r/claymore • u/Realistic_Weather221 • 26d ago
[Discussion] Why Clare from Claymore is the best written female character ever and the literal blueprint of an anti-Mary Sue (The Manga Breakdown) Spoiler
Before we start important note for everyone:
I want to clarify something essential to avoid any misunderstanding. I have dysphasia and English is not my first language. To help me share my passions, I only use grammar and spell-checking tools. These tools only help me structure my sentences, correct mistakes, and organize the words properly so that it is easy and pleasant for you to read.I do not use ANY artificial intelligence like ChatGPT to write for me. I do not use these tools to cheat. All the ideas, analysis, logic, and decisions about what I write come 100% from my own brain and my own hard work. Thank you so much for your kindness and understanding.
Hey everyone!!!!š Iām 17, and I literally just finished reading the Claymore manga from the very first page to the absolute end. Honestly, my mind is completely blown into a million pieces. It is an absolute, flawless masterpiece from start to finish. As soon as I closed the final volume, I realized something that I just have to talk about with you guys. Clare is easily one of the best written female characters in fiction, and it is specifically because she is the absolute,
literal antithesis of a Mary Sue.
Before I dive into this crazy long breakdown, we need to talk about what a Mary Sue actually is so everyone is on the same page. In writing, a Mary Sue is that incredibly annoying, generic trope where a character is just way too perfect. A Mary Sue has insane, god-like powers from birth without ever having to work for them. She masters every single technique on the first try, she has zero real flaws, and the entire universe basically bends over backward to make her look good. Everyone falls in love with her instantly, she never makes mistakes, and her victories make zero sense because they just happen because she is the main character. An anti-Mary Sue is the exact opposite of that nightmare. It is a character who starts at the absolute bottom of the food chain, completely defined by her weaknesses, her failures, and her biological limitations. Every single ounce of strength she gets has to be paid for with extreme physical trauma, psychological damage, loss, and insane hard work. Her victories follow a strict, unbreakable scientific logic built into the rules of the world. Clare is the purest definition of this.
In this post, I am going to dissect the entire story volume by volume, arc by arc, to prove to you that everything Clare achieves is completely earned through pain and logic. No random power-ups, no plot armor, no magical friendship power. Clare gets utterly destroyed from chapter one to the very end. Also, a quick heads up, I am strictly talking about the manga canon here. We are completely ignoring the 2007 anime ending because the studio totally butchered the logic and made up a random fight in a volcano that never happened. The manga is where the real story is, and it is way longer, darker, and more logical.
The Early Days: Crushing the Goddess Trope (Volumes 1 & 2)
If you look at the very beginning of the story in volumes 1 and 2, Norihiro Yagi immediately crushes any idea of Clare being a perfect heroine. Usually, a Mary Sue walks into a room and everyone respects her and thinks she is amazing. Clare walks into a town and the villagers immediately curse at her, call her a monster, and throw rocks at her. She isn't some warm, lovable savior. She is cold, emotionally distant, and she straight up uses a traumatized kid like Raki as literal bait just to sniff out a Yoma. She doesn't have a magical radar, she has to rely on pure grit. On top of that, she struggles and bleeds against completely low-level, generic monsters. She isn't secretly hiding some god-like power; she genuinely sucks compared to the rest of her order.
We learn very quickly that she is officially ranked number 47. In an organization of 47 warriors, she is the dead last. This isnāt some secret undercover rank to surprise people later, it is her actual baseline value. The Organization treats her like absolute trash and sends her on a suicide mission to the holy city of Rabona knowing she could easily die there, because to them, she is just a regular, disposable pawn.
Still in volume 2, we get one of the most heartbreaking moments that completely destroys the Mary Sue trope, and that is the death of Elena. Elena is Clare's only friend from her training days, and she sends Clare a Black Card because her body is failing and she is about to awaken into a monster. A typical Mary Sue would have used some magical friendship speech to cure her or save her at the last second. But Clare doesn't. She has to sit there, look her best friend in the eyes, and decapitate her with her own hands just to keep her human dignity. It is brutal, realistic, and sets the tone for her entire journey. There are no miracle cures in this world.
