This article is about a member of:
- House Heterodyne. For others in the lineage or other uses, see Heterodyne (disambiguation).
- House Mongfish. For others in the lineage or other uses, see Mongfish (disambiguation).
- the Clay Family. For others in the family or other uses, see Clay (disambiguation).
- "I have a lot of things to do. If I drop everything to make
- a girly fuss over him, we could all wind up dead." [1]
Agatha Heterodyne is the main character and eponymous Girl Genius. She's a strong Spark and the last known member of the famous Heterodyne family. As the main character, a summary of every event in which the protagonist is involved would be impossibly long. This article is mostly limited to events that Agatha is aware of, that affect her deeply, and that are likely to come up again as the narrative unfolds.
For a more in-depth analysis of her character, see Agatha's mad page.
Early Life
Agatha is the daughter of Lucrezia Mongfish and Bill Heterodyne. She was their second child, the first being Klaus Barry Heterodyne, who died while still very young. The circumstances of her birth are a mystery. The only clue we have is that, according to Lady Vrin, she is the holy child long sought by the Geisterdamen and later stolen by persons unknown ✣ . Wherever and however Agatha first appeared in the world, no one expected that there was a second Heterodyne heir.
Agatha was raised by her Uncle Barry until the age of seven. During her earliest years, he kept the family moving ✣ in order to stay hidden. [2] One day, Barry left ✣ on a secret mission, entrusting Agatha to the protective and tender Adam and Lilith Clay, and never returned. Adam and Lilith (in reality, the famous pair of constructs, Punch and Judy) raised her in Beetleburg under the name "Agatha Clay". Agatha remained unaware that she was either a Spark or a Heterodyne throughout her early life due to a locket given to her by Barry. What became of her natural parents or her Uncle Barry is anyone's guess.
Lab Assistant
When the story opens, Agatha is 18 years old ✣ and a student at Transylvania Polygnostic University, where she works under the watchful eye ✣ of Doctor Tarsus Beetle, who is the only other person besides the Clays who know Agatha's true identity.
That day turns out to be exceptionally bad. She is startled ✣ by a foreboding electrical anomaly, her locket is stolen ✣ by Omar von Zinzer, Dr. Beetle is killed ✣ by Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, and she is expelled from the university. Later, she builds her first working clank in her sleep, which results in her being ✣ kidnapped ✣ and taken aboard Castle Wulfenbach.
On the castle, Agatha reluctantly ✣ pretends ✣ to be Moloch von Zinzer's girlfriend, until he threatens her. She also meets the students and gets to know Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, but cannot reconcile her enjoyment ✣ of his company with his having killed Dr. Beetle (accident or no), nor with his harsh treatment of the initially charming and heroic Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer. It's on Castle Wulfenbach that Agatha builds ✣ Dingbot Prime, acquires ✣ her first ally, Krosp I, and is introduced ✣ to the Jägergenerals.
It's also here where she has her first real adventure. The hive engine that was in Dr. Beetle's lab is activated by the sleeper revenant Mr. Rovainen and an accidental command ✣ from Agatha. With help from Agatha's Electric Foils and Dingbots, Gil and Agatha destroy the hive engine together. Euphoric, Agatha kisses ✣ Gil. He is instantly smitten and makes the worst marriage proposal ✣ Agatha has ever heard. Agatha takes umbrage at the idea of getting married just to annoy Klaus, but never gets a chance to answer Gil since Othar "rescues" her from Gil and is then thrown out a window and seemingly to his death. As Adam and Lilith attempt to wisk Agatha out of the Castle, Klaus recognizes them as the Heterodyne constructs Punch and Judy and deduces that Agatha is the child of Bill Heterodyne and Lucrezia Mongfish. Agatha escapes, but Von Pinn eliminates Punch and Judy.
Actress
Agatha and her liege cat ✣ , Krosp I, flee in a stolen airship with Othar Tryggvassen who was waiting for her by it. They part ways ✣ when Agatha refuses to be Othar's 'plucky girl sidekick' and, with Krosp's help, pushes Othar out of the airship.
In the Wastelands, Agatha runs straight at danger to save Master Payne's Circus of Adventure from a rogue Spider Clank. The Circus then helps Agatha fake ✣ her death to throw off the Wulfenbach pursuit. Agatha acquires her second ally when Zeetha, Daughter of Chump takes ✣ Agatha as her Zumil. She acquires her third set of allies when the three wild Jägers that she freed ✣ from the town of Zumzum come to her aid ✣ at Passholdt. Agatha learns a lot about herself in the Wastelands, getting conflicting advice concerning heroics from Othar[3] and Master Payne.[4]
While performing the role of Lucrezia Mongfish in the Circus's Heterodyne plays, Agatha forms an attachment ✣ to Lars. Following a command ✣ performance at Castle Sturmvoraus, the young actress is taken prisoner ✣ in rapid succession by Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus, then by Anevka Sturmvoraus, and then by Lady Vrin. Throughout it all, Agatha is alternately aided and hindered by the machinations of Prince Tarvek.
