Characters / Girl Genius Mechanicsburg

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Mechanicsburgers

People, constructs, clanks, and sentient buildings who live (or lived) in the city of Mechanicsburg (by choice or otherwise)

General

• Berserk Button: Pretending to be a Heterodyne or threatening an actual Heterodyne is a good way to get yourself lynched in Mechanicsburg, assuming the Castle doesn't get you first.
• Chaotic Neutral: Claimed In-Universe by one of the town signs that they've been "chaotically neutral" for some number of years.
• City of Adventure: Being the home of generations of Heterodynes will do that. Roughly every square meter of the town is home to a Death Trap, secret passage, lost treasure, or highly dangerous creation of perverted mad science, if not several of these at once. The main story stays here for almost six years (although much of the action arises from the town being under siege), as well as several side stories.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: While the setting as a whole doesn't have anything like the issues around human race or sex that its historical equivalent did, monsters and constructs are often outcasts, slaves, or second class citizens. In Mechanicsburg, they are valued members of the community.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mechanicsburgers may be murderous brigands and eager minions to one of the most mad and destructive Spark families in Europa, but they're a very close-knit community.
• The Igor: Fifty generations of being minions to a dynasty of mad scientists who despite generally being evil, tended to be very consistent in repaying loyalty up with loyalty down, has turned pretty much the entire population into this.
• Nightmare Fetishist: The Jägers' monstrous features are considered attractive in Mechanicsburg. Serving girls dress up as Jägers to attract customers in Mama Gkika's tavern, Mama Gkika herself is turned on by the thought of a man with big tusks, Oggie is a ladies' man, and Higgs is not only disappointed that he never developed any monstrous features, but fears that Zeetha will be too.
• Seen It All: The Mechanicsburgers have lived all their lives in the home of the maddest and science-iest Mad Scientists, and are almost universally unflappable. They don't seem to mind that the Heterodyne's return is accompanied by a full-scale invasion — after all, she hasn't even killed anyone yet!
• Undying Loyalty: To the House of Heterodyne. The sheer joy in Mechanicsburg when they learn they have a Heterodyne again is a Heartwarming Moment.
• Villainous Friendship: Again, murderous brigands and eager minions, but a very close-knit community.
• Weird Trade Union: There's a Guild of Monsters in Mechanicsburg, accepting both Heterodyne creations and defecting constructs of other Sparks. The Heterodyne Boys disbanded the guild and tried to drive out the monsters, but the people stood by their inhuman neighbors and Agatha reinstated it.

Castle Heterodyne

Castle Heterodyne, Lair of the Heterodyne Family

"THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING IN MECHANICSBURG!!!"

^{Click here to see the portable Dingbot version that joined the cast in the Paris arc (SPOILERS)}

Castle Heterodyne is the hereditary home of the Heterodynes and the central structure of Mechanicsburg, a masterpiece of Malevolent Architecture and Artificial Sentience created by Faustus Heterodyne and improved upon by almost every successor to the family line. It was badly damaged in the still-mysterious explosion that announced the arrival of The Other in Europa - adding multiple personalities to its many intentional quirks. Nevertheless, the last thing Judy (AKA Lilith) told Agatha was to get to the Castle. "It will help you."

