Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Headscratchers / Claymore

Go To

1* FridgeLogic - At one point in the manga, Claire has to kill a Yoma in the holy city of Rabona, but isn't allowed to enter the city because the priests consider her unnatural. To infiltrate the city, her handler, Rubel, gives her pills that suppress her Yoma power, causing her to appear human and diluting her aura so Yoma and other Claymores have trouble sensing her, though this also reduces her ability to sense and fight Yoma. Over the course of the manga these pills become a plot device used whenever someone needs to hide their aura from Yoma or Claymores, but in this instance Claire is trying to deceive humans, who cannot sense auras and apparently can only distinguish Claymores based on the color of their eyes. If this is so, why didn't Rubel just loan her his badass SinisterShades, allowing her to infiltrate the city while still retaining her combat effectiveness?
2** At a guess, shades would make the guards & priests suspicious ... and it may be that Rubel needs the shades because of sensitive eyes?
3** Because when you start suspecting that a Claymore made her way in, the first person you're going to inspect is the just-arrived white-blonde woman who refuses to show you her eyes (and, seeing as [[spoiler: Galatea went as far as ''blinding herself'' to hide her identity]], they certainly ''do'' check).
4** Sid and Galk actually ''did'' check when Clare and Raki were there, by forcing Clare to look them in the eye; the only thing protecting her identity was that the pills kicked in in time and changed her eye color.
5** If colored contact lenses existed, it would've made sense to use that, but wearing ''SinisterShades'' (Come on now.) is a good way to be very suspicious, and the goal here is to be as inconspicuous as possible. In fact, whenever the Claymores tell people to give the money to their handlers, they say "a suspicious guy in black will come for it later." Clare's solution was the most intelligent one: use the pills during the day and stay off the pill while scouting the town under cover of darkness at night.
6** Why didn't she just pretend to be a blind girl? It worked for Galatea...
7*** Galatea is not pretending, and Clare (especially at the time) needed her eyes too much to gouge them out for a short term mission.
8* I started wondering a bit about Claymore social and sexual life. Claire once stated that she was taught to smile like a prostitute...I wonder if Claymores are also taught the other stuff that those do, just to uphold that masquerade if needed. Also, we don't see any mention of married Claymores, but I wonder if the Organization does prohibit marriage or if it just so happens that a Claymore has a hard time finding a man that would accept a half-demon as his wife and the job takes most of their time anyway, I guess. Also, what would happen if a Claymore got pregnant, assuming they can? The Organization would likely cause them trouble for being unable to do missions, but would the child also have Yoma blood? Other than that, I guess when Claymore search for love and comfort, there's generally a lot of LesYay involved...
9** Personally, I always thought Claymores were all sterile as a result of what was done to them. I don't think that it was mentioned anywhere in the manga, but considering that there has been absolutely no mention of Yoma, Claymore's or Awakened Beings breeding so far, and the Yoma seem to be created artificially, it doesn't seem that unlikely. As for the prostitute thing, because it is supposed to be used as a disguise, and Claymore's (supposedly) all have deformed bodies as a result of becoming half-Yoma, I don't think they actually have any need to learn how to have sex, because once the clothes come off the disguise is already ruined. As for getting married or whatever, I ''think'' that's allowed. At one point Rubel tells Clare something like "Our ''job'' is hunting demons. Whatever you want to do with your life is none of our business". As long as it didn't interfere with their work, the Organization probably doesn't care what a Claymore spends her time doing.
10*** I always sensed some level of discouragement from the organization's part. At one point Rubel asked Clare what Raki might think if he ever saw her body, which seemed to suggest that they're convincing their warriors that no man would want them, and this notion certainly seems abundant in society as well. I remember at one point Sid pretty much compared claymores to prostitutes, that is, they tainted their flesh for something in return, and since we're in an old world setting: [[MyGirlIsNotASlut no man wants a prostitute.]] It just further ostracizes claymores from human society.
11** Sterile? Didn't Agatha make a not-so-subtle offer of sex to one of the soldiers before killing him?
12*** Sterile just means they can't have children. It's very heavily implied that they do have sex, like when Riful talks about her and and Dolph's relationship, or all the other Claymore's believing Raki was Clare's sex toy. And it's more or less stated in Clare's backstory that Yoma rape humans. Despite this, there has been absolutely no mention of any of them producing offspring, and given that all Yoma and Claymores/Awakened Beings are created by the Organization, there is really no need for them to reproduce naturally in the first place.
13*** Plus, seeing as the Organization creates the Yoma/Claymores/Awakened Beings in the first place they wouldn't want them to be able to reproduce since it would easily get out of control. Come to think of it, having one that ''could'' reproduce will be an interesting plot twist... If this happens I claim an IKnewIt.
14*** About that, if that works anything like human reproduction, it would only be important on the long run and therefore the Organization would have enough time to deal with that one. Also, we've been repeatedly shown that numbers do not matter, only strength does, we've seen Claymores chop up dozens of regular yoma and Isley throwing away his supply of Awakened Ones simply because he didn't feel like travelling with a group. So the only way such a yoma would be a threat was either if it was able to produce yoma very fast (doesn't Lucieala-Raphaela do that already, sort of?) or if it was capable of spawning yoma whose powers are at or above an Abyssal One's level.
