Girl Genius - Television Tropes & Idioms

Our Heroine.

"Mad Scientists rule the world. Badly."

A Web Comic (originally a print series) by Phil and Kaja Foglio, which has become one of the classics of the Steam Punk genre.

The titular character of the story is Miss Agatha Heterodyne, who begins as a young apprentice to a type of Mad Scientist known to the world as a "Spark".

Can be found at the Studio Foglio website, accessible through this elegant and finely-crafted link

Girl Genius WILL ALWAYS update every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, usually around midnight.

Nominated for a Hugo Award

in March 2009.

Talk about the comic in our discussion forum for ''Girl Genius''

Provides examples of:

Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Castle Wulfenbach.
All There In The Manual: the Secret Blueprints and the expanded chapter-by-chapter Cast pages.
Almost Kiss: Argh!
Alternate History: Perhaps better called parallel history, because the Sparks have been around for long enough that even geography has been changed by their influence, and yet the world and its history are not completely dissimilar to ours: there were still Mongol Hordes on cue, German is still spoken as a European lingua-franca, Rembrandt (Van Rijn) was still a famous genius, the [Weather] King was still a towering historical figure, and there is still a powerful church(es) with a pope(s).
Anti Climax The final "battle" of "Revenge Of The Weasel Queen."
Archive Binge: It had what was probably one of the biggest in history when the version for people who started reading it online caught up with the version for people who'd read the print comics.
Arc Words: "I can work with that."
- Also, "I hate this place" & variations.
Arson Murder And Jaywalking: the list of Heterodyne names in the crypt includes Caligula, the Red Heterodyne, the Black Heterodyne, and Bob.
Aside Glance: "At least she was color coordinated."
As Long As It Sounds Foreign: "Wulfen" doesn't mean "wolf" in German, as it was almost certainly meant to sound like.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Klaus, his son (when thrust into authority, Gil's asskicking genes more than rise to the challenge), and the Jäger-Generals. More generally, in a semi-feudal world ruled over by extremely intelligent nutjobs, it's the one at the top of the castle you want to watch out for.
Author Cameo: The creators, Phil and Kaja, are both apparently natives of the story's world who, it would seem, will eventually meet, marry, publish a... controversial account of Agatha's deeds, and flee into our world with it to continue it safe from Agatha as a supposedly fictional comic.
Art Evolution: It started in -black and white-.
Back From The Dead: Tarvek, picking up a Ninja Maid in the process. Also Adam and Lilith, reanimated by Gilgamesh..And Don't forget Agatha herself!.
- And, in the latest pages Gil seems to have recovered from being shot full on in the chest and is now throwing clanks around. As well as being an example of this trope, this raises some questions...
  - He's still wildly hopped up on that berserker brew the Jagers gave him to heal his wounds, remember? They did say there would be some side effects.
Back To Back Badasses: Gil and Tarvek, on the cover of Volume 9
Badass: Too many to count. Baron Wulfenbach, especially, clawed his way to being ruler of Europe atop God knows how many others and it shows.
Badass Boast: Several, this is the most effective example.
Bald Of Evil: Veilchen
Bar Brawl: Apparently there's one every evening in Mamma Gkika's. Except on Thursdays; then it's poetry slam night. Emphasis on slam.
Betty And Veronica: Gil and Tarvek
Berserk Button: Gil HATES not being taken seriously...
BFG: "Clenk Gon", Agatha's Death Rays
- Subverted nicely in that Gil has NO death rays to speak of when we first meet him - it's such a nice subversion as he is the son of the man who rules Europa with an iron fist and is quite literally feared just as much as he is respected.
  - Double Subverted in that Gil now has, arguably, the best death ray in the comic.
Bifauxnen: Grantz, Baron Wulfenbach's monster hunter.
Big Damn Heroes: Gil, once again demonstrating why you shouldn't shoot him. You'll just make him mad.
Big No: Right after Agatha breaks Merlot's mind with the enormity of his mistakes.
Bleached Underpants: Prior to Girl Genius, Phil Foglio was best known for his pornographic comics, and unlike many artists with a similar background makes no attempt to hide it - they're quite good, Or So I Heard.
- They are, but I don't think this counts. He did What's New and Buck Godot long before he did XX Xenophile.
Blessed Are The Cheesemakers
Bottled Heroic Resolve
Caffeine Bullet Time: Agatha's first experience with coffee
Cargo Cult: The Other is believed to be a deity by the Geisterdamen.
Chandlers Law
