Girl Genius XXI: Cancel the Jugglers

[geoduck]

Who is the Queen of the Dawn?

By that I mean, who is the REAL QotD. Who is she supposed to be? I don't remember.

We've been told almost nothing about her, only third-hand reports about her "peace making" efforts which have brought numerous northern-European fiefdoms under her control. We haven't even heard her public almost-certainly-a-lie backstory.

[HandofShadows]

We have heard Gil and Tarvek's opinion of her and they both belive that she is an aspect of The Other.

[Ellen]

And it's Zola for the win!

Here's hoping everyone there has quietly gotten a freshly constructed wasp eater as a status symbol.

I'm choosing to believe none of the Storm Kings invited her. Tarvek knows better, and Marcellus probably wouldn't lie to his sister (and I'm pretty sure he couldn't lie successfully to his grandmother). Andronicus likely doesn't know enough about the current situation to send out invitations even if he had a reason to (although, being nuts, maybe he decided to take a moment and send invites out to whatever Important Persons he could find in the phone book).

[geoduck]

And it's Zola for the win!

Here's hoping everyone there has quietly gotten a freshly constructed wasp eater as a status symbol.

I'm choosing to believe none of the Storm Kings invited her. Tarvek knows better, and Marcellus probably wouldn't lie to his sister (and I'm pretty sure he couldn't lie successfully to his grandmother). Andronicus likely doesn't know enough about the current situation to send out invitations even if he had a reason to (although, being nuts, maybe he decided to take a moment and send invites out to whatever Important Persons he could find in the phone book).

Andronicus doesn't even know Zola exists. He's still tunneling/battling his way to the surface. Zola definitely came here on her own initiative; Collette said she was coming to Paris anyway, this is just her coming early and taking advantage of the party to kill or enslave all the VIPs who are present.

[keybounce]

I think we have also found Tarvek's disguise.

The last I remember of Zola, she was fleeing from Agatha in the Castle. Since the baron came in and stopped time almost immediately afterwards, Zola must have been leaving Mechanicsburg as the Baron was approaching. So she has been hiding for almost 3 years now.

What has she been doing? She has had access to Lucrezia's knowledge and helpers; and I don't think there's anywhere near enough time for other people to have made wasp eaters.

My prediction: Agatha arrives right after "the Queen of the Dawn" releases her wasps, and just in time to save a few people from them.

EDIT: Actually, what would Zola want with the wasps?

[geoduck]

I think we have also found Tarvek's disguise.

The last I remember of Zola, she was fleeing from Agatha in the Castle. Since the baron came in and stopped time almost immediately afterwards, Zola must have been leaving Mechanicsburg as the Baron was approaching. So she has been hiding for almost 3 years now.

What has she been doing? She has had access to Lucrezia's knowledge and helpers; and I don't think there's anywhere near enough time for other people to have made wasp eaters.

My prediction: Agatha arrives right after "the Queen of the Dawn" releases her wasps, and just in time to save a few people from them.

EDIT: Actually, what would Zola want with the wasps?

The last we saw of her she was undergoing accelerated healing in the Mechanicsburg Hospital, having presented herself (possibly truthfully) as being Lucrezia while conspiring with Clank-Lu. Klaus was still there as well, recovering, so it wasn't "immediately" that he deployed the time-stop device. She had enough time to heal and get out of town before the hospital was destroyed and the time-stopper deployed.

And if she is (pretending to be) Lucrezia, of course she'd use slaver-wasps as part of her Queen of the Dawn plot.

[eee]

Diva? Command performance? Zola's a singer now? Come to think of it, wasn't 'singer' her cover story with Gil back in his Paris student days? This adds a new dimension to the 'Queen of the Dawn' situation.

I wonder how Granny's going to work this. Probably in some utterly devious way that's of benefit to her family.

Regarding Zola, the wasps, and the Other: Let us not forget, Zola has a copy of Lucrezia's mind prisoner in her mind. She can draw on all Lu's memories and, with her acting ability, pass as Lucrezia, apparently even to other Lu copies. The captive Lucrezia copy may be able to sabotage Zola in small ways, but overall, I would assume all the Other's secrets are now Zola's. As such she's in perfect position to hijack the Other's game and wind up winning everything. That's why Lucrezia-in-Agatha has stopped trying to suicide and take Agatha with her: She HAS to get to the rest of the Lucrezia Collective and warn them there's a Trojan Horse in their midst.

It looks like we're heading towards a major, major event.

[Ellen]

Andronicus doesn't even know Zola exists. He's still tunneling/battling his way to the surface. Zola definitely came here on her own initiative; Collette said she was coming to Paris anyway, this is just her coming early and taking advantage of the party to kill or enslave all the VIPs who are present.

Many a power mad spark (and probably some non-sparks) in the middle of staging major events would stop and ask for a list of Important People who should get front row seats to witness it.

Although, since I don't think Andy did this, I don't know that it's worth debating whether he might have been able to.

