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Changed line(s) 58 (click to see context) from:
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Barry, seemingly the "lesser" famous of the duo, gets deadly serious after the Castle Heterodyne incident. His OffscreenMomentOfAwesome is assaulting the Geisterdamen's citadel ''[[OneManArmy by himself]]'' to liberate his infant neice from their clutches. It's chilling insiunuation of just how (''more'') terrifingly dangerous Heterodynes are when they dispense with the usual Scourges of Europa/Heroes of Europa silliness.
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* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Barry, seemingly the "lesser" famous of the duo, gets deadly serious after the Castle Heterodyne incident. His OffscreenMomentOfAwesome is assaulting the Geisterdamen's citadel ''[[OneManArmy by himself]]'' to liberate his infant neice from their clutches. It's chilling insiunuation of just how (''more'') terrifingly dangerous Heterodynes are [[LetsGetDangerous when they dispense with the usual Scourges of Europa/Heroes of Europa silliness.silliness]].
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* SurprisePregnancy: [[spoiler:Apparently when Gil sets out to repair something, he doesn't just halfass it. In addition to correcting Punch's mute-ness and Judy's mis-sized eyes (on top of solving their meat puzzles), he apparently made them... ahem... "fully functional". Witness [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay]].]]
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* SurprisePregnancy: [[spoiler:Apparently when Gil sets out to repair something, he doesn't just halfass half-ass it. In addition to correcting Punch's mute-ness and Judy's mis-sized eyes (on top of solving their meat puzzles), he apparently made them... ahem... "fully functional". Witness [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay]].]]
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* SmarterThanYouLook: only ''looks'' like the kind of character who thinks with his muscles. He's a Spark, and spends the whole comic building a device [[spoiler: to take him back to his own time, fully aware of the damage it would do if he stayed in the future.]]
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* SmarterThanYouLook: only Only ''looks'' like the kind of character who thinks with his muscles. He's a Spark, and spends the whole comic building a device [[spoiler: to take him back to his own time, fully aware of the damage it would do if he stayed in the future.]]
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* SingleSexOffspring: The family is known for almost exclusively producing male children. The three exceptions we know of are Vipsania, Euphrosynia and Agatha.
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* SingleSexOffspring: The family is known for almost exclusively producing male children. The three four exceptions we know of are Vipsania, Roxalana, Euphrosynia and Agatha.
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* Unperson: The novels tells us that there are no known records of Roxalana ''anywhere''. All we know is that even the Jaeger generals considered her a cautionary example and there are multiple areas of devastation near Mechanicsburg known as "Roxalana's Chasm," "Roxalana's Blight," "The Melted Mountain of Roxalana," and "Roxalana's Comeuppance".
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[[/folder]]
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---
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* HeroicSacrifice: Twice. The first time was non-fatal, she was forced to marry Saturnus to protect her kingdom. The second time she murdered Saturnus to stop from murdering their sons, which resulted in the castle killing her. Less than twelve years later five of the seven popes declared her a martyr and the Patron Saint of Those Who Fall Afoul of Sparks[[note]]which she certainly would qualify as[[/note]].
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* DoomedMoralVictor: The Castle killed her, but she died knowing her children were safe and just over ten years later she'd been canonized as a saint.
* GoodIsNotSoft: She was fully willing to kill to protect her children.
* HeroicSacrifice: Twice. The first time was non-fatal, she was forced to marry Saturnus to protect her kingdom. The second time she murdered Saturnus to stop from murdering their sons, which resulted in thecastle Castle killing her. Less than twelve years later five of the seven popes declared her a martyr and the Patron Saint of Those Who Fall Afoul of Sparks[[note]]which she certainly would qualify as[[/note]].
* GoodIsNotSoft: She was fully willing to kill to protect her children.
* HeroicSacrifice: Twice. The first time was non-fatal, she was forced to marry Saturnus to protect her kingdom. The second time she murdered Saturnus to stop from murdering their sons, which resulted in the
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* InconsistentSpelling: In the comics the name of Agatha's grandfather is Saturn''us'', in the third novel ''Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle'' it's just Saturn.
[[folder:Teodora Vodenicharova]]
!!Teodora Vodenicharova, Mother of Bill and Barry
Mother of Bill and Barry Heterodyne, she was forced to marry their father Saturnus Heterodyne to protect her kingdom. Despite this she managed to keep her sons free of their father's influence and protected them from his eventual decision to murder them.
---
* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: It's never mentioned what she thought of him, but the marriage was less than consensual, as it was done to stop Saturnus from destroying her homeland.
* HeroicSacrifice: Twice. The first time was non-fatal, she was forced to marry Saturnus to protect her kingdom. The second time she murdered Saturnus to stop from murdering their sons, which resulted in the castle killing her. Less than twelve years later five of the seven popes declared her a martyr and the Patron Saint of Those Who Fall Afoul of Sparks[[note]]which she certainly would qualify as[[/note]].
* HeroicWillpower: She married a Heterodyne and lived the rest of her life in Mechanicsburg back in the days when that meant being surrounded by villains, but is noted to have been extremely strong-willed and defied Saturnus on a regular basis, especially when it came to keeping Bill and Barry free of their father's influence.
* MamaBear: She was willing to spend at least years married to a Heterodyne, but ''do not'' make the mistake of threatening her children. Her husband found this out the hard way.
* PresentAbsence: Died decades before the story began, but if not for her choices either her sons would have been raised as traditionally villainous Heterodynes, or Saturnus would have killed them. Either way the story would have been ''very'' different without her.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: She never makes an appearance or even appears in a flashback, is only briefly mentioned twice in the comics, and virtually all information on her comes from a footnote in ''Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle''. Her efforts to raise her sons to be heroes and protect them from their father made everything that happened afterwards possible.
!!Teodora Vodenicharova, Mother of Bill and Barry
Mother of Bill and Barry Heterodyne, she was forced to marry their father Saturnus Heterodyne to protect her kingdom. Despite this she managed to keep her sons free of their father's influence and protected them from his eventual decision to murder them.
---
* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: It's never mentioned what she thought of him, but the marriage was less than consensual, as it was done to stop Saturnus from destroying her homeland.
* HeroicSacrifice: Twice. The first time was non-fatal, she was forced to marry Saturnus to protect her kingdom. The second time she murdered Saturnus to stop from murdering their sons, which resulted in the castle killing her. Less than twelve years later five of the seven popes declared her a martyr and the Patron Saint of Those Who Fall Afoul of Sparks[[note]]which she certainly would qualify as[[/note]].
* HeroicWillpower: She married a Heterodyne and lived the rest of her life in Mechanicsburg back in the days when that meant being surrounded by villains, but is noted to have been extremely strong-willed and defied Saturnus on a regular basis, especially when it came to keeping Bill and Barry free of their father's influence.
* MamaBear: She was willing to spend at least years married to a Heterodyne, but ''do not'' make the mistake of threatening her children. Her husband found this out the hard way.
* PresentAbsence: Died decades before the story began, but if not for her choices either her sons would have been raised as traditionally villainous Heterodynes, or Saturnus would have killed them. Either way the story would have been ''very'' different without her.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: She never makes an appearance or even appears in a flashback, is only briefly mentioned twice in the comics, and virtually all information on her comes from a footnote in ''Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle''. Her efforts to raise her sons to be heroes and protect them from their father made everything that happened afterwards possible.
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* SmarterThanYouLook: only ''looks'' like the kind of character who thinks with his muscles. He's a Spark, and spends the whole comic building a device [[to take him back to his own time, fully aware of the damage it would do if he stayed in the future.]]
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* SmarterThanYouLook: only ''looks'' like the kind of character who thinks with his muscles. He's a Spark, and spends the whole comic building a device [[to [[spoiler: to take him back to his own time, fully aware of the damage it would do if he stayed in the future.]]
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Spelling/grammar fix(es), Added example(s), General clarification on work content, Cleaning up Word Cruft, Fixing formatting; Under "Old Heterodynes: Super fun happy thing of doom: example given is the castle, which is not applicable. Under "Ht'rok-din": Actually Pretty Funny moved to "Old Heterodynes": Oggie's wife could not have been performing for Ht'rok-din as the Jagerdraught was invented much later, by one of Ht'rock-din's descendants.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Ognian talks about the minstrel who became his wife, he mentions that the Heterodyne at the time loved her jokes, including the ones about him.
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* CainAndAbel: The Red Heterodyne and the Black Heterodyne, according to the novels. Their aptitudes lay in different areas, and the two frequently disagreed, Spark-style. This generally meant misery for everyone else.
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* CainAndAbel: The Red Heterodyne and the Black Heterodyne, according to the novels. Their aptitudes lay in different areas, and the two frequently disagreed, Spark-style.disagreed. Although the novels also specify that their agreements were philosophical, they were spark-style philosophical arguments. This generally meant misery for everyone else.
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* ItRunsInTheFamily: The Heterodyne Spark is apparently, if not unique, then at least distinctive among the sparky traits of Europa.
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* ItRunsInTheFamily: The Heterodyne Spark is apparently, if not unique, then at least distinctive among the sparky traits of Europa.Europa, and definitely one of the most powerful.
-->'''Van:''' You didn't tell us she was a ''spark!''
-->'''Wooster:''' She ''told'' you she's ''Agatha Heterodyne.''
-->'''Zeetha:''' It should be no surprise that she's a ''spark'', too.
-->'''Van:''' You didn't tell us she was a ''spark!''
-->'''Wooster:''' She ''told'' you she's ''Agatha Heterodyne.''
-->'''Zeetha:''' It should be no surprise that she's a ''spark'', too.
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** The Castle has a ''harem''[[note]]In the original sense of the word, being an area for wives/concubines to live[[/note]], as well.
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** The Castle has a ''harem''[[note]]In ''seraglio''[[note]]what would also be called a "harem" in the original sense of the word, being an area for wives/concubines to live[[/note]], as well.live[[/note]].
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* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Basically, the more mad a response is, the more Heterodyne it is. The more time someone spends AdmiringTheAbomination, the more Heterodyne they are. The more they want to do something absurd and dangerous... you get the point.
* SplitPersonality: Apparently, according to the novels, several Heterodynes have had a severe case of this, which made for an interesting variation of "good cop / bad cop". Only it's "bad cop / utterly evil and insane cop", and they're the same person.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: According to Dimo, who would know, the typical Heterodyne is generously endowed in the buttock area. Makes mid-battle underwear shopping difficult.
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Heterodynes have an interesting take on that sort of thing. They actually mean it, though. The Castle is, perhaps, the pinnacle of what the family can pull off when they work together... over generations. But, each and every construct has various bags of a suspiciously similar BigFun personality to go with the danger they represent.
* SplitPersonality: Apparently, according to the novels, several Heterodynes have had a severe case of this, which made for an interesting variation of "good cop / bad cop". Only it's "bad cop / utterly evil and insane cop", and they're the same person.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: According to Dimo, who would know, the typical Heterodyne is generously endowed in the buttock area. Makes mid-battle underwear shopping difficult.
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Heterodynes have an interesting take on that sort of thing. They actually mean it, though. The Castle is, perhaps, the pinnacle of what the family can pull off when they work together... over generations. But, each and every construct has various bags of a suspiciously similar BigFun personality to go with the danger they represent.
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* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Basically, the more mad a response is, the more Heterodyne it is. The more time someone spends AdmiringTheAbomination, the more Heterodyne they are. The more they want to do something absurd and dangerous... you get the point.
point. When Agatha is excited to see giant spider clanks advancing on the town, it strengthens her claim, as her grandfather felt the same way--except he used to get a better look by ''letting them in.''
* SplitPersonality: Apparently, according to the novels, several Heterodynes have had a severe case of this, which made for an interesting variation of "good cop / badcop". Only it's cop": "bad cop / utterly evil and insane cop", and they're the same person.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: According to Dimo, who would know, the typical Heterodyne is generously endowed in the buttock area. Makes mid-battleunderwear trouser shopping difficult.
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Heterodynes have an interesting take on that sort ofthing. They thing: they actually mean it, though. The Castle is, perhaps, the pinnacle of what the family can pull off when they work together... over generations. But, each it. Each and every construct has various bags of a suspiciously similar BigFun personality to go with the danger they represent.danger.
* SplitPersonality: Apparently, according to the novels, several Heterodynes have had a severe case of this, which made for an interesting variation of "good cop / bad
* StrongFamilyResemblance: According to Dimo, who would know, the typical Heterodyne is generously endowed in the buttock area. Makes mid-battle
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Heterodynes have an interesting take on that sort of
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* WhiteSheep: The latest two generations of Heterodynes have turned/are turning out to be this. Bill, Barry, and Agatha are downright sterling in moral caliber and heroic reputation compared to their predecessors. It was due to the actions of Bill's and Barry's mother, who nurtured the two into better people than their ancestors, and killed their father Saturnus when he intended to kill them and start over (and got killed in turn by the Castle).
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* WhiteSheep: The latest two generations of Heterodynes have turned/are turning out to be this. Bill, Barry, and Agatha are downright sterling in moral caliber and heroic reputation compared to their predecessors. It was due to the actions of Bill's and Barry's mother, who nurtured the two into better people than their ancestors, and killed their father Saturnus when he intended to kill them and start over (and got killed in turn by the Castle).ancestors.
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* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Dimo talks about the minstrel who became his wife, he mentions that Ht'rok-din loved her jokes, including the ones about him.
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* SmarterThanYouLook: only ''looks'' like the kind of character who thinks with his muscles. He's a Spark, and spends the whole comic building a device [[to take him back to his own time, fully aware of the damage it would do if he stayed in the future.]]
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Removed "Power Peversion Potential" as the trope relates to superhuman powers, not political, standard physical, or cultural power. The Heterodynes "superpower" would be the Spark, but while they definitely had some interesting sexual proclivities, there's no mention of them building anything sexually perverse. Also, the example given (Saturnus and Teodora) was not relevant to the trope anyway.
