History Characters / TheBindingOfIsaacAntibirth

* KnifeNut: One of its attacks has it pulling out and throwing a gigantic knife.

* AllYourPowersCombined: Reap Creep combines the abilities of all three varieties of Wall Creep in the vanilla game and turns them UpToEleven.

A list of characters who appear in ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaacAntibirth''.
Character introduced in ''Rebirth'' and the orignal Vanilla game go on [[Characters/TheBindingOfIsaac its own page]].

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Played with. Jacob looks like normal person while Esau has dark red skin, but both have the same hair style.

* SupernaturalFearInducer: They're surrounded in a purple aura that inflicts Fear, although it works differently than normal Fear, prevent Isaac from shooting rather than making him run away.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Rocks, TNT, buckets, ''poop''... if it's an obstacle that can be picked up, Polties will use it as a weapon.

* BodyHorror: The way Mom's body parts move throughout the fight (such as both eyes appearing on opposite sides of the room while she tries to stomp on you) suggest an ability to contort herself in rather...impossible ways.

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Crushed by her own bible!]]

* AllThereInTheManual: The maggot fought in the second phase is named "Gus" according to the Antibirth devs.

* BodyHorror: ''Oh yes''. Not only is it a decayed version of a boss that's already pretty far in Body Horror territory, but when its head detaches, it exposes two more skulls where its shoulders would be.

* FemaleMonsterSurprise: ''Repentance'' reveals her to not only be female, but a grotesque, undead form of Mom.

* EnthrallingSiren: Her singing can lure your familiars over to her side.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Final Boss]]

!Plot-relevant characters

[[folder:Isaac]]
!!Isaac
[[quoteright:248:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/isaacopening.png]]
A little boy who flees into the basement of his house to escape from a mother who wants to kill him, and must fight for his life against a never-ending assortment of demons and mutants. Beating the game in certain ways or collecting certain items unlocks variations of Isaac with their own unique attributes.
%%If you don't agree, please take it to the discussion page. It's pretty clear once you beat the game the first time that Isaac is just wearing accessories. WordOfGod also confirmed this is true.

For tropes related to Isaac and his alter-egos in gameplay, scroll down to the section on player characters. For tropes related to Isaac as the boss enemy of the Cathedral, scroll down to the section on major bosses.

* BreakTheCutie: The entire premise of the game is one for him.
* ChildrenForcedToKill: Isaac has to fight and kill plenty of enemies just to survive, up to and including his own religiously psychotic mother. [[spoiler:Or so it seems]].
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Well, antagonist. Isaac would never have been forced to kill his own mother if she hadn't snapped and tried to sacrifice him in the first place. [[spoiler:This gains some ''very'' interesting implications at the true ending of ''Rebirth'', where it's revealed that Isaac becomes a demon or the AntiChrist inside the Chest. Did Isaac have darkness inside him all along, or did he [[ThenLetMeBeEvil decide to become evil]] after all the horror that he went through?]]
* {{Crossdresser}}: A few between-level cutscenes show him wearing a dress or a wig, not to mention the fact that all female "player characters" are him crossdressing.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: The horrible memories of things that Isaac suffered through are relived in level loading screens. In one ending, the photograph montage of Isaac's past leaves a lot of interpretation as to what happened to his family, namely what happened to his father (who likely left, went missing, or died).
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:After beating It Lives for the tenth time and unlocking Ending 10, Isaac comes across his corpse stuffed into a chest. At least one interpretation of this involves Isaac having been dead the whole time. The next three endings explore the events leading up to his death in reverse chronological order, first showing him willingly [[DrivenToSuicide locking himself in the chest]], then showing his self-loathing which led to this, and finally showing his [[DarkAndTroubledPast tragic backstory]] through a heartbreaking PhotoMontage. After beating Hush in ''Afterbirth'', if you end your run there, not going on to Cathedral or Sheol, you get Ending 17, which outright confirms it, as Mom opens the Chest to find Isaac's skeletal remains.]]
** Ending 20, the true ending to the game, reveals that [[spoiler:he has long since been DrivenToSuicide and that none of the game is even happening]].
* DrivenToSuicide: Isaac hangs himself upon finding Transcendence (a noose) in Ending 2. [[spoiler:This is PlayedForDrama in the final few endings: After we see that Isaac has been DeadAllAlong in the tenth ending, we are shown him willingly entering the chest himself in Endings 12 and 13, and the twentieth ending reveals that it was due to his self-loathing as he sees himself as a demon after his family breaks apart.]]
* DyingDream: [[spoiler:Ending 20 reveals that the whole game is this, including the thought of his mother attempting to kill him.]]
* EnemyWithout: [[spoiler:There are four variations of Isaac that serve as bosses: It Lives, the boss of Womb II confirmed to be Isaac as an embryo; normal Issac, the boss of Cathedral; Hush, the boss of the Blue Womb and a suffocating version of Isaac; and finally ???, boss of the Chest and Isaac after suffocating to death.]]
* FullFrontalAssault: Unless an item is picked up, Isaac is battling the monsters of the basement stark naked.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Many of the level intermission vignettes have Isaac getting picked on by kids, being dressed in drag, getting shit as a birthday gift, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking realizing he has no toilet paper while he's on the toilet]], and the list goes on. And that's not even speaking of some of the items -- the Wooden Spoon gives you scars, implying Isaac was ''beaten'' with it by his mom, the Belt is [[DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff self-explanatory]], and many of the food items [[IAteWhat aren't exactly fit for human consumption]].
* ItsAllMyFault: The ending you get for beating the Chest seems to imply that [[spoiler:the cause of Isaac's self-loathing is because he blames himself for his father leaving. His mother seems to blame him as well]]. Ending 20 eventually reveals that [[spoiler:he does blame himself, and this is what ultimately causes him to be DrivenToSuicide]].
* KindheartedCatLover: Whenever the player gets a GameOver, Isaac usually states in the diary that he will give what he collected to his pet cat, Guppy.
* MadnessMantra: [[spoiler:BAD BAD BAD BAD I'M THE DEVIL...]]
* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Isaac is slowly going insane the longer he is in the chest, as shown by the final level and boss being amalgams of previous levels and bosses.]]
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: [[spoiler:It is strongly implied that at the ending of ''Rebirth'', Isaac becomes a demon or TheAntichrist in order to deal with all the horror he went through, up to and including his mother.]]
* TroubledFetalPosition: Isaac's signature pose, which all but cements the kid as TheWoobie.
* WalkingSpoiler: Due to the endings revealing more and more of what is actually going on between him and his family, it's only a given.

