Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response

[HandofShadows]

And it sounds like she might be somewhat important in the future.
But she was friends with Lu?
Yeah, gotta agree with Agatha there.

She had actually been talked about before, but we didn't have a name. So yeah, she's going to be important.

Do have a couple problems though. Now that Lu and Klaus have been removed I can't see a reason for Agatha, Gil, Tarvek or anyone else to stay in England. Agatha needs to work at freeing Mechanicsburg, Gil running the Empire and Tarvek working on anti-Other tech. Hell even Tweedle should go back. So how is everyone going to get sidetracked to Africa and then Skif?

[Kantaki]

So how is everyone going to get sidetracked to Africa and then Skif?

Crit fail on the navigation-check?

[Rogar Demonblud]

Fleeing Albia's wrath while at least half of England burns in the background?

[SZbNAhL]

They'll probably feel duty-bound to track down Dr Gimpsuit, since she's Other-affiliated and she might either flee to Africa or give them a lead on something important there. Agatha may also want to check in on her old friends at Master Payne's Circus of Adventure, where Embi might mention something in Africa that Agatha wants to check out. Alternatively, Albia might ask Agatha to check on something in Africa that she wants investigted but fears is beyond even Trelawney Thorpe, presumably in exchange for some kind of aid freeing Mechanicsburg.

[RowenMorland]

Trelawney's face is really well drawn in this one.

[geoduck]

The off-comic itinerary listed way back when ended with going to the Geister homeland. One possibility is that somehow Agatha and Co. decide that they need to deal with the Lucrezia problem at the source, and somehow learn the only way to get there is via Skifander.

Re: staying in England, remember that Albia wants to make Agatha a permanent addition to her "Garden", so there may be more barriers being subtly erected.

[memnarch]

Reminder link for when the event happened.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Why did you change back?

...If you die - then... all the rest... the rest is... pointless. So that will not happen!

Oh, and I don't know if it was foreshadowing, but "I've got to try that again!"

Oh yes, Merry Christmas everybody!

[HandofShadows]

It's those pages that always make me think that both Gil and Tarvek might be able to go "king mode".

[Kantaki]

Somehow the knowledge that Agatha was on the brink of godhood and then gave it up to save her friends makes that scene only more awesome.

[Vinyadan]

"Another forty-three seconds, and I would have exploded, or something!"
"...or something."

That's funny to reread. I wonder if it was always intended.

[Agi Hammerthief]

„another fourty-five point three seconds, and I would have exploded or something“ is also a good reason to undo it

[HandofShadows]

That's funny to reread. I wonder if it was always intended.

I think it was. The Prof planed this story out years in advance. I mean look how long it took for this miniclank to show back up.

[Gez]

Reminder link for when the event happened.

"Remember old Igneous? Just before he exploded?"

One of the old Heterodyne went "King mode", at least for a short time. So it's not something biologically restricted to women.

[HandofShadows]

We already knew it wasn't female restricted as Snackford went king mode. I think it's possible that the reason we only hear about Queens is that one of the early sparks to make a second breakthrough was female and only shared it with other woman she though "worthy". So you get many more queens than kings. Also they might have eliminated any males who went king mode or at least not been friendly/helpful to them.

[SZbNAhL]

"Remember old Igneous? Just before he exploded?"

One of the old Heterodynes went "King mode", at least for a short time. So it's not something biologically restricted to women.

Raising the question of why he exploded. Maybe men can become Kings, but it very quickly kills them? As to Snackleford, I'm not convinced that it was the same process as Queening. It involved a different way of gaining power (draining an eldritch abomination) and different results (multiple arms, for example).

[Rogar Demonblud]

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that old Igneous, being a Heterodyne, simply didn't know when to stop absorbing power.

[geoduck]

Raising the question of why he exploded. Maybe men can become Kings, but it very quickly kills them? As to Snackleford, I'm not convinced that it was the same process as Queening. It involved a different way of gaining power (draining an eldritch abomination) and different results (multiple arms, for example).

We have no idea what the Queens used as their power-source with their second-stage breakthroughs. And one of the Queens in Albia's flashback was sporting a third eye, so unique physical changes are not an impossibility.

[HandofShadows]

We have no idea what the Queens used as their power-source with their second-stage breakthroughs. And one of the Queens in Albia's flashback was sporting a third eye, so unique physical changes are not an impossibility.

Also Albia looked a lot different back in the day compared to now. So being able to change form at will seems to come with the powerset.

