Girl Genius/Tropes K-O

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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

Girl Genius provides examples of the following tropes:

K

L

  • Lampshade Hanging: Many.
    • Using a book titled Using Found Objects as Weapons as a bludgeon is probably the best example.
  • Large Ham
  • Laser-Guided Karma: An officer in one of the many armies that invade Mechanicsburg tells his soldiers not to keep their eyes of the captured civilians, to treat them with respect, and to execute them all. Right before the Doom bell knocks all the soldiers out.

Civilian man: And what about the one giving orders?
Civilian woman: (holding a rolling pin) Oh, him we treat with respect.

DuPree: I heard there was a hat!
Gil: You're delusional.

  • Lingerie Scene: The creators admit the work contains "lots of running around in Victorian underwear". Most of the time, Agatha is the offender.
  • Literary Agent Hypothesis: The entire comic is postulated as a course on the life of Agatha Heterodyne, as taught by the Professors Foglio at Transylvania Polygnostic University ("Know enough to be afraid.") They stick mostly to the truth -- though this very admittance means that it's possible that, in the "real" universe where this story takes place, not every woman has large breasts.
    That is, the first print collection, "Agatha Heterodyne & The Beetleburg Clank", and the original printed comics, are presented as an unauthorized but accurate record published by TPU, Phil Foglio having witnessed Agatha's "Battle Circus" himself; later, he is indeed in town when the Battle Circus episode occurs. However, Phil Foglio is also shown telling the tale as fiction in the street right on page one. (An alternative tryout sketch released online seems to have Agatha herself telling the story to her grandchildren.) Maybe that's after he was accidentally sent back in time or something. But also, in the "radio play" episodes of the webcomic, Studio Foglio are repeatedly shown escaping as they perform the last seconds of the episode just as the real and angry Agatha Heterodyne and her friends are about to catch them and stop the show.
    • Some of side stories are supposed to be In-Universe fiction, or at least embellished (and sanitized) accounts of the events, e.g. The Crown of the Sleeping King as part of "Penny Sparklies" about Trelawney Thorpe.
  • Little No
  • Living Battery: Agatha drinks water from the Dyne and is super-charged as a temporary power source.
  • Living Crashpad: Jägers are polite about this.
  • Living Labyrinth: Castle Heterodyne
  • Living Legend: Quite a few.
    • Othar Trygvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, very well known and generally viewed as a hero. Except by the main protagonists.
    • Trelawney Thorpe, "Spark of the Realm".
    • Klaus Wulfenbach is fine with having a reputation as a terribly villainous evil emperor if it keeps the peace.
    • The Heterodyne Boys had a wonderfully heroic reputation, beloved in no small degree because their family very much did not.
      • Aldin & Jiminez Hoffmann were inspired by them (well… at least Jiminez was), walk down this path, and began to collect their own fame as "The New Heterodyne Boys". Maybe working with the Library helps too.
    • Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek are all rapidly building themselves reputation, what with being stuck in the middle of the most epic story since the Heterodyne Boys defeated the Other.
  • Living Motion Detector: The clank in this comic.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: There really are a lot of regular characters in this comic, to the point where it can get difficult to keep track of everyone.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Maxim, the beautiful male Jägermonster. See the Cinderella breather episode, where Maxim is supposed to be one of the "ugly" stepsisters, but it doesn't quite turn out as planned. Also counts as a Badass Long Hair.
  • Look Behind You!: Von Zinzer: "Uh... hey, check it out." -- though in this case not only does the target look, but there's actually something to see.
  • Loophole Abuse: Not a weapon. That's a chair!
  • Losing Your Head: Tinka Also here, with Castle Heterodyne in the body of a mechanical Muse. Also an example of Arc Words.
  • Love Bubbles: Bubbles and roses.
  • Love Dodecahedron: In the order of appearance in each branch, it looks this way:
    • The main one Love Triangle, of course, is Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek. That's stable, but if it's ever resolved, in whichever way, the authors won't need much effort to Pair the Spares.
      • Agatha:
        1. Lars — but of course he's dead now.
        2. Martellus von Blitzengaard — he is really interested, but she considers him a walking trouble.
        3. Dr. Rakethorn — it's not clear how serious he is, Agatha considers him distracting when shirtless, and that's about it.
      • Gil:
        1. Princess Xerxsephnia von Blitzengaard — quietly, yet persistently pursued Gil for a long while.
        2. "one of his heroes" Trelawney Thorpe the "Spark of the Realm" — some mutual interest, though looks much less serious than British papers want to believe, while Ms. Thorpe's relationship with late Wooster was more serious than she used to believe.
          • Wooster did show attachment to Ms. Thorpe, apparently obvious enough for his other colleagues to taunt him when she seems interested in Gil with Queen's approval (not clear whether and how much she reciprocated beyond being friends and colleagues).
          • Captain Hawkins — was flirting with her, which seems to be their little tradition, but not serious.
      • Tarvek:
        1. Sanaa Wilhelm — voiced the opinion that Tarvek is "awfully cute" (after she misidentified him as Gil whom Othar was supposed to abduct) — even that was probably not entirely serious, but who knows.
        2. Ruxala (the Vespiary girl in Mechanicsburg) — there was some Ship Tease, and presumably they will work together… once she is out of stasis.
        3. British Royal Princess Neena — hotly defends the notion that "Prince Tarvek is nice" and they are on very good terms back from Paris, and she wants him around in free time (Tarvek is as friendly as with Colette, and it seems to be no more than that).
    • Possible Minion Love Triangle in Moloch, Violetta, and Snaug. Although, Violetta denies romantic interest (suuuure) in Moloch, and he's smitten by Sanaa Wilhelm, which turns the one centered on Moloch into a low-grade Love Dodecahedron. Tenuously connected with the main one via Sanaa.
  • Loyal Phlebotinum: Practically everything that the Heterodynes made.

