Ruegard

Ruegard is the femslash ship between Clarisse La Rue and Silena Beauregard from the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles fandom.

Canon
Clarisse and Silena became good friends in the last book, The Last Olympian, after Silena gave Clarisse boy advice. Clarisse was thankful for this and decided to become Silena's personal bodyguard, promising to protect her and stay by her side. Clarisse was a very rude and hot-tempered person, but she always spoke gently to Silena, which she never did with others.

When Silena's boyfriend, Charles Beckendorf, died, Clarisse was seen comforting Silena and saying that she was going to get her hot chocolate. Later, in the war meeting, Clarisse and Silena sit next to each other while Clarisse argues with another camper, saying that the only reason she had attended the meeting was to support Silena. She apologizes to Silena for arguing about stupid things, but refuses to apologize to anyone else. She then says that she and her siblings, the Ares Cabin, will not help with fighting in the war.

During the second half of the book, The Battle of Manhattan, Clarisse and her siblings still refuse to fight. Because of this, Silena steals Clarisse's armor and pretends to be her to lead her cabin into battle, as the Ares Cabin will only listen to Clarisse. Silena tries to fight a drakon, but gets poisoned; Clarisse arrives soon after, enraged and in grief from Silena getting hurt. She is so devastated that Clarisse goes into an unstoppable rage, in which she kills the drakon all on her own.

After the fight is over, Clarisse talks to a dying Silena and asks why she had pretended to be her. Silena responds that her cabin would only listen to Clarisse, and told her not to be angry at her siblings. Silena then admits that she was the spy working with Luke Castellan. She dies with her head in Clarisse's lap not long after, Clarisse grief-stricken and sobbing at this.

Clarisse says that Silena is a hero, and that Kronos would pay for what he did to her. At Silena's funeral, Clarisse helps burn her funeral shroud.

This ship parallels Patroclus and Achilles from Greek mythology, with Silena being Patroclus and Clarisse being Achilles. Both Achilles and Clarisse are callous and prideful toward others, but tender and gentle with one other person (Patroclus and Silena, respectively). They both refused to fight in a war for whatever reason, while Patroclus and Silena both wear the other's armor to fight in said war. When Patroclus dies, Achilles returns to the battlefield for the sole reason of avenging him, dragging his killer, Hector's, corpse by the heels behind his chariot. Clarisse does the same; joining the battle to avenge Silena, killing and dragging the drakon that had killed Silena behind her with her chariot.

It is because of this (very intentional) parallel that makes the ship so compelling and appealing to its shippers. Patroclus and Achilles are often interpreted as lovers, so it is not a far stretch to say that Ruegard could have worked out in canon, despite both Clarisse and Silena having other love interests.

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

- Clarisse talking about Silena after her death.

Fanon
Clarisse and Silena can often be interpreted as girlfriends, mostly because of their parallel to Patrochilles. Their personality and their dynamic is also interesting, as Silena is a kind, gentle daughter of the love goddess, while Clarisse is a quick-tempered and arrogant daughter of a war god. Despite their differences, they both show obvious care for one another.

This ship is quite popular in the fandom. With the release of the Heroes Of Olympus series it has recently been overshadowed some by new characters and new ships, but it still has its shippers and has some content with fanfiction and fanart alike. It is both Silena and Clarisse's second most popular ship. Though it currently has 72 works on Ao3, they are sadly only a background couple in most of them.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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