Girl Genius XXXII: The scientific method at work!

[Thomas Cardew]

I fully agree with you there, but the question is: do the Foglios think so too?

My bet is one more page 'starting' the adventure, then a splash art, then maybe finally back to the main plot. About 80/20 on whether we rejoin Agatha and Albia en route/in London or catch up with Gil and co who crawled across Europe over the last year.

[Laurentio III]

Why does the Lightless College have a book drop slot, and why does it have eyes inside?

[Shining Wrath]

Why does the Lightless College have a book drop slot, and why does it have eyes inside?

The books are in Braille, and the eyes are because the place is infested with monsters?

[Thomas Cardew]

My bet is one more page 'starting' the adventure, then a splash art, then maybe finally back to the main plot. About 80/20 on whether we rejoin Agatha and Albia en route/in London or catch up with Gil and co who crawled across Europe over the last year.

Well, I was right about the one more page, we'll see if Wednesday is splash art or back to the story!

[GeoffWatson]

I fully agree with you there, but the question is: do the Foglios think so too?

It has the word "END" at the bottom right, so probably.

[Shining Wrath]

Predict we'll get several story boards reminding us of what Team Agatha and Team Gil were up to before the break.

[geoduck]

Predict we'll get several story boards reminding us of what Team Agatha and Team Gil were up to before the break.

Sadly, at this point the Foglios probably need to be reminded as well.

[Radar]

Sadly, at this point the Foglios probably need to be reminded as well.

At some point I think they mentioned having at home corkboards of continuity insanity. Personally, I am picturing it as all those movie conspiracy nut's mess of scraps of paper and strings.

[Shining Wrath]

Well, that seems succinct and matches my memory, so maybe the Foglios aren't complete morons.

What we need is for Agatha to re-invent the Mechanicsburg coffee machine and get Albia to drink a cup.

[Christian]

At some point I think they mentioned having at home corkboards of continuity insanity. Personally, I am picturing it as all those movie conspiracy nut's mess of scraps of paper and strings.

That thing must have been completely taken over by spiders by now.

[runeghost]

Who is this Agatha person? I was looking forward to Franz and Vipsania's new adventure. What a crazy change of direction!

[tyckspoon]

Yeah I hope this side story doesn't take too long, I want to see more of the Dragon of Mechanicsburg Goes Indiana Jonesing. What even is all this 'God Queen' stuff about anyways?

[Fyraltari]

An avatar of the other what?

[Rockphed]

An avatar of the other what?

The other god-queen, obviously!

On some level, I feel like the main plot has drifted off into the truly ridiculous. When it was making magic robots and bringing people back from the dead I could suspend disbelief. The whole thing about the queens, however, is just silly.

[MPHJack7]

On some level, I feel like the main plot has drifted off into the truly ridiculous. When it was making magic robots and bringing people back from the dead I could suspend disbelief. The whole thing about the queens, however, is just silly.

I kind of agree, though not because the idea of godly super-sparks is absurd on it's own. I think it's hard to accept because of theming. Stuff like reanimation and sentient machines fits a premise like "Victorian Europe if mad scientists were real," but immortal ancient god-queens doesn't fit said premise.

[Thomas Cardew]

I think it sorta of worked for Albia, but only for her. England as ruled by an immortal god queen who can't leave her territory but agressively meddles in European affairs? That works, at least for me. Once you start expanding it into networks and societies of these characters/ civilizations all ruled by their own queens? Not so much.

[Traab]

In all seriousness I had actually totally forgotten wtf agatha and company were doing when we last saw them. I could have sworn we got at least a couple comics of dealing with albia in this state though.

[TeChameleon]

I kind of agree, though not because the idea of godly super-sparks is absurd on it's own. I think it's hard to accept because of theming. Stuff like reanimation and sentient machines fits a premise like "Victorian Europe if mad scientists were real," but immortal ancient god-queens doesn't fit said premise.

H. Rider Haggard and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed would like a word. The Queens are almost a direct lift of Ayesha (the aforementioned 'She'), right down to the flame-as-source-of-power, just with a thin veneer of SCIENCE! overtop.

[Thomas Cardew]

In all seriousness I had actually totally forgotten wtf agatha and company were doing when we last saw them. I could have sworn we got at least a couple comics of dealing with albia in this state though.

We had about 3 or so. We see her deflated, Agatha helps her pull herself together. Albia then talks to Monahan, has her summon and shrink the rats, then dismiss everyone and deflates again. That's where we stopped.

[Shining Wrath]

I continue to maintain that the Castle is a sort of Queen, tapping the flame of the Dyne. So the concept of "tap source of earth magic, get really powerful" has been with us since early on.

Just in case it wasn't a joke, The Other is one of Lucrezia's titles. The avatar was of The Other, not the other queen. Now since she has several bodies, it is quite legitimate to refer to the other The Other.

What will Agatha's relationship with Albia be like once they return to England? We're going to find out if she's a good witch or a bad witch.

[geoduck]

I continue to maintain that the Castle is a sort of Queen, tapping the flame of the Dyne. So the concept of "tap source of earth magic, get really powerful" has been with us since early on.

Just in case it wasn't a joke, The Other is one of Lucrezia's titles. The avatar was of The Other, not the other queen. Now since she has several bodies, it is quite legitimate to refer to the other The Other.

What will Agatha's relationship with Albia be like once they return to England? We're going to find out if she's a good witch or a bad witch.

A lot will depend on just how weak and drained Albia actually is.

[Thales]

And we're back to the plot! This sort of page I do like: Agatha isn't just a genius, she's actually reasonably smart.

[Traab]

I would liken her flame to a rechargable battery. After a long enough time, they stop holding a charge for very long and get worn down, until you have to stay plugged in constantly just to function for more than a few minutes. She basically CANT leave london for more than a brief time, doubly so if she has to do anything big.

[Shining Wrath]

I think the flame comes and goes - while fighting Monahan, Lucrezia was speaking of Albia's flame being at peak soon and she'd charge from it.

It must follow some sort of pattern in order for Lucrezia to know that, unless time travel shenanigans are involved.

[MPHJack7]

As a side, I really like Albia's reactions in the last three pannels.

Imagine you're just recovering from a battle with your archenemy. Then, said archenemy's daughter - who you know was possessed by them before - suddenly starts talking a little bit like her mom.

You can see Albia's face of relief when she hears Agatha say "I don't know what that actually means."

[Rakaydos]

And we're back to the plot! This sort of page I do like: Agatha isn't just a genius, she's actually reasonably smart.

Because she broke through as a "geinus" as a child, but then had her unnatural talents suppressed for years so she had to learn how the world actually works for normal people, before regaining her talents.

[Rockphed]

Because she broke through as a "geinus" as a child, but then had her unnatural talents suppressed for years so she had to learn how the world actually works for normal people, before regaining her talents.

Gil has some of the same because his father had him hide his spark. I think Agatha has it more and more relatably.

[Radar]

Gil has some of the same because his father had him hide his spark. I think Agatha has it more and more relatably.

The fact that Klaus is well versed in psychology and neurology of The Spark also helped - he took extra care to arrange perfect upbringing for his son. Since he himself is well grounded, he wanted to be sure that the next ruler of The Empire would be proper.

[Ailurus]

Oh dear. Agatha, your reasoning makes sense but still I can't imagine that this won't have massive unexpected consequences. Especially given Albia's previous statements about wanting to add Agatha to her garden.

[BRC]

I for one welcome this development. I feel like this whole arc brought us way too close to "Agatha becomes a God Queen" as a plot point to have looming over everything, LucAgatha almost did it, Monahan managed to Ascend almost immediately after being shown how to do it by Clankcrezia, who also did it. They've even hinted that Cosette is on her way towards Ascension. I feel like Sparks can do enough without everybody becoming super-saiyan.

If this is their excuse to go "Well, why doesn't Agatha just ascend to becoming a God Queen" for the rest of the story, I welcome it.