This article is about the book version of Clarisse La Rue. For her movie counterpart, see Clariss La Rue (Percy Jackson Films). .
- “I AM CLARISSE, DRAKON-SLAYER! I will kill you ALL! Where is Kronos? Bring him out! Is he a coward?”
- ―Clarisse daring Kronos after defeating the Drakon
Clarisse La Rue is one of the main characters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series by Rick Riordan and appears in The Heroes of Olympus book series.
She is a daughter of Ares' and one of Percy's rivals turned friends. She was the former head counselor of Cabin 5 or Ares's cabin, before stepping down and giving the role to Sherman Yang. She is currently attending the University of Arizona and is the girlfriend of Chris Rodriguez.
Background[]
Little is known about Clarisse's early life. She was born to Ares, the Greek god of war, and the mortal, Ms. La Rue and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona.
At some point, she was found by the satyr protector, Gleeson Hedge and taken to Camp Half-Blood.
Physical Appearance[]
Clarisse is a fairly tall young woman, havign the height of a basketball player and the body of a rugby player. She has dark eyes, pale brown hair, and has a vicious sneer similar to her father Ares.
She now has a scar on her chin and her long hair is cut short and raggy.
Personality[]
Clarisse is generally hot-tempered, arrogant, brave, and strong. In The Sea of Monsters, Clarisse fears being a disappointment in her father's eyes and why she seems his approval. She does not rely on strength, and can be an effective leader due to her skill set and intelligencd. When she and Percy first met, Clarisse bullies both him and Annabeth, threatening to dunk Percy's head in the toilet (which is what she does to all newcomers to Camp Half-Blood). However, the tables are turned when Percy accidentally uses his water powers and sprays Clarisse and her friends with the toilet water. This starts their rivalry and it only gets worse when Percy defeats Ares in battle, with Clarisse and her siblings hating him for shaming their father.
The fourth novel shows Clarisse has undergone character development. She has actually become good friends with Annabeth and comforted a distraught Juniper when she was crying at her boyfriend Grover's trial with the Elder Satyrs, something even Percy finds odd at first. However, most of her sudden change in personality is due to the fact that she found the not she loved Chris Rodriguez in a state of madness. Percy sees another side of Clarisse for the first time. When she was talking to Percy about his quest to the labyrinth, Clarisse doesn't insult him. Instead, Clarisse warns him to just kill Daedalus when they find him instead of recruiting him because she believes the man has no honor.
During The Last Olympian, Clarisse finally expresses that, after all these years, she believes no one ever respected her or her siblings due to being the children of a war god. This was also one of the reasons why she did not want to participate in the Battle of Manhattan, both out of lack of respect and her own stubbornness. However, after her friend Silena was killed by a Drakon, Clarisse chose to fight after all to avenge her fallen friend and successfully slays the beast. It did her father proud, as Ares called her his favorite daughter and her killing off the Drakon was the best battle he had ever seen in a long time. She is also (inadvertently) the person who is responsible for Percy and Annabeth to get together at the end of the series. In the last moments of the fifth novel, Clarisse and other campers dump them both in the lake (but this prank is purely mischievous more than out of malice). After being tossed in the lake, Percy and Annabeth share a deep and passionate kiss underwater, their first official kiss as a couple.
She is, overall, a very charismatic leader that even Percy feels inspires a great sense of loyalty towards her
Percy Jackson and the Olympians[]
The Lightning Thief[]
Clarisse is known as a bully at Camp Half-Blood. She is a well-trained camper and this can be a bad thing, depending on whose side she's on. When Percy Jackson first arrives at camp and is being shown around by Annabeth Chase, she mocks the two. She tries dunking Percy's head in a toilet, but this backfires when Percy unknowingly uses his water powers to shoot the water back at her, blasting her and her friends out of the bathroom. It is known that she and her gang dunks everyone's head in a toilet as an initiation, although it is not seen whenever a new camper comes. She shows mastery at using her favorite weapon, an electric spear that was given to her by her father, Ares. Percy manages to break it, making Clarisse hate him even more. The spear is eventually replaced with one called Maimer, but everyone else (including her own cabin mates) nicknamed it Lamer behind her back. While on a quest, Percy has to retrieve Hades' Helm of Darkness and wins a fight against Ares, making all the Ares kids hate him.
The Sea of Monsters[]
Clarisse goes on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Sea of Monsters. On the way there she rescues Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson from the Hydra and takes them aboard a ship named CSS Birmingham to which she is the commander with undead Confederate soldiers as her workers. While sailing through the Sea of Monsters, they are separated by Charybdis and Scylla, and an explosion blew up the CSS Birmingham. Clarisse thinks everyone else is dead, and Annabeth and Percy think the same. Clarisse reaches the island of Polyphemus just before Percy and Annabeth but is captured.
Polyphemus takes away Clarisse's weapon, and ties her up over boiling water. Clarisse yells at him to release her and fight, and reveals that Polyphemus' bride is actually Grover Underwood who is trying his best to keep himself alive. Angry, Polyphemus declares that Grover would be the meal, and Clarisse would be the bride, much to her horror. The Cyclops imprisons Grover and Clarisse in a cave, but Percy and Annabeth come to their rescue. After fleeing the cave, they all try to fight Polyphemus but fail. Tyson arrives and rescues his friends, retrieving the Golden Fleece in the process, but Clarisse's taunts at Polyphemus drives him to sink Percy's and Annabeth's ship, Queen Anne's Revenge.
