. Cole must use his time travel powers to assemble Ratchet, Jak, Sackboy, Ico, and Solid Snake, while Kratos finds allies in a Black era Needles Kane, and Wander. Add or delete as seen fit.
 * Well, to fill out the evil side, Kratos could probably take a trip to Hades to ressurect Liquid. Continuing with the Evil Counterpart theme, Crypto from Destroy All Humans (alien with an ungodly aresenal of weapons) makes a good counterpart to Ratchet (ditto). Sackboy could simply be put against an "Evil" style sackboy. The only issue would be Jak's counterpart.
 * Needles. A decidedly evil vehicle user.
 * Well, we're gettting a Sony crossover fighter soon...

Cole is a descendant of Colonel Volgin.
Both have a combination of Shock and Awe and Charles Atlas Superpowers- Cole inherited his lightning powers from one of Volgins descendants (An illegitimate child? Volgin did seem rather, er, "aggressively promiscuous") who defected from the USSR in the 60's or 70's, and would go on to become one of Cole's grandparents. Remember, it was implied that Cole would have developed powers on his own, and that the Ray-Sphere merely enhanced this- hence why the lightning powers Cole displays (Lightning Can Do Anything) are so much greater than those of Volgin (who's primary method of attack was using electricity to fire bullets without a gun, and whose lighting bolts needed something metal to home in on for accurate fire)- this is particularly apparent when we consider that Cole was more powerful than Volgin after only having had his powers for a few weeks, while Volgin apparently had a long and successful military career using his powers.

Cole will develop additional power sets beyond general control over electricity.
Based on what the game told us about how the Ray Sphere works, it isn't entirely unreasonable. Since its initial activation took out six blocks of a heavily populated city, the ensuing death toll must have been in the thousands if not much greater. It's not unreasonable to figure that this blast caught more than a few other conduits in its scope, taking their energy and focusing it into Cole. Assuming that the Ray Sphere both only granted powers to the Conduit that activated it and that the energy absorbed from the dead people was absorbed largely intact or as-is, Cole will eventually discover that he has access to other power bases. This nicely explains all the non-electrical things Kessler could do (This Troper does not think it was implied enough to be canon fact that Cole is getting different powers than Kessler) and gives a justification for the Restart At Level One Cole will get in the sequel - he may still have all his electrical powers but his new power sets that he is awakening to are fouling up his control across the board.
 * Except: Kessler didn't get his powers from the Ray Sphere, Kessler got his naturally (he invented the Ray Sphere later) and has electrical powers (Most of the attacks he uses during the final confrontation are stronger versions of your own abilities)
 * As noted above, Kessler does not mirror Cole's powers, only their functionality; his grenades are on fire, not made of electricity. His shove attack has no electrical dressing like Cole's does, presumably because it's straight-up telekinesis instead of electro-magnetism. It's more likely that the Ray Sphere simply overrides the natural progression the user would make on their own.
 * Kessler's powers looked more electrical than Cole's did after his second usage of the Ray Sphere. And as mentioned above, Kessler's power do have plenty of electrical dressing, it's just more subtle than with Cole. The Ray Sphere overriding the Conduit's natural abilities was never mentioned or even implied in game.
 * Kessler didn't invent the Ray Sphere, it was the First Sons. He just accelerated its development when he took over them.
 * Confirmed! The trailer for In Famous 2 shows Cole using ice powers.
 * Don't be so sure. The makers have said that Cole's still going to be electrically orientated, so it's more likely that his Lightning Can Do Anything powers are just getting a boost.
 * Doubly confirmed! Two new protagonists are going to increase Cole's power in the direction of cryokinesis or pyrokinesis with Good an Evil, respectively.
 * More of Law or Chaos.
 * Kessler's powers actually have a lot in common with Cole's and are quite electrical, although subtle in appearance.
 * Additionally, Cole gets two sidekicks: Nix and Kuo. At a specific point, you can choose to exchange powers with one of them. There is the Ionic Storm, which is essentially a tornado, but it can be handwaved.

