Girl Genius Comic for Friday, July 07, 2023
Added 2023-07-06 19:50:42 +0000 UTCWell, not much going on here, we're coming up on the end of this longer-than-we'd-expected story, so here's a giant ghostly dragon to shut everyone up and freak Lumi out.
Phil is prepping for San Diego Comic-Con. I won't be going because I have stuff to mail to the four corners of the Earth. I hope everyone has fun!
--Kaja
Comments
Alternate auxiliary side backup theory: The ghost dragon is indeed a hologrammatic projection, but it's being voiced by Hector because he believes Hydrargyros has asked him, as a fellow ghost, to do so.
Michael Bacon
2023-07-08 17:26:09 +0000 UTCThe "WHOOO" certainly sounded like Hector. I still think it's Brother Marcus and the trap, though. Remember that the motivations aren't going to be rational, it's basically, "If some MF comes and offs me for my treasure, I at least want my lair to mess with them after I'm gone." That could involve killing, maming, scaring, or even just taunting. It's petty and vindictive creatures installing them, not a physical security analyst.
Michael Bacon
2023-07-08 17:18:44 +0000 UTC@Some Ed: You may be right that Hydrargyros isn't really dead. I have gone back and forth on that idea myself several times during the course of this story. At this point, I think it is going to turn out that he is dead, and I hope that he is, if for no other reason than that resolving the story after Hydrargyros shows up as a living dragon would take longer than if he remains dead one. I doubt that the Iram Solis will turn out to be fake. If it is, then Franz could have used his flame to defeat the Fun-MADD without it at any time, if he had only tried. Therefore, the nearly complete destruction of Humongulus by the Fun-MADD is all Franz's fault, since it happened during the time Franz was making his unnecessary search. If Franz discovers this, the psychological consequences on him would be severe; this just doesn't seem likely to be part of a Girl Genius plot, especially of a side story, where there won't be enough time to resolve this kind of development.
William Ansley
2023-07-08 13:57:35 +0000 UTC@Le'letha: Your speculations are ingenious, but a bit far-fetched. Which is to say, they would be a perfect fit as a Girl-Genius-style explanation. We'll have to wait and see.
William Ansley
2023-07-08 13:34:50 +0000 UTCMy guess: Hydragyros isn't actually dead, and that isn't actually the Iram Solis. Disclaimer: this isn't really based that much on this page, it's just a hunch I've had since the premise that Hydragyros died leaving his treasure unguarded behind, including the Iram Solis that he probably wouldn't have left home without. Basically, this feels like a variation of the locked room murder mystery scenario. If Hydragyros died at home, how do we know he's dead? Specifically, what method of our knowing would have the Iram Solis laying around in his lair to be grabbed by the first intrepid party to go looking for it? How does this group have enough first mover advantage to get this, when the "librarian" took the time to make a first attempted and then traveled away from it for however long to get to Mechanicsburg. And, of course, if he died while he was out, why would they think the Iram Solis would be at his domicile?
Some Ed
2023-07-08 05:08:09 +0000 UTCMaybe Hydrargyros had a holoprojector as one of his treasures (we've seen them before in the comic, but they're not common), and Brother Marcus did some very quick scans of the bones and quietly recorded audio, then amped up the broadcast volume, while Blintzie was focused on Franz, Kliban, and Vipsania. There's a ton of stuff in here and it can't all be traps (even if Vipsania has shown that much of it can be used as ammunition). Besides, I don't think Hydrargyros would have programmed funny bonus bats. Brother Marcus might. Edit: Hector thinking he himself is a ghost could have planted the idea, and Brother Marcus could have run with that. Hector grabbed the FunMADD controller off Marcus a few pages ago, so he's been recently reminded of Hector.
Le'letha
2023-07-08 01:53:54 +0000 UTCAt first, it seems that the idea that this "ghost dragon skeleton" is a projection that was activated by Brother Marcus, as one of the many traps in Hydrargyros' treasure room is a reasonable explanation, but the more I think about it the harder it is for me to make sense of it. This "trap" seems designed to frighten people away, not hurt or kill them. But we have already seen several traps (flame grating, bottomless pit, FunMADD, spikes) that are designed to produce major injury or death, so why bother including a harmless "defense" option? Hydrargyros certainly didn't seem as if he would have had any qualms about killing his enemies. Plus, it makes no sense at all that something that was meant to frighten intruders away would be in the treasure room, inside Hydrargyros' Lair, which is supposed to be extremely difficult to get into. It should be a first line of defense, outside the Lair, to be encountered before the deadly traps. Plus when was this "trap" constructed and why? It really is only effective if Hydrargyros is believed to be dead. Would Hydrargyros have had it made before he died, to be used only after he had passed on? Did someone else construct this device after Hydrargyros died? If so, who? And why?
William Ansley
2023-07-07 23:13:43 +0000 UTCThere are two other skeletal bats on this page. One is towards the upper left corner of the drawing; it is hard to see because it isn't in front of a black background. The other is in the upper right corner; it is very hard to see because it is obscured by the letters "SURE" in "TREASURE". It is easier to see in the pencil sketch version of the illustration.
William Ansley
2023-07-07 22:42:45 +0000 UTC
