Girl Genius - Recent Discussion

[Evelyn Adler]

Just for the record: Hasenpfeffer has not much to do with pepper (the word is just used in general for spices), but is a stew made of those parts of a hare or rabbit, that are not used for a roast; liver, kidneys, paws and such.

And YES! the Jägers are immune to the doom bell! 

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

Actually it probably gives them a little shiver of delight, fight coming!

[Lachlan_MacAuslander]

I have to read it all!!!! 10 years.....10 YEARS od a web comic???!!!
 

10 years of a multiple Hugo award-winning webcomic, thankyouverymuch.

And well worth the effort. 

[S.Sprocket]

Not to mention that original sketches from Girl Genius are featured in museum exhibits like the Steampunk Exhibit in Anaheim (see most recent brass goggles posting in the blog.)

Just an excellent body of work overall.

[OswaldBastable]

I avoided this topic......

I avoided looking it up on google....

I didn't want to know.........

But I DID it and NOW??

I have to read it all!!!! 10 years.....10 YEARS od a web comic???!!!
 

Damn you! DAMN YOU ALL!!!!!   

I found that about three and a half days in the office is enough time 

[timseeclay]

I had asked in a thread about what to read and in the mean time had started with this comic. I have never owned a comic book and at 32 years old think I may have missed out on something. It sure beats watching the news in the morning. I can't wait to catch up!

[Sgt.Whatshisname]

I avoided this topic......

I avoided looking it up on google....

I didn't want to know.........

But I DID it and NOW??

I have to read it all!!!! 10 years.....10 YEARS od a web comic???!!!
 

Damn you! DAMN YOU ALL!!!!!   

I found that about three and a half days in the office is enough time 

You were + or - , oh i don't know...30 Minutes maybe!!!!

It took me 3 1/2 days to catch up from page one.

now I have to finish a final draft paper for a grad class due on Monday.   ( shaking head,  3 1/2 days....oye!)

[OswaldBastable]

I avoided this topic......

I avoided looking it up on google....

I didn't want to know.........

But I DID it and NOW??

I have to read it all!!!! 10 years.....10 YEARS od a web comic???!!!
 

Damn you! DAMN YOU ALL!!!!!   

I found that about three and a half days in the office is enough time 

You were + or - , oh i don't know...30 Minutes maybe!!!!

It took me 3 1/2 days to catch up from page one.

now I have to finish a final draft paper for a grad class due on Monday.   ( shaking head,  3 1/2 days....oye!)

the bad thing is now you have to wait for each installment like the rest of us, it can take some getting use to

[Captain Shipton Bellinger]

So, ordinary Mechanicsburghers are also immune to the Doom Bell.

Unless there's something special about the Bakers' Guild..? 

[MistressMagpie]

So, ordinary Mechanicsburghers are also immune to the Doom Bell.

Unless there's something special about the Bakers' Guild..? 

Nah, I bet it's just a born-and-bred Heterodyne minion thing.

The natives are restless!

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

All the members of the bakers Guild are old enough to have previously have been exposed to the Doom Bell, which according to the Castle "the Minions will get used to it"

[Evelyn Adler]

So - now everyone will be convinced that the girl who made quite a show about herself being "the Heterodyne" and whom everyone saw entering the castle is the real deal...?

[Sgt.Whatshisname]

So catch me up here...theory wise, The heir was supposedly a boy, who died as a toddler, who would be about the same age as Agatha?

i may be a simpelton here but I'm smelling




So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. 

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

Agatha has an older brother who is supposed to have died named after the Baron as a friend of the family(there is a page showing his gravestone), no one knew about Agatha who appears to have been initially raised by her Uncle and later by Punch and Judy. Agatha's mother has acknowled her as her daughter and she has the peculiar Heterodyne abilty to 'heterodyne' to link music into her Spark.

Current theories are that the brother is alive and is Higgs, making him a non-spark Heterodyne (reason enough to fake his death) but doubts persist over the origins of Gil (who we have seen as a baby strapped to the Baron's back, as a baby, but no reference to a mother), and Tarvek has the look of Agatha's father to him and worked closely with Agatha's mother and survived (rare).

It is certainly possible that it is Leia (Agatha), Luke (Tarvek) and Han (Gil) but the Foglio's have kept this very fluid, we know Agatha and Gil will (eventually) get together, the winged trilobite is a symbol of their merged houses, and them being brother and sister, well.

The storyline is dependent upon Agatha being THE heir, which means her brother has to be dead, or not born with spark.

