Carl Clover

Carl Clover (カルル＝クローバー) is a young vigilante who dropped out of the Military Academy. He is the son of Relius Clover and the current wielder of the Arch-Enemy Event Weapon – Machine God: Nirvana. He is a playable character in the BlazBlue series.

Appearance
Carl is a young boy with light blond hair, a fair complexion, blue eyes and wears jam jar glasses. His typical attire consists of an 1800s, higher class, London-style outfit with long white sleeves, ending in purple cuffs, and purple shorts. These are accompanied with purple military style boots which end in steel toecaps, a gentlemen’s purple top hat which covers his head, and a short purple cape which is attached to his body by a metal fixture in the shape of an 'X' and has a sort of cowbell hanging from it.

When he was at the Military Academy, he wore the standard male uniform, but with shorts.

When he was very young, he wore a purple collar, long sleeved shirt with an orange tie, black shorts, and brown shoes, This is shown after Amane Nishiki uses his Astral Heat on him, seen here

In the end of BlazBlue: Centralfiction, Carl no longer wears his glasses but they’re replaced with a half-mask on his left eye resembling his father’s opera mask, and a monocle on the right.

Personality
Carl has a very professional mindset, and dislikes being treated as a kid. He is always calm and collected, even when staring down a foe.

This, however, is a side effect of Nirvana. Behind his mature facade, Carl hides an almost crippling dependency upon his sister Ada. He suffers greatly on the inside because he has practically lost his entire family to his father Relius’ experiments. From the get-go, the incident with Relius caused him to believe that all adults were liars who would only use him for their own ends. With the help of Litchi, Carl learns that his beliefs are not entirely true, and he overcomes his sorrows. Carl now wants to grow up to be someone like Litchi and Bang – good people who help those in need. It is for this reason that Carl did not condemn Litchi for siding with Relius and the Controlling Organization, and instead shows concern that she is in danger.

In Act 3 of his Arcade Mode in Centralfiction, his personality gradually started to transform to that of his father, Relius Clover, as he started to see people as objects and had the desire for experimenting when he wanted to experiment on Noel Vermillion similar to how Relius was to his sister and mother, despite saying in Chronophantasma that he would never become like his father. This is due to the world warping his memories and he thinks Ada is seriously ill and is not Nirvana and he thought he needed Noel, who has the true Blue, to save his sister, until Relius appeared and told him that he had the knowledge to re-create Ada without the Blue by showing how Ignis was created. This causes Carl to become more like Relius personality-wise when talking to Litchi and Hazama.

History
A talented young boy and first class vigilante, Carl has brought many rebels to justice with the aid of his mysterious doll Machine God: Nirvana, which he believes to be his elder sister, Ada Clover. Carl heads to the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi to retrieve the bounty for Ragna the Bloodedge. He is a former classmate of Noel Vermillion, Jin Kisaragi, Makoto Nanaya, and Tsubaki Yayoi when they were in the Military Academy, but he dropped out. Carl wants to get revenge on his father Relius Clover, for what he did to Carl’s older sister, Ada. In some part of his story, Carl meets Bang Shishigami, and Bang calls him his “cute little disciple”.

BlazBlue: Remix Heart
Before coming to realize that Ada had been turned into Nirvana, Carl still attended the Military Academy, coming in one day and being beckoned over to the Detective Team of Pretty Girls: Remix Heart’s table at lunchtime. He was introduced to Mai Natsume, Kajun Faycott, and Shiori Kirihito. Carl was saved from Noel’s dreaded cooking when the group swayed him from eating her deadly cuisine, but was left bedazzled by Mai’s kindness, comparing her to Ada in how she acts; although Carl was easily lost in the ensuing conversation about Mai’s feelings for Taro Sasagae.

Puppeteers
Escaping from the family household with Ada in tow, Carl arrived at his uncle and aunt’s house 3 days later in the dead of night. Having woke up his uncle and aunt, Francis and Rosenne, they took him and Ada in. After Rosenne called Ada a “doll”, Carl had a massive outburst, claiming that she was unchanged and still family; he then began to explain what Relius had done to her and was driven to tears. Rosenne stared at her niece, unable to imagine how someone so beautiful and bright had been turned into an expressionless doll, she then asked that the two do not stay in the same room when he slept as she was wary of his safety, with this, Carl’s eyes pleaded with Francis to say otherwise, eventually, Francis complied and allowed the two to stay together regardless. When the two went to bed, Ada tilted her head in an attempt to make a gesture; Carl eventually fell asleep studying it.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Wandering through the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi in pursuit of Ragna the Bloodedge, Carl stumbled upon his former classmate, Noel Vermillion, and the two began to talk about old times in the Military Academy, where Carl revealed that he left the academy because of pressing matters. Noel, however, was startled when Carl asked for information concerning Ragna, and denied giving him any information. Unfortunately for Noel, Nirvana sprung to life, destroying the ground where she previously stood. The two began to fight as Carl gave the lieutenant a murderous stare, however, Carl could not stand up to her power, and retreated with Nirvana in tow.

