History YMMV / TheBindingOfIsaac

* SignatureScene: Found on the title screen, transition screens, and new save files, [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KIRU0KvZJh4/maxresdefault.jpg Isaac]] sitting in the basement, surrounded by flies and in the [[DramaticSpotlight light]] of the trapdoor above.

** Blood Puppy from ''Repentance'', a bloody little slug creature that sports a constant CatSmile... which it drops after enough kills and starts to target you as well, and the more it kills, the meaner and stronger it gets. It's gained a sizable fanbase as a result.

* [[AuthorsSavingThrow/TheBindingOfIsaac Author's Saving Throw]]

** Gurdy Jr.'s DashAttack, and to a lesser extent Dingle and Dangle's, as the attacks are very fast, send the enemies flying across the room, and will almost always hit you if you're not quick and alert enough. Gurdy's Jr.'s is especially brutal, as it's untelegraphed and much harder to dodge. She does it every time she sends a circle of bullets, the dash lasts a long time, and it sends her bouncing off the walls in unpredictable directions, making it not unlikely for you to get hit a bunch of times during a boss battle with her. She also does it repeatedly [[LastDitchAttack when near death]]. Dingle and Dangle's are at least telegraphed and have an easier dodge pattern to follow, but can also be just as annoying if you have poor speed or don't react immediately.

** Gurdy Jr.'s DashAttack, and to a lesser extent Dingle and Dangle's, as the attacks are very fast, send the enemies flying across the room, and will almost always hit you if you're not quick and alert enough. Gurdy's Jr.'s is especially brutal, as it's untelegraphed and much harder to dodge. She does it every time she sends a circle of bullets, the dash lasts a long time, and it sends her bouncing off the walls in unpredictable directions, making it not unlikely for you to get hit a bunch of times during a boss battle with her. Dingle and Dangle's are at least telegraphed and have an easier dodge pattern to follow, but can also be just as annoying if you have poor speed or don't react immediately.

** '''Tainted Jacob'''. Unlike his regular counterpart, Tainted Jacob is played without Esau. However, after 30 seconds or so have passed on a floor, [[CameBackWrong Dark Esau]] spawns and [[FaceHeelTurn starts attacking Jacob]]. This doesn't look so bad, until Esau touches Jacob. When this happens, Jacob turns into his soul, similar to what happens in the Mirror World in Downpour/Dross II. However, there are some core differences: first, Tainted Jacob's soul doesn't have Holy Mantle, so he will die on any hit (unless he already holds Holy Mantle, or has a similar effect); second, while this looks like playing Tainted Lost, Jacob doesn't have the passive "Better Items" and can still find health upgrades... which are useless, unlike in the Mirror World, as any life obtained while playing as Tainted Jacob's Soul will not carry over; third, Dark Esau will still roam around trying to kill Jacob (killing him in one hit, of course). This is basically like playing The Lost from ''Rebirth'' with spectral tears. To add insult to injury, on consoles the transformation from Tainted Jacob to his Soul doesn't have any invulnerability frames and has a tendency to slightly offset the position of the player, with an incredibly high risk of sending the Soul into another enemy, killing him on the spot. Now, maybe you are thinking "Well, let's kill Dark Esau so there are no more problems!", right? Well, on consoles, you can do that! The catch is, it will trigger an explosion that will kill everything in the room, and [[MortonsFork still turn Jacob into his soul]]. So you can basically either play ''Rebirth''[='=]s Lost with an angry guy trying to kill you constantly, or play ''Rebirth''[='=]s Lost. If all that wasn't enough, damaging obstacles like spiked rocks and red poop drain Dark Esau's health ridiculously quickly, and his ArtificialStupidity means he will probably get stuck on one and die unless you actively take measures to prevent it. The only plus side is that, just like any version of The Lost, Devil Deal's items are free to take. Considering the absurd difficulty of some rooms when trying to evade Esau, this isn't really that good. Players actually find it ''easier'' to play Tainted Lost because of the few plus sides that character has. Once again, the difficulty is incredibly high and the game doesn't give you anything to make it easier. A number of players find it less painful to remove Dark Esau using one of several GoodBadBugs[[note]]either by killing him with Eraser, or using Meat Cleaver to split him into two Dark Esaus with less HP that won't turn you into The Lost when they die (though this must be repeated every floor)[[/note]], since without the constant threat of a OneHitKill, Tainted Jacob merely becomes average at worst. [[FromBadToWorse This stopped being an option on PC]], [[https://steamcommunity.com/games/250900/announcements/detail/3087775317090158627 as of the 1.7.5 patch]], as Dark Esau is ''[[TheJuggernaut invulnerable to your tears and bombs]]'' (but not to enemy projectiles), but at least you cannot be touched by him while you have any form of temporary invincibility, he can shred through boss armor, and when you are turned into The Lost, you have a somewhat longer amount of invincibility frames. Oh, and his Birthright effect? It spawns a '''''second Dark Esau'''''.

** '''The Lost.''' [[JokeCharacter And how!]] He can fly, but he's a OneHitPointWonder and doesn't even start with any items besides one measly coin. He can make unlimited devil deals as his lack of health means he doesn't have to pay for them, but this is largely mitigated, again, by the fact he dies in one hit. The fact that one of his item unlocks requires you to beat every final boss on ''Hard mode'' certainly does not help matters either. Fortunately, in ''Afterbirth'', he was significantly buffed, as he was given spectral tears and the D4 and Holy Mantle are unlockable starting items for him (though the D4 isn't something you should rely on in the first place). ''Repentance'' added back some of his difficulty as Holy Mantle was nerfed to only give half as many invincibility frames as before, meaning that you'll die instantly to any damage source that does multiple ticks unless you can move away in less than half a second. However, it also replaced his D4 with the Eternal D6 as his starting item, meaning he has access to the same kind of rerolls as Isaac has, but less reliably (which ties in to his status as one of the game's {{joke character}}s).

** The [[https://bindingofisaacrebirth.fandom.com/wiki/Monstrance Monstrance]] item is meant to be a display for a sacred item, but due to its sprite, it's more commonly known as the "golden desk fan".