Ophelia

"Because there is something you have to protect, because there is a reason you can not die that enables you to live on, those are foolish fantasies of the weak."

- Rippling Ophelia

Ophelia is Claymore No. 4 of Clare's generation. She is first introduced as an antagonist but later becomes a supporting character, for a short time. Despite the Organization forbidding the killing of humans, Ophelia hints that she may have done so. In Japanese, she has the nickname 血塗られた凶戦士, Chinurareta Kyōsenshi, or Blood-Smeared Wicked Warrior.

Her self-invented nickname is "Rippling Ophelia" (漣のオフィーリア, Sazanami no Ofīria), after her trademark sword movement.

Etymology
"Ophelia" is a transliteration of the Japanese "Ofīria"(オフィーリア, pronounced "o-fi-ri-ah").

"Ophelia" derives from the Greek word for help, ὄφελος (óphelos), possibly referring to her need for mental and emotional aid.

It is the name of a character in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, who loses her sanity after her father is killed while attempting to protect the queen. Shortly afterwards she falls from a willow tree into a brook and drowns. This alludes to the Claymore Ophelia's madness and the fact that Clare leaves her body floating in a lake after her death, mimicking in both the anime and manga Millais' famous painting of Ophelia's death in Hamlet. In both works it appears as though the death is a suicide.

"Ophelia" also sounds similar to the Greek word for snake "'ὄφις" (pronounced "o-phis"), which may allude to her technique, appearance as an Awakened Being, and unusual flexibility, which enables her to twist her head 180 degrees around.

Ophelia's name may have also come from "Ophiuchus"; a name used in sidereal astronomy. Added as the 13th sign to a potential 13 sign zodiac, which achieved popularity in Japan after it's suggestion by Walter Berg and Mark Yazaki. In Japan, Ophiuchus is known as Hebitsukai-Za (へびつかい座?, "The Serpent Bearer"). This may have been used as a direct refrence to her snake-like yoma form, or popular connotations of snakes pertaining to malevolence or deception, both being traits applicable to Ophelia's violent and often sinister nature.

Moreover, Vasilis Kanatas, author of the book "Astrology of the 13 Signs of the Zodiac", suggested the greek letter Φ (phi) as the symbol for the sign of Ophiuchus. Intriguingly, this novel was published in 2011, long after the release of Claymore.

The symbol Φ (phi)  is the 21st letter in the greek alphabet. Ophelia's claymore symbol design looks identical to this letter.

Human form
Ophelia has pale, silvery blond hair, which she wears in a long braid. Her hairline is a strong widow's peak. Like most Claymores, she possesses silver eyes and wears the standard Claymore uniform. Similar to Irene, Queenie, and Cassandra, she has elf-like ears.


 * Height: 175 cm (5 ft 8.89in).

Awakened Form
She is of a very slender build with light gray skin, green hair, and the typical golden eyes of Yoma. Blades grow from her back and from the end of her hair, and her elongated arms end in sharp claws. Her lower body is a long, green serpentine tail.

Image Gallery

Personality
"Don't you think it's beautiful? That rosy red that spreads only where the body is wounded. Shall I paint you in that lovely red... little boy?"

- Ophelia, to Raki, a human

Ophelia initially comes across as being light-hearted and whimsical, but this only serves to mask her unstable, sadistic nature. She genuinely enjoys the thrill of battle and delights in mutilating her victims in the form of twisted "games." She has an unsettling fascination with blood and has seemingly developed a taste for it. Her cruelty is indiscriminate; she has no qualms over attacking her own comrades and it is hinted that she also killed humans to sate her bloodlust.

Her temper can be dangerously explosive, as shown when she attacked Irene for interrupting her "playing" with Clare, even though Irene was now a civilian. She also displays arrogance in regards to her combat ability; she refers to Clare as "just back-up" for their Awakened Being mission and claims that she alone would be enough to defeat their quarry, despite the fact that she ended up losing (initially). Vanity was her motivation for creating her "Rippling Sword " technique; she desired a special nickname (though unbenownst to her, she did), and was overjoyed at the idea of recognition from others, evidenced when she saw Clare react upon seeing her symbol and asked from whom Clare heard about her.

