Girl Genius/Tropes A-E

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Tropes A-E | Tropes F-J | Tropes K-O | Tropes P-T | Tropes U-Z

Girl Genius provides examples of the following tropes:

A

Zeuxippe: So much that they are trying to kill you over it!!
Old Man Death: Always you gotta find problems!

Guard 1: Of course... the castle is over there. We're over here, and those flaming things are coming back...
Guard 2: Live in the moment, kid. Live in the moment.

  • Accidental Truth
    • Theo's story at the beginning about the Dragon from Mars is a pure flight of imagination, but the Other's lab actually IS in the Heterodynes' basement and, if the novel's prologue adaption is accurate, the Other's base of operations is extra-terrestrial as well! Also, in this story Klaus got wasped. And soon enough...
    • Here the crowd calls Zeetha the Baron's daughter, which according to Word of God is actually true -- if the sketch of her father which looks exactly like Klaus is to be believed.
  • Aerith and Bob
    • The list of Heterodyne names in the crypt includes Caligula, the Red Heterodyne, the Black Heterodyne, Mordred, Oxalof, and Bob. Also, the world is full of people with weird names like Gilgamesh, Moloch, and Theopholous living right alongside people with ordinary names like Bill, Barry, and Agatha; no one comments on it or seems to consider it odd.
    • In a side-story: Flopsy, Mopsy, and Nietzsche.
  • After-Action Patchup: After the fight with Dr. Merlot, Zola leaps to provide this for Gil.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Castle Heterodyne. Well, actually, the guy who built it was an evil maniac, so it's probably working as designed. Even Agatha's own little 'bots have stopped listening to her. It seems Sparks can't build anything without it going haywire.
  • Alien Geometries: ...what is Agatha holding in Panel 3??
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Castle Wulfenbach
  • Allohistorical Allusion: As you'd expect from a universe in which electronics moved quickly enough for Rembrandt to be a roboticist, Galvani's eponym comes not from discovering the effect of electrical impulses on muscles, but something involving molten zinc and Life Energy... which is often used metaphorically to mean electrical stimulation of muscles. Actually a Genius Bonus, as in real life metallurgy, Galvanizing refers to the process by which zinc (or another metal) is plated onto iron or steel to prevent rusting.
  • All Part of the Show: Several times:
    • A circus of Sparks pretending to be normal actors pretending to be Sparks.
    • A Jäger hiding among people who pretend to be Jägers.
    • Gilgamesh Wulfenbach pretending to be a street actor pretending to be Gilgamesh Wulfenbach.
    • A Mongfish (Lucrezia's niece) pretending to be the lost Heterodyne-Mongfish heir to secure the Heterodyne inheritance from the real Heterodyne-Mongfish.
  • All There in the Manual
    • The Secret Blueprints and the expanded chapter-by-chapter Cast pages.
    • The novels also explain things not mentioned in the webcomic.
  • All Webbed Up: What the nyar-spider does to its prey.
  • Almost Kiss
  • Alternate History: Perhaps better called Parallel History, because the Sparks have been around for long enough that even geography has been changed by their influence, and yet the world and its history are not completely dissimilar to ours:
    • There were still Mongol Hordes on cue, German is still spoken as a European lingua-franca, R(embrandt) Van Rijn was still a famous genius and Casanova a famous skirt-chaser, the [Weather] King was still a towering historical figure...
    • There is still a powerful church(es) with not one, but seven popes, according to this page. [1] Judging by a brief mention here it seems safe to say that the Roman Catholics have decisively split apart. [2]
    • And there's "The Autonomous Library" built by Voltaire.
  • Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Together with the above Alternate History.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Jägermonsters, many other kinds of constructs, and anyone infected with Hogfarb's Resplendent Immolation or Vericus Pantiliax's Chromatic Death, although as the names of those ailments may suggest, the affected person didn't start out that way and won't be that way long before something bad happens. Fans are now calling the sequence ending here the Amazing Technicolor Dreamboat Sequence. Yowza! Or Eeyyooww-ZAP!
    • Mamma Gkika's skin color changes naturally, though she has some control over it and has stuck with a humanlike pink for a while in order to blend in all schneaky-like.
  • Amazon Brigade
    • Bangladesh DuPree's pirate crew seems to be entirely female.
    • Geisterdamen (spider-riding, at that). Zeetha's mysterious tribe. Lots of Amazons.
    • Same goes for Heliolux Airship Fleet's flagship crew.
  • And I Must Scream
  • Anger Born of Worry: By Baron Wulfenbach, towards Gil.

