Girl Genius Discussion page

[byakuryuu]

Yes, but most leaders don't enjoy doing <a href='http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040107' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>morally unsound things</a>.

Keep in mind that the subject in that case is (at the time,) probably the biggest threat to the peace he's forged. Othar has been working to destroy the Baron and I can't think of anyone who wouldn't take at least a little pleasure from ending said threat.

Not really the point, given that he does this to other people, and enjoys it ('My pleasure is in these rare moments of research').

Put yourself in Klaus's shoes. He has what is arguably the most stressful and disaster-prone job in the entire world, AND he doesn't even like it, AND he's a Spark himself.

Quite frankly, I view his drilling holes in Sparks' heads as 1) doing humanity at large a service since most Sparks tend to kill themselves and everything within miles around on a whim, and 2) blowing off as much stress and steam as possible so that he doesn't go psychonuts and dump the 'benevolence' part in 'benevolent tyrant', becoming something like Nero and just blowing everything up.

Klaus does need the stress relief, and his dismantling the source of his stress, even if it's living beings, is somewhat understandable. He's tired of all the shit Sparks cause. Othar in primis, as Othar doesn't give half a lice's shit about what happens to innocent bystanders when he's trying to kill Sparks.

Actually, Klaus was content to let Othar go around killing Sparks so long as he killed the ones that he didn't need to keep around. The novels suggest that he had been subtly directing Othar towards dangerous Sparks who technically hadn't broken the Baron's Piece and so couldn't touch himself until Othar started killing Sparks under Klaus' employ.

That's actually a pretty smart way to use Othar. But if memory serves, the Baron cracked down not when Othar started killing Sparks under the Baron's employment, but when he started to just plain not care how much collateral damage he caused. Othar himself more or less stated he used to be mindful of unrelated deaths - once. Nowadays, not so much. Killing Sparks has become his priority, keeping innocents safe isn't required anymore.

Which is a large part of why everyone hates his guts. He's a maniac even by Spark standards.

I'll point out that if you read Othar's Twitter account, he sent his mind time-travelling back from a future where Sparks literally destroyed Europa in a nuclear war, and killed everyone within it. That he doesn't care as much about civilian casualties anymore makes sense; as far as he's concerned, if he doesn't act, they're all going to die anyway.

Point taken. But the problem is that he doesn't even TRY to talk about it. At the very least Agatha, Gil and probably Klaus would actually have taken his warning seriously if he'd warned them about it since they all are fully aware of what Sparks are capable of, and time-travel isn't all that impossible if a Spark is determined enough. But instead he chose the hard line from the get-go, and that pretty much alienated what chances he had of being taken seriously by the people who COULD make a difference.

In fact, for all we know, Othar's actions may be what sparked said nuclear war. He sure as hell isn't making Sparks less prone to go to war, in fact he's making them MORE paranoid and trigger happy.

Don't mind me, just building a pyramid.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

so yes most recent page so possibly spoiler warning?.



Klaus talks about 'less invasive than slaver wasps' anyone else thinking he's just talking brute force emotional manipulation and that he's confident that he's gotten Gil to think of the Empire over Agatha as opposed to something in Gil's brain?

 

[grant]

so yes most recent page so possibly spoiler warning?.



Klaus talks about 'less invasive than slaver wasps' anyone else thinking he's just talking brute force emotional manipulation and that he's confident that he's gotten Gil to think of the Empire over Agatha as opposed to something in Gil's brain?

Who knows? If I were in Klaus' shoes I'd damn well be researching everything I could about Other tech. Maybe he used it as preventive treatment to make sure that the Other couldn't actually control Gil? Or he might be lying about the control the same way he (presumably) lied about the wasp in the first place. Or maybe this is all the Other's actual plan, to have two Wulfenbach's under her control so that no matter how things turn out she can either have Klaus or Gil as her puppet ruler, Klaus if he wins and Agatha is crushed and Gil if Agatha wins and he has to seduce her.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

So the publisher who was publishing the literature style books has gone under, and things are in Limbo there this fills me with worry, anyone else?

 

[zeebee1]

As long as the series is as popular as ever then there will be several publishers already fighting on who gets to work for them.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

Ah, but the problem is ownership of the rights, The Foglios own it in theory, but the publishing company that just went under had a contract with them and is now attempting to sell that contract elsewhere to recoup its bankruptcy. The problem is that the company that they're trying to sell to is offering a pittance for the Authors once they have control of the properties/rights/contract from the defunct-publisher. Thankfully, a set number of authors with the dead-company have to accept otherwise no deal and the dead-company has to declare full chapter 7 bankruptcy, and since the deal is so bad that's less likely to happen.

It still could, in which case the rights for this book series and possibly others would be caught in litigation between the Foglios as the authors and these new guys who don't want to give the Foglios much of anything. And that situation is the sort of thing that leaves the series in limbo for years and lets it cool of and lose popularity.


TLDR: It's not just the Foglios rights that are up for grabs and it's all being sold as a lump which means complications.

 

[zeebee1]

The writers in question just have to settle by giving the former publisher more than the pittance they want.

 

[the DragonBard]

I was looking at some of the new pages for Girl Genius, and I just noticed it has a panel at the bottom, below the page saying 'Ending Soon.'

Does that mean the volume or the entire series?

 

[Preventer Squall]

Pretty sure it's their kickstarter that's ending.

 

[the DragonBard]

Pretty sure it's their kickstarter that's ending.

Okay.
It didn't have anything else written so I wasn't sure.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

SO! It's been a while, but stuff has happened. Klaus seems to have done to Gil what Lucretia intended did to Agatha, Europa is massively screwed over due to the attempted powergrabbing of the Knights of Jove et al, and we finally get to see some Corbetite monks! Is anyone else looking forward to seeing what Paris and England look like? The Current arc IS supposed to be a setting exploration one after all.