The Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac is a 2D top-down rougelike (randomly-generated, if this is your first time seeing the term) video game, developed by Edmund McMillen (of Super Meat Boy fame) and Florian Himsl, where the player controls Isaac as he attempts to escape his murderous mother. The game is influenced by the older Legend of Zelda games, with a similar playstyle and presentation, and is inspired by the biblical story of the same name, with a generous amount of liberties taken .

What makes the Binding of Isaac of interest to us is that the game is steeped in symbolism, much of it related to dark, mature themes, yet much of it is open to interpretation. The themes in this game run the gamut, ranging from religion and the occult (in both positive and negative lights) to child abuse, gender confusion, abortion, innocence, drug use, and even suicide. Once again, I’m going to assume that you have at least a working knowledge of the game’s story. To properly analyze the cards, one should have at least a working knowledge of the game’s story and themes, so the following recap will contain SPOILERS. If you don’t want the story ruined, skip the next paragraph. In fact, it would be in your best interests if you go play the game at least a little bit ( There’s a free demo HERE (https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/581168))  before you proceed much further into this blog, as I will be talking about most of the game’s content in one way or another.

The game opens with “a voice from above” telling Isaac’s mother that Isaac is corrupt with sin, to which she responds by taking away everything he owns (including his clothes) and locking him in his room to keep him from the evils of the world. The voice, still doubting Mom’s devotion to Him, then tells Mom to sacrifice Isaac. When Isaac sees his mom coming with a butcher’s knife (through a crack in the door), he frantically searches his room for a way to escape, finding a trapdoor leading into the basement. With no other way out and Mom at the door, Isaac leaps into the darkness below. This part of the story is told through a series of drawings Isaac has drawn while locked in his room, which is both an important point in the story and a clue to the game’s intended symbolism. If you’re familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac from the Bible then you’ll probably think this ends the same way, but that’s where things stop being so clear. The first time through the game, the player is treated to more of Isaac’s drawing, this time showing that as Mom closes in for the kill, she is stopped at the last minute by a bit of divine intervention. As Isaac happily puts his newest picture on the wall (one of Isaac standing on his defeated mother), his bedroom door is slammed open, revealing Mom holding a knife for real. From there, each time a player beats the game, they’re treated to a new ending (up to 13 different endings), with the last few endings reveling Isaac’s view of himself as a sinner, his possible suicide, and some Polaroids hinting at what happened to his father and sister.

While that’s all well and good (and we will most likely be referencing and going in depth with these  plot points as we get to them), a massive amount of the symbolism in the game, and on the tarot cards, comes from the myriad items that Isaac finds on his journey through the basement and beyond. The items come from multiple sources, including Christianity (both holy and unholy items), various occult sources (including an in-game deck of Major Arcana tarots), other video games, drug references, abortion, and child abuse. Edmund Mcmillen himself has stated that many of the items were influenced by his Christian upbringing, and he has even blogged this article (http://www.twinfinite.net/2012/10/01/big-sloppy-slomper-chompers/) as being ““By far the most mind blowingly accurate break down of the over arching meaning behind the binding of isaacs ending.” High praise indeed. The article, in a nutshell, talks about the overarching theme in Mcmillen’s games, that of a lonely, abused child seeking an escape from this world into the world of fantasy, and TBOI is no different.  The majority of the game takes place in Isaac’s imagination, with all of the monsters, items, and characters (save for Isaac and Mom) merely being different aspects of Isaac’s troubled mind. Nearly everything that Isaac dreams up has some kind of dark twist to it. For example, some of the enemies would be nightmare inducing if they weren’t drawn so cute, and items such as the wooden spoon clearly show that Isaac has seen, and may be familiar with, physical abuse.

One very important element I want to mention here is the other playable characters. First of all, they are ALL Isaac in wigs and make-up, even the girls, Magdalene (called Maggy from here on out) and Eve, and what they represent is up for interpretation and will probably determine how you read the cards.