Celestia Ludenberg

Celestia Ludenberg (セレスティア・ルーデンベルク), also known as Celeste, is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th, and a participant of the Killing School Life featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Her title is the Ultimate Gambler (超高校級の「ギャンブラー」 lit. Super High School Level Gambler).

Early Life
Celestia was a notorious liar - to the point of earning the nickname "Queen of Liars" - and so it is difficult to determine what, if any, of her self-reported life prior to the Killing Game is fact. By all accounts, it seems she was given the given name Taeko Yasuhiro and born into a likely working-class family in the capital of, where she came to love its most famous food,. As mentioned in Danganronpa Kirigiri, Celestia had been a gambler for at least 4 years before becoming a student in Hope's Peak Academy. She has defeated many known gamblers including Ryou Ooba (a former gambler), which caused him to completely give it up. Ryou described her as crushing him in no time at all, and leaving as quickly as she came. Celestia had a cat named Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg whom she spoiled and loved dearly. She taught him to enjoy eating gyoza and made it his favorite food, an example of their close bond. Grand Bois became a captive for Monokuma's first motive during the Killing School Life, which revealed that he meant more to Celestia than any possible living relatives.

Celestia loathed her true self and the common world she was born into, considering her given name of Taeko Yasuhiro a "loser's name", and so sometime during her childhood, Celestia retreated into an obsession with European royalty - particularly of the and  period and European historical figures like. To make her life appear more glamorous, she took on the European-sounding name "Celestia Ludenberg" and concocted a fictional backstory for herself in which her father was a member of the French nobility, and her mother was a member of a German family of musicians. She began adopting a fake ambiguous European accent and wearing and designing her own well-known line of fashion. Her ultimate dream in life was to own and live in a European castle filled with handsome male servants dressed as vampires, and this dream is what led her into the world of gambling in order to raise the significant amount of money she would need.

As a person adept at lying, she became extremely successful in the underground gambling scene, able to even win games she had never played before simply on the strength of her ability to deceive and manipulate the other players. In Japan, and largely controlled by the, so Celestia frequently put her life at risk by playing against and defeating dangerous individuals to win the large sums of money she was chasing, particularly as an underage young girl. Despite these genuinely dangerous experiences, even in recounting the events to others she was prone to exaggeration, and instead of telling the real story would recount the stories of well-known gambling fiction such as, , and , inserting herself into the fictional narratives as if they were real.

Her rise to notoriety within the gambling scene brought her to the attention of Hope's Peak Academy scout Koichi Kizakura, leading to Celestia being chosen to enroll in the 78th Class as the Ultimate Gambler. The reason Celestia agreed to enroll in the 78th Class was the urge to achieve even more notoriety and success so she could quickly actualize her dream of becoming something like royalty herself. In one photo recovered by Makoto, Celestia is shown playfully attacking Hifumi Yamada. Little else is revealed about her relationships with the other members of the 78th Class, but it's hinted that Celestia had at least a few friends.

The Tragedy

 * Main article: Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Despair Arc #11

During The Tragedy, Jin Kirigiri, the Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy, planned to seal the school building and let the students live forever inside the Academy. This was a misguided attempt to save humanity's final fragments of hope; Jin planned for the remaining students to help rebuild the world. The students of Class 78th agreed to his plan and sealed themselves inside the academy. Celestia was seen casually drinking tea while her classmates hurried to seal the doors. The students lived peacefully inside the building for a year without knowing that the Ultimate Despair was planning to destroy them.

Killing School Life
Celestia was among over a dozen exceptional students chosen for Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th. In the Killing School Life, she and her classmates ended up trapped inside the school. Due to Junko's memory wiping, everyone was unaware that they had already spent two years together prior to the tragedy.

When Makoto Naegi introduced himself, he immediately questioned Celestia's name and identity. She reassured him that "Celestia" was indeed her real name. Makoto recalled reading a thread online that described her as a top gambler and an expert of deception, so he remained suspicious. Shortly thereafter, the students were forced to participate in the mutual killing game. The first motive to murder were DVDs with a video from Monokuma that implied their loved ones were in danger. Celestia's video showed her most beloved relative was her cat, Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg.