15*** In case the impregnation of claymores does pop-up as a possible plot twist, who would think that there's a high chance that it would be Clare [[spoiler: father Raki???]]? It would seem most probable, since Clare is biologically the closest to being a human since she's only a one-third yoma, so she would run into less complications. This would also serve to be that dilemma with the organization, since although Clare is the most biologically human claymore, she is nonetheless the one of the most powerful claymores ever. Strong parent = strong offspring.
16*** They might not be a threat to the Organization, but they would be a threat to the ordinary humans on the island, which the Organization ''sort-of'' has to care about. Because Yoma and Awakened Beings eat humans, that basically makes the people on the island the food supply for the Organizations test subjects. Letting the Yoma population go out of control could result in the human population falling below sustainable levels, which would put an end to the experiment. The Organization controls how many Yoma and Awakened Beings are made, and they know exactly how many are killed. They probably keep the population of both at an ideal number for their plans, i.e. enough to make money off of and provide more test subjects, but not enough to cause the human population to decline. Since the Organization only hunts Yoma when requested to do so, it makes the most sense for them to control the population by limiting how many Yoma are made, instead of simply killing excess Yoma.
17** Because their womb is supposed to be a BodyHorror, I doubt that Claymore can pretend to be human if naked. On the subject of sex, I would have discouraged it if I worked for the Organization : sex creates bonds and Claymore are ideally weapons who do their job mechanically without making any bond. That's why Teresa can't kill bandits without running into trouble whereas the Organization closed their eyes when Ophelia slaughter people. And I would be careful with Agatha : after all she pretended to kiss a man and then ripped him in two. So I think that her offer of sex was just toying. The only cannon couple of Riful and Isley seems to be in platonic love, which is [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction fortunate]].
18*** Womb? No. Abdomen, yes. Riful and Isley were enemies, not lovers. If you're refering to ''Dauf and Riful'' and ''Isley and Priscilla'', the former was hinted to be romantic and the latter platonic.
19* Is Ilena/Irene dead or not? It's just strange that Yagi left her fate even slightly ambiguous, since we're sure about the fates of every other character. What was the purpose of not showing her death, or just one panel that set it in stone that she's dead? Is she going to come back in ChekhovsGunman -ish or AssPull moment later on? What Bugs Me even more is that Claire felt something in Ilena's arm a moment after the scene with Rafaela-does that mean she could have Awakened?
20** I seriously doubt Irene Awakened. She's too controlled for it to happen accidentally, and even if she hadn't always thought that Awakening was a FateWorseThanDeath, she most certainly did after seeing Priscilla Awaken. She herself said that the fear she felt that day never left her. Awakening seems like the ''last'' thing she'd willingly do. Rafaela would have had ample time to strike her down before that in any case.\
21The pulse Clare felt may have been Irene tapping into her Yoma power in an attempt to flee, though that doesn't seem like her, either. Especially since she knew very well how powerful Rafaela is/was: "As strong as you are... why have you stopped at number five?" Irene would have known that she couldn't possibly outrun Rafaela, and she sure as hell couldn't outfight her. She certainly wasn't panicking at all, let alone enough to try to make a break for it anyway.\
22Alternatively, it could be the simplest possible reason: Clare felt that pulse because Irene died. Maybe Yagi didn't show it on-panel for stylistic reasons. It was earlier in the series, maybe he hadn't yet decided to ''always'' make it absolutely clear that someone was dead. In any case, I can't imagine a way for Irene to have survived that situation. Rafaela isn't the merciful type, and she wouldn't have just slashed Irene's chest: Rafaela would have cut off her head. Personally, I think Irene is dead.
23*** [[spoiler:Aaaand I'm wrong, though [[SurprisinglyHappyEnding I'm hardly disappointed about it]]. Turns out Rafaela was a lot more merciful that I'd thought at the time.]]
24** How do you know Irene cannot outfight Rafaela she is a #3.
25*** She is an Offensive type (i.e. comparativly weak regen) with ''two'' missing arms.
26*** Also, Rafaela was Number 2 in Luciela's generation (probably, if Alicia and Beth are modeled after Rafaela and Luciela; at the very least she was said to be comparable in power to Luciela).
27* In the first volume, we see a young girl (obviously a very young Clare) in a flashback being raped by a Yoma, who was pretending to be her brother. In the same flashback, we see that Yoma's head get sliced in half during the...act, if you will, by someone who may or may not have been Teresa (likely not). But then in the ''third'' volume, we see Teresa exterminate seven Yoma, the last of which was purportedly (according to the villagers) Clare's captor and tormentor. Clare is clearly at least of pre-teen age by this point, as she is obviously beginning to develop secondary sexual characteristics. If the Yoma masquerading as her brother in the earlier flashback was already killed, then what's going on with the other Yoma in the village, who most likely gave her the scars and bruises we see on her back? Was she taken (please excuse the implications of the language, but this troper could not think of a better verb) by a ''second'' Yoma, then, and kept as his/its captive? Can anyone explain, or is an explanation given later in the story? Also, how old is Clare? She ''looks'' like she's in her late teens to early twenties, but this troper really can't tell...
28** It was a second Yoma. In the flash back the Yoma was killed just like she did to the one In Raki's village. And like Raki she was later kicked out of her village in fear that she would turn into one. Alone in the wilderness she ran into that group of Yoma that used her as a disguise to get into the next village. As for her age it's hard to pinpoint because Claymores stop aging when they reach adulthood.
