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Parental Hypocrisy: The moment when Gilgamesh jumps in to play corrida with what amounts to a small locomotive with legs and arms, giving his father time to analyze its structure. Klaus roars at him for taking an unnecessary risk, but Jägermonsters eagerly express approval when they see a Badass performance, so right at the next page a Jäger sergeant quietly tells Gil that Klaus himself "doz crazy schtupid sctoff like dot all de time." Of course, as they both are mad scientists with chronic anti-hero syndrome, it wasn't likely to be the craziest for either.
The Baron stops in the middle of chasing Agatha just to make sure Zulenna gets revived (DuPree stabbed her when she was defending Agatha). When questioned, he bluntly states that it was his fault, and that the girl didn't deserve to die. He has several other moments like this, to demonstrate that even though he's a major antagonist, he is still a good man.
Lucrezia does seem rather fond of her nephew DuMedd... at first.
Bangladesh DuPree was apparently devastated once the Baron was presumed killed at the hospital seeing as the mere memory causes her to burst into tears.
After Agatha drinks from the Dyne (when Higgs offers a cup of "water" to her.) She stops it before she explodes, however, by channeling the extra energy into the dying Gil and Tarvek, revitalizing them in the process.
After Zola downs a vial of Movit 11, which is basically a supercharged energy drink, Violetta's solution to stop the rampage is to inject her with more Movit 11, which will apparently lead to a complete nervous collapse (or possibly cause her to combust).
Planet of Hats: Somewhat. The Jägermonsters' hat is not only the prominence of literal hats, it's also that these hats are to them as a sword is to a samurai.
Plot Armor: While named characters do die, it's still a rare occurrence, compared to the casualty rate of the Mooks. To show that this is not due to the characters following the What Measure Is a Mook? trope, they often try but fail to kill their significant enemies. It's become a minor Running Gag for characters to complain their gun pulls to the left just after they only wounded their opponent with it.
Agatha's possession by the Other is set up as a big secret that could cause all sorts of problems, but Zeetha goes out of her way to mention it to Gil at the very first opportunity. However, Klaus is not aware of the true situation, and is unlikely to be willing to talk about it now that he's been wasped, and knows that talking would allow her to control him.
Subverted again, and significantly, here. Dimo has just informed the Jägergenerals and Klaus's leadership about the situation, which will presumably reach Klaus's ears presently. Whether they believe him remains to be seen.
Power High: When Agatha is subjected to the effect of Dyne water plus electroshock for the first time and feels godlike. Later the Castle implies it's a normal reaction:
Agatha: I believe another forty-five point three seconds, and I would have exploded or something. [...] Oh, yeah... I have got to try that again!
Power Limiter: The Heterodyne locket Barry gives Agatha is meant to subdue her sparkyness. She eventually outgrows this, and the locket has found a new use in keeping the Other contained.
The Power of Love: A minor case — at one point when Agatha is under the control of the Other, it becomes obvious that Gil will die without her help. So Agatha shrugs off the possession long enough to get the locket (mentioned above) on.
Lucrezia seems well aware of the possibilities inherent in her mind control devices.
Back on Sparks in general, Sparks, especially in places like Mechanisburg, can practically take over someone's mind with their voice and not a lot else (strong-willed humans can resist it, but some people are just "natural minions".) Easy access to minions, the uses of the control voice, and the "tools" a Spark can make....
Primal Scene: Possibly parodied in the novelization, where we learn that the young Agatha was deeply traumatized when she walked in on her adoptive parents recharging each other with generators.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Jägers in general, with varying degrees of "proud" and "warrior" for individuals. For example, when Boris beats the crap out of a Jäger messenger to find out where the generals were meeting, their response was surprise and respect, saying that he'd "earned" the right to talk with them.
Punny Name: Doubling as Bilingual Bonus. Dr. Beetle's first name, "Tarsus", is the insect equivalent of the foot. Not a particularly meaningful pun, but it's there.
Rage Against the Author: In this filler strip, Agatha can't be convinced that Phil and Kaja Foglio have legitimately earned the Hugo Award, suspecting some mind control at work.
Reasonable Authority Figure: For a guy who conquered a continent, Klaus is surprisingly open to other people's ideas. Sure, he's still the final authority, but at least he'll hear you out.
Reed Richards Is Useless: The occasional machine gun isseen, but this weapon and the enormous amounts of dakka it can provide seem not to have changed the face of war as they have in Real Life.
Relationship Reveal: For a long time, it was hard to tell if Theo and Sleipnir were a couple or just really close friends. Then came this strip.
Retired Badass: An old Mechanicsburg sandwich-maker shows up in one of the side stories. He is nicknamed "Old Man Death" — by the Jägers. Turns out he used to run with them back in his youth — and never lost a fight. He still can forcibly boot one out of his shop now, leading to the "three tries" rule.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Agatha's little clanks (clinks?) she builds as assistants, practically the unofficial mascot of the comic. Mimmoths also qualify.