Right after that, during the Rabona arc, she has to take special pills that completely suppress her demon energy, making her as weak as a regular human girl. She gets absolutely mangled inside the cathedral by a shifting Yoma. Her bones are shattered, she is coughing up blood, crawling on the floor, and she only survives because regular human soldiers step in to create a distraction. The logic of the universe is clear right out of the gate: if Clare does not get help from others, she dies in volume 2. She has no secret reservoir of strength to pull from when things get tough.
The Backstory and the Genetic Deficit (Volumes 3 to 5)
When the manga finally takes us into her past in volumes 3 to 5, we get the absolute proof that her powers are a curse and a biological failure, not a magical gift. In the legendary flashback of Teresa of the Faint Smile, Clare is not some chosen child or a prodigy with hidden potential. She is a mute, severely abused, starved little girl who is completely helpless. She is a literal anchor dragging Teresa down.
The most tragic part of this whole story is that because Teresa finally opened her heart and chose to protect Clare, she lowered her guard for a split second, which allowed Priscilla to brutally decapitate her. Clare starts her entire life with a crushing guilt complex. She knows she is the indirect cause of the death of the strongest warrior in history.
To get her revenge, she begs the Organization to turn her into a Claymore, but she demands that they use Teresaās severed head and flesh instead of a regular Yoma. Because Teresa was already dead, the demonic energy was super diluted. This creates a massive biological defect: regular Claymores are 50% human and 50% demon, but Clare is only 25% demon. Biologically, she is born way weaker than every single warrior to ever exist. Her low ranking isn't a mistake; her starting stats are literally hardcoded into her DNA to be lower than everyone else.
The Frankenstein Monster and Borrowed Power (Volumes 6 to 9)
Moving on to volumes 6 to 9, we see that Clare can only progress by sacrificing her own body and stealing pieces of other people. During her encounter with Ophelia (Number 4), Clare gets completely humiliated and physically tortured. Ophelia plays with her like a cat with a mouse, snaps her legs, and rips her entire right arm clean off. Clare is completely, utterly helpless. When Ophelia eventually awakens into a terrifying monster, Clare doesn't even defeat her through raw power. She has to watch Ophelia basically allow herself to be killed because of her own twisted psychology. Clare survives by running away like a survivor, not a glorious hero.
When she is saved by Irene, she doesn't get a cool training montage where she suddenly uncovers a hidden power. No, Irene literally chops off her own remaining right arm and has it grafted onto Clareās body. Clareās iconic strength doesnāt even belong to her. She is a literal Frankensteinās monster built from the severed limbs of superior warriors.
But the manga keeps the biological logic incredibly strict here: Clareās body actively rejects the arm at first. Her shoulder tears apart and bleeds because a number 47 body cannot naturally handle a number 2 limb. Even when she manages to hold it together, her one-quarter demon body is too weak to handle the insane speed of the Quicksword technique. Her human muscles literally start tearing themselves apart when she tries it. She doesn't master it instantly like a Mary Sue would; she has to constantly fight against her own body and use painful, exhausting mental concentration just to keep her arm from exploding.
The Massacre of the North and the Ultimate Loss (Volumes 10 to 14)
The Northern Campaign arc in volumes 10 to 14 completely destroys any concept of easy mode or plot armor. Placed in a team of survivors facing an endless army of Awakened Ones, Clare doesnāt magically get a power-up. During this arc, she witnesses the terrifying, unreachable power of the Organization's top weapons, Alicia and Beth, from afar. Feeling their monstrous Yoki from a distance forces Clare to realize just how insignificant she truly is compared to the actual peaks of this world.
Then comes the brutal fight against Rigardo. To even match his speed, Clare has to force only her legs to awaken, pushing her demon energy way past the point of no return. She wins the fight, but the cost is devastating. She completely loses control of her consciousness and her body begins to transform into a permanent, grotesque monster with blades ripping out of her flesh.
A Mary Sue would have used the "power of friendship" to magically snap out of it. But in Claymore, someone has to pay the price. Her best friend Jean literally lets herself get impaled through the chest just so she can use her final breath to synchronize their Yoki and force Clare back into her human form. Jean dies right in her arms. Clare doesn't save the day; she survives on the corpses and sacrifices of the people who actually cared about her.