Kessler's changes to the timeline have actually made the Beast irrelevant.
In a twist that would make Kessler a true woobie for the amount of wasted effort and what he put himself through, his own interference with the timeline has changed things in such a way that the Beast will never actually rise, or, perhaps, he still exists and is still a Conduit that will gain powers, but he's lead a different life than in the original timeline and doesn't grow up to be The Antichrist. Cole's fight will instead have him teaming up with anyone in the government/military like John who opposes Moya and her superiors in their quest for power. He'll realize at some point that an important, friendly supporting character is actually the Beast, and depending on the karmic choices, may or may not take action against him.
 * Sucker Punch have stated that In Famous 2 opens with Cole fighting the Beast, losing and fleeing to the new city in order to power up for a rematch. In fact the Beast seems to have appeared earlier than its debut in Kessler's timeline.
 * Jossed The Beast appears earlier than it would have simply because of Kessler's actions.

Kessler's changes to the timeline have actually made things worse.
In the second game, the Beast shows up sooner than he did in the original timeline, and is just as powerful. Additionally, Conduits are springing up all over the country, and the the military seems to be too disorganized to concentrate on the Beast. Finally, even before the Ray Sphere was detonated, the country was something of a Crapsack World.
 * Confirmed and Jossed. Kessler's actions made the Beast appear sooner but left Cole strong enough to do what was needed to win in the end and cure everybody.

Cole and the Beast are AU, Gender Flipped versions of Fate Testarossa and Signum from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
If there isn't a clause in the All The Tropes Wiki Drinking Game for WMGs involving AU versions, there should be!

On a more serious note, if we assume as suggested above that the Beast is Playing With Fire, then the roles - Fate/Cole, the "good guy" with Shock and Awe versus Signum/Beast, the "bad guy" pyrokinetic - fit. However, the relationship may not, considering that Fate and Signum considered each other Worthy Opponents while Cole and the Beast most likely will be out for each other's blood. Or maybe that is the point, that the moral choices in the sequel will affect how their antagonism plays out.

Someone at Sucker Punch is familiar with Fate/stay night.
Specifically, the Unlimited Blade Works story route. Granted, there's not a WHOLE lot of similarities, but at the end of the day there's still a duel between a young guy who's just discovered amazing powers and his jaded Future Badass self. And then there's Archer Plaza...subtle Shout Out?

Zeke is the Beast.
He gets super powers and discovers With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
 * Zeke is explicitly not a Conduit, that's why the Ray Sphere did nothing in his hands.
 * That doesn't mean he can't get abilities through other means. It isn't quite known how far a 'conduit' goes with getting abilities. Or if they can get abilities without the use of the Ray Sphere (every team had it at one point [Sasha could have used it before they kicked her out], so they could have taken advantage at the time). Perhaps non-conduits can get abilities through other, not quite as safe means.
 * First, this was Jossed when John was revealed to be the Beast. Second, they know enough in the second one to know that being a conduit is determined by a gene, hence why it's called the Conduit gene.

Cole knows enough about physics to use electricity to create magnetism.
This would explain a few of the weirder things like flying, decelerating a fall, and deflecting projectiles. "Zeke: You took college-prep. I took shop class."
 * Well...he graduated from high school, right?
 * No, one of the devs was giving an interview for gametrailers and said that Cole was "Your typical High School dropout."
 * Actually, for all we know the magnetic shield was Zeke's idea. If not, we can still imply that Cole knew enough about magnetism to use it because:


 * All right, then he dropped out after learning enough science to use electricity to create magnetism.
 * In the second game's intro, he says that he dropped out of college. Maybe he subconsicously used magnetism.
 * According to the interquel, he dropped out just a few credits short of graduation. He's definitely book-smart.

Radical Entertainment and Sucker Punch are working together.
This would make the "Alex Mercer is The Beast" theory credible, it would explain the strange similarities between the pictures sent to Yahtzee for the tie-breaker round between the two games, and it would make all the fan warring about the dueling games hilariously irrelevant.
 * I think one of them contacted the other after hearing Yahtzee and then made the similar pictures to mirror their games. No one knows who copied who... if they did copy each other which I doubt.
 * The two were originally one company, after all.

