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"And I am Zeetha, Daughter of Chump."'
"'Chump?'"
"A great warrior. And yes, I know what it means in your language. Amusing, yes?"
Zeetha and Gil [1]

Zeetha, daughter of Chump, lost royal princess guardian of the lost city of Skifander[2] is Agatha's traveling companion and has the unique relationship to her of "Kolee-dok-Zumil." She's easy to pick out in a crowd, with her waist-length green hair, gold-tinged skin, two unusual swords, and an occasional glimpse of what some readers call "the navel of death," not without reason. Her canine teeth are almost long enough to be properly called fangs.

Backstory[]

As explained by Madame Olga, an expedition discovered/relocated the Warrior Queen's Hidden Jewel a few years ago. (Much much later, it's revealed that the expedition was financed by the English noblewoman Ariadne Steelgarter and headed up by one Professor Consolmagno, late of Italy.) The Skifandrian Powers That Be decided to send Zeetha, a daughter of the ruling house, out of the hidden city to see what the rest of the world was getting up to. It didn't go well. Zeetha developed a raging fever on the trip and remembered nothing but the hallucinations - so she had no idea even how much time had passed. By the time she recovered, the airship had been taken by pirates, commanded by the infamous pirate queen Bangladesh DuPree (though DuPree was evidently not personally present at the time.) The pirates killed the crew and were planning to sell the exotic Zeetha. This turned out to be a mistake . After she recovered from her illness, Zeetha killed her captors, shot down the remainder of the pirate fleet, and wiped out their home fortress. Only then did it occur to her that she'd killed everyone who might possibly know how to get her home. Ah well, when a girl's having that much fun, it's hard to know when to stop.

After that, she wandered Europa looking for someone she hadn't killed who could point her in the direction of Skifander. At the time our heroine meets her, she has traveled for two years with Master Payne's Circus of Adventure.

Relationships[]

Kolee-dok-Zumil[]

Zeetha explaining kolee-dok-zumil to Agatha
When Agatha Clay confirms that Skifander isn't just a fever dream (Uncle Barry had told her stories about 'The Warrior Queen's Hidden Jewel'), Zeetha shows her gratitude by making Agatha her zumil. The Kolee-dok-Zumil relationship is hard to describe concisely, so go read the article. What starts out as useful survival skills for a girl on the run develops into an invaluable practical education for the next claimant to the Heterodyne legacy. Zeetha is the first person (other than Punch and Judy) who really exerts herself to keep Agatha alive and well. Zeetha takes learning the true scope of Agatha's quest in stride and becomes more big sister than grindstone, going so far as to babysit Agatha's boyfriend for her.

To House Wulfenbach[]

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Battle of Sturmhalten is Klaus's apparent recognition of Zeetha (at least as being from Skifander), who doesn't know him. Zeetha never gets a chance to explore how much Klaus knows about Skifander[3] besides its language, because he tries to kill her Zumil and then they must fight . Klaus later warns Gil about the green-haired girl, resulting in a classic piece of Girl Genius dialogue.

Despite Klaus's warning, Gil and Zeetha become fast friends in record time during a series of situations that could easily have fostered mistrust. Neither mistrust nor romance blooms between them, however. Whether this is merely because they both care for Agatha or for other reasons has been the subject of much Mad speculation.

Word of God has effectively stated that the father Zeetha claims is indeed Klaus, but she knows of him only under Klaus's Skifandrian name. This makes Zeetha and Gil at the very least half-siblings. Nothing documentable is known of Gil's mother. It is unclear whether or not Gil has made the connection (knowing his father, its quite likely he has no idea that he might have a sister), but it looks like Zeetha has figured it out .

The implication Klaus and Zantabraxus, the Warrior Queen of Skifander, married and had offspring is made in story by Kaja's avatar Word of God noted the matriarchal Skifandrian culture frowns on twins, The obvious assumption is that, for whatever reason,[4] Gil was the twin selected to die, but Klaus either chose to exile himself with Gil, or fled with Gil. If the latter is true, it would explain Klaus's concern that Zeetha is here to kill Gil.

Despite having at least one powerfully Sparky parent, Zeetha has shown no signs of being one herself.

Romance[]

Zeetha is something of an expert at being on the prowl . The Girl Genius Complete List of Absolutely Everybody! describes the large Yeti as her "boyfriend for a while," until she left the circus to take care of her Zumil. Later, during the bar fight at Mamma Gkika's, The Unstoppable Higgs says those words every girl longs to hear -- " Miss, you look so... " -- sparking her interest . They hook up during the Siege of Mechanicsburg, and following the Timeskip are still a romantic item, though they apparently don't get to spend much time together; they are reunited when both of them eventually make their way to England. During their stay in that kingdom, Higgs tells Zeetha who and what he really is, and she is present when he finally tells Agatha as well. The pair also gets a chance to dance together at Queen Albia's grand soiree.

Battles[]

While she is a formidable fighter, it is something of a running theme that Zeetha tends to end up on the short end of the stick when engaging in actual armed combat. She almost gets eaten by the Monster Horse Beastie which the Circus encounters, despite chopping off its head. (Sprouting a new mouth and all those tentacles is just not fair!) She ends up pinned down with Klaus's knife at her throat when they meet, but fortunately he is reluctant to actually kill her, and distractions arise. When in Castle Heterodyne, she is run through with one of her own swords by Zola (and patched back together by Violetta and Mamma Gkika.) Later in Paris she suffers a non-fatal but bruising defeat in unarmed combat against Shurdlu the Geisterdamen, who also recognizes her as being from Skifander, and then in England she almost dies at the hands of a Lucrezia-inhabited battle-clank. (Or rather "hand", as she at least manages to chop one of them off first..)

