Участник:Novilit/Девушка-Гений

Вместе веселее Эта страница находится в личном пространстве участника Novilit. Участник Novilit не против того, что другие участники будут совершать правки этой страницы.

Копипаста на доработке у участника Novilit Данный текст был скопирован из другого ресурса и помещен в личное пространство участника с целью последующего переписывания. Согласно правилу WT:НЕКОПИПАСТА, эта страница должна быть полностью изолирована от основного пространства и будет возвращена туда только после полного рерайта.

Тут когда-нибудь будет текст по комиксы от семьи Фоглио.

Викитропы

• Аватара автора — Фил Фоглио, собственно. По сюжету — бродячий собиратель фольклора, правнук ягермонстра (бессмертного суперсолдата трансильванских князей) Огги.
• Аналог орков — ягермонстры, элитные войска династии Гетеродинов. Выглядят именно как орки (причем на контрасте с гротескной внешностью очень любят вычурно наряжаться, по возможности — в дембельского фасона военную форму с фантастическими головными уборами) по происхождению — люди-суперсолдаты. На момент действия в связи с исчезновением Гетеродинов из Трансильвании служат элитными войсками уже в Восточноевропейской Империи фон Вульфенбаха (Вульфенбах — бывший вассал Гетеродинов, а ягеры всё равно бессмертны и крайне трудноубиваемы, поэтому со времен живых Гетеродинов их накопилось много). Троица ягеров-наёмников Огниана, Максима и Димо — постоянные спутники Агаты в её приключениях.
• Барон — Клаус фон Вульфенбах — барон, пришедший к успеху. После исчезновения Гетеродинов стал сильнейшей Искрой Трансильвании, а затем — и единоличным диктатором всей Восточной и Центральной Европы. Не стал приписывать себе не то, что монаршего, даже более высокого аристократического титула: отчасти из желания унизить искранутых князей и герцогов, вынужденных ходить на поклон к простому барону, отчасти — из верности Братьям-Гетеродинам, чьим вассалом он номинально является, и чьим давним другом он был до их исчезновения.
• Бетти и Вероника — гендерная инверсия. Два товарища и потенциальных любовных интереса Агаты — Гильгамеш фон Вульфенбах, биолог и авиаконструктор по специальности и рыцарь в (несколько проржавевших) сияющих доспехах по жизни, как «Бетти», и Тарвек фон Штурмфораус, робототехник и коварный интриган, не стесняющийся использовать в своих хитрых планах Агату, как «Вероника». Что примечательно — как раз Гил в этом дуэте «плохой парень», любитель выпить, подраться, сыграть в карты и, до встречи с Агатой, развлечься со случайной красоткой, в то время как Тарвек — «хороший мальчик», скромный интеллигент-заучка.
• Боевой монах — служащий белфастскому папскому престолу (в сеттинге авиньонский раскол со времнем только усугублялся и ко временам событий конкурирующих папских престолов семь) Орден Корбеттитов, монахов-железнодорожников, имеющих свои железнодорожные войска.
• Большой — значит главный: часто встречается среди Искр. Выше большинства своих подчинённых и подданных Мартеллий фон Блицгаард — глава Ордена Юпитера и новый Король-Буря, и у него это вероятно, его настоящий рост. Клаус барон фон Вульфенбах — диктатор всея Восточной Европы и он амбал ещё больше Мартеллия, но это читерство — он конструкт, сшитый из останков трёх человек. Но самый громадный из европейских владык — Владыка Парижа Вольтер, который раза в полтора выше Клауса. Но он киборг и тело его по большей части такие же искусственное, как и у барона.
  • Ягермонстры, местные орки на службе на князей Гетеродинов или всё того же барона фон Вульфенбаха, бессмертны и растут всю жизнь, в связи с чем командующие ими Ягер-генералы (самые старые и сильные из них, которые служили ещё Владу Богохульнику) ростом будут, пусть и не с Вольтера, но с барона так точно.
• Был когда-то человеком — все ягермонстры, боевые конструкты князей Гетеродинов, некода были человеческими слугами князей, которых те превратили в чудовищ с помощью своей безумной науки.
• Ваша мерзость — самый зловещий представитель злодейского клана безумных учёных, властелинчиков и Тёмных Властелинов Гетеродинов был известен как Влад Богохульник.
• Великолепный мерзавец:
  • Барон Клаус Вульфенбах. Начинал как простой трансильванский барон, вассал вконец тёмновластелинской династии секейских князей Гетеродинов, однако после таинственного исчезновения своих сеньоров неожиданно обнаружил себя сильнейшим феодалом в княжестве, захватил власть в Трансильвании и в ходе ряда завоевательных кампаний объединил «железом и кровью» земли Восточной и Центральной Европы, создав на их территории огромную империю, порядок на территории которой он поддерживал железной рукой (в чём ему здорово помогали пошедшие ему на службу после исчезновения Гетеродлинов ягермонстры — суперсолдаты трансильванских князей). По мелочи — занимался жестокими экспериментами над людьми и держал ручную шарашку из пленных Искр.
  • Князь Мартеллий фон Блицгаард — формально один из вассалов Вульфенбаха, на деле — один из главных его конкурентов в деле объединения Европы под своим флагом. Будучи изначально одной из ключевых фигур в тайном обществе Рыцарей Юпитера (заговоре потомков династии Валуа), Мартеллий смог интригами пробиться сначала в самые перспективные кандидаты на титул Короля-Бури, положив в процессе кучу народу, а потом и короноваться в таком качестве, но амбиции Мартеллия не останавливаются на этом и сейчас он планирует породниться с чудесно обретшейся наследницей Гетеродинов, желая создать династию, которая будет править панъевропейской империей от Бреста до Константинополя. Согласие самой наследницы при этом абсолютно не обязательно.
• Внезапное повышение в звании — Гил вызывает этот троп в армии, которая атакует его в одной из глав. Впрочем, новоявленный командир своему внезапному карьерному росту радовался недолго.
• Вор — Виолетта формально не воровка, а Дымчатый Рыцарь (мокрушница на службе у местных масонов), но специализируется именно на отвлечении внимания и ловкости рук: злодею, держащему нож у горла заложника, достаточно на секунду отвести взгляд, чтобы Виолетта подменила нож в его руке безобидным цветочком. А самого заложника — соломенным чучелом или дымовой гранатой.
• Все это время он был мёртв — Аневка Штурмфораус. После несчастного случая её тело было сильно повреждено и лежало в капсуле с системой поддержания жизни. К капсуле был подключён робот-аватар (точнее, «клац» — местный аналог робота), через которого Аневка взаимодействовала с миром. Но помаленьку личность Аневки отпечатывалась на роботе, и тот всё больше и больше обретал собственное сознание и чувства. В результате Аневка стала конгломератом двух своих тел — биологического и механического, и её сознание было распределено между ними. А потом за некоторое время до событий комикса биологическое тело Аневки умерло, но она даже не заметила этого. В результате то, что исходная Аневка Штурмфораус уже мертва, оказалось сюрпризом для всех, кроме её брата.
• Герр Доктор — так как действие первых частей комикса целиком происходит в альтернативно-исторической Трансильвании, а комикс посвящен безумной науке, то таких хватает. Техномагами-Искрами тут являются и Тёмный Властелин Клаус барон фон Вульфенбах, железной рукой правящий Восточной Европой и тайно проводящий эксперименты над людьми, и его сын — биоинженер и авиаконструктор Гильгамеш фон Вульфенбах, и друг-враг Гильгамеша Тарвек фон Штурмфораус — один из немногих людей в Европе, разбирающихся в работах легендарного Рембрандта ван Рейна (который в местном сеттинге был не художником, а технарём). Что характерно, протагонистка Агата — не немка, а мадьярка (если конкретнее — секейка), пусть её семья и происходит из города с немецким названием Механиксбург.
• Данс-макабр — думаете, Европа под властью безнравственных аристократов-безумных ученых — это кошмар? Не-а, супруги Фоглио гарантируют — это куда веселее, чем вы думаете. Правители-Искры в своей злобности и жестокости доходят до уровня мультяшных суперзлодеев (кто-то на Крайнем Севере облагает налогами огонь, кто-то пускает на опыты собственных подданных, кто-то содержит на своей VIP-ложе в театре пулемет для расстрела не понравившихся актеров и т. п.), среди формально положительных героев — пара наследников тёмновластелинских династий Европы, не скрывающий своей злобности интриган и тройка кровожадных боевых мутантов, а самый положительный из правителей Европы — записной Тёмный Властелин, содержащий на своей службе карательные отряды, набранные из бывших воздушных пиратов во главе с отбитой на голову капитаншей. Но подано это всё с юмором, все герои к такому раскладу дел в родной Европе уже давно привыкли и общее отношение к творящимся ужасам до комичности будничное.
• Жестокий большой ребёнок — много кто, особенно из «искр», то есть местных сумрачных гениев. Для многих из них «начать делать какую-то крутую штуку, потому что она крутая, не думая о последствиях» — основной modus operandi. Даже самые здравомыслящие могут впасть в психоз и начать ТВОРИТЬ, причём во время оно они могут не только совершать чудеса от науки, но и проявлять недюжинную силу. Некоторые, наиболее мудрые, способны себя сдерживать и стараться применить способности во благо, злодейские — даже не пытаются, а особо «яркие» и вне лаборатории отличаются детской непосредственностью. При этом искры — основа местного прогресса и производства, почти все из них так или иначе принадлежат к правящей верхушке, а уконтропупить более-менее окопавшуюся искру для простого человека будет весьма тяжело, так что в большинстве случаев безответственность очередного безумного учёного — не его проблема. Из особо ярких примеров — обнаруживший существ из другого течения времени Гетеродин сначала решил, что это ангелы, спустившиеся с небес покарать его за грехи. А потом он выключил установку и откушал пирога. Даже слуги отмечают, что этот товарищ был прост в некоторых вопросах. Другой из того же славного рода провоцировал атаки, чтоб выскочить из-за угла с криком «Сюрприз!» Кто-то из них же соорудил в фамильном замке атакующих роботов в виде заводных тигров. Другие искры тоже отжигают: кто ложу в театре пулемётом оборудует, чтоб стрелять по плохим артистам, кто «успокоительный пирог» испечёт и лезет ко всем подряд в надежде таки успокоить кого-нибудь метким броском в морду…
  • Ягер-монстры, как творение старых Гетеродинов, тоже во многом подходят под троп. Эти крайне сильные и трудноубиваемые суперсолдаты очень любят драки и воспринимают войну как какую-то игру, шутят шутки и обожают шляпки… При этом, как и старые Гетеродины, успели в своё время натворить столько жести, что даже после ухода под крыло де-факто правителя Европы Клауса Вульфенбаха их могут попытаться убить просто по старой памяти. Повзрослеть и стать серьёзными ягеры, в принципе, могут — но для этого должно пройти ну очень много времени.
  • Из людей троп отыгрывает ДюПри, капитанша пиратского корабля и наёмница на службе у того же Вульфенбаха. С огромной радостью тыкает людей кинжалом, обожает драться, а на приказ убить кого-нибудь реагирует как ребёнок на порцию мороженного, а сам старый барон для неё определённо что-то вроде родительской фигуры.
• Замена огнестрела — вообще рядовые солдаты враждующих армий вооружены вполне узнаваемыми револьверами, пулеметами и винтовками со скользящим затвором, и даже ОБЧР таскают с собой автопушки, похожие на «Пом-пом». Но вот техномаги-Искры используют всякие энергетические вундерваффен вроде тесла-пушек или лучей смерти.
• Злобный белый — гейстердамен, приспешницы Иного, имеют вид зловещих белесых женских фигур.
• Злодейская организация — Рыцари Юпитера. Учитывая чёрно-чёрный конфликт, превалирующий в сеттинге, не особо злее той же Восточноевропейской Империи Вульфенбаха, просто хотят заменить власть одного Тёмного Властелина (собственно, барона фон Вульфенбаха) на власть другого (Короля-Бури, на чьё место в рядах Рыцарей имеется много претендентов из числа многочисленных наследников династии Валуа).
• Злодейский розовый — Зола, фальшивая Гетеродинка и впоследствии (вероятно) Королева Зари. Появляется в сюжете не то что в розовом платье — на розовом дирижабле, старается вести себя как эталонная «девочка-девочка» или как «дева в беде», но под этой личиной прячется та ещё расчётливая тварь и садистка. И вломить трем Искрам или боевым конструктам одновременно, будучи обычной, просто хорошо подготовленной девушкой, она может.
• Иммортократия — правление Вольтера в Париже. Сам Вольтер правит городом со времён смерти Короля-Бури и был лично знаком с живым Рембрандтом ван Рейном (у которого и выучился робототехнике), и с тех времён в его теле просто сильно прибавилось металла. Погибает благодаря предательству советника непосредственно на страницах комикса и новым Владыкой становится его внучка Колетт.
  • Там же — и правление королевы Альбы в Британии. Эта ещё и умирать не собирается и к ней, надо сказать, боится соваться даже кажущийся всемогущим в родной Восточной Европе фон Вульфенбах.
• Империя зла — империя Гетеродинов во всех её ипостасях. К счастью, никогда не существовала слишком долго — всякий раз, когда Гетеродины захватывали пол-Европы, оставшиеся пол-Европы объединялись и гнали без меры агрессивных князьков обратно на их историческую родину в Трансильванию. На момент событий комикса как империя, так и сам род лежит в руинах, зато свою Восточноевропейскую Империю приблизительно в тех же границах построил вассал и ученик последних Гетеродинов Клаус фон Вульфенбах.
• Комиссарша — по меньшей мере две таких:
  • Бангладеш ДюПри, капитанша банды воздушных пиратов, которую фон Вульфенбах завербовал к себе на службу в качестве эскадрона смерти. Общий образ девушки-карателя в военной форме тропу вполне соответствует, а вот с характером субверсия, ибо Банг — безбашенная (пусть и не в меру отмороженная) гэнки, во всем противоположная типажу «хладнокровной, веской и надменной барышни с домина-нотками», который обычно подразумевает сабжевое амплуа.
  • Фон Пинн, она же Оталла, Музы Защиты. Женщина-биоконструкт (на самом деле она клац, т.е. робот, в искусственном органическом теле, вроде Терминатора), выглядит как привлекательная блондинка в чёрной коже, крайне шустрая и сильная, от боли, как претерпевания, так и причинения, явно кайфует. Служит все тому же барону фон Вульфенбаху, в том числе приглядывает за детьми в замке Вульфенбах (и горе тому, кто хоть пальцем тронет ее подопечных!).
• Король-чародей — вообще Искры это скорее техномаги, но правители-Искры ну очень уж похожи на дукаевских кратистов. Владыка Вольтер, барон фон Вульфенбах, королева Британии Альбия — все они и крутые правители, и могущественные Искры.
• Крутой простой смертный — Дымчатые Рыцари. Педаль в пол давит Зола — не будучи ни Искрой, ни боевым конструктом, смогла доставить крайне немалые проблемы команде Агаты, в которой было три Искры и три боевых конструкта-Ягера.
• Летающий город — Замок Вульфенбах, цепеллин размером и населением с небольшой городок.
• Мальчики бьют, девочки стреляют — сама Агата предпочитает разносить вражин из огромных энергетических орудий собственного производства (которые только она и может таскать), а вот её кавалеры Тарвек и Гил используют меч или кинжалы — впрочем, они тоже Искры, так что и пострелять не против.
• Мисс Фансервис — как сама Агата (фигуристая девица, часто попадающая в неловкие ситуации — в начале комикса, когда не вполне контролировала свои способности Искры, вполне могла побежать конструировать очередную техномагическую приблуду в одном нижнем белье), так и её спутница Зита — она ещё и амазонка, носит достаточно скромные наряды по жизни, но часто попадает в неловкие ситуации и становится недобровольным источником фансервиса, но в которых, надо сказать, чувствует себя куда увереннее Агаты.
• Не магия — тут это называется Искра. Обладатели Искры в Средние Века были аналогами колдунов и волшебников, но на момент действия комикса (конец XIX века) переквалифицировались в безумных учёных.
• Непростые головорезы — в армии любой уважающей себя Искры помимо обычных бойцов есть отряды боевых клацов (на местном сленге — роботов) или конструктов (на местном сленге — мутантов или трансгенов). Наиболее колоритные — оркоподобные боевые конструкты Гетеродинов ягермонстры. Также стоит отметить Дымчатых Рыцарей — вооружённое крыло местных масонов из Ордена Юпитера, члены которого могут на равных противостоять боевым конструктам и клацам, а особо борзые — и Искрам (Зола, не являясь ни конструктом, ни Искрой смогла доставить тонны проблем героям, среди которых были три Искры и несколько профессиональных бойцов, в том числе ягеров).
• Неэтичный учёный — практически все «искры» вполне подходят под троп, но педаль в пол давят старые князья Гетеродины и Лукреция Монгфиш. Нет, есть среди Искр и приличные ребята, вроде самой главной героини, братьев-Гетеродинов или отца и сына фон Вульфенбахов, но безнравственных экспериментаторов было значительно больше.
• Обедневший аристократ — один из помощников Агаты, солдат Молох фон Цинцер. Он происходит из семьи настолько обедневших дворянчиков, что те отличались от окрестных крестьян разве что наличием пресловутой приставки «фон» перед фамилией.
• Орёл — суперсила, решка — могила: ягерпойло убивает большинство выпивших его, а выжившие становится оркоподобными суперсолдатами Гетеродинов: бессмертными и крайне живучими ягермонстрами.
• Преторианцы — у каждой Искры должен быть какой-нибудь отряд личной гвардии (желательно, чтобы это были суперсолдаты), хотя бы на случай возникновения ситуаций, в которые рискованно впутывать обычную армию. У Гетеродинов (и империи Вульфенбахов) на этой роли были подразделения Ягермонстров — оркоподобных боевых конструктов Гетеродинов, бессмертных и отличавшихся фанатичной верностью своим создателям — собственно, Вульфенбаху ягеры стали служить лишь потому, что тот был вассалом Гетеродинов, чей род, как тогда считалось, прервался, а как только у них объявилась живая наследница, ягеры быстро перешли на её сторону.
• Профессор Героикус — амплуа пытаются косплеить разные героические Искры, но лучше всего получилось у барона Клауса фон Вульфенбаха, прошедшего долгий путь от мелкого трансильванского феодала до единоличного дикатора всей Восточной Европы, полагаясь исключительно на свои обширнейшие познания в самых разных научных областях. Почему Героикус? Потому что фактически его основным мотивом было прекращение феодального беспредела, который, благодаря наличию в этой версии Земли способностей Искр, затянулся аж до конца девятнадцатого века.
  • У Вульфенбаха были учителя — его друзья (и сеньоры) братья-Гетеродины, самые известные героические Искры Европы.
  • А вот большинство других Искр подходит под амплуа «Доктор Зло» — это совершенно безнравственные ребята, использующие технические приспособления от устройств слежения до лучей смерти и армий мутантов, чтобы тиранить население своих владений и беспредельничать во владениях других Искр.
• Размножение обращением — ягеры, суперсолдаты, создававшиеся старыми Гетеродинами для службы в их армиях. В дело шли верные солдаты-люди и ягерпойло — особая смесь, получаемая из вод реки, на которой стоит замок Гетеродин. В результате значительная часть подопытных умирала — но некоторые выживали и становились ягермонстрами, оркоподобными гуманоидами с суперсилой, крайне прочным телом и неограниченным сроком жизни. Обычный ягер хочет драться и иметь крутую шляпу; самые старые несколько умеряют пыл и становятся более вдумчивыми ягергенералами.
• Робот под личиной человека — Босолей, один из придворных Владыки Парижа Вольтера, как выясняется, действует только через клац-тела. Это здорово помогает ему раз за разом оставаться в живых в весьма нездоровом климате политических интриг парижского двора. Впрочем, когда он через такую клац-аватару убил самого Вольтера, то дочь Вольтера Колетт, став новым Владыкой и пробудив силы Искры, смогла каким-то образом уничтожить все его механические тела. Тем не менее, сам предатель жив и находится в неизвестном месте.
  • Там же необычный пример с Аневкой Штурмфораус. После несчастного случая её тело было сильно повреждено и лежало в капсуле с системой поддержания жизни. К капсуле был подключён клац-аватар, через которого Аневка взаимодействовала с миром. Но помаленьку личность Аневки отпечатывалась на клаце, и тот всё больше и больше обретал собственное сознание и чувства. В результате Аневка стала конгломератом двух своих тел — биологического и механического, и её сознание было распределено между ними. А потом однажды биологическое тело Аневки умерло, но она даже не заметила этого. В результате то, что Аневка Штурмфораус теперь клац, стало сюрпризом даже для неё самой.
• Руританская Империя — Восточноевропейская Империя Клауса барона фон Вульфенбаха, редкий пример версии с упором исключительно на центральноевропейские мотивы, причём не славянские. Действие первых томов комикса развивается в ее метрополии, на землях Трансильвании, показанной как страна немецкой культуры (владение Гетеродинов, например называется Механиксбург, даром что по сюжету они венгры, а у многих персонажей немецкие или псевдонемецкие имена, например, Марселлий фон Блиценгард или Молох фон Цинцер) с небольшой примесью собственно восточноевропейского колорита (имена вроде Аневка Штурмфораус или Зуленна Лужакна, прародитель Гетеродинов был мадьярским ханом). Полуфеодальный строй и дикие и суровые дворяне, некоторые из которых расстреливают не угодивших их вкусам театральных артистов из личного пулемёта, прилагаются. Архитектура и костюмы также соответствуют, скорее, центральной Европе (как оно и должно быть).
• Рыцарь-монстр — ягермонстры, оркоподобные суперсолдаты Восточноевропейской Империи фон Вульфенбаха — именно оно. И, кстати, служат они вовсе не Вульфенбаху, а его пропавшим сеньорам Гетеродинам, на сторону объявившейся наследницы которых и переходят в ходе сюжета.
• Сказитель — сабж периодически возникает в сюжете. Он появляется на первом листе, рассказывая детям сказку о братьях-Гетеродинах и выдавая читателю кусочек сеттинга, мелькает то тут, то там, подрабатывает снотворным в больнице, где в итоге сходится с Вульнебахом, который использует сказителя для передачи зашифрованного послания в виде легенды о Короле Бурь.
• Скрытое оскорбление — в замке Гетеродинов Агата во время поисков потайной комнаты рассуждает вслух: «Попробуем думать как жестокий, параноидальный, безнравственный маньяк с манией величия». После чего спрашивает у Тарвека, как бы он устроил вход в потайное помещение. Тот с легкостью открывает проход в комнату… и только потом понимает, что его только что оскорбили.
• Ставка верховного гадокомандования — империя Вульфенбаха.
  • Гадокомандующий — барон Клаус фон Вульфенбах, диктатор всей Восточной Европы.
  • Исполнитель — Гильгамеш фон Вульфенбах, сын, наследник и правая рука барона.
  • Полководец — Ягер-генералы, командующие корпуса элитных войск барона — ягермонстров.
  • Комендант — Борис Долохов, мажордом замка Вульфенбах и главный секретарь барона.
  • Секурист — Оглавия Спюдна, начальница баронской разведки.
  • Коммандо — Бангладеш ДюПри, бывшая воздушная пиратка, ныне командующая лучшим карательным отрядом барона.
• Стимпанк (с 2001) — весьма альтернативно-историческая Europa конца 19 века, приключения, романтика и БЕЗУМНАЯ НАУКА! Авторам комикса не нравилось применение термина «стимпанк», потому как там было не особо много пара и панка, они и придумали термин «Gaslamp fantasy».
• Суперсолдаты — отряды из боевых конструктов есть на службе у любой уважающей себя Искры. Самые меметичные и колоритные — оркоподобные солдаты Гетеродинов Ягермонстры: сильнее, быстрее и ловчее человека, бессмертные и страшно живучие. Так как Гетеродины перерабатывали в Ягеров исключительно наиболее верных своих слуг, служат своим хозяевам они совершенно добровольно и безо всякого промывания мозгов.
• Тайная полиция — обыгрывается юмористически. Один из старых Гетеродинов не хотел, чтобы городская стража «мозолила ему глаза», и создал тайную полицию. «Обычные люди не могут их видеть. Даже не могут помнить, что они существуют, дольше пары минут». Увы, юмор получился чёрным: почти все стражники от такой жизни «посходили с ума, или померли, или исчезли».
• Твердыня тьмы — у барона фон Вульфенбаха, являющегося по совместительству диктатором всея Восточной Европы, эту роль выполняет замок Вульфенбах в обеих его версиях — и обычный замок, стоящий в Трансильвании на ручье Вульфенбах, и куда чаще используемый одноименный циклопический дирижабль, на котором расположена мобильная база барона.
  • У его предшественников на тёмновластелинском поприще, князей Гетеродинов, и титул посолиднее, и база помасштабнее: в свою Твердыню Тьмы они превратили весь город Механиксбург, управляемый злобным ИИ, созданным на основе личности одного из князей. В ходе сюжетных перипетий сабж достаётся протагонистке Агате.
• Техномагия — Искра. Это нечто вроде интуитивного понимания законов мироздания, сопряжённого с возможностью сверхконцентрации ресурсов организма на поставленной задаче. В результате в мире конца девятнадцатого века в ходу роботы и плазменные пушки, что, впрочем, не мешает вооружать роботов картечницами, а плазменные пушки ставить на паровые бронепоезда.
• Технофэнтези — Земля очень альтернативно-исторической Эпохи Империализма под властью аморальных техномагов-Искр. Почти весь сюжет состоит из разборок разномастных Тёмных Властелинов с активным привлечением к делу отрядов боевых мутантов, фантастической техники и вооружённых роботов. Плюс мрачные готические замки (в одном из которых обитает безумный ИИ, повадками весьма напоминающий Блейна из «Тёмной Башни»), фантазийные дирижабли, зомби-апокалипсисы и прочие элементы «приключений, романтики, безумной науки».
• Тёмный Властелин — Клаус барон фон Вульфенбах, диктатор всея Восточной и значительной части Центральной Европы. Герр Доктор с армией оркоподобных суперсолдат, ученик и духовный наследник последних представителей династии ещё более страшных Тёмных Властелинов, обитает в овеянном мрачными легендами замке Вульфенбах, а затем — на названной в честь замка летающей базе, расположенной на борту титанических размеров дирижабля, проводит неэтичные медицинские эксперименты, а в ответ на любое неповиновение отправляет по душу бунтарей свои армии и эскадроны смерти в лице прикормленной банды воздушных пиратов. И в сюжете он антагонист героини. «Тёмный Властелин классический» — подумаете Вы? Нет, всего лишь близкий друг пропавших наследников злой династии, изменивших злодейскому духу своей семьи, считающий себя их учеником и решивший начать строить империю, чтобы положить конец беспределу Искранутой знати и дать Европе возможность подготовиться к возвращению Иного, для чего и проводит свои исследования. Героине противостоит по той же причине — она является потенциальным аватаром Иного и наследницей упомянутой злой династии.
• Тёмная техника — Механиксбург, столица князей Гетеродинов, особенно давно заброшенный на момент начала комикса городской замок. Пожалуй, одна из самых зловеще-атмосферных локаций всего комикса, наполненная безумными роботами, смертельными ловушками и остатками свихнувшегося ИИ, обожающего играть с гостями в жестокие игры, обыкновенно оканчивающиеся их смертью. В итоге усилиями Агаты приводится в исходный работоспособный вид и переходит в её пользование, но менее злобным от этого не становится.
• Технология получения сверхспособностей — тут способов проапгрейдить человека множество, от киборгизации до химеризации. Особо ярко показаны ягеры. Эти бойцы создавались старыми Гетеродинами из людей с помощью ягер-пойла, изготавливаемого из текущей рядом с замком Гетеродинов воды. Многие умирали, но кто выживал — становились ягер-монстрами: физически сильными, трудно убиваемыми, почти не стареющими суперсолдатами с инстинктивным презрением к смерти и верностью своим создателям. У некоторых из них помимо этого ещё и особые способности имеются, типа способности Гкики менять цвет кожи.
• Умереть с улыбкой — Ларс, прикрывший собой главгероиню Агату от удара, умирает улыбаясь.
• Умник — Тарвек Штурмфораус — смесь «Проныры» с «Планировщиком». Научными знаниями и техническими навыками в среде Искр никого не удивишь, зато острый аналитический ум, обширные социальные связи и умение выкручиваться из любой ситуации здорово выделяют Тарвека из рядов тупых технарей, привыкших решать все свои проблемы с помощью луча смерти помощнее.
• Фанат ножей — Дымчатые Рыцари, боевое крыло Ордена Юпитера, кинжалы любят и ценят: прошедший подготовку Дымчатого Рыцаря спутник Агаты Тарвек фон Штурмфораус прекрасно ими владеет. А вот его друг Гильгамеш фон Вульфенбах предпочитает более габаритное клинковое оружие.
• Фантазийные дирижабли — весь местный воздушный флот состоит исключительно из разнокалиберных дирижаблей и аэростатов. На одном особо огромном представителе находится резиденция Клауса фон Вульфенбаха — когда-то простого трансильванского барона, а ныне — единоличного диктатора всей Восточной и Центральной Европы. Кстати, его сын, Гильгамеш фон Вульфенбах, гениальный авиаконструктор, собрал для себя первый в мире самолет — но увы, в серию аппарат так и не пошел из-за того, что после вморозки старшего Вульфенбаха в стазис, возвращения Иного и объявления новой княгини Гетеродин у ставшего регентом Гильгамеша появились проблемы поважнее модернизации авиации.
• Феодалы-самодуры — все Искры, по определению. В среде этих абсолютно аморальных феодалов-техномагов каждый второй — полное чудовище, ворующее людей на жестокие опыты, охотящееся на собственных крестьян ради забавы и развлекающееся пытками.
• Язвительная эпитафия — когда Гил при помощи электрического оружия уничтожает два танка-паукахода, оставшиеся экипажи шагоходов предпочитают сдаться. После этого Гил начинает выяснять, кто их них является оставшимся в живых старшим офицером, и тот пытается напасть на юношу, но получает от Димо метательный нож прямо в лоб. После чего ягермонстр интересуется у других пленников: «Хой! Кто исчо хочьет пафышение па службе?». Желающих не нашлось.

Не копипаста (оригинальные примеры)

• Большое «НЕТ!» — когда взбудораженный Гил лично идёт за чертежом неработающего прибора в кладовку университетской лаборатории и дёргает на себя дверь, это кричит кто-то из лаборантов. Судя по всему — Агата, недавно закончившая наспех заталкивать туда всё лишнее оборудование, которое и вываливается лавиной на гостя.
• Большое «ЧТО?!»:
  • Хором выдают Агата и её наставники, когда выясняется, что заказанная Бароном машина неработоспособна даже в теории и являлась очередной проверкой для Гила.
  • Восклицает доктор Битл, прежде уверенный в обретении преимущества над Вульфенбахами из-за наличия у него огромного боевого клаца-стража, от спокойного комментария Гила, что численное преимущество всё равно на их стороне — просто оно расположено снаружи здания университета.
• Затяжная шутка — когда Барон насильно ставит Мерло на должность ректора вместо погибшего Битла, тот первым же делом со злости исключает Агату. Барон посылает взводного ягера её проводить в обход комендантского часа, но она думает, что того послали её сожрать, и принимается в голос вопить. Ягер пытается успокоить девушку, но спустя три кадра непрекращающегося вопля раздражённо рявкает, что может и передумать, если она не замолчит.
• Унисон — перед прибытием четы Вульфенбахов в университетскую лабораторию доктор Мерло сваливает на Агату задачу прибрать лютый бардак за полчаса. Та методом «затолкать всё лишнее в кладовку» справляется за 29 минут, вызывая у Мерло и Глассвича дружное «Ого».
• Фейспалм — Гил, оставленный отцом разбираться в мастерской Клеев, сперва раздражённо трёт переносицу от спора двух ягеров, кто будет грузить в телегу вырубленную усыпляющим газом Агату, а во время нападения клаца — уже полноценно хватается за лицо после неудачной попытки остановить ягера-блондина от уничтожения машины.

Посмотреч

«	Приключения! Романтика! Безумная наука!	»
— девиз произведения

Girl Genius (ягерск. «Guyrl Gineuz»; рус. «Девушка-гений», «Гениальная девчонка») — графическая новелла авторства живущих в американском Сиэтле супругов Фила и Кайи Фоглио (Фольо?), выполненная в жанре, называемом авторами «gaslamp fantasy» — «газоламповое фэнтези». По факту — стимпанк, клокпанк, теслапанк (паровых машин не так много, а о принципах действия остальных в принципе можно догадаться по косвенным намёкам: электричество, энергия натянутых пружин, изредка — ДВС) и вскорости в полный рост пробился манапанк с тёмными и светлыми энергиями (причём чем глубже в исторические древности, тем больше манапанка, а чем ближе к современникам героев, тем больше стим/клок/тесла, а особо прогрессивные пытаются сдвинуть его уже в дизельпанк).

Есть игра на Nintendo Switch, «Girl Genius: Adventures In Castle Heterodyne».

Сеттинг

Действие разворачивается в альтернативной Европе примерно XVIII—XIX в. В определённый момент в мире начали рождаться люди, называемые Искрами. Искры обладали сверхъестественными способностями в науке и технологии, что позволяло им создавать механизмы и чудовищ огромной разрушительной силы. Это нарушило баланс сил и мир скатился в анархию междоусобных войн, традиционные государства разрушились и превратились в скопища постоянно воюющих городов-государств.

Отличия от нашей реальности:

• Феодальная раздробленность и междоусобная резня значительно отложили Эпоху Великих Географических Открытий. Америка была открыта относительно недавно или давно, но не исследована. На регулярной основе экспедиции туда только-только начали отправлять.
• Католическая Церковь расколота на семь понтификатов, известны Римский, Авиньонский и Белфастский.
• Из знакомых нам государств только Англия, да и у той «откушено» часть суши (буквально откушено, там вся южно-восточная часть затоплена; так и живут себе под водой).
• Однако при всём при этом нации как таковые практически не пострадали. По крайней мере, языки, несмотря на сотни лет альтернативного развития, примерно те же самые.

Примерно за двадцать лет до событий истории Европа подвергается атаке таинственного суперзлодея Иного, устроившего зомби-апокалипсис при помощи Ос-угнетателей, контролирующих разум паразитов, подчиняющих человека Иному. Двое местных супергероев Парней-Гетеродинов начали борьбу с Иным и исчезли. Одновременно с этим Иное прекратило свою деятельность, что было расценено как победа Гетеродинов.

Словарик местных понятий

• Искра — сверхспособность (или человек, ей обладающий). Заключается в сверхконцентрации всех ресурсов организма на определённой задаче, что позволяет получать необыкновенные способности, как правило, сводящиеся к сверхинтеллекту и сверхкреативности. При этом Искра не всегда способна контролировать себя до такой степени, чтобы сконцентрироваться именно на нужной задаче или выбрать именно оптимальный путь: даже самых адекватных из них выбранная первоначально идея увлекает полностью, так что они не способны рассмотреть параллельные варианты и вкладывают всю мощь своего разума в решение задачи приглянувшимся им способом, вне зависимости от того, насколько он неадекватен. А так как эта мощь даже у слабой Искры очень, очень немаленькая, на выходе получается очередной шизотех, с точки зрения не-Искры опровергающий законы физики (на самом деле — ни разу не, просто разобраться в том, как именно это может работать, способна только Искра, а остальные, послушав объяснения очередного сумрачного гения, пожимают плечами и соглашаются считать, что «итс мэйджик!» — вполне благопристойное объяснение; да и физика там явно несколько своя, без полли искры труднопостижимая). Также для Искр характерны сверхсила и сверхстойкость (Отар Тригвассен, авантюрист и джентльмен регулярно выживает после падения с огромной высоты и появляется живой и невредимый на удивление своих врагов, другие Искры могут сутками работать над очередным механизмом без перерыва на сон и еду, передвигать огромные грузы, но большую часть этих способностей можно объяснить либо апгрейдом собственного тела с помощью безумной науки, либо просто творческим экстазом, заставляющим игнорировать физиологические потребности).
• Поскольку в тексте комикса имеются неоднократные упоминания о таких вещах, как: «принципы работы большинства изобретений и конструкций Искр не особо объясняются наукой», «существование этих изобретений противоречит логике и здравому смыслу, а так же кое-каким физическим законам (гравитации, сопромату, классической термодинамике и т. д.)», «изобретение одной Искры крайне сложно воспроизводимо другой, проще сделать что-то похожее, но своим способом», а так же есть подтверждённые случаи создания Искрами невиданных вундервафель из реально бесполезного хлама (а то и вовсе практически из ничего), в сообществе фанатов есть предположение о природе Искр. Искры — это люди способные дополнять окружающую реальность под свои нужды. То есть если Искре нужно создать оружие, механизм, организм или любое другое изобретение, в нем появляется что-то особенное, делая это возможным. Даже несмотря на то, что с точки зрения наблюдателя это выглядит чудом. Поэтому Искрам вовсе не обязательно обладать инженерными познаниями или навыками — реальность расширится так, что создание будет возможным с её текущими характеристиками и из имеющихся материалов. И эффект этого дополнения стабилен (по крайней мере, может сохраняться тысячелетиями).
• Клац — робот, механизм с искусственным интеллектом или его подобием. Сильные Искры могут загнать более-менее адекватный ИИ в устройство размером с ладошку. Снаружи устройство управления обычно выглядит чисто механическим, но по какому принципу работает внутри — во имя спокойствия недоверия не показывают.
• Конструкт — искусственное живое органическое (по крайней мере частично) существо. Большинство создаётся по принципу Франкенштейна, но вообще их можно создавать разными способами. Биология в комиксе не менее альтернативная, чем история и физика — фишки вполне наследуются. Так, крошечные мамонты вообще на весь мир размножились, активно конкурируя с крысами.

Сюжет

Действие крутится вокруг молодой студентки Трансильванского Полигностического Университета Агаты Клэй, которая оказывается в центре европейских политических интриг. По дороге в Университет она оказывается ограблена двумя солдатами-дезертирами, которые отбирают у неё медальон с портретами её родителей. Это провоцирует у неё пробуждение способностей Искры, которые этим медальоном подавлялись, пока Агата не станет достаточно взрослой, чтобы их контролировать Превращение в Искру оформлено как переход от чёрно-белого комикса к цветному: чем сильнее способности Агаты, тем ярче краски. Это приводит к открытию тайны происхождения Агаты — она последний известный потомок знаменитой династии Гетеродинов, ранее состоящей из злодеев, но сделавшей поворот кругом. Это обратило на неё внимание сильных мира всего, и теперь все люди делятся для Агаты на три категории: те, кто хочет ей служить, те, кто хочет её подчинить, и те, кто просто хочет её убить.

Знатные семьи

Несмотря на то, что Искра может родиться в любой семье, наиболее сильные способности проявляются в семьях, передающих Искру по наследству. Особого внимания заслуживают:

• Семья Гетеродин — род злодеев и апокалиптических маньяков, регулярно пытающийся захватить мир или сделать ещё что-то столь же «весёлое» (по мнению их верных монстров — ягеров). Внезапно сделали поворот направо во время Братьев-Гетеродинов Билла и Барри, ставших общеевропейскими героями. В результате старожилы всерьёз опасаются, что ГГ пойдёт по стопам дедов, иногда пытаясь её превентивно устранить. Герб — золотой трилобит (вполне настоящее, но в реальном мире давно вымершее членистоногое, к насекомым, впрочем, отношения не имеющее и по внешнему виду сходное, скорее, с мечехвостом без хвоста). Родовое поместье — замок Гетеродин и окружающий его огромный и мощный город-крепость — Механиксбург. Происходят от дикого и неукротимого мадьярского воина — Чингиза Т-хо Дина. Фамилия происходит от искажённого имени основателя, а ещё по-английски это способ преобразования двух частот в третью, в частности, для подавления внешних шумов (это врождённая техника этой семейки, позволяющая лучше сконцентрироваться на задаче, проявляется в виде напевания мотива без слов). Скорее всего, в том мире он назван в честь этой семейки (у нас — наоборот).
• Род Вульфенбах — когда-то не слишком значительный род, прославившийся Клаусом Вульфенбахом. Оный товарищ присоединился к Гетеродинам, а после их исчезновения завоевал большую часть Европы, просто, чтобы они наконец перестали грызться. Герб — шахматная ладья с крыльями. Родовое поместье — замок Вульфенбах, сначала просто замок, потом — гигантский дирижабль. Фамилия переводится с немецкого как «Волчий ручей».
• Дом Валуа — основан Андроникусом Валуа, первым, и пока что единственным, Королём Бурь, весьма мощной Искрой и одним из немногих предшественников Барона в деле объединения Европы. Основатель отличался характерным гранатовым (как у минерала) цветом волос с переливом, проявляющимся у всех его потомков, и плодовитостью, достойной мифического Юпитера. После его исчезновения дом распался на кучу родов, активно грызущихся за вакантный титул, а также устраивающих заговоры и тайные общества, вроде Рыцарей Юпитера, чтобы вернуть вес оному титулу, в том числе:
  • Род Штурмфораус — интриганы, специалисты по ядам и шпионажу, члены секретного ордена Рыцарей Юпитера, мечтающего о возрождении легендарного Королевства Бурь. Похищали девушек-Искр, чтобы возродить Иное в их теле. Герб — меч в шестерёнке. Родовое поместье — замок Штурмхальтен. Фамилия переводится не то как «Впереди буря», не то как «Опережающий шторм». Название замка — «Останавливающий бурю» (был выстроен в качестве барьера для экспансии Гетеродинов и их орд).
  • Род Блитценгаард. Находятся в родстве со Штурмфораусами, сильно их напоминают, особенно цветом волос и злодейскими планами. Фамилия переводится примерно как «Страж молний».
• Род Монгфиш — интриганы, специалисты по генной инженерии, члены ордена Рыцарей Юпитера. Из этой семьи происходит мать ГГ. Фамилия — искажённое «Monkfish» — рыба, которую по-русски называют морским чёртом или удильщиком. Ухмылка Лукреции и впрямь её напоминает.
• Скифандрийский Матриархат. Амазонки, отбитые нимфома культистки богини плодородия. С искрами у них весьма так себе — зато весёлые и позитивные. Хлебом не корми, а дай лично убить каждую Фаффленарскую Тварь вместо того, чтобы послать подчинённых на зачистку местности от монстров.
• Владыка Парижа Симон Вольтер и его дети, особенно Колетт. С такой продолжительностью жизни это даже не род — так, два поколения.
• Альбия. Одна. Вечна. Поэтому дальше идут…

Персонажи

• Агата Клэй/Гетеродин — протагонистка, 18-летняя студентка, оказавшаяся в клубке политических интриг. Воспитанница двух конструктов — Адама и Лилит Клэй (прямая отсылка к Библии). «Настоящие» их имена, под которыми они служили Гетеродинам — Панч и Джуди, что тоже отсылка (к персонажам-трикстерам английского фольклора). Агату оставил им на воспитание родной дядя Барри. До пробуждения Искры считала себя неуклюжей неудачницей. В критической ситуации проявляет силу характера, решать проблемы предпочитает не хитростью, а прямым напором (благо способности позволяют, одна из сильнейших Искр Европы же). Специализируется на механике, оптике/квантовой физике/электродинамике/на-чём-там-работает-её-луч-смерти и кибернетике (самовоспроизводящиеся клацы!), но ничего не понимает в медицине и биологии (в результате чего оказывается в затруднительном положении, когда, имея двух раненых на руках, вообще не может поставить их на ноги самостоятельно). После Штурмхальтена делит собственную голову с собственной матерью аж до визита в Англию, где наконец-то вышвыривает пассажирку вон. Обладатель фамильной способности Гетеродинов — особой мелодии, усиливающей концентрацию и повышающей и без того незаурядный интеллект Агаты просто до безобразия. Любит орехи. Дежурной шуткой являются её пышные формы вообще и бёдра в частности (как в сюжете, так и у фанов, ласково прозвавших её Агата Гипергрудин, а после отбытия с Акомикса на официальный сайт Фольо — ещё и Филейкалепная).
• Барон Клаус Вульфенбах — великолепный мерзавец, антизлодей и одновременно герой с плохой репутацией, искусный государь и крутой король. Короче, многогранная личность. Фактический правитель Центральной и Восточной Европы — но категорически отказывается менять свой баронский титул на более высокий, что иногда приводит к казусам: например, его титулуют «ваше баронское величество». Раньше был напарником Братьев Гетеродинов, таинственно исчез, усыплён своей любовницей Лукрецией Монгфиш накануне её свадьбы с Биллом Гетеродином и отправлен куда подальше, чтоб не мешал, предположительно в Скайфандер, потом вернулся с ребёнком на руках уже после исчезновения Гетеродинов и увидел родную землю погрязшей в анархии. Своей целью поставил сохранение мира и порядка в Европе, чего добивается порой очень жёсткими методами (не то что ему это нравится, просто местная знать по-другому не понимает, а мельчайшее проявление миролюбия в сеттинге принимают за слабость). Во времена приключений с братьями Гетеродинами был в их тени, но после того, как стал диктатором половины Европы, в качестве пассивного протеста против его режима во всех театральных, видео и прочих произведениях о приключениях братьев его стали выводить там полным придурком. «Пирог в лицо Клаусу Вульфенбаху спасает самую провальную постановку!» (при этом сам не Барон возражает и даже находит эти шутки забавными, иногда). Считает Агату угрозой стабильности (в общем-то так и есть — она не нарочно, но у неё всё время само получается) и Иным (почти правда, но не совсем), потому сначала стремился её запереть, а потом просто убить, причём любой ценой. Любит вафли.
• Гильгамеш Вульфенбах — сын Клауса Вульфенбаха, долгое время воспитываемый в секрете от всего мира (до определённого момента даже он сам не знал о своём происхождении). Сильная Искра. Со стороны своего отца регулярно подвергается испытаниям на готовность быть правителем. Молодость провёл в вольном городе Париже, где предавался разврату и увеселениям, которыми впоследствии пресытился. Испытывал одиночество на почве отсутствия девушек схожего с ним уровнем интеллекта, в результате чего влюбился в Агату. Специалист в механике и биологии, занимается также конструированием летательных аппаратов (особо примечателен тот факт, что в сеттинге, где все летают на дирижаблях, он один использует машины тяжелее воздуха, щедрой лопатой набрасывая дизельпанк в этот замшелый мирок). Долгое время делил голову с собственным отцом, который весьма презирал такие методы — но, по иронии судьбы, сам до них опустился.
• Принцесса Зита из Скайфандера — бой-баба, крутая принцесса. Амазонка, наследница престола затерянного города Скайфандера, где процветает матриархат. Отправилась в Европу как посол своего народа, но по дороге попала в плен к пиратам, откуда выбралась по трупам своих пленителей. В процессе забыла оставить в живых хоть кого-то, кто знает, как добраться до Скайфандера, и теперь странствует в поисках дороги домой. Встречает Агату в странствующем цирке, где становится её ментором по части боевых искусств и лучшей подругой. По косвенным данным является дочерью Клауса Вульфенбаха. Самая не своя до тортиков и красавчиков, но её не на шутку зацепило за авиатора Хиггса.
• Тарвек Штурмфораус — член Ордена Рыцарей Юпитера, интриган, великолепный мерзавец, профессиональный шпион, сильная Искра (в частности, используя записи ван Рейна, смог впервые за двести лет создать клаца с человеческим ИИ). Второй любовный интерес ГГ. Является наиболее вероятным наследником Короля Бурь, но эту должность у него нагло подрезали перед носом. Встречает Агату, когда та прибывает с цирком в Штурмхальтен. Помогает ей устроить побег (тем не менее, подстраивает все результаты в соответствии со своими собственными планами, в частности, соучастник пробуждения Иной и подселения её в Агату, о чём она даже сама старается не распространяться — его же зашибут за такое), потом отремонтировать замок Гетеродин и организовать оборону города. Не то чтобы исправился, но действует на её стороне.
• Мартеллий фон Блитценгаард — кузен Тарвека (у них одна бабушка), ещё один член Рыцарей Юпитера. После того, как Тарвек дискредитировал себя в глазах заговорщиков, был провозглашён новым Королём Бурь. Поначалу выглядит как типичное ничтожество на троне, но чуть позже раскрывается как великолепный мерзавец, сильная Искра, мастер скрытности и боя и редкостный отморозок. Положил глаз на Агату и даже сумел генетически запрограммировать её на зависимость от собственной близости, но девушка сумела заменить его на хорька. Словил побочку, теперь он тоже без перисутствия Агаты подыхает.
• Ксерксефония фон Блитценгаард — сестра Мартеллия. Эффектная девушка, способная благодаря удачно подобранному наряду предстать в облике как роковой красотки, так и милой няшки. Вроде бы не Искра, но очень умна, хитра и коварна. Плетёт интриги, поддерживая братца (как ни странно, эти двое друг друга искренне любят), но не забывая о главной цели: стать супругой Гила. В отличие от Мартеллия, Ксефа прекрасный психолог и умеет находить общий язык с окружающими — в частности, Агата считает её если не подругой, то по крайней мере не хочет прибить. А ещё Ксерксефония ввела в Англии новую моду на сладости в волосах: кутюр а-ля кондитерне!
• Виолетта Мондарев — ещё одна кузина Тарвека и Мартеллия, дымчатый рыцарь-недоучка. Для разнообразия искрой не является, да и оттенок волос у неё другой. Является обученным дымчатым рыцарем, но считается (да и сама считает себя) недотёпой и недоучкой. тем не менее частенько демонстрирует отличные навыки и мастерство. Была приставлена к Тарвеку как личный телохранитель, но не сумела его ничему обучить на самом деле парень ловко прикинулся веником, чтобы его недооценивали. За недотёпистость была сослана в Механиксбург, где и осознала, что на самом деле это не ссылка, а попытка Тарвека спасти её от убийц.
• Иное — таинственный суперзлодей, пытающийся завоевать Европу. На самом деле Лукреция Монгфиш, мать ГГ. Использует продвинутые (даже по меркам сеттинга) технологии, как, например, подчиняющие разум паразиты и перекачка сознания из органического тела в механическое и обратно (и, судя по всему, путешествия во времени). Установило копии своего сознания в неопределённое количество субъектов, известно три:
  • Агата в Штурмхальтене (заблокировано медальоном). Но периодически вылезало или давило на мозги. Вроде как удалось полностью вытравить. Наконец-то!
  • Андроид Аневка Штурмфораус, там же.
  • Зола в замке Гетеродин (заблокировано технологиями Монгфишей).
• Бангладеш Дюпри — правая рука главгада Клауса Вульфенбаха, псих-наёмник, бывшая пиратка, поступившая на службу барону в обмен на обещание найти и покарать тех, кто в её отсутствие уничтожил её крепость и команду (заявила о своей отставке, узнав, что это была Зита). Испытывает отвращение от любых романтических чувств, Гила воспринимает примерно как брата.
• Авиатор третьей статьи Аксель Хиггс — член флота Вульфенбаха, спасший барона и Бангладеш ДюПри в битве при Штурмахальтене и доставивший их в госпиталь ценой переломов всех конечностей. Обладает большой физической силой, нечувствительностью к боли, великолепными боевыми навыками. Знаком с замком Гетеродин. Правдоподобная фанатская версия гласит, что он секретный седьмой ягер-генерал. возглавляющий разведку и контрразведку Гетеродинов; подтверждений куча, но все косвенные. Один из тех случаев, когда догадка фанатов оказалась абсолютно верной, а авторы не стали их обламывать просто из принципа.
• Рассказчик — воплощение Фила Фоглио, автора романа в виде персонажа. Неудачливый путешественник, бродящий по Европе и зарабатывающий рассказыванием историй. Сам того не понимая, использовался Клаусом для передачи Гилу зашифрованного сообщения. Через некоторое время в персонажи набивается и Кайя, домогающаяся от Агаты должности придворного биографа.

Что тут есть

• Аватара — клац-тела (а-ля T-800) Друзя Буссоля, в количестве нескольких десятков, орудующие в Париже. Сам Буссоль управляет ими из неизвестного места, находящегося за пределами Парижа.
• Ассасин — члены ордена Дымчатых Рыцарей, служащих Рыцарям Юпитера.
• Автомат фон Неймана — Агатины «диньботы», которые умеют конструировать других диньботов и затем толпой ремонтировать большие механизмы. Правда, каждое следующее поколение проще предыдущего, и где-то на третьем-четвёртом перестают размножаться.
• Ахогэ — Агата.
• Барон — Клаус Вульфенбах, но только де-юре. Де-факто он Император.
• Безумные оружейники — состоят на службе у любой мало-мальски знатной и влиятельной Искры. Да и сами влиятельные Искры нередко воплощают собой троп с педалью в асфальт.
• Безумный король — у князя Ааронева Штурмфорауса в театре княжеская ложа подвешена над сценой и оснащена пушкой — чтобы расстреливать неугодных зрителей и артистов во время «скучных» (с точки зрения князя) выступлений.
  • Да тут такое похоже повсеместно. Разве что более умеренного Клауса Вульфенбаха будут вспоминать как какой-то полумифический «Золотой век». Ну, и ещё Парни-Гетеродины явно не были злобными психопатами.
  • Но даже у всех вышеперечисленных вызывают дрожь злодеяния старых князей Гетеродинов. И если взглянуть на их набитый камерами пыток безумный замок — то понимаешь, почему.
• Бетти и Вероника — Гильгамеш «Бетти» Вульфенбах, «тупой только когда Агата рядом» рыцарь в лишь немного проржавевших доспехах (по крайней мере до таймскипа) и Тарвек «Вероника» Штурмфораус, интриган, который не стесняется использовать всех и вся (включая вполне искренне любимую им протагонистку) в своих планах по захвату Европы (а что поделаешь — жизнь в гнусном клане, она такая).
  • Что интересно, в студенческие годы в Париже всё было наоборот: примерный культурный юноша Тарвек и отвязный гуляка-бабник и авантюрист Гил.
• Благонамеренный экстремист — Вапнупл, создатель Кроспа и разумных медведей.
• Большой начальник — Клаус, Мартеллий, мастер Пейн, Владыка Парижа, а также Ягер-генералы (с этими понятно, они всю жизнь растут).
  • Громадного роста — Вольтер, владыка Парижа. Этот тип ростом в полторы Агаты (причём, сидя в кресле) и заметно крупнее барона Вульфенбаха, и так здоровенного бугая.
• Возвышение — отличным образчиком является кот-конструкт Кросп, «Император Всея Котов».
• Всеобщий любимец — занятный зигзаг: старым Гетеродинам каким-то образом удавалось совмещать это с тем, что все они были безумными учёными различной степени долбанутости. Династия Гетеродинов была любима в своем собственном городе Механиксбурге, но имела нулевой рейтинг во всём остальном мире из-за того, что подавляющее большинство её членов были непредсказуемыми и разрушительными Искрами. Братья Барри и Билл Гетеродины, провозглашенные величайшими героями своего времени, смогли отмыть имя своей шизанутой семейки, но всё равно многие высокопоставленные Искры и обычные люди никогда не забывали про то, как могут быть опасны Гетеродины, и нигде их не любят и не почитают так же, как в родном Механиксбурге.
• Восставший из мёртвых — Клаус Вульфенбах, сшитый из трёх трупов: собственно самого Клауса и двух его братьев.
• Вымойте и приведите ко мне — сыграно зигзагом у парижских заговорщиков. Друзь спрашивает у Дю Квая, надо ли вымыть и доставить ему пленную Агату. Тот отвечает, что Буссоль, видимо, обчитался приключенческих романов… но в следующем фрейме выясняется, что Дю Квай и в самом деле был бы не прочь надругаться над пленницей, только сейчас ему не до этого — он слишком увлечён планами захвата власти.
• Вот это поворот! — полностью из этого.
• Вывих мозга — регулярно, особенно со второго акта.
• Гаечка — главная героиня.
• Гаситель сверхспособностей — медальон Агаты.
• Гениальный_силач — в количестве. Отец и сын Вульфенбахи и многие другие Искры (то есть по определению гении) немеряной физической силы.
• Гений — это волшебная наука, чаще, чем хотелось бы. Агата, при всей гениальности, не так уж и часто демонстрирует соответствие заявленному IQ. Отмазка, правда, у героев есть — они же безумные гении.
• Героическое самопожертвование — циркач Ларс, принявший на себя удар, чтобы спасти Агату.
• Гнусный клан — династия Валуа. Началась с честного и благородного Андроника, короля Бурь, но за 200 с гаком лет жизни в подполье выродилась в настоящее змеиное гнездо, где даже хорошие ребята (вроде Тарвека и Виолеты) играют по грязным правилам.
  • Гетеродины, целый род безумных и жестоких учёных и чернокнижников.
• Гуляш и чардаш — действие происходит в сильно альтернативной Трансильвании 19-20 века, в которой сильные позиции всё ещё занимает венгерская знать. Гетеродины как раз из таковых, в противоположность немцам Вульфенбахам.
• Дешёвая смерть — разнообразные воскрешения настолько распространены, что знать приняла закон, запрещающий воскресшим наследовать имущество.
  • Убили по-настоящему — Ларс, первый тревожный звоночек.
    • Ну и доктор Битл. С подсветкой.
• Диссонирующее спокойствие — мало что может заставить Хиггса сменить его постное выражение лица.
• Единственный нормальный человек — Молох фон Цинцер. Окружён Искрами, безумцами, суперсолдатами, шпионами, а он просто хочет спокойно жить…
  • Безвестный военный, отказавшийся пропускать Гила, несмотря на его шляпу. Благодаря чему и пошёл на повышение (если выжил).
• Засадный полк — механизированные цирковые фургончики, окружившие солдат Вульфенбаха, окруживших Агату и её друзей. Барону ещё повезло, что Агата не успела достроить городосносящую карусель…
  • Педаль в пол — сам Клаус Вульфенбах умудрился под прикрытием якобы «неудачного» штурма привести и спрятать посреди окружающей Механиксбург равнины целую армию. Причём отдельные подразделения этой армии за считанные дни подтянулись аж от самой Турции. И всё это в режиме полной секретности.
• Замки, вальсы и штрудели — империя Вульфенбаха занимает место Австро-Венгрии в этой альтернативной реальности.
• Заявленная слабость — Виолетта считается неумелым дымчатым рыцарем, а Ардсли Вустер — неудачливым и бесталанным шпионом. Вот только эти двое сражаются бок о бок с Агатой, демонстрируя в самых опасных ситуациях нехилое мастерство выживания и применения разнообразных навыков.
• Заявленная способность — пара примеров:
  • Отар Тригвассен, Авантюрист и Джентельмен — в одном из диалогов заявляет себя как непримиримого борца с Искрами, решившего любой ценой перебить их всех, а потом себя (он тоже Искра). Вот только потом об этом он забывает. Похоже, очередное падение с неприлично большой высоты закончилось конкретным ударом по голове… Впрочем, Отар — крутой идиот и может стремиться истребить всех искр и дружить с Гетеродинами одновременно, игнорируя взаимоисключающие параграфы.
    • Или нет… Если Агата — действительно Гетеродин, Монгфиш, Иное и чёрт-в-ступе, то уничтожить всех Искр ей может быть как раз по силе…
  • Бангладеш ДюПри — заявляется как псих-наёмник, вот только в кадре данная её сторона почти не демонстрируется. ДюПри в основном только разглагольствует, как бы она хотела всех поубивать и помучать. Тем не менее: расстрел шагающей канонерки фон Цинцера и убийство Жюльенны, которую ДюПри явно могла обезвредить, не убивая. Плюс она не Искра и находится под влиянием мощнейшей Искры — Клауса, а, как показано в комиксе, это давит на психику так, что человек сам не замечает, как делает вещи, противоположные высказываемой им вслух позиции. Странно, что она не пошла в Красный Крест, продолжая при этом на словах позиционировать себя как маньяка. Фон Цинцер вон со словами «в гробу я видел ваши приключения, моя задача — свалить отсюда» лезет в самое пекло, ибо влип в сферу действия искры Агаты.
  • Кросп, умеющий управлять кошками — внутримировой пример. Вообще, Вапнупл создал Кроспа, чтобы тот был главой его шпионской сети из обычных кошек, но потом оказалось, что шпионы из кошек так себе и Кросп оказался невостребованным. Но Вапнупл не был бы Искрой, если бы не привил коту возможность управлять всеми своими конструктами, среди которых есть маленькая армия антропоморфных медведей.
• Злая королева — Альбия, правящая Англией из находящегося под водой (аки Ото-Гунга) Лондона уже третье столетие по всем правилам Тёмного Властелина. Предположительно является одной из самых сильных (если не сильнейшей) из известных Искр на планете.
  • Утащить в Страну Фей — Альбия явно спец по этой части…
  • Assuming Direct Control.
• Злонамеренная архитектура — замок Гетеродинов. Причём не просто злонамеренная, а натурально сволочная и с чувством юмора. Ах да, и с множественным раздвоением личности!
• Золотое трио — троица главгероев: рубака Гильгамеш, профессиональный убийца Тарвек и безумная изобретательница Агата.
• Импровизированное оружие — от метлы и лопаты до книжки «Оружие из подручных предметов».
• Из пушки по воробьям — принцип мышления всех Искр. Они даже письма писать не могут.
• Инатор — не счесть их.
• Искусственный человек — многие конструкты. Панч и Джуди, к примеру. А Рембрандт ван Рейн, в этой вселенной подавшийся не в художники, а в механики, создал даже двенадцать клацев с человеческим ИИ — Муз. Кстати, фон Пинн — именно что одна из Муз, которой Лукреция создала органическое тело-конструкта на манер Терминатора.
• Концепция изменилась — супруги как-то признавались в интервью, что Гил изначально должен был быть злодеем.
• Копиркин — Арсли Вустер, агент Британской короны — откровенная отсылка к Джеймсу Бонду. Довольно пародийная — агент из него как из пингвина стратосферный бомбардировщик.
• Король-женщина: когда Владыка Парижа (Master of Paris) Вольтер погиб и власть перешла к его дочери Колетт, возник вопрос: как её называть? Владычица Парижа (Mistress of Paris)? Однако слово mistress может означать и «любовница», и даже «куртизанка», поэтому Колетт решила оставить титул в мужском роде.
  • У русского слова «Владычица» подобных коннотаций нет, переводчицам пришлось шутить иначе: «Звучит как-то в духе „Владычицы Морской“». В принципе, что-то подобное прокатило бы с Госпожой («Звучит как-то в духе извращений с кожаными плётками»), но перевёрстывать столько страниц, не говоря о сомнительности самой замены «Владыки» на «Господина» ради сохранения одного-единственного момента…
  • «Господин» и «госпожа» имеют примерно равный БДСМ-ный оттенок. Если надо было передать гендерный дисбаланс в терминологии, лучше подошло бы «хозяин» и «хозяйка» соответственно. Это один из основных переводов слова Master. Но в русском «хозяин» это «владелец», а «хозяйка», хотя тоже имеет одним из смыслов «владелица», но ассоциируется скорее с поварёшкой и с веником.
• Коронная фраза — Отар Тригвассен, авантюрист и джентельмен!
• Красная кнопка — именно такая кнопка включает останавливающую время машину.
• Крутой авиатор\Лётчик-ас — Гильгамеш фон Вульфенбах и Аксель Хиггс.
• Крутой ботан — большинство Искр.
• Крутое семейство — любая династия Искр от двух поколений и больше.
• Крутой в дурацком колпаке — Тарвек Штурмфораус. Притворялся неумехой, плохо владеющим оружием и рукопашным боем, на деле ничем не уступает Дымчатым Рыцарям.
  • И Мартеллий туда же — похоже, что у дома Валуа это семейное. Поначалу производит впечатление благонамеренного идиота, который портит жизнь главным героям не столько своими зловещими планами, сколько искренними попытками действовать правильно. Но позже раскрывается как жестокая и хитрая, предельно опасная сволочь.
  • Педаль в пол — Зола. Все догадывались, что она хорошо подготовлена для операции в Замке Гетеродин, но Зола неоднократно превосходила их ожидания, вплоть до того, что смогла уделать даже Иное. И при этом выглядит и ведёт себя как стереотипная инфантильная блондинка.
• Крутой генерал — Ягер-генерал Гкика, да и вообще все Ягер-генералы.
• Луч смерти — в количествах. Агата даже удивляется, почему у Гила до сих пор нет своего (позже и у него будет). Сама она майстрячит их во сне.
• Магия — это плохо — по мнению Отара Тригвассена, способности Искр — это очень, очень плохо. Весьма небезосновательному мнению, если честно.
• Масоны и иллюминаты — Орден Рыцарей Юпитера.
• Метаморф — Альбия, бессмертная королева Англии.
• Микротрещины в канве — кто и когда выгравировал надпись с последним (!) адресом «семьи Клэй» на обратной стороне медальона? Барри, перед тем, как вручить подарок? Но как он мог гарантировать, что «Адам» и «Лилит» с племянницей никуда не переедут в ближайшие лет десять? Панч или Джуди после последнего переезда? Но как они это проделали, не сняв кулона? Сама Агата? Опять же, как?
  • Выгравировать на съёмной задней стенке? Ведь когда фон Цинцер бросил кулон — стенка эта отлетела!
• Мисс Фансервис — Агата. Часто даже работает в одном белье, ибо мания на неё может найти буквально посреди сна. А при её, мягко говоря, сочной фигурке…
  • Зита. Попадает в неловкие ситуации не реже Агаты, но, в отличие от неё, совершенно не стесняется.
  • Колетт, пополам с боевым стриптизом.
• Мистер Хайд — один британский Искра-химик создал методом реверс-инжиниринга технологию изготовления палёной версии ягер-пойла, на время превращающую его в ягермонстра. Он говорит, что в конечном счёте злоупотребление ей превратит его в кровожадного монстра — но считает, что лучше станет кровожадным монстром, но сохранит интеллект, чем превратится в немощного маразматика. Самовоспламенился и сгорел заживо, так и не став монстром.
• Мэри Сью — периодически встречаются во вставных историях шутки ради и с подсветкой.
• Народный герой — Парни-Гетеродины. Педаль в пол — они стали народными героями при жизни. Их бывший подручный Клаус Вульфенбах очень не любит читать книжонки об их подвигах — его там форменным идиотом выставляют.
  • Отар Тригвассен, авантюрист и джентльмен. В том смысле, что народу его геройства нравятся.
• Неожиданный наследник — Агата и Гил, причём Гил, даже не зная о своём происхождении, жил на замке Вульфенбах и обучался всем необходимым для правления вещам.
• Несовместимая с жизнью тупость — верите или нет, многие Искры. Чаще всего Искры погибают или от своих изобретений (Искра, не получившая высшего образования и применяющая свою способность методами кулинарии/знахарства/ещё какой-то чуши — страшный зверь, опасный для себя и окружающих, бродячий цирк чуть ли не наполовину состоит из таких, сбившихся в кучу ради выживания), или от благодарных мирных жителей, выживших после оных изобретений.
• Невероятно отстойный дар — Кросп I. Был создан как повелитель кошек для создания кошачей шпионской сети. И кошки действительно его слушаются. Проблема в том, что ни одна кошка не удержит в голове ни один приказ дольше нескольких секунд. Субверсия: Кроспу подчиняются не только кошки, но и все создания доктора Вапнула, что позволило ему обзавестись армией разумных медведей.
• Оздоровительная порка — капитан Воул после выдёргивания из-под временной аномалии… А ведь когда-то его выгнали из ягермонстров за чрезмерную кровожадность.
• Он уполз — фанаты так и не смогли простить смерть Ларса.

dr
« …кстати, о жизни злодеев… «Сценарий» и «раскадровка» — это как? Это типа так (извините, что про Сеффи ничего не придумывается)? Дирижабль улетает в закат. Сцена внутри. Косые лучи солнца, резкие тени на лицах. Ларс в колбе, плавает в полусидячей позе по шею в синеватой жидкости. Из него торчат какие-то трубки, какое-то сумрачное, но явно сделанное из спичек и желудей оборудование что-то через него перекачивает. Вплотную к колбе стоит стол, часть оборудования на нём, вокруг стола стоят искры цирка, глядя кто на бардак на столе, кто — на Ларса. Двое из не самых значимых спорят с усталостью на лицах, «по инерции». Mistress крупным планом. Рядом ошиваются Йети и Дама Эдифь с нейтральными выражениями лица. «Итак, мы перепробовали всё. Кроме этого „сжечь его тело и попытаться призвать его дух“». Дама Эдифь крупным планом. Лицо охотицы на вампиров резко сменило выражение на смесь смущения и возмущения, как будто ей влепили оплеуху и она очень хорошо знает, за что, но сливаться нельзя ни в коем случае. Master Payne крупным планом. «…и того, что Она могла бы нам подсказать». Общий план. Реплики Mistress и Master показаны диалогом, остальных — недопиксельным фоновым бормотанием. — Во-первых, когда она проснулась, до Механиксбурга оставалось уже несколько часов. Во-вторых, если бы она могла что-то сделать, она бы догадалась открыть рот первой. Она механик. Это всегда было видно по каждому движению. — Но мы могли бы хотя бы навести её на мысли… — На мысли увлечься непосильной задачей, задержаться и опоздать туда, где она должна быть? Чтобы такими же телами сейчас была завалена половина Европы? — Сдаюсь. Твой дворянский образ мыслей определённо ближе к политике, чем моё простое желание до последнего стоять за своего парня. Пэйн крупным планом, берёт шляпу Максима. «Ну что ж, надо выполнить последний долг…» Шляпа крупным планом, из шляпы выпадает запаянный пузырёк. Несколько мини-кадров с лицами крупным планом, на каждом — удивление, подозрение и недоверие. Пэйн крупным планом, читает через сдвинутое на кончик и без того не очень длинного носа пенсне. Пузырёк крупным планом, видны только полустёртые надписи. Общий план, Mistress рассматривает пузырёк на просвет. Руководящая чета, на заднем плане несколько любопытствующих рож. Mistress: — Это старый шведский. Очень старый. Оно явно старше, чем может быть любая материя. Кто-то носил это с собой и перекладывал в новую одежду, когда от старой оставались одни заплатки. — Ты можешь это прочитать? — С трудом. Что-то типа «первая помощь охотника». — Судя по всему, какая-то старая полевая аптечка ягеров. Интересно, почему Максим её не вынул, раз столько времени берёг? — Тут написано римскими цифрами… в общем, срок годности, если это он, истёк то ли 139, то ли 184 года назад. Не могу прочитать одну букву. Наверное, он решил, что хватит уже его таскать с собой «на всякий случай». — Ну, один раненый у нас есть… даже скорее мёртвый, если бы за него не жили эти машины. Хуже ему точно не будет. Чета идёт по коридору, продолжая рассуждать. Mistress: — Скорее всего, средство не подействует. Помимо того, что оно старое — оно рассчитано на ягера. — Некоторые такие средства действуют и на людей, насколько я мог слышать. Конечно, не без побочных эффектов. Старые солдаты, которых мне случалось встретить, говорили про «вспышки ярости» и «шерсть по всему телу». Это, конечно, не превращение в ягера, но одна из причин, по которым ягерная медицина не была столь желанным трофеем, как можно подумать. — Ну, возможно, какое-то действие оно ещё сможет оказать. Вряд ли то, что осталось от Ларса, способно на вспышку ярости. Я добавлю средство в аппарат на ночь. Рассветные лучи за окном, кухня, все за столами. Входит Пэйн. — Здравствуйте, мастер Пэйн! — Здравствуй, Аб, здравствуй, Пикс, здравствуй, Лар… Крупным планом лицо Пэйна с выражением «гропага увидел пришествие Инглипа». Ларс со спины. Ларс со спины, начинает оборачиваться, небольшой наезд камеры. Ларс со спины, полностью обернулся на имя, полный наезд камеры на лицо… то есть на ягер-морду. » — Похабный ягерхор В прочих комментариях образ Ягерларса также был дополнен рогами а-ля «шутовская шляпа» (глупо выглядящими и постоянно мешающими ему эффектно снять настоящую шляпу и отвесить поклон), а также постоянным перегибанием палки в вопросах внешней эффектности: отголоски циркового прошлого-с. « Ох уж эти бессонные Искры… Обычный [ягер] не будет во время фехтования предварять смертельный удар фразой «мой любимый фокус — я беру шпагу, а ты её глотаешь» :) Циркоягер должен быть отмороженным в квадрате, таким, чтобы даже ягерам показалось, что он перегибает палку в плане эффектности. Если внезапное появление — то в первый раз со взрывом в дверях, верхом на вепре, среди разлетающихся кирпичей и пыли. Второй раз — со взрывом в дверях, все стреляют в вепря… и тут он сзади кладёт руку на плечо, подойдя с противоположной стороны. Если тихо прокрасться — то нарядившись Мартеллием так, чтобы никто ничего не заподозрил до того момента, когда в поле зрения одновременно будут два Мартеллия (скилл быстро крикнуть «это самозванец, смотрите на ноги» — строго обязателен, особенно — если сзади втихаря засунул ему в ботинки клочок торчащей ягерной шерсти). Если дать в рыло из-за угла — то часами с кукушкой, причём так, чтобы «домик» наделся на бессознательную голову, а кукушка вылетела и прокуковала десять раз. И после десятого раза объявить — «Аут!» Если брать здание штурмом — то выстрелившись из пушки в окно с розой в зубах, обнажить шпагу, улыбнуться во все 48 зубов и со словами «добрый вечер» вручить розу ближайшей даме, после чего устроить с главгадом зарубу, переходящую в пункт 1. » — Из тех же камментов

• Осколок аристократии — Молох фон Цинцер происходит из семьи настолько захудалых дворянчиков, что от окрестных крестьян они отличаются только приставкой «фон».
• Орёл — суперсила, решка — могила — ныне забытый процесс производства ягермонстров из простых смертных шестёрок путём вливания в них ягер-пойла и последующих научных колдунств. Большинство помирает в муках. Те, кто выживают, получают нечеловеческую силу, живучесть, бессмертие (ягеры не стареют — только растут, матереют и обзаводятся новыми фишками) и полный рот вот таких зубов. Во время о́но от желающих отбою не было.
• Пасхалка — их тут полно. Чего стоит хотя бы сцена, где Зита и Агата пытаются подобрать подходящую персональную броню для «леди Гетеродин». За одну страницу они умудряются примерить доспехи Галактуса, Космодесантника Хаоса, Довакина и энергокостюм Самус Аран.
• Помыли и одели — протагонистке на протяжении комикса приходится не раз представать перед знатными особами и, соответственно, не раз переодеваться. Где-то троп играется прямо, где-то — фансервиса ради.
• Посадить в автобус: Жюльенна. Да, её убили, но Вульфенбах обещал её воскресить. Возможно, не нашёл времени — сначала ему подкинули поддельное сгоревшее тело Гетеродинки, с которым он провозился два месяца, затем у самого Клауса возникли проблемы… но, может быть, она просто где-то за кадром валяется, как отработавшая своё лишняя сущность.
  • Увы, не валяется. В одном из последних стрипов Тарвек костерит себя за то, что отправил Жюльенну к барону, надеясь спасти бесталанную родственницу от злодейских планов прочей семьи, а она погибла.
    • Точнее, Тарвек считает Жюльенну погибшей. Но последнюю пару лет он пропустил по уважительной причине — и может ошибаться.
• Постоянная шутка — у протагонистки толст… (звук удара) кхм, соблазнительная, очень аппетитная, каллипигическая попка.
  • Также протагонистка постоянно натыкается на разрушител… очередные творения её семьи.
• Полное чудовище — Лукреция Монгфиш, A.K.A. Иное. Наиболее одиозные Гетеродины также попадают под амплуа.
• Первый гражданин — Клаус фон Вульфенбах, диктатор всей Восточной Европы, носит скромный титул барона.
  • По мнению Мартеллия, назвался бы Клаус Императором — знать бы стала в очередь выстраиваться за вступление в его Империю, вместо того, чтобы пытаться его скинуть.
• Подводный город — Лондон.
• Постапокалипсис — отчасти. Время от времени происходит что-то весьма плохое, рушащее изрядную часть общества (нападение Иного, исчезновение Барона), и жизнь до него начинают считать золотым веком, но потом как-то очухиваются. В Пустошах это состояние перманентное — после Долгой Войны она под завязку набита опасными сюрпризами от Искр. Задолго до Вечных Королев наподобие Альбии существовала (как минимум одна) цивилизация, ещё более развитая чем они, оставившая после себя Королевские Зеркала, в частности. Что с ними случилось - пока что неизвестно, но очевидно, что ничего хорошего.
• Прибытие кавалерии — Мартеллий фон Блицгаард в финале осады Механиксбурга. Его армию готовили для помощи подставной Гетеродинке, а не настоящей, но Зола слилась и планы пришлось корректировать.
• Простой крутой смертный — Зита, Виолетта, Бангладеш ДюПри, Арсли Вустер, много их! Тут некрутые вообще долго не живут. Педаль в пол давит Зола, которая сумела составить серьёзные проблемы героям, не являясь Искрой.
• Проклятое золото — амулет Агаты. Молох фон Цинцер постоянно жалеет, что они украли этот чёртов амулет, его брат Омар пожалеть вообще не успел… но больше всего пожалело Иное, когда надело.
• Псих-наёмник — Бангладеш ДюПри. Впрочем, Клаус и/или Гильгамеш обычно сдерживают её стремление к насилию. Но когда ситуация действительно серьёзная — например, барон лежит в больнице после тяжёлого боя и на него покушаются все кому не лень, — то… см. иллюстрацию.
• Псевдомилый злодей — она же.
• Ради науки! — во все поля.
• Раскрыть тайну усыновления — инверсия с Гилом. Большую часть детства был уверен, что он лишь один из многих способных сирот, которых Клаус приютил в замке по доброте душевной. Когда внезапно выяснил, что он законный наследник Вульфенбаха, предсказуемо впал в ГЭС.
• Рыцарь крови — ягермонстры.
• Серый кардинал — официально Механиксбургом (до прибытия Агаты) правил бургомистр, поставленный Вульфенбахом, и его советники. На деле реальная власть была сосредоточена в руках семьи фон Мекканов — потомственных сенешалей замка Гетеродин.
• Смертоносный распущенный двор — вся Европа в целом, а скорее всего — весь мир.
• Смехотворные пытки — Йенка, когда-то была телохранителем княжны Ефросиньи Гетеродин, жены короля Андроника Валуа. Андроник Валуа, по мнению Йенки, «жестоко изуродовал» её лишением характерной для ягер-монстра внешности. Теперь эта эффектная леди, правда, активно пользуется результатом — не так уж и много ягеров, которые могут беспалевно затесаться среди людей; если бы она ещё не таскала с собой ягермедведя, была бы разведчиком не хуже Хиггса. Но пока легенда красотки и светской дамы держится, а медведь — ну, у леди могут быть свои причуды.
• Странности в первой части — в начале истории во время вылупления Улья-цеха Агата и Гил всерьёз опасаются, что Осы-угнетатели заразят их и превратят в Умертвий. Потом, однако аксиомой внезапно становится иммунитет Искр к Осам, а существование особо продвинутых Ос, способных заражать Искр, становится для всех сюрпризом, причём чуть ли не сюжето-образующим. За обоснованием далеко ходить не надо — Клаус старался держать все устройства Иного в секрете. Агата и Гил на тот момент могли банально не знать об иммунитете Искр к Осам.
  • Не смогут заразить — сожрут, тоже приятного мало.
• Сумасшедший учёный — большинство Искр. Из главных героев таковы гениальный кибернетик и робототехник Тарвек, физик-аэродинамик Гильгамеш, занимающийся ещё и авиаконструированием, и барон Клаус, вообще исследующий феномен Искры. А вот Агата — безумный инженер: времени на исследования у неё нет, но вот собрать из хлама здоровенную плазменную пушку или стайку самовоспроизводящихся клацев — это да.
• Суперсолдаты — ягермонстры, личная гвардия Гетеродинов. Вообще их в сеттинге много, но именно эти ребята крадут шоу. Особенно «Висельники» A.K.A. «главная троица». Их мутации не наследуются, дети получаются обычными людьми. Поэтому к женщинам они липнут аки гусары (а в Механиксбурге липучесть взаимная), но ведут себя по-джентльменски — из всех сортов насилия, которыми ягеры славятся, именно такой за ними не замечен абсолютно.
• Суровая вражеская тётя — Отилия фон Пинн после экспериментов Лукреции Монгфиш и до перемещения в тело робокошки. Субверсия — несмотря на типичную для тропа внешность и поведение — она положительный персонаж и прирождённая, заботливая нянька, которая за своих подопечных любому пасть порвёт. Что неудивительно: Муза Защиты, как-никак.
• Сюжетный буревестник — Мартеллий. Поначалу в комиксе царит достаточно мягкая атмосфера. Главные герои стараются не убивать без нужды, и самые влиятельные антагонисты — тоже. Если Агата, Гил или даже Тарвек кого по необходимости и прирежут, то почти наверняка потом воскресят. И даже барон Вульфенбах, которого в излишнем добродушии не упрекнёшь, действует в основном так же. А многих персонажей (тех же ягермонстров) вообще убить крайне сложно, что позволяет лупить по ним большими калибрами без зазрения совести. Более мелкие злодеи убивать вроде как и любят, но либо складываются быстрее, чем успеют навалить гору трупов, либо попадают в зону действия ауры сильных Искр, после чего в основном ограничиваются угрозами и чёрным как ночь юмором — но реально ничего такого ужасного не творят. Но Мартеллий это правило решительно нарушает — сразу после похищения Агаты он играючи режет семерых Дымчатых Рыцарей (причём служащих его собственной семье), и явно не собирается их воскрешать.
• Техномагия — все способности Искр.
• Технотрёп — так или иначе практикуют все Искры.
• Тоталитарный миротворец — Клаус Вульфенбах. При одном слухе о его смерти страна полетела в бездну.
  • Педаль в пол — в одном из диалогов Иное утверждает, что занялось зомбификацией Европы, потому что это единственный реальный вариант обеспечить мир и порядок. Хотя если учесть, что Иное — патологическая врушка и доверия никак не заслуживает…
• Трикстер — Замок Гетеродин. Он же джинн-буквалист и та ещё сволочь.
• У нас не такие орки — ягермонстры. Личная гвардия семьи Гетеродин, отличаются верностью роду. Внешность варьируется от почти человеческой (например, таковы Йенка и Хиггс) и до совершенно монструозной. Основные отличительные черты: вырвиглазные цвета волос, глаз и кожи, непропорциональное сложение, полный рот острейших клыков и опционально рога. Чтобы ими стать, надо выпить ягерпойло, сделанное на основе воды реки Дин, протекающей под замком Гетеродинов. Эта вода является природным источником каких-то флеботических мутагенов, но она безвредна для Механиксбурга только из-за того, что весь мутаген из неё собирается Замком для своих нужд. Пойло подействует только на пьющего его добровольно, большинство же обычно сразу умирают, и чем большим мерзавцем пьющий был при жизни — тем легче происходит процесс и меньше изменений. Выжившие получают эффектную внешность, большую силу и бессмертие.
  • Бонусные очки за то, что любовь к драке ради самого процесса, смищной аксэнт (клыки мешают говорить внятно?) и отчасти любовь к понтам роднит этих товарищей с вархаммеровскими именно что орками.
• Увёртливые внутренние органы — Хиггс получает множество ударов в живот, истекает кровью, но уходит на своих двоих.
• Усики самоуверенного юнца — самая, наверное, опасная деталь внешности, страшнее красной рубашки. Живут одну-две сцены.
• Неофициальное прозвище: Духобабы (Geisterdamen), Зарина (Королева Зари, от шутки про Королеву Зарина, которая уже пустила в помещение зарин), Чебурашка/Коля (Колетт, дщерь Владыки Парижского и нынешняя правительница), Лу (Лукреция ессно), короче, каждой твари по харе, и никто не ушёл от фэндома необиженным. К Андронику Валуа, истинному и весьма древнему Королю Бурь, мгновенно и намертво прилипло «Андроид». «Висельники» — троица Огги, Димо и Максим. Золушка (ясно кто), Дроу (Ларана), ну и выше была Гипергрудин Филейкалепная. Копии Иного в чужих телах называют Лугата и Луневка.
• Фантастический расизм по отношению к Ягермонстрам, что характерно, полностью обоснованный: Гетеродины превращали в ягеров самых злых и жестоких своих солдат.
• Храмовник — Отар Тригвассен (авантюрист и джентельмен!) Видит в Искрах угрозу мирным людям и стремится их всех уничтожить. А потом себя (он тоже Искра).
• Хуже, чем ужасно/Неизвестность пугает больше — большинство зверств старых Гетердинов не описывается, но читатель прекрасно понимает, что титул самого гнусного из всех гнусных кланов Европы просто так не даётся.
  • К слову сказать, Агата установила очень интересный рекорд, едва вступила в должность. Ужас у холодильника — Братья Гетеродины не побили этот рекорд в своё время? У них мог быть ряд причин, и все веселее некуда. В момент наследования в церемонию влез какой-то фанат старых князей, ляпнул что-то про младенцев, которых приготовил к сожжению в подарок (ну или типа того), после чего его останки стекли по ближайшей стенке, а голова долго прыгала по булыжной мостовой. С такими приспешниками можно в двадцать секунд уложиться. Или ещё проще: у Гетеродинов при смене правителя всегда политическая нестабильность, Агата вот правление начала словами о том, что город штурмуют, и врага надо «стереть в порошок» (именно так и сказала), а потом и лично принимала участие в боевых действиях (и уж странно, если никого в процессе не убила). Они же вступили в права наследования во время междоусобицы — их мать прибила отца (а её прибил замок), а знать Механиксбурга раскололась на два лагеря. Не исключено, что они и обратный рекорд поставили — если во время пулемётной очереди ударил колокол, у них могли уйти миллисекунды от вступления во власть до первого фрага.
• Что за идиот! — верите или нет, Клаус Вульфенбах. Сначала он в упор не мог предположить Искру в Агате, основываясь на предыдущем знакомстве, хотя осмотреть руки (у двух подозреваемых) на предмет масла и мазута стоило бы с самого начала (что, собственно, и сделал его сын), затем он устраивает засаду в бродячем цирке, в котором Агата пряталась больше месяца, и отдельный вопрос вызывает его решение с остановкой времени (впрочем, тут у него есть небольшое оправдание — он «шершня́ хватил» и ему было весьма непросто думать таким хитрым образом, чтобы обманывать самого себя).
  • Альбия. Прекрасно видя, что Агате всё сложнее контролировать пошедшую вразнос Лукрецию, в решающий момент просто связала Агату и заткнула ей рот. Что мешало лишить девушку сознания, ввести в анабиоз, временно парализовать, наконец — для её же блага? Лукреция, конечно, сильная Искра, но для неё вполне хватило бы даже банального снотворного.
• Шизотех — «Сильной Искре нужно всего пару часов, чтобы сломать законы физики».
  • Клокпанк — Биттлбург.
  • Дизельпанк — замок Вульфенбах.
  • Теслапанк — Механиксбург.
  • Киберпанк — Париж, на тормозах.
  • Манапанк — а какую древнюю ктулхину ни пробудишь, все работают на «тёмных и светлых энергиях». Особенно «Андроид».
• Эксцентричный мудрец — верите или нет, Отар Тригвассен, Авантюрист и Джентельмен. В такие моменты он особенно великолепен.
• Это очень сильное колдунство — принцип работы любого изобретения Искры с точки зрения обычного человека.
• Эффект горностаевой мантии — пародия: Ягеры в знак уважения дарят Гильгамешу Вульфенбаху огромную шляпу с его именем (см. картинку выше). Однако из-за весьма специфических вкусов ягеров шляпа получилась… мдас, поэтому Гил, о карьере клоуна не очень-то мечтавший, при первой возможности сунул её подальше и постарался забыть. Вот только из-за того, что Клаус долго скрывал своего сына от мира (ради его безопасности) и, как результат, мало кто знал, как Гил выглядит, в определённый момент никто не смог узнать его… ровно до того момента, пока Гил не надел эту нелепую «корону». И это тоже деконструируется в юмористическом ключе на единственном адекватном человеке, попавшемся Гилу на пути.
• Эффект Телепорно — внутримировой пример: отец Зиты носил имя (или титул, или прозвище) Балда (в оригинале Chump, буквально «деревянная колода, чурбан», а также «дурак, болван»). «Да, я знаю, что это значит на вашем языке».
• Языковых барьеров не существует — оправдывается тем, что Агата (и предположительно, все остальные персонажи) знает все сколь-нибудь распространённые в Европе языки. По крайней мере, немецкий, румынский и венгерский (официальные языки империи Вульфенбаха). Судя по парижской арке — ещё и французский. В новеллизации упоминается, что все уважающие себя учёные владеют латынью, (древне)греческим и немецким, а также английским (языком торговли) и французским (языком дипломатии). В дополнение к этому, некоторые направления в математике удобнее всего обсуждать на арабском, а русский всегда хорош «для посмеяться». Агата свободно владеет всеми перечисленными языками.

Посмотреч/Упоминания

• Аверсия — когда Агата и её говорящий кот Кросп присоединяются к цирку, циркачи говорят, что Кросп выглядит слишком правдоподобно и никто не поверит, что это действительно говорящий кот. Позже, во время выступления труппы, князь Ааронев Штурмфораус упоминает «смехотворного лилипута в костюме кота» и читатель ожидает, что речь идет о Кроспе. Однако в последствии выясняется что речь действительно шла о карлике Бальтазаре в кошачьем костюме.
• Адские тренировки — тренировки, которым Гита подвергает Агату. Как бы так сформулировать… «цель первого дня — измотать обучаемую так, чтобы она и стоять-то не могла!»
• Аналогия подвела — Когда ягер Огги вконец достал своего праправнука Рассказчика вопросами о том, почему тот не женат, Рассказчик в сердцах ляпнул: «Я женюсь, когда ты найдёшь Гетеродинов!» (От всех, кто женщиной рождён). Огги уже заранее радуется прапраправнукам…
• Антивосставательная фича — Агата получает такую во время плена для предотвращения побега. Фича не сработала: Агата ведь тоже искра.
• А он вовсе не такой! — в этом мире есть такое явление, как постановки Гетеродинов. Это что-то вроде реальной итальянской комедиа дель арте, в том смысле, что во множестве разных пьес выступают одни и те же стереотипные персонажи (хотя, в отличие от неё, тексты пьес фиксированы, но зато есть своя фишка, отличающая постановку Гетеродинов от нормального театра — всё выступление разбавлено разнообразными цирковыми трюками). Так вот, прототипы тех самых стереотипных героев — реальные деятели не столь давней истории того мира. И если с центральными персонажами всё более-менее ОК (Лукрецию Монгфиш изображают пафосной злодейкой, ну так она и в жизни так себя ведёт, Билла и Барри — благородными героями, но и в комиксе неоднократно намекалось, что в реальности они были носителями непоколебимой чистоты), то второстепеннных упростили и опошлили ради комедии.
  • Верный слуга Панч изображён безмозглым амбалом, который ведёт себя, как кретин. В реальности тот, кто носил это имя в те времена — очень адекватный и уравновешенный персонаж, вовсе не тупой (работал механиком и успешно справлялся). Как изобразили его жену Джуди — неизвестно (субреткой?), но явно тоже комично. Агата этих пьес про Гетеродинов очень много читала и смотрела, но ей и в голову не приходило, что Панч и Джуди — это её приёмные родители.
  • Некто Клаус, напарник героев — это такой клоун, который постоянно попадает в идиотские ситуации и больше ничего толком не делает. Наверно, мало кто всерьёз думает, что барон Клаус фон Вульфенбах, единоличный диктатор всей Восточной Европы — это он и есть. А ему, между прочим, обидно, хотя иногда он действительно посмеивается над своим литературным образом.
• Архитектурная доминанта — замок Гетеродин доминирует властвует и унижает над Механиксбургом. Замок Вульфенбах умудряется делать то же самое, будучи циклопическим дирижаблем, ибо постоянно окружён роем цеппелинов помельче. Доминирует везде, куда бы ни прилетел. И не только архитектурно.
• Бакенбарды крутизны — Мартеллий фон Блитценгаард, Король Бурь.
• Барашки и овечки — подсвечена игра слов. Когда Агате докладывают, что на крепость движется осадный баран (Осадный таран), она (и читатель) ожидает стенобитное орудие, а уж никак не генномодифицированного мериноса величиной с мумака, который пытается рогами вышибить ворота.
• Безумная клёвость — комикс из этого состоит. Просто состоит.
• Безумные оружейники — как ни удивительно, ближе к аверсии, или как минимум спорный случай. Конечно, в этом мире много шизотеха, включая боевые машины и прочую военную технику. Но с другой стороны — как раз к оружию как таковому это относится в наименьшей степени: мы видим вполне обычные мечи, ружья/пушки, ну максимум лучи смерти (Агата побегала немного с супер-дезинтегратором, но он как раз блестящее супероружие и не особо-то и безумен). Иногда они выглядят довольно вычурно, но на фоне прочих искровых творений не очень-то впечатляют. Если и встречаются отдельные образчики, достойные статьи — то мимоходом и не влияя на сюжет.
• Бессменный правитель — Альбия, правящая Англией из находящегося под водой Лондона уже третье столетие.
• Бета-пара — шоу внутри шоу, а именно — «Гетеродинские истории». Практически все народно-инородные баяны-бабаяны заканчиваются, после всех приключений, свадьбой Билла на Лукреции и Барри — на «Верховной Жрице, кем бы она ни была в этой истории», дежурном, так сказать, компоненте бета-пары, «приправе по вкусу и по сезону». Агата, устраивая для ширнармасс шоу с гигантскими изображениями отца, дяди и матери, грамотно укомплектовала бета-пару в меру своего художественного вкуса, дабы польстить всем стереотипам.
  • Что характерно — Верховная Жрица реально существует — это правая рука Лукреции и главная Гейстердама, известная под именем Леди Фрин. В ходе комикса пыталась превратить Агату в аватару своей повелительницы, что у нее почти удалось, но была забита насмерть метлой самой княжной Гетеродин.
• Благонамеренный экстремист — Вапнул из палаты мер и весов.
• Боевой электромагнитный излучатель — один из стягиваемых бароном Вульфенбахом к Механиксбургу полков официально приписан к связистам и оснащён гелиографами. Как поясняет Гил, после определённого приказа все «сигнальные» аэростаты полка выдвигают все зеркала и наводят «солнечных зайчиков» в одну точку…
• Большой — значит главный — Клаус Вульфенбах на две головы выше большинства персонажей и обладает сверхчеловеческой силой, даже когда не «искрит». Неизвестно, родители его таким родили, или сшили после того взрыва. Мартеллий фон Блиценгаард немного уступает Клаусу и в росте, и в силе, и во влиянии.
  • Ягер-генералы заметно крупнее рядовых ягермонстров. Аналогично оркам из ВХ40к, растут всю жизнь, и доживший (особенно при старых Гетеродинах) до генеральских размеров ягер обладает правом командования уже хотя бы на основе накопленного опыта. У Вульфенбахов недавно в результате разработки технологий взаимодействия со временем появился поддельный генерал, т.е. искусственно состаренный ягер-ренегат.
    • Аверсия с седьмым ягер-генералом — авиатор Хиггс вполне себе среднего роста и практически неотличим от обычного человека. Разве что нечеловечески живуч.
  • Вольтер, Владыка Парижа — здоровенный бугай выше и шире Вульфенбаха и ростом почти с полторы Агаты. Как оказывается — его тело по большей части механическое.
  • Альбия, королева Англии, всех вышеперечисленных (кроме, возможно, Вольтера) за пояс заткнёт. В буквальном смысле. Причём может менять размеры по желанию и, похоже, представляет собой что-то вроде облака наномашин.
• Бытовая магия: нет такого шизотеха, который Искра не сможет применить в быту, и нет такой сферы быта, из которой Искра не сможет устроить полный шизотех. Хрестоматийный пример — Агата и кофе.
• Вернулся не таким — в определённый момент с того света вылез Андроник Валуа, истинный Король Бурь древности — настолько «не таким», что фандом его иначе как «Андроид» не называет.
• В каждой руке по оружию — Зита, исчадие Чумпа Скифандрийского. Левый меч имеет два клинка, то есть скорее предназначен для блоков и парирования вражеских атак, но всё равно остаётся мечом. А вот папочка, судя по всему, предпочитает добротную саблю этим вашим амазонковским эстетствам (бедный Ларс…)
  • Там же — Борис Долохов, секретарь барона Вульфенбаха. Будучи обладателем четырёх рук, без труда управляется с двумя клинками одновременно. А на дирижабле, сражаясь с осами, вообще орудовал сразу четырьмя шпагами!
• Внезапная мистика — за годы онгоинга так привыкли к слову «газоламповое…», что когда дело дошло до «…фэнтези» — чувства были смешанные.
• Война в городе — попытка захватить Механиксбург со стороны всех кому не лень. Сперва жители города прячутся и бьют из-за угла, но затем Агата и её команда приводят Замок в норму и горе-завоеватели полностью осознают, что такое злонамеренная архитектура, которая способна мыслить и действовать.
• Война и апокалипсис — суперзлодей(ка) Иное устраивает в Европе зомби-апокалипсис, а местные князьки знай грызутся между собой. После того, как Иное приструнили братья Гетеродины, а Клаус Вульфенбах навёл в Европе порядок единственным понятным Искранутой знати способом, это всё притихло, но после временно́й самозаморозки Клауса всё мало того, что пошло по-новой — сама эта заморозка вызвала пришествие ещё каких-то новых ктулху из четвёртого измерения.
• Возвышение — кот-конструкт Кросп, «Император Всея Котов». Был создан безумной Искрой для использования кошек в военных целях. Увы, затея полностью провалилась. Сам-то Кросп вполне разумен (даже умнее многих людей, если честно), но на его «подчинённых» это не распространяется: они всё равно остаются ленивыми и быстро забывающими приказы животными.
  • Той же Искрой был выведен народ лишь чуть менее разумных медведей, подчиняющихся Кроспу. Также фигурируют псевдоразумные псевдоверфольфы, а потом вообще оказывается, что куда ни плюнь, попадёшь в том числе и в кого-нибудь возвышенного, хоть специально, хоть случайно.
• Воздушный авианосец: Замок Вульфенбах — дирижабль-город размером больше километра, способен базировать на борту другие дирижабли (в том числе те, которые сами несут эскарду летающих дронов) для ремонта и заправки, а также в качестве челноков, потому что сам никогда не приземляется. Единственный в сеттинге самолёт также стартует с Замка.
• Волшебные законы физики — тут нет какой-то последовательной волшебной физики (Искра достаточной силы вкапывается во всё более и более глубокие слои, а потом приходит Искра ещё сильнее и ломает уже эту физику) — а вот биология конкретная и аккуратная, а именно — лысенковская. Вы можете сшить из разных живых тканей крошечного мамонта и все его потомки тоже будут крошечными мамонтами! (Конкретно про них, правда, в кадре ничего не показали, но все остальные конструкты имеют именно такой механизм наследственности).
• Волшебный водоём — именно это из себя представляла река Дин, будучи ключом и вытекающим из него ручьём, который убивал или превращал в сверхсильных монстров всех, кто в него окунался. По крайней мере, до тех пор пока первый из Гетеродинов не решил выпить воды из него, выжил, и построил на месте источника свой замок (а один из его потомков расширил источник, сделав ручей рекой). Теперь вся «волшебность» забирается замком на свои нужды, и из него вытекает уже просто вода.
• Всегда закрытые глаза — Аксель Хиггс полностью открывает глаза только в случае экстремальных факапов.
• Все женщины — распутницы — ну не то что бы совсем все, но это явно норма в суровом мире сумрачной науки. При этом проклятье вынужденного воздержания бедняжкам довлеет не на шутку — у них же приключения, им толком перепихнуться некогда. Даже если голый Гильгамеш уже мысленно перед глазами плавает. Про Скифандрийский Матриархат вообще не говорим — единственная известная его представительница, узнав про Зум-Зумский марафон «налить в одну чашку из 50 чайников» (организованный невинного вида хрупкой брюнеточкой), не упала с отвалом челюсти, а просто похихикала и рассказала, что у них тоже «весёлые праздники».
• Всеобщий любимец — занятный зигзаг: старым Гетеродинам каким-то образом удавалось совмещать это с тем, что все они были безумными учёными различной степени долбанутости. Династия Гетеродинов была любима в своем собственном городе Механиксбурге, но имела нулевой рейтинг во всём остальном мире из-за того, что подавляющее большинство её членов были непредсказуемыми и разрушительными Искрами. Братья Барри и Билл Гетеродины, провозглашенные величайшими героями своего времени, смогли отмыть имя своей шизанутой семейки, но всё равно многие высокопоставленные Искры и обычные люди никогда не забывали про то, как могут быть опасны Гетеродины, и нигде их не любят и не почитают так же, как в родном Механиксбурге.
• Гаечка — героиня Агата Гетеродин давит педаль в асфальт. Дайте этой симпатичной блондинке полчаса времени, и она с помощью разводного ключа, молотка и какой-то матери прогнёт законы физики и соберёт ОБЧР с гиперболоидом буквально из подручного металлолома. А может просто и без затей сломать ключ о вражью голову.
  • Слейпнир О’Хара оттуда же.
• Гаситель сверхспособностей: у Агаты способности Искры проявились в пять лет, и её дядя, поняв, что в таком юном возрасте она и сама погибнет, и кучу народа положит, сделал ей медальон, подавляющий мозговую активность. Агата честно носила его до восемнадцати лет, не зная о его свойствах, пока в один прекрасный день её не гоп-стопнули двое братьев-дезертиров, отобрали медальон, и всё заверте…
• Гениальный силач — просто н е м е р я н о. Правители-Искры (а равно преступники-Искры, и, конечно, Отар Тригвассен, авантюрист и джентльмен) зачастую совмещают глубокий ум с огромной физической силой (а нормальность никто не упоминал).
• Германия захватит мир — педаль в эфир — тут главной сверхдержавой является государство трансильванских саксов!
• Гигантская женщина — вульфенбаховские конструкты Пантагрюэлла (Грита) и Сьюза, дуэт гигантской и крошечной девушек. У одной соразмерная силища, вторая пролезет везде, где её надо и особенно где её совсем не надо.
• Гнусное семейство — в принципе большинство могущественных династий Искр подходит по этот троп. Больше всего выделяются Гетеродины (минимум интриганства, максимум жестокости даже по меркам безумных ученых, умудрились достать всех своей воинственностью и кровожадностью) и Валуа, легендарный патриарх которых когда-то был королем объединённой Европы.
  • На текущий момент у Гетеродинов второе поколение подряд творит добро, Валуа раздроблены на множество малых династий и готовы хладнокровно идти по трупам, чтобы занять место великого предка, а социальную нишу владык (и пугал) всея Европы занимает невероятно молодая по меркам Искр династия Вульфенбах.
• Говорить словами через рот:

«	— Ну, у тебя хотя бы это есть. Я не могу даже остаться с Агатой в одной комнате без того, чтобы… — Так напишите ей письмо. — Чито? — Каждый раз одно и то же! Дурные Искры! Вечно думаете, что надо послать целую армию огромных роботизированных поющих розовых кустов, а то будет недостаточно романтично! Почему вам всё надо переусложнять?! Вот. Бумага. — Уф. — Ручка. — Ык! — Садитесь. И пишите. Ручкой. По бумаге. Буквы. Пишите, что хотите ей сказать. — Я мог бы построить механизм, проецирующий моё трёхмерное изображение, которое объяснит… — Почему я вам врезал? — Или… могу просто… написать…	»

• Гоп-стоп-маскировка — на тормозах. Цели обычно не замаскироваться под прежнего носителя одежды, а просто перестать выделяться (как и в Терминаторе, кстати говоря). Напрямую троп играется постоянно (особенно ягеры и их традиция добычи шляп), но с главной героиней играется субверсия. Штаны в Париже она добыла легко, но, внезапно, их размер… в общем, Агата перебрала целый взвод головорезов, но так и не нашла пары штанов, в которую могла бы втиснуть свою «каллипигическую» попу. Пришлось раздеть модницу в кринолине. Естественные размеры Агаты Филейкалепной, судя по «полураздетым» сценам, как раз примерно соответствуют кринолину. Какая свёртка пространства её утягивает в обычных сценах, остаётся загадкой.
• Губительная жадность — ох и до фига же народу полегло, пытаясь спереть что-нибудь из замка Гетеродин…
• Гуляш и чардаш — большая часть конфликта происходит в Трансильвании, и не на последнем месте выводится тема вражды мадьярского рода Гетеродинов с рядом саксонских: от баронов Вульфенбахов до князей Штурмфораусов, которые седьмая вода на киселе самим Валуа.
• Два тебя — суперзлодейка Иное занимается перезаписью своей личности в головы подходящих носителей (включая собственную дочь, по совместительству главную героиню). Технический вариант: оказавшись в двух телах, перво-наперво визжит от восторга в два голоса и обнимается сама с собой, а потом рассуждает в стиле «Эта я помню важные факты, надо рассказать их остальным себе, а потом моя жизнь станет не такой важной». Да, она вполне может пожертвовать собой ради самого дорогого ей человека — ради самой себя.
• Девушки любят розовый цвет — Зола. Чистейший, концентрированный образец тропа.
• Декольте до пупка — Агата ненадолго появляется в почти расстегнутой белой рубашке, на которой видно ее обширное декольте, когда она просыпается после событий в Штурмхальтене.
• Дефекты речи: все ягермонстры расгафарифайут фот с таким фот ниабычным акцентам. Впрочем, поди поговори без акцента с такими зубками, которыми акул распугивать можно.
• Деятельный правитель — аверсия только с Клаусом, да и тот об этом тоскует (и по любому поводу зигзажит, влезая в самую гущу событий лично). Остальных хлебом не корми, а дай «лично убить каждую фаффленарскую тварь». Впрочем, они Искры, поэтому им сложно делегировать полномочия: простые смертные фигово справляются. Вот и приходится выходить навстречу вражеской армии с палкой-молниемётом и лично шарашить по бронетехнике.
• Диссонирующее спокойствие — Барри во флэшбеках отличается спокойствием каменной глыбы в стрессовых ситуациях. Хотя чего у него там в душе́ творится на самом деле — одно Иное знает.
  • Как минимум в прологе первой книги — он жутко напряжён и с огромным трудом удерживает себя в руках, понимая, что если потерявшего жену и ребёнка Билла переклинит — Барри не сможет его остановить. Но держится, да.
• Дружелюбный злодей:
  • Geisterdamen. Боготворят Иное и ради него пойдут на всё. И это, пожалуй, их единственный недостаток. Стандартов не имеют — ради Иного пойдут на любое зло, причём с готовностью и увлечённостью хорошего работника, но внутренней, собственной жестокости проявляют даже меньше, чем вполне положительные герои. Стопроцентно милы и всё равно стопроцентные злодейки только потому, что их честь — верность.
  • Ягермонстры. Вообще-то они — самые жестокие и беспощадные солдаты гнусного клана Гетеродинов, превращённые своими хозяевами в боевых мутантов. Но до чего же они прикольные и забавные! Даже и не верится, что Огги, Макс и Димо когда-то были военными социопатами на службе у полных чудовищ.
• Единая Европа — частично единая. Тоталитарный миротворец барон Клаус Вульфенбах разбил большинство грызущихся друг с другом европейских феодалов и объединил их владения. Империя Вульфенбаха включает в себя Восточную, Центральную и Южную Европу «от моря до моря» — от Балтийского до Адриатического, и от Чёрного до Северного. Париж — независимый город под управлением Владыки Вольтера; Британскими островами правит королева Альбия. Скандинавия в империю не входит (можно предположить, что находится под диктаторским правлением упомянутых «северных лёд-лордов»), равно как и Аппенинский и Иберийский полуострова.
  • Пиренейский и Апеннинский полуостровa вроде ещё на своих местах (об Англии это уже не совсем можно сказать), но про них ровным счетом ничего не известно…
  • Про скандинавский же известно лишь то, что оттуда Полярные Лёд-лорды, приспешницы Иного Гейстердамен и Отар Триггвассен, авантюрист и джентльмен.
• Жертва моды — зигзаг с Агатой Гетеродин. Тут даже можно сказать, что «Мода является жертвой Гетеродинки». Но и самой Агате проблемы это приносит.
• Жестянщик — есть особые люди, называемые Искрами, безумные злые (за редкими исключениями) гении, образ жизни которых — создавать разные паровые (и не только) машины (и не только) из подручных железяк, подручных тряпок и подручных подручных. Особенно в этом плане отличилась полумифическая династия Гетеродинов (самые безумные, самые злые и самые гении), которые даже круче, чем обычные Искры, занимают уверенное второе место жестянщиков после Хогбенов, и могут создать всё — от кофеварки, варящей идеальный кофе, до разумной, устойчивой к остановке времени, самочинящейся, напичканной ловушками крепости размером с город.
  • Причём Гетеродины — ещё не предел. Имеются также Королевы, бессмертные сверх-Искры, появляющиеся после второго «прорыва» собственно Искры и Агата движется к способности этот второй прорыв пережить семимильными шагами — пару раз он у неё даже начинался, но вовремя успевали откатить и не дать ей взорваться от перегрузки, способные, например, создать лабиринт камней, над которым пространство-время нарезано на лоскуты, с различной фазой луны в каждом. И даже Королевы не понимают, как устроена существовавшая ещё до них система порталов.
  • Но даже им требуется хорошее образование. Без него собирать Искра сможет только опять же хлам, вроде кусачих ботинок.
• Жуткие увеселения — развлечения династии Гетеродин. Особенно по случаю вступления на престол нового любителя, кхм, воплощать чёрный юмор.
• Забавная болезнь — субверсия: болезнь, которую Тарвек, Гильгамеш и Агата подхватили в замке Гетеродин, выглядит забавной (основной симптом — кожа постоянно меняет цвет), но она действительно опасна. Вплоть до того, что самым эффективным методом лечения оказалось убить бедолаг и воскресить обратно.
• Закон об оружии в фэнтези — клацы (роботы), ягеры (боевые мутанты) и простые солдаты, как правило, вооружены револьверами, винтовками и пулемётами, их не жалко. А вот безумные учёные предпочитают что-нибудь помощнее, явно флеботическое по сути. Всё-таки там и стимпанк, и фэнтези толстыми слоями. Причём «исторические флэшбеки» демонстрируют почти чистую магию, а вот современные сумасшедшие гении манипулируют более псевдонаучными энергиями.
• Закон Осмозиса Джонса: аверсия, внесюжетная история про Ласковую Королеву (хитрый хорёк) — о соблюдении закона в отношении кота Кроспа позаботился безумный учёный Дмитрий Вапнупл, но главная героиня напомнила ему о его происхождении, заставив рефлекторно схватить верёвочку, как это сделал бы любой кот. Такой оплеухи его самолюбие давненько не получало…
• Закон сохранения ниндзюцу — сумеречные рыцари. Поодиночке все — даже заявленная как недотепа Виолетта — демонстрируют потрясающую скорость и навыки, но в количестве больше двух мгновенно превращаются в лёгкую добычу для монстров, злодеев и героев.
  • В очередь, сукины дети! — на момент создания статьи сильно «порадовал» фанатов (см. камменты).
• Затянутая сюжетная арка — арка Механиксбурга, длившаяся 6 лет лет реального времени и около тысячи страниц комикса.
• Заявленная способность — много случаев, несколько примеров:
  • Отар Тригвассен, Авантюрист и Джентельмен — в одном из диалогов заявляет себя как непримиримого борца с Искрами, решившего любой ценой перебить их всех, а потом себя (он тоже Искра). Вот только потом об этом он забывает. Похоже, очередное падение с неприлично большой высоты закончилось конкретным ударом по голове…
    • «Понтовался»?
  • Бангладеш ДюПри — заявляется как псих-наёмник, вот только в кадре данная её сторона почти не демонстрируется. ДюПри в основном только разглагольствует, как бы она хотела всех поубивать и помучить.
  • Орден корбеттитов — могучий рыцарско-монашеский орден железнодорожников, с которым кто свяжется — пожалеет. Их адепты теряются, когда нужно в спешке расцепить ж/д вагоны, а в принадлежащий ордену аналог SCP-хранилищ некая авантюристка проникает, пригрозив одному из монахов пистолетом.
• Зловещая лошадь, эпизод у цирка мастера Пэйна, Ларс (Застряло на языке) — «Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! Коонь!!! [получает тарелкой торта в морду] Коонь!!! Пироог!!! Коонь!!! Пироог!!! Коонь!!! Пироог!!! Коонь!!! Пироог!!! Коонь!!! Пироог!!!» И надо сказать, что там было из-за чего так орать.
• Знаменитые последние слова:
  • «Нет! Этому не бывать никогда! Ты меня не получишь! Ты никого не получишь!» — доктор Битл.
  • «Вообще, оно, пожалуй, и к лучшему. Леди Гетеродин. Хех. У простого парня вроде меня не было ни единого шанса…» — Ларс.
  • «Замок! Слышишь меня? Я пришел добровольно! Я потратил годы, ремонтируя тебя! Помогая тебе! Делая тебя сильнее! Ты просто обязан выбрать меня! Ты знаешь, что я твой друг! Я — тот кто любит тебя!» — профессор Тинктоффен.
  • «Альбия вечна!» — Ардсли Вустер.
  • «Дочурка! Подожди! Позволь остаться! Я тебя многому научу! Нет! Стой! Не надо!» — Лугата.
• Золотые волосы, золотое сердце — героиня, Агата Гетеродин. Ну, пока её не торкнет.
• Золушка — внутримировой пример: спектакль, поставленный персонажами в бонусной истории, в финале которого Золушка получила первый приз на ВДНХ, стала верховной правительницей королевства и, если позволите добавить, показала им, показала им всем. Найти подробности не удалось.
• Извращенец — это смешно — эпизодически упомянутый Искра-аристократ герцог Д’Ома. «Его вкусы в плане женщин были… странными. Ему повезло, что он, при всём таланте, одну себе всё-таки смог сделать. Не известно никаких его потомков, кроме как сохраненных в банках с формалином». От последних слов веет также чёрным юмором с оттенками топлива ночного кошмара. Ибо неизвестность, как мы знаем…
• Иллюминократия — инверсия. Кто умнее, тот всеми и управляет. «Знание — сила»? Пожалуйста, вот оно, на тарелочке. Вот только этим знанием эффективно воспользоваться сможет только титан мысли размером от Клауса, вызывающего порой оторопь даже у других местных техномагов и выше. Ученики Рембрандта ван Рейна, который здесь подался в механику, а не рисование, например владыка Парижа — и отчасти сам город, так как он механизированный — Вольтер, могут легко заткнуть за пояс Клауса. Но и им далеко до Королев, древних Искр, прошедших через второй прорыв Искры и не взорвавшихся от перегрузки. Кстати, Агата, пресловутая девочка-гений, движется к возвышению до Королевы семимильными шагами.
• Интерьер из останков — немало желающих выдать себя за Гетеродинов пришло в Механиксбург. Замок сохранил их черепа и кости.
• Кабацкая драка — драка ягеров у мадам Гкики. Подсвечено: «Драться надо дружественно!».
• Какое ещё старение на войне? — ягермонстры, ручные не орки династии Гетеродинов, состоящие из выживших после получения мутагена-ягерпойла людей. Известно, что проживший достаточно долго ягер превращается в ягер-генерала. Но на весь сеттинг их семеро (а ещё точнее — было семеро).
• Кирпич — другой долгожитель-онгоинг комиксного мира, 2500+ страниц.
• Клизменный персонаж — Отар Тригвассен: авантюрист и джентльмен!
• Клокпанк: доктор Биттл одержим часами, и Биттлбург выполнен в стилистике клокпанка.
• Кнопка берсерка — ну рискните, упомяните при Клаусе Вульфенбахе Иное или Гетеродинов…
  • Задница — это смешно: Агата Гетеродин весьма потешно бесится от любых намёков на её толс… *звук пощёчины* каллипигическую жопку.
• Коронная фраза — Отар Тригвассен:
  • «Я — Отар Тригвассен: Авантюрист и Джентльмен» — пародия на драматическое появление героя. Обстёбано даже другими персонажами.
  • «Негодяй!» — когда кто-то выбрасывает его из окна/с дирижабля/с любой другой большой высоты.
• Кризис веры:

«	О, да. Он вбил себе в голову, что силы небесные решились его покарать… Правда он так и не определился, за какой именно грех. На этой почве у него случился кризис веры. Ему не понравилось. Поэтому он разломал машину, и эти… кто бы они ни были… исчезли. А потом он откушал пирога. Конец кризиса. В ряде отношений хозяин был весьма прост.	»
— Гетеродины знают толк в сабже.

• Крутая принцесса — Зита, принцесса Скайфандера. И главная героиня — княжна, а ныне княгиня Гетеродин.
• Крутая шляпа/Кандибобер — ягермонстры в принципе не представляют себя без шляп. Педаль в пол выжимает крутая шляпа для «фумного парниши Фульфенбаха».
• Крутой ботан — Искры (безумные ученые) отличаются блестящим интеллектом и — как правило — скверным характером и неплохой физической формой. Могут и разводным ключом приложить, и куском паровоза в кого-нибудь кинуть (впрочем, на фоне засилия франкенштейнов всех мастей это ещё далеко не физическая суперсила по местным меркам), но обычно собирают из подручного барахла Луч смерти/ОБЧР/убермонстра и отправляются сокрушать. Особо выделяются Клаус Вульфенбах, Отар Тригвассен и Мартеллий фон Блитценгард, все трое — без преувеличения гении и при этом здоровенные мужики, способные голыми руками раскидать дюжину солдат или даже запинать небольшого монстра. Да что уж там, даже восемнадцатилетняя титульная Гениальная Девчонка в момент пробуждения в ней Искры обрела способность не только конструировать гигантских паровых роботов, но и собирать их в одну харю из чугуниевых деталек центнера по два-три каждая, а если уж ключом кого треснет — ключ и тот согнётся. Педаль, пожалуй, в пол, а порой, когда начинает чуть вылезать за общую логику вселенной — опасно цепляет асфальт.
• Крутой корабль — циклопический дирижабль, в гондоле которого располагается Замок Вульфенбах. Огромен настолько, что его даже посадить нельзя.
• Левитация могущества — впоров волшебной водички, Агата включает режим левитирующей магички со светящимися глазами. Да-да, это хоть и «газоламповое», но фэнтези, а не стимпанк. И вокруг неё проблемы разрешаются чуть ли не взмахом руки. Собственно, как «Genius» она в этот момент в основном заканчивается, и дальше сюжет скачет в фэнтезийные дали.
• Лизать нож — шутки ради. Ножи Дымчатых покрыты чем-то нервно-паралитическим и в микродозах не особо фатальным, потому что фраза «ты что, лизал ножи?» намекает на крайнюю упоро неадекватность поведения у вопрошаемого.
• Лишние детали — Агата Гетеродин как-то чинила самолёт (уже падающий) отсоединением и выкидыванием буквально лишних деталей. Успешно.
• Лови!: обнаружив себя в одной клетке с очень злой Гейстердамен, Агата метнула той в руки маленького клаца, который незамедлительно шарахнул гейстершу током.
• Любитель взрывчатки — с первых кадров отличилась Трелони Торп. Поглядим, однако, что она будет творить дальше. А вот главная героиня больше склоняется к лучам смерти и дематериализаторам.
• Любовь мешает творчеству — Гил обвиняет Агату в этом после того, как она ломается из-за смертельной болезни Тарвека. Она удивительно сильная и умная сумасшедшая ученая, но так сильно беспокоится, что не может придумать изобретение, которое могло бы помочь.
• Магический пейджер — медальон Зиты, повторяющий выражение её лица. Поначалу считали за визуальную шутку, ан нет, действительно копирует и может использоваться для передачи.
• Мальчики бьют, девочки стреляют — трио главных героев. Гильгамеш фон Вульфенбах — крутой фехтовальщик, Тарвек Штурмфораус прошел тренировку Дымчатых Рыцрей (местных ниндзя) и поэтому у него в запасе масса подлых приемчиков. А вот сама Девушка-гений, Агата Гетеродин, прикрывает этих двоих из здоровенных плазменных пушек собственного изготовления. Опять-таки, Тарвек неплохой стрелок, а Агата может нехило так приложить вражину гаечным ключом по голове.
• Маньчжурский агент — Часть жертв Ос-угнетателей, если не превращаются в нежить, являются именно сабжем. По крайней мере, те кто не знает об этом.
• Масоны и иллюминаты — тайный орден Юпитера, созданный родственниками династии Валуа с целью приведения к власти нового Короля-Бури. Содержат целую армию спецагентов — Дымчатых Рыцарей и филиалы по всему миру. А еще они служат Иному, но об этом — тсс…
• Мерчендайз — казалось, Агата всего пару лет отсутствовала, а ее уже разместили на туевой куче товаров. Да еще и иконой моды сделали…
• Метод утёнка — инверсия: взбешенная Агата орёт на Гила, перечисляя все свои проблемы: я, мол злобная искранутая девица с гиперболоидом, полным городом прислужников, ордой ягеров, замком, набитым всякой смертельно опасной хренью… и осознаёт, что это не так уж и плохо.
• Меч не для боя — «Сначала звонит Колокол Рока, потом в старой часовне проходит тихая славная церемония» — на флэшбэке этой милой церемонии какой-то чокнутый поп с вытаращенными глазами бешеной кукушки явно собирается кого-то проткнуть невероятно изуверским предметом данной статьи. Старые Гетеродины, мать их. Субверсия: когда Агата вступает в должность, оказывается, что замок в своих видеофлэшбэках привирал и ритуал состоит в основном в том, чтобы Гетеродин кратко и изящно послал его вместе с его кишкодёрным крючком на три, пять, семь и более букв, как бы подтверждая, что достоин трона и устойчив к провокациям. Интересно, часто ли приходилось менять задействованного «жрыца» или хотя бы вытаскивать инструмент у него из задницы? Это только Агата такая добрая…
• Милые головорезы — клацы главной героини. Ягермонстры, в принципе, тоже.
• Многорукое существо — леди Стальноподвязкина, обладательница четырёх рук. У Бориса Долохова, советника Вульфенбаха — тоже четыре руки.
• Монстр-жижица — Искры любят их выводить в качестве ручных монстров.
• Наручный клинок — амазонка Зита воюет мечами, похожими на паты.
• Наука — это круто в варианте «безумная наука — это круто».
• Небесный океан — троп используется с упоительнейшей наглостью. Впрочем, некоторая отмазка в сюжете есть: глазастые фанаты обнаружили на полках Вульфенбаховских складов аж кейворит! Ещё бы им не плавать в воздухе, с такой-то сумрачной наукой.
• Невезучий изобретатель — судя по словам мастера Пэйна, больше половины изобретателей-«искр» невезучие настолько, что после своего, извиняюсь, «каминг-аута» живут не больше недели. Если, конечно, они не принадлежат к сильным мира сего, «которым можно», или их не подцепит вовремя сам мастер Пэйн.
• Некрасивых девушек не бывает — во всём комиксе есть полторы «пацанки», погрязшие в технике до потери женственности, но и те не относятся к «некрасивым». За весь комикс вспоминается только одна полная дамочка с вуалью, и та — застреленный выпирающий статист.
• Не магия — НАУКА!!! Искр и есть самая настоящая магия. Каждый безумный учёный творит свои уникальные (Мозаика сверхспособностей) учёные безумства, отрицающие здравый смысл и законы природы, другие их не могут понять, а он сам — даже объяснить.
• Не надо было этого говорить — субверсия. Агата перед запуском очередного хитрого плана вопрошает у Замка: «Что может пойти не так, и как мне этого не допустить?»
• Неофициальное прозвище — Духобабы (Geisterdamen), Зарина (Королева Зари, от шутки про Королеву Зарина, которая уже пустила в помещение зарин), Чебурашка/Коля (Колетт, дщерь Владыки Парижского и нынешняя правительница), Лу (Лукреция ессно), короче, каждой твари по харе, и никто не ушёл от фэндома необиженным. Остальные — в самой статье, сюда больше не надо.
• Неправдоподобно убедительная маскировка — у ягермонстров есть ритуал добычи шляпы в поединке с достойным противником. При этом ягермонстры настолько плохи в маскировке, что за её применение не дисквалифицируют, а дают дополнительные очки, потому что «никто не ожидает от ягера тонкого подхода».
• Неправильное применение флеботинума — способности Искр позволяют им при наличии знаний и инструментов делать с физикой вообще что угодно, но Искры в порыве вдохновения циклятся на пришедших им в голову идеях по поводу целей и форм реализации своего таланта. В результате они создают всяческий шизотех, и хорошо ещё, если этот шизотех — хотя бы оружие или транспорт, а то ведь могут и совершенную кофеварку на полном серьёзе собрать.
  • Чтобы были понятны масштабы: как-то раз Агата Гетеродин изрядно заработалась в лаборатории и забыла о еде. Ей принесли сэндвич, а потом ещё один. Из первого она сделала высококлассный конденсатор для очередной своей машины («Это всё горчица»), а второй пришпандорила к этой же машине, и он теперь зачитывает вслух из Кристофера Марлоу («Я всё же использовал отборнейшее масло»).
• Непреднамеренное совпадение — аристократ из стимпанкового мира летает на чудовищных размеров дирижабле и железной рукой усмиряет смутьянов, повстанцев и прочих леворюционеров, не считаясь ни с честью, ни с обычаями — лишь бы не нарушалась стабильность. В масштабах вселенной его титул не так уж велик, и уму, таланту и военной мощи нашего антизлодея (или всё же героя с плохой репутацией?) в нём заметно тесновато. Нестор дер Фунье, впоследствии Нестор Гуда из пановского «Герметикона» или барон Клаус Вульфенбах?
• Нестандартная красота — матёрый рисовальщик женских фигур Фил Фольо/Фоглио даже откровенно упитанной главной героине придал такую стать, что в кругу фанатов практически нет разногласий насчёт её «каллипигической» задницы (ну, может, есть, но близки к единичным).
• Не электричество. Всякоразные «энергии», в том числе «тёмные», «светлые», «испорченные» и прочая дребедень. Могут браться из молний, исторгаться из земли вместе с водой, излучаться оружием, разить громом, плавить металл и превращать оборотней в нежить. Одна и та же энергия подземной воды может питать освещение, телекинез кирпичей и будить ярость в утке. А если её маловато, можно поймать молнию — в ней тоже полно пригодной энергии. Заодно собирает кучу смежных тропов про удары молнии, творящие чудеса, про магию, которая похожа на радиацию и похожа на электричество, и так далее.
• Однорукий воин — ягермонстр Димо лишился руки из-за плевка ядовитого слизня. Приставить конечность — для биологически продвинутой Искры не проблема, но ягеры позволяют лечить себя только своим хозяевам Гетеродинам, так что Димо бегает без руки и терпеливо дожидается, пока ГГ Агата (пока что не ахти в медицине) прокачается настолько, чтобы отрастить ему новую. Впрочем, менее крутым он не стал, а после таймскипа обзавелся механическим протезом.
• Он недостоин — замок Гетеродин и весь Механиксбург. Либо ты — настоящий Гетеродин, либо труп. И никакая наглость, армия и железобетонная уверенность в своей правоте не поможет: придётся доказать происхождение кровью.
• Отвлечь с помощью женщины — на Замке Вульфенбах Жульенна за кадром пытается провернуть это с охранником, а когда не получается, из уязвленной гордости просто вырубает его гаечным ключом по голове.
• Он уполз — тело Ларса отправляют в неведомые дали в компании искр, жаждущих его воскресить. По авторитетному мнению ягера, это невозможно. Барон бы точно смог (сожжённая Ольга, правда, с «чистым» мозгом — голова сгорела). Горе-искры, наверное, не справились, о нём ведь ни слуху, ни духу… хотя лорд Сельников тоже со своими вряд ли свяжется, из банки-то… но самый сумрачный вариант — Ларса удалось вытянуть только при помощи старых максимовских препаратов, он теперь ягер (ягер + циркач, ага; они и так любят цыганочку с выходом, внешнюю эффектность и красивые драки, а такое сочетание — это уже педаль в асфальт) и тщетно ищет свою госпожу. Вообще там упоротых концепций, безотносительно данного тропа, океан да море без границ.
• Остановка времени — хронобомба, прозванная фанатами «пятиминуткой» (Take-Five Bomb, от «take five minutes off» — «отдохни минут пять», то бишь «сделай перерыв», и пятёрки на самой бомбе) бесподобного и неподражаемого Клауса. То есть сначала героическая сила воли, которая пробивается даже через контроль разума, плюс искусная ложь перед собой так, чтобы самому в неё верить, потом цыганочка с выходом и финишный аккорд — опасный и запретный приём в виде этих самых «карманных часиков».
  • Хотя она не фактически останавливает время, а очень сильно его замедляет — секунду растягивает до полутора лет. И на особым образом построенный Замок не работает.
  • Дальше появляется лампа Пренде, в отличие от бомбы-пятиминутки не останавливающая время для держащего её (и, возможно, сообщников), только для всех остальных.
• Отсылка — Боевые сундуки цирковой труппы — прямая отсылка к Сундуку из Плоского Мира.
  • D&D-монстр «мимик», выглядящий как сундук?
    • Мимик появился раньше, чем приведенные выше примеры. Какая уж тут «перекличка»… Да и выглядит он как сундук только в качестве одного из вариантов. Настоящий мимик в D&D имитирует вообще любой предмет подходящих размеров.
• Очкарик — Агата Гетеродин (Фансервисные очки), Тарвек Штурмфораус.
• Пережить свою казнь — герои встречают трио ягеров как раз во время казни последних. Точнее, после казни: ягеры болтаются в петле уже вторые сутки. Вот только они — суперсолдаты, и повешение их здоровью вовсе не вредит.
• Победить миром:
  • Гил для тренировок построил себе фехтовального клаца со способностью к самообучению, выключить которого можно было, только ткнув шпагой в кнопку на корпусе. Когда закономерно всё пошло слишком так, клаца выключила Агата — просто подошла и ткнула в кнопку пальцем: на безоружную девушку робот нападать не стал.
  • А еще Агата знает, как правильно вести себя с монстрами. Шутки шутками, а у слизня очень неслабый разрыв шаблона случился.
• Повышение до бога — Брат Ульм из Железнодорожной церкви после своей героической смерти был возрождён Агатой в виде Супер-Локомотива. И воспринял это именно как сабж.
• Подергунчики — Агата впорола могучего кофе и врубила режим кофеиновой белки. Вроде бы и вся такая положительная няшка, но когда она проходит стадию этого тропа (перед тем, как начать бегать и всё чинить) — народ аж с лица спал, потому что понять, что Искра в таком состоянии может выкинуть, нереально. И самое надёжное — отбежать метров на сто-двести и упасть ногами к эпицентру. К счастью, энергия пошла на мирные нужды — приготовление ещё более забористого кофе, который ей попробовать не дали, а то порвёт ещё хомячка на лоскуты.
• Поджог, убийство и переход на красный свет — у Агаты Гетеродин есть учитель, сюзерен, телохранители и золотари.
  • Список того, что сломал Отар Тригвассен, авантюрист и джентльмен.
  • Список того, что сделали солдаты Вульфенбаха. Ну зачем нужно было поднимать цены на сельдь?
  • За что Тиктоффен убил других заключенных.
  • Мир, в котором правит бал сумеречная наука. Днём чудовища бродят по округе, ночь полна кошмаров, а вечером ни в одном ресторане нет свободных столиков.
• Поезда — это круто! — единственная трансконтинентальная организация, которую никто не сломил, занимается именно этим. Вся безумная наука их ордена служит тому, чтобы поезд пришёл в назначенное время в назначенный пункт с назначенным грузом, зачастую — живым, причём вокруг много могущественных сил пытаются сделать его неживым. И он придёт.
• Пополнять армию врагами — в Империи Клауса Вульфенбаха сдавшимся солдатам противника предлагают вступить в армию Империи или валить домой с месячным жалованием.
• Похитители тел — Иное способно записывать в подходящего носителя свою личность подавляя при этом хозяина тела. Делает это ради физического присутствия в Европе потому как само находится неизвестно где.
• Поцелуй на удачу — когда Гил собирается выйти из условно (очень условно) безопасного замка и прорваться через битком набитый врагами город, его соперник в делах любовных Тарвек сам же просит Агату: «Дай ты парню мотив сражаться!» Поцелуй сработал как надо: окрылённый юноша мчался через город, круша всё и вся на своём пути.
• Превозмогатель — первое появление авиатора Хиггса. Он, вооружённый только парой гаечных ключей, пробился сквозь толпы чудовищ; вытащил и перевязал Клауса Вулфенбаха; отбиваясь от ДюПри получил переломы руки и ноги и серьёзный укус (который ещё и воспалился); после аварийной посадки гусыня сломала ему вторую руку; солдаты ненароком вогнали ему пулю в последнюю целую конечность — но Клауса и ДюПри он при всём этом таки спас и вскоре уже невзмутимо выпивал в ягерком кабаке. Он ягер-генерал, ему можно.
• Предмет с оружейным потенциалом:

«	— Агата! Как погибла Леди Фрин? — Я… я… я ударила её метлой… — Метлой? — Но я очень, очень ударила её метлой!	»
— Агата слегка ошарашена заставшим её врасплох вопросом

• плюс Панч, кидающийся болтиками, а также книжка «Оружие из подручных предметов», которой Агата колошматила Золу…
• А вообще, по ходу комикса персонажи регулярно прикладывают окружающих чем под руку подвернётся. Омар фон Циннер получил бутылкой (не помогло), Молох — гаечным ключом (нокаут), Гита в ягерском трактире вообще развернулась во всю ширину амазонской души («Это не оружие, это стол!»)…

• Привязан к кровати — Мартеллий предусмотрительно оборудовал кровать в своей тайной лаборатории кандалами. Агату они задержали страницы на три, после чего в тех же цепях оказался уже сам Мартеллий. Тоже ненадолго.
• Прикинуться шлангом — ягеры. Кажутся тупыми громилами с жуткими зубами, забавной речью и единственной тактикой: с рычанием броситься в банзай-атаку на превосходящего противника. Но большинство появившихся в кадре ягеров как минимум обладают чувством юмора (и с удовольствием троллят окружающих), если припечёт — строят вполне работающие планы, а что до лобовых атак на любого врага… Ну так они вполне могут себе это позволить!
• Приняли за гея: Ягермонстр Огги встретившись со своим пра-правнуком (и по-совместительству, камео Автора), спрашивает «Итаг! У минья ест пра-пра-прафнучьки?», «Жинат?», «Барышнья ест?» и наконец «НРАФЬАЦА БАРЫШНИ?»
• Приспособить под язык — в русском переводе Агата постоянно мастрячит из всякого хлама гиперболоиды. В оригинале же, по словам переводчика, используется «скучный, скучный луч смерти».
• Притворяться тем, кем являешься — Гильгамешу как-то пришлось спешно пробиваться в штаб своей же армии. В лицо его никто не знал, но сойти за самого себя помогла та самая шляпа. Единственного, на ком манёвр с переодеванием Гила в Гила не сработал, успокоили кулаком и отправили на повышение.
• Пропавший из сюжета персонаж — немало персонажей исчезли из сюжета, когда Агата покинула тот или иной город. Кое-кто внезапно возвращается спустя две-три сотни страниц как, например, Молох фон Цинцер, а о других — как, скажем, о Моксане — пока что ни слуху, ни духу.
• Просвещенный деспот — барон Вульфенбах. Какие там у него отношения с искусством — неизвестно (вернее, известно, что ему не нравятся пьесы о Гетеродинах, в которых он сам обычно присутствует в роли разрядки смехом, но эти пьесы он не запрещал), но однозначно просвещённый: у других правителей-Искр в лучшем случае инженеры и исследователи-не-Искры на подхвате, а этот на своей передвижной базе устроил целый НИИ с участием множества Искр. И деспот тот ещё, конечно.
• Развеять ореол: Отар Тригвассен, авантюрист и джентльмен, известен как странствующий герой, спасающий всех и вся. Однако, всем, кто знает его получше, хочется его пристрелить…
• Разочарование в кумире — разочарование Агаты в Отаре Тригвассене.
• Реактивный громила — много кто, от суперсолдат разных мастей до порядком раздраконенных Искр вроде обоих Вульфенбахов, Мартеллия или Отара, но на фоне всех выделяется некий Аксель Хиггс. На вид обычный пилот и простой крутой смертный, но однажды взбесившийся робот буквально вмял его в стену — Хиггс вылез из образовавшейся дыры в форме себя слегка запачканным и разнес обидчика на гайки одним ударом. А позже, когда упоровшаяся психостимулятором Зола ранила того, кто ему был небезразличен — выдал ей таких незамедлительных люлей, что она не могла уследить за его движениями. На самом деле является Ягер-генералом, то есть представителем первого поколения ягермонстров - бессмертных суперсолдат трансильванских князей.
• Реалистичные последствия сверхспособностей: Искры собирают приблуды, которые нарушают законы физики пачками, при этом часто собирают их руками, таская центнерные детали. Как? Чудеса науки, педаль в пол. Смиритесь.
• Религия без веры в бога — Орден Корбелитов из Крепости Святого Шпакия — Железнодорожная церковь. Впрочем, упоминается, что они поддерживают одного из кандидатов на парский престол, так что вполне возможно являются католическими монахами.
• Робоживотные — механический верблюд, а также олень для упряжки, «созданье чистой красоты и грации» (по его собственному мнению, подкрепляемому курсовым пулемётом). А примеров на тормозах вообще не перечислить — Адские Псы создавались не для этого, но на них тоже случалось скакать, Швайнкоптеры не скачут, а летают, у мастера Пэйна многие фургончики соединены с предметом статьи в единое транспортное средство, ну и так далее. Сеттинг такой.
• Робот — клацы.
• Рукотворное чудовище — целый класс существ, называемый конструктами — плоды приложения местной техномагии к органике. Самыми известными конструктами комикса являются ягермонстры — искусственно созданные из людей местные орки, но встречаются и более странные представители вроде разумных медведей или дракона.
• Ручная пушка — в мире, которым правят династии сумасшедших учёных, это практически стандарт. Героиня, Агата, так вообще может состряпать подобную пушку на коленке или во сне. Хотя самый мощный из её «гиперболоидов» был и самым компактным (правда, компактным был только сам гиперболоид, все же его батарея сравнима с современным аккумулятором).
  • Клаус Вульфенбах, дяденька выдающихся роста и силы, однажды использовал автоматическую пушку с себя самого размером. Вообще-то эти орудия в его армии стоят на вооружении у ОБЧР.
• Сам себе парикмахер — комическая вставка, где Агата в пылу борьбы с непослушной торчащей прядкой хватается за ножницы и обчекрыживает себе макушку, после чего в панике майстрячит сумрачный прибор для выращивания волос обратно. Прибор сработал так хорошо, что отросшие бог знает на сколько метров волосы пришлось укорачивать уже садовыми ножницами.
• Сверхвыносливость — героиня может приключаться неделями, отдыхая максимум в режиме «поспав на кулаке». Отъесться и отоспаться больше одного привала подряд она смогла разве что в бродячем цирке.
• Сверхфункциональный протез/Искусственная конечность — в Сумрачной Европе подобные протезы настолько обычны, что персонажи (в отличие от читателей) на них и внимания-то не обращают.
  • Шутки ради, но голова ягера будет попрочнее стального протеза!
• Сверхчувствительные чувства: супер-нюх — стандартная фишка ягермонстров.
• Сексуальное равноправие — спешл про Золушку. «Я Агата Гетеродин, у меня есть два принца, но не даёт ни один»… нет проблем: завоёвываем оба царства, порабощаем принцев, приковываем к ложу. Фил в ужасе пытался предотвратить опохабливание постановки, но девушки встали стеной за, гхм, нетрадиционный сценарий.
• Сексуальный злодей — Лукреция Монгфиш, полное чудовище и апокалиптическая маньячка, предстает в облике прекрасной молодой женщины. И да, при жизни была склонна к распутству, не без этого.
• Сёма, шоб ты сдох! — Я спасу вас обоих, не сомневайтесь, — взволнованным шепотом обещает Агата в очередной раз рискнувшим жизнью ради неё Гилу и Тарвеку, обнимая парней. А потом продолжает на полной громкости, ухватив их за воротники: — А ПОТОМ Я ВАС ПРИБЬЮ!
• Сильнее, чем кажется — что сами Искры, в состоянии сверхконцентрации тягающие туда-сюда центнерные детали и швыряющиеся вражескими боевыми роботами, что их разнообразные конструкты (в первую очередь — ягермонстры, хотя самые сильные ягеры — самые большие и брутальные, кроме авиатора Хиггса и леди Йенки, конечно).
• Сладкоежка — не оставляйте Зиту рядом с тортиком, если не хотите, чтобы в ней проснулась бездонная и бессовестная обжора! А учитывая, что она молниеносная смертоносная неудержимая амазонка, анекдотическая фраза «когда я ем, я глух и нем, хитёр и быстр и дьявольски умён» — как раз про этот случай.
• Словесный понос от сыворотки правды: Агата на ужине с Аароневом. Не совсем понятно, что именно было в том супе, но с дозировкой явно переборщили.
• Смердяков/Крысиный волк — Отар Тригвассен, Авантюрист и Джентльмен, в одном из диалогов заявляет о себе как о непримиримом борце с Искрами, решившего любой ценой перебить их всех, а потом себя (он тоже Искра). Вот только потом об этом он забывает. Похоже очередное падение с неприлично большой высоты закончилось конкретным ударом по голове… Впрочем, Отар — крутой идиот, и может стремиться истребить всех искр и дружить с Гетеродинами одновременно, игнорируя взаимоисключающие параграфы.
  • Или нет… Если Агата — действительно Гетеродин, Монгфиш, Иное и чёрт-в-ступе, то уничтожить всех Искр ей может быть как раз по силе…
• Смертоносный врач — доктор Сан. Доктор сказал: «Постельный режим» — значит постельный режим! А если пациент добра не понимает и пытается сбежать из больницы на войнушку на боевом роботе, то доктор разломает робота голыми руками и всё равно заставит соблюдать постельный режим!
• Смешное событие на фоне — несколько раз, например.
• Смищной аксэнт — Ягеры. «Хооо, шыйшяс ошидаешша отлишная мяшшшшорубошка!» Всё потому, что они шепелявят из-за треугольных зубов. Есть и ряд словечек, которые они употребляют постоянно.
• Собака съела мою домашнюю работу — в мире сумрачной науки домашние задания соответствующие. Поэтому здесь чаще встречается отговорка «Моя домашняя работа съела собаку».
• Со второго взгляда/У меня есть Х? — Агата Гетеродин: «У меня есть Дипломатический корпус?»
• Сорвать ритуал — зигзагом. Агата со товарищи намеревается сорвать ритуал призыва НЁХ из высших измерений… ну то есть это товарищи хотят его сорвать, а сама Агата даже помогает провести — нельзя же упускать случай посмотреть на такое! Но после она же принимает меры, чтобы загнать призванных чучундр обратно. А вот попытку в ходе ритуала принести в жертву Виолетту просто срывают.
• Спина к спине — Агата и Гил так отбиваются от зомбирующих ос. Хотя здесь дело не столько в защите тыла, сколько в том, что Агата не смогла оперативно найти кабели подлиннее…
• Спрятано на виду — малые Искры прячутся под видом бродячего цирка, играющего пьесы из жизни Великих Искр, и маскируют собственные изобретения под спецэффекты.
• Старше, чем выглядит — ягермонстры. У ягера Огги, который с закрытым ртом выглядит как цветущий юноша, есть взрослый и уже далеко не юный правнук. С возрастом в том числе искусственным из-за выдёргивания из поля остановки времени, правда, ягеры заметно матереют.
  • Глава разведки Гетеродинов, он же скрытный генерал, он же Аксель Хиггс, как и предполагали фанаты комикса тоже выглядит на двадцать пять, но, как и всем из первых поколений ягермонстров, ему не меньше шестисот лет.
• Странности в первой части: в начале истории во время вылупления Улья-цеха Агата и Гил всерьёз опасаются, что Осы-угнетатели заразят их и превратят в Умертвий. Потом, однако, аксиомой внезапно становится иммунитет Искр к Осам, а существование особо продвинутых Ос, способных заражать Искр, становится для всех сюрпризом, причём чуть ли не сюжетообразующим.
  • Клаус старался держать все устройства Иного в секрете — Агата и Гил на тот момент могли банально не знать об иммунитете Искр к Осам.
• Страшный медведь/Героический медведь — ягерша Йенка везде берёт своего ягер-мишку.
  • Шварцвальдеры, элитная гвардия медведей-конструктов (биологических искусственных монстров), принадлежавшая доктору Вапнулу. Впрочем, гетеродинские (а впоследствии вульфенбаховские(Замки, вальсы и штрудели)) ягермонстры всё равно круче — Вапнула они нагнули.
• Стимпанковские развлечения — цирк мастера Пейна. После двухлетнего таймскипа стал ещё более стимпанковским, крутым и «Агатоцентричным».
• Суперспособности к суперспособностям — Гублот может голосом проявить все скрытые устройства Искр. Хорошо, что Агата настояла, чтобы из её костюма демонтировали всё спрятанное оружие…
• Такой психованный, что пытать бессмысленно: некоторые ягермонстры влюблены в фон Пинн, и воспринимают её угрозы и избиения как милое заигрывание. (Помогает то, что они очень прочные, и легко переносят то, что убило бы обычного человека.)
• Такой серьёзный, что уже смешно — вечно невозмутимый авиатор (и Ягер-генерал) Хиггс. Например, когда с совершенно серьёзным и торжественным видом надевает своему начальнику совершенно смехотворную шляпу (без оной Гильгамеша не признают). Из-за этого моменты, когда он всё же теряет эту свою невозмутимость, смешны вдвойне.
• Технократия: альтернативная история, где миром правят Искры — люди, способные к сверхконцентрации на определённых задачах науки (или попросту, сумасшедшие учёные). Увы, большинство Искр специализируются в нескольких областях и чхать хотели на всё остальное (Жертва сверхспециализации), в том числе и здравый смысл, так что данный мир представляет собой не очень-то уютное место. Поскольку сюжет идёт по нарастающей, самые могучие Искры уже давно перешагнули Третий закон Кларка и творят уже какую-то сумеречную техномагию.
• Толпа с вилами — толпа с вилами просто-таки бич всякой начинающей Искры не из династий. А для особо одиозных династий типа Гетеродинов (которые даже в среде психопатов и отморозков имеют дурную славу), судя по флэшбэкам стандартной процедуры вступления на престол очередного наследника — любимое развлечение. Пошумят, пар спустят и разойдутся, а из окна посмотреть забавно.
• Тоталитарный миротворец — Клаус Вульфенбах, железной рукой создавший Империю, лишённую внутренних конфликтов из страха перед несокрушимой армией барона. Плохая концовка — при одном слухе о кончине Клауса все мало-мальски значимые персоны начали десятки маленьких революций, и, когда Клаус действительно вышел из игры, его сыну пришлось лихорадочно собирать разбегающиеся владения, погрязшие в междоусобных войнах.
• Тюрьма развивает: Молох фон Цинцер — от мелкого дворянчика и солдата-дезертира до главного прислужника Леди Гетеродин.
• Убийство любовного соперника — не то что бы Сеффи не готова была ради своей любви идти по трупам, отнюдь. Но она понимает всё, что написано в теле статьи и план у неё намного более рабочий: нейтрализовать конкурентку при помощи парня, который её отобьёт! Получается троп Дорисовать до квадрата, который по суть есть вариант этого на тормозах. Ведь когда гипотенуза уходит к четвёртой точке, вожделенный катет не только освобождается, но и может возненавидеть гипотенузу, выбравшую не его! Не в пример решению а-ля пещерный человек с дубинкой, это имеет шансы сработать.
  • В своей ситуации-то она до квадрата может и дорисовала, но тут может получиться еще один треугольник из Агаты, Тарвека и Мартеллия. Политика, дело такое…
• Убодритель: Искры и без стимуляторов — личности, мягко говоря, увлекающиеся, а тут Агата впервые в жизни попробовала кофе… Прежде чем её отпустило, успела задавить харизмой всю кофейню и собрать супермегакофейный автомат, готовящий идеальный кофе. После которого всё кажется идеальным (Пивной балдёж). Впрочем, от этого был и плюс — все свидетели сразу поверили, что она настоящая Гетеродин.
• Увечье или смерть: ягермонстра Димо жалит в руку ядовитый слизень, и он просит брата по оружию Огги отрубить конечность чуть ниже плеча. Вовремя — несколько секунд спустя отрубленная рука просто растворилась. Впрочем, в этом мире умеют делать полноценные протезы, да и регенерация у ягеров зашкаливает, так что ставка Димо была не столь велика.
• Уволен из гестапо за жестокость — капитана Воула выгнали из ягермонстров за чрезмерную кровожадность. Беспрецедентный случай.
  • А князья Гетеродины успели прославиться как полнейшие отморозки в мире, где для аристократов в порядке вещей расстреливать из ложи пулемётом актеров на не понравившихся им постановках, проводить садистские эксперименты над людьми, охотиться на крестьян ради забавы и обкладывать налогами огонь. Неудивительно, что большинство городов может казнить кого угодно просто по факту сотрудничества с Гетеродинами.
    • А мать героини, Лукреция Монгфиш, умудрилась переплюнуть вообще любых Искр в плане безумности и неэтичности технологий… Это ж надо было додуматься! С моральной стороной тоже ойделааа: она выглядит шлюховато даже по меркам их навзничь опрокинутой вселенной.
  • В свете недавних событий — Доктор Вапнул. Если это «только разогревается»… Единстванная Искра, которая может напугать Альбию…
• Умный — не значит мудрый — тамошние «гении» как раз часто отыгрывают старинный вариант с педалью, царапающей грунт.
• Унылое разоблачение: кто такой авиатор Хиггс, флегматичный и нечеловечески живучий? Фанаты думали на Короля Бурь Андроника Валуа, отвергая более очевидный вариант: что он — ягергенерал, с которым Агату не познакомили. Ну да, это оказался ягергенерал, отвечающий за разведку и контрразведку в армии Гетеродинов (но не мутировавший с возрастом, как остальные, и потому имеющий человеческую внешность и лишённый йагерскава аксценту). А Король Бурь — это совсем другой персонаж.
• Фамильяр — в принципе, Кроспа вполне можно записать в фамильяры Агаты. А уж хорёк-осоед и вовсе подходит на все сто! Хотя вообще-то формально это Агата — вассал Кроспа.
• Фантазийные дирижабли — бывают разные: и небольшие аналоги самолетов, и средние, вполне реальных размеров, и циклопические монстры, способные переносить в своих гондолах небольшие военные базы. Замок Вульфенбах представляет собой именно что громадный цеппелин, что и позволяет барону потешить некоторые комплексы оперативно мотаться по всей Европе, лично прибывать в самую гущу событий и молча поправлять всё.
• Херой — бессмертный, бессменный, бессовестный Отар Тригвассен, Авантюрист и Джентльмен. Сумасшедший тип, вообразивший себя героем и постоянно ставящий, что характерно, настоящим героям палки в колеса. При этом от долбанутого норвежца очень трудно избавиться: он пережил падение с дирижабля и многочисленные ранения и не собирается умирать. Точнее, определённый список геройств у Отара действительно есть. Только вот, когда вы узнаете его получше, вам захочется выбросить его в окно.
  • И кстати, кто это тут настоящий герой?
• Ходячий макгаффин: Агата Гетеродин, титульная «гениальная девчонка», интересна (или опасна) всем и каждому аж по нескольким пунктам — и сама по себе как Искра исключительной силы, и как дочь своих папы (Народный герой) и мамы (и носитель копии личности последней), и как наследница древнего и могущественного рода Искр.
• Цирк ужасов — Бродячий цирк, в котором главная героиня Агата Гетеродин скрывалась от солдат барона фон Вульфенбаха, конечно, не производит впечатления жуткого места. Но все его артисты — техномаги-Искры, всегда готовые пустить в ход свои устрашающие изобретения. А уж после того, как она хорошенько поковырялась в цирковых вагончиках, они дали солдатам самое страшное в их жизни представление. Для многих — последнее.
• Человеко-звериный сеттинг — кот-конструкт Кросп и разумные медведи.
• Шрифт характеристики — речь Замка Гетеродин выделяется не шрифтом, а уникальной формой пузырей (прямоугольники со скруглёнными углами и сдвинутой двойной рамкой, с неправильными фигурами по краям). Искры не отстают — в сумеречном состоянии плывут границы пузырей. Также свой стиль пузырей как минимум у ягеров, Франца и Зверя (угловатая линия вместо ровной, пока Зверь был полноценным поездом, углы были намного острее), муз (скруглённая прямоугольная рамка, у сломанных — условно овальная из прямых углов, с осыпающимися прямоугольниками), и дрин (ягеровская угловатая линия, но двойная рамка и собственный шрифт).
  • Скорее всего двойной рамкой выделяется эхо от голоса.
• Шутка-бумеранг — на борту Замка Вульфенбах Молох фон Цинцер закрывает очнувшейся Агате рот ладонью и свирепым шепотом предупреждает: «Тихо! Тихо!! Я тебе ничего не сделаю, если не будешь глупить. Сейчас я уберу руку. Закричишь — пожалеешь. Я предупредил.» Семьсот с лишним страниц спустя в Замке Гетеродин уже Агата затыкает рот Молоху в точности повторяя те же самые слова.
• Это часть представления — инверсия: Агата в самом деле выступает в шоу. И её грозный глас, изображающий страшную Монгфиш (а именно — «На колени, жалкие приспешники!») — это всего лишь её слова по сценарию. …И с чего это зрительный зал в полном составе рухнул на колени? Неужели актёрская игра так тронула? Или Агате пора заподозрить, что с ней самой что-то нечисто?
  • Зигзаг в Париже: раскрытие древних тайн, убийства, массовые разрушения? Это будет бал десятилетия!
• Эффект Ворфа — как прямо заметил один из читателей: «Бедная Зита служит индикатором крутости для всех, кому не лень. Надо показать, что Барон — очень крутой фехтун? Пущай легко зафехтует Зиту. Надо показать, что Зола — опасная штучка? Нннаа Зите мечом в живот. Надо показать, что Гейстердамы правда опасны? Нннаа Зите пяткой в нос»…
• Эхо могущества — Муза Времени говорит и так зловеще, а тут ещё и эхо. А самые мурашки побежали по спине, когда Ван Рейн заговорил в ответ и понял, что от его-то слов никакого эха нет!
• Я брошу в вас книгой! — Агате как-то довелось драться книгой «Оружие из подручных предметов».
• Я этого не делал: Мартеллий фон Блицгаард уверил аббата, что он не посылал Сельникову проникнуть в святилище ордена и разбудить древнее чудище Гетеродинов. «… но идея отличная!»