** In the fourth book, it's stated that "family tradition" frowns on wholesale slaughter of Mechanicsburg citizens, even when the entire town (''very'' briefly) rebelled. That's extremely benevolent by the standards of both Spark and non-Spark nobility in Europa.
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* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: A law in Mechanicsburg requiring everyone to learn how to play musical instruments was passed after the Incredibly Brief Rebellion (so called because it lasted less than four minutes). The reigning Heterodyne of the time, Queeg Heterodyne, didn't want to kill anyone from his town, but was required to do ''something''. So he hit upon the idea of forcing everyone to suffer the sound of people trying and failing to play musical instruments.
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* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: A law in Mechanicsburg requiring everyone to learn how to play musical instruments was passed after the Incredibly Brief Rebellion (so called because it lasted less than four minutes). The reigning Heterodyne of the time, Queeg Heterodyne, didn't want to kill anyone from his town, but was required to do ''something''. So he hit upon the idea of forcing everyone to suffer the sound of people trying and failing all children in Mechanicsburg learn how to play musical instruments.an instrument, a decree which causes suffering to this day.
-->'''Gil:''' (beat) Well that goes without saying.
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** They appeared to genuinely care about their family members ''and'' their minions. This has fostered a level of UndyingLoyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace ("Sure, they were monsters, but they were ''our'' monsters.") and especially among the jägers.
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** They appeared to genuinely care about their family members ''and'' their minions. This has fostered a level of UndyingLoyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace ("Sure, they were monsters, but they were ''our'' monsters.") and especially among the jägers.Jägers.
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* FantasticHonorifics: {{ZigZagg|ingTrope}}ed as the Heterodynes do use real-world honorifics like "Lord/Lady" or "Master/Mistress," both of which are standard terms for ''all'' members of the family. The only title specific to the ''head'' of the family is "the Heterodyne." Nobody says "the Heterodyne Agatha," but it appears [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111128 "Lady Heterodyne"]] could be read as meaning "Mistress of [THING]" just as much as it could "Miss [SURNAME]"; the only thing stopping it from being JustTheFirstCitizen is how much of a name the Heterodynes made for themselves over eight-hundred years.
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* FantasticHonorifics: {{ZigZagg|ingTrope}}ed as the Heterodynes do use real-world honorifics like "Lord/Lady" or "Master/Mistress," both of which are standard terms for ''all'' members of the family. The only title specific to the ''head'' of the family is "the "''the'' Heterodyne." Nobody says "the Heterodyne Agatha," but it appears [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111128 "Lady Heterodyne"]] could be read as meaning "Mistress of [THING]" just as much as it could "Miss [SURNAME]"; the only thing stopping it from being JustTheFirstCitizen is how much of a name the Heterodynes made for themselves over eight-hundred years.
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** The father of Bill and Barry was named Saturnus (alternately 'Saturn'). Saturn tried to kill his sons, but his wife Teodora turned against him to protect the kids, who would sit in his throne after he died. Pretty obvious analogue to the Roman [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyTitans Titan]] Saturn (Kronos/Cronus in Greek) from Myth/ClassicalMythology.
to:
** The father of Bill and Barry was named Saturnus. Saturnus (alternately 'Saturn'). Saturn tried to kill his sons, but his wife Teodora turned against him to protect the kids, who would sit in his throne after he died. Pretty obvious analogue to the Roman [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyTitans Titan]] Saturn (Kronos/Cronus in Greek) from Myth/ClassicalMythology.
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* PetTheDog: A 2021 short story [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20211008 explains]] that the Old Heterodynes welcomed persecuted monsters to have sanctuary in Mechanicsburg. Whether or not the monster refugees did something that warranted persecution isn't stated, but the ones we see in the story seem to be genuinely alright guys who just wanted a home.
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* PetTheDog: A 2021 short story [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20211008 explains]] that the Old Heterodynes welcomed persecuted monsters to have sanctuary in Mechanicsburg. Whether or not the every (or any) monster refugees refugee did something that warranted persecution isn't stated, but the ones we see in the story seem to be genuinely alright guys who just wanted a home.home.
** One of the books states that, for a while, nearby populations used to force monsters, criminals, and suspected witches into Heterodyne Valley, intending it to be a FateWorseThanDeath. Eventually, everyone realized this was not the case, and that they were pretty much just gifting incredibly dangerous individuals to the Heterodynes.
** One of the books states that, for a while, nearby populations used to force monsters, criminals, and suspected witches into Heterodyne Valley, intending it to be a FateWorseThanDeath. Eventually, everyone realized this was not the case, and that they were pretty much just gifting incredibly dangerous individuals to the Heterodynes.
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* PleaseSpareHimMyLiege: The typical means by which a Heterodyne acquired romantic partners, such as Saturnus and Teodora.
* PowerFloats: It is strongly implied Igneous Heterodyne briefly managed to float after drinking unfiltered Dyne water. Then he exploded.
* PowerPerversionPotential: In addition to death traps, the Castle Heterodyne is full of restraints. And most Heterodynes... well, they never married for ''love''. Lust was a common factor, but restraints are good for that too. What made Saturnus slightly different is that he did marry for love, but still kidnapped his wife. His love is why he let her raise the Heterodyne Boys outside the Castle thinking nature would triumph over nurture. When that failed, he planned to kill the Boys and start over and didn't notice the love of his life ''poisoning him'' to save the Boys.
* PowerFloats: It is strongly implied Igneous Heterodyne briefly managed to float after drinking unfiltered Dyne water. Then he exploded.
* PowerPerversionPotential: In addition to death traps, the Castle Heterodyne is full of restraints. And most Heterodynes... well, they never married for ''love''. Lust was a common factor, but restraints are good for that too. What made Saturnus slightly different is that he did marry for love, but still kidnapped his wife. His love is why he let her raise the Heterodyne Boys outside the Castle thinking nature would triumph over nurture. When that failed, he planned to kill the Boys and start over and didn't notice the love of his life ''poisoning him'' to save the Boys.
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* PleaseSpareHimMyLiege: The typical means by which a Heterodyne some Heterodynes acquired romantic partners, such as Saturnus and Teodora.
* PowerFloats:It is strongly implied Igneous Heterodyne briefly managed to float after drinking unfiltered Dyne water. Then he exploded.
* PowerPerversionPotential: In addition to death traps, the Castle Heterodyne is full of restraints. And most Heterodynes... well, they never married for ''love''. Lust was a common factor, but restraints are good for that too. What made Saturnus slightly different is that he did marry for love, but still kidnapped his wife. His love is why he let her raise the Heterodyne Boys outside the Castle thinking nature would triumph over nurture. When that failed, he planned to kill the Boys and start over and didn't notice the love of his life ''poisoning him'' to save the Boys.exploded.
* PowerFloats:
* PowerPerversionPotential: In addition to death traps, the Castle Heterodyne is full of restraints. And most Heterodynes... well, they never married for ''love''. Lust was a common factor, but restraints are good for that too. What made Saturnus slightly different is that he did marry for love, but still kidnapped his wife. His love is why he let her raise the Heterodyne Boys outside the Castle thinking nature would triumph over nurture. When that failed, he planned to kill the Boys and start over and didn't notice the love of his life ''poisoning him'' to save the Boys.
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* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Dimo talks about the minstrel who became his wife, he mentions that Ht'rok-din loved her jokes, including the ones about him.
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* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Iago Heterodyne certainly did, so he built a [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090213 scream generator]] to use whenever he didn't have a victim to provide said screams.
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* PlagueMaster: Given that Vipsania Heterodyne had a "[[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090810 Cabinet of Contagion]]", there's a good chance she was one.
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* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: They appeared to genuinely care about their family members ''and'' their minions. This has fostered a level of UndyingLoyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace ("Sure, they were monsters, but they were ''our'' monsters.") and especially among the jägers.
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* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** They appeared to genuinely care about their family members ''and'' their minions. This has fostered a level of UndyingLoyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace ("Sure, they were monsters, but they were ''our'' monsters.") and especially among thejägers.jägers.
** By all accounts Bill and Barry's father, Saturnus, was genuinely in love with their mother Teodora Vodenicharova.
** They appeared to genuinely care about their family members ''and'' their minions. This has fostered a level of UndyingLoyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace ("Sure, they were monsters, but they were ''our'' monsters.") and especially among the
** By all accounts Bill and Barry's father, Saturnus, was genuinely in love with their mother Teodora Vodenicharova.
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* FlawedPrototype: They're amazing work for kids' creations, but they're still kids' work; Punch couldn't talk, Judy had mismatched eyes, and they weren't sexually functional. When Gil reconstructed them, he fixed these flaws.
to:
* FlawedPrototype: They're amazing work for kids' creations, but they're still kids' work; Punch couldn't talk, Judy had mismatched eyes, and they weren't sexually functional. When Gil reconstructed them, he fixed these flaws. To be fair, according to Puch/Adam, the Heterodyne Boys [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131016 DID offer them to try and correct their flaws]], but since Bill and Barry couldn't guarantee that their memories would survive the reconstruction, they declined.
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* HorrifyingTheHorror: There is ''one thing'' that the Heterodynes decided they really didn't want to mess with - time manipulation. Especially the ''stopping'' of time. Why? ClockRoaches. When Robur Heterodyne tried to mess with time, they spooked him so badly that he had a ''genuine crisis of faith'' (for all of five minutes, before he had some pie), but the experience spooked him so badly that he established a binding agreement with the Corbettites to keep a bunch of artifacts that are far too dangerous to use locked away in exchange for the Heterodynes never attacking the Corbettites or any of their railway infrastructure, one that the family ''has never broken.''
to:
* HorrifyingTheHorror: There is ''one thing'' that the Heterodynes decided they really didn't want to mess with - time manipulation. Especially the ''stopping'' of time. Why? ClockRoaches. When Robur Heterodyne tried to mess with time, they spooked him so badly that he had a ''genuine crisis of faith'' (for all of five minutes, before he had some pie), but the experience spooked him so badly that he established a binding agreement with the Corbettites to keep a bunch of artifacts that are far too dangerous to use locked away in exchange for the Heterodynes never attacking the Corbettites or any of their railway infrastructure, one that the family ''has ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness has never broken.broken]].''
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The game confirms Vipsania was female.
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* SingleSexOffspring: The family is known for almost exclusively producing male children. The two exceptions we know of are Euphrosynia and Agatha.
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* SingleSexOffspring: The family is known for almost exclusively producing male children. The two three exceptions we know of are Vipsania, Euphrosynia and Agatha.
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* DancinInTheRuins: Apparently they have a distinctive reputation for it, if Vole's idle comment can be believed. He figures nothing the early reports on Zola have said corroborate she's a Heterodyne or not. However, if she were to burn the town to the ground and dance naked in the ruins (among other things), that'd cinch things.
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no clue about "FHA" there
Changed line(s) 44 (click to see context) from:
* HeroicSacrifice: Their mother Teodora killed their father Saturnus before he could kill them for forsaking the Heterodyne way, and was herself killed by the Castle for it. FHA’s allowed her sons to grow up to redeem the family name, and she is later made a saint - patron saint of those who run afoul of Sparks, according to the novels.
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* HeroicSacrifice: Their mother Teodora killed their father Saturnus before he could kill them for forsaking the Heterodyne way, and was herself killed by the Castle for it. FHA’s This allowed her sons to grow up to redeem the family name, and she is later made a saint - patron saint of those who run afoul of Sparks, according to the novels.
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* HeroicSacrifice: Their mother Teodora killed their father Saturnus before he could kill them for forsaking the Heterodyne way, and was herself killed by the Castle for it. Allowing her sons' to grow up to redeem the family name, and she is later made a saint - patron saint of those who run afoul of Sparks according to the novels.
* HistoryRepeats: Much like Andronicus Valois, Bill fell in love a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and believed he could sway her to the side of good, only for her to betray him (or at least somehow become The Other) and destroy the peace he had worked to build. The irony being that this time it was a Heterodyne being betrayed by someone allied with the Knights of Jove.
* HistoryRepeats: Much like Andronicus Valois, Bill fell in love a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and believed he could sway her to the side of good, only for her to betray him (or at least somehow become The Other) and destroy the peace he had worked to build. The irony being that this time it was a Heterodyne being betrayed by someone allied with the Knights of Jove.
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* HeroicSacrifice: Their mother Teodora killed their father Saturnus before he could kill them for forsaking the Heterodyne way, and was herself killed by the Castle for it. Allowing FHA’s allowed her sons' sons to grow up to redeem the family name, and she is later made a saint - patron saint of those who run afoul of Sparks Sparks, according to the novels.
* HistoryRepeats: Much like Andronicus Valois, Bill fell in love a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and believed he could sway her to the side of good, only for her to betray him (or at least somehow become The Other) and destroy the peace he had worked to build. The irony being that this time it was a Heterodyne being betrayed by someone allied with the Knights of Jove.
* HistoryRepeats: Much like Andronicus Valois, Bill fell in love a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and believed he could sway her to the side of good, only for her to betray him (or at least somehow become The Other) and destroy the peace he had worked to build. The irony being that this time it was a Heterodyne being betrayed by someone allied with the Knights of Jove.
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** The novels also note that one of the main reason Agatha is so relatively well-adjusted and sane by Spark standards is because the locket helped her ease through her awakening rather than breaking through, which prevented a lot of trauma associated with breaking through. It's also implied that Barry intended for Agatha to only wear it for a relatively short time (only months or even a couple of years at most) for ''precisely'' this reason, but then he disappeared and never gave Punch and Judy orders to tell Agatha to remove the locket after a specific amount of time. The fact that this kept Agatha under the radar until she was an adult was probably just a fortunate accident.
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** The novels also note that one of the main reason reasons Agatha is so relatively well-adjusted and sane by Spark standards is because the locket helped her ease through her awakening rather than breaking through, which prevented a lot of trauma associated with breaking through. It's also implied that Barry intended for Agatha to only wear it for a relatively short time (only months or even a couple of years at most) for ''precisely'' this reason, but then he disappeared and never gave Punch and Judy orders to tell Agatha to remove the locket after a specific amount of time. The fact that this kept Agatha under the radar until she was an adult was probably just a fortunate accident.