And she sometimes attacks things or blurts out information at tactically inappropriate moments. As the gal herself says, she is "not good with the subtle."

During the England arc, we get another rather momentous reveal, this one involving that aforementioned patching by Gkikka: it turns out the only way to save Zeetha was to give her a dose of Jägerdraught. It worked like a treat in the short term, but the longer range fallout from this decision remains very much to be seen.

And speaking of formidable fighters and battles, Bangladesh DuPree is in town as well, learns from former pirate Ulysses Bonny that it was Zeetha who wiped out her fortress, and gleefully makes plans to fight the other woman to the death. (The two have heard about each other through certain mutual acquaintances, and briefly cross paths in the Corbettite Depot Fortress of St. Szpac.) However, when they do finally meet again, Agatha cuts in and issues a very unsubtle and highly credible threat to Bang. An oblivious Zeetha immediately proposes they do some sparring as everyone visits the Royal Observatory; Bang of course accepts, but realizes that she is being watched by Da Boyz and Higgs, and so has to be doubly restrained. At least by her standards. The battle nevertheless disrupts one of the Observatory's displays, and Zeetha gets dragged away by Princess Neena when she mentions in passing that she can read one of the displaced plaques. This leads Our Heroes to visiting a certain nearby island, where Zeetha helps battle some Horrible Rats, and discovers a long-sealed "Skifander room", which contains among other things the long-lost twin of the Brek'kah Stone. When the local Queen's Mirror is activated using said Stone, she even gets to see her homeland. Sadly, everything goes to pieces, the Stone is lost again, and the connection gets terminally severed with only Lady Steelgarter and Higgs on the other side...

Equipment[]

Emoreflector02

I love you.

As is only right for a warrior princess, Zeetha originally wields two pata known as the "Twin Blades of Destruction".[5] The two blades are held by horizontal hafts, and are "punched" towards the opponent. The right-hand blade is a traditional double-edged sword blade, while the left-hand blade is a forked blade that is used as a sword-breaker, with the idea being to catch the opponent's sword between the two tines and twist the sword out of their hands. During the Siege of Mechanicsburg, Higgs stores the blades somewhere in the city so that she can't use them while she recuperates from the injuries Zola inflicts.[6]

Consequently, she switches to a matched pair of shorter blades, but loses those while in Paris and acquires a new pair in England. She doesn't think much of them, and Albia obliges by summoning up a new set of Skifanderian-style pata, complete with British flag adornments.

Another oft-remarked piece of Zeetha's equipment is her headband, which features a circular face ornament complementing the two on her sword harness. The face on the headband changes expression to match Zeetha's own, even when she's not wearing it ; since this is now part of the canon, it can be assumed to be some sort of sparky technology (and not just an artist's running joke, as was originally suspected). It is currently in the possession of Higgs.

The fact that she's lost almost all of her original Skifandrian gear actually becomes a plot-point while in England- Lady Steelgarter unsuccessfully schemes to covertly obtain some of said gear and use its "material harmonics" to (evidently) locate Skifander.

Zeetha has carried some additional equipment outside of canon. In the Girl Genius Radio Theatre play "Minor Heroes," she uses a pair of Skifanderian dueling hammers (one ball-peen, one claw) to go woman-a-mano with Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, much to his pummelment. In the interlude "Revenge of the Weasel Queen," she gets good Lapinemoth-kicking use out of a shovel , but that's not part of her usual arsenal. Probably.

The Future[]

If the "Mechanicsburg Solstice" flash-forward story is indeed 100% canon, it has been confirmed that Zeetha will survive the Other War and continue to adventure with Agatha as the latter woman takes up her duties as ruler of a freed Mechanicsburg.

The Novels[]

The comic proper never explicitly lists her official duties with the Circus, but the print novel Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess notes that during performances she puts on displays of fancy sword-play, and when not on stage, she watches out for things and/or people that prove to need killing; she bluntly notes she is engaging in the latter duty when she first talks to Agatha. The novel also makes a point of more clearly detailing her state of grubby despair during this scene.

Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle offers a few additional details about Chump, including that he was a visitor to Skifander who offered little information about his background beyond claiming he came from someplace called "Europa". Zeetha says an additional reason she came back with the expedition is that she wanted to find him, as he "ran away" from Skifander when she was only a month old. Though it is not made clear if this desire is part of her official assigned mission, or more personal in nature. It is also not indicated if she has ever been told by her family why Chump might have run off.

The Works[]

The Works includes a card for Zeetha who is described as Hero and Princess. Zeetha's crossed swords are depicted as identical pistol-handled rapiers.


References

  1. 2008-05-19 (Monday) At Mamma Gkika's
  2. 2010-02-26 (Friday)
  3. TGT Webcomics Podcast, Interview: Phil Foglio @ 12:00
  4. Because he was born second? Because he's male?
  5. In The Sleepy Clank, Zeetha is referred to as "Mistress of the Twin Blades of Destruction". Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, Ch. 5 mentions the Skif word for the swords: Quata'aras.
  6. 2012-04-30 (Monday)


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