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Worlds and Stories => Worlds & Stories Discussion Board => Topic started by: thorny on November 24, 2021, 07:35:42 PM

Title: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on November 24, 2021, 07:35:42 PM

OK, as apparently requested, here's a thread for discussion of Girl Genius, presented as Comic of the Month for November 2021 by Róisín, though the first post was made by Jitter.

Warning: this thread may include open spoilers up to and including the current page. (And there's a vety great deal to catch up on, if you're starting from scratch.)

First post on this in the Comic of the Month thread, if I've done this right, is here:
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1237.msg186080#msg186080
and there are a number of posts in that thread on the subject continuing through at least most of November.

Link direct to the comic start page for new readers should be here:
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/index.php

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on November 24, 2021, 11:21:48 PM

Thank you for that, thorny. And to Jitter for helping me with links.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 02, 2021, 03:45:51 PM

Hey, I’m up to date!

Having read up to here, I think some of my favorite are the ways the characters grow to be friends. Particularly Gil and Tarvek, but also Agatha, Zeetha and Violetta. Or well, the girls don’t really grow but rather seem to click instantly into a friendship, but Gil and Tarvek’s arc gives me joy. I would love to see Agatha actually marrying both of the boys, but I don’t really think it will get that far :)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on December 02, 2021, 03:50:15 PM

Marrying both of them is definitely my headcanon!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 02, 2021, 04:33:14 PM

Mine too. Unfair to everybody to make her choose -- and doesn't the Heterodyne get to set the rules?

-- IIRC Agatha and Zeetha were a bit rocky at the start. And Agatha was not happy at all about all that training until the day it first saved her life -- somewhere in the early part of the castle sequences, I think it was, I remember her dodging somebody's attack and making it to cover just in time and once under cover repeating "Thank you, Zeetha! Thank you, Zeetha!" over and over.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on December 04, 2021, 10:27:31 PM

I too like the maturing friendship between Gil and Tarvek. If I remember correctly, they were childhood friends who met when they were both on the airship city, when Gil was incognito among the other students/hostages, became estranged, then met again when both were students in Paris, where the impulse to be friends was still there but each thought the other was a fool. Heh, they were spark teenagers. Now they are coming to appreciate one another as adults.

And I found it interesting that when Zeetha turns up in the story the first thing Klaus assumes is that she is there to kill either himself, Gil or both. Whereas from Zeetha’s own point of view she is simply lost. Klaus assuming that makes my guess that he is her father seem more likely.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on December 05, 2021, 02:58:26 AM

Quote from: Róisín on December 02, 2021, 03:50:15 PM

Marrying both of them is definitely my headcanon!

Der Kestel certainly assumes so, too. The just-barely-sfw extra art of Agatha reclining as her two scantily clad himbos serve her (drat, no time to look it up for a linkee just now) reinforces that the Foglios are letting that headcanon stay out there.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 08, 2021, 04:30:41 PM

Have you noticed how interesting the globe map is here: https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20180716#.YbEdGYFHmhC

That’s Atlantis in the middle, isn’t it? But in addition to that, there are two locations on the Greenland landmass and a few on islands that are not notable population centers in our world. One could be the Azores, but those others in Atlantic?

The place where they are are at the moment, and where the one almost functioning mirror is located, is in an archipelago type area somewhere. Maybe what is left of that big Atlantis?

Also, what is the line crossing the Atlantic?

I think I saw another globe map somewhere but I can’t find it now.

Edit: found it https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190327#.YbEotoFHmh This map is completely alien. Then again, the person is properly insane so maybe it just indicates that he has lost it.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on December 09, 2021, 08:36:07 AM

Thank you for the globe map, both for itself and because it lead me to a part of the comic which I had missed at the time and am delighted to find. I can only assume, given the dates, that it was put up during a part of life that was far too busy and chaotic to allow for anything so frivolous as reading comics for a few months, and with which I had never a chance to catch up.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 13, 2021, 06:45:48 AM

Yeah, ok, I did not see that coming! Wherever it is they are, it is an interesting area, to say the least!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 13, 2021, 09:35:01 AM

Do you mean current page?

Whatever they are, they don't look happy. And if those red spots aren't normal, I wouldn't expect them to be happy.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 13, 2021, 01:26:33 PM

Yes, the page for today 13th Dec 2021. Angry somethings appear. Dangerous waters!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 15, 2021, 06:00:58 AM

Yeah so the angry somethings are even more unlikely that it appeared at first thought. What are these, aqua-jägers?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 15, 2021, 05:18:31 PM

Are the larger ones covered with bleeding sores, or are they like that normally?

(did I just write "normally" to describe these things?)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on December 15, 2021, 05:33:41 PM

Quote from: thorny on December 15, 2021, 05:18:31 PM

Are the larger ones covered with bleeding sores, or are they like that normally?

... both?

Quote from: thorny on December 15, 2021, 05:18:31 PM

(did I just write "normally" to describe these things?)

Anything that doesn't have steampunk artificial body parts qualifies as perfectly normal in this storyverse.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 15, 2021, 06:19:04 PM

Actually, I think those that do have steampunk artificial body parts also qualify as perfectly normal in this storyverse.

But good point.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 17, 2021, 05:38:45 PM

That has got to be Prende's Lantern.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 17, 2021, 06:47:39 PM

Yes! And it is probably also the cause for the “apparitions” in the very early part!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on December 18, 2021, 02:46:27 AM

Weeeelp.
In unrelated news, Rakethorn character design has morphed a wee bit - I keep mistaking him for the late lamented Wooster.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 18, 2021, 05:38:37 AM

Wave, same here. He looks too much like Wooster to my liking. What is the point of killing one character if you are going to bring in exactly the same character with a different name?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 20, 2021, 09:41:06 PM

Is that lantern directional?

In the first panel, it looks like it's shining towards Rakethorn and the sea monsters; but not shining behind Madwa. And in the fourth, not only does it look like it's shining only towards and past Rakethorn, but it looks like it's shielded on the back, and Madwa's behind the shield. So if she turns to shine it on Violetta, does that mean Rakethorn and the monsters may be able to move?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 22, 2021, 02:07:40 AM

Thorny, you were right! I thought the directionality is just style choice, so that the holder is outside of the effect which otherwise surrounds them, or perhaps the other way around i.e. that the holder is the only one who is effected and steps outside of time. But it is actually the light that does the trick.

Well done Violetta for playing with it to get to hear some interesting things!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on December 22, 2021, 03:27:29 AM

Extra kudos to thorny for noticing! Violetta is a good one to be the keeper of the lamp - she doesn't want anything from it or its powers.
Although I was wondering if our time-travelling friend (blast, forgot the name, the pink one who gives Tarvek a case of the giggles) was going to emerge along with the 'monsters of the deep'.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 22, 2021, 07:46:23 AM

I guessed the wrong way around, though -- I didn't realize Violetta was outside the light, I thought she'd heard Violetta and turned the lantern on her but while doing so might have turned it away from Rakethorn.

ETA: Violetta's really good.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: lumilaulu on December 22, 2021, 04:15:34 PM

Violetta's been one of my favourites for ages. Always nice to have it confirmed once more.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on December 22, 2021, 07:51:54 PM

Yeah, I like Violetta. Practical, quiet, and just gets on with the job. Also very protective of Tarvek and Agatha.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 23, 2021, 10:28:34 AM

She's bedrock loyal to Tarvek and Agatha.

And had been convinced, as a side effect of Tarvek's trying to protect her from the notice of other members of their family, that she was bad at being a Smoke Knight. Which we repeatedly get shown isn't true. (Though Madwa may well have been convinced of it -- note the "little Violetta" -- which may be one reason why this trick worked.)

(Tarvek may indeed be a weasel. But he's himself a genuinely loyal weasel, and his protection of Violetta's one of the things which shows it.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 29, 2021, 01:56:58 PM

Looks like those red spots may indeed be a sign of something wrong with the health of those creatures.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 31, 2021, 06:05:01 PM

Well, where Madwa is, is dead.

Do the others have any way of knowing that? And, if so, would knowing it lead them to clear out?

And who does important lab work in a room with stuff dangling from the ceiling which might fall down into the work at any moment? Wouldn't they have had minions knock the loose stuff down and sweep it out of the way first? Or is that supposed to be damage done by the explosives that opened the door -- which, come to think of it, might also have led everybody to vacate the lab?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 31, 2021, 07:14:40 PM

If the Mirror is fixed in place it may be the only place they could do the work?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 31, 2021, 07:57:53 PM

Very likely; but couldn't they have knocked the loose stuff down before setting up?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 03, 2022, 03:42:59 PM

Quote from: thorny on December 31, 2021, 06:05:01 PM

Well, where Madwa is, is dead.

Do the others have any way of knowing that?

One question answered, anyway. Apparently not.

(At least, presuming she's not alive after all.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on January 03, 2022, 04:22:53 PM

What is the glowy stuff? Energy source for the mirror?? Now I’m confused.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: lumilaulu on January 03, 2022, 05:38:23 PM

Could it be the same glowing river Castle and Train discovered?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 03, 2022, 06:36:08 PM

Looks to me like Dyne water.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091030
and the following couple of pages.

What it's doing there, if that's what it is, I don't know. Maybe it's far underground in a number of places, and only accessible in a few?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: lumilaulu on January 03, 2022, 07:04:26 PM

How on earth did you remember something from over a decade ago? Please tell me you only started reading it recently, or even better, that there's a good Girl Genius wiki out there somewhere. Especially one with an up-to-date cast page (... pages. Many.) Oh, and a story recap.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on January 03, 2022, 08:58:11 PM

It does look rather like Dyne water, doesn’t it? And being part of what makes the Heterodynes what they have become, it is hard to forget. I do wonder whether it is a component of Jagerdraught, which would explain much about them. Dunno if that was ever mentioned in the story?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 03, 2022, 09:23:01 PM

I started reading it some years ago but not when it first started, so it's been less than 10 years. I've re-read bits of it from time to time; and there have been occasional references to Dyne water later than the section I linked to.

I had to hunt for that first reference for a while; but I knew it had to be somewhere in the sequence between when Agatha first entered the Castle and when it got frozen in time; and not really late in the sequence, because she discovered that power source before she discovered how to finish powering the Castle.

If you scroll down to near the bottom of the Girl Genius pages, there's a white box with the name of the page in it. If you click on that, you can scroll through all the pages by volume and name. (Well, almost all -- it seems to stop in early November 2021. Maybe it'll catch up eventually.) The names are fairly cryptic descriptions of what's in the page, but they do give some idea, and when you don't recognize the pages you're after by their names you can probably get some idea of where you are in the story if you read through a few of them.

Quote from: Róisín on January 03, 2022, 08:58:11 PM

It does look rather like Dyne water, doesn’t it? And being part of what makes the Heterodynes what they have become, it is hard to forget. I do wonder whether it is a component of Jagerdraught, which would explain much about them. Dunno if that was ever mentioned in the story?

On the page right after the one I linked, it says it is indeed one of the ingredients of Jagerdraught. I wonder if the rest of the ingredients aren't things intended to improve the chances of survival.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on January 15, 2022, 08:41:37 PM

Yeah, it is Dyne water! Good catch!

This water doesn’t seem to work as proper Jägerdraught however. Those sores look exactly like the ones on the sea monsters. I wonder whether the river is contaminating the sea, or if there is some source of contamination affecting both the river and the sea.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on January 17, 2022, 03:01:58 AM

I recently had reason to research the draught. *sigh* It's on the WIP pile, is all I can say.

I'm still cackling over the Castle's definition of traveling.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 17, 2022, 09:34:36 AM

WIP? Work In Progress, maybe?

I'm trying to figure out what Bang blew up. The door was already blasted open.

-- and yes, the Castle had a very good line there.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 04, 2022, 06:07:13 PM

Skifander!

-- but is it Skifander sometime, but not too long, after Zeetha left, as Zeetha seems to be expecting?

Or is it Skifander sometime in the distant past, or in the future? -- though it does seem to have a popular place where Zeetha expects to find one.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on February 04, 2022, 06:17:07 PM

I was wondering the same. How long has it been since she left home? 10 years or so?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 04, 2022, 11:01:23 PM

I'm not sure. I did get the impression that it's been at least several years; but she appeared to be a young adult when she was chosen to leave Skifander, and appears to be a young adult now -- but I don't know how people from Skifander age.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on February 05, 2022, 09:06:45 AM

I looked it up, in her story it says “a few years ago”.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 07, 2022, 02:52:30 AM

Wait no! don't lose Skifander yet! But a new week beckons.

Ohohohooo, an evil organ.
Maybe it isn't strictly evil, if Lucrezia's incarnation does not approve of it. But look at it, that thing is evil. And the bench is a crate? Tsk, sparks. The bench also needs embellishment. Steam-assisted lift at the very least?
I know who I'd like to see playing it, though. Young Miss Clay has neglected her music studies of late, not even humming any more.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on February 11, 2022, 03:26:19 AM

My bet would be that those ‘effluvia’ might just be about to be harnessed with music in an attempt to make a Queen? And remember Agatha with redesigning and repairing the circus organ? And that one of the things Judy did to make a living while being ‘Lilith Clay’ was give piano lessons…….?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 11, 2022, 09:17:49 AM

And the Heterodyne does so with music --

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on February 11, 2022, 06:06:17 PM

Lucrezia is in a clank body, right? I hope the waters don’t work with that!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 11, 2022, 06:42:45 PM

Good point, Jitter! Yes, I think that particular body's a clank. -- I've lost track of whether that's the only body she's got right now. If she's only got one, I doubt she'd risk it to any form of Dyne water until she's got herself into a spare.But she doesn't seem to hesitate to risk bodies when she does have a spare.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on February 11, 2022, 08:20:24 PM

I seem to recall there are supposed to be more, or a master copy, in the other world or dimension she disappeared into. But the remote body/bodies don’t have any direct data link to it so that when a body dies, the entity loses all knowledge that body had not shared with the others.

The Train and the portable Castle are working on the Flame that is mentioned here, aren’t they?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 12, 2022, 10:17:00 PM

I think not even Lucrezia herself has knowledge of where all her copies are, if the exchange between Zola and hospital!clank!Lu is to be believed.
I also don't think the copy that was finally expunged from Agatha had any oversight on the others, based on her tantrum about nobody coming for her. (Um, Lucrezia, the Knights of Jove *did* come for you, and looked after you until they could instill you into Agatha. Anyway.)

Crackpot theory du jour - Bill Heterodyne is in that dimension, Lucrezia having gone back to the past to snatch him up just after he & Barry got back from Mars (or wherever they actually went).

Spoiler: show

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 21, 2022, 04:01:09 PM

Huh. Missed a page.

Friday's page: Bangladesh's dad? Really?

I wonder what sort of plot point that's going to turn into, if any. And Bang just referred to her mother in the past tense, didn't she? Or did the mother just retire (seems unlikely) or get deposed (wouldn't Bang have been trying to fix that? Unless, of course, she was the deposer.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 21, 2022, 04:35:41 PM

Interesting. Mr DuPree (I presume?) doesn't look happy to see Bang after 10 years, albeit shrieking in his face (as Foglio characters are wont to do). Just... chagrin. A marginal grifter/castaway would look to exploit an advantage, and butter up this captor, no? But yeah, mum is past tense. Pirate queens probably don't have long-term ...job security.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 21, 2022, 07:56:26 PM

How old is Bang, anyway? Was she still a child when he left? She seems pretty ticked off about it; though that might just be because he apparently didn't say goodbye properly.

I was going to say that it doesn't take much to tick Bang off; but I'm not actually sure that that's true. It doesn't take much to cause Bang to kill people; but she actually usually seems quite happy at the time.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 23, 2022, 02:09:07 AM

When of my favourite Bang scenes is when she is shown Vole's evolution into a far more fearsome jaeger, and her reaction (many thanks to the Gril Genius wiki for helping me find this page reasonably quickly): Is it Christmas? My birthday?! (https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140804)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 04, 2022, 10:28:55 PM

Quote from: Jitter on February 11, 2022, 06:06:17 PM

Lucrezia is in a clank body, right? I hope the waters don’t work with that!

Apparently not; or, at least, she doesn't expect that they would.

But she does seem to think that she's still in Agatha, hidden well enough that nobody realizes it. I do hope she's not right.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 05, 2022, 04:01:42 AM

Quote from: thorny on March 04, 2022, 10:28:55 PM

Apparently not; or, at least, she doesn't expect that they would.

But she does seem to think that she's still in Agatha, hidden well enough that nobody realizes it. I do hope she's not right.

Agatha was divested of Lucrezia only recently (their time), this version of Lu has been shut on this island without a debrief, no matter how much she gloats about being able to see.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 07, 2022, 10:30:45 PM

"And then, ascension, godhood, and drinks all around."
"Yessss..."

Ruh-roh, we know what happened to the last set of minions who believed in that. Although *when* that happens to our rat fancier with the fancier rats, Lucrezia may end up with a horror scene straight out of 'Willard'. :siv:

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 08, 2022, 10:33:50 AM

Quote from: wavewright62 on March 07, 2022, 10:30:45 PM

"And then, ascension, godhood, and drinks all around."
"Yessss..."

Ruh-roh, we know what happened to the last set of minions who believed in that.

Yes, indeed.

And trusting Lucrezia is proven to be a bad idea.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20061113

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on March 12, 2022, 05:40:15 AM

Friday’s page is interesting. Have Agatha’s little clanks been replicating themselves to work on this fascinating new machinery?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on March 12, 2022, 06:30:11 AM

Looks like they have!

Now while I love the little clanks I have to say something. I hate replicators. I do. It goes wrong every single time. It’s one of the classic apocalypses.

(I went to check the plural for apocalypse and disappointingly found that the Merriam-Webster has it, and it’s the boring standard form).

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 12, 2022, 10:56:45 AM

I wouldn't put it at all past Agatha's little clanks to bring on some sort of apocalypse.

Especially while led by the Castle and the Train!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on March 17, 2022, 02:45:04 PM

Yeah, so, that’s fixed now!

Do you suppose it could be coming to the end? It looks like several main arcs nearing conclusion?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 17, 2022, 04:46:15 PM

Coming to the end?!

Wow, that would be weird. I guess I've come over the years to think of Girl Genius as just wandering down interesting byways forever.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on March 17, 2022, 06:44:12 PM

I’m not saying it is! But there’s a lot of stuff seemingly coming together. A way to Skifander appears quite suddenly along with the Luci arc.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 17, 2022, 10:17:34 PM

It will presumably come around to the early scenes of cross-time windows seen from the other end. So it does have somewhere that the story's headed to.

Whether when (if?) those are tied up that'll be the end is, I suppose, another question.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 22, 2022, 10:30:24 PM

I will believe you that the comic is ending, only if Barry shows up. Even then, that could take months!
(I don't think it's ending - the Foglios seem to have their machine running smoothly; even the Experiments are starting to join the family business. No signs of burnout either from what I can tell.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on March 23, 2022, 02:53:01 AM

Well, now we have a highly interesting turn of events. Not the Lucrezia-gun (although I didn’t guess it would be happening like that) but the fact that not everything goes according to her plans.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 23, 2022, 11:42:12 AM

Quote from: wavewright62 on March 07, 2022, 10:30:45 PM

"And then, ascension, godhood, and drinks all around."
"Yessss..."

Ruh-roh, we know what happened to the last set of minions who believed in that.

And apparently Dr Monahan also had similar suspicions.

Quote from: wavewright62 on March 22, 2022, 10:30:24 PM

I will believe you that the comic is ending, only if Barry shows up. Even then, that could take months!
(I don't think it's ending - the Foglios seem to have their machine running smoothly; even the Experiments are starting to join the family business. No signs of burnout either from what I can tell.)

Are the Experiments getting old enough to read XXXenophile, though?

And if so, might Phil want to end this and turn more in that direction?

(Or, I suppose, take Girl Genius in that direction --)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Lenny on March 29, 2022, 03:17:44 PM

I've just spent a day catching up on 7 years of updates and oh boy I forgot how much I absolutely adored all the interactions in this comic<3

It does seem like a few plot points that have been hinted at for yeeeears are finally showing up, but I don't think it's ending. I think it's more likely that we are finally almost to the point where all the main players will be introduced and all hell will break loose again. Unless they decide to introduce even more! Which would also be fun (and likely). I like this comic and its organised chaos. Back when I discovered it all those years ago in my local public library I was a bit put off by the art, and how Agatha was everything I'd been told not to be, but I'm glad I stuck with it regardless<3 I'd like minions, too, for my crazy spark moments... I'd get SO much done, mwahahaha.

Either way before Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek have a big polyamorous wedding I refuse to ever believe it's ending, heehee.

Now excuse me while I go reread it from the beginning!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 29, 2022, 04:10:06 PM

Quote from: Lenny on March 29, 2022, 03:17:44 PM

I like this comic and its organised chaos.

Yeah.

I think somebody said, on some other board, that they'd quit reading it because it didn't seem to be getting anywhere (I think it was during the long stretch when they kept not getting to Paris); and I replied that I didn't care whether it didn't get to someplace specific as long as it kept going interestingly sideways.

Quote from: Lenny on March 29, 2022, 03:17:44 PM

Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek have a big polyamorous wedding

Hope that happens! I'm definitely on Team She Gets To Have Both, on this one. (And they do love each other, though I don't know whether there's anything sexual about that.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on March 29, 2022, 10:42:57 PM

That’s how I would love to see it end, with some sort of Gil/Agatha/Tarvek wedding, plus a truce or alliance and trade agreement with Skifander, brokered by Axel Higgs after he and Zeetha marry (of course he will have to tactfully fight Zeetha’s mother to a draw rather than outright defeating her). Who knows, Klaus may even get to see his wife again (remember way back, when Klaus is complaining about his life to Othar and remarks that he ‘hasn’t seen his wife for years’?). My guess would be that Gil and Zeetha are full siblings, Gil being the older, because the kid we see Klaus carrying in a backpack in the flashback to when he is conquering Europa looks to be a toddler rather than a baby.

Maybe the usage in matriarchal Skifander is that if the first child of a ruler is a boy he may be allowed to survive either until a female heir is born or he himself fathers a female child? I wonder whether the birth of a girl child leads to the son being killed or sent into exile? In either case Klaus fleeing Skifander with the young Gil may have saved the boy from a bad end.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 30, 2022, 12:54:50 AM

I got very much the impression that Klaus fled with Gil in order to save Gil's life; but don't have the time to hunt up the page right now.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on March 30, 2022, 02:03:56 AM

I agree, that was how I read it also. Plus Klaus telling Gil to beware of this greenhaired girl with two swords who is probably there to kill either Gil or both of them. Of course Zeetha knows nothing of this, having no idea, after barely surviving illness and pirates, of who Gil is, if indeed she ever knew that detail. She was meant to be on an exploratory and diplomatic expedition, I think? Zeetha and Gil seem to get on quite well just as people, and both seem fond of Agatha.

I wonder how much of this, if anything, Boris knows? Remember Boris, Klaus’s four-armed secretary? Skifander does seem to have both natural and synthetic four-armed people. I wonder if Boris was a natural four-armed child who was the son of somebody important enough that his being male was a problem, and whom Klaus rescued along with his own son, Boris being somewhat older than Gil at the time, maybe an early teenager?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on March 30, 2022, 02:32:39 AM

Quote from: thorny on March 30, 2022, 12:54:50 AM

I got very much the impression that Klaus fled with Gil in order to save Gil's life; but don't have the time to hunt up the page right now.

Fandom Wiki (https://girlgenius.fandom.com/wiki/Gilgamesh_Wulfenbach#Before_the_Story) to the rescue (https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040804) ...

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 30, 2022, 12:34:19 PM

Definitely a relevant page; but not the one I was thinking of.

I was thinking of a page in which Klaus is talking to Gil, and Gil IIRC says something like 'Father, what did you do?!' and Klaus replies 'Kept you alive'. But I can't seem to find it right now. It might, or might not, be in one of the hospital scenes.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on March 30, 2022, 09:16:09 PM

I don’t know how to find the scene, but I remember it and think that it likely was one of the hospital scenes, maybe the one where Klaus is advising Gil never to take up with Spark women, because every time Klaus has done so it has ended with the woman trying to kill him (remember, Klaus was Lucrezia’s lover before she ditched him for Bill?). And I would guess that Gil’s mother was a spark as well as a queen.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on April 01, 2022, 02:48:57 PM

Oops!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on April 01, 2022, 07:57:57 PM

Yipes.

Whoever wins this one, it doesn't bode well for our crew, does it? I wonder whether there's any chance that they'll finish each other off -- or at least yank each other into some other dimension?

hmm. What if the Things that are Approaching get there ahead of time and snarf them?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on April 01, 2022, 08:00:43 PM

The Flame was fixed by Castle and Train, maybe it could go bust right about now?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on April 23, 2022, 08:07:35 PM

Quoth, "Mud WILL be flung tonight!"

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on April 27, 2022, 11:37:35 AM

Well, the mud is very potent! Corroding the skin of a queen!

And Lucrezia having destroyed several queens! Or at least claiming to. What exactly is she?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on April 27, 2022, 12:10:08 PM

Well, one thing Lucrezia certainly is, is a time traveller.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on April 27, 2022, 01:37:36 PM

Didn't we see Albia recognize Lucrezia as having been the one who killed several queens when most of the gates were destroyed?

I'll try to find the sequence, but haven't time right now.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on April 27, 2022, 07:07:30 PM

I think so.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on April 27, 2022, 11:30:47 PM

Aha!

Start about here, and read through about the next four pages:

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20181219

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on April 28, 2022, 12:49:48 AM

Thanks for finding that, thorny! I am not skilled at finding stuff.

And given today’s GG page, it occurs to me: Higgs is way old. If he was an early Jager who went a bit strange in his making, so that he still looks pretty much like a standard human man rather than having all those so-decorative fangs, horns, claws and odd skin changes that mark more ‘normal’ Jagers, he may have been around royal courts in some unobtrusive capacity as a spy or agent rather than as a Jager, like he seems now to hold positions in several human navies or air fleets. Apparently Jagers just live until something kills them.

If he has been the Heterodyne’s spymaster for that long, and he has to be hundreds of years old, maybe thousands of years, it is quite possible that he has been around to see a Queen made before, and recognises the strangeness of the flame involved in that process? And it may take awhile for him to dig the details out of his memory, as we saw with Albia, who is well over 5000 years old, having to store her deep memory externally just because there is so much of it, and who can forget things and needs to be reminded of them, as shown in the scenes thorny posted.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on April 28, 2022, 09:42:14 AM

Yes; somewhere there's an explanation of Higgs being one of the first Jagers and having gotten all the changes except for the readily visible ones, so he looks normal human but is otherwise Jager. We don't have details of most of his life but I expect he did very often function as a spy.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on April 29, 2022, 05:52:56 AM

And he introduces himself to Agatha, once he trusts her, as being her spymaster and one of her Jager generals (I think the other two odd generals are Mamma Gkika and the lady who works with Furst the giant bear?).

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Lenny on May 05, 2022, 07:06:35 AM

Read through it again since I last posted here, haha.

Lucrezia is almost certainly every iteration of Van Rhijn's "Muse of Time". I've been wondering if there's a reason as to when she was killing all the queens off. She had all of time to choose, but seems to have done it all in one go, or in batches, at least with the queens Albia was aware of. I also wonder exactly how old she is now.

Whether Higgs has seen a Queen made before or not vastly depends on whether any queens were made after the Heterodynes discovered the Dyne. Jägerdraught is made from the Dyne's water, the location of which was abandoned before it was settled by the Heterodyne, no queen to be found. I also have the impression - though I don't think it was confirmed anywhere - that Albia is older than the first Heterodyne. I do think it's pretty possible that Higgs might have seen an attempt to control the Dyne's waters go a bit... haywire. In fact I kinda remember a reference to a particular Heterodyne's attempts, after which they switched to indirectly using the waters via the castle, but I wouldn't know where to start looking for it. ...in faaaaaact.... it might be pretty probable that that's where Higgs saw something similar! There was a very similar setup with a mirror in the castle. I'll have to go and check out the layout when Agatha et al were escaping through it.

Stream of consciousness thought: would this mean that technically the castle is a mechanical queen? Probably not, but it's a fun thought.

Edit: So sadly there's only a front view of the mirror, which doesn't show a flame pit. https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130506 So no way to confirm it until Higgs remembers, I suppose.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on May 10, 2022, 08:39:38 AM

Hmm, seems like Higgs will be learning a bit more about Skifandr than he was planning at the moment?

Now, will the collapse kill one or bo of he new queens, or not?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on May 10, 2022, 09:35:01 AM

Not good.

Not only are Higgs and Zeetha separated, and Zeetha cut off from Skifander again, but also Higgs' aid and information are now unavailable to the rest of the party: and they're liable to need both of them badly.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on May 10, 2022, 10:11:26 PM

On the other hand, if Higgs can persuade the Skifandrian Queen that Zeetha needs her help, and that Lucrezia is involved, he may be able to bring back assistance that nobody is expecting. I can’t imagine that Zeetha’s mother approves of Lucrezia.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on May 11, 2022, 04:55:43 PM

In other news, that image of Lucrezia arising from the rubble is beauteous - Cheyenne Wright has done it again. Worthy of a wallpaper, without the speech bubbles.

Higgs still possesses Zeetha's headband communication device, which would come in handy when he needs to corroborate his story. Pity it isn't two-way.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on May 27, 2022, 05:13:55 AM

So it’s looking like I was correct earlier, assuming that the clank body cannot withstand the power. Took its sweet time to start falling apart, though!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on May 27, 2022, 12:30:44 PM

If Lucrezia destroys or puts out of reach the spring and flame, however, she won't have access to them either.

And she actually is (whew) gone from Agatha. So if this clank body gets destroyed, where is she still existent? I'm losing track. -- plus which, it's the clank body that looks like the one in the time window, very early on. Though I suppose that if she exists elsewhere she could probably build another one.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on May 28, 2022, 04:42:35 AM

There's still one copy of Lucrezia in Zola.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on May 28, 2022, 10:50:52 AM

At least the on in Zola, and the original is presumably wherever the spider priestesses made copies from. Some sort of alternate reality or another dimension or something like that?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on May 28, 2022, 08:09:15 PM

<rank_speculation>Barry had an idea, and has gone to find her.</rank speculation>

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on June 03, 2022, 08:14:17 PM

So how fast can Agatha rebuild engines, I wonder?

I seem to remember her doing one before they hit the ground once --

ETA: not precisely. I remembered it wrong; what I was remembering was this -- start at the link, read that page and the next two.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030623

and wow the artwork sure has changed!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on June 04, 2022, 12:54:43 AM

I wonder if there is enough power left in the flame to let Agatha go Queen?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on June 04, 2022, 05:35:59 AM

I'm not sure Agatha would choose to go queen at this stage.
Unless
she realises that it may be the only way to open the portal to Skifander again.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on June 04, 2022, 08:11:28 AM

Also they say a Queens needs her wellspring and her flame, which I think might indicate she will be linked to a particular place. Surely Agatha doesn’t want to reign on this island?

As for the repairs, how quickly can Agatha, assisted by other sparks, plus Train and Castle, be able to repair the ship? Hopefully quickly enough!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on June 04, 2022, 09:45:14 AM

I don't think Agatha's a queen in the time window scenes in which Bang sees her; and we haven't seen those from the other end yet.

Will try to find them, but not right now.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on June 04, 2022, 03:22:21 PM

Ooh! Time window! TIME! Can the Lantern keep the self-destroying island from self-destroying long enough for the repairs? It didn't hold the queens for long, but they are struggling now. Maybe it could buy some more time?

I don't think either that Agatha went full queen earlier, but it was clearly a sign that she has the potential to. But I think she will do so in the Heterodyne Castle, and using the waters of the Dyne, not here on ~~Atlantis~~ some unknown island.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on June 04, 2022, 03:31:27 PM

Ah, here it is. No wonder I thought of it, I was just rereading that bit earlier.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040126

We haven't seen that from the other end; and Agatha just looks like Agatha. Though I suppose a queen who doesn't want to look like a queen doesn't have to.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on June 10, 2022, 07:34:08 PM

"Are you any good" . . .

Bang's getting her needling right back at her, isn't she?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on June 15, 2022, 09:36:30 PM

I wonder whether the Giant Flying Rats are attacking, or hoping to hitch a ride?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on July 02, 2022, 04:40:49 AM

What fun Friday's page is - at least, for the artists and colourist. Our protagonists, not so much.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on July 08, 2022, 12:24:43 AM

Hands up, everybody who wants the double-page cetaecean spread (https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ggmain/doublespreads/ggcoll23_041_042.html) as a 1000-piece puzzle!
(https://i.imgur.com/jlGkZ1l.png)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Buteo on July 08, 2022, 11:35:21 AM

[waves both hands]

And I don't even do jigsaw puzzles!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on July 08, 2022, 12:27:54 PM

I honestly did not see that coming. I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t a cetacean the size of a country.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on July 23, 2022, 05:54:36 AM

Ugh, I hope Albia will put a stop to the ridiculousness. These last pages have been too over the top even for GG and I’m all ready to move to something slightly less silly.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on July 23, 2022, 06:19:41 AM

Yeah, there's kind of an implausible number of monsters.

-- I forgot for a moment who her mother is and thought when I first saw the first panel that she was just yelling "Mama!" out of fear. But then I wondered why she didn't do it sooner, when the battling queens first appeared. Thought the Heterodyne could handle it? Wanted to see whether the Heterodyne could handle it?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on July 23, 2022, 09:29:51 PM

She thought *she* could handle it, most likely. Or at least, that she & this team could.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on July 27, 2022, 07:23:34 PM

Are we about to see Agatha's idea from the previous page?

And does it have anything to do with that great big crack in Lucrezia's current head?

And is Albia really that out of it?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on July 28, 2022, 06:32:46 AM

Well, as Lucrezia says, she has killed many queens. At least we assume she is the reason behind their demise. Or an assassin taking advantage of situations of “flame on the ebb” like she says here about Anglia. Reason behind that maybe something else (perhaps something for our gang to investigate) but it seems likely she has, or has had, access to weaponry that is fatal to the Queens. This is of course the clank body and is hopefully still cut off from the other versions of her (I assume there is an original one in wherever the mind implantation engine connects to) but I very much hope Agatha’s idea works, and quick!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on July 29, 2022, 02:40:56 PM

I'm not sure whether that had anything to do with the crack in the head or not --

but I suspect there's a bigger one now.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on July 29, 2022, 02:57:01 PM

I certainly hope so!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 05, 2022, 01:10:04 PM

Is anyone else expecting Lucrezia to explode into bits at any moment?

-- and did anybody else think that moment on the previous page when Albia switched from 'oh you rescued me!' to 'I will rescue you!' was kind of weird? If the Hetereodyne and friends can actually take down Lucrezia, they can probably fix their own airship, too; and give Albia a ride home on it. She looks like she could use one; though I suspect her power would revive quite fast once there.

-- entirely off topic -- is it actually raining outside my window? and is there any chance it'll do so long enough to accomplish anything? -- bah, I think it's stopping. Maybe it'll start again.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on August 05, 2022, 01:53:40 PM

Quote from: thorny on August 05, 2022, 01:10:04 PM

Is anyone else expecting Lucrezia to explode into bits at any moment?

... you mean, any more than she already did for that single-mind-distributed-into-however-many-bodies shtick of hers? ::)

Quote from: thorny on August 05, 2022, 01:10:04 PM

-- and did anybody else think that moment on the previous page when Albia switched from 'oh you rescued me!' to 'I will rescue you!' was kind of weird? If the Hetereodyne and friends can actually take down Lucrezia, they can probably fix their own airship, too; and give Albia a ride home on it.

Hmmmm, if you want to split hairs over her saying "allow us to repair your airship" instead of "allow us to help repair your airship", maybe; having one more spark working on that should speed things up in any case. (Though possibly not in the direction you wanted it to go, I admit.) Or maybe - IIUC that is a British airship - she's actually been the lead designer and really can fix it up much better/faster/sparkier than anyone else present?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 05, 2022, 02:22:48 PM

I'm sure the airship repairs would be faster and easier with Albia helping, and maybe she could even wave a hand and fix it once she's recovered a bit. But that instant change in attitude seemed jarring to me. Maybe it's just me.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on August 05, 2022, 03:04:22 PM

Thorny, the intense back and forth of the pages since… far too long is muchly irritating, but that particular change of mood seems in character to me. Immediately snapping back to arrogant when possible seems like something a Queen who addresses herself as “us” would do.

Other than that, could we PLEASE move on now. This arc is done! Please be done.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 05, 2022, 06:13:04 PM

True. I'm becoming reminded of the fight between Mama Bear and Surma.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on August 05, 2022, 07:31:33 PM

Yes! This is exactly it!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on August 08, 2022, 04:04:09 AM

Agreed, I'm having difficulty processing it, too. Mr Wright has done his work superbly, but I still have a confuzzle. A reread later will help.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 10, 2022, 09:34:15 PM

I think that's finally done it.

At least, if Albia and Monahan don't proceed to start fighting.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on August 11, 2022, 01:45:41 AM

Won’t much trouble Lucrezia. When you have as many copies of yourself scattered about as she appears to have, dead is not necessarily dead. At most she will be inconvenienced.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 11, 2022, 10:03:02 AM

If your self-destruct system was intended to blow up whoever had just defeated you, why would it make warning noises?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on August 11, 2022, 10:55:38 AM

Quote from: thorny on August 11, 2022, 10:03:02 AM

If your self-destruct system was intended to blow up whoever had just defeated you, why would it make warning noises?

So that if it ever gets triggered when you actually have not been utterly defeated, you'll notice and have a chance to use the top secret deactivation routine?
(Granted, an itsy bitsy tiny buzzer near your ears would still make more sense than alerting half the landscape ...)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on August 11, 2022, 12:01:22 PM

Róisín, agreed, this will not be the end of all of Lucrezia. But hopefully it will finally be the end of this fight.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 12, 2022, 01:39:06 PM

Looks like it, whew.

And apparently Albia can indeed wave a hand (or snap fingers) and fix the airship. But what about Monahan?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on August 14, 2022, 03:51:18 AM

Albia seems to have accepted her as a full-fledged queen?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 14, 2022, 11:08:54 AM

It does kind of look like that, doesn't it?

But does that mean that they'll actively cooperate, or at least not fight? -- though I wouldn't think either of them would be in the mood for more fighting, right now. (Neither am I!)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 15, 2022, 10:17:55 AM

Is that an entire spare smaller airship on top of the upgraded one?

And did something go wrong during the transport, or is something going wrong as soon as they get there, or do those expressions just indicate the stress of the whole thing and the Heterodyne's exclamation only indicate startlement?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 22, 2022, 03:38:37 PM

I guess it was the latter.

Next question: I wonder whether Albia's really that thrilled with Monahan having become a queen, or whether she's vehemently expressing friendship and offering mentorship because she has no strength at the moment if Monahan decided to fight her instead. It might be some of both, I suppose -- a combination of no strength to deal with a fight, and at least hoping that Monahan might be worth making a friend of.

She seemed to be trying, before the need for this expedition came up, to keep Agatha in England, though. I'd think Agatha would make a better sister-queen than Monahan; she's got proven loyalty, while Monahan has rather the reverse -- not that Lucrezia had given her much reason to be loyal, but still. Could Albia have gotten Agatha the rest of the way to being a Queen in England, or would Agatha need to get to her own Dyne to do that?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on August 23, 2022, 12:36:11 AM

There’s been talk of your flame, which makes me think each queen has her own source of power. Which in turn leads me to wonder how permanent Monahan’s transition is. She shared the flame with Lucrezia, and they both drew off it as much as possible. Could it be that Albia is just playing nice to get Monahan to come with her willingly, and when they are in England back to Albia’s flame and equally importantly away from Monahan’s, there will be consequences? I’m not sure how well Monahan understands the forces she’s playing with, based on how she tainted the waters.

Similarly I do think Agatha will need the Dyne, and to find or build a flame there.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 23, 2022, 10:44:11 AM

I wonder whether that's the eventual end point of the story. It seems to me that it would be a very different comic with Agatha as a Queen. The amount of power discrepancy between her and her friends would become excessive.

At the rate things progress in this story, however, I'm not going to worry about it right now!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on August 29, 2022, 12:29:07 AM

Maintaining queenship far from a flame also begs the question, does Monahan need to return to this place that no longer exists? or will she create herself an island sanctuary at that remote spot?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on October 08, 2022, 08:12:31 PM

The return of Humongulus! Oh! One of my favourite blink-'n'-you'll-miss-'em characters! And I see, I see Humongulus lifting! Yes, that is superior lifting! *squeeeee*

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on October 09, 2022, 03:20:52 AM

In the case of Agatha as a possible queen, I suspect that her basic nature is such that most of the time it would not be very obvious. Which could be a good thing. Wonder how the Jagers would take that? I would bet on the Dyne being such a wellspring of power. She wouldn’t even have to leave home.

And Humongulus is still a delight.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 25, 2022, 06:41:06 PM

Hey!

Unsaddle your steed before leaving him for the night!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on November 09, 2022, 06:36:22 AM

I wonder…..could Lumi be Vanamonde von Mekkhan’s sister? Cousin? Wife? And do I correctly remember grandpa von Mekkhan, the old seneschal with the ports in his skull for communicating with the Castle, saying to Agatha, when first telling her his story, that he had intended to spend his retirement playing with his grandchildren - plural? Van was only a baby at the time. Is Lumi older or younger.

Also I am not at all sure that I trust either the cat or the ‘librarian’.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on November 09, 2022, 08:28:11 AM

There's also the question about whether the cat and the librarian are, or should be, trusting each other.

I wonder if the cat might be keeping an eye on the librarian, not just assisting her. And I also wonder whether the cat knows that on her previous trips there were no other survivors. I very much doubt that the cat intends to be a red shirt.

I did like the cat deciding to take a nap on the dragon! Dragons are probably nice and warm to sleep on --

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on November 18, 2022, 04:06:06 AM

Oh wow, is Humongulus a transformer or is that just him getting out of a cargo compartment significantly smaller than himself?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on November 21, 2022, 02:41:29 PM

I couldn't tell either.

But looking it over, I'm inclined to 'transformer'; because I don't see bits of broken railroad car left over. -- was that the car they were all inside earlier? were they all inside Humongulus and didn't know it? That's kind of squunky, if so.

Hey, Franz -- you left both the cat and yourself out of your character list. (Of course, the dragon's usually assumed to be on the other side!)

(did we get the cat's name? I can't remember.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on November 21, 2022, 03:12:56 PM

I'm pretty sure Lumi is closely related to Vanamonde - a younger sister or cousin. Her character design is fascinating - she does not look like the average resident of Mechanicsburg, who all seem to favour long sleeves and coats. Also tough to tell whether Lumi refers to 'snow' as in her colouring, or short for a steampunk-ish name like Lumina or Illuminatia or something.

Now that we have a bona fide party, we can invoke the dictum, Don't Split the Party?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 12, 2022, 01:04:34 PM

I was sort of thinking the freelancer would be The Gentleman Adventurer, but no. Which reminds me that while this side story is ok, I was under the impression it would be a short detour. Doesn’t really look like it.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 13, 2022, 07:57:43 PM

Yeah, it kind of seems to be a very long detour.

Interesting in its way; but . . .

On the other hand, they almost never miss a page entirely. Something always goes up. I suspect that I shouldn't grumble about what it is.

I just hope the cat eventually takes a bigger part in the story.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on December 23, 2022, 12:22:52 AM

Just saw today’s page. I wonder who persuaded the ‘ghost’ that he is dead? And whether Humongulus is about to have an existential crisis?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 23, 2022, 11:42:52 AM

I'm not sure whether the 'ghost' is so convinced, or whether he just keeps using that as a handy excuse.

-- and it looks like it was a bad idea to eat all the coffee beans at once. I'd have spaced them out, myself. Caffeine addiction's a lot easier to get out of if you taper off gradually.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on December 24, 2022, 08:35:54 PM

You...you... are asking a GG character to behave in a non-slapstick manner?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 24, 2022, 10:59:21 PM

Good point.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on January 02, 2023, 09:01:05 PM

I only just noticed that the giant cat is named 'Kliban'. Well-played, Foglios. B. Kliban, gone way too soon.
(https://img0.etsystatic.com/107/0/9542762/il_fullxfull.918136092_o6dt.jpg)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 30, 2023, 07:03:10 PM

I wouldn't have expected a fight between dragons to be a wrestling match at ground level.

Worked out well that way for Franz, of course; but what would have happened if his opponent (whose name I don't feel like trying to spell right now) had started off by taking to the air? Seems like an obvious move.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on February 01, 2023, 09:47:35 PM

One also wonders just how much high-tech help Franz might have. I know in previous episodes he has used that flying-harness thing. Just what is that badge of office thing that Agatha put on him before he left?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 01, 2023, 10:38:13 PM

Didn't Agatha make him the flying-harness thing? Or am I remembering that wrong?

Can't seem to find it now.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on February 02, 2023, 02:12:11 AM

I think she did.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on February 02, 2023, 09:38:03 AM

Quote from: thorny on February 01, 2023, 10:38:13 PM

Didn't Agatha make him the flying-harness thing?

No, that was Barry (https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121203).

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 02, 2023, 01:24:41 PM

Ah. Thanks, JoB. He would have had it during that incident, then. But I expect he'd be massively embarrassed to have Hydrargyros find out that he needs it. So still very convenient for him that Hydrargyros didn't start by taking to the air -- unless maybe he did, and then dropped on Franz when Franz just stood there and maybe laughed at him, and Franz was strong enough to wind up on top even from that start?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on February 02, 2023, 07:18:17 PM

JoB, thank you for the info! I sit corrected!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on February 03, 2023, 07:45:02 AM

Quote from: thorny on February 02, 2023, 01:24:41 PM

Ah. Thanks, JoB. He would have had it during that incident, then. But I expect he'd be massively embarrassed to have Hydrargyros find out that he needs it. So still very convenient for him that Hydrargyros didn't start by taking to the air -- unless maybe he did, and then dropped on Franz when Franz just stood there and maybe laughed at him, and Franz was strong enough to wind up on top even from that start?

I'm afraid that the dragonology of Girl Genius needs a good deal more detail (thrown at me) - is this (https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121003) actually Hydrargyros? But either way, he still claims to speak in the name of all "true dragons" when he says that they duel at arm's reach, and not with their main distance weapon.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 03, 2023, 11:29:00 AM

Thanks again. I had entirely forgotten that sequence.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on February 10, 2023, 12:54:30 PM

Is the professor a Jäger? And does she stick her finger into thw ”ghost”s nose??

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 10, 2023, 08:04:00 PM

(http://i.imgur.com/q3NfqD0.png)
Yes to the latter, although Zeetha has teeth like that so we can't assume the former.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on February 11, 2023, 10:39:41 AM

It’s not just the teeth but also the ears!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 14, 2023, 07:16:49 PM

Somebody apparently has read Chapter 12.

(whoever said "Aw . . . " )

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 24, 2023, 06:17:48 PM

Well, that makes a lot more sense.

I was wondering why on earth the monks would keep clobbering their own people while doing nothing whatsoever to stop the person trying to bribe them.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on February 26, 2023, 01:41:46 AM

Sounds like the sort of sneaky triple-deal the Corbettite monks would pull. I like them.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 27, 2023, 02:07:37 PM

This lighthearted story has taken a pretty dark turn.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 04, 2023, 09:02:45 PM

Quote from: thorny on February 27, 2023, 02:07:37 PM

This lighthearted story has taken a pretty dark turn.

Tsk. And you a long-time reader, you sound surprised.

Also, laughing at the reference to having to pay to get published in a journal, which is of course how the industry stands today. It is ludicrous and ridiculous in the literal sense of 'worthy of ridicule'.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on March 04, 2023, 11:26:19 PM

Yeah, real-world academe can be like that in its worst parts.

And I suspect the Professor intends to kill Franz anyway, or at least try to. But for the moment she meeds him to get in. I will be curious to see if she and the librarian can alchemically jigger his flame to open the way to the dragon’s hoard. I also wonder whether that ambassador’s credential thing that Franz is wearing has some sort of alarm in it that will notify Agatha if something happens to him.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Kiran on March 27, 2023, 09:56:25 AM

For a hot second at the start of this short story I thought that Agatha eventually courted Wulfenbach based on the designs of the Seneschal's.... seal? buttons? The crest, anyways, appears on his cuff many times: a Heterodyne sigil affixed with wings. Tried to find Tarvek's crest to see if the theory could be proven false, but I didn't find his crest at all.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 27, 2023, 04:01:57 PM

It's my headcanon -- and I suspect a lot of other people's -- that Agatha gets to have both of them.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on March 27, 2023, 04:22:06 PM

I do hope so!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 27, 2023, 08:53:39 PM

No time to look it up now, but there is a crest that Tarvek and Martellus wear (maybe Seffie too). Some reference to the Storm King? Dunno about the winged trilobyte offhand.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on April 07, 2023, 11:46:59 PM

So we get to wonder over the weekend whether Franz was joking.

-- he might be; he made a bit of a thing about scaring the kids who were supposed to come down and take something as part of their initiation, and then, instead of eating them, he sold them tchotchkes.

On the other hand, the Professor probably really does intend to kill him. (I think her chances of succeeding at that are pretty poor, though.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on May 22, 2023, 04:28:47 PM

Cat is not interested in treasure.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on June 12, 2023, 01:22:50 PM

How did she get Furry Cat to go anywhere near Clank Cat?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on June 18, 2023, 12:58:20 AM

Dunno, but it was a durned good use of said cat.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on July 24, 2023, 01:43:00 PM

Maybe the Iram Solis only works for dragons? (See the back of the newspaper.)

Maybe Franz broke it somehow before handing it over, or the drenching it got ruined it?

Anyway, it looks like this story is finally winding up. Wonder if the Queen's caught up on her sleep yet --

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on July 25, 2023, 03:47:28 AM

It's tough to tell, but perhaps the side story was happening while our main story was in Londinium and the rat island, which would mean we return to little or no time passing? Albia will not be able to rejuvenate much while dragging the crippled airship back, and [prediction incoming] contending with Lucrezia who will. not. stay. vanquished.

.
I'm not looking forward to Zeetha's anguish at losing her chance at going back to Skifander and the loss of her boyfriend. I picture Axel seeing her anguish reflected in the avatar and being impotent to do anything about it. (Isn't the headband one-way? If not, maybe it will be rendered thus by the schism with Skifander?)

(Also, new GG art in the Forum Art Museum wheeee)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on July 25, 2023, 08:38:33 AM

I don't think the side stories are necessarily considered to be coordinated with the main story, even when they have some of the same characters -- I think their time is intentionally left blurry. While this one obviously takes place at some time while Agatha's recognized as the Heterodyne and Mechanicsburg isn't cut off from the rest of the world -- because while Agatha's not available to see Franz off at the beginning of the story she's stated as investigating somewhere "in the woods outside Malebach" and there's no question of them being able to travel -- I don't think it's supposed to be set at some exact moment in the main story.

-- here's the "woods outside Malebach" page:
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20220921

I'm not sure there was a time prior to Mechanicsburg getting cut off during which this could have happened -- I don't think Agatha got a quiet time at home after she was recognized. And in the main timeline Mechanicsburg is still cut off. So my guess would be that this happens at some undetermined time in the future of the main story, when Agatha's settled back in and things are relatively peaceful. And whatever time we return to in the main story will be determined by the requirements of that story, and not connected with this one.

-- ah. The cover page of this story says "some distant time hence". So yes, some undetermined and deliberately vague time in the future.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20220826

ETA: Just looked at the Art Museum. Nice work!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on July 25, 2023, 06:08:30 PM

Ah, your scholarship is impeccable, thorny! Excellent.
Now to see whether there is a timeskip involved in rejoining our main story.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on July 25, 2023, 09:11:35 PM

Hmmm…..’some distant time in the future’. Makes me wonder even more about exactly who Lumi is and where she fits in. Could she be Van’s daughter?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on July 25, 2023, 10:57:49 PM

While we're wondering -- the page that says Agatha's out of town also says that none of "the family" are there either. Heterodyne family, presumably -- so who, I wonder, does that mean? Agatha's children? her husband(s)? (and if so who is/are they?!) and did her uncles ever reappear?

I'm entirely sure that was left vague on purpose!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on July 26, 2023, 08:58:13 PM

Kliban doesn't look at all sure that he wants to go on any more adventures.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on July 26, 2023, 11:35:26 PM

I don’t blame him. Speaking as someone who lived a quite adventurous life, there comes a point when you just want to kick back and do something less dangerous, especially if you have family. I have heard the same from my youngest daughter (a maker of documentaries) and a friend who is a wildlife photographer - both of them also began to scale down their work to be in less dangerous places as they grew older, especially once they had kids. Wonder if Kliban has a family?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 04, 2023, 03:41:51 PM

Good question. Kittens, Kliban? Littermates? Still hanging out with parent(s), aunts, and cousins when you get a chance? -- looks like they may not get a chance for a while, though; at least, Kliban, unless you run away fast while your human's packing for the next trip! You probably won't even get to climb into the luggage, you'll probably have to carry it again.

And for those waiting for it -- the Main Story is Back. Picking up right exactly where we left off; and not moved significantly from there yet, though it looks like some interesting info's probably going to be given next week.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on August 04, 2023, 06:53:58 PM

Yeah, always figured that the Queens depended on their power source and were in trouble if something disrupted that.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on August 05, 2023, 10:38:36 PM

Absolutely, now that we've seen queens birthed from a power source.
It's a little puzzling since there has been strong hinting that Agatha has the potential to develop into a queen. Does she have to develop a power source to accomplish it?
Perhaps Lucrezia was attempting to assess and tap the water of the Dyne for this potential - [tangent] a possible motive for her (seemingly) sudden wish to marry Bill Heterodyne?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 06, 2023, 09:42:39 AM

I do think the Dyne's a potential power source.

I wonder whether it could power both Queen Agatha and the Castle? Would there be a conflict? -- though something must be powering England-under-the ocean; and I'd think that would be at least a big a power draw as the Castle.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on August 06, 2023, 01:01:58 PM

Always figured the Dyne for a power source, but that had never occurred to me as a motive for Lucrezia marrying Bill. You may well be right. And I will be interested to see what happens with Agatha and the Castle. For one thing, if Agatha taps directly into the Dyne, will the Castle still need all those generators and storage batteries in the river? Or can she and the Castle share direct access?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on August 09, 2023, 04:29:37 PM

Woohoo, that’s a development! Hopefully she can recover even with the Dyne unreachable! Or was the river or some of it reachable despite the time bubble?

Remarkably, Agatha has already been aware that she’s on the path to becoming a Queen, or else she has extraordinary poker face, if it occurs to here just now.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 09, 2023, 05:24:50 PM

I think Agatha and Albia had an earlier discussion about it, shortly after they first met. No time to look for it now.

And I'm hoping that Albia can, and will, give some of that energy back. She might not have realized that she was taking too much -- and whatever her motives, I think she needs Agatha at least on her feet in order to avoid complications she probably doesn't want to deal with. If she'd wanted Agatha dead or incapacitated, she's had other chances before this.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 11, 2023, 02:58:47 PM

Unclear, but maybe all Albia did was to put Agatha to bed (or get somebody else to do it.) It seems to have worked, however; and at least Albia seems to have provided quite a fancy bedroom.

As to prior discussion between them about Agatha becoming a queen, I found one page implying it; but the comic then moves on to other subjects. I can't remember whether there was another discussion later, though there may have been (whether or not we were shown it in the comic.)

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20180302

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on August 12, 2023, 12:53:10 AM

Wow, thorny, you came up with the right page, as Albia almost exploded our dear Agatha with this stunt.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on August 17, 2023, 08:00:31 PM

Albia has put the two of them into Skifander gear in their private conference room? Agatha is wearing a zumil outfit? Noice.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 17, 2023, 10:37:25 PM

I don't think that's Skifander gear; not on Albia at least. It looks a whole lot like what she was wearing in a memory flashback to when she first heard of the mirrors, thousands of years ago.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20181212

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on August 18, 2023, 10:28:44 AM

I absolutely love how Albia’s true form? Preferred form? Private appearance? Is a stone-age big and sturdy woman, and not e.g. something delicate, elf-like and super thin (with boobs of course because this seems to be a constant).

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 18, 2023, 10:08:50 PM

Jitter, I agree very much with that!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Róisín on August 18, 2023, 11:01:58 PM

Also agree. Albia is magnificent!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 25, 2023, 01:42:15 PM

There is certainly flame in Mechanicsburg, and right near the Dyne.

Whether it's the right kind of flame, I don't know. Being able to put it out with cistern water would seem to argue against it; but we know even less than Albia does about the Queens' Flames.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110216

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110218

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110420

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on September 07, 2023, 06:38:34 PM

In which it's Gil's turn to say, "Nize hat." (https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20230904)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on September 08, 2023, 06:43:27 PM

You don’t need anything else!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 11, 2023, 05:06:57 PM

Our batch of what? Wasp eaters? Or wasps? Because that looks more like a hatchery od wasps than anything mammalian.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 11, 2023, 07:53:13 PM

That's what I was thinking. And we've seen wasp eater babies -- looking very mammalian indeed. Tarvek rescued a batch from their dead mother, back when we first met them.

-- I'd forgotten to check Girl Genius for several days, and got three pages at once for my troubles; which hasn't left me less confused about what's going on. I don't even remember when the other wasp eaters disappeared -- or is this the first that we've been told about it?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 12, 2023, 03:07:19 PM

The library detour was so long that I can hardly remember that Mechanicsburg is in the time trap. And there are several Lucrezias. Other than that I’m mostly drawing a blank.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on October 13, 2023, 01:03:59 AM

I don't have the reference to hand (maybe thorny will know?), but I'm under the impression that they were exterminated deliberately (via Geisterdammen?), and Agatha's escaped because it was sheltering with her. Agatha pulled the switcheroo enabling her to escape Martellus' bio-shackle - but I forget if that was before or after the extermination of all the other wasp-eaters. She is still bio-shackled to that wasp-eater now, though, and if any harm comes to it, Agatha will be in some difficulty.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 13, 2023, 11:17:59 AM

I don't have the reference to hand either; and what I remember is the scene in which there's an attempt to exterminate them and many are killed, but some are rescued -- including all those kits clinging to Tarvek. Does anybody remember what happened to those kits?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 13, 2023, 04:58:30 PM

Oh is the dome thingy actually the city in the time bubble? And Tarvek is just looking at it from height? I thought it was something that was to produce ”our batch”.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 13, 2023, 07:48:55 PM

Are those Geisterdamen? Siding with the Jaegers? And what battle just happened -- or have I just forgotten about one recent in comic time but a whole long time ago IRL? -- no, I think we're now finding out that they've just had a fight, offscreen, with the Polar Lords. Have we met the Polar Lords?

And is there something just a little different about the artwork in these last few pages, or am I imagining things? I can't put my finger on it.

-- I don't know what the dome thingy is. If it is the city, then the city has just killed some wasps big enough for their bodies to have squashed the place. If those are legs-up dead wasps, and not something else going on.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 14, 2023, 08:24:36 AM

Looking at Wednesday page, I thought it’s some sort of dome thing in a large room and Tarvek is standing close to it. And yes looks like wasp bellies. But in panel 5 of Friday page, they are looking at an enormous dome over a field with lights, with mountains in the background and airships above.

I am now certain the done is the same on both pages, see the wall structure. The “wasp bellies” I can’t identify but they could be some sort of equipment attached to or placed on top of the wall. Tarvek is in one of the airships and his mention of “our batch” is not in relation to the dome, he just happens to take a look outside while discussing.

Do we remember anything about the time bubble? It appeared by surprise, but was is considered an attack or a neutral phenomenon?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 14, 2023, 11:52:05 AM

The time stop was caused by Wulfenbach the elder; who caught himself in it, apparently deliberately, in the process. (He'd first put a version of himself into Gil.)

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130501

-- What he intended to accomplish by this is, as far as I can tell, still uncertain. It certainly stopped a battle; but he could have stopped that by leaving.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 16, 2023, 09:15:49 PM

Ollie believes in consent -- and consent while not drunk.

Good person, Ollie!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on October 17, 2023, 02:30:41 AM

Quote from: thorny on October 13, 2023, 07:48:55 PM

And is there something just a little different about the artwork in these last few pages, or am I imagining things? I can't put my finger on it.

Looks to me like the inking is more delicate - but with the same pencils and colours. Refresh my memory, but I was under the impression that Kaja does or has done the inks in the past? A tiny archive shows the inks were not this delicate in 2022 or 2021, so not a reflection of how crazy busy Kaja has been. Maybe they have a new assistant, or even one of the experiments? I know their elder experiment helps with behind-the-scenes business stuff now.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 17, 2023, 09:04:27 AM

Quote from: thorny on October 14, 2023, 11:52:05 AM

The time stop was caused by Wulfenbach the elder; who caught himself in it, apparently deliberately, in the process. (He'd first put a version of himself into Gil.)

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130501

-- What he intended to accomplish by this is, as far as I can tell, still uncertain. It certainly stopped a battle; but he could have stopped that by leaving.

It occurs to me: he not only stopped the battle, but he took Mechanicsburg out of any possibility of political action for as long as the timestop lasts -- and, he undoubtedly expected, everybody in it (a couple of people have been fished out since.) And he must have expected that to include Agatha. The only reason she wasn't caught in the timestop was that she was in the process of being abducted; and the timing even for that was so close that those of them going through the mirror didn't come out till several years later, due to interference from the timestop, which went into effect just as they were going through.

So maybe what he intended to do was to seal off both Mechanicsburg and the Heterodyne from Europe; possibly permanently, as he may not have realized the dangers of what he was doing. And he might well have thought that was worth sacrificing himself and leaving his empire to Gil.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 17, 2023, 03:08:13 PM

But Gil was caught in the timestop, although I can’t recall if this was something his father would have known or not.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 17, 2023, 05:59:53 PM

No, I don't think he was. Tarvek was -- Gil was instrumental in getting him out.

Maybe I'm wrong. I'd have to go back and read through that.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on October 17, 2023, 07:56:16 PM

Correct - tarvek was in the process of bleeding out and got rescued by Gil. I think Gil was aloft?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 17, 2023, 09:56:32 PM

Gil was very definitely outside Mechanicsburg. There's a batch of pages, not all of which even show him, but here's one:

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131108

And here's Gil going in, after they think they've figured out how (not for Tarvek, yet):

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140516

and here he is fishing out Tarvek:

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160307

And I thought I was going to find out what happened with the weasels:

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160318

But this was as far as that conversation got.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160321

And I need to be done re-reading stuff for a while, now.

-- oh, but I almost forgot: in hunting for that, I came across another page, and realized we'd been told straight out why the Baron trapped himself in Mechanicsburg.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20151130

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 18, 2023, 11:24:10 AM

Oh I misremembered that it was Gil who was trapped and Tarvek getting him out. Oh well.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on October 18, 2023, 07:08:11 PM

Great links, as always! (AWWWW)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 20, 2023, 02:38:14 PM

How old is Princess Neena? Anybody have any idea?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on October 21, 2023, 12:26:17 AM

Young, late teens maybe, but tough to say in a universe where Agatha turned 18 twenty years ago and hasn't seen her 19th birthday yet (I think). Gil and Tarvek are still in their early to mid-20s.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 25, 2023, 12:52:16 PM

So, it’s not only us who are hazy on the specifics about the Polar Lords. Interesting!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on November 13, 2023, 08:50:03 PM

I thought at first it said "Why do you stoop?" which added a note of further interesting oddity to the situation as it wasn't clear to me who or what was stooping and it might have indicated something about the thought processes of whoever was saying it; but it appears to instead be a drawn-out "Why do you stop?"

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on November 14, 2023, 05:04:29 PM

Same! It's sort of the same as emphasising 'cute' as 'cuteeee' But our big ugly there can say whatever they want, i think the troops know the command voice.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on November 30, 2023, 07:48:54 PM

Oh, oh boy oh boy oh boy the return of Agatha's darling little clanks! What sparky devilry will they commit this time? Will they drill into the earth and bring (improbable) magma under our affronted noble? Will they connect together into a perimeter to construct a heat field?
(https://41.media.tumblr.com/ba00c1b9fd33c4f698e64d5d9f9fa68c/tumblr_inline_nlmsbf8iiL1r2g2kx_500.png)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 01, 2023, 09:15:56 PM

Looks like your second guess might be closer.

I was more than half expecting a Very Large Flamethrower. I should have known it wouldn't be; she's already built one of those, so it wouldn't have been interesting enough for her.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 04, 2023, 04:20:55 PM

Somehow, I wasn't expecting brown fur.

(If that is fur.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 20, 2023, 05:46:59 PM

"A horror such as you"?

From Ixthalion's point of view? Or do they know something we don't know?

Or are they just going on the basis of previous Heterodynes?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on December 20, 2023, 08:05:41 PM

They have seen A Lot of Heterodyne history and effect, and then along comes this newest whelp wielding deadly sparky tech. A reasonable assumption, methinks.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on December 21, 2023, 07:49:44 AM

I think an opportunity was wasted by not making its (his?) fur green.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on December 27, 2023, 04:04:14 PM

KITTENS! Kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty-kittens!

Um, rather bitey kittens, aren't they? (yes, I know, kittens bite. But all of them biting at once?!) and eight? that's a large litter.

I wonder whether this is supposed to be canon?

-- wait a minute, there are nine! I missed one.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on December 27, 2023, 07:35:43 PM

Agatha suddenly has a lot of lieges, but maybe hereditary rights don't exist in this instance. (Bitey-heel kitten, that one's drawn from life I warrant.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 03, 2024, 10:15:21 PM

Tarvek understands that suggesting to Agatha that she needs to be rescued is a Bad Idea.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130107

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on January 04, 2024, 07:16:04 AM

Oh yes, Agatha is steadily in the rescuer camp rather than a rescuee!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 15, 2024, 05:53:48 PM

Did anybody else think for a moment that the weasel was skreeching because Tarvek somehow got wasped? It (she? him? other?) appears to just be really glad to see him.

And while I'm not surprised by wisps of hair, I think it's really odd that those otherwise fully-skeletonized remains still have eyeballs. I wonder whether that means something.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on January 15, 2024, 06:17:55 PM

(I think it means Phil Foglio draws not by anatomy but by Rule of Funny and/or Sexy) (and googly eyeballs in a corpse fall in there somewhere - so to speak)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 17, 2024, 06:13:11 PM

Speaking of anatomy -- that Polar Lord skeleton doesn't have a human rib cage. Nowhere near enough ribs.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on January 20, 2024, 02:22:59 AM

True. Beats me why they would try to conquer Europa, you'd'a thunk they'd try to get decent ribs in Kansas City or the American (Americanum?) South.
*ba-dum-tish*

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 22, 2024, 02:55:20 PM

Is Lord Moncrieff being presented as non-binary or otherwise of nondeterminate gender, or am I just confused?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on January 22, 2024, 07:41:00 PM

Tough to say, that may be the intention? I don't know how much instruction, if any, Phil gives Cheyenne in working out any given character's colour palette, so is it the pink hair or just its overall swoosh? No pronouns are used when speaking directly to a person, so there's no clue there.

Spoiler: anecdote about travel in london once upon a time • show

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on January 22, 2024, 11:03:39 PM

It isn't primarily the hair; the face looks very female to me, but the chest is (very uncharacteristically for a Foglio woman) quite flat.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 12, 2024, 06:15:08 PM

Update today explaining why there have been no updates.

Kaja is recovering.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 13, 2024, 03:17:48 PM

Yeahhh, she was sick enough that she had to miss a major con, and that would have been a blow to their already parlous finances.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 13, 2024, 11:19:51 PM

I didn't realize their finances are parlous. I wish mine were in better shape, so I could afford to send something.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 15, 2024, 03:14:38 PM

A prediction:

The Heterodyne going where she was told not to go in 10 . . 9 . . 8 . . .

(Though, considering what work this is, it may be more pages than that.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 16, 2024, 04:39:20 PM

Looks like it's going to take fewer pages than I thought.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 17, 2024, 12:19:20 AM

She is also using The Voice, which would account for the expressions of those behind her, I assume.
Always something keeping Gil & Agatha apart, isn't there?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 17, 2024, 12:27:31 PM

That, and the insult to their Mistress.

And she's got the entire Jaegar army out there right behind her, hasn't she? Not that the Heterodyne all on her own wouldn't be enough trouble. These people trying to bar the door aren't bright. Or they aren't educated. Or both. Wonder why Gil left them in charge -- or whether he didn't, and whoever's actually in charge is going to show up any minute.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Buteo on February 17, 2024, 02:34:04 PM

I'm guessing "whoever's actually in charge is going to show up any minute." It's hard to picture Gil leaving anyone this clueless in control of - well, anything.

For some reason I'm particularly impressed with Maxim's face. He is usually so... normal? for a Jager?-looking.
But any slight to Agatha will trigger him as fast as any other Jager.

Notice who we don't see in that last panel: Zeetha and (oh, floop - the Smoke Knight's name is refusing to surface)...

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 17, 2024, 04:41:11 PM

Violetta. (I drew a blank for a minute too.) And Neena, though I don't know how she is in a fight. And a certain cat of our acquaintance, who's been known to throw himself into a fight in defense of his subject.

Maybe they just don't all fit into the picture. Or maybe they've snuck around and found the back way in.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 22, 2024, 03:00:26 PM

Othar
Othar
OTHAR
OTHAR TRYGGVASSEN Gentleman Adventurer

Gosh I love those pages where Phil crams in characters and banter, and perspective and anatomy be damned. 100%

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 22, 2024, 05:45:23 PM

So we had Tarvek being Tarvek, did we? He is good at that. Remember when he got Gil to publicly recognize him as the Storm King?

