Girl Genius

I wonder if he's with Wolkerstorfer? We know the latter could identify his breed, could be he had some knowledge of Krosp's origins.

I don't think so, given that Wolkerstorfer is Tweedle's man. Then again, if the bears got the shiny thing, perhaps they could lure Wlkerstorfer or at least distract him.

I think Krosp is going to distract Gil and Tweedle, adding in a Dr. Dim rescue would make emotional sense too.

They still haven't confirmed Brother Ulm as the transferred brain; I really want to know for sure, particularly if they also added the Beast's brain as well.

Now I'm imagining an ongoing Chewie/Ulm argument when they aren't doing anything really important.

I really like Wooster's facial expression in the last panel. And as a devoted 'dog' bear, I agree. Smart cats are just plain dangerous.

Because what this comic really needs is more tangents

I'm not sure that Wolkerstorfer knows whose man he is. He's easily manipulated, which makes him a perfect ally for any cat.

Well, yes.

Ha, yes, Ulm and the Beast, with Ulm the trainee train. And Konig makes a fine engineer too. Love the bit with Agatha and the weasel.

Page

I want to get on a train now.

Unless there's some big twist still coming it's odd how they keep stringing out mentioning Ulm's name. Is this supposed to be some sort of big surprise? Even for more casual readers?

Brother Bear, eh?

edited 8th May '15 12:50:00 AM by Euodiachloris

^ Careful, Disney lawyers might hear you.

I would imagine working near the firebox would be incredibly uncomfortable for Konig, though...

I admit I snickered at Agatha playing off the "train" pun.

I love the little heart as the weasel rejoins Agatha. The Foglios have so much fun with the animals in the Spark-verse.

That weasel has made it abundantly clear who belongs to it. ^_^

Who is driving?

...

Oh my God, Bear is driving! How can that be?!

edited 8th May '15 4:47:59 AM by Pyrite

Oh my. If I were the Master of Paris and I found this train-thing approaching my borders, I would fear the Spark who could do it. And if Wolfenbach is in pursuit, continued peace may require you to shoot first and make apologies later.

@Michael: Only if it has a bear in a hat as the engineer.

How much driving does a self-aware train need?

Not that I'd want to tell this bear his services aren't required.

Ulm will need physical backup from time to time. I feel sorry for some middling Spark with too much ambition and too little sense suddenly seeing components on tracks trying to ransack this particular train.

Also, while learning from Chewie, a veto from outside looks like a good idea. :/

edited 8th May '15 8:08:43 AM by Euodiachloris

Eeeeeee. If this is what it sounds like I'm so thrilled. Everybody being sort of okay!

I think I will be surprised if the Master of Paris shoots first at a Corbettite train. This one is exceptional, but they do normally run large, intimidating-looking, well-armed trains. If the Empire is pursuing — and judging from The Map, Paris was outside even the pre-Mechanicsburg Wulfenbach boundaries — then I could definitely see Paris shooting at them.

And with any luck, everybody will be shooting at Tweedle!

Won't be enough. That boy's got more lives than Othar Trygvassen—and less sense. People like him make Othar seem right.

edited 8th May '15 3:18:56 PM by GreybeardFan

Most Sparks make Othar seem right, or at least as if he has a point. Relatively sane and benevolent ones like Agatha seem to be pretty rare.

The Konig seems so darn satisfied with himself "driving a train"!

I would love to see Othar and Tweedle go at it. Just make sure there's plenty of popcorn.

Agatha also wasn't raised by or as a typical Spark. Judging from what's been discussed in the past, Sparks who want to live either go on the run (and wind up resenting the world) or grow up in a sort of echo box of Sparky family. Even if they want to be nice, they often literally don't seem to know how.

That itty town where Agatha finds Maxim, Dimo, and Ollie hung up? In the novel, the town has a fancy Spark-made telescope that works like a visual surveillance system of the land outside the walls. The local Spark made that for the town so they would have sufficient warning when his monsters got loose. Not making monsters doesn't seem to have crossed his mind.

And then there's the whole thing with Chewie and Aggie's granddad....

Mechanicsburg and the Heterodynes seem to be really, really unusual, in any era of that world.

On the other hand you also have Sparks who get their talents channeled in to useful (the Corbetites) or at least harmless (the Circus) directions. I wonder if the train network was at least partially started for exactly that reason.

It seems like the more powerful a Spark is the less control they have, usually. Even Agatha has her moments, although she's usually only a hazard to, say, the occasional mountain.

Maybe there's two different strands? Sparks really having difficulty with control while in the madness place and Sparks using it as an excuse (or being raised to believe it is an excuse, like people getting violent after drinking because they think it's how drunk people behave) for not trying to control themselves.

The monks and the circus seem to do okay partly because they're weak Sparks (the circus knew they couldn't handle Agatha for long) and partly because they have other relatively controlled Sparks as mentors and examples.

(On a slight tangent, Tarvek's interesting, because while he has his issues they seem to come more from the royalty/sneaky side of the family. He's a very controlled Spark, especially for someone who probably wasn't raised to be.)