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: When first encountered, the castle is badly damaged, but since it was originally imbued with intelligence by the gleefully diabolical Faustus Heterodyne, even the 'fixed' portions regard grisly deaths as entertainment.
• Bad Boss: Castle Heterodyne's more addled subsystem fragments are stupid, murderous, and confused when it comes to repairs. Even the more sane fragments have a penchant for killing the inhabitants unless closely supervised by Agatha.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The castle has a very slaughter focused view of the world.
• Benevolent A.I.: An incredibly twisted version. It is completely loyal to the Heterodynes and will go out of its way to protect them and act in what it believes are their best interests. Unfortunately, being built by and for the Old Heterodynes means that it seems totally unable to understand that its current Mistress might not want the world to quail in terror at her feet, or might consider subjecting her staff to brutal Darwinian winnowing to be less than desirable.
• Berserk Button: Threatening or otherwise questioning the Heterodynes is a good way to incur the Castle's wrath. It notably drops the comedy when Herr Diamant foolishly claims that all the Heterodynes are dead, and threatens to vivisect him for his blasphemy.
• Big Fancy Castle: It's in disrepair, but some parts, like the library, still look good. Also, with the visible part of the castle not exactly small already, consider that it sits on top of a large rock overlooking Mechanicsburg. And that inside that rock it reaches down below the level of the spring of the river Dyne.
• The Bus Came Back: Played with. The Castle, being capable of a higher level of consciousness and perception than humans, is still able to think and function in a limited fashion under the effects of the temporal stasis. Additionally, machinery containing one of the Castle's fragmentary personalities was removed before Agatha arrived in Mechanicsburg to begin with; Agatha discovered it in Paris, and while it's more limited than the actual Castle, it does have its little ways of being useful...
• Card-Carrying Villain: The Castle proudly admits that its old Masters were villains. That Bill & Barry were heroes was always something that confused it. One scene has the Castle and the Beast worrying that Agatha might not be evil.
• Crazy-Prepared: It claims to be prepared for "more contingencies than you can imagine." This apparently includes getting stuck in a time stop.
• Death Course: The interior of the Castle is a labyrinth of heavily booby-trapped chambers, corridors and passageways, crawling with various deadly constructs, the whole thing controlled by the Castle's own highly sadistic mind.
• Eldritch Location: Not in a magical sense (as far as we know). But its sentience, ability to rearrange parts of itself (and the entire city that surrounds it) around to fight off attackers, and ability to retain full awareness and partial function despite the entire area it occupies being frozen in time definitely qualify it as such.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Sparks have been working for fifteen years to sort out what is and is not dangerous in the castle. The idea of entering an area that hasn't been mapped yet is considered suicide. Agatha exploits this by fleeing through an unmapped area in order to delay her pursuers; against all odds, it works, allowing her and von Zinzer to reach the Chapel of Bones mostly unhindered.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle, it mentions that despite doing everything it could to please them, the Heterodyne Boys never liked it. Even decades on, it's still confused as to why. It should be noted that the Castle was the one who killed their mother, the one who raised them to be good and saved them from their mad father. The fact that the Castle never considered this to be a reason why Bill and Barry never liked it speaks for itself.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: As Zola notes, the Castle's worst trait is that it likes to think it has a sense of humor. But to a normal person, its sense of humor is crude at best and usually sadistic.
• Evil Is Petty: It's implied the Castle takes note of the prisoners that are closest to getting out and makes a point of killing them before they can escape it.
• Exact Words: See Jackass Genie.
• The Genie in the Machine: Deliberately invoked: "I must have misunderstood you" is one of its excuses when confronted with its frequent misdeeds.
• Genius Loci: At first, a massively fragmented one. But as Agatha restores more and more of it, it gradually becomes less deranged and more capable of helping, ultimately culminating in the Castle reminding the attacking Wulfenbach forces just why Mechanicsburg is unassailable.
• Haunted Castle: So the rubes believe. It's actually more of an A.I. style Sapient House with a massive mean streak.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Not very heroic, just aligned with the interests of our protagonist heroine. But very sociopathic! And, it likes to think, even more comedic!
• Heroic Second Wind: After Agatha fully recharges its energy reserves, the Castle reminds the world why the hundred-year Great War never came to Mechanicsburg.
• Horrifying the Horror: When Gil and Higgs make their excursion into the stasis time-field to retrieve Vole, the Castle "encourages" them to get a look at the Clock Roaches for it, expecting to only find Dreen. The sight of the looming abomination makes it scream in fear.
• Invincible Hero: Not the castle itself, but it seems to assume that any "real" hero can automatically survive any and all deathtraps without explanation. The really weird part is that it seems to be right.
• Jackass Genie: Castle Heterodyne prefers to interpret all orders it is given in whatever way allows it to have the most fun, for which read: "cause the most casualties and destruction". Imagine the maze in the Cube movies with an AI that likes to think it has a sense of humor.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all its sociopathic tendencies, schizophrenia and contrariness, the Castle is a loyal servant of House Heterodyne, and has stated a willingness to lay down its life(?) for Agatha.
• Kick the Dog: Prisoners are reminded to never tally their total points out loud, as the castle can and will devote more effort to killing those close to getting out.
• Large Ham:
  • Gleefully. It happens when the Castle's mind is a copy of a Spark's brain (specifically that of Faustus Heterodyne, the current castle's creator).
    Agatha: Let's just say that somewhere in here is a dial marked "High Drama," and it needs to be turned way down.
    Castle: I do have a certain flair...
  • When someone suggests BRIAN BLESSED be used as the voice of the Castle, the authors agree entirely.
• Laughably Evil: The Castle loves its work, and those of us who are safe beyond the fourth wall get to be in on the joke.
• Malevolent Architecture: More so than most, as it will actively try to kill you.
• Maximum Fun Chamber: Fun for the Castle (and the Old Heterodynes back when), that is.
• Mechanical Abomination: A sentient castle with more deathtraps than possible that can ignore fluctuations in time.
• Memory Gambit: The Castle is compelled to obey most orders of the currently reigning Heterodyne, but its ultimate loyalty is to the overall family, and it will occasionally fool itself if it doesn't like what it expects the reigning Heterodyne to do. When the "goodie-two shoes" William and Barry attempted The Purge against Mechanicsburg's monster population, the castle felt that future Heterodynes would return to evil someday and took action. It secretly buried the Monster Guild's headquarters and separated its memory of doing so to ensure that the Heterodyne Boys would not be able to order it to truly destroy the guild. While Agatha was not the return to evil it was hoping for, she did have use for the Monster Guild and renewed its charter, resulting in the Castle's memory being returned to it.
• Moral Myopia: Played for Laughs. Since the Castle builds its worldview around its Heterodyne, it seems to believe in a sort of In-Universe Protagonist-Centered Morality (that isn't self-centered).
  Agatha: I think I've been used.
  Castle: What?! Who dares?! Playing with people's lives is your prerogative!
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Or more accurately for the Castle, "My Master, Wrong or Right (But Preferably Wrong)". It exists for the sole purpose of serving the Heterodyne, even if they're a hero like Bill or Agatha.
• Nightmare Fetishist: As the HQ and The Igor to generations of demented maniacs, the Castle delights in human misery. Also, when the Baron declares that he is going to end the Battle of Mechanicsburg personally, the Castle has a fanboy moment.
• Nothing but Skulls: The Heterodynes had a relatively simple but effective design decor.
• Pet the Dog: In its own twisted, warped way. The Castle did like Professor Tiktoffen, so it kills him quickly.
• Put on a Bus: When Klaus crosses the Godzilla Threshold, he freezes the Castle and its occupants (and himself) in temporal stasis, removing them all from the story. But even being frozen in time doesn't stop the castle from telling Gil that something physically unconstrained by the bounds of time is coming to to do terrible things to Mechanicsburg so long as it's still frozen.
• Robotic Psychopath: That murderousness isn't a bug, it's a feature.
• Sanity Slippage: As something created by Heterodynes, the castle was never particularly sane to begin with, but once Agatha, Gil and Tarvek are inside, it starts getting increasingly irrational. The first sign is when Gil tinkers on one section, causing the castle to start rambling about yurts. It completely loses it when it hears of the trio's plan to cure themselves of Hogfarb's Resplendent Immolation: Kill the patient... and then revivify them after purging, but alas, the Castle doesn't care. After the castle is "killed", a less insane handy backup copy takes over.
• Sapient House: Remember the house from The Addams Family? Imagine fifty generations of Addamses adding onto it... and weaponizing it.
• Shipper on Deck / I Want Grandkids:
  • One of its only sympathetic traits: the Castle is determined never to be left without a master again. Therefore, Agatha must have children. Immediately. It openly ships Agatha x Gil x Tarvek (to her mortification), but it's not really fussy - anyone will do. Of course, given its other personality traits, it takes the idea of imprisoning them all until it gets what it wants quite seriously.
  • It seems to ship Higgs/Zeetha as well, presumably out of sentimental fondness for two unusually entertaining humans.
• Spike Balls of Doom: The Castle includes a huge spiked ball, which is apparently called the "Happy Fun Ball Of Death", which visits each part of the castle once per week.
  Agatha: Why do I even have one of those?
• Split Personality: The Castle is made up of hundreds of subsystems and subroutines. Upon the initial attack, the Other was smart enough to hit the Castle in four major subsections and fracture it into at least 12 personalities. The secondary kitchen part itself was driven by the need to tend to food preparation. The entire Castle could be shut down as long as one portion of its personality survived; it could take over and remember everything the whole system did. Fragments of its memory and personality are stored in various bits in the network and many of these bits were looted or lost since Faustus built the original version. Many of these components were gathered up and used to try and take over Paris; then this was concentrated in a mobile version which will probably be reconnected to main system later on. Epilogue stories even show that various subsystems and memories will be restored even after the war with the Other has ended.
• Supervillain Lair: Proud (and we do mean "proud") home of some of the greatest monsters in Europa's history!
• Sympathy for the Devil: In the novel, Agatha expresses sympathy towards the castle whenever it brings up her father and uncle. It had always been praised as one of the greatest Heterodyne inventions, and then The Heterodyne Boys come along and demand it stop doing what it was designed to do. Taking away its only purpose.
• Those Two Guys: The fragment of the Castle that was smuggled into Paris was found by Agatha and rendered unto a super-Dingbot that looks like a tiny set of fortress walls with organ pipes out the top. Joined with the similarly miniaturized Beast of The Rails, the two become this. Castle is the more compliant and anticipatorily helpful of the two. However, it's more than clear that, should Agatha leave the pair alone for 24 hours, mayhem would swiftly ensue.
• Trap Door: Enjoys dropping people through these, often into Bottomless Pits.
• Undying Loyalty: Naturally, as the greatest Heterodyne abomination ever created, it is loyal to the death towards its creator's lineage like (almost) all the others. It vows that it will declare Agatha Heterodyne to the world if it's the last thing it does.
• Unwanted Assistance: If given any leeway in its orders, the Castle will act in what it thinks is in its Master's best interests. Unfortunately for Agatha, being created by and likely based on the mind of an extraordinarily Ax-Crazy by-the-standards-of-the-dynasty-and-that-is-saying-a-great-deal Heterodyne Warlord means that it has a hard time getting its CPU around the idea that the current heiress considers attacking any theoretical enemy in range, or subjecting her staff to Darwinian winnowing, to be counterproductive.
• Zerg Rush: In its bowels it has a horde of monstrous clanks and constructs which it releases upon the Wulfenbach attackers when at its full exertion during the Siege of Mechanicaburg.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Ordinarily it has to obey its master (or mistress), even if it doesn't like it. But one of the cannier Heterodynes did give it the ability to resist if its master seemed to be suicidal. When Agatha talks openly about handing herself over to the Baron, the Castle clamps down on the idea. This, however, becomes a major impediment to curing Agatha of a disease (which involves her technically dying and being revived) and it goes completely insane, prompting Agatha to completely disable the Castle.

