Theory:Claire Bennet

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The following fan theories are about Claire Bennet.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
Claire cannot age.	In Five Years Gone Claire does not look noticeably older than normal, despite being about 16 in 2006.	+ Aging is caused by tissue damage and degradation - if Claire's body heals all damage done to it she will presumably forever look the same as she does now. • Most likely, Claire did not look much older because the actress was not actually any older, and the makeup artists did the best they could. If this theory is true, Claire will most likely stop aging in about a decade, because right now she is still growing. - Peter looks slightly older in Five Years Gone despite having Claire's power, though as with Claire the time frame is too short to be certain. + This may be because unlike Claire, Peter does not possess regeneration as a core ability: it is only active for him either while Claire is nearby, or while he is consciously keeping it active. Likely, he would not find it necessary to keep it active constantly, and he may not have considered the anti-aging effects of the power. - Since Claire's power heals damage after it occurs, if it healed the effects of aging, it would reverse all of its effects, "resetting" Peter's age whenever he turned it on. It is very unlikely that he would go five years without activating regeneration. + Peter exploded, killed millions of people, and changed after this. This could be why he looks older: he stopped being innocent and became a serious man. - Claire's power is akin to Wolverine's healing ability in X-Men: it heals physical damage and slows cellular decay but does not stop it. Claire does age. For her aging to stop, the rate of cellular decay would have to be stopped altogether, and thus would make her almost invulnerable and immortal. + The comparison to Wolverine actually implies that she will at least age extremely slowly, as Wolverine is currently over 120 years old in marvel continuity yet appears to be no older than 40 (at most) and has the physical abilities of 'a man in his prime'. (Wolverine on the Marvel Directory) + This is also noted in Adam; he looks in his 30's or 40's, but he is supposed to be about 357 years old. - If Claire couldn't age, she would look like a baby. • From birth through late teens to early twenties a person is still growing, thus there is no cellular degradation. If there is no cellular degradation there is no need for her power to correct it, ergo she would age. + Adam stopped aging, but only once he had grown up. - Claire is not as grown up as Adam was yet. She is a teenager. + Claire doesn't exhibit regeneration (chronologically) until Six Months Ago. - Claire survived a fire as a child. + Noah took Claire out of the fire. + Takezo Kensei, who seems to possess the same regenerative ability as Claire, is confirmed to be alive and well after more than 300 years. - Logically speaking, she would age until she was an adult (as Adam obviously did), as her body is not degrading; it is merely growing. • Once she reaches the point when her body would naturally begin to degrade, she should cease physically aging. It is also worth noting that the aging process ceases after a certain amount of regeneration has occurred; Adam was hundreds of years old and thus used his powers countless times; Claire has only been using them since the events of Six Months Ago.
Claire's power shows a mythological theme in the inheritance of powers.	None.	+ Claire is the daughter of Nathan, whose gift is the power of flight, and Meredith, whose gift is the power of pyrokinesis. A mythological creature with both these attributes is the phoenix, which also has the power of rebirth, not unlike Claire's rapid cell regeneration. - This theory does not seem to generalize to all evolved humans. + This doesn't have to be an element of the show's mythos, but merely a literary insertion unique to Claire's character. Indeed, The Second Coming seems to indicate Claire is unique even among the special. - Claire believes Sylar was referring to her being the catalyst. + She must have been wrong, as Claire is not the catalyst in the new timeline, but Sylar not saying this should change the present day.
Adam Monroe is Claire's ancestor.	None.	+ There have been many instances in the series where evolved humans are spawned from evolved humans, and both Claire and Takezo Kensei possess the power of rapid cell regeneration (Lizards). + Adam had two sons with his Italian wife, Maria. Claire's biological father's last name, Petrelli, is Italian.
Claire can't be affected by the virus, like other characters.	Mohinder discusses the use of Claire's blood with the virus with Bob. (Truth and Consequences)	+ The virus supposedly attacks the person's nerves, but Claire's nerves would just regrow. + Claire's ability may require her brain, which the virus has not yet been shown to attack. - The virus has been shown to inhibit the abilities of superpowered individuals, so it is possible it may block Claire's healing ability. + Claire's blood can be used to cure the Neo-Shanti virus. - Mohinder states that Claire's blood reinforced his antibodies to cure the strain, thus implying that her powers wouldn't be enough on their own. + That statement, however, is hard to reconcile with reality, since rapid cellular regeneration should have no business altering extracellular proteins in the bloodstream. Therefore it can be assumed that RCR has an improved immune system as a side effect. It could possibly work like this: Claire's leukocytes can, upon "attacking" a pathogen, detect the effectiveness of a particular antibody and produce an improved design if necessary. This would mean that they would eventually develop the "best" antibodies without any external help. The decision to use Mohinder's antibodies with Claire's blood could have simply served for shortening the time needed for success, as they were already "almost good enough" to defeat the virus. - While her power would, uninhibited, be capable of repairing damage to any organs or tissues caused by a disease, it does not (necessarily) convey any improved ability of the body to detect or destroy pathogens. If the virus flies under the radar, so to speak, her body wouldn't know to fight it, and even if it was detected, she may not be able to naturally produce the proper antibodies. If the property which allows her blood to heal others is some sort of hormone, the virus could somehow block the production of the hormone (without actually damaging any cellular tissue), which would mean that the hormone in her blood could continue to work until "used up," at which point her power would seem to vanish. This could cause the damage done by the virus to be much slower to manifest, without constituting an immunity. Along with the full extent of cellular regeneration and any characteristics of the virus beyond its symptoms and the pool of potentially infected, Mohinder's antibodies (and how he has them) haven't been fully explained; if the term is a misnomer, which seems unlikely coming from a geneticist who one would expect to have more than a passing knowledge of biology, the "antibodies" could in fact be some sort of specialized cellular body.
