Claymore

Well, like I mentioned at one point or another, what I'd like to see is them being together most of the time but during fights against Yoma Raki would be well away to make sure no Yoma could use him as a hostage against Clare. However, whenever some stupid band of rogues would choose to assault Clare, then Raki would deal with them. After all, Clare's pretty much only option is to run (or leave no witnesses, but frankly that's not how Clare would act). She could escape easily enough - that is, if she was alone. But with Raki around, it's not such a surefire option. So, if Raki instead was a badass swordsman as far as a human can be, it would again be no problem, but instead would make him look cool as well.

31 pages...

I think Claymore should have it's own Subforum :)

considering we arent even that far into the series yet :)

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Originally Posted by complich8

I propose that if all 4 of the slashers are half-awakened, it must not be THAT unthinkable (or even that uncommon) for claymores to reach that state. Consider that that's 4 out of 47 current claymores -- roughly one in twelve of them -- all at about the same time. Given that claymores live a relatively long (but undisclosed) time as claymores, and presumably that the male awakened being in the Slashers arc was, in fact, essentially a half-awakened dump who had apparently disposed of many such claymores throughout the years, it's probably better than 10% of them that end up that way. It might be fair to guess as many as 1 in 6 to 1 in 8 of them have half-awakened to be eaten by that guy.

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I think half-awakening is a lot more uncommon than we are presented. It may have never happened before, though we really don't know what the Handlers know about it, since he didn't feel inclined to share with Galatea. Full Awakening is much more common. Miria said she's been of 7 hunts before, and Helen and Deneve have at least been on one each separate from Miria.

It was special circumstances that kept them from Awakening fully as well. Raki saved Clare in her case, and Miria "didn't want to be provoked" to Ophelia. It seems to be a matter of supreme willpower.

The Male Awakened never said they were all half-awakeneds, he only said he killed all the Claymores that have ever come to hunt him. Miria said he was a strong one as Awakeneds go. Perhaps the dead Claymores were "troublemakers," but I find it more likely the Organization chose to ignore him. After all, he was a male, and those were only used for the first generation or so, long ago.

But the most salient common thread among the Slashers is still that they are all half-awakened.

If that half-awakening is 1 in 10, then that would mean that 9 out of 10 either completely awaken, die in combat, or send out their black cards before they lose control. Assuming an equal breakdown between those three, that would be 1 half-awakened for every 3 awakened, every 3 black cards, and every 3 combat deaths. I'd say that's relatively uncommon without being so incredibly unheard-of.

We don't really have any clue about the organization, about how long it's been around, about how large its area is and if there are other similar organizations in the world. We don't really have any idea how long it's been since the organization got started. There's apparently no male claymores around now, but we have no idea if it's been that way for the last 10 years or the last 10 centuries. We really just can't tell.

There's a lot of unanswered questions going around. But all four of the Slashers followed the same pattern -- they're all troublemakers, but they're also all half-awakened. I don't think that any interpretation is off the table yet. And either way, there's a town right down the mountain from that male awakened being that he never really did much with. It really seems like the organization had a specific role for that guy, and possibly even an agreement with him about that role. If the town were actually trying to get rid of him, I think the organization would have sent an elite task force after their first team of hunters died, and that'd be the end of it.

And the organization "supposedly" is the one sending out the yomas in the first place.

It is plausible and profitable, if so be the case. It is definitely within the realm of possiblities , can't really say that I would be surprised.

I believe that a lot of claymores die and get replaced all the time. The 47 probably get different people/half youmas nearly every month, considering the fact that they fight life and death battles all the time, and even hunt awakeneds. This can also be seen with the lack of concern the organization has for claymores dying throughout the series. With this in mind, even with an extremely low chance of becoming a half awakened, like maybe 1/100 or even 1/200 awakenings (we cant really calculate the exact probability, we can only guess, and storywise I believe this fits), there is a slim chance that coincidence allowed 4 of them to exist in one batch at the same time.

That male youma may have fought and killed other half awakeneds before as well, but I think he was also used to simply be the "clean-up" for the organization, regardless of the nature of the troublemakers sent. He may have also existed for years and years, and in consideration to the idea that claymores get replaced consistently, him killing awakeneds despite the small chance of half-awakening becomes realistic.

EDIT - I dont think that the youmas are officially in cahoots with the organization, since as we have seen, they are smart enough to act in a manner that benefits them the most, but are simply too treacherous. The seeming team-up between the awakened and the organization is probably a mutual gain thing, without any formla agreement between the two parties.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

EDIT - I dont think that the youmas are officially in cahoots with the organization, since as we have seen, they are smart enough to act in a manner that benefits them the most, but are simply too treacherous. The seeming team-up between the awakened and the organization is probably a mutual gain thing, without any formla agreement between the two parties.