Лиса/Упоминания

• Гидравлическая единица власти — пол-Механиксбурга, в том числе сам замок, и то «пол-» только потому что весь — было бы слишком однообразно и поэтому скучно, так что плющилки перемежаются ямами, сверхбыстрым цементом, боевыми роботами и прочими увеселениями семейства самых маньячных Искр Европы. Когда его наконец удаётся починить и зарядить, замок за несколько минут разбирается со всей находившийся в его пределах враждебной армией, в том числе этим образом — раздавив отряд «ударников» (самоходных буквальных танков с боксёрской перчаткой наверху, заполненных какой-то зелёной жижей вокруг пилота).
  • И весь Париж, но он больше по энергиям.
• Грандиозное зимнее платье — в рождественской главе Агата, Тарвек и Джил одеты в рождественские платья, отделанные мехом, а над их головами парит дингбот, несущий омелу.
• Нельзя просто так взять и… — негласный девиз абсолютно всех Искр. Одна из страниц вообще посвящена тому, что Агата не может просто взять и послать своему другу письмо, ей обязательно надо выдумывать всякие переусложнённые агрегаты.
• Падение равносильно смерти — Агата ногами добивала лежачую полуобморочную Гайстердаму, и это даже не тянет на «я хорошая, мне всё можно» — обычный прагматичный боец.
• Папа римский — далеко не главный, но показательный вотэтоповорот истории этого мира: в римские папы умудрился избраться Жан Кальвин. И вообще, католицизм то ли раскололся, то ли реформировался по модели православия, но папских престолов в Европе не меньше семи: упомянуты, собственно, римский, авиньонский и белфастский.

TV-Tropes

Тропы

Ссылка: [1]

A

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: (Канализация)
  • Sturmhalten. Justified by a comment in one of the novels that when the sewer was originally constructed the city was much larger than it is now.
  • Paris has quite a spacious sewer too, one that dumps into an absurdly spacious underground cavern network big enough to house entire kingdoms of subterranean dwellers.
• Accentuate the Negative:
  • The problem with kids these days.

«	Zeuxippe: So much that they are trying to kill you over [your hat]!! Old Man Death: Always you gotta find problems!	»

• And the younger guard:

«	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: (Нечаянная правда)
  • 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…
  • The crowd once 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. Gil has also been called «the gol-dang Storm King» there, and some time later we learned of the Baron’s plans to instate him as the Storm King.
  • Near the climax of the Sturmhalten arc, Agatha sets off a giant holographic message. It is meant to tell everyone that Lucrezia was The Other, but selective editing by The Other or Tarvek made it appear to name Baron Wulfenbach instead. Which may have been shooting themselves in the foot, as by the end of the arc Baron Wulfenbach has been wasped and is under The Other’s control.
• Accidental Ventriloquism: When Agatha and Krosp meet Balthazar he mistakes Krosp talking as a «talking cat act» Agatha is doing rather than realizing he’s a cat construct capable of speech.
• Acquired Poison Immunity:
  • Gilgamesh Wulfenbach has immunity to many many things. Because his father «figures that a ruler should be… hard to kill», what with the people across all of Europe who’re upset at killing that Mad Scientist or the process of ** bombing this town… which extends to his heir. This came in useful in the arc where Tarvek suffered a particularly nasty and rare disease — Gil was able to disregard the risk of infection.
  • Those with Smoke Knight training are also immune to ordinary soporifics, as seen with Violetta and Martellus during the tea break at the Corbettites. Unfortunately for Martellus, those training sessions didn’t include immunity to a blackjack to the head.
• Actually Pretty Funny: (На самом деле это довольно смешно)
  • The Heterodyne stories frequently paint Klaus as a blithering idiot, but get away with it because he finds them hilarious.
  • When Agatha learns Master Payne’s Circus has started putting on shows based on her adventures, she’s delighted. Zeetha is shocked to start with, but quickly decides she’s fine with it too, even though her tragic lost homeland has been reinterpreted as a comedy bit about not knowing what planet she’s on. Of course, that doesn’t stop them joking about being mad, which the Circus also takes in good part … mostly.

«	Marie: Agatha! Are you here to exact your terrible revenge? Agatha: I'll let you know after the second act! Abner: You two are not nearly as funny as you think you are.	»

• Adapted Out: (Не вошедший в адаптацию персонаж) Happens a few times in the video game:
  • Airman Higgs is never even mentioned.
  • Although mention is made of the existence of other prisoners, only Sanaa, Moloch, and Merlot are ever seen.
  • Lucrezia’s scenes are cut entirely; the character is largely discussed in the past tense.
• Admiring the Abomination: Occasionally done by Sparks. Agatha’s family in particular has a known history of this (to the point that at least one ancestor invited attacking forces in so he could get a better look). And not just monsters and siege weapons either. A nice madly-raving newly-broken-through Spark is just as fine a topic of conversation.
• Aerith and Bob: (Разностилица имён)
  • The list of Heterodyne names in the crypt includes Caligula, the Red Heterodyne, the Black Heterodyne, Mordred, Oxalof, Ominox and Bob.
  • 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. Nor is there any reason they should do so: in the real-life 18th century, you could find such names as Hieronymous and Cloudesley alongside John or Peter.
  • In a side-story: Flopsy, Mopsy, and Nietzsche.
  • Lampshaded:

«	Moloch: 'S wrong with my name? My mother picked it out of the whachamacalit — the Bible. Repairman: Um— Did she read it? Moloch: Nah. I had eight brothers. Nobody had time for stuff like that on the farm. Repairman: Oh, yeah. That's pretty common.	»

• After-Action Healing Drama: Infiltrating the castle led to an epic one.
• After Action Patch Up: (Перевязка ран после битвы) After the fight with Dr. Merlot, Zola leaps to provide this for Gil.
• Agony of the Feet: (Моя нога!) After Agatha tries asserting her authority over Dingbot Prime and Deuce Dingbot, the two miniature Clanks respond by attacking her foot with the tools they’re holding, with Agatha hopping away on one foot in pain while Symbol Swearing on the next page.
• Ahem: A Corbettite monk reminds another this way that they have a gift shop their guests might be interested in.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: (ИИ — это рискованно) Castle Heterodyne. Although it’s arguably a subversion: since the guy who built it was an evil psychotic maniac, it’s actually working pretty much exactly as designed. Agatha’s own little «dingbots» are a straighter case, since they’ve sometimes stopped listening to her. Judging from the background events, it seems a frequent problem that Sparks can’t build anything without it going haywire.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier (Воздушный авианосец): Castle Wulfenbach
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: (Алкоголь — это зло) Maghiar brings this trope in force after Gil gives him some Double Fortified Lingonberry Snap as an anaesthetic.
• Alien Geometries: (Чуждая геометрия) …What is Agatha holding in Panel 3??note It’s a three-pronged blivet.
• All Part of the Show: (Это часть представления) Several times:
  • A circus of Sparks pretending to be normal actors pretending to be Sparks. One of whom is a Mongfish-Heterodyne pretending to be an actress pretending to be a Mongfish (her own mother).
  • A Jäger hiding among people who pretend to be Jägers.
  • Gilgamesh Wulfenbach pretending to be a street actor pretending to be Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. (Overlaps with Cassandra Truth: when the crowd made it clear they didn’t believe him, he rolled with it.)
  • A Mongfish (Lucrezia’s niece) pretending to be the lost Heterodyne-Mongfish heir to secure the Heterodyne inheritance from the real Heterodyne-Mongfish.
  • Defied by Master Payne with regard to Krosp. Krosp is clearly a real talking cat, and won’t fool the viewers by pretending to be a fake, so he needs to stay off the stage.
• 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.
  • Othar’s Twitter explains some things about himself, like his ability to re-appear when being thrown from impossible height.

«	Freefall, my old nemesis! All I have to do is activate my compressed gas rocket boots and I will cheat you once again! Belt control ON!…On? …	»

• All Webbed Up: What the nyar-spider does to its prey.
• Almost Kiss: (Прерванный поцелуй)
  • Between Bill Heterodyne and the storyteller’s self-insert character in the «Fan Fiction» side-story. The interruption comes from the listeners objecting.
  • Argh! Damn you, Merlot! The page is even called «Smoochus Interruptus».
  • Between Agatha and Tarvek twice. Self-interrupted by Tarvek when he realises that it’s because Lucrezia-in-Agatha is messing with him, and then by both participants.
• Altar Diplomacy: (Политическая свадьба) Sparks are often aristocrats in addition to their mad science gifts, which makes marriage and romance even more complicated.
  • Agatha’s confirmed status as the long-lost heir to the house of Heterodyne means that not only do Gil (the heir to the Wulfenbach empire) and Tarvek (a direct descendant of the legendary Storm King) have romantic reasons to want to marry her, they have pretty compelling political motivations as well, as do other power players like Tarvek’s cousin Martellus, who goes so far as to kidnap Agatha as part of his master plan to join their houses and ascend to power in Europa.
  • As Violetta points out, though, Gil and Agatha would be problematic in terms of getting married, because Agatha would have to give up much of her power and they would have to be careful in terms of the proposal, while Tarvek is much more at Agatha’s level politically and is a skilled manipulater and can craft treaties.
  • Hoffmann, a student at the University of Paris, proposed an alliance between two underground kingdoms, ending generations of war. Afterwards, he learns that as an adopted son of the Talpini Moligarchy he was the one who would marry the princess of the Arguron kingdom (after all, the Talpini themselves aren’t even human). The Arguron princess, meanwhile, is attracted to Hoffman, but thinks it’s doomed because she’s agreed to this political marriage…
  • In the backstory, Storm King Andronicus Valois married Euphrosynia Heterodyne, daughter of Clemethious Heterodyne and sister of Bludtharst Heterodyne, as part of a treaty ending the war between the Heterodynes and the Coalition of the West. However, Andronicus vanished from history soon after without leaving a legitimate heir, throwing Europa into disarray once more as the noble families began vying for his throne.
• Alternate History: (Альтернативная история) 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.
  • Additionally, the Storm King was called Andronicus Valois, and his being a contemporary of this world’s Rembrandt means he probably really was the GG universe’s answer to our Sun King (Louis XIV). This means the Valois line was still around and in charge fifty years after power had passed to the Bourbons in our world.
  • There is still a powerful church with not one, but seven popes, and, judging by a brief mention each with their own faction, apparently; The novelization expands on this: there’s a 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.note
  • And there’s «The Autonomous Library» built by Voltaire.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Together with the above Alternate History.
• Always a Bigger Fish: A regular pattern. Even if you have the upper hand at the moment with your Ultimate Weapon, you just know that somebody out there is working day and night on their Ultimate Weapon Nullifier (and their explanatory monologue.)
• Always Identical Twins: Averted with Gil and Zeetha. They have a Strong Family Resemblance, but you have to be looking pretty close to notice it. Fans assumed for a long time that they were just ordinary siblings or half siblings (which made the timeline a little muddled) until the Foglios confirmed they’re fraternal twins.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: (Разноцветная раса)
  • 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.
  • Jägermonsters, and many other kinds of constructs. 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: (Бригада амазонок)
  • Bangladesh DuPree’s pirate crew is entirely female. Confirmed in the novels.
  • Geisterdamen (spider-riding, at that).
  • Zeetha’s mysterious tribe. Lots of Amazons.
  • Same goes for Heliolux Airship Fleet’s flagship crew. Which is a communication and traffic control unit, so not directly involved in combat, although the white-red uniformed Commander remarks that they’ll miss the fighting. On the next page she shouts to the entering Jäger that they’re non-combatants. It’s pointed out that although the Heliolux ships are mainly used for long-range communication, at close range the high-intensity light beams they use can also melt people and buildings.
  • The Devil Dolls, a foot soldier unit in the Wulfenbach army that are comprised of what is likely a series of female constructs of some sort that look somewhat like female tin soldiers, and were likely absorbed from the force remnants of some other spark that the Baron defeated. They’re seen running from a monstrosity that came out of the ground when Castle Heterodyne really lets loose. They were likely a competent force against the general foes the Empire faced, but seriously… The Castle. Two are later seen on a guard detail on Castle Wulfenbach after the Time Skip, so they’re still around.
• Amazon Chaser: (Любит сильных женщин)
  • All the Jägers want Von Pinn due to her tough-as-nails nature.
  • Higgs is a literal case.
  • Baron Klaus Wulfenbach aka Chump to Queen Zantabraxas of Skifander.
• Ambiguously Christian: Just about all of Europa. Passing references are made to a Papacynote , The Biblenote, various saints both real and made-up, holidays like Christmas, and cathedrals. However none of the characters are seen actively practicing Christian worship nor is any explicit naming of the religion shown. Though there is a passing mention of Theo being Christened.
• Amulet of Dependency: Agatha’s trilobite amulet, though it started out as something entirely different, has become one.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Oggie chops off Dimo’s arm after the limb gets jabbed with a blob-monster’s poison barb. Since the arm then dissolves into green goo, it was probably for the best.
  • Vole thwarts an assassin’s attempt at a Dead Man’s Switch by ripping off the arm holding the device.
  • During their confrontation, Von Pinn starts by tearing off Adam’s arm.
  • Done more humorously in the «Revenge of the Weasel Queen» side story:

«	Agatha: I've wanted a chance to test my pocket de-arming device. Giant Rabbit Monster: Ha! Foolish human! I need no weapons! Agatha: ... I didn't say anything about weapons. BZZZRIP Giant Rabbit Monster: AAGH! My arms!	»

• And I Must Scream: (Но я должен кричать)
  • The «squirrel».
  • The copy of Lucrezia stuck inside Zola.
  • Agatha when Lucrezia is in control.
  • Lucrezia when Agatha is in control.
  • Implied here.
• And Now You Must Marry Me:
  • It was suggested that Agatha’s grandmother married one of the old Heterodynes, to protect her family from harm. It apparently later backfired, when she taught her sons, Bill and Barry, how to use their Sparky powers for good rather than evil, and in the end poisoned her husband.
  • Martellus' plan to become the Storm King requires marrying Agatha, and after the hilariously failed public rescue he orchestrated, he straight up kidnaps her (she escapes soon after). He’s more focused on getting her Trapped in Villainy, though he later shows (or fakes) a mildly lecherous attitude towards her.
• And Show It to You: Invoked to get Bang’s attention.
• …And That Would Be Wrong: This exchange between Ardsley Wooster and Agatha.

«	Agatha: It’s too bad. I think there’s a lot I could have learned from him. Wooster: Yes! All kinds of things! Terrible, evil things! Ways to warp nature and create bizarre, monstrous abominations of science! [Beat]And that would be bad! Agatha: I knew that!	»

• Anger Born of Worry: (Сёма, шоб ты сдох!)
  • By Baron Wulfenbach, towards Gil.

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

• Pix is furious while Abner is away, showing Gil and Bang «Agatha’s» grave. Although she explains she’s more angry that he «cut in on her act.» More so in the novelization.
• Higgs. He has a very specific reason to be upset about Zeetha running around fighting instead of letting her injuries heal.
• When Tarvek nearly gets himself shot Gil shoves him to the floor while yelling at him, and puts a knee in his back to keep him from gettting up.

«	Gil: You idot! Are you trying to commit suicide? Tarvek: You know I wouldn’t do that to her. […] Gil: All right I know! Have you already forgotten how much trouble we went through to keep you alive? How dare you risk yourself and her by acting so stupid!	»

• Agatha is not pleased to find Tarvek fighting a hive monster on his own.

• Angry Collar Grab: They’re not actually wearing shirts but Agatha grabs Tarvek and Gil’s harnesses up near their collarbones to yank them close and yell at them in this strip.
• Anguished Declaration of Love:
  • Gil gets one regarding Agatha. Not to her, admittedly, but he was still pretty anguished thanks to Zeetha hitting him.
  • Subtext, people. Subtext.
  • «Spare the surface worlder, Father! I LOVE HIM!»
• Annoying Arrows: (Раздражающие стрелы) No surprise, they are just that to a Jäger.
• Ant Assault: In the side-story «Small Problems», the protagonists have to battle «giant» ants after being shrunk. Even after being returned to full-size, Zeetha is still being swarmed by them, and jumping into a moat doesn’t help, as the ants have scuba gear.
• Anticlimax: The final «battle» of Revenge of the Weasel Queen.
• Antimagical Faction: Othar is this, all by himself (if by «mages» you mean «Sparks»). His goal is to kill them all, and yes, he’s aware of the irony that he himself is a Spark! He plans to kill himself after killing off all of the others.
• Another Dimension: (Иерархия миров) The Geisterdamen describe themselves as being from one; Skifander just might be from one; and the Things that peer in on the time-stopped Mechanicsburg seem to inhabit one — or more.
• Anyone Can Die: (Умереть может каждый) This is part of the charm of the comic. A lot of characters are introduced and later killed off, sometimes very quickly. Having a name does not protect you. It’s actually kind of refreshing in a high fantasy adventure work like this.
• Appeal to Force: (По праву сильного) The principle by which Baron Wulfenbach rules Europa despite being a mere Baron — he has the most powerful military (including an entire fleet of airships, the alleigance of the Jagers and Dreen among other deadly creatures, and a host of destructive technology captured from defeated Sparks) so nobody in Europa can oppose him. He’s a very benvolent tyrant who rules by only two rules: anyone who finds anything relating to The Other must turn it over to him immediately, and «Don’t make me come over there» (i.e «do what you want as long as you don’t start a war»). But when you cross him, he will kick your ass.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: In a world filled with lightning guns, mind controlling bug robots, and other insane science, Tarvek utterly refuses to believe Gil’s flying machine can stay aloft without a gas bag.
• Aren’t You Going to Ravish Me?: The Professoressa’s reaction on meeting Da Boyz; she apparently expects it to end with her being made a Jäger Queen. Apparently a series of books called «Love Prisoners of the Jägers» have put one or two strange notions in her head.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: (Загнивающая аристократия)
  • While most aristocrats are evil to some degree (also being Mad Scientists and all), the Lords and Ladies of House Heterodyne took the cake for much of history. Almost every Heterodyne was a Card-Carrying Villain. Inverted with the current Lady Heterodyne and her father.
  • ZigZagged in the person of Baron Klaus Wulfenbach. He is a brutal tyrant who obtained his empire on no other legal principle than having the biggest army and is apparently willing to kill his best friend’s daughter for being a threat to his kingdom’s stability, but in a textbook example of The Extremist Was Right, he also managed to maintain the rule of law over most of Europe for almost two decades and keep the common folk of his lands largely protected. He also provided his lands with a wide variety of communication and public works services, and kept The Other at bay. Finally, he does genuinely appear to love his son and apparently greatly misses his wife. Two and a half years after the Baron is incapacitated, his reign is described as «seeming like some lost Golden Age».
  • Played completely straight with the Knights of Jove and the Fifty Families, who were the older noble and royal families that ruled before the Baron took charge. They’re all stuck scheming to take power and backstabbing their allies in ther bids to crown themselves the lone Storm King of all Europa, and their main objection to the Baron’s dictatorship is simply that he’s not a royal. The immediate relatives of Tarvek Sturmvoraus, the lone White Sheep (albiet an Anti-Hero) of these families, serves as a good sample: his father Aaronev Wilhelm kidnapped children to help the Other return, his sister Anevka was a homicidal maniac, and his older cousin Martellus tried killing him and kidnapping Agatha to be his bride.
• Armor-Piercing Question: (Бронебойный вопрос)
  • Attempted by Gil when he suggests Agatha could already be under the Other’s control without realizing it. Averted when she just spits a Shut Up, Hannibal! retort right back at him.
  • Othar gives one to Agatha early on:

«	Othar: See? That’s why partners shouldn’t keep secrets from one another! Agatha: I don’t. Not from my real partners. Othar: Oh? So these players know who you are? [Beat] Agatha: No. No they don’t.	»

• Krosp asks why Martellus is trying to become Storm King when he already has a pretty decent smaller kingdom of beasts. The Storm King may be more prestigious, but none of the nobles will give a damn when he dies. He and his sparky beast subjects already have mutual loyalty to one another. Does he really want to risk the subjects that actually like him for a bigger crown?

• Armor-Piercing Response: (Бронебойный ответ)

«	Klaus: Do you know that every single woman I’ve ever known who had the spark has tried to kill me? They’re dangerous! Gil: Father, maybe it’s you. Klaus is startled speechless for two beat panels Klaus: No… No, I don’t think so…	»

• Arrow Catch: (Поймать стрелу рукой)
  • Punch is strong enough to throw small metal rivets bare-handed, hitting a Lakya with a Pretty Little Headshot, going straight through Baron Wulfenbach’s leg, and taking out several others of his soldiers… until he tries it on Von Pinn. Who catches the bolts effortlessly between two fingers. Punch then tries a whole volley of them, but Von Pinn deflects them all, moving her arms so fast that they become a blur.
  • Super-Soldier Jenka is seen stopping an actual arrow.

«	Jenka: I forgive. Once.	»

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: (Поджог, убийство и переход на красный свет)
  • When Othar and Sanaa are wandering the Castle, and she thinks things are all right.

«	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:

«	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 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.	»

• The entrance of the Immortal Library underneath Paris is heavily guarded, ready to drop to their death all visitors that would happen to be spies, revenants, or illiterates.

• 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: (Просочиться в канон) In universe, about Von Pinn really being Lucrezia Mongfish.
• Aside Glance: Plenty.
  • «At least *she* was color coordinated.»
  • Klaus glances at the Fourth Wall in the first panel.
  • Gil got it from his father.
  • Tarvek’s, in the last panel, is probably the funniest one to date.
  • Tarvek is good at these.
  • Agatha in the last panel. You can almost read her thoughts in that look.
  • Even a three-eyed monster gets a go at it.
  • General Khrizhan gives one early on.
• Assassin Outclassin': After exiting an apparently diverted teleporting device Tweedle barehandedly takes on six Smoke Knights, killing them and his cousin Leopold, with their own daggers
  • The Smoke Knights are also apparently no match for a vigilant Corbettite Monk. The ease in which the monks dispose of the assassins is almost casual.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: 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.
  • Klaus; he clawed his way to being ruler of Europe atop God knows how many others and it shows.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: During the play in Sturmhalten, just as Tarvek is saying «If the mistress were here, she’d say—», he’s interrupted by Agatha (in-character as Lucrezia) yelling «KNEEL, 'YOU MISERABLE MINION!»
• Attack! Attack… Retreat! Retreat!: (Тактическое отступление/А где бабуля?) Among the illustrations for The WORKS card game, there is a panel where Agatha is fleeing from three murderous constructs. Next panel, the constructs are fleeing from Agatha, now armed with a Death Ray.
  • In this strip, some of Agathas friends initially rush towards an unknown threat, assuming that whatever comes their way should make for some great entertainment note . The very next panel, the group is seen fleeing from a group of Dreen.
• Attack Hello: Maxim is just saying «hello».
• Audience Participation: The podcasts/radio dramas, where the audience finishes characters' titles («Agatha Heterodyne—» «—Girl genius!»), fill in crowd noises, and so on.
  • There is also an in-universe example in the Heterodyne plays, as seen on this and the following page.
• Author Appeal: (Авторский набор штампов/Ради фишки)
  • 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. Which leads into «Who thought having TWO boyfriends was a good idea!?» The Cheshire Cat Grin says it all.
  • Phil admits the only reason the Jägers became recurring characters is because he really likes drawing them.
• Author Avatar: (Аватара автора) 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. The avatar of one of the colorists, Cheyenne Wright, seems to be depicted as the King of the Silverlands.
• Authority in Name Only: Burgermeister Zurken of Mechanicsburg has no real influence on the town. He’s just there to make the Baron think the town’s behaving, and pretty much everyone knows it. Naturally, it turns out that Klaus has his suspicions, which are confirmed by the Storyteller.
• Awesome, but Impractical: (Круто, но непрактично) Genetically engineering a super intelligent cat so that he can persuade other cats to act as spies, messengers, saboteurs, etc. Unfortunately cats have an attention span that measures in microseconds they’ll do what you want until they fall asleep or see something move.
  • Later averted, because some animals actually do listen…
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: (И всё-таки они друг друга любят)
  • The love/hate relationship between Gil, Agatha, and Tarvek runs so deep that a list of specific examples would probably end up getting its own page.
  • Klaus and Gil, as well: when Klaus sends a small army to take him prisoner as all hell’s about to break loose in Mechanicsburg, Gil’s reaction is «he does care!». When he has to enslave Gil with his own personality to ensure the boy doesn’t do anything reckless, his expression tells how much he hates having to do it. Being on the brink of dying for having left the hospital during heavy attacks is only a very small bother for him once he sees Gil destroy a army of clanks singlehandly while declaring himself future ruler over the Empire, declaring it was worth it with pride written all over his face. And when Lucrecia gets the idea of simply using Gil for a «lovers reunion» between her and Klaus, the latter goes straight into Papa Wolf mode.
  • Tarvek, who has maintained for years that he really really hates his childhood friend and rival Gil (who is mind-controlled after he is captured by the Baron), had an adorable one.
• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) Many examples.
  • The most prominent is probably Bangladesh DuPree, whose child-like delight in slaughter is frequently Played for Laughs.
    • She is well-behaved around the Baron, and eventually Gil, but makes it clear that she tolerates their 'no unnecessary killing' rule only because this inevitably leads to bigger, better violence than she could find by cruising around on her own.
  • The Jägermonsters were hand-picked by the Heterodynes for this quality (plus Undying Loyalty and an ability to make said Heterodynes laugh), but they kicked out Vole because he manages to be ax-crazy even by their standards.
  • The majority of Sparks, when in their «madness place», lose their grip on morality (and reality and various other grips). In the backstory, the Heterodynes (with the exception of the Heterodyne Boys and Agatha) deserve special mention for being batshit insane even by Spark standards.

B

• Baa-Bomb: Some battering rams are this.
• Back from the Dead:
  • So often that they have tropes for it.

«	Seriously? The old 'bring her family back from the GRAVE' gambit? Have you no SHAME?	»

• The fifty noble houses of Europa are very aware of this process and actually have strict rules and customs against it. If one of their number is killed and revived, they are officially removed from the lines of succession.
• The simplest cure for some ailments.
• Zulenna got this ordered for her by Klaus.

• Back-to-Back Badasses: (Спина к спине)
  • Gil and Tarvek, on the cover of Volume 9.
  • Zeetha and Higgs during the bar fight.
  • Agatha and Gil fighting bugs; justified since they’re using energy weapons connected to the same power supply by the longest cables that were available — which weren’t that long.
• Badass Boast: (Крутая похвальба) Lots and lots.
  • Gil gives us one of the more effective examples.
  • Gil can also keep his boasts very short:

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

• He also gets a similar one moments earlier, facing down an entire army of war clanks alone:

«	Gil: I am Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, son of Klaus. I will say this only once—leave now, or you will die.	»

• Dr. Sun’s threat towards DuPree. Notable not for being elaborate, but for such conviction that it frightens an unrepentant Ax-Crazy psycho.
• Zola is a beautiful chemical killing machine.
• Tarvek uses a very short (but effective) one on Gil:

«	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.
• Another from Agatha; very dramatic.

«	Agatha: I do not need rescuing. I AM THE HETERODYNE!	»

• Badass Bookworm: (Книжный червь)
  • Most of the Spark characters.
  • Also notable is Jorgi, one of the few literate Jägers, who chose to become a Super-Soldier because reading so much philosophy left him feeling the need to break things.
• Badass Family: (Семья крутых)
  • Heterodynes are a family of powerful Sparks with a signature hereditary ability of «heterodyning» or humming a specific way to completely tune out all distraction, who were feared and hated even among others of their own kind, to say nothing about the rest of the continent. They created Castle Heterodyne — an omnipotent sentient Supervillain Lair with a dark sense of humor and Jägermonsters — scientifically modified Super Soldiers, completely loyal to the house Heterodyne. Then Bill and Barry happened. They redeemed their family’s name by travelling across Europa and defeating monsters and evil Sparks, and were considered the greatest heroes of their generation. There is also the latest scion, Agatha — a powerful Spark in her own right who is just beginning to make her indelible mark on the world.
  • Klaus and Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. Klaus returned to Europa only with his infant son in tow and still managed to conquer a good chunk of the continent by himself, apparently for its own good. He is single-handedly keeping peace in his Empire by keeping rampaging madboys and arrogant nobles in check. He and Gilgamesh are both powerful Sparks and very potent fighters, to the point Jägers are scared of them. If rumors are true then there is also Baron’s long lost Badass Normal daughter — princess Zeetha.
  • Valois/Sturmvoraus/von Blitzengaard family. Their ancestor was one of the greatest kings of all time — Andronicus Valois. Currently family consists mainly of Manipulative Bastards, backstabbers and McNinjas. Most prominent members are Tarvek — once again a powerful Spark, excellent schemer and a good fighter and Violetta — a Smoke Knight and an Impossible Thief.
• Badass Fingersnap: (Щелчок пальцами) Colette Voltaire, having inherited complete control of Paris from her father, finds his assassin Drusus Beausoleil, and with a snap of her fingers, she destroys every one of his multiple bodies (and makes him feel it all).
• Badass Labcoat: Agatha while setting up the really crazy device to fix up Tarvek.
• Badass Longcoat: (Крутой в пальто)
  • Baron Klaus Wulfenbach has them as regular wear.
  • Gilgamesh Wulfenbach has worn them too.
  • And Agatha, of course.
  • Tarvek can be counted on to sport one.
  • Krosp got his from the circus.
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) Many of the non-Spark supporting characters.
  • Axel Higgs, Airman 3rd Class is assuredly badass, but turns out not to be 'normal'.
  • Zeetha. Versus a pirate stronghold (she won). Versus a demon-horse-thing-monster. (She didn’t win, but it cheated by growing a new mouth and tentacles after she cut its head off.)
    • It’s implied that the pirate stronghold Zeetha destroyed actually belonged to Bangladesh, of all people. That alone ups her Badass Factor by roughly 5000.
  • Bangladesh DuPree, and Violetta. Moloch von Zinzer seems to be heading towards this, somewhat unwillingly.
  • Ardsley Wooster has climbed from 'competent servant' to 'battle butler' to 'James Bond is a chump'.
  • Sanaa is pretty badass when she needs to be.
  • Professor Merlot, despite not being a Spark at all, is able to seriously injure Gil, and also manages to develop (or at least operate) a dangerous combat machine that can fight off the Castle’s security mechanisms.
• Bad Future: (Ужасное будущее) In Othar’s twitter, he ends up in a timeline where The Other won and wiped out all of Europa. Only Tarvek survived.
• Bag of Kidnapping: Sanaa and Othar do this to Tarvek, mistaking him for Gilgamesh Wulfenbach.
• Bait the Mole: When Gil suspects that his team exploring the time-frozen city has a mole, he leaks different information about their defenses to the different suspects, and watches to see where the attack comes from.
• Bar Brawl: (Кабацкая драка) Apparently there’s one every evening in Mamma Gkika’s. Except on Thursdays; that’s poetry slam night.
  • Apparently there are two every evening: one with the human guests upstairs and one with the Jägers in the basement.
• 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.
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: (Вымойте и приведите ко мне) parodied when an underling’s proposal «Shall I have her bathed and brought to your quarters?» is met with «Tch. Drusus, you really need to stop reading those Othar Tryggvassen adventure novels.»
• Batman Gambit: (Гамбит Бэтмена) When Agatha returns to Mechanicsburg, Tarvek deliberately neglects to inform the Wulfenbach guards that she shouldn’t be treated like any other visitor. Not because he wants the guards to stop her, but because he wants them to try, so she can remind everyone that she’s the Heterodyne, and nobody stops her entering her city. If the guards had been ordered to let her past, it would have looked like she needed permission to enter.
• Battle Butler: (Боевой слуга/Крутой дворецкий) 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: (Боевая пара) To an extent, Agatha and Gil during the wasp outbreak on Castle Wulfenbach. When she, Gil, and Tarvek were battling with and through Castle Heterodyne, they were a Battle Threesome.
  • Zeetha and Higgs are also one.
• Battle Cry: (Боевой клич)
  • The official one for the Jägers: «Ve hunt!» (Justified, seeing as «Jäger» is German for «Hunter».)
  • Agatha during the Battle of Sturmhalten: «SHOWTIME!»
• Bavarian Fire Drill: One of Theo DuMedd’s methods of getting into a lab on Castle Wulfenbach without suspicion was claiming to be «Mimmoth exterminators». He claimed it worked every time, though the only time he attempted it, he just happened to walk in on Gil experimenting.
  • Sparks with control over minions tend to use a supernaturally amplified version of this, where claiming authority causes most people to accept that authority. The strongest sparks can even occasionally do it to people that are entirely aware that it is happening.
• Bear Hug: (Медвежьи объятия) Mama Gkika gives Agatha, newly crowned as the Heterodyne, one when they first meet.
• Bears Are Bad News: (Страшный медведь) Agatha is attacked by a large group of angry bears…and they’re armed.
  • Eventually Averted, however. They’re Krosp’s bears, conditioned to serve him by their mutual creator, Dr. Vapnoople; Krosp didn’t know they even existed until finally meeting them.
  • Third-Person Person: The bears generally preface all conversation by referring to themselves as «This bear».
  • And there’s Jenka’s Jägerbear, Füst.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: (Красота остаётся незапятнанной) Played with. Otherwise good-looking folks can undergo injuries, sickness, fatigue or drugs that visibly mess them up.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: (Бойся своих желаний) Martellus is stuck near Agatha due to an accident that makes him reliant on her touch to survive, and complains that he has been indoors for too long and is getting stir-crazy. Agatha then tells him that she’s going out for an errand to a very dangerous place, and the expression on Martellus’s face suggests that he regrets what he just said.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: (Потому что вы были добры ко мне) A monster lurking in the dungeons of the Blitzengaard fortress leaves Agatha’s party unscathed after being given the inversion of the standard Frankenstein rant (you know, the one about being its creator and ordering it to do your bidding).
• Behemoth Battle: (Слонободание) The fight between Franz Scortchmaw, the Bone Gnawer of the Heterodynes, and «Pretty Boy» (no name given, despite his gentledragonly manners). Rather low on the collateral damage for a monster fight, though.
• Behind the Black:
  • Gil didn’t notice Agatha launching herself at him while he was yelling at Tarvek?
  • Lampshaded when Jenka points out that they should have heard the army of giant clanks (helpfully called War Stompers too) marching up to their tower.
• Benevolent Dictator: Baron Klaus Wulfenbach is the head of a de facto military regime ruling over the European continent, which he built out of (more or less) brute force. Yet his rule is actually very moderate: citizens enjoy enough freedom of expression to openly mock him (to his amusement), he treats POWs remarkably well, and the worst punishments (namely lobotomy) are saved for the worst criminals. He’s only really a dictator in that he wasn’t elected, and that his government keeps local monarchs in line with the threat of force. Keep in mind that time period before his empire was one of constant, brutal warfare that he single-handedly ended, and a mere two years after his regime collapsed, it’s remembered as a «lost golden age of antiquity». He’s practically a textbook example of The Extremist Was Right — and was in fact the Trope Namer back when it was called And It Worked.
• «Be Quiet!» Nudge:
  • Dimo to Oggie, with a fist in the ribs. Higgs is still able to guess what Oggie was about to let slip, though.
  • It happens rather frequently with Oggie, as he tends to let run his mouth. Being Jäggermonsters, though, it tends to be quite solid punches rather than nudges. Up to outright knocking him out.
  • Later, Krosp bites Dimo’s finger to make him shut his trap about the presence of Agatha Heterodyne on the train. Sort of the cat-telling-Jaeger-to-shoddop-bout-that version.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Don’t get the Jäger Generals started on Lucrezia Mongfish.
  • Don’t touch Castle Heterodyne (or Mechanicsburg in general), if you don’t want to enrage Agatha. She also hates being patronized, so treating her like a Damsel in Distress will earn you a lot of pain.
  • Don’t harm Agatha or Gil and/or Tarvek will be the last thing you see.
  • Wanna see Higgs unhinged? Hurt Zeetha.
  • Despite being a This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.Magnificent Bastard, Klaus does not take well on the suggestion to sacrifice Gil.
  • Sparks in general really hate when you meddle with their work. If the Sparks don’t kill themselves with their machines, then you can bet that they will send them on you, if you dare disturb them.
  • Despite being an Ax-Crazy Comedic Sociopath, Bangladesh Dupree does have her limits. She hates the idea of mind control with a passion.
• Betty and Veronica: (Бетти и Вероника) Gil & Tarvek, to Agatha.
• Beware the Nice Ones: (Добро с кулаками)
  • Agatha is a nice person, polite and easy-going and willing to put up with a lot. But she has grown increasingly formidable throughout the series: latecomers like Martellus are unpleasantly surprised to discover that she is not to be crossed.
  • Gilgamesh is usually rather pleasant and doesn’t bully people or use force. When his temper snaps, however, he’s terrifying. And destructive. Once Klaus takes over his mind and forces him to work out ways to fight The Other, he only gets worse, literally spending weeks in the madness place without sleeping.
  • Tarvek is the blue to Gil’s red. He plays with the trope a bit — he is not an innately nice person. Being good is an effort for him, and if he’s angered, he’ll stop making that effort. And unlike Agatha or Gil, you can’t be sure he’ll accept a surrender.
  • Airman Higgs is stoic, reliable, polite and so unobtrusive that he’s almost invisible. He’s called Unstoppable for his combat skills when it’s 'just business': you do not want to make it personal.
• Beyond the Impossible: This is what the spark does; it lets people bend the laws of physics. However, the Heterodyne breaks them. And apparently the ancient god-queens were to sparks what sparks are to normal people.
• BFG: (Ручная пушка)
  • The autocannons carried by the Wulfenbach clanks. Sometimes used by Jägers.
  • Agatha’s Death Rays. Played with, when she made a «very small» death ray. That she used to blow a hole out of the castle, taking out a chunk of a nearby mountain. And a hole from fairly high in the castle, to the basement. What a magnificent death ray!
• BFS: (Офигенно большой меч)
  • Grantz uses a two-handed sword about as long as she is tall — and she is pretty hulking to begin with.
  • Dr. Monahan wields a honking massive slab of metal that appears to be a cross between a kitchen knife and a machete.
• Bifauxnen: (На красивого парня похожа) Grantz, Baron Wulfenbach’s monster hunter. Even Gil apparently gets this one wrong, as he refers to Grantz as a «he» early on.
• Big Bad Ensemble: (Дуализм главгадов) The Other is probably the most consistent threat, but due to the hydra-headed nature of the Knights of Jove, there’s a lot of other significant threats to world peace. Zola in particular has been set up as a serious future threat (and one capable of controlling the Other), and Martellus may be a contender by virtue of not being the idiot he seems.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Martellus von Blitzengaard suffers from the delusion that he’s The Chessmaster. Agatha (and Tarvek, Gil, etc.) tend to regard him as an infuriating nuisance instead.
• 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!»
  • The Jägers have the Tiny Book of Let’s Fight, a pocket-sized book that appears to be largely (if not solely) about the rules for fighting someone for ownership of their hat. These rules are very detailed, right down to catagorizing what types of intervention from a third party qualifies as interference or course hazard.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: (Гигантские членистоногие) The Baron’s Hoomhoffers, giant beetles that function as living tanks and clank squashers.
• Big Damn Heroes: (Офигенные герои)
  • Gil, once again demonstrating why you shouldn’t shoot him. You’ll just make him mad.
  • Zeetha and her carefully placed clothing swing in to save the day.
  • When a humanoid killing machine is lying on the floor Not Quite Dead and you’re caught up in your evil plans to enslave several main characters, frankly what do you expect?
  • When Agatha is forced to kill Castle Heterodyne, everyone expects the Baron to go in there and kill Agatha for having Lucrezia in her mind and «save» his son, but they can’t figure out why he hasn’t already started the invasion. Instead, Dr. Sun takes this moment to attack the Baron and put him into a chemical coma before his «delusions» destroy the Empire by getting the Baron killed from his existing wounds and accidentally killing Gil in the invasion, giving Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek the time to work and cure themselves of Hogfarb’s Resplendent Immolation and get the Castle ready to deal with revolting members of the Empire. This slightly backfires because, although this saves Tarvek and Agatha, this gives Lucrezia/Anevka the opportunity to get into the Baron’s room and take control of the wasp infected Baron unbeknownst to Dr. Sun and everyone else. Due to this control, the already paranoid Baron is easily convinced to attack his potential ally Agatha while his empire is already falling apart. All of this led directly to the Baron freezing himself and Mechanicsburg in time to stop Lucrezia’s control of him and to stop Lucrezia/Agatha who, unbeknownst to the Baron, is only in control when Agatha doesn’t have her Power Limiter on and THAT causes the Empire to collapse anyways. So the Trope zigzags.
• The Big Damn Kiss:
  • As of August 17, 2011, it has happened. So very big, it had to be continued on the next page.

«	Tarvek: Don’t be insulting. When she kissed Wulfenbach, my glasses started to melt.	»

• A year later almost to the day, there is now competition. And it also continued onto the next page.

• Big Door: The door prisoners are sent into Castle Hetrodyne through is at least two stories tall, and adorned with vicious looking spikes.
• Big Labyrinthine Building: Castle Heterodyne, and the Wulfenbach airship.
• Big «NO!»: (Большое «НЕТ!») Several times.
  • Crashing Gil’s «falling machine» into Castle Wulfenbach.
  • Zeetha, after she finally finds someone who knows about her homeland Skifander, but doesn’t know where it is, breaks out in a rage.
  • Right after Agatha breaks Merlot’s mind with the enormity of his mistakes.
  • Agatha when she gets interrupted again in fixing the castle.
  • And more humorously, when a Sparking-out Gil yanks open Agatha’s Exploding Closet
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Among other things, Monster Hunter Grantz’s massive eyebrows don’t help identifying her as female, at all.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство)
  • Valois/Sturmvoraus/von Blitzengaard family, a.k.a. «a bunch of evil-minded, cynical, backstabbing old fools». Occasional kinship feelings… such as they are… get expressed in hilariously twisted ways.
  • The Old Heterodynes, as seen with the «nursery», for instance.

«	Gil: So this was the nursery? Tarvek: It explains… so much…	»

• Not that armored toys weren’t necessary sometimes.
• The Mongfishes.
  • The Mongfishes again, the reaction at last panel just cemented this.

• Bilingual Bonus: (Билингвальный бонус)
  • 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».
  • The control panel on the Clank Agatha finds in the woods is in German.
  • «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.
  • The contraption Agatha is building here is named «Şoarece»; this is Romanian for «mouse» (not «the mouse», that would be «şoarecele») which is, in the same time, a bilingual bonus, and a genius bonus: Mechanicsburg is in-story located in Transylvania, and the real-life Transylvania is today part of Romania.
  • Seffie’s henchwoman and bodyguard is named «Sparafucile», Italian for «Shootrifle». Doubles as a Shout-Out to Rigoletto
• Black-and-Gray Morality: (Чёрно-серый конфликт) 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.
• Blatant Lies: (Наглая ложь)
  • «Aid me! I am the Agatha girl!»
  • It’s almost certain Klaus’s dramatic public claim that Gil has been a slaver-wasp victim for years is one too.
• Blessed with Suck: (Вредный дар)
  • 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. Or get the Torches and Pitchforks treatment, which often happens to weaker Sparks who either don’t have enough education to actually use their abilities properly, or have just enough of the talent that they stand out, but with little power to protect themselves.
  • 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.
  • Moloch almost certainly thinks so. He makes the perfect minion. He’s intelligent, knowledgeable, sneaky, has good leadership skills, good military discipline, is very down to Earth, loyal, forgiving, has willingness to take orders, and many other excellent traits. Despite all of this, he just wants to get the hell away from sparks and live a normal life. However, given the future windows we see, he doesn’t leave Agatha anytime soon.
• Bling of War: (Вычурная военная форма) 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.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: (Блондинка, брюнетка, рыжая) Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek. Agatha, Zeetha, and Violetta form a variant, with the brown hair replaced with green.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: (Серобуромалиновая мораль) Lots of that going around. Tarvek provides his own perspective, of course.

«	Tarvek: If someone can’t handle an unpleasant truth? Lie to them. If someone won’t listen to reason? Make them. If people don’t choose to live peaceably? Don’t give them a choice. If you don’t like the rules…change the game.	»

• Blue Blood: (Аристократ) The Nobility is one of the biggest opponents to the Baron. House Wulfenbach is of nobility, but low ranking. As such, the Blue Bloods see him as an upstart and a tyrant who has illegitimately seized most of their power. The Knights of Jove try to use the legend of the Storm King to reclaim it. The most notable Blue Blood characters are Zulenna, Tarvek and Martellus.
• Body-Count Competition: By the Jägergenerals, of course.
• Body Horror: (Боди-хоррор) Princess Anevka Sturmvoraus was placed in the Lucrezia-mind-downloading machine by her own father, and so was dying; Tarvek staved off her death by installing her in a portable life-support pod attached to a puppet «clank», i.e. robot body. And she slowly weakened and died in there, with the robot body unknowingly imprinting her personality on its AI and carrying on in her place. Plus, the clank body has a Slasher Smile and is a Perpetual Smiler, which only adds to the horror.
• Bodyguard Legacy: The Valois clan has at least one «cadet branch» that is expected to serve as bodyguards to the main branch. Violetta is one such bodyguard, and she’s introduced protecting her cousin Tarvek.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Othar is always just about gleeful as he fights and gets knocked through walls. The Jägers are a decidedly friendly, at least in mannerism, bloodthirsty bunch who enjoy joking and laughing while fighting even if they’re losing.
• Bond One-Liner: (Язвительная эпитафия)
  • Dimo of all people pulls one off in an earlier chapter. After Gil destroys two giant spider-walker tanks with lightning blasts prompting the crews of the remaining walkers to surrender, he asks to speak to their commander, only for an officer to inform him that Gil’s lightning attack had killed the commander as well as the second and third in command. And the fourth?

«	Officer: [pulling a knife on Gil] That would be me, madboy! (A throwing knife gets embedded in the officer’s skull) Dimo: [holding another throwing knife] Hoy! Who else vants to be promoted?	»

• Martellus delivers a dark line after killing a Jager by repeatedly shooting him at point blank range after asking him some questions and having a perfectly civil conversation with him.

«	Martellus: and I know this: the best way to catch a monster is to be a bigger monster.	»

• After Tarvek kills one of the conspiracists who thought that since Tarvek was a hero he wouldn’t retaliate to an attack with lethal force he quips;

«	Tarvek: I’ve never really considered myself the «hero» type.	»

• Violetta gives one to Master Smoke Knight Madwa after the latter realizes Violetta is not actually paralyzed right after they turned their back to her.

«	Violetta: Well spotted.	»

• Boring, but Practical: (Уныло, но практично) Moloch is easily one of the most rational people in the strip, being an Only Sane Man of course, and a bit of The Engineer. His ideas are typically very un-flashy, but they get the job done. Much to the ire of the sparks and mad scientists that surround him. Amusingly enough, while everyone in-universe finds him boring, the fact that he seems too sane and different from half the cast makes him anything but boring to the readers, if only for the reactions he gathers from the Sparks:

«	(various Sparks debate which of a variety of absurd and potentially deadly ways to get to the bottom of a shaft) Moloch: Why don’t we just move this winch? There should be enough cable. And it looks strong enough that we could lower everybody on a platform. (group death glare) Moloch: …and then, at the bottom, it could unfold into a… a giant caterpillar or… something… Mittelmind: No, no. You’ve already taken all the joy out of it.	»

• Bottled Heroic Resolve: (Психостимуляторы и допинги)
  • «Movit #6»
  • Jäger battle-draught. Slightly Better than Death!
  • «Movit #11» has also made an appearance. According to Violetta, using Movit #11 would kill most people.
• Bottomless Pit: What sort of mad scientist play would this be without at least a few? They never actually seem to work, though, except against Mooks — and the occasional disposable third-tier villain. Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!, barely even notices when he’s dropped down one.
• Bow Chicka Wow Wow:

«	Zeetha: Hey, Skifander’s patron Goddess is Ashtara, she who controls, among other things, fertility. Our holy-days are fun! (Cha cha cha!)	»

• Brain Bleach: Remember, the strip is full of Mad Scientists.

«	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.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • «What now?! More Jaegers? Orphans? Jaeger orphans?»
  • The Fashion Clank describing his vision for Jaeger costuming:

«	Fashion Clank: I see armor! Spikes! Spiked armor! Spikes on armor on spikes! And skulls everywhere! Yes! Skulls on spikes! Spikes on skulls — on spikes!	»

• Franz and Vipsania are going to loot a dead dragon’s hoard, which includes his collection of rare books:

«	Franz: «So, partner, what do you want to do first? Catalog books, or count gold?» Vipsania: «There’s a bunch of books bound in gold…»	»

• Breather Episode: Side stories every once in a while, like «Maxim Buys a Hat!»
• Brick Joke: (Шутка-бумеранг)
  • A long time after Agatha is convinced that her battle merry-go-round is too dangerous to construct, Bang is diagnosed by Doctor Sun with a concussion for explaining that her injuries were sustained while destroying a merry-go-round.

«	Agatha: 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!	»

• «But why are there mechanical squid in the cistern?» Well, two years and two volumes earlier…
• Steam-powered feet? Steam-powered feet!
• Remember the guard slime? Someone isn’t so savvy.
• The Red Heterodyne sandwich in «Maxim Buys a Hat» apparently refers to the time that ancestor invaded the Unseen Empire, and took two years getting back to the surface because he had developed «a taste for bat sandvitches»
• Probably the longest one yet. In Castle Wulfenbach we meet Doctor Dim, a lobotomized spark who makes toy bears. 11 years later we meet the bears he made before he was captured by the baron!
• Another that is just as old. During her time in the circus, Agatha attracts the attention of two Geisterdamen on patrol, who leave her alone after concluding that she’s just an actress. Eleven years later, she runs into the exact same pair in Paris and gets recognized.
• Another 11 years old one. In the castle Agatha rages about the threats facing her, and promises that afterwards they’ll have a big party with dresses, sugar, hearts and flowers, Violetta included. And they do!
• In the kitchen of Saint Szpac, Tybalt loses his armor to the Beast, and Martellus promises to make him a new suit that is «red with bells and tassels». A little while later, Tybalt shows up to Seffie’s masqurade ball wearing new armor… which is, indeed, red with bells and tassels.
• «What hyu need is a big hat vit hyu name on it.» And, sure enough…
• The suggestion to «get all our enemies to a picnic on tiny monster island» was apparently a valid idea.
• While reminiscing about Paris, Gil claims «You can get anything there.» Twelve years later Zeetha echos the sentiment.
• In the very first comic has a strange creature lying at his feet. Twelve years later the same creature shows up in the Corbettite’s vaults.

• Broken Angel:
  • The muses, the delicate creations of the greatest spark of the time. Most of them are destroyed or damaged while sparks tried to reverse engineer them. Known examples are Tinka, studied by Tarvek, and Otilia, found beneath Castle Heterodyne. She manages to cause some trouble in her «broken» state though.
  • Castle Heterodyne was damaged in the Other’s attack — which is probably the first and last time the term 'angel' will be applied, even metaphorically and peripherally, to Castle Heterodyne or any component, characteristic or intention thereof.
• Brother-Sister Team: (Дуэт брата и сестры) Othar and Sanaa. Othar isn’t overjoyed about it.
• Brown Note: (Опасно для восприятия) Ringing the Doom Bell has this kind of effect. It is implied that the Doom Bell actually uses doom itself as a means of incapacitating people, by hammering them with the concept of existential despair.
• Bug War: Any fight with Slaver wasps. You have Warriors, which do the direct fighting, drones that do the enslaving (by flying into people’s mouths), and the Queen, kept alive by a Hive Engine apparatus and rendered sessile from it. Except for newer models.
• Bullying a Dragon: (Моська лает на слона) Vole seems a bit prone to it. And there are two examples so far. And he doesn’t seem to learn, either.
• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок)
  • Zoing, Gil’s mechanical sidekick, was apparently not heard of again after he undergoes some serious character development. Until…
  • Also Wulfenbach second-in-command Boris disappearing after the time-skip and finally resurfacing in (or rather under) Paris.
  • Most recently, Eotain and Shurdlu, the two Geisterdamen that Agatha met in Sturmhalten, resurfaced in post-time-skip Paris.
  • Normally a character trope, but Paris is rather notable for being the locale/arc for the return of several characters, a couple of whom were already off the radar before the time skip. Specifically, Jenka and Füst, Oggie, Maxim, Boris, and Zola (in the guise of the Queen of the Dawn). Tarvek and Vanamonde were also pulled out of the time freeze during this arc, with the former ending up in Paris as well due to circumstances beyond his control. Does that make Paris a bus stop?
  • In 2020, 13 years after Wooster offered them asylum in England, Agatha is finally reunited with her friends from Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: (Натворил и забыл) Gil has no idea which particular atrocity the various assorted assassins are trying to off his father over.
• Butterfly of Doom: (Эффект бабочки) Othar deciding to retire to an island with his Geister mate for 32 years leads to Gil dying in Castle Heterodyne, Mechanicsburg never being frozen, and Agatha’s and Klaus getting married, presumably under the influence of Lucrezia’s mind control, which leads to Paris being burned and every town in Europa being destroyed and almost every person killed on the continent, perhaps beyond. This leads to an aged and Tarvek sending him back in time which seems to explain why he looks so old compared to his sister. All of this is stated on his Twitter page which is technically canon.
• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья) Moloch von Zinzer. He didn’t start out that way, and it’s not physical abuse. He was one of the soldiers who stole the Orphan’s Plot Trinket. The Karmic Chess Master moved him next to Agatha. He tried to play rough. Now his nerves are the butt of every joke the fates can manage. Examples: The tables are turned, his savvy fails, the rain of fear begins, the Castle has some fun, the Castle gets serious, Genre Savvy does no good at all, Genre Savvy says it all, Nightmare rising, Especially when it works as planned, Fool for love, and many, many more.
• Bystander Syndrome: When Agatha tries to send crucial information about information about the Other to Klaus Wulfenbach, her message gets intercepted by British agents. Rather than letting it get forwarded to its original recipient, they decide to keep it to themselves to make Wulfenbach’s job harder.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes:
  • In the flashback showing Zeetha destroying her pirate captors, her eyes are the only thing visible in the dark behind the bars where she was kept imprisoned.
  • When Norville and Krosp are vorped together to who-knows-where, the place is so dark that only their eyes and teeth are visible for the next few strips.

C

• Call-Back:
  • After their reunion, one of the first things Agatha needs to get off her mind is an apology to Gil… for yelling at him. Lampshaded when even Gil takes a while to remember about the incident. (It’d been a very hectic few months/years.)
  • «Did you know he really likes waffles?»
  • Also, the circumstances of Gil and Agatha seem to be similar: he showed up and got disapproval for killing Dr. Beetle, even though «He threw a BOMB at me!», and then Agatha made the impersonator break down into tears, even though she’d tried to usurp her.
  • While creeping through the Sturmhalten sewers, the conversation turns towards «Red» Heterodyne, an ancestor of Agatha’s, who was lost in a cave and would have come out sooner had he not developed a taste for bat meat. Jump forward to the «Maxim Buys A Hat» interlude, and one of the sandwiches ordered to Old Man Death is the «Red Heterodyne», which involves a bat on a sandwich.
  • Near the beginning of the comic Agatha promises a lobotomized spark to help protect his collection of hand-made toy bears. Turns out he’s Krosp’s creator, Vapnoople, and the bears he is trying to protect is actualy an army of sentient bear constructs programed to serve Krosp.
  • One of the earliest examples was between Agatha and Moloch. When she first wakes up in Castle Wulfenbach, he threatens her to not make a scene so that they can work together to stay alive. Later, when she first meets him in Castle Heterodyne, she returns the favor, nearly word-for-word.
  • The Prince of Sturmhalten’s big bet is apparently a well-known bit of local lore.
  • Castle Heterodyne: «That is a trap that will kill you.» Vaults of the Immortal Library in Paris: «It’s a trap that will kill you.»
  • Higgs calling Heterodyne Castle a «mud hut», possibly a callback to when it said it wanted to be a yurt.
  • The Castle Fragment finds «this mobility thing to be highly overrated». A call back to when its greater self said it wanted to be a yurt for its mobility.
  • A single panel in the middle of a flashback showed Tarvek held prisoner by DuPree. Many strips later, Tarvek runs into her and he is NOT happy to see her.
• Calling Your Attacks: (Название заклинания произносится вслух) Done by Zola under the influence of a massive overdose of battle stimulants, resulting in a cry of «Chophead Tinybits!»
• Came Back Wrong: (Вернулся не таким) Subverted. Apparently being brought Back from the Dead causes memory loss (as we have been repeatedly told) and frequently drives the recipient Ax-Crazy. However, when it happens to Tarvek, all it takes to bring him out of a homicidal rage is the following:

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

• Judy and Punch are also quite calm and harmless, though it may be the case that Constructs are more likely to not suffer side-effects than bog-standard humans when being revived. Plus, it was done by Gil, who is very very good.
• It’s also possible to prepare in advance for this; Dr. Mittlemind has been killed and revived numerous times, but has an external battery installed in his technically-always-dead cyborg-ish body, and comes through the procedure fine. (Well, he’s still a Spark, but relatively speaking..)

• Can’t Live Without You:
  • When Gil supports both Agatha and Tarvek when they get infected by Hogfarb’s Immolation.
  • Tweedle pretty much calls the trope by its name when he explains how he hopes to make Agatha compliant by linking her metabolism to his, so that she can’t leave his side and can’t kill him. Unfortunately for him, he dreadfully underestimated the Heterodyne girl. First, she realizes that needing him alive has nothing to do with him being «free and in charge», and she knocks him out and locks him up. And soon enough, she has transfered the dependancy to a wasp weasel pet.
• Captured Super-Entity: The renegade Mad Scientists of Britain manage to capture an Eldritch Abomination from another dimension and attempt to use a device to transfer its knowledge into one of their own. Their leader successfully absorbs enough of its energy to achieve second breakthrough, a form of Enlightenment Superpower available to the most successful sparks.
• Cartwright Curse: Being a suitor to Agatha is hazardous to your health.
• Cast the Expert: In-Universe — Vex is playing Zeetha in the new Heterodyne play of Master Payne’s circus, but she’s also their fencing master and can hold her own against the real Zeetha, who wholeheartedly approves of her.
• Casual Danger Dialogue:
  • Quoth Klaus just as he activates a stasis-bomb right in the middle of Mechanicsburg:

«	Klaus: Do you have any tea?	»

• Tarvek and Higgs calmly discussing in which «monster scale» they should categorize the Smakken while in the middle of fighting it has got to be an Exaggerated Trope example.

• The Cat Came Back: Othar. He’s very hard to shake off, especially when he has set his eyes on a «spunky sidekick». Throw him in a pit, he’ll walk back through another door a few seconds later. Lampshaded by Tarvek after he and Violetta tries to escape him with a «down and up» (that doesn’t work):

«	Tarvek: This is why he’s a hero. He’s very, very good at this.	»

• Character Catchphrase: (Коронная фраза)
  • Agatha: «You’ll like him.»
  • Tarvek: «I can’t [really] complain.»
  • Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!): «Foul!»
  • Jägers eagerly sensing an impending battle: VE HUNT!!!
  • Several Sparks are fond of saying «I can work with that»; Agatha most often, but others have also used the line or variants of it on occasion.
• The Chains of Commanding: (Бремя лидера)
  • Discussed by Othar and Klaus.

«	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.	»

• And then by Master Payne.

«	Master Payne: For all we know, those things are some new kind of revenant — and the only thing to do is kill them. Could you burn down people — women and children — even if you knew they had become monsters? …The Baron can. The Baron has. I respect him for that, but I don’t want to be him. No sane man would.	»

• Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The titles of the first thirteen graphic novels (and the books), and also used in-story as the titles of Heterodyne Boys stories.
• Chariot Pulled by Cats: (Ездовое животное) The Geisterdamen have a number of monstrous draught animals, including giant fuzzy things with webbed feet and tentacled faces and some kind of gigantic pale crustacean.
• Charm Person: (Контроль разума) «Ah, it is part of the power of the Gifted. Those around them wish to aid them. To serve them. Even when we know them to be monsters.»
• Chaste Hero: (Целомудренный герой) Barry Heterodyne, quite possibly. Barry always ends up with «the High Priestess» in the stories and plays, «The High Priestess» being the catch-all term for whatever lost priestess, Damsel in Distress, or mad scientist’s beautiful but misguided assistant (other than Lucrezia) happened to figure in any given Heterodyne play (basically, an in-world trope). There is no indication Barry had a love life in Real Life, though; Klaus says at one point that having a child of Barry’s turn up would be a «surprise.»
• Chef of Iron: (Крутой повар) Old Man Death
• Chekhov’s Boomerang: Gil’s invisibility device mentioned offhand by DuMedd quite a bit earlier. And seen in action even earlier, although at the time Gil didn’t realize what it was and used it as a simple power source.
  • Van Rijn’s notebook reappears.
• Chekhov’s Gag: when Tarvek relates all the trouble Gil got him into while they were in Paris, there is a very short gag (just one panel, the fifth) in which he complains about having to deal with pirates because of what Gil did. The pirate in that panel looks a lot like DuPree. It takes two years and five months to start to guess what exactly Tarvek went through then.

«	Bang: (with glee) It’s Prince «How Dare You»!!	»

• Which then becomes part of another Chekhov’s Gag! When finally meeting Tarvek again, she curiously asks, if he still has «those scars» as an offhand comment. Once Tarvek is taking a bath after having been stuck in the time bubble for 2 and a half years, it is the first thing she wants to see.

• Chekhov’s Gun: (Ружьё Чехова) Bunches of them, often coming back several books later.
  • Gilgamesh’s lightning generator which was used again almost four years later.
  • When escaping Castle Wulfenbach, Lilith mentions that one of the reasons they were so protective of Agatha is that girls with the Spark often just…disappear. When we get to Sturmhalten we find out what happened to at least some of those girls; Aaronev Sturmvoraus was trying to find a suitable vessel for Lucrezia/the Other…
  • The Torchmen. Seen before activation here, although we didn’t know what they did at the time.
  • Even PIES end up as Chekhov’s Guns in this comic. Possibly also qualifies as a Brick Joke.
  • Then there’s the poison pellet Gilgamesh gave Von Zinzer to use as a suicide pill if he chose. While Von Zinzer has shown up again (alive), the poison hasn’t shown up again… yet.
  • Agatha’s locket. It is introduced at the very beginning, then disappears from the story within the first few chapters. Then its importance is revealed — and then it comes back a second time, important in a brand new way.
  • The unearthly powers of the spring from which the River Dyne flows. The Castle gives exposition about how the first Heterodyne found it as a shrine to a local battle goddess, and how it would usually kill any who bathed in it but occasionally granted immense curative powers. Not being one for superstition, the first Heterodyne did the unthinkable: he drank the water. Sure enough, in the course of curing the case of Hogfarb’s Resplendent Immolation, Agatha ends up drinking Dyne water herself, finishing the revivification and also proving to the Castle (again) that she is one of the family. And then after exclaiming that she’s got to try that again, the Castle is doubly assured.
  • Perhaps the biggest Chekhov’s Gun might better be described as a Chekov’s Bullet Holes — we’ve seen a window into the future open three times so far, but it is the cause of the effect that is as yet unknown.
  • Gil is annoyed when he finds someone has been intercepting the letters from his former classmates, presumably his Manipulative Bastard father. Years later it’s suggested that Seffie might be the real culprit.
  • In the «Ivo Sharktooth, Private Jager» side-story, it’s mentioned that the police chief of Mechanicsburg is the only known survivor of an experiment by one of the old Heterodynes to create Secret Police with the power of invisibility. At first this seems like another bit of random local color, but then it turns out that there’s another survivor working for the villain of the story.
  • When Agatha is examining Gil’s library on Castle Wulfenbach and picks up a Trelawney Thorpe book, Wooster protests Gil’s claim that the books are propaganda, as Thorpe is a real person. Seventeen years later (or thirteen if we’re going by the web comic publication) Thorpe appears — and it turns out that Wooster knows her personally.
• Chekhov’s Gunman: (Стрелок Чехова)
  • Chekhov’s Clank: The creature who climbs out of the pit was first seen, looking much better for wear, in the back of a fresco depicting the Storm King’s Muses.
  • Chekhov’s Supersoldier: A pair of Dreen can be seen in an early double-page fighting slaver wasps during the free-for-all fight on Castle Wulfenbach. The creature, and its scary reputation, is formally introduced way later. And even later we find out they’re of the Eldritch beings that came into this plane of existence when Robur Heterodyne meddled with the fabric of spacetime. («…And they had hats»)
  • Dr. Dimitri’s bear army is mentioned way back near the beginning of the strip, in what sounds at first like the ravings of a madman over a stuffed bear. Come a dozen or so years later we learn that the bears are real, and loyal to Krosp.
  • Chekov’s Construct?: We know that Klaus was going to revive Princess Zulenna, but we haven’t yet seen her again, and don’t yet know how she reacted to his meddling, or whether any of the other royal children who spoke up moments after he ordered it, heard what was being said….
  • Chekov’s Soldiers?: According to the weird future portal events that Bang saw, von Zinzer’s «Bruno and the kid» are somehow important enough to use a bizarre past-viewing device to find out what happened to them after Bang blew the gunboat. No hint of their existence, let alone significance, has cropped up…yet. (Then again, Moloch hasn’t admitted he’s working for Agatha, Gil isn’t wearing geister armor, they aren’t working with any Geisterdamen, and Agatha definitely doesn’t have wings on her trilobite, either.)
  • Chekov’s Muse: The clank seen on the fourth page of the comic makes a reappearance nearly thirteen years later. It is yet unknown how exactly the clank will be utilized.
  • During the Castle Heterodyne arc Zeetha was Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by Zola. Ten years later Zeetha reveals Mama Gkika used the Jägerdraught as part of her efforts to save her. However it’s unclear whether the draught is enough to on its own merits to transform her into a Jäger, as she has not undergone whatever ritual the Heterodynes performed to create the Jägers. Additionally, Zeetha didn’t drink it; it appears to have been injected directly into her.
• Chekhov’s Skill: (Навык Чехова) Agatha’s training under Zeetha. Mind you, it’s not like it was ever a secret it would be useful.
• Cheshire Cat Grin:
  • Agatha frequently sports these, as do many other Sparks when in The Madness Place, sometimes reaching the level of Slasher Smile.
  • The Jägerkin sport those every time they’re about to fight, so it also overlaps with the Slasher Smile.
• Chewing the Scenery: (Переигрывание) It’s bursting at the seams with mad scientists who are compelled, by their very nature, to go off on emphatic rants on how the fools did not understand! There’s even a section called «Gil Chews the Scenery.» Which he does.
• Chiaroscuro: Used to great effect.
• Chicken Walker: (Шагающая техника) A common Clank design. For example, Gil’s Fencing Clank.
• Chirping Crickets: During the Hugo acceptance speech.
• Chronoscope: The strange «windows» that appear at several points in the comic, with doubles of some of the comic’s characters standing on the other side and observing events through them, may well be a case of a chronoscope seen operating from «the other side» — i.e. from the perspective of the observed, rather than the observing. Presumably, the device itself will show up and be used at some point in the comic, but that time hasn’t been reached yet.
• Church Of Evil:
  • While there’s implications that the conventional religion in the Girl Genius world is barely Crystal Dragon Jesus, Mechanicsburg’s town church is highly unusual. The same page also mentions «militant agnostics», a shoutout to Buck Godot Zapgun For Hire.
  • She later meets the curate, and apparently no one’s seen a bishop in years. The cathedral seems to be run by an «abbess», who appears to basically be a bishop, on a medieval model — she has her own war-horse and everything.
  • Examination of the church itself shows that it is not particularly evil in any way, but the abbess does betray Agatha to Martellus, refusing to believe she’s the true Heterodyne.
• Circling Birdies:
  • Gil sees circling zeppelins after getting socked in the head by the aptly-named Punch.
  • Lady Vrin gets good ol' boring circling stars after being whacked twice by Agatha.
  • Agatha’s little Clanks get circling gears.
  • Maxim, on the other hand, gets circling hats.
• Circling Vultures: A filler strip notifying that Phil Foglio «is sick and feeling a mite melodramatic» shows him cowering in bed, worriedly eyeing a very large vulture perched on his covers and glaring at him.
• Citadel City:
  • Mechanicsburg — The town sport is repelling invasions. It’s famous for being impenetrable, basically an entire town of Switzerland: has a very defensible landscape, is heavily armed, booby-trapped, and anyone can be a combatant. The town itself is also a combatant, thanks to generations of Heterodyne Sparks improving it over the years. But that was twenty years ago…
  • Pretty much every city in Europe, apparently, to a greater or lesser extent — a town is a place that protects you from the big bad world. It has walls. If it did not have walls, it would presumably be only a village (or a smoking crater). Paris, Beetleburg, and Sturmhalten are the only actual datapoints here, although Van Zinzer implies that anywhere outside the important towns can be pretty nasty.
• Cleavage Window: (Вырез на груди) Ferretina’s default. It’s been noted. Quite happily. Underboobs included.
• Clock Roaches: This. And perhaps the Dreen..
• Close-Knit Community: Mechanicsburg
• Closer than They Appear: The wing mirrors on the airship Zeno of Citium warn: «Objects in mirror are more horrific than they appear». Well, when you’re living in a world full of Spark creations…
• Closer to Earth: Averted. Most of the females in this comic are utterly insane. Then again, most everyone is insane, but there’s a somewhat higher ratio of only sane MEN.
• Clothing Damage: (Урон по одежде) If you wear clothes and anything action-y happens, hope for the best. The fans certainly do.
• Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: Rakethorn figured out that Agatha was up to something because he had been studying her… and because Krosp told him.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Moloch appears to be oblivious to the fact that three different women are now interested in him. It’s either that or he’s taken a page out of Agatha’s book and is ignoring love in the interest of focusing on staying alive.
• Cock Fight: Tarvek vs Gil. Complete with hair-pulling!
• Collapsed Mid-Speech: After the ordeal in Sturmhalten Agatha passes out mid rant when the stimulants that have been keeping her awake for the past few days wear off.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: (Цветовой дресс-код)
  • Descendants of the Storm King all have red hair.
  • Smoke Knights all wear dark purple
• Color Motif: (Расцвеченная команда) The Baron’s clothes get progressively darker as the story progresses coinciding with his use of more extreme tactics against Agatha.
• Combat, Magic, Trickery Trio: If you construe sparkiness to be «magic» (which isn’t too much of a stretch seeing that sparks regularly violate the laws of nature), Zeetha handily lines up as a Warrior Princess, the Gadgeteer Genius Agatha, and Impossible Thief Violetta as such respectively.
• Combat Uninterruptus: In «Report at the Hospital», Gilgamesh is sword-fighting a madman with a Dead Man’s Switch when Sifu knocks on the hospital room’s door and enters. He asks if it’s a bad time, to which Gilgamesh—still parrying the man—replies nonchalantly by asking whether Sifu’s got news.
• Comically Missing the Point: (Комическое непонимание сути)
  • This little piece of banter between Gil and Higgs:

«	Higgs: Sir — I would like to point out that we are now inside Castle Heterodyne: a hideous uncontrolled death trap? Gil: Now you’re just trying to cheer me up. Well it won’t work. I’m still mad.	»

• • Never ever depend on Agatha regarding love advice.
  • Sorry, sveethot, but hy dun vant to be tied down! No hard feelinks!
  • In the dome where Britain keeps their Mad Scientists, several people have died under suspicious circumstances when their heads mysteriously exploded, which has been blamed on something the residents call the boilergast. The guy in charge doesn’t take their complaints seriously and lies in his reports that their deaths were caused by mundane accidents. Why? Because the boilergast is obviously nothing but superstition, so he sees no reason to investigate any further. Given that the man in question is involved in a rather sinister scheme, he may well be Obfuscating Stupidity.
• Comical Overreacting: In the middle of an invasion, Oggie is horrified to note that one of his favorite restaurants has closed.
• Comic-Book Time: (Замороженное время)
  • Lampshaded. «Sorry brodder, but de vay hyu tell stories, it vould have taken all month!»
  • And again here, when a reunion with Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure reminds Agatha of the death of Lars.

«	Agatha: For everyone else it’s been years* — but for me, it was last month.	»

• Common Tongue: (Всеобщий язык) According to the novels and RPG Europa has three, which not coincidentally are the languages most of the cast are usually speaking. Romanian is the Wulfenbach Empire’s administrative language, and Agatha’s native language, scientists and nobility favor German, and English is spoken heavily by traders and airship crews. Arabic, French, Greek, Latin, and Russian are also popular among the learned classes for various reasons.
• Compensating for Something:
  • Der Kestle about the Wulfenbach:

«	Castle Heterodyne: 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?	»

• The Heterodynes never built anything small either.

• Complexity Addiction: Sparks in general, a character traits that brings a lot of humor and lampshades. A common gag is to have the Sparks deal with a problem by brainstorming increasingly complicated and over the top mad-science solutions, only for one of the non-Spark characters to suggest the simple and obvious solution instead — especially when Von Zinzer is around.

«	Higgs: I’ve seen this over and over! Damfool Sparks who think they’ve got to send a full-scale army of giant, singing rosebushes or it isn’t romantic enough! Gil: I could build a machine that project a simulacrum of myself that would explain- Higgs: Why I smacked you? Gil: Or…I could just…write…	»

• Composite Character: (Два в одном и три в одном) In-universe Master Payne’s new Heterodyne Shows inspired by Agatha’s adventures seem a combine a few of the side characters together. The Evil Lightning King is the most blatant fusion of Prince Aaronev Sturmvoraus IV with Martellus von Blitzenguard.
• Conjunction Interruption:
  • Agatha keeps trying to interrupt with questions while Master Payne explains how one of the muses came to join the circus until Krosp drops a bucket over her head.

«	Agatha: The MUSES?! Moxana is one of the Storm King’s muses?! Payne: The same. Now— Agatha: But they were lost! Payne: They lost themselves. Now— Agatha: But—mmf Krosp: I’m listening.	»

• When the «rescue party» is trying to figure out how to escape the caverns they’re in climbing is brought up right after Dimo’s arm is amputated and Lars' attempt to point out the problem is quickly brushed aside by Maxim.

«	Maxim: Ve ken climb down. Lars: But Dimo— Maxim: Aw, he bounce pretty goot!	»

• Van can’t seem to get a word in edgewise with his self appointed assistant.

«	Vanamonde: Who are you? Vidonia: Oh, not this again. I am the person who is putting you to bed. Vanamonde: but— Vidonia: For the first time in days. Vanamonde: but— Vidonia: Because you’ve already done everything you possibly can and you need to sleep now or you will be of no use whatsoever to this town when the attack comes!	»

• Obsidian is taken off guard by Tarvek’s recovery time and ability to pretend to still be unconscious.

«	Terebithia: You may stop playing possum now, Tarvek dear. Obsidian: What? No he’s— Tarvek: Thank you for your desire for my continued well being grandmother. Obsidian: But— Terebithia: Thank you, mister Obsidian. You may leave us.	»

• Continuity Nod: (Бонус для фанатов) 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.
  • Of course, the Jäger Funetik Aksent clouded this foreshadowing a bit by the line actually being «ze kestle is mad, dyink, useless.» Since we didn’t at that point have any reason to suspect sentient architecture, «ze kestle vould know» sounds like it’s introducing a person called a kestle—a seer or something.
  • 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.
  • The very first comic has a weird-looking stuffed animalnote in the bottom of the frame. Just over twelve years later, we see it again, now in a jar in the Corbettites' hazard vault at St. Spzac.
  • Among the «voices» Gil hears in the time-frozen Mechanicsburg is someone near the church declaring «kill the abbess». The abbess of the town church betrayed the Heterodyne to Martellus. Not the sort of thing Mechanicsburg’s people take lying down.
• Convection, Schmonvection: (Какая такая конвекция?) Averted beautifully: 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.
• Cool Airship: (Летающий корабль)
  • Castle Wulfenbach, of course, though it’s almost too big to be called a «mere» airship. It’s a flying city, with at least some of the personnel on board not having set foot on solid ground in years.
  • Zola’s ship would qualify, but as a handy comic showing them both demonstrates, the Baron’s ship is tough competition.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: (Смехотворные пытки)
  • Mamma Gkika wants you to remember that it’s bad to hit women or to wake her up too early in the morning.
  • When Gil is able to make a Jägermonster ask for death, you know the punishment’s cool and unusual.
• Cool Train: (Поезда — это круто!) The dragon-headed train of the Corbettite Railway, run by a holy order who see the train itself as a religious object.
  • And then there’s… the Beast. See the Antagonists character page for details.
• Cosmic Horror Story: (Вселенские ужасы) It’s shaping up to be this kind of story depending on what the beast coming through the time portal is.
• Covered in Gunge: (По уши в…) In the «Personal Trainer» side-story, thanks to a clank creation of Agatha, Zeetha ends up (according to Krosp) thrown out «into the pig sty, the duck pond, the beehives, a vat of oatmeal, and down the main chimney.» Not too surprisingly, the very-much-covered in gunge (and bees) Zeetha is really mad at her student afterward.
• Covert Pervert: (Тайный извращенец)
  • Zeetha could have told him he wasn’t wearing pants earlier.
  • «You poor girl! You must tell us all about it!»
• Cranial Plate Ability: Inverted: One of the Corbettites has a steel plate in his head; while fighting a monster that eats and controls metal, the plate is a liability instead.
• Crapsaccharine World: (Приглаженная помойка) Europa is kind of a horrible place to live when you look past the coating of awesome steampunk technology, prevalent chivalric attitude, and cheerful fiction. Actual science is actually dead, which has effectively halted theoretical study, which means that the development of atomic energy, computers, and decent aircraft is not going to happen. Why bother working on fruitless theories that might become something much later when you can have awesome stuff now? Societal progress has (except for a few things such as the role of women and racism) also basically halted, with most of Europe frozen in the pre-Victorian era. Democracy is unheard of, and the Spark nobility often rule with an iron fist. The distribution of wealth is still largely at the top, with no sort of working-class consumer society developing. Oh, and there are monsters, diseases and devices that will kill you.
• Crapsack World: (Мир-помойка) The world is dominated by people and things who’d fit right in with Warhammer 40,000 Orks; a few years back the Other systematically leveled much of Europe using meteor-attacks before mysteriously falling silent. And while you’re somewhat on the top of the food-chain if you’re a Spark, that’s only if you’ve got the education and resources to use your intelligence properly; if you’re a Spark born to an impoverished village cobbler, the most you can do is build a dangerous boot — always assuming your neighbours don’t come after you with Torches and Pitchforks. The only thing keeping things 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. To quote the Secret Blueprints;

«	The Gifted have always preferred to keep their knowledge proprietary. Machines and creatures must be built (or at least finished) only by the Masters and information is too great a weapon to be casually shared. There is great disregard for the state of the common people, and thus most scientific breakthroughs of the last hundred years or so have resulted not in a higher standard of living for all, but in new and interesting ways to smash your neighbor’s castle. Most people outside of the main urban centers still live in a pre-industrial world made strange by the addition of cannibalized parts of discarded machines and the danger of real monsters lurking in the wilderness that surrounds traditional towns. Travel, although simple for those with airships or giant walking battle clanks, is a serious undertaking for the majority of ordinary people who must still use foot or animal transport on bad or nonexistent roads. One exception is the railway system of the Corbettite Monks, but this serves a limited area and has its own dangers. Even without the ravages of the Long War, life is uncertain.	»

• However, Klaus' reluctant conquest has created A World Half Full. Thanks to him, 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 — to quote Agatha H. and the Airship City;

«	One of the Wulfenbach Empire’s groundbreaking ideas had been that instead of exterminating rival Sparks after defeating them, Klaus hired them. He kept them happy by keeping them supplied with materials, tools, and food, and a dedicated staff that made sure they ate it. They found themselves free of the petty concerns that had plagued their lives, such as what to actually do with that small country once they had proved that they could conquer it with nothing more than a navy composed of intelligent lobsters. He also gave them challenges, adoring minions, and on a regular basis, a large dinner celebrating their accomplishments along with a beautiful calligraphed award expressing the sincere thanks of the Empire in general and Klaus in particular. As a result, almost any one of the Sparks Klaus had defeated over the years would have disintegrated you if you had seriously attempted to offer them their freedom, and they gleefully built and repaired the airships and the armies of clanks as well as the other terrifying monstrosities that supported the Pax Transylvania. This easily made up for the tightly guarded warehouses full of devices that made ants run backwards or could remove the rings from Saturn that they occasionally delivered in their free time. And of course, regular science marched on, if only in self-defense.	»

• And then Klaus time-locks himself inside Mechanicsburg, demonstrating the key problem with dictatorships — especially skilled ones; his empire collapses overnight, the Long War is raging again, and copies of the Other are off somewhere running amok. 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.	»

• 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: (Предусмотрительный герой)
  • Zola Malfeazium, as acknowledged even by The Other, who took care… only to discover she’s been outmaneuvered once more.
  • Mechanicsburg itself. They have a system that showers the entire town in case they are attacked with poisonous or sleeping gas.
  • How Crazy-Prepared is Castle Heterodyne? It had preparations that allowed it to remain conscious and partially functional in the case of Mechanicsburg being attacked by a weapon that stops time, and mentions having more contingencies that one would even think possible. It was even defending the town with the Thorn Hedge while still locked inside stasis.
  • Zeetha wears special underwear — as do many actresses, apparently — against the chance that somebody uses Dr. Prometheus Bunbury’s «Wacky Weave Destabilizer» on them — a device which disintegrates clothing without harming the wearer.
  • Violetta in particular, and the Smoke Knights in general. She carries a Grappling-Hook Pistol here, weapons, stimulants (in multiple grades up to 11), poisons, antidotes, solvents, elixirs, and a «hunting light», at all times. And that’s just some of what we’ve seen so far.
  • Sparks, the lot of 'em. They’ve always got gadgets and tools appropriate for their needs.

«	Sleipnir: Looks like an overloaded junction router! Do you have any butter? Violetta: Uh… Sleipnir: Never mind! Brought my own!	»

• Maxim uses a fake Pearl of Skibazz to get past a ghostly submarine pirate who is blocking the way. He’s saving the real one for emergencies. Of course.

«	Dr. Rakethorn: I have… so many questions.	»

• Creepy Cathedral: (Готический собор) Welcome to the Red Cathedral
• Crime of Self-Defense: A short-lived running gag about Gil defending his killing Dr. Beetle with «He threw a bomb at me!»
• Crippling Overspecialization: (Жертва сверхспециализации) The elite Vespiary squad are deadly against some of the most dangerous monsters in the series. Other people tend to view them as no threat, correctly. Their intended purpose is protecting humans from wasps, bringing them close to Technical Pacifists when it comes to fighting humans. Conversely, killing slaver wasps is reflexive to them.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке)
  • Da Boyz. Oggie is the least bright of the three and he and Maxim are usually very friendly and happy-go-lucky, 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.)
• Cryptic Background Reference: All over the place, as Chekhov’s Guns, but Sanaa’s backstory is one of the few that is likely never going to be explained further.
• Cultured Badass: (Культурный крутой)
  • Klaus and Gil at times, but definitely Tarvek.
  • The Jägergenerals can be this when they’re not beating the hell out of someone.
  • Wooster’s Badass Normal status puts him here as well.
  • Dolokhov can make tea or beat people up with equal effectiveness.
  • Jorgi, but don’t you dare tell anybody.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: (Избиение младенцев)
  • The first time we see the Lapinemoths, them against Agatha, Zeetha, and Othar (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER) was this.
  • Two in rapid succession. Zola drinks Movit #11 and one-shots Zeetha, but despite her incredible fighting ability, Higgs is beating her down so badly the panels can’t keep up with his attacks.
  • Very early on, Dr. Beetle’s Town Watch gets mowed down by the Wulfenbach clanks.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • little clanks can inspire this.
  • Maxina does it, but she doesn’t really like it.

«	Agatha: Who’s an adowable widdle miwacle of science? Who—?	»

• Krosp regularly uses this to get information (and food). It has become his catchphrase whenever someone asks how he came to know this or get a hand on that.

«	Krosp: I’m cute.	»

• Cutlery Escape Aid: Tarvek uses a fork to get out of handcuffs after being kidnapped by The Incorruptible Library/his family.

«	Tarvek: I’ve obviously been abducted. It’s your uniform, you see, no Wulfenbach sigils to be seen—plus, Gil wouldn’t leave me shackled… and if he did he’d never let me have a fork. So much more versatile than a knife.	»

• Cut the Juice: Anticlimatic variant — «He’s going to FRY— AND NO POWER ON EARTH CAN STOP IT!»
• Cutting the Knot: (Разрубить Гордиев узел)
  • Agatha’s method for dealing with Gil’s super-fencing clank is this twice in a row. First, she simply throws her foil at the target button that stops it. Second time, after it starts back up again and is wise to Agatha’s projective attacks, she walks towards it without any aggressive gestures and pushes the button with her own finger (all the while both times Gil is furiously defending against its onslaught).
  • Krosp’s method of dealing with an out-of-control clank.

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

• Moloch solves the problem of an overloading panel by… pulling out the plug. He earns a Dope Slap for his efforts.

• Cyanide Pill: After Gil’s plan to help Moloch goes horribly awry when the slaver engine is started up on Castle Wulfenbach, Gil offers this up as a final aid since Moloch’s being shipped as a prisoner to Castle Heterodyne (a death sentence in all but name). He didn’t use it, so it might come back as a Chekhov’s Boomerang.
• Cyber Cyclops: (Киберциклоп) Most little Clanks, including the ones holding the Beast and Castle Heterodyne. Subverted, though, as it doesn’t stop them from being more cute than sinister. Well, usually. Red Eyes, Take Warning, much?

D

• Damsel in Distress: (Дева в беде) 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.
• Dance of Romance: (Танец любви) After years of strips required to get the Baron and Lucrezia out of their heads so they could even have such a moment, Gil and Agatha finally share one, much to Tarvek’s consternation.
• Dark Action Girl: (Зло с женским лицом)
  • Bangladesh DuPree. Don’t let her cheerful attitude or status as perhaps the most consistently fully-clothed female semi-regular throw you. She’s probably the most Ax-Crazy evil non-Spark in the series.
  • Zola turns out to be one as well.
  • There is some debate whether Lucrezia Mongfish was a Dark Action Girl or merely The Chessmaster.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: (Инвалид на троне) Although the Princess Anevka Sturmvoraus was never the Big Bad of the Myth Arc, she fell victim to this by having her body put on a life-support pod that was portable and installed into a clank body, i.e. a robot. It should be noted that by the time the reader meets her, she has died, and the robot, now imprinted with her Ax-Crazy personality, carries on unknowingly. Lucrezia Mongfish also is an example of this, since she was put into a clank body and kept switching between them to survive.
• Dartboard of Hate: (Ненавистная мишень) Violetta had one after she was reassigned to Mechanicsburg.
• Dead Guy on Display: The giant glass jars of Beetleburg that Taurus Beetle stuffs law-breakers into. Only applies for part of their tenure in those jars as they gotta be dead to be a Dead Guy On Display. If you look closely, there are mummified remains in some of the jars (during the «late for class» sequence).
• Dead-Hand Shot: (Свисающая рука) In the flashback to the night the Other attacked Castle Heterodyne Agatha’s brother and Carson’s son were both killed by falling debris and their hands are shown resting on the floor beyond the debris when Carson found them.
• The Dead Have Names:
  • Albia, God Empress of Britain, lists off all the names of those who died during an attack. Tweedle is a little disturbed to find that he still remembers every single name even hours later, and Gil explains that something about Albia’s power means that they will in fact remember those names for the rest of their lives.
  • As Martellus is dispatching a zombie, he says «You were Prince Huvart Desplains, protector of West LeSalle. Go, now, to your rest.»
• Deader than Dead: (Полное уничтожение) While Death Is Relatively Cheap in this universe (see below) you can only resurrect the person themselves, as opposed to merely their body, if their brain isn’t damaged. Madame Olga dies when she’s thrown from a cart and her head strikes a rock; while Klaus was able to fully restore her body, her brain was unsalvageable and he planned to install another one in what amounted to an empty shell. Professor Diaz had his head smashed in with a marshmallow gun by Zola, and his colleagues Mittelmind and Mezzasalma bluntly say there’s no hope of reviving him and start planning to use his body for raw materials.
• Deadly Deferred Conversation: Klaus' promising to explain everything to Gil is somewhere between this and Tempting Fate, ensuring that something would happen to prevent it. Klaus has been subsequently wasped and frozen in time, and the imprint of him living in Gil’s head doesn’t seem particularly inclined to share information.
• Deadly Dodging: Two giant monsters are trying to attack an airship flying between them, but thanks to some Mad Science propulsion, it avoids them by propelling downward very fast, leading to the one-eyed monster punching the other in the face.
• Deadly Euphemism: (Этот субъект больше никого не побеспокоит) When Zola runs into Agatha while in disguse as the Queen of the Dawn someone suggests that maybe she’ll even get to sing for the Heterodyne. In respose Zola draws her gun while saying «Oh, I’ll give her a song» before Terebithia snags the gun.
• Deadly Upgrade: Movit #11 makes the user a LOT stronger and faster. It is also fatal or nearly fatal to the user.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом/Язвительный насмешник) Where to begin?
  • Krosp and Moloch seem to be in the story to snark at it, but almost everybody else gets their turn.
  • Sometimes Dr. Sun has such moments.
  • And Zeetha.
• Death by Gluttony: (Несовместимое с жизнью чревоугодие) The Deepdwellers have trouble stopping eating if there’s food in front of them, and will continue to eat until they die «like goldfish».
• Death by Irony: Two fold for Dr. Merlot. Author notes point out that the doctor probably would never achieve the Spark. Merlot burns all records, labs, notes, and the cryptigraphers when they discover that Agatha is a Heterodyne because he was afraid that he had expelled her and couldn’t find her. He was afraid he would be blamed. He ends up in Castle Heterodyne and it turns out that if he had just told the baron who Agatha was, he probably would have been rewarded because she was captive on Castle Wulfenbach at that time. Furthermore, he does achieve the Spark due to his hatred of Agatha as he blames her for his imprisonment in Castle Heterodyne. Achieving the spark was his lifelong goal and his actions of burning the evidence both led directly to his death when the Castle killed him to protect Agatha.
• Death Glare: (Убийственный взгляд)
  • Gil gives one to Zeetha along with a brief speech.
  • The normally unflappable Airman Higgs demonstrates an impressive one.
  • Actually, the Baron is merely amused by DuPree’s mistake, but yikes!
  • As listed above under Boring, but Practical, Moloch gets one from a group of Sparks after he spoils their fun.
• Death Is Cheap: (Дешёвая смерть) 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, although the novelizations note that the success rate is 1 to 50. Examples:
  • Punch and Judy.
  • Agatha and Tarvek curing themselves of a disease by killing and reviving themselves.
  • «… Dot don’t vork so much…»
  • Played straight with Dr. Mittelmind, who apparently dies enough to have trained his assistant to revive him in under five minutes.
  • The noble class has had to determine strict laws on the matter of title inheritance after reanimation.
  • The last three panels say it all, really. (Warning, not kid-friendly)
• Death of the Hypotenuse: (Убийство любовного соперника)
  • Lars, anyone?
  • The Castle Heterodyne arc is an inversion of this, since a new hypotenuse came into play and a major chunk of a story arc was spent preventing his death.
  • And one of the «what if» stories even lampshaded this topic in amusing fashion. Why two boyfriends? (Cheshire Cat Grins from two female cast members and female co-author.) «Deal with it.»
• Death Ray: (Чудо-лучи)
  • 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».
  • Among Sparks, comparing death rays is a courtship ritual. The zappier someone’s zap gun is, the more attractive they’re considered. «(Person) has a magnificent Death Ray» isn’t a funny euphemism.
• Defeat as Backstory: The Fifty Families are the traditional ruling houses of Europa, and they are all furious at having an «upstart» like Baron Wulfenbach having defeated them and forced them into subjugation to his Empire. The Storm King conspiracy gains grounds due to this as they all want one of their own to become the new Storm King and rule Europa and to that end worked for years to create a Storm King shaped hole, at least in people’s minds, which causes the brutal and bloody swift return of the long war as soon as the Baron is out of the picture.
• Defeat by Modesty: (Раздевание равносильно поражению) Unintentionally invoked by Gil when he accidentally zaps Zeetha’s clothes off. Ultimately subverted when she chooses to keep fighting anyways.
• 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 hat.
• Defensive «What?»:
  • Baron Wulfenbach utters one when Dr. Sun calls him out for leaving his hospital bed in a «Medical Transport» clank.
  • When Dimo realizes that the self-powered coach they are using is being cannibalized by Agatha for her latest invention, just as they’re trying to escape Parisian clanks, Agatha’s sole response to his glare is a dismissive «What?» Then again, she’s in the Madness Place, so it shouldn’t be too surprising.
• Defiant to the End: (Непокорные, несгибаемые, несломленные) The Beast towards Agatha/Tweedle/The Corbettites as the fight turns against it.
• Deliberately Monochrome: (Строгий монохром) 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. (Bright searing color, see Art Evolution above.) 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.
• Demoted to Extra: (Низведён до камео) Pretty much everyone but Agatha and the Castle are this in the video game, but special shout out to Sleipnir, Theo, Othar, who show up only after the final boss fight is over. Sanaa also gets this, to a slightly lesser degree, as she is present for the tutorial level before disappearing until the end of the game.
• Department of Redundancy Department: (Верёвка — вервие простое) «To that person, I would give body and soul… and body. Do you understand?»
• Destination Defenestration: (Дефенестрация)
  • Seems to happen to Othar a lot on Castle Wulfenbach.

«	Othar: Foul!	»

• One of Martellus’s advisors defies his order and then starts talking down to him. So Martellus shuts him up.

• Determinator: (Превозмогатель) Zeetha arrives at Agatha’s bedroom to wake her for training only to find Agatha had built an fighting exoskeleton to stall Zeetha. It took her 15 minutes to beat the machine. During which it knocked her through two windows, into the pig sty, the duck pond, the beehives, a vat of oatmeal, and down the main chimney.
• Deus Exit Machina: Castle Heterodyne is able to instantly crush anyone in a «live» room, with extraordinary precision. Naturally, much of 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.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: The Great Cetacean Ahnkoranth seeks to convene with Agatha over important matters. However, despite being a giant ancient whale, it turns out to be quite personable, is distracted easily by being able to see its innards through the eyes of its Willing Channeler, and even gets cheeky about things that the channeler was trying to hide from it.
• Dilating Door: Zola and her crew when she’s trying to usurp power as a false Hetrodyne get stuck for a while trying to force a dilating door open in Castle Heterodyne. The castle kills one of her lackeys and paints «The Heterodyne Must Enter Alone» above the door in his blood.
• Direct Line to the Author:
  • 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»). Phil Foglio is also shown telling the tale in the street right on page one. (An alternative tryout sketch released online seems to have Agatha herself telling the story to her grandchildren.) The first print collection, Agatha Heterodyne & The Beetleburg Clank, is 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. We even see the Foglios meet while Agatha is in Paris.
  • During 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.
• Dirty Business: Barry, in the flashback where he gave Agatha her locket, is crying over the effect it will have on her.
• Distracted by the Sexy:
  • During the Corbettite train ride, Agatha takes in Lady Margarella Selnikov, a fugitive pro-Tarvek holdout in the Storm King Conspiracy after Martellus strongarms his way in. Since Agatha herself is also trying to travel incognito, she can’t go the Big Showy Clank route in thwarting any would-be assassins for Margarella. So she instead hatches a plan to distract any intruders with the ruse that she is in the middle of changing dress and is clad only in a bath towel. After she shrieks and flusters the propriety of the intruder, they either walk away, or push the issue only to be gunned down by a death ray-packing Krosp. After several botches, it finally works.
  • Hilariously, Zeetha and Higgs being Distracted by the Sexy is the only reason they made it out of Mechanicsburg before the time stop.
  • The two smoke knights that followed Agatha into the hidden library. One is there to spy, the other’s job is to distract him.

«	Malek: …Does this mean no more kissing? Varpa: …Less kissing.	»

• Martellus intentionally invokes this on Queen!Lucrezia via the Restraining Bolt he placed on Agatha, as they’re sharing a body, giving Trelawny, Tarvek, Zeetha, Gil, and Agatha the chance to forcibly remove Lucrezia from Agatha’s mind.

• Distracted from Death: The Master of Paris is murdered in cold blood less than a block away from a crowd that was just cheering him on while he fought the Storm King by a backstabbing traitor. His death goes unnoticed due to the spectacle Martellus is making, having grabbed the Storm King’s crown and started up an impromptu parade. The Master dies quietly with no one the wiser until Colette realizes what has happened to her father and furiously takes control of the city as the new master.
• Divine Right of Kings: The novels poke fun at this, noting that all the royals are really just descendants of cutthroats and brigands, who are now annoyed that, with the industrial revolution and the rise of the Spark, their power is significantly less meaningful than it once was.
  • This is taken far more seriously by Martellus von Blitzengaard, who’s spent more of his screentime working to legitimize his claim to the title of Storm King than he has actually doing much with that claim. Chief among his machinations include securing the allegiance of an order of train-running Monks whose authority and sovereignty is respected all throughout Europa, and acquiring the sword of the first Storm King, an artifact with a LOT of power.
• Do-Anything Robot: Dingbots!
• Doctor’s Orders: Both Dr. Sun and Mama Gkika believe in their authority in medicinal matters. And if you try to go against them, you will end up back in their care — only in a much worse state.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Gill responds with an eager «Wow! Really?» when Agatha tells him he’s coming to her lab so she can properly look him over. Also appears as a trope in plays within the comic.
  • Gil and Agatha’s rapid-fire exchange of ideas on how to cure Tarvek gradually get more breathless and excited as they go on, culminating in a Geeky Turn-On. Mad science as foreplay, full-on experimentation for the sex. Oh, and did we mention Gil was shirtless the whole time?
  • And then a threesome. With an explosive, satisfying conclusion.
  • Violetta plainly said it:

«	Violetta: Jeez, you Sparks get all into your freakish, twisted courtship rituals—	»

• Death rays:

«	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.	»

• Also this slightly disturbing moment. Let’s just say she’ll be doing more than handing him tools.
• In the novelization, Agatha thinks she knows why Gil is denying having a Death Ray.

«	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!	»

• Baron Wulfenbach is not on good terms with England.

• A Dog Ate My Homework: (Собака съела мою домашнюю работу) «Sorry, professor, my latest experiment ate my lecture notes…»
• Domed Hometown: The city of London is set in a massive series of undersea glass domes, due to a cabal of unknown Sparks causing the whole of Britain to sink into the ocean.
• Doomed Hometown: (Враги сожгли родную хату) Years before the start of the comic Klaus Wulfenbach returned to a world in chaos with the long war going strong, revenants terrorizing the countryside and his own family’s historical seat and castle in ruins. He responded by creating a flying fortress, destroying the remaining forces of the Other and conquering every Spark and noble house that refused to stop fighting, creating the Pax Transylvania.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom:
  • PIT OF DOOOOM (patent pending).
  • And the Doom Bell, which has finally been rung! DOOM!
  • The Aguron King has his Grubby Grubs of DOOM, which he feeds his victims to.
• Dope Slap:
  • Agatha slaps Krosp after the cat suggests that the scared kid they found in a tree would solve their provisions problem.
  • A joking one between Eotain and Shurdlu when they meet Agatha again in a Call-Back to this comic. Which one is doing the smacking is unclear.
  • Zeetha gives one to Gil for asking her to transmit a corny line to Agatha.
  • It’s also common for Maxim and Dimo to slap Oggie around whenever he’s saying something stupid, but since they’re Jägermonsters it tends to be very solid punches. Jenka joins too, if she’s around.
  • «Fool! Never total your points out loud!»
  • And another one, although frankly Moloch didn’t deserve it; it’s just that Sparks hate having their melodramatics cut short by perfectly mundane solutions.
  • Moloch gets his turn, though, displaying his newfound Level in Badass.
• Double Entendre: (Шутка с двойным дном)
  • The Castle teasing Agatha about her attraction to Gil: «All the Wulfenbach Sparks are known for their over-sized machinery…» Also figures in about half the references to Death Rays. And almost every reference to toolbelts.
  • Apparently, The Socket Wench of Prague is pretty brutal in this regard.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Professor Tiktoffen was everybody’s inside man.
• The Dragon: (Правая рука главгада) Vrin was this to The Other during the incident in Sturmhalten being the leader of the Geisterdamen.
• Dragons Versus Knights: When the battle between Franz, the biomechanical dragon construct who guards Mechanicsburg, and another dragon is interrupted by a group of giant robots sent by the Knights of Jove, Franz asks the other dragon if these guys are on his side. The latter is apparently quite insulted by the implication that he would associate with knights.

«	Franz: Ah— some of your… friends? Red dragon: Don’t be insulting. They’re knights!	»

• Dramatic Irony: (Драматическая ирония) Kjarl, who has just been freed from being Unstuck in Time, finally manages to get a coherent conversation in about the time stop afflicting Mechanicsburg. He admits that with the information available to him, he’s not quite sure how bad it is… but reassures everyone that it can’t be too bad — otherwise there’d be Dreen. Y’know, those same Dreen that had been revealed seven real-world years ago.
• Dramatic Stutter:
  • When Otilia’s body isn’t in the best shape. He-he-hhello, S.H.O.D.A.N.:

«	Otilia: Yesss—but let’s ju/ust add the next step, sha/all we?	»

• Also present with Tinka.

• Drill Tank: (Геоход) The Deep 6 Model; also something of a Punny Name.
• Dr. Jerk: (Козлящий медик)
  • Less jerk and more questionable bedside manner. Agatha to Tarvek.
  • Dr. Sun also has that reputation.

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

• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация)
  • It’s strongly suggested that the old Heterodynes were this to the whole continent. Even after Bill and Barry redeemed their family’s name and there was no Heterodyne in residence, people of Europa felt much safer with Mechanicsburg completely disarmed.
    • Barry himself is this to Lucrezia. The very thought that he is unaccounted for and could still return terrifies her, as shown here.
  • The Dreen. Even Bangladesh DuPree, the Jäger generals, and slaver wasps are terrified of them.
  • The Baron’s Pax Transylvania is built on the idea that he will annihilate anyone who dares to break the peace. It works well enough that Zola tells Lucrezia that he rules Europa by virtue of being too powerful to oppose.
• Drop Pod: (Десантная капсула) Klaus has a personal set of «drop armor» kept onboard Castle Wulfenbach. Its only in-series appearance thusfar has been when he used it during the Siege of Mechanicsburg to get past the town’s air defense system and " «surrender unconditionally» " to General Gkika.

«	Krosp: Up there! It’s coming in fast, and throwing off everything the castle’s sending against it! Van: I can’t believe it! Our defenses are only slowing it down! Vidonia: What is it? Krosp: I’ve got the Wulfenbach fleet memorized, and I have no idea. Ruxala: Is it a bomb? Tarvek: It’s too slow and complicated to be a bomb.	»

• Dude, Where’s My Respect?: (Ты меня уважаешь?) Gil suffered from this regularly until he ascended to his father’s title. «What do I have to do?! I just took down an entire army of clanks, and still I get treated like a halfwit child!»
• Due to the Dead:
  • The Jägers feel it is important that those that ride with them and help protect the Hetrodynes are not left on the battlefield to rot or be used by the enemy. First shown with Maxim and Lars.
  • Von Zinzer is adamant that no deceased prisoners of the Castle be looted or used for parts, a sentiment his fellow prisoners do not share.
• Dull Surprise: While Dimo is usually quite expressive when he is laying on the floor getting his bearings and realizing that the recent explosion did not kill him he blandly states: «Huh. Howzabout dot. Hy is not dead. Dot is verra sooprizink.»
• Dumbass Has a Point: (Идиот был прав) Rustics say about Geisterdamen that they cause revenants, steal children, blight crops — the usual, right? Then again, Two out of Three Ain’t Bad.
• Dynamic Entry: Zeetha, defining «good timing».

«	Professor Mezzasalma: And who the devil is this?!	»

• Dysfunction Junction: (Они все больны)
  • The Sturmvoraus family. Dear Gott, the Sturmvoraus family. Their name, when translated out of German, means «Storm ahead» (in the sense of a weather forecast) so that’s no surprise.

«	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.	»

• 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.
• There’s only one dynasty that doesn’t seem prone to it: the Wulfenbachs. And, in a way, that’s worrying.

E

• Early-Installment Weirdness: (Странности в первой части) Europe is consistently called «Europa» by everyone in the comic — except the very first volumes, where it’s called «Europe» a few times.
• Eating the Enemy: Jägers get rather excited about fighting the Other’s wasps, because not only do the things cause mind control which the Jägers revile they’re also tasty bugs that the Jägers love eating.
• Eating the Eye Candy: While Gil gets Othar back up to speed after the Time Tunnelers extract him from the Take-Five Bomb field, several Wulfenbach minions ogle the shirtless Othar… and then all express disappointment at Gil’s issuance of Othar’s turtleneck.
  • Before when Gil was treated at Mamma Gkika' bar after stopping war clanks alone, he was stripped naked. When he woke up and still not wearing pants, bar wenches likes it.
• Eat the Summoner: The monster the Quintillius Harmon and his cultist minions summon makes an attempt to eat him before he ascends and gains control over it.
• Edible Bludgeon: The granddaughter of an old shopkeeper, whose hat Maxim wanted as a trophy, threatened to hit him with a giant kosher salami, if he wouldn’t tell her why he put a Jägermonster (Maxim) through a window.

«	Old Man Death: AAAH! Not with the schlognwurst!note It’s expensive!	»

• Eldritch Abomination: (Чужеродное чудовище)
  • There are extra-dimensional horrors scary enough to dissuade even Mad Scientists like the Heterodynes from messing with time. When time is disturbed, they notice. They worry even the Castle.
  • And two of them decided they were going to work for Baron Wulfenbach. They are called the Dreen, and they terrify even Jäger Generals.
• Emergency Cargo Dump: During the attack on Mechanicsburg, an airship crew realizes that the city’s anti-aircraft defences are still operational. They begin frantically throwing everything they can overboard in an effort to gain altitude. This eventually includes their employer, who threatened to have them all killed for running away.
• Emperor Scientist: (Государь и учёный) The entire world is run by these. Baron Wulfenbach is an especially fine specimen.
• Enemy Civil War: (Раздоры среди злодеев) The Knights of Jove/Storm King Conspiracy is not as unified as one might think… Some of them are even on Agatha’s side.
• Enemy Mine: (От вражды к союзу) It’d be easier to list the times where this trope isn’t in effect. Agatha’s at odds with the Wulfenbachs, who’s at odds with Tarvek Sturmvoraus, who’s at odds with Martellus von Blitzengaard, who’s at odds with the rest of their family, and so on and so forth. And that’s just the main characters. There are so many sides at play with so many conflicting goals that it’s no wonder Europa’s spent so much time at war with itself. And yet, pretty much all of these parties have had cause to ally with the next against some more immediate threat, or against The Other in general.
• Enfant Terrible: (Маленькие гадёныши) 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?	»

• Entitled Bastard: The sneering Strinbeck orders the crew to keep Zola’s pink zeppelin in Mechanicsburg airspace, even though the crew has observed the reactivation of Mechanicsburg’s surface-to-air defense net. A subsequent order to dump useless objects overboard for an emergency climb suddenly becomes Destination Defenestration.
• Epic Hail:
  • Agatha’s signal from Sturmhalten.
  • The Doom Bell.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодеев есть любимые) The old Heterodynes have been described as monsters. But as bad as they were, they did at least care about their family and minions.
  • It might be a bit of a stretch to label them as «evil», but it’s clear that Professor Mittelmind and Fraulein Snaug genuinely care about each other.
• Even Evil Has Standards: (Даже у зла есть стандарты)
  • Averted in the radio dramas: Othar’s query to a pirate captain of «Isn’t that a bit sexist?» is responded to by saying that they’re evil, they’re basically politically incorrect for a living!
  • And Bang apparently hates mind control. Run amok and cause pointless destruction? She’ll want to date you! But go in for mind control, or allow it to be done to you…uh-uh!
• Every Car Is a Pinto: (Бензин — это взрывчатка) Discussed, with crashing airships.

«	Goomblast: Vy dun it blow op? Other General: 'Cos dot only hoppens in dose cheap novels, hyu old fool.	»

• Everyone Can See It: (Секрет Полишинеля) Almost everyone can tell that Gil and Agatha are quite besotted with each other, sometimes just by hearing them talk about each other. The trope is played with, because the two involved also see it but can’t do much about it.
• Everybody’s Dead, Dave: (В общем, все умерли) The Bad Future described in the Othar’s Twitter side material ends up as this: after the natural death of his wife, Othar Tryggvaasen returns to Europa to find it empty of all life- except for one Tarvek Sturmvoraus, squatting in the irradiated ruins of Sturmhalten.

«	I tell him what I’ve seen in Europa. He weeps. Can’t say I blame him. He confesses that he doesn’t know if there are people left anywhere.	»

• Everyone Is Armed: One poor Smoke Knight experiences this here
• Everything Trying to Kill You: (Враждебная местность) Castle Heterodyne. Also, again, Showtime!
• Evil-Detecting Dog: (Животные чувствуют зло) Or Evil-Detecting Weasel in this case — the «Wasp eaters», an engineered construct species made for the Wulfenbach Vespiary Squad designed to detect and sometimes kill Slaver Wasps. They were mostly pointless before, since slaver-wasped people turned into rather conspicuous mindless Revenants. However, it’s been discovered that the zombie revenants were an aberration, and the true intent of the slaver wasps was to create completely hidden sleeper agents, which the wasp eaters are quite useful in detecting. A pack of fully grown wasp eaters can snap up a large number of infector wasps and the make quick work of a warrior wasp, and they even developed a giant wasp eater to combat the possibility of non-sessile wasp queens. Agatha now has one as a Weasel Mascot.
• Evil Doppelgänger: During Rakethorn, Maxim and Dimo’s three minute Offscreen Moment of Awesome they fought evil doppelgangers from another dimension. Dimo and Maxim’s had evil goatees.
• Evil Gloating: (Долгая злодейская речь) Sparks in general, and particularly evil ones, seem to be fond of doing this.
• Evil Hand: May be a side effect of the Spark, as Agatha demonstrates.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: (У злодеев проблемы с юмором) Castle Heterodyne is «dangerous, twisted and worst of all… it likes to think it has a sense of humor».
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Zola and Lucrezia each discovered this while trying to manipulate the other.
• Evil Laugh: (Злодейский смех)
  • Or sometimes, not so much an evil laugh as an insane one; basically every Spark at some point while they’re in The Madness Place.
  • Zola post-Movit-11 has had a few.
  • Lucrezia too, though it’s not entirely apparent if it’s the Spark, her personality, or both causing it.
• Evil Matriarch: (Скверная мамочка) Lucrezia Mongfish, aka the Other, who is both the heroine Agatha’s mother and the comic’s Big Bad. It is heavely hinted that she sired her child just to be a vessel to use for Demonic Possession.
• Evil Overlord: (Тёмный Властелин) Subverted in the person of Baron Klaus Wulfenbach. For one thing, he doesn’t want to be Overlord — he’s there mainly to stop less reasonable mad scientists who ran rampant laying waste to everything. For another, he’s not actually an evil ruler — the main rules of his empire boil down to 'don’t start fights' and 'turn over all Sealed Evil in a Can for proper disposal'. However, he’s ruthless in dealing with anyone (or anything) that threatens the stability of his domain, and he’s willing to employ at least one homicidal psychopath (Bangladesh DuPree). Although his willingness to use DuPree is entirely based on the fact that she can be relied on to do the least pleasant jobs Klaus requires without hesitation, and keeping her around means that she’s one less problem he has to deal with.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Though how evil he was is This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.debatable, this becomes the case for Baron Klaus Wulfenbach’s empire post-Time Skip. Various Sparks and nobles all fight for territory and power, with some of the major factions being Klaus' son Gilgamesh (in control of the vastly-reduced Empire), the Knights of Jove/Martellus von Blitzengard, and the Queen of the Dawn (Zola, who possesses the memories of the Other).
• Evil Redhead: (Рыжий-бесстыжий) Pretty much the entire extended Valois family has been seen to have the same shade of red hair. Although not all of them are quite as evil as others, most fall into this category one way or another just because of their scheming and backstabbing. Out of the confirmed redheads:
  • Aaronev is a former redhead (considering someone mistook his redhaired son for him) who has killed multiple girls, including This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.his own daughter, in an attempt to download the mind of his former love interest into a new body.
  • Martellus has kidnapped Agatha and altered her bodily chemistry so she is forced to stay near him at all times so that he can force her to marry him, and has tried to kill Tarvek and Gil multiple times. His sister Xerxsephnia isn’t quite so bad, but is still triple-crossing Martellus, Gil, and Agatha so that she can discredit Agatha and trick Gil into marrying her.
  • As for the family’s few White Sheep: Tarvek is still not exactly the best role model, having double-crossed and betrayed multiple protagonists and antagonists, with most of his «good» actions being calculated to his benefit.
• Evil Versus Evil: (Зло против зла) Post-Time Skip, and the Geisterdamen are against the Queen of Dawn, also known as Zola. Although it’s hinted that it’s all a set-up on the Queen’s part.
• Exactly What I Aimed At:
  • Lucrezia flings a sword past Anevka, provoking a derisive jeer. But she hit what she was aiming at.
  • Oh, Zola. Zeetha wasn’t throwing her sword at you. But you may wish she had.
  • Ahh, Tiktoffen… Blunt weapons may not be as deadly as a knife, but they are exceedingly more proficient at smashing things. Like your wrist-mounted inhibitor that prevented Castle Heterodyne from making you a target of its cruel caprices.
  • When a spark duels using lightning and raw energy, we get a variant without anything being thrown: «Exactly What I Calibrated For.»
• Exact Words: (Буквально понятые слова/Не вся правда)
  • Dame Aedith’s cart has signs on it asking if people have anaemia, or allergies to garlic, crosses or sunlight, and notes that it can help. It never specifies as to how.
  • In the «Revenge of the Weasel Queen» side-story, Agatha announces that she’s going to test her «pocket de-arming device.» Her opponent sneers, proclaiming he has no need of weapons. The device… doesn’t actually have anything to do with removing weapons.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask:
  • Gil has a habit of doing this.
    • Hearing a report from Dr. Sun while fighting against a pair of assassins sent after his father.
    • Making some difficult Mad Science preparation… while in the middle of a fight with DuPree. She’s even unwittingly helping him.
  • His father Klaus can also be seen casually crushing enemy clanks while giving orders to his underlings.
• Explain, Explain… Oh, Crap!: (Метод утёнка)
  • After a non-Wulfenbach Dreen suddenly appears to Gil and tells him he will go to Paris, he realizes what Dreen really are.

«	Dreen: Now- you will experience an important revelation. Gil: Wait, I’ll what? Bang: Blood and ash, I hate it when they pull that omniscient act. Gil: They’re not omniscient. My father says they’re simply tangential to time as we know it, and… Beat* Gil: «And… they had hats…»	»

• Later, Agatha’s group is informed that an incoming ship is transporting a prisoner who hijacked one of England’s sea serpents. As hijacking said sea serpents is no easy task, Violetta is surprised a single person managed to do it in the first place. Wooster then informs her it’s actually possible, and starts telling her an anecdote that was going to be about Gil pulling a similar stunt in the past… before his brain puts two and two together.
• Lord Bunstable is explaining to Agatha why people were up in arms over Professor Tobin’s research into higher dimensions and the implication that intelligent, higher-order life exists. Agatha can’t understand why anyone would be concerned, since the only way such beings would even known humanity exists would be if humans interfered with some fundamental force, like gravity…or time.
• Madwa Korel yammers on about her opportunity to cause mayhem with the time-stopping power of Prende’s Chronometric Lantern when she comes across some members of Team Agatha fleeing a newly arrived monster horde on the forgotten island. She gets a two-fer when she finds Violetta was caught mid-pounce with a dagger in hand, and only realizes too late after some more out-loud monlogue that Violetta is not in the Lantern’s cone of effect. She’s too slow to get her own dagger out in response before Violettta shanks her in the back and pilfers the Lantern for Team Agatha.

• Exploding Closet: In Volume 1 Agatha creates one. Gil opens it. The plot is off its leash and has soon crossed its event horizon.
• Explosive Overclocking:
  • Movit #11, for most people. Zola seems to have survived, but only because she is now under the care of Dr. Sun.
  • Agatha’s death ray inconveniently shorts out during the Passholdt Bridge battle… so she jury-rigs it into a bomb to demolish the bridge and cut off the horde of fast revenants rushing out of the town.
  • In the Mêlée à Trois between giant Queen Monahan, giant Queen Lunevka, a horde of corrupted deep kaiju associated with the corrupted Deepspeaker, and eventuall Queen Albia, the relatively diminutive airship carrying Agatha and Company only evades getting crushed by using an improvised experimental Flash Step lightning engine of Agatha’s make (since the conventional engines are in pieces being rebuilt). While Lunevka gloats over scoring a knockout hit on Albia, Agatha orders the airship to fwip in front of Lunevka, have the Fwip Engine’s mounts unfastened, and launched free of its unfastened mounts like a missile into a third-eye-like mark on Lunevka’s giant face that’s cracked open. It fwips about inside her head uncontrolled a few times before exploding her entire face open.
• Exponential Plot Delay: Agatha’s efforts to repair Castle Heterodyne and officially be recognized as the Heterodyne heir lasted three years and ten months, starting from the time she entered the castle and ending when she ordered the Doom Bell be rung. The actual ringing of the bell lasted another three weeks. Tarvek was critically ill and about to die for just short of 15 months. The general concept is lampshaded in this strip. And again here, «It only seem like deyz been in de kestle a long time!» Also, Krosp points out how long his absence lasted in real time, while Agatha states how long it has been in-comic.
• Expospeak Gag: Various, such as the radio signs reading «Upon the Aether».
• Expressive Accessory: Zeetha’s headband, with the little face on it that always has the same facial expression as she does. At first, it was nebulous as to whether it was just an artistic affectation or if it was actually imitating her expressions, but attention has since been brought to its function by some of the characters.
• Extremely Short Time Span: While there’s a time skip of two years just before the change of story arcs, for Agatha, Violetta, Krosp and Tarvek the story from Volume 5 onward takes place over the span of about a month.
• The Extremist Was Right: (Экстремист был прав)
  • Klaus, former Trope Namer. After returning from Skifander with Gil in tow, he found a world ruined after the Other’s attack, with no Heterodynes to be seen. So he started rebuilding things his way, with no negotiations, no second chances. People did as he said, or wake up with an army on their doorstep. And it worked.
  • Also, Tarvek («I’m not proud of that, but…»).
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: (Глаза не на том месте) Snoz, one of the early-bird monsters that joined the Battle of Mechanicsburg on Agatha’s side after the Doom Bell rang, has his mouth where his eyes should be and his eyes where his mouth should be.
  • Also one of the Parisian researchers that specializes in eye organ placed his patient’s new eye in his mouth. This action makes other people avoid being his patients.

F

Ссылка: [2]

• Face Fault: When Gil makes the (bogus) reveal to Zola that he’s been a pirate all along, this is the reaction from DuMedd, Sleipnir, Zeetha and Krosp. Not from Higgs, though — Airman Third Class Axel Higgs has long since lost the capacity to be surprised by anything.
• Facepalm: (Фейспалм) Frequent. Smek!
  • The actor playing Punch in Master Payne’s Heterodyne shows facepalms upon learning from Maxim and Oggie that his portrayal is way off.
  • In the flashback of Zeetha wiping the whole fortress of the pirates who kidnapped her, at the end she smackes her brow upon realizing she left no-one alive to tell her how to get back to Skifander.
  • Two-handed face-palm for Gil on learning from Dr. Sun that it’s too late to suppress the stories about his father getting wounded and nearly killed, or the coming of a new Heterodyne heir.
  • Agatha gets to do this too after joking that their will be a big party… but only after all the numerous problems at hand are settled.

«	Violetta: This party — can I have a pretty dress too? Agatha: [facepalming] …Well, of course. …Assuming you’re still alive.	»

• Mama Gkika slaps a hand to her forehead when Agatha clears the way to the observation tower, with a weapon that also destroys the observation tower]].
• Agatha’s gesture starts as a Hand Behind Head, but morphs into a facepalm when talking to the Heterodyne monster train:

«	Agatha: It hate schedules and it’s a glutton — and they gave it to the monks.	»

• The Master of Paris must have established some sort of record with a double-facepalm that lasts a good 15 minutes.
• While being in England’s main area of study, Agatha asks what this new «golden age» the sparks were talking about is. The explanation she’s given makes the sparks look so delusional (saying that the queen herself, who’s shown to be one of the most powerful sparks in existence, will bow to them) that she pulls one at the end.
• Jäger General Dimo buries his face into his clawed hand as he comes to the realization that being in charge not only means he’s Surrounded by Idiots, but that his job also includes preventing the Jägers from fighting among themselves out of boredom when there are no other enemies around.

• Faceplanting into Food:
  • After a drugged Agatha spills the beans to Aaronev and Tarvek Sturmvoraus about her identity, her past, and her adventures up to that point, she face-plants into her dessert.
  • When the «mysterious, invisible hand» of a Smoke Knight knocks out Martellus with a sap, he face-plants into the «fine cake» he was eating.
• Failed a Spot Check: Inescapable Death Traps do not always remain so.

«	Lucrezia/Agatha: That hole was not there when I last looked!	»

• Failed Attempt at Drama: Gil barges in the control bridge of Castle Wulfenbach while fighting an enemy clank, crushes it underneath him and coolly dusts off his sleeve. And then he trips over a broken clank part, all under the eyes of his father.
• Faking Amnesia: Lucrezia pulls this whilst possessing Agatha’s body, telling Agatha’s rescue party that she’s been drugged and can’t remember any of them. She manages to pull it off for a while, too, since no-one imagines for a second that it could be anyone other than Agatha talking to them. It isn’t until she encounters Klaus, who knew the original Lucrezia and recognizes her mannerisms, that it all goes downhill. It’s later revealed that Zeetha could tell something was off.
• Faking the Dead: (Инсценировка смерти) Having a casualty of roughly the same sex / race / age as Agatha, Master Payne’s circus sees fit to give their rescuer a new lease on life. Olga lived for cons anyway.
• False Innocence Trick: Agatha mentions this trope when she first encounters Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer! who asks her to free him. She believes he’s doing this and does not free him; however, he actually believes he’s The Hero being held by the villain. He may not be wrong, even if he is a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander.
• Famed in Story:
  • The Heterodyne Boys. They have a book series on them that is highly exaggerated while probably also being highly understated.
  • Othar is also very popular. Few realize how annoying/insane he can be, and many people don’t even care when they DO find out that he is a CloudcuckooLander.
  • Trelawney Thorpe is another popular hero, who like the Heterodyne Boys has her own book series of debatable accuracy.
• Famous-Named Foreigner: (Известный иностранный иностранец) Zola is French. «Zola» is hardly a French first name — and Émile Zola’s last name is in fact of Italian origin. It is eventually revealed that Zola’s mother’s family is from Minsk and her name reflects their heritage.
• Fanservice: (Фансервис)
  • Applied with equal opportunity to much of the cast. Almost none of the major characters get to avoid being naked, scantily clad, in their underwear, shoved into a loincloth outfit, or wrapped in nothing but a bedsheet from time to time.
  • So very, very much gratuitous Agatha-in-her-underwear. On the other hand, it is only Victorian underwear… Not that that especially matters.
  • Later: The Really Nice View of Agatha’s Signal, and this little gem, followed by this one.
  • And let’s not forget the rather lengthy section of Volume 8 where Gil was entirely naked save for a strategically placed bedsheet.
  • And Gil is next wandering around shirtless. Nom.
  • Another case. Not only are both Gil and Tarvek naked, but they keep changing colors.
  • Like son, like father. There are many who are very grateful for that Naughty Flashback Scene.
  • Also Tinka’s metal but curvy body in a semi-transparent nightie.
  • Zeetha and the Wacky Weave Destabilizer.

«	Zeetha: What are you thinking, using Bunbury’s trash? He’s why every smart actress from here to Paris wears special underwear! Why do you even have one of those?	»

• Speaking of which, Zeetha spent a lot of time running around in that leather underwear…
• In the side story «Revenge of the Weasel Queen», Agatha and Zeetha end up wearing BUNNY outfits. Although these «bunny outfits» are not quite what one might assume.
• Sleipnir O’Hara, one of the «hostages» of the Baron on Castle Wulfenbach, sports a halter-top that shows a bit of Sideboob once she arrives in Mechanicsburg later in the story.
• Bang gets in on the action post-timeskip, and Violetta has her turn wearing a loincloth outfit here.

• Fanservice Extra: Ferretina. She drips with fanservice. Quoting a bit from the wiki: «… her outfit isn’t chosen for modesty.» You can say that again.
• Fantastic Legal Weirdness: There are a wide variety of ways to bring someone Back from the Dead to varying degrees. Unsurprisingly, this does not mesh well with a social structure based on inheritance, so the Fifty Families have an ironclad rule that once you’re dead, your titles and lands pass to your heirs even if you later get brought back. It’s also mentioned that there have been cases of people trying to conceal the fact that they’ve been killed and resurrected so that they don’t lose their lands and privileges to their next of kin.
• Fantastic Racism: (Фантастический шовинизм)
  • There is much prejudice against Constructs of all 11 varieties, and also against the Jägers. In the case of the Jägers, the prejudice is understandable (they’re awesome Blood Knight troops of the most dangerous conquerors around, and without the Kid with the Leash they’re bad news). But not in Mechanicsburg. There it’s «by monsters, for monsters».
  • Brother Ulm of the Corbettite Railway is deeply prejudiced against Krosp — not because he’s a construct, but because he’s a cat.

«	Ulm: They’re all filthy liars, you know. Agatha: Oh, that’s true… Krosp: Hey!	»

• Fantastic Vermin: Mimmoths are mouse-sized mammoths created by a Mad Scientist some time in the past, which escaped and bred in the wild to become ubiquitous microfauna in both the wilderness and in cities. They’re mostly harmless, but can make machines malfunction by getting inside them and pushing components around with their tusks.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Baron Oublenmach should be afraid now… very afraid.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Maxim, with a glove and a spiked shoulderpad on one side.
• Fate Worse than Death: (Участь хуже смерти) Being sent to Castle Heterodyne is considered this by many. Gil offers Von Zinzer a poison pill to «help» him when he finds out Von Zinzer has been sentenced.
• Filler Strip: Radio Theatre Breaks, Short Stories, Fairy Tale Theatre: Cinderella, and to a lesser extent, Heterodyne Boys Stories and «The Storm King Opera» synopsis, as the latter two contribute to the overall mythology. More lately, there’s been a series of post-story-ending fillers: a Christmas Special involving the two (at the time newlywed) Author Avatar characters coming home to meet the hubby’s family and Fictional Kaja getting embroiled in a returning Mechanicsburg holiday tradition (because the Foglios wanted to), a story about the revival of the Mechanicsburg Guild of Monsters (drawn by their colorist Cheyenne Wright because Phil had rotator cuff issues in his drawing arm), and a Day in the Limelight for Franz Scortchmaw, the Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg. (so the Foglios can get continuity of future material in the main story straightened out)
• Five-Man Band: (Команда героев?) The in-universe Heterodyne shows have this cast dynamic. In particular:
  • The Hero: (Герой) William «Bill» Heterodyne
  • The Smart Guy: (Умник) Barry Heterodyne
  • The Big Guy: (Силач) Punch
  • The Heart / Action Girl: (Сердце группы/Бой-баба/Девчонка?) Judy
  • The Lancer: (Напарник) Klaus Wulfenbach
• Flanderization: (Упростили и опошлили)
  • In-universe example; the character of Big Guy Punch in stories and stage-shows is reduced to comic buffoon and Butt-Monkey. Among the secrets kept from Agatha her whole life was that the quiet, competent blacksmith she knew as her father was Punch. The Jägermonsters who knew Punch try to give an actor advice on how to play him authentically, but all of it requires casting out what makes his act so successful.
  • Klaus' characterizations in many Heterodyne stories has undergone similar treatment, being rewritten as an excitable cowardly braggart. Although he’s now the unquestioned conqueror of the entire continent, Klaus permits this impertinence for one simple reason: he thinks it’s hilarious.
• Flashback Effects / Monochrome Past: (Серое прошлое, цветное настоящее) Sepia tones.
• Flash Forward: (Флэшфорвард) The «Ivo Sharktooth, P.J.» story takes place in the future, showing Agatha having restored Mechanicsburg from the Take Five bomb.
• Flip Personality: Lucrezia and Agatha. Little outward signs of transition, save for the smile and the eyes, but obviously different personalities.
• Floorboard Failure: Happens to Zeetha’s whole group in the sewers of Sturmhalten, shortly after escaping a rampaging monster. They land in an oubliette, so that 'weak floor' may actually have been a deliberate trap.
• Fluffy the Terrible:
  • The Fun-sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers, a.k.a. the «devil dogs».note
  • Countless other one-shot gags such as the name of the big happy fun ball of death which Gil has to rescue Zola from.
  • Also the Killer Bunny in a sidestory, whose names range from Flopsy to Nietzsche.
• Follow the Chaos: (Было видно, где он шёл)
  • How Adam and Lilith locate Agatha aboard Castle Wulfenbach.
  • How Baron Wulfenbach knows Agatha is in Sturmhalten: how does a notoriously meticulous scientist die in a lab accident? Agatha must be involved.
• Footnote Fever: A great deal of the Adaptation Expansion in the novels comes in the form of footnotes that expand on little side-details about the world.
• Foot Popping: Agatha with Tarvek. Yup, played straight.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: (Зловещий колокольный звон) The aptly-named Doombell.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Ultimately a subtrope of all the Gratuitous Foreign Language entries.
  • Klaus' "Götterdämmerung!"note
  • Zola will mutter "Merde!"note when riled up enough.
  • «Vot der dumboozle?»
• Foreshadowing: (Предзнаменование)
  • One of the first ones is that the Jägers all think that Agatha smells «quite nice» — due to her actually being a Heterodyne.
  • Agatha does a nice job of intimidating one of Klaus' scientists who turns out to be a revenant into calling her «mistress» here. Jump ahead several years…
  • A more minor example:

«	Gil: [to Agatha, about Othar] Trust me. When you get to know him better, you’ll want to throw him out of the window yourself.	»

• The whole missing tale of the Storm King that Klaus told the Author Character is either Klaus foreshadowing things to come or sending a message to his son in a very cryptic manner, so that Lucrezia wouldn’t realize what he was doing.
• Agatha being able to order Gil not to die on her foreshadows Klaus' discovery that Gil is a revenant. Although that likely was faked, since the wasp-detector was not reacting to Klaus, and we know he’s got one!
• It’s mentioned several times that the Storm King Conspiracy needs the Heterodyne heir alive for their plans. Guess who Tweedle tries to escape Mechanicsburg with once things go south.
• When Wooster tries to calm Margarella Selnikov, she briefly shoots him a suspicious glare, incredibly out of place amidst her constant panicking beforehand. It’s the first hint of her actual, much more cold-blooded personality, before The Reveal.
• Around the same time, we hear a comment concerning Krosp the Moldovian Puff: «that breed’ll turn on you.» Much later, Krosp does exactly that towards his creator Vapnoople.
• Possibly the most notable of them all is Theo’s story about the Heterodyne Boys and the Dragon from Mars. While it was just a story Theo made up to calm down the kids on Castle Wulfenbach, events in the tale are near prophetic predictions to major plot points in the comic, such as Klaus getting wasped, Lucrezia having a secret lab in the basement of Castle Heterodyne, and that creatures only described as «others» have shown up in Mechanicsburg due to experimenting with time and they appear in portals similar to the Dragon’s. In the novels, the Other also has the ability to collect asteroids through the portals, possibly while based on Mars.
• Agatha finds some books about the adventures of «Trelawney Thorpe, Spark of the Realm» in Gil’s library. Wooster insists that she’s a real person. Agatha meets Trelawney Thorpe in England nearly fourteen years of comics later.
• There’s a lot of subtle foreshadowing about Higgs being the seventh Jäger general, such as here (using the Jägers' favored term «smart guy» to reference sparks), and here (when he gets angry and slips momentarily into the Jäger/Mechanicsburg accent). Not to mention how both the Castle and Ottila recognize him. The first hint, however, comes from his second appearance, as he’s at Mamma Gkika’s, which is already established as being the only place Jägers can go for healing until the Heterodynes return.
• While Agatha is reassuring Dr. Dimitri Vapnoople, on the last panel you can see a shelf full of his stuffed bears. Among them is a doll of a scowling cat. Given subsequent events, it’s obvious that the stuffed cat is Krosp, whom we first met only a few pages prior, who is the leader of the Vapnoople’s actual live bear constructs.
• Several characters comment that Agatha can’t be the Heterodyne heir because she’s a girl, or express surprise that the child of Bill and Lucrezia is female. At the start of the Castle Heterodyne arc, it’s shown that Bill and Lucrezia’s only known child prior to their disappearance was their son, Klaus Barry Heterodyne.

• Forever War: (Бессмысленная война) The status quo in the days before the Heterodyne Boys due to constant infighting between rival Sparks, referred to as «The Long War». When The Other appeared and the Heterodyne Boys disappeared, it came roaring back. Then the Baron stopped it his way. And then, after the Battle of Mechanicsburg, the Wulfenbach Empire weakened severely and the Long War came back again.
• Forgets to Eat: This can happen to Sparks if they stay in The Madness Place too long. Non-Sparks can be used to remind them.
• Foregone Conclusion: Several side comics set in the future confirm that Agatha liberates Mechanicsburg from the time-stop, is officially accepted as the Hetereodyne and restores the town to its former glory; the Other is apparently defeated and Europa is at (relative) peace with some new-ish empire running things. Meanwhile, Violetta and Zeetha are still alive, but Othar Trygvassen has been missing for some time, presumed dead.
• Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Tarvek admits that he keeps forgetting Othar is a spark.
• Forgot to Mind Their Head: Rakethorn and Violetta are on the lookout during the island arc, Rakethorn hiding in a hole under a rock outcropping. When Violetta calls his attention, he straightens up too fast and bumps his head.
• Fork Fencing: Cranked up to Eleven, as can be expected of Sparks, with Gil’s Hand-cranked Runcible Gun.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: (Резиновая одежда/Одевается в секс-шопе?) How does Agatha even breathe in some of those outfits?
• For Science!: (Ради науки!) It is a world ruled by Mad Science! Girl Genius would not exist without this trope. Lampshaded.
• For the Lulz: Apparently, this is why Castle Heterodyne kills people. Because it «will be fun». All Heterodynes before Bill and Barry also seemed to have this as their primary motivation. Klaus even claims in his Storm King story that Clemethious Heterodyne always smiled, even while sleeping — because he constantly thought up new ways to torture, kill etc. people.
• Frame Break: Apparently, the Spark also conveys the power to break the fourth wall — quite literally. Or maybe that’s just Gil.
• Freeze Ray: (Криогенное оружие) Used as firefighting gear. It is mentioned that, with a little tinkering on one, you could freeze a castle wall and then bash it in with a hammer.
• Freudian Excuse: (Тяжёлое детство)
  • There’s an implied inversion with the Heterodyne Boys. Supplementary material has indicated they grew up to be good because they were raised by their kind and decent mother Theodora who was forced into marrying Saturnus Heterodyne via threats to her family (and was later beatified by five out of the seven popes for the miraculous feat of raising a Heterodyne to be a decent human being). The standard Heterodyne idea of a worthy mate and/or proper child caretaker is somewhat different.

«	Gil: So this was the nursery? Tarvek: It explains so much…	»

• Speaking of which, the same can be said of Tarvek and Gil: they have turned out better than they might otherwise have because they both spent time as children under the care of Von Pinn, who turns out to be the Muse of Protection. Ditto Agatha and her step-parents the Clays.

• Fridge Logic: (Запоздалое озарение) In-Universe, when Moloch told Agatha that it was impossible to make it across town.

«	Agatha: But… you say nobody can get through all that… Moloch: There’s just no way! Agatha: And you’ve been doing work all over town? Moloch: That’s right! So I’ve seen it! It’s hopeless!	»

• Friendly Enemies: (Возлюбленный враг)
  • Invoked with Gil and Tarvek’s «friendly» banter.
  • Played absolutely straight when Zeetha has her first social meeting with Bang. The two hit it off right away and get along just famously, even though they’re both fully aware that they’re going to have to fight each other eventually. Zeetha is looking forward to it., and Bang is positively ecstatic when she learns that Zeetha is the person that killed her pirate crew and she gets to have an incredible revenge fight.
• Friend or Foe?: The Jägers have an excellent way of solving the problems presented by this trope.
• Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren’t:
  • Agatha definitely has this dynamic with her maternal side of family sans Theo, the other White Sheep. The paternal side is just as bad, but because her missing father and uncle are the last two Heterodynes before her generation, it’s not mentioned much.
  • Brother Ulm later uses the religious side of the trope word for word in his intro pages.
• From Bad to Worse: (От плохого к ужасному) The entire Castle Heterodyne arc is stuffed to the gills with this trope. Just trust us on this one.
• Frustrated Overhead Scribble: (Надголовная каракуля разочарования) When Maxim gets shut down by Gkika, Oggie and Dimo while trying to tell the story of how he acquired his latest hat in turn he slumps with an irked grump depicted with a scribble in his speech bubble.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) «De Jägers hall talk like dis, sveethot!» Even their clapping is accented. The novels explain that it’s an ancient Mecanicsburg accent, carefully maintained as a point of pride. That’s why a random mother Gil runs afoul of in Mecanicsburg shares the accent. The girls in the bar dressed up as Monsters also fool every tourist (and some of the main cast), simply because they can speak the accent fluently, despite also being able to speak normal english.
• Funny Background Event: (Смешное событие на фоне) The Foglios love this. In particular, it’s worth reading any notices, signs, control labels, advertisements or scripts that appear.
  • No clanks, cucumbers, clocks, or dancing.
  • Do Not Drink. Look at panel 1, then panel 3. then look at the mug in the next page.
  • Ether Bunny. In the same frame, what appears to be «Mummy Dust» and «Daddy Dust».
  • No Alchemy (unless it works).
  • Lab Full of Exploding Things #5. NUMBER FIVE.
  • «Trade Entrance. Invade in front.». (The small signs in the bottom panel. You may need to squint.)
  • The signs at the science fair.
    • «Why potatoes and time are friends»
    • «Why time is good: 1. Keeps watches busy. 2. I don’t know.»
    • «Basic instructions: Don’t eat paint or lead»
    • «Goblins: Threat or food?»
  • This page on the last panel. Four arrows pointing, from the top: left, right, up and down. All of them say «DANGER».
  • While Othar and Sanaa are talking, we see her fellow prisoners get out of the pit trap, run away from Othar, a sign signalling «Secondary pit trap activated» and a sign asking «Want a laugh?» with two buttons, «Yes» and «Hell Yes».
  • There is a gumball machine in the background. The sign over it says «POISON! Illiteracy Reduction.»
  • More recently, look at Agatha’s attempts to fix that machine in the background. She still has the hammer when she yells at Gil in the last panel.
  • Read what’s written on the steps.
  • Down in the Heterodyne Crypt (bottom left panel)
  • While Jenka passes on important information from Castle Heterodyne, Fust and Agatha’s pet wasp eater duke it out. Lil' waspie wins.
  • Demon Olí and Oil of Olay
  • Castle Wulfenbach has a lot of choices of drink including «Old Upside Down Ale».
  • «Lab Tech in a Drum 'Expendable!'»
  • First, Krosp puts a bucket on Agatha’s head, then a few panels later, Krosp is in the bucket with Agatha sitting on it.
  • This page and two previous pages, you can see the Castle’s face just getting more annoyed and confused. The same thing happens a few pages later when Agatha grabs it by its hair.
  • «Don’t Laugh» during someone’s confession.
  • Oggie and his great-great grandson argue about great-great-great grandchildren while everybody else is getting on with the job.
  • A doll of a scowling cat appears amongst the bears behind Agatha on this page. This is obviously Krosp, his relationship to the bears becoming obvious later in the comic.
  • Dimo explains to a few sparks the odd situation. They laugh. Then, he explains the severity of it. They panic, plan, and get to work.
• Fur Bikini: (Меховое бикини) Agatha ends up dressed in a skimpy fur top and bottom (along with fur boots) when Albia «snaps» her into a memory of the Queen’s prehistoric past.

G

• Gadgeteer Genius: Pretty much all Sparks, but the Heterodynes were notable even among Sparks.

«	Von Mekkan: In my experience, a strong Heterodyne will take about two hours to truly warp the laws of nature.	»

• Gambit Pileup:
  • At the best of times, Europa’s nobility and Sparks could be counted on to have a dozen or so plans brewing to unseat Baron Wulfenbach. Agatha’s Spanner in the Works nature has often prompted these conspirators to set off their coup attempts early….and all at once.
    • Agatha’s arrival in Sturmhalten caused everyone to set off their master plan at once.
    • When Agatha and Zola reached Castle Heterodyne, everything just went nuts as Zola started revealing about half of the actors involved in her power play.
    • After Agatha took the castle, she found herself at the center of a maelstrom as every two-bit power in Europa tried to seize Mechanicsburg (and her along with it); when the various factions started fighting over her, this took the trope virtually to the point of parody. To top it off, Klaus predicted the whole thing, and used it to get all the troublemakers in his realm in one place for easy disposal.
• Gargle Blaster: (Укипаловка) A few examples.
  • Theo’s idea of a good home-brewed liquor can be expected to be at least 200 proof, and have other… interesting ingredients. Note that 200 proof is pure alcohol. Also note that under normal circumstances, opening a container of pure alcohol outside of laboratory conditions will cause it to be diluted by the moisture in the air. Maybe part of Theo’s talent as a Spark makes him a Mad Moonshiner who can make impossible drinks?
  • Double Fortified Lingonberry Snap:

«	«You hoist a noggin of that stuff to the 'Lady Heterodyne'— you’ll soon be skipping through the streets trying to catch flying pink mimmoths.»	»

• Gatling Good: (Многоствольный пулемёт) The machine Merlot uses to try and kill Agatha in the Castle has two of these. They’re capable of ripping a Mobile Fun-Sized Agony and Death Dispenser to shreds.
• The Gay '90s: Paris' popular culture is very like that of our world’s 1890s. The famous Moulin Rouge (home of can-can dancers) exists (being advertised prominently at the Paris train station), for instance, and many women, such as the customs agent Dimo tries to chat up, are dressed in the height of 1890s-1900s fashions, down to the high collars and the Merry Widow hats (one popular brand — not to mention a lot of other things, including a brand of pantalettes — is named after Agatha herself!)
• Geeky Turn-On: (Ум — это сексуально)
  • And how!
  • And then some — back the other way!
  • Now with some side characters! Although that’s debatable about just how much of it is «geeky» and how much is «insanity».
  • He has a MAGNIFICENT death ray…
  • Gil was initially attracted to Agatha because of her Spark.
• Generation Xerox: (Ксерокопированное поколение) Several of the characters apparently look almost exactly like younger versions of their parents, enough to confuse Lucrezia in the cases of Tarvek and Zola. Gil appears to resemble his father as well, but it doesn’t get him recognized as the Baron’s son.
• Genius Bruiser: (Гениальный силач) Many Sparks, the Jägergenerals, and Da Boyz.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка)
  • On this page, the rescue party thinks that there’s a secret passage in the castle because there’s one in all the stories. They even accurately predict that it should be in the castle’s sewer because that’s where it is in stories.
  • Lucrezia and Lucrezianote react in horror when they realize that Zola-Lucrezia is Tempting Fate when she offhandedly dismisses the possibility of Barry returning to cause them trouble. In this case the Genre Savvy kicks in after the accidental slip, but it’s there nonetheless.

«	Zola-Lucrezia: But he’s been missing for years. He’s no threat — [both look around in dread] Anevka-Lucrezia: Do you want him to show up?!	»

• Even Dimo and Maxim have their moments:

«	Maxim: Hoy! Knew it! Vorkopian Dictator Shpider in de ear! A classic!	»

• Gentle Giant: (Добродушный гигант) Punch, apparently, though most people who didn’t know him assume he’s just Dumb Muscle. Also possibly a Genius Bruiser, though the evidence for that comes from the Jägers who are… not the best at determining who’s «schmott». Appears to be confirmed when we meet him again after the Time Skip.

«	Belloptix: But… didn’t he have a… lighter side? Maxim: Oh yah! He build very amuzing toys for de orphan cheeldren!	»

• Gentleman Adventurer: Othar Tryggvassen is the Trope Namer.
• Genuine Human Hide: (Сделано из человеческой кожи) A subterranean civilization under Paris turns any interlopers into gloves. Based on the number of eerily tan gloves in their introductory panel, they’ve been doing it for a while.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: (Возьми себя в руки!) Most often done by using water. Or pies. Fists and bricks are fine too.
• Get It Over With: Boris
• Ghost Town: (Мёртвый город) They are apparently quite common across Europe, which isn’t so strange given how many monsters and rampaging experiments wander around in the Wastelands.
• Giant Spider: (Гигантские членистоногие)
  • One of the many creepy albino monsters the Geisterdamen use for transportation.
  • Also one in Castle Heterodyne. Not quite as big, but… «Nyar!»
• Giant Squid: A giant mechanical squid and a giant flying squid.
• Gilligan Cut: (Гиллигановский монтаж)
  • «There’s no male guard on this ship that can resist the charms of a beautiful princess!»
  • «Do you really think he’d just hand it to her?»
  • «Vot? Hyu wants de hammer?» «…Yes?»
• Girl of the Week: (Новая подружка Бонда) «The High Priestess» is an in-universe trope in Heterodyne stories. Since Barry evidently wasn’t known for any love interests, the storytellers pair him off with whatever girl is available aside from Lucrezia.
• The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Deconstructed during the Cinderella parody. Tarvek has Cinderella’s slippers and wants to find the girl who fits them, but Gil argues that the shoes, size nine-and-a-half, would fit too many other women. Tarvek keeps adding descriptors, and finally brings out a picture of Cinderella, prompting Gil to point out if they have that, they no longer need the shoe.
• Giving Them the Strip:
  • The Minstrel leaves his jacket behind to escape a clank.
  • Bangladesh DuPree escapes from being Strapped to an Operating Table by leaving her boots and jacket behind.
  • Monahan frees herself from a grapple by slipping out of her gloves before elbowing Steelgarter.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: Averted. In Agatha’s case, it is NOT so that «men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.»
• The Glomp: (Агрессивные обнимашки)
  • Zoing to Gil, with a «GLOMPH» sound effect.
  • No sound effect, but Zeetha does it when unexpectedly reunited with Higgs.
• Glowing Flora: When Agatha’s group is traveling the river beneath Paris they pass several groupings of giant bioluminescent toadstools on the riverbanks.
• God-Emperor: (Бог-Император) Gender Flipped for the Brits; their queen is known as «Her Undying Majesty».
• God Guise: Lucrezia Mongfish (a.k.a. The Other) is worshipped by the Geisterdamen. They literally weep with joy when they get her back.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • The Baron’s approach to governance can be summed up thusly: «Don’t make me come down there.» So getting the Baron involved in a problem is perceived this way.
  • Master Payne explains his decision to notify the baron about Passholdt being overrun by monsters, over Agatha’s protest that they should help instead:

«	Payne: Could you burn down people — women and children — even if you knew they had become monsters? The Baron can. The Baron has. I respect him for that but I don’t want to be him.	»

• The Baron’s own personal Godzilla Threshold involves plots having to do with Revenants or The Other. Unfortunately, this means Agatha is number one on his Most Wanted list because of her relation to and possession by Lucrezia. His response to Agatha gaining full control of the Castle and Mechanicsburg is to fly down himself with a «black level device» which turns out to be a city-wide stasis-field generator.

• Goggles Do Nothing: Dimo (green Jäger with 5 o’clock shadow, wearing an olive-drab cap with mustard trim and a yellow ostrich plume stuck in).
• Go-Go Enslavement: ([Раздеть женщину)
  • Agatha ends up in the Leia-style slave bikini for one gag panel in the opening of «Revenge of the Weasel Queen Part 2».
  • She’s also stripped down to her corset here, though it’s for different reasons than the usual (the villains want to analyse her voice when she angrily demands her clothes back).
  • The King of the Silver Lands seems to be big on this, as he has all of the captive heroes stripped down to attire akin to Slave Leia from Star Wars.
• Going to Give It More Energy: The «more Movit 11 to Zola» example falls more into Phlebotinum Overdose than this trope.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: What happens when the heroic Blood Knight Zeetha meets with her evil counterpart Bang? They sit down, enjoy some cake, and have some girl talk. Justified since they are in a sanctuary and forbidden to fight. Lampshaded when Zeetha even comments how much fun it’s going to be when they wind up fighting each other.
• Gone Horribly Right: (Всё пошло слишком так) The guy that wanted to steal the hammer for the Doom Bell? Mama gives it to him willingly.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: (Что-то пошло не так) This seems to occur with alarming frequency for Sparks. Generally with horrible results. Though some cases also happen because of other instances.
• Gonna Need More X: «I don’t think I’ve got one big enough.»
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Anyone and Bangladesh DuPree. It happens both intentionally and just because she acts as usual.
• Good Costume Switch: (Символическая смена одежды) After Eotain and Othar convince several other Geisterdamen to switch their loyalty to Agatha in the aftermath of events in Paris they also change their outfits.
• The Good Guys Always Win: In a flashback, Lucrezia tells Klaus this one of the reasons why she’s accepted Bill’s marriage proposal.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Everyone thinks that just because Gilgamesh Wulfenbach never built a Death Ray and almost never screams at people or beats them up to get them under control, they can push him around and act like he’s nothing. When he’s finally pushed over the edge, he shows the entire world that yes, he does know how to build a Death Ray, and yes, he’s perfectly capable of kicking the crap out of Europa to protect his father and not-girlfriend.
• Good Is Not Nice: (Добро с кулаками) Gil; Agatha; Master Payne… Quite possibly Klaus.
• Good News, Bad News: When Agatha is worried about Tarvek’s health and whether he might have gangrene, Moloch has this update for her:

«	Moloch: Well, the good news is: I’ve seen gangrene, and this ain’t it. Agatha: Err… what’s the bad news? Moloch: [gesturing to Tarvek, who is currently some shade of greyish green] He’s got something. And I hope you know what it is, 'cause we sure don’t.	»

• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: (Хороший, плохой, злой) Save for a few independent characters with their own goals, most of the cast can be sorted into three camps. The «Good» would be Agatha Heterodyne and her companions. The «Bad» would be the The Empire of Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, who is very much an enemy of Agatha as present (though Gil is both on the empire’s side and Agatha’s). The «Evil» would be the network of those people who swore loyalty to the Other; but since the Other is currently a Greater-Scope Villain frantically clawing their way over to Big Bad territory, those on their side are very fractured and prone to infighting.
• Graceful Loser: Old Man Death takes the loss of his hat to Maxim quite cheerfully, if only because his wife always hated the thing.
• Grand Theft Me: (Контроль чужого тела) Lucrezia attempts this on several occasions on different characters. How successful she is varies:
  • Agatha is able to shrug it off, thanks to her locket, later by sheer force of will, though Lucrezia is noted to be Fighting from the Inside.
  • She later succeeds at it fully with Anevka.
  • Her try with Zola fails, because Zola’s brain was prepared with a trap for exactly that occasion. Zola now has a replica of Lucrezia’s psyche inside her mind and can sift through the thoughts and memories of it more or less at will. Due to Zola’s injuries and her overdose on Movit, nobody knows who is in control now.
  • It would appear that The Baron has done this to Gil as of the summer of 2014. Possibly to get out from under the control of the Other.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: (Пистолет с крюком)
  • Standard issue for Smoke Knights.
  • The Baron and Zola have one too.
• Gratuitous French:
  • Gil once started speaking French while delirious. Translated: «Excuse me sir, but where is the catastrophe?» Gil spent a lot of time in France when he was younger — and he spent so much of that time coming to the rescue of danger-prone ditz Zola that it’s just sort of reflex for him to keep an eye out for disasters when she’s around.
  • One exit door of Castle Heterodyne has the inscription «Fuyez les dangers de loisir» («Flee the dangers of leisure») above the frame.
  • There’s a sub-trend for characters using French to invoke the inherent sophistication, and butchering it. («Ve get heem fixed op toot sveety! Dot’s French!»)

«	Guard: «Mighty generous» says I, but "no bless obli cheese, " says he. Master Payne: …Does he? Guard: All the time.	»

• In the «Revenge of the Weasel Queen» side-story, the blueprint for the Giant Mini Mecha costume made by the tailor clank has its captions entirely in (surprisingly accurate) French.

• Gratuitous German:
  • Jägermonster = hunter-monster (or infantry-monster), Geisterdamen = ghost ladies, Sturmvoraus = storm ahead, Wulfenbach = «Wolf’s stream» (not strictly correct, but German is dialectual and it’s a place/family name). Of course, since this story is apparently set in a 19th century Central Europe not totally unlike our own, this is more of a Translation Convention, since German actually would be the lingua franca of the setting.
  • Though according to the novels, the official language of the Wulfenbach Empire is actually Romanian.
  • There is one straight-up bit of gratuitous German when a Jäger uses «Jägermonstern» as a pseudo-German plural for his own kind. The German plural is in fact «Jägermonster», which of course sounds rather odd in English.
  • Note also the writing on a deactivated clank dial.
  • Holzfäller, the fake surname Gil used in Paris, translates as «lumberjack».
  • Sturmhalten, the home of the Sturmvoraus familiy (see above), literally means «to keep storm», a.k.a. Storm Keep or Storm Hold. This matches with Mechanicsburg, «burg» being old Germanic for «castle». Wulfenbach started as a smaller house, so their fortress is just Castle Wulfenbach.
• Gratuitous Spanish:
  • Professor Diaz tends to throw it in. (His introductory page alone has two examples.)
  • Tarvek believes Spanish is «muy sexy.»
• Grave Robbing: (Грабитель могил) In the best tradition of Frankenstein. There even are professionals. Furthermore, It Runs in the Family.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: (Бить врага вражиною) WHAK! WHAK!
• Groin Attack: (Удар ниже пояса) Agatha delivers a solid one to Tweedle after he gets a little grabby with her.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: (Не обыскали) When Gilgamesh needs to get back onto Castle Wulfenbach to take control of the Wulfenbach armies around Mechanicsburg, he needs to get past a number of guards who have never dealt directly with him and thus don’t know what the Baron’s son looks like. Sleipnir tells him to wear the hat given to him by the Jägers. You know, the giant purple and red hat with «Gilgemesh Wulfenbash, Schmott Guy!» written on the front and the flame on top which flares up periodically. Each guard Gil approaches is initially unimpressed and unconvinced, until he fires up the flame. At that point, they believe he really is «Gilgemesh Wulfenbash» [sic] and let him pass. But eventually he gets to one who reacts differently.

«	Guard: Oh come on. You expect me to believe you— [Gil’s hat goes FOOM!] Guard: Just because of that ridiculous— [Gil punches the guard in the face, knocking him out] Gil: When this is all settled, you get a promotion.	»

• Gunboat Diplomacy: Deconstructed. Agatha’s fellow Sparks wanting to bring hidden weapons to a diplomac meeting nearly brings about a total apocalypse. Fortunately, Agatha demands the weapons in her mermaid disguise were removed, which proves to be the right decision.