[Shining Wrath]

Since Marcellus, Tarvek (obviously), Grandmother, and Seffie didn't invite QotD - and since I very much doubt anyone else would dare issue an invitation to the Sturmvoraus family's party - she's crashing the party, and the Lu / Zola combination almost certainly intends to do something extremely naughty to all those people who are standing around with their mouths open, ready to sing.

Unless I miss my bet, there's about to be a horde of slaver wasps unleashed. And it's only been a few days in-comic since Agatha penned her little treatise, it's unlikely that the knowledge of how to make wasp eaters is widespread. It has not been specified how long is required to make one, but I would guess a good Spark could manage it in under a week - thus, The Other is accelerating her plans because Agatha has forced her hand.

The Master of Paris would be on the short list of "people who would receive a courtesy copy of the treatise" and "people who, with a copy, could quickly make a wasp eater". Did he? How many?

This is heading toward a major plot development, probably the motivation for Agatha to flee to England.

Apropos nothing, I vote for Skifander being on Mars. E.G., the Storm King's family is Sturmvoraus, Martians used to be Little Green Men, so a place named "Sky...." featuring green-haired warrior princesses is on Mars, because puns.

[lord_khaine]

Apropos nothing, I vote for Skifander being on Mars. E.G., the Storm King's family is Sturmvoraus, Martians used to be Little Green Men, so a place named "Sky...." featuring green-haired warrior princesses is on Mars, because puns.

Highly unlikely though. from what we saw of Zeetha's flashback then explorers in airships managed to find Skifander.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And airship pirates managed to screw everything up.

[eschmenk]

Apropos nothing, I vote for Skifander being on Mars. E.G., the Storm King's family is Sturmvoraus, Martians used to be Little Green Men, so a place named "Sky...." featuring green-haired warrior princesses is on Mars, because puns.

I don't understand what you are thinking. Why would a place known for little green men have a fierce matriarchal society? The men are so little they get bullied by the women? Is that the idea?

If I were to think of a planet that Zeetha might come from, I would think Venus would be much more likely.

Highly unlikely though. from what we saw of Zeetha's flashback then explorers in airships managed to find Skifander.

In theory they might have found a portal to Mars while exploring a remote location, but I agree that seems unnecessarily complicated. I really don't care where it is.

[geoduck]

Highly unlikely though. from what we saw of Zeetha's flashback then explorers in airships managed to find Skifander.

Yes. On the other hand, as depicted, the "hallucinations" that Zeetha experienced while traveling on said airship could actually be zero gravity. The brief glimpses we've seen of Skif seem to show that it's underground or domed, and that attacks by large monsters are an ongoing problem. In the print-novels, it's been given the additional title "Guardian of the Red Mountain".

Also, since we've been told outside the comic that

Spoiler

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Skif is where Klaus/"Chump" was sent by Lucrezia and met his wife, Gil is almost certainly the son the queen of the place. And Tarvek jokes at one point that when young Gil was wondering who his parents were, one of the guesses was "Martian Prince." And this would explain why Lucrezia thought it was a good place to get rid of Klaus, and why she was so surprised he was able to get back.

Obviously none of these are conclusive, but I wouldn't be surprised if they turn out to be foreshadowing.

[SZbNAhL]

Yes. On the other hand, as depicted, the "hallucinations" that Zeetha experienced while traveling on said airship could actually be zero gravity.

This comes up every time "Skiffander is on Mars" theory gets brought up, to the point that I'd just kind of accepted it, but looking back at the relevant page, I'm not so sure. The "ceiling" seems to have a carpet on it, and there's a chair sitting on it, all four feet making contact. That doesn't look like zero gravity to me; it looks like the floor's switched with the ceiling in someone's fever dreams. Besides, who builds a spaceship with furniture that's not fixed down?

Actually, who builds a spaceship at all? I know I brought this up last time, but it really doesn't make any sense to me that there's an expedition to Mars in the first place, apparently without the backing of any of the major factions. We've now seen the Wulfenbach Empire, Paris, the Incorruptible Library and a sizeable portion of the Knights of Jove and nobody seems to have the ability or inclination to explore space. It's possible for some university somewhere to fund an expedition to Africa or the New World, but space travel is a whole other level.

[factotum]

The "ceiling" seems to have a carpet on it, and there's a chair sitting on it, all four feet making contact. That doesn't look like zero gravity to me; it looks like the floor's switched with the ceiling in someone's fever dreams. Besides, who builds a spaceship with furniture that's not fixed down?

Um, isn't that contradicting yourself? The chair and carpet might still be attached because they *are* fixed down, and it's just Zeetha and her bedding that have floated off.

[SZbNAhL]

Um, isn't that contradicting yourself? The chair and carpet might still be attached because they *are* fixed down, and it's just Zeetha and her bedding that have floated off.

Oh. Yes. *Facepalms*. I added the fixing-down furniture thing as an afterthought and didn't think through how it invalidated my main point. Please ignore that entire paragraph.

