Haha, I’m glad to see that in the end, Ophelia did turn into a memorable character. During episode 12 and 13, she didn’t really impress me much, and her background story felt too incomplete for me to care about her, but luckily this episode changed this. The fact remains that she already had the personality of an awakened being, and now that she has realy become one of them, her insanity didn’t increase, it decreased, and she spends the final minutes of her life in a surprisingly human state, after she realizes this.
It seems that Priscilla hasn’t been standing still, ever since she killed Teresa. We have still no clue about what she’s been up to, but we now know that she did kill Ophelia’s brother. Because of that, Ophelia began to develop her obsession for killing awakened beings. And now I finally realize what’s going to make Claire so special: she’s basically a combination of lots of great Claymore. She first had Teresa inside of her, and in this episode, Irene’s arm and Ophelia’s goal get added. Something tells me that she’ll take something from every major opponent she runs into to add this to her arsenal. I quite like this, in fact.
Still, that is no reason for me to like the immense power-up that Claire got after merging with Irene’s arm. I mean, Ophelia already was immensely powerful, and now that she has awakened, this power has only increased. The power-boost that Claire got from it could really have been more subtle, especially since it’s the first time she uses it. After all, the arm may be one thing, but what really makes it work the way it does is the link to your brain. It takes a while to get used to the power, and Claire, who couldn’t even come close to one tenth of the speed of Irene, should have had more trouble dealing with it.
Oh, and Irene dies in this episode, by the hands of number five, Rafaela. We also learn that of the top-five, Ophelia was actually the weakest. Next up, Claire is probably going to have to fight the remaining four, after which Priscilla comes. That’s one of the things I dislike about shounen-series, no matter how good the rest, they always follow the pattern of a great power that needs to be defeated, only to move on to the next, even stronger power, until the big boss is reached. The great shounen-series are the ones that manage to add more than just that, like the comedy and tactical battles in the Law of Ueki. For Claymore, this is going to be its explanation and characters. If it wants to be better than the other shounen-anime, the future enemies had better have the same level development of Ophelia, or even more.]]>
Claymore – 14
Ophelia had turned into a some what “nice” character in the end and I agree that her death will be quite memorable. I think you will be very surprised on how the story will turn out and your theroy about working her way up to the “big boss” xD.
Come on psgels you should know by now that Claymore isn’t your typical shounen anime^^ The next arc will show that.
About the power up thing. She did do some training with Irene. Even though she tells Clare that its only 1/10th of the power, Irene does say that Clare reached the limits of her learning the quicksword. So once she got Irene’s arm it was just a matter of using the power from Irene. She did get some backfire during the fight with Ophelia so it wasn’t a totally smooth transition.
Ophelia’s brother looked a lot like Raki! I just thought that. I could be wrong though.
Actually, don’t worry about Claymore running straight down the shounen rails. The series gets weirder from here on out. The remaining top five—Raphaela, Galatea, Beth, and Alicea—will not all necessarily be enemies of Claire.
Each of the remaining top five are as interesting as Ophelia. There’s a lot of the backstory to the present state of the Organization and the whole Claymore world resting in Raphaela’s missing eye.
I shall miss Irene! I’m glad Clare got her arm and flash sword skill though. I hope she learns to take of her new arm lol! We don’t need Clare losing anymore limbs!
Now Clare just needs to learn how to combine it with her yoki sense and kick arse.
Also if she can just be a bit more calm in battle the flash sword will be stronger.
oh, and I feel that claymore is shonen anime for girls. XD That should keep it from following the whole formula. Thats just how I feel about it being a wacky tomboy.
I have to agree with rikku about the power up of claire she stay some time with irene and learn that tecnique that she use to kill ophelia irene’s arm wasn’t all that make she get stroger.
It doesn’t seem like Clare would win a straight battle with Ophelia, pgsels… it’s not so much a powerup, as that Ophelia wanted to die. Although, I can see where Irene’s arm might have something of a callus for using the flash sword. That being said, I didn’t really like this episode for some reason. I don’t know why, I just didn’t. 😀
Probably because both cute elfchicks are now gone? ^^;
I am sure there will be more cute elf chicks at some point :> also, we didn’t see irene die. she probably did this time, though. However, the last time she was supposed to die off camera she didn’t. Also Clare didn’t recieve a major powerup.
I agree that Ophelia didn’t fight back too hard after awakening thus making it an easy fight. She didn’t want to be a monster and somehow regained her humanity by awakening rather than losing it.
I am desperately trying *not* to read manga ahead of the anime, but afterwards. Anyway, I guess that clare defeating Number Four would make her take that number? Claymore numbering is still uncertain, but that would seem at least logical. And Irene/Ilena’s flash sword was extremely effective the first time, against the unawakened Ophelia ( in ep 13 ) , so I guess Clare beating her with it was only natural.
I have to agree with Arakan7. It’s never good when two hot elf chicks die, even if one of them is quite deranged.