It’s not a coincidence the Heterodynes so rarely
produce girls – more of a tradition, really, that all their children are
raised as sons. It didn’t always work out, but it worked out for Barry.
It’s a series of scenes along the timeline full of explorative genderfuckery and delicious heterodyne weirdness. Barry’s not the only one written about. i thought it was really cool.
They’re creatures of Mad Science!!! Kind of orcs for a world of mad scientists rather than magic. They have a reputation that includes hating soap (true) and eating babies (not true).
They are voluntarily mutated super soldiers from the webcomic Girl Genius, who signed up to pillage everyone for their masters, but are nonetheless adorable.
They’re also a mixture of biological alteration, old and highly developed subculture, and playing up to their reputation as monsters that can make it very hard to tell where typically Jager behavior is coming from.
They’re immune to harm from a lot of things, so some things – like sewers – – they might fail to react to because it really isn’t dangerous for them.
I don’t know if they’re capable of having allergies, but they have a very good sense of smell, so something caustic might irritate sensitive noses.
You’ve probably noticed I’ve been thinking about this lately 🙂
Scent – – Always much better than human but in a very similar range to one another. If one Jager draws another’s attention to a scent they can always smell it. The fact that the Heterodynes used scent to put in a pleasure response to themselves might mean they did some very specific optimization here.
Hearing – – May be better than human. Despite some issues with Jagers having things sneak up on them it doesn’t really seem to be worse (they’re just bad at paying attention). Jenka’s phrasing of “you got the good ears” seems to imply it’s a pretty random thing and mostly left to chance. Dimo can pick out Agatha’s voice even when it’s being used by someone else to speak Geister, though, so there may have been some very specific tuning in this sense too.
Sight – – This seems to be even more random, especially since their eyes mutate to have vastly different appearances. Dimo’s are either reflective or glowing. One background Jager wears smoked glasses implying he landed with very sensitive eyes. In the side bit where the Jagers accept a Hugo Maxim (as Cheyenne) cheerfully thanks humans for being a trichromatic species, leaving me wondering if not all Jagers are.
Touch – – Probably less sensitive than humans, and broadly in the same range as one another.
Taste – – The sense itself doesn’t seem stronger or less strong but preference has been drastically broadened. I don’t think we’ve yet seen a Jager dislike anything – – oh, wait, Maxim complained about the beer. I think he just didn’t like it having changed in the last twenty years though. Preferences seem widely similar. Bugs, for instance, seem to be especially liked by all of them, and Othar makes use of knowing they all like fudge in his twitter. If the Heterodynes did this on purpose then it makes sense to have your soldiers happily eat anything and bugs are a cheap source of protein.
I think you’d have to assume he was already dead, but that happens to Heterodynes. He doesn’t look that old in the picture, so he could easily have died youngish.
It’s quite likely, I think. Agatha’s great-grandfather & the brother of Zagnut and Ominox, Saturn/Saturnus’ dad, is never explicitly named, and could therefore be Pluto. However, Agatha could also have had a grand-uncle (brother of Saturn/Saturnus), which would fit a naming scheme better than a father giving a son an astrologically inspired name.
Also, depending on whether the police are normal humans made invisible, or constructs that aren’t necessarily ageing, a brother could fit the chronology better. If the Chief is ageing, he’s not old enough to be made by Agatha’s great-grandfather.
…I kinda want a chameleon jager now. But then on the other hand I guess Gkika already is?
1) I think Gkika changes colour too dramatically and with too much precision, she’s probably part cephalopod.
2) Chameleons have many interesting features besides colour changing! Independently moving eyes, prehensile tail, long sticky tongue. A Jäger could have any one of them.
(If a Jäger had a long sticky tongue no one’s snacks would be safe.)
this would make such a fantastic series of little fanfic vignettes, the Hero of the Week vs the Heterodynes!
and i have always found the core of love and loyalty under all that cartoonish evil to be the most fascinating, wonderful thing about the heterodynes and their city, so thank you for the bit where “i can free you!” was exactly the wrong thing to say
Now that I’ve started thinking about romantic dynamics in Girl Genius, I’ve realized that each of the characters in the OT3 are attracted to a personality type that the other two embody-
Agatha: Respects My Intelligence
Tarvek: Chronically Heroic
Gil: Probably Hazardous To My Health
Tarvek to Gil’s face: Do us all a favor and keel over, Wulfenbach. Tarvek when Gil is nowhere nearby: *calls him by his nickname, expresses unshakable faith in his durability and morals* Gil when Tarvek is nowhere nearby: That bastard, who cares? Gil to Tarvek’s face: *wrapping Tarvek in a clingy octopus hug* Can we stay like this forever.
Cheloneuniverse 