Originally Posted by
theangelJean
Been reading Volume 2 to my daughter and speculating about the "hostages" on Castle Wulfenbach. If he were only a dictator, then the premise would be as stated: keeping the fifty families in line on the pretext of "educating" them. But I was wondering if it was really the other way around. Get the heirs of the Fifty Families together, actually educate them, let them grow up knowing each other as comrades, get to know each other's strengths and flaws, let them foster their alliances and grow up into little monarchs who actually know each other ... having all of them "get along" with each other is probably too much to ask, but that's where knowing each other's weaknesses comes in.
And call them "hostages" ... Castle Wulfenbach was the safest place in Europa as far as Klaus knew. And would having an heir as "hostage" actually work to keep a family in line anyway? Especially if you took only one - what's stopping them writing off that child and anointing another?
I'm starting to think the premise of Girl Genius is a meditation on heredity. The past is a legacy of the attempts by the most powerful Sparks to control their child's future by whateer means available to them - Lucrezia by direct download, Klaus by experimental modification and reshaping Europa - and the story itself is of the children's journey navigating the results and finding their own path.
/thesis...