Starship Troopers (novel): Difference between revisions

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* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]: Zim, although all of Rico's instructors count.

* [[Drop Pod]]: [[Trope Namer]] and likely [[Trope Maker]].

* [[During the War]]: Except for the earliest of the flashbacks, the entire novel is set during the war with the Bugs.

* [[During the War]]

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* [[Eager Young Space Cadet]]{{context}}

* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: While some of their structures are above ground, the Bugs live almost exclusively underground.

* [[Everybody Calls Him Barkeep]]: Rico's platoon sergeant. [[The Reveal|Revealed]] at the end of the book to be {{spoiler|Sergeant Zim.}}

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{{quote|'''Thirty Second Bomb''': I'm a 30 second bomb! I'm a 30 second bomb! 29, 28...}}

* [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]: Handwaved with the [[Minovsky Physics|"Cherenkov drive."]] [[Viewers Are Geniuses|Cherenkov radiation is a bluish glow given off when particles exceed the speed of light in the medium they are traveling in, like high energy electrons from a nuclear reactor exceed the speed of light in water.]]

* [[A Father to His Men]]: Every officer and most non-~~coms—maybe~~ excepting only the inexperienced.

* [[A Father to His Men]]: Every officer and most non-coms — maybe excepting only the inexperienced.

* [[The Federation]]: Terran Federation.

* [[For Want of a Nail]]: there's a novel called ''Armor'' whose setting is a direct rip-off of ''Starship Troopers'', as admitted by author [[John Steakley]]. However, the plot and themes are quite different. (For one, there's more focus on actual fighting, which Steakley felt Heinlein didn't show enough of.)

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** A bit character near the end mentions that every country has its own version of history. In his, Simon Bolivar built the Pyramids, went to the moon, and married Cleopatra.<ref>This was probably meant as a joke, though.</ref>

** Also in-universe example: Rico tells a story about a Mobile Infantryman who heard that Napoleon was "the great warrior" and immediately asked: "So, where were his drops?" Subverted in that Rico clarifies that this story is most likely just a urban legend.

*** It's an adaptation of an old Airborne ~~joke—mention~~ the name of a legendary conqueror/warrior of history, and the reply is 'So, where did he jump?'

*** It's an adaptation of an old Airborne joke — mention the name of a legendary conqueror/warrior of history, and the reply is 'So, where did he jump?'

** The exact chain of events which led to the Terran Federation are unknown, even to in-universe historians. The best they can do is tell where it ''probably'' started and why.

*** The scanty evidence available in the book indicates that the Terran Federation had its genesis in a series of actions by veterans returning from a world war between China and an Anglo-American-Russian alliance to restore civil order in areas (the one cited is Aberdeen, Scotland) where normal government had broken down for unexplained reasons (possibly nuclear attack?).

*** This would probably suggest that it's a kind of [[Spiritual Successor]] to the ''[[Sixth Column]]'', where such a war is described in detail. Spiritual because the tech described in the two novels differs greatly and would've led to ~~the~~ entirely different history.

*** This would probably suggest that it's a kind of [[Spiritual Successor]] to the ''[[Sixth Column]]'', where such a war is described in detail. Spiritual because the tech described in the two novels differs greatly and would've led to an entirely different history.

* [[Good Old Fisticuffs]]: Even though each trooper carries a couple hundred pounds of ordnance, most of the actual fighting in the novel is hand-to-hand.

* [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]: See [[Chaste Hero]] - Heinlein skirts the trope occasionally by way of [[Sound Effect Bleep]].

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* [[Inhumanable Alien Rights]]: Averted. A number of less combat-oriented species are respected allies of humanity. The Federation is only at war with the Bugs because they are [[Dirty Communist]] [[Explosive Breeder]]s who fight wars with [[Zerg Rush]]es; even if they loose several million Bugs taking a human world, it's a victory because they can replace those numbers and then some in a fraction of the time it takes to birth, raise and train a human as long as they have a planet to creche them on.

* [[In Medias Res]]: The book starts with Johnny preparing for and executing a combat drop. The second chapter goes back to before he joined the military. Chronologically, the first chapter actually occurs about halfway through the book.