29** Seeing as Ophilia and Mira joined the Org after/around the same time as Clare but still had to rise through the ranks - which takes time - and then there's the 1/2 Awakening deal... yeah, it would take a lot of time.
30* Chapter 113: Miria[[spoiler:'s alive again.]] [[MindScrew What the hell?]] I mean, she's one of my favorite characters and I'm glad to see her again but... WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN "[[spoiler:AN ENTIRE MOB OF TRAINED KILLERS FAILED TO MAKE A KILLING BLOW ON ONE SINGLE DOWNED HALLUCINATING OPPONENT?!?"]] Did all of them go to the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy or something? If this were any other shonen series, this wouldn't bother me so much but in Claymore, when someone dies, they're dead. So what's up?
31** They didn't want to kill her, because she didn't kill them when she had the chance. They cut her up a lot, but they very deliberately avoided striking anything too vital. Her "death" was basically a show for the men of the organization who were standing around watching. That was what the monologue was explaining.
32** My problem with it isn't so much that they apparently weren't trying to kill her, but that she has new scars ON HER FACE. That means she was hit AT LEAST TWICE in the face with a claymore. A claymore to the head has been shown to be basically the only thing a warrior can do that can one-shot an Awakened (generally). I don't understand how we're expected to buy the fact that Miria survived being chopped in the face multiple times with a [[ThunderboltIron Thunderbolt Iron]] sword. Which also makes me question just how much they wanted her alive if they're slashing her in the face.
33** The ''face'' is not a vital area on a Claymore. It's the brain that's important. Chopping up someone's face to give the impression that you're killing them is a good idea, because everyone knows that the head is vital. If you make it look like the head has been slashed to ribbons, no one will question the death. Which is exactly why they cut her face up.
34** They would have needed to slash her in the face if they wanted to fool the Organization's men into thinking they had killed her. It would look mighty suspicious if they cut up everything except for the head.
35* All the yoma (not Awakened) are men. Why? I understand why women are warriors and why some Awakened are men but how do they make the leap from person to yoma?
36** Almost all the Yoma we saw seems to be men, but since they can change gender at will, I would say that they choose to be male because in a middle age society, male are more free than women.
37** There is a male Yoma in episode 2 of the anime, disguised as a Claymore. Not sure about the manga.
38** I really think the Yoma have no gender. People have pointed out parts where a Yoma seemingly rapes someone, but their dialogue seems to suggest that they only have interest in eating people, I think. And I doubt they're limited in the bodies they choose to inhabit, as long as the person is dead.
39* The biggest reason that Yoma are a threat is because they can disguise themselves as anyone, and only a Claymore can tell a human from a Yoma in disguise unless they make a mistake. But this statement has one flaw - humans bleed red, Yoma bleed ''purple''. You could skip calling in the Claymores if you just force everyone in the area to cut their finger and hold it up to show the color of their blood, and have twenty guys with crossbows shoot anyone who refuses or has purple blood.
40** I'm pretty sure they just added purple blood to the anime for the audiences benefit.
41** Now it's been revealed that the Yoma [[spoiler: are actually parasitic, so naturally the bodies would bleed red, since they ARE human.]] The anime just made an assumption in order to distinguish between their carnage.
42* Just how powerful IS Quicksword? I mean, it leaves visible slash marks in water. Like, 40 clear, distinct slash marks lasting AFTER the technique has been used and the user has relaxed. It's like ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'''s Assassin, just instead of bending reality to land 3 blows at once, it's 40ish. I mean, water cohesion means that water reacts to being parted 0.0167 seconds after being parted, and she's landing 40+ of these at once. Meaning one cut every 0.000416 seconds. Meaning over 2500 cuts/second. Are my numbers wrong, cause this doesn't seem possible...
43** RuleOfCool.
44* The whole setup is supposedly a research program to develop a super weapon for an ongoing war on another continent. What kind of research program takes over a hundred years? How long did they expect the war to last?
45** Until it was over, probably. The 'war' has been going on for a very long time, and it was only a hundred years ago that all the warring nations formed two different sides. For those countries (and most countries on earth, really) war isn't something that only happens once every ten or twenty years. The countries are always at war, all the time, and the only time they take a break is when both they and their enemy are so weakened that they decide to put the fighting on hold in order to build up their armies some more. As for the research, well, we don't really know just what level of technology the Organization has. Turning people into monsters is way beyond anything we can do, but if the Organization is stuck at the technology level of medieval times, as it seems to be, then it probably takes a lot longer for them to make advances in their research then it would for someone with a modern laboratory, better equipment, and a more comprehensive knowledge of biology.
46* If Dae chose the three strongest #1's in their history, why isn't Teresa in that group of three?
47** Does he even have her body? Didn't they already use her corpse to make Clare into a Claymore?
48*** Two things. 1- Did the Org actually know how powerful Teresa was? 2- Dae factored in the condition of the corpse. Re-attaching Teresa's head and compensating for whatever flesh they used on Claire may have made it not worth it.
49*** Apparently nobody knew how strong Teresa really was, except possibly Rubel.
50*** And if they did, they ''certainly'' would not use Teresa. If The Strongest No 1 of All The Generations Awakened, it would be TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Priscilla is bad enough but adding a rampaging Awakened Teresa? I think even Dae is not that crazy or suicidal.
