Claymore 84 Review by natli

[natli]

CHAPTER 84: THE SEDUCTIVE MESSENGER
Thanks to shrimpy for the translation! The pictures are from the raw provided by Finestella.

Rubel

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Rubel really is a spy from the other mainland force…theoretically. To trust in what he says is not a sensible thing to do :D But let’s say I buy this story for now.

Rubel’s goal is to destroy the Organization from within, without a direct confrontation. He is afraid of acting too quickly, in fear that the facilities will be moved somewhere else where it will be impossible to get a spy. He is responsible for most of the events in the series. He was behind the suicide mission in the Slashers arc, he gave Miria the information on the mainland in hopes that she would betray the Organization, and finally he was the one behind sending the four half-awakeneds on the Northern Campaign.

There must be more spies than him, it would be strange for one man to carry out such a huge operation. Moreover, Rubel explained how the Org missed Miria’s half-awakening, and since he was Clare’s handler he could cover up her case too. But what about Helen and Deneve? What about the other half-awakenings we don’t know about?

Presently, Rubel wants to send the Ghosts on the third suicide mission, this time to rescue Renee. He hopes they will die in a fight with Riful. We saw his impressive deductive skills, he was even able to guess what happened with Undine’s sword. After reading this chapter I have a far better understanding of his character. He likes to experiment and play with people. He was the one to ‘create’ Clare and even though he now wants her dead, he’s not angry that she survived, just intrigued.


Half-Awakened

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Rubel’s actions are motivated by his suspicion that the half-awakening is the first step to a controllable Awakened Being, and if the Organization will discover this phenomenon, it will finally achieve it’s goals. He might be also afraid that the four half-awakened Ghosts will manage to fully awaken without loosing their human consciousness and form a very strong group. It would be comparable to the situation in which Riful, Isley and Luciela decided to join forces. The Ghosts could become the third force in the battle for the Claymore world or at least a serious problem for anyone who might want to take control over it. And having full control might be the goal for both sides of the conflict. The only thing we know about them is that is that the side which uses the island as their ‘testing ground’ lowers itself to experimenting on humans and the other is allied with the Descendants of Dragons. It can't be assumed that the latter are the good guys just because they are the Organization’s enemies.


Renee’s Struggle

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Moving back to Riful, she is waiting patiently for Renee to awaken the sisters. Renee tries diving into their consciousness but she’s repelled by their combined youki. Raphaela and Luciela are terrifyingly powerful, so much that Renee and Duph would be dead within seconds after they awakened. But it is not at all certain that Renee can awaken this being. As she said, she specializes in long range youki detection, not youki manipulation. Moreover, the huge amount of youki this being has makes it difficult for Renee to enter its mind. There is still the possibility that Renee will fail.

Renee proves that she can think rationally in the most extreme situations. It appears that her plan is to awaken Raphaela and Luciela and then run during the fight with Riful. Of course, she needs her legs for that so she convinced Riful to let her attach her limbs before she awakens the sisters. This gives her higher chances for survival than depending on Riful’s promise. At this point I want to add that because Renee doesn’t bleed at all it makes the scene look unrealistic and kills the drama. She looks like a doll, not like a person who lost her limbs. Ironically, Riful comments on her blood loss.


Conclusion

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This chapter answered many interesting questions about past events in Claymore. Most importantly, it gave insight into Rubel’s mind, proving right all those people who suspected that he is one of the most important characters. For me, the best part was that Miria didn’t become his puppet, and instead used the information in her own plan to destroy the Organization.

[rukori]

Renee proves that she can think rationally in the most extreme situations. It appears that her plan is to awaken Raphaela and Luciela and then run during the fight with Riful. Of course, she needs her legs for that so she convinced Riful to let her attach her limbs before she awakens the sisters. This gives her higher chances for survival than depending on Riful’s promise.

Incorrect. From what she says(well.. thinks) you can clearly understand that she doesn't plan to let Raciella awaken, and believing that she'll be torn to shreds the moment it happens is a proof to that.

The best part of the chapter imo was Rubel deducting that Undine's dead and someone took her sword, as well as listing all the ghosts, and by that proving his thinking skills and his deep understanding of all the claymores. You might have noticed how the normal handlers are pretty much normal in their way of thinking(physically though, they're FREAKS) and might misread the situation sometimes, but Rubel always see the full picture - whether realizing Raphaella wants to kill her sister, realizing where Rephaella hidden herself, understanding Clare's true nature, and thinking that Miria is not the type to just die in the north.

