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2013-06-12, 09:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
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- In the mind.
Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Welcome to another installment of the Girl Genius Thread!
SomeManyelegant and finely-craftedunused links follow:
Links to Previous Threads
SpoilerGirl Genius! (original 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!
Comic Links
Link to current comic and link to the beginning of the strip. (Updates MWF @ Midnight [Eastern Time])
The Continuing Adventures of Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer! (Updated sporadically)
A compilation (and much easier to read if you're just catching up) of the entries 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).
Mirror of the comic found on LiveJournal (Often 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 website.
Kaja Foglio's LJ Page and Studio Foglio News LJ Page (Both updated infrequently)
The News Page on the Girl Genius website. (updated slightly more frequently than the Studio Foglio LJ page)
Kaja & Phil's Personal Facebook Page (Updated infrequently)
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. (hasn't updated in a while)
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 gating 101;
- Right click the comic image.
- Select view image or copy paste the image location into the address bar.
- Modify the date to be the day you're trying to look at. (ex. 20120111 -> 20120113)
- Go to the modified url.
- Be disappointed when there's no early comic to read.
- Alternately, enjoy the comic!
Last edited by memnarch; 2013-06-15 at 09:24 AM.
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2013-06-12, 09:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2013
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
After reading some of the posts on the pacing issues this series suffered during the Mechanicsburg arc, I started thinking about something that's troubled me for awhile. It's true that the meandering around the castle arc seemed to drag on and bore as much as it entertained and thrilled. And I started thinking about this series as a whole.
I think it's entirely possible that it might be better for this series and Agatha if the Castle really was killed. Once and for all killed. The Foglio's have to be very careful with a character like Agatha and how she's written. One thing I now believe about her is that it would be easy, extremely easy, for her to sink down into the mire of Mary Sue-dom. It is worth anything to avoid this, which is why the Foglio's have to be so careful with her.
That's why it might be better for some of the Heterodyne's more impressive stuff to just, quietly go away. Let Agatha survive on her own wits and intelligence and the talent of her friends, Not on the convenient super power of the castle size Macguffin (which der Kestle was in danger of becoming in the last battle).
I understand the pacing issues of the Mechanicsburg arc were unavoidable, as there were so many revelations to make (and there's plenty more to make before it's all over). But I hope that such problems will not be quite so obvious in the future.
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2013-06-12, 09:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Is this the first time Violetta's replaced something with a useful thing instead of an innocuous-and-maybe-humorous thing?
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2013-06-12, 10:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
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- Watching the world go by
- Gender
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2013-06-13, 02:40 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
I don't agree. The Castle is only useful to Agatha while she's in Mechanicsburg--it offers no help to her when she's elsewhere, so all the Foglios have to do to remove it as a factor is force her to leave the town; this is pretty much what they've done already, of course! Think of the Castle as being like the town in an action RPG--it's a safe place you go to recover from your adventures, but that doesn't mean you spend all your time there.
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2013-06-13, 11:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Thank you, that is an excellent point.
Castle Heterodyne's strength is built very heavily on location. It's built in a defensible position on top of a spectacular energy source, with the accumulated tools and toys of generations of Heterodynes and a population that both loves them and... er... copes with them. It's an important strength and resource, but Agatha literally can't take it with her, and she has several potential reasons to travel even without being forced.
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2013-06-13, 03:00 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
- Location
- Auckland
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
To find the real heir to the Storm King, of course!
(Personally, I don't think that any of the Stormvarous family are the true heir to the Storm King mantle.
It makes much more dramatic sense that the true heir doesn't know his true heritage.)Last edited by Southern Cross; 2013-06-13 at 03:01 PM.
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2013-06-13, 04:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- Therinos
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
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2013-06-13, 04:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
*headtilt*
I was thinking Agatha was likely to be opposing the Other, searching for her uncle, searching for Skifander, checking up on her friends in England, and/or seeking out allies. I'm not sure why she'd particularly care about finding the "true heir" to the Storm King.
(Although I admit to being charmed by the possibility that Euphrosynia simply went home, and Valois did until recently have a line of male descendants... they were just inconveniently calling themselves Heterodynes.)
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2013-06-13, 06:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2013
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Considering the various people claimng the Storm King title have been very concerned with her, it is entirely conceivable that Agatha wants to sort out that mess once and for all. She's beginning to learn that just leaving other people alone doesn't mean they will leave her alone.
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2013-06-13, 07:43 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Or the Foglios have chosen to center their story on a Mary Sue and must justify her. Surrounding her with like overpowered characters, as both allies and adversaries, may be part of their scheme. Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Lampshade, helps. Keeping Agatha likeable and plausible in her world is a pretty severe challenge, but if that's their choice, more power to them. So far, they've succeeded enough to keep me reading, anyway.
The Giant
There are no mistakes, because there are no rules. NONE. No, not even that one.
