Regarding SFnal Tropes

[murgatroyd666]

Girl Genius has been chock-full of science fiction tropes of long standing, starting with Mad Scientists (and the Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter) on the very first page and running throughout the comic with Lost Cities, Warrior Girl, Mind Transfer, Crapsack World, Artificial Intelligence, Invaders from Another Dimension, Time Travel, Uplifted Animals, Marvelous Inventions, Immortality and Its Costs ... even Giant Ants. Why, it's as though the Professors are looking for opportunities to use as many of these tropes as they can! [grin]

So the thought occurred to me: Which SFnal tropes haven't the Professors used ... yet?

Here are a few:

⚙ The planet just like Earth on the other side of the Sun. (A potential clue: the Southern Hemisphere sky, with the Southern Cross and alpha Centauri, being visible from Paris.)

⚙ The Hollow Earth. (I'm almost certain that this will explain several of the mysteries in the comic.)

⚙ Physical duplication of human beings. (It could provide an interesting solution to the problem of Gil vs. Tarvek. It could also explain why Agatha isn't treated like royalty in "Electric Coffin" -- she's just one of several Agathas.)

⚙ Temporal loops -- effects that are their own causes, including both artifacts and people, due to time travel. See Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" or Dios in Pratchett's Pyramids. (Possible uses in Girl Genius: the Heterodyne Device and the Other ... and of course the entire story already qualifies as a use of this trope -- see first comment.)

Any others that haven't been used yet?

UPDATE: Contributed by MARYCATELLI --

⚙ FTL drives.

⚙ Galactic Empire.

⚙ Silicon-based lifeforms. (I'm a bit surprised that Agatha didn't run into any Rock Monsters in the caverns beneath Paris.)

MORE:

⚙ Telepathy and telekinesis. (Unless Klaus' threat to kill Bang with his mind wasn't facetious. And do Queen Albia's powers qualify?)

⚙ Aliens among us, especially shape-changing aliens. (Special exception: The Winslow.)

⚙ Space travel of the traditional kinds, with rockets or anti-gravity. (Odd that the Professors haven't even mentioned it yet, other than fictional characters going to Mars in a rowboat.)

UPDATE: Contributed by THERRU --

⚙ A forgotten/hidden civilisation under the sea. ("The Heterodyne Boys and the Turbines of Atlantis" was mentioned in "Fan Fiction" but most likely neither story is canon.)

⚙ Body swaps -- two or more individuals accidentally swapping bodies with each other. (Examples: Thorne Smith's novel Turnabout and ST:TOS episode "Turnabout Intruder." Lucrezia apparently experimented with body (or mind) swaps, but those shouldn't be called accidents.)

Comments

[occams_pyramid]

The Temporal Loop was used right at the beginning to kick the story off?

[murgatroyd666]

Yup! My post has been amended to include that one, but I guess it doesn't count as a "potential" use!

[occams_pyramid]

If Electric Coffin is canon, it implies that Agatha does not (yet) break through to Second Stage Spark.

[murgatroyd666]

On the GG page that links to it, the Professors say that it's canon.

One really strange thing about "Electric Coffin" is that nobody seems to make a big deal out of the fact that this is the Agatha Heterodyne... and one of the characters is willing to kill her.

And an interesting thing is that we never see her left hand not wearing a glove. The Professors are being very coy about her future relationships.

[marycatelli]

No FTL drives.

No Galactic Empire.

No silicon-based lifeforms.

[murgatroyd666]

Good ones!

Oh, I forgot to mention Tunnel in the Sky and Stargate-style Portals in my list.

In addition, I'm not sure whether Invaders from Mars would qualify, since Theo DuMedd used the idea in the story the told the kids on the airship.

[madripoor_rose]

Would the Queens' Mirrors qualify as Stargate-style portals?

[batrachian]

Built by mysterious precursors? Check.
Doing weird shit to advance the plot? Check.


Looks like it to me. >.>

[murgatroyd666]

Yes, definitely -- but I should have been more clear. I meant my inline list of tropes the Professors have used, not the bulleted list of things they haven't used yet. Ditto for Invaders from Mars.

[occams_pyramid]

Space travel - uncertain. Zeetha went through a period of zero gravity on the way from Skifander (It's clearer in the book than the comic).

[murgatroyd666]

While traveling in an airship. It's difficult to see how a dirigible can make it to space.

I'm pretty sure that the gravitational inversion will be explained by a transition from "inner gravity" to "outer gravity" during the trip from the Hollow Earth to Europa through the big hole near the North Pole.

[therru]

A forgotten/hidden civilisation under the sea.

Body swaps (two or more individuals accidentally swapping bodies with each other).

[turbobeholder]

⚙ Physical duplication of human beings.

We have seen at least one clone already.
And brain copying is an option.

⚙ Silicon-based lifeforms. (I'm a bit surprised that Agatha didn't run into any Rock Monsters in the caverns beneath Paris.)

Inconclusive without analysis or explicit mention. Maybe those slime-spitters, who knows?

⚙ Telepathy and telekinesis. (Unless Klaus' threat to kill Bang with his mind wasn't facetious. And do Queen Albia's powers qualify?)

Others in "god-mode" levitated things around, both flashback queens and Agatha. And perhaps old Igneous. ;]

⚙ Aliens among us, especially shape-changing aliens. (Special exception: The Winslow.)

Trogulus?

⚙ A forgotten/hidden civilisation under the sea. ("The Heterodyne Boys and the Turbines of Atlantis" was mentioned in "Fan Fiction" but most likely neither story is canon.)

On the map of Queen Mirrors there was a light at least in Atlantic Ocean, so Atlantis is sort of confirmed.
England fits too, except the "forgotten" part.

[murgatroyd666]

⚙ Physical duplication of human beings.

We have seen at least one clone already.
And brain copying is an option.

That fits the literal definition, I guess, but I meant the sort of instantaneous replication in which a person steps into one of two empty booths, someone presses a button, and suddenly there are two identical copies of that person. Example: Will and Thomas Riker. Ur-example: The Four-Sided Triangle.


⚙ Aliens among us, especially shape-changing aliens. (Special exception: The Winslow.)

Trogulus?

My guess is that he's one of Lovecraft's Deep Ones rather than an extraterrestrial.