Mechanicsburg Townsfolk

Doctor Sun

Doctor Sun Jen-djieh, Chief of Staff at the Great Hospital of Mechanicsburg

"You are a terrible patient!"

One of Klaus's old friends. A Spark who runs the Great Hospital in Mechanicsburg. Prone to threatening to beat some sense into his friends and students who are being foolish — and then backing it up if need be.

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• All Asians Know Martial Arts: Is able to give a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to a two story clank.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Capable of taking down clanks with his bare hands.
• Combat Medic: Able to fight a clank with his bare hands and revive a person from their severed head.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's well known for "Sun-ny bedside manners".
• Doctor's Orders: He has no doubt at all that his authority extends over Klaus when he's injured. He believes that Klaus shouldn't be trying to micromanage his empire when he's so heavily injured (and all things considered, he's probaby quite right).
• Dr. Jerk: People make jokes about his Sun-y bedside manner.
• The Exile: The novelisation explains that he's on "extended vacation", with the threat of painful death should he ever return to China, for being "contaminated" by foreigners (I.E. The Heterodyne Boys).
• Mad Doctor: A benevolent if grouchy one. When presented with a "patient" who's been reduced to a severed head he takes it as only a minor challenge.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: He strongly implied that he was the guy who taught Realpolitik to Klaus. Who taught Gil (directly) and Tarvek (indirectly). So in a way, both the setting as we know it and main plotlines can be traced back to him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It really all depends if you are taking Agatha's POV or Klaus', but him taking down Klaus and forcing back to bed after the Castle is "killed" can be seen as this. Unbeknownst to Dr. Sun, Klaus was desperate to defeat Agatha because he had been wasped. He figured killing her as soon as possible would render that fact pointless and, thus, save his empire. However, according to Tarvek, he couldn't just TELL anyone this because of the mind control. So to Klaus, Dr. Sun broke it, but to Agatha, him stopping Klaus fixed her problem. Given that there are multiple versions of the Other running around and Agatha is generally the one in control of her body and not Lucrezia, Dr. Sun probably would have stopped Klaus regardless (if he had all of the facts on hand) as Agatha dying would have increased the chances of the Other winning. Also, Dr. Sun putting Klaus in isolation in a high-pressured healing engine ensured that Klaus was no longer potentially vulnerable to being controlled by the Other for the time being and the Empire would be handled by competent subordinates, Boris especially. The villain part is subverted. While Dr. Sun technically serves Klaus, his first line of duty is to his patients. After he gets trapped in Mechanicsburg during the siege, he hesitates for a split second before reporting the medical situation of the town. He isn't out to help Agatha, but to save lives.
• Not So Above It All: As the novel shows, if you give Sun a corpse to dispose of, he'll instantly start smiling and pointing out all those convenient closets he just happened to have lying around his hospital.
• Put on a Bus: Klaus offhandedly mentioned he escaped Mechanicsburg. Despite that, he has has yet to reappear in the story. Given he's one the best doctors on the continent, he's probably stationed at a well stocked and major hospital as opposed to a lowly field station or Castle Wulfenbach.
• Shout-Out: His name is an old transliteration of Di Renjie, the inspiration for Judge Dee.

Drozeki

Watch Chief Drozeki

The chief of the Mechanicsburg city watch created by Pluto Heterodyne. As Heterodynes have an expectedly odd outlook on how a city law enforcement group should operate Pluto made the members of the watch invisible and long lived, which drove many of them to desperation out of loneliness with Drozek as one of the very few original watch members still remaining. Jagers and other constructs can usually see members of the watch so they did have plenty of company in Mechanicsburg prior to the Baron banning Jagers from the city.

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• Friend on the Force: Ivo Sharktooth, Private Jäger has a friend on the force in The Chief. Though he looks in on The Chief mostly to make sure he doesn't go mad since no humans can see him.
• Invisible Monsters: Invisible construct, who looks human enough mostly to those who can see him but has a remarkably long life. The only other known surviving member of the original watch ditched the profession to become an assassin due to how convenient their powerset is for such work.
• Invisible to Normals: Drozeki can only be reliably seen by the Jägerkin and is the sole remaining member of the watch created by Pluto that were designed to be invisible and quickly forgotten if interacted with without special equipment.

Eleven Deadly Sins

The Eleven Deadly Sins

The Storm King's Muses were so famous that one of the Heterodynes got jealous and decided he'd try to outdo Van Rjin. He did outdo him in one respect, in that he made more clanks, but that's really it. The "Eleven Deadly Sins" are not remotely as sophisticated, just violent killing machines that were gifted to the families of the Blood Circle. And if you're wondering why it's Eleven sins and not the Seven Deadly Sins, apparently the Heterodynes were so evil that they invented four more.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Sins are not... terribly reliable. They've wiped out multiple of the families who they were supposed to serve. But they were made by the Heterodynes, so, comes with the territory.
• Climax Boss: One of them ends up being the final adversary of the Ivo Sharktooth mini-arc, under the command of Hadrian. Ivo keeps it busy until Van uses his override.
• No Name Given: Played with. Only Gomorrity is directly named, though since Ivo alluded that the Seneschal's assistant has gotten mad or eaten too much cake at some point already, clearly referencing Wrath and Gluttony, it's almost certain that seven of them are named after the classic Seven Deadly Sins.
• Values Dissonance: An In-Universe example. While the reader isn't told which four sins were added to round out the roster to eleven (beyond that one was named Gomorrity, and that it isn't related to sodomy), Vidonia is told one of them and finds it surprisingly mundane and not worthy of being considered a sin. Ivo points out that even the traditional seven aren't so bad, depending on who's writing or reading the list.

Hadrian

Hadrian Greenclaw, Mechanicsburg Crime Lord

The nephew of Charlemagne Greenclaw, school friend of Vanamonde, and a member of the Blood Circle in Mechanicsburg. Is in fact the instigator of the events of "Ivo Sharktooth, PJ", being the supposed Big Bad of the arc, having had his uncle and the rest of the Blood Circle leadership assassinated, and to take control of the Eleven Deadly Sins. Only it turns out he had purely good intentions for all of this - the Blood Circle were planning to assassinate Agatha, thinking she would be as "bad for business" as her father and uncle, and Hadrian, who was absolutely loyal to Agatha, put an end to the plot as well as deactivated all but one of the Sins. Unfortunately, he assumed Vanamonde was in on the plot.

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• Good All Along: Was loyal to Agatha and instigated the theft of the trophy to deal with the Eleven Deadly Sins.
• Poor Communication Kills: Turns out he really should've talked about the plot with Vanamonde first before trying to kill him. He assumed Van knew everything going on in the city, and because Van wasn't moving against the Blood Circle, that Van was complicit.
• Undying Loyalty: Certianly more of it than the other crime lords in Mechanicsburg. They cynically assumed the worst about Agatha being too much of a goody-two-shoes like her father and uncle, and were planning to assassinate her, so Hadrian pre-empted them. He conveniently assumed their power afterwards, and made himself one neat point of contact for Agatha with her town's criminal underworld.

Mitko

Mitko, Mechanicsburg Militia Gunner

It's the Jägers! They're coming home!

A gunner captain in the Mechanicsburg Militia who has proudly been part of many successful campaigns. These days he uses a walking stick to get around and seems to be training his son to take up his position while commanding from Gunnery Post XI.

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• Chest of Medals: His jacket has thirty-seven badges indicating victorious battles.
• Genre Savvy: The Jagers approach town ominously but seem to be thinned out. Mitko knows instantly that the Jagers making a show of arriving in Mechanicsburg are only a handful and the rest are already positioning themselves throughout town even though his younger family members are surprised.
• Old Soldier: A grandfather and veteran who is still competently serving in the town militia.
• Seen It All: Mitko has a long history of living in Mechanicsburg and dealing with Sparks and Constructs, his response to the attack on town is to grin since he knows all the tricks Mechanicsburg has hidden even with the obvious defenses disabled.