Changeling Fantasy: Subverted; being the long-lost daughter to two of the most powerful lines of Sparks (a Spark princess?) is NOT all it's cracked up to be.
Character Name And The Noun Phrase: both in and out of setting
Charm Person: Sparks are very charismatic...
Chaste Hero: Barry Heterodyne, as far as we know. The folks who write the fairy tales about the Heterodynes try to avoid mentioning this.
- Didn't he have a liaison of some sort with a High Priestess?
  - He always ends up with the High Priestess in the stories and plays. What happened in Real Life is more unsure...
  - We have met one High Priestess. Her name was Vrin.
Chekhovs Gun: Gilgamesh's lightning generator
- Chekhovs Boomerang: Which was used again almost four years later
- The Torchmen. Seen before activation here, although we didn't know what they did at the time.
- Also Gil's invisibility device mentioned offhand by Dumedd quite a bit earlier.
  - And seen in action even earlier, although at the time Gil didn't realize what it was and used it as a simple power source.
Cheshire Cat Grin: The Heterodynes frequently sport these, as do many other Sparks when in the Madness place, sometimes reaching the level of Slasher Smile.
- The Jägerkin sport those every time they're about to fight, so it also overlaps with the Slasher Smile.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The entire Sturmvoraus family, particularly Tarvek once he's the only one left, having backstabbed his sister after she backstabbed - well, blasted - their father.
Cool Airship: Castle Wulfenbach, of course. Zola's ship might have qualified if she hadn't colored it pink.
Crowning Moment Of Awesome: These seem to happen with alarming regularity, with each one topping the last.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: Mechanicsburg, basically. The fourth panel of this strip, in particular.
Cyanide Pill: One is offered to Moloch, but he obviously has yet to use it.
Death Glare Gil gives it to Zeetha along with a brief World Of Cardboard Speech.
Death Of The Hypotenuse: Lars, anyone?
Death Ray: Just about every spark has made one or something like one - but no one but Agatha redesigns the architecture with them during sleep.
Designated Hero: Oh, yes. Over the course of the first six volumes, Agatha kicks ass about eight percent as often as her friends, allies and miscellaneous neutral characters do. To her credit, she's been trying harder to ramp up the heroics since then, and has shown signs that she might have partial control of a very powerful castle that someone else built a long time ago, but it's slow going, and she seems to get rescued quite a lot even now.
Didnt See That Coming
Distressed Damsel: It seems Zola was practically a professional Damsel in Distress when Gil knew her before.
- This role is also regularly played by Agatha for a very long time. Make of that what you will.
Double Entendre: The Castle teasing Agatha about her attraction to Gil: "All the Wulfenbach Sparks are known for their oversized machinery..." Also figures in about half the references to DeathRays.
Drill Tank (the Deep 6 Model; also something of a Punny Name)
Dual Wield (Zeetha's unusual swords, one strapped to each wrist)
- Her swords appear to be either Katars and/or Patas, weapons used in our world's India with H-shaped grips and often with some kind of hand guard added to the grip.
Dysfunction Junction: the Sturmvoraus family. Dear God, the Sturmvoraus family. These people make The Sopranos look like The Brady Bunch.
- Their name, when translated out of German, means "Storm ahead" so that's no surprise.
Estrogen Brigade Bait: Gil; also Maxim, according to the ladies. They'd know.
- More recently, Tarvek Sturmvoraus, who rode bareback on a mechanical dog wearing one boot and a bedsheet-not-really-a-toga.
  - What, you're not counting Klaus? His Live Journal fan-community hosts an Estrogen Brigade on the side.
  - (We do?)
  - Vanamonde isn't half bad either...
  - And what about Lars?
  - I'd argue for the blonde Jägermonster, myself.
Evil Albino: The Geisterdamen, an order of ghostly white priestesses who are in the service of The Other.
Evil Laugh: or sometimes, not so much an evil laugh as an insane one; basically every Spark at some point while they're in The Madness Place.
Faking The Dead
Face Fault: The reactions to Gil "admitting" to Zola that he's really a pirate.
Fangs Are Evil
Fanservice: So very, very much gratuitous Agatha-in-her-underwear. On the other hand, it is only ''Victorian'' underwear...
- And let's not forget the rather lengthy section of Volume 8 where Gil was entirely naked save for a strategically placed bedsheet. I know I haven't.
  - Like son, like father. There are many who are very grateful for That Naughty Flashback Scene.
- Also Tinka's metal but curvy body in a semi-transparent nightie.
