Girl Genius/Tropes D-F

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Tropes for Girl Genius, D to F

D-E

• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Castle Heterodyne. To the point where once it finds out that Othar Tryggvassen is a hero, it immediately dumps him down a bottomless pit. Of course, the castle knows all about heroes...

Castle Heterodyne: Oh tosh, if we was a real hero--
Othar Tryggvassen: (comes through the door dusting himself off) This is an annoying place, isn't it?

• Dark Action Girl
  • 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.
  • These days, Zola is giving DuPree stiff competition for that title.
• Dartboard of Hate: Violetta had one after she was Reassigned to Antarctica.
• Deadly Upgrade: Moveit #11 makes the user a LOT stronger and faster. It is also fatal or nearly fatal to the user.
• Deadpan Snarker: Krosp and Moloch. Sometimes Dr. Sun has such moments. And Zeetha.
• Death Glare
  • Gil gives one to Zeetha along with a brief World of Cardboard Speech.
  • The normally unflappable Airman Higgs demonstrates an impressive one.
• Death Is Cheap: 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. 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.
• Death of the Hypotenuse
  • Lars, anyone?
  • The current arc is an inversion of this, since a new hypotenuse came into play and the majority of the current arc has been spent preventing his death.
  • And one of the "what if" stories even lampshaded this topic in amusing fashion. Why two love interests? (Giant grins from two female cast members and female co-author.) "Deal with it."
• Death Ray: 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 comes back with his toy improved to One-Hit Kill large armored vehicles.
• 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 Nice Hat.
• Defictionalization: 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)")
• Deliberately Monochrome: 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. 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.
• Detached Sleeves: Sleipnir; Zola
• Determinator
  • "Let me tell you about Airman Higgs." Airman Higgs got Baron Wulfenbach out of a burning airship and to safety. During which, he had to deal with a bunch of monsters, an irate Captain DuPree, and a goose, breaking three out of four limbs in the process and getting an infected bite. He managed to get to a town despite his injuries, where he got shot in his last undamaged limb. He informed the local garrison of Wulfenbach's predicament, then passed out.
    And for his next act, he attacks Zola while she's juiced up on a full vial of Movit #11, moving faster than she can even though she has drug-enhanced speed. He gets run through and still hits her two more times before he even notices the pain. And it looks like he isn't done fighting yet...
  • Gil has his Determinator moments as well, especially when Agatha is in danger:

Gil: I am Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, little man -- and there is nothing I couldn't do, had I cause! And now... now I have one!

• Deus Exit Machina: Castle Heterodyne is able to instantly crush anyone in a "live" room, with extraordinary precision. Naturally, all 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.
• Damsel in Distress: Zola, for a while. Considering what happens later, it may have been completely an act. Even at the time she appeared to intentionally pick up the Distress Ball to draw attention from Gil to herself. Which made the spider hazard, and its resolution, a satisfying comeuppance.
• Do-Anything Robot: Dingbots!
• Does This Remind You of Anything?
  • 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 this strip. Mad science as foreplay, full-on experimentation for the sex. Oh, and did I mention Gil was shirtless the whole time?
  • And then a threesome. With an explosive, satisfying conclusion.
  • "Wow! Really?" Also appears as a trope in plays within the comic.
  • 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: "Sorry, professor, my latest experiment ate my lecture notes..."
• Doomy Dooms of Doom
  • PIT OF DOOOOM (patent pending).
  • And the Doom Bell, which has finally been rung! DOOM!
• Dope Slap
  • Zeetha gives one to Gil here.
  • 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 here, although frankly Moloch didn't deserve it; it's just that Sparks hate having their melodramatics cut short by perfectly mundane solutions.
• Double Entendre
  • 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.
• 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?

• Drill Tank: The Deep 6 Model; also something of a Punny Name.
• Dr. Jerk
  • 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.

• Dude, Where's My Respect?: "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: Especially here, which also qualifies as a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Rustics say about Geisterdamen that they cause revenants, steal children, blight crops -- the usual, right? Then again, Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.
• Dumb Blonde: Subverted by Zola, who is using massive levels of 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.
• Dynamic Entry: Zeetha, in this strip which defines "good timing".

Professor Mezzasalma: And who the devil is this?!

• Dysfunction Junction
  • The Sturmvoraus family. Dear God, 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.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Oggie's great-great-grandson is initially seen 4-years earlier telling kids the story on the first page.
• Emperor Scientist: The entire world is run by these. Baron Wulfenbach is an especially fine specimen.
• Enfant Terrible: 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: "But I thought the Heterodyne was a girl!" "She is. That's just the boyfriend." "We're going to have to break out the little iron cages for their children, aren't we?"
• Entitled Bastard: The sneering Strinbeck orders the Pink Airship to stay in Mechanicsburg Airspace. A subsequent order to dump useless objects overboard suddenly becomes most satisfying.
• Epic Hail
  • Agatha's signal from Strumhalten.
  • The Doom Bell has been foreshadowed as this. Foreshadowing Confirmed!
• Mr. Fanservice: Gil, Tarvek, Klaus, and more.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Wow! Et tu, Dupree?
• Everyone Can See It: Mostly played straight, in that anyone who meets either Gil or Agatha and merely hears them talk about the other knows they're madly in love, but they know it too -- they just refuse to admit it (though Zeetha finally got a confession out of Gil).
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Castle Heterodyne. Also, again, Showtime!
• Evil Albino: The Geisterdamen, an order of ghostly-white priestesses who are in the service of the Other.
• Evil Gloating: 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 Is Not a Toy: Zola and Lucrezia each discovered this while trying to manipulate the other.
• Evil Laugh
  • 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.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: Oh, Zola. Zeetha wasn't throwing her sword at you. But you may wish she had.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin
  • It happens in the not-quite-canon story The Heterodyne Boys and the Dragon from Mars but nonetheless, ocean in a bottle anyone? "Truth in Packaging" indeed...
  • A book titled Using Found Objects as Weapons gets used to beat a particularly persistent enemy upside the head.
  • A De-arming Device anyone?
  • Double Subverted with in the story Maxim Buys a Hat. Because a Jager'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.
• 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.
• 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!"
• Expressive Accessory: Zeetha's headband, with the little face on it that always has the same facial expression as she does.
• The Extremist Was Right
  • Klaus, former Trope Namer.
  • Also, Tarvek ("I'm not proud of that, but...").

F

• Face Fault: The reactions to Gil "admitting" to Zola that he's really a pirate.
• Face Palm: Frequent.
  • A beautiful one in this strip.
  • An even better one at the end of this comic.
  • Two-handed face-palm for Gil on this page.
• Faking the Dead
• 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.
• Famed in Story: The Heterodyne Boys. And how!
• Famous-Named Foreigner: Zola is French. "Zola" is hardly a French first name -- and Émile Zola's last name is in fact of Italian origin.
• Fan Service
  • So very, very much gratuitous Agatha-in-her-underwear. Also impressive bosoms on basically every female character. On the other hand, it is only Victorian underwear... Not that that especially matters.
  • And let's not forget the rather lengthy section of Volume 8 where Tarvek was entirely naked save for a strategically placed bedsheet.
  • And Gil is next wandering around shirtless. Nom.
    • Don't forget this. 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.
  • And who could forget 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...
  • And now, we have "Revenge of the Weasel Queen", in which Agatha and Zeetha end up wearing BUNNY outfits. Although these "bunny outfits" are not quite what one might assume.
  • To summarize, though, the reason for such high-quality versions of this trope, all you need do is look at the Bleached Underpants section, above.
• 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.
• Fan Service with a Smile: Zeetha noted that they got their crowd after Gilgamesh accidently stripped her of her clothes.
• Fantastic Racism: 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 elite troops of the most dangerous conquerors around, and enjoy this).
  • But not in Mechanicsburg. There it's "By monsters, for monsters".
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Baron Oublenmach should be afraid now... very afraid.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Maxim, with a glove and a spiked shoulderpad on one side.
• 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.
• Five-Man Band
  • The previous generation in the Heterodyne Boys stories;
    • The Hero: Bill Heterodyne
    • The Smart Guy: Barry Heterodyne
    • The Lancer: Klaus Wulfenbach
    • The Big Guy: Punch and Judy
    • The Chick: Lucrezia Mongfish
  • New generation;
    • The Hero: Agatha Heterodyne
    • The Lancer: Gilgamesh Wulfenbach
    • The Smart Guy: Tarvek Sturmvoraus
    • The Big Girl: Zeetha
    • The Chick: Krosp
• Flanderization: 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 tries to give an actor advice on how to play him authentically, but all of it requires casting out what makes his act so successful.
• Flashback Effects: Sepia tones.
• Flip Personality: Lucrezia and Agatha. No outward signs of transition, but obviously different personalities.
• Fluffy the Terrible: The Fun-sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers, a.k.a. the Devil dogs.
• Follow the Chaos: How Adam and Lilith locate Agatha aboard Castle Wulfenbach.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The aptly-named Doombell.
• For the Lulz: Apparently, this is why Castle Heterodyne kills people. Because it "will be fun".
• For Science!: Girl Genius would not exist without this trope. Lampshaded.
• Foreign Cuss Word
  • Klaus' "Götterdämmerung!"
  • Zola will mutter "Merde!" when riled up enough.
  • "Vot der dumboozle?"
• Foreshadowing: Several.
  • 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.

• Fork Fencing: Cranked Up to Eleven, as can be expected of Sparks, with Gil's Hand-cranked Runcible Gun.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: How does Agatha even breathe in some of those outfits?
• Freeze Ray: 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: There's an implied inversion with the Heterodyne Boys. It looks like they grew up good because they were raised by the Muse of Protection, rather than this.
• Friendly Enemies: Invoked here in the last panel.
• Friend or Foe: The Jägers have an excellent way of solving the problems presented by this trope.
• Forgotten Phlebotonium: If Gilgamesh gets his way, that damn hat!
• Funetik Aksent: De Jägers hall talk like dis, sveethot!
• Funny Background Event: The Foglios love this. Early on while on board the Castle Wulfenbach, there's:
  • 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.)
  • 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 in this strip.