Girl Genius

While explaining to my daughter what Jaegers are(yet she can name every My Little Pony from the first and fourth generations), I ran an image search. I came across this bit of silliness◊.

I love it!

I see she knows better than to say "no hats." I wonder if she would have similar issues with Ognian's longcoat.

A longcoat is held closer to the body by the way it's made, so less likely to get tangled in jet engines/Sparky devices. She'd probably want it to lie closer to the body and with less flair, though.

Well, it depends on just how much the longcoat in question flares out (and Oggie has gotten some decent flair out of the flare). That said, it is generally recommended that people regularly working around large machinery not wear anything nearly as loose as that coat. I think it would get the stinkeye at the very least.

Still, a good breakaway cape is totally worth it.

Edna Mode says No Capes!

Comic for Wednesday, May 4, 2016: sneaky gate permalink

Oh dear...

Oh, I do like this turn of events. Vi's being badass. So, are these the assassins after Zardeliv? Or are they trailing our friends?

Had Grandma broken off relations with Aaronev? Or did he count as family rather than an alliance? Or had Tarvek arranged for a separate alliance with her, working behind enemy lines to learn Other tech, and protected his family that way? And I vaguely recall that most Smoke Knights were wasped, these two aren't I would guess. This reworks a lot of the story, in a fairly subtle way.

Oooh! Someone on the Livejournal page noted that one of these Smoke Knights is Seffie's Varpa per this page. So we can be pretty certain the other is Tweedle's man (also pointed out by the other person) and trailing Agatha, they have nothing to do with Zardeliv.

edited 3rd May '16 9:47:50 PM by Lightningnettle

Busted.

Yet this implies that Seffie and Tweedle have been aware of what Agatha's been up to even underground. Worrying.

Now you got the boys Candace... how does that victory feels?

edited 4th May '16 5:53:18 AM by Mauri

I wonder if Tarvek intentionally spread word around that Violetta was bad at being a Smoke Knight to get her dramatically underestimated as well. I mean, he sure presented it solely as an attempt to get her out of a job she hated, but, well, the idea that Tarvek might have had ulterior motives should be practically taken as given at this point.

"Ulterior' and 'motive' are almost synonymous where Tarvek's concerned . . . except when Agatha's involved, of course.

Tarvek was also big on protecting Violetta. From getting her reassigned to the equivalent of Antarctica to assigning her to Agatha's service, a large part of his actions involving her have involved trying to keep her out of the direct line of fire where Storm politics are concerned. (And having someone in place who will shut down the Other permanently should Agatha ever be completely overcome probably crossed his mind too.) It's particularly interesting since the only other close relationship we've seen in the Sturmhalten and cadet branches is Tweedle and Seffie, and they're still sneaking around behind each other's backs, which Vi and Tarvek don't seem to do.

>.< flare and flair. Can I blame autocorrect?

@46840 Hey, I used both "flare" (to spread out dramatically) and "flair" (panache) correctly in that comment! No typographical errors there. Maybe a bit of punning, but that's hardly unusual in Girl Genius.

In quite a few ways, the relationship between Seffie and Tweedle reminds me much of the one between Tarvek and Anevka or at least the Clank that acted like her. I can never quite tell with Sturmvoraus siblings if it's genuine affection or just finding a sibling a useful tool that's slightly less likely to betray you simply because you have a stronger grasp of how they work compared to anyone else.

Of course, I forget the name of the trope involved, but it might be that they do genuinely care about each other... but the plan comes first overall.

Sorry, I meant my use of flair instead of flare in the previous comment. That's just embarrassing when I have every reason to know better.

Another CMOA for Violetta, who is really coming into her own.

It wouldn't surprise me if Tarvek knew or suspected that Mechanicsburg was about to become important again and he wanted someone there he trusted. The day Tarvek shows all the cards he holds will be the day the world ends.

I wouldn't say Agatha is an exception to Tarvek's tendency toward ulterior motives, nor that he doesn't sneak around Vi — as far as I can tell he did not present anything to her as getting her out of a job she hated until he reassigned her to Agatha; he got her sent to Mechanicsburg thinking it was because she wasn't good at stuff. He loves them both; this is not the same as being open with them about his plans.

After some discussion elsewhere, I think Aaronev was dead before Grandma cut off ties with the Other-loyalists. She seems to have taken the reins of the family when Grandfather (likely but not explicitly her husband) died, and Vi might have picked this up while snooping around the Refuge of Storms.

Ya know, I wanan mention how much I love how they put ninjas into this setting.

So it happened recently? Before that, how did she keep her own followers unwasped?

But we see Lu in her original body, taking the loyalty of the rogue Smoke Knights, do you think she was resurrected after Aaronev died?

Hm, point. I interpreted that panel as showing their long-term attachment to her rather than specifically a scene after the ultimatum.

Lu did brag to Zola that with her new improved Summoning engine, she had ever so many more choices, including non-Sparks. But showing the relevant host in that scene would've been confusing, and possibly a spoiler, if that was what it was meant to represent.

(Why am I thinking of the Lu mind copy as a parasite.)

So it could be symbolic, or something that happened, with the image of Lu standing in for the appearance of her host.

There's also the point that after Gil's job on Adam and Lilith, it's reasonable to assume that plastic surgery is a walk in the park for a decent Spark. And it would totally be Lu to have her host altered before transfer. Underlings don't matter, after all.

I really expect it was a scene from before Lu lost her physical body.