Vidonia Orkalina

Vidonia Orkalina, The Seneschal's Assistant

I am the person who is putting you to bed. For the first time in days because you've already done everything you possibly can and you need to sleep now, or you will be of no use whatsoever to this town when the attack comes!

First seen organizing the guilds of Mechanicsburg to assist Agatha's work in the coffee shop, she quickly assigned herself to be Van's assistant seeing as the town has a Heterodyne and he's much busier than he used to be.

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• All There in the Manual: Vidonia's name was only revealed in the novelization as she was too busy and too uninterested to properly introduce herself. She finally introduces herself properly in a sidestory in the Distant Finale involving Franz. It took over eleven years.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: She passes herself off as Van's assistant and it takes him at least a day to even question her presence. In this case, she decided he needed one and assigned herself the position, while he's not even sure what her name is but her competence meant he went ahead and used her.
• Beleaguered Assistant: While Van is actually extremely competent, Vidonia assigns herself to him when Mechanicsburg is under attack and Van spends several days without sleep, so by the time she's dragging him off to get a bit of sleep, he's not as on the ball as he is normally, and she acts incredibly annoyed with him questioning her identity as though he's the one acting strange by not knowing it.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: Despite the fact that she was never formally hired and assigned herself to Van, she is incredibly competent at organizing the guilds and getting them to do things they protest, despite the fact that she doesn't technically have any authority. Van takes a while to even question her presence due to how useful she is.
  • A side story set in the future reveals she's been made "Right Honorable Minister of Civic Punctuality".
• Limited Wardrobe: While Vidonia does change her shirt a couple of times, she seems to always wear her trilobite earrings and a long white cape.
• Spotting the Thread: Notices Vipsania is uninterested in researching the archives of Castle Heterodyne, unlike the other visiting librarian, Aldin Hoffman. She questions Hoffman, who reveals Vipsania wasn't a full librarian yet, was the Sole Survivor of three trips, and isn't on official Library business this time.

The von Mekkahns

Carson and Vanamonde von Mekkahn, Former and Current Seneschals of Mechanicsburg

"Welcome, my lady... if my lady you be."

The Von Mekkahn family is as synonymous with Mechanicsburg leadership as the Heterodyne family itself is, with many of them serving as seneschals to the Heterodynes. Carson von Mekkahn was the seneschal of Castle Heterodyne until he retired and passed the job on to his son, who died just days later when the Other attacked. When Baron Wulfenbach politely took over Mechanicsburg a few years later, Carson made it seem that the von Mekkahn family had gone extinct in the Other's attack, going into hiding under the alias of "Carson Heliotrope" and running Mechanicsburg in secret. Carson has since retired again and his grandson, Vanamonde, now runs the town from a coffee shop. After Agatha Sparks out in Vanamonde's coffee shop, Carson helps her enter Castle Heterodyne.

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• Bald of Evil: Carson, sort of. He probably wasn't both bald and evil simultaneously, but he's bald now and apparently served the evil Heterodynes before Agatha's heroic father and uncle — he rode with the Jägers in his youth and could describe Agatha's grandfather's usual reaction to invading war clanks. The print-novel version also has a nasty set of scars up there; see People Puppets below.
• Bluff the Impostor: Carson tries this on Agatha at first, asking if Punch ever mentioned him. He is quite surprised that she knows Punch couldn't talk, though this still isn't enough to convince him. The novelisation notes that if Agatha had told Carson about everything that had happened to her until that point, he would have believed her then and there.
• The Bus Came Back: Vanamonde was a side-extract along with Gil's ultimate target in extracting from the time distortion field: Tarvek Sturmvoraus. Tarvek was poisoned by throwing knife from the fleeing Martellus while in pursuit, and Van had caught Tarvek's fall after he collapsed from the virulent effects. That was the position the two were in when the Take-Five Bomb detonated. Extracting Tarvek entailed extracting Van too, since Agatha would not take kindly to her seneschal dying.
• Exact Words: When the Wulfenbach Empire moved in the townsfolk reported that the Heterodynes' seneschal and Carson's son had died in the attack by the Other. They did not mention that Carson had retired to spend time with his grandson and passed the seneschalship to his son, meaning that he was presumed dead and able to secretly run a shadow government until Vanamonde came of age.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Young Vanamonde has shown a strong skill in this.
• Former Teen Rebel: Carson. Again, rode with the Jägers in his youth, under the old evil Heterodynes. Is now retired, lives with his daughter-in-law, and seems to have mostly spent his days soaking up rays on the balcony before being introduced in the comic.
• The Good Chancellor: Carson and Vanamonde both are/were eminently capable civic administrators, spymasters, and have Mechanicsburg's best interests at heart.
• Legacy of Service: The most prominent case in an entire city filled with legacies of service to the House of Heterodyne. Their family have been seneschals to the Heterodynes for generations.
• More Expendable Than You: Vanamonde figured that it was safer for him to drink Agatha's freshly made coffee than let her have a second go around.
• Must Have Caffeine: Vanamonde is addicted to coffee.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: To outsiders, Vanamonde looks like a young loafer who does nothing but laze around and drink coffee. In reality, he wrote a definitive book on coffee (under a pen name), is (according to Carson) "more competent than he appears", and, oh yeah, secretly runs Mechanicsburg.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Carson had retired mere days before the Other's attack on Castle Heterodyne, with his son dying in the attack instead. His only comfort was that his son had died trying to save the life of Klaus Barry Heterodyne, the infant son of William Heterodyne and Lucrezia Mongfish.
• People Puppets/Unusual User Interface: Part of Carson's duty as seneschal. He has special holes drilled in his skull that let him use the Throne of Faustus Heterodyne to become Castle Heterodyne's puppet so that Agatha can talk to it in the crypt. Vanamonde's skull hasn't been prepared for such a thing yet, but the Castle is looking forward to it.
• Put on a Bus: The Von Mekkahns were trapped in the effect area of Klaus's Take Five Bomb that entrapped the vast majority of Mechanicsburg. The Bus Came Back as noted above.
• Psychic Link: Carson didn't even notice he had this until he felt Castle Heterodyne die.
• Retirony: Inverted by Carson, who retired just in time to miss dying in the Other's attack. His replacement, who was also his son, died instead. (Vanamonde is his grandson.)
• Seen It All:
  • Carson.
    Carson: Don't try to boggle me, Mister Talking Cat. This is Mechanicsburg. You are by no means the strangest thing in this town.
  • This is something of a front; the first time he sees Krosp talking he does look a little surprised.
• Skeptic No Longer: Agatha's performance in the coffee shop (and her "perfect" coffee) make Vanamonde a believer. By the time Agatha cows Castle Heterodyne from punishing Herr Diamant for expressing his skepticism through sheer force of will, Carson is convinced she's real too. And Herr Diamant as well.
• Skewed Priorities: Vanamonde's main duties are to serve Agatha and make sure that Mechanicsburg has everything she needs to fulfill her Sparky desires, which means he also has to make sure that the town has the finances to do so. As such, he's prone to try spinning the results of Agatha's misadventures in ways that coud boost local tourism, whether she likes it or not. In particular, he wants to turn the enormous statues of Agatha that Gil created over the time-skip into a brand new line of souvenirs, despite Tarvek correctly pointing out that she loathes them.
• So Proud of You: Carson says as much to Vanamonde before he dares to drink the perfect coffee.
• Spell My Name With An S: There's some disagreement on whether it's spelled Mekkahn, Mekkan, or Mekkhan.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Since there is a Vanamonde lookalike in the Heterodyne shows, there's a good chance that Vanamonde looks just like Carson did in his youth.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Carson had mere days in retirement enjoying time with his grandson while his son took over the family tradition of being the Heterodynes' seneschal before the Other's attack on the Castle became a harbinger of the dark times ahead. He immediately jumped back in and managed the crisis, with the city accustomed to following his leadership. After that happened, he arranged and led a shadow government for Mechanicsburg, essentially rendering the nominal Wulfenbach-appointed city administration impotent. He has since (semi) retired again, letting his grandson Vanamonde, now an adult, take over.
• Too Clever by Half: Hadrian Greenclaw's plan to get rid of those conspiring to asassinate Agatha included killing Vanamonde, since the current seneschal likes to portray himself as knowing everything that goes on within the town, Greenclaw assumed that he had to know about the plot and be in on it.
• Undying Loyalty: They come from a long line of seneschals to the Heterodyne family; so much so that they're almost as synonymous with Mechanicsburg leadership as the Heterodyne family itself. Insulting the family is one of the few ways to get Carson and the Castle on the same page.
  Diamant: Carson! Call it off!
  Castle: Heh heh heh. I think you've annoyed him, too!