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* ActionGirl: Judy has been seen taking on all comers as effectively as Punch.
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* ActionGirl: Judy has been seen taking on all comers as effectively as Punch. When Agatha learns Lilith is hiding somewhere safe (to protect others) her reaction is "Did you have to lock her up?"
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** According to medieval apocrypha the first man and woman -- Adam and Lilith -- were made from clay (later Lilith was killed and Eve was created).
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** According to medieval apocrypha the first man and woman -- Adam and Lilith -- were made from clay (later Lilith was killed left Adam and became a demon, and Eve was created).created as her replacement).
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[[folder:Klaus Barry Heterodyne]]
!!Klaus Barry Heterodyne, toddler
The first child of Bill and Lucrezia, killed during the attack on Castle Heterodyne that began the Other's war on Europa.
----
* DeathOfAChild: Crushed by falling debris in the attack on the Castle.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Conceived a whole two years after Lucrezia removed Klaus from the picture... and yet somehow this didn't stop people from ignoring that fact and speculating anyhow.
* NearAndDearBabyNaming: Bill named his first kid after his brother and their mysteriously missing best friend.
* OffingTheOffspring: While it doesn't look like the Other deliberately killed him in the attack, and Agatha momentarily pauses because she doesn't think even Lucrezia might've been capable of ''that'', no version of her at any point has ever ''mentioned'' her son in any capacity.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Died at a little over a year and a bit old.
[[/folder]]
!!Klaus Barry Heterodyne, toddler
The first child of Bill and Lucrezia, killed during the attack on Castle Heterodyne that began the Other's war on Europa.
----
* DeathOfAChild: Crushed by falling debris in the attack on the Castle.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Conceived a whole two years after Lucrezia removed Klaus from the picture... and yet somehow this didn't stop people from ignoring that fact and speculating anyhow.
* NearAndDearBabyNaming: Bill named his first kid after his brother and their mysteriously missing best friend.
* OffingTheOffspring: While it doesn't look like the Other deliberately killed him in the attack, and Agatha momentarily pauses because she doesn't think even Lucrezia might've been capable of ''that'', no version of her at any point has ever ''mentioned'' her son in any capacity.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Died at a little over a year and a bit old.
[[/folder]]
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* IgnoredEpiphany: When Robur Heterodyne thought angels were coming to punish him, he experienced a genuine crisis of faith. So he smashed the machine from which said "angels" came, ate some pie, and moved on with his life.
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A pair of constructs the Heterodyne Boys' earliest creations, Punch and Judy are common characters in Heterodyne stories. As student work, they are both somewhat flawed; Punch lacks a voice and Judy has mis-matched eyes, although most people don't know that. Punch is often portrayed as a foolish klutz, but Da Boyz report that he is a very intelligent and cunning planner as well as a funny and kind-hearted individual who spent his spare time making toys for children. They were loyal and were given the job of looking after Agatha under the pseudonyms of Adam and Lilith Clay.
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A pair of constructs -- the Heterodyne Boys' earliest creations, creations -- Punch and Judy are common characters in Heterodyne stories. As student work, they are both somewhat flawed; Punch lacks a voice and Judy has mis-matched eyes, although most people don't know that. Punch is often portrayed as a foolish klutz, but Da Boyz report that he is a very intelligent and cunning planner as well as a funny and kind-hearted individual who spent his spare time making toys for children. They were loyal and were given the job of looking after Agatha under the pseudonyms of Adam and Lilith Clay.
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->[[center: '''[[Characters/GirlGenius Main Character Sheet]]''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAntagonists Antagonists]] | '''The Heterodynes''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusWulfenbachEmpire Wulfenbach Empire]]| [[Characters/GirlGeniusKnightsOfJove The Knights of Jove]]| [[Characters/GirlGeniusJagerkin Jagerkin]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusMechanicsburg Mechanicsburg]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusParis Paris]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusEngland England]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusCorbettites Corbettite Order]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAssorted Assorted]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusTransylvaniaPolygnosticUniversity Transylvania Polygnostic University]] ]]
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->[[center: '''[[Characters/GirlGenius Main Character Sheet]]''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAntagonists Antagonists]] | '''The Heterodynes''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusWulfenbachEmpire Wulfenbach Empire]]| Empire]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusKnightsOfJove The Knights of Jove]]| Jove]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusJagerkin Jagerkin]] Jägerkin]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusMechanicsburg Mechanicsburg]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusParis Paris]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusEngland England]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusCorbettites Corbettite Order]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAssorted Assorted]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusTransylvaniaPolygnosticUniversity Transylvania Polygnostic University]] ]]
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->[[center: '''[[Characters/GirlGenius Main Character Sheet]]''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAntagonists Antagonists]] | '''The Heterodynes''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAssorted Assorted]] ]]
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->[[center: '''[[Characters/GirlGenius Main Character Sheet]]''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAntagonists Antagonists]] | '''The Heterodynes''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusWulfenbachEmpire Wulfenbach Empire]]| [[Characters/GirlGeniusKnightsOfJove The Knights of Jove]]| [[Characters/GirlGeniusJagerkin Jagerkin]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusMechanicsburg Mechanicsburg]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusParis Paris]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusEngland England]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusCorbettites Corbettite Order]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAssorted Assorted]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusTransylvaniaPolygnosticUniversity Transylvania Polygnostic University]] ]]
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[[folder:The Heterodyne Boys]]
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[[folder:The Old Heterodyne Family]]
!!House Heterodyne, Scourge of Europa
[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodynefamilyphoto.png]]
[[caption-width-right:239:An old picture of some of Europe's most deranged lunatics.]]
An ancient lineage of mad scientists that even other mad scientists thought were mad. And science-y.
!!House Heterodyne, Scourge of Europa
[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodynefamilyphoto.png]]
[[caption-width-right:239:An old picture of some of Europe's most deranged lunatics.]]
An ancient lineage of mad scientists that even other mad scientists thought were mad. And science-y.
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!!House Heterodyne, Scourge of Europa
[[quoteright:239:https://static.
!!Punch and Judy, AKA Adam and Lilith Clay, Surrogate Parents
[[quoteright:351:https://static.tvtropes.
[[caption-width-right:239:An old picture
[[caption-width-right:351:Left: Judy/Lilith.\\
Right: Punch/Adam.]]
A pair of
An ancient lineage of mad scientists
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* ArtificialHuman: They're both "Type 3/Frankenstein" Constructs according to the fandom classification system for Constructs.
* ActionGirl: Judy has been seen taking on all comers as effectively as Punch.
* ArtShift: One of the most prominent examples of the evolution of the Foglios' style change over time, as they were PutOnABus for a really long time and never seen back on their feet in the few glimpses we saw of them during that period. Compare their appearance during the [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040719 Castle Wulfenbach Escape]] and their [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131016 reunion with Agatha]] [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 in the Mechanicsburg Refugee Camps]].
* BabiesEverAfter: [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 When Agatha reunites with them]], they have a baby, Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay, despite being previously sterile before Gil's repairs.
-->'''Adam:''' Apparently, when young Wulfenbach sets out to ''repair'' something, he doesn't do it halfway.
* BackFromTheDead: Thanks, Gil!
* {{The Big Guy}}s: The duo acted as this to the Heterodyne Boys back in their heyday. Due to Punch's muteness, he (and by extension Judy) were portrated as dumb comic relief in Heterodyne plays, despite the fact that Punch was anything ''but'' DumbMuscle. Naturally, the duo aren't real fond of Heterodyne plays.
* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler: When Gil reconstructs them, he fixes the flaws the Heterodyne boys inadvertantly left in due to their inexperience.]]
* CoveredWithScars: Naturally, since they're Frankenstein-type Constructs. [[spoiler:Even moreso after Gil put the meat puzzles that were their remains back together after Von Pinn had her way with the duo.]]
* FlawedPrototype: They're amazing work for kids' creations, but they're still kids' work; Punch couldn't talk, Judy had mismatched eyes, and they weren't sexually functional. When Gil reconstructed them, he fixed these flaws.
* {{Genius Bruiser}}s: They have SuperStrength, and were able to evade the Baron for quite some time. Once Punch gets a voice and is well again, he is quite verbose.
* {{Gentle Giant}}s: Superstrong constructs would have to be this in order to raise a little normal girl to adulthood while in hiding and not result in disaster. Adam more than Lilith, the Jägers describing him as being kind and gentlemanly to ''everyone'', the notoriously unpopular Jägers themselves included, and his fondness for making toys for children.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Judy has special glasses to make her eyes look the same size, to hide the fact that she's a not-quite-perfect construct.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Punch throws rivets at bullet-like velocities and with the accuracy of a [[ImprobableAimingSkills pistol marksman]].... [[BulletCatch except against Von Pinn]].
* MeaningfulName:
** Punch is very capable of his namesake.
** According to medieval apocrypha the first man and woman -- Adam and Lilith -- were made from clay (later Lilith was killed and Eve was created).
* {{Parental Substitute}}s: To Agatha, when Barry disappeared. She knows full well they're not her biological parents, [[HappilyAdopted but she doesn't care]].
* PutOnABus: Last seen in recovery [[spoiler:after Gil pieced them back together after Von Pinn shredded them. Mentioned by Gil to soothe Agatha's anger over Von Pinn shredding them and once by the Baron about Gil not knowing that he knows about them, but otherwise bussed away.]]
** TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler: Agatha finally reunited with Punch (now with a voice!) in the Jägers' forward cave after the TimeSkip, some seven or so years later in real-time. Judy is tending a refugee nursery elsewhere as well, and has finally reunited with Agatha as well.]]
* ShoutOutThemeNaming: Their names allude to the ''Theatre/PunchAndJudy'' puppet show.
* TheSpeechless: Punch [[spoiler: until Gil's repair, as it's ''Punch'' who gives him a strained "Thank you." for his actions to save Agatha. Gil apparently did some upgrading while he was in there]].
** SuddenlyVoiced: [[spoiler:[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131016 after the time skip.]] Now that his speech is unrestrained, Punch's prose is, well, ''quite wordy''. And [[MotorMouth unceasing]] according to General Dimo.]]
* SuperStrength: Punch can hoist up a steam tractor single-handed (though not for long) and flick rivets at bullet velocities. Judy can rip bulkhead doors right off their frames and toss people quite high up into the air. Attributed to the fact that they're both Constructs. [[spoiler:And apparently it's hereditary, because their baby Maxinia (see below in SurprisePregnancy) clobbered Agatha good when expressing her dislike for baby talk.]]
* SurprisePregnancy: [[spoiler:Apparently when Gil sets out to repair something, he doesn't just halfass it. In addition to correcting Punch's mute-ness and Judy's mis-sized eyes (on top of solving their meat puzzles), he apparently made them... ahem... "fully functional". Witness [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay]].]]
* UndyingLoyalty: Like almost every other Heterodyne creation capable of sentience, they're loyal to the family. Uncle Barry was confident enough in their loyalty and capability to entrust the care of the latest scion of the family to them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Old Heterodyne Family]]
!!House Heterodyne, Scourge of Europa
[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodynefamilyphoto.png]]
[[caption-width-right:239:An old picture of some of Europe's most deranged lunatics.]]
An ancient lineage of mad scientists that even other mad scientists thought were mad. And science-y.
----
* ActionGirl: Judy has been seen taking on all comers as effectively as Punch.
* ArtShift: One of the most prominent examples of the evolution of the Foglios' style change over time, as they were PutOnABus for a really long time and never seen back on their feet in the few glimpses we saw of them during that period. Compare their appearance during the [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040719 Castle Wulfenbach Escape]] and their [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131016 reunion with Agatha]] [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 in the Mechanicsburg Refugee Camps]].
* BabiesEverAfter: [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 When Agatha reunites with them]], they have a baby, Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay, despite being previously sterile before Gil's repairs.
-->'''Adam:''' Apparently, when young Wulfenbach sets out to ''repair'' something, he doesn't do it halfway.
* BackFromTheDead: Thanks, Gil!
* {{The Big Guy}}s: The duo acted as this to the Heterodyne Boys back in their heyday. Due to Punch's muteness, he (and by extension Judy) were portrated as dumb comic relief in Heterodyne plays, despite the fact that Punch was anything ''but'' DumbMuscle. Naturally, the duo aren't real fond of Heterodyne plays.
* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler: When Gil reconstructs them, he fixes the flaws the Heterodyne boys inadvertantly left in due to their inexperience.]]
* CoveredWithScars: Naturally, since they're Frankenstein-type Constructs. [[spoiler:Even moreso after Gil put the meat puzzles that were their remains back together after Von Pinn had her way with the duo.]]
* FlawedPrototype: They're amazing work for kids' creations, but they're still kids' work; Punch couldn't talk, Judy had mismatched eyes, and they weren't sexually functional. When Gil reconstructed them, he fixed these flaws.
* {{Genius Bruiser}}s: They have SuperStrength, and were able to evade the Baron for quite some time. Once Punch gets a voice and is well again, he is quite verbose.
* {{Gentle Giant}}s: Superstrong constructs would have to be this in order to raise a little normal girl to adulthood while in hiding and not result in disaster. Adam more than Lilith, the Jägers describing him as being kind and gentlemanly to ''everyone'', the notoriously unpopular Jägers themselves included, and his fondness for making toys for children.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Judy has special glasses to make her eyes look the same size, to hide the fact that she's a not-quite-perfect construct.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Punch throws rivets at bullet-like velocities and with the accuracy of a [[ImprobableAimingSkills pistol marksman]].... [[BulletCatch except against Von Pinn]].
* MeaningfulName:
** Punch is very capable of his namesake.
** According to medieval apocrypha the first man and woman -- Adam and Lilith -- were made from clay (later Lilith was killed and Eve was created).
* {{Parental Substitute}}s: To Agatha, when Barry disappeared. She knows full well they're not her biological parents, [[HappilyAdopted but she doesn't care]].
