Clementine (Walking Dead)

**Clementine**, also known as **Clem**, is one of the main protagonists of *The Walking Dead* game.

Clementine is a quiet and imaginative eight-year-old girl with two attentive, loving parents. She's incredibly resourceful, choosing to spend time building elaborate fantasies in her tree-house instead of watching cartoons or playing with dolls. She doesn't get scared easily but will clam up if nervous. Reserved and shy, her actions speak louder than her words.

Come Season Two, Clem has taken over the role of protagonist. Now eleven years old, the zombie apocalypse has shaped her into a quick and resourceful survivor, albeit one who is not always taken seriously by others due to her age.

Season Three rolls around and Clementine is now a pragmatic crack shot around the age of 13 to 14 who meets up with Javier and helps him and his family - she's also the deadliest thing out there when faced with humans, zombies and anything else the world can think to hurl at her.

Clementine returns to being the main protagonist in the Final Season. Now 16 years old, she continues to look after Alvin Jr. while teaching him how to survive this harsh world.

In the AWA fics, Clementine is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Clementine has a dark-brown curly hair and has brown eyes.

## **Personality**

For a little girl, Clementine displays remarkable intelligence and maturity, presumably due to the seriousness of the environment. When she last attended school, Clementine was in the first grade, which she described as "easy". She can be practical and improvise in situations such as helping Lee brace the door with his father's cane when the walkers close in on the drug store. She also picks up on subtle things most children her age would not be bothered by. For example, when Ben was interrogated by Lilly after Lee brought him and his teacher/friend to the motor inn, she quickly drags him away from the argument before he could get pulled in with the excuse of wanting to show him her drawings, saving the boy any trouble.

Because of her intelligence, Clementine is a fast learner, quickly adapting to the zombie-infested world. On the train ride to Savannah, Clementine practices marksmanship with help from Lee. Later, in Season Two, Jane taught her how to quickly (and quietly) kill zombies, then loot the bodies for supplies.

Compared to Duck's more oblivious attitude, Clementine is much more aware of the current events going on in the group, such as the power struggle between Lilly and Kenny. As of "Starved For Help", Clementine reveals to Lee that she is aware that her parents are "gone," stating that she'd rather have him lie to her because it is more comforting to hear.

She is also a very kind-hearted and polite girl, as she displays adequate manners when talking to adults. Clementine is not a conformist and is not afraid to speak her mind, believing that everyone should do their best to be a good Samaritan unless threatened otherwise. She disagrees with the group's choice of looting a station wagon full of rations left behind by survivors, claiming that the owners may return for their supplies.

However, despite her maturity, Clementine is still relatively innocent in the way children are. For example in "Long Road Ahead", Clementine admits to putting a bug on Duck's pillow and in "Starved For Help" while Katjaa is taking care of Maybelle, she tells Lee not to lick the salt lick and that it's "gross". Lee will ask Clementine, "Did you lick it?" who will reply with, "I don't know." Her view towards how society should react in a zombie apocalypse is often more idealistic than realistic, which can affect her understanding of a particular event. Another demonstration of her innocence is her lack of understanding about sex; when Bonnie, Mike, and Luke are discussing Luke having sex with Jane, Clementine is given the option to mention she believes she's aware of the topic and assumes they only kissed, and she finds the concept disgusting. A third example is her lack of understanding of what a period is, though this could also be due to her being very young when her parents died and the apocalypse started, and thus not having a consistent person in her life to inform her of what a period is. Javier can try to (rather awkwardly) explain this to her or tell her to ask Kate, but she is still confused about it.

Even if not agreeing on Lee's choices, or on the way he responds to her, Clementine still sees him as a father figure, trusting him to protect her no matter what happens. It is even possible to see traits on her that resemble what Lee has taught her, not only about survival but also the way to act towards people. Both having and losing Lee was an essential part of Clementine's maturity.