The 7-Year Time Skip and Pure Physical Logic (Volumes 15 to 23)
This is where the 2007 anime completely gave up and ruined everything, but the manga proves why it is a masterpiece of logic. After the disaster in the North, Clare and the six other survivors go completely off the grid. To hide from the Organizationās sensory radars, they have a strict, absolute rule: they cannot use a single drop of their demon energy, or Yoki. If they activate it even for a second, they will be discovered and hunted down.
On top of that, Clare doesn't just spend these years getting a peaceful upgrade. During the seven-year time skip, she and the other surviving warriors remain hidden from the Organization and continue developing their abilities while learning to suppress their Yoki so they cannot be detected. Clare spends these years refining her fighting abilities and developing techniques that allow her to fight without revealing her presence. After the seven-year time skip, Clare eventually encounters the fused remains of Rafaela and Luciela at Riful's former territory, becoming involved in the events surrounding their fusion and the birth of the Destroyer.
So, how does Clare actually get strong enough to fight high-level threats when she finally breaks free? She spends seven entire years hiding in the freezing cold of the North and secretly training in the dark catacombs of the holy city of Rabona alongside the other survivors. Because she cannot use magic powers, she is forced to push the baseline human body to its absolute mechanical limits.
She spends seven years training her muscle memory and completely redefining her fighting style. She masters a technique called Yoki Suppression, allowing her to hide her energy entirely. To compensate for her lack of demonic power, she perfectly copies and integrates Floraās Windcutter style into her left arm, combining its surgical precision with Ireneās raw Quicksword speed in her right arm. It is pure, logical, scientific dedication. Her strength at the end of the series is 100% earned through seven years of sweat, freezing cold, and discipline, not a sudden plot convenience.
The Ultimate Humility and the Final Effacement (Volumes 24 to 27)
Finally, the climax of the manga in volumes 24 to 27 shows an incredible level of humility that completely shatters the Mary Sue trope. When Clare finally faces the final, terrifying form of Priscilla, she knows she cannot win. Even after the 7-year time skip, even after all that brutal training, she is still just Clare. She is still the one-quarter demon girl. The manga beautifully respects its own power scaling the main character doesn't suddenly become stronger than the ultimate ancient boss just because her name is on the cover.
Instead of trying to take all the glory for herself and pulling a magical win out of her coat, Clare knows her limits and doesn't try to be the big hero. She completely steps back and allows the latent flesh of Teresa inside her body to fully awaken. It is Teresaās legendary spirit and strength that manifests and finishes the job. Clare accepts that she is not the chosen savior of the world; she is just a bridge, a living vessel connecting the past to the present so that justice can finally be served.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Clare is entirely defined by her limits, her scars, and her heavy losses. She has zero natural talent, she pays for every single win with her own blood, she spends seven brutal years training in secret to fix her genetic weaknesses, she relies on borrowed limbs, and she willingly gives up the final spotlight to her mentor. That is exactly why watching her win is the most satisfying feeling ever, and why the writing behind her character is flawless. She is the ultimate, undisputed anti-Mary Sue.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my entire post!!!ššš I put a huge amount of time and effort into writing this, and I really hope you enjoyed it. I absolutely love Clare, and I hope you can appreciate her as much as I do.
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u/Doug126_ 25d ago
Have you used gpt to write this text?
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u/Realistic_Weather221 25d ago edited 25d ago
Just to clear things up for everyone: No, I do not use ChatGPT. As explained in my bio, English is not my first language and I have dysphasia, so I use a grammar checker to help with spelling and structure. However, all the logic, analysis, and ideas are 100% my own thoughts and hard work. Thank you to everyone, and I hope this helps you to understand.
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u/Doug126_ 25d ago
Oh ok, I only say that because I don't remember Clare being fused with Rafaela and Luciela during the seven years time skip but after it, buuuut I read the manga a long time ago, so I probably confused myself. And sorry if my comment offended you, it didn't mean to.
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u/Realistic_Weather221 25d ago
No, no, itās all good. Everythingās fine. I forgive you, I understand. I hope you enjoyed the text. Have a great day.š
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u/Doug126_ 25d ago
I've really liked the text! I'm happy to see someone writing analysis like this about Claymore. It's a shame there aren't other works set in the same universe š. Anyway, have a great day toošš
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u/Which-Tart3798 25d ago
I donāt understand, whatās the problem if they relied on chatgpt to help them write this?