Lumi von Mekkhan

Relative of Vanamonde, a Spark studying alchemistry at TPU. Joins Vipsania and Franz on their quest to loot a deceased dragon's hoard in Franz Scortchmaw and the Story We Haven't Named Yet.

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• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Seems to be infatuated with Hector the supposed ghost (despite her fear of ghosts) after he flirts with her and giving her a black rose before fleeing. When reminded that he's a thief and various other bad boy titles, she merely acknowledges he is while dreamily staring into space. And when Vipsania asks if Lumi believes she can change him, she wonders why she would want to do that.
  Brother Marcus: Ah, yes. Mechanicsburg.
• Big "NO!": When she finds out there are no coffee shops nearby.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: At seven, while taking a piece of Franz's treasure hoard, she booped his snoot.
• Little Miss Badass: At age seven, she became the youngest Mechanicsburger to steal treasure from Franz's Dragon Hoard, as part of the initiation into the Lower Court Geartooth Goblins.
• Must Have Caffeine: Like Van, she needs coffee to function.
• Oh, Crap!: When it's pointed out she left her flying machine on the Corbettite train.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Seems to have a paralyzing fear of ghosts, with one only needing to say "boo" to send her into a shrieking fit.

Franz

Franz Scortchmaw, Bone Gnawer of the Heterodynes, First and Most Dread of the Dragons

I said REJOICE!!!

Franz is the Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg. You may have seen him on the town arms.

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: When the chemistry of his flame is changed to match Hydrargyros, he takes on Hydrargyros' arrogant personality. It wears off rather quickly, though.
• Berserk Button: Franz is an extremely laidback dragon, but some few things will set him off: obviously, people threatening the Heterodyne; rival dragons encroaching on his territory; people taking undue interest in his books; and people making deals with him and then implying they may be unable to hold up their end of the bargain, or thinking he might cheat his way out of an agreement.
• Breath Weapon: As indicated by his name, he can breath fire.
• Character Catchphrase: "Rejoice!" For context, he is demanding revelry while beating down a host of attackers because the Doom Bell has heralded the return of a Heterodyne scion in the middle of a multi-sided invasion battle.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: After years of would-be adventurers attempting to pilfer from hs board, he's started a business selling trinkets and gems.
• A Day in the Limelight: Nominal protagonist of sidestory "Franz Scortchmaw Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg and the Story We Haven't Named Yet!"
• Dragon Hoard:
  • Franz serves as the guardian of the Heterodyne treasury. He uses (some of?) it in a giant bag as a blunt weapon during the Battle of Mechanicsburg.
  • In a 2022 side-story, Franz explains to a would-be-interloper that all the gold and jewels that the old Heterodynes looted are just fancy trinkets that they never really much cared about at all. It was the act of looting they enjoyed more than the loot itself. Franz does have a personal hoard that he's much more protective of, but it's not gold or jewels, it's rare first-edition books.
  • Franz has some fun quoting Smaug when he senses someone creeping around the hoard, and chuckles over how much fun that particular line is to say. Unfortunately for would-be thieves, unlike Smaug, Franz is equipped with a radar device.
  • When travelling on a train, he can't sleep until he empties a bag of coins on the bed.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: When his flame is altered and he starts acting like Hydrargyros, he asks if anyone is a princess. And apparently discussed with Hydrargyros which kingdom has the best princesses.
• Drunk on Milk: The tampering with his internal forge to change the chemistry of his flames via various minerals results in him temporarily acting like he was utterly sloshed. At least until they accidentally stumble on the right formula, after which he starts acting like the much more unpleasant Hydrargyros
• Early-Bird Cameo: First seen in an off-hand appearance during Da Boyz educating Gil that all the monsters in the city are loyal to the Heterodynes, he later has a major role in the Battle of Mechanicsburg.
• Failed a Spot Check: After demanding no parties while Mama Gkika is watching his hoard, he takes no notice of the Jagers carrying party supplies.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Has to make a decision between helping himself to Hydrargyros' gold hoard once he and the impromptu band of raiders have access to it, or helping Humongulous from under the pillar he threw at him earlier. Not only does he choose the latter, he surprises the resident Mechanicsburger that there was even a dilemma to be had to begin with.
• Guile Hero: When tussling with Humongulus, he engineers the fight to end up underneath a water tower, sweeps Humongulus' legs and threatens to flood his internals with water. Humongulus is immensely impressed by this and concedes the fight.
  Eh, dragons only get stupid when we're fighting other dragons.
• Happiness Is Mandatory: If you're not rejoicing after a new Heterodyne has been acknowledged, you're probably an enemy.
• Heroic Second Wind: He doesn't hold up well against "Pretty Boy", the pompous red dragon in the Wulfenbach army attacking the city at first. Then Agatha gets the idea to give him a jolt. Then it is on! We don't see the details of the fight, but the end result is clear: Franz is next seen wearing Pretty Boy's helmet, still glowing blue with power.
• Hidden Depths:
  • A 2022 side-story reveals that Franz's most valuable treasures are rare books.
  • Back in the day, Franz enjoyed creating his own made-up languages.
• I Kiss Your Hand: On meeting Agatha for the first time and introducing himself to her, he kisses the hand of the Mini-Mecha she's currently riding.
• Last of His Kind: He's not quite the last, but a good majority of dragons have long since been killed by Knights and Monster Hunters. He is not pleased when he finds this out.
• Money Mauling: He uses a giant sack full of coin from the Heterodyne treasury he guards during the Battle of Mechanicsburg.
• Not Always Evil: Is a Big Fun Nice Guy, but admits most dragons aren't as nice as him.
  We dragons don't generally play nice with the general population, you know? Most of us are flat out monsters.
• Not Quite Flight: Franz apparently can't fly by himself. So Barry Heterodyne made him what is essentially a giant penny-farthing that drives a pair of helicopter blade things.
• Odd Friendship: Franz has managed to strike up a somewhat cordial and respectful partnership with Humongulous, despite the latter being constantly mistaken for a knight.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The first time you see him, he just looks like a rather generic monster. Only once you see him more fully after the Doom Bell rings does he start to look more draconic. And once he throws down with Pretty Boy, he's explicitly called a dragon.
• Spell My Name With An S: It's "Scortchmaw", not "Scorchmaw". Yes, it's misspelled, but that's how it officially is. You gonna argue with him?
• Tempting Fate: After all, anybody who wants to fight a dragon, well, they'd better be pretty tough.
  Humungulus: Ooh! Ooh! Humungulus is tough! Let Humungulus try! It will be fun!
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: His normal personality is that of a lethargic, antique loving, easy going dragon. When a group, including at least one spark, tinker with his flame, his personality changes with it. Making his flame closer to that of a young dragon turns him into the Life of the Party. Making his flame the same as Hydrargyros changes his shape and gives him a cruel, arrogant, and yet cowardly personality, just like the original Hydrargyros. Fortunately, the effect is temporary as his default alchemy starts burning through the chemicals that were tweaking it.
• Undying Loyalty: Like every other Heterodyne monster, Franz is absolutely loyal to his lord/lady Heterodyne. He's even an icon of Heterodyne power as the "Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg".
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Him walking around in broad daylight.
  Vipsania: It seems strange... You just walking down the street.
  Franz: Yeah? Well, it is strange!