After seeing her undead parents, being forced to either shoot Lee or leave him to turn, and after Omid is shot and killed, Clementine loses most remnants of her childlike innocence. Over a year later, these events have changed her. She no longer holds an idealistic or hopeful view of the world and instead strives only to stay alive. She's much more ready, willing, and able to defend herself from any attackers and to kill if necessary, though her young age means she has to heavily rely on resourcefulness rather than strength. If the player so chooses, she can also be cold and aggressive to people who do her wrong, even going so far as to resort to blackmail or to agree on killing someone who has deserved it in her eyes. On the other hand, she can also attempt to appeal to the better nature of people, showing that she still has at least some of her previous faith in humanity intact.

Clementine's maturity is something that can be perceived from her by other characters, as it's possible to see when Rebecca and Sarita ask her for advice and even the way Walter talks to her, considering her mature enough, for a child, to understand the way life in the apocalypse is. During Season Two, Clementine seems to be more like Lee on occasion, as she is far more blunt and makes humorous remarks at the expense of others. An example of this is when Luke tells her that when he was a kid he and his friends used to jump across rooftops to which Clementine bluntly replies "That sounds stupid". Another is how she reminds Luke of how she took out a walker herself after he and his group locked her in their shed. Season Two shows that Clementine has found an ability to effectively dodge walkers even at a moments notice.

By the time Clementine had left the New Frontier, she had become much colder and aloof towards others. She no longer travels in groups as she believes that it is inevitable that members will eventually die and the bonds that you make with them will only hurt you further, mirroring Jane's perspective on the subject, regardless of player's choices in season 2. Clementine has become much more hardened as a survivor, showing little compunction in harming or dealing with people mercilessly. Despite her cold exterior, she is still capable of showing her prior self to people she has warmed up to such as Javier. She also maintained some of her innocence, such as when she was going through her period, she didn't know what was happening to her and became slightly afraid before being calmed down by Javier.

After rescuing A.J. and returning to her life on the road, Clementine became more cheerful, mostly not to influence A.J. with her bad attitude, and began to teach A.J. everything about survival and moral lessons. Tired of always moving, Clementine began wishing to find a place to set down, and upon reaching the Ericson's Boarding School, Clementine finally decided to set down at the location, proclaiming that unlike her other communities, she finally felt at ease, safe, and home. Clementine also seems indifferent towards her former friend Lilly after the two met each other for the first time in years, as Lilly was currently her enemy and had implicitly sanctioned AJ's shooting and abuse at the hands of Abel.

## **Abilities**

One of the most experienced survivors of the apocalypse, Clem, unlike Rick Grimes' group, has survived for 8 years without staying in a certain area for prolonged periods of time and most of those years are by herself. She is well capable of almost all the skills necessary for survival, ranging from driving a car, horse riding and using any kind of weapon. Her skills are why even adults take advices from her and she immediatey becomes the leader of Ericson's Boarding School despite recently joining them. Heck, she even manages to outlive Rick Grimes himself.

