Plotbunny for Hire: Hats Incredible

Okay, crack crossover idea for you: Joseon Dynasty Korea vs. Girl Genius’ Jaegers.

Think about it. The Joseon Dynasty lasted from 1392-1897 in our reality. We don’t know the exact timeframe Girl Genius is set in, but as a “Gaslamp fantasy” it’s probably around the 1800s or so. At that time Korea was still the Hermit Kingdom, seeing themselves as the true Confucian heirs to the Ming Dynasty, holding off foreign entanglements by tooth, nail, and musket. They made it work for centuries; even with Sparks on the loose they’d probably give at least as good as they got with their own death rays and mad Confucian scholar-scientists. Weaponized feng shui and fortunetellers! Hidden weapons! Musketeers good enough to hunt tigers! They could do it.

…There’s just one little problem.

Jaegers love fancy hats. And it’s traditional to win them from a defeated enemy. (Preferably one with the same head size as you.)

Anyone who’s seen a sageuk (Korean historical drama) can attest, their hats are awesome.

Granted, the Jaegers are loyal to the Heterodynes, and usually don’t wander too far from where the latest Heterodyne Spark is wreaking havoc. But some of them have, historically, been dispatched on lone or small group missions. And they could have wandered pretty far.

Far enough to get to the equivalent of China (with its own fancy hats) and run into Korean scholars traveling there? Who knows? We can be sure, though, that if a Jaeger did take a hankering to a scholar’s gat, and then had the great good fortune to realize hey, this scholar has a sword, and he’s not bad….

A few possible ways this could go. If the fight was really fun, the Jaegers might try to kidnap the hapless scholar and smuggle him home; Heterodynes love learning new stuff! If the Forbidden City/local port guards manage to break up the fight, we might have some cat-and-mouse going on as Jaegers and scholars each try to figure out Who Were Those Guys? And either head toward or away from trouble, depending. And if by dint of numbers of allies, skills, or dumb luck, the scholar-swordsman got clear and hotfooted it back to Korea, there might be a dirigible or steamship following him….

For added mayhem? Vampires as in Scholar Who Walks the Night might originally have been a Mad Science experiment, and I could easily see Kim Sung-yeol soundly thrashing a troop of Jaegers, clanks included. The chaos! The mayhem! The explosions! The Jaegers would consider it the best day ever.

…Ahem. So. One crack crossover bunny, free to good home.

After all, those hats rock.

Advertisement