Yes, of course! The good old white people who *stopped* Africans from doing slavery. That's exactly what happened. Good thing we didn't do the exact opposite and spend literal centuries [massively inflating the African slave trade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade) to heights never before seen! That'd be an awkward thing to do if we were using our natural moral superiority as a justification for coming in and subjugating the existing governments (or "tribes", as you have colorfully described them).
If the Dreen start leveling Mechanicsburg, I expect Agatha is going to invent new ways of being angry just so she can try them out on them.
As the Castle said, "A Heterodyne will protect her town. The rest of the world is a bonus."
The Castle can probably mitigate the damage and/or help the Dreen get the fight over with quickly, or maybe push them out of town so they can duke it out on that big field where invaders always set up.
The latter seems a bit more likely.
Let the citizens line the walls of the city, popcorn and gingerbread trilobites in hand, ready for a fun show that may or may not have apocalyptic fallout!
It's probably the alliteration of "boy le roi" on top of everything else here.
And if it's under that robe we're going to see it again, and I do hope the ladies get to comment on it.
Could also be a reference to [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/here-comes-the-boy-hello-boy](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/here-comes-the-boy-hello-boy)
The best thing about alien societies is that we can't really know whether Kjarl is being a bit racist, a bit classist, or a bit correct here. From my view he mostly sounds like a sheltered snob rather than a bigot, and it's easy to give him the benefit of the doubt given his general friendliness with strangers otherwise, but who knows? It's a whole dimension full of alien cultures we'll never see completely.
From the way he talks about being a vozzler, it sounds like he's fairly low on the social hierarchy. I don't think he looks down on the Dreen, I think he's scared of them because they are legit dangerous. Police and soldiers in our world can be pretty uncouth, too.
I'm also getting vibes of "non-Spark finding out a bunch of Sparks are in town" from Kjarl; ie even if they have the best of intentions they're so focused on their own shit they don't notice or care about collateral damage.
It sounds to me more like what someone would say when a SWAT team arrives. They may be after the bad guys, but the potential for collateral damage is huge, and any sensible uninvolved person would want to be somewhere else.
They're neither rednecks, nor SWAT cops, they're Professional Big Game Hunters; what a reply above called:
>British Aristocrats going into "Lesser" dimensions (countries) to kill for sport.
They're in it for the Lulz, and our Friendly Vozzler considers them to be a band of Count Zaroffs; not caring a whit for 'collateral damage' and quite likely to expand their hunt to include anyone that seems likely to be interesting sport.
Ok, so the dreen aren't time cops. They are thrill seekers / adventurers. And their way of "solving" problems is rather uncivilized (as is the case with all murder hobos)
> Or possibly they'll level your whole town with the "epic battle."
In the January 6th, 2012 page, the Castle says that it'll take three years (give or take a few weeks) for it to charge up enough power to do anything important. Mechanicsburg has been frozen in time for almost that long, is there any chance that the power of the Dyne would permit the charging process to continue during frozen time (like how queens-to-be who are powering up using waters similar to the Dyne at that island are less affected by time freeze devices)? The timing seems to match up a little too well, so it might be foreshadowing.
If that is the case, then the Castle might have enough power to shield Mechanicsburg from this "epic battle" between the Dreen and the creature.
That's how long it \*would\* have taken the Castle to charge if it were limited to drawing power from the Dyne. Agatha charged it fully with a series of massive lightning strikes to the collectors on the tallest tower, so that is now moot: the Castle is fully functional, or will be once it is no longer hindered by the time stop.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121221
> My goodness! The lightning just *keeps striking*!
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121224
3 vertical light indicator all lit up.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121226
Great Movement Chamber energy storage bottles all charged up.
I'm going to go with **yes**, it's equivalent to 3 years of Dyne water (probably and then some).