51** It may merely be the three strongest #1's whose bodies the organization actually had access to in a relatively whole state (or even the only three - if they had more than just those three, you'd think, given the situation, that they would have released them all). Naturally the original three Abyssal Ones were #1's whose bodies the organization didn't have, so there's no telling how they ranked against these next three. Other #1's if killed in the field may not have had a usable body left to recover. In the case of Teresa, it might be that the head is necessary to keep the body viable, and death by decapitation renders the body unusable for this purpose.
52*** But Cassandra's body was not relatively whole. Not in the slightest.
53*** They had all the pieces, though, whereas Teresa's head was (presumably) used to create Clare. So that might explain why.
54* Upon Priscilla's Awakening, Noel asks Irene, "What is that?" But the Organization must have been conducting Awakened hunts, if indeed Teresa's generation is after Cassandra's/Roxanne's, which is heavily implied: Teresa came after Luciela, and at the time of Luciela's Awakening, Alicia and Beth were babies taken to be raised as number ones, leaving little room for two (immensely powerful) successive number ones. Why would number 3/4 not know what an Awakened Being was?
55** It's obvious they knew what an awakened being was, but calling Priscilla an Awakened Being is like calling the Pacific Ocean a puddle. You forget that Claymores can sense yoki, so their reaction was probably about how impossibly gigantic Priscilla's yoki was. The latest chapters make it clear that she is so far beyond any other Awakened being, that she may just as well be something completely different, or atleast that's how she get's perceived by those who can feel youki.
56** But Irene answers, "A creature beyond the yoma, and utterly different from a human. An Awakened One." Irene, at least, answered the question as though Noel did not know what an Awakened One was.
57** Exposition. Could possibly explained in-universe as Irene talking more to herself than Noel, in a horrified reaction to one of their own changing right in front of them after murdering the strongest Claymore in the history of the Organization.
58* Awakened Beings tend to be stronger based on their strength before Awakening. So, how does a partially Awakened Number 47 beat a fully Awakened Number 2? Is it because Awakening power not only corresponds to actual strength as a warrior but also potential (Priscilla was weaker as a warrior than Teresa, and because of her inexperience probably would have lost to claymore Riful or Isley, but upon Awakening could easily defeat both as Awakened ones)?
59** Three reason for the fight to be in favor of Clare : first, the friendly fight between Flora and Clare indicate that Clare was at this time a single digit member in all but rank. Second, Rigaldo lost an arm and never get an opportunity to take it back. Lastly, he is like Priscilla(fast, lethal and fragile), who is the monster that Clare trained her whole life (and choose her skill in accordance to that) to kill. So it is more a case of a bad match for Rigaldo than it is a contest of raw power.
60*** Most importantly, Clare's low rank was because all she'd fought before the series started were Yoma (and training matches against other Claymores). Her entire fighting style was intended to fight Awakened Beings, so her rank wasn't actually reflective of her abilities even at the beginning.
61* So if Number 10 Raftela was made to hunt down other Claymore, why wasn't she sent to hunt down Teresa or Irene? Was she too weak or was she created and trained in response to Teresa's defection?
62** The Number 10's job isn't to hunt down other Claymores. It's to deal with Claymore ''rebellion''. She stays at the Organization's headquarters permanently, and protects it from any Claymores that try to attack.
63** In other words, Raftela was made to prevent a second Cassandra.
64* Defensive Claymores get the ability to regenerate. Do offensive types get any sort of benefit? Are they simply better fighters in general? If that were the case, I would assume all defensive fighters would have lower rankings than defensive fighters. Healing is nice, but isn't the point to kill Yoma, Awakened Beings, and possibly be able to out-duel a fellow Claymore? Galatea is a defensive Claymore ranked #3. Does that mean that if she had focused on being offensive, should could have easily become #1? It just seems like being defensive has no draw-backs.
65** Defensive types can't do as much damage, and their special attacks tend to be weaker. The Olny reason that Galatea is ranked #3 and not one, is because numbers #1 and #2 are basically Abyssal Ones.
66** The rankings are probably total strength/effectiveness in battle. A defensive type may have less offensively powerful attacks than an equally powered offensive type, but in battle, their healing factor means they can fight longer, recovery from injuries, and ultimately tank more damage.
67** Another thing you are forgetting is that the organization values two things more then strength or toughness when ranking a Claymore: Yomi energy and sensing. The reason that Teresa was number 1 and potentially the strongest number 1 was because she had total mastery of both of these. I think it was said that she had little in offensive power but because she had enough Yomi to scare a number 2 awakened being with 10% of it and so much mastery of Yomi sensing that she could know what any Yomi or Claymore was doing she was by far the most effective fighter they had. Galatae was in a similiar situation, she was a defensive type but the reason she was numer 3 was because of her ability to sense Yomi over a very wide area from even the smallest amount and her ability to control the yomi in her enemies and, as said above, the only reason she was not the number 1 was likely because they made the 1 and 2 the focus of their awakening experiment.
68* So is it just me, or is [[spoiler:the Organization's plans in making Claymores and Yomas]] utterly ridiculous? Miria stated that the whole thing is some sort of experiment to create [[spoiler:living weapons to fight against another continent]]. But throughout the story, all the powerful Abyssal Ones don't work for the Organization and ends up dead anyway. So why do they insist to continue such experiment?
