Clare (Claymore)
Clare is a female anime and manga character who features in Claymore.
Contents |
Biography
Clare (Japanese: クレア, Hepburn: Kurea) was a young human female whose family were slaughtered by Yoma with one of the monsters keeping her as part of their disguise in infiltrating a settlement. She would face many bruises and injuries during this time of captivity with the creature who took her from village to village. This time of her life ended at Teo when a Claymore by the name of Teresa arrived when she was called to eliminate six Yoma. Teresa easily managed to dispatch the monsters and uncovered a seventh who was hiding behind Clare in his human guise. She would kill the monster thus freeing both Clare and the town from the Yoma. Clare would see Teresa and within the Claymore's eyes saw the same kind of pain that she herself experienced. Thus, she attempted to embrace the Claymore and try to dampen the feelings of loss that she hid deep within herself. However, Clare at this point was mute due to the long years of being with the Yoma and could not speak. Teresa would believe that the young girl mistakenly saw the Claymore as a savior figure and made numerous attempts at violently rejecting any contact. When Teresa left the town, Clare would follow her with single minded determination despite facing exhaustion from the long trek. Teresa would attempt to force her to leave the Claymore alone when they were surrounded by a group of bandits. These bandits would ultimately decide to leave the Claymore alone and seek easier victims. The Claymore would continue her journey with Clare in close pursuit whereby Teresa sought jumped easily off a cliff and harmlessly to the ground in the belief that this would dissuade the young girl from following. Clare, however, jumped off as well and barely managed to survive whereby she fell unconscious on landing on the ground. Teresa at first thought to leave the girl but decided against it as the rules of the Organization held that the Claymores could not allow the death of a human at their hands and a breach of this law could lead in execution. As such, she saw Clare and put her in a lake to hydrate her as a lack of water was part of the reason she fell unconscious. She would also tell the young Clare that she would allow the girl to accompany her to the next village only though secretly she began to bond with the human child. With a human as company, Teresa was forced to start collecting food to feed Clare who stayed with her at the fireplace where they decided to rest. At that time, one of the bandits earlier arrived where he wanted revenge on Teresa for cutting his hand and attempted to rape her. The Claymore was banned by the rules of the Organization from killing humans and thus could not stop the bandit though his plans were stopped by Clare who attacked him. As a result, the angry bandit started to beat the young girl until Teresa intervened and showed a willingness to break the law to protect the young girl by killing the bandit who decided to flee for his life. Teresa would take Clare to the next village where she slayed the Yoma there and asked for its inhabitants to look after Clare. Clare was distraught for being left behind but Teresa did so because she felt that the girl would have more of a human life. After she left, the group of bandits that attacked her before raided the village and razed it to the ground where Clare was taken by one of their number. Teresa would return after seeing the bandits and killed the one who held Clare whereupon she eliminated their leader causing the rest to flee.
This act would lead to her breaking the rules of the Organization and she went before four of her comrades to be executed with Clare begging her to live. Teresa would end up wounding her executioners instead and decided to break the law of the Organization in order to continue to live and kept Clare by her side. The two would travel with Teresa being labelled as a renegade and a party of Claymores being assembled to hunt her down. At one village, the hunting party would arrive consisting of Irene and Priscilla along with two others. Clare would watch from the side whilst Teresa effortlessly defeated the four even when Priscilla went past her limit. Priscilla who surpassed her limit tricked Teresa by pretending to submit to being executed for awakening but in that moment she beheaded Teresa after she turned into an Awakened Being. The awakened Priscilla would seemingly kill Irene and eliminated the other two Claymores whereupon she left Clare as she sought humans to feed upon. A distraught Clare would take Teresa's head and vow revenge against Priscilla for killing the person she cared about the most and sought out one of the men in black from the Organization. She would tell the individual that she wanted Teresa's flesh implanted in her so that she could become a Claymore and get vengeance. Thus, she was taken into the Organization and went through the training to become a Claymore. Unlike standard procedure whereby Yoma flesh was added into the subject, Clare had Teresa's flesh added into her own and the distillation meant that she was initially ranked as the lowest in the Organization. The period following implantation was a difficult time for her as Clare would be in excruciating pain an it was only the support of a fellow trainee by the name of Elena did she manage to survive this experience. After completing her training, she was given the rank of No. 47 in the Organization that marked her as the lowest ranked warrior.