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Neither of these two requires any agreements. The regular yoma are like beasts or like a plague. You just set it free in secret and a little later appear as a savior to help people with the cure. All the better if your own tools (Claymores) get killed every so often: It makes it look even less suspicious that you had anything to do with it in the first place.

The problem with the Awakened beings is that no matter what else, the fact remains the organization makes a living out of hunting all yoma, including Awakened beings (it matters little to the ordinary people asking for help what manner of a beast it is that keeps eating them). And Awakened beings themselves seem to delight in killing Claymores. So, any trust there would be highly transient. It seems far more likely to me the male Awakened being just happened to have a personality that made him spend his time in that one place. There are people like that. The organization at some point took notice and started to use it as a waste disposal site.

Yeah, that was my point. I just clarified it earlier since someone mentioned that the organization may have an agreement with the awakened being, and I was highly doubtful of that.

Hmmm, but then, how do you explain that the male awakened being knew about Miria? And also that the black guy with Galtea said that this awakened being is a "special one"???

I don't remember anymore exactly what the male one was telling, but it could have been a bunch of lies. Or guesses. Or he could have heard something from his previous victims. Or maybe the shadowy guy who was with Galatea paid the Awakened one a visit every now and then, playing chess, drinking wine and exchanging news. After all, the dude would hardly have posed a threat to an Awakened one, so he might have been able to keep his life.

Thats an interesting line of thought. But i can hardly imagine one of his previous victim telling him details about other claymores when they are on the verge of dying, tortured by him. Unless he was trying specifically trying to pump intel out of her. And i certainly dont think theyd know about the ones being sent "in the event" they were to fail....Maybe everything he said was a lie, but the part where he stated that Miria was known as phantom miria, that was a clear illustration of his knowledge of her abilities. Lolz @ the ocassional visit theory....

Hit the post botton only once, regardless if the site begins to lag on you or not

I assumed the "special" meant only that it was a male. Remember that all higher ranking Claymores are aware that they turn into Awakeneds. The only reason we (through Clare and Raki) did not is because Clare had never been on a hunt before. The lowest ranking ones believe the lie that they turn into regular yoma. We saw that with Elena.

Of the four Slashers, only Miria knew that there had previously been Male Claymores generations ago. That sounds pretty special. There have been made implications during and after the fight with the Male Awakened that Miria investigates the Organization. That combined with her special ability, presumed often seen by other Claymores in the teamed hunts, word will get around about Miria.

I do think it's more likely that that Male simply stays there, perhaps it's his territory, and the Organization takes advantage of him being there to send troublemakers there. I highly doubt there is any kind of formalized agreement. The Awakened did have a human form, so perhaps he gathers information that way.


As a side note to my first paragraph, the reason Teresa didn't mention that Priscilla would soon Awaken I leave up to a continuity error. It would take out a lot of the surprise for the audience that "Awakening" could actually happen.

I'm not sure whether there's been any agreement between the male Awakened and the Organisation or not, but it doesn't matter. Even if they've never talked, the Awakened should figure out what's going on anyway when Claymores too weak to defeat him are being sent again and again. (of course the last batch was an exception :D)

I think that introducing a Male Awakened being just introduced an opportunity to reveal why there aren't any male claymores around these days. Also tells us why it's strong. Male Awakened beings were stronger claymores (in general) than female ones. (not sure who said that, think it was Galateas handler. Mentioned them as failures in terms of staying claymores, but success in terms of their powers as claymores while they lasted). But all in all, an awakened is just an awakened. They vary in power just as normal youma do, but on a different scale.

I think "special" meant that Awakened wasn't just any random Awakened and served a special purpose to the organisation, agreed or not.

i lost interest in this show at episode 6. MAN, how I wish I'd just watched episode 7! because now I'm frickin hooked! This is an awesome series, and I'm very happy with the direction it's going in. I think the Organization is up to their eyes in dirty shit, including making all the Yoma. Honestly, it's probably some sick cross of population control and extortion... Just my gut feeling...

Miria is the bomb. She just about organized a little splinter group, and I liked her attitude even before that. All the Claymores are bitches to some extent, but I like her kind more. Ophelia, on the other hand, just pisses me off. How could such a dirty Claymore (killing humans?) get so high in the Organization without someone noticing? More likely, they do know, they just haven't heard a complaint about it and are willing to look the other way, especially since she seems to like provoking partially Awakeneds into Awakening, THEN goes and kills them...

I nearly shat myself when Priscillia cut off Teresa's arms. I was convinced that Teresa was going to become the villian in this story. I love the gore in this show. The action is good too. Music is OK.

Raki will be helpful, I'm convinced. He might not ever get to the level of even a low 40 number, but he'll be helpful. The fact that he held out as long as he did against Ophelia indicates that much, since if he'd died, I do believe Clare would have gone berserk and probably then been unable to not go bananas.