## **Trivia**

* Clementine's character design was inspired by art director Derek Sakai's daughter.
* Telltale's staff have given conflicting statements regarding Clementine's ethnicity. Sean Vanaman and Melissa Hutchison have stated she is African-American and Asian in the 2013 "Saving Doug: Empathy, Character, and Choice in The Walking Dead" conference and "Walking Dead 'Cast 247: The Walking Dead: A New Frontier" podcast respectively; while Jessica Brezzo stated in an online interview that Clem was African-American. In 2019, an anonymous commenter claiming to be Brezzo issued a post on the interview's Wikia page stating that at the time of the interview she hadn't spoken to Vanaman or Hutchison on the subject, hadn't realized it was a topic of debate among the fandom, and never stated that Clem was solely African-American.
* Developer of the game revealed Clementine's last name was originally "Crawford" before the developers of "Around Every Corner" invented the neighborhood of Crawford.
* Melissa Hutchinson initially stated that Clementine was seventeen in Season Four, though she later amended her statement to sixteen.
* Melissa mentioned that Clementine was originally supposed to start at age seven (hence her being in the first grade), Because of the change Melissa says that the girl was in the second grade at the start of the game, though Lee assumed she was in first, due to Katjaa's comment.
* In "A New Day" Clementine said to Katjaa that her favorite color is purple. In "Broken Toys", while choosing the color of the party's lightning, it is revealed that it is also her father's favorite color.
* Clementine has a goldfish named Peanut as pet, as confirmed in "A New Day"
* In "Around Every Corner" Clementine can mention that she had a hamster once.
* It's hinted that Clementine always wanted a dog but didn't get one due to her mother's dislike for dogs. In Season 4 however, Clementine's wish can be fulfilled with Rosie.
* In "Starved For Help" if Lee gives her the half apple she will say that she loves apples.
* Clementine can directly kill the joint second most amount of people on-screen out of all the Motel Survivors, alongside Lilly and Carley, during Season 1 with a total of 2. Just behind Lee Everett with a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10.
* Clementine is one of the three survivors who appeared in all of the Season One episodes, the others being Lee and Kenny. As of Season 4, she is now the only survivor that, regardless of the player's decisions, survives in all episodes (not including "400 Days" and the Michonne Mini-Series).
	+ Clementine is also one of three characters to appear in all five episodes of Season Two, the others being Rebecca and Luke, though Rebecca only appears as a corpse in "No Going Back".
	+ Clementine is also one of the eight characters to appear in all five episodes of Season Three, the others being Javier, Kate, Gabriel, Eleanor, David, Tripp *(Determinant)*, and Conrad *(Determinant)*.
	+ Clementine is also one of the ten characters to appear in all four episodes of Season 4, the others being AJ, Tennessee, Violet, Willy, Omar, Ruby, Louis, Aasim, and Rosie.
	+ Clementine is one of four characters to appear in at least three seasons*,*the other being Kenny, Lilly, and Alvin Jr.
* If Lee gives her nothing to eat in "Starved For Help" and later stops her from eating human meat, she can be one of three characters that doesn't get anything to eat in this episode, the others being Leeand Mark*.*
* Clementine has 19 total appearances in Telltale Games' *The Walking Dead*, the most out of any character.
* If Lee remains silent when he is given the option to have Clementine either shoot or leave him, Clementine will make the decision herself, with Lee's past actions determining her choice.
* In Season 2, Clementine has the torn photo of Lee from "A New Day" and her drawing of Kenny's family from "Long Road Ahead", which she keeps in her backpack from the same episode. It is unknown if she had convinced Christa and Omid to venture to Macon with her to retrieve the former after the events of "No Time Left", or if she had secretly kept it since "A New Day".
* Clementine has kept more physical mementos of people she cared about than anyone else: her father's hat, a photo of Lee, a drawing of Kenny, Katjaa and Duck, hair clips from Lilly, a gold watch from Pete, a jacket from Bonnie, Sarah's glasses, Jane's nail file, Kenny's hat, Gabriel's playing cards and Violet's button.
	+ Lilly's hair clips and her fathers' hat are the only mementos she still has regardless of the player's choices.
