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Girl Genius
Cinderella

The title card

A production of Cinderella is part of the 2008 end-of-year, end-of-volume-VIII (on the web, not in the book), special features. It was published in Girl Genius:Nuts and Bolts.

Cinderella-pumpkin

Cinderella's gourd-based thaumaturgically-generated transportation device

The 22-page story opens with chaos backstage — the Professors are having greater complications presenting live theatre than they do radio shows, including costume complaints and a last-minute script adaptation by the Professora and female leads. Assoc. Professor Wright announces that the audience cannot escape now, and the curtain goes up.

The scene is set with a well-sponsored proclamation of a Royal Science Faire, which Stepmamma Gkika plans to have one of her Jägerdaughters win. She turns to her stepdaughter, Sleeping Beauty Snow White Rapunzel Ozma Rose Red Riding Hood Rumpelstiltskin (No Last Name), whom everybody calls "Cinderella" to save on oxygen. Cinderella provides three very simple science projects, but gets steamed when she's forbidden to enter her own. After some petty revenge, she realizes she can kick back and enjoy the peace, quiet, and fish reciting Shakespeare until her fairy godmother shows up.

After a near-instant mastery of thaumaturgy, Cinderella utters a paraphrase of of the third of Clark's Three Laws, "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" and is off to the ball where the Twin Princes, inordinately fond of miniature volcanoes, are suffering through the exhibits, including those of the Stepjägers (Maxim makes an uncanny dame and seems to be far too "into" the role).

After a grand entrance, Cinderella inspires an ever escalating competition between the Princes to become the sole focus of her attention - which is all beer and skittles for the audience, but only proves to Cinderella it's time for her real science project to be revealed. Once she does, and has a brief confrontation with the King, she fulfills her stepmother's prediction and has all the time she wants to check out the Princes' tool belts.

Page descriptions and forum links can be found in the Chronology.

Possibly relevant outside information[]

  • There are many humorous references to real-world people, places, and things in this story, with the usual preponderance of them being shoutouts to other webcomics. These are all listed in the Chronology entries for the story (see above), but some of the non-webcomic highlights are:
    • The Fairy Godmother's wand has Ral Partha written on it . This reference is somewhat oblique, since Ral Partha is a company well-known for making some of the earliest miniature figures for fantasy role playing games, not props.
    • During the Grand Ball scene the music is played by a Sparky one-man orchestra labeled P. D. Q. Bach engine.
  • According to the Wikipedia article on Hamlet, Cinderella is said to be the most common plot filmed, while Hamlet (which the Goldfish recites in this first Foglio version) is the second.
  • This story is presented in the style of a "panto", with - as is typical for anything around Agatha - several of the conventions inverted or subverted. The traditional audience participation is inferrable.

See Also[]

List of Girl Genius and Related Short Stories

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