Girl Genius

I hope not. It's more interesting plot-wise if the KlausCopy is "clean" and wants Agatha killed because she's a Lucrezia copy who threatens the remains of the Wulfenbach empire. Dimo said that Gil is busy fighting and thwarting some physical copy of the Other; if that's all a puppeted sham ala the Clone Wars in Star Wars, it would be depressing.

Since the Slaver-Wasps and their control work however the Foglios want them to work, there's no way to get a definitive answer until they tell us.

edited 2nd Apr '15 6:48:23 PM by Geoduck

Seemingly Headklaus was created and implanted in Gil while Original Klaus was under Lu's control, so it seems likely that the copy is corrupted as well, somehow. But this is the Foglios, who go out of their way to subvert every reader expectation.

If I read the novels right, the wasp is the carrier of what is essentially an infection that puts the infectee under control. So KC might have memories of the orders and the compulsion, but wouldn't be infected itself. (It also means that reversing the control is the equivalent of treating malaria or something.)

As for trying to catch Agatha and Tweedle when they go their likely separate ways... (pats Gil on head) you try that.

I really don't know.

Gil is quite capable of going bonkers over Agatha all by himself, although I hardly think Klauscopy is good for his mental stability.

His determination to track down Agatha in person, however, when he explicitly knows that Klaus is capable of "overriding" him, that he (Gil) may not be in control of himself at the meeting — that makes me wonder if there is something more going on than an obsessive desire to see her.

I ordinarily lean against the idea of Klauscopy remaining under a compulsion to obey anything Lucrezia told him, largely because it is a physical infection and partly because a "clean" copy seems to make more sense of his bothering to head-hop at all. However, it's not inconceivable that Lucrezia told him to do it (how specifically? also no idea, but Tarvek could be right that she'd want Gil under some stopgap form of mind control). And we do have the example of Otilia: granted, she is not wasped. But she did get transferred to a new body at least once with, apparently, an intact compulsion to follow conflicting orders from her creator and her king about "the Heterodyne Girl". I'd consider this to be based on recognizing them as authorities, except that she seemed to know their instructions weren't even meant to apply to the current situation (unless of course at least one of them really did mean any Heterodyne Girl ever or even Agatha specifically, which is not impossible).

Regardless of the answer to either question, I don't think assuming she's a Lucrezia by itself would account for Klaus tracking Agatha obsessively anymore. Klaus obviously still sees Agatha herself as an enemy, but he's at least aware by this point that she isn't always Lucrezia and isn't the only Lucrezia. Focusing on her as Lucrezia to the exclusion of whoever Gil has been "at var" with for the past few years just seems stupid.

edited 2nd Apr '15 7:59:06 PM by Schefflera

New page And omigosh, still with Gil!

...is that what I think it is? The new body of a thoroughly-spanked Chewie.

Oh... oh oh oh...

I am loving the Abbot.

He mentions Lady Selkinov without mentioning she was the agent. Damn, this guy is good. No wonder he's got the position he has. I almost feel sorry for Tweedle's uncle... almost.

edited 2nd Apr '15 10:43:55 PM by Candi

I love the Abbot too, but he just referred to their agent as a lady — and deceased — two pages ago. I'm not sure he's trying to keep it a secret that this was the same person as Lady Selnikov, nor for that matter am I clear on why he'd particularly want to.

...I would love to think that's a new body for Chewie. Preferably not one he'll be miserable in.

edited 2nd Apr '15 11:12:15 PM by Schefflera

In the previous (Wednesday's) page, look at Gil's expression bottom row center panel. =That= is pure Klaus. (Go back to when Klaus set out against Mechanicsburg and mused about Du Pree underestimating Gil.)

The abbot said Brother Ulm is in a better place. Maybe the big locomotiveis the new body of Brother Ulm. :)

I get the feeling that the Corbettites are supposed to be the equivalents of Switzerland: diplomatically-neutral, holed up in a strategically-defensible location, and armed to the teeth. Maybe they have a redoubt system in addition to their siege defences.

Perhaps Brother Ulm's in a "better place" - escorting Agatha and company out of St. Szpac via secret tunnels in the mountains.

edited 3rd Apr '15 12:53:33 AM by Pyrite

He didn't explicitly declare him dead, so maybe yes.

The Abbot isn't explicitly hiding the lady was the agent, but he isn't coming right out and saying it either. The Smoke Knights are certainly equal opportunity and in the employ of the KoJ. So the Abbot can say, "Well, I thought I made that clear enough" if Gil and/or Bang connects the dots and questions him, but if they don't, it's no skin off his nose.

Evil thought: Ulm's brain somehow fused with Chewie's.

Hmmmm. Nice chassis. If that is for however-revamped Chewie, I can't see too many complaints. That's a leap forward in tech by a few decades.

More than a few. More like 75 years. Presumably she made a deal with it: Trade your ability to eat an infinite amount of metal in exchange for improved on track performance.

Agatha's transport to Paris is now clearly established.

Greybeard, high four. I spotted that too.

I am really undecided. On the one hand I think that an explosion that killed Brother Ulm should have finished Chewie. On the other hand: The cow catcher looks suspiciously like mandibles.

And as an unrelated question. Does sanctuary extend into moving trains?

edited 3rd Apr '15 1:35:55 PM by blauregen

I think it was more a crushing implosion then an explosion, and that's something that a small hunk of metal would survive better than a squishy human body.

Besides, does anyone think Ulm is really dead?

Nope. I don't. I sincerely believe he's around in some shape or form, even though I strongly suspect he's been badly injured to the point of somebody having to get creative. :| How is the question.

My prediction is that the "better place" is the train. The Abbot seems to be a mechanically supported head so I'm sure the monks wouldn't find becoming part of their beloved trains at all disturbing. Brother Ulm is probably a conscience grafted onto Chewie so the train can travel across Europe, self-fueled and tracked without it completely destroying the landscape.

The Abbot saving the best for last.

The monks have been completely won over by Agatha —-

and Gil is getting a taste of what it is like to see a Heterodyne Spark running at full throttle.

I see what you did there.

New page is up. In which Bang demonstrates more etymological savvy than I would've expected from her...

Well, she is an air pirate. And now we pretty much know for sure how Agatha's getting to Paris; presumably all that's left is installing the Beast's and/or Ulm's brain in the thing.

edited 5th Apr '15 11:24:22 PM by Geoduck