Girl Genius XXV: It needs work! BUT THE CONCEPT IS SOUND!

[Radar]

And yet it's also been noted that Othertech is far more advanced than what Lucreia ever produced. My guess is that the spark is part of the physical brain, so Lucrezia lost it when she turned into a dybuk/bodysnatcher. However, thoguh timetravel shennanigans she had decades to advance her tech before that happened.

This. Other needs sparks to advance the technology only now, when we know there is another copy of Other's mind roaming around Europa (could it be Clankrezia perhaps?). Before it was only the case, because Other was simply missing.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Oy vey. How many bullet points on the Evil Overlord list did this guy just click on?

[JavaScribe]

Um, yeah, I'm sure things will go exactly the way this cultist thinks they will. Even assuming Lord Snackleford wasn't planning to feed them to the extra-dimensional alien in the first place.

How the heck did a cult this crazy takeover most of Albia's mad science division without anybody noticing? Has she been keeping them isolated or something?

[HandofShadows]

Um, yeah, I'm sure things will go exactly the way this cultist thinks they will. Even assuming Lord Snackleford wasn't planning to feed them to the extra-dimensional alien in the first place.

How the heck did a cult this crazy takeover most of Albia's mad science division without anybody noticing? Has she been keeping them isolated or something?

Lord SNACKleford....

And these sparks are isolated in the dome. Makes it easier to kill them all at the same time.

[PraetorDragoon]

Lord SNACKleford....

And these sparks are isolated in the dome. Makes it easier to kill them all at the same time.

That is one meaningful name now we think of it.

[Douglas]

Seems like one of the hallmarks of a truly strong spark is having an at least somewhat realistic assessment of your own limitations, as Agatha is demonstrating in the last panel. I imagine her thoughts right now are something like "Even I couldn't do that, and you think you bozos have a chance?"

[Agi Hammerthief]

sobered her right out of madness place.

[factotum]

Edit: in response to both of the above posters positing that Lucrezia might have been taken over by The Other, the entity in Agatha clearly self-identifies as Lucrezia and we know from Klaus that it has her mannerisms. Why would a non-Lucrezia Other continue to impersonate her when no longer in her body?

Because it's in the head of her daughter, and therefore it's more likely to get the desired reaction if it announces itself as Lucrezia rather than some horrific extra-dimensional monstrosity, or whatever it actually is?

There was a scene, I forget where, where we saw Lucrezia coming to the Geisters, heavily pregnant and showing genuine fear, saying that "they" were threatening her unborn child. To me, that seems the more likely reaction of the original Lucrezia rather than the one who was the Other--we've certainly seen precious little motherly love from the entity occupying Agatha's head. Heck, the whole "I will download my personality into my daughter so I can live on after my death" is a pretty horrific thing for a parent to do (and yes, I know the Baron did the same to Gil, I don't rate him highly as a father either).

[slayerx]

Seems like one of the hallmarks of a truly strong spark is having an at least somewhat realistic assessment of your own limitations, as Agatha is demonstrating in the last panel. I imagine her thoughts right now are something like "Even I couldn't do that, and you think you bozos have a chance?"

Actually i think the follow up will be Agatha pointing out to them the gross flaws in their cultist thinking. Namely that history is often overly romanticized, the science of the ancient past was NOT better than what they have today, and that trying to absorb the knowledge of the extra dimensional creature will likely get them nothing useful. It is not necessarily the case that the creature form another dimension has some superior knowledge that they don't have, an alternate dimension may not even operate on same science as their own thus making anything it knows virtually useless, the creature will likely speak in a language none of them know thus having no way to decipher anything they could know, and that they never bothered to check to see if this thing was even sentient as a feral animal would not know anything. There is just A LOT of basic flaws in their thinking, though i think just the part about how they romantize the past is annoying alone; that "you've been reading WAY too many fantasy stories" kind of reaction

[Fyraltari]

To me, bodysnatchers are entities which kidnap people and then impersonate them through shapeshifting.

That's the first time I hear that definition. I mean snatcher means thief.

And yet it's also been noted that Othertech is far more advanced than what Lucreia ever produced. My guess is that the spark is part of the physical brain, so Lucrezia lost it when she turned into a dybuk/bodysnatcher. However, thoguh timetravel shennanigans she had decades to advance her tech before that happened.

Well everything the brain does is part of the physical brain ^^. However it is true that since they don't understand the Saprk they'd have trouble replicating it inside a mecanical mind. Then again that depends if they copy the entire structure of the brain inside the clank/computer it could survive. Hmm I don't know.

It seems, to me at least, more likely that something happened to her that turned her into a genocidal maniac than that she was taken over by one that decided to impersonate her.

That's not what I'm saying though. I think it more likely that Lucrezia merged with the Other or that the Other ended up with Lucrezia's memory and sense or self or Lucrezia ending up with the Other's.

Klaus didn't. He just had a thing for bad girls at the time, a mistake he has since thoroughly regretted.

There's bad and there's "mass murder half of Europe" I don't think Klaus liked them that bad.

As to the Heterodynes, Klaus himself was worried that they were too naive and that even if she really was making a genuine effort to be good, she would get bored.

