Thread: What Riful Wants [Spoilers?]

There's a Riful thread already, but that has nothing to do with this... and I don't think any other threads were made for this either.


What Riful wants... we all know what it is, but for those who don't: "Lemme awaken some Youki readers." I reread the chapter where she first presents the idea to Clare (making that the second time I read it), and this theory of mine hit me after I got to the line "in other words, those who can manipulate Yoma energy, if even just a little".

Going back in time for a second, let's revisit Clare v Rigaldo. Rigaldo... the Silver Eyed Lion King... extremely fast, ripped through 3 Claymores with just a swipe of his gigantic claws, slaughtered Flora (boo!!)... Anyway. When Clare awakened to fight him, Rigaldo was too fast for her to be able to do anything really useful. She kept telling herself she needed to speed it up, and her legs turned into something not unlike Cougar Straight's from S.Cry.Ed... She needed control over that speed and her arms turned into items doubling as weapons that were ALSO capable of anchoring her when she needed to stop (at least, that's how I saw it).

Back to Riful... Clare's capable of reading into Youki extremely well. Is this the "something interesting" that she found? That those who can read Youki at extreme distances are capable of manipulating their own enough for their own benefit during Awakening? Hell, does the extent to which a Claymore can do this matter at all or does the only prerequisite happen to be that they can read Youki?

Has Riful's plan become "let's get an Eye [or someone similar] to go against Priscilla and keep changing until she gets enough power to turn the tide"? Would Riful try to fight herself? And finally, does someone fitting what Riful wants stay stuck to that one Awakened form obtained during this adaptive phase, or is their ability to change capable of giving them more than one form as an awakened?

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Of the people we know to possess this ability, one's dead, one's renegade, one's assumed dead, and the other's in the organization. From what we know of them, though, I'll try ranking them:
1) Galatea
- She can not only read Youki from FAARR off, but is even capable of controlling others (though to a lesser degree than the Awakened from Pieta).

2) Teresa
- She's essentially a psychic with her ability. Galatea only goes above her because she's an eye.

3) Clare
- The watered-down Teresa... still works, though.

4) Audrey?
- Whoever the new eye is...

The ranking is there purely for reference, and has nothing really to do with the theory.

My two cents and two theories

#1: This one was mentioned many times in the Claymore Discussion back in the Misc Section, and it is my favorite, and most probable in my eyes... Riful needs a claymore very skilled in youki manipulation, and she also need an ally that has power of an Abyssal one to fight with Priscilla. And Alicia is an Abyssal one, keeped in check just with a single spirit link with her sister... I think that Riful wants to somehow manipulate/corrupt/distrupt that spirit link so that Alicia (possibly also Beth) will awaken. And for that she needs a claymore adept in youki manipulation that would be able to do that feat. I like this theory mainly becouse it uses already existing and well-known character and it, I dunno just fits in my mind. I also agree that organisation isnt probably so stupid to have overlook such an obvious weakness and protect it somehow so that the first Awakened being with some skills in Youki manipulation dont Awaken the current number 1....

#2 The organisation knew just about 3 Abyssal ones, that is the number 1 Claymores that awakened, but Priscilla already showed that you dont have to be number one to have an Abyssal one level of power...Sooo, I dont think that Priscilla was first claymore with potential to become number 1 dint quite make it to become number 1 and awakened...So there may be few others Awakened beings, with power level high enough to be considered an Abyssal one, that were offscreem for some unknown reason... And Riful knows about one or two of them, but needs a very good Youki reader to discover their exact location...
I dont think that this theory is very likely, but it would be a good way to introduce few new cool characters...

She wants to kill them, there's no desputing that, and indeed there is no indication. When you consider what aura manipulation is and what it means in this manga you could take it as a way to control Alicia or make her fully awaken. Controlling Alicia is a soul link currently, and if someone who can really manipulate aura can sync with Alicia (who has no intelligence and it basically led on to fight) they could theoretically control her. This could be taken in other ways too, like using aura manip to make Beth awaken, then teaming with her and using her to further control Alicia (although I think Beth is just as dumb as Alicia, so it wouldn't be hard).

Also Luciela and Raphaela tried to do the same thing, but Raph didn't specialize in aura manipulation (and wasn't strong or good at it) so therefore she ultimately failed, despite that there had to have been some progress between them two or the organisation wouldn't have carried on with A&B. I see that as it's possible to control her if you're good at manipulation, seeing as people who aren't good at it seem to have some grasp at it for some period of time.

Is basically what I think Riful wants to do. To add to that though, if that person capable of syncing/manipulating Aura awakens, then their abilities increase tenfold along with their power. Since Claire has the power of a single digit, and Galatea is (or was) a single digit, their awakenings would be amazing. And Galatea's control over aura manipulation would be far above that of the Awakened Being in Pieta.