After the students found out that there no way to escape Hope's Peak Academy on the first floor, Celestia sweetly suggested that they simply adapt to their new lives to prevent anyone from getting hurt. Taking leadership over the group, she decreed that no one should be allowed to go out of their dormitory at nighttime, which wasn't specified in the student handbook. Everyone agreed to comply with Celestia's rule to lower the odds of someone getting killed.

After the death of Mukuro Ikusaba disguised as Junko Enoshima, Celestia callously stated that those unwilling to adapt deserve to die. This showed she had no mercy for those who refused to follow the school rules, and that her empathy was lacking.

Boys' Life of Despair
Following the events of the first Class Trial, the class convened in the Dining Hall in the morning to devise a plan of action. Celestia explained that the killing game was incredibly intricate and that the mastermind must be extremely powerful to create technology as advanced as Monokuma and take over Hope's Peak Academy. Monokuma interrupted to tell them that other areas of the school were now open to explore, and so Celestia, along with the remainder of the class, started the search. However, they couldn't find an exit on the second floor. Once again, Celestia was cool-headed and nonchalant, stating that she enjoyed their newfound freedom and that the occasional class trial wasn't so bad.

The next morning, the class had their usual meeting in the Dining Hall. Celestia announced that she was thirsty and demanded milk tea from Hifumi. He hurried to bring her the tea, but she lost her temper when he failed to make it correctly. She shouted at him that he had added the milk after the brewing process instead of during it, which wasn't what she preferred. Celestia forced him to make it again, and the other students were shocked by this aggressive side of her personality.

After Chihiro Fujisaki's murder, and during the following class trial, Celestia was able to play a part in revealing Mondo Owada as the culprit, having encountered Chihiro in the storage room prior to his death. During their encounter, Celestia noticed Chihiro was holding a duffle bag with a blue tracksuit partially hanging out, which he stuffed back inside before going off in a hurry so she wouldn't be able to notice. Kyoko Kirigiri was able to force a slip of the tongue from Mondo, when explaining that Chihiro had picked out a tracksuit that matched the culprits. Mondo became concerned and stated having a black tracksuit rather than Chihiro's blue tracksuit. However, Chihiro's tracksuit color was not specified by Celestia during her testimony, and she was then able to reveal after that it was in fact blue.

Celestia's Plot
After Mondo's execution, Monokuma revealed his next motive to prompt another murder: 10 million dollars in cash for whoever graduated from Hope's Peak Academy. Celestia, wishing to achieve her dream of owning a large European castle with many male servants, saw the perfect opportunity to win the money and escape the school. From a young age, she had bet her life on gambling in order to win vast amounts of money that could help her achieve her dream, and while she was successful, the amount of money she earned wasn't enough.

When the opportunity arose, she crafted her plan of action by kidnapping Alter Ego and hiding him in a locker. She then approached Hifumi, who had grown attached to the AI that Chihiro had made before his death, and was also continuously in conflict with Kiyotaka Ishimaru over who deserved to spend time with him/her more.

She explained to Hifumi that Kiyotaka had abused her physically and threatened her to steal Alter Ego, stating that he had taken obscene photos of her that he could use as blackmail. She further stated that in order to keep Alter Ego for himself, he was planning to murder Hifumi, too. Hifumi, believing the lie, became enraged with Kiyotaka, and was manipulated into helping Celestia with her plot to escape the school.

Once Hifumi became convinced, the two began to conspire. Celestia and Hifumi tricked Yasuhiro Hagakure into coming to the Rec Room, and were then able to force him unconscious with chloroform. Once unconscious, they put him into the Robo Justice suit, a large robotic model made of cardboard, which Hifumi had made in order to cover a person's face and body as Celestia had specified. Hifumi then positioned himself holding up Yasuhiro in the Robo Justice suit to look as though he was being attacked by Robo Justice. Celestia began taking pictures on a digital camera in order to prove this as fact and to lay suspicion on Yasuhiro. Once Yasuhiro was of no further use, they shoved him into the Pool Room Locker to be discovered by the other students later.