H

• Hair-Raising Hare: (Ушастик-ужастик) The Weasel Queen’s Lapinomorphs.
• Hammerspace: Agatha has multiple pockets that hold just about every other gadget that a well-equipped Mad Scientist might require. Lampshaded on a paper doll page.
• Handicapped Badass: (Крутой инвалид) Dimo, after he loses an arm in the sewers beneath Sturmhalten. It doesn’t slow him down much.
• Hand in the Hole: The castle challenges Agatha to stick her arm into a giant clank’s mouth to prove her identity; unfortunately for her, it’s a blood test….
• Hands Looking Wrong: Agatha comes to the realization that she caught Hogfarb’s Resplendent Immolation too — her skin having turned green — by taking out her glove and checking her hand.
• Handwave: (Обоснуй) An in-universe one. Higgs tells the group that he can guide them through Castle Heterodyne because he found a map. Sleipnir starts to say that doesn’t make any sense before Theo shushes her. They need his help and if he needs to have «found a map» to provide it, then fine, he found a map.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: (Хрясь, и пополам!) The Lord High Conservator cuts one of the Smoke Knights that have infiltrated his ship in half.
• Happily Adopted: (Счастливо усыновлённый) Agatha calls Punch and Judy her parents, in spite of knowing that they aren’t her biological parents.
• Happily Married: (Счастливо женаты) Master Payne and the countess. Also Balthazar’s parents. And Punch and Judy, though it may not be strictly official in their case.
• Happiness in Slavery: (Шея мёрзнет без ошейника) Fräulein Snaug is extremely devoted to Professor Mittelmind.
• Hard on Soft Science: Yes, there are mad social scientists. They constantly complain that all of the funding goes to flashy clanks and death rays instead of social research. What kind we don’t know, but a thousand orphans, a hedge maze, and cheese is involved.
• Harmful Healing: Most attempts at Spark medicine follow this. One section follows the long story of Agatha curing another Spark of a disease. In the process she infects two other people, one of them being herself, everyone involved is electrocuted two or three times, all three of them have a rolling death lasting several minutes, and Agatha comes within forty-five seconds of exploding or melting. It works, but bear in mind that the three people involved are all very good Sparks, and fairly disciplined as they go. And of course, for all their knowledge and ability, none of the three are actually doctors.
• Harmless Liquefaction: According to Aldin (who apparently lacks the imagination to make stuff up), his brother Hoffman was once liquefied during an adventure and Aldin had to carry him in a jar for the rest of it. Given that Hoffman is perfectly healthy during the events of the comic he solidified no worse for wear, and it’s implied this isn’t even the worst thing ever to happen to him.
• Hash House Lingo: A panel from the «Maxim buys a hat!» side story currently provides the page image. The orders shown are:
  • A Racing Trilobite > One grilled snail and swiss cheese on rye bread.
  • A Botched Construct > A chicken salad on a kaiser roll.
  • A Martian Princess > A beef tongue with horseradish on toast.
  • A Red Heterodyne > A fried bat on pumpernickel with extra mushroom sauce.
  • A Prince of Sturmhalten’s Big Bet > The sandwich maker’s hat, with cheese.
• The Hat Makes the Man:
  • The helmet which allows Castle Heterodyne to possess the Seneschal.
  • In a «Trelawney Thorpe» short story, the crown of King Arthur, which allows Arthur to possess its wearer.
• Hat of Authority: (Буржуйский цилиндр) Hats might be the only thing Jägers take seriously. You simply can’t be a Jäger in good standing without a hat, which makes the over-the-top monstrosity they present to Gil a gesture of magnanimity. Hilariously, a lot of generals that are not Jägers also find the hat very impressive and simply believe it must be the son of the Baron since the hat says so. Old Man Death also deserves mention.
• Haunted Technology: Castle Heterodyne is generally seen as this, and it suits Wulfenbach to let people believe it. The application of Clarke’s Third Law effectively makes it so; even characters familiar with the machinery refer to the rooms as «alive».
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: When Agatha is working in the traveling Heterodyne Circus as the psychic Madame Olga.

«	Agatha: She… …tea cozy… …forty-three hours… …only one spoon… …how… eek!	»

• Heart Symbol: Bangladesh DuPree, of all people, gets a huge one when she meets Vole, a Jägermonster of her taste. More specifically, from hearing his jubilant, bloodthirsty anticipation regarding a war that would devastate the continent.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: (Она не моя девушка!)
  • Agatha about Gil. All the time. She even uses the actual phrase.
  • A consequence of it can be seen with Violetta.
  • They are her… er… her experimental subjects! Honest.
  • Othar and… Gil!?
  • Agatha and Moloch, in an odd subversion.

«	Tarvek: You really are the best minion ever. Moloch: I am not her minion! Tell him! Tell him I’m not your minion!	»

• He Knows Too Much: (Не оставлять свидетелей?)
  • The entire Wulfenbach Vespiary Squad is targeted by the rest of the Wulfenbach forces after Herr Baron himself is infected by a slaver wasp and is compelled to destroy them. Thankfully, Tarvek and the Jägers salvage enough of the unit and their materials for them to scatter and try continue their mission outside the Wulfenbach empire; whether any of them succeeded or even survived is currently unknown..
  • According to Tarvek, the Master of Paris encourages clubs to look over the code he uses to control the city in order to look for weaknesses that he can fix. Between Gil and Tarvek, they belonged to over twenty such clubs. The problem is if they learned too much about the code, the Master would drop their entire headquarters into a bottomless pit.

«	Tarvek: The trick was to always make it out the door just as they started celebrating.	»

• Hell-Bent for Leather: (Чёрный кожаный прикид) Von Pinn, and how. Lampshaded.

«	Von Pinn: I teach restraint. DuPree: Oh, so your dressmaker’s an A+ student then.	»

• Hellish Horse: (Зловещая лошадь) The aptly-named Monster Horse Beastie.
• Her Boyfriend’s Jacket: Zeetha wears Higgs' striped shirt when we see them after they had hitched up.
• Her Code Name Was «Mary Sue»: An interstitial series of strips has Mary tell her siblings a Heterodyne story, but she insists on inserting herself into it. The Stinger is that her mother used to do the same thing.
• Hero Antagonist: (Героический антагонист) Othar, plus or minus a little serial murder.
• Heroic BSoD: (Шоковая апатия) SHOWTIME!
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Lots of the recurring characters in this comic have a very… «flawed» perspective on the sanctity of mortal life.
  • Bangladesh DuPree
  • Castle Heterodyne
  • Most of the Jägers….
• Heroic Sacrifice: (Героическое самопожертвование) Hilariously defied while in Castle Heterodyne.
  • Defied by the Jägers.
  • Played straight in a very tragic fashion by Lars, who intercepts a lethal sword blow from Klaus meant for Agatha (as he was convinced that she was the Other). Even the Jägers are impressed by his heroism; Maxim gives up his own hat out of respect so that it is buried with the former circus actor as a sign of him having fought valiantly alongside the Jägers in the name of the Heterodynes.
• Herr Doktor: (Герр Доктор) A large portion of the Sparks, particularly those in the Wulfenbach Empire as it controls the vast majority of what is in our world Central & Eastern Europe.
• Hidden Badass: Higgs; Wooster; Tarvek (to Gil and Violetta); Zola, with Obfuscating Stupidity; and Sanaa.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) Practically everyone in the comic gets a chance to show that they’re not just the weirdos they are initially presented as in the narrative.
  • The Jägers, who at first appeared to be little more than comic relief and have since been revealed to have more layers than an onion. It’s even been lampshaded in canon.
  • Given what he will do for those he cares for, one wonders if Tarvek might have avoided the worst of his family heritage.
• Hidden Elf Village: The Lost Kingdom of Skifander, where Zeetha comes from. Notably, it’s lost to her as well, as she has no proper recollection of how she got to Europa (she knows she got there in an airship, but was rendered so feverish & sickly from the horrors of experiencing air travel for the first time that she did not properly keep track of the route she and the explorers she was traveling with were using).
• Hidden Weapons: (Потайное оружие) Violeta hides weapons in her sleeves even when wearing an obvious utility belt, and Bang is revealed to keep throwing knifes up her sleeves and in her boots.
• High-Voltage Death:
  • In the Death Montage of the traitor Beausoleil’s bodies one is depicted as getting fatally zapped with electricity.
  • This is how Anevka kills her father.
• Hindenburg Incendiary Principle: Many, many Zeppelins from Another World appear across the comic. Some are destroyed in the course of the story, some survive, and even more were destroyed in various offscreen incidents («And how do dose alvays end? De dirigible iz in flames…»).
• His and Hers: Parodied on two pages in Castle Heterodyne.
• Hobbes Was Right: (Гоббс был прав) You can’t uphold a democracy with power-hungry Mad Scientists running around.
• Holding Out for a Hero / Stay in the Kitchen: Othar tried to keep his sister «safe» at home. But it turns out that in this world the concept of «safety» is even more volatile.
• Homicide Machines: Virtually every piece of advanced technology can be used as a dangerous weapon no matter what it was meant for originally.

«	Gil: What about this one? It looks like a toaster. Agatha: Well, it is a toaster. Sort of. Gil: Sort of? Agatha: Oh, yes. It could toast the whole town.	»

• Honest Advisor: (Фаворитизм?)
  • Baron Wulfenbach says early on that he would rather his men criticize him rather than fear him too much to tell him important information — in fact, the first time we see him, he’s testing Gil to see if he’ll tell him he’s wrong. It’s one of the many signs that he’s not your average Evil Overlord.
  • Gil and Agatha seem to prefer advisors like this as well.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость)
  • The mere mention of Barry Heterodyne’s name is enough to make two separate incarnations of the Other panic.
  • Jägers are widely regarded as objects of horror by Europa in general — something about being super-tough, super-violent, super-experienced in combat and relishing every moment spent in destruction. Therefore, when one of them says, "Run, " it’s not wise to stop and argue. So far, the Dreen and the Swartzwalders (an army of uplifted Super-Soldier grizzly bears armed with battleaxes and polearms) are the only two things to bring out this near-extinct fear response.
  • After inquiring about the Entity Outside Time investigating the halting of time in Mechanicsburg, Castle Heterodyne gets Gil and Higgs to share an image of the entity to them. Cue one of the oldest, most dangerous and formidable Supervillain Lairs on the entire continent Screaming Like a Little Girl.
  • Queen Albia of England is a Physical Goddess-Empress of sufficient might that she can basically rewrite reality around her to suit her needs, and is so powerful that even Klaus Wulfenbach and Lucrezia Mongfish are wary of attacking her. That all being said, according to Ardsley Wooster, Dimitri «Dr. Dim» Vapnoople is the only modern Spark that Queen Albia has ever actually feared. Once Kjarl Thotep restores the mind of Dr. Dim, Vapnoople immediately demonstrates why.
    • Relatedly, the Great Cetaceans]] are a race of ridiculously massive and formidable deep-sea creatures of incredible power, being vast enough to house entire civilizations within their guts, are strongly implied to be the Sapient Cetacean counterpart to Sparks who have achieved Second Breakthrough, and have their inhabitants (who justifiably worship them as gods) feature a Fantastic Caste System just so they can produce certain individuals with strong enough minds to be used as a Mouth of Sauron for the Great Cetaceans themselves. Oh, and they are all terrified of Dr. Vapnoople.
  • The Polar Lords, a nightmarish race of Humanoid Abomination «Frost Liches» from beyond the farthest north regions of Europa, both inspire this in others and experience it themselves; Queen Albia (the aforementioned Goddess-Empress of England) is mentioned to have seen whatever ruins, Sparktech and/or «sorcery» the Polar Lords left behind when the last Ice Age ended and they had to «retreat» back to the distant north… and she absolutely refuses to discuss whatever she saw. Additionally, it’s noted that the expedition fleet she sends with the heroes aboard to Mechanicsburg is specifically instructed to assist the Wulfenbach Empire against the Polar Lords since she (most likely correctly) regards them as more dangerous than the Other. On the other hand, after Agatha and her allies just barely defeat the vanguard of their retreating invasion force, one of the Polar Lords' leaders openly regards Agatha as a Worthy Opponent by describing her as «a horror» and makes sure to leave post-haste afterwards.
• Hostage Situation: (Взятие заложников) Gil volunteers for one. Agatha doesn’t want it.
• How Dare You Die on Me!:
  • Agatha’s reaction when it looks like Gilgamesh is dying in Castle Heterodyne. It helps.
  • Tarvek tried the same a bit earlier, in an even more amusing manner.

«	Tarvek: Hang on! The system’s damaged! If you die before we fix it, I’ll… I’ll kill you!	»

• Hulk Speak: (Странный грамматика) Snoz, quite appropriately, has a mild case of this.
• Humongous Mecha: Walking Battleships (Moloch served on a walking gunboat) and War Stompers (one of the first armies to lay siege to Mechanicsburg use huge Spider Tanks with Coilgun cannons).
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) He’s a spark, with a goal of killing every other spark, then killing himself when he’s the last one left.
• Hurt Foot Hop: Happens in a strip to Agatha (along with subtitled Symbol Swearing) after being attacked by a pair of her little clanks turning against their mistress.
• Hyde Plays Jekyll; Lucrezia often tries to pass herself off as the girl whose body she has hijacked, to varying degrees of success.
• Hypocritical Humor: (Комичное лицемерие)
  • Gil tells Agatha her bedside manner needs work. Turns out his isn’t so great either.
  • Zola makes a crack about Agatha’s butt being big?
  • Gil…
  • Krosp complains that his role as a spy chief leading a group of unaugmented cats was bound to fail because normal cats are too easily distracted to follow orders for any length of time. Years later, when Krosp himself has the opportunity to gather information, he gets hungry…
  • Violetta to Vole: «You give that back, you thief! I stole that gun off you fair and square!»

I

• I Am Who?: (Кто-кто я?) Agatha is quite shocked when her parentage is revealed.
• I Am X, Son of Y:
  • «I am Zeetha, Daughter of Chump! Yes, I know what it means in your language.»
  • Gil uses the line to much greater effect.
• I Can Still Fight!: Repeatedly.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each volume of the print collection is titled «Agatha Heterodyne and the Noun Phrase», where the noun phrase in question refers to some person, place, or thing that does indeed appear in that volume, but is never actually referred to by that name.
• Idiot Ball: (Внезапный приступ глупости)
  • Agatha kisses a feverish and raving Tarvek on the forehead to soothe him back into sleep — and thus gets infected with Hogfarb’s Resplendent Immolation. Gil, learning about this after the fact, is appalled that she didn’t take this into account.
  • Agatha’s entire entourage repeatedly grabs it during the England plot-arc after Tarvek announces no more delays, he’s going to remove the copy of Lucrezia from Agatha’s mind. Instead of coming along during this vital mission, Zeetha, Oggie and Maxim all evidently decide to wander off somewhere. Then, after the Lu-copy kicks up a very noticable fuss as the procedure is prepared, everyone else lets Agatha leave the room. Alone. She promptly disappears. And when the disappearance is discovered, there’s a debate about whether she maybe went to get a snack or take a bath. It turns out she was briefly kidnapped rather than Lu taking over. After that gets sorted out, the crew grabs the ball again, and rather than strapping her into a chair like they tried to do the first time around, lets her work unsupervised on the Lu-extraction machine. Sure enough, this time, Lu really does take over, and alters the machine to her own ends. This gets noticed before the machine is actually used, and Lucrezia gets mystically gagged and restrained by a projection of Queen Albia. Which leads to example number three, when Albia is forced to withdraw without further restraints being applied, letting the captive get free and for a third time left unwatched. Oggie and Zeetha are back by this point, so she grabs the latter’s dropped swords, takes the former by «surprise» and skewers him through the chest. Violetta the Smoke Knight then tries to… grab her from behind or something… and gets stabbed in the hand. Plus during all this there’s a clank-copy of Lu on the scene causing further damage and delays.
• Idiot Hair: (Ахогэ) It’s obviously not reflective of her intelligence per se, but Agatha’s got a bit of hair that won’t stay down; as highlighted in this two-part Filler.
• I’d Tell You, but Then I’d Have to Kill You:
  • Combined with «The Easy Way or the Hard Way» when Master Payne gives two Wulfenbach troopers the choice of his being a good magician (who doesn’t reveal how a trick is done) or an evil one (who doesn’t leave any evidence there was a trick in the first place).
  • Castle Heterodyne declines to reveal information about Airman Higgs to Zeetha, as doing so would require Zeetha to be killed. Not that the Castle objects to killing anyone, but Zeetha is essential to Agatha in the Castle’s opinion, so she must be spared.
  • Inverted in a way when a smoke knight tells Agatha «if we told you we’d have to let you live … for a very long time»
• If I Had a Nickel…: Violetta’s done the math.
• I’ll Pretend I Didn’t Hear That: In no way did Violetta assault Tweedle’s royal personage with a blackjack in the presence of Father Gerät and several other Corbettites.
• Ignored Confession: Invoked. No, no, the stairway’s just echo-y.
• The Igor: (Горбун Игорь)
  • Basically the entire populace of Mechanicsburg.

«	Carson von Mekhan: Sure, the Heterodynes were dangerous lunatics— but they became our dangerous lunatics!	»

• Moloch von Zinzer stands out because, like the natives of Mechanicsburg, he’s a natural minion, but unlike the Mechanicsburgers, he has a certain amount of insight into Spark psychology, and can use this to get them back on target when they inevitably get sidetracked.
• The world has been under the control of Sparks for so long that pretty much any non-Spark, even a trained agent, will be reduced to a groveling mess if a Spark starts ranting like a cut-rate stage villain.

• I Just Knew: Invoked: When Higgs’s time-displaced friend tries to explain how he knows which books are relevant, he says it’s because they emit temporal echoes which indicate that they will be leaving the shelf. Instead of relaying this, Higgs says «he 'just knows'».
• I Just Want to Be Normal: (Хочу быть нормальным) Said by Agatha, in the beginning. Othar thinks the entire idea is hilarious.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Franz, the giant dragon construct, kisses the hand of a Mini-Mecha manned by Agatha as a sign of respect. We kid you not.
• «I Know You’re in There Somewhere» Fight: (Я знаю, что ты хороший!) Subverted with Lucrezia (in Agatha’s body) calling forth a copy of her own mind to take over Zola — because the expected possession isn’t working.
• I’m a Humanitarian: (Каннибализм) «Snapper» Boikov and «Jack A’Horned» — prisoners in the Castle Heterodyne.
• I Meant to Do That: Agatha, while improving the coffee blender, causes an incredibly large explosion, and quickly states this. Then she goes on to create several more. The people helping her take it in stride.
• The Immune: For some unknown reason, the people of Mechanicsburg are immune to slaver wasp infestation. After a sweep by the Vespiary Squad and their wasp eater weasels, the only two revenants found were a couple of non-resident tourists. This in no way will be important later on. In one interview, Kaja hinted that it might be thanks to the water of the River Dyne.
• Impaled Palm:
  • Von Pinn does this purposely to catch Bang’s sword — and crushes the hilt despite the wound.

«	Von Pinn: I live with pain. I use it. Cultivate it.	»

• In the «Maxim Buys a Hat» side story, Old Man Death spikes Jäger Maxim’s hand to the table with a carving knife. Maxim’s only reaction is to lick the blood off the wound.
• All Martellus von Blitzengaard gets from trying to strangle Bangladesh DuPree is an impaled palm.
• Violetta trying to get the jump on Lucrezia in Agatha’s body results in an impaled hand by Zeetha’s two-bladed sword.

• Implacable Man: (Неумолимый преследователь)
  • Higgs and Zola post-Movit #11.
  • The Jägermonsters. When Maxim, Dimo and Oggie are introduced, they’d been hanging in nooses for days, casually observing and commenting on the town. It’s implied that Othar conned them into getting into the nooses voluntarily. Dimo later, um, shrugs off his losing an arm. When we finally actually see a Jäger die, it takes an entire pack of Tweedle’s Sparkhounds and then several gunshots point-blank to the face to finish the job. It gets even more extreme, seeing that Jägers can reach a extremely high age (some have been around for centuries), to the point where Gil decides that Vole is the best chance for them to analyze just what is causing any living extracted out of the Mechanicsburg Time Stop Bubble to age rapidly and die quickly, so they can avert it and do clean extractions. While he doesn’t like it, he most certainly survives it.
• Impoverished Patrician: (Обедневший аристократ) There are a number of nobles who have nothing but their titles to their name because their lands were conquered and/or rendered uninhabitable by Sparks. They tend to end up as retainers to nobles who still have wealth, as not providing these disenfranchised nobles shelter is considered bad form.
• Improvised Weapon: (Предмет с оружейным потенциалом)
  • Wrenches seem to be used as cudgels a lot.
  • Ol' Man Death using his butcher knife against a Jäger is no surprise, since he’s a Chef of Iron. But then, he can just as well fight with a coffee cup, a huge sausage or a barrel of anchovies.
  • And now, a book on the use of improvised weaponry has been used as an improvised weapon.
• Improv Fu: Heroic Freestyle is a combat style used by both the Heterodyne Boys and the Hoffmann brothers. It apparently involves a lot of chaotic improvisation and getting hit a lot. Given that the only practitioners we know of are two-person teams it may also be based around team combat.
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Discussing demon summoning while Higgs is impersonating an attendant results in this:

«	Agatha: [smugly] I mean, you can’t just say, «appear before me, all-powerful creature» and expect— Higgs: [appears out of Butler Space] Tea? Agatha: Oh! Yes, thank you!	»

• Incendiary Exponent: The Torchmen, Mechanicsburg’s air defense system. Imagine a semi-autonomous clank with flight wings that’s on fire. Now imagine a whole lot of them, all perched atop lamp posts throughout the town when inactive. Now you understand why the old timer airman in the Pink Airship was so fretful.
• Incessant Music Madness: In the (psychological) torture chamber.

«	Othar: …and that MUSIC! WHAT is that MUSIC?!	»

• Indy Escape:
  • The Rolling Fun Ball of Death.

«	Professor Tiktoffen: Huh. I wondered where that went on Tuesdays. Agatha: Why do I even have one of those?	»

• Tarvek gets to do the «pursued by giant monster» variation… while carrying an injured woman, an injured Jäger, a dozen baby wasp weasels, and some precious notes.

«	Tarvek: What are you people doing? RUN!	»

• Indy Ploy: Often. Klaus seems to be almost the only character who plans more than fifteen minutes ahead.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • 2007 April 18, Panel #7.
  • Gil and Tarvek are in agreement about this.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Diaz and Mittelmind use up all the good excuses.
• Infantilization Retaliation: When Agatha meets Maxinia, baby daughter of her adoptive parents (who are both constructs and couldn’t have children prior to being rebuilt by Gil), she calls her «an adowable widdle miwacle of science». Unfortunately, Maxinia is rather stronger than the average infant, and really doesn’t like baby-talk. She punches Agatha in the face, almost knocking her out.
• Infernal Retaliation:

«	Krosp: Great. Now the crowd is trapped by the stalagmites while the flaming monster advances.	»

• In Medias Res: (In medias res) The Adventures in Castle Heterodyne video game opens with Agatha entering the title castle and meeting Sanaa Wilhelm, which happens at the start of Volume 8 («Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones») in the webcomic.
• In My Language, That Sounds Like…: (Полезные заметки/Ложный друг переводчика) Zeetha, daughter of Chump. And, yes, she knows what it means in our language. It’s been pretty much established that «Chump» was/is Klaus, which makes it highly likely the name is not a coincidence.
• Insistent Terminology: (Настойчивая терминология) By the fandom, often by the characters, and even by the website itself.
  • «Othar Tryggvassen! GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!»
  • In The Rant rather than the comic itself, hyperlinks are always «elegant and finely-crafted».
  • It’s a GASLAMP FANTASY, not Steampunk.
  • Gilgamesh is very insistent that the little Heterodyne generator is not a lamp. The novelisations state that it is in fact a lamp. It just happens to have other functions as well.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the fact that there have been people capable of warping the fabric of reality via science for several centuries (and for several thousands of years in a few rare cases) Europa at least still looks relatively similar to 19th century Europe. Cities like Paris, Vienna and Prague still exist, as does the Catholic Church (although with seven Popes) and England still has a vast global empire even though most of the country is underwater at this point — albeit they do also have an extremely powerful and seemingly immortal queen, who refuses to abandon the British Isles.
• Instant Cosplay Surprise:
  • When Lucrezia abruptly gains control of Agatha’s body, she’s astonished to discover the dress that Tarvek provided for Agatha.

«	Lucrezia: Really now — playing with dolls, at your age.	»

• When Albia drags Agatha into her «place of utmost secrecy» (a memory of her prehistoric past), Agatha finds herself in cavewoman attire, to her mild dismay.

• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • Old Man Death, explaining about Maxim trying to get his hat, notes that Jägers are no good at being subtle, so he can always «see 'em coming two streets away». Unbeknownst to him, Maxim is currently hiding in his barrel of pickled herring, and assuming he’s being called out, bursts out with an indignant exclamation. Old Man Death is forced to admit that sometimes a Jäger can surprise him.
  • Agatha wants to break in a Parisian dress shop, since they are barely clothed and supposed to go to a costume party. Dimo objects, as according to him you should only loot from defeated enemies. Agatha counters that it’s not like she’s going to battle a horde of socialites on the way. Cue a horde of well-dressed socialites turning the corner and coming at her with hostile intentions, to Agatha’s exasperation.

«	Zeetha: Wow! You can find anything in Paris!	»

• Gil doubts the Dreen’s supposed ability to predict the future, as one recently told him he’d be going to Paris, and he has no reason to go there. Cue an officer entering to tell him they’re about to land there.
• Princess Neena, disguised as a steward, try to join the expedition to Mechanisburg as a stowaway… sorry, «surprise freelance member». She begs Agatha and Zeetha to not tell her mother, and that everything will be OK as long as Dr. Rakethorn doesn’t see her… not realizing he’s standing right behind her.

«	Neena: It’ll be fine, as long as Doctor Rakethorn doesn’t see me. Rakethorn: Oh, «steward»… won’t your poor me some tea? Neena: AIEEE!	»

• Instant Sedation: (Мгновенное снотворное)
  • C-Gas, D-Gas and Ichor of Somnia.
  • Most shocking example is when Gil shot Franz with a sedative through the palm… and he’s down for the count in mere seconds, despite being a freaking dragon. On the other hand, Franz only stays knocked out a minute or two.
• Instrument of Murder: Sleipnir O’Hara’s «Hot Pipes».
• Internal Reveal: The fact that «revenants» can actually be normal people is a huge revelation in setting, just look at how they’re treated in Dragon from Mars. But readers get a hint of this well before it becomes common knowledge thanks to Mr. Rovainen’s actions. It takes a while for the full story to come out, though.
• Interservice Rivalry: (Соперничество служб) Jägerkin (as a part of being «perfect soldiers») got it straight — they deem themselves better than anyone else and eager to make a point, but shut up when a real action is in sight:

«	General Zog: Sir — dere iz a time to twit nancy-boy feetsmen und a time to crush bogs.	»

• Interspecies Romance: (Межвидовая романтика) Considering the presence of countless artificial lifeforms created by Sparks, this is inevitable, most commonly in the form of humans and constructs. Jägermonster and human relationships are rare but they tend to pop up in Mechanicsburg, due to a lack of the stigma that Jägers get elsewhere. It’s eventually revealed that Zeetha and Higgs are one as well, as the latter is a Jäger General.
• In the Blood: Sparkiness is usually hereditary. Spark styles of invention too.

«	Agatha: I believe another forty-five point three seconds, and I would have exploded or something. Castle Heterodyne: … or something. Under the circir/circumstances I/I am forced to admit that yo/you are most most likely oneoneone of the family… Agatha: Oh, yeah… I have got to try that again! Castle Heterodyne: yesss… most likely, in/in/indeed.	»

• In the Future, We Still Have Roombas: Agatha’s self-replicating clanks.
• In the Hood: (Чёрный капюшон) Subverted because the guards looking for Agatha recognize it for the obvious disguise that it is. Doubly subverted because the heroes expected as much.
• In the Name of the Moon: Although it was an intentional delivery of a Large Ham, it’s still epic.
  • «SCHTOP! Hyu horr’ble monster-y ting of Evil!»
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: Some people apparently believe Klaus Barry Heterodyne, child of Lucrezia and William Hetrodyne, was actually Lucrezia and Klaus Wulfenbach’s child, even though K. B. Heterodyne was born more than two years after Klaus’s disappearance.
• Ironic Echo: (Фраза-бумеранг)
  • Agatha quoting Moloch von Zinzer back at himself here demonstrating that the tables have indeed turned.
  • Zola echoing Agatha’s sarcastic party plans virtually word-for-word (albeit in a very different tone) as Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • And Agatha describing Tarvek to Gil with the last three words being the same she used describing Gil to Tarvek.
• Irrevocable Order: One of the reasons people are reluctant to hire Ivo Sharktooth, Private Jäger is that you can hire him, but you can’t fire him. In a town like Mechanicsburg, he’s likely to discover something that no one wanted uncovered.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: (Вот сейчас обидно было!) Agatha’s new set of advisers in Mechanicsburg have no objection to being called «bandits» by Vanamonde, but take umbrage at his prefixing this description with «old».
• It Makes Sense in Context:

«	Agatha: We’re just going to kill you, and then you’ll be fine! [later…] Gil: I’ve changed my mind! Let’s just kill him! Agatha: Stop it. We’re going to kill him properly.	»

• I Want Grandkids:
  • Oh, Castle Heterodyne, that really wants its current master to get busy in the bedroom to make the next generation.
  • Also, Oggie to the storyteller (his great-great grandson) who he really wants to make him a great-great-great grandpa.
• I Want My Mommy!: Neena freaking out in a life-threatening situation and screaming for her Mama summons her.
• I Was Never Here: (Этого никогда не было) Lucrezia to Vrin.0,

J

• Jar of the Bizarre: Unusual things in flasks, jars and tanks appear frequently as background decoration, and given that the few that are released get weaponised they’re probably safer that way. An in-universe Heterodyne Tale ends climactically with the opening of a literal ocean-in-a-bottle, and later advancements in the Other’s Hive Engine technology produce a small ominous glass globe full of meat and clockwork that manufactures a prototype slaver wasp capable of infecting a Spark.
• Jaw Drop: (Уронить челюсть/Отпад челюсти)
  • Agatha’s mouth drops open in shock when she realizes that not only is someone taking advantage of the Heterodyne girl rumor to impersonate her and try to take over her town they’re also dressed as an incredibly feminine pink thing that plays very well to the crowd.
  • The jaws drop on pretty much everyone in Mechanicsburg when Gil summons up a lightning strike to destroy the lead war stomper.
  • One of the Mechanicsburg councilors reacts in slack jawed shock to Gil’s rampage.
  • When Sanaa sees that Moloch is actually incredibly competent rather than the bumbling fool she thought he was her mouth goes slack.
  • Goomblast takes the cake. When it comes to jaw-dropping, that huge mouth of his blows the competition away.
• Jerkass: (Козёл) Several. Merlot is prominent as a cruel teacher who abuses his position to look down on students and then blames someone else for his getting in trouble after he murders a bunch of Empire employees and burns down a wing of the university.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: And how! Chekhov’s Guns that were put on the mantle in books 1, 2, and 3 are being taken off and fired years later. Gil and Tarvek also indulge in some Lampshade Hanging when they discuss a bunch of convoluted noodle incidents.
• Juggle Fu:
  • In an early strip, Gil throws a fishbowl in the air, and catches it again in the first panel of the next page.
  • Gil also throws a silver of vixonite vial while taking a punch from Bang, before catching it again.
• Just the First Citizen: (Первый гражданин) Klaus Wulfenbach, Ruler of Europa, is styled «Baron» (for context, baron is usually the lowest tier of landed nobility). His son Gil carries on with the precedent set by his father when he inherits the Empire.

K

Ссылка: [3]

• Kick Them While They Are Down:
  • Here Violetta expresses her fury by kicking the wounded Tarvek — who is not actually down, but can’t really fight back because they are on the same side.
  • It’s all over the place, really — unless someone’s bitten by Chronic Hero Syndrome or in a hurry.

«	Tarvek: Oh, nonono no, you do not "give up!" YOU DIE!	»

• Martellus repeatedly shoots Rerich at point blank range after unnecessarily attacking him with ten spark hounds and injuring Rerich to the point that he is no longer able to move.

• Kidnapped from Behind:
  • Agatha is grabbed and taken away while Tarvek and the rest of the group are looking out at the newest attack on Mechanicsburg with their backs to her kidnapping which delays their realizing what has happened.
  • It happens again in Paris with slightly more justification — her friends are fending off an attack by a clockwork android, but it turns out the villain is controlling more than one body so another version of himself snatches Agatha while her friends are shooting in the other direction.
• Kidnapped While Sleeping: While Tarvek is sleeping off the effects of not sleeping at all during the siege of Mechanicsburg and getting poisoned and painfully healed twice he gets kidnapped by the Immortal Library and doesn’t wake until he’s secured on their ship and far away.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Beausoleil, after having murdered Simon Voltaire and severed him from the Paris network, encounters his grief-enraged daughter Colette, who is in full-tilt Madness Place as her Spark breaks through (and her ballroom dress disintegrating from the static discharge from her interface to the City). He begins to taunt her about her being new to this, but she cuts him off with a snap of her fingers. Across all of Paris, all of his duplicate bodies are killed in a myriad of violent ways, except the one in front of Colette. This last Beausoleil keels over in pain from sensing the slaughter.
• Kill It with Fire: (Сжечь к чёртовой матери)
  • Sleipnir’s pipes… guess you can’t start a fire without a Spark.
  • Wreathed in Flames: The Torchmen
• Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: Tarvek correctly identifies Higgs as the Secret Jäger General, which prompts Higgs to escalate to being confrontational. Tarvek then deliberately puts Higgs' readied hand on his own throat, telling him to just get it over with if Higgs really thinks Tarvek is an enemy of his Lady Heterodyne. Higgs decides to reveal Tarvek’s correctness in a roundabout way, by giving him a choke-lift, a brutal dress-down about the deviousness of his family and how he’s the most so of the whole lot, and this is from generations of observation. He makes sure Tarvek is chokedly terrified he might actually make the kill for a moment before placing him back down and approving how thoroughly wrapped around Agatha’s finger he is with a characteristic Jäger-style Slasher Smile.
• Klatchian Coffee: (Убодритель) Agatha discovers coffee in a Mechanicsburg coffeehouse and goes sparky. She also goes into Bullet Time — reading a book on coffee, editing it, and devising a way to rebuild the coffee machine in the time it takes a waitress to say three words. And then there’s the coffee she makes instead. It appears to be a perfect encapsulation not only of the taste, but of everything that pure coffee is. The one person that tastes it goes into a Heroic BSoD since he will never be able to enjoy any other coffee ever again. He also apparently can’t sleep for at least a week, making him a nervous and tired wreck the next time he appears.
• Knee-capping: Higgs uses this move against Zola. Unfortunately for him, she is too high on combat drugs to fall down.
• Kneel, Push, Trip: Agatha and Krosp do a variation on this (Krosp is short enough that he doesn’t have to kneel) with Othar, pushing him out of their small airship.
• Knight Templar: (Храмовник) Othar. He wants to kill all sparks (ending with himself), because he thinks they are «the cause of everything wrong in the world today.»
• The Knights Who Say «Squee!»: The surviving pirates who’d been escorting Tarvek absolutely lose it with delight when they realise that, since Gilgamesh Wulfenbach came to retrieve him in person, the Ax-Crazy woman accompanying him can only be THE legendary Captain Bangladesh DuPree. According to Gil it happens a lot.

«	Pirate: It is her! She stabbed my mom once!	»

• Know When to Fold 'Em: Once Colette has taken control of Paris, Terebithia advises the Queen of the Dawn to get while the getting’s good. Her plans failed, but «it took two Storm Kings, two Masters of Paris, and a Heterodyne to slow [her] down», so she shouldn’t feel too bad about it.
• Kubrick Stare: (Взгляд Кубрика) Higgs gives one to Tarvek when it becomes obvious the latter has guessed that Higgs is in fact the secret Jäger-General.

L

• Lady and Knight: (Принцесса и рыцарь) Spoofed with Tarvek and Violetta.

«	Violetta: I'm responsible for this slug's continued existence. Tarvek: This useless nitwit is my loyal servant. Ow! Quitit!	»

• Lampshade Hanging: (Подсветка) Many. Using a book titled Using Found Objects as Weapons as a bludgeon is probably the best example.
• Large and in Charge: (Большой — значит главный)
  • Jäger generals.
  • Sergeant Nak («Big Green Hairy Guy» gorilla-like construct).
  • Klaus himself is a quite impressive bruiser too.
  • Otilia, the Muse of Protection, is much larger that the rest of her line, and quite capable of fighting almost anyone. Except Airman Higgs.
• Large Ham: (Переигрывание)
  • All sparks chew scenery when in The Madness Place. Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer is like that all the time.
  • One of Klaus Wulfenbach’s chief advisors, Doctor Chouteh, appears to be in a constant state of hamming it up and has yet to speak a single line in anything approaching «indoor volume».
  • Humongulus is now slicing the ham! This is in fact how slicing ham is done!
• Laser-Guided Karma: (Кармическое возмездие)
  • An officer in one of the many armies that invade Mechanicsburg tells his soldiers not to take their eyes off 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.	»

• The Duke Strinbeck acts like a total ass to the crew of the Pink Airship, threatening to shoot them, followed by flaying their entire families alive. A bad move when they have a need to get rid of any unnecessary weight — especially when his threats are to try and make the airship stay put when doing so is (obviously) certain death.

• Last Grasp at Life: When Colette killed all of Beausoleil’s bodies in Paris one of their deaths is depicted with just a gloved hand reaching desperately out of the muck he’s being suffocated in.
• Last-Second Word Swap:
  • When Tarvek is trying to get to Agatha’s side quickly he starts saying he’s the Storm King, before switching that out to Chief Advisor to the Heterodyne:

«	Tarvek: I am the St—er—I am the chief advisor to your Lady Heterodyne.	»

• After the Corbettites defuse the situation between Martellus, Klaus-In-Gil, and Lucrezia-In-Agatha with cake laced with heavy sedatives, Bang (who also ate the cake) stops short of saying «piece of cake». She’s probably secretly hoping that Agatha stays free and finds a way to undo Klaus’s mind control on Gil because she really hates mind control, and didn’t want to clue Gil in on the Corbettites' hand in Agatha’s escape
• Higgs says the following while talking to a Mad Scientist, swapping out the word mad at the last minute because she obviously is that:

«	Higgs: So you’re not ma-er-upset then?	»

• This one is a running gag as Agatha has done that as well with another spark that she fought. He was just happy that he learned something about magnets from her trick.

• Latex Perfection: (Голливудская косметология) Despite being a very scaly fish monster with a large crest, Trogulus is able to wear a mask of his human mentor Professor Homlomium that fools even those who had been working with Homlomium for years. Well, the mask is implied to be Spark work, at the very least.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: (Опора на четвёртую стену)
  • After Agatha fools Gilgamesh once again, DuPree points out that he should have seen it coming.

«	DuPree: I mean, if they ever write this down, they ain’t gonna be calling it «Boy Genius».	»

• After Agatha’s adventures in Paris, where she’s wondering where to go next in her quest to free Mechanicsburg Wooster pops up and mentions that, as he keeps telling her, she needs to go to England.

«	Agatha: Well, Mister Wooster, it seems like you’ve been trying to get me to England for years. Very well, let’s be off.	»

• Krosp remarks at one point that «It’s just like Sturmvoraus and that other chump [meaning Gil] are here!» While as yet it hasn’t been mentioned in the canon comic, the Foglios have basically confirmed that Zeetha’s father, 'Chump', is Klaus Wulfenbach, and Zeetha and Gil are fraternal twins.

• Leave Behind a Pistol: (Выдача оружия для самоубийства) Gil gives Moloch von Zinzer a poison pill upon his departure to Castle Heterodyne, underestimating the degree of von Zinzer’s Action Survivor skills and Genre Savvy. It has yet to be revealed if Zinzer still has it and what he will do with it.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: With a somewhat unexpected pair of lovebirds in this strip.
• Legally Dead: Since successful resurrection/reanimation is fairly common in Europa, it plays havoc with various royal or noble titles, as succession obviously requires the death of the role’s previous occupant. As a result, the ruling houses of the continent — the Fifty Families — decreed that any member of a lineage who dies and is resurrected is automatically removed from the line of succession. Or, as Gil puts it, «With them, once you’re dead, you’re dead — even if someone zaps you back later.» This obviously doesn’t stop certain blue-bloods getting resurrected on the sly and hoping no one finds out, but Baron Wulfenbach always does and is able to hold it over them. Ironically, in the story it’s an open secret that the Baron himself is a construct, and the backstory implies he’s the result of all three sons of the Wulfenbach family dying in a lab accident, getting stitched back together, and reanimated. All of which should automatically disqualify him from ruling as well — but he chooses not to play by the Fifty Families' game, and no one dares to call him on it.
• Leg Cling: The «flashback» panel of Dr. Hengst von Wyrmhaut (Monster Hunter) escaping Mechanisburg, as told by Hector, features him with a Damsel in Distress clinging to his leg. The actual true story, as told by Franz, is a lot less glamorous.
• Leitmotif: (Лейтмотив) 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. It’s been hinted that this is a Heterodyne thing, the song itself may even be In the Blood (while there is a river «Dyne» that plays a key role in the creation of the the Heterodyne family, «heterodyne» in real life means «relating to the production of a lower frequency from the combination of two almost equal high frequencies»). Unknown if anyone has actually tabulated and played her song in real life, though.
  • The novels explain that it isn’t actually a fixed song, but rather a sophisticated humming designed to harmonize with any background noise (quite possibly including the mental kind, given its efficacy in suppressing The Other in Agatha’s head) in such a way that it cancels it out, leaving the hummer with no distractions as they focus on whatever it is they’re focusing on (usually something Sparky). And yes, everything this implies only makes the Heterodynes even more impressive.
• Let’s Get Dangerous!: (Ну-ка, от винта) The Unstoppable Airman Higgs is, in fact, unstoppable.
• Let Them Die Happy: These plants are trying to do this.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Gilgamesh orders that his hat should be hidden in a safe place — and never spoken about again.

«	[seconds later] DuPree: I heard there was a hat! Gil: You’re delusional.	»

• Licked by the Dog: The wasp weasels seem to really like Tarvek, much to his chagrin.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: (Увечье или смерть)
  • When Dimo is hit in the hand by a spray of Corrosive Poison from glowing slug-like monsters, he feels it moving up his arm and urges Oggie to «Hurry!». Oggie dutifully chops Dimo’s limb with his axe. Oggie shortly wonders if it was the right arm, but seeing it literally melt a few seconds later confirms there was no mistake.
  • Tweedle takes a poisoned smoke knight dagger to the left hand. He eventually cuts it off to stop the poison, and creates a prosthetic replacement for it.
• Lightning Bruiser: (Реактивный громила)
  • Airman Higgs.
  • After the Time Skip, Gil’s new rather tall and imposing female-figure bodyguard clank «Bohrlaika» is quite nimble, packs an electo-sword that can cleanly cut off an arm off an enemy Humongous Mecha war clank, and is no worse for wear after missing the fact that the arm is about to fall on her when she is reiterating her surrender demand.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: (Чудодейственное электричество) The writers love this trope.
• Lightning Reveal: The Baron’s real forces are revealed.
• Like an Old Married Couple: (Как старая супружеская пара) Von Zinzer comments on it about Violetta and Tarvek bickering. «Are you sure you’re not married?» To which Violetta (who is actually a cousin of Tarvek’s) responds by almost puking.
• Like Brother and Sister: (Как брат и сестра) Bang and Gil, to the horror of Klaus. After the time skip, Gil finds nothing odd about waking up with Bang in bed with him. Apparently she had been struggling to stay awake as much as him, but she doesn’t have his training, so she can’t just do a few mental exercises and be good. DuPree acknowledges it during a tea break with Zeetha and Violetta.
• Lingerie Scene: (Сцена в нижнем белье) The creators admit the work contains «lots of running around in Victorian underwear». Most of the time, Agatha is the offender. Not that surprising, when one of the creators is a big fan of such underthings, and the other is her husband, plus both having a background of having drawn pornographic comics before.
• Literal Genie: (Джинн-буквалист) A mild case in the form of Castle Heterodyne.
• Literally Shattered Lives: (Хрупкое замороженное тело) When Colette killed all of Beausoleil’s bodies in Paris one of their deaths is depicted as them shattering in an explosion of little shards.
• Literal Metaphor: (Реализованная метафора)
  • When he was young, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach built a clank for «picking up girls».

«	Gil: Well, when I was a kid, we heard some of the older guys talking, but we were kind of… um… unclear on the concept, and, well… Zoing: Itworkz! itworkz! DuPree: That is so just like you… soooo pathetic.	»

• When something is pounding on the gates of Mechanicsburg, a soldier reports that «It’s a ram.» Agatha is still surprised when she sees the ovine monstrosity butting the gate and realizes, «AAH! It’s a RAM!»

• Little «No»: (Просто «нет»)
  • Type 1 from Wooster to Bangladesh.
  • A mix of type 1 and 3 from Higgs to Zola.
  • Little «No» meets This Is Gonna Suck meets Oh, Crap! when Castle Heterodyne decides to put out a fire.
• Living Battery: (Живая батарейка/Жизненная энергия?) Agatha drinks water from the Dyne and is super-charged as a temporary power source. Airman Higgs and the Castle note that Ingeous Heterodyne tried something similar once. Then he exploded. Agatha not only survives, she remarks that she has to try it again.
• Living Crashpad: Jägers are polite about this.

«	Martellus: Fortunately, I landed on an idiot. Sparkhound: And I helped!	»

• Living Distant Ancestor: Oggie the Jäger was Happily Married to a human woman soon after his transformation and has a long line of descendants from her, including his great-great-grandson the Storyteller. In an uncharacteristically serious moment, he admits that he doesn’t feel like his wife is gone as long as he can see glimpses of her in them.
• Living Labyrinth: Castle Heterodyne
• Living Legend: Quite a few.
  • Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, very well known and generally viewed as a hero. Except by the main protagonists.
  • 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.
  • Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek are all rapidly building themselves reputations, what with being stuck in the middle of the most epic story since the Heterodyne Boys defeated the Other. When Agatha visits Paris, she learns that everybody’s slapping her name and image on commercial products, and the opera house is staging a production based on her adventures to date.
• Living Motion Detector: The Tigerclank in Castle Heterodyne.
• Living Structure Monster: Heterodyne Castle is alive, and is one giant death trap for anyone who is not The Heterodyne. The proven and acknowledged Heterodyne to be exact, since even Agatha has a few troubles with it until she could prove her heritage. And before Agatha arrives to repair it, convict work crews are sent in to attempt repairs, or die trying. Usually the latter.
• Long-Lost Relative: Agatha, Theophilus DuMedd, and Zola are maternal first cousins; their mothers being the Mongfish sisters Lucrezia, Serpentina, and Demonica. Agatha and Theo are both glad to finally have a living relative, Zola not so much.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: (Длинноволосый симпатяга)
  • 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, Higgs is deemed as very attractive by multiple people in-universe and he has a pony tail.
• Look Behind You: (У тебя за спиной!)
  • Gil quickly distracts Agatha from a rather raunchy book that would likely make her irritated with him with a well timed recommendation of another on his shelves.
  • When Tarvek gets reanimated and attacks Moloch, the latter saves himself by pointing to something, «Uh… hey, check it out.» calming the man down instantly. 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!
  • The Baron’s Pax Transylvania basically amounts to «Don’t Make Me Come Over There.» As long as rulers turn over any of the Other’s technology discovered in their territory, pay taxes, permit the transportation of goods and passengers, hold to some basic humanitarian laws insisted on by the Empire, and above all keep the peace and don’t attack each other, they’re free to rule their lands as they wish. However, less scrupulous and Sparky rulers get away with treating their subjects appallingly, since they’re not attacking neighbouring countries and thus not breaking the peace. The novelizations reveal that since Klaus in turn couldn’t send in his own forces to deal with them, as that would be breaking his side of the bargain, he took to using an unwitting Othar Trygvassen, directing him towards eliminating Sparks that Klaus couldn’t touch himself.
  • The Corbettites are about to be ordered by their leader to give up Agatha to Martellus, but are conflicted because they promised her sanctuary as a passenger on their railway. They decide they can’t hand her over if they can’t find her and have one brother lead her party down to the catacombs to get nice and lost.
  • Also highly likely this is what slaver-wasp victim Klaus is doing during the Siege of Mechanicsburg in regards to whatever orders he’s been given by clank-Lucrezia.
• Losing Your Head: (Безголовое существо)
  • Tinka Also here, with Castle Heterodyne in the body of a mechanical Muse. Also an example of Arc Words.
  • Subverted with the Monster Horse Beastie; suffering this fate barely slows it down.
• Lost Superweapon: Subverted when the legendary Storm King returns from the dead bearing his Legendary Weapon, only to have Simon Voltaire No-Sell its effects. Voltaire points out that he’s one of the intellectual descendents of the Spark who created the weapon in the first place, and has the benefit of two hundred years spent studying the operating principles of the weapon, improving on the design, and developing countermeasures.
• Love Bubbles: Bubbles and roses.
• Love Triangle: (Любовный треугольник)
  • Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek. The existence of the triangle has now been openly stated, and Agatha’s subjects are taking bets over who’s going to win (Or if she’ll choose both). There was also a low-grade one involving Lars, but Death of the Hypotenuse made sure that only Gil and Tarvek remained to vie for her affection.
  • Possible Minion Love Triangle in Moloch, Violetta, and Snaug. Although, Violetta denies romantic interest in Moloch, and he’s smitten by Sanaa Wilhelm. Suuuure she isn’t interested… which turns the one centered on Moloch into a low-grade Love Dodecahedron. Confirmed by Moloch himself:

«	Moloch: So, Sanaa? Yeah, she’s smart and tough and I like being around her — but since I feel the same way about you, [Snaug,] I obviously don’t know anything about romance. Stupid, huh?	»

• Backstory one with Lucrezia, Klaus and Bill; Lucrezia dealt with the hypotenuse in a way that seems to have backfired.
• Princess Larana believes to be stuck in something like this and while she IS in one, she isn’t in the one she thinks she is. She is deeply attracted to Hoffmann who has a crush on fellow student Colette, but both Larana and Hoffmann acknowledge that he will probably never become her boyfriend. She herself has to marry the prince of Moligarchy — which Hoffmann is, thanks to a convenient adoption but unbeknown to her. Her expression when she finds out that she isn’t in a Love Triangle as Hoffmann explains that she has to marry him and that he understands that she doesn’t want to (all while she tries to confess her feelings) are absolutely hilarious.

• Loyal Phlebotinum: Practically everything that the Heterodynes made. This is, of course, one of the reasons the family was/is so dangerous. Many dangerous Sparks are taken out by their own creations and thus don’t cause lasting threats. The Heterodyne family can always be assured loyalty and safehaven with their creations. This is subverted for The Beast. Also subverted for a few pages when Agatha’s little clanks start a war against each other to find a king and stop listening to her (which she solves by making a tiny clank with a crown).
• Ludicrous Gibs: The reason Othar doesn’t turn his enemies inside out anymore.
• Ludicrous Precision: (Комически точные числа) Agatha calculates that another 45.3 seconds of being energized by the Dyne water would have resulted in her exploding if she hadn’t vented it into the stricken Gil and Tarvek.

M

• MacGyvering: (Жестянщик) A minor but prevalent Spark trait at the best of times, this runs on Rule of Funny and so gets more and more extreme the further the story is from canon.
• Mad Artist: (Эксцентричный художник) The tailor clank in the «Revenge of the Weasel Queen» fillers.
• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть?) Most of the cast for comedic effect, although there are a couple of outstanding examples:
  • Any Jägermonster. They’re ridiculously strong, immortal, nearly impervious to pain, and are regularly put through walls and shot repeatedly over the course of an average story-line. Dimo, Maxim, and Ognian are hanging from a gallows when they’re first introduced. They’ve been up there for days and are in no apparent danger or discomfort.
  • Airman Third Class Axel Higgs. When Gil first hears how his father was saved by him, including Higgs breaking several bones, falling from impossible heights and so on, he believes it is exaggeration. When he actually watches him fight, he is taught better. To the point it’s fairly clear that Higgs is something more than human. After the time-skip, it’s revealed that he’s a human-looking Jäger, known as the «sneaky» Jägergeneral, and in fact one of the oldest and most dangerous characters in the comic.
  • Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer who can, among other things, No-Sell falls from truly ridiculous heights (although he does attribute that to «very heroic» special trousers.) He’s tough enough that when the Baron needs him captured, the person sent to do it is an Imperial monster hunter, a woman normally tasked with taking down enormous, hulking, inhuman monstrosities.
  • Old Man Death took multiple Jägerpunches to the face and was still able to outfight the Jäger who provided them. He even somewhat lampshades it, explaining that he is possibly the only human that rode with the Jägers for years and survived it.
• The Madness Place: The trope namer, for good reason. All Sparks can be pretty crazy when they’re in a "Spark-induced fugue state, " as one character puts it delicately. They vary in their ability to control it, some being manically sociopathic and some retaining their ability to reason (to some degree). The most dangerous Sparks are by far the latter kind, since they can bend their madness to practical goals. It’s not for no reason that Klaus, Gil, Agatha, and Tarvek are among the most potent sparks in the setting.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) «Sparks», whose erratic genius has literally reshaped the world. They start out gifted, but only become able to warp the laws of physics on their own after they experience what is called a «breakthrough». A very rare few individuals have broken through a second time, unlocking Enlightenment Superpowers. A spark’s normal sanity can vary heavily between individuals, but all of them lose it a little when they get creative and enter a mental state known as The Madness Place.
  • 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.
  • There’s even a mad social scientist, who complains that the mad «hard» scientists get all of the funding and attention.

«	«I told the baron, give me a thousand orphans, a hedge maze and enough cheese and I can—»	»

• There are also sparks that are more mad about art than science.
• Agatha awakening to her mad science is what starts and drives the entire story forward, and raises the question …or will her newfound mad science DESTROY THEM ALL!

• Mad Scientist Laboratory: (Зловещая лаборатория) Several, most notably those belonging to Baron Wulfenbach and Prince Aaronev. And all of the ones in Castle Heterodyne.
• Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter:
  • Agatha herself qualifies. And she’s a mad scientist herself. Her mother Lucrezia was one as well, and a mad scientist herself too.
  • For a Spear Counterpart flip, Tarvek and Gil qualify as «Mad Scientists' Handsome Sons»… and are also Mad Scientists in their own right.
  • 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.
  • If you haven’t noticed, offspring of mad scientists are often mad scientists themselves. Sparkiness is genetic, it seems.
• Magitek: (Техномагия) Referenced in a (non-canon) Breather Episode. «Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!»
• Magnetic Hero: (Обаяшка) Any and all Sparks; their manic vision pulls normal people into their service. The only ones able to withstand this are good minions whose entire purpose for existence seems to be to keep the Sparks focused on not blowing up their labs.
• Major Injury Underreaction:
  • It takes four panels for Higgs to react to getting stabbed straight through his torso. (Needless to say, gore warning.) Of course, this is the «Unstoppable» Higgs, Ambiguously Human Airman Extraordinaire.
  • A pretty hilarious case when Lucrezia in Agatha’s body runs Oggie through Zeetha’s sword. Jägers are already Super Soldiers, and Oggie is boosted by a Super Serum at the time, so the worse it does is making him… nostalgic.

«	Oggie: A sword? Right through ze chest… Lucrezia: That’s right! And I— Oggie: Hoo! Dot takes me back, yah! Iz just like how hy met my vife! Lucrezia: Hu— [Oggie knocks her out with an elbow jab] Oggie: Miz Zeetha? Hoy, vake up, sweetie — ken hyu take hyu sword back now? Hy… hy gots to go lie down a leedle.	»

• Maker of Monsters: Most Sparks end up transforming wildlife and/or people into monsters with which to terrorize the local populace, unless they spend their time making terrible machines instead. The most talented do both.
• 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. Zola: This place is dangerous, twisted, and worst of all— […] It likes to think it has a sense of humor.	»

• The Corbettite crypts under the Immortal Library also qualify.

«	Agatha: Deadfalls, swinging blades, hidden rooms — what were they thinking? Librarian: These were the Corbettites. I believe they thought it was «awesome.»	»

• Mama Bear: (Родительский инстинкт) Von Pinn, and how. She’s actually the Muse of protection, downloaded into a construct body. The «bear» part gets much more literal later on.
• Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: Defied. There is a lot of in-universe speculation and gossip to the effect that Agatha’s older brother Klaus was in fact Klaus Wulfenbach’s son, based on the name and the fact that Klaus and Lucrezia were an item at one time. This conveniently ignores that the name was Bill’s idea, that Klaus Wulfenbach was at the time a good personal friend to and staunch supporter of the Heterodynes and exactly the kind of person Bill would name his firstborn after, and that Klaus Wulfenbach had been gone without a trace for over two years when young Klaus was born. Carson is driven to quiet despair by the number of people who can’t do basic math.
  • The Castle’s system for verifying a Heterodyne is designed to bypass this trope. Because of it, we can be sure that Agatha really is a Heterodyne, despite her mother’s colorful history.
• Manipulative Editing: The message recorded: «Lucrezia is the Other. Tell the Baron, and also everyone.» The message played back: «The Baron is the Other.»
• The Man They Couldn’t Hang: Well, The Jägers They Couldn’t Hang, but otherwise Da Boyz. Definitely Da Boyz.
• Marriage to a God: The original Heterodyne was supposedly married to a local battle goddess.
• Marry Them All:
  • It’d solve everything, really. On the personal level, they’re both in love with her, she’s in love with both of them, and Gil and Tarvek aren’t even THAT jealous of each other (for example accepting that the other would do the best they could for Agatha, and that if they had to, or Agatha chose the other, they would step back). Diplomatically, a Wulfenbach/Heterodyne alliance would have enough power to rule the world, and the nobles would fall all over themselves to be ruled by a Sturmvoraus/Heterodyne combined house, due to a prophecy they all believe in. The in-universe betting pool has it at 5:1 odds.
  • The Heterodynes may have made something of a habit of this sort of behavior. The Castle seems very fond of the idea (and mentions that the master bedroom sleeps six), «she’s the Heterodyne» is apparently all the justification Agatha would need, and Satyricus Heterodyne kept a seraglio.
• Mascots Love Sugar: Agatha’s wasp eater tries to eat a waffle cone whole while in Paris and is seen eating chocolate truffles and other sweets in the dining car on the train to Paris.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: Gilgamesh is taught by Klaus himself (among others), and we know some of the people who taught the baron himself.

«	Dr. Sun: He does his teachers proud.	»

• Mauve Shirt: (Лиловые рубашки) Sergeant Scorp of the Baron’s Vespiary Squad. Also an unquestionably Cool Old Guy, right down to the superb facial hair.
• Maximum Fun Chamber: Castle Heterodyne contains several; in fact, most of the castle counts.
• McNinja:
  • Smoke Knights, followers of the Way of Smoke, serving the heir of Storm King.
  • Baron Wulfenbach’s «stealth fighters», a rival school — though arguably, they are shown to be a lot less competent than the Smoke Knights both in this and previous examples, acting more as a humorous foil for the Jägers and the heroes. They are also more like a military unit, whereas the smoke knights tend to fight as individuals, protecting the individual family patron they are assigned to.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя)
  • This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.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 (Which is only minimally anglicized German for «mechanical castle») is integrated with the, indeed, 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.
  • Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer. His surname roughly means «Safe Waters» in the North Countries where he’s said to be from.
  • Doctor Chouteh (pronounced shout-ay) is a Large Ham of ridiculous proportions.
  • Agatha’s foster parents are called Adam and Lilith and it doesn’t look like they are very god-fearing. Not to mention their surname, Clay. (Note that they almost certainly picked these names for themselves.)
• Mecha-Mooks: (Серийные образцы никуда не годятся) Soldier clanks abound in many Sparks' armies. Special mention goes to The Watch in Beetleburg… which were sadly outclassed by the Wulfenbach Battle Clanks, a Toy Soldier-esque machine that comprises the mainstay of the Wulfenbach ground forces.
• Mechanical Evolution: (Чужеродная машина) 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:
  • 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?	»

• Mega Neko: (Кот-бегемот) Castle Heterodyne has a lot of giant cat clanks living in it. One of them becomes Otilia’s new body, at least for the time being.
• Mêlée à 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: (Маленькая вещь на память) Agatha’s locket.
• Mental Time Travel: Othar, in his Twitter.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: (Профессиональный риск ментора) Dr. Tarsus Beetle, who kept Agatha at the university because he knew the truth about her, dies in the first story arc.
• Mexican Standoff: (Мексиканская заминка) Subverted between Klaus and Dr. Beetle.
• 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. It’s the first time that Agatha consciously sparks out (but is not aware she is a spark).
  • 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.
• Miles Gloriosus: (Аника-воин) Subverted with the Jäger generals, whose apparent reluctance to wade into combat in Mechanicsburg seems to have been down to keeping an eye on each other’s antics rather than any kind of actual reluctance to fight. Once the fighting starts, they mostly argue over details.
• Milky White Eyes: Geisterdamen and possibly other geistercreatures.
• Mini-Mecha: (Мини-меха) Ol' Vorthang’s Sunday Best, an armor museum piece in Mechanicsburg, was restored to operation by Agatha during the Battle of Mechanicsburg for her personal use.
• Minion Maracas: Agatha demonstrates the proper technique.
• Minion Shipping:
  • There’s been strong fan support for Violetta×Von Zinzer, minion in denial and retainer/definitely-NOT-minion of Tarvek and Agatha, respectively. Shipping a snarky McNinja who hates her job with a world-weary ex-soldier just works.
    • Lately, canon seems to agree. But then, he jumped to Fräulein Snaug (repeating the Agatha×Gilgamesh×Zola case).
    • Oh boy, now he’s on Sanaa, with Fräulein Snaug suggesting Murder Is the Best Solution.
    • And here, he makes it worse, by outright telling Snaug that while he’s apparently in love with Sanaa, he feels the same about Snaug too.
  • Also, Zeetha and Higgs. Totally canon.
  • When Sparks do it, others begin to inconspicuously look for blast doors.
  • Another one that makes a lot of sense: DuPree and Vole.
  • …it’s for science!!! Herr Baron. Yeah, just look at a couple of unnamed random crew in issue September 29, 2014.here
• Missing Mom: (Пропавшая мама) Missing mothers for everyone!
  • The identity of Gilgamesh Wulfenbach’s mother is unknown, although heavily hinted to be the Queen of Skifander.
  • Similarly, we’ve never met Tarvek’s mother and don’t know much about her beyond being on the royal House Valois lineage (thus making Tarvek such too). In one of the print-novels, it’s strongly implied that Tarvek’s sister murdered her.
  • Zigzagged with Agatha. For most of her life, Agatha didn’t have any contact with her parents, or even know who they were. Eventually resolved (although Agatha probably wishes it hadn’t) when a copy of her mother’s personality gets downloaded into her head, and it turns that her mother was always a self-centered, genocidal-dominatrical, infanticidal, mass-murderer… unless she actually wasn’t, as it’s not at all clear whether the entity now calling itself Agatha’s mother is actually the same one that married Agatha’s father all those years ago.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Castle Heterodyne acts as this to the prisoners repairing it, due to its fractured personality; One more lucid fragment may send a prisoner to go repair something, but a more insane fragment in that section may end up killing the prisoner in the attempt.
• «Mission: Impossible» Cable Drop: Gil does this in a flashback to surreptitiously modify the blueprints of Castle Wulfenbach to make space for a secret lab.
• Mistaken for Gay: (Приняли за гея) Othar, 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». Bisexual at the most, though, since he was married to a Geisterdame for a while in the Twitter. Of course, he’s also borderline delusional, so good luck trusting anything he says.
• Mistaken for Quake: when Agatha finally manages to reboot Castle Heterodyne, the invading forces think they’re experiencing an earthquake until they discover that it’s actually the castle fighting back, seen here.
• Mister Muffykins: (Отвратительная шавка) Jenka is not a fan of the little dogs most society women favor as pets, and as such keeps her Jäger Bear Fust with her even when she’s playing the part of «Lady Jenka».

«	Jenka: Ta da! So today I am Lady Jenka—mysterious und eccentric beauty! Agatha: Eccentric? Jenka: Well, yes. Most society ladies favor little dogs. Have you seen those things? So noisy—and they never really eat anybody.	»

• Mobile Maze: Castle Heterodyne. «We’re doomed! The door we came through — it never led HERE before!»
• Modesty Bedsheet: (L-образное одеяло)
  • Gil, while lying on the bed injured and naked.
  • Von Pinn, in a similar situation.
• Modesty Towel: (Прикрыться полотенцем) Agatha actually invokes the trope while on the Corbettite Railways, using it as a ploy to distract anybody entering her compartiment, giving time for Krosp (and later Wooster) to take them out if they happen to be hostile. Unluckily, all those coming to visit are either allies or just train attendants, and thus she gives each of them an eyeful for nothing. She has pretty much given up on the pretense when an actual assassin shows up.
• Moment Killer:
  • Merlot, in the page that is aptly titled Smoochus Interruptus.
  • The Jäger generals assume that Gil and Agatha won’t enjoy making out with her mother watching, and that will be enough motivation to quickly remove the copy of the Other’s mind from Agatha.
• Monochromatic Eyes:
  • The geisterdamen have all-white eyes.
  • Vole’s may be all-black, since it’s hard to tell whether he has white pupils or just reflections.
• Monster Clown: (Зловещий клоун) Whatever this thing originally was made for, among other things, probably.
• Mood Whiplash: (Эмоциональные качели)
  • The calming pie does its intended purpose. (Warning: spoilery. And the pies may contain nutmeg.)
  • Say-…
  • Agatha gets whiplash herself.
  • After a hilarious scene of Gil simultaneously fighting DuPree and brewing potion, next time we see him we get… Klaus towering over him with a wasp-detector.
• Mook Horror Show: (Кошмар головореза) The flashback of Zeetha wiping out a whole pirate ship sure looks like this in a couple panels.
• Moral Myopia: (Готтентотская мораль)
  • Klaus and heroes often suffer from this trope. For example, the Storm King Conspiracy and the Other are hated for their murderous, violent, manipulative and underhanded behavior and tactics. While the heroic or neutral characters tend to be much more benevolent and restrained, they also have little in the way of hesitation in using similar methods as their enemies to achieve their goals.
  • Bang was a murderous, sadistic pirate long before she met Klaus, but he and Gil often look the other way regarding her actions while severely punishing others for lesser infractions.
  • Merlot 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. Also, while The Other can use actual mindcontrol on people, the citizens of Mechanicsburg do react with absolute obedience to a strong Spark that might be a Heterodyne.
• 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 also had a truth serum effect (or the truth serum had a sedative effect, it’s not fully clear which effect was intended); Agatha blabs for almost three full pages of unrestrained and meandering truth before she passes out. So much for «Lady Olga».
  • Punch, after his voice is repaired.
• Mr. Fanservice: (Мистер Фансервис) Gil, Tarvek, Klaus, and more.
• Mugged for Disguise: (Гоп-стоп-маскировка) Agatha tries this more than once after escaping the King of the Silver Lands, who had stripped her to a slave Leia bikini, but none of the guards that she mugs have pants that will fit over her hips. As a result, she’s stuck in the bikini bottom and a guard’s shirt and boots until she finally manages to get a ballgown by battling a horde of socialites.
• Mugging the Monster: (Не на того напали)
  • Oublenmach tries to break into what turns out to be a Jägermonster bar, brandish his weapon and threaten the staff into giving him what they consider a sacred relic. The next time we see him, he’s subjected to a Neck Lift by Mama Gkika.
  • The last surviving hostile Spark in Mechanisburg found himself «a charming pair of innocent hostages»: Zeetha, daughter of Chump and Axel Higgs. Next time we see him, he’s wearing his BFG as a scarf.
• Mummies at the Dinner Table: Anevka, to a degree.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Volume Seven, Page 52. That must be good coffee.
• Mushroom Samba: (Глазами сумасшедшего/Приглючения в Глюколяндии) The Circus pumps out a hallucinogenic gas during their escape from Sturmhaven, shout «The Heterodynes are back!» and we get this little gem.
  • Van has a small one when he tries some of Agatha’s new coffee.
• Must Have Caffeine: (Кофеман) Vanamonde von Mekkhan spends all his time in a coffee shop in Mechanicsburg, and certainly does enjoy his coffee. During the first attack on Mechanicsburg, there’s a caffeine dispensing assistant at his side. He has even written a textbook on coffee preparation (under a pseudonym): Bean There, Done That.
• My God, What Have I Done?: (Что я наделал!)
  • 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 God, You Are Serious!: Turns out the Castle wasn’t being facetious when it told Gil to look very carefully for something amiss at the spot where an enormous Eldritch Abomination was looming. It was expecting centimeters-tall creatures.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Krosp I, Emperor of All Cats used to be the Trope Illustrator.
• Myth Arc: One of the best webcomic examples. The foreshadowing starts with the fourth strip of the first chapter (In November of 2002), with hints about the phenomenon scattered over many, many volumes — and a full explanation has still not been given by late 2019, over 17 real-time years later.

N

• 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.
  • the Heterodyne family tree is loaded with examples, including; Faustus, Saturnus, Egregious, and Vlad «The Blasphemous.» In Universe, «The Heterodyne» seems to qualify all by itself.
  • If these things are any indication, all strong Spark families tend to be this way.
  • The Queen of England is only mentioned in hushed tones, even though the only British member of the cast is Wooster. It’s implied that she is immortal and that she exercises mind control over the entirety of the English Isles.
    • Confirmed: Queen Albia is Eternal
• Narrative Profanity Filter: After a blow to the foot, Agatha cuts loose with a string of Symbol Swearing, followed by a small asterisk. The accompanying caption:

«	«* Oooh, what naughty little devices, to turn upon your creator! Oh! Indeed, my foot is in such excruciating pain! I shall construct a device that will give you such a whack, see if I don’t!»	»

• Navel-Deep Neckline:
  • Agatha’s entire cleavage makes a brief and remarkably subtle appearance in the last panel of this page as the shirt she’s wearing is unbuttoned past her breasts.
  • In Vrinn’s first appearance she’s wearing a nightgown open to her navel, on account of having been dragged into the royal family’s presence in the middle of the night.
• «Near and Dear» Baby Naming: 2007-08-10: Klaus Barry Hetrodyne was «named at Master William’s insistence», for his friend Klaus, because it’s William and Lucrenzia’s son, not being named after his father and former lover of Lucrenzia, as people think.
• 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. Tarvek, who considers himself an Anti-Villain, even took part in an unwitting demonstration:

«	Tarvek: [smashing two feuding Dingbots together furiously] I am not enjoying this — but I can keep it up all day if necessary! Gil: Hee hee!… That’s a really good impression of my father!	»

• 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.
  • Higgs gets in on the action after Tarvek identifies him as The Secret Jäger General. Tarvek dares Higgs to just kill him if there is any doubt about Tarvek’s allegiance to Agatha by placing Higgs’s hand around his throat… And then Higgs decides to remind Tarvek about how ineffectual a corporeally normal human is to a Jäger by choke-lifting him one-handed straight up. He then disparages the Surmvoraus family as inherently devious snakes to which Higgs has had generations of observation to attest, and that Tarvek is by far the most dangerous ever from that family… and then fakes Tarvek out by putting him back down and saying he’ll serve Agatha nicely while wearing a characteristic Jäger Slasher Smile.
  • Lunevka lifts a knocked-out Zeetha by the neck with her remaining hand (Zeetha had cut the other on the previous strip). Thankfully, Oggie stops her before she can deliver a killing blow.
  • In a long-awaited moment in a Battle in the Center of the Mind, Agatha, bolstered by the Essentia-Purging Device her body is strapped into, throttles her mother’s essentia and finally purges her Archnemesis Mom from her head.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight:
  • Zola vs. Agatha:

«	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.	»

• And later, «It’s harder to break things with a knife.»

• 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 Tryggvassen, 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. And sure enough, Klaus soon reappears very much alive.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Before she was even aware of who she really was, Agatha lashed out at a minion grabbing her butt. Turns out her Command Voice inherited from her mother prompted that minion to let go — and also possibly (as he was a revenant of the Other) to activate the Slaver Engine that was brought onto Castle Wulfenbach for study.
  • Bang blows up the machine at Sturmhalten that was keeping The Other suppressed in Agatha’s head, causing Lucrezia to take back control and cause problems for everyone. Ironically, the course of action she joked about would have saved everyone a truckload of grief. Admittedly, whether Bang qualifies as a 'hero' is debatable to say the least, but she was on the good guys' sidenote at the time, so it still counts.
  • Zeetha’s presence during the standoff at the circus camp at the end of the Sturmhalten arc distracts Klaus long enough for Lucrezia to wasp him.
  • Dr Sun takes down the Baron’s escape clank — by himself — and enforces Klaus’s bed rest in order to stop him killing himself from the strain. Awesome — 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.
  • Boris tried to invoke this trope when Wooster revealed the Baron’s plans to invade Mechanicsburg and kill Agatha to the Jägergenerals, but as far as Wooster was concerned it was entirely intentional;

«	Boris: Do you know what you’ve done!? Wooster: Destabilized Britain’s greatest rival, and saved an innocent girl’s life. A mighty good day’s work, I’d say.	»

• If Agatha’s mini-clank hadn’t succeeded in freeing the three Geisterdamen from their prison cell, Agatha would have escaped without getting a copy of Lucrezia downloaded into her head.

• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Lucrezia-copy inside Agatha’s head gets herself shut down by assuming the locket she finds in the possession of Klaus is just symbolic decoration, and putting it on.
• Ninja Log: Violetta can effortlessly snatch anything from anyone’s grip and switch it with another thing without anyone noticing, including the audience. Later, another Smoke Knight pulls a similar trick, complete with the log. Another Smoke Knight comments that it’s common ability among them.
• Noblewoman’s Laugh:
  • Zeetha in the second panel.
  • Lucrezia in the first panel.
  • Martellus' uplifted cat in the fourth panel of the second row.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Back when they were children Tarvek tried to help his friend Gil uncover his mysterious family history. In response Gil’s father secretly revealed himself to Gil and convinced his son that Tarvek was evil due to his family history and that him finding out about Gil’s parantage would be horrible resulting in Gil betraying Tarvek (while thinking Tarvek was trying to use him ans never considered him a friend) and Tarvek being sent back to his abusive and murderous family that has been trying to assassinate him ever since.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Holy crap. Tarvek?!
  • Also, Higgs to Zola.
• No Name Given:
  • The Mechanicsburg Assistant is never addressed by name. Eventually it’s lampshaded. In the Girl Genius print-novels she is given a name and a backstory.

«	Vanamonde: [heavily sleep-deprived] Who are you again? The Assistant: Oh, now don’t start.	»

• The pirate-ish airship captain who is contracted to take Tarvek to England appears for a fairly extended period without being named, but finally it’s revealed to be Jeanne Hawkins.

• Non-Indicative Name: Subverted with the title of the story «Maxim Buys a Hat». Because a Jäger’s hat is a badge of honor, one does not simply buy a hat, one has to earn it by taking it from a worthy enemy; the story ends with Maxim tricking Ol' Man Death into selling him his hat.
• Noodle Implements:
  • «Thank goodness you had all those clockwork ducks, Klaus».
  • Regarding Agatha’s first Fortune-Telling, all we know is that it involved the recipient talking about a tea cozy, «only one spoon», and something lasting for 43 hours.
  • Used to hilarious effect in «The Storm King» Opera synopsis. The roller-skating giraffe pretty much speaks for itself.
  • Why does one need a hammer to cure Verictus Panteliax’s Chromatic Death? Unfortunately, we never find out, since Tarvek has some other kind of disease (which is much worse, by the way).
  • Which activity in a Romance Novel is only possible with special shoes?
• Noodle Incident:
  • Apparently, the Baron has used the Med Clank before. After what happened last time, he promised to put it away.
  • The Socket Wench of Prague is a great big one for readers. All we know is that it’s (at least) heavily suggestive at times.
  • The other Heterodyne plays and stories are just as bad. Why does Race to the West Pole end with Klaus in a barrel?
  • Apparently Zeetha’s cousin turned out to be the prophesized holy one of a race of people.
  • The novelizations have a lot of these, usually referring to some strange thing that some Spark had built or what said Spark attempted to do with said strange invention.
  • The Great St. Valentine’s Day Riot.
  • «And that was the last time Professor Phosphorous visited the fireworks factory. Or anything else, really.»
  • «The Nuremberg Pudding Incident», rumored to have involved the Professora herself. One of the official scents is based on it.
  • The Opera Synopsis again, where practically every event mentioned is a Noodle Incident. The logistics of someone being trapped in a bonsai hedge maze will likely forever be a mystery to us. In a Reddit AMA with the Foglios, a reader asked if the bonsai hedge was an artistic license take on the thorn barrier erected by the Castle after Klaus froze time in Mechanicsburg. The response: «It is now.» It must have taken such actions before.
  • About half the things Gil, Tarvek, and Zola did in Paris.
  • The entire concept of the Island of the Monkey Girls was one for a long time. It was eventually confirmed to be a night club in Paris… but when a fan asked what Zola thought Gil could have done to get himself imprisoned in the ** Castle, where the Empire sends people it wants to disappear, the only explanation supplied was «Zola was Head Waitress at the Island of the Monkey Girls Theatre and Showbar in Paris.» So that’s still an enigma.
  • The Lusty Loves of Lady Heterodyne apparently includes a scene that is impossible without «the right shoes».
  • The real Heterodyne Boys adventure stores. We know they fought many people (as Heroes, not madmen), visited many place, fought the «Other» after incident at Mechanicsburg Castle, went missing, Barry came back and joined by Klaus and Lucrezia. Apparently, the Boys and Lucrezia have gone to Skifander before as proven when Lucrezia taunts Zeetha.

«	Lucrezia-in Agatha: I know better than to fight you, Skifandrian.	»

• The advisers of Mechanicsburg point out that it’s a new record for a new accepted Heterodyne to not kill anyone in the first two minutes of their rule. It remains to be seen if this applies to the Heterodyne Boys.
• The story of Baron Wulfenbach’s exile. He suddenly disappeared before Lucrezia and Bill got married and came back few years later after Bill, Lucrezia and the Other are gone. Finding everything is in chaos, he resolved to impose order by amassing forces and built his The Empire. What happened between he disappeared and he got back is ripe source for gossips. (Though in real life, thanks to a sketch drawn by Mr. Foglio, fans at least know where he was sent: Skifander.
• We get a interesting one while the group is in the the hidden library. Even Agatha notes that she has «much to learn about the rich and varied history of Jägers».

«	Agatha: Maybe it’s a Jäger Shredding Machine! Dimo: No vay. Dey melted dot down.	»

• Jiminez Hoffman does these on regular basis.

• Did something that messed the order of books and left behind a machine that could process and decypher books while destroying the originals in Incorruptible Library. It is also implied that he also did some «disasters» in there before.
• He also saved the Moligarchy King and brokered peace between Arguron and Moligarchy, became Moligarchy Prince and betrothed to Larana.
• He also constantly dragged his brother, Aldin Hoffman, to his adventures much to Aldin’s displeasure.

• Aldin Hoffman hid in his room for a week after an outside professor gave her demonstration. And so did half of senior shelvers.
• One of the standalone stories set vaguely in the future refers to Othar as «the lost hero».

• No One Could Survive That!: Othar. Being thrown out of an airship and surviving is among the least of his feats. From the side-story «Revenge of the Weasel Queen»:

«	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.	»

• No-Sell:
  • Gilgamesh versus the Doom Bell. Rather than filling him with enough «existential despair» to knock him out, like it does to every other human in the bar, the sense of victory he feels on hearing it is enough to send him into his madness place temporarily. (Victory because it means Agatha has succeeded).
  • Any physical attacks to date launched against Grandmother’s agent Mr. Obsidian, to the point that metal tools break against his skin.
  • One of the Dreen shrugs off an attempted squashing by a twenty-foot tall Giant Mecha and then obliterates its attacker with a single energy blast.
• No Sense of Personal Space: The average Jäger has no qualms about being in everyone’s space like they’re old friends. Dimo in particular has learned to weaponize this by looming threateningly over people often by perching on something a person he wants unsettled is next to so as to surprise them with a well timed comment and when they turn they’re faced with an uncomfortably close Jäger that is crouched like they’re ready to pounce with all their very sharp teeth showing in a menacing grin.
• The Nose Knows:
  • Jägermonsters;
  • Krosp;
  • The Revenant-detecting weasels.
• Not a Game:
  • The Castle warns Agatha that claiming to be the Heterodyne is not a game!
  • Gil declares to her that he is playing no game.
• Not Bad: Zeetha has this reaction to Violetta replacing a hostage held by an antagonist with a dummy.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Spark mode Agatha doesn’t even bat an eyelash at the fact that her two (rival) paramours are nearly nude.
• Not Helping Your Case: Tarvek denies having any part in the plan to usurp the Wulfenbachs by installing a fake Heterodyne — his plan was orders of magnitude better!
• Not Himself: When Agatha is being cruelly flirtatious, Tarvek notes that she’s acting very strange about a half-second before realizing that «You’re acting-- gah! You’re acting like Lucrezia!»
• Nothing but Skulls: The floor of the chapel in Castle Heterodyne is covered by the skulls of those who claimed to be a new Heterodyne master — and failed. The Castle even left a nice empty spot for Agatha’s skull…
• Nothing Is Scarier: «But I don’t see anything!» «Don’t say that like it’s a good thing!»
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: After the Time Skip, everything has changed. Mechanisburg is sealed, along with the Baron, Gilgamesh now leads the crumbling Wulfenbach Empire, and Agatha is on the run from everyone.
• Not in the Face!:
  • Played with:

«	Castle Heterodyne: No! Not in the facing!	»

• Agatha’s reindeer clank also says «Not the face!» after jumping down a ledge. It tries again when faced with Bohrlaikha, but gets Killed Mid-Sentence.

• «Not So Different» Remark:
  • Lucrezia feels this way about her and Klaus, since they’ve both used force to try and bring the world under their command to bring peace, and both possessed their offspring in pursuit of this.
  • Tarvek comes to realize that this is the case with him and Higgs, due to their similar romantic difficulties (specifically, the fact that neither of them had ever truly fallen in love before they met Agatha and Zeetha, respectively).
• Not-So-Innocent Whistle: «Why do you even have one of those?!»
• Not That Kind of Doctor: Actually, most Sparks are. The only reason Agatha isn’t is because they wouldn’t let her take the tests.
• The Nudifier: The Wacky Weave Destabiliser. (Un)Fortunately Zeetha wears special underwear.
• # 1 Dime: Hats, to the Jägers.

O

• Obeying Under Protest: For a diplomatic meeting with some Fish People, Agatha has to wear an artificial mermaid tail in a Mobile Fish Bowl vehicle (It Makes Sense in Context). However she has to order the mad scientists who built it to remove all the Hidden Weapons first, which they do while protesting petulantly.
• Occam’s Razor: Invoked as Agatha and crew were wondering why the Baron was invading instead of his old plan of flattening the city.

«	General Zog: Occam’s Razor! Agatha: Yes, you’re right of course— General Zog: Hit vas forged by Old Occam Heterodyne! Agatha: Ah… What? General Zog: Seriously — who vouldn’t vant it? Hoo— dot ting ken cut through anyting!	»

• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) A lot of people.
  • Most especially Zola.

«	Tarvek: What? No! That was that idiot from the Island of th… [makes a face] She is good.	»

• Some of the Jägerkin are considerably smarter than they appear. Then again, they may only hide it because it is implied that Jägerkin aren’t exactly in favor of «smot guys».
• More specifically, while he doesn’t act «stupid» per se, The Secret Jäger General «Higgs» hides in plain sight as a legally-enlisted low-level military minion of whatever Europan empire is currently most appropriate.
• The circus pretends to be simple performers when in truth they’re mostly Sparks.
• Astonishingly enough, Tarvek seems to be in this category. Considering that he’s an Insufferable Genius with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder who’s spent an inordinately long time on the Face side of the Heel-Face Revolving Door, it’s shocking that it took this long.
• Agatha began the comic with an item that forced her to Obfuscate Stupidity. It’s a locket given to her by her Uncle Barry to suppress her Spark, so that The Heterodyne Boys' numerous enemies wouldn’t try to kill/manipulate/etc. her.
• Gil appears to have spent most of his life doing this. As a child he hid his Spark, and in Paris he pretended to be a much worse student than he really was. It was only after returning from school that he was finally able to stop doing it and fully be himself.
• Wooster apparently tried this, or at least Obfuscating Normal, on Gil, to infiltrate Castle Wulfenbach. Gil was onto him, but played along until he could make more use of Wooster as a British secret agent.

• Oblivious to Love: (Любовная близорукость) Holy crap Moloch is dense.
• Odd Reaction Out: 20091026: 2 out of 3 Sparks aren’t accompanying Agatha and the last one is only because all the good excuses were taken.
• Odd-Shaped Panel: Quite common.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Usually on Agatha.
• Offhand Backhand: (Врезать не глядя)
  • Used by both Wulfenbachs, Wooster, and Zeetha.
  • And then Tarvek on Othar.
  • Gil gives Bang an offhand backfoot
  • Larana silences Madame Velix with an offhand elbow.
  • Tarvek does it with an offhand failsafe phrase he had on his sister’s surrogate clank body.
• Offing the Offspring: (Я тебя породил, я тебя и убью) What Lucrezia purportedly did to her own son, and now plans for her daughter.
• Oh, Crap!: (Осознание катастрофы)
  • «This must be how my father feels — ALL THE TIME!»
  • Klaus, realizing Lucrezia has enslaved him and when Agatha activates the Battle Circus.
  • In a subverted Big Damn Heroes moment:

«	«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.
• Maxim as he realizes that, since he has Old Man Death’s hat, every Jäger around is going to fight him for it.
• Mamma Gkika when she sees that the previously unstoppable falling object heading toward the cathedral contains Baron Wulfenbach himself — or the fact that he seems to be carrying a bomb. Probably both. Most of those who saw the contraption for the first time have a small Oh Crap moment when they realize that the castle’s defenses weren’t stopping it.
• Brother Ulm has this reaction, when it turns out that his new passanger is Agatha Heterodyne. He almost presses the ejection button.
• An unfortunate assassin gets this, when after popping into Agatha’s train car, he realizes he’s surrounded by Zeetha, Krosp, Wooster, Margarella and Violetta, all of whom have weapons trained on him.

«	Assassin: Uh-oh… Erm… sorry, wrong room?	»

• Gil wants to know how long they have before the multistoreyed thing over Mechanicsburg pushes through into this reality. Hard to tell, says the Castle, which can’t see it…

«	Castle: How many centimeters high would you say it appears?	»

• Straight-up followed by the castle having one itself when Gil gives it visual input:

«	Castle: That’s much be— AAAAAAAH!	»

• A wave of energy disables all mechanisms in the area, and Agatha’s standing near the epicenter. Violetta realizes the implications involving a certain Other-suppressing locket.
• When the castle decides to put out the fire in one of it’s room by using the water from its cistern, the cast that is standing right underneath it is more than likely thinking this and This Is Gonna Suck.
• When Zola tells Lucrezia that Barry is no threat both are horrified by how badly she just tempted fate.
• A wordless one when Albia takes back control over the British commandos Lucrezia brought in. This is even lampshaded on the same page.

«	Albia: We suspect she is used to thinking she cannot be stopped.	»

• When Gil sees the eldritch horrors emerging into the time-stopped Mechanicsburg, the Castle remarks that the last time something like that showed up, they were much smaller, had tentacles, and «had hats». Obviously, this is just another goofy Noodle Incident the likes of which this comic so loves, as an Eldritch Abomination in a funny hat is, well, funny. Later on, Gil realizes it was describing the Dreen.
• Agatha and co. have tracked the stolen Prende’s Chronometric Lantern to a previously-empty island which now appears to have ancient ruins on it, much to their surprise. While they wonder if the records have been falsified and if so, why, an amused Bang points out to Krosp that there’s another possible explanation — after all, the Lantern manipulates time. Who knows what the thieves might have been up to? Cue massive Oh, Crap reaction from Krosp.

• 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.	»

• Oh, the Humanity!: In Paris there is a poster with Agatha, an airship and the text «eau de humanity».
• The Old Convict: Tiktoffen is the «man in charge» in the sentient, sapient and homicidal Castle Heterodyne. Subverted, as he’s actually only been in for three years — but he’s still the longest-serving prisoner. People don’t tend to last long inside Castle Heterodyne, especially since half the time it’s actively trying to kill them. Fixing parts of the Castle gives you points and takes months off your sentence, but it’s worth noting that the Castle has been noted to specifically target convicts who are close to finishing their sentence, and that in the fifteen or so years that the Castle has been used as a prison, only two people have been depicted or mentioned as scraping together enough points to get out. It’s eventually revealed that Tiktoffen came the the Castle willingly, and has an Sparkish implant in his wrist that lets him nullify at least the worst of the Castle’s deathtraps.
• Old Master:
  • Old Man Death from the «Maxim Buys a Hat» side-story. He rode with the Jägermonsters in his youth, has never lost a fight, and can still keep up with them to this day — impressive for a (presumably) baseline human. As a result, his hat has become an object coveted by Jägers striving to prove themselves, but they only get three tries. He also counts as a Cool Old Guy and Badass Normal.
  • The former Seneschal Carson von Mekkhan has been around during the time of Agatha’s grandparents. Trust him, you are NOT the weirdest thing he has seen.
  • Dr. Sun Jen-dijeh. He’s able to intimidate Bangladesh DuPree, and as for Klaus… Klaus has every reason to fear and respect Dr. Sun. Dr. Sun also expresses complete confidence that he can give Gil a thrashing. And when he says «Strict bedrest» — he really means it! Dr. Sun is quite capable of singlehandedly disassembling any number of clanks — and he taught Klaus and Gil quite a lot about martial arts.
• Ominous Floating Castle: Castle Wulfenbach certainly qualifies, although it floats because it’s a gigantic zeppelin.
• Ominous Multiple Screens: The command center of the Master of Paris in the Awful Tower has the walls covered in screen depicting the goings on all over the city. While the Master is benevolent he’s also quite dangerous and his control over his city is both renowned and feared.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: (Зловещая органная музыка) At one point a flipped-out Agatha directs a small army of clanks (including Transforming Mecha and Luggage) with a This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.high-falutin calliope. Doubles as visual Awesome Music. And perhaps a literal version of Autobots, Rock Out!.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: (Учёный-всезнайка) 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.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: This transpires when knowledge of Tarvek’s … «adorning» of Lucrezia-controlled Agatha becomes widely known. Even Gil heard about it. He still does it in his head sometimes, so he has only himself to blame for it.
• One Degree of Separation: Multilayered.
  • Agatha’s father Bill was best friends with Klaus, the dictator ruling the continent, from before he became a dictator. Her mother Lucrezia also had an affair with Klaus when she was engaged to Bill, and she at least flirted with this one prince named Aaronev Wilhelm at some point.
  • Both Klaus and Aaronev had sons (though not with Lucrezia) named Gil and Tarvek who went to grade school with each other, and later had a rivalry when they went to the same university. They both met Agatha at different points and both fell in love with her before they had to part ways. Then the two both snuck into a broken castle where they met both each other and Agatha again. Agatha didn’t know Gil and Tarvek knew each other until this point.
  • In said castle, there was a girl named Zola who was trying to impersonate Agatha. Zola was not only Agatha’s cousin on their mothers' sides, but was also an actress at a place that Gil visited when he was in university.
  • Klaus had a janitor named Dimitri, who used to be an evil Mad Scientist who taught other Mad Scientists in the ways of evil. Dimitri was fraternity brothers with Agatha’s paternal grandfather, and was also a close friend with her mother Lucrezia’s family. On top of that, he was the teacher of Tarvek’s cousin Martellus, and he also created the talking animal that Agatha made friends with when staying at Klaus' place.
• One-Gender Race: (Нет женщин и детей) There are no female dragons. This is because all dragons are one-off Spark creations, and even at their most unhinged, Sparks aren’t crazy enough to want to see what happens if they start breeding.
• One-Steve Limit: Avoided in unusual fashion.
  • One of Agatha’s ancestors and one of the Sparks who attack Mechanicsburg share the first name Igneous.
  • Only slightly more prosaically, two minor characters (one in Mechanicsburg and one in England) are named «Hadrian».
  • Tarvek answers to his middle name because he shares his first name (Aaronev) with his father. Counting Tarvek, there have been five Princes of Sturmhalten named Aaronev Sturmvoraus.
• Only a Flesh Wound: (Безобидная рана)

«	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 Known by Their Nickname: (Известен под псевдонимом)
  • Played with when Dimo and Violetta describe the Storm King’s favorite weapons. Dimo calls the sword «Slasher» and the mace «Smasher», while Violetta corrects him with «Archimedes' Lever» and «The Platonic Solid». They both agree that both weapons were extremely powerful, and their full abilities were unknown.
  • It’s a long time before the reader learns that «Grandmother’s» actual given name is Terebithia.
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек)
  • 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. He regularly hangs lampshades on it, too.
  • Krosp has also been this at times. Just not when the string is going to escape.
  • Agatha spends some time in the role, although she’s not actually very sane, and (ahem) certainly not a man. Especially during the Mechanicsburg arc, where she was trying to pull. In general, she, her father and her uncle are typically set up as the only «sane» men where Sparks (and especially their family of Sparks) are concerned: while as much of a Mad Scientist as any other, unlike most Sparks Agatha has a strong moral code, takes responsibility for the consequences of her actions, and won’t usually do things just because she can. While she loves building Death Ray Cannons, she yet has to actually use it like the name implies instead of shoot the scenery. Also, unlike most she’s more than capable of ignoring the urge to do mad science if there’s something more pressing to pay attention to. Usually when there’s another Spark in a scene, Agatha will be the «normal» one or even the Straight Man in comparison.
  • Klaus, and to a lesser extent Gil, in regards to politics and Europa as a whole. A lot of mention is made of the fact that Klaus is basically a babysitter for an entire continent of childish megalomaniacs, selfish nobles and rampaging monsters — not to mention feuding henchmen and an absolutely psychotic dragon. He even becomes more or less a literal babysitter since he has requested that all royals give him their future heirs so he can raise and teach them in his castle — as a way to ensure that the next generation isn’t warmongering and batshit crazy. It gets the point that while he’s actually a very composed person, he has to play up the brutal tyrant act just to get things done, which Gil lampshades.
  • Before Time Skip, Tarvek Stormvoraus is the only known important player in his family who doesn’t spend all his time plotting the murder of rivals. He’s even used his extensive logistical and assassination training to prevent Wulfenbach soldiers being wasped!
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: (ООС — это серьёзно)
  • 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.
  • On a much more serious note, later on when Agatha is trying to power up the Castle, Gilgamesh’s behavior is extremely off, and even Franz notices it despite having never met him. Turns out that he’s been brainwashed by Klaus.
  • When it is revealed that Klaus’s mucking about with the space-time continuum has attracted the attention of an Eldritch Abomination, Castle Heterodyne freaks out. The Castle is worried.
  • When Gil orders DuPree to hunt the librarians together with him after they trespassed into the airship, not only gets he horrifically angry, but even the Ax-Crazy Blood Knight Bangladesh asks about whether or not he feels OK and lampshades that she herself is also having one since she is so confused by his behavior that she is for once listening to his rambling.
  • When one of the Old Heterodynes holds to a promise to never terrorize someone’s lands, you know whatever it was that compelled them to make such a promise to begin with was something horrible indeed. That is the case with Robur Heterodyne and whatever timey-wimey device he made that resulted in the Dreen appearing, and his promise to the Corbettite Order in exchange for their aid in dealing with it.
  • Krosp is seriously disturbed by Martellus’s cat. How disturbed? He’s not hungry. This causes everyone to turn to him, and Agatha to look into what’s going on.
  • The librarians of the Uncorruptible Library are generally willing to trade their lives to protect a sufficiently precious book, so when librarian Vipsania Perrault proposes setting a book on fire as bait, Lumi expresses astonishment. Vipsania is still closing her eyes as the book is set alight.
• Orifice Invasion: The means that Slaver Wasps enter the body and enthrall someone is through the mouth.
• Orphan’s Plot Trinket: Agatha’s locket.
• Our Hero Is Dead: And buried, followed by digging up the body and checking the clothing and accessories to make sure it’s really her. The corpse is doctored to make it look like Agatha, and it indeed fools the Wulfenbachs. But then it occurs to Klaus that a living Heterodyne body still would be useful, and so he clones it, which gives the deception away, as the result is clearly not Agatha.
• Our Founder: (Памятник основателю)
  • In «Jägermonsters to the Rescue», it turns out that in Agatha’s two-year absence, Gil has topped Mechanicsburg’s city walls with towering statues of Agatha. Dimo describes them as being over 150 meters tall. For the non-metrically inclined, that’s 500 feet. The ones at the entrance of the valley are said to be even taller. A few from the Sturmvoraus family really hate Gil for this since they made it absolutely impossible to create a second Heterodyne imposter since literally all of Europe now knows what she looks like. Agatha on the other hand is… less than pleased.

«	Agatha: I… I am going to kill him.	»

• More prosaically, Agatha’s father and uncle have a statue commemorating them in the middle of the Mechanicsburg town square. Zola uses it as a backdrop when she begins her public Heterodyne-heir impersonation.

• Our Dragons Are Different: (Дракон) To begin with, since this is (at least nominally) Earth, they’re all products of mad science, not a 'species'. Thus far we’ve seen the draconic stylings of three different Sparks: Franz, the Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg; a rather Smug Snake (sorry) who was part of the Wulfenbach forces attacking Mechanicsburg; and a 'great sky wyrm' that Gil kept after defeating the Polar Lords (during the time-skip). Franz and 'Pretty Boy' are capable of speech (and snarkiness), while the wyrm seemed to have a more bestial intelligence.
• Our Vampires Are Different: (Вампир) Just to be clear, no Spark would ever profane the very nature of life and death by fashioning a terrible creature of the night, a nosferatu craving the blood of the living. That would be wrong! Very, very wrong. Vampires are obviously, completely, totally mythical and do not exist in any real, concrete sense that might abruptly pop up and devour you. No matter what Dame Aedith or Carson von Mekkhan say.

«	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.	»

• Our Werewolves Are Different: (Оборотни) The exact details have not been explained, but lycanthropy has been mentioned to be a thing, and one of the Knights of Jove has demonstrated the ability to shapeshift into a wolfman form. (Or he’s normally a wolfman all the time and the Sparky armor he is forced to discard was making him look human…)
• Our Zombies Are Different: (Зомби) Several different types. Besides «traditional» zombies of the Type F or Type V variety, they also have Jägermonsters and Constructs, which are essentially Type A creations, and Revenants, which despite the name are more a cross of Type T and Type P, Parasite than Type R zombies: infected by a slaver wasp, they are like sleeper agents, going about their business and not even realizing they are infected until triggered to fight on the behalf of «the Other».
• Out-Gambitted: The Knights Of Jove swept in to rescue Agatha for their own nefarious purposes, at which point Klaus revealed virtually his entire army had been waiting in hiding for them to show up. And they weren’t even the real reason he did it.
• 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 a bonus picture that so perfectly encapsulates the trope that it’s the page’s image.

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

• Outdoor Bath Peeping: Gender inverted, Oggie’s eventual wife catching sight of him is what spurred her interest in him, at least going by Flash Back.
• Outscare the Enemy: Veilchen does something like this.
• Outside-Context Problem: Before the Other War, conflicts between Sparks involved at least a few diplomatic messages (or loud declarations of imminent destruction) before war was declared. Nobody was prepared to deal with an unannounced meteor bombardment right on their heads, and by the time any target realized what was happening, it was already too late. For a continent full of blustering megalomaniacs who enjoyed making elaborate and overcomplicated war machines, an assailant who was efficient, ruthless and totally silent would have been beyond their capacity to withstand without the aid of the Heterodyne Brothers.
• Overcomplicated Menu Order: From the Twitter of Othar Tryggvassen:
  • We can’t just walk out, and I’ll bet the garbage and mortuary wagons are routinely inspected. This calls for desperate, unsavory measures.
  • Chez Leon, one of the best restaurants in the city. The Master dines here frequently. Oslaka is puzzled. Didn’t we just eat? Indeed we did.
  • The waiter and I spend twenty minutes discussing our meal choices. I demand only the freshest and most exacting dishes. He almost smiles.
  • The meal is brought. It' a masterpiece of presentation. The chef himself appears and compliments me on the suggestions I made. He weeps.
  • He waits for me to eat. I hesitate, and then ask for a bottle of ketchup. We are tossed out the city gates less than 3 minutes later.
• Overly Long Name: (Длинное имя)
  • «I am Zola Anya Talinka Venia Zeblinkya Malfeazium.»
  • In the «Cinderella» omake, Cinderella’s full name is really Sleeping Beauty Snow White Rapunzel Ozma Rose Red Riding Hood Rumpelstiltskin. (No, really. Just don’t ask.)
  • Boris Vasily Konstantin Andrei Myshkin Dolokhov. A case of All There in the Script, since his full name isn’t disclosed in the comic, and comes from The Works and the novelization.
• Override Command: Subverted. When Colonel Chakraborty tries using an override device stolen from the Baron to take control of three hostile clanks, the clanks recognize the signal as illegal and move in to destroy the signal’s source.

P

Ссылка: [4]

• Painting the Medium:
  • Speech bubbles tell you a lot about a person. As a Spark descends into the Madness Place, their bubbles become increasingly fragmented. Clanks have rectangular ones with a fancy, old-fashioned font, and Jägermonsters have slightly rough borders on theirs. A few characters (Von Pinn, Castle Heterodyne) have unique bubbles.
  • Flashbacks and memory recollections are denoted by sepia panel colors.
  • When Agatha’s spark is suppressed at the very beginning, the comic is colored in harsh black and white. After the locket suppressing it is stolen, color begins to return to the comic in decreasingly-washed-out shades until the comic is eventually in vibrant full color. It didn’t quite end there, either; when the comic first returned to full color, it was bright and positively garish, reflecting Agatha’s hyperactive Sparkiness as her mind and body adjust to it. Once they have adjusted (and she’s no longer eating enough for at least three people), the garishness is toned down a little. You could argue that some of this is Art Evolution, though.
  • At one point, Gil smashes Tarvek’s head into a wall so hard it cracks the panel border.
  • Doctor Hembelbrogg of the Guild of Monsters uses the Leroy lettering font that was prominent in the old EC horror comics.
• The Pardon: Suggested to Agatha as a way to get the prisoners on her side.
• Parental Hypocrisy: The moment when Gilgamesh jumps in to play corrida with what amounts to a small locomotive with legs and arms, giving his father time to analyze its structure. Klaus roars at him for taking an unnecessary risk, but Jägermonsters eagerly express approval when they see a badass performance, so right at the next page a Jäger sergeant quietly tells Gil that Klaus himself «doz crazy schtupid sctoff like dot all de time.» Of course, as they both are mad scientists with chronic anti-hero syndrome, it wasn’t likely to be the craziest for either.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: According to Zeetha and the Jägers' speculations, Agatha has been avoiding getting sexy with her Love Interests — and other hot men — because she’s got Lucrezia in her head, and she doesn’t want her mother watching and/or involved.
• Parrot Pet Position:
  • Agatha’s little clank, sometimes — and not necessarily when she wants it to.
  • Also her weasel, once she needs to keep it close by at any time.
• Pass the Popcorn:
  • Boris and Gil are having tea and pretzels while sending a Jäger to test out a rogue clank.

«	Boris: You see, Herr Baron. Entertaining, but harmless.	»

• Snaug enjoys watching Gil and Tarvek fight. Where did she get popcorn deep below Castle Heterodyne, you may ask? Who cares?
• And later, so does Zeetha: «AGATHA! You’re missing the show.»

• The Patient Has Left the Building: Klaus Wulfenbach makes his escape in style: on a giant mecha while still in a hospital bed and surrounded by two nurses, to the exasperation of Dr. Sun.
• People Jars:
  • Dr. Beetle in Beetleburg put criminals into giant glass jars to perish.
  • Gil is temporarily trapped in one of these in the aptly named chapter, «Hero in a Jar».
  • Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek get stuck in them by Zola/Lucrezia.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея)
  • The Baron stops in the middle of chasing Agatha just to make sure Zulenna gets revived (DuPree stabbed her when she was defending Agatha). When questioned, he bluntly states that it was his fault, and that the girl didn’t deserve to die. He has several other moments like this, to demonstrate that even though he’s a major antagonist, he is still a good man.
  • Lucrezia does seem rather fond of her nephew DuMedd… at first.
  • Bangladesh DuPree was apparently devastated once the Baron was presumed killed at the hospital seeing as the mere memory causes her to burst into tears.
  • Zola appears to have genuinely fond feelings for Gil and attempts to keep him alive even while ruthlessly chopping into all the other protagonists.
  • Doctor Mittlemind, and the Sparks in Castle Heterodyne as a whole, have different priorities on what counts as Petting the Dog.

«	Doctor Mittlemind: I always made sure my test subjects were let out for Christmas. [beat, as everyone stares in horror] Mittlemind: What kind of madman do you take me for?! I’m obviously not talking about the control group! [sighs of relief from the other Sparks]	»

• Phlebotinum Overload:
  • After Agatha drinks from the Dyne (when Higgs offers a cup of «water» to her.) She stops it before she explodes, however, by channeling the extra energy into the dying Gil and Tarvek, revitalizing them in the process.
  • After Zola downs a vial of Movit#11, which is basically a supercharged energy drink, Violetta’s solution to stop the rampage is to inject her with more Movit#11, which will apparently lead to a complete nervous collapse (or possibly cause her to combust).
• Pictorial Speech-Bubble: With multiple characters:
  • Bangladesh DuPree, when her jaw is broken:
    • «Gil = nut?»

«	Gil: Kill everyone who enters, except Dr. Sun and myself. DuPree: [Man] [Woman] [Child]? Gil: Yes, everyone. DuPree: [Knife] [Gun] [Axe] [Cheese]? Gil: Yes, however you want. DuPree: [glomping Gil] [World’s Best Boss trophy]! [Hey. Key? Key?!]	»

• The Dingbots as well, particularly in their internal war in Castle Heterodyne.

• Pie in the Face: (Пирог в лицо) The Calming Pies.
• Pimped-Out Dress: (Роскошное платье принцессы) A number show up, for various reasons.
• Pink Elephants: (Напиться до зелёных чертей) Some drinks are so potent the drinkers see flying pink mimmoths.
• Pinned to the Wall: A variant when Zeetha is sparring with Bang: she pins the Pirate Girl with one of her own knives to the floor not through a sleeve but through her long braided tail. Right in the path of a massive pendulum.
• Pirate Girl: (Пиратка) For a long time, every single pirate (or proud Europan of piratical-descent) seen in the strip has been female, though male pirates do exist; the captain taking Tarvek to England says both her parents were pirates, and we do finally meet ex-pirate Ulysses Bonney in person.
• Pirates vs. Ninjas: What basically happens when a shipful of Smoke Knights attack the air pirates taking Tarvek to England.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: Lucrezia plagiarizing and passing off her «friend» Francisia Monahan’s college projects as her own research is one of the many reasons why the latter absolutely hates the former.

«	Francisia Monahan: —Not only that, your project for the Midwinter Abominations Festival in our senior year was clearly stolen from my work on variable mechanics in dormouse thought patterns, and you never gave me credit—	»

• Playboy Bunny: (Костюм зайчика из Плейбоя) During the Weasel Queen omake, Zeetha and Agatha evoke this trope with their «rabbit costumes».
• Playing Possum: (Изобразить опоссума) Evidently Violetta has seen her aunt the Lady Margarella Selnikov play dead before and initially thinks she’s doing so again when she is killed by the Beast, removing the cloth respectfully placed to cover her mangled face convinces Violetta that she’s not faking this time.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: (Одеть женщину)
  • Gil is very polite about it when he encounters a subordinate who’d gone Sleepwalking:

«	Gil: Oh, there is one thing… If you’re going to be working with me, I’d appreciate it if you wore clothes. Agatha: [realizing she’s still in her underwear] EEP!	»

• Violetta phrases it a little less politely in one strip.

«	Violetta: All right, you buffoon — I dug around in the back room and found you some clothes. So get dressed!	»

• She may be too busy saving your stupid life to notice, but you’re not going to walk around in front of my lady without pants!
• After freeing Othar Tryggvassen — Gentleman Adventurer! — from the frozen time bubble, and explaining to him the new situation in Europa, Gil Wulfenbach asks him, for goodness sake, to put a shirt on… because his Shirtless Scene is a big distraction for Gil’s subordinates, who are busy Eating the Eye Candy rather than doing their jobs. They’re all quite disappointed.

• Plot Armor: (Сюжетная броня) While named characters do die, it’s still a rare occurrence, compared to the casualty rate of the Mooks. To show that this is not due to the characters following the What Measure Is a Mook? trope, they often try but fail to kill their significant enemies. It’s become a minor Running Gag for characters to complain their gun pulls to the left just after they only wounded their opponent with it.
• Pocket Protector: (Карманный защитник) Nothing like a book fanatic who just found a rare book to invert this.
• Poison and Cure Gambit: (Создать проблему и продавать решение) Given a Mad Scientist twist — the man who administered the poison is the cure, and it only works if he’s alive, so Agatha needs to stay close and keep him safe. Until she subverts it with a substitute. By the next page.
• Politeness Judo: Agatha minionizes Moloch without him even realizing it after he puts on a tirade about how he’s not her minion by exercising this.
• Poor Communication Kills: (Коммуникативная неудача) Subverted in some cases, played straight in others.
  • Instead of explaining to Agatha that Othar is an insane serial killer of Sparks, Gil basically tries to cow her into ignoring that he and his father are imprisoning a well-known hero. When Agatha worries for Othar’s safety during an evacuation, Gil tries to brush it off again. He does begin to explain after she gives him a hard look but by then she was already going back to save Othar.
  • Agatha’s possession by the Other is set up as a big secret that could cause all sorts of problems, but Zeetha goes out of her way to mention it to Gil at the very first opportunity. However, Klaus is not aware of the true situation, and is unlikely to be willing to talk about it now that he’s been wasped, and knows that talking would allow her to control him.
  • Subverted again, and significantly, here. Dimo has just informed the Jägergenerals and Klaus’s leadership about the situation, which will presumably reach Klaus’s ears presently. Whether Klaus believes him remains to be seen. The generals seem confident that Agatha can beat the Other.
  • The Uncorruptible Library figures out that Gil is underneath some form of mind control. Not realizing it is actually his father’s doing, they assume that he is a revenant and decide to kidnap Tarvek instead of negotiating with Gil. The Knights of Jove take advantage to hijack their kidnapping scheme, causing all sorts of trouble.
  • Agatha sends out a bunch of messenger clanks to warn Klaus Wulfenbach about her possession by the Other. The only surviving messenger clank gets intercepted by Albia’s agents. Due to a mixture of this trope and Bystander Syndrome, the message never makes it to its intended audience, or even to Queen Albia herself. Albia’s agents decide that keeping the message to themselves is an excellent way to make Klaus’s life harder. By the time they are ready to send it higher up, Agatha and Klaus have both been frozen in time, making them think it isn’t relevant anymore. When they start seeing signs that it might be relevant again, they again decide to ignore it to cause Gilgamesh Wulfenbach trouble. By the time the clank resurfaces, its original purpose has become completely irrelevant.
• Portal Network: The Queen’s mirrors, a collection of ancient artifacts that connected the realms together. They mysteriously stopped working long ago, and even the ancient Queen Albia doesn’t seem to understand how they work, but they will sometimes reactivate unpredictably.
• Powered Armor: (Силовая броня)
  • The fighting-augmentation exoskeleton, an exoskeleton that speeds up and amplifies Agatha’s movements as well as responds to attacks.
  • Also Vorthang Heterodyne’s «sunday best» armor, which Agatha repairs during the battle for Mechanicsburg. This one may also cross over into Mecha territory.
• Power High: When Agatha is subjected to the effect of Dyne water plus electroshock for the first time and feels godlike. Later the Castle implies it’s a normal reaction:

«	Agatha: I believe another forty-five point three seconds, and I would have exploded or something. […] Oh, yeah… I have got to try that again!	»

• Power Limiter: The Heterodyne locket Barry gives Agatha is meant to subdue her sparkyness. She eventually outgrows this, and the locket has found a new use in keeping the Other contained. The device only works properly on sparks, unfortunately for Omar von Zinzer, it is fatal to normal humans.
• The Power of Love: (Любовь побеждает зло) A minor case — at one point when Agatha is under the control of the Other, it becomes obvious that Gil will die without her help. So Agatha shrugs off the possession long enough to get the locket (mentioned above) on.
• Power Perversion Potential: (Правило 34 для сверхспособностей)
  • «D’Omas' taste in women was, well… Let’s just say it was lucky for him he could build his own.»
  • Castle Heterodyne is full of restraints.
  • His and hers.
  • «Look, I’m a girl with needs…. They have tool belts?» (From the Mad Scientist version of Cinderella.)
  • Lucrezia seems well aware of the possibilities inherent in her mind control devices.
  • Back on Sparks in general, Sparks, especially in places like Mechanicsburg, can practically take over someone’s mind with their voice and not a lot else (strong-willed humans can resist it, but some people are just «natural minions».) Easy access to minions, the uses of the control voice, and the «tools» a Spark can make…. A Heterodyne is this up to eleven: not only are they incredibly powerful even in comparison to other Sparks, but they have a natural Command Voice. Agatha manages to even command a group of Sparks, something that others had only managed by threatening them with a over-the-top army or weapon.
• Power Trio: (Золотое трио)
  • Also Agatha, Gil and Tarvek, which have subtropes such as Blonde, Brunette, Redhead and Two Guys and a Girl.
• Precursors: (Предтечи) There is an ancient civilization predating even the God Queens. They mastered a science revolving around dimensions, space, and time, allowing them to construct a Portal Network that even modern Sparks struggle to understand.
• Present Company Excluded: Zeetha hates assassins at parties.
• Primal Scene: (Прерванный секс) Possibly parodied in the novelization, where we learn that the young Agatha was deeply traumatized when she walked in on her adoptive parents recharging each other with generators.
• Privateer: Captain Hawkins and the crew of the Mopey Tortoise airship are privateers in the service of England.
• Projectile Toast: Death Ray toast, anyway…

«	Gil: It looks like a toaster. Agatha: … well, it is a toaster. Sort of. Gil: Sort of? Agatha: Oh yes. It could toast the whole town.	»

• Properly Paranoid: (Параноик был прав) Rudolf Selnikov, a high and haughty lord that is/was part of the Knights of Jove, shaves himself because of the Decadent Court that the order is.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: (Воинственная раса) The Jägers in general, with varying degrees of «proud» and «warrior» for individuals. For example, when Boris beats the crap out of a Jäger messenger to find out where the generals were meeting, their response was surprise and respect, saying that he’d «earned» the right to talk with them. Also, they take their oath of loyalty very seriously. General Goomblast even explains that the reason the Jägers hate the Other’s bugs is that they force people to obey.
• Psychic Powers: (Псионические способности) Second stage Sparks have abilities that are, for all intents and purposes, magic. Their brains tap into another dimension with energies that can be controlled by the mind, allowing them to use Telepathy, live indefinitely, and bend the environment to their will.
• Psycho Serum:
  • The waters of the River Dyne.
  • Movit#11 is no joke either.
• Public Secret Message:
  • Jenka and Füst are confronted during an apparent rampage in the town of Zumzum by Da Boyz who declare that they were «… Charged by the ancient contract vit' de job ov savin' all dese people!» Considering that the Jägers only started serving Baron Wulfenbach about 15 years ago, reference to an ancient contract by any of them can only mean one thing: the Jägertroth. Not missing a beat, Jenka beats feet out of there to meet in a more discrete location with them to get apprised.
  • The Baron tells the Storyteller a strange variant on an old tale, involving a witch riding on a wolf’s back. He tells the Storyteller that Gil has a copy of a long-lost book to motivate the man to go to Gil. When Tarvek and Gil hear the story, Tarvek immediately gets what it means: the Baron has been wasped by the Other, a message he couldn’t have told them directly.
• Pun-Based Creature: One of the creatures brought to the siege of Mechanicsburg is a literal battering ram used to try to break down the city’s gates.
• Pun-Based Title: 2007-05-28 displays a book about coffee, «Bean There Done That», «Bean» for «Been».
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: (ЭТО! СПАРТА!)
  • «What. Do. You. WANT.»
  • This! Was! Not! My! Plan!
  • Never. Lost. A. Fight.
• Punctuated Pounding: Tarvek to Zola. Not explicit, but he’s just got to be timing his punches to his exclamation points.
• Punny Name: Doubling as Bilingual Bonus. Dr. Beetle’s first name, «Tarsus», is the insect equivalent of the foot. Not a particularly meaningful pun, but it’s there.
• Puppeteer Parasite: (Разумный паразит) Slaver wasps. Early versions just turned people into mindless revenants. Later versions could create sleeper agents who behaved otherwise normally unless given a command by the Other. The latest version can even infest Sparks, who were otherwise immune due to drastically different mental states from normal people.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки)
  • Moloch Von Zinzer got put on an airship bus to Castle Heterodyne after his whole ruse fell apart on Castle Wulfenbach. Agatha eventually bumps into him there and becomes her first ally on the inside.
  • Then Zola and Anevka — both Lucrezia copies drop out of sight following the destruction of the hospital. Zola has, apparently, since reappeared in the guise of the Queen of the Dawn.
  • The fan-nicknamed «Take Five Bomb» which froze Mechanicsburg in time, took a lot of characters on a long double-decker bus ride. Among them are Moloch and the rest of the Wandering Band of Heroic Repairmen, most of the Jäger Generals, the man who deliberately detonated the Take Five Bomb, Klaus Wulfenbach himself, Tarvek (which is a good thing because he was mortally poisoned and had minutes to live at the time), Theo and Sleipnir, Castle Heterodyne (though it has proven somewhat resistant to the effects), the Von Mekkahns, and many more. Othar Tryggvassen, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER was also last seen in the area of effect, but since he has a power of inexplicable extrication, it is doubtful he was stuck there for long. And Boris, the Baron’s second-in-command, dropped out of sight at this point as well, even though he presumably wasn’t even in the radius of the bomb’s effects. Indeed Boris had escaped and helped Agatha in Paris and Othar was saved from the effect by Gil’s team who are ignorant of the man’s faults. Gil manages to extract Othar, Vole, young Von Mekkahn and Tarvek, so these are now officially off the ride.

Q

• Quirky Town: Mechanicsburg. Lampshaded when one of the inhabitants wonders if growing up there made them weird. After he ensures the town’s children are safely in the protection of their ancestors… a group of undead crypt-dwellers.

«	Undead Thing: Snotulous child! I will smite your allowance!	»

• Quote Mine: Agatha’s recorded message that Lucrezia Mongfish is the Other and that someone should warn Baron Wulfenbach ends up being edited to say that Baron Wulfenbach is the Other. Needless to say, this causes problems.

R

• Race Against the Clock: In the side-story «Ivo Sharktooth, P.J.», the winners' trophy for a prestigious race is found to be missing just after the racers set off, and bad things will happen if it’s not found in time to be presented at the end of the race. Fortunately, it’s the annual Mechanicsburg Harvest Festival Snail Race, and the snails take four days to complete the course.
• Race Lift: (Сменить расу в адаптации) In-Universe, the actors playing Agatha and Tarvek in Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure are both Ambiguously Brown.
• Rage Against the Author:
  • In a filler strip, Agatha can’t be convinced that Phil and Kaja Foglio have legitimately earned the Hugo Award, suspecting some mind control at work.

«	Phil Foglio: Maybe we just won.	»

• In 2011 they decided to shut down the mind-control device and resign from the category.

• Raised Hand of Survival: The Storm King’s zombie knights shove their hands through the cobblestones shortly after the Master of Paris buries them in a temporary chasm in the street while they try to attack his city.
  • Probably subverted when Violetta stabs Madwa Korel. While their arm and hand are raised in the next panel it’s just because Violetta was taking something out of their hand, and she later says she’s pretty sure they’re really dead.
• Randomly Gifted: Sparks run in families but also develop among normal people.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking:
  • Baron Wulfenbach is the preeminate example, ruling much of Europa with an iron fist through exceptional military strength and strategy.
  • His son; when thrust into authority, Gil’s asskicking genes more than rise to the challenge.
  • The Jägergenerals.
  • 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.
• A Rare Sentence: The Heterodynes and their Jäggermonsters are much more used to being the most likely suspects. Having their help be appreciated is just icing on the strangeness cake.

«	Lord Bunstable: I will appreciate your help. You, your lady, and her retinue are perhaps the least likely suspects. Dimo: Huh. No vun haz effer said dot to us before. Lord Bunstable: Strange times, and make no mistake.	»

• Ready for Lovemaking: Barbarian-style. When Castle is detailing Agatha’s lineage, a historical depiction shows the Skull Queen of Skrall splaying herself out on her throne, enticing Dagon Heterodyne to take her after «sending two hundred warrior homunculi to pique his interest.»
• Real Is Brown: The first volume. Not so much «brown is real» as «the world is dull when your mind is damped down». For anyone who’s reading the archives, going from the last page of volume one to the first page of the next is quite jarring.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный)
  • The Jägermonsters look fairly young — well within the range of a human lifespan. However, they remember events of over a hundred years ago, and one of them (who looks like he’s in his late 20s, maybe) has an adult human great-great-grandson. (Jägermonster-ness is caused by a potion and not passed on in genes, so even if his kids were born after he transformed they’d be fully human.) And The Secret Blueprints say that Jägers are nearly indestructible and many of the original company are still around, so the oldest Jägers may well be some unknown number of centuries. No Sparks are known to be so old, which raises questions.
  • To be fair, they’ve mentioned several previous Heterodyne family members as masters of theirs, and have bloodline loyalty, so how old a Spark could be doesn’t really matter. No Sparks reach that age because Sparks tend to be… well… stark raving mad, and many end up meeting a horrible end as a result of either personal overconfidence (taking on an entire army with a faulty death ray) or experimental screw-ups («There have been three explosions so far.»)
  • The ability for Jägers to age infinitely is even relevant at one point when Gil decides that taking Vole out of the time bubble may end with a surviving person that they can talk to. Vole appears and ages hundreds of years in a few minutes and while he does get bigger, bulkier and grows more hair, he doesn’t seem to show any bad side effects of age, instead simply growing less humanoid like the Jäger generals. Interestingly, he has also become less aggressive.
  • The Master of Paris fought alongside the Storm King in the war against Bludtharst Heterodyne, which makes his age in the multiple century range as well.
  • Albia is even older than the Master, and even he doesn’t know how she’s managed to stay looking so young for all those centuries.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: For a guy who conquered a continent, Klaus is surprisingly open to other people’s ideas. Sure, he’s still the final authority, but at least he’ll hear you out.
• Reclining Reigner: In a flashback, we see Queen Zantabraxus, Zeetha’s mother, reclining on a couch while giving an audience to professor Consolmagno.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: (Зловещие красные глаза)
  • The Monster Horse
  • Ferretina, the Weasel Queen
  • Also, the Dingbots in Bomb mode.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: The occasional machine gun is seen (actually some variety of Gatling, in most cases), but this weapon and the enormous amounts of dakka it can provide seem not to have changed the face of war as they have in Real Life. Machine guns become less effective when half the opposing army is made of metal, is using advanced Spark technology, or are Jägers.
• Relationship Reveal: For a long time, it was hard to tell if Theo and Sleipnir were a couple or just really close friends. Then came this strip.
• Relationship Upgrade: This may count as one. Higgs is pleased. And if it didn’t, these certainly do!
• Releasing from the Promise: Tarvek does it to Violetta.
• Religion of Evil: (Религия зла) The Geisterdamen worship the Other.
• Retcon: (Реткон) These pages. 1 2 Look at Sergeant Scorp’s hat at in the bottom panel of page one, and then in the first panel of page 2. See the change? Standard Wulfenbach wings change to Vespiary Squad wings.
• Retired Badass: (Крутой в отставке) An old Mechanicsburg sandwich-maker shows up in one of the side stories. He is nicknamed «Old Man Death» — by the Jägers. Turns out he used to run with them back in his youth — and never lost a fight. He still can forcibly boot one out of his shop now, leading to the «three tries» rule.
• Retirony: (Ирония отставки) Do not total your points out loud if you’re on a labor team in Castle Heterodyne. If you talk about how your sentence is almost up, the Castle is likely to go out of its way to invoke this on you.
• Reverse Psychology: (Сделай наоборот) For centuries inexperienced sparks tried to assert control over creations turning against them by shouting something like «Stop! I am your master! I created you! You can’t attack me!». It never worked. ** Even Agatha made this mistake once. But finally Agatha found the right words.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: (Награда для предателя) Klaus Wulfenbach despises traitors, as Merlot humiliatingly learns. Klaus promotes him to replace Dr. Beetle, telling him that as soon as he makes a single mistake, he’ll be sent to Castle Heterodyne. And sure enough, later on Agatha finds him in Castle Heterodyne. He’s not happy with her.
• Rhymes on a Dime: (Говорит стихами) Paris’s «Child Wagon» clanks, designed to round up hordes of naughty children, talk in rhymes.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter:
  • Agatha’s little clanks she builds as assistants, practically the unofficial mascot of the comic.
  • Mimmoths also qualify.
  • Young wasp weasels.
• Ridiculously Long-lived Family Name: The House of Heterodyne was established over a thousand years ago by Genghis Ht’rok-din. While the name has evidently changed a bit, most of Agatha’s ancestors from what appeared to be the Middle Ages have been referred to by the surname «Heterodyne.»
• Right Behind Me: (Он что, стоит у меня за спиной?) Agatha is too far away to hear the conversation, but still…

«	Xerxsephnia: [about Agatha] It’s not as if she’s in her own lab — or even her own town. She’s kilometers from Mechanicsburg — trapped in our fortress — in the dead of winter. What can she do? [Agatha flies past the window behind her] Xerxsephnia: … And why do you have that idiotic look on your face?	»

• Right in Front of Me: Agatha in front of Klaus, and Gil in front of Zola.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • Thanks to the one she gave the pirates that kidnapped her, Zeetha has killed anyone who could help her find her way back home to Skifander. This is heavily implied to be Dupree’s fortress whose destruction made her have to give up her bid to reconquer her homeland, forcing her to go work for Klaus. Zeetha has not made the connection yet. Dupree has learned of it.
  • Airman Higgs is normally calm and unflappable, even when everything is going to hell. But stab his kinda-maybe love interest in the stomach and, well, things might get ugly.
  • Agatha, after Lars dies.
  • Larana goes into one when Jiminez gets acid in his face by a trap of the library.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: (Гигантские грызуны)
  • The Sturmhalten guides' description of «normal» sewer rats.
  • There are also giant bunnies in one of the side-stories.
  • In an inversion, mimmoths (tiny mammoths) seem to have crowded out much of the normal mouse’s place in the ecosystem.
  • The English spark Dr. Monahan has created the traditional version of this trope; according to semi-canonical sources, she may have used a Rat-Stretching Device. Later taken up to eleven when Monahan becomes a God-Queen and creates kaiju-sized rats during her duel with Lucrezia.
• Rolling Pin of Doom: Okay, a frying pan.
  • Later also a actual rolling pin.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: (Романтизм и Просвещение) A theme of the series is finding the balance between the two. With the Knights of Jove and Baron Wulfenbach representing the extreme sides of those movements.
• Royal Blood: The House of Heterodyne and the line of the Storm King are both very important elements of the plot, as is resentment over the current overlord of the continent being a jumped-up baron.
• Royal School: The baron’s educational facility for Europa’s heirs. The world makes it a bit different, and it’s made abundantly clear its primary purpose is to keep the children of potential troublemakers firmly in the Baron’s grasp, but the education is excellent and the faculty stern but fair and loving.
• Royally Screwed Up: (Династия уродов)
  • Tarvek’s entire family — apparently, even the non-spark members. Best summarized by Tarvek when he explains that «The only way to keep my family in line would be to bury them in a row.»
  • Sparks are, by definition, at least somewhat unbalanced; most recent ruling dynasties are sparks whose families shot their way to the throne at some point; and even if the one who first seized control of a domain were comparatively self-controlled rather than brilliant and/or charismatic enough to compensate for serious instability, their heirs can survive growing far more bonkers than those who have to worry about the typical Torches and Pitchforks thing.
• Rubik’s Cube: International Genius Symbol: Agatha is seen solving a Rubik’s cube in the Radio Theatre interludes.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Appearances aren’t very nonsensical for the trope, but the aesthetic is unmistakably present, mostly because several characters near-literally assemble their outfits this way.
  • Gil spends the latter part of his time in Mechanicsburg wearing an outfit from a bar’s costume selection with most of the more ostentatious pieces taken off.
  • Krosp got his ubiquitous coat from a circus’s costume department.
  • Jägers win their hats off of enemies, so if you’re a Jäger and your hat matches your outfit, it’s luck (and they prioritize nize hats, so many combine random aesthetics, such as Dimo’s aviator cap with goggles and plume, in true «why not put all the toppings on the pizza!?» style).
  • Tarvek’s outfit in the Castle seems to have been scavenged from stuff left lying around by past Heterodynes, and amounts to white undershirt + fancy greatcoat + green pants with two belts stacked on top of each other + an extra belt worn like a sash.
  • Zeetha steals the long shirt and Badass Longcoat of one of Zola’s Faceless Mooks and wears them under the leather pieces from her old outfit after all the cloth she was wearing is dissolved by mad science.
  • Moloch eventually ends up wearing the fancy red pants from the nice outfit he was introduced wearing, two shirts he must have obtained while imprisoned, a neckerchief to cover the collar/necklace all the Castle prisoners get, and a heavy apron from working in the murderous kitchen.
• Running Gag: (Постоянная шутка)
  • Othar yelling «Foul!» every time someone drops him from high up. Othar is the sort of fellow who thinks there should be rules to a fight, though it’s pretty clear that the ones he has in mind are a bit laxer than those of the Marquis of Queensbury. He yells foul anytime someone … well, he’d call it «pulls a dirty trick», but most everyone else would say «outsmarts him.» Which is a lot, because while Othar is a first or at least close second rate spark (he wouldn’t still be alive if he wasn’t), he’s also not that bright.
  • Burgermeister Zuken of Mechanicsburg’s irrelevance.
  • At least somewhat, Gil’s insistence on the fact that Beetle threw that bomb at him.
  • Sparks trying and failing to command their own creations: «that never works.» Except when the creation is told that the Spark is not their master. Then it just wanders off in confusion.
  • When the Foglios have something to show you, they’ll show you with an «Elegant and finely crafted link».
  • People are generally more likely to recognize Gilgamesh for his authority or power when he wears his «mighty nize hat».
  • Death Ray Guns. Especially as metaphors when talking about the size. Even the castle is in on it, causing Agatha to blush.
  • Ardsley Wooster shouting for Sparks to FOCUS! whenever they get distracted (by science) from what they need to accomplish. Considering his long time relationship with Gil, he’s had a lot of practice. In fact, a lot of people have to do this with sparks and Blood Knight characters. Moloch is another good example.
  • Starting with the Paris arc, Agatha has developed a habit of transferring ancient, evil, hyperintelligent Heterodyne AI’s into her miniature helper clanks, which then follow her around. She’s done it with The Beast and Castle Heterodyne.
  • Many times in the Paris arc: «It counts as a third of my grade!» Also variants such as «I needed the credit!»
  • Whenever we get a Ship Tease, cheese tends to be involved. For example, Lars was a cheesemaker’s apprentice (shown in flashback carrying a huge wheel of cheese) and when Zeetha is charmed by Higgs’s denial that he would ever dream of implying anything about someone so dangerous, a wedge of cheese flies through the air. Basically, the Foglios find romance cheesy.

S

• Sailor’s Ponytail: Airman Higgs («The Unstoppable» Airshipman Higgs) wears one of these. As airship units are treated as analogous to naval ones (though seafaring definitely exists in this setting), it certainly qualifies as a Sailor’s Ponytail.
• Sarcasm Mode: (Сарказм) «Hmm, yes… I can see how that must be very embarrassing for you.»
• Schizo Tech: (Шизотех)
  • And how. Telegraph, radio, telephone? Nope. Motor cars? One seen so far. Heavier-than-air aircraft? Two prototypes. Strong AI, lasers and resurrection are perfectly possible, though.
  • This trope works against the development of artillery. Sure, Sparks have found numerous ways to turn a glut of grounded energy into concentrated destruction — Agatha once built a death ray with enough power and range to blast out of Mechanicsburg and through a mountain… but in trying to overspecialize and overcompensate in pure power, Sparks tend to create surface-to-blimp weapon prototypes that are finnicky at best and disastrous at worst. As such, there are no standardized forms of artillery, so it’s never mass-produced in a world with slow-flying giant targets.
• Schmuck Bait: (Ловушка для любопытных)
  • The tantalizingly labelled buttons in the last panel of this strip.
  • Lucrezia’s lab has a brightly colored gumball machine with a small sign above labeled «Poison! — brought to you by the Illiteracy Reduction Campaign.»
  • A would-be conqueror by the name of X the Destroyer accidentally made some when he assumed that the great big X in the fields outside Mechanicsburg (Which the locals use to zero in the artillery on the walls) was the place he was supposed to erect his pavilion while awaiting the city’s surrender.
• Science Fantasy: (Технофэнтези) Steampunk meets fantasy. In-universe, most of the weird is non-supernatural and comes from the scientific creations of madscientists… but how those mad scientists draw upon advanced knowledge is the most supernatural thing in the comic. Some of this magic includes stuff like the river Dyne which turns humans into Jaegers (orcs) and uniquely strengthens The Madness Place of Heterodyne Sparks, Geisterdamen (who come from the distant past by time travel), Frankenstein-esque reanimated corpses, the aformentioned Jaegermonsters (non-human beings with superhuman strength and lifespans who are former humans who drank the «Jaegerdraught»), multiple cases of Brain Uploading, the castle Heterodyne’s seemingly telekinetic ability to move chunks of itself, and an entire mostly-dead cabal of demigoddesses who harnessed the powers of ancient civilizations to become Super-Sparks, including the surviving GodEmpress Albia of Britain. And all of this fantasy takes place in a world with blimps, supercomputers, genetic engineering, more automatic rifles than WWII, and more complex Real Politik than WWI.
• Science Hero: (Профессор Героикус) Agatha, Gil, Ta— actually damn near every spark that is not a homicidal lunatic and/or scheming manipulator… and frankly a couple who are.
• Science Is Bad: (Наука — это плохо‏) All through the story and backstory, the most reckless applications of science are performed regularly by those most educated and talented at it. However, it’s Played for Laughs often enough to parody the Aesop; when Science Is Really Bad, it’s Crazy Awesome!
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: The Spark condition. Though even non-Spark scientists and engineers are a bit off-kilter, probably because that’s how everyone expects them to act. Those usually have to assist or use stuff of Sparks. It’s either become a Mad Scientist or go insane from this all anyway.
• Scienceville: Europe is ruled by Sparks but most cities or towns have just one family of them since they’re somewhat territorial. Paris is an exception due to the Master’s ruthless enforcement of neutrality and many houses send their scions there for their education.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: (Визжит, как девчонка)
  • Professor Tiktoffen often screams like this, and the castle thinks it’s funny.
  • Also Tarvek, at least according to DuPree.

«	DuPree: Oh my Gosh! I’d know that girlish scream anywhere!	»

• Screw Gun Safety:
  • The Jägermonsters, though it’s pretty in-character for them to try.

«	Jäger 1: Ho! Leedle recoil problem there, sir! Jäger 2: Pretty neat though, ya?	»

• Agatha and Gil look straight into a lightning generator’s business end while Gil repeatedly pushes the button.

• Screw the Rules, They’re Not Real!:
  • Baron Wulfenbach took this approach and ignored political norms when he marched in and conquered Europa. While it did bring relative peace, it has been pointed out that doing so made enemies of the nobility he disrespected.
  • The Jägergenerals acknowledge that there is a «goot vay» to cheat.
• Scrub: Invoked in Othar’s log:

«	He was a dirty fighter, what with all that «winning» all the time.	»

• Scully Box: The guardslime’s creator uses one.
• Secret Circle of Secrets: Nearly all of Queen Albia’s Mad Scientist division goes renegade joining one of these, complete with hooded cloaks, Human Sacrifice, and the summoning of an Eldritch Abomination.
• Secret Sewer Society: Paris hosts several reclusive tribes and underground kingdoms within its elaborate catacombs and cave networks, such as the mole-like Talpini and the pale-skinned, human-like Argurons. Mechanicsburg likewise lies above a complex, multi-layered system of tunnels, basements, and secret chambers where some of the Heterodynes' more reclusive creations live. Most cities have underground networks of this sort, although most aren’t as extensive — if they did, Europe would be one hard rain away from collapsing on itself.
• Secret Test of Character: (Проверка на вшивость) When we first see Gil, his father is asking him to figure out what’s wrong with the machine he ordered built — except he’s really testing to see if Gil is honest, brave and/or smart enough to tell him it isn’t actually possible for it to work the way Klaus said it should.
• Seen It All: In the later comics Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek aren’t even surprised anymore by most of the crazy behavior exhibited by everyone around them. It’s to such a point where when a guard captain (who used to be a Mechanicsburg resident) is referred to as a 'toy', not only is he not insulted, he says it’s the Mechanicsburg way. Gil and Tarvek both admit that they aren’t surprised in the slightest by this.
• Self-Deprecation: (Самоирония)
  • Phil Foglio’s Author Avatar is repeatedly shown to be an incredibly boring storyteller, to the point that in the Mechanicsburg hospital he’s put to work telling stories to sick kids… because they fall asleep without the need for medication.
  • The Author Avatar of the colorist, Cheyenne Wright, is a Large Ham and the Laughably Evil ruler of an underground kingdom.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: (Самоуничтожение) Lucrezia’s secret lab has one, and she activates it. The cancellation of self-destruct is double subverted.
• Self-Serving Memory: When Castle Heterodyne attacks Castle Wulfenbach, Der Kestle has such a moment in response to Agatha’s «When did I tell you to do that?!»

«	Imaginary Agatha: Yay! Do that! Kill everyone in the sky!	»

• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: (Чувствительный парень и брутальный мужик) Tarvek and Gil to a degree.
• Separated at Birth: Though not explicitly mentioned yet, This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God and many strong hints shown in the comic point to Zeetha and Gil being fraternal twins. The only character depicted so far that knows this is their father, Klaus.
• Seppuku: Expected of Jägers who break the Oath — but only if they get caught. At least if you believe Oggie and Maxim, who are admittedly clowning around a bit at the time. Otherwise, the Jägers show no aversion at all to rampant Loophole Abuse, such as by claiming that, being several floors underground, they’re technically not in the town.
• Serial Escalation: (По нарастающей/Больше и эпичнее) How many more «distractions» will Agatha, Gil and Tarvek go through before they reach their goal? The whole Castle Heterodyne arc appears to follow the old Hollywood maxim «start with a volcanic eruption, then build to a climax.»
• Serious Business:
  • The Jägermonsters really love hats. Nothing more needs to be said. When Agatha, the Chosen One, flips Maxim’s hat off, he even almost attacks her for a moment despite his Undying Loyalty to her. In fact, Maxim refuses to let Lars be buried Hatless.
  • The Incorruptible Library apparently takes reclaiming their books so seriously that they will (or at least, patrons honestly believe that they will) send strike teams to kidnap people who have overdue books.
  • A lot of university professors are sparks, and being Mad Scientists, are willing to enact projects of dubious legality. Otherwise ordinary university students will happily assist them in their crimes, however dangerous or heinous, in return for good grades.
• Sewer Gator: (Аллигатор из канализации) An albino alligator can be seen snapping at Violetta and Tarvek as they make their way through the sewers of Mechanicsburg.
• Sexbot: In one side-story, Agatha makes a «mechanical bedwarmer» which appears to be a robot double of Gil.
• Sex Sells: Upon arriving to Paris, Agatha is dismayed to discover that her image is quite popular on posters advertising for various products — said illustrations being very often scantily clad. Up to one advert for Turkish drinking chocolate where she’s wearing nothing but a Modesty Towel. Later on, Colette sends Tarvek a whole portfolio of advertising posters, which he and Gil watches appreciatively (most of them hidden from the readers, unfortunately).
• Sexy Soaked Shirt:
  • Lars gets an eyeful of Agatha washing herself.
  • Agatha, Tarvek and Gil, with material for everyone!
  • Agatha, say hello to Hadrian Rakethorn.
• Shadow Government: The von Mekkahns have been running a shadow government that makes the Wulfenbach-appointed city administration impotent. They and the rest of Mechanicsburg have no interest in being governed by outsiders but they certainly don’t mind tricking outsiders into thinking they run things.
• Shaped Like Itself:
  • In the not-quite-canon story The Heterodyne Boys and the Dragon from Mars,

«	Bill: I never thought I’d have to use this. Dr. Mongfish: [reformed] «Ocean in a bottle»? What’s that? Bill: Truth in packaging.	»

• A book titled Using Found Objects as Weapons gets used to beat a particularly persistent enemy upside the head, striking with the sound effect TOME!
• In Revenge of the Weasel Queen, Agatha uses a De-arming Device. It does exactly that, cutting the arms off Agatha’s opponent.

• Shared Family Quirks: It’s mentioned that Sparks' «styles» of design and technology run in families; Sparks born of Sparks, even when they’re not raised by their parents, will tend to follow similar paths and designs.
• Sharing a Body: Agatha and Lucrezia have had the antagonistic version of this relationship since the latter’s mind was transferred into the former. It was supposed to be a Grand Theft Me, as mentioned above, but it wasn’t totally successful. Later the same thing happens with Zola and Lucrezia, again not very successfully. And then it’s done with Gil and Klaus.
• She Is the King: (Король-женщина) When Colette succeeds her father, she decides to stick to the term «Master of Paris», since «Mistress of Paris» would make it sound like — in her own words — «the ultimate demimondaine».
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер)
  • Moloch (and practically everyone else) ships Agatha×Gil; Violetta ships Agatha×Tarvek (cue This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.Ship-to-Ship Combat).
  • Then there are Zeetha, «Jäger girls», Jägers, the crowd…
  • Castle Heterodyne appears to ship 'em both. Really, it ships Agatha×Anything with a viable set of male reproductive organs, though it prefers guys who are strong, violent, and sparky. It’s implied that this was the way the «old» Heterodynes operated, since the castle comes equipped with «harem quarters» and it’s mentioned that the master bedroom «only sleeps six.»
  • Tarvek ships Higgs×Zeetha. Higgs' blush in the 2nd panel argues he’s right.
  • Agatha also ships Higgs and Zeetha, going so far as to plan an elaborate display for Queen Albia (involving a horde of Jägers and a giant mech suit) to allow Zeetha and Higgs the opportunity to dance together.
  • The supporting cast now has a betting pool. Most root for Gil, Tarvek or a One True Threesome, except for a Jäger who bets on himself.
  • Zeetha ships Larana X Jiminez Hoffman.
• Ship Tease: Agatha wears a locket with the Heterodyne trilobite sigil on it… but we’ve seen a future version of her, and in the future, she’s modified it (or replaced it, as it’s now been destroyed) to a winged trilobite, strongly suggesting a marriage. It’d be a much better clue if both Gil and Tarvek didn’t have winged sigils (rook and sword, respectively), of course.
  • Dimo tends to get pretty physical when protecting Agatha. It’s unlikely for anything to come of it even if there was an attraction there as Agatha is pretty obsessed with Gil and Tarvek and Dimo is all duty.
• Shirtless Scene: (Рубашка не нужна) A fair number with Gil and Tarvek, and a few others (the Baron comes to mind). Tarvek did one long one wearing but a bedsheet, and Gil did a shorter scene wearing first just that, then… less. The battle of most skin exposed continues.
  • Professor Mittlemind is also technically an example of this in every scene he appears in, but.. yeah.
• Shoot the Dog: Tarvek disabling and deactivating Anevka’s clank. Wooster nearly does this to Klaus but is interrupted.
• Shoulders of Doom: (Самоубийственные наплечники) Zeetha approves.
• Shout-Out: Lots of them, now having their own subpage.
• Shovel Strike: (Убил дедушку лопатой) Zeetha can do.

«	Lapinemoth: A shovel? Ah! What can you do with a— BWONG!	»

• Show Some Leg: (Отвлечь с помощью женщины) Zulenna attempts it, though it’s subverted on the next page.
• Shutting Up Now: Two-part example involving Agatha and Moloch.
• «Shut Up» Kiss:
  • Agatha to Gil.
  • Tarvek to Agatha.
  • And again by Tarvek to Agatha; this time Tarvek silences Agatha’s wagging tongue with his own before she blows Higgs' cover.
  • Martellus to Lucrezia.
• Side Bet: After Tarvek kisses Agatha after she saves him, the people of Mechanicsburg and the Jägers are seen placing bets on who Agatha will choose, with Vanamonde von Mekkahn and Violetta playing bookies.
• Sigil Spam:
  • The Wulfenbach family signs everything, from their airships to their war machines to the smallest mechanical parts of Castle Wulfenbach, with that winged rook.
  • The trilobite symbol of the Heterodynes is pretty much ubiquitous in Mechanicsburg.
  • It’s the same with the Sturmvoraus family symbol in Sturmhalten.
• Signed Up for the Dental: The lapinemoths in the Weasel Queen filler.
• Signs of Disrepair: Above the entrance door to Castle Heterodyne is a sign reading «Thank you for shopping». Except that, when Wulfenbach troops attack it with a battering ram, it dislodges the «shopping» part which was an add-on, revealing the original sign to be «Thank you for cowering».
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: (Идеализм — для детей) In the backstory, Klaus Wulfenbach helped the Heterodyne Boys with the idealistic approach; the result was an Europa that was Holding Out for a Hero, so he has little use now for idealism. As another example, Vole believes all the other Jägermonsters are being foolishly idealistic.
• Simple Solution Won’t Work: During the battle for Mechanicsburg, several people bring up the option of just falling back and living to fight another day to Agatha. She nixes the idea because Mechanicsburg is the Heterodyne fallback postion, so there’s nowhere to fall back to.
• Single Tear: (Скупая мужская слеза) Vanamonde sheds one after just one sip of the perfect cup of coffee.
• Single Sex Offspring: The Heterodyne family is known for almost exclusively giving birth to boys. The two exceptions, Euphrosynia and Agatha, have been very important in the family’s history, and Agatha in particular is implied to have been engineered somehow to make sure she was female.
• Skeptic No Longer:
  • The Von Mekkhans both were skeptical of Agatha’s claim of lineage at first, but eventually are convinced by her deeds: Vanamonde had a nirvana moment after drinking a cup of «perfect» coffee out of Agatha’s Coffee Engine, and Carson was convinced when she cowed Castle Heterodyne from tormenting a much more vocally skeptical other village elder (who was also a Skeptic No Longer and groveled at Agatha’s feet for saving him from that fate).
  • The Corbettites appear to believe the goodness in Agatha’s heart after she was instrumental in putting the Beast of The Rails down for good, and also for completing their pipe dream ultimate rail liner locomotive (which they then used to extricate Agatha from a sanctuary trap).
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Locking children in vats and letting them out only for Christmas is a terrible thing, but only if you let the control group out.
  • Subverted with the Jägers (or at least their generals), as evidenced by this exchange:

«	General Zog: Ve haff a team of Jägerkin, Lackya, clenks and crew at each entry. Klaus Wulfenbach: Excellent. I’m pleased at the lack of rivalry. General Zog: Sir — dere iz a time to twit nancy-boy feetsmen und a time to crush bogs.	»

• Skilled, but Naive: Vole claims that Gil and Tarvek are this.
• Sky Pirate: Almost any time pirates are mentioned in the story, they are of this kind, airships being a widespread commodity. (Though according to Sanaa’s account of her activities after leaving home, sea-borne ones do exist as well.) Notably, Bangladesh DuPree and her crew. One of the radio plays gives us the character of Deathwish Dupree, Bang’s older brother «of whom she is heartily ashamed».
• Slasher Smile: (Улыбашка)
  • The Jägermonsters' mouths open literally from ear to ear and are full of very big fangs.
  • Most Sparks pull off magnificent examples of this at least once when they’re in their element.
  • Bangladesh DuPree seems to wear it professionally.
  • Zola develops an impressive Slasher Smile after taking the Movit #11.
  • Invoked by Sparafucile in this strip:

«	Sparafucile: You see, at the university, I studied behavioral psychology. With a minor in theater. My dissertation combined the two. Maxim: …Vitch means? Sparafucile: Which means that all I usually have to do is smile like this— [demonstrates] and I don’t have to kill anybody!	»

• Sleep Mask: Mama Gkika wears one at night.
• Small Role, Big Impact: (Небольшая роль с большим влиянием)
  • Teodora Vodenicharova, so far mentioned in two footnotes in the novelizations, was the mother of Bill and Barry Heterodyne who raised them to be heroes, and saved them from being killed by their father at the cost of her own life; without her, the history of Europa would have been very different.
  • Madame Olga only has a very brief appearance in the story before her death (which involved making a big impact on a rock) but thanks to Master Payne’s Circus using her body to deceive Gil, Bangladesh and the Baron, Agatha is able to hide from the Empire.
  • Oublenmach, the goon that holds Van’s servant hostage, is ultimately the one that rings The Doom Bell, saving several lives in Mechanicsburg.
• The Smart Guy: (Умник) Practically all of the characters are pretty smart. Krosp is an example of the rare GG smart guy who’s also the Only Sane Man of the group.
• Smoldering Shoes: Martellus punching DuPree sends her flying while leaving her boots behind (revealing skulls-adorned socks).
• Smooch of Victory: Agatha’s idea of a fine way to celebrate exploding a giant writhing slug.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Being Vitriolic Best Buds, Gil and Tarvek tend to fall into this routine whenever they’re together.

«	Gil: [regarding Zola’s part in the Storm King conspiracy] Um, well, let’s just say I don’t think much of this Storm King guy’s taste. Tarvek: Oh, really? That’s encouraging, considering the kind of girls you preferred in Paris— Gil: True, they didn’t like to play dress up much at all. Tarvek: That’s because they were hardly ever dressed. Gil: Jealous?	»

• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Krosp. He’s a cat, so of course he only has a moderate grasp of human concepts like morality.

«	Krosp: Is this one of those situations that involves «ethics»? 'Cause I’m a cat, you know. I’ve never been very good at those.	»

• Snowball Lie: Seffie winds up telling one to the Queen of England after she arrives in London with the contents of a dessert tray stuck in her hair. Rather than admit she’s just been caught in an embarrassing situation, she tries to pass the sweets in her hair off as the latest fashion from Paris. Hilarity Ensues as she begins roping other people into helping her defend this new «fashion» at a dinner party.
• Soft Glass: Here. (Although that may not count, 'cos they’re Jägers.)
• Sole Surviving Scientist:
  • Othar has been that but managed to go back in time (according to his Twitter, anyway).
  • Tarvek in the same Twitter may have been a better example, since he sent Othar back and was much closer to the problem (while Othar metaphorically «slept through it»).
• Something Else Also Rises: (Символическая эрекция) A female example here, when Dr. Rakethorn takes off his dress tunic to help Agatha with her latest project. Agatha’s welding torch suddenly lights up with a «FOOM!», despite her fingers being nowhere close to the tap.
• Something Only They Would Say:
  • Gil learns there are two alleged Heterodyne heirs in Mechanicsburg. One arrived in a gaudy pink airship, has made several speeches and then entered Castle Heterodyne. The other is in a coffee shop rebuilding their coffee machine (and causing several explosions in the process). It doesn’t take him long to realize which one is Agatha.
  • Tarvek invokes one explicitly when asking Agatha what she did to Vrin. Since neither Agatha nor Lucrezia have a conscious memory of what the other was doing when the other one is in control of Agatha’s body, Agatha would answer that she repeatedly hit Vrin with a broom (stunning Vrin momentarily with a Compelling Voice that only partially worked each time), while Lucrezia trying to pretend to be Agatha would have said she killed Vrin with a fully effective compelling voice.
  • Agatha proves she knows Punch by revealing information about him that isn’t part of the Heterodyne Boys stories.
  • Lucrezia instantly finds out that Klaus has possessed Gil by the way he talks.
• Sonic Stunner:
  • André from Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure uses a sonic gun. When he’s about to discharge it in a fight he warns the other members of the troupe to try and cover their ears.
  • «Clankrezia» can use her «voice» as a shrill sonic scream, distracting Zeetha enough at close range that she can be easily clonked out.
• The Spark of Genius: Possible Trope Namer. Definitely invoked throughout; it pretty much says it on the tin.

«	Heliotrope: In my experience, a strong Heterodyne will take about two hours to truly warp the laws of nature.	»

• The Spartan Way: (Спартанские тренировки) The Skifander warrior training Zeetha puts Agatha through is meant to leave the trainee almost entirely incapable of movement for the first few hours after it’s complete each morning during the early stages.
• Speak in Unison: (Унисон)
  • Gil and Tarvek both end up finishing each other’s sentences and speaking in unison when they’re both in The Madness Place and working towards the same goal, especially after they’re synced to try and save Tarvek’s life. At one point in Castle Heterodyne they start speaking in unison even though they’re each talking about a different occasion:

«	Gil & Tarvek: I though you were dead! After losing you like that once, I’m going to make sure you’re safe if it’s the last thing I do!	»

• One of Captain Hawkins' crew and the Smoke Knight she’s fighting say «Oooh — You are so lucky» to each other in unison when Hawkins calls a truce upon realizing they’ve got a bigger concern than the Smoke Knights incoming fast.
• In Master Payne’s new Heterodyne play, the actors for Gil and Tarvek tend to speak simultaneously. After watching it, the real Gil and Tarvek catch themselves doing the same («I need… a drink.»), to their dismay.
• Later, Gil and Martellus find themselves making the exact same quip at the same time to Tarvek. They’re rather annoyed.

«	Tarvek: Great, so now we’re considered an irritant. Gil & Martellus: You should be used to that! [beat panel, mutual glare] Gil: Well, that takes out all the fun out of it. Martellus: Jinx! You owe me a drink.	»

• Speak of the Devil: (Нечисть по вызову) Discussed Trope.