Trigger Shift
Carl makes a brief appearance in the short story Trigger Shift. He is seen asleep, cradled in Nirvana’s arms as it silently watches its master.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
In BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, he follows Ragna the Bloodedge to find out what he is looking for, and seems to have memories of his sister being destroyed from one of the other timelines. Hazama and Nirvana remember each other from the Great Dark War, hence the reason she attacks him on sight.

In his Story Mode, Carl has seemingly taken a sort of drug that made him increasingly violent, especially in his pursuit of Relius, turning down even Bang, who has helped him recover after being knocked out by Ragna, and even called him out for attacking Noel out of blue. His pursuit led him to the Controlling Organization headquarters, whereas he encounters Litchi Faye Ling, presumably after joining Controlling Organization. This infuriates Carl even further, as he thought that she is just the same as other adults and his father, discarding their goodness for their own self-desires, and her sincerity is a fake one. After attacking her, the drug’s effect wore off, and he started breaking down in tears. However, Litchi managed to comfort him, and restored his self-esteem and view towards adults.

Shortly after, Relius arrived and attacked the two with Ignis as Carl responded even more violently, due to Relius’ atrocities on him and Ada. In the end, however, Nirvana teleported both him and Litchi out of the base. Later, Carl left Kagutsuchi to head for Ikaruga, hearing that both his father and Ragna are heading there; thanking both Litchi and Bang for being kind adults (compared to his father); and wished if he grows up, he will be a kind person like Litchi.

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma
Carl and Ada go to Ikaruga to look for Relius. Carl overhears that he will use Litchi for his “experiments”. This is, however, proven false when Relius admits that Litchi’s soul was too unstable for any experiments. But even so, Carl remains determined to defeat Relius. On the other hand, he had to avoid the traveling performer Amane Nishiki who wants to draft him into his troupe, taking interest on Carl’s youthful look. Afterwards Carl confronted his father and demands answers, including a way to restore Ada. Relius reveals that he is unable to bring her original body back, but he could just “create Ada again”. Carl was at first shocked at this revelation, but Relius reminds him that, despite his villainous reputation, he has always been honest towards his son. Afterwards, Carl later reappears at Kushinada’s Lynchpin protecting his father from Ragna, which shocks everyone, including Relius.

Powers and abilities
Carl does not appear to have much in the way of fighting ability, but uses the power of magic element in order to create mechanical constructs such as cogs and the like to attack his opponents. Accompanied by the Arch-Enemy, Machine God: Nirvana, the two are a deadly duo. Nirvana attacks using her blunt strength and steel claws, but like Carl, she does not appear to have much in the way of fighting, as she is often seen in a hunched position doing nothing until commanded. However, she reacts strongly to magic element, other Arch-Enemies, or those who have great power such as Hazama, Valkenhayn R. Hellsing, and Rachel Alucard.

Carl’s Drive is Automaton (オートマトン), which springs the usually hunched over Nirvana to life, ambling towards him and only as long as the Drive button is held down. The entirety of Carl’s moveset revolves around using Nirvana and her moves can only by inputting a command after releasing the Drive button. While Carl’s own attacks are quick, Nirvana attacks with slow and crude but powerful physical strikes like double axe handles and punches. The downside is that Nirvana runs on a gauge and once depleted, she shuts down and sparks, rendered unusable until the gauge charges back up, leaving Carl very vunerable. His Overdrive is Synchro High Speed (シンクロハイスピード), which increase Nirvana’s overall speed.

Trivia

 * Naming
 * “Carl” is a North Germanic male name meaning “strong man” or “free man”. The name originates in Scandinavia.
 * With the exception of Deus Ex Machina, Automaton and Synchro High Speed, all of Carl’s attack names are named after Italian musical terms.
 * On that note, the term “Deus ex machina” is Latin for “god out of the machine”, it is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.
 * Appearance
 * In some of Carl’s early designs, he was depicted with red eyes.
 * When he is electrocuted, there is what looks like a small Nirvana-like object with a controller, and two wires are connected to his head.
 * Other
 * Carl’s birthday, May 5, is also the date of the Japanese and Korean holiday Children’s Day, and the American/Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo.
 * In BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, Carl will direct the player through the Tutorial Mode’s section Intermediate- Cancelling.
 * Carl shares his English voice actor with Linhua.