Klaus: LACKWIT! How dare you put yourself at risk!

Othar: We're in Castle Heterodyne with exploding collars around our necks, caught between a fake Heterodyne and a real one (as well as assorted criminals, maniacs, and various monsters), and I suspect that even if we found any beer in here, it would be evil, or at least flat.

    • Also involving Othar: "De dirigible iz in flames, everyboddyz dead an' I've lost my hat." To be fair, hats are a big deal to the Jägers whereas arson and murder are hobbies.
    • Another example here:

Professor Tiktoffen: Franz here liked turning people into beetles. Zonia believed that orphan blood had medicinal properties. Krag put his feet on my bed.

    • A villain learns why you must never punch a lady, or wake her up too early in the morning.
    • Now why would anyone want to kill Klaus von Wulfenbach? Let's see...:

Gil: Why? Because Wulfenbach troops turned her village into owls. Or maybe we deposed her favorite mad prince, or hung her lover for piracy, or banished the Heterodyne Boys, or poisoned the well, or raised the price of herring.

  • Art Evolution
    • The earlier strips have bizarre anatomy issues and ugly gradient coloring. (Also after the first volume there was a great deal of uneven inking.) These problems eventually disappear.
    • Volume 1 was originally published in black-and-white. Volume 2 saw the introduction of color, in searing neon gradient fills. The coloring eventually settled down and volume 1 was eventually recolored in a somber desaturated palette. The result cleverly mirrored Agatha's psyche, as her perceptions are dulled in volume 1, overloaded in volume 2, and by volume 4 settle into a happy medium.
  • Ascended Fanon: In universe in this comic, about Von Pinn really being Lucrezia Mongfish.
  • Aside Glance: Plenty.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: This is crucial into getting the Jägerkin in line:
    • Gil uses it on Captain Vole. (Twice.)
    • Boris earns the respect of the Jägergenerals by beating their location out of a messenger.
  • Attack Hello: Maxim is just saying "hello".
  • Author Appeal
    • Phil Foglio is well-known (unabashedly so) for drawing his female characters with rather large "assets". But it's his wife (and co-author) who loves to get Agatha into the "lacy underthings." She's a big fan of Victorian-era undergarments.
    • Not to mention paper dolls.
    • There's also the matter of all the handsome shirtless men running around.
    • Phil admits the only reason the Jägers became recurring characters is because he really likes drawing them.
  • Author Avatar: The creators, Phil and Kaja, are both apparently natives of the story's world who, it would seem, will eventually meet, marry, publish a... controversial account of Agatha's deeds, and flee into our world with it to continue it safe from Agatha as a supposedly fictional comic.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking
    • Klaus; he clawed his way to being ruler of Europe atop God knows how many others and it shows.
    • His son; when thrust into authority, Gil's asskicking genes more than rise to the challenge.
    • The Jäger-Generals.
    • More generally -- in a semi-feudal world ruled over by extremely intelligent nutjobs, it's the one at the top of the castle you want to watch out for. They're in that spot for a reason.
  • Awesome Yet Practical: Violetta's ability to swap out objects or weapons (or people) held by others for useless decoys. That comes in handy unsurprisingly often.
  • Axe Crazy: Oh so many...

They've always had such a... unique vision! Horrifying, of course, but still unique!

