A list of characters from Claw. While major spoilers are covered, please beware of spoilers if you are not not caught up to the most recent chapter of the web serial.
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The Hurst Family
Mia
The first viewpoint character of Claw, a criminal contractor responsible for escrow services and helping criminals acquire new identities.
- Amazonian Beauty: Carson explicitly describes Mia as an "Amazon," and she's extremely tall and muscular.
- Childhood Brain Damage: Mia suffered a childhood TBI that she calls "the Fall" which was severe enough that it forced her to relearn even basic activities like opening doors.
- Crazy-Prepared: If something can go wrong, Mia's probably planned for it. She's planted surveillance cameras in strategic locations around Camrose and stashed emergency supplies in a safe in an abandoned gas station. The bathroom that she traps Nathaniel in fills up with an odorless poison gas that an inflatable bag placed beneath the door prevents from leaking while the door is inescapable thanks to consisting of two separate layers whose hollow interior is lined with rebar. When the gas is used up she replaces it with an incendiary trap, and that's not even mentioning the explosive hidden in the kitchen counter or the tripwire on the porch.
- Insecure Love Interest: She is one to Carson despite being married to him and his partner-in-crime, constantly feeling ugly and unworthy of him.
- Moral Myopia: Mia is a career criminal who kills casually and without much remorse and a serial child abductor, but believes herself to be a good or at least non-evil person. For example, she is severely judgmental towards Natalie Teale for leaving her child alone in a hot car, endangering the baby, while she herself endangers her children by engaging with the murderous criminal underworld.
- Muscle Angst: Mia has severe body image issues, often struggling with feeling "feminine" when she's extremely tall and fit.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mia prefers to work at a distance from her criminal affairs, but when children are involved she will rapidly rework any plans to protect them without concern for her own secrecy, without ever appearing to make the decision to do so.
- Spotting the Thread: This is Mia's specialty. She's a whiz at finding details about people's personal lives based on their social media profiles, up to and including their saved lists of pornography or activity on
Pact Card forums. - Statuesque Stunner: Mia is 5'11'', built like a tank, and, according to her husband, incredibly beautiful (despite her own doubts on that score).
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Mia sincerely cares about Ripley and Tyr and even takes the time to worry about a child playing in a neighbor's yard whose mask risks slipping off when a nearby forest fire spreads smoke. Her empathy even extends to her criminal activity. When she participates in a scheme by a man to scam his ex out of money by arranging a ransom of their daughter, she makes the custody of the child so gentle that the latter doesn't even realize that she was "kidnapped", and she unilaterally decides to help the teenaged Giovanna escape from her father when he tries to force her through Mia and Carson's services.
Carson
The second viewpoint character of Claw, Mia's husband and partner in crime.
- Amazon Chaser: He is madly in love with Mia for her strength and brilliance.
- The Face: Acts as this for interactions with clients due to Mia's social anxiety and desire to remain at a distance.
- Lack of Empathy: By contrast to Mia, who comes up with explanations and justifications for why she does what she does to people, Carson drifts through life following Mia's lead, hurting others and taking lives without anything in the way of remorse. He only seems to feel true affection for Mia, Ripley, and Tyr.
- Manipulative Bastard: Carson can talk his way into just about any group, though as he compulsively manipulates others he will eventually slip up and be ostracized if he tries to stay longterm.
- Massage of Love: Prone to massaging Mia's neck when she's feeling stressed.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Shooting a defenseless couple dead in cold blood is a pretty messed up thing to do, but when said couple was selling their own children to people who made snuff films, it comes off as something a long time coming.
- The Social Expert: A social chameleon able to blend in anywhere in the short term, though Carson notes in his narration that he's only ever really felt at home with the Hurst family.
- The Sociopath: Carson lacks empathy for most people, is casually manipulative and charming, and has no particular moral lines. On the first day he and Mia met he executed two people and mused at how he felt nothing in doing so, and even his love for Mia is couched in terms of his fascination with her capabilities and how she makes him feel.
- Thrill Seeker: Carson deeply enjoys the feeling of empowerment he gets from working with Mia, as her planning and orders direct him to push his natural manipulation skills to their limits. He comments that when he's following Mia's lead and working as part of her plan he feels almost superhuman.
- Yes-Man: Carson is this to Mia, being willing to do anything she asks when she comes up with a plan, regardless of whether it breaks the strict rules they rely on to keep themselves safe. He explains to Valentina that this is actually his main mode of operation; people are often already hoping to do something and just need "permission" from a friend or supporter to go through with it.
Ripley
The elder child of the Hurst family.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Ripley comments that she jokes with her friends that her gender is "old man in a workshop," and generally prefers masculine clothing
- Missing Child: Ripley is actually Camellia Teale, the daughter of Natalie Teale, who Mia abducted as a baby after seeing Natalie leave her child unattended in a hot car for over fifteen minutes. Ripley is not aware of this.
- Oblivious Adoption: Ripley is built very skinny, not matching Mia's Amazonian Beauty at all, but doesn't realize that she isn't actually related to Mia.
- Punny Name: The story is called "Claw" and her name is "Ripley."
- Tomboy: Mia describes her outfits as having a "garage mechanic aesthetic" and she shows an interest in DIY construction projects.
Tyr
The younger child of the Hurst Family.