Ophelia has an unhealthy obsession with Awakened Beings, due to traumatization after watching Priscilla kill her family. She insists on hunting only Awakened Beings, ignoring normal Yoma, and even goes to the length of forcing other Claymores to awaken just so she could fight them, such as in the cases of Clare, Miria, and Hilda. Her hatred is so deeply rooted that when she herself Awakens, she is distraught from having become one of the "monsters" she sought to destroy, and chooses to allow Clare to take her life.

Ophelia seems to despise people, particularly the weak, who try to sacrifice themselves in order to protect others. This seems to have stemmed from a skewed perception of her own brother's sacrifice to save her, possibly because the truth was too painful for her to accept. This memory was the main contributor to her mental decline and eventually triggers her Awakening.

Claymore
Ophelia shows not only remarkable speed and strength, but resilience as well. Despite having her neck broken and her head twisted 180 degrees around by the female Awakened Being, she survives and turns her head back around without using her hands. It is currently unknown whether or not other Claymores are capable of this feat.

Rippling Sword


Ophelia invented a technique that involves swift undulation of her arm so her sword appears to be rippling. The optical illusion and unusual movements this creates makes blocking, countering and Yoki "forecasting" extremely difficult as she can easily "snake" her way around an opponent's blade. She's first seen using this technique against Clare, but this ability was completely ineffective against Ilena's Quicksword.

Organization Rating

 * Yoki: A
 * Agility: A
 * Muscular Strength: A
 * Spirit: C
 * Perception: B+
 * Leadership: C

Awakened Being
Ophelia uses her claws, tail and the retracting blades on her back as her main weapons. She can also relocate her vital "core" to any part on her being, as shown when she moved all of her "human parts" to the end of her tail. Curiously enough, Ophelia's Awakened Being rating is only marginally better than that of the former single-digit she kills with ease.

Organization Rating

 * Yoki: SS
 * Agility: SSS
 * Strength: SS
 * Invulnerability: S
 * Intelligence: SS

Early life
Ophelia's parents are unknown, but her older brother was killed and devoured by Priscilla as he protected her. This began Ophelia's obsession with Awakened Beings. She vowed to "to kill the One-Horned Demon" (Priscilla).

Employment as a Claymore
Ophelia became very powerful and ascended to No. 4. She invented a move involving swift undulation of her sword arm so her sword has the appearance of rippling. Mocking the other Claymores with nicknames, she informs Clare she started calling herself "Rippling Ophelia." But adds that her self-proclaimed nickname is widely "unknown" because no one, or almost no one, who has seen it has lived.

During her time as a Claymore, she gained the reputation of being vicious and monsterous. She hints that she has killed humans in the past. She even claims that other Claymores who've killed humans and received their punishment are idiotic because they turned themselves in.

She also displayed immoral tendencies toward other Claymores. When Hilda was about to Awaken, she asked Ophelia to give her Black Card to Miria. However, Ophelia ripped it up, condemning Hilda to Awaken. She was in the Awakened Being hunt that was sent to kill Hilda and so was Miria. When Miria discovered it was Hilda she had slain, Ophelia showed signs of interest when she began to Awaken from the shock, even going so far as to taunt Miria into Awakening faster. This was the reason that spawned Miria's dislike of Ophelia.

Awakened Being Hunt with Clare
On meeting Clare, she proceeds to physically torment Clare, piercing Clare's skin with her fingers and musing about her interest in blood, until Raki intervenes. Ophelia cuts off Clare's legs and fights Raki in a game, seeing if Clare can reattach them before Raki is killed. The Awakened Being interrupts the scene.

Clare flees with Raki, as Ophelia fights the Awakened Being. Despite having her head turned 180 degrees, Ophelia kills the Awakened Being, who understands before dying that Ophelia survived the deadly attack because of a reason: she is partially Awakened, like Clare. After this subtle revelation, Ophelia pursues Clare. After cornering her on a cliff-face, she proceeds to battle her.