B

Dr. Sun: Yes. Well. Tricky. But I've seen worse.

Gil: This is not a trick! I did not get lucky! I am Gilgamesh Wulfenbach -- AND I AM IN CONTROL!

Tarvek: ... You came running in and saw someone you hate and fear trying to kill her -- of course you reacted.
Gil: I do not fear you.
Tarvek: Really? You should.

    • Agatha, showing that she learned the "hamming the bunch of unruly minions into obedience" part of her family business.
  • Badass Bookworm: Most of the Spark characters.
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Badass Labcoat: Agatha while setting up the really crazy device to fix up Tarvek.
  • Badass Longcoat: Baron Klaus Wulfenbach has them as regular wear. Gilgamesh Wulfenbach has worn them too. And Agatha, of course. Krosp got his from the circus.
  • Badass Normal: Many of the non-Spark supporting characters.
  • Badass Princess: Not only is Zeetha a warrior princess, she doesn't seem to be aware there's any other kinds of princess.
  • Bag of Kidnapping: Sanaa and Othar do this to Tarvek, mistaking him for Gilgamesh Wulfenbach.
  • Bar Brawl: Apparently there's one every evening in Mamma Gkika's. Except on Thursdays; that's poetry slam night.
  • Bash Brothers: Da Boyz and the Jägergenerals. Klaus and the generals were having fun at some points of the wasp attack. The Heterodyne Boys were a more literal example.
  • Battle Butler: Ardsley Wooster and Boris Dolokhov, though, technically speaking, neither is an actual butler. Wooster is a spy posing as a valet or gentleman's gentleman; Dolokhov is more of an aide-de-camp, librarian, accountant, and general manager.
  • Battle Couple: To an extent, Agatha and Gil during the wasp outbreak on Castle Wulfenbach. Now that she, Gil, and Tarvek are battling with and through Castle Heterodyne, they're a Battle Threesome.
  • Battle Cry
    • The official one for the Jägers: "Ve hunt!"[3]
    • Agatha during the Battle of Sturmhalten: "SHOWTIME!"
  • Bear Hug: Mama Gkika gives Agatha, newly crowned as the Heterodyne, one when they first meet.
  • Behind the Black
    • Gil didn't notice Agatha launching herself at him while he was yelling at Tarvek?
      • He'd probably started yelling before turning and only spun around to dramatically punctuate his final words, at which point Agatha would already be on top of him.
    • Lampshaded here, where Jenka points out that they should have heard the army of giant clanks (helpfully called War Stompers too) marching up to their tower.
  • Betty and Veronica: Gil & Tarvek, to Agatha.
  • Beware the Nice Ones
    • Agatha. She really is a very nice, pleasant, easy-going girl. Until she goes to The Madness Place or you hurt or threaten one of her friends. Then the Death Ray comes out.
    • Gilgamesh is usually rather pleasant and doesn't scream and beat people to get his way. Piss him off. Go on. Gilgamesh managed to scare the crap out of a Jäger (one completely off the deep end even for Jäger standards) and the resident version of James Bond.
    • Tarvek is the blue to Gil's red. He's rather charming and civil by default. When he gets mad, Zola up and surrenders. He doesn't let it end there. Oh, no.
    • Violetta is a cute young lady whose greatest desire is to go to a fancy party in a pretty dress and dance with the boys, and is perfectly happy just being Agatha's maid or secretary. She's also carrying more knives and poison than the average Assassin's Guild... because she is a professional assassin, and rather good at it.
    • And lets not forget The Indestructible Airman Higgs...
  • Big Book of War: Agatha brains Zola with one of these, entitled "Using Found Objects as Weapons." The sound effect when she beans them is "TOME!"
  • Bifauxnen: Grantz, Baron Wulfenbach's monster hunter. Even Gil apparently gets this one wrong, as he refers to Grantz as a "he" early on.
  • Big Damn Heroes

Abner: Are you seriously thinking we should go back, into a hostile town full of armed soldiers, to rescue a girl from a madboy's fortress?!?
Lars: Yes! Yes I am!
Abner: There's a million reasons why that is not going to work!
Dimo: (dramatic entrance) Dun vorry. Dere's three reasons it iz.