You don't need to be good not to murder an entire continent.

How the heck did a cult this crazy takeover most of Albia's mad science division without anybody noticing? Has she been keeping them isolated or something?

Yes.

Seems like one of the hallmarks of a truly strong spark is having an at least somewhat realistic assessment of your own limitations

Nah, it's just that the reaaly strong sparks without that don't survive their first creation.

and yes, I know the Baron did the same to Gil, I don't rate him highly as a father either.

No, he didn't.
Klaus didn't transfer his consciousness into Gil, it's still trapped into Mecanicsburg where it can't be ordered to do any harm. The overlay is there because Klaus don't trust Gil not to be manipulated while he tries to fix this.

Actually i think the follow up will be Agatha pointing out to them the gross flaws in their cultist thinking. Namely that history is often overly romanticized, the science of the ancient past was NOT better than what they have today, and that trying to absorb the knowledge of the extra dimensional creature will likely get them nothing useful. It is not necessarily the case that the creature form another dimension has some superior knowledge that they don't have, an alternate dimension may not even operate on same science as their own thus making anything it knows virtually useless, the creature will likely speak in a language none of them know thus having no way to decipher anything they could know, and that they never bothered to check to see if this thing was even sentient as a feral animal would not know anything. There is just A LOT of basic flaws in their thinking, though i think just the part about how they romantize the past is annoying alone; that "you've been reading WAY too many fantasy stories" kind of reaction

I mean, in the past they had bona fide teleportation portals, so...

[HandofShadows]

No, he didn't.
Klaus didn't transfer his consciousness into Gil, it's still trapped into Mecanicsburg where it can't be ordered to do any harm. The overlay is there because Klaus don't trust Gil not to be manipulated while he tries to fix this.

Klaus loves his son, even Tarvek made note of that. I'm not sure that he though Gil might be manipulated, maybe more like he didn't think Gil had the experience yet. And you can bet that there is method to remove the overlay and it not cause Gil any harm.

[Fyraltari]

Klaus loves his son, even Tarvek made note of that. I'm not sure that he though Gil might be manipulated, maybe more like he didn't think Gil had the experience yet. And you can bet that there is method to remove the overlay and it not cause Gil any harm.

At the time he thought Agatha/Lucrezia was using Gil's feeling, no?

[thorgrim29]

Theory time: They're trying to replicate the god-queens' ascension.

Called it. Still wondering who/what the time travelling monster is

[Lethologica]

Actually i think the follow up will be Agatha pointing out to them the gross flaws in their cultist thinking. Namely that history is often overly romanticized, the science of the ancient past was NOT better than what they have today, and that trying to absorb the knowledge of the extra dimensional creature will likely get them nothing useful. It is not necessarily the case that the creature form another dimension has some superior knowledge that they don't have, an alternate dimension may not even operate on same science as their own thus making anything it knows virtually useless, the creature will likely speak in a language none of them know thus having no way to decipher anything they could know, and that they never bothered to check to see if this thing was even sentient as a feral animal would not know anything. There is just A LOT of basic flaws in their thinking, though i think just the part about how they romantize the past is annoying alone; that "you've been reading WAY too many fantasy stories" kind of reaction

Girl Genius is a fantasy story, and one reason is this way is because many Sparks have all the jealous possessiveness of a guildmaster, without an obvious apprentice cadre to teach. So while there is some common body of scientific knowledge being advanced over time, there's also a lot of knowledge that dies with its discoverer.

[JavaScribe]

And these sparks are isolated in the dome. Makes it easier to kill them all at the same time.

Well, yes, but I mean, does Albia not have people regularly coming in and out?

There's bad and there's "mass murder half of Europe" I don't think Klaus liked them that bad.

He didn't know she was physically capable of it.

And yes, that's why he's so obsessed with keeping Gil away from Agatha. He made a horrible mistake, realized it was a horrible mistake, and is now so traumatized by it that he can't not see Agatha as the second coming of her mother.

[geoduck]

Called it. Still wondering who/what the time travelling monster is

Wild Theory: It's what Snacky turns into after merging with the Abombination.

And another one: Lucrezia "cared" about her unborn child because she was created, at the time, as a receptacle into which Lucrezia's consciousness would eventually be transferred. (Which is why she's a Heterodyne female in the first place.) Subsequent events changed The Plan, and Agatha is now not only disposable, but an impediment.

[SZbNAhL]

How the heck did a cult this crazy takeover most of Albia's mad science division without anybody noticing? Has she been keeping them isolated or something?

So your question is "how did a cult this insane convince people defined largely as being insane?"?

Because it's in the head of her daughter, and therefore it's more likely to get the desired reaction if it announces itself as Lucrezia rather than some horrific extra-dimensional monstrosity, or whatever it actually is?

Possibly, but by this point I think it's pretty clear that Agatha is not going to do it any favours based on any purported blood relation. Also, it calls itself Lucrezia even when there's nobody else around to hear.