- Cheerful Child: A kindergarten age child with seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm. His first words on-page are "Look! Mom! Lookatit!"
- Punny Name: The story is called "Claw" and his name is suspiciously similar to "tear" (although the name of the Norse god Tyr is pronounced like the "tear" within "teardrop").
Valentina
The third viewpoint character of Claw, the newly acquired eldest child of the Hurst family, formerly Giovanna "G.C" Cavalcanti.
- Friendless Background: In high school, correct rumors that her father was a mob boss destroyed her social life, and Valentina has lasting issues over it, worrying that Ripley's masculine fashion style will lead to social ostracization and wanting to torment the girl she deems responsible for the rumors.
- Meaningful Rename: In Valentina's internal narration, she remains "Gio" for some time before she finally consciously discards it when she accepts that she will be Valentina in return for Mia's motherly care.
- The Runaway: First comes to Mia's attention as she's desperately fleeing her family into the woods, with no real goal beyond getting away from her mob boss dad.
- Starting a New Life: Mia instructs Valentina to completely abandon any traces of her old life, with the intention of providing her with a fresh start.
- Troubled Teen: Valentina fled her family after getting a glimpse of what they did to people who crossed them, and it's left her badly traumatized.
Criminals
Associates of Mia and Carson
The Contact
The unnamed, secretive individual responsible for offering contracts to Mia and Carson in exchange for a cut of the payment.
- Diligent Hero, Slothful Villain: The contact has secretly not been bothering to displace their clients from Camrose after they receive their new identities, undermining the operation security that Mia makes such an effort to maintain.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: He decides how to deal with troublesome clients, and he's not above having Mia and Carson murder them, as he orders in the case of Nathan.
- No Name Given: Thus far, he's only known as "the contact" and never shares his name with Mia and Carson.
- Quest Giver: He's responsible for identifying clients for Mia and Carson and directing them to their services.
Clients
Nathaniel Abate
The first client met in the story, Nathaniel Abate is a former army sergeant on the run from the law after stealing military technology and using it to commit murders.
- All for Nothing: Nathaniel comes up with many clever ways to prolong his survival when locked in a sealed bathroom full of poison gas, from using a toilet paper roll to breathe air from a safe location to using the handle of the toilet plunger to lift up the cabinet beneath the sink to make the gas evacuate faster, but all his efforts earn him is prolonged suffering before he chokes to death on his own vomit.
- Domestic Abuse: He committed domestic violence against two of his ex-girlfriends.
- Heel–Face Turn: This is how Nathaniel sees his decision to defect from the army after discovering a conspiracy within it selling off weapons to independent factions.
- Starter Villain: Nathaniel is the first individual that Mia and Carson are forced into conflict with. Naturally for a Starter Villain, he's clearly outmatched by Mia's meticulous planning.
- Too Dumb to Live: Nathaniel is on the lamb and soliciting the services of identity brokers who tell him in no uncertain terms that he cannot contact anyone from his previous life under any circumstances. Naturally, he does exactly that, telephoning his ex-girlfriend Kadie, which results in the contact making the decision to kill him for being too much of a risk.
Davie Cavalcanti
A leader of a criminal organization known as The Kitchen who seeks Mia and Carson's services with flagrant disregard for the rules.
- Faux Affably Evil: In his first appearance, he comes off as a normal, if a bit overly smooth, person. Not the kind you'd expect to have people maimed so he can keep them as trophies.
- Slouch of Villainy: He has a subtle slouch, but Mia notices it. He's also an antagonist.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Played straight with Davie. After Nathaniel, who doesn't even consider the extent of Mia's preparation (spoofing his phone call to Kadie as well as placing cameras, microphones and lethal traps in his hotel room) Davie immediately marks himself as a more serious threat who is aware of their tricks by forcing Carson to remove all the spying equipment and death traps in his cabin room.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Mia's first impression of him is that if he were one of the dads picking up a kid from school, she wouldn't have blinked.
Other Characters
Josie
The Hursts' babysitter.
- Fangirl: She's a huge fan of Est Tru, a controversial singer. Her reaction to getting tickets to one of her concerts says it all.Oh my god what if my parents say no, I’d die. They can't say no! Will they?
- Phoneaholic Teenager: It's subtle, but she clearly doesn't agree with Ripley's statement that "social media isn't that interesting," even if she follows "some" of Mia's privacy rules.
- Pom-Pom Girl: A cheerleader, but a responsible, studious one who's great with kids, even the rambunctious Tyr.
Natalie Teale
A mother whose daughter was abducted long before the story starts.
- Berserk Button: She gets really pissed off at Mia's commiserations, because Mia said Natalie 'lost' her daughter, and Natalie angrily says that she didn't lose her daughter, her daughter was taken.
- If Only You Knew: She bitterly comments that had her daughter not been taken, she wouldn't let her leave the house dressed like a girl she's looking at... who happens to be Ripley, who is her daughter.
- In-Universe Nickname: "Io", after Natalie's car, a Bariki Ion, which had one letter chipped off the logo.
- I Will Find You: She never gave up searching for her baby girl.
- Missing Child: Her daughter Camellia was abducted from Natalie's car as a baby. By Mia.
- Parents as People: On the one hand, she was clearly struggling as a mother and trying to get her child's father to give her the help she needed; on the other hand, she left her one-month-old daughter alone in a hot car for over twenty minutes.