Martellus von Blitzengaard: I can kill family members all day and know I'm making the world a better place.

    • The Old Heterodynes, as seen here, for instance.

Gil: So this was the nursery?
Tarvek: It explains... so much...

  • Bilingual Bonus
    • Many names of people, races, places, etc., make more sense if one knows a little German; for instance, "Jägermonster" can be interpreted as "hunting monster".
    • "Si vales valeo" is Latin for "If you are well, I am well", a phrase used in ancient Roman times to start writing a letter like "Dear Mister Smith". In the world of Girl Genius, it has a more literal meaning.
  • Black and Gray Morality: Agatha and Klaus are both sympathetically gray and fighting for perfectly reasonable reasons. There are several villains that are clearly black, and both of them want those destroyed.
  • Bleached Underpants: A variant, in that prior to Girl Genius, Phil Foglio was the author and artist of the XXXenophile series of pornographic comics, and unlike many artists with a similar background makes no attempt to hide it. However, before XXXenophile, he was already well known for What's New with Phil and Dixie for Dragon Magazine, and Buck Godot Zap Gun for Hire, and did book covers and illustrations (most memorably, for Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series), as well as the classic Con Reports and a trio of excellent, funny updates of old '60s humor comics for DC Comics at about the same time as XXXenophile.
    • A lot of Girl Genius is made up of brilliant little ideas that Foglio didn't use in his pornographic work. The Jägers' speech pattern and dental work? From XXXenophile: "A Beautiful Tail" and "My Favorite Oitling". Zeetha's jewelry, with the little faces that mimic whatever her current facial expression is? From XXXenophile: "Blue Opal".
  • Blessed Are the Cheesemakers: Cheese appears often, and sometimes seems to be employed as a symbol of romance. And a barfight projectile. Sometimes both at the same time. See Zeetha and Higgs. Lars was a cheesemaker's apprentice before he joined the Circus.
  • Blessed with Suck
    • The Spark itself. If you have it, you can warp the laws of physics with the contents of the average Store Cupboard. Bad part? You go insane to varying degrees whenever you do it. The natural result of that is that most Sparks, and Agatha in particular, have to deal with being shunned, used, or attacked by most everyone they meet. And that's if they don't get killed by one of their own creations.
    • Agatha before her breakthrough, when she wore the locket to suppress her Spark. It undoubtedly saved her life, but it also made her completely incompetent and destroyed her self-esteem.
    • Tarvek framed his cousin Violetta for incompetence so that she'd get relieved from being his bodyguard and sent to Mechanicsburg - immediately before a wave of assassination attempts began that killed twelve of his bodyguards in under three years. This very likely saved her life, but since he hadn't told her what he was doing it also gave her an inferiority complex that took her several years to start shedding.
  • Bling of War: Most troops are trying to look cool -- some, too hard. Jägers tend to dress in less unified fancy clothes, with their own peculiar taste. Of "Da Boyz", Maxim wears the most fashionable set -- he's an ex-cavalry officer, after all.
  • Blondes Are Evil: Played straight with Lucrezia and Zola; played with by Von Pinn. Averted with Agatha (who's a strawberry blonde, therefore crossing into Heroes Want Redheads).
  • Blood Sisters: Agatha and Zeetha are bound for life by the ancient Skifanderian tradition of kolee-dok-zumil, which is essentially a sensei-student relationship taken Up To Eleven.

Zeetha: Know, Agatha Clay, that the warrior tradition of the Royal House of Skifander is old, proud, and jealously guarded. In this life I am allowed to train one other person besides my own daughters. I have chosen you. The bond between us will be stronger than that of friends, of family, of lovers.

