Is there a deep meaning behind The Binding of Isaac?

[Jormund]

It sure seems like it. Here's some facts why I think so:

- A lot of the monsters look similliar to Isaac
- He fights them off with his tears
- Even if he has escaped his mother, he has to fight her AFTER he has defeated the monsters that look similliar to him (most of them)
- He doesn't find a way out of the basement, but instead, goes deeper in the unkown
- Most of the items he finds distort him
- Maybe it's just a joke, but the poop turns into a smiley. Like something positive.
- In some rooms, you can find odd creatures that don't do anything, but look dead at the same time.
- You can see nooses on the top of the basement

That's the things I currently came up with. What are your thoughts about this?

Also, I'd like to add that I am playing Isaac since the original one, so don't come at me by saying that I just started the game.

[Jakkauli]

I guess the idea is basically that Isaac is fighting his inner demons. Like his religious mother thinks he's full of sin and he feels guilty about it, or something like that.

I don't think that the game's story is supposed to be super deep or anything, it's just a fun game with a very ambiguous story tied to it.

[Jormund]

Originally posted by Jackayl:

I guess the idea is basically that Isaac is fighting his inner demons. Like his religious mother thinks he's full of sin and he feels guilty about it, or something like that.

I don't think that the game's story is supposed to be super deep or anything, it's just a fun game with a very ambiguous story tied to it.

That's something I am thinking about as well. The fact that there are nooses and plenty of corpse looking creatures that don't do anything sort of makes me feel think the same way. By thinking about all the things I mentioned above, it seems there is some sort of inner demons involved, but I still can't figure out why after he has defeated all of the demons which are the monsters, why he still has to fight his mother? Even if she wanted to kill him because of the sin, why does she appear in the basement and Isaac has to defeat her in order to beat the game? It doesn't make sense. Why did he have to go all the way down the basement to find his mother, he could of killed in the first place?

My theory is, that he became stronger after defeating all the inner demons along the way and he became strong enough, to go back and stand up against his mother.

What do you think, Jack?

[ijones72(ninja08)]

Originally posted by Ernest Wolf:

Originally posted by Jackayl:

I guess the idea is basically that Isaac is fighting his inner demons. Like his religious mother thinks he's full of sin and he feels guilty about it, or something like that.

I don't think that the game's story is supposed to be super deep or anything, it's just a fun game with a very ambiguous story tied to it.

That's something I am thinking about as well. The fact that there are nooses and plenty of corpse looking creatures that don't do anything sort of makes me feel think the same way. By thinking about all the things I mentioned above, it seems there is some sort of inner demons involved, but I still can't figure out why after he has defeated all of the demons which are the monsters, why he still has to fight his mother? Even if she wanted to kill him because of the sin, why does she appear in the basement and Isaac has to defeat her in order to beat the game? It doesn't make sense. Why did he have to go all the way down the basement to find his mother, he could of killed in the first place?

My theory is, that he became stronger after defeating all the inner demons along the way and he became strong enough, to go back and stand up against his mother.

What do you think, Jack?

know this .every single character in the orignal binding of issac game(not rebirth) is CONFIRMED to be issac.the whole mother thing is because the game takes place inside a chest,inside issacs imagination.IT LIVES is also confimered to be issac in the womb.after you kill yourself in the womb,you kill yourself in the cathedral (issac boss),then you kill yourself in the chest(??? boss),while also killing your self IRL in the game world by suffocating yourself in the chest.blue baby is issac's body,the lost is issacs soul.this is supported by the dark room victory ending and the chest victory ending cinimatic. this theory is also supported by the creepy ass jesus loves you song that ends the origanal game (not rebirth)after you beat it enough times

[Jakkauli]

Originally posted by ninja08:

Originally posted by Ernest Wolf:

That's something I am thinking about as well. The fact that there are nooses and plenty of corpse looking creatures that don't do anything sort of makes me feel think the same way. By thinking about all the things I mentioned above, it seems there is some sort of inner demons involved, but I still can't figure out why after he has defeated all of the demons which are the monsters, why he still has to fight his mother? Even if she wanted to kill him because of the sin, why does she appear in the basement and Isaac has to defeat her in order to beat the game? It doesn't make sense. Why did he have to go all the way down the basement to find his mother, he could of killed in the first place?

