History Trivia / TheBindingOfIsaac

** Edmund is referred to by more cynical fans as "Steakmund" quite frequently, referring to his [[CreatorBacklash furiously defiant stance]] on the datamined reveal of The Lost and the "No Fun Allowed" impression given to fans by so many [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks highly contested]] {{nerf}}s. "Steak" of course referring to Edmund's infamous reference to this mentality in the 2014 WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} [[https://youtu.be/UJVuLvGjPOc?t=8197 interview]].

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Chris-chan of ‘’Sonichu’’ infamy was actually one of the ‘’Four Souls’’ guest artists, but when news of her sexual assault against her mother came out, Edmund McMillen made a call to have the card she designed replaced.

* WordOfGod: For the longest time, it was believed that [[spoiler:Isaac used to have a sister who either left or died]], but WordOfGod has [[https://twitter.com/edmundmcmillen/status/1227014269612351488 confirmed it not to be the case]].

* {{Jossed}}: For the longest time, it was believed that [[spoiler:Isaac used to have a sister who either left or died]], but WordOfGod has [[https://twitter.com/edmundmcmillen/status/1227014269612351488 confirmed it not to be the case]].

* CreatorBacklash: Edmund was reportedly pretty disappointed at how [[spoiler:the Lost]] was discovered. Not because it was found quickly, but because people found it by datamining the game, rather than the community figuring out the cryptic hints in-game piece by piece. With the later ''Afterbirth'' expansion, Edmund countered this by ''patching in'' secret material when the community solved the puzzle: it wasn't even present in the game code until it was unlocked!

* ChristmasRushed: Despite the generally high quality of ''Repentance'', it's obvious that it wasn't quite finished in time for release. Almost all of the [[spoiler:Tainted characters]] unlock a least one functionless item, as does Lilith. Half of the characters have no effect for Birthright, an item that's supposed to do something different for everyone. There are a few items that make [[spoiler:The Beast]] nearly impossible due to wonky physics. [[spoiler:Tainted Lazarus]] is quite literally unfinished according to WordOfGod, and was released in an unplayably weak state. All of this was to avoid the DLC entering DevelopmentHell, since it was already pushed back several ''years'' by the time it came out. These things are being slowly fixed in patches.

* WorkingTitle: [[https://twitter.com/edmundmcmillen/status/781138197426221056 Two.]] First ''Love Sick'', then ''Mom''. ''The Binding of Isaac'' itself was thought of as a play on ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''.

*** According to [[https://www.reddit.com/r/bindingofisaac/comments/mhj2my/did_anyone_find_the_secret_secret_super_final/gt52785?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 this post]], Mother started as a joke by Reddit user [[https://www.reddit.com/user/varkarrus/ varkaruus]].

* [[UrbanLegendOfZelda/BindingOfIsaac Urban Legend Of Zelda]]
* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/BindingOfIsaac What Could Have Been]]

* UrbanLegendOfZelda:
** There are rumors floating around that beating the game five times with ??? unlocks Moses, who can turn enemies into money. No such character exists.
** A rumor around the time of Rebirth's release was that a giant, undead version of Gurdy called Ur-Gurdy would replace Satan as the final boss of Sheol on rare occasions. It had an entry on the Rebirth wiki and on the character page here, but since then it has been proven to be fake.
** It's a common misconception that using The Bible on [[spoiler:Satan, Isaac (the boss), or ???]] will [[PressXToDie kill you on the spot]]. While this ''is'' true in [[spoiler:Satan]]'s case, using The Bible on [[spoiler:Isaac or ???]] will have no effect beyond the usual "flight for one room".
** Spectacularly played with by both Edmund and the fanbase with ''Afterbirth''. Fans seemed to notice that several items in the game were missing, and the devs as well as certain game elements seemed to imply this was intentional, leading to a massive hunt for the expansion's ultimate secrets. Fans would come up with long sequences of events to perform in order to unlock new content, sometimes in seriousness and often in parody of this very trope.
** Players still sore from the [[NeverLiveItDown previous nerfs]] and annoyed by the new hazards and penalties introduced in ''Afterbirth+'', including how the game unlocks [[PowerUpLetdown half soul hearts]] if the player reloads a run several times, began talk of how a supposed "Forget Me Never" item would, of all things, erase the player's save file. But that would be too much, right?

