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Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity. |
Clove the Pronghorn[2] is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-off comic series published by Archie Comics. She is an anthropomorphic pronghorn, and the sister of Cassia the Pronghorn. Along with her sister, Clove is the regional Egg Boss of the Northamera Egg Army division.[3]
Concept and creation
A couple of reasons were behind Clove's creation. One was that Aleah Baker wanted to introduce related sisters (Clove and Cassia) to bring more sibling interaction into the series. From the story "Consequences", Paul Kaminski wanted more worldbuilding by introducing new Egg Bosses, with a more sympathetic angle being suggested, so Aleah Baker made Clove and Cassia to present the story from some sisters' point-of-view to create a new dynamic.[4]
While Clove's basic personality was down from the start, she was early on nearly a badger. Also, early visual concepts had Clove and Cassia in different shades of blue, then yellow and light green respectively, then the dark/light green with the grey and black uniforms. Eventually, Aleah decided to make Clove a prolong for two reasons: to get neat characteristics (Clove's horns were made longer to showcase she is the mature leader compared to Cassia) and because prolongs are some of the fastest animals alive which worked well within the series.[4]
Clove's initial designs were created by Aleah Baker, which was then elaborated on by Evan Stanley. During the development, Clove's design involved various hairstyles, different head shapes, and several types of boots.[5]
Appearance
Clove is an anthropomorphic pronghorn and she stands slightly taller than Cassia. She has paris green fur with curved ears, a medium-sized muzzle, four smooth turfs of fur on the back of her head, a short bushy tail, and short black antlers on her forehead. Also, she has white fur on her muzzle and in patches around her eyes, grey fur on her ear tips, eyelids and between her eyes, and has purple eyes. As attire, she has a gray and open Eggman Empire-inspired uniform resembling a cloak or a dress, with white buckles and yellow buttons. Additionally, she wears black one-piece pants/boots with silver accents, high heels, and yellow toes resembling hoofs. She also has white gloves with yellow cuffs.
History
Shattered World Crisis
Clove and Cassia were in charge of the excavation at a Crystal Cave that contained a Chaos Emerald to obtain the Emerald. However, their operation came to a halt when the cave's terrain proved too dangerous and could not proceed.[6]
After leaving the excavation site for a while, Clove and Cassia returned to it, only to discover that the mine had been attacked and the Badniks had been destroyed. As Cassia wished she had stayed to protect the excavation site herself, Clove replied that she would much rather not have Cassia being destroyed by the invaders, despite her sister's protests. To investigate if the intruders had retrieved the Chaos Emerald, Clove checked the footage from the security cameras and found out Miles "Tails" Prower, Sally Acorn, Antoine D'Coolette were the invaders. Clove then reported to Eggman, who was displeased at his Egg Bosses' incompetence about the invaders and was told to scrap the excavation and stand by for a new objective.[7]
Clove was later entrusted with the only one of the seven Chaos Emeralds that Eggman's forces had managed to find and retain possession of, leading Sally Acorn and Bunnie D'Coolette to infiltrate her territory. Upon learning of the incursion, Clove went to investigate and eventually caught Sally sneaking around.[8] Confronting the princess, Clove explained her view of the situation, believing Sally would her hear out. She managed to talk her opponent into backing down, though she admitted being disappointed that Sally would so readily agree to her demands. Considering the situation resolved, Clove left to return to her post. Seeing her good side, Sally offered to help her, but she calmly declined, believing that not fighting was "help" enough.[2]
Personality
Compared to Cassia, Clove is cool, collected, and mature and approaches unknown matters cautiously. She is very protective as seen in her interactions with Cassia, though to the point where she appears overprotective.[7] In fact, her love for her sister is her primary, if not only reason for serving Eggman in the first place.
Relationships
Cassia the Pronghorn
Cassia is Clove's sister, with Clove serving as her parental guidance. She cares deeply for her sister and her well-being, as she constantly worries about Cassia's health and was willing to face Eggman's wrath over the excavation invasion alone to protect her.[7] She even went so far as to join Eggman to save Cassia's life.
Trivia
- Like Cassia, Clove's name is a reference to the real life flower.
