Well, I guess that explains the sketch thing—Albia can apparently control more than just her size! And after her brief mourning for Luheia, she looks terribly Skifandrian.
So far her eyes seem to stay the same—not sure if that’s meant to be important or if she just hasn’t bothered to change them yet.
Seems like Zeetha’s speech bubbles in panel 6 might’ve gotten swapped around—they make more sense in reversed order, I think.
The “grey witch” that Luheia protected Skifander from sounds awfully geister-y, to me. Their own goddess-queen, perhaps? (Who may or may not be Lucrezia, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Lucrezia may or may not be the original goddess…)
And I do wonder what Albia is alarmed about in that last panel. A mirror existing, a mirror functioning, a mirror in Mechanicsburg, a Heterodyne going through a mirror…
I think Albia dressed as a Skifandrian queen in honor of her guest and / or her lost sister queen.
I agree that grey witch sounds awfully suspicious.
Albia’s surprise is probably at a functioning mirror. It sounds like it was a huge loss of a super useful technology when they “went dark” for whatever reason, and not even Albia, with all her resources, could repair them or make new ones. So a working one is a big deal.
I wonder who did get that working?
If the Dyne goddess was an eternal god-queen then Albia presumably knew what happened to her (and will hopefully tell the rest of us) because Mechanicsburg isn’t that far away. But then she’d know about the mirror and presumably try to use it to get in touch with any god-queens they couldn’t find other ways. So, it went dark like the rest of them.
H’trok’din was using some kind of space warping to move around, which may have involved the portal, but he overlapped with the Dyne goddess and may have predated the mirrors going dark.
Actually, if he did predate the mirrors going dark, I’m thinking it might be the Heterodynes’ fault. Especially when the Dyne might have powered the portals – something absorbs its energy even when the Castle isn’t working and they never figure out what.
…I wonder if identical twins who took the jaegerbrau would get the same mutations.
More morbidly, would identical twins who took the jaegerbrau both survive/die or is it really down to chance and not anything to do with genetics?
…that was mean, iztarshi. XDD
I think it must, considering Heterodynes all seem to have the same reaction to the Dyne. And considering Mechanicsburgers were more or less bred to be the perfect minions for Heterodynes, a genetic predisposition to not die would maybe explain why so many of the jaegers seem to have similar mutations (hairier, green skin, claws, shark teeth, pointy ears…). A lot of them are likely at least distantly related.
That makes sense.
Actually the death rate seems to be related to mutations, really extreme or unsustainable ones straight off is probably what kills them. So I guess a genetic predisposition to mutations you can survive goes with a genetic predisposition to specific ones.
Oh that’s true! It does make more sense in that direction.
Well in that case, you are almost guaranteed that identical twins will both a) survive and b) have similar mutations, the exception being if the minor differences result in one of them growing spikes on his/her shoulders and the other growing spikes through his/her neck.
Good, because twin Jägers is a really cool concept 😀
(Especially if they got slightly less usual mutations or colours. Green furry twins wouldn’t really stand out. Turquoise spikey ones would be a neat matched pair.)
Please consider: pirate AU. I don’t have any particular ideas, but. Girl Genius with everyone as pirates and maybe half a shirt to be found across the entire male cast. Really nice hats. Jaeger pirates (in really nice hats). Breeches. Agatha as long-lost heir to a fabulous pirate fortune/stronghold.
was Bang part of the Royal Navy before she fell on hard times and had to hire on with pirate!Klaus?
Bang is a privateer. Gil is probably a Navy captain. Poor Klaus is the local admiral who has to a) deal with pirates (including the one his son has a crush on, Gil PLZ) and b) keep Bang at least somewhat in check.
…Zeetha is Agatha’s first mate. Tarvek is a rival pirate.
EDIT: lol oops you edited while I was replying and OH GOD I could see it too
oh, I was interpreting it as EVERYONE is pirates, or at least all the protagonists, with who tries to follow laws and who doesn’t completely reversed from canon. Though actually Lu trying to take over and rule absolutely totally fits the narrative of, say, the British Navy (and East India Trading Co.) in Pirates of the Caribbean.