Wilhelm Diamant

Herr Wilhelm Diamant, Mechenicsburg Town Councilor

I am your loyal servant until the end of days, my lady!

A member of the Mechanicsburg Inner Council which greeted Agatha upon the castle proclaiming her the new Heterodyne. While Mechanicsburg was under Wulfenbach rule he was in charge of transporting prisoners and supplies to the Castle and helped Agatha get in without being noticed.

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• Government Conspiracy: He is part of the shadow government that actually runs Mechanicsburg and does its best to avoid the Baron and ignore his apointed governors.
• Skeptic No Longer: He is disbelieving that Agatha is a Heterodyne... until she shouts down Castle Heterodyne and averts it from killing him for voicing his insolent disbelief. He blubberingly declares his undying loyalty to Agatha once freed from the Castle's clutches.
  Diamant: I AM YOUR LOYAL SERVANT UNTIL THE END OF MY DAYS, MY LADY!
  Castle: Grovels nicely, doesn't he?
• Undying Loyalty: The castle critiques his loyalty as Wilhelm thinks all the Heterodynes are dead, but once he thinks Agatha might actually be one he works hard to ensure she's able to reclaim the town.

Moloch von Zinzer

Moloch von Zinzer, Mechanic

"I am nobody's happy little helper, you got it?"

A mechanic who served in army of a Spark beaten by Klaus and ended up "on the beach" after his Walking Tank ran into Bang's team. First met right at the beginning when he and his brother steal Agatha's locket. He is later mistaken for the Spark that created Agatha's first clank. He turned up again in Castle Heterodyne and seems to have fallen into the role of Agatha's minion by default.

