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

[Oracle_Hunter]

Welcome to the next installment of the Girl Genius Thread!

Some elegant and finely-crafted links follow:

Links to Previous Threads

Spoiler

Girl 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!"

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
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)
Links to Webcomic Ranking websites. (Used to have Vote Incentives [sketches, parodies of strips, etc] that were changed daily. Might once again.)
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 Foglio's 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;

1. Right click the comic image.
2. Select view image or copy paste the image location into the address bar.
3. Modify the date to be the day you're trying to look at. (ex. 20120111 -> 20120113)
4. Go to the modified url.
5. Enjoy the comic!
6. Alternately, be disappointed when there's no early comic to read.

[Turalisj]

Cra-crak boom!

[Qwertystop]

How long since the sneaky gate has actually worked?

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Qwertystop

How long since the sneaky gate has actually worked?

I was literally about to ask this same question.

[HandofShadows]

Originally Posted by Qwertystop

How long since the sneaky gate has actually worked?

I remember it worked once a couple of weeks ago.

[Southern Cross]

It's still not working..

[GaeasSon]

(facepalm) Yeah, that's Gil.... He's just an idiot.

[eee]

I have no idea who or what this is anymore. It has Gil's emotions, but the IQ and common sense of a lemming. Love may make people do stupid things but it hasn't made Gil THIS dumb before. Something is really off here.

But this may be irrelevant if Franz is back and Agatha just kicked Gil into his arms.

And where IS der Kestle??? It got a spark - it got a MASSIVE spark - why isn't it back being snarky and protecting Agatha? Come on, guy, boot up already!

[Traab]

Originally Posted by eee

I have no idea who or what this is anymore. It has Gil's emotions, but the IQ and common sense of a lemming. Love may make people do stupid things but it hasn't made Gil THIS dumb before. Something is really off here.

But this may be irrelevant if Franz is back and Agatha just kicked Gil into his arms.

And where IS der Kestle??? It got a spark - it got a MASSIVE spark - why isn't it back being snarky and protecting Agatha? Come on, guy, boot up already!

Bah, my computer takes longer than this to reset, im sure it will wake up in a suitably epic fashion at the most dramatic moment possible. Like Gil flips out and body slams franz through the castle roof and just as agatha is falling to her doom, the torch men wake back up and save her.

[Stabbey]

Yep, definitely Gil. I'll note his use of language: "We're trapped." Not "You're trapped." He still considers himself on Agatha's side.


I think that Gil sincerely believes that Agatha has no chance of victory against all the forces arrayed against Mechanicsburg. That's not a completely unreasonable assumption - this maneuver of using the lighting to restart the castle is Agatha's last chance, and Gil knew nothing about it until he was already on the way.

Even if it gets the castle back to 100% power right now, we still don't know if that will be enough - Wulfenbach's forces have been disassembling and sabotaging Mechanicsberg's defenses for years. Even assuming most of those were repaired, after all the battles just in the last few days alone, the fighting has probably wrecked a lot of them.

If Klaus carries through on his threat, he probably has more than enough massed artillery to overwhelm even the castle's (presumed) anti-artillery weapons.

And even if the Castle has enough firepower to actually prevail and destroy an army that size, that would be a Phyrric victory. Wulfenbach's forces were the only thing holding Europa together. Destroying his army might win Mechanicsburg, but the rest would fall into chaos. It's already beginning, in fact.

Any way you look at it, the situation is bad.

[Radar]

Originally Posted by GaeasSon

(facepalm) Yeah, that's Gil.... He's just an idiot.

Well, today's page actually convinced me otherwise (or at least strenghtened suspicion). It's hard to tell, who initiated the kiss (it does look like Agatha isn't surprised or annoyed by it), but she is for some reason really surprised by the results - something is off with him (aside from all mental deficiencies he exhibits lately). In essence, she might have used Cher's lie detection method.

[Traab]

Originally Posted by Stabbey

Yep, definitely Gil. I'll note his use of language: "We're trapped." Not "You're trapped." He still considers himself on Agatha's side.


I think that Gil sincerely believes that Agatha has no chance of victory against all the forces arrayed against Mechanicsburg. That's not a completely unreasonable assumption - this maneuver of using the lighting to restart the castle is Agatha's last chance, and Gil knew nothing about it until he was already on the way.

Even if it gets the castle back to 100% power right now, we still don't know if that will be enough - Wulfenbach's forces have been disassembling and sabotaging Mechanicsberg's defenses for years. Even assuming most of those were repaired, after all the battles just in the last few days alone, the fighting has probably wrecked a lot of them.

If Klaus carries through on his threat, he probably has more than enough massed artillery to overwhelm even the castle's (presumed) anti-artillery weapons.

And even if the Castle has enough firepower to actually prevail and destroy an army that size, that would be a Phyrric victory. Wulfenbach's forces were the only thing holding Europa together. Destroying his army might win Mechanicsburg, but the rest would fall into chaos. It's already beginning, in fact.

Any way you look at it, the situation is bad.

Not so much a pyrric victory. Yes the rest of europa would fall into chaos, but by defeating the single largest army on the continent, agatha will have time, no matter how little, to recover and rebuild. She would be able to hold mechanicsburg at that point, and the longer it takes for a serious follow up attack, the harder it will be for her to lose. Seriously, the INSTANT she beats klaus back, she should put her people into full scale rebuild and refit mode. Take 30 seconds to cheer and sigh in relief then get back to work. Finish fixing the castle, keep pumping as much power as you can into its reserves, (since as of now we dont know how much it has or will have when this is over) so it can keep up the defense longer, and pray. After the prayer is over, Agatha can take a second to try and figure out what the hell she is going to do next. Up till now its been, "Go to the castle, it will protect you" Well now she is at the castle, now its protecting her, now what? Where does she go from here?

[factotum]

That's the big problem, isn't it? If Agatha is just in the Castle, consolidating her power--well, that'll be tedious to an extent that people will be wishing for the old, broken Castle arc to come back. You kind of think she *has* to lose the Castle, at the very least, even if the battle for Mechanicsburg is won!

[BRC]

Well she still needs to stop The Other, who is probably in control of the Wulfenbach Empire. That plus get Lucy out of her head, Find out what happened to her Uncle, get Klaus unwasped, restore peace in Europa, invent Time Travel, help Moloch find his brothers, repel Krosp's inevitable Coup de Tabby, find Skifander, officiate Bang and Vole's wedding, Survive Bang and Vole's honeymoon, turn Castle Heterodyne into a Yurt, fix all the Jaegers, ect ect.

[Traab]

Originally Posted by factotum

That's the big problem, isn't it? If Agatha is just in the Castle, consolidating her power--well, that'll be tedious to an extent that people will be wishing for the old, broken Castle arc to come back. You kind of think she *has* to lose the Castle, at the very least, even if the battle for Mechanicsburg is won!

Not really. I mean, once the big battle is over, we can stop following every single minute of the day spread across a billion comics. For example, grand finale happens, agatha won and holds mechanicsburg. She gives out her orders to start repairs, then the next comic has her waking up the next day and getting a report. Then they make plans for what to do next and get started on that. It would only get tedious if the foglios stuck with the current model of 350 comics per day.

There IS the possibility of some sort of reality warp happening that sucks her and gil into some time hopping or reality hopping adventure (to make what bang saw way back at the start a reality) but that would honestly strike me as a way to dodge the issue of what the hell will agatha do now that she is the heterodyne.

[Landis963]

Originally Posted by Traab

Not really. I mean, once the big battle is over, we can stop following every single minute of the day spread across a billion comics. For example, grand finale happens, agatha won and holds mechanicsburg. She gives out her orders to start repairs, then the next comic has her waking up the next day and getting a report. Then they make plans for what to do next and get started on that. It would only get tedious if the foglios stuck with the current model of 350 comics per day.

There IS the possibility of some sort of reality warp happening that sucks her and gil into some time hopping or reality hopping adventure (to make what bang saw way back at the start a reality) but that would honestly strike me as a way to dodge the issue of what the hell will agatha do now that she is the heterodyne.

We are also set to go to Albia at some point, IIRC. That could easily be the next major arc, once Mechanicsburg's cleared up.

[gooddragon1]

Do the speech bubbles with the dashes around them mean it's the other speaking?

[petersohn]

That's just whisper.

[GaeasSon]

-- Come on, guy, boot up already!

Somewhere in the castle, a screen patiently prompts:

HeteroSoft CastleOS 3.1
Atomic Batteries to charge [done]
Turbines to Speed   [done]
Flux Capacitor (>=1.21Gw) [done]
Oscillation Overthruster [overthrusting]
Dyne influx charging    [active]
Loading Personality Matrix (/local/bin/Faustus03_conf)  [done]
Heterodyne Recognition Matrix [done]
...
New Hardware Found!  Press F1 to continue...

On another subject I LOVE the "Abandon Thread" snail. He makes me very happy.

[Lix Lorn]

Originally Posted by GaeasSon

-- Come on, guy, boot up already!

Somewhere in the castle, a screen patiently prompts:

HeteroSoft CastleOS 3.1
Atomic Batteries to charge [done]
Turbines to Speed   [done]
Flux Capacitor (>=1.21Gw) [done]
Oscillation Overthruster [overthrusting]
Dyne influx charging    [active]
Loading Personality Matrix (/local/bin/Faustus03_conf)  [done]
Heterodyne Recognition Matrix [done]
...
New Hardware Found!  Press F1 to continue...

On another subject I LOVE the "Abandon Thread" snail. He makes me very happy.

Lol.

And yeah, I saved him to my awesome pics folder. xD

[The Glyphstone]

Rocket Snail is awesome.

[Scarlet Knight]

Ok, who has Gil?

even money : Franz
2-1 : The Castle
5-1: The Boys
10-1 : Othar

[Turalisj]

I'm going to go with the unexpected and say Higgs.

[Morph Bark]

Another thread title nailed. Feels good.

My guess is Zeetha. [/leftfield]

Othar's a pretty good one too, gotta admit.

[Kislath]

I wonder if Agatha will realize that Gil is no longer on Castle Wulfenbach, and as such she is free to blow it out of the sky?

[Traab]

Originally Posted by Kislath

I wonder if Agatha will realize that Gil is no longer on Castle Wulfenbach, and as such she is free to blow it out of the sky?

With what? Franz and his flying bike?

[factotum]

Not to mention, Castle Wulfenbach could well be miles away--Gil obviously got to the town on some sort of smaller craft.

[douglas]

New comic

Spoiler

So, next page is going to be the Super Mega Annihilator Cannons powering up, or something like that...

The way the Castle's talking, it's not just conscious again but believes it is capable of significant - gloat-worthy, even - intervention. After its previous admission of being all drained for the next few years, I doubt it would reverse that stance without having checked, so I'm pretty confident Agatha's scheme worked. The only question is in what way Agatha is going to wind up regretting giving it such an enthusiastic carte blanche authorization.

[Forrestfire]

Spoiler

I really liked the Castle's callback to his previous prediction

[Turalisj]

Someone needs to turn Agatha's happy dance into an animated gif.