I don't really buy the 'Half-Awakened' thing. I think it's all a matter of self-control. Prsicillia didn't have it, but Teresa and Clare do. Yoma are quite mindless, often lacking the intelligence and/or self control to not just slaughter people. The smarter ones have some self-control, but only insomuch as it aids them continuing their lifestyle. They don't have the control to squash their craving for eating.

Priscilla delighted in her Awakened powers, thus keeping her 'Awakened form'. We've seen the Four Slashers (Miria, Clare, Deneve, other chick) awaken almost to the extent that they've taken a similar form. They stop themselves, even after they 'Awaken' like Clare briefly does in episode 12. ...maybe this counts as awakening only half... but I'm still not sure it's solely about how much of their Yoki they release... it's also about self-control. Priscilla couldn't go back after she got to around 70%, but I think Clare can come back even from 90+%. Just my hunch.

I don't imagine Ophelia to have much self-control. Her loathing for Awakeneds is probably the only thing keeping her in check. I think if she released even 50% of her Yoma powers, she'd go bananas and just be so elated with her powers and the havoc it creates that she'd convert to a fully Awakened state.

From Miria's explanation and speculations in episode 11, they are fully Awakened. But not really. She speculated before that conclusion that Deneve and Helen can use their specialties, regeneration and limb elongation respectively, because they are close to maxing out their Yoki. She said they are abilities that only appear as one gets exceeding close to the borderline. The border Teresa described as 70%. Yoki levels obviously vary from Claymore to Claymore. Clare is pretty weak overall compared to Miria and the other two.

So, somehow, the four of them are Awakened, but somehow let it go. Hence, "partially Awakened." It was my understanding from the test with Deneve, that the four of them no longer have a set limit at all. They can access all of their Yoki.

It definitely seems to come down to willpower. Deneve is pretty composed, so fully unloading her energy into regeneration, she could still hold back the euphoria. Miria didn't want to be provoked by Ophelia of all people. Clare didn't want to become what she had seen Priscilla become years ago. Priscilla was untrained, emotional, and enraged, so she couldn't, just like the males.

The question referring to the organization and what it's exactly trying to gain by making "agreements" with Awakened beings, while on the other side also whiping them out, íf they indeed make those arrangements,it becomes significantly more interesting to me, when you wonder why they underestimated the danger of Teresa and the possibility of Priscilla awakening.

With all their knowledge about Claymores and Youma(Yoma?) they still failed to appreciate the dangers properly ? I don't think so. I think they got what they were aiming for. Priscilla wasn't just powerful and unexperienced, she was also emotionally highly unreliable. There is not a chance they missed that even on first sight. This whole thing was set up and I hope we'll find out in the future,what the reasons are for this vicious circle. Money could not possibly be the excuse for it.

Consider that awakening has the following properties:

(1) Morphological change (change in physical form)
(2) Yoki change (yoki with a different "feel" to it, if you will)
(3) Metabolic change (voracious appetite for flesh)
(4) Mental change (loss of identification with and protection of humans)

Clare, Miria and the others arguably have 1 -- they can undergo pretty much the full physical change -- but we haven't seen the sort of complete, majestic changes in them that characterize the 3 other awakened beings we've seen so far. So ... maybe, maybe not. Well call this half of the trait.

By undergoing the associated physical change they also get the yoki change (possibly an always-on change, considering that Ophelia picked up on it right away on meeting Clare). So, whole of trait number 2.

While their appetites have experienced an up-tick compared to normal claymores (or so they've mentioned), they're certainly not in the "voracious" category like the fully awakened beings we've seen -- they're not driven by constant hunger like yoma are. So, maybe half of trait 3.

Further, they still identify with and protect humans. None of trait 4 at all.

So, they've got two of the four "awakened" characteristics, and don't really have the other two of the four. Thus, they're "half" awakened. They got the good but resisted the hard-to-fight bad.

Something we don't know about their current state though is whether it's stable. Being a claymore seems to be a slippery slope with awakening at the bottom. Are they on a ledge with a nice dropoff if they step off it? Or are they at the bottom and just survived the landing?

I think that the use of the term "half-awakened" is more because we really need to differentiate the slashers from the "awakened beings" -- Priscilla, the male awakened, freaky tentacle-bitch, and so on and so forth. Calling them awakened beings washes away the distinction, even if that distinction is subtle and they are technically in the same category.

It should not be forgotten that the 4 half awakened claymores almost awakened by accident, and not the usual gradual loss of willpower. The conditions they were in simply triggered the transformation, and as mentioned earlier in this series, such things do happen. But despite such circumstances, they were able to control the urge to awaken completely, so the above speculations about willpower seem to be correct.

I think that it is easier to become half awakened if the conditions for the awakening are abnormal, since the will of the claymore itself is pretty much intact and not in the worn down state some of the others are.