Layout of Mechanicsburg
While no map of Mechanicsburg has ever been released, there are many views of the town which are roughly consistent from which a rough layout can be discerned.
Major views:
- The first two-page panoramic view ✣ of Mechanicsburg upon Agatha's first entry
- Multiple views ✣ of the map on Castle Wulfenbach which Tarvek and Gil argue over, particularly the first appearance of it ✣ .
- the two-page panorama of the surrounding area ✣ , with the time stop, thorn hedge, Wulfenbach labs, and giant statues.
- A two-page panorama ✣ behind Van surveying the status of the battle.
Minor views
- A view from the main gate ✣ looking across the river
- The statue of the Heterodyne boys is mentioned by Carson when Agatha enters ✣ , and is shown when Pinky lands ✣ , so apparently is to the left (and may be a square directly across from the Castle's lower main gate.) The hospital is likely that direction but Carson's instructions are just "follow the signs" from there.
- There's a background view ✣ of what's likely the north, more minor gate out of town.
- A small shot of the view from Klaus' hospital bedroom ✣ (Klaus also watches Gil's showdown ✣ with the war stompers from his room and indicates they came from the east ✣ , and Agatha watches the same showdown from the eastern wall. The gate is apparently the Black Gate. ✣
- A view from the base of the Doom Bell ✣ , including part of the castle
- A view of the castle and the Dynefall ✣ , possibly from the main gate guard house.
- A view of the north gate ✣ and the town around it during the bombardment campaign.
- The castle and spires of the cathedral ✣ , behind Franz on his flying bike.
- Views through the Toad Gate ✣ from the unnamed Franz side story
- The castle, now fully charged, repairing itself ✣ (cathedral in background)
- The view of the chrono-kaiju, presumably from the "Ozone Overlook." ✣
- Several views in the Solstice Story:
- The opening streetscape ✣ , showing a clock-topped arch, possibly with the Castle behind it.
- A view of the Castle, likely from the Red Cathedral ✣ , where the Professoressa gives her Solstice Rant.
- The front of the Jägerhall ✣ , next to a clock-topped arch.
- A two-page panorama of general Solstice debauchery ✣
- The final page of the story ✣ , likely looking from the Main Gate towards the Castle.
NOTE: this is currently a stub page with links only. More edits will be added with deductions from these links.
So a quick comment in here that hopefully the mods see. I've been working on piecing together a **plausible** Castle Heterodyne/Mechanichsburg layout. Doing it precisely is going to be impossible because I'm reasonably certain that Phil doesn't have a precise model he's working from. There are simply pages that are spatially mutually incompatible with each other.
One easy example of this is that nearly all distance views of the Castle show it isolated at the top of the volcanic plug with only the single winding road up to the front gate, but there is at least one other and possibly three other ways to get up and down between Castle and Town that appear in the story both in narrative and in illustration.
The best way to resolve this, I think, is to take the Foglio's word that Girl Genius should be thought of as the works of the Professor and Professoressa in creating a popular history of Agatha's story, so is not going to be strictly accurate. What I've managed to piece together is a layout that seems loosely supported by the narratives and by most drawings, even if it's directly contradicted by some other pages of art.
In the case of the gates of the castle, we say that the "disconnected castle on the rock" is the iconic view of most people of Castle Heterodyne, and what I think are the tiered courtyards from the Gate of Chimes down to the Gate of Lamps on the (possibly) northern side aren't prominent enough to merit inclusion in that particular illustration.
However, as it can't be considered canon, is there an appropriate way to post it here? Should this be tagged with the '/Mad' label? That seems a bit far as I'm trying to do it as grounded in direct bits from the comic as much as possible. But at the same time, what I'm suggesting can't be canon either as it's effectively speculation by a fan.
What's the best thing to do here? MTBinDurham (talk) 21:28, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
P.S. In doing this, it's necessarily expanded to try to figure out a greater speculative geography of Europa. (e.g., where Beetleburg is in relationship to Venice, is Sturmhalten in the Alps or some other mountain range, etc.) So maybe that's how to do it—come up with a "Speculative Geography of Europa" super-topic and put it all under that?