History Fridge / TheBindingOfIsaac

* Let's talk about ''Repentance'''s GoldenEnding. Every installment since ''Rebirth'' has had what seemed at the time to be a TrueFinalBoss. ''Rebirth'' with Mega Satan, ''Afterbirth'' with Hush, and ''Afterbirth+'' with Delirium. What do all three of these bosses have in common? [[VoodooShark The endings you get for defeating them raise more questions than they answer]]. But what else do they have in common? Getting to fight them at all is largely dependent on luck. For Mega Satan, you have to encounter two Angel Rooms in a single run, which, before the Angel/Devil Room formula was reworked, was easier said than done. For Hush, you need a strong enough build to make it all the way to Mom's Heart/It Lives in 30 minutes or less. And for Delirium, you can either defeat Hush, or hope the portal randomly appears early. For the Beast, however, all you need to do is make it to Depths II with either a Fool card or a single bomb. And upon defeating the Beast, you are treated to an unambiguous and positive conclusion to the story. The Beast's route lacks the uncertainty of previous "final" ending routes, both in gameplay and in the narrative.

* Why is Tainted Jacob's Birthright effect affect Dark Esau instead of him, creating [[FromBadToWorse another Dark Esau]]? Because it's not his, it's Esau's, and stealing it caused the whole mess in the first place. Why would he ever think [[TooDumbToLive doing it again would make his situation better]]?

*** Pride's other main attack is diagonal lightning beams, which you won't be in any danger from if you're attacking him optimally — but if you ''do'' get forced out of position for some reason (whether due to troll bombs appearing in your face, not being able to keep up with Pride's movements, your own items backfiring, or something else), you can get hit by the lightning without being able to retaliate (unless you have an item that defies the usual DenialOfDiagonalAttack you're typically stuck with). Pride's only two attacks are randomly-spawned troll bombs and diagonal lightning beams, so either he has you scrambling around and struggling to fight back or you beat the crap out of him without him getting anywhere close to getting single hit in. It must take a lot of confidence to use an attack strategy where [[DeathOrGloryAttack you either crush your enemy or get crushed yourself]].

* Lust's only attack is chasing after you, why not? Lustful people tend to '''chase''' others.

*** Gets even more layers in terms of the ''Repentance'' DLC. It can be argued that they represent not just Isaac's relationship to his material desires, but specifically the part of Isaac that he overheard his Mom saying he got from his father; An addictive personality that got hooked on games of chance. Be it a literal slot machine, or the thrill of a shiny new product in a store you don't know anything about. Most of Isaac's associated items being dice makes a more twisted amount of sense than ever with that in mind.

* Why is Delirium immune to the [[OneHitKill Chaos Card?]] Because it already represents chaos itself, mainly Isaac's mind breaking down.

** Related to the ''Four Souls'' card game; Why is Delirium's main gimmick as a boss that it will keep coming back every four monster cards when killed? Because until you manage to get it out of the deck, it's not actually dying; It's shapeshifting into other forms.

*** Pride's other main attack is diagonal lightning beams, which you won't be in any danger from if you're attacking him optimally. It must take a lot of confidence to use an attack strategy where [[DeathOrGloryAttack you either crush your enemy or get crushed yourself]].

* Many of the Keeper's unlocks either benefit only himself or are just straight-up not very good. Then again, he is pretty much a playable Greed, and given Greed's tendency to be, well, a greedy jerk...

** Similarly, Pride ends up using troll bombs a lot while also being resistant, if not immune, to their explosions. No wonder he's prideful, he can't be hurt by his own splash damage, so he uses it liberally.
* Envy, while being one of the easiest mini-bosses to manage due to only being able to float around in more predictable patterns, also drops very little worthwhile, often dropping Troll Bombs. Of course he'd be envious, you have tons of things he doesn't.

** Another Fridge Brilliance moment comes in the addition of Samson, a man who was given incredible strength by God, and used it to great effect. It seems he's finally snapped out of his depression. The Wrath of the Lamb update in general showed that God has finally stepped into the ring to try and help Isaac escape.

* Why does Ultra Death have such a different theme from the others? For Famine, Pestilance, War, and The Beast, Issac is facing down monsters like always. For Death though, he's facing down Death outside of his fantasy as well, being locked in the toy chest and all.

** The Ankh item resurrects Issac as ??? if he dies. One ending has him dragged into the chest by Mom. You work it out.
* To anyone who gives Isaac cancer (a trinket, boosts tear rate) and decides not to swap it out when another trinket spawns: You gave a child cancer and neglected to cure it. You monster! This is all the more tempting, given how useful a more tearful Issac is.

* Why is Tainted Jacob's Birthright effect [[PowerupLetdown so bad]], creating [[FromBadToWorse another Dark Esau]]? Because it's not his, it's Esau's, so of course it'll help Esau instead of him!

*** And even that ties in to making the game less fun. It's well known that devil deals are the easy way to victory, and thus even they take away some fun because of their reliability.

** Similarly, The Beast being immune to the Chaos Card could play into its existence as the BeastOfTheApocalypse. As it represents the chaos that would ensue by bringing about the end, it would naturally be impervious to such a card.

