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Isaac is the titular main protagonist of the The Binding of Isaac franchise and the overarching protagonist of its 2019 prequel The Legend of Bum-Bo.
He is the son of the game's main antagonist, his Christian mother. Appearing as the titular character, he is the most balanced one out of all of them in the game. Isaac is known for having a rather tough life with an alcoholic absentee father and a bigoted, mentally unstable mother. Isaac tends to be on his own, due to him being constantly bullied by other kids.
Biography[]
According to the introduction sequence, Isaac is a little kid who lived alone with his mother in a small house on a hill. One day, his mother, who regularly watched Christian shows on the television, heard a voice coming from above asking her to wash her son from all sin, so she took away everything she considered to be evil, namely his drawings, his toys and his clothes. When the voice came back and told her it wasn’t enough, she locked him in his own room. The voice came back one last time and asked her to sacrifice Isaac, to which the mother complied. She took a kitchen knife and headed for Isaac’s room. Isaac, who witnessed everything through a crack in his door, escaped through a trapdoor leading to his basement: this is where the game starts. Isaac then travels deeper into his basement, meeting his mother in the Depths and killing her in a fight. The epilogue narrates that as she was about to end Isaac’s life, Isaac’s mother was killed by a Bible dropping from above. However, it is revealed to only be a story by Isaac himself (as implied by the style of the sequence, which looks like a drawing) when the style changes to a more realistic one in which Isaac’s door bursts open as his mother barges in with a knife.
The style of the opening sequence and the epilogue makes us understand that these events are imagined by Isaac and that the truth is actually different. The various endings help us to find out Isaac’s hidden real story. Isaac was born to an alcoholic father and a mentally disturbed mother who would argue a lot, ending in verbally violent fights. Isaac would witness such fights or at least hear them from his room, and he grew to believe that he was the reason for his parents breaking apart. When his father finally decided to leave, Isaac’s mother's mind (already fragile because of the Christian dogma she was being fed through TV shows) was shattered and she became extremely abusive to him, beating him, calling him a demon and forcing him into his closet to punish him. At the same time, he was being bullied by other kids according to the sequences shown between each floor. Isaac only had his pet cat and best friend Guppy to cheer him up, until he died from unspecified causes. Unable to take the abuse anymore, Isaac locked himself in the big toy chest that was in his room and slowly died from asphyxia. The events from the game are a flashing recollection of Isaac’s memories and a game he and his father used to play called "The Legend of Bumbo." as he slowly loses his mind from the lack of oxygen, some bosses even referencing Isaac choking in his chest (E.g: Hush, Delirium and ???, also known as the Blue Baby).
After Isaac disappeared, his mother apparently looked for him for a long time since she hung missing person posters around the house. She ended up finding his skeleton in his chest. Meanwhile, Isaac was revived in a gray, gloomy landscape which he started to roam and which was confirmed by Edmund McMillen to be Purgatory.
Additionally, after defeating the final boss of the game, "The Beast", Isaac has his life flash before his eyes, before ascending to heaven and speaking to his father, who seemingly died sometime after leaving.
Appearance[]
Isaac is a humanoid character who looks quite like a baby. He is naked, has a round bald head that is bigger than his own body and big round black eyes that are constantly crying.
Each character from the game is one of Isaac's multiple personalities or dead versions of him. His appearance varies depending on the character.
- Magdalene has a curly blonde wig with a red bow.
- Cain has an eye-patch over his left eye, and a gold chain on his left foot.
- Judas has a red fez.
- ??? (or Blue Baby) is entirely blue with X eyes and a
- Eve has long black hair and dark black mascara.
- Samson has long brown hair and a red bandana.
- Azazel is entirely black with red eyes, wings and devil horns, with his right horn being snapped.
- Lazarus has ginger hair and freckles.
- Eden has an random entirely white hairstyle.
- The Lost is a pure white ghost.
- Lilith is entirely black with long red hair, small horns, and a blindfold. She also appears to be pregnant.
- The Keeper is a shrivelled corpse with a noose hanging from its neck.
- Apollyon is a grey statue with small horns, empty eyes, and small wings.
- The Forgotten is a skeleton, and The Soul is a pure blue ghost.
- Bethany has brown hair with pigtails.
