Discussion thread for Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess. Beware, Here There be SPOILERS

[hippogrif]

Welcome.

This is a thread for discussing the Girl Genius novelization Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, as well as all Girl Genius in general. The subject matter is the property of Phil and Kaja Foglio.

No spoilers are required in this thread. The assumption is you've read the material already. That is why this thread exists--to provide a place for people to talk without having to try to avoid giving away secrets.

I own this account. If you're rude or a jackass, I will delete your post. If you're debating in good faith and not annoying the natives, I won't. If people really can't behave, I'll delete the whole fershlugginer thread.

Have fun. Talk at will. If you don't want spoilers, run away now.

Hippogrif.

Comments

Re: Tarvek Detail

[claudeng]

I wonder if that adds another reason why Klaus tests Gil so harshly - he's family, and as he sees it they will be judged as a unit. Gil reflects on him, and can NOT be seen as a weakness. So the testing is not just looking to the future and preparing Gil to take his place, but also maintaining the current family image. Keeping him hidden might have been sparing him for a while.

Re: Tarvek Detail

[hippogrif]

Keeping him hidden was certainly sparing him for a while, in many-many ways. Being free of the image and performance issues of being a Wulfenbch in public is certainly one of those ways...though a way more than compensated for by the obligation to hide who he was entirely once Gil was in on the secret.

I keep waiting for Gil and Tarvek to recognize just how profoundly alike they are, and what vital details differentiate between the two, in particular that Gil could for the most part assume Klaus was acting in Gil's best interests, though taking Europa's needs into account. Aaronev for whatever reasons appears to have been entirely dedicated to Lucrezia to the extent that Tarvek could not count on any protection if it conflicted with Aaronev's underlying obsessions. It's got to be deeply disturbing to know your parent really does tend to see you far more as a pawn in a complicated game than as beloved offspring.

Klaus is capable of similar thinking but does appear to have also conveyed real love to Gil, and vice versa. Tarvek, on the other hand, seems to have cared for Aaronev to at least a degree, but always with layers of knowledge that Aaronev could easily turn on him.

I liked how they handed the sequence of Aaronev trying to put Agatha in the chair in the novel. It was more clear that Tarvek was dealing with a powerful and entirely unreliable and violent mad man who happened to be Prince of the domain surrounded by his own men...placing the son in a very weak position, especially given that Tarvek's survival mode for years had been to pass as useless and helpless.