Forum:2013-05-31 (Friday)

Discussion for comic for .

Time to update you Kickstarter pledge. They have updated the list of add-ons--if you want any patches add money to your pledge. Argadi (talk) 01:31, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Friday's page is up on Live Journal, if you want to see it. AndyAB99 (talk) 01:39, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Assuming Mechaniscburg is moving in normal time. Within 10 minutes of being stabbed, Dr Sun would be on the scene. And while his knowledge of toxicology may or may not be up to Sturmvorous/Smoke Knight standards, I'm sure he can come up with something. Also, a little oops in the very last frame. -- Br&#39;fin (talk) 04:20, May 31, 2013 (UTC)


 * uhmm, isn't dr sun on castle wulfenbach? after all, the baron was debating whether he should take him along (and decided against it). and if he is there, i doubt anyone who knows of tarvek's situation could get him to come down that fast (with the possible exception of the baron, who's probably not willing to help tarvek, though). Finn MacCool (talk) 13:00, May 31, 2013 (UTC)
 * Good point. Dr. Sun was in Mechanicsburg when the dropwalls showed up. But Klaus does consider taking him, so he probably left the town. AndyAB99 (talk) 15:04, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding events, his robo-hand just got continuity errored out of existance in the last panel there. Infact, now that I've bothered to look immediately above where I'm typing I see I'm not the first one to notice this. Dreadhead (talk) 04:55, May 31, 2013 (UTC)


 * There's a very annoyed entry on the Girl Genius Webcomic facebook page including two expletives. It won't be fixed soon as Kaja is gallivanting. Argadi (talk) 09:52, May 31, 2013 (UTC)


 * Since they have time to think about it I hope they end up retconning it instead of patching it: off screen minion, skin-glove, robo-hand holding rigamortified bio-hand that is stuck around cork-screw - so many options.209.166.129.51 18:55, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

AAANND....so much for Tweedle establishing trust. AndyAB99 (talk) 10:02, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

'"Oh, Martellus, why does every lab you design have so many shackles?" I swear, some people ask the stupidest questions.' Tweedle was right; at least he's up front about it all. HeterodyneGirl (talk) 13:45, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

I interpreted this page pretty much as an implicit confirmation that time was running much more slowly in Mechanicssburg. Of course I've been wrong before.Tkela (talk) 17:33, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

This obviously confirms that time travel is or already has become a part of this story. Tweedle used a kind of knife, a "nullabist knife", on Tarvek that pretty much assures that there is no chance of him being revived. It liquifies the body so even if anyone were inclined to revivify him, there is no body to work on.-- Billy Catringer (talk) 18:49, May 31, 2013 (UTC)
 * As I've chosen young Prince Sturmvoraous as my avatar I feel obliged to chime in with a somewhat haphazard chain of questions bearing on the question "What has happened / will happen to Tarvek, and what does it mean for the GirlGenius plot?"

Edit: if the prevailling time dilation theory is correct, the prosaic strategy for bringing back the city & helping Tarvek would involve opening portals from regular time near Klaus and/or Tarvek, then intervening to neutralize the device (by disabling it or teleporting it somewhere else) & administer an antidote. Another possibility is, say, for Othar to come up with some magic from the inside that counteracts the device. Of the people left in the city, if someone can be counted on to turn around an impossibly difficult predicament in an impossibly short time, it's probably Othar. Whatever happens, we can count on one thing -- there will be unforeseen consequences. Tarvek (talk) 19:28, May 31, 2013 (UTC)
 * 1) Will Tarvek live or die?  Well, everyone will die eventually.  If Tarvek is as good as dead right now from being Tweedled, this means some of the main plot themes are as good as over.  The most important of these is, of course, the Gil-Tarvek romantic rivalry for Agatha, but there are more.  For example, only Tarvek and Zola know that the clank Anevka is Lucrezia.  Tarvek's wealth of knowledge about the workings of the Other, not to mention his reverse-engineering of van Rijn's work, are lost.  If Tarvek is alive, these plot themes are on suspension until he's brought back.  This can only happen if
 * 2) Has the time flow of the novel been altered?  I know a lot of people are convinced that the time in Mechanicsburg has slowed down, and there are tantalizing hints to this effect ("after all this time", "Wulfenbach has been hunting us down" etc. etc.), so after initial skepticism I now tend to favor the conjecture.  But, for science's sake, this can be falsified at the stroke of a pen.  I don't suggest to brainstorm about it now, but if the combination of the Wulfenbach black device & the Cathedral-Storm Refuge gate really did affect the flow of time, this may have happened in ways compatible with existing hints but incompatible with Tarvek's survival.  I for one think the plot would be richer with Tarvek in it, but I'm biased.  What we can say with practical certainty, however, is "If Tarvek is to play any future active role in the plot, the time flow must have been altered in a way compatible with his survival."  However, even if he's out of the picture actively, Tarvek can still wreak havoc with the plot with what he's done in his lifetime.  This in part depends on
 * 3) How much of a douche is/was Tarvek, anyway?  Certainly young Sturmvoraus can appear very sympathetic, he's won me over for one, but he is a crafty one and isn't below being outright scum.  The most serious breach of trust for which we have IMO quite firm evidence is his editing of Agatha's grand broadcast to the world.  Although for a while I suspected Wooster, there's little doubt in my mind Tarvek actually did this, his game given away after he lied both to Lucrezia-in-Agatha that the message transmitter was worthless, and to Agatha herself that Lucrezia edited the message.  His notes (they're encrypted, Gil could read them, but were they double-encrypted?), the consequences of the potion recipe (what happened to Bang?) and the takeover of the weasel operation (how in the world did he manage to turn the Vespiary Squad during his short & closely monitored time on Castle Wulfenbach?) are cases in point.  A number of things Tarvek set in motion could eventually reveal him to be an utter scumbag and annihilate most of the sympathetic impression his character left so far (admitting, of course, that this is a matter of taste).  Some of these will probably turn out to be true even if he lives.  So back to the question
 * 4) Will Mechanicsburg be brought back online, and how?  I'd say probably yes, because two central characters, on top of Tarvek, most likely did not make it out -- Moloch and Othar.  If The Future is ever to take place, Moloch has to make it out, and Othar, well, if there's one character except Agatha without which the GirlGenius comic just wouldn't be itself, it's Othar :D.  How Mechanicburg will be brought back depends in part on the nature of its predicament, and in part on who else made it out.  Higgs and Zeetha did, Gil did, the Vanamondes & the crew did not, neither did most Jägers.  Theo, Sleipnir, Vole -- not sure.