Isaac

Warnings: Spoilers, Unsettling, Saddening, Mature Content. Notices: Unfinished.

"Are you sure this is how you want this story to end, Isaac? You're the one writing it, it doesn't have to end this way. Here, how about we tell it a different way - maybe a happy ending?"

"Okay, Daddy."

- Isaac and his father discussing the ending to Isaac's story



Isaac is a character from the video game series The Binding of Isaac, created by Edmund McMillen. Isaac is a 5 year old child who lives with his mother in a small house on a hill. One day, she hears a voice from above, believing the hallucination is a higher being, likely Jesus or God, and she does what he asks, including the voice's final command to sacrifice her child, Isaac. He watches as she prepares to sacrifice him and struggles to find a way out before finding a trap door under the carpet. He then jumps down without hesitation the moment his mother bursts through his door into the unknown depths below.

Appearance
Isaac is a short, bald, naked crying child, with black eyes, white pupils, a round head, short body, a semicircle mouth with teeth, and no fingers or toes, it was confirmed that Isaac's mother shaved his hair off. In this mod, his design is no different with his original counterpart, albeit the microphone and eyebrows. He is also left-handed, but uses his right hand due to his mother being Christian, causing her to believe that being left-handed is sinful, as God would use his left hand to point people towards Hell.

In his second song Innocence Glitched, his appearance doesn't change for the most part, but his animations change his appearance to the other playable characters, the characters he changes into are as listed:


 * Magdalene (left)
 * Eve (down)
 * Judas (up)
 * Cain (right)

(Note that this is in the last part of the song.)

In the final song, Innermost Apocalypse, Isaac takes form of his appearance from his boss counterpart, notably hovering with his wings while also smiling.

Gameplay Mechanics - Waving Notes, Curse of the Unknown, Middlescroll
At a certain point in every song, the notes and notes bar will temporarily begin wavering, making it much more difficult to visualize which notes to press and when.

During Innermost Apocalypse, only Boyfriend's side is visible. Shortly into the song, Curse of the Unknown takes effect, removing the health bar and other miscellaneous features (score, accuracy, etc.), leaving the player in the dark about their current amount of health. This also forces the player into Middlescroll, which causes arrows to run up (or down, with downscroll) the center of the screen.


 * If you don't move the Sick indicator from the middle of the screen in the settings before playing the song, it can make the song harder as it gets in the way of your vision.

Trivia
NOTE: Most of this information was taken from Isaac's page on the official Binding of Isaac wiki.


 * The original Binding of Isaac demo was first put on Newgrounds.
 * Isaac is 5 years old.
 * In the background of the Basement in Sacrificial and Innocence Glitched, there is a drawing of Ash from The End is Nigh above Isaac.
 * Isaac is canonically dead.
 * While defeating Repentance's final boss, The Beast, seems to contradict this, it was confirmed by Edmund he did not survive. While the canonicity of each ending is up for debate, Isaac does not survive the events of any.
 * If you consider the endings that kill Isaac as canon, then his cause of death also varies greatly, from suffocation (most of these endings) to direct suicide (Ending 3).
 * This mod is more based off of the original Binding of Isaac and less so to Rebirth, due to the original having more of a connection to Newgrounds than Rebirth as confirmed in a reply from RxB.
 * This can be proven by the fact that this mod uses songs from The Original Binding of Isaac and the fanmade DLC Antibirth, and 0 songs from Rebirth.
 * Isaac might have his own Official full week in the Original game due to Edmund McMillen being fine with it and PhantomArcade being a fan of Edmund's games.
 * Boyfriend and Girlfriend appear in the official Binding of Isaac card game, "The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls Requiem", in a warp zone card pack being themed around Newgrounds. Boyfriend is a playable character, and Girlfriend is an item that Boyfriend starts with that increases Boyfriend's health for every double he rolls but reducing rolls by 1.
 * This mod has 3 cutscenes in total (1 unused).
 * Sacrificial and Innocence Glitched both take place on the first floor of the game, Basement, while Innermost Apocalypse takes place on the 5th (assuming no alternate routes are taken), Cathedral.
 * Additionally, Sacrificial and Innocence Glitched both play in Basement I and Basement II in Wrath of The Lamb and Antibirth, respectively, and Innermost Apocalypse plays during the Isaac boss fight in Cathedral in Wrath of The Lamb.
 * Isaac ascends at the end of Innermost Apocalypse, showing that Isaac has either ascended into heaven or escaped the Cathedral.
 * Though it could also reference Isaac's boss form, where he also ascends after his defeat.
 * In the original demo, there was a cutscene showing Isaac in his demonic form, but this has been removed. In the description it shows that the mod maker (RxB) is thinking about adding a 4th song including the unused form, as he felt bad leaking it and not delivering.
 * Innermost Apocalypse is one of the few charts to hide your progress. In this case, it's through Isaac's "Curse of the Unknown!", a curse from the original game that hides the player's health.
 * During Innocence Glitched, Isaac changing form to match that of the different playable characters in his game can be in reference to them all being different parts of himself.
 * It could also reference the ending for beating Satan in Sheol (Ending 11 in WoTL, 12 in Rebirth), as Isaac cycles through various characters there as well.
 * Two of Isaac's three songs, Sacrificial and Innermost Apocalypse, are all songs from his source game, The Binding of Isaac: Wrath of The Lamb, while Innocence Glitched comes from a popular mod for Rebirth, The Binding of Isaac: Antibirth.
 * Every song's BPM changes at least 3 times throughout the song, excluding Sacrificial, which only changes twice.
 * They also follow the same pattern, always being 95, 150, 166, and then some lower number.
 * Boyfriend's notes is the only UI element that isn't removed by Curse of the Unknown.
 * Girlfriend is sitting on an item pedestal, possibly referencing the fact that she is Boyfriend's starting item in The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls Requiem.
 * In Innocence Glitched, When Isaac transforms into other characters, his right hand can be seen holding each character's respective starting item, being a key for Cain, Book of Belial for Judas, and Yum Heart for Magdalene.
 * Cain can also be seen with his other starting item, Lucky Foot, as seen by the gold band on his right leg.
 * However, in The Binding of Isaac, Lucky Foot is on Cain's left leg rather than his right.
 * Hard mode's name being Eternal may be a reference to The Binding of Isaac: Wrath of The Lamb Eternal Edition, where Hard Mode was implemented.
 * RxB has uploaded a Teaser on their channel showing off the background of the 4th song featuring Isaac in his demon form. it has also been stated in the description that it will not be a song from the original games, and will instead be an original song.
 * The full name of Innermost Apocalypse is "My Innermost Apocalypse", likely shortened to make coding easier.


