Madeline (Celeste)

“	If this is all in my head, why is it so hostile? Those things are hunting me. I'm a trespasser in my own world. Theo is trapped somewhere in here because of me. If I give in fully, maybe the temple will let him go... ... Breathe. This is all coming from inside me. Get up, Madeline. Think of the feather. You can save Theo.	„
	~ Madeline

Background

Madeline is the protagonist of Celeste and has gone to Celeste Mountain to climb to the summit. She suffers from depression and anxiety, enduring panic attacks both before and during the events of the game.

There's little we know about Madeline's past, but she comes to Celeste Mountain to challenge herself and to find motivation in her actions by reaching the summit of the mountain, despite both her own problems and the dangers of climbing the Mountain.

The following contains the story elements of Celeste:

Madeline mentally encourages herself to continue on her journey before entering a snowy area. After passing a few challenges with the help of a Bird (who teaches Madeline how to climb), Madeline encounters an Old Woman, who Madeline gets directions to Celeste Mountain from. Before Madeline leaves, the Old Woman warns Madeline that Madeline might not be ready for Celeste Mountain, but Madeline dismisses the Old Woman as crazy and leaves. Immediately afterwards, Madeline tries to cross a bridge which collapses as she runs across it, causing her to begin to fall. However, the Bird teaches Madeline how to dash before she falls, allowing Madeline to reach solid ground. Madeline then encourages herself again as the level ends.

Madeline travels through the titular Forsaken City, finding another hiker, Theo, about halfway through the level. Madeline and Theo converse, and Theo explains that he came to Celeste Mountain to explore and to take pictures, although Madeline avoids explaining why she came to Celeste Mountain. The two also discuss the origins of the Forsaken City, with Madeline explaining that a mega-corporation started building the city, but nobody wanted to live there, although neither of them know why. Madeline also expresses a desire to reach the summit of Celeste Mountain, something that Theo does not seem as interested in doing. Eventually, Madeline returns to climbing Celeste Mountain. At the end of the level, she encounters a memorial (entitled the Celeste Memorial), decides to stop there and make camp for the night, and goes to sleep, thinking that climbing Celeste Mountain might have been a mistake.

Madeline awakes to find that several mysterious changes have occurred to her surroundings: the flames of the campfire that she lit before she went to sleep have turned green, blue lights are descending from the sky, and the text of the Celeste Memorial is now re-arranging itself at random. Madeline then leaves the Celeste Memorial and starts exploring the surrounding area.

After a significant amount of exploring, Madeline encounters a large mirror. As she passes by it, she sees in it a reflection of herself with various features changed (the reflection has purple hair, white skin, and red eyes). Madeline stops after passing by the mirror and walks back over to it, where she again sees this distorted reflection. The reflection then walks over to in front of her, breaks out of the mirror, and runs away. After this occurs, several non-interactive blocks in the level transform into Star Blocks. Using these Star Blocks, Madeline continues to explore.

Near the Celeste Memorial, Madeline explores a previously-inaccessible area, where she finds her reflection from earlier sitting by a dead campfire. The reflection reveals herself to be not Madeline, but Part of Madeline. The two converse; Part of Madeline attempts to convince Madeline that Madeline should stop climbing Celeste Mountain, saying that it's too difficult a task for Madeline to manage. When Madeline insists that she needs to continue climbing Celeste Mountain, Part of Madeline proposes that the two of them go home together, then begins chasing Madeline through the level.

After an intense chase, Part of Madeline stops chasing Madeline and disappears, laughing. Madeline continues running until she encounters a pay-phone, which she observes to be ringing. After some hesitation, Madeline picks up the payphone, and is answered by a green-haired boy, who she has an increasingly confusing conversation with. After revealing that he knows that Madeline is calling from a payphone, the boy insists that Madeline called him. Madeline then reveals to him what has just happened to her over the course of the chapter, but he insists that she's making all of it up. As she tries to reveal more of her experiences to him, she realizes that she's dreaming, which he confirms, then gives her more evidence to believe that she's dreaming. Part of Madeline then appears in front of Madeline, telling Madeline that it's time for her to give up and go home, after which the payphone transforms into a giant monster and eats Madeline.

Madeline wakes up to find herself back at the Celeste Memorial, where everything has returned to normal. Madeline then encounters Theo, and they converse briefly. Madeline then continues until she finds the payphone again; she uses this to call her mother, who tries to help Madeline calm down.

