Girl Genius

I don't think Klaus will use them as hostages because he wouldn't expect it to work. He doesn't just suspect that Agatha might be the other; he "knows" that Agatha is really Lucrezia. And Lucrezia would not give a damn if he killed Punch and Judy; at worst she'd have to do some extra tricky maneuvering to keep up her act if she didn't make a plausible effort to save them. And I think, and Klaus "knows", that with the lies she's been able to spin so far Lucrezia could pull that off no problem.

Hmmm. I like all the reasoning here. I hope Adam and Lilith are up and away. People heal fast in Agatha's world, and it's possible...though it's only a few days since we last saw them and that's a LOT of healing to do for people previously injured more badly than Klaus was, when Klaus, a fellow construct, is still tied to medical clanks. But still, I like it, and it's within the laws of Europa-world.

I like the Klaus POV even better. I can see him trying it as a long-shot. But, no, I don't think he'd believe it would work on Lucrezia. At best he might see it as a time-buying attempt.

It's also, now that I think of it, as risky for himself as her—how would it look holding two figures reknowned as legendary heroes as hostages? Othar was bad enough but at least he had the sense to keep him under wraps; the only harm Punch and Judy as hostages could do to Lucrezia would be to weaken her act, but that'd require doing it publicly and hurting his reputation.

Besides, how useful are hostages when your opponent can control your actions with her voice?

Ah, but I'm not sure KLAUS knows he's been slaver-wasped. We know. He may know he nearly choked, but there's no indication he knows what he choked on, and the Common Wisdom is that you can't wasp a Spark. Then things got so hairy and horrific, and the exchange between Lucrezia and Klaus didn't include, "Oh, and Klaus? I order you to (fill in the blank)." So he may not have any clue yet that he's been taken over from within.

Now the next time he meets a sniffer weasel he may be in for a VERY big surprise. Especially after Tarvek's editing of Agatha's "rescue us" recording. I have no idea what Klaus's associates will feel if Klaus starts setting of the wasp alarms, but "He's the Other!" could be up there in the running.

No, I'm pretty sure he knows.

Yep. He knows.

Well, sonofa....I missed that element among all the other things going down!

Very good.

Lord. It's really disturbing how a major plot element, placed right out in broad daylight, can slip your memory. Sheeeeeeeesh!

edited 22nd Aug '09 10:22:01 PM by Hippogrif

It's okay. If I can miss Tarvek mentioning the Storm King connection before this, you can miss that tidbit.

Y'know, we only have Gil's word for what Tarvek is suffering from ... and it was just after he learned that "the patient" is Tarvek that he changed his diagnosis. He did appear to be surprised by the blue, but then he might just be a good actor. Now I think Gil's a good boy (he caught that goldfish back in Dr. Beetle's lab) but there's room here for at least one theory ....

(Snerk) There's room for a zillion theories. The one good thing, though, is that while the "answers" may come out of left field, you can trust the Foglios to actually base the solutions on material presented. Thus the pure fun of trying to outguess them. I mean, come on: fun characters, cooooool world, and infinite room for the Area 51, Who-REALLY-Killed-JFK sorts of games.

Joy, rapture, more fun than, well..

A pudding bag full of knives. (grin)

edited 23rd Aug '09 1:06:36 AM by Hippogrif

Rereading, I noticed that Gil addressed Dr. Sun as "sifu" several times back when Gil first arrived at the Hetrodyne Hospital. This is a respectful Chinese term of address, but not for a physician (the appropiate term would be "laoshi"). The implication is that either Dr. Sun was one of Gil's personal teachers, or that Gil is refering not to Sr. Sun's medical prowess, but to his spiritual or martial arts mastery.

edited 23rd Aug '09 12:41:06 PM by LarryD

Considering that he seemed capable of beating up Klaus' Humongous Mecha with his bare hands, that's not unreasonable.

And he can intimidate DuPree! Dr Sun also remarked "its been a while since I gave you a thrashing...", so there could be multiple reasons for Gil addressing him as sifu.

edited 23rd Aug '09 1:17:30 PM by LarryD

Yeah, I just assumed that Gil studied under Dr. Sun for both biological and martial arts. Probably from a fairly early age — certainly before he went off to Paris.

New strip is up!

Bwah hah hah!

They finally mentioned the "can't be king if resurrected" thing but Tarvek doesn't seem too worried, does he? Of course he is delirious at the moment.

edited 23rd Aug '09 8:40:55 PM by Leftover Notes

Tarvek is a funny hallucinator.

Why do I foresee the procedure working, but leaving him with an amusing side effect from being in the body of a small household animal that will crop up at the most inopportune moments — like playing with a string or grooming himself with his tongue?

