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Claymore is a Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder campaign setting. Claymores are artificially created Abberant Sorcerers who Multiclass to a sort of pseudo-Paladin.
By using Graft Flesh. "Awakening" is reaching Level 20 in Abberant Sorcerer (which, due to a screwup of abberancy in this setting, like the way necromancy is fucked up in Ravenloft, can happen spontaniously if their Abberant powers are overused). Since they weren't born abberant they don't get Acid Ray. The ability to detect Youma and each other is similar to "Detect Evil / Good" with the "Permanent" enhancement spell.
Claymore is a prequel to Guyver
"The Organisation" is Cronos, who are still working out the kinks in their prototype Zoanoids (such as a strange preference for human guts over other food). Supporting this is the presence of yoma and Awakened Beings (the strongest of whom resemble Zoalords without Zoacrystals), as well as the suspicious absence of female Zoanoids.
  • Both mangas are the same demography (shonen).

Claymores are Slayers
Female warriors created by a shadowy organisation by infusing girls with demonic/yoma power. Does this seem familiar?

Demonic powers are stronger in the Claymore-verse, making the Claymores more powerful, but at the risk of succumbing to their demonic nature themselves.

Also note that in the Buffyverse there are no known male Slayers; in the Claymore universe, attempts at creating male warriors were abandoned because they fell to their demonic nature too easily. Perhaps the same thing happened when the watchers tried to infuse a male with Slayer power in the Buffyverse?

Slayers are refined Claymores
That is, the Watchers fixed the problem that turned Claymores into demons. Slayers don't become devils because they were infused with the demonic power as kids and then had it kept dormant until their teens.

Claymore is an alternate history of Berserk.
In this alternate timeline, Guts died during the Eclipse. As a result, there is no one to oppose Griffith after he's reincarnated except for Ganishka.

The Dragon-Kin mentioned by Miria are Apostles, who are able to defeat the Kushan armies with ease and are a superweapon for the Vatican army opposing Ganishka. None of Ganishka's artificially created demons were able to match Apostles in combat, so he refined the process used for creating his demon-soldiers. Originally he just had demonic spirits possess pregnant women; now he takes a shortcut and infuses them with Yoma flesh. Things work out better than expected, as the new demon-soldiers are able to take on a demon form similar to Apostles; but they are uncontrollable in that form and so are useless to Ganishka.

So Ganishka takes a random island (possibly conquering Elfhelm) and uses it as a laboratory for testing the new demon-soldiers, now called Claymores, so that he can make them controllable when in their demon forms, now called Awakened Ones, and use the mass-produced Awakened Ones to overwhelm Griffith's Apostle army.

The disturbing thing on the Claymores' bodies is the head or face of a Yoma
Specifically, the Yoma used to create them. Clare may have used the head or face of her mentor instead.

  • Hmm, you know, that's not a huge stretch. There is definitely something on their upper chest/lower neck covered by the cloth that has their symbol. Ophelia touches Claire there, under that cloth, and brings back something, perhaps blood or some other kind of fluid, which she licks off her fingers.
  • There's a hint that this might be true in the manga. After Teresa died, Clare was carrying around her head; she had it when she met with the man from the Organization. While they theoretically could have retrieved the body, they had the head on hand when she first showed up.
  • Officially jossed in 129: the scar on appearance is just that, a scar. However, it is actually a barely closed, unhealing wound from where they insert the yoma parts into every organ in the warrior's body, running from the base of the head to just above (or possibly through in some cases) the privates. So yeah, a little vanilla compared to most Body Horror, but still pretty damn gruesome.

Clarice (new #47) is another experimental
Clarice is not just a failed attempt at a Claymore; she's a deliberate experiment. Perhaps she, like Claire, is only one-quarter yoma, rather than half; or perhaps she's something new.
  • Maybe she's one-eighth yoma, made with Claire's flesh (the arm she lost fighting Ophelia) and having a similar name to the protagonist is a hint. In universe, someone with a sick sense of humor could have selected her because of this.

Claire and Agent 47 from the Hitman series are related
They share a code number, they both look vaguely Nordic, and they both have jobs that involve traveling around the world killing things. Surely there are shakier theories out there...

Raki will eventually be turned into a male Claymore somehow, with Priscilla as his material.
Probably by some Deus ex Machina on Priscilla's part when she finally gets to where she can't take the hunger anymore. She's desperately in love with Raki and wants to protect him any way she can. What's that? She has to sacrifice herself before she kills him? Sure, why not?