Ophelia has the upper-hand due to her Rippling Sword, which cuts off Clare's right arm. When Clare fell down the cliff, Ophelia follows her, suspicious that she kept a hold on her arm. When Clare attempts to reattach it, Ophelia cuts it to shreds, realizing that Clare is an offensive type warrior and thus preventing her from regenerating it. After another battle, Ophelia manages to cut off Clare's other hand and would have killed her while she was disarmed and helpless. Despite her own vow of vengeance, she mocks Clare for her resolve to live on.

Irene interrupts Clare's impeding execution. Angered, Ophelia attacks, but is defeated by the Quicksword.

Awakening and Death
After her defeat, she finds herself injured and alone during a thunderstorm. She momentarily displays a more vulnerable side of her psyche, begging for her older brother to help her. However, she spitefully rebukes herself and, in her rage at Irene and the memory of her brother's sacrifice, she unwittingly Awakens. She does not realize this right away and soon comes across Clare. She proceeds to battle her with the intention of eating her, but when she discovers that Clare doesn't taste good, she tries drowning her in a lake. Ophelia is made aware of her Awakening only upon seeing her reflection in the water.

Stricken and angered at having become the very thing she hated, she lashes out at Clare. After Clare severs both her arms, she gathers her human core at the end of her tail. Ophelia then introduces another game: if Clare can cut past the rest of her body up until her human part (her weak point), she wins, and Ophelia will submit obediently to her. If Clare awakens before she can get to Ophelia's human core, she loses.

During this time, Ophelia begins to think of her brother and only makes one attempt to stop Clare, but encourages her to continue by saying:

"What the hell are you doing?! If you just die like this, what should the people you leave behind do?!"

In the end, Clare wins, so Ophelia allows Clare to euthanize her and to fight in her place. She remembers her brother's last smile and realizes that he was smiling because he saw that she was safe. Having finally found peace, she dies, hoping that she will now be reunited with him. Her body is later discovered by the Organization.

Brother
Ophelia was close to her older brother, who protected her fatally from Priscilla. On his death, she vowed to avenge him by 'slaying the one-horned monster'. She also hates him at the same time for putting his life on the line, even though he had no chance against the One-Horned Awakened Being. In the end, she realised that she hates him for leaving her alone and not because he was killed so easily.

Hilda
Ophelia knew Hilda only briefly. She met Hilda in the woods, having picked up on the other warrior's Yoki, where she found Hilda somewhat blindly searching for Miria (as she was on the verge of Awakening). Having a fondness of fighting Awakened beings and looking for good sport - Ophelia took the card and tore it up defiantly. As a result of shredding up the Black Card Hilda gave her that was meant for Miria, she condemned Hilda to Awaken.

Miria
Miria was sent on a hunt to slay Hilda and it was only after she was slain did Miria realize that it was her friend. In her shock, she began to Awaken. Ophelia showed interest when this happened and it is probable she prevented the Black Card reaching Miria simply for her to Awaken, so that she, herself, could fight another Awakened Being.

Clare
It is an open question why Clare is assigned to the Godal hunting party.

At their first meeting in Godal, Ophelia knows or knew that Clare is partially Awakened - Clare is slated for death. Ophelia toys with Clare and Raki until interrupted by an Awakened Being. After killing the Being, Ophelia pursues Clare. Clare loses her right arm and left hand in the ensuing fight, but Irene rescues Clare with the Quicksword and Ophelia is disabled. Later, Ophelia succumbs to her pent-up rage and hate and unknowingly Awakens.

After Clare recovers, she meets Ophelia in the forest, and they battle in a nearby lake. When Ophelia realizes what has happened to herself, she allows Clare to kill her and "puts her resolve" to kill Priscilla in Clare's hands. Later on when Chare is immersed with the gigantic Yoki mass, a face of Ophelia appears along with Clare and Teresa.

Behind the Scenes
In the anime, Ophelia's voice was potrayed by Luci Christian. Ophelia has a song sung by her voice actor on the Claymore Intimate Persona album released while the anime was being recorded. This song is called "Zouo", translated as "Hatred." Luci Christian also voiced similar looking characters (The Black Snake from Black Blood Brothers and Medusa from Soul Eater).

Anime and Manga differences
In the anime, Miria warns Clare and the others, especially not to meet Ophelia even if this means to make the Organization suspicious. In the manga we see in Chapter 31 Miria regretting not to have told them about Ophelia in more detail.