Vrin and the Geisterdamen use the "Holy Machine" to download ✣ another personality into Agatha—a personality that they believe is their goddess, Lucrezia Mongfish, Agatha's mother, and The Other. As Agatha fights a losing struggle for control of her own body, she builds ✣ a distress signal to warn the world and the Baron.
Agatha finally regains control when Lucrezia puts on ✣ the damping locket that Baron Wulfenbach repaired. When Lars intercepts ✣ a killing blow from the Baron meant for Agatha, Agatha learns about rage ✣ . She recovers her perspective only after becoming the subject of the first successful test of the calming pie. The Circus creates a mass illusion ✣ of the Heterodyne Boys to cover Agatha's escape from the Battle of Sturmhalten.
Mechanicsburg
The Circus retreats ✣ to England, but Agatha advances to Mechanicsburg to take possession of Castle Heterodyne. There, she is elated ✣ to watch Gil stop an invading army of battle clanks. Agatha encounters competition from that other Heterodyne heiress, Zola, but on the strength of some very fine ✣ coffee-making, she convinces former seneschal Carson von Mekkhan to get her into ✣ the castle.
Inside the castle, Agatha attempts to take control and begin repairs while Zola and the prisoners[5] hunt her.[6] Agatha is tested ✣ by the castle, and accepted as a Heterodyne. This gives her control of the castle and command of Mechanicsburg's air defenses, though her first command leads ✣ to a confrontation with Castle Wulfenbach.
As Volume 8 ends and Volume 9 begins, Agatha rescues ✣ Tarvek from one of her Castle's rogue defensive systems, drops him off in a "medical lab" after a brief peck to his cheek and goes in search of Gil (who is also trespassing ✣ in her Castle) so he can heal Tarvek. She captures Zola and brings Gil to the lab where Tarvek is on the slab. She heals a gunshot Gil suffered and apologizes for her anger at Gil for tossing Othar off of Castle Heterodyne. Tarvek is initially diagnosed with Chromatic Death ✣ , but is then proved to have Hogfarb's Resplendent Immolation. Using various torture devises lying around, Gil and Agatha construct a device to perform the Si Vales Valeo resurrection on Tarvek to clean out the disease. This involves hooking up Gil to Tarvek so that Tarvek has a healthy person to leach from and not die or go insane. This fails due to the castle having an energy crisis, so Gil and Tarvek are fit with portable Si Vales Valeo devices so they can help repair the machinery that pulls energy from the Dyne, a river that runs through Mechanicsburg and is infused with a powerful and mysterious energy. Just before descending into the basements, Agatha begins to show symptoms of Hogfarb's Immolation. When the Castle refuses to allow the deployment of her proposed solution to this problem, she shuts it down using the device that The Storm King conspiracy smuggled in and assembled. Following numerous further complications and interruptions, the process is successfully completed, healing all three of the victims. Agatha and her assembled friends and minions then proceed to restart and repair the Castle (along with Von Pinn/Otilia), fighting off repeated attacks from Zola and then Captain Vole and Professor Tiktoffen. Gil and Tarvek depart the scene for Castle Wulfenbach, voluntarily or otherwise. The Doom Bell is rung, and Agatha is officially announced ✣ as the Heterodyne and the new ruler of Mechanicsburg.
This of course doesn't make anything easier, as the Baron's reported death brings every crazed would-be Spark-ruler within 100 kilometers out of the woodwork to attack the town. On the positive side, the Jaegers also return en masse and Franz the dragon awakens to defend the returned Heterodyne. Zeetha drags Agatha away from repairing clanks, and finds her a more suitable "suit" of armor ✣ to wear. Agatha is reunited with Tarvek, and they finally get to smooch ✣ . Unsurprisingly, it soon turns out the Baron is still alive, and proceeds to throw all of his assembled forces at Mechanicsburg as well. Things are further complicated by the arrival ✣ of The Real Knights of Jove, headed by Martellus von Blitzengaard. Agatha fights off an attempt by an oddly-behaving Gil to carry her back to Castle Wulfenbach and is able to fully re-power ✣ the Castle Heterodyne, which proceeds to drive the Wulfenbach armies from the town. Agatha then leads a procession to the Red Cathedral for further ceremonies establishing her as the Heterodyne. This process is simultaneously interrupted by the Baron's personal descent ✣ into Mechanicsburg with his Take-Five Bomb and Martellus's kidnapping Agatha and dragging ✣ her through the Monolith gate in the depths of the Cathedral.