It only makes sense, given Clare's merging with the combined Awakened Ones in Riful's basement. It will also provide the biggest opportunity for Clare to have some Wangst: She really, really wants to kill Priscilla and she really, really wants to be reunited with Raki. Depending on how long it's delayed, this will go two ways:

  • Raki will become the series Big Bad as Clare refuses to accept him, destroying most of The Organization in the process. Males always have poor impulse control and become either regular Youma or Awakened Beings. Priscilla is the strongest Awakened Being in existence. He'll have controlled her impulses up until Clare's rejection gives him a Heroic BSoD, and then pow, he's gone. Then just to show what a badass he is, he'll kill off the Alicia and Beth with ease as his first act... right after paralleling the scene where Priscilla left Clare alone, walking past her as if she didn't exist.

  • Raki will reunite with Clare, who'll decide that being happy with Raki is more important than her revenge on Priscilla. Alicia and Beth go haywire during their fight with the Raki/Clare combo, become Awakened Beings themselves, then merge successfully where their predecessors failed. The newly merged being will ignore Raki/Clare, paralleling the scene where Priscilla left Clare alone, before going on to destroy The Organization. The Seven Ghosts + Raki will then have to contend with Bethicia, who starts to recruit more Awakened Beings along with Riful and Douph.

Calling I Knew It! rights on this, right now.

  • Wait,wait, wait, you mean he isn't already a "Claymore"? His hair color is colored white in the manga indicating whatever it is/was, it was very light and/or pale. If it turned completely white, being there are no male claymores, how would anyone except Claire suspect other than natural hair color change? He can sense youki now. Took a major level in badass. He's almost certainly already either a Claymore or Half-Claymore with power from Priscilla while leaving her alive somehow.
    • Raki can't sense youki, he needed Priscilla to point out the yoma for him.
    • Yup. Raki's just a Badass Normal right now. While he can fight normal youma with ease, he can't sense or use youki, so techniques like the Quickblade which use Youki are beyond his grasp. He likewise doesn't have the healing factor of a Claymore or their durability. An Awakened Being would probably kill him in two seconds flat.
  • Check out Chapter 96. Raki has a bit of Rafaela and Luciela's youki in his body now.
  • Maybe the word we're looking for is The Witcher.
  • Go check Chapter 125 about interesting and different effect of tiny bits of Priscilla. I don't know, the last pages don't look so casual.
  • Just look at the bottom two panels of page 6 of chapter 115. He laid down on the ground, then pushed himself away with enough force to meet his opponent in mid-air. Similar moves have only ever been done by Yoma or people infused with Yoki before.
    • Jossed as of the final chapter of Claymore, he's still nothing more than a normal Human.
Clare is actually potentially more powerful than alicia.
think about it. in Extra material 1 Teresa Kills an awakened one parallel in power to an abyssal one with utter ease and only a moderate release of her power. Admittedly clare won't possess quite that degree of power if it does release because of dilution, but it would certainly cement her status as an Almighty Janitor. Why it wouldn't have realeased yet? i don't know, help me out here?
  • Clare is shown to have some pretty powerful willpower. This Troper can't help but think this is partially due to the infusion of Teresa's head (presumably) within her own body. Think about it... Teresa was really well known for staying in control of her youki during battle. Unlike the other Claymores, she never succumbed to the old great power/ugly face thing. The willpower thing is backed up multiple times throughout the story, too. For one, she's gone Awakened more than any other Claymore and yet still come back. For two, she forced the Quickblade to become accurate (instead of simply being an indiscriminate attack), through sheer willpower. At the least horrible of concepts, this is just going to be a general "inheritance" deal where it's Teresa's willpower and nothing more. Given the general level of Body Horror and Nightmare Fuel the series actively pursues, Teresa has been a silent passenger in Clare's mind ever since Clare brought her severed head back to the Organization and she's the reason Clare's been able to pull herself back from the brink so often.
    • Alternatively, Clare's notorious ability to withstand Awakening comes from the simple fact that she is only quarter Yoma. But come think of it, Clare is becoming a more and more extreme example of Weak, but Skilled trope: she has picked up combat techniques from Claymores who are way above her in raw power and lived long enough to perfect them. Irene's (#2) Quicksword, Flora's (#8) Windcutter, and most recently, any combat knowledge Rafaela (originally #2, second only to Luciela) may have had. So in a way, Clare may well be the single most dangerous non-Awakened Claymore at the moment.
    • Are all youma made equal? Are the differences in strength and ability between Claymores entirely due to their human halves, or is there variation in power in the youma halves they are merged with? If there is variation between youma, then it must not be forgotten that even if Claire is just 1/4 youma, she is 1/4 the youma that was part of Theresa, and given how strong Theresa was, it is possible that that particular youma is incredibly strong, and 1/4 of the power of Theresa's youma could well be stronger than 1/2 of some other youma.