Madeline continues her journey up the mountain, but her path is blocked by the "world renowned" Celestial Resort. The hotel owner, Mr. Oshiro, offers to allow Madeline to stay in the presidential suite, but Madeline isn't interested in staying.

Madeline sees that the hotel is an absolute mess, and helps Mr. Oshiro clean up most of the junk in the hotel, despite Mr. Oshiro insisting that the staff will take care of the situation.

Upon finally arriving at her room, Madeline once again states that she isn't interested in staying. Badeline shows up, and taunts Mr. Oshiro before telling him that Madeline is just helping him to "fuel her twisted ego", angering Mr. Oshiro and causing him to chase Madeline across the roof. Mr. Oshiro eventually calms down at the end and tells Madeline to leave him alone, allowing her to continue her journey up the mountain.

After leaving the Hotel, Madeline encounters the Old Woman on her way. She warns the protagonist about incoming dangers and that it may be a good time to give up. Madeline decides to continue her journey regardless.

At the end of the chapter, Madeline and Theo meet at a gondola leading over a massive ravine. Despite Madeline's doubts about its safety, they decide to ride it. The further they were going, the more impatient and scared Madeline starts to be. Theo realises it and tries to cheer up Madeline by making a selfie with her. Shortly after that, Badeline appears and the gondola starts to malfunction, causing the protagonist to have a panic attack.

Theo tries to calm down her, however Madeline starts to lash out on him for encouraging her to try riding over the ravine. After that, Theo shows her a technique which focuses on imagining a feather that can be kept afloat by slowly breathing in and out. Once the minigame ends, Madeline starts to calm down and they end up passing the deep chasm.

At the end of the gondola ride, Madeline and Theo arrive at the Mirror Temple. Madeline warns Theo that it might be dangerous inside, but he ignores Madeline's warning, and immediately heads in to take pictures. Later on, Madeline discovers that Theo got trapped inside a mirror while attempting to take a mirror selfie.

Partway through this chapter, Madeline finds a large mirror, which she enters in an attempt to find Theo. Inside the mirror realm, she encounters Badeline again, who gives her information about the temple as well as telling her that she deserves all this. She also encounters seekers, which are fish-like monsters which attempt to kill her by dashing into her.

She later finds Theo trapped in a crystal, and subsequently carries him out of the temple.

After the escape, Madeline and Theo decide to rest by a campfire and talk about their reasons to why they've decided to climb the mountain. During the conversation, Madeline explains him that a part of her has escaped from a mirror and keeps haunting her. She also reveals that she's been struggling with anxiety and depression for a very long time, and that climbing the mountain might be a way to challenge herself. She also tries to think about a way to fight against Part of Herself. They later decide to take a selfie as a way to remember the night and go to sleep.

Later, Madeline wakes up to talk with Badeline. She decides that she doesn't need her anymore and sets her free. Badeline, scared about being abandoned, grabs Madeline and causes a panic attack. The protagonist tries to calm herself with the feather technique from before, but it gets cut in half and she falls all the way down into a deep water cavern.

Lost in the depths, Madeline starts to lose hope and is angry at Part of Herself that she caused her to fall all the way down. After wandering around, she finds the Old Woman who thinks she may have given up on her journey. Even though she didn't manage to climb to the summit, she doesn't want to get over the failure. The Old Lady advices her to talk to Badeline and find out what her fears are.

Madeline decides to find Part of Herself and when she manages to do it, she decides to apologise for her behavior and starts encouraging her to work together. Badeline doesn't trust her and they start to fight. Once it's over, Madeline decides to comfort her and they fuse together into one person, gaining an additional dash. They eventually start climbing up end meet their friends on the way.

Once Madeline has reached the summit, they decide to enjoy the looks for a while. Later, they slowly go back to home and meet her friends at home. Shortly after, Mr. Oshiro appears who seemed to be informed by a bird that showed him the way. After that, Madeline decides to bake a pie for them and the result will depend on the amount of strawberries a player has collected.

The Old Woman calls Madeline to meet her at the Core entrance. When the player hasn't collected enough hearts, she tells her that Madeline may not be ready to enter the area. If the heart gate opens, she decides to explore the place in order to find the Heart of the Mountain.

Madeline discovers that Granny has died and apologies her for not appearing at her funeral. Later she follows the bird around believing that it is part of Granny and will lead Madeline to Granny. Badeline discourages her to proceed and tells her to wake up, but the protagonist assumes that she doesn't want to see Granny again and proceeds to go without her.

