Clarisse La Rue

"She was a hero, understand? A hero."

- Clarisse

Clarisse La Rue is a demigod, daughter of Ares, the god of war. She is hot-tempered, arrogant, big, tall, and strong like most of her siblings. She is also known as the bully that dunks new campers' heads in toilets.

She was a good friend of Silena Beauregard. She is the current girlfriend of Chris Rodriguez.

The Lightning Thief
"Annabeth: Meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares.

Percy: Like ... the war god?

Clarisse: You got a problem with that?"

- Annabeth introduces Clarisse to Percy

She is known as a bully in Camp Half-Blood in The Lightning Thief. Clarisse is a well-trained camper, which can be a bad thing depending on whose side she's on. When Percy first arrives at camp and Annabeth is showing him around, she mocks him and Annabeth (calling Annabeth princess) and teases them. She also tries to dunk Percy's head in the toilet. This backfires because Percy uses his water powers to shoot the water back at her and blast her and her pals out of the bathroom. It is known that she and her gang dunks everyone's head in the toilet as an initiation. She shows mastery at using her favorite weapon, an electric spear that was given to her by her father, Ares which Percy manages to break, making Clarisse hate Percy even more. The spear is called Maimer, but everyone else (including her cabinmates) nicknamed it Lamer. At the end of the book at a beach in Los Angeles, Percy has to retrieve Hades's helm of darkness and wins a fight against Ares, making all the Ares kids hate him.

The Sea of Monsters
In 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 some undead Confederate soldiers as her workers. While sailing through the Sea of Monsters, they are separated by Charybdis and Scylla, and an explosion that blew up the CSS Birmingham. Clarisse thinks everyone else is dead, and Annabeth and Percy think the same. They reach the island of Polyphemus around the same time.

Polyphemus takes away Clarisse's weapon, and ties her up over boiling water. Clarisse yells at him to release her and fight, revealing that Polyphemus's bride is actually Grover 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 the Fleece restored Thalia's Tree back to health and brings back Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.

The Titan's Curse
Clarisse is not at camp at the begining of The Titan's Curse, and a member of the Ares cabin tells Percy that she is away on a secret scouting mission for Chiron (into the Labyrinth), but has not been heard from and he considers her M.I.A. Interestingly, she is said to have blonde hair in this book.

The Battle of the Labyrinth
In 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. It is also revealed she comes from Phoenix, Arizona.

She returns from her quest and reports that Luke has been trying to get into camp through the Labyrinth.

During her quest, she finds a fellow half-blood, Chris Rodriguez, who was driven to insanity by Minos. She takes him back to Camp Half-Blood and tries to nurse him back to health and cries often because of Chris's condition, which shows she has strong feelings for him. When she sees Percy she asks if 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." She was seen by Percy Jackson in the Big House basement with Chris when Percy describes how Clarisse acts toward Chris makes Percy believe she knew him before he swapped sides. Mr. D is able to reverse the insanity and the two are seen together, happy and holding hands at the campfire while singing camp songs (albeit, attempting to hold hands secretly; attempting being the operative word).

The Demigod Files
In the short story The Stolen Chariot Clarisse was given the task of looking after her father's (Ares) chariot for the day. Her half-brothers, minor gods, Phobos and Deimos have stolen it; with the help of Percy she managed 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. ("Percy?" "Yeah?" "When you, uh, had that vision about your friends-" "You were one of them. Just don't tell anyone, okay? Or I'd have to kill you.")

Her interview foreshadows her dislike of Michael Yew.

The Last Olympian
"I AM CLARISSE, DRAKON SLAYER!!! I will kill you ALL!!!"

- Clarisse

In 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 cabinmates 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 (in a parallel of the Illiad). After Silena is fatally wounded Clarisse charges the Drakon and brings the beast down, avenging her friend. 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. After the war ends in victory for the Olympians and Half-bloods, Clarisse returned to camp, where she led a group of other campers to play a practical joke on Percy and Annabeth, throwing them into the lake after they were caught kissing.

The Lost Hero
Clarisse is mentioned during the Lost Hero when one camper comments on how Jason Grace's weapon is better than Clarisse's. Clarisse also took part in the council meeting at the end of the book, when Chiron reveals the truth about the Roman Camp Half-Blood. She mentions that the brutal philosphy of the Romans makes sense to her (as Ares is the god of war his children like violence).

Relationships

 * Percy Jackson
 * Although it may not seem like it at first glance, Percy and Clarisse are on good terms. Their relationship did not start out well with her 'initiation' and the subsequent capture the flag game ending with them both holding a grudge, Percy due to her attitude and Clarisse because of the damage done to her reputation. When Percy wounded her father, Ares, it gave her a reason to hate him. In The Sea of Monsters, they had come to understand each other more, even being able to work together with little argument. Over the course of the next three books (plus demigod files) they grow from an unfriendly relationship to considering each other invaluable friends and allies.