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• Action Survivor: He starts out as a mere soldier whose brother steals an Orphan's Plot Trinket from the main character in the first chapter, so you'd expect him to last about five minutes. But after his brother's death by said trinket, getting mistaken for a Spark, and eventually ending up imprisoned in a sentient castle built by a family of murderous sociopaths, he's still kicking thanks in part to large amounts of luck and talent for dealing with Sparks. The Castle has started calling him the Head Minion.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Among the minions in any case. While he hasn't kicked anyone's ass, his position as Agatha's Chief Minion was secured by delivering Dope Slaps to the other Castle Prisoners that were getting out of line.
• Badass Normal: Not a Spark, not a Jäger, not specially trained, he just doesn't want to die. Downplayed as he's not that badass.
• Beleaguered Assistant: He spends a lot of time insisting that he is not the minion to one of the craziest and most dangerous sparks around.
  Theo: Hit the first switch!!!
  Moloch: Yeah yeah, here it goes..
  Snaug: Psst... it's "yes, master".
  Moloch: ...Not even if it got me out of the castle tonight.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • He was quite nasty in his earliest appearances, so he was much more deserving of the abuse he got early on. Being in Castle Heterodyne around more Ax-Crazy folks seriously mellowed him out, to the point that he's currently considered a nice guy. Or perhaps his brother's influence (plus, y'know, his belief that Agatha had murdered him) was corrupting and he improved in its absence.
  • The very first thing he does when he meets up with Agatha again in Castle Heterodyne is to apologize for his behavior back then, claiming he was really scared and under a lot of stress. Agatha forgives him.
  • In his very first appearance, he's actually rather friendly and reasonable, and trying hard to keep his brother in line. (The novelization, which tells this scene from his POV, emphasizes this.) It was only after his brother died holding Agatha's locket that he started getting nasty. Since he believed that the locket was responsible for his brother's death (which it probably was) and that Agatha had intentionally let his brother steal it to cold-bloodedly murder him (not true, but a reasonable conclusion given what he knew) it's pretty understandable that he's being less than pleasant with her.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In the future windows we see, Moloch states that "they survived (the destruction of the gunboat that he and his brothers piloted)". Several pages before that in the present time of the comic, he states that he saw "Bruno and the kid" escape into the forest. Whoever these two characters are, they are important enough for Agatha to search through time to track them down.
• Chew Toy: He didn't start out that way, and it's not physical abuse. He was one of the soldiers who stole the Orphan's Plot Trinket. The Karmic Chess Master moved him next to Agatha. He tried to play rough. Now his nerves are the butt of every joke the fates can manage. Examples: The tables are turned, his Genre Savvy fails, the rain of fear begins, the Castle has some fun, the Castle gets serious, Genre Savvy does no good at all, Genre Savvy says it all, Nightmare rising, Especially when it works as planned, Fool for love, and many, many more.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: To a lesser degree than one might expect in this crazy universe, but despite his general scruffiness and not having been seen to try to get girls, he's clearly attracted both Violetta and Snaug, with bonus UST-source Sanaa Wilhelm. Promo art from the updated version of spinoff card game The Works suggests that he also gains the affection of a fourth, specifically, Miss Baumhund.
• Color-Coded Characters: His outfit is mostly grey and his hair is black. He wore bright red early on.
• Combat Pragmatist: His solution for dealing with an enemy riding a clank is to simply hit the driver with a brick rather than engage in the kind of drawn-out fight that the Jägers would prefer. Fits with his overall pragmatic approach to life.
• Crush Blush: When he learns that his crush was not as secret as he thought.
• Cut the Juice: his solution to being told that some run-away machinery can't be shut off. Earned him a Dope Slap.
• Deadpan Snarker: At times. Pointing to one particular example, Agatha needs to recharge the castle if she wants to stop Mechanicsburg from getting overrun, and to do that she needs to get to the top of a tower. But there's an army of hostile clanks between her and the tower. So she aims her BFG at them and fires, wiping them all out and knocking over the tower. His response? "How is it possible that this could surprise any of you people?"
• The Drag-Along: Often, though he becomes increasingly good at dealing with it (though not without a lot of bitter resignation). Sometimes it even happens literally.
• Due to the Dead: Those who died in the Castle don't get used as raw material, he decrees. And even hardened criminals listen when he says so.
• The Engineer: He doesn't have The Spark, but he does have a great deal of skill in machinery and problem solving. He knows that, given enough time, he can solve most problems with a lot of hard work and a bit of common sense. Truth In Webcomics, since traditionally tank crewers (the closest real-world equivalent to his assignment) would become VERY adept at fixing their vehicles. Mostly because the alternative was either fiery unpleasant death, or a long walk back through hostile territory.
• Extreme Omnivore: It's at least implied he's able to casually down "beverages" that would kill most people. Like, for example, bubbling green slime in a vat clearly labeled "DO NOT DRINK" - the remnants of which are shown to have eaten through the steel cup just seconds after he finished it!
• Fire-Forged Friends: Became this with Agatha as they quickly patched things up and saved each other's lives multiple times while in Castle Heterodyne.
• Foreshadowing: Possibly. He's able to drink stuff that should kill any normal man and the Castle has suggested that he drink the Jägerdraught. While he isn't a Jäger in the future windows that we see, he does end up back in Agatha's employ and isn't seen in the distant future, so it's possible that he will become a Jäger. Though he has also displayed some sparky tendencies too, such as laughing Mad Scientist style after fixing the Castle's massive water wheel...
• Freudian Excuse: It's clear he's not actually a coward or at the very least he is very courageous, but he often just wants to escape and hide from his problems. Given that many of brothers died due to conflicts between sparks, it makes sense that he wants as little to do with them as possible.
• Genre Blind: Although being Genre Savvy is more or less his defining characteristic, he has a huge blind spot when it comes to being Agatha's Chief Minion. He never realizes that the things he's saying are setting him up perfectly as the only person capable of doing the next assignment, or at least to be stuck right in the middle of it.
• Genre Savvy:
  • "I have been around way too many Sparks!"
  • It's becoming his defining personal characteristic.
    Von Zinzer: ... How is it POSSIBLE that this could surprise ANY of you people?
• Heel–Face Turn: See Characterization Marches On above. A generous soul might call him the first villain of the series. Even if not, he's more morally grounded now than he used to be.
• Irony:
  • Had Moloch never stolen Agatha's Locket, he never would have gone through the series of events that led him to become her Chief Minion. It's really his own fault.
  • As the third novel notes, Moloch has only himself to blame for being Agatha's Chief Minion, when he offered her help after the Castle's blood test, he automatically wound up in the very position he hates so much.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Or at least of a less jerky jerk than it seemed.
• Lethal Chef: He's fortunately never asked to handle cooking duty once he joins up with Agatha, but he was stuck on kitchen duty prior to her entry in Castle Heterodyne, and by all accounts he was bad at it - Sanaa said that his machines would probably taste better, and Mittelmind said that everyone knew that being served after Sanaa would get a boiled sponge as a meal. Possibly related to his Extreme Omnivore tendencies, as it's clear that his sense of taste in general is just off.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Early on in Castle Heterodyne, just seeing Sanaa causes him to both repeatedly injure himself and fail to notice that Agatha, the woman who (inadvertently) made his life spiral out of control, is right there.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: He has eight brothers.
• Military Moonshiner: Mentioned in the novelizations.
• Minion Shipping: With Violetta and Snaug, with a bit of Sanaa to the side.
• Mugging the Monster: Though not even the "monster" in question (Agatha) knew at the time just who and what she was. The mugging arguably kicked off the plot, as Agatha's spark was no longer restrained by Barry's spark-suppressing amulet.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Averted, in that he's a perfectly normal person with a demon's name. Turns out his mother got his name out of The Bible...despite not having actually read it, at least not enough to understand the context.
• Number Two: To his intense dismay, he's the highest-ranked minion in Mechanicsburg, due to being Agatha's top minion.
• Oblivious to Love: Partly because, by his own admission, he has very little experience with women, and partly because he's more or less been under constant threat (and thus had more important things to pay attention to), Moloch is completely oblivious to any affection directed his way, even though one of them is rather blatant about it and another is not particularly subtle either. He's also distinctly oblivious to his own romantic feelings - he notes that he feels the same way about Snaug as he does about Sanaa, but he chalks it up to "not being used to being around beautiful women." He naturally fails to notice that this tacit admission of attraction and the compliment to her appearance just gets Snaug to fall harder for him.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: During the Battle of Mechanicsburg he gets through explosions, the Empire's massive clank army, and what's described as all of the Baron's most dangerous Sparks and monsters to get various repairs done across town for the Castle. Unfortunately for him, this later puts a damper in his attempts to convince Agatha that it would be impossible for them to pass through it all alive.
• Only Sane Man: First the only sane man in the Castle, then the only one in the entire town of Mecanicsburg.
• Put on a Bus: He hasn't been seen since the timeskip. He's probably one of the thousands trapped inside the Mechanicsburg Time-Bubble, but given he's the comic's ultimate example of an Action Survivor, it's possible that he may pop up somewhere down the line.
• Sarcastic Devotee: He is certainly loyal to Agatha, but if someone does something stupid he certainly enjoys pointing it out.
• Seen It All: When he shows up in Castle Heterodyne, his reaction to pretty much everything is "Did you guys really not see this coming?"
• Shipper on Deck: Agatha/Gil.
• The So-Called Coward: Though largely self proclaimed - Von Zinzer makes it clear throughout the Mechanicsburg arc that he's only there out of self preservation, and he balks at anything and everything that's he thinks is sure to get him killed. However, he also recognizes that sticking with Agatha is the safest thing to do, and despite his claims that he'd never become a minion and that he's going to run for the hills the first chance he gets, he never falters to do what Agatha needs of him bravely and loyally. Amusingly, this means that everyone else sees him as Agatha's badass Head Minion while he keeps trying and failing to convince them that he wants to be as far away from danger as possible.
• Stating the Simple Solution: One of the hallmarks of his Genre Savvy is to look at a situation and either say that someone should do a very simple action to deal with the problem or to do the simple action himself. One example is listed above under Combat Pragmatist, where he specifically advises doing so when all the parties in question are supposed to do is stop a tank to get parts from it (of course, he tried telling that to Jagers...)
• Stepford Smiler: When we first see him in the castle, he seems a bit off. Could be blamed on Love Makes You Stupid, given his massive crush on Sanaa.
• Tempting Fate: "Aaah! Jinx!"
• The Reliable One: What allows him to survive as long as he does is his ability to accomplish most tasks given to him (even if he complains about it a lot) ironically this gets him in the position he hates so much.
• Took a Level in Badass: Astounding Sanaa in the process.
• Unfazed Everyman: Another character aspect that overlaps with Seen It All and Genre Savvy.
• The Von Trope Family: Averted. Despite his name implying that he's nobility, he says that he's the younger son of a farmer, and was living as a common mercenary before he first crossed Agatha's path.

Castle Heterodyne Inhabitants

Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers

The Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers

Giant killer clanks that inhabit Castle Heterodyne. They're mobile, and they dispense agony and death, but whether they're "Fun-Sized" is subjective.

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• Fluffy the Terrible: The Heterodynes dubbed these huge killing machines "Fun-Sized".
• Fun Size: Very much subverted. They're huge.
• In-Universe Nickname: Moloch calls them "devil dogs" (but in the novelization's version of the same scene, he calls them "steam cats"). Later on, some characters start calling them "kitties".
• Mechanical Monster: In Moloch's words, "They're really fast, really strong, and really solid."
• Mega Neko: They are very large clanks with a catlike appearance.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Like most things in Castle Heterodyne, they stop antagonizing Agatha when they learn she's their Lady.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Agony and Death Dispensers" is a fairly accurate description of their intended use.
• Panthera Awesome: The Heterodynes modeled these giant killer clanks after tigers and other big cats.
• Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom: ZigZagged with the "Fun-Sized" bit. They'd only be a "fun size" if you're a Heterodyne, but the rest of their name is pretty accurate. That said, they are the most popular ride in the Castle on Kid's Day

Prisoners (in general)

Prisoners from the Castle/Roving Band of Heroic Repairmen

"Requiescat in pace and all that rot... DIBS ON HIS BOOTS!"

A thoroughly mixed bag of Sparks, constructs, criminals and psychopaths sentenced to repair Castle Heterodyne, thus killing two birds with one stone from the Baron's perspective. Provides a ready pool of minions (or mooks) for whomever is currently ascendant.