Clare's Awakened form is really Theresa's Awakened form.
Except for that one arm, since it comes from a different Claymore.
  • This one's VERY likely, if not already confirmed, to be truth. Think of it, Awakened tend to have regular forms in which the right and left sides are identical. When Clare awakened her legs, they were boths identical, but when she awakened her arms, OH! They were different!
    • The different arms are prrobably so that she can still hold a sword.
  • Doesn't that mean that hers is also Irene's awakened form?
Yoma are created by "combining" two people into one.
We know Yoma are created by the Organization, and they feed exclusively on humans. The Organization managed to create something greater than a human by adding two people together, but as a result they need to eat humans to survive. This is why hybrids and awakened beings are stronger than than Yoma, because another person has been "added" to the mix. Unfortunately, more people equals greater mental problems, which is why Yoma are capable of hiding among people and acting normal, Awakened beings are all sociopaths and some are kind of insane, and the Abyss Feeders have all lost their minds.
  • Counter arguement: Clare. If that theory is valid Clare is a hybrid of five individuals (two making the original youma, Theresa, Irene and Clare herself) yet she's no crazier than anyone else. Certainly saner that... Ophelia or Miata say.
    • It depends. The arm wouldn't affect things I think, because it was a replacement for the one she lost, not an addition to Clare, so she would just have four individuals inside her, and a regular claymores arm. It's shown that claymores don't start off as monsters, but become that way after time passes and they awaken, which would be them completely fusing with the people inside them, and becoming more powerful as a result. Because Clare hasn't fully fused with the people inside her, and her 'donor' also hadn't fully fused with the people inside her, Clare starts off as really weak, but becomes way more powerful as time goes on. As for the mental thing, she seems to be normal at first because of the low level of fusion, but when ever she gets mad she draws out a lot of power and falls into a berserker state where she single mindedly attacks her opponent, kind of like the Abyss Feeders.
    • Wait, that would be four to make the original youma, (two as Theresa's youma and two as Irene) and THEN plus Theresa and Irene themselves. So that's... 7? But Clare also had a really hard time controlling Irenes arm in the beginning.

The current events of the manga (Ch 95) are going to attract the other side of the war that the Organisation is fighting
Seriously. The top ranks of opponents are thinning out rather drastically and it looks as if the current battle might take out Alicia, Beth, Riful and Dauf, leaving only Priscilla. What comes after that? If they were just for back story Rubel wouldn't have needed to be revealed as The Mole.

Teresa was the Abyssal One of the East
The reason why nobody ever saw Teresa release more than 10% of her yoki was because she has been an Abyssal One all along, secretly working for the Organization for whatever personal reasons. Think about it: she was massively overpowered, even for a #1. Her origins are Shrouded in Myth and contain no indication as to why she is so immensely strong. Basically, she was an Abyssal One who maintained her human guise much like Isley and Riful to avoid detection. That would be the reason why Priscilla is scared shitless of her. And that would also explain why the Organization "broke" its own rule and allowed Clare to be made into warrior using the flesh of "another Claymore". Also, that explains the discrepancy between Clare's official rank (#47) and her powers that partially matched single-digits' even in her own time (let alone after the Time Skip): the Organization had to maintain the illusion that she is a weakling quarter-Yoma in order to conceal the fact that they've been letting an Abyssal One run unchecked across their territory.
  • Unlikely. I noticed that awakened ones in their human forms regained their natural hair- and eyecolour from before they where claymore'd and Teresa was explicitely stated to have had black hair. If she had been an awakened, she'd have had regained that hair colour.
    • Perhaps she could alter her appearance to retain her Claymore colours ; after all, Rosemary was already awakened by the time she gave her black card to one of the Organization's men and he presumably did not notice anything suspicious about her eye/hair colour. Even then, the next point makes this theory invalid.
  • Completely Jossed with the introduction of the Abyssal Feeders. They are made from the flesh of Awakened Beings rather than yoma; if Clare had been made with the flesh of an Awakened Being — even an Abyssal One is just a very powerful Awakened Being — she would be a Feeder, not a Claymore.