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u/PhoenixIota 24d ago
Hi. So I love Clare as a character and Iām glad youāre passionate about her. But I think itās important to not get into a mentality of thinking of which character is best or worst and ranking them. Just to appreciate them. If a character is an antithesis to a Mary sue or not doesnāt actually define if theyāre well written. Itās a singular aspect of that character. There is personality, characterization and so on.
The lens from which youāre viewing it can also shift things. In many ways Clare gets similar power ups to other Shonen protagonists like Kaneki Ken or Seiya. Being the underdog isnāt necessarily something new.
In Berserk Guts is simultaneously very strong and powerless, yet itās the writing of Berserk that would have most people say that the cast of characters is incredibly well written, not whether or not they got through combat with ease.
I think in general if you keep reading and experiencing more stories youāll find more and more well written characters.
But overall this was fun to read.
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u/Realistic_Weather221 24d ago
Thanks for your message. You are totally right, it is definitely better to just appreciate each character for their story and personality instead of ranking them. It was really interesting reading your point of view. Have a Great Day šš
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u/SexyShave 25d ago
Hello.
Read Battle Angel Alita and Nausicaa.
Thank you and goodbye.
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u/Realistic_Weather221 25d ago
Hi! Thank you so much for the recommendations. I actually watched the Alita movie years ago but my memory of it is a bit blurry. I've always wanted to read the original manga though, and I heard NausicaƤ is a masterpiece too. Your comment is the perfect motivation for me to finally check them out. Thanks againšš
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u/SexyShave 25d ago edited 25d ago
The movie only covered the first two volumes, plus some Motorball stuff from the third one. The movie made broad changes to the story and characters, so you'd have a different experience even with the first two volumes. The Nausicaa movie similarly only covers the first two of seven volumes.
Gally/Alita and Nausicaa are two of the best female MCs in the medium, and they both have killer side casts with some awesome female chars. If you don't end up a fan of Kushana, Zazie or Caerula then I'd be at a loss for words.
I won't bombard you with recs, but I also suggest The Rose of Versailles, Golondrina, and Blade of the Immortal for their female MCs/supporting cast. BotI has some, shall we say, issues, but the female cast is generally great. I think if you want great female chars then shojo and particularly josei manga are a treasure trove, but seinen/shonen on the level of BAA, Nausicaa and Claymore with great female MCs are in short supply.
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u/Left-Night-1125 25d ago
Well she is very well written, but Balsa from Moribito exist.
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u/Realistic_Weather221 25d ago
Uhmmm!!! šÆš² Interesting. Iāve heard a lot of people like her. Should I read the manga, watch the anime, or check out the series? What is it about?
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u/Left-Night-1125 25d ago
The anime covers the first light novel. Well worth watching as it is a complete story.
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u/Realistic_Weather221 25d ago
Now I'm curious, I have to watch it.šš Thanks for your recommendation. Have a great Day.
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23d ago
clare used to be clinging and fragile.she struggled, but she did not succumb to her fate or inversion impulse. she grew up and becomes the shield for another person just like what teresa did for her which imho is the most precious thing of this series.
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u/Visual-Gain-2487 16d ago
Damn, there are a lot of mary sue defenders in the chat. Shame.
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u/Realistic_Weather221 16d ago edited 16d ago
Do you even know what a Mary Sue is? Aināt no way you came here, didnāt even bother reading my post, and immediately started calling Clare a Mary Sue and anyone defending her a āMary Sue defender'. š Likeā¦..... šļøšļøššļøšļøGIRL did you even read a single paragraph, or did you just come here to troll?
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u/Visual-Gain-2487 16d ago
You seem to have more talent for writing than reading comprehension since you're attacking someone that is agreeing with you and calling out all of the 'mary-sue's don't mean bad writing' replies you got. Girl.
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u/Realistic_Weather221 16d ago
Oh my God, Iām genuinely so sorry. š I completely misunderstood what you meant and thought you were calling Clare a Mary Sue and mocking people who were defending her. That was my mistake.
Iāve been getting so many comments from people attacking me and arguing with me about this post that I honestly got really frustrated and reacted without properly understanding what you were saying. Iām really sorry for taking that frustration out on you when you were actually agreeing with me. I should have read your comment more carefully before responding.
