Binding of Isaac Questions

I love me some Binding of Isaac. I’ve loved it since I found the original on Steam years ago, I’ve waded through the expansions, Rebirth, the expansions for that, and have claimed the almighty Platinum trophy on PS4, alongside 100% completion for all expansions. Now I just need to do it on the other 2 save files…

Anyway. Obsession aside, Isaac raises some interesting questions. MatPat over on YouTube has his own answers, shown below, but it doesn’t address my biggest one (and is out of date, since it doesn’t take into the account Afterbirth+‘s final ending), but still worth watching. I’ll drop it here.

Now, all that being said – and the highly likely possibility that all of it is just in Isaac’s head – I still prefer to look at it as though it’s real… or at least an allegory for real events. I tend to believe Isaac actually did suffocate, that at least some of the events actually happened. The final ending seems to imply that as a possibility, with the photos, the missing posters, Isaac hiding in the toy chest… though I think it’s a case of dad left (or was driven away), Isaac blamed himself, Mom gets a little weird, and then maybe – just maybe – Isaac snaps. I think he legitimately did kill Mom.

Yeah. I’m messed up like that. But that’s not the main worry for me. It’s what happened to Guppy and Cricket/Max. Isaac’s beloved cat and dog. Now, if you look close in endings that show the toy chest, you can see Guppy’s paw hanging out of the box; it implies the corpse is in there (and thus that the cat, at least, is real and real dead.)

Until the final ending in Afterbirth+, I tended to assume that either Guppy died of natural causes (IE: neglect, since Isaac’s just a kid trapped in his room, and Mom is too busy going Jesus-Crazy to remember to feed the cat), or that Mom, in one of her sin-removing rampages, killed (and possibly dismembered) the cat. Ditto with Max/Cricket (given the decapitated head and body, both increasing Isaac’s tears and their strength.)

But after that last ending, and knowing how serial killers tend to start out, I have to wonder… did Isaac kill the pets before moving on to Mom and finally himself?

God help us all, I think he did.

What about you folks? What do you think is going on in The Binding of Isaac (any version, count any ending you like as the “canon” one.) Let us know your theories down below, or give a link to a post on the subject if you feel like it.

Meanwhile, I have a few more runs to do…