69** Because everything has been going as planned? The island is supposed to be a giant science experiment, not a production facility. None of the Claymores or Awakened Beings they create are ever meant to see battle on the continent. All they do is try one thing after another in an attempt to create controllable Awakened Beings, which they have had some success at. All the Awakened Beings they send to war are created on the continent, not on the island.
70** It is stated to be a research program, and for all we know the research hasn't succeeded yet. When you plan out a research program, you cannot predict beforehand if it will actually work. That's what research means. (So of course, if this means that if the battle on the continent ends with the side with the Dragonkin winning, and if that side turns out to be even worse than the Organization's side, then we'll get a NiceJobBreakingItHero moment for Miria and co.)
71** The Organization's research definitely gives off strong VillainBall vibes. First of all, the technology they have access to is very vague, but considering their own military presence is armed with swords and spears, and their dialogue, chances are they have no concept of genetic engineering, let alone transgenesis. In other words, for what seems like 100+ years, they just kept going and going at a stupid experiment that resulted in failure at its primary task, the Organization itself driven out and beheaded, and massive loss of life with the added bonus of an EldritchAbomination on the loose powerful enough to depopulate the Claymore island and potentially the whole world. How did the Org's higher-ups not pull the plug after [[EpicFail the first fuckups with the male generation and Riful]] is an impenetrable mystery. To be fair, they '''might''' have cut the funding, hence the Org's extortion practices, but if so why is the Org. (except Dae) still apparently committed to its original goal and its side in the mainland war?
72** You seem to have missed the part where the Organization succeeded at its original goal years ago. And the part where they don't care what happens to the people on the island. And the part where, up until a week ago, things were running perfectly fine for them.
73** Also, even back in the very first generation, they had some incredible successes -- they produced humans with the powers of the dragons they were trying to fight! Yes, those humans went insane and proved uncontrollable, but still, producing Abyssal Ones is a huge deal. They also managed to produce controllable, sane enhanced human Claymores, which, while not what they were really aiming for, is still a hopeful sign. A failure would be if they just didn't produce anything at all. The Abyssal Ones going insane or the Claymores not being strong enough is just a temporary setback requiring more research to work out the bugs.
74
75* So if [[spoiler:Yoma are just parasite-infected humans]], what does that make the Claymores? Once they Awaken, it seems like they keep their "human" consciousness for the most part, just with an off-putting tendency to utterly lose any concept of empathy. Okay, so that's normal enough for Yoma. All the same, Awakened Beings are shown to be able to love just as deeply as any Claymore or human -- look at Riful and Dauf. Both of them were willingly to risk their lives ([[spoiler:and in Dauf's case, outright die]]) to keep the other alive. Isley [[spoiler:genuinely loved Priscilla and Raki]], and Luciela [[spoiler:[[TearsOfJoy cried tears of joy]] at seeing Rafaela, stating that she had wanted for so long to see her sister again]]. Compare regular Yoma, who are prone to eating family members and have never been shown to care about anyone, ever. [[spoiler:So what does that mean for the "parasite" that is the true form of Yoma? Are Claymores still infected by it? If it's a parasite that invades the flesh, then why does it affect them so differently just because it's introduced to their bodies in a different manner? Or have I misread everything and the Claymores have, in fact, been lied to all along, and they're actually made out of the flesh of the "dragons", with the Yoma being a parasitic offshoot that was a failed research attempt?]]
76** The Yoma and the Claymore's are different in one very important way. The Yoma are created when a human is infested by the parasite created from the dragons flesh. It invades the brain, taints the flesh with its energy and takes control of the body. Effectively the human is dead. A Claymore is not made from the parasite, they are created from the tainted flesh of a Yoma that has the dragon's power in it but not the brain destroying parasite. So the Claymore gets all the advantages of the dragons; long live, great strength and the ability to change into a higher form but generally keep their human nature. (though with a hunger for human flesh, it's not perfect yet.)
77* How is it that people know so much about the Claymores, like how to find & hire them, but ''never'' know how payment works? I've only gotten up to chapter 16, so if this is explained later, sorry.
78** People really DON'T know much about the Claymores. They know what they look like and how to hire them...and that's it. And considering developments later in the manga, it's likely the Organization making things obvious as to how to hire a Claymore.
79* Is the girl who was kicking Priscilla's ass in Chapter 134 really Riful BackFromTheDead as the article seems to indicate, or is it her daughter, as what looks like a fetus made of tentacles is shown in Chapter 132.
80** Possible explanation: She was infected and resurrected by the Destroyer, like Dauf, and may have combined with some matter from him as well.
81*** I doubt that. She specifically attacked the Destroyer, which I doubt one of its parts wouold do, to get it out of the way so she could fight the Priscilla. My current theories are that a) it is Riful and Dauf's offspring, which could only been born when her mother died b) given Riful's Awakened form showed that she had no vitals in her upper half it's possible she survived long enough to absorb Dauf but in doing so destroyed her sense of self, knowing only her hatred for Priscilla or c) Priscilla, who has been shown to be able to break off parts of her body and revive the dead, accidentally left part of herself in Riful and Dauf when killing them, and the two revived, and that's why Destroy-Priscilla attacked it like they thought she was there to be absorbed only for Riful and Dauf's hatred for her to wake up just as that was happening and attack.
