Girl Genius XX: Endothermic Life Forms Are Inherently Heretical

[Shining Wrath]

Great. The Stormking is pulling the classic "king in the mountain" scheme. With added vampirism/ lifedraining/ chronovorism*. Well, maybe Agatha is lucky and can fix the lantern before he breaks out. I doubt it.

*Is chronovore the right word? Assuming he "eats" his victims' time of course.

SciFi website uses the word to describe the Weeping Angels of Dr. Who.

[Kantaki]

SciFi website uses the word to describe the Weeping Angels of Dr. Who.

Let's hope SK's powers don't go that far. (Okay, he "drains" time from his victims instead of temporally displacing them, but even variations of those abilities are really, really scary.)

[The Glyphstone]

I would have used chronophage myself; chronovore is also accurate, but mixes Latin and Ancient Greek roots as opposed to pure Ancient Greek. That and 'phage' sounds cooler.

[Shining Wrath]

I would have used chronophage myself; chronovore is also accurate, but mixes Latin and Ancient Greek roots as opposed to pure Ancient Greek. That and 'phage' sounds cooler.

Agreed. True erudite snobbery requires a single ancient language as the root for each portion of compound words. And "tempuvore" just lacks a certain je ne sais quois of euphonia.

[Darth Tom]

With added vampirism/ lifedraining/ chronovorism*.

Given the reference to an "ancient Heterodyne vampire" earlier, this does seem to have been set up.

[SZbNAhL]

Agreed. True erudite snobbery requires a single ancient language as the root for each portion of compound words. And "tempuvore" just lacks a certain je ne sais quois of euphonia.

Yeah, no real words would ever contain a mixture of Greek and Latin words. I think I saw a documentary about it on the teleorama the other day.

But seriously, I wholeheartedly endorse the use of the word "chronophage", although I'm not quite sure why he couldn't just be draining life-energy. I mean, just because the lamp's a temporal device doesn't mean he is.

[Kantaki]

I would have used chronophage myself; chronovore is also accurate, but mixes Latin and Ancient Greek roots as opposed to pure Ancient Greek. That and 'phage' sounds cooler.

I knew something was off about that word. Chronophage is better, yes. Didn't remember the word "Phage" and the full latin version sounded somewhat silly.

Yeah, no real words would ever contain a mixture of Greek and Latin words. I think I saw a documentary about it on the teleorama the other day.

But seriously, I wholeheartedly endorse the use of the word "chronophage", although I'm not quite sure why he couldn't just be draining life-energy. I mean, just because the lamp's a temporal device doesn't mean he is.

There is so much stuff dealing with time in this comic that the idea kinda makes sense. Sure, he could just drain "lifeforce" or something, but "eating" time would be very fitting. I guess with the next page we might know more.

[geoduck]

There is so much stuff dealing with time in this comic that the idea kinda makes sense. Sure, he could just drain "lifeforce" or something, but "eating" time would be very fitting. I guess with the next page we might know more.

Yeah. It makes sense it's something time-related, if Van Rijn was trying to capture the Muse of Time in hopes of fixing it. (I'm guessing this based on Prende's comment that VR must have somehow "failed".)

[Aquillion]

Dammit, Agatha, this is, what, the third ancient evil you've unleashed? And the second one you've released today. Stop releasing evil superbeings! Stop it!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Hey, it's called job security.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Or entertainment. She is a Heterodyne, after all.

[The Glyphstone]

I like this guy already. Can we call him Andy?

[Ellen]

Of course it's the Storm King; from the comments that Prende has made, it's the only thing that makes any sense at this point. The real question now is what exactly happened to him. Whatever it was, I assume Van Rijn and Prende used the Lantern to trap/contain/freeze him in this vault, while Van Rijn went to his Hermitorium to try and capture the Muse of Time and use her to somehow fix the problem in a more permanent fashion. Unfortunately, he died in the process, and here we are, 200 years later.

You called it

I was thinking it might have been a time window showing something about the Storm King (past or future) or releasing something related to the Storm King or . . . well, whatever I was thinking I got it wrong.

We welcome our new, chronophage overlords!

[GaeasSon]

(blink blink) Well, would'ja look at that!
Let's see...
Red beard: Check. Family resemblance to tweedle: Check. Fancy royally styled armor: Check. Royally, yet sparkily cranky? Checkitycheck.

Heh... I wonder what Tweedle and what's left of their clan will think of this! Daddy's Home!

[otakuryoga]

truly.. the biowaste is about to hit the rotating/oscillating air circulation device

[TaRix]

You know, with these sorts of shenanigans afoot, Tweedle might actually be the original Storm King. Might actually have become? Will maybe have been? Can't get my temporal tenses straight, even after reading Douglas Adams.

[Porthos]

Hey! What's up with the cliffhanger-like update! This isn't Friday!

Foul!!! FOUL I SAY!!!

[The Glyphstone]

No, the Friday cliffhanger will be when Andy looks at Agatha, sees the Heterodyne sigil she's wearing, and his reaction to it.

[Deliverance]

No, the Friday cliffhanger will be when Andy looks at Agatha, sees the Heterodyne sigil she's wearing, and his reaction to it.

An even more dramatic scenario would have Agatha look enough like her ancestress* that she's mistaken for her.

Friday's comic will then be a single panel showing the undead? storm king in all his glory, saying a variant of either:

a) "Euphrosynia! My love!", or
b) "Euphrosynia, WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME!"



* A failure of this particular line of thinking is that none of the muses have made that mistake, but they are miracles of science, not undead abominations of science, so there.

[factotum]

Not sure how I feel about this development. It depends what Andy does next, because I for one think we don't need yet another antagonist in this strip--it would be nice if he turns out to be at least partially helpful toward Agatha and her cause.

[petersohn]

Hey! What's up with the cliffhanger-like update! This isn't Friday!

Foul!!! FOUL I SAY!!!

It's never foul until you see a certain Gentleman adventurer fall to his (not so) certain doom.

[Darth Tom]

He does look a lot like Tweedle, doesn't he... notice his left hand is concealed in that gauntlet?

This bears a certain resemblance to that H'Trok'Din filler story, which if I remember rightly was drawn by a guest artist. "BTW, what do you think of the idea of a rampaging ancient warlord trying to conquer TIME ITSELF?"

[petersohn]

Maybe it's Tweedle who got back in time and became the original Storm King (and his own great-great-great-grandfather in term).

[Rodin]

Interesting that the rest of him is intact when he only stole Madwa's hand. I was expecting him to look a lot more bony than that.

[factotum]

This bears a certain resemblance to that H'Trok'Din filler story, which if I remember rightly was drawn by a guest artist.

That strip was both scripted and drawn by the chap who usually does the colouring of the main strip, as I recall--I think he's called Cheyenne?

[HandofShadows]

That strip was both scripted and drawn by the chap who usually does the colouring of the main strip, as I recall--I think he's called Cheyenne?

Cheyenne Wright.

[eee]

He's pretty darn big! O_O

I also note his armor has all sorts of tubes and glowy things. Maybe he's not wearing it, but it's wearing him.

(I assume this is part of a two page spread and Friday we'll get Prende announcing "THIS is the Storm King!" while Agatha and the others look on in shock. Hopefully the other two Smoke Knights will ignore all this and focus on killing Madwa while she's down before she gets out.)

Dammit, Agatha, this is, what, the third ancient evil you've unleashed? And the second one you've released today. Stop releasing evil superbeings! Stop it!

If she could get all the ancient evils to fight each other, that would be a considerable time savings for her...

(What's the third ancient evil? The Muse of Time and King Andy, here (although whether she can exactly be blamed for setting him free, since it was Madwa who grabbed the Lantern, is questionable) are two. Lu, it was more done to her than her fault, and Margolotta let loose the Beast. Maybe I'm forgetting something. There's so many evil beings here...)

[Shining Wrath]

I think, based on complexion (although it may be a function of lighting) that he's some sort of undead thingy, not a living Storm King preserved by magic. I'm also wondering if his arms actually attach to the shoulders or if they attach to the epaulets. It certainly seems possible that the armor may in fact be a life support system for his head and there's not that much left. He lacks a belly, for example. And the left hand seems to be a mechanical replacement.

Am I the only one thinking of the variant Arthur legend where Arthur was not slain by Mordred but instead sleeps until the hour when Britain needs him to rise and defend it? Sleeping King awakened in the hour of need et cetera? CS Lewis used a twist of that where it was Merlin who slept in That Hideous Strength.

Oh, and he's got a sword to back up that impressive mace.

[Kantaki]

That guy definitely looks like a relative of Tarvek and Tweedle.
And he seems unhappy.
A unhappy chronophage cyborg Storm King with a weapon that needs some cleaning. That should be interesting...
Eh, I'm sure they can take him.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Interesting that the rest of him is intact when he only stole Madwa's hand. I was expecting him to look a lot more bony than that.

I suspect lifeforce/time (betting on the time side) is a pretty powerful fuel for something like that. It seems to be enough to take his hand from skeletal to the rather heavyset figure we see as he emerges. I'm more curious to see how LONG the effect lasts: we don't know yet whether that was a sort of revitalization process and he's good to go, or whether or not that's a limited-time surge of "power." It's entirely possible that, unless he gets his hands on someone else, he'll waste away within minutes.