Mod edit to add this convenience link to Girl Genius. Original OP below:
Last thread vanished with the crash...
So, the Weasel Queen interlude is over. Is this Storm King opera another one?
Edited by wingedcatgirl on Feb 19th 2025 at 1:51:41 PM
If Gil shows up, Tweedle will definitely try to align himself with Agatha against him. How successful he is at that- only time will tell. I rather doubt that he will succeed in presenting himself as her boyfriend- if only because she already sent a message to Gil describing Tweedle as a dangerous mutual enemy. http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20131227#.VLmb-ywWtQI
In any case, this situation has a LOT of potential for Drama and Comedy! ![]()
I was thinking politically as opposed to romantically, but you're right, she is pretty clearly opposed to Tweedle politically in that message.
So that leaves the questions about whether she's Agatha or Lucrezia or if Agatha actually is the Other somehow, and what Head! Klaus might do.
That... actually makes me feel like there was some point to all of this setting up. Whaddayaknow...
Of course, if events fall out so that Tweedle tries to convince Gil they've become allies by putting his arm around Agatha... it will likely become blatantly clear very quickly she despises him.
And if he does, he should qualify for the Darwin Awards (if he wasn't fictional).
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry PratchettGil may want to "just talk" with Agatha —- but Gil may be in control.
In their every encounter Klaus has tried to kill her. I can't imagine Klaus-In-Gil missing this chance.
Bang had as relaxed and trusting relationship with Klaus as anyone living. But for her the puppet-people thing is where he and Gil crossed the moral event horizon —- and when the axe crazy are unconvinced you've become a part of something unspeakable, you haven't much farther to fall.
I'm picturing Gil getting a lot of odd looks as he argues with the voice in his head and (possibly) threatening to literally avoid sleep for the next year.
(BTW I think a major factor in Gil's self-induced sleep deprivation is fear of loosing control and letting Klaus take over in his sleep.)
Also, page. http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150116#.VLneFv6LrGc
I am now imaging the Jagers mailing free hats to their enemies.
Girl Genius has always struck me as a world where a protagonist can become an antagonist depending on events. One of the biggest arses we've encountered is Spark-killer Othar, and he's considered a good guy in-universe!
The way Gil is now, after being pressured physically and psychologically into letting dear old dad copy himself over and years of stress, he can't be entirely trusted. I agree that when the resident Blood Knight says you gone too far, you've gone too far.
I'm not sure where the bear army fits in, but right now I'm seeing Gil and Tweedle duking it out while Agatha and co take off in Chew Chew for the English Channel or Paris. Of course, being the mad professors they are, the Foglios are probably going to do anything but what's being predicted.
edited 16th Jan '15 8:57:29 PM by Candi
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett![]()
I think the structure of the story means he more or less has to be. He seems to have taken over from Klaus as "actually wants more or less the same things as Agatha, but as long as he might try to achieve them via kidnapping they're not going to be working together". With added complications.
Or what Candi said.
Although I still think that Agatha should use the train to take the bear army with her, purely for rule of funny
edited 16th Jan '15 9:02:12 PM by khil
Strictly speaking an antagonist is anybody in conflict with the main character, and Gil currently is. I think he means well, mostly, but he is currently more likely than not to try to interfere with Agatha's plans — and furthermore, unless he knows something pertinent that we don't (which I'm not ruling out!), he'd be setting up a very bad situation by approaching Agatha even just to talk because Klauscopy is likely to get uncooperative. Which Gil presumably knows, but he does have multiple reasons not to be thinking clearly.
It is very interesting to consider both the train and the bears in terms of what problems they could cause for Agatha as allies. She's not mounting a military campaign.
The train may be more like the Castle than the Jägers, less willing to behave in accordance with Agatha's wishes when she's not looking (or even when she is), plus it's apparently always hungry. That's difficult to take with you and look friendly, and difficult to leave anywhere responsibly. (At one point I was thinking the train might be taken away or destroyed by the authors because its help would make things too easy; later I started seriously wondering if it might be taken away because it makes other things too difficult.)
And it occurs to me to wonder, if Agatha can't take the bears everywhere with her... or if they just don't want to go... It's played for laughs a lot, but Krosp takes his responsibilities to Agatha as her king pretty seriously. What obligations are he and the bears going to acknowledge to each other?
Monsieur Voltaire likely won't be happy with either a heterodyne train, or with a bear-army strolling through his boulevards. She likely would have to leave both a distance away, if she wants to enter the city proper.
That aside, it would be inexcusably gauche to visit another power's capital with an army, unless one wanted to declare war.
edited 16th Jan '15 10:08:23 PM by blauregen
All I know is, my gut says maybe.![]()
![]()
*giggling* Like turning up with roses and chocolates and then not asking them on a date?
Sparks, sensible? Perish the thought
Although, yes, unless he actually intended it to never come home and just roam around devouring the countryside. I don't think the Castle would like having its foundations chewed.
edited 16th Jan '15 11:06:27 PM by khil
Yes, I think that would be equivalent in spark terms.
ETA: Come to think of it. The army could be a way of asking them out.
edited 16th Jan '15 11:48:36 PM by blauregen
All I know is, my gut says maybe.DK being cheesed off would be a good reason to put a rest or sleep gear on the thing. If you wanted it unsquashed, at least.
Considering how Agatha reacted to seeing clanks show up on Mechanicsburg's doorstep, and how some of the Heterodyne lords courted their spouses, and how Gil expressed his affections to Agatha by personalizing the bolts, I think a Sparky creation of the appropriate type (technical, chemical, bio, cooking, medical, whatever) is a necessary element of Sparky courting.
Whether it's a well-received element by the population at large is another matter.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Does the zappy stick now count as an OT3 courtship gift since Tarvek helped Agatha rebuild it?

And then the bears just (oh no... pun unavoidable) go into hibernation storywise until they're needed again? I can see that.
I agree Gil does just want to talk to her. If Tweedle interposes, I expect Gil might get the impression she is genuinely aligning with the Sturmvarious, since (as far as I remember) he has know way of knowing the truth about those two. This would further complicate things — raise the questions about Agatha and the Other again. I figure this has to become part of the plot again eventually, no???
Eta: Oh, yes. I'd forgotten about the possibility of Head!Klaus emerging. That could definitely complicate things.
edited 16th Jan '15 3:17:07 PM by mona.soyun