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
![]()
![]()
Do note that there are genetic variants and other stuff. Although if you have zero genetic Sparks in the making it doesn't means that you cannot end up with the alteration to make one out of no Sparky heritage. In fact there are some in the setting that had no place for good upbringing, such as the Circus, and end up doing small time stuff which also helped cover their skin.
The industrial capacity thing is something which reminded me of two things:
- Some places had better chances to get up to industrialization due to food and goods trade movement. This I could delve upon a bit but it is something a bit long and I am not in my coffee time and it requires me recalling plenty of history. Think of almost a week of classes summarized on history and transportation history to say the least.
- A part of Breath of Fire III near the end when Myria asks Momo, the machine user and repair woman of the party, that even in the case of the dessert going out of control and the access to the materials were getting shot out to hell and even if she as a gadgeteer genius were able to pull it off... What were the chances of her to make a weapon to destroy most of what is left? (yeah kinda like comparing her to a mad scientist as well, who makes a doomsday weapon and aims that to an army; villains sometimes can put the finger on the right spots)
What is possible is that several places got a bit of a haven for normal science and the mad scientists in those places got along in a more cordial way because of numbers.
edited 20th Nov '17 5:14:10 AM by Mauri
Well here goes nothingO how yeah, just the history of industrialization is this big (and interesting) thing. note
Considering some of the Sparks seem to have the ability to manipulate genetics, it's an interesting theory to wonder if someone could turn a low Spark into a high one, or even make a Spark out of a non-Spark.
(There's no logical reason for the Heterodynes to produce 90%+ boys, unless genetic manipulation or drowning is involved. And then there's whatever Lucrezia got up to with the Knights of Jove and the Sturmvarous and all.)
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry PratchettI think that's the line of inquiry Klaus was working on with Othar in the early parts of the story.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.However manipulating to neutralize Othar is quite a feat, even for a memetic badass such as Klaus. Do note that not only you have to keep Othar captured and under personal observation during the operation but the universe seems to give Othar a chance to escape and wreck the rails and throw them into the foundry, as scrap metal, because it is the equivalent in universe of having a Henderson.
Even if Othar is a hero, for any value of the word, he is basically impossible to stop due to how narrativium works around him.
As pointed out at other points minor sparks are useful for higher sparks and one of the options is such as:
- Spark related research such as Wulfenbach, dealing with the construct and living matter stuff that is in Klaus' backstory it is no wonder that the family could produce a big spark but keeping to their own lands because they like the Heterodynes just wanted to make sure "Home Base" clear.
- Spark understanding such as Mittlemind and Diaz (not sure as of now) which talked that Tarvek had the "makings of one of the great".
- Focus on some projects, or keeping them in the loony box such as in the case of the Siege of Mechancisburg that these are non standard threats and DK would waste more energy dealing with a Spark, even a minor one, than a platoon.
Most normal humans follow predictable-for-their-era patterns.
The only pattern Sparks fit is each one tends to specialize on some level. Within that framework, it's Calvinball.
What Klaus was doing was brain research, but it didn't look like genetic research. (And I still maintain, with all the Sparks and their creations in his employee, that that was a lousy way to do it.)
edited 21st Nov '17 12:21:38 AM by Candi
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry PratchettWell Klaus was doing it in a lousy way but considering the setting and other stuff it is like certain early brain research as in real life. If I am not getting the names wrong from memory it is like when Delgado put the self zapping device on the brain to keep some people happy. All the lobotomies in the Bedlam style hospitals and so on.
While I won't deny that Sparks are playing Calvinball with the rules and setting, the chances of more things going haywire goes through the roof.
Well here goes nothingComic for Wednesday, November 22, 2017
edited 23rd Nov '17 1:53:28 AM by Daremo
Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.Heh, nice play on a pair of classic advertisements.
Also, oh, Brits bragging about their engineering skills. That's a stereotype that surprisingly persists.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.I mean, it's worth noting that, albeit with a different tagline, Guinness did use a picture of a whale in one of their roughly contemporaneous ads (though the tagline was "Guinness for strength!").
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.Comic for Friday, November 24, 2017
Well while Tarvek is going through what seems to be a Redemption Arc for his life and a lot of his sins, I cannot but feel for the option of toothbrush cleaning. I just figured this thought though:
In years to come when they make the wandering circuses and make the plays of Agatha Heterodyne the actor who plays Tarvek will say: Tarvek tries to keep his dignity. That is what makes him amusing/interesting.
Well here goes nothingAs long as he doesn't wind up the Klaus figure. (Even if the Baron thought being the doofus character was funny.)
(Does a double take at the captain's tattoos.)
I suspect the delay will involve/result in much plot messiness.
Ah, the the tiny stowaway. So what's Dinky DK up to?
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett

I see GG Verse more as the extrapolation of a "typical" fantasy world with monsters and wizards, where the wizards discover science & technology and it becomes their main mode of action. In effect, sparks are very much like traditional wizards - they have an inborn ability to defy the laws of physics - and it seems that even in-universe characters talk about the two as if it was a natural continuity; Pandorus Omnisiens being "the first modern spark", the old Heterodynes being called wizards, etc. Not to mention Master Payne and his magical powers.
In effect, it's a world with wizards, it's just that they get called "sparks".