«	Lucrezia-Zola: But he’s been missing for years. He’s no threat— [Beat] [nervous glances] Lucrezia-Anevka: Do you want him to show up?! Lucrezia-Zola: Ooh… So sorry, dear. I can’t think what came over me!	»

• Speech-Bubble Censoring: Mama Gkika’s dressing screen panel, presumably featuring a naked girl, is obscured by Gilgamesh Wulfenbach saying:

«	Gil: So — does this place have a back door?	»

• The Speechless: (Молчун/Немота?) Punch («Adam»). An early construct of the Heterodyne Brothers, he was unable to speak. Until Gil extensively repaired both Punch and Judy, granting Punch speech.
• Spider Limbs:
  • A couple of background characters are like this, apparently double amputees who use them as mobility prosthetics. Given that the whole backdrop is of a pseudo-Europe which has been in a state of low-level warfare for an indefinite period, It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Agatha’s exoskeleton, used to get a good night’s sleep despite Zeetha’s wish, also gives off this vibe. Especially when it pulls out the weaponry.
• Spikes of Villainy: (Злодейские шипы)
  • Jägers, while not evil as such, like this style. Although he’s one of the good guys, Gil receives some spare epically spikey shoulder pads as they were the only clothing on hand at the time. Even the hat has spikes of its own. ** Later, one Jäger general wears long, bone-looking shoulder spikes. At least in his case, these are quite functional.
  • Agatha’s Humongous Mecha here has spikes on it. Well, she is the protagonist, but she is also a Heterodyne.
  • Professor Blintzie von Wyrmhaut has long, dangerous-looking spikes sprouting from the shoulders of her coat, and smaller ones from the top of her thigh-high boots. And she’s certainly a dangerous and amoral Spark. Although in her line of work (which includes hunting monsters), the spikes are certainly justified as a defense against being swallowed whole.
• Spit Take: (Выплеснуть напиток изо рта)
  • Tarvek spit-takes his wine during a formal diner at the Sturmvoraus table. Then again, Agatha just made a really unexpected off-hand revelation.
  • Dr. Sun spit-takes tea in a flashback panel. As in the first example, Baron Wulfenbach wasn’t expected to punch out of his own healing engine.
  • A random background jäger lets fly right back into his flagon when he sights General Dimo chatting with a newly arrived Agatha after she disappeared for two and a half years.
  • Aldin spit-takes so hard that he blasts out the bottom of his cup when he suddenly realizes the romantic misunderstanding his brother Jiminez is having between them and Princess Larana.
• Spontaneous Human Combustion: There’s a disease (probably engineered by some Mad Scientist), «Hogfarb’s resplendent immolation», that causes this effect. The body is filled with an incendiary substance, and in the end the victim will «go up like a torch». Unless they simply melt. The water from the River Dyne also makes this happen.
• Spy Speak: (Верблюды идут на север) While visiting the underground library in Paris, Violetta gives the order for two other Smoke Knights who were trailing Agatha’s party to reveal themselves by uttering the phrase, «All shadows are to come into the light.»
• Squee: Zeetha over Higgs, in panel 8 here.
• Squick: An in-universe example of this is used by General Khrizhan to explain why Gil and Agatha being together is for the best: they can’t exactly get their mad science on as long as the Other, Agatha’s mother, is still inside Agatha’s head and possibly sensate. Nobody will ever work as fast as those two will when they eventually twig on that. Incidentally, this also serves to keep the Unresolved Sexual Tension nice and unresolved, just the way the writers like it. Later the sentiment is expressed by Tarvek, to the Jäger Generals' amusement.
• Squishy Wizard: (Хлипкий маг) Averted. For no explained reason, Sparks appear to be stronger, faster, better coordinated (okay, this one is more understandable), and tougher than any normal human. This isn’t counting Sparks that may have modified themselves.
• Stable Time Loop:
  • An apparition from the future in the third strip got the whole story rolling, and it’s become clear that Agatha will — eventually — cause it to happen.
  • This probably happens in this strip. The time window that Bang sees the first time happens after the second one from the point of view of the characters in the window. Gil calls Bang a maniac in the first one, probably because she pointed a gun on them in the second one, which she did because «earlier» he insulted her.
  • In the sidestory The homecoming king" (from here to here) some students summon the Ht’rok’dyn (the first Heterodyne) from the past. He learns that he has descendants who created a big empire, so he goes back in time to make sure it happens.
• Staged Populist Uprising: The Knights of Jove conspirators like to claim they’re doing it for the people.
• Stalker with a Crush: (Сталкинг) There are hints of this with Zola toward Gil, especially after she starts in on her Sanity Slippage. And it’s a full-blown life-long case with him as the target for Seffie.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Subverted. «Snapper» Boikov tries it on Sanaa. Hilarity Ensues.

«	R-79: Tsk. Even I know that was stupid. Wrenchman: Requiescat in pace and all that rot. Dibs on his boots!	»

• Star-Crossed Lovers: (Обречённая любовь) Violetta is of the opinion that Gil and Agatha’s romance has a huge chance of going down in flames. Tarvek realizes she may have a point.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • The Baron discusses the possibility when dealing with Othar in a strip. Othar was certainly not expecting it.
  • And a case with the henchmen pointing out the flaw… and the Bond Villain Stupidity exploding in the bad guy’s face in record time:

«	Assassin: Highness, don’t talk to him! Just let us kill them! Leopold: Tch, Plenty of time for that, my -drgl	»

• Stealth Hi/Bye: Agatha emerges from one of her sleepwalking-creating states to find herself putting the finishing touches on a mechanism, with somebody off-panel handing her tools on command. She turns to see who it is, and…
• Stealth Pun: Agatha hits Zola with a Door Stopper book, with the Unsound Effect «TOME». The name of the book? Using Found Objects as Weapons.
• Steampunk: (Стимпанк) Everywhere. The authors prefer to call it «gaslamp fantasy» though, because of the absence of 'punk' and the presence of Frankenstein-esque constructs, giant slugs that produce zombie-making wasps, resurrection procedures, death rays, and time travel. Also «calming pies».
• Storm of Blades:
  • An insane secondary kitchen in Castle Heterodyne uses this against Agatha twice. The storm includes not only knives, but forks, corkscrews and skewers.
  • Castle chases after a fleeing Zola with several sharp and dangerous implements, including a cheesegrater, candelabra, and a shoehorn.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Various incidents here and there — this is a world run by mad scientists, after all.
  • Othar, by Klaus.
  • From a Heterodyne play: «You! Minion! Why am I strapped to this table? And WHERE ARE MY PANTS?!?»
  • Tarvek and Gil have to be strapped to a table for the Si Vales Valeo procedure.
  • Gil does it to DuPree to have his hands free while doing Mad Science.

«	Bang: …Seriously pathetic. Gil: I assure you, that table is purely for medical purpose. Bang: That’s what I meant!	»

• Stripperiffic: (Одевается в секс-шопе)
  • While a great many female characters don’t seem to have a problem showing a little skin, the «Weasel Queen» shows a lot of it.
  • Zeetha spent some time roughing out in Mechanicsburg and the Castle while wearing just a leather bikini and boots. But then again, it wasn’t her fault.
  • During the Paris plot-arc, Agatha, Zeetha and Dimo all end up wearing harem-garb for an extended period.
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • Sooo much shrapnelly goodness… Making things blow up that by all rights shouldn’t seems like a mandatory side-effect of being a Spark.

«	Andre: No big deal. Schtuff blows op all de time.	»

• «Hee hee. Death Ray go BOOM!»
• Even the most mundane of things:

«	Gil: What is she doing in a coffee shop? Vole: She iz making coffee, sir. Gil: Making coffee… Vole: Dere haff been THREE explosions so far, sir.	»

• Stylish Protection Gear: (Крутая пелерина)
  • Agatha’s winter outfit she dons in order to wait for the train in the freezing cold at Clankshead is a very pretty white fur coat with matching hat decked in gold badges and filigree with red cord, jewels and tassels. She’s also wearing a green scarf with a knit diamond cable pattern in gold and golden trilobites at each end with matching gloves.
  • Gil’s winter coat when he’s trying to track down Agatha is a tailored navy Ulster clasped with a silver Wulfenbach pin and edged in blue silk, lined in dark red and topped with three layered capelets worn over a matching waistcoat.
• Submarine Pirates: Sanaa Wilhelm or rather Trygvassen was apparently queen of a group of pirates who used a mechanical narwhal before ending up at castle Heterodyne.
• Succession Crisis: The underlying cause of the Long War was the disappearance of the Storm King, who had no legitimate heirs and far too many illegitimate ones. The arguments of who the rightful heir of the Lightning Crown is and how to get Europa to acknowledge him have been going on for roughly two hundred years, regularly interrupted by Sparks deciding to Show Them All.
• Suddenly Speaking: Adam «Punch» Clay after Gil upgrades him during a resurrection. After several decades of not speaking, it’s hard to make him stop again.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Trope Namer. In the Cinderella side story, Agatha as Cinderella fixes the Fairy Godmother’s malfunctioning magic wand, despite being told she couldn’t possibly understand the principles behind its operation.
• Summon Bigger Fish: When the heroes are threatened by two Godzilla-sized Queens and a monster the size of a small mountain that spews other giant monsters from its mouth, Neena’s solution is to call out for help from her mother, Queen Albia, who dwarfs all of them.note
• Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom:
  • Castle Heterodyne has several of these, including The Happy Fun Ball of Death and Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers.
  • The Radio Theater Break has one, in the form of Ferretina’s lightning generator, labeled «Zappy Fun Box MK 1.»
  • Super-Persistent Predator: Tarvek decries that the decidedly not sessile Hive Queen seems fixated on him while he flees it with an armload comprised a crippled Jäger, a crippled vespiary squadmate, a shelf’s worth of books, and some wasp eaters.
• Superpowerful Genetics: (Родомагия)
  • The Spark is hereditary, and the most powerful Sparks in the series descend from a handful of noble lineages: Heterodyne, Wulfenbach, Mongfish, and the various Valois lineages are the most important.
  • As a very odd example, children of fertile constructs inherit their parent’s Super-Strength.
• Super Serum: (Военный препарат) Many of them. Overdosing is always a concern, whether it’s the Movit series of Smoke Knight pick-me-ups («Drugs! Lovely, lovely drugs!»), the water of the river Dyne («I LIKE IT!»), or the Jägerdraught and Battledraught brewed using the latter.
• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты)
  • The Jägermonsters, who were created by the old «bad» Heterodynes as shock troops but then had to obey the «good» Heterodynes due to the oath of loyalty they take very seriously (though are still capable of breaking; look at Captain Vole). One of the ingredients of the Jägerbrau used to transform people into Jägers is water from the river Dyne, which Heterodynes are known for drinking and gaining superhuman strength as a result.
  • And don’t forget Von Pinn. Or else.
  • And Airman Higgs is looking mighty super, recently…
• Super-Speed: (Суперскорость) The various Movit tonics, while not exactly granting super speed, give people temporarily increased speed and energy with some implied physical toll later on. Half a bottle of Movit #6 got Tarvek on his feet for hours though he was fatally ill, and a few sips of Movit #11 turned Zola from a reasonably good fighter into a crazy battle goddess. And then Airman Higgs shows us all what super speed really is.
• Superpower Lottery: (Мозаика сверхспособностей) The Spark provides those who possess it with varying levels of genius — and that’s all; they need to be taught how science works just like anyone else. Unlike those with access to good resources and a proper education, Sparks born into poor families with few opportunities are rarely able to harness their intelligence properly or protect themselves from people who hate and fear mad geniuses.
• Superstitious Sailors: The novels mention that Klaus Wulfenbach has put this to use. Instead of trying to get rid of superstition among his navy, he had mad social scientists alter the superstitions a bit. Anything considered «bad luck» is something that is actually genuinely bad; leaving a rope unfastened on deck, carrying an open flame too close to the gas bag, so on. The things deemed «good luck» are statistically improbable but ultimately irrelevant coincidences like two ships finishing their preparations at the exact same time. The end result is that the navy has exceptionally high morale combined with combat readiness.
• Supervillain Lair: (Твердыня тьмы) Any Spark who reaches a certain level of power will build themselves one of these, with Mechanicsburg and Castle Heterodyne being one of the most prominent examples. One of the novelizations explains that Klaus Wulfenbach not only tolerates that his fellow Sparks construct such lairs, but even encourages them — as every minute they spend building or improving their lair is a minute where they aren’t unleashing Mad Science on the surrounding countryside.
• Surrounded by Idiots: (Меня окружают идиоты)
  • The various Jäger Generals display this attitude on occasion, including eventually Dimo.
  • Not content to merely say this trope, Martellus rants about it instead;

«	Martellus: I have a pack of sparkhounds, a cadre of over-trained smoke knights, and veritable clown-carriage of cowed relatives all running around my castle like a swarm of ants on fire, and they still can’t find two women and a blasted cat wearing a coat! No wonder everything has gone to hell and back! These fools are enough to make me toss it all and open that designer pet shop in Paris!	»

• Suspiciously Specific Denial: (Подозрительно конкретное отрицание)
  • Sheesh, whose adolescent slave-girl fantasies are we indulging here anyway? Not mine!
  • Also, this gem here:

«	Wooster: Do you get all your plans from bad Heterodyne farces, now? Agatha: Shut up. It’ll work. Wooster: But you could— Agatha: I’m trying to keep a low profile here. This is a «normal person» plan. Building a steam-powered grab-and-subdue clank out of the stove would be too showy. Margarella: Wait. You could do that? [beat] Agatha: Of course not! Margarella: Aaaah! You could do that!	»

• The «Two Good Omens Fan Art Pages» in the Short Story section.

«	completely unapproved by anyone!	»

• Symbol Swearing: (Символическая ругань) With translation, no less. See Tactful Translation below.
• Synchronization: Gil and Tarvek, thanks to the Si Vales Valeo procedure.

T

• Tactful Translation: (Тактичный перевод) Whatever Agatha was saying after a foot attack, it most certainly wasn’t what was in the footnote.

«	Ooh, what naughty little devices, to so turn upon your creator! Oh! Indeed, my foot is in quite excruciating pain! I shall construct a device that will give you such a whack, see if I don’t!	»

• Tactical Superweapon Unit: Invoked. Many «Sparks» certainly think their first invention is this, and try to solo the local warlord’s private army with their all-conquering-whateveritis. They are usually swiftly and violently disabused of these notions, either because they didn’t build something on par with a superweapon, or because they ticked off the fully-intelligent… thing… they just forced into tormented existence in a bout of reality-warping craziness. About one in a thousand or so (generally, the ones still lucid enough to realize that any one war machine able to fight a whole army is impractical at best and scare up an army of their own) actually succeed in their goal, and a good many more catch the attention of The Baron, who wants to see what fun little toys they can make for him under controlled conditions — at least, until they annoy him and get sent to work on one of his more dangerous projects or find themselves Strapped to an Operating Table.
• Take a Number: Part of the psychological torture room. «The torturer is now serving victim number 03.» In a subversion, the distributor is out of numbers… Othar doesn’t take it well.
• Take a Third Option: (Выбор третьего варианта) Try an incredibly risky procedure with only stuff made for killing someone or take him to another hospital, which may or may not have the requisite stuff anyway? Alternatively…
• Take Our Word for It: The titillating plot of The Socket Wench of Prague.
• Take Over the World: (Завоевание мира) Baron Wulfenbach has already taken over the world — or at least the bulk of Europe, where the story is set — by the time the story starts, and he never wanted to. There have been various competing and overlapping conspiracies trying to replace him ever since, one of the more prominent using Zola and evidently Tweedle as its intended figureheads; Tarvek was planning something as well, but the reader never gets to hear the specifics.
• Taking You with Me: (Взять в ад компанию) «… And even if it does, I won’t go alone!»
• Talking Is a Free Action: (Всегда есть время поболтать)
  • Gil takes a panel to rant about not being taken seriously — in the middle of his fight with Vole.
  • Subverted later on. It turns out Vole remembered and decided not to let talking be a free action this time.
  • Once again, we get a suspiciously large amount of dialogue in the middle of a fight scene here.
• Talk Like a Pirate: Bangladesh DuPree indulges in this vernacular once. Well, she is a pirate lass, after all.

«	DuPree: Ooooh, I’ve missed you, me proud beauty. Hee hee! YARRRR!	»

• Tall Tale: The Heterodyne Boys tales.
• Tap on the Head: (Сотряс — не простатит, за часок пролетит)
  • Lars, meet Jäger:

«	Agatha: Oh. Lars gets hysterical after a fight. It’s hard to calm him down. [BONK!] Oggie: No, it ain’t!	»

• Violetta administers one to Agatha to keep her from charging a juiced-up Zola.
• Agatha gives one to Martellus after he tells her that he performed an operation on them to make her physically addicted to him (to the point of death if she isn’t in contact) and that it can’t be solved by killing him and hacking off an arm. Of course you’d think that Agatha would remember that this isn’t a safe thing to do, but considering everything we’ve seen Martellus endure so far the danger probably isn’t that great.
• Martellus is later at the receiving end of another one from Violetta.. er.. some highly mysterious invisible hand!
• Agatha also lays out Captain Vole with a couple of blows from a large wrench, though again being a Jäger, he’s back on his feet in fairly short order.

• Tattooed Crook: DuPree’s second-in-command, and many other air pirates or privateers.
• Team Mom: (Командная мама) Agatha toward «her» three Jägers, and increasingly toward others in her command. A consequence of her sense of responsibility and her Least Insane Woman status.
• Team Power Walk: (Крутой проход) Jägermonsters pull one here. Subverted slightly since most of them are already inside the city and the walk is just to fool enemies.
• Tears of Remorse: Barry, in the flashback where he gave Agatha her locket.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: (Не команда/Временный союз) Lady Steelgarter hates rats. After linking up with Lucrezia and Madwa Korel, she’s forced to travel to the island laboratory of Dr. Monahan, who commands an army of giant ones. She’s not happy about it.
• Tempting Fate: Many instances here and there.
  • Da Boyz:

«	Oggie: Dose tings? Dey don’t look like much. Maxim: Oh, now hyu iz just asking for it.	»

• «It’s just one little clank.»
• «Somebody’s coming out! To surrender, I imagine.»
• «How much more trouble could it be?»
• «Whelp, the day can’t get any weirder!» For future reference, that is something you simply do not say in this story. Ever.
• Tarvek should really know not to say such things, but:

«	Tarvek: Ah! Violetta! My little cloud of doom! Even you cannot dampen my spirits right now.	»

• Clank-Anveka tempts fate rather horribly only two pages after the Author Avatar’s «Whelp, the day can’t get any weirder!» above. Next page starts with Tarvek handing the device in question to The Other.

«	Clank-Anveka: Well, then. A device he doesn’t know about — hidden where he will not find it — in a safe he cannot open? I have more pressing things to worry about. Besides, if it was in his hands, do you really think he’d just hand it to her?"	»

• Xerxsephnia makes a very foolish assumption that she has Agatha helplessly grounded, far away from her town or any potential allies. When her brother tries to persuade her that «the Heterodyne Girl» is a threat after all, she brushes his concerns off, asking «What can she do?» Cue Agatha flying past the tower’s window in a swan-shaped sleigh.
• In a conversation between two instances of the Other, one of them starts to say Barry Heterodyne wouldn’t be a threat to their plan before they both stop and look around in abject fear of this trope.
• When Klaus first discovers Agatha and Moloch at the end of the clank’s trail in Beetleburg and assumes the latter was his mystery Spark, he admits that he had hoped for something interesting. Then Agatha turns out to be a Heterodyne and Lucrezia’s daughter, and that’s just the start. Arguably also a case of Be Careful What You Wish For.
• Agatha is fighting a running battle in Paris while trying to find clothes that fit and are appropriate for an upcoming ball. They find a closed shop.

«	Dimo: No! Only looting from defeated enemies iz allowed! Agatha: It’s not like I’m going to battle a horde of socialites on the way! Horde of socialites: [rounding the corner] There she is! …And look how she’s dressed…. GET HER! Zeetha: Wow! You can find anything in Paris!	»

• That Came Out Wrong: (Плохо прозвучало) Gil has such a way with words. Of course, it would have helped if she’d let him finish his sentence.
• That Wasn’t a Request:

«	Wooster: The castle spoke to him. It demanded to be repaired. One of the team members spoke against the idea. And the castle made it clear that it wasn’t a request. It was then that they realized just how far it was to the door.	»

• Theatre Phantom: When Gil is listing the threats he had to rescue Deliberately Distressed Damsel Zola from, one of them is «some overly dramatic maniac who lived in the Paris Opera House», who is depicted as a theatre phantom playing a bass drum.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: (Сотвори себе злодея) Gil has an epic rant at Vole when Vole talks down to him about how no one takes him seriously when he tries the diplomatic approach, and how he has to act like a «cut-rate stage villain» to be taken seriously, and then decides to do just that to a frightening Nth degree… and then has a horrifying realization that this must be what his father feels all the time.
• They Called Me Mad!: Seems to be a Catchphrase for mad scientists.
  • Parodied in the Cinderella omake, in which Cinderella/Agatha becomes queen of the kingdom, «and, I might add, showed them, showed them all.»
  • Later, Agatha inspected herself in a small mirror which read on the back «You Will Show Them All.»
• They Look Like Us Now: The «stealth» revenants, only now being discovered.
• This Is Gonna Suck: (Осознание катастрофы)
  • Often — like this.
  • Clearly Higgs' attitude here.
• This Is Reality: Tempting Fate here.
• This Is Something He’s Got to Do Himself: Tervek asks if Gil thinks he needs to fight Vole alone in some show of machismo…but Gil says quite desperately that he’s only that stupid in front of Agatha.
• This Way to Certain Death: The vaults beneath Paris are littered with the corpses of adventures who ran afoul of the many death traps protecting the items interred there.
• Those Two Guys: (Те два парня)
  • Oggie, Maxim and Dimo play the role of Those Three Guys early on.
  • Gil and Tarvek, post-Time Skip, show shades of this.
  • The mini Castle and the Beast are shaping up to be this.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: (Не убий) The leader of the conspiracy in the science dome in England makes the mistaken assumption that as a hero Tarvek holding a gun to him and his compatriot is just for intimidation and he won’t actually kill them. Tarvek proves him wrong near instantaneously.

«	Tarvek: I’ve never really considered myself the «hero» type.	»

• Threesome Subtext
  • Agatha×Gil×Tarvek, ever so much, culminating in this exchange:

«	Tarvek: —loyal vassal?! Gil: …and we’re both «on Agatha’s string!» Tarvek: Well… that I can live with!	»

• «We could have kept him safe.»
• Gil goes to very far extremes to retrieve Tarvek after Tarvek gets kidnapped (twice) which is compared to rescuing a princess, and then when Gil starts talking to a Muse to get relationship advice the topic quickly shifts from Agatha to Tarvek.

• Through His Stomach: (Путь к сердцу лежит через желудок) Snaug, on Moloch.
• Throw a Barrel at It: Although it isn’t technically «thrown», the comic is proof that even a Barrel can be Ax-Crazy.
• The Time of Myths: Ancient records hint at a world of wonders and magic, and there are lingering relics that even modern Mad Science still cannot explain.
• Time Skip: One occurs In-Universe when Tweedle takes Agatha (and inadvertently Krosp and Violetta) through a transit portal. Though it should have been instantaneous, two and a half years passed before they emerged. A rare example in that not only does the audience need another Info Dump, so do the protagonists! It’s later revealed that Klaus caused this by activating some sort of time-stasis device in Mechanicsburg at the exact moment they entered the portal — making a transit that should have been instantaneous into a bus ride. In the interval, the Wulfenbach Empire fell, Mechanicsburg and its environs fell under Gil’s monomaniacal control and Tarvek’s family has abandoned their claim to the title of Storm King.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: An extradimensional being that the English conspirators summon has a very difficult time working out what verbs to use in its sentences. The fact that the summoning and the being’s own nature are altering the local flow of time doesn’t help either.
• Title Drop: (Цитирование названия)
  • In a roundabout way.

«	Bang: [tch] What, you’re surprised? She’s outsmarted us before. I mean, if they write this down, they ain’t gonna be calling it «Boy Genius».	»

• Played rather more straight when Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure presents a dramatic recreation of Agatha’s adventures for the English court, with Agatha herself now introduced as «Agatha Heterodyne—» «GIRL GENIUS!», much the same way that Othar Trygvassen is always referred to as «GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!»

• Toilet Humor: (Туалетный юмор)
  • Avoided for the most part, though Krosp does do a stint cleaning up after the Circus’s horses.
  • Krosp is the butt again in the Sturmhalten sewers:

«	Krosp: KILL ME!	»

• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: (Пацанка с замашками леди) Violetta is a kick-ass smoke knight; Agatha wins her loyalty with the promise of a party and a pretty dress
• Tongue on the Flagpole: (Примёрзнуть языком) Krosp (Emperor of All Cats) gets his tongue stuck to the milk of his bowl, suddenly frozen by the mere eldritch presence of the Polar Lords.
• Too Dumb to Live: (Несовместимая с жизнью тупость)
  • A certain little girl in Mechanicsburg: «Hello Herr Clank! Are you a flowerpot?»
  • X the destroyer decided a big X on the ground within range of enemy ordnance was a good place to set up his tent.

«	Duke Strinbeck: «You dare to strike my royal personage?! I’ll have every member of your crew flayed alive!» That’s a bad thing to say when the captain of the airship just ordered to toss overboard everything unnecessary to gain speed. In the third novel, the captain logged him in as «Lost Due to Own Stupidity», and no one of Streinbeck’s relatives thought to question it.	»

• Oublenmach, who decides to go marching into a bar, in Mechanisburg, with a gun. That’d be dumb enough, but the bar happened to be Mama Gkika’s.
• Upon discovering Agatha’s real identity, Dr. Merlot, panicked, burned down the building with the important papers inside, as well as all the cryptographers that cracked the code they were written in, and thought the Baron would not find out. Naturally, the Baron found out and sentenced Merlot to Castle Heterodyne. Later, Merlot runs into Agatha, attempts to kill the Heterodyne in her own castle, and is promptly crushed by the homicidal building.
• Snapper learns «Wilhelm» is actually Othar’s sister and he immediately tries to take her hostage. She then kills him with a single kick and even the other inmates state how stupid this was, earning him a place on this list.
• Insulting a Jäger? Dumb. Insulting a Jäger General? Very dumb. Insulting Mechanisburg right in front of said Jäger General? Fatally dumb.
• Sure, Mechanicsburg is a great place to grab a pair of innocent hostages. Whom the pair promenading while the invaders are still surrendering should be.
• Martellus von Blitzengaard, a.k.a. Tweedle, shows increasing signs of lethal stupidity. Mouthing off before a very unstable and obsessed Gil that he won’t ever reach Agatha proves a good way to get his hands mangled and/or chopped off, and then stabbed multiple times by Bang; even after that, he STILL has to be physically hauled away by his minions.
• The advisor sent by the council to advise Martellus. Tweedle is an unstable bastard at the best of times, but when said advisor, after ordering to fire on the Corbettites as a show of power (which results in the loss of several airships), explains with lots of condescension to Martellus that he’s still young and need to be shown how it is done, you know he doesn’t have long to live. Tweedle throws him out of the airship before he can even finish his spiel.
• Friendly advice to would-be minions: if the hero has a gun trained on you, and helpfully points this out to you, do not (once more, do not, no matter what your boss says) loudly assume that Thou Shalt Not Kill, reiterate your intention to kill them, and charge at them with a knife. Best case scenario, he gets you in a choke hold, and it’s embarrassing for all. Worst case scenario…

«	Death Ray: FOOOM Tarvek: I’ve never really considered myself the «hero» type.	»

• Even the saner Sparks are fiercely territorial, even when it comes to other sparks they are friendly with. When Agatha wants to enter a Wulfenbach facility set in Heterodyne territory, one Wulfenbach minion attempts to handle the matter tactfully, and fails when a less tactful Wulfenbach minion bluntly tells Agatha that she needs Wulfenbach permission to enter. The response of Agatha and her retinue is murderous rage. If Agatha hadn’t taken action herself, he probably would have wound up dead at the hands of one of her Psycho Supporters.

• Took a Level in Badass: (Поднял уровень крутизны)

• Gil got lessons from Dr. Sun, Agatha from Zeetha, and Ardsley Wooster apparently had a few well-hidden under his belt.
• Boris Dolokhov goes from being the Baron’s amanuensis and being insulted by Jägermonsters to beating a Jägermonster until it was willing to give up classified information. The novelization says that he already was a skilled fencer before his previous employer gave him extra arms.
• And Agatha has been steadily grinding her way up to a 20th level badass too.
• Even Mauve Shirt Moloch has been doing well in Agatha’s presences. Even his seduction skills are improved.

• Too Kinky to Torture: (Такой психованный, что пытать бессмысленно)

• Considering Von Pinn’s suitors treat her beating the hell out of them as a come-on…
• The one exception thus far may be Dolokhov’s beating a Jäger until he talked.

• Too Much Information:

• Tea cozy… only one spoon…
• «He had to leave… rather qvickly vun-» «I did not ask!»

• Torture First, Ask Questions Later: Oh, Bang.

«	DuPree: [zaps Abner] Now, are you going to cooperate, or… Payne: What do you want?! DuPree: Oh, right.	»

• Training from Hell: (Бесчеловечные тренировки)
  • The Skifander warrior training Zeetha gave to Agatha.

«	Agatha: Thank you, Zeetha!	»

• Dr. Sun suggesting Gil needed a thrashing visibly scared him. (This later comes back as a Brick Joke when Dr. Sun destroys a 25' Humongous Mecha with nothing but his fists… offscreen.)

• Training the Gift of Magic: (Магия — врождённый дар?) The Spark is a rare, largely hereditary personal attribute that grants access to mad science that frequently verges on the magical — but a good technical education definitely helps. Sparks also need to learn to channel their own abilities relatively safely, and indeed some are lynched by the general populace if and when their abilities manifest uncontrollably for the first time.
• Traitor Shot: Tiktoffen is playing all sides while really being on his own and intending to betray everyone. This shot of him in the shadows with skulls behind him rather foreshadows his betrayal of Gil.
• Tranquil Fury: (Холодная ярость) Airman Higgs.
• Translation Convention: This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God and incidental writing in the background says that everything is actually in German and Romanian, translated for the benefit of the audience. At least some of the dialogue in the arcs set in Britain is presumably in English.
• Tranquilized Mid-Sentence: In one strip, Violetta tranqs a cop getting ready to search her vehicle.
• Trapped in Villainy: Tarvek’s cousin, Tweedle, tries this on Agatha. Immediately subverted in that she knocks him unconscious, locks him in her chains, and sets about taking off the leash.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: (Активация через страдание) Sparks during the «breakthrough» usually go crazy in a destructive way. Due to her uncle’s tampering, in Agatha’s case the «awakening» part happened when she was technically asleep. It’s explained also that this trope is how a lot of Sparks get killed early on: either their creation turns on them, or else they create an incredibly powerful weapon and yet are also still crazy/inexperienced enough to turn it on an army.
• Trope Overdosed: (Троп на тропе)
  • Just look at the length of these pages. And it’s still growing.
  • On a micro scale, this page of the comic is linked to about 7,000 times from TV Tropes. Not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s a great page that nicely encapsulates the appeal of the comic as a whole.
• Troubled, but Cute: Lampshaded at the start of the Cinderella filler, when Gil and Tarvek argue over who’s playing the story’s prince:

«	Gil: I’m the prince! I’m all tortured and driven by love! Tarvek: Feh. I’m the misunderstood one with the mysterious agenda. Muy sexy.	»

• Truth in Television: (Художественная правда) Moxana is based upon the Mechanical Turk, an eighteen-century chess-playing automaton. The Turk was a hoax, operated by someone inside it, but Moxana is a real version.
• Truth Serum: (Сыворотка правды) The old Prince Sturmvoraus may have given Agatha a bit too much.

«	Agatha: Oh, and I saw the Baron a bit when I was on Castle Wulfenbach. But I had to run away when everyone found out I was the Heterodyne. Tarvek: PFBT!	»

• Try and Follow:
  • Tarvek, has a bright idea to run into the Castle Heterodyne. At the time, it’s one big insane deathtrap used as a prison not seriously guarded once against escape — usually the equivalent of a death sentence. Yes, the guards didn’t follow him inside…

«	Violetta: Now do you understand what I have to work with?!	»

• In fairness, Tarvek was heading into the Castle anyway. Agatha uses the same tactic earlier by fleeing into an uncharted Castle corridor that hadn’t been mapped for deathtraps. However the mooks end up following her anyway, when their Bad Boss shoots one to encourage the others.

• Turned Against Their Masters: (Восстание рабов/Восстание машин?)
  • This happens every once in a while with Sparks' creations. The Sparks then inevitably order them to stand down, which ends as expected.

«	Moloch: Uh… that never works, you know…	»

• In a bout of Genre Savvy, Agatha deals with one monster by saying she isn’t its creator and has no intention of ordering it around. The perplexed monster immediately loses interest in her and leaves. Its actual master turns up later, and attempts to assert his authority in the usual way. As usual, it doesn’t work.
• The Heterodynes are apparently the only ones that only very rarely have this happen to them. Agatha’s behaviour above as well as some things the Jägers say hint that the reason why the Heterodynes usually have obedient followers — created by them or not — is that they order them around, but never with declaring themselves their master, instead allowing the ordered subject to choose to obey.

• Twisted Echo Cut: If the Mistress were here, she’d say…" — «Kneel, you miserable minion!»

U

Ссылка: [5]

• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Happen to many named characters, because Obfuscating Stupidity is best form to not sticking out and make you obvious target or just because their chance is still not coming yet.
  • Being a Spark seems to include some megalomania as part of the package, especially when in The Madness Place, and since most important people are Sparks, they are very prone to doing this frequently.
  • Just because a woman is crying doesn’t mean she can’t do her job. Then just a few pages later, same woman, same mistake.
• Understatement: Vanamonde pulls out a great one:

«	Vanamonde: Um — I wonder if growing up here might make us a little… weird…	»

• Underwater City: (Подводный город) The city of Londinium is set in a massive series of undersea glass domes, due to a cabal of rebellious Sparks causing the whole of Britain to slowly sink into the ocean.
• Underground City: (Подземная цивилизация) Skifander is eventually confirmed to be one, explaining why it’s been isolated for so long.
• Underwater Ruins: A large globe in the background of one panel shows a world with a radically different coastline, with large swaths of Africa, Siberia, and the entirety of the Himalayas being underwater. (Though we’ve also seen other globes with more familiar continents; it’s not yet clear if this is plot-significant or just a case of artistic sloppiness on Phil’s part.)
• Undressing the Unconscious:
  • After stopping war clanks alone, Gil collapses and later wakes up naked in Mamma Gkika' bar after being treated. Not realizing it, he gets out of bed in front of Zeetha and walks around nude for a while, until she points how his state of undress and he has a Naked Freak-Out, using the bedsheets to cover his front from her… not noticing The Jägergirls are behind him Eating the Eye Candy.
  • In this page, Agatha awakens to find she’s been Strapped to an Operating Table and stripped down to her corset by Anevka, who’s deliberately trying to provoke Agatha, using her verbal outbursts and angry demands for her clothes back to copy her voiceprint into her system.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца)
  • All Jägers seem to have it for the Heterodynes. The Jägergenerals explain this loyalty best. Vole is the exception, having stopped considering himself a Jäger.
  • Castle Heterodyne is exactly what you’d expect when a series of mad scientists who live For the Evulz design an artificial sentience — it is a self-aware house of horrors on a staggering scale. But it works exactly the way it was designed to, and that means undying loyalty to the Heterodyne.
  • Mechanicsburg is full of descendants of the horde of brigands and cutthroats who were loyal to the ancient Heterodynes. It’s In the Blood. This could probably be attributed as the power base of the Heterodyne family: while other sparks usually have their creations turn on them or require some manner of free will-stripping mind control, Heterodynes earn their minions' and creations' loyalty. That, and the aforementioned natural propensity to minionism.
  • This exhibition of undying loyalty extends to every sentient clank and construct seen so far that’s been made by someone of the Heterodyne lineage, not just the Jägermonster horde and the citizens of Mechanicsburg.
  • In the novelization, it’s revealed that Dr. Vapnoople’s creations, except for Krosp, were destroyed because their loyalty couldn’t be shifted to the Baron. Krosp didn’t only because he was able to escape.
• Unfazed Everyman: Von Zinzer. Also the Only Sane Man.
• Unit Confusion: Brother Matthias channels Han Solo.

«	Agatha: Surely it’s not so bad if we’re a little late… Brother Matthias: Yes it is! My train? Late?! This is the Wyrm of Limerick! The engine that made the Königsburg run in less than twelve kilometers!	»

• Unlimited Wardrobe: (Бездонный гардероб) Played with. At the end of the Paris arc, as Agatha is preparing to leave, every high-end tailor and dressmaker in the city gives her a free outfit so that they can claim that they dressed the Lady Heterodyne for advertising purposes. Her wardrobe now comes in over a dozen trunks. But despite all that, Agatha normally sticks to a small number of outfits that are practical for working in, and she hasn’t even opened most of those trunks, much less tried on their contents.
• Un-Paused:
  • When Andronicus Valois, the first Storm King is freed from the Time Stands Still effect of Prende’s Chronometric Lantern, he doesn’t realize that two hundred years have gone by. For him, it was mere seconds ago that Van Rijn betrayed him.
  • When Mechanicsburg is finally freed of the time-stop effect that has encased it for nearly three years, the inhabitants only experiment a short moment of confusion before restarting what they were doing, like the rat chestnut seller who immediately resumes touting his wares. However, this only lasts as long as it takes them to look up and notice the huge outer-dimensional monster looming over the city.
• Unreliable Expositor:
  • Klaus encoded a message to his son in a story he tricked Phil into delivering. Although we only see the tail end of Phil’s version, it’s clearly different, and judging by Gil’s reaction he screwed up most of the symbolism (that is, the entirety of the message) too. Luckily, Tarvek notices something is up.
  • Very nearly every story anyone tells about the Heterodynes. On purpose by someone, since they’re all published and almost everyone who has books seems to have at least some of them.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: (Что ж ныне меня преследуете вы?) Initially Moloch has a crush on Sanaa but she seems to think he’s rather useless. However after he Takes a Level in Badass and becomes Agatha’s chief minion Sanaa seems to be attracted to him and he seems to be over his crush. And unfortunately for her there could end up being some competition.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: (Застенчивая парочка) Jeez, Agatha, just make out with Gil already…
• Unsound Effect:
  • Spork! Spork! Spork!
  • SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK
  • Mite! Mite! Mite!
  • Tome! (Notice also the title of the book…)
  • Shove!
  • DOOOM
  • Subtle, but when the Jägers are clapping, the sound effect is in the Jägers' accent. This one comes up a handful of times throughout the series. Just about every time a sound effect shows up for one of the Jägers it’s in their accent.
  • Master Voltaire indulges his artistic side with some combat cubism.
  • Several of the myriad ways that the Beausoleil copies die involve this (including another Cubing), others are more proper onomatopoeic sounds.
• Unstoppable Rage: (Бешеный гнев) The Unstoppable Higgs, of course.
• Unusual Euphemism: (Японский городовой)
  • «Useless Inferior Coprolitic Components!» — Professor Mezzasalma (Coprolitic, literally meaning fossilized dung, therefore an ancient piece of shit.)
  • «I am sure he intends to wed her most vigorously!»
  • Alternatively spelled either «Gott’s little feesh in trousers!» or «Gott’s leedle feesh in trousers!»
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: «Why do I even have one of those?» «I wondered where that went on Tuesdays.»
• Unwanted Assistance:
  • Gil as his friends «creatively» explain his plans and motivations to the people of Mechanicsburg, as seen in the fourth panel here, almost word-for-word.
  • And Agatha to Moloch, as seen in the last panel here.

«	Agatha: THANK YOU. For your HELP. Moloch: I—I’ll just… Agatha: Shut up…? Moloch: Yes…	»

• This happens a lot, especially when Sparks are involved. At one point when Gil unleashes a mechanical cage in an effort to attract a crowd, Theo and Sleipnir try to keep the crowd safe, while only making things worse.

«	Zeetha: They are trying to help, right? Gil: It’s my fault, really. I make it look easy.	»

• Gil has this reaction a few times towards folks — most notably here, where he’s trying to stop folks from describing his romantic reasons for trying to help Agatha. Unfortunately for him, he’s being shouted down by an enthusiastic crowd, two trained circus performers who are trying to rile up said crowd, and two friends who like to see him squirm.

• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Agatha, before knowing her true heritage or even that she was a Spark, inadvertently used the Command Voice on a sleeper revenant, who then carried out what he thought was her orders: activate the confiscated Hive Engine that the Baron Wulfenbach ordered examined.
• Uplifted Animal: (Возвышение) Several examples, the most prominent being Krosp the super-genius cat.
• Use Your Head: (Удар головой/Используй голову)
  • Dimo, upon being asked to hammer in something for Agatha.

«	Agatha: I thought you’d use your metal hand! Dimo: …oh. Jenka: Dunno. Hiz head is probably harder.	»

• During a sparring match between Zeetha and Bangladesh DuPree mixed with plenty battle banter:

«	Zeetha: Oh sure, pirates have this whole image thing. People fighting them get nervous! They have these expectations! It lets you use that, you know, that thing— where you mess with people’s heads? Bang: What— Psychology? [Zeetha headbutts Bang by surprise] Zeetha: Yeah! Psychology!	»

V

• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: (Основано на реальных событиях) The in-universe Heterodyne Stories and Heterodyne Shows are highly fictionalized and dramatized compared to the real adventures of the Heterodyne Boys. Even Agatha herself never connected her substitute parents Adam and Lilith Clay to Punch and Judy from the stories.
• Vetinari Job Security: Hilariously deconstructed with Baron Wulfenbach. He completely fits the description in that he is so important and necessary for the continued functioning of Europa that only a madman would think about overthrowing him. Unfortunately, this being Girl Genius, there are powerful madmen (a.k.a. Sparks) everywhere, which is why there is nearly always a rebellion somewhere. Further illustrated in that, as soon as he is hospitalized (and possibly killed), the whole continent immediately erupts in chaos. And then he time-freezes himself inside Mechanicsburg, and everything goes even further to hell.
• Vestigial Empire: (Умирающая империя) After in-universe two year Time Skip Wufenbach Empire, or Pax Transylvania if you prefer, itself. After, losing a chunk of their forces at Mechanicsburg, many regions revolted and seceded, and Storm King faction(s)/loyalists are openly challenging their rule. Worse, The Other’s forces are active again. (Although it’s never been made entirely clear how much of the empire has been lost.)
• Victoria’s Secret Compartment: (Тайничок в декольте) The Other hides a miniature hive engine in her bosom, as it fits her personality — but not Agatha’s, providing a minor bit of hilarity.
• Villain Episode: (Эпизод-фокус) Volume VI is more or less the villain episode of the comic. Near the end of the previous volume, Agatha was hooked up to a machine and possessed by The Other a.k.a. Lucrezia Mongfish, so the following volume naturally focuses on The Other instead of her. Agatha is able to come back at some points, but it’s only around the end of the volume that Agatha regains control of her body.
• Villain Has a Point: (Никто не верит злодею)
  • Othar is unquestionably one of the villains of the story, but he really isn’t wrong when he claims everything bad about the world can be blamed on the Sparks. Just about every other Spark we’ve seen has been a homicidal lunatic, and it’s open fact that all of the monsters and chaos in the setting are Spark experiments that have either Gone Horribly Wrong or Gone Horribly Right. Treating humans as experiment components (or targets) is as natural to a Spark as breathing. Even our heroes have been shown having Skewed Priorities at best.
  • After the time skip, the conspiracy to re-institute the throne of the Storm King are entirely correct that the continent needs a single strong leader to keep the sparks under control, and that their group is by far the closest to having one in place. Their plan of using a political marriage to bring the new heterodyne under control also legitimately gives Agatha what she wants (the ability to protect those under her promised protection and the autonomy to largely do her own thing). How reasonable the compromise is has reached the point where Agatha’s only real objection is to the specific candidate being put forward as the new King (she’d prefer it to be the member of the family that she already likes), and the coordinators of the conspiracy actually seem inclined to bend to that request as well in the interest of stability. If they weren’t also willing to compromise with the Other for similar reasons, they would verge on being an unambiguously 'good' faction.
• Villainous Breakdown: (Злодейская истерика) Dr. Merlot wasn’t exactly the most sane individual in Volume 1. His little story in Volume 9 seems to indicate that he might be having some difficulties.
• Villainous Valor: Whatever Tweedle’s other faults, he’s no coward. Ditto Zola.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: (Боевая подружка)
  • While Agatha’s men can usually take care of themselves, if things get to be too much for them, Agatha. Will. Take. Steps. Usually involving large clanks, or Disproportionate Retribution.
  • And Bang flips out when Gil seems to have harmed a guy she likes — enough to attack Gil, even though they’re normally reasonably friendly.
• Visible Silence: Appears often, but then four times in a row.
• Visual Pun: (Реализованная метафора)
  • Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you… Santa Klaus. Doubles as Badass Santa also!
  • In «More of That Kissing Stuff», Agatha and Tarvek are… making Sparks!
  • Mechanicsburg’s gate is under attack by a battering ram.
  • You really should try to look a gift horse in the mouth if it specifically won’t let you look. Especially when it’s not a horse.
  • What does Agatha do when there is an enemy to fight and the only stuff available are rail tracks? She invents a rail-gun!
• Vitriolic Best Buds: (Заклятые друзья) Gil and Tarvek. At each other’s throats one minute, talking shop on espionage the next.
• Volleying Insults: Gil and Tarvek, during their brawls and in the Cinderella story.

W

• The Walls Are Closing In: (Осторожно, двери закрываются) Had to happen eventually.
• Warrior Princess: Not only is Zeetha a warrior princess, she doesn’t seem to be aware there’s any other kinds of princess.
• Was Just Leaving: Invoked by Krosp I, Emperor of all Cats, when he tries to direct Wolkerstorfer’s mid-evil monologue Derailed Train of Thought by suggesting that he was just leaving. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.

«	Wolkerstorfer: […] Say, don’t you hate it when you’re in the middle of something, and then you completely forget what you’re doing? Krosp: Um… You were just leaving?	»

• Wasn’t That Fun?: Occurs after Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek try revivification.
• Wave-Motion Gun: (Чудо-лучи)
  • Agatha’s little corkscrew death ray pretty much annihilates whatever it’s shot at. The Castle really doesn’t like it for obvious reasons. It could also qualify as a Wave-Motion Tuning Fork if not for the corkscrew between the two prongs.
  • Wave Motion Swan. A noblewoman’s swan-shaped party sleigh packing a Wave Motion gun. Only in Girl Genius…

«	Ishtvan: Is… is that… Tweedle: [face in his hands] Grandmother’s old party sleigh. Yes. Ishtvan: Could it always do that? Tweedle: How should I know? Knowing my grandmother’s parties, probably.	»

• Way Past the Expiration Date: Gil tries to mix up a cure for Tarvek in Castle Heterodyne, but quickly realizes that everything stored there is nearly twenty years old, thus expired, requiring a more drastic action to save him.
• Weapon Tombstone: Agatha Clay’s grave has the remnants of a warbot, a tree, and a pile of rocks with a death ray stuck in it.
• Weasel Mascot: (Хитрый хорёк) The Wulfenbach Bug Squad (a.k.a. the Vespiary Squad) of course! Apart from their uniform’s slaver-wasp skull, this is their main hat. Their charges are all modified weasels, without which the Squad could not do their job as wasp detectors and exterminators. Although they have eight legs, they are still, very much, weasels of some description (however big they get). And, they are sooo cute (for a given definition of cute).
• Webcomic Time:
  • Tarvek was critically ill and about to die for just short of 15 months. The general concept is lampshaded once. And again: «It only seem like deyz been in de kestle a long time!»
  • Agatha first went into the Castle on Dec 26, 2007. She left the Castle on Nov 02, 2011. Three years, ten months, eight days, and approximately 602 comics. Maybe one day, in universe. The ringing of the Doom Bell, which starts immediately after Agatha leaves, takes about three weeks.
  • This leads to interesting situations such as Higgs and Zeetha falling in love over what should be a single day.
  • After reaching Paris, Zeetha notes that she’s «only» been training Agatha for six months (as an excuse for why the people Agatha hits can get back up). Real-world time the training started ten years before that scene.
  • Also riffed on after Krosp returns to the story after a three-year hiatus. He says «It’s been what, three years?» and Agatha says it’s been «less than three weeks» since they last saw each other.
  • When watching a Heterodyne play in London, Agatha gets teary about the death of Lars, which happened nearly fourteen years before in real time — but as she points out, while it’s been years for some of the other characters, for her it literally was last month.
• Weird Science: Rules the Earth. Badly.
• We Can Rule Together: (Вместе мы сможем править Галактикой) In an unusual twist on this trope Lucrezia offers to join Klaus rather than asking him to join her, however since they are both possessing their children at the time, this only ends up hitting his Berserk Button.
• We Have Ways of Making You Talk: Defied by Othar, and immediately subverted by Klaus (who wishes he could invert it).
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: (Благонамеренный экстремист) The story is full of them, and a running theme is that they may not be quite as unreasonable as they appear. The spark applies to the social sciences, too, so extreme solutions may not be as impossible to pull of as they would be in a saner world.
  • Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, as exposed with his backstory.
  • The reason why Othar Tryggvassen wants to kill all Sparks.
• We Meet Again:
  • It shouldn’t come too much as a surprise that Othar would say it (twice); he’s only nominally a hero anyway.

«	Othar: So, tyrant! We meet again! But knows that — Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer) remains unbowed! Othar: Wulfenbach! We meet again!	»

• Tarvek tries, too, with Krosp, but not very convincingly.

• We Need a Distraction: Gil and Tarvek help, in a fight scene incorporating many battle tropes.
• Wham Episode: (Арка, изменившая многое)
  • Zeetha being stabbed fatally by Zola in Castle Heterodyne
  • Klaus claims that Gil has been infected with a slaver wasp since his time in Paris in youth. note
  • The revelation of what happened to Mechanicsburg after Klaus activated his bomb. In a nutshell, within the bomb’s range‚ time has stopped, meaning that while it’s still the same day for Klaus, the Jaeger Generals, and everyone else still trapped in Mechanicsburg, two years have passed outside. With Klaus stuck in Mechanicsburg, the Empire has collapsed, and what little is left of their authority is in Gil’s control.
  • Post-time skip: Klaus has imposed an overlay of himself on Gil.
  • The Eldritch Abominations who previously appeared in Mechanicsburg when Robar Heterodyne conducted his time experiments were the Dreen; it remains to be seen if the (much bigger) one currently attracted by Klaus' Time Crash of the same city is some form of Dreen as well.
  • Revelation that the Enigma, one that appears at the very beginning of the comic and sets everything in motion, is Van Rijn’s Muse of Time… But also that it predates Van Rijn instead of being created by them.
  • A great deal of the plot regarding the time after the Time Skip is about who can claim the title of Storm King, especially with Tarvek frozen in Mechanicsburg. Prende, one of the muses, finally reveals who the true Storm King is: it is still Andronicus Valois, who was mured in the Corbettite crypts, and has been undead for the last 200 years, guarded by Prende and her Lantern.
  • Revelation that it was Lucrezia who attacked and killed most of the ancient God-Queens. Thousands of years before she was even born.
• Wham Line: (Поворотная фраза)
  • An early one in the series.

«	Gil: I think he [Dr. Beetle] threw a bomb at you.	»

• Klaus is a fountain of these.

«	Klaus: Is she Lucrezia and Bill’s? Or a surprise on Barry’s part?	»

• Klaus delivers one In-Universe when he casually reveals that he’s married. Othar is (for once) completely flabbergasted, as apparently no-one has even heard of this.
• «I believe the ignorant refer to them as slaver wasps.»
• «Yes… but I vas starting to like her.» Also pulling double duty as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner.
• Violetta, in the last panel. The whole last row, really. We knew it all along, but the lady in the chair didn’t.
• «Just go to sleep.»
• «WRONG!»
• «You were infected before you even met her.» Although later events show this was almost certainly a Blatant Lie.
• «I AM the Storm King.»
• «We thought you were lost! Like everyone in Mechanicsburg!»
• «All right, out with it. We’ve lost what, six months?» «Two and a half years.»
• «Martellus, there is no empire.»
• The comic even manages to include a Wham Line that we can’t read.
• «The girl is still dangerous, and my son is still too much of a fool to see it.» From the mouth of Gilgamesh Wulfenbach.
• «And they used to be men. Sometimes even they forget that.» This is Higgs' response to Gil when asked what he knows about the Jägers. We technically did know this as the Castle explained the Jaegerdaught to Moloch, but it is further proof that Higgs is a Jaeger general as he wasn’t there for that explanation.
• «They’re not omniscient. My father says they’re simply tangential to time as we know it, and… „And… they had hats…“» Gil realizes what the Dreen are.
• «No. Your „Storm King“, or whatever his imagined claim, is not the true Storm King. The Lantern must not be moved.» According to the Muse Prende, in the catacombs below Paris. In the end, The Lantern is moved and the original :* Storm King, Andronicus Valois, appears as the undead interred in Prende’s chamber.
• Vole isn’t sure he feels like fighting any more.
• Geisterdame: Skifander
• Jenka to Andronicus Valois: «Vell, dis leedle doggie vants to know vot hyu did vit her luffly fangs vunce hyu pulled dem!»
• Tarvek: «Oh are you going to threaten me? Then here, do it right. Because if you don’t believe by now that I will do anything for Agatha then it all ends here anyway. Doesn’t it, General?» (Note, this is addressed to Airman Higgs.)
• Trelawney Thorpe: «So long ago that nobody but she remembers, Albia was like you or me. A regular Spark. A strong one, but still a Spark. The kind we know today. This, the Queen’s Henge, this is what she created after she broke through again.»
• Queen Albia, from her Well of Memories: «Oh. OH. How…how could we have… We have not examined this memory in centuries! We did not know! We did not remember! But… it was she! It was Lucrezia! Lucrezia Mongfish!» — who killed the ancient queens and sabotaged their mirrors.
• «Within fifty cycles of your star — everyone on this world. Dead.» We know from Othar’s Twitter that the world went to hell after he retired with his Geister wife and that he was sent back to time by an aged Tarvek to help stop the :* Bad Future. We also know Agatha will win due to the epilogue stories, so it’s clear Othar’s presence will or has in someway saved the future. However, this line is an indication that we are finally nearing the true turning point which will determine how and why the heroes will beat the Other.
• «If it was very bad… Heh… Why, then you would have Dreen.»
• «So for now, they chose to focus their loyalty on the lady Hererodyne: their Holy Child. A loophole in their geas, if you like.»

• What Are You in For?:
  • When our heroes come across Mr. Foglio in the dungeons of Prince Aaronev:

«	Maxim: Vot hyu in for? Foglio: Bad storytelling. Maxim: Ho! How hyu do dot? Foglio: You put the Prince in the story.	»

• Sanaa asks Agatha this when she first enters the castle.

• What Does She See in Him?: (И что она в нём нашла?) Gilgamesh and Tarvek, towards Agatha regarding each other.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж)
  • Princess Zulenna of Hoflung-Borzoi: after she gives her life to save Agatha and the other students, Klaus orders her reanimated, and she never appears again. Tarvek later mentions her death, but nothing about her revival — although it’s possible she has turned up again …
  • The Baron cloned Olga, assuming her body was Agatha’s. Nothing on what happened to the new body.
• What the Hell, Hero?: (Что за фигня, герой?) «TRULY YOU ARE YOUR MOTHER’S CHILD!» More understandable than some, since the one calling out Agatha murdered her adoptive parents in cold blood, but everyone who knew Von Pinn personally considers her tough but fair, and likes her. And she is the closest thing Gil had to a mother. Agatha’s response is a heck of a lot of guilt.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Gil plays it to the hilt when somebody mistakes him for Trelawney’s new sidekick.

«	Trelawney Thorpe: [facepalming] Never, ever talk like that again.	»

• What Would X Do?: Agatha improvises a speech to the Jägers by simply asking herself what Zeetha would like.
• When I Was Your Age…: Zeetha says this after a day of rough training for Agatha.
• Who Dares?:
  • Bang encounters Tarvek and is overjoyed to see Prince «How Dare You!» again, having apparently been on the receiving end of this trope in Paris. What Tarvek was receiving to make him deliver the line we can only guess.
  • The Dragon of Mars delivers the trope straight.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: In this strip Dupree lampshades that, if someone writes their story down, they will not name it after Gil.

«	Dupree: You’re surprised? She’s outsmarted us before, right? I mean, if they write this down, they ain’t gonna be calling it «Boy Genius.»	»

• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: (Фобии)
  • Gil and Agatha take turns saving Zola from dozens of incredibly deadly traps that she keeps falling into in Castle Heterodyne. That is, until they encounter a slightly-larger-than-average spider.
  • Tarvek has another common phobia.

«	Tarvek: I hate hate hate hate hate hate flying.	»

• Why Won’t You Die?: (Когда же ты сдохнешь)
  • Zola quickly learns that Higgs is very hard to kill.
  • Martellus as the same reaction to DuPree.

«	Tweedle: Die already! Bang: No!	»

• Willing Channeler:
  • Though the level of willingness is debateable, a Seneschal of Mechanicsburg still has to willfully sit in the Throne of Faustus Heterodyne to interface with the Castle Heterodyne so the Genius Loci can speak through them. It is not a pleasant experience, since it requires pre-drilled holes in their skull and a rather gruesome cranial impalement of electrodes. But, when there’s no other option to interface, the Throne of Faustus it is.
  • His Serenity, a haughty deepdweller high priest, acts as the Deepspeaker for the Great Cetacean Ahnkokanth to any who are not Deepdwellers.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: (Могущество сводит с ума)
  • The Sparks, by definition; Baron Wulfenbach fights this off by pure force of will… usually. Every successful Spark has at least one very level-headed keeper.
  • The Heterodyne family in particular. Apparently their unearthly strength and stamina comes from drinking from a spring famed for causing insanity and death in people who just bathed in it.
  • It’s implied that the reason the Storm King was regarded as the greatest king of all time is because he was able to keep enough self-control to rule effectively. This may have been at least partially due to the influence of the Muses.
• With This Herring: (Агент на самообеспечении) How the castle wants Agatha to fix it, at least initially.
• The Worf Effect: (Силач на расправу)
  • In addition to character-specific instances, there are Martellus’s sparkhounds. They’re played up for how scary they are, but so far we’ve seen them being slaughtered en masse by Gil and his entourage (which, mind you, does include a Great Sky Wyrm), and later a lone jägermonster kills six of them before going down. However, given how incredibly strong and tough the Jaegers are, the fact that he was «only» able to kill six before they defeated him actually does suggest that the sparkhounds are fairly dangerous themselves.
  • Also, Wulfenbach Troops. They are the ones that conquered Europa, battling the Other’s forces, and keeping peace (that includes many MadScientists and powerful nobles). But, unfortunately when facing Agatha Heterodyne and fully repaired and recharged Castle Heterodyne, their luck is not that good. Or, whenever they deal with important characters or in main story, really.
• World of Badass: Show us a character who’s not badass, and within a couple of strips they’ll either turn out to be badass or they’ll be dead. In a world ruled by mad scientists, even the minions and staff have to be pretty tough to avoid getting killed.
• World of Buxom: Just about every post-puberty female character, notably Agatha, Zeetha, the Geisterdamen and Mama Gkika. The Muses and Clank Anevka have pretty darned voluptuous figures, too. The few exceptions are Rivet, WrenchWench for Master Payne’s Circus; Daiyu, doctor Sun’s daughter (who would be decent-sized in any other work); Grantz, the immensely strong monster hunter (who falls firmly into the Bifauxnen slot); and Miss Baumhund, the lanky grad student (who has only appeared in that one strip — so far), who seems a bit out of place when compared to other female characters. Lieutenant Krishnamurti and Xersephnia, Martellus' sister, are somewhat below average too.
• World of Ham: Naturally. The Spark package comes with a side order of ham.
• Worrying for the Wrong Reason: The scary part about being trapped in a room full of broken machinery within an insane castle is not that the castle will kill you if you’re unable to fix it, but that Gil’s interest has been piqued.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Gil, after falling victim to the Exploding Closet.

«	Gil: That’s the worst filing system I’ve ever seen.	»

• Worth It:
  • This is Agatha’s attitude in the Cinderella play to being grounded. Of course, she was grounded after tricking Mamma Gkika’s «Wicked Stepmother» into putting her fist through a hive of specially-bred quilting bees.
  • And in a more serious tone, Klaus’s attitude to the pain he suffered getting to the window and back. Not only that, Klaus actually said that if the experience paralyzed him for the rest of his life, it would still be worth it after seeing his son pull off that moment of awesome.
  • Upon Gil meeting one of his personal heroes, Trewlaney Thorpe:

«	Gil: [whispering, irritated] Why am I naked in front of one of my heroes? Tarvek: It was DuPree’s idea. Gil: I will give you to her. Tarvek: Worth it!	»

• Would Hit a Girl: (Боевой феминист) Pretty much everyone, since there are more than enough dangerous females to dispatch anyone reluctant to fight back. Some notable examples:
  • Ardsley Wooster punching Bangladesh DuPree in the face.
  • Airman Higgs beating the crap out of Zola.
  • Tarvek absolutely losing it when Zola tries to kill Agatha again and brutally beating her — and then trying to strangle her to death.
  • Gil judo-throwing Bang when she tries to take him into custody.
  • However, it’s still recommended that this trope not be followed if it isn’t necessary. Some may take issue with it being applied without restriction.
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Sergeant Nak’s advice:

«	Nak: Do not hit the crowd, or I’ll eat your ears!	»

• Wound Licking: Maxim licks his hand after it gets impaled by Old Man Death.
• Wrench Wench: (Гаечка) Agatha just loves wrenches…
• Wrench Whack: And, naturally, they’re used as melee weapons quite often.
  • Agatha, against Moloch, Vole, and Prof. Tiktoffen.
  • Gil, against Othar.
  • In the flashback, Airman Higgs is shown Dual Wielding two wrenches.
• Wrestler in All of Us: (Рестлинг) When Othar is being typically obstinate after being extracted from Time-frozen Mechanicsburg, Gil sits on him and gets a leg hold on him.
• Written Sound Effect: Frequently, and often quite creative.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: (Жанровая ошибка)
  • Othar Tryggvassen, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER, shows this a lot.
  • Krosp too, sometimes. Silly kitty, thinking you’re in real life or something. Too practical for his own good, he doesn’t quite realize his life is a Heterodyne story now.

X

• Xanatos Speed Chess: (Мастер импровизаций)
  • Tarvek gives Anevka a beautiful demonstration.

«	Tarvek: I can't say any of this mess was part of my original plan, but it's all working out so beautifully, I can't complain.	»

• It seems like just about every Spark is playing this whenever they’re in the comic, quickly leading to Gambit Pileup.

• X Days Since:
  • There’s a sign counting the days without a major explosion on Castle Wulfenbach.
  • There’s one counting the days since the last hideous death. Considering the Castle’s nature, this may be a way of keeping score. (Although, the sign might not be accurate any more, since the guy whose job it was to update it died a hideous death.)
• X-Ray Vision: The vision-augmentation helmet Agatha and Jiminez put together has «x-ray vision» as one of its many settings. It is one of the settings which make Jiminez able to see the mechanisms of a very fancy vault door which makes him and Aldin able to open it. The first time Jiminez switches through the different modes, he accidentally switches to X-Ray at the moment he… «looks» at fellow lady-adventurer Larana.

Y

• Yandere: (Яндере) Fraulein Snaug is getting a bit too enthusiastic about her crush on Moloch, responding with surprising aggression when he admitted his crush on Sanaa. Good thing Violetta clarified that she wasn’t involved with him. Even her reaction when she finds out she might have at least as much a chance with him as Sanaa does suggests she equates love with killing.
  • Also Tarvek’s cousin «Seffie». She claims she’s just interested in Gil purely for political reasons, but her behavior around him, including a tendency to look through his personal mail for love letters and to smash furniture when her main rival for his affections gets mentioned, suggests the situation is not so cut and dried.
• Yank the Dog’s Chain: (Приманить собаку) After all the hell Agatha’s gone through over the past couple months, being kidnapped multiple times, seeing her surrogate parents and several of her friends killed, nearly dying herself more than once, having several factions attempt to use her as a pawn in their power games, she has finally fully repaired her castle, been officially recognized as the Heterodyne by both the castle and the people of Mechanicsburg, she has the loyalty of the Jägers, and she has defeated all the armies attacking her town. It seems she can allow herself to take a breath and begin the process of settling in to her new position. Then Martellus kidnaps her AGAIN and spirits her away just as Klaus envelops the town in a time-stopping bubble.
• You Are Better than You Think You Are: (Ты лучше, чем думаешь) Violetta keeps insisting she isn’t a very good Smoke Knight. Agatha disagrees.

«	Agatha: Aren’t you the Smoke Knight who walked out of Castle Heterodyne? Violetta: Oh. Well, yeah, but… Agatha: You have nothing to be ashamed of.	»

• You Are in Command Now: (Внезапное повышение в звании) Dimo is pressed into service as a General, because he’s the resident «schmot guy», and because all of the other Generals are unavailable.
• You Can See Me?: During a mid-adventure tea break with Zeetha, Bangladesh DuPree can’t see the hidden Smoke Knight Violetta, but she sure can tell she’s here, on the seemingly empty chair.

«	Bang: That’s really amazing — but whatever it is you’re doing, knock it off. Violetta: Whoa. You could see me? Bang: No. And it was giving me a headache.	»

• You Can’t Fight Fate: (Спор с судьбой) Brought up early on by, of all people, Bangladesh DuPree with regards to the visions seen from the electric phenomena, which appear to be portals/visions from the future.
• «You!» Exclamation: Klaus' reaction to Zeetha.
• You Fight Like a Cow: «You fight like ducks!»
• You Have Failed Me / Outlived Your Usefulness: (Ты меня подвёл/Пережить свою полезность)
  • Lucrezia in her escape from Sturmhalten abruptly wraps up Lady Vrin as a loose end.
• You Killed My Father: The reason why Agatha is not too keen on accepting Von Pinn’s help.
• You Meddling Kids: Du Quay would make any Scooby-Doo Villain of the Week proud.

«	Du Quay: —And I would have GOT away with it, too, if I hadn’t been for—	»

• You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Parodied with a genuine ghost ship on display in a museum, which has cardboard skeleton holding a sign that says «YOU HAVE TO BE THIS DEAD TO BOARD THE GHOST SHIP.»
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame:
  • Gil’s expression says it all.
  • The castle would prefer Agatha use an alternative word to good to praise its actions.
  • «Delightfully done, my lady. Your enemy is thoroughly crushed. You are a true Heterodyne.»
  • A variant when Klaus asks Bangladesh DuPree if she isn’t worried he’s actually The Other, as accused.

«	Bang: You’re always telling me "Oh DuPree, don’t torture people, " or "Don’t burn any towns, " or whatever. And if you were the Other, I’d be a revenant, and I’d have to obey you. Even if a town really needed burning, y’know? But I can still act on my better judgment, so I know everything’s okay! Klaus: And here I was foolishly hoping for an argument that would reassure the troops.	»

• Your Costume Needs Work: (Это не косплей) An actor asked to keep his jäger costume on longer than usual is told why by Dimo, an actual jäger. After listening to the explanation, the actor tells Dimo his makeup needs work.
• Your Favorite: Wooster knows how Gil likes his tea.
• Your Mom: «Ah-go kees an hoctopus. Oh vait, hyu mama already deed!»
• Young Love Versus Old Hate: Our heroes are trying to break the cycle of destruction.
• You Shall Not Pass!: (Кому-то идти в заслон) Zulenna against Von Pinn. She actually succeeds until DuPree arrives.
• You Will Be Spared: Agatha hamming the other sparks to submission. Also, Third Hugo acceptance speech.
• You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry!: Klaus Wulfenbach’s official domestic policy is «Don’t make me come over there».

Z

• Zeppelins from Another World: (Фантазийные дирижабли) Lots. Predominantly used by the Baron; he has his entire command center in Castle Wulfenbach, a zeppelin of truly Brobdingnagian size, equipped with numerous labs, docking bays for several smaller craft («smaller» as in «regular-sized airships»), and penthouse-like living quarters on top of the hull. It comes with an entire support fleet, and air-warships are a mainstay of his armed forces. Which is of course very practical if someone makes the Baron «come over there».
• Zerg Rush: (Сила толпы) Among many, many other defenses, Castle Heterodyne can resort to unleashing every clank and construct abomination in its bowels at an aggressor.
• Zombie Apocalypse: (Зомби-апокалипсис) Not «really» zombies*, but the Other did create an auto-recruiting army of mindless, malicious, shambling, incurable Revenants under her complete control. Putting them down was the greatest challenge of Klaus' emperor-ing career. It was recently discovered that those revenants were just a few percent of the infected, and the rest look and act like any other person, even though they’re mind-slaves to the Other. Tarvek said that the «zombie-like» Revenants were an unforeseen and rare exception, and helped to hide the nature of more numerous non-shambler Revenants.
• Zombify the Living: Andronicus Valois a.k.a. the Storm King (himself already undead) uses his mace, the Platonic Solid, to fire a blast of energy at a group of knights, ripping the flesh off their bodies. Next page, the now skeletal knights are taking orders from him.

TV-Tropes/Упоминания

• A Father To His Men (Отец солдатам) — Jaegergeneral Gkika is a mother to her men. They even call her Mamma Gkika. Considering that she’s one of only two female Jaegers that we’ve seen, and she’s made it to be one of the eight Generals (out of thousands of Jaegers), it’s quite an achievement.
• A Hero to His Hometown — runs along more believable characterizations, so there’s a lot of this.
  • «Sure, the Heterodynes were dangerous lunatics — but they became our dangerous lunatics!» The Heterodyne lords of the past, until Agatha’s father and uncle, raided surrounding territory, sometimes far afield, pillaging, looting, and causing a lot of destruction even aside from the lords' Sparkiness. But they always took care of their people.
  • You may compare the preferred treatment of the Jägermonsters away from, under and in Mechanicsburg. Jaegers are heroes and well-loved inside Mechanicsburg and Heterodyne territory, but because they were the super-soldiers who rode closest to the Heterodyne lords on their raids, many people still fear and hate them. It doesn’t help Barry and Bill dismissed them and confined them to Mechanicsburg, rather than try to redeem their reputations; Jaegers will do anything for their lords -including putting up with Bill’s wife Lucrezia treating them like objects.
  • Opinion of Klaus Wulfenbach varies greatly. Many higher-ranking noble resent being subordinated to a mere baron. Commoners are more likely to appreciate the (relative) peace he brought to Europa, since they now tend to get caught in the middle of fewer Spark feuds and petty wars.
• A Mech by Any Other Name (Не меха) — Clanks, which are a steampunk version and vary in size from passing-as-a-pocket-watch to roughly-human all the way up to terrifyingly-large. The most common ones are humanoid, but there have also been examples of animal shaped (both normal and mythological) and there was even an entire circus caravan of trailers that sprouted limbs (and/or wings) and brought the pain on some very surprised soldiers.
• Abandoned Info Page — «The Story So Far.» The rest of the info pages are kept up-to-date, though, including separate cast lists for each book (with updated descriptions for even pointless one-shot characters).
• Abduction Is Love (Кража невесты) — Gender-flipped, when Old Man Death tells his granddaughter about the time he was sacking a castle, only to be kidnapped and ravished by a wild princess. She really didn’t want to hear any of it.

«	Old Man Death: Even today, your grandmother is a remarkable woman.	»

• Abnormal Ammo (Оружие под необычный боеприпас):
  • The Hand-cranked runcible gun shoots sporks. With a «Spork! Spork! Spork!» Unsound Effect.
  • The Baron’s airship is shot with shells containing some flesh-dissolving monsters.
  • Remote Controlled Deployable Turret Cannonballs!
• Absurdly Cool City — Mechanicsburg (also see the next page). It became a modern city filled with tourists after the disappearance of its former rulers. However, when Agatha, the rightful heir, returns and the Doom Bell is rung, the city reverts back to its old self. Also, the city is controlled by a sentient castle and all residents are automatically loyal minions of the Heterodyne.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade (Офигенно острое лезвие) — Occam’s Razor, forged by Occam Heterodyne. In the words of a Jägergeneral «Dot ting ken cut through anyting!»
• Abuse Mistake — Bangladesh DuPree has a bit of an obsession with Tarvek, apparently dating from when they were both in Paris and Bang had kidnapped him. It seems to be Played for Laughs at the start but when you start thinking about what she’s actually saying — «Hey, do you still have those little scars?» — Fridge Horror starts to set in. It’s recently been confirmed that yes, Bang did physically torture him, and the fact that Gil has now set her to work as his bodyguard whilst he’s asleep is more than a little worrying.

«	Bang: I wanna see if he's still got those beautiful scars! Gil: I told you — the chrono spillage healed everything. Bang: Nooo! I worked hard on those!	»

• Academy of Adventure (Школа с секретом?) — the school aboard Castle Wulfenbach. It provides schooling and training for the future rulers of Europe and further afield (at least one from China, one from India and one from the Middle East), and the fact that a lot of them are Sparks or the children of Sparks means that there are a lot of shenanigans. Their carer/teacher/mother figure is Super-Soldier and Dark Action Girl Von Pinn, which doesn’t improve things. Baron Wulfenbach just generally seems resigned by it all.
  • The University of Paris is another one due to the large percentage of sparks in the student body. The Master seems to like using the sparks in the student body to deal with the troublemaking sparks that Paris attracts as a means of keeping both groups occupied and out of his hair.
• Accent Slip-Up — does this as a Wham Line to reveal that a character is more than the Unfazed Everyman he has up to this point appeared to be: when the woman he’s becoming sweet on is badly hurt right before his eyes, Airman Higgs lets just the tiniest edge of a Jägermonster accent show as he prepares to take on her attacker.
• Accidental Kiss — Agatha kisses Gil in the thrill of victory.
• Achilles' Power Cord — Anevka is a clank (robot) body created for a fatally injured noblewoman. She needs to stay connected to the large container where her actual body is kept in stasis. Near the climax of the story arc, the cables are cut and she freaks out when she feels no different — it turns out the real body is long dead inside the container and she has become an autonomous A.I. with Anevka’s memories.
• Acting in the Dark — In-Universe: When Agatha Heterodyne is posing as an actress in a traveling show, a local governor requests a command performance of «The Socket Wench of Prague» — implied to be a filthy bawdy play. Agatha’s more worldly castmates have her learn the dialogue without any context, which leads to a hilariously realistic performance since she has no idea what’s coming.
• Adam and/or Eve — The promethean constructs Punch and Judy live as regular people under the names Adam and Lilith Clay. In this case, every part of both names are significant. Lilith was traditionally (in Apocrypha) the first woman, and made from clay like Adam, instead of from Adam himself. This makes the two constructs equal to each other.
• Adaptational Comic Relief — In-Universe. The Heterodyne Boys books portray Punch as The Klutz and Dumb Muscle and Klaus Wulfenbach as a Cowardly Sidekick and The Comically Serious. («Klaus keeps his dignity, or tries to. That’s what makes him funny!») The real Genius Bruiser Punch doesn’t like the stories much; the real Anti-Villain Baron Wulfenbach sometimes seems to feel the same way, although he’s also been known to say they’re Actually Pretty Funny. (The general public don’t really seem to make much of a connection between the comedy character they laugh at in the stories and the Baron who rules the continent with an iron fist, although it’s implied to be a bit of catharsis on their part.)
• Adopted into Royalty — Jiminez Hoffman was adopted by the Mole King for suggesting a way for them to end their war with the Argurons: Altar Diplomacy. They decided that he should do it, since he was now a Mole Prince, and also the same species (human) as the Argurons. It turns out to be a Perfectly Arranged Marriage in the end, although it takes them most of the Paris arc before Hoffman figures it out—Princess Larana has a bad case of Cannot Spit It Out.
• Adorable Evil Minions (Милые головорезы) — has a (so far) non-evil example: Agatha Heterodyne’s clanks. They’re also surprisingly (maybe dangerously) competent.
• Advantage Ball — Most stretches of dialogue in Girl Genius can be described according to this, with the butt of the jokes being the ones not currently possessing the humorous Advantage Ball.

«	Tarvek grabs the ball! Gil struggles, but Tarvek gets in a solid jab! But who’s that? Bangladesh Dupree tackles Tarvek from out of nowhere, grabs the Ball and starts piling on the humiliation… But then Vole appears, charming Bang’s pants off with a bloodthirsty Villainous Rant, and picks up the ball. Ball occupied, Gil and Tarvek are able to have a conversation on equal terms, until Othar Trygvassen, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!, gets the drop on Vole! But what’s this?! Gil goes for the dropped ball, grabs it with both hands, runs with it AND HE SCORES, dropping three of his opponents down a trapdoor to a long fall, and wounds the last — Bang — with a vicious playground taunt! What a game, ladies and gentlemen, what a game!	»

• Adventurer Outfit — Lord Moonbark, who’s been «skulking about collecting the notes of dead sparks» for Her Undying Majesty but has still found the time for some adventure, no doubt likely because he’s a spark himself is introduced wearing a pith helmet, and a herringbone suit with leather elbow patches.
• After-Action Healing Drama:
  • Gil collapses after he stands off the attackers, and the jaegers get him to Mama Gkika’s. This at first appears to be just sneaking about, but there we learn that Mama resorted to some heavy duty medicine to save and revive him.
  • Resplendent Immolation, caught from invading the Castle or more likely an assassination attempt on Tarvek, leads to a truly epic arc involving curing no less than three people before they explode.
  • After Captain Hawkins, some Smoke Knights, Martellus’s spark hounds and his chief assassin and Gil and Bang have a battle over Tarvek, with Martellus’s faction trying to assassinate him, Gil patches up Tarvek from his many poisoned knife wounds.
• After-Action Patch-Up (Перевязка ран после битвы):
  • Zola starts one with Gil right after the fight with Dr. Merlot, and talks about past ones, where Gil also moved too much. Agatha is not pleased, but can’t stop to make a girly fuss over him.
  • Agatha insists on one with Gil before they treat Tarvek — he was shot and thrown across the room, and she’s not going to take his word for it that he’s fine.
  • Higgs lugs Zeetha to Mama for treatment. Which lets the Castle heckle him about him and her.
  • A non-romantic version: Moloch bandages Agatha’s hand as she tells him about the test.
  • Snaug, on the other hand, deliberately plays up the romantic aspects as soon as she realizes she can use the black eye.
  • After Hoffman electrocutes himself one panel shows Larana tending to him.
• Against My Religion — Today is the feast of St. Bungi: my religion forbids vertical travel today!
• Agent Peacock (Думать о красе ногтей) — Tarvek is looking more and more like one of these, particularly when his response to the possibility of Agatha’s becoming an Evil Queen is to speculate on how well she’d pull off the outfit. When Violetta is concerned he’s not feeling well at a party, his comment her sweet hairpiece needs adjusting assures her he’s fine, and when the new Master of Paris needed a new outfit, Tarvek had one pulled together in moments. Meanwhile, once he let the Obfuscating Stupidity fall, he became so well known for kicking tail that when his grandmother wanted to see him over his objections, the «messenger» she sent was completely invulnerable to attack by pointy and blunt objects, and he’s performed feats of endurance, skill, and strength that left the Jaegers in awe.
• Air Quotes — Tarvek uses air quotes to mock the purportedly inescapable death trap he’s just watched someone easily escape:

«	Tarvek: Oh, by the way nice «death trap.»	»

• Alien Catnip (Наркотик для нелюдей) — Franz, House Heterodyne’s pet dragon, apparently gets put in a party mood by bismuth.
• Alien Geometries (Чуждая геометрия):
  • At one point, Agatha can be seen holding a three-pronged blivet.
  • Later on, Trelawney Thorpe takes Gil to see Queen Albia’s Henge, which one cannot locate without knowing the right path, and which one cannot see until «turning the corner».
• All Amazons Want Hercules — Captain Bangladesh DuPree — the only time she shows any sort of attraction to anyone is to the ex-Jaeger Vole, more specifically once he starts talking about why he’s changing his allegiance.

«	Vole: Dot’s gonna be some var! Messy, terrible, civil var! De empire vill be in flames! De pipple vill be crushed between hyu! Hyu vill unleash an ocean ov blood! Dis is more den Hy effer could heff hoped for! IT VILL BE GLORIOUS!	»

• It only gets better once Gil pulls Vole out of the timestop and he ages hundreds of years in a few minutes — since Jaegers are immortal, this means him getting twice as tall, twice as broad, teeth as long as your hand, spikes growing out of his shoulders…

«	Gil: DuPree, I’m really sorry about this. I’m doing my best to- Bang: Oh… Oh wow! Gil! Is it Christmas? My birthday?!	»

Мета

• Abandon Shipping — fandom had a variant, in that shippers didn’t ditch a pairing due to one of the characters doing something unconscionable, but simply because a better one showed up. When Tarvek and Bangladesh interacted, Bang’s schoolgirl glee at seeing Tarvek again earned the pairing a lot of fans. Two days later, Bang met Vole, and everyone immediately jumped to that ship. To quote one of the posters on our own forums: «I support this ship. I support this ship so much it will not displace water. I support this ship so much it will be a skyship.»
• Adaptation Displacement (Затмить адаптацией) — Though this stretches the definition of «adaptation» a little, Girl Genius is probably much better known for being a webcomic than it ever was as the print comic it began its life as. Taking it to an online format from a relatively indie comic book publishing operation has greatly expanded its audience, such that only a small amount of its followers started following it when it was print-exclusive.
• Affectionate Parody (Ласковая пародия) Girl Genius parodies pulp 1940s serials, old-school Science Fiction, Victorian-era Steampunk in the vein of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, Fairy Tales, and every Mad Scientist trope in the book (the main characters all suffer from a trait which causes both madness and scientific genius… and by «suffer», we mean they enjoy every minute of it).

Персонажи

Protagonists

Ссылка: [6]

Agatha Clay/Heterodyne

The titular «Girl Genius», a Spark, raised by Parental Substitutes Adam and Lilith Clay. The story begins with her breaking through when the locket suppressing her abilities is stolen.

• Action Girl: (Бой-баба) She starts becoming one after the Slaver Wasps broke free on Castle Wulfenbach, and got formal training to be one under Zeetha’s tutelage. Though that training is far from complete, and she openly admits she’s not as dangerous a physical fighter as her various companions.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • From this comic, is she a poor misunderstood woman who just wants this whole business over, or is she genuinely a classic Mad Scientist who can and will do anything that she needs to, and after she’s done will sweep away the pieces of whoever and whatever gets in her way?
  • «Is it right to leave a fellow sentient strung up like this?» «Well, that depends upon the nature of the experiment…»
• Anti-Anti-Christ: (Анти-антихрист) She was meant to be the «holy child» of the Geisterdamen, the daughter of their goddess (who also is The Other). Except that she takes too much after her heroic father and was snatched away and raised from infancy to preteens by her equally heroic paternal uncle. That said, it’s also been hinted that she might have been originally created to serve as a vessel for her mother’s transfered mind.
• Aroused by Their Voice: Seems to find Sparky voices generally attractive.
  • Agatha finds Tarvek’s normal speaking voice has the ability to give her 'pleasant tingles.'
• Badass Bookworm: (Книжный червь) Started as a bookworm, and became a badass.
• Badass Longcoat: (Крутой в пальто) Several of them, starting from her very first appearance and including an awesome labcoat.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Bringing up Lilith and Adam’s deaths and half of what Von Pinn says to her. Also, telling her she can’t do something when in the Heterodyne Valley.

«	Agatha: This «facility» is in my valley and in my valley, I go where I please.	»

• Bespectacled Cutie: Always wearing large, rimless glasses that enhance both her brains and cuteness.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: (Красота остаётся незапятнанной)
  • She regularly stays up for days at a time with little rest and no food, often under stressful and dangerous circumstances, but this has no visible negative effect on her body (though there are several suggestions that sparks are capable of going far longer without sleep than regular people are, especially when in The Madness Place).
  • The worst injury Agatha has ever received was a shallow stab wound to her chest given to her by Zola that was quickly and easily bandaged and covered by her clothes.
• Best Friend: With Zeetha, bordering on sworn sisters due to their sworn teacher-pupil relationship. If it wasn’t for Agatha already pining for Gil and Tarvek and Zeetha for Higgs, one would think they were Heterosexual Life-Partners, that’s how deep their relationship is. They even sleep in the same bed and have explicitly expressed platonic love for each other.
• Betty and Veronica: (Бетти и Вероника) She’s the Archie to Gil and Tarvek, though which is Betty and which is Veronica tends to flip-flop depending on the particular point in the story. Early on, Gil is Betty and Tarvek is Veronica, but they start to trade places around the time Agatha reaches Mechanicsburg and have fully switched by the Time Skip.
• Beware the Nice Ones: (Добро с кулаками) Generally one of the nicest Sparks around (especially compared to her ancestors) and prefers taking the peaceful solution if at all possible. Try her patience one too many times, though, or threaten her friends, and count yourself lucky if getting beaten to an inch of your life is the worst thing that happens to you. For example, Bang gets a nice friendly reminder that Agatha is a Heterodyne and far worse things than Bang will ever be are latent in Agatha’s genes.
• Big Eater: (Обжора) When she remembers to eat at least. The novelization notes that her appetite started to increase, even while her waistline diminished, after her breakthrough, suggesting that the Spark accelerates one’s metabolism.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) Has developed aspects of this under Zeetha’s tutelage. She expresses annoyance when the Castle interrupts a fight she could’ve handled herself, and Squees right alongside Dimo at Zeetha’s robot-beheading kick.
• Bluff the Impostor: (Ловушка для самозванца) Tries this on Othar in their first meeting. Has it tried on her by Carson.
• Boobs-and-Butt Pose: (Поза через плечо) Done unintentionally whilst trying to fit into too-small stolen pants.
• Cartwright Curse: Agatha’s suitors so far have all wound up dead, shot, or turning funny colours. Or all three. The nature of the setting is such that being her love interest is exceptionally dangerous but death isn’t necessarily permanent. So far only Lars, a non-Spark, has been permanently killed.
• Changeling Fantasy: She’s the long-lost daughter to two of the most powerful lines of Sparks (a Spark princess?).
• Character Development: (Развитие персонажа) While she is still easily one of the most moral Sparks in the series, she has subtly become more jaded to heroics over time, going from the idealistic young girl who wanted to help the revenants of Passholdt to deciding that going around helping everyone like the Heterodyne Boys did sounds exhausting and preferring to mainly assist her friends and allies.
• Child Prodigy: (Вундеркинд) Subverted. She starts breaking through as a child (even younger than Gil), but gets a Power Limiter put on her, which prevents her from using her Spark (and also damps down her emotions, positive and negative.) When it is later removed, she ends up as a Teen Genius instead.
• Chewing the Scenery: (Переигрывание) As with all good Sparks, she does this a bit when «Sparking out».
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: (Синдром хронического героизма) As shown on several occasions (lampshaded by Othar, no less!)
• Color-Coded Characters: Typically wears green.
• Combat Pragmatist: (Прагматичный боец) Snooty noble bitch talking down to you during a fencing match? Provoke her into running straight at your foil. Not capable of scoring a hit on a fencing clank with an Adaptive Ability to defend against whatever it’s seen before? Throw an oil can at its off switch. Mad spark trying to steal your sentient Castle, fashioned an armband device to make the Castle unable to kill him in your defense, and coming at you with a knife? Smash his armband device with a wrench and let the now-unrestrained Castle drop a pillar on him. Agatha fights mean.
• Compelling Voice: (Магия звука/Подчиняющий голос) While in The Madness Place, her voice has a notable hypnotic quality that can compel most others to do her bidding. Going full tilt, she can bring an entire theater audience to their knees. All Sparks are suggested to possess this ability, but Agatha’s capacity for it is much higher than most. Almost certainly because they’re likely all revenants (the shambling monster type is a statistical extremity), who were slaver wasped into obeying Lucrezia’s voice and she is Lucrezia’s daughter.
• Creepy Good: At times. She boasts an impressive Evil Laugh and can be disturbingly ruthless when the situation calls for it (especially when she’s in her Madness Place), but is a fundamentally good person even at her worst.
• Crush Blush: (Любовь заставляет вас краснеть) Sure, Tarvek, surprise a girl with a comment that she’s beautiful.
• Cunning Linguist: According to the print novels, even before her locket was removed, she had a talent for languages.
• Damsel in Distress: (Дева в беде) Played with. Lots of male heroic types want to slot her into this role, but most of the time she turns out to be perfectly capable of getting herself out of her latest bind, and she rather likes to be the hero doing the rescuing rather than the one being rescued.
• Dating Catwoman: (Возлюбленная — злодейка) Gil and Tarvek could both count here.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом/Язвительный насмешник) She has her moments.

«	Agatha: It’s a falling machine. I’m so impressed.	»

• Dismissing a Compliment: In the Cinderella story, Gil admires her entrance and she calls him a flatterer — rather flirtatiously.
• Dude Magnet: As Zeetha lampshades, the universe keeps throwing hot, shirtless men at her. Even Martellus, who started out merely seeing her as a means to an end, grows attracted to her for her own sake.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Part and parcel of being a Spark. She’s mostly focused on mechanical inventions.
• The Fettered: Naturally, with a bad case of Chronic Hero Syndrome, she’s this.
• Geek Physique: Averted, especially after Zeetha’s training. But she has a curvy, athletic figure and muscular arms from the beginning of the comic.
• Genki Girl: (Гэнки) At least, when she is on coffee.
• Happily Adopted: (Счастливо усыновлённый) Agatha has always known that Adam and Lilith Clay were constructs, and ostensibly «friends» of her uncle, but still calls them her parents, and obviously cares for them.
• Heartbroken Badass: Various times, mostly after Lars died.
• Her Heart Will Go On: Lars. It’s also worth noting that both Tarvek and Gil have gotten hurt while chasing after Agatha. She just can’t seem to keep her suitors healthy. And she’s got serious issues about it, too — most likely due to Lars' death.
• Heroic Willpower: (Героическая сила воли) With enough motivation, Agatha can out-will Lucrezia herself.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: (Герой с плохой репутацией) World opinion on her is quite polarized. Many look up to her as the rightful heir of her father’s and uncle’s heroic legacy. But between her psychotic ancestors, and the Baron’s refusal to see her as anything but another Lucrezia, many people are concerned she might be the Other, or at least an old school Heterodyne.
• Home Sweet Home: One thing setting Agatha apart from her father, is that she’d rather stay with her own people in Mechanicsburg than go on adventures all over the world. Of course, the world thinks otherwise.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) The Polar Lords are older than the Queens or even the mysterious civilization that built the Mirrors. It’s not clear if they’re even human anymore. They’re treated more like demons or Eldritch Abominations, and they’re rumored to be outright Reality Warpers in a way that goes beyond even Mad Science as everyone else understands it. And one of them calls another a fool for provoking «a horror such as you» (that would be Agatha) «while he was weak and in retreat». Apparently these ancient horrors feel they need to be at their full strength before they take on a Heterodyne.
• Idiot Hair: (Ахогэ) Agatha’s by no means an idiot (anymore at least), but the original meaning of the term applies. She has an eternal battle with the cowlick on the top of her head.
• Informed Flaw: (Заявленная слабость) It was originally stated that Agatha, despite being a powerful Spark, was limited by her lack of education, having been kicked out of college at 18. In Sturmhalten, she is unable to get her mother out of her head because she couldn’t understand the complexity of the Summoning Engine. However, this problem almost never comes up again after the Sturmhalten arc and Agatha is seemingly capable of building and repairing whatever she wants with no difficulty.
  • While Agatha’s education before breaking through was incomplete, her adventures had her come into contact with and the chance to examine many other sparks' works, giving her experience and ideas she wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Sparks in general can get inspiration by working on other Sparks' inventions, much less when they work together (which Agatha has done multiple times over the course of the story). The complexity of Lucrezia’s work, however, and the lack of chances to properly study it means that Agatha doesn’t have a lot to go on to actually fixing her current problem. It ultimately takes the combined efforts of Agatha, Tarvek, Gil, Trelawney, and Martellus to build a new machine to remove Lucrezia from Agatha’s mind.
• In the Blood:
  • Sparkiness, being a blonde, and occasionally being The Vamp in habits are all details similar, or exactly like her mother. Fortunately, she’s not the evil sort. Usually.
  • And from her father’s side, she inherited the ability to hyperfocus by heterodyning, and also his Chronic Hero Syndrome. And apparently a «Heterodyne Ham» that makes it hard for her to find trousers that fit.
• It’s Not You, It’s My Enemies: Agatha wants Gil and Tarvek safely out of Castle Heterodyne.
• Kid with the Leash: To the Jägers and Castle Heterodyne. Each of them are completely loyal to Agatha and do not doubt her or her capabilities, but are capable of many terrible atrocities. Fortunately, the Jägers have a rough sense of when too much is too far, so Agatha trusts them well enough. The Castle, on the other hand, is something Agatha sometimes struggles to keep in line.
• Kiss-Kiss-Slap: (Мазохистское танго) Agatha’s relationship with Gil and Tarvek is… complicated. On the one hand, she loves and trusts both and actively chose them over potentially ascending with infinite power. On the other hand, she’s very aware that Gil is the heir to a massive empire and Tarvek is a manipulator who seeks to inherit the crown of the Storm King, both factions that are not friendly with her status as the new Heterodyne. It doesn’t help that all three of them are potent Sparks with their own agendas, nor that Gil and Tarvek have a lot of history that cause them to clash as often as they collaborate, giving all three of them moments of irrationality and frustration.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Lucrezia gave birth to her to accomplish… something. What exactly that purpose is remains unclear, though the Paris arc suggests it’s at least partially connected to the Muse of Time.
• Last of Her Kind: (Последний из могикан) She appears to be the last member of the Heterodyne family, considering no one’s seen Uncle Barry for years.
• Living Legend: It has begun for Agatha. Read the next page for the full impact of this statement.
• Living MacGuffin: (Ходячий макгаффин) Of the Geister religion, due to her mother’s influence. Also to the Knights of Jove, as a female Heterodyne is necessary for their plan to reestablish the Storm King. All in all, the fact of her existence as an heir of the Heterodyne Boys and/or Lucrezia Mongfish puts as many plot elements in motion as anything she actually does.
• Long-Lost Relative: To Theo DuMedd and Zola as a cousin; their mothers were a trio of sisters.
• Made a Slave: Many of the world’s major powers want to do this to her. The Other is at least partially successful.
• Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter: As well as being a Mad Scientist herself. Also, the progeny of a Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter, who was a Mad Scientist herself. Being the descendant of two powerful families of Sparks, The Spark runs in the family. As, apparently, does being a very curvaceous girl, to the point Dimo the Jäger refers to Agatha having «Heterodyne Ham».
• Magnetic Hero: (Обаяшка) Thanks to the legend of her father and uncle, Krosp states that a lot of people will want to follow her (or kill her or exploit her, but that’s beside the point). She’s already collected quite an entourage of followers, including an heir to the Lightning Throne, the Baron’s own son, a lost princess of a backwoods tribe, a talking cat, one of her cousins, a band of convicts who was repairing Castle Heterodyne…
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя)
  • Heterodyning means to alter a frequency by creating another frequency to interact with it. Part of the Heterodyne Spark is the ability to instinctively hum in a way that heterodynes with any background noise so that it gets cancelled out, removing distractions from their work.
  • Agatha’s locket, which was created by her uncle Barry, is a true Heterodyne locket — when she wears it, it heterodynes her brain. When she was younger, it suppressed her brain waves so that she could never focus enough to truly use her Spark. Uncle Barry did this to her because her spark was starting to break through when she was barely five years old, and spark breakthroughs can get extremely messy and destructive, and counteractive to remaining hidden. ** Now that she has fully broken through, it can’t fully suppress her Spark anymore, but the same properties cancel out the brain waves of the implanted copy of Lucrezia in her head, preventing her from taking over Agatha’s body.
  • Agatha’s first name is also poignant. It derives from greek, «Ἀγαθή» (pronounced «Agatay»), meaning «good, noble, brave», all traits consistent with her Chronic Hero Syndrome.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: She’s a competent hand-to-hand fighter thanks to Zeetha’s training and a crack shot with a Death Ray, but tends to be outmatched in physical confrontations more often than not. Thinking her way out tends to be her first solution to problems, at least when she can’t just build a Bigger Stick to blow them away.
• Morality Chain: (Моральный питомец) Serves as this for both Gil and Tarvek, who have on separate occasions made rather colorful threats of what they will do if anything happens to Agatha.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: (Моисей в тростниках) Before the comic’s start, after the Castle Heterodyne was destroyed, she was put under the care of Punch and Judy (under the pseudonyms Adam and Lilith) and her true parentage was covered up. She even had the Orphan’s Plot Trinket in the form of her locket! It wasn’t until her late teens that she learned she was a Heterodyne and a Spark.
• Most Common Superpower: Sure, lots of female characters are busty. But it’s interesting that, out of the Agatha-Zeetha-Violetta trio, the one with the biggest chest is also the only Spark (that is, the only superpowered one).
• Ms. Fanservice: (Мисс Фансервис) Less than Zeetha, but the Foglios do have a penchant for putting her in corsetry and lacy underthings. And then there’s this little gem…
• Mysterious Past: (Персонаж-загадка)
  • There have been hints that there’s more to Agatha’s origins than she knows, such as her encounter with Von Pinn in Castle Heterodyne, and her familiarity with the workings of Van Rijin’s secret laboratory, though the full picture is unclear.
  • Agatha’s conception alone is pretty shady, since Lucrezia went missing for three years without a trace before the Heterodyne boys disappeared altogether. This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God has stated outside the comic that Bill Heterodyne is most definitely her father. And Lucrezia is definitely her mother. There are hints that Agatha was altered biologically by her mother to be a «perfect vessel» for the planned Grand Theft Me, such as by making her voice match her mother’s and possibly giving her other advantages as well.
• Nerds Are Sexy: (Ум — это сексуально) She’s just as beautiful as she is brilliant.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: (Учёный-всезнайка) Agatha favors mechanical engineering as her specialty, but there isn’t a field of science that she can’t work with, from electrical medicine to mutant weasel-breeding to making coffee. (Except maybe medicine, since she was never allowed any hands-on training while at the University.) It helps that being a potent Spark allows her to bridge some of the gaps she’s missing, and that her travels give her an abundance of other Sparks' works to glean ideas and practical experience from.
• Omniglot: (Полиглот) According to the novels, she speaks Romanian (apparently her native tongue), Latin, Greek, German, English, French, Arabic and Russian. The only language spoken in the series thus far that she hasn’t been able to understand is Geisterese.
• One Size Fits All: Subverted; when circumstances lead her to try and steal the clothes from a male guard, she can’t fit into his pants, which Dimo points out was never going to happen with her generous posterior.
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек) Compared to most Sparks of her caliber, though she still has her moments of madness. She doesn’t seek adventures but doesn’t loathe them either. She doesn’t seek power for its own sake but will take it if she has to. And while she wants a romantic relationship, she won’t let herself get swept off her feet without taking protective measures. Being raised among common people by a sane, loving couple has its perks.
  • The novels also raise the probability that the locket her uncle Barry fitted her with didn’t so much stop her from breaking through as incredibly slowed the processes down, allowing her to make many of the mental processes and transitions at a much slower pace without the property damage that comes with it. It was less her breaking through, and more easing through, and thus coming out of the experience a much more balanced individual than most Sparks are.
• Orphan’s Plot Trinket: Her locket, a gift from her uncle Barry, with pictures of her real parents. It was a device to shut down her Spark abilities, keeping her safe and hidden, since nascent sparks usually end up killed by an angry mob, a more powerful Spark, or their own creations. It later serves to suppress an unwanted Grand Theft Me occupant in Agatha’s head: The Other/Lucrezia. . It is finally destroyed during the England plot-arc.
• Parental Abandonment: (Родитель-кукушка) Her original parents are gone at least until Lucrezia shows up, her Uncle Barry who was like a father to her disappeared when she was seven, and her parental substitutes get ripped to shreds. They get better and have come back into her life after the time skip.
• Parody Sue: (Сын маминой подруги) Gets played with in the Cinderella parody.
• Pimped-Out Dress: (Роскошное платье принцессы) In the Cinderella parody, she makes a clockwork themed ballgown (which comes off at the press of a button), and first is seen wearing it through a Grand Staircase Entrance.
• Pragmatic Hero: (Герой-прагматик) Once she gets over her Chronic Hero Syndrome, she matures into this. She’s willing to act the Terror Hero when it gets things done and she’s a Combat Pragmatist in a fight.
• Power Fantasy: Agatha was a clumsy and bullied young woman who turned out to be one of the most smartest and resourceful people in the world and all her early flaws were caused by her necklace suppressing her true potential. She also turns out to be the last surviving member of the Heterodyne family, making her on the one of the most important and influential people in Europa. She has an entire city of people and monsters who basically worship the ground she walks on and she currently has at least three princes vying for her affections. She also regularly defeats powerful enemies with little effort and often escapes danger with barely a hair out of place.
• Power Floats: (Левитация могущества) When she drank from the Dyne. To hear Higgs tell it, she’s lucky she didn’t explode.
• Restraining Bolt: The locket her uncle gave her was made to suppress her Spark and hide her true heritage. After she has the Other forcibly implanted into her mind, the locket now acts to suppress it and keeps the Other from possessing Agatha. The Other is eventually able to overpower the locket and destroy it while in charge of Agatha’s body. Her/its triumph is short-lived.
• Science Hero: (Профессор Героикус) Spark.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Like all Sparks. The page image.
• Skewed Priorities: Par for the course for a Mad Scientist. One of the more egregious examples would be when she actively helps the renegade Mad Scientists of Britain summon an Eldritch Abomination, which would be bad enough if said renegade scientists weren’t already making active attempts to kill her and her friends.
• Supreme Chef: (Потрясающий повар) She can make coffee so exquisite that it makes coffee buff (and her future Seneschal) Vanamonde von Mekkhan weep with bliss.

«	Vole (upon being scalded with a pot of the stuff): (smack, smack) Dot is verra good coffee.	»

• She Is Not My Girlfriend: (Она не моя девушка!) Gil, assumed by a fair amount of people.
• Sleepwalking: (Сомнамбулизм) Not just that, but sleep-sparking. Her spark finally broke through completely in such a state after the loss of the Power Limiter locket, and it wasn’t for some time that she was fully cognizant of her spark and consciously exerted it.
• Teen Genius: (Вундеркинд) She’s eighteen, so she’s at the outside edge of this trope, but she’s still the youngest major Spark in the comic, as well as one of the most powerful.
• Terror Hero: Not by choice, but everyone seems to expect her to go Old Heterodyne on her enemies, and she can work with that. She’s almost as good as Klaus when it comes to intimidating people into obedience.
• Took a Level in Badass: (Поднял уровень крутизны) Before Zeetha’s Training from Hell, Agatha played the role of Damsel in Distress much more frequently. Zeetha saw her need to be able to fend for herself, so she’s giving Agatha the training of a Skifander warrior princess. It works, too…compare this and this.. These two scenes are set just two months apart…
• Training from Hell: (Бесчеловечные тренировки) She’s regularly thankful that Zeetha put her through a comically vicious training regimen in her circus days.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: (Активация через страдание) Subverted. Gil notes that her breakthrough was peaceful compared to other Sparks; she didn’t so much as break through as «ease» through. Unlike many breakthrough creations, hers (the «search engine» in Beetleburg) was relatively harmless. No one besides Gil even suspected she was breaking through, least of all her, and most of all the Baron. Played straight in that, when she demonstrated heterodyning to Barry at the tender age of five, he panicked and scrambled to find some way to suppress her spark.
• Tsundere: (Цундэрэ) Oh, yes. She definitely is one. At least, towards Gil.
• Underestimating Badassery: Too many powerful people treat her as a pawn in their game, when she’s really another player in said game. To quote Gil talking to Vole:

«	Gil: You’re just like my father! You underestimated her and she bested you! She is a Heterodyne! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?!?	»

• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Perhaps the most potent ability of the Heterodyne family members is not their ability to tune out distractions with their signature heterodyne humming, but their innate understanding of the nuances and reciprocal nature of Loyalty. Agatha carries on the family trait, and in her father’s and uncle’s new reformed method of expressing it: helping others along the way so they’re inclined to rise up in reciprocation, or simply subverting the expectation of bombastic Sparky dominance towards a minion. One crowning example is the personal favor she paid her spymaster, Axel Higgs. He is a Jägermonster, albeit indistinguishable from a regular human unlike the rest of the Jägercorps. To assuage his inverted Freakiness Shame, she set up an elaborate plot to crash a gala thrown by Queen Albia of England… so Higgs could have a dance with his paramour Zeetha while dressed and made up to look more like a typical Jager.
• Unkempt Beauty: (Неухоженная красотка) She cleans up nicely, too, but looks no less pretty when covered in dirt and engine grease (which is frequently). Tarvek even seems to prefer her that way.
• Villainous Lineage: Klaus suspects that she carries her families' evil in her. While Agatha seems to be heroic and generally well-adjusted, he points out that anyone can go insane over their lifetimes — and given the sheer amount of evil in both the Heterodyne and Mongfish lineages, he does not want to take chances by allowing her to marry Gil.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency:
  • Inverted Trope. Others treat her like a bastion of moral fortitude because she possesses things like «restraint» and «humility». Justified Trope because she’s a Heterodyne, and that sort of thing isn’t exactly «basic» for them.

«	Vanamonde von Mekkhan: You have fifty generations of lowered expectations working for you.	»

• Furthermore, when Queen Albia of England makes her wait for a while before speaking with her as a show of power, Agatha grumbles a bit, but nothing worse. Lord Womble assures her that the lack of a murderous rampage has been noted.

• Warrior Princess: Zeetha’s princess lessons seems to be meant to turn Agatha into even more of a Spark Lady of War than before. Lesson #1 is «every princess needs a battle axe».
• Weasel Mascot: (Хитрый хорёк) Ever since Tarvek brought her a bundle of Wasp Eaters after The Vespiary Squad airship crash, one of them has latched onto Agatha and went with her through the Time Skip portal. She’s become dependent on the wasp eater’s proximity after she substituted it for Martellus to subvert the alchemical «touch of the king» leash he tried to put on her.
• Weirdness Magnet: (Магнит для неприятностей) She doesn’t actively seek out adventure or trouble and prefers to solve her problems as quickly and peacefully as possible. Unfortunately, as a Heterodyne she is placed in the center of various conflicts and conspiracies, attracts countless enemies who wish to see her dead or use her to their own ends, and she has to deal with all the problems her family left behind.
• White Sheep: (Белая овца) Like her father and uncle before her, compared to the rest of their ancestors in the Heterodyne lineage and with Theo to the Mongfishes. That’s two breed of madness and she is okay, at least.
• Wrench Wench: (Гаечка) She looks good tinkering with machines. Plus, virtually all of the promotional artwork depicts her holding a wrench of some sort.
• Wrench Whack: Since she’s usually carrying one anyway…

Ardsley Wooster

Wooster first met Gil in Paris and agreed to enter his service as a manservant. He claimed not to know Gil’s true identity at the time, and was apparently very surprised when he found out. However, Wooster turned out to be more than a Jeeves; in reality, he was a secret agent for British intelligence, and therefore likely DID know who Gil was, which is very impressive seeing as Gil’s childhood friends didn’t. Turns out Gil knew Wooster’s real identity, and was perfectly willing to go along with the pretense until events pushed him into making use of his knowledge, turning Wooster into his semi-minion and dispatching him to help Agatha. Wooster eventually convinces Agatha to come to England with him.

Classy and unflappable Wooster’s ultimate allegiance is of course to the immortal and sparky Queen Albia of England, but he thinks well of Agatha, has indeed assisted her on more than one occasion, and has given every indication of being as honorable a man in his profession can be, leading to his being listed here on the Protagonists page.

• Accidental Pervert: (Извращенец поневоле) Walked in on Agatha while she was executing her Full-Frontal Assault plan to scare away assassins.

«	Agatha: Tch. What kind of master spy stands around in the hall screaming at the sight of a lady dishabille, anyway? What would your Queen say? Wooster: She’d say: «thank you Mister Wooster, for not doing anything- that would make Gilgamesh Wulfenbach melt England!»	»

• Amazon Chaser: (Любит сильных женщин) He’s clearly interested romantically in Trelawney Thorpe, an internationally-renowned superspy who regularly carries around high explosives. (Whether her feelings towards Wooster extend beyond friendship to a colleague is less clear, though she weeps for him after he dies.)
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) He commandeers a rifle from one of the Baron’s troops (after somehow ditching Agatha’s party), fires from the top of one of the caravans and is ready to snipe the Baron (see Shoot the Dog below), delivers an Offhand Backhand to Bangladesh Dupree, and later enters and exits the Jägergeneral’s airship from the window. He also survived being Gil’s valet for at least a year before the comic starts.
• Battle Butler: (Боевой слуга) While undercover working for Gil, although again, «valet» would be the more accurate term.
• Defiant to the End: (Непокорные, несгибаемые, несломленные) When threatened by an enraged and newly super-charged Lucrezia occupying Agatha’s body, he stoically maintains his loyalty to Albia, and pays the penalty.

«	Wooster: Albia… is eternal…	»

• Die for Our Ship: (Неприемлемый возлюбленный) Ships Gil/Agatha because he’s afraid that any other pairing means «Gilgamesh Wulfenbach is going to go on a rampage that will reduce everything Ardsley Wooster loves to a wet pile of used tea leaves.»
• Dragon with an Agenda: A heroic example, as he is still loyal to the queen; how privy he is to Albia’s plans towards Agatha isn’t currently clear.
• Expy: (Копиркин) Very much so for Mr. Bond. His only problem is that he lives in a world of high-powered Mad scientists. Meaning Mr. Wooster’s Super Weight isn’t nearly as great, relatively speaking, as Mr. Bond’s genius bruiser status in his own stories.
• Friendly Sniper: The only member of the main cast who uses conventional firearms (rather than Death Rays and their ilk) with any regularity, and a damn good shot besides. And provided he’s on your side, he’s definitely a polite and respectful guy.
• The Jeeves: Played with. Despite the nod to Jeeves and Wooster right there in his name, Wooster is no mere super-skilled valet.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) Killed by the Lucrezia copy in Agatha’s body for refusing to submit to her.
• Master of Disguise: (Мастер перевоплощения) After seeing this page, now go back and try to spot that particular «corbettite» in the post-Beast-battle pages.
• My God, You Are Serious!: Very quickly realizes that Gil’s threat to destroy Albia, melt England to slag and boil the seas for a thousand years if Agatha is treated as anything less than a guest is not an empty threat. Maybe he can’t do it right now, but if Albia gives him a reason to, Gil will find a way to deliver.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: (Ай, молодца, герой!) Boris tries to invoke this when Wooster reveals the Baron’s plan to level Mechanicsburg to the Jäger Generals, claiming that he’s allowed The Other an opportunity to escape. Wooster doesn’t buy it, but admits that the Queen will take an interest in the matter if things do go south.
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) Apparently Hoffman landing on him reminded him of how he met Gil.
• Oh, Crap!: (Осознание катастрофы) Wooster has an impressive one here, when, in response to Violetta wondering Who Would Be Stupid Enough? to hijack one of Albia’s ships singlehandedly, he starts to reminisce about a time when Gil did something like that… then freezes in horror when he realizes the implication that Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, whose empire is on what could best be described as an uneasy detente with England, probably is involved somehow (and he’s right).
• Offhand Backhand: (Врезать не глядя) Delivered to Bangladesh DuPree, of all people.

«	DuPree: You’re on my list, pal! Wooster: But you are most certainly not on mine. Good day.	»

• Reassigned to Antarctica: (Чрезвычайный и полномочный посол на фиг) After being outed as a spy, not to mention sending Europa into chaos, his superiors assign him to stay with the Jägers guarding Mechanicsburg as punishment. He does eventually get back to England, and is put in charge of a murder investigation at the Queen’s Society.
• Sarcastic Devotee: Though he grows out of it, he starts off as a man with little faith in Agatha.
• Servile Snarker: As Gil’s right-hand-man. Gentleman Snarker might be more accurate now we know his real background.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) Ships Gil/Agatha, principally out of fear that any other pairing «would make Gilgamesh Wulfenbach melt England!»
• Shoot the Dog: (Так было надо) Is prepared to do whatever it takes to complete his mission, even killing Baron Wulfenbach. Although given his comment that «Gil won’t like this», he may have been planning a wounding shot.
• Spanner in the Works: (Рояль в кустах?) When he derails Boris' manipulation of the Jägergenerals.
• Spy Drama: This didn’t really feature in the comic itself until this strip. There is, however, a custom ad for the Spy Battle browser game that portrays his past as being ridiculously martini-flavored. And he’s later stated to be a Commander in HMSS with a designation including 00.
• The Stoic: (Стоик) He’s rather nonchalant about Gil revealing that he knew all along that Wooster was a British spy. And he’s again unflappable when throwing a monkey wrench into Boris’s attempt to deceive the Jäger generals. However, even he is not immune to being minionized by Gil’s force of will. As noted above, he dies maintaining this attitude.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: (Чёрные волосы, чёрное сердце??) One of the tallest protagonists, dark haired, and he’s British, so snark is a given.
• Wild Card: (Всегда на своей стороне) More heroic than most examples, but his first loyalty is always to Queen Albia and England. He’ll help out the heroes if it interests the Crown or he’s feeling especially sympathetic, but the particulars of his motives are always a little hazy.

Da Boyz

The three «wild» Jägermonsters. They were detached from the rest of their kin and sent out on a suicide mission to find an heir to the Heterodyne family so that the other Jägers could serve and be under the auspices of Baron Wulfenbach without having forsaken their oath to the Heterodynes. To their surprise, they discovered Agatha passing by in Zumzum, and followed her to protect her.

Da Boyz in general

• The Ace: For Jägers, they’re incredibly intelligent and adaptable. They attribute this to the fact that, in order to honor their bond with the Heterodynes, they were tasked with being separate from the rest of the horde and survive on their wits. As a result, when the horde leaves Wulfenbach, Dimo is christened a general, and even Oggie and Maxim are shown to be quite clever, and not just by Jäger standards.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: (Цветные люди/Разноцветная раса) Dimo is green, and Maxim is purple. Oggie is (relatively) normally coloured by human standards, which makes him the odd one out by Jäger standards.
• Badass Adorable: (Милый крутой) Oggie, and to a lesser extent Maxim.
• Badass Crew: They fight very effectively together.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: (Прелестница, умница и силачка) At first glance, it looks like Maxim is the Beauty, Dimo is the Brains, and Oggie is the Brawn, and they tend to treat each other as such. However, they also have Hidden Depths that muddies this. Oggie turns out to be a Kavorka Man with quite the number of descendants and Dimo can look rather handsome when he cares to shave and dress up, Maxim and Oggie prove time and time again to be just as cunning as Dimo when the chips are down since they also Had to Be Sharp, and Maxim and Dimo may not be as big as Oggie but they’re still Jägers with all of the superhuman physical traits and centuries of combat experience that comes with that.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Enough to even get them pissed at a Heterodyne. «Dot… vas… my…. HAT!» But even that’s not enough to overcome the bond between Jäger and Heterodyne.

«	Maxim: Forgiff me… Mistress.	»

• The Big Guy: (Силач) Being the only Jägers loyal to Agatha before the Doom Bell rings they serve as the muscle of Agatha’s group, especially while she was with the circus where they were her go-to guys to solve problems.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) They’re Jägers. It comes with the territory.
• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок) The bus FINALLY came back, after three years, when Maxim and Oggie finally showed up out of nowhere at Martellus' costume party. First revealed here, but seen a little earlier here.
• Chewing the Scenery: (Переигрывание)
  • When they need to stop Jenka from rampaging through town. «SCHTOP! Hyu horr’ble monstery ting of EVIL!»
  • Later, when they (briefly) entered Mechanicsburg before a Heterodyne was officially in residence, which is not allowed.

«	Oggie: Hyu knife, brodder! Maxim: Right here, brodder! Dimo: [sighs] Ve didn’t gets caught, hyu eediots. Oggie and Maxim: Whew! Gil: (annoyed Aside Glance)	»

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) Da Boyz have funny accents, are generally not too bright and more than a little goofy. Then something happens, and suddenly all the goofiness is gone and you’re reminded that Da Boyz are in fact 200+ -years-old Super Soldiers…
• Cute Little Fangs: (Торчащие клыки) Until they open their mouths and reveal that the «little» fangs are huge.
• Cute Monster Girl: (Няшная монстродевочка) Rare male example in Maxim and Oggie. Oggie, oddly, is more of a charmer than Maxim despite not being as pretty, even being able to sweet-talk human girls.
• Freudian Trio: (Фрейдистское трио) Dimo=Superego, Maxim=Ego, Oggie=Id.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) Iz de vay de Jägers tok. Even their applause is accented!
• Godzilla Threshold: With protecting Agatha their top priority and the Baron hunting her, it says something that Dimo and Maxim’s reaction to seeing large numbers of slaver engines is immediately deciding to inform the Baron and bring his troops running to the city Agatha is in.
• Had to Be Sharp: Extended time away from the main corps of Jägerkin has necessitated them to think on their own. As a result, they’ve become smarter for it; even Oggie, and especially Dimo. This sharpening of mental acuity is what enabled Maxim to be the Jäger who finally claimed Old Man Death’s hat.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) They’re smarter than the other Jägers. And it seemed to have only come up after they split from the main group.

«	General Zog: Dimo! Hy am shocked at dis behavior! Boris: Still, it was rather clever of him… General Zog: Hy said Hy vas shocked.	»

• I Owe You My Life: This was their excuse for watching over Agatha before her identity was revealed, that they need to pay her back for cutting them down in Zumzum.

«	Zeetha: You already did. On the bridge. Dimo: Dat vas fer me. Maxim und Oggie still gots dere turns.	»

• Kavorka Man: (Внезапный сердцеед) They claim to be "irresistible to vimmen, " which is at least true in Mechanicsburg and its suburbs, where Jägers are heroes. Maxim and Oggie both found interested girls during Maxim’s interaction with Old Man Death.
  • As the backstory for Oggie and Higgs unfolds, it’s becoming clear that the Jägers' non-human features are considered attractive in the Mechanicsburg area, to the point that Oggie takes it for granted that Zeetha will be disappointed if Higgs never develops them.
• The Man They Couldn’t Hang: They’re introduced swinging in the breeze in Zumzum, where they’ve been hanging for two days. The only thing they’re worried about is Jenka finding them.
• Mr. Fanservice: (Мистер Фансервис) Maxim is rather attractive and the other two have their fans.
• The Nose Knows: Da Boyz are introduced picking up a whiff of Agatha in Zumzum as they dangled on their ineffectual nooses. Later, they were able to identify the visions of the Heterodyne boys as false, a result of the hallucinogenic haze that the Circus members unleashed on the Wulfenbach forces, by not smelling the boys they could see. They could also «schmell ze fear» on Lars moments before his Heroic Sacrifice, and the blood on Gil when he was shot.
• No Sense of Personal Space: (Нарушитель личного пространства) Da boyz have no qualms about being in everyone’s space like they’re old friends, sometimes to be friendly and sometimes to be not-so-friendly. Dimo in particular has learned to weaponize this by looming over people, perching near his target so as to surprise them with a well timed comment. When they turn, they’re faced with an Jäger crouched like he’s ready to pounce, all his very sharp teeth showing in a menacing grin.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) Like many of the other Jägers, the degree of obfuscation varies. In the comic, Da Boyz argue over who gets to be the leading man in the play because they want to kiss the actresses; their bickering leads to Payne and Abner deciding to make them clowns. The novelization reveals that this was, in fact, exactly what the Jägers wanted. Other times…

«	Master Payne: «You cannot possibly be as stupid as you act.» Oggie: «Ken if hy vants to be!»	»

• Proud Warrior Race Guy: (Воинственная раса) Comes with being Jäger.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Oggie and Maxim, post Time Skip. Averted with Dimo. Oggie and Maxim finally reappear in Paris and join Agatha as she travels on to England.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) They don’t look particularly old, but they’re between two hundred and three hundred years old, and Oggie has at least one adult great-great-grandchild (who looks and acts suspiciously like the character telling the main story, who is an Author Avatar). They personally knew the original Storm King, and he really hated them.
• Secret-Keeper: Though not outright said, they are apparently aware that Higgs is actually a Jager General.
• Seen It All: Given that they’ve been Jägers for over a hundred years and Had to Be Sharp on top of the usual shenanigans, it takes a lot to take them off guard. Maxim and Dimo demonstrate this when escaping from an underwater exploding lab. They just shrug off the parade of ridiculous obstacles in their way, their response to a ghost pirate blocking the way is to pay him a pearl for passage (and had a fake pearl on hand), and they deliberately play up Mr. Exposition about their current situation to bait out a mind-control spider. Worth noting that Maxim was the one taking the lead in the above (though Dimo was clearly just as much in his element).
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: (Чувствительный парень и брутальный мужик) Dimo is the manly man, Maxim is the sensitive guy, and Oggie falls between them. Dimo always has to look like the toughest one and can deal with the harshest circumstances. Maxim apparently moped for fifty years because he he accidently killed his goldfish by overfeeding it. Meanwhile, Oggie has long been the patriarch of his entire family, but is still sensitive enough to cry over his deceased wife.
• The Smart Guy: (Умник) All three are pretty intelligent, especially compared to the average Jägerkin. Dimo is clearly the smartest of the trio. If you vote for Girl Genius at topwebcomics.com, the incentive even calls him «The Smart One.»
  • Take a close look at the last part of this scene. The other two are shocked, but Dimo is just rolling his eyes like he saw this coming. Just like the Jägergeneral behind him.
• Smarter Than You Look: Most notable in Dimo, but they’re all smarter than most rank-and-file Jägers because of the time they spent by themselves. Dimo is the smartest of the three because he can stay focused the longest, and he tends to be the one who asks the «smart questions». Though occasionally he’ll hammer a nail with his head instead of his metal hand.
  • Oggie actually is very astute about relationships and not only figures out that Higgs loves Zeetha, but gives them both advice that helps seal their relationship.
  • Maxim will at one minute talk about how it would be easy to defeat a 4th dimensional creature because they killed things that are older than that and the next minute point out that Agatha probably avoids sexual relationships because she fears the Lucrezia inside her head would subsequently make a play to take over her mind if Agatha allowed herself to be in such a romantic position, because Lucrezia has more experience than she does. Like Oggie, some of the stuff he believes or «figures out» seems to be incredibly stupid or based on insane logic, but other times his whole demeanor changes and he says something quite astute and wise. The only reason he isn’t as good at this as ** Dimo is because Dimo almost always stays serious while Maxim likes to goof off with Oggie.
• Suicide Mission: Their mission, along with the other wild Jägers, was to «find a Heterodyne», but no one expected them to succeed. The real purpose was to attempt to hold to the Jägertroth so that the rest of the Jägers could proudly say that they had not abandoned their masters while they served the Baron. Then they found Agatha…

«	Maxim: Vell… ectually she kinda found us. Doz dot still count? General Khrizhan: Ho, yez. Maxim: Whew!	»

• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) As with all Jägers.
• Those Two Guys: (Те два парня) Three, but who’s counting. Often get to fill this role. Exemplified by when Payne and Abner are trying to figure out how to integrate Da Boyz into the troupe.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Explicitly explained to be a choice on the Jägers' part. They are not compelled to serve the Heterodynes; rather, every Jäger has made a conscious choice and vow to serve the Heterodynes for life before they drank the Jägerbrau.
• You Can’t Go Home Again: To stay true to their oath when they signed up with Baron Wulfenbach, a small group of volunteers were detached and not committed to the Baron’s forces. It was determined that searching for the Heterodyne Boys or any possible offspring would not be a priority for the Baron, so these detached Jägers were tasked with searching for their masters. Da Boyz were three such Jägers, and it was considered a suicide mission because of the extremely long odds. But against those odds, they succeeded by finding Agatha and this trope was ultimately averted.

Dimo

The leader by default, due to being the smartest of the trio. Often the Only Sane Man as well.

• An Arm and a Leg: Dimo lost his left arm to the acid of mutated glowing slugs. More specifically, an emergency amputation by Oggie to prevent it from dissolving the rest of him.
• Artificial Limbs: (Искусственная конечность) Post time-skip, Dimo gets a metal strap-on arm to replace the one he lost from the slug acid spit.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) His skin and hat are both green.
• Field Promotion: (Внезапное повышение в звании) After the Siege of Mechanicsburg, with most of the Jäger generals caught in the time-freeze bubble, he’s received an unofficial promotion to general. As «official» generals are selected by age in addition to capacity, it’s unclear whether he’ll retain the rank.
• Four-Star Badass: (Крепкий середнячок) That’s General Dimo to you, after the Time Skip. He had to, as all the other (known) Generals are caught in the time-freeze bubble, and most rank-and-file Jägers aren’t known for smarts. As there’s a vacancy in the general staff due to hat-loss-caused-death of one General in the recent past, he may get to keep the post.
• Genius Bruiser: (Гениальный силач) Not for the standards of the series a whole, but definitely for the Jäger. He tends to be the guy with the plans and the one who asks the right questions. There’s a reason he was promoted post-timeskip.
• Handicapped Badass: (Крутой инвалид) Dimo, after losing his arm in the Sturmhalten Riot. Later receives an Artificial replacement that looks to have been made by some refugee in the caves after the Time Skip; Punch is a likely candidate for being the constructer.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: Invoked, amazingly; when he shows up with Jenka under Paris he’s disguised, by shaving, neatening up his hair, dressing in formal attire, and standing up straight, causing him to look quite different until closely examined. Agatha’s even surprised he can DO the latter. He doesn’t seem to like it, though.
• Heel-Face Turn: (Переход на Светлую сторону) He starts his turn in media res, but Dimo still used his intimidation tactics on the circus. He admits he was a villain just like the old Heterodynes in the Library arc in Paris, suggesting Agatha might want to leave the Jaegers behind during her journeys since people hate Jaegers. Agatha outright tells him that she doesn’t care if he doesn’t feel «heroic enough» and basically tells him to get over it. By the end of the England arc, he’s risking his life to save civilians while blaming himself for putting them in danger.
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек) The de facto leader of the trio. This quality later helps earn him a promotion to Generalcy after the time-skip.
• Perma-Stubble: (Вечная трёхдневная щетина) He starts out with a reasonably neat goatee. When he cleans up, he shaves it off…and it’s back the next day!
  • And its fully returned when he’s talking about his and his fellow Jägers' monstrous past (and Heel-Face Turn) with Heterodyne Boys.
• Slasher Smile: (Улыбашка) Dimo is particularly good at this.
• The Strategist: He tends to ask the «schmot qvestions».
• Surrounded by Idiots: (Меня окружают идиоты) It was bad enough when it was just him stuck with Oggie and Maxim, but Dimo really HATES being a General.
• You Are in Command Now: (Внезапное повышение в звании) Due to most of the Jäger generals being trapped in the Baron’s time-freeze bubble, Dimo took over leadership of the Jägers, having been one as the Only Sane Man amongst Da Boyz.
• Your Costume Needs Work: (Это не косплей) Gets told this by an actor playing a Jäger, saying he got the voice right but he could use some more makeup.

Ognian, aka «Oggie»

One of the few Jägers known to have descendants, and a surprisingly competent sweet-talker.

• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья) He is frequently clobbered by one or both of the other Boyz mid-sentence for saying things that/when he shouldn’t. Sometimes Jenka joins in too.
• Color-Coded Characters: Tan hair and skin with brown clothes.
• Dumb Blond: (Тупая блондинка) Oggie is… not the sharpest tooth in the mouth.

«	Master Payne: You cannot possibly be as stupid as you act. Oggie: Ken if I vants to be!	»

• I Want Grandkids: Oggie wants great-great-great-grandkids. Becomes This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.Heartwarming in Hindsight when he reveals that having descendants is a way to keep the memory of his long-dead wife alive, as Oggie can still see something of her in every one of them.
• Kavorka Man: (Внезапный сердцеед) Of special mention with Oggie, as he’s the only one of the boys with known descendants so far.
  • Although a look at him pre-serum shows I Was Quite a Looker First panel in the middle
• Manchild: (Вечный ребёнок) Oggie is a fun loving guy, but often comes across as highly immature.
• Mayfly-December Romance: (Роман однодневки с вечностью) it turns out Oggie was married to a woman he met and got pregnant just before he took the Jagerdraught. They were together 64 years, which while a fair lifetime for her, was such a short time compared to the hundreds of years he’s lived since. He still keeps a picture of her in that necklace he always wears, and from the look of the fez she is wearing in the flashback, Oggie may also be wearing her hat.
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) Oggie apparently did something that pissed off Klaus, which may be part of the reason he was sent on the mission in the first place.
• Saying Too Much: As already noted, he has a real problem when it comes to blurting out sensitive information.
• Someone to Remember Him By: (Ребёнок в память о нём) Played straight first, then Gender Flipped. As he reveals when Zeetha asks about his wife, the woman who would become his wife often shared his tent when she crossed paths with the Heterodyne’s troops, but left the day before he took the Jagerdraught. The implication being that she tried to become pregnant with his child before he took the highly-likely-to-be-lethal Super Serum and left so she wouldn’t have to see him die. She succeeded in the former, and was surprised when the latter didn’t happen. Oggie now views all of his descendants as a way to remember her.

«	Ognian: Hy means, fifty years or so, a hunnert, at most — boom! Most pipple iz gone! But her — she iz not gone. Not as lonk as Hy gots descendants. Vit dem, Hy still see glimpses of Her.	»

• Super Serum: (Военный препарат) Martellus concocts some manner of potion that he has an injured Oggie drink during the bid to extract Lucrezia from Agatha in Londonium, and it makes him grow beastly large, bloodshot-eyed, and maniacally laughing as he rips the arm right off of a super-clank loaded with another copy of Lucrezia after she had put an end to Zeetha’s onslaught.
• Ugly Cute: (Уродливо красивый) In-Universe. By his own admission, his wife was ugly, but in a cute way.

Maxim

The prettiest of the trio, and mostly human except for his purple skin.

• Art Evolution: While the whole comic has been going though it subtly over the decades its run, Maxim’s design has changed the most of all Da Boyz, which is most apparent when you look at how his nose is drawn. Compare when he’s first introduced here to his latest 2020 appearance here
• Attractive Bent-Gender: (Эффект Шноббса) In the Cinderella story, Maxim… is beautiful. Oggie and Dimo are jealous.

«	Oggie: Hyu iz supposed to be an ogly stepsister. Whyfor hyu gots de pretty dress? Maxim: Hyu gots to know how to sveet tok de costumers, dollink.	»

• Cavalry Officer: Maxim’s outfit and use of a saber in combat appears to have been based on various cavalry uniforms. Later when Da Boyz link up with the rest of the Jägerhorde it’s shown that he is indeed part of the Jäger cavalry rather than the infantry.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) Purple skin and clothes.
• Due to the Dead: In honor of Lars’s Heroic Sacrifice, Maxim goes out of his way to retrieve his corpse, then gives his first hat to be buried with him. If only for a short time, Lars «rode with the Jägers» (like Carson Von Mekkhan and Old Man Death), and it’s custom for Jäger auxiliaries to be honored in death like a Jäger.

«	«He fight vit us Jägers und die for the house of Heterodyne. Dot make him as goot as vun of us. Ve don’t leave our own behind. (…) So ven hyu bury him, make sure he gots a hat.»	»

• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: (Длинноволосый симпатяга) Goes along with his Bishounen factor. In fact Maxim was originally designed as an in-joke for Kaja. Lampshaded in the Cinderella side-story, when he’s supposed to play an ugly stepsister… well, see for yourself.
• Loophole Abuse: After failing to get Old Man Death’s hat by fighting him for it, Maxim then tells him he wants a sandwich. Old Man Death tells him «you name it, I make it». Maxim asks for a «Prince of Sturmhalten’s Big Bet», which refers to a past Prince of Sturmhalten who lost a bet with the reigning Heterodyne at the time, and had to eat his hat. In order to live up to his boast, Old Man Death had to make Maxim a hat sandwich.

«	Maxim: Und I vants it to go. Old Man Death: DEM!	»

The Dingbots

The Dingbots are a horde of small clanks (roughly the size of a large pocketwatch) created by Agatha that prove to be immensely useful in a variety of roles. The original Dingbots created by Agatha herself (such as the fan-named «Dingbot Prime», created in her sleep aboard Castle Wulfenbach) appear to have the Spark, as they are able to create more Dingbots (though with diminishing returns in quality).

• Action Bomb: During the battle that eventually laid Baron Wulfenbach low, several of them went red-eyed and started charging at enemies and exploding.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: (ИИ — это рискованно) They’re not evil, but Tarvek has hypothesized that the Primes have the Spark. And they did go a bit off the rails during the Civil War between the Prime and Deuce factions before the Dingbot Queen intervened.
• Ascended Fanon: (Просочиться в канон) While they aren’t referred to in-comic as anything BUT 'Agatha’s Little Clanks', when Prime and Deuce start fighting, one of the page titles of the Dingbot War is «Attack of the Dingbots!».
  • Ascended further in the novelizations, where they are called dingbots in the narration, though are still called 'Agatha’s little clanks' by the characters. In the video game, the dingbot you control is labelled as such; and The Works card game has two cards: Agatha’s Dingbots 1 and Agatha’s Dingbots 2.
• Cute Machines: (Милый робот) All of them have at least one big round innocently curious looking eye.
• Do-Anything Robot: (Универсальный робот‏‎) Individually, likely not. But as a horde? They Zerg Rush the problem; odds are, some dingbot has/is the right tool for the job.
• Rebus Bubble: To Gil, and to the second Dingbot Prime («Dingbot Deuce» as he’s been called).
• Recursive Creators: Only a few of the Dingbots were made by Agatha herself, the majority of them were made by other Dingbots. However each sucessive generation is weaker and more specialized than the one that created it. So while the Primes and the early generations are capable of planning and organizing projects the later generations eventually devolve into what are essentially ambulatory tools.
• Reforged into a Minion: A loose interpretation of this trope can apply to the post-defeat Beast of the Rails and to the fragment of Castle found in Paris: Agatha recreated their physical platforms into speech-capable advanced dingbots.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: It’s not that they have the ability to build lesser copies of themselves; it’s more that their first instinct on meeting a foreign swarm (or devotion, if you will) is to declare total war.
• Simple, yet Awesome: (Неладно скроен, но крепко сшит) They’re lab assistants, designed when Agatha was a university student with no resources. That make more lab assistants, which in turn make more, and so on until the latest models aren’t sophisticated enough to do so. So Agatha only has to build one, and literally overnight she will have a small army of lab assistants that can carry out her instructions and build her designs. Who says logistics are hard?
• The Speechless: (Немота) They don’t say a single actual word, their vocalizations consist of Rebus Bubbles and heterodyning.
• There Can Be Only One: (Королевская битва (троп)) Agatha lost the original Dingbot Prime and made a new one. The original turned up again and, well, they don’t seem to like each other all that much… Soon after, Agatha made a third one, a «Dingbot Queen» who subdued Prime and Deuce and united the two warring factions following each of the «primes».
• Turned Against Their Masters: (Восстание машин) Even the typical Heterodyne creations Undying Loyalty cannot get the two Prime Dingbots to stop fighting. Then Agatha actually tries the old «you are my creations» line. They just whack her on the foot with a wrench and get right back to clobbering one another.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: (Ну, они же роботы) Despite being the size of a large pocketwatch there is every chance the Agatha-originated Dingbots are self aware, and possibly are Sparks themselves.
• Zerg Rush: (Сила толпы) Their biggest advantage in carrying out the tasks their mistress (or her associates) needs is their sheer numbers.

Gilgamesh Wulfenbach

Son of one of the major antagonists, Gilgamesh is one of the possible pairings for Agatha, and has much more obvious motivations.

• Badass Boast: (Крутая похвальба) And it is awesome.
• Badass Bookworm: (Книжный червь) He’d actually much prefer playing around in his lab, and doesn’t even have a death ray when Agatha first meets him.
• Badass Longcoat: (Крутой в пальто) A habit borrowed from his father. Gil owns several of them, of varying degree of fanciness. Sometimes prone to Clothing Damage.
• Bait the Mole: He feeds suspected moles information, waits to see if his enemies react to it, and roots the moles out accordingly.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) You should take him seriously. He doesn’t like it when you don’t.
• Betty and Veronica: (Бетти и Вероника) Agatha’s Betty, to contrast with the far less trustworthy Tarvek. His Sanity Slippage later on starts to shift him into the Veronica role, however.
• Beware the Nice Ones: (Добро с кулаками) He is a friendly, generous, honest man who believes strongly in giving second chances. He doesn’t even have any weapons by the time Agatha first meets him. But piss him off, and he can fight off Super Soldiers with his bare hands.

«	Gil: I am Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, little man — and there is nothing I couldn’t do, had I cause! And now… now I have one!	»

• Big Damn Heroes: (Офигенные герои) He’s not the only one to do this by a long shot, but he certainly loves to.
• Blatant Lies: (Наглая ложь) «I’m a pirate.»
• Brainwashed and Crazy: During the Battle of Mechanicsburg Klaus brainwashes him to be "loyal to the Empire, " so that he will have enough free agency to inoculate himself against the slaver wasps and remain free from Lucrezia’s control. The result is a Gil who is angry, dangerous, and insists on trying to capture Agatha for the good of all. Klaus also notes that in the worst case scenario, his advisers will be able to rule through him. It’s implied that Gil found a way to rid himself of this, however. That’s why, just to be on the safe side, Klaus implanted his own personality into Gilgamesh to keep him under control.
• Bullying a Dragon: (Моська лает на слона) Vole was talking down to this guy?
• Child Prodigy: (Вундеркинд) He was eight when his spark broke through and he made Zoing, his little insectoid helper construct. This is even more notable if we remember that most Sparks break through as teenagers or young adults. It’s suggested this happened because of him finding out that he’s Klaus’s son and losing Tarvek as a friend as a result was so stressful he broke through.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: (Синдром хронического героизма) Turns out to be his driving trait; when Gil has passed out from exhaustion, Agatha makes a good guess on how to wake him up:

«	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: A bucket? Again? Okay, I’m comin’.	»

• Crazy Jealous Guy: (Ревность) Wooster certainly seems to think so.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: (Тёмные круги под глазами) After the time skip. He remains awake for weeks and gets dark circles around his eyes as a result.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) While he doesn’t fall into this as much as others, brown seems to show up often in his outfits and matches his hair color.
• Dark and Troubled Past: It’s hinted that being his father’s son has been very trying if not near traumatizing for him since he found out the truth.
• Death Glare: (Убийственный взгляд) Has unleashed a few. He is one of very few people that have managed to scare a Jäger.
• Death Ray: (Чудо-лучи) Notable for not having one until he finally built a really impressive one. Or two.
• Determinator: (Превозмогатель) Gil has his moments, especially when Agatha is in danger.
• Deus Exit Machina/Holding Back the Phlebotinum: When Klaus freezes himself in time, Gilgamesh becomes the Baron Wulfenbach, and gains control of the largest army and biggest Empire in Europa… just in time for a series of rebellions to tear his new empire to pieces. After the time skip, he’s using most of his resources to hold things together and steadily reclaim his empire.
  • However, his access to the full resources of the empire has allowed him to make major progress investigating the Mechanicsburg Time Stop.
• Deuteragonist: (Девтерагонист) To Agatha, the Protagonist.
• Don’t Call Me «Sir»: (Не называй меня «сэр») A weird case; he refused to be called Baron at first, since that implied his father was dead even though they Never Found the Body. He’s even less happy when he learns the alternative is «Your Highness.»

«	Gil: Oh, for … I can’t even imagine what that’s about.	»

• Dragon Rider: (Драконий всадник) After the time skip, he rides one of the «last great sky wyrms», having taken and tamed it after one of the Polar Ice Lords challenged him. Notably, it’s completely capable of directing itself in a fight: when fighting Martellus, he sets it on the mooks to concentrate on the serious opposition on foot.
• Dude, Where’s My Respect?: (Ты меня уважаешь?) He tries to be even-handed and fair, and people just dismiss him for it. And then he has to remind them that he is his father’s son. Like with Vole over these three pages.
• Evil Costume Switch: (Символическая смена одежды) Downplayed as it’s less «Evil» and more «Brainwashed and Crazy Costume Switch». After the timeskip, he first shows up again in a red and black coat with a High Collar of Doom. It goes well with his Creepy Shadowed Undereyes.
• Excessive Mourning: After Agatha fakes her death, Gil is still consumed by his grief for her months later, even though he knew her for maybe a week. He risks his own safety and health to personally destroy rogue clanks similar to the one that supposedly killed her, and denies himself sleep working on reviving her adoptive parents. He also neglects his hygiene.
  • While separated from Agatha during the timeskip he does it again, building giant statues of her all around the outside of Mechanicsburg and spending weeks at a time in the madness place, foregoing sleep to a very unhealthy degree as he tries obsessively to recover her.
• Fatal Flaw: (Фатальная слабость) Gil shares two with Tarvek: Pride and Wrath. His wrath being the more destabilizing trait. Gil is consistently nice to those around him to the point where when he does lose control, he reacts incredibly fiercely which contrasts all the more with his gentle nature. He almost kills Vole, which while completely understandable, turns out would have been an impulsive, and a long term blunder. Similarly, his hatred of Tarvek is not entirely rational. As for his pride, he tends to lose control and make mistakes when he is underestimated, though this also makes him exceptionally dangerous. He has a third fatal flaw in he can’t handle his longing for Agatha which causes him to act like an idiot.
• Finish Dialogue in Unison: (Унисон) When Gil and Tarvek are both in The Madness Place they tend to reach the same conclusions and thus finish sentences in unison.
• Finishing Each Other’s Sentences: Gil ocassionally cuts in to finish Tarvek’s sentances such as in England when he finds the comparison of Tarvek and kidnapped princesses highly entertaining.

«	Trelawney: Every one of those cases involved kidnapped royal princesses. Tarvek: My goodness, really? I had no idea. Nevertheless— Gil: It’s totally applicable.	»

• Fond Memories That Could Have Been: After Agatha fakes her death. He admits to Wooster that they weren’t close as such, but insists that they would have been.
• Geeky Turn-On: (Ум — это сексуально) Is the one most prominently shown to be highly attracted to Agatha’s sparky-ness. In his defense, she’s one of the few women he’s met that can keep up with him on an intellectual level.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка) From the first volume he had a hunch that it was Agatha who was the new Spark.
• Half-Human Hybrid: (Полукровки) Gil’s father is an Artificial Human construct. Several scenes indicate that he’s inherited at least some of his father’s Super-Strength and durability; it’s also been hinted that Klaus made certain.. improvements to Gil when the latter was still a child.
• Hat of Authority: (Буржуйский цилиндр)
  • Magnificently so, to impress the hat-obsessed Jaegers. — Also counts as a Brick Joke in this scene — Just when he thought he was rid of it for good, the Hat Came Back!
  • The Hat is so potent that it serves as instant identification of Gilgamesh. Except for the one guy. He gets a promise of promotion when the urgency of asserting Gil’s identity has passed.
• Heroic RRoD: When his body can no longer handle the feats of epic badassery he’s performing. Has happened at least twice: after he beat up Vole and after throwing Merlot’s clank.
• Hereditary Hairstyle: His rather wild hair is akin to his father’s, except his still has color to it.
• Hidden Backup Prince: Not quite a traditional example, but when Gil discovers that he can be addressed as «Your Highness» he is quite surprised. This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God reveals that he’s the Prince of Skifander, and judging by the fact that Orotine (the Muse of Geometries, who was built to advise the Storm King) is happy to advise him, it would appear that Gil is also somehow in the running for the Lightning Crown.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины)
  • It’s occasionally shown that Gil has major self esteem issues, feeling that he has no control over his life and never will.
  • Inverted when the slaver wasps are loose on Castle Wulfenbach. Agatha tells him to reveal his hidden arsenal of death rays that, of course, the tyranical Baron’s son must built and just be hiding and it takes several attempts for ** Gil to tell her that he has not been secretly building killing machines and he really is as nonviolent a creator as it seems.
• How They Treat the Help: Zola mentions that he was her only associate in Paris who was always nice to her, even though (as far as he knew) she was just a chorus girl.
• The Insomniac: After the time skip. He spends weeks without sleep, apparently obsessing over getting Agatha and Mechanicsburg back. While he’s been specifically conditioned (and/or remodeled) to allow him to survive this, it’s clearly not good for him.
• Knight in Sour Armor: (Рыцарь в ржавых доспехах)

«	Zeetha: Hmf. She sounds like an idiot. Gil: Well, yes, but never a malicious one. Zeetha: Is that important? Gil: Heavens, yes! If I let everyone I thought was an idiot die, there wouldn’t be many people left.	»

• Last-Name Basis: (Называть по фамилии) Tarvek always calls Gil by his surname «Wulfenbach» (or by «Holzfäller» before he learned his true identity), and Gil in turn always calls Tarvek by «Sturmvoraus.»
• Last-Second Word Swap: After Gil sinks into depression following Agatha’s apparent death, he tells Wooster that with all the other students gone and Klaus locked up in his own lab for the last two months, he has no one left. When Wooster replies that Gil still has him, Gil responds with «You—?! You’re only here—» before cutting himself off. This serves as Foreshadowing to the fact that Gil knows Wooster is a British spy, with Gil cutting himself off before he can reveal that he already knows.
• Like Brother and Sister: (Как брат и сестра)
  • With Bang, to the horror of Klaus. After the time skip, Gil finds nothing odd about waking up with Bang in bed with him. When the two get to serious bickering, it can get as nonsensical and impenetrably self-referential as you’d expect of the trope. With a very high chance of bruises or worse. But, you have to feel sorry for anybody else who tries harming her near him. And, vice versa.
  • During their time together in Mechanicsburg he develops a more downplayed version of this with Zeetha. Their fight includes a lot lighthearted teasing which extends to later moments. Subverted as they’re actually twins.
• Loved I Not Honor More: There’s liking Agatha, but first there’s containing the Other, as he explains to Zeetha. He also makes this argument while she’s charging the Castle, but it’s not clear whether it’s actually him making it.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Agatha thinks he’s been pretending to be an idiot around her. He was not. He’s even willing to lampshade it when he’s fighting Vole.

«	Tarvek: So, Wulfenbach — just checking — Is this going to be some kind of macho exercise where you insist on battling a potentially superior opponent alone in some kind of misguided attempt to «prove» your intrinsic worth? Gil: No, NO! I’m only that stupid in front of Agatha!	»

• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть?)
  • He took several bullets and kept standing unfazed while facing down the army of war clanks attempting to invade Mechanicsburg. And then he kicks a former Jäger’s ass for underestimating him while being dragged off for medical care.
  • After being kicked by Zeetha into a wall, the wall had a number of cracks— with him not even bleeding yet.
  • The print-novels at least establish that this is more literal than some cases: Klaus made numerous physical improvements to Gil while the latter was still a child.
• The Madness Place: He’s known to slip into it a bit easier than many other Sparks, getting the distinctive speech bubbles and maniacal glee even when he simply has a really good idea for saving Agatha. After the time skip, his speech bubbles imply that he is in a low-level Madness Place for months. He only finally returns to normal when he rescues Tarvek from the time stop and confirms he’s okay.
• Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter: Well, handsome son.
• Marry for Love: He isn’t happy when his father announces it’s time for him to get married and that he will arrange for a suitable match. He would prefer a girl he likes, who understands his Sparky ideas and can keep up with them. He already has his heart set on Agatha, who has a strong spark herself which may very well surpass his own.
• The Medic: While most of the main characters have some degree of medical training it’s Gil who spends the most time patching up his friends. Tarvek is his most common patient as Gil has had to save his life from numerous assassination attempts and other injuries.

«	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?	»

• Minored In Ass Kicking: He’s really a reasonable guy who prefers talking things out to fighting. But he can do unreasonable if the situation calls for it, and he can wipe out armies and pound Jägers into the ground when that happens.
• Missing Mom: (Пропавшая мама) The only time she’s mentioned in the main comic is when Klaus grumbles that he hasn’t seen his wife in years, and Gil claims Von Pinn is the closest thing to a mother he’s ever known. Judging from a few hints in the comic and a few more outside the comic, all signs point to his mother being Zantabraxus, Warrior Queen of Skifander… who is also Zeetha’s mother..
• Mr. Fanservice: (Мистер Фансервис) Observe.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) Named for the protagonist of the oldest epic we still have records of.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом)
  • While studying in Paris, Gil cultivated the image of himself as a womanising layabout and opium fiend who was involved with pirates and constantly getting involved in the schemes of crazed minor Sparks, in order to keep anyone (especially Tarvek Sturmvoraus) from figuring out that he was the Baron’s son (though the trouble with crazy Sparks was mostly for the sake of an absent minded chorus girl he had befriended).
  • In fact, Gil tends to pull this off so often that a lot of people are routinely surprised that he’s already figured out their secrets. For example, he had long ago figured out that Higgs was a Jäger General, much to the latter’s annoyance.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: (Закадровый момент крутости) After the time skip, Gil is first introduced riding «the last of the great sky wyrms» which he allegedly seized from the Polar Lords, who attacked him shortly after he assumed the title of Baron. When, much later, it’s revealed exactly what the Polar Lords are, the fact he successfully beat them back becomes immensely impressive.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: (Учёный-всезнайка) When it comes to the Spark, Gil is something of a dilettante…which means he’s amazingly versatile. He works with heavier-than-air flight (which is bleeding-edge in Europa), built the most powerful and impressive Death Ray yet shown, and is better at building constructs than the young Heterodyne Boys, rebuilding the somewhat-flawed Punch and Judy as fully-functional Artificial Humans.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: (OOC — это серьёзно) The combination of brainwashing and personality transfer Klaus subjected him to out of paranoia of him being brainwashed by the other has predictably lead to at least one group concluding his erratic behaviour is due to him being controlled by the Other herself.
• Out of Focus: He drops out of the story for most of the second arc. Lampshaded with a gag panel here.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) The first sign he’s nicer than his status as the tyrant’s son would suggest is when he gets hit by the avalanche of junk in Beetle’s lab, he makes a point of catching the occupied fishbowl that flew at him. He then protectively cradles it for the remainder of the scene and a throwawy line of dialogue indicated he brought it with him back to Castle Wulfenbach.
• Poor Communication Kills: (Коммуникативная неудача) A recurring problem in his relationship with Agatha is his tendency to say all the wrong things. A good example being her objections to the way he treats Othar. Despite that treatment being because Othar is a Serial Killer of Sparks, Gil never actually mentions that and not only seems far more cruel than he is in her eyes, but also leaves her in danger of Othar herself when she mentions being a Spark to him.
• Porn Stash: (Спрятанное порно) Apparently teenage boys really are the same everywhere. Even steampunk mad scientist ones. By the way, a «seraglio» is another word for a harem.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: A brief one, when Agatha kisses him after destroying the Hive Engine.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: (ЭТО! СПАРТА!) Do. You. Understand?
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: (Диалектика Льда и Огня) Red to Tarvek’s Blue, oh-so-very much. Gil is passionate, dogged and relentless in everything he does, and prefers Crazy Preparation to Chess. This means he’s hopeless in situations that can’t be prepared for… like romance. He has to get by on honesty… and can be a bit brutal about it.
• Sanity Slippage: After the time skip. His father’s brainwashing, combined with losing nearly every single friend and family member he had all at once, has not been kind to him.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: One of the first things he does is go crazy while examining the machine Glassvitch and Merlot built. He’s even been the page picture.
• Secret Test of Character: (Проверка на вшивость) His father gives him a lot of these. His introduction is a two-part one: To see if he’s intelligent enough to notice that his father’s theory is fundamentally flawed, and to see if he has the ability to confront his father when he is wrong.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: (Чувствительный парень и брутальный мужик) The Manly Man to Tarvek’s Sensitive Guy, he’s more action oriented and a little less socially apt. On the other hand, he’s the attentive one who pays attention to Agatha’s moods and desires while Tarvek tends to attempt to assert his will over her, so he could be considered the Sensitive Guy to Tarvek’s Manly Man.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: (Она не моя девушка!) Gets a bit of this regarding Agatha, though not as much as she does regarding him.
• Sherlock Scan: Gil quickly figures out that Agatha (not Moloch) is the Spark his father is looking for by merely looking at their hands: Moloch’s hands are relatively clean, while Agatha’s are smeared with machine oil. Instead of pointing this out to his men, however, he keeps it to himself until he can confirm it.
• Shirtless Scene: (Рубашка не нужна) Enough that the wiki had a poll at one point about when editors thought he would next put a shirt on. One of the options was «Gil owns a shirt?»
• Shock and Awe: (Электрическая магия) Can call down the lightning — with certain preparations. The most notable example of him doing this, interestingly, is also an example of the Trope Namer- rapid dominance through a spectacular display of power.

«	Crab-Walker Crews: We surrender!!	»

• Sketchy Successor: He’s not capable of maintaining control of Europa like his father did. He’s good and smart, but nobody was going to hold the Empire together under the circumstances in which Klaus was taken off the board.
• The Sleepless: His father taught him some mental exercises that can let him go without sleep for a few days. Zeetha implies that this is an ancient Skifandran warrior discipline, but happily deflects any further questions.
• Speak in Unison: (Унисон) Gil and Tarvek end up saying the same thing at the same time on occasion, especially when they’re synced to try and save Tarvek’s life. At one point in Castle Heterodyne they start speaking in unison even though they’re each talking about a different occasion:

«	Gil & Tarvek: I thought you were dead! After losing you like that once, I’m going to make sure you’re safe if it’s the last thing I do!	»

• Super-Strength: (Физическая сверхсила) He can lift and throw an armored clank, though this does a number on his muscles. Again, this is probably due to his father’s physical improvments.
• Those Magnificent Flying Machines: (Полёт?) He’s one of the pioneers in fixed-wing, heavier-than-air flight. (Other variants, such as rotor-driven «copters» and even hovercraft, have been seen here and there.)
• Those Two Guys: (Те два парня) He and Tarvek are somewhere between this and Vitriolic Best Buds. Whenever the two of them align on something (usually Agatha or both hating a new suitor of hers), they practically talk in sync and are able to do anything incredibly efficiently, be it working on an invention or mercilessly mocking someone… right before going back to trading barbs between the two of them.
• Took a Level in Badass: (Поднял уровень крутизны) While Agatha was «dead.»
• Tragic Keepsake: (Печальный символ) After Agatha faked her death, he started wearing the ring he gave her on a necklace. He kept wearing it for a time even after meeting back up with her, as they had yet to become a couple, but took it off during the Si Vales and then forgot to put in back on again.
• Training from Hell: (Бесчеловечные тренировки) Everything does, apparently, have to be a test.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: (Активация через страдание) Implied. The timing of his breakthrough, 8 years old to be precise, fits the chrononogy for when a) his friendship with Tarvek ended and he was sent from Castle Wuffenbach, and b) when he found out his true parentage. The fact he made a very cute construct as a friend/assistant suggests losing Tarvek’s friendship was a major driving factor.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: (Заклятые друзья) In the brief periods when they’re distracted from the fact that they kind of hate each other, he and Tarvek actually get along exceedingly well together.
  • Turns out they were best friends during their schoolboy years. Despite the immense political turmoil between as heirs between two different regimes, the rivalry to win Agatha’s heart and just the times they caused each other immense annoyance, the two still care about each other greatly and do not react well when the other is in danger.
  • Gil has spent his every appearance since the Time Skip in the Madness Place, but getting to speak to Tarvek not only snaps him out of it, he stays out even after Tarvek passes out and he moves on to other matters. When Tarvek is then taken by the Incorruptible Library, Gil immediately forgoes diplomacy and resolves to chase them down and take him back by force.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: «To annoy your father?»
• Warrior Poet: (Поэт и воин) Is as at home designing art as he is designing weapons.
• Warrior Prince: Technically not a «prince», because the Wulfenbach name wasn’t exactly high nobility before the Baron enforced his rule. But Gil is very much his father’s son, and knows how to throw down just as well as his father. He may well be a more literal example after all. When he refuses to be styled as «Herr Baron» after his father’s disappearance, Boris decides to use one of Gil’s styles: Your Highness. And the infamous «Chump picture» has all but confirmed that Gil is Prince of Skifander; plus there are hints that he might be a contender for the crown of the Storm King.
• «Well Done, Son» Guy: Played with. Gil has absolutely no reason to doubt that his father loves or wants him, and genuinely wants to make him proud and show himself worthy to be his father’s heir. Klaus, in the mean time, doesn’t hesitate to show approval when warranted, but tests his son constantly, has very high demands and has made it abundantly clear he won’t hesitate to break Gil down for bits and build a new son if Gil, through design or general incompetence, becomes a threat to the political stability of the Wulfenbach Empire.
• We Used to Be Friends: (Когда-то мы были друзьями) With Tarvek. They were best buddies back when they were kids. But they had a falling-out after getting caught sneaking into Castle Wulfenbach’s archives: Tarvek was accused of spying on the Baron and using Gil for his own ends, and Gil believed it. They still treated each other with respect and worked pretty well together. It took the ordeal of surviving Castle Heterodyne, the siege of Mechanicsburg, and a disease that nearly killed them both before they patched things up between them.
• Wild Hair: (Непрактичная грива) Just like Daddy’s.
• Yank the Dog’s Chain: (Приманить собаку) He just wants to be with Agatha, but never gets to stay near her for long. A week after he meets her, she fakes her death; two months later he finds out she’s alive and reunites with her in Mechanicsburg for a couple of days, only to have her get frozen in time; when she comes out of the time stop two and a half years later he chases her to St. Szpac where his father’s mind control knocks him unconscious in a matter of seconds once he’s in the same room with her; after his father’s mind control is removed he gets to be with her for only a few days in England before he has to return to Europa to fight the Polar Lords while she goes to find Prende’s Lantern; a few days after she returns with the lantern, he gets kidnapped while they are preparing to lift the time stop.