The next phase of the plan was to murder Kiyotaka, who was lured to the equipment room through a fake note made by Celestia, explaining she may have discovered an exit to the school. Then, Hifumi, using the 4th of four "Justice Hammers" he made out of painted mallets from the Art Room, killed Kiyotaka with a fatal blow to his head, and left the 4th Justice Hammer at the scene of the crime.

Hifumi and Celestia then both faked being attacked by Robo Justice with Justice Hammer 1 (in the Rec Room) and Justice Hammer 2 (in the Library). Shortly after, Hifumi faked another attack with Justice Hammer 3 in the Nurse's Office, which resulted in his supposed "death". He was able to fake his death by covering himself in transfusion blood from the Nurse's office and laying on the floor. The other students presumed he was dead due to the body discovery announcement being sounded. However, this was caused by other members of the class discovering Kiyotaka's body at the same time.

Celestia accompanied Asahina to the bathroom, which allowed Hifumi to sneak out of the Nurse's office due to the attention being drawn away from him, thus giving him time to move Kiyotaka's body to the Art Room with a dolly. The class, being notified that Hifumi had disappeared, left for the Nurse's office once again, which meant Hifumi could move freely around the 3rd floor. Once Hifumi had moved Kiyotaka's body, Celestia met with him in the Art Room to discuss their plan of action next. Celestia had convinced Hifumi that she was planning to kill someone of her own in order to remove suspicion on him however this was yet another lie, and their meeting in the Art Room ended in Hifumi's death. As he was celebrating his success, Celestia attacked him with a normal mallet from the Repository and left him for dead after giving him a blow to the head, joining the rest of her class.

Celestia's Fate
During the subsequent Class Trial, Celestia urged the students to declare Yasuhiro as the culprit to both the murder of Kiyotaka and Hifumi, given the fact that Robo Justice matched Yasuhiro's exact height and because the blueprints and suit parts for the model was found in his room. Hifumi's dying words also stated "Yasuhiro" was the one who had attacked him. However despite this incriminating evidence, Makoto wasn't so easily convinced, and, with the help of Kyoko Kirigiri and Byakuya Togami, was able to reveal the culprit due to two major factors:

Celestia had at oftentimes been the only one to see Robo Justice's movements, such as when it attacked her with one of the Justice hammers, when she spotted it heading for the 2nd floor and when she let out a scream to bring the students to the physics lab on the 3rd floor. It was at that point it became clear that Celestia had manipulated the situation for the purpose of allowing her accomplice, Hifumi, to move freely and put her plan into action. Her scream on the 3rd floor moved the class away from Hifumi's position, allowing him to scream from the Nurse's office and fake his death, which meant the class split into two groups, which Celestia herself had suggested. Once Makoto, Aoi Asahina, and Celestia had discovered Hifumi's supposed dead body, Aoi felt sick and was taken to the bathroom by Celestia while Makoto left to tell the others on the 3rd floor who had discovered Kiyotaka's body that Hifumi was dead. This gave Hifumi the opportunity to leave the Nurse's office and wait for the class to come back from the 3rd floor before leaving for the physics lab where he could move Kiyotaka's body.

When Byakuya and Sakura Ogami had returned to Nurse's office, Celestia stated the murderer was enjoying themselves, seeing the class helpless and that they would "be picked off one-by-one, just like those guys were.". This slip of the tongue proved Celestia knew about Kiyotaka's murder beforehand, as she mentioned two people. and referred to both of them as male.

Celestia tried to convince the class that Robo Justice did have a hand in the murders in order to take the suspicions off of her, referring to the picture she took of Hifumi being dragged away. However, the suit itself didn't move at the waist meaning it was impossible that it could have dragged Hifumi away, rather it was balanced on his back. This proved that Celestia and Hifumi had partnered up when taking part in the murders. At this point Celestia had changed from being polite, presenting unusually rude mannerisms. Celestia reiterated Hifumi's dying words where he referred to Yasuhiro being his killer. However, Makoto still wasn't convinced that Hifumi was mentioning Yasuhiro, as Hifumi would always refer to those around him with their last name. While the name Hifumi mentioned didn't fit anyone else's description, Makoto requested Celestia reveal her e-Handbook profile, which she was unable to do. She eventually admitted to murdering Hifumi and involving him in her plan to make the case much more difficult to piece together.

