Celes Chere

General Celes Chere, also spelled as Celes Chère, is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. A genetically enhanced Magitek Knight initially serving as a general of the Gestahlian Empire, she becomes disillusioned with the empire and turns her back on them to join the Returners. Celes serves as a love interest to Locke Cole and a foil to Terra Branford, their character development and abilities paralleling each other.

Appearance and Personality
Celes is eighteen-years old at the beginning of the game. Celes has long blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. In concept art and renders in the Final Fantasy Anthology release she wears yellow and purple armor with high boots and a sword as her weapon. In-game Celes's sprite wears a long white cloak over green leotard with white boots. When disguised as the opera singer Maria, Celes wears an elaborate white and beige gown, and keeps her hair tied back in a ribbon.

When Locke first rescues her, Celes is cold and independent, initially refusing Locke's assistance and preferring to remain imprisoned to face her execution with pride. Celes's bond with the other party members forms slowly, and outside of Terra and Locke few of them take kindly to her when they first meet. Celes's loyalties are called into question later in the game by the time Celes and Locke two have begun to fall for each other, and Locke's suspicions leave Celes heartbroken to the point she refuses to speak to him when they see each other again. In the end Celes remains loyal to the friends who truly care about her, choosing friendship over power that the Empire tries to offer her.

Story
Little is known of Celes's life prior to the game. Cid says he has known her since she was a child and doted on her like a daughter, but eventually forced her to become a Magitek Knight. Celes became one of the Empire's top generals, but retained a good and honorable spirit. At an unspecified point Celes led an Imperial attack on Maranda, subjugating the town to Imperial rule. She met Terra at some point, as the two recognize each other when they meet in Narshe, but their first meeting is not elaborated on. In the dream-sequence cutscene early in the game, after Terra falls unconscious in the mines, Celes can be seen alongside Emperor Gestahl, along with Kefka and General Leo.

Eventually Celes became disillusioned with the Empire's conquest and was imprisoned in South Figaro to be executed while the Empire occupied the town to push north into Narshe. The specific reason for her arrest is never mentioned, although it is implied she spoke out against Kefka's plan of poisoning Doma. During Locke's campaign to stall the Empire's advance he finds Celes in chains and releases her, helping her to safety. Locke explains Celes reminds him of someone, but doesn't explain further. Celes accompanies Locke to Narshe and joins the Returners to defend the town from Kefka and his troops.

In the aftermath of the battle, Terra transforms into an esper and flies to the south-west. Finding her in Zozo, Ramuh advises the Returners to infiltrate the Magitek Research Facility and free the espers there in the hopes one of them can help her.

Celes volunteers to lead a team to Vector to infiltrate the facility, Locke deciding to accompany her. In Jidoor, the group discovers Celes bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous opera star named Maria. With the knowledge that the owner of the airship Blackjack, Setzer Gabbiani, intends to kidnap and marry Maria, the Returners set a trap for him at the Opera House. Though initially hesitant, Celes impersonates Maria and takes her place in the opera, the plan being that Setzer will kidnap her and Celes can sneak Locke and the others aboard his airship.

Despite the interference of Ultros at the climax of Act I, the plan succeeds and the group boards the Blackjack. Using a two-headed coin borrowed from Edgar, Celes bets her hand in marriage against Setzer's airship and wins, earning his allegiance. Though aware he was cheated, Setzer is delighted by the trickery and agrees to her terms, ferrying them to Albrook on the southern continent.

Infiltrating the Magitek Research Facility, the group frees several espers from captivity but are too late to save their lives. The espers transform into magicite and entrust their power to the Returners. Cid approaches Celes and asks her about the rumors that she had feigned treachery to infiltrate the Returners as a spy. Kefka appears and taunts the group, claiming Celes had indeed deceived them and was loyal to the Empire. Locke grows hesitant despite her pleas, and Kefka has his soldiers attack them. To prove her loyalty, Celes spirits Kefka and his soldiers away as well as herself, buying the others enough time to escape the facility to the Blackjack and flee from Vector.