- Jacob has curly brown hair.
- Esau has no skin, and curly beige hair.
Appearance (Tainted)[]
In The Binding of Isaac: Repentance, there are unlockable "tainted" versions of the cast. Each tainted character's appearance is different then their normal forms.
- Tainted Isaac appears beaten, with his right eye being a black eye. Blood seems to be coming out of his mouth.
- Tainted Magdalene's hair is darker and shaven off on the right side. Her bow is absent.
- Tainted Cain has a large wound where his eyepatch is.
- Tainted Judas is fully pitch black with red eyes. He has a red upside down cross on his forehead.
- Tainted ??? is fatter. He appears to have poop near his mouth.
- Tainted Eve has ruined mascara and longer hair.
- Tainted Samson's hair, excluding a large chunk, is completely shaved off.
- Tainted Azazel's left horn is broken and leaking blood. His wings are ripped off.
- Tainted Lazarus's hair is messier. He is covered in dirt.
- Tainted Eden has no differences from his original variant.
- Tainted Lost is gray and covered in cobwebs.
- Tainted Lillith's pregnancy is much more noticable. Her blindfold is absent, revealing empty eye sockets.
- Tainted Keeper has two golden coins on his eye holes and a $ on his forehead.
- Tainted Apollyon has an extra pair of horns and a red abyss on the left side of his head.
- Tainted Forgotten is a pile of bones, while Tainted Soul wears a dark blue hood.
- Tainted Bethany's hair is much messier. She appears to be crying blood, and has a pink third eye.
- Tainted Jacob's hair is pale and messy. He appears to be much sadder.
- Dark Esau is a black ghost with spiky red hair and glowing orange eyes.
Personality[]
At first glance, Isaac is a normal child who loves drawing and playing with his toys. He also had a lot of affection for his late cat Guppy. However, he seems to be emotionally unstable due to the abuse he is subjected to by other children as well as his mother, as shown by the short sequences that play between floors and evidence his trauma. As a result, he is said to be secluded.
Isaac has a strong imagination. It was implied several times and finally revealed in Ending 20 that he is imagining all the events of the game while he is choking to death in his chest. Isaac is desperate enough to put an end to his own life because he is convinced that he is the reason why his parents spent their whole time arguing. Because of his Christian mother's abuse toward him, he considers himself as a "devil" and a "bad" person. Isaac has a lot of dark thoughts, drawing pictures of his parents covered in blood and various pictures of demons. He might have been very close to his father before, as he seems to have been traumatized by his departure (probably also because it further ruined his mother's sanity).
The way Isaac's mother is portrayed throughout the game (i.e. as a monster) may be a projection of how Isaac actually sees her in real life, as evidenced by Ending 21 as well as the fight against The Beast who wears Isaac's mother's worn out clothes.
Isaac shows heavy signs of dissociative identity disorder. He often disguises as characters from the Bible, including demons, who make up most of the playable characters from the game. In Ending 22, his mother even calls him "self-destructive and disturbed, just like his father". He also seems to have a traumatic relation to bodily fluids, disease, excrements, insects and religion, all of them being recurring elements in the game, either items or enemies.
Abilities[]
Isaac tends to cry a lot, but he is able to turn his tears into actual damaging bullets in order to attack, enabling him to slay any monster that dares to cross his path. He can also use certain items to power up his abilities
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Isaac, like the game itself, is a reference to a story from the Bible known as the binding of Isaac. It is about how Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove his love and loyalty to him before being stopped when God acknowledged it.
- Isaac is left-handed but draws with his right hand, hinting at Christian people's controversial habit of repressing left-handedness.
- Isaac is bald because his mother shaved his head.
- Isaac has irritable bowel syndrome, IBS even being an item from the game.
- Isaac's last name, Moriah, is a reference to Mount Moriah, the place which Abraham takes his son to be sacrificed.
- Isaac's voiceover in Rebirth was done by Tallulah Bossi, Matthias Bossi (member of Ridiculon and voice of Dad/Narrator) and Carla Kihlstedt's (musician and voice of Mom) daughter. For Repentance, the voice was done by their son, Viggo Bossi.
- The name Isaac means "laughter." This is ironic, as Isaac is almost always depicted crying.
