Actually Ophelia made good Claymore as she is very skillful and dedicated. Plus she got IQ, as you can see from her counter strategies. The Organization couldn't be bothered as long she is on their side.

My speculation is the Organization is more sinister than what it seems. But just a speculation, nothing else.

Certain turnover rate of Claymore is desirable because someone who is on the frontline too long will know Organization modus operandi and setup well. A secretive organization do not like the idea that their agents knew them too much. It reminds me of KGB and more close historical counterpart, the Knights Templar who later on become the Freemasons. KGB for overwhelming Big Brother feel and warrior monk like creed similar to the Templars while making money at the same time.

Theresa resigned herself to work for her boss despite knowledge that periodically villages that did not have $$$$ will not have a chance in hell to get rid of Yomas. She said it herself in the anime so it does reveal the sinister extend of the Organization. In new sidestory chapter of Claymore manga, she said it again.

Ophelia fits the shoe well as she is so obsessed of hunting down Awaken Beings and Yomas, disregarding the big picture. Plus her constant negative mental state will one day tripped and she will be Awaken. Perfectly fine for Organization since she is useful for a while and has a predictable expiry time despite being a very powerful no 4. It is her failure to rein in her anger and it is compounded by the fact she was defeated by unknown opponent which galled her fragile self worth even more. Her self worth is defined by her victories and Awaken Beings kill score. Undoubtedly it gave her an extra edge in her obsession to kill Yomas and Awaken Beings but when it went all wrong, she blame her failure on others and become out of control. Lack of empathy, unreasonable hatred and dissonance of blame are good candidates for negative mental state overflow which cause her to tip over the edge.

Claymore emotional state is big factor in controlling their demonic urges, Ophelia maybe a very skillful warrior with good IQ but her EQ absolutely sucked. Of course the Organization don't give a shit about her lack of EQ as long as she is on their side.

Miria/Millia did not fit in well since she is probing too much into the Organization and it is just an "accident" she is assigned to lead the group that encountered the male Awaken Being consisted of other troublesome Claymores. In this scenario the Organization wins both ways since if they lose, they will get rid themselves of unwanted Claymores and if they win, they remove an Awaken Being then get paid for it too.

Claire has stable emotional state ever since Raki come into the picture and she do have Theresa inside of her so she represent the unknown factor which the Organization really worried. She has no definite expiry date and her abilities is hard to be classified since she is an unknown quality as a warrior. Even Galatea is bit shocked when Claire actually can detect her presence and she must be wondering who is this no 47 that actually can sense her at such range. For the Organization she is a " dan lain-lain" element and must be dealt with.

Oh by the way, the sidestory chapter of Claymore rocks. More Faint Smile and new Claymore, Rosemary.

This post has been edited by Stormy001_M1A2: Jul 1 2007, 03:41 PM

Heheheheh to me, Knights Templar + Gnosticism = Freemasons.

They never referred themselves as Claymore, it is nicknamed used by humans in the story since they carry massive swords.

Someone make a good observation of Ophelia in another forum:

A little more of my thoughts on Ophelia, as brought up a couple episodes back.

She's a sadistic, evil, monstrous little creature, caring only for her own enjoyment and the pain she can cause others. That's not why I like her.

The anime version was more limited in some of its presentation, though what it did show it showed beautifully. The point that I think finally drove home exactly who Ophelia was, for me, was her simple declaration of, "You won." Those two words finally crystalized an understanding of her seemingly meaninglessly sadistic nature.

Someone commented an episode or two ago that it was unusual to have such a vicious antagonist whose sadism seemed to have no purpose other than simply the act itself. It wasn't for power, or revenge, or torture or whatever. It was simply causing pain for the sake of causing pain. What I saw was that there was actually a purpose behind it, even if she was not consciously aware of it.

I've noted before that our two 'evil' characters so far have extremely childlike personalities. Priscilla is the epitome of righteous magical girl; Ophelia wants to play games. Even Clare herself is still heavily tied to her younger self, of the time she had with Teresa. The parallels being drawn seem to be deliberate. The children of this world are the most vulnerable, at every level.

At the physical level, they are the most susceptible to being killed by the pervasive plague of yoma. Even adults have almost no way to defeat them, and children have no chance at all. They are also in the worst position as survivors of such attacks since the adults will mistrust them, and can't be relied on to help them survive.

At the social level, those who have survived such attacks are taken in by this world's "Health and Welfare Bureau", the Organization. Rather than being cared for, however, they are turned into half-monsters themselves, forced to endure the pain of the transformation, sent out to kill, and knowing that no one considers them human anymore. Sooner or later they will either die in battle, or become the very monsters they fight and caused them to become what they are.