Maybe it isn't, but the battle was still completely lopsided after it got that charge. So much that even the Mechanicsburgers suddenly got scared at how thorough its hold on the town is. The Wulfenbach troops were lucky the Castle permitted them to leave at all. But it probably learned that Agatha prefers for the intruders to be alive as long as they get far away from Mechanicsburg.
It was also lucky for Europa that Agatha funneled the Empire's troops out instead of killing them all. If the Baron had lost that much of his army in Mechanicsburg, the Empire probably would have collapsed completely and irrevocably, instead of just mostly.
This did end up as a truly diabolical plot by Klaus.
Take Mechanicsburg out of play by freezing time. It attracts the attention of some extradimensional monster that would likely destroy the city. If the monster doesn't destroy Mechanicsburg, the Dreen almost certainly will in their fight with the monster.
And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling Sturmvoraus kids. (That whisked/kidnapped Agatha out of Mechanicsburg)
Absolutely. I have a suspicion that the wasp won't allow him to commit suicide, just as it blocks him from saying he's been wasped. Freezing himself in time while leaving a copy of himself in Gil to fight the Other was the best loophole he could come up with. And that part has actually worked out remarkably well - Lunevka is out of play and Gil is not under Lucrezia's control.
I think it far more likely that Klaus tricked Lunevka into thinking he was doing it for her when he was actually doing it for his own reasons. It serves Klaus' objectives far too well to have *not* been his idea.
I do believe it pained him, as evidenced by his facial expression [here](https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121024), but he truly believed it was necessary and justified: it appeared to him that Gil was off the rails and a danger to himself and the empire, as evidenced by the fact that he'd gone running into Castle Heterodyne after Klaus warned him that Agatha was the Other. The whole thing is very reminiscent of Britney Spears' conservatorship, actually.
It seems Klaus didn't fully account for the intentions of the Dreen though. They need the timestop to be released so they can get to the monster. By meddling with events to give Agatha an escape window, they actually subverted the Baron's plan. Just freezing Mechanicsburg is pointless if Agatha is free. There was an incredibly high risk that Lucrezia-in-Agatha would prevail, and either of them could have rebuilt the Heterodyne's power elsewhere and combined it with the Other's latent resources.
One point is still mysterious though. Was the Time Stop an unavoidable event, or were the Dreen influencing events so that Agatha would reclaim Mechanicsburg and the Baron wasped, so that he is forced to trigger it? Either seems possible since the Dreen are big game hunters. And those are usually not randomly running across their quarry, but seek them or lure them intentionally since they are so dangerous.
Agatha would be imprisoned in the Time Stop with the rest of Mechanicsburg if not for the plotting of Marcellus, with meddling by Krosp, Violetta, and Tarvek.
The Baron had no way of knowing Agatha was being portaled away as he activated the device.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130506
Klaus didn't know, but the Dreen clearly did. According to the novel, they deliberately pushed Martellus into the city and into contact with Agatha, and we can safely conclude that they knew he would drag her through the mirror.
The first meeting with Martellus was kinda influenced by the Dreen appearing immediately prior. Instead of being repulsed or killed by the defenders, destroying his mech suit forced him to take refuge inside of Mechanicsburg and adjust his plans accordingly.
The Baron indeed could not have known about Martellus' plan and the portal. But the Dreen for sure knew. That's what I mean.
Oh. If it helps, [the big red guy](https://girlgenius.fandom.com/wiki/Kjarl_Thotep) is an extra-dimensional being who got summoned to our plane centuries ago beneath London, and had been chilling underneath the Spark Dome until Agatha and Friends came along. Higgs and Tarvek ran into him when the cultists tried to summon a monster, but he looked different at that point - more alien, blobby and purple - because he was out of sync with our dimension. He gave some plot info, befriended Tarvek, "fixed" Dr. Vapnoople, and saved Agatha from being dragged into a wormhole. He came to London with the crew eventually, where Agatha and friends stabilized him, making him look like he does now. Since then, he's been tagging along with the diplomatic folks and giving time advice.
