The cast of the video game Celeste.
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Madeline
- Author Avatar: Maddy Thorson has discussed
that Madeline was a way in which she worked through her own issues at the time, especially in regards to gender. - Blush Stickers: Has them even in her moodier moments.
- Broken Bird: Discussed extensively. Madeline's struggling a lot with depression and anxiety, which has gotten worse recently but has partially been life long struggles. In her own words, she's "good at pretending to be okay even when she really isn't."
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Her hair expresses her dash abilities to the player. If it's red, her dash is ready, if it's blue, it's used up. Its default color becomes pink once Badeline becomes an ally, allowing Madeline to dash twice.
- Detrimental Determination:
- Madeline starts out climbing the Mountain for vague reasons, yet with every setback Badeline tries to convince her to give up. Badeline undoes Madeline's climbing progress when she tries to barrel right through her negative feelings. Madeline must come to terms with her insecurities' embodiment in order to gain rock solid, reconstructed determination to finish climbing the Mountain no matter what.
- In Chapter 9, Madeline's stubborn belief that she can somehow bring Granny back to life by catching her bird is unhealthy, and Badeline is actually in the right, even when Madeline keeps driving her away.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Doesn't happen in-game, but during a conversation with Theo, Madeline admits she has depression and that she deals with it by drinking a lot.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Her name is Madeline by default, but you're allowed to name her whatever you please when you begin a new file.
- Idiot Hair: The hand drawn art of her always has a strong cowlick in the center of her head (though this isn't seen in the sprites of the gameplay). The photo in her bedroom in Chapter 9 indicates she's had this cowlick since childhood.
- Inexplicably Awesome: Her outstanding physical abilities probably qualify.note Everything about her backstory seems to portray her as a troubled, but essentially normal, young woman... one who can not only jump more than twice her own height (even while carrying a man who weighs a lot more than her), but can somehow "dash" in mid-air. While a lot of the paranormal phenomena in this game are explicitly described as being due to the influence of The Mountain, the nature of Madeline's own powers are not explicitly linked to this; they aren't really addressed at all.Theo: Damn, girl. You can lift.
- Nice Girl: Deconstructed. Madeline is determined to help Mr. Oshiro, despite Theo's warnings that something is badly off about the man. This results in her indulging him in one delusion after another, never getting any closer to actually continuing her climb. While Badeline's solution — to shout insults at him until he snaps, turns into a monster, and chases them off the roof — has its own problems, Madeline later admits that if left to her own devices, she'd probably still be stuck in the hotel, too polite to leave. Badeline also claims that Madeline has a habit of spending far too much energy on people who just end up hurting her, and it's implied that her altruism is caused more by lousy self-esteem than anything else.
- Older Than They Look: Madeline certainly looks and sounds like she might be just a kid, but there are multiple references throughout the game implying she's instead a young adult: she owns a car, she mentions having a job, her mother is depicted as a white-haired old woman, and at one point she even admits to having a drinking problem. It should be noted that her voice in the reversed "In the Mirror" track sounds much more like a young adult.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Anything that hurts Madeline kills her with a single touch.
- Queer Establishing Moment: The ending of Celeste's DLC reveals that Madeline is trans via a few things in her room (Rainbow and trans pride flags, a photo showing her looking more masculine presenting as a child, a pill bottle that's suggested to be estrogen pills).
- Celeste 64 adds another one when Theo casually reveals that his sister Alex and Madeline have begun dating between games.
- Red Is Heroic: Our heroine Madeline sports a mane of red hair.
- Split-Personality Merge: At the end of Chapter 6, Madeline finally reconciles with and accepts Badeline, merging back into one person. They still separate to chat during Chapter 7, but by Chapter 8, Badeline is no longer a distinct personality. Chapter 9 has them distinct again, though this time it's because it's All Just a Dream.
- Stronger Than They Look: Despite being a One-Hit-Point Wonder in-game, Madeline is strong enough to carry and throw around Theo in a crystal, only affecting her ability to dash. She also survives the fall from the top of the mountain, going through many barriers of spikes in the process, without a scratch.
- Videogame Dashing: One of her main methods of movement. It recovers whenever she touches ground or something groundlike (bounce pads, dream blocks, clouds, etc.)
Part of You/Badeline
- All There in the Manual: Madeline’s shadowy counterpart isn’t named in the game itself, as every character just refers to her as a part of Madeline (who can be renamed by the player). Her Steam trading card reveals that her canonical name is Badeline.
- Allegorical Character: She's a manifestation of Madeline's own insecure side. She tries to stop Madeline from climbing the mountain because she's the part of her that is afraid of the possibility of failure.
- Anti-Villain: Despite being the main antagonist of the story, it's made clear that she is, genuinely, trying to protect Madeleine from getting hurt or disappointed. While her methods and attitude are negative, Madeleine eventually learns that the two can work together.
- Berserk Button: She gets positively FURIOUS when Madeline tries to completely reject her and states she doesn't need her anymore, flinging her all the way down to the bottom of the mountain.