And at the metaphysical level, they seem to be the most vulnerable to turning into the monstrosities they fight, Awakened Beings. It is the human mind that keeps that at bay, and the childlike minds don't seem to have the proper type of strength of will to hold onto their humanity.

Thus we return to Ophelia. She wants to play a game. More importantly, it's implied that this is normal behavior for her. She kills and inflicts pain in numerous ways, and disposes of the evidence to keep from being punished, all in the name of playing a game, a game where she sets the rules. The rules are unfair, the dice are loaded, and the penalty for losing is death.

What she wants, however, is someone with whom she can play a game, who will win.

Consider how she plays with Clare. She taunts and teases, but doesn't kill directly. She uses every trick she can think of that any enemy might use against you. Are you afraid? She'll play on that fear. Do you care about someone? She'll use him as leverage against you. Are you an offensive type? She'll take advantage of the weaknesses of that type (inability to easily heal/regenerate). Any special techniques? She's very good at analyzing and countering those abilities.

Every possible weakness an enemy could exploit, Ophelia will try to use against her fellow 'player', trying to force their limits, and find the point they will break. As long as Clare could keep finding ways out of the traps Ophelia set, Ophelia kept pushing her. When Clare was out of tricks, and unable to continue fighting, only then did Ophelia get bored and was prepared to kill her.

Yet, even though Clare was out of tricks, out of strategy, and unable to fight, she never broke. She never gave in. She kept trying to find a way.

Fast forward to after the Quick Sword training. Clare had gotten faster and stronger. Perhaps strong enough to be worth testing one more time. This time it was a test of her inner self, the part that holds back the beast, that keeps her from awakening. Yet another set of unfair rules, rules Clare -could- have ignored in order to dispatch Ophelia, as Ophelia herself noted. Clare, however, stayed within the rules of the game, perhaps as much to test herself as to let Ophelia test her.

And Ophelia wanted her to win. This was her last chance to find someone who -could- win. She wouldn't skimp on the rules, because the rules were important. But that inner part of her, the child that knew what she was trying to find, could encourage Clare just enough to get her over the top.

Why was she trying to find this person? While Ophelia was #4, she was also a very competitive person. If it was possible for her to gain a higher rank, she would have tried. She also probably knew that #5 (Raphaela) was stronger than she was. She loved killing Awakeneds, but her true goal was Priscilla. She had to know, then, that she had no chance of actually beating Priscilla.

She had to find someone stronger than herself, not just physically (as 1/2/3/5 would be), but mentally and strategically. Beating someone in a straight-up 'fair' fight is easy. Priscilla didn't play fair. Ophelia had to find someone who could play a game with completely unfair rules and still win.

The child that is Ophelia, the child who wanted her brother back, the child who wanted revenge on his murderer, the child with such a keen mind, even if twisted over the years, the child who just wanted to play some games, that is the one that I care about, and I will miss.

His second post

More thoughts on Ophelia. This is more speculative than analytical, with a number of points that I can't directly prove.

I think that Ophelia had already given up any hope of defeating Priscilla before she ever met Clare. The carelessness of her fight with the Awakened was not her being overpowered, but rather her being lazy or uncaring of the outcome. She was, at that point, already on a suicidal path.

Recall her words from Miria's flashback, regarding Miria's ability to fight multiple opponents. I believe that at that time she was still 'testing' herself, willing to take any opportunity to fight an opponent that would allow her to determine if her skills were good enough to fight Priscilla.

Ophelia appears to be an excellent tactician. It's likely the primary reason she rose to rank 4. That gift, however, allowed her to recognize an unwinnable fight. There was some point after her encounter with Miria when she found she would never be good enough.

High probability: She keeps track of all Awakened hunts. Secondary probability: she keeps tracks of those who go on such hunts to scout for a possible 'successor' (even if she wouldn't readily acknowledge that). She had already encountered Miria and knew she had a potentially fatal weakness. She was likely aware of Helen and Deneve in a general sort of way, and had enough experience to easily pick apart their weaknesses. What caught her attention, however, was a rank 47 warrior going on such a hunt, and returning alive. The report would likely at least indicate that this warrior performed adequately, even if details were left out.

This was something completely out of left field, and probably quite intriguing to Ophelia. It would not take much digging to determine that she was the product of the infusion of Teresa (though that information isn't a necessary presupposition to further speculation), and considered a failure. However the fact that she was both assigned to and survived an Awakened hunt might lead Ophelia to take a chance on her.

To a tactician, people become predictable, and warriors even more so. However this 'Clare' person could very well be something different, unusual. Interesting.