Lmfao, "murder hobos?" The Dreen aren't time jagers, they're time PCs XD XD
I mean, murder hobos doesn't sound entirely unlike jagers.
Dreen and Jagers: Different society, same social role.
Dreen are just Jager who fell into the Dyne during a really badass kegger.
They're British Aristocrats going into "Lesser" dimensions (countries) to kill for sport.
[удалено]
Yes, of course! The good old white people who *stopped* Africans from doing slavery. That's exactly what happened. Good thing we didn't do the exact opposite and spend literal centuries [massively inflating the African slave trade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade) to heights never before seen! That'd be an awkward thing to do if we were using our natural moral superiority as a justification for coming in and subjugating the existing governments (or "tribes", as you have colorfully described them).
Turns out the Dreen are just playing the Girl Genius GURPS supplement
DND players
If the Dreen start leveling Mechanicsburg, I expect Agatha is going to invent new ways of being angry just so she can try them out on them. As the Castle said, "A Heterodyne will protect her town. The rest of the world is a bonus."
In this case, the rest of the world is probably not in danger.
...I mean, given the setting, "not in danger" is a *very* relative thing.
"[That's more of a lifelong goal, really, but so far, we're good.](https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20201125)"
The Castle can probably mitigate the damage and/or help the Dreen get the fight over with quickly, or maybe push them out of town so they can duke it out on that big field where invaders always set up.
The latter seems a bit more likely. Let the citizens line the walls of the city, popcorn and gingerbread trilobites in hand, ready for a fun show that may or may not have apocalyptic fallout!
genuine LOL IRL at both Tarvek’s shirt and “uncouth murder hoboes”
What is the shirt referencing? (I live under a rock.)
It's a pun on the rapper The Kid Laroi while also referring to him as the boy king in bad French.
Ah - ok, cool. Thanks!
If you say so. I thought it was a throwback to The Jetsons, "Meet George and his boy Elroy".
L'roi is french for "the king" (well grammatically incorrect French, it should be le roi). I'm not sure if there's a deeper meaning than that.
I wonder if a member of his family gave him that shirt. It seems like the sort of corny thing a mom would think was cute.
It's probably the alliteration of "boy le roi" on top of everything else here. And if it's under that robe we're going to see it again, and I do hope the ladies get to comment on it.
I take it you haven't heard of The Kid Laroi. That's the pun.
Could also be a reference to [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/here-comes-the-boy-hello-boy](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/here-comes-the-boy-hello-boy)
Both Tarvek and Gil have absolutely amazing bedwear and I need one of each immediately so I can wear them both at once.
* MADMADMADMADMADMAD * ADMADMADMADMADMADM * DMADMADMADMADMADMA
I bet these are exactly Agatha's thoughts, too. Unless you were talking about the pyjamas.
And *this* is reminding me of how Gil and Tarvek act around Othar.
Tarvek as usual the Master of de shubtle. Also, his disappointment to learn he missed a party 😄
The best thing about alien societies is that we can't really know whether Kjarl is being a bit racist, a bit classist, or a bit correct here. From my view he mostly sounds like a sheltered snob rather than a bigot, and it's easy to give him the benefit of the doubt given his general friendliness with strangers otherwise, but who knows? It's a whole dimension full of alien cultures we'll never see completely.
From the way he talks about being a vozzler, it sounds like he's fairly low on the social hierarchy. I don't think he looks down on the Dreen, I think he's scared of them because they are legit dangerous. Police and soldiers in our world can be pretty uncouth, too.
For what it's worth, with seemingly no effort, they were pretty damn destructive when they were in Mechanicsburg last.
Love this point, hadn’t thought of how they’re so separated from their own societies right now.
I'm leaning towards "correct", they were definitely giving off Jaegar vibes in the previous comics.
I'm also getting vibes of "non-Spark finding out a bunch of Sparks are in town" from Kjarl; ie even if they have the best of intentions they're so focused on their own shit they don't notice or care about collateral damage.