- Big Bad: For the first six chapters, she is the physical incarnation of Madeline's insecurities that she came to the titular mountain to purge, and tries everything in her power to stop Madeline from reaching the summit and becoming at peace with herself. However, at the end of Chapter 6, they learn to accept each other and become allies for the rest of the game.
- Brutal Honesty: One of her characteristics is this. In Chapter 3, Badeline spares Madeline the awkwardness of telling Mr. Oshiro that his hotel is a run-down dump that nobody wants to stay in, and does it herself. Mr. Oshiro goes completely mad and transforms into the chapter's boss. It's discussed later that while Badeline's rant was mean-spirited, it was still probably necessary.
- The Computer Shall Taunt You: In the Chapter 2 chase sequence, she and all of her clones will point and laugh if you die.
- Cute Little Fangs: As seen in the best-pie◊ ending.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Badeline introduces herself in Chapter 2 as Madeline's "pragmatic" side, which Madeline doesn't buy. At the beginning of Chapter 6, Theo theorizes that she's some "twisted defense mechanism" that truly believes that she's protecting Madeline from hurt and disappointment, which the end of the chapter confirms; Badeline is really just Madeline's fear warped into destructive forms of thought.
- Deuteragonist: Her development and role in the story is just as important as Madeline’s… especially in chapter 9.
- Doppleganger Attack: Near the end of Chapter 2, Badeline summons several copies of herself as she chases Madeline, making it harder to avoid her.
- Enemy Without: What Badeline is made out to be according to Madeline. In reality, Badeline is just the personification of Madeline's own flaws, fears, and insecurities. After the end of chapter 6, they resolve their differences and start working together.
- Evil Counterpart: Badeline is initially presented as this, being a shadowy version of Madeline that tries to hamper her progress. Subverted once Madeline realizes that Badeline is a part of her she needs to understand and accept. In the end, they work together to reach the summit.
- Final-Exam Boss: The second fight with her puts every gameplay mechanic you've learned up until that point to the ultimate test, with the B-Side versions ramping it up even further.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: At points, Badeline will lean out of her portrait frame and her hair will flop out of the frame. And at the start of Chapter 6, she mocks Madeline to trying to calm down her feather and tears it apart. Currently, she's the trope picture.
- Heel–Face Turn: After spending six chapters trying to sabotage Madeline's quest to get to the top of the mountain, she finally relents when Madeline is able to accept her. She then fuses with Madeline, allowing her to double-dash, and becomes an ally for the rest of the game.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: She calls Mr. Oshiro a "bad person" because he turned into a monster and tried to hurt Madeline. This conversation happens the chapter after she herself turned into a monster and tried to hurt Madeline. In general, it's made clear that her abuse of Madeline is all because she's scared of Madeline getting hurt by other things.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Not only is she proven correct about Mr. Oshiro (despite being completely callous about it), but she's also the voice of reason in Chapter 9, trying to convince Madeline to accept Granny's death and move on instead of engaging in an unhealthy fantasy of trying to bring her back.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: She's introduced breaking out of a mirror in Chapter 2.
- Mirror Boss: She chases the player by exactly mimicking their moves three seconds after them. Don't slow down.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: They're especially noticeable when she's chasing Madeline down.
- Self-Duplication: As well as the Doppelgänger Attack mentioned above, she also copies herself to play with Madeline in the credits.
- Shadow Archetype: Badeline is this in a literal sense, being a manifestation of the personality traits Madeline rejects about herself; the added fact that Madeline is transgender also plays into it, given the complex feelings many trans people have with their reflections specifically.
- Split-Personality Merge: During Chapter 8, which takes place a year after Chapter 7, she doesn't manifest when Madeline returns to the Mountain. Madeline and Granny speculate that she's still present, but more assimilated into Madeline's personality to the point where they can't be separated like they once were. She does show up once, though, to save Madeline from a room flooding with lava, but doesn't get the chance to speak. She comes back in Chapter 9, when Madeline's grief and guilt split her apart from Madeline again, albeit only in Madeline's dream.
- Supernatural Floating Hair: Her hair starts sticking up during her boss fight in chapter 6.
- Super-Strength: If her ability to toss Madeline up hundreds of meters at a time is any indication.
- Took a Level in Kindness: While she's still terribly snarky at the beginning, in Chapter 9 she shows a lot of self-restraint in her frequent arguments with Madeline over how (poorly) the latter has been coping with Granny's death throughout the chapter. At one point, she can visibly be seen about to return an angry Madeline's screaming before taking a breath and calmly continuing with her thoughts. She finally manages to break through to her in the following conversation, comforting her, promising to help her during the grieving process, and supporting her actions for the remainder of the chapter.Part of You (somberly): I'm not forcing you. I'm asking you.
- Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are narrower and arched farther downwards than any other character's.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's the Big Bad of most of the game who obstructs Madeline's quest to climb the mountain and outright attacks her several times, but she's trying to protect Madeline from danger and the potential disappointment of not being able to climb the mountain. After being defeated the final time, she winds up working alongside Madeline, who accepts her now.
- When She Smiles: She often has bitter, sarcastic grins, but later gets to sport a few genuine ones. During the credits roll, she's happily bouncing on clouds and zooming around Madeline with a small smile on her face, which upgrades to beaming in the final picture, provided the player has collected enough strawberries.