82* If the dragons are so powerful, how did the Organization capture two of them for their experiments? Keep in mind that they didn't have anything like Claymores or Awakened Beings prior to catching them.
83** Probably through sheer [[WeHaveReserves manpower]]. A single dragon might be more powerful than a single person, but if you send hundreds or thousands of people to capture it, then even though you might suffer massive casualties, you will eventually succeed.
84* According to chapter 137, Rubel speaks of the male Claymore generation as [[spoiler:"us first warriors."]] Was that a mis-translation, or did the author seriously reveal that [[spoiler:Rubel was a first-generation Claymore who presumably awakened]]?*
85** That scanlation is grossly error-ridden (Gernot/MIB is better). The original line in question (一部の戦士たちはそれを半覚醒と呼んでいた) is much closer to "[[spoiler: Some of the warriors were calling it half-awakening]]".
86** The way I understand it there was just the one male generation before they realized that they were all quickly awakening. Riful was activated when Isley, Dauf and Rigaldo were still not awakened, and if all of the men awakened and there were #1s before Isley there should've been other male Abyssal Ones; even if they were killed before the story they would've warranted at least a mention with all the flashbacks going on.
87* Claymore is a nice, sometimes gripping story, but it [[EpicFail fails utterly]] in addressing DystopiaIsHard and {{Flynning}}. Any thoughts/rebuttals?
88** Okeedokee. First part is, of course, because this island isn't a dystopia. It's not anything. It's a weapons testing facility designed to produce controllable monsters run by scientists and soldiers. The people here are just here to be victims and set pieces for staged conflict exercises. Their survival, comfort, anything, means NOTHING to the Organization. Not to mention, our POV characters are all heavily indoctrinated child soldiers who likely neither know or care about the the logistics of maintaining this facade.
89*** As for the flynning, they never do it against humans, only Yoma and Awakened, because the rules of combat are different there. You NEED to be able to use your very wide long sword as a shield when the enemy can, on average, attack from any angle, and regularly shape-shift new weapons on the fly. Not to mention, the difficulty of reaching Yoma/Awakened vitals in the first place, which usually take several strikes, not one, in the best case scenarios.
90*** Agreed on the DystopiaIsHard, if only because I just remembered that the society and economy of the island's population does seem to be in an appalling state, even in the process of falling apart altogether. Bad conditions, falling population, children being sold by own parents IIRC, proliferation of bandits... yeah. Regarding the flynning, not so much. As far as I can tell the fencing styles invented in war-torn cultures are the best ways to use a sword to hurt a human being, and by extension everything else. It's actually very hard to instakill/KO a motivated opponent whose adrenaline is up just from the act of opening them up with a sword. You'll see that many striking techniques in historical European fencing at least come with an immediate escape, parry or pin on the opponent, precisely to avert TakingYouWithMe. The same principle can be turned on humanoid yoma and awakened (Hi, Priscilla). If you can at least somewhat keep up with their speed and power, and you know fencing and they don't, you can easily obtain and advantage and just keep chaining technique after technique until you win (this is also why I think a BFS isn't needed - arming sword and shield combos, or even just longswords made with Claymore material would work best, and axes or maces for awakened that combine high power with tough armour, like Duff). If you can't keep up with them Flynning isn't going to help, not even Drillsword (RuleOfCool and WaifFu or not there are '''several''' reasons why that shouldn't work). Maybe it's just a case of Flinning as my PetPeeveTrope, though.
91** Most Awakened Beings can only be killed via complete dismemberment and most aren't humanoid, the average Awakened Being is a nonsense mass of armor, blades and tentacles. You can't dismember something that large with a small blade, and certainly not with a bludgeon. Not to mention, all their enemies are ex-Claymore, and KNOW sword fighting already. Only those with weird techniques, or really good team work can surprise them if they're not already strong enough to power on through.
92* Also, what is up with the scars? It's just a straight-line open wound that needs to be kept stitched up - hardly the male-repellent they're made out to be!
93** It's an open wound stretching from the trachea to the genitals held tight by thick metal wire. They were expecting a beautiful woman, not that. Most humans are scared to even touch Claymores at the best of times, just from the stigma of hybrids they carry. Seeing such a grotesque injury probably drove home that stigma for the bandits and was a major turn-off. It's that stigma combined with the unnatural injury that makes it so repellent. They may have even thought they'd catch something if they went anywhere near it.
94*** OP here, and meh. It doesn't look anything like gruesome. Blame the idealized and simplified art if you like, but I just watched some real-life pictures of fresh sutures and a regenerating open wound. Given [[CrapsackWorld the kind of world they live in]] and their [[RapePillageAndBurn own proclivities]] those bandits are real sensitive boys, aren't they? Speaking as a hetero non-bandit male, if a claymore was real, adult and willing, I'd tap that. Immediately. Seriously they all look great. If her genitals are too mangled or sewn shut, improvise. The real turnoff I could see in that situation was that Teresa was clearly unwilling and apathetic - but again, not a bandit. They shouldn't care.
95** And another thing: the cut goes right down the middle. This is very impractical because ''the sternum is in the way''. Unless the flesh implants are placed right under the skin in which case [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption they should be visible and such a large cut would be obviously not needed]].