What no Neon Genesis Evangelion Theory yet? * Sigh* : The Conduits are Artificial Angels
Let's fact it, not all the Conduits have natural-seeming powers (* cough* Sasha* cough* ), and the ones that do have pretty Angel-like qualities. Specifically, the ability to manipulate energy.

The theory is that the Ray Sphere is basically a Localized Third Impact Generator, converting non-Conduits unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast to be converted into LIV, which is then transferred to the Conduits. The Conduits then gain the ability to manipulate Dirac seas, and to a far more minor-or major, in the case of Sasha-extent, LIV itself. The "Bio-Drain" power allows Cole to drain LIV from a dying person for a quick boost, and "Healing Touch" (I think that's what it's called) uses the LIV directly to quickly knit a guy's body back together.

As for the original characters, Cole (and by extension Kessler) is not one of them. Zeke, however, is Shinji, Sasha, Asuka, and Alden, Gendo.
 * After In Famous 2

inFamous is the prequel to Blaz Blue.
The Beast and the Black Beast are one and the same.

Kessler is not really Cole.
What we see at the end is all Cole's interpretation of what he saw in Kessler's flashbacks. Kessler is really one of Cole's mail carrier friends who was also a conduit. In the future Kessler stole Trish from Cole. Cole then developed into the beast from the flashback. He then set out on a quest to kill Kessler and Trish. They disappear, and Cole (after finding them) accidently kills Trish. Then, Kessler and Cole combine powers to send one of them back in time. After that Kessler trys to keep Cole from becoming the beast. This follows the good ending, where Kessler succeeds. However, this is a bittersweet ending, as Trish (who came between the men) is still dead. In In Famous 2, you will play Kessler in the future, before he gets send back.
 * Zeke was best man at the wedding.

Cole has practical household powers.
Cole implies at one point that he can't take a shower and obviously he can't swim, but he has epic-level self-cleaning abilities. As he matures his control he should be able to perform nifty tricks like cooking off the odor-causing bacteria on his skin, or ionising dust particles on his body to repel them. He may still need to brush his teeth, though.

He also seems to generate some electricity (though not fast enough to not need a pick-me-up after using the more powerful abilities). It seems he could plug his bed into the power grid and make money in his sleep. Also, if my recollection of meteorology serves me, he could use his lightning-summoning ability to dispel tornados (and possibly even full storm systems).
 * In the sequel, he can summon tornados. People commented on his stench in the first game, but it is possible he sponge-washed; small amounts of water don't kill him.

One of Kessler's manipulations was to make sure that it never rains in Empire City after the disaster.
Otherwise, Cole is screwed.
 * Rain water is fresh water, and fresh water isn't conductive. Its just water with impurities that screws him over.
 * Completely pure water isn't conductive, but completely pure water is very hard to make. Rain water would still be as problematic as other sources, though he could probable cook it off unless it was really pouring.

Cole eventually develops enough control to get rid of his Power Incontinence.
He's had his powers for about less than a month. He's probable still got a lot to learn.

Jackie Estacado from The Darkness game is a conduit.

 * The Darkness talking to him and those trips to the otherworld? The hallucinations of a disturbed mind- being a mafia hitman since adolscence is not conducive to mental health. He's actually a conduit with darkness related powers. He's probably not The Beast, as his vulnerability to light stops him being a world class threat, but this troper thinks a fanfic portaying a feud between a superheroic good-ending Cole and a post-game mob-boss Jackie would be awesome, if only for the ease with which Jackie could be made into a Noble Demon Evil Counterpart to Cole. Their powers are even vaguely opposite!

Alden will appear in the sequel

 * Cole explicitly says that he does not believe Alden is dead but he didn't have the time to go look for a body.
 * Alden jumped into a river. Cole couldn't have looked for him if he had the time.
 * Jossed Alden does not appear at all. He's killed in the interquel comic.