M

  • Mad Artist: The tailor clank in the "Revenge of the Weasel Queen" fillers.
  • Made of Iron
    • Airman Third Class Axel Higgs
    • Othar Tryggvassen
    • Old Man Death took multiple Jägerpunches to the face and was still able to outfight the Jäger who provided them.
  • Mad Scientist: "Sparks", whose erratic genius has literally reshaped the world. Practically half the cast are mad scientists of one sort or another, though the ones that come closest to the classic villain type are probably Prince Wilhelm Aaronev and the late Lucrezia Mongfish.

"I told the baron, give me a thousand orphans, a hedge maze and enough cheese and I can--"

  • Mad Scientist Laboratory: Several, most notably those belonging to Baron Wulfenbach and Prince Aaronev. And all of the ones in Castle Heterodyne.
  • Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter
    • Lucrezia Mongfish is officially referred to as "The Villain's Beautiful Daughter" in the stories told about Agatha's parents. Agatha herself is one (Lucrezia certainly counts even if Bill doesn't), and she's already run into at least two Mad Scientist's Handsome Sons.
    • Dr. Mongfish had at least two other daughters besides Lucrezia; Serpentina (Theo's mother), and Demonica ( Zola's mom).
    • Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) actually asks Agatha if she's one of these.
    • And most offspring of mad scientists are mad scientists themselves.
  • Magitek: "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!"
  • Magnetic Hero: Any and all Sparks; their manic vision pulls normal people into their service.
  • Make My Index Live: This mythos is a major part of the premise.
  • Malevolent Architecture: Castle Heterodyne. It was designed by an Ax Crazy Spark, and it shows.

Zola: Avoid any floorstone marked in white. It is a trap that will kill you. Do not stand under any part of the ceiling marked in white. It is a trap that will kill you. Duck under any opening taller than one meter. It is a trap that will kill you. Do not touch any metal surface. It is a trap that will kill you.

Dr. Sun: He does his teachers proud.