…please stop me from visualizing that as a crossover
please
BUT YES. And Lucrezia is just like I Will Rule All The Seven Seas And Surrounding Lands, Muahahaha. I get the feeling that Klaus definitely mistakes Agatha for her whether or not she winds up possessed in this AU, though. And even when he finds out it’s definitely not her he’s like gIL PLEASE DO NOT (and Gil does. Oh god Gil turning to piracy)
…pause for a moment, though, and really let your mind linger on Pirate Tarvek. *fans self*
uummmm the ideal pirate!Tarvek would be a Tarvek who has the whole Storm King thing, or something equivalent, and instead of throwing his heart into the dream and selling his soul for it, he just decides “fuck it” and takes off to do whatever the fuck he wants, i.e. pirating. still a manipulative, game-playing weasel, but only when he wants to be. much less of the studious image-upkeep but all the imperial bossiness, ego, and grandiose flair. mmm
While not a full blown Pirate AU, I did write this where the not-really-gone-into backstory is that Gil and Tarvek made friends again in Paris and actually did decide to chuck it all in and turn to piracy.
They were feeling very fed up with their families.
Can I also point out that Maxim and Oggie are really good at the Jaeger banter? Like I know that’s been mentioned in…
I think the thing with Oggie is that he has traits that would be useful in a spy – the banter is totally on purpose, he’s good at being underestimated, and he’s surprisingly empathic which is useful when you want someone to understand where the other side is coming from – but he. cannot. keep. a. secret. unless someone punches him. It’s not even horsing around, he’ll try to spill secrets (like who Agatha is) that they genuinely want to keep. It does seem to only be to people he trusts, but he’s willing to go totally on instinct.
Maxim’s got more sense of when to shut up. Also more respect for the chain of command (although sometimes that goes too far the other way and he doesn’t want to act if he’s unsure of approval). And he’d have fun dressing up.
(I took Dimo’s comment about Oggie the other way – Oggie would tease him about something like this while Maxim’s interested enough that he wouldn’t find it funny.)
I’m just wondering if Oggie thinks that Dimo suffers from some sort of horrible affliction where his stubble grows right back after he shaves it, and if he ever found out that Dimo could clean up so nice, he’d be constantly nagged by Oggie about how he should work harder on dressing nicer.
A million times agreed. Oggie also happens to be, as well as in posession of a big mouth, a Horrible Liar (syned, a brik) and Dimo’s done done all the lying for them that I recall (though I have a poor memory).
I wonder if Jenka is the type to let this valuable information slip
and see i cannot not be invested in gil and agatha and gil and tarvek, whups, too many feelings about their relationships, i am MORE invested in them than agatha/gil at this point because gil as a person and a character is starting to just annoy me„
haha, i get that! gil’s a sort of character that really appeals to me in general aka: the noble (as in, noble in character not noble of birth) dumbass who works from the gut vs working from the brain. I LOVE HOT-BLOODED DOPES!!!!!!! FRICK.
LMAO UNRELATED TANGENT i do think that a lot of what he’s done lately is consistent with how his character has always been presented: he’s very temperamental, very impulsive, and for as clever and insightful as he is emotionally, he’s also very bull-headed; when he thinks something is Absolutely Right, he goes for it even if it means losing everything else. which is why i’m actually super pleased to see that as de facto ruler of the wulfenbach empire, he’s not been all that great at it. he can figure stuff out and work for larger goals and ideals, but generally he’s a people person; if he doesn’t have a specific person or group of people to help or protect (or “protect”) he’s kind of at a loss.
while agatha’s been largely concerned so far with surviving + proving herself, she — as the hero — is also very much aware of and driven by persons, ideas, places, and events that occur outside of her personal sphere, so in this sense she’s absolutely suited for Saving The World; she’s inspired and affected by and emotionally and intellectually involved in the circumstances of complete strangers, empathetic but also practical, able to balance her emotional concerns with reason. tarvek, too, is very involved with every level of every task or situation he considers, so when he does inevitably take charge of the family + sturmhalten (GOD I’M SO EXCITED/READY FOR IT, LIKE… i know he’s done a lot of messed up shit that will hopefully be addressed, but he’s also clearly trying to make up for these things AND he’s possibly the only really decent person in his entire family, so. like, the comic plays him as the Evil Guy in the group, but i think as king he’ll be pretty fair and effective), he’ll be a very effective ruler/administrator.