Teresa was another experiment

Likely quickly jossed, but as of Chapter 100 Pricsilla states "Weren't you supposed to not be able to awaken?" with vague memories/feelings of Teresea being sensed from Clair. Rafeal and her twin were attempt 1 at an awaken being you could control. Alicia and Beth attempt 2. Awakened Claymores are meant to be weapons against the worse demons on the continent. If Teresa already awakened, see Abyssal WMG above, then the other possibility is likely. Teresa was designed to be a Claymore incapable of awakening thus having a limited upper threshold, but having near/above Abyssal One power in base form.

Raki is going to be the Final Boss
He's super strong now, and he has a bit of the twins inside of him. The Organization has some... plans for him, and it doesn't sound good.
  • Officially jossed.

Refining the experiments on the Claymores resulted in the Grey Wardens.
The Darkspawn are evolved Yoma, and the process that was originally used to create Claymores has been greatly improved with the Grey Wardens. Incidentally, this means Flemeth was probably the last survivor of the Claymores...

The Reason Claire can go so far in her Awakened State is because Teresa is inside her
Think about it. Since Teresa is inside Claire, she could allow a lot of the dark energy to flow out of her, but be able to bring her back from the brink. This will not work with anyone else because all the other Claymores have ACTUAL yoma in them, not Claymores.

The Organization is related and/or is a branch of the OmniTech corporation from Dr. Brinner: Ghost Psychiatrist
If OmniTech put the DNA of Jesus Christ into a robot and the Organization can put the flesh of Yoma into a female human, could they be using the same technology?

Dietrich has just single-handedly solved the yoma spike creature problem for good
If what she says is true, the Abyssal Feeders that have been temporarily infected by the parasites (which is quite a bunch—all that were sent after Riful, probably) will from now on only target the yoma spike creatures (and possibly Luciela-Rafaela, but that's a long shot), meaning that the area will be crawling with indestructible predators who destroy all yoma spikes that Luciela-Rafaela spawns, preventing their spread. It couldn't have gone better for the humans on the island (and by extension, the Organization).

Louvre belongs to the dragon clan
He was stated to be a spy working for the opposite side of the war, meaning that side who doesn't develop Super-Warriors because they got a dragon-like race on their side. Yoma can easily take human shape, so why shouldn't dragons? He's the only representation of that nation we got at the moment and there's a chance that he's going to get into a fight sooner or later, so making him a dragon seems like a logical conclusion to raise his fighting capabilities.

Clare will awaken into Teresa
Not a lot of base for this one other than that she has Teresa inside her and no one really knows for sure what a fully awakened 1/4 yoma Claymore will be. With most recent events from chapter 104 it's almost impossible to tell what will happen to Clare with all the strange new things happening all at once. If this happens it might be Teresa in her entirety but with all of Clare's memories after becoming a part of her.
  • Confirmed! Clare has just used a variant of the Soul Link (normally requiring 2 people) with the bitz of Teresa inside her to recreate the latter completely. It looks like it's not reversible either; Clare is still in there as a "cute little voice" in Teresa's head.

Clare will merge with the Destroyer
It's not the first time she does, but this instance would be an Emergency Transformation.
  • Confirmed. She actually took the thing over in 105 and is currently sealing Priscilla away in it. Time will tell if she ever escapes.

Raki is the Organization's trump card.
(From chapter 106) Seems to be one of those "why didn't I see it coming" twists.
  • Aw. THAT is gonna hurt.
  • Jossed, thankfully, in chapter 107.
    • Yeah, the only way to make chapter 107 worse was to have Raki in it...

The awakened "Priscilla" is actually Teresa.
  • This would require that Teresa regenerate instantly from what looked like having her head cut in half by Awakening, then murder Priscilla, having lost her memory from losing most of her head in the moment before she Awakened. Clare got the part that was cut off and regenerated implanted into her, of course. This would explain why 'Priscilla' is so fixated on Clare (Priscilla had no real reason to care about a random girl, unlike Teresa) as well as, narratively, why Priscilla lost her memory.
    • The reason Priscilla is so fixated on Claire as you put it is because she's sensing Teresa inside of Claire.
    • Additionally, in Chapter 125, the dying Hysteria starts to talk about how she was killed the first time by a warrior who was always faintly smiling — and then, inexplicably, a ghostly form of Priscilla emerges from her corpse.

Claymore is set in the modern world.
Or at least, everything outside of the continent they're on is. I mean, think about it, where the hell did they get the ability created genetically mutating people that turn into monster if over stimulated in the middle ages? We know the organization is working OFF the island, so it would make sense. Unless I'm forgetting a key plot point, here.