The choice is between Higgs and Tarvek and I favour the former. I suspect Zeetha and Gil are twins, Zeetha came from a hidden civilization which is a matriarchy, her father us known as "Chump" an obvious alias although it could also be Barry. A male heir would likely have been expelked with the father.

The last volume saw Zeetha and Higgs become romatically involved, and Higgs showing jaegarlike abilities of strength, speed, stamina without the Monsterism.

Only a Heterodyne can drink from the Dyne without becoming a Jaeger, it was the final test of the Castle, I believe administered by ....... Higgs!

I believe we are due a bit of exposition from the Foglio's   

[Prof. Michael Masters]

Mwahahaha Theories Abound but no one will know for sure till the Professor and Professora Foglio tell us what is what.

And just because its fun here is yet another mad theory to add to the stew pot!
Dont look if you dont want your mind BLOWN!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Higgs is  in fact ... ... BILL!

Thats right! The idea came to me after reading The Novel "AGATHA H AND THE  AIRSHIP CITY" which for those of you who havent read it is the first 3 chapters of the graphic novel written out in story form. Anyway the prologue of the novel takes place 16 years before the rest of the story and tells us a little bit about Bill and Barry. On the first page there is the following paragraph.

"The device quietly chirped. Suddenly Bill was at his side. Barry swallowed. Whatever deterioration was taking place in his brothers head, there was no effect upon his abilities. If anything, Bill was getting faster."

Deterioration is for something to get worse and so from a sparks standpoint one could infer that to mean no more spark, but if Bills physical attributes were getting better as his sparkyness lessened  it could indicate if Bill is in fact Higgs why Higgs is so darned tough.

For those who say why would Bill/higgs hide in the Barons army wouldnt he get noticed. As a low level soldier I dont think he would have to worry so much about being noticed by the upper brass.

Anyway just a theory.  Hope I didnt blow anyones brain too bad.

[Kryss LaBryn]

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. heh.

...A male heir would likely have been expelked with the father.

Actually, from the Baron's reaction in the hospital to Gil's question of why Zeetha would be wanting to kill him (Gil) ("Absolutely nothing!!") and his reply to Gil's "Father, what did you do?" ("I kept you alive.") I would suspect that Zeetha is probably Gil's sister. At the very least, I'd say that the Baron fathered Gil on one of the Skifrandians (probably someone important, but who knows) and that any male children are usually killed (especially if they're born to someone high-ranking; being a matriarchy surrounded by apparent patriarchies they might not want to leave a male heir that outsiders could potentially make use of in a take-over bid).

The Baron disappeared for around two years, and the baby on his back would be about the right age for him to have a brief relationship before fathering the child, for it to grow up long enough to be weaned and well onto solids (solids usually starting at about six months, but the child not usually being completely relying on them until about a year, give or take), and thus no longer requiring the mother or a wet nurse for nutrition.

That would give him a genetically pretty damned decent lineage and the best chance the Baron could to have him survive the inevitable chaos once the Baron died.

My money is on Gil being Zeetha's sister; cousin at the least.

Also, I can see (just) Higgs being Agatha's probably non-Sparky older brother (perhaps the child didn't die after all? Or was revived but therefore out of the line of succession? There's been quite a lot of fuss made over revivification taking one out of the line of succession in the last while, albeit with Tarvek but it would apply to a deceased-and-revived male Heterodyne heir too); but I can't quite see him being Barry, if only because it would probably involve time travel of some kind (Higgs seeming closer to Agatha's age than the Baron's). Now, I'm not entirely ruling time travel out (certainly DuPree seems to have had actual glimpses of some future), but the kicker for me is that he really doesn't look anything like Barry.

Hmm. Which reminds me: If Gil IS Zeetha's relation, wouldn't he have green hair too? Or perhaps it's a recessive trait and the Baron's genes overwrote it. Or perhaps it's a strictly female trait? Or perhaps it's a strictly ruling-family trait and Gil's mother was a second cousin or something? Ooh, so much fun to speculate! 

Personally, I really hope that Tarvek isn't Agatha's brother, if only because while I like him and Gil both, I slightly favour Agatha/Tarvek and agree with What'sername (don't have the time to look up which one it was who pointed it out to him) that Tarvek is politically the better choice.

But she obviously kissed Tarvek too at some point, in order to get infected with the nicely chromatic illness...