Zeetha: (a green-haired Amazon) Hey, Skifander's patron Goddess is Ashtara, she who controls, among other things, fertility. Our holy-days are fun! (Cha cha cha!)

Snaug: ... spiky trap-doors... torture chambers... man-eating bats... impertinent mechanical squid...
Mittelmind: Oh, there is some psychological damage, but I always wipe her memory for her birthday.
Snaug: Happy birthday to meeeeeee...

  • Braggart Boss: Minus the fact people of the street think he is a hero, Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) fits the mold nicely.
  • Breather Episode: Side stories every once in a while.
  • Brick Joke
    • A long time after Agatha is convinced that her battle merry-go-round is too dangerous to construct, a soldier who failed to capture her is diagnosed with a concussion for explaining that her injuries were sustained while destroying a merry-go-round.

"It could be a really evil town..."

    • In the Cinderella special, the "evil step-mother" comments that Agatha could win the kingdom with a dead rat and a houseplant. At the end, she bribes the king, a cat, with a dead rat and potted catnip.

Evil stepmother: Hy knew hit!

    • Gil throws Othar out of an airship, and when Agatha gets mad, he assures her that once she gets to know Othar, she'll do the same. An hour later, she does, and mentions, "I owe Gil an apology." About ten chapters later, she gives it to him.

Agatha: I got so mad at you, and then, within the hour, I threw him out an airship too!
Gil: And you felt bad for throwing--
Agatha: I felt bad for yelling at you!

C

Moloch: Uh... hey, check it out.
Tarvek: Good Heavens.

  • Can't Live Without You: When Gil supports both Agatha and Tarvek when they get infected by Hogfarb's Immolation.
  • Cannot Talk to Women: Hilariously averted at Albia's royal ball. Tarvek "gentlemanly" agrees to give Gil the first dance with Agatha... because Tarvek's relying on Gil's well-known lack of aptitude at the sweet talk to put him a leg up. On the next page, Tarvek is incredulously watching as Gil and Agatha share the most intensely romantic moment they've had in years - because they're both getting so into the dance that they're just not saying anything.
  • Cartwright Curse: Being a suitor to Agatha is hazardous to your health.
  • Catch Phrase
    • Agatha: "You'll like him."
    • Tarvek: "I can't [really] complain."
    • Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!): "Foul!"
  • Cat Fight: Gender-flipped (but still played for Mr. Fanservice in-comic) here. Complete with hair-pulling!
  • The Chains of Commanding:

Othar Tryggvassen: What, tyrant? Does your empire give you no pleasure?
Klaus Wulfenbach: No. It gives me no pleasure. Politics always annoyed me. Now I do it every day. I haven't seen my wife in years. My old friends are gone. I haven't traveled or explored. At least with the Heterodynes we had the adventures. The occasional fight. Now it's send in the armies, then the bureaucrats with mops. It's become an old formula.

Castle Hetrodyne: All the Wulfenbach sparks are known for their oversized machinery, you know. I mean, just look at castle Wulfenbach. What exactly are we trying to say, here?

  • Continuity Cameo: The main story has Ferretina's shop in Paris.
  • Continuity Nod: Hundreds, and ranging from extremely obvious to incredibly subtle.
    • While having tea with the Jägergenerals, mention is made of "gingerbread trilobites from Mechanicsburg", and of the fact that Castle Heterodyne is mad, dying, and useless. Guess what Zeetha's eating as she stumbles across Gil putting his plan in motion in order to enter the mad useless castle, six years later.
    • Old Man Death has a mini-flashback of people who rode with the Jägers -- like the Seneschal. Still not sure if he's in there, though.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Averted beautifully here. Anevka pumping out enough electricity in her arm to flash-fry her father releases enough waste heat to send her entire outfit and wig bursting into flames.
    • For that matter, Anevka is mostly a Muse replica. Prende later also used built-in shocker on high power and torched her own wig and clothes (well, what was left of them after almost two centuries).
  • Cool Airship
    • Castle Wulfenbach, of course.
    • Zola's ship would qualify, but as this handy comic showing them both demonstrates, the Baron's ship is tough competition.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Mamma Gkika wants you to remember that it's bad to hit women or to wake her up too early in the morning.
  • Crapsack World: The world is dominated by people and things who'd fit right in with Warhammer 40,000 Orks, and the only thing keeping them mostly in check is anti-villain dictator Klaus, who is quite willing to level cities in order to achieve such. His territory is described as containing a lot of empty space despite being central Europe, is littered with forgotten but highly-lethal Spark inventions, and walled-in cities are the closest one comes to safe. The Other systematically leveled much of Europe not long before that, and currently has free reign of Sturmhalten, a large army, and has mind-controlled Klaus. Outside Europe, things aren't much better, with northern nations having a tax on fire. The greatest folk heroes are missing, and the second greatest folk hero is a serial killer.

Rudolf Selnikov: The depressing thing? Twisted and ruthless as you people are, throwing in with you is a step up.

    • Alternatively, A World Half Full. Europa has mostly recovered from a devastating genocidal war that employed mad science bioweapons just decades ago, and is ruled by an extremely intelligent benevolent dictator who keeps the peace and lets most people get on with their lives. There are systems in place to contain the mad monstrosities that arise, and the people Othar has killed (usually) had it coming.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: You get the impression this happens a lot. Perhaps the most hilarious one would be curing Tarvek of a terrifying disease by killing him and then bringing him back to life. Even more hilarious given the way Agatha said the trope name. "This has a small, but fascinating, chance of actually working! Let's do it!"
  • Crazy Prepared: Zola Malfeazium, as acknowledged even by The Other, who took care... only to discover she's been outmaneuvered once more.
  • Crime of Self Defense: A short-lived running gag about Gil defending his killing Dr. Beetle with "He threw a bomb at me".
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
    • Da Boyz. Oggie is the least bright of the three, but don't let that fool you.
    • Zola looks like a vapid fool, but then she drops the "vapid fool" mask and soundly beats Zeetha and Violetta, and matches Higgs -- three of the seven most capable physical fighters in the main cast. (The other four are Da Boyz -- Oggie, Dimo and Maxim; and VonPinn, who's a construct.) Though her physical abilities were boosted by a Deadly Upgrade, she did have to steal the upgrade -- from a Smoke Knight -- requiring a different kind of badassery.)
  • Cry Cute: DuPree of all people gets a moment here.
  • Crying Wolf: Martellus von Blitzengaard has such a bad reputation with the protagonists that even when he's being sincere while under a lie detector, they still can't believe it.

Krosp: (astonished) Uh... he's not lying.
Dimo: Maybe dot iz not him.
Violetta: Maybe he's sick.
Bear Warrior: Maybe this bear is dreaming.
Martellus: MAYBE I'M TELLING THE TRUTH! I actually do that sometimes!

Krosp: This thing just wants to catch someone, right?

  • Cyanide Pill: One is offered to Moloch von Zinzer, but he obviously has yet to use it.
  • Cyber Cyclops: Most little Clanks. Subverted, though, as it doesn't stop them from being more cute than sinister. Well, usually; except here. Red Eyes, Take Warning, much?

D

  • Dangerously Genre Savvy
    • Castle Heterodyne. To the point where once it finds out that Othar Tryggvassen is a hero, it immediately dumps him down a bottomless pit. Of course, the castle knows all about heroes...

Castle Heterodyne: Oh tosh, if he was a real hero--
Othar Tryggvassen: (comes through the door dusting himself off) This is an annoying place, isn't it?

    • Lately, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach seems to have taken a line from the castle. To ensure that Tarvek makes it out of Castle Wulfenbach safely, he handcuffs Tarvek to Othar, shoves them both in a broken flying machine, and drops it out a window.

Gilgamesh: He's always falling out of airships and stuff-- so if you're with him-- I know you'll get away! (drops them) Oh, and LET ME KNOW HOW HE DOES IT!

  • Dark Action Girl
  • Dartboard of Hate: Violetta had one after she was Reassigned to Antarctica.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Moveit #11 makes the user a LOT stronger and faster. It is also fatal or nearly fatal to the user.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Death Glare
    • Gil gives one to Zeetha along with a brief World of Cardboard Speech.
    • The normally unflappable Airman Higgs demonstrates an impressive one.
    • Actually, the Baron is merely amused by DuPree's mistake, but yikes!
  • Death Is Cheap: The horrifying tendency towards murder that Sparks possess is made slightly less horrifying when you find out they can (under some circumstances) bring the dead back to life. Examples:
  • Death of the Hypotenuse
    • Lars, anyone?
    • The current arc is an inversion of this, since a new hypotenuse came into play and the majority of the current arc has been spent preventing his death.
    • And one of the "what if" stories even lampshaded this topic in amusing fashion. Why two love interests? (Giant grins from two female cast members and female co-author.) "Deal with it."
  • Death Ray: Just about every Spark has made one or something like one -- though no-one but Agatha redesigns the landscape with them during sleep. Agatha considers Gil's NOT having built a death ray gross negligence of the highest order, going so far as to say "what's wrong with him?" He takes this criticism to heart, and most of his later inventions are somewhere between "Mobile Heavy Artillery" and "Force of Nature".
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: Old Man Death puts it best: "I'm just a human. Rode with the Jägers. Never. Lost. A. Fight." No wonder they covet his Nice Hat.
  • Defictionalization: Some of the better in-comic T-shirt designs find their way into the Foglios' store. ("Fools! I will destroy you all! (ask me how)")
  • Deliberately Monochrome: Volume 1, "The Beetleburg Clank", makes wonderful use of this. Before Agatha's locket is removed, the comic is almost entirely in grayscale; the only color is some blue around the sound effects of Sparks' machines (and Agatha's Green Eyes). Right after the locket is removed, the colors are present but dim, as her Spark starts to assert itself although she still gets headaches -- but in her most Spark-ish moments, the colors are bright and clear. By Volume 2, when the headaches have stopped, the entire comic is in full color. One flashback in Volume 2 shows the color fading the moment Agatha puts her locket back on. Originally, the first volume was black and white (it was a print comic) and that was the end of it. The retconned color is just full of symbolism.
  • Detached Sleeves: Sleipnir; Zola
  • Deus Exit Machina: Castle Heterodyne is able to instantly crush anyone in a "live" room, with extraordinary precision. Naturally, all the action takes place in rooms where the Castle isn't yet repaired, so it can't help out.
  • Didn't See That Coming: Happens all the time. Just when the characters think their plans are set, just when the audience thinks it knows what is going to happen next, some Chekhov's Gun will be taken off the mantle and fired, some character who we haven't seen for several months or years will suddenly reappear to immensely consequential effect, or some machine will malfunction at exactly the wrong (or right) time, radically reorienting the direction of the plot in a very short amount of time.
  • Dirty Business: Barry, in the flashback where he gave Agatha her locket, is crying over the effect it will have on her.
  • Damsel in Distress: Zola, for a while. Considering what happens later, it may have been completely an act. Even at the time she appears to intentionally pick up the Distress Ball to draw attention from Gil to herself. Which makes the spider hazard, and its resolution, a satisfying comeuppance.
  • Do-Anything Robot: Dingbots!
  • Doctor's Orders: Both Dr. Sun and Mama Gkika believe in their authority in medicinal matters.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?

Violetta: Jeez, you Sparks get all into your freakish, twisted courtship rituals--

Castle Heterodyne: And you cannot deny that [Gilgamesh] has a magnificent death ray.
Agatha: (red and looking aside) That's... That's hardly a basis for stable relationship.

Agatha: I'm sure that next time you'll build a much bigger one, but trust me, right now any Death Ray, will do, no matter how--
Gil: I. DO. NOT. HAVE. A. DEATH. RAY!

Otilia: Yesss--but let's ju/ust add the next step, sha/all we?

Selnikov: Ah, yes. That "Sun-ny bedside manner" everybody talks about.

Professor Mezzasalma: And who the devil is this?!

  • Dysfunction Junction
    • The Valois clans. Dear God, the Valois clans. The Sturmvoraus and von Blitzengaard families have it the worst, but anybody even distantly related to these people is all caught up in the most insanely paranoid whirl of backstabbing you could imagine.

Tarvek: You don't last very long in our family unless you've got a good nose for intrigue.
Tarvek: The only way to keep my family in line would be to bury them in a row.
Martellus: Now don't get me wrong, I can kill family members all day and know I'm making the world a better place....

    • Another of Tarvek's cousins, Violetta, gave this eulogy once for her Aunt Margolotta.

Violetta: I'm sorry she's dead. She was always nice to me... well, she never tried to kill me... that is, I'm pretty sure those were all accidents... and if they weren't then she wasn't trying very hard... which was awfully sweet of her, right?

    • Earlier on, when Violetta was first told that her Aunt Margolotta was being pursued by assassins:

Violetta: Well, sure. She's one of my relatives.

    • Even Tarvek and Violetta, who are legitimately on the same side, can't entirely avoid the family paranoia.

Tarvek: And how is it even possible that you're on my side here?
Violetta: Oh well, you know... family...
Tarvek: That means I should be looking for the knife in my back. (And in the novelisation, he actually pats his back to check.)

    • And then there's the Mongfish family, which is at least as dysfunctional as the Sturmvorauses (with the same occasional distribution of good guys).
    • The old Heterodynes were no pushovers in this. See Axe Crazy and Big Screwed-Up Family.

E

  • Early-Bird Cameo: Oggie's great-great-grandson is initially seen 4-years earlier telling kids the story on the first page.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Dreen. They work with -- not necessarily for -- Baron Wulfenbach. A line in the novelization describes them as "unearthly, terrifying creatures garbed in dark, wide-brimmed conical hats and long, obscuring veils. They killed with but a touch...." They can blast a powerful war machine apart with just a touch, too. Tarvek shows terror at the sight of them. A Jaeger general shows terror at the sight of them. Bangladesh DuPree shows terror at the sight of them. The novelization says even Slaver wasps are scared of Dreen....

General Zog: Run! Der Baron iz not foolink around enny more! Doze tings iz unschtoppable! Vorse -- dey's scary!

  • Emperor Scientist: The entire world is run by these. Baron Wulfenbach is an especially fine specimen.
  • Enfant Terrible: Not quite yet, but when Gil rides out with the "devil dogs" to defend Castle Heterodyne until it's all the way fixed and goes into full-on ape-shit Spark mode, this conversation happens:

Council Member: But--I thought the new Heterodyne was a girl!
Vanamonde: She is. That's just the boyfriend.
Council Member: That's--
Vanamonde: Uh-huh.
Council Member: We're...we're going to have to break out those little iron cages for their children, aren't we?

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  1. ↑ For those not in the know, there were several points in the church's history where either they went through a pope about every couple months to around 5 years, and another where there were 3 popes at once.
  2. ↑ A footnote in the third novelization to the "seven popes" line enumerates them: "the Pope of Avignon, the Ottoman Pope, the Pope of the Tsars, the Pope of Belfast, the Gypsy Pope (who, confusingly, is not affiliated with the Romany), the Pope of the Mountains, and the mysterious Sicilian Papa de Tutti Papi." That last title appears to be a reference to The Mafia.
  3. ↑ Justified, seeing as 'Jäger' is German for 'Hunter'
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