- And, of course, Tarvek's recent appearance wearing one shoe, a toga and very little else.
- And who could forget Zeetha and the Wacky Weave Destabilizer?
  - "What are you thinking, using Bunbury's trash? He's why every smart actress from here to Paris wears special underwear!"
- And now, we have the current arc in which Agatha and Zeetha are wearing BUNNY outfits.
Feed Me: It's bursting at the seams with mad scientists who are compelled, by their very nature, to go off on emphatic rants on how the fools DID NOT UNDERSTAAAND!!
Flashback Effects: sepia tones.
Floating Continent: Castle Wulfenbach, sort of; it's an enormous zeppelin surrounded by a fleet of smaller airships, but in most ways is a genuine castle.
Filler Strip
For Science!: Girl Genius would not exist without this trope.
Frying Pan Of Doom: Countess Marie, the mad chemist.
Funetik Aksent: The Jägermonsters (Including their in-world text! See the hat they made)
Gadgeteer Genius: Pretty much all Sparks.
Generation Xerox
Klaus: "Ah, I see history repeats itself."
Gentle Giant
Giant Spider (one of the many creepy albino monsters the Geisterdamen use for transportation.
Good Is Not Nice
Grand Theft Me
Gratuitous German: Jägermonster = hunter-monster, Geisterdamen = ghost ladies, Sturmvoraus = storm ahead, Wulfenbach = "Wolf's stream" (not strictly correct, but German is dialectual and its a place/family name)
- Of course, since this story is apparently set in a 19th century Central Europe not totally unlike our own, this is more of a Translation Convention, since German actually would be the lingua franca of the setting.
  - There is one straight-up bit of gratuitous German when a Jäger uses "Jägermonstern" as a pseudo-German plural for his own kind. The German plural is in fact "Jägermonster", which of course sounds rather odd in English.
  - Note also the writing in the last panel of this page.
Hellish Horse: The aptly named Monster Horse Beastie
Her Heart Will Go On: Lars. It's also worth noting that both Tarvek and Gil have gotten hurt while chasing after Agatha. She just can't seem to keep her suitors healthy. And she's got serious issues about it, too — most likely due to Lars' death.
Heroic RROD: Gil suffers from this twice, both times after feats of Badassery that his body simply couldn't handle.
Heroic Sacrifice: Lars
Hidden Elf Village: the Lost Kingdom of Skifander, where Zeetha comes from.
Hostage Situation: Gil volunteers for one. Agatha doesn't want it.
I Can Fight
I Just Want To Be Normal
Indy Ploy
In The Name Of The Moon:
Schtop! Hyu horrible monster-y ting of Evil!
- Although that was an intentional delivery of a Large Ham as well...
Its Not You Its My Enemies: Agatha wants Gil and Tarvek safely out.
I Want Grandkids: Oddly, exclusively seen in nonhuman males with human descendants. A Jäger is seen pestering his great-great grandson about when he'll get some great-great-great grandkids, and a castle programmed with the mind of an ancient Heterodyne pesters Agatha about when she'll settle down with her love interest(s).
The Igor: Basically the entire populace of Mechanicsburg.
Infernal Retaliation: "Great. Now the crowd is trapped by the stalagmites while the flaming monster advances."
Instrument Of Murder: Sleipnir O'Hara's 'Hot Pipes'
Ironic Echo: Agatha quoting Moloch Von Zinser back at himself here demonstrating that the tables have indeed turned; Zola echoing Agatha's sarcastic party plans virtually word-for-word (abeit in a very different tone) as Obfuscating Stupidity
Is That What Theyre Calling It Now
Kill It With Fire: the Torchmen, Sleipnir's pipes...guess you can't start a fire without a Spark.
Last Dance With Mary Jane: Anevka to a degree.
Literary Agent Hypothesis: The entire comic is postulated as a course on the life of Agatha Heterodyne, as taught by the Professors Foglio at Transylvania Polygnostic University ("Know enough to be afraid.") They stick mostly to the truth - though this very admittance means that it's possible that, in the "real" universe where this story takes place, not every woman has the Most Common Super Power.
Living Motion Detector: the clank in this comic.
Love At First Sight
Love Triangle: Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek.
Mad Artist: The tailor clank in the "Revenge of the Weasel Queen" fillers.
Make My Index Live: This mythos is a major part of the premise.
- Mad Scientist: 'Sparks', whose erratic genius has literally reshaped the world. Practically half the cast are mad scientists of one sort or another, though the ones that come closest to the classic villain type are probably Prince Wilhelm Aaronev and the late Lucifer Mongfish.
  - There's even a mad social scientist, who complains that the mad "hard" scientists get all of the funding and attention.
- Mad Scientist Laboratory: Several, most notably those belonging to Baron Wulfenbach and Prince Aaronev.