There was a scene, I forget where, where we saw Lucrezia coming to the Geisters, heavily pregnant and showing genuine fear, saying that "they" were threatening her unborn child. To me, that seems the more likely reaction of the original Lucrezia rather than the one who was the Other--we've certainly seen precious little motherly love from the entity occupying Agatha's head. Heck, the whole "I will download my personality into my daughter so I can live on after my death" is a pretty horrific thing for a parent to do (and yes, I know the Baron did the same to Gil, I don't rate him highly as a father either).

Or maybe the whole "I will download my personality into my daughter so I can live on after my death" is why she was so desperate to preserve this child. After all, the instructions she gave to the Geisters weren't "find my daughter, then serve and obey her as you would me", they were "find my child, then strap her into the beacon engine and summon me into her".

[JavaScribe]

So your question is "how did a cult this insane convince people defined largely as being insane?"?

No, my question isn't how they took over. My question is how they did so undetected until now. These people don't look good at subtlety.

[Rockphed]

No, my question isn't how they took over. My question is how they did so undetected until now. These people don't look good at subtlety.

Because the two people who were supposed to watch out for this sort of thing were a dottering fool (when he was off his meds, which was almost all the time), and the leader of the cult. You don't need subtlety if you are the person who writes all the reports.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Which I guess makes Rakethorn and his ilk worthless if they can't even suss out this stuff. Or they're among the corrupted as well.

[geoduck]

Which I guess makes Rakethorn and his ilk worthless if they can't even suss out this stuff. Or they're among the corrupted as well.

It's pretty clear that Rakethorn's area of expertise is seducing impressionable young women as assigned to him by Albia, not doing Spark-plot counter-intelligence. Trelawney, on the other hand, maybe should have caught this.

And Wooster did find out about it when assigned the case, and pretty quickly.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Wooster's been up to his eyebrows in Heterodynes, Wulfenbachs, Mechanicsburgers and the Storm King Clan. He's probably the best agent they have, else he wouldn't have survived.

[Rockphed]

Wooster's been up to his eyebrows in Heterodynes, Wulfenbachs, Mechanicsburgers and the Storm King Clan. He's probably the best agent they have, else he wouldn't have survived.

And Thorpe probably spends less than 5 days a year in the dome what with all the princess rescuing that goes on.

[factotum]

Because the two people who were supposed to watch out for this sort of thing were a dottering fool (when he was off his meds, which was almost all the time), and the leader of the cult. You don't need subtlety if you are the person who writes all the reports.

It was said at one point that going against Albia's will was *literally* unthinkable. Guess it isn't quite as unthinkable as all that, given what we're seeing here!

[SZbNAhL]

It was said at one point that going against Albia's will was *literally* unthinkable. Guess it isn't quite as unthinkable as all that, given what we're seeing here!

We only have Gil's word on that, and he was a) in the middle of a speech about how Wulfenbach is superior to other rulers and b) impersonating a pirate captain, who would probably not be as well-informed as the real Gil. It's entirely possible he made it up or repeated some exaggerated rumour in order to bolster his disguise.

[Scarlet Knight]

And Thorpe probably spends less than 5 days a year in the dome what with all the princess rescuing that goes on.

You know, if Seffie was one of the princesses Miss Thorpe rescued, maybe with the aid of or even from Cap'n 'awkins, THAT would be a tale worth the telling! *official request for next filler story or better yet, XXXenophile*

[lord_khaine]

Klaus loves his son, even Tarvek made note of that. I'm not sure that he though Gil might be manipulated, maybe more like he didn't think Gil had the experience yet. And you can bet that there is method to remove the overlay and it not cause Gil any harm.

There is. Klaus more or less send Gil a secret message telling him that though the storyteller.

[Traab]

It was said at one point that going against Albia's will was *literally* unthinkable. Guess it isn't quite as unthinkable as all that, given what we're seeing here!

Thats kind of a theme so far really. I mean, Tarvek used to join groups dedicated to figuring out how the master controlled paris where the secret was to know exactly the right moment to leave as they tended to be destroyed when they got too far. Ancient rulers with a well earned reputation for infallibility who it turns out had plotters right under their noses who agatha manages to bring to light in a destructive way.

[HandofShadows]

Thats kind of a theme so far really. I mean, Tarvek used to join groups dedicated to figuring out how the master controlled paris where the secret was to know exactly the right moment to leave as they tended to be destroyed when they got too far. Ancient rulers with a well earned reputation for infallibility who it turns out had plotters right under their noses who agatha manages to bring to light in a destructive way.

Actually Agatha has done nothing that exposed those plotters. It was their own actions that exposed the plotters. Agatha has been helpful in fighting them, but that is all.

[Traab]

Actually Agatha has done nothing that exposed those plotters. It was their own actions that exposed the plotters. Agatha has been helpful in fighting them, but that is all.

Agatha was directly responsible for paris. Her showing up with a wasp detecting weasel forced the bad guys to move ahead with their plan and exposed how much of paris they had infiltrated already. At least among its underground kingdoms and emissaries. She didnt go out herself looking for conspiracies, and she didnt really uncover it, but her presence and what she brought with her was why it all went down while she was there. Its similar here. Agatha and crew have uncovered this whole mess from like three different angles and found an entire society of cthulu cultists trying to absorb outer dimensional beings to overthrow albia.