Monokuma revealed her real name to be Taeko Yasuhiro (安広 多恵子), following her guilty verdict. Celestia did not show any remorse for the deaths of Hifumi or Kiyotaka as she stated following her dream to the very end was what was most important. Aoi and Yasuhiro did not understand why she wanted to commit murder when she was the one who preached having to "adapt" to their new lives. However, Celestia admitted she wanted to leave the Academy more than anyone and that she was simply lying, this was due to never being able to achieve her dream if she had to be trapped in Hope's Peak Academy forever.

She stated that she wanted to die "gracefully" and be reincarnated as, not afraid to be executed however Makoto saw through her smile and realized she was indeed afraid, despite her natural façade in deceiving her own emotions. Before being executed, Celestia approached Kyoko for a final goodbye, giving her the key to the locker she had hidden Alter Ego in and stating she was unsure what kind of hope it could have given them. She then bid her classmates farewell, willingly accepting her execution.

Celestia is executed by being stood in front of a large crowd of Monokuma's, standing stationary on a large pile of flammable wood. Her execution, The Burning of the Versailles Witch, shares the same similarities to that of a, something that seems to be preferred by Celestia given her love of the Gothic. A Monokuma lights the flammable wood with a flaming torch causing the fire to spread and surround Celestia, her choosing not to run. However, while the fire is enveloped around her, a fire truck appears from the distance and mounts a ramp in order to crash into her and kill her instantly.



Makoto's Hallucination

 * Main Article: Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Future Arc #11

Celestia is seen alongside her deceased classmates in Makoto's hallucination. Celestia is later seen on fire while next to her other deceased classmates Sakura and Hifumi as all the deceased of Class 78th morph into how they looked when they died during the Killing School Life.

Creation and Development
Celestia's basic design did not undergo a drastic change between DISTRUST and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, most examples of in-development art of Celestia showcase her usual -style outfit, being consistently goth-Lolita since the planning stages. The character designer, Rui Komatsuzaki, has a personal interest in goth-lolita fashion, so the design advanced to its final stage without much deviation. However, Celestia was a bother to draw due to the goth-lolita style's many ornaments and embellishments, as well as her clip-on twin tails. Her designed outfit consists of the same black jacket, white blouse with a Long-point collar with white ribbons in her hair. However different styles of her hair were trialed from her two large twin-drill pigtails. Versions including shorter pigtails, her hair left without clip-ons, her hair consisting of pigtails however far less curly and straggled pigtails.

Her uniform remained mostly unchanged, however, changes between DISTRUST and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc did include what was originally red ribbons in her hair rather than white including a red ribbon placed on her blouse which was then replaced for a white ribbon with a red tie underneath. She was also originally designed to wear earrings resembling the cross which related to her love of the gothic however this was converted to simple gold spherical earrings. Her knee-high socks were originally white striped black however the final design instead kept the socks fully black with white frills at the opening. Her body was originally designed to be of a much thinner build with a far softer looking face resembling a more realistic appearance of a doll, Celestia was made to look more doll-like than the other characters, so her skin's saturation lowered considerably. She is noted to be relatively tall because she's of average height but wears high heels. She was also designed wearing a crown, relating to her desire to own a castle and be of royalty, with another design of her holding a bunny mannequin doll, again representing her love for the gothic.

Name
Celestia's name in the Japanese release, "セレスティア・ルーデンベルク" is romanized as "Seresutia Rūdenberuku", making the original anglicized version Celestia Ludenberck.