    • Martellus von Blitzengaard, aka Tweedle, was the "number one apprentice" of then-troublesome Dimitri Vapnoople. Which is where his Sparkhounds and werewolves came from; Swartzwalders (bear constructs) are explicitly Vapnoople's creation, serving Martellus per an agreement.
  • Maximum Fun Chamber: Castle Heterodyne contains several; in fact, most of the castle counts.
  • McNinja: The Smoke Knights. Dear God, the Smoke Knights.
  • Meaningful Name
    • Word of God has it that Theopholous DuMedd was originally "doomed" to be killed off in volume 3, but the Foglios so enjoyed him that he stuck around.
    • Most likely Sleipnir O'Hara wasn't supposed to be kept around either. Agatha needed a roommate to introduce her to the world of the Baron's flying castle, so the Foglios gave her someone to "sleep near".
    • The town of Mechanicsburg is integrated with the mechanical Castle Heterodyne.
    • Bangladesh DuPree. Bang duPrey. Or Du-praved.
    • Heterodyne: The principle of periodic functions upon which theremins and radio modulation rely. Possibly related to the Theme Music Power-Up.
    • Portentius Reichenbach's Portentous Operatic Masterpiece: The Storm King.
    • Agatha is a Latin name, coming from a Greek word meaning "good". However, the famous St. Agatha of Sicily was a third-century martyr, and her many patronages include... er... the bosom. Very apt, even if unintentional.
    • Dolokov's name may or may not be a reference to the Manipulative Bastard and Karma Houdini of War and Peace.
  • Mechanical Evolution: Inverted; Agatha tends to compulsively construct little Clanks termed "dingbots". These dingbots can then go on to construct more dingbots, but dingbots are only so bright, so each successive generation gets less and less advanced, and less bright, and by the third or fourth generation the dingbots produced are nonfunctional.
  • The Medic
    • Mamma Gkika
    • Although we haven't seen this happen yet, the Heterodynes to the Jägers.
    • Dr. Sun is a doctor. As well as a Spark.
    • We also have this exchange:

Gil: Let me take a look at that.
Tarvek: ... Already doing it.
Gil: Hey! I am a doctor, you know.
Tarvek: pft. And who isn't?