Post-Timeskip
Agatha, Tweedle, Krosp and Violetta emerge ✣ into The Refuge of Storms, where they learn to their universal surprise that thanks to the Baron's Timeskip, they have lost two and a half years. Tweedle alters Agatha's body chemistry to make her physically dependent on his touch, but she is able in turn to transfer this need to a Wasp eater and successfully flee ✣ the Refuge. She is reunited with a fully-repaired Adam and Lilith, and learns things have not gone well in her absence; the Pax Transylvania is no more, the Other is loose on the land and The Long War has returned with a vengeance. An obsessed Gil controls ✣ the area around Mechanicsburg, and Agatha decides to travel to the intellectual capital Paris in hopes of finding a way to break the stasis-bubble around Mechanicsburg. She and her companions set out ✣ on the Corbettite Railway engine the Wyrm of Limerick, but their journey is almost immediately interrupted when the train is attacked by Count Wolkerstorfer and the bear-like Swartzwalders, who are chasing Wyrm-passenger Margarella Selnikov. The passengers are air-lifted to the Corbettite Depot Fortress of St. Szpac ✣ , where, for as yet undetermined reasons, Lady Margarella releases The Beast, which proceeds to rampage through the fortress. Matters are not improved by the arrival of Tweedle at the head of an army, still intending to claim Agatha as his bride.
In Our Next Episode
As witnessed by Bangladesh DuPree, at some point in the not terribly distant future, Agatha (or someone who looks very much like her..) will use ✣ a time-viewing device with Gil, Moloch and at least one Geisterdamen in attendance.
Word of God states that Agatha's future itinerary will include Paris, England, Africa, and Skifander.
Command Voice
(See main article: Command voice.)
There is a series of incidents ✣ in which commands given by Agatha's voice ✣ (usually while in the madness place) exact obedience ✣ from servants of the Other.
However, a quality of her voice ✣ also clearly marks her as a Heterodyne heir.
Agatha's Spark
Agatha heterodyning
Agatha first ✣ performed the characteristic Heterodyne humming at age 5. This is the earliest breakthrough known, the second ✣ earliest being Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. Her uncle Barry feared that a breakthrough ✣ at such an early age could be disastrous, and built ✣ her a locket that suppressed her Spark until the story's beginning.
Like most strong sparks, Agatha's style is hard to define because she is marvelously proficient at a number of sparky disciplines. More importantly, she is still a student. However, she seems to specialize in mechanical engineering; her breakthrough creation is a clank, and she produces perhaps the smallest known clank soon afterward - Dingbot Prime - which assists ✣ her in building generations of miniature self-replicating clanks. These are a key factor in her first victory against Baron Wulfenbach. However, she shows a knack for surprisingly potent ✣ Death rays. Agatha has not yet created a construct in canon and her medical skills are limited ✣ , at least at present.
Creations
(in order of appearance)
- Search Engine
- Dingbot Prime and other Dingbots—self-replicating miniature clanks
- Othar-Rescuing machine[7]
- Electric foils[8]
- several portable Death rays
- repurposed Silverodeon,[9] together with the Battle Circus[10] and Baba Yaga
- holographic recorder-projector ✣
- Personal Trainer ✣ exo-skeleton (non-canon)
- Fashion Clank (non-canon)
- Coffee engine capable of producing perfect coffee
Lady Heterodyne
Less than a week after she entered Mechanicsburg, Agatha ✣ has been acknowledged by the castle and the residents of Mechanicsburg as Lady Heterodyne. A great honor. If she lives.
Outside information
Agatha's appearance is based on the way Phil used to draw Kaja Foglio. Kaja explains in this old Livejournal post how Agatha was initially designed and why her hair is such a vibrant red-blonde color.
Agatha’s “heterodyning”—the humming/singing noise she makes while thinking Sparky thoughts—was partly inspired by Doc Savage’s famous trill (in the works of Lester Dent).[11] Doc would unconsciously produce the sound while thinking or fighting.
Shortly before the publication of the Secret Blueprints in February, 2001, issue 279 of Dragon Magazine with the cover date January 2001 contained a page of What's New with Phil and Dixie which had characters strongly resembling both Agatha and Krosp in one panel. (Krosp had previously been named in pages of that comic which appeared in Duelist.)[12]
Physical Prowess
In this picture, Agatha is holding onto the handle of a helicopter dingbot with her right hand while holding onto Doctor Tiktoffen with her left arm. Tiktoffen must weigh at least 100 kg (220 lbs). This is not an inconsiderable feat for a girl.
Impressive. Most impressive.
See also
Secret Blueprints: Agatha Clay/Agatha Heterodyne
References
- ↑ Agatha settles Pinkie's hash. ✣
- ↑ Why Barry kept her hidden is not entirely clear, though Klaus seems to favor the theory that it was at least partly from him. "You've obviously been hiding from me all these years." ✣
- ↑ "You ran straight at ✣ danger without even thinking.
- ↑ "Our lives ... are dangerous enough without ✣ questing for adventure."
- ↑ "Is everyone I know in here, or is it just everyone who hates me?" ✣
- ↑ Zola promises ✣ freedom and gold to whoever kills Agatha, and more importantly, threatens ✣ to kill anyone who won't.
- ↑ "Fear not! Soon you will be safe ✣ !"
- ↑ "Build something." ✣
- ↑ "That music!" ✣
- ↑ "Showtime." ✣
- ↑ Related to, or implied in part by Kaja's comment here.
- ↑ Based on The Phil Foglio Gallimaufry.