Clove

"Where’s lover boy? Oh, I see. You’re gonna help him, right? Well, that’s sweet. You know, it's too bad you couldn't help your little friend. That little girl. What was her name again? Rue? Well, we killed her. And now we’re gonna kill you."

- Clove to Katniss

Clove was the female tribute from District 2 in the 74th Hunger Games. She was also a ruthless, sadistic and highly skilled Career Tribute who received a training score of 10.

The Games


Clove was the female representative from District 2 in the 74th Hunger Games, and an expert at knife throwing. Although she was smaller than most of the other tributes, she was highly feared because of her knife-throwing techniques, an area she is dominant in, and seems never to miss a target. She pursues the Games with a sadistic personality, never upset at the prospect of another death on her hands. Clove, along with her district partner Cato, are suited up in gold Roman themed armor for the parade.

The Career pack stuck together during the training sessions and Clove was usually one of the first to flaunt, along with her fellow Careers, Cato, Marvel, and Glimmer. During her private session with the Gamemakers, Clove most likely showed them her knife-throwing skills, though this is never confirmed, and received a score of 10. At this point, Clove and her fellow Careers develop a particular hatred for Katniss, who out scored them with an 11. This hatred evolves into attempts at vengeance later throughout the Games, with varying success.

Clove makes her first kill in the Games during the bloodbath, when she throws a knife at the male tribute from District 9 and strikes him in the back. Next, she targets Katniss's head, but is thwarted when Katniss shields herself with her backpack. After Katniss flees into the woods, Clove returns to the massacre at the Cornucopia. In the film, she rams the girl from 7 to the ground to allowing Marvel to kill her. During the rest of the bloodbath, Clove also kills the boy from 7 and many others. Although the Careers usually team up, at the beginning of the 74th Hunger Games, they are also joined by Peeta Mellark, the male tribute from District 12, as well as the male tribute from District 3.

The night of the bloodbath, the careers venture out to hunt for tributes and come across the female from District 8 It is implied that they killed her, however her cannon does not sound, so Peeta leaves the group to finish her off. In his absence, Clove and the other Careers make the decision to keep Peeta alive in the hopes that he would eventually lead them to Katniss. When the Careers find Katniss, they chase her, and she climbs up a tree to safety. The Careers try, but were unable to climb the tree due to the branches breaking under their weight, and instead set up camp below. That night, Rue appears in the tree below Katniss by way of climbing through the trees. Rue motions to Katniss about the tracker jacker nest above her, after which Katniss gets the idea to drop the nest on the Careers. She saws through the branch holding the nest while the anthem plays, to make sure the tracker jackers wouldn't notice a disturbance and come after her, and the Careers wouldn't hear. The nest drops down from the tree and Clove, along with the others, was stung multiple times. In the movie, Clove is first to flee the Career's campsite, making her one of the fastest Careers. Glimmer, the female tribute from District 1, receives enough stings from the tracker jackers that she dies, along with the girl from District 4 in the book. Katniss then jumps down from the tree after all the other tributes have ran away and takes Glimmer's bow and arrows.

Katniss and Rue form an alliance and plans to destroy the supplies that the careers has, back at the cornucopia. Rue has to light fires to make the careers leave the cornucopia and when the careers seee the smoke, Clove, Cato, Marvel, and the male from District 3 start hunting down Rue while Katniss successfully destroys all of the remaining Careers' supplies, after which Cato snaps the District 3 male's neck out of anger, because he did his job with placing the explosives too well. Clove and Marvel calmed Cato down long enough to explain to him that the tribute that destroyed their supplies must have died, so they waited for nightfall. Only then did they realize that the "bomber" was still alive, so Clove, Marvel and Cato went hunting for Katniss.

The feast is Clove's biggest scene. Clove and Cato form a plan, which involves Clove going in for their District 2 backpack with Cato covering her by scouting the area for hiding tributes. When Katniss came to get the medicine for Peeta, Clove throws a knife at Katniss, which slices her above the eye, and tackles her to the ground, pinning her down. Katniss gives an attempt to bite her hand, but she holds Katniss' head down by her hair. Clove asks her what is in her bag and expresses her hate towards Katniss.

She taunts Katniss about Rue's death, and says she is going to give Katniss a slow, painful death -- "I promised Cato if he let me have you, I'd give the audience a good show."

She reaches into her jacket to select a knife to cut up Katniss' face, after much debate she decides to start with her lips as she would no longer need them to kiss "Lover Boy." Katniss spits blood into Clove's face, making her flush with rage.

Death
Thresh, hearing this, grabs Clove. She then starts shouting for Cato, but is killed by Thresh hitting her in the head with a rock, in the book. However in the film, she is killed by being slammed against the Cornucopia multiple times.

Victims
Clove is able to kill several tributes in the 74th Hunger Games, though the exact number is uncertain. After Clove gains a pack of knives, she throws one in the back of the male tribute of District 9, while he is grappling over an orange backpack with Katniss. She targets Katniss next, aiming a knife at her head, but Katniss blocks it with her pack and escapes. Instead of chasing Katniss, Clove stays to kill more tributes in the Cornucopia. In the film she notably kills the boy from District 7 and by throwing a knife into his back after he sets up Katniss and almost kills her with an axe. Also in the film, Clove kills a lizard for target practice.

In the 74th Hunger Games, Clove is the only person who gets close to killing Katniss, twice — at the Bloodbath and at the Feast, and certainly seems to have a deep hatred for her, perhaps because Katniss gets a higher score than her.

Catching Fire
In Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta went to District 2 on their victory tour where they see Clove's grieving family, and tried to avoid eye contact. Katniss states that the appearance in District 2 was awful, and that both the tributes Cato and Clove could have made it home if it hadn't been for her and Peeta.