The assignment of Clare to the hunt with Ophelia is very odd. Instead of the usual group of 4, there were only 2, and Ophelia claimed (correctly) that she could have handled it herself. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for the Organization to assign Clare to such a hunt, especially against an Awakened more powerful than the one she fought before. The only conclusion is that someone must have specifically requested it. [Edit: Well, there is the alternative "plan to kill both troublemakers off" theory.]

The only one who could conceivably have done so is Ophelia herself (probably through her handler). Rubel might have done so, but he is far too meticulous. He would have arranged for another standard group of 4 against progressively more difficult opponents, not paired with a single, unstable Claymore.

Ophelia, having failed to be strong enough herself, and having failed to find a strong enough candidate among the 'normal' Claymores, is grasping at straws to find someone suitable. Her own failure worsens her mental instability. She no longer cares if she lives or dies, and she honestly no longer has any real hope. She has slipped fully into her 'game' mode by the time she meets Clare.

Thus she is hanging onto her humanity by a mere thread during this arc, and her encounter with Ilena breaks that. Her psyche snaps, and she finally succumbs and becomes Awakened. However, being in 'game' mode, her grasp of reality is still loose, and she's unaware of what happened.

When she finally realizes what happened, enough of her true self pulls together to put on one last test - one last game - for Clare. Clare winning the game that she herself could not allowed Ophelia to at long last rest easy, knowing there was another there to fight in her stead.

Pretty good read.

Claire with Theresa yoki sensors, Irene/Ilena's Quicksword arm and Ophelia's manifest. She sounds like a bearer for some of her most powerful comrade in arms. Talk about adaptability and flexibility. Claire is like a tabula rasa, waiting to be fitted with good parts that maybe someday enable her to take on Priscillia face to face in mortal combat.

The problem being a tabula rasa, she has no unique ability of her own as much it is source of her great strength.

Now that is hallmark of a potentially good warrior.

PS: Tabula Rasa in this context means clean slate from Latin, not part of the tongue in BM.

This post has been edited by Stormy001_M1A2: Jul 5 2007, 11:30 AM

Italics is exact copy, bold is my input.

I think Ophelia is still useful for her bosses, so I don't see her as "problem child" from her handler's point of view.

Raphaela is mysterious Claymore. Hard to say what kinda motivation she has for her being.

Ophelia managed to push Claire to limits of her ability and also set the stage for Claire acquiring Flash Sword. In twisted way, she actually mentored Claire in finer points of being a warrior. However the payment for her tuition is your life which is bit tad too expensive.

10 eps or 10 series?

megumi haya something is yet to be casted. Looking at the rate Claymore uses famous female VAs, I won't be surprised she will be in.

Same thing.

But I have to admit, whoever did Riful do a good job, she is exactly what I imagine would sound like from manga.

No 3 Galatea is most popular Claymore. She and Flora, no 8 are what I will call, supermodel Claymores instead of angelic and motherly Theresa.

Rojak mee ayam satu, anee!

Flora is no 8, she is famous enough to earn the nickname Windcutter.

She and Galatea have that glamourous supermodel look all the way. Seriously.

This post has been edited by Stormy001_M1A2: Jul 15 2007, 04:31 AM

Flora and Galatea looks have template of Gia Carangi/Cindy Crawford on them. Hence my comment.

Man, don't put kiddy Bleach together with Claymore, please.

Yes. It is mentioned and expanded on, including how do they play in pseudo power sharing of the Claymore universe.

Galatea is sexy matured woman with vain personality but carried a big sword. Hehehehe

Planning to buy the mangas and will allocate some money for DVDs once they out.

The reason why Claire is still Claire is because of Raki. Her emotional state is her love in him and that what makes her emotionally stronger than Ophelia. As I said, emotional state of Claymore is crucial in maintaining them from succumbing to Yoma influence. That's why Raki is very important role to play here. I dunno why people hated him so much without realizing that without him around, Claire will pretty much end up like her good friend in ep 2, Elena. It is fair to say that her love for Raki replaced the revenge for Theresa as top reason to be for Claire hence she able to resist the temptation to be Awaken One. Make no mistake though, her desire of revenge can still undone her if she is not careful about it since Raki is not around anymore to restrain her emotional outburst.

I just don't see why people hated this boy so much.

This post has been edited by Stormy001_M1A2: Jul 20 2007, 04:10 PM

If people don't notice, Raki was actually able to swing the broadsword which is designed for adult warriors with ease at such young age. That is a hint to how strong he could be in future.

This post has been edited by Stormy001_M1A2: Jul 20 2007, 04:50 PM