Girl Genius XXI: Cancel the Jugglers

[Porthos]

It is a world ruled by Mad Science! Things happen. Usually, they happen to other people. This is entertainment. That's when the front door gets blown in- And you belatedly realize that, once again, you are doomed to be the entertainment in another exciting installment of: GIRL GENIUS!

Many elegant, finely-crafted, and vintage links follow:

Links to Previous Threads

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Girl Genius! (thread)
Girl Genius II
Girl Genius III: Nize Thread!
Girl Genius IV: Because SCIENCE! is my mistress
Girl Genius V: Madre de Diodes!
Girl Genius VI: Der Pestle in Der Kestle
Girl Genius VII: Get on the Slab, I Want to Get to Work!
Girl Genius: VIII Will Show Them All!
Girl Genius IX: The Unstoppable Thread
Girl Genius X: The Othar Shoe Drops
Girl Genius XI: Ding Dong, the Baron's Dead!
Girl Genius XII: For Doom The Bell Tolls
Girl Genius XIII: "Gott's Leedle Feesh in Trousers!"
Girl Genius XIV: A Lightning Arc in All But Speed!
Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Girl Genius XVI: The Wrath of Klaus
Girl Genius XVII: And Then He Had Pie
Girl Genius XVIII: Invisible Hand of the Legendary Smoke Knights
Girl Genius XIX: Worth a Third of Your Grade
Girl Genius XX: Endothermic Life Forms Are Inherently Heretical

Comic Links
Link to current comic and link to the beginning of the strip. (Updates MWF, usually after Midnight [Eastern Time])
The Continuing Adventures of Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer! (back on hiatus, may update in the future)
A compilation (and much easier to read if you're just catching up) of the first three chapters can be found here at the GG website.
And if one goes to snapbird.org and types in "Othar" in the 'Who?' field, all of Othar's adventures can be read on one page (albiet in reverse order of posting - Now must have a Twitter account to use).
Mirror of the comic found on LiveJournal (Sometimes will update before the main page is updated, so beware of spoilers)
Mirror of the comic found on Facebook (Will occasionally have Girl Genius related news)
And one can find mirrors of Girl Genius on deviantArt as well. (Occasionally Kaja will put up or link to interesting GG related art that is found on dA)

Reference Links
Wiki Project devoted to to Girl Genius
Wikipedia entry on Girl Genius.
TV Tropes page on Girl Genius.
The Secret Blueprints (NOTE: Contains background information on the GG Universe, so it should probably be read after "catching up" to the newest comic, as it contains many spoilers.)

Social Media and News Links
Phil Foglio's new Wordpress art, news, and blogging website.
Kaja Foglio's LJ Page and Studio Foglio News LJ Page (Not currently being updated)
Kaja & Phil's Personal Facebook Page (Not currently being updated)
A twitter account that basically is a catch-all feed for Girl Genius related news.
Cheyenne Wright's Twitter and LiveJournal Accounts (The colorist's twitter and LJ pages)
And finally,
Phil's old LJ page. (Occasionally contains crossposts from the Wordpress website)

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Q: What is this "Sneaky Gate" y'alls go on about?

Sneaky gate: Named from this hidden gate in comic, it has become a name for viewing new comics early. Remember, if you're going to discuss the new comic, put it in spoiler boxes until the release time (12am EST).

Sneaky Gate 101:

1. Right click the comic image.
2. Select view image or copy paste the image location into the address bar.
3. Modify the date to be the day you're trying to look at. (ex. 20120111 -> 20120113)
4. Go to the modified url.
5. Be disappointed when there's no early comic to read.
6. Alternately, enjoy the comic!

[Ellen]

Uh, oh, cancel the dancing nuns, too. Everyone's about to get wasped.

Or not. Because, Agatha. And the Master of Paris. And Tarvek. And maybe a few other people.

But, this is not looking really good.

[keybounce]

First: Who is Collette's father again? He's coming, and she knows that's wrong -- so is he already wasped?

Second: "Turn on your lanterns, and breath deeply". ... If these are slave engine lanterns, that would wasp the existing people -- not the target people. Perhaps it is "this device activates after a short period of time, so that the person handling it can safely prepare"? And, what if it's some sort of gas instead of a wasp?

Third: What's on the right side of this double page spread?
Where's the finely hand-crafted link?

