Clare Bennet Character Info and Analysis
Name: Clare Ellen Bennet
Nicknames: Clare-san, Clare-Chan, Clare-senpai, Bennet-san, Bennet-senpai
Birthdate: June 30
Astrological sign: Cancer
Age: 21
Occupation: Paranormal Researcher
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 140 lbs
Race: Human
Ethnicity: American/White
Languages: English, Japanese, French
Themes: Blood Teller by Faylan, Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy
Parents: Charlotte and Charles Bennet
Siblings: Mary and Daniel (younger)
Eye Color: Blue-green
Hair Color: Medium brown
Music: Rock, punk, electronic house, indie, goth
Food: Chicken alfredo pasta, sushi, burgers, sweets
Animal: Dogs, foxes, birds, owls, crows, reptiles
Color: Green and dark grey
Season: Autumn and spring
Style: Casual, lots of sweaters, workout gear
Hobbies: Fencing, hand-to-hand combat, knife combat, firearm combat, paranormal researching, occult dabbling, reading
Fears: Spiders, bugs with too many legs, open spaces, abandonment
Familiar: Henri
Personality: INFJ
Very shy at first, but quite boisterous and humorous when she makes friends
Quiet unless she’s being spoken to or reading to Subaru
Very loyal and protective of people she cares about
Has a demure and ladylike side (she gets along very well with Reiji)
Is very motherly and patient
Has very strong control over her own emotions, very rarely shows negativity
Forgiving to a fault
Very outwardly polite, tries to be kind to everyone
Does her best to learn what others are like so she can adapt to their personality
Loves dark humor
Vents frustrations and anger through sparring
Backstory Summary
Born into a unique religious sect, Clare was raised as a paranormal hunter. She and her siblings were trained in various forms of combat, and were taught paranormal lore, paranormal history, and both Catholic and Protestant values. Clare was homeschooled until high school, but graduated from a normal high school with average grades and above average sports prowess. As a test of her abilities, she summoned Henri to be her companion and familiar early into high school. After her twenty-first birthday, church officials approached her and told her that she was to be sent as an ambassador to live with a very powerful family of vampires, and that she would likely marry one of them, if she survived. This was the plan for Clare all along, and she accepted her fate with grace. So she was given to the Sakamakis, as a way for the church officials to make peace, and for them to have an agent on the inside.
The Sakamakis were told that she was a gift from the church and was not to be killed. Going into her situation knowing what she knew, it wasn’t so hard to adapt to. On her first night, she managed to avoid the triplets (sans Kanato) and run into Subaru, whom she sat with and read to. Subaru ignored her at first, but began to take an interest in her, which Clare noticed. Clare quickly became attached to Subaru, relating to the fear of abandonment she sensed in him.
As she has graduated high school, she made a deal with Reiji that she wouldn’t have to go to night school if she continued her paranormal research as well as assisted him with his own research and the upkeep of his lab.
Analysis
As she was trained from infancy, Clare is very strong and capable. She learned to rely on herself, utilizing her quick wits to get her out of situations that her muscles couldn’t. She has very strong mental and physical endurance, and this coupled with her strong will, makes her very had to stop. Having two younger siblings brought out her motherly and nurturing instincts, and these and her church teachings spur her to help others. She has a very cheerful attitude and tries to do whatever she can to make people smile. However, being surrounded by her family and the church and then leaving them suddenly caused her to develop severe abandonment issues and depression. She views these feelings as burdensome, and does not speak of them to anyone, burying them under her cheerfulness and a kind smile. But being twenty-one, she often tries to alleviate these feelings with alcohol (Where does she get this booze? No one knows) and sparring and work-outs to keep herself in shape.
Moving into a house full of powerful paranormal beings brought Clare face-to-face with her own mortality. While she has the strength and skill to kill the occasional paranormal creature, she’s aware that any of the Sakamakis could destroy her with zero effort. After moving in with them, she observed the brothers and then adapted her behavior to pacify each one. Doing so and sticking close to Subaru has kept her alive thus far, and she intends to stay that way. Clare does not have a very strong feeling of self-worth, as she views herself only as a vessel of God through which He helps others. Because of this, she tends to live for others, and not for herself. However, because of her religion, she is not afraid to die and views her fate as trials from heaven.
Relationship with Subaru
Rocky is an understatement. It has taken a lot of work, patience, and blood loss for Clare to make any progress with Subaru. Spending most of her time with him has definitely helped. After the first night of reading together, Subaru allowed her to read to him most nights—if she gave her blood in return. Subaru was never a reader, but he seemed to enjoy (or at least tolerate) Clare’s presence and excited reading, and she always picked books that she thought he would like. Subaru’s frequent breakdowns and bursts of anger were hard to deal with, as anything Clare tried would just make him angrier. Showing any fear was a bad idea, as it just turned his anger into sadism through which he would violently suck Clare, or it would make him feel like a monster and make him angrier. Clare quickly learned to ride out these outbursts in silence, giving Subaru his space until he calmed down enough for her to try to console him.
Knowing that Christa was the main source of Subaru’s pain, Clare plotted to kill her. She managed to infiltrate Christa’s tower and begin a fight with the vampire, but the arrival of Subaru stopped the fight, distracting Clare enough that Christa was able to throw her out of the tower. Thanks to Henri’s magic, Clare survived but broke her back in the fall, causing her to be bedridden for a while. Subaru killed Christa for injuring Clare, but almost killed Clare for her brazen actions. Though she only tried to kill his mother to help Subaru, it severely impacted their relationship. It took a while to mend their relationship to what it was before, but on nights when Subaru was in a particularly decent mood, he would read a bit to Clare when she was still bedridden.
Once their relationship improved and the two were much closer, Subaru began to join Clare in her sparring and workout sessions. While it’s much more helpful for her to practice on someone so strong, Subaru still has to pull his hits and she still ends up with quite a few cuts and bruises after each session. Their post-workout routine usually involves rough relations and a hot bath to finish off.
While Subaru still has outbursts and sucks her pretty hard, he and Clare are much closer now. She has learned how to console and help him, and he opened up more and began to trust her when he realized her feelings for him and that she wasn’t going anywhere.
Relationship with Henri
Henri is a poppet and Clare’s familiar. As Clare previously dabbled in the paranormal and occult, it seemed fitting to her that she have a familiar. He’s different from the vampire familiars, more of a companion and protector than a servant. He’s basically Clare’s Teddy. He can’t speak, but communicates with Clare through a rudimentary form of telepathy (she can understand what he means, but cannot understand coherent thoughts and speech). He also communicates pretty effectively through actions and gestures (lots of tiny clowny bunny tantrums). He’s very close to Clare and very protective of her. He has a very childish personality, as he likes to joke around and play pranks, but he gets very moody when things don’t go his way.
It is unknown how Henri came about, as Clare is very tight-lipped about his origins. What inhabits him is a mystery. Ghosts? Demons? The souls of the damned? A tragically murdered circus clown? We just don’t know.
Fun Facts
She’s a competition-winning sharpshooter and fencer
She has a collection supernatural and paranormal objects and feathers
She’s scary good at blackjack (for the love of God don’t play for money with her)
She’s a less-than stellar cook and can only make apple pie without ruining it
She prefers to be bitten on the shoulder, as she has a secret fear of being bitten in the neck
She loves paranormal horror but hates slasher horror
She actually gets nauseous at the sight of excessive gore
Her favorite book is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies