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Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Welcome to another installment of the Girl Genius Thread!
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
After reading some of the posts on the pacing issues this series suffered during the Mechanicsburg arc, I started thinking about something that's troubled me for awhile. It's true that the meandering around the castle arc seemed to drag on and bore as much as it entertained and thrilled. And I started thinking about this series as a whole.
I think it's entirely possible that it might be better for this series and Agatha if the Castle really was killed. Once and for all killed. The Foglio's have to be very careful with a character like Agatha and how she's written. One thing I now believe about her is that it would be easy, extremely easy, for her to sink down into the mire of Mary Sue-dom. It is worth anything to avoid this, which is why the Foglio's have to be so careful with her.
That's why it might be better for some of the Heterodyne's more impressive stuff to just, quietly go away. Let Agatha survive on her own wits and intelligence and the talent of her friends, Not on the convenient super power of the castle size Macguffin (which der Kestle was in danger of becoming in the last battle).
I understand the pacing issues of the Mechanicsburg arc were unavoidable, as there were so many revelations to make (and there's plenty more to make before it's all over). But I hope that such problems will not be quite so obvious in the future.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Is this the first time Violetta's replaced something with a useful thing instead of an innocuous-and-maybe-humorous thing?
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
We noticed she was getting better, yes.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Manix21
I think it's entirely possible that it might be better for this series and Agatha if the Castle really was killed. Once and for all killed.
I don't agree. The Castle is only useful to Agatha while she's in Mechanicsburg--it offers no help to her when she's elsewhere, so all the Foglios have to do to remove it as a factor is force her to leave the town; this is pretty much what they've done already, of course! Think of the Castle as being like the town in an action RPG--it's a safe place you go to recover from your adventures, but that doesn't mean you spend all your time there.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Thank you, that is an excellent point.
Castle Heterodyne's strength is built very heavily on location. It's built in a defensible position on top of a spectacular energy source, with the accumulated tools and toys of generations of Heterodynes and a population that both loves them and... er... copes with them. It's an important strength and resource, but Agatha literally can't take it with her, and she has several potential reasons to travel even without being forced.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
To find the real heir to the Storm King, of course!
(Personally, I don't think that any of the Stormvarous family are the true heir to the Storm King mantle.
It makes much more dramatic sense that the true heir doesn't know his true heritage.)
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Southern Cross
To find the real heir to the Storm King, of course!
(Personally, I don't think that any of the Stormvarous family are the true heir to the Storm King mantle.
It makes much more dramatic sense that the true heir doesn't know his true heritage.)
Perhaps. Agatha would probably prefer it to be Tarvek however, as he is as known a quantity as any of his family are (except Violetta, who's too far removed from the "royal line" to count). :smallamused: Which is all the more reason for it to be a new character, but still.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
*headtilt*
I was thinking Agatha was likely to be opposing the Other, searching for her uncle, searching for Skifander, checking up on her friends in England, and/or seeking out allies. I'm not sure why she'd particularly care about finding the "true heir" to the Storm King.
(Although I admit to being charmed by the possibility that Euphrosynia simply went home, and Valois did until recently have a line of male descendants... they were just inconveniently calling themselves Heterodynes.)
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Considering the various people claimng the Storm King title have been very concerned with her, it is entirely conceivable that Agatha wants to sort out that mess once and for all. She's beginning to learn that just leaving other people alone doesn't mean they will leave her alone.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Manix21
The Foglio's have to be very careful with a character like Agatha and how she's written. One thing I now believe about her is that it would be easy, extremely easy, for her to sink down into the mire of Mary Sue-dom. It is worth anything to avoid this, which is why the Foglio's have to be so careful with her.
Or the Foglios have chosen to center their story on a Mary Sue and must justify her. Surrounding her with like overpowered characters, as both allies and adversaries, may be part of their scheme. Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Lampshade, helps. Keeping Agatha likeable and plausible in her world is a pretty severe challenge, but if that's their choice, more power to them. So far, they've succeeded enough to keep me reading, anyway.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stsasser
Or the Foglios have chosen to center their story on a Mary Sue and must justify her. Surrounding her with like overpowered characters, as both allies and adversaries, may be part of their scheme. Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Lampshade, helps. Keeping Agatha likeable and plausible in her world is a pretty severe challenge, but if that's their choice, more power to them. So far, they've succeeded enough to keep me reading, anyway.
I have to say the biggest danger of being a mary sue is her sparkyness, and the biggest thing that keeps her from that status is she needs time and materials to build her death rays and whatnot. So while she can turn the carnival into a platoon of heavily armed and armored clanks, she cant just snap her fingers and make it happen. I think that might be a part of why she is constantly on the move, so she doesnt GET that time to be over prepared. The entire castle arc more or less, she wasnt able to stop rest and think more than once or twice. And once she did get the chance, bango, she had herself a castle obliterating death ray. The only way to keep things from falling into full on curb stomping sue mode was to keep throwing things at her and never giving her time to rest. The down side is, it gave us the extremely busy and somewhat disjointed castle arc where so much was happening that it was easy to lose track.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stsasser
Or the Foglios have chosen to center their story on a Mary Sue and must justify her.
I'm sorry, I didn't realize Maria Antonia Fantasia Philomel was the protagonist of this story :smallamused:
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stsasser
Or the Foglios have chosen to center their story on a Mary Sue and must justify her. Surrounding her with like overpowered characters, as both allies and adversaries, may be part of their scheme. Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Lampshade, helps. Keeping Agatha likeable and plausible in her world is a pretty severe challenge, but if that's their choice, more power to them. So far, they've succeeded enough to keep me reading, anyway.
If a character has a great deal of personal ability, and so do their friends and allies and enemies and rivals and... just generally most people important to the story have a tremendous (possibly over-the-top) amount of personal ability...
...then doesn't that just make the whole setting over-the-top and the main character just in possession of a fairly standard amount of Main Character Mojo?
I mean, nobody complains about mary sues when the Terminator kills all those dudes.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Judging from the bubbles Tweedle is now fully spark out. And it seems the single 'a' version of his name is the right one.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
That guy clearly deserves a promotion. Excellent minion.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
datalaughing
That guy clearly deserves a promotion. Excellent minion.
Spark-charisma. His grace never stood a chance against his majesty.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
That guy's a lot smarter than Question Mark Girl. At least he's still alive.
The three guys in the background in the first panel: I don't think they're Smoke Knights, I think they're part of whatever faction of the KoJ that has control of the Fortress now. As such, unless they defect immediately to Tweedle, too, I doubt they'll last long.
(The guy wearing the hat: Is the sigil on his emblem the same as the sigil on the late Your Grace? They look close, but it's hard to tell... It would be indicative of how serious things are if several different forces had to JOIN forces to survive Gil's onslaught.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Guancyto
If a character has a great deal of personal ability, and so do their friends and allies and enemies and rivals and... just generally most people important to the story have a tremendous (possibly over-the-top) amount of personal ability...
...then doesn't that just make the whole setting over-the-top and the main character just in possession of a fairly standard amount of Main Character Mojo?
I mean, nobody complains about mary sues when the Terminator kills all those dudes.
Or Ranma always winning, even against near gods.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
datalaughing
That guy clearly deserves a promotion. Excellent minion.
Yes, let's call him "Vlad" for now. :smalltongue:
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Tweedle is really growing on me. He's got no pretension, or rather he does, but it's all refreshingly uncomplicated. Sure, he demands they address him as majesty and all that, but his power is basically built on spark charisma and the fact he's so physically dangerous that he can't be removed from power, and he knows it. And he goes out of his way to make his minions know it as well.
He's not saying his dictatorship is better than the alternative, he's not arguing that everyone else is just as bad as he is (except Tavek, but let's face it, on that count he's pretty much on the money), and he hasn't claimed divine right, legitimacy or anything like that. He just wants to exploit people, to be unchallenged and to do science. I can respect that.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Some of the recent commentary here (last few pages of Thread XIV) suggests to me that either nobody was at the Reddit Q&A or precious few were and they're not speaking up.
Therefore:
A question on Mechanicsburg:
Spoiler
Show
No, Mechanicsburg is not gone.
A question on the Wulfenbach brothers, since the Old Curmudgeon brought it up:
Spoiler
Show
Klaus is definitely constructed from three brothers, and the work was done by his/their parents.
You'll have to get the specific reference from the Wikia, but Phil has said in an interview that Klaus was in Skifander for four years. WoG, WoG.... Please note that from other time references elsewhere, it took Klaus something like two years to get back, possibly on foot for much of it.
Questions about Klaus and his wife:
Spoiler
Show
Kaja giggled, Phil said 'He is very fond of her', then they added in a later response that she'll have a lot to say to him. Notice the tense used.
A question about Skifander's culture as much as answered one bit of fanon:
Spoiler
Show
They don't like twins.
There's lots more in there, including a question about bees, but I've included the link so you may browse at leisure.
I do appreciate the opportunity to bask in being Right, though. [bows to the Professors]
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Qwertystop
Is this the first time Violetta's replaced something with a useful thing instead of an innocuous-and-maybe-humorous thing?
Nope, not hardly.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Corgi
That does sort of count as an innocuous-and-harmless thing...it saved Theo, but the doll itself does nothing.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
I wonder why everyone is trying to kill Tweedle? This seems more than the normal internecine fighting you expect from his family--it seems every other member of the family specifically wants him dead...
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
factotum
I wonder why everyone is trying to kill Tweedle? This seems more than the normal internecine fighting you expect from his family--it seems every other member of the family specifically wants him dead...
