Line #14 NightmareFuel/Celeste


1	%%
2	%% NOTE TO EDITORS:
3	%%
4	%% If you are posting links to in-game tracks, please use official links from these sources, not [=YouTube=] mirrors:
5	%% https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/celeste-original-soundtrack
6	%% https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/celeste-b-sides
7	%% https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/celeste-madelines-grab-bag
8	%% [=YouTube=] uploads of analysis videos, such as the one for Chapter 5 second half's music, are fine.
9	%%
10	%%
11	'''As per Nightmare Fuel page policy, all spoilers are unmarked.'''
12	%%
13	%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1640210892080134000&page=1
14	%% Please don't add a new image without starting a new thread.
15	%%
16	%% No Fridge Horror, please.
17	%%
18
19	!! For the [[VideoGame/{{Celeste}} video game]]:
20	* Chapter 1
21	** The end has a memorial dedicated to those who perished trying to scale Mt. Celeste. It's a reminder that in real life, people can get killed scaling the mountains they like to tackle as their passion, and some people die so high up that their bodies are never recovered.
22	* Chapter 2
23	** Go a little ways back to the memorial plaque that you probably read in Chapter 1. The letters are now scrambled and ever-changing.[[note]]TruthInTelevision: You can't actually read anything coherent in a dream due to the lack of object permanence.[[/note]] The effect goes away [[DreamSequence after Madeline wakes up]], thankfully.
24	** This level introduces Badeline, a [[EnemyWithout malicious manifestation of Madeline's negative thoughts]] with a PsychoticSmirk and [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]]. She follows your movements and kills you if she manages to touch you.
25	** What's more, Badeline briefly [[BreakingTheFourthWall leans out]] from her character portrait as she taunts Madeline, as if to taunt the player themselves too.
26	** The phone booth at the end of the dream part of the chapter rings on its own, indicating that it's the person on the other end who made the call, and explicitly to call Madeline no less!
27	** [[https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/track/resurrections The music]] for the dream portion of the level [[LastNoteNightmare ends with]] a FadeOut, some creepy ambiance for the phone conversation, and finally, synthesized PsychoStrings in the moment where the phone booth turns into an EldritchAbomination and eats Madeline.
28	* Chapter 3
29	** The level is full of these inexplicable {{red and black\|AndEvilAllOver}}...''blobs'' that are lethal on contact. Later in the chapter, it’s revealed that they’re living manifestations of Mr. Oshiro’s anxiety - when he becomes particularly worried about what Madeline will think of her stay, they shoot out of his head in droves.
30	** At the end, Badeline breaks out of a mirror and trash-talks the ghost of Mr. Oshiro, [[BreakingSpeech telling him]] all about how she (and by extension, Madeline) [[BrutalHonesty thinks his hotel is a total piece of shit]]. He snaps ''hard'' and turns into a menacing entity who [[AdvancingBossOfDoom chases you across the hotel roof]].
31	* Chapter 4
32	** The chapter seems pretty routine enough, but at the end, when Madeline and Theo are riding the gondola, Badeline sabotages it in a JumpScare and Madeline goes into a panic attack (and most likely, so will the player), represented by an ever-encroaching miasma in the background. Theo has to help her get back to her senses.
33	** The title of the song that plays at this point says it all: [[https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/track/anxiety Anxiety]].
34	* Chapter 5
35	** The whole thing is this from start to end. At first, it's a dark, abandoned temple, with Madeline having to pass by unlit torches to light them up. [[NothingIsScarier Spooky, but at least the only lethal things here are non-sentient objects]]. Once she enters the giant mirror...oh boy. The music becomes more oppressive and marks the return of synthesized PsychoStrings, eyeball creatures start trying to attack her actively, many rooms have ''tentacles'' rather than {{spikes\|OfDoom}} for environmental hazards, eyes in the walls focus on Madeline's movements, and the whole place turns out to be the manifestation of all the insecurities and other negative things about Madeline and Theo. Finishing the level involves throwing Theo at a giant eyeball that constantly pulsates shockwaves that repel them away from it; said eyeball ''shrieks'' as it's destroyed.
36	** For even more creep factor, the music is backmasked: reversing it reveals that it's the first segment's theme... [[https://youtu.be/rE8diav5I1k?t=1m8s but with the addition of a chilling statement by Madeline]] about her depression and anxiety, which ends with her sobbing hopelessly. [[TearJerker Sad]] ''and'' disturbing.
37	* Chapter 6 seems like it's off to a happy start, with Theo and Madeline having a long heart-to-heart campfire chat and then Madeline flying high above the ground with the help of golden feathers, witnessing the ''aurora borealis'' and coming face to face with Badeline. [[EpiphanyTherapy She happily tells Badeline that she's going to abandon her, that she's not needed anymore.]] Surely this can't go wrong, right? '''Wrong.''' Badeline ''completely'' loses her shit and has an appendage from the bottom of the screen hold Madeline hostage, while trying to use Madeline's very weaknesses and insecurities in a hell of a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech,all while Madeline visibly ''winces'' from both Badeline yelling,and her being grasped by the tendril. [[HopeSpot Madeline tries to make use of the feather trick]] from two chapters ago to calm herself down... but Badeline makes an utter mockery of this technique, first by preventing the feather from rising and falling correctly,( [[FridgeHorror Which given that the feather is suppose to represent calm breathing]], could imply Badeline is '''Suffocating her''' ) then slicing the feather in half, before THROWING Madeline off the mountain, sending her flying a looooooooong way down into the mountain depths, where the chapter proper starts.
38	** Remember how Baddie likes to sometimes [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall lean a little outside of her dialogue portrait]]? Here she '''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou physically climbs halfway out of the portrait and crawls up into the whole entire dialogue box]]''' as if to really hit home that there is nothing either Madeline or you can do to get rid of her.
39	*** A quick thing to note while on the subject of the fourth wall. If one were to go check out the soundtrack, one would notice there are two separate albums: [[https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/celeste-original-soundtrack one for the normal soundtrack]] and [[https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/celeste-b-sides one for the B-sides]]. (Which is the page image) On the normal soundtrack's cover art, it show Madeline holding a cassette tape and looking at it with a blue peaceful snowy background. Now compare that with the B-Side's cover art, which depicts Badeline with the same cassette tape (And a slight [[SlasherSmile slasher smile]] to boot!) and a dark red tentacle filled background that looks like the ones from the mirror temple from Chapter 5. Now, while that would be creepy enough on its own. The thing is, unlike Madeline, she's not looking at the cassette tape. [[OhCrap No No No.]] '''She's looking straight at [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou you]].'''
40	* Chapter 9 opens with a JumpScare: Madeline approaches Granny, only for Granny to be revealed as an illusion and the weather to abruptly turn rainy while the sprite of Granny turns into a tombstone.
41	** Midway through the chapter, after the fake Crystal Heart is collected, the level begins to glitch out, distorting the screen at moments and morphing the walls into broken wireframe as Madeline continues chasing the bird that appears elsewhere around the game. Shortly into this mini-area, a Heart Gate suddenly [[JumpScare falls from above out of nowhere with an equally jarring sound effect to match]], blocking off the rest of the level until the player has collected 15 (non-fake) Crystal Hearts. Once the gate has been passed, the bright, starry background eventually explodes into a ''massive'' black hole that persists for the rest of the chapter, growing increasingly volatile as you progress.

Context NightmareFuel / Celeste