Girl Genius

That's a plot point in the Ghost in the Shell series. Copying "ghosts" places a huge strain on the original — most people can't even survive making one copy.

Aaaah right. Thanks, I haven't thought of it that way. The way I thought of it was more... you have a bottle of syrup, and you pour some of that syrup into another bottle which may be empty or may have its of kind of syrup/liquid.

Ok now I really want to check out that franchise.

Edited by akanesarumara on Sep 9th 2019 at 1:43:15 PM

I'm pretty sure this is the same entity that killed Madwa and took Prende's lantern (that glowy ball at the top might be what was inside Prende's lantern)

It could also be that Time Muse Agatha freed from her glass bulb - she teleported away (she can't actually travel through time), took over Zola's masquerade, killed Madwa and is now striking at Agatha.

It looks like Tarvek and Gil will have to fire up that brain-zapping machine in a hurry now, so they'll miss some of Lukrezia's modifications that will create interesting plot developments.

It is something far simpler if Lunevka was still in the time bubble and Gil being away when they thawed her out and then let her go to the Sturmvoraus family because some simpler that it is the Lunevka which got some upgrade down the line. Besides Lucrezia in Agatha did see Tarvek work on that second head before that backup and Lu is egoistical enough that working to make that body prettier would be a top priority.

Okay, crazy theory :Lunevka is/was stuck in the time bubble, but something timey-wimey happened / will happen (as a side effect of Agatha trying to free the city?) and she was sent back in time and eventually became the Muse of Time. Maybe that big extradimensional eye thing is the one extracting her / that will extract her. This doesn't fit the fact that Albia's attacker had (an older version of) Lucrezia's "human" face, but would still be a pretty good origin story.

Albia's assailant could have been a version of Lu in her original body, while Clank!Lu is other copies. In fact, it seems the copy in Agatha remembers the assault on Albia, so my guess would be that this copy is much older than the paltry few decades since the attack on Castle Heterodyne.

I give up. I am now officially just sitting back and enjoying the pretty colors.

Blue eyes—like Colette of Paris—against the yellow eyes of Albia and the second-breakthrough True Agatha.

Speaking of Colette, she disposed of all of Beausoleil's clank bodies in a single, prolonged agony. Is that a hint of Lu's fate? Where is Lu's 'true body'?

And remember the story of t'Othern, the Dragon from Mars.

And what, ultimately, happens to Klaus? We hope that he finally accepts Agatha. Does he get to take some time off with Zantabraxus?

And I hope that we don't have to forget Master Payne and his Circus. Or a possibly time-grabbed and revivified Lars—is that Agatha's real catch, leaving Gil/Thorpe (poor Wooster!) and Tarvek/Violetta?

Edited by GreybeardFan on Sep 10th 2019 at 5:51:43 AM

yeah, Payne and his circus were last brought up as a throwaway line when Agatha first met Albia

About Lu copies, didn't Gil mention there were many Lucrezia "essentiae" running around?

Keyaka has my vote. This looks to be a totally unnecessary development. Wake me when we get back on track.

don't have the wherewithal to find the specific pages that would prove me wrong, but iirc Tarvek didn't divulge the existence of Lunevka? Or maybe spoke of Lucrezia's ability to download into more minds in a general sense.

I'm probably wrong on that. Still, it strikes me Lu wouldn't want too many copies of her running around if only to preserve a cohesive plan. Lugatha and Lunevka conspired in Sturmhalten, divided up parts of a scheme for each to do. Sure, since then they've had to improvise, but it seems foolhardy to make more copies of herself to carry out lesser parts of whatever plan they had in mind.

Unless Enigma at the end/beginning of this turns out to be a rogue Lucrezia copy responsible for all the Other's shenanigans, I don't see the plot involving more Lu copies than the ones we know of. Perhaps one we haven't met, at most, but more than that strains credulity. Real Life would allow for this sort of thing, but authors of fiction can't get away with it.

edit: and there can't be too many Lu copies running around if only because this comic has to end sometime in the next decade

Edited by Zephid on Sep 10th 2019 at 6:18:48 AM

Time travel plots just confuse me.

GreybeardFan: Tarvek and Violetta are cousins, so, ew, no thank you. Violetta will end up with Moloch. How about Tarvek and Colette?

Friggin' time travel...

They're not first cousins, and Tarvek has protected Violetta and granted her wish of release from his service. They grew up together, and Violetta has somewhat more difficulty accepting a change in their relationship. But if both survive I can see them together. There will be storms along the way, and a Spark's lifetime of small squalls.

I expect that Colette will have a largely solitary life. If she marries, I expect it will be a mundane from her own city—fewer complications in her role as Paris Embodied.

Edited by GreybeardFan on Sep 10th 2019 at 1:16:37 PM

Not first cousins? We know that how, exactly?

And new strip. Nice to see Albia has learned from experience.

Edited by Geoduck on Sep 10th 2019 at 11:22:24 AM

The pair of them literally gag at the thought. The way they act = siblings — which in effect, they are. They're roughly the same age and have been together since they were little.

Ever heard of the Westermarck effect aka reverse sexual imprinting? It's what scuppered many a noble marriage during the periods it was assumed raising the kids together as fosters with an eye to marriage would guarantee a happy, stable married life later as they would at least know each other well.

Well, unless you're the Ptolomies. Or any of the Egyptian dynasties, really (mind you, those siblings were probably raised in very separate palaces often in different cities, even, before meeting up more regularly in their early teens — oops: the downside to having a childhood being functionally raised by a cadre of servants rather than your actual blood relatives).

Take it from a sister who.people often assume is married to her brother when we go out and do stuff together — it never gets OK. The gag reflex is for life, once you have it.

Edited by Euodiachloris on Sep 10th 2019 at 7:39:03 PM

The Sturmvoraus family is screwed up, but they are not Targaryens (yet)

Cousin marriages were pretty common among nobles, with the Habsburgs being the (incredibly inbred) poster child.

Ah, yes, the Habsburgs. Also known as "the Chin Dynasty".

The last panel is my new favorite reaction image. Especially regarding webcomic updates.

Edited by NinjaDragon on Sep 11th 2019 at 4:18:28 AM

Well it seems this distraction will be short lived... if that happens it is going to be very anti climatic for one of the Lucrezia copies unless said copy escapes.

Albia taking back control over the troops? Two mind control techniques clash? Next comic will be interesting.

The troops aren't actually fully human, so it's more undoing a hacking than mind control.