The Organization in Claymore is the same Organization that Albert Wesker worked for once upon a time.
It makes sense. They're both just known as the "organization" and they both develop bio-weapons. They've been dumping Wesker's experiments on the island and using the Claymores as lab rats.

Roxanne of Love and Hate is an epic Yandere who had Cassandra the Dust Eater as her target.
Let's see, possible Les Yay between her and Cassandra the Dust Eater, thinking/gloating about being the one to actually kill Cassandra, being amused that Cassandra didn't remember how she died, plus how exactly could one earn the title "Of Love and Hate"?
  • I think she somehow has Mind Control powers.
  • There is an awful lot of Les Yay between Roxanne and the various Claymores that "died mysteriously" after she'd mastered their techniques...given that some of Roxanne's dialogue sounds like she's honestly attracted to her targets until their strength is no longer beautiful to her (after she's surpassed them, basically), interpreting her as a Psycho Lesbian Yandere doesn't seem too hard.

Yoma are/are created from an actual species.
The presence of non-humans (presumably not created by humans) is confirmed with the dragons used by the Dragon's Descendants. Now, it seems sort of unlikely that, with the Claymore-verse's apparent medieval level of technology (given the fantasy elements, some sort of magic might explain this), that the Organization could simply create a bioweapon from scratch, without using some kind of natural material already at hand. Given that, with the presence of such a species (possibly extinct and preserved somewhere), all that the Organization would need to do is implant that flesh in humans in various ways to create Claymores and Yoma. The "Yoma" flesh has displayed qualities that would make this possible and also explain where the Organization got the ability to do something that their level of technology indicates would be impossible for them to do. Priscilla, by simply shoving her arm into Raki, was able to prevent another Yoma-derived object (the Destroyer) from taking control of his body. The Destroyer also was able to take over other life-forms, and it is likely that a less potent version of a similar type of flesh could "easily" be used to make Claymores.
  • In chapter 126 this is confirmed. Yoma are humans implanted with the flesh of the Dragon's Descendants.

Claymore is set in Thedas.
  • No mages in a clear fantasy setting with at least some magic (physics-defying changes for Awakened Beings), and some otherwise-"human" characters have Pointy Ears. I figure the mages get sequestered like in Ferelden (or conscripted by the Organization), and pointy-eared people are Quickened elves. There are also many similarities between Youma and Darkspawn. Grey Wardens seem like a Gender Flip of Claymore rules (bad idea to have male claymores, bad idea to have female Grey Wardens), but with a few Nerfs on the former. It may not be supported by evidence, but maybe the Taventr Imperium placed an order for the Super Soldiers the Organization are making, and they're using Quinari as the base, possibly by using Lyrium infusion/overdose and Darkspawn blood.
Teresa saved young Clare from Priscilla.
The wish of Priscilla not to kill the small girls artificial.Not a single Awakened being show similar selectivity.I think that Teresa even after chopping off the head has haved time to go in consciousness Priscilla and has done so that Priscilla does not see the small girls.So Clare remained live, in the same way either as Ophelia as side effect.As proof possible to remember an instance north Awakened being, which after chopping off the head can to manipulate the yoki claymores.
Priscilla will destroy HQ Organization on mainland.
I have the mad theory about moving the action on mainland.We shall be noted tht claymores after victory on Organization does not need the continent.Their purpose will be completely destroy all yoma and awakened being on island.The sole reason of the march on mainland this will be Priscilla.After escape from cocoon Clare must leave to kill three new Abyssal One but Priscilla has decided abandon the island.Her wings is that necessary for flight on mainland.As reasons I can think the mental influence happened as a result of absorptions in cocoon.Priscilla could after mental relationship with Clare to recall about past, as yoma killed her parents and want the revenge for them.The main object of the revenge - creators of yoma.The Organization without her will be destroyed by Clare, but here is mainland ideal purpose for revenge.Clare must stop her after destruction Organization and seven warriors, will go on mainland.The mainland will be in chaos after flight there Priscilla.This will be fairness for experiments on island!

  • Clare is Fortitude obviously.
  • Miria is Prudence, being the only one who really knew what the hell the Organization was really up to.
  • Deneve is Temperance since she seems to be good at holding it together and will keep the others from going to pieces. Sometimes violently.
  • Helen is Hope. This group desperately needs someone who can genuinely laugh and Helen can definitely lighten a mood.
  • Tabitha is Faith, choosing to devote her life to helping Miria.
  • Cynthia and Uma are, by process of elimination, Love and Justice, but I haven't quite worked out which is which or why yet.
    • Cynthia is definitely Love. Her cardinal sin in the eyes of the Organization that put her in the Northern Campaign is her boundless compassion. Even as a Warrior, she retains a strong empathy for the suffering of others and sometimes allegedly refused payments for hunts.