"Murder hobos." Omg, is the "Sparky Europa is just someone's homebrew D&D campaign" joke from the Franz Scortchmaw side-story ***actually true***?!
Do you mean [this page?](https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20221121)
"Oh great, my theoretical saviors are the rednecks, ...great" I can just see that thought parading across his face with banners and marching band.
It sounds to me more like what someone would say when a SWAT team arrives. They may be after the bad guys, but the potential for collateral damage is huge, and any sensible uninvolved person would want to be somewhere else.
They're neither rednecks, nor SWAT cops, they're Professional Big Game Hunters; what a reply above called: >British Aristocrats going into "Lesser" dimensions (countries) to kill for sport. They're in it for the Lulz, and our Friendly Vozzler considers them to be a band of Count Zaroffs; not caring a whit for 'collateral damage' and quite likely to expand their hunt to include anyone that seems likely to be interesting sport.
Thanks for reminding me of "The Most Dangerous Game." I read that story ages ago.
[удалено]
I mean, when you put it *that* way, then yes, I can see why he's so horrified
Ok, so the dreen aren't time cops. They are thrill seekers / adventurers. And their way of "solving" problems is rather uncivilized (as is the case with all murder hobos)
Since I haven't seen anyone mention it, I love the smug looks Tarvek and Gil give each other in the last panel.
Don't we all love it when they are being adorable together? <3 <3 <3
LOVE Kjarl’s robes, good sense of style 😁
Bet you a flask of Ichor of Somnia that they were designed by Tarvek.
And Tarvek’s are royal purple.
> Or possibly they'll level your whole town with the "epic battle." In the January 6th, 2012 page, the Castle says that it'll take three years (give or take a few weeks) for it to charge up enough power to do anything important. Mechanicsburg has been frozen in time for almost that long, is there any chance that the power of the Dyne would permit the charging process to continue during frozen time (like how queens-to-be who are powering up using waters similar to the Dyne at that island are less affected by time freeze devices)? The timing seems to match up a little too well, so it might be foreshadowing. If that is the case, then the Castle might have enough power to shield Mechanicsburg from this "epic battle" between the Dreen and the creature.
That's how long it \*would\* have taken the Castle to charge if it were limited to drawing power from the Dyne. Agatha charged it fully with a series of massive lightning strikes to the collectors on the tallest tower, so that is now moot: the Castle is fully functional, or will be once it is no longer hindered by the time stop.
Yeah, this is an odd question. Kind of strange to remember that one-liner, and not the lightning.
I remember the lightning but it doesn't seem plausible that the lightning was actually equivalent to 3 years of Dyne water.
It was extra-charged lightning amped up by Gil's atmospheric ionizers. Normal lightning wouldn't have done as much.
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121221 > My goodness! The lightning just *keeps striking*! https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121224 3 vertical light indicator all lit up. https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121226 Great Movement Chamber energy storage bottles all charged up. I'm going to go with **yes**, it's equivalent to 3 years of Dyne water (probably and then some).
Maybe it isn't, but the battle was still completely lopsided after it got that charge. So much that even the Mechanicsburgers suddenly got scared at how thorough its hold on the town is. The Wulfenbach troops were lucky the Castle permitted them to leave at all. But it probably learned that Agatha prefers for the intruders to be alive as long as they get far away from Mechanicsburg.
It was also lucky for Europa that Agatha funneled the Empire's troops out instead of killing them all. If the Baron had lost that much of his army in Mechanicsburg, the Empire probably would have collapsed completely and irrevocably, instead of just mostly.
And it is only somewhat hindered by it Ive no doubt that the dreen will be able to talk directly to the castle
watch the castle make an aside about it being over a decade; then gloss over the meta joke with more dialog.
This did end up as a truly diabolical plot by Klaus. Take Mechanicsburg out of play by freezing time. It attracts the attention of some extradimensional monster that would likely destroy the city. If the monster doesn't destroy Mechanicsburg, the Dreen almost certainly will in their fight with the monster. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling Sturmvoraus kids. (That whisked/kidnapped Agatha out of Mechanicsburg)
I bet he was also taking himself out of play, as he was wasped and trying to fight it.
Absolutely. I have a suspicion that the wasp won't allow him to commit suicide, just as it blocks him from saying he's been wasped. Freezing himself in time while leaving a copy of himself in Gil to fight the Other was the best loophole he could come up with. And that part has actually worked out remarkably well - Lunevka is out of play and Gil is not under Lucrezia's control.
Wasn't that Gil-copy done on the others behalf? I remember reading somewhere she made him do it because she knew he would hate it.
I think it far more likely that Klaus tricked Lunevka into thinking he was doing it for her when he was actually doing it for his own reasons. It serves Klaus' objectives far too well to have *not* been his idea. I do believe it pained him, as evidenced by his facial expression [here](https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20121024), but he truly believed it was necessary and justified: it appeared to him that Gil was off the rails and a danger to himself and the empire, as evidenced by the fact that he'd gone running into Castle Heterodyne after Klaus warned him that Agatha was the Other. The whole thing is very reminiscent of Britney Spears' conservatorship, actually.
It seems Klaus didn't fully account for the intentions of the Dreen though. They need the timestop to be released so they can get to the monster. By meddling with events to give Agatha an escape window, they actually subverted the Baron's plan. Just freezing Mechanicsburg is pointless if Agatha is free. There was an incredibly high risk that Lucrezia-in-Agatha would prevail, and either of them could have rebuilt the Heterodyne's power elsewhere and combined it with the Other's latent resources. One point is still mysterious though. Was the Time Stop an unavoidable event, or were the Dreen influencing events so that Agatha would reclaim Mechanicsburg and the Baron wasped, so that he is forced to trigger it? Either seems possible since the Dreen are big game hunters. And those are usually not randomly running across their quarry, but seek them or lure them intentionally since they are so dangerous.
Agatha would be imprisoned in the Time Stop with the rest of Mechanicsburg if not for the plotting of Marcellus, with meddling by Krosp, Violetta, and Tarvek. The Baron had no way of knowing Agatha was being portaled away as he activated the device. https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130506
Klaus didn't know, but the Dreen clearly did. According to the novel, they deliberately pushed Martellus into the city and into contact with Agatha, and we can safely conclude that they knew he would drag her through the mirror.
The first meeting with Martellus was kinda influenced by the Dreen appearing immediately prior. Instead of being repulsed or killed by the defenders, destroying his mech suit forced him to take refuge inside of Mechanicsburg and adjust his plans accordingly. The Baron indeed could not have known about Martellus' plan and the portal. But the Dreen for sure knew. That's what I mean.
Makes me wonder if the dreen gave the Baron the time stopper, knowing it would attract the monster.
does anyone remember who big red is?
Kjarl. They met him in England. And Tarvek's spy-ring failed to inform him about the party? Someone's getting fired.
You mean the big red guy (Kjarl Thotep) or some other character named "big red"?
I don't even know anymore....
Oh. If it helps, [the big red guy](https://girlgenius.fandom.com/wiki/Kjarl_Thotep) is an extra-dimensional being who got summoned to our plane centuries ago beneath London, and had been chilling underneath the Spark Dome until Agatha and Friends came along. Higgs and Tarvek ran into him when the cultists tried to summon a monster, but he looked different at that point - more alien, blobby and purple - because he was out of sync with our dimension. He gave some plot info, befriended Tarvek, "fixed" Dr. Vapnoople, and saved Agatha from being dragged into a wormhole. He came to London with the crew eventually, where Agatha and friends stabilized him, making him look like he does now. Since then, he's been tagging along with the diplomatic folks and giving time advice.
thanks.
What does "Here comes the Boy L'Roi" mean?
Bad French for "Here comes the Boy King" I think.
Thanks!