The name “Celestia” is a given name of Latin origin which means “heavenly”, unsurprisingly, Celestia chose this name for herself to represent her fine decadence. Celestia'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 or Dutch origin “-berg”, meaning “mountain” - thus making the last name Celestia came up with for herself consistent with both her title and her false claim that she is of German ancestry. While Celestia is her full fake name, she also doesn't mind being referred to as “Celes” by other characters in the Japanese version of the game, while in the localization the characters call her “Celeste.” It might also be that Celestia's last name is a combination of and  last names, both men being of German ancestry which Celestia herself aspired towards. Celestia's made-up surname also matches the name of a, further befitting her false claims of German ancestry. It is clear the last name Ludenberg is of heavy German descent.

The Chinese transliteration of her name is 賽蕾絲蒂亞・魯丹貝洛克 (Sàilěisīdìyà Lǔdānbèiluòkè). A few of the characters present in the transliteration have some interesting meanings that relate to Celestia's appearance and talent. 賽 (sài) means "competition, contest", which relates to her talent in gambling and how it is a contest of sorts. 丹 (dān) means "red", which could be referencing Celestia's eye color. 貝 (bèi) means "seashell" in modern Chinese, but in classical Chinese, bèi was a word that meant "money, currency", as shells were used as currency in ancient China. This meaning of money relates to gambling, which is playing games of chance for financial gain.

Celestia's actual given name, “Taeko” (多恵子), roughly means 'many miracles ” - making it somewhat fitting for Celestia, who considers her luck extraordinary and even admits at one point that her great success as a gambler is partially due to sheer luck. Celestia'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 Celestia, who strives to appear as a cultured woman, claimed to be the daughter of a European aristocrat (clearly a lie), as she is embarrassed by her last name and its representation of her character.

In DISTRUST, her name was S. Rudenburg. It is unknown exactly what the S stands for, but it is likely Selestia or Serestia, following the romanization of "Ludenberg" to "Rudenberg".

Alternate Fates
The Danganronpa 3 box set included a feature detailing an alternate ending of Danganronpa called Danganronpa Another End which ultimately never made it out of the development phase. In this ending, all of the students escape, at the cost of giving up their talent forever. In Celestia's ending, while she is downhearted about losing her quick and easy way to make money through gambling, she now wishes to sell her own handmade clothing, presumably of luxurious material, as she wants to sell these clothes at an expensive price for making them with “her love”.

Celestia also escapes Hope's Peak alive, with the rest of her classmates, in the novel Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF.

Appearance
At the beginning of the Killing School Life in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Celestia appears to be a young high school-aged teenager, but due to the memory loss, she is two years older than she believed. She wears a white lace-bonnet with one white ribbon for each side with a smaller ribbon tied at the bottom, and has black hair in two large twin-drill pigtails. In the anime, the pigtails are more drill shaped and curved. However, these are clip-ons evidenced in the event of the girls bathing in Chapter 3, as she is seen without them. Strangely enough, they frazzle up when she's angry. She has pale skin, red eyes, and gold spherical earrings which have an image depicting the cross engraved into them with a red gem placed in the center in each. She also has long, black nails.

Celestia wears a -style outfit, consisting of a white blouse with a Long-point collar, a black jacket that includes white ribbon lacing down the sleeves, fastened by a simple white ribbon across her chest to reveal her red tie (consisting of a butterfly pattern layered on top of various spears with skulls attached to it) and the waist of her skirt, which is many-tiered and features white lace.

Celestia wears knee-high stockings trimmed in ladder lace with a black ribbon on the opposite side of the other for each, dark red mary janes with a thick heel held on her feet by three grey buckles, a white lace headband, and a silver, Gunmetal plated ring (reminiscent of a Gunmetal Armour ring designed by Vivienne Westwood) layered in overlapping sections on her index finger.

During her school years, she wore dark-hued panties. The tulle lace is of a regal quality, giving off the distinct vibe of a queen. Supposedly a C-rank human cannot stand gazing upon them, likely due to the fact that she considers them a lower status of even her fine clothing.