[[folder:Mom]]
!!Mom
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/momopening.png]]
->Debut: ''The Binding of Isaac''

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Isaac's mother.]] A devoutly religious woman who, in a fit of rage/insanity/fanaticism/[[WildMassGuessing whatever you think it is]], she tries to kill Isaac, forcing him to flee to the basement.

For tropes relating to Mom as a boss enemy, scroll down to the section on major bosses.

* {{Abusive Parent|s}}: Takes away all her son's stuff, locks him in his room, and then tries to ''kill him''. Convinced by God to do so or not, that's all the evidence you need. Due to the true ending revealing that [[spoiler:Turns out to be a possible subversion, depending on whether you see the between-level cutscenes are canon or not.]]
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:It's revealed that Isaac suffocated to death while inside the chest. She wanted Isaac to die because of an [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness (alleged)]] order from God, do the math. However, subsequent endings reveal that Isaac locked ''himself'' in the Chest ''before'' the events of the game, and ''Afterbirth+'' reveals that she was never intending to kill him, and that Isaac saw himself as a demon and the cause of his family breaking apart, making this a cruel subversion]]
* BigBad: [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted.]]
* TheExtremistWasRight: She's a religious fanatic that appears to think that she's on a mission from God, which is clearly not the case. [[spoiler:At least until the canonical end of ''Rebirth'', strongly implying that Isaac either was or now is a demon. If you subscribe to the "just batshit insane" theory, then she's RightForTheWrongReasons.]]
* TheFundamentalist: She's heavily Christian, and her hearing the voice of God is what kicks off the plot.
* HiddenDepths:
** [[spoiler:Ending 13 [[note]]14 in ''Rebirth''[[/note]] reveals that she used to be completely sane, and the caring and loving mother of a fully-functional family. However, as the family fell apart, so did her sanity.]]
** [[spoiler:Endings 15 and 17 suggest that in the end, she might be at least ''somewhat'' concerned about her son's well-being.]]
* KnifeNut: She's holding her knife in almost every cutscene she appears in, and you can unlock said knife as a usable weapon in-game.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Is she really hearing the voice of God, or is she just batshit crazy? The best we get from [=McMillen=] is him [[https://upvoted.com/2015/10/03/edmund-mcmillen-binding-of-isaac-profile/ stating]]:
--> “It was never implied that [Mom's] insane. And if you’re going by the Bible and you believe all the stories, [[BeliefMakesYouStupid then why wouldn’t you think that it’s possible now for that stuff to happen?]]”
* NoNameGiven: Unlike Isaac, even her first name is unknown.
* OffingTheOffspring: Her ultimate goal.
* OneBadMother: Bonus points for actually being the main character's mother.

