Girl Genius XXXI: Let’s look at it from farther away!

[Shining Wrath]

Well, yes, Albia is recovered enough to take out the trash. "Final word", indeed.

[sihnfahl]

although I think she was perhaps expecting Agatha to be the one to do it...

Not until Mechanicsburg is liberated. If a Queen is tied to their Flame, then Agatha will not Queen until she has Mechanicsburg and ITS Flame.

[Shining Wrath]

Not until Mechanicsburg is liberated. If a Queen is tied to their Flame, then Agatha will not Queen until she has Mechanicsburg and ITS Flame.

This is why I expect Agatha to reject Queenhood. First, she'd be tied to Mechanicsburg when the whole world needs saving. Secondly, I think Castle would die, or at least be greatly diminished. The Queen of Mechanicsburg exists, sort-of, and serves The Heterodyne because the male Heterodyne rulers wanted it that way. Third, I think it would put her apart from Gil & Tarvek. She'd almost be a different species after ascension.

Worth noting: if Albia intended to fight the Song Keeper, an explosive Clankrezia would be a good weapon. She intends to not harm the corrupted leviathan.

[Traab]

Pro tip, suicide techniques should neither beep loudly, nor take long to set off once triggered. The point is to take your enemy down with you, not give them a ten count to escape prepare defenses, or dispose of your carcass.

[Divayth Fyr]

Pro tip, suicide techniques should neither beep loudly, nor take long to set off once triggered. The point is to take your enemy down with you, not give them a ten count to escape prepare defenses, or dispose of your carcass.

Ah, but the long beeping is the equivalent of gloating before killing your enemies. Sure, you can skip it, but where is the fun in that?

Also, seeing how this arc turned out so far, I wouldn't be too surprised if some form of Lucrezia came back from the explosion...

[Traab]

Ah, but the long beeping is the equivalent of gloating before killing your enemies. Sure, you can skip it, but where is the fun in that?

Also, seeing how this arc turned out so far, I wouldn't be too surprised if some form of Lucrezia came back from the explosion...

The beeping should be a distraction. While they panic to get away from the beeping and blinking light, the real death trap was the colorless odorless gas seeping out of your body as the damage accumulated. As the fist of the north star would say, "you are already dead."

[Manga Shoggoth]

Oh, Lucrezia has form with death traps, countdowns and bluffs. They don't always end the way she expects, though...

This and the following 5 pages.

[Shining Wrath]

Lucrezia can't help herself with the gloating. She wants her victims to suffer, knowing she's outwitted them before they die. And she's narcissist enough to not learn from experience, that her victims wind up living because she gloated. No, her plans are PERFECT, and Somebody Else is to blame when the intended victims live.

People who can't admit they've lost, when they've clearly lost, tend to wind up losing a lot. Ironic.

If Lucrezia returns from her clank body exploding out over the ocean I shall be peeved.

[Kantaki]

Lucrezia can't help herself with the gloating. She wants her victims to suffer, knowing she's outwitted them before they die. And she's narcissist enough to not learn from experience, that her victims wind up living because she gloated. No, her plans are PERFECT, and Somebody Else is to blame when the intended victims live.

People who can't admit they've lost, when they've clearly lost, tend to wind up losing a lot. Ironic.

If Lucrezia returns from her clank body exploding out over the ocean I shall be peeved.

What did Pratchett say about hoping the guy pointing a weapon at you being evil?
Lu is a great example.

Also, Lucrecia will definitely be back. There's too many of her not too.
This particular instance better be dead though, I agree.

[Agi Hammerthief]

What did Pratchett say about hoping the guy pointing a weapon at you being evil?
Lu is a great example.

Also, Lucrecia will definitely be back. There's too many of her not too.
This particular instance better be dead though, I agree.

at least we got confirmation that the instance in Agathas head is out.
Still running in a jar, but one down is good to see.

[slayerx]

Also, Lucrecia will definitely be back. There's too many of her not too.
This particular instance better be dead though, I agree.

Actually what I think is interesting about the death of Clankrezia is that we the audience do not know of any other incarnations of lucrezia. We have only seen three made; the first was Agatha who has been extracted and contained, the second was Clankrezia who just exploded, and the last was Zola who actually managed to maintain control.

This puts the story in an interesting position; we the audience have no idea where lucrezia will pop up next. Lucrezia updated the device so she no longer needs family relatives to create a new calling and it would have been idiotic for her not to do so. It is practically a 100% certainty that she created other avatars of herself... but we have no idea who they are or how and when they will pop up. Any new character that pops up could end up being another Lucrezia. She could even end up being inside a returning character that we have not seen in a long time. There's no telling who she might have picked up in the previous 2 years


Also i feel like Albia is channeling my feelings on this Arc... very tired and desperately in need of a break. The whole God Queen battle between Clankrezia and Monohan just want on too long. Need to get back to the normal sparky shenanigans.