96*** Again, people are ''terrified'' of Yoma and a big open wound loaded with Yoma flesh and blood on display is terrifying on a deep psychological level to the continent. Seeing that wound reminded them what they're dealing with. It's not just the injury itself, which IS pretty grotesque by most reasonable standards. This is a medieval society, people with a wound like that should be DEAD. It's not a horror-movie sight, but it doesn't need to be to get the point across. As for it being down the middle, the wound is there to give them equal access to both sides for shoving the tissue and blood throughout. And I'm sure if they're willing to go that far on innocent little girls, they have no qualms about sawing through some bone if needed.
97** While the subject's on the table, what was the point of "treating" Clare after her "rebirth" (for lack of a better term)? I realize I may have misread or overlooked something, or have a bad/incomplete translation, but Clare already had Teresa's flesh fused with her own. If the incision is made to stuff Yoma bits into the body, and the now-regeneration-capable body then registers the wound as part of it and that's why it can't heal, cutting Clare open and stitching her back up was nothing but meaningless cruelty and a waste of time.
98*** It was probably just the translation. Teresa's flesh wasn't "fused" with Clare's. They did with Teresa's flesh and blood exactly what they do with Yoma flesh and blood to make Claymores: they sliced Clare open and shoved it inside of her.
99*** Also, they didn't cut her open. The "treatment" was the sutures: she was reborn with the incision, but not the stitches, so the other Claymores had to do that for her.
100** It wasn't just the wounds that made it repellent. It was the way Teresa acted so nonchalant, depriving the bandits of any particular thrill they would get in assaulting her. What they wanted to do was bring a powerful woman/monster low through sexual trauma but the act became hollow the moment Teresa said "Eh, do your worst" and gave them a view. They get off on despair and anguish, not faint smiles.
101* So, if Yoma are parasites constantly needing to switch from Host to Host due to degradation, shouldn't people be finding random Yoma husks everywhere? Where are the bodies?
102** The "dragons" fom which the parasite is made are stated to decay very rapidly when they die ([[ArtisticLicenseBiology how exactly is this possible is left as an exercise to the reader]]), thus needing the two live captives. Presumably youma decay at an intermediate rate which is enough to prevent conspicuous pileups of dead youma.
103** Also, the Yoma parasites possibly instinctively switch before their current host is completely unusable, then eat the rest of it. It's never really mentioned how quickly Yoma need to switch, either; all we know is that they tend to get hungry enough to feed every two weeks on average. Given that Clare meets several Yoma outside and inside Riful's first layer, a fair distance from civiliation, it could be that it takes months or years before the body-jumping absolutely needs to happen, so when they get a convenient chance, they can body-jump then eat their previous host without much of an issue.
104* Soooo... what is the relationship between Clare and Teresa in light of chapter 150 revelations? On the one hand, Teresa is Clare's mother figure who has taken care of her, and Clare definitely sees her as such. On the other, [[spoiler:Clare is now technically Teresa's mother, having facilitated her rebirth after bearing her remains within her own body for 10-15 years]].
105** I... what? Why would it have changed just because [[spoiler:Teresa's spirit resides inside of Clare]]? How would that ''possibly'' make Clare [[spoiler:Teresa's "mother"]]? I'm genuinely unsure of what it is you're trying to get at. If, say, my mother [[spoiler:died (god forbid) and then later I found out that her spirit had been kicking back inside of my body, I wouldn't be looking at her as my "daughter", I'd be looking at her as ''omfg my mom is alive in a sense and I can see her and talk to her and hug her and I thought I'd lost her forever'' and there would be lots of sobbing. There would be a distinct lack of viewing her as anything other than my mom. Even if she was like "Hey, let me borrow your body for a bit," I'd be like "Sure, whatever you need, as long as I get more hugs," not "Sure, but this makes you my kid now. Bedtime's at eleven"]]. Being Teresa's [[spoiler:SoulJar]] hardly makes Clare her [[spoiler:"mother"]] in any sense of the word.
106* Why would Ilena think that Teresa's speed was outmatched by Ilena's? No matter how well Teresa can read yoki, it wouldn't have mattered one whit if she wasn't fast enough to keep up. It'd be the equivalent of a human seeing a transport truck bearing down on them five feet from their face. Sure, you see it coming, but it's not like you'd have time to dodge. A good in-series example would be Clare's fight with Ophelia. Clare "read" the move ahead of time, but was not nearly fast enough to even be able to see the proper movement of the sword, let alone block it. Yet Ilena could, and Ilena's ability to sense yoki has never been noted as being anything special -- instead, her speed gave her the advantage. Going back to Teresa: With Ilena's Quicksword slashing at her, if Teresa's speed was truly outclassed, she would have been cut at some point. Instead, to Ilena's obvious shock, Teresa blocks her effortlessly in the inn's room and counters every hit after that with ease. Yet Ilena tells Noel that Teresa's individual abilities are lesser than theirs ''after'' this happens. It doesn't make sense.
107** I'm not sure about this, but notice that when Ilena attacks Teresa, a lot of things other than Teresa get chopped up, and Teresa even warns her to avoid hitting Claire. I think Ilena's quick sword sacrifices accuracy for power, so she throws a several lightning fast random strikes at Teresa, several of which miss her entirely. Teresa, while not as fast as Ilena, is fast enough to only block the attacks which are dangerous to her. That's how she matches the quick sword without matching Ilena's speed.
