Clara Stahlbaum (The Nutcracker Prince)/Relationships

The relationships of Clara Stahlbaum from The Nutcracker Prince.
==Romances==
===Hans/The Nutcracker===
Clara has a loving relationship with the Nutcracker since she first received him as a gift and immediately fell in love with him, despite being saddened by the story that Drosselmeyer told her about how his nephew Hans was cursed to become the same nutcracker that he gave her. She can also stand up for the Nutcracker, like when her brother Fritz cluelessly breaks his teeth and jaw during the Christmas Eve party, and later when the Mouse King threatens to slay her kitten Pavlova if she doesn't hand over the Nutcracker.
On nighttime, Clara feels concerned for him because he was broken, and promises that Drosselmeyer will fix him. She also introduces him to the other dolls including Marie, Trudy, and Pantaloon, and sings a love song to him until her kitten Pavlova interrupts. Once Drosselmeyer's ghost brings the Nutcracker and the toys to life and the Nutcracker rallies Pantaloon and the toy soldiers to battle the Mouse King and his army of mice, Clara shows support and roots for him, but at the last minute, she also manages to throw her slipper at the evil mouse when he tries to burn the Nutcracker. The next night afterward, Clara stands up for the Nutcracker when the Mouse King orders her to hand him over, and calls for Drosselmeyer's help. Once Drosselmeyer's ghost returns and brings the Nutcracker and the toys back to life, Clara decides to give Pantaloon's sword to the Nutcracker so he can fight the Mouse King. After the fight ends with the Nutcracker stabbing the Mouse King in the chest, Clara is amazed at it, but she, the Nutcracker, Marie and Trudy also see that Pantaloon was broken in a brief fight with the evil rodent ruler, so they go to the Toy Castle where the Land of the Dolls is to nurse Pantaloon back to health.
Once they arrive at the Gingerbread Castle, Clara and the Nutcracker share a beautiful romantic dance together, which was set to the "Pas de Deux". However, even when they were close to a marriage, Clara turns down the Nutcracker's hand, worried that she'll miss her dreams of growing up and dancing in a ballet, which causes all the toys to become inanimate again making Clara more devastated. This situation gets even worse when an enraged Mouse King suddenly appears (while also bleeding and slowly dying from the wound in his chest) and the Nutcracker begins to turn back into his wooden form. He watches helplessly, fearing for Clara's life, before he fully transforms back into an inanimate nutcracker just as the savage rodent goes after Clara and attempts to kill her. After making the Mouse King fall to his watery death, Clara is very sad to see the Nutcracker now gone.
After returning to Drosselmeyer's toy shop as Hans, the now-human boy whose nutcracker curse has finally been broken sees Clara and remembers her, so they finally reunite.
==Friends and Allies==
===Marie, Trudy and Pantaloon===
Marie, Trudy and the old soldier Pantaloon are Clara, Louise and Fritz's dolls who often accompany Clara and the Nutcracker. Clara cares for the three dolls, as she introduces them to the Nutcracker. She also has feelings for them, especially when she feels concerned for Pantaloon after the key in his back was damaged by the Mouse King in their brief fight.
== Enemies==
===The Mouse King===
Clara is aware that the Mouse King wants to get rid of the Nutcracker once and for all, and knows that it's not very good. During the first battle before the Mouse King could burn the Nutcracker with a candle, Clara throws her slipper at him at the last minute and knocks him down, which causes the candle to accidentally set his tail and cape on fire. She even calls him "cruel and mean" (much to the rodent's own amusement) when he tells her about his intentions to get rid of the Nutcracker, and tricks him into getting her chocolates in her drawer and slams it shut, trapping him inside and smashing his tail worse, which triggers the evil mouse's newfound hatred towards Clara. She also has a fight with the rat raged Mouse King in the Land of the Dolls, as she throws food at the furious dying mouse trying to fend him off. She manages to duck into the fat rodent's stomach and make him fall over the balcony to his watery death before he could slay her with his sword.
==Family==
===Uncle Drosselmeyer===
Clara also has a loving relationship with her mysterious godfather Drosselmeyer (although she and Fritz refer to him as "Uncle Drosselmeyer"). Drosselmeyer entrusted the Nutcracker to Clara, who thanks him for it, but after he tells her the story of how the Nutcracker and the Mouse King came to be, she was horrified by the sad ending. Clara was also surprised and irritated when she sees the ghost of Drosselmeyer appear on the grandfather owl clock, and after she was injured in the head and the Nutcracker was fixed up, she even calls Drosselmeyer himself out on appearing on top of the clock via his ghost without helping the Nutcracker in his battle with the mice since the Nutcracker is his nephew. Clara did summon Drosselmeyer's ghost back later on when she calls for his help after the Mouse King threatened to slay Pavlova unless she gives him the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer's ghost later uses his magic to shrink Clara to doll size in order for her to enter the Toy Castle with the others. Drosselmeyer would also try to cheer Clara up when she finds the Nutcracker gone and begs him to know if the events about the Nutcracker and the Mouse King are really true. He did cheer her up when he introduces his nephew Hans (who is actually the Nutcracker after his spell was broken).
===Pavlova ===
Clara also cares about her kitten Pavlova deeply, and can stand up for him when the Mouse King threatens to kill him if she doesn't give him the Nutcracker. However, once Clara starts to go inside the Toy Castle and says her goodbye to Pavlova while promising that she'll come back, Pavlova would also feel devastated.
===Louise Stahlbaum===
She is Clara's older sister, even though they're both distant and have a somewhat strained relationship. It is because she has a boyfriend named Erik whom she relates with, which makes Clara jealous and depressed since she doesn't like their relationship at all. Clara even mocks some of Louise and Erik's confessions and dance moves by mimicking them. However after Clara falls in love with Hans and understands what it is like to fall in love, the sisters presumably change their dynamic.
=== Fritz Stahlbaum ===
He is Clara's rambunctious little brother. Even though he often annoys Clara and the rest of the family, they both care deeply for each other, as implied in their snowball fight and their race back home. One of the worst things he did was when he wrestles the Nutcracker out of Clara's hands and breaks his jaw with one of his cannonballs, which makes Clara throw a hissy fit and call him out on his cluelessness and his breaking the Nutcracker. He also doesn't believe Clara when she tells him that there were mice including a huge one that looks like a rat on the night after Christmas Eve. Later, he realizes that Clara was right when Doctor Stahlbaum found the Mouse King's dead body next to the Toy Castle, and tells Clara about it.
=== Ingrid and Doctor Stahlbaum===
They are Clara's parents, even though Ingrid is always firm towards her and Doctor Stahlbaum doesn't do much with her. They do attend the Christmas party with Clara, Louise and Fritz and brought in presents for them. On the morning after Clara was injured by the clock, she tries to tell Ingrid that there was a battle between the toys and the mice on the previous night, only to be cut off by Ingrid since she doesn't want to hear any fairy stories.
Category:Relationships