She wants to kill them, there's no desputing that, and indeed there is no indication. When you consider what aura manipulation is and what it means in this manga you could take it as a way to control Alicia or make her fully awaken. Controlling Alicia is a soul link currently, and if someone who can really manipulate aura can sync with Alicia (who has no intelligence and it basically led on to fight) they could theoretically control her. This could be taken in other ways too, like using aura manip to make Beth awaken, then teaming with her and using her to further control Alicia (although I think Beth is just as dumb as Alicia, so it wouldn't be hard).

Also Luciela and Raphaela tried to do the same thing, but Raph didn't specialize in aura manipulation (and wasn't strong or good at it) so therefore she ultimately failed, despite that there had to have been some progress between them two or the organisation wouldn't have carried on with A&B. I see that as it's possible to control her if you're good at manipulation, seeing as people who aren't good at it seem to have some grasp at it for some period of time.

I'm pretty certain I read somewhere that the level of youki control cannot be achieved for a soul link unless the girls are twins, otherwise if it really just took a aura manipulator like Galatea why in the blazes would the Organization actively sought out for twin newborn girls? Which totally breaks away from the tradition of finding lost or abandoned girls to become their Claymores? The fact that they are twins must have some significance to the Soul Link. The main reason why I think the theory won't work is that they had Galatea for as long as Alicia and Beth existed I'd say. I'm certain they're not stupid enough to ignore that a person of Galatea's capabilities might be able to break or sync with the soul link giving direct access to a controlled Abyssal Being. If you're the head of the organization and you see a possible threat to the controlled Abyssal project and you weighed out whats better? To keep a number 3 warrior with good sense of sensing yoma energies from afar while being able to bend a yoma energy user to her will or to jeopardize a controlled Abyssal Being which is their only hope they got against a Abyssal One? They would have secretly disposed of Galatea the moment she became a thorn on their side. I know I would have the moment she rebelled and failed to capture Clare defying direct orders and giving a blatantly false reports.

Riful's reason for wanting someone like Galatea is a mystery and I think its still too early to try and guess what that interesting thing she found out is. But the possibility of controlling Alicia and Beth is probably one of the few possibilities out there we can think of given our information so far.

Just wondering. How did people come to the conclusion that Raphaela wasn't a yoki manipulation type of Claymore? We've only seen her fight like never? Probably the only time I've seen her with a sword was when she was to kill Ilena. Like Galatea she seems to be an adept at sensing Yoki (Found Ilena, Found Clare and Jean) and like Galatea she participates covert op missions. So far the similiarities aren't too different. We just never seen enough of Raphaela to know what her special abilities are other than a good Eye like Galatea.

Ah yes I suddenly remember that I have never seen Raphaela fought in the manga before. But Im sure that in one of the chapters, there was a mention that Raphaela was teamed with the new eye at some out-post so as to hunt down deserters who abandoned their mission in Pieta. Hence, can we say that her Yoki reading is not as good a Galatea (maybe distance wise) as she needs a new inexperienced eye to read with her instead. Well...we can also argue that the organisation is giving the new eye some practis >.<

@Lizard
Everyone knows that what Riful wants is not only a Claymore who's able to read yoki but one who's able to manipulate Yoki (even to a small extent). Hence, to narrow it down, it will be either Clare or Galatea or both of them (both if she's greedy). The discovery of new awakened beings that can rival the abyssal powers is possible but that might not have been Riful's plan. If she just wanted to look for new undiscovered beings, she would have just catch the new eye or Tabatha from Miria's gang to do the job.

However something is puzzling me from Riful's actions. She seems to want Clare or Galatea for her ally but she seemed to change her tactics later. Riful did inform Clare that she can chop off her hands and legs and only keep the parts that she needed. Which I assume is the head of Clare? So does that mean that she don't need them to awaken to be her ally but is willing to work with a Claymore instead? Now...thats something new.

Ah yes I suddenly remember that I have never seen Raphaela fought in the manga before. But Im sure that in one of the chapters, there was a mention that Raphaela was teamed with the new eye at some out-post so as to hunt down deserters who abandoned their mission in Pieta. Hence, can we say that her Yoki reading is not as good a Galatea (maybe distance wise) as she needs a new inexperienced eye to read with her instead. Well...we can also argue that the organisation is giving the new eye some practis >.<

Also should take notice that when Rafaela was wandering around excommunicating from the Organization to roam free without any duty (A carefree life? from a Claymore that isn't deemed as insubordination to carry out any duties? Organization must have really loved her if they gave her holiday breaks with pay), I say roam free without any duty because if anyone remembers she got reinstated back as number 5 when Teresa, Noel, Monkey, Ilena got trashed by Awakened Priscilla, Rafaela back then was old enough to be a full fledged Claymore and back in those days Teresa was little more than a little girl trainee of the Organization. I somehow think Galatea is much younger than Teresa so Rafaela was around for a long time now. Think she would have had alot of time to develop her skills, possibly more than 7 years?