Rodents of Unusual Size: The Sturmhalten guides' description of "normal" sewer rats. There are also giant bunnies in one of the side-stories.
Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: A theme of the series is finding the balance between the two. With the Knights of Jove and Baron Wulfenbach representing the extreme sides of those movements.
Othar yelling "Foul!" everytime someone drops him from high up.
Burgermeister Zuken of Mechanicsburg's irrelevance.
At least somewhat, Gil's insistance on the fact that Beetle threw that bomb at him.
Sparks trying and failing to command their own creations: "that never works."
When the Foglios have something to show you, they'll show you with an "Elegant and finely crafted link".
People are generally more likely to recognize Gilgamesh for his authority or power when he wears his "mighty nize hat".
Schizo-Tech: And how. Telegraph, radio, telephone? Nope. Motor cars? Unheard of. Heavier-than-air aircraft? Two prototypes. Strong AI, lasers and resurrection are perfectly possible, though.
Science Is Bad: All through the story and backstory, the most reckless applications of science are performed regularly by those most educated and talented at it. However, it's Played for Laughs often enough to parody the Aesop; when Science Is Really Bad, it's Crazy Awesome!
Science-Related Memetic Disorder: The Spark condition. Though even non-Spark scientists and engineers are a bit off-kilter, probably because that's how everyone expects them to act. Those usually have to assist or use stuff of Sparks. It's either become a Mad Scientist or go insane from this all anyway.
Secret Test of Character: When we first see Gil, his father is asking him to figure out what's wrong with the machine he ordered built — except he's really testing to see if Gil is honest (or brave) enough to tell him it isn't actually possible for it to work the way Klaus said it should.
Self-Deprecation: Phil Foglio's Author Avatar shows up at a hospital telling stories to sick kids... because they end up so bored that they easily fall asleep without the need for medication.
Self-Destruct Mechanism: Lucrezia's secret lab has one, and she activates it. The cancellation of self-destruct is double subverted.
Serial Escalation: How many more "distractions" will Agatha, Gil and Tarvek go through before they reach their goal? The whole Castle Heterodyne arc appears to follow the old Hollywood maxim "start with a volcanic eruption, then build to a climax."
Serious Business: The Jägermonsters really love hats. Nothing more needs to be said.
Sharing a Body: Agatha and Lucrezia have had the antagonistic version of this relationship since the latter's mind was transferred into the former. It was supposed to be a Grand Theft Me, as mentioned above, but it wasn't totally successful.
Castle Heterodyne appears to ship 'em both. Really, it ships Agatha×Anything with a viable set of male reproductive organs, though it prefers guys who are strong, violent, and sparky.
Tarvek ships Higgs×Zeetha. Higgs' blush in the 2nd panel argues he's right.
Shirtless Scene: A fair number with Gil and Tarvek, and a few others (the Baron comes to mind). Tarvek did one long one wearing but a bedsheet, and Gil did a shorter scene wearing first just that, then... less. The battle of most skin exposed continues.
Shoot the Dog: Tarvek disabling and deactivating Anevka's clank. Wooster nearly does this to Klaus but is interrupted.
When Zola first shows up claiming to be the new Heterodyne daughter, Agatha complains about her being a terrible, cheesey actor. Zola's very next line? "Yonder lies the castle of my father!", a quote from The Black Shield of Farnsworth, which is generally considered one of the worst-delivered lines ever as the original actor had a very strong Bronx accent.
Benjamin Rat appears in that same panel — and "Dr. Rothfuss" obviously goes by Patrick. (The Wise Man's Fear was published three days after that comic.)
A poster at the Science Fair here: "Planet Earth: A Scary Go Round we live on."
Sky Pirate: Any time pirates are mentionned in the story, they are of this kind, airships being a widespread commodity. Notably, Bangladesh DuPree and her crew.
The Smart Guy: Practically all of the characters are pretty smart. Krosp is an example of the rare GG smart guy who's also the Only Sane Man of the group.
Smooch of Victory: Agatha's idea of a fine way to celebrate exploding a giant writhing slug.
Something Only They Would Say: Gil learns there are two alleged Heterodyne heirs in Mechanicsburg. One has made several speeches and then entered Castle Heterodyne. The other is in a coffee shop rebuilding their coffee machine (and causing several explosions in the process). It doesn't take him long to realize which one is Agatha.
Lucrezia!Zola: Ooh... So sorry, dear. I can't think what came over me!
The Speechless: Punch ("Adam"). An early construct of the Heterodyne Brothers, he was unable to speak. Until Gil extensively repaired both Punch and Judy, granting Punch speech.
Squick: An in-universe example of this is used by General Khrizhan to explain why Gil and Agatha being together is for the best: they can't exactly get their mad science on as long as the Other, Agatha's mother, is still inside Agatha's head and possibly sensate. Nobody will ever work as fast as those two will when they eventually twig on that. Incidentally, this also serves to keep the Unresolved Sexual Tension nice and unresolved, just the way the writers like it.