108*** It's been established at the end that Teresa wasn't simply a JackOfAllTrades, but a MasterOfAll. She was just CONSTANTLY suppressing her powers, and almost never takes any fight seriously because she's just that strong. The moment [[spoiler: Teresa came back to life through Clare]] it was established that she could do everything the others could do, except BETTER. Even Ilena's arm that [[spoiler: wasn't a perfect match for Clare and could only be used once at 100% lest she wanted to damage Clare's body,]] she was able to use perfectly, immediately. She can copy what she has just seen others do, and she can do other people's technique on a whim, because to her, those aren't 'special moves', but just a regular move all together. She is literally number 1. Strongest of all generation. Basically put...she was most likely still holding back when she was fighting with Ilena, and Ilena thought that that was Teresa's limits. She was basically just underestimating Teresa.
109*** There's also another thing...even if the above mentioned is overlooked, the fact that Ilena and Teresa have known each other probably since before they were deployed as warriors can only say one thing - they were at least somewhat familiar with each others' techniques. Teresa even made an off-hand comment about how while Ilena has certainly gotten better, it still was just not enough. Even from their faces you can see just what is happening in this fight. Ilena was already concentrating hard, but Teresa still had that faint smile on her face. The moment Ilena started to turn her sword towards Teresa, [[spoiler: Teresa was able to stop her sword like it was nothing]]. If you add the mentioned above, the fact that Teresa is just THAT strong, plus the fact that she probably has a working knowledge of Ilena's technique...it wasn't that Teresa's abilities are 'lesser'. She just wanted them all to believe that.
110* The Organization's ultimate goal was to create something with the power of an awakened one but without its madness. Given that... didn't Teresa qualify when she was alive? It's shown that she's capable of defeating them with ease, and there's no particular reason to think dragons would be any more of a problem. Is the issue just that they can't mass-produce warriors of her caliber, or what? It seems odd that they're so determined to experiment with weird tricks when Teresa was glaringly more powerful than anything else they managed.
111** One of the reasons is certainly that Claymores like Teresa are too rare to be of any use in the war, in fact Teresa is almost completely unique, but there's also another problem: the Organization doesn't just want monsters who are powerful and controllable, they also want them devoid of any human will and incapable of even thinking about disobedience. One the Claymores' major problems is their tendency to become disobedient and irreverent as they grow old, as Limt said the best warriors are those who die after a moderate amount of time before they start understanding what the Organization really is. Which is why Alicia and Beth are how they are, they are the closest thing to the Organization reaching their goals, fusing their consciousness left them without a personality, they can barely think and only care about following orders. Alicia and Beth are: as powerful as an Abyssal one, not insane and out for guts like Claymores, and incapable of ever turning disloyal because of their lack of Humanity. Alicia and Beth, and the nameless twin trainees too, however weren't perfect yet, their human bond as sisters never went away (as seen during the battle between Alicia and beth against Priscilla where the death of one of the sisters makes the surviving one cry, and also during the nameless twins' fight against Miria) and thus the Organization thought that in the future it would have been necessary to break the next twins' mind at an even earlier age to remove any remnant of Humanity. Because the whole theme of the series is about people recovering their Humanity thanks to the development of real human bonds this never happens, the Organization is shown to be utterly evil and are defeated by the rebel warriors who preferred to stay with those who considered them Humans rather than those who saw them as mere experiments. I ranted a bit toward the end but I hope I answered your question.
112** The other answer is the Organization ''didn't'' know and underestimated Theresa's strength. This is evidenced by Theresa's kill squad. It's pretty odd that the squad sent to kill Theresa only contained 4 Claymores when other Number 1's who went rogue faced the entire generation of Claymores and were barely defeated. Irene who lead the group was also completely mistaken about Theresa's strength with the Organization not correcting her before the mission started. We can also see that in Theresa's missions - other single ranked Claymores are semi-regularly sent against Awakened Ones. In contrast, we only see Theresa on regular Yoma hunts with the only battle we see against an Awakened One being an accident that Theresa lied to her handler about. It's possible that like her comrades, the Organization didn't know Theresa's power and thought that she was one of the weaker Number 1's who only got to that rank through excellent Yoki perception and clever and efficient use of her strength and because the Organization was short-staffed due [[spoiler: to the massacre of Rockwell Hill]]. Though this troper has a WMG that there are hints that Theresa knew more than she let on, might have figured out the Organization's secrets and was hiding her strength from them through a deliberately understated and unremarkable fighting style that uses minimal Yoki.
113* What was with Ophelia? Was she sent to kill Clare and the Awakened Being, or did she just feel like it because she was mental?
114** It's implied that the Organization deliberately sent Ophelia on a hunt with Clare to kill her off if she was or was about to become an Awakened Being. Clare was always a thorn on the Organization's side - she's an anti-social maverick with a habit of running off, she displays powers far above her rank and she's half Awoken. The Organization was worried about her being a wild card and wanted to nip that in the bud. Ophelia, who hates Awakened Beings would immediately recognize Clare has half-Awoken and try to kill her. That way the Organization is rid of Clare but without having ordered the deaths of a Claymore for no good reason as they can blame Ophelia whose known to be crazy. (The Organization doesn't order the deaths of Claymores without at least an excuse likely to prevent mass defections).

Top