*the art gets kinda weird: -the artist isn’t interested in super realistic body proportions but more in dynamic movement, which means sometimes you have weird perspective or lopsided limbs or two people who are supposed to be on the same plan but one looks oddly bigger; -the faces, especially the noses and the eye position, are pretty deformed and some people find them really ugly. since this is a visual story, a visual urgh reaction is a perfectly good reason not to get into it, though most people do get used to the style — some don’t.
*it gets pretty over the top plot-wise? :X (BUT IN A FUN WAY ;_;)
*you don’t like steampunk/adventure/political clusterfucks.
*it’s HELLA FUCKING LONG and only entered the story’s second part after TWELVE YEARS ahhhghgu kjkkjj. Some of the arcs can drag on a bit too. if you like short stories or stuff that has payoff pretty soon, it’s probably not for you.
*probably others idk.
—
Now have some proselytizing! REASONS TO READ GIRL GENIUS.
-It is unfailingly updated three times a week and has been for 12 years. *also it won several prestigious awards, to the point the authors decided to refuse the following Hugo Awards nominations cause that wasn’t fair for the rest of them.
-The universe is a ton of fun. This runs on the premises that mad geniuses are real, that they do attract minions, and they do break the laws of physics and cause havoc with their unchecked creations. There are automatons, some sentient, there are constructed or altered beings, there is strange “science”, and most of Europa is a wasteland due to aforementioned unchecked creations. Towns have to be protected by walls.
-The writers knows their tropes — and fuck with them joyfully.
-tons of jokes! this is not a glum story. It does have its moments of angst and rage and woe, but it also gets pretty hilarious.
-THE CHARACTERS OH YES PLZ TAKE ME.
-the art! *the first two colorists were pretty good, and the third — who has done the majority of the work — is downright excellent. *backgrounds are full of details, some fun jokes, really nice backgrounds in general *super lively style! (if you can deal with the faces.)
-AGATHA HETERODYNE, the hero of the story. I say hero not heroine because
She really doesn’t. *She doesn’t know it to start with, but she is the daughter of The Hero and The Evil Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter, and she has to deal with both sides of her heritage. (it doesn’t help that her father and uncle were heroes, but every single ancestor on their side of her family before them were, actually, the evil conqueror type, and everyone is afraid she will revert to type.)
*She is described and drawn as a big girl — curvy and meaty. (actually most of the girls are pretty statuesque.) *She starts out as a normal-ish town-living girl with insecurities and fears, but even when she was a normal girl she WOULD try to fight — and after she gets the tools to fight with? Boy does she not hesitate. *AGENCYYYYY EVERYWHERE. She decides where to go, what to do — and when people block her options? She makes more. —She has two suitors. SHE decides to encourage them (or not). SHE tells them to cut the stupid flirting they have more important shit to do. They both respect and admire her (sometimes they’re dumb macho boys, and she tells them to can it.) A man manages to intimidate her with physical threats that verge on the sexual — once. (she gets him back.) After that she starts learning to fight back effectively and wowza. She’s not a martial artist but she does not hesitate.
-female friendships~ actually all sorts of friendships but yes *also female competence and badassitude
-The other characters: *The Heroic Son Of The Despot (suitor 1) *The Sneaky And Treacherous But Noble Underneath Snake (suitor 2) *Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, reluctant despot but by god if he’s going to have to be a despot he’s going to be a REALLY GOOD ONE. takes his peace through superior firepower thing very seriously. The antagonist, and what a competent one. *WARRIOR-PRINCESS ZEETHA >:O *THE PACK OF CHEERFUL, IMMORTAL WAR MONSTERS WHO ARE LOYAL TO THE DEATH TO THEIR MASTER’S FAMILY~ and play dumb and silly to relax people who are scared of them or cause them to be underestimated and and and JAEGERS FUCKING RULE oh my god is my loyalty kink getting a workout with them. *Moloch Von Zinzner, eternal straight man (“I AM NOT YOUR MINION!!!” “yeah ok but can you help me” “oh, yeah, sure.”) *the castle T^T you crazy bastard you *idk everyone oh god i love them all T^T
-EPICNESS ALL UP IN THAT BITCH.
-also the romance ahhhh. both suitors have their good points and their not so good points, Agatha doesn’t let it distract her, and THERE ARE BOTH IN AND OUT OF UNIVERSE HINTS THAT IT MIGHT BE RESOLVED BY A THREESOME 😀 😀 😀 😀 *ok it might also end in a classical twosome because one of the guys is given a bit more markers that he’s “the one” but the two guys have a complicated past that has nothing to do with Agatha and they’re massively important to each other in pretty painful/hopeful/messy ways, people are taking bets on who she’ll choose (one in five that she’ll keep both! several of her ancestors had harems, there’s in-universe precedent!) and there’s a non-canon Cinderella sidestory AU where she does end up keeping both. anyway there’s no “make one of the options secretly evil or thoroughly unlikeable”, and both options come with major political complications that she MUST keep in mind. Love triangle done right!
My favorite detail from the third Girl Genius novel is that one of the things that passes through Tarvek’s mind when he thinks he’s about to meet gruesome robot-cat death is regret that he’s wearing a tattered bedsheet and not the outfit he planned to be wearing when he dies.
1) Of course he picked out an outfit for that.
2) He had to have been working off the assumption that he’s not going to live long enough for it to have gone out of fashion.
3) Like. He’s devoted some thought to this? “He had always planned to die while ranting atop a tower or something – he had a very nice outfit all designed for the occasion and everything – and now all that effort would be wasted.” He’s not suicidal, he just. Assumes that he has an early-ish expiration date, and has planned accordingly. Being perpetually unsafe is just a basic fact of life for him.