She was later dispatched on an assignment to eliminate a Yoma in the village of Doga. Whilst there, she saved a young boy by the name of Raki from a Yoma that had disguised itself as his older brother. Raki was grateful to Clare and wanted to be by her side especially as his fellow villagers had removed him from their settlement due to his brother having been a Yoma. Clare had departed by this point but Raki followed her through the desert but collapsed on the sands. This led to Clare saving the boy where she left him at a in at the village of Egon. After recovering, Raki decided to find her again to thank her where he seemingly encountered another Claymore but this was actually a Yoma in disguise who took the boy hostage. Clare arrived on the scene where she managed to kill the Yoma and save Raki's life whereupon she accepted him as her cook. She stated that she would allow him to travel with her until they found a town that that he could settle in. During her next meeting with Rubel of the Organization, she received a change of uniform and assured him that the boy would not get in the way of her duties. Rubel later provided her a Black Card that was sent by Clare's friend Elena who had surpassed her Yoki limit and struggling to maintain her humanity. Thus, Clare travelled to find her friend in order to fulfil her request in killing her before she descended into becoming a Yoma. Despite Raki's pleas, she killed Elena with her friend thanking her for assuring that she retained her humanity. She next received an assignment from the Organization who were contracted for a Yoma elimination mission at the Holy City of Rabona. The City of the Saints was situated valley in western Toulouse where outsiders of dubious character were not permitted behind its walls with Claymores forbidden from entering it. However, a Yoma had hidden itself amongst the clergy and was secretly devouring its members with one of the priests secretly petitioning for a Claymore to eliminate it. Thus, Clare and Raki arrived at the city where they posed as tourists with her taking medication that hid her nature as a half-breed. Whilst there, she made her way to meet Father Vincent who had requested for a Claymore and detailed the experiences of the priests where Clare concluded that the Yoma was a strong Voracious-Eater. She had determined that the creature was hiding amongst the clergy at the cathedral and intended to investigate the site though had to evade guards who had found her within the city though could not determine Clare's identity at the time. Investigating the cathedral, she came to be ambushed by the Yoma leaving her badly wounded and unconscious for 2 days. After recovering, she went back to the cathedral in order to kill her target who was discovered to be hiding amongst the corpses in the tombs. During the fight, she came to use too much of her yoki causing her to begin to awaken as a result. However, it was Raki who helped her regain her human consciousness where his sheer love and humanity helped prevent Clare succumbing to her transformation.
Afterwards, her handler Rubel came to task her with a new mission which was to be an Awakened Being hunt at Paburo. Leaving Raki behind, Clare would rendezvous with a team consisting of three other Claymores consisting of Deneva, Helen and their leader Miria. However, her compatriots had a low opinion of Clare after finding her ranking to be the lowest within the Organization. Later in the mission, the party would encounter a male Awakened Being with Miria quickly realising that they had been misinformed by the Organization on the strength of their quarry's power. All four Claymores were seemingly overpowered but Clare managed to recover despite her injuries where she came to assist Miria against their foe. In the fight, Clare was able to remove 5 of the 6 arms of the creature and ultimately they were able to slay him. A close bond of friendship was thus formed amongst the four Claymores with Miria deciding to trust them with her deep suspicions over the Organization. They concluded that this mission was designed to eliminate the four of them as they were seen as troublesome and that all them had attained greater power by a partial awakening of their bodies. Miria suggested that they keep a low profile whilst she continued her own hidden investigation into the Organization. Before departing, she gave a warning to Clare and the others to stay away from the top five ranked warriors in the Organizations with number 5 Ophelia being particularly dangerous. Clare then returned from her mission on the mountain and continued her travels with Raki. In this time, Clare kept her rebellious tendencies to a minimum in order to maintain a low profile with Rubel noticing that she had become much more cooperative.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In her youth, her body held numerous scars that were believed to the result of the Yoma and stated to never be capable of healing. Teresa stated that Clare was likely named after one of the twin goddesses with the intention that she embody her virtue and beauty. After becoming a Claymore, her hair was cut short to pageboy length with it now being light in colour with her eyes going silver that indicated her half-breed status. It was said by others that Clare was quite attractive with her wispy figure hiding her true strength.
After encountering Teresa, she formed a deep sense of kinship and attachment to the Claymore. According to Clare, this was because she recognized pain in Teresa's eyes which she masked. She recognized such a look because Clare stated that she herself felt the same. Teresa believed that this explained why Clare hugged her initially because she was comforting the Claymore.
Her desire for revenge stemmed from the fact that Teresa was someone Clare saw as saving her. This was because prior to meeting her she had lost her family, her ability to speak and the will to live. As a result, encountering Teresa completely changed Clare's life and made her happy with this being once more shattered by the actions of Priscilla. Irene had commented that on the surface Clare appeared to be calm appear calm but her real heart was a whirlpool of passion. The desire for revenge was believed to had influenced her combat style as a Claymore as it moved her into an attacker. It was this same fire that meant that she struggled with her Yoma side that meant that certain techniques such as the Quicksword technique were beyond her mastery.
Normally, she was composed on the surface but it was shown her emotions could easily break out. An example of this was when she immediately rushed to Rigardo in anger when her companions were killed.
One of her noted traits was her enormous willpower that she possessed even during her childhood. This was apparent when she would persistently follow Teresa despite the dangers. Clare's willpower manifested in her determination to kill Priscilla and led to her having the Organization implant Teresa's flesh in her.
As a young girl, she came to meet Teresa (テレサ, Teresa?) who came to free her from yoma that had killed her family. For this, the girl came to be dedicated to Teresa who at first wanted nothing to do with the child. However, she came to be moved to seeing the lengths the young girl would go to be with her and ultimately decided to keep her as a travelling companion. Over time, Teresa became a surrogate mother to her and had been responsible for naming her Clare after one of the twin goddesses. Teresa became everything to the young Clare who learnt to speak again because of her after years of trauma made her lose her voice. It was Teresa's death at the hands of Priscilla that made Clare vow to become a Claymore so that she could avenge her.