Ilena is alive and kicking - literally.
Ilena said to Raphaela that she wasn't a match for her even with both of her arms, but Clare did say that she was going to return her arm when they meet again. So Ilena did survive her encounter with Raphaela - by utilizing her legs in a quick-foot technique that totally caught her opponent off guard.
  • Considering this series, that's actually not implausible.

Clare is a female descendent of Guts in an alternate timeline
It makes sense with how much the two characters have in common. Guts succeeded in taking out the Godhand, but now the remnants of the apostles are wandering the mainland (which are the countries of Midland, Kushan, Tudor, etc.), as well as all of the other supernatural creatures. They are being utilized by both sides of the feuding countries - they are called yoma on the side that the organization is familiar with. The organization are also making apostle-human hybrids, and that's where we get the claymores, who are all secluded on an island that was not majorly affected by the World-Wrecking Wave that Femto cast on the world. Clare, who was entirely human in the beginning as her ancestor Guts was, has been subjected to the experimentation of the organization, making her into the super human entity that her ancestor fought so hard to eliminate. Basically, the world was first fucked up by magic; now, the world is being screwed over by science.

Helen's father is the Bandit Leader
The leader of the bandits that menaced Teresa and young Clare bears a great resemblance to Helen. Perhaps, given his apparent propensity for rapaciousness, it would stand to reason that he forced himself on the would be mother, and the resulting child being abandoned to the Organization. Also, Helen's attack extends out, just like her father's sword.
  • I have to hand it to you: I have a vague memory that the bandit leader had a smile that held an uncanny resemblance to Helen's.

Miria is gonna form a Claymore sovereign state in the Eastern Lands
Because what else is she gonna do with a good hundred of warriors now that their rebellion is over. Of course, they will help the local humanity sweep the remaining yoma and the Organization stragglers, but then what? The Claymores wanted to be free and left alone, however, most of them don't know any life other than one directed by the Organization, so they obviously will look for a new strong leader (read: Miria). Plus, there are still some threats that can't be dealt with on her own: Cassandra (with whom I really, really hope she can make a mutual alliance) and the Destroyer/Priscilla/Clare.
  • With the knowledge that there's at least a hundred other Awakeneds running around out there who've just been under the radar, that might not be a bad idea.
The Elf Ears some Claymores have is not because Ourelves Are Different.
  • But because their showing the first signs of their Youma side getting stronger, thust deforming their ears into Youma Ears
    • IIRC the elf ears are occasional mutations, happening during the operations the Claymores undergo.

The Gecko Ending of the anime is actually a dream Clare is having.
It is a What If? for the Northern Campaign, explaining the differences in the anime with the original manga story line.........
The Abyssal we think is Riful in the latest chapter isn´t Riful...
  • It´s her daughter.
  • Monster Is a Mommy?
  • Don't know if it is her daughter but it does have both Riful's and Dauf's powers so... maybe.
  • Well, considering that in her debut if you look closely you can see a baby made of tentacles, I suppose it's safe to say that it's Riful's daughter.

Clare will have to fight Teresa and the latter will be disappointed.
Dae can revive fallen unawakened Claymores. Out of the powerful unawakened Claymores he tried to enumerate, he named Teresa. He likely had her body retrieved after being beheaded by Priscilla (he is head of the Retriever Squad). Now, Teresa didn't want Clare to live a warrior's life, just a normal one, so once resurrected she'll definitely be mad, since what she fought and died for would have been in vain. Also, anime opening.
  • Jossed.

Pricilla was born part youma.
So we all know how she killed her dad after she caught him eating the rest of her family. In the most recent chapter, we see how the village had decided to figure out who the youma was. And then Dae mentions how Priscilla had a unique past. Since Priscilla was apparently the youngest and there was no telling when her dad was infected, she could have been conceived after he changed, which might have bolstered her abilities as a Claymore. The only thing that goes against this guess is that youma are supposedly infertile.
  • Jossed as of chapter 136.