Krosp I

Created by the Spark, Dr. Vapnoople, to control cats to act as a spy network, Krosp I is a failed experiment with delusions of lordship who has given Agatha much valuable political advice. Or possibly not so failed after all..

• Badass Longcoat: (Крутой в пальто) He’s given quite a nifty red and gold one while he’s with Master Payne’s Circus with Agatha. At first he complains about the coat, but for reasons unknown to any but Krosp himself, he’s kept it.
• Bears Are Bad News: (Страшный медведь) Not for him, it turns out. Dr. Vapnoople’s bear army was real, with sentient bear constructs. And they are all programmed to obey Krosp.
• Buffoonish Tomcat: Zigzagged, much of Krosp’s comedy comes from having a brilliant military and logistical mind bolted onto the brain of a young cat. That said when he becomes love stuck he’s a goner.
• Canon Immigrant: (Просочиться в канон) He originated in the Magic: The Gathering days of What’s New? with Phil and Dixie.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Yes. Yes, they are.
  • So as a consequence Deadpan Snarker
• Chekhov’s Gunman: (Стрелок Чехова) First seen as an apparently normal cat getting into Agatha’s food, and just one page later is shown drinking from the glass like a person instead of a cat.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) The white of his fur and the red and gold of his coat.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: (Бафосная угроза) When his animal side takes over.

«	Krosp: [to Gil on their first meeting] I’m serious! Mess with me and your shoes are mine!	»

• Everyone Has Standards: While he has a different sense of morality to his human companions, he dislikes Martellus as much as the other heroes do.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка) As this page among others helps demonstrate, Krosp knows what happens around Sparks, and he also fully anticipates people’s reactions to Agatha’s claim of being the heir. He also loves their reactions.
• Gone Horribly Right: (Всё пошло слишком так) A humorous example; his creator wanted an intelligent cat capable of exercising control over his non-sapient brethren. He succeeded perfectly, but it turns out that cats don’t really make good spies…
  • Turns out Vapnoople also figured this out at some point before the story and made Krosp a sentient bear army to command instead. Or the whole «cat king» thing was a cover story all along, and the bears already existed when Krosp was created; the whole timeline of events here is not yet clear.
    • Cleared up in Albion arc: he made bears, got captured by the Baron, got lobotomized, THEN he made Krosp, in his child-like state not thinking the whole attention part through. Seems like he built his master command signature into Krosp to make ALL of his creations obey him, but so far only bears were encountered.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: (Одежда для нелюдей) Once he picks up a snappy jacket that one of the kids in Payne’s troupe outgrew.
  • Lampshaded here. «Trousers?! NEVER!»
• Intellectual Animal: (Умён, как человек) Though the intelligence wasn’t the point of the project.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: (Козёл с золотым сердцем) For all that he is a snarky, unethical cat, he seems to care deeply about Agatha and her well-being.
  • He also refers to his creator as «poppa» and seems genuinely touched, if a bit startled, that the man made him an army of bears.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) It’s an anagram of «spork», a combined spoon/fork eating utensil, and while not as useful as a separate spoon and fork, still pretty handy to have around.
• My Instincts Are Showing: For all his intellect and articulate speech, his pragmatism and insight on Realpolitik, he is still ultimately a cat. He gets sidetracked by table scraps and mice, threatens to shred shoes, and irrationally hates getting wet. And when he gets mutually lovestruck by Martellus’s newly uplifted female cat, both he and she stalk each other enamored… only to recoil and hiss at each other like normal unfamiliar cats.
• Non-Human Sidekick: To Agatha, though Krosp will argue that Agatha is his human subject.
• No-Sell: (Никакого эффекта) He is the only one able to consistently ignore Agatha’s Spark command voice.
• The Nose Knows: His olfactory senses have been useful. Most notably, during the Passholdt incident.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) In the print novel, he mentions that when the Baron was testing his abilities, he hid his intelligence, though he admits this might have been a mistake. This explains why the Baron was willing to kill a highly intelligent creature when he is later shown to be excellent at «finding the right monster for the right job.»
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек) Well, usually. He gets pretty useless when his cat instincts take over.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: (ООС — это серьёзно) When Krosp turns down free eel pie, everybody takes note.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) After he discovered the army of uplifted bears his «poppa»/creator Dr. Vapnoople made for him and stopped the sentient train with the others, he took a leave of absence from Agatha’s side, stating he had business to take care of. Ardley Wooster was understandably quite worried.
• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок‏) After being absent for the entire Paris arc, Krosp confirmed Wooster’s worry by extracting his creator off of Castle Wulfenbach, commandeering a Wulfenbach airship and heading straight to England to meet with Agatha.
• Realpolitik: (Реальная политика) He is a font of wisdom on this for Agatha.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: (Царь-плотник) When Agatha sarcastically swears fealty to him, he takes her seriously and accepts her as his subject. He considers it his responsibility as her king to keep her safe.
• Smart Animal, Inconvenient Instincts: While Krosp would like to claim that his 'cat-instincts' have no hold over him, but Agatha rather enjoys proving otherwise. Using a piece of string. In the main comic, a young minion earns Krosp’s respect by bringing him dead rats.
• The Smart Guy: (Умник) Of the tactical and political variety.
• Smart People Play Chess: He plays it. In the novels, he’s good enough to win against Master Payne, who’s a total cheat.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: And well aware of it.

«	Krosp: Is this one of those situations that involves "ethics"? 'Cause I'm a cat, you know. I've never been very good at those.	»

• Turned Against Their Masters: (Восстание рабов) His creator, Dr. Dimitri Vapnoople, hardwired complete loyalty into his creations, including Krosp. Despite the fact Krosp never should have been able to even consider it, Krosp manages to defy him anyways and describes his creator as a nutcase.
• Uplifted Animal: (Возвышение) Created to be a spymaster of cats. The problem lies in that the cats he were to be the spymaster to were… not uplifted. Well, until it turns out that he’s been given another purpose with uplifted bears that works just perfectly.
• Your Costume Needs Work: (Это не косплей) A Running Gag during his time with the circus.
  • He’s a real, live cat that can sing and dance — very, very badly. Not good at all given that all the Sparks and constructs with the circus are hiding there. He ends up shoveling manure.
  • During a performance of the Circus, audience-member Prince Aaronev is shown laughing about the «midget in a hilariously bad cat costume». The reader assumes that he has been fooled by Krosp, but it turns out a page or two later that, no, it really was Circus-member Embi wearing a cat costume.
  • Played straight in the third novelisation, where one or two people who see Krosp think he’s someone in a bad costume.

Tarvek Sturmvoraus

First encountered when Agatha travels through the city of his father, Tarvek is the Prince of Sturmhalten, and a descendant of the legendary Storm King. He’s seemed to be on everyone’s side, playing everyone against everyone else, though later he seems to be genuinely on Team Agatha. He is a powerful Spark and a keen intellect. The other possible pairing for Agatha.

• Amazon Chaser: (Любит сильных женщин) Aaronev muses when he first appears that he’d probably like Zeetha. It’s ultimately Downplayed, as he’s interested in Agatha, who, while not on Zeetha’s level, is quite the Action Girl herself.
• Anti-Hero: (Антигерой) A manipulative scoundrel who happens to be on Agatha’s side. Mostly. Even after he gets out of the Heel-Face Revolving Door, he’s still pretty ruthless.

«	Villain: These continental science heroes are always wittering on about the sanctity of human life! Henchman: Ooh, that’s true! It’s in all the books! DIE, OUTSIDER! [FOOM!] Tarvek: [holding a death ray to the villain’s throat as what is left of the henchman burns in the background] I’ve never really considered myself the «hero» type. Are you the «take his secrets to the grave» type? Just asking.	»

• Aroused by Their Voice: Apparently, Agatha finds his normal speaking voice 'very nice', and he doesn’t have to be in The Madness Place to have her wanting to listen to him talk forever, according to the novelizations.
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • His specialty as a Spark, not unlike Klaus. He’s not the best at making his own tech, but is practically peerless when it comes to grasping and recreating the work of others.
  • Only person to successfully reverse-engineer a Van Rijn.
  • Simply glancing at an abstract operations table tells him that an entire Wulfenbach military unit has been subverted and was about to flank and destroy much of the Wulfenbach army.
  • When it comes to the network that allows the Master to control Paris, he probably knows more than anybody save Colette, who’s spent her entire life learning the stuff.
  • Even when acting as a Hostage MacGuffin, he’s able to quietly keep watch for trouble as the others fight over him, noting that an incoming third-party is acting peculiarly, and getting the two sides to stand down in response.
• Badass Bookworm: (Книжный червь/Крутой ботан) Like most Sparks, although special mention goes to his reverse-engineering Tinka, a Van Rijn.
• Badass Longcoat: (Крутой в пальто) Often wears one.
• Bastard Understudy: A problem for Tarvek in gaining others' trust, especially since he’s so candid about how he worked with Lucrezia.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Gil’s Betty, largely because he’s far less scrupulous and more slippery than either Agatha or Gil. It was also unclear for a long time whose side he was really on, but later events put him pretty solidly as on Agatha’s and against The Other.
  • Post-Time Skip, he’s become the Betty, in-between his own Character Development and Gil’s deteriorating mental state.
• Beware the Nice Ones: (Добро с кулаками) Zola learns this the hard way.
• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья)
  • In Paris, he was apparently on the short end of a number of the adventures Gil got involved in, which resulted in him getting strung up, kidnapped by pirates, and losing girlfriends. He also spitefully notes that Gil somehow managed to come out «smelling like a rose» every time he looked like the fool.
  • After the Time Skip, we find that half of his family is supporting his claim to the throne not because of him, but simply because he’d make a better king than Martellus.

«	Agatha: Am I the only one who actually likes Tarvek? Krosp: I like him. He thinks like a cat!	»

• Cain and Abel: (Каин и Авель) He’s the Abel to Anevka’s Cain, though it gets a bit more complicated upon the revelation that the «real» Anevka has been dead for years. He and Tweedle are cousins rather than siblings, but still have this dynamic.
• Character Development: (Развитие персонажа) Gradually becomes kinder, more honest and altruistic, and far less self-serving, in large part thanks to Agatha’s influence. He also shifts from being somewhat ambivalent towards her to openly risking his life for her cause.
• The Charmer: (О боже, какой мужчина) Is quite a sweet-talker when he puts his mind to it.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: (Хронический предатель)
  • Apparently congenital. He may be recovering, but readers are wary. The most obnoxious part of it? He genuinely means well when he does it. Agatha finds it insulting as all hell.
  • Gil feels that as long as Tarvek’s breathing, he’s scheming.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) He has the red hair of his family and primarily is seen wearing white and grey.
• Cultured Badass: (Культурный крутой) Is well-dressed, and can be very polite when he means to be.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His life hasn’t always been the best. His family is the major cause.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом) Probably the most sardonic member of the cast.
• Designer Babies: The Mongfish family «made sure» that he would be throne-appropriate: male, Sparky, and free of problems like predisposition to alcoholism, non-Spark-related insanity, lycanthropy… Even spark-related insanity seems to be at a minimum with him; the only one that can match him for level-headed sparkiness is the Baron.
• Didn’t Think This Through: Insisted on personally confronting Higgs on concluding the person is a Jäger General, and actually personally wraps Higg’s hand around his throat in the process, apparently forgetting Jägermonsters have less than zero issues with killing people if they think they’re threats. He only lives because Higgs decides he’d be more useful to Agatha alive.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: (Умереть на руках) Subverted. After being poisoned by Tweedle he collapses into Van’s arms but after the Take Five Bomb goes off they’re frozen in time and eventually Gil manages to save both of them.
• Discussed Trope: Tarvek notes fondness for the various media of the setting (operas, Heterodyne plays, novels, and more), befitting a Cultured Badass, and as such he’ll sometimes remark about the various tropes playing out in their adventures (apparently, the particular subtype of Back from the Dead involving a girl’s parental figures used to gain her affection is seen as a Dead Horse Trope In-Universe).
• Dysfunction Junction: (Они все больны) «The only way to keep my family in line would be to bury them in a row.»
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: (Бить смертным боем) His brutal beating of Zola evokes this, especially considering the epic speech he delivers in tandem with said beatdown.
• The Fashionista/The Dandy: (Модница/Пустоголовый франт)
  • You expect royals to be very well dressed. So this was not evident except one phrase out-of-continuity, but remember how he sat «doodling girls and clockwork»…? Later, approved the Jäger Generals' style. He also apparently will be perpetually reminded of his propensity to «dress up» Agatha like a doll (and sometimes slips into it without realizing it in Imagine Spots).

«	Kaja Foglio: Yes, Sturmvoraus is apparently a house of evil fashion designers…	»

• It takes on a new meaning in the books where it’s revealed that the original Storm King distracted his vassals from fighting each other by making them one-up each other through fashion.

• And another when we meet a zombified Andronicus himself. The original Storm King had a predilection for golden armor with monster faces on it.

• Fatal Flaw: (Фатальная слабость) He shares two with Gil: Pride and Wrath. His pride is the more destabilizing factor for him. His pride forces him to try and prove that he’s the smartest in the room. When he found out Higgs was the hidden Jäger general, he HAD to openly confront him about it. He wanted to make sure Higgs knew that he knew his secret by forcing a discussion on it even after Higgs gives him a warning. This almost gets him killed. This is in contrast to Gil who knew the secret, but was way more subtle in revealing it and didn’t force Higgs to openly admit it directly or indirectly. As for wrath, he almost kills Zola despite her having a wealth of information that the heroes probably desparately need. His hatred for Gil is also a little bit unreasonable. He, like Gil, becomes a bit of an idiot around Agatha, though less so. He does get more freaked out than Gil by women when they openly flirt with him, however.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: (Разум не вынес?) After getting exposed to a friendly but extradimensional alien’s effect on time and possibly absorbing a small amount of energy from an Eldritch Abomination, he gains a much greater understanding of the universe and loses quite a bit of his sanity.
• Guile Hero: What he ultimately ends up as — he’s no slouch in the physical department, but he almost never overwhelms his opponents even when he can (unless sufficiently pissed off). He instead prefers misdirection, politicking, and social engineering to pull out a victory, and he sees part of his role with Agatha teaching her to do the same, and part being doing so independently to her benefit.
• Heel-Face Revolving Door: (Моральный вертихвост) Is in this for much of the Sturmhalten arc, swinging back and forth between aiding Agatha and aiding Lucrezia. In the Mechanicsburg arc he commits to the Face side and has been firmly on Team Agatha ever since.
• Heel Realization: (Я что, злодей?) In the midst of arguing with Gil about having worked with Lucrezia in order to achieve his goals of becoming king, Tarvek stresses that it was his father and the Knights of Jove who had provided the bulk of the alliance. When Gil distractedly says that even Tarvek wouldn’t have wanted Agatha controlled by the Other, Tarvek has a moment of realization: he was previously happy to use slaver wasps on other people to get what he wanted, but now realises just how horrible a thing it is to do to someone. (While no doubt also thinking of all the girls he failed to save from his father’s attempts to find a new body for Lucrezia.) «It shouldn’t happen to…well, to anybody.»
• Heroes' Frontier Step: He spends his first appearance almost constantly going through a Heel-Face Revolving Door. Naturally when he shows up again in Castle Heterodyne, everyone is pretty distrustful of him. But one moment in Vol. 12 cements his role as a good guy (albeit an Anti-Hero) when he rescues Vespiary Squad troops and their wasp-eater weasels from a crashed airship — showing that not only is he against the Other, but also cares about other people.
• Honest Advisor: Both to Gil (twice in Mechanicsburg and Paris) and to Agatha, which is surprising given his family generally not being good with the whole «honesty» thing. Ironically, it’s exactly his self-serving tendencies that make Gil think’s he’s honest. And Colette later admits that Tarvek is the most trustworthy member of his family, much to her own surprise.

«	Gil: Listen to everything this duplicitous snake says! His tail is on the line here, too, so he’ll give you good advice.	»

• How Dare You Die on Me!: Invoked towards Gil.
• I Did What I Had to Do: (Для твоего же блага?) Narrowly averted during the fight with Zola. If an enemy angers him sufficiently, he will not accept a surrender.
• Impossible Thief: Thanks to Smoke Knight training, he can do this too occasionally. Such as when Tarvek is going once more into the breach to recover important research notes in a crashed Vespiary Squad research airship full of slaver wasps.

«	Vespiary Soldier: …And there’s monsters! And crazy killers! You’ve got nothing! Tarvek: Nonsense! I have your knife and your gun. [soldier looks down, surprised] Vespiary Soldier: …Oh man, I am gonna hear about that…	»

• It’s Not You, It’s My Enemies: Non-romantic example towards Violetta. He pulled strings to get her Reassigned To Mechanicsburg because of the truly horrendous survival rate of Smoke Knight bodyguards assigned to him. She’s not happy when she finds out, even though (as Tarvek points out) she never wanted to be a Smoke Knight in the first place. The reason is she spent the entire time assuming she’d been sent there because she was a screw-up.
• Jerkass Has a Point: (Козёл был прав) After Gil sees a copy of Agatha’s original message (from all the way back to Sturmhalten), he calls out Tarvek for all the bloodshed he caused by tampering with it. Tarvek has none of it and correctly points out that Klaus would’ve dismissed the original message as a trick of Lucrezia and that the end result would’ve been more or less the same. Gil is forced to concede that Tarvek is right about that.
• King Bob the Nth: (Одинаковые имена) Tarvek is the fifth (in the novels, seventh in the comic) Prince in the history of Sturmhalten to have the given name of Aaronev. Given that the Principality of Sturmhalten has only existed for about two hundred years, Aaronev is apparently a very popular name in the family.
• Last-Name Basis: (Называть по фамилии) Gil always calls Tarvek by his surname "Sturmvoraus, " and Tarvek in turn always calls Gil by «Wulfenbach» (or «Holzfäller»).
• Licked by the Dog: Though he has a very checkered history with the Heel-Face Revolving Door, signs point to being ultimately on the «Face» side, such as how all the wasp eaters love him.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Averted. He is directly descended from the Storm King through his mother.
• Love Redeems: (Искупление любовью) Falling for Agatha proves to be the foundation for his path to redemption.
• Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter: Well, handsome son.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) «Sturmvoraus» means «storm ahead» in German.
• Meta Guy: Not nearly to the level of von Zinzer, and typically only when he’s not near Agatha, but part and parcel of his Cultured Badass persona is being able to comment on the current situation in terms of tropes (such as criticizing Gil for the In-Universe cliche of «bringing a girl’s family Back from the Dead» — he continues to rant on the topic on the next page).
• Middle Name Basis: Because he shares his first name with his father, Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus. His full name wasn’t revealed until 2020.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: He relies on others to fight for him whenever he can. Since arriving in the castle, though, he’s had to reveal that yes, he’s a match for Gilgamesh in a fight (which means any fair fight with him would rip Europa apart).
• Missing Mom: (Пропавшая мама) The only thing we know about his mother is the identity of one of her ancestors. We learn why she’s missing in the second novelization, though. Anevka killed her.
• Mr. Fanservice: (Мистер Фансервис) Spends the first part of his stay in Castle Heterodyne clad in nothing but the bedsheet he was under when Violetta whisked him out of the Great Hospital of Mechanicsburg.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: (Бить смертным боем) There’s really no other way to describe his last encounter with Zola in the Castle.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) Though he obviously doesn’t act like a fool, it turns out that those beatings Violetta kept giving him were just a charade to convince everyone else that he was useless in combat.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: (Учёный-всезнайка) Played with. Although capable of a wide variety of mechanical and scientific feats, his understanding of aeronautics is apparently quite poor, at least according to Gil.
• One-Steve Limit: (Одинаковые имена) Tarvek is actually his middle name, but he answers to it because his father was also Prince Aaronev Sturmvoraus of Sturmhalten (middle name Wilhelm).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: (ООС — это серьёзно) The aforementioned No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Tarvek has been in various levels of anger and distress throughout the ordeal in Castle Heterodyne, and he’s been already seen in an antagonistic relationship with Gil, so it’s pretty clear what he’s usually like with a rival or a general foe. But with Zola, it was so personal after how much they attempted to ruin his life that he completely loses it, foregoing his usual subtlety to attempt to outright murder his foe. It’s one of the clearest indications just how much Agatha means to him, that he’d lose it over someone nearly killing Agatha.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) Had Violetta Reassigned to Antarctica, which she hated him even more for… then she discovered just how many of his bodyguards had been killed since.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) And a very good thing for him, because he was mortally poisoned, has minutes to live, and the bus is actually time-frozen.
• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок‏‎) Through much effort on the part of Gil and the Empire, Tarvek was extracted and cured of the poison.
• Rapid-Fire «No!»: (Нет-нет-нет-нет!) His response to being told that he’s being returned to his Big, Screwed-Up Family.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: (Диалектика Льда и Огня) Blue to Gil’s Red, oh-so-very much. He’s calm, cool, collected in everything he does, and prefers to dominate his surroundings through constant manipulation. This makes him as charming as the very devil… unless the girl realizes that he’s simply being polite about staying in control. It also means he’s rather dependent on others once outside of a support network… At least until he gets a new one.
• Redemption Equals Death: (Искупление равносильно смерти) Averted, in meta. This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God says Tarvek was meant to die at the end of the Sturmhalten arc, but Kaja decided she liked him too much, and in the end they let him live. The narrative was probably as surprised as Lucrezia when it turned out the gun had non-lethal bullets…
• The Rival: (Соперник) To Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. In principle, he resents the Wulfenbachs in general (since they were a minor noble family who rose to power despite not playing by the rules of the game if you will) and Gil specifically for the swaths of his messed-up life that weren’t directly caused by his own family. Furthermore, they are also romantic rivals for Agatha’s heart. In practice, his relationship with Gil hovers somewhere in between Friendly Enemy and Vitriolic Best Buds. Justified since they were inseperable childhood best friends, even with their spats. When not on each other’s case, they get along quite nicely.
• Royal Blood: Apparently, he’s the rightful heir to the Storm King.
• Royally Screwed Up: (Династия уродов) A natural state for anyone in his family. There’s a reason he laments being kicked off of Castle Wulfenbach as a kid: he got to be away from all the cynicism and plotting of his family.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: (Царь-плотник) Being aware of major parts of the plans of Lucrezia, and the Storm King/Knights of Jove, he tries to derail them as much as he can, even through aiding Wulfenbach and using Wulfenbach troops and equipment to defend Mechanicsburg.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Significantly less than other Sparks, though he still has moments…
• Screams Like a Little Girl: (Визжит, как девчонка) if Bangladesh is to be believed. One wonders just what happened…
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: (Чувствительный парень и брутальный мужик) Sensitive Guy compared to Gil’s Manly Man. He’s calmer, more thoughtful, and less prone to fits of violence. On the other hand, he often attempts to sway Agatha to his will while Gil dotes on her, so he could be considered the Manly Man to Gil’s Sensitive Man.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: (Одет с иголочки) Well, he is when we meet him, anyway. He deteriorates sharply later. He eventually manages to get some proper clothes on, but doesn’t manage to get into something genuinely nice again until the England arc.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) For Higgs/Zeetha, of all things.
• Skewed Priorities: A discussed aversion of the trope, according to Higgs:

«	Tarvek: If [Violetta] is dead, then the only people I have left that I really care about are Agatha and Wulfenbach- and this time, I’ll destroy anyone who threatens them! STARTING WITH THESE CLOWNS! Higgs: (puts a sympathetic hand on Tarvek’s shoulder) Good priorities, sir — and when you’re done? I’m buying you a drink.	»

• Smug Snake: (Самоуверенный мерзавчик) Most Sparks only think that they’re surrounded by idiots: Tarvek actually tells the idiots so.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: He has some Smoke Knight training, and while not as fast on the draw as Violetta, can still do this when the situation calls for it. Observe.
• Stoic Spectacles: Tarvek is a lot calmer and more levelheaded than most sparks.
• Strong Family Resemblance: (Такие похожие родственники) According to Lucrezia he looks like a younger version of his father.
• Take a Third Option: (Выбор третьего варианта) His entire schtick, basically.

«	Tarvek: If someone can’t handle an unpleasant truth? Lie to them. If somone won’t listen to reason? Make them. If people don’t choose to live peaceably—don’t give them a choice. If you don’t like the rules—change the game.	»

• Token Evil Teammate: (Какой ни есть, а он за нас) A self-confessed example. He’s really not evil, but is definitely the most amoral and untrustworthy member of Agatha’s inner circle, at least early on. Character Development gradually eases him out of this role, and by the Time Skip he’s grown out of it entirely.
• Too Clever by Half: (Такой умный, что уже глупый) A problem he has. Gil claims to be better at sneaking around and manipulating people because unlike Tarvek, he doesn’t feel the need to demonstrate how sneaky and cunning he’s being. A good example being them both learning Airshipman Axel Higg’s big secret. Tarvek almost immediately starts dropping hints to the man in question that he has figured it out, while Gil gives no sign he knew until the secret is already out.
• Tritagonist: (Тритагонист) With Gil as the Deuteragonist and Agatha as the Protagonist.
• Tyke-Bomb / Phlebotinum Rebel: (Флеботический бунтарь) He was intended since before birth to be a figurehead for the Storm King conspiracy, but he’d much rather pursue his own plans.
• Unreliable Expositor: One of the reasons the Sturmhalten arc is so confusing is because he keeps lying to everyone.
• Unstoppable Rage: (Бешеный гнев) Unstoppable enough to curb stomp Zola, when she is under the influence of a Psycho Serum.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: (Заклятые друзья) See Gil’s entry for more info, but despite their past events, the thing with Agatha and the clashing royal issues, the two truly care about one another. Hurting one is a good way to upset the other. Even their friendship goes beyond other matters that usually bother them, such as Tarvek having serious reservations about accepting his cousin’s plans to help him be with Agatha (namely so she can swoop in and take Gil during his heartbreak and retreat to logic).
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: (Благонамеренный экстремист) He was definitely willing to do, aid or condone all sorts of evil at first. He’s now on Agatha’s side, but he’s still helping her out of personal affection and a desire to «fix» Europa, not from any personal code of morals.
• We Used to Be Friends: (Когда-то мы были друзьями) With Gil. Continuing on from Gil’s entry in this, Tarvek would be sent home, away from Castle Wulfenbach (where, despite technically being a hostage there, was the place to be for aspiring young aristocratic sparks), and back to his cynical conniving family back in Sturmhalten. Tarvek would then encounter Gil again as a philanderer during college in Paris, where their animosity would be cemented. However, despite the political rivalry, their rivalry for Agatha’s heart and all the times they screwed each other over, they still very much care for one another. When Tarvek realizes that Gil was kidnapped by the Baron, he tries to rationalize the importance of keeping him before he just admits to himself and Agatha that they could’ve kept him safe with a look of utmost worry and concern. After the timeskip, he finds himself concerned about what the Baron did to Gil in terms of the brainwashing.
• What You Are in the Dark: (Никто не узнает) Tarvek, much as he normally projects the image of a cold, efficient, ruthless and pragmatic hero, carries a stabbed and unconscious Ruxala out of the burning remains of the Vespiary Squad’s crashed airship instead of abandoning her. And then, already struggling under Ruxala’s weight, he stumbles across the crippled Jäger Jorgi in the wreckage and throws him on his back as well, despite even the Jäger telling him to Go On Without Me (and refusing to shut up while Tarvek is carrying him). And then he stops to pick up a litter of orphaned baby wasp eaters! Even when nobody can see him, Tarvek really is a good person.
• White Sheep: (Белая овца) Of the royal members of the Sturmvoraous family, he’s by far the nicest, most heroic member. Which, considering his predilections for backstabbing and Machiavellian scheming, is really saying something.
• Would Hit a Girl: (Боевой феминист) Once he grasps the extent of Zola’s plans, he furiously attempts to throttle her to death.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: (Мастер импровизаций) He tries to do this practically all the time, with varying degrees of success.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: (Пережить свою полезность) It’s unknown how Tarvek contracted Hogfarb’s Resplendent Immolation but it’s hinted that it was his family that infected him in order to remove him from the line of succession. It’s made even more explicit in the novels where it’s revealed that he was shot with a blow dart by an unknown assailant beforehand. This would explain why Martellus first appeared claiming to have replaced Tarvek as Storm King.
• Young Conqueror: He wanted to be this, but things aren’t working out for him.

Violetta Mondarev

Violetta is a Smoke Knight, although she herself says she’s not very good at her job. She’s also a member of a cadet branch of Tarvek’s family. Her job is to keep Tarvek alive, which is proving to be far more difficult than it should be considering he was confined to a hospital bed when she took that duty.

• Acquired Poison Immunity: Thanks to her Smoke Knight training, some poisons have no effect on her. Such as the Corbettite cakes that were used to defuse a potential catastrophe when Klaus-Gil, Tweedle, and Agatha (who was supplanted by Lucrezia at the time) were in the same room. Tweedle is too, but his head is not so thick that it’s immune to a good blackjacking from Vio…er… an invisible hand out of nowhere.
• Action Girl: (Бой-баба) Though at her best when sticking to stealth and trickery, she’s pretty handy with a knife (or several) when the situation demands it.
• Art Evolution: Her hair, initially shown (as seen at right) to be smooth like Tarvek’s, becomes a lot more dishevelled after her time in the castle, and afterwards stays that way.
• Badass Normal: She’s not a Spark, a Designer Baby, or an Charles Atlas Superpower warrior, and is one of the only protagonists to not fit into any of those categories. She’s just a highly-trained McNinja with a couple of daggers and poison darts. This by no means indicates that she isn’t dangerous or competent — indeed, it very frequently leads to Underestimating Badassery, even from her own family members.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство) A cousin of Tarvek’s from a cadet branch of the Sturmvoraus family, which has been guarding the main house for generations. Surprisingly sane, considering the lineage, but then being not of the central bloodline could be what saved her.
• Blade Enthusiast: (Фанат ножей) She loves her daggers almost as much as Zeetha loves her swords. By the time Vole manages to shake her off during their scuffle in Castle Heterodyne, she’s impaled at least a dozen knives in his back.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Violetta serves as such to Agatha, helping deal with less obvious threats of the sneaky variety while Zeetha takes care of the more overt threats (and any that get past them still have to deal with Agatha herself).
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) Violetta apparently isn’t a star as a Smoke Knight, but she doesn’t seem half as bad at her job as she tells everyone she is. More «not really into this sort of career». An alternate interpretation is that she really was that bad, but that being around Agatha has forced her to up her game.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) She has her family’s red hair and the Smoke Knights' purple gear.
• Cute Little Fangs: She had these early on though they went away eventually as seen by the comparison of her image above and this page.
• Establishing Character Moment: (Момент характеристики) She’s introduced trying desperately to save Tarvek all while complaining about him and her job, this is followed up by her beating him up.
• Fiery Redhead: (Огненная шевелюра — огненный характер) And poor Tarvek is usually the victim of her fury. Only apparently though, as it turns out it was a long-running gambit to trick his family into thinking he’s an oaf.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Seems to be standard Smoke Knight gear.
• Guile Hero: Though not too shabby in combat, she’s severely outmatched by most of the incredibly badass cast in a straight-up fight. Instead, she specializes in misdirection and trickery. See Impossible Thief.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: She gets quite huffy when her romantic rival Snaug messes with Moloch.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) She knows a lot about fashion due to growing up with Tarvek
• Impossible Thief: Emphasis on impossible, and played for laughs. She can do it off-panel. Or between panels. Here’s a particularly astounding example.
• Informed Flaw: (Заявленная слабость) Claims she sucks at her job, despite being incredibly competent. It may be that even as badass as she is, the standards for Smoke Knights are supposed to be even higher, but it’s implied that she’s suffering from self esteem issues due to being Reassigned to Antarctica. She believes she was sent to Mechanicsburg for being a screw up, though it was really Tarvek trying to keep her from suffering the same fate as all of his other bodyguards. Tweedle (who’s immensely skilled in his own right) notes that Violetta is much better than she used to be.
  • Subverted. We later meet two other Smoke Knights who have not only been following Agatha’s group for a while without anyone except Violetta noticing, but looked at Agatha’s notes while Zeetha and Dimo were on watch duty. Violetta explains it’s Not Hyperbole thus:

«	«I keep telling you guys I’m not a very good Smoke Knight. These two? They’re good.»	»

• Her greatest feat, however… is besting the infamous master smoke knight Madwa Korel, who is rogue and aligned with The Other and has been one step ahead of the heroes constantly up to that point. Through classic Smoke Knight guile, she outplayed Madwa who had the nigh-storybreaker-powered Prende’s Chronometric Lantern at her command, and just by staying perfectly still, masterfully exploiting Madwa’s fatigue-impaired deduction (from extended time patrolling) and limited area effect of the Lantern to drive a dagger into Madwa’s back and to pilfer the Lantern for Team Agatha. Not bad for a screw-up Smoke Knight…

• Invisibility: (Невидимость) it’s not clear how she and other Smoke Knights do it, but she can apparently go practically invisible. Bang can detect it, but not exactly see through it.
• Legacy of Service: Her branch of the family has served Tarvek’s for generations.
• Like Brother and Sister: (Как брат и сестра) Her relationship with her cousin Tarvek has a strong dollop of this going on rather than anything else. She bullies and bickers at Tarvek mercilessly, but very obviously cares, regardless. It’s reciprocated in a slightly quieter (but no less underhanded) way on his side, and seems as intense. Both practically gag if anybody even remotely suggests they’re compatible in that other way.
• McNinja: She’s a Smoke Knight, which have this trope as their hat.
• The Medic: As a Smoke Knight, part of her training is being an expert in diagnosing and treating poisons. She’s also the most competent member of the main cast when it comes to first aid.
• Minion Shipping: With Moloch von Zinzer. Loath as Violetta might be to admit it, she’s definitely into him, though whether or not he reciprocates is ambiguous.
• Ninja Maid: (Боевая горничная) She used to serve Tarvek Sturmvoraus and wants to do the same for Agatha, only with less «ninja» part.
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) Tarvek responds to seemingly ridiculous talk from her as her «licking her knives again.» Suggesting that there was at least one incident where her knives were coated in poison or drugs, she licked them, and Hilarity Ensued. Based on her blase dismissal of his comment, perhaps more than one.
• Offscreen Reality Warp: Her sleight of hand is so impressive that not even the reader can see it. Examples one and two.
• Only the Knowledgable May Pass: She tried to pull this one on Moloch when they first met, arguing that he had to be trained or have secret knowledge to have survived.

«	Violetta: You’re trained in the Way of the Smoke? Moloch: Nah, Ma always said that stuff’ll kill ya.	»

• Servile Snarker: She gets away with way more abuse of Tarvek than most Sparks would probably allow. Hell, he even rewards her by allowing her to switch allegiance to Agatha.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) Agatha×Tarvek.
• Stealth Expert: Part and parcel of being a Smoke Knight, and taken to virtually superhuman levels. As long as the other person isn’t specifically looking for her, she might as well be invisible.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: (Пацанка с замашками леди) Her Smoke Knight training mostly requires her to be a tomboy, but Agatha earns her loyalty with the promise of a party and a pretty dress. If anything, she becomes even more badass once she has the promise of a pretty dress to fight for.
• Tsundere: (Цундэрэ) Type 1 towards Moloch, big time. Even when he’s not even in the room.
• Uncertain Doom: She gets in a bloody off-screen fight with Lady Steelgarter. The latter woman claims to have killed her, but there’s no sign of a body, and, again, Smoke Knight. Krosp later suspects she’s dead simply on the grounds that she hasn’t been seen in awhile, stating she’s too loyal to be missing this long and be ok, much to Tarvek’s horror.
  • She turns up alive and being used as a sacrifice by the monster-summoning cult; she survives this, too.
• Underestimating Badassery: Many other characters tend to not take her seriously because she’s humble, relatively anonymous and isn’t a Spark, while those that do know her tend to disrespect her for essentially the same reasons. Never mind that she’s an extremely dangerous Ninja Maid who routinely hangs around with some of the most dangerous sorts in Europa and survives. Tweedle in particular has a nasty habit of underestimating her skills.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: (Заклятые друзья) She and Zeetha grow into this dynamic over the course of the Mechanicsburg arc. They tend to bicker and argue quite a bit, but it’s obvious that they also respect each other’s talents, and both are equally dedicated to keeping Agatha safe.
• White Sheep: (Белая овца) Every other major character in the Sturmvoraus/Blitzengaard clan is treacherous and manipulative (or, at best, given to Pragmatic Villainy). Whether this is because she’s not a Spark, because she’s not in the line of inheritance, or because even this family has to have somebody sane to do the actual work is not yet known.
• You Can See Me?: Bangladesh DuPree demands at an apparently empty chair that she cut out whatever it is she’s doing. Violetta then appears in said chair the next panel quoting the trope, and DuPree answers that she couldn’t and it was giving her a headache.

Zeetha

Warrior princess from the lost city of Skifander, she no longer knows how to get back and, until Agatha mentioned it, was uncertain as to whether her homeland even existed. She has trained Agatha to be a warrior and still fights for her interests.

• Action Girl: (Бой-баба) And how. It even scares Higgs… and attracts him too.
• Always Someone Better: Gets the concept explained to her by Higgs. Interestingly, he doesn’t do it by beating the crap out of her (although he probably could), but by explaining the concept while she’s convalescing after someone else beat the crap out of her. Fortunately, she has taken this to heart — the next time she was defeated, she decided to learn from the experience and try to figure out a counter for the move that her opponent used on her, and steal the move for herself since it’s so useful.
• Audience Surrogate: (Зрительский аватар) Downplayed. She’s unfamiliar with the weird world of Europa but is conditioned to its oddities making her reactions similar to those of the audience.
• Badass Teacher: Teaches Agatha how to be a princess (the battle-ax-wielding kind). She’s also badass enough that Dimo, a centuries old super soldier, asks her to teach him some of her moves. Even if he wasn’t 100 % serious, that’s a serious level of badassitude.
• Battle Couple: (Боевая пара) this moment with Higgs, of course.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: (Красота остаётся незапятнанной) A multiple-time aversion. Her physical appearance deteriorates quickly after getting impaled through the gut by Zola, and she spends a significant amount of the Paris arc sporting multiple bruises and a black eye after getting beaten up by a Geisterdamen. Played Straight in the sense that she’s essentially back to normal not long after getting over both injuries. Possibly justified by the fact that she was previously given a dose of the Jägerbräu.
• Best Friend: (Лучшие друзья) With Agatha, bordering on sworn sisters due to their sworn teacher-pupil relationship. If it wasn’t for Agatha already pining for Gil and Tarvek and Zeetha for Higgs, one would think they were Heterosexual Life-Partners, that’s how deep their relationship is. They even sleep in the same bed and have explicitly expressed platonic love for each other.
• Big Eater: (Обжора) In the third novel, Zeetha frequently eats large amounts of food. From her phrasing, it’s quite normal for her.
• The Big Guy: (Силач) When the Jägers aren’t around she serves as the muscle of Agatha’s group.
• Big «NO!»: (Большое «НЕТ!») When Agatha reveals that her uncle is the one who actually knows about Skifander and he’s missing.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Her swords are Type 1.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Zeetha guards Agatha, and also serves as her trainer in the Skifandrian martial arts.
• Buffy Speak: She describes what Violetta brings to the table as «the sneaky.» The Smoke Knight takes this as a sign that hanging out with Jägers took their toll on Zeetha’s vocabulary.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: (Каждое утро делает зарядку) Train in the Amazon way, and you too can kick heads right off of battle clanks!
• Crazy-Prepared: (Предусмотрительный герой?) Like most female performers, she wears leather underwear to guard against the Wacky Weave Destabilizer.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) She has bright green hair and her normal outfit is blue.
• Cute Little Fangs: (Торчащие клыки) As seen here. Conspicuously shown during Christopher Baldwin’s guest strip run (such as here). The print-novels confirm that it’s not just an artistic quirk, and that her canines are longer than normal.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом) She’s prone to the occasional quip about whatever’s annoying her at the time.
• Defeat by Modesty: (Раздевание равносильно поражению) Tried and failed.

«	Zeetha: What? You said you wanted to draw a crowd. Gil: Not that kind of crowd!	»

• Didn’t Think This Through: Zeetha was sent on a mission from her homeland, fell ill with a fever and hallucinations, and wound up kidnapped by pirates in a foreign land. After recovering, she slaughtered all the pirates on the ship, then destroyed their fleet, then razed their fortress… then promptly realised she’d just killed everyone who could tell her how to get back home. Justified, as she later explains that she had not completely (mentally) recovered from the fever, and wasn’t quite thinking straight.
• Dual Wielding: (В каждой руке по оружию) With an exotic Skifandran weapon called a Quata’ara, which resembles Katars and/or Patas, weapons used in our world’s India with H-shaped grips and often with some kind of hand guard added to the grip.
• Emergency Transformation: (Аварийная трансформация) It’s eventually revealed that Mamma Gkika gave Zeetha the Jägerbräu to save her from dying after she was Impaled with Extreme Prejudice. While drinking the Jägerbräu is only part of the ritual to turn someone into a Jägermonster, it’s quite likely that Zeetha may become one. Zeetha avoids the angst usually associated with this trope, as she’s practical enough to realize she’d be dead otherwise. and admittedly, becomeing a Jeager wouldn’t be much of a change for her.
• Empowered Badass Normal: (Одарённый крутой смертный) After the above, though the extent isn’t known yet.
• Establishing Character Moment: (Момент характеристики) She’s introduced offering a bowl of food to Agatha, a complete stranger, then freaking out and destroying the pot she was cooking with after Agatha reveals that her missing uncle knows about Skifander.
• Expressive Accessory: Her headband matches her facial expressions. It’s unclear for a long time if this is Sparky tech or just Artistic License, but it’s finally established here (warning: mild spoilers) that it’s something that happens in-character, to the point that Gil states he’s often wanted to examine how it works, and she can use it as a very rudimentary form of long-distance communication.
• Friendly Enemy: (Возлюбленный враг) Is cultivating such a relationship with Bangladesh DuPree in the aftermath of the Beast of The Rails arc. Both are eagerly anticipating testing each other’s mettle in a fight (but can’t at that time due to Sanctuary rules at the Corbettite depot). Granted, the high probability that it was Bang’s pirates that originally kidnapped Zeetha (and thus, Zeetha who took out the entire pirate fleet) means that the «friendly» aspect of this Trope might well be short-lived.
• Going Native: Post-Time Skip, she’s become a lot more boisterous and goofy, implicitly as a result of spending two and a half years running with the Jagers.
• Good Bad Girl: (Хорошая «плохая девчонка») Her sex life isn’t exactly highlighted, but she has been referred to as «an expert» on the subject.

«	Zeetha: «Hey, Skifander’s patron goddess is Ashtara. She who, among other things, controls fertility. Our holy days are fun! (Cha cha cha!)»	»

• Good Counterpart: To Bangladesh Dupree. Both are Action Girls who follow a Spark, extremely competent fighters, and each one is a Boisterous Bruiser, but Zeetha is a Spirited Competitor (who granted, does border on Blood Knight at times), while Bang is a full on Psycho for Hire. And both are eagerly awaiting the time when a fight between them is justified.
• Her Boyfriend’s Jacket: Apparently some time during the Time Skip. The first time we see Zeetha and (confirmed to be) Higgs after the skip, Zeetha appears to be in possession of his hat… and his striped shirt. He in turn has possession of her Expressive Accessory.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her…: Gives one such threat to Gil.

«	Zeetha: Yes. She’s a smart girl, so she doesn’t trust you, but she obviously likes you. But — no matter what — I don’t care who you are — Agatha is my Zumil. If you hurt her, I will kill you.	»

• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Zola, with one of her own swords.
• Improvised Weapon: (Предмет с оружейным потенциалом) A chair is not a weapon.
• In Love with Your Carnage: One of the biggest reasons she falls in love with Higgs is because of how overwhelmingly powerful he is in a scrap. The prospect of him having to fight her mother when they meet makes her giddy with excitement.
• In My Language, That Sounds Like…: (Полезные заметки/Ложный друг переводчика) Daughter of Chump. And yes, she does know what it means. Though since it’s all-but-confirmed «Chump» is/was Klaus, it’s possible that he gave himself the name in reaction to being tricked by Lucrezia and shipped off to Skifandar.
• Interspecies Romance: (Межвидовая романтика) She eventually ends up in one with Higgs, although she doesn’t know that he’s a Jäger General. Subverted after it was revealed that she was healed from being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice using the Jägerbräu. While there is more to the transformation than just the Jägerbräu, Zeetha may very well become a Jäger.
• Leeroy Jenkins: (Лирой Дженкинс) Not to suicidal levels, but on more than one occasion she’s done or said things that were not strategically smart. As the woman herself admits, she’s «not good with the subtle».
• Like Brother and Sister: (Как брат и сестра) During their time together in Mechanicsburg, she develops a downplayed version of this with Gil. Their fight includes a lot lighthearted teasing which extends to later moments. Subverted as they’re actually twins.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: (Я твой отец)
  • While it has yet to be revealed in the comic, the Foglios have released a picture of her father, «Chump, the great warrior». Resemble anyone we know?
  • On a related note, she and Gil now have the same (or similar) eye colour — most notable during their conversation after he wakes up at Mamma Gkika’s. They used to be green in earlier volumes.
  • Foreshadowed here and here.
  • Possibly even foreshadowed here, with Klaus’s extreme aversion to slashing her throat and presumably demanding in Skiff that she stop fighting, despite having her dead to rights and previously having given orders to kill everyone. At a minimum, he wants to question her about her presence in Europa, if he hasn’t explicitly figured out their relationship..
• Metamorphosis: This strip heavily implies that she’s slowly becoming a Jäger.
• Minion Shipping: With Higgs.
• Ms. Fanservice: (Мисс Фансервис) As well as being a strong character in her own right.
• Muggle Born of Mages: (Инвалидность по магии) Her (unbeknowest to her) father Klaus Wulfenbach is a Spark. It’s strongly alluded that her mother, Queen Zantabraxus, was one of the many «women with the Spark that tried to kill Klaus». Her (mutually unknowing) fraternal twin brother Gil is a Spark. She is decidedly not Sparky, or at least has not had a breakthrough yet.
• Noblewoman’s Laugh: Busts one out while playing Fairy Godmother in this non-canon strip.
• Not Quite Dead: (Скорее жив, чем мёртв) Zola had impaled her in the stomach, but it’s revealed a little later that she survived (although she did need to be taken to a hospital for it).
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Against the pirates. Unfortunately, the pirates were the only ones who might have had a clue where her homeland was.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Slightly downplayed because it’s a PG-rated comic, but Zeetha is not ashamed of nudity at all. It especially stands out due to the setting, where a bikini would be considered hardly any different than going naked.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) Is highly supportive of Agatha/Gil. She was likely the one who claimed he would «wed her most vigorously» when making a spectacle of Gil entering the castle (being a self-professed Good Bad Girl), and apparently «hand gestures» were involved in that show as well.
  • She also shipped Jiminez and Larana, encouraging Larana to talk to him and confess her true feelings (without letting her know that he was the prince she’d been arranged to marry).
• Strong Family Resemblance: (Такие похожие родственники) Every now and then, her facial expression makes her look a lot like Gil. Fitting, seeing that This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God confirms that the two are unknowing fraternal twins.
• Sweet Tooth: (Сладкоежка)
  • Zeetha shows some signs of a cake obsession while in Paris.

«	Zeetha: Oh yeah. You guys didn’t wake me up for lunch! I’m starving! Violetta: You were asleep because you ate too much drugged cake! Zeetha: So it’s important to face my fears! Violetta: You have fears? Cake fears? Zeetha: Of course! Now I know that any cake — any cake at all — Could be stuffed full of duplicitous evil! I shall overcome this fear by eating every cake I see! Violetta: —And how is this different from before? Zeetha: Now eating cake counts as training!	»

• She warns an «actor boy» that he’d better learn fast not to get between a girl and her cake, before realizing she’s talking to Higgs. She promptly forgets about the cake.

• Tomboy Princess: (Крутая принцесса) As expected from a warrior-princess. But even minus that she’s more on the boisterous side compared to even some of the Sparks. An interesting thing to note is that when the ladies were all dressed up, Zeetha was wearing pants while the others were in dresses.
• Training from Hell: (Бесчеловечные тренировки) Bestowed it upon Agatha, and suffered through it herself when growing up.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: (Заклятые друзья) With Violetta, especially post-Time Skip. See the latter’s page for more information on that.
• Warrior Princess: A princess who is able to take on all manner of clanks and monsters because she believes that Rule #1 of being a princess is «every princess needs a battle axe».
• The Worf Effect: (Силач на расправу) Even if there are qualifiers for most of the instances of this, she has been injured or fought to a standstill in order to highlight the badassery of:
  • The Monster Horse Beastie.
  • Baron Wulfenbach.note
  • Zola. See Worf Had the Flu below.
  • A Geisterdame.note
  • A Lucrezia-possessed Agatha.note
• Worf Had the Flu: Her worst defeat was when she was not at her best, specifically when she was stabbed by Zola, as she was under the effects of a happiness pheromone that caused her to lose focus and severely underestimate her opponent.
• You Can’t Go Home Again: Due to unfortunate circumstances, she has no idea where Skifander is. Agatha is the first person she met who even knew the place existed. Before Agatha, she wasn’t entirely sure herself, and feared it was all something she hallucinated in a feverish delirium.

Antagonists

Ссылка: [7]

The Other

The mysterious force of mysteriousness that almost conquered Europa before vanishing mysteriously. May be Agatha’s mother.

• Ambiguously Human:
  • Various flashbacks involving her show her inhabiting a large number of cyborg bodies, with some of her forms being mostly human-like while others are overtly mechanical in nature.
  • In the novels' version of Lucrezia’s first encounter with Zola, the copy in Agatha is incredibly blasé at the idea of killing herself to get rid of Agatha as so long as other copies of herself exist to continue her plan. The author notes that this behavior suggests that the original Lucrezia had either gone completely mad or was no longer human, or more likely both.
• Ambiguous Situation: It is left extremely ambiguous as to what, precisely, the Other is, what its relation is to Lucrezia Mongfish, and what its goals are.
  • There are hints that the Other might actually be a time displaced version of clank-form Lucrezia, who would become known as the Muse of Time/Enigma, and it was that version of her that attacked Castle Heterodyne and most of what has happened is due to a stable time loop in action. The very first hint of Time Muse Lucrezia being the Other was during the flashback of the Geisterdamen before they did the brain uploading of Lucrezia on Agatha. The Geisterdamen claim that they got direct orders from their goddess, and one of them is shown being choked by the Muse of Time’s black clawed hand.
  • As to the Lucrezia situation, the Other identifies herself as Lucrezia, acts like her, talks like her, uses her inventions albeit massively improved upon… but that still leaves the fact that someone broke into her secret lab when the Castle was attacked, and something murdered all her guards and burned all her notes.
  • Not helping is a line in the novels from the Other’s P.O.V. suggesting whatever it is, it’s not even human, since it remarks on the nature of the Girl Genius world like an outsider, rather than someone who lived there all her life.
  • Eventually, it’s revealed beyond a doubt that Lucrezia is the Other, and almost certainly is the Muse of Time to boot. However, even then, there are many many questions left unanswered: what happened to Lucrezia, who Albia was actually rather fond of, to turn her into the «shattered» soul that tried to kill Albia and the other Queens? When exactly did Lucrezia become the Other, and most importantly was it before or after her marriage to Bill and alleged Heel-Face Turn? Why was she hunting the Queens in the first place? Why and how did Lucrezia become a cyborg, and eventually the Muse of Time? And how do the Geisters fit into place, seeing as they seemed to know her when she was still fully human, and after becoming the fully-robotic Muse of Time, but perhaps not in any of her many, many «techno-zombie» forms?
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Clank-Lucrezia uses the power of a second breakthrough to, among other things, make her body giant sized, and increasingly bigger as the fight goes on.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка)
  • Calling it a fraud, as Zola discovers. When it happens, the Other threatens to turn her into an Empty Shell.
  • Questioning her motivation makes her explode. When the Klaus overlay does it, she goes on a rant, and when Albia does it she rants at how the queen has no idea what she’s been through.
• Big Bad: (Главный Гад) The most dangerous entity in the entire series. Even Klaus didn’t beat it—it stopped fighting before he came back.
• Body Horror: (Боди-хоррор) The version of Lucrezia we see in Albia’s flashback has clearly been through the proverbial wringer. She’s got a lot of cybernetic enhancements, possibly including her legs. And that’s just the stuff we get to see. A later glimpse shows it got mangled even further after that.
• Brain Uploading: (Загрузка сознания) The novels clarify that this is in a sense what the Summoning Engines do. They don’t «summon» anything, they just create an identical copy of the Other inside the mind of whoever they’re used on.
• Captured Super-Entity: One version of her was trapped and tamed by Zola, allowing her to become «the Queen of the Dawn» using Lucrezia’s slaver wasps.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: (Хронический предатель) Seems to be completely incapable of working with anyone without turning on them. Her response to a genuine offer of assistance is to plan to vivisect the girl who offers (though the girl in question manages to outwit her quite thoroughly).
• Civilization Destroyer: The Other came very close to destroying all of Europa, and successfully destroyed the civilizations of most of the ancient immortal god queens with only two queens and their lands and people known to have survived, though Zeetha is from a people whose civilization survived the destruction of their immortal queen.
• Classic Villain: Lucrezia/The Other is practically selfish Pride given flesh, is constantly trying to deceive people, lacks any remorse, and seeks to dominate everyone. In terms of personality she’s practically the opposite of Agatha — in fact when possessing our heroine, the reason people can tell is because «Agatha» is acting unlike herself in every way.
• Colony Drop: During the first go around, the Other’s tactics went thus: Drop a lot of giant fiery rocks from orbit on the target and utterly destroy them, send Hive Engines in similar shells built to withstand the impact, then let them activate, leaving no chance to resist the Slaver Wasps. The tactic proved so devastating it took Barry Heterodyne three whole years to figure out what was going on, because the attacks were so violent they left no evidence to examine.
• Compelling Voice: (Магия звука?) Most of the Other’s creations (such as the Geisterdamen and revenants) are built to be unable to disobey a command if it’s made in Lucrezia’s voice.
• Creative Sterility: Gil notes that the Other hasn’t rolled out any new technology in its war with him. Later revelations outright state that harnessing the spark requires an organic body. It is very likely that the Lucrezia copy stuck in Anevka’s clank body is the one at war with Gil, therefore limited in what it can do. In addition, the copy in Zola could be impacted by the fact that Zola isn’t a Spark herself.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: (Трансгуманизм — это плохо) Apparently, the reason why she could never achieve the second breakthrough despite knowing how it worked: you need a fully organic mind and it didn’t have that until it possessed Agatha.
• Demonic Possession: (Одержимость) Through the power of Brain Uploading, the Other is able to possess people with a copy of her personality.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: The Other just appeared out of nowhere one day, blew up Castle Heterodyne, and ran off into the night. Over the next three years, it wiped out damn near all the Great Houses with ruthless efficiency, with no warning, offer, threats or attempt at parley.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Lu/Agatha had managed to break past Agatha’s locket and take over her body in England, using this as a chance to sabatoge the exorcism machine. The only reason this plan didn’t work is because she decided to brag about it to Agatha’s friends while she was doing it. Had Lucrezia not been such a tremendous show-off, she might have actually won.
• Dirty Old Woman: (Старик Похабыч) She flirted with Tarvek, Lars and Martellus in Agatha’s body despite being technically old enough to be their mother and potentially old enough to be their ancestor if one factors the time travel aspects she allegedly has. In the novels, which show off her P.O.V., she’s definitely planning on going a little further than just flirting.
• Driving Question: The Other’s identity, motivations and objectives are arguably the biggest mysteries in the story.
• Enemy Within: To Agatha herself after the incident at Sturmhalten.
• Enlightened Antagonist: (Просветлённый антагонист) When the copy of her possessing Agatha achieves second breakthrough and possibly more, Tarvek desperately hopes that achieving enlightenment will cause her to realize that her evil schemes will not make her happy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: (Просветлённый со сверхспособностями)
  • The copy of her possessing Agatha manages to grow her spark into a flame, achieving second breakthrough and more. Unlike the previous people to achieve it, she manages to do so without even requiring an external dimensional energy source.
  • The copy of her in the Anevka clank also manages to achieve second breakthrough, despite using a non-sparky mechanical brain, somehow mentally controlling the surrounding dimensional energy.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: (Злу не постичь Добра) Even when she was trying to be «good», she showed a lack of comprehension, simply assuming there must be something to that strategy, because the heroic Heterodyne Brothers always won. The notion that parents must care for and look after their children is completely alien to Lucrezia. Lucrezia-In-Agatha proposes Klaus-In-Gil to sacrifice their children for the sake of getting back together, and is legitimately shocked by his explosion of fury. Much later, another Lucrezia’s copy mocks Albia for putting herself in danger to save her daughter Neena.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Inverted. The Sealed Evil in a Can finds out that its unsealer is not a toy.
• The Evils of Free Will: (Свободная воля — зло) She appears to have this mindset as the motivation for enslavement.
• Familial Body Snatcher: The only successful instances of Brain Uploading (bar the Anevka Clank) have been in Lucrezia’s blood relatives, with it hinted there were many, many failures before the Geisterdamen found Agatha. The novels confirm the one in Aaronev’s possession was both broken and designed only to work on Agatha.
• Fatal Flaw: (Фатальная слабость) Ego. Lucrezia’s got an inflated sense of self even by spark standards that make it far easier to manipulate someone as intelligent as her than it really should be. She was willing to risk outing herself in her disguise as the princess when her improvements to the healing engine hooked up to Klaus were being attributed to Doctor Sun, and her ego wouldn’t let anyone else claim credit for her work even when it was a bad idea to do so.
• Feet of Clay: There seems to be a faction of Geisterdamen (allied with a faction of the Knights of Jove) led by a «Loremistress Milvistle» who see The Other as a fraud.
• Fighting from the Inside: (Прочь из моей головы!/Битва в чертогах разума?) Even sealed away by Agatha’s locket, the Other still pushes away at her mind. Toward the end, she started getting so strong even the locket was no longer effectual.
• The Fog of Ages: Several thousand years means the Other has forgotten some of the simple joys of life, like music or chocolate.
• Freak Out: (Сорваться в истерику) A momentary response to realizing she forgot how much she loved chocolate as a human.
• Godhood Seeker: (Обретение божественности) Her ultimate end goal is to ascend to godhood and make everyone worship her (also, presumably, «show them all». And have all the chocolate.)
• Grand Theft Me: (Попаданец в чью-то голову) Does this at least to Agatha. Might have done this to Lucrezia. Or she did it to it. Really unclear.
• The Heavy: Of Volumes 2-7 (20) through 2-10 (23). Despite being the Non-Action Big Bad of much of the comic, the England and Rat Island arcs have her — specifically her Clank/Anevka form — play a more direct antagonistic role as the heroes try to take back Prendee’s Lantern from her.
• Hey, You!: (Эй, ты!) Instances of her referring to Agatha by her name can be counted on one hand. Even when pleading for her to spare her, Lucrezia only calls her «daughter».
• Hoist by His Own Petard: (Сам себя перехитрил/Не рой яму другому) Offers to «ride along» in Zola’s head so she can leave Agatha to die, especially since Agatha’s brooch supresses her. Turns out, Zola can control and supress her even without external mechanisms which means that unless Zola is unconscious, Lucretia can’t do anything with that body while Zola gains all her knowledge.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) Lucrezia / the Other regards the possibility of Barry Heterodyne’s return with trepidation (meaning fear). Never mind that he hasn’t been seen in over a decade. The very idea of Tempting Fate and summoning him causes the Other to momentarily panic.
• I Gave My Word: (Человек слова) The novels reveal the reason Slaver Wasps didn’t affect Sparks the first time around was deliberate. The Other made an agreement with the Knights of Jove. Of course, in the Other’s absence, other Sparks decided to tinker with the schematics…
• I Shall Taunt You: (Тактическая дразнилка) She tries to provoke Queen Albia into killing her current host before she can question her by taunting the queen about what she did to her sister queens. Queen Albia admits that it almost worked.
• It’s All About Me: As might be expected of a narcisstic sociopath. Several millennia has done nothing to blunt this. In fact, it’s exacerbated it, with the Other now convinced she’s been chosen by destiny to rule the world.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: On meeting Zeetha, the Other declares she knows better than to fight her.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) After a while, all the usual suspects for who could be destroying Europe were dead by its hand, meaning that all the devastation was caused by some other party.
• Me’s a Crowd: (Клоны и клонирование?) So far the Other has wound up in Agatha, a Clank designed to look like Anevka Sturmovarus, and Zola, with varying degrees of control over each. In the novels, Vrin mentions she had other bodies she visited the Geisterdamen in.
• Mood Whiplash: (Эмоциональные качели) When the Other first makes an appearance she’s all smiles and motherly comfort for her faithful Geisterdamen, who are weeping with joy at her return — her mood changes swiftly once the Other realises things have gone to hell in her absence.
• Non-Action Big Bad: (Небоевой лидер) Most Sparks in this series are dangerous fighters. Lucrezia isn’t, and when she’s forced into combat, she’s quickly overpowered (especially given that her opponents usually are master fighters, such as Tarvek and Zola). Although we’ve now seen an older time-traveling(?) cyborg version of her gleefully blasting Albia’s fellow god-queens and the version of her in Agatha is a master swordswoman.
• Outside-Context Problem: Was this even to the God-Queens. The Other was somehow able to subvert their network of magic mirrors, wielded weapons utterly beyond even their comprehension, and effortlessly countered their own attacks.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: (Неправдоподобно убедительная маскировка) When it even bothers trying to be Agatha, the Other doesn’t really put a lot of effort into it. Her nadir in this department comes when trying to convince Tarvek to assist her during a three-way fight with Zola. Which is a bit odd, since the Lucrezia who Klaus knew was an excellent actress.

«	The Other: I AM THE AGATHA GIRL! Tarvek: Yes, and I’M the Queen of Skral!	»

• Psychopathic Manchild: (Жестокий большой ребёнок) Lucrezia was a barely-restrained one. The Other has had hundreds, if not thousands of years and has not gone through a single moment of emotional growth, still acting like a spoiled teenager on a rampage.
• Religion of Evil: (Религия зла) Is the goddess of one.
• Satanic Archetype: (Сатанинский архетип) She’s pretty much a demon in all but name at this point (as Albia points out), much with all her manipulating people and possessing bodies. She’s even the force behind false idolatry (as Christians traditionally beleived demons were); Loremistress Milvistle too considered her «some kind of Devil». Besides, the role of the Other itself is more or less the role of an ultimate yet unseen enemy (much like the Devil).
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: As with all Sparks.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: (Заточённое зло) The Beacon Engine, Van Rijin’s Hermitorium.
• Showing Off the New Body: Close to a nanosecond after seeing a mirror, Lucrezia-in-Agatha takes off her dress and checks herself out. It even provides the page pic. The novelizations take it a step further and have Lucrezia nude in this scene.
• Smug Super: (Сноб со сверхспособностями/Крутой хвастун) The Other, or Lucrezia, is very confident in itself / herself and its abilities. Klaus manages to figure out who they are when they’re impersonating Agatha because only Lucrezia gloats like that.
• Spikes of Villainy: (Злодейские шипы) On her return, the Clank Lucrezia has modified her body so it can suddenly be covered in lots of spikes, should anyone get too close.
• Taking You with Me: (Взять в ад компанию) Her clank body is designed with a self-destruct system. Albia figures this is just another expression of Lucrezia’s need to get the last word in. If she can’t win, then she’ll make damn sure whoever takes her down doesn’t get to either.
• Terms of Endangerment: Likes to refer to people as «dear» or «darling» even as she’s trying to kill them. It helps to show when she’s in the driver’s seat and not Agatha, who never uses either word.
• Transformation of the Possessed: One of the first things she does with her clank body on attaining second breakthrough? Turn it into a mechanical version of her flesh-and-blood body.
• Trapped in the Host: Happened to her twice. First time, with Agatha, she got trapped by Agatha’s locket and remained trapped for most of the comic. Second time, she tried uploading herself to Zola, who had her family prepare for this and Zola was able to get all Lucrezia’s memories uploaded to her instead.
• The Virus: Uses Slaver Wasps for mind control. As of the Rat Island arc, she’s developed the ability to copy herself into others by touch.
• Time Abyss: (Бездна времени) As of 2021 we finally get firsthand confirmation that the entity brain-downloaded by the summoning engines into various bodies is really Lucrezia who has gone through hundreds if not thousand years. She speaks of five hundred years as if it was nothing, but she hints at other entities who would further scoff at that.
• Took a Level in Badass: (Поднял уровень крутизны)
  • Klaus notes that the Other’s work superficially resembles Lucrezia’s designs, but improved beyond anything he ever saw.
  • The first time Lucrezia fights Zeetha and Violetta, she has no skill in combat and is only able to keep up with them due to the post revival rush making her Unskilled, but Strong. By next time they fight, her combat skill has surpassed Violetta’s.
• Villains Want Mercy: (Умолять не стыдно) When the version of her in Agatha’s head is finally being driven out, she begs Agatha to let her stay, saying there’s still stuff she can teach her, and even calling her 'daughter' in an extremely rare moment. Agatha, naturally, is having none of it.
• Virtual Ghost: An explanation of her possessing is that what is overlayed over the victim is an artificial copy of her personality.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж) The Clank Lucrezia wasn’t seen from Sturmhalten until the Londinium arc: She escaped the town and was keeping low key, amassing forces. Now she’s back, trying to strike Albia, and more recently she has been attempting reactivating one of the mirrors the Queens used, with some success.
• Wicked Wasps: (Пчёлы, осы и шмели) The Slaver Wasps are its most ubiquitous servants, make up the bulk of its armies, and are the main threat associated with it in-universe.
• Would Hurt a Child: (Не щадить детей)
  • The Other is (apparently) responsible for the attack on Castle Heterodyne that killed Lucrezia’s first child. And then there are all those missing Spark girls…
  • It’s very strongly implied that The Other deliberately conceived Agatha as an escape clause in case anything happened to Lucrezia, and that Agatha was only saved by some effort on the part of Barry.

Lucrezia Mongfish

Lucrezia Mongfish is from a long line of cheerily sociopathic Sparks, known specifically for their skill in biology, and is Agatha’s mother. She was a long-time antagonist of the Heterodyne Boys before giving up her father’s work and marrying Bill. She was apparently kidnapped when the Other attacked Castle Heterodyne and killed her infant son (signaling the start of the attacks), but returned twenty years later when her mind was downloaded into Agatha’s brain. She seems to be the Other (an interpretation Klaus agrees with), but the situation remains unclear.

• Abusive Parents: (На фига родня такая, лучше буду сиротой) She seemingly conceived Agatha specifically to use her as a spare body, as the Summoning Engine was specifically designed to place a copy of Lucrezia’s mind within Agatha. Likewise, none of the Lucrezia copies have ever acknowledged Agatha as their daughter and see her as nothing more than a pawn or a hindrance.
• Ambiguous Start of Darkness: In the backstory, she was the Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter who was redeemed by love and married The Hero Bill Heterodyne. In the present, she’s The Other, the main villain of the story. Whether her reformation was faked all along, or she turned evil again, or even if she was influenced or taken over in some way is still unknown.
• And I Must Scream: (Но я должен кричать) If she really was the Muse of Time like Albia claims, then she was captured and trapped alone in Van Rijn’s secret lab for over 200 years. This would explain her various rants about suffering alone for a long time without anyone rescuing her and the Other’s apparent hatred of Sparks.
• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) The version of her we see in a Albia-centered flashback is in the process of a gleeful murderous rampage.
• Bad Boss: (Злой начальник)
  • She regularly treated the Geisterdamen, who viewed her as a goddess, poorly when they failed her. After Barry rescued Agatha from them, she went on a murder spree where she killed off a sizable portion of the Geisterdamen population and forced thousands of them into exile into Europa to carry out her plans. Similarly, when Lady Vrin, her most staunch supporter, became a potential hindrance to her schemes, she ordered her to die without hesitation, causing her to asphyxiate.
  • While as during her marriage with Bill, she regularly abused the Jägers and treated them like they were pets. The Jägers were forced to put up with it for the sake of their love stricken master.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство) The Mongfishes really didn’t get along. So far Lucrezia (or the Other) has met her niece and her nephew, and tried to kill both of them simply for being the children of her sisters. Though, that was because one of them, Serpentia (Theo’s mother), left her for dead in an exploding lab… so Lucrezia says, several decades after the fact.
• Body Snatcher: (Контроль чужого тела) Her area of expertise. She mastered the art of swapping people’s minds and her greatest accomplishment was discovering how to switch organic minds with the artificial programming of clanks. After becoming the Other, she put these skills to use for herself, making a machine that forces her mind into others earning her the moniker «thief of souls» from Madame Von Pinn/Otilia.
• Control Freak:
  • Multiple people have stated that she loved to control people and manipulate them into doing her bidding. Her Slaver Wasps were created specifically so that no one infected by them could disobey orders given by her voice.
  • After marrying Bill, she couldn’t stand the idea of being constantly watched by Castle Heterodyne, so she moved her lab to the Castle’s lowest levels and successfully transplanted the area’s subsystem into the Muse of Protection, imprisoning it in her lab. This meant the Castle couldn’t observe her actions in her lab and she could feel like she had obtained some measure of control over the construct.
• Chronic Villainy: (Крокодилушка) Another theory about how/why she became the Other. She claimed to be pulling a Heel-Face Turn in marrying Bill, but just a few years later, well… the Castle was destroyed, she disappeared, and the Other started ravaging Europa.
• Damsel in Distress: (Дева в беде) Claims to have been this when «all went wrong» and that no one, not her husband or father or Klaus, came to save her, and indicates this has something to do with why she’s gone so far off the deep end. However, her words also imply that whatever happened to her was the result of her own actions and, depending on how you interpret them, started with her trying to Take Over the World.
• Dating Catwoman: (Возлюбленная — злодейка) Why someone as incorruptibly good as Bill Heterodyne would be compelled to marry someone as insidious as Lucrezia Mongfish can only be attributed to this trope. She also had a former attraction to Klaus that she tries to play on in the present day.
• Demonic Possession: (Одержимость) Yet another theory regarding her relationship with the Other. Getting the feeling there are a lot of theories?
• Dirty Coward: (Подлый трус) According to Von Pinn, Lucrezia always was a «coward at heart.»
• Draco in Leather Pants: (Фанатское обеление персонажа) In-universe, with the Heterodyne Boys plays and their depiction of Lucrezia. She’s a vain, petty, melodramatic cowardly, maniacal villain… and utterly adored by the audiences. Right up until the third act when she invariably falls in love with Bill, at which point they lose interest in her. Funnily enough, her outfit in the notoriously saucy «Socket Wench of Prague» is noted to be leather…
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодеев есть любимые) The novels imply that, as evil as she is, she still loves Bill. When she mentions Bill to Zola, she actually starts to cry.
• Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: (И у злодеев есть любимые) Strangely, even after turning good, Lucrezia still seems to be fond of her father. Or least thinks more favourably about him than she does her sisters.
• Evil Matriarch: (На фига родня такая, лучше буду сиротой) Safe to say, planning to have your daughter Raised as a Host is pretty horrible parenting, as is repeatedly trying to kill said daughter for not wanting to host your mind.
• Face-Heel Turn: (Переход на Тёмную сторону) Lucrezia eventually claims to 'Klaus' that hers was a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal (or at least she perceives it as one). Note the wording of her ranting. There’s two distinct ways it can be interpreted — the first being the obvious one that her evil plan as the Other went horribly wrong, leaving her 'stranded' somehow, or her definition of «winning» was finally living a happy family life with Bill, only to get kidnapped, her son murdered, and forced into being the Other. Which is the case is left unclear.
• First-Name Basis: Almost everyone refers to her as «the Lady Lucrezia» when they’re being formal. Justified as she dropped her maiden name "Mongfish, " and calling her by her married name as «Lady Heterodyne» might cause confusion with her daughter.
• Giggling Villain: Befitting someone with her childish personality, she’s mentioned as giggling a lot.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: (Бить врага вражиною) And that’s her nephew.
• Hate Sink: (Концентратор ненависти) Lucrezia has yet to be presented with any kind of positive or endearing traits. So far, she’s just a cruel, abusive, manipulative monster.
• Heel-Face Turn: (Переход на Светлую сторону) Before the series started, she tried to turn good when she agreed to marry Bill Heterodyne, and even drugged Klaus and sent him away so he wouldn’t be a distraction. This is one of the most confusing parts of her character, since if she really never had any interest in redemption, she would have just killed Klaus.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: (Облагородить в адаптации) The Heterodyne stories portray her as the cranky but kind daughter of a comically evil villain. Even before becoming the Other, there’s no hint that Lucrezia was anything other than a nasty piece of work, even after marrying Bill and supposedly turning over a new leaf.
• Informed Ability: (Заявленная способность)
  • In-universe. Klaus often described Lucrezia as incredibly strong and brilliant as a Spark, which confuses Gil since during his new war against her he’s seen her try nothing new of her own. All of the Other-tech is the same as what the Heterodynes fought or made by one of her followers. This turns out to be because he’s actually fighting Zola, who has access to all of Lucrezia’s old knowledge thanks to hijacking one of her copies but is not herself a Spark.
  • Similarly, Klaus believes her to be devious, cunning, and an excellent faker. Based on what we’ve seen of her/the Other in the comic, the former two are not debatable, the latter most certainly is.
• It’s All About Me: She’s trapped in this mindset. Decades after she drugged Klaus and exiled him, damaged Castle Heterodyne and possibly murdered her own son, killed countless Sparks and others across Europa, not to mention mind-controlling any survivors, she returns to steal her daughter’s body… and then has the gall to claim she’s the injured party, since she didn’t win and no one came to rescue her from her own mistakes.
• Jerkass: (Козёл) The Jägers didn’t like her because she treated them, and everyone else, like property. Given some of the characters they served through the centuries, that’s saying a lot.
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: When Agatha and Carson discuss the death of Lucrezia’s first son when the Other attacked Castle Heterodyne, Agatha initially disbelieves that Lucrezia would cause her own son’s death.

«	Agatha: But that makes no sense! Not if the Other was— No.	»

• Last Girl Wins: Technically. She was definitely the woman Bill married, after several other romances. It just didn’t last too long.
• Love Redeems: (Искупление любовью) She tried to invoke this by marrying Bill Heterodyne. It apparently didn’t work so well, since she (maybe) became the Other and started one of the most destructive wars in recent history.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) Well, duh, she’s a Spark, but Lucrezia is more of a «classic» Mad Scientist in contrast with the heroic Sparks, who are more Reluctant Mad Scientists. The prologue to Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg has her work with Brain Uploading much to the chargin of her test subjects, Otilia and Castle Heterodyne.

«	Otilia/Von Pinn: «That which you have done here is blasphemy!» Lucrezia: «Oh, I know! It’s so exiting! I’m positively giddy!»	»

• Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter: Who is herself a Mad Scientist. Who has a beautiful daughter. Who is a Mad Scientist. Oy.
• Master Actress:
  • Klaus says she is, but this comes off as an Informed Ability since she likes to gloat and is so different from Agatha. Although maybe if she knew anything at all about the girl she is pretending to be, she’d do better. Tarvek has no trouble telling Lucrezia and Agatha apart, and neither does the audience.
  • The version of her possessing the former body of Anevka, on the other hand, is much more successful at pretending to be a sad, worried princess and conning people into underestimating her in her few scenes, allowing her to scheme with the version inside of Zola, and sneak in to knock out Klaus.
• Missing Mom: (Пропавшая мама) Is one. And Agatha would have been much better off if she had stayed missing.

«	Lucrezia: Daughter! Wait! Let me STAY! I can TEACH YOU! Agatha: You've taught me PLENTY, mother — AND I'M NOT VERY HAPPY ABOUT THAT!	»

• Mysterious Past: (Персонаж-загадка) Even without the mystery of what happened that night in the lab, she clearly knew about Skifander, since it’s where she dumped Klaus, and was interacting with the Geisterdamen for years before she married Bill, via the same sort of gate found in the Red Cathedral…
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) Replace her last name with Borgia, and you very much have a real-world counterpart. Yikes.
• Never Found the Body: (Тело так и не нашли) Lucrezia went missing before the Other attacked the Heterodynes. While her mind might have come back, her body sure hasn’t.
• Noblewoman’s Laugh: One of her somewhat-hammy moments.
• Offing the Offspring: (Я тебя породил, я тебя и убью)
  • Her first child with Bill, Klaus Barry, was killed in the attack on Castle Heterodyne, and it’s possible that this was deliberate on her part. Even Agatha, having already seen how evil she can be, had some trouble with that idea. It is also of note that in all the time she’s been around, never once has Lucrezia or the Other even mentioned her son in any capacity.
  • Later, when she discusses plans with Zola, she openly states that she considers Agatha, her own daughter, a liability, as her ability to control her own brain is gradually winning out over Lucrezia’s, to the point where Agatha is even pulling things out of Lucrezia’s mind. Lucrezia briefly planned to kill Agatha and ride along with Zola instead, but that turned out not to be practical.
• Paper Tiger: Lucrezia is a sadist who loves to torment and dominate everyone around her, but she’s also a coward at heart with a low tolerance for pain.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: To Klaus. A ZigZagged case in that Lucrezia was the one who dumped Klaus and not vice versa. She does show interest in getting back together with him, but it’s incredibly creepy given that she infects him with one of her slaver wasps and Klaus himself is very not interested.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: (Жестокий большой ребёнок) Even by the already low standards of most Sparks, a lot of Lucrezia’s actions suggest an amazingly childish personality, even though she’s a grown woman.

«	EEEEEEE! We’re going to win! (Vol. 6 p. 80)	»

• Really Gets Around: (Потаскушка) If the way everyone talks about her (when not in the context of the Other) is anything to go by. We know she had a fling with Klaus before marrying William, and according to Violetta she was «hot stuff» with the Knights of Jove.
• Terms of Endangerment: She does this to a lot of people, but does it to Klaus especially often.
• Tsundere: (Цундэрэ) Kind of.
• Underestimating Badassery: She’s only really worried about the Heterodynes, the Wulfenbachs, and Albia, since they’re the only ones strong enough to oppose her. Everyone else is just a distraction. She really should have been paying more attention to Tarvek, who put a Kill Switch in the clank that a copy of her was hiding in, and Martellus, who engineered a biological Restraining Bolt in Agatha’s body that Lucrezia forgot about. Failing to notice these ultimately gets her exorcised after her second breakthrough in Albia.
• The Vamp: She flirts more than fights, as Zola says.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: (Влюблённый злодей) Certainly one of the reasons she married Bill.

«	Lucrezia: Besides, they always win. There must be something to their philosophy.	»

• Villainous Breakdown: (Злодейская истерика) According to Queen Albia, she is used to believing that she cannot be stopped, so a big enough setback is liable to shake her up.
• Voices Are Not Mental: Implied (as comics and novels can’t fully show sound). Lucrezia made a point of having a daughter to pull Grand Theft Me on so that her new body would have her Compelling Voice to use on her servants.
• Weak, but Skilled: (Слаб, но удал) Lucrezia is a master swordswoman, but the copies in Agatha and Anevka’s robot body are unable to use those skills to the fullest as Agatha is barely trained as a fighter and Anevka’s body is still subject to Tarvek’s commands.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж) It hasn’t been revealed what happened to Lucrezia, the real Lucrezia, after she disappeared during the Other War. All three versions we have tabs on in the present, possessing Zola, Agatha, and Anevka’s robotic body, are copies of her.

Geisterdamen

Mysterious pale ladies from Places Unknown, who ride giant spiders and serve the Other.

• Accidental Murder: (Случайное убийство) On one hand, they didn’t intend for all those girls they plugged into the Summoning Engine to die. On the other hand, they didn’t seem all too sad about it.
• All There in the Manual: In the second novel, Vrin’s monologue gives a few more details as to how they operate. More details are also given about them in Othar’s Twitter-based adventures.
• Amazon Brigade: (Бригада амазонок) So far, there’s no indication that male Geisters exist, and they are rightfully feared as Lucrezia’s elite troops, with a single Geister able to give Zeetha a run for her money.
• Ambiguously Human: (Се человек?) It’s unclear if they are humans, aliens, constructs, or whatever.
• Ditto Aliens: All Geisterdamen tend to look entirely alike. It’s hinted they may be clones, though Othar at least claims they aren’t literally identical.
• Evil Counterpart: (Оттенить героя мерзавцем) Seem to serve as these to the Jaegermonsters, being an elite fighting force sworn to serve a single figure for the duration, which they do so with (mostly) undying devotion. Just the Geisterdamen serve the Other, who’s far worse than any Heterodyne’s ever managed. And they’re not quite as goofy or lovable. Also, unlike the Jaegers, at least some of them are Wasped.
• Fantastic Caste System: (Кастовое общество) They have one. Most of the warriors, or the ones the Other left alive after it was through venting on them, were sent to Europa to find Agatha.
• Foreign Cuisine: They hate the local food in Europe, and have got by largely on cheese they made themselves. From spider-milk (because using cow-milk would just be stupid.)
• Giant Spiders: (Гигантские членистоногие) We’re talking flippin' enormous here. Their spiders tower over trees and buildings, and the Geisterdamen ride them to get about.
• Gratuitous German: «Geisterdamen» in German translates to «ghost ladies».
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: Not always «babies», but still young children. They frequently kidnapped young Sparky girls in search of their «Holy Child», hooking them up to their machine to see if they were the one they were looking for. Usually they weren’t and the process would kill the girls.
• Lady Land: (Народ амазонок) As the name might suggest, no Geistermen (Geisterherren?) have been sighted to date.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • After the Other carried out a massacre upon them over their failure to thwart Barry Heterodyne’s One-Man Army assault to liberate baby Agatha, a few of her priestesses chose to interpret her as a devil, impersonating their goddess to steal the Holy Child’s power. They set up their own faction within the Geisterdamen and rebelled, destroying the portal used to send their forces to Europa.
  • The Queen of Dawn forms her own faction within the Other’s forces. Since the Geisterdamen are technically loyal to the Other rather than directly herself, she enacts The Purge with an Uriah Gambit. The confused, betrayed, and leaderless survivors end up turning on both the Queen of Dawn and the Other, using their Holy Child as a loophole around the Other’s control.
• Not Always Evil: Although the majority of Geisters are slavishly loyal to the Other, a few were able to break her spell. Loremistress Milvistle for one saw the Other as some kind of demon and rebelled against her to protect the infant Agatha. Later on, a group following Eotain, with the help of Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) are able to rebel and defect to the good side.
• Religion of Evil: (Религия зла) They worship the Other, in many aspects. Exactly what the tenets of that religion are isn’t clear, but again, they worship the Other. They also lead worship as they have a weaker command voice that works on revenants. Additionally, they had a chapel devoted to her in Sturmhalten where they’d strap young girls into the Summoning Engine, usually killing them in the process.
• Stealth Expert: Part of how they got their name. Their giant spiders are alarmingly quiet, most people don’t ever hear them coming. They’re good enough to get the drop on Smoke Knights.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Supposedly, to the Other, who they are programmed to obey, but it’s clear that loyalty is not 100 % concrete all the time. Being wasped probably helps, though. In Othar’s Twitter adventures, Oslaka willingly goes off to live with Othar, and Eotain claims that after the massacre of many of her sisters in Paris, she’s done following the Other.
• Would Hurt a Child: (Не щадить детей) There’s a reason girl Sparks in Europa tend to go missing, and that reason is these gals, grabbing them to try and use the Summoning Engine to bring the Other back, not knowing it was broken (and only meant to work on Agatha).
• You Can’t Go Home Again: Not native to Europa. Exactly where they come from is amazingly unclear, just that it’s somewhere very far away. After the Other came back from… wherever it was, it sent a lot of them to Europa to find Agatha, with the condition they couldn’t go home until they’d found her (and it’s entirely possible this was just BS on the Other’s part to begin with).

Vrin

A Geisterdame working with Aaronev to find the Holy Child.

• The Dragon: (Правая рука главгада) To Lucrezia’s Big Bad during the Sturmhalten arc.
• False Friend: (Фальшивая дружба) To Agatha. She lets Agatha think that she is trustworthy, then tricks Agatha into coming with her to the Chapel, where she puts her in the Summoning Engine and installs Lucrezia in her mind.
• Ms. Exposition: (Мистер Экспозиция) She gives us a big lore dump shortly after we meet her, including most of what we know about the Geisterdamen.
• No-Sell: (Никакого эффекта) She can resist commands given in Lucrezia’s voice if she knows it’s not really Lucrezia talking. Most Geisters don’t have this ability, and we know of no revenants who can do this.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) To Lucrezia, her supposed goddess.
• Uniformity Exception: Lady Vrin dresses in a purple gown, instead of the light blue bodice and loincloth that most Geisters wear. Later she dresses more like the others, but still wears a gold necklace to differentiate herself.
• Villainous Valour: (Отважный злодей) Lady Vrin watched Anevka shut down her fellow Geisters with her voice, and her first response it to jump right at her.

«	«I am not some first-rank priestess to be manipulated by voice alone. I know my Lady and I know my duty! DIE, MONSTER!»	»

• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: (Пережить свою полезность) Lucrezia kills her by ordering her to die. Knowing it’s really Lucrezia talking, she obeys.

Eotain

A Geisterdame encountered early on by Agatha in her misadventures, later an acolyte of Othar Tryggvassen (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!); much of her adventures with the latter fellow have only appeared on Twitter, and not in the main comic.

• All There in the Manual: Since most Geisterdamen look nigh-identical anyway, it’s hard to tell, but the novel confirms that Eotain along with Shurdlu are the first two Agatha meets, and they are also the pair in the cells in Sturmhalten.
• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок‏) She and the other Geisters flee Sturmhalten before the Baron’s forces show up. They don’t reappear until Agatha’s time in Paris, with Eotain and Shurdlu chasing the heroes across the rooftops. Eotain reappears with Othar when Gil and Tarvek return to Paris following the mess in England.
• The Dividual: Eotain and Shurdlu were this until Shurdlu died. They were previously so tightly joined that they share a page on the wiki.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодеев есть любимые) She really loves her giant spider, Bwoosee, and gets in some angry raging at the heavens when Dimo crushes it. She also clearly cares deeply about Shurdlu, though her distress at her longtime partner’s death is more understated than her fury over the death of Bwoosee.
• Heel-Face Turn: (Переход на Светлую сторону) After the slaughter in Paris, Eotain concludes that Zola is a fake, abandons her service to the Other and hides in the sewers, where she is found by Othar. She joins up with him and decides to rally her fellow Geisters to oppose the false goddess, and has now joined up with the Wulfenbach forces to defend Europa.
• Missed Him by That Much: (Разминулись) In her first appearance, she and Shurdlu stumble upon Agatha, mistakenly taking her for Lucrezia (because she and Lars were reciting some Lucrezia and Bill dialogue from a Heterodyne play, and Agatha’s voice sounds almost, but not quite, like her mom’s) only to stomp off in annoyance on realizing Agatha’s just an actor. The story of Girl Genius would have gone very differently otherwise.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The Queen of Dawn sending her and the other Geisterdamen to Paris to (almost certainly) deliberately get killed proves to be enough for Eotain to defect, using Agatha’s existence as a loophole to get around the total obedience they’re supposed to have.
• Mook Promotion: Eotain starts off as just one Geisterdamen warrior, but with the Other’s mass purge and Vrin’s death, she (and Shurdlu) are shown leading some sort of operation in Paris.
• Running Gag: (Постоянная шутка) Identifying Agatha as an actor.
• Those Two Guys: (Те два парня) Has this dynamic with her partner, Shurdlu, until Shurdlu dies in Paris.

The Muse of Time

The Muse of Time, also known as the Enigma, is a very mysterious clank that can time travel. Albia confirms, or at least believes with great certainty, that Lucrezia Mongfish is her true identity.

• Body Horror: (Боди-хоррор) When Agatha finds her in Van Rijn’s lab, she looks like a hideous combination of a robotic skeleton and a Devil Dog from Castle Heterodyne.
• Foreshadowing: (Предзнаменование)
  • She first appeared in a time window pointing at Agatha and proclaiming «… Like that?!» to someone offscreen.
  • In her first appearance, she has hands that look very similar to the dragon from Theo’s Heterodyne Boys story. They also look similar to the hands of the Geisterdamen’s mistress from Lady Vrin’s flashback.
  • In Van Rijn’s notebook, we’re shown that one of the Muse of Time’s forms looks very similar to Agatha and wears what looks like a Heterodyne symbol on her eye. A later flashback of Albia’s confirms that this is a version of Lucrezia, albeit one that’s taken a severe beating.
• Mysterious Stranger: Almost nothing is known about her and she has only shown up twice in the series.
• Robot Hair: (Нечеловеческие волосы) In her first appearance she has long wires coming from her head that have been styled into braids. In her second appearance, she has disheveled human-like hair.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: (Заточённое зло) While not enough is known of her to call her «evil», Van Rijn was able to trap her in his lab below Paris where she stayed for over 200 years before the Lucrezia-copy in Agatha’s head influenced/instructed her host into restoring the Muse’s power, allowing her to escape.
• Small Role, Big Impact: (Небольшая роль с большим влиянием (в разработке)) In her first appearance she spooked Agatha, causing her to run into the alley where her locket was stolen, kicking off the plot.
• Time Master: (Магия времени) She has the ability to travel through time seemingly at will.
• Trickster Mentor: (Ментор-трикстер) When she appeared in front of Van Rijn and stayed long enough to talk, she would sometimes teach him new things.

Mechanicsburg

Ссылка: [8]

General

• Beneath the Mask: In the novels, when Agatha first gets there, she quickly notices that the townspeople’s smiles fade when tourists aren’t looking, and in the non-touristy parts the city is in obvious and serious disrepair. Mechanicsburg is miserable without their Heterodyne.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Pretending to be a Heterodyne or threatening an actual Heterodyne is a good way to get yourself lynched in Mechanicsburg, assuming the Castle doesn’t get you first.
• Chaotic Neutral: (Хаотичный нейтрал) Claimed In-Universe by one of the town signs that they’ve been «chaotically neutral» for some number of years.
• City of Adventure: (Город Приключенск) Being the home of generations of Heterodynes will do that. Roughly every square meter of the town is home to a Death Trap, secret passage, lost treasure, or highly dangerous creation of perverted mad science, if not several of these at once. The main story stays here for almost six years (although much of the action arises from the town being under siege), as well as several side stories.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: While the setting as a whole doesn’t have anything like the issues around human race or sex that its historical equivalent did, monsters and constructs are often outcasts, slaves, or second class citizens. In Mechanicsburg, they are valued members of the community.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодеев есть любимые) Mechanicsburgers may be murderous brigands and eager minions to one of the most mad and destructive Spark families in Europa, but they’re a very close-knit community.
• The Igor: (Горбун Игорь) Fifty generations of being minions to a dynasty of mad scientists who despite generally being evil, tended to be very consistent in repaying loyalty up with loyalty down, has turned pretty much the entire population into this.
• Nightmare Fetishist: (Любитель всякой жути) The Jägers' monstrous features are considered attractive in Mechanicsburg. Serving girls dress up as Jägers to attract customers in Mama Gkika’s tavern, Mama Gkika herself is turned on by the thought of a man with big tusks, Oggie is a ladies' man, and Higgs is not only disappointed that he never developed any monstrous features, but fears that Zeetha will be too.
• Seen It All: The Mechanicsburgers have lived all their lives in the home of the maddest and science-iest Mad Scientists, and are almost universally unflappable. They don’t seem to mind that the Heterodyne’s return is accompanied by a full-scale invasion — after all, she hasn’t even killed anyone yet!
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) To the House of Heterodyne. The sheer joy in Mechanicsburg when they learn they have a Heterodyne again is a Heartwarming Moment.
• Villainous Friendship: Again, murderous brigands and eager minions, but a very close-knit community.
• Weird Trade Union: (Необычный профсоюз) There’s a Guild of Monsters in Mechanicsburg, accepting both Heterodyne creations and defecting constructs of other Sparks. The Heterodyne Boys disbanded the guild and tried to drive out the monsters, but the people stood by their inhuman neighbors and Agatha reinstated it.

Castle Heterodyne

Castle Heterodyne is the hereditary home of the Heterodynes and the central structure of Mechanicsburg, a masterpiece of Malevolent Architecture and Artificial Sentience created by Faustus Heterodyne and improved upon by almost every successor to the family line. It was badly damaged in the still-mysterious explosion that announced the arrival of The Other in Europa — adding multiple personalities to its many intentional quirks. Nevertheless, the last thing Judy (AKA Lilith) told Agatha was to get to the Castle. «It will help you.»

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: (ИИ — это рискованно) When first encountered, the castle is badly damaged, but since it was originally imbued with intelligence by the gleefully diabolical Faustus Heterodyne, even the 'fixed' portions regard grisly deaths as entertainment.
• Bad Boss: (Злой начальник) Castle Heterodyne’s more addled subsystem fragments are stupid, murderous, and confused when it comes to repairs. Even the more sane fragments have a penchant for killing the inhabitants unless closely supervised by Agatha.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: (Бойся своих желаний) The castle has a very slaughter focused view of the world.
• Benevolent A.I.: An incredibly twisted version. It is completely loyal to the Heterodynes and will go out of its way to protect them and act in what it believes are their best interests. Unfortunately, being built by and for the Old Heterodynes means that it seems totally unable to understand that its current Mistress might not want the world to quail in terror at her feet, or might consider subjecting her staff to brutal Darwinian winnowing to be less than desirable.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Threatening or otherwise questioning the Heterodynes is a good way to incur the Castle’s wrath. It notably drops the comedy when Herr Diamant foolishly claims that all the Heterodynes are dead, and threatens to vivisect him for his blasphemy.
• Big Fancy Castle: It’s in disrepair, but some parts, like the library, still look good. Also, with the visible part of the castle not exactly small already, consider that it sits on top of a large rock overlooking Mechanicsburg. And that inside that rock it reaches down below the level of the spring of the river Dyne.
• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок) Played with. The Castle, being capable of a higher level of consciousness and perception than humans, is still able to think and function in a limited fashion under the effects of the temporal stasis. Additionally, machinery containing one of the Castle’s fragmentary personalities was removed before Agatha arrived in Mechanicsburg to begin with; Agatha discovered it in Paris, and while it’s more limited than the actual Castle, it does have its little ways of being useful…
• Card-Carrying Villain: (Злодей до мозга костей) The Castle proudly admits that its old Masters were villains. That Bill & Barry were heroes was always something that confused it. One scene has the Castle and the Beast worrying that Agatha might not be evil.
• Crazy-Prepared: (Всегда готов!) It claims to be prepared for «more contingencies than you can imagine.» This apparently includes getting stuck in a time stop.
• Death Course: The interior of the Castle is a labyrinth of heavily booby-trapped chambers, corridors and passageways, crawling with various deadly constructs, the whole thing controlled by the Castle’s own highly sadistic mind.
• Eldritch Location: (Аномальная зона/Чужеродное место) Not in a magical sense (as far as we know). But its sentience, ability to rearrange parts of itself (and the entire city that surrounds it) around to fight off attackers, and ability to retain full awareness and partial function despite the entire area it occupies being frozen in time definitely qualify it as such.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Sparks have been working for fifteen years to sort out what is and is not dangerous in the castle. The idea of entering an area that hasn’t been mapped yet is considered suicide. Agatha exploits this by fleeing through an unmapped area in order to delay her pursuers; against all odds, it works, allowing her and von Zinzer to reach the Chapel of Bones mostly unhindered.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: (Злу не постичь Добра) In Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle, it mentions that despite doing everything it could to please them, the Heterodyne Boys never liked it. Even decades on, it’s still confused as to why. It should be noted that the Castle was the one who killed their mother, the one who raised them to be good and saved them from their mad father. The fact that the Castle never considered this to be a reason why Bill and Barry never liked it speaks for itself.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: (У злодеев проблемы с юмором) As Zola notes, the Castle’s worst trait is that it likes to think it has a sense of humor. But to a normal person, its sense of humor is crude at best and usually sadistic.
• Evil Is Petty: It’s implied the Castle takes note of the prisoners that are closest to getting out and makes a point of killing them before they can escape it.
• Exact Words: (Буквально понятые слова) See Jackass Genie.
• Fair-Play Villain: Certain parts of Mechanicsburg have been designed to be outside its sight and control. When the Beast points out a loophole, the Castle dismisses this as unacceptable because that «would not be playing the game!»
• The Genie in the Machine: Deliberately invoked: «I must have misunderstood you» is one of its excuses when confronted with its frequent misdeeds.
• Genius Loci: (Живое небесное тело?) At first, a massively fragmented one. But as Agatha restores more and more of it, it gradually becomes less deranged and more capable of helping, ultimately culminating in the Castle reminding the attacking Wulfenbach forces just why Mechanicsburg is unassailable.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка) It assumes that any «real» hero can automatically survive any and all deathtraps without explanation. Hilariously, it’s right.
• Haunted Castle: So the rubes believe. It’s actually more of an A.I. style Sapient House with a massive mean streak.
• Hellhole Prison: To the convicts sentenced here. Only a few inmates managed to complete their sentences without dying, partly because the Castle was too broken to competently oversee its own repairs, and partly because the Castle killed many of them for its own amusement.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Not very heroic, just aligned with the interests of our protagonist heroine. But very sociopathic! And, it likes to think, even more comedic!
• Heroic Second Wind: After Agatha fully recharges its energy reserves, the Castle reminds the world why the hundred-year Great War never came to Mechanicsburg.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) When Gil and Higgs make their excursion into the stasis time-field to retrieve Vole, the Castle «encourages» them to get a look at the Clock Roaches for it, expecting to only find Dreen. The sight of the looming abomination makes it scream in fear.
• Jackass Genie: (Злой джинн) Castle Heterodyne prefers to interpret all orders it is given in whatever way allows it to have the most fun, for which read: «cause the most casualties and destruction». Imagine the maze in the Cube movies with an AI that likes to think it has a sense of humor.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: (Козёл с золотым сердцем) For all its sociopathic tendencies, schizophrenia and contrariness, the Castle is a loyal servant of House Heterodyne, and has stated a willingness to lay down its life(?) for Agatha.
• Kick the Dog: (Пнуть собаку) Prisoners are reminded to never tally their total points out loud, as the castle can and will devote more effort to killing those close to getting out.
• Large Ham: (Переигрывание)
  • Gleefully. It happens when the Castle’s mind is a copy of a Spark’s brain (specifically that of Faustus Heterodyne, the current castle’s creator).

«	Agatha: Let’s just say that somewhere in here is a dial marked "High Drama, " and it needs to be turned way down. Castle: I do have a certain flair…	»

• When someone suggests BRIAN BLESSED!!!!! be used as the voice of the Castle, the authors agree entirely.

• Laughably Evil: (Смешной злой) The Castle loves its work, and those of us who are safe beyond the fourth wall get to be in on the joke.
• Malevolent Architecture: More so than most, as it will actively try to kill you.
• Maximum Fun Chamber: Fun for the Castle (and the Old Heterodynes back when), that is.
• Mechanical Abomination: (Чужеродная машина) A sentient castle with more deathtraps than possible that can ignore fluctuations in time.
• Memory Gambit: The Castle is compelled to obey most orders of the currently reigning Heterodyne, but its ultimate loyalty is to the overall family, and it will occasionally fool itself if it doesn’t like what it expects the reigning Heterodyne to do. When the «goodie-two shoes» William and Barry attempted The Purge against Mechanicsburg’s monster population, the castle felt that future Heterodynes would return to evil someday and took action. It secretly buried the Monster Guild’s headquarters and separated its memory of doing so to ensure that the Heterodyne Boys would not be able to order it to truly destroy the guild. While Agatha was not the return to evil it was hoping for, she did have use for the Monster Guild and renewed its charter, resulting in the Castle’s memory being returned to it.
• Moral Myopia: (Готтентотская мораль) Played for Laughs. Since the Castle builds its worldview around its Heterodyne, it seems to believe in a sort of In-Universe Protagonist-Centered Morality (that isn’t self-centered).

«	Agatha: I think I’ve been used. Castle: What?! Who dares?! Playing with people’s lives is your prerogative!	»

• My Master, Right or Wrong: Or more accurately for the Castle, «My Master, Wrong or Right (But Preferably Wrong)». It exists for the sole purpose of serving the Heterodyne, even if they’re a hero like Bill or Agatha.
• Nightmare Fetishist: (Любитель всякой жути) As the HQ and The Igor to generations of demented maniacs, the Castle delights in human misery. Also, when the Baron declares that he is going to end the Battle of Mechanicsburg personally, the Castle has a fanboy moment.
• Nothing but Skulls: The Heterodynes had a relatively simple but effective design decor.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) In its own twisted, warped way. The Castle did like Professor Tiktoffen, so it kills him quickly.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) When Klaus crosses the Godzilla Threshold, he freezes the Castle and its occupants (and himself) in temporal stasis, removing them all from the story. But even being frozen in time doesn’t stop the castle from telling Gil that something physically unconstrained by the bounds of time is coming to to do terrible things to Mechanicsburg so long as it’s still frozen.
• Robotic Psychopath: (Безумный робот) That murderousness isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
• Sanity Slippage: As something created by Heterodynes, the castle was never particularly sane to begin with, but once Agatha, Gil and Tarvek are inside, it starts getting increasingly irrational. The first sign is when Gil tinkers on one section, causing the castle to start rambling about yurts. It completely loses it when it hears of the trio’s plan to cure themselves of Hogfarb’s Resplendent Immolation: Kill the patient… and then revivify them after purging, but alas, the Castle doesn’t care. After the castle is «killed», a less insane handy backup copy takes over.
• Sapient House: Remember the house from The Addams Family? Imagine fifty generations of Addamses adding onto it… and weaponizing it.
• Shipper on Deck / I Want Grandkids: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер)
  • The Castle is determined never to be left without a master again. Therefore, Agatha must have children as soon as possible. It openly ships This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.Agatha x Gil x Tarvek (to her mortification), but it also regards them as replacable. It seems to like strong sparks with a strong fighting spirit and magnificent death rays as potential consorts. Of course, given its other personality traits, it takes the idea of imprisoning them all until it gets what it wants quite seriously.
  • It seems to ship Higgs/Zeetha as well, presumably out of sentimental fondness for two unusually entertaining humans.
• Spike Balls of Doom: The Castle includes a huge spiked ball, which is apparently called the «Happy Fun Ball Of Death», which visits each part of the castle once per week.

«	Agatha: Why do I even have one of those?	»

• Split Personality: (Раздвоение личности) The Castle is made up of hundreds of subsystems and subroutines. Upon the initial attack, the Other was smart enough to hit the Castle in four major subsections and fracture it into at least 12 personalities. The secondary kitchen part itself was driven by the need to tend to food preparation. The entire Castle could be shut down as long as one portion of its personality survived; it could take over and remember everything the whole system did. Fragments of its memory and personality are stored in various bits in the network and many of these bits were looted or lost since Faustus built the original version. Many of these components were gathered up and used to try and take over Paris; then this was concentrated in a mobile version which will probably be reconnected to main system later on. Epilogue stories even show that various subsystems and memories will be restored even after the war with the Other has ended.
• Supervillain Lair: (Твердыня тьмы) Proud (and we do mean «proud») home of some of the greatest monsters in Europa’s history!
• Sympathy for the Devil: In the novel, Agatha expresses sympathy towards the castle whenever it brings up her father and uncle. It had always been praised as one of the greatest Heterodyne inventions, and then The Heterodyne Boys come along and demand it stop doing what it was designed to do. Taking away its only purpose.
• Those Two Guys: (Те два парня) The fragment of the Castle that was smuggled into Paris was found by Agatha and rendered unto a super-Dingbot that looks like a tiny set of fortress walls with organ pipes out the top. Joined with the similarly miniaturized Beast of The Rails, the two become this. Castle is the more compliant and anticipatorily helpful of the two. However, it’s more than clear that, should Agatha leave the pair alone for 24 hours, mayhem would swiftly ensue.
• Trap Door: Enjoys dropping people through these, often into Bottomless Pits.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Naturally, as the greatest Heterodyne abomination ever created, it is loyal to the death towards its creator’s lineage like (almost) all the others. It vows that it will declare Agatha Heterodyne to the world if it’s the last thing it does.
• Unwanted Assistance: If given any leeway in its orders, the Castle will act in what it thinks is in its Master’s best interests. Unfortunately for Agatha, being created by and likely based on the mind of an extraordinarily Ax-Crazy by-the-standards-of-the-dynasty-and-that-is-saying-a-great-deal Heterodyne Warlord means that it has a hard time getting its CPU around the idea that the current heiress considers attacking any theoretical enemy in range, or subjecting her staff to Darwinian winnowing, to be counterproductive.
• Zerg Rush: (Сила толпы) In its bowels it has a horde of monstrous clanks and constructs which it releases upon the Wulfenbach attackers when at its full exertion during the Siege of Mechanicaburg.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Ordinarily it has to obey its master (or mistress), even if it doesn’t like it. But one of the cannier Heterodynes did give it the ability to resist if its master seemed to be suicidal. When Agatha talks openly about handing herself over to the Baron, the Castle clamps down on the idea. This, however, becomes a major impediment to curing Agatha of a disease (which involves her technically dying and being revived) and it goes completely insane, prompting Agatha to completely disable the Castle.

Doctor Sun

One of Klaus’s old friends. A Spark who runs the Great Hospital in Mechanicsburg. Prone to threatening to beat some sense into his friends and students who are being foolish — and then backing it up if need be.

• All Asians Know Martial Arts: (Боевой азиат) Is able to give a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to a two story clank.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: (Кунг-фу монах) Capable of taking down clanks with his bare hands.
• Combat Medic: (Смертоносный врач) Able to fight a clank with his bare hands and revive a person from their severed head.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом/Язвительный насмешник) He’s well known for «Sun-ny bedside manners».
• Doctor’s Orders: He has no doubt at all that his authority extends over Klaus when he’s injured. He believes that Klaus shouldn’t be trying to micromanage his empire when he’s so heavily injured (and all things considered, he’s probaby quite right).
• Dr. Jerk: (Козлящий медик) People make jokes about his Sun-y bedside manner.
• The Exile: The novelisation explains that he’s on «extended vacation», with the threat of painful death should he ever return to China, for being «contaminated» by foreigners (I.E. The Heterodyne Boys).
• Mad Doctor: A benevolent if grouchy one. When presented with a «patient» who’s been reduced to a severed head he takes it as only a minor challenge.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: He strongly implied that he was the guy who taught Realpolitik to Klaus. Who taught Gil (directly) and Tarvek (indirectly). So in a way, both the setting as we know it and main plotlines can be traced back to him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: (Ай, молодца, герой!/злодей!) It really all depends if you are taking Agatha’s POV or Klaus', but him taking down Klaus and forcing back to bed after the Castle is «killed» can be seen as this. Unbeknownst to Dr. Sun, Klaus was desperate to defeat Agatha because he had been wasped. He figured killing her as soon as possible would render that fact pointless and, thus, save his empire. However, according to Tarvek, he couldn’t just TELL anyone this because of the mind control. So to Klaus, Dr. Sun broke it, but to Agatha, him stopping Klaus fixed her problem. Given that there are multiple versions of the Other running around and Agatha is generally the one in control of her body and not Lucrezia, Dr. Sun probably would have stopped Klaus regardless (if he had all of the facts on hand) as Agatha dying would have increased the chances of the Other winning. Also, Dr. Sun putting Klaus in isolation in a high-pressured healing engine ensured that Klaus was no longer potentially vulnerable to being controlled by the Other for the time being and the Empire would be handled by competent subordinates, Boris especially. The villain part is subverted. While Dr. Sun technically serves Klaus, his first line of duty is to his patients. After he gets trapped in Mechanicsburg during the siege, he hesitates for a split second before reporting the medical situation of the town. He isn’t out to help Agatha, but to save lives.
• Not So Above It All: As the novel shows, if you give Sun a corpse to dispose of, he’ll instantly start smiling and pointing out all those convenient closets he just happened to have lying around his hospital.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Klaus offhandedly mentioned he escaped Mechanicsburg. Despite that, he has has yet to reappear in the story. Given he’s one the best doctors on the continent, he’s probably stationed at a well stocked and major hospital as opposed to a lowly field station or Castle Wulfenbach.
• Shout-Out: His name is an old transliteration of Di Renjie, the inspiration for Judge Dee.

Drozeki

The chief of the Mechanicsburg city watch created by Pluto Heterodyne. As Heterodynes have an expectedly odd outlook on how a city law enforcement group should operate Pluto made the members of the watch invisible and long lived, which drove many of them to desperation out of loneliness with Drozek as one of the very few original watch members still remaining. Jägers and other constructs can usually see members of the watch so they did have plenty of company in Mechanicsburg prior to the Baron banning Jägers from the city.

• Friend on the Force: Ivo Sharktooth, Private Jäger has a friend on the force in The Chief. Though he looks in on The Chief mostly to make sure he doesn’t go mad since no humans can see him.
• Invisible Monsters: Invisible construct, who looks human enough mostly to those who can see him but has a remarkably long life. The only other known surviving member of the original watch ditched the profession to become an assassin due to how convenient their powerset is for such work.
• Invisible to Normals: (Невидимые существа) Drozeki can only be reliably seen by the Jägerkin and is the sole remaining member of the watch created by Pluto that were designed to be invisible and quickly forgotten if interacted with without special equipment.

Eleven Deadly Sins

The Storm King’s Muses were so famous that one of the Heterodynes got jealous and decided he’d try to outdo Van Rjin. He did outdo him in one respect, in that he made more clanks, but that’s really it. The «Eleven Deadly Sins» are not remotely as sophisticated, just violent killing machines that were gifted to the families of the Blood Circle. And if you’re wondering why it’s Eleven sins and not the Seven Deadly Sins, apparently the Heterodynes were so evil that they invented four more.

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: (ИИ — это рискованно) The Sins are not… terribly reliable. They’ve wiped out multiple of the families who they were supposed to serve. But they were made by the Heterodynes, so, comes with the territory.
• Climax Boss: One of them ends up being the final adversary of the Ivo Sharktooth mini-arc, under the command of Hadrian. Ivo keeps it busy until Van uses his override.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: (Изменившаяся мораль/Реконструкция) While the reader isn’t told which four sins were added to round out the roster to eleven (beyond that one was named Gomorrity, and that it isn’t related to sodomy), Vidonia is told one of them and finds it surprisingly mundane and not worthy of being considered a sin. Ivo points out that even the traditional seven aren’t so bad, depending on who’s writing or reading the list.
• No Name Given: (Безымянный герой) Played with. Only Gomorrity is directly named, though since Ivo alluded that the Seneschal’s assistant has gotten mad or eaten too much cake at some point already, clearly referencing Wrath and Gluttony, it’s almost certain that seven of them are named after the classic Seven Deadly Sins.

Hadrian

The nephew of Charlemagne Greenclaw, school friend of Vanamonde, and a member of the Blood Circle in Mechanicsburg. Is in fact the instigator of the events of «Ivo Sharktooth, PJ», being the supposed Big Bad of the arc, having had his uncle and the rest of the Blood Circle leadership assassinated, and to take control of the Eleven Deadly Sins. Only it turns out he had purely good intentions for all of this — the Blood Circle were planning to assassinate Agatha, thinking she would be as «bad for business» as her father and uncle, and Hadrian, who was absolutely loyal to Agatha, put an end to the plot as well as deactivated all but one of the Sins. Unfortunately, he assumed Vanamonde was in on the plot.

• Good All Along: (Злодей оказался героем) Was loyal to Agatha and instigated the theft of the trophy to deal with the Eleven Deadly Sins.
• Poor Communication Kills: (Коммуникативная неудача) Turns out he really should’ve talked about the plot with Vanamonde first before trying to kill him. He assumed Van knew everything going on in the city, and because Van wasn’t moving against the Blood Circle, that Van was complicit.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Certianly more of it than the other crime lords in Mechanicsburg. They cynically assumed the worst about Agatha being too much of a goody-two-shoes like her father and uncle, and were planning to assassinate her, so Hadrian pre-empted them. He conveniently assumed their power afterwards, and made himself one neat point of contact for Agatha with her town’s criminal underworld.

Mitko

A gunner captain in the Mechanicsburg Militia who has proudly been part of many successful campaigns. These days he uses a walking stick to get around and seems to be training his son to take up his position while commanding from Gunnery Post XI.

• Chest of Medals: His jacket has thirty-seven badges indicating victorious battles.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка) The Jägers approach town ominously but seem to be thinned out. Mitko knows instantly that the Jägers making a show of arriving in Mechanicsburg are only a handful and the rest are already positioning themselves throughout town even though his younger family members are surprised.
• Old Soldier: A grandfather and veteran who is still competently serving in the town militia.
• Seen It All: Mitko has a long history of living in Mechanicsburg and dealing with Sparks and Constructs, his response to the attack on town is to grin since he knows all the tricks Mechanicsburg has hidden even with the obvious defenses disabled.

Oana Grosu

An experienced pilot and smuggler brought in to get aboard Castle Wulfenbach.

• Ace Pilot: (Лётчик-ас) Brushes off the difficulty of getting aboard Castle Wulfenbach by pointing out she regularly sneaks aboard to deliver contraband.
• Fun Size: Noticeably shorter than anyone else. She’s introduced standing on a crate and is still shorter than Boris' shoulders.
• Surrounded by Idiots: (Меня окружают идиоты) After discovering Castle Wulfenbach’s boilers are set to overheat, she has to deal with the Jägers breaking knobs and gauges while trying to vent and shut down the boilers, some of which was deliberate to be able to fight a monster instead.
• Venturous Smuggler: (Контрабандист) An experienced smuggler who frequently transports contraband onto Wulfenbach ships, and possibly the closest thing to the rumoured «Wulfenbach Dark Fleet» we’ve seen so far.

Vidonia Orkalina

First seen organizing the guilds of Mechanicsburg to assist Agatha’s work in the coffee shop, she quickly assigned herself to be Van’s assistant seeing as the town has a Heterodyne and he’s much busier than he used to be.

• All There in the Manual: Vidonia’s name was only revealed in the novelization as she was too busy and too uninterested to properly introduce herself. She finally introduces herself properly in a sidestory in the Distant Finale involving Franz. It took over eleven years.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: She passes herself off as Van’s assistant and it takes him at least a day to even question her presence. In this case, she decided he needed one and assigned herself the position, while he’s not even sure what her name is but her competence meant he went ahead and used her.
• Beleaguered Assistant: While Van is actually extremely competent, Vidonia assigns herself to him when Mechanicsburg is under attack and Van spends several days without sleep, so by the time she’s dragging him off to get a bit of sleep, he’s not as on the ball as he is normally, and she acts incredibly annoyed with him questioning her identity as though he’s the one acting strange by not knowing it.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: Despite the fact that she was never formally hired and assigned herself to Van, she is incredibly competent at organizing the guilds and getting them to do things they protest, despite the fact that she doesn’t technically have any authority. Van takes a while to even question her presence due to how useful she is.
  • A side story set in the future reveals she’s been made «Right Honorable Minister of Civic Punctuality».
• Limited Wardrobe: (Скудный гардероб) While Vidonia does change her shirt a couple of times, she seems to always wear her trilobite earrings and a long white cape.
• Spotting the Thread: Notices Vipsania is uninterested in researching the archives of Castle Heterodyne, unlike the other visiting librarian, Aldin Hoffman. She questions Hoffman, who reveals Vipsania wasn’t a full librarian yet, was the Sole Survivor of three trips, and isn’t on official Library business this time.

The von Mekkahns

Carson and Vanamonde von Mekkahn, Former and Current Seneschals of Mechanicsburg

The Von Mekkahn family is as synonymous with Mechanicsburg leadership as the Heterodyne family itself is, with many of them serving as seneschals to the Heterodynes. Carson von Mekkahn was the seneschal of Castle Heterodyne until he retired and passed the job on to his son, who died just days later when the Other attacked. When Baron Wulfenbach politely took over Mechanicsburg a few years later, Carson made it seem that the von Mekkahn family had gone extinct in the Other’s attack, going into hiding under the alias of «Carson Heliotrope» and running Mechanicsburg in secret. Carson has since retired again and his grandson, Vanamonde, now runs the town from a coffee shop. After Agatha Sparks out in Vanamonde’s coffee shop, Carson helps her enter Castle Heterodyne.

• Bald of Evil: (Лысый, как череп) Carson, sort of. He probably wasn’t both bald and evil simultaneously, but he’s bald now and apparently served the evil Heterodynes before Agatha’s heroic father and uncle — he rode with the Jägers in his youth and could describe Agatha’s grandfather’s usual reaction to invading war clanks. The print-novel version also has a nasty set of scars up there; see People Puppets below.
• Bluff the Impostor: (Ловушка для самозванца) Carson tries this on Agatha at first, asking if Punch ever mentioned him. He is quite surprised that she knows Punch couldn’t talk, though this still isn’t enough to convince him. The novelisation notes that if Agatha had told Carson about everything that had happened to her until that point, he would have believed her then and there.
• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок) Vanamonde was a side-extract along with Gil’s ultimate target in extracting from the time distortion field: Tarvek Sturmvoraus. Tarvek was poisoned by throwing knife from the fleeing Martellus while in pursuit, and Van had caught Tarvek’s fall after he collapsed from the virulent effects. That was the position the two were in when the Take-Five Bomb detonated. Extracting Tarvek entailed extracting Van too, since Agatha would not take kindly to her seneschal dying.
• The Chessmaster: An image Vanamonde deliberately cultivates, the man who always knows everything happening in Mechanicsburg.
• Didn’t See That Coming: Vanamonde completely misses a budding plot by the city’s crime families aimed at assassinating Agatha. Much to his dismay, as a loyal member of one such family «knows» Vanamonde knows everything that happens in Mechanicsburg, so him not taking action against the coup means he must be complicit in it.
• Establishing Character Moment: (Момент характеристики) Vanamonde is introduced seemingly being a layabout in a coffeeshop, before smugly revealing he has highly detailed information on the fake Heterodyne heir who’s entered the Castle despite not even having left his table, only to be sandbagged when Agatha is introduced to him as another Heterodyne heir. He pretends to be harmless, truly is cunning and well-informed, but he’s not nearly as good as he thinks he is.
• Exact Words: (Буквально понятые слова/Не вся правда) When the Wulfenbach Empire moved in the townsfolk reported that the Heterodynes' seneschal and Carson’s son had died in the attack by the Other. They did not mention that Carson had retired to spend time with his grandson and passed the seneschalship to his son, meaning that he was presumed dead and able to secretly run a shadow government until Vanamonde came of age.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Young Vanamonde has shown a strong skill in this.
• Former Teen Rebel: Carson. Again, rode with the Jägers in his youth, under the old evil Heterodynes. Is now retired, lives with his daughter-in-law, and seems to have mostly spent his days soaking up rays on the balcony before being introduced in the comic.
• The Good Chancellor: Carson and Vanamonde both are/were eminently capable civic administrators, spymasters, and have Mechanicsburg’s best interests at heart.
• Inconsistent Spelling: There’s some disagreement on whether it’s spelled Mekkahn, Mekkan, or Mekkhan.
• Legacy of Service: The most prominent case in an entire city filled with legacies of service to the House of Heterodyne. Their family have been seneschals to the Heterodynes for generations.
• More Expendable Than You: Vanamonde figured that it was safer for him to drink Agatha’s freshly made coffee than let her have a second go around.
• Must Have Caffeine: (Кофеман) Vanamonde is addicted to coffee.
• Number Two: For the Heterodyne family. Carson effectively ruled the city in the wake of the Other’s attack, which he attributes to everyone being used to following his orders. Vanamonde is able to control the Eleven Deadly Sins despite not having the control device because his being a von Mekkahn gives him authority over all the family’s creations, Van even saying that his family are second only to the Heterodynes themselves.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) To outsiders, Vanamonde looks like a young loafer who does nothing but laze around and drink coffee. In reality, he wrote a definitive book on coffee (under a pen name), is (according to Carson) «more competent than he appears», and, oh yeah, secretly runs Mechanicsburg.
• Outliving One’s Offspring: (Пережить своих детей) Carson had retired mere days before the Other’s attack on Castle Heterodyne, with his son dying in the attack instead. His only comfort was that his son had died trying to save the life of Klaus Barry Heterodyne, the infant son of William Heterodyne and Lucrezia Mongfish.
• People Puppets/Unusual User Interface: (Контроль чужого тела?) Part of Carson’s duty as seneschal. He has special holes drilled in his skull that let him use the Throne of Faustus Heterodyne to become Castle Heterodyne’s puppet so that Agatha can talk to it in the crypt. Vanamonde’s skull hasn’t been prepared for such a thing yet, but the Castle is looking forward to it.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) The Von Mekkahns were trapped in the effect area of Klaus’s Take Five Bomb that entrapped the vast majority of Mechanicsburg. The Bus Came Back as noted above.
• Psychic Link: (Телепатия) Carson didn’t even notice he had this until he felt Castle Heterodyne die.
• Retirony: (Ирония отставки) Inverted by Carson, who retired just in time to miss dying in the Other’s attack. His replacement, who was also his son, died instead. (Vanamonde is his grandson.)
• Seen It All:
  • Carson.

«	Carson: Don’t try to boggle me, Mister Talking Cat. This is Mechanicsburg. You are by no means the strangest thing in this town.	»

• This is something of a front; the first time he sees Krosp talking he does look a little surprised.

• Skeptic No Longer: Agatha’s performance in the coffee shop (and her «perfect» coffee) make Vanamonde a believer. By the time Agatha cows Castle Heterodyne from punishing Herr Diamant for expressing his skepticism through sheer force of will, Carson is convinced she’s real too. And Herr Diamant as well.
• Skewed Priorities: Vanamonde’s main duties are to serve Agatha and make sure that Mechanicsburg has everything she needs to fulfill her Sparky desires, which means he also has to make sure that the town has the finances to do so. As such, he’s prone to try spinning the results of Agatha’s misadventures in ways that coud boost local tourism, whether she likes it or not. In particular, he wants to turn the enormous statues of Agatha that Gil created over the time-skip into a brand new line of souvenirs, despite Tarvek correctly pointing out that she loathes them.
• So Proud of You: Carson says as much to Vanamonde before he dares to drink the perfect coffee.
• Strong Family Resemblance: (Такие похожие родственники) Since there is a Vanamonde lookalike in the Heterodyne shows, there’s a good chance that Vanamonde looks just like Carson did in his youth.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Carson had mere days in retirement enjoying time with his grandson while his son took over the family tradition of being the Heterodynes' seneschal before the Other’s attack on the Castle became a harbinger of the dark times ahead. He immediately jumped back in and managed the crisis, with the city accustomed to following his leadership. After that happened, he arranged and led a shadow government for Mechanicsburg, essentially rendering the nominal Wulfenbach-appointed city administration impotent. He has since (semi) retired again, letting his grandson Vanamonde, now an adult, take over.
• Too Clever by Half: (Такой умный, что уже глупый) Hadrian Greenclaw’s plan to get rid of those conspiring to asassinate Agatha included killing Vanamonde, since the current seneschal likes to portray himself as knowing everything that goes on within the town, Greenclaw assumed that he had to know about the plot and be in on it.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) They come from a long line of seneschals to the Heterodyne family; so much so that they’re almost as synonymous with Mechanicsburg leadership as the Heterodyne family itself. Insulting the family is one of the few ways to get Carson and the Castle on the same page.

«	Diamant: Carson! Call it off! Castle: Heh heh heh. I think you’ve annoyed him, too!	»

Lumi von Mekkhan

Relative of Vanamonde, a Spark studying alchemistry at TPU. Joins Vipsania and Franz on their quest to loot a deceased dragon’s hoard in Franz Scortchmaw and the Story We Haven’t Named Yet.

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: (Любовь зла, полюбишь и козла) Seems to be infatuated with Hector the supposed ghost (despite her fear of ghosts) after he flirts with her and giving her a black rose before fleeing. When reminded that he’s a thief and various other bad boy titles, she merely acknowledges he is while dreamily staring into space. And when Vipsania asks if Lumi believes she can change him, she wonders why she would want to do that.

«	Brother Marcus: Ah, yes. Mechanicsburg.	»

• Big «NO!»: (Большое «НЕТ!») When she finds out there are no coffee shops nearby.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: At seven, while taking a piece of Franz’s treasure hoard, she booped his snoot.
• Little Miss Badass: (Бой-девка) At age seven, she became the youngest Mechanicsburger to steal treasure from Franz’s Dragon Hoard, as part of the initiation into the Lower Court Geartooth Goblins.
• Must Have Caffeine: (Кофеман) Like Van, she needs coffee to function.
• Oh, Crap!: (Осознание катастрофы) When it’s pointed out she left her flying machine on the Corbettite train.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Seems to have a paralyzing fear of ghosts, with one only needing to say «boo» to send her into a shrieking fit.

Franz

Franz is the Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg. You may have seen him on the town arms.

• Acquired Situational Narcissism: (Звёздная болезнь) When the chemistry of his flame is changed to match Hydrargyros, he takes on Hydrargyros' arrogant personality. It wears off rather quickly, though.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Franz is an extremely laidback dragon, but some few things will set him off: obviously, people threatening the Heterodyne; rival dragons encroaching on his territory; people taking undue interest in his books; and people making deals with him and then implying they may be unable to hold up their end of the bargain, or thinking he might cheat his way out of an agreement.
• Breath Weapon: (Дыхание в качестве оружия) As indicated by his name, he can breath fire.
• Character Catchphrase: (Коронная фраза) «Rejoice!» For context, he is demanding revelry while beating down a host of attackers because the Doom Bell has heralded the return of a Heterodyne scion in the middle of a multi-sided invasion battle.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: After years of would-be adventurers attempting to pilfer from hs board, he’s started a business selling trinkets and gems.
• A Day in the Limelight: (Эпизод-фокус) Nominal protagonist of sidestory «Franz Scortchmaw Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg and the Story We Haven’t Named Yet!»
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Franz ingesting various metals to change the composition of his flame is treated like him doing drugs or drinking heavily, with the resulting change to his personality coming off as if he’s drunk or high and he has the equivalent of a hangover when he comes down.
• Dragon Hoard:
  • Franz serves as the guardian of the Heterodyne treasury. He uses (some of?) it in a giant bag as a blunt weapon during the Battle of Mechanicsburg.
  • In a 2022 side-story, Franz explains to a would-be-interloper that all the gold and jewels that the old Heterodynes looted are just fancy trinkets that they never really much cared about at all. It was the act of looting they enjoyed more than the loot itself. Franz does have a personal hoard that he’s much more protective of, but it’s not gold or jewels, it’s rare first-edition books.
  • Franz has some fun quoting Smaug when he senses someone creeping around the hoard, and chuckles over how much fun that particular line is to say. Unfortunately for would-be thieves, unlike Smaug, Franz is equipped with a radar device.
  • When travelling on a train, he can’t sleep until he empties a bag of coins on the bed.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: When his flame is altered and he starts acting like Hydrargyros, he asks if anyone is a princess. And apparently discussed with Hydrargyros which kingdom has the best princesses.
• Drunk on Milk: (Молоко-плюс/Убойный лимонад) The tampering with his internal forge to change the chemistry of his flames via various minerals results in him temporarily acting like he was utterly sloshed. At least until they accidentally stumble on the right formula, after which he starts acting like the much more unpleasant Hydrargyros
• Early-Bird Cameo: (Раннее появление (в планах)) First seen in an off-hand appearance during Da Boyz educating Gil that all the monsters in the city are loyal to the Heterodynes, he later has a major role in the Battle of Mechanicsburg.
• Failed a Spot Check: After demanding no parties while Mama Gkika is watching his hoard, he takes no notice of the Jägers carrying party supplies.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: (Друг или золото?) Has to make a decision between helping himself to Hydrargyros' gold hoard once he and the impromptu band of raiders have access to it, or helping Humongulous from under the pillar he threw at him earlier. Not only does he choose the latter, he surprises the resident Mechanicsburger that there was even a dilemma to be had to begin with.
• Guile Hero: When tussling with Humongulus, he engineers the fight to end up underneath a water tower, sweeps Humongulus' legs and threatens to flood his internals with water. Humongulus is immensely impressed by this and concedes the fight.

«	Eh, dragons only get stupid when we’re fighting other dragons.	»

• Happiness Is Mandatory: If you’re not rejoicing after a new Heterodyne has been acknowledged, you’re probably an enemy.
• Heroic Second Wind: He doesn’t hold up well against «Pretty Boy», the pompous red dragon in the Wulfenbach army attacking the city at first. Then Agatha gets the idea to give him a jolt. Then it is on! We don’t see the details of the fight, but the end result is clear: Franz is next seen wearing Pretty Boy’s helmet, still glowing blue with power.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины)
  • A 2022 side-story reveals that Franz’s most valuable treasures are rare books.
  • Back in the day, Franz enjoyed creating his own made-up languages.
• I Kiss Your Hand: On meeting Agatha for the first time and introducing himself to her, he kisses the hand of the Mini-Mecha she’s currently riding.
• Last of His Kind: (Последний из могикан) He’s not quite the last, but a good majority of dragons have long since been killed by Knights and Monster Hunters. He is not pleased when he finds this out.
• Money Mauling: He uses a giant sack full of coin from the Heterodyne treasury he guards during the Battle of Mechanicsburg.
• Not Always Evil: Is a Big Fun Nice Guy, but admits most dragons aren’t as nice as him.

«	We dragons don’t generally play nice with the general population, you know? Most of us are flat out monsters.	»

• Not Quite Flight: (Полёт/Магический полёт) Franz apparently can’t fly by himself. So Barry Heterodyne made him what is essentially a giant penny-farthing that drives a pair of helicopter blade things.
• Odd Friendship: (Непохожие друзья) Franz has managed to strike up a somewhat cordial and respectful partnership with Humongulous, despite the latter being constantly mistaken for a knight.
• Our Dragons Are Different: (Дракон) The first time you see him, he just looks like a rather generic monster. Only once you see him more fully after the Doom Bell rings does he start to look more draconic. And once he throws down with Pretty Boy, he’s explicitly called a dragon.
• Spell My Name With An S: (Я пишусь через «Э») It’s «Scortchmaw», not «Scorchmaw». Yes, it’s misspelled, but that’s how it officially is. You gonna argue with him?
• Tempting Fate: After all, anybody who wants to fight a dragon, well, they’d better be pretty tough.

«	Humungulus: Ooh! Ooh! Humungulus is tough! Let Humungulus try! It will be fun!	»

• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: (Против биохимии не попрёшь) His normal personality is that of a lethargic, antique loving, easy going dragon. When a group, including at least one spark, tinker with his flame, his personality changes with it. Making his flame closer to that of a young dragon turns him into the Life of the Party. Making his flame the same as Hydrargyros changes his shape and gives him a cruel, arrogant, and yet cowardly personality, just like the original Hydrargyros. Fortunately, the effect is temporary as his default alchemy starts burning through the chemicals that were tweaking it.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Like every other Heterodyne monster, Franz is absolutely loyal to his lord/lady Heterodyne. He’s even an icon of Heterodyne power as the «Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg».
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Him walking around in broad daylight.

«	Vipsania: It seems strange… You just walking down the street. Franz: Yeah? Well, it is strange!	»

Wilhelm Diamant

A member of the Mechanicsburg Inner Council which greeted Agatha upon the castle proclaiming her the new Heterodyne. While Mechanicsburg was under Wulfenbach rule he was in charge of transporting prisoners and supplies to the Castle and helped Agatha get in without being noticed.

• Government Conspiracy: (Правительственный заговор) He is part of the shadow government that actually runs Mechanicsburg and does its best to avoid the Baron and ignore his apointed governors.
• Skeptic No Longer: He is disbelieving that Agatha is a Heterodyne… until she shouts down Castle Heterodyne and averts it from killing him for voicing his insolent disbelief. He blubberingly declares his undying loyalty to Agatha once freed from the Castle’s clutches.

«	Diamant: I AM YOUR LOYAL SERVANT UNTIL THE END OF MY DAYS, MY LADY! Castle: Grovels nicely, doesn’t he?	»

• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) The castle critiques his loyalty as Wilhelm thinks all the Heterodynes are dead, but once he thinks Agatha might actually be one he works hard to ensure she’s able to reclaim the town.

Moloch von Zinzer

A mechanic who served in army of a Spark beaten by Klaus and ended up «on the beach» after his Walking Tank ran into Bang’s team. First met right at the beginning when he and his brother steal Agatha’s locket. He is later mistaken for the Spark that created Agatha’s first clank. He turned up again in Castle Heterodyne and seems to have fallen into the role of Agatha’s minion by default.

• Action Survivor: He starts out as a mere soldier whose brother steals an Orphan’s Plot Trinket from the main character in the first chapter, so you’d expect him to last about five minutes. But after his brother’s death by said trinket, getting mistaken for a Spark, and eventually ending up imprisoned in a sentient castle built by a family of murderous sociopaths, he’s still kicking thanks in part to large amounts of luck and talent for dealing with Sparks. The Castle has started calling him the Head Minion.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Among the minions in any case. While he hasn’t kicked anyone’s ass, his position as Agatha’s Chief Minion was secured by delivering Dope Slaps to the other Castle Prisoners that were getting out of line.
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) Not a Spark, not a Jäger, not specially trained, he just doesn’t want to die. Downplayed as he’s not that badass.
• Beleaguered Assistant: He spends a lot of time insisting that he is not the minion to one of the craziest and most dangerous sparks around.

«	Theo: Hit the first switch!!! Moloch: Yeah yeah, here it goes.. Snaug: Psst… it’s «yes, master». Moloch: …Not even if it got me out of the castle tonight.	»

• The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок) After being Put on a Bus by the Take Five Bomb, he was shown being unfrozen on the January 20th 2025 page.
• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья) He didn’t start out that way, and it’s not physical abuse. He was one of the soldiers who stole the Orphan’s Plot Trinket. The Karmic Chess Master moved him next to Agatha. He tried to play rough. Now his nerves are the butt of every joke the fates can manage. Examples: The tables are turned, his Genre Savvy fails, the rain of fear begins, the Castle has some fun, the Castle gets serious, Genre Savvy does no good at all, Genre Savvy says it all, Nightmare rising, Especially when it works as planned, Fool for love, and many, many more.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • He was quite nasty in his earliest appearances, so he was much more deserving of the abuse he got early on. Being in Castle Heterodyne around more Ax-Crazy folks seriously mellowed him out, to the point that he’s currently considered a nice guy. Or perhaps his brother’s influence (plus, y’know, his belief that Agatha had murdered him) was corrupting and he improved in its absence.
  • The very first thing he does when he meets up with Agatha again in Castle Heterodyne is to apologize for his behavior back then, claiming he was really scared and under a lot of stress. Agatha forgives him.
  • In his very first appearance, he’s actually rather friendly and reasonable, and trying hard to keep his brother in line. (The novelization, which tells this scene from his POV, emphasizes this.) It was only after his brother died holding Agatha’s locket that he started getting nasty. Since he believed that the locket was responsible for his brother’s death (which it probably was) and that Agatha had intentionally let his brother steal it to cold-bloodedly murder him (not true, but a reasonable conclusion given what he knew) it’s pretty understandable that he’s being less than pleasant with her.
• Chekhov’s Gunman: (Стрелок Чехова) In the future windows we see, Moloch states that «they survived (the destruction of the gunboat that he and his brothers piloted)». Several pages before that in the present time of the comic, he states that he saw «Bruno and the kid» escape into the forest. Whoever these two characters are, they are important enough for Agatha to search through time to track them down.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: To a lesser degree than one might expect in this crazy universe, but despite his general scruffiness and not having been seen to try to get girls, he’s clearly attracted both Violetta and Snaug, with bonus UST-source Sanaa Wilhelm. Promo art from the updated version of spinoff card game The Works suggests that he also gains the affection of a fourth, specifically, Miss Baumhund.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) His outfit is mostly grey and his hair is black. He wore bright red early on.
• Combat Pragmatist: (Прагматичный боец) His solution for dealing with an enemy riding a clank is to simply hit the driver with a brick rather than engage in the kind of drawn-out fight that the Jägers would prefer. Fits with his overall pragmatic approach to life.
• Crush Blush: (Любовь заставляет вас краснеть) When he learns that his crush was not as secret as he thought.
• Cut the Juice: his solution to being told that some run-away machinery can’t be shut off. Earned him a Dope Slap.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом/Язвительный насмешник) At times. Pointing to one particular example, Agatha needs to recharge the castle if she wants to stop Mechanicsburg from getting overrun, and to do that she needs to get to the top of a tower. But there’s an army of hostile clanks between her and the tower. So she aims her BFG at them and fires, wiping them all out and knocking over the tower. His response? «How is it possible that this could surprise any of you people?»
• The Drag-Along: Often, though he becomes increasingly good at dealing with it (though not without a lot of bitter resignation). Sometimes it even happens literally.
• Due to the Dead: Those who died in the Castle don’t get used as raw material, he decrees. And even hardened criminals listen when he says so.
• The Engineer: He doesn’t have The Spark, but he does have a great deal of skill in machinery and problem solving. He knows that, given enough time, he can solve most problems with a lot of hard work and a bit of common sense. Truth In Webcomics, since traditionally tank crewers (the closest real-world equivalent to his assignment) would become VERY adept at fixing their vehicles. Mostly because the alternative was either fiery unpleasant death, or a long walk back through hostile territory.
• Extreme Omnivore: (Великий пожиратель) It’s at least implied he’s able to casually down «beverages» that would kill most people. Like, for example, bubbling green slime in a vat clearly labeled «DO NOT DRINK» — the remnants of which are shown to have eaten through the steel cup just seconds after he finished it!
• Fire-Forged Friends: (Дружба, закалённая в огне) Became this with Agatha as they quickly patched things up and saved each other’s lives multiple times while in Castle Heterodyne.
• Foreshadowing: (Предзнаменование) Possibly. He’s able to drink stuff that should kill any normal man and the Castle has suggested that he drink the Jägerdraught. While he isn’t a Jäger in the future windows that we see, he does end up back in Agatha’s employ and isn’t seen in the distant future, so it’s possible that he will become a Jäger. Though he has also displayed some sparky tendencies too, such as laughing Mad Scientist style after fixing the Castle’s massive water wheel…
• Freudian Excuse: (Тяжёлое детство) It’s clear he’s not actually a coward or at the very least he is very courageous, but he often just wants to escape and hide from his problems. Given that many of brothers died due to conflicts between sparks, it makes sense that he wants as little to do with them as possible.
• Genre Blind: (Сюжетная близорукость) Although being Genre Savvy is more or less his defining characteristic, he has a huge blind spot when it comes to being Agatha’s Chief Minion. He never realizes that the things he’s saying are setting him up perfectly as the only person capable of doing the next assignment, or at least to be stuck right in the middle of it.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка)
  • «I have been around way too many Sparks!»
  • It’s becoming his defining personal characteristic.

«	Von Zinzer: … How is it POSSIBLE that this could surprise ANY of you people?	»

• Heel-Face Turn: (Переход на Светлую сторону) See Characterization Marches On above. A generous soul might call him the first villain of the series. Even if not, he’s more morally grounded now than he used to be.
• Irony:
  • Had Moloch never stolen Agatha’s Locket, he never would have gone through the series of events that led him to become her Chief Minion. It’s really his own fault.
  • As the third novel notes, Moloch has only himself to blame for being Agatha’s Chief Minion, when he offered her help after the Castle’s blood test, he automatically wound up in the very position he hates so much.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: (Козёл с золотым сердцем) Or at least of a less jerky jerk than it seemed.
• Lethal Chef: (Невыносимо скверный повар) He’s fortunately never asked to handle cooking duty once he joins up with Agatha, but he was stuck on kitchen duty prior to her entry in Castle Heterodyne, and by all accounts he was bad at it — Sanaa said that his machines would probably taste better, and Mittelmind said that everyone knew that being served after Sanaa would get a boiled sponge as a meal. Possibly related to his Extreme Omnivore tendencies, as it’s clear that his sense of taste in general is just off.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Early on in Castle Heterodyne, just seeing Sanaa causes him to both repeatedly injure himself and fail to notice that Agatha, the woman who (inadvertently) made his life spiral out of control, is right there.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: (Многодетная семья) He has eight brothers.
• Military Moonshiner: Mentioned in the novelizations.
• Minion Shipping: With Violetta and Snaug, with a bit of Sanaa to the side.
• Mugging the Monster: (Не на того напали) Though not even the «monster» in question (Agatha) knew at the time just who and what she was. The mugging arguably kicked off the plot, as Agatha’s spark was no longer restrained by Barry’s spark-suppressing amulet.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) Averted, in that he’s a perfectly normal person with a demon’s name. Turns out his mother got his name out of The Bible…despite not having actually read it, at least not enough to understand the context.
• Number Two: To his intense dismay, he’s the highest-ranked minion in Mechanicsburg, due to being Agatha’s top minion.
• Oblivious to Love: (Любовная близорукость) Partly because, by his own admission, he has very little experience with women, and partly because he’s more or less been under constant threat (and thus had more important things to pay attention to), Moloch is completely oblivious to any affection directed his way, even though one of them is rather blatant about it and another is not particularly subtle either. He’s also distinctly oblivious to his own romantic feelings — he notes that he feels the same way about Snaug as he does about Sanaa, but he chalks it up to «not being used to being around beautiful women.» He naturally fails to notice that this tacit admission of attraction and the compliment to her appearance just gets Snaug to fall harder for him.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: (Закадровый момент крутости) During the Battle of Mechanicsburg he gets through explosions, the Empire’s massive clank army, and what’s described as all of the Baron’s most dangerous Sparks and monsters to get various repairs done across town for the Castle. Unfortunately for him, this later puts a damper in his attempts to convince Agatha that it would be impossible for them to pass through it all alive.
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек) First the only sane man in the Castle, then the only one in the entire town of Mecanicsburg.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) He hasn’t been seen since the timeskip. He’s probably one of the thousands trapped inside the Mechanicsburg Time-Bubble, but given he’s the comic’s ultimate example of an Action Survivor, it’s possible that he may pop up somewhere down the line.
• Resigned to the Call: When the Mechanicsburg Time-Bubble is finally brought down, he and everyone else in the city is immediately confronted by the sight of a giant monster preparing to emerge. While everyone else around him panics, Moloch simply gives a resigned "Ugh! Right, " treating it as just another mess he’s going to have to sort out.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: (Верный вывод неверным путём) Early on he’s hostile to Agatha because he believes she killed Omar via activating some device in her locket. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s quite likely she did kill Omar accidentally; most likely Omar was secretly a revenant and Agatha’s mounting anger caused her to unknowing slip into her command voice while screaming at Moloch and Omar to «die slowly.»
• Sarcastic Devotee: He is certainly loyal to Agatha, but if someone does something stupid he certainly enjoys pointing it out.
• Seen It All: When he shows up in Castle Heterodyne, his reaction to pretty much everything is «Did you guys really not see this coming?»
• Selective Obliviousness: His refusal to accept being Agatha’s Head Minion means he ignores every sign that he really is perfect minion material.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) Agatha/Gil.
• The So-Called Coward: Though largely self proclaimed — Von Zinzer makes it clear throughout the Mechanicsburg arc that he’s only there out of self preservation, and he balks at anything and everything that’s he thinks is sure to get him killed. However, he also recognizes that sticking with Agatha is the safest thing to do, and despite his claims that he’d never become a minion and that he’s going to run for the hills the first chance he gets, he never falters to do what Agatha needs of him bravely and loyally. Amusingly, this means that everyone else sees him as Agatha’s badass Head Minion while he keeps trying and failing to convince them that he wants to be as far away from danger as possible.
• Stating the Simple Solution: One of the hallmarks of his Genre Savvy is to look at a situation and either say that someone should do a very simple action to deal with the problem or to do the simple action himself. One example is listed above under Combat Pragmatist, where he specifically advises doing so when all the parties in question are supposed to do is stop a tank to get parts from it (of course, he tried telling that to Jagers…)
• Stepford Smiler: (Прятаться за улыбкой) When we first see him in the castle, he seems a bit off. Could be blamed on Love Makes You Stupid, given his massive crush on Sanaa.
• Tempting Fate: «Aaah! Jinx!»
• The Reliable One: What allows him to survive as long as he does is his ability to accomplish most tasks given to him (even if he complains about it a lot) ironically this gets him in the position he hates so much.
• Took a Level in Badass: (Поднял уровень крутизны) Astounding Sanaa in the process.
• Unfazed Everyman: Another character aspect that overlaps with Seen It All and Genre Savvy.
• The Von Trope Family: Averted. Despite his name implying that he’s nobility, he says that he’s the younger son of a farmer, and was living as a common mercenary before he first crossed Agatha’s path.

Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers

Giant killer clanks that inhabit Castle Heterodyne. They’re mobile, and they dispense agony and death, but whether they’re «Fun-Sized» is subjective.

• Fluffy the Terrible: The Heterodynes dubbed these huge killing machines «Fun-Sized».
• Fun Size: Very much subverted. They’re huge.
• In-Universe Nickname: Moloch calls them «devil dogs» (but in the novelization’s version of the same scene, he calls them «steam cats»). Later on, some characters start calling them «kitties».
• Mechanical Monster: In Moloch’s words, «They’re really fast, really strong, and really solid.»
• Mega Neko: (Кот-бегемот) They are very large clanks with a catlike appearance.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Like most things in Castle Heterodyne, they stop antagonizing Agatha when they learn she’s their Lady.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) «Agony and Death Dispensers» is a fairly accurate description of their intended use.
• Panthera Awesome: (Большая крутая кошка) The Heterodynes modeled these giant killer clanks after tigers and other big cats.
• Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom: ZigZagged with the «Fun-Sized» bit. They’d only be a «fun size» if you’re a Heterodyne, but the rest of their name is pretty accurate. That said, they are the most popular ride in the Castle on Kid’s Day

Professor Tiktoffen

The man in charge of the prisoners inside Castle Heterodyne.

• Anguished Declaration of Love: To the Castle. It doesn’t save him.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: He’s presenting himself to the Baron, the Knights of Jove, the Castle itself, and everyone else who wants a spy inside the Castle as their inside man. He’s actually trying to take over the Castle for himself.
• Even Evil Has Standards: (Даже у зла есть стандарты) Professor Tiktoffen massacres a bunch of the other prisoners for various reasons, including one who liked turning people into beetles, one who thought orphan blood had medicinal properties, and one who put his feet on his bed.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) Crushed by the Castle for trying to steal it from Agatha, the rightful heir.
• The Mole: For the Baron, the Knights of Jove, and several other factions. He’s actually the inside man for himself. And he knows how to keep the Castle from killing him. Of course, Agatha knows the simple way to deal with that.
• The Purge: Kills the prisoners who he doesn’t want freed, either because they would be a menace to society or because he dislikes them personally, once it becomes clear that the Castle repairs will soon be complete.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: To the Castle prisoners, for the most part. Apart from those he kills at the end, anyway.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: (Визжит, как девчонка) «Ah! We are in uncharted territory. I will scream like a little girl now.»
• Serious Business: Tiktoffen’s Spark manifests in a fondness for architecture.
• Too Dumb to Live: (Несовместимая с жизнью тупость) See «Killed Off for Real», above.

Prisoners (in general)

A thoroughly mixed bag of Sparks, constructs, criminals and psychopaths sentenced to repair Castle Heterodyne, thus killing two birds with one stone from the Baron’s perspective. Provides a ready pool of minions (or mooks) for whomever is currently ascendant.

• Action Survivor: Living out your sentence is based on points, awarded for repairing the castle and remembering what is done and where. Try to rack up too many points too fast or state them out loud once you get close and you’ll get killed for sure, play it too safe and you’ll never get out. Suffice to say, this makes for some very savvy survivors.
• Beware the Silly Ones: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) As the novelizations points out, just because many of them are entertaining maniacs, they are still dangerous maniacs who got put in the castle for a reason.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Snaug is apparently either a Revenant…or just VERY susceptible to brainwashing. It’s implied that she spent her childhood in one of Mittlemind’s «containment tanks.»
• Break the Haughty: (Сломленный крутой) Mittlemind and Mezzasalma enjoy breaking idealistic young Sparks.
• Boxed Crook: (Миссия для заключённого) Though the remaining survivors are technically free once the castle is fully repaired, this happens in the middle of the siege of Mechanicsburg. With most of the Baron’s forces directly outside the town walls, and Agatha being able to provide a sanctuary, plenty of minions and freedom for their respective sciences, the survivors opt to work for her instead of fleeing.
• Death Is Cheap: (Дешёвая смерть) Mittelmind is part machine and is able to be brought back to life in short order if something blows up in his face, assuming the body is mostly intact. Diaz… isn’t so lucky.
• Dumb Muscle: (Сила без ума) R-79, an incredibly strong construct. However, even he’s smart enough to Know When to Fold 'Em, and could see taking Sanaa hostage going badly a mile off (see Too Dumb to Live below).
• Dwindling Party: Once Agatha enters the castle, their numbers start depleting quickly, thanks to Zola forcing most of them to charge after her through the still very dangerous, until then unexplored sections of the castle. Later on, Tiktoffen has most of the remaining survivors killed.
• Explosive Leash: The method of containing the prisoners is to latch a choker around their neck that’s explosive and bearing the Heterodyne emblem. Since Agatha’s suppression locket looks nearly identical, it allows her to easily walk in the front door when passed off as a new prisoner. However, after the Castle is fully repaired and recharged and the Doom Bell is rung, the collars deactivate and break off the prisoners' necks, showing that they’re free to go.
• Heel-Face Revolving Door: (Моральный вертихвост) Depending upon whom has the upper hand (or the gun, or the Castle’s obedience) at the moment. They seem to settle on helping Agatha when it becomes clear that staying loyal to her would give them a sanctuary, plenty of minions and a great deal of freedom for their experiments that the Baron had otherwise locked them away for.
• The Igor: (Горбун Игорь) Snaug seems to be the only minion of this type still alive.
• I’m a Humanitarian: (Каннибализм) «Snapper» Boikov and «Jack A’Horned» have a rather pronounced taste for human flesh.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) Diaz is brained with a marshmallow gun by Zola. Rather than trying to revive him, Mittlemind and Mezzasalma loot his corpse for body parts (though in fairness, some of those belonged to Mezzasalma first). Granted, given his brain was destroyed, reviving him is stated to be impossible anyways.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Mittelmind immediately agrees to follow Agatha’s orders, even though Sparks are constantly trying to dominate over everybody else, because he is not dumb enough to defy a Heterodyne within her own castle.
• Laughably Evil: (Смешной злой) Dr. Mittlemind is a complete raving loon of a social scientist, obsessed with turning towns into mazes, which got him and Snaug thrown in the castle, but his hamminess and actual threat level (which is low compared to folks like Zola) allow him to fall here.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) Goes without saying. There’s even a mad Social scientist, Dr. Mittlemind, who has been known to grumble about funding going to the «flashier» sciences.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) Possibly if Snaug is pronounced like 'snog'. Kissing. A small hint? Probably would classify as a Punny Name, too.
• Our Zombies Are Different: (Зомби) Mittlemind is technically dead.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) Mittelmind has a very twisted idea of what qualifies for this.
  • A more conventional one is when, during their repairs on the giant cat clank, Mittlemind allows Snaug to go with Moloch rather than making her work with him, recognizing that she had fallen for Moloch. All he commands of her is to not permanently harm Moloch.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: (Разношёрстная команда) With a big side order of murderers, sadists, and psychopaths.
• Recruiting the Criminal: (Видок) Those that survive are given a chance to join in repairing Mechanicsburg’s defenses after the castle is fixed.
• Retirony: (Ирония отставки) The castle finds inflicting this on people who have almost acquired enough points to be allowed to leave amusing. Never total your points out loud!
• Robbing the Dead: They tend to be rather, pragmatic about their fellows’ deaths, as seen in the profile quote concerning Snapper. Some of the more Sparky types take it a step further.
• Sanity Slippage: Occurs to Snaug, apparently. Her boss, Mittelmind, wipes her memory yearly for her birthday. This may be a hint of losing it or just her yandere getting stronger.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Tiktoffen, Mezzasalma, Diaz, and Mittelmind are all sparks. Merlot seems to break through as well when he sees Agatha again out of sheer rage.
• Spider People: Mezzasalma’s lower body has been replaced with an arachnoid clank apparatus that serves as his means of ambulance.
• Those Two Guys: (Те два парня) Mezzasalma and Mittelmind, the two older sparks still alive in the group, have such a schtick going on.
• Too Dumb to Live: (Несовместимая с жизнью тупость) Snapper, who tries to hold Sanaa hostage on Othar’s arrival, upon learning she is his sister, apparently forgetting that she was sent to Castle Heterodyne for a good reason. Cue death by Neck Snap.
• Yandere: (Яндэрэ) Fraulein Snaug, Doctor Mittelmind’s minion, has it in for poor Moloch.

Sanaa

One of the inhabitants of Castle Heterodyne. We first encounter her reporting on her repair efforts in Castle Heterodyne. She was the one who welcomed(?) Agatha to the Castle, but for the most part she mingles with Moloch von Zinzer and the rest of the Castle crew.

• Action Girl: (Бой-баба) Hardly surprising given she is a Long-Lost Relative of Othar Trygvassen (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER).
• Action Survivor: Before she even got to the castle, apparently.
• Fangirl: For her brother (no, not like that) — at least, when she isn’t furious with him.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Most of the prisoners in the Castle are in there for legitimately heinous deeds or really upsetting the Baron. Sanaa was thrown in for trying to clobber a salesman who sold her a dodgy vehicle.
• Hopeless Suitor: (Безответная любовь) She’s been the target of this from Moloch. She begins showing signs of reciprocating after he semi-officially becomes Agatha’s Chief Minion.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Since she probably wouldn’t last long being outed as the sister to Othar Trygvassen (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER) in a prison full of villainous scum, she took the first name of Wilhelm Diamant, one of the town elders, as her last name. Diamant was the one who recommended she do so as well.
• Long-Lost Relative: To Othar.
• Pirate Girl: (Пиратка) Pre-Castle, she spent some time as a pirate queen. May be the origin of her pink hair; we’ve met another gal of «proud European-pirate» ancestry who sports a similar look.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) Assumes there’s some kind of Othar/Gil attraction.
• What Are You in For?: Asks this to Agatha when they first meet.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж) Was last seen unconscious with her Explosive Leash breaking apart when the Doom Bell rang and hasn’t been seen since. Although she’s presumably stuck in the Mechanicsburg time stop along with the rest of the town, it’s been confirmed that her location within the town hasn’t been discovered, despite efforts to find her.

Jägerkin

Ссылка: [9]

Jägers (in general)

Feared footsoldiers of the Heterodyne family, who drank the Jägerdraught and were transformed into their present state. Their fondness for fighting is matched only by their fondness for hats, and they are recognizable by their mostly humanoid but just monstrous enough appearance, and a distinctively maintained Old Mechanicsburg accent.

• Aerith and Bob: (Разностилица имён) Jäger names range from real-world (Maxim, Andre, Dmitre), unusual but still real (Gkika, a surname; Minsk, the capital of Belarus), and fantastic (Goomblast, Grishnarf, Zog).
• Affectionate Nickname: (Ласковое прозвище) The Jägers have taken to frequently calling their Lady Agatha «Sveethot» (IE: Sweetheart).
• Amazing Technicolor Population: (Цветные люди/Разноцветная раса) Jäger skin tends to be all manner of colors.
• Amazon Chaser: (Любит сильных женщин) The more dangerous and violent a lady is, the more they’ll be in luff with her. The ones on Castle Wulfenbach adore Von Pinn, no matter how violently she disembowels them. (According to the Secret Blueprints, Von Pinn considered killing one of them as a warning, but wasn’t sure that won’t make them love her more.)
• Battle Cry: (Боевой клич) «VE HUNT!» This is appropriate enough, given that the English translation of «Jägermonster» is «hunter-monster».
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) In order: threats to the Heterodyne, threats to their hats, and slaver wasps. Jägers choose to become Jägers; according to General Goomblast, «Every one of us reached out our hands and took the Jägerdraught by choice…we serve the Heterodynes freely…and our Heterodynes have always earned that». The fact that it was a choice is extremely important to them; the thought of anyone not getting that choice makes them very, very angry.
• Bizarre Human Biology: Although initially, Jägers were all fur-covered humans with pointy teeth, with the generals as exception, currently all Jägers are unique in appearance. Every Jäger gets their own combination of «goodies»: multiple arms, multiple eyes, tusks, horns, barbels, color changing skin (to name a very few examples). The only common trait, and the trademark indicator of a Jäger, is a mouthful of very big, very sharp teeth. The transformation from human to Jäger is a slow and continuous process, with the Jäger growing larger and more monstrous over time.
  • The teeth seem to come in first: Oggie has them ten years after drinking the Jägerdraught, but it takes another sixty-four years after that for his horn to start growing in.
  • Size is a good indicator of age. With the exception of Zog (the shortest general, but implied to be one of the oldest), the Jäger generals tower over humans, while the average Jäger tends to be more or less human-sized. The first novel puts Goomblast at four meters (twelve feet) tall, at least, while the third novel says Gkika is three meters (nine feet).
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) Having served as the Heterodyne’s head monsters for several hundred years, the people of Europa are not terribly fond of them. In places where the Baron’s presence isn’t so strong, and the memory of the old Heterodynes linger, the typical response to a Jäger is to try and kill them. Even in Wulfenbach-dominant regions, the mere implication that the Baron may send the Jägercorps to deal with an unruly vassal is often enough to pacify them.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) Deys gots de Mechanicsburg aksent. It even applies to sound effects around dem.
• The Gadfly: (Герой-насмешник) Most Jäger traditions are maintained to annoy people.
• Gratuitous German: The word «Jägermonster» in German translates to English as «hunter-monster» or perhaps «infantry-monster».
• Honorary True Companion: The Jägers often had regular human auxiliaries fighting alongside them during the Old Heterodyne days, and the two considered each other close comrades-in-arms. «Riding with the Jägers» is how the old auxiliaries usually announce this membership. Though not practiced currently, a few characters were extended the same regard by true Jägers when dying or getting grievously wounded in service to Agatha: Lars and Zeetha, for example.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) Having served alongside the maddest of the madboys, it’s generally a sign that if something can scare these guys, it’s time to run.
• I Gave My Word: (Человек слова) They swore to serve the Heterodynes forever, but when Bill and Barry disappeared, they signed up with the Baron, knowing it was the only way to keep them safe. A few of their kind, such as Da Boyz, volunteered to leave the group and go into into the world to keep up the search, despite knowing there was probably no chance of succeeding, just so the Jägers as a whole could say they had kept their word to serve their masters. And then Agatha shows up.
• Interservice Rivalry: (Соперничество служб) With the Lackya, the green-eyed footmen on board Castle Wulfenbach, during the Jägercorps' time under the auspices of Baron Wulfenbach. The Jagers think they’re uptight and effete («nancy-boy feetsman»), while the Lackya don’t care much for their unruly behavior. But when the Slaver Wasps come around, all nonsense is dispensed with.
  • They also don’t get along with Boris, for very similar reasons.
• Long-Lived: They can last, with the proper maintenance from the Heterodyne, upward of hundreds of years. So far, there’s no mention of Jägers dying of old age, and at least one of the first Jägers ever made is still alive, with no signs of slowing down.
• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть?) Side-effect of not dying of the Jägerdraught is becoming near impossible to kill. Of course, this does have the leedle problem that Jägers can be overconfident in the face of a problem, or in some cases not outright notice something’s trying to kill them in the first place.
• Mauve Shirt: (Лиловые рубашки) Some minor Jagers do reappear occasionally. Zudok, for example, took almost a whole ten and a half years to pop up again.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: The only real moral alignment of the Jägers is «Loyal». They served the Heterodynes for centuries, and they’ll serve the Heterodyne centuries more. Dimo says they were all very interested in the «being good» thing the Heterodyne boys were doing; later, Ognian says that if one of the old Heterodynes called for him to ride again, he would do it, even though «Hy dun tink Hy vould like it much enny more».
• Nightmare Fetishist: (Любитель всякой жути) The people of Mechanicsburg consider the Jägers' inhuman features to be attractive. One of Higgs’s regrets is that he didn’t at least get the teeth.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Horrific Abominations of Mad Science though they be, at the end of the day, Jagers are still a Badass Army and Band of Brothers. This also extends to anyone they deem worthy of respect, As Maxim showed when he retrieved Lars' body.
• The Nose Knows: They’ve got an astoundingly good sense of smell, capable of discerning a Heterodyne instantly.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: (Злодейское разорение поселений) They did a lot of this under the Old Heterodynes. Things changed after Bill and Barry took over.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) Jägers can live a very long time, to the point where «take a hundred years and think about it» is casual advice. Even the regular rank-and-file have a few centuries on them: Ognian has an impressive family of descendants over several generations.
• Signature Headgear: (Крутая шляпа) A Jäger without a hat might as well not be a Jäger. And there are rules about how one goes about acquiring them (gotta be a battle trophy off a worthy opponent, can’t just pop into a little shop and buy one). Conversely, they’ll respect someone with a nice hat, or even give one as a sign of respect (or at least, what they think is a nice hat). A good way to make them angry is to knock it off their head. They also use it as a gauge to whether or not a battle plan is a good idea: Will they lose their hat? If yes, bad plan.
• Skewed Priorities: Jägers are very protective of those hats of theirs, and a plan’s general worth can be balanced on whether or not they’ll still have a hat at the end of it, everything else be damned.
• Smarter Than You Look: Most people look at Jägers and see dumb, slavering monsters. Slavering, maybe, monsters, yeah, but while most of them aren’t exactly gifted in the brains department, they are by no means stupid. The Baron’s attempts to dupe them and keep them away from Mechanicsburg fails because of this.
  • The books imply that this is actually a deliberate ploy by the Jägers. Agatha notices that the Jäger she’s talking to suddenly looks stupider when they are approached by one of the Lakya. The Jägers aren’t all secretly geniuses, but they are definitely downplaying the intelligence they do have.
• Super Serum: (Военный препарат) The highly toxic concoction that transformed them from mere humans into Jägers is known as the Jägerbrau or Jägerdraught. Amongst the ingredients is raw water from the River Dyne’s eldritch spring. It killed the majority of people who imbibed it, but the rest got all the wondrous Jägerperks… Except Higgs who only got the boring parts; Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, and immortality.
• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) The most loyal and elite of the Heterodynes' military forces, historically, made superhuman by the effects of the aforementioned Jägerbrau.
• Super-Strength: (Физическая суперсила) Jägers are capable of impressive feats of physical exertion; the Generals are in fact capable of wielding Clank autocannons. (Jäger footsoldiers also manage to fire a giant cannon, but it takes three of them, and they have a «leedle problem vit de recoil».)
• Super-Toughness: It takes a frightening amount of bodily injury to physically incapacitate a Jäger, and even more to get them all that worked up about it. Dimo gets an arm chopped off and once the wound is tied off and bandaged, is so unbothered by it that a few hours later he forgets and tries to catch someone with it.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) To the Heterodynes, and deys gots the oath to prove it! The Jägertroth promises to serve the Heterodyne family beyond death, and in multiple dimensions. This started even before becoming Jägers; it has been noted that imbibing the notoriously unreliably fatal Jägerbrau was always explicitly voluntary.
• Was Once a Man: (Был когда-то человеком) Originally human before taking the Super Serum. Some remain more human-looking than others, like Oggie and Jenka, and Higgs never transformed at all.

The Jäger Generals

The leaders of the Jägermonsters. There were originally eight of them, however General Øsk was reported to have lost his hat and life battling the Polar Ice Lords' Doom Wyrm, leaving only seven: 1-3. «Dose three old ogres». When the story begins, they seem to act as military advisers for Klaus, and live aboard Castle Wulfenbach. General Zog, the most normal-looking one with the four-diamond-emblem fez, is implied to be the oldest. General Khrizhan, with the gold-capped tusks and (mysteriously) no hat at all, seems to be in overall command. General Goomblast is the freaking massive one with an impressively wide mouth and array of teeth.

4. «Mamma» Gkika is one of only two female Jägers seen so far, and the only female general. In the Jägerkin’s current holding pattern, she runs the Mechanicsburg bar/hospital where incapacitated Jägers wait for a Heterodyne to come along to heal them up.

5. General Koppelslav, a large red Jäger, first appears in Mechanicsburg in a council of the generals, after Agatha is proclaimed the new Heterodyne. Long known only as «Gargantua», as named by a hostile Wulfenbach soldier, his name was finally confirmed in the fourth GG print novel.

6. General Zadipok, whereabouts unknown…

7. A «tricky general», the Heterodyne’s spymaster, said to be «keeper of many secret things.» He apparently wishes to remain hidden until the Other is removed from Agatha’s mind. It’s finally revealed that he now goes by the name Axel Higgs and that unique among Jäger, he’s remained human-looking all these centuries.

• Adaptational Intelligence: (Поумнеть в адаптации) A twofer in the novels. In the comic, the Baron presents «Agatha’s» corpse to the generals knowing they’d been asking about her. The generals can tell the body is not Agatha but pretend they neither realize this nor that Agatha is a Heterodyne and play the event off as merely the tragic death of a nice young woman. In the novels, the Baron is sharper and knows the generals taking an interest in Agatha is because they figured out she’s a Heterodyne, with the generals themselves sharp enough to know he’d figure them out. They therefore feign a furious rampage across Castle Wulfenbach, playing into the Baron’s expectations for how they would react to Agatha’s death.
• Almighty Janitor: (Всемогущий нищий/Бог-уборщик) The hidden general, Higgs, who has been serving in various inconspicuous positions throughout the militaries of Europa for hundreds of years.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: (Цветные люди/Разноцветная раса) Mamma Gkika takes it a step further by having a «fun color change-y hepidermoose [epidermis]!» She kept on the down low by staying Mechanicsburgher-colored, but now can «mek vit the pretty colors again».
• Amazonian Beauty: (Амазонка) Mama Gkika is the only publicly known general who is still conventionally attractive, and she towers over any normal human or non-general Jäger. The third novel states she’s almost nine feet tall.
• Arch-Enemy: (Заклятый враг) While the Heterodynes, and thus the Jägers, were enemies with pretty much anybody, the one enemy the generals hate is the Other’s insects. This is because the Jägers serve of their own will while the slaver wasps use Mind Control.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: (Лирой Дженкинс) Defying this is part of what separates the Generals from regular Jägers. Although they still love a good fight, they also know when it’s better not to. Vole saying he doesn’t feel like fighting is considered «talking like a general».
• Bar Brawl: (Буйный кабак) Mamma Gkika organizes one every evening to let the incapacitated Jägers in her care blow off steam. Except for Thursdays; Thursdays are Poetry Slam night.
• Big Red Devil: (Чёрт с рогами) General Koppelslav has this look and wears Spikes of Villainy.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) Cunning old Jägers they may be, they are still Jägers, and enjoy a good fight as much as any of their subordinates. However, the large difference between them and the grunts is that the Generals are not driven to the insane frenzy like the grunts are (on account of their age and wisdom) and are able to make strategic decisions, or even choose not to fight. In fact, given what Vole underwent through, it’s heavily implied that by the time they reach their age and have undergone decades or even centuries of blood lust and the emotional consequences of it, they mellow down considerably.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Mostly played straight. The generals like to use their massive strength to wield massive weapons. But subverted with General Goomblast, who takes on a half-dozen Wulfenbach troops with a rapier. They really should have known to be all the more terrified at seeing such a hulk with such a light weapon.
• Cavalier Competitor / Spirited Competitor: They don’t hold grudges over any finished campaigns. And apparently keep kill-counts, arguing with each other over which foes did «count» and which weren’t enough of a sport. Goomblast also liked the idea of Combat by Champion, though his opponents declined.
• Combat Pragmatist: (Прагматичный боец) The Generals make a game of who can score the most kills in a battle. General Khrizhan continuously pesters the others about what counts as cheating, to make sure they can’t call him out for doing everything the others are doing…at the same time, on a much bigger scale. Things that are not cheating: attacking them in the air, attacking them with their own weapons (the weapons don’t care), and attacking while they run away. Things that are cheating: all of those things at once.

«	Zog: But in der goot vay!	»

• Cute Monster Girl: (Няшная монстродевочка) Downplayed, as Mamma’s definitely not a girl, but she is pretty good-looking and the most human looking of the Generals except for Higgs.
• Dark Action Girl: Mamma seems to be half way between this and Lady of War.
• Even Evil Has Standards: (Даже у зла есть стандарты) They would very much enjoy working for a «fun» Heterodyne again, but even they hate Mind Control enough to hear out the possibility of Agatha being the Other and would refuse to work for any Heterodyne willing to use it.
• Femme Fatalons: Seen on Mamma here. And she keeps them perfectly lacquered even when in «uniform».
• Four-Star Badass: (Крепкий середнячок) All of the Generals are brutally competent warriors. Four of them working together can utterly crush an entire airship of elite Wulfenbach air-assault troops.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) Being Jägers, this is to be expected.
• Gentle Giant: (Добродушный гигант) All of the generals seem perfectly capable of being personable and making very polite conversation over a pot of tea (Zog’s a bit rusty). This is actually what makes them generals. Jägergenerals are in fact the mature form of common Jägers; this usually takes hundreds of years, and most Jägers die before reaching it. Though almost all Jägergenerals possess unique physical characteristics, the most important difference between a Jäger and a Jägergeneral is that a Jägergeneral is no longer driven to fight as a Jäger is, but only fights when they choose to, and can thus fight rationally enough to lead others in combat. They are, however, still Jägers.
• Genius Bruiser: (Гениальный силач) The generals seem far more on the button as far as politics are concerned than many people, never mind Jägers. Case in point: when it’s revealed that Klaus plans to destroy Castle Heterodyne because Agatha’s possessed by the Other, and Boris tries to deceive them into going along with it, they ask Boris to tell them what he knows rather than killing him out of hand. Turns out their intelligence and wisdom is the result of centuries of experience. And Higgs is a master of disguise and subterfuge, and has been hiding out posing as lowly crewmen and soldiers in half of Europa’s military.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: (Спрятано на виду)
  • This is how Mamma Gkika’s remains hidden. It’s underneath a much gaudier tourist trap of the same name, filled with show girls dressed up as fake Jägers.
  • The «sneaky» general manages to stay hidden in plain sight as well, disguising himself as lowly soldiers in the various armies of Europa.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) Common Jägers are Super Soldiers in their own right, and Blood Knights to boot. But when the Generals start brawling among themselves, they run for the hills.
  • However, when the Dreen show up, even the Generals run for the hills…
  • And then when Agatha get’s sick of their arguing and yells at them to shut up, they turn into meek mice. Her being in charge of them does help with this though.
• I Call Her «Vera»: (Поименованный предмет) Mamma Gkika’s axe, «Dollink».
• Improbable Weapon User: (Мастер необычного оружия) Koppelslav sports large organic-looking shoulder-spikes which he can tear off and throw with deadly accuracy. It’s not clear if they are part of his body or his outfit.
• Large and in Charge: (Большой — значит главный) It is implied that the Generals are amongst the oldest Jägers, and thus the gradual effects of the Jägerbrau makes them slowly get larger and more physically powerful. This confers them even greater strength, as shown by General Gkika being able to heft (and presumably fire) a Wulfenbach battle clank’s autocannon (previously shown to be too much for three regular Jägers).
• Lightning Bruiser: (Реактивный громила) At least, General Goomblast. A Wulfenbach assault team seeing a huge Jäger General with a light fencing sword didn’t realize why they should be terrified. Oh, and he also seems to be ambidextrous.
• Master Swordsman: (Мастер меча) General Goomblast is capable of disarming his enemies such that their own (poisoned) swords impale them. While fighting six on one.
• The Medic: Mamma Gikka is the person Jägers turn to if they need medical attention while there is no Heterodyne available.
• Mildly Military: According to the novels, Jägers have no proper rankings or chain of command outside of the Generals, who are respected by virtue of being the oldest and strongest of their kind. It’s also noted that the Generals have no clear hierarchy between themselves either.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: (Чудовищная пасть) While standard for most Jägers, Goomblast takes it a bit further.
• The Nose Knows: With Krosp not believing the Dead Olga ruse will work because Agatha smells different as Foreshadowing context, the nonchalance over learning that Agatha is dead becomes this: they can smell the body isn’t her, and quickly act casual over «Agatha’s» loss.
• Older and Wiser: A requirement for being a Jäger General. They’re all around centuries old and while still a love good fight, they have mellowed out considerably and with age comes wisdom, including an understanding and appreciation for strategy, politics and tactics. Furthermore, it’s implied that an emotional requirement is the understanding of how much being a Blood Knight can suck. In fact, given how when Vole notes the horrible actions he did and Higgs remark that all of them do that and then they grow up, that this is likely something most Jägers realize if they ever reach the age.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Koppelslav was called «Gargantua» by a hostile Wulfenbach soldier; fans referred to him as such until the novels revealed his real name.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) Almost literally, their ages are in the neighborhood of 600—700 years. Apparently, this a partial requirement for being a General; after centuries of living, they are now fully matured and have a great deal of wisdom and experience to match their superhuman strength.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: They are willing to hold off formally aligning with Agatha when Boris calls them on how much upheaval it would cause at the current moment (though their main concern was Agatha’s opinions on them starting a war without her go ahead). Once Wooster tells them about the Baron’s plans to kill Agatha in the interim, Khrizhan neither accepts nor denies the accusation until getting copies of the Baron’s orders. And finally, instead of killing Boris on the spot, Zog insists he tell them about Agatha being the Other first.
• Seen It All: Par with the course, given their age.
  • Khrizhan is only mildly surprised by Gil’s flying machine crashing into his study.
  • General Zog is so used to weird stuff happening that he doesn’t even notice that he has been unfrozen from time, the town is still frozen, and an Eldritch Abomination is about to invade.
  • Gkika at first has trouble grasping the whole «time freeze» thing, but when pointed towards the Eldritch Abomination looming above the town, she immediately responds with a cheerful «sure, hokay, let’s fight him!»
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) Agatha/Gil, although Zog got beaten up by Khrizhan for suggesting they push it along—while Agatha is sitting right next to them. They also approve of Agatha/Tarvek — a little romantic rivalry is fun for all.
  • Koppelslav bets on Agatha taking both. He’s certainly not the first.

«	Van: That’s the dark horse, General. One will get you five.	»

• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: (Цинизм для лузеров‏‎) While Wulfenbach and all his minions are all treating Agatha as if she were The Other regardless of explanation of her situation, the Jäger Generals are willing to risk it to help their beloved mistress expel The Other from her head and carry the day.
• Slasher Smile: (Улыбашка) Goomblast has a mouth a shark would be envious of. Most Jäger Generals can sport one once they get in the mood. Even Higgs.
• Stronger with Age: After Vole artificially aged hundreds of years it seems clear that this is why the Generals look so much more mutated than regular Jägers. In fact, some of them were the first ever consumers of the «Jägerdraught».
• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) Implied to be among the first Jägers. Higgs has explicitly confirmed that he was among the very first to undergo the process.
• Super Serum: (Военный препарат) Mentioned as the source of change and confirmed by This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God. They are humans transformed by the «Jägerdraught», a concoction that includes raw River Dyne water as an ingredient. Most Generals are a LOT less human than the regular Jägers, due to growing mutations with age.
  • On the other hand, apart from her aqua hair, sharp teeth and pointed ears, Mamma Gkika can almost pass for human (and in fact does, hiding in plain sight among her human showgirls who dress up as Jägers).
  • And on the very far end of the spectrum, Airman Higgs is completely indistinguishable from a human. He’s not actually happy about that, he’d at least like the teeth. It does, however, lend greatly to conducting espionage in the interest of House Heterodyne.
• Surrounded by Idiots: (Меня окружают идиоты) Khrizhan and Gkika both have moments where they display this attitude.
• Team Mom: (Командная мама) Even part of her name; «Mamma Gkika». She refers to the Jäger pack as «her boys».
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) As with the rank-and-file Jägers, their transformation is explicitly explained to be a choice on the Generals' part. They are not compelled to serve the Heterodynes; rather, every Jäger has made a conscious choice and vow to serve the Heterodynes for life — a very long life — before they drank the Jägerbrau. It’s a gamble, but «de vuns vot live gets all kinds ov goodies», including toughness and functional immortality. So strong is their loyalty that they’ll stick with the Heterodynes even when the current masters are «boring». Many of the Generals are implied to be some of the first Jägermonsters.
  • Of note is that the Jäger Generals consider anyone who fights for and protects a Heterodyne is just as worthy of their loyalty. When Zeetha was mortally wounded fighting Zola to protect Agatha, Generals Gkika and Higgs considered it worthy enough that they gave her the Jägerdraught and begin turning her at least partially into a Jäger in order to save her life.

Jenka

One of only two female Jägers we have met so far (the other being Mamma Gkika) who seems to be Da Boyz immediate superior officer, but who spends quite a bit of time away from them (or maybe a liaison officer, which would fit well with her sporadic appearance). She was away when Da Boyz were caught by Othar and then left again to get orders about Agatha, and has since put in sporadic appearances. Her mysteriousness, femaleness, and general awesome has lead to a lot of speculation about her nature and origins.

• Action Girl / Dark Action Girl: (Бой-баба) Hard to call exactly but it has to be one of these two.
• Ambadassador: Sometimes her duties call her to engage in more diplomatic venues. She’s got more patience for it than her brothers-in-arms.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Grey skin, not that impressive but it does give us yet another choice of Jäger skin tone.
• Arrow Catch: (Поймать стрелу рукой) On her first appearance, when a panicked guard shoots at her. She doesn’t even flinch.

«	Jenka: I forgive. Once.	»

• Badass Adorable: (Милый крутой) Does not look like the super scary badass she is.
• Badass Cape: (Крутой в плаще) She wears one that also obscures her mouth. Because she actually has entirely normal teeth, thanks to Andronicus Valois ripping out her «luffly fangs.»
• Bears Are Bad News: (Страшный медведь) Füst, her ursine mount. And he is awesome. She states he’s a Jäger-bear, implying he too has had some of the Jäger Draught
• BFS: (Офигенно большой меч) Her weapon of choice.
• Bilingual Bonus: (Билингвальный бонус) Füst is Hungarian for 'smoke', ie her pet is Smokey the Bear. Doubles as a Stealth Pun
• Breast Plate: Not initially, but contrast her first appearance with her later one.
• Cool Mask: (Крутая маска) Part of her cape.
• Cursed with Awesome: (Полезное проклятие) She’s one of only two Jägers without fangs because Andronicus Valois, the first Storm King, ripped them out. This enables her to go on diplomatic missions, as she looks like a grey-skinned human. She’s still pissed about losing her fangs, though.
• Cute Monster Girl: (Няшная монстродевочка) What we can see of her anyway. Later confirmed during the Paris arc when we see her with her mask off.
• Drop-In Character: Shows up every once in a while, with very little warning of her appearance.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) Her accent is often noticeably less pronounced than the other Jägers. For example, while she says «is» as «iz» like any other Jäger, she often says «you» normally instead of «hyu». Given that Da Boyz are/were a roaming band of Jägers on special assignment, and are now sticking close to Agatha (in both cases, not part of a larger Jäger group), it’s entirely plausible that Jenka often has to travel through hostile territory to meet up with them. A less-pronounced accent may help in staying unnoticed if necessary. Confirmed when she shows up in Paris disguised as a (more or less) regular human. She serves in many ways and therefore must wear many faces, and has learned how to hide her accent when needed.
• Horse of a Different Color: (Ездовое животное) She rides a Jägerbear, Füst; it’s implied at one point that he may have also taken a dose of the Jägerdraught.
• Man of a Thousand Faces: It’s all but stated she’s this when Agatha meets her again in Paris after the Time Skip; she is, among other things, the official head diplomat for Mechanicsburg. Though it’s never made entirely clear if it’s a Jäger ability, or she’s just good with disguises.
• More Deadly Than the Male: (Женщина сильнее мужчины) She is in charge of Da Boyz, and the Jägers are pretty big on Asskicking Leads to Leadership.
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек) She comes across as being calmer and more careful than Da Boyz.
• Praetorian Guard: (Преторианцы/Преторианцы-женщины?) Apparently she used to be part of one for Euphrosynia Heterodyne.
• Pretty in Mink: When she shows up in Paris, she is wearing a rather impressive ensemble, which no longer covers her mouth, which also makes her virtually unrecognizable to Agatha.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) No actual word on her age, but she seems to have seniority over Da Boyz, and by human standards they are old. She’s also old enough that she knew Andronicus Valois personally, and was apparently Euphrosynia’s «retainer» of some description.
• Ship Tease: At the underground Paris party, she makes Dimo dress up nice and then calls him «darling.» It’s hard to tell if this means they have a relationship, or if she was just needling him.
  • In the third book, she tries to hide how pleased she is when Maxim tells her «nice sneaking, sveethot».
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Unlike most Jägerkin, she understands the need to be «sottle».
• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) Again, Jäger.
• The Tooth Hurts: Andronicus Valois ripped out her «luffly fangs.» She’s still pissed about it hundreds of years later, though it makes it easier for her to pass off as not a Jäger.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) By now, «Jägermonster» should clearly be synonymous with «loyal to the death to the Heterodynes».
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Going by what she says to Agatha, the fact that Jenka in her guise as a Parisian socialite travels around with a Jäger-bear is seen as nothing more than «eccentric». And then only because most society ladies prefer little dogs.
• Women Are Wiser: (Женщины мудрее) One of the very few female Jägers, and the most sensible one by far.

Jorgi

The Jäger who commands the forces that take over the Wulfenbach Heliolux Air Fleet as the Wulfenbach Jägers return to Mechanicsburg to serve the new Heterodyne, bringing an end to their service to the Wulfenbach empire. He also helps Tarvek rescue the Vespiary Squad that is being slain by those under the Other’s control.

• Apathetic Student: His father was adamant about his children being educated, and a wanna-be philosopher whose constant speechifying about the duality and the politics of non-being as related to platonic reality drove Jorgi to join up with the Jägers. His erudite upbringing may have contributed to his being command material, however.

«	Hey- Hyu leesen to a guy like dot for fifteen years, hyu vill vant to burn down de vorld, too.	»

• Cheshire Cat Grin: He frequently smiles to show off as many of his very sharp teeth as possible.
• Cute Little Fangs: (Торчащие клыки) When Jorgi’s mouth is closed two of his lower fangs stick out a little, helping mark him as a Jäger even though he has a very human face.
• Foreshadowing: (Предзнаменование) Part of the reason he’s around is to show what generals in waiting look like. There’s a reason the generals made him a Commander. He even mentions he likes fighting in an off-handed way, dismissing it despite it supposedly being the most important part of being a Jaeger. This reflects both Dimo’s and Vole’s paths to become generals. There’s a time to fight and then there’s a time to think or talk.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) Jorgi talks in the usual Jäger accent.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) He is quite a bit more intelligent than the average Jäger, even easily understanding a Spark’s messy notes on their experiments, but he doesn’t want his brothers to even know he’s literate. He’s also a great cook.
• Major Injury Underreaction: He casually starts joking with Tarvek when he can’t even stand due to broken legs and a messed up shoulder. When he reveals his injuries all he really has to say about it is that it’s no big deal since Jägers heal fast.
• Not Afraid to Die: (Антиимморталист) When he realizes the ship he’s in is about to blow up and he can’t even properly crawl to escape he’s entirely unfazed and urges Tarvek to hurry up, escape and be good to Agatha.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) He threatens to kill Tarvek if Tarvek reveals to the horde that Jorgi can not only read, but comprehend a Spark’s convoluted notes and had a very good education as a human at his father’s insistence.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: (Берегись красных глаз) Not so much for Agatha and her allies, but he’s a Jäger with red eyes and there is a reason most of Europa is terrified of Jägers.
• Secret-Keeper: (Хранитель тайны) Jorgi knew about Tarvek being the heir to the Storm King and Agatha having an anima of the Other in her head while those things were still meant to be private information, to Tarvek’s surprise.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) Jorgi is cheering for Tarvek to win Agatha’s affection, though he’s ultimately happy with whomever his Heterodyne chooses so long as she’s happy and they treat her good.
• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) The Jägerdraught gave him a Healing Factor, Made of Iron, The Nose Knows, Older Than He Looks, Proud Warrior Race Guy, and Super-Strength.
• Talking Is a Free Action: (Всегда есть время поболтать) He treats it like it is, carrying on a conversation with Tarvek as Tarvek is trying to drag him and Ruxala out of a burning airship while they’re being chased and attacked which drives Tarvek a bit mad.

«	Tarvek: You weigh less when you're not talking!"'	»

• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Loyal to the Heterodynes and ecstatic about getting to organize the Wulfenbach Jägerkin’s takeover of multiple Wulfenbach airships in order to return to serving them.

Ivo Sharktooth

Protagonist of a short story set after the end of the main comic, Ivo Sharktooth is a Private Jäger: a full-blown, hard-boiled gumshoe PI, who just so happens to be a Jägermonster. He only has one rule: you can hire him, but you can’t unhire him. Once he is on the case he won’t stop looking, no matter what dirty secrets he throws into the light or how much you beg.

• All of the Other Reindeer: (Пария/Изгой) Most people who know Ivo seem to find him deeply irritating. Even the other Jägers don’t like him, to the point where two of them trip him as he runs by, and are fully prepared to beat him up for their amusement. They apparently took offense at his vocal distaste for fighting, although if what Spanzel says are actual quotes from Ivo, he was pretty insulting about it. This is probably why he’s not a Jägergeneral, even though he has the temperament of one. There’s no indication it’s so bad that he’s been fully detached from the pack, like Vole, but the usual Jäger camaraderie is definitely missing.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: (Цветные люди/Разноцветная раса) Grey. He is a Jäger.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: (Бойся своих желаний) You can hire him, but you can’t «un-hire» him. Once you set him on the case, he will not stop until the truth is fully exposed.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) Averted, but has a very similar attitude to mysteries.
• Cute Little Fangs: (Торчащие клыки) Seems the source of his name.
• Clueless Detective: An Exact Words twist on one in that, apart from his Sherlock Scan abilities, he’s actually a spectacularly bad one. His talent isn’t actually «investigating» things, but causing enough trouble that the initial troublemakers invoke Chandler’s Law out of sheer frustration. Hence why he can’t be «unhired»—the mere act of hiring him is to kickstart a Rube Goldberg machine that results in chaos, panic, disorder, and a mystery solved by someone. He actually sets off the ultraviolent MacGuffin before the case is done.

«	Vanamonde: Well, he isn’t a private investigator, he’s a private Jäger. Agatha: Oh. I see. Vanamonde: Yes, that’s what the Heterodyne usually says. Agatha: The-you mean he’s worked for us before? Vanamonde: According to the archives, he’s worked for almost all the Heterodynes.	»

• Dirty Coward: (Подлый трус) Played with slightly — Unlike all other Jägers we have seen, Sharktooth hates fighting. However, when he needs to do it, he is just as capable as the next Jäger.
• Friend on the Force: He looks in on The Chief (who had been made permanently undetectable to most people due to an old experiment by the Heterodynes) mostly to make sure he doesn’t Go Mad from the Isolation.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) He’s a Jäger. Makes the noir monologue seem rather interesting.
• Insistent Terminology: (Настойчивая терминология) He’s not a Private Investigator, he’s a Private Jäger. As discussed above, the difference between the two is subtle but significant.
• Man Bites Man: (Кусака) The appelation «Sharktooth» is well-earned. Ivo ends up defeating the villain’s secret policeman henchman by biting his hand off.
• Pragmatic Hero: (Герой-прагматик) He doesn’t like to fight not because he can’t, but, according to him, «Mostly 'cauze it iz soch a beeg waste of time», and he ends up on the clock.
• Private Eye Monologue: Thinks in them.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) Old enough to have worked for almost all of the Heterodynes, though clearly not quite old enough to become a general.
• Sherlock Scan: Not to the extremes of other characters with this ability, but when confronted with a crime-scene he knows how to take in the pertinent details quickly, before idiots blunder into it and ruin it.
• The Smart Guy: (Умник) At least by the typical Jäger standard. Observant, methodical, and logical.
• Spanner in the Works: (Рояль в кустах?) His actual method of 'investigation' is to make enough machination-disrupting chaos around himself that the players are forced out into the open.
• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) Not that you would know, based on how he acts.

Vole

The only Jägermonster ever to be kicked out of the pack. He bears a strong grudge against the House of Heterodyne over this, and is eager to kill Agatha as soon as he discovers that she’s a real Heterodyne.

• And I Must Scream: (Но я должен кричать) Seems to have experienced this during his Rapid Aging. He describes it at feeling like he was stuck for hundreds of years fighting. Bad fighting, as in slowed down, where the blows came and he couldn’t stop them, nor stop trying to futilely swing back, as if fighting in a nightmare which he couldn’t wake up for centuries on end. After experiencing that, he himself states he doesn’t want to fight anymore, and his Blood Knight tendencies seem to have been obliterated entirely.
• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) «Ve vill burn Europa to the ground and und gnaw her bonez!» — his words.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Vole is no longer a Jäger, but still takes attempts to steal or damage his hat very, very seriously.
• Black Eyes of Evil: (Тьма в глазах) With white pupils. Maybe. It’s hard to tell if they’re pupils or reflections; there are panels that make good arguments for each.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови)
  • So much so that even the Jägers kicked him out for it. See Undying Loyalty below.
  • He undergoes a condensed Deconstruction of it though while trapped in the time stasis. He describes the process of being unstuck and liberated as if being trapped in a cycle of non-stop fighting for centuries, unable to stop hitting or being hit. The ordeal wears down his blood lust to nothing and he’s left with an odd calm as he reflects how horrible it felt.
• Combat Pragmatist: (Прагматичный боец) A particularly clever version. He takes advantage of people talking when they should fight and baits people to take advantage of their psychological weaknesses.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: (Бить врага вражиною)
  • In the first two panels he appears in, he rips a man’s arm off to prevent his hand from releasing a dead man’s switch. It pretty much sets the tone for the character.
  • He does this with Gil against Tarvek when subverting Talking Is a Free Action.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) Much like Da Boyz above, he’s much smarter than he looks and displays dangerous cunning. He’s also capable of stealing his gun back from the Impossible Thief in the party.
• Large Ham: (Переигрывание) When he wants to, Vole really can ham it up.
• Literal-Minded: (Буквально понятые слова) The result of Gil ordering him to bring an enemy commander to Dr. Sun for interrogation certainly portrays him this way.
• No True Scotsman: Vole believes he’s the only Jägermonster who remembers what the «monster» part stood for. Conversely, because of his crimes, the rest of the Jägerkin do not regard him as one of theirs.
• One-Winged Angel: (Ультимативная форма злодея) Jägers become Stronger with Age until they turn into Generals, and Vole aged hundreds of years after being pulled out of the time field… Subverted in that even though he’s become much stronger due to the effects of the artificial aging, much of his original Blood Knight tendencies have faded away. Thus, in many ways, he’s actually less dangerous in his new form than he was before, in that he won’t murder you just for the fun of it.
• The Oath-Breaker: One of the only references we’ve had to the Jägertroth is the fact that Vole renounced it.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Higgs says «we are going to Paris» when intending to go chasing after Zeetha and Agatha. Higgs finally turns up in England with no sign of Vole.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: (Одет с иголочки) Vole’s immaculate uniform stands out against his Blood Knight nature. In his case, it’s a hobby he picked up to cope with the boredom of functional immortality. It’s also why he gets so furious when Agatha throws coffee on him.
• The Social Darwinist: (Социал-дарвинизм) Tried to kill Bill and Barry because they were soft. Wanted a new pack of crueler, meaner, more psychotic Jägers to burn down Europa with. After the ordeal with the time stasis? Not so much.
• The Starscream: (Стремящийся в ГлавГады) Deliberately promoted to the role by Gil, who wants a superstrong lackey who’ll constantly try to kill him, because that will emphasize to everyone else how dangerously crazy Gil is. Vole asks if he could just be killed instead.
• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) Has the full Jägerdraught package of Amazing Technicolor Population (Pale, bluish-white skin and Black Eyes of Evil), Cute Little Fangs, Funetik Aksent, Made of Iron, The Nose Knows, Older Than He Looks (close to 200 years), Proud Warrior Race Guy, and Super-Strength.
• Take a Level in Badass: (Поднял уровень крутизны) See One-Winged Angel above.
• Tested on Humans: Played with. Any attempt to extract lifeforms from the time stasis field around Mechanicsburg results in rapid aging and death to the extractee. The Wulfenbach scientists on site have tried this repeatedly on birds and rodents, and cannot collect enough readings to analyze for any possible counteraction before the subject dies of rapid aging. Gil decides to extract Vole, since he is a Jäger and is capable of extremely long life. Gil also reasons that he’d rather not do it on an innocent person, and Vole is far from innocent. The extraction process gave the scientists all the data they needed on how to extract people without causing runaway aging.
• Took a Level in Kindness: (Поднял уровень доброты) See One-Winged Angel above, subversion part.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Averted. Vole was kicked out of the Jägers for trying to kill Bill and Barry for not being the bloodthirsty monsters the rest of the family was. He serves Baron Wulfenbach willingly as The Mole for Professor Tiktoffen, and he’s not even all that broken up when he finds out he’s dead too.
• The Unfettered: Devoted to being the biggest, nastiest, monster he can be and cause as much havoc as possible. However, it’s somewhat deconstructed when he is recovered from being timelocked. He spent what felt like centuries in an unending nightmare of constant fighting, unable to stop fighting or the blows coming to him. In layman’s terms, he experienced what it’d be like to be such a monster fighting other monsters for centuries, what his endgoal was. Upon reflection at how horrible the entire process felt, he realizes he doesn’t have much desire to really fight anymore. Though Higgs implied that this newfound perspective makes him one of the candidates to be a Jäger General.
• The Worf Effect: (Силач на расправу) Outside of ripping some poor nobody’s arm off, he tends to get beat up a lot. Even Othar gets to take a shot at him.

Old Man Death

An old man who runs a gourmet sandwich shop with his granddaughter. Used to run with the Jägers and put them to shame. His hat is therefore very significant to Jägers, as the more important and badass the hat’s owner, the more awesome and badass the hat. As such, he has to put up with the occasional attack on him for it, often enough at least for there to be a three tries only rule.

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Grosses out his granddaughter with the tale of how he met her grandmother.
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) He is a human who can put Jägers to shame.
• Chef of Iron: (Крутой повар) Again, he makes gourmet sandwiches and out-fights Jägers. Often at the same time.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: He plays this…to the JÄGERS, with his Hat of Authority as the reward.

«	Old Man Death: I’m just a human. Rode with the Jägers. Never. Lost. A. Fight.	»

• Dramatic Irony: (Драматическая ирония) Tells his granddaughter that he’d be more impressed if any of the Jägers he fights nowadays used cunning or stealth to steal his hat, but that it will never happen since Jägers don’t do subtle. Maxim’s third, and successful, attempt starts with stealth (hiding in a herring barrel) and ends with him (sort of) tricking Old Man Death into giving over the hat (by ordering a sandwich that is a hat-related historical reference) and escaping quickly (by ordering the sandwich to go).
• Famed in Story: Among the Jägers, at least. Legendary for never losing a fight.
• Foregone Conclusion: It was obvious that Maxim was going to get Old Man Death’s hat as soon as you saw it- while the purple hat with red trimming looked out of place on an old man in an orange shirt and an apron, it already matched Maxim’s outfit perfectly. It actually looked pretty similar to his old hat, only more ornate.
• Former Teen Rebel: As was mentioned, «rode with the Jägers», i.e. was an auxiliary to the most badass and evil army in Europe. Now runs a sandwich shop.
• Graceful Loser: He’s apparently fine with losing his hat, he really didn’t care about it, and he tells his granddaughter «your grandmother always hated that hat».
• Hash House Lingo: He knows the ingredients of the most obscure sandwiches you can imagine. And there is apparently a story behind every one of those oddly named sandwiches. The «Red Heterodyne» (Fried bat wing with mushroom sauce on pumpernickel) apparently stemmed from the long-dead Red Heterodyne getting trapped in a cave network for several years after a raid gone bad, forcing him to live on bats and mushrooms until he could get out, by which point he’d developed a taste for them. The «Prince of Sturmhalten’s Big Bet» (Hat sandwich) stemmed from Prince Viden of Sturmhalten saying that he’d eat his hat if Dante «The Good» Heterodyne could get a cathedral built in Mechanicsburg which, long story short, Dante did and so Prince Viden did.
• Hat of Authority: (Крутая шляпа) Played with, his hat is nothing special and it announces no official position, but the fact that it is his makes it irresistible to the Jägers. And once Maxim wins it off him, he immediately becomes the new target.
• Honor Before Reason: (Честь прежде разума) Or at least, as noted below, he cares more about his reputation as a sandwich-maker than winning his latest fight with a Jäger.
• Mysterious Past: (Персонаж-загадка) Exactly how, why, and when he stopped marauding, moved to Mechanicsburg and set up his shop isn’t clear, although he claims it was due to his meeting his princess wife-to-be: «..she sort of abducted me. Took me away from all of that, you know.»
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) The story behind the names of all the other sandwiches he can make, except the bat-and-mushroom «Red Heterodyne» as noted above.
• Only Known By His Nickname: It’s doubtful that «Old Man Death» is his given name, and the only other thing he’s addressed as (by his granddaughter) is «Grandpa».
• Papa Wolf: (Родительский инстинкт) The fight with Maxim over his hat was going fine, and was fairly friendly, until Maxim tried to hit on the waitress, his granddaughter.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: He induces this in his granddaughter… who apparently misses the fact that she’s technically royalty according to the story as well.
• Retired Badass: (Крутой в отставке) He just wants to run his sandwhich shop these days.
• To Be Lawful or Good: (Кому сохранить верность?) Maxim forces him to choose between his reputation as a sandwich-maker and his hat. He chooses his reputation. Apparently he didn’t have another hat in the store to make the sandwich with or he was unwilling or unable to leave his shop to get another one. Alternatively given that he claims to have considered just tossing the hat several times and states that his wife hated it, he may simply have seen the opportunity to get rid of it.

The Heterodynes

Ссылка: [10]

Bill and Barry, The Heterodyne Boys

The heroes of the previous generation, Bill and Barry Heterodyne were a pair of brothers, the first good apples in a looong line of villains. Their tenures as masters of House Heterodyne led to an age of peace and prosperity for much of Europa, lending their immensely powerful sparkiness not to conquer like their forefathers, but to lend a hand wherever they could. Their adventures were so fantastical that they have been immortalized in a series of theatrical productions. They were close friends with Klaus Wulfenbach, and built the constructs Punch and Judy. Bill eventually married their old rival Lucrezia Mongfish, and is Agatha’s father.

The Boys went on a crusade against the Other after it attacked Castle Heterodyne, killed Bill’s infant son, and kidnapped his wife. (Or at least that’s current semi-public description of that eventful day.) Eventually, they both disappeared, but Barry returned in disguise with a young Agatha in tow, and left her in the care of Punch and Judy before disappearing once again.

• Beware the Nice Ones: (Добро с кулаками) Agatha set a Heterodyne record by NOT killing someone within the first two minutes of her reign. One of their first acts were to purge Mechanicsburg of its monsters, most of which only survived due to being taken in by the residents of Mechanicsburg. They later condemned the Court of Gears, forcing them into hiding.
• Big Good: (Светлый властелин) They were, more than anything, a beacon of hope in a world that had been nothing but a playground for mad scientists for far too long. They always tried to negotiate before fighting, and helped install town councils and other long-lasting forms of government before moving on.
• Boring, but Practical: (Уныло, но практично) In the novelizations, the Castle describes Bill’s approach to the Spark as «refreshingly simple» and figures if he’d been alive during the time of the Storm King (and, presumably, as mad as the rest of his family) no-one would’ve been able to stand against him.
• Celibate Hero: (Целомудренный герой) Possibly Barry. Upon learning Agatha’s true parentage, Klaus notes it would be «a surprise» if Barry had any children. In the Heterodyne stories, Barry is just paired off with any spare woman the story has at hand, often «The High Priestess.»
  • However, Maxim does mention that both of them did kiss a lot of girls back in their days. So while Barry definitely had interest in women, Klaus might’ve meant that he would not be the type to settle down, at least back then.
• Cool Uncle: (Любимый дядюшка?) Barry, a legendary hero, raised his niece Agatha until she was seven years old. It’s also implied that he saved his infant niece from Lucrezia, by breaking into the Citadel of Silver Light and taking her to safety.
• Covered in Scars: Dimo says that Bill was more scars than skin towards the end of their public adventuring career.
• Dating Catwoman: (Возлюбленная — злодейка) Bill and Lucrezia Mongfish. It didn’t end well.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best:
  • Mother Teodora Heterodyne, the one who raised them to be good, was killed by the Castle shortly after killing their villainous father.
  • Bill is probably this for Agatha. Especially given he’s not been seen since, and Barry returned from wherever it was he went alone, and the Other seems pretty convinced he’s gone.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Bill. Barry never explained what happened to him, or at least word never reached Agatha or the reader. The Monster Guild story set in the future confirms that he’s gone.
  • Uncle Barry himself disappeared almost eleven years ago.
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) Barry apparently has become this to the Geisterdamen and to The Other after his One-Man Army assault on the Geisters' citadel to liberate baby Agatha in an Offscreen Moment of Awesome.
• Establishing Character Moment: (Момент характеристики) Burning down the Flesh Yards made clear to Mechanicsburg that these two were not the usual sort of Heterodynes.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: (Не иди по моим стопам (в разработке)) Utterly averted, Saturnus Heterodyne really wasn’t happy to learn that his children weren’t acting like Heterodynes, and had been planning to kill them and start all over again.
• Famed in Story: Not only do they have their own series of very popular pulp novels, there are traveling shows who specialize in performing their adventures.
• Fantastic Racism: (Фантастический шовинизм) They considered the loyal monsters of Mechanicsburg to be just more of their family’s old horrors that needed to be purged.
• Fat and Skinny: (Толстый и тонкий) Bill being the slim one, Barry being the more portly one.
• Folk Heroes: They are revered across Europa as the greatest heroes of their generation. There are plenty of books and plays about their adventures, which are assumed by many to be greatly exaggerated. This is unlikely, as ridiculous story elements such as «Mechanical Camels» are plain truth. However, no one said a single damn thing about them being accurate.
• The Ghost: (Закадровый персонаж) Outside of a single photo, Bill has yet to properly appear in the comic, flashback or otherwise.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: (Добру не постичь Зла) Specifically, they didn’t understand the Villainous Friendship between the human Mechanicsburgers and the monsters, and how the former would actually defy orders from their Heterodynes to protect and shelter the monsters when the Boys destroyed the Monster District.
• Good Is Not Soft: (Добро с кулаками) Mentioned in the novels. They’d try and redeem their opponents as much as humanly possible, preferring reason to violence, but if it came to it, they would kill.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: They’re never seen in the comic outside of flashbacks. At the same time, they are the Precursor Heroes that all of Europa looks up to, and that Agatha finds herself in the boots of.
• Heroic BSoD: (Шоковая апатия) It’s revealed in the novels that Bill was emotionally hollowed out by the death of his son and disappearance of his wife. He barely ever spoke and never showed any emotions. However, his abilities were seemingly heightened during this period of despondency.
• Heroic Sacrifice: (Героическое самопожертвование) Their mother Teodora killed their father Saturnus before he could kill them for forsaking the Heterodyne way, and was herself killed by the Castle for it. This allowed her sons to grow up to redeem the family name, and she is later made a saint — patron saint of those who run afoul of Sparks, according to the novels.
• History Repeats: (История повторяется) Much like Andronicus Valois, Bill fell in love a Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter and believed he could sway her to the side of good, only for her to betray him (or at least somehow become The Other) and destroy the peace he had worked to build. The irony being that this time it was a Heterodyne being betrayed by someone allied with the Knights of Jove.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) When two copies of Lucrezia talk, they both display terror at the idea of Barry turning up alive.
• Ideal Hero: (Идеальный герой) They were such a complete 180 from their ancestors that it’s almost suspicious. They were friendly, egalitarian, always saw the best in people, and always won. There’s a reason they became folk heroes overnight.
• I Did What I Had to Do: (Для твоего же блага) Uncle Barry created the locket that he mandated that Agatha needed to wear for much of her life, because her Spark was breaking through at a young age and he knew that preventing that was necessary for the sake of keeping her safe. The flashback where he gives it to her makes it clear that he certainly wasn’t happy with what he was doing, and knew that she’d suffer as a result, but he had to do it for her sake. Agatha herself, in the present, would probably reluctantly agree with his reasoning despite what she went through, and the locket did end up (mostly) shutting down The Other when she was downloaded into Agatha’s brain, with the additional side effect of helping Agatha be able to think better and eventually overcome her mother’s mental strength, so it can be argued that Barry made the right call.
  • The novels also note that one of the main reasons Agatha is so relatively well-adjusted and sane by Spark standards is because the locket helped her ease through her awakening rather than breaking through, which prevented a lot of trauma associated with breaking through. It’s also implied that Barry intended for Agatha to only wear it for a relatively short time (only months or even a couple of years at most) for precisely this reason, but then he disappeared and never gave Punch and Judy orders to tell Agatha to remove the locket after a specific amount of time. The fact that this kept Agatha under the radar until she was an adult was probably just a fortunate accident.
• Kill It with Fire: (Сжечь к чёртовой матери) Mechanicsburg used to have a large section known as The Flesh Yards. Day One of Bill and Barry’s exploits was them getting rid of it this way, then building the Great Hospital where it had been.
• King Incognito: (Король инкогнито) After returning from places unknown with young Agatha, Barry did everything in his power to remain hidden. Likely so that the Other’s forces wouldn’t come after Agatha; also, he evidently felt he had reason to be deeply suspicious of Klaus.
• Living Legends: They were famous thanks to their adventures and all good things they did for Europa.
• Love Makes You Dumb: (Любовь делает тупицей) Implied to be the case with Bill, who married Lucrezia and gave her the run of his castle in spite of her clearly cruel and selfish nature.
• Magnetic Hero: (Обаяшка) They apparently had a reputation for gathering followers and hangers-on during their adventures.
• Meet the In-Laws: Bill’s marriage to Lucrezia Mongfish made things… well, «awkward» for all parties involved, what with the Mongfishes being long-time rivals to the Heterodyne family. It got especially bad at holiday season. Apparently gatherings changed venue each year, to minimise the inevitable loss of life.
• Not So Above It All: Barry held that the ways birds flew was «silly», and designed a flying bicycle contraption for Franz to use.
• One-Man Army: (Армия из одного человека) Possibly, with Barry, who apparently went and recovered an infant Agatha from The Other’s Geisterdamen forces, who were expecting someone to try and rescue her.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: (OOC — это серьёзно) Barry, seemingly the «lesser» famous of the duo, gets deadly serious after the Castle Heterodyne incident. His Offscreen Moment of Awesome is assaulting the Geisterdamen’s citadel by himself to liberate his infant niece from their clutches. It’s chilling insinuation of just how (more) terrifingly dangerous Heterodynes are when they dispense with the usual Scourges of Europa/Heroes of Europa silliness.
• Precursor Heroes: Bill and Barry were the two heroes who traveled the world before Agatha’s day, and made their name as the most famous heroes in Europa by the time the comic starts.
• Really Gets Around: Barry has this reputation in the stories; «The High Priestess» is an in-universe trope that means «Barry’s Girl Of The Story.» Although, see above under Celibate Hero. However, when talking about them (in the midst of arguing over joining Master Payne’s Circus), Maxim does note both brothers kissed plenty of girls in their days.
• Sanity Slippage: Bill, after the attack on Castle Heterodyne that took his wife and child. Mention is made of him being so out of his mind with grief even the Jäger Generals had difficulty restraining him. After that, he spent the next three years suffering a major Heroic BSoD.
• Tranquil Fury: (Холодная ярость)
  • When the Boys came back in the aftermath of the Castle attack. Bill was an emotional wreck, while Barry was «deadly calm.» Seeing that the mere mention of Barry freaks out The Other…
  • According to the novelization, the «tranquil» part stopped a few hours after they returned, and the brothers spent hours screaming at one another.
• Upbringing Makes the Hero: Despite Heterodynes' bloody legacy, they turned out good thanks to efforts of their mother.
• Uncertain Doom: Barry was last seen eleven years ago, and had promised to be back in a few months. He’s almost certainly dead, but the Other is still worried. Bill is an even bigger question mark.
• Unwanted Assistance: Bill and Barry, eager to not elicit memories of the Old Heterodynes, were not eager to have the Jägers helping them even on the sly.
• White Sheep: (Белая овца) After centuries of bloodthirsty Heterodynes dedicated to nothing but chaos, destruction, and mad science, Bill and Barry dedicated themselves to heroics, goodwill-building, and mad science. This had a slightly darker side; because they were the opposite of their family in every way, they hated everything to do with the Old Heterodynes—especially the Castle and the Jägers. The Castle couldn’t understand why they hated it so much, while the Jägers did understand, but tried to protect them anyway.
  • This is also Agatha’s advantage over the Boys; she’s a good person, but she’s very fond of the Jägers and even the Castle and is willing to use them to help people.
  • Bill and Barry did have a pretty good personal reason for not wanting to do much with the Castle: It killed their mother, the one who kept them safe from their father and raised them to be good-hearted men. The fact it never occurred to the Castle that killing the parent who saved them could be why Bill and Barry hated it says a lot about the castle.
  • As for the Jägers, while they did not hate the Jägers, they were still symbols of the old ways of fear. As such, Bill and Barry ordered them to no longer follow when the two eventually found out. Even Dimo, one of Da Boyz, admits that on several levels, this was a good move, as the base reaction to seeing Jägers in the «modern» day is lynching. Of course, the first mission they went without them following was the one where they went to stop the Other. The Jägers are painfully aware of this.

Punch and Judy

A pair of constructs — the Heterodyne Boys' earliest creations — Punch and Judy are common characters in Heterodyne stories. As student work, they are both somewhat flawed; Punch lacks a voice and Judy has mis-matched eyes, although most people don’t know that. Punch is often portrayed as a foolish klutz, but Da Boyz report that he is a very intelligent and cunning planner as well as a funny and kind-hearted individual who spent his spare time making toys for children. They were loyal and were given the job of looking after Agatha under the pseudonyms of Adam and Lilith Clay.

• Artificial Human: (Искусственный человек) They’re both «Type 3/Frankenstein» Constructs according to the fandom classification system for Constructs.
• Action Girl: (Бой-баба) Judy has been seen taking on all comers as effectively as Punch. When Agatha learns Lilith is hiding somewhere safe (to protect others) her reaction is «Did you have to lock her up?»
• Art Shift: One of the most prominent examples of the evolution of the Foglios' style change over time, as they were Put on a Bus for a really long time and never seen back on their feet in the few glimpses we saw of them during that period. Compare their appearance during the Castle Wulfenbach Escape and their reunion with Agatha in the Mechanicsburg Refugee Camps.
• Babies Ever After: (Дети в финале) When Agatha reunites with them, they have a baby, Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay, despite being previously sterile before Gil’s repairs.

«	Adam: Apparently, when young Wulfenbach sets out to repair something, he doesn’t do it halfway.	»

• The Big Guy: (Силач) The duo acted as this to the Heterodyne Boys back in their heyday. Due to Punch’s muteness, he (and by extension Judy) were portrated as dumb comic relief in Heterodyne plays, despite the fact that Punch was anything but Dumb Muscle. Naturally, the duo aren’t real fond of Heterodyne plays.
• Came Back Strong: (Вернулся не таким) When Gil reconstructs them, he fixes the flaws the Heterodyne boys inadvertantly left in due to their inexperience.
• Covered with Scars: Naturally, since they’re Frankenstein-type Constructs. Even moreso after Gil put the meat puzzles that were their remains back together after Von Pinn had her way with the duo.
• Flawed Prototype: They’re amazing work for kids' creations, but they’re still kids' work; Punch couldn’t talk, Judy had mismatched eyes, and they weren’t sexually functional. When Gil reconstructed them, he fixed these flaws. To be fair, according to Puch/Adam, the Heterodyne Boys DID offer them to try and correct their flaws, but since Bill and Barry couldn’t guarantee that their memories would survive the reconstruction, they declined.
• Genius Bruiser: (Гениальный силач) They have Super-Strength, and were able to evade the Baron for quite some time. Once Punch gets a voice and is well again, he is quite verbose.
• Gentle Giant: (Добродушный гигант) Superstrong constructs would have to be this in order to raise a little normal girl to adulthood while in hiding and not result in disaster. Adam more than Lilith, the Jägers describing him as being kind and gentlemanly to everyone, the notoriously unpopular Jägers themselves included, and his fondness for making toys for children.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Judy has special glasses to make her eyes look the same size, to hide the fact that she’s a not-quite-perfect construct.
• Improbable Weapon User: (Мастер невероятного оружия) Punch throws rivets at bullet-like velocities and with the accuracy of a pistol marksman…. except against Von Pinn.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя)
  • Punch is very capable of his namesake.
  • According to medieval apocrypha the first man and woman — Adam and Lilith — were made from clay (later Lilith left Adam and became a demon, and Eve was created as her replacement).
• Parental Substitutes: To Agatha, when Barry disappeared. She knows full well they’re not her biological parents, but she doesn’t care.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Last seen in recovery after Gil pieced them back together after Von Pinn shredded them. Mentioned by Gil to soothe Agatha’s anger over Von Pinn shredding them and once by the Baron about Gil not knowing that he knows about them, but otherwise bussed away.
  • The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок) Agatha finally reunited with Punch (now with a voice!) in the Jägers' forward cave after the Time Skip, some seven or so years later in real-time. Judy is tending a refugee nursery elsewhere as well, and has finally reunited with Agatha as well.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Their names allude to the Punch and Judy puppet show.
• The Speechless: (Немота) Punch until Gil’s repair, as it’s Punch who gives him a strained «Thank you.» for his actions to save Agatha. Gil apparently did some upgrading while he was in there.
• Suddenly Voiced: after the time skip. Now that his speech is unrestrained, Punch’s prose is, well, quite wordy. And unceasing according to General Dimo.
• Super-Strength: (Физическая сверхсила) Punch can hoist up a steam tractor single-handed (though not for long) and flick rivets at bullet velocities. Judy can rip bulkhead doors right off their frames and toss people quite high up into the air. Attributed to the fact that they’re both Constructs. And apparently it’s hereditary, because their baby Maxinia (see below in Surprise Pregnancy) clobbered Agatha good when expressing her dislike for baby talk.
• Surprise Pregnancy: (Незапланированная беременность) Apparently when Gil sets out to repair something, he doesn’t just half-ass it. In addition to correcting Punch’s mute-ness and Judy’s mis-sized eyes (on top of solving their meat puzzles), he apparently made them… ahem… «fully functional». Witness Maxinia Agatha Gilliana Heterodyne Clay.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) Like almost every other Heterodyne creation capable of sentience, they’re loyal to the family. Uncle Barry was confident enough in their loyalty and capability to entrust the care of the latest scion of the family to them.

The Old Heterodyne Family

An ancient lineage of mad scientists that even other mad scientists thought were mad. And science-y.

• Actually Pretty Funny: (На самом деле это довольно смешно) When Ognian talks about the minstrel who became his wife, he mentions that the Heterodyne at the time loved her jokes, including the ones about him.
• Admiring the Abomination: A footnote in Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle mentions that the Black Heterodyne brought a species of blood-drinking bat he discovered to the Mechanicsburg ecosystem because he was «so enchanted by the thought of nature having produced something so dreadful, all by itself, that he wanted to share it with the world.»
• Aerith and Bob: (Разностилица имён) A bit of Freeze-Frame Bonus in the Heterodyne family crypts shows that amidst the typically unusual and / or malevolent names the Heterodynes had, one of them was simply called… «Bob».
  • For that matter, Bill and Barry, just one more way that they contrast with their ancestors.
  • For even greater contrast, Agatha herself. Her name has greek etymological origins, and has connotations of inherent goodness and nobility of character; a stark contrast to the Heterodynes of old. She probably wasn’t named by her mother, since she was meant to be just a backup vessel for Lucrezia, so Barry probably named her, with the intent of raising her as a good person (he, Punch and Judy fortunately succeeded, even if she does have a bit of a mischevious streak).
• At Least I Admit It: The fourth novel put forth the theory that part of the reason why the Heterodynes is the oldest surviving Spark House, despite being universally hated since their founding, is because they made no excuses for their actions. Unlike the rest of Europa’s Spark nobility, they did not act like they were inherently better or claim to be favored by the heavens. They didn’t hold themselves to any moral or elitist standards that restrained them or had consequences if they failed to uphold them. They proudly made it clear that they were just of a bunch of maniacs indulging in their sick curiosities, and are, at their core, scientists, who adhere to the scientific method without reservation, and are more than willing to be flexible and recognize if something isn’t working and change it, or consider new methods of getting things done.
• Axe-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) «Two minutes and she hasn’t killed anyone! A new record!»
• Badass Family: (Семья крутых) They tamed the river Dyne (capable of turning anything into a rampaging monster) by first drinking it then using it to power their castle. And that’s where they started.
• Bad Boss: (Злой начальник) While the Old Heterodynes had their share of Evil Virtues and tended to respect their minions, they still could be rather callous when it comes to workplace safety. Older Mechanicsburgers rejoiced when Agatha merely cared about protecting the town.

«	Vanamonde: You have fifty generations of lowered expectations working for you.	»

• Benevolent Boss: (Добрый начальник) In a very specific sense, mind. Moloch feels the convenient array of labs shows a decent amount of consideration for their minions. After all, they’re the ones who have to carry everything. This is actually why they lasted so long. They treated their minions and monsters with respect and garnered Undying Loyalty from pretty much all of them. Whenever their own people did go against them, it was usually for something more petty like «Valentine Day Riots» where one of the romantically minded Heterodynes got many of the local women in a frenzy. It was their enemies that they took much of their sadistic streak out on.
  • In the fourth book, it’s stated that «family tradition» frowns on wholesale slaughter of Mechanicsburg citizens, even when the entire town (very briefly) rebelled. That’s extremely benevolent by the standards of both Spark and non-Spark nobility in Europa.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство) When you have Mad Scientists raising bad villains, things are bound to get a little… screwed up.
• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing: Giles Heterodyne joined the church, and while there was some suspicion, after 42 years of work, he ultimately did well enough to be ordained Pope. He then grafted wings onto the the entire college of cardinals and looted the papal library, much to the family’s pride.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: (Натворил и забыл) When Robur Heterodyne thought he had brought angels looking to punish his sins, he wasn’t entirely sure which specific sin it was they were after.
• Cain and Abel: (Каин и Авель) The Red Heterodyne and the Black Heterodyne, according to the novels. Their aptitudes lay in different areas, and the two frequently disagreed. Although the novels also specify that their agreements were philosophical, they were spark-style philosophical arguments. This generally meant misery for everyone else.
• Complexity Addiction:
  • Par for the course with sparks, but because they were successful sparks, they spent centuries working on one location… Castle Heterodyne is kind of ridiculous.
  • The books elaborate that this was part of the Heterodyne’s Sparky nature. Every one of their devices had multiple functions. Invariably, one of these functions was to «surprise».
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: A law in Mechanicsburg requiring everyone to learn how to play musical instruments was passed after the Incredibly Brief Rebellion (so called because it lasted less than four minutes). The reigning Heterodyne of the time, Queeg Heterodyne, didn’t want to kill anyone from his town, but was required to do something. So he hit upon the idea of forcing all children in Mechanicsburg learn how to play an instrument, a decree which causes suffering to this day.
• Cutting the Knot: (Разрубить Гордиев узел) Faced with imminent Dreen coming through a vortex he’d made, Robur Heterodyne freaked out, smashed the machine, and then had pie. Crisis (mostly) over.

«	Castle Heterodyne: In many ways, he was a refreshingly simple man.	»

• Dancin' in the Ruins: Apparently they have a distinctive reputation for it, if Vole’s idle comment can be believed. He figures nothing the early reports on Zola have said corroborate she’s a Heterodyne or not. However, if she were to burn the town to the ground and dance naked in the ruins (among other things), that’d cinch things.

«	Gil: (beat) Well that goes without saying.	»

• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) They were monsters who made monsters and adored monsters. They rampaged across Europa for centuries and no one could stop them. (Though the Storm King managed a pretty good defense..)
• Dysfunction Junction: (Они все больны) Their idea of a toy for the nursery is a giant, maniacal kill-bot.
• Enfant Terrible: (Маленькие гадёныши) There’s probably a reason the Castle’s nurseries include metal cages.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодеев есть любимые)
  • They appeared to genuinely care about their family members and their minions. This has fostered a level of Undying Loyalty highly atypical in Sparks' minions among the local populace («Sure, they were monsters, but they were our monsters.») and especially among the Jägers.
  • By all accounts Bill and Barry’s father, Saturnus, was genuinely in love with their mother Teodora Vodenicharova.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Heterodynes aren’t particularly picky about who they have working for them, regardless of how they came into their employ (kicking and screaming, usually), but this does mean Mechanicsburg is surprisingly cosmopolitan.
• False Reassurance: The «Good» Heterodyne’s name was not because he was a good person, just that he was a good Heterodyne.
• Fantastic Honorifics: ZigZagged as the Heterodynes do use real-world honorifics like «Lord/Lady» or "Master/Mistress, " both of which are standard terms for all members of the family. The only title specific to the head of the family is «the Heterodyne.» Nobody says "the Heterodyne Agatha, " but it appears «Lady Heterodyne» could be read as meaning «Mistress of [THING]» just as much as it could «Miss [SURNAME]»; the only thing stopping it from being Just the First Citizen is how much of a name the Heterodynes made for themselves over eight-hundred years.
• For Science!: (Ради науки!) One of the family’s primary motivations.
• For the Evulz: (Зло ради самого зла) One of the family’s other primary motivations.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Again, common to sparks, but thanks to their ability to Heterodyne, the Heterodynes take it up a notch.
• Generation Xerox: (Ксерокопированное поколение) Temporal shenanigans seen as an interesting day out. Appreciating and collecting the weird and dangerous tech around them. Circumventing other people’s schemes by cutting to the chase. Doing his/her own thing, regardless of expectation. Adapting with Sparky charisma. Heterodynes.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) There is one thing that the Heterodynes decided they really didn’t want to mess with — time manipulation. Especially the stopping of time. Why? Clock Roaches. When Robur Heterodyne tried to mess with time, they spooked him so badly that he had a genuine crisis of faith (for all of five minutes, before he had some pie), but the experience spooked him so badly that he established a binding agreement with the Corbettites to keep a bunch of artifacts that are far too dangerous to use locked away in exchange for the Heterodynes never attacking the Corbettites or any of their railway infrastructure, one that the family has never broken.
• I Gave My Word: (Человек слова) Robur Heterodyne rarely kept his word. That he did keep his agreement with the Corbettites speaks volumes of just how badly the Dreen spooked him.
• Ignored Epiphany: When Robur Heterodyne thought angels were coming to punish him, he experienced a genuine crisis of faith. So he smashed the machine from which said «angels» came, ate some pie, and moved on with his life.
• Inconsistent Spelling: In the comics the name of Agatha’s grandfather is Saturnus, in the third novel Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle it’s just Saturn.
• It Runs in the Family: The Heterodyne Spark is apparently, if not unique, then at least distinctive among the sparky traits of Europa, and definitely one of the most powerful.

«	Van: You didn’t tell us she was a spark! Wooster: She told you she’s Agatha Heterodyne. Zeetha: It should be no surprise that she’s a spark, too.	»

• Kill It with Fire: (Сжечь к чёртовой матери)
  • The Black Heterodyne’s favourite flavour was «charred».
  • Saturnus Heterodyne, Bill and Barry’s father, once set Mechanicsburg town hall alight during the Year of Three Winters, and managed to keep it aflame for five whole months.
• Living Legend: The Heterodynes who survived childhood tended to terrorize Europa. The Heterodyne Boys (Agatha’s father and paternal uncle) put an extra gloss on their own legend by being the only Heterodynes in history to be heroes.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Iago Heterodyne certainly did, so he built a scream generator to use whenever he didn’t have a victim to provide said screams.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: One of the reasons the Heterodynes were such a long lasting evil dynasty; their creations were/are all fanatically loyal. Most sparks are killed by their creations.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) A whole lineage of them. Mad, science-y, and generally evil.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя)
  • Iscarriot Heterodyne, Everyman’s «Friend», obviously had a history of betraying people. Remind you of Judas Iscariot?
  • The father of Bill and Barry was named Saturnus. Saturnus tried to kill his sons, but his wife Teodora turned against him to protect the kids, who would sit in his throne after he died. Pretty obvious analogue to the Roman Titan Saturn (Kronos/Cronus in Greek) from Classical Mythology.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) Almost all of the Heterodynes had given names or nicknames to inspire terror. Given their history, just the name Heterodyne was enough. And then come Bill, Barry, and Agatha.
• Nightmare Fetishist: (Любитель всякой жути) All the Heterodynes, being ridiculously sparky sparks, have a thing for the creations of other mad scientists. Saturnus even let the war machines of other sparks into the city (to make war) because he wanted to get a better look. The Black Heterodyne brought the Bloodbats to Mechanicsburg because he thought they were positively wonderful.
• Our Vampires Are Different: (Вампир) At least one of the Heterodynes was a vampire-style being. And they’re evidently still alive(-ish) beneath Mechanicsburg. A possibility is the Red or Black Heterodyne. The Black Heterodyne lived an average human life time, but his crypt is marked «do not open». The Red Heterodyne was supposedly his brother, but was still kicking in the early 18th century, three hundred years after his birth.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) A 2021 short story explains that the Old Heterodynes welcomed persecuted monsters to have sanctuary in Mechanicsburg. Whether or not every (or any) monster refugee did something that warranted persecution isn’t stated, but the ones we see in the story seem to be genuinely alright guys who just wanted a home.
  • One of the books states that, for a while, nearby populations used to force monsters, criminals, and suspected witches into Heterodyne Valley, intending it to be a Fate Worse than Death. Eventually, everyone realized this was not the case, and that they were pretty much just gifting incredibly dangerous individuals to the Heterodynes.
• Plague Master: Given that Vipsania Heterodyne had a «Cabinet of Contagion», there’s a good chance she was one.
• Please Spare Him, My Liege!: The means by which some Heterodynes acquired romantic partners, such as Saturnus and Teodora.
• Power Floats: (Левитация могущества) Igneous Heterodyne briefly managed to float after drinking unfiltered Dyne water. Then he exploded.
• Pragmatic Villainy: (Злодей-прагматик) The Heterodynes are for the most part quite evil, but they’re not stupid, they’re just generally untethered to any sort of true moral code, but they understand when to be practical, hence why they’re one of the oldest surviving noble houses in Europe and why nobody has successfully wiped them off the face of the planet. They are, at their core, scientists — amoral scientists, but scientists all the time, and they are perfectly willing to identify faults and change something if it isn’t working.
• Psycho Serum: They invented the jäger-draught, which they use to create jägers. They also drink the water of the river Dyne, and sometimes even survive doing so.
• Really Gets Around:
  • The Heterodynes sometimes built «small» things: the Master’s bedroom «only» sleeps SIX.
  • The Castle has a seraglionote .
• Red Baron: (Красный Барон) Vlad The Blasphemous. Given the average Spark, and the average Heterodyne, he likely got the name for ramping those traits up (he is the one that made the Jägerdraught, after all).
• Shared Family Quirks: Seriously, most of these tropes even apply to Agatha, her father, and her uncle, and they’re the good ones.
• Sigil Spam: The Heterodyne trilobyte is everywhere in Mechanicsburg.
• Single Sex Offspring: The family is known for almost exclusively producing male children. The four exceptions we know of are Vipsania, Roxalana, Euphrosynia and Agatha.
• Something Only They Would Say: Basically, the more mad a response is, the more Heterodyne it is. The more time someone spends Admiring the Abomination, the more Heterodyne they are. The more they want to do something absurd and dangerous… you get the point. When Agatha is excited to see giant spider clanks advancing on the town, it strengthens her claim, as her grandfather felt the same way—except he used to get a better look by letting them in.
• Split Personality: (Раздвоение личности) Apparently, according to the novels, several Heterodynes have had a severe case of this, which made for an interesting variation of «good cop / bad cop»: «bad cop / utterly evil and insane cop», and they’re the same person.
• Strong Family Resemblance: (Такие похожие родственники) According to Dimo, who would know, the typical Heterodyne is generously endowed in the buttock area. Makes mid-battle trouser shopping difficult.
• Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom: The Heterodynes have an interesting take on that sort of thing: they actually mean it. Each and every construct has various bags of a suspiciously similar Big Fun personality to go with the danger.
• Supervillain Lair: (Твердыня тьмы) Although Castle Heterodyne is the centerpiece of their power and the focus of much of their mad science, Mechanicsburg and the surrounding countryside both benefited (sort of) from their overlordship.
• Thicker Than Water: If there are any Evil Virtues the Heterodynes had, it was family loyalty. With the one exception of Saturn tying to kill Bill & Barry, the Old Heterodynes aren’t shown to be prone to kinslaying. Meanwhile it’s exactly their loyalty to their own that makes it hard to trust them as an outsider; Rerich explained that the reason Euphrosynia betrayed the Storm King is because she feared any attempt to tame the family would destroy it.
• Unholy Matrimony: (Одна сатана) The Castle fondly recounts how the Skull-Queen of Skral sent a legion of homunculi to get Dagon Heterodyne’s «attention». It then notes that she’s Agatha’s ancestor, so that apparently worked out pretty well for the two of them.

«	The Castle: Lovely woman.	»

• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) An underlying theme among all the followers of House Heterodyne is this. It may very well be the true power of House Heterodyne. And it’s not «installed» (as opposed to instilled) like some other sparks do their creations and minions, it seems to be truly earned through reciprocity.
• Unperson: (Нелицо) The novels tells us that there are no known records of Roxalana anywhere. All we know is that even the Jaeger generals considered her a cautionary example and there are multiple areas of devastation near Mechanicsburg known as "Roxalana’s Chasm, " "Roxalana’s Blight, " "The Melted Mountain of Roxalana, " and «Roxalana’s Comeuppance».
• White Sheep: (Белая овца) The latest two generations of Heterodynes have turned/are turning out to be this. Bill, Barry, and Agatha are downright sterling in moral caliber and heroic reputation compared to their predecessors. It was due to the actions of Bill’s and Barry’s mother, who nurtured the two into better people than their ancestors.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: (Могущество сводит с ума) Again, another spark trope taken to eleven. Bathing in the Dyne kills people and drives them mad, and the first Heterodyne to settle in Mechanicsburg drank it. (And survived; as noted above, Igneous Heterodyne evidently ran into problems..)

Ht’rok-din

Ghengis Ht’rok-din is a historical figure known for engaging in campaigns of conquest and woe in the medieval era of Europa, and for founding the equally conquest-and-woe-inducing Heterodyne family. A guest strip omake series titled «Homecoming King» involves a not-too-distant future where a reckless sparky university student brings Him into the modern time using forbidden time travel science.

• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) Par for the course for the founder of the Heterodyne family.
• Clarke’s Third Law: (Закон Кларка) Recognizes and name-drops the trope when faced with a stun-gun:

«	VAT KIND UF SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IZ DIS?	»

• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) The Heterodyne family’s legacy of conquest and woe? He started it.
• Eternal English: Or German or Romanian or whatever they speak at Transylvania Polygnostic in this timeline. He refers to it as «de Nordd’man tongue» and while his accent is thicker than the Jägers' he can understand students living a thousand years after his time.
• Expy: (Копиркин) Visually, he is clearly one for Conan the Barbarian. The fact that he is also a warrior and conqueror from 'the North' who uses a sword takes the resemblance even closer.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Of Mechanicsburg at least. And of the Heterodyne family and their legacy of Conquest and Woe.
• Funetik Aksent: (Смищной аксэнт) He appears to have a very Jäger-like accent when talking in English (or whatever «modern language» is being spoken via Translation Convention).
• Genius Bruiser: (Гениальный силач) He’s a muscular, brutal Expy of Conan — already a Genius Bruiser — but unlike the original model he’s a Spark, and a powerful one at that. He immediately understands the causality problem his presence in that time poses: He’s told he has descendants… but does not recall having any (legitimate) descendants (yet). He also seems to know quite a few languages.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) He’s not entirely ungentle with the students, at least by his usual casually murderous standards. He was more violent before he learned that they were subjects of a sort to his descendant, so perhaps he considered them his own subjects by proxy, invoking the Heterodyne family’s Benevolent Boss tendencies discussed above. Or maybe he just thought it would be rude to break something that belonged to her.
• Smarter Than You Look: Only looks like the kind of character who thinks with his muscles. He’s a Spark, and spends the whole comic building a device to take him back to his own time, fully aware of the damage it would do if he stayed in the future.
• The Spark of Genius: He has the Spark, natch.
• Stable Time Loop: According to Homecoming King, he concentrated on building his legacy and siring a family after being pulled into the future and seeing the extent of his descendants' domain:

«	Ht’rok-din: Hy tought hy hed run out uf places to make mine. But now hy see hy overlooked time itself.	»

• Violation of Common Sense: The locals around the spring that eventually became the source of the River Dyne were superstitious about it: those who bathed in it often went mad. What did Ht’rok-din do? He drank the water.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: (Рубашка не нужна) Par for the course for his barbarian motif.

Euphrosynia Heterodyne

Daughter of Clemethious Heterodyne, sister of Bludtharst and object of romantic interest of Andronicus Valois, the original Storm King. Very little is known about her for sure, besides the fact that she probably played a significant role in destroying the Storm King’s regime.

• Arranged Marriage: (Брак по договорённости) Her marriage with Andronicus was arranged as a part of peace treaty with the Heterodynes.
• Damsel in Distress: (Дева в беде) In The Storm King opera, Andronicus first meets her when she is menaced by Ogglespoon. She also ends up kidnapped at the end of the second act. According to Voltaire, what apparently actually happened was that she tried to search Van Rijn’s workshop for secrets to steal, ran afoul of «something none of us understood», and disappeared as a result; there’s been no mention of Ogglespoon outside of the opera.
• Foil: (Оттеняющий характер) Much like Lucrezia, there is the driving question as to whether or not she planned the hero’s downfall all along or something else was afoot. She is also often paralleled to Agatha as a Heterodyne loved by the Storm King whose presence endangers Europe and shatters a great peace (Euphrosynia with the Storm King’s coalition and Agatha with the Empire).
  • There is a bit of irony in comparing her to Lucrezia. Both Euphrosynia and Lucrezia married a hero and led to their downfall. However, the hero Euphrosynia married was the Storm King, while she was of the House of Heterodyne; meanwhile the hero Lucrezia married was the Heterodyne himself, and her family (the Mongfishes) were of the Knights of Jove, which was the Storm King’s old honour guard.
• The Ghost: (Закадровый персонаж) She is yet to appear in person, either in the comics or in the novels, unless you count a rather fanciful tale told by Klaus. We’ve heard a few tantalizing eyewitness comments from a Jäger and the Master of Paris, and Martellus mentions some correspondence of hers is still around.
• Historical Hero Upgrade / Historical Villain Upgrade: (Облагородить в адаптации/Злодейство в адаптации) Quite possibly both in-universe given the wildly-disparate versions of her as either a straight up damsel in distress or a villainess plotting the Storm King’s downfall all along.
• Honey Trap: (Далила) She is believed to have manipulated the Storm King and used his love for her to enact his downfall.
• In the Blood: Rerich the Jäger pointed out that even if she did love the Storm King she was still a Heterodyne, making her just as much of a chaos-loving monster as the rest of her family, meaning that she would never have submitted to his wishes for peace and submission.
• Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter: The opera presents her as a classic example of this trope: beautiful, innocent and a love interest for the hero to rescue from her evil, crazy family. Other sources, however, suggest she was either a type that agreed with daddy’s evil plan and faked being in love with the hero to distract him or loved him truly but betrayed him anyway since his success would mean destruction of her town and her people.
• Never Found the Body: (Тело так и не нашли) Andronicus claims he saw her disappear before his eyes in Van Rijn’s workshop, and assumes it was Rijn’s fault. Voltaire counter-claims that she was only there in the first place because she was trying to steal his secrets, only to run afoul of something horrible.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: (Принцесса в розовом) The actress presenting her in the opera wears a pink dress.
• Really Gets Around: (Потаскушка) When Martellus asks Rerich if she loved Andronicus, the Jäger mockingly replies that she «luffed lots ov pipple!»
• Star-Crossed Lovers: (Обречённая любовь) In the opera she and Andronicus are tragically separated when Euphrosynia is kidnapped by Ogglespoon. How things really looked is uncertain. Especially since more reliable sources suggest that she may have not been in love with Andronicus at all and only played along to fulfill some plan of the Heterodynes, or loved him but betrayed him anyway. The latter comes from a Jäger who had some limited contact with her, and invokes the trope by noting how her marriage to the Storm King would have meant putting Mechanicsburg under his power, which Euphrosynia could never allow even if she did love him.
• Strong Family Resemblance: (Такие похожие родственники) As noted above, we still have no idea what she looked like, apart from the «Evil Witch» from Klaus’s story. For whatever it’s worth, the actress who plays Euphrosynia in the latest staging of the Storm King opera looks a great deal like Agatha, and in his last moments, Andronicus Valois mistakes Agatha for her, at least in regards to her voice. That said, no one else has yet mentioned any undue similarities, even among people who knew Euphrosynia, such as the Master of Paris and her personal guard Jenka. Even Valois doesn’t show any recognition, when meeting Agatha earlier in a somewhat more rational state of mind.
• Thicker Than Water: According to Rerich at least, the reason Euphrosynia betrayed the Storm King is because she feared any attempt to tame the family would actually just destroy it.

Teodora Vodenicharova

Mother of Bill and Barry Heterodyne, she was forced to marry their father Saturnus Heterodyne to protect her kingdom. Despite this, she managed to keep her sons free of their father’s influence and protected them from his eventual decision to murder them.

• And Now You Must Marry Me: It’s never mentioned what she thought of him, but the marriage was less than consensual, as it was done to stop Saturnus from destroying her homeland.
• Doomed Moral Victor: (Обречённая моральная победа (в планах)) The Castle killed her, but she died knowing her children were safe and just over ten years later she’d been canonized as a saint.
• Good Is Not Soft: (Добро с кулаками) She was fully willing to kill to protect her children.
• Heroic Sacrifice: (Героическое самопожертвование) Twice. The first time was non-fatal, she was forced to marry Saturnus to protect her kingdom. The second time she murdered Saturnus to stop from murdering their sons, which resulted in the Castle killing her. Less than twelve years later five of the seven popes declared her a martyr and the Patron Saint of Those Who Fall Afoul of Sparksnote .
• Heroic Willpower: (Превозмогатель) She married a Heterodyne and lived the rest of her life in Mechanicsburg back in the days when that meant being surrounded by villains, but is noted to have been extremely strong-willed and defied Saturnus on a regular basis, especially when it came to keeping Bill and Barry free of their father’s influence.
• Mama Bear: (Родительский инстинкт) She was willing to spend at least years married to a Heterodyne, but do not make the mistake of threatening her children. Her husband found this out the hard way.
• Present Absence: Died decades before the story began, but if not for her choices either her sons would have been raised as traditionally villainous Heterodynes, or Saturnus would have killed them. Either way the story would have been very different without her.
• Small Role, Big Impact: (Небольшая роль с большим влиянием (в разработке)) She never makes an appearance or even appears in a flashback, is only briefly mentioned twice in the comics, and virtually all information on her comes from a footnote in Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle. Her efforts to raise her sons to be heroes and protect them from their father made everything that happened afterwards possible.

Klaus Barry Heterodyne

The first child of Bill and Lucrezia, killed during the attack on Castle Heterodyne that began the Other’s war on Europa.

• Death of a Child: (Смерть ребёнка) He was crushed by falling debris in the attack on the Castle.
• Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: He was conceived a whole two years after Lucrezia removed Klaus from the picture… and yet somehow this didn’t stop people from ignoring that fact and speculating anyhow.
• «Near and Dear» Baby Naming: Bill named his first kid after his brother and their mysteriously missing best friend.
• Offing the Offspring: (Я тебя породил, я тебя и убью) While it doesn’t look like the Other deliberately killed him in the attack, and Agatha momentarily pauses because she doesn’t think even Lucrezia might’ve been capable of that, no version of her at any point has ever mentioned her son in any capacity.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: (Жертвенный мышонок) He died at a little over a year and a bit old.

Wulfenbach Empire

Ссылка: [11]

Klaus Wulfenbach

A former friend and traveling companion to the Heterodyne Boys, Klaus disappeared shortly before Agatha’s parents married and returned several years later to find Europa in utter chaos. He restored order to the continent, not by negotiating and being nice like his vanished friends, but by imposing his Iron Will on an ever increasing area of the globe.

• Actually Pretty Funny: (На самом деле это довольно смешно) His concealed reaction to Theo’s story about The Other being a robot dragon from Mars who turned Lucrezia Mongfish into Von Pinn, as well as to his own less-than-flattering portrayal in the current round of Heterodyne stage-plays. It’s implied in the comic and stated outright in the second novel that the reason Klaus lets the latter go on is because he likes the Heterodyne stories, and finds Story!Klaus hilarious. More importantly, he knows that the stories are being spread simply because his enemies can’t do anything to challenge him save mudslinging.
  • Theo provokes another small smile upon announcing that he’s avoiding grease-trap cleaning duty to work on his automatic grease-trap cleaning device.
  • When Trelawney Thorpe responds to his talk of what Agatha could do if she snapped by using the example of exactly what he did to found the Empire, he actually chuckles and it even makes him decide that she would be the perfect consort for Gil who isn’t Agatha.
• Almighty Janitor: (Бог-уборщик/Всемогущий нищий) He could easily declare himself Emperor of Europa, but he hates games of nobility so much that he refuses to accept or acknowledge any title other than the low ranking one he inherited from his family.
• Ambiguously Evil: Tyrannical emperor-scientist? Sure. But he has many Noble Demon qualities, and takes no joy in his supremacy. He loved his adventures with the Heterodyne Boys and was appalled when he returned to find Europe in ruins. So his response was a brutal, no holds barred conquest of the continent.

«	Klaus: The Heterodyne Boys were gone, so I did it my way.	»

• Ambiguous Situation: His reasoning for brainwashing Gil is never made clear. There are a few options: 1. he did it because he truly believed Gil was wasped, 2. he did it because Lucrezia ordered him to, 3. he didn’t trust Gil to run the Empire despite not having been wasped because he was afraid of Agatha/Lucrezia influencing him, 4. he wanted Lucrezia to think Gil was under enough control that she would hold off wasping him so that he could inoculate himself against the same type of slaver wasps that got him, or 5. some other possible reason. The overlay claims that it was installed to keep Gil interacting with Agatha, whether Agatha herself or the Lucrezia in her head. However, both Tarvek and the Klaus overlay admit that the overlay isn’t a representation of the real Klaus. The overlay itself may be unaware of the true Klaus’s motivations or perhaps just incorrect about them. It’s also unclear if Klaus wanted Gil to remove the overlay eventually, he was hoping to do it himself when the time freeze was reversed, or he wanted it to be permanent. Likewise, it’s unclear if Klaus WANTS the time freeze reversed in order to cure him of his slaver infection or if he hoped to be frozen in time forever, but it’s also ALSO unclear if he knew that extra dimensional beings would be pissed about him freezing time. The only thing we can say for relative certainty is that he probably wanted Agatha/Lucrezia frozen in time. Until such time Klaus is released, his motivations will be unknown especially since the Klaus overlay has been purged from Gil before it could give any clear answers besides saying that it didn’t want Agatha and Gil to be married regardless of if the Lucrezia copy was purged from her mind.
  • At least one of those questions was answered by the novels: The overlay was Clank!Lucrezia’s idea, because she knew Klaus would hate doing it, and because while she didn’t have access to another Spark-controlling wasp, the overlay would prevent Gil from reuniting with Agatha as an ally. She also believed it would allow her to bring Gil under her permanent control later, not knowing that Bang had already fed him the innoculation draught, and that the overlay would support using the draught to start curing the Empire’s personnel of wasp infection at the first opportunity.
• Anti-Villain: (Антизлодей) He may have used military might to bring Europa under his iron-fisted rule, but when you consider the alternative…
  • It’s also «iron-fisted» only in the sense that he doesn’t let the nobility and assorted Sparks do whatever they want (and his treatment of other Sparks is pretty permissive; no re-arranging the landscape, no human experiments, no screwing with Other technology — as long as they follow those rules, he’ll keep them supplied in parts, tools, minions and cheese). Generally, he leaves people to live their lives, works to scour the worst threats in the wilderness, and permits popular entertainments to mock him as a coward, traitor and/or usurper. The general public doesn’t seem to notice not only the discrepancy, but the fact that he lets these defamations persist unedited.
  • After the time-skip, his reign is described as «[seeming] like some lost golden age»… after just two and a half years.
• Artificial Human: (Искусственный человек) The three sons of the Wulfenbach family were involved in a lab accident, so Klaus was stitched together out of them all and reanimated. It’s not clear if this is supposed to be a secret; he doesn’t seem to care. The problem arises from the fact that this is against the nobility’s rules. He shouldn’t have been allowed to inherit the title of Baron as heirs don’t like their inheritance kept from them by ambitious ancestors who refuse to die. That, along with his low rank of Baron, adds to the illegitimacy of his reign in the eyes of the noble houses.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: (Власть — это сила) Provoking him is not recommended, not least because he’s a big believer in making an example of those who violate his rules by employing overwhelming force.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: (Крутой аналитик) How his Spark manifests itself. The most obvious use is the ability to dismantle and improve the designs of other Sparks. But it also lets him «find the right monster for the right job.» He can also figure out what secretive things his vassals are doing to try and undermine him or break the rules, such as figuring out Professor Beetle was fiddling with a Hive Engine just by the logistics involved, and how he «always finds out» when a noble dabbles in resurrection in violation of the bylaws of aristocracy against it (which Klaus cares nothing about anyway).
• Bad Boss: (Злой начальник)
  • Even though we never see direct evidence for this, there is this little exchange after Gilgamesh beats the shit out of Captain Vole:

«	Gilgamesh: My father once wrote a monograph on how to communicate in the workplace. Dimo: … iz dat so? Gilgamesh: All seven popes ordered it burned.	»

• The novels reveal that the monograph was entitled «Don’t Make Me Come Over There.»

• He’s probably not a bad boss compared to the average Spark… but that’s an incredibly low threshold. He is well known for kidnapping people into his employ, and then sending them into almost certain death if they fail him. But by the same token he also works to keep his best people alive. And he’s shown that he’s very good at finding a genuinely productive use for a wide variety of horrific monsters. (See Bangladesh DuPree.)

• Badass Longcoat: (Крутой в пальто) A staple of his wardrobe.
• Battle Couple: (Боевая пара) Can be safely inferred to have formed one with Queen Zantabraxas of Skifander.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: (Бойся своих желаний) Klaus DESPISES ruling Europa, and is only doing it because all the alternative candidates are crazy and/or evil. He wistfully remembers the «good old days» when he was The Lancer of the Heterodyne Brothers as they traveled and explored — and especially the occasional fight. However, the current state of affairs — «No more negotiating. No more promises. No more second chances.» — is entirely his design.
• Benevolent Dictator: His de facto regime is built out of brute force, yes, but his rule is actually very moderate. Europa’s people enjoy a surprising amount of freedom under him, and his laws effectively amount to «don’t do anything that violates the peace». Democracy isn’t the norm in the setting and the continent before Klaus was stuck in constant brutal warfare. Two and a half years after his empire collapsed, people are begging for the stability he provided to come back. His enemies often try to make him look bad by describing him as a ruthless, brutal, iron-fisted dictator who has conquered massive stretches of Europe (as seen here) with naked force and holds his empire together through terrifying intimidation. However, he doesn’t run death camps, capture damsels, loot and/or destroy homes, control travel, tax people into poverty, or even confiscate weapons unless they’re the kind that make craters (and even that has wiggle room— if you want to test superweapons, come work for him and he’ll pay you to do it). He doesn’t even punish people for calling him a mass-murdering monster. The most reasonable dictator you’ve ever heard of. He doesn’t help his case, however, by punishing failures. Moloch, for example, was sent to Castle Heterodyne for pretending to be a spark. As soon as Moloch started working for Agatha, he turned out to be a brilliant mechanic who could’ve served Klaus very well.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) He hates politicking, so enjoys the opportunity for a good straight-forward fight.
• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья) This is his role in the popular stories about the Heterodyne Boys. He gets a fair amount of it outside of the plays as well: to date, not a single plot arc has gone by without Klaus or the copy of him in Gil suffering some kind of major injury, defeat or humiliation.
• The Casanova: (Ловелас?) Much to his son’s disbelief, he has left this reputation in the English court, rumored to have romanced Albia herself at some point before returning to the mainland.
• The Chains of Commanding: (Бремя лидера) Ruling (large portions of) the world is not as fun as it sounds.

«	Othar: What, tyrant? Does your empire give you no pleasure?! Klaus: No. It gives me no pleasure.	»

• Clothing Damage: (Урон по одежде) He has some after fighting Othar for a while.
• Cool Old Guy: (Крутые старики) When he’s not trying to put you down to preserve order.
• Covered in Scars: He is implied to be a construct made out of three Sparks. However, if the stories about the Heterodyne Boys have any truth to them, he may have acquired them simply by accompanying them on their adventures (though a mix of both is the most likely explanation). This is supported by the fact that other heroes in the webcomic, such as Othar Trygavassen and Hoffman tend to find danger and adventure wherever they go.
• Cowardly Sidekick: Klaus is depicted this way in many of the Heterodyne plays/stories; see above under Actually Pretty Funny.
• Dark Messiah: (Тёмный Мессия) He found the European continent in chaos. In order to fix it, he led a grand violent conquest and used his power to keep order in every town. Step out of the line he drew and you will face his wrath. The crazy part? It worked.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Язвительный насмешник) Not normally, but he gets some really good lines when he’s completely Surrounded by Idiots.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Gil grew up not knowing who his father really is. Klaus did this to keep his son alive.
  • Evidence suggests that he may also be this to Zeetha.
• Divine Date: In England he’s known for, among other things, a romance with Albia.
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация)
  • Even Jägers are afraid when he takes the field personally.

«	Gkika: Attack mit everything!!	»

• Upon seeing Gil cutting through an enemy army like a hot knife through butter, an onlooker had this to say:

«	Councilor: Hmph. His father would have hit the wall and started another sweep by now.	»

• Very much an Invoked Trope. Klaus is extremely formidable but plays up his reputation even more, in order to reduce the amount of actual bloodletting he has to do. He’s so formidable that even Bang will not cross him.

«	Klaus: Dupree, if you come in here, I will kill you—with the power of my mind. DuPree: I… I’m pretty sure he can’t really do that.	»

• Zog’s plan to deal with Klaus: dogpile him with the Jaegergenerals, who will rip his arms off. Agatha considers it, then decides it’s a reasonable precaution and they can apologize later.

«	Dupree: [seriously] Well… you’d better be careful. He’ll still have his feet.	»

• The novels play this up as well. There are several epigraphs at the start of chapters that show folk tales about him after he built his empire; they mostly resemble traditional fairy tales like The Farmer and the Viper that go in a different direction than the original because Klaus is too badass to be beaten IE, he’ll give anyone a single chance to go straight, but he takes precautions — and if you abuse his trust, you’re research material. He’s gotten fewer and fewer chances to do research…
• Early on in the novels, it is noted how people gave it even odds on who would win if his empire and Albia’s went to war. Once we reach England, we learn just how terrifying she is, having had thousands of years to establish a reputation for invincibility. It only took him a few years in comparison to do the same.

• Emperor Scientist: (Государь и учёный) Klaus actually laments having to become a dictator, since it leaves him with so little time for his research.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: (Злу не постичь Добра) More like "cynicism cannot comprehend good, " but still. His only flaw. Given the world he lives in, «good» and «evil» are relative terms, and years dealing with Realpolitik and the pit of vipers that are Europa’s noble houses he simply can’t help but search for an ulterior, if not necessarily sinister motive in everything everyone does. When his troops are allowed to withdraw from Mechanicsburg, he just assumes this is either some kind of strategic maneuver or else part of some elaborate sadistic game the Heterodyne is playing. He rejects out-of-hand the possibility that this is an actual act of mercy. The possibility that Agatha is nowhere near as evil and sadistic as her ancestors is something that doesn’t even occur to him at all. He has a point, too — Lucrezia is exerting more influence over Agatha than even she herself is comfortable with, and through her has made a damn-near successful attempt at enslaving him. It doesn’t help that the information he has at the moment does point to Agatha being evil, or that his relationship with her mother had such a bitter ending. In the end, Agatha did let them go out of mercy, but the Castle only let it happen to mess with Zeetha and Higgs. There was an ulterior motive but not by the entity he thought.
  • In all fairness, nothing the audience or the characters have seen thus far contradicts his statement that «nothing [in Mechanicsburg] is at it seems and everything is a cruel joke.»
  • However, his cynicism is truly shown when it’s revealed that even if Agatha is without Lucrezia, he would still distrust her and not have her near Gil because he believes her families' malevolence is inherited or at least does not want to take that chance. Enough to where he’s willing to further interfere in the relationship. Although that overlay is not the true Klaus, and upon actually meeting Agatha acknowledges it has assumptions built into it.
• Evil Only Has to Win Once: Klaus was able to maintain his Peace for nineteen years — but the very day word gets out that Agatha Heterodyne squished him with a chicken house, all hell broke loose — EVERYWHERE AT ONCE.
• Exact Words: (Буквально понятые слова/Не вся правда?) When Klaus decides to go into Mechanicsburg alone, one of his advisors claims that if he gets killed, the Empire will fall without his leadership. Klaus then claims that he won’t be killed but fails to mention that he’s going in there to freeze time. Indeed, once he is removed from the political scene due to the time freeze, his Empire crumbles apart. Doubles as False Reassurance.
• The Extremist Was Right: (Экстремист был прав) The former Trope Namer, back when it was called «And It Worked», because he’s just that badass. Yes, Klaus conquered his empire by naked force. On the other hand, Europa was being torn apart by constant war, and his reign is second only to that of the Heterodyne Boys for general quality of life, especially for the common man. He builds up the infrastructure of his subject regions, and about the only things he actually bans are war and messing with Other technology. After the time-skip, his reign is described as «like some lost Golden Age out of antiquity» — after only two and a half years.
• Fallen Hero: (Падший герой) Downplayed as he isn’t exactly evil. He was originally a Lancer to Bill & Barry in their heroic adventures, but after returning from exile he brought peace his way: military force. He also finds himself pitted against Agatha, seeing her mostly as Lucrezia’s daughter, even though it’s more accurate to call her Bill’s daughter.
• Feeling Their Age: When he belatedly realizes that Agatha was the Spark in Beetleburg and not Moloch, he mutters that he must be getting old.
• Four-Star Badass: His knack for finding the right monster for the job meshes neatly with planning battles. At multiple points during the battle for Mechanicsburg the heroes are suspicious of how they’ve been able to hold out as long as they’ve have against him. Klaus deploying a massive army against them is viewed with equal suspicion, as they know he simply doesn’t need that much manpower to defeat them.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: (Был никем, стал кошмаром) The leader of a small noble house, which was destroyed in the Other War, and sidekick to the Heterodyne Boys to the conqueror and absolute ruler of all Europa.
• Genius Bruiser: (Гениальный силач) Klaus is both a highly intelligent man and very strong — he can, for example, punch out Jägers. This probably has to do with the fact that he is a construct.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка) The Baron has left standing orders that if he ever disappears for any length of time, Gil would be appointed as Baron immediately. This is presumably because he knows that all hell will break loose if the Empire appears to be leaderless for even a brief time.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: His body is covered in Morally Ambiguous Scars. (The worst of them likely from the reassembly job which created him from the remains of three brothers.)
• Happily Married: (Счастливо женаты) Implied. While he does mention that Spark women are troublesome, when he laments being in charge of an empire, the first thing he mentions was not having seen his wife in years. She’s actually the Queen of Skifander.
• The Heavy: (Самый заметный злодей) For much of «Act 1» of the comic, especially the Siege of Mechanicsburg (Vols. XII—XIII), Klaus is the one standing in Agatha’s way. The Other is too trapped with Agatha’s locket to do much directly against the heroes in Act 1 — though if you asked Klaus, he’d say the Other is completely active and that her name is Agatha.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: (Герой с плохой репутацией) Played with. People love to mock him, because he lets them get away with it, and he gets a lot of crap flung at him by the current generation’s Heterodyne stories. However, Master Payne (one of the purveyors of such stories) respects the hell out of him for everything he’s done for Europa, and it’s likely that he’s not alone.
• Hero Antagonist: (Героический антагонист) He has some very good reasons not to want Agatha running around free, and is otherwise a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Heroic Sacrifice: (Героическое самопожертвование) Traps Mechanicsburg in a temporal stasis field with himself inside it, attempting to neutralize Agatha as a threat while preventing the Other from using him as a slave. Sadly, it turns out it was a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!ic Sacrifice; even the Heterodynes — well known for their Unfettered thirst for power — not only refused to meddle with time, but made a treaty with the Saintly Church to keep others from doing it. Reason? Clock Roaches.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Over the course of the comic his actions and responses have gotten darker, and they were not exactly light to begin with. Also present in his backstory, as keeping the peace in Europa has made him a very cynical person. He long ago decided that he’d be lawful rather than good, and cross the Godzilla Threshold whenever necessary — but those decisions were trapping him in a cycle of increasingly reflexive and despicable acts.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: He’s been depicted pretty badly in most of the Heterodyne stories (at least since he started conquering stuff), ranging from a cowardly comic relief to a flat-out traitor to the Heterodynes. Fortunately for those who put on these plays, Klaus isn’t a Slave to PR and doesn’t care what they say. Though he’s well aware of this. (Again, see Actually Pretty Funny.)
• Hoist by His Own Petard: (Не рой яму другому)
  • He left Silas Merlot in charge of Beetlesburg as a punishment for selling out Dr. Beetle, threatening to send him to Castle Heterodyne at his first mistake. He likely thought that Silas would muck up in some minor way or just spend the rest of his life keeping his head down, unaware of how truly unhinged and desperate he was. When Silas discovered Beetle’s journals about Agatha being the last Heterodyne, he immediately panicked, burning Beetle’s Hall of Records to the ground and murdering the Baron’s cryptography team to keep it under wraps. Had Klaus just killed or ignored him then he likely would have known about Agatha’s true origins long before it became an issue.
  • He made a deal with the damaged Castle Heterodyne for it to act as his prison, sending it a steady supply of dangerous Sparks and criminals to repair it. This gave the Baron his greatest threat to use against those who go out of line, being able to send them to be slave labor in an insane, death trap filled castle that will kill for fun. However, this ends up biting him in the backside when Agatha manages to fix the castle during his attempt to destroy Mechanicsburg. The repaired Castle cuts off all ties with him and frees its prisoners, leaving Agatha with an army of Sparks and minions to use against him. What’s more, it was Sparks who had been making repairs on the Castle for almost 15 years, making it even more dangerous when it’s finally fully restored.
  • He transferred a copy of his mind into his son to «protect» him from Agatha due to believing his son to be making the same mistake he made with Agatha’s mother — falling in love with a manipulative monster. He set it up to override and take control of Gil when needed, and the copy claims he cannot stop himself from taking over when he is in Agatha’s presence even if he wants to. Since Tarvek and Agatha’s plan to free Gil of his control requires him to be in charge of Gil’s body when it happens, that means they are able to do so by maneuvering Gil where they need him while Agatha is out of the room, then Tarvek claims she has returned once he’s in position.
• I Did What I Had to Do: (Для твоего же блага) His basic justification for just about any of his actions. Sadly, he’s right; everyone knows he’s right, even Agatha herself has admitted he’s right a few times. He doesn’t have the charisma the Heterodyne Boys did and thus can’t use their methods, meaning he has to resort to threat of force to prevent Europa from sinking back into war. That doesn’t mean anyone — himself included — likes the situation or thinks it makes him any less a Jerkass. Over the course of the comic, he resorts to increasingly extreme measures due to increasingly worsening events.
• Inspector Javert: More or less the only reason he’s an antagonist is that he has very good reason to not want an «untried Heterodyne heir» running amok through Europe. He also believes her to be The Other, given that the last time he met Agatha she was possessed by the Other who outright confessed to being the Other.
• It’s Personal: (Это личное) Klaus was not happy when he learned of Agatha’s existence, and not just because she was a political time bomb. It’s heavily implied he was legitimately hurt and angry his friends did not tell him about her. Granted, later revelations show they had good reasons to hide her from him, mostly due to Agatha’s mother being his old flame Lucrezia. However, later revelations note that even without Lucrezia, he still views her as a threat. His reasoning seems to be that the malcious natures associated with both the Heterodyne and Mongfish lines to be in their blood along with how life can drive someone mad. This ironically means that he did not trust his own friends' goodness nor Agatha’s raising, so the Bros had a good point.
• Just the First Citizen: (Первый гражданин) He’s running most of Europe. He’s a baron. For those unfamiliar with nobility rankings in Europe, that would be like having your own army and calling yourself a Lieutenant (literally the lowest officer’s rank possible). To put it into perspective, the only nobility lower than a Baron are unlanded knights, and a Baron’s fief is typically about as much land as one can see from the top of their castle (though this may be an Exact Words twist, as one can see most of Europa from the top of «Castle» Wulfenbach), and they always answer to higher nobility like Counts. Yet Klaus is ruling more land than freaking Charlemagne and his empire in its heyday. Martellus claims this was a mistake on Klaus' part. If he had declared himself Emperor, Martellus believes the nobles would have gladly sworn loyalty to him. By refusing the title, Klaus refused to «play the game.» That was an insult the nobility couldn’t forgive. However, the revelation that Gil has the title of «highness» due to his mother being the Queen of Skifander (due to Gil refusing to take on the title of «Baron» when his father was presumed dead, so Boris had orders to use one of his other legitimate titles instead) was actually enough to cause several houses to immediately become supporters of the Wulfenbach regime due to Gil’s claim to an actual legitimate royal title they can get behind.
• Knight Templar Parent: He can approach this at times. Refusing to see any difference between Agatha and her insane (possessed?) mother, he is willing to use Mind Manipulation on his own son to make absolute certain Gil cannot come near her without being overridden by a copy of Klaus’s own personality. And when Lucrezia threatens his son’s life, he coldly informs her that he will break the Corbettite law of sanctuary and kill everyone there if necessary.
• Large and in Charge: (Большой — значит главный) He’s tall, broad shouldered, and rules most of a continent.
• Loophole Abuse: It’s never explicitly spelled out, but being hit by a slaver wasp that can infect Sparks has left him forced to do this regarding whatever commands Lucrezia has given him. But he’s damned good at it.
• Love-Obstructing Parents: Towards Gil regarding Agatha, due to fearing that the evil on both sides of her ancestry is inherited. It really doesn’t help that he is absolutely convinced that his son is repeating the exact mistake he himself made with Agatha’s mother. However, while he does recognize Agatha as not being Lucrezia, he still does not want her near Gil.
• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть) Despite being bedridden and with severe injuries across his entire body after getting crushed, the man’s response to the injury report is «hmph. I’ve had worse.»
• Mix-and-Match Man: The circumstances leading to Klaus’s reassembly have not been revealed at this time, but what is known is that the late Baron and Baroness Wulfenbach (re)created their heir from their three sons in typical Frankenstein fashion.

«	Phil and Kaja: Yes, he’s a construct. Yes, he is really made from three brothers. Phil: He was assembled and revived by his parents.'	»

• Moral Myopia: (Готтентотская мораль) Klaus might be the only person maintaining the peace of Europa but that doesn’t mean he’s a pillar of morality, with him not being opposed to using similar tactics as the evil nobility he despises. He openly hates the hassles of diplomacy and being a big believer in using force and fear to keep people in line.
• Mr. Fanservice: (Мистер Фансервис) Between Clothing Damage in the first arc, his Naughty Flashback Scene with Lucrezia, flashbacks of him in a Skifandrian loincloth outfit, and the fact that he spends most of the Mechanicsburg arc as a hospital patient wearing only bandages and a bedsheet, he absolutely qualifies.
• My Greatest Failure: He spent decades obsessing over his last night with Lucrezia, wondering what he could have done differently in to not get drugged and sent away so that he would be able to stop her plan. Eventually, he decides his mistake was entering into a relationship with her in the first place.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) «Wulfenbach» has wolf in it, «Klaus» starts with K, and his title is «Baron.» He’s just as formidable as the name makes him sound.
• Necessarily Evil: Yes, it really is necessary, and he doesn’t like it one bit. As put by Master Payne:

«	Payne: Could you burn down people — women and children — even if you knew they had become monsters? Agatha: I… no… I don’t know. Payne: The Baron can. The Baron has. I respect him for that, but I don’t want to be him. No sane man would.	»

• Non-Answer: In Gil’s words, he has a habit of explaining things without explaining anything.
• «Not So Different» Remark:
  • Subverted. Like Lucrezia, he also downloaded a copy of himself into his child’s brain. When Lucrezia in Agatha points this out, he retorts that he hasn’t taken full control and continues to leave his son in charge most of the time. He also resorted to this out of desperation to «protect» his son from Agatha, whom he believes to be a manipulative monster like her mother, whereas Lucrezia uses it as her basic modus operandi and would have complete control of her daughter’s body if Agatha’s locket wasn’t suppressing her.
    • The funny thing is, according to the novels, the copy/overlay wasn’t Klaus' idea, it was Lucrezia’s, specifically Clank!Lucrezia, who ordered him to do it just because Klaus would hate doing it.
  • Played straight, but in a retroactive sort of way with his son. After Gil snaps from Vole’s taunting, he rants on how everyone underestimates him just because he tries to be nice and reasonable. He comes to the conclusion that if he has to act like a stage villain to get people to take him seriously, then he’ll show them what kind of mad-boy they’re dealing with, all while beating up the Jäger. He suddenly stops and comes to the conclusion that this is how his father feels all the time. In short, Gil seems to be how Klaus is underneath and just shows how years of Realpolitik and The Chains of Commanding can wear someone down a lot.
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой)
  • The details of how he went from being the long lost ruler of a ransacked stretch of land to conquering most, if not all, of Europa within seemingly a decade of his return hasn’t been revealed. Although we’ve now learned that he had two Dreen helping him right from the start.
  • The four years that the Baron spent living in Skifander has yet to be shown.
• Papa Wolf: (Родительский инстинкт)
  • For all of the morally ambiguous things he does in regards to Gil, he does it all because he truly loves and cares for his son. As such, threatening his well-being will bring a blatant reminder on why this man singlehandledy conquered Europa.
  • Perhaps the crowning example of this is when the implanted personality he put in his son awoke and Lucrezia has temporary hijacked Agatha. When Lucrezia attempts to convince Klaus to sacrifice the lives of their children so they can establish an empire together, Klaus snaps at her before pinning her down. Granted, both are knocked out a moment later by the sedative-laced cake, but it was still awesome.

«	Klaus: Sanctuary or no — I will burn this fortress and every soul in it — before I allow you or anyone else to harm my son.	»

• It is strongly implied that the reason Klaus fled Skifander and created the Empire was to protect his son. When he worries that Zeetha has come to Europa in order to kill Gil, and when Gil asks him in exasperation what Klaus did to warrant this reaction, his father grimly but proudly says that "I kept you alive, " and since This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God is that A) Skifandrian culture doesn’t like twins and B) Gil and Zeetha are fraternal twins, someone likely tried to eliminate Gil and Klaus escaped back to Europa with his infant son. While it is said early in the story that Klaus would dismantle Gil and make a better son if he failed Klaus’s tests, it’s pretty clear that Klaus has done everything to make Gil as sharp as possible. Klaus has made many improvements to Gil, give him immunities to as many poisons and diseases that he could, taught Gil everything that he knows, gave him the best education besides, allowed him to experience hardships on his own without coddling him, and encouraged free thinking and innovation. The part where he fails is that he is so overbearing and controlling that Gil has developed a slight inferiority complex and all encompassing rage and obsession when he reaches his mental limit to the point that he was rebellious enough to want to elope with a Heterodyne at the drop of a hat (though, to be fair, Gil didn’t know she was a Heterodyne, but that didn’t change his mind much when he did learn about that).

• The Patient Has Left the Building: When Dr. Sun says Klaus is a terrible patient, he’s not remotely kidding. Klaus' control freak nature means he refuses to stay in bed and just heal, even when his injuries are so bad he can’t even smile without hurting himself, because only he can properly manage his empire. No matter what happens or what the situation is, Klaus tries to get out of sitting around healing by any means necessary. The novels mention his chief medical officer has had to deal with this so much, she’s made it the law that Klaus be sedated and/or restrained if he suffers so much as a paper cut, just so he’ll let the damn thing heal. His reaction to this development was to invent cutless paper so that she’d stop drugging him and let him work.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: (Зло воздающее)
  • According to the novels, when dealing with some of the more crazy Sparks, if he doesn’t send them to a lab he can get particularly… creative with their punishments.
  • One of the sources of friction between him and the Heterodyne boys was that he had no objections to giving unrepentant maniacs a taste of their own medicine, while Bill and Barry hated killing anyone. See also Dr. Vapnoople. Which his brain-coring of the man is pretty monstrous, once the man’s intelligence is restored it becomes extremely clear why Klaus inflicted such a fate on him.
• Perpetual Frowner: Klaus has a range of facial expressions ranging from disdain to fury. He knows how to smile, but he usually doesn’t have much reason to:
  • He does take amusement in his son’s confusion over why he’s in trouble. He also objects to Bang protecting him… until learning her jaw is wired up. He has an almost child-like expression of glee on his face.
  • He was proud to see Gilgamesh wipe out some of the Empire’s enemies when he was out of commission.
  • Lampshaded by Gil, who is baffled by the suggestion his father was a dashing romantic in his youth, and seeks clarification by exaggeratedly pulling his lips down and saying «Klaus Wulfenbach. His mouth does this all the time.»
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) Klaus may be a tyrant, but he’s not a bad person, and there are several moments where he shows this.
  • What does he do after his minions kill someone for opposing him? Resurrect them!.
  • Prisoners of war can join the Wulfenbach army, or go home with a month’s pay!
  • Complete the project he assigned you and he will cover the cost of hiring laborers. Fail through stupidity or stubbornness, and he’ll put someone else in charge and make you one of the laborers.
  • During the Jägers' time with the Baron, he actually threw them a massive party around the holiday season as a way to make up for the lost Jägerstomp tradition back in Mechanicsberg.
• Properly Paranoid: (Параноик был прав) Klaus withheld the truth of Gil’s origins from him for years to protect him. The novel reveal that shortly after he revealed Gil to the world as his son and heir, there were multiple assassination attempts on his life.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки)
  • This was Lucrezia’s intent, anyway. But he came back before the main series even started. This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.Word of God states that the place he was sent was Skifander.
  • Later, he puts himself and entire Mechanicsburg in temporal stasis with Take-Five Bomb. That being said, his overlay surfaces every so often via Gil, and everyone seems to treat it as if it is the Baron himself.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: For all he’s called a dictator, his rule brought an end to the long war and established the Pax Transylvania that after his removal from power and the deterioration of his empire is described as a lost golden age. He really only seems to have two rules, no making war and no playing with Sealed Evil in a Can. A spark that rebels against him (and not for the first time) is shocked Klaus is no longer offering chances to surrender.
• Revealing Skill: One of the Baron’s unique talents is noticing Revealing Skills. Every Spark has a distinct style to their creations, much like an artist. Klaus' ability to notice these styles gave him some very good leads as to the identity of the Other (though the fact that styles can run in families threw him off a bit).
• Scars Are Forever: (Шрамы навсегда) Assuming that the stitches covering his torso are from his resurrection as a construct (which they almost certainly are, since the different 'pieces' of his body clearly have different skin tones) they’re several decades old and yet have never faded.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Notable for being the only Spark in the series to be (mostly) immune to its effects. When it does pop up, it seems to manifest in smaller, more contained ways like an occasional bout of dorkiness and (according to Gil) a surprising love for waffles.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: (Я здесь главный, мне всё можно) In a sense. He has a distaste for the Fifty Families' power games, and disregards the «rules» of it whenever they’re in the way.
• Self-Deprecation: (Самоирония) Gil is certainly likable. Klaus fondly says he got it from his mother.
• Serious Business: According to the novels, sports. He once had a goalie executed for taking a bribe.
• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) His overlay offers to help Trelawney Thorpe win Gil’s heart, mainly because he wants to keep Gil away from Agatha at all costs, believing that the Heterodyne and Mongfish families have evil blood and he sees Agatha as dangerous if she snaps.
• Shirtless Scene: (Рубашка не нужна) That Naughty Flashback Scene, among others.
• Sibling Fusion: One lab accident led to the grieving parents stitching the remains of their three dead sons into one substitute child. Given his success as an adventurer and ruler of Europa, it’s hard to argue with the results.
• Sickbed Slaying: (Убийство в больнице) When he was hospitalized at the Hospital of Mechanicsburg following the Battle of Sturmhalten, numerous assassins tried pulling this trope on him, starting with one posing as a nurse. By the time Bangladesh DuPree was assigned to his room to guard him, there was a sizable pile of would-be assassins on the floor.
• Silver Fox: (Серебряный лис) He is awfully muscular for his age.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: The persistently bitter Klaus is a man who hates his job, misses his wife and hasn’t seen his friends in years.
• So Proud of You: He doesn’t say it directly to Gil, but when the latter single-handedly faces down an army of war clanks, Klaus makes no bones about the way he feels.

«	Klaus: Anything—being paralyzed for life—would be an acceptable price for seeing what I have seen my son do today.	»

• Super-Intelligence: Even by Spark standards, according to the RPG his parents grafted bits of his brothers' brains to what they could recover of his own and it allows him unparalleled parallel processing ability. This may be part of the reason he can partially resist the Spark Wasp.
• Super-Strength: (Физическая сверхсила) Apparently Klaus can effectively handle guns normally hoisted by his tall imposing Battle Clanks… Guns that even kick a trio of Jägers back with the recoil.
• Too Clever by Half: (Такой умный, что уже глупый) The seemingly infallible Klaus has made multiple mistakes throughout his life. Every one of them demolished his life like a monster caught in a burning windmill.
  • One was sleeping with Lucrezia Mongfish; this got him drugged and shipped to Skifander.
  • Another was failing to notice Agatha’s semi-suppressed Spark; this resulted in his empire being shaken to its core and he himself getting squished by a chicken house.
  • The one that gets him frozen in time and his empire partially toppled is failing to realize that the two previous mistakes are only partially related — that though Agatha kind of is Lucrezia at the moment, Agatha wants her crazy mother out of her head by any means necessary.
• Trademark Favorite Food: (Фирменная любимая еда) He really likes waffles.
• Übermensch: (Ницшеанский сверхчеловек) He doesn’t care about the rules of aristocracy, the conventions of rulership or petty things like legitimacy. He does what he knows are right, regardless of the views of others.
• The Unfettered: In his own words, «I did it alone. Because I had to. And it worked.»
• Vetinari Job Security: He’s indisputably the best ruler that Europa’s had in two hundred years, if not ever. You’d need to be mad to want to overthrow him. Unfortunately, most of the major movers and shakers in Europa are Sparks. Worse, the Fifty Families — the rest of said movers and shakers — are old-school royalty who despise how Klaus has reduced their power and fondly remember Ye Goode Olde Days when they gave the orders. You can guess where this is going.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: (Благонамеренный экстремист) Seen sympathetically, for once. Klaus is struggling to make the world better, and keeps being presented with one Sadistic Choice after another. He’s had to cross a lot of moral lines as well as a Godzilla Threshold or three. He’s abandoned 'building a better world' — aside from trying to prepare Gil for that task.
• When He Smiles: (Когда она улыбнётся)
  • It’s like the world bows. However it’s usually out of abject terror, in the comic’s run, he’s only smiled three times; a Psychotic Smirk when he realizes that his most competent underling (and he has a lot of damned good ones) underestimates his son, a boyish smile of childish glee and probably the most innocent we’ve seen him when he learns that same underling’s jaw has been wired shut, and a Cheshire Cat Grin when his son finally crawls out of his dorky shell and kicks some ass.
  • The one time he smiles out of actual amusement is still indicative of his badassitude and love thereof — see Actually Pretty Funny.
  • In the novelization he nearly busts a gut laughing (literally, due to his wounds) when Gil reveals that Bang’s jaw isn’t broken; he (and Doctor Sun, who actually performed the procedure) just wanted to shut her up for the foreseeable future.note
  • He smiles twice when discussing the matter of having his son and Trelawney Thorpe marry.
• Wild Hair: (Непрактичная грива) Gil has it too.
• World’s Best Warrior: Since the disappearance of the Heterodyne Boys, Klaus has been the most powerful warrior in Europa. He’s significantly better than his son (according to Carson) and his daughter (according to their fight), both of whom are among the best. Even the Jägers fear his strength.
• You Can Always Tell a Liar: There is a thing he does whenever Lucrezia catches him at something that Lucrezia has learned to recognize.

Wulfenbach Personnel As a whole

• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Among other things, Monster Hunter Grantz’s massive eyebrows don’t help identifying her as female, at all.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: (Синдром Чака Каннингема) Zoing hadn’t been seen since the timeskip and no explanation had been given for his absence. Until this page.
• Green-Eyed Monster: (Ревность) Sergeant Nak gets quickly jealous of anyone who seems close with Grantz, with the added bonus of a Visual Pun.
• Mauve Shirt: (Лиловые рубашки) Sergeant Scorp of the Baron’s Vespiary Squad survives a surprising number of appearances. Also an unquestionably Cool Old Guy, right down to the superb facial hair.
• My Brain Is Big: Kleegon the Battlemaster, a project of the defeated Spark the Count of the Iron Ski who now works for the Baron, has had the top of his head removed and replaced with a foot tall cask to make room for his extra grey matter. His eyes were part of the lost bit and have been replaced by a single centered red one.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Zoing, Gil’s crustacean-based construct whom he made when he was eight.
• Unintelligible Accent: Zoing can be quite hard to understand. His speech is decipherable only with effort, though Gil seems to have no trouble understanding him.

Bangladesh DuPree

A pirate queen in the pay of the Baron, though even he finds her taste for violence and random slaughter distasteful. Nevertheless he keeps her about as she is a very skilled warrior and hunter and sometimes, you need a butcher.

• Affably Evil: (Дружелюбный злодей) She’s made of fun. Always. Even while skewering someone.
• All for Nothing: Bang’s mother was deposed in a coup, in response to which Bang built up a massive bloodthirsty fleet of pirates. Just as she was ready to go home and take her throne back by force, someone killed pretty much all her pirates, destroyed her fleet and burnt down her castle. Unable to figure out who the son of a chumpnote that did this was, Bangladesh swore to find them and get revenge.
• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) Her defining character trait even before we knew her name. She’s usually the first suspect when anything is demolished.

«	Baron Wulfenbach: DuPree… When I say the words «alive and unharmed»… do any neurons actually fire in that brain of yours? Bangladesh DuPree: Um… No sir! Baron Wulfenbach: I thought not. Bangladesh DuPree: But I can’t take credit for this one…	»

• Badass Normal: (Простой крутой смертный) She doesn’t have a Spark and generally avoids using advanced technology, but she’s still capable of holding her own against fighters like Von Pinn and Gilgamesh.
• Big Sister Bully: (Старший брат-задира) Yep, Bang is like a big sister to Gil. A nasty, spiteful, teasing, irritating, bossy, troublemaking big sister. Who will utterly wail on anybody who tries taking over her right to beat him upside the head for being an idiot. Heaven help them if they actually have a chance at hurting him: a wild Bang is a scary one.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) Subverted. She gives off this impression, but her love of fighting is really just an extension of her desire to hurt people and destroy things. When against an opponent that actually has the advantage, she comments it is «no longer fun.»
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: (Профи с причудами) One might forget she is an airship captain, what with being such a ditzy-acting Blood Knight… until a probably wasped airship captain nearly leads our heroes into the enemy’s time trap where they could kill the heroes at their leisure. Bang thwarts the rogue captain, takes charge and averts catastrophe with deft and decisive orders (with the crew quickly and wisely complying when realizing her infamy), all while still catering to her nature as a pirate at heart.
• Calling the Old Man Out: When she finally reunites with her father, who is rather unexpectedly the apathetic airship captain, she gives him a lot of crap for leaving her and her mother ten years prior.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) She wears white and red.
• Comedic Sociopathy: (Комический социопат) Say what you want about The Baron’s pet psychopath… she is big fun.
• Comically Missing the Point: (Комическое непонимание сути) When Klaus is explaining to Bang that Agatha is still alive despite Bang having supposedly returned with her charred corpse (actually that of the late Madame Olga), Bang comments «Wow. She sure looked dead.»
• Connected All Along: Remember those pirates from Zeetha’s backstory that she wiped out while searching for answers on how to get back to Skifander? Turns out Bang was their captain.
• Dark Action Girl: One of the best hand-to-hand fighters in the comic, not least because she fights dirtier.
• The Dragon: (Правая рука главгада) Even if you don’t consider Klaus a villain, she’s his «wet work» specialist — the person you send when you want wreckage and corpses to result.
• Disappeared Dad: It turns out she has one, which… frankly explains a lot about her bratty childish mannerisms and genuine loyalty to Klaus, a stern but deeply responsible father figure in her life.
• Dramatic Irony: (Драматическая ирония) Bangladesh, per the novels, is only working for Klaus while he finds the person who killed all of Bang’s pirates and wrecked her family’s lovely castle, with the agreement that Bang gets to kill them when she does. The problem? Said person is Zeetha, Klaus' own daughter. Just for added irony, when Bang and said person do meet… they actually have a civil conversation over tea (during which Zeetha observes that Bang is «going to be so fun to fight!»). And then when she finally finds her quarry, leaves the Wulfenbach Fleet, and sets out to give chase… she gets headed off by Agatha discreetly threatening to go Old Heterodyne on her if she hurts any of Agatha’s friends.
• Emotional Bruiser: Sort of. Turns out she really had developed an attachment to good ol' Klaus.
• Enemy Mine: (От вражды к союзу) Her attempt to get close to Zeetha to enact revenge for her wiping out her fleet is torpedoed by Agatha, forcing her to help the team retrieve Prende’s Lantern.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодея есть любимые)
  • Et tu, DuPree? It just took some time to find the perfect match.
  • She also genuinely cares for Klaus and Gil, breaking down in tears when she believes the Baron was killed (though threatening to kill Gil for making her cry later), and her relationship with Gil is very much Like Brother and Sister. In fact, she sets her hostility aside when meeting with Zeetha and Agatha after the timeskip, and expresses her hope they can fix whatever Klaus did to him.
  • She also takes Tarvek aside and asks him as well. She’s really asking just about anyone she thinks she can trust.
• Even Evil Has Standards: (Даже у зла есть стандарты)
  • Turns out that she really objects to mind control, and is not at all impressed when she finds out what Klaus did to Gil… She eventually explains that the objection is due to her disliking fighting against people who didn’t choose to be in the position in which they have to fight her. If anything, it takes all the fun out of the fight in her eyes.
  • She’s also quite honest. Why lie when you’re proud of what you do? By the same token, she does not react well when she’s lied to.
• Evil Counterpart: (Оттенить героя мерзавцем) To Zeetha. Both are Action Girls who follow a Spark, extremely competent fighters, and each one is a Boisterous Bruiser, but Bang is a Psycho for Hire while Zeetha is a Spirited Competitor (who granted, does border on Blood Knight at times). And both are eagerly awaiting the time when a fight between them is justified.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: (Зло против небытия) She is a dyed-in-the-wool villain (albeit a fun one), but she sees an «oblivion» of sorts in the prospect of The Other winning and making no one’s mind their own anymore.
• Freaky Is Cool: (Безумная клёвость) Upon seeing Vole’s new body, she just lights up in delight. She even describes his monstrous new form as «gorgeous».
• Friendly Enemy: (Возлюбленный враг) Is cultivating such a relationship with Zeetha in the aftermath of the Beast of the Rails arc. Both are eagerly anticipating testing each other’s mettle in a fight (but can’t at that time due to Sanctuary rules at the Corbettite depot). Bang is also hopeful that Agatha and Tarvek can fix whatever is wrong with Gil. Still seems to have this attitude after finding out that Zeetha was the one who destroyed her headquarters and fleet and killed most of her crew. She seems more excited to have a cool battle to the death with her than angry at her, despite the fact that finding out who destroyed her base was the only reason she served the Baron in the first place. Really, they’re practically friends. They even help each other come up with new combat moves and counters to enemy attacks!
• The Friend Nobody Likes: (Друг, которого никто не любит) If her encounter with Grantz is any indication, Bang’s not particularly popular among the Baron’s forces.
• Genki Girl: (Гэнки) A big lighthearted kid, even if she is the Ax-Crazy sort that would torture a rat just to hear it squeal.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: (Злая королева) The Pirate Queen, that is.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Tends to play this with Gil. She’s Bad Cop. And she isn’t acting.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: The first word is debatable, the last two really aren’t.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) Appears to truly be distraught over failing to rescue the Baron from the destruction of the hospital.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) As terrible as she can be… even she knows not to invoke the wrath of a Heterodyne, as her demeanor before and after this page exhibits.
• Improbable Weapon User: (Мастер невероятного оружия) When using a Rebus Bubble to ask Gil what means she was allowed to use to kill anyone besides Gil or Sun that came in, cheese was one of her suggestions.
• In Love with Your Carnage: She has it hard for Captain Vole. Especially when he gets transformed into a huge, hulking beast who is barely kept under control.
• The Insomniac: After the time skip, when Gil stops sleeping, Bang tries to keep up with him. Unfortunately she doesn’t have his training, so she can’t just do a few mental exercises and be good for a few days.
• Insult Backfire: (Принять оскорбление как комплимент) Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess mentions that Gil said her captain’s quarters had a «Debauched Barbarian Princess» look. Once she learned what the word «debauched» meant, Bang took it as a compliment.
• Jerkass Has a Point: (Козёл был прав) Bang’s reasoning on why the Baron can’t be the Other is… unique: The Other would never leave a minion free to do anything against orders. However, Bang still has the free will to constantly ignore Klaus’s orders not to kill people, therefore she hasn’t been wasped and mind-controlled, therefore Klaus can’t be the Other. He finds this a less than comforting chain of reasoning, but can’t really counter it.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Bang spends most of the series giddily committing acts of murder and violence with everyone treating it like a funny quirk of hers or begrudgingly allowing her to get away with it. However, after stabbing Tarvek as a joke Agatha had one of her dingbots secretly inject her with a paralyzing serum and she quietly tells her that she never understood why Gil keeps her around and that she’ll kill her if she ever touches one her people again.
• Kill It with Fire: (Сжечь к чёртовой матери) The third novel gives a glimpse into Bang’s mentality, where she thinks everything would look ever-so better if she were to set it on fire. On seeing Gil’s handiwork disposing of Klaus' would-be assassins, she’s forced to review how easy it’d be to set Gil on fire.
• Like Brother and Sister: (Как брат и сестра) With Gil, to the horror of Klaus. After the time skip, Gil finds nothing odd about waking up with Bang in bed with him. There’s also a case to be made that she sees Klaus as a sort of surrogate father-figure. Considering what her actual father is like, Klaus being a father figure to her is probably for the best.
• Moral Myopia: (Готтентотская мораль) Bang is one of the more vicious and bloodthirsty characters in the comic, happily engaging in murder and torture on a regular basis. Despite this, Klaus and Gil have a friendly, almost familial relationship with her and they give her a lot more leeway with her violent activities than they do other maniacs they encounter.
• More Despicable Minion: (Гадский подручный хуже хозяина) She can barely be contained by the Well-Intentioned Extremist Baron Wulfenbach or his son, and loves violence.

«	DuPree: Isn’t that always the way? Management thinking it knows what works in the field? Why, if I were here alone — and you people were still standing around — half of you’d be dead!	»

• Mundane Solution: (Можно не изощряться) Upon hearing how the monstrous new Vole is at risk of killing himself if they don’t subdue him before he rips out all of his water and nutrient feeds, Bang asks why they don’t just let him pull out a few first to weaken him so that they can subdue him. Bang laughs at the fact that Sparks are so smart they fail to find simple solutions. Then she thinks she’s Spotted an Imposter and forcefully asks where the REAL Gil is.
• Noodle Implements: We never find out what she planned, but one of her methods of killing people involves cheese.
• Not Me This Time: (На этот раз не я) She’s a default suspect for any cases of death and destruction around her, for an obvious reason. Bang doesn’t even see it as a problem.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) Zeetha suggests that Bang might be doing this. See Smarter Than You Look.
• Perky Female Minion: Perky, gleefully sociopathic, and prone to acts of butchery.
• Pirate Girl: (Пиратка) Ex-pirate queen.
• Psycho Electro: (Псих-электрик) In the first arc, she gets her hand mangled and ends with a medical device meant to facilitate faster healing. By the time of her next appearance, she has modified it to electrocute people Joker-style.
• Psycho for Hire: (Псих-наёмник) Herr Baron understands that sometimes you need butchers. In the novelization Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, he also mentally commends her as an «easly-refuted public voice of unreason.»
• Rebus Bubble: During the time that she has her jaw wired shut. She’s quite fluent.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Klaus hopes to avoid this, but he’s prepared to deal with Bang if she ever decides to go back to piracy. Ultimately averted. Gil does accept her quitting without trying to kill her. And then later she resumes her Wulfenbach officer’s commission due to the overarching threat of The Other.
• Revenge: (Я отомщу) She agreed to work for the Baron in return for his assistance in identifying the person that destroyed her pirate fortress. Upon learning that it was Zeetha, she goes in for the hunt, despite fully expecting to be the one killed.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: «Pirate Queen» isn’t just a title; she is a genuine blue-blooded member of the Fifty Families, forced to piracy due to failing fortunes. The rest of the families consider her an embarrassment… not because she’s a pirate, but because she does work (though given how much she enjoys her job, it’s hard to call it «work»).
• Sky Pirate: That was her career before running afoul of the Baron. He decided to hire her on as one of his tools in his cabinet of necessary evils.
• Slasher Smile: (Улыбашка) Good Lord…
• Smarter Than You Look: She comes across as and is a very violent goof, but she occasionally demonstrates a surprising degree of intelligence when motivated. Re-purposing one of Gil’s medical devices into an electrocution weapon, for example, though her crowning moment was when Vole was out of control after being removed from the time field — Gil didn’t want him to rip out his life support cables, but Bang points out that letting him pull out some of them will weaken him and let them get him under control. This becomes especially prominent after the Time Skip, where circumstances frequently force her to set aside her playful attitude and take matters seriously.
• Stay in the Kitchen: The second novel states she’s sometimes on the receiving end from some people. Klaus is aware of this, but does little to actively discourage it, mainly because the people who end up replacing these incredibly stupid people are obviously going to be smarter (and as a bonus, much more polite toward Bang, in gratitude for the promotion).
• Strawman: An Invoked Trope in-universe — Klaus notes to himself that Bang’s over the top «let’s just kill everything and burn down the town for good measure» arguments are easy to refute, and make him look far more reasonable by comparison. Not that Bang is intending to make him look good; she just honestly doesn’t understand why he doesn’t let her kill everyone.
• Talking the Monster to Death: (Заболтать до смерти) Bang exasperates Tweedle’s personal assassin, Jaron, so much during their duel that he ends up begging/yelling in annoyance for her to kill him or shut up already.
• Token Evil Teammate: (Какой ни есть, а он за нас) While’s it arguable whether the Wulfenbach Empire is good or evil, Bang’s high ranking presence among them is probably the best argument one can make if they want to say they’re the latter. Although at the very least, Klaus is able to at least point her in the general direction of even worse people, thus keeping her on something of a leash.
• Too Much Information: Oh, Bang! This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.That’s so cute!
• Torture Technician: (Мастер пыток) She shows her interest right during her introduction.

«	Bangladesh: Do I come into your lab and tell you how to torture rats? Gil: Frequently. Bangladesh: Exactly! So I know what I’m doing!	»

• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца)
  • To Baron Klaus Wulfenbach. If the Baron tells her to do something, even if she thinks it’s stupid, she does it. End of story.
  • And also to Gil, it seems, post Time Skip. She acts as a buffer against Bohrlaika for Gil.
  • And to the cause of fighting The Other as well. When a British Navy airship captain tries to serve Agatha and company up to Lucrezia-In-Anevka and her company on a mysterious island near England, Bang quickly dispatches the traitorous captain and commandeers the ship to avert the catastrophe. She works closely with everyone in Agatha’s entourage during the Secret Island arc, with the British troops and crew under the command she helped herself to readily following her orders. She even put her vendetta against Zeetha on hold because she’s another opponent of The Other. Bang explains it as such: she will gleefully kill anyone who chooses to be in her way. The Other’s Mind Control machinations remove such agency to any potential victim of hers, and she’s not okay with that because then it becomes a chore in her eyes.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Bang does this twice.
  • She set the entire plot in motion by attacking Moloch’s unit, which would later end up with his brother encountering Agatha, which would lead to her locket getting stolen, which would then lead to her being outed as Bill’s daughter, which later ended up with her escaping, meeting Master Payne’s Circus, her getting trapped in Sturmhalten and getting her mother’s mind downloaded into her body.
  • Then when Agatha set her projection to play the Heterodyning frequency to keep herself in control, Bang destroys THAT, allowing Lucrezia to attempt to escape, which later led to Klaus getting wasped because Agatha still had the Spark Wasp Engine with her. In fairness, she had no way of knowing that the machine was keeping the Other contained, and it appeared to be forcing mind-controlled people to attack her boss. Still, she should have sent in a device team so that the Baron could study it (she even suggests this before revealing she was just joking).
• Villainous Crush: (Влюблённый злодей) She seems to have a sadistic obsession with Tarvek, having previously captured and tortured him during his time in Paris. She calls him her «proud beauty» and tries to peek on him in the bath, though befitting her personality she’s most interested in the scars she gave him in their first encounter.
• Wham Line: (Поворотная фраза)

«	Bangladesh: Sure, sure. But this can’t wait, Herr Baron. My term of service to the empire is over. I quit.	»

• Wild Card: (Всегда на своей стороне) Her childish psychopathy and bungling is what kicked the plot off. Now that she’s off the Empire’s leash and nominally after Zeetha, Agatha’s best friend and teacher and Gil’s long lost sister, it’s even worse. Only the threat of Agatha to herself and the threat of the Other to Europa are keeping her contained and working with the heroes.

Boris Dolokhov

The head of The Baron’s administrative staff, Boris is a microcosm of how the Baron operates, and why it may be preferable to the previous system. Originally a librarian with an eidetic memory serving a Spark (far from a calm profession in and of itself) his master decided to add an extra pair of arms, strength, speed, balance… and turn him into the ultimate juggler. When the Baron took down his former master, he was given a far less demeaning job. He is now the Baron’s right hand man and chief administrative secretary.

This is a job that he has excelled in. His brilliant and utterly humorless mind and enhanced physical abilities make him exactly the sort of person that a man like the Baron would need at his side, showing the Baron’s talent for getting the right monster for the right job.

He and the Jägers have a love/hate relationship, as in: They love to pick on him, he hates their attitude.

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: (Власть — это сила) Boris is already a great leader, but the Jagers would never accept him as their commander if he couldn’t kick their asses. Dimo makes him their commander during a raid on Castle Wulfenbach after it is seemly taken over by the Queen of the Dawn.
• Badass Bookworm: (Крутой ботан) All the modifications intended to make him a juggler are extremely useful in combat. Boris is perfectly capable of beating the tar out of a Jäger, especially if he wants information. Fights alongside the Baron on the frontlines against Slaver Wasps, and comes out largely unscathed.
• Battle Butler: (Боевой слуга) To the Baron.
• Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: (Вредный дар/Полезное проклятие) His modifications could be seen as either or both. Boris himself hasn’t been seen to complain about it, though, at least not since the Baron freed him from his original Spark. He does regret being essentially the only construct of his kind going about. That being said, he looks similar to the four armed female priests of Skifander.
• Cincinnatus: He’s put in command of the empire when the Baron is out of commission and Gil is missing and hates it.
• The Comically Serious: (Такой серьёзный, что уже смешно) Utterly humorless but often at the heart of very funny moments..
• Dual Wielding: (В каждой руке по оружию) Make that quadruple.
• Enigmatic Minion: When last seen before the two-and-a-half year time-skip, he’s sneaking around asking provocative questions of the captured Lord Selnikov regarding Sparks and slaver wasps. And when he turns up again (see below) it’s not at all clear in how official a capacity he’s acting.
• Famous-Named Foreigner: (Известный иностранный иностранец) Shares last names with the main characters from The Idiot and War and Peace, respectively.
• Friendless Background: It’s All There in the Manual that part of his hostility to the Jägers comes from envy of their camaraderie, while he himself is a one-off construct with no one else quite like him. (The rest, of course, is straight-up personality clash.)
• Get It Over With: When Wooster reveals to the Jägergenerals the Baron’s plan to destroy Mechanicsburg and kill Agatha, something that Boris expects to instantly drive them into a murderous rage, he stoically tells them to just hurry up and do it quickly rather than beg for his life. To his surprise, they’re actually more interested in his protest that Agatha is The Other and want to hear him out.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Following the Time Skip, he’s (possibly) left Wulfenbach employ and is now working for or with the Immortal Library under Paris. What exactly that means for his personal morality is left ambiguous.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: (Многорукое существо) Not by choice. His former master wanted him to be able to juggle.
• Mundane Utility: Extra hands are very useful for preparing one’s tea.
• Number Two: He takes on certain duties in the event of the Baron’s absence or incapacity.
• Overly Long Name: (Длинное имя) Six of them.
• Photographic Memory: It helped when he was a Spark’s assistant and even more when he helps to run the empire.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Shortly after concluding his boss has been Wasped, Boris is conspicuously absent from the Wulfenbach halls of power following the timeskip, to the point of suffering from a case of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. He ends up making a rather impressive entrance helping out Agatha and her companions in (or rather under) Paris. And this is after Füst the bear shows up again after being absent for even more time than him. Paris must have a rather nice bus stop.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: (Идеализм — для детей) When hearing the situation from Dimo in the company of the Jäger Generals, Boris pretty much sees no difference between Agatha and the Lucrezia copy in her head, despite the detail of the Heterodyne Locket and the idealistic faith and Undying Loyalty the Jägers have for their Lady Heterodyne.
• Spotting the Thread: When Klaus is accusing his son of being Wasped, Boris realises a critical flaw which undermines the entire argument, one which he knows his boss should have caught as well. He also catches a hint of how the Baron is intentionally trying to convey this, and immediately it is really Klaus who has been Wasped.
• What the Hell, Hero?: (Что за фигня, герой?) When Wooster clues the generals in on his plans to destroy Mechanicsburg. «DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE?!»

Dr. Dim Vapnoople

One of Baron Klaus’s experiments in «pacifying» particularly mad/stupid/dangerous/annoying Sparks, reduced to a janitorial role aboard Castle Wulfenbach. At some point he created Krosp.

• The Beastmaster: Vapnoople’s specialty as a Spark was creating and modifying biological life, his last creation being Krosp. Far from being a minor threat, the backstory heavily implies he was incredibly powerful in his prime, capable of going against Sparks of the caliber of Baron Wulfenbach and Queen Albia and posing a serious threat. He gets better and doesn’t dissappoint. His beastmaster abilities are such that he controlled monsters from other dimensions!
• Beware the Silly Ones: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) A guy who tinkers with animals, For Science!, he obviously can’t be dangerous, right? Wrong. Even without those bears, the first novelization mentions he managed to hold out against the Baron for a good long while. Plus the fact that he was subjected to the Baron’s «only the worst of the worst» brain-coring experiments. Within seconds of getting fixed, his actions make Agatha realize why he was subject to those experiments.
• Canis Major: The Sparkwolves employed by Tweedle in the present were originally his creation. That original incarnation formed a Badass Army so dangerous Klaus had to wage a months-long war and wipe them out to nearly the last man to defeat it, and what remains are still the Red Shirt-slaughtering Elite Mooks of the Knights of Jove.
• Chekhov’s Gunman: (Стрелок Чехова) In this case, one that took a decade of real-world time to fire: Vapnoople was introduced in an early chapter in December, 2003, where he’s shown to have a penchant for making bears, and is distraught due to all the others being «taken away.» In March 2004 it is revealed that having created Krosp, he was skilled in creating intelligent animal constructs. In hindsight, the appearance of an army of intelligent bears that were waiting for Krosp to show up and lead them as he had promised was probably inevitable.
• Combat Pragmatist: (Прагматичный боец) Rather than allowing his foes to slink off in terror of his victory, only to return later to seek revenge, Vapnoople finds that a permanent solution is superior. It’s all but stated that this pragmatism, especially when compared to the Stupid Evil characterizing most other malevolent Sparks, is what makes him so dangerous.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: (Избиение младенцев) Once his intelligence is restored he and Agatha deliver one to Lord Snackleford despite the latter having achieved Second Breakthrough. He doesn’t even break a sweat. He just as effortlessly subdues Agatha afterwards, requiring Krosp, Kjarl, and Tarvek to intervene before he can drag her to another dimension.
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) According to Wooster, he is the only modern Spark that Queen Albia actually feared.
• Dumb Is Good: He committed many crimes as a Spark (to the point that Albia is ready to go into a violent rage upon seeing him), but is friendly and almost child-like after his brain-coring. This is subverted in the print novel, however; he no longer has the intelligence, but still has the mindset of a Spark, with bouts of megalomania and an obsession with revenge. And when he gets better… it’s confirmed that he was definitely evil when smart.
• The Extremist Was Right: (Экстремист был прав) So it turns out that the Baron had a very good reason to neuter the man’s Spark, because with it Dimitri is every bit the villain that deserves to be lobotomized.
• Fate Worse than Death: (Участь хуже смерти) Baron Klaus experimented on his brain, effectively lobotomizing him and leaving him an imbecile who can no longer use his Spark. The novelization makes it worse — he still has the mindset of a Spark, and therefore treats being complimented on menial tasks as the highest accomplishment possible.
• Greater-Scope Villain: (Гад за Гадом) A downplayed case. Martellus von Blitzengaard is his apprentice, and it’s repeatedly implied that Martellus is only as dangerous as he is because of Vapnoople having been his teacher. The Sparkhounds he even created would later go on to serve as the Elite Mooks for the Knights of Jove. Furthermore, Vapnoople was a severe threat to not just the Wulfenbach Empire (Vapnoople’s forces held out for six months against the Baron directly, and went into successful hiding afterwards for well over two decades afterward), but also to Queen Albia of England herself, having managed to brainwash several of the Great Cetaceans into attacking Londinium until a grisly ceasefire could be arranged. It’s worth noting that he was also a close friend of the Mongfishes and that he knew Lucrezia Mongfish was the Other the whole time.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: (Тени былого величия) Albia is stunned to find the terrifying Spark who once managed to brainwash several of the Great Cetaceans (an ancient race of massive civilization-bearing whales who live in the depths of the ocean and who are even implied to be the cetacean counterparts to human Sparks who have achieved Second Breakthrough) into attacking England is now a friendly and innocent janitor whose brilliant mind has been, in her own words, «disassembled.»
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) Inverted. «Dimitri Vapnoople» is a rather silly name, but once his Spark is restored, he’s a deranged, extremely intelligent and highly dangerous maniac.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: (Злодей в дурацком колпаке) When Kjarl restores his Spark, we see precisely why Baron Wulfenbach selected him for his brain-coring Spark investigative experiments: he is an inveterate and legitimately terrifying Social Darwinist madboy just as malignant as his old reputation suggests, who believes that monsters will winnow the weak, and acts to the fullest extent of his abilities to that end. A shock to everyone who was used to sweet dimwitted «Dr. Dim».
• One Degree of Separation: He was apparently a fraternity brother to Saturnus Heterodyne, Agatha’s grandfather. At the same time, (according to Tweedle) he was an old friend of the Mongfish family. And, of course, he was Tweedle’s teacher and Wulfenbach’s janitor.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: (Зло воздающее) He was paid unto by Baron Wulfenbach. Deliberately inflicting psychologically degrading brain damage in the pursuit of understanding the physiological nature of the Spark sounds pretty heinous, enough for even another enemy of Vapnoodle to take pity on him afterwards… but then the Londinium arc shows that Vapnoodle was not at all undeserving of such a fate after his malignant intellect and top-class Spark were restored, and further backstory on his misdeeds are revealed.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) Possibly with his relationship with his creation Krosp, but again the whole timeline of events has not been made clear. If Vapnoople created Krosp before the bears, then created the bears to serve his failed experiment, yes, it was a very nice thing to do. On the other hand, if the bears were made first, then Krosp was probably just a cog in Vapnoople’s master plan, with the «cat king» thing being some sort of cover story. The print-novels make Vapnoople’s motives a lot less ambiguous and less pleasant: he specifically says that the bears were bred to wreak bloody revenge on Baron Wulfenbach, and that he deliberately bred near-slavish loyalty into his creations. Plus there’s the fact that his favorite apprentice was Martellus.
• Pragmatic Villainy: (Злодей-прагматик) He comments to his new «apprentice» Agatha that you should never be afraid to admit you may have made a mistake.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) He deliberately steps though a portal into a monster-filled higher dimension, though his attempt to take his new «apprentice» Agatha with him is thwarted. He vows to return and get his revenge on both Agatha and Krosp.
• Scars Are Forever: (Шрамы навсегда) His head is covered in a crosswork patching of scars from Baron Klaus' experiments.
• Stout Strength: (Упитанный силач) He’s very strong, able to effortlessly throw people around with one arm when he wants to.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Queen Albia of England has every reason in the world to hate and resent Dr. Vapnoodle for what he did to her country. Indeed, when Krosp comes to her seeking asylum for Dr. Dim, she’s ready to reject him outright… until she sees what Klaus Wulfenbach did to him.
• The Social Darwinist: (Социал-дарвинизм) Turns out to have been a big one. After his mind is restored, he immediately goes into a Motive Rant explaining that his monsters will «scour the land» and «cull the herd», leaving the «remains of humanity» stronger and sharper than ever. Basically, he believed that the principles of antimicrobial resistance («that which does not kill everything makes the survivors stronger») can and should be applied to human civilization.
• Uplifted Animal: (Возвышение) It seems that he specialized in making these, given his creation of Krosp. And Krosp’s army of uplifted bears.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж) In the first print novel, when Agatha and Krosp flee Castle Wulfenbach, Krosp tries to take Vapnoople with them, but fails due to the man’s damaged mind making him refuse to leave. We don’t know what happened to him after that until much later when Krosp and his bears take him to Londinium after rescuing him from Castle Wulfenbach.

Higgs

Higgs is first introduced as a lowlevel crewman who happened to be on the medical airship assigned to transport the wounded Baron to Mechanicsburg. Over time, it’s become clear that this was a cover identity. After much prolonged hinting and implications about his true nature and identity, he finally explicitly confirms the truth to Agatha in person. (See various spoilers below.)

• Affectionate Nickname: (Ласковое прозвище) Oggie has taken to calling him «The Kid».
• Almighty Janitor: (Бог-уборщик)
  • Higgs has a very wide range of skills. In particular he seems very good at winning. After the time skip, he seems to hold a position more in line with his talents, both as Gil’s personal attendant and as Agatha’s spymaster and the missing Jäger general.
  • Tarvek guesses that he actually plays this role for half the armies of Europa, taking innocuous and low-level roles that let him covertly infiltrate various militaries as needed.
• Amazon Chaser: (Любит сильных женщин) Chasing a literal Amazon, Zeetha, and she chases back.
• Ambiguously Human: (Се человек?) Looks normal enough, but is capable of feats of strength and stamina that would be virtually impossible for a normal human, even with the Rule of Cool-driven physics of this series. He’s also frequently implied to be much older than he looks, particularly by the Castle. It’s eventually revealed that he’s actually a Jäger, specifically their long-hidden 7th general. He is a curiousity amongst the Jägerkin, having acquired the durability, exertive capacity, and long life, but he never turned monstrous-looking like all the others. This peculiarity lends itself to his role as the Heterodynes' Spymaster.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: It takes frustration enough to make him blow his top, plus Agatha to finally repair Castle Heterodyne and take control of the town, but he finally admits to his feelings towards Zeetha here.
• All of the Other Reindeer: (Пария/Изгой) Downplayed, but still present Higgs is the only know Jäger to not exhibit any of the monsterous charactaristics they’re famous for. He’s more (or was) self-concious about this than you might expect, as it made him the odd-one-out amongst his brothers.
• Beneath Notice: (Никто не замечает официанта) Higgs infiltrates the target’s armies by signing up as some sort of low-ranking private and acting as a inocuous, bored grunt.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка)
  • Messing with Zeetha is a really easy way to set him off, as Zola finds out the hard way.
  • The Castle suggests that revealing anything about his Mysterious Past without his consent is another major button. Higgs later confirms it when Tarvek privately outs him as the seventh Jäger general. The only reason Higgs didn’t kill him on the spot is because Tarvek is still useful to Agatha.
• Bishōnen Line: (Эффект однокрылого ангела) He’s the seventh Jäger General and he’s virtually indistinguishable from a normal human being, while most of the other generals became more monstrous as they got older. He later confirms that he never gained any typical Jäger appearance traits when he drank the Jägerdraught in the first place. He did get the ones that counted: Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, and effective immortality.You know, only the boring Jager traits.
• Cloudcuckoolander’s Minder: (Сиделка чудака) He’s become one for Gil over the course of the Time Skip, as evidenced here.
• Cosmic Plaything: (Клизменный персонаж) The tale originally told about his rescue from the Baron definitely counts (he gets attacked by, among other things, a concussed pirate captain and a nesting goose) More recently it seems like he’s been drawn into the events swirling around Agatha and Gil without any real desire to be. Exactly how he prefers it to be interpreted.
• Covered in Scars: His arms and torso are dotted with criss-crossing marks from old wounds. He’s not stitched together like Klaus, but that’s probably just because he’s harder to tear apart in the first place.
• Death Glare: (Убийственный взгляд (в разработке))
  • When Zola stabs Zeetha. «I vas starting to like her.»
  • Later on, when Tarvek figures out he’s a Jäger General, he gives Tarvek one of these while nearly choking him to death, before deciding to let him live because of how useful he is.
• Determinator: (Превозмогатель) It is this which wins him his epithet. He’s not as «invulnerable» as some cast members, but no matter how much you damage him, he will keep coming. The fact that he’s a Jägermonster helps, of course.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: After the Time Skip both sides believes that he is a Double Agent working for them, and nothing has been seen to determine which side his allegiance is with. He’s eventually confirmed to be the Secret Jäger General, and ultimately serves Agatha and the Heterodyne family as The Spymaster.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: (Бить смертным боем) Once Zola pissed him off, things (including Zola) got ugly.
• Feel No Pain: (Нечувствительность к боли) He gets stabbed through the lungs and takes several seconds to remember that it should hurt him. In hindsight, this is yet another hint to his true nature.
• Freakiness Shame: (Не недостаток, а изюминка) Inverted. Despite how useful it is for his duties as Agatha’s Spymaster, it’s implied that Higgs has a slight complex about not having any of the usual cosmetic traits of a Jäger, particularly the teeth.
• Frontline General: (Генерал-рубака) Not in the conventional sense, but in the purview of espionage. Though he is officially the Heterodynes' Spymaster and is a Jäger General, he is out in the field himself, directly conducting spy operations.
• Game Face: A subtle version, but in the comic where he confronts Tarvek about uncovering his Secret Identity, you can see his grin becoming almost unnaturally wide and his teeth seem suspiciously sharp, the only obvious physical signs we’ve seen that he is, in fact, a Jäger.
• Genuine Imposter: (Притворяться тем, кем являешься) He’s forced into a Jäger costume after having been confirmed to be one.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: (Старый добрый мордобой) In close quarters, he won’t bother using a weapon. He really doesn’t need one, either, seeing as how he can tear through anything up to and including Sparkhounds (which are tough enough to shrug off conventional blades and bullets like pebbles against a brick wall) without visible effort.
• He Knows Too Much: (Не оставлять свидетелей?) He doesn’t mind if you are suspicious and act with Selective Obliviousness, but if you actually know his secret or start stating it outright, there is a high chance he will kill you, even if you are his girlfriend. The castle almost told Zeetha his secret because it thought that would be funny. Higgs himself starts threatening Tarvek when Tarvek alludes to his secret in open.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: (Они не геи) With Gil, strangely enough. He gives Gil relationship advice, shoots down Gil’s ideas of a sparky Grand Romantic Gesture, assists him in the restoration of Mechanicsburg and only reacts with mild annoyance when he learns Gil knew he was really a Jäger. Only Bang has comparable status with Gil following the Time Skip.
• Her Boyfriend’s Jacket: He’s the «boyfriend» in question; Zeetha possesses his jacket. He in turn was gifted her little face charm thingy that mimics her facial expression. Since it does so regardless of distance, it’s a way for him to know if she’s okay or not.
• I’d Tell You, but Then I’d Have to Kill You: The Castle states that if it told Zeetha exactly what his deal is, he’d do this. Since they like each other, it decides not to.

«	Zeetha: Aw. But.. Couldn’t you just tell me something? I mean, maybe just enough to that he’d only have try and wound me a little?	»

• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her…: While he doesn’t use the stock phrase, this definitely seems to be what Higgs is hinting at here — he makes it clear that he can quite quickly and easily kill Tarvek, but he holds off because he’s helping Agatha. He’s very clearly making the implication (and Tarvek clearly understands) that Higgs is not going to hold back if Tarvek even thinks about hurting Agatha.
• Implacable Man: (Неумолимый преследователь) Fans came to love him from his impossibly badass introduction, told by Doctor Sun. In the Castle, it is made clear that Sun’s story was vastly understating his capabilities.
• Kubrick Stare: (Взгляд Кубрика) In the rare cases where he gets angry, he delivers one of these to his victim.
• Let’s Get Dangerous!: (Ну-ка, от винта) For the most part, he stays in the background and doesn’t get actively involved. When he does get involved, he proves to be one of the most dangerous characters in the entire comic. You don’t become a Jäger General by inserting yourself into fights needlessly, but you also don’t by not being extraordinary deadly when you do.
• Lightning Bruiser: (Реактивный громила) His absurd durability is the very first thing readers learn about him. He’s also, properly motivated, capable of throwing around car-sized monsters like sacks of flour and moving so fast a trained Smoke Knight can’t react in time. It’s because he’s actually a Jägermonster who curiously and sadly missed out on the whole monster-ization effect of the Jägerdraught.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Despite being a general, he apparently wasn’t told about Robur Heterodyne’s encounter with the Dreen, since he’s as surprised as Gil to hear the Castle mention it.
• The Magnificent: The Unstoppable Higgs.
• Mayfly-December Romance: (Роман однодневки с вечностью) Post Time Skip him and Zeetha are official, and while we may not know much about him before the story, much less his age, what we do know is that he is definitely older than her 20-something. He outright tells Tarvek that he’s seen many generations of the Stormvoraus family line come and go, indicating he is much, much older than any human.
  • With regard to the problem of their relative lifespans, they really don’t know. It’s possible that the efforts Mamma Gkika went through to save Zeetha’s life, including Jägerdraught, have rendered her similarly long lived. Or not, because it wasn’t the full Jäger process either. They’ll have to find out like anyone else.
• Meaningful Rename: (Сменить имя) When asked the question of whether «Axel Higgs» is his real name, he states that it wasn’t his original name, but he considers it his real name now.
• Minion Shipping: He has an immediate soft spot for Zeetha, which eventually passes from a Bash Buddies stage to an actual (if informal) relationship. Becomes even more pronounced when it becomes apparent that he’s a Jäger; they’re both Agatha’s minions.
• More than Meets the Eye: There have been a lot of hints that Higgs is the Hero of Another Story. Let’s put the bits and pieces in a spoiler: The Castle knows him well, and for apparently longer than one human lifetime, and appears to have in interest in preserving his secret so vested that it notes it’d have to kill Zeetha if it told her. He requests permission to leave his post, but it’s not clear whether he asked Gil or Agatha. He’s actually seen Igneous Heterodynes (who clearly predated Bill and Barry) drink from the Dyne — he compared that reaction to Agatha’s. He knows the secret passages of Castle Heterodyne. The fight with Zola reveals distinctly superhuman strength, speed, and resilience to injury, and when upset he seems to have a trace of a Jäger (or at least East European) accent. The Jägers seem to be in on his secret, at least partly, since Dimo covers for him when Gil’s asking awkward questions. Mamma Gkika seems to know him quite well and refers to his 'tricks' (a word also mentioned in reference to the mysterious, hidden seventh Jäger General.) Most recently, these three strips hint that Higgs is, or at least was, a Jäger General. Note Higgs' reactions to what Gil says in the second strip and his use of «All» in the third. And here, Tarvek outright calls him a «general.» In the next strip, Higgs does everything short of outright confirming to Tarvek that he is a General, complete with his face deforming like a Jäger’s and saying that Tarvek will serve «the lady» quite well. He eventually outs himself to Agatha once Lucrezia is removed from her head.
• Not So Stoic: (Сломать стоика) He has facial expressions: he just doesn’t use them much, thanks to his Seen It All life.
• Older Than They Look: (Старше, чем выглядит) References old Heterodynes like he was there. «How time does fly». he also tells Tarvek that he’s seen many generations of the Stormvaus line pass. Being a Jäger, he may very well have. He later reveals that he received the Jägerdraught, from Vlad the Blasphemous, who originally brewed it; he’s among the oldest Jägers.
• Only a Flesh Wound: (Безобидная рана) Higgs seems to function normally even when the wounds he took should be debilitating or lethal, much like all of the other Jägers we’ve seen.
• Ooh, Me Accent’s Slipping: Or showing. When Zeetha is stabbed he shows a trace of what seems to be a Jäger accent. Muddying the issue is that some Mechanicsburg citizens have the accent as well, having maintained it through the generations as a matter of pride.
• Punny Name: Higgs is an Airman, 3rd class. A Seaman, 3rd class is a Bosun — so he’s Higgs, Bosun. The mysterious missing particle. (Still don’t get it? Ask a physicist.)
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Suffers a relatively short-term case of this, when he and Vole set out for Paris upon learning that Zeetha has been injured. He finally turns up serving in uniform on board a British submarine, with Vole nowhere to be seen.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) It’s implied by a number of characters that he’s actually much older than his appearance would suggest. Eventually confirmed with his reveal as a Jäger. He rode with the same Heterodyne who invented the Jagerdraught, who predated the construction of the current Castle Heterodyne, making him at least 600 years old.
• Sailor’s Ponytail: (Практичный «хвост») Complete with a bow at the end.
• Scars Are Forever: (Шрамы навсегда) Has such an epic map of scars on his chest that it can be mistaken for hair at first glance.
• Seen It All: He always looks rather bored, no matter what is going on. Being a Jäger General, he really has seen the worst possible in Europa.
  • Only one thing has really ever unnerved him and that’s falling in love with Zeetha. He never grew close to anyone like that before and the new experience almost scares him.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: (Она не моя девушка!) He and Zeetha went through this stage.

«	Higgs: Uh—she—she ain’t my Miss Zeetha, sir. Tarvek: Oh, heaven forbid. I’m sure you’d desert your post and hare off to save any green-haired amazon.	»

• Shipper on Deck: (Внутрисеттинговый шиппер) He favors Agatha/Gil, even going so far as to give Gil relationship advice.
• Signature Headgear: (Крутая шляпа) Apparently he’s a crewman of the ship Rozen Maiden. Later, after the Time Skip, he has a similar hat, but with «Wulfenbach» labeled instead, signifying that he’s moved up to a post on Castle Wulfenbach. His tendencies toward such apparel is because he is a Jäger.
• Slasher Smile: (Улыбашка) The only smile he has to offer is one of these while choking Tarvek one-handed. Both meant to intimidate and clue him (and the readers) in that he’s right about Higgs being a Jäger General, perhaps more right than he’d want: a mouth and teeth like that could only belong to a Jäger.
• Smoking Is Cool: (Крутой курильщик) That is one badass pipe.
• The Spymaster: Higgs is the missing seventh Jäger General, and announces himself as Agatha’s spymaster.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Quite possibly one of the most awesome examples of this trope ever, where Higgs calls out Gil (and apparently a lot of other male Sparks Higgs has known) for doing utterly ridiculous things to try and communicate with a girl they have a crush on instead of just writing a letter, as seen here.

«	Higgs: Now. Write. Use the pen. On the paper. Tell her what you want to say. Gil: [Beat] I could build a machine that would project a simulacrum of myself that could explain— Higgs: Why I smacked you? Gil: Or… I could… just write…	»

• The Stoic: (Стоик) Which makes the few rare times he loses his temper all the more terrifying.
• Super-Toughness: He’s repeatedly shown suffering Amusing Injuries that fit the cartoony art style but would definitely have damaged most of the cast. In the case of the fight with Zola, the injuries are no longer amusing… but he’s still fighting. In fact, he’s getting faster. Being a Jäger helps.
• Touché: (Туше́) When Agatha points out that, due to the long amount of time they’ve been in each other’s presence, Gil likely already has deduced that Higgs is the secret Seventh Jaegar general, Higgs dismisses the idea, only for Gil to show up and, upon reading the atmosphere between everybody, basically confirm Agatha’s hypothesis, to which Higgs can only begrudgingly commend him for his ability to downplay his insight.

«	Agatha: Isn’t he wonderful? Higgs: Hmf. He’s good, I’ll give you that.	»

• Token Human: (Человек в стане монстров) Downplayed. He hardly looks out of place in Agatha’s group. That said, he is, to date, the only Jäger to partake of the draught, and survive with all the abilities it gives, but none of the physical transformations. At the very least, he regrets not getting the teeth.
• Tranquil Fury: (Холодная ярость) The rare moments where Higgs gets angry are moments where he still remains absolutely calm… but also absolutely dedicated to destroying whatever has pissed him off.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) As a Jäger, literally, to Agatha, seeing how she’s the only known living Heterodyne.
  • He also seems to have this towards Gil to a lesser extent; even putting aside the fact that it ultimately helps Agatha, he was still more than willing to accompany Gil on the first expedition into the time-frozen Mechanicsburg. Possibly he sees no contradiction between serving both Agatha and Gil.
• Unfazed Everyman: He seems this at first, but as we see him more and more, it’s obvious that his durability was not just there for a gag as originally depicted. He’s still unfazed by a lot of stuff, though. Ultimately Averted by the reveal that he’s the hidden 7th Jäger General; he remains entirely unfazed, but he’s definitely no everyman, he simply plays the role of one.
• Unreliable Narrator: (Ненадёжный рассказчик) The story that initially earned him the fans' love and respect was related by him to the group of soldiers that found him. It hasn’t quite… meshed with what we’ve seen of him. It turns out he’s more badass, not less. Considering what we’ve seen him go through in order to reduce him to «walking wounded», what Higgs went through to get the injuries Dr. Sun mentioned has to have been far, far worse than what he reported.
• Zen Survivor: He seems tranquil, or apathetic, or slightly bored most of the time. Most of the time. It’s implied later on that this is due to his long lifespan and the countless things he has seen. If his comments to Vole about how «we all did» horrible things and then growing up, he may have done some stuff he grew to not be proud of as he got Older and Wiser.

Oglavia Spudna

Gil’s spymaster after the Time Skip. She is unnervingly good at her job.

• Card-Carrying Villain: (Злодей до мозга костей) Reason she became a spy? She likes spying on people.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Her most usual facial expression is this.
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) She’s able to get a spy to spill the beans just by being alive and in the same room.
• Evil Counterpart: (Оттенить героя мерзавцем) She has a similar hairstyle and build to Violetta, is Gil’s spymaster
• Ignored Epiphany: She listened a lecture from Othar that almost, almost made her reconsider her calling in life. And then she realised this wouldn’t let her spy on people. «So nuts to that!»
• Oh, Crap! : (Осознание катастрофы) When a captured librarian realized who she was, the librarian was freaked out and eager to talk.
• Opaque Lenses: Never seen without goggles of this type. Combined with her smile, they make her look very creepy.
• Psycho Psychologist: (Злой психиатр) It’d appear that she specializes in human psychology, and happens to be impressed by the Other’s use of Mind Control.

«	Spüdna: If she has indeed achieved the mass mental takeover of an entire population… Such a feat… So impressive… Gil: Wrong lesson, Spüdna.	»

• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Based on rumors stated by a captured librarian.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: She can perform these as befitting of a spy. When Gil gave his permit to meet him, Spudna appeared with these and surprised the Battle Butler.
• Token Evil Teammate: (Какой ни есть, а он за нас) She takes this role among Gil’s forces from Bang, suggesting that she has her people steal Agatha’s Wasp Eater (the same Wasp Eater she needs to live without Martellus’s «Touch of the King») to accelerate production of their own and brushes off Gil’s refusal by saying she could just frame Martellus for it.
• Torture Technician: (Мастер пыток) And even wrote a book about Cold-Blooded Torture in her youth.

Ruxala

One of the Wulfenbach Vepiary Squad members who survived being hunted down after the Baron was wasped.

• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) Her job (aside of rounding up revenants) is fighting slaver wasp warriors, which is a challenge even for superhumanly strong constructs. Observe a Ruxala outnumbered by these things and «distraught». Very efficient, too.
• Berserker Tears: (Плакать от злости) Ruxala sat in tears until Slaver Wasp Warriors claw-stab her captain and walk in… carnage ensues.

«	Tarvek: Ah—I’m… I’m sorry, you just seemed rather… distraught— Ruxala: Of course I’m distraught! (still weeping, brains her third bug in a row, not even looking at it) They hurt my weasels!	»

• Determinator: (Превозмогатель) Despite being badly wounded Ruxala continues to carry out her job, even if that means using a walking stick and making her way around a notoriously dangerous city while heavily bandaged.
• Offhand Backhand: (Врезать не глядя) Ruxala offhand-headshots a warrior wasp behind her back while crying.
• Sole Survivor: (Последний выживший) Very nearly so. Upon escaping the time stop, she was shot by Wulfenbach troops, but managed to survive to be rescued by the Jaegers. Turns out that they knew that the Bughunters were trying to sneak away. Only one group was saved by Maxim while every other detachment was killed. Other than that, a few more Bughunters could be trapped in the time stop.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Ruxala and most of her weasels were caught up in the Take-Five bomb and are stuck in the Red Cathedral. One weasel made it through the Queen’s Mirror with Agatha. Or so it seemed. She actually made it out at the last second on a motorcycle and was subsequently hidden by the Jaegerkin while she and a small handful of survivors rebuilt the weasel program.

Von Pinn

When first encountered Von Pinn seemed to just be another of the many monsters given jobs by the Baron. It eventually emerged, however, that she was the nursemaid at Castle Heterodyne when Agatha was born and this has made things rather interesting. Pursued by many Jägers as the height of womanhood and absolutely terrifying, Von Pinn seems to hate Agatha, fear what she is to become (whatever that is) and want to protect her.

• Action Girl: (Бой-баба) Punches in the same weight class as Jägers, or a little above.
• Big Damn Heroes: (Офигенные герои) At least once.
• Bullet Catch: (Поймать стрелу рукой) She’s fast enough to catch rivets thrown at bullet-like velocity and deflect a further handful of rivets at super-speed.
• Combat Sadomasochist: (Боевой садомазохист)
  • Oh, yes.
  • Her attitude improved a lot the moment she was transferred into a body without pain sensitivity.
• Compelling Voice: (Магия звука) She can do this when in her mechanical muse body, it isn’t very effective in the other bodies she’s worn.
• Dark Action Girl: (Зло с женским лицом) If the way she looks isn’t enough her response to getting stabbed in the hand is to run her hand down the blade to grab the hilt.
• Dark Is Not Evil: (Тьма не есть зло) Dark, vicious, aggressive, but not evil.
• Enigmatic Minion: Has a complex agenda that we now know some of the details of, but not the whole story.
• Femme Fatalons: Her primary weapons.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Otilia’s original body is smashed in half at the waist by Higgs, just before the Castle fragment in her body can identify him. Higgs then claims it was worn out due to old age.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Just look at her!
• High-Class Glass: (Монокль высокомерия) Not your average monocle.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) The Other, or perhaps Lucrezia, is terrified of her, even after having shoved her mind into a body she could control. With good reason. It only intensifies after Von Pinn reveals she’s found ways to circumvent Lucrezia’s hold on her.
• It’s Personal: (Это личное)
  • Things between Agatha and Von Pinn didn’t get off to a great start, but then she killed Punch and Judy. The next time they met, Agatha was not in a forgiving mood.
  • On the other end, she is quite furious with Lucrezia, what with Lucrezia robbing her of her original body and all.
• Large and in Charge: (Большой — значит главный) Von Pinn is incredibly tall. As Otilia, she was a full three metres.
• Magical Nanny: Well, SCIENCE! nanny, but yes. Of the «stern but fair» variety.
• Mama Bear: (Родительский инстинкт)
  • DO NOT endanger the children under her protection. Even if you’re one of them.
  • She’s apparently the most protective of Gil. Had Agatha not been able to force Von Pinn to let her go, things would probably have gotten much worse before they got better, thanks to Agatha making a remark about really not liking Gil after first meeting him.
  • And it turns out the kids return her loyalty.
• Mega Neko: (Кот-бегемот) Otilia’s gone from a human(ish) body to that of an enormous mechanical cat. She likes being a cat clank better, even if it’s not as good as her original, Van Rijn built body. When it’s asked how she’ll adapt to the new body, Sleipnir’s response is «given the similarities, I think it quite likely that she won’t notice any difference at all.»
• No Listening Skills: When Agatha first meets her, Von Pinn sternly reprimands her for constantly walking around in her underwear and for endangering Gil. While Agatha repeatedly tries to explain the circumstances behind both of those, Von Pinn refuses to listen to anything she has to say, interrupts her before she can put in a word and goes so far as to blame Agatha’s parents for her behavior, along with accusing her of trying to woo Gil to «better her position».
• No-Sell: (Никакого эффекта) By the time she fights Lucrezia in the latter’s old lab in Castle Heterodyne, she has managed to nullify the effect of Lucrezia’s Compelling Voice on her.

«	Von Pinn: Sssss- That will no longer work, you filthy thief of souls. It was not easy, but I have found ways to break your hold.	»

• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) A few details about her are as yet unclear. Lucrezia found her Muse body chained up behind a wall, but it’s anyone’s guess how that happened.
• Not Quite Dead: (Скорее жив, чем мёртв) Seriously, someone like Von Pinn is a threat as long as they can move a finger.
• Parental Substitute: Yes, kids on Castle Wulfenbach had a vicious guardian construct in loco parentis and were rather attached to her.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) Von Pinn was originally the Van Rijn muse Otilia, built centuries ago for the Storm King.
• Restraining Bolt: Lucrezia designed her construct body to be unable to resist a direct command from her. When Agatha’s sufficiently fired up, she can do the same.
• Sanity Slippage: When her charge Klaus Barry Heterodyne was killed, she went completely insane and had to be locked up until the Baron found a use for her.
• Sinister Suffocation: Threatens to kill Lucrezia by strangling her unless she lets Agatha retake control of her body. And it works.

«	Von Pinn: Heh. Your mother was always a coward at heart.	»

• Super-Soldier: (Суперсолдаты) Well, the programming of a legendary combat robot downloaded into a construct body of notable resilience. Works out the same.
• Took a Level in Badass: (Поднял уровень крутизны) As Otilia, while her design was for protection, she apparently wasn’t much of a fighter, according to Tarvek. She was designed more to teach others how to fight, and lacked the physical strength to be that much of a threat. Von Pinn is most definitely a fighter. She takes another level once transferred into one of the Castle’s «Mobile Fun Dispensers.»
• Wetware Body:
  • It now appears that she is the Muse Otilia, transferred into a construct body as part of Lucrezia’s experimentation. Why she did this, where the body’s original mind, if any, ended up, and what this will mean is still up in the air.
  • She has since had her mind transferred out of her organic body, since it was dying, and transferred into a giant cat clank (with improvements) until her original Muse body is repaired. She seems happy with it.
• What the Hell, Hero?: (Что за фигня, герой?) When Agatha drops her down a bottomless pit. «TRULY YOU ARE YOUR MOTHER’S CHILD!»
• Winged Humanoid: (Крылатая раса) As Otilia, Muse of Protection, she was unique among her sisters for coming with a pair of wings. By the time Agatha finds her, the wings have become pretty ragged.

The Lackya

Formerly the construct servants of the Duke D’Omas, aka the Gilded Duke, a year prior to the events of the comic, they entered the Baron’s service after he toppled the Duke. Only one of them, Katz, has been named so far.

• Badass in a Nice Suit: (Крутой в деловом костюме) They all wear fine footmans' uniforms with long coats…which they keep wearing even in battle.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: All of them have a monobrow the same color as their hair.
• Character Tic: (Характерный жест) According to the novels they have a hand-scrubbing motion they engage in when nervous.
• Clone Army: (Клоны и клонирование) Thus far all the Lackya we’ve seen but one have all been male, with silver hair, green eyes and little facial variation, and even the one with different hair may have been a coloring error. Considering they’re a race of constructs, this may not be too surprising.
• Fate Worse than Death: (Участь хуже смерти) The Baron punishes one of the Lackya by making him a Jӓger orderly. When the Lakya protests, horrified, Klaus says the alternative is to be sent to Castle Heterodyne. In the novelization, the narration says the Lackya has to think about it.
• Glamour Failure: Although they look pretty human, in the novel Agatha notes something odd about their gait.
• Interservice Rivalry: (Соперничество служб) The Lackya and Jӓgerkin do not get along, with the Jӓgerkin seeing the former as «useless ponces» and «nancy boys».
• Lightning Bruiser: (Реактивный громила) Described as moving like lightning with elegant precision in the novel. In the comic, we can see one punching straight through a warrior wasp’s head.
• One-Gender Race: (Нет женщин и детей) As yet, all the ones we’ve seen are apparently male.
• Servant Race: (Раса слуг) Like the Jagers, the Lackya have a need to serve someone, so the Baron uses them as footmen once he takes out their master. After the Jagers leave the Baron’s service, the Lackya are mentioned (in the novels) to have taken over many of their duties.
• Stronger Than You Look: (Сильнее, чем кажется) In the novel, one twists his hand free from a Jager’s grip, and smirks at the Jager’s startlement.
• Technicolor Eyes: Solid green with slit pupils.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) If there is one thing that makes the Jägers begin to show a modicum of respect to the Lackya, it’s their loyalty to Klaus.

«	Lackya: Perhaps you Jägers do not understand loyalty! The Baron took us in! Saved us! If and when he returns, he will find us here! Ready to serve! […] Jäger: Oh, nize vork, beeg mouth! Now Hy gots to start liking dese guys!	»

• Uplifted Animal: (Возвышение) According to the Jager who Agatha meets on the airship, Lackya are «zuper-engineered sqvirrels or zumting». Of course, squirrels don’t have eyes like theirs, or sharp fangs, nor do they hiss when angry, so they may actually be feline in nature, or some mix of creatures. Or he could be wrong and they’re something else entirely.
• Yes-Man: (Собачье послушание) Thus far the only one we’ve seen even questioning Baron Wulfenbach did so out of concern for him — namely that resurrecting Princess Zulenna would bring reprisal from the Fifty Families. In the novel, this single expressed opinion is enough for the Baron to note that the Lackya are getting argumentative.

Bohrlaikha

A Wulfenbach clank assigned to guard Gil after the Time Skip.

• BFS: (Офигенно большой меч) Her sword is almost as long as a grown adult is tall.
• Combat Parkour: (Паркур?) Bohrlaikha is able to fight an opponent several times her size even as she’s somersaulting in mid-air.
• The Juggernaut: (Джаггернаут) Few things can stop her for a meaningful amount of time. Gil eventually resorted to trapping her in the Mechanicsburg time bubble, and even that begins to fail after her time is restored for a split second.
• Master Swordsman: (Мастер меча) Bohrlaikha’s sword is not just a decoration — she can slice up a Humongous Mecha with it as easily as cutting a cake.
• Sinister Surveillance: It’s implied that Klaus built her to keep an eye on Gil and make sure he doesn’t step out of line if his mental imprint should fail to do the job.

Grantz

One of Baron Wulfenbach’s best monster hunters.—-

• BFS: (Офигенно большой меч) Carries a sword almost as long as she is, and she is tall.
• Brawn Hilda: Grantz is very tall, very strong, wears her hair short, and is one of the rare exceptions to Europa’s Worldof Buxom.
• Effortless Amazonian Lift: The imobilex jug is heavy on its own; when occupied, heavy machinery may be required to move it. Grantz carries it on her shoulder with no apparent effort.
• Monster/Slayer Romance: With Sergeant Nak, implied in the comic and confirmed in the novels. Downplayed, at least from her perspective, as she only hunts monsters who make trouble; not so much for Sergeant Nak, based on his flirtations.
• Offscreen Momentof Awesome: (Закадровый момент крутости) Grantz is able to take down and capture Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, who is able to win hand-to-hand combat with a Jäger. Twice.

Castle Wulfenbach Students as a whole

A mixed bag of Sparks, nobles, and young people with connections to both, kept on Castle Wulfenbach to be schooled… and to discourage stupid behavior in their families. Many of them remain as of yet un-named but two, Sleipnir O’Hara and Theopholous DuMedd, re-entered the story in Mecanicsburg. Three in particular have more characterization than the rest: Zulenna Luzhakna, Theopholous DuMedd, and Sleipnir O’Hara.

• Arranged Marriage: (Брак по договорённости) Sleipnir had a political marriage waiting for her back home before she ran off with Theo. There are hints other students may be in a similar situation.
• Blue Blood/Science-Related Memetic Disorder: (Аристократ) Anyone without at least one of the two is at the bottom of the social heap. Sleipnir notes that Sparks matter more than lineage, although Theo Dumed is head boy with no title and only «a touch of the spark» — possibly because he’s related to the Heterodyne Boys by marriage.
• Gilded Cage: (Принцесса в клетке) They’re happy, healthy, and well treated, but it’s also true that they are hostages. At least one of them regretted having to leave, though he may have had other reasons. As Tarvek put it, Castle Wulfenbach is the place to be — especially for an ascending Spark.
• Gone Horribly Right: (Всё пошло слишком так) According to the novels, the Baron mainly started up the program to keep the kids of various troublesome nobles and Sparks from getting underfoot. Ushering in a renaissance of intelligent and decent future rulers hadn’t really been part of the plan at all.
• The Mole: (Внедрённый агент (в разработке)) Tarvek got kicked from Castle Wulfenbach because of this reason and he countered with basically «Who isn’t?». The students are not only hostages, they are also spying on Wulfenbach from inside his base of operation (or at least, sending the information the Baron wants them to have to their families).
• Political Hostage: In the manner of old-fashioned royalty, to keep their families in line; though they’re largely okay with it. In fact, Tarvek preferred living on Castle Wulfenbach to being at home, as it was where all the important people were (and where he could be away from his Big, Screwed-Up Family).

Zulenna

A royal without the Spark, but with a strong sense of noble pride, as well as unshakable faith in the Baron. She starts out strongly antagonistic towards Agatha for a large number of reasons. However, she changes her tune when Agatha’s heritage is revealed. The Heterodyne Boys personally designed her family’s defenses, and thus she stays behind to buy Agatha and the others time to escape. She is killed by DuPree, but Klaus orders her put in the cold room to be revived later.

• Alpha Bitch: (Альфа-сука) Zulenna is the main enforcer of the pecking order amongst the students.
• Freudian Excuse: (Тяжёлое детство) Sparks matter more than lineage. So, as non-Sparky Princess, her standing was not the highest and she became an Alpha Bitch to compensate for what she lacks.
• Heroic Sacrifice: (Героическое самопожертвование) When Agatha escapes, Zulenna stays behind and stands up to Von Pinn. Then Bang subverts that to hell a page later. Then Von Pinn double-subverts it as the ensuing squabble gives Agatha the time she needs to escape. And then Klaus orders Zulenna be brought back to life.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: (Не рой яму другому/Сам себя перехитрил?) In the comics, she tries to seduce a guardsman, which fails for reasons undisclosed and requires application of a wrench to the head to get past. The novel explains that a short time prior she’d upbraided that very guard for a minor offense, and so if she was suddenly being all nice to him when there was a Slaver Wasp infection going on, why, he’d have to be an idiot not to be suspicious.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: (Милая стервочка) Revealed with her Heroic Sacrifice; she may look down on anyone of lower station, but she gives her life to repay a family debt. Also in Tarvek’s own words, she was always very nice to him, which is why he arranged things behind the scenes for her to even be on Castle Wulfenbach.
• Team Mom: (Командная мама) Though Von Pinn is the official nanny, Zulenna does help mind the younger students; admonishing them to not believe everything in a story, and keeping them kempt at the dinner table.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж) She is killed by Bang after Von Pinn is unable to overcome her programming when Zulenna pulls a You Shall Not Pass!, but the Baron intends to revivify her against the social by-laws about resurrecting aristocratic family members. And then… nothing (so far).
  • No mention is made of Zulenna, though there has been talk of her homeland, Holfung-Borzoi, which has forged a new alliance with a former enemy, being overseen by Zola/the Queen of the Dawn. But as discussed in Othar’s Twitter account, it’s very likely Zulenna is leading a covert revolt in the area under the name «Steel Strike».
  • She’s later revealed to be a cousin to Tarvek and the only reason she was on Castle Wulfenbach was because he pulled strings in order to keep her safe. He thinks she’s dead dead, though, and beats himself up for it.
• White Sheep: (Белая овца) She’s a cousin of Tarvek’s (exact connection beyond that unclear), but unlike the rest of Tarvek’s family, who are pretty much all lying, murderous, duplicitous, evil, insane and any combination thereof, she’s honest and honorable, if incredibly smug and somewhat unpleasant.

Theo

A friendly Sparky boy, mostly in charge of wrangling the younger students. His mother was one of the Mongfish sisters, making him Agatha’s cousin — a fact he is quite pleased to discover, considering she’s the first family member he’s had who’s not dead, missing, or a head in a jar.

• Actually Pretty Funny: (На самом деле это довольно смешно) The Baron actually smirks on hearing Theo’s story about The Other being a robot dragon. And flashes another small smile hearing that Theo is avoiding grease-trap cleaning duty to work on building an automatic grease-trap cleaning device.
• Big Man on Campus: (Самый крутой парень в школе) As the Head Boy of the group. He’s got both Blue Blood and the Spark.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: His parents died several years ago, apparently fighting pirates.
• Gargle Blaster: (Укипаловка) A specialty of Theo’s. Just one is enough to even knock out Gil! Note that he somehow managed to make a 200 proof beverage that contains something other than alcohol, which is chemically impossible (A 200 proof drink is 100 % ethyl alcohol by definition).
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка)

«	Theo: Well, we’re in a Heterodyne story now. These things happen.	»

• Get a Room!: After Theo starts to really Spark out near fan-of-science Sleipnir, their resulting… chemistry leaves the other present characters very eager to leave and give them the room.
• Long-Lost Relative: Theo’s mother was Lucrezia’s sister, Serpentina, which makes Agatha his first cousin. Unlike the rest of the Mongfish family relationships, the one between Theo and Agatha is far more cordial and friendly. As it turns out, Serpentina was the good sister, who rejected her family’s evil and ran off with Theo’s father. He’s also related to Zola the same way, as her mother was third Mongfish sister, Demonica. This has not been mentioned directly in any fashion.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) DuMedd was originally «doomed», until the Foglios got attached. His name is also «the awfulest dumb-head».
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) After fleeing Castle Wulfenbach, he is mentioned in passing as the source of how Othar found out who Agatha really is, but that was it until the Mechanicsburg arc. He’s back on the really huge double-decker bus along with a lot of other characters caught in the fan-named Take-Five time-freeze bomb that was the cause of the Time Skip.
• Relationship Reveal: He and Sleipnir are revealed to be more than just traveling companions when she starts getting turned on by Theo sparking out in Lucrezia’s secret lab.

«	Theo: OH YES. I CAN DO THIS! Sleipnir: Oooh! Now that’s the brilliantly Sparky beast I ran off with! Theo: Care to assist me? Sleipnir: Rwowr!	»

• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: He has the Spark.
• Sins of the Father: Lucrezia initially pretends to be overjoyed to see «Little Theo» again… until it turns out she remembers the time Theo’s dad left her for dead in an exploding lab. And she didn’t get along with her sister Serpentina either…

«	Theo: (choking) Really? Lucrezia: Really.	»

• The Storyteller: (Сказитель) Well-known enough that Klaus is able to realize he was the one behind the break-in at his lab when the kid they caught mentioned a story.
• White Sheep / Token Good Teammate / Only Sane Man: (Белая овца/Алибабаевич/Единственный нормальный человек) Not For Wulfenbach students, but for Mongfish family, along with Agatha. His grandfather Lucifer Mongfish was a long-time enemy of the Heterodyne boys, his aunt Lucrezia was the Other, and his other cousin is Zola. We can only imagine how bad the rest of the Mongfishes were. (It’s implied that his late mother was also one of these.)

Sleipnir

A highly intelligent mechanic (not a Spark) who quickly befriends Agatha onboard the Castle.

• Adrenaline Makeover: Between the adventure in Castle Wulfenbach and her re-appearance in Mechanicsburg, she gets her hair cut short, trades in her frumpy jumpsuit for a revealing halter-top, and very… «fitted» bodice and pants.
• Deadpan Snarker: (Язвительный насмешник) When questioned about whether Von Pin will have psychological problems adapting to having her mind transferred from the body she’s used for decades into «a giant tiger clank with steel claws», Sleipnir responds that «given the similarities, I think it quite likely that she won’t notice any difference at all.»
• Get a Room!: See this entry for Theo.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) Sleipnir was introduced as Agatha’s roommate on Castle Wulfenbach — someone to «sleep near.» This is lost in the novels where Agatha’s roommate is Zulenna.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Similar to Theo, The Bus Came Back in Mechanicsburg and left again with the Take-Five bomb.
• Redhead In Green: (Рыжий в зелёном) Sleipnir spends much of the comic during her stay on Castle Wulfenbach in a green jumpsuit. Once in Mechanicsburg, she trades it for a haltertop — still green.
• Relationship Reveal: See Theo’s entry.
• Runaway Fiancé: When Agatha met her on Castle Wulfenbach, she had an arranged marriage waiting for her back home, but by the time she met up with Agatha again in Castle Heterodyne, she’d run off with Theo.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: She doesn’t have the Spark, but she still has some similar tendencies. In addition to becoming his lover, she’s also starting to become Theo’s personal minion.
• Wrench Wench: (Гаечка) She’s introduced wearing a jumpsuit after a duty shift doing mechanical work, and is handy as a Spark’s minion.

Itto

One of the younger students on Castle Wulfenbach who likes Theo’s Heterodyne Boys stories and is eager to have some adventure himself and to hang out with the older kids.

• It’s All My Fault: Itto tries to invoke this when he realizes the Baron isn’t buying his story of sneaking into the labs alone, though he still doesn’t give up any names of other students.
• The Load: (Балласт) No one gets mad at him since they did pass up an opportunity to take him back to the dorms, but once they get into the Baron’s lab he gets startled and freaks out, yelling and running away, alerting the Baron to the presence of the students and he is the only one that gets caught since he goes the wrong way. He does refuse to give up the older students, though the Baron is able to figure out Theo’s involvement from things Itto says and just knowing Theo.
• Most Definitely Not Accompanying Us: When the older Castle Wulfenbach Students decide to sneak into the Baron’s lab so they can see what a wasp engine looks like, Itto tries to invite himself along. He is quickly told by Theo that he is way too young for them to let him come with. He manages to follow them for a while before they catch him and Zulenna decides to allow him to tag along, but not before stressing how dangerous the engine is and scaring him to the point that he no longer really wants to.
• Tagalong Kid: He’s starting to try and join the older students when they try to sneak into forbidden parts of the castle.

The Knights of Jove

Ссылка: [12]

Loyal Order of the Knights of Jove

Various characters involved in the highly factional Storm King conspiracy.

The Fifty Families

The former ruling elite of Europa consisting of fifty noble houses all vying to have one of their own declared Storm King. Many of them were decimated by during the Other War while the rest were conquered by Baron Wulfenbach. Chafing under the Baron’s rule, the Families united and secretly began conspiring to overthrow the Wulfenbach Empire.

• Aristocrats Are Evil: (Загнивающая аристократия)
  • Their main goal is to get rid of Klaus and reinstall the Storm King as Europa’s ruler in order to halt the meritocracy that’s slowly growing under the Wulfenbach Empire and protect their various elitist traditions, caring little about the death and destruction their actions have caused or the fact they are likely inviting war and chaos to tear the continent apart.
  • They assisted Lucrezia in the Other War since, though she was causing mass destruction and enslavement, she was also wiping out a lot of the «upstart» Spark Houses. It’s almost certain that if she hadn’t disappeared then she would have eventually wiped them out as well.
  • In general, most of the Fifty Families are made up of people who are of incredibly low morality and are completely blasé about murder, betrayal and inflicting pain on others, even when it’s done on their own family members.
• Artistic License — Politics: (Не в ладах с политикой) Often the term «royal» is used for all among the Fifty Families, despite many of them being nobility (dukes, counts, (reigning) princes, etc.) instead of royalty (kings, queens, (heir) princes, princesses, etc.). Granted «royal» is sometimes used for reigning nobles IRL, but mostly in common parlance and not anything formal. It would be weird, as an example, for Duke Strinbeck to say «my royal personage» IRL (unless he was a king’s relative who also happened to be a duke).
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство) The majority of the members shown so far are directly or indirectly related to one another, and most of them have tried to murder each other at some point either for personal benefit or mere enmity. Tarvek is shown to have been to related at least five other families and most of them, including his own, have tried to kill him at one point or another with it being made clear that this behavior isn’t abnormal.
• Death Is Cheap: (Дешёвая смерть) Averted. While resurrection is common in the Girl Genius universe, one of the major rules of nobility is that when you die you’re removed from the line of succession, and your heir immediately inherits your titles and holdings even if you get revived.
• Enemy Mine: (От вражды к союзу) Most of the Fifty Families were bitter enemies but they’ve joined together in their hopes of defeating the Wulfenbach Empire.
• Evil Reactionary: (Злодей-консерватор) By and large, the Fifty Families want to take over the Baron’s empire because they want a «proper» monarch like in the «good old days» of the Storm King. Unfortunately, some factions are willing to collaborate with the Other to do so.
• The Ghost: (Закадровый персонаж) Only about a fifth of the Fifty Families have been introduced, most of whom are lower-ranking members of their respective Houses.
• Gone Horribly Right: (Всё пошло слишком так) When several of the families decided to go ahead with their plan to overthrow Klaus ahead of schedule, they manipulated a large number of small rebellions into erupting simultaneously to act as distractions. Said rebellions quickly grew out of control and caused numerous other rebellions to pop up all over Europa, which completely derailed almost all of the Families’ plans.
• Greater-Scope Villain: (Гад за Гадом) The Fifty Families' and Storm King conspiracy are prominent secondary antagonists right behind the Other but their current scheming and past dealings with Lucrezia are responsible for a lot of the tragedies in the story.
• It’s the Principle of the Thing: Europa’s nobility actually have little issue with how Klaus runs Europa nor does Klaus harass them unless they start causing trouble. The main reason they scheme to overthrow him, and potentially trigger a country-destroying war, is because he refuses to «play the game» and acknowledge that social rank is important or legitimate. Had Klaus declared himself emperor after taking Europa, the Fifty Families would have proudly served him as slaves. According to the novels, a couple members of the Storm King conspiracy defected to the Empire after learning Gil has a claim to a royal title through his mother’s side.
• Leeroy Jenkins: (Лирой Дженкинс) The Storm King conspiracy’s original, long-term plan to overthrow Klaus was fairly well-hidden and had a legitimate chance of succeeding. However, the appearance of Agatha and her injuring the Baron caused many members of the conspiracy to panic or try to take advantage of the situation, with some speeding up their plans to take Castle Heterodyne while others decided to go off-script entirely and try to kill Klaus or conquer parts of the Empire for themselves. This early playing of their hand not only caused them to reveal themselves to the Empire before they were ready to confront it but it also caused a lot their existing plan to fall apart.
• Motive Decay: Apparently, the Knights of Jove started off as a loyal order dedicated to the Storm King, which then got hijacked by the Other. After she was gone, it was mostly reduced to a few old farts who just used it as an excuse to hang out, drink and mutter about «the good old days». Then Zola’s backers came along…
• Old Shame: (Не хочу об этом вспоминать) They’re terribly embarrassed about their origins. Not because of the part about their ancestors murdering their way to the top, just the parts where it sounded like their ancestors performed actual labor.
• Realpolitik: (Реальная политика) «The game», as the Families call it, is a never-ending, centuries-long series of wars, alliances and shady dealings between the nobles done in attempt to get one of their own declared Storm King.
• The Remnant: (Злодей-недобиток) They’re a shell of their former selves after the timeskip caused by Klaus' Take-Five Bomb. After the Other was done, there were only seventeen of the prior great houses left, and that’s assuming the strife between then and the modern day hasn’t whittled them down further.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: (Верный вывод неверным путём) Their standard criticism of the Baron’s regime is that, being an unrecognized authority without a royal title, the Baron’s empire «won’t last a day when he’s gone» (as his status as Just the First Citizen means his government only exists as long as he does). Eventually the Baron steps out of the picture, and (as predicted) the empire sank with it’s captain. However, the reason why the empire collapsed is exactly because the Fifty Families refused to recognize it and tripped over each other when trying to take power.
• Secret-Keeper: (Хранитель тайны) An evil version. The Families knew that Lucrezia was the Other, with some being fanatically loyal to her, and they managed to hide it from Klaus for almost two decades.
• Super Supremacist: (Злой Супермен) Many Families insist that only a Spark can be Storm King, even though Andronicus Valois wasn’t one, and it’s implied that Sparks are often given precedence in inheritance.

Andronicus Valois

A legendary ruler who commanded the Knights of Jove and ruled a large chunk of Europe roughly 200 years ago. Super-Spark Van Rijn constructed the Muses for him. He beat back the forces of Bludtharst Heterodyne as head of the "Coalition of the West, " for which he was hailed as the «Storm King» and received the blessing of the «Five Good Emperors.» According to an opera written about his life, he fell in love with Euphrosynia Heterodyne when he saw her menaced by her fiancé, Ogglespoon (who was her fiancé by arrangement with her father, not by her choice, supposedly). He tried to rescue her, only to be thwarted by a bonsai hedge maze. He then vowed to search for her forever, leading to the downfall of the Knights of Jove and his empire.

For «his» (in a way) appearance in Volumes 2-3 (16) and 2-4 (17), scroll to the bottom of this folder.

• Ambadassador: (Высокочтимый дипломат) He loved diplomacy and negotiation and used warfare not to destroy his enemies but to get them to negotiate terms of peace with him.
• Artifact of Doom: (Роковой артефакт) His mace The Platonic Solid was corrupted in some fashion by Bludtharst Heterodyne.
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) Going from his dialogue in the second novel’s prologue, he most likely isn’t a Spark nor does he have a particularly high opinion of them. And yet, not only was he able to conquer most of Europa but he managed to do it with diplomacy, bringing legitimate peace to the continent for a time. Ironically, his descendants insist that being a Spark is a prerequisite for becoming Storm King.
• Choice of Two Weapons: Has two, a sword and a mace. Voltaire destroys them both to prevent the maddened Andronicus from becoming basically unstoppable.
  • The sword, Archimedes' Lever and dubbed as «Slasher» by the Jägers, forged by Van Rijn, and basically capable of calling down lots of lightning. It was said that it was supposed to be so sharp that it could «cut day out of the night».
  • The mace, Platonic Solid and dubbed «Smasher» by the Jägers, that can send energy to melt solid rocks and turn people into gruesome-looking mind-controlled zombies. We’ve heard two evidently contradictory stories about its creation/source: Violetta says it was a gift from Albia, Queen Of England, while Simon Voltaire says that Van Rijn made it along with the sword. Turning people into mind-controlled zombies is apparently the result of the Platonic Solid being corrupted due to the work of Bludtharst Heterodyne (as confirmed by the Castle itself.)
• Deal with the Devil: (Сделка с дьяволом) The deal with Bludtharst Heterodyne to marry his sister Euphrosia, in exchange for both sides being at peace. The Heterodynes never had any intention of following through with this, and betrayed him.
• Enemy Mine: (От вражды к союзу) Part of the reason he was able to build his empire was the need for everyone to unite against the Heterodynes. Bludtharst Heterodyne even had «He Couldn’t Have Done It Without Me» engraved on his tomb to rub this fact in.
• Foil: (Оттеняющий характер) To Klaus. Both have large and impressive empires which try to focus Sparks toward productive goals, while building and maintaining infrastructure along the way. Andronicus conquered Europa with diplomacy and saw war as just a means to get his opponent to agree to peace talks. Klaus ended the Long War by conquering Europa with brute force and shows disdain towards negotiation. Also, both their declines in power can be attributed to Heterodyne women, with Andronicus' coalition collapsing because he put his faith in Euphrosynia and the Wulfenbach Empire lost control of Europa because Klaus refused to trust Agatha.
• The Good King: (Добрый король) He was universally regarded as a good monarch in his own time.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: (Не рой яму другому) A light-hearted version in the novels. He instituted high fashion in order to keep the nobles distracted from fighting each other. Unfortunately, since he was King, he had to lead by example. While Valois utterly hates having to wear a dozen silk waistcoats, he does at least consider it a worthwhile price for relative peace. Taking half an hour just to undo his trouser buttons, on the other hand…
• The High King: The title of «Storm King» is implied to involve power over other kings on the continent. He apparently has the authority to restore the Fifty Families' to power, and the dominion of the Storm King appears to be over the entire continent (while we know some kingdoms like Holfung-Borzoi still exist).
• Lamarck Was Right: Dimo can confirm that he has Von Blitzengaard’s voice and Von Sturmvoraus' nose.
• Mirror Character: In a sense, to Bill & Barry Heterodyne. They’re both legendary heroes who one of the main characters (Tarvek/Agatha) claims the legacy of, they both brought untold peace to Europa, they both fell for The Vamp (Euphrosynia/Lucrezia) who (probably) led to their fall, and when they both disappeared, the continent was plunged into horrible war. However, the Heterodyne Boys were of the very family whom Andronicus battled to save Europa from; meanwhile, the arch-enemies of the Heterodyne Boys were the Mongfishes, who were members of the Knights of Jove that was originally meant to be the Storm King’s honour guard.
• Oh, Crap!: (Осознание катастрофы) The novels show exactly when Valois realizes trusting the Heterodynes was a Bad Move: The night before he’s set to marry Euphrosia, the Muses come to him and outright tell him she’s going to screw him over. And they can only tell him then and there because it’s too late to do anything. At that point, Valois starts thinking, starts really thinking, about which one of the two lovers was the one who actually suggested marrying…
• Really Gets Around: By reputation at least. Multiple people have said that claiming descent from the Storm King doesn’t mean much, because if the legends are true, half of Europa is descended from him. And his reign was only 8-10 generations ago. Apparently, at an impressionable age, the young Andronicus read a number of scholarly works that talked about a king being a fertility symbol, and thought this was a mighty fine idea.
• Shrouded in Myth: (Человек-миф) As noted, a lot of what the audience «knows» about him comes from an opera of dubious historical accuracy. Violetta also doesn’t know the abilities of his signature weapons because legend describes them in obtuse, fanciful language.
• Succession Crisis: Because of his Really Gets Around tendencies, his disappearance left him with no legitimate heirs and far too many illegitimate ones. The resultant collapse of his kingdom came from the Fifty Families being unable to agree on who his rightful heir was — and they’re still arguing about it two hundred years later.
• Walking Spoiler: (Персонаж-спойлер) It’s incredibly obvious that there’s some sort of major twist involving him. Considering everything we knew about him was told through the opera and third-hand comments, some kind of major reveal was practically inevitable.

Tropes for «his» appearance in Volumes 2-3 (16) and 2-4 (17).

The mad remnant of what was once Andronicus Valois.

• Actually, That’s My Assistant: Sees Agatha wearing her trilobite brooch and assumes she’s the servant of the Heterodynes rather than 'The' Heterodyne.
• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) When he is reawakened in the present, he’s an enraged, psychotic husk of his former self that proceeds to go on a rampage through the streets.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: (Разноцветная раса) Used to not be this, but he’s now a practically radioactive green, complete with the ability to melt someone’s skin to mere bone on touch. Or subject it to rapid aging. Or something.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Jägers. He really hates them. Da Boyz and Jenka eagerly tap-dance all over this button to distract him and get him so riled up that he can’t fight properly.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Implied by Simon Voltaire, he was apparently corrupted by the enemies of the Shining Coalition, or at least his corpse was. In the current era, he has utterly lost his mind, believing all his former allies are «oathbreakers and wizards», demanding to know «where his bride was taken», believing his love is still alive despite it being two centuries since he was last active.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: When he enters the story, he is confused by his surroundings, last remembers the long dead Van Rijn smirking over one of his machines, and assumes treachery. He finds the modern Paris to be astounding.
• He Who Fights Monsters: An externally-caused version of this. After trying to rid the world of the Heterodynes and their monsters, he ended up becoming a horrific, undead, maddened evil Heterodyne-made monster himself.
• Humanoid Abomination: (Чужеродный человек) Was apparently transformed into a maddened undead monstrosity by his enemies, which his allies were forced to put down. When he appears in the current era, he looks increasingly monstrous the longer he fights — he starts off looking human except with green, glowing skin, but by the time Voltaire destroys his weapons, he’s degraded into some kind of walking skeleton, and after that he’s practically falling apart.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) Eventually gets worn down completely by Master Voltaire, Da Boyz, Jenka, Martellus and Agatha, before finally being finished off by Martellus. His final end is no less tragic than he was first defeated — a maddened undead monstrosity put down by his last remaining old friend, the Jägers who were his old foes back in his glory days, his descendant and the descendant of the woman he loved, mistaking her for Euphrosynia and spending his last moments utterly thrilled that he had «found her», only for Martellus to crush his skull moments after. Of course, being the glory hog that he is, Martellus doesn’t even take a moment to mourn his ancestor and contemplate his tragic end, he goes straight to literally claiming his crown for himself. Then again, said ancestor did corrupt his close friends/followers into undead monsters, thus forcing Martellus to Mercy Kill them, so it’s understandable he would spare little thought to him.
• Love Makes You Crazy: He was already crazy to begin with after he was turned into some kind of monstrous construct, but he’s so obsessed with Euphrosynia that he’s demanding to know where she was «taken» (despite it being two centuries since she disappeared), and he’s blaming Van Rijn for her disappearance, and angry at his former allies for not telling him anything, despite Voltaire quite clearly stating Euphrosynia’s disappearance was entirely her fault and nobody actually knows what happened to her.
• Not Quite Dead / Immortality: (Скорее жив, чем мёртв/Бессмертие) If Muse Prende is to be believed. It’s not clear if Andronicus is actually immortal or some kind of time traveler or has been held in suspended animation, but he is most certainly beyond just human at this point. As it turns out, Pende’s Latern was shining on him. Anything caught in its light is frozen in time. Removing the latern… turned out to not be a good idea.
• Rasputinian Death: (Распутинская живучесть) Putting him down the second time requires, in order, getting blasted multiple times by the Gendarmy, repeatedly electrocuted and buried in rubble by Voltaire, stabbed in the gut with his own sword by Martellus, having an entire building collapse on top of him, getting smacked around by the Jägers, Voltaire melting the weapons that grant him Immortality, Agatha blasting him with a Wave-Motion Gun, and, finally, having his head crushed by Martellus' final blow. To say it took everything the heroes had to put him down is not an exaggeration in the least.
  • To hear Voltaire describe it, killing him the first time was almost as difficult, and that was back when he was just a normal human with a couple of Spark-made weapons, rather than the One-Man Army Humanoid Abomination the readers see in the present.
• Sealed Good in a Can / Sealed Evil in a Can: (Заключённое зло) Apparently was one of these. The jury is out as to which, with the Paris incident leaning towards «corrupted evil insane undead monstrosity».
• There Was a Door: (Теперь тут будет дверь) This is how he decides to leave an underground chamber to go settle some matter. In Zeetha’s words, his route is very direct.
• Walking Spoiler: (Персонаж-спойлер) The very fact that he still exists in some form is a spoiler.
• Was Once a Man: (Был когда-то человеком) Andronicus was… corrupted somehow according to Simon Voltaire. His closest confidantes ultimately had to sacrifice much to end his deranged rampage. For all intents and purposes, everyone considers him to be undead.

Grandma

The grandmother of Tarvek, Anevka, Violetta, Martellus and Xerxsephina, Terebithia is the leader apparent of the Knights of Jove and the Smoke Knights not loyal to Lucrezia. Absolutely hates Lucrezia, at least according to Violetta, and would rather refocus on the original objective of the Knights of Jove.

• Ambiguously Evil: She’s one of Tarvek’s relatives? That’s a bad sign. She’s working against the Other’s influence? Well, that’s a good sign. But she’s weirdly cozy with Zola/the Queen of the Dawn? That’s yet another bad sign.
• Bluff the Impostor: (Ловушка для самозванца) Upon meeting Mister Obsidian she immediately attempts to stab him in the face even though he had the correct code phrase, only for the dagger to snap in two. He mostly takes it in stride, but Grandma retorts to his snark that disguises are easy and that anyone can learn a code phrase.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: (Хронический предатель) As expected from anyone of Tarvek’s extended family, let alone the head of it, she has her own plan that she’s willing to throw others under the bus to attain.
• Cool Old Lady: (Крутые старики)
  • A subdued version as far as the setting goes — she apparently throws some wild parties. And she has some rather impressive dresses.
  • It is worth noting that she’s the head of a family so unruly Tarvek once commented the only way to keep them in line would be to kill them, a family that’s produced folks like Martellus, so she has to be doing something right.
• Deadly Decadent Court: (Гнусные придворные) She runs it and apparently has no problems with her kids and grandchildren killing each other and the in-laws. She once threw a party while Paris was under attack and half the city was flooded in the chaos. She even uses such events to make her parties more spectacular and gain power. She has spies everywhere. All this indicates that she is well aware of what is going on, well more than the grand majority of the general population, but is so high and almighty that she neither fears nor cares about the problems the lower classes face. If you aren’t good enough to survive in her court, then relative or not, you deserve what comes to you. From what we heard of him, her husband wasn’t any better.
• Defector from Decadence: An odd variation where she hasn’t defected to the «good guys», but rather she still defected away from the most evil side. Unlike her (presumed) son-in-law Wilhelm and many other men of the cabal, who was madly loyal to Lucrezia, Grandma has been described as «hating Lucrezia», is outright opposed to and plotting against her, has taken control of at least a major part of the Knights of Jove away from The Other’s objectives, and has basically ordered that all of her subordinates put aside rivalries and other cross-purpose agendas to take out anyone still loyal to Lucrezia, likely having performed a major purge of Lucrezia loyalists in the Knights of Jove during the timeskip. All of that said.. She cheerfully assists Zola-Lucrezia-The Queen of the Dawn in escaping from Paris when the latter woman’s take-over plans get at least temporarily thwarted by Colette Voltaire becoming the new all-powerful Mistress of the city. Or at least being caught by Colette’s forces, as always with this character, her motives for doing so remain vague, as it’s entirely possible that she plans on acquiring Lucrezia’s secrets via Zola still having Lucrezia trapped in her head.
• Dirty Old Woman: (Старик Похабыч)
  • When Tarvek, disguised as a servant, makes a joke about her whipping him, she cheerfully states that he sounds «just like his grandfather», which immediately makes Tarvek wish for Brain Bleach.
  • During The Reveal that she is close to Simon Voltaire, he calls her a «scheming flirt» as an Insult of Endearment, implying she’s always been like this.
• Everyone Calls Him «Barkeep»: (Его зовут Бармен) She was usually referred to mainly as «grandmother» though this is because most of the time, she was with her family. She’s revealed to be named Terebithia when Simon Voltaire, Master of Paris, refers to her as such. Given their First-Name Basis with one another, they’ve had a history and still soft spots for one another.
• Evil Matriarch: (Скверная мамочка) Probably. She’s in charge of the Knights of Jove, which is not in any way a pleasant organization, but how evil is still an open question. For example, it’s unclear whether she supports Tarvek or Martellus over each other, or, given the return of the original Storm King someone else.
• Good Parents: (Хорошие родители) «Good» being in relative terms considering she’s still a member of her family and just as much a schemer as her kids and numerous grandkids, but she’s certainly a better parent/grandparent than Tarvek and Anevka’s father ever was. She definitely cares about her grandkids, and the feeling is mutual — when she and Tarvek finally reunite, their discussion is quite cordial and even heartwarming, with Tarvek even concerned for her health. Specifically, bursitis in her dominant shoulder, which she complains hampers her ability to use a whip, while Tarvek notes that he told her to use her cane instead, though Grandma remarks that said cane makes her look old. Of course, they have this conversation immediately after she had Tarvek kidnapped and forcibly dragged to her.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Whatever her ultimate goal is, it’s not known to us. As noted above, she’s been said to «hate Lucrezia» but other than that her plans are unknown; it’s not even clear which of her relatives, if any, she would prefer to see become Storm King.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины)
  • When she learns that Archimedes' Lever has started spewing lightning, she knows exactly what it means (Andronicus Valois is still alive) and immediately begins making plans to take advantage of this fact. How much of this is fore-knowledge as opposed to shrewd guess-work is currently unknown.
  • She’s also well-acquainted with Simon Voltaire, the Master of Paris. She has invited him to several of her parties (though he never showed up despite promising to). Their quieted dialogue indicates they care a good deal about one another and even may have been intimate in the past. Furthermore, they’re on first-name basis with one another and refer to one another in affectionate insults all while she supports him and gently clasps his hand.
• Honey Trap: (Далила) Back when she was young, she wasn’t above sleeping with powerful men to pry their secrets out of them. It turns out she once did so with the Master of Paris, who later admitted that he might have told her too much. She uses this knowledge to steal control of Paris from the Master’s daughter and effective heir.
• I Was Quite a Looker: (В юности была красавицей) As shown in a flashback, Terebithia was hot in her youth, and even seduced the Master of Paris into revealing too many of his secrets.
• Life of the Party: Given that Martellus believes that having a death ray built into a party sleigh is totally in character for her, she must have thrown some truly wild parties in her time. When we get to see one of her parties on-page, it gets wild indeed… mostly by no fault or plan of her own (that we know of), but she relishes it anyway.
• Long Game: She’s been ferreting out the Master of Paris’s secrets for decades, for it to finally pay off and conquer the city when she’s an elderly grandmother.
• Never Mess with Granny: She’s getting up there in years and is shown to be suffering from arthritis, but still manages to efficiently run one of the world’s most widespread spy networks, on top of being strong enough to crush a pistol with her bare hands (as Zola finds out the hard way).
• Whip of Dominance: She’s a stern Evil Matriarch that has quite the reputation for using a whip. When she talks to Tarvek about whipping her servants into shape, she makes it clear it’s not just an expression when she says she can’t do it as well anymore because «her shoulders aren’t what they used to be». She also implies she used her whip on her husband for kinky reasons, much to Tarvek’s distress.

Sturmvoraus family

Aaronev VI

The ruler of Sturmhalten, and the father of Tarvek and Anevka Sturmvoraus. He’s pledged loyalty to Lucrezia Mongfish and does her work in the Knights of Jove. He’s also a complete nutcase.

• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) In his royal theatre, the spot where the Prince sits has a built-in machine gun aimed at the stage, in case the play is too «boring». He’ll still shoot even if he’s amused. It just makes it harder for him to aim.
• The Caligula: (Безумный король) He’s an insane prince obsessed with un-sealing a Sealed Evil in a Can, even at the cost of his own family. This isn’t even getting into how he treats visitors to the principality.
• Dirty Old Man: (Старик Похабыч)
  • Requests the circus to stage «The Socket Wench of Prague» — the play obscene enough to chase the performers out of a town in a usual case, and orders them to «tart it up» as well.
  • He’s also obsessed with Lucrezia, and tries to resurrect her in the body of his own daughter, with the implication of fully intending to go all the way.
• Emperor Scientist: A Spark who runs a small, isolated town, and uses his position to intimidate people passing through, since his town is one of the few safe passages in the area.
• Feudal Overlord: (Феодалы-самодуры) He poses as a «good little vassal» of the Baron’s empire, but in reality, his town is housing such an absurd amount of Other tech that it may as well be ruled by the Other themselves.
• Gold Digger: Well, at least Lady Vrin suspects so, but apparently he was trying to seduce Lucrezia to use her slaver wasps.
• I Was Quite the Looker: (В юности была красавицей) Overweight, balding and his hair’s turned grey, but apparently in his youth he was the spitting image of Tarvek.
• Karmic Death: (Кармическая смерть) He’s killed by Anevka, one of the girls forced into the «Holy Machine», right as he’s forcing yet another girl in.
• King Bob the Nth: (Одинаковые имена) The fourth or sixth Prince Aaronev Sturmvoraus of Sturmhalten, depending on if you use the novel’s counting or the comic’s.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Tarvek tries to have his death passed off as a lab accident, which immediately draws the Baron’s suspicion, since while Wilhelm had many faults, he was a stickler for lab safety.
• Middle Name Basis: Like his son Tarvek, people generally use his middle name Wilhelm in casual conversation.
• My God, What Have I Done?: (Что я наделал!) If Tarvek’s flashback (SPOILERS!!) is trustworthy, then Wilhelm was genuinely distressed when his daughter Anevka almost died after he hooked her up to the «Holy Machine».
• Offing the Offspring: (Я тебя породил, я тебя и убью) By accident, in the case of the «real» Anevka.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, he shares a first name with his son, who answers to his middle name of Tarvek in conversation to distinguish them.
• Pervert Dad: Implied. He had an affair with Lucrezia. He then tried downloading Lucrezia’s personality into his own daughter. Yech.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: (Заточённое зло) Not himself, but the Other, who he’s devoted his life to un-sealing.
• Small Role, Big Impact: (Небольшая роль с большим влиянием (в разработке)) He only shows up in Volume 5 (and dies that volume), but he’s the one who housed the Geisterdamen and their «Holy Machine» in Sturmhalten, making him more or less the one responsible for the Other’s comeback.
• Town with a Dark Secret: (Деревня со зловещим секретом) Is the prince of one, where the «dark secret» in question is that almost everyone there is a Revenant infected by Slaver Wasps.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) To Lucrezia. Aaronev is a villainous example, in that this loyalty drives him to the point of obsession with his family’s «sacred task» of unleashing a Sealed Evil onto the world.
• Would Hurt a Child: (Не щадить детей) Would hurt several children, in fact — mostly girls. So many girls that (as Tarvek later explained) it led to a gender imbalance among Sparks.

Anevka

Tarvek’s debatably-living sister. After an ill-conceived Mad Science experiment of her father’s left her at death’s door, her brother constructed a new robotic body that she could operate from within her life-support tank.

• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) Can become this if in a bad mood.
• Came Back Wrong: (Вернулся не таким) One possible interpretation of her actions after having her heavily-damaged body placed in a portable life-support pod and hooked to a puppet-clank, which eventually replaced her without even realizing it; however, we never get a chance to see what she was like before her father strapped her into the Summoning Engine. Maybe she was always like this..
• Can’t Kill You, Still Need You: It’s all but outright stated that the only reason she hasn’t killed her brother is because he’s one of the few people who could repair her body if something happened.
• Clothing Damage: (Урон по одежде) When she kills her father, it burns her dress.
• Dead All Along: (Всё это время он был мёртв) The real princess died ages ago. What we see is her personality imprinted into the robot she originally used to interact with the world. She didn’t even realize she died!
• Faux Affably Evil: (Притворно дружелюбный злодей) Her initial appearance has her being polite and considerate towards Agatha, which almost immediately vanishes, showing that Anevka (or rather the clank that thinks she’s Anevka) is a dangerous and violent psychopath.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: (Злая королева) Well, princess, but in the novel, Tarvek mentions that when she’s in a bad mood, she tends to kill whoever’s nearby.
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: (Цареубийца?) That she killed her father — even if he deserved it — is used to highlight just how ruthless and amoral she is.
• Man in the Machine: A variant. Subverted—the «man» died years ago, and the machine didn’t even notice.
• Perpetual Smiler: Her mouth is designed to look like it’s perpetually smiling.
• Psycho Electro: (Псих-электрик) Anevka is a little too fond of using her shock abilities on anyone who gets in her way.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) She hasn’t been seen since Tarvek deactivated her in Sturmhalten. He then removed her Cranial Processing Unit and replaced it with one containing the Other’s personality. And hasn’t mentioned that to anyone yet. This is concerning to say the least, especially as Other!Anevka was last seen controlling Klaus via slaver-wasp.
  • The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок) Turns out the Clank Lucrezia that attacked Agatha’s group trying to stop them from getting the Lucrezia in Agatha’s mind out is actually the Other in Anevka’s body herself. Once Tarvek learns this, he shows that he can still control her body in spite of all the modifications.
• Replacement Goldfish: (Замена любимца) She’s nothing more than a replacement for real Anevka, there to make Prince Aaronev feel less guilt over using his own daughter as a guinea pig. Also for Tarvek.

«	Tarvek: I am — was, very fond of my sister. I want you to know — my father was not the only one comforted by your presence.	»

• Robot Girl: (Девочка-робот) Her mechanical body is designed to look like a human woman. She’s more robot than she appeared.
• Robotic Psychopath: (Безумный робот) More than happy to kill family members if it gives her an advantage.
• Self-Made Orphan: (Убийца своих родителей) She killed her father and it’s strongly implied in the second novelization that she did the same thing to her mother.
• Shock and Awe: (Электрическая магия) She can re-route her power system to deliver lethal electric shocks…
• Tomato in the Mirror: (Незнакомец в зеркале) The real Anevka died long ago, leaving her personality imprinted on the robot half. This personality is unaware her human parts have perished entirely.
• Theseus' Ship Paradox: (Парадокс корабля Тесея) One of the heartbreaking human examples. Initially, Anevka’s remains — contained in the carboy carried by footmen — controlled the clank body attached to the carboy by cables like a puppet, but as she weakened, the clank did more and more on her own. In the end, the clank didn’t even notice when she died. The only one aware of the whole process was Tarvek, and apparently the clank was so much like his sister even he is unsure exactly when she died.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: (Бездонный гардероб) She goes through many very fabulous costumes.
• Villainous Breakdown: (Злодейская истерика) After having nearly gotten away with her plan, she has a complete freak-out when Tarvek reveals what she really is.
• Villainous Princess: The princess of Sturmhalten and batshit crazy.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Once it’s revealed that the real Anevka died and her clank body unknowingly grew self aware, the story treats her like she was nothing but a Replacement Goldfish Tarvek kept around to make himself feel better about failing to save his sister. However, she was still a perfect copy of Anevka’s mind, fully sentient with human emotions and capable thinking and acting independently. When Tarvek stashes her Cranial Processing Unit away in a cupboard to reuse her body for Lucrezia, he tells her to «Sleep well, Anevka», so apparently he wasn’t intending to just throw her away like trash.

von Blitzengaard family

Martellus

A cousin of Tarvek and the self-proclaimed Storm King.

• Acquired Poison Immunity: Tweedle is immune to the sedative-laced Corbettite cakes, which poses a problem for our heroine (who was not immune). However, an invisible hand came out of nowhere and konked him with a blackjack.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: His primary interest with Agatha is to marry her, thus fulfilling the old «Storm King x Heterodyne» prophecy and cementing his claim to the Lightning Crown. However, his skills with women appear to be less than ideal to say the very least.
• Artificial Limbs: (Искусственная конечность) Agatha helps him replace his left hand with a mechanical one after it’s poisoned by a rebel Smoke Knight.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: (Власть — это сила) He was able to retain his hold on the Storm King title once Tarvek was written off by being a better killer than the assassins they sent after him.
• At Least I Admit It: He states that Tarvek was only using Agatha for his own ends. When Agatha asks if he’s any better, he says «Of course not. But I’ll be honest with you about it, which I can see he never was.»
• The Atoner: (Кающийся грешник) Makes a point to stop pushing Agatha and wait on her to help him first. He refuses to be (intentionally) impolite or wake her up early in the morning for it. Agatha, still thinking he just wants to use her, calls him an idiot. He still fails, however, as he still tries to flirt instead of just admitting what he feels.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: (Лирой Дженкинс) Martellus will attack his foe with absolutely no consideration for defense or feasibility of victory. Dreen? Smush it, it’s done with. Wulfenbach clank brigade? Charge! Gil Wulfenbach himself? Damn the dead sparkhounds, my crippled hands, and crippled mecha that came here to extract me! KILL HIMMMMMM!!!!
• The Beast Master: His Sparky specialty seems to lie in modified animals. And he genuinely cares about them, and they are loyal to him in turn.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: (Мазохистское танго/Три дня я гналась за Вами…) He tries to invoke this with Agatha; after a conversation with a Jaeger, he decides that the best way to impress her is to «be a bigger monster.» Unfortunately for him, Agatha is not the monster her ancestors were, and therefore she doesn’t appreciate his aggressive flirting. To his credit, he learns quickly and gives up on this particular strategy.
• Benevolent Boss: (Добрый начальник) In general. His knights and sparkhounds are fiercely loyal to him and he returns their dedication. When Andronicus turns several of his men into zombies, Martellus puts them down as respectfully as he can and is furious with the man responsible. He also acknowledges the value in the Knights of Jove’s smoke knights and tries to avoid wasting their lives if he can help it. That said, he’s not above executing a minion who defies his direct orders and patronizes him in the process. Krosp also notes that he genuinely cares for his creations, which is a rarity among Sparks.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He’s kind of been outclassed ever since his first appearance. And since then he’s been treated as a chew toy by both Agatha and Gil. Except now King Valois, Baron Wulfenbach, and Master Voltaire are all dead or incapacitated, and Tarvek isn’t in the best position to reclaim his position as top condender for the Storm King’s throne, so Martellus has it on lock for the time being.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство)
  • As with all the Valois clans, he is deeply involved in their backstabbing scheming.

«	Martellus: Every single time I think I have killed the person responsible for usurping my command, I find there’s someone else higher up, still fighting me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can kill family members all day and know I’m making the world a better place — But smoke knights take time and money to train — And I’d rather not waste too many of them. So, will killing you solve my problem, or—	»

• And then immediately subverted by the arrival of his little sister, who he seems to show genuine affection for, and who seems to reciprocate. Though she’s still willing to risk him as bait.

• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья)
  • His introduction is… a bit embarassing. Despite having a showy entrance, he is completely outplayed by Klaus, his clank suit gets destroyed by a Dreen, and he’s basically forced into a bit player role for the rest of the battle. It’s only until Klaus suddenly shows up that he suddenly seizes his moment, nabs Agatha and surprises Tarvek with a poisoned knife, and even then it turns out this really ended up being surprisingly helpful for almost everyone involved.
  • Goes through a decent amount of this during the Corbettite arc, despite also being a serious threat at the time. The monks' general mocks him, the rampaging monster-train humiliates him more than once, Agatha subjects him to a Groin Attack and he loses an army of bears to Krosp. And then he gets talked down to by Klaus-in-Gil and Lucrezia-in-Agatha. And as a final insult, he gets blackjacked by Violetta, without any of the Corbettites seeing her.
  • This seems to be a recurring thing for him. While he ends the Paris arc in a good place, having done more to solidify his position as the Storm King, he’s also despised by Agatha’s group, Agatha is moving well out of his reach (England), his own sister is plotting behind his back to make sure Agatha hooks up with Tarvek instead of him (in a misguided attempt to get herself with Gil), the Empire, with Gil as its head, is unlikely to recognize him as Storm King despite his heroics in Paris given Gil would obviously favor Tarvek as long as Tarvek is an option (as evidenced by Martellus sending assassins after Tarvek to get rid of him), AND he loses said top assassin and many of his beloved sparkhounds in said assassination attempt.
  • In spite of all of this, he eventually claims the crown of the Storm King through defeating his ancestor, albeit with help. But then, see below under Hoist by His Own Petard.
• Casanova Wannabe: (Ловелас-недотёпа) Several of his associates and family members imply that he has rather terrible luck with women. His blunt approach to everything seems to be a large part of the problem.
• Catch and Return: Does this with two poisoned knives (caught by handles) at once.
  • He also catches lightning with his metal hand and fires it back at the man who fired it at him, Gilgamesh.
• Character Development: (Развитие персонажа) Since his arrival in England, he’s shown some hints of this, including nixing a suggestion to have Agatha subdued and captured again — because he wants her to see him as a genuine ally.
• Composite Character: (Объединённый персонаж) In-Universe, a Heterodyne show put on by Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure combines Martellus' title and mechanical arm with Wilhelm Sturmvoraus' familial relations to an «evil mechanical daughter», namely Anevka Sturmvoraus.
• Conflict Killer: Somewhat. Gil and Tarvek have long since (mostly) worked out their issues with each other and the implosion of their childhood friendship from spending time together with Agatha in Castle heterodyne, settling on becoming Vitriolic Best Buds by the present day. That said, due to their opposing positions in the grander scheme of things, coming from two rival factions who each stand a chance at enacting power over Europa, there’s a great deal of mutual sniping and arguing between them even when working together around Agatha. Once Tweedle comes into the picture though, they instantly drop any antagonism towards each other and work flawlessly together to shut him down, making it clear that whilst they consider each other a worthy rival for Agatha’s affections, they’re prefer the other to have her over Tweedle.

«	Tarvek: But this (not instantly attacking Tweedle the second he sees him) is a real behavioural breakthrough for you! Gil: I will admit I learned from your example. Tarvek: Well done! The Empire has a chance! Gil: Praise from my Jester? heady stuff! Tweedle: What are you idiots —(Wunch!) Gil: I do still prefer to deal from a position of strength. Tarvek: Oh yes, one does have to get their attention. Dimo: (Glancing down at the insensate Tweedle) Hy might be better at dis politiks ting den hy thought..	»

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) Although he may seem like a goofy oaf at first glance, he has shown to be an exceptional combatant and strategist, in addition to being able to fight off and even kill a handful of Smoke Knights with no difficulty. And he is still a Spark after all, which is why Tarvek (reluctantly) keeps Gil from fighting him and even recruits him to help get The Other out of Agatha.
• Didn’t Think This Through:
  • Trying to control Agatha by altering her body-chemistry makes him just as dependent on physical contact with her as she (originally) requires from him. He’s damned lucky that Agatha, while she hates him and immediately created an alternative for touching him, prefers not to let him die.
  • When going to investigate 'The Beast', he assumes he’ll be fine since the creature eats metal, not people — forgetting about his (now metal) left hand.
• Dragon Ascendant: (Из правых рук в главгады) He was Dimitri Vapnoople’s apprentice when the latter man caused all kinds of trouble in Europa with his rampaging armies of animal constructs.
• Enemy Mine: (От вражды к союзу) Offers an alliance, since even if he considers Tarvek and Gil to be rivals for control over Europa, the fact remains that the Other is slowly but surely winning, and her victory would leave none of them an empire to fight over.
• Entertainingly Wrong: He promises Agatha that he’ll be honest with her about not being any better than Tarvek, assuming his cousin never was. However, Tarvek has been up front about not being a good person.
• Evil Counterpart: (Оттенить героя мерзавцем) Although he is initially presented as an Evil Counterpart to Tarvek (their Sparky predilections and means of education are even in contrast, as Tarvek’s signature is reverse-engineering the Muses which he learned to do from Van Rijn’s notes while Martellus’s is modified animals like his Sparkhounds which he learned from his mentor Dr. Vapnoople), he mirrors Gil better. Like Gil, he’s blunt, physically powerful, not good with people, and tends to treat his peers like children. At the same time, he has people he cares about and harming them or worse leads to both of them losing their shit. Unlike Gil, he’s perfectly willing to use murder as a first solution, administers various types of mind control on people he can’t kill for whatever reason, and where Gil tends to treat those who can’t keep up with him as children to be corralled and protected, Martellus tends to treat those he sees as his «lessers» and as disposable pawns. It’s Lampshaded by Tarvek’s «Martellus insider» Norville, who thinks Gil and Martellus would get along well if Tarvek was dead.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодея есть любимые)
  • Gets pissed off when his men are suddenly turned into zombie-like revenants thanks to a weapon wielded by Andronicus. He genuinely considered some of them his friends and when he has to put down them down, he tells them who they once were before telling them to rest.
  • And he appears to be genuinely fond of his sister, and has openly praised her intellect.
  • Krosp observes that he genuinely cares for his creations, which is rare among Sparks.
• Even Evil Has Standards: (Даже у зла есть стандарты)
  • He also claims he would set aside his crown in an instant if it would end the machinations of the Other once and for all. Agatha doesn’t trust him an inch but decides she does believe him about that, likely because of the above.
  • He is fully aware that most of his family and erstwhile allies are as much or more of a stain on Europa as he is, and killing them is doing the world a favor.
  • The Corbettite abbot notes that supposedly, someone from Martellus' family stole something valuable from him, fled to their fortress, and released a monster imprisoned within while Martellus brought an army to their doorstep to recover his stolen property. Leading the abbot to accuse him of having planned the entire affair to give himself an excuse to «heroically aid the monks» via bringing his army into the stronghold of a famously independent sect. Martellus is taken aback by the accusation and swears he did not have such a scheme, before being impressed the abbot thought of something so devious and offering him a job as one of his advisors.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: (Злу не постичь Добра) A relatively mild example, but Martellus is utterly baffled as to why stabbing Tarvek in the heart with a poisoned dagger caused Agatha to start trying to kill him with everything she had (which, unfortunately, wasn’t a lot at that moment). In his own words, «Don’t tell me you’re upset about Tarvek? Don’t worry, he’s not longer of any use to you.»
• Fluffy Tamer: (Кому няшка, кому кондрашка) Oddly enough, he seems to be a Sparky version of this (though he probably wouldn’t bother with cute names). As noted below, he created singing bears, bred his own Sparkhounds (and evidently uplifted at least one of them) — and during the arc involving the Beast (a sentient train-like construct), his suggestions have involved animal behaviorist techniques (creating bait/toys to distract it). Maybe he’d be happier running a pet shop…
• The Friend Nobody Likes: (Друг, которого никто не любит) He’s been turning into this after getting handed several defeats by the protagonists; in the 2020 strips, he, Agatha, Gil and Tarvek are going to a royal ball in London as a group. He’s an able Spark with considerable power who is willing to join the fight against the Other, so they’re willing to put up with him now that he’s toned things down a notch. But they still don’t like him.
• Groin Attack: (Удар ниже пояса/Кастрация?) Agatha gives him perhaps the single most deserved one EVER. Shortly after meeting Agatha for the first time, he did something to her so she would die without regular physical contact with him. Agatha quickly replicates the effect with a wasp weasel, but after such an intimate trespass, the thought of any contact with him drives her to screaming rage. Similar attacks can thus be expected.
• The Heavy: (Самый заметный злодей) He’s the most present antagonist from Vol. XIII to around Vol. 2-2 (15). He’s the one who kidnapped Agatha, meddled with her body, and pressured the Corbettites into recognizing his claim. But after entering Paris, he takes a backseat as the Token Evil Teammate of Agatha’s party.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины)
  • When interrogating a Jaeger he discovers fought his ancestor, the first Storm King, he surprisingly takes time to ask questions about Euphrosynia and why she betrayed Andronicus. The question and exchange afterwards reveal that he is a romantic like the rest of his family. In fact, it could be seen that his motivations for bad behavior is for pragmatic reasons along with his own shortcomings messing with it.
  • He does have some family he cares about along with the men who serve him he considers friends. The fact he acknowledges them as good men shows implies that he knows they are better morally than him. He ain’t happy with what the Storm King forced him to do.
  • And he’s proven to be very sharp on the subject of the mentality of animal constructs; evidently he was Vapnoople’s apprentice for a reason.
  • Martellus actually appreciates Krosp giving him several «The Reason You Suck» Speech. Though insulting, Krosp is giving him useful criticism he can learn from.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: (Не рой яму другому) It turns out that his messing with his and Agatha’s body chemistry resulted in him needing her physical touch to survive as much as she needs his. Or more so for a while, since she has the weasels she modified to alleviate the effect on her, while it took Martellus longer to create his own stopgap.
• Idiot Ball: (Внезапный приступ глупости)
  • Grabs one when dealing with a mysterious creature at the Corbettitie base. He insists they won’t be devoured since the monks have stated that the monster only eats metal. Not only do the monks point out that the creature wants revenge on them and thus they are very much in danger, but Tweedle has forgotten that his prosthetic hand is made of metal. Soon after that, he grabs Agatha in a borderline I Have You Now, My Pretty way… with predictable results (see previous entry).
  • Decides to use Andronicus' sword to attack the undead Andronicus in Paris, which Agatha instantly calls out for how bad a plan it is. Sure enough he’s eventually disarmed and the sword is picked up by the person they very much did not want to have it.
• In Love with the Mark: While he started out viewing Agatha only as a potential political tool, it turns out that he’s developed actual feelings for her — not that she knows that, nor would she be likely to believe it if someone told her. Besides, as Krosp points out, she (entirely justifiably) hates him.
• In-Series Nickname: Tarvek calls him «Tweedle».
• Kiss of Distraction: Gives one to the copy of Lucrezia possessing Agatha, resulting in her saying that she will save killing him for last and distracting her long enough to attach a helmet designed to extract her from Agatha’s head. Agatha is later both thankful and disgusted. Interestingly, he appears likewise disgusted at having kissed Lucrezia, wiping his mouth after the aforementioned kiss.
• Klingon Promotion: (Трофеи вручают убийце) Secures his claim to the Lightning Throne by killing the undead Andronicus Valois.
• Knight in Shining Armor: (Идеальный герой) He tries to present himself as one of these upon meeting Agatha, with his army marching against the Baron’s to protect Mechanicsburg.
• Large Ham: (Переигрывание) An Invoked Trope (unlike most Sparks) because he’s playing the Knight in Shining Armor come to save the Damsel in Distress.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: (Увечье или смерть) Tweedle takes a poisoned smoke knight dagger to the left hand. He eventually cuts it off to stop the poison, and Agatha creates a prosthetic replacement for it while sleep-sparking (as she’d be unlikely to voluntarily help the brute).
• Love Potion: (Приворот) As he said, in the fifth panel of this, he was originally planning to control Agatha with a formula developed by his great aunt Rappaccini, which would have made her his adoring slave. The only downside is that it would have made her unbearably stupid. And since he recognized how strong a Spark she was, he realized she was too useful to do that to.
• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть) Took a chair to the back of his head from Agatha, only for him to shrug it off and tell her to stop it. Later recovered very quickly from being shot in the side. He also can still contribute Sparky ideas while recovering from a Groin Attack.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) He’s a Spark, and was apparently the apprentice to Krosp’s creator, Dr. Dimitri Vapnoodle.
• Moral Myopia: (Готтентотская мораль) Played straight and partially justified. Tarvek honestly isn’t that much better than Martellus is, yet more people respect and like Tarvek than Martellus. Tarvek is much more sociable and affable than Martellus and is more willing to talk first while Martellus is okay with killing right off the bat. Tarvek is also okay with killing in cold blood and can and will beat and strangle people to death with his own two hands. That being said, Martellus is much better at keeping his family in line as they are more easily scared than manipulated into submission.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) As seems to be traditional within his extended family. His name means «Hammer from the Manor of Lightning».
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: (Ай, молодца, злодей!) If Martellus didn’t kidnap Agatha precisely when he did, then he, she, Krosp and Violetta would have been frozen in time by the Baron. This means that the Other could have successfully attacked Paris and London and the Beast could have destroyed the Corbettites. Similarly, if Gil had retrieved Agatha from the time field, then the Klaus imprint on his mind might have killed her on the spot.
• Noble Demon: (Благородный демон)
  • Evil as he may be, he genuinely cares for his men and is horrified when they’re zombified by the undead Valois. He puts them down with epithets before returning to fight the Storm King, this time utterly pissed off.
  • Later at Mechanicsburg when talking to Krosp, he asks how Vapnoople’s bears were doing, hoping that they were happy and doing well. After confirming as such, Krosp realizes that Martellus genuinely cares about his creations, a rarity in sparks, and that while the nobility (except maybe his sister) would not even weep for him if he died, his creations would greatly mourn him. Krosp takes the opportunity to give him advice about being a true king, that being protecting those loyal to him.
• Not Me This Time: (На этот раз не я) He actually does this to himself. When the Master summons his army, Martellus starts freaking out.

«	Martellus: EEK! Monsieur Machines! It’s the Gendarmy! …Wait… calm down… This isn’t my fault. I’ve done nothing wrong. Master Voltaire: Martellus Von Blitzengaard! Why am I not surprised?! Martellus: AH! It wasn’t me Master Voltaire, honest!	»

• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He’s introduced getting duped by the Baron and having his clank effortlessly destroyed by a dreen, but then he goes and kidnaps Agatha and stabs Tarvek with a poisoned knife.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом) As with the rest of the Sturmvoraus family, his seemingly goofy manner is all just an act to cover up a more sinister agenda, which becomes obvious when he whispers to Tarvek that Agatha should have been killed, since she will make a hard-to-control Puppet Queen. Violetta expresses surprise that he uses Spark Hounds, mentioning that he used to make miniature singing bears.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: (Зло воздающее) While putting down rebellious family members, he states he knows he can kill family members all day and know he’s still making the world a better place. And he’s not wrong in that either.
• Pragmatic Villainy: (Злодей-прагматик)
  • His most secure bolthole inside his home fortress was set up by himself, without any minions. Agatha questions why he didn’t just kill them, and Martellus points out that this is a world where death keeps very few secrets.
  • He decides against using a special drug to turn Agatha into his adoring slave, since it would also destroy her intelligence and her Spark, and she’s far too useful with those intact.
  • He tries to end his family’s efforts to stop him asserting his authority as quickly as possible because, while he has no love for said family members and is perfectly willing to keep killing them, he’s also killing valuable smoke knights that will take a lot of time and effort to replace.
  • Later, he orders his troops to not harm the mind-controlled civilians attacking them. When they complain, he points out they are being watched.
• Prince Charmless: (Прекрасный принц) Despite all of his hoity-toity talk, he’s more or less just a brute. He kidnaps Agatha soon after meeting her, experiments on her in her sleep, and spends a lot of the following time creeping on her. The dude makes Othar Tryggvassen look like a more plausible romantic choice.
• Properly Paranoid: (Параноик был прав) Has a deep-seated dislike of Dr. Rakethorn because it’s clear to see to everyone, with the possible exception of Gil and Agatha, that he and Ms. Thorpe are cutting in between Agatha and any potential lovers. He hasn’t called it out directly, yet, because he is more diplomatic and less smug about noticing it than Tarvek. It just seems to annoy him.
• Royal Blood: He is a descendant of the Storm King, and is next in line after Tarvek. Since Tarvek was written off as dead while trapped in the time bubble, he ascended to the throne.
• Smug Snake: (Самоуверенный мерзавчик) He takes measures to ensure Agatha needs him alive, but he foolishly assumes that that alone will be enough to control her.
• Spear Counterpart: To Zola. Both of them are cousins to one of the main characters (Tarvek for Tweedle; Agatha for Zola) who, as part of the Knights of Jove’s conspiracy, seek to usurp their respective cousins' rightful titles for themselves. They both introduce themselves with flowery speeches in Mechanicsburg. They both show themselves to be very prone to violence when in privacy. They were both students of one of Lucrezia’s affiliates (Vapnoople for Tweedle; Milvistle for Zola). Interestingly, they both have their own Villainous Crushes on their counterpart’s respective cousins.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When observing the machine that Lucrezia has modified alongside Gil and Tarvek, he takes in Tarvek’s observations on them trying to find said modifications and proposing to just rebuild the machine from scratch than risk trying to undo it and miss something. The two acknowledge his point.
• Token Evil Teammate: (Какой ни есть, а он за нас) Of Agatha’s party during the Paris and England arcs, overlapping with being The Friend Nobody Likes. But after the England arc, he no longer needs Agatha and seems to be getting back into his antagonistic role.
• The Usurper: He took measures to have the cabal write Tarvek off after the Sturmhalten incident, since he was next in line to the Lightning Throne. Then he took measures to assassinate Tarvek. After the time skip, he maintains his grip on the throne by killing anyone who tries to take it from him, but it’s clear that no-one (except maybe his sister) actually wants him to be king. Multiple factions try to get to Tarvek, with varying levels of success, under the simple logic that there’s no way he can be worse than Martellus. His grip on the throne seems to be getting shakier. Krosp believes he won’t survive the year, and the Muse of Geometries calculates his claim to be a «distant third, at best». Neither Agatha nor Gil will recognize him as the Storm King either, with Agatha stating "Not even if it will free Mechanicsburg, " and Colette in her official capacity as the new Master of Paris was careful not to state him as such either, only recognizing his questionable claim.
• Villainous Crush: (Влюблённый злодей) Tweedle happens to be interested in Agatha, part because marrying a Heterodyne is part of the whole Storm King mythos, and part because he’s actually interested in her. Agatha on her side of things makes it clear that she’s not interested.
• Villainous Friendship: When his henchmen are zombified by Andronicus Valois, he lays each of them to rest, reminding them of who they were, the good they did, and giving a brief blessing before returning to his battle with his ancestor. And when he does, he’s pissed. What had been a battle for the throne of the Storm King is now personal.
• Villainous Valor: Whatever his other faults, he is in no way a coward.
• Villain with Good Publicity: (Злодей с хорошей репутацией) What his aims are in the Paris arc: to use his grandmother’s pageant-party to declare himself the Storm King publicly in a major city in such a way as to endear himself to people. His battle against the undead Andronicus plays right into this, even though Agatha, the Jägers, Tarvek, the Master, and Colette really do more of the work. It pays off as Colette, the new leader of Paris seemingly recognizes him as the Storm King afterwards. Of course, if he had been paying more attention to her wording, he would have realized she wasn’t actually recognizing his claim, but just saying he could leave in peace.
• The Von Trope Family: So far the only major aristocratic character to carry the German «von», a sign of nobility, in his name.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: (Жанровая ошибка) His plan to become the Storm King is solid. He knows how to exploit the politics of the nobility, and he gets religious leaders to back him, solidifying his claim. The problem is the Storm King has a mythology all on it’s own, much like King Arthur, that he is ignoring. He is less familiar with the Muses than Tarvek is, having to ask one of them their name rather than recognizing them on sight like his cousin. The Muse in question, Orotine, tells him that he will need more than realpolitik to become the Storm King.

Xerxsephnia

Xerxsephina «Seffie» von Blitzengaard is the far more level-headed sister to Martellus von Blitzengaard, acting as the liason between Baron Gil Wulfenbach and the Knights of Jove after the Time Skip and the resurgence of the Long War.

• Arranged Marriage: (Брак по договорённости) She’s trying to set one up between Gil and herself. She’s well aware he’s obsessed with Agatha, but is insistent that it would help stabilize everything if the two largest factions were joined by marriage. Gil is annoyed to note that she’s right.
  • She elaborates to Tarvek later that she knows she’ll end up in a political marriage one way or another, so she might as well choose who she wants to marry, and Gil is the best choice by far. It may not sound like a great marriage on paper, but she’s determined to make it work. It’s also probably why she’s completely blindsided when Colette tactily admits she has feelings for her.
• Affably Evil: (Дружелюбный злодей) Evil is a big stretch, but she is manipulative and can be uncaring towards others livelihoods. Nevertheless, she’s unfailingly charming. Gil regards her as an old friend, and Tarvek (who hates his family as a rule) says that she’s a doll, while acknowledging that she’s all the more dangerous for it.
• Ambiguously Bi: While she mostly exhibits Single-Target Sexuality towards Gil, she’s at least willing to flirt with Captain Hawkins as part of her job offer.
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) She isn’t a spark but that doesn’t hinder her ability to scheme and manipulate others, such as Gil or her brother. It also doesn’t stop her from being just as crazy as a Spark.
• Brains and Brawn: (Умный плюс сильный) Despite not being a Spark, she’s more often than not the scheming Brains to the much more direct Martellus’s Brawn.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: (Ревность) She’s decidedly not a fan of Gil’s crush on Agatha. Later, when Queen Albia is attempting to encourage a romance between Gil and Trelawney Thorpe, Seffie is apoplectic.
• Color-Coded Characters: (Расцвеченная команда) Typically wears light blue clothes to match her eyes, and blood-red jewelry to match her hair.
• Establishing Character Moment: (Момент характеристики) Two. First, her very first appearance has her performing a dramatic monologue to Martellus, complete with Evil Laugh, before cheerfully hugging her «favorite brother» Martellus and noting that she’s been practicing her the harmonics of her cackling. Later, she pauses Martellus’s pursuit of Agatha to demonstrate that she’s much more personally and politically astute than Tweedle, who quickly acquiesces to her plan to distance herself from his terrible first impression on Agatha.
• Evil Laugh: (Злодейский смех) She’s working on her harmonics.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: (Козёл с золотым сердцем) She has a couple of moments during the attack on Paris. First, she tells her grandmother that she shouldn’t beat the servants… because it’s bad for her shoulder. Next, when Colette has trouble controlling the gargoyles, she asks her to avoid killing Martellus, because she needs him alive for her master plan. On the other hand, usefulness seems to overshadow affection in this family as a rule.
• Mask of Sanity: Possibly. While she seems affable enough even if a bit eccentric due to wanting to perfect maniacal laughter, she COMPLETELY loses it when the tea she is drinking «becomes cold» and she smashes the cup against the table several times. Of course, the real trigger is her being confronted with the fact that Gil loves Agatha rather than her. When she comes out of it, she apparently doesn’t process that she broke the cup and casually blames it on one of her underlings.
• The Matchmaker: (Помощник в любовной интриге) Encourages Tarvek’s crush on Agatha to get Agatha out of the way for her own crush on Gil, which also means she’s opposing Martellus' claim to the Lightning Throne, as his claim basically hinges on him wedding Agatha.
• Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats: When Tweedle decided to make an Uplifted cat, Seffie was all over the kitty, and noted that Tweedle is «more of a huge hairy dog monster person» (in reference to his Knights of the Hunt).
• No Sense of Personal Space: (Нарушитель личного пространства) She’s a bit hands-on when it comes to Gil. Not too much, not even enough for him to mention it, but enough to earn her a few glares.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: (Диалектика Льда и Огня) She is (at least when the subject isn’t Gil) a more level-headed counterpart to her heavy-handed and brutal brother.
• Secret-Keeper: (Хранитель тайны) Surprisingly, Gil trusts her enough to use her as a diplomatic messenger, even giving her papers meant to be placed «under the rock in catacombs.» Furthermore, she appears to know that Gil has his father riding around in his head.
• Stalker with a Crush: (Сталкинг) She has a borderline-psychotic crush on Gil and has been intercepting his letters since she was a child.
• Sure, Let’s Go with That: Inadvertently starts a new fashion trend in Britain when she shows up at the Queen’s court with candy in her hair, claiming it’s fashion, rather than just admitting she slipped and fell and it got stuck in her hair.
• Underestimating Badassery: Like Klaus, Lucrezia, Vole, Martellus, and who knows how many others, Seffie underestimates Agatha.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: (Мастер импровизаций) She’s very flexible in her planning, to the point of tossing the entire Knights of Jove agenda in the circular file after everything went pear-shaped and forming an alliance with the heir of the Empire they’d been planning to replace. She asks Colette not to kill Martellus for the sake of her newest master plan, suggesting she’s been through quite a few.

Selkinov family

Lord Selnikov

One of the Knights of Jove, Lord Selnikov assists Anevka in her attempt to usurp her brother. He also leads the Knights in their attack on Mechanicsburg, consequently getting himself killed by Gil.

• Awful Wedded Life: He and Lady Selnikov despised one another, and Lord Selnikov is implied to have frequently cheated on her whenever she was away. The moment he realizes being reanimated will mean the end of his marriage he perks up and ask Dr. Sun is if he can have a plaque reading «Reanimated Abomination of Science» bolted to his forehead.
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) He’s got no Spark, and is past his prime, but he’s still surprisingly capable.
• Brain in a Jar: (Мозг в банке) Thanks to a mix of Gil’s lightning stick and Vole’s method of «recovering» his body, it’s what he’s been reduced to.
• Death Is Cheap: (Дешёвая смерть) He was killed by Gil’s attack, but revived since the Baron determined he’d possess information that would be of use to them.
• Dirty Old Man: (Старик Похабыч) Missed the news about his brother in-law being killed because he gave his staff orders to leave him alone for several hours, while his wife was away in Paris. Ahem.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: When we first meet him, he’s a member of the Knights of Jove supporting Anevka and later Zola. After Gil blows up his war stomper and he’s reduced to a head in a jar, he ends up working as an agent for Boris Dolokhov, investigating reports of the wasp that can enslave Sparks.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) While not a Spark, the novels mention he does actually have a reasonably sharp brain, once it gets going.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: (Козлящая родня супруга) He’s not too fond of his wife or his brother in-law, Prince Aaronev.
• Oh, Crap!: (Осознание катастрофы) Practically his default expression.
• Pragmatic Evil: During the attempted take-over of Mechanicsburg, he stated he wanted to make it at least look like he wanted to do it without bloodshed. He also advised against antagonising the Jägermonsters. He also switches sides to Wulfenbach rather readily, citing how despite them being so ruthless, it’s a step up from being in the Decadent Court of the Knights of Jove.
• Properly Paranoid: (Параноик был прав) He learned how to shave himself rather than let anyone he knew put a razor to his throat. Considering the family he’s a part of, this decision probably lengthened his life by several decades.
• Secret-Keeper: (Хранитель тайны) He is one of few that knows about Spark-infecting wasp. The others are Prince Aaronev and the creator of the device himself. Well, and Tarvek, but he wasn’t supposed to know.

Margarella

Lady Margarella Selnikov (or «Auntie Margolotta» to Violetta) is the widow of Lord Rudolf Selnikov, a member of the Knights of Jove, and sister to Prince Aaronev.

• Action Survivor: She’s made it as far as Agatha’s auspices without being offed by Smoke Knights, but she certainly is not fighter material. Subverted when it turns out she’s orchestrated at least some of the railway attacks that seemed to be after her, in order to get to the Corbettites' base, and takes one of their members hostage, as seen here.
• All for Nothing: Turns out she was looking in the wrong vaults all along…
• Aristocrats Are Evil: (Загнивающая аристократия) Her exact rank isn’t stated, but she is clearly an aristocrat.
• Awful Wedded Life: It’s made more explicit in the novels, but she and her husband did not have a happy union.
• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing: Turns out she was trying to get to the Corbettite fortress to go through their weapons stash, and deliberately leading the assassins to her.
• Inconsistent Spelling: She is sometimes called Margarella and sometimes Margolotta.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) Freeing the Beast? NOT a good idea. Violet herself verifies she is DEFINITELY dead.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: (Прекрасная белоснежка) Goes well with her rather black travel dress as well.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) As far as Violetta knows, either Margarella never tried to kill her or didn’t try particularly hard, which counts as this in her book when compared to the rest of their family.
• Protectorate: (Протекторат) Thanks to Agatha’s Chronic Hero Syndrome. She remains so even after her identity is revealed by Wooster.
• Screw the Rules, I’m Doing What’s Right!: (К чёрту закон, я делаю добро!) She supports Tarvek over Tweedle, due to Tweedle being an absolutely horrible Storm King by any measure. She’s on the lam because of it. This is zigzagged. It turns out she’s not remotely a good person at all. And then later it turns out she wasn’t working for either side, but the resolutely neutral Library. Except that the Library at the time was neutral in Tarvek’s favor, so she may have still been a Tarvek loyalist after all. It’s complicated.
• Villainous Breakdown: (Злодейская истерика) Loses it when her targeted Corbettite vault doesn’t contain whatever it is she’s looking for. She runs around frantically opening other vaults willy-nilly, until she gets to the one containing The Beast..

Other family members

Dio Zardeliv

Violeta’s great-uncle Dr. Zardeliv is a Spark and professor whose study is focused on time, making him very in demand after Mechanicsburg was frozen by the Take-Five Bomb. Last seen in the company of the rogue Other allied Smoke Knight Madwa Korel.

• Faking the Dead: (Инсценировка смерти) After leaving the Immortal Library he and Madwa killed one of the librarians he was with and doctored his corpse to look like Zardeliv.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) His body was found on the smuggler’s submarine he and Madwa used to get to England and was identified by Violeta, though Madwa’s supposed body was found as well and she turned up alive.

Smoke Knights

Malek

A Smoke Knight based out of Paris who serves Martellus von Blitzengaard.

• Distracted by the Sexy: Varpa is able to distract him even though he knows that that’s what she was sent to do, he’s still following Agatha he’s just not paying as much attention as he ought to.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) He studied Ecclesiastical Architecture at University and considers himself a stonemason at heart, as he puts it «Being a Smoke Knight is what I do not what I am.»
• Hidden Weapons: (Потайное оружие) None of his weapons are seen unless he’s using them. It’s likely Smoke Knights often wear capes to help make hiding weapons easier.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Skewered from behind while talking to Violetta.
• Impossible Thief: Smoke Knights are all capable of this and at one point he and Varpa are able to take Agatha’s notes, read them over, and return them without being noticed by the two very good warriors on guard.
• McNinja: He’s a Smoke Knight.
• Offscreen Teleportation / Offscreen Reality Warp: (Закадровая телепортация) All part of the a good Smoke Knight’s repertoire.
• One Head Taller: Malek is one of the taller Smoke Knights while Varpa is one of the shortest and they grow attached while working together and making out.
• Performance Anxiety: Malek is generally quite good at his job, but is used to working alone. Working with a partner leads to potentially fatal mistakes:

«	Varpa: Are you trying to kill us?! Malek: I'm used to working alone! I get nervous when someone's watching!	»

• Stealth Expert: He and Varpa follow Agatha’s group for a couple of days and are only noticed by the Smoke Knight in the group even though the rest of the group is made up of a couple of Sparks, a Warrior Princess, a Master Spy a Super-Soldier and a clever seasoned adventurer.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: He is a Smoke Knight so this is a basic part of his repertoire, he and Varpa were able to look over Agatha’s notes while Dimo and Zeetha were on watch without even being noticed, though Violetta was aware of their presence.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: (Внезапная смерть персонажа) The Geisterdamen announce their presence in Paris and the fact that they’ve been alerted to Agatha’s group by spearing him through the chest with some kind of hook on a rope and yanking him out of the carriage to toss him away off the rooftops.
• Worf Effect: (Силач на расправу) The Geisterdamen occasionally need to show the audience just how deadly they are. Even top level Smoke Knights can be sneak killed by them. Though, to be fair, he was distracted at the time.

Varpa

A Smoke Knight who serves Xerxsephina «Seffie» von Blitzengaard.

• Badass Cape: (Крутой в плаще) Her dark purple cape is hooded so that she can hide her hair and eyepatch.
• Blow Gun: She uses a blow gun to take out a Geisterdamen with poison.
• Emotion Suppression: After Malek, who she’d been growing to care about, is unceremoniously killed and tossed off a roof by a Geisterdamen she has a conversation with Zeetha that hints this is part of a Smoke Knight’s training though she takes a minute to get there herself.

«	Zeetha: This could be a rough fight, are you going to be okay? Varpa: Of course. Smoke feels nothing. —and when they are dead I will be very okay.	»

• Eyepatch of Power: Though her low hood usually hides the eyepatch.
• Handwraps of Awesome: Varpa keeps her hands wrapped in bandages to prevent injury while fighting and to make handling poisons safer.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) She writes poetry about cheese, publishing it under a pseudonym.
• Hidden Weapons: (Потайное оружие) None of her weapons are seen unless she’s using them except the knife at her belt.
• Honey Trap: (Далила) How she interpreted Seffie’s order to «get in [Malek’s] way a bit.» In a twist, Malek was aware of what she was doing and didn’t seem to mind.

«	Malek: Does this mean no more kissing? Varpa: …less kissing.	»

• Impossible Thief: Smoke Knights are all capable of this and at one point she and Malek are able to take Agatha’s notes, read them over, and return them without being noticed by the two very good warriors on guard.
• Instant Seduction: Her Lady knows she’s capable of this when she sends her to get in Martellus' Smoke Knight’s way, and indeed by the time she’s seen again the two appear to be in the early stages of a relationship though they’ve known each other for at most a day and a half.
• Kiss of Distraction: She’s been distracting Malek from the mission Martellus sent him on with kisses but they’ve hit it off even though they know they’re working against each other.
• McNinja: As are all other Smoke Knights she is essentially a European ninja.
• Offscreen Teleportation / Offscreen Reality Warp: (Закадровая телепортация) All part of the standard competent Smoke Knight repertoire.
• Stealth Expert: She and Malek follow Agatha’s group for a couple of days and are only noticed by the Smoke Knight in the group even though the rest of the group is made up of a couple of Sparks, a Warrior Princess, a Master Spy a Super-Soldier and a clever seasoned adventurer.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: All part of a Smoke Knight’s repertoire. She and Malek were able to look over Agatha’s notes while Dimo and Zeetha were on watch without either of them noticing.
• Uncertain Doom: The last we see of her, she’s going to try and cross a revenant-infested Paris to reach Seffie’s location. She’s not there when we/the other characters finally arrive at said location, and the next time we see Seffie accompanied by a Smoke Knight attendant, it’s not Varpa.

Veilchen

One of the Smoke Knights who worked for Tarvek’s faction. He «parted ways» with the rescue party leaving them in an oubliette and told Violetta about the hunt on Tarvek’s Smoke Knights when he was wounded himself. Seems to be a very popular dude.

• The Ace: (Профи своего дела) Tarvek explicitly calls him «one of the best.»
• Informed Attribute: (Заявленная способность) He doesn’t have chance to prove his competency and get Game-Breaking Injury because he forgets the monster they escaped.
• Bald of Evil: ([Лысый, как череп) He’s more of a cold-blooded professional, but the archetype is here.
• Game-Breaking Injury: (Спираль смерти?) His right arm is broken after the mission in the Sturmhalten sewers, forcing him to rest.
• Idiot Ball: (Внезапный приступ глупости)
  • Sure, he escapes from an oubliette in pretty badass fashion, but forgets about the pursuing monsters that caused him to fall into the thing in the first place.
  • He also manages to forget that if you sneak through a sewer, you’re going to pong a bit afterwards.
• Laser-Guided Karma: (Кармическое возмездие) See Villain Ball below. He gets that after he abandoned the group for their fate.
• McNinja: As a Smoke Knight, he’s basically a European ninja.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: (Закадровый момент крутости) The monster catches him and he screamed. Next time he appears he reports to Tarvek.

Madwa Korel

The master of a rogue Smoke Knight cell that still serves The Other even after Grandmother divested the Knights of Jove cabal of her/it/them and all followers.

• An Arm and a Leg: The freed Storm King grabs her arm and does something unpleasant to it, leaving a blackened remnant. Interestingly, it’s fully restored later on.
• Didn’t See That Coming: Madwa was fully prepared for many complications when stealing Prende’s Lantern, able to lay hands on it even with the interference of Agatha and her allies, but the fact the lantern was keeping the revived Storm King in a state of stasis was not one of them, and she gets her hand rotted to a skeletal state when she’s unexpectedly grabbed by him.
  • An Inversion occurs later on, in that she does see it coming, which is precisely why it takes her off-guard. Madwa surprises Raketorn and the sea-dwellers he’s running away from with Prende’s lantern, catching them all in a time stop before they even know she’s there, and realises to her surprise that she apparently also caught Violetta in the act of sneaking up behind her to stab her In the Back, leaving her helpless and frozen, before dismissing the smoke knight’s immobilised presence when trying to decide how to deal with the interlopers… only to then remember that the lantern only freezes time for any being caught in its light and Violetta’s merely pretending to be immobilised right before she gets shanked. In her defence, she did note that she was very tired from non-stop patrolling right before then, leading to her slip-up.
• Enemy Mine: (От вражды к союзу) Not her specifically, but standing orders from «Grandmother» state that all Smoke Knight cells still loyal to the cabal are to set aside rivalries and cross purposes to seek out and destroy Madwa’s cell (and any other rogue Other-loyal cells) should they be encountered.
• Evil Counterpart: (Оттенить героя мерзавцем) To Violetta. While Violetta is a loyal Smoke Knight tasked with guarding Tarvek (and therefore also Agatha), Madwa is a rogue Smoke Knight whose loyalty is to the Other.
• He Knows Too Much: (Не оставлять свидетелей) She is all set to kill the pilot that smuggled her past England’s patrols to keep him quiet, up until being impressed by the fact that he knew all along and was too apathetic to care.

«	Madwa: Well, now I kind of want to keep him.	»

• Impossible Thief: Think Violetta’s pickpocketing ability, only better.
• Master Poisoner: (Мастер ядов) Her poisons are well known to other smoke knights. Made from extremely rare ingredients, to boot.
• Ninja Log: She leaves this when she avoids incoming attacks. Yes, the model is similar to the person it stands for.
• Never Mess with Granny: She’s an old woman, but still an expert smoke knight.
• Oh, Crap!: (Осознание катастрофы) Has a brief moment of this when she realizes that Violetta is right behind her, knife raised and isn’t in the time stop field projected by Prende’s Lantern. Even she isn’t quick enough to avoid getting a knife in the back.
• Old Master: In a profession that may not exactly have a long lifespan, Madwa is an old woman and still at the top of her game.
• Shout-Out: Of the ironic variety. Madwa has a diamond tattoo on her forehead — in Dune, this tattoo is worn by Suk doctors, who have been conditioned to be incapable of harming their patients. Madwa, of course, does nothing but harm her «patients» (though it’s likely she actually is also a skilled medic, as this seems to be part of Smoke Knight training).
• Uncertain Doom: A dead body is pulled off a crashed submarine in England and identified as being her, but the reader never sees the corpse, and she’s already shown how sneaky and deceptive she can be. It eventually turns out that yes, she’s still alive.
  • Violetta exploits the mechanics of Prende’s Lantern to fool Madwa long enough to get into position to stab her and retrieve the Latern. Knowing Madwa it’s entirely possible she survived, but also knowing Violetta, she would make sure the elder Smoke Knight is Killed Off for Real. Violetta afterwards indicates that, as far she she can tell, Madwa is genuinely dead.
• Worf Had the Flu: While fooling Madwa and taking her down is undeniably impressive regardless of the circumstances, Violetta herself is quick to point out that it only worked because she was exhausted.

Other members

Zola «Heterodyne»

Once everyone had heard there was a Heterodyne girl running around, she stepped in (along with a conspiracy) to provide one. Agatha was… not happy about that.

• Ass Shove: (Всё через задницу) Lucrezia notes (after knocking her out, restraining her, and presumably searching her) that some of her equipment was «in rather uncomfortable places, I’d imagine».
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) Lacks the Spark, but she’s still a fully-trained Smoke Knight carrying enough weaponry under that pink camisole to arm a small nation. After getting dosed up on Movit #11, she’s an even match for Higgs in a one-on-one fight.
• Bad to the Last Drop: (Плох до последней капли) according to Gil she either poisons it or is just bad at making it.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: (Красота остаётся незапятнанной) Averted. After taking the Movit 11, her physical appearance goes steeply downhill.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: (Потому что вы были добры ко мне) Seems to be the cause of her attraction to Gil.
• Big Bad: (Главный гад) Of the Adventures In Castle Heterodyne spinoff game.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство) She’s the daughter of Demonica Mongfish, one of Lucrezia’s sisters, meaning she’s also Agatha’s cousin, but that hasn’t stopped her from trying to kill her multiple times.
• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing: Even though the first impression of her is a harmless, gullible figurehead for the Storm King conspiracy, she starts fighting, no holds barred, when Agatha and her team throw a spanner in the works.
• Cassandra Truth: (Правда Кассандры) For once, is telling the complete truth to Lucrezia on 20100705, that she can’t be Demonic Possession-ed. Lucrezia learns this to her own chagrin.
• The Chessmaster: Over the course of events, proven to be the genuine article.
• Damsel in Distress: (Дева в беде) Back in Paris, she was a kidnapping victim almost professionally.
• Dark Action Girl: (Зло с женским лицом) A fully trained Smoke Knight and the main rival to Agatha in the castle.
• Deadly Upgrade: Via a Psycho Serum.
• Dumb Blonde: (Тупая блондинка) Subverted due to Obfuscating Stupidity. Gil and Tarvek eventually conclude that Zola, as the fake Heterodyne that was groomed by the Knights of Jove for years, is probably a lot more dangerous than she lets on, and a later confrontation proves them entirely right.
• Determinator: (Превозмогатель) Manages to survive a Movit 11 overdose and briefly kills the Castle itself, and to add, by that point 70 % of the bones in her body are likely non-functional, she’s running on fumes and has a murderous Higgs hot on her heels, and she still escapes.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: (Посрами дьявола) Whatever the Other’s deal is, Zola managed to sucker it and snatch some of its secrets.
• Evil Counterpart: (Оттенить героя мерзавцем) She is one to her cousin, Agatha.
  • Agatha spent most of her life unaware that she was a Heterodyne and still isn’t quite comfortable with all the attention she’s given. Zola was molded by the Order to be their fake Heterodyne and she loves making big, flashy scenes and being the center of attention.
  • They both spent their youths looking less competent than they truly were. Agatha’s Spark was suppressed by the locket, making her seem much less intelligent than she actually was while Zola was Obfuscating Stupidity when she was studying in Paris to keep her cover. Likewise, Agatha manages to subvert people’s expectations of her as a Spark and a Heterodyne by being kind and mostly in control of herself while Zola, who isn’t a Spark and was originally thought to just be a pawn of the Order, manages to be more violent, crazy and ambitious than most Sparks.
  • Agatha doesn’t like making people do things they don’t want to do or forcing them into dangerous situations while Zola has no problem with using violence and mind control to make people do what she wants.
  • Both Agatha and Zola are interested in Gil romantically, but for Zola it was a case of both their fake cover identities interacting while in Paris (and the 'real' Zola may not even care for him all that much) while Agatha has only ever known him in his true identity. Gil on his side sees Agatha as an equal and is in love with her because of it, while he always saw Zola’s fake identity as a Damsel in Distress he constantly had to rescue and never anything else. By the time he realizes how competent Zola really is he’s thoroughly repelled by her.
  • Agatha had the Other forced into her mind and she constantly fighting to keep it from taking over. Zola willingly allowed the Other into her mind and she has the training and conditioning to control it and use it for her own benefit.
  • She is also one for Violetta. Both are Smoke Knights who have agendas that don’t fit The Order’s. Violetta doesn’t really want to be part of it while Zola wants to manipulate it.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: (Бить смертным боем) Is on the receiving end of this trope twice'.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: (Аника-воин) Was set up as a fake Heterodyne, with the ultimate idea of her backers being that she would just happen to run into their chosen Storm King, and by the time anyone might’ve figured out what was going on…
• Faux Affably Evil: (Притворно дружелюбный злодей) When in Mechanicsburg, manages to do a pretty good job of playing the «kind princess in waiting.»
• Foreshadowing: (Предзнаменование) She sure bears a strong familial resemblance to Lucrezia in that portrait, doesn’t she?
• Giggling Villain: Her evil banter gets odder over the Castle arc. And she gets giddier as things continue.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: (Пистолет с крюком) Standard Smoke Knight equipment.
• Hate Sink: (Концентратор ненависти) When we first meet her she’s a false heir with an annoying personality — right off the bat not a good look. As time goes on, however, she crosses the line from a nuisance to a psycho who wants to murder Agatha.
• The Heavy: (Самый заметный злодей) For Volumes VII through XI, she’s the one providing the most direct opposition to Agatha and friends in Castle Heterodyne. Klaus is hospitalized and the Other is trapped thanks to the locket, so it’s Zola that’s doing most of the fighting for the Castle arc.
• Hero Killer: Zola has become this. To date she has critically wounded Zeetha, Higgs, and Agatha.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Exactly what she’s doing as the Queen of the Dawn is unclear. Her appearance in Paris was part of some kind of plan, but the situation was already out of control before she got there and she never got the chance to do any scheming. It seemed the basic idea was that she would perform at the opera house and the staff would wasp the crowd, giving her more control over Paris. It fails because the Library attacks the Opera House when they get wind of the plot and the new Master of Paris is more closely connected with the city than her father was, making such a move suicidal. She also uses the opportunity to purge her ranks of the Geisters who are loyal to the Other first and foremost.
• Lethal Chef: (Невыносимо скверный повар) «Well, I always thought she just couldn’t make coffee. Now, I’m not so sure.»
• The Load: (Балласт) Apparently fulfilled this role in all of Gil’s adventures with her in Paris, and when nabbed by Agatha she slipped into it again.
• Long-Lost Relative: «Hello auntie.» To more aptly explain the family tree: Her mother was Demonica, Lucrezia’s sister. Their other sister, Serpentina, was Theo’s mother. So Zola, Agatha, and Theo are all first cousins on their mothers' side.
• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть) When she takes the Psycho Serum, she becomes so strong that it takes several No-Holds-Barred Beatdowns to make her flee.
• Mad Love: Towards Gil, very much. Also later towards Tarvek, but her sanity’s slipping at the time, so there’s a chance she still thought he was Gil.
• Master Actress: Oh yes. Also involves the second part of the trope, where the audience thinks she might actually have Split Personalities. Of course, in this case, that’s not so far-fetched.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) Twofold: depending on grammar of the phrase and context in Slavic languages «Zola» can mean either «cinder» or an alternative form of the root «-zlo-» — "evil"note . And she tries to be the evil Cinderella of this story, going from Rags to Riches with all these nefarious plans.
• Motormouth: After a double-dose of Movit 11.
• Muggle Born of Mages: (Инвалидность по магии) Unlike her cousins Agatha and Theo, at least one Aunt (Lucrezia), and her grandfather in the Mongfish family, Zola is not a Spark. This may be why the forces of the Other allied with the Queen of the Dawn have not really exhibited any breakthrough in Slaver Wasp technology, as observed by the Wulfenbach forces. Zola may have a captive essentia of Lucrezia in her head, but she herself is not a Spark.
• Mundanger: Zola doesn’t have the Spark, nor is she a construct, but she is a well-trained Smoke Knight who came very close to killing the protagonists.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) Her real last name is Malfeazium. And her mother was Demonica.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: (Бить смертным боем) Zola is on the receiving end of one after a three way brawl between her, Agatha and Tarvek. After she stabs Agatha with a brooch pin, Tarvek (who is EXTREMELY cross about the various misfortunes up to this point and possibly losing Agatha too) delivers one to Zola, releasing a world of hurt directly into her face before trying to throttle her. Only Gil’s misguided interference saves her life.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом)
  • This is how it’s done.
  • Judging from Gil and Tarvek’s reactions, she’s an absolute mistress of the technique.
  • She’s a Smoke Knight, and no one ever suspected.
  • She even manages to trick Lucrezia.
  • It’s at least implied that she even managed this on her allies, who knew she was doing it to others, with the Knights of Jove seeing her as someone competently evil, but ultimately easy to manipulate.
• Only Friend: She invoked it.
• Overly Long Name: (Длинное имя) Her full name is Zola Anya Talinka Venia Zeblinkya Malfeazium.
• The Power of Hate: She attributes her Made of Iron tendencies to this. And drugs. Lovely, lovely drugs.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: (Принцесса в розовом) An Invoked Trope as part of her role as a fake Heterodyne. Even her death ray is pink. Even the death beam is pink.
• Psycho Pink: (Злодейский розовый) Her Princesses Prefer Pink asthetic turns into this trope as she gets high on Movit 11 and gets a bit of the Other in her brain.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Dropped out of sight for a long time following events in Mechanicsburg, then finally resurfaced playing the part of «The Queen of the Dawn.»
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Has a bit of a habit provoking them in the Castle arc. Lucrezia would like to «thank» her for that, Higgs delivered a beating on the spot, and Tarvek intended — perhaps still intends — to strangle her to death with his bare hands.
• Shout-Out: One of the times Gil had to rescue her it was from a crazy man in an opera house. Apparently it was also one of the few times it wasn’t her fault she was in trouble.
• Sigil Spam: Covered head to toe in Heterodyne trilobite symbols, overselling her Heterodyne «heritage».
• Slasher Smile: (Улыбашка)
  • When the Castle dies, she has a frighteningly Sparky look of triumphant glee on her face. Also here.
  • Post-Movit Zola has these pretty often.
• The Starscream: (Стремящийся в ГлавГады) For both The Order’s fake Hetrodyne plan and Lucrezia.
• Uncertain Doom: The last we’ve seen of her to date, her plans to take over Paris have failed and she’s fallen into the clutches of Tarvek’s Grandmother.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Seemingly cannot resist letting people know she has beaten them.
• Unstoppable Rage/The Power of Hate: (Бешеный гнев) Claims this is what’s sustaining her after suffering some truly grievous injuries.

«	Tarvek: How are you even still moving? Zola: HATE! Hate and drugs! Lovely, lovely drugs! I’m a beautiful, chemical, killing machine!	»

• Villain with Good Publicity: (Злодей с хорошей репутацией) Post-timeskip she’s now known as the Queen of the Dawn and has a reputation for being a peacemaker. However, Gil and Tarvek suspect (without knowing the Queen’s true identity) that she’s been using slaver wasps and it’s unlikely that Zola’s ambition has faded over time.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: (Мастер импровизаций) She is «very good at improvising when things go wrong.»
• Yandere: (Яндэрэ) Is one towards Tarvek, if her plan for him is of any indication.

Wolkerstorfer

Count Wolkerstorfer is an absent-minded member of the Knights of Jove, with a sparky propensity for magnets. He is first seen attacking the Wyrm of Limerick, a Corbettite rail liner, and later plays an important role in the defeat of the Beast of The Rails.

• Absent-Minded Professor: Wolkerstorfer has a few memory retention problems… He is nearly derailed from his mission in finding Lady Selnikov by Krosp until he runs through his memory again.
• Affably Evil: (Дружелюбный злодей) Appears genuinely personable and friendly, even while attacking the Wyrm of Limerick on behalf of Martellus.
• Attention Deficit… Ooh, Shiny!: As a result of his forgetfulness, he tends to lose track of things in the middle of conversations.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: (Профи с причудами) In many ways a forgetful Cloudcuckoolander. But he’s AMAZING with magnets, and he’s still capable of fending off major attacks singlehanded.
• Ditzy Genius: (Чудаковатый гений) He’s ditzy even by Spark standards, but he’s a genius even by their standards too.
• Eye Beams: (Лучи из глаз) How he kills Baron Oomfumf. His mech’s cyclopean eye rakes the Baron’s tuba trombone battle wagon thing with a beam.
• For Science!: (Ради науки!) Seems to be his default mode of thought, though he’s a lot calmer about it than many such individuals.
• Humongous Mecha: We haven’t seen Wolkerstorfer himself, just his huge bulbous mech… unless that is his body. It’s anyone’s guess where Sparks are concerned.
• Magnetic Weapons: (Энергетическое оружие?) Wolkerstorfer is all about this, though not the typical rail/coil guns, but much more reality-breaking sparky applications. Martellus even calls him a «demon with magnets».
• Nothing Personal: (Ничего личного) It appears you really have to work at it to get him to form a grudge; after confronting Agatha and the Corbettite Monks and having them do some fairly serious damage to his mecha, he later cheerfully assists them in their fight against The Beast. He couldn’t be angry over it, because from Agatha’s and Matthias’s invention he learned something fascinating about magnets!
• They Called Me Mad!: He seems to be not very well-regarded by his peers due to his inability to focus, leading to this response (following the offending party’s death by eye beam).

Knights of the Hunt

A force of elite bio-modified warriors loyal to Martellus von Blitzengaard who serve as his minions. They can shapeshift between human and wolf forms.

• Affably Evil: (Дружелюбный злодей) Norville thinks of Gil as a nice guy who would get along well with Martellus if they just sat down and talked for a bit, maybe even had some sandwiches. Well, that, and if Tarvek was killed.
• Ambiguously Human: (Искусственный человек) It isn’t clear if they’re humans modified to turn into wolves or vice versa.
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) The confidence of Smoke Knights vanish the moment they see it’s the Knights of the Hunt they’re up against.
• Elite Mooks: (Непростые головорезы) They’re very tough for minions. Tarvek is able to beat them, but not without several close calls on his part.
• Evil Counterpart: (Оттенить героя мерзавцем) In a way, to the Jägers. They’re both an army biologically modified elite fighters, they’re both a race(?) of Boisterous Bruisers, and they’re both fanatically loyal to their respective Master/Mistress.
• Monster Knight: (Рыцарь-монстр) On one hand, they’re artificially-made werewolves who serve an evil Mad Scientist. On the other hand, they’re loyal warriors of their (self-declared-)King, who in turn considers them «good men» worthy of respect in death and of his friendship.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: (Оборотни) The Knights of the Hunt are bio-engineered fighters able to switch between a human form and a wolf form at will.

Baron Oublenmach

A member of the Fifty Families, and one of Zola’s public backers on the Pink Airship. Is weirdly obsessed with ringing the Doom Bell.

• All There in the Manual: His given name Krassimir was only revealed in Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: (Загнивающая аристократия) One of the conspiracy to promote Zola as a fake Heterodyne.
• Climbing Climax: His character arc concludes with him climbing the Doom Bell Tower with the hammer, where he is exposed to its deafening ring at extremely short range, leaving him collapsed on the floor. Courtesy of the Castle and Franz, he gets some treasure for his trouble.
• Hostage Situation: (Взятие заложников) Threatens Vidonia and Vanamonde’s family if Vanamonde doesn’t do what he wants.
• Only in It for the Money: Reveals that the political side of the conspiracy doesn’t interest him, he just wants the treasure of the Heterodynes.
• The Man Behind the Man: (Гад-кукловод) One of the front backers for Zola.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж) He hasn’t been seen since being showered with a clawful of gold coins by Franz, so he is presumably trapped in the Time Stop field encompassing Mechanicsburg. Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg reveals that he will spend the rest of his life serving the Heterodyne family in a gold-related capacity while denying that he is doing so all the time.
• Would Hit a Girl: (Боевой феминист) Threatens to slit Vidonia’s throat if Van doesn’t cooperate, and is presumably also responsible for giving Vanamonde’s mother a black eye.
• Writing Lines: He is subjected to the verbal variation after he walks into Mamma Gkika’s bar with a gun. He is made to repeat the line «Ladies are delicate creatures who should never be struck or awakened too early in the morning» a hundred times. By the time he’s done, he’s ready to ask for the sweet release of death.

Duke Strinbeck

A member of the Fifty Families, and one of Zola’s public backers on the Pink Airship. Suffers a fatal case of Lost to his Own Stupidity when Agatha begins repairing the Castle.

• Aristocrats Are Evil: (Загнивающая аристократия) One of the conspiracy to promote Zola as a fake Heterodyne, and unlike most of the ones who show up later doesn’t have any redeeming qualities, or even amusing ones.
• Asshole Victim: (Жертва — козёл) Rude, snide, violent and unpleasant, he makes it extremely easy for the Pink Airship crew to decide he’s not-exactly-dead weight and throw him overboard, declaring afterward killing him doesn’t count as mutiny. Even his own next of kin aren’t taken aback when told of his demise.
• Disproportionate Retribution: (Неадекватное возмездие) Josef makes things much easier for the airship crew by threatening to have all of them flayed alive just because the captain punched him out for threatening to kill anyone who tried to get the ship to safety.
• Jerkass: (Козёл) Almost seems dedicated to being as big a one as possible, even refusing to let the airship crew report a fire, a shared duty of airship crew, when there’s no reason not to, and sneering at them all the while.
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) He lost his lands to toy automatons. Somehow.
• The Man Behind the Man: (Гад-кукловод) One of the front backers for Zola, but not remotely one of the most important ones. Which might explain why he was sent to Mechanisburg first…
• Too Dumb to Live: (Несовместимая с жизнью тупость(в разработке)) Official cause of death and all, which doesn’t even count as a case of The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much since being too dumb to live is a recognized cause of death in the setting. And he more than qualified, first refusing to listen to the crew’s warnings about Mechanisburg (the unconquered Mechanicsburg), then pulling a gun on them when they tried to not get killed by the town’s defense systems, then threatening all of the crew, just as they needed to shed weight.
• Upper-Class Twit: (Испорченные аристократы) According to the novels, even the other members of the Fifty Families thought he was unbearable. The only reason they gave him the time of day at all was because doing otherwise would’ve been gauche.
• Wrong Line of Work: Not that members of the Fifty Families tend to sully themselves with work, mind you, but a footnote in Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle notes Strinbeck’s unthinking rudeness and stupidity would’ve made him an excellent head waiter.

Associates

Van Rijn

R.note Van Rijn was a legendary Spark, surpassing his peers of the day (ie, 200-odd years before the events of the comic), and even Sparks of the modern day. He is best known for two things: being the close advisor of the original Storm King, and for constructing nine clanks of exquisite craftsmanship, the Muses.

• Ambiguous Situation: In Voltaire’s story, Van Rijn was described as having carted away Andronicus' corpse to give him a proper burial after the Shining Coalition finally defeated him. Flash-foward 200 years, and Andronicus is alive again, but as a decaying Humanoid Abomination. What and why Van Rijn did this, or if he was even involved, is left up to speculation.
• Beyond the Impossible: Managed to make sentient clanks in the form of the Muses, something that’s considered widely to be impossible even 200 years later.
• Born in the Wrong Century: (Родился не в ту эпоху) 200 years later, the exquisite craftsmanship and intricacy of his Muses remain unsurpassed by other clank designers. Although there have been hints he got a leg up thanks to his conversations with The Muse of Time.
• Bookworm: (Книжный червь) He founded an autonomous library of extreme bibliophiles.
• Dirty Old Man: (Старик Похабыч) The Muse of Time refers to him as a «presumptuous old lecher».
• The Ghost: (Закадровый персонаж) His inventions and legacy feature heavily in the comic’s plot, but Van Rijn himself has been dead for centuries by the present, and even in flashbacks, the kind of person he was is deliberately kept extremely ambiguous. (Though we do eventually get to see what he looked like.)
• Immortality Seeker: (Искатель бессмертия) He sought to trap The Muse of Time in order to force from her the secret of immortality. Although it’s been hinted that this was not done entirely for his own sake.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) He was a Spark, so this is a given.
• Never Found the Body: (Тело так и не нашли) Well, technically someone finally did… 200 years later.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: (Учёный-всезнайка) At the very least, he constructed the Muses, forged the Storm King a powerful electrified sword, built an industrial sausage-works and was a talented painter and sculptor.
• The Paranoiac: Explicitly stated to be one in a footnote in one of the Girl Genius print novels, and there have been hints of this in the comic; his notebook is larded with codes within codes.
• Posthumous Character: (Посмертный персонаж) By the time Agatha finds him, he is a long-mummified husk.
• Shrouded in Myth: (Человек-миф) Again according to the novel, not much was known about the guy even when he was alive.
• The Slow Path: (В будущее своим ходом) Possibly, in his dealings with the entity he named The Muse of Time.
• Sweet Tooth: (Сладкоежка) Among the hidden secrets inside his notebook Agatha finds numerous recipes.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Sparks are well-known for Tampering in God’s Domain, but Van Rijn was still greatly unnerved after he created the Muses about just what it was he’d created. Then they kindly told him it was alright.

The Muses

A set of clanks, built by Master Van Rijn, «The Greatest Spark of All Time» for «the Greatest King of All Time», Andronicus Valois. Their numbers include Otilia, Moxana, Tinka, Prende, Orotine, Mawu and Liza (the non-twins), Artimo and Contasia. Ludicrously advanced, even by modern Spark standards, most have been lost or gone missing due to people’s attempts to replicate their technology.

• All There in the Manual: Otilia, Moxana, Tinka, Prende and Orotine have all been named in the comic proper. Mawu, Liza and Artimo are identified in the third novelization, leaving Contasia as the odd one out, named elsewhere.
• Ambiguous Situation: Most of the Muses so far have recognized Tarvek as the heir to the Lightning Crown. However, Orotine, the Muse of Geometries, gave a non-committal statement when asked by Krosp if she supports either Tarvek or Martellus, only stating that Martellus was «a distant third, at best». If Martellus is third and Tarvek is (presumably) above him, who exactly is first or second? If the GURPS tie-in book is canon, then Gilgamesh is also descended from the Storm King and may be the true heir to the Lightning Crown.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Prende claims she is incapable of directly lying to the Storm King, though the prologue of the third novel establishes they tended to be cryptically vague.
• Death by Despair: Moxana starts heading this way, thanks to being separated from Tinka.
• Exact Words: (Буквально понятые слова/Не вся правда) As Orotine explains to Gil, she’s designed to give advice to the Storm King. She says this as she’s giving advice to him, after she’s already dismissed Tarvek and Martellus’s claims.
• Fem Bot: (Девочка-робот) Unlike most (gender-neutral) clanks, the Muses were explicitly designed in both form and personality to be female, and are referred to as such by other characters.
• Figure It Out Yourself: They were designed to teach and inspire, not directly lead. Apparently trying to just directly tell Andronicus stuff was physically impossible for them, and trying would’ve damaged them.
• Living MacGuffin: (Ходячий макгаффин) A minor case. Finding the Muses that remain and replicating the technology used to make them is a long-term goal of Tarvek’s.
• Lost Technology: (Утраченная технология) Their tech is far more advanced than anything a Spark of the modern day could develop. Tarvek’s the only one who can reverse-engineer it, and only to a point.
• Off with Her Head!: (Обезглавливание) Tinka is decapitated by Vrin and her Geisterdamen, but given she’s a clank, and that Otilia’s severed head could continue to sustain a functioning Clank intelligence (the Castle, not Otilia herself), odds are good that Tinka could be repaired.
• Phrase Catcher: Apparently even after three hundred years, people who see Orotine for the first time always feel the need to point out she’s a Muse to her. She’s come to expect it.
• Revenge: (Я отомщу) There is a final muse called the Muse of Vengeance, created to wipe out the Heterodynes for their crimes against Europa and their part in the Storm King’s downfall (or at least to be unleashed against enemies of the Immortal Library.) It has long remained inactive, but the librarians have recovered its heart as a precaution since some of their leaders fear Agatha is probably every bit the monster her ancestors were.
• Shock and Awe: (Электрическая магия) Tinka and Prende have both displayed the ability to zap folk, though higher amounts of voltage burn off any clothing or wigs they might have on them.
• Signature Headgear: (Крутая шляпа) One of Orotine’s distinguishing features is she’s always wearing a fancy hat emblazoned with the Fleur de Lis.
• Silent Snarker: (Безмолвный насмешник) Moxana may not be able to speak anymore, but she can still get her point across. After Krosp manages to outwit Master Payne, she rearranges her chessboard to signify he’s been put in check.
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Somewhere between type 3 (comparable to humans) and type 4 (Super-Intelligence), which is to say significantly higher than most other Clanks, and an accomplishment by Van Rijn still unmatched in the comic’s present day. Moxana and Tinka have regressed significantly in their state of disrepair, but still show occasional flashes of great acuity.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: They can move with astounding quietness if they need to. Even Smoke Knights like Violetta and Madwa have difficulty detecting their presence if they choose not to be noticed.
• The Voiceless: Moxana, who communicates exclusively through playing cards and hand signs. She used to be able to speak at some point, but apparently lost the ability to after being separated from Tinka.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (Пропавший из сюжета персонаж) Of the set, Otilia is stuck in Mechanisburg, Prende is (last seen) in Paris, Orotine is in England; Moxana and Tinka were last seen in Sturmhalten, before it was overrun by monsters and the Baron’s forces. And Tinka had been decapitated. And at least one of them was deactivated by an unidentified Spark. The fate of the rest is unknown.
• You Are Too Late: They were programmed never to give Andronicus Valois a straight answer, merely hint towards what he should do. When they actually did give him a straight answer, it was because there was nothing that could be done to stop it.

Mister Obsidian

«Mister Obsidian», the only alias we know him as, has a rather apt name, being seemingly impervious to physical attacks. First appearing as a spy seemingly working for the Library, but actually working for Terebithia to bring Tarvek back to his family, by force if necessary.

• Affably Evil: (Дружелюбный злодей) Very much all business but tries to be polite where possible. He even complains that he rarely gets the chance to be nice when doing his job.
• Establishing Character Moment: (Момент характеристики) Curb-stomps Tarvek with ease without even needing to evade, with the first «holy crap» moment when Tarvek breaks a wrench over his head without the guy even moving.
• Implacable Man: (Неумолимый преследователь) See image to the right. This guy takes the cake.
• Names to Run Away From: (Устрашающее имечко) Mister Obsidian. With the latter word being generally associated with materials that are extremely durable.
• Servile Snarker: After Grandma attempts to stab him in the face in order to kill a would-be impostor, he expresses that she’s «as suspicious, homicidal and unapologetic as ever».
• Super-Toughness: He outclasses Higgs by virtue of being so durable that he simply doesn’t even react to being hit, nevermind take any kind of damage. This trope might be close to literal in his case, if he’s a construct. So far his capabilities border on Nigh-Invulnerable.

Other

Prrriti M’Reau

An orange female cat who was the mouser of the British submarine that evacuated most of the heroes from the self-destructing Royal Society dome. Initially fawning over Krosp, she was turned into a construct with sapience and human-level intelligence by Martellus von Blitzengaard, both (presumably) as a counterpart to Krosp and (explicitly) a role much like Agatha’s weasel has in terms of keeping Martellus healthy. This also results in a 180-turn in her mental disposition towards Krosp. (Physically she’s still attracted to him.) Has noticeable lightning bolt markings above her eyes.

• Ambiguous Situation: It hasn’t yet been explained why Tweedle elevated her intellect along with making her an Agatha-substitute.
• Intellectual Animal: (Умён, как человек) Similar to Krosp once made a construct, though she considers herself to be more intelligent than him.
• Given Name Reveal: Her name wasn’t revealed until Colonel Chakraborty asked to be introduced to her (it took over four years from when she was first introduced post-uplifting). She takes this opportunity to icily point out to Martellus that even he never asked.
• Meet Cute: She and Krosp boop noses… and start hissing at each other.
• Noblewoman’s Laugh: Literally her first piece of dialogue with Krosp post-uplifting.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Krosp.
• Shout-Out:
  • The aforementioned lightning bolts and her original uplifting setup are open homages to Bride of Frankenstein.
  • An orange cat with lightning bolt markings and enhanced abilities also describes Streaky the Supercat from DC Comics (although Streaky’s lightning bolts are on his flanks).
  • Her name, while looking like something a cat might say, is also a reference to the classic work on uplifted animals The Island of Doctor Moreau.
• Uplifted Animal: (Возвышение) Again, much like Krosp, though the difference is that we actually get to see what she was like before she was uplifted.

Paris

Ссылка: [13]

The Master of Paris

The ruler of Paris. He is said to be very fond of art. Notable as being one of the few powerful sparks that Klaus has not had to deal with as he doesn’t care much about what goes on outside his city, so his «Leave me and mine alone» policy works well alongside Klaus' «Don’t make me come over there».

• Art Attacker: Fitting for being a large patron of the arts. When making a tactical move against the Geisterdamen attacking Martellus’s masquerade, he flourishes as if revealing an artistic opus («VOILÀ!»), and the scene looks like a perspective picture.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) He is old, and still vividly remembers when the Heterodyne were the villains of Europa, having been forced to fight their schemes in person. The vaguest notion that a Heterodyne could be hypothetically messing with his city is enough to set him off.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: (Гнусное семейство) Or at least one of his «youngest» children, Colette, thinks so. They aren’t malignant screwed-up like the Valois clan, but they are obnoxious and embarrassing (again according to Colette). Also, some of his offspring are elderly.
• Black and Nerdy: He’s a Spark, and black. Self evident.
• The Chains of Commanding: (Бремя лидера) Like Klaus, he’d rather focus on his spark work, so he tries to leave incidents to his agents. He’s very agitated when his agent fails to stop an incident involving Agatha taking control of the city, because it forced him to take matters into his own hands.
• Cyborg: (Киборг) Appears to be mostly mechanical from the neck down. This might be part of how he’s lived for so long.
• Dented Iron: He’s an old man, and even his cybernetics have their limits and are breaking down. He’s no longer able to fight like he did in the days of the Shining Coalition, and after the battle with Andronicus, he’s badly beaten enough to be taken down for keeps.
• First-Name Basis: With the Matriarch of the Knights of Jove, Terebithia. Not only does it reveal the name to the readers, but as one of several hints indicating they may have had an intimate past.
• He Knows Too Much: The Master encourages people to study the means by which he controls Paris, since it allows him to ferret out weak points in his system. But whenever anyone uncovers too much, he will Make an Example of Them, leaving behind nothing but large craters.
• Hermit Guru: Okay, so Paris does not really qualify as remote in the conventional sense, but getting to see The Master of Paris isn’t easy.
• Hero of Another Story: (Герой другой истории) As we catch more glimpses of the story of the Shining Coalition, it becomes clear that it was an epic tragedy, easily worthy of its own webcomic, one that finally ends two hundred years later with the Coalition’s last two members, one embittered and the other corrupted, facing off for the final time.
• I Gave My Word: (Человек слова) Agatha’s rescue of his city only warranted 6 hours of study-time in Paris, with the other 2 days and 18 hours being time left over on the accounts of the Heterodyne Boys. Being their heir, she inherits this time because he pays his debts.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Has kept himself alive for centuries because he has yet to find anyone he’d be willing to leave control of his city to. After his murder, his daughter Colette, whom he believed showed promise and recently awoke her Sparkiness, is able to take control of city and assumes the title of Master.
• Irony: He’s been around for so long that he directly remembers back when the Heterodynes were the villains of Europa. He was also personally close friends with the Storm King. In the modern era, he isn’t blind to the Chronic Backstabbing Disorder of the Storm King’s Blue Blood descendants, but he still maintains friendly ties with them. The Heterodyne Family however, he actively hates and fears, despite it having been over 2 generations since they were villains, with him quick to suspect Agatha of being the mastermind when conspirators attempt to seize his city. It is ultimately Princess Terebithia of the Knights of Jove that conquers his city, being able to do so because he trusted her enough to sleep with her.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) Confirmed by The Castle. He was already spent after the battle with Andronicus, but Beausoleil successfully murders him, using a sword that purges him from the systems of Paris. Fortunately, Colette is able to take over for him.
• Knowledge Broker: (Торговец информацией) Of sorts. It’s stated that the Master doesn’t particularly care what you do in Paris, provided you’re not making a ruckus, but he insists on knowing.
• Large and in Charge: (Большой — значит главный) He is quite massive and has very odd body proportions, even discernible through his very thick overcoat; it’s eventually revealed that most of that bulk is cybernetics.
• Mad Artist: (Безумный художник) Even if he isn’t one himself, his city is more or less run for the benefit of them. His threatened use for criminals is «Raw Materials». During his response to the escalation in Paris, he gets artistic in defeating a horde of Geisterdamen.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: (Многодетная семья) He is very old and has many children. His children vary in age quite significantly, with some of them being ancient.
• The Master: Of Paris!
• Memetic Badass: (Такой крутой, что уже смешно) In-Universe, he’s seen as being able to hold off Klaus and force the latter to recognize his authority in Paris. The «memetic» part comes because it’s more of a puppet-theater joke — Simon is independent because Klaus knows he will never have any reason to come over there.
• Not So Above It All: He made Hoffman roommates with troublemaker and Conspiracy Theorist Pierre van Stron just because he thought it would be funny.
• The Omniscient: Or at least so he claims. According to Othar’s twitter, his power depends on the fact that everyone accepts that nothing can happen in his city without his finding out. It’s eventually revealed that he used to be omniscient in a way, when he could connect and become one body with the entire city itself, but he’s generally too old for that in the present. Not that that’ll stop him if things cross the Godzilla Threshold…
• Power Floats: (Магический полёт) When he links in with the systems of Paris, he starts floating in an energy bubble.
• Reality Warper: (Изменение реальности) Downplayed. Whatever he’s done to Paris, he can control and reshape the entire city to his whim when running at full power, in a similar way to Castle Heterodyne’s control over Mechanicsburg.
• Really Gets Around: See Massive Numbered Siblings. By most standards, and judging by the age and numbers of his children, his sex life is very active. There’s no direct mention of any wives or mistresses on-page though.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) He is referred to as one of the oldest, wisest sparks around (Albia is the only known living person older than him), and he personally fought alongside the Storm King against the old Heterodynes as part of The Shining Coalition. This would make him over 200 years old. He also refers to The Baron as «Young Klaus.» He also has many children who have aged normally, and some are elderly. It’s hinted that he may be trying to create an heir that has inherited both his Spark and his sensibility. He has high hopes for Colette… which may be exactly what he’s looking for since her breakthrough has begun.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He is not happy about the presence of the latest Heterodyne heir in his city, but he is willing to grant her 72 hours before she would be thrown out (6 hours for foiling a plot against him and 66 hours of leftover time from the «account» of her heroic father and paternal uncle).
• So Proud of You: Is quite delighted when he learns that Colette studied much more about Paris' systems than he had chosen to teach her.
• The Spymaster: It is almost impossible to do anything without his hearing about it. Almost.
• Stern Teacher: (Строгий педагог) How he deals with unruly foreign heads of state he can’t kill, judging from a footnote about a visit from some rambunctious tsars the second novel gives. After a lengthy period of debauchment (which did make several businesses in the city much richer), they were summoned before the Master… who promptly sent then packing with homework.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: (Новый, точно такой же) To Klaus Wulfenbach. He keeps order through his This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.reputation, he hates The Chains of Commanding and would much rather be left alone to his Spark work, and he distrusts Agatha because of his prejudice against the Heterodynes. The only difference between the two personality-wise is that the Master is willing to talk to Agatha and give her three days in his city.
• Wetware CPU: (Органический компьютер) The legends of his ability to know everything that goes on in his city stemmed from the fact that at one point, he had literally hardwired himself into the control systems of Paris. As he grew older, he was forced to stop doing so and delegate control of various subsystems to subordinates for health reasons, but that doesn’t mean he can’t plug himself back in and assert admin privileges over everything if he has to.
• We Used to Be Friends: (Когда-то мы были друзьями) Was once one of Andronicus Valois' closest and reliable allies before the latter was changed into an undead monstrosity. He is determined to finish what he started, despite his extremely advanced age, so he can save his old friend from himself.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: (Дефективное бессмертие?) He’s getting very tired of dealing with «the same nonsense over and over.»

Aldin Hoffman

Aldin is a member of Incorruptible Library. Assigned to keep eyes for Agatha and company when they arrived the Library.

• Action Survivor: You need to be this if you are a librarian who constantly gets dragged into your brother’s misadventures and especially if your brother cannot move on himself. It eventually earns him the ability to work for Agatha inside Castle Heterodyne after the Distant Finale.
• Bash Brothers: With his actual brother, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
• Bookworm: (Книжный червь) Pretty much a given for anyone who works in the Library.
• Cassandra Truth: (Правда Кассандры) Nobody believes his stories about the adventures his brother drags him on. They’re just that weird.

«	Larana: Well, Aldin, if you didn’t write such fantastical reports… Aldin: I am incapable of making things up! It all happened! No one ever believes me, but it happened! Larana: Even the— Aldin: Yes, even the thing with the naked mole rat queen. Dimo: Hoo Hoo! Sounds spicy! Aldin: It was not. I assure you.	»

• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом/Язвительный насмешник) Here.
• Distressed Dude: (Парень в беде) He apparently plays this role often, judging how often he ends up captured and dressed up by villainesses to the point that he has a reputation for it.
• Go-Go Enslavement: (Раздеть женщину) Apparently evil villainesses enjoy dressing him up in «silly loincloth outfits.» And then we see why, the man looks like a classical gladiator.
• Hero of Another Story: (Герой другой истории) He gets dragged into a wide variety of misadventures with his brother. To the point more than a few people consider he and his brother the next Heterodyne Boys. It gets to the point that his adventures get titles.
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины)
  • It eventually becomes clear his shy and timid personality is partly a facade.
  • He’s an expert lock picker.

«	Agatha: «Master Safe Cracker?» Really? That’s an interesting skill for a librarian. Aldin: When you’ve been captured as often as I have, you develop an interest in locks and escapology.	»

• Let’s Get Dangerous!: (Ну-ка, от винта) He’s calm & competent once he’s resigned himself to something. It’s potential problems that he has trouble with.
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) We only get hints of all the crazy stuff Jim has dragged him into.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: (Родные братья противоположны) Would you believe that shy, serious Bookworm Aldin and gung-ho Genius Ditz adventurer Jiminez are brothers?
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Sort of displays this attitude towards his brother, thanks to getting dragged along on the latter’s adventures.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: (Новый, точно такой же) To Moloch (or probably Wooster). Both are Average Joes who complain about any bad luck and danger that have involuntarily befallen them.

Beausoleil

A Parisian professor of Philosophy and Ars Mechanica. He also serves as one of the Master’s agents and a "voix de la raison"note for the occasional «heroic type».

• Actually a Doombot: Has a large supply of body double clanks, causing this to frequently happen when someone seemingly kills him. Collette destroys all except one, simultaneously, then destroys the last one after giving a «The Reason You Suck» Speech.
• A Dog Ate My Homework: (Собака съела мою домашнюю работу) Inverted.
• And I Must Scream: (Но я должен кричать) As retribution for killing her father and nearly destroying Paris, Colette messily destroys each and every last one of his remote bodies and makes him feel the pain of every single death in exquisite detail. By the time it’s over, he’s slumped on the ground and moaning in agony.
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: References the trope when he offers to do so to Agatha on Du Quay’s behalf. Du Quay dismisses it as a cliché and a distraction from his moment of triumph, but nevertheless suggests he bring her to the Velvet Dungeon for later.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: (Особо жестокая смерть) Some of his bodies are subjected to this.
• Death Montage: (Смертельный монтаж (в разработке)) We’re treated to most of a page of the ways Colette killed his bodies.
• Didn’t See That Coming: His plan to usurp Paris falls through thanks to Colette breaking through and taking over the city herself in the wake of Voltaire’s death.
• Dirty Cop: (Оборотень в погонах) While he does do his duty to thwart various schemes against the Master, he is also a key figure in one of those himself. He also embezzles from Voltaire’s private cheese stock.
• Doppelgänger Link: When one of his clank doubles suffer, he and the other duplicates feel it. Just look at the page image and imagine the unplesantness of having nearly all of them simultaneously destroyed in amusingly gruesome ways.
• Fake Defector: His standard operating procedure is to pretend to support any upstarts trying to usurp the Master so he can spy on them. He’s done this so many times that when he finally defects for real he feels the need to tell the Master that this time it’s genuine.
• Frame-Up: He murders the Master of Paris, doing the deed with a sword decorated by the Heterodyne symbol in order to frame Agatha. Too bad for him, Dingbot-Castle is wise to it and ensures Colette doesn’t fall for the frame-up once she ascends to power.
• Manipulative Bastard: (Манипулятивная сволочь)
  • He manipulates a bunch of his students into fighting one another in order to create a diversion in order to abscond with Agatha in the confusion.
  • He worms his way into Du Quay’s trust, manipulates him into accepting Agatha as a prisoner by pointing out that she makes a good hostage against Gil, and looses her to rip apart Du Quay’s attempt at overthrowing the Master.
  • In order to motivate Agatha, he refuses to give Agatha the info she wants until she completes a task for the master. When she does so, he admits that they don’t actually have what she wants.
  • He manages to betray and sabotage the Master himself right under his nose, forcing the Master to do his last resort.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He claims his reason for turning against the Master was because the man was so stingy about sharing his technology secrets, which could have been used to improve his clank-bodies.
• Not Worth Killing: (Неохота мараться) Colette doesn’t deem it worth her time to hunt down Beausoleil’s real body outside Paris after destroying all his clank bodies, as whoever his new «masters» are will certainly not be happy on his failure to deliver Paris to them.
• Remote Body: (Аватара) He keeps a large supply of remotely controlled clank doubles. And then Colette destroys them all (save the one in front of her). At once.
• Secret Police: (Тайная полиция) As one of the Master’s agents, it is his job to deal with the occasional overly ambitious spark so the Master isn’t interrupted from his work by yet another would be conqueror.
• This Is Gonna Suck: (Осознание катастрофы) Just after he kills the Master, all manner of alarms start going off. He isn’t reassured when they stop, and with good reason…

«	Beausoleil: …Why does this not seem like a good thing? Colette: Think of it — AS A FINAL MOMENT OF SANITY!	»

• You Have Failed Me: (Ты меня подвёл) When he tells Colette that she can’t kill him because his true body is already outside Paris, she points out that his true masters will probably punish him for failing to usurp Paris on their behalf, and his reaction suggests he agrees.

Colette

A daughter and agent of Simon Voltaire.

• Ambiguously Gay: Has no interest in the many, many men pursuing her romantically (not even Hoffman, who she admits isn’t after her for power like most of her other suitors), and in one of her early appearances makes a joke to Agatha about how «their love can never be».
  • She loses the ambiguous part when she tacitly admits to having feelings for Seffie.
• Badass Boast: (Крутая похвальба) «Paris is mine- and I will defend it.»
• Badass Finger Snap: (Щелчок пальцами) Does this when killing Beausoleil’s bodies.
• Badass Normal: (Простой крутой смертный) She may not be a Spark but she is the leading candidate to become the next Master of Paris and one of the most respected members of her family. And then her Spark starts breaking through.
• Clothing Damage: (Урон по одежде) As Colette becomes more and more a madgirl, her clothes start catching fire and get rent apart by the electric arcs caused by her interface with Paris. By the time she’s at full-tilt Madness Place while exacting revenge on Beausoleil, her clothes are so shredded that she’s one soft breeze away from being essentially naked.
• Don’t You Dare Pity Me!: (Не смей меня жалеть!) She rejects Violetta’s sympathy for having a difficult family, because of the source.

«	Violetta: Whoof! And I thought my family was bad. Colette: Your family is bad. Mine is noisy and embarrassing.	»

• Empowered Badass Normal: (Одарённый крутой смертный) She was a cunning leader and warrior from her first appearance, and was already beginning to tap into the Paris network before her Spark broke through. When she does break through, with a little help from the Castle, she fully assumes her father’s mantle as the Master of Paris.
• Get Out!: Says this when destroying Beausoleil’s last body.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: (Не рой яму другому) Being able to control Paris as an extension of her own body is a pretty effective way to enforce her will, but when that control is hacked away from her when she isn’t there, there’s nothing her loyalists can do about it.
• Just Friends: (Просто друг) She’s well-aware of Hoffman’s infatuation with her and while she’s appreciative of it (mainly since he was interested in her as an individual rather than her status), she states that she sees him more as an annoying younger brother. Jiminez ends up finding someone else and they end up engaged, with her smiling during it.
• The Madness Place: Once her Spark makes its initial breakthrough, she goes deeper and deeper into this state. She’s able to pull out of it by the next day thanks to Tarvek and Agatha’s help.
• Missing Mom: (Пропавшая мама) Her mother is never revealed or mentioned.
• Not Listening to Me, Are You?: (Да ты не слушаешь меня) After Agatha has been traumatised by her meeting with The Master, Colette confesses her love for her, then takes Agatha’s lack of response as confirmation that she’s not pretending.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: (Зло воздающее) What she does to Beausoleil after he murders her father is brutal, but there’s no question that he deserved every second of it.
• Power Floats: (Магический полёт) When she is channeling the energy of Paris, she gets some impressive floating done.
• Remote Body: (Аватара) She assembles a gigantic clank duplicate of herself to mislead her enemies into thinking she’s achieved second breakthrough, even though she only recently achieved her first.
• She Is the King: (Король-женщина) Opts to retain the title Master of Paris since Mistress of Paris makes her sound like a demimondainenote .
• The Spark of Genius: Averted. She, alas, is not a Spark like her father. Except when she starts breaking through in the middle of a Ballroom Blitz in Paris.
• The Spymaster: Serves as this for her father.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: (Активация через страдание) Soon after feeling her father’s death, her nascent burgeoning Spark reaches the maximum level of The Madness Place in exacting retribution on his murderer, Beausoleil.
• Unwanted Harem: (Гарем не в радость) Because she is the daughter of the Master of Paris and prime fodder for marriage for power, she has quite an unwanted following.
• Wetware CPU: (Органический компьютер) Unlike her father, Colette still has the vigor of youth at the time her nascent spark emerges. As such, she is able to handle the mental burden of being plugged into all of Paris like her father used to be ages ago.
• You Are in Command Now: (Внезапное повышение в звании) Her father grooms her to be his successor for years. When The Master finally kicks the bucket, she’s plugged into the Paris control network and is in the middle of her Spark breakthrough, prodigiously learning the controls at an astounding pace.
• You Killed My Father: (Ты убил моего отца) Invokes this trope against Beausoleil here.

Jiminez Hoffmann

A Parisian student who offers to help Agatha for extra credit.

• Accidental Pervert: (Извращенец поневоле) After he is almost blinded by acid, he and Agatha make a vision-enhancing helmet with different settings. One of the them is X-ray vision.

«	Hoffmann: I can zoom in between macro and microscopic vision! We even gave it different filters! It can do infrared, ultraviolet, and… [stares at Larana] And… Uhhhh… Agatha: [changing the settings] And X-ray. Larana: WHAT?! Hoffmann: Uh, yeah. X-ray. Sorry.	»

• Almighty Janitor: (Бог-уборщик) Nominally speaking, he’s just a student at the University of Paris, not even being an agent of the Library like his brother. His list of exploits still rivals that of the Heterodyne Boys, and he’s barely into his twenties. That being said, the University is shown to be something of an Academy of Adventure, and the comic implies multiple times that Hoffman would be dead a dozen times over if not for Aldin and Larana’s help.
• Arranged Marriage: (Брак по договорённости) Accidentally gets himself into one. He makes peace between two underground peoples that have been long at war by suggesting they form a political marriage. But both peoples are completely different species, with one being comprised of humans and the other being made up of mole people. As a result, he is adopted as a prince of the mole people and put into an arranged marriage with the other side.
• Bash Brothers: He and Aldin practice a two-person «fighting style» called heroic freestyle.
• Battle Couple: (Боевая пара) With Larana, after they finally sort out their Unresolved Sexual Tension.
• Cool Helmet: (Крутой шлемак (sic)) His vision-augmentation helmet after he suffers the Eye Scream incident below.
• Determinator: (Превозмогатель) Nothing will stop him from adventuring. Whether it be broken legs, having his bones turned soft or literally being on fire.
• Disability Superpower: He and Agatha make a vision-enhancing helmet when Hoffmann is nearly completely blinded by acid. He eventually gets cat eyes as a permanent replacement.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Colette admits that Hoffman’s interest in her is at least genuine, unlike other would-be suitors who are after her family’s political power. She’s still not interested in him, though.
• Eye Scream: (Ранение глаза) He gets a faceful of acid from an old clank while exploring the Corbettite crypt. He’s lucky the acid had lost most of its potency, and it still leaves him almost blind.
• Genius Ditz: (Профессор Недотёпиус) Though he is a Spark, he is also a space cadet, and also apparently can’t tell the difference between «invincible» and «invisible».
• Good Is Dumb: Not totally dumb, mind you, as he is a Spark. He is an honest, good person who can neither scheme nor reduce his collateral damage. Which leads to Aldin excluding him from his own schemes since he would almost certainly leak it to Agatha.
• Hero of Another Story: (Герой другой истории) According to Aldin, the two of them have gotten into so many crazy adventures that the library curators consider them to be the new Heterodyne Boys. Just like Aldin, it’s to the point that their adventures have titles.
• Humble Hero: (Скромняжка) He saves a king’s life and puts an end to a war that has lasted generations. He insists it’s no big deal. And gets chewed out for it because that war was the only thing keeping the people involved from waging war upon the surface.
• Last-Name Basis: (Называть по фамилии) He is usually called by last names, except when his brother, Aldin, is around.
• Love Epiphany: He eventually comes to realize that he has feelings for Larana… right around the time he mistakenly comes to think that she’s in love with his brother, Aldin.
• Not Me This Time: (На этот раз не я) He releases monsters onto Paris often enough that the Master assumes he’s behind the latest weirdness involving van Rijn’s secret lab. He really wasn’t.
• Oblivious to Love: (Любовная близорукость) From Larana.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Played With all around in regards to his arranged union with Larana. She loves him, but he’s painfully oblivious to it and only sees her as a friend- at first. Then he starts to reciprocate, only to get the impression that she’s in love with his brother. It takes an Anguished Declaration of Love from Larana to finally sort things out between the two of them.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: (Родные братья противоположны) Would you believe that shy, serious and Bookworm Aldin and Genius Ditz, Good Is Dumb and adventurous Jiminez are brothers?
• Unrequited Love: (Безответная любовь) He is one of Colette’s many admirers. But she has no interest in him, viewing him in the same way one would an Annoying Younger Sibling.
• Weirdness Magnet: (Магнит для неприятностей) His brother Aldin laments this fact. Trying to keep him out of trouble only makes it worse.

«	Aldin: Lady Heterodyne, if we take him back now, he will complain for months. He will actively seek me out, follow me around, and tell me at excruciating length why we shouldn’t have «run away-» And while he is doing so, he will drag me into six «adventures» worse than this death crawl can ever be.	»

• X-Ray Vision: His helmet has this, much to Larana’s dismay.

Larana

Princess Larana is daughter to the King of the Silver Lands, a subterranean kingdom deep beneath Paris. Unlike her father, she sees infestation by Revenants to be a problem.

• Action Girl: (Бой-девка) She is a member of Deep Library’s Hunting Party" who frequently goes to dangerous expeditions. She later proves to have a love of explosives.
• Arranged Marriage: (Брак по договорённости) Self-arranged for an alliance to stop her father’s plans with The Other. The princess that «Honorary Prince» Jiminez Hoffman has been arranged with? She’s it. He knows this, she doesn’t, at first. When he tells her, he assumes she’s not interested and takes her attempt to say otherwise as confirmation, then an explosion calls his attention away before she can correct him.
• Cannot Spit It Out: (Непроизносимое «люблю») Larana has it for Hoffman, who is clueless about it.
• Establishing Character Moment: (Момент характеристики) Lady Heterodyne, be my friend (Huge Grin, pictured at right). I have exploded the tunnel and will do so to boats which we don’t use. (Gasp) Mr. Hoffman, you are also here?
• Frontline General: (Генерал-рубака) Plans to lead her people into battle against the newly risen Storm King, after usurping the throne from her father.
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек) Everyone else in her father’s court seem to either be revenants or in on the conspiracy. She’s concerned enough about this being a big problem to take part in a plot to kidnap her own father and go into an arranged marriage with a prince of a recently accorded former enemy kingdom to enlist their aid. And later outright usurp the throne and go into battle against the Storm King.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Played With. They are heads over heels in love with each other, and from what is shown would make a pretty good match. This would make their arranged marriage an example of this trope, except that neither of them realizes how the other feels.
• Politically Active Princess: See Only Sane Man above.
• Statuesque Stunner: She stands a good head above Agatha, Jiminez, and her own father. Easily seen here with Agatha.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Seems to be her specialty.
• The Usurper: Technically. She cites the «Ancient Tradition of Filial Usurpation» when dethroning her run-amok father to defuse the situation in the Incorruptible Library. The Library’s war party returns just in time to help enforce her usurpation.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: (Боевая подружка) When Hoffman gets sprayed in the face with acid by a Corbettite clank, her response is to break out the explosive charges on the clank with intent to collapse the passageway on it. She also previously got vehement when the Library sentry expressed hope that Hoffman would throw himself out of the lift due to his notoriety at the Incorruptible Library.
  • While she planned all along to take her father out of power, she outright usurps the throne as soon as he threatens Jiminez.

The Arguron King

The unhinged king of the Argurons of the Silver Lands, one of the deep realms beneath Paris.

• Author Avatar: (Аватара автора) For the comic’s colorist, Cheyenne Wright.
• The Caligula: (Безумный король) His defining character trait.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: Has «Grubby Grubs of Doom».
• Go-Go Enslavement: (Раздеть женщину) Inflicts this on his captives, dressing them all in skimpy loincloth outfits after they have a bath.
• Humiliation Conga: (Жизнь кончена) He gets deposed by his daughter and then sent back to TPU to account for twenty years of grant expenditures.
• Love-Obstructing Parents: He tries to, anyway. Quickly played for laughs, as he’s not nearly as good at it as Klaus is.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Claims that his alliance with The Other against Paris is this.
• Surrounded by Idiots: (Меня окружают идиоты) After he gets knocked out mid-sentence, his minions aren’t sure what he wanted them to do and let the heroes escape.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: He’s a raving nutcase and his daughter is the sensible one in the family.

Vipsania Perrault

An aspiring librarian in the Incorruptible Library of Paris. She strikes a deal with Franz Scortchmaw, Dragon of Mechanicsburg to recover a deceased dragon’s hoard. There seems to be more to her than meets the eye…

• The Determinator: (Превозмогатель) Absolutely refuses to give up in her current quest to gain access to the book collection of a certain late dragon, even though it means risking the wrath of (just to start with) the Corbettites and Franz.
• Exact Words: (Буквально понятые слова/Не вся правда) Vows none of her friends will throw any more stuff at Hector, only for Lumi to hit him with a stick. She points out she had just met Lumi and couldn’t quite call her a friend just yet, and Lumi didn’t throw anything.
• Horse of a Different Color: (Ездовое животное) Rides one of the Library’s giant cats.
• Insistent Terminology: (Настойчивая терминология) Takes offense to being called a thief, despite all the supporting evidence. When Lumi realises she stole the alchemical device from her professor:

«	Lumi: I knew it! You are a thief! Vipsania: I AM NOT! Well… at least… not professionally. Franz: Heh. Don’t worry. With practice, you’ll be a pro in no time. Vipsania: I don’t want to be a «pro»!	»

• Sole Survivor: (Последний выживший) The only survivor of three expeditions, though was deemed not at fault.

«	Brother Marcus: Bears, a weak staircase, and then more bears, wasn’t it?	»

• Wrong Line of Work: The surest sign that Vipsania is in this comes when she’s forced to use an antique, possibly one-of-a-kind book to escape a death trap, and it’s burnt to a crisp. She’s certainly right in pointing out that the whole party would’ve died otherwise… but to offer perspective, one of her colleagues reacted to a similar situation by trying to use his heart to defend the book from any damage, and Gil confirmed that was a typical attitude in the Library. It’s no real surprise that Vipsania ends up leaving the Library for more independent exploration by the end of the sidestory.

England

Ссылка: [14]

Englishmen as a whole

Residents of the nation of Great Britain, which, due to a Spark-related mishap centuries prior, has gone from an island nation to an archipelago with a number of underwater cities.

• Atlantis: (Затонувший континент)
  • It’s revealed when Agatha and co get to England that the island-nation was somehow set to sinking by a band of Sparks some 300 years ago. Rather than let this bother her, Albia simply rebuilt England as an aquatropolis, and the nation is thriving, even as it continues to sink ever-deeper into the sea.
  • This has caused them to be Crazy-Prepared when it comes to sparks, too: They have a large dome where the best are collected and kept, not really so they can inspire and work together, but because that makes it conveniently easy to take them all out if things go awry. One of the labs allotted to Agatha is called «abominable» (as in, abominations unto science) and comes with all sorts of safety measures and a prepaid electrical bill.
• Character Tics: (Характерный жест) Questioning the social status quo too much, such as suggesting they leave the increasingly unsustainable sinking cities of England, is met with a variant on «Her Majesty would never permit it.»
• Common Tongue: (Всеобщий язык) Due to England’s trade fleets, English is the lingua franca of much of the world.
• Determinator: (Превозмогатель) Even with their island sinking under the ocean, the English absolutely refuse to abandon it, and accepted the challenge of living underwater. In fact, they consider the challenge of living underwater to be one of the reasons why they are one of the most powerful nations on the planet.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite a very different arc of historical development, including thousands of years of rule by the same immortal god-queen, a lot of England’s characteristics are the same as in real life. The name of the capital city (even though it was presumably founded by Albia and not the Romans), the name of the country itself (even though the Anglo-Saxon invasions can’t possibly have succeeded with Albia in charge), the Union Jack flag, the bearskin hats of the royal palace guards, the English language, and a lot of distinctly English cultural tics are still there.
• More than Mind Control: Albia is capable of controlling the minds of many of her subjects directly, including overriding Slaver Wasps affecting her soldiers, but the vast majority of her subjects appear to have a genuine devotion to her. Of course, she is a Mad Social Scientist. That’s only to be expected.
• Tattoo as Character Type: (Опознавательная татуировка) the more nautical characters appear to be heavily tattooed, and there is the «Queen’s Tattoo» which appears to serve as a mark of special distinction.
• Undying Loyalty: (Верность до конца) To their queen, Albia. Whenever an outsider suggests doing something differently, such as abandoning their sinking city, they simply say a variant of "Her Majesty would never allow that, « and the matter is considered settled.

Queen Albia of England

The mysterious and seemingly immortal Queen of England.

• Altar Diplomacy: (Политическая свадьба)
  • Is attempting to pair Agatha off with Hadrian Rakethorn, and Gil with Trelawney Thorpe, which would effectively kill two birds with one stone— by preventing the Heterodyne uniting with the remaining might of the Baron’s forces and creating a superpower big enough to threaten her rule, and ensuring that she has influence over two of the most powerful Sparks in Europa. Time will tell how effective this is.
  • Her daughter Princess Neena also has a crush on Tarvek, but this seems less likely to be due to her, especially as she’s not sent to accompany him to Europa as is the case with Trelawney and Gil.
• Ambiguously Evil: At the end of her first appearance, she mentions wanting to add Agatha to her 'garden', but so far has been nothing but helpful to the young Heterodyne and her allies. Perhaps she’s „playing the long game“.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) According to the Klaus-overlay in Gil’s mind, she doesn’t like it when other people describe her seemingly-supernatural abilities as „magic“.
• Brawn Hilda: One of her older forms, possibly her original, is a stout, bulky, redhead.
• Clarke’s Third Law: (Закон Кларка) Even by the setting’s standards, her technology seems magical, to the degree that she can make things happen without any visible interfaces or machinery. According to Klaus Wulfenbach, her technology still follows the normal laws of nature, it is simply far more advanced than what most of the world has access to.
• The Collector: (Коллекционер) She maintains a „garden“ of interesting individuals, the exact size of which is not yet clear; it may even be all of Londinium or even England. She hopes to lure Agatha and (some of) her companions into „voluntarily“ becoming permanent residents.
• Color Failure: After dealing with the strain of helping finish off Clank!Lucrezia and repairing the gang’s escape blimp, a spent Albia goes literally greyscale, a demonstration that she was well and truly out of power.
• Compelling Voice: (Магия звука)
  • She cannot easily break the Other’s mind control outright, but she knows enough about how it works to override existing orders.
  • When Violetta and Zeetha fuss over getting Agatha ready for a new day, Queen Albia tells them she wants a private chat and they blank out. They suddenly decide to fetch breakfast, while Queen Albia reassures Agatha no harm was done to them.
• Control Freak: When Lucrezia, masquerading as Agatha, remarked that anything can happen, Wooster replied that’s not the case in England: „Her Majesty wouldn’t allow it.“ Gil also comments to Zola that going against her whims is „literally unthinkable“. Although this appears to be an exaggeration. When the action finally reaches England, we witness all sorts of things happening that Albia definitely would not approve of, and that she cannot directly fix even after learning about them. There have been hints that her power may be waning in some fashion.
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) Doctor Sun was horrified to learn that Gil threatened to destroy her and England to get her spy Wooster to submit to him, indicating that provoking her is a very bad idea. Later on, it’s shown that pretty much everyone is terrified of the idea of crossing her. Even the Lucrezia copy in Agatha’s mind is absolutely terrified of her.
• Due to the Dead: She is capable of speaking someone’s name such that it will never be forgotten by anyone who hears it. She uses it as a high honor for soldiers who die in her service.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: (Просветлённый со сверхспособностями) Albia very much implies that this is responsible for at least some of her otherworldly abilities when she meets Agatha. Trelawney Thorpe says that she started out as a Mad Scientist no different from any other, and then broke through a second time.

«	Albia: Oho! Yes we thought so! We can always tell. You are one who has peeped into the infinite!	»

• Everyone Has Standards: (Моральные стандарты (В планах)) As furious as she is at Dr. Vapnoople for his past crimes against England, she’s absolutely horrified to see what Klaus' lobotomy procedures have done to his brilliant mind.
• Extradimensional Power Source: Implied to be the true nature of second breakthrough, being powered by a special form of energy she absorbs from a different dimension.
• Eye Color Change: Blue most of the time (and briefly brown), but at one point they turn gold…the whites included.
• Fake Memories: She has the power to edit a target’s memories, though according to Klaus, there are ways to detect it. According to Trelawney Thorpe, it is a power she is reluctant to use and will only do so when necessary.
• Flaming Hair: Foglio drew a sketch of her for a fan which depicts her as a scantily-clad woman equipped with what appears to be this. When she is finally met in person, her hair appears normal…until a massive bout of Sparky glee over an experiment idea causes her hair to burst into flames for a single panel.
• Flashy Teleportation: Capable of teleporting both herself and others at will, with some orbs of light effects, apparently, and apparently without consent, as seen when she briefly warps Agatha into the air during their first meeting.
• The Fog of Ages: A normal person has trouble with one century’s worth of memories. A Spark can handle more, and Albia is the next step past a Spark, but even she can’t handle the countless millennia she has been alive. In order to deal with this, the first thing she built upon her second breakthrough was a building designed to archive her memories.
• Giant Woman: (Гигантская женщина) When Agatha and Zeetha finally come into her presence, she’s busy pruning the top of a fir tree. It’s quickly revealed she can „compress“ herself down to human size. Which, if either, is her default height is unknown.
• God-Emperor: (Бог-император) She was once a member of an entire sisterhood of secretive and immortal god-queens. She is one of the very few to make her status openly known to the world at large, and one of the very few that is even still alive. She lost contact with most of them when the technology they used to communicate was (probably) sabotaged, and she has spent the past few centuries seeking out the surviving queens or their remnants.
• Good Parents: (Хорошие родители) She’s got 74 daughters, and unlike pretty much every other parent we’ve seen, is absolutely loving and doting to her „pookies“.
• Gorgeous Garment Generation: (Символическая смена костюма (В разработке)) Her unexplained shapeshifting abilities extend to her outfits. She often shifts her clothes based on who she’s talking to, or even what they’re talking about.
• Historical Domain Character: Her original form, a brawny Amazonian Beauty with a spear and shield, seems an awful lot like a Race Lifted incarnation of Boudica, who was also a powerful monarch in Ancient Britain. Perhaps one who did defeat the Romans, or the GG-verse equivalent thereof.
• Holy Halo: Her Undying Majesty has little constant about her appearance outside of her hovering halo of glowing stars. Even this is slightly altered when she reveals a bit of just how dangerously sparky she could be with her very magic-like abilities and power.
• Immortality: (Бессмертие) She is known as „Her Undying Majesty“ and is (far far) older than Simon Voltaire, who is well over two hundred years old. And, unlike the elderly cyber-assisted Master of Paris, Albia appears as a young and beautiful woman.
• Instant Costume Change: (Превращение??) Can go from gardening clothes to mourning garb to a Skifandrian outfit over the course of five panels. The changes appear to reflect her thoughts and/or the current topic of discussion.
• Large and in Charge: (Большой — значит главный) She tends to take on the giantess form when dealing with matters of State.
• Living Mood Ring: She can reflexively change her size, appearance, and wardrobe to match the conversation, like manifesting Widow’s Weeds when she learns of a death or literally igniting with excitement.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: (Разноцветные волосы) Normally a grayish-blue color, it also appears as red, emerald, and brown at different points.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: (Многодетная семья) Albia has 74 daughters according to Neena. Unknown if she has any sons.
• Mama Bear: (Родительский инстинкт) She comes to the rescue of her daughter Princess Neena when she cried for help as she, Agatha and the rest of their company are surrounded on all sides by giant monsters and hostile ascendant god-queens — armed, and decked out in full wargear, literally size of a mountain and radiating with her full power.
• Manipulative Bitch: (Манипулятивная сволочь) She’s a Mad Social Scientist, and her fingerprints are all over England. While the question of if she will ultimately be an antagonist or not remains to be seen, she is conspiring very effectively to split up Agatha from Gil and Tarvek so that Agatha will remain in England as part of her collection. And the degree of fanatical devotion her subjects display tapdances on the line between Undying Loyalty and something far more sinister.
• Paper Tiger: She is treated with godlike reverence as an absolute power within England. At full power, she is genuinely a demigod, only a few steps short of being a real god, but at the time of the story, she is suffering a bad case of Worf Had the Flu. As such, she is resorting to flashy tricks to keep up her image as The Dreaded. Actually solving the current crisis is beyond her, even defending her territory is putting her under strain.
• Physical Goddess: (Бог во плоти) An immortal, nigh-omnipotent shapeshifting being who attracts the undying devotion of an entire country. Seems to fit the bill. Although the island arc shows that she’s clearly not invulnerable, and her power may even be waning.
• Really 700 Years Old: (Фэнтезийный бессмертный) She’s the only known (semi-normal non-Jäger) person in Europa who is older than the 200+ year old Simon Voltaire. And even he doesn’t know the secret to her longevity. It’s eventually revealed it’s due to her being a „second-stage“ Spark. In truth she is old enough to be from Doggerland, making her a minimum of 8000 years old.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Has the sense during a massive Sparky rant to admit that it would be much better to let Agatha fix things with her and Gil’s minds, as Albia’s plan and methods involve much more potential for damage, even if Albia thinks it would be fun. Although see above under The Collector.
  • Unlike Voltaire, she is also more willing to give Agatha a chance, as she is quite friendly to her, even providing advice. Considering Agatha’s family history and both Klaus' and Voltaire’s hesitance to give her a chance to prove her moral character, this is a major contrast. Though it helps that Agatha is quite respectful to her, as she is aware that being in the presence of a ruler in their domain is not something to be taken lightly.
• Royal „We“: (О себе во множественном числе) Utilizes this manner of speech, which is appropriate, since she is the Queen of England. Although an occasional „I“ still slips in there.

«	Sizeshifter: She can shift sizes, apparently at will, though doing so too quickly makes her burning hot to the touch.	»

• The Social Expert: (Социальный эксперт) Even among Sparks, who are all charismatic and can turn their genius to social engineering in a pinch. Even beyond her second breakthrough this is her specialty, since back when she was a normal Spark in Doggerland she was a master of the art of knowing people’s hearts and motivations.
• Statuesque Stunner: Even at human size, Her Undying Majesty still has a good foot or two over Zeetha in height. This may be a deliberate intimidation tactic; as previously noted, it’s not at all clear what her „normal“ size is.
• Stripperiffic: (Одевается в секс-шопе) Some of her outfits embody this trope, others are more conservative.
• Technically Naked Shapeshifter: When she suffers a Power-Strain Blackout, most of her outfit disappears, leaving her naked except for her earrings and Holy Halo.
• Telepathy: (Телепатия) She can examine other peoples' minds.
• Time Abyss: (Бездна времени) Has been a Spark since before the English Channel existed, which depending on your interpretation could put her at four hundred and fifty thousand years old. She can remember when Wooly Mammoths were still extant.
• Villain Override: Non-villainous variant. This turns out to be the reason why it’s „literally unthinkable“ to go against her: she is able to broadcast her will to all of her subjects in the surrounding area (how far this effect reaches is unknown) to the point that she can even temporarily override The Other’s slaver-wasps. And beyond that, some her subjects (Trelawney among them) are able to voluntarily summon her to possess their bodies and channel her powers directly through them. This power is reseverved for emergencies where they desperately need to use her Enlightenment Superpowers for themselves; Albia cannot maintain this connection for long, as it soon begins to damage the subject.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: (Метаморф/Магия превращения) Seems to have a pretty liberal degree of control over form, including Sizeshifter, Eye Color Change, Kaleidoscope Hair and Gorgeous Garment Generation.
• Weather Manipulation: (Управление погодой) Capable of conjuring tiny storm-clouds in the palms of her hands. She ramps it up to a giant one while confronting Krosp and his legion of bears.
• We Used to Be Friends: (Когда-то мы были друзьями) According to the print novels, Albia was one of Klaus’s biggest supporters during his conquest/cleanup of Europa. However, as their two empires began to butt political and commercial heads, as well as the tendency of Sparks to seek hierarchical control over each other, their relationship fell apart and Klaus (and later Gil) are barred from entering England as long as she rules, and both sides are waiting for the other to start something so they can invade. Assuming that Lady Astarte wasn’t just winding Gil up, they apparently used to be more than just friends…
  • It’s unclear whether or not the feelings were mutual, but Albia expressed liking Lucrezia Mongfish, before she became The Other.
• Worf Had the Flu: She’s pretty much a demigod, but the power source that makes her that way has a cycle of flowing and ebbing. At the time of the story, she has nearly used up her emergency reserves, and she doesn’t have the knowledge or courage to use alternative methods to power herself.

Princess Neena of England

One of England’s many princesses and an old friend of Tarvek’s from their time studying in Paris.

• Adventurer Archaeologist: (Археолог-авантюрист) Her area of study and current profession.
• Ambiguously Brown: (Неясно-смуглый) The queen shifts her appearance constantly and it’s not even clear if her princesses are biologically related to her but Neena has dark skin, black hair and blue eyes.
• Geeky Turn-On: (Ум — это сексуально) Flirts heavily with Tarvek over the subject of rare books.
• Oh, My Gods!: She uses an „Oh my mom!“ variant, what with Queen Albia being a God Empress.
• I Want My Mommy!: When caught up in a battle between two rampaging God-Queens and a horde of enormous monsters, she calls out for „MAMA!“. And since she’s the daughter of Albia, she shows up immediately.

Trelawney Thorpe

An agent in Albia’s intelligence service.

• Action Girl: (Бой-баба) Who carries around explosives.
• Ambiguously Bi: Nothing explicit has been said about her tastes, but, whilst she and Wooster show signs of some attraction to each other when they meet at the start of Second Story Volume 5 and she very deliberately tries to seduce Gil, she also much more openly flirts with the female pirate(ish) captain who ferries Tarvek and Gil to Londinium, with the latter being a much more strongly implied Ambiguously Gay character. However, she has been hinted here that she may genuinely like Gil.
  • And after Wooster is killed by Lucrezia-in-Agatha, she breaks down weeping.
• The Berserker: Not to suicidal levels, but she’s been shown to rather impulsively spring into action.
• Crazy Sane: Trelawney is able to remain relatively calm and focused even when she falls into the Madness Place like other Sparks. Lucrezia is impressed by her self-control.
• Famed in Story: A number of novels have been written about her exploits, similar to those of the Heterodyne Boys. There’s been disparaging comments in-story (from knowledgeable witnesses) as to how accurate they are.
• Hero of Another Story: (Герой другой истории) While her novels are said to be exaggerated, she really does have a very busy life.
• Honey Trap: (Далила) Queen Albia sends her to capture Gil’s heart to ensure Agatha has fewer reasons to leave England. Klaus-in-Gil has not only caught onto this, but encourages it, if more so as to keep Gil away from Agatha.
• Instant Costume Change: (Превращение) She is able to casually rip off her elaborate full-length dress, leaving her wearing a far more practical catsuit.
• Ooh, Me Accent’s Slipping: Most of the time her speech patterns suggest a refined, upper-class British accent, however on one occasion that Wooster teases her on the subject, she replies „Watch yer gob, ya ratbag!“.
• Secret-Keeper: (Хранитель тайны) She serves as this for Albia, and chooses to share some of them with Gil.
• Spy Catsuit: (Шпионка в облипочку) As noted, this is her chosen outfit when she’s in action. It’s green.
• Willing Channeler: As one of the Queen’s sacred guardians, she can pray to her for help and be possessed by her. However, it puts a serious strain on her body, making it one of her last resorts.

Lady Ariadne Steelgarter

An English noblewoman. Has interests in both Science! and fashion. She was the financial backer for the airship expedition that „discovered“ Skifander.

• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing: (Милый козёл??) It appears she’s got some sort of covert agenda regarding Zeetha and/or Skifander. She later turns out to be working with the Other.
• The Fashionista: (Модница) Has a very intense attitude when it comes to clothes.
• For Science!: (Ради науки!) As noted, she’s a major supporter of The Queen’s Society of Sparks. It’s still not clear if she herself is a Spark.
• Instant Costume Change: (Превращение) Is able to shift between outfits from panel-to-panel.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When caught by Higgs and some of Albia’s troops while running from Lucrezia and Monahan’s brawl, she immediately surrenders. However, this changes the minute she sees a working portal to Skifander.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) Along with her more obvious last name, in Classical Mythology, „Ariadne“ is associated with thread. The spider-motif also ties in whith her extra arms.
• Multiarmed Multitasking: Has four arms. Also Multi-Armed and Dangerous. Later on it’s speculated that, aside from the typical mad science stuff, she may possibly be a Yajeena, an elite priestess from Skifander (who also had four arms before they were apparently all killed off), but Agatha and Zeetha decide it’s almost impossible to tell one way or the other at this point. The fact she instantly recognises Skifander, speaks the language, and is so delighted to find a portal there she forgets she’s running from two angry near-Queens may be confirmation.
• Screw This, I’m Out of Here!: (Не буду в это лезть) Runs rather than stick around in a fight between Lucrezia and Monahan.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: (Фобии) Absolutely cannot stand Monahan’s rats, and can only barely contain her disgust in their presence.

Hadrian Rakethorn

The Spark Albia assigns to Agatha with the intent on distracting her from her current romantic interests and getting Agatha to stay as part of Albia’s „garden“. He has some kind of feud with Ardsley Wooster

• Convenient Replacement Character: He’s a British secret agent who looks a bit like a more buff version of Ardsley Wooster and is introduced in the Londinium arc, which just so happens to be when Lucrezia/Agatha zaps Wooster.
• Female Gaze: Induces and invokes this straight out of the gate. His above image is literally his introduction, and judging from Agatha, Zeetha, and Violetta’s expressions on the next panel, it works.
• Honey Trap: (Далила) Albia hopes to replace Gil and Tarvek’s positions in Agatha’s affections with Hadrian.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: (Опора на четвёртую стену) In this comic, his cry of „I don’t get to do anything!“ is both an Ironic Echo of Neena’s frustration and seemingly recognition of him being Demoted to Extra following the end of the Londinium arc.
• Mr. Fanservice: (Мистер Фансервис) Seems to end up shirtless quite a lot, if the above image didn’t already tell you all you need to know. Justified, as he’s been instructed by Albia to seduce Agatha away from Gil and Tarvek.
• The Spark of Genius: The only edge he has on Wooster in what he’s able to offer in service to their queen is that he’s a spark, in all other aspects Wooster seems to be far more on top of things.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: (Жгучий брюнет) His character design.

Francisia Monahan

An English Spark and member of the Queen’s Society, who is one of Lucrezia’s spies in the organisation.

• Bad Boss: (Злой начальник) She tested the toxic „effluvia“ on all of her minions, which turned them all into hideous mutants. This is, of course, part and parcel of being a „classical“ Spark.
• Beware the Silly Ones: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) Downplayed (since all sparks tend to be a little eccentric), but the beaked-mask-wearing, rat-obsessed Monahan is only the second character to give Lucrezia a taste of her own medicine, albeit temporarily. And that’s before her ascension to Queendom.
• Blatant Lies: (Наглая ложь) Insists that the variety of outfits Steelgarter has found are from shipwrecks. Mysterious shipwrecks which also happen to have left behind things like a playlist for „Two Gentlerats of Verona“.
• Crazy Cat Lady: (Безумный любитель животных) Replace cat with rat and she is essentially this. She is fairly obsessed with her rats, to the point that they are practically her children.
• Debt Detester: Repays her debt to Agatha as soon as she possibly can.
• Disproportionate Retribution: (Неадекватное возмездие) Being ignorant about rats is a good way to rile her up.

«	Zeetha: Rats, weasels, all those fuzzy little scrungly guys… they’re basically the same kind of critters, right? […] Monahan: Ah. How sad. Now your friend must die. Agatha: NO!	»

• Enlightenment Superpower: (Просветлённый со сверхспособностями) Once Lucrezia „helps“ her figure out how to use the „cursed waters“ as a power source she ascends to Queendom, allowing her to resist the Lantern’s time freeze among other things.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: (И у злодеев есть любимые) She genuinely adores her rats, and even feels bad when her attempts at enhancing them cause them to explode.
• Even Evil Has Standards: (Даже у зла есть стандарты) She may be a Bad Boss, but even she finds Lucrezia’s selfish backstabbing narcissm disgusting.
• Gas Mask, Longcoat: (Крутой в противогазе) Wears a face-concealing mask revealing only her hair, along with a labcoat.
• Giant Woman: (Гигантская женщина) Much like Albia, takes this form upon her ascension to Queendom. Gets dialed up later on as she and a similarly ascended Lucrezia clank became larger than even the island they were on as they fought it out.
• Heel-Face Turn: (Переход на Светлую сторону) After betraying Lucrezia and ascending to Queendom, she sides with Albia in the ensuing battle and Albia accepts her as a new „sister“, coaching her in gaining full mastery of her new powers. Although the fact that she was secretly aligned with Loremistress Milvistle raises the question of how evil she was in the first place.
• The Mole: (Внедрённый агент (в разработке)) A member of the Queen’s Society of Sparks for years, with none suspecting she secretly remained loyal to Lucrezia. She was responsible for locking up Agatha’s surviving helicopter dingbot carrying the undoctored message from Sturmhalten, which was initally intercepted by Wooster, in order to prevent Albia and the world at large hearing it. She’s also a mole for Loremistress Milvistle, the rogue Geister leader working against Lucrezia, and ends up kicking „Luci“'s clank body into the „cursed waters“.
• Malevolent Masked Woman: Never takes her mask off, and she’s working for Lucrezia, and thus clearly bad news.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: (Неэтичный учёный?) Bears the title 'doctor', yet works for Lucrezia, which requires a near-total lack of any sense of morality.
• No-Sell: (Никакого эффекта) Lucrezia attempts to Mind Rape and transfer her own personality onto Monahan. Turns out, she was expecting this (and had in fact built the 'upgrade' allowing Lucrezia to do this herself), and it has no effect.
• Pest Controller: Commands an army of giant rats which provide security for her island lab. She seems more attached to them than any of her would-be-allies.
• Petty Childhood Grudge: While fighting an ascended Lucrezia, Monahan takes a moment to gripe at her for stealing one of her projects when they went to school together.
• Red Right Hand: She has Mismatched Eyes, and neither of them is a natural color (one gold, one purple).
• Saying Too Much: Makes the mistake of admitting to Ms. Steelgarter that she can’t be of immediate help to her when „Luci“ betrays her, causing Steelgarter to side with Lucrezia.
• Smarter Than They Look: She’s an eccentric Crazy Rat Lady, yet is the first of Lucrezia’s agents we see to recognise her severe case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, fully expecting 'Luci' to turn on her as soon as she decides You Have Outlived Your Usefulness. And when this inevitably happens, she’s more than ready for it.
• Spanner in the Works: (Рояль в кустах?) If she hadn’t intervened, one of Lucrezia’s personalities would have ascended to Queendom wholly unopposed, which would have led to no end of troubles for the protagonists.
• Tested on Humans: She tested the effluvia on her minions before exposing her rats, to avoid causing unnecessary deaths of adorable rats.
• The Starscream: (Стремящийся в ГлавГады) As it turns out, she’s been working as The Mole for Loremistress Milvistle all along, and almost destroys clank-body Lucrezia after an attempted Mind Rape.
• „The Reason You Suck“ Speech: (Уничижительная речь) Delivers a killer putdown to Lucrezia upon betraying her.
• The Spark of Genius: She’s a Spark. Where else would all the giant rats come from?
• Villainous Friendship: Appears to be an old friend of Lucrezia’s and apparently met her at college. Even goes so far as to call her 'Luci'. But this was all a cover, Monahan loathes Lucrezia and gladly betrays her.
• Youthful Freckles: (Юношеские веснушки) When she removes her mask, she has freckles covering her face (despite being old enough to have gone to school with Lucrezia).

Kjarl Thotep

An alien from another dimension. He has long lived within the English undersea dome of the Queen’s Society and built up a reputation as a ghost due to his invisible nature.

• Amazing Technicolor Population: (Разноцветная раса) When fully integrated into Agatha’s world, he looks like a human, except with white hair, red skin, and yellow and purple irises.
• The Bard: (Бард) He states himself to be a „Vozzler“ by profession, which appears to be some sort of gadgeteering dimension traveling equivalent to a bard.
• Benevolent Abomination: A thousands-of-years old being from a dimension outside of normal space and time — who’s actually rather jolly and helpful, once you get to know him.
• Human Aliens: (Люди с другой планеты) He originates from a completely different plane of existence, but mostly looks like a large and oddly colored human.
• In-Series Nickname: Due to his mysterious nature, the Queen’s Society referred to him as the „Boilerghast“.
• Invisible to Normals: (Невидимые существа) Most people can’t see him. Tarvek and Higgs are among the few who can.
• The Nameless: He remained nameless for two years since his first appearance; on the Girl Genius website, he was called Karl Thotep in the links to the sections of the plot where he is prominent. Finally, the Foglio settled on Kjarl Thotep.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: (Ай, молодца, герой!) He didn’t know just how dangerous Dr. Dimitri Vapnoople was before his lobotomy and heals him.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Gil initially thinks of him as Tarvek’s „imaginary friend“, but he’s real enough.
• Oh, Crap!: (Осознание катастрофы) Has this reaction after he restores Dr. Vapnoople’s Spark and learns that he’s a terrifying Social Darwinist and „master of monsters.“

«	Kjarl: Oh, dear. He seemed like such a nice man.	»

• Seers: (Прорицатель) He has a different perception of time relative to the natives of Europa and can predict the future in broad strokes, ie, „perform Action X and it will somehow get everyone killed.“
• Significant Name: „Kjarl Thotep“ is a fairly obvious Shout-Out to H. P. Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep.
• This Is Gonna Suck: (Осознание катастрофы) His reaction when he realizes that he’s going to have to talk to the Dreen if he hopes to get home.
• Time Abyss: (Бездна времени) Time works a bit differently for him than for the natives of Europa, but it is a fact that he was stuck in the temple beneath the dome for tens of thousands of years, predating even Queen Albia.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Due to the nature of his existence, he has trouble deciding what tense to use when speaking with people.
• Trapped in Another World: He originates from Another Dimension. He was accidentally summoned by a civilization of Precursors while building their Portal Network and has been stuck in Europa ever since. He has been trapped for so long that the resident Mad Scientists do not have the means to analyze where he came from and send him back home. He also figures he’ll have racked up some serious parking tickets.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Takes pity on the lobotomized Dr. Vapnoople and somehow is able to restore his Spark and sanity… Unfortunately he had no idea Vapnoople is a batshit insane (even by Spark standards) Evilutionary Biologist.
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form: (Облик, недоступный пониманию) Agatha believes that the way everyone perceived him before was derived from their minds' attempts to cope with viewing a higher-dimensional creature, and that it’s entirely possible everyone saw something completely different while looking at him. But by making him fully compatible with their own world, everyone should see him the same way from now on. His ultimate appearance is almost human, albeit much larger and having unusual colors.

Quintillius Snackleford

An important official in Queen Albia’s Society of Mad Scientists. There’s more to him than meets the eye.

• A God Am I: (Комплекс бога) Manages to achieve second breakthrough, effectively making him a demigod, and later expresses panic and outrage that his summoned Eldritch Abomination would dare to leave its „god“.
• Beware the Silly Ones: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) His incompetent efforts to fight the protagonists may well make him look like a buffoon, but he is one of the very few Sparks to achieve second breakthrough.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: (Просветлённый со сверхспособностями) By siphoning knowledge and energy from an Eldritch Abomination from Another Dimension, he successfully achieves second breakthrough, taking the next step past a Spark and effectively becoming a demigod like Queen Albia.
• Flaming Hair: Gains it upon second breakthrough.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: (Светящиеся глаза) He always wears a visor which produces this effect. Interestingly, after he levels up Spark-wise, his eyes actually become more normal-looking.
• Klingon Promotion: (Трофеи вручают убийце) He is probably responsible for the death of the Society’s official head, Lord Bunstable.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: (Многорукое существо) He can manifest multiple arms as part of his Voluntary Shapeshifting.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) He doesn’t kill „minions“ or guest Agatha when conducting his purge of his fellow Sparks.
• Spiky Hair: (Сёнэн-причёска) His original haircut before upgrading to Flaming Hair.
• Unskilled, but Strong: (Сила есть — ума не надо!) This is Vapnoople’s assessment after Snacky makes his ascension- he wastes far too much of his new power flashily killing all the other Gray Hoods, leaving himself open to attacks from other quarters.
• Villain Has a Point: (Никто не верит злодею) Agatha wonders if his lies about creating a new golden age of wonder using an Extradimensional Power Source might have a valid point. Since such a thing could theoretically turn everybody into a spark, she admits that it’s an idea that should only be pursued cautiously.
• Villainous Breakdown: (Злодейская истерика) When Agatha manages to banish his summoned Eldritch Abomination back to where it came from, he starts panicking. Dr. Vapnoople then tells Agatha, his new „student“, that the distraction of a Villainous Breakdown is the best time to strike and casually tosses Lord Snackleford into the closing rift.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: (Метаморф/Магия превращения) One of the powers he gains upon his second breakthrough.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: (Пережить свою полезность) He formed a Secret Circle of Secrets gathering nearly all of his fellow British Mad Scientists. He promised to bring a new age of enlightenment, delivering demigodhood to his cultists, and eventually the world. But as soon as they help him achieve it personally, he zaps them all to death.

Transylvania Polygnostic University

Ссылка: [15]

Tarsus Beetle

Ruler of Beetleburg and Headmaster of the Transylvania Polygnostic University. Agatha attends TPU under his supervision and acts as his assistant.

• Alas, Poor Villain: (Трагический злодей) Agatha is genuinely distraught when Beetle is killed, enough so to trigger her breakthrough.
• Ambiguously Evil: Not much is known about Beetle’s ultimate goals or motivations. He greatly disliked the Baron’s rule, and seemed to be planning to use Agatha to further his goals, but at the same time, Barry trusted him enough to entrust Agatha to his care, and apparently gave him reason not to trust the Baron. Depending on what exactly Beetle thought he knew, opposing Klaus might have appeared to be the good-guy thing to do.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Was preparing to mount a challenge to Klaus' power… With his forces being completely outgunned, and the Baron fully aware of his plotting.
• Compensating for Something: Gil notes that his clanks are ludicrously oversized, Beetle’s way of compensating for his lack of height. Beetle objects to this assessment, loudly.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: (Особо жестокая смерть) His favored means of dealing with criminals in his city is to stick them in a giant bell jar to die of exposure, starvation and/or dehydration. He then leaves their bodies there until he needs to reuse the jar.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: (Избиение младенцев) His defenses get effortlessly swatted down by the Wulfenbach forces.
• Deader than Dead: (Полное уничтожение) His demise is used to showcase that in the Girl Genius universe 1) being dead need not be permanent, and 2) it still can be.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: (Не рой яму другому) Killed when Gil knocks his own bomb back at him.
• Humongous Mecha: His greatest creation is a twenty-meter clank named Tock.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) Third generation Spark.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: Had at various points in his life taught Klaus and Lucrezia, along with Bill and Barry Heterodyne, and later Agatha.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: (Профессиональный риск ментора) He’s Agatha’s mentor, and dies in the series' first chapter as part of the process of shaking the protagonist out of her childhood home to send her off to adventure.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) Beetle’s sheltering and care of Agatha certainly appears to be this. It’s only much, much later that the audience learns he intended to use her as a weapon.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: (Я здесь главный, мне всё можно) As the Tyrant of Beetleburg, his word was law. This was why Agatha was allowed to attend whatever lesson she pleased, even if her teachers didn’t like her.
• Secret-Keeper: (Хранитель тайны) He knew Barry had returned to Beetleburg with Agatha, and knew who she, Lilith, and Adam were.
• Starter Villain: (Гад из экспозиции) To the point where Agatha never even faced him, since he got thwarted by the Baron before he even got to the part of his plan that involved her.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Beetle was the one who inspired Lucrezia’s experiments with mind-transferal, meaning a good deal of issues in the story can in some way be traced back to him.
  • Still later, his ill-advised plot against Klaus Wulfenbach ultimately attracts the Baron’s attention to Agatha, thus kicking off the plot.
• We Have Become Complacent: He’s universally acknowledged as the greatest clank engineer of his generation. Unfortunately, he failed to take into account that later generations would use his designs as the starting point for their own work. Thus, when he tried using them to rebel against Klaus, he was trying to fight state of the art Wulfenbach Battle Clanks with models that were thirty years out of date, and the obsolete models quickly lost.
• We Used to Be Friends: (Когда-то мы были друзьями) Resents his former protege Klaus for annexing Beetleburg into the empire, despite the fact that the takeover was peaceful and he was allowed to remain in control of local affairs.
• The Worf Effect: (Силач на расправу) Klaus figures out his plot to use a Hive Engine to strike against the empire and crushes it effortlessly well before it was ready to go, establishing just how smart and powerful the Baron truly is.

Silas Merlot

Assistant and second-in-command to Tarsus Beetle.

• Be Careful What You Wish For: (Бойся своих желаний) He seems to finally breakthrough as a spark out of sheer rage of seeing Agatha again. He always wanted to be a spark and was jealous of their abilities. It gets him killed like many other sparks as he can’t control his obsession and the Castle murders him to protect Agatha.
• Didn’t Think This Through: After discovering Dr. Beetle’s hidden notes about Agatha’s heritage, he burned down Beetleburg’s hall of records with the Baron’s cryptography team inside, fearing the Baron would punish him if he knew the truth while not expecting the Baron to punish him for his actions in covering the truth. Agatha would later point out that had he gone straight to the Baron after making the discovery it’s likely it would have gotten him into Klaus’s good graces and netted him a big reward.
• Disproportionate Retribution: (Неадекватное возмездие) Claims his sentencing is this. Historians would later argue that it was actually disproportionately low, because among the things he burned in the archives was all records of what the Heterodyne Boys had been up to between their disappearance and Agatha being settled in Beetleburg, but the Baron had outlawed more appropriately harsh punishments.
• Evil Is Petty: The first thing he did after becoming in charge of Beetlesburg was expel Agatha simply because he didn’t like her.
• Expose the Villain, Get His Job: What Silas presumably was hoping for by revealing the Slaver Engine his master was hiding. If it was, it worked in the worst way possible.
• For Science!: (Ради науки!) In likely an attempt to imitate Sparks, his big experiment at the start of the series was trying to turn chalk into cheese. It just earned him mockery from his peers and subordinates.
• Green-Eyed Monster: (Ревность)
  • He lives in bitterness and jealousy over the fact that he’s not a Spark and feels that he gets overlooked and left out of Beetle’s important plans because he’s „a mere mortal.“
  • The novels would later suggest that his erratic personality and his odd experiments is him trying to emulate Sparky traits.
• Hated by All: (Нулевой рейтинг) No one in Beetleburg really liked the petty, ill tempered man. The novels theorize that the main reason Dr. Beetle took him on as his main assistant was that his poor reputation made him the target of everyone’s ire while the tyrant doctor looked all the more benevolent in comparison.
• I Just Want to Be Special: He was a brilliant if perfectly normal scientist who had the misfortune of sharing the world with those that can casually break the laws of physics. Despite a profuse dislike of Sparks his pet project of turning chalk into cheese was clearly him trying to mimic the outlandishness of sparky science rather than 'actual' science.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: (Эффект штурмовика) He fires dozens of rapid-fire shots at Gil and Agatha with two giant machine guns and they all miss. The only bullet that actually hits is fired with a pistol from less than a foot away, and only gets Gil in the shoulder.
• Impossible Task: At the start of the comic, he and Glassvitch were given plans to build a contraption for Wulfenbach…well, really, Tarsus shoved it on the non-Sparks while he kept working on his own projects. At any rate, after three months of work without getting the gadget to operate, it turned out the whole thing was a test for Wulfenbach’s son Gilgamesh to see if he could recognize the deliberately faulty construction. Merlot is understandably upset to see three months of his life, which he could have used for his own projects wasted for a test and flips out.
• Insane Troll Logic: (Безумная логика) When Agatha meets him again in Castle Heterodyne, he thinks it’s „unfair“ that Klaus sent him there just for arson and killing his inspectors.
• Jerkass: (Козёл) As the novelization puts it, even without the jealousy and having to work under Dr. Beetle, he was just „born mean“.
• Kicked Upstairs: Klaus puts him in charge him not as a promotion but as a punishment, threatening to ship him off to Castle Heterodyne at his first mistake.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) Crushed by Castle Heterodyne while trying to kill Agatha and her friends.
• Laser-Guided Karma: (Кармическое возмездие) The Baron sent him to Castle Heterodyne for arson and murdering his research team. Agatha straight up tell him he deserved what he got.
• Never My Fault: (Не признаёт ошибок) Blames Agatha for him getting sent to Castle Heterodyne, despite him being the one who burned down all of Beetle’s records and murdered the Baron’s men in a vain attempt to protect himself.
• Pet the Dog: (Добрый поступок злодея) He gave Agatha a genuine (if mildly startled) compliment after she managed to clean the lab in a remarkably short timeframe.
• Sanity Slippage: He was never all there to begin with, but his fear of Klaus and hatred of Agatha turns him into a bitter, paranoid murderer.
• Spanner in the Works: (Рояль в кустах?) The Baron wanted to interrogate Beetle and had some unspecified plans for him, but Silas’s early reveal of the Slaver Engine that Beetle was hiding resulted in Beetle fighting and dying. Likewise, Silas’s burning of Beetle’s records kept the Baron from learning about Agatha months ahead of time.
• Villainous Breakdown: (Злодейская истерика) Merlot was a jerk early on and didn’t get less so. Compare him then to now. He has totally lost it by here.

Hugo Glassvitch

Headmaster Beetle’s chief of research, he along with Merlot work under Professor Beetle.

A really nice guy, if a bit of a worrywart.

• Impossible Task: Like Merlot, quite upset to learn that he was basically window dressing for Gil’s test, but he doesn’t react as badly.
• Nice Guy: (Хороший парень) Encouraging of „Agatha Clay’s“ initially unsuccessful inventing efforts, and capable of being friendly to even Silas Merlot.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bears an intentional resemblance to Ron Glass
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Not seen after the Beetleburg portion of the story. The last time he was mentioned he’d learned her true identity and sent her academic transcripts to Paris a couple of years before she actually got there.

The Professoressa

A professor at the Transylvania Polygnostic University who decides she will interview Agatha and write her official biography when they run into each other in Paris. She is the presenter behind the stories in the „Radio Play“ side stories, and co-writer/director of the Cinderella sidestory.

• A Day in the Limelight: (Эпизод-фокус) The December 2020 side story focuses on the Professoressa and the Storyteller and is set after the main comic.
• Author Avatar: (Аватара автора) She is a stand in for Kaja Foglio, just as the Storyteller is the stand in for Phil.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: (Бойся своих желаний) The December 2020 side story involves her inquisitiveness about the Mechanicsburg Solstice resulting in her stumbling into filling in for Agatha as the „Heterodyne“. It results in her getting a lot more than she bargained for, and the only reason she gets away unscathed is thanks to the Castle’s help.
• Identical Stranger: Not quite identical, but she looks sufficiently like Agatha for the Revelsmeister to comment on it when he ropes her into the Solstice celebration.
• Meet Cute:
  • A filler image depicts her meeting Phil Foglio’s in-comic character by having her accidentally drop a book on his head from the top of a high shelf. The book is titled „How They Met“.
  • Their actual Meet Cute is different; she arrives at Mechanicsburg while he’s singing outside, calls him a mendicant and vagrant, and pays him a silver coin to tell her Agatha is freeing the town. The coin is fake. Then he shows off how well educated he is while arguing with her, making her develop something of a crush on him.
• Missed Him by That Much: In the Solstice story, she comes even closer to meeting Agatha than the Storyteller has, but is unconscious at the time. Later (real-world time) we see she met Agatha in person in Paris.
• Signature Headgear: (Крутая шляпа) Her top hat with winged goggles is quite nice, and even gets complimented by one of her husband’s cousins.

The Storyteller

An incredibly unlucky traveling storyteller who by strange coincidence always seems to end up near the latest disaster.

• A Day in the Limelight: (Эпизод-фокус) The December 2020 side story focuses on the Professoressa and the Storyteller and is set after the main comic.
• Author Avatar: (Аватара автора) He and the above-mentioned woman are the stand-ins for the Foglios.
• The Bard: The storyteller is a traveling bard who has multiple random encounters with the protagonists throughout their journey; they first find him when they hear him singing while imprisoned in the local dungeon. He’s memorized a great number of tales in addition to spinning his own.
• Black Sheep: (Паршивая овца) The rest of Oggie’s descendants definitely act more Jäger-adjacent than he does, and most think as little of his profession as everyone else.
• The Bore: The Great Hospital at Mechanicsburg hires him to help get difficult patients to sleep, much to his disgruntlement. This gets him volunteered to help get Klaus to sleep soon after. About the only person who doesn’t find his storytelling dull is Tarvek (who realizes that the unwitting bard is being used by the Baron to pass along a message to Gil).
• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья) He’s arrested and thrown in an oubliette in Sturmhalten for „unflattering portrayal of a royal“, mocked for being boring, pestered by Oggie, frozen in the time-stop, used as a guinea pig from removal from said time-stop by Wulfenbach scientists…
• Deadpan Snarker: (Насмешник с мордой кирпичом) When listening to a Wulfenbach troop reciting what he thought happened at Sturmhalten (thanks to having inhaled some of the Circus' hallucinogenic gas).

«	Trooper: It was unbelievable! Storyteller: [glowering at the man] That, I’ll grant you.	»

• Direct Line to the Author: The novelization confirms that the Storyteller is supposed to be Phil Foglio, and the series is him re-telling what he knows of Agatha’s rise to power. Though he also admits in-story that he’s been exposed to so many mind-altering chemicals and energies that he can’t be sure exactly what happened.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) A mild example, but his „About the Author“ blurb in one of the print comics states that his family’s „rather bizarre choices in the way of ancestors“ makes them considered odd…by the people of Mechanicsburg.
• Meet Cute:
  • A filler image depicts him meeting Kaja Foglio’s in-comic character by having her accidentally drop a book on his head from the top of a high shelf. The book is titled „How They Met“.
  • Their actual Meet Cute is different; she arrives at Mechanicsburg while he’s singing outside, calls him a mendicant and vagrant, and pays him a silver coin to tell her Agatha is freeing the town. The coin is fake. Then he shows off how well educated he is while arguing with her, making her develop something of a crush on him.
• Missed Him by That Much: On occasion, the Storyteller comes very close to Agatha, without ever interacting with her (being nearby when Agatha saw the Muse of Time, being present when Agatha unleashed her dangerous Carnival on the Baron, being at Mechanicsburg during the siege).
• Shared Family Quirks: When he turns something the Professoressa says into a sex joke, she smirks „It is so obvious that you two are related.“ When Oggie does the same thing, she repeats it.

«	The Storyteller: Well, duh. The comic begins with him telling a story to some kids.	»

• Tempting Fate: He tells Oggie he’ll get married as soon as Oggie finds a Heterodyne. And then he sees the giant hologram of Agatha bursting out of Prince Aaronev’s castle…
• Unwanted Assistance: Is a great-great-great grandson of Oggie. It’s Oggie’s „assistance“ with trying to help the family line along that has in fact led to the Storyteller being one of the last of said line. This is either a dramatic exaggeration or is referring to the Storyteller’s particular branch of the family tree; judging by the rest of the family seen when the Storeyteller and his wife visit for the Solstice, Ognian’s bloodline is quite robust.

The Corbettite Order

Ссылка: [16]

Corbettites as a whole

A monastic order dedicated to the operation of a passenger rail line network throughout Europa. Staunchly neutral and quite able to defend their neutrality, they serve a vital role in transportation through the politically volatile realm.

• Artifact Collection Agency: (Хранилище сверхъестественных предметов) Of a sort. Among their duties is acting as custodians for all sorts of horrific products of deranged science that event most Sparks would prefer never to see the light of day.
• Badass Normal: (Крутой простой смертный) The majority of Corbettites are perfectly normal (for a given value of „normal“) people who joined up for a variety of reasons. Doesn’t make them any less dangerous, especially since they’re the ones keeping Spark-created blasphemies under lock and key; even the infamously rogue House Heterodyne trust them to keep such things safely secured, and won’t cross them.
• Badass Preacher: (Крутой церковник) Corbettite trains can, will, and on many occasions have shot their way through a wide variety of horrific constructs and clanks wandering the Wastelands that threatened their railways. The monks are so well regarded for their toughness that when the Old Heterodynes accidentally made something so dangerous that it scared them, they entrusted it to the Corbettites for safekeeping. And the monks were able to successfully extract concessions from them (which the Heterodynes actually honored for centuries) in return for doing so.
  • In addition, the Corbettites provide free „assassin disposal“ services and are skilled enough to be able to take down Smoke Knights by surprise.
  • When one character asks why the Corbettites would build a massive crypt filled with all manner of incredibly deadly traps, the immediate answer is „Because it would be awesome.“
  • When Martellus' fleet foolishly opens fire on their fortress depot, the Corbettites immediately return fire and destroy eight of his airships with a single shot. Notably, while Martellus can be an idiot, he’s not this big an idiot; a subordinate went behind his back to order the attack. Martellus personally tossed him out of the command airship for his stupidity.

«	Father Gerät: Yes, it has been a long time since we faced the trials of raiders… Corbettite: Exactly, and are we strong enough to stand against them? (massive explosions) Father Gerät: …I meant, will we find the strength to spare any of them?	»

• Binding Ancient Treaty: Between the Corbettites and the Heterodyne family. So long as the Corbettites keep some artifacts that are so dangerous that the Heterodynes couldn’t trust themselves to protect them without being tempted to use them again safely locked away, no Heterodyne troops will attack Corbettite trains, railways or stations. The agreement has been in place for centuries, and has never once been broken.
• Christianity Is Catholic: (Христианство — это католичество) The Christian religion in the world of Girl Genius is something of a mess, with reportedly seven competing popes, and the Corbettites owe allegiance to the one in Belfast; nevertheless, this all-male order of monks who take their religion seriously even as they build cool trains and defend them with cool weapons are recognizably Catholic.
• Doomsday Device: (Устройство Судного дня) Their secondary mission is to find and collect these (and science Gone Horribly Wrong) to be locked in the vault, being the only group who can trusted not to use them.
• Rail Enthusiast: (Поезда — это круто!) Explained in Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle as to why some of them signed up — it’s a chance to drive big shiny trains really fast.
• Secret Government Warehouse: Have several vaults that contain various dangerous Sparky creations that are entrusted to them because everyone in Europa knows that they can be trusted to never try to use them.
• Secret Test of Character: (Проверка на вшивость) Gives one to Vipsania Perrault when she seeks their assistance via bribing individual brothers to help her loot an abandoned Dragon Hoard containing a dangerous Spark device. The first brother she talked to who „wasn’t too holy to take a bribe“ is dragged away by other members, the second misses their second meeting because he was Reassigned to Antarctica, and the third is sealed up in a room. Brother Marcus explains that when someone shows up asking questions and trying to bribe members of the Order, they will try to scare them off first, then assist them if they continue.
• Seeking Sanctuary: If a traveler gets on one of their trains and gives the monks an honest explanation of who they are, where they’re going, and why, then they are entitled to sanctuary and safe passage until the train gets to their stop. (Up to a point — if the honest explanation suggests that giving them passage would put other passengers at risk, well, that’s why the trains have the only confessionals with ejector seats.)

Brother Ulm

A brother and confessor of the Corbettite Monks, who serves as the Conductor aboard the Wyrm of Limerick, a rail liner with a massive dragon head figurehead on the front of its locomotive.

• Badass Preacher: (Крутой церковник) Presumably, he has received the same training that enables his brothers to dispatch Smoke Knights skulking around the train looking for Margarella.
• Brain Uploading: (Загрузка сознания) After nearly dying when the Beast was finally unplugged (which involved an explosion), he was instead uploaded to be a construct consciousness in the Corbettites' brand-new super-locomotive that Agatha also helped complete and perfect, in a manner similar to Castle Heterodyne. Though it’s ambiguous whether the procedure involved full Brain Uploading or just Wetware CPU.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: He was on the verge of pressing the „Confessional Eject“ button instead when Agatha was in there, but thought better of it.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: (Смехотворные пытки?) After trying to kill Agatha for fear of her causing his order trouble at their base, his punishment is to accompany her around and do her no harm, while also making sure she doesn’t cause trouble.
• Dysfunctional Family: (Разобщённая семья) When commiserating with Agatha in the confessional.

«	Brother Ulm: Sure, and my own family is a gift from the Almighty… which is a fine thing, since I certainly wouldn’t have paid for them.	»

• Fiery Redhead: (Огненная шевелюра — огненный характер) He can vary from kindly priest to steam-headed rather quickly. Especially if he thinks there’s a threat to the Corbettites.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Becomes much more antagonistic towards Agatha when forced to take her with the other passengers to the Corbettites' headquarters because he fears she’ll unleash some Heterodyne creation they have locked up there. While he’s less on her side, he’s still not a bad guy.
• Irish Priest: Complete with usage of irish colloquialisms like „Sure, and“ or „boyo“.
• Ironic Hell: Averted and in fact Inverted, with his transformation into locomotive being utter heaven for a Corbettite monk.
• Killed Off for Real: (Убили по-настоящему) He dies stopping The Beast, when ripping out its brain results in a large explosion… Or so it seemed.
• Why Don’t You Just Shoot Him?: Worried about letting Agatha into the stronghold, he goes to quietly shoot her. Another monk stops him.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: (Жанровая ошибка) He discusses this with Wooster upon realizing that maybe Agatha’s not evil like the old Heterodynes were (and after she’s not the one to release the monster).

Brother Matthias

«	Not every Spark is crashing around trying to take over Europa, you know! Some of us get to work on trains! Beautiful, shiny, wonderful trains! Other Sparks beg us to build lines into their territories! Muhahahaha!	»

The chief engineer of the Wyrm of Limerick, as well as a Spark. He is by far the most…eccentric of the Corbettites, and as such Brother Ulm tries to keep him away from passengers as much as possible.

• Attention Deficit… Ooh, Shiny!: His propensity to go off on a sparky tangent despite immediate peril he must focus on seems to be infectious to other Sparks as both Tweedle and Agatha get swept up in his tangents too.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Do not insinuate that his train will ever be late.
• Cloudcuckoolander: (Чудак) Especially in regards to trains. To the point where he cares more about how awesome the Beast is than the fact that his order needs to take it out. Thankfully his rant on the subject still gives Vadaxus the information he needs.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) The Wyrm’s flamethrower? His doing. Just look at his manic evil smile in his picture: That’s some Spark-level evil grinning.
• Rail Enthusiast: (Поезда — это круто!) Brother Matthias likes trains quite a bit, to the point that he sees working on them as far more fulfilling than the things most other Sparks get up to, like ruling empires.

Father Gerät

The Abbot of Saint Szpac, and Ulm’s superior. He describes himself as an administrator, and isn’t as worried about the theological implications of the Order’s work.

• Bilingual Bonus: (Билингвальный бонус) „Gerät“ is German for „device“.
• Swiss-Army Appendage: (Сверхфункциональный протез) Father Gerät’s prosthetic arms have been seen as a tentacle, a water nozzle, a hammer, pincers, claw machine-style grabbers, and a hand.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Gerät’s a reasonable man, and is willing to hear Ulm out when he’s caught attempting to kill a passenger. He’s also not keen at all on being ordered by a higher power in the church to obey „King“ Martellus, and most certainly did not see one of Agatha’s entourage knock Martellus out.

Brother Vadaxxus

The head cook and military leader of the Depot Fortress of St. Spzac.

• Almighty Janitor: (Бог-уборщик/Всемогущий нищий?) When he’s not leading the battle against whatever is besetting the Fortress, he’s the head cook. He says preparing food for all the Corbettites at the fortress makes planning a battle look easy in comparison.
• Electronic Eyes: (Искусственный глаз) Steampunk/Gaslamp Fantasy variant. Vadaxxus’s left eye is not the one he was born with.
• Frontline General: (Генерал-рубака) Vadaxxus is out front leading the Corbettites against the Beast.

Humongulus

«	Greetings, brother! Humongulus is here to punch and lift things!	»

An enormous Clank in service to the Corbettites. He works at their monastery lifting platforms into position. A one-shot taking place apparently after the series proper depicts Humongulus now residing in Mechanicsburg, working at a newly-constructed Corbettite trainyard and still more than happy to take any sort of challenge posed to him, be it a show of strength or a brawl with Franz.

• Big Damn Heroes: (Офигенные герои) He shows up just in time to stop the Beast from reclaiming its lost cars.
• Defeat Means Friendship: (Дружба начинается с поражения) Becomes fast friends with Franz following their fight.
• Fear of Thunder: „Humongulus does not fear the rain! But the lightning…“
• Graceful Loser: When Franz manages to get the upper hand during their fight by exploiting the fact that Humongulus insides are not waterproof, he happily surrenders and compliments Franz for his ingenuity.
• Gratuitous Latin: Parodied. Humongulus will spout off the occasional Latin phrase, but if you translate it, it will usually be fairly modern vernacular.

«	Humongulus: What is this? Humongulus cannot move! Non est frigidus!Lat.	»

• Humongous Mecha: It’s right there in the name, after all. Humongulus is one of the biggest Clanks seen to date.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: (Бездонный инвентарь) He somehow produces his sword out of nowhere, and the accompanying monk says that he has never asked where Humongulus keeps his tools.
• Large Ham: (Переигрывание) In every sense of the word. Particularly when it comes to his lifting abilities.
• Noodle Incident: (Инцидент с кошкой) Brother Ulm explains that, since he joined the monastery, Humongulus hasn’t leveled any mountains in decades…
• Odd Friendship: (Непохожие друзья) With Franz, despite resembling a knight.
• The Philosopher: Humongulus has given a lot of consideration to whether or not lifting things truly induces happiness or if he simply does it because it’s what he was created to do and doesn’t know anything else. It’s enough that it makes Franz ask himself the same question.
• Pretentious Latin Motto: (Высокопарный латинский девиз) Parodied, with a gratuitous dose of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe; Humongulus has a motto scrawled on his chest reading „Dost thou even lyft?“
• Serious Business: Lifting things. It’s what he exists for, and he’s damn good at it. He once considered becoming the best at setting things down, but decided that it lacked panache.
• Sophisticated as Hell: (Язык Ржевского) Combines a stilted, overly formal speaking style with Testosterone Poisoning-style boasts.
• Testosterone Poisoning: (GAR) Humongulus tends to be a playful poke at extreme bodybuilders, and is constantly boasting about his lifting abilities.
• Third-Person Person: (О себе в третьем лице) Humongulus rarely lets a sentence go by without mentioning himself in third person.

The Beast

A sentient train that was created by Agatha’s grandfather Saturnus Heterodyne. It constantly hungers for coal and any form of metal, and to roam freely across the land devouring new and interesting things; after Saturnus gave the Beast to them, the Corbetite Monks tried to use it on their railway network but were finally forced to trick it and seal it in one of the Vaults in their Depot-Fortress.

• A Beast in Name and Nature: It’s called „The Beast“ and the name is completely appropriate.
• Ax-Crazy: (Буйный неадекват) When it first appears, this thing seems to be giving Castle Heterodyne a run for its money in this department, with the added danger that it doesn’t obey the resident Heterodyne, or possibly doesn’t believe that Agatha is a Heterodyne. Although in the end, it only kills one person (Lady Selnikov) and even that wasn’t particularly intentional.
• Backseat Driver: Reduced to being an impotent one of these with the Brother-Ulm train following its defeat.
• Badass Decay: In-universe. Once an all-consuming engine of terror, now only its little mechanical „brain“ survives in dingbot form, which accompanies Agatha on her further journeys.
• Berserk Button: (Кнопка берсерка) Do not interrupt its meal.
• Boxed Crook: (Миссия для заключённого) After Agatha brings it to heel, she keeps it around in the form of a super-intelligent speech-capable dingbot.
• Cast from Hit Points: (Сверхсила ценой здоровья) When preparing to do something spectacular, the Beast can shorten itself for extra energy, by digesting its own wagons.
• Cool Train: (Поезда — это круто!) It goes without saying, really.
• Defeat Means Friendship: (Дружба начинается с поражения) After being defeated by Agatha and reduced to a small dingbot body, the Beast gradually becomes fiercely protective of her and even makes an friendship with the Castle.
• Defiant to the End: (Непокорные, несгибаемые, несломленные) Continues to hurl threats even as its brain is finally physically ripped from its mangled body.
• Even Evil Has Standards: (Даже у зла есть стандарты) Seems to have a soft spot for cute animals, considering it was shocked and dismayed when it thought Krosp was attacking it and tried to shoo him away.
• Extreme Omnivore: (Великий пожиратель) According to Brother Ulm, one of the main reasons the Corbetites fear it so much is because it can subsist on literally anything, as opposed to normal trains that can only run on coal.
• Giant Eye of Doom: The first thing we see of it
• Heel-Face Turn: (Переход на Светлую сторону) „Heroic“ is probably a strong word for the Beast, but after being reduced to Dingbot form it seems to have accepted its lot as Agatha’s minion.
• Humiliation Conga: (Жизнь кончена) The process of its defeat. It started when it was swarmed by the Swartzwalders who had no metal on them to manipulate. Then its energy reserve cars were cut off by Count Wolkerstorfer and dropped down a cargo lift shaft. Then it got grappled by Humongulus when it tried to magnetically lift the cars back out of the shaft. Then it had its cab ripped open. Then its core brain was unplugged, and eventually revealed to be stored in a glass jar where it impotently yells at people.
• It’s All About Me / Spoiled Brat: (Эгоист/Избалованный ребёнок) Generally comes across as a super-powered child in desperate need of some discipline.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: (Чудовищная пасть) Made of train grates.
• Psychopathic Manchild: (Жестокий большой ребёнок) Much like the other living Heterodyne object we’ve seen so far, it is positively giddy at the prospect of devouring the Corbetites and Martellus.
• Reforged into a Minion: After its defeat in the Battle of the St. Spzac Train Yard, Agatha reforged it into an advanced dingbot in a spheroid chassis with a little smokestack. It’s since teamed up with the similarly en-mobilized fragment of Castle Heterodyne that Agatha recovered in paris as Those Two Guys. It is much more mindful of its loyalties to its creator in this state. Particularly since its new body doesn’t have a mouth, and thus it has no means of eating things to get stronger.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: (Заточённое зло) Long ago, the Corbettites lured it into a trap, captured it, and sealed it away in their vaults. The threat of it being released was so terrifying to Brother Ulm that he was willing to kill a passenger to prevent it. It was released inadvertently by Lady Margarella and then defeated with Agatha’s help.
• Selective Magnetism: (Забили на третий закон Ньютона?) It has the power to selectively manipulate metal items in order to consume them. This includes Martellus' gold crown, which he notes isn’t a ferrous metal and asks how it’s doing that. It later pins almost all of the people around in place by holding the bits of metal in their clothes.
• Shows Damage: since the Beast uses mass conversion to power its attacks, it is possible to judge its remaining power by its length — the more wagons it has, the longer it can keep fighting.
• Screw This, I’m Outta Here!: Announces its intention to simply storm away from the fight at the Corbettite Fortress-Depot, but is then swarmed by Krosp’s newly-acquired army of Swartzwalders.
• Smug Snake: (Самоуверенный мерзавчик) Constantly reaffirms its superiority and talks down to Agatha and her allies, even as the battle turns more and more against it.
• Taking You with Me: (Взять в ад компанию) Threatens this when it gets desperate claiming it will blow everyone up while pinning them in place, but Brother Ulm and Konig manage to grab its power core anyway.
• Those Two Guys: (Те два парня) After it is rendered unto a super-dingbot and is joined by the Castle super-dingbot, the two become this.
• Villainous Glutton: Is called a glutton in-story, and it itself describes its gobbling up of resources as someone ravenous would his dinner.

Brother Marcus

A brother in the order who joins Vipsania and Franz on their journey to the Dragon Hoard of Hydrargyros the Godburner, providing a reference book on dragons and assistance transporting the loot in exchange for the dragon’s flame-enhancer and any other dangerous Sparky creations.

• Bearer of Bad News: Reveals Franz is the Last of His Kind, or just about.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: (Квадратный подбородок справедливости) A prominent square jaw.
• Only Sane Man: (Единственный нормальный человек) Frequently acts as a calming influence on the group and keeps them focused on the task at hand.

Assorted

Ссылка: [17]

Othar Tryggvassen

A man possessed with a quest to eradicate all Sparks, including himself (eventually), for the damage they do to the world. Harder to kill than James Bond.

• All-Powerful Bystander: (Всемогущий наблюдатель) According to the Twitter, Othar is a deist who belives that God is the Ultimate Spark.
• Ambiguously Bi: His sister thinks so, anyway, and Othar noticeably changes the subject rather than deny it. Bi if she’s right (since he married a Geisterdame in the Twitter).
• Amusing Injuries: (Насилие безобидно) No matter what happens to him, Othar bounces back almost immediately.
• Anti-Hero: (Антигерой)
  • Othar Tryggvassen is a bizarre character; he has the external looks and speech of The Cape, while his goals and actions better fit the '90s Anti-Hero. By all accounts he does have some genuine heroism under his belt, though this is a big counterbalanced by his life goal of killing all Sparks. So he often fights both genuine villains and random people minding their own business.
  • To illustrate: once in his Twitter blog, the father of one of his Sparky enemies pleaded that no parent should see their kid die. Othar agreed, so he killed the dad first. „Call me Herr Sensitive.“
• Anti-Villain: (Антизлодей) Feels bad about killing Sparks, and a lot of them do need to die…
• Bad Boss: (Злой начальник) He has no qualms about conscripting his 'sidekicks'; though in his mind they want to join, he completely ignores anything they say about not wanting to be a hero, or not wanting to help him, or wanting to kill him. Their careers tend to be so short, he ominously expresses hopes that a particularly promising individual might last six months.note
• Beware the Nice Ones: (Добро с кулаками) Othar is generally friendly and cheerful off-the-job, and fair on it. Don’t make him kick your ass. He can.
• Beware the Silly Ones: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) As much as he is a walking joke, Othar can be very, very effective in a This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.Crazy Is Cool way. Note that Castle Heterodyne rather likes the guy because they both approach this trope from different directions.
• Black-and-White Insanity: (Чёрно-белое безумие) The concept of „moral ambiguity“ seems entirely lost on Othar. In his mind, all Sparks are irredeemably evil folks who must ultimately die in order to bring peace to the world, even the ones that are moderately harmless or even helpful to his crusade.
• Bold Inflation: Fans This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.never, ever say his name without adding GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER! And not just fans.
• Boomerang Bigot: (Смердяков) Hates Sparks and wants to rid the world of them all, despite being a Spark himself. He fully intends to kill himself when all the other Sparks are dead.
• Braggart Boss: Despite the hazards to life and limb, one has to imagine Othar’s sidekicks are most likely to get talked to death.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: (Профи с причудами) Even by the standards of Sparks. Which is saying quite a bit. On the other hand, as Sparky plans go, „Kill all the other Sparks one by one and then myself“ is actually pretty logical and well-considered, and even other some Sparks admit the notion is a pretty well thought out plan for a valid experiment.
• Butt-Monkey: (Мальчик для битья) FOUL!!!
• Cartwright Curse: He has had a couple love interests in his Twitter adventures, but in both cases, said relationship gets Ret-Gone via Time Travel and Alternate Universe incidents.
• Character Blog: He has a Twitter. May or may not be canon but is certainly extremely quotable. (His reappearance in the August 2021 strip ties directly to the continuation of the Twitter feed from October 2020, so that part is probably canon.)
• Chaste Hero: (Целомудренный герой) Aside from his marriage to a Geister in the alternate timeline, according to the novels he actually is completely resolute in his desire to avoid dallying with his female sidekicks. This ends up being rather disappointing for most of them, since the romance was the whole point of even joining up in the first place.
  • While this is because he is a gentleman first and foremost, there’s also the question of what happens if he accidentally produced a child. Since he’s a spark, he may have sparky children which he would have to kill by his own logic. Even if they weren’t sparky, no one knows how the spark gene works by Othar’s own admission. It may skip generations in his family (Tarvek’s, Albia’s, and Voltaire’s families for example do skip generations, while it never seemed to skip any of the Heterodynes, and his sister Sanaa doesn’t have the spark either). It’s no wonder that he refuses to have a relationship with his assistants.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: (Синдром хронического героизма) One of the things that prevents him from being just an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain; he is a genuinely good person, at least to ordinary people. Sometimes ends up saving the very people he wants to kill, but don’t count on this.

«	Цитаты, цитаты... Кому нужны эти цитаты?	»

• Comically Invincible Hero: The others are fully aware that he’s probably unkillable. Gil even takes the opportunity to exploit it.
• Destination Defenestration: (Дефенестрация) Happens to him repeatedly while on Castle Wulfenbach. It never sticks.

«	Othar: FOUL!	»

• Ditzy Genius: (Чудаковатый гений) It’s sometimes hard to remember, through all the Testosterone Poisoning, that he’s a genuine Spark, and has the intelligence to go along with it. He’s able to help Agatha find an obscure part needed to repair something (though the fact that he forgot its name meant he had to tear it out of a clank himself to find it) and his moments of lucidity show he can be crafty and tactical when he recognizes Serious Business.
• Even the Guys Want Him: (Его хотят даже парни) He has plenty of admirers of all genders. Especially when he’s not wearing his trademark sweater.
• Fantastic Fighting Style: „Othar Tryggvassen’s Twitter“ establishes that Othar is a Genserhersker of the school of Norwegian Sweater Fighting. The only thing that prevents this from being I Know Kung-Faux is that Othar is consistently shown to be one of the most lethal hand-to-hand combatants in the setting.
• Freudian Excuse: (Тяжёлое детство) As the novels explain, Othar’s hometown was often ravaged by the mad inventions of the local Spark lords, which goes some way to explaining his attitude toward them. Furthermore, the insanity of the spark and the type of events that follow sparks like the plague hasn’t helped him. Then he started to go on his adventures and was proclaimed a hero all the while he was picking up assistants who couldn’t keep up and started dying on him.note Eventually he picked up a homeless Geister that had been abandoned by her sisterhood in the sewers of Paris. It’s implied that he was in love with all of his assistants and he took this one to be his wife. They retired to an island for decades and he left only after she passed away from natural causes. He found Europa had burned to ashes and everyone and everything was dead. All he found was an aged Tarvek who tried to explain what happened. However, when Tarvek tried to send him back in time, Othar attacked him in a paranoid rage, Tarvek managed to send him back, but he wasn’t able to provide Othar any details. Othar knows that all of Europa is doomed without his help, but he hasn’t seen the post-epilogue stories that show that Agatha will beat the Other. For all he knows, everything he is doing is in vain. All he does know is that sparks will cause the Bad Future, but he has no information as to why or how, so he kills all sparks he comes across on the chance that they have something to do with causing Europa’s destruction either by helping to directly cause it or by being a distraction or Spanner in the Works hurting the good guys. The problem is that he’s so insane that he can’t sort out who is working with or helping the Other directly or indirectly, so he comes to blows with „villains“ like the Wulfenbachs who, in fact, are more on the heroic side of the equation.
• Genius Bruiser: (Гениальный силач) He’s both incredibly tough and a Spark, as pointed out here.
• Genre Savvy / Wrong Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка/Жанровая ошибка) +90 % the first. The rest of the time, he’s brain-locked by his one glaring flaw; he’s incapable of understanding that he’s often the Hero of Another Story.
• Gentleman Adventurer!: The Trope Namer— and an unusual example given that he’s an Anti-Villain antagonist.
• Gotta Kill Them All: His solution to the Sparks is to kill them all, individually.
• Hand Wave: (Обоснуй) Played for Laughs when Vole seemingly shatters his spine with a diving kick. Othar springs right back up and decks Vole, to the astonishment of Tarvek. Othar then remarks that he is wearing „Special trousers. Very heroic.“
• Hero Antagonist: (Героический антагонист) Played with. Othar is here on the „Assorted“ page because he’s often pitted against the protagonists, but he really is a hero to the common folk: rescuing innocents, vanquishing monsters, and— in short, hero work. Unfortunately, most of Agatha’s social circle are on his hit list, so there’s obviously a certain amount of Enemy Mine when they do happen to be working together.
• Heroic Build: (Шесть кубиков) He wouldn’t be a Hero without it!
• Hero of Another Story: (Герой другой истории) Invoked. You can follow his heroic story on Twitter! One of his most glaring flaws is that he is not only unaware of this trope, but completely unwilling to accept its possibility.
• Hero with Bad Publicity / Villain with Good Publicity: (Герой с плохой репутацией/Злодей с хорошей репутацией) He’s managed to become both. The latter case: the common folk love him for his „crusade“ against Sparks. Othar is motivated to clean up the „Sparky menace“ to protect the non-Sparks. However, the common folk are unaware of his being a mass-Spark-murdering maniac who sees no difference between Sparks that are genuinely dangerous to the populace and those that are just living their lives. For the former:

«	What a double edged sword a reputation is. Save thousands, thwart evil, bring peace… kill one corrupt quester and it’s all out the window. Now I’m just «The Guy Who Killed A Quester.» It demonizes me, and ignores all of my finer points. Bit of a resume stain, to be honest. Sigh. Questers are usually pillars of honesty. Therefore it’s understandable that people are skeptical when you badmouth one. My rep vs. theirs.	»

• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • This is actually what makes him insane. Othar is unable to comprehend that Klaus isn’t the villain. Even back in the day, Klaus sometimes thought the Heterodyne boys were too forgiving, but was never the Token Evil Teammate. Klaus may be a tyrant, but his rule is much freer and safer than the anarchy that came before it.
  • Othar also can’t process that Gil is the Token Good Teammate of Agatha’s team with Tarvek being the Token Evil Teammate and Agatha being the pragmatic one. He has their roles backwards in his head.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: (Крысиный волк) He’s a Spark hellbent on the eradication of all Sparks, himself included. Although his particular focus seems to be more in sabotaging the devices of others rather than building any of his own; people often forget he’s a Spark.
• Idiot Hero: Othar is utterly fearless (not to mention foolish) in times of peril.

«	Like all prisoners in the castle, I’m outfitted with an exploding collar. Ha! The fools, my head is the least dangerous part of my body.	»

• Implacable Man: (Неумолимый преследователь) Nothing seems to stop Othar… not for long, anyway.

«	Agatha: I went to all that trouble to rescue him. And you’ve killed him! Gil: I wish. I’ve seen him survive worse.	»

• In Spite of a Nail: According to his Twitter account, a Spark’s experiment with time travel and alternate realities has revealed that every Othar has some kind of predisposition to deciding to wipe out Sparks. He briefly wonders if there’s something about the Othars that causes them to simply have suicidal craziness before dismissing the idea.
• Indy Ploy: Planning is for schemers! Schemers and dastards!
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Othar apparently has „special trousers“ (very heroic) that allows him to No-Sell having an irate Jäger landing on him and breaking his back. No, we have no idea what that means either.
• Jerkass Has a Point: (Козёл был прав)
  • This is not to say that Othar isn’t dangerously insane and regularly murderous. He is. He really, really is. It’s just that most of the people he’s killed either have attacked him or otherwise been an asshole in his presence; Sparks in particular, especially as he boasts of all the Sparks he’s killed. Doesn’t change the fact that he tried to summarily execute Agatha the instant he learned she was a Spark.
  • Squibs, a much put upon minion in the side story 'Small Problems', sums it up best:

«	Squibs: Let me see if I understand this. He thinks that all the problems in Europa are caused by the mad scientists who build all the monsters. The mad scientists who vie with each other to see who can be the first to turn the population into wombat bats or clam people or stylish furniture. The raving lunatics who set off life-size chocolate volcanoes and unleash flash floods of porridge upon innocent villages. Othar wants to destroy these people, and you think he’s insane?!	»

• And Klaus secretly acknowledges that Othar has a point, and that the only difference between their „Peace Through Violence“ approaches is that Klaus gives his enemies a chance to avoid execution by not being murderous jerks. When Othar first got started, Klaus got into the habit of subtly directing Othar in the direction of dangerous Sparks who hadn’t technically violated the Peace. He only dragged Othar onto Castle Wulfenbach for a little Doc Savage-esque brain surgery because the idiot started killing Sparks that were doing their best not to threaten the Peace.
• Also there’s the slight problem of Othar being a Spark exactly like all his foes, meaning his chosen means and methods of achieving his goals are the most complicated and destructive available to him at any given time. For example, to cover his and Agatha’s escape from Castle Wulfenbach, he turned loose and/or turned on every experiment he could find. And Agatha just got finished destroying a Hive Engine. If Wulfenbach had been any less awesome, that touch of genius could likely have wiped out all of Europa before sunset.
• As of the Mechanicsburg Arc, he does at least seem to be of the opinion that while all Sparks need to die, there are some that need to die sooner than others. As Agatha seems to be following the legacy of her heroic father and uncle, Othar seems to be willing to bump her and her friends to the back of the queue for now.
• His Twitter feed sheds some light on this. If taken as canon, Othar is capable of giving up his obsessive quest. He fell in love with a Geister and retired to an island with her for decades. When she died, he left the island behind to find all of Europa dead. Very little plants, animals, or people remained. All he found was Tarvek who sent him back in time to stop it. While Othar is still insane and didn’t trust Tarvek, him doing nothing for decades led to that future, and that certainly ampified his insanity and caused him to double and triple down on his obsessive quest to kill all sparks.
• Also, ironically, according to the novels, not only is Othar’s plan to kill all other Sparks and then himself a relatively thought-out plan by Spark standards, many Sparks are conflicted about this plan (or at least admit he has a point in his own tiresome way), as his hypothesis is compelling, his methodology seems sound, and many argue that it would be a valid experiment.

• Large Ham: (Переигрывание) Most Sparks chew scenery when in The Madness Place— Othar does it all the time.

«	Othar: So— all the vipers are in residence! Gilgamesh: I can’t believe you still talk like that.	»

• Large Ham Title: GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!
• Long Lost Sibling: Sanaa Wilhelm, aka Sanaa Tryggvassen.
• Lord Error-Prone: When it comes to the actual adventuring he does a good job, but he frequently grabs the wrong end of the stick and seems somewhat dim (or at least scatterbrained) for a spark— at least compared to the main characters and most of the actually threatening villains. Given some of the stuff we’ve seen minor antagonists get up to, though, Othar seems practically stable for a Spark.
• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть?) and how.
• Mental Time Travel: Possibly from the twitter into regular continuity.
• Mistaken Kidnapper: Under duress from Baron Wulfenbach, Othar enters Mechanicsburg to „rescue“ the Baron’s son Gil (who is there of his own volition, but his father believes — not entirely inaccurately — that he’s in danger there and is determined to protect him, whether he likes it or not). While there, Othar meets up with his sister Sanaa, who cajoles him into recruiting her as his „plucky girl sidekick“ and joining him in his mission. Unfortunately Sanaa doesn’t actually know what Gil looks like, and ends up throwing a sack over the wrong person, a fact that her brother doesn’t discover until he returns to Castle Wulfenbach and proudly proclaims that he’s got his man.

«	Othar: Allow me to present: Gilgamesh Wulfenbach — *removes the sack, sees it’s actually Tarvek Sturmvarous* — MASTER OF DISGUISE!	»

• Moral Myopia: (Готтентотская мораль)
  • The typical Spark acts like a stereotypical Mad Scientist and Othar acts like a stereotypical adventure hero, but there’s little practical difference between the two breeds of Madboy. Othar has groveling minions with a high mortality rate, only he calls them „spunky girl sidekicks“. He does dangerous things that put others at risk, only they’re usually acts of sabatoge instead of inventions. Lastly, he has a mad hypothesis that he thinks will change the world, and that hypothesis is „no more Sparks = world peace“. Interestingly, a footnote in the second novel mentions that many Sparks actually see Othar’s quest as a sort of experiment.
  • This goes both ways; Othar being much like the typical Spark also makes the protagonist Sparks much like Othar. That they’re not so different is pointed out by Violetta on one occasion:

«	Tarvek: I… keep forgetting he’s a Spark. Violetta: Really. So you’ve completely missed the fact that he’s overbearing, self-aggrandizing and certain death to be around?	»

• Othar was suitably impressed by Tarvek’s evolving morals, but he „corrects“ Tarvek on the idea that the female Sparks being killed is a downside. They were Sparks, thus they had to die. It didn’t matter that many had just broken through and, thus, were innocent.

• Mundane Utility: (Непрактичные суперспособности) According to the Twitter account, Othar once had to revivify his Uncle Vladikix.

«	Othar: He was the only one who knew the old family recipe for Lingonberry Snap.	»

• No Place for Me There: Success in his lifelong dream — destroying every Mad Scientist for the sake of ordinary humanity — would, of course, require one last Heroic Suicide.
• Norse by Norsewest: He’s from Norway. And his name is just a couple letters removed from a famous Norwegian king’s name.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: (Прикинуться шлангом)
  • He acts like such an idiot all the time that people forget he’s one of the most unstoppable people in Europa. He does have his moments of clarity, though, where the act seems to come down, usually when something genuinely surprises him— such as when he meets Sanaa. Also, he’s apparently a fantastic orator. See for yourself.
  • In the novels, when Klaus conscripts Othar into entering Castle Heterodyne to retrieve Gil, the Baron notices that he completely drops his usual bombastic bravado when it’s explained that Agatha is likely being controlled by the Other. This unnerves him greatly, as it suggests that Othar has been treating his encounters and captures by the Empire as nothing but a game. It’s because he does. Othar has seen a future where he simply stopped interacting with the world’s politics, and that indirectly led to the death of all of Europa and victory for the Other. Any viable threat of the Other brought to his attention drives him sane because him doing something to stop the Other directly is the only thing he can do that matters.
• Offscreen Teleportation: (Закадровая телепортация)
  • Dropping him out of sight, by whatever means, never seems to stick. At least twice, he manages to get back up onto Castle Wulfenbach by unknown means after being thrown off and then survives being pushed over the side of a much smaller airship.
  • And when Castle Heterodyne is introduced to him, its immediate response is to drop him into a bottomless pit. So far as it is concerned, surviving this is one of a Hero’s Required Secondary Powers, so it feels totally justified in pulling this stunt. And sure enough, Othar immediately reappears unscathed.
  • This is something he’s apparently so well known for in-world that when he ends up being defenestrated while handcuffed to someone else, Gil used the opportunity For Science, demanding Tarvek figure out the trick on the assumption that Othar would magic himself to safety per usual. On the plus side, he did manage to get himself out of the handcuffs… while busy fighting Vole… without the person he was handcuffed to finding out how. Even more amusing and impressive in retrospect, since it turns out the guy he got himself un-handcuffed from is no slouch in a fight and very good at misdirection.
  • He also manages to find his way into Gil’s super secret lab, a place nobody else in-story (including Klaus) seemed to be aware of, simply because he is a hero and finding secret villain lairs is what heroes are good at.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: (ООС — это серьёзно) Othar may live and breathe his delusion that Klaus is a villain, but even he listens when Klaus asks for his help to deal with the Other. The fact that he stops acting like an idiot when the Other is brought up only further cements just how seriously Othar sees the Other as a threat.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He’s plenty effective, provided he isn’t going up against uber badasses like Gil, Klaus, or Agatha.
• Parody Sue: Othar is a world-renowned adventure hero who is virtually impossible to kill and who has the self-aggrandizing personality to match. People who hear stories of him love the guy, but just about anyone who actually met him finds him terribly annoying. The twist is that Othar sees the world through the lens of Black-and-White Insanity, leading him to be a rather Horrible Judge of Character in regards to our actual heroes and to morality in general.
• Plot Armor: (Сюжетная броня) An In-Universe version, apparently. The man simply cannot be killed. Many, many people have tried. But since he’s the Hero of Another Story, he’s effectively immortal.
• Point of Divergence: Despite his vigor, Othar is actually pretty old. According to his Twitter, it turns out that he retired to an island for a few decades to live with his Geister wife, Oslaka, that he saved from the sewers in Paris. When she died, he left the island to find all of Europa in ruins and not a single person in sight (not even any bodies). His consciousness was sent back to inhabit the body of his past self right before he saved Oslaka by an aged Tarvek to save the past somehow, so his presence will determine the course of the story.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: (Готтентотская мораль) The codifier of what this looks like FROM THE OUTSIDE.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) Though technically he was in Mechanicsburg when the Take Five bomb went off, his previous track record of inexplicable self-extrication strongly suggests he’s not on that particular bus. As it turns out, he was frozen in the Take Five bomb time stop, but he was the the first to be successfully extracted without undergoing Rapid Aging.
• Reality Warper: (Изменение реальности) Gil has a theory that all his more unlikely abilities, from surviving defenestration from an airship to being fluent in the secret language of an all-female monster race, are due to being „so annoying, reality tries to avoid him“. It’s not. He was married to a Geister in another timeline, explaining how he knows their language, and his mind was sent back in time to inhabit the body of his younger self. Interestingly enough, this caused him to miss meeting his wife in the new timeline. Instead he meets Eotain fresh off her betrayal by the Queen of the Dawn, allowing him to recruit a small Geister army.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: The effects of the Spark on him are a lot more apparent in the Twitter than in the comic.
• Shirtless Scene: (Рубашка не нужна) When first encountered, he is only wearing trousers. When he turns up again, however, he seems to stick to sweaters. After being broken out of a time stop, he is left shirtless until Gil insists that he wears something, much to the disappointment of the women and one male fan.
• Sunglasses at Night: (Крутые тёмные очки) Or whatever that visor thingy is. There’s a fan theory that it’s there to protect bystanders from the power of his amazingly pretty blue eyes; another theory (given his white hair, pale skin, and extremely light eyes) is that he’s an albino and needs it to protect his eyes from the light.
• Testosterone Poisoning: (GAR) Big, manly, aggressive, and has a tendency to barrel towards danger, just because.
• This Is Gonna Suck: (Осознание катастрофы) When the Baron tells him that he has a job for him instead of just killing Othar on the spot, Othar notes that he thinks that he’d prefer to be killed instead, even before he knows what the job is, prompting Klaus to note that he might actually be smart.
• Tragic Hero: A heroic goal, ruined by his lack of self awareness and obsession.
• Uncertain Doom: In the future, he is considered to be „lost“. Though, given he has been known to „retire“ to an isolated island with his Geister wife, he’s probably fine.
• Unexplained Recovery: Constantly. The only explanation we’ve ever gotten is „Special trousers. Very heroic.“
• Unreliable Narrator / Through the Eyes of Madness: (Ненадёжный рассказчик/Глазами сумасшедшего) His Twitter is considered canonical, but it’s from his point of view and he’s insane.

«	«That letter is a fraud! Othar Tryggvassen may do things that lesser men find objectionable or slightly illegal, but I never apologize!»	»

• Well-Intentioned Extremist: (Благонамеренный экстремист) Killing all Sparks one by one, ending with himself, might not be the best of ideas, but it’s not exactly the worst one either.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: (Какие красивые глаза!) So beautiful that they make his normally imposing self look pretty girly.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: (Жанровая ошибка) He seems to firmly believe himself to be the dashing hero of a science fiction romance. He’s right, but he never realizes that he’s also the Hero of Another Story, let alone that Agatha is a fellow hero and not a potential sidekick. Thus, he’s developed similarly delusional views of the main characters: Agatha is currently going through an independent phase (how cute!) of sidekick-dom, Tarvek is the handsome villain she’s redeeming by The Power of Love, and Gil is the schemer who is behind it all. Though he miiight be coming around to the idea that Agatha is the kind of girl who wants This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.multiple boyfriends.

Dreen

A species of other-dimensional beings with a tangential relationship to time.

• Admiring the Abomination: Upon gazing at the Eldritch Abomination invading Mechanicsburg, they express awe and admiration.
• Blood Knight: (Рыцарь крови) They are described by another extradimensional being as „murder hoboes“ and essentially like big game hunters for monsters. In fact, it seems that Klaus drawing in a monster with the time stoppage is the reason they helped him create his empire.
• Destructive Saviour: (Спаситель-разрушитель) They are capable of taking down some of the biggest baddest extradimensional horrors around, but don’t count on your city remaining intact after their epic battle.
• The Dreaded: (Грозная репутация) Everyone who knows about the Dreen is scared shitless of them due to their powers over time and know that whenever one shows up, something very bad is about to happen. Even other beings from outside of time are afraid of them! Agatha using Lady Heterodyne’s Star’s ability on them has their true appearance and character revealed, showing that they’re apparently extra-dimensional non-linear beings that are basically Jagers in all but name, with all the reputation and fighting skills possessed by Agatha’s minions being applied across inter-dimensional beings. Small wonder nobody wants to tangle with that combination.
• Egomaniac Hunter: (Злой охотник) Their apparent occupation, as supposedly their entire reason for being in Europa this whole time was to hunt and kill the gargantuan monster attracted by the timestop caused by Klaus in Mechanicsburg.
• Ghostly Glide: They seem to have no feet, and get about by hovering. Turns out their true forms do, but apparently due to the influence of the „lower dimension“ Agatha’s world exists in, their appearance becomes modified into their garbed and robed appearance until Agatha uses a time-stopping artifice on them, which causes them to be more „in synch“ with the dimension whilst under it’s effects.
• Glamour: This is part of the reason that makes them so dangerous. Normally the Dreen look like cloaked figures with long sharp fingers that they use to stab things. In reality, their true form is revealed via certain types of time stop abilities. Their fingers aren’t nearly as long or sharp than the glamours shows. It is more likely that they use some type of blade to stab or phase through targets to deal internal damage. They also have guns that shoot some kind of giant lightning or temporal effect (it’s unclear what the burst of blue light actually is).They have to lift, aim, and pull a trigger to fire their guns like anyone else, but the glamour just shows the Dreen holding their hands limply in front of them as they always do; the beam just seems to burst from their entire body. In other words, their opponents can’t actually see their most powerful attacks or even their weapons, making countering, dodging, or blocking the attack incredibly difficult.
• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость) Bang is scared of Dreen. Slaver Wasps are scared of Dreen. The Jaegers are scared of Dreen. Castle Heterodyne is scared of the Dreen. Extradimensional beings unbound by time itself are scared by Dreen. Everyone is scared of Dreen. The Dreen are basically Jaegers existing outside the realm of time and space, with all the love of combat and ultra-violence of Agatha’s minions applied to inter-dimensional beings whose forms cannot be understood unless sufficient high-tier Spark technology is applied, which is a combination that spells bad news for anybody facing them.
• Human Aliens: (Люди с другой планеты) The „horrific“ appearance is only one of their forms. When Agatha uses Prende’s lantern on them, it reveals blue skinned humanlike forms with slightly disproportionate builds.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: (Охота на людей) Implied by one of the Dreen who indicate that they will one day hunt Agatha or something or someone close to her after the „monster“ is given enough time to mature.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Agatha threatens that their „epic battle“ will not happen if there’s the slightest chance that it will level Mechanicsburg, the Dreen quickly agree to hunt their quarry the „stupid boring way“.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Martellus attempts to flatten one of the Dreen with his battle clank. It shrugs it off and casually dismantles the battle clank while resuming pursuit of Agatha.
• Non-Linear Character: As they are from outside of regular time and space. From an inside perspective it makes them look omniscient, but they aren’t. When they say something to someone, it will happen, because they’ve seen it happen.
  • One of the Dreen in St. Szpac’s vaults tells Gil that he will travel to Paris. While he goes to England instead, Albia sends him to Paris for his return trip, much to his own disbelief.
  • When Klaus finally returned to Europa from wherever it was that Lucrezia sent him, he found two Dreen awaiting his arrival. They offered to assist him in his conquest of Europa and the establishment of his empire, apparently to repay him for something he would do in the future. It turns out this was Klaus activating the time bubble around Mechanicsburg, which created a time anomaly big enough to attract the attention of the Dreen’s „quarry“ to the area, giving them the opportunity to hunt it. In other words, they helped found Klaus' empire solely so he would eventually put himself in a position which would greatly destabilise it in the name of protecting it and himself from Agatha/Lucrezia’s control.
  • Upon first meeting Agatha during the siege of Mechanicsburg, a Dreen tells her that „[she] will come with [them]“. While originally this sounded like a demand for surrender, the revelation that Dreen exist outside of linear time means that eventually she will go with them.
  • The Dreen can both see decades in the future and several minutes or seconds in the future, predicting many different possible outcomes. They also carry guns and swords that Three Dimensional beings can’t perceive without incredibly rare time bending technology. This is part of the reason they are so deadly. They can presumably see what someone or something is going to do in a fight before the enemy even thinks of the idea and then shoot and stab them with weapons that the enemy doesn’t even know exist.
• No-Sell: (Никакого эффекта) For an as of yet unexplained reason, they are immune to the Time Stands Still effect of Prende’s Lantern/Lady Heterodyne’s Star. Being inter-dimensional beings that don’t fully conform to the rules of Agatha’s world on their own, the time-stopping ability from the artefact merely brings them more in synch with Agatha’s world, allowing their true forms to be perceived.
• Not So Above It All: From their first appearance up until 2024, they appeared to be weird and spooky even by the setting’s high standards for weird and spooky, unsettling everyone around them. It turns out when on their own, Dreen are just as nuts as everyone else, bickering over shortbread.
• „Not So Different“ Remark: More like, response. When finally conversing with them and understanding that the Dreen want Agatha’s help to hunt the inter-dimensional being attracted to the Time Bubble, Agatha responds incredulously to their odds, with their response all but confirming they’re extra-dimensional equivalents of Jaegers.

«	Agatha: What? I heard it was huge! You’re planning to kill it? Just the three of you? Dreen 1: Heh Heh. Dreen 2: Ho Ho. Dreen 3: Hee Hee. All Dreen: Yes.	»

• Seers: (Прорицатель) Their relationship with time allows them to predict and plan out possible futures based on their actions.
• Sign of the End Times: Apparently they only show up when things are really bad, time-wise. This is because whatever is causing it has caught their attention to hunt it.
  • That being said, it’s actually a good sign when there’s only 3 of them. Apparently they sometimes hunt in packs of up to 40. Given how deadly just 2 of these guys are, whatever requires 40 dreen to kill should probably be avoided by a few hundred miles and as many decades to boot.

Ferretina

The main antagonist of the „Revenge of the Weasel Queen“ side story.

• The Beastmaster: (Сила природы??) She created and leads an army of giant bunny rabbits called lapinemoths.
• Benevolent Boss: (Добрый начальник) Agatha assumed she controlled her lapinemoths with fear and mind control. Unfortunately for her, Ferretina controlled her army with good dental coverage.
• Beware the Silly Ones: (Крутой в дурацком колпаке) She may be one of Agatha’s more comical enemies but she is one of the few who have come close to killing her and her friends.
• Cleavage Window: (Вырез на груди) Her top barely covers her, yet it still has a hole in to expose more cleavage.
• Freudian Excuse: (Тяжёлое детство) Her Spark father turned her into a weasel hybrid and she was chased away from her home village for her freakish appearance.
• Go Mad from the Isolation/I Just Want to Have Friends: (Я просто хочу иметь друзей) She was driven away from her home village due to her appearance and the lack of human companionship caused her more evil, animalistic side to emerge. However, she longed for someone to see her as a person and not a monster. Unfortunately, Othar was not that person, but luckily Agatha’s fashion clank was.
• Half-Human Hybrid: (Полукровки) Her father’s experiments turned into a human-weasel hybrid.
• Heel-Face Turn: (Переход на Светлую сторону) After Agatha’s fashion clank praises her clothing, she quits being a villain and the two of them run off to Paris to start a fashion shop. Later, during Agatha’s trip to Paris, we see that they’ve done pretty well for themselves. (See second panel)
• Hidden Depths: (Скрытые глубины) While she’s probably not a Spark, she’s knows enough about science to create an army of killer rabbit constructs. She’s also a skilled and talented fashion designer.
• I’m a Humanitarian: (Каннибализм) She regularly kidnapped tall, lusty young men… because they tasted better when they were grilled with cheese.
• Karma Houdini: (Как с гуся вода) Suffers no consequences for killing and eating villagers and she gets to open a successful fashion shop in Paris. See the background of the second panel of this comic
• Obviously Evil: She first appeared claiming to be a victim of the Weasel Queen. Our usually Genre Savvy heroes don’t suspect that the bestial woman wearing bones and fur who gets irritated at any criticism directed at Ferretina might not be trustworthy. In their defense, they do tend to meet a lot of strangely dressed people.
• Stripperiffic: (Одевается в секс-шопе) Her outfit is very skimpy, especially her top that leaves her Underboobs exposed and still has a Cleavage Window.
• Unkempt Beauty: (Неухоженная красотка) A wild, half-animal woman who’s half dressed in furs and rags. Subverted in that it’s revealed she actually does put a lot of effort into her appearance.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: (Влюблённый злодей) She fell in love with Othar after he defeated one of her giant rabbits. However, after she bared her soul to him, hoping to win his heart, he assumed she was a vile seductress plotting to kill him which lead to her angrily deciding to put him in an elaborate death trap.

The Circus

A traveling Heterodyne Show that takes Agatha in for a while after she saves them from a wandering monster-clank. Zeetha was originally one of them, but decided her place was with her student when the rest of the Circus was Put on a Bus.

• Arm Cannon: (Наручная пушка) Ollie has a prosthetic hand that either can transform into a hand cannon or he has a separate hand cannon prosthetic. He is never seen with it in any stage but mechanical hand or weapon so it is unknown if it is two devices or one but it looks like he just removes the hand portion to access the cannon.
• Ascended Extra: (Выход на первый план) Many of the circus are more fleshed out in the novelization, particularly Professor Moonsock, the troupe’s animal trainer and de facto medic.
• The Beastmaster: (Сила природы??) Professor Moonsock, who tames animals for the show’s acts, and occasionally for defense (though the others are less receptive to those attempts).
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: (Мазохистское танго/Три дня я гналась за Вами…) Abner and Pix start out this way, then get together soon after Agatha joins the circus.
• Blatant Lies: (Наглая ложь) According to the novels, Yeti insists he’s from some long-hidden civilization. No-one else believes him, on account of the fact his accent is suspiciously like that of someone from the Chinese portion of Istanbul…
• Blessed with Suck: (Вредный дар) The circus is composed mostly of sparks who lost the Superpower Lottery, their abilities held back by a lack of education or being so weak that they are barely considered sparks — but they’re still recognisably 'sparky' enough to be hated and feared by the general populace, while nowhere near powerful enough to protect themselves from angry mobs, Baron Wulfenbach or anyone else who might have a use for them.
• Blue Blood: (Аристократ) Marie is apparently distantly related to the Queen of England, and is often referred to as „the Countess.“
• Circus of Fear: (Цирк ужасов) Not usually; they’re decent people. But after SHOWTIME!, things get… interesting.
• Flying Dutchman: Embi, of the Wandering Jew variety. Assuming he wasn’t sending Agatha out for a crate of balloon juice about that.
• Foreshadowing: (Предзнаменование) Apparently the von Mekkahns' general appearance is well known as a Vanamonde look alike appears early in one of the Heterodyne shows. It’s possible Carson had the blond hair, black eyebrows that his grandson currently has in the past and the Circus picked up on that trait.
• Frying Pan of Doom: (Сковородка под рукой) Marie again.
• Handicapped Badass: (Крутой инвалид) Trish Belloptrix is a spark who walks with the aid of a crutch and is confirmed in the novelization to be missing most of her left leg. That crutch transforms into a large gun to take out the monsters and clanks that threaten the circus in the wastelands.
• Happily Married: (Счастливо женаты) Master Payne and Marie, with a little bit of Vitriolic Best Buds mixed in.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: (Спрятано на виду) A lot about the circus. Especially how they’re mostly Sparks.
• I Owe You My Life: No one is happy at being forced to turn away Agatha when she reveals she’s on the run from Klaus Wulfenbach, but they gladly fake her death and deceive a grieving Gil after she returns to save them from a wild clank anyway. They then take her in, no questions asked, and agree to escort her to Mechanicsburg, even after learning she’s a Spark herself. When they finally learn she’s a Heterodyne, they steal a Wulfenbach ship and rescue her from Klaus himself.
• Inksuit Actor: Master Payne is based on a Northwest stage magician of the same name who is a friend of the Foglios.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: While most weapons in Girl Genius are death rays or other creations of mad science one of the circus members, who looks to be the young Spanish woman who acts as their Thundering Engine Woman impersonator, prefers a revolver even though she herself is a Spark.
• Knife-Throwing Act: Dame Edith has a knife throwing act, unfortunately she has at least once turned her knives on the audience when she asked if anyone was a vampire and someone raised his hand, understandably thinking she was joking.
• Little People Are Surreal: Embi notes that most of his appeal to the audiences the circus pulls in is that he is short.
• Lovable Coward: (Милый трусишка) The whole circus is this. They play heroes on stage, but they don’t do any actual heroics — traveling the Wastelands is dangerous enough without it.
• Madame Fortune: Madame Olga, the circus' resident fortune teller.
• The Masquerade: (Маскарад) Many of them are minor Sparks, hiding from the Baron and from potential Burn the Witch! situations.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: (Устрашающее имечко) Master Payne, though he’s a pleasant enough fellow most of the time.
• Necessarily Evil: Master Payne.
• Number Two: Abner’s overall role seems to be Master Payne’s right-hand man, offering suggestions and feedback while planning their next course of action.
• Older Than They Look: (Старше, чем выглядит) Embi, who is apparently well over a hundred years old.
• Performance Anxiety: According to the novelization Yeti has stage fright if he ever tries to appear on stage, but in one very special performance in Sturmhalten he successfully acts as Punch.
• Phony Psychic: (Великий Гудвин) Madame Olga is a fortune teller traveling with the circus; after she is killed, Agatha takes over her act using the same name.
• Pie in the Face: (Пирог в лицо) Shockingly, this is plot-relevant! Taki the chef believes there is no problem in life that cannot be solved by application of pie to the face, whether it’s a dud act, a panic attack, or a full-blown Sparkish rage. It actually helps with that last one.
• Pillow Pistol: When Master Payne and Marie are woken by a Sturmhalten soldier banging on their carriage door he slides a gun out from under his pillow to take with him to answer the door.
• Purpose-Driven Immortality: Embi credits his long life to the fact he made a sacred vow to see the world before he died, but didn’t know just how big it was. Of course, that could just be a story he’s trying out.
• Put on a Bus: (Вывод за скобки) To England, specifically.
  • The Bus Came Back: (Вернуться из-за скобок) They’ve finally showed up again at Albia’s party in 2020, years after they were last seen.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: (Разношёрстная команда) A lovable kind.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Master Payne is often forced to make difficult decisions for the sake of keeping his people safe, but he never abuses his authority and always lets Agatha speak her piece before pointing out why he can’t do as she wants, however much he would like to.
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Many of them are minor Sparks. Very few of them are any good at it.
• Stage Magician: Master Payne himself, much like the real life stage magician he is based on, but with more tricks that rely in Sparky innovations and inventions.
• Tsundere: (Цундэрэ) Pix has a one-sided crush on Abner, and is very flustered that he doesn’t notice her. Until he does.
• Vampire Hunter: (Охотник на нечисть) Dame Ædith is one, or tries to be. This has caused the circus some problems, such as when she asked the audience if any of them were vampires and one man, assuming she was joking, raised his hand.note
• Wacky Wayside Tribe: (Визит в племя чудаков) The trope is well-used: the circus establishes the post-apocalyptic world the Other left behind and works Zeetha, Dimo, Oggie and Maxim into the main cast. Plus jokes.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: (Рубашка не нужна) Yeti just wears a necklace and pants, though he is rather fuzzy so he may not feel the need to don a shirt.

Lars

A former cheese maker’s apprentice who joined Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure as an actor and as an advance man. He was one of Agatha’s closest companions in the first half of the comic.

• Chivalrous Pervert/Handsome Lech: (Месье знает толк в извращениях?) Lars apparently has a… colorful history with the women in towns the circus visit.
• Death of the Hypotenuse: At the time of his death, he is one of three love interests for Agatha.
• Due to the Dead: Maxim goes out of his way to recover Lars’s remains and insists he be buried with his hat, Serious Business to a Jaeger, since he died defending a Heterodyne.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: He dies protecting Agatha and is given a Jäger funeral, with Maxim donating his hat. He isn’t mentioned again. The print-novels do a little better, having Agatha mourn for him when finally given a quiet moment to do so.
  • Finally averted when Agatha crosses paths with the Circus again in Albia’s court. She has not forgotten about him.
• Genre Savvy: (Жанровая смекалка) The rescue party is able to sneak into Sturmhalten’s castle because Lars knows how stories like this work. He’s able to find the secret passage into the castle simply because it is where the stories always say secret passages like this are.
• Glory Seeker: (Отчаянное желание внимания) He left his life as a cheese maker behind to become a lead actor in the Master Payne’s circus.
• Heroic Sacrifice: (Героическое самопожертвование) Saves Agatha from getting stabbed by the Baron at the cost of his life.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: (Я не добрый??) Laments that he never really had a shot with Agatha with his last breath.

«	Lars: «A Heterodyne girl… Heh. An ordinary guy like me… never had a chance…»	»

• Ladykiller in Love: (Ловелас нарвался) Lars, who falls for Agatha. He confesses it as he lies dying.
• Lovable Coward: (Милый трусишка) Sort of; he’s competent enough during dangerous situations, but as soon as the current situation is resolved, he breaks out in a delayed panic attack.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: (Мужики — расходный материал) Lars is killed by the Baron and dies confessing his love for Agatha, causing her to become angrier than ever before. However, after this story arc, Agatha (almost) never mentions Lars again and she becomes occupied with her love triangle with Gil and Tarvek.
• Nervous Wreck: Lars can be easily startled by some of the abominations of science encountered in the wastelands. Not helping is that his job is to scout the Wastelands for those abominations, leaving him a bundle of frayed nerves. Once he gets going, it’s hard to stop him. Even with a pie. Though the Jaegers found a solution.

«	Lars: Horse! Pie! Horse! Pie!	»

• The Plot Reaper: When Gil is about to come back into Agatha’s life.
• Romantic False Lead: Out of all of Agatha’s potential love interests, Lars is the only one who isn’t royalty, isn’t a Spark and is more than a bit of a coward, but despite these handicaps he is devoted to Agatha and does anything he can to help her. From a normal literary standpoint, Lars' underdog status probably made him the top candidate for Agatha’s affections. He dies less than halfway through the series.
• Spider-Sense: (Тактическое ясновидение?) Lars has an uncanny ability to sense danger before it happens; this leads him to be far more cautious than usual around Agatha.

König

Leader of a group of sentient bear constructs, and tentatively named the Swartzwalders by the fandom after their previous appearance in the non-canon Girl Genius card game The Works. He considers himself their temporary leader, and has been long awaiting the arrival of the bears' true „Master“.

• Bears Are Bad News: (Страшный медведь) The only thing that could be scarier than a bear is a sentient bear designed to be a warrior.
• BFS: (Офигенно большой меч) He has a curved saber that is easily as long as Dimo is tall. Since König is also quite large, it’s a one-hander to him.
• Bilingual Bonus: (Билингвальный бонус) „König“ is „King“ in german.
• Bling of War: (Вычурная военная форма) His „crown“ is a ring on a necklace, and he has a pair of bronze armguards to indicate his station. Or alternatively, it really is a crown, intended to be worn by Krosp.
• Large and in Charge: (Большой — значит главный) König has significantly more body mass compared to the other Swartzwalders.
• Made of Iron: (Распутинская живучесть?) When the Beast was finally vanquished and it exploded, he fared better than Brother Ulm, who only survives by means of Brain Uploading into the Corbettites' new super-locomotive.
• No-Sell: (Никакого эффекта) He and the other bears aren’t affected by The Beast’s magnets due to not having metal on them.
• Third-Person Person: (О себе в третьем лице) He is „This Bear“ when referring to himself; an affectation shared among all his fellow Swartzwalders.
• Retired Badass: (Крутой в отставке) As soon as Krosp appears on the scene he immediately and cheerfully steps down from his leadership position and takes a new job as the engineer on the aforementioned super-train.
• Slasher Smile: (Улыбашка) Bears are not really designed to look happy, so even when this bear is meant to be happy, he still looks like he’s sporting one of these.
• Uplifted Animal: (Возвышение) Though not to the intellectual level of Krosp, König and his fellow Swartzwalders are sentient nonhuman animals.
• You No Take Candle: (Странный грамматика) Like all Swartzwalders, he has very simplistic speech and refers to himself using „this bear“ instead of „I“. However, it belies an intellect beyond just being Dumb Muscle, as he was savvy enough to think that The Beast was bluffing.

Professor Blintzie von Wyrmhaut

Former instructor at Transylvania Polygnostic, now curator of Drachenzen Hall. Currently leading a party seeking the Iram Solis, a dragon flame-enhancer held in the hoard of Hydrargyros the Godburner. Once taught Agatha at TPU.

• Badass Longcoat: (Крутой в пальто) Complete with fur trim and adorned with spikes.
• Bearer of Bad News: Reveals Respiro the dragon was assassinated by his own guild due to resentment from the Limited Advancement Opportunities he caused from being head of the glassblowing guild for centuries.
• Bullying a Dragon: (Моська лает на слона) She tries to destroy Mechanicsburg completely on her own, using the Iram Solis, an Amplifier Artifact for fires. The Iram Solis is strong, but not that strong, especially when she’s only powering it with a match. The Mechanicsburg news proceeds to mock her attempt as an embarrassing failure.
• Curtains Match the Window: (Глаза и волосы одного цвета) Grey hair and eyes.
• Cute Little Fangs: (Торчащие клыки) Very prominent (almost Jaeger-like) canines.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Wears goggles on her forehead and doesn’t actually use them, even when observing Franz breathing fire.
• Hammerspace: Pulls a BFG from nowhere.

«	Prof. Wyrmhaut: A good tailor can do amazing things with pockets!	»

• Hate Sink: (Концентратор ненависти) She’s an arrogant, greedy, short-sighted, violent jerk.
• Hunter of Monsters: (Охотник на нечисть) Franz adds „notorious monster hunter, specializing in dragons“ to her titles. Apparently from a family of monster hunters („Wyrmhaut“ means wyrm [dragon] hide). Notably, she isn’t fanatical about it and is quite respectful and cordial towards Franz, addressing him by his formal title of Lord Scortchmaw, while Franz admits most dragons aren’t as nice as him and are „flat out monsters“.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: Her customized gun is designed to only work for her. When the heroes manage to steal it, she dares them to shoot her with it while she prepares to kill them with a fire Amplifier Artifact.
• Mad Scientist: (Безумный учёный) A teacher of these. Franz immediately assumes she wants the Iram Solis to attack Meachanicsburg.
• Meaningful Name: (Говорящее имя) „Wyrmhaut“ means dragon hide. Presumably this is how Franz deduces she comes from a family of monster hunters.
• Sadist Teacher: (Педагог-садист) Shoots one of her students for getting a question wrong, then immediately backpedals when she realizes that the material wasn’t covered in their lessons. Previously taught Agatha and gleefully claims she flunked her (though Agatha was still wearing the power-limiting locket and hadn’t broken through at the time). Declares her entire class failed the midterms when Franz’s drunken dancing interrupts her. Decides to kill them all when they become a case of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness since they are potential competition for the treasure.
• Searching for the Lost Relative: Her Uncle Hengst set out to slay Hrydrargryos and never returned. She Finally Found the Body in Hyrdrargyros' lair.

«	Prof. Wyrmhaut: As near as I can tell, he killed the dragon, but was mortally wounded. We spent years wondering what happened to him.	»

• Spikes of Villainy: (Злодейские шипы) Long, dangerous-looking spikes sprout from the shoulders of her coat, and smaller ones from the top of her thigh-high boots. And she’s certainly a dangerous and amoral Spark. Although in her line of work (which include hunting monsters), the spikes are certainly justified as a defense against being swallowed whole.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: (Сапогами попирают из Вселенной) „Supreme Curator of Drachenzehen Hall, High Queen of Historians, and Artifact Hunter Extraordinaire (and also notorious monster hunter specializing in dragons)“.
• Villain of the Week: Invoked to represent how far Professor Wyrmhaut had fallen. During the hunt for the Iram Solis, she talked a good game about how Mechanicsburg’s numerous enemies kept making the mistake of thinking that they could defeat the city via a Decapitated Army tactic, when an experienced monster hunter would know that razing the entire town is the only option. Once the Professor actually got the Iram Solis, she attempted to make good on her declaration… but the people of Mechanicsburg are so used to such plots that the most the reader sees of the results is a newspaper reporting the „weekly attack by disgraced academic“ some time later. And it was such a minor event as to be back page news.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: (Пережить свою полезность) She only wanted the help of Franz’s group to get herself past a door designed for dragons. After that, she considers them boring, in the way, and competition for the treasure. She isn’t terribly fond of her students either. Thus, her minion, Hector, betrays them and gives her (very temporary) control over one of the traps to help her kill them all.

Zantabraxus

The current Queen of Skifander, a hidden and mysterious civilization, mother of Zeetha and wife of the mysterious warrior known only as „Chump“. Also known as Klaus Wulfenbach, making her Gil’s mother.

• Ambiguous Situation: Her attitude towards Gil is one of the story’s smaller mysteries. Klaus suggests that for some reason she wanted him dead, and that this was the reason he brought the toddler Gil back to Europa with him, and has a strong suspicion that one of the reasons Zeetha was sent out into the world was to kill him, but why she would do so is unclear. Alternatively, and since otherwise it’s odd that Klaus would still miss Zantabraxus and think fondly of her, there might have been others in Skifander who wanted to kill Gil…
• The Exile: (Изгнание) Before Chump showed up, there’d been a period of severe civil unrest between the priestesses of Eshkigax and Zantabraxus’s mother, which meant she had to go into exile. Chump helped her recover her throne.
• The Ghost: (Закадровый персонаж) First mentioned very early on in the story offhandedly by Klaus, name-dropped by Zeetha several times, but it took up until 2022 before she makes a confirmed physical appearance in a flashback.
• Happily Married: (Счастливо женаты) By all indications, she and Chump were quite happy together, and whatever it was that separated them, Klaus still misses her dearly.
• Missing Mom: (Пропавшая мама) For Gil, who doesn’t know a thing about her, including her name. The novels make it clear that Klaus mentioning her when he’s hospitalized is the first time he’s said anything about the subject ever.

Polar Ice Lords (Unmarked spoilers)

Mysterious and dangerous in equal measure, the Polar Ice Lords are things that rule over the frigid lands north of Europa. That is, until the fall of the Wulfenbach Empire, which seemingly encouraged them to expand their frozen dominion southwards.

• Ancient Evil: (Древнее зло) They’ve ruled over their icy lands for untold millennia, being venerable even in comparison to Albia. According to Ixthaliox, they even predate whoever built the Queens' Mirrors.
• An Ice Person: (Магия льда) And how. The Polar Lords are defined by their disturbingly powerful control over the cold — they can use it to ground fleets of airships, protect themselves and their troops from harm, and turn enemy soldiers into icy revenants who obey their every command.
• Bad Boss: (Злой начальник) Ixthaliox demands to know why the soldiers have stopped marching. One of them answers his question—the opposing army has sent a group carrying a White Flag, looking to parlay—and Ixthaliox promptly freezes him solid.note
• Enigmatic Minions: When first introduced, they seem to be just another one of the factions serving the Other, complete with the use of modified Hive Engines. But it eventually becomes apparent that they are just as, if not even more powerful than the Other themselves, and seem to be following their own agenda with a disturbing interest in Agatha and Mechanicsburg. Case in point, once Ixthaliox is defeated and his Hive Engines destroyed, a senior Polar Lord appears, denounces him as a weakling, and withdraws all of their forces.
• Evil Is Hammy: (Зло грызёт реквизит) Ixthaliox is, at the very least.

«	The endless void between the stars is filled with cold beyond your imagining! MINE TO COMMAND!	»

• Horrifying the Horror: (Уволен из гестапо за жестокость)
  • Albia, a practically immortal Physical Goddess and Reality Warper, never talked about what she found when investigating territories abandoned by them as the ice receded. When she sends a British expeditionary fleet to escort Agatha back to Mechanicsburg, they are also tasked specifically with helping Gil’s forces fight the Polar Lords, showing that she views them as even more of a threat than the Other.
  • Conversely, one of their number refers to Agatha as a horror, though in a manner which almost seems to be a compliment.
• Humanoid Abomination: (Чужеродный человек) Once in their weakened state, they look human (ish), and might have been human once. But in most circumstances, they’re monstrous beings that wield the cold in a manner that even manages to shatter the setting’s Rule of Cool based laws of nature.
  • Even their foot soldiers don’t seem entirely human, having glowing, pupilless eyes and sharp teeth.
• Logical Weakness: Unsurprisingly, the best way to harm them is through the use of heat-based weaponry. Their forces and equipment fare poorly in warm temperatures, which is why they haven’t conquered the world in all their millennia of existing.
• Our Liches Are Different: (Лич) They certainly seem to fit this role — ancient, mysterious and very dangerous beings that appear as gaunt, emaciated humanoids, command armies of undead minions, and wield powerful magic.
• Those Were Only Their Scouts: Ixthaliox, who declares himself a „grand duke of the Arcana“, is defeated by Agatha with considerable difficulty, the assistance of a full complement of Sparks, and the firepower of a rather large army. Then an even more powerful Polar Lord Appears and blasts Ixtha, calling him a „sniveling disgrace“. Given their difference in size and appearance, and the Polar Lord’s authority to „cast [Ixthaliox] from the Arcana“, it’s possible that grand duke is a title, Ixthaliox is a subordinate, and we have not yet seen a Polar Lord in action.
• Too Dumb to Live: (Несовместимая с жизнью тупость) The Polar Lord thinks this of Ixthaliox for failing to cut and run when Agatha arrived.
• Polar Lord: Ixtha was a fool to provoke a horror such as you while he was weak and in retreat.
• Villain Respect: The senior Polar Lord seems to show this to Agatha… To the point of calling her a „horror“.
• We Will Meet Again: (Завтра я вам ещё покажу!) The Senior Polar Lord informs Agatha as such.

«	«We will remember this loss. And you will remember the ice.»	»

• Wrong Context Magic: (Чужая магия) The ice-based abilities wielded by the Polar Lords can only be described as actual, „traditional“ magic without any of the Sparky trappings, which makes them a dangerous and unpredictable anomaly in the eyes of most other characters.
• You Have Failed Me: (Ты меня подвёл) Once Ixthaliox is defeated by Agatha and Co. en route to Mechanicsburg, he’s reduced to a skeleton by a more senior Ice Lord for his recklessness, and to prevent him from spilling any of the Polar Lords' secrets to Agatha.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: (Победитель дракона становится драконом) The Polar Lord tells Agatha she can keep the remains of Ixathliox’s body „as [her] rightful spoil“.

Мета

Ссылка: [18]

• Ascended Fanon: (Просочиться в канон) The Reddit AMA provided one:

«	PKSchefflera: Goofy question: Was the bonsai hedge maze in the Storm King opera actually a stage translation of Mechanicsburg’s thorn wall? Phil: It is now.	»

• Creator’s Favorite: (Любимец автора) The Jaegers are apparently so loved by the authors that they keep involving them in the plot. Not that anyone’s complaining.
• Defictionalization: (Дефикционализация) 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!)“). SF author Charles Stross is shown wearing one of these shirts on his trope page.
• Demand Overload: The creators did it to themselves, and it takes a bit of explaining. Basically, it started off as a print comic. When the Foglios turned it into a webcomic, they had two different archives updating at the same time: the „101 archive“ where they digitized the original print run, and the „advanced class archive“, where they continued the story where the print run left off. In July 2007, the 101 archive caught up with the beginning of the advanced class archive. The volume of readers archive binging the advanced archive was enough to crash the comic’s server.
• The Merch: (Мерчендайз) Some shirts are available; one of them says „FOOLS! I will destroy you all! Ask me how!“
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: As the website’s page for the „original“ Heterodyne Boys explained, Phil’s old idea for Girl Genius was a near-future setting instead of the neo-Victorian Gaslamp Fantasy that they actually went with.
• Throw It In (Случайная сценарная находка)
  • When Phil was drawing the scene which first introduced the Baron, he filled an „empty“ spot with a rather scruffy-looking soldier. As soon as anybody saw him, they liked him and wanted to see more. Thus were born the Jägers.
  • Maxim of the Jägers was originally a silly little drawing of a Bishounen jäger for Kaja, who promptly informed him that he WOULD appear in the comic.
• What Could Have Been (Смена концепции): Word of God says that originally Tarvek was meant to die at the end of the Sturmhalten arc, but Kaja decided she liked him too much, and in the end they let him live (and survive being shot in the back of the head!) which in turn led to the major Love Triangle of the story. It gives a whole new meaning to Phil’s Author Avatar questioning during the 'Cinderella' comic „Who thought having two boyfriends was a good idea?!“
• Write Who You Know: (Основано на личном опыте) A few characters at least started out that way:
  • The Heterodyne Boys are named after Phil’s friends Bill Higgins and Barry Gehm. (Well, technically they’re named after a previous pair of Heterodyne Boys in a completely different continuity, who were more based on the real people.)
  • Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure is entirely real.
  • The rat-obsessed Dr Fransisca Monahan began as a reference to Katja’s friend Carol Monahan „who draws little cartoon rats of the most charming type.“

Misc. trivia

• 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.
• The Danish Army’s elite soldiers are called the Jaegers. And they speak English like that.
  • „Jaeger“ in Germanic/Norse languages generally means „hunter“. It’s historically been quite common for such nations to call select elite or light units „Jaeger“.
• Dolokov’s name may or may not be a reference to the Manipulative Bastard and Karma Houdini of War and Peace.
• The whole story is full of modified historical domain characters:
  • Master Payne is a real person, who has several personas and performs amusing magic tricks.
  • Van Rijn, master Spark, artisan, the creator of the Muses, though few nowadays know his full name, „Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn“.
  • The circus cook, when his calming pie works — magnificently — on Agatha, exclaims, „Take that, Brillat-Savarin!“ Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755—1826) was a famous French expert on high-quality eating, famous for advocating a high-protein, low-carb diet (thus likely to disapprove of pies in general). He’s also the origin of the saying, „You are what you eat.“
• Othar Tryggvassen’s name comes from the 10th Century Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason.

Вкусовщина

Ссылка: [19]

• Adorkable: (Очаровательно неловкий)
  • Klaus has his moments. The best is when he’s ranting to Gil about how women with the Spark are trouble and each one he’s met has tried to kill him… And then Gil derails him with „Father… Maybe it’s you.“ And Klaus looks hilariously dorky as he says „No… No, I don’t think so…“
  • Fittingly, his son Gil tends towards this as well, particularly around Agatha but also whenever he gets excited about something sciency.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Let’s just say there are good reasons why the character pages are divided by „Protagonists“ and „Antagonists“ rather than „Heroes“ and „Villains“.
• Angst? What Angst?: (Ангст? Какой ангст?)
  • Due to the Baron not telling Gil the truth about his parentage until he and Tarvek discovered his fake background records, he spent a large part of his childhood not knowing where he came from or who his parents were and being bullied by other kids in Castle Wulfenbach over it. This has no significant effect on Gil’s character or his relationship with his father. (Or at least, none that is spelled out on page.)
  • No one but Trelawney Thorpe openly mourns the death of Wooster. Gil’s lack of reaction or regret to Wooster getting vaporized by Lucrezia is the most noticeable, as he had known the English spy from his time in Paris and destroyed their friendship to force him to help protect Agatha.
• Arc Fatigue: (Затянутая сюжетная арка)
  • Severe, in the case of the Mechanicsburg arc. The „Castle Heterodyne“ storyline took five years to complete; in comic-time, only a day or two passed. In real-time, from the first page showing Mechanicsburg to the moment Tweedle drags Agatha (and Violetta and Krosp) through the cathedral portal just as Klaus’s „Take Five Bomb“ detonates is over six years.
  • A copy of Lucrezia was stuck in Agatha’s head since January 2006, and it took until November 2019 for Lucrezia to finally be removed from Agatha for good after thirteen years.
  • The 2020 Christmas story ended up taking two and a half months to complete, holding up the ongoing plot until mid February of the following year.
  • And in 2022 the Foglios topped that by interrupting the main plot with a side-story starring Franz the Mechanicsburg dragon, which lasted a whole year.
  • After the two and a half year time skip in-universe, Agatha’s quest to find a way to free Mechanicsburg from the time-stop that Klaus inflicted on it officially began in March 2014, and finally began to wrap up in 2024, a decade later in real life — and even then, various plot shenanigans meant that the freeing of Mechanisburg wouldn’t happen until 2025. It’s taken so long that Moloch, a character that will make it to (what is presumably) the final arc at minimum, had to be removed from the „main character“ page of this very wiki.
• Archive Binge: Probably one of the most notable in webcomic history. Originally a print comic, when Girl Genius first became a webcomic it had two archives; one consisting of pages from the print comics, one consisting of the new pages produced after the website went online. When the version for people who started reading it online caught up with the version for people who’d read the print comics an awful lot of people read the newer half of the combined archive, the equivalent of four and a half books worth of pages, in one sitting. The website server went down for a long time.
• Can’t Un-Hear It: The idea of BRIAN BLESSED!!!!! voicing Castle Heterodyne. Or Master Payne.
• Catharsis Factor: After watching Clank Lucrezia once again boast non-stop about how glorious she is and how she’s going to ascend to queendom, then attempt her standard method of overwriting Dr. Monahan’s mind with her own, it is deeply satisfying to see her attempt fail due to Monahan (who was secretly working against her) having blocked her attempt, and then proceeding to kick her into a pool of deadly spark-goo while giving her a blistering „The Reason You Suck“ Speech. While Lu does (unfortunately) survive this, Monahan’s intervention threw a massive wrench in her plans.
• Crazy Is Cool: (Безумная клёвость)
  • Jägers are a race of Crazy Is Cool individuals.
  • Excited Sparks tend to act this way with an added Genius Bruiser flavor.
  • Snaug may also count. She sees dangerous, potentially-fatal experimentation as fun.
• Continuity Lock-Out: An odd example that is present from the very beginning of the comic. Several important aspects of the world and story (such as what are Sparks and Jägermonsters or what The Other is) aren’t given clear explanations, leaving the reader to figure out what they are based on dialogue (and the comic tends to Avert As You Know and The Watson).
  • At this point, the story is so long-running and so complicated that when a plot thread that was left hanging years ago gets picked up again, even longtime readers can get confused. Fans often advise each other to occasionally do a full reread to refresh their memory. A new reader who doesn’t read the whole story from the beginning has little hope of understanding much of anything.
• Crosses the Line Twice: (Так грубо, что уже смешно) Bangladesh Dupree is an Ax-Crazy Dark Action Girl; Castle Heterodyne is A.I. Is a Crapshoot that’s Gone Horribly Right; Vole is something verging on Omnicidal Maniac. They’re all successfully Played for Laughs.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: At one point, a flipped-out Agatha directs a small army of Clanks, (including giant Transforming Mecha and Luggage) by playing a calliope. Behold.
• Cry for the Devil:
  • Admit it, you did this when Tarvek explained what Anevka really was.

«	Tarvek: That was... harder than I'd thought.	»

• Interestingly enough, this also applies to her distaff ancestor Andronicus … or what’s left of the man. He dies thinking he was reunited with his love.

«	Andronicus Valois: Euphrosynia?	»

• Ensemble Dark Horse: (Тёмная лошадка)
  • Da Boyz, the Jägermonster trio. To an only slightly lesser extent, the entire Jäger horde. In fact, the first Jäger from back when the print comic first came out was meant to just be filler, but he got so much fans wanting to see more of them that the Foglios decided to Throw It In.
  • Also the freaking nyar spider, of all things. Possibly because the spider managed to get Zola to shut up…
  • Airman Axel Higgs, due to an effective combination of stoic Seen It All-ness, sheer badassery, and the mystery surrounding exactly who and what he really is.
  • Really, all of the minor characters count as this trope since the Foglios give most of them unique designs and personalities even if they only appear for a few pages or even just a few panels.
• Escapist Character:
  • Agatha Heterodyne is a beautiful, kind and brilliant mad scientist, is pursued by Europa’s royalty, commands an army of loyal minions, super-soldiers and monsters -one of them a dragon-, owns a sentient „haunted“ castle and lives extraordinary adventures across the continent. She is also Kaja Foglio’s avatar. (Though a more explicit copy of Kaja appears in the strip as well, at one point pretending to be Agatha…)
  • A side-story about In-Universe Heterodyne Boys fanfiction actually defends the role Mary Sues play in young girls' aspirational fantasies.
• Fan Nickname: (Неофициальное прозвище) The Dingbots don’t have an actual name in-comic, other than „Agatha’s little clanks“ or the „pocketwatch clanks“ (in the novelization) for the main ones. On that note, fans are considering dubbing groups of dingbots „devotions.“
• Genius Bonus: (Бонус для гениев)
  • As befits the title, several strips offer incredibly obscure references. Examples include a flirtatious Jäger referring to a waitress as his little nokedli (it’s a type of dumpling), and a scientist complaining about working with inferior coprolitic components (see Unusual Euphemism).
  • More a „Wisconsinite“ bonus but when Agatha was listing Othar’s supposed exploits she included „Savior of the town of Mt. Horeb from the rain of Mustard.“
  • Brillat-Savarin, mentioned here, was a famous gastronomist and essayist — just the sort that a minor spark would crow about defeating.
  • Ardsley Wooster is named for Phil Foglio’s high school and for one of his favorite fictional characters.
  • The Knights of Jove — Jove was a shortening of the name of the Roman god Jupiter (known by the Greeks as Zeus) who was the king of the gods and ruler of the sky — his domain including weather, such as storms.
  • Spot the typography Easter egg in the Geisterspeak on this page.
  • „If you analyze these vellum pages really thoroughly you get instructions on how to build a cow.“ And vellum is parchment made from calf skin…
  • The captain of the airship that transported Madwa and company is quite The Stoic. Not surprisingly, the airship is named Zeno of Citium.
  • In one scene, there is a passing mention of how someone tried to get Punch (in one of the Heterodyne Plays) to recite the Oration on the Dignity of Man by Giovanni Mirandola. The Oration was an obscure Renaissance-era philosophical text with themes of mysticism and esotericism.
  • Krosp refers to Gil as „Prince Myshkin“, referencing the titular character from The Idiot».
• Growing the Beard: (Начало за упокой) The novels. The first book, while not bad, is pretty much just a word-for-word adaptation of the comic. Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess adds footnotes and more in-universe epigraphs, as well as being more willing to get inside the characters' heads and depart from the comics a bit, and is a marked improvement.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Very narrowly (by this comic’s standards) averted. In the novelization of the Sturmhalten arc, when Oggie runs into his great-great-grandson and pesters him about great-great-great-grandchildren., a footnote states that, due to Ognian’s constant interference, his family line has all but died out. Many real-life years later, this little joke becomes incredibly upsetting when the comic reveals why it’s so important to him: his descendants keep him connected to the world and his humanity, because they remind him of his long-gone but much-loved wife. Seven months later, A Mechanicsburg Solstice Story shows Ognian’s family is anything but endangered, and has already produced a whole batch of great-great-great-grandkids. It becomes clear that Ognian was talking about the Storyteller’s personal family branch. Given the real-life Phil has kids, that line ends up fine as well.
• Ho Yay:
  • Gil and Tarvek, during the disease arc. Semi-naked, snarky, and walking arm-around-arm? Oh yes.
  • This looks suspiciously much like an Almost Kiss, and if it isn’t, it’s still slashy as hell.
  • When Tarvek realizes that Gil was kidnapped by the Baron, he tries to rationalize the importance of keeping him before he just admits to himself and Agatha that they could’ve kept him safe with a look of utmost worry and concern.
  • After Gil goes through a whole lot of trouble to rescue Tarvek from the time stop he hangs out and chats with Tarvek while Tarvek is bathing and then carries him in a Bridal Carry to a bed when everything finally catches up to ** Tarvek and he passes out dead asleep.
  • After the Library captures Tarvek shortly after Gil frees him, Gil is very determined to steal him back. Tarvek seems a little surprised by his vehemence.
  • When he saves Tarvek yet again, he peacefully doses off next to him. In his current state he often spends up to a week without sleep, being constantly winded up, and Tarvek is the only prson besides Agatha whose presence can finally put him at ease.
  • Tarvek makes a jibe at Gil saying «On our honeymoon I’ll be sure to tell her you said so» clearly meaning his honeymoon with Agatha. Gil quickly turns it around as though Tarvek meant his honeymoon with Gil, which Violetta calls out as flirting.
  • The Foglios have thrown fans another bone. Nobody expects Othar/Gil!
  • Gil also gets some hurt/comfort flavored Ho Yay with Maghiar here.
  • There’s always been a fair bit of Les Yay between Agatha and Zeetha, but the one-off strip has some fans seeing Agatha/Kaja.
  • Though Played for Laughs, Colette Voltaire apparently flirts with Agatha at one point, just to later invite her over to her Chateau to stay.
  • Later, Agatha mentions Colette in the same breath as Gil and Tarvek, when she says there’s things she can only talk to with other Sparks. And she’s stammering when she says it.
• I Knew It!: In general, fans reward each other for correct predictions with «Moxana points» (much like winning Internets).
• Iron Woobie: Tinka. Yes, yes, it’s also a pun: but she struggled with her 'disability' desperately to help Agatha reunite with her last (known) surviving sister. Then she was destroyed offhandedly, and her parts presumably packed up in a closet for Tarvek to try to reassemble when he got back…which he never has.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Klaus Wulfenbach, apparently killed in a random attack on the hospital, and his body hadn’t been found. Nobody, least of all the characters, believed that he was dead. When he turned up alive, Gil, Tarvek and the fanbase immediately said «I knew it!» in unison.
  • Similarly, pretty much no one bought that Violetta was murdered off-panel.
• Magnificent Bastard: (Великолепный мерзавец)
  • «Fairy Tale Theater Break: Cinderella»: Sleeping Beauty Snow White Rapunzel Ozma Rose Red Riding Hood Rumplestiltskin whom everyone called «Cinderella» is reimagined here as a brilliant Mad Scientist. When the kingdoms’ twin princes create a science fair, Cinderella’s cruel stepmother steals her inventions for the ugly stepsisters to use and grounds her. Initially content to miss the fair, Cinderella decides to go after her Fairy Godmother tells her that the winner will marry one of the princes. Showing her brilliance by fixing the Godmother’s wand in order to set up a grand entrance to the fair, charming the princes and exposing the stepsisters’ lies. When the princes reveal that their kingdom has no real defences, Cinderella reveals that she had actually sent a lifelike clank to the fair and reveals her «science fair project» to be an army of battle clanks she uses to conquer the kingdom, bribing the king into not objecting.
  • «Homecoming King», by Cheyenne Wright:
    • The Ht’Rok’Din is the first Heterodyne, famed and feared for his status as a brutal conqueror and a brilliant inventor. Summoned from the past, the Ht’Rok’Din attacks several students before learning that he is in a school owned by his descendant. He collects a number of devices, including one he famously used to teleport his army behind enemy lines in the past, to build a machine. When the machine is finished, he declares that he will conquer time itself, before sending himself back to his normal time to sire a son and begin the mighty Heterodyne family.
    • Professor Bosewichte is a brilliant and proudly evil teacher at Transylvania Polygnostic University. When the Ht’Rok’Din is summoned by a pair of students, Bosewichte ambushes and ties them up and aids the Ht’Rok’Din in building his machine. Bosewichte attacks the students when they try to stop the machine and when the Ht’Rok’Din sends himself back in time, he explains that he was ordered by Lady Heterodyne to ensure that the Ht’Rok’Din is returned safely.
• Memetic Badass: (Такой крутой, что уже смешно)
  • Klaus Wulfenbach and Old Man Death have earned the status a few times over. And Axel «The Unstoppable» Higgs.
  • Notably, Klaus Wulfenbach appears to have this status in-universe. When he threatens to kill someone while immobilized in a hospital bed with only the power of his mind, even people who’ve worked closely with him are only mostly sure he can’t do that.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Moxana points. The imaginary «points» you get from correctly guessing where the comic’s storyline will go, basically like «brownie points.» They’re named after Moxana, Muse of Mystery, and the term originated on Yahoo! Groups.
  • Sneaky Gate. A gate the Jägers used to covertly get into Mechanicsburg, first mentioned in Vol. VII of the comic. It’s also the fan euphemism for a way to access new strips before they’re actually posted (by changing the YYYYMMDD codes on the .JPG files of pages instead of on the actual main comic webpages on the site).
• Moe: (Моэ)
  • Violetta. Look at the last panel, awwww, she just wants a pretty dress.
  • Sanaa’s having a cute moment here.
• Moral Event Horizon: (Моральный горизонт событий)
  • Let’s start with the Queen of the land beyond that horizon: Lucrezia. It isn’t even For the Evulz or Card-Carrying Villain — it’s more as if a Starfish Alien with no concept of human decency or morality were given human form. If some theories are correct, it’s exactly as if that.
  • Merlot was an unrepentant Jerkass about being sentenced to Castle Heterodyne. He banished Agatha from Transylvania Polygnostic and burned everything, including the cryptographers, related to her importance. And then he got mad at her about it, like he didn’t directly cause it all.
  • Avoided, barely, by the end of the Tarvek and Zola fight. She was already down and Tarvek kept on going; if not for some last minute interference, he would have strangled her to death with his bare hands. Despite the numerous arguments in favor of him doing so — that she had killed many people already, that she had just tried to kill Agatha, that she could neither be let free nor safely taken into custody — quite a few members of the audience were nonetheless queasy at the sight of one of the 'good guys' strangling a semi-conscious woman to death. Gil’s last-minute interference saved Tarvek from a(nother?) possible moment.
  • Klaus has apparently done to Gil what Lucrezia did to Agatha and copied himself into his own son as a method of control. That being said, the novels imply that Other!Anevka ordered him to do it.
  • Even before the above, Klaus was at least skirting the line with his brain coring experiments: Klaus would take a Spark, and remove chunks of their brain, one at a time, until they either 1) no longer had the Spark or 2) were so badly brain damaged they couldn’t function independently anymore. It’s hinted at that the Baron reserved this fate for only the most dangerous of Sparks, but unfortunately «dangerous» and «unsympathetic» are not synonymous. Not helped by also being, by his own admission, one of the few tasks left to him that he genuinely enjoys. To his credit, he does seem to be mindful of his test subject’s «quality of life», post-experimentation, giving them quarters and menial jobs, and claims he’s «getting much better» at it.
• Never Live It Down: Tarvek’s… «adorning» of Lucrezia-controlled Agatha. Even Gil heard about it. He still does it in his head sometimes, so he has only himself to blame for it.
• One True Threesome: Agatha/Gil/Tarvek. Initially, both of the gentlemen are eager to reduce it to a One True Pairing, but agree to tolerate each other’s presence due to dangers of Castle Heterodyne. By the end of the Mechanicsburg arc, there are signs that Gil and Tarvek are coming to accept that they’re both important to Agatha. And then there’s this page, which has Tarvek expressing very genuine fear and regret over Gil, and Agatha consoling him. The Cinderella side-story indicates that the authors are at least okay with a «keep them both» scenario. It’s been suggested as a possibility in the story, too.
• Paranoia Fuel: (Топливо паранойи) Between stealth!Revenants and Lucrezia’s liberal use of mind-downloads, you never quite know who you’re talking to at first.
• Replacement Scrappy: (Джа-Джа-заменитель) Hadrian Rakethorn. No one in the fanbase seems to like him. He’s a Convenient Replacement Character for someone the fans loved, who looks suspiciously similar and fills a similar role but has none of the character development that Wooster had, while also being yet another contender for Agatha’s affections. Fans tend to grouse whenever the subject of him comes up.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: (Опухание романтики) Hoffmann and Larana’s endless sitcom-level miscommunications during the Paris plot-arc.
• Rooting for the Empire: (Болеть за Империю) Even if Klaus is not the main antagonist. Definitely an invoked trope. Klaus isn’t the former Trope Namer of The Extremist Was Right for nothing, and iron-fisted ruler of half of Europa or not, it’s pretty clear he’s only an antagonist at all because he severely misjudged Agatha’s role in the story, and a combination of fate, escalation, and stubbornness worked to keep him from ever reconsidering.
• Shocking Moments: The Castle Heterodyne arc just kept escalating further and further to the Big Finish. To put it in perspective, the immediately following sequence, despite involving time travel, a twisted future resulting from Agatha’s absence, and Hunting the Most Dangerous Game, was a relative relief by comparison.
• Signature Series Arc: The Mechanicsburg Arc, wherein Agatha struggles to reclaim her heritage and then fights to drive a horde of mad scientists and an empire out of it, introduces the most iconic location in the series and is the best remembered storyline.
• Squick:
  • Lucrezia’s behavior towards Tarvek in Sturmhalten is very disturbing. She deliberately stays half-dressed and keeps making obviously sexual remarks, while wearing the body of her own daughter. Once she realizes that he’s uncomfortable with this, she purposely teases him. The whole thing is made even more disturbing by how Lucrezia keeps comparing him to his father (who was obsessively in love with her to the point he tried to download a copy of her mind into his own daughter) and to Klaus (her former lover). It’s even suggested that she actually planned on bedding him in Agatha’s body, taking additional glee from the fact that he was in love with her daughter and still hoped to save her. Oh, and apparently Lucrezia was the one, who designed Tarvek as her ideal Storm King candidate, possibly planning to marry him later in Agatha’s body.
  • Likewise, her suggestion to Klaus at the Corbettite base: steal their kids' bodies permanently and work together again, relationship implied. Thankfully Klaus will have none of it.
• Strangled by the Red String: (Эффект Дульсинеи/Роман из кустов) Zeetha and Higgs' relationship. The Mechanicsburg story line lasted over six years so their romance had a decent amount of time to develop, but in-universe they had only known each other for less than a day before they declared their love for one another. (Or at least had sex.) Slightly subverted after the time skip, where they are still just dating; all of the proper bonding after the initial «head over heels» phase presumably happened off screen.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: (Такую возможность упустили!)
  • The near collapse of the Wulfenbach Empire, the Storm King conspiracy’s plan to turn Gil into their next public leader and the new war with the Other were all set up to be important plot points when the time skip first happened but were quickly pushed to the background or even forgotten about shortly after.
  • Despite Punch and Judy being revived and reunited with Agatha, they offer her no new insights on her parents, her uncle or their conflict with the Other, and haven’t shown upon again after Agatha sets out on her mission to free Mechanicsburg.
  • After years of the readers waiting for Agatha and her companions to get to England…they promptly get shuttled off to an enclosed lab and caught up in a conspiracy, while barely anything is seen of Londinium or its people; the most we get is Gil and Trelawny Thorpe taking a brief stroll through the streets, having lunch in a cafe and fighting off minions. Since Trelawny mentions that English people are far more accepting of Sparks (as without them the Sunken City wouldn’t be able to exist) it’s a shame that we never get to see much of English culture and society, in stark comparison to the time that Agatha and her companions spent roaming around and under Paris.
• The Un-Twist: (Конец немного предсказуем)
  • Supposedly the Baron died when the battles in Mechanicsburg started and the hospital got bombed. Very few were surprised when the Baron showed up, very much alive, some time later.

«	Gil and Tarvek: I knew it!	»

• Lady Margarella. Readers should know better. She lives and survives in a Decadent Court and was the wife of an important person(?) Just look at her character’s spoiler-ed bits. Seeing that some families in the comic are even color-coded, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out who she belonged to.

«	Violetta: ... It's okay Auntie. You can drop the act. The Lady Heterodyne knows what our family's like.	»

• Ugly Cute: (Уродливо красивый)
  • The toothy, beady-eyed, eight-legged little revenant-detectors that were re-engineered from weasels.
  • Quite a few of the Jägers count as well.
  • The artwork itself can be this for some people, straddling the line between cute and Gonk.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: (Получился мерзавец) Tarvek «shuts down» the Anevka android with scarcely a concern about the act as murder; any psychological torment he seems to have over it is due to her connection with his late sister, the fact that she’s a self-aware being in her own right and clearly afraid seems to be of no consequence whatsoever to him.