Cole used to smoke, before he got his powers.
When he got his powers, his enhanced healing abilities eventually undid some of the damage to his throat, resulting in his different sounding voice in the second game.
 * Sucker Punch is considering making Cole look and sound as he did in the first game, so potentially Jossed.
 * They're keeping the voice, though the clothes are back, so still possible.
 * My theory always was that the explosion of the Ray Sphere damaged his vocal chords somehow, and in the second game, enough time has passed that his throat has healed.
 * My geuss was that a bit of sharpnel from the rayshpere may have gotten lodged into his throat during the blast and since it was the most life threatining injury he sustained, his healing abilities went to work on healing that first, effectivly sealing the piece inside of his throat. During the transition to the sequal he probably got surgury to get it removed.

The Beast is The Beast.
Belle just doesn't like it when he controls fire around the house.

Cole uses Kessler's time travel abilities subconsciously.
If Kessler and Cole are the same person, it only makes sense that Cole would have the ability too. Whenever Cole dies in-game, the power activates and sends Cole back to the most recent checkpoint.

The Ice powers in In Famous 2 are a temporary power-up
At various points in the game Cole will fight Ice themed enemies, and once they are beaten Cole will absorb their powers for a temporary switch to Ice-themed abilities. By extension there will be fire/air/water/earth/ heart themed enemies which Cole can absorb powers from for temporary elemental themed powers.
 * Aside from the amusing image of Cole as Captain Planet, IF 2 seems mostly limited to fire and ice. Maybe the third one.

The whole game is an attempt to break a Stable Time Loop.
Alright, think of it like this; The Beast tries to take over the world, and Cole is too scared to fight him. Eventually, he uses his most recent power to go back in time and try to change the past so that he's strong enough to fight The Beast. Now, assume that the path the player takes is the In Famous path. By the end of the game, Cole is a power-crazed mass-murderer who is basically insane. Now, we know that, eventually, Cole gets the power to go back in time. Evil Cole decides to do this, going back in time for one of any number of reasons; saving Trish, killing Kessler.. Anything like that. He goes on a rampage, using his RED lightning to cause havoc and destruction. The Cole of the past, too scared to fight Evil Cole, AKA, The Beast, uses his most recent power to go back in time and change the past, so that his past self is strong enough to fight The Beast when it arrives, not knowing The Beast's true identity. Thus, a never-ending loop.. Unless the player decides to take the Good path. If he does, the game ends with Cole heroically defeating Kessler, discovering that The Beast is due to arrive, and plans to stop him when he does. Depending on the way Time Travel works in this universe, this could mean two things. One: there doesn't need to be a sequel, because by beating the loop, he's beaten The Beast, and everything is fine. Two: The Beast will arrive, and Cole will be there to stop him, fighting through the sequel only to reveal that the Big Bad is him... Again.
 * Well there is a second game due for release in 2011, and it assumes the player took the good path. And the beast definitely isn't the evil Cole.
 * Actually, the jury is still out on that one. Sucker Punch has said they're working to see if they can implement the Good/Bad endings in a way like The Suffering did, or at least come to a middle ground that won't upsets fans of either ending.
 * You can select which of your profiles you wish to use to begin. You get experience, energy-cores, and/or karma depending on how much you have.

Cole smells very unpleasantly, and it's because of his electric powers.
Something that happens often is people in the game saying that something smells really bad when you get near them. Now of course, a lot of people have not showered in weeks, so everyone smells, so it has to take a rather bad smell to get a reaction. And again, people mostly seem to note a particularly bad smell when near Cole. I don't think it's a bad smell like that of a person who just hasn't showered in weeks, but instead, the smell is something specific to Cole. Have you ever smelt electricity, like from a bad outlet or something? It's a pretty awful smell. In it's own way, it's worse then the smell of garbage. Now where would a strong electrical smell come from? Cole of course. Being an "electric man", he probably has an electrical smell coming off of him at all times, and probably smells a bit like a bad outlet himself. It would explain why people note a weird stink right as you get near them. It's because he smells like electricity.

So on top of the responsibilities and the lack of ability to have a normal life, he also has to deal with smelling like a really bad electrical outlet all the time. Having super powers isn't easy. Also, he can still clean himself. Sponge baths as stated MANY times above.
 * Alternatively... It's because you're going through the sewars and possibly through RAW SEWAGE if you fall in.

