The power of Celeste mountain gives a physical form to the player character Madeline’s anxiety and depression. This form is named Badeline by the creators but called “Part-of-Me” by Madeline. She first appears as a reflection in a mysterious mirror. She appears as a dark-colored, gothic inversion of Madeline. She has red eyes and sports a smirk. She is meant to be seen by both Madeline and the player as an immediate and obvious enemy. She is set up as something to evade, to thwart, to finally be free of, once Madeline reaches the summit. Mirrors become a recurring motif, a gateway for Badeline or a reflection of some other darkness to emerge out of.

The player meets first meets Badeline in a dark cave in an ethereal and unsettling dream. The hostile mountain is telling her, by its landscape, to turn back. In Hamlet on the Holodeck, Murray writes about game landscapes, “Suspense, fear of abandonment, fear of lurking attackers, and fear of loss of self in the undifferentiated mass are part of the emotional landscape of the shimmering web. Moving through the space can therefore feel like an enactment of courage and perseverance.” Much of what she writes can be applied not only to the landscape of Celeste mountain, but Madeline’s internal struggle. These, combined, manifest as Badeline, a combination of the literal danger of the mountain, and Madeline’s fears of giving up or failing due to her anxiety and depression. Moving through the space of the mountain is a radical rebellion for Madeline against that fear.

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