Girl Genius XXIV: Ask Vit a Bit More Terror

[Ibrinar]

I am on the totally alive side. If they decide to kill an main it won't be in an off screen fight without much importance. I know stories where companion characters die off screen in a battle and you only hear about it afterwards from the main character but those are in general more ready to kill and have a different tone. In a story like Girl Genius if they decide to do it it will have more impact.

[Onyavar]

#15 to believe Vio's either still alive or not permanently dead. Nobody doubted that so far...

The question is whether steelgarter is lying just to get away quickly, lying because violetta forces her and plans along, or if she believes what she says. [By my gut feeling, the chances are 30, 5 and 65 per cent respectively.]

[Gauntlet]

Or Steelgarter is actually Violetta in disguise.

[Rockphed]

Or Steelgarter is actually Violetta in disguise.

Now that is an interesting idea. Is that why she is letting her lower arms hang?

[HandofShadows]

We don't know how good she is at disguises though. I hope that Violetta is still alive. Lady Steelgarter appears to be a construct that can split herself into to separate beings for a short time. And the person with the eye could be Madwa.

[SZbNAhL]

How many main characters have actually died so far?

1. Punch (got better but only after about nine years)
2. Judy (see above)
3. Zulena (possibly later resurrected)
4. Lars

That's about it, unless you want to extend "main" to include people like Lady Selnikov or Voltaire.

[Traab]

There is no way she is actually dead. She is a fricking smoke knight, one far better than most who meet her expected, and it has been VERY WELL ESTABLISHED that its beyond easy for a smoke knight to escape, plant false bodies, and generally be not dead when you think they are done for. Its what they DO. Violetta will be treated as dead for some time, probably long enough for most of us to have put her more or less out of mind, then she will reappear at some huge dramatic moment to save the day and reveal she has been spying in secret all this time to figure things out. Its telegraphed so hard each speech bubble in this comic needs to end with the word STOP.

[factotum]

Now that is an interesting idea. Is that why she is letting her lower arms hang?

But Violetta would have had even *less* reason to hide Steelgarter's body than the other way round, surely? I find it more likely that Steelgarter left a "dead" Violetta behind, who then got up and followed her to see where she went, than that Violetta hid Steelgarter's body for no readily apparently reason and then also knew where to go to meet up with the dead woman's contact.

[runeghost]

Yeah, I'm thinking the odds of Violetta actually being dead are somewhere around 0.001%. My guess is she faked her death and followed this lady to get more intel.

That was my immediate assumption on reading the comic, too. I think it's what we are supposed to read into it.

We're shown a complete lack of Violetta's corpse before being told of her supposed death. And as Ellen pointed out, Steelgarter was clearly not going to be wasting time hiding a body.

[SZbNAhL]

But Violetta would have had even *less* reason to hide Steelgarter's body than the other way round, surely? I find it more likely that Steelgarter left a "dead" Violetta behind, who then got up and followed her to see where she went, than that Violetta hid Steelgarter's body for no readily apparently reason and then also knew where to go to meet up with the dead woman's contact.

Depends on how long she's planning on impersonating her for. It's mighty hard to convince somebody you're Lady Steelgarter when the authorities announce they've found her corpse.

[Shining Wrath]

Put me down for "Vi's not dead, Steelgarter is lying because otherwise she wouldn't be allowed to flee". Leaving witnesses behind to Eyeball's sinister plot is simply not done.

[multilis]

Put me down for "Vi's not dead, Steelgarter is lying because otherwise she wouldn't be allowed to flee". Leaving witnesses behind to Eyeball's sinister plot is simply not done.

Another option is Vi faked her death and is following Steelgarter to find out who she is working for.


"Leaving witnesses behind to Eyeball's sinister plot is simply not done" to me that suggests Eyeball might want to eliminate Steelgarter. She is no longer working on this job, don't have to smuggle her out or pay her that way, downside is lose one agent, question mark on how valuable for future work Steelgarter is.

Depending on position of Eyeball, it may be also a big no no for Steelgarter to come to Eyeballs door like this leaving a trail of blood, scent, etc for others to follow. (If Eyeball is a less important middle man, this may be ok, if Eyeball is a more important boss this may be seen as agent who flunked job)

[PraetorDragoon]

Tsk tsk. The chances of Violetta being dead are near nil. She still needs to be reunited with Von Zinzer after all!

Steelgarter will leave, no doubt. In a coffin, but she will leave.

[factotum]

Depends on how long she's planning on impersonating her for. It's mighty hard to convince somebody you're Lady Steelgarter when the authorities announce they've found her corpse.

Maybe, but that still doesn't explain how Violetta would know where to go to meet up with Steelgarter's contact.

[geoduck]

We don't know how good she is at disguises though. I hope that Violetta is still alive. Lady Steelgarter appears to be a construct that can split herself into to separate beings for a short time. And the person with the eye could be Madwa.

She can't split herself. Oggie and Zeetha are seeing evidence that two guns and two knives were used against Violetta, and they jumped to the incorrect (but understandable) conclusion that she was attacked by two people.

[Agi Hammerthief]

Schrödingers Violetta

I just hope it takes less than half a year for someone to find the box and look inside.

[Onyavar]

Or Steelgarter is actually Violetta in disguise.

1. Punch (got better but only after about nine years)
2. Judy (see above)
3. Zulena (possibly later resurrected)
4. Lars

That's about it, unless you want to extend "main" to include people like Lady Selnikov or Voltaire.

I'd say so, yes. Either all of the people you mentioned there are main support, or they all aren't.
I would have put Selnikov on a level with Zulenna: support character, not even major. And while P+J are important backstory characters, so is Voltaire, he got lots of screentime. (His robotic adjutant was killed a lot too, but is bound to have a backup.)

Also, Aaronev Valois (Tarvek's Dad) and Prof. Beetle ended up dead. And Voltaire took the original storm king with him.
And Olga also died. And we don't know yet about the fate of "uncle tictoc".

Viola however isn't main support, she's a minor protagonist. Of those, none have died so far, iirc.

[SZbNAhL]

Maybe, but that still doesn't explain how Violetta would know where to go to meet up with Steelgarter's contact.

You've got a point there. Maybe it's one of those really badly run conspiracies where everybody carries their orders around with them?

[Scarlet Knight]

It might not be a trap, it might just be that Violetta was forced to play dead or die for real, and used her Smoke Knight magic to mkae it appear like she was fully dead.

"Whoa ho! Look who's so smart! It so happens that your friend is only MOSTLY dead!"

[Lethologica]

Viola however isn't main support, she's a minor protagonist. Of those, none have died so far, iirc.

I would certainly have put Lars in the 'minor protagonist' role. It's been a long time since the circus era so it's easy to forget, but Lars was more than just a supporting character then. He was practically the front man for group B in Sturmhalten.

...And, of course, his death was given a very prominent place in the comic. No offscreen offing for him, no sir.

[jwhouk]

Considering that two individuals at the heart of this story are considered to be dead (i.e., the Heterodyne Boys), it's always possible for someone to die off screen.

But it's not typical of the Foglios to do so for characters like Violetta, so...

[petersohn]

I think the thread title just became really appropriate.

[Fyraltari]

]Zulena (possibly later resurrected)

Remind me, who was that again?

Considering that two individuals at the heart of this story are considered to be dead (i.e., the Heterodyne Boys), it's always possible for someone to die off screen.

They're backstory, they don't count.

[Rockphed]

I would certainly have put Lars in the 'minor protagonist' role. It's been a long time since the circus era so it's easy to forget, but Lars was more than just a supporting character then. He was practically the front man for group B in Sturmhalten.

...And, of course, his death was given a very prominent place in the comic. No offscreen offing for him, no sir.

Yeah, Lars was pretty important, as shown by his death getting an entire page spread just to show it off.

Edit:

Remind me, who was that again?

The Red-head

[RowenMorland]

I like it when Smoke Knights trick people.

[petersohn]

My theory: Vi will show to Agatha that smoke knights can fake death, then soon Madwa will appear from nowhere.

[Shining Wrath]

My theory: Vi will show to Agatha that smoke knights can fake death, then soon Madwa will appear from nowhere.

That's plausible, but it'd be more plausible if Oggie and Zeetha were looking at an apparently dead Vi right now. The lack of a body to me means that Vi is following Steelgarter, or left for some other purpose (possibly to find and warn Agatha).

[sihnfahl]

She can't split herself. Oggie and Zeetha are seeing evidence that two guns and two knives were used against Violetta, and they jumped to the incorrect (but understandable) conclusion that she was attacked by two people.

Thanks to the footwork, of course. Only two sets of footprints.

And it's not necessarily 'two guns, two knives'... could be someone with one gun and a knife on Move-It, for example. Fast aim and strikes.

However, if you see evidence of two right or left-handed attacks at different levels... intimating someone tall and someone short...

[TaRix]

So, any bets as to the identity of Mr. Eyeball?

My semi-dark-horse bet is that it's Ol' Tobber, but mostly just because if it weren't, you'd be able to see something other than an eyeball instead of, say, a silhouette (nose is still in evidence somewhere).

No idea for a motive that would put him and Skifander together, though.

[eee]

My views:

A) Of course Violetta is still alive.

B) She's not disguised as Steelgarter, though. People are already having problems with Smoke Knights and their sleight of hand trick. Adding "being able to disguise themselves perfectly as someone else' would be OVER over the top.

C) I'm curious how Lady S. thinks she's leaving. The dome is locked down, and possibly cordoned off...

D) It might be Eyeball has a way off. That might be why she went there, because that's the only escape. Because otherwise it would seem pretty darn stupid to announce you're quitting to a co-conspirator who would have good reason to make your severance, death.

D) The focus of Steelgarter and Eyeball seems to be Skifander. I wonder why.

E) My bets for who Eyeball is: Madwa (the lines under Eyeball are her wrinkly skin) or Tobber. Who faked his death by tossing his mechanical nose - the framework of which is what we're seeing - into the grinder, and hiding. This might tie in with why Bunstable thought some of Tobber's equations were either mistakes or deliberately wrong. The guy may be up to No Good...