Celestia Ludenberg

Celestia “Celeste” Ludenberg (セレスティア・ルーデンベルク Seresutia Rūdenberuku), real name Taeko Yasuhiro (安広 多恵子 Yasuhiro Taeko), is one of the characters featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. She has the title Ultimate Gambler (超高校級の「ギャンブラー」chō kōkō kyū no “gyanburā”). She was a renowned gambler who managed to rob everyone of all their money whenever she played a game with them. Due to her nature, she was given the title “Queen of Liars”.

She was revealed to be the culprit of the third murder case and was executed by Monokuma.

Appearance
Celeste has a slim figure and pale skin. She has black hair (in the video game it is shown as dark, deep blue) in two large twin-drill pigtails (which are apparently clip-ons as mentioned in the art book), red eyes, gold earrings, and black nail polish. Celeste wears a Gothic Lolita-style outfit, consisting of a white blouse with a Peter-Pan collar, a black jacket that includes white ribbon lacing down the sleeves, fastened by a simple ribbon across her chest to show her red tie with a butterfly pattern on it and the waist of her skirt, which is many-tiered and features white lace. She wears knee-high stockings trimmed in ladder lace, red mary janes with a thick heel, a white lace headpiece and a silver, almost weapon-like ring (reminiscent of a certain ring by Vivienne Westwood) on her index finger.

Personality
An experienced gambler, Celeste appears collected and cunning by nature. She possesses the ability to manipulate others into her bidding and can lie with a straight face. She makes use of these abilities by tricking Hifumi into killing Taka and deceiving the other students for the most part of Chapter 3.

Celeste is shown to be fairly intelligent, referencing several aspects of game theory such as Prisoner's Dilemma or Zero Sum Game, but her short-temperedness surfaces when something fails to go as well as she expects it to. Celeste also show her politeness to the others as she use polite language whenever she talk to the others.

Beside what mentioned above, Celeste is an ambitious person, she declared that she will do anything whatever it took to win, even she drove so far to murder two lives.

History
[Warning: Several spoilers follow this section!]

Prior to the Tragedy
Little is known about Celeste's life prior to being trapped within Hope's Peak Academy. However, from Makoto 's interactions with her during Free Time periods, one can discover that Celeste has been gambling for the most part of her life, and that she has not heard the term “lose” for a long while. She tells how she has won countless games, even ones at the stake of her own life, but was able to win regardless. Celeste also reveals that she used to visit a cafe (with an owner that somewhat resembled Hifumi), where she would enjoy her preferred royal milk tea.

High School Life of Mutual Killing
Much like the other students, Celeste awakens to find herself trapped inside the school grounds, to her annoyance. She appears to adapt quickly to the new conditions, claiming that it is the only way to survive, and suggests the others do the same. She was also the person who suggest the students to not went out from their room at Night Time, to prevent a murder.

When Monokuma introduces the first “motive” to each of the students through individualized footage on CDs, Celeste is horrified at what her CD shows (but refuses to say what exactly she saw, which is never revealed). She aids the students in solving the first case after the deaths of Sayaka and Mukuro (disguised as Junko).

The Secret of Mondo Owada
Makoto first encountered Celeste and everyone in the cafeteria; using her poker face, she was able to manipulate Hifumi to make a cup of Royal Milk Tea, only for her to lose her temper and shout at Hifumi when he failed at first.

Celeste plays a key part in Chapter 2, having encountered Chihiro in the storage room prior the latter's death. During this encounter, Celeste notices Chihiro's blue jersey partially hanging out from his bag, which he then stuffs back inside before going off in a hurry. This later proves to be a major factor in figuring out Mondo Owada, as the culprit.