- Mad Scientists Beautiful Daughter: Lucrezia Mongfish is officially referred to as The Villain's Beautiful Daughter in the stories told about Agatha's parents. Agatha herself is arguably one, and she runs into at least one Mad Scientist's Handsome Son.
  - Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) actually asks Agatha if she's one of these.
  - The current storyline is hinting broadly that Zola is Lucrezia's daughter as well, or at least a member of the Mongfish family tree.
  - And most offspring of mad scientists are mad scientists themselves.
- Science Related Memetic Disorder
- Weird Science: All over the place.
Magnetic Hero: Any and all Sparks; their manic vision pulls normal people into their service.
Malicious Slander
Mama Bear: Von Pinn, and how.
Mauve Shirt: Sergeant Scorp of the Baron's Vespiary Squad. Also an unquestionably Cool Old Guy, right down to the superb facial hair.
Mary Sue: Maria Antonia Fantasia Philomel, and her mother, Raven Moonsdaughter. As you have probably guessed, a parody.
Maximum Fun Chamber: Also Castle Heterodyne.
Mc Ninja: Introduced with the followers of the Way of Smoke. May not be as good as they think they are.
- Then again, Violetta readily admits she sucks at her job, and Veilchen seems quite competent, so there's likely a pretty wide range of skill level.
Midair Repair: Gilgamesh and Agatha while testing Gil's flying, or rather falling, machine
Mobile Maze
Moment Killer: Damn you, Merlot!
Monochromatic Eyes: The geisterdamen have all-white eyes.
More Than Mind Control: Sparks' "command voice" makes them almost irresistibly charismatic.
My God What Have I Done: Specifically Aaronev Sturmvoraus and his dying daughter, though certainly said by others in this world.
Myth Arc: One of the best webcomic examples. The foreshadowing starts with the fourth strip of the first chapter, with hints about the phenomenon scattered over many, many volumes - and a full explanation has still not been given.
Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Practically half the cast: Klaus and Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, Lucrezia, Master Payne, Von Pinn, and probably several more. Possibly subverted with Moloch.
Necromantic
Nice Hat: 'Nuff said.
- Only a man whose bowler has granted fantasy adventurers super-powers could create a culture like the Jagers, whose attitude to this trope is close to a religion.
The Nose Knows: Jägermonsters
Number One Dime: a.k.a. said Nice Hats
Obfuscating Stupidity: Zola.
Oddly Visible Eyebrows: pretty much everyone
Of Corsets Sexy
Offhand Backhand: Used by both Wulfenbachs and Wooster.
Oh Crap: "This must be how my father feels -- ALL THE TIME!"
Orphans Plot Trinket: Agatha's locket
Our Hero Is Dead: and buried, complete with digging up the body and cloning a replica to make sure it's really her. The corpse was doctored to make it look like Agatha, but the cloning gave the deception away, as the cloned body was not hers.
People Jars: Dr. Beetle in Beetleburg put criminals into giant glass jars to perish.
Playboy Bunny: During the Weasel Queen omake, Zeetha and Agatha evoke this trope with their "rabbit costumes."
Politeness Judo: Getting Moloch to help in the kitchen.
Poor Communication Kills: Subverted. Agatha's possession by the Other is set up as a big secret that could cause all sorts of problems; but Zeetha goes out of her way to mention it to Gil at the very first opportunity.
- Played straight as far as the Baron goes, though, at least so far.
  - For very good reason. Gil is trustworthy because everyone knows he's in love with Agatha (except him and Agatha), Klaus Wulfenbach would kill his own mother if she were the Other.
Porn Stash: Apparently teenage boys really are the same everywhere. Even steampunk mad scientist ones. By the way, a "seraglio" is another word for a harem.
- "A favorite, I believe.."
Post Kiss Catatonia: Gil, briefly.
Power Perversion Potential: I'm just sayin', Sparks gotta have some interesting bedroom toys, given their tendencies when building anything else.
- "D'Omas' taste in women was, well... Let's just say it was lucky for him he could build his own."
Princesses Prefer Pink: Zola's only a pretend princess, but boy does she like pink. Averted for Agatha, the real "princess", who loathes the color — and is highly annoyed by Zola's seemingly genre-savvy use of it to intentionally invoke this trope
Psycho Electro: Anevka. She's more sadistic than psychotic, but if the shoe fits...
Rebus Bubble: Bang, when her jaw is broken. "Gil = nut?"
Religion Of Evil: The Geisterdamen worship The Other.
Replacement Goldfish: Anevka
Restraining Bolt: Agatha's locket
Right Hand Versus Left Hand
Right In Front Of Me
Rodents Of Unusual Size: The Sturmhalten guides' description of "normal" sewer rats.
- Possibly inverted with the mimmoths (mouse-sized wooly mammoths), which are viewed as little other than annoying pests.