* PutOnABus: Last seen in recovery [[spoiler:after Gil pieced them back together after Von Pinn shredded them. Mentioned by Gil to soothe Agatha's anger over Von Pinn shredding them and once by the Baron about Gil not knowing that he knows about them, but otherwise bussed away.]]
** TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler: Agatha finally reunited with Punch (now with a voice!) in the Jägers' forward cave after the TimeSkip, some seven or so years later in real-time. Judy is tending a refugee nursery elsewhere as well, and has finally reunited with Agatha as well.]]
* ShoutOutThemeNaming: Their names allude to the ''Theatre/PunchAndJudy'' puppet show.
* TheSpeechless: Punch [[spoiler: until Gil's repair, as it's ''Punch'' who gives him a strained "Thank you." for his actions to save Agatha. Gil apparently did some upgrading while he was in there]].
** SuddenlyVoiced: [[spoiler:[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131016 after the time skip.]] Now that his speech is unrestrained, Punch's prose is, well, ''quite wordy''. And [[MotorMouth unceasing]] according to General Dimo.]]
* SuperStrength: Punch can hoist up a steam tractor single-handed (though not for long) and flick rivets at bullet velocities. Judy can rip bulkhead doors right off their frames and toss people quite high up into the air. Attributed to the fact that they're both Constructs. [[spoiler:And apparently it's hereditary, because their baby Maxinia (see below in SurprisePregnancy) clobbered Agatha good when expressing her dislike for baby talk.]]
* SurprisePregnancy: [[spoiler:Apparently when Gil sets out to repair something, he doesn't just halfass it. In addition to correcting Punch's mute-ness and Judy's mis-sized eyes (on top of solving their meat puzzles), he apparently made them... ahem... "fully functional". Witness [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131209 Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay]].]]
* UndyingLoyalty: Like almost every other Heterodyne creation capable of sentience, they're loyal to the family. Uncle Barry was confident enough in their loyalty and capability to entrust the care of the latest scion of the family to them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Old Heterodyne Family]]
!!House Heterodyne, Scourge of Europa
[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodynefamilyphoto.png]]
[[caption-width-right:239:An old picture of some of Europe's most deranged lunatics.]]
An ancient lineage of mad scientists that even other mad scientists thought were mad. And science-y.
----
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->[[center: '''[[Characters/GirlGenius Main Character Sheet]]''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAntagonists Antagonists]] | '''Mechanicsburgers''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAssorted Assorted]] ]]
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->[[center: '''[[Characters/GirlGenius Main Character Sheet]]''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAntagonists Antagonists]] | '''Mechanicsburgers''' '''The Heterodynes''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAssorted Assorted]] ]]
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->[[center: '''[[Characters/GirlGenius Main Character Sheet]]''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAntagonists Antagonists]] | '''Mechanicsburgers''' | [[Characters/GirlGeniusAssorted Assorted]] ]]
[[Characters/GirlGenius Back to the main character page]].
-> See [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] for Agatha.
[[folder:The Heterodyne Boys]]
!!William and Barry Heterodyne, Lords Emeritus of Mechanicsburg
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodyneboys_7866.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Bill on the left, Barry on the right.]]
The heroes of the previous generation, Bill and Barry Heterodyne were a pair of brothers, the first good apples in a ''looong'' line of villains. Their tenures as masters of House Heterodyne led to an age of peace and prosperity for much of Europa, lending their immensely powerful sparkiness not to conquer like their forefathers, but to [[WeHelpTheHelpless lend a hand]] wherever they could. Their adventures were so fantastical that they have been immortalized in a series of theatrical productions. They were close friends with Klaus Wulfenbach, and built the constructs Punch and Judy. Bill eventually married their old rival Lucrezia Mongfish, and is Agatha's father.
The Boys went on a crusade against the Other after it attacked Castle Heterodyne, killed Bill's infant son, and kidnapped his wife. ([[spoiler:Or at least that's current semi-public description of that eventful day.]]) Eventually, they both disappeared, but Barry returned in disguise with a young Agatha in tow, and left her in the care of Punch and Judy before disappearing once again.
----
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Agatha set a Heterodyne record by NOT killing someone within the first two minutes of her reign. One of their [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20211011 first acts]] were to purge Mechanicsburg of its monsters, most of which only survived due to being taken in by the residents of Mechanicsburg. They later condemned the Court of Gears, forcing them into hiding.
* BigGood: They were, more than anything, a beacon of hope in a world that had been nothing but a playground for mad scientists for far too long. They always tried to negotiate before fighting, and helped install town councils and other long-lasting forms of government before moving on.
* BoringButPractical: In the novelizations, the Castle describes Bill's approach to the Spark as "refreshingly simple" and figures if he'd been alive during the time of the Storm King (and, presumably, as mad as the rest of his family) ''no-one'' would've been able to stand against him.
* CelibateHero: Possibly Barry. Upon learning Agatha's true parentage, Klaus notes it would be "a surprise" if Barry had any children. In the Heterodyne stories, Barry is just paired off with any spare woman the story has at hand, often "The High Priestess."
** However, Maxim does mention that both of them did kiss a lot of girls back in their days. So while Barry definitely had interest in women, Klaus might've meant that he would not be the type to settle down, at least back then.
* CoolUncle: Barry, a legendary hero, raised his niece Agatha until she was seven years old. It's also {{implied|Trope}} that he saved his infant niece from [[spoiler:Lucrezia, [[RoaringRampageOfRescue by breaking into the Citadel of Silver Light and taking her to safety]]]].
* CoveredInScars: Dimo says that Bill was more scars than skin towards the end of their public adventuring career.
* DatingCatwoman: Bill and Lucrezia Mongfish. By all indications she did actually love him. Then the Other came...
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest:
** Mother Teodora Heterodyne, the one who raised them to be good, was killed by the Castle shortly after killing their villainous father.
** Bill is ''probably'' this for Agatha. Especially given he's not been seen since, and Barry returned from wherever it was he went alone, and the Other seems pretty convinced he's gone.
* DisappearedDad:
** Bill. Barry never explained what happened to him, or at least word never reached Agatha or the reader. The Monster Guild story set in the future confirms that he's gone.
** [[ParentalSubstitute Uncle Barry]] himself disappeared almost eleven years ago.
* TheDreaded: Barry apparently has become this to the Geisterdamen and to The Other after his OneManArmy assault on the Geisters' citadel to liberate baby Agatha in an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Burning down the Flesh Yards made clear to Mechanicsburg that these two were ''not'' the usual sort of Heterodynes.
* EvilParentsWantGoodKids: Utterly averted, Saturnus Heterodyne really wasn't happy to learn that his children weren't acting like Heterodynes, and had been planning to kill them and start all over again.
* FamedInStory: Not only do they have their own series of very popular pulp novels, there are traveling shows who ''specialize'' in performing their adventures.
* FantasticRacism: They considered the loyal monsters of Mechanicsburg to be just more of their family's old horrors that needed to be purged.
* FatAndSkinny: Bill being the slim one, Barry being the more portly one.
* {{Folk Hero}}es: They are revered across Europa as the greatest heroes of their generation. There are plenty of books and plays about their adventures, which are assumed by many to be greatly exaggerated. This is unlikely, as [[AllMythsAreTrue ridiculous story elements]] such as "[[MechanicalHorse Mechanical Camels]]" are [[http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/Z plain truth.]] However, ''no one'' said a single '''damn''' thing about them being '''''[[FutureImperfect accurate]].'''''
* TheGhost: Outside of a single photo, Bill has yet to properly appear in the comic, flashback or otherwise.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Specifically, they didn't understand the VillainousFriendship between the human Mechanicsburgers and the monsters, and how the former would actually [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness defy orders from their Heterodynes]] to protect and shelter the monsters when the Boys destroyed the Monster District.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Mentioned in the novels. They'd try and redeem their opponents as much as humanly possible, preferring reason to violence, but if it came to it, they would kill.
* GreaterScopeParagon: They're never seen in the comic outside of flashbacks. At the same time, they are the PrecursorHeroes that all of Europa looks up to, and that Agatha finds herself in the boots of.
* HeroicBSOD: It's revealed in the novels that Bill was emotionally hollowed out by the death of his son and disappearance of his wife. He barely ever spoke and never showed any emotions. However, his abilities were seemingly heightened during this period of despondency.
* HeroicSacrifice: Their mother Teodora killed their father Saturnus before he could kill them for forsaking the Heterodyne way, and was herself killed by the Castle for it. Allowing her sons' to grow up to redeem the family name, and she is later made a saint - patron saint of those who run afoul of Sparks according to the novels.
* HistoryRepeats: Much like Andronicus Valois, Bill fell in love a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and believed he could sway her to the side of good, only for her to betray him (or at least somehow become The Other) and destroy the peace he had worked to build. The irony being that this time it was a Heterodyne being betrayed by someone allied with the Knights of Jove.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: When two copies of Lucrezia talk, they both display terror at the idea of [[TheDreaded Barry]] turning up alive.
* IdealHero: They were such a complete 180 from their ancestors that it's almost suspicious. They were friendly, egalitarian, always saw the best in people, and always won. There's a reason they became folk heroes overnight.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: [[ParentalSubstitute Uncle Barry]] created the locket that he mandated that Agatha needed to wear for much of her life, because her Spark was breaking through at a young age and he knew that preventing that was necessary for the sake of keeping her safe. The flashback where he gives it to her makes it clear that he certainly wasn't happy with what he was doing, and knew that she'd suffer as a result, but he had to do it for her sake. Agatha herself, in the present, would probably reluctantly agree with his reasoning despite what she went through, and the locket did end up (mostly) shutting down The Other when she was downloaded into Agatha's brain, with the additional side effect of helping Agatha be able to think better and eventually overcome her mother's mental strength, so it can be argued that Barry made the right call.
** The novels also note that one of the main reason Agatha is so relatively well-adjusted and sane by Spark standards is because the locket helped her ease through her awakening rather than breaking through, which prevented a lot of trauma associated with breaking through. It's also implied that Barry intended for Agatha to only wear it for a relatively short time (only months or even a couple of years at most) for ''precisely'' this reason, but then he disappeared and never gave Punch and Judy orders to tell Agatha to remove the locket after a specific amount of time. The fact that this kept Agatha under the radar until she was an adult was probably just a fortunate accident.
* KillItWithFire: Mechanicsburg used to have a large section known as The Flesh Yards. Day One of Bill and Barry's exploits was them getting rid of it this way, then building the Great Hospital where it had been.
* KingIncognito: After returning from places unknown with young Agatha, Barry did everything in his power to remain hidden. Likely so that the Other's forces wouldn't come after Agatha; also, he evidently felt he had reason to be deeply suspicious of Klaus.
* {{Living Legend}}s: They were famous thanks to their adventures and all good things they did for Europa.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Implied to be the case with Bill, who married Lucrezia and gave her the run of his castle in spite of her clearly cruel and selfish nature.
* MagneticHero: They apparently had a reputation for gathering followers and hangers-on during their adventures.
* MeetTheInLaws: Bill's marriage to Lucrezia Mongfish made things... well, "awkward" for all parties involved, what with the Mongfishes being long-time rivals to the Heterodyne family. It got ''especially'' bad at holiday season. Apparently gatherings changed venue each year, to minimise the inevitable loss of life.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Barry held that the ways birds flew was "silly", and designed a flying bicycle contraption for Franz to use.
* OneManArmy: Possibly, with Barry, who apparently went and recovered an infant Agatha from The Other's Geisterdamen forces, who were expecting someone to try and rescue her.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Barry, seemingly the "lesser" famous of the duo, gets deadly serious after the Castle Heterodyne incident. His OffscreenMomentOfAwesome is assaulting the Geisterdamen's citadel ''[[OneManArmy by himself]]'' to liberate his infant neice from their clutches. It's chilling insiunuation of just how (''more'') terrifingly dangerous Heterodynes are when they dispense with the usual Scourges of Europa/Heroes of Europa silliness.
* PrecursorHeroes: Bill and Barry were the two heroes who traveled the world before Agatha's day, and made their name as the most famous heroes in Europa by the time the comic starts.
* ReallyGetsAround: Barry has this reputation in the stories; "The High Priestess" is an in-universe trope that means "Barry's [[GirlOfTheWeek Girl Of The Story]]." Although, see above under CelibateHero. However, when talking about them (in the midst of arguing over joining Master Payne's Circus), Maxim does note both brothers kissed plenty of girls in their days.
* SanitySlippage: Bill, after the attack on Castle Heterodyne that took his wife and child. Mention is made of him being so out of his mind with grief even the ''Jäger Generals'' had difficulty restraining him. After that, he spent the next three years suffering a major HeroicBSOD.
* TranquilFury:
** When the Boys came back in the aftermath of the Castle attack. Bill was an emotional wreck, while Barry was "deadly calm." Seeing that the mere mention of Barry [[TheDreaded freaks out]] The Other...
** According to the novelization, the "tranquil" part stopped a few hours after they returned, and the brothers spent hours screaming at one another.
* UpbringingMakesTheHero: Despite Heterodynes' bloody legacy, they turned out good thanks to efforts of their mother.
* UncertainDoom: Barry was last seen eleven years ago, and had promised to be back in a few months. He's almost certainly dead, but the Other is still worried. Bill is an even bigger question mark.
* UnwantedAssistance: Bill and Barry, eager to not elicit memories of the Old Heterodynes, were not eager to have the Jägers helping them even on the sly.
* WhiteSheep: After [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050518 centuries of bloodthirsty Heterodynes]] dedicated to nothing but chaos, destruction, and mad science, Bill and Barry dedicated themselves to heroics, goodwill-building, and mad science. This had a slightly darker side; because they were the opposite of their family in every way, they ''hated'' everything to do with the Old Heterodynes--especially the Castle and the Jägers. The Castle couldn't understand why they hated it so much, while the Jägers did understand, but tried to protect them anyway.
** This is also Agatha's advantage over the Boys; she's a good person, but she's very fond of the Jägers and even the Castle and is willing to use them to help people.
