I wonder, though, how she recognized the rock as coming from Londinium with just a glance. Maybe it's a museum sample that has "Authentic Londinium Bedrock" carved into it?
Hmmm...if we didn't have Word of God that Agatha et al are supposed to be going to Africa next (IIRC), I would speculate that they're going to put the Brek'kah stone in the harmonic analyzer and open a way to Skifander.
I thought this was part of the overall England arc. We'll see, though--I don't know whether we had any indication what they were going to be doing in Africa.
Which Jägers, though? They (as a class, not specific individuals) literally appear in the first issue of the original comic, and they're in the Secret Blueprints as well.
Sure, but that wasn't after the first issue had been published--or after the Secret Blueprints, which IIRC came out before the first issue. I don't know how much time passed between penciling the first few pages and refining the rest of the story.
I think I misunderstood what you were saying, though--it sounded like you were putting the addition of the Jägers as something that happened after the first comic came out, as opposed to when they first started putting the story together, and that's clearly not the case.
As noted, they DO change the narrative path of the story. Which backs up my initial feeling that the Foglios have a basic plot line. They know where the main characters in the story should go but they haven't given a great deal of thought as to how to get there. The story kind of evolves in the direction of the final goal but it takes side trips occasionally.
As noted, they DO change the narrative path of the story.
In all seriousness, how? Where would the story have gone without the Jägers? I grant that the texture of the story would probably be very different, but I'd like to see something definite from the authors about changes to the direction of the plot.
Re your other point about the narrative changing, there are lots of other examples, even leaving out the ones that predate the release of the first hard-copy comic editions in 2000 (like the whole Wulfenbach/Ujabeck change). IIRC, Theo wasn't supposed to survive his encounter with Othar (hence the name--DuMedd::Doomed), and Tarvek wasn't supposed to have an anti-heel turn.
Note the Sargent doesn't smell anything about Agatha (he does in the later written novel) but by the end of the first print volume, her "smell" becomes important. Foglios began to decide to work them into the narrative - they can identify a Heteodyne. Initially, they are just Wulfenbach troops. They became Heterodyne minions. That leads to Da Boyz and mamma Gkika as well as her "Beer Hall". And don't forget Airman third class Axel Higgs and Zeetha's possible Jägerization. We get a whole story of the Jägerdaught and the sidebar of Oggie's wife. All that out of Phil's initial drawing.
The Secret Blueprints has a section on the Jägermonsters, describing them as Heterodyne construct soldiers picked up by the Baron after the Heterodyne Boys disappeared, and that particular book came out in January 2001. So they weren't just Wulfenbach troops at any point during publication.
The smell thing shows up in the third print issue, from mid-2001 (I forgot to check the copyright date when I looked it up). Remember that the pages up until, IIRC, Zumzum were released in hard-copy comic format before the Foglios put them into webcomic format.
That said, there's an even more glaring example of a retcon involving the Jägers--in the first print issue, when Gil is examining the apparatus at TPU, there's a Jäger leading the Wulfenbach clanks.
That Jäger doesn't notice when Agatha heterodynes. Oops.
In all seriousness, how? Where would the story have gone without the Jägers?
Just looking at the current developments, the "cursed waters" appear to be closely related to the Jäger-creating power of the Dyne water. The creatures battling on the surface are obviously Jäger-like. If we hadn't seen the Jäger effect before, the present development would have looked like something pulled out of a hat.
In terms more directly related to ongoing action, it's doubtful Agatha would have gotten away from Payne's circus alive without the help of Maxim, Oggie, and Dimo.
You can say that these events could have happened in different ways without the Jägers, but almost every character except Agatha, Lucrezia, Klaus, and Gil is expendable in this sense. There are many ways to tell a story, but changing or omitting key elements would make it quite different.
I headcanoned the change as Agatha (or whoever it was we're seeing the story through) didn't at first pay much attention to the individual features of the Jägers, just to the ones that differentiate them from "ordinary" humans (dialect, teeth, maybe color). When they became individuals with personalities, as in when she (or us) got to know a few of them, their own personal features became more important and thus more prominent. Bit like most kids drawn in the series are just generic kids, with maybe clothes to indicate sex and age and perhaps status (of their parents), but they have rather interchangeable features, unless they have a Plot Point to fill.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2022-01-28 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 08:59 pm (UTC)I wonder, though, how she recognized the rock as coming from Londinium with just a glance. Maybe it's a museum sample that has "Authentic Londinium Bedrock" carved into it?
no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 07:22 pm (UTC)It might be in Africa. :]
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Date: 2022-01-28 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 08:31 pm (UTC)The Foglios have said somewhere that when Phil was drawing https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021209 he wanted some kind of herald, and commented that he really liked that character he had drawn earlier - to which Kaja replied something like "It's your comic, you can draw what you like".
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Date: 2022-01-28 11:46 pm (UTC)I think I misunderstood what you were saying, though--it sounded like you were putting the addition of the Jägers as something that happened after the first comic came out, as opposed to when they first started putting the story together, and that's clearly not the case.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 06:26 pm (UTC)Here only Zudok is different - different uniform and hair - but same basic body form and face.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030430#.YfWDBOrMLIU
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030505#.YfWDOurMLIU
here they have different faces.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031017#.YfWD-erMLIU
Here they are distinct individuals.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040528#.YfWCBOrMLIU
As noted, they DO change the narrative path of the story. Which backs up my initial feeling that the Foglios have a basic plot line. They know where the main characters in the story should go but they haven't given a great deal of thought as to how to get there. The story kind of evolves in the direction of the final goal but it takes side trips occasionally.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 05:01 am (UTC)In all seriousness, how? Where would the story have gone without the Jägers? I grant that the texture of the story would probably be very different, but I'd like to see something definite from the authors about changes to the direction of the plot.
Re your other point about the narrative changing, there are lots of other examples, even leaving out the ones that predate the release of the first hard-copy comic editions in 2000 (like the whole Wulfenbach/Ujabeck change). IIRC, Theo wasn't supposed to survive his encounter with Othar (hence the name--DuMedd::Doomed), and Tarvek wasn't supposed to have an anti-heel turn.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-01 04:35 am (UTC)The smell thing shows up in the third print issue, from mid-2001 (I forgot to check the copyright date when I looked it up). Remember that the pages up until, IIRC, Zumzum were released in hard-copy comic format before the Foglios put them into webcomic format.
That said, there's an even more glaring example of a retcon involving the Jägers--in the first print issue, when Gil is examining the apparatus at TPU, there's a Jäger leading the Wulfenbach clanks.
That Jäger doesn't notice when Agatha heterodynes. Oops.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 11:50 am (UTC)Just looking at the current developments, the "cursed waters" appear to be closely related to the Jäger-creating power of the Dyne water. The creatures battling on the surface are obviously Jäger-like. If we hadn't seen the Jäger effect before, the present development would have looked like something pulled out of a hat.
In terms more directly related to ongoing action, it's doubtful Agatha would have gotten away from Payne's circus alive without the help of Maxim, Oggie, and Dimo.
You can say that these events could have happened in different ways without the Jägers, but almost every character except Agatha, Lucrezia, Klaus, and Gil is expendable in this sense. There are many ways to tell a story, but changing or omitting key elements would make it quite different.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 10:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-31 01:12 am (UTC)