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"Dad. It's me. Claus. I told Lucas to come too, but he's been crying at Mom's grave all this time. Dad. I'm gonna leave this apple here. The core might be hard, but... The core... The core might be too hard to eat, but be SURE you eat it! I'm gonna get stronger. ...I'm gonna get so strong even Dragos won't stand a chance against me! Dad... I..."
— Claus

Claus (pronunciation: klaos; Japanese: クラウス; Klaus in the North American version of Brawl) is a major character in Mother 3. He is a boy from Tazmily Village and the older twin brother of Lucas, as well as the oldest child of Hinawa and Flint. He is also the grandson of Alec.

Profile[]

Appearance[]

Claus resembles Lucas in every way, except for the color of his clothes and hair. He has a similar hairstyle to Lucas, but he has orange hair, and wears a striped T-Shirt that resembles his brother's; With the colors different. They are Yellow and Cyan. He wears orange pants, white socks and cyan-white shoes.

Profile[]

Claus is energetic, naughty, and far more courageous than his brother, even described as a "troublemaker" by some villagers.[1] He also has a very small sense of danger, as seen in his search for avenge his mother's death.

Main History[]

Chapter 1[]

Claus and his brother Lucas had lived in the Nowhere Islands since they were born. One day, Claus, Lucas, and Hinawa fail to return to Tazmily Village from Alec's house. This causes the village to organize a search party to look for them. Claus and Lucas are found in the river, and soon after their father, Flint appears. After Flint learns of Hinawa's death, he loses his grip and Claus and Lucas have their eyes covered by Tessie to not let them see what's happening. Claus attends Hinawa's funeral, where he tells Lucas that he will go find and fight the Drago that killed their mom in order to avenge her.

After Lucas reveals where Claus went, Flint goes after him, defeating the Mecha-Drago, but only to find Claus' shoes. Claus is never found by the Tazmilly villagers, with most of them giving up on the search, except for Flint, who looks for him almost every day for many years. He is last seen by the player lying motionless near the Drago Plateau, during the closing text of the 1st Chapter.

Chapter 7[]

Claus is seen as many illusions on Tanetane Island, mostly mocking Lucas or having a friendly attitude before attacking the party.

Chapter 8[]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After Lucas pulls the final needle, it has been implied that Claus was brought back to life, as seen by his appearance in the end credits of the game.

Spoiler warning: Spoilers end here.

Unused content[]

Claus is the character with the most unused sprites in the game, having around 150. There is an entire set of sprites for young Claus both walking and running in a bathing suit, including one where he dives into the water and resurfaces with a gasp of air from a unused cutscene.[2] There are also several sprites for Claus pushing Lucas, climbing, cheering, swaying from side to side, yelling, falling backward as if he was hurt, and lying on his back after the fall. This is likely due to the fact that Claus was shown to have a greater role in EarthBound 64 (a trailer of Lucas and Claus in a minecart was prominently shown), but the technological restrictions of the Game Boy Advance made this impossible to implement in Mother 3. However, his younger sprite can still be the party leader in the Debug Room and have his level increased to 99.

There are also multiple unused sprites of Claus when he is older; there appears to be a sprite for him sitting and standing upright.

A deleted boss battle was found in the game which had at least eleven phases, internally named as Dung Beetle, Tent Person, Snow Bunny, Clayman, Vapor, Straw, Aeolia's Table, Sign, Train, Vapor 2, and Rope Snake. The boss battle had extremely disturbing imagery akin to that of Giygas in EarthBound, namely erratic movement patterns of the background, and it primarily being dark. Itoi's commentary implied that it was meant to be an alternate version of a final battle with Claus, which is supported with some of the images featuring Claus's visage in it (with blanked out eyes).[3]

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]

Claus's sticker in Super Smash Bros

Claus appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a sticker. Attaching this sticker to the bottom of Ness or Lucas's trophies in The Subspace Emissary increases their PK attack by 13. One of Lucas's alternate costumes also uses Claus's clothing and hair colour.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Claus appears as a Legend class Spirit, having the Neutral Spirit type. For his Spirit Battle, which is also one of the last Spirit Battles in the Adventure Mode alongside Hinawa, Claus is represented by Lucas in his color swap with his colors. Claus also appears as a profile icon in the online options.

As a playable character[]

Claus is a playable character once in the prologue. His instrument when attacking or getting a combo is a sitar, much similar to Lucas' keytar. After the prologue, he can be put into the party with the Debug Room. Claus has very similar stats to Lucas, except he has 2 extra offence and defense, he can't equip any items, and doesn't learn any PSI. He does get PP when he levels up, but checking the status menu sets his max PP back to 0.

Trivia[]

  • Claus's name is an anagram of "Lucas."
  • When Flint and Alec meet the Magypsies, Aeolia realizes that Flint is his father, noting the resemblance and that they have the same eyes.
  • Shigesato Itoi revealed in an interview with Mycom Inc. that Claus and his twin brother Lucas were inspired by two characters of the same name from the novel "The Notebook" (by Agota Kristof), which he described as a novel "about the bonds between twins." The novel is part of a trilogy, which also includes the books "The Proof" and "The Third Lie"—both of which further explore the relationship between Kristof's twin characters.
    Main family

    The main cast, Flint, Claus, Lucas, and Boney's renders from EarthBound 64.

  • Claus' attack sound effect is a Sitar, which can only be heard while fighting Mole Cricket in the prologue.
  • Ironically, the Pigmask Army made it possible for Claus to fulfill his last sentence to Flint in Chapter 1.
  • Lucas has a palette swap in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that resembles Claus.
  • A single image of Claus' post-Timeskip design in EarthBound 64 exists, showing him sporting a military buzzcut.
  • EarthBound 64's character designer, Benimaru Itoh, said during development that Claus has a liking for "high-tech stuff".
  • Interact with the Claus illusion on Tanetane Island, allow him to defeat the party, and save the game near Mixolydia's house will allow returning to him without forcing an interaction. This lets you lure an enemy to him, if you enter and lose a battle with Claus on your team this causes him to become a permanent party member. Doing this also permanently triggers Claus's adolescent sprite when selecting him in the Debug Room. Claus does not have an in-battle adolescent sprite.
  • According to Fangamer, it is likely he and Hinawa are revived at the end of the game after the dragon restores the world back to how it was before.[4]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Claus is a troublemaker, so I bet his hiding here somewhere, watching us worry our head off. - Jill, Chapter 1
  2. Mother 3: Unused Cutscenes - Youtube
  3. Mother 3 Deleted Boss HD - Youtube
  4. https://forum.fangamer.com/forum/Games/Mother3/My-theories-about-the-Mother-3-ending
  5. Early GBA concept art
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