Girl Genius

I can't even draw hands so I'm not going to critique Phil's art. (I just try not to use it to judge age, as some characters are drawn in a way they look older than they "should" be—Higgs, for one, as he 'passes' for a youngish-looking airman, while others, notably Gil and Wooster, look younger at times because they're drawn with high foreheads and wide eyes—Phil seems to have better luck with drawing women. Or it might be a style choice, as both of the latter have been drawn "older" lately-Gil's growing into his role as heir to the Emprie, Wooster's ditched his 'school friend' persona.)

Innnnnnnteresting idea that Higgs is a von Meekhan who's been repaired after "dying" and if Mamma and the Jaegers did it, they might have done it without Carson knowing. It would explain how he knows all the old stories and has the Castle layout memorized, and why the Castle (keyed to its seneschals) would know him even in its delusional state. Also, either he could have been so mangled he's unrecognizable now, or IIRC, Carson never sees Higgs, while Vanamonde was only a baby and wouldn't be expected to know his father or other 'dead' relative on sight.

In any case, that can wait, I wanna see Pinky get the crap beaten out of her. Gil and his knife, though—I hope he's using that to cut himself out of the plant!

I wonder if Zola's inner Lu is experiencing the beating, too. Zola isn't feeling it too much, perhaps because of the Moveit #11, perhaps because she's been rebuilt to take punishment. But does Lu feel it? There is a satisfying economy in punishing two villians with one beating. But it's not a satisfaction to be savored; that risks either part of Zo'Lu getting loose. We cannot afford that in general; we certainly cannot afford it now.

There's another way Higgs could be a Von Mekkhan. Carson clearly states he was playing with his grandchildren at the time of the attack, and we see one grandson who looks like Vanamonde. But we are at least one grandchild short. Maybe young Axel was better suited to intelligence than government, and became Mechanicsburg's spy in Wulfenbach's ranks?

If he was several years older than Vanamonde, the timing would work. And a man of Higgs' talents who doesn't get promoted once in ten years of service is HIDING. Airman third class would be the rank you get straight out of Basic Training in most fleets. This does leave his superhuman abilities unexplained, however.

edited 20th Oct '10 8:18:23 AM by datkhound

Unfortunately, the tightest link to the web of events is the possibility that he is related to Klaus, perhaps a Spare Heir, perhaps a brother or cousin. That revelation would just about require Gil to reveal what he suspects about his relationship to Zeetha. And Gil doesn't know, up there in the belly of the blossom, that Zeetha is at best dying fast. I can see him cranking it up to 12 at that discovery.

Is the blur effect meant to show that Higgs is moving faster than Zola, even with #11?

I'm thinking that Higgs is a stealth Jaeger, sort of like the guy in Terminator: Salvation.

^ I would think so, yes. If Higgs must spill his secret, it must be evident to all that (a) it is a secret and (b) it is big enough to be important. Now we can see how Higgs saved Klaus.

But why in thunder is Bangladesh DuPree so fanatically loyal to Klaus when he is rough on pirates? What's going on behind the scenes there?

Zola's SLICE with the sword doesn't seem to be the work of a highly trained Smoke Knight. Is she falling off her training under stress, or is Lu leaking out? Lucrezia has no skill with weapoons, and JUST DIE sounds more like Lu than like the Zola we know and ... well, we know her, that's all.

edited 20th Oct '10 10:34:09 AM by GreybeardFan

But why in thunder is Bangladesh Du Pree so fanatically loyal to Klaus when he is rough on pirates? What's going on behind the scenes there?

She's a privateer, not exactly a pirate - he's rough on everyone else, but as long as she doesn't attack the wrong people or cross the line into international incidents she gets a free pass.

Yeah, I don't think Bangladesh cares WHO she's pilaging and burning, so long as she's pilaging and burning. PIRATE-pirates are out for profit, not For the Evulz like she is. Klaus would rather she only sack and destroy what he wants destroyed, and as long as she's having fun, she doesn't seem to care. Plus working for Klaus she gets some REALLY BIG GUNS to play with.