Personality
As an experienced gambler, Celestia appears collected, cold, and cunning by nature. She possesses the ability to manipulate others to do her bidding and can lie with a straight face, this is shown when she is able to manipulate Hifumi to make her royal milk tea and further be her accomplice during Chapter 3. She is shown to be fairly intelligent, referencing several aspects of game theory such as Prisoner's Dilemma or Zero Sum Game, and her manipulative and coercion skills are shown in Chapter 3, being able to deceive the majority of the students, including Byakuya up until the class trial. Her intelligence is also shown in previous cases in which she, alongside Kyoko, Byakuya, and Makoto are the ones to bring up crucial points and is also capable of keeping up with Byakuya and Kyoko's train of thought during the trials as well.

Celestia is a very ambitious person, as she declared that she will do anything it takes to win, and is ready to go as far as murdering someone or manipulating others in cold blood. She is extremely selfish and values her life over the lives of others, stating she has no problem sacrificing others in order to save herself. She also has a lot of pride, refusing to surrender no matter how far into a corner she's pushed, as long as the chance for victory remains. However, when confronted with complete defeat, Celestia preferred to surrender gracefully over dragging out the inevitable.

Celestia believes in adaptability to be the key to survival, rather than strength or intellect, and she acts upon this by setting up measures such as the voluntarily imposed night-time curfew to protect the other students, as well as herself, from potential killers during the Killing School Life. She often reminds others to obey the curfew and is often annoyed when people such as Byakuya Togami violate the curfew, showing her authoritative and commanding nature. After the death of Chihiro, she coldly remarks that people who disobey the rules pay the price. In reality, she was lying about having to adapt and more than anyone wanted to leave the school, showing how easy it is for her to hide her emotions.

Celestia is shown to be relatively materialistic, with her life's dream being living a life of luxury and decadence in a European castle. Monokuma's third motive appealed to Celestia's greed and caused her to put a murder plot into motion. She was also the only person unable to view Alter Ego as a person or friend, which ultimately contributed to her decision of seeking escape through graduation.

Her mannerisms are strict, refined and her spoiled nature emphasizes this due to her aspiring to be like European royalty. She even has a habit of ranking men between Rank A and Rank F, supposedly to test who is worthy of being one of her servants. She despises her real self as she dislikes ordinary and common things and considers her real identity and name to be one of "a loser". Celestia speaks softly and smiles often in order to imitate Victorian mannerisms and etiquette as a lady. She usually uses polite language whenever she talks to the others, but her short-temperedness surfaces when something fails to go as well as she expects it to, such as when Hifumi fails to make her royal milk tea as she likes it. Another example is during the third Class Trial when she's accused of being blackened, Celestia quickly lost her composure after being accused of murder. She shouted and denied accusations towards her with unusually rude mannerisms, often using vulgar language. In the English dub, her normal European accent also begins to falter as well.

To further keep up her Western masquerade, Celestia often does things such as using the Japanese transliteration of the English "gambler" (ギャンブラー), instead of the Japanese term "shōbushi" (勝負師) and claiming her parents are of European ancestry.

As the Queen of Liars, Celestia claimed that she can even fool her own emotions, but this doesn't seem to be entirely the case. She appears to lack empathy and claims that she feels no guilt for the nefarious acts she committed in the gambling underworld, although like most things regarding her, the truth of this is in question. Despite her status as a consummate liar, before she was executed she presented a smile but Makoto was still able to recognize her fear within. Celestia has a habit of deceiving her own emotions and so even in defeat always keeps a constant poise.

Ultimate Gambler
At a young age, she became a gambler and won countless games, even ones at the stake of her own life, but was able to win regardless. She states during a game of King of Liars, she spilled tea on her favorite dress and she had to end the game quickly to take it to the cleaners. She once even managed to accumulate over ten million dollars. She also won a Shogi tournament despite not really knowing how to play the game. Though her poker-face helped, she claims that the secret to her success is the luck she was born with. She was renowned for managing to rob any who challenged her of all their money and she gained the title "Queen of Liars". She kept earning money for her main goal in life - to live out the rest of her days in luxury in a big fancy European castle with handsome male servants from all around the world dressed as vampires.

