Spoilers for Celeste if you intend to play it
In 2018, Celeste was released by Maddy Thorson. The game centered around a red-haired 21-year-old Canadian woman by the name of Madeline and her journey climbing Celeste Mountain. This seems fairly simple on the surface, but the game reveals to the player throughout its story that Celeste Mountain is far more magical than it lets on at first, as well as Madeline's climb being metaphorical (yet also literal), for her coming over... what? This is where the interesting part of the representation Madeline provides starts.
Madeline's journey is written in a way where it can be framed into many various problems. The closest the game gives to a label for Madeline's struggles is implied severe depression, as well as a rather brilliant portrayal of how scary a panic attack can be in a stressful scenario. However, the tools are there for a viewer to frame whatever their 'mountain' is in their life. For example, Madeline mentions struggling with alcohol abuse in the game. A player could relate to this and frame Madeline's struggle as alcoholism.
Or it could be simply the depression angle, Madeline climbing the mountain as a way to represent her trying to find a way to overcome her depression, which obviously isn't how depression works but events throughout the game can also tie into that. This is further proven by the fact that Madeline's name can actually be changed at the start of the game to whatever the player's name might be. However, there is perhaps one representation that is the most popular, and is also canon (despite being revealed later).
Maddy Thorson is a trans woman. She described Celeste as being a way for her to come to terms with her identity, leading to Madeline as a character being unintentionally portrayed as trans, a fact which Thorson herself confirmed after the release of the Chapter 8 bonus level for the game. While this does go against the idea that Madeline is a template for the player in a way, it also doesn't. Madeline's trans identity is left vague enough that it can be interpreted as anything, but also explicit enough that it doesn't feel like Maddy Thorson just said it to bring in a bigger audience. The representation is genuine but also still leans into the original intent.
Looking at Celeste from theoretical perspective, we can view the game through the lens of David Gauntlett and his theories on identity. He stated that media provides viewers with the 'tools' to construct a representation and that audiences 'pick and mix' what traits from a representation they want to use to construct their own. As previously stated, Celeste intentionally provides tools for viewers to construct Madeline as a representation for their own struggles, therefore it fits Gauntlett's theories perfectly. As well as this, Gauntlett discusses how media icons become role models for viewers. Myself and many friends I have spoken to has proven to me that this also is accurate for Celeste, as Madeline as seen as a role model for successfully climbing her mountain, metaphorically and literally, as well as the fact she was able to come to terms with her literal 'worse half' in the form of Badeline, or Part of Madeline, the game's main antagonist.
Outside of 'how' it does its representation, what is represented is also widely praised online. Such a positive portrayal of mental illness without delving into stereotype too much is rare and, while the "evil reflection" trope is done to death in media, Celeste does it in a way that makes it feel fresh, as well as subverting the trope in a way as, despite her name, Badeline isn't the bad guy. She's representative of internal self-doubt, intrusive thoughts and self deprecation. She is Madeline's worst parts of herself, separated into its own entity. This is representative of something that is common among those who struggle with their mental health, myself included. There is a habit of separating your struggles from yourself, personifying them in a way, and while its not "wrong to do" per se, its unhealthy. It can lead to a person avoiding guilt for anything they've done wrong. Say someone has BPD and lashes out due to something triggering it. Blaming that entirely on the BPD is what Badeline represents.
This probably comes off like a random tangent, which admittedly it sort of is, but I have a point. We can link this back to Gauntlett for one very important reason. Madeline overcomes this habit. Towards the end of the game, she accepts her "worse half" as still being part of her and takes responsibility for it. This links back to the idea of seeing a character as a role model, as this is something many could aspire towards doing. Accepting their flaws and moving forward. And I've not even gotten into the Farewell DLC and how it deals with grief and moving on from loss. Maybe another time.
Celeste is possibly one of my favourite games ever made. Its heartfelt story, simplistic but still somehow incredible looking 8-bit style, highly engaging gameplay and beautiful soundtrack all weave together to just make an incredible piece of media. For that reason, I wanted to analyse the game from a media perspective, discussing how the game represents its issues, or how it represents whatever your issues are. To conclude, all I have to say is if you've made it this far, please go and play Celeste at least once. Even if you're not very good at platformer games, keep going. That is the whole message of the game, after all. Persevere, ask for help when needed and eventually, you'll reach your summit.
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