After attempting to catch the bird several times, it escapes and Madeline starts to lose hope that she may find the Old Woman again. Badeline appears and tries to calm her down, encouraging her to wake up, that they will face this together. Madeline disagrees and feels guilty that the bird is trapped because of her. They both decide to release the bird from the collapsing dream world.

Once they've saved the bird, she eventually encounters Granny at the end and thanks her for everything she's done for her. Later, Granny disappears and Madeline wakes up shortly afterwards, showing that the entirely of Chapter 9 was a dream. She proceeds to video call Theo, where he reveals that his grandfather was friends with Granny and they "shared the mountain together".

Powers and Stats

Tier: 8-C, higher with Bomb and Super Bomb Arrows

Name: Madeline

Origin: Celeste

Gender: Female

Age: At least 21 (Has mentioned to drink without much of a reaction coming from Theo implying she's of legal age. Also has mentioned driving. Also older as an entire year has passed by chapter 8 and an unknown time has passed by chapter 9)

Classification: Human, Mountain Climber

Attack Potency: Building level (Can harm fish monsters, who can break structures. Becomes one with Badeline, who casually blasts through a wooden ceiling, breaks a bridge, and can fly through stone. Destroyed a wall by slamming it with her back.), higher with Bomb and Super Bomb Arrows

Dimensionality: 3-D

Travel Speed: Relativistic (Should be comparable to Archer), higher with Dash

Combat Speed: FTL, higher with Laser Arrows (Implied to be faster than normal arrows)

Reaction Speed: FTL

Lifting Strength: Superhuman (Could lift Theo inside of a giant crystal & throw him far distances casually)

Striking Strength: Building Class

Durability: Building level (Tanks falling off of a bridge, tanked a 2,500 meter fall off a mountain hitting multiple spiked crystals with no damage)

Stamina: Superhuman (Capable of going up 3000 meters without tire)

Range: Standard Melee Range, a couple meters with air dash, Several meters with Arrows and with Orbs, Low Macroversal with BFR

Powers and Abilities:

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Human Achievements (Capable of climbing a mountain), Weapon Mastery (Shown to be training for Towerfall with her bow), Acrobatics (Has to do various parkour to get past many parts of the mountain), Limited Flight (Via the air dash), Non-Physical Interaction & Soul Manipulation (Can interact with and harm Mr. Oshiro), Fusionism (Fused with Badeline), Pocket Reality Manipulation (According to Badeline, Madeline created her own nightmare realm in the mirror temple), BFR (Accidentally sent Theo into her nightmare realm, trapped the bird in her dreams), Resistance to Extreme Heats (Can travel in the center of the mountain where there is molten hot lava), and Extreme Colds (Naturally climbs the top of the mountain without the cold phasing her, can travel in the center of the mountain where it can be turned cold enough to freeze the flames into icicles)

All previous abilities is a much greater extent, possible Reality Warping (Fuses with Badeline, whose mere anger completely changes the background. Upon hitting her, the screen disorts.), Teleportation (Teleports onto the gondola), Dimensional Travel (Can enter and exit dream realms), Flight (Shown to levitate, shown momentarily flying up here), Energy Manipulation (Capable of firing beams and lasers.), Telekinesis (Telekinetically moves several rocks), Duplication (Creates up to 5 clones), Hair Manipulation (Creates many tentacles out of her hair), Statistics Amplification (Upon fusing with Badeline Madeline could now use a double air dash), Power Mimicry (Copied Madeline's powers & movements), 4th Wall Breaking (Brings her character out of the textbox)

