Double Star: Difference between revisions
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Author Filibuster]]: It wouldn't be a Heinlein novel without one. Particularly, Smythe's long internal monologue to himself in mid-book as he tries to understand Bonforte's political philosophy and ethics. Justified in that its his job to impersonate Bonforte, and he's trying to better understand the 'character' he is portraying. Especially since he now has to impersonate Bonforte ''to the Senate'', which means being able to convincingly give the man's political speeches.
* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: Martians have a highly complex system of politeness. The main problem of the book is that a politician {{spoiler|may be late}} to a ceremony that inducts him into a Martian clan. There is a legend on Mars about a young Martian who was late to something important, and the consequence of this is ''death''. He was given a second chance, on account of being young and having only a partially formed brain. He would have none of it, so he brought a case against himself in court, successfully prosecuted himself for being late, was consequently executed, and is now held in reverence as the ''patron saint of propriety'' on Mars.
* [[Bluff the Impostor]]: The Emperor figures out Smythe is not Bonforte when he agrees to play with his toy trains. Bonforte and the Emperor had a friendly in joke between them: the Emperor would always invite him to play trains and Bonforte would always refuse and make fun of his hobby.
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* [[Secret Identity Identity]]: When {{spoiler|Bonforte dies}}, Smythe must choose between his own identity, and the greater good.
* [[Small Name, Big Ego]]: Smythe, especially early on in the novel. He's entirely convinced that he's one of the finest names in theater, and his lack of recognition is mostly a case of rotten luck. At the end of the novel, when he looks back at how he was before the events of the novel took place, he can't believe the bloated sense of self worth he used to have.
** Zig-zagged in that Smythe is shown throughout the
* [[Snowball Lie]]: The basis of the entire novel.
* [[Spotting the Thread]]: Smythe spends weeks studying Bonforte's files on everyone around him to make the masquerade work. He notices that the file on the emperor is nearly empty, and assumes that they don't have much contact... until he meets the emperor, and gets found out, because the point of the files is to help Bonforte remember things about people ''less'' politically important than he is. He's caught when he dutifully plays with the emperor's toy trains instead of teasing him about them.
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