Zeke and Cole's relationship is still rocky

 * Even though materials for the sequel have shown the two hanging around, Cole will still harbor some resentment towards Zeke for betraying him and possibly even hold some blame for Trish's death. Eventually this could result in a Heroic Sacrifice on Zeke's part, making a for a big Tear Jerker moment with Cole finally forgiving his best friend for what happened.
 * The first part is confirmed. In fact several plot points involve Zeke trying to make ammends. Zeke makes the Amp specifically to help Cole, and his acting as a double-agent to help Cole lets Cole find Kuo, gain additional powers, and even stop the Beast momentarily. However the Tear Jerker comes at the end, where Cole finally forgives Zeke by saving Zeke and everyone else from the Plague at the expense of all conduits everywhere.

The sequel will end with Cole killing the Beast

 * Only to realize that there is something far, far worse than it coming. Now that would be a crazy premise for the third and final game, where we have no idea of what's coming this time around.
 * Jossed The good path ends with a Heroic Sacrifice that kills all conduits. The evil path ends with Cole becoming the Beast.

The Beast is Nathan Hale.
Well, he is bald and only has powers because of being affected by the Chimerian virus.

The Beast is John and Cole is to blame.

 * In the end of In Famous Cole and John find the ray sphere on a dock and the player decides either to destroy or use it themselves but in both scenarios John is apparently killed by the energy of the sphere What the sphere actually did was send John several years into the future along with the ray sphere in a sense creating the future Kessler hails from (super stable time loop) and becomes the beast and when Kessler comes back in time the beast/john follows but shows up later in the In Famous 2.
 * By the time John/the Beast shows up in In Famous 2 he has experienced a full time loop and is most likely over 100 years old.
 * Confirmed, sans the Time Travel.

The Beast is Master Xehanort.
He has dark powers similar to the Beast, and maybe he has traveled into Kessler's timeline just to mess him up.

The Beast is Brainiac.
It would seem that he has red eyes and energy for a robot.

Sasha would be an ally in Prototype 2.
If only Cole would free her from being corrupted...

The key to stopping this whole mess is THE PACKAGE.
This entire time loop will never stop occuring over and over, twisting him into the Beast in every iteration, until he finally figures that he needs to defeat NOT the Beast... but his own younger self. He will simply go BACK in time before the very start of the first game, rip the raysphere package out of his own hands and break the cycle. "Are you STUPID or something?!?" And thus the loop will finally be broken.

Kessler is not Cole from the future, but Cole from a parallel universe
Instead of traveling through time like he thought, he jumped to another universe. The main differences between the two universes was that Cole never got powers, the beast came sooner than expected and the human race is a little further behind technology wise.If Kessler hadn't showed up, the beast would have kinda killed everything unapposed. Ya know, this sounded a lot more sane in my head.
 * I think it's simpler than that, Kessler's (future Cole) situation is similar to Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Z. He went back in time to alter event and ensure his younger self was ready to face the coming threat (Beast/Androids), but instead created a split timeline. Cole was forced to gain his power earlier, and by some strange proxy his nemesis has arrived earlier than scheduled. To sum it up: Even if you can change the past, odds are it won't bode well for your original time or the new one you're tampering with.

Cole is a relative of Desmond.
Well, how can you explain of him jumping to a window to another or a building to another building?

The Beast is Hiro-Kala.
He went crazy from using the Old Power.

The Beast is The Oracle.
Think about it. When he fall into the Chroma after the final battle with Lucas, he eventually comes back and get powers that could terrorize all life. Not to mention that he can appear from nowhere because he doesn't exist.

The Beast is Shepard.

