Claymore/Headscratchers

• Fridge Logic - 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 Sinister Shades, allowing her to infiltrate the city while still retaining her combat effectiveness?
  • At a guess, shades would make the guards & priests suspicious ... and it may be that Rubel needs the shades because of sensitive eyes?
  • 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 Galatea went as far as blinding herself to hide her identity, they certainly do check).
  • 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.
  • If colored contact lenses existed, it would've made sense to use that, but wearing Sinister Shades (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.
• I started wondering a bit about Claymore social and sexual life. Claire once stated that she was taught to smile like a Prostitue...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 Les Yay involved...
  • 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 suppose 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.
    • 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: no man wants a prostitute. It just further ostracizes claymores from human society.
  • Sterile? Didn't Agatha make a not-so-subtle offer of sex to one of the soldiers before killing him?
    • 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.
    • 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 I Knew It!.
      • 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.
      • 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 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.
    • 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.
  • Because their womb is supposed to be a Body Horror, 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 Theresa 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 fortunate.
    • 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.
• 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 Chekhov's Gunman -ish or Ass Pull 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?
  • 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 Fate Worse Than Death, 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.
    The 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.
    Alternatively, 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.
  • How do you know Irene cannot outfight Rafaela she is a #3.
    • She is an Offensive type (i.e. comparativly weak regen) with two missing arms.
    • 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).
• 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...
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Chapter 113: Miria's alive again. 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 "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 Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy 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?
  • 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.
  • 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 Thunderbolt Iron sword. Which also makes me question just how much they wanted her alive if they're slashing her in the face.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• 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?
  • 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.
  • There is a male Yoma in episode 2 of the anime, disguised as a Claymore. Not sure about the manga.
  • 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.
• 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.
  • I'm pretty sure they just added purple blood to the anime for the audiences benefit.
• Just how powerful IS Quicksword? I mean, it leaves visible slash marks in water. Like, 40 clear, disctict slash marks lasting AFTER the technique has been used and the user has relaxed. It's like Fate/stay night'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...
  • Rule of Cool.
• 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?
  • 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.
• If Daae chose the three strongest #1's in their history, why isn't Theresa in that group of three?
  • Does he even have her body? Didn't they already use her corpse to make Clare into a Claymore?
    • Two things. 1- Did the Org actually know how powerful Theresa was? 2- Dae factored in the condition of the corpse. Re-attaching Theresa's head and compensating for whatever flesh they used on Claire may have made it not worth it.
      • Apperently nobody knew how strong Teresa really was, except possibly Rubel.
  • 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 Theresa, it might be that the head is necessary to keep the body viable, and death by decapitation renders the body unusable for this purpose.
• 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?
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• 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)?
  • 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.
• 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?
  • 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.
  • In other words, Raftela was made to prevent a second Cassandra.
• 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• So is it just me, or is the Organization's plans in making Claymores and Yomas utterly ridiculous? Miria stated that the whole thing is some sort of experiment to create 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?
  • 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.
  • 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 Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment for Miria and co.)