4) Tarvek is remarkably stable for someone whose life is a boundless cornucopia of horror, is what I’m getting at.
This post is wrong bc it assumes that Tarvek doesn’t constantly redesign his planned death outfit to keep up with emerging fashion trends
Ooh, good point. He probably has an entire portfolio by now, with different variations depending on which season he gets assassinated in.
(it’s Zanta. It’s the October Daye faerie mythology specifically, and she’s a Merrow, ie, mermaid, while Klaus is Cait Sidhe, ie, turns into a cat.)
The only reoccuring Merrow character we get is best summed up as “ready to punch at any time, still a pacifist by mermaid standards” and is my hc for Zantabraxus’ personality until proven otherwise
Klaus’s cat brain: water……… bad…….. but also………. fish wife………. good?
I was thinking about a Girl Genius October Daye au because honestly, what else do you expect from me at this point,
Tarvek is Daoine Sidhe, definitely a noble (although Anevka would inherit, probably, since it’s implied that Faerie practices absolute primogenitor). His magic probably smells like silver and netted irises.
Zantabraxus is Tualtha de Dannan and may or may not be the High Queen of the Westlands. I REALLY want Klaus to be a changeling but can’t figure out what he could be–I’m leaning towards Cait Sidhe but I’m not sure about it, since they can’t and don’t meddle with divided court politics.
Gil and Zeetha grew up together until they got sent into blind fosterages (which is how Gil met Tarvek and Zeetha met Agatha). Gil’s magic smells like water mint and bluebells, and Zeetha’s smells like wood rot and clovers.
The Heterodynes are Dochas Sidhe (because eventually everything comes back to the blood) and Lucrezia is Tylwth Teg. After everybody gets elfshot, their lands and the knowe get entrusted to Klaus while Agatha is in hiding.
Agatha gets raised by Adam and Lilith, Coblynau and Hob changelings, respectively. She’s aware of faerie but doesn’t know she’s nobility until she comes of age. Her magic smells like fernleaf yarrow and bronze.
Agatha is Dochas Sidhe, the strongest blood workers in Faerie, like every Heterodyne before her. She can shift the balance of people’s blood to eliminate human or mixed heritage, heal at a rate that renders her nearly indestructible, and near-instinctively recognize someone’s species from the scent of their magic. Unlike most Heterodynes, her mother’s race wasn’t burned out of her after her birth, as Bill wanted to give her a chance to chose. Most of faerie thinks the Heterodynes are Daoine Sidhe, and that their ability to shift bloodlines is a secret type of blood charm. Since the truth might cause people to kidnap them and cut them up for potion parts, Bill and Barry never bothered correcting them.
Magic scent: bronze and floatingheart before burning out her Daoine Sidhe blood, blood and floatingheart afterwards.
Tarvek is Daoine Sidhe, also a race of blood workers, though they claim descent from Titania rather than solely from Oberon. As a rule, Daoine Sidhe tend to grab for power, which is why so many of them are found among the nobility. They’re skilled in spells and illusions, and can “ride the blood” to read memories. They’re “colorful and fair-skinned”, with hair colors ranging from silver to fox-red to black with pink streaks.
Magic Scent: silver and netted irises.
Gil is a mixed blood, taking after his Tylwyth Teg father. This means that he can’t breathe underwater, but accomodations were made during his childhood, and he’ll likely inherit his father’s barony on land (since Maeve knows Klaus doesn’t want it). As a Tylwyth Teg, Gil has a natural affinity for alchemy, and is able to enchant yarrow twigs to levitate objects and even make himself fly. Which he does. Frequently. Sometimes he flies into trees.
Magic scent: Yarrow and brine.
Zeetha takes after their mother, a Merrow, one of the various mermaid species in Faerie. She can split her tail into bipedal form for periods of time, and lasts a little longer than most pureblooded Merrow thanks her to her mixed heritage. Her gills let her breathe underwater.
Magic Scent: myrrh and southernwood.
Violetta is a knight in the service of Tarvek’s family, with a Daoine Sidhe mother and a Candela father. She inherited Daoine coloring and Candela Merry Dancers, moving balls of light that change colors based on their owner’s mood and disposition. She can teleport, though she has a shorter range than a pureblooded Candela. Though her father’s species is noted for its… laconic disposition, Violetta inherited her mother’s ability to yell with the best of them, to Tarvek’s great regret.
Honestly the faerie au is so full of drama I don’t even know where to begin
We’ve got, in chronological order:
Lucrezia just straight up disappearing on her husband and kids
Gil having to leave his family & the Undersea kingdom that he grew up in to go live with the grandmother he’s never met
Kay falls in love with Anevka and then has to watch her get shot & fall into a magical sleep coma for 100 years
he also has to tell Tarvek his mom is dead and his sister is in a magical sleep coma, while still covered in Anevka’s blood
Bill and Barry die, Kay gets kidnapped, and Agatha gets driven out of Mechanicsburg & has to go into hiding for years
Tarvek gets turned into a rose bush for like two decades and Gil & Agatha pine after him uselessly
Gil has to sacrifice part of his identity by having the human blood burned out of him so he doesn’t fucking die from elfshot (which is fatal to humans & changelings)
Kay’s mom cuts his legs off so she can use them for potion parts (they grow back)
His Grace, Duke William Heterodyne, invites you to celebrate the occasion of Kay Heterodyne’s departure from the Kingdom of Arbeal, to be fostered with the High Queen’s court until the end of seven years. Guests will receive a full course dinner and an opportunity for socializing and dance.
Or; there’s a party downstairs and Agatha isn’t allowed to go.
I found this all finished in my wip folder wasting away because SOMEONE never bothered beta’ing it for me, so I’m just posting it now.
Cheloneuniverse 