Originally Posted by Phantom Miria

I'm pretty certain I read somewhere that the level of youki control cannot be achieved for a soul link unless the girls are twins, otherwise if it really just took a aura manipulator like Galatea why in the blazes would the Organization actively sought out for twin newborn girls? Which totally breaks away from the tradition of finding lost or abandoned girls to become their Claymores? The fact that they are twins must have some significance to the Soul Link.

Even if it can't be achieved precisely it can be used at stronger levels to at least disrupt soul link. If you mess with the yoma levels it becomes even harder to concentrate and remain soul linked. Also the main reason A&B work is because from day 1 they've done nothing but soul link, Raphaela and Luciela both had personalities, goals and quirks to them. They were individuals and not a single being. The twin thing from the same yoma served as a safety net, allowing the girls to sync easily.

Originally Posted by Phantom Miria

The main reason why I think the theory won't work is that they had Galatea for as long as Alicia and Beth existed I'd say. I'm certain they're not stupid enough to ignore that a person of Galatea's capabilities might be able to break or sync with the soul link giving direct access to a controlled Abyssal Being.

They aren't ignoring her, they are trying to kill her after all.

Originally Posted by Phantom Miria

If you're the head of the organization and you see a possible threat to the controlled Abyssal project and you weighed out whats better? To keep a number 3 warrior with good sense of sensing yoma energies from afar while being able to bend a yoma energy user to her will or to jeopardize a controlled Abyssal Being which is their only hope they got against a Abyssal One? They would have secretly disposed of Galatea the moment she became a thorn on their side. I know I would have the moment she rebelled and failed to capture Clare defying direct orders and giving a blatantly false reports.

They really did want to kill her, at that time especially. She was only allowed to live because the new "eye" wasn't ready.

Originally Posted by Phantom Miria

Riful's reason for wanting someone like Galatea is a mystery and I think its still too early to try and guess what that interesting thing she found out is. But the possibility of controlling Alicia and Beth is probably one of the few possibilities out there we can think of given our information so far.

I think it's feasible. Looking at what Claire did to Jeane and Jeane to Claire being able to sync with a person and pull them back is something that is easily capable of happening. More so because of Claire, and being able to pull back with sync means you should be able to push forward with a sync.

Originally Posted by Phantom Miria

Just wondering. How did people come to the conclusion that Raphaela wasn't a yoki manipulation type of Claymore? We've only seen her fight like never? Probably the only time I've seen her with a sword was when she was to kill Ilena. Like Galatea she seems to be an adept at sensing Yoki (Found Ilena, Found Clare and Jean) and like Galatea she participates covert op missions. So far the similiarities aren't too different. We just never seen enough of Raphaela to know what her special abilities are other than a good Eye like Galatea.

Suppressing her power was the only thing we've seen her do, and in the Claymore world at that time, suppressing your power is a dangerous thing to do. We haven't seen her power, but if they were trying to soul link Raphaela and Luciela then I would think at least one of them (the handler especially) was adept at sensing yoma energy and manipulating it.

@Lizard's #1: If anything, I'd want to combine your theory and mine... because then it makes a lot of sense. Riful gets a super-strong ally AND someone who could potentially break down the other challenge facing her. Only thing left would be to take the fragments of the other challenge (Alicia) and go 3v2 against Isley and Priscilla.

@Lizard's #2: I don't like it... introducing more characters at this point is like... eh. If some new person DOES get introduced, I'd hope that only 1 of them comes out, if anything. And numbers are only to guage capability, not potential. If it was potential, then Teresa would be #0 and Clare, with 3 flows of blood and 4 souls in her, could be top 10 easy (especially in the new generation, where a shit like Audrey can be #3).


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I have to be honest and say that I like my theory best... usually, mangaka's story conclusions are based on what's been built up in the series, and if Clare's awakening didn't build toward SOMETHING, I don't know wtf else would.
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I doubt that Riful's immediate worry is the Alicia/Beth duo. If anything, it should be the knowledge that the organization's gained from all their experimenting with these twins and how they could apply it toward making a Teresa-level Claymore an awakening it... that, or Priscilla and how she can slap her straight to the moon without a problem.

[Know that even with a 2v1 available, Riful ran away from Priscilla]


If Riful wanted Galatea to disrupt the soul link, then wouldn't she have to know about how the A/B works (I ask mostly because I don'tk now if she knows about them or not)?