Claymore: Empowering or Degrading Women

Claymore, a medieval anime set on a fictional island terrorized by human-eating demons called Yoma, is about a group of female knights that are hybridized with the demons, by a group called The Organization, to enhance their strengths and abilities so they can defend the cities they are assigned 

to. Besides the obvious issue of all these women being blonde haired, blue eyed "beauties" (claimed to be a side-effect of gaining "enhanced" abilities) and obvious issues with their "armor" you would think, at a glance, this story was promoting female empowerment with all female main characters. However, similar to the Albina Myth, women are viewed as beings who are driven by sexual desire which is why they are so well suited to combine with these demon-like Yoma beings. Like Albina and her sisters copulating with demons and giving birth to giants the Claymore Knights fusing with Yoma is described as a sexual climax and males proved to be insufficient at this act.  On top of this, because of womens' "volatile nature" they are known to becoming an Awakened Being which is a Claymore who has used her ability too much and has become too unstable and shifts form into a demon herself, their organization tries to control them but they leave and rampage the land. Now this doesn't mean that there aren't any male Claymore or Awakened Beings but they are far and few between (1 for every 5-10 women).

This representation, dissimilar to our current stories where women are in positions of (religious) power and persuade men to change, Claymore is a group of powerful women who are secretly being controlled by The Organization, which is found to be a group of old men. This story reflects more of the stories in our first unit like HKB, the Albina Myth, and even King of Tars where women's actions were dictated by ruling men and, in some instances, they had to defy them if there was any hope of freedom but this freedom was usually met with some form of negativity in the eyes of the society at the time (Albina sleeping with demons). With the King of Tars the princess's path is dictated by her father, the king, but she is given some religious power by being sent to the sultan.

Although a tale of a group of all female knights seems to be a step in the right direction the implementation of this tale resembles a step backwards towards some of the stories of old and leaves much room for improvement. 

The formula for your new demon baby

The demonic spawn is a well known symbol that dates back to even the Biblical times with references to demon babies being made in the Torah. They were created to show straying away from God and the consequences that resulted from that. The word in Hebrew used for these children was Nephilim which translates to giants or fallen ones. The demon child is used in a falling from grace in the Albina myth, the King of Tars, and A Game of Thrones. 

In the Albina myth, the women travel to an uninhabited island as a punishment for trying to kill their husbands to avoid being subservient. They become masculine on the island and learn to fend for themselves but are seduced by an incubus and have children who become the giants of Albion or demon children. The women can be interpreted to create these demon children because they have gone on the wrong path. They were led astray and created demon children because of their change in beliefs.

Actual real life image of the giants

In the King of Tars, the Princess of Tars is forced to convert to Islam because of her marriage to the Sultan of Damascus. She becomes pregnant but is horrified to learn that she has beget a child that is a lump of flesh. She and the Sultan try to make the baby normal by using their religions, Christianity and Islam respectively. The Sultan’s methods fail while the Princess’ methods turn the baby normal and the Sultan becomes Christian as a result. The changing from Christianity again causes a demonic baby to be born.

In A Game of Thrones, Daenerys is forced to marry Khal Drogo and covert to his lifestyle and beliefs as a result. As opposed to the King of Tars, Daenerys actually is happier as a result and is supposed to give birth to the “Stallion who Mounts the World”. However, when she tries to change her beliefs again by using blood magic to save Khal Drogo’s life, her child becomes stillborn and looks like a monster. This is in stark contrast to the other two texts when the changing of lifestyles from the predominately Christian one to another creates a demon child. Daenerys does give birth to demon children through a conversion back to her old lifestyle when she hatches dragons over Drogo’s funeral pyre and begins to proclaim herself as the blood of the dragon.

How could Daenerys not love this?

The demonic spawn is used many times to show the effects of falling from what the author considers to be the correct religion. In the Albina myth and the King of Tars, this is patriarchal Christianity while in A Game of Thrones, it is the old beliefs of Daenerys that her family is the blood of the dragon and blood magic that cause her to mother demonic children.. In A Game of Thrones however, it is used more positively when Daenerys hatches the dragons and to make her more powerful as opposed to the the King of Tars which shows the lump child as only causing grief.