My theory is, that he became stronger after defeating all the inner demons along the way and he became strong enough, to go back and stand up against his mother.

What do you think, Jack?

know this .every single character in the orignal binding of issac game(not rebirth) is CONFIRMED to be issac.the whole mother thing is because the game takes place inside a chest,inside issacs imagination.IT LIVES is also confimered to be issac in the womb.after you kill yourself in the womb,you kill yourself in the cathedral (issac boss),then you kill yourself in the chest(??? boss),while also killing your self IRL in the game world by suffocating yourself in the chest.blue baby is issac's body,the lost is issacs soul.this is supported by the dark room victory ending and the chest victory ending cinimatic. this theory is also supported by the creepy ass jesus loves you song that ends the origanal game (not rebirth)after you beat it enough times

Pretty much this, it all appears in Isaac's imagination. This is supported by the menu screen and cutscenes that look like children's drawings, Isaac drew them.

And the game doesn't end when you kill the mother... Only the first few runs end there. You have to go deeper! :P

[pi73r]

http://imgur.com/r/gaming/Ucwvi
there are millions of explanations on the intenet regarding the vanilla. Not sure if any1 alrdy made it with additional content from rebirth

[Apocyl]

Originally posted by pi73r:

http://imgur.com/r/gaming/Ucwvi
there are millions of explanations on the intenet regarding the vanilla. Not sure if any1 alrdy made it with additional content from rebirth

So ... this needs to be redone with the new endings ...
got one of those laying around?

[Diggle]

Isn't it based off of the bible story where god told Abraham to kill his son Issac in the name of the lord to test his faith. Considering the ammount of heavy biblical items and characters.

[Jormund]

Originally posted by Grey Rogue:

Isn't it based off of the bible story where god told Abraham to kill his son Issac in the name of the lord to test his faith. Considering the ammount of heavy biblical items and characters.

Good point. Man, I only wish I could speak to one of the devs and ask this, but I guess the game wouldn't be as interesting then.

[Meowshi]

Edmund said this was the closest anyone really got to what he was going for:
http://www.twinfinite.net/2012/10/01/big-sloppy-slomper-chompers/

Atleast for the original game, Rebirth adds more depth so who knows, it's pretty ambiguous outside of the introduction.

[ArtistJonO]

The person behind the Binding of Isaac, Edmund McMillen, has mentioned several times that the game DOES have a deeper meaning, but that he isn't going to spoil what that meaning is because he wants his fans to offer up their own interpretations. There are a lot of small symbolic things in the game that each have their own implications; such as the "Wire Coat Hanger" item and the many items that reference child abuse. McMillen has said several times that a lot of the religious aspects of the game and the fact that not all of them are put in a positive light is based on experiences he and people he knew had when they were younger. Apparently, most of his family were hardcore religious to an almost stereotypical degree; the classic "Dungeons and Dragons is bad, Magic the Gathering (a hobby he's very fond of) is bad blah blah blah you're going to go to Hell if you continue those hobbies blah blah blah" kind of way. He wanted to explore how religious zealotry could negatively affect a young child; hence some of the major themes of The Binding of Isaac. If you haven't already, I'd recommend watching/listening to a few interviews in which he talks about the game and its themes/inspirations. It's very interesting.

[Jormund]

Originally posted by AgentJackSeven:

The person behind the Binding of Isaac, Edmund McMillen, has mentioned several times that the game DOES have a deeper meaning, but that he isn't going to spoil what that meaning is because he wants his fans to offer up their own interpretations. There are a lot of small symbolic things in the game that each have their own implications; such as the "Wire Coat Hanger" item and the many items that reference child abuse. McMillen has said several times that a lot of the religious aspects of the game and the fact that not all of them are put in a positive light is based on experiences he and people he knew had when they were younger. Apparently, most of his family were hardcore religious to an almost stereotypical degree; the classic "Dungeons and Dragons is bad, Magic the Gathering (a hobby he's very fond of) is bad blah blah blah you're going to go to Hell if you continue those hobbies blah blah blah" kind of way. He wanted to explore how religious zealotry could negatively affect a young child; hence some of the major themes of The Binding of Isaac. If you haven't already, I'd recommend watching/listening to a few interviews in which he talks about the game and its themes/inspirations. It's very interesting.

Any interview you might suggest? I checked some out, but most of them are about development.