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• Action Survivor: Living out your sentence is based on points, awarded for repairing the castle and remembering what is done and where. Try to rack up too many points too fast or state them out loud once you get close and you'll get killed for sure, play it too safe and you'll never get out. Suffice to say, this makes for some very savvy survivors.
• Beware the Silly Ones: As the novelizations points out, just because many of them are entertaining maniacs, they are still dangerous maniacs who got put in the castle for a reason.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Snaug is apparently either a Revenant...or just VERY susceptible to brainwashing. It's implied that she spent her childhood in one of Mittlemind's "containment tanks."
• Break the Haughty: Mittlemind and Mezzasalma enjoy breaking idealistic young Sparks.
• Boxed Crook: Though the remaining survivors are technically free once the castle is fully repaired, this happens in the middle of the siege of Mechanicsburg. With most of the Baron's forces directly outside the town walls, and Agatha being able to provide a sanctuary, plenty of minions and freedom for their respective sciences, the survivors opt to work for her instead of fleeing.
• Death Is Cheap: Mittelmind is part machine and is able to be brought back to life in short order if something blows up in his face, assuming the body is mostly intact. Diaz... isn't so lucky.
• Dumb Muscle: R-79, an incredibly strong construct. However, even he's smart enough to Know When to Fold 'Em, and could see taking Sanaa hostage going badly a mile off (see Too Dumb to Live below).
• Dwindling Party: Once Agatha enters the castle, their numbers start depleting quickly, thanks to Zola forcing most of them to charge after her through the still very dangerous, until then unexplored sections of the castle. Later on, Tiktoffen has most of the remaining survivors killed.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Professor Tiktoffen massacres a bunch of the other prisoners for various reasons, including one who liked turning people into beetles, one who thought orphan blood had medicinal properties, and one who put his feet on his bed.
• Explosive Leash: The method of containing the prisoners is to latch a choker around their neck that's explosive and bearing the Heterodyne emblem. Since Agatha's suppression locket looks nearly identical, it allows her to easily walk in the front door when passed off as a new prisoner. However, after the Castle is fully repaired and recharged and the Doom Bell is rung, the collars deactivate and break off the prisoners' necks, showing that they're free to go.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Depending upon whom has the upper hand (or the gun, or the Castle's obedience) at the moment. They seem to settle on helping Agatha when it becomes clear that staying loyal to her would give them a sanctuary, plenty of minions and a great deal of freedom for their experiments that the Baron had otherwise locked them away for.
• The Igor: Snaug seems to be the only minion of this type still alive.
• I'm a Humanitarian: "Snapper" Boikov and "Jack A'Horned" have a rather pronounced taste for human flesh.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Silas Merlot was a brilliant if perfectly normal scientist who had the misfortune of sharing the world with those that can casually break the laws of physics. Despite a profuse dislike of Sparks his pet project of turning chalk into cheese was clearly him trying to mimic the outlandishness of sparky science rather than 'actual' science.
• Killed Off for Real: Diaz is brained with a marshmallow gun by Zola. Rather than trying to revive him, Mittlemind and Mezzasalma loot his corpse for body parts (though in fairness, some of those belonged to Mezzasalma ''first''). Granted, given his brain was destroyed, reviving him is stated to be impossible anyways.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Mittelmind immediately agrees to follow Agatha's orders, even though Sparks are constantly trying to dominate over everybody else, because he is not dumb enough to defy a Heterodyne within her own castle.
• Laughably Evil: Dr. Mittlemind is a complete raving loon of a social scientist, obsessed with turning towns into mazes, which got him and Snaug thrown in the castle, but his hamminess and actual threat level (which is low compared to folks like Zola) allow him to fall here.
• Mad Scientist: Goes without saying. There's even a mad Social scientist, Dr. Mittlemind, who has been known to grumble about funding going to the "flashier" sciences.
• Meaningful Name: Possibly if Snaug is pronounced like 'snog'. Kissing. A small hint? Probably would classify as a Punny Name, too.
• The Mole: Professor Tiktoffen, who is apparently the "inside man" for both the Baron and the Knights of Jove, and several other factions. He's actually the inside man for himself. And he knows how to keep the Castle from killing him. Of course, Agatha knows the simple way to deal with that.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Mittlemind is technically dead.
• Pet the Dog: Mittelmind has a very twisted idea of what qualifies for this.
  • A more conventional one is when, during their repairs on the giant cat clank, Mittlemind allows Snaug to go with Moloch rather than making her work with him, recognizing that she had fallen for Moloch. All he commands of her is to not permanently harm Moloch.
• The Purge: Tiktoffen has a lot of the unnamed prisoners murdered, either for what they did before they were sent to the castle, or for minor offenses against him.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: With a big side order of murderers, sadists, and psychopaths.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Those that survive are given a chance to join in repairing Mechanicsburg's defenses after the castle is fixed.
• Retirony: The castle finds inflicting this on people who have almost acquired enough points to be allowed to leave amusing. Never total your points out loud!
• Robbing the Dead: They tend to be rather, pragmatic about their fellows’ deaths, as seen in the profile quote concerning Snapper. Some of the more Sparky types take it a step further.
• Sanity Slippage: Occurs to Snaug, apparently. Her boss, Mittelmind, wipes her memory yearly for her birthday. This may be a hint of losing it or just her yandere getting stronger.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Tiktoffen, Mezzasalma, Diaz, and Mittelmind are all sparks. Merlot seems to break through as well when he sees Agatha again out of sheer rage.
• Serious Business: Tiktoffen's Spark manifests in a fondness for architecture.
• Spider People: Mezzasalma's lower body has been replaced with an arachnoid clank apparatus that serves as his means of ambulance.
• Those Two Guys: Mezzasalma and Mittelmind, the two older sparks still alive in the group, have such a schtick going on.
• Too Dumb to Live: Snapper, who tries to hold Sanaa hostage on Othar's arrival, upon learning she is his sister, apparently forgetting that she was sent to Castle Heterodyne for a good reason. Cue death by Neck Snap.
• Villainous Breakdown: Merlot was a jerk early on and didn't get less so. Compare him then to now. He has totally lost it by here.
• Yandere: Fraulein Snaug, Doctor Mittelmind's minion, has it in for poor Moloch.

Sanaa

Sanaa "Wilhelm" AKA Sanaa Trygvassen, Castle Heterodyne Prisoner

"He's only my stupid brother!"

One of the inhabitants of Castle Heterodyne. We first encounter her reporting on her repair efforts in Castle Heterodyne. She was the one who welcomed(?) Agatha to the Castle, but for the most part she mingles with Moloch von Zinzer and the rest of the Castle crew.

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• Action Girl: Hardly surprising given she is a Long-Lost Relative of Othar Trygvassen (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER).
• Action Survivor: Before she even got to the castle, apparently.
• Fangirl: For her brother (no, not like that) - at least, when she isn't furious with him.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Most of the prisoners in the Castle are in there for legitimately heinous deeds or really upsetting the Baron. Sanaa was thrown in for trying to clobber a salesman who sold her a dodgy vehicle.
• Hopeless Suitor: She's been the target of this from Moloch. She begins showing signs of reciprocating after he semi-officially becomes Agatha's Chief Minion.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Since she probably wouldn't last long being outed as the sister to Othar Trygvassen (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER) in a prison full of villainous scum, she took the first name of Wilhelm Diamant, one of the town elders, as her last name. Diamant was the one who recommended she do so as well.
• Long-Lost Relative: To Othar.
• Pirate Girl: Pre-Castle, she spent some time as a pirate queen. May be the origin of her pink hair; we've met another gal of "proud European-pirate" ancestry who sports a similar look.
• Shipper on Deck: Assumes there's some kind of Othar/Gil attraction.
• What Are You in For?: Asks this to Agatha when they first meet.