With their new magicite powers and Terra's true heritage as a half-esper revealed, the Returners find the sealed gate to the Land of Espers and open it. The espers decimate the Empire and Emperor Gestahl calls a truce, asking the Returners to join him in locating the espers before they cause further chaos. Terra and Locke are dispatched to Thamasa under the command of General Leo. The ninja mercenary Shadow and Celes are part of the Imperial forces accompanying them, Celes apparently retaking her rank as general. Surprised to see Celes, Locke attempts to approach her but she refuses to speak to him. The Empire-Returner alliance turns out to be a trap - when Terra and Locke locate the espers with the help of Strago, Kefka arrives with a force of Imperial soldiers and kills the espers, claiming their magicite, and incapacitates the Returners and Leo's men alike. When Leo attempts to stop Kefka, Kefka slays him. Leo is laid to rest in Thamasa and Celes rejoins the Returners.

With their new power Gestahl and Kefka raise the Floating Continent, the Warring Triad at its summit. The Returners send a team onto the continent to confront Gestahl and Kefka, and Celes attempts to reason with the emperor. Gestahl paralyzes Celes's allies and offers her the chance to rule the world with him and Kefka. Kefka hands Celes a sword and tells her to kill them, but Celes refuses and instead stabs Kefka. The sight of his own blood sends Kefka into a rage, and he demands the Triad give him their power. Kefka kills Gestahl when he intervenes and knocks Celes aside, moving the Triad's statues out of their delicate balance. Shadow arrives to stop Kefka and buy time for Celes and the others to escape, but the damage is done: Kefka disrupted the balance of power between the gods and caused the apocalypse, drastically shifting the face of the planet.

A year later Celes awakes from a coma on a small island in the care of Cid. Cid tells her that in the wake of the destruction a year ago, the world has been sliding further into ruin and whatever survivors remained on the island with them have perished or killed themselves. Deciding to think of Cid as her grandfather, Celes attempts to repay his kindness by caring for him while he is ill. Depending on the player's actions Cid will either live or die.

If he dies, Celes travels to the northern part of the island and leaps into the sea to kill herself. She survives and washes ashore where she finds a wounded bird, its wound wrapped in a bandana. Celes takes this as a sign Locke is alive and finds a letter from Cid, directing her to a raft hidden in the basement of their home. If the player manages to save Cid, he shows Celes the raft himself. Celes leaves the island to return to the mainland and find her friends.

Celes lands near Albrook and continues north to Tzen, reuniting with Sabin. His safety convinces Celes that the other Returners must still be alive in the world somewhere. The two travel east to Mobliz and find Terra caring for the orphaned children there since Kefka's Light of Judgment destroyed the town. Though they help defend the village from the demon Humbaba, Terra is struggling to understand her budding love for the children and remains in the village. In Nikeah, the leader of the Crimson Robbers bears a suspicious resemblance to Edgar. Following the robbers on their ferry to South Figaro and through a cave into Figaro Castle's engine room, Edgar eventually drops the charade and rejoins the two.

The three use Figaro Castle to burrow east to Kohlingen, where they find Setzer in a drunken stupor since losing the Blackjack in the apocalypse. Celes convinces him to rejoin the fight, and Setzer proclaims they'll retrieve another airship - the Falcon, formerly belonging to his friend Darill. At the depths of Darill's Tomb, Setzer raises the Falcon and the four take to the skies, the new airship filling them with hope that they have a chance to set things right. Eventually the former Returners are reunited, and the group uses the Falcon to land atop Kefka's Tower and confront him as the God of Magic since he has drained the Warring Triad on their strength.