I look at it as a smaller scale version of what happened when wulfenbach was injured. So long as tweedle was in command, in control, and had his plan working, his family backed off for the most part aside from standard intrigue. But he has apparently gone missing, is injured, and his plan is in shambles. In other words, he looks vulnerable. So every faction trying to get an edge over the others wants to take him down and take his place.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cracklord
Tweedle is really growing on me. He's got no pretension, or rather he does, but it's all refreshingly uncomplicated. Sure, he demands they address him as majesty and all that, but his power is basically built on spark charisma and the fact he's so physically dangerous that he can't be removed from power, and he knows it. And he goes out of his way to make his minions know it as well.
He's not saying his dictatorship is better than the alternative, he's not arguing that everyone else is just as bad as he is (except Tavek, but let's face it, on that count he's pretty much on the money), and he hasn't claimed divine right, legitimacy or anything like that. He just wants to exploit people, to be unchallenged and to do science. I can respect that.
Oh gosh. A horrible thought has just occurred to me. Lucrezia would LOVE Tweedle: Big, strong, dangerous, and easy to manipulate. It'd be like Bang and Vole, but WORSE!
Let's hope Agatha's locket stays in place... :smalleek:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Corgi
Some of the recent commentary here (last few pages of Thread XIV) suggests to me that either nobody was at the
Reddit Q&A or precious few were and they're not speaking up.
Thank you MUCH for this! :smallbiggrin:
(reads questions and answers)
Art SPARKS?!? There's ART... SPARKS???
Oh. My. God.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Corgi
A question about Skifander's culture as much as answered one bit of fanon:
Spoiler
Show
They don't like twins.
Spoiler
Show
Twins. I NEVER THOUGHT of the possibility of twins! Oh, this is going to be jolting to Gil when this comes out. O_O
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eee
Art SPARKS?!? There's ART... SPARKS???
Oh. My. God.
I always thought that VanRijin was an Art Spark. Sure, his clanks are marvels of engineering, but they were built to teach the arts (dancing and what-not), and it seems most people appreciate that part of them rather than the clever machinery.
I'm actually slightly disappointed he isn't an Art Spark, actually.
Grey Wolf
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Another thing from the reddit AMA:
Quote:
Phil: We will be returning to a more focused narrative in the near future.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Traab
I look at it as a smaller scale version of what happened when wulfenbach was injured. So long as tweedle was in command, in control, and had his plan working, his family backed off for the most part aside from standard intrigue. But he has apparently gone missing, is injured, and his plan is in shambles. In other words, he looks vulnerable. So every faction trying to get an edge over the others wants to take him down and take his place.
I think you've nailed it.
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eee
Oh gosh. A horrible thought has just occurred to me. Lucrezia would LOVE Tweedle: Big, strong, dangerous, and easy to manipulate. It'd be like Bang and Vole, but WORSE!
Let's hope Agatha's locket stays in place... :smalleek:
Tweedle's not stupid by any means. Just… direct. No finesse or subtlety, he's all brute force. He makes no real effort to insinuate himself, and his scheming generally falls more in the category of 'join me or die' backed up by the threat of overwhelming brutality then carefully subverting the enemy without revealing your hand and converting crucial members to your own faction. Which, to be fair, can be extremely effective, as long as you're the one who is always in the position of overwhelming power.
Which is doubtless why Taverk underestimated him. He associates intelligence and competence with his own methods, the backstabbing and subterfuge that his family all indulge in as they maneuver each other towards ruin, and play elaborate games of bluff and counter-bluff. Because of this, he therefore assumes someone more like him in the Order must be backing Tweedle. But from what we can see here, it seems far more likely that Tweedle simply put the fear of God (or at least, the fear of Tweedle) into everyone, killed anyone he didn't need to prove his point, and made his claim stick that way. He can't be removed because he's too good, and he's not willing to compromise, so essentially they all had to fold beneath him and give him what he wanted, or get knifed.
And that seems to have been working before the Mechanicsburg debacle. It actually looks like a good way to do business in this world. I mean, it's worked for Klaus, though Klaus has also shown himself a good hand at the other way of doing things as well. However, if Lucrezia did get her talons in Tweedle…
Well, the question is what exactly can he offer her. He's pretty deadly, but she's such a powerful spark, and has got so many resources squirreled away that anyone she backs in the Order will be in a position of overwhelming force. She might back him for simplicities sake, but using Anvenka she's in a position to make a play of her own. The only reason I can see her deciding to use Tweedle is to try and find a subject to get another backup for her mind so she can kill Agatha (remember, she's worried she's losing control, and is only keeping Agatha alive because she needs to warn the rest of her about Zola).
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eee
Thank you MUCH for this! :smallbiggrin:
(reads questions and answers)
Art SPARKS?!? There's ART... SPARKS???
Oh. My. God.
What, and this didn't tip you off? If this isn't obviously indicating that the methods of expression in this universe isn't as mad as the science, I don't know what is (except perhaps that painting in Castle Hetrodyne that eats people).
I like to believe that the omnidisciplinary sparks we see so much of who dabble in everything are a minority, and that there's chemistry sparks devoted solely to cooking out there.