Girl Genius XIV: A Lightning Arc in All But Speed!

[petersohn]

Well, we're out of the castle for some time now, are we not? But you are right, this back and forth plot becomes boring after some time, and it didn't stop when Agatha left the castle.

[Morty]

Also, if you ask me, the "goofball turns out to be an actual threat" twist got boring around the third time Zola did it.

[ThirdEmperor]

To be fair, 'dangerous goofball' is a prime characteristic of Sparks.

[blauregen]

New comic. Still with Tweedle.

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And I think he dropped Agatha, wo looks strangely one-legged in one picture. Well, he was attacked. :)

[factotum]

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Does the woman there still believe Agatha is not the true Heterodyne? And if so, does Tweedle believe the same way?

[Landis963]

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Huh. That's odd - I was sure it'd be a beacon engine. I'm assuming the glowy green slab is a teleporter though- Tweedle's "We Leave Now" doesn't make sense otherwise.

[Analytica]

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Huh. That's odd - I was sure it'd be a beacon engine. I'm assuming the glowy green slab is a teleporter though- Tweedle's "We Leave Now" doesn't make sense otherwise.

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This makes sense! This could be Lucrezia's door to the Geister realm. This is the one place she could hide it well in Mechanicsburg (if not her secret lab, where it was not), and that also makes it sensible that the Abbess would be with the Knights - Lucrezia have previously subverted the Cathedral power structure for these purposes.

I predict some subset of characters will get stranded through the portal, Agatha among them.

[datalaughing]

Looks to me like an emergency exit. If Der Kestle ever turned on the Heterodyne, they'd never be able to escape since it controls every inch of town. So the only place to install an exit strategy would be in the cathedral, and, of course, the abbess knows about it and told the Knights because she is a complete tool. Agatha really should have had her executed instead of just knocked out.

It seems extremely unlikely that it's something of Lucrezia's, seeing as the crypt keepers were guarding it.

[Grif]

I like Krosp in today's comic. At least he's doing something for once.

[ReaderAt2046]

I like Krosp in today's comic. At least he's doing something for once.

Yeah, it's good to see him taking his role as Agatha's lord seriously, even if no one and nothing else is.

[Analytica]

It seems extremely unlikely that it's something of Lucrezia's, seeing as the crypt keepers were guarding it.

Look at the decorations surrounding the gate. It doesn't fit with either Heterodyne devil motifs or trilobites, but fits very well with Geister symbolism.

[HandofShadows]

Also, if you ask me, the "goofball turns out to be an actual threat" twist got boring around the third time Zola did it.

I never saw Tweedle as a goofball. An idiot, yes. A dangerouse idiot, but still just an idiot.

[eee]

Activating de-spoiling mode...

Does the woman there still believe Agatha is not the true Heterodyne? And if so, does Tweedle believe the same way?

I suspect the Abbess is still clueless. From the things Tweedle said to Tarvek, however, he realizes the truth.

...

It is POSSIBLE these two jerks are in the right. We don't know what Klaus' Ball o' Doom does, fleeing Mechanicsburg might be the only way to keep Agatha safe right now. But it's more probable they're actually going to screw things up if they succeed, we'll have to see.

And about their chances of succeeding: OK, so we've got Krosp for the win mauling the Abbess, and Violetta going for a backstab on Tweedle. Tarvek's got a knife in his chest so he may be out (or going to do one of those 'almost dying effort' moves at the last second to save the day). Van and Big Guy are unknown quantities at this point, and that's all the group that was charging after Tweedle. Ms. Secretary is absent, as is Weasel Girl (and she's hurt, anyway), and we haven't seen Moloch since Franz went airborne and took Agatha to the top of Castle Heterodyne. Maybe he's behind the Abbess about to clonk her again, but probably not. So frankly, unless Agatha takes charge and tips the scales, I think the other side may be going to win...

[Winterwind]

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This makes sense! This could be Lucrezia's door to the Geister realm. This is the one place she could hide it well in Mechanicsburg (if not her secret lab, where it was not), and that also makes it sensible that the Abbess would be with the Knights - Lucrezia have previously subverted the Cathedral power structure for these purposes.

I predict some subset of characters will get stranded through the portal, Agatha among them.

I'm wondering if, maybe, the "Geister realm" is actually simply a different time, and this thing is actually a time machine (instead of/in addition to being a teleporter). Leading to some subset of characters getting stranded in time, then subsequently leading to the whole sequence of time windows that DuPree saw.

EDIT: Of course, Gil and Moloch not being anywhere to be seen greatly speaks against this theory.

[Lynn]

Matter can't be transported trough time in the GG universe, according to Othar's twitter. Sound and light can go through time windows but if you want to actually travel trough time, you need to transfer your present mind to your past (or future? ) body. Which makes me think beacon engines are time-machines.

[Stabbey]

I'm not sure why anyone would think Tweedle was taking her to a Beacon engine.

Number one, the readers would know it's pointless because she's already been put through one, so any narrative tension would be gone.

Two, Lucrezia didn't want to go to Mechanicsburg at all, which suggests that she didn't have an active lair there, or sent the geisters to that town when they fled Sturmhalten. There were no revenants in town from Mechanicsburg.

Three, Tweedle's comments to Agatha suggested that if she was going to rule, she'd "have to drop romantic notions." That meant there would actually be an Agatha to rule, not Lucrezia-controlled puppet.

Not all in the order were loyal to Lucrezia, half were scheming against her. From earlier things she said, the Abbess seems to be part of a faction who thinks Agatha is just a symbol and the real power will be with the Storm King (Tweedle is apparently the order's current favorite).

[Landis963]

I'm not sure why anyone would think Tweedle was taking her to a Beacon engine.

Number one, the readers would know it's pointless because she's already been put through one, so any narrative tension would be gone.

Tweedle doesn't know, first off, and second off, we don't know how the copy mechanism works on someone who is actively suppressing a pre-existing copy of Lucrezia. It could do any number of things to Agatha, Lucrezia, or both.

Two, Lucrezia didn't want to go to Mechanicsburg at all, which suggests that she didn't have an active lair there, or sent the geisters to that town when they fled Sturmhalten. There were no revenants in town from Mechanicsburg.

She doesn't need an active lair per se, just a place away from the Kestle's prying eyes. I will admit that she seems to have a paranoid aversion to the place.

Three, Tweedle's comments to Agatha suggested that if she was going to rule, she'd "have to drop romantic notions." That meant there would actually be an Agatha to rule, not Lucrezia-controlled puppet.

That could be, but he could have been winding up to sell the "heroic sacrifice."

Not all in the order were loyal to Lucrezia, half were scheming against her. From earlier things she said, the Abbess seems to be part of a faction who thinks Agatha is just a symbol and the real power will be with the Storm King (Tweedle is apparently the order's current favorite).

But we didn't know what faction Tweedle belonged to until this moment. We knew how the Abbess thought, but not how Tweedle thought.

[eee]

Two points:

A) Zooming in, it's clear Krosp did a NUMBER on the Abbess! Never underestimate what an angry cat can do in the way of damage!

B) All this talk of factions for and against Lu got me thinking. The Abbess. She's got pupils in her eyes, apparently dark hair, and her skin isn't extremely pale. And she can't tell the difference between Zola and Agatha. But still, it'd be a real kick if she were Lore Mistress Milvistle in disguise, hiding out in the one place Lu would never think to look for her.

Probably not, though.

[HandofShadows]

A) Zooming in, it's clear Krosp did a NUMBER on the Abbess! Never underestimate what an angry cat can do in the way of damage!

Cats can do a lot of damage when they want. Kosp expecially. He is roughly as big a lynx (if not bigger) and his claws are probably an inch long or more. Some of his "scratches" probably hit bone.

[Traab]

Hell, my KITTEN left permanent scars on my hands when he got startled once as I was petting him. Its been 15 years and I still look like I tried to slit my wrists. I cant even imagine the damage a cat krosps size would be capable of. I wouldnt expect lethal damage except for those one in a million type shots, but certainly painful, possibly debilitating.

[Lochar]

Ah, take a more careful look at the carvings and then a look here.

That's definitely a Lucrezia portal.

[petersohn]

So, there is actually a temple of the Other in the middle of Mechanicsburg? That's scary.

[John Campbell]

I'm not sure if that thing is supposed to be an alien geometry, but something about it really bothers me.

[Traab]

Its entirely possible that tweedle is kidnapping agatha so he can "marry" her in his stronghold and have her as his puppet heterodyne to give his claim to power more legitimacy. By keeping her out of mechanicsburg, he may think he can control her easier.

[ReaderAt2046]

I'm not sure if that thing is supposed to be an alien geometry, but something about it really bothers me.

I noticed that too. It looks kind of like the portal is orthogonal to the normal progression of space in whatever's on the other side, except not really.

[Eldan]

No, I agree. Look at the prespective, it's entirely different on the green block.We're looking at the arch around it as if from below, but the block is seen as if from above.

[Lochar]

Considering you can see a shadow on the bottom of the block, I'm going to assume it's something like a drawbridge.

The Abbess is hitting a button to power up and lower it.

[Aquillion]

I never saw Tweedle as a goofball. An idiot, yes. A dangerouse idiot, but still just an idiot.

Yeah. Tarvek made it clear almost as soon as Tweedle arrived that he should be taken seriously.

[HandofShadows]

Yeah, you should always take idiots seriously. Because they are likely to do something so stupid that you are totaly unprepared for it. It's like the old saying about the best swordsman in the world not being afraid of the 2nd best swordsman, but the worst swordsman because he has no clue what the worst swordsman was going to do.

[Traab]

Well in this case its because the idiots are usually faking it. Or are incredibly dangerous despite being stupider than milk chocolate pants.