[[/folder]]

!Antibirth New Playable Characters

[[folder:Bethany]]
[[quoteright:162:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bethany_app_0.png]]
->Debut: ''Antibirth''
Named after the village that was home to Lazarus, Bethany is unlocked by having any combination of 12 soul, black, or immortal hearts during a run. She starts with the Book Of Virtues, which summons Wisp familiars that shoot alongside her and block shots, but can be destroyed. Uniquely, she cannot use soul, black, or immortal hearts, instead adding them to a consumable counter when picked up. She can spend these hearts to use her active item if it isn't charged.
----
* AerithAndBob: The only playable character with a name taken from a town instead of a character.
* GirlishPigtails: She sports a pair tied up with blue ribbons.
* MagikarpPower: Bethany's inability to pick up soul hearts means that one would have less health over all, and needs to avoid taking damage ''period'' to have a good chance at getting an Angel/Devil room for the floor, to say nothing of the fancy dodging required to build up flames with Book of Virtues. However, the soul hearts function to get much more use out of her starting item, and with enough cleared rooms and/or soul hearts picked up, she could have a huge multi-layered tornado of flames that ''each'' fires a spectral shot on its own.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: As stated above, Bethany uses heart pick-ups to increase the counter to recharge space bar items. This lets her use space bar items more often at the cost of being more dependent on health increasing items and pick-ups. Any item that remove all of her hearts will kill her; for example Abaddon remove all of her red hearts and add the Black Hearts to the counter.
* NonstandardCharacterDesign: Bethany is the only playable character with a pair of eyelashes.
* SecretArt: Bethany is the only character capable of spawning white and black flames with Book of Virtues, by consuming Immortal and black hearts from her counter. Black flames can inflict fear with their shots, while white flames can regenerate themselves and other flames and their shots can block enemy tears.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jacob & Esau]]
[[quoteright:111:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jacob_app.png]]
[[caption-width-right:111:Jacob]]
[[quoteright:111:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/esau_app.png]]
[[caption-width-right:111:Esau]]
->Debut: ''Antibirth''
A pair of brothers that are unlocked by defeating The Witness for the first time. Both brothers are controlled simultaneously, but they have separate items, trinkets, and health bars with Jacob having more health and Esau having more damage. If Jacob or Esau dies, the run is over. They are named after the twin sons of Isaac.
----

* ByTheLightOfTheirEyes: They still have visible eyes in Curse of Darkness or the blackout rooms in the Mines.

* KingMook: Of various flies, most notably the bloat flies.
* [[MascotMook Mascot Monster]]: Baby Plum is the mascot of the mod. Ironically, it is the only new boss that does not appear on any ''Antibirth'' floor[[note]]Reap Creep can show up in the Mines, and the Pile can show up in the Mausoleum[[/note]].

* KingMook: Of the creeps.

* UndergroundMonkey: It's more or less an underwater Pin with [[TookALevelInBadass five additional levels in badass]].

* UndergroundMonkey: Stone-encrusted versions of Larry Jr.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: [[spoiler: Bonus as an EasterEgg, in the codes, the crawlspace under him is called: "Gideon's Grave". A nod to the Scott Pilgrim comic book series.]]

* EasterEgg: Throwing a Chaos Card at him will instantly kill him,as well as [[spoiler:open a hidden crawl space that holds several items and chests]].

* NighInvulnerable: Like the [[InvincibleMinorMinion enemies]] he's based on, Great Gideon is immune to everything that's not a Chaos Card, and defeating the other enemies in the room causes him to shut down.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Depleting Hornfel's health destroys his minecart, at which point Hornfel will run for the nearest door. This makes Hornfel the only boss that can be defeated non-lethally, but you do get a chance at a bomb-based item if you kill him before he escapes.
* ShoutOut: The Brimstone bombs he uses are visually based on the grenades launched by the Iron Bomber, an unlockable weapon in VideoGame/TeamFortress2 which was originally designed and submitted to the Steam Workshop by Kilburn (one of the mod's creators).

* UndergroundMonkey: The version of Mom you encounter in the Mausoleum.

* UndergroundMonkey: Mom's Heart with different monster spawns and attack patterns. As such, most of the same tropes as Mom's Heart apply here.

* BackFromTheDead: Its third phase is effectively a decaying Mom's Heart.

* SequentialBoss: Has three separate phases.

[[folder: The Final Boss]]

[[folder:Jacob and Esau]]

A pair of brothers that debuted in ''Antibirth'' and have to unlocked to play as them. Both brothers are controlled simultaneously, but they have separate items, trinkets, and health bars with Jacob having more health but Esau having more damage at the start. If Jacob or Esau dies, the run is over. They are named after the twin sons of Isaac.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Played with. Jacob looks like normal person while Esau has dark red skin but both have the same hair style.

* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: The player now has to watch for two characters while making sure they both get stat boosts and learning how their item buttons work.
* SingleMindedTwins: Downplayed. Despite both brothers moving in unison both can/have to use separate items, and they can be controlled separately.