 * Whatever happens in his final confrontation with the Reapers creates a temporal anomaly, fusing all possible versions of Shepard that could have existed into one- in effect, creating a version of Shepard with the full abilities of every class at once. Super-Shepard is able to wipe out the Reapers single handedly, but the resultant strain on his psyche (he's got the full memory of every version of himself that ever existed- he's lived out every single possible way the events of the Mass Effect series could have gone, not to mention his own life prior, also factoring in the conflict between his Paragon and Renegade selves), not to mention the accidental death's of the entire Normandy crew (due to his being unable to fully control his new abilities) drives him mad. Resolving to stop humanity from ever developing inter-stellar travel (avoiding the attention of the council, the Geth, the Reapers and whatever other horrors are in space), Shepard decides to travel back in time to before humanity discovered the Mass Effect drive. He does so by using his biotic abilites to tear open a time/space anomaly, piloting the Normandy (now crewed by thousands of Geth reprogrammed to be loyal to him) through it. He arrives in modern times shortly after the events of In Famous, planning to conquer the planet and forcibly keep it from discovering Mass Effect technology, while reinforcing it against the threat of alien attack.
 * So we have a mentally unstable genetically-engineered, power-armoured super-soldier/cyborg, with technological skills thousands of years in advance of modern science, access to an arsenal of alien and futuristic weaponry (includng his own Cool Ship), his own personal horde of Mecha Mooks and the ability to create black holes with his brain. Yep, that's a world ending threat.

The game is All Just a Dream.
Think about it. How could some damages in a city rebuild for 14 days? In reality, Cole is still in coma trying to cope with what happened to Empire City. The characters he'll interact are aspects of himself.
 * Himself = Ego/Self
 * Sasha = Id
 * Alden = Super Ego
 * John = Anima
 * Kessler = Shadow Archetype

Cole's powers are over molecules, not any particular element.
Cole's using ice and fire in the sequel seem to point to this, molecules slowing cause freezing, molecules speeding up causes heat,  think about it.

Trish will return
As some kind of spirit. Either as a hallucination borne of Cole's guilty mind, or the most mysterious case of Conduit powers seen yet, Trish will come back to guide Cole. This has been partially confirmed, as Nate Fox mentioned Trish will make an appearance in the sequel in some form.

If there is a third game, the Beast will be a playable character.
The storyline will be him once a human, but some happened him to lead him to his Start of Darkness.

Lex Luthor is the Beast.
If you think falling into one of the Phantom Zone holes will make him insane and destructible, maybe it's a possibility.

Kessler never wanted to save Empire City because it is a training ground for villains.
He released them so that Cole would have proper training.

Kessler is a Split Personality of Cole.
He does bad things while the other does good things.

The Beast is unleashed by Moya.
In the DC comic, it is revealed that Moya has a mysterious person locked in stasis, identified as one "Lieutenant Poole", who she intends to unleash against Cole if things turn sour. Whatever her definition of sour is, she decides to set Poole loose, only for him to turn out to be The Beast. In the original timeline, these events never transpired and Poole did not get unleashed or break out until much later.
 * That's an interesting idea, but it then begs the question of how he got captured then, and what his origins are. It's been stated before that Kessler accidentally creating his nemesis would be strange and rather hard to explain for the orginal beast's appearance in his timeline. However, it's possible that Poole was a conduit captured by the Government and his existence hidden from Kessler during his and Moya's partnership.

Good Cole's Just Hiding.
Seriously, what was with that lightning bolt at the last second in the good ending? This is of course assuming they make iF3 after the new Sly game; otherwise not so much.
 * Well, the new Sly game isn't being made by Sucker Punch though.
 * Then he's definitely Just Hiding. Horray for high sales.

Both endings of In Famous 2 will turn out to be
The natural purpose of the Conduit gene is an evolutionary failsafe - it enables species to survive massive die-offs by inducing powerful adaptations which can then spread from the resulting genetic bottleneck. It is triggered by massive numbers of the species dying over a short period of time - the Ray Sphere artifcially activates it with higher efficiency than normal, with thousands sacrificed to empower dozens - it's supposed to activate during extinction level events, when millions die from the unforseeable. Evidence for this theory? There are animal Conduits. The gene is universal - it's supposed to be there.
 * The ending of the sequal may avoid this fate because