[PraetorDragoon]

Based on this (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190325), the second breakthrough seems to require both knowledge and power. I assume its easy for a strong spark to access the power, but you need knowledge to stop melting yourself.

Snackleford decided to drain both the knowledge and energy from an extra-dimensional being to skip asking for the knowledge.

It might be that there have been Kings, but they might have fallen to each other or just exploded, and they also might not have been as co-operative as the Queens.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's never a good sign when the sensor operators are THAT panicked.

[Vinyadan]

My impression is that you need to change how your mind is shaped before you can ascend, and that the influx of power is actually needed to do that. As Albia said, there were traces in Agatha's mind that showed her she had seen infinity. So that's what the power is needed for, to see infinity once.

After that, you don't need to be attached to the power any more. Instead, you need knowledge of how to handle your spark. This explains why Lucrezia could ascend, in spite of the fact that she wasn't doing anything special.

Snackleford looks very ascended to me, but it's possible that different sources of power and knowledge will give you different flavours of ascension. So his spark had been turned into a flame, but he knew ways different from Albia's to express his divinity (or maybe Albia actually totally can summon extra-dimensional horrors).

It's also interesting that Albia saw Lucrezia's mind as oddly fractured, possibly the first step to a different kind of ascension.

Anyway, the possibility of a second breakthrough is a nice new plot point. Much of the cast is made up of first-class sparks that could give it a go, and it's also possible that some third or fourth party pulls it off and screws up the equilibrium of Europe even more.

[Traab]

I treat the second breakthrough like the first time you fire a gun, the kickback is atrocious, your wrist gets jarred, possibly sprained, you could even drop the gun entirely, because your body has no clue whats about to happen even if mentally you are aware that yes it will kick. But the SECOND shot is far easier to compensate for, and eventually you barely even notice it. That massive jolt is enough to overwhelm a spark unless they are very very lucky. In agathas case, she was able to drain that incredible surge of overwhelming power into two vessels that had been nearly completely emptied. Now that she has felt it, and even felt it a second time via lucrezia, it will be much easier for her body to handle the stress because it knows what to expect.

It wouldnt shock me in the least if this turns out to be a lot like a shonen anime powerup where when the hero first discovers it, he or she can barely handle using it for brief moments without harm, but over time they get stronger and it becomes less of an issue. As an example, Luffy from One Piece with his second gear. When he first figured it out, it was horribly exhausting, and only NOT lethal due to his unique body type, and even then I think it was causing him long term effects. Now years later he can casually use second gear like its nothing. Being one of those second break through queens isnt an always on effect, its a tool you can access more or less at will. Like going into the mad place for regular sparks, only more so. They arent ALWAYS mad, but they can go there when they need to or get swept up in something.

[Agi Hammerthief]

I treat the second breakthrough like the first time you fire a gun, the kickback is atrocious,...

plenty of funny videos around where people don’t hold that shotgun stock properly

[Rogar Demonblud]

Plenty of not funny videos of the people doing the same with assault rifles. You know it's bad when standing behind the shooter is not a guarantee of safety.

Of course, "safety" and "Spark" don't belong in the same paragraph together.

[factotum]

My impression is that you need to change how your mind is shaped before you can ascend, and that the influx of power is actually needed to do that. As Albia said, there were traces in Agatha's mind that showed her she had seen infinity. So that's what the power is needed for, to see infinity once.

Or it could be that, once having ascended, you need to modify your own mind to be able to maintain the ascension, and Agatha obviously wasn't able to do that because she was concentrating on something else at the time.

[HandofShadows]

I don't think it's modifying the mind as much as learning how not to let the power get out of control and keep yourself under control. IIRC Albia said something to the effect of not blowing up other people the 2nd time around.

[factotum]

OK, I think I have a new favourite line in Girl Genius:

"Hoy! Hennybody else not dead?"
"...hy is tinking about it."

[PraetorDragoon]

OK, I think I have a new favourite line in Girl Genius:

"Hoy! Hennybody else not dead?"
"...hy is tinking about it."

And its almost new thread time as well!

[Manga Shoggoth]

...In which case let us put forward:

Girl Genius XXVII: Hoy! Hennybody else not dead?

and

Girl Genius XXVII: Hy iz so happy right now!

One vote from me to the latter.

For all that Dimo hates being a general because of the thinking, he seems quite happy to have a mystery to solve. And food.