Ah, defining the rest of the implications for the rest of the audience. Fair enough, but we all know so much about it now we're mostly just anxious to see what will go wrong already. And it's odd that the ring around Gil's neck hasn't been mentioned yet, even though it's been turned around since the strip after Tarvek burst into the room. (Although it did disappear for one panel last comic.)

Tarvek also has a point, if the ones who know he's been revived keep their mouths shut, it would work.

Problem is, that is Agatha, Gil, Tarvek, Violetta, Moloch, and probably Tiktoffen and Zola. Waay too many mouths to keep shut.

<<Tarvek also has a point, if the ones who know he's been revived keep their mouths shut, it would work.

Problem is, that is Agatha, Gil, Tarvek, Violetta, Moloch, and probably Tiktoffen and Zola. Waay too many mouths to keep shut. >>

And we all know when you start killing everyone who knows about it, you end up losing your hat.

Well, lets look at the list:

• Agatha: When she takes over as the Heterodyne it would be handy for her to have Sturmhalten in friendly hands. If Tarvek is removed as King, who's next in line? Is there a next in line? For Agatha, it could be a case of Better the Devil You Know... And there's that pesky prophecy. If she decides to use it to her own advantage, it becomes even more important to find out who steps up if Tarvek is deposed.
• Gil: He's facing the same question: who would take Tarvek's place? Tarvek could be the Lesser of Two Evils, as far as Gil is concerned. Also, Tarvek no longer being the Storm King may make him more attractive to Agatha as a spouse, since it would remove a amount of her concern that he's trying to use her to take more complete control of Europa. If he's not the Storm King, he's nowhere near Agatha's peer, he's arm jewelry for the Lady Heterodyne. If that second one is the cse, it's in Gil's best interest to make sure Tarvek stays the King, so that Agatha remains skeptical of his motives.
• Tarvek: He's got too much to lose by letting it slip. He won't tell, at least not deliberately.
• Violetta: As much as she's annoyed by Tarvek, she is sworn to him, and I suspect that she's not going to accept the release from her oath — at least not when it's offered while he's delirious. She may not be allowed to accept it — we have no idea what her oaths as a Shadow Knight consist of. She may be sworn to the order, rather than to Tarvek. She could feel that it's necessary to tell the order about what happened. So she's a question mark.
• Moloch, and probably Tiktoffen and Zola: All three of these are really looking out for themselves. So the question becomes, what benefit would they personally gain by telling?

edited 23rd Aug '09 9:41:14 PM by Madrugada

And any plan where you lose your hat is...

Aha. Now I see. I was worried about this plot being a distraction if it doesn't work, or even if it does, but now I see there's a very important purpose that this incident will serve. Muhahaha.

Also, I like Violetta "I want to be girly" Strumvorous. So she's another member of Agatha's entourage, in addition to Zeetha, Krosp, the Jaegers, and the entire city of Mechanicsburg.

Oh, and there's on other we missed. Der Kessel will know. And Der Kessel has it's own ideas of what's proper for a Heterodyne. It's a complete wild card.

Moloch claims to be out for himself but I think he's become permanently affixed to House Heterodyne now. Zola will probably go along with the plan if Gil tells her to, especially since she's already lost any chance she had in politics and is in Agatha's power. Violetta couldn't want anything more than for Tarvek to be able to repeat that statement with full authority once he regains his senses, and anyways she said she serves his branch of the family, not the Order. Tiktoffen's the only one who might spill it; can Agatha offer a better price for silence than the order could for information? Could she be sure he wouldn't just collect on both?

Also, "EWWWW"? Tarvek didn't even say anything about romance or sex, just that he wanted to marry her. Violetta's imagination is too active for her own good.

edit: Oh yeah, the castle. Nominally it has to obey Agatha's orders if she can pose them well enough that it can't find a loophole, but ultimately with something as nebulous as "keep a secret" it's going to do what it wants. So does the castle want its heir to be the object of affection of the Storm King, probably the second most powerful non-Heterodyne figure in Europe, or some revivified schmuck? HOPEFULLY that's its logic, at least. For all we know it has something else in mind.

edited 23rd Aug '09 9:53:08 PM by Brickman

And then there are two other questions:

Even if the secret gets out, can anyone prove it? An unproven accusation can be ignored for the most part...or at least it's no more of a threat than a lie, and anyone can lie.

Even if gets out, and is proven...the Houses also don't like constructs and that hasn't stopped Klaus.

It seems entirely possible that all parties will have reason to rewrite the rules in the end anyway. We have no idea who is "entitled" to take any power seat by the old rules, and every reason to expect that a bit of Klausian pragmatic politics may ultimately needed to Save Europa and give the protagonists half-way decent chances at contented lives.