** Bill and Barry did have a pretty good personal reason for not wanting to do much with the Castle: It killed ''their mother'', the one who kept them safe from their father and raised them to be good-hearted men. The fact it never occurred to the Castle that ''killing the parent who saved them'' could be why Bill and Barry hated it says a lot about the castle.
** As for the Jägers, while they did not hate the Jägers, they were still symbols of the old ways of fear. As such, Bill and Barry ordered them to no longer follow when the two eventually found out. Even Dimo, one of Da Boyz, admits that on several levels, this was a good move, as the base reaction to seeing Jägers in the "modern" day is ''lynching''. Of course, the first mission they went without them following was the one where they went to stop the Other. The Jägers are painfully aware of this.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Old Heterodyne Family]]
!!House Heterodyne, Scourge of Europa
[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodynefamilyphoto.png]]
[[caption-width-right:239:An old picture of some of Europe's most deranged lunatics.]]
An ancient lineage of mad scientists that even other mad scientists thought were mad. And science-y.
----
* AdmiringTheAbomination: A footnote in ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheVoiceOfTheCastle'' mentions that the Black Heterodyne brought a species of blood-drinking bat he discovered to the Mechanicsburg ecosystem because he was "so enchanted by the thought of nature having produced something so dreadful, all by itself, that he wanted to share it with the world."
* AerithAndBob: A bit of FreezeFrameBonus in the Heterodyne family crypts shows that amidst the typically unusual and / or malevolent names the Heterodynes had, one of them was simply called... "Bob".
** For that matter, Bill and Barry, just one more way that they contrast with their ancestors.
** For even greater contrast, Agatha herself. Her name has greek etymological origins, and has connotations of inherent goodness and nobility of character; a stark contrast to the Heterodynes of old. She probably wasn't named by her ''mother'', since she [[spoiler:was meant to be just a backup vessel for Lucrezia]], so Barry probably named her, with the intent of raising her as a good person (he, Punch and Judy fortunately succeeded, even if she does have a bit of a mischevious streak).
* AtLeastIAdmitIt: The fourth novel put forth the theory that part of the reason why the Heterodynes is the oldest surviving Spark House, despite being universally hated since their founding, is because they made no excuses for their actions. Unlike the rest of Europa's Spark nobility, they did not act like they were inherently better or claim to be favored by the heavens. They didn't hold themselves to any moral or elitist standards that restrained them or had consequences if they failed to uphold them. They proudly made it clear that they were just of a bunch of maniacs indulging in their sick curiosities, and are, at their core, scientists, who adhere to the scientific method without reservation, and are more than willing to be flexible and recognize if something isn't working and change it, or consider new methods of getting things done.
* AxeCrazy: "Two minutes and she hasn't killed ''anyone''! A new record!"
* BadassFamily: They tamed the river Dyne (capable of turning anything into a rampaging monster) by first drinking it then using it to power their castle. And that's where they ''started''.
* BadBoss: While the Old Heterodynes had their share of EvilVirtues and tended to respect their minions, they still could be rather callous when it comes to workplace safety. Older Mechanicsburgers [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111130 rejoiced]] when Agatha merely ''cared'' about protecting the town.
-->'''Vanamonde:''' You have fifty generations of lowered expectations working for you.
* BenevolentBoss: In a very ''specific'' sense, mind. Moloch feels the convenient array of labs shows a decent amount of consideration for their minions. After all, they're the ones who have to carry everything. This is actually why they lasted so long. They treated their minions and monsters with ''respect'' and garnered UndyingLoyalty from pretty much all of them. Whenever their own people did go against them, it was usually for something more petty like "Valentine Day Riots" where one of the romantically minded Heterodynes got many of the local women in a frenzy. It was their enemies that they took much of their sadistic streak out on.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: When you have [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]] raising bad villains, things are bound to get a little... screwed up.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Giles Heterodyne joined the church, and while there was ''some'' suspicion, after 42 years of work, he ultimately did well enough to be ordained Pope. He then grafted wings onto the the entire college of cardinals and looted the papal library, much to the family's pride.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: When Robur Heterodyne thought he had brought angels looking to punish his sins, he wasn't entirely sure which specific sin it was they were after.
* CainAndAbel: The Red Heterodyne and the Black Heterodyne, according to the novels. Their aptitudes lay in different areas, and the two frequently disagreed, Spark-style. This generally meant misery for everyone else.
* ComplexityAddiction:
** Par for the course with sparks, but because they were ''successful'' sparks, they spent centuries working on ''one location''... Castle Heterodyne is kind of ridiculous.
** The books elaborate that this was part of the Heterodyne's Sparky nature. Every one of their devices had multiple functions. Invariably, one of these functions was to "surprise".
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: A law in Mechanicsburg requiring everyone to learn how to play musical instruments was passed after the Incredibly Brief Rebellion (so called because it lasted less than four minutes). The reigning Heterodyne of the time, Queeg Heterodyne, didn't want to kill anyone from his town, but was required to do ''something''. So he hit upon the idea of forcing everyone to suffer the sound of people trying and failing to play musical instruments.
* CuttingTheKnot: Faced with imminent Dreen coming through a vortex he'd made, Robur Heterodyne freaked out, smashed the machine, and then had pie. Crisis (mostly) over.
-->'''Castle Heterodyne:''' In many ways, he was a refreshingly simple man.
* TheDreaded: They were monsters who made monsters and adored monsters. They rampaged across Europa for centuries and no one could stop them. (Though the Storm King managed a pretty good defense..)
* DysfunctionJunction: Their idea of a toy for the nursery is a giant, maniacal kill-bot.
* EnfantTerrible: There's probably a ''reason'' the Castle's nurseries include metal cages.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: They appeared to genuinely care about their family members ''and'' their minions. This has fostered a level of UndyingLoyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace ("Sure, they were monsters, but they were ''our'' monsters.") and especially among the jägers.
* EqualOpportunityEvil: Heterodynes aren't particularly picky about who they have working for them, regardless of how they came into their employ (kicking and screaming, usually), but this does mean Mechanicsburg is surprisingly cosmopolitan.
* FalseReassurance: The "Good" Heterodyne's name was not because he was a good ''person'', just that he was a good ''Heterodyne''.
* FantasticHonorifics: {{ZigZagg|ingTrope}}ed as the Heterodynes do use real-world honorifics like "Lord/Lady" or "Master/Mistress," both of which are standard terms for ''all'' members of the family. The only title specific to the ''head'' of the family is "the Heterodyne." Nobody says "the Heterodyne Agatha," but it appears [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111128 "Lady Heterodyne"]] could be read as meaning "Mistress of [THING]" just as much as it could "Miss [SURNAME]"; the only thing stopping it from being JustTheFirstCitizen is how much of a name the Heterodynes made for themselves over eight-hundred years.
* ForScience: One of the family's primary motivations.
* ForTheEvulz: One of the family's other primary motivations.
* GadgeteerGenius: Again, common to sparks, but thanks to their ability to Heterodyne, the Heterodynes take it up a notch.
* GenerationXerox: Temporal shenanigans seen as an interesting day out. Appreciating and collecting the weird and dangerous tech around them. Circumventing other people's schemes by cutting to the chase. Doing his/her own thing, regardless of expectation. Adapting with Sparky charisma. ''Heterodynes.''
* HorrifyingTheHorror: There is ''one thing'' that the Heterodynes decided they really didn't want to mess with - time manipulation. Especially the ''stopping'' of time. Why? ClockRoaches. When Robur Heterodyne tried to mess with time, they spooked him so badly that he had a ''genuine crisis of faith'' (for all of five minutes, before he had some pie), but the experience spooked him so badly that he established a binding agreement with the Corbettites to keep a bunch of artifacts that are far too dangerous to use locked away in exchange for the Heterodynes never attacking the Corbettites or any of their railway infrastructure, one that the family ''has never broken.''
* IGaveMyWord: Robur Heterodyne rarely kept his word. That he did keep his agreement with the Corbettites speaks volumes of just how badly the Dreen spooked him.
* ItRunsInTheFamily: The Heterodyne Spark is apparently, if not unique, then at least distinctive among the sparky traits of Europa.
* KillItWithFire:
** The Black Heterodyne's favourite flavour was "charred".
** Saturnus Heterodyne, Bill and Barry's father, once set Mechanicsburg town hall alight during the Year of Three Winters, and managed to keep it aflame for five whole months.
* LivingLegend: The Heterodynes who survived childhood tended to terrorize Europa. The Heterodyne Boys (Agatha's father and paternal uncle) put an extra gloss on their own legend by being the only Heterodynes in history to be ''heroes''.
* LoyalPhlebotinum: One of the reasons the Heterodynes were such a long lasting evil dynasty; their creations were/are all fanatically loyal. Most sparks are killed by their creations.
* MadScientist: A whole lineage of them. Mad, science-y, and generally evil.
* MeaningfulName:
** [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070822 Iscarriot Heterodyne, Everyman's "Friend"]], obviously had a history of betraying people. Remind you of [[Literature/TheBible Judas Iscariot]]?
** The father of Bill and Barry was named Saturnus (alternately 'Saturn'). Saturn tried to kill his sons, but his wife Teodora turned against him to protect the kids, who would sit in his throne after he died. Pretty obvious analogue to the Roman [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyTitans Titan]] Saturn (Kronos/Cronus in Greek) from Myth/ClassicalMythology.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Almost all of the Heterodynes had given names or nicknames to inspire terror. Given their history, just the name Heterodyne was enough. And then come [[WhiteSheep Bill, Barry, and Agatha.]]
* NightmareFetishist: All the Heterodynes, being ridiculously sparky sparks, have a thing for the creations of other mad scientists. Saturnus even let the war machines of other sparks into the city (to make war) because he wanted to get a better look. The Black Heterodyne brought the Bloodbats to Mechanicsburg because he thought they were positively wonderful.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: At least one of the Heterodynes was a vampire-style being. And they're evidently still alive(-ish) beneath Mechanicsburg. A possibility is the Red or Black Heterodyne. The Black Heterodyne lived an average human life time, but his crypt is marked "do not open". The Red Heterodyne was supposedly his brother, but was still kicking in the early 18th century, ''three hundred years'' after his birth.
* PetTheDog: A 2021 short story [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20211008 explains]] that the Old Heterodynes welcomed persecuted monsters to have sanctuary in Mechanicsburg. Whether or not the monster refugees did something that warranted persecution isn't stated, but the ones we see in the story seem to be genuinely alright guys who just wanted a home.
* PleaseSpareHimMyLiege: The typical means by which a Heterodyne acquired romantic partners, such as Saturnus and Teodora.
* PowerFloats: It is strongly implied Igneous Heterodyne briefly managed to float after drinking unfiltered Dyne water. Then he exploded.
* PowerPerversionPotential: In addition to death traps, the Castle Heterodyne is full of restraints. And most Heterodynes... well, they never married for ''love''. Lust was a common factor, but restraints are good for that too. What made Saturnus slightly different is that he did marry for love, but still kidnapped his wife. His love is why he let her raise the Heterodyne Boys outside the Castle thinking nature would triumph over nurture. When that failed, he planned to kill the Boys and start over and didn't notice the love of his life ''poisoning him'' to save the Boys.
* PragmaticVillainy: The Heterodynes are for the most part quite evil, but they're not ''stupid'', they're just generally untethered to any sort of true moral code, but they understand when to be ''practical'', hence why they're one of the oldest surviving noble houses in Europe and why nobody has successfully wiped them off the face of the planet. They are, at their core, scientists - ''amoral'' scientists, but scientists all the time, and they are perfectly willing to identify faults and change something if it isn't working.
* PsychoSerum: They invented the jäger-draught, which they use to create jägers. They also drink the water of the river Dyne, and sometimes even survive doing so.
* ReallyGetsAround:
** The Heterodynes ''sometimes'' built "small" things: [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110420 the Master's bedroom "only" sleeps SIX]].
** The Castle has a ''harem''[[note]]In the original sense of the word, being an area for wives/concubines to live[[/note]], as well.
* RedBaron: Vlad The Blasphemous. Given the average Spark, and the average ''Heterodyne'', he likely got the name for ramping those traits up (he is the one that made the Jägerdraught, after all).
* SharedFamilyQuirks:
** Seriously, most of these tropes even apply to Agatha, her father, and her uncle, and they're the ''good ones''.
** Also, as the castle notes, the family rarely produces female descendants.
* SigilSpam: The Heterodyne trilobyte is ''everywhere'' in Mechanicsburg.
* SingleSexOffspring: The family is known for almost exclusively producing male children. The two exceptions we know of are Euphrosynia and Agatha.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Basically, the more mad a response is, the more Heterodyne it is. The more time someone spends AdmiringTheAbomination, the more Heterodyne they are. The more they want to do something absurd and dangerous... you get the point.
* SplitPersonality: Apparently, according to the novels, several Heterodynes have had a severe case of this, which made for an interesting variation of "good cop / bad cop". Only it's "bad cop / utterly evil and insane cop", and they're the same person.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: According to Dimo, who would know, the typical Heterodyne is generously endowed in the buttock area. Makes mid-battle underwear shopping difficult.
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Heterodynes have an interesting take on that sort of thing. They actually mean it, though. The Castle is, perhaps, the pinnacle of what the family can pull off when they work together... over generations. But, each and every construct has various bags of a suspiciously similar BigFun personality to go with the danger they represent.
* SupervillainLair: Although Castle Heterodyne is the centerpiece of their power and the focus of much of their mad science, Mechanicsburg and the surrounding countryside both benefited (sort of) from their overlordship.
* ThickerThanWater: If there are any EvilVirtues the Heterodynes had, it was family loyalty. With the ''one'' exception of Saturn tying to kill Bill & Barry, the Old Heterodynes aren't shown to be prone to kinslaying. Meanwhile it's exactly their loyalty to their own that makes it hard to trust them as as outsider; [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140414 Rerich]] explained that the reason Euphrosynia betrayed the Storm King is because she feared any attempt to ''tame'' the family would ''destroy'' it.
