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Scope:
After spending some time reading Girl-Genius web-comic I was convinced to buy the first two books (Agatha H. and the Airship City, Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess). I am enjoying reading through these, and my question relates to the subject of constructs described in the books, but also shown in the webcomic outside of the books.

Context:

Initially the characters Punch and Judy (aka Adam and Lilith Clay), both Frankenstein style constructs and foster parents of the main character Agatha are sterile. Interior to the story they are killed by Von Pinn, then brought back by super-spark/genius Gilgamesh. After this they have at least one child.

In the Frankenstein narrative, the scientist is terrified of creating a race of super-beings. The "monster" asks for a wife, but the scientist makes then destroys it. Both the monster and the scientist see the creature as something of its own species, though constructed of "human parts". The knowledge of inheritance or DNA was unknown in the 1818 - era when Shelley wrote her work, so the original Frankenstein cannot speak to it. The subtitle of Frankenstein is "modern Prometheus" - and according to myth Prometheus was the titan who made mankind for Zeus, and gave them fire. This is a second suggestion that Frankenstein was viewed as capable of procreation.

Question:
Is the offspring/born-child of these particular constructs

  1. Completely normally human
  2. Completely construct
  3. Something else

It is conceived and born of constructs that clearly have super-human capabilities.

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  • 1
    Another complication: it's never said outright, but the implication (confirmed IIRC by the Foglios) is that Klaus is himself a construct, made from the remains of three Wulfenbach brothers who died in a lab accident. Gil's mother is (presumably) human. So what does that make Gil? Feb 27, 2017 at 20:34
  • A functioning construct-spark? That is amazing! Feb 27, 2017 at 20:51

1 Answer 1

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Assuming that "Construct = Frankenstein" like Adam and Lilith, the evidence suggests that Maxinia should be regarded as #3, something else.

The kicker is that assumption, entirely. There are really a whole lot of different kinds of construct. Any type of mad science tale told in our world probably has an equivalent way to make a monster in the Girl Genius world, and that monster would be considered a construct. Boris's extra arms make him a construct, the Jagerkin drink something that Mr. Hyde would've found tasty to make them what they are, and this isn't even getting into the things that don't start from human stock, like Krosp.

The question though, seems to be asking if the baby is like Adam and Lilith. Since the baby was grown in the usual fashion, and not stitched together from parts, then the kid is nothing like them. So #2 is out.

So that leaves human or extra-human. If Maxina were completely human, it'd effectively be a child of... well, not to put too fine a point on it, but whoever's parts Adam and Lilith inherited. It's moot though; a normal human infant wouldn't be able to deliver a solid right hook like she does on Agatha. So whether as a result of their electrified vitae passing on, or something Gil did to their genetic baseline while in the process of reviving and healing them (I prefer this option, since they were sterile before that), Maxina would be considered a new kind of construct.

(It occurred to me: By this same line of reasoning, unfortunately, Adam and Lilith are both now something new, too, after Gil's reanimation. I think the answer stands as it though.)

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  • I never connected Jaegers with Hyde. I've known too many Marines, so the lingo and approach to battle isn't .. alien. I was envisioning something like bantha tanks and swamp-thing... Oct 10, 2015 at 2:18

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