[Shining Wrath]

Actually what I think is interesting about the death of Clankrezia is that we the audience do not know of any other incarnations of lucrezia. We have only seen three made; the first was Agatha who has been extracted and contained, the second was Clankrezia who just exploded, and the last was Zola who actually managed to maintain control.

This puts the story in an interesting position; we the audience have no idea where lucrezia will pop up next. Lucrezia updated the device so she no longer needs family relatives to create a new calling and it would have been idiotic for her not to do so. It is practically a 100% certainty that she created other avatars of herself... but we have no idea who they are or how and when they will pop up. Any new character that pops up could end up being another Lucrezia. She could even end up being inside a returning character that we have not seen in a long time. There's no telling who she might have picked up in the previous 2 years


Also i feel like Albia is channeling my feelings on this Arc... very tired and desperately in need of a break. The whole God Queen battle between Clankrezia and Monohan just want on too long. Need to get back to the normal sparky shenanigans.

For maximum irony, there's a Lucrezia inside Othar's head. Possibly, though, inside Zulena (or whoever is leading the rebellion against the Polar Lords).

Monahan looks very frightened of all the monsters. Can't blame her.

And, we get a working airship by Queen ex Machina.

Now - how does Albia know how to fix the Song Keeper? What does she know about corrupted flames, or this particular Flame?

[lord_khaine]

Am i the only one who just seriously disliked the introduction of Queens at all?
They removes even the pretense that its Mad Science, and not just sufficiently advanced magic.

[eee]

I would have expected Monahan to resist leaving for the sake of her rats, if nothing else.

Am i the only one who just seriously disliked the introduction of Queens at all?
They removes even the pretense that its Mad Science, and not just sufficiently advanced magic.

Queens are Mad Science taken to its logical conclusion. If you're already capable of warping reality through test tubes and machines, eventually you'll figure out how to do it mentally.

[Fyraltari]

Am i the only one who just seriously disliked the introduction of Queens at all?
They removes even the pretense that its Mad Science, and not just sufficiently advanced magic.

I am more upset that everything is about the Queens now.

[Willie the Duck]

Am i the only one who just seriously disliked the introduction of Queens at all?
They removes even the pretense that its Mad Science, and not just sufficiently advanced magic.

Queens are Mad Science taken to its logical conclusion. If you're already capable of warping reality through test tubes and machines, eventually you'll figure out how to do it mentally.

I am more upset that everything is about the Queens now.

Generally going to agree with Fyraltari. It is more that these other mega-entities have taken over from Klaus and the Storm King and all the other (except the Other) major players we had going on (in the ranks of which Agatha had to prove she should be considered). I get why certain shows like Stargate SG-1 eventually have to kill off the main threat (less people start to rightly believe that they never will, removing all tension from the show) and find a new epic threat to have to face, but here with all the existing un-wrapped-up plots and thread (including Agatha, Gil and a Geisterdamung going into the future; Vapnoople on the loose; oh, and an entire frozen town), I don't know why we need to switch the story into an battle between the Other and these bizarre superbeing queens.

I kinda agree with both lord_khaine and eee -- Queens are declared to be sufficiently advanced Mad Scientists (who we've sometimes even seen doing the mad science) who have tapped into a incredible power sources*, but they come off as superhero/demigods.
*and magical waters full of mad science energy has been an existing handwavium in-setting which also you may or may not find breaks your mad-science verisimilitude.

[Shining Wrath]

I am more upset that everything is about the Queens now.

I would have expected Monahan to resist leaving for the sake of her rats, if nothing else.



Queens are Mad Science taken to its logical conclusion. If you're already capable of warping reality through test tubes and machines, eventually you'll figure out how to do it mentally.

The story becomes uninteresting if Agatha becomes a Queen. Therefore, we shall learn sooner or later why that's a bad choice for her, if not for Monahan and Albia.

The idea of ascending to Queenhood has been with us since the Castle sequence, years ago. The idea of Albia, eternal god-Queen of England, even longer IIRC. The idea of The Other, despoiler of Europa, has been with us from the early strips. The Other manifestation of Lucrezia is a Queen-killer who aspires to be a Queen, at a minimum, if not a fully or partially ascended Queen.

I submit that perhaps the story has always been about Queens, and we're just now realizing it. Especially if you treat the Castle as a quasi-Queen with a Heterodyne twist.