[geoduck]

First: Who is Collette's father again? He's coming, and she knows that's wrong -- so is he already wasped?

The Master of Paris, who never ever attends parties.

Second: "Turn on your lanterns, and breath deeply". ... If these are slave engine lanterns, that would wasp the existing people -- not the target people. Perhaps it is "this device activates after a short period of time, so that the person handling it can safely prepare"? And, what if it's some sort of gas instead of a wasp?

I'm guessing it's some kind of mass-attack and the lanterns protect them from whatever-it-is. I'd guess gas, yes, and it's going to turn out that Tarvek is wearing that Plague Doctor costume and won't be affected.

[eee]

<bleep>, double spread page! We're not going to find out who the QotN is until Monday! If then!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Devious and Cruel are our Foglio Masters.

[Shining Wrath]

I will wager 2,000 quatloos that the person about to enter the room is *not* the Queen of the Dawn.

[geoduck]

I will wager 2,000 quatloos that the person about to enter the room is *not* the Queen of the Dawn.

So.. someone pretending to be her? A minion of hers? Because that's her symbol plastered all over the airship and personnel.

[Ellen]

I think the Master is coming because he realizes this will be the epicenter of the attack. My bet is the lanterns are about to release a swarm of the Other's mind-control wasps, and they want everyone to breathe them in. But, we'll see.

And, in the midst of this, we're about to have three storm kings, two royal houses, and a Heterodyne in a pear tree.

(sorry, had to say it)

[Rogar Demonblud]

Suddenly I'm wondering when Krosp is going to reappear with all those bears. They do seem to be about the only element missing from this situation.

[Rodin]

What we really need is Othar to yell:

SO! ALL THE VIPERS ARE IN RESIDENCE!!!

[HandofShadows]

Shouldn't Othar be traveling with Gil? If he isn't, he has his own reason to head to Paris.

[eee]

Shouldn't Othar be traveling with Gil? If he isn't, he has his own reason to head to Paris.

I would assume Othar is either under the strongest lock and key imprisonment Gil can devise; or, having already escaped that, is wandering around free and going to show up where his presence will cause the most chaos.

(Does he even remember Oslaka anymore?)

[eschmenk]

I will wager 2,000 quatloos that the person about to enter the room is *not* the Queen of the Dawn.

I'll take that. I would be surprised if the Queen of the Dawn isn't Zola or Lucrezia and the egos of both of them would make them want to be there. Assuming the people are about to be wasped and the wasps still don't work on sparks, someone will need to give the people orders using Lucrezia's voice to take out any sparks there, otherwise any sparks there (including Martellus) would have a chance to get away or respond somehow.

I think the Master is coming because he realizes this will be the epicenter of the attack. My bet is the lanterns are about to release a swarm of the Other's mind-control wasps, and they want everyone to breathe them in. But, we'll see.

I would break it down into two reasons. 1) Andronicus is heading there. 2) Since Andronicus is heading there and so many important people will be there, it may be the epicenter of the attack.

What we really need is Othar to yell:

SO! ALL THE VIPERS ARE IN RESIDENCE!!!

Yes, although Othar wouldn't realize it's a masquerade ball, so he'd go after the guests and ignore the Queen of the Dawn and her presumably wasped nuns. But it would be fun to watch him chase the guy dressed as Sam Starfall.

I would assume Othar is either under the strongest lock and key imprisonment Gil can devise; or, having already escaped that, is wandering around free and going to show up where his presence will cause the most chaos.

(Does he even remember Oslaka anymore?)

This is the last we saw of Othar. He might be leading an army for all we know. In this case, Gil was so upset at the Library that he might not have done anything about Othar.

No, Othar probably doesn't remember Oslaka. That was completely noncanonical. I think that at most Othar might think he remembers a weird dream featuring her.

[Lateral]

Spoiler: Update

Show

So... yeah, that's Zola, isn't it. Can't quite see her face, but with blonde hair who else would it be?

[Ellen]

Yeah, taunt us with the mystery of who the queen is. Then, when you do the big reveal, make sure we can't recognize her under her costume. No, we're not dying of curiosity here. Why would you think that?

*****

On an unrelated note, I was rereading the early chapters. When the Baron runs into Punch and Judy he realizes they were hiding from him, which doesn't make any sense to Klaus. Judy tells him "Barry came back."

At first, I thought that meant they were acting under orders from Barry (given before Klaus' return) to keep Agatha hidden. On rereading it, it sounded more like "You didn't think Barry would come back, but he did and told us everything.

At this point, I'm wondering if Barry got into a possible future, an alternate reality, or Skifander on a bad day and has got some wrong ideas about Klaus. After all, if he got into a future where wasped Klaus was claiming to have been an Evil Overlord all along (or something like that), he'd come back thinking he'd learned Klaus couldn't be trusted.

This seems to tie into Klaus' own mistake about Agatha. He'd learned enough to suspect Lucy was the Other. But, based on things like Bang's report on future-Agatha, he was making a lot of wrong conclusions about present-Agatha.

[anon62453]

Spoiler: Update

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So... yeah, that's Zola, isn't it. Can't quite see her face, but with blonde hair who else would it be?

Clankrezia with a wig & a skin job.

[geoduck]

On an unrelated note, I was rereading the early chapters. When the Baron runs into Punch and Judy he realizes they were hiding from him, which doesn't make any sense to Klaus. Judy tells him "Barry came back."

At first, I thought that meant they were acting under orders from Barry (given before Klaus' return) to keep Agatha hidden. On rereading it, it sounded more like "You didn't think Barry would come back, but he did and told us everything.

At this point, I'm wondering if Barry got into a possible future, an alternate reality, or Skifander on a bad day and has got some wrong ideas about Klaus. After all, if he got into a future where wasped Klaus was claiming to have been an Evil Overlord all along (or something like that), he'd come back thinking he'd learned Klaus couldn't be trusted.

For what it's worth, the GG print novelization expands this scene, and explicitly states that for some as-yet unknown reason Barry believed that Klaus was working for the Other, which is why he hid himself and Agatha.

And yes, I agree the QotD looks like Zola.

[Hurkyl]

For what it's worth, the GG print novelization expands this scene, and explicitly states that for some as-yet unknown reason Barry believed that Klaus was working for the Other, which is why he hid himself and Agatha.

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Wait a moment... currently, Klaus is working for the Other... sort of... and there's all that time travel....

[eee]

Oh, <BLEEP>!!!!!!!

[rooster707]

Oooh, Shovel Knight!

[stsasser]

And yes, I agree the QotD looks like Zola.

Same stance with arms spread as in her arrival in Mechanicsburg.
If it isn't Zola, it's somebody imitating her.

[keybounce]

I think this is a mistake:

Monday's and Wednesday's pages are two halves of what will be a double-page spread in the published book.

[Southern Cross]

So Barry's been time travelling?

[Hurkyl]

So Barry's been time travelling?

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They keep talking about people coming back -- could very well be talking about a time rather than a place!

[runeghost]

Spoiler

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They keep talking about people coming back -- could very well be talking about a time rather than a place!

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My (mostly baseless) suspicion is that they're coming back from Mars. I.e. Skifander is on Mars, where Lucrezia sent Klaus, which also has some connection to the Other, and where Bill and Barry battled. And perhaps where Bill is still trapped? Not to deny that there's also time travel, of course.

[geoduck]

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My (mostly baseless) suspicion is that they're coming back from Mars. I.e. Skifander is on Mars, where Lucrezia sent Klaus, which also has some connection to the Other, and where Bill and Barry battled. And perhaps where Bill is still trapped? Not to deny that there's also time travel, of course.

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I agree with the Skifander=Mars theory, though I predict that Barry and Bill went to the Geister home"land", which will turn out to be on the Moon. I mostly say this because of the Geisters' general color scheme. I also wouldn't be surprised if Skifander and the Geister are both offshoots of some ancient/long-forgotten matriarchal project to colonize the solar system using portals instead of spaceships.

[Kislath]

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.

Is there an index where all of the players and places and politics are listed so we can look up this stuff?
If not, could we make one?

Anyway, I think this is Zola, who either got wasped or just voluntarily made a dirty deal with someone.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Is there an index where all of the players and places and politics are listed so we can look up this stuff?
If not, could we make one?

There is a wiki.

GW

[stsasser]

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.

Is there an index where all of the players and places and politics are listed so we can look up this stuff?
If not, could we make one?

Anyway, I think this is Zola, who either got wasped or just voluntarily made a dirty deal with someone.

Volunteered for a ride-along