The Impossible Girl: Who IS Clara Oswin Oswald?!?

[Nightowl1701]

Now that we've had a chance to digest our Christmas dinner, and the bewildering revelations of "The Snowmen" - let the speculation begin! (Spoilers, Sweetie...)

Remember, the 50th Anniversary is less than a year away. And one thing we can be sure Clara is NOT - an ordinary human girl!

[Mr Light]

I think it's going to be something more vague and storytale. They talked about the universe owing the Doctor in this episode. I think it's just going to be that after all the tragedies the Doctor has suffered, the universe (not a specific entity) is finally throwing him a bone and giving him a Kenny. Anytime one dies, he can just pick up a replacement with the same personality from a different time period.

[Christopher]

Susan?! Good grief, she made out with the Doctor, and you're suggesting she's his granddaughter?! Eww.

And it doesn't make sense to assume she's just regenerated, because that's a completely different thing from what's going on here. Regeneration is one individual changing appearance and personality. This is multiple different women in multiple different eras having the same appearance and personality -- and even the same name, or nearly so. That seems like some kind of temporal echo or hiccup or something going on.

Remember how Captain Jack is "a fixed point in time" and thus immortal? Maybe Clara is something similar, but more of a recurring loop or resonance in time.

Here's a cockamamie idea I thought of which is probably bogus: The name "Clara" means "clear, bright" and "Oswald" means "divine ruler." Bright divine ruler = White Guardian? Could she be some sort of avatar of a cosmic force? Hey, if Moffat brought back the Great Intelligence...

[Samurai8472]

Clara's obviously a rassilon/omega/rani hybrid out to steal children's souls

[Australis]

I have no idea, but that's part of the fun

[Venardhi]

She is the overcomplicated story-arc for the next year or two that will be resolved with a mess of fanwank and/or dismissed with a TARDIS-load of nonsensical timey-wimey bullshit. I can overlook such things though, because she is goddamn adorable.

[Enterprise is Great]

I've no clue. She's insanely cute I know that for sure.

[Lonemagpie]

none of the above.

Can't be Susan or Romana (or Jenny) as they'd have regenerated, not just died and been mysteriously reincarnated elsewhere with no memory of their other self - which also pretty much rules out River, the Rani, any Time Lords...

Silent (or other enemy) secret weapon is most likely out of that list, but I doubt Moffat will just repeat himself like that. Sexy (i.e. the TARDIS) surely wouldn't have died from a fall.

Unintentional side-effect of Oswin's hacking into the Dalek net/TARDIS/etc... maybe.

[Nick Ryder]

If she was a Time Lady she would have regen'd but I think she could be a sort of 'evolution' of the Time Lords or a side race - her body can die, but she somehow seems to live parallel lives. It's confusing but hey maybe she's the Doctor's true 'soul mate' or something. Like the 'Universe' saying 'alright you're a 1000 time for you to actually get something cute to look at and settle down - repopulate Gallifray. Maybe shes' the universe's way of ensuring there's at least one Time Lord to carry on?

[Allyn Gibson]

Lonemagpie wrote:

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Unintentional side-effect of Oswin's hacking into the Dalek net/TARDIS/etc... maybe.

Possibly. Here's my theory, which I think is too complicated for Moffat (who tends to go with the simplest solution possible):

The Doctor gave up his protection against the Dalek nanoprobes on the Asylum. He may have been immune to them, but he still carried them, and possibly he left some here and there and everywhere throughout time and space. Left to their own devices, these rogue nanoprobes reshape a human into Oswin.

[Mr Light]

We've already seen three iterations of her, though. Dalek future. Victorian past. Present day. So where did the present day one come from?

[Gov Kodos]

She could be the series's Kenny, and have no explanation, just dies at the end of every episode and shows up later without being explained just to drive nutty theories. I am tired of companion mysteries like Amy/River now this.

[The Mirrorball Man]

I think she's a secret weapon of the Silence, because it will be quite heartbreaking to lose her like that.

[Guy Gardener]

C.O.O.

She's a time/space homing pigeon.

[Romulan_spy]

I think Clara is a normal human being from present day Earth who travels with the Doctor but then something happens and she gets cloned through time. Maybe the Tardis does it. The Clara in Asylum and The Snowmen were temporal clones. Since the Doctor is a time traveler, he met them first, leading him to go looking for the real Clara and taking her on as a companion which leads to her getting cloned through time. Thus the time loop is complete. Timey Whimey...