[[folder:Bethany]]

->Debut: ''Antibirth''
Also known as "Beth", she's an unlockable character in ''Antibirth'' by having any combination of 12 soul, black, or immortal hearts during a run with any character. She starts with the Book Of Virtues after defeating Isaac in The Cathedral and can summon a familiar to aid in combat and block tears. She also adds Soul Hearts, Black Hearts, and immortal hearts that she picks to a counter instead of her health bar. While this leaves her with less health the counter can be used as charge for the Book Of Virtues or other activated collectibles. Each heart picked up increases the counter by 2. She has a chance of dropping a Soul Heart on room clear, separate from the regular room clear drop. Bethany is named after the village of Bethany, the home of Lazarus.
----
* AerithAndBob: The only playable character with a name taken from a town instead of a character.
* GirlishPigtails: She sports a pair tied up with blue ribbons.
* MagikarpPower: Bethany's inability to pick up soul hearts means that one would have less health over all, and needs to avoid taking damage ''period'' to have a good chance at getting an Angel/Devil room for the floor, to say nothing of the fancy dodging required to build up flames with Book of Virtues. However, the soul hearts function to get much more use out of her starting item, and with enough cleared rooms and/or soul hearts picked up, she could have a huge multi-layered tornado of flames that ''each'' fires a spectral shot on its own.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: As stated above, Bethany uses heart pick-ups to increase the counter to recharge space bar items. This lets her use space bar items more often at the cost of being more dependent on health increasing items and pick-ups. Any item that remove all of her hearts will kill her; for example Abaddon remove all of her red hearts and add the Black Hearts to the counter.
* NonstandardCharacterDesign: Bethany is the only playable character with a pair of eyelashes.
* SecretArt: Bethany is the only character capable of spawning white and black flames with Book of Virtues, by consuming Immortal and black hearts from her counter. Black flames can inflict fear with their shots, while white flames can regenerate themselves and other flames and their shots can block enemy tears.

[[/folder]]

!The Pile
[[quoteright:192:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boss_the_pile.png]]
* BackFromTheDead: It's an undead version of Polycephalus and The Stain.
* BallisticBone: It can launch sprays of bone projectiles.
* DemBones: A fully skeletal version of Polycephalus.
* GetBackHereBoss: Like always, it pops up to attack and pulls away to hide.

* EasterEgg: Using Remote Denotator will instantly detonate all Fly Bombs in the room.

!!Fly Bomb/Willo
* ActionBomb: Fly Bombs are literally just bombs with wings.

!!Blurb/Tidal Gaper/Wraith

* InvisibleMonsters: Wraiths are permanently invisible, but (somehow) still leave reflections that can be used to track them. They're also revealed by the periodic flashes of lightning in the Downpour.

!!Strifer/Rotten Gaper/Twitchy
* CompositeCharacter: Twitchy alternates between acting like a Gaper and acting like a Trite.

* UndergroundMonkey: Several variants on the basic Fatty enemy.

* UndergroundMonkey: Advanced varieties of Globins.

!!Candler/Nightwatch

!!Polty
* ArtificialBrilliance: Polties tend to make a beeline for any explosives in the room to try and get in as much damage on you as possible. And if you're expecting them to crack open a Tinted Rock for you, forget about it; the Polty will throw everything else in the room, then grab the Tinted Rock and run away with it.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Rocks, TNT, buckets, ''poop''... if it's an obstacle that can be picked up, they'll use it as a weapon.
* {{Poltergeist}}: If the name didn't make it obvious, they're ghosts that pick things up and throw them at you.

!!Mole

* FrickinLaserBeams: In his second phase, he'll fire Brimstone downwards as he strafes along the top of the screen.

!!Strider/Rock Spider/Tinted Rock Spider/Coal Spider
* PinataEnemy: Like regular Tinted Rocks, Tinted Rock Spiders drop Soul Hearts on death. They tend to spawn when you bomb Tinted Rocks in the Mines.

[[folder: The Witness]]

!New Playable Characters

[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Witness]]

[[folder:The Final Boss]]

Character introduced in ''Rebirth'' go on [[Characters/TheBindingOfIsaacRebirth its own page]].

Character introduced in ''Rebirth'' go on [[Characters/TheBindingOfIsaacRebirth their own pages]].

A list of characters who appear in ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaacAntibirth''. Currently under construction, please contribute!

* SupportPartyMember: They can only protect other enemies, and have no offensive abilities.

* EnemySummoner: Both of them attack by summoning other enemies until killed.

* {{Leitmotif}}: ''Matricide'', as with normal Mom. [[spoiler:Mom's Heart, on the other hand, gets a new one in ''Gloria Filio''.]]

* BulletHell: As expected of a ''Binding of Isaac'' endboss, but The Witness takes this to a whole new level.

* AsteroidsMonster: Killing a Loose Knight causes it to split into an Empty Knight and a Pon.