Granny
- Given Name Reveal: A Freeze-Frame Bonus at the end of Chapter 9 reveals her real name is Celia.
- History Repeats: She and Theo's grandfather shared the Mountain together in a very similar way to Theo and Madeline, and as a young woman, Granny even strongly resembled Madeline herself.
- Literal Split Personality: Madeline believes in Chapter 9 that the blue bird who helped her along her journey across the mountain is a "Part of Her" in the same way that Badeline is referred to as "Part of You". Badeline disagrees, and the game itself leaves it unclear, as Chapter 9 is also All Just a Dream.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Has a tendency to end up in places way before Madeline could reach them.
- Signature Laugh: Has a tendency to end her conversations by breaking out into laughter at Madeline's troubles.
- Stealth Mentor: Beneath her sarcasm, she's really intrigued by Madeline's journey and shows up to give her a Rousing Speech when she's literally at rock bottom in Chapter 6.
Theo
- Always Someone Better: Brought up but defied. He's genuinely proud of his sister Alex's ambitions to become a civil rights lawyer and doesn't feel insecure because of it.
- But Not Too Foreign: His InstaPix account implies he could have roots in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, or another country where Portuguese is spoken, as he calls his grandfather "vovô".
- Character Blog: Theo's InstaPix handle is TheoUnderStars. It actually exists.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: The reason he's climbing the Mountain. Theo lacks inspiration or any real motivation and kind of drifts from place to place, and he's climbing the Mountain to find himself as his grandfather once did.
- Enemy Without: A non-violent version: the countless eyes watching him and the crystal prison he's trapped in during the latter half of Chapter 5 are a manifestation of his own (vaguely implied) insecurities.
- Meta Guy: During the Chapter 5 B-Side.Theo: It's the temple remix, featuring your boy Mix Master Theo!Theo: This isn't canon, is it?
- Nice Guy: Unlike Madeline, this is played straight, since his friendly and good-natured personality isn't indicative of any character flaws.
Mr. Oshiro
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Due to Badeline's Break Them by Talking lecture, he becomes a monster that pursues Madeline across his hotel's rooftop.
- Berserk Button: Calling Mr. Oshiro "pathetic" causes him to snap, hard enough that he turns into a ghostly monster and outright tries to kill Madeline.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: He has very thick eyebrows.
- Demon Head: His boss form has his head grow four times its size, complete with red eyes and teeth. His body remains at its normal size.
- Enemy Without: With a twist; all of the black and red dust bunnies in the ruined hotel are manifestations of his anxiety, but they aren't harmful to him. In fact, he seemingly can't even see them. They'll be responsible for a lot of your deaths, though.
- In the ending, he's seen directing them to clean up the hotel after his change of heart, showing that he might have eventually become more aware of them.
- Perception Filter: He seemingly doesn't realize he's a ghost and thinks the hotel is still in its prime with staff still employed, rather than the crumbling wreck full of dust bunny monsters it actually is. He does, however, notice the lack of customers he's been getting lately.
- Talking to Themself: He does this a lot, possibly due to his anxiety.
Celeste
- Death Mountain: Half of the place being covered in spikes and other magical hazards probably gave it away.
- Eldritch Location: A Lighter and Softer take; the Mountain is a very strange, explicitly magical place with a seemingly vast amount of mysterious history hidden beneath it. A lot of strange things happen here (most notably, physically manifesting the insecurities of its climbers), and it's heavily implied to be somehow sentient. At the deepest part of the Core (which in itself is a bizarre cave network where the Mountain's power is oppressively strong and the environment can switch from a frigid cave to an inferno in seconds), the very heart of the Mountain is a colorless void where space warps around on itself. But it's a place of deep comfort to Madeline. Even the Mountain is proud of how far she's come.
- Mental World: While not an entirely separate dimension like most examples of this trope, it is an Eldritch Location that reflects the mental state of those who visit it, including producing an Enemy Without and other monsters based on people's psyches.
- The Place: The game's named after the eponymous mountain.
- Setting as a Character: It's not quite alive, or intelligent to the point of being a Genius Loci, but has ways of challenging climbers both physically and mentally, and actively seems to make an effort to force its climbers to confront their inner natures.
- Shown Their Work: Mount Celeste is an actual mountain in Vancouver, and the Canadian flags scattered around the mountain seem to imply the game is talking about the same one. The actual Mount Celeste is quite a bit shorter (2000 meters as opposed to the in-game one's 3000+) and obviously not magical.
Lani
The protagonist of Celeste Classic 2: Lani's Trek.
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Appearance-wise, Madeline is light-skinned, wears blue, and has red hair, while Lani is dark-skinned, wears yellow and purple, and has blue hair. Their abilities also contrast with each other, as Madeline has a Double Jump and can climb walls, both powers associated with vertical movement, while Lani's grappling hook allows her to move longer distances horizontally.
- Heroic Mime: Unlike Madeline, Lani does not speak a word. Justified because there is no one to talk to in Lani's Trek.