So I guess my money's on Gil and Zeetha being related, Higgs being a lost non-Sparky Heterodyne heir (and probably Agatha's big brother), and I just hope that Tarvek isn't actually related to her. But that winged trilobite doesn't bode well for my preferred ship, does it? Oh well, time will tell. Several years' worth of time, at this rate but it'll be a fun ride in the meantime, at least!!

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

Zeethra wasn't sent to kill Gil, her arrival in Europa was an accident, but the Baron doesnt know this. The Baron won't have died offstage, so the Four and a bit year wait for this exposition from him might nearly be over (give or take a year or two). Hopefully before Cambridge next year! Otherwise I will have to introduce them to Crabbies and wheedle plot lines out if them whilst drunk.

This would provide a symetry,  two pairs of long lost siblings pairing up, poor Tarvek. Unless... It has been intimated that in the future Agatha and Gil have a daughter, herself a Heterodyne Heir, perhaps the one to marry the Storm King and unite Europa. If so Moffat may have shot the Foglios fox.

[Kryss LaBryn]

You know, just rereading it with my son and noticed something. Axel Higgs. Agatha Heterodyne.

Same initials.

Coincidence..?

[Sgt.Whatshisname]

You know, just rereading it with my son and noticed something. Axel Higgs. Agatha Heterodyne.

Same initials.

Coincidence..?

I'm an idiot,  double facepalm to me!

[Kryss LaBryn]

Heh. Well, it could easily just be a total coincidence at that! I suppose we'll find out eventually.

Hmm. One question has been answered, though: If the Jagergirls put on a fake Jager accent but can still talk normally when they aren't putting on an act for the tourists, then it isn't the teeth that are causing the Jager accent.

For that one, I like the theory that says it's the Mechanicsburg accent of two or three hundred years ago, and it's just lingering in the speech of the Jagers. Buuut... Dammit, the three generals have that accent too, and some of them are considerably older than simply 2-300, aren't they? So if it's the native Mechanicburg accent then why would it hold steady for so long, only to fade away relatively recently..? Perhaps when the Baron took over enough outsiders settled in Mechanicsburg to dilute the accent of the younger generations. But then, if that's so, then why doesn't the Senechal have it? I can see Van being young enough to have his accent influenced by fallout from the Baron's takeover, what, 20 years ago? But then the older generation would still have it. Hell, I was asked once where I was from because of my accent, in my home town (English mum, German dad, Southern US babysitter). So even if the younger generation had enough outsiders to influence the accent locally, they'd still be picking it up from everyone older than them in hte town. And it doesn't seem like there's so many non-Mechanicsburg civillians that they'd be diluting the local accent, especially if the Senechal said they were such an insular population that fooling the Baron was a popular passtime.

Aargh. I guess all that can be said for now is that the teeth probably aren't responsible for the accent in and of themselves.

SO much fun to speculate, though, even if it is a bit trying at times. Good exercise for the logic centres, though! 

[Darkhound]

The accent hasn't faded completely. Older, lower class Mechanicsburgers still talk like that, especially when upset. It's probably been schooled out of the upper classes for a long time, and as free schooling spreads, regional accents tend to fade.

The Jägers are a special case though. They do have a natural Old Mechanicsburg accent, but they also have sharp fangs and throats reinforced to the point that three days hanging on a gibbet is an inconvenience. It is also part of their second oldest tradition. They cultivate and maintain their accent as part of their Clown Act!

[MistressMagpie]

Gehehehe. There are no Wulfenbach soldiers there... Just Heterodyne ones. What happens when the Wulfenbach heir leads an army of Heterodyne-sworn Jaegers into the battle?


Bwahahaha!

[Arkwright]

Gil is not affected by the Doom Bell!

Does that mean he is the other Heterodyne?

Could it be that Bill and Barry split up to hide the two heirs and that the Baron stole Gil from where he was being guarded?

Besides - what exactly is the relationship between the Baron and the Heterodyne clan anyway? Was he related? He has hinted to a connection with the Storm King, what if their is even more? And why is he covered in stitches, like hes been put together from lots of bits?

So many possibilities - I'm lost in a forest of epileptic trees. Mind you, in a Europa that has talking cats, thats probably normal...

[Captain Shipton Bellinger]

Gil is not affected by the Doom Bell!

Does that mean he is the other Heterodyne?

Well, Mamma Gkika seems to think that it marks his status as the Lady Heterodyne's Consort as official...

[Evelyn Adler]

Well, it certainly marks young Gil as... something.
Chosen. In what way, we're about to see.
The possibilities are mind-boggling!