Weapon Mastery (Can use any weapon they pick up to its greatest extent), Stealth Mastery (Via the Looking Glass, they become practically invisible, and can become even less visible by ducking), Non-Physical Interaction, Immortality Negation (Type 7) and Soul Manipulation (Their arrows and physical attacks can affect ghosts. They can also destroy other players' ghost forms upon the latter's death), Hacking (By merely holding an object such as a remote-detonated bomb, they deactivate its original owners from using it and can use it for themselves), Extrasensory Perception (Can view and interact with various ghosts, and even see beings that would be non-corporeal to non-corporeal beings), Teleportation (Shown here), Darkness Manipulation (Cloaked the arena in darkness), Explosion Manipulation (Set off a series of explosions via will. They also can set off explosions with Bomb Arrows, Super Bomb Arrows and Trigger Arrows), Energy Manipulation and Resurrection (They can revive fallen allies in the story mode, creating an explosion of energy that protects them when returning to life), Earth Manipulation (Caused the large fissure of Towerforge by defeating King Reaper), Portal Creation and Summoning (Can summon all of the normal in-game enemies with portals, including slimes, cultists and ghosts), Flight (Via Wings), Forcefield Creation (Via Shield), Forcefield Negation (Their physical attacks, arrows and orbs can destroy shields), Magic (Vicious Vessel can manifest magic bows/arrows), Power Nullification (Via Shield. Various abilities get negated by Shields, such as Infinite Lasers), Limited Statistics Amplification (Can increase their speed with Speed Boots), Light Manipulation (Via Laser Arrows), Creation (Via Bramble Arrows), Homing Attack, Electricity Manipulation and Attack Reflection (Via Bolt Arrows), Sealing and BFR (Via Prism Arrows), Darkness Manipulation (Via Dark Orb), Time Manipulation (Via Time Orb), Spatial Manipulation (Via Space Orb), Magma Manipulation (via Lava Orb), Burrowing (Via Drill Arrows), Resistance to Heat Manipulation (Unaffected by standing near lava), limited Resistance to Soul Manipulation (Attacks from ghosts do not affect their soul if their physical body is blocking it) and Power Nullification (Some techniques such as their Prism Arrows and a few variants cannot be negated by Shields)

All previous abilities, Resurrection (With Team Revive activated, they can revive fallen allies), Weapon Creation (With Regenerating Arrows activated, they can passively regain arrows over time from thin air. They can also select any arrow they want to start off the match, or even choose from various items such as Bombs, Mirrors, etc.), Forcefield Creation (With Start with Shields activated, they begin combat with a Shield already active. With Regenerating Shields activated, they can passively regain a shield over time from thin air), Explosion Manipulation (With Exploding Corpses activated, upon death they create a small explosion killing nearby enemies. With Trigger Corpses activated, they can remotely detonate their corpse upon death), Limited Regeneration and Non-Corporeal Physiology (Mid-Godly. With Return as Ghosts, upon dying the archer can manifest a ghost form to damage others' soul directly, even after their soul has been destroyed), Limited Time Stop (With Gunn Style activated, any time they kill an enemy, time stops and makes a freeze frame on their death), Gravity Manipulation (With Anti-Gravity Arrows activated, their arrows ignore gravity altogether), Light Manipulation (With Infinite Lasers activated, they alter the properties of lasers so that they bounce forever), Time Manipulation (Passively. With Slow Time activated, for the entirety of their combat, time is slowed), Spatial Manipulation (Passively. With Always Scrolling activated, for the entirety of their combat, space is distorted), Magma Manipulation (Passively. With Always Lava activated, lava instantly appears during the beginning of their match and covers the surrounding area, slowly encroaching on the fighters), Portal Creation and Summoning (With Dark Portals activated, portals that summon aggressive Eye Bats and Green Slimes appear. With Reaper Chalice activated, they can summon the Reaper), Limited Resistance to BFR (With Return as Ghosts, even after their physical body has been warped away with Prism Arrows, their soul can still return to fight in combat)

Standard Equipment: Backpack, In Towerfall she has: Standard bow and arrows, Shield, Wings, Speed Boots, Looking Glass, various orbs (Dark, Time, Lava and Space orbs)

Optional Equipment: Various arrows (Bomb, Laser, Drill, Bramble, Bolt, Prism, Super Bomb, Feather, and Trigger arrows)

Intelligence: Above Average (Trained herself to fight the Archer's from Towerfall, was capable of climbing a mountain and solving the difficult puzzles within it. One of the few people to reach the summit)

Weaknesses: Suffers from anxiety/panic attacks in-game, but at the end, she overcame it and befriended its personification. She does still suffer from it when bad events happen (i.e. the death of Granny). The Prism Arrows' effects only last a short time (sealing-wise.) They have to charge their corpse for a second to detonate it with Trigger Corpses. Return as Ghosts doesn't let them re-manifest a physical form, it just lets them manifest a ghostly form.

