Agatha's Locket
From Girl Genius
| Agatha's locket | |
 | |
| Creator | Barry Heterodyne |
| Purpose | Suppressing the abilities of a Spark; also has unusual and not-fully-explored effects on multiple consciousnesses. |
| First Appearance | Really, really early. |
There are lockets and then there are Lockets. The one of interest to us here is the gadget that was bestowed upon Agatha Heterodyne by her uncle Barry when she was a child. It was imbued with the power to suppress her Spark by inducing painful migraines whenever she attempted to enter the madness place, breaking her concentration and forcing her to behave "normally".
This may seem like a nasty thing to do for one's beloved niece, but there was method to Uncle Barry's madness. Many Sparks die young as a result of building their first creation -- a process known as "breaking through" -- before they have the wisdom to control that which they create. As a result, either their clanks kill them, or the enemies they turn the clank against do. Presumably, Barry didn't want Agatha to start acting "Sparky" until she was old enough to deal with whatever she made the first time out. Lo and behold, this crazy idea worked. Agatha kept the Spark-suppressing locket on until she was mugged by the von Zinzer boys at age eighteen, at which time it was stolen from her, subsequently broken, and her Spark started to make itself known. Her first clank followed shortly, with no significant ill effects, and an awesomely powerful Spark was born.
Agatha would regain her locket much later, as a result of a complicated chain of events (Some details of which, like how it got from Moloch von Zinzer's hands and into Wulfenbach's or how it was repaired have yet to be revealed). And just in time too, as when she put it back on, it negated her possession by The Other. Even better, now her mind has developed to where she can do Sparky things even while wearing the locket, so she kinda gets the best of both worlds. Woe be to us all, however, if she ever takes the locket off again ... Fortunately, Zeetha, who knows Agatha well by way of Kolee-dok-Zumil, stopped her the one time she started to remove it, but a certain dramatic tension is going to surround this gadget for the foreseeable future.
We have some idea what the innards of this particular locket look like, including pictures of Lucrezia Mongfish Heterodyne and Bill Heterodyne. It was in the cover of Issue 10 of the Comic Book, and also currently appears as part of studiofoglio.com's Free Stuff. It can also be seen being held by the Baron, the cause of That Naughty Flashback Scene.
In The Future, the Locket appears to have "grown" wings, but as to what causes that... well... only the Foglio's can tell..
[edit] Fan Theories
For speculation and discussion, see Agatha's Locket on the forum.