[Fyraltari]

Generally going to agree with Fyraltari. It is more that these other mega-entities have taken over from Klaus and the Storm King and all the other (except the Other) major players we had going on (in the ranks of which Agatha had to prove she should be considered). I get why certain shows like Stargate SG-1 eventually have to kill off the main threat (less people start to rightly believe that they never will, removing all tension from the show) and find a new epic threat to have to face, but here with all the existing un-wrapped-up plots and thread (including Agatha, Gil and a Geisterdamung going into the future; Vapnoople on the loose; oh, and an entire frozen town), I don't know why we need to switch the story into an battle between the Other and these bizarre superbeing queens.

I kinda agree with both lord_khaine and eee -- Queens are declared to be sufficiently advanced Mad Scientists (who we've sometimes even seen doing the mad science) who have tapped into a incredible power sources*, but they come off as superhero/demigods.
*and magical waters full of mad science energy has been an existing handwavium in-setting which also you may or may not find breaks your mad-science verisimilitude.

I think that's the opposite going on. The Queens aren't super Mad-scientists, so much so that they look like magicians, the Sparks are lesser Queens, so little so that they look like (mad) scientists. Basically the Spark is magic, it's just that those who have not undertaken a second breakthrough need to channel it through devices.
I'm not overly fond of the idea.

The story becomes uninteresting if Agatha becomes a Queen. Therefore, we shall learn sooner or later why that's a bad choice for her, if not for Monahan and Albia.

The idea of ascending to Queenhood has been with us since the Castle sequence, years ago. The idea of Albia, eternal god-Queen of England, even longer IIRC. The idea of The Other, despoiler of Europa, has been with us from the early strips. The Other manifestation of Lucrezia is a Queen-killer who aspires to be a Queen, at a minimum, if not a fully or partially ascended Queen.

I submit that perhaps the story has always been about Queens, and we're just now realizing it. Especially if you treat the Castle as a quasi-Queen with a Heterodyne twist.

I don't deny that this was always the plan. But initially all of these looked like they were unconnected. We knew Albia was immortal, but we didn't know how, we knew that Der Kestle ran on magic water that almost ascended Agatha but we had no reason to suspect this was linked to Albia. We knew that Lucrezia was a time-travelling cyborg but we had no way to suspect she had any particular beef with Albia. We knew there were mysterious teleporting mirrors, but we didn't know they had any connection to Albia either.

It looked like there was several things going on at once, but it turns out that this all actually go back to one single group we had never heard of before. Our great villain wants to be a Queen, the Mirrors run on the same power source as the Queens, The Castle is mecanical pseudo-Queen, our hero might be turning into a Queen. It turns out there's significantly less going on than we think. Which is pretty ironic for a comic that seems unable to resolve a plot point without opening five more.

[Shining Wrath]

I think that's the opposite going on. The Queens aren't super Mad-scientists, so much so that they look like magicians, the Sparks are lesser Queens, so little so that they look like (mad) scientists. Basically the Spark is magic, it's just that those who have not undertaken a second breakthrough need to channel it through devices.
I'm not overly fond of the idea.


I don't deny that this was always the plan. But initially all of these looked like they were unconnected. We knew Albia was immortal, but we didn't know how, we knew that Der Kestle ran on magic water that almost ascended Agatha but we had no reason to suspect this was linked to Albia. We knew that Lucrezia was a time-travelling cyborg but we had no way to suspect she had any particular beef with Albia. We knew there were mysterious teleporting mirrors, but we didn't know they had any connection to Albia either.

It looked like there was several things going on at once, but it turns out that this all actually go back to one single group we had never heard of before. Our great villain wants to be a Queen, the Mirrors run on the same power source as the Queens, The Castle is mecanical pseudo-Queen, our hero might be turning into a Queen. It turns out there's significantly less going on than we think. Which is pretty ironic for a comic that seems unable to resolve a plot point without opening five more.

This is a valid trope (as an aside, tropes aren't intrinsically bad); "As the story progresses, what appears to be chaos resolves into a consistent theme". Perhaps Sparks also require some sort of exposures to a Flame, and there's enough small diffused not-obvious Flames around to keep Europa supplied with Sparks. A genetic predisposition plus gentle Flaming = Spark.

Tying in another major character, Othar will realize that if he can locate and neutralize Flames large and small, he doesn't have to kill the living Sparks. After all, if Flames cause Sparks (rather than genetics), then killing every living Spark is only a momentary respite from Sparky chaos.

Now, what is the price of ascension? Albia seems to be tied to her Flame, and Monahan likely will be as well if we can trust Lucrezia. By which I mean, of course we can't, but she may have accidentally told the truth. Are there other costs?