 * Isaac is a reference to the biblical story of the binding of Isaac (not the game), in which Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to prove his loyalty and love.
 * "Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love — Isaac — and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.'" (Genesis 22:2)
 * The intro cutscene from the game may also reference this with one of the lines from the monologue.
 * "To prove your love and devotion, I require a sacrifice. Your son, Isaac, will be this sacrifice. Go into his room and end his life as an offering to me, to prove that you love me above all else."
 * In a response to TBoI Youtuber Sinvicta of whether there was any concept art of what Isaac's original design was, Edmund McMillen confirmed that Isaac's design was originally one of an Octorock while showing very similar features of how the gameplay would be modeled by posting an old concept art.
 * Edmund has stated that Isaac is left-handed, but in the opening cutscene, Isaac is holding a pencil with his right hand.
 * This could be a reference to the Catholic bias against left-handedness, stemming from Matthew 25:33 proclaiming that God will put those deserving to ascend to Heaven on his right-hand side and put those deserving to descend to Hell on his left-hand side. Isaac's mother could have forced him to learn things the "righty" way for fear of him being "evil."
 * "He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left." (Matthew 25:33)
 * Contrary to previous theories made about Isaac, he does not have a sister.
 * Isaac is bald because his mother shaved his head, likely a reference to Numbers 6:9.
 * “If someone falls dead beside them, the hair they have dedicated will be defiled. They must wait for seven days and then shave their heads. Then they will be cleansed from their defilement." (Numbers 6:9)
 * If this is a reference to Numbers 6:9, that means that one of his pets, either Guppy, Cricket, Tammy, Max, or his unnamed cat, died right next to Isaac, forcing his mother to shave his head the week after to cleanse him.
 * If none of the above are true, then a currently unknown person has died next to Isaac.
 * If still none of the above, then it is unknown why Magdalene shaved Isaac's head.
 * Isaac's natural hair color is strawberry blonde.
 * Isaac has Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
 * Isaac's dad is a handyman.
 * Isaac's full name, Isaac Moriah, is a reference to Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham takes his son Isaac to be sacrificed, in the Book of Genesis.
 * Isaac is circumcised. This was confirmed by Edmund McMillen during a YouTube stream.
 * 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.
 * It can be presumed that The Keeper is a friend of Isaac's in his story, because of the item Strawman, an item in which Keeper becomes a secondary character. Outside of the story, however, Keeper is Isaac's corpse, much like ???. The same can be said for The Forgotten/Soul (from the pickup, 'Soul of the Forgotten').

Cameos in other mods
Note: Most, if not all, of these cameos are not canon to The Binding of Isaac or Isaac's story.
 * In Vs. Matt Mod, he appears in the background of Week 1.
 * In VS Pompom, Isaac appears on a missing poster, likely referencing the Afterbirth trinket, Missing Poster, and/or Ending 15.
 * In the background of the Beach Brother mod, Isaac is standing next to Alien Hominid and a Grey Knight from Castle Crashers.
 * In the top left crowd in VS Violastro, Isaac is hiding behind Shovel Knight and Tiny Knight.
 * In the background of Week 2 in Times & Tribulations (Vs. Omega). Mother (Aka The Witness from Repentance) is also present in Kapi's Cameo song, New Retro.
 * In Vs. Osan, he can be seen on a missing poster on the streetlight behind Boyfriend during Osan's week.

Download Link
GameBanana (WIP)