* When walkers attack on the bridge in "A House Divided", Clementine says "Oh, shit". This is the first and only time she will swear in the first two seasons if player choices make it so.
* When attacked by a zombie in the shed in "All That Remains", Clementine's fight with it is almost identical to Lee's fight with Sandra in "A New Day" of Season 1, following a trend within the Video Game to symbolically mimic previous scenes.
* In "All That Remains", at Sam's camp, if Clementine checks the barbecue and then the cooler, in that order, she will grumble that she hates scavengers.
* If Clementine fails to get help from Alvin and rejects Sarah's friendship offer, later in the shed she will have the option of saying "Screw you guys!"
* In "A New Day", Lee and Clementine spend the night in a barn the night of getting to Hershel's farm. Whilst there, Clementine comments on the fecal smell in the barn. Due to a lack of descriptive words, Lee is given the chance to finish her sentence with "shit," "manure," or "...you know..." This has a lasting and goofy effect.
	+ In "Starved For Help", she will repeat Lee's choice of words (or lack thereof) to Duck when describing the smell in the barn.
	+ In "All That Remains", when Clementine accidentally knocks over her water bottle in the pit-stop bathroom, she will instinctively curse "Oh, shoot" or "Oh, shit" depending on Lee's words.
* Clementine's first alcoholic drink was a single swig of whiskey (moonshine) shared by Nick *(Determinant)* or a swig of rum with Jane. She will comment that the rum was better than the moonshine if she tasted both.
	+ Clementine's first cigarette was shared with Bonnie.
* It was given by Telltale that supposedly the game would involve Clementine and her brother, but due to the pre-existing relationship before the apocalypse, her brother was cut off from the game, replaced by Lee Everett. It was also given that Clementine almost got cut from the game. Telltale was concerned that the players wouldn't care about her.
* Clementine will kill her first walker in "Around Every Corner" or "No Time Left" if you choose to leave her in the mansion and don't give her the gun.
* Clementine says to Lee during her dream in "No Going Back" that her greatest fear is to take a life.
* In unused audio, Clementine reveals that Kenny taught her how to ride a motorcycle if you left Wellington with him and AJ.
* If Clementine went to Wellington, she would work as a hunter on Tuesday and Thursday and worked as a patroller on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* Clementine's strength drastically increases throughout the series.
	+ In Season 2:
		- In "All That Remains", she struggles to fight Winston while fleeing in the woods.
		- In "A House Divided", she is easily knocked down after firing a rifle.
		- In "In Harm's Way", she struggles to get a walker off of her.
		- In "In Harm's Way", she collapses after being slapped by Carver.
		- In "No Going Back", she is knocked down while Kenny and Jane fight and has difficulty getting back up.
	+ In Season 3 (A New Frontier):
		- In "Ties That Bind Part 1", she can chop down a tree to stop a truck.
		- In "Ties That Bind Part 1", she can run through herds of walkers while firing a shotgun.
		- In "Ties That Bind Part 1", she can defend herself and AJ from walkers despite having a finger stuck in a car door.
		- In "Above the Law", she can physically knock David down when jumping on him, and hold him at gunpoint.
	+ In Season 4 (The Final Season):
		- In "Done Running", she was able to shatter a windshield with two hard kicks
		- In the same episode, Clementine can easily beat Marlon in a fight at the end of the episode.
		- In "Suffer The Children", even if Abel maintains both of his arms, Clementine can beat him in a fight, smashing him through a balustrade and causing him to fall off the balcony of the boarding school, however, he can pull her down with him.
		- In "Suffer The Children", she manages to fight Lilly and dislodge a gun from her hands, despite Clementine being wounded.
		- In "Broken Toys", she knocked out Minerva with two punches, despite being wounded by the latter.
* As of "No Going Back", Clementine is the only cabin survivor still alive.
* As of "Suffer The Children", she and Lilly are the only motel survivors confirmed alive.
	+ However, if Clementine orders AJ to shoot Lilly in "Broken Toys", Clementine will be the only motel survivor confirmed alive.
* Clementine is one of five characters, alongside Javier, Eleanor, Paul and Fern that are alive at the end of Season 3, regardless of the players choices.