Later the sentiment is expressed by Tarvek, to the Jäger Generals' amuzement.
Squishy Wizard: Averted. For no explained reason, Sparks appear to be stronger, faster, better coordinated (okay, this one is more understandable), and tougher than any normal human. This isn't counting Sparks that may have modified themselves.
Staged Populist Uprising: The Knights of Jove conspirators like to claim they're doing it for the people.
Steampunk: Everywhere. The authors prefer to call it "gaslamp fantasy" though, because of the presence of Frankenstein-esque constructs, giant slugs that produce zombie-making wasps, resurrection procedures, death rays, and time travel. Also "calming pies".
Gil as his friends "creatively" explain his plans and motivations to the people of Mechanicsburg, as seen in the fourth panel here, almost word-for-word.
And Agatha to Moloch, as seen in the last panel here.
An insane secondary kitchen in Castle Heterodyne uses this against Agatha twice. The storm includes not only knives, but forks, corkscrews and skewers.
While a great many female characters don't seem to have a problem showing a little skin, the "Weasel Queen" shows a lot of it.
Zeetha spent some time roughing out in Mechanisburg and the Castle while wearing just a leather bikini and boots. But then again, it wasn't her fault.
Stuff Blowing Up: Sooo much shrapnelly goodness... Making things blow up that by all rights shouldn't seems like a mandatory side-effect of being a Spark.
The Jägermonsters, who were created by the old "bad" Heterodynes as shock troops but then had to obey the "good" Heterodynes due to the oath of loyalty they take very seriously (though are still capable of breaking; look at Captain Vole). One of the ingredients of the Jägerbrau used to transform people into Jägers is water from the river Dyne, which Heterodynes are known for drinking and gaining superhuman strength as a result.
And Airman Higgs is looking mighty super, recently...
Super Speed: The various Moveit tonics, while not exactly granting super speed, give people temporarily increased speed and energy with some implied physical toll later on. Half a bottle of Moveit #6 got Tarvek on his feet for hours though he was fatally ill, and a few sips of Moveit #11 turned Zola from a reasonably good fighter into a crazy battle goddess.And then Airman Higgs shows us all what super speed really is.
Synchronization: Gil and Tarvek, thanks to the Si Vales Valeo procedure.
Take a Number: Part of the psychological torture room. "The torturer is now serving victim number 03." In a subversion, the distributor is out of numbers... Othar doesn't take it well.
Take a Third Option: Try an incredibly risky procedure with only stuff made for killing someone or take him to another hospital, which may or may not have the requisite stuff anyway? Alternatively...
Take Over the World: Baron Wulfenbach has already taken over the world — or at least the bulk of Europe, where the story is set — by the time the story starts, and he never wanted to. There's a conspiracy that seems to be trying to do this for themselves, using Tarvek as figurehead.
Tarvek: Ah! Violetta! My little cloud of doom! Even you cannot dampen my spirits right now.
Clank!Anveka tempts fate rather horribly only two pages after the Author Avatar's "Whelp, the day can't get any weirder!" above.
"Well, then. A device he doesn't know about- hidden where he will not find it- in a safe he cannot open? I have more pressing things to worry about. Besides, if it was in hands, do you really think he'd just hand it to her?"
Next page starts with Tarvek handing the device in question to The Other.
Tenchi Solution: This is how the Castle thinks the love triangle should be solved. This may have been a Heterodyne pattern. "The Master's bedroom only sleeps six."
"The castle spoke to him. It demanded to be repaired. One of the team members spoke against the idea. And the castle made it clear that it wasn't a request. It was then that they realized just how far it was to the door."
Special mention goes to X the destroyer who decided a big X on the ground within range of enemy ordnance was a good place to set up his tent. Admittedly, it was inadvertent Schmuck Bait in that case...
Sure, Mechanicsburg is a great place to grab a pair of innocent hostages. Whom the pair promenading while the invaders are still surrendering should be.
Translation Convention: Word of God and incidental writing in the background says that everything is actually in German and Romanian, translated for the benefit of the audience. Except, one presumes, when we're privy to Wooster's thoughts as English is presumably still the language of Britain.
Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Sparks during the "breakthrough" usually go crazy in a destructive way. Due to her uncle's tampering, in Agatha's case the "awakening" part happened when she was technically asleep.
Trope Overdosed: Just look at the length of these pages. And it's still growing.
Troubled but Cute: Lampshaded at the start of the Cinderella filler, when Gil and Tarvek argue over who's playing the story's prince:
Gil:I'm the prince! I'm all tortured and driven by love!
Tarvek:Feh. I'm the misunderstood one with the mysterious agenda. Muy sexy.
Truth in Television: Moxana is based upon the Mechanical Turk, an eighteen-century chess-playing automaton. The Turk was a hoax, operated by someone inside it, but Moxana is a real version.
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