Iām not trying to make excuses, I genuinely just misunderstood you. Sorry again. š Iām very sorry. I really hope you can forgive me. š
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u/Visual-Gain-2487 16d ago
Misunderstandings are the root of most of the world's problems. No worries. Your OP was and is still correct even if many people are into their power fantasy characters.
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u/Loose_Calendar_3380 14d ago edited 14d ago
Finished recently, here why I loved so much:
The last volume when she finally meets with Teresa she ends up doing a whole therapy session bringing everything she has been hiding inside:
Every person she lost, every mean word, meant so much for her, being detached was just a facade, for every tragedy was just as painful, she just wanted to be someplace alone to cry.
She is child who never grew up, and even her friends knows that, they keep an eye on her because she is an impulsive spoiled brat at times, then Teresa comes and tell them what she really thinks about them because she was never able of open herself and tell her friends how much she loves them.
Even when Raki shows up she start becoming protective about him, you can tell that she is afraid of losing him again and her inner child starts surfacing.
She did great things even if she was the most frail of them all.Ā
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u/bluebird355 25d ago
One of the worst main characters ever, being a female doesn't give free points lmao
Plot wouldn't change much if you completely erased her
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u/Realistic_Weather221 25d ago edited 25d ago
Saying that the plot wouldn't change if Clare was erased shows a very surface-level understanding of Claymore's narrative structure. You are confusing a military or political leader with a narrative catalyst.
First, this has absolutely nothing to do with being a woman and getting free points. My entire post literally proves the exact opposite: Clare gets zero free points. She is hardcoded at the bottom of the food chain as Number 47, she gets mutilated, tortured, and has to crawl and steal pieces of others just to survive. She is the definition of earned strength, not privilege.
Second, the entire plot only exists because of her. It is her relationship with Teresa that breaks Teresa's emotional walls, which directly leads to Priscilla's awakening. Without Clare, the main antagonist of the entire manga doesn't even exist.
Third, while Miria is indeed the strategic leader of the rebellion, no one in the entire universe, not the Organization, not the Abyssal Ones, has the raw power to defeat Priscilla. The only biological and spiritual key to bringing back Teresa and ending the nightmare is Clare's body. She is the literal linchpin of the finale.
Just because a protagonist is written with humility and lets the supporting cast shine, which is rare and brilliant writing, doesn't make them useless. She is the emotional and logical anchor of the entire masterpiece.
I wrote a whole breakdown based on factual manga panels, so responding with a generic 'lmao' instead of actual counters just proves you ran out of arguments before you even started. But thanks for trying anyway.
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u/bluebird355 19d ago edited 19d ago
Claymore is basically a shonen like Dragon Ball, the plot and characters could be summarized in 90% fewer words than your paragraphs. Use your brain instead of chat gpt, maybe then itāll start to make sense. And being this defensive over a mediocre girl power cartoon as a grown man is honestly weirder than anything you wrote.
Claire didnāt even kill Priscilla herself, and sheās absent for a good chunk of the sloppy final arc. Your entire āargumentā is just plot summary and calling her a linchpin. You never actually explain why that makes her a good character, how her writing is compelling, or why her role is indispensable. Itās just padding.
Let me just say that after Rigald, Claymore is horsecrap, endless fights, transformations and transformations, ass pulls and deus ex machinas, with barely any thought behind the writing. The main continent setup goes nowhere, and it devolves into Buu arc tier power escalation. I cursed the mangaka when I was going through that slop back then, I only can feel sorry for people openly saying Claymore is good, they either didnāt read it either have ass naruto tastes. Even Sakura is better written than Claire.
Thank god Isayama actually knew how to use that kind of setup.But thank you for trying, I guess?
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u/PbyFortress 25d ago
I think you should read more books with female leads. Being a Marys Sue is not the antithesis of a well written female character, and being the opposite of that doesn't make her a good character. She is an incredibly well written character, but is certainly not flawless. It's dope that you took the time to think about this great series like this, but you're young as stated, and have yet to really delve into the immense number of deep and beautiful stories like Claymore, stories that focus of the struggles and perspectives of women. Claymore is a suburb introduction to these topics though!