The Beast

 * It doesn't need to imply anything; Conduits having a genetic marker of some kind is something that's outright stated several times in the sequel. Kuo tells Cole that she and John were logical choices to infiltrate the First Sons because they have the Conduit Gene. Wolfe tells them both that having the Conduit Gene made them desirable to the First Sons when he warns them not to push their luck and blow their cover. The Beast can save one woman in the plague ward because the Conduit Gene makes her different. Just because we have a good understanding of genetics in reality doesn't mean Conduits don't work in some unfathomable way that prevents prediction of their powers; it is fiction, after all.
 * We already know that whether a person develops a power or not depends on them having the conduit gene. This conversation was about whether or not a Conduits' genetics determines which power they get.
 * It doesn't need to imply anything; Conduits having a genetic marker of some kind is something that's outright stated several times in the sequel. Kuo tells Cole that she and John were logical choices to infiltrate the First Sons because they have the Conduit Gene. Wolfe tells them both that having the Conduit Gene made them desirable to the First Sons when he warns them not to push their luck and blow their cover. The Beast can save one woman in the plague ward because the Conduit Gene makes her different. Just because we have a good understanding of genetics in reality doesn't mean Conduits don't work in some unfathomable way that prevents prediction of their powers; it is fiction, after all.
 * We already know that whether a person develops a power or not depends on them having the conduit gene. This conversation was about whether or not a Conduits' genetics determines which power they get.
 * It doesn't need to imply anything; Conduits having a genetic marker of some kind is something that's outright stated several times in the sequel. Kuo tells Cole that she and John were logical choices to infiltrate the First Sons because they have the Conduit Gene. Wolfe tells them both that having the Conduit Gene made them desirable to the First Sons when he warns them not to push their luck and blow their cover. The Beast can save one woman in the plague ward because the Conduit Gene makes her different. Just because we have a good understanding of genetics in reality doesn't mean Conduits don't work in some unfathomable way that prevents prediction of their powers; it is fiction, after all.
 * We already know that whether a person develops a power or not depends on them having the conduit gene. This conversation was about whether or not a Conduits' genetics determines which power they get.
 * We already know that whether a person develops a power or not depends on them having the conduit gene. This conversation was about whether or not a Conduits' genetics determines which power they get.

Kuo is a Death Seeker.
Has been this ever since she got her powers. She does a Face Heel Turn for this to succeed.
 * Jossed.

If there's ever a third game, it'll be about Kessler and his timeline
Since the good and bad karma ending for In Famous 2 are irreconcilably different, they can't really follow on Cole's story. If Sucker Punch end up doing a third game, it'll follow how Kessler got his powers, whatever challenges he had to face and possibly some time-travel dickery at some point.

If there is a third game it will star a new conduit and radiation powers
This new conduit will have a life that is in reflection of Cole's but different. He will have had his powers since childhood and has been on the run believing people will see him as a freak until in one city the 'shiola hits the fan' and he has to fight in order to protect people. Zeke will be in that city, as The Obi-Wan, and explain to the new hero about the history of conduits and the sacrifice of a saint. This inspires the new conduit to be a hero.

The third game will star a new conduit and involve time travel
Going with the above WMG the new conduit will travel back in time to stop the ray sphere blast or for extremity, the new conduit will absorb all the ray sphere radiation like the RFI would but without the negetive consequences. Bonus Points if the process weakens the Beast to more managable levels (like taking away his Conduit Awakening Power). But this also kills the new conduit but leaves things open for Cole to star in the fourth game.

inFamous 3 would be about Cole's brother.
At some point, Cole talks to Nix about him. So after he has heard the, his brother eventually gets the Ray Sphere and plans to use it to find a way on resurrecting him.
 * That would have to have some rather convoluted justifications considering there is no more Ray Sphere, the people who made it are dead, their research is gone, and there are no more conduits to use it on anyway. Assuming Cole's brother isn't a conduit himself, in which case, he's already dead too.

inFamous 3 will be Cole vs. Cole.
Ok, so stay with me on this. Given the possibility of time travel, a new conduit from In Famous 2's infamous ending could snatch up Cole from the Hero ending, sparking a war between the two Coles!