Claymore's world is a lower gravity planet than Earth.
Purestrain humans are consistently shown exhibiting clearly superhuman physical feats, but only those that have undergone physical training. The logical, simplest explanation is that the gravity on their world is lower. Untrained humans wouldn't display anything special since their bones, muscles and muscle memory are adapted to that world, but those who undergo extensive PT try to push the boundaries of what they can do, and find those limits more permissive because everything, including their weapons and bodies, weighs less than it would in Real Life.
  • Rabona soldiers have been shown to posess jumping abilities well in excess of what even modern olympic athletes can do (without a pole), most prominently jumping what looks like 5+ metres up onto Agatha's platform (though that one ended badly for them).
  • Clarice catches a nurmal human tossed several metres higher than Agatha's platform onto her forearms, with <10% youki, giving very little way. Since she's significantly weaker than early story Clare and then several shown normal Youma, she's not that much beyond maximum plausible human strength, if at all. At that level one does not simply catch a grown man out of such a fal and hold him like a baby. Also suspect: said grown man's spine and femurs are able to withstand this without even any sign of pain. By that token he would've been fine just to fall onto the cobbles directly.
  • Raki is also seen wielding a BFS at several times the speed he should be able to, even with his build, and taking snipes at the laws of physics in general, even before he gets his own bit of Youki.
  • Teresa and other Claymores and Awakened Beings are able to fall great distances on their feet/claws/etc. with no incident. They have Super-Strength and are Made of Iron, but why don't they damage the ground? And when they do, why don't they damage it a LOT more? When Thor escapes the Hulk Cage, we get a good example of what that kind of movement does to the soil. He has the size and feats of strength probably superior to anything even Priscilla can do, but not by that much.
  • Those Two Guys dancing around Rabona's rooftops. For that matter, everybody who dances around rooftops and doesn't break the shingles!

Awakened Being tissue (except Priscilla) has extremely low density, even considering the above.
  • Miata is able to pull convincingly at Agatha with a one layer wall of large bricks or cut stone for support. For some reason dry mortar is able to withstand this, despite being rather easily defeated by a normal human with a sledgehammer.
  • Earlier, Agatha supports herself in Spider Tank form with the tips of her legs embedded in several buildings, causing minimal damage (to the buildings).
  • Many giant awakened beings (Isley, Riful, Europa, Agatha, Octavia etc) have huge bodies and their hooves/claws/ribbons have very little earth contact area. The pressure they exert should cause them to sink into soft ground.
  • Awakened Roxanne is able to stand (with all her weight on one leg at one point, even).
  • Europa can alternate between breaking through a fortified wall (presumably by breaking it up with claws before the main body comes through) and bouncing or anchoring on much weaker structures to speed herself up/change direction rapidly. These much weaker structures are easily destroyed by Claymores who are so weak in comparison to her that they can only slow her down by annoying her into trying o kill them.
  • Awakened Hysteria and Europa at least are able to move quickly by anchoring into hard soil/cobbled streets/man made buildings with quite shallow claw grips. This suggests that they weigh so little they can force themselves into extremely high speed movement, possibly close to the sound barrier, merely on the toughness of the anchored substances, which are definitely not able to stand that kind of stress in Real Life.

Awakened Beings can convet internally between energy and mass both ways, even considering the above.
They can consume amounts of matter which should immediately manifest as bulges somewhere and regenerate themselves to an extent that even Wolverine can only surpass by not having a weak point that needs to stay in one piece. They can shift between forms of vastly different size.
  • Priscilla is able to consume hundreds if not thousands of times her own volume in human entrails without showing the slightest bulge on her very flat tummy (or the slightest dent in her apetite), and is the best regenerator.

Claymore shares a setting with the Iron Kingdoms
Dragons are Eldritch Abomination-level bad news in both settings, and IK dragons spread The Corruption. Youma are parasites cultured from dragon flesh, which in the IK resulted in Cryx and the Legion of Everblight, which are both filled with horrific mutants and zombies.

The "enemies" in the war are the good guys.
The side that the Claymores are on by default seems to have no problem whatsoever with conducting horrific experiments on little girls, terrorizing an entire island full of people by creating monsters that eat them alive, keeping those people ignorant to the truth of their own existence, extorting them for large sums of money to "protect" them from the monsters that the Organization created, and just generally creating their own Crapsack World with no moral qualms whatsoever. It seems to have been assumed that the other side are the bad guys solely because they're on the opposing side, but seriously, "our" side? Not exactly the best example of humanity. Alternatively...

The entire planet is a Crapsack World.
And both sides are equally amoral in the pursuit of victory, so really, it doesn't matter who wins. Everyone loses. Alternatively alternatively...