Geez, when it's written out like that she is absolutely a horrible, horrible, person, isn't she?

If Lu does break out and take over Zola, it may be Lu who declares loudly and for the world who Higgs is.

And if she does, it will likely be because she believes it will hurt him and split him off from the rest of Agatha's group. We haven't prepared for that possibility.

melisande, Klaus always did know the right monster for the right job.

Speaking of which, it may be that "von Pinn" went crazy the night of the "attack" because that was when von Pinn died by Lucrezia overwriting her with Otilia.

edited 20th Oct '10 11:27:11 AM by GreybeardFan

"Geez, when it's written out like that she is absolutely a horrible, horrible, person, isn't she?"

Yes, yes she is.

But I'll take her over Zola any day.

It's always been clear that Bang is a psycho on a leash. Klaus doesn't just shoot her because he can keep her on that leash, and sometimes he needs a butcher.

edited 20th Oct '10 11:55:16 AM by LarryD

The difference between Bang and Zola is that Bang's desires are simple and easily met while there are violent maniacs needed brought into line. Zola would betray you for fun.

^ Would she? She doesn't seem the Chronic Backstab Disorder type, exactly - we knew from the start who she thought was expendable and who she was in it to destroy. She technically hasn't betrayed anyone she pretended to be in league with yet.

My, there's an awful lot of blood everywhere. I predict this fight will end with both combatants quite severely mangled, barring any more outside interference.

^^aside from her Aunt Lucrecia.

Higgs: I've always considered Higgs an agent of Mechanicsburg of some sort. Mainly I think he's a member of the Von Mekkhan family, though I briefly entertained the idea that he might be the allegedly late Lucifer Mongfish, making the Heel–Face Turn his daughter failed at, due to a one-off joke that sadly, has not been followed up on.

Zeetha: It seems unlikely that this is the end of our amazonian princess, I would regard it as a Shocking Swerve given her interconnectedness to so many plot elements. It could still happen, but I would consider it a definitive downturn in the level of writing we've seen thus far.

Zola: This could go either way with a defeat here in the castle or an escape to the outside. Escape would be an easy hook to get back to Anevka, and The Other, defeat would mean we could advance the Baron vs Castle/Agatha plot without too many(more) side trips.

Othar: Where the hell is he, anyway?

Higgs Perhaps he might be an "agent of Mechanixburg" and it certainly would help the plot along if he did not turn out to be a Heterodyne of any stripe. I'm still unconvinced. I definitely don't like the idea that he is some sort of construct, unless he goes so far back that he's a prototype of some kind.

Zola Having her defeated but escape to slink back to Sturmhalten would be a good move. It gets her out of the way but still allows her to remain a menace off stage, perhaps even to assume the role of the Other as her Lucrezia mind infiltrates the Zola.

Other He's comic relief. Right now is not the time for that. Let's get Zeetha healed/repaired/revived first and der Kestle back in operation first. Then the Gentleman Adventurer can return full of boffo laughs.

We've more or less been promised that Othar will do something, likely involving saving Gilgamesh's life.

An addendum to my thoughts about The Heterodyne Boys and the Race to the West Pole. If the experiment that Bill encouraged Lucrezia in was part of the events that led to ... we, what she is today, and the destruction of the Kestle, and what-all-else, we can understand how Bill might have gone mad, not with grief but with guilt. And if Lucrezia brought out a dark side that Klaus enjoyed, she might have brought out a dark side in Bill, one with which he was not familiar, and did not know how to manage or tame.

As to the truth of that story, Carson's flashback includes Bill and Barry returning on steam-powered horses and Z informs us that his father, the Iron Sheik, built the mechanical camel. (He doesn't say who designed it.)