[Radar]

What is - I think - an important information we gained from the whole island arc is that even the queens themselves do not really understand the source of their power as the flame seems to be specifically connected to some arcane devices way older than the queens themselves built be people we know nothing about and who, for instance, left a mirror network behind them.

It all actually makes you wonder, what actually made the sacred vow made by Embi real and is it somehow related to all that ancient tech?

[Rodin]

Actually what I think is interesting about the death of Clankrezia is that we the audience do not know of any other incarnations of lucrezia. We have only seen three made; the first was Agatha who has been extracted and contained, the second was Clankrezia who just exploded, and the last was Zola who actually managed to maintain control.

This puts the story in an interesting position; we the audience have no idea where lucrezia will pop up next. Lucrezia updated the device so she no longer needs family relatives to create a new calling and it would have been idiotic for her not to do so. It is practically a 100% certainty that she created other avatars of herself... but we have no idea who they are or how and when they will pop up. Any new character that pops up could end up being another Lucrezia. She could even end up being inside a returning character that we have not seen in a long time. There's no telling who she might have picked up in the previous 2 years


Also i feel like Albia is channeling my feelings on this Arc... very tired and desperately in need of a break. The whole God Queen battle between Clankrezia and Monohan just want on too long. Need to get back to the normal sparky shenanigans.

Except there is still the mystery of why we aren’t ass-deep in Lucrezias by now. Why no new advancements have been made in Slaver tech other than by her known associates from before she disappeared.

My theory is that only Lucrezia-in-Agatha had the ability to modify the summoning engine, because neither of the other copies had the Spark. We haven’t seen more Lucrezias because there aren’t any.

From a story perspective this seems prudent for two reasons:

1)If endless replication is possible it strains belief that Team Good Guy hasn’t already lost. Each version of Lucrezia has been shown to be a top-level threat. It took our entire squad of protagonists gathered together to deal with ONE. How do they deal with 10 in one place? 100? 1000?

2)A story like this needs to have a definitive ending. If there are an arbitrary number of Lucrezias out there, it’s impossible to win. Because there’s always the possibility you missed one, and that Lucrezia can make a summoning engine, and repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum. If something has prevented copying you have a set number of Lucrezias and can come to a decisive final victory.

[Shining Wrath]

Except there is still the mystery of why we aren’t ass-deep in Lucrezias by now. Why no new advancements have been made in Slaver tech other than by her known associates from before she disappeared.

My theory is that only Lucrezia-in-Agatha had the ability to modify the summoning engine, because neither of the other copies had the Spark. We haven’t seen more Lucrezias because there aren’t any.

From a story perspective this seems prudent for two reasons:

1)If endless replication is possible it strains belief that Team Good Guy hasn’t already lost. Each version of Lucrezia has been shown to be a top-level threat. It took our entire squad of protagonists gathered together to deal with ONE. How do they deal with 10 in one place? 100? 1000?

2)A story like this needs to have a definitive ending. If there are an arbitrary number of Lucrezias out there, it’s impossible to win. Because there’s always the possibility you missed one, and that Lucrezia can make a summoning engine, and repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum. If something has prevented copying you have a set number of Lucrezias and can come to a decisive final victory.

I think we have reason to believe Agatha will eventually engage in time travel shenanigans. If she can kill ur-Lucrezia before there are any copies made, she creates a branch of reality where there is no Other. The knock-on consequences of that would be interesting.

[geoduck]

What is - I think - an important information we gained from the whole island arc is that even the queens themselves do not really understand the source of their power as the flame seems to be specifically connected to some arcane devices way older than the queens themselves built be people we know nothing about and who, for instance, left a mirror network behind them.

It all actually makes you wonder, what actually made the sacred vow made by Embi real and is it somehow related to all that ancient tech?

In the print novels, this entity is described as being a "devil queen". (The strip proper doesn't say anything about who he made the vow to.) If we do visit Embi's homeland, I predict that she's be, yes, another Queen, and Agatha and Co. will use her Mirror to reach Skifander.

[slayerx]

Am i the only one who just seriously disliked the introduction of Queens at all?
They removes even the pretense that its Mad Science, and not just sufficiently advanced magic.

I would say that at the very least, the queens have been overplayed and have very much LONG overstayed their welcome. Its actually why I am very eager to move on from this arc.