- Clove's favorite ice creams would be mint chocolate-chip if not fruit sherbets, which are not overly sweet or more on the refreshing.[9]
Gallery
Concept artwork
References
- ↑ Aleah Baker (19 January 2016). Lea's Unimportant Farewell to BK Q&A!. BumbleKing Comics. Retrieved on 21 January 2016. "What are Cassia's and Clove's ages? / Aleah Baker: This kind of thing isn't necessarily set in stone until it sees print, but in our "super secret internal documents" *cough* they are listed as thirteen and nineteen respectively. Clove is Cassia's sister rather than a mother figure, but she's still taken care of her most of her life."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sonic the Hedgehog #278, "Hidden Costs Part Two"
- ↑ Ian Flynn (12 September 2015). Solicits: StH#280, SU#83, SSD#15. BumbleKing Comics. Archived from the original on 2 November 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Aleah Baker
(19 January 2016). Lea's Unimportant Farewell to BK Q&A!. BumbleKing Comics. Retrieved on 21 January 2016. "Joggoman: What was creative process behind Cassia and Clove? Did the characters and personalities come about on their own, or were they specifically made to fill the role of "unwilling Eggman subordinates"? / Aleah Baker: Hmm... there are a few different angles going into this. One was that I'd been toying with the idea of a pair of sisters as new characters for a bit, in part because we don't seem to see a lot of sibling interaction in this series -- a lot of characters have sibling-like bonds, but aren't actually related (not to devalue such relationships, it's just funny when it starts looking like almost everyone grew up a single child, and no one ever has more than two kids per family), and those who were often had some degree of separation (they didn't know each other well or didn't interact much). It wasn't a major priority or anything, just something lingering at the back of my mind.
What eventually became The Light in the Dark/Consequences went through a lot of back and forth and conceptualization and tweaking and it was super stressful and blah blah blah... but anyway, at some point Paul Kaminski said that this might be a good opportunity to start some more worldbuilding and wanted me to introduce a new Egg Boss for the story. A more sympathetic angle was suggested (not an automatic requirement), and even though the story got further altered beyond that (so that they never actually interacted with the Freedom Fighters), I did put a lot of thought into the characters, thinking I could use the sisters angle for a new dynamic. I didn't want to introduce any story aspects without having some idea of where they should ultimately lead -- I wanted to be sure there was a direction to follow so that everything that happens in their story comes together and isn't just a series of "shocking reveals" introduce on a whim or whatnot with no end goal or conclusion in sight.
I had the basic personalities down from the start and they became more refined over time (yeah, I know that sounds kind of obvious, but actually writing dialogue really helps get the right feel). I think I mentioned this before, but early on they were almost badgers, and in retrospect I'm glad that didn't happen (this was before anything Boom related was out -- I knew about Sticks at the time, but not what she looked like). My earliest visual concepts had Cassia and Clove in different shades of blue, then yellow and light green respectively, then the dark/light green with the grey and black uniforms, and from there Evan Stanely made them awesome. I thought pronghorns as a species would be cool to introduce for two main reasons. One, they've got some neat visual characteristics -- some nice markings and the horns they're named for (I liked that this is a species in which the females as well as the males have horns, and while it's usually male-exclusive, it's not impossible for the females to have the prong/split thing going on, they just tend to be smaller -- so I thought that would make a nice visual indicator that Clove is the mature leader compared to Cassia). Two -- they're one of the fastest land animals out there. I didn't want to pull the whole "mongoose speed" thing again because I think it cheapens the title character a bit when entire species have the same abilities naturally, but I think some heightened agility works well within the series." - ↑ Evan Stanley (8 August 2014). Tumblr. Retrieved on 9 August 2014.
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #262, "The Light in the Dark: Part Three"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Sonic the Hedgehog #263, "Consequences"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #277, "Hidden Costs Part One"
- ↑ Aleah Baker (19 January 2016). Lea's Unimportant Farewell to BK Q&A!. BumbleKing Comics. Retrieved on 21 January 2016. "akessel92: Wait what kind of ice cream is cassia and cloves favorite? Also, what would phage's be if she could have one? / Aleah Baker: Heh. Well then... I'd imagine Clove tends towards stuff that's not overly sweet or more on the refreshing side. So I guess something like mint chocolate-chip if not fruit sherbets. Cassia likes food in general, so she wouldn't be afraid to indulge in whatever has the most forms of chocolate/marshmallow/sprinkles/etc. in it. Phage has a hard time nailing down specific feelings anyway, so she would probably create some kind of complex review aggregator and an extensive database of ice cream flavours to determine which is "best.""