* UnholyMatrimony: The Castle fondly recounts how the Skull-Queen of Skral sent a legion of homunculi to get Dagon Heterodyne's "attention". In the novelization, it notes that she's Agatha's ancestor, so that apparently worked out pretty well (just not for anyone else).
* UndyingLoyalty: An underlying theme among all the followers of House Heterodyne is this. It may very well be the ''true'' power of House Heterodyne. And it's not "[[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190607 installed]]" (as opposed to instilled) like some other sparks do their creations and minions, it seems to be truly earned through reciprocity.
* WhiteSheep: The latest two generations of Heterodynes have turned/are turning out to be this. Bill, Barry, and Agatha are downright sterling in moral caliber and heroic reputation compared to their predecessors. It was due to the actions of Bill's and Barry's mother, who nurtured the two into better people than their ancestors, and killed their father Saturnus when he intended to kill them and start over (and got killed in turn by the Castle).
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Again, another spark trope taken to eleven. Bathing in the Dyne kills people and drives them mad, and at least one of the Heterodynes ''drank it''. (And survived; as noted above, Igneous Heterodyne evidently ran into problems..)
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Euphrosynia Heterodyne]]
!!Euphrosynia Heterodyne, Bride of the Storm King
[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/euphrosynia_v8p1_v11p83.png]]
[[caption-width-right:260:Left: as depicted in [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080204 the Opera]].\\
Right: as depicted in [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110509 Klaus' story]].]]
Daughter of Clemethious Heterodyne, sister of Bludtharst and object of romantic interest of Andronicus Valois, the original Storm King. Very little is known about her for sure, besides the fact that she probably played a significant role in destroying the Storm King's regime.
----
* ArrangedMarriage: Her marriage with Andronicus was arranged as a part of peace treaty with the Heterodynes.
* DamselInDistress: In The Storm King opera, Andronicus first meets her when she is menaced by Ogglespoon. She also ends up kidnapped at the end of the second act. According to Voltaire, what apparently ''actually'' happened was that [[spoiler:she tried to search Van Rijn's workshop for secrets to steal, ran afoul of "something none of us understood", and disappeared as a result; there's been no mention of Ogglespoon outside of the opera.]]
* {{Foil}}: Much like Lucrezia, there is the driving question as to whether or not she planned the hero's downfall all along or something else was afoot. She is also often paralleled to Agatha as a Heterodyne loved by the Storm King whose presence endangers Europe and shatters a great peace (Euphrosynia with the Storm King's coalition and Agatha with the Empire).
** There is a bit of {{irony}} in comparing her to Lucrezia. Both Euphrosynia and Lucrezia married a hero and led to their downfall. However, the hero Euphrosynia married was the Storm King, while she was of the House of Heterodyne; meanwhile the hero Lucrezia married was the Heterodyne himself, and her family (the Mongfishes) were of the Knights of Jove, which was the Storm King's old honour guard.
* TheGhost: She is yet to appear in person, either in the comics or in the novels, unless you count a rather fanciful tale told by Klaus. We've heard a few tantalizing eyewitness comments from a Jäger and the Master of Paris, and Martellus mentions some correspondence of hers is still around.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade / HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Quite possibly both in-universe given the wildly-disparate versions of her as either a straight up damsel in distress or a villainess plotting the Storm King's downfall all along.
* HoneyTrap: She is believed to have manipulated the Storm King and used his love for her to enact his downfall.
* InTheBlood: Rerich the Jäger pointed out that even if she did love the Storm King she was still a Heterodyne, making her just as much of a chaos-loving monster as the rest of her family, meaning that she would never have submitted to his wishes for peace and submission.
* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: The opera presents her as a classic example of this trope: beautiful, innocent and a love interest for the hero to rescue from her evil, crazy family. Other sources, however, suggest she was either [[DaddysLittleVillain a type that agreed with daddy's evil plan and faked being in love with the hero to distract him]] or loved him truly but betrayed him anyway since his success would mean destruction of her town and her people.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Andronicus claims he saw her disappear before his eyes in Van Rijn's workshop, and assumes it was Rijn's fault. Voltaire counter-claims that she was only there in the first place because she was trying to steal his secrets, only to run afoul of something horrible.
* PrincessesPreferPink: The actress presenting her in the opera wears a pink dress.
* ReallyGetsAround: When Martellus asks Rerich if she loved Andronicus, the Jäger mockingly replies that she "luffed lots ov pipple!"
* StarCrossedLovers: In the opera she and Andronicus are tragically separated when Euphrosynia is kidnapped by Ogglespoon. How things really looked is uncertain. Especially since more reliable sources suggest that she may have not been in love with Andronicus at all and only played along to fulfill some plan of the Heterodynes, or loved him but betrayed him anyway. The latter comes from a Jäger who had some limited contact with her, and invokes the trope by noting how her marriage to the Storm King would have meant putting Mechanicsburg under his power, which Euphrosynia could never allow even if she did love him.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: As noted above, we still have no idea what she looked like, apart from the "Evil Witch" from Klaus's story. For whatever it's worth, the actress who plays Euphrosynia in the latest staging of the Storm King opera looks a great deal like Agatha, and in his last moments, [[spoiler:Andronicus Valois]] mistakes Agatha for her, at least in regards to her voice. That said, no one else has yet mentioned any undue similarities, even among people who knew Euphrosynia, such as the Master of Paris and her personal guard Jenka. Even [[spoiler:Valois]] doesn't show any recognition, when meeting Agatha earlier in a somewhat more rational state of mind.
* ThickerThanWater: According to [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140414 Rerich]] at least, the reason Euphrosynia betrayed the Storm King is because she feared any attempt to ''tame'' the family would actually just ''destroy'' it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ht'rok-din]]
!!Ghengis Ht'rok-din, founder of the Heterodyne Family
[[quoteright:227:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ghengis.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:227:"Behold my instrument of Conqvest... '''''UND VOE!!!'''''"]]
Ghengis Ht'rok-din is a historical figure known for engaging in campaigns of conquest and woe in the medieval era of Europa, and for founding the equally conquest-and-woe-inducing Heterodyne family. A guest strip {{omake}} series titled "[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140813 Homecoming King]]" involves a not-too-distant future where a reckless sparky university student brings Him into the modern time using forbidden time travel science.
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* BloodKnight: Par for the course for the ''founder'' of the Heterodyne family.
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Recognizes and name-drops the trope [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140818 when faced with a stun-gun]]:
-->VAT KIND UF SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IZ DIS?
* TheDreaded: The Heterodyne family's legacy of conquest and woe? He started it.
* EternalEnglish: Or German or Romanian or whatever they speak at Transylvania Polygnostic in this timeline. He refers to it as [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140815 "de Nordd'man tongue"]] and while his accent is thicker than the Jägers' he can understand students living a thousand years after his time.
* Main/{{Expy}}: Visually, he is clearly one for Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian. The fact that he is also a warrior and conqueror from 'the North' who uses a sword takes the resemblance even closer.
* FounderOfTheKingdom: Of Mechanicsburg at least. And of the Heterodyne family and their legacy of Conquest and Woe.
* FunetikAksent: He appears to have a very Jäger-like accent when talking in English (or whatever "modern language" is being spoken via TranslationConvention).
* GeniusBruiser: He's a muscular, brutal Expy of Conan - already a GeniusBruiser - but unlike the original model he's a ''Spark'', and a powerful one at that. He immediately understands the causality problem his presence in that time poses: He's told he has descendants... but does not recall ''having'' any (legitimate) descendants (yet). He also seems to know quite a few languages.
* PetTheDog: He's not entirely ungentle with the students, at least by his usual casually murderous standards. He was more violent before he learned that they were subjects of a sort to his descendant, so perhaps he considered them his own subjects by proxy, invoking the Heterodyne family's BenevolentBoss tendencies discussed above. Or maybe he just thought it would be rude to break something that belonged to her.
* TheSparkOfGenius: He has the Spark, natch.
* StableTimeLoop: According to Homecoming King, he concentrated on building his legacy and siring a family after being pulled into the future and [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140822 seeing the extent of his descendants' domain]]:
-->'''Ht'rok-din:''' Hy tought hy hed run out uf places to make mine. But now hy see hy overlooked time itself.
* ViolationOfCommonSense: The locals around the spring that eventually became the source of the River Dyne were superstitious about it: those who bathed in it often went mad. What did Ht'rok-din do? He '''''drank''''' ''the water''.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Par for the course for his barbarian motif.
[[/folder]]
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[[Characters/GirlGenius Back to the main character page]].
-> See [[Characters/GirlGeniusProtagonists Protagonists]] for Agatha.
[[folder:The Heterodyne Boys]]
!!William and Barry Heterodyne, Lords Emeritus of Mechanicsburg
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodyneboys_7866.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Bill on the left, Barry on the right.]]
The heroes of the previous generation, Bill and Barry Heterodyne were a pair of brothers, the first good apples in a ''looong'' line of villains. Their tenures as masters of House Heterodyne led to an age of peace and prosperity for much of Europa, lending their immensely powerful sparkiness not to conquer like their forefathers, but to [[WeHelpTheHelpless lend a hand]] wherever they could. Their adventures were so fantastical that they have been immortalized in a series of theatrical productions. They were close friends with Klaus Wulfenbach, and built the constructs Punch and Judy. Bill eventually married their old rival Lucrezia Mongfish, and is Agatha's father.
The Boys went on a crusade against the Other after it attacked Castle Heterodyne, killed Bill's infant son, and kidnapped his wife. ([[spoiler:Or at least that's current semi-public description of that eventful day.]]) Eventually, they both disappeared, but Barry returned in disguise with a young Agatha in tow, and left her in the care of Punch and Judy before disappearing once again.
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* BewareTheNiceOnes: Agatha set a Heterodyne record by NOT killing someone within the first two minutes of her reign. One of their [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20211011 first acts]] were to purge Mechanicsburg of its monsters, most of which only survived due to being taken in by the residents of Mechanicsburg. They later condemned the Court of Gears, forcing them into hiding.
* BigGood: They were, more than anything, a beacon of hope in a world that had been nothing but a playground for mad scientists for far too long. They always tried to negotiate before fighting, and helped install town councils and other long-lasting forms of government before moving on.
* BoringButPractical: In the novelizations, the Castle describes Bill's approach to the Spark as "refreshingly simple" and figures if he'd been alive during the time of the Storm King (and, presumably, as mad as the rest of his family) ''no-one'' would've been able to stand against him.
* CelibateHero: Possibly Barry. Upon learning Agatha's true parentage, Klaus notes it would be "a surprise" if Barry had any children. In the Heterodyne stories, Barry is just paired off with any spare woman the story has at hand, often "The High Priestess."
** However, Maxim does mention that both of them did kiss a lot of girls back in their days. So while Barry definitely had interest in women, Klaus might've meant that he would not be the type to settle down, at least back then.
* CoolUncle: Barry, a legendary hero, raised his niece Agatha until she was seven years old. It's also {{implied|Trope}} that he saved his infant niece from [[spoiler:Lucrezia, [[RoaringRampageOfRescue by breaking into the Citadel of Silver Light and taking her to safety]]]].
* CoveredInScars: Dimo says that Bill was more scars than skin towards the end of their public adventuring career.
* DatingCatwoman: Bill and Lucrezia Mongfish. By all indications she did actually love him. Then the Other came...
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest:
** Mother Teodora Heterodyne, the one who raised them to be good, was killed by the Castle shortly after killing their villainous father.
** Bill is ''probably'' this for Agatha. Especially given he's not been seen since, and Barry returned from wherever it was he went alone, and the Other seems pretty convinced he's gone.
* DisappearedDad:
** Bill. Barry never explained what happened to him, or at least word never reached Agatha or the reader. The Monster Guild story set in the future confirms that he's gone.
** [[ParentalSubstitute Uncle Barry]] himself disappeared almost eleven years ago.
* TheDreaded: Barry apparently has become this to the Geisterdamen and to The Other after his OneManArmy assault on the Geisters' citadel to liberate baby Agatha in an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Burning down the Flesh Yards made clear to Mechanicsburg that these two were ''not'' the usual sort of Heterodynes.
* EvilParentsWantGoodKids: Utterly averted, Saturnus Heterodyne really wasn't happy to learn that his children weren't acting like Heterodynes, and had been planning to kill them and start all over again.
* FamedInStory: Not only do they have their own series of very popular pulp novels, there are traveling shows who ''specialize'' in performing their adventures.
* FantasticRacism: They considered the loyal monsters of Mechanicsburg to be just more of their family's old horrors that needed to be purged.
* FatAndSkinny: Bill being the slim one, Barry being the more portly one.
* {{Folk Hero}}es: They are revered across Europa as the greatest heroes of their generation. There are plenty of books and plays about their adventures, which are assumed by many to be greatly exaggerated. This is unlikely, as [[AllMythsAreTrue ridiculous story elements]] such as "[[MechanicalHorse Mechanical Camels]]" are [[http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/Z plain truth.]] However, ''no one'' said a single '''damn''' thing about them being '''''[[FutureImperfect accurate]].'''''
* TheGhost: Outside of a single photo, Bill has yet to properly appear in the comic, flashback or otherwise.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Specifically, they didn't understand the VillainousFriendship between the human Mechanicsburgers and the monsters, and how the former would actually [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness defy orders from their Heterodynes]] to protect and shelter the monsters when the Boys destroyed the Monster District.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Mentioned in the novels. They'd try and redeem their opponents as much as humanly possible, preferring reason to violence, but if it came to it, they would kill.
* GreaterScopeParagon: They're never seen in the comic outside of flashbacks. At the same time, they are the PrecursorHeroes that all of Europa looks up to, and that Agatha finds herself in the boots of.
* HeroicBSOD: It's revealed in the novels that Bill was emotionally hollowed out by the death of his son and disappearance of his wife. He barely ever spoke and never showed any emotions. However, his abilities were seemingly heightened during this period of despondency.
* HeroicSacrifice: Their mother Teodora killed their father Saturnus before he could kill them for forsaking the Heterodyne way, and was herself killed by the Castle for it. Allowing her sons' to grow up to redeem the family name, and she is later made a saint - patron saint of those who run afoul of Sparks according to the novels.