Claire is unaffected by Maya's ability.	None.	+ Claire can come back from death. - It's unknown if it affects the brain, in that case, Claire could die.
Claire's sudden inability to feel pain is a psychosomatic response to Sylar's attack on her.	Claire appears to feel her hands burn when touching the side of the heated container in One of Us, One of Them.	+ Elle's ability got mucked up after Sylar tried to rip off her head. - She may be able to feel something burning, but her brain does not register it as pain. - Pain is our brain's way of telling us that we have a wound. Seeing as Claire's ability allows her wounds to heal instantly, it's entirely possible that her ability evolved so that she no longer needs to feel pain.
In One of Us, One of Them, Meredith did not actually burn much of the oxygen in the container, and Claire's suffering was simply in her head.	Meredith asks Claire if she has ever heard of waterboarding, and tells her it's a method of torture where a person isn't drowning, but the body tells the mind it is, and they think they're going to die.	+ Claire does not appear to begin suffocating until Meredith mentions the air must be getting thin in the container, and seems to cease suffocating when Meredith stops emotionally 'pushing' her. - In a BTE interview, the Rule of Ted and the chemstry of combustion were cited as reasons that Meredith was not affected by the lack of oxygen in the container. + Combustion requires an oxidant to burn, and so some oxygen would have had to be left in the container. - It is possible that Meredith's fire doesn't need an oxidant, since it is an ability, and therefore may not be subject to the known chemical and physical laws. + Meredith never actually says the air is getting thin in the container; she says she imagines it is. + Claire tells Meredith to stop it, and to 'turn it off', suggesting that it is a psychosomatic effect rather than an actual physical one. - Claire may have simply meant for Meredith to turn off her power. + If Claire was truly suffocating, it's likely her speech would be affected, but it wasn't. + Adam survived buried alive for quite some time; thus, people with rapid cellular regeneration may not need oxygen. - Adam died in the coffin countless times, but repeatedly resurrected.
Claire could be killed through the use of Bob's ability.	In the graphic novel The Golden Goose, Bob turns a human being into solid gold.	+ It is possible that if Claire's entire body was turned into gold her regeneration would be unable to change the molecular structure of her body back to normal.
Even though Claire has the healing ability, she can still be knocked out.	In The Butterfly Effect, Sylar is incapacitated due to Elle's electrical outburst. In I Am Become Death, Future Claire is down for a while after being punched by Peter. In Angels and Monsters, Sylar is able to render Peter unconscious by using telekinesis to throw Peter against a glass wall.	+ This would be possible as there would be no physical wounds to heal, meaning the knock out would just be the same as if it had been for a person without rapid cellular regeneration. + Claire can still die, even though she can heal (of course, she doesn't die permanently). She's susceptible to the same injuries as regular humans are, except without the consequence of injuries or permanent death. • Claire can supposedly die.
Claire never had the catalyst in the first place, because Hiro's and Claire's journey into the past was a predestination paradox.	The ripped formula in The Second Coming and the fact that Hiro ripped the formula during Dual suggests this.	+ There have been many other predestination paradoxes that have been seen, such as Hiro's attempts at saving Charlie. + Hiro going back and becoming Kensei was also a predestination paradox. + The past can not be changed. - That's not true, Future Peter changed the "past" (present) highly. + That was Future Peter's past. What he did in the present allowed his "present" (a possible future to what we see) to be the way it is. So his past was not changed. And the present time (as we see it) occurred as it would have. So the past can not be changed. + "The only future I've seen is the one created by you" - Angela, The Butterfly Effect. This implies that the past can't change. + Claire and Hiro were already there in Isaac's comic.
Claire has a talent for detecting danger that is not related to her ability.	She knows something isn't right at Homecoming.	+ She asks if she is in trouble for no logical reason in Cautionary Tales. She may have subconsciously known that something else was going on. • Female intuition?