[ArtistJonO]

This is a half-hour one specifically regarding Isaac made by the folks who worked on Indie Game: The Movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMqFTuMECeA Here's another REALLY good one that's a little over an hour and forty-five minutes that focuses more on the artistic side of game design and Edmund also talks about Isaac and its themes around the one hour mark; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_72BJfuGoXE The interviewer in that video can come across a LITTLE awkward, but don't let that deter you. If you have any creative hobbies I'd recommend watching the second one even though it's not Isaac focused; it's one I like to put on in the background sometimes when I'm in need of inspiration.

[Emily]

I don't know how many Endings you already unlocked but the last few Endings give the whole thing some more foundation. Behold, the Mighty Spoilerwall: While we don't really gather information in Endings 1 to 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 offer us a few Insights. Now all these are just theories but let's see: Ending 12 shows all "incarnations" of Isaac, looking into a chest and climbing in, the last one which is a demon-like figure. While we do have Azazel now, we didn't have him back in the Original but the ending was practically the same. Ending 13 shows Isaac looking into a mirror and seeing a demon! So the same motif is used again here, once again it has to do with the chest. In Ending 14 we see all the Photos of memories, including one of a girl with Mom and Isaac alone, and finally the father leaving and the girl not seen again. Ending 15 shows mom looking for isaac who appears to have gone missing and Ending 16 is just isaac in the chest, flashing back and forth into some demonic figure. Also Guppy's Paw is there for some reason. Let's try to interpret the scene altogether a little. We know for sure, Isaac IS fighting his inner demons. However, it's may be a little bit different here, making all the endings a little sad. Let's assume the Photos show reality. Isaac had a sister. His Magdalene Incarnation apparently seems to relate to that a bit. Maybe she has that many hearts because she was loved more than him? Maybe he did something or maybe not, but whatever happened, his sister is probably dead. And since his mother is so religious, he was likely raised that way too. His father left the family after it all happened, I think it's been established by "Dad's Key" which let's you "run away" and open Every door. Even Boss challenge rooms when you're not at one heart etc. Let's assume that happened and then his mother turned abusive, making him believe he is to blame for everything that happened. This would explain why he sees himself as a demon aswell as why he believes his mother would like to kill him. Who knows if that is true, though, as we never really see her. Except maybe in Ending 15. But what does that mean? Possibly Isaac blamed himself and hid in the chest in his room. That's where the game starts. He descends down into the basement he made for himself in his imagination, then there's a choice. The Polaroid or The Negative. The Polaroid brings back the memories. After his wish to suicide he looks at the photos, and in defeating ??? he beats the idea of suicide. He, however, is still stuck in the chest and can't get out. As for the Negative path, Isaac gives all the blame to Satan, thus, defeating Satan is his way to regain innocence. The Lamb could be a symbol for a scapegoat, killed to redeem the innocence. The Bible doesn't work on either of these as he'd merely remember how terrible he sinned and "start over" in his journey to find a way out of this situation. After the Lamb, however we can see he's gone missing. In short, he's still fighting, his mother can't find him in the chest as it's locked (All doors in the chest are locked and can't be blown open with bombs, And dad's key)
As for Mega Satan... You can only get there with two key fragments guarded by angels, or with Dad's Key. I'm not certain how that fits in the picture but it could be a confrontation with whatever he thinks is the worst thing ever. That's why it's both in the Chest AND the Dark Room. And as a result of defeating that, he fears it might be taking him over, hence Ending 16.
All this is just a theory but given Dad's Key opens EVERY door at every moment, (once it's charged) so perhaps the only way out would be if his father came back.
Not sure how Guppy fits into this, Maybe he's just a stuffed toy or something. Guppy mode looks rather cartoony after all. Not sure how it all fits together but a few things I said probably made some sense. It's open to interpretation I guess.

[Magical Purple Man]

I know the true truth of the game and it's meaning.
http://i.imgur.com/nQIjm4x.png
10/10 would theorise again.

[Santi]

Yeah, the story they tell you in the opening cinematic is actually in Isaac's mind. It's the surface plot. Basically, Isaac's Mom went nuts because maggie (isaac's sister) died. His father left after mom went nuts and isaac blames himself, because he was jealous of his sister and even wished for her to die. He read the bible like it was a children's book and he made up a game in his mind to decide if he should save/kill himself (the game you are playing right now).