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2013-06-13, 08:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- right behind you
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
I have to say the biggest danger of being a mary sue is her sparkyness, and the biggest thing that keeps her from that status is she needs time and materials to build her death rays and whatnot. So while she can turn the carnival into a platoon of heavily armed and armored clanks, she cant just snap her fingers and make it happen. I think that might be a part of why she is constantly on the move, so she doesnt GET that time to be over prepared. The entire castle arc more or less, she wasnt able to stop rest and think more than once or twice. And once she did get the chance, bango, she had herself a castle obliterating death ray. The only way to keep things from falling into full on curb stomping sue mode was to keep throwing things at her and never giving her time to rest. The down side is, it gave us the extremely busy and somewhat disjointed castle arc where so much was happening that it was easy to lose track.
"Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum"
Translation: "Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe."
"If you don't get those cameras out of my face, I'm gonna go 8.6 on the Richter scale with gastric emissions that'll clear this room."
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2013-06-13, 08:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2007
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- Chicago, IL
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
I'm sorry, I didn't realize Maria Antonia Fantasia Philomel was the protagonist of this story
Lead Designer for Oracle Hunter GamesToday a Blog, Tomorrow a Business!
~ Awesome Avatar by the phantastic Phase ~Spoiler
Elflad
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2013-06-14, 05:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- A long, long chain
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
If a character has a great deal of personal ability, and so do their friends and allies and enemies and rivals and... just generally most people important to the story have a tremendous (possibly over-the-top) amount of personal ability...
...then doesn't that just make the whole setting over-the-top and the main character just in possession of a fairly standard amount of Main Character Mojo?
I mean, nobody complains about mary sues when the Terminator kills all those dudes.Rider avatar by Elder Tsofu
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2013-06-14, 06:31 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2012
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Judging from the bubbles Tweedle is now fully spark out. And it seems the single 'a' version of his name is the right one.
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2013-06-14, 07:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
That guy clearly deserves a promotion. Excellent minion.
If you're a Brandon Sanderson fan (or you want to start being one), check out The Sanderlanche podcast!
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2013-06-14, 08:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2012
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2013-06-14, 09:10 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Somewhere...
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
That guy's a lot smarter than Question Mark Girl. At least he's still alive.
The three guys in the background in the first panel: I don't think they're Smoke Knights, I think they're part of whatever faction of the KoJ that has control of the Fortress now. As such, unless they defect immediately to Tweedle, too, I doubt they'll last long.
(The guy wearing the hat: Is the sigil on his emblem the same as the sigil on the late Your Grace? They look close, but it's hard to tell... It would be indicative of how serious things are if several different forces had to JOIN forces to survive Gil's onslaught.)
Or Ranma always winning, even against near gods.
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2013-06-15, 02:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2005
- Location
- Denmark
- Gender
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2013-06-15, 06:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Tweedle is really growing on me. He's got no pretension, or rather he does, but it's all refreshingly uncomplicated. Sure, he demands they address him as majesty and all that, but his power is basically built on spark charisma and the fact he's so physically dangerous that he can't be removed from power, and he knows it. And he goes out of his way to make his minions know it as well.
He's not saying his dictatorship is better than the alternative, he's not arguing that everyone else is just as bad as he is (except Tavek, but let's face it, on that count he's pretty much on the money), and he hasn't claimed divine right, legitimacy or anything like that. He just wants to exploit people, to be unchallenged and to do science. I can respect that.Last edited by Cracklord; 2013-06-15 at 07:45 AM.
Nadir We,
Youth Born,
Blood Letters,
Axe Weilders,
Victors Still.
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2013-06-15, 09:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2011
- Location
- Mostly online
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Some of the recent commentary here (last few pages of Thread XIV) suggests to me that either nobody was at the Reddit Q&A or precious few were and they're not speaking up.
Therefore:
A question on Mechanicsburg:
SpoilerNo, Mechanicsburg is not gone.
A question on the Wulfenbach brothers, since the Old Curmudgeon brought it up:
SpoilerKlaus is definitely constructed from three brothers, and the work was done by his/their parents.
You'll have to get the specific reference from the Wikia, but Phil has said in an interview that Klaus was in Skifander for four years. WoG, WoG.... Please note that from other time references elsewhere, it took Klaus something like two years to get back, possibly on foot for much of it.
Questions about Klaus and his wife:
SpoilerKaja giggled, Phil said 'He is very fond of her', then they added in a later response that she'll have a lot to say to him. Notice the tense used.
A question about Skifander's culture as much as answered one bit of fanon:
SpoilerThey don't like twins.
There's lots more in there, including a question about bees, but I've included the link so you may browse at leisure.
I do appreciate the opportunity to bask in being Right, though. [bows to the Professors]
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2013-06-15, 09:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2011
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- Mostly online
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
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2013-06-15, 10:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2005
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
NOW COMPLETE: Let's Play Starcraft II Trilogy:
Hell, It's About Time: Wings of Liberty
Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat: Heart of the Swarm
My Life For Aiur? I Barely Know 'Er: Legacy of the Void
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2013-06-15, 03:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
I wonder why everyone is trying to kill Tweedle? This seems more than the normal internecine fighting you expect from his family--it seems every other member of the family specifically wants him dead...
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2013-06-15, 03:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- right behind you
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
I look at it as a smaller scale version of what happened when wulfenbach was injured. So long as tweedle was in command, in control, and had his plan working, his family backed off for the most part aside from standard intrigue. But he has apparently gone missing, is injured, and his plan is in shambles. In other words, he looks vulnerable. So every faction trying to get an edge over the others wants to take him down and take his place.
"Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum"
Translation: "Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe."
"If you don't get those cameras out of my face, I'm gonna go 8.6 on the Richter scale with gastric emissions that'll clear this room."
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2013-06-15, 09:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Somewhere...
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Oh gosh. A horrible thought has just occurred to me. Lucrezia would LOVE Tweedle: Big, strong, dangerous, and easy to manipulate. It'd be like Bang and Vole, but WORSE!
Let's hope Agatha's locket stays in place...
Thank you MUCH for this!
(reads questions and answers)
Art SPARKS?!? There's ART... SPARKS???
Oh. My. God.
SpoilerTwins. I NEVER THOUGHT of the possibility of twins! Oh, this is going to be jolting to Gil when this comes out. O_OLast edited by eee; 2013-06-16 at 09:52 AM. Reason: silly error
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2013-06-15, 10:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
I always thought that VanRijin was an Art Spark. Sure, his clanks are marvels of engineering, but they were built to teach the arts (dancing and what-not), and it seems most people appreciate that part of them rather than the clever machinery.
I'm actually slightly disappointed he isn't an Art Spark, actually.
Grey WolfInterested in MitD? Join us in MitD's thread.There is a world of imagination
Deep in the corners of your mind
Where reality is an intruder
And myth and legend thrive
Ceterum autem censeo Hilgya malefica est
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2013-06-15, 10:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Another thing from the reddit AMA:
Phil: We will be returning to a more focused narrative in the near future.Like 4X (aka Civilization-like) gaming? Know programming? Interested in game development? Take a look.
Avatar by Ceika.
Archives:
SpoilerSaberhagen's Twelve Swords, some homebrew artifacts for 3.5 (please comment)
Isstinen Tonche for ECL 74 playtesting.
Team Solars: Powergaming beyond your wildest imagining, without infinite loops or epic. Yes, the DM asked for it.
Arcane Swordsage: Making it actually work (homebrew)
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2013-06-16, 12:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2012
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2013-06-16, 06:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
Re: Girl Genius XV: The Weasel, the Spark, and the Wardrobe
Tweedle's not stupid by any means. Just… direct. No finesse or subtlety, he's all brute force. He makes no real effort to insinuate himself, and his scheming generally falls more in the category of 'join me or die' backed up by the threat of overwhelming brutality then carefully subverting the enemy without revealing your hand and converting crucial members to your own faction. Which, to be fair, can be extremely effective, as long as you're the one who is always in the position of overwhelming power.
Which is doubtless why Taverk underestimated him. He associates intelligence and competence with his own methods, the backstabbing and subterfuge that his family all indulge in as they maneuver each other towards ruin, and play elaborate games of bluff and counter-bluff. Because of this, he therefore assumes someone more like him in the Order must be backing Tweedle. But from what we can see here, it seems far more likely that Tweedle simply put the fear of God (or at least, the fear of Tweedle) into everyone, killed anyone he didn't need to prove his point, and made his claim stick that way. He can't be removed because he's too good, and he's not willing to compromise, so essentially they all had to fold beneath him and give him what he wanted, or get knifed.
And that seems to have been working before the Mechanicsburg debacle. It actually looks like a good way to do business in this world. I mean, it's worked for Klaus, though Klaus has also shown himself a good hand at the other way of doing things as well. However, if Lucrezia did get her talons in Tweedle…
Well, the question is what exactly can he offer her. He's pretty deadly, but she's such a powerful spark, and has got so many resources squirreled away that anyone she backs in the Order will be in a position of overwhelming force. She might back him for simplicities sake, but using Anvenka she's in a position to make a play of her own. The only reason I can see her deciding to use Tweedle is to try and find a subject to get another backup for her mind so she can kill Agatha (remember, she's worried she's losing control, and is only keeping Agatha alive because she needs to warn the rest of her about Zola).
What, and this didn't tip you off? If this isn't obviously indicating that the methods of expression in this universe isn't as mad as the science, I don't know what is (except perhaps that painting in Castle Hetrodyne that eats people).
I like to believe that the omnidisciplinary sparks we see so much of who dabble in everything are a minority, and that there's chemistry sparks devoted solely to cooking out there.Last edited by Cracklord; 2013-06-16 at 06:19 PM.
Nadir We,
Youth Born,
Blood Letters,
Axe Weilders,
Victors Still.