Monday's comic!

[skybreak]

Right! Let go save Europa!

And to the West is where Agatha and entourage will be heading

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Not an impressive showing by the Emperor of All Cats.

[bunsen_h]

There could be an element of "She's immune to my cat-control powers! I can tell!" or something like that. Something that really is dire and he's incoherent.

[kelkyag]

Or even "she tried using her cat-control powers on me!" Krosp's cat-control powers aren't very useful, as he's pointed out. If the orange cat has the potential to step in as the leader of the bears, though, that's dangerous.

[occams_pyramid]

Presumably the bears would follow whoever has the shiny thing.

[skybreak]

Ah, but right after König announced that Krosp was the Master of the bears he then said no to Martellus and told him to hand over the Shiny Thing.

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150220 and the next page.

[kelkyag]

What skybreak said, and also, despite Martellus' assertion that the bears need the shiny thing to remind them to think and accept their leader, we've seen several of them -- now an engineer, a doctor, and a mechanic -- opt to pursue technically demanding careers among other sapients rather than remain soldiers in the bear army. Vapnoople may've built a much more capable and self-directing species than he intended to. Likewise with Krosp.

[skybreak]

I'm just going to throw this thought out here: even if Agatha decides that she wants both Gil and Tarvek as her husband/consort/partner it will never work. Even if both lads are willing to try a three-way partnership over losing or walking away from her it'll never work. Not long term. And definitely not for a 'happily ever after'.

Sorry in advance to everyone who is hoping for a OT3 but I think either Tarvek is going to heroically remove himself from the race, or he will try something sneaky that'll backfire and blow his chance.

Unless he dies (permanently) then Agatha will marry Gil.

[jbwoodford]

The story has changed enormously in detail over the 20+ years that it's been published (not to mention the many years of previous development). Given that, I don't think it's possible to make a definitive statement re the likelihood of OT3...unless there's been Word of God that I've missed.

[madfilkentist]

Gil has plot armor; we saw him in the time machine very early in the story. I don't think we have any guarantees for Tarvek.

[jbwoodford]

We also have that one vote incentive sketch from sometime pre-2008 that strongly implied Gil and Agatha having a kid, but that was a long time ago.

[spectrum_09]

That was actually a commission for Cheyenne and Eli on the birth of their daughter. It is based on a photo of a cosplaying couple with their young daughter at a convention which was taken by Cheyenne.

[jbwoodford]

I was thinking of the one titled, "TheEnd!" Although when I went back to look at it, the figure I thought was the kid was more likely to be Gil in a state of dumbfounded ecstasy.

(It also features a reference to Bang and Othar getting married, so take it with a metric ton of salt.)

[spectrum_09]

Where is this "The End" you speak of?

[murgatroyd_666]

It's one of many in a bunch of sketches by Phil, many of which were pre-publication studies for the characters. The sketches also include several of the Baron and his son (named Ujebek, NOT Wulfenbach) when they were both intended to be villains.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery]/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070221.jpg

Alas, the link to the sketches has moved several times and I don't see it where I expected it to be on the GG website. But if you do a Web image search for [Girl Genius sketches] you'll turn up a bunch of them.

AHA! https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070829.jpg

Some of my favorites:
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070203.jpg
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070913.jpg (FANSERVICE!)
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070215.jpg
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070519.jpg
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070705.jpg
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070103.jpg
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketches/strips/ggsketch_20070417.jpg

[skybreak]

The first page of the Daily Sketch seems to start here:
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketch.php?date=20061129
But all the links are broken - the links all point to "comic.php?date=" but they should say "sketch.php?date=" instead.
To view them all I manually edited the address field in my browser to roll it forward one calendar day for each page (unlike the main story which typically advances 3 pages a week this advances every day) and seems to go up to https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketch.php?date=20070930

[murgatroyd_666]

I was looking for the one with Klaus and Tarvek in which Klaus was grilling him: "Monsters in the sewers. [Other disasters.] Tarvek. Explain." "It was my father, sir! He never tells me anything!"

[skybreak]

Found it: https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/gallery/sketch.php?date=20070610

[jbwoodford]

Thanks! I saved as many as I could, but my hard drive isn't generally accessible to others (I hope).

[bunsen_h]

Though we don't know his condition. He was behaving rather oddly at the time.

[spectrum_09]

As far as Tarvek heroically sacrificing himself, he has indicating a willingness to do so.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091111#.YGuzj-hKhWw

[skybreak]

Did he really have Agatha's best interest in mind when he disabled the music keeping Lucrezia from again taking over Agatha?
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060628

Or when he handed over the Spark Wasp device to Vrin?
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060802

When talking to Gil I think he knew it was likely that either they were all going to die or they were all going to live, so he may have been less heroic than he wanted to appear.

Tarvek is clearly a very complex character, and I'm sure we haven't been shown more than fraction of what motivates him, so who really knows?

[jbwoodford]

I would caution against imputing a planned consistency of character to Tarvek. Remember that he was supposed to be a real antagonist before the authors decided that he made a better rival for the deuteragonist role with Gil, and IIRC some of those changes happened after he was first introduced.

[skybreak]

True. And to be fair the plot needed Lucrezia to get the Spark Wasp device and Tarvek was a plausible and/or convenient way to make that happen. Still, him betraying Agatha and aiding Lucrezia is now canon.

Also, (I've read somewhere that) Maxim was intended to die heroically early in the story but Kaja decided she liked him so that plan was changed.

[jbwoodford]

I hadn't heard that about Maxim, but Theo (Agatha's cousin) was also supposed to die early on--I mean, his last name is a variation on "Doomed."

[spectrum_09]

At Sturmhalten, Tarvek was caught in a multi-sided pickle. He was trying to accomplish several things simultaneously. Everything hit the fan when three airborne Wulfenbach divisions fell on Sturmhalten (my colorful take on the invasion).

Tarvek had to deal with the Geisters as well as Lucrezia and maintain their loyalty whilst and at the same time protecting Agatha but keeping her from telling the EXPECTED Quester about his families involvement with the Other. Klaus would have have Tarvek shot on sight after hearing that. Klaus wasn't exactly fond of him to start with. Perhaps he was thinking Lucrezia would use the spark wasp on the Quester who would report "All is well in Sturmhalten. Wilhelm DID die from a lab accident." No one was expecting Klaus in person, much less the invasion.

Try to see the events though Tarvek's eyes. He is still a weasel, but (ahead of our hearing it) he does bring up the prophesy.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060526#.YG0DnuhKhWw
He is holding the Fairy Tale Legend in his arms. "To find you out of nowhere. It's too perfect."
The "fairy tale" has power.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070713#.YG0ErehKhWw
As Storm King, Agatha is valuable to Tarvek - as Martellus seems to know as well. But he is attracted to her as a spark. At Sturmhalten, he is trying to protect her, but for himself.

[occams_pyramid]

But the prophecy implies Tarvek

[jbwoodford]

The prophecy from the opera? AIUI, we're supposed to make the connection that the revival of the opera is part of the overall Zola/Storm King plan, to help pave the way for the coup against Wulfenbach. It's not clear whether the prophecy is (or is inspired by) a real thing. Certainly the Muses we've seen aren't saying anything about it.