Apollo's Rebellion

She's been described as the impossible woman, the woman twice dead and the only mystery worth solving, but how much do we actually know about Clara Oswin Oswald? She's not your average girl with a cute face, a she's fast talking, no nonsense type of girl. There's a few things that I picked up about Clara from both Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen that could give us a few clues as to who she may just be.

Oswin, Victorian and Modern day Clara

When we first see her she's Oswin, a junior entertainment officer for the Star ship Alaska. She's playing the classic Habanera from Carmen on her crashed ship. The title of the song is L'amour est un oiseau rebelle which means Love is a Rebellious Bird. The song is all about how love is something that cannot be tamed and knows no law. Another line of the song is L'amour est enfant de Boheme which means Love is a gypsy's child. I only point this out because the first three times we see her, she is wearing red. This doesn't necessarily imply that she is a gypsy-gypsy, but, rather, a traveler someone who the Doctor will keep bumping into everywhere he goes. She exists in almost every time stream and keeps popping up wherever he is, sort of like a traveler. Also, if you think about it, the Doctor is also a sort of traveler because he doesn't have a home and lives in his transportation device.

A thing I also noticed with Clara is roses. In Asylum of the Daleks she is wearing a rose in her hair (also associated with gypsies) and in The Snowmen she works at the Rose and Crown pub. Some people's theory is that it has to do with Rose Tyler, but I think Moffat would be smarter than that. A red rose is a symbol of love and beauty, but it can also symbolise courage and respect. We know that Clara is very courageous and brave from our first two encounters with her. Firstly, in Asylum of the Daleks she helps the Doctor out and fights with all her strength to not kill him when she finds out she is a Dalek and in The Snowmen she deliberately goes against all orders given to her and follows the Doctor even though she doesn't know where exactly she is going. The rose is also the national flower of England, but I don't know how that helps. The fact that a rose keeps cropping up in the series could be a sort of sign to the viewers (like Bad Wolf) and that it has a bigger meaning in the grand scheme of things. That or Moffat just likes roses...

Rose in her hair, The Rose and Crown, the Doctor giving roses and roses on her headstone.

She has three names Clara Oswin Oswald. In Asylum of the Daleks she's just Oswin Oswald and in The Snowmen and The Bells of Saint John she's Clara Oswin Oswald. I don't know the meanings of the names give away anything, but Clara means bright, clear and famous, Oswin means God's friend and Oswald means God's power. Ignoring the famous part we could say that when the Doctor meets her in The Snowmen she's clear as in right in front of him and he can see her, whereas in Asylum of the Daleks he can't see her and he doesn't know what her human form looks like. which would explain why in Asylum of the Daleks the Clara is dropped from her name. The other two names Oswin and Oswald seem very religious, both referring to God. Oswin, meaning God's friend, could imply friend of the Doctor. In Series 6 we find that the Doctor goes have a bit of a god complex and we know that he is someone that people look up to in a way. He's saved galaxies and worlds and possibly to some he can been seen as a god. In a recent prequel or teaser the Doctor does refer to Clara as his friend. This doesn't imply that the Doctor is an actual god, just that he's seen as a god or godlike figure by others. Oswald means God's power which could also reiterate the fact that it's the Doctor's power. If we go with the theory that Clara is a trap for the Doctor we could also say that whoever is planting the trap (ie the Great Intelligence) also view themselves as a god or having the power of a god. Or it could be that I'm looking too much into this and it's just a bunch of random names that Moffat picked out, although with Moffat nothing is coincidence unless he forgets about it, then it's coincidence.

Lastly, her occupations. Clara is a barmaid and a governess, but I'm assuming that she was a temporary barmaid and is usually a full time governess judging by the way the family treated her when she came back. Oswin was a junior entertainment officer which, I'm assuming, is someone whose sole purpose on the ship is to entertain people which will account for her enjoyment of Carmen. The Clara in modern day London seems to be a nanny judging from this teaser from CultBox where a piece of dialogue is "You don't look like a nanny" I'm assuming this is said by the Doctor to Clara. So, in short, Oswin was a junior entertainment officer which is a sort of nanny (having make sure everyone is happy, no one's causing trouble), Victorian Clara was a governess which is basically a nanny and Modern day Clara is a nanny. This could mean that all the Claras are not only connected by their names and looks, but also by their personalities and occupations. They are, quite simply, the same person.

Some of the theories circulating are actually pretty good and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were true. My theory when I first saw Oswin in Asylum of the Daleks was that, when the planet exploded, fragments of her got scattered into pieces through all of space and time, but because she had erased the memory of the Daleks she too forgot who the Doctor was. This would explain why she doesn't know him in the Christmas special.  But, after watching the Christmas special, I think that theory may not be all that plausible. I think Clara has something to do with the Great Intelligence which I know made its first appearance in the classic series. I have not watched that episode yet, but I do know that the Great Intelligence from the Classic Series and the on from the Christmas special are linked and it has been confirmed by the official site that they are the same. I only say this because the snow seemed to correlate with Clara and the family she worked with, like when she met the Doctor and the snow started to feed off her thoughts and the fact that the governess before her drowned in the pond, how convenient. Maybe she is a trap for the Doctor, the perfect companion to lead him somewhere, although this may be along the same lines of the Series 5 finale where the Alliance created the perfect scenario for him. It could explain why she is so clever, brave and overall perfect. What if the Great Intelligence is feeding off the Doctor's thoughts just like the snow fed off the peoples? This is the theory that almost everyone thinks of because it seems to be the most plausible.

The one thing that I believe will play a big role the Clara/Oswin story is memory. "Run you clever boy and remember" is the line uttered by both Oswin and Clara as they are dying, but what is it that the Doctor has to remember? He is meant to remember "the girl who can"? Or is he meant to remember the adventure they went through? Or is it something bigger? Maybe he's meant to remember someone or something from his past and not only her. Is this Steven Moffat trying to tells us to remember something that we may have forgotten? Or is she just begging him to remember her because he was that special? Moffat plays a lot with the memory thing like when Amy's memories were played with by the crack in her wall and she had to bring back the Doctor by remembering him. The main villain in Series 6 where the Silence who you forget once you looked away from them. Memory is a big thing for a writer because you have to know what happen to each character and when certain things happen in order for the story to flow and have continuity. For a show like Doctor Who memory is a big thing, there's nothing worse than having a fan of the show pick up something that the writer should have known. If the show doesn't have a lasting continuity then the viewer will begin to get bored and give up on it completely.

Summing everything up, roses, red, nannys and something to do with memory. I wonder how much this links together. Clara is as much mystery to us as she is to the Doctor and only time will tell if our theories are true or not. Whatever or whoever Clara is, one thing is for sure, it's the fiftieth year which means everything is going to be big. Bring on March 30th (or 31st in my case) because it's going to be a fantastic second part to Series 7.