Clove appeared in one of Katniss' nightmares before the 75th Hunger Games. She stabbed Katniss in the cheek and then turned into a mutt and began to lick Katniss' wound, causing Katniss great pain. Clove reminded her that she can't run away from her fears and the Hunger Games themselves, thereafter turning into a mutt and chasing Katniss.

Possessions
In the Games, Clove being a Career Tribute, had medicine, food, water, weapons and other supplies from the Cornucopia. The supplies were destroyed from the mines set by the District 3 male. When Katniss blew up the supplies, she was left with her knives and whatever she had left in her pack. In the movie, after killing all the vulnerable tributes in the Bloodbath, they claimed all the supplies, and Clove retrieved a small array of knives on a black vest, which she wears until she dies. She also had a large pocket full of big knives that held to her belt. The smallest knife pointing to her neck was the one she pulled out to try and kill Katniss while retrieving her pack at the Feast.

Weapons
In the book it is described that Clove had a large selection of knives that were attached to the inside of her jacket which is also portrayed in the film. The weapons gave Clove a big advantage because of her skill with knives as shown in both the training center and during the Games.

Cato
In the book, during the feast, Cato showed that he was not completely ruthless, and that he did in fact care somewhat about Clove. While Cato was running towards Clove after Thresh had dented her skull, Katniss stated that as Cato called Clove's name, his voice sounded very "pained," and despite its futility, he begged Clove to "stay with him" as she died. He later avenged Clove's death by presumably killing Thresh. It is hinted that he and Clove might have known each other before the games (since they're from the same district) and had a good relationship (unknown if it was romantic or friendly or he treats her as a sister). However, in the film, Cato instead seemed interested in Glimmer, and Clove and Cato seemed to have no relationship between each other, as he was not shown coming for Clove's aid in the feast when she screamed his name twice. However, this might have been because Katniss left shortly after Clove's death.

Katniss
Clove envied Katniss' high training score (an 11) and hated her more than the other tributes did. In fact, Clove somehow managed to almost kill Katniss two times while the other tributes, including the other Careers, couldn't at all. In the feast, Clove seemed very joyful when she was about to torture Katniss to death, maybe as it would show she was superior.

Personality
Clove was strong, sadistic, arrogant, violent, dangerous and powerful. Clove is also slightly unhinged, which makes her a feared opponent. She has a strong hatred for Katniss due to her high score given by the Gamemakers. When she captures Katniss at the Feast, she joyfully says she was going to make it a slow and torturous death. Clove was also intelligent, supporting Marvel in his idea to keep Peeta alive to get to Katniss, and is smart enough to go to the lake to heal her tracker jacker wounds, and was also instinctive enough to go back to the Cornucopia instead of chasing Katniss. She was raised with the Career mindset.

Physical appearance


Clove, like most Careers, was strong, healthy, brawny and fit. She has dark hair, usually in a ponytail or braid, (while her mutt had dark fur) dark eyes, and some freckles. Clove is described as being 5'4," making her slightly smaller than most of the other tributes.

Film portrayal
Clove was portrayed by Isabelle Fuhrman in The Hunger Games film.

Trivia

 * Clove's name means to cleave, which means to split with a sharp instrument (which makes sense since Clove is very skilled with knives), as seen the night before Glimmer's death when she throws three knives at a lizard.
 * In the film it is shown that she weighs 100 pounds.
 * Clove was the youngest and smallest of the careers, but might have been feared more than Glimmer or Marvel because of her deadly knife throwing skills, and her slight mental problems.
 * It is stated that they made Clove extremely skilled and a little mentally off in the film, due to the fact that Fuhrman was smaller than the other actors who played the Career Tributes. Also, the Career Tributes were supposed to be bigger than most of the other tributes to make them more feared, but by making Clove an expert with knives and a little mentally unstable, she was able to be just as intimidating.
 * In the film, Clove gets a training score of 10, only one point less than Katniss'. Her district partner, Cato also manages to get a training score of 10 during his private session.
 * Her betting odds of winning were 5-1, the same as Marvel and the District 8 girl. That meant she had the highest odds of any female in the movie, and second highest of the careers.
 * Clove came 2nd with the highest betting odds in the careers. She was beaten by Cato, despite this she was the highest female career both times.
 * According to Linda Flowers, the film's hair stylist, Clove's arena hairstyle was inspired by the "bad girls" in Japanese action movies, who had high ponytails. To make it look more original, they made it like little balls coming down her head.
 * She is the only tribute to survive one of Katniss' arrows, in the book. In the movie, Clove is the only one to escape two of Katniss arrows.
 * She is the only career to survive an encounter with Katniss twice. First the tracker jackers, and then two of Katniss' arrows at the Feast. Unlike her fellow tribute, Cato. Cato only survived the tracker jacker and the second time Katniss tried killing him, he died, so did Marvel. Glimmer was the only one, and the District 4 female, to die after Katniss' first attempt at killing them.
 * Clove's dialogue was changed in the film, shortening her speech. Also the beginning of this scene changes, as Katniss does not wrestle with Clove in the books, instead she is cut by one of Clove's knives.
 * In the book, right before Thresh grabs her, Katniss spits in her face, but in the film, she just says, "And now, we're going to kill you..." and raises her knife, then Thresh grabs and kills her.
 * Like Marvel, Clove is killed by the same person in the movie as in the book, but in a different way. In the book, Clove's skull was dented by Thresh's rock. But, in the movie, her skull was split by being slammed head-first into the Cornucopia.
 * Clove was the only member of the original Career Pack to not be killed by Katniss, instead she was killed by Thresh, this is excluding Peeta as he was never killed.
 * Peeta Mellark paints a picture of Clove arranging her knives in her jacket after the Games during the Victory Tour along the way to District 11.

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