[Goral]

The problem I have with Rubel/Louvre knowing about Clare is how would he know she partially awakened? It was in Rabona, in the cathedral's catacombs (which usually are underground) and it should be difficult to radiate youki through the surface, not to mention outside of Rabona. So how did Rubel know she awakened? Even Galatea couldn't tell that Clare awakened and returned until she saw it with her eyes. What's odd Ophelia supposedly could sense it / smell it / taste it then why Galatea couldn't? Maybe someone told Ophelia about it? And how did he locate Raphaela? Was it old-fashioned investigation, asking people around, looking for possible shelters? Or was it Miata's ability? (On the side note: exactly how could they produce such useful claymore?)

I'm guessing that there aren't more OE (organization enemies) spies than Rubel/Louvre in the organization. As I've written on animesuki (http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=1963048&postcount=361) I don't see that much of disadvantage of not knowing about half-awakened claymores. MiB could have problems to make people to become half-monsters and the real problem would be that they could easily disobey their "masters" as we see is happening now. Soldiers like Alicia and Beth are more appropriate for their purposes and I'm sure the org knows that it's possible but it's now what they really want. I'm sure because they've gradually increased Alicia's strength and they must have noticed changes in her strength in claymore form before and after she awakened. Rubel would need accomplices to hide this information but why would he need to hide it?
What I find disturbing is why would Rubel wish Clare good luck if he wanted to kill her the second time (when he sent her to mission with Ophelia). It doesn't make any sense. For all we know Rubel might have told them he's a spy so they would believe his words and thought they've had common goals. And why would he openely say he wanted them dead? It served no purpose. Unholy (http://mangahelpers.com/forums/member.php?u=44106) rightly noticed that Clare and co. are too soft-hearted and Rubel knew they would probably try to help Renee but it was stupid of him to tease them unless he's had leverage up his sleeve. Also I don't know if it was shounen type of play (i.e. "sheer" coincidence) or Rubel's cunningness/abilities but it's strange he wasn't stroke down by Undine and conveniently wasn't there when other MiB approached. Is it possible that he can sense cloaked claymores?
Another thing, if Rubel believes that MiB will make new research facilities after they're destroyed (i.e. they have resources to do it) what stops them from making another laboratory somewhere else now? And if OE exist and are afraid of them why won't they crush them? Wouldn't that prove that no matter what MiB do they won't be able to compare to DoD?

Rukori beat me to it, I also think Renee doesn't want Raciella to awaken however your interpretation is more interesting. It would make more sense and be quite a twist, Raciella triggering Raciella's awakening (unless it already started) and using this as diversion she would escape. Otherwise she would be captured by Riful and it would be as suicidal as awakening Siamese twins.
And last but not least good point at noticing lack of blood, it didn't strike me at all until You mentioned it :]. The same was with Clare when Ophelia cut her legs off but I didn't find it odd either :D.

[Baron Hugenstein]

Interesting review:amuse

I see Rubel as being a master spy, for sure there has to be other spies to aide in the covert operation. He seems to be elusive and tricky, the fact that he hid Miria's half-awakening and possibly Clare's(although IMO it is hard to hide her awakenings when she did them more than once.)

Renee's plan seems to be good, but i don't know if the combined yoki of both Raphaela and Lucila are as strong as Riful, most likely stronger. Unless Riful finds a common enemy for both of them to join forces(Isley and Priscilla).

[Shinomori Aoshi]

Good points Goral. Also, at the slashers mission, wasn't it Galatea and her handler Ermita who where watching them from afar, discussing things that were hinting that Ermita knew this was a suicide mission? If Ermita did know this, what was the reason the four warriors were sent to die (according to the organization, supposedly not knowing the Half Awakened state of them)?

[natli]

@rukori
At first she does think 'It should never be awakened', but later she comes to the conclusion that she needs her legs so she wouldn't die in a fight between Riful and Raciella. So I assumed she decided to awaken the sisters.
@Góral
How Rubel knew about Clare and how MiBs find Claymores are great mysteries. Especially their ability to find them after completed missions always baffled me. They are able to find them in inns, on the roads, in the middle of a forest, and so on. I hope Yagi will give a sensible explanation.
@sarry
Thanks! At first I thought that Rubel was just a background character but he is turning out to be very important in the story, not to mention quite interesting.
@Shinomori Aoshi
There are lots of theories floating around that Ermita is also a spy like Rubel, and that they work together.

ps. Sorry for the late answer but for some time to come I'll have access to internet only on weekends :(

[rukori]

@rukori
At first she does think 'It should never be awakened', but later she comes to the conclusion that she needs her legs so she wouldn't die in a fight between Riful and Raciella. So I assumed she decided to awaken the sisters.


The way I see it she admit that she can't let it awake and therefore has to run away. The sentence "to be sucked in between the fight of two monsters means only death" is actually her reason why she has to flee.