* HistoryRepeats: Much like Andronicus Valois, Bill fell in love a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and believed he could sway her to the side of good, only for her to betray him (or at least somehow become The Other) and destroy the peace he had worked to build. The irony being that this time it was a Heterodyne being betrayed by someone allied with the Knights of Jove.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: When two copies of Lucrezia talk, they both display terror at the idea of [[TheDreaded Barry]] turning up alive.
* IdealHero: They were such a complete 180 from their ancestors that it's almost suspicious. They were friendly, egalitarian, always saw the best in people, and always won. There's a reason they became folk heroes overnight.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: [[ParentalSubstitute Uncle Barry]] created the locket that he mandated that Agatha needed to wear for much of her life, because her Spark was breaking through at a young age and he knew that preventing that was necessary for the sake of keeping her safe. The flashback where he gives it to her makes it clear that he certainly wasn't happy with what he was doing, and knew that she'd suffer as a result, but he had to do it for her sake. Agatha herself, in the present, would probably reluctantly agree with his reasoning despite what she went through, and the locket did end up (mostly) shutting down The Other when she was downloaded into Agatha's brain, with the additional side effect of helping Agatha be able to think better and eventually overcome her mother's mental strength, so it can be argued that Barry made the right call.
** The novels also note that one of the main reason Agatha is so relatively well-adjusted and sane by Spark standards is because the locket helped her ease through her awakening rather than breaking through, which prevented a lot of trauma associated with breaking through. It's also implied that Barry intended for Agatha to only wear it for a relatively short time (only months or even a couple of years at most) for ''precisely'' this reason, but then he disappeared and never gave Punch and Judy orders to tell Agatha to remove the locket after a specific amount of time. The fact that this kept Agatha under the radar until she was an adult was probably just a fortunate accident.
* KillItWithFire: Mechanicsburg used to have a large section known as The Flesh Yards. Day One of Bill and Barry's exploits was them getting rid of it this way, then building the Great Hospital where it had been.
* KingIncognito: After returning from places unknown with young Agatha, Barry did everything in his power to remain hidden. Likely so that the Other's forces wouldn't come after Agatha; also, he evidently felt he had reason to be deeply suspicious of Klaus.
* {{Living Legend}}s: They were famous thanks to their adventures and all good things they did for Europa.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Implied to be the case with Bill, who married Lucrezia and gave her the run of his castle in spite of her clearly cruel and selfish nature.
* MagneticHero: They apparently had a reputation for gathering followers and hangers-on during their adventures.
* MeetTheInLaws: Bill's marriage to Lucrezia Mongfish made things... well, "awkward" for all parties involved, what with the Mongfishes being long-time rivals to the Heterodyne family. It got ''especially'' bad at holiday season. Apparently gatherings changed venue each year, to minimise the inevitable loss of life.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Barry held that the ways birds flew was "silly", and designed a flying bicycle contraption for Franz to use.
* OneManArmy: Possibly, with Barry, who apparently went and recovered an infant Agatha from The Other's Geisterdamen forces, who were expecting someone to try and rescue her.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Barry, seemingly the "lesser" famous of the duo, gets deadly serious after the Castle Heterodyne incident. His OffscreenMomentOfAwesome is assaulting the Geisterdamen's citadel ''[[OneManArmy by himself]]'' to liberate his infant neice from their clutches. It's chilling insiunuation of just how (''more'') terrifingly dangerous Heterodynes are when they dispense with the usual Scourges of Europa/Heroes of Europa silliness.
* PrecursorHeroes: Bill and Barry were the two heroes who traveled the world before Agatha's day, and made their name as the most famous heroes in Europa by the time the comic starts.
* ReallyGetsAround: Barry has this reputation in the stories; "The High Priestess" is an in-universe trope that means "Barry's [[GirlOfTheWeek Girl Of The Story]]." Although, see above under CelibateHero. However, when talking about them (in the midst of arguing over joining Master Payne's Circus), Maxim does note both brothers kissed plenty of girls in their days.
* SanitySlippage: Bill, after the attack on Castle Heterodyne that took his wife and child. Mention is made of him being so out of his mind with grief even the ''Jäger Generals'' had difficulty restraining him. After that, he spent the next three years suffering a major HeroicBSOD.
* TranquilFury:
** When the Boys came back in the aftermath of the Castle attack. Bill was an emotional wreck, while Barry was "deadly calm." Seeing that the mere mention of Barry [[TheDreaded freaks out]] The Other...
** According to the novelization, the "tranquil" part stopped a few hours after they returned, and the brothers spent hours screaming at one another.
* UpbringingMakesTheHero: Despite Heterodynes' bloody legacy, they turned out good thanks to efforts of their mother.
* UncertainDoom: Barry was last seen eleven years ago, and had promised to be back in a few months. He's almost certainly dead, but the Other is still worried. Bill is an even bigger question mark.
* UnwantedAssistance: Bill and Barry, eager to not elicit memories of the Old Heterodynes, were not eager to have the Jägers helping them even on the sly.
* WhiteSheep: After [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050518 centuries of bloodthirsty Heterodynes]] dedicated to nothing but chaos, destruction, and mad science, Bill and Barry dedicated themselves to heroics, goodwill-building, and mad science. This had a slightly darker side; because they were the opposite of their family in every way, they ''hated'' everything to do with the Old Heterodynes--especially the Castle and the Jägers. The Castle couldn't understand why they hated it so much, while the Jägers did understand, but tried to protect them anyway.
** This is also Agatha's advantage over the Boys; she's a good person, but she's very fond of the Jägers and even the Castle and is willing to use them to help people.
** Bill and Barry did have a pretty good personal reason for not wanting to do much with the Castle: It killed ''their mother'', the one who kept them safe from their father and raised them to be good-hearted men. The fact it never occurred to the Castle that ''killing the parent who saved them'' could be why Bill and Barry hated it says a lot about the castle.
** As for the Jägers, while they did not hate the Jägers, they were still symbols of the old ways of fear. As such, Bill and Barry ordered them to no longer follow when the two eventually found out. Even Dimo, one of Da Boyz, admits that on several levels, this was a good move, as the base reaction to seeing Jägers in the "modern" day is ''lynching''. Of course, the first mission they went without them following was the one where they went to stop the Other. The Jägers are painfully aware of this.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Old Heterodyne Family]]
!!House Heterodyne, Scourge of Europa
[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heterodynefamilyphoto.png]]
[[caption-width-right:239:An old picture of some of Europe's most deranged lunatics.]]
An ancient lineage of mad scientists that even other mad scientists thought were mad. And science-y.
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* AdmiringTheAbomination: A footnote in ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheVoiceOfTheCastle'' mentions that the Black Heterodyne brought a species of blood-drinking bat he discovered to the Mechanicsburg ecosystem because he was "so enchanted by the thought of nature having produced something so dreadful, all by itself, that he wanted to share it with the world."
* AerithAndBob: A bit of FreezeFrameBonus in the Heterodyne family crypts shows that amidst the typically unusual and / or malevolent names the Heterodynes had, one of them was simply called... "Bob".
** For that matter, Bill and Barry, just one more way that they contrast with their ancestors.
** For even greater contrast, Agatha herself. Her name has greek etymological origins, and has connotations of inherent goodness and nobility of character; a stark contrast to the Heterodynes of old. She probably wasn't named by her ''mother'', since she [[spoiler:was meant to be just a backup vessel for Lucrezia]], so Barry probably named her, with the intent of raising her as a good person (he, Punch and Judy fortunately succeeded, even if she does have a bit of a mischevious streak).
* AtLeastIAdmitIt: The fourth novel put forth the theory that part of the reason why the Heterodynes is the oldest surviving Spark House, despite being universally hated since their founding, is because they made no excuses for their actions. Unlike the rest of Europa's Spark nobility, they did not act like they were inherently better or claim to be favored by the heavens. They didn't hold themselves to any moral or elitist standards that restrained them or had consequences if they failed to uphold them. They proudly made it clear that they were just of a bunch of maniacs indulging in their sick curiosities, and are, at their core, scientists, who adhere to the scientific method without reservation, and are more than willing to be flexible and recognize if something isn't working and change it, or consider new methods of getting things done.
* AxeCrazy: "Two minutes and she hasn't killed ''anyone''! A new record!"
* BadassFamily: They tamed the river Dyne (capable of turning anything into a rampaging monster) by first drinking it then using it to power their castle. And that's where they ''started''.
* BadBoss: While the Old Heterodynes had their share of EvilVirtues and tended to respect their minions, they still could be rather callous when it comes to workplace safety. Older Mechanicsburgers [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111130 rejoiced]] when Agatha merely ''cared'' about protecting the town.
-->'''Vanamonde:''' You have fifty generations of lowered expectations working for you.
* BenevolentBoss: In a very ''specific'' sense, mind. Moloch feels the convenient array of labs shows a decent amount of consideration for their minions. After all, they're the ones who have to carry everything. This is actually why they lasted so long. They treated their minions and monsters with ''respect'' and garnered UndyingLoyalty from pretty much all of them. Whenever their own people did go against them, it was usually for something more petty like "Valentine Day Riots" where one of the romantically minded Heterodynes got many of the local women in a frenzy. It was their enemies that they took much of their sadistic streak out on.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: When you have [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]] raising bad villains, things are bound to get a little... screwed up.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Giles Heterodyne joined the church, and while there was ''some'' suspicion, after 42 years of work, he ultimately did well enough to be ordained Pope. He then grafted wings onto the the entire college of cardinals and looted the papal library, much to the family's pride.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: When Robur Heterodyne thought he had brought angels looking to punish his sins, he wasn't entirely sure which specific sin it was they were after.
* CainAndAbel: The Red Heterodyne and the Black Heterodyne, according to the novels. Their aptitudes lay in different areas, and the two frequently disagreed, Spark-style. This generally meant misery for everyone else.
* ComplexityAddiction:
** Par for the course with sparks, but because they were ''successful'' sparks, they spent centuries working on ''one location''... Castle Heterodyne is kind of ridiculous.
** The books elaborate that this was part of the Heterodyne's Sparky nature. Every one of their devices had multiple functions. Invariably, one of these functions was to "surprise".
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: A law in Mechanicsburg requiring everyone to learn how to play musical instruments was passed after the Incredibly Brief Rebellion (so called because it lasted less than four minutes). The reigning Heterodyne of the time, Queeg Heterodyne, didn't want to kill anyone from his town, but was required to do ''something''. So he hit upon the idea of forcing everyone to suffer the sound of people trying and failing to play musical instruments.
* CuttingTheKnot: Faced with imminent Dreen coming through a vortex he'd made, Robur Heterodyne freaked out, smashed the machine, and then had pie. Crisis (mostly) over.
-->'''Castle Heterodyne:''' In many ways, he was a refreshingly simple man.
* TheDreaded: They were monsters who made monsters and adored monsters. They rampaged across Europa for centuries and no one could stop them. (Though the Storm King managed a pretty good defense..)
* DysfunctionJunction: Their idea of a toy for the nursery is a giant, maniacal kill-bot.
* EnfantTerrible: There's probably a ''reason'' the Castle's nurseries include metal cages.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: They appeared to genuinely care about their family members ''and'' their minions. This has fostered a level of UndyingLoyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace ("Sure, they were monsters, but they were ''our'' monsters.") and especially among the jägers.
* EqualOpportunityEvil: Heterodynes aren't particularly picky about who they have working for them, regardless of how they came into their employ (kicking and screaming, usually), but this does mean Mechanicsburg is surprisingly cosmopolitan.
* FalseReassurance: The "Good" Heterodyne's name was not because he was a good ''person'', just that he was a good ''Heterodyne''.
* FantasticHonorifics: {{ZigZagg|ingTrope}}ed as the Heterodynes do use real-world honorifics like "Lord/Lady" or "Master/Mistress," both of which are standard terms for ''all'' members of the family. The only title specific to the ''head'' of the family is "the Heterodyne." Nobody says "the Heterodyne Agatha," but it appears [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111128 "Lady Heterodyne"]] could be read as meaning "Mistress of [THING]" just as much as it could "Miss [SURNAME]"; the only thing stopping it from being JustTheFirstCitizen is how much of a name the Heterodynes made for themselves over eight-hundred years.
* ForScience: One of the family's primary motivations.
* ForTheEvulz: One of the family's other primary motivations.
* GadgeteerGenius: Again, common to sparks, but thanks to their ability to Heterodyne, the Heterodynes take it up a notch.
* GenerationXerox: Temporal shenanigans seen as an interesting day out. Appreciating and collecting the weird and dangerous tech around them. Circumventing other people's schemes by cutting to the chase. Doing his/her own thing, regardless of expectation. Adapting with Sparky charisma. ''Heterodynes.''
* HorrifyingTheHorror: There is ''one thing'' that the Heterodynes decided they really didn't want to mess with - time manipulation. Especially the ''stopping'' of time. Why? ClockRoaches. When Robur Heterodyne tried to mess with time, they spooked him so badly that he had a ''genuine crisis of faith'' (for all of five minutes, before he had some pie), but the experience spooked him so badly that he established a binding agreement with the Corbettites to keep a bunch of artifacts that are far too dangerous to use locked away in exchange for the Heterodynes never attacking the Corbettites or any of their railway infrastructure, one that the family ''has never broken.''
* IGaveMyWord: Robur Heterodyne rarely kept his word. That he did keep his agreement with the Corbettites speaks volumes of just how badly the Dreen spooked him.
* ItRunsInTheFamily: The Heterodyne Spark is apparently, if not unique, then at least distinctive among the sparky traits of Europa.
* KillItWithFire:
** The Black Heterodyne's favourite flavour was "charred".
** Saturnus Heterodyne, Bill and Barry's father, once set Mechanicsburg town hall alight during the Year of Three Winters, and managed to keep it aflame for five whole months.
