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Badeline (Used to be fanbase and internal name, referred to in-game as Part of You, Officially named by her Steam Card) is the main antagonist later turned deuteragonist of Celeste who haunts Madeline from Chapter 2 onward, trying to stop her from climbing the mountain.
Appearance[]
"This is just what I look like, okay? Deal with it." ― Badeline[source]
Badeline looks just like Madeline but has long purple hair, pale skin, and red eyes. She wears a purple jacket with black pants and boots. In Theo's eyes, she's a "goth version of Madeline". In game, she generally appears levitating in the air surrounded by a purple aura. In her official art she has no aura, but is still depicted levitating in the air.
Personality[]
In Chapter 2, Badeline describes herself as Madeline's "pragmatic" side. Madeline states in Chapter 6 that she is paranoid, controlling, and cruel. Badeline is sarcastic and her anger is often provoked during the storyline before she and Madeline make amends. This is seen at the beginning of Chapter 6, when Madeline is nearing the top of the mountain.
Badeline seems to be the insecure part of Madeline, embodying, among other things, her fears: loneliness, inadequacy, failure, hopelessness, etc. She thinks in a more logical way rather than following her heart like Madeline is seen to do throughout the story. Badeline hates being incriminated, and this provokes her anger in the Mirror temple. She believes in dealing with her problems beforehand rather than making mistakes and sorting them out later. Badeline is a powerful magical entity, capable of breaking through multiple feet of hard rock when in an excited or depressed state.
Biography[]
I tried to warn you.
This section contains spoilers for Celeste. Do not read the following section if you wish to avoid spoilers for Celeste.
In Chapter 2, she tries to stop Madeline from climbing the Mountain by attempting to talk "sense" into her and then physically chasing her down. She follows Madeline's exact movements from 3 seconds in the past, and any multiple instances of Badeline follow by another 3 seconds.
In Chapter 3, she provokes Mr Oshiro and gives him a bad impression of Madeline, resulting in the chase at the end of the chapter. Mr Oshiro ends up chasing Madeline until the last room in the chapter.
In Chapter 4, Badeline appears only in the end, where she stalls the gondola after Madeline gets anxious about the height. This initiates a panic attack and the famous "Feather Scene", where the player will have to slow down Madeline's heartbeat and calm her down.
In Chapter 5, she appears to Madeline in the Seeker section, where she explains to Madeline what the mirror temple does. She gives a detailed description over multiple cutscenes at the beginning of the chapter.
At the beginning of Chapter 6, Madeline calls her for a conversation and saying that she is better without her, arguing that both of sides would be happier, which makes Badeline afraid and angry feeling that Madeline was leaving her for dead on the mountain. Mocking Madeline's resolve, a purple appendage grabs Madeline from the air, making her struggle for breath. After Madeline attempts to use the feather trick taught to her by Theo, Badeline breaks the feather, rendering it useless, and pulls Madeline down to the bottom of Mt. Celeste, trying to break Madeline's resolve. However, Madeline slowly fights her way back and convinces a sullen and defeated Badeline to climb the Mountain together. After sorting things out and coming to an understanding, Badeline allows herself to fuse with Madeline. In this way, Madeline gains a second dash, and Badeline will now supply an additional at certain prompts. She becomes a cooperative helper and realizes the good in Madeline. Together, they climb up to the summit of Celeste Mountain in the 7th Chapter, where Madeline and Badeline have conversations about each other and the climb.
Notably, she makes no appearance in Chapter 8 (Except when prompted by a purple orb).
She makes a brief appearance in Chapter 7 Side B where upon touching the last purple orb, will express thrill and delight for how far she and Madeline has come. The outburst of emotions surprising even Madeline herself.
She makes a reappearance in Chapter 9, where she tries to stop Madeline from chasing the Bird, thinking it is just a bird and it is pointless to follow it. Madeline disagrees and looks for the bird without Badeline's help. Badeline later fails to persuade Madeline again, telling her that she is just dreaming. She then tries a third time, which Madeline finally agrees to, except that Madeline would free the bird before waking up, as the bird is trapped behind electricity.
Quotes[]
"You are not a mountain climber." (Chapter 2A-2) Madeline
"Let's go home together." (Chapter 2A-2)
"You think you're above me!?" (Chapter 6A-1)
"Come close to me and I'll make you regret it." (Chapter 6A-3)
"Can I take partial credit for this?" (Epilogue)
Gallery[]
Badeline as she appears on the b-side cover art.
Trivia[]
- She is only referred to as Badeline internally and in the game's Steam trading cards.[3] Throughout the entire game she is only referred to as "Part of You/Me".
- She is also referred to as "ghost" in the graphics folder.
- Though the announcement trailer for the Nintendo Switch version of TowerFall would use the name "Badeline", it is not used in the game itself; Among Us would later be the first game to officially use it, as part of a collaboration with Celeste and other indie titles released in November 2023.
- Badeline is the only character who sticks herself out of the speech textbox ingame. [2]
References[]
- ↑ Badeline could theoretically be anywhere from a few days old—if she's "born" at the start of the game—to Madeline's actual age of 20+ (presumed). Given this large span of potential ages for Badeline and the absence of any confirmed age for Badeline, her age should be referred to simply as unknown.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tumblr post with a preview of Badeline's dialogue sticking out of the box
- ↑ Steam Community Market listing for the Badeline card