And we still don't know who created the Monster Horse Beasty. Well, some mysteries may just go unsolved.

edited 21st Oct '10 1:30:08 AM by GreybeardFan

<But why in thunder is Bangladesh Du Pree so fanatically loyal to Klaus when he is rough on pirates? What's going on behind the scenes there?>

Second panel of this page, shortly into Bang's introduction. He's doing something for her, perhaps seeking information (most likely about who — coughZeethacough — destroyed her pirate fortress). Or it could be there's something else she needs.

For that matter, the way she spoke when she first showed up actually made it sound as if she believed Klaus was hot for her. Maybe she still thinks that's a possibility ... and turning the Baron to the Dark Side would provide her with one HELL of a pirate fleet.

I don't think Bang is that complicated—her choice is, Klaus wipes out her and her gang (done easily), or she works for him, restrains some of her worst impulses when ordered, and she gets to go out and kill people and break things when he says. She's kind of top of the pirate heap in the Wulfenbach empire this way. I don't think she needs any more complex motivations, or has shown any indications she has them or is even capable of having them. She much too emotional/reactive to be a cold, calculating sociopath. She's more like a trained psychotic—not so insane she can't be controlled, but not someone you'd want to let wander around on their own.

Given who's 'in the group' for the moment (like Chronic Backstabber Tarvek, who at one point aided and abetted the Other and was perfectly fine cutting deals with her) if there's something about Higgs the Other knows, it would have to be staggeringly horrific to alienate him, at least from Agatha. Heck, Gil at heart still has to have split loyalties—he doesn't want his father to destroy the Castle, but he's not on board with any Kill Klaus, Topple the Empire plans, either. You have Jaegers, minions, borderline psychotic Castle inmates, someone who HAS betrayed you, his self-described not-very-competant bodyguard you've known maybe two days, tops, the son of a person who's been trying to kill you because he thinks you're evil and who you thought was evil, heck, Agatha, to a certain degree, trusted the agent of a foreign government whose motivations and objectives remain unknown to her (and the fact that Lucrezia was ready to happily skip off to England suggests that even if Wooster himself is trustworthy, Albia might not be.) Pretty much the only ones in her {{Nakama }} who DON'T appear to have any real potential for ulterior motives, crazy behavior, or untrustworthiness are Zeetha and Krosp. That we know of. Yet. Higgs would have to be STAGGERINGLY bizarre for his secret to be something that would alienate him.

Well, one possibility for untrustworthy is this: Higgs is a Mongfish creation from generations back and served the family until Lucrezia's "accident". I don't mean to suggest that as a possibility (it is in conflict with O'Kestle's trust, for one thing), but it is the sort of thing that could drive a wedge between people.

edited 21st Oct '10 11:01:54 AM by GreybeardFan

Agreed. That is possible but given his immediate obedience to Gil upon finding that he's a Wulfenbach, I'm more inclined toward the Jaegerkin connection. After all, at present they work for the Baron (most of them, at least) and Higgs is a Wulfenbach man. He was never highly placed enough to be an effective spy, IMO, so his lack of promotion may be simply that as a Mechanic's Mate 3rd he'd reached a comfort zone and had little ambition. Such things did occur in military forces in the past. And if he is as old as we have come to believe, ten years was simply a restful vacation. :-D

My edit and your post occurred at the same time. (We in CS call that a race condition.)

It may also be that Higgs preferred to keep a low profile as a dutiful but undistinguished airman, somebody that you look at to give an order to and then forget. If he is taciturn but not discourteous or grossly inconsiderate he will be eminently forgettable.

edited 21st Oct '10 11:05:03 AM by GreybeardFan

In effect, a Sleeper Agent? Interesting idea . . . But for whom?

Maybe he was an early Jager who Lu tried to neutralise by putting him into a non-Jager body.

Edit: Maybe nothing, but have we ever seen Higgs bleed? I mean, even Jagers bleed from things like the punch in the nose that drove Higgs into the masonry.

edited 21st Oct '10 3:16:35 PM by Michael