  • Melee a Trois: Tarvek vs. Zola vs. Lucrezia!Agatha.
  • Melodramatic: EVERY. SINGLE. SPARK. Can get this way. The only Spark we've not seen like this -- yet -- is Klaus.
  • Memento MacGuffin: Agatha's locket.
  • Mental Time Travel: Othar, in his Twitter.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: Dr. Tarsus Beetle, who kept Agatha at the university because he knew the truth about her, dies at the first story arc.
  • Mexican Standoff: Subverted between Klaus and Dr. Beetle here.
  • Midair Repair
    • Gilgamesh and Agatha while testing Gil's flying, or rather falling, machine. Of course because they're sparks, it starts to become midair redesigning the device before Zoing points out to Agatha that they are still falling.
    • Tarvek is forced to do the same thing... while tied up to a Spark fighting with a mad Jäger on board. He finally makes the machine fly inches from the ground.
  • Milky White Eyes: Geisterdamen and possibly other geistercreatures.
  • Mini-Mecha: Agatha's Dingbots, particularly Dingbot Prime.
  • Minion Maracas: Agatha demonstrates the proper technique.
  • Minion Shipping
  • Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Castle Heterodyne acts as this to the prisoners repairing it, due to its fractured personality.
  • "Mission Impossible" Cable Drop: Gil does this here.
  • Mistaken for Gay: In this strip, unless it's just good-natured teasing between siblings. Or not mistaken, since his objection to Sanaa's statement isn't Gil's gender, it's that he's "a foul villain". Bi the Way at the most, though, since he was married to a Geisterdame for a while in the Twitter.
  • Mobile Maze: Castle Heterodyne. "We're doomed! The door we came through -- it never led HERE before!"
  • Modesty Bedsheet
    • Gil, while lying on the bed injured and naked.
    • Von Pinn, in a similar situation.
  • Moment Killer
    • Merlot, in the page that is aptly titled Smoochus Interruptus.
    • The Jägers are of the opinion that Gil and Agatha's budding relationship will be the motivation they need to remove the copy of the Other's mind from Agatha -- because it will mean that they can't make out without Agatha's mother watching.
  • Monochromatic Eyes: The geisterdamen have all-white eyes.
  • Monster Clown: Whatever this thing originally was made for, among other things, probably.
  • Mood Whiplash
  • Mook Horror Show: The flashback of Zeetha wiping out a whole pirate ship sure looks like this in a couple panels.
  • Moral Myopia: A lot of people other than Klaus and the heroes fall into this. Such as Merlot, who blames Agatha for the fact that he killed a few dozen people and got punished for it.
  • More Hero Than Thou: Tarvek and Gil have a brief exchange about who gets to be this.
  • More Than Meets the Eye: A few different characters.
    • Agatha kicks the story off with this.
    • Tarvek also qualifies.
    • Airman Higgs seems to be the new, most prominent example.
    • Also, Da Boyz and Zola use Obfuscating Stupidity.
    • Gil (especially in his Paris days), Agatha's "parents", Wooster, Von Pinn, Dr. Sun, Dolokov, the Circus, Sanaa... it's probably easier to list which characters AREN'T more than they appear.
  • More Than Mind Control: Sparks can be almost irresistibly charismatic when they put their minds to it.
  • Motivational Kiss: Gil gets one here (continued to the next page).
  • Motor Mouth
    • Movit #11 causes this, increasing with dosage.
    • Coffee does this to Agatha. Increasing dosage was deftly averted.
    • Prince Aaronev's sedative must have contained a truth serum; Agatha blabs for almost three full pages of unrestrained and meandering truth before she passes out. So much for "Lady Olga".
  • Mr. Fanservice: Gil, Tarvek, Klaus, and more.
  • Mugging the Monster: In Mechanisburg, one surviving hostile Spark seems to think that Axel Higgs and Zeetha, daughter of Chump will make good innocent hostages. Keep in mind that this is the guy who absolutely destroyed a Moveit #11-enhanced Zola earlier, while Zeetha wiped out a pirate fleet and fortress by herself.
  • Mummies At the Dinner Table: Anevka, to a degree.
  • Mushroom Samba: The Circus pumps out a hallucinogenic gas during their escape from Sturmhaven, shout "The Heterodynes are back!" and we get this little gem. This evidently made the rumours of this incident and anything linked to it even more vivid and contradictory.
  • Must Have Caffeine: Vanamonde von Mekkhan spends all his time in a coffee shop in Mechanicsburg, and certainly does enjoy his coffee. He has even written a textbook on coffee preparation (under a pseudonym): Bean There, Done That.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Basically the Fatal Flaw of every Spark in the world. Entering "The Madness Place" grants them incredibly powerful focus, but it makes them entirely oblivious to the potentially disastrous results of their creations.
    • Specifically, Aaronev Sturmvoraus and his dying daughter, though certainly said by others in this world.
  • My Instincts Are Showing: Krosp I, Emperor of All Cats -- basically, a cat with human-level intelligence, speech, thumbs, and the ability to walk erect... he'd like to claim that his "cat-instincts" have no hold over him, but Agatha rather enjoys proving otherwise using a piece of string.
  • Myth Arc: One of the best webcomic examples.
    • The foreshadowing starts with the fourth strip of the first chapter, with hints about the phenomenon scattered over many, many volumes -- and a full explanation has still not been given.
    • Another one is Ancient God-Queens and Portal Network of "Queen's Mirrors".
      • At least one adventure of Heterodyne Boys involved a friendly "High Priestess". About two centuries ago Andronicus "the Storm King" Valois and some of still-living Jägers met a High Priestess of Nyx. Albia of England mentioned Nyx as a "Sister Queen" (most likely older) killed almost five millennia ago. The official costume of Lady Astarte, Albia's "High Caretaker of the Sacred Well" very obviously resembles that of a "High Priestess" depicted in Heterodyne stories.
      • The first Heterodyne found a small spring dedicated to a "warrior goddess". Dyne water can be used to temporarily induce the same state in which Albia implied to remain constantly, and to make Jägerdraught that makes people ageless among the other things (if they survive). Mechanicsburg had a "Queen's Mirror" device they all used...
      • According to the legend, Skifander was colonized via Queen's Mirror that was already there. Albia also personally knew Luheia, Zeetha's ancestress (who sacrificed herself to take out a presumably equal enemy). Then there are Geisterdamen who know of Skifander, wear trinket somewhat resembling that of Skifandrian amazons and wanted their goddess back. And some strange people in England who got some secret grudge against Skifander.
      • Oh, and Albia searches for the other Queens (she found one alive, plus descendant of another). And there's Embi, a guy who looks too well for his age of over 130, which he claims is a result of his sacred vow "to see the world before he died".
    • The two greater arcs are now linked, once Albia positively identified (she does "see" minds) the killer of Nyx and others as someone who is supposed to be much younger than that, and as such presumed to be a time traveller.

N

  • Nakama: Team Agatha is a classic example, given that Agatha and her immediate retinue are basically the only family any of them really has. Even most of the ones who actually still have living blood relatives consider Agatha and the rest to be their true family.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Practically half the cast.
    • Klaus and Gilgamesh Wulfenbach;
    • Lucrezia and her sisters Serpentina and Demonica;
    • Master Payne;
    • Von Pinn;
    • Possibly subverted with Moloch.
    • Also basically all of the Heterodynes (prior to Bill and Barry) have these.
    • If these things are any indication, all strong Spark families tend to be this way.
    • Before the time skip, the Queen of England was only mentioned in hushed tones, even though the only British member of the cast was Wooster. (It was a WMG that she exercises mind control over the entirety of the English Isles; this was Jossed after the time skip.)
  • Naughty Tentacles
  • Necessarily Evil: Any Spark who wants to be a good guy sometimes has to turn into a raging madboy just to keep the million separate interests from coming apart. Klaus, Gilgamesh, and Agatha have all found this out.
  • Neck Lift
    • Merlot finds out this way that Baron Wulfenbach despises traitors.
    • Von Pinn introduces herself to Agatha by giving her a personal demonstration of this trope.
    • Mamma Gkika also explains through this method (with "slammed-into-a-wall" bonus) to Oublenmach why it's a bad idea to wake her up too early in the morning.
    • Vole reminds Tarvek and Gil that you should never, ever take a Jäger lightly, by catching the two of them in a strangling neck lift -- one in each arm.
  • Necromantic
  • Never Found the Body
    • A plot point has significant individuals from the past killed by a machine made from "farm machinery and pork products", which turns them into a string of sausages. Hard to confirm that.
    • Not to mention Othar Trygvassen, Gentleman Adventurer; he's been tossed out of two airships on-screen, within the same chapter. Gil doesn't even consider the possibility that he died, having seen him come back from the same or worse so many times.
    • Gil is also Genre Savvy enough to find it suspicious his father's body is never found. Between what the readers were told before and Boris's comments that the Baron ordered his son to be immediately named head of the empire should he be suspected dead, it's indeed almost certain his death is a ruse.
  • Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight:

Zola: Bringing a knife to a gun fight doesn't seem very smart, now does it?
Agatha: Well, I suppose it isn't that much worse than bringing a gun to a clank fight.

Othar: Ha! It'll take more than being tied to a lit keg of explosives and tossed into a pit of acid filled with mutant, acid-resistant flying pirahnas armed with flame-throwers and battle axes while venomous, mechanical, missile-launching Morris dancers armed with liquid nitrogen harpoon guns are overhead; riding giant, rabid killer bees with side-mounted death rays to kill Othar Tryggvassen!

Ferretina: Whoops! Silly me, I forgot to turn the lightning generators on!

Othar: Er... not a whole lot more, I'll admit.

Castle Heterodyne: No! Not in the facing!

O

Tarvek: What? No! That was that idiot from the Island of th... (makes a face) She is good.

"Who in blazes is that?"
"Why, I am OTHAR TRYGGVASSEN, Gentleman Adventurer!"
"Uh oh."

    • Amusingly invoked here.
    • And here
    • Everyone is thinking it as The Baron puts a Wasp Weasel in Gil's face and watches it shriek. Even you and Gil.
  • Oh My Gods: Here, in the second panel.
  • Oh, No, Not Again: When Agatha's trying to snap Gil out of a stupor:

Agatha: Hey, Gil! All of Paris is about to go up in flames, and Zola has her head caught in a bucket! Up and at 'em, Hero Boy!
Gil: Hm? A bucket? Again? Okay, I'm comin'.
Agatha: (shooting a sideways glance at Zola) Yeeeess. I suspected as much.

"Two minutes and she hasn't killed anyone!"
"A new record!"

  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Though Sparks do specialize, it appears that most of the really strong ones can stitch a living being out of spare body parts as easily as they can build a mechanical AI... or design an electric death ray or a giant airship. Only minor Sparks appear to be restricted to a discipline, as opposed to simply being best at one
  • One True Threesome: Phil and Kaja Foglio, thanks to their unabashed Bleached Underpants history, may be deliberately dangling this in front of the audience. Lampshaded and teased in the strip itself.
  • Only a Flesh Wound:

Gil: Seven broken ribs. Severe fracture, right leg. Fractured clavicle. Some crush injuries, but the kidneys appear unharmed. First and second degree burns on upper back and lower legs, third degree on the lower back. Four broken fingers, three broken toes, sprained and bruised muscles throughout -- major and minor lacerations, and a concussion.
Klaus: I've had worse.

  • Only Sane Man
    • Von Zinzer. Good news is, he has a lot of experience dealing with Sparks, which also gives him lots of Genre Savvy, though he's also somewhat fatalistic -- he's resigned to the fact that having to work for Sparks means he could be blown up, eaten, ripped apart or otherwise brutally killed at any time. No wonder he can be so snarky. Given the large number of Sparks and Spark minions he has recently been hanging around with, he is sometimes literally the only person in the room who is not crazy.
    • Krosp has also been this at times. Just not when the string is going to escape.
  • OOC Is Serious Business: Bangladesh DuPree not choosing at once the "let's blow everything up" option gets her second-in-command worried. She was just fooling around, however.
  • Organ Theft: Mittelmind and Diaz(spoilers!)
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket: Agatha's locket.
  • Our Hero Is Dead: And buried, complete with digging up the body and cloning a replica to make sure it's really her. The corpse was doctored to make it look like Agatha, but the cloning gave the deception away, as the cloned body was not hers.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Dame Aedith is a vampire hunter, despite the fact that no vampires have been seen. Although there was this little gem...

Wooster: Um... we're not going to meet some ancient undead Heterodyne vampire or something, are we?
Carson: Oh, and wouldn't that be the perfect capper to my day.
Wooster: Um, actually, that wasn't a "Ho ho, don't be silly old chap."
Carson: I ain't being paid to lie to you, brit.

  • Out of Focus: Lots of characters have done this.
    • Most notably, Gil dropped out of the story early in Volume 4, reappeared briefly at the end of Volume 5, and finally reentered the story for real in Volume 7.
    • Lots of other characters from the first arc disappeared after it was over and have either not returned or only showed up again in the third arc. The end of the second arc also sent a large number of supporting characters offstage. It also happens within arcs: Klaus has done this more than once. Given the webcomic format, the size of the cast, and the demands of the story, it's inevitable that it will keep happening.
    • This gets a non-canon lampshade in this picture.

Gil: AAARGH! I haven't had any lines in months! Am I even still a main character?!

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