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2cN4DkEQEE this]] Northernlion run, which is co-commentated by Edmund, he states that "There would be some new rare items that cost 20 coins" in the (Then upcoming) DLC (Wrath of the Lamb). Come the expansion (And beyond that into Rebirth and its own expansions), and the most costly item in the shop is still 15 coins. It took until ''Repentance'' that shop prices could go higher, but that was mainly in the form of Member Card shops and using Restock outside of Greed Mode.
** Edmund also mentioned that there would be a "new Lemon Mishap-like item, but better", though since no name was given, it's unknown if the item did make it in (Such as Holy Water) or not.
** Given that Edmund is a TeasingCreator, however, the above may have never been considered in the first place, and was said only as a tease.
** While Edmund claimed that the incomplete [[spoiler:Skinless Hush]] spritesheet in the game files were a RedHerring for dataminers, Tyrone instead confirms that it was intended for a second form of [[spoiler:Hush]] that was eventually scrapped, [[https://twitter.com/tyronerodriguez/status/1103856012816113666 releasing concept art of it on Twitter]].
** One of the very few elements of the released ''Antibirth'' that was not added to ''Repentance'' was Immortal Hearts, which functioned similarly to Soul Hearts with the ability to "regenerate" if half of one is depleted by the time a room is cleared.
** While all ''Antibirth'' bosses made it to ''Repentance'', Edmund considered cutting the Rainmaker for not fitting in as well with the rest of the game. He could not bring himself to do it.

** Gemini, Steven, and Little Horn are the names of both bosses and collectible items. Of them, only Steven (the item) is directly related to Steven (the boss), although the Gemini item does give you a familiar version of Suture.
** The bosses Little Horn and Brownie have the same names as bosses in [[VideoGame/MeatBoy Super Meat Boy]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2cN4DkEQEE this]] Northernlion run, which is co-commentated by Edmund, he states that "There would be some new rare items that cost 20 coins" in the (Then upcoming) DLC (Wrath of the Lamb). Come the expansion (And beyond that into Rebirth and its own expansions), and the most costly item in the shop is still 15 coins.

** In addition to [[spoiler:"The Witness"]], The Visage and Reap Creap are taken directly from [[https://www.reddit.com/r/bindingofisaac/comments/2trm97/versus_screen_mockups/ some of NotYourSagittarius's mock-ups]] prior to [[PromotedFanboy working on Afterbirth]].

** Within the mod itself, [[spoiler:the Ur-Gurdy, a fictitious boss that spawned an UrbanLegendOfZelda in ''Rebirth'', is added as "The Witness", the TrueFinalBoss of the Alternate Route. Funny enough thanks to ''Repentance'', what started as an UrbanLegendOfZelda ended up becoming official.]]

* AscendedFanon: The "Muliboom" name for the kamikaze ActionBomb variety of the Mulligan was a FanNickname for a while before being made official.

** An unknown enemy/boss for the upcoming Repentance DLC that was teased by Edmund on Website/{{Twitter}} is often referred to as ARG-Kun in the boi Discord.

** One trinket, the Liberty Cap, was glitched so that it sometimes gave the effect of the Compass item (which would reveal all special rooms on a floor) for a single room, rather than act as a random mushroom item. This effect carried over to ''Rebirth''.

* AscendedGlitch: As ''Afterbirth+''’s secret character, you can [[spoiler:spend the last of your health on a Devil Deal as The Soul, then switch to The Forgotten before you die. Although The Soul still dies, the run will continue and you are locked as The Forgotten until you get more soul hearts, at which point The Soul comes back.]] This was caught in playtesting, but [[ThrowItIn kept as it was felt "thematically appropriate"]].

** Fans often refer to the Forgotten as "Boner" when referring to the character's skeletal form.

* AscendedMeme: The [[{{Vaporware}} Rebirth is Cancelled]] joke that LetsPlay/{{Northernlion}} and his friends started can be one of the messages that you get from fortune tellers. A bit ironic, since NL discredited the meme because those who couldn't read the sarcasm started giving the devs shit over it.

** An even more common one is "Blue Baby" for the unwieldy ???. [[spoiler:For the True Final Boss as well as the character.]] This was ascended as of one of the updates, with his will being signed as "??? (a.k.a. The Blue Baby)"
*** This nickname is so popular that his character card in The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls was introduced as “Blue Baby (aka ???)”.

* PromotedFanboy: Spider, the mind behind the [=SpiderMod=] program (a modified version of ''Isaac'' that runs in a separate .exe, is more optimized, and adds a number of features, including various cheats and controller support) was hired to do coding work for the remake. ''Afterbirth'' then introduced an item named Spider Mod, giving all enemies individual health bars and showing how much damage your tears do to them, which was one of the functions introduced by [=SpiderMod=].

* TheWikiRule: [[http://bindingofisaac.wikia.com/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Wiki Naturally.]]