** It's also (more likely) that the Lamb represents the one that was sacrificed instead of Isaac back in the Bible. So it's fitting that it's the dark-side counterpart of Blue Baby, who is Isaac's dead body.

* I recently realized why Ultra Death has such a different theme from the others. For Famine, Pestilance, War, and The Beast, Issac is facing down monsters like always. For Death though, he's facing down Death outside of his fantasy as well, being locked in the toy chest and all. (My first fridge entry, sorry if its bad)

* With ''Repentance''[='=]s ending, Isaac doesn't delve deeper into his self-hatred and dark thoughts. Instead, he returns from his imaginary world to face reality. He defeats his interpretation of his mother's hatred, and is normally is forced to continue downwards into his imagination. On the floor, though, there is a guaranteed card drop of The Fool Card: "Where Journey Begins". Using this to break out of the path before him, he uses the Polaroid and Negative to face the reality of his life, and ascends from his imagination back to the real world, where the voices of his mom and dad echo. Isaac comes to terms with how he isn't evil, and isn't the cause of his parents' hardships — he forgives himself. Isaac has [[TitleDrop repented.]] He returns to reality in [[WhereItAllBegan Home]], where he confronts the source of the problems — Dogma. The religious broadcasts and crazed televangelist teachings that radicalized his mother and caused his father to leave, and the source of Isaac's hatred of himself and fear of religion. The root cause to the entire story.
* Why can the Corpse only be accessed by using the Knife Pieces to kill Mom's Heart early? Well, let's think. On this path, Isaac puts together a weapon that ends up drawing Mom's ire, enough to make her try and kill him when he gets the second piece. And when he has the chance, he goes straight for the heart before she's able to get away. This could imply on the normal path, she has time to put her heart in a secure place in the Womb/Utero/Scarred Womb while Isaac needs to fight through multiple enemies and rooms first. But in Mausoleum/Gehenna, she has no such opportunity. Therefore, killing her heart early leads him to her Corpse, because he effectively [[CuttingTheKnot stopped her from escaping after the first defeat]]. No wonder it makes her go ballistic in the Mines/Ashpit, and why she has different moves in Mausoleum/Gehenna — she has an OhCrap moment and realizes he has something other than his tears to definitely destroy her, so she changes up in a desperate attempt to stop him. Hell, maybe the entire reason he goes on the alt path is because instead of just trying to survive, he genuinely wants to fight back against her and deliberately seeks out something to put him on even footing with her. Of course, this all relies on the symbolism of the Knife Pieces...

** Although, as it is likely that the Mulligans, along with all the other enemies, are actually Isaac, then killing him would be the only way to truly commit suicide and end their existence... The non-bomb varieties tend to run away from Isaac as well -- like they don't like him much like themselves.
* The corpse that's in both the shop and hidden rooms has an uncanny resemblance to Greed. At first, seemingly a coincidence. Then the fact that Greed only attacks in these rooms implies that for whatever reason, Greed is playing dead on the occasions he doesn't attack...
** Also FridgeBrilliance because his name is Greed, and when he sells you things, he...you know...takes your money.

* Items and their effects tend to get this way if you think about them. For instance, the "Wooden Spoon" or "Belt" items makes Isaac faster... because he's running from being spanked! "Squeezy" may have been one of Isaac's favorite toys, so it makes him cry more as he holds it and remembers the good times in life (which is why he also gets two soul hearts). This also means when you get a pill that decreases tear damage/speed/range, you've actually made Isaac take something that makes him feel better, so he's crying less... even though this is portrayed as a negative thing.

* There is a "Max's Head" item that makes Isaac's tears bigger and more powerful... There's also a "Lunch" item that is a dog bowl with the name "Max" on it... no wonder Isaac's tears get stronger because of "Max's Head"... it was his pet dog!

* The familiars have names like Sister Maggie, Brother Bobby, and the like. Either Mom had multiple miscarriages/abortions, or this isn't the first time "God" demanded a sacrifice...
** Many of the "Humanoid" monsters look like Isaac. Why are there so many of them? Unless "God" demands many a sacrifice...
* The Disc One final floor is the Womb, which is basically Isaac's mom's womb. It's not as bad as it sounds, until you realize what sorts of things Isaac's mother actually has in her womb, possibly including a tapeworm, a fallen angel, or the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification physical representation]] of death, depending on the RNG's benevolence.

** In the Rebirth remaster, the vocals for her shouts have been changed to sound more panicked than angry, supporting this theory.

* More like Fridge Sadness, but given that the final unlocked item of the game is Death Certificate, why should we assume the final ending — where it's said the whole game was a story — ''wasn't also in the afterlife?'' After all, Isaac goes to heaven in the end of his story...and what is heaven for Isaac? "Isaac lived with his parents in a house on a hill..."

* What kind of shopkeeper locks the store so that customers can't come in unless they have a key? Talk about being bad for business...

** The Haunt is a natural ghost that exists for the normal reasons. The Forsaken is that ghost being forced back into the moral world through ritual magic after being banished. Effectively it's not supposed to exist anymore and is suffering damage as a result.

* Why is Tainted Jacob's Birthright effect [[PowerupLetdown so bad]], creating [[FromBadToWorse another Dark Esau]]? Because it's not his, it's Esau's, so of course it'll help Esau instead of him!