Battlefield Earth (novel): Difference between revisions

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* [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]: The Psychlo are famous for the "breathe-gas" they respire and its explosive reaction to radiation, but that's only the start. They don't have lips or eyelids, but "mouthbones" and "eyebones." The top half of their skull is mostly bone, leaving their brains squished down against their spinal column, and their hearts aren't behind their ribcage, but down towards their belt buckles. Also, [[You Fail Biology Forever|they're viruses]]

* [[Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word]]: Terl spends at least two whole sections of the book coming up with "leverage" over his coworkers.

* [[Braids Beads and Buckskins]]: The everyday clothing of Jonnie and his tribe, though it's especially prevalent in the movie version.

* [[Braids, Beads, and Buckskins]]: The everyday clothing of Jonnie and his tribe, though it's especially prevalent in the movie version.

* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Terl at one point thanks "the evil gods," the sole mention of Psychlo theology. Meanwhile, the Tolneps are so eager to let you know that they are eeeevil slavers that they'll [[Fridge Logic|cut into their profit margins]] by using the bones of hundreds of thousands of slaves to make a clock.

* [[Childhood Marriage Promise]]: Little Bittie gets Little Pattie a locket with "To my future wife" inscribed on it.

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* [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness]]: Soft. We know that Psychlo teleportation works by swapping two patches of space, but not how a control console manages to bring this about.

* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]: Ker, the non-evil Psychlo. {{spoiler|Turns out he was rescued after being left to die as a pup, and thus never got those catrist implants}}.

* [[National Stereotypes]]: The Scots are all claymore-wielding kilt-wearing [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Bravehearts]], Russians [[Vodka Drunkenski|drink vodka]] and still hang onto [[The Great Politics Mess Up|old Soviet traditions]], Swiss-Germans are all master craftsmen or ''bankers'' (in a post-apocalyptic world where most tribes have not yet rediscovered metal!), the Frenchman [[Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys|faints at the sight of even a dead Psychlo]], the Chinese family are experts on protocol and courtly manners [[Happiness in Slavery|who have been waiting for a new emperor to serve for a thousand years]], and [[Unfortunate Implications|the mongrel tribe from Africa is a bunch of primitive cannibals]].

* [[National Stereotypes]]: The Scots are all claymore-wielding kilt-wearing [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Bravehearts]], Russians [[Vodka Drunkenski|drink vodka]] and still hang onto [[The Great Politics Mess-Up|old Soviet traditions]], Swiss-Germans are all master craftsmen or ''bankers'' (in a post-apocalyptic world where most tribes have not yet rediscovered metal!), the Frenchman [[Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys|faints at the sight of even a dead Psychlo]], the Chinese family are experts on protocol and courtly manners [[Happiness in Slavery|who have been waiting for a new emperor to serve for a thousand years]], and [[Unfortunate Implications|the mongrel tribe from Africa is a bunch of primitive cannibals]].

* [[Never Found the Body]]: {{spoiler|Terl dies off-screen in a teleporter accident, when he attempts to teleport into what is now a sun, [[Justified Trope|so there really shouldn't be any body]]. Thankfully, he ''doesn't'' make a miraculous reappearance and stays [[Deader Than Dead|good and dead]] for the rest of the book.}}

* [[No Endor Holocaust]]: Somehow, Jonnie blowing up a planet's moon has no adverse effects on it.

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** And ''they'' were ambushing ''him''.

* [[Peace Through Superior Firepower]]: {{spoiler|Jonnie combines the knowledge of the Psychlos' "ultimate bomb" and teleportation to threaten any alien aggressors with annihilation. After a few token complaints, they decide they're fine with this}}.

* [[Pistol Whipping]]: Jonnie clubs an attacking bear to death with Terl's blaster, and at no point attempts to fire the thing.

* [[Pistol-Whipping]]: Jonnie clubs an attacking bear to death with Terl's blaster, and at no point attempts to fire the thing.

** [[Justified Trope|Justifiable]], as he grew up as an illiterate hunter whose weapon-of-choice (even LONG after he's introduced to guns and alien tech) were his [[Carry a Big Stick|"kill-clubs"]]. He's spent his whole life bashing things, not shooting them, so it's naturally his first instinct.

* [[Planet Looters]]: The Psychlos actually search Earth's ruins on foot, prying out every last gold filling from the corpses littering the ground (but left silver and copper and other metals, since they weren't as valuable).

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* [[Rival Turned Evil]]: Brown Limper Staffor, Jonnie's bitterly jealous neighbor, tries to usurp Earth's new government, and keeps trying to kill Jonnie over imagined slights. For his part, [[Unknown Rival|Jonnie puts Brown Limper pretty low on his list of priorities]].

* [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]]: All aliens described are humanoid, with a few animal-like characteristics or missing/rearranged facial features.

* [[Schizo Tech]]: Psychlos have teleportation, long-distance space probes, and a multiverse-spanning empire that holds all of reality by the balls. They use tanks and bomber aircraft, and computers are mentioned in passing only, despite the presence of drone aircraft.

* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Psychlos have teleportation, long-distance space probes, and a multiverse-spanning empire that holds all of reality by the balls. They use tanks and bomber aircraft, and computers are mentioned in passing only, despite the presence of drone aircraft.

* [[Shallow Female Love Interest]]: Jonny's girlfriend, Chrissie. Her dialogue from the entirety of the book may take up a page or two, tops, her main effect on the plot is getting held hostage or otherwise being put in danger, and her love for Jonnie is so sweeping and romantic that Hubbard doesn't bother trying to express it in the book.

* [[Space Jews]]: Besides the Selachee, a race of shark-descended bankers who try to repossess the planet, we're also introduced to the Chinkos, a race of effeminate, intelligent, subservient aliens enslaved, and subsequently exterminated by the Psychlos. Jonnie even uses the phrase "tired of being Chinko polite," which combined with the author's real-life views leads to some [[Unfortunate Implications]].