* LivingLegend: The Heterodynes who survived childhood tended to terrorize Europa. The Heterodyne Boys (Agatha's father and paternal uncle) put an extra gloss on their own legend by being the only Heterodynes in history to be ''heroes''.
* LoyalPhlebotinum: One of the reasons the Heterodynes were such a long lasting evil dynasty; their creations were/are all fanatically loyal. Most sparks are killed by their creations.
* MadScientist: A whole lineage of them. Mad, science-y, and generally evil.
* MeaningfulName:
** [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070822 Iscarriot Heterodyne, Everyman's "Friend"]], obviously had a history of betraying people. Remind you of [[Literature/TheBible Judas Iscariot]]?
** The father of Bill and Barry was named Saturnus (alternately 'Saturn'). Saturn tried to kill his sons, but his wife Teodora turned against him to protect the kids, who would sit in his throne after he died. Pretty obvious analogue to the Roman [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyTitans Titan]] Saturn (Kronos/Cronus in Greek) from Myth/ClassicalMythology.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Almost all of the Heterodynes had given names or nicknames to inspire terror. Given their history, just the name Heterodyne was enough. And then come [[WhiteSheep Bill, Barry, and Agatha.]]
* NightmareFetishist: All the Heterodynes, being ridiculously sparky sparks, have a thing for the creations of other mad scientists. Saturnus even let the war machines of other sparks into the city (to make war) because he wanted to get a better look. The Black Heterodyne brought the Bloodbats to Mechanicsburg because he thought they were positively wonderful.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: At least one of the Heterodynes was a vampire-style being. And they're evidently still alive(-ish) beneath Mechanicsburg. A possibility is the Red or Black Heterodyne. The Black Heterodyne lived an average human life time, but his crypt is marked "do not open". The Red Heterodyne was supposedly his brother, but was still kicking in the early 18th century, ''three hundred years'' after his birth.
* PetTheDog: A 2021 short story [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20211008 explains]] that the Old Heterodynes welcomed persecuted monsters to have sanctuary in Mechanicsburg. Whether or not the monster refugees did something that warranted persecution isn't stated, but the ones we see in the story seem to be genuinely alright guys who just wanted a home.
* PleaseSpareHimMyLiege: The typical means by which a Heterodyne acquired romantic partners, such as Saturnus and Teodora.
* PowerFloats: It is strongly implied Igneous Heterodyne briefly managed to float after drinking unfiltered Dyne water. Then he exploded.
* PowerPerversionPotential: In addition to death traps, the Castle Heterodyne is full of restraints. And most Heterodynes... well, they never married for ''love''. Lust was a common factor, but restraints are good for that too. What made Saturnus slightly different is that he did marry for love, but still kidnapped his wife. His love is why he let her raise the Heterodyne Boys outside the Castle thinking nature would triumph over nurture. When that failed, he planned to kill the Boys and start over and didn't notice the love of his life ''poisoning him'' to save the Boys.
* PragmaticVillainy: The Heterodynes are for the most part quite evil, but they're not ''stupid'', they're just generally untethered to any sort of true moral code, but they understand when to be ''practical'', hence why they're one of the oldest surviving noble houses in Europe and why nobody has successfully wiped them off the face of the planet. They are, at their core, scientists - ''amoral'' scientists, but scientists all the time, and they are perfectly willing to identify faults and change something if it isn't working.
* PsychoSerum: They invented the jäger-draught, which they use to create jägers. They also drink the water of the river Dyne, and sometimes even survive doing so.
* ReallyGetsAround:
** The Heterodynes ''sometimes'' built "small" things: [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110420 the Master's bedroom "only" sleeps SIX]].
** The Castle has a ''harem''[[note]]In the original sense of the word, being an area for wives/concubines to live[[/note]], as well.
* RedBaron: Vlad The Blasphemous. Given the average Spark, and the average ''Heterodyne'', he likely got the name for ramping those traits up (he is the one that made the Jägerdraught, after all).
* SharedFamilyQuirks:
** Seriously, most of these tropes even apply to Agatha, her father, and her uncle, and they're the ''good ones''.
** Also, as the castle notes, the family rarely produces female descendants.
* SigilSpam: The Heterodyne trilobyte is ''everywhere'' in Mechanicsburg.
* SingleSexOffspring: The family is known for almost exclusively producing male children. The two exceptions we know of are Euphrosynia and Agatha.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Basically, the more mad a response is, the more Heterodyne it is. The more time someone spends AdmiringTheAbomination, the more Heterodyne they are. The more they want to do something absurd and dangerous... you get the point.
* SplitPersonality: Apparently, according to the novels, several Heterodynes have had a severe case of this, which made for an interesting variation of "good cop / bad cop". Only it's "bad cop / utterly evil and insane cop", and they're the same person.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: According to Dimo, who would know, the typical Heterodyne is generously endowed in the buttock area. Makes mid-battle underwear shopping difficult.
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Heterodynes have an interesting take on that sort of thing. They actually mean it, though. The Castle is, perhaps, the pinnacle of what the family can pull off when they work together... over generations. But, each and every construct has various bags of a suspiciously similar BigFun personality to go with the danger they represent.
* SupervillainLair: Although Castle Heterodyne is the centerpiece of their power and the focus of much of their mad science, Mechanicsburg and the surrounding countryside both benefited (sort of) from their overlordship.
* ThickerThanWater: If there are any EvilVirtues the Heterodynes had, it was family loyalty. With the ''one'' exception of Saturn tying to kill Bill & Barry, the Old Heterodynes aren't shown to be prone to kinslaying. Meanwhile it's exactly their loyalty to their own that makes it hard to trust them as as outsider; [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140414 Rerich]] explained that the reason Euphrosynia betrayed the Storm King is because she feared any attempt to ''tame'' the family would ''destroy'' it.
* UnholyMatrimony: The Castle fondly recounts how the Skull-Queen of Skral sent a legion of homunculi to get Dagon Heterodyne's "attention". In the novelization, it notes that she's Agatha's ancestor, so that apparently worked out pretty well (just not for anyone else).
* UndyingLoyalty: An underlying theme among all the followers of House Heterodyne is this. It may very well be the ''true'' power of House Heterodyne. And it's not "[[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190607 installed]]" (as opposed to instilled) like some other sparks do their creations and minions, it seems to be truly earned through reciprocity.
* WhiteSheep: The latest two generations of Heterodynes have turned/are turning out to be this. Bill, Barry, and Agatha are downright sterling in moral caliber and heroic reputation compared to their predecessors. It was due to the actions of Bill's and Barry's mother, who nurtured the two into better people than their ancestors, and killed their father Saturnus when he intended to kill them and start over (and got killed in turn by the Castle).
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Again, another spark trope taken to eleven. Bathing in the Dyne kills people and drives them mad, and at least one of the Heterodynes ''drank it''. (And survived; as noted above, Igneous Heterodyne evidently ran into problems..)
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Euphrosynia Heterodyne]]
!!Euphrosynia Heterodyne, Bride of the Storm King
[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/euphrosynia_v8p1_v11p83.png]]
[[caption-width-right:260:Left: as depicted in [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080204 the Opera]].\\
Right: as depicted in [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110509 Klaus' story]].]]
Daughter of Clemethious Heterodyne, sister of Bludtharst and object of romantic interest of Andronicus Valois, the original Storm King. Very little is known about her for sure, besides the fact that she probably played a significant role in destroying the Storm King's regime.
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* ArrangedMarriage: Her marriage with Andronicus was arranged as a part of peace treaty with the Heterodynes.
* DamselInDistress: In The Storm King opera, Andronicus first meets her when she is menaced by Ogglespoon. She also ends up kidnapped at the end of the second act. According to Voltaire, what apparently ''actually'' happened was that [[spoiler:she tried to search Van Rijn's workshop for secrets to steal, ran afoul of "something none of us understood", and disappeared as a result; there's been no mention of Ogglespoon outside of the opera.]]
* {{Foil}}: Much like Lucrezia, there is the driving question as to whether or not she planned the hero's downfall all along or something else was afoot. She is also often paralleled to Agatha as a Heterodyne loved by the Storm King whose presence endangers Europe and shatters a great peace (Euphrosynia with the Storm King's coalition and Agatha with the Empire).
** There is a bit of {{irony}} in comparing her to Lucrezia. Both Euphrosynia and Lucrezia married a hero and led to their downfall. However, the hero Euphrosynia married was the Storm King, while she was of the House of Heterodyne; meanwhile the hero Lucrezia married was the Heterodyne himself, and her family (the Mongfishes) were of the Knights of Jove, which was the Storm King's old honour guard.
* TheGhost: She is yet to appear in person, either in the comics or in the novels, unless you count a rather fanciful tale told by Klaus. We've heard a few tantalizing eyewitness comments from a Jäger and the Master of Paris, and Martellus mentions some correspondence of hers is still around.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade / HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Quite possibly both in-universe given the wildly-disparate versions of her as either a straight up damsel in distress or a villainess plotting the Storm King's downfall all along.
* HoneyTrap: She is believed to have manipulated the Storm King and used his love for her to enact his downfall.
* InTheBlood: Rerich the Jäger pointed out that even if she did love the Storm King she was still a Heterodyne, making her just as much of a chaos-loving monster as the rest of her family, meaning that she would never have submitted to his wishes for peace and submission.
* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: The opera presents her as a classic example of this trope: beautiful, innocent and a love interest for the hero to rescue from her evil, crazy family. Other sources, however, suggest she was either [[DaddysLittleVillain a type that agreed with daddy's evil plan and faked being in love with the hero to distract him]] or loved him truly but betrayed him anyway since his success would mean destruction of her town and her people.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Andronicus claims he saw her disappear before his eyes in Van Rijn's workshop, and assumes it was Rijn's fault. Voltaire counter-claims that she was only there in the first place because she was trying to steal his secrets, only to run afoul of something horrible.
* PrincessesPreferPink: The actress presenting her in the opera wears a pink dress.
* ReallyGetsAround: When Martellus asks Rerich if she loved Andronicus, the Jäger mockingly replies that she "luffed lots ov pipple!"
* StarCrossedLovers: In the opera she and Andronicus are tragically separated when Euphrosynia is kidnapped by Ogglespoon. How things really looked is uncertain. Especially since more reliable sources suggest that she may have not been in love with Andronicus at all and only played along to fulfill some plan of the Heterodynes, or loved him but betrayed him anyway. The latter comes from a Jäger who had some limited contact with her, and invokes the trope by noting how her marriage to the Storm King would have meant putting Mechanicsburg under his power, which Euphrosynia could never allow even if she did love him.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: As noted above, we still have no idea what she looked like, apart from the "Evil Witch" from Klaus's story. For whatever it's worth, the actress who plays Euphrosynia in the latest staging of the Storm King opera looks a great deal like Agatha, and in his last moments, [[spoiler:Andronicus Valois]] mistakes Agatha for her, at least in regards to her voice. That said, no one else has yet mentioned any undue similarities, even among people who knew Euphrosynia, such as the Master of Paris and her personal guard Jenka. Even [[spoiler:Valois]] doesn't show any recognition, when meeting Agatha earlier in a somewhat more rational state of mind.
* ThickerThanWater: According to [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140414 Rerich]] at least, the reason Euphrosynia betrayed the Storm King is because she feared any attempt to ''tame'' the family would actually just ''destroy'' it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ht'rok-din]]
!!Ghengis Ht'rok-din, founder of the Heterodyne Family
[[quoteright:227:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ghengis.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:227:"Behold my instrument of Conqvest... '''''UND VOE!!!'''''"]]
Ghengis Ht'rok-din is a historical figure known for engaging in campaigns of conquest and woe in the medieval era of Europa, and for founding the equally conquest-and-woe-inducing Heterodyne family. A guest strip {{omake}} series titled "[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140813 Homecoming King]]" involves a not-too-distant future where a reckless sparky university student brings Him into the modern time using forbidden time travel science.
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* BloodKnight: Par for the course for the ''founder'' of the Heterodyne family.
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Recognizes and name-drops the trope [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140818 when faced with a stun-gun]]:
-->VAT KIND UF SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IZ DIS?
* TheDreaded: The Heterodyne family's legacy of conquest and woe? He started it.
* EternalEnglish: Or German or Romanian or whatever they speak at Transylvania Polygnostic in this timeline. He refers to it as [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140815 "de Nordd'man tongue"]] and while his accent is thicker than the Jägers' he can understand students living a thousand years after his time.
* Main/{{Expy}}: Visually, he is clearly one for Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian. The fact that he is also a warrior and conqueror from 'the North' who uses a sword takes the resemblance even closer.
* FounderOfTheKingdom: Of Mechanicsburg at least. And of the Heterodyne family and their legacy of Conquest and Woe.
* FunetikAksent: He appears to have a very Jäger-like accent when talking in English (or whatever "modern language" is being spoken via TranslationConvention).
* GeniusBruiser: He's a muscular, brutal Expy of Conan - already a GeniusBruiser - but unlike the original model he's a ''Spark'', and a powerful one at that. He immediately understands the causality problem his presence in that time poses: He's told he has descendants... but does not recall ''having'' any (legitimate) descendants (yet). He also seems to know quite a few languages.
* PetTheDog: He's not entirely ungentle with the students, at least by his usual casually murderous standards. He was more violent before he learned that they were subjects of a sort to his descendant, so perhaps he considered them his own subjects by proxy, invoking the Heterodyne family's BenevolentBoss tendencies discussed above. Or maybe he just thought it would be rude to break something that belonged to her.
* TheSparkOfGenius: He has the Spark, natch.
* StableTimeLoop: According to Homecoming King, he concentrated on building his legacy and siring a family after being pulled into the future and [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140822 seeing the extent of his descendants' domain]]:
-->'''Ht'rok-din:''' Hy tought hy hed run out uf places to make mine. But now hy see hy overlooked time itself.
* ViolationOfCommonSense: The locals around the spring that eventually became the source of the River Dyne were superstitious about it: those who bathed in it often went mad. What did Ht'rok-din do? He '''''drank''''' ''the water''.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Par for the course for his barbarian motif.
[[/folder]]
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