At the tower's summit, the group finds Kefka basking in his power, declaring the lives of mortals meaningless and insignificant. The group rejects Kefka's claims, telling him they've each found meaning in their lives even in the ruined world - Celes cites her ability to find acceptance from Locke. The group engages Kefka and his servants in a final battle. With Kefka's death the tower begins to collapse and magic begins to vanish from the world. Terra uses the last of her powers to lead the group to safety.

On the way out, Celes drops the bandana she found on the Solitary Island and rushes back for it. The floor collapses under her but Locke dives to take her hand and pulls her to safety, berating her for risking her life for it. As the group escapes in the Falcon Terra's powers give out and she falls through the air. Setzer dives forward to catch her, Celes pulling her to safety.

Battle
Celes's abilities are similar to Terra's. She has all-around high stats and equips swords, maces, some daggers, heavy armor, some hats and robes, and all shields. She also has access to female-specific equipment. Celes and Terra have almost identical equipment draws, except for the Cotton Robe, and their respective ultimate weapons in the Finest Fantasy for Advance release - while Terra uses the Apocalypse, Celes wields the Save the Queen.

Celes's ability is Runic, which negates the next magical ability used and heals Celes of an amount of MP equal to that ability's MP cost. As she is rescued from prison when she joins the party, Celes joins with only a Hair Band equipped.

Along with Terra, Celes is the second party member to be able to learn magic without equipping magicite. Compared to Terra who learns healing and attack spells, Celes has a focus on status magic. Celes learns the Blizzard line of spells, contrasting Terra's Fire spells.

Development
Celes was originally meant to be a "conflicted spy" archetype - a spy working for the antagonists, but swayed by the benevolence of the people she was supposed to be spying and how nice Locke was to her. She was also psychologically unstable, like Kefka, due to similar magic infusion process. Although the "conflicted spy" idea was not used in the final game, the archetype was eventually used for Cait Sith in Final Fantasy VII. Celes was Kitase's personal favorite Final Fantasy VI character from a developer's point of view. Kitase has stated that at first, Celes did not have as much of a role as a character, but this changed later in development.

The scene where Celes is being tortured by the Empire was removed for the Game Boy Advance release of Final Fantasy VI. This is because the original Final Fantasy VI was created before the Japanese ratings board, CERO, existed. Violence is rated strictly in Japan, and Square wanted a CERO A rating for the Game Boy Advance version, which would have been impossible if a game depicts violence against a restrained human.

Musical Themes
Celes is the only character in the game other than Terra who is introduced without her theme music; instead, the song "Under Martial Law" is playing. It is not until after her performance in the Opera that Celes's theme makes an appearance.

In the Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version, Celes's theme is simply called "Celes" — disc 1, track 22. A remix of the theme is used as the basis for "Aria di Mezzo Carattere", the song Celes sings in the opera.

A piano arrangement of her theme is found on the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VI album. This version is also included on the Potion 2: Relaxin' with Final Fantasy album.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Celes Chere is represented by two cards in the TCG: 5-039S and 5-040U. Both cards are Ice-elemental, and the first portraits artwork of her by Yoshitaka Amano, while the second shows her super-deformed art.

Merchandise
The Final Fantasy Cold Cast Collection is a limited edition collectible series featuring cold cast statues that display notable scenes from Final Fantasy series. Only 3,000 Celes and opera house cold casts were made, each coming with a card and card stand that had the statue's limited number and description. The series has been out of production since 1999.

Etymology
Celes is possibly derived from Celeste, meaning "celestial", "of the sky" (but also "sky-blue" and "heavenly") in Italian. "Celeste" and "Celestina" are female given names in both Italian and Spanish. Her surname is derived from the French chère, the feminine form of cher, meaning "dear", "precious", "treasured" or "expensive". Celes's name provides a contrast to the English name of her foil protagonist Terra, terra being the Latin word for earth, while celes could be taken to refer to the word celestial and the French céleste.

Trivia

 * Due to a bug it is possible to sneak out of South Figaro without recruiting Celes. This leads to Celes being replaced by Moghan, one of the Ten Moogles.