 * Chris Rodriguez
 * Clarisse found Chris after he was driven insane in the Labyrinth. She tried to nurse him back to health but nothing helped. Clarisse was gentle and affectionate while trying to help him and when Dionysus cured Chris of his madness, Clarisse and Chris started dating.


 * Silena Beauregard
 * Clarisse became Silena's personal bodyguard and friend in The Last Olympian after the daughter of Aphrodite gave her advice about boyfriends. She was seen comforting Silena after her boyfriend, Charles Beckendorf died. Silena's death sent a grief-stricken Clarisse into an unstoppable rage, through which she wasable to defeat the drakon and gain the blessing of Ares.


 * Ares
 * Clarisse is very frightened of her father Ares. When she is given a quest to find the Golden Fleece, she shown to be scared of her father's harsh nature. Ares seems to favor his sons rather than his daughters, given that he told Clarisse that one of his sons should have gotten the quest, and only his sons ever drove his chariot (with Clarisse being the first girl in a long time). However, Clarisse made her father proud when she single-handedly fought and destroyed a gigantic drakon and gave her his blessing in battle.

At first she and Annabeth were enemies, but in The Battle of the Labyrinth they became friends.
 * Annabeth Chase

Appearance
Clarisse is described as a big, tall girl with long, stringy brown hair, pig-like brown eyes and strong looking. Percy also described Clarisse, along with the rest of the Ares Cabin to have the same sneer as their father, Ares. As time passes, Clarisse appears to have her hair unevenly cut and Percy notes that she looks buffer.

Personality
She is hot-tempered, arrogant, brave and strong like most of her siblings. She is also known as a bully that dunks new campers' heads in toilets. In The Battle of the Labyrinth she shows strong feelings for Chris Rodriguez and shows her kind and caring side, who becomes her boyfriend. Clarisse is very proud and defensive of her cabin. She is also defensive and very protective of her good friend Silena Beauregard after she gave Clarisse some dating advice. Her anger toward Percy increased after he defeated her father. During The Last Olympian, she is angered at the camp for never respecting the Ares Cabin. Her pride even prevented her from allowing her cabin from fighting in the war until Silena's intervention. She is similar to Achilles in that her pride sometimes gets in the way of her good sense.

Power & Abilities

 * ADHD: Like all demigods, Clarisse possesses inborn supernatural battle reflexes and senses that she uses to analyze the fighting style of her opponent.
 * Fighting Skills: Clarisse has been trained in hand-to-hand combat during her stays at Camp Half-Blood. Clarisse is one of Camp Half-Blood's best warriors.
 * Dyslexia: since her brain is hard-wired for reading Ancient Greek instead of modern languages.

Demigod Powers

 * Physically Enhanced: She is very strong and swift.


 * Warfare: Clarisse may have some small degree of powers that Ares himself possesses.


 * Weapon Expert: Being a child of Ares would make her an expert in all weapon usage and may even have some degree of magical control over them (ex. she turned one of the Apollo cabin's arrows to rubber).


 * Nigh-Invulnerable: In The Last Olympian, Clarisse received the blessing of Ares, which made her near invincible for a time.

Weapons/Magical Items

 * A spear that can create electricity. It was destroyed by Percy in a game of Capture the Flag in The Lightning Thief.
 * A second electric spear called Maimer (nicknamed Lamer by her cabinmates and the other campers) that was also destroyed when she used it to kill a Drakon in The Last Olympian.
 * Armor that was painted red (Possibly to symbolize blood) and a boar-shaped helm.
 * A sword of one of her deceased siblings (presumably a brother)
 * A knife that is strapped to her leg.
 * She can pray to her father for aid--usually in the form of weapons or minions, as Ares is the god of war. She uses this for an ironclad warship courtesy of her father, Ares (destroyed by Charybdis on her quest for the Golden Fleece).
 * On occasion a chariot that belongs to her father that she may borrow. It may change form (motorcycle, tank, convertible, etc.)
 * Expert control over all weapons (see "Power/Abilities").

Film
Oddly, although Clarisse is considered a lead character in the series, along with making her first appearance in The Lightning Thief, she was not included in the film adaptation. The sequel has been announced in the weekly subscription online magazine Production Weekly. It is unknown if she will make an appearance.

Trivia

 * Her friendship between her and Silena Beauregard may be a reference to the not-so-secret infidelity between Ares and Aphrodite.
 * Clarisse's first name is like Annabeth Chase's first name - Annabeth is an anagram of Athena with extra letters and Clarisse is a anagram of Ares with extra letters.
 * Her last name La Rue means "the road", or "to regret".
 * Clarisse's weapon — Maimer — was destroyed in The Last Olympian yet in The Lost Hero, one camper comments on its inferiority to Jason's weapon. It is possible that after the first was destroyed, she acquired a second Maimer.
 * She is one of the few head counselors to have not died since The Lightning Thief (besides Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase).