Back to the main character page.
open/close all folders
Other
Othar Tryggvassen
Othar Tryggvassen, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!
A man possessed with a quest to eradicate all Sparks, including himself (eventually), for the damage they do to the world. Harder to kill than James Bond.
- All-Powerful Bystander: According to the Twitter, Othar is a deist who belives that God is the Ultimate Spark.
- Ambiguously Bi: His sister thinks so, anyway
, and Othar noticeably changes the subject rather than deny it. Bi if she's right (since he married a Geisterdame in the Twitter). - Amusing Injuries: No matter what happens to him, Othar bounces back almost immediately.
- Anti-Hero:
- Othar Tryggvassen is a bizarre character; he has the external looks and speech of The Cape, while his goals and actions better fit the '90s Anti-Hero. By all accounts he does have some genuine heroism under his belt, though this is a big counterbalanced by his life goal of killing all Sparks. So he often fights both genuine villains and random people minding their own business.
- To illustrate: once in his Twitter blog, the father of one of his Sparky enemies pleaded that no parent should see their kid die. Othar agreed, so he killed the dad first. "Call me Herr Sensitive."
- Anti-Villain: Feels bad about killing Sparks, and a lot of them do need to die…
- Bad Boss: He has no qualms about conscripting his 'sidekicks'; though in his mind they want to join, he completely ignores anything they say about not wanting to be a hero, or not wanting to help him, or wanting to kill him. Their careers tend to be so short, he ominously expresses hopes that a particularly promising individual might last six months.note
- Beware the Nice Ones: Othar is generally friendly and cheerful off-the-job, and fair on it. Don't make him kick your ass. He can.
- Beware the Silly Ones: As much as he is a walking joke, Othar can be very, very effective in a
Crazy Is Cool way. Note that Castle Heterodyne rather likes the guy because they both approach this trope from different directions. - Black-and-White Insanity: The concept of "moral ambiguity" seems entirely lost on Othar. In his mind, all Sparks are irredeemably evil folks who must ultimately die in order to bring peace to the world, even the ones that are moderately harmless or even helpful to his crusade.
- Bold Inflation: Fans never, ever say his name without adding GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER! And not just fans.
- Boomerang Bigot: Hates Sparks and wants to rid the world of them all, despite being a Spark himself. He fully intends to kill himself when all the other Sparks are dead.
- Braggart Boss: Despite the hazards to life and limb one has to imagine Othar's sidekicks are most likely to get talked to death.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Even by the standards of Sparks. Which is saying quite a bit. On the other hand, as Sparky plans go, "Kill all the other Sparks one by one and then myself" is actually pretty logical and well-considered, and even other some Sparks admit the notion is a pretty well thought out plan for a valid experiment.
- Butt-Monkey: FOUL!!!
- Cartwright Curse: He has had a couple love interests in his Twitter adventures, but in both cases, said relationship gets Ret-Gone via Time Travel and Alternate Universe incidents.
- Character Blog: He has a Twitter. May or may not be canon but is certainly extremely quotable. (His reappearance in the August 2021 strip ties directly to the continuation of the Twitter feed from October 2020, so that part is probably canon.)
- Chaste Hero: Aside from his marriage to a Geister in the alternate timeline, according to the novels he actually is completely resolute in his desire to avoid dallying with his female sidekicks. This ends up being rather disappointing for most of them, since the romance was the whole point of even joining up in the first place.
- While this is because he is a gentleman first and foremost, there's also the question of what happens if he accidentally produced a child. Since he's a spark, he may have sparky children which he would have to kill by his own logic. Even if they weren't sparky, no one knows how the spark gene works by Othar's own admission. It may skip generations in his family (Tarvek's, Albia's, and Voltaire's families for example do skip generations while it never seemed to skip any of the Heterodynes and his sister Sanaa doesn't have the spark either). It's no wonder that he refuses to have a relationship with his assistants.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: One of the things that prevents him from being just an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain; he is a genuinely good person, at least to ordinary people. Sometimes ends up saving the very people he wants to kill, but don't count on this.Confound it! An entire train full of helpless Sparks AND dangerous monsters AND a handy chasm nearby. Someone is tempting me. So not fair!
This is ridiculous. There were only two and a half innocent people on this train (Jäger =0.5 person). Surely I can skip the last one. Yeah.
No. I can't. This is what being A Hero is about. I should never have taken that aptitude test back at the university. I wanted to be a chef. - Comically Invincible Hero: The others are fully aware that he's probably unkillable. Gil even takes the opportunity to exploit it.
- Destination Defenestration: Happens to him repeatedly while on Castle Wulfenbach. It never sticks.Othar: FOUL!
- Ditzy Genius: It's sometimes hard to remember, through all the Testosterone Poisoning, that he's a genuine Spark, and has the intelligence to go along with it. He's able to help Agatha find an obscure part needed to repair something (though the fact that he forgot its name meant he had to tear it out of a clank himself to find it) and his moments of lucidity show he can be crafty and tactical when he recognizes Serious Business.
- Even the Guys Want Him: He has plenty of admirers of all genders. Especially when he's not wearing his trademark sweater.
- Fantastic Fighting Style: "Othar Tryggvassen's Twitter" establishes that Othar is a Genserhersker of the school of Norwegian Sweater Fighting. The only thing that prevents this from being I Know Kung-Faux is that Othar is consistently shown to be one of the most lethal hand-to-hand combatants in the setting.
- For Want Of A Nail: Despite his vigor, Othar is actually pretty old. According to his Twitter, it turns out that he retired to an island for a few decades to live with his Geister wife, Oslaka, that he saved from the sewers in Paris. When she died, he left the island to find all of Europa in ruins and not a single person in sight (not even any bodies). His consciousness was sent back to inhabit the body of his past self right before he saved Oslaka by an aged Tarvek to save the past somehow, so his presence will determine the course of the story.
- Freudian Excuse: As the novels explain, Othar's hometown was often ravaged by the mad inventions of the local Spark lords, which goes some way to explaining his attitude toward them. Furthermore, the insanity of the spark and the type of events that follow sparks like the plague hasn't helped him. Then he started to go on his adventures and was proclaimed a hero all the while he was picking up assistants who couldn't keep up and started dying on him.note Eventually he picked up a homeless Geister that had been abandoned by her sisterhood in the sewers of Paris. It's implied that he was in love with all of his assistants and he took this one to be his wife. They retired to an island for decades and he left only after she passed away from natural causes. He found Europa had burned to ashes and everyone and everything was dead. All he found was an aged Tarvek who tried to explain what happened. However, when Tarvek tried to send him back in time, Othar attacked him in a paranoid rage, Tarvek managed to send him back, but he wasn't able to provide Othar any details. Othar knows that all of Europa is doomed without his help, but he hasn't seen the post-epilogue stories that show that Agatha will beat the Other. For all he knows, everything he is doing is in vain. All he does know is that sparks will cause the Bad Future, but he has no information as to why or how, so he kills all sparks he comes across on the chance that they have something to do with causing Europa's destruction either by helping to directly cause it or by being a distraction or Spanner in the Works hurting the good guys. The problem is that he's so insane that he can't sort out who is working with or helping the Other directly or indirectly, so he comes to blows with "villains" like the Wulfenbachs who, in fact, are more on the heroic side of the equation.
- Genius Bruiser: He's both incredibly tough and a Spark, as pointed out here.
- Genre Savvy / Wrong Genre Savvy: +90% the first. The rest of the time, he's brain-locked by his one glaring flaw; he's incapable of understanding that he's often the Hero of Another Story.
- Gentleman Adventurer!: The Trope Namer — and an unusual example given that he's an Anti-Villain antagonist.
- Gotta Kill Them All: His solution to the Sparks is to kill them all, individually.
- Hand Wave: Played for Laughs when Vole seemingly shatters his spine with a diving kick. Othar springs right back up and decks Vole, to the astonishment of Tarvek. Othar then remarks that he is wearing "Special trousers. Very heroic."
- Hero Antagonist: Played with. Othar is here on the "Assorted" page because he's often pitted against the protagonists, but he really is a hero to the common folk: rescuing innocents, vanquishing monsters, and — in short, hero work. Unfortunately, most of Agatha's social circle are on his hit list, so there's obviously a certain amount of Enemy Mine when they do happen to be working together.
- Heroic Build: He wouldn't be a Hero without it!
- Hero of Another Story: Invoked. You can follow his heroic story on Twitter! One of his most glaring flaw is that he is not only unaware of this trope, but completely unwilling to accept its possibility.
- Hero with Bad Publicity / Villain with Good Publicity: He's managed to become both. The latter case: the common folk love him for his "crusade" against Sparks. Othar is motivated to clean up the "Sparky menace" to protect the non-Sparks. However, the common folk are unaware of his being a mass-Spark-murdering maniac who sees no difference between Sparks that are genuinely dangerous to the populace and those that are just living their lives. For the former:What a double edged sword a reputation is. Save thousands, thwart evil, bring peace... kill one corrupt quester and it's all out the window.
Now I'm just "The Guy Who Killed A Quester." It demonizes me, and ignores all of my finer points. Bit of a resume stain, to be honest. Sigh.
Questers are usually pillars of honesty. Therefore it's understandable that people are skeptical when you badmouth one. My rep vs. theirs. - Horrible Judge of Character:
- This is actually what makes him insane. Othar is unable to comprehend that Klaus isn't the villain. Even back in the day, Klaus sometimes thought the Heterodyne boys were too forgiving, but was never the Token Evil Teammate. Klaus may be a tyrant, but his rule is much freer and safer than the anarchy that came before it.
- Othar also can't process that Gil is the Token Good Teammate of Agatha's team with Tarvek being the Token Evil Teammate and Agatha being the pragmatic one. He has their roles backwards in his head.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: He's a Spark hellbent on the eradication of all Sparks, himself included. Although his particular focus seems to be more in sabotaging the devices of others rather than building any of his own; people often forget he's a Spark.
- Idiot Hero: Othar is utterly fearless (not to mention foolish) in times of peril.
- Implacable Man: Nothing seems to stop Othar... not for long, anyway.Agatha: I went to all that trouble to rescue him. And you've killed him!
Gil: I wish. I've seen him survive worse. - In Spite of a Nail: According to his Twitter account a Spark's experiment with time travel and alternate realities has revealed that every Othar has some kind of predisposition to deciding to wipe out Sparks. He briefly wonders if there's something about the Othars that causes them to simply have suicidal craziness before dismissing the idea.
- Indy Ploy: Planning is for schemers! Schemers and dastards!
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Othar apparently has "special trousers" (very heroic) that allows him to No-Sell having an irate Jäger landing on him and breaking his back. No, we have no idea what that means either.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- This is not to say that Othar isn't dangerously insane and regularly murderous. He is. He really, really is. It's just that most of the people he's killed either have attacked him or otherwise been an asshole in his presence; Sparks in particular, especially as he boasts of all the Sparks he's killed. Doesn't change the fact that he tried to summarily execute Agatha the instant he learned she was a Spark.
- Squibs, a much put upon minion in the side story 'Small Problems', sums it up best:Squibs: Let me see if I understand this. He thinks that all the problems in Europa are caused by the mad scientists who build all the monsters. The mad scientists who vie with each other to see who can be the first to turn the population into wombat bats or clam people or stylish furniture. The raving lunatics who set off life-size chocolate volcanoes and unleash flash floods of porridge upon innocent villages. Othar wants to destroy these people, and you think he's insane?!
- And Klaus secretly acknowledges that Othar has a point, and that the only difference between their "Peace Through Violence" approaches is that Klaus gives his enemies a chance to avoid execution by not being murderous jerks. When Othar first got started, Klaus got into the habit of subtly directing Othar in the direction of dangerous Sparks who hadn't technically violated the Peace. He only dragged Othar onto Castle Wulfenbach for a little Doc Savage-esque brain surgery because the idiot started killing Sparks that were doing their best not to threaten the Peace.
- Also there's the slight problem of Othar being a Spark exactly like all his foes, meaning his chosen means and methods of achieving his goals are the most complicated and destructive available to him at any given time. For example, to cover his and Agatha's escape from Castle Wulfenbach, he turned loose and/or on every experiment he could find. And Agatha just got finished destroying a Hive Engine. If Wulfenbach had been any less awesome, that touch of genius could likely have wiped out all of Europa before sunset.
- As of the Mechanicsburg Arc, he does at least seem to be of the opinion that while all Sparks need to die, there are some that need to die sooner than others. As Agatha seems to be following the legacy of her heroic father and uncle, Othar seems to be willing to bump her and her friends to the back of the queue for now.
- His Twitter feed sheds some light on this. If taken as canon, Othar is capable of giving up his obsessive quest. He fell in love with a Geister and retired to an island with her for decades. When she died, he left the island behind to find all of Europa dead. Very little plants, animals, or people remained. All he found was Tarvek who sent him back in time to stop it. While Othar is still insane and didn't trust Tarvek, him doing nothing for decades led to that future and that certainly ampified his insanity and caused him double and triple down on his obsessive quest to kill all sparks.
- Also, ironically, according to the novels, not only is Othar's plan to kill all Sparks and then himself a relatively thought out plan by Spark standards, many Sparks are conflicted about this plan (or at least admit he has a point in his own tiresome way), as his hypothesis is compelling, his methodology seems sound, and many argue that it would be a valid experiment.
- Large Ham: Most Sparks chew scenery when in The Madness Place — Othar does it all the time.Othar: So — all the vipers are in residence!
Gilgamesh: I can't believe you still talk like that. - Large Ham Title: GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!
- Long Lost Sibling: Sanaa Wilhelm, aka Sanaa Tryggvassen.
- Lord Error-Prone: When it comes to the actual adventuring he does a good job, but he frequently grabs the wrong end of the stick and seems somewhat dim (or at least scatterbrained) for a spark—at least compared to the main characters and most of the actually threatening villains. Given some of the stuff we've seen minor antagonists get up to Othar seems practically stable for a Spark.
- Made of Iron: and how.
- Mental Time Travel: Possibly from the twitter into regular continuity.
- Moral Myopia:
- The typical Spark acts like a stereotypycal Mad Scientist and Othar acts like a stereotypical adventure hero, but there's little practical difference between the two breeds of Madboy. Othar has groveling minions with a high mortality rate, only he calls them "spunky girl sidekicks". He does dangerous things that put others at risk, only they're usually acts of sabatoge instead of inventions. Lastly, he has a mad hypothesis that he thinks will change the world, and that hypothesis is "no more Sparks = world peace". Interestingly, a footnote in the second novel mentions that many Sparks actually see Othar's quest as a sort of experiment.
- This goes both ways; Othar being much like the typical Spark also makes the protagonist Sparks much like Othar. That they're not so different is pointed out by Violetta on one occasion:Tarvek: I... keep forgetting he's a Spark.
Violetta: Really. So you've completely missed the fact that he's overbearing, self-aggrandizing and certain death to be around?
- Mundane Utility: According to the Twitter account, Othar once had to revivify his Uncle Vladikix.Othar: He was the only one who knew the old family recipe for Lingonberry Snap.
- No Place for Me There: Success in his lifelong dream — destroying every Mad Scientist for the sake of ordinary humanity — would, of course, require one last Heroic Suicide.
- Norse by Norsewest: He's from Norway. And his name is just a couple letters removed from a famous Norwegian king's name.
- Obfuscating Stupidity:
- He acts like such an idiot all the time that people forget he's one of the most unstoppable people in Europa. He does have his moments of clarity, though, where the act seems to come down, usually when something genuinely surprises him — such as when he meets Sanaa. It's also worth noting that he's apparently a fantastic orator. See for yourself.
- In the novels, when Klaus conscripts Othar into entering Castle Heterodyne to retrieve Gil, the Baron notices that he completely drops his usual bombastic bravado when its explained that Agatha is likely being controlled by the Other. This unnerves him greatly as it suggests that Othar has been treating his encounters and captures by the Empire as nothing but a game. It's because he does. Othar has seen a future where he simply stopped interacting with the world's politics and that indirectly led to the death of all of Europa and victory for the Other. Any viable threat of the Other brought to his attention drives him sane because him doing something to stop the Other directly is the only thing he can do that matters.
- He acts like such an idiot all the time that people forget he's one of the most unstoppable people in Europa. He does have his moments of clarity, though, where the act seems to come down, usually when something genuinely surprises him — such as when he meets Sanaa. It's also worth noting that he's apparently a fantastic orator. See for yourself.
- Offscreen Teleportation:
- Dropping him out of sight, by whatever means, never seems to stick. At least twice, he manages to get back up onto Castle Wulfenbach by unknown means after being thrown off and then survives being pushed over the side of a much smaller airship.
- And when Castle Heterodyne is introduced to him, its immediate response is to drop him into a bottomless pit. So far as it is concerned, surviving this is one of a Hero's Required Secondary Powers, so it feels totally justified in pulling this stunt. And sure enough, Othar immediately reappears unscathed.
- This is something he's apparently so well known for in-world that when he ends up being defenestrated while handcuffed to someone else, Gil used the opportunity For Science, demanding Tarvek figure out the trick on the assumption that Othar would magic himself to safety per usual. On the plus side, he did manage to get himself out of the handcuffs... While busy fighting Vole... Without the person he was handcuffed to finding out how. Even more amusing and impressive in retrospect, since it turns out the guy he got himself unhand-cuffed from is no slouch in a fight and very good at misdirection.
- He also manages to find his way into Gil's super secret lab, a place nobody else in-story (including Klaus) seemed to be aware of, simply because he is a hero and finding secret villain lairs is what heroes are good at.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Othar may live and breathe his delusion that Klaus is a villain, but even he listens when Klaus asks for his help to deal with the Other. The fact that he stops acting like an idiot when the Other is brought up only further cements just how seriously Othar sees the Other as a threat.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: He's plenty effective, provided he isn't going up against uber badasses like Gil, Klaus, or Agatha.
- Plot Armor: An In-Universe version, apparently. The man simply cannot be killed. Many, many people have tried. But since he's the Hero of Another Story, he's effectively immortal.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: The codifier of what this looks like FROM THE OUTSIDE.
- Put on a Bus: Though technically he was in Mechanicsburg when the Take Five bomb went off, his previous track record of inexplicable self-extrication strongly suggests he's not on that particular bus. As it turns out, he was frozen in the Take Five bomb time stop, but he was the the first to be successfully extracted without undergoing Rapid Aging.
- Reality Warper: Gil has a theory that all his more unlikely abilities, from surviving defenestration from an airship to being fluent in the secret language of an all-female monster race, are due to being "so annoying, reality tries to avoid him".
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder: The effects of the Spark on him are a lot more apparent in the Twitter than in the comic.
- Shirtless Scene: When first encountered he is only wearing trousers. When he turns up again however he seems to stick to sweaters. After being broken out of a time stop, he is left shirtless until Gil insists that he wears something, much to the disappointment of the women and one male fan.
- Sunglasses at Night: Or whatever that visor thingy is. There's a fan theory that it's there to protect bystanders from the power of his amazingly pretty blue eyes; another theory (given his white hair, pale skin, and extremely light eyes) is that he's an albino and needs it to protect his eyes from the light.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Big, manly, aggressive and has a tendency to barrel towards danger, just because.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When the Baron tells him that he has a job for him instead of just killing Othar on the spot, Othar notes that he thinks that he'd prefer to be killed instead, even before he knows what the job is, prompting Klaus to note that he might actually be smart.
- Tragic Hero: A heroic goal, ruined by his lack of self awareness and obsession.
- Uncertain Doom: In the future, he is considered to be "lost".
- Unexplained Recovery: Constantly. The only explanation we've ever gotten is "Special trousers. Very heroic''."
- Unreliable Narrator / Through the Eyes of Madness: His Twitter is considered canonical, but it's from his point of view and he's insane.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Killing all Sparks one by one and ending with himself might not be the best of ideas, but it's not exactly the worst one either.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: So beautiful that they make his normally imposing self look pretty girly.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He seems to firmly believe himself to be the dashing hero of a science fiction romance. He's right, but he never realizes that he's also the Hero of Another Story, let alone that Agatha is a fellow hero and not a potential sidekick. Thus, he's developed similarly delusional views of the main characters: Agatha is currently going through an independent phase(how cute!) of sidekickdom, Tarvek is the handsome villain she's redeeming by The Power of Love, and Gil is the schemer who is behind it all. Though he miiight be coming around to the idea that Agatha is the kind of girl who wants multiple boyfriends.
Dreen
Dreen, Mysterious Abominations
A species of other-dimensional beings with a tangential relationship to time.
- Blood Knight: They are described by another extradimensional being as "murder hoboes" and essentially like big game hunters for monsters. In fact, it seems that Klaus drawing in a monster with the time stoppage is the reason they helped him create his empire.
- Destructive Saviour: They are capable of taking down some of the biggest baddest extradimensional horrors around, but don't count on your city remaining intact after their epic battle.
- The Dreaded: Everyone who knows about the Dreen is scared shitless of them due to their powers over time and know that whenever one shows up, something very bad is about to happen. Even other beings from outside of time are afraid of them!
- Ghostly Glide: They seem to have no feet, and get about by hovering.
- Egomaniac Hunter: Their apparent occupation, as supposedly their entire reason for being in Europa this whole time was to hunt and kill the gargantuan monster attracted by the timestop caused by Klaus in Mechanicsburg.
- Horrifying the Horror: Bang is scared of Dreen. Slaver Wasps are scared of Dreen. The Jaegers are scared of Dreen. Castle Heterodyne is scared of the Dreen. Extradimensional beings unbound by time itself are scared by Dreen. Everyone is scared of Dreen.
- Human Aliens: The "horrific" appearance is only one of their forms. When Agatha uses Prende's lantern on them, it reveals blue skinned humanlike forms with slightly disproportionate builds.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Martellus attempts to flatten one of the Dreen with his battle clank. It shrugs it off and casually dismantles the battle clank while resuming pursuit of Agatha.
- Non-Linear Character: As they are from outside of regular time and space. From an inside perspective it makes them look omniscient, but they aren't. When they say something to someone, it will happen, because they've seen it happen.
- One of the Dreen in St. Szpac's vaults tells Gil that he will travel to Paris. While he goes to England instead, Albia sends him to Paris for his return trip, much to his own disbelief.
- When Klaus finally returned to Europa from wherever it was that Lucrezia sent him, he found two Dreen awaiting his arrival. They offered to assist him in his conquest of Europa and the establishment of his empire, apparently to repay him for something he would do in the future.
- Upon first meeting Agatha during the siege of Mechanicsburg, a Dreen tells her that "[she] will come with [them]". While originally this sounded like a demand for surrender, the revelation that Dreen exist outside of linear time means that eventually she will go with them.
- No-Sell: For an as of yet unexplained reason, they are immune to the Time Stands Still effect of Prende's Lantern/Lady Heterodyne's Star.
- Not So Above It All: From their first appearance up until 2024, they appeared to be weird and spooky even by the setting's high standards for weird and spooky, unsettling everyone around them. It turns out when on their own, Dreen are just as nuts as everyone else, bickering over shortbread.
- Sign Of The End Times: Apparently they only show up when things are really bad, time-wise. This is because whatever is causing it has caught their attention to hunt it.
Ferretina
Ferretina, the Weasel Queen
The main antagonist of the "Revenge of the Weasel Queen" side story.- The Beastmaster: She created and leads an army of giant bunny rabbits called lapinemoths.
- Benevolent Boss: Agatha assumed she controlled her lapinemoths with fear and mind control. Unfortunately for her, Ferretina controlled her army with good dental coverage.
- Beware the Silly Ones: She may be one of Agatha's more comical enemies but she is one of the few who have come close to killing her and her friends.
- Cleavage Window: Her top barely covers her, yet it still has a hole in to expose more cleavage.
- Freudian Excuse: Her Spark father turned her into a weasel hybrid and she was chased away from her home village for her freakish appearance.
- Go Mad from the Isolation/I Just Want to Have Friends: She was driven away from her home village due to her appearance and the lack of human companionship caused her more evil, animalistic side to emerge. However, she longed for someone to see her as a person and not a monster. Unfortunately, Othar was not that person, but luckily Agatha's fashion clank was.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Her father's experiments turned into a human-weasel hybrid.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Agatha's fashion clank praises her clothing, she quits being a villain and the two of them run off to Paris to start a fashion shop. Later, during Agatha's trip to Paris, we see that they've done pretty well for themselves. (See second panel)
- Hidden Depths: While she's probably not a Spark, she's knows enough about science to create an army of killer rabbit constructs. She's also a skilled and talented fashion designer.
- I'm a Humanitarian: She regularly kidnapped tall, lusty young men... because they tasted better when they were grilled with cheese.
- Karma Houdini: Suffers no consequences for killing and eating villagers and she gets to open a successful fashion shop in Paris. See the background of the second panel of this comic
- Obviously Evil: She first appeared claiming to be a victim of the Weasel Queen. Our usually Genre Savvy heroes don't suspect that the bestial woman wearing bones and fur who gets irritated at any criticism directed at Ferretina might not be trustworthy. In their defense, they do tend to meet a lot of strangely dressed people.
- Stripperiffic: Her outfit is very skimpy, especially her top that leaves her Underboobs exposed and still has a Cleavage Window.
- Unkempt Beauty: A wild, half-animal woman who's half dressed in furs and rags. Subverted in that it's revealed she actually does put a lot of effort into her appearance.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: She fell in love with Othar after he defeated one of her giant rabbits. However, after she bared her soul to him, hoping to win his heart, he assumed she was a vile seductress plotting to kill him which lead to her angrily deciding to put him in an elaborate death trap.
The Circus
Master Payne's Circus of Adventure
"Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to a show like no other! It is true that we bring you the usual amusements—sleight of hand, thrills, jokes both cheap and witty—but these can be had from any ragtag troupe or twopenny dreadful and I can see that you are an audience that demands more and we shall provide it! [...] For before you tonight is that glittering company known throughout the world and beyond as Master Payne's circus of Adventure!"
A traveling Heterodyne Show that takes Agatha in for a while after she saves them from a wandering monster-clank. Zeetha was originally one of them, but decided her place was with her student when the rest of the Circus was Put on a Bus.
- Arm Cannon: Ollie has a prosthetic hand that either can transform into a hand cannon or he has a separate hand cannon prosthetic. He is never seen with it in any stage but mechanical hand or weapon so it is unknown if it is two devices or one but it looks like he just removes the hand portion to access the cannon.
- Ascended Extra: Many of the circus are more fleshed out in the novelization, particularly Professor Moonsock, the troupe's animal trainer and de facto medic.
- The Beastmaster: Professor Moonsock, who tames animals for the show's acts, and occasionally for defense (though the others are less receptive to those attempts).
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Abner and Pix start out this way, then get together soon after Agatha joins the circus.
- Blatant Lies: According to the novels, Yeti insists he's from some long-hidden civilization. No-one else believes him, on account of the fact his accent is suspiciously like that of someone from the Chinese portion of Istanbul...
- Blessed with Suck: The circus is composed mostly of sparks who lost the Superpower Lottery, their abilities held back by a lack of education or being so weak that they are barely considered sparks — but they're still recognisably 'sparky' enough to be hated and feared by the general populace, while nowhere near powerful enough to protect themselves from angry mobs, Baron Wulfenbach or anyone else who might have a use for them.
- Blue Blood: Marie is apparently distantly related to the Queen of England, and is often referred to as "the Countess."
- Circus of Fear: Not usually; they're decent people. But after SHOWTIME!, things get... interesting.
- Flying Dutchman: Embi, of the Wandering Jew variety. Assuming he wasn't sending Agatha out for a crate of balloon juice about that.
- Foreshadowing: Apparently the von Mekkahns' general appearance is well known as a Vanamonde look alike appears early in one of the Heterodyne shows. It's possible Carson had the blond hair, black eyebrows that his grandson currently has in the past and the Circus picked up on that trait.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Marie again.
- Handicapped Badass: Trish Belloptrix is a spark who walks with the aid of a crutch and is confirmed in the novelization to be missing most of her left leg. That crutch transforms into a large gun to take out the monsters and clanks that threaten the circus in the wastelands.
- Happily Married: Master Payne and Marie, with a little bit of Vitriolic Best Buds mixed in.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: A lot about the circus. Especially how they're mostly Sparks.
- I Owe You My Life: No one is happy at being forced to turn away Agatha when she reveals she's on the run from Klaus Wulfenbach, but they gladly fake her death and deceive a grieving Gil after she returns to save them from a wild clank anyway. They then take her in, no questions asked, and agree to escort her to Mechanicsburg, even after learning she's a Spark herself. When they finally learn she's a Heterodyne, they steal a Wulfenbach ship and rescue her from Klaus himself.
- Inksuit Actor: Master Payne is based on a Northwest stage magician of the same name who is a friend of the Foglios.
- Knife-Throwing Act: Dame Edith has a knife throwing act, unfortunately she has at least once turned her knives on the audience when she asked if anyone was a vampire and someone raised his hand, understandably thinking she was joking.
- Little People Are Surreal: Embi notes that most of his appeal to the audiences the circus pulls in is that he is short.
- Lovable Coward: The whole circus is this. They play heroes on stage, but they don't do any actual heroics - traveling the Wastelands is dangerous enough without it.
- The Masquerade: Many of them are minor Sparks, hiding from the Baron and from potential Burn the Witch! situations.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Master Payne, though he's a pleasant enough fellow most of the time.
- Necessarily Evil: Master Payne.
- Number Two: Abner's overall role seems to be Master Payne's right-hand man, offering suggestions and feedback while planning their next course of action.
- Older Than They Look: Embi, who is apparently well over a hundred years old.
- Performance Anxiety: According to the novelization Yeti has stage fright if he ever tries to appear on stage, but in one very special performance in Sturmhalten he successfully acts as Punch.
- Phony Psychic: Madame Olga is a fortune teller traveling with the circus; after she is killed, Agatha takes over her act using the same name.
- Pie in the Face: Shockingly, this is plot-relevant! Taki the chef believes there is no problem in life that cannot be solved by application of pie to the face, whether it's a dud act, a panic attack, or a full-blown Sparkish rage. It actually helps with that last one.
- Pillow Pistol: When Master Payne and Marie are woken by a Sturmhalten soldier banging on their carriage door he slides a gun out from under his pillow to take with him to answer the door.
- Purpose-Driven Immortality: Embi credits his long life to the fact he made a sacred vow to see the world before he died, but didn't know just how big it was. Of course, that could just be a story he's trying out.
- Put on a Bus: To England, specifically.
- The Bus Came Back: They've finally showed up again at Albia's party in 2020, years after they were last seen.
- The Bus Came Back: They've finally showed up again
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A lovable kind.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Master Payne is often forced to make difficult decisions for the sake of keeping his people safe, but he never abuses his authority and always lets Agatha speak her piece before pointing out why he can't do as she wants, however much he would like to.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: While most weapons in Girl Genius are death rays or other creations of mad science one of the circus members, who looks to be the young Spanish woman who acts as their Thundering Engine Woman impersonator, prefers a revolver even though she herself is a Spark.
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Many of them are minor Sparks. Very few of them are any good at it.
- Stage Magician: Master Payne himself, much like the real life stage magician he is based on, but with more tricks that rely in Sparky innovations and inventions.
- Tsundere: Pix has a one-sided crush on Abner, and is very flustered that he doesn't notice her. Until he does.
- Vampire Hunter: Dame Ædith is one, or tries to be. This has caused the circus some problems, such as when she asked the audience if any of them were vampires and one man, assuming she was joking, raised his hand.note
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: The trope is well-used: the circus establishes the post-apocalyptic world the Other left behind and works Zeetha, Dimo, Oggie and Maxim into the main cast. Plus jokes.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Yeti just wears a necklace and pants, though he is rather fuzzy so he may not feel the need to don a shirt.
Lars
Lars, Troubadour
I want her to stay! Her! Because she's got a great big monster-killing gun, and I want it and her right here!
A former cheese maker's apprentice who joined Master Payne's Circus of Adventure as an actor and as an advance man. He was one of Agatha's closest companions in the first half of the comic.- Chivalrous Pervert/Handsome Lech: Lars apparently has a... colorful history with the women in towns the circus visit.
- Due to the Dead: Maxim goes out of his way to recover Lars's remains and insists he be buried with his hat, Serious Business to a Jaeger, since he died defending a Heterodyne.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: He dies protecting Agatha and is given a Jäger funeral, with Maxim donating his hat. He isn't mentioned again. The print-novels do a little better, having Agatha mourn for him when finally given a quiet moment to do so.
- Finally averted when Agatha crosses paths with the Circus again in Albia's court. She has not forgotten about him.
- Glory Seeker: He left his life as a cheese maker behind to become a lead actor in the Master Payne's circus.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Saves Agatha from getting stabbed by the Baron at the cost of his life.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Laments that he never really had a shot with Agatha with his last breath.Lars: "A Heterodyne girl... Heh. An ordinary guy like me... never had a chance..."
- Ladykiller in Love: Lars, who falls for Agatha. He confesses it as he lies dying.
- Lovable Coward: Sort of; he's competent enough during dangerous situations, but as soon as the current situation is resolved, he breaks out in a delayed panic attack.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Lars is killed by the Baron and dies confessing his love for Agatha, causing her to become angrier than ever before. However, after this story arc, Agatha (almost) never mentions Lars again and she becomes occupied with her love triangle with Gil and Tarvek.
- Nervous Wreck: Lars can be easily startled by some of the abominations of science encountered in the wastelands. Not helping is that his job is to scout the Wastelands for those abominations, leaving him a bundle of frayed nerves. Once he gets going, it's hard to stop him. Even with a pie. Though the Jaegers found a solution.Lars: Horse! Pie! Horse! Pie!
- The Plot Reaper: When Gil is about to come back into Agatha's life.
- Romantic False Lead: Out of all of Agatha's potential love interests, Lars is the only one who isn't royalty, isn't a Spark and is more than a bit of a coward, but despite these handicaps he is devoted to Agatha and does anything he can to help her. From a normal literary standpoint, Lars' underdog status probably made him the top candidate for Agatha's affections. He dies less than halfway through the series.
- Spider-Sense: Lars has an uncanny ability to sense danger before it happens; this leads him to be far more cautious than usual around Agatha.
König
Bärenkönig, Acting Leader of the Swartzwalders
Leader of a group of sentient bear constructs, and tentatively named the Swartzwalders by the fandom after their previous appearance in the non-canon Girl Genius card game The Works. He considers himself their temporary leader, and has been long awaiting the arrival of the bears' true "Master".
- Bears Are Bad News: The only thing that could be scarier than a bear is a sentient bear designed to be a warrior.
- BFS: He has a curved saber that is easily as long as Dimo is tall. Since König is also quite large, it's a one-hander to him.
- Bilingual Bonus: "König" is "King" in german.
- Bling of War: His "crown" is a ring on a necklace, and he has a pair of bronze armguards to indicate his station. Or alternatively, it really is a crown, intended to be worn by Krosp.
- Large and in Charge: König has significantly more body mass compared to the other Swartzwalders.
- Made of Iron: When the Beast was finally vanquished and it exploded, he fared better than Brother Ulm, who only survives by means of Brain Uploading into the Corbettites' new super-locomotive.
- No-Sell: He and the other bears aren't affected by The Beast's magnets due to not having metal on them.
- Third-Person Person: He is "This Bear" when referring to himself; an affectation shared among all his fellow Swartzwalders.
- Retired Badass: As soon as Krosp appears on the scene he immediately and cheerfully steps down from his leadership position and takes a new job as the engineer on the aforementioned super-train.
- Slasher Smile: Bears are not really designed to look happy, so even when this bear is meant to be happy, he still looks like he's sporting one of these.
- Uplifted Animal: Though not to the intellectual level of Krosp, König and his fellow Swartzwalders are sentient nonhuman animals.
- You No Take Candle: Like all Swartzwalders, he has very simplistic speech and refers to himself using "this bear" instead of "I". However, it belies an intellect beyond just being Dumb Muscle, as he was savvy enough to think that The Beast was bluffing.
Professor Blintzie von Wyrmhaut
Professor Blintzie von Wyrmhaut, Supreme Curator of Drachenzehen Hall, High Queen of Historians, and Artifact Hunter Extraordinaire
- Pardon me, but I am a serious academic! Published in over thirty journals! —Most of them reputable, and some, I didn't even have to pay!
Former instructor at Transylvania Polygnostic, now curator of Drachenzen Hall. Currently leading a party seeking the Iram Solis, a dragon flame-enhancer held in the hoard of Hydrargyros the Godburner. Once taught Agatha at TPU.
- Badass Longcoat: Complete with fur trim and adorned with spikes.
- Bearer of Bad News: Reveals Respiro the dragon was assassinated by his own guild due to resentment from the Limited Advancement Opportunities he caused from being head of the glassblowing guild for centuries.
- Bullying a Dragon: She tries to destroy Mechanicsburg completely on her own, using the Iram Solis, an Amplifier Artifact for fires. The Iram Solis is strong, but not that strong, especially when she's only powering it with a match. The Mechanicsburg news proceeds to mock her attempt as an embarrassing failure.
- Curtains Match the Window: Grey hair and eyes.
- Cute Little Fangs: Very prominent (almost Jaeger-like) canines.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Wears goggles on her forehead and doesn't actually use them, even when observing Franz breathing fire.
- Hammerspace: Pulls a BFG from nowhere.Prof. Wyrmhaut: A good tailor can do amazing things with pockets!
- Hate Sink: She's an arrogant, greedy, short-sighted, violent jerk.
- Hunter of Monsters: Franz adds "notorious monster hunter, specializing in dragons" to her titles. Apparently from a family of monster hunters ("Wyrmhaut" means wyrm [dragon] hide). Notably, she isn't fanatical about it and is quite respectful and cordial towards Franz, addressing him by his formal title of Lord Scortchmaw, while Franz admits most dragons aren't as nice as him and are "flat out monsters".
- Loyal Phlebotinum: Her customized gun is designed to only work for her. When the heroes manage to steal it, she dares them to shoot her with it while she prepares to kill them with a fire Amplifier Artifact.
- Mad Scientist: A teacher of these. Franz immediately assumes she wants the Iram Solis to attack Meachanicsburg.
- Meaningful Name: "Wyrmhaut" means dragon hide. Presumably this is how Franz deduces she comes from a family of monster hunters.
- Sadist Teacher: Shoots one of her students for getting a question wrong, then immediately backpedals when she realizes that the material wasn't covered in their lessons. Previously taught Agatha and gleefully claims she flunked her (though Agatha was still wearing the power-limiting locket and hadn't broken through at the time). Declares her entire class failed the midterms when Franz's drunken dancing interrupts her. Decides to kill them all when they become a case of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness since they are potential competition for the treasure.
- Searching for the Lost Relative: Her Uncle Hengst set out to slay Hrydrargryos and never returned. She Finally Found the Body in Hyrdrargyros' lair.Prof. Wyrmhaut: As near as I can tell, he killed the dragon, but was mortally wounded. We spent years wondering what happened to him.
- Spikes of Villainy: Long, dangerous-looking spikes sprout from the shoulders of her coat, and smaller ones from the top of her thigh-high boots. And she's certainly a dangerous and amoral Spark. Although in her line of work (which include hunting monsters), the spikes are certainly justified as a defense against being swallowed whole.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: "Supreme Curator of Drachenzehen Hall, High Queen of Historians, and Artifact Hunter Extraordinaire (and also notorious monster hunter specializing in dragons)".
- Villain of the Week: Invoked to represent how far Professor Wyrmhaut had fallen. During the hunt for the Iram Solis, she talked a good game about how Mechanicsburg's numerous enemies kept making the mistake of thinking that they could defeat the city via a Decapitated Army tactic, when an experienced monster hunter would know that razing the entire town is the only option. Once the Professor actually got the Iram Solis, she attempted to make good on her declaration... but the people of Mechanicsburg are so used to such plots that the most the reader sees of the results is a newspaper reporting the "weekly attack by disgraced academic" some time later.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She only wanted the help of Franz's group to get herself past a door designed for dragons. After that, she considers them boring, in the way, and competition for the treasure. She isn't terribly fond of her students either. Thus, her minion, Hector, betrays them and gives her (very temporary) control over one of the traps to help her kill them all.
Zantabraxus
Zantabraxus, Warrior-Queen of Skifander
The current Queen of Skifander, a hidden and mysterious civilization, mother of Zeetha and wife of the mysterious warrior known only as "Chump". Also known as Klaus Wulfenbach, making her Gil's mother.
- Ambiguous Situation: Her attitude towards Gil is one of the story's smaller mysteries. Klaus suggests that for some reason she wanted him dead, and that this was the reason he brought the toddler Gil back to Europa with him, and has a strong suspicion that one of the reasons Zeetha was sent out into the world was to kill him, but why she would do so is unclear. Alternatively, and since otherwise it's odd that Klaus would still miss Zantabraxus and think fondly of her, there might have been others in Skifander who wanted to kill Gil...
- The Exile: Before Chump showed up, there'd been a period of severe civil unrest between the priestesses of Eshkigax and Zantabraxus's mother, which meant she had to go into exile. Chump helped her recover her throne.
- The Ghost: First mentioned very early on in the story offhandedly by Klaus, name-dropped by Zeetha several times, but it took up until 2022 before she makes a confirmed physical appearance in a flashback.
- Happily Married: By all indications, she and Chump were quite happy together, and whatever it was that separated them, Klaus still misses her dearly.
- Missing Mom: For Gil, who doesn't know a thing about her, including her name. The novels make it clear that Klaus mentioning her when he's hospitalized is the first time he's said anything about the subject ever.
Polar Ice Lords (Unmarked spoilers)
The Polar Ice Lords, Horrors of the Frozen Wastes
Ixthaliox
Click to see his true form.
Click to see the other Polar Lord.
- "They say the lords are wizards. Demons. Monsters. That they can control reality itself. For what it's worth, I don't think they're lying."—Princess Neena
Mysterious and dangerous in equal measure, the Polar Ice Lords are things that rule over the frigid lands north of Europa. That is, until the fall of the Wulfenbach Empire, which seemingly encouraged them to expand their frozen dominion southwards.
- Ancient Evil: They've ruled over their icy lands for untold millennia, being venerable even in comparison to Albia. According to Ixthaliox, they even predate whoever built the Queens' Mirrors.
- An Ice Person: And how. The Polar Lords are defined by their disturbingly powerful control over the cold — they can use it to ground fleets of airships, protect themselves and their troops from harm, and turn enemy soldiers into icy revenants who obey their every command.
- Bad Boss: Ixthaliox demands to know why the soldiers have stopped marching. One of them answers his question—the opposing army has sent a group carrying a White Flag, looking to parlay—and Ixthaliox promptly freezes him solid.note
- Enigmatic Minions: When first introduced, they seem to be just another one of the factions serving the Other, complete with the use of modified Hive Engines. But it eventually becomes apparent that they are just as, if not even more powerful than the Other themselves, and seem to be following their own agenda with a disturbing interest in Agatha and Mechanicsburg. Case in point, once Ixthaliox is defeated and his Hive Engines destroyed, a senior Polar Lord appears, denounces him as a weakling, and withdraws all of their forces.
- Evil Is Hammy: Ixthaliox is, at the very least.The endless void between the stars is filled with cold beyond your imagining! MINE TO COMMAND!
- Horrifying the Horror:
- Albia, a practically immortal Physical Goddess and Reality Warper, never talked about what she found when investigating territories abandoned by them as the ice receded. When she sends a British expeditionary fleet to escort Agatha back to Mechanicsburg, they are also tasked specifically with helping Gil's forces fight the Polar Lords, showing that she views them as even more of a threat than the Other.
- Conversely, one of their number refers to Agatha as a horror, though in a manner which almost seems to be a compliment.
- Humanoid Abomination: Once in their weakened state, they look human (ish), and might have been human once. But in most circumstances, they're monstrous beings that wield the cold in a manner that even manages to shatter the setting's Rule of Cool based laws of nature.
- Even their foot soldiers don't seem entirely human, having glowing, pupilless eyes and sharp teeth.
- Even their foot soldiers don't seem entirely human, having glowing, pupilless eyes and sharp teeth
- Logical Weakness: Unsurprisingly, the best way to harm them is through the use of heat-based weaponry. Their forces and equipment fare poorly in warm temperatures, which is why they haven't conquered the world in all their millennia of existing.
- Our Liches Are Different: They certainly seem to fit this role — ancient, mysterious and very dangerous beings that appear as gaunt, emaciated humanoids, command armies of undead minions, and wield powerful magic.
- Those Were Only Their Scouts: Ixthaliox, who declares himself a "grand duke of the Arcana", is defeated by Agatha with considerable difficulty, the assistance of a full complement of Sparks, and the firepower of a rather large army. Then an even more powerful Polar Lord Appears and blasts Ixtha, calling him a "sniveling disgrace". Given their difference in size and appearance, and the Polar Lord's authority to "cast [Ixthaliox] from the Arcana", it's possible that grand duke is a title, Ixthaliox is a subordinate, and we have not yet seen a Polar Lord in action.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Polar Lord thinks this of Ixthaliox for failing to cut and run when Agatha arrived.Polar Lord: Ixtha was a fool to provoke a horror such as you while he was weak and in retreat.
- Villain Respect: The senior Polar Lord seems to show this to Agatha... To the point of calling her a "horror".
- We Will Meet Again: The Senior Polar Lord informs Agatha as such."We will remember this loss. And you will remember the ice."
- Wrong Context Magic: The ice-based abilities wielded by the Polar Lords can only be described as actual, "traditional" magic without any of the Sparky trappings, which makes them a dangerous and unpredictable anomaly in the eyes of most other characters.
- You Have Failed Me: Once Ixthaliox is defeated by Agatha and Co. en route to Mechanicsburg, he's reduced to a skeleton by a more senior Ice Lord for his recklessness, and to prevent him from spilling any of the Polar Lords' secrets to Agatha.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: The Polar Lord tells Agatha she can keep the remains of Ixathliox's body "as [her] rightful spoil".