Teresa's basically a Physical God. Just send her over to the mainland, Pass the Popcorn, and enjoy the show.
  • Jossed in the final chapter.

There will be a sequel/spin-off series.
Regarding the war on the mainland. It just has too much potential as a story to be ignored; I can't imagine that Norihiro Yagi doesn't plan on going anywhere with it.

Teresa will Awaken to defeat Priscilla.
It's entirely possible that she can do it safely. As she said, Clare's heart is what gives her strength — with their Soul Link being so strong and the fact that Clare is actually inside of Teresa's mind right now, Clare can keep Teresa's human mind intact. On top of that, as Priscilla is so ridiculously overpowered, was said to have the potential to surpass Teresa, and has a lot of experience fighting in her Awakened form, it's possible that Teresa may have to Awaken to defeat Priscilla. From a storyline perspective, it wouldn't be much of a climactic final battle if Teresa didn't have to push herself to the limit (and possibly beyond) to win. Both of them Awakening would put them on equal footing, so to speak, and it would be epic. ...And I really want to see what Teresa's Awakened form would be.

Riful was awakened because she loved Dauf.
It is known that Riful was a warriorness in the first generation when most of the warriors were still male. And she was already a single-digit warrior, the number 5. Shortly after the male warriors became Awakened Beings, she seemed stronger, for she became the first warrior with the number 1.However, she met Isley, Rigardo and Dauf when they were not yet Awakened Beings. Dauf seemed to have fallen in love with her immediately, because he had accompanied her. Riful did not seem to like him at first, but tolerated him near her. Later, when they are both awakened, one only knows that they have been together for a long time. It is unknown when they came together, but maybe when they were both still warriors. And when Dauf became an Awakened Being, Riful sought him, and also awaken.Galathea mentions in the anime that she quickly became an Awakened Being. But warriors in a single-digit rank usually have good control over their yoma powers, and this is especially true for number 1 warriors. If Riful was not an exception among the single-digit warriors, and their yoma powers could not control it was quite plausible that she voluntary awaken.

The Paburo Awakened Being was the number 10 in the generation of the male warriors.
In the mountains of Paburo, Clare and the other warriornesses encounter a male Awakening Being who was once a warrior. Because of his ability to defeat Miria quickly, although she was the number 6, he is believed to be a warrior in the first fifteen ranks. But most likely he did not have a single-place rank because Clare later fights against such an Awakened Being, and she is previously deceived that this is much stronger. The tenth place is awarded only to the warriornesses who receive a special training. Namely, her hiding yoki, and chasing warriornesses. And also the Paburo Awakened Being could hide his yoki clearly well enough to be held by the warriornesses for a human. He also worked as an "executioner" for the organization, and killed uprising warriornesses, which can, as already mentioned, be the task of number 10.

The anime plays not in the same world as the manga.
Already at the beginning of the plot it is explained that youma are simply monsters that can change their shape. The manga later states that this was just a myth, and the youma are actually just humans infected with a parasite. And the supposed change in shape would be the reason why the youma-parasite changes the host after some time. However, there are some incidents in the anime, which seem somewhat strange after this realization. This raises the theory that the youma in the manga are actually just humans with mutant parasites, the youma in the anime, on the other hand, are really monsters, which were never humans.
  • The first youma that is shown (or the second one, if the youma in the opening credits is counted) took the form of Zaki, the brother of Raki. And the youma says in the anime explicitly that he is not Rakis brother, but a youma who has taken his form. If this is a lie of the organization, what is the reason for an ordinary youma to lie to a boy whom he wants to eat right away?
  • The next youma took the shape of a Claymore to lure Raki as a bait for Clare. But the Claymores are not turn to youma, but to Awakened Beings when they exceed their limits. And a female Awakened Being can only look like she has looked as a human, the silver eyes then have a natural color, and the hair is also no longer blond (unless they were the natural color of the girl). This youma was also an ordinary youma, and not an Awakened Being.
  • Also the youma in the cathedral has shown unusual transformation skills. It is explained that youma can only be transformed from her human form into her monstrous form, but this youma has assumed the shape of a mummy in order to be able to hunt humans in the cathedral.
  • Much later in the plot, Raki meets the two Awakened Beings Isley and Priscilla. He later sees Priscilla eating human guts, and considers them a youma. But Isley tells him that she is an Awakened Being, and that Awakened Beings were once humans. He emphasizes this so that it is implied that a youma was not a human before.
  • Another explanation would be that the anime was already long before the manga was finished, and the concept that youma were once humans was introduced much later.

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