Notable Attacks/Techniques:

Power-Ups:

• Shield: A shield will surround the player, capable of absorbing one hit of damage, upon which point it will break and the player will flash for a few moments before becoming vulnerable. The player cannot catch arrows when possessing a shield
• Wings: Wings grant the player flight, capable of rising into the air each time they press the Jump button. Wings will be burnt away if the player comes in contact with fire
• Speed Boots: Speed boots increase the player's horizontal movement speed when walking or airborne

• Looking Glass: The looking glass turns the player practically invisible and will hide their arrow inventory. The player will become even less visible when crouching

Arrows:

• Standard Arrows: Standard Arrows have no special properties. Players will start each round holding 3 standard arrows by default
• Bomb Arrows: Bomb Arrows explode a few moments after being fired. Catching them will prevent them from exploding
• Laser Arrows: Laser Arrows travel slightly faster than Standard Arrows without being affected by gravity and will bounce off of surfaces up to 7 times before coming to rest in a surface. Laser Arrows disappear shortly after becoming inert
• Bramble Arrows: After striking a surface, Bramble Arrows sprout lethal brambles that spread across the surface. Brambles can spread to the other side of narrow platforms and walls. The brambles will remain for a short while before disappearing and can otherwise be destroyed by explosions, flaming arrows or electric bursts
• Drill Arrows: Drill Arrows are capable of burrowing through solid terrain to reach targets on the other side; they will only drill through one solid surface and impact subsequent surfaces as per usual. If two Drill Arrows collide withing a platform they will both vanish
• Bolt Arrows: Bolt Arrows are not affected by gravity and are capable turning mid-flight at angles up to 90 degrees; they will change direction if they have a clear line of sight to a target and may do so numerous times. If a player catches a Bolt Arrow it will create a small electrical burst around the player that will harm enemies and opponents and deflect any arrows
• Super Bomb Arrows: Super Bomb Arrows are comparable to the regular Bomb Arrows though differ by exploding in a large + pattern. Their name and function may be a reference to the Super Bomberman video game series
• Feather Arrows: Feather Arrows fly extremely fast through the air without being affected by gravity. Quick reactions are essential when dealing with Feather Arrows
• Trigger Arrows: Trigger Arrows are a remote explosive arrow type. They are active immediately after being fired and will detonate when the player presses the Alt Shoot button with an explosion equivalent to that of regular Bomb Arrows. All Trigger Arrows that a player has in play will detonate simultaneously with a single press of the Alt Shoot button
• Prism Arrows: Prism Arrows behave the same as Standard Arrows, however when caught by a player or enemy archer they will become trapped in a prism. When inside a prism the player can perform all the regular actions including firing arrows out of the prism, though their movement is constrained to the prism's small dimensions. Other players, enemies and their arrows can pass through prisms as normal. Prisms will shatter after a few moments releasing their captives. If an enemy or player is struck by a Prism Arrow will they will vanish along with the arrow

Orbs:

• Dark Orb: Darkness will consume the stage, making the terrain difficult to discern and players, enemies and arrows near invisible. Ducking in darkness can make a player impossible to see
• Time Orb: Time Orbs initiate a screen wave effect along with slowing the speed of the game by half
• Lava Orb: Lava Orbs create lethal waves of lava either on both of the horizontal or vertical edges of the screen. Any player contacting the lava will be damaged. The lava can be safely passed through during the first few moments during its inception. In Versus mode Headhunters, points are awarded for player deaths to lava and deducted for self kills
• Space Orb: The Space Orb triggers a screen scroll effect in either a vertical or horizontal direction that sees the entire stage loop from one end to the other one time before resting in the original position. Play continues as normal throughout the effect
• The Reaper: This is an enemy that can be summoned with the Reaper Chalice variant activated. It takes a moment to summon him and can be interrupted, but once summoned, the Reaper doesn't stop until the enemy is dead. He is non-corporeal to ghosts, which are non-corporeal as is. He homes in on enemies, chasing them while using his physiology to move through walls and float toward them. His weapon of choice is a scythe, which he uses to destroy one's body/soul and negate resurrection/regeneration of a metaphysical scale.

Note: For a list of Power-Ups in the game [Towerfall], see here. For a list of all enemies in the game, see here.

Note 2: Variants are settings that change the match which can be activated beforehand. For a list of all the Variants in the game [Towerfall], see here.

Note 3: It should be noted for versus threads that every battle with Madeline assumes she is fighting on Celeste Mountain as she normally has these abilities on there and that's the only way for Badeline to exist. Leaving the mountain will remove Badeline's physical form.

Gallery

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  Madeline

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  Celeste's Splash Art

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  Madeline's backpack

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  Madeline in Vancouver

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  A picture of Madeline's family, as seen in the background in one of Theo's Instagram pictures

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  Madeline baking strawberry pie

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  Madeline talking to Theo

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  Madeline engaging in her new archery hobby, in preparation for the Towerfall crossover

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  Madeline and Theo taking a selfie

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  Madeline as she appears in Towerfall

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  Fanart of Madeline's sprite

Others

Notable Victories:

Notable Losses:

Inconclusive Matches: