Webcomics: Girl Genius, A Gaslamp Fantasy.

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The Epic Of Gilgamesh  (or, an Experiment In The Application Of Forces And Coincidences To Create A Situation Of Romance And Adventure In The Gaslamp Fantasy Field)

The author acknowledges contributions from the laboratory staff at Transylvania Polygnostic University for their technical help in post-mortem examination, sample collection and processing. The funding for this study was provided by Overlord Inc. (a subsidiary of von Wulfenbach Enterprises. )

Frankenstein Weekly: Bringing New Theories To Life! The Official Journal of the Transylvania Polygnostic University.

Section 14: Papers And Articles.

The Epic Of Gilgamesh: (or, An Experiment In The Application of Forces and Coincidences To Create A Situation Of Adventure And Romance in the Gaslamp Fantasy Field.)

A ‘Girl Genius 101’ FST

 By X. Ahra99 (BSc, MRCVS, Gsc, Ssc*) 

 On 16.3.2005 a comic called ‘Girl Genius’, published by the esteemed Phil and Kaja Foglio, changed to a web-based format. It involved an attractive blond called Agatha (a lab assistant) , Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach (a mad scientist), Gilgamesh von Wulfenbach (his son), and a host of supporting characters including Bangladesh Dupree (a pirate), Krosp I (The Emperor of All Cats), Othar Tryggvasen (a Hero) , the Jagermonsters, and the mysterious Heterodyne Boys. The rest (as they say) is history. This paper aims to discuss this phenomenon in some detail….

Materials And Methods:
The Characters Involved.

Freezepop- Science Genius Girl(Hi Phi Edit).
I'm a science genius girl, I won the science fair. I wear a white lab coat, DNA strands in my hair..
Agatha Clay is a lab assistant at the renowned Transylvania Polygnostic university. She’s a hopeless student but somehow manages to survive -until an unfortunate mishap involving a lost locket, a nest full of slaver wasps and the unexpected manifestation of her talent as a ‘spark’** leads to her expulsion.

The Lucksmiths-There Is A Boy Who Never Goes Out.
I’m trying not to be so antisocial. Truth be told, I’m not entirely hopeful…
Gilgamesh is the son of Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach. He is also a spark and is being groomed to succeed the Baron after his death. *** He has a soft spot for Agatha a mile wide, a likely consequence of finding an attractive young woman who looks good in a nightgown and can debate the relative merits of heat dumps and coolant lines for hours on end.

Jonathan Coulton- Skullcrusher Mountain.
Welcome to my secret lair on Skullcrusher Mountain. I hope that you’ve enjoyed your stay so far…
Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach is a spark and ruthless tyrant man of great genius who used to be a companion of the fabled Heterodyne Boys. He owns most of Europe and travels between his fiefdoms in the airship Castle Wulfenbach. Rumours that he may be insane (or, at the least, slightly unbalanced), are completely untrue and punishable by execution.

Andrew W.K-Ready To Die.
We shoot without a gun, we'll take on anyone. It's really nothing new, it's just a thing we like to do.
The Jagermonsters are constructs created by the Heterodynes in less enlightened and politically correct times. They act as mercenaries for the Baron and are always ready for a fight.

Aimee Mann-The Scientist (acoustic).
Oh, let's go back to the start. Running in circles, coming of tales. Heads are a science apart. Nobody said it was easy. Oh, it's such a shame for us to part.
Bill and Barry Heterodyne were sparks who travelled the world fighting evil. There is no verifiable evidence that Agatha really is the child of Bill Heterodyne and the evil Dr Mongfish’s beautiful daughter Lucrezia. The rumours that Agatha’s parents, Adam and Lilith Clay, are really Punch and Judy (the Heterodynes’ famous mechanical constructs), are likewise completely unsubstantiated. 
The adventures of the Heterodynes are recounted in many easily located yet unreliable sources such as ‘The Heterodyne Boys and the Pneumatic Oyster‘, ‘The Heterodyne Boys and the Race to the West Pole‘, and ‘The Heterodyne Boys and the Dragon from Mars.’. Reports of their death may have been greatly exaggerated. 

Results:
The Baron von Wulfenbach soon becomes aware of a the presence of a spark of great natural ability. He takes Agatha and the soldier Moloch von Zinzer aboard his airship for further study- but mistakes Agatha for Moloch’s inept lab assistant. 

Thomas Dolby-She Blinded Me With Science.
It's poetry in motion. She turned her tender eyes to me, as deep as any ocean. As sweet as any harmony. Mmm - but she blinded me with science.
Gil suspects that there is more to Agatha than she seems. At first they don’t exactly hit it off, but their shared love of machinery creates a common bond.

Thea Gilmore-We Built A Monster.
This thing can cross oceans in its seven league boots. It can chew the money tree right down to its roots. The ship of a state can go under in minutes. You don’t know the flood is coming until you’re swimming in it.
Agatha’s mechanical talents are still almost supernaturally bad, but she begins to build machines in her sleep -machines that (unlike all her previous experiments) actually work. However, she can’t explain how she did it, or even what they do.

The Arrogant Worms-Lonely Lab Of Broken Hearts.
I'm in the lonely lab of broken hearts. I dissect the way you say goodbye until it falls apart. I’m in the lonely lab of feelin' blue. And my pheromones can find no trace of you.
However, Agatha soon departs with Krosp, the Emperor Of All Cats, in a private dirigible. Gilgamesh assumes that she is dead, which understandably upsets him.

Discussion.
The initial relationship between the characters having been established, we turn to more advanced matters of plot (and their consequences).

Moxy Fruvous-Entropy.
It's entropy you see that turns finesse into mess. A palace to a pig sty, why, it's simply scandalous.
Things inevitably seem to get complicated around Agatha. She accepts a job with a travelling ‘Heterodyne Show‘; a troupe of players who make money performing plays modelled on the adventures of the Heterodyne Boys. It soon becomes apparent that she is very much alive, an extremely powerful spark, and the missing Heterodyne heir. Gilgamesh is delighted by this news. However, the Baron becomes concerned that Agatha is involved with the mysterious enemy named only the ’Other,’ when she is kidnapped by the Prince of Sturmhalten. Whew!

Daft Punk-Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.
Work It Harder Make It Better. Do It Faster Makes Us Stronger. More Than Ever Hour After.
Our Work Is Never Over.
The von Wulfenbach men cope with this problem in their characteristic ways. The Baron sends a army of clanks**** to the castle of Sturmhalten to recapture Agatha. Gilgamesh, confined to his laboratory, attempts to reanimate Agatha’s ostensible parent s-the constructs Adam and Lilith Clay. He sends the English spy Ardsley Wooster to rescue Agatha in his place.

Conclusion:
The conclusion of this study is as follows:

MC Hawking-What We Need More Of Is Science.
I'm a disciple of science. I know the universe is compliance with natural laws,
but many place reliance on the pseudo-science of quacks and morons and fools because,
their educations deficient, they put faith in omniscient, make believe beings who control their fate.
The author believes that the conclusion reached during the process of this study is entirely self-explanatory.

Extra: Tom Smith- The Transylvania Polygnostic University Fight Song

The author acknowledges contributions from the laboratory staff at Transylvania Polygnostic University for their technical help in post-mortem examination, sample collection, and processing.  The funding for this study was provided by Overlord Inc., a subsidiary of von Wulfenbach Enterprises.

Footnotes:
Addendums.

* Bronze swimming Certificate, Silver Swimming Certificate

** Technological magician. Colloquially known as 'mad scientists'. However, this is an outdated and quite incorrect term that is no longer endorsed by Transylvanian Polytechnic.

***Grooming in this case means 'being forced to undertake a variety of often quite dangerous tests of mental and physical aptitude'.

**** Mechanical robots.

References:
Sources used in the research of this paper.

Girl Genius ( http://www.girlgeniusonline.com ) is an online comic written by Phil and Kaja Foglio. It is updated on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Genius) is a free encyclopaedia, edited by its readers and of dubious (and hotly debated) accuracy. The Girl Genius entry, however, is very useful.

Xahra99 is a sometime scientist and all-round geek.

Links:

Rapidshare
http://rapidshare.com/files/35031556/GirlGeniusfst.zip.html 

Megauploadhttp://www.megaupload.com/?d=TI1JAB7B