I still say that, orders or no orders, trying to bar the Heterodyne, backed by an entire Jaeger army yet, from part of Mechanicsburg was not an intelligent move. If I'd thought that my orders required me to do that, I'd have been doing it from behind multiple locked doors and under the bed, not walking out an open door and telling her to her face. Or else I'd have switched sides.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 26, 2024, 01:49:08 PM

I note that the cat is remaining somewhat more coherent than the dog.

Seems about right.

(well, aside from the part of my head saying 'that's an old trope and wrong, often they get along just fine'. But that wouldn't be as funny. -- or would it? Agatha announcing to a monster that she was not its creator and it didn't have to obey her was pretty funny.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on February 27, 2024, 01:43:14 AM

Oh, lookit all the various characters coming together into the same space! This iz gonna be gut.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 08, 2024, 03:20:32 PM

Well, eventually iz gonna be gut.

I concluded some time ago that this comic is made up primarily of side stories. However: for one thing, I usually like the side stories. And for another: if it weren't, it would probably have been over at least ten years ago, and we wouldn't still be getting to read new pages.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 11, 2024, 09:10:20 PM

. . . so are they in somebody's freezer?

Not mine, I hope! (goes to open chest freezers and make sure . . . )

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 12, 2024, 03:31:38 PM

Tell me if you find Theo & Sleipnir in there.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on April 12, 2024, 04:41:49 PM

Everybody else is terrified of them. Agatha goes "poke poke".

I chortle.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on April 22, 2024, 04:07:38 PM

Wouldn't the Dreen already know what kind of battle they're going to have?

-- but apparently each of them has "seen" some things and not others? otherwise the shortbread business doesn't make any sense. Maybe none of them has "seen" the battle?

Maybe it's like, for people who move back and forth in space, different people having been in different rooms and noticed different things in them?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on May 22, 2024, 10:06:23 PM

*pffft* Gil getting snarky with Bang? Right after she says that he didn't want to use explosives inside the bubble? ...and with such a s#1t-eating grin too, boy lives dangerously! ;D
(https://40.media.tumblr.com/8bce3d38bbd548284d2cea89d95698ee/tumblr_nqjffhtuc51r6soqlo10_r1_400.png)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on May 22, 2024, 11:47:18 PM

Gil likes to live dangerously. Why else would he keep Bang around?

-- though I suppose telling her to leave might be even more dangerous, come to think of it.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on August 02, 2024, 04:04:35 PM

Did Bang just grab her own knife by the blade (possibly because the handle-side hand was trapped) or did something else happen there that I missed?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Lenny on September 09, 2024, 01:52:09 PM

I reread it all a little ago and I was so happy to see that when I caught up we were all the way back in Mechanicsburg again, and finally dealing with the dreaded time stop and Things coming closer!

Random thoughts:
The Polar Ice Lords are really frightening and I wonder what's going to happen there.
The whole escalating silliness on the island with Lucrezia is a lot more palatable if you read it in one go, instead of broken up.
The remaining wasp eaters were all stuck in the time bubble, or killed, which is what made Agatha's wasp eater research so valuable. Relevant thing there was that she published that and spread it all over via the Library, so people could work with that knowledge.
I'm so glad to have more Jägers around aaaah.
I am also team "she gets to have both".
Bang is a fun character and I'm glad she got a bit more exposition.
I really want to know what's happening to my favourite Jäger and how the heck he'll be able to make his way back.
Krosp is a delight.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on September 11, 2024, 04:12:51 PM

Any guesses on how long it's going to take for us to find out, of all the characters in this comic, who is and who isn't going on this expedition?

(All of the individual pages are neat, though. -- And I like the very cat-like progress of Krosp's and I-forget-the-other-Cat's-name-don't-tell-her-that-please!)'s relationship -- they've moved on from HissSwearSwat to Grumblegrumblecomplain but OK we'll eat next to each other. I'm looking forward to "what? who? me curled up next to? -- I didn't do that on purpose!"

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on September 12, 2024, 02:46:08 PM

Yes indeed, happy to have some jägers around!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 28, 2024, 01:12:09 PM

The only thing I can find in that tangle that isn't Baron or Device is something blurry towards the top left of the cluster; just to the left of the Baron who appears to be balancing the device on one finger. But it's so blurry that I have no idea what it is; except that it doesn't seem to be Mama Gkika, who ought to be there.

And nearly all the iterations appear to have either thrown the device away or to be trying to catch it. But what that means I also don't know.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Jitter on October 29, 2024, 03:18:37 PM

Is it a still of one baron frantically running around and trying to slap the device away? Or a bunch of minutely different timelines? Is the time frozen to stop him from throwing it? Nobody knows!

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on October 30, 2024, 03:15:29 PM

Maybe it's an additional Baron for each x amount of time that should have passed -- in other words, maybe the time stop's not complete for the Baron, who's at the center of it?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on November 01, 2024, 11:58:17 AM

And maybe only the most recent one will survive being taken out of the time stop?

-- the device they tried to pull out says 2 on it. The one the Baron was holding when he set it off said 5.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130501

Maybe a countdown timer? But I don't know whether any of them would say + anything. There might just be hordes of them that say 0.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on November 04, 2024, 08:11:54 AM

Quote from: thorny on November 01, 2024, 11:58:17 AM

-- the device they tried to pull out says 2 on it. The one the Baron was holding when he set it off said 5.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130501

That page also raises the question whether there's still a general Gkika somewhere in that Klaustrophilic mess ...

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: Lenny on November 07, 2024, 10:34:29 AM

Quote from: JoB on November 04, 2024, 08:11:54 AM

Klaustrophilic

That's a wonderful word, heee

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on November 08, 2024, 12:55:56 AM

With infinite realities there may be several Gkikas in there, maybe the odd Tarvek. (And possibly one Klaus with a turquoise blue beehive.)
Mayyybe there's an undamaged portal amongst them with half an Agatha in it?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on November 08, 2024, 11:56:29 AM

Not sure why there wouldn't be infinite Gkikas, though. Maybe she wasn't quite close enough to the device?

I would like to see Klaus with a turquoise blue beehive.

(I would also like a different reality right now, please. Though if that theory's right, it would sure explain a lot. Somebody (somebodies) would have to be in this one, after all.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on February 19, 2025, 02:10:58 PM

Some interesting explanation going on right now about what was happening shortly before the timestop.

Anybody else here still following this?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: JoB on February 21, 2025, 05:50:51 AM

Quote from: thorny on February 19, 2025, 02:10:58 PM

Anybody else here still following this?

... I catch up occasionally ... O:-)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 03, 2025, 02:00:29 AM

I still follow it at least weekly, although it's become more like my Friday evening blob-out going through the webcomics I still follow. Themes & analysis are not my strong point by that time of the week, I'm only worth appreciating the eye candy by then.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 12, 2025, 06:31:26 PM

Franz isn't even as strong as Humungulous. (Am I spelling that right? It doesn't look right.) But he's holding that thing; if not easily.

Maybe this Huge Deadly Monster isn't as strong as I thought?

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 15, 2025, 07:29:39 PM

(I've been fangirling over Cheyenne's colours on the recent page again.) Listen, I'm just happy they're getting to this plot bunny, but we know that somehow or another the threat will be ... ameliorated somehow. Possibly not "defeated" so much as "converted to benign status", much as the creepy Dreen have been revealed as the same type of fallible, nay goofy, denizen of the universe as all the other characters. (Look how many years that took - decades of the weird foreshadowing all the way back to the beginning pages of Chap. 1.) It's an ongoing theme of the webcomic.
Grandmama Terebithia notwithstanding.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 15, 2025, 10:06:54 PM

Hah, I'd been forgetting about Grandmama Terebithia. Who is definitely up to something.

And, yeah, the Monster From Outer Dimensions obviously isn't going to finish them all off. We've still got that scene to come from the other way around, in which several of them are looking through a time window. (If we ever get there. But the route has been interesting.)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 19, 2025, 09:44:08 PM

Without doing a re-read, I'm curious as to when was "the last time" Franz threw Gil out of Mechanicsberg - was it actually the Baron he threw out? Now associates Gil with the incident?
Also, I thought the appropriate way for a chief minion to speak to their spark was with fannish enthusiasm, not sarcasm or criticism? (Don't get me wrong, I love this page almost as much as Tarvek does...)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 19, 2025, 10:25:43 PM

I think that's the under-minions who have to use fannish enthusiasm. Every proper madgirl/boy needs somebody who'll tell them off when necessary.

And I keep forgetting that a lot of these people just woke up -- and the last thing they remember is a very long time ago in our story time, and years even in the comic. Franz threw Gil out, at Agatha's instruction, right after Agatha re-energized the Castle; Gil had been attempting to "rescue" her by capturing her while she was doing so. Shortly after that she got thrown through the time portal.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130111

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 20, 2025, 10:34:38 PM

2013??!!
Now I don't feel so bad about not remembering.

On the other hand, I bow to you and your scholarship!
(https://imgur.com/ZVlPSyU.png)

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: thorny on March 21, 2025, 09:20:13 AM

It's more a matter of a vague memory followed by searching through the comic's function -- down some distance below the comic on the page there's a box where you can look for story sequences by titles. (It says "jump to a scene".) The titles are often kind of vague and each covers a number of pages; but if I can remember more or less in the sequence when something happened, I can usually hunt around for a bit and find what I'm after.

Also once in a while I reread chunks of the comic; so I expect I'd re-read that more recently than 2013. Agatha bringing down the lightning is one of my favorite bits.

Title: Re: Girl Genius discussion OPEN SPOILERS
Post by: wavewright62 on March 22, 2025, 03:57:01 AM

Yes indeedy! As you said, the jump-to-scene prompts are quite vague - many's the time I've gone looking for something and ended up doing a re-read of something different altogether. (Sometimes the fandom wiki is faster.)

The Stand Still, Stay Silent Fan-Forum

Worlds and Stories => Worlds & Stories Discussion Board => Topic started by: thorny on November 24, 2021, 07:35:42 PM