During her travels, she came to meet a young man named Raki (ラキ) when she helped clear a town of yoma. He came to be constantly follow her around as he was amazed at seeing one of the legendary Claymores despite everyone else fearing her. Later on, his entire family were killed by a yoma that had been disguised as his brother leaving Raki without a family. For this, he was exiled from his town where he decided to follow Clare and become her travelling companion with him offering to serve as her cook. After first meeting Raki, she commented that he was a strange boy for showing interest in interacting with her whilst others feared her. She came to question on what her relationship was with Raki. To escape Ophellia, she had Raki split from her but vowed to find him again. Clare kissed him where she promised to survive and return to him. After re-uniting with him, she stated that she was proud of him for surviving and meeting her again.
Powers and abilities
Originally, Clare had been an ordinary human being with no special ability. As a child, her parents had been killed and she was held captive by a Yoma until Teresa saved her. She became familiar with Claymores whilst accompanying Teresa until her death at the hands of Priscila. It was then that Clare wanted to become a Claymore herself in order to get her revenge for Teresa's murder. After joining the Organization, she was infected with Yoma flesh and transformed into a half-Yoma. This led to the aging process being frozen in her thus maintaining her appearance over the years. Her appetite was non-existent to her as her body could subsist on a small amount of food that would fill her. Unlike other Claymores who were half Yoma, Clare was even more diluted as the implantation of Teresa's flesh made her a quarter Yoma. Her desire for revenge also influenced her abilities as it made her an attacker who focused on offense. This meant that she lacked the potency of regeneration seen in defender Claymores and it resulted in her inability to regrow limbs. Instead, she could heal limbs severe from her after attachment but was unable to grow a new limb that had been completely destroyed.
One key technique she had developed due to holding Teresa's flesh was the power to sense Yoki auras. This trait allowed her to sense the coming attacks from her enemies by sensing the amount of Yoki they unleashed in their attack. The ability meant that foes that were powerful that had no problem unlashing their power were easy to anticipate. Miria believed that Clare had honed her ability to sense Yoki with the express purpose of fighting Awakened Being. A disadvantage was that she struggled to switch to attack whilst sensing the moves of her foe. According to Miria, the technique was useless unless she learnt to use them together or switch between abilities.
Similar to all Claymores, she had a limit to how much yoki she was able to use where she tapped more into her Yoma side and gaining more of their characteristics. Passing a certain point led to her Awakening where she suffered the risk of not being able to turn back to normal and instead become an Awakened Being (覚醒者, Kakusei-sha). As an Awakened Being, she would lose all sense of her human self and be driven by her animalistic instincts of her Yoma side where she would have a desire of human flesh. An ability that she along with a few Claymores had learnt was to intentionally surpass her limit and partially awaken before returning back to normal. This way led to her tapping into the increased power afforded to her by her Yoma side so long s she was able to stop from fully awakening. Clare was later inspired by Jeanne's great strength of will even after she had Awakened which had allowed her to retain her humanity. This caused Clare to re-evaluate her approach and tap into her abilities better.
After losing her dominant right hand to Ophelia, Clare was nearly crippled as a combatant until she met Elena where she began to get instruction in the Quicksword (クイックソード, Kuikkusōdo) technique. Despite an intense period of training, it was determined that Clare could never master the technique as she had no control over her passion as the Quicksword required patience. However, Elena later cut off her right arm and had it attached to Clare allowing her to make use of the arm where she would focus her Yoki to get it only awakened for using the technique. It was only after her encountering Jeane who managed to retain her mind even whilst Awakened which forced her to re-examine her mind. This inspired her to channel her will better in the control of her Yoki allowing for greater mastery over the Quicksword.
At Pieta, Clare battled the Silver-Eyed Lion King Rigaldo but realized that her power could not match him. She began to tap into her Yoma side more so in order to gain the strength to survive and save her comrades. This saw her in allowing her lower body to awaken with it transforming to give her increased speed. With this power, she was able to move at such speeds that even Rigaldo could not match her. Initially, she was unable to control her speed causing her to move and smash into any object that she headed towards. Clare was unable to correct her speed once she moved and was committed to that path. Thus, it meant her foe was able to simply move out of the way in order to avoid her strike. However, in minutes, she began to learn techniques to improve her course correction and reached to the point that she was able to learn to use new her power.
As a Claymore, she had been a member of the Organization where she was lowest ranked warrior among them. After rebelling, she came to be one of the Seven Ghosts (セブンゴースト, Sebungōsutoan) that consisted of survivors of the Northern Campaign. As a founding member, officially she was declared dead where she alongside her comrades looked to oppose the Organization.
Notes
- Clare was created by Norihiro Yagi where she featured in the setting of the Claymore universe.
In other media
Television
- In Claymore, Clare appeared in the anime adaptation television series where she was voiced by Japanese actor Houko Kuwashima and her English voice actor was Stephanie Young in the dubbed series.
Appearances
- Claymore:
External Links
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