Royal Blood
Science Hero: Damn near everyone
Seen It All
Shout Out: numerous, most notably in this strip and the following, where several other Web Comics are referenced.
- Here are a few more
  - Oh, please, make it easy on yourselves - here's a whole list
- One early Vol. IX strip has a mole tank commander identify himself as Major Resetti.
- Moxana is a shout out to both Moxon's Master and The Turk.
Signed Up For The Dental: The lapinohemoths in the weasel queen filler.
Smooch Of Victory: Agatha's idea of a fine way to celebrate exploding a giant writhing slug. In any case, Gil approved.
The Speechless: Punch ("Adam"). An early construct of the Heterodyne Brothers, he was unable to speak. Until Gil extensively repaired both Punch and Judy, granting Punch speech.
Steam Punk: everywhere. The authors prefer to call it "gaslamp fantasy", because of the presence of Frankenstein-esque constructs as well as clanks.
Strapped To An Operating Table: Othar, by Klaus (and various other incidents here and there—this is a world run by mad scientists, after all).
Stuff Blowing Up - Sooo much shrapnelly goodness...
- "Death Ray go BOOM!"
Sunglasses At Night - Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!
Super Soldier: the Jägermonsters, who were created by the old 'bad' Heterodynes as shock troops but then had to obey the 'good' Heterodynes due to a loyalty imperative that was built into them.
- And don't forget Von Pinn.
  - Or else.
Take Over The World: Subverted in two ways: Baron Wulfenbach has already taken over the world - or at least the bulk of Europe, where the story is set - by the time the story starts, and he never wanted to.
Talking Is A Free Action: Gil takes a panel to rant about not being taken seriously - in the middle of his fight with Vole.
Tear Jerker: Barry giving Agatha the locket.
- * And this Jägermoment as well.
- Gil's face in panel 4 could make every Memetic Badass named on this wiki, Klaus included, cry. Even without context.
Tempting Fate: Many instances here and there, but recently (April 2009):
- "It's just one little clank."
The Load: Zola apparently fulfilled this role in all of Gil's adventures with her in Paris.
Thirty Xanatos Pileup: Agatha's arrival in Sturmhalten causes everyone to set off their master plan at once.
This Is SPARTA: "What. Do. You. WANT."
Too Much Information: Tea cozy... only one spoon...
Translation Convention: Word Of God and incidental writing in the background says that everything is actually in German and Romanian, translated for the benefit of the audience.
The Unfettered: Baron Klaus Wulfenbach
- Also, this madboy.
Unsound Effect: YOINK!
UST: "We are going to have a long talk." "Yes. Yes we are."
Villainous Breakdown: Dr Merlot wasn't exactly the most sane individual in Volume 1. His little story in Volume 9 seems to indicate that he might be having some difficulties.
- Not anymore, thanks to the castle.
The Virus: Slaver wasps, which turn humans into zombie-like Revenants under the control of The Other.
Visible Silence
Visual Pun: Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...Santa Klaus.
Volleying Insults: Gil and Tarvek in the Cinderella story.
Wacky Marriage Proposal:
Agatha: "You want to marry me to annoy your father? How romantic."
Webcomic Time: Agatha has been trying to get into, or trying to repair Castle Heterodyne for at least two years now.
Well Intentioned Extremist: Baron Wulfenbach; Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!
What Does She See In Him
What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome: Volume Seven, Page 51. That must be good coffee.
- If coffee worked like that in Real Life, we wouldn't have so many heroin addicts. Just saying.
What Measure Is A Non Human: The Muses, Anevka
- The second is actually a bit of an aversion, at least as far as Tarvek is concerned: "That was harder than I thought."
Who Dares The Dragon of Mars
Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him: Answer: Because the Baron has a job for him.
Will They Or Wont They: Gil and Agatha, most frequently impeded by terrible miscommunication and Gil's bad luck.
- And Castle Heterodyne.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Sparks, ~~almost~~ by definition; Baron Wulfenbach subverts this by pure force of will... usually. Every successful spark has at least one very level-headed keeper.
- It's implied that the reason the Storm King was regarded as the greatest king of all time was because he was able to keep enough self-control to rule effectively. This may have been at least partially due to the influence of the Muses.
World Of Cardboard Speech: Gil makes several.
X Days Since: There's one sign counting the days since the last hideous death
You!: Klaus' reaction to Zeetha.
Zeppelins From Another World

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