Queen of Liars
She was renowned for managing to rob any who challenged her of all their money, taking part in life-risking gambling underworld tournaments and having the ability to lie when faced with difficult matches. Celestia is able to lie with ease about her character, convincing those around her that her real name is “Celestia Ludenberg” while referencing various manga stories when it came to her gambling exploits. She is also able to lie about her line of descent, though seemingly originating from Japan she states to be of German and French background and was able to lie about her parents' associated ancestry. While Makoto suspected she was lying, she was very convincing when manipulating Hifumi into making her royal milk tea and murdering Kiyotaka, by lying that he had abused and threatened her to steal Alter Ego.

Keen Intellect
Celestia is able to manipulate situations to her advantage by using Robo Justice as an object to convince everyone of Yasuhiro's supposed deceit. It is only during the class trial that the students begin to unravel the truth of Celestia's complicated plan that was successful through a various number of planned intricacies.

Celestia explained to Makoto during her Free Time Events that she once partook in a gambling match without understanding the rules of the game however was still able to overcome her opponent, presenting her quick thinking and intelligence under pressure.

Relationships

 * Family:

Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg
Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg is Celestia's pet cat. She enjoyed his company and pampered him, and most likely she was planning on having him with her in her dream mansion.

Grand Bois Chéri was also Celestia's Captive and closer to her than anyone else. This implies that she didn't care for any people, including possible blood family.


 * Class 78th:

Hifumi Yamada
Hifumi and Celestia's relationship consists primarily of her bossing him around and using him as her servant. A prime example of this is when Hifumi makes Celestia tea, only for her to dash the cup to the ground, claiming that she only drinks royal milk tea. This is later taken to greater extents as Celestia manipulates him into murdering Kiyotaka with the premise of escaping the academy alongside her, using a photograph of Alter Ego in Kiyotaka's room to provoke Hifumi's anger; however, she subsequently betrays him by murdering him in a similar fashion, then framing Yasuhiro.

Shortly after Celestia and Hifumi's deaths, the survivors found a picture of the two and Sayaka together. In it, Celestia seems to be angry with Hifumi, indicating that their relationship was the same during their time in high school. However it seems to be of a more friendly and playful nature as Hifumi is amused by Celestia's reaction rather than afraid, while Sayaka laughs in the background. This is different from Hifumi's reactions to Celestia's bullying and manipulation during the Killing School Life, and shows that they may have had a friendship while attending high school at Hope's Peak Academy. At some point during their school life, Hifumi (and presumably the rest of her classmates) also learned Celestia's real name.

During Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony's non-canon bonus mode, when Kokichi Oma lies to Celestia that Hifumi inflated himself and popped like a balloon, she barely reacts and only finds it inconvenient because he makes her tea. She knows Kokichi is just lying, but the situation likely reflects how little she truly cares about Hifumi.

Makoto Naegi
Makoto is the only person in the class who isn't fully convinced by Celestia's lying, not believing her name or ancestry to be real. Celestia seemed to be somewhat fond of Makoto, and was curious to see if his luck as the Ultimate Lucky Student could beat her own luck as the Ultimate Gambler. This however did not stop her from engaging and insulting him when she was challenged.

In her personal ranking, Celestia initially ranks Makoto with a D-rank, which is the sames as her other classmates and most other people. During their Free Time Events together, Celestia warmed up to Makoto as a friend and opened up a little to her past childhood, stating she originated from Japan and liked the food gyoza, something which Makoto was more inclined to believe.

At the end of her Free Time Events, Celestia promoted Makoto to a C-rank and told him he was eligible to be her personal servant, her "knight". Makoto stated he would think about it, at which Celestia became vexed, likely wanting him to agree right then and there. While Makoto considers Celestia a friend, he is intimidated by her luck and is afraid of her deceptive personality. He also doesn't know whether to believe if someone were of F-Rank that Celestia would have them personally killed, given her hatred of uninteresting people.