* Depending on your choices, Clementine can be in some way responsible for the deaths of all three leaders of the motel survivors: Lee *(Indirectly and Out Of Mercy, Determinant)*, Kenny *(Indirectly or Directly)*, and Lilly *(Caused)*.
* In a conversation with Tenn in "Done Running", Clementine can express thoughts on the idea of an afterlife.
* Clementine is one of twelve LGBT characters to appear in the game, the others being Violet, Minerva, Walter, Matthew, Zachary, Jonas, Paige, Javier García, Paul Monroe, James, and Charlie.
	+ Clementine is one of two LGBT protagonists in the game series, the other being Javier.
	+ Clementine is also one of two bisexual characters in the game series so far, the other being Javier.
	+ Clementine and Violet have the option to be the fourth same-sex couple in the game.
* Depending on the player's choices Clementine can kill no one directly during the first 2 Seasons and a maximum of four, the stranger, Lee *(Out of Mercy)*, Sarita *(Out of Mercy; Before Reanimation)*, and Kenny. There was a cut content where she had the option of shooting Mike during "No Going Back" after discovering his betrayal.
	+ Eli, Yonatan, Gad, Gina, Rodney, Eddie, and Helen are the only characters to be directly killed by Clementine while being alive, regardless of the player's choice.
* Clementine can be in three separate car crashes, one during "No Going Back", one with Kenny during Clementine's flashback in "Ties That Bind - Part 1" and one early on in "Done Running".
* Clementine mentions to Violet that she doesn't remember chicken nuggets that well.
* Clementine's "first kiss" can be with either Gabriel, Violet, Louis or is yet to happen.
* Clementine's height throughout the seasons is 4'1", 4'6", 4'9", and 5'1".
* Clementine is the youngest leader in the entire Walking Dead franchise.
* Clementine is one of the many amputees in The Walking Dead. For other victims, see Amputated Victims.
* Clementine is one of the seven characters that are alive at the end of Season 4, regardless of the players' choices.
	+ The others being Alvin Jr., Willy, Omar, Ruby, Aasim, and Rosie.
* Clementine survived her bite in "Take Us Back" due to the low time frame between the bite and her leg getting amputated.
* Clementine's outfit in Season 4 is ultimately a callback to Lee's outfit.
	+ Lee wore a Denim blue shirt and Clementine wears a Denim blue jacket.
	+ Both have rolled sleeves and Clem's white hoodie sleeves going below the rolled sleeves of her jacket mimic the white undershirt sleeves that went past Lee's rolled shirt sleeves.
* Clementine is one the ten characters that are confirmed to survive the events of the game series, regardless of the players' choices.
	+ The others being Alvin Jr., Javier García, Eleanor, Fern, Willy, Omar, Ruby, Aasim, and Rosie.
* With Christa, Kenny, and Lilly missing*,* Clementine is the only character who appeared in Season 1 confirmed to be alive.
* If Clementine shoots Kenny or leaves Wellington with him and AJ kills Lilly, Clementine is the only Everett Pharmacy Drugstore survivor to have survived the events of the game.
* Clementine shares many similarities with Judith Grimes from TV Series:
	+ Both are/were nine years old during the apocalypse.
	+ Both lost their parents (Clementine's parents died in Savannah, Georgia shortly after the outbreak; Judith's biological father was killed by her future adoptive father while her biological mother passed away during her birth).
	+ Both were mature far beyond their years.
	+ Both were efficient in using firearms at a young age.
	+ Both owned walkie-talkies to talk to their loved ones.
	+ Both killed their first human in an act of self-defense and were emotionally affected by it (Clementine killed the Stranger to protect herself and Lee while Judith killed a Whisperer during the assault on the Hilltop).
	+ Both were deeply traumatized when they had to put someone they knew out of their misery (Clementine killed Lee to prevent reanimation while Judith killed Earl Sutton after he turned).
	+ Both kept their father's former hat in a way to honor them.
	+ Both are/were taking care of a young boys named after fathers: Clementine was taking care of a boy named Alvin Jr. (A.J. for short) while Judith takes care of her adoptive brother named Rick Jr. (R.J. for short). Also both A.J. and R.J. look alike and have many similarities.
	+ Both have dark brown hair and brown eyes.

## **External Links**

* Clementine (Video Game) at Walking Dead Wiki