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[[Girl Genius/Tropes A-E|Tropes A-E]] | [[Girl Genius/Tropes F-J|Tropes F-J]] | '''Tropes K-O''' | [[Girl Genius/Tropes P-T|Tropes P-T]] | [[Girl Genius/Tropes U-Z|Tropes U-Z]]
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==K==
* [[Kill It with Fire]]
** Sleipnir's pipes... guess [[Incredibly Lame Pun|you can't start a fire without a Spark]].
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* [[Kneecapping]]: Higgs uses this move against Zola. Unfortunately for him, she is too high on combat drugs to fall down.
* [[Knight Templar]]: Othar. He wants to kill all sparks, because he thinks they are [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040922 "the cause of everything wrong in the world today].
==L==
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Many.
** Using a book titled ''Using Found Objects as Weapons'' as a bludgeon is probably the best example.
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* [[Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone]]: With a somewhat unexpected pair of lovebirds in [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100906 this strip].
* [[Leitmotif]] / [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: Agatha discovers that if she hums a certain series of notes, she can improve her focus while working on various projects. This tune pops up throughout the series, in various forms. Unknown if anyone has actually tabulated and played her song in real life, though.
* [[Leonine Contract]]: Beetle and Wulfenbach.
* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]:
* [[Let Them Die Happy]]: These [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100929 plants] are trying to do this.
* [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again]]: Gilgamesh orders that his [[Nice Hat]] should be hidden in a safe place -- [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120116 and never spoken about again.]
{{quote|'''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.<br />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]]
** Type 1 from [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070101 Wooster to Bangladesh].
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* [[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 [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080908 this] comic.
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* [[Losing Your Head]]: {{spoiler|Tinka}} Also [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100818 here], with {{spoiler|Castle Heterodyne}} in the body of a mechanical Muse. Also an example of [[Arc Words]].
* [[Love Bubbles]]: [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110817 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:
** Possible Minion [[Love Triangle]] in Moloch, Violetta, and Snaug. Although, Violetta [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|denies romantic interest]] in Moloch, and [[All Love Is Unrequited|he's smitten]] by Sanaa Wilhelm. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100616 Suuuure] she isn't interested... which turns the one centered on Moloch into a low-grade [[Love Dodecahedron]].▼
***# Lars — but of course {{spoiler|he's dead now}}.
***# Martellus von Blitzengaard — he is really interested, but she considers him a walking trouble.
***# Dr. Rakethorn — it's not clear how serious he is, Agatha considers him distracting when shirtless, and that's about it.
*** Gil:
***# Princess Xerxsephnia von Blitzengaard — quietly, yet persistently pursued Gil for a long while.
***# "[[Even Heroes Have Heroes|one of his heroes]]" Trelawney Thorpe the "[[Captain Patriotic|Spark of the Realm]]" — some mutual interest, though looks much less serious than British papers want to believe, while Ms. Thorpe's relationship with {{spoiler|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:
***# Sanaa Wilhelm — voiced the opinion that Tarvek is "awfully cute" (after {{spoiler|she misidentified him as Gil whom Othar was supposed to abduct}}) — even that was probably not entirely serious, but who knows.
***# Ruxala (the [[The Hunter|Vespiary]] girl in Mechanicsburg) — there was some [[Ship Tease]], and presumably they will work together… once she is out of stasis.
***# British Royal Princess Neena — [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200506 hotly defends the notion that "Prince Tarvek is nice"] and they [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200817 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 [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|denies romantic interest]] ([http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100616 suuuure]) in Moloch, and [[All Love Is Unrequited|he's smitten]] by Sanaa Wilhelm
* [[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]]
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* [[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
** Dr. Mongfish had at least two other daughters besides Lucrezia; Serpentina (Theo's mother), and Demonica ( {{spoiler|Zola's mom}}).
** Othar Tryggvassen ([[Gentleman Adventurer|Gentleman]] [[All the Tropes Wiki Drinking Game|Adventurer!]]) [[Alliteration|actually asks Agatha]] if she's one of these.
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{{quote|'''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.}}
* [[Malicious Slander]]
* [[The Man They Couldn't Hang]]: Well, The Jägers They Couldn't Hang, but otherwise Da Boyz. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050513 Definitely Da Boyz.]
* [[Marriage to a God]]: The original Heterodyne was supposedly married to a local battle goddess.
* [[Master Apprentice Chain]]: Gilgamesh is taught by Klaus himself (among the others), and we know some of people who taught the baron himself.
{{quote|'''[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date{{=}}20110204 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]]:
** [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150410 The invisible woman sitting in the third chair] is considered ''adequate'' by Smoke Knight standards.
** The two mooks in this page are "Wulfenbach Stealth Fighters", some of the Baron's most elite assassins. They've just effortlessly slaughtered their way through an entire airship of badasses who fight giant monsters in CQB with daggers and pistols. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120620 And they're not fit to shine a Smoke Knight's knives]. Pay particular attention to the ninja vanish done by ''leaping directly into a fire''.
** [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160523 At this point it's just getting silly]. Honestly, where did she even ''have'' that life-sized cardboard decoy stowed, in her pocket?
* [[Meaningful Name]]
** [[Word of God]] has it that Theopholous DuMedd was originally "doomed" to be [[Anyone Can Die|killed off]] in volume 3, but the Foglios so enjoyed him that he stuck around.
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** Heterodyne: The principle of periodic functions upon which theremins and radio modulation rely. Possibly related to the [[Theme Music Power-Up]].
** Portentius Reichenbach's [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Portentous]] Operatic Masterpiece: [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080204 The Storm King].
** Agatha is a [http://www.behindthename.com/name/agatha 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]]
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* [[Mugging the Monster]]: In Mechanisburg, [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120413 one surviving hostile Spark] [[Too Dumb to Live|seems to think that]] [[Badass Bystander|Axel Higgs]] and [[Action Girl|Zeetha, daughter of Chump]] will make good ''innocent hostages.'' Keep in mind that this is the guy who absolutely ''destroyed'' a [[Psycho Serum|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 [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070129 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): ''[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070528 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.
*
** Another one is Ancient [[God-Emperor|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 [[The Epic of Gilgamesh|Gilgamesh]] Wulfenbach;
** [[w:Lucrezia Borgia|Lucrezia]] and her sisters Serpentina and Demonica;
** Master Payne;
** Von Pinn;
** Possibly subverted with [[w:Moloch|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.
**
* [[Naughty Tentacles]]
** "Impertinent mechanical squid!"
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* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]
** Agatha activates her own "Lion" device to prevent the Castle A.I. from stopping her from intentionally dying. This permanently destroys the A.I. and lots of other systems. All over the city. Subverted because she found a part of the Castle A.I.. After hooking the A.I. back into the castle, it thanks her for the EMP blast since it destroyed the rogue programs, making it easier to control those parts of the castle. She still has to fix everything, though.
** Lampshaded by Violetta [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110214 on this page] when she discovers that {{spoiler|Gil and Tarvek have somehow missed the poison that was on the hairpin that Zola jabbed Agatha with}}. Although she was being a little unfair, seeing as how there's no visible symptoms and she was the one carrying the toxin-test kit.
** Dr Sun takes down the Baron's escape klank -- ''by himself'' -- and enforces Klaus's bed rest in order to stop him killing himself from the strain. Awesome -- {{spoiler|''until'' we learn that, in keeping Klaus in the hospital, Sun's unwittingly exposed him to Anevka!Lucrezia, which is more or less what Klaus feared. Oops.}}
* [[Noblewoman's Laugh]]
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** Jägermonsters and Lackya don't get along well. They're both bruisers who don't function well without a person to follow.
** [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110422 Tarvek and Gil], just like Agatha [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080929 told] [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090724 them].
** Tarvek and Violetta; despite the family power structure having set them up so that he's the brains and she's his (deftly-applied) muscle, it transpires that Tarvek [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110425 can pull smoke knight moves even on Violetta], and Violetta [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110907 has a talent for intrigue and projecting how power dynamics could be brought to play out] that can
** Martellus and Tarvek. Martellus gets a [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140411#.VX2OcjHF-V0 wistful look] -- [[Character Development|rather out of keeping with his earlier characterization]], but similar to one we've seen on Tarvek's face an introspective time or three -- when he mentions an implication that Euphrosynia Heterodyne actually '''loved''' Andronicus Valois, the original Storm King.
* [[Not So Harmless]]: {{spoiler|1=[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100623 Zola]}}
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* [[The Nudifier]]: The Wacky Weave Destabiliser. (Un)Fortunately Zeetha wears special underwear.
* [[Number One Dime]]: Hats, to the Jägers.
==O==
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: A ''lot'' of people.
** Most especially Zola.
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** Krosp has also been this at times. Just not when the [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070917 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. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20061108 She was just fooling around, however.]
* [[Organ Theft]]: [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20101122 Mittelmind and Diaz]<sup>(spoilers!)</sup>
* [[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. {{spoiler|The corpse was doctored to make it look like Agatha, but the cloning gave the deception away, as the cloned body was not hers.}}
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** In the "Cinderella" omake, Cinderella's full name is really [[Sleeping Beauty]] [[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White]] [[Rapunzel]] [[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|Ozma]] Rose [[Little Red Riding Hood|Red Riding Hood]] [[Rumpelstiltskin]]. (No, [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081124 really]. [[Lampshade Hanging|Just don't ask]].)
{{Split Trope List footer}}
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