Kessler was NOT in the center of the Ray Sphere explosion.
Kessler himself was the one who orchestrated that Cole be in the center of the Ray Sphere explosion at the start of the first game, so unless it gets confirmed that the game happens on a Stable Time Loop, Kessler himself was not in the center of the explosion. In the second game, Nix reveals that she got her powers from the Ray Sphere explosion that empowered, so a Ray Sphere can empower more than one person, although the person in the middle gets the lion's share of the transformation. Kessler, unlike Cole, was probably a bystander instead of right in the middle of the Ray Sphere debacle, thus he was able to live a more normal life than Cole(who, being right in the middle of the explosion, was forced into a more active role in the situation). Kessler is atoning for the fact he was not more proactive towards the situation. Also, the difference in how they were empowered can also explain how Cole and Kessler's powers differ: different circumstances in their empowering led to different powers.
 * Huh? Kessler would have to already have had powers before going back in time in the first place.

Certain conduit powers are sex-linked.
Female conduits develop abilities that can alter the way matter works in their environment such as flight and teleportation. Male conduits develope abilities that improve upon themselves such as enhanced strength, stamina, speed, and endurance.
 * While the idea of gender-based powers isn't specifically out the window; all of the given examples except flight have appeared in both men and women. Kessler and Nix could teleport, they all seem to have increased strength, endurance, etc.

The Corrupted are Tyranids.
The less humanoid Corrupted (Ravager, Devourer, Behemoth) look almost too much like certain species of Tyranids to be a coincidence. My Warhammer 40k obsessed friend pointed it out to me and we both agree that Sucker Punch was probably reading some Wh40k while designing the Corrupted.

The Beast is James Heller.
I know Alex is one of the candidates of the Beast's identity. However, according to Heller's actions, he could be worse than him and with his He Who Fights Monsters status, he'll becoming the rampaging monster as Kessler described.

Cole is The Terminator.
Have you seen how Cole rarely expresses emotion? It could be suspecting if a cyborg is taken his identity to learn about the Beast in the future. I think that, the Terminator has created a dead body of in order to escape at the right time.

Kuo and Nix are just pretending to be rivals in order to prevent Bertrand from using them to divide between Cole and his allies.
Well, they're antagonistic to each other, yes, because that's what fire and ice characters are known for, but nevertheless, they cooperate in stopping the Beast. At least they have caring moments like that time when Nix and Kuo takes pity on her for that.
 * Quite thouroughly Jossed by the endings.

Cole is a comic book reader.
No wonder why all the cutscenes are comics.

In Famous is a reconstruction of superhero video games.
Remember Cole has a Karma Meter deciding to do good and evil? Well, despite the fact that he can be evil depending on his choices, the good choices will always be canon, not the evil ones.

The entire game is a comic book created by Zeke.

 * I don't know about the main game, but the Festival of Blood DLC has been confirmed to be a story Zeke is telling a girl he's trying to impress.

inFAMOUS 3 will have Cole as the villain and take place in a rebuilt Empire City.
Taking into account that the Conduit gene was naturally occurring, it's not a stretch that it could continue coming forth even after the canon 'Good' ending of inFAMOUS 2. inFAMOUS 3 will reveal that the 'Evil' powers of a conduit are the true potential of those powers, that the Conduit Gene is, in itself, EVIL. However, the use of these abilities for good purposes augments them to the user's will. We discover that Cole, who is entombed in New Empire City, comes back to life as an empty shell controlled purely by his Conduit powers, which have a sentience of their own. The new hero will be of the new generation of Conduit users, with the ability to control earth and plants, hence giving him an edge over Cole's electrical powers.

Zeke is related to the Coopers
Why else would he have the Thievius Racoonus in inFamous 2? He could be from that world's version of the Cooper clan.
 * Cole's backpack has the Cooper emblem on it. Either they're both in the gang, or the Sly Cooper series exists as games in that universe as well; in which case, Zeke would've been reading the manual for any of the three games.

There wont be an inFAMOUS 3
Sucker Punch is hopefully smart enough to not ruin a perfectly tied up story with an unnecessary and forced third installment for no other reason then to milk the series. The story is done: the first game lead into the second, and the second wrapped things up perfectly. Lets hope they leave it at that.