The Queen of Liars's Greed Re-Rise and Fall
After Mondo's execution, Celeste is among the students who witness Monokuma present a ton of cash (10 billion yen) for whoever “graduates” from the academy. Succumbed to her own greed, Celeste plans to commit a murder herself so she can get these cash just to escape the nightmare while ignoring her own comrade's survival. To initiate her plan, Celeste takes Alter Ego, the AI developed by Chihiro before his death, and hides it to cause confusion and upset both Hifumi and Taka. Using their conflict for Alter Ego as her first step of her plan, Celeste enlists Hifumi as her accomplice (and tells him that she will act as his) by saying that Taka took Alter Ego, and that he plans to kill him (Hifumi). Hifumi believes her and the two begin to conspire. They frame Hiro by knocking him out and stuffing him into a robot suit. Celeste organizes Hifumi's “death” after Taka is killed, managing to trick the others into looking for the suspicious person wearing a robot suit. After Hifumi relocates himself and Taka's body to the Art Room, Celeste turns against him and kills him, as she planned to do from the beginning.

During the school trial, Celeste urges the students to declare Hiro (Hifumi's last clue before his real death) as the culprit to both murder since the robot costume matched his height. However, Byakuya, Makoto, and Kyoko see past her lies and manage to prove Hiro's innocence. Even with evidence having her cornered, Celeste refuses to admit (changes her polite personality into her unusual rude mannerism), and would repeatedly deny Makoto's question over her real name and kept claiming that Hiro is the culprit of the third trial, since she never revealed her real name since their first encounter. In the end however, her last stand is proven futile as Makoto mentions her e-Handbook (real name displayed in every student's handbook) and would let her guard down and that evidence alone would lead to her downfall. As she finally went to the gallows and Monokuma reveals her real name as Taeko Yasuhiro, Celeste finally told them and admits to her crimes before facing her execution, stating that she wants to go out “gracefully”. Hina and Hiro who still don't know why Celeste would commit such a murder even though she was the one who tell the groups to 'adapt' with their environment. Celeste then declares she is the one who most wanted to get out from the Academy. She told to everyone that  she had a dream to live in an European castle and surrounded by handsome butlers for the rest of her life, but her dream will be ruined if she is forced to stay at the Academy forever. She also believed that after her death she will reincarnated as Marie Antoinette.

She gives Kyoko the key to the locker Alter Ego is stashed in, bidding her classmates farewell and having Monokuma drag her off to her execution afterwards.

Execution

 * Main Article: The Burning of the Versailles Witch

Hifumi Yamada
Hifumi and Celeste's relationship consists primarily of her bossing him around.

A prime example of this is when Hifumi make Celeste tea, only for her to dash the cup to the ground, claiming that she only drinks a certain milk tea. This is later taken to greater extents as Celeste manipulates him into murdering Taka with the premise of escaping the academy alongside her, using a photograph of Alter Ego in Taka's room to provoke his anger; however, she subsequently backstabs him by murdering him in a similar fashion, then framing Hiro.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine.
 * Rose-Hip Tea
 * Love Affair Ring
 * Crane and Tortoise Diamond
 * Rose Whip
 * Antique Doll

Choices
During free time conversations, the player will occasionally be given a choice on how to respond to something that is said. These are the 'right' choices.
 * Utsunomiya

Skills
These will aid you, usually during Class Trials.
 * Raise
 * Menacing Concentration