Honestly i find them rather boring compared to sparks. Part of what made sparks interesting was the quirks of their creations and the kind of mad ideas they come up with to solve their problems. Its a lot more fun to watch a spark warp the equipment and tools they have on hand to solve a problem, than to see a queen snap their fingers and have what they need pop out of thin air

[TeChameleon]

I'm meh-to-iffy on the whole Queen thing, but the lovely immortal ruler thing draws from the same pulpy roots as gaslamp fantasy-style mad science- H. Rider Haggard's She Who Must Be Obeyed being the obvious example. It seems to me that the Queens are the Foglios attempt to integrate the two tropes (mad science and lovely-immortal-etc.), and I respect the effort, even if I'm not sure I agree with the final product.

I suspect that we'll be clear of Albia relatively soon (nothing concrete, this just feels like we're closing in on a chapter break), and it doesn't sound like there's a lot of other Queens left; whether it's simply from Lucrezia cleaning house, or a 'the time of the elves is ending'-type fading, we're not likely to be up to our earlobes in Queens any time soon. We already know, courtesy of the time window, that Agatha doesn't ascend any time soon- note the absence of the starry crown, or whatever you want to call the crap orbiting Albia's head- and that there's some significant chunks of story to get through before we get to the time window.

So hopefully we'll get back to the more standard-level mad science shenanigans in short order.

[smuchmuch]

I'll be honnest, I was kind of hoping Albia was going to die here. Either by Lucrezia hand or by a backstabb from Monohan after she defeat Lucrezia, that would have made this whole queen fight a build up for a good payoff rather a pretty flat atempt to a climax that lasted too long and would have made it feel like, well, our heroes can screw up, reestablished Lucrezia as a true threat... shaked up the status quo.. something of the sort.
...I suppose that would have been a bit too close to what happened with the master of Paris in the Paris arc tho.

Bah at least this arc is nearing it's conclusion so we can move to the next bit, likely the road to Skyfander in some way, likely by Africa. Plus maybe a look of what is happening in Europa with Gil and Tarvek.

Am i the only one who just seriously disliked the introduction of Queens at all?
They removes even the pretense that its Mad Science, and not just sufficiently advanced magic.

That pretense had flown away a long time ago...
Honnestly it's not like the fact that spark is effectively reality alteration wasn't already introduced way back in der castle when Agatha started ascending after drinking some of the Dyne river. And Albia being an immortal in some shape of form god queen had been mentioned since a long long time (when Gil threatened Woodster to boil England, if memory serves he mentions her "undying majesty" and then later it was mentioned than no british citizen could even *think* of betraying Albia. Although seeing this arc, kinda have to wonder how that that was ever taken seriously...)

(Iddle thoughts: Would that have made Lord snackleford after his ascension a "king" or "Lord" or whatever title would that be (maybe just Queen used for both gender...) was he something else entirely ? He didn't have a flamme per se since he was getting his "ascension" from an extra dimensional gate instead.)

Also i feel like Albia is channeling my feelings on this Arc... very tired and desperately in need of a break.

Frankly, kind of my feeling for ALL of the the ending segments of every arc since Agatha set foot in the castle.
Just look at the very start of the comic and sjut see how fast thing went then compared to the more recent arcs and books. The reason for that is very likely that the storry has hugely balooned in both length and complexity from what it was originaly planned and now they must also pad each arc so it will fit the number of pages for a book. Which is fair and make sense to what the story is now but... well each arcs feels likethey oversty their welcome just a little too long. prim example being, the endless fight for Mecanisburg, the fight against the Beast taking jsut too long and this queen fight...

[TeChameleon]

This is mostly by nature of an aside, but is it just me, or does Albia seem to be showboating a little? I'm not sure who she's trying to impress, but it looks to me like she's being more dramatic than is strictly necessary with her little flourishes. Maybe Monahan? 'See what you could do if you were to finish ascending (and keep me company).' Albia certainly gives the impression of being desperately lonely.

[geoduck]

This is mostly by nature of an aside, but is it just me, or does Albia seem to be showboating a little? I'm not sure who she's trying to impress, but it looks to me like she's being more dramatic than is strictly necessary with her little flourishes. Maybe Monahan? 'See what you could do if you were to finish ascending (and keep me company).' Albia certainly gives the impression of being desperately lonely.

And maybe trying to bounce back from the fact that Lucrezia came very close to killing her.

[Shining Wrath]

I do think Albia is showing off.
Having said that, even when you know she's about to make an entrance, she makes quite an entrance.
I think she's exhausted, though, and vulnerable. NOW may be when Monahan attempts backstab - once she's safely on her way to England, well, why not arrive as the new Queen?

This is also an example of why Queens are no fun compared to Sparks. How much work would Agatha have needed to do to get the airship moving again? But god-Queen Albia just says "I want a ride home fit for a Queen" and presto chango, there you have it.

[wingnutx]

This is getting old.