Yasuhiro Hagakure
During the Killing School Life, Celestia planned to frame Yasuhiro in order to escape the school. The reason why is because Yasuhiro was the most "stupid" student in Celestia's mind, stating she pitied Yasuhiro's parents for having to put up with a son such as him. It is likely Yasuhiro, in Celestia's mind, was ranked lower than D-Rank as she was so willing to condemn him to murder with no remorse. However while clearly seeing him as insignificant to her and her own dreams, when Celestia stated she wanted to be reincarnated as "Marie Antoinette", Yasuhiro comically remarked that she would only die again, causing Celestia to laugh for her final words. While she may have still disliked Yasuhiro, it is possible she may have thought him less insignificant if she had taken the time to get to know him.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru
During the Killing School Life, Celestia had a plan to manipulate Hifumi into killing Kiyotaka since she felt annoyed with him and Hifumi for fighting over Alter Ego and saw their negative feelings for each other as an opportunity for her to escape. Celestia lied to Hifumi that Kiyotaka stole Alter Ego and also lied about how Kiyotaka abused and threatened her. These largely shocking accusations show that Celestia and Kiyotaka had no friendship as she easily manipulated Hifumi into killing Kiyotaka and showed no remorse for his death. She put her own dreams above Kiyotaka's own life, showing that he was not impactful on her as a person in any sort of way.

In the bonus mode, she and Kiyotaka regularly play shogi, with Celestia usually winning and making Kiyotaka get her tea from the cafeteria. He then becomes determined to beat her. When Kiyotaka ties with her, she says it's luck, but he insists it's hard work. He later boasts about his dream world and Celestia bets against it.

Free Time Events & Bonus Mode Guides
The links below are full transcripts and in-depth guides for Celestia Ludenberg's relationship routes in Free Time Events, School Mode, and Ultimate Talent Development Plan including her MonoMono Machine Present preferences and most effective dialogue options.

Quotes

 * -|DR1=


 * -|DRtA=

Extra=

List of Appearances
Games=
 * DISTRUST (Scrapped)
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: Major
 * Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle: Major
 * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Cosplay/Bonus Mode
 * -|Anime=
 * Danganronpa: The Animation: Major
 * Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Future Arc: Minor
 * Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Despair Arc: Cameo
 * -|Light Novels=
 * Danganronpa Kirigiri: Mentioned
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF: Major
 * Danganronpa 1 ・2 Beautiful Days: Major
 * -|Manga=
 * Danganronpa: The Demo (Manga): Major
 * Danganronpa: The Manga: Major
 * Danganronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei 4koma KINGS: Major
 * Danganronpa: The Animation (manga): Major
 * Small Danganronpa 1・2 Light: Major
 * -|Music=
 * Usotsuki Joō (~ la reine du menteur!!~)
 * Gothic Masquerade
 * Essai de menteur
 * -|Stage Plays=
 * Danganronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei THE STAGE (2014): Major
 * Danganronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei THE STAGE 2016: Major

Merchandise
The link below lists all official licensed merchandise featuring Celestia Ludenberg:


 * Main: Celestia Ludenberg Merchandise

Trivia

 * In some Free Time Events, Celestia makes references to a few gambling-themed manga series:
 * She states that she played against a “crazy rich old man” and a “silver-haired boy”, referencing the manga series .
 * She won a tournament of against an “unusual maid”, referencing the manga series .
 * 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/drama series .
 * In the non-canon Danganronpa V3 bonus mode, Ultimate Talent Development Plan, Celestia challenged Makoto and Nagito Komaeda to mahjong to test their luck. She then suggested they add the headmaster, Jin Kirigiri, to even things out. This is likely a reference to an official art from Danganronpa 1.2 Reload where the same event happened.
 * In a series of tweets from Kazutaka Kodaka during Valentine's Day of February 2013, he tweeted "in-character" as several of the Danganronpa cast, including Celestia. The tweet translates into this:
 * “Oh my. You actually ate that? Ehehehehehehehe. You should learn not to be so trusting of others–though it’s too late now.”

Appearances in Other Media

 * Celestia is included in the first wave of Danganronpa 1.2 Reload x Divine Gate.

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