With the help of Hippocampi, they escape the Sea of Monsters to Miami where Percy gives the Fleece and all the money they had left to Clarisse so she could get back to camp. She succeeded and, just as she set the Fleece over Thalia's tree, Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Chiron arrived. That night, the Fleece restored Thalia's Tree back to health and brings back Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, giving Kronos a second chance to control the prophecy.
The Titan's Curse[]
Clarisse is not at Camp Half-Blood because she is away on a secret scouting mission for Chiron, but has not been heard from and is considered M.I.A.
After Clarisse went on her quest in the Labyrinth, Clarisse stumbled upon Chris Rodriguez (who she had a crush on) , who was driven to insanity by the Ghost King Minos. She takes him back to Camp Half-Blood, determined to nurse him back to health.
Once Annabeth is retrieved, Clarisse tells the campers and Chiron that she has "bad news for everyone".
The Battle of the Labyrinth[]
Clarisse has become better friends with Annabeth (though still not with Percy), and they have been planning something to do with Clarisse's secret scouting mission the previous winter. She is seen holding back Juniper at Grover's trial with the Council of Cloven Elders.
The "bad news" referred to during the winter is revealed when Clarisse reports that Luke Castellan has been trying to get into camp through the Labyrinth.
Clarisse is unable to heal Chris Rodriguez, however, which brings her to tears, showing that she still has strong feelings for him. She hopes that Dionysus (who was trying to get the minor gods on the Olympus's side during the events of the Battle of Labrynith) would heal Chris as madness was Dionysus's specality . When Clarisse sees Percy, she asks that when he finds Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth, to kill him. "Because anybody who can make something like the Labyrinth, Percy? That person is evil. Plain evil."
Clarisse was seen by Percy Jackson in the Big House basement with Chris. When Percy describes how Clarisse acts toward Chris, it makes him believe she knew and loved Chris before he had swapped sides.
Dionysus later cures him of his madness, as madness is in his realm of control. Chris Rodriguez then began dating Clarisse, after showing interest in her.
The Demigod Files[]
The Stolen Chariot[]
Clarisse was given the task of looking after her father's chariot for the day. Her half-brothers, Phobos and Deimos stole it, and with the help of Percy she manages to get it back and return it to her father by sunset. This results in the two becoming friends, though they keep that fact to themselves, because they have a reputation of being rivals at camp.
Her interview foreshadows her dislike of Michael Yew, because of her arguments with him when he said that the Apollo Cabin was better just because they could use long-ranged weapons. She also states that she wishes to break his bow over his head.
The Last Olympian[]
The occupants of Ares' cabin and Apollo's cabin are fighting over a flying chariot because both cabins want it as their own. The Ares cabin had led the raid, and the Apollo cabin had captured the chariot. The Apollo cabin curses Clarisse's cabin mates so that they have to talk in rhyme.
At a war council, she tells the other head counselors that the Ares Cabin will not fight because they were disrespected. She sticks up for, and is good friends with Silena Beauregard, and is sympathetic when Charles Beckendorf dies. She is also vital in the final battle because Kronos had sent a drakon to attack the Heroes and it was foretold only a child of Ares could slay it
but the cabin had been duped into not helping, thanks to a spy in the camp. Finally they arrive when Silena dresses in Clarisse's armor and fools the cabin into joining the battle. After Silena is fatally wounded Clarisse charges the drakon without armor and brings the beast down, avenging her friend. She also cried when Silena died as she sacrificed her life and was a true hero .The deed also earned her the blessing of Ares and the respect of her father who said it was the best drakon slaying he had ever seen. Clarisse continued to battle with the horde of monsters until she was frozen by a Hyperborean Giant.
After the war ends in victory for the Olympians and demigods, Clarisse returned to camp. She and some campers eavesdrop on Percy and Annabeth, Clarisse and the campers gleefully interrupt them kissing and throw them into the canoe lake.
The Heroes of Olympus[]
Relationships[]
Annabeth Chase[]
At first, there was tension between Annabeth and Clarisse, significantly in The Lightning Thief when she is threatening to dunk Percy's head in the toilet. However, by The Battle of the Labyrinth Annabeth and Clarisse have become friends. After a sentence to commemorate a quest into the labyrinth is carried out, Clarisse is the one who vouches for Annabeth to be the leader of this quest.
In technical terms, Clarisse and Annabeth are cousins due to their parents, Ares and Athena being siblings.
Percy Jackson[]
At first, Clarisse developed hated for Percy, even threatening to give him a swirly on his first day at camp. It only got worse when he doused her with toilet water and shamed her father in battle. However, they still managed to become friends and allies when Percy helped Clarisse find her father's chariot and stop her Immortal Brothers. In the fourth book, Percy sees another side to Clarisse, finding it odd that she was comforting somebody. Despite this, Percy still sees her as a valuable and effective leader through her charisma and bravery. Technically speaking, Percy and Clarisse are first cousins once removed due to Percy and Ares being cousins through their fathers, Zeus and Poseidon (who are brothers.)
Trivia[]
- Clarisse's actions in The Last Olympian very much mirror the actions of Achilles in the Iliad.
- For some reason Clarice does not get along with her father's mortal sons Deimos and Phobos But there half-sister Piper does