[eee]

This comes up every time "Skiffander is on Mars" theory gets brought up, to the point that I'd just kind of accepted it, but looking back at the relevant page, I'm not so sure. The "ceiling" seems to have a carpet on it, and there's a chair sitting on it, all four feet making contact. That doesn't look like zero gravity to me; it looks like the floor's switched with the ceiling in someone's fever dreams. Besides, who builds a spaceship with furniture that's not fixed down?

Actually, who builds a spaceship at all? I know I brought this up last time, but it really doesn't make any sense to me that there's an expedition to Mars in the first place, apparently without the backing of any of the major factions. We've now seen the Wulfenbach Empire, Paris, the Incorruptible Library and a sizeable portion of the Knights of Jove and nobody seems to have the ability or inclination to explore space. It's possible for some university somewhere to fund an expedition to Africa or the New World, but space travel is a whole other level.

Background information indicates that travel between the Americas and Europa is almost non-existent. I would assume the seas are full of thousands of years of Spark experiments gone wrong - or horribly right - and are impassible to sailing ships. That's why American adventurers like Thundering Engine Woman (the original) who reach Europa are such a big deal. If space travel were possible I doubt they'd waste time on Mars when getting to the New World would be even more interesting.

ON the other hand, the idea that Zeetha's mother is the GG version of Dejah Thoris IS pleasing!

[eschmenk]

New comic

Is the name of the wine a shoutout to Rena del Pieve Gobbi? That's all that I could come up with.

Um, isn't that contradicting yourself? The chair and carpet might still be attached because they *are* fixed down, and it's just Zeetha and her bedding that have floated off.

But on the other hand, she seems to be affected by gravity. For example, her hair is hanging toward her pillow.

Also, although it wasn't canonical, we saw artwork that seemed to show War of the Worlds style Martians a while ago. I don't really know, but I think it's somewhat unlikely that Phil would have done that if he planned to make GG's Mars and Martians inconsistent with War of the Worlds.

ON the other hand, the idea that Zeetha's mother is the GG version of Dejah Thoris IS pleasing!

Unfortunately for that specific idea, in interviews Phil and Kaja talk up being influenced by H. Rider Haggard much more than they do with Edgar Rice Burroughs. In She, the Amazonian civilization was in Africa, and in King Solomon's Mines and its sequels, Allan Quatermain traveled throughout the British Empire, staying on Earth. Given that, the difficulty of travel to the Americas, and the fact that Africa has barely been mentioned, I'm expecting Skiffander to probably be in Africa or at least somewhere on Earth.

[Shining Wrath]

Highly unlikely though. from what we saw of Zeetha's flashback then explorers in airships managed to find Skifander.

Bill and Barry went there - in a rowboat. Top that!

[Rogar Demonblud]

They're Heterodynes. The Laws of Physics flee from the sheer amount of Narrativium oozing out of their pores.

[stsasser]

Nice to see Tweedle fulfilled his promise to Tybalt.

[halfeye]

Nice to see Tweedle fulfilled his promise to Tybalt.

Even idiots fulfill their promises.

[Shining Wrath]

They're Heterodynes. The Laws of Physics flee from the sheer amount of Narrativium oozing out of their pores.

And Zeetha is one of Agatha's best friends and has taught her much of combat. The Narrativium of Agatha, title character, reaches at least to Mars.

[eee]

I wonder what a steampunk spaceship would look like.

(Googles)

Oh. Those are actually rather impressive.

[factotum]

Let me guess...virtually everything you found was from Warhammer 40K?

As for today's strip: Zola is either setting Martellus up for a fall, or she's going to use her control of the Geisterdamen to make him look really good. I have no idea what her motive is for either at this point.

[petersohn]

I wonder what a steampunk spaceship would look like.

(Googles)

Oh. Those are actually rather impressive.

They actually look less spacefaring than the Star Wars spaceships.

[stsasser]

Let me guess...virtually everything you found was from Warhammer 40K?

As for today's strip: Zola is either setting Martellus up for a fall, or she's going to use her control of the Geisterdamen to make him look really good. I have no idea what her motive is for either at this point.

I think the dancing nuns all carrying mini wasp generators disguised as lanterns makes the former possibility the front runner.

[HandofShadows]

Let me guess...virtually everything you found was from Warhammer 40K?

As for today's strip: Zola is either setting Martellus up for a fall, or she's going to use her control of the Geisterdamen to make him look really good. I have no idea what her motive is for either at this point.

Wouldn't Warhammer 40K be gothic and not steampunk?

I think Zola is out to make Tweedle look good. Who do you think will come and screw it up? The Master or Agatha?

[Egneil]

Wouldn't Warhammer 40K be gothic and not steampunk?

I think Zola is out to make Tweedle look good. Who do you think will come and screw it up? The Master or Agatha?

My guess is the old storm king himself. Maybe with a rant about how all impostors cannot hope to reach his strength.

[HandofShadows]

My guess is the old storm king himself. Maybe with a rant about how all impostors cannot hope to reach his strength.

Yeah, forgot about him. The person that could take him on is headed to Paris though. As in Gil. The Storm Kings main power is the lightning he tosses about. And Gil is an expert just that thing.