but gil… is not… really suited to be The Leader Of Everything. he doesn’t even really want to be in charge. so, like, hahaha, i’ve actually really enjoyed seeing him be largely out of his element when the political machinations take front and center — agatha’s very quickly learning how to navigate politics and, in the future, the power structure of europa, and obviously this is tarvek’s specialty, but if gil can’t brute force something then he’s at a loss (and he’s always been such a sucker wrt other people: he talks a lot of game about being Jaded and such, but the fact of the matter is he trusts people he knows he shouldn’t trust, for no reason other than he’s so open that he expects everyone else to be so open too) — and him evidently failing so spectacularly at ruling/managing the empire.
what… a beautiful doofus…………………..
so this is super great and i want to frame it and put little lightning bolts around it and it’s basically the character analysis i’ve been wanting to write on gil for ages but never got round to
(god i love gil he’s a big dumbass and he tries so hard but he’s just not cut out for leadership or politics remotely and trying to do it just makes things worse for everyone but he’s still such a sweetie and he really does just want to love and protect and do science)
“This is,” Gil says, his bowtie audibly constricting his voice, “too much wedding.”
post-canon OT3, absolutely ridiculous fluff
“Complaints, yes,” Gil says, turning on him, “extensive, lengthy, book-length complaints that I can resurrect during my vows
if you’d like– get it on the official record–” He has his arms
companionably slung around Tarvek’s neck in a way that is 50% hug, 50%
headlock. “No objections.“
XD I think he’s more likely to be a jaeger. We have a lot of in-comic jaegery activity from him, including the fact that he can keep up with an aging Vole and clearly has opinions on the Brau. Plus, having met the Het’rok’din in that short the Foglios did, I think Higgs secretly being him is sorta unlikely. But hey, I have been wrong before!
I’m leaning towards an ancient Heterodyne, even if he isn’t the first, just because he’s so casual about the possibility of Agatha popping when she drinks Dyne water, and commenting on the same thing happening to previous Heterodynes. Unless he’s been around so long that he’s become inured to the idea of individual Heterodynes dying, but since Bill and Barry have been missing so long you’d think he’d care to preserve her.
…a lot of my jaegerfeels lately come from the Heterodyne!Sorin fics, so it might be skewed.
Although I am very bwahaha over the idea of a Heterodyne creating the experimental draught, feeding it to Higgs, and being disappointed because he doesn’t look scary enough, so they revamp it to give people fur and spikes and change colors and oh, let’s add poison! And tails! And SWORDHANDS!*
*Swordhands quickly discontinued, turns out flesh and bone swords don’t cut very well. Easier to just hold a sword in the hand!
XDD
i’m on the jaeger side, solely because if he was a heterodyne… either he’d have taken over when bill and barry went poof, or if for some reason he’s out of the running entirely, his children would not be.
he’d have assured the interim at the very least, until either some other heterodyne could be found or some heterodyne could be *born*. if he has the blood, and the only thing between mechanicsburg and doom is him putting his hand in the castle’s mouth for like two seconds, everyone from carson to mamma gkika would have marched him there, not just shrugged and went never mind let’s keep desperately looking for something that we have no reason to believe even still exists. he has a sense of duty; even if it’s not what he wanted, he’d have done it.
and nothing is stopping him from having children now – or if he’s sterile, from having one made in a lab.
also, he’s not even a little bit a spark.
meanwhile we have mentions of a sneaky jaegergeneral who is supposed to go around in the shadows whose name has been SUPER cautiously held back from the narration, and he’s careful to get permission from agatha for things, and the generals and other jaegers treat him like a buddy, not like anyone related even tangentially to their masters.
his casual ehhhs about agatha drinkking the dyne water seemed more like a looooooong history watching heterodynes either pull off impossible feats or being impossible to stop doing shit they got into their minds to try, so he’s fatalistic about it. oh! and when he has that exchange with the castle about her relative who burst into flames while doing the same thing, he’s not talking as if the guy is also related to *him*.
Cheloneuniverse 