Quotes

 * “ Delighted to meet you. My name is Celestia Ludenberg.”
 * “Heh heh... I’m afraid I can’t give you that. Celestia Ludenberg is the name I go by.”
 * “ Would you like to play a game of chance with me? I would be happy to empty your wallet and show it to you.”
 * “Whatever the game, you must have a mind for strategy. This will allow you to increase your odds of winning. However, the exciting part about gambling is that there is a power which can overwhelm any strategy. That power is... luck.”
 * “There are only two types of luck-- good and bad. There is no in-beetwen. And that luck is built into every human at the moment of conception. Like a computer program. Some call it fate. The bottom line is, luck is life.”
 * “You see, I was programmed to have good luck when it comes to gambling. This is why I have never lost.”
 * “It’s a little… troubling for us. Spending the rest of our lives in this school…”
 * “ Goodness me... A professional liar? It was hardly anything extraordinary, I assure you.”
 * “ My lies must never be too extravagant...”
 * “ Your heart really is made out of stone, I hope your body at least gets some good minerals out of it.”
 * “ Ehehe. I'm quite proud to say I'm among the most talented liars in existence.”
 * “ I'm rather proud of my ability to tell lies. I can trick not only others, but even my own heart.”
 * “ Oh, Hifumi... such an easy mark... Ehehe, it's like he was born to be deceived.”
 * “ The power of love, however twisted that love may be, is a corrupting force.”
 * “ I value human life less than a shard of a broken poker chip. I was simply doing whatever it took to win.”
 * “ Lying through my fucking teeth! Every waking moment, it was all I could do to endure this! More than every. Last. One of you!! I wanted nothing more than to get out of this hellhole! You know why?! Do you?! Because I have a dream... and to live my whole life in this place was to throw away that dream. There's no way... I could do something like that... My participation in underworld gambling tournaments... betting my life for enormous sums of money... It was all... because of my dream... To live in a European Castle. And to surround myself with the most gorgeous men in the world... dress them as vampires and make them into my own personal secret service-- doubling as butlers.... Thus transforming my world into a world of perfect aesthetic decadence... My dream-- and my objective-- was to live out my life in that world... My life's work!”
 * “ Regrettably... My dream has been shattered like a falling teacup. But I have no regrets. This is simply the result of me fighting for my dream until the very end.”
 * “ Are you saying I should feel guilty? You're wasting your breath... I neither think anything of nor feel anything about sacrificing others for my own sake. That is simply... how I was made.”
 * “ Ehehe... Isn't it amazing how differences in morals can make a conversation so awkward?”
 * “ No, I am not afraid. So, please, kill me as many times as you'd like. However, should I ever be reborn... surely, I will reborn as... Marie Antoinette.”
 * “ Does that... truly bring hope? I was never able to believe it would. And that's why... No... It needn't be said... Have a wonderful life, everyone. And may we meet again in our next...”
 * “ You, on the other hand, were perfect. Your stupidity far exceeded my expectations and was of great help. Though i feel very sorry for your parents.” (to Yasuhiro Hagakure)

Trivia

 * The name “Celestia”, or in its slightly shorter version “Celeste”, is a given name of Latin origin which means “heavenly”.
 * Celeste's self-styled last name, “Ludenberg”, is most probably a combination of the Latin verb “ludere”, meaning “to play”, with the common suffix for last names of German origin “-berg”, meaning “mountain” - thus making the last name Celeste came up with for herself consistent with both her title and her false claim that she is of German ancestry.
 * Celeste's actual given name, “Taeko” (多恵子), roughly means “child blessed with countless blessings” - making it somewhat fitting for Celeste, who considers her luck extraordinary and even admits at one point that her great success as a gambler is partially due to sheer luck.
 * Celeste's actual last name, “Yasuhiro” (安広), literally means “peaceful and spacious”. It could also hint at an unfortunate background, as another meaning for the character 安 is “cheap” or “low” - making it quite clear why Celeste, who strives to appear as a cultured person and even claims to be the daughter of a European aristocrat (clearly a lie), is embarrassed of her last name and avoids revealing it.
 * Celeste states that her dream is to live in an opulent mansion and be waited on by handsome young men dressed as vampires.
 * Celeste admits that she once managed to accumulate over ten billion yen through gambling.
 * Despite wanting to be a cultured person, Celeste admits that she likes gyoza.
 * In some Free-Time Events, she makes references to a few gambling series:
 * She states that she played mahjong against a “crazy rich old man” and a “silver-haired boy”, referencing the manga series Akagi.
 * She won a tournament of shogi against an “unusual maid”, referencing the manga series 81diver.
 * She claims the most dangerous situation she ever found herself in was in a game of "The Liar King", in which she played against an unusual pair consisting of a “foolishly-honest girl” and a “master con artist”, referencing the manga series Liar Game.
 * In fitting with her Western masquerade, her Japanese title is written using the Japanese transliteration of the English "gambler", instead of the Japanese term "shoubushi" (勝負師).