* [[Insignia Rip Off Ritual]]: Played deadly seriously during the execution of a baby murderer who deserted from boot camp.

* [[Insignia Rip Off Ritual]]: Played deadly seriously during the execution of a baby-murderer who deserted from boot camp.

* [[Insectoid Aliens]]

* [[Insectoid Aliens]]: The Bugs.

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: Handheld flamethrowers. Text in the first chapter implies that they might be more exotic than that.

* [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better]]: averted. They are used in training, but rarely (if ever) in actual combat.

* [[Never Found the Body]]: What happens to most men who enter Bug tunnels {{spoiler|but not Rico's platoon at the end.}}

* [[Never Found the Body]]: What happens to most men who enter Bug tunnels, {{spoiler|but not Rico's platoon at the end.}}

* [[Nicknaming the Enemy]]: Humanity's main opponent was officially known as the Arachnids (or Pseudo Arachnids), but the MI called them the Bugs.

* [[No One Gets Left Behind]]: "Men are not potatoes."

* [[No Ending]]: {{spoiler|Rico graduates from OCS after his second try, and takes command of the Roughnecks.}} Where he goes from there, to say nothing of the outcome of the war, are left to the imagination of the reader.

** {{spoiler|Although the epilogue does have them dropping down on Klendathu, the bug home world.}}

*** {{spoiler|In some editions, there's an afterword that briefly mentions him making Captain, [[Downer Ending|and dying]].}}

* [[The Not Love Interest]]: Carmen. Although she and Rico have gone on a few dates, and he's very obviously infatuated with her, nothing ever really comes of it.

* [[The Not Love Interest]]: Carmen. Although she and Rico have gone on a few dates, and he's very obviously infatuated with her at the beginning of the story, nothing ever really comes of it.

* [[Nuke'Em]]: Among their other armaments, the powered armors can be supplied with tactical nukes.

* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: The recruiter deliberately left his prosthetics off when working to scare away gutless applicants.

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* [[Old Soldier]]: Zim and numerous other veterans.

* [[One Sided Battle]]: Inverted; the Bugs initially get the drop on the humans.

* [[One World Order]]

* [[One World Order]]: Earth has a single government because it's worked so far.

* [[Planet Looters]], [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]; Expansive (and exclusive) colonization is explicitly the goal of both the humans and Bugs.

** A brief, offhand mention is made of the possibility of reaching a peaceful solution with the Bugs, but the general opinion is that they're too alien to communicate with.

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* [[Selective Obliviousness]]: Johnnie is able repeatedly to read the signs when the M.I. is grooming another cap trooper for advancement. He never seems to realize they're grooming ''him'' as well.

* [[Sergeant Rock]]: every non-commissioned officer, especially Jelly and Zim.

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* [[Space Cadet]]

* [[Space Marine]]: One of the [[Trope Codifier|early defining examples]] of the trope, although the Mobile Infantry are ''never once'' referred to as marines, and might just as well be based on army paratroopers, except that [[Space Is an Ocean]].

* [[The Spartan Way]]

* [[The Spartan Way]]: Serving in the Mobile Infantry is not a picnic.

* [[Staff of Authority]]: Drill sergeants carry swagger sticks that they use to hit the recruits. This is seen as more dignified than laying hands on them.

** It also serves the purpose of ensuring that any frustrated recruit who appears likely to lash out against a sergeant is unable to get close enough to do so. One recruit ends up striking his instructor, and is given [[Corporal Punishment]] for it. The instructor is then harshly berated for ''letting'' the recruit be in a position to get in trouble because he hesitated to strike the recruit first.

* [[Strawman Political]]: The Arachnids as Communists. Heinlein even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this himself by saying that communism is okay for the bugs since they're evolved for it, but humans are different. More specifically, the Arachnids are the Chinese ~~Communists—Heinlein~~ felt they were less concerned with individual lives than even the Soviet Union.

* [[Strawman Political]]: The Arachnids as Communists. Heinlein even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this himself by saying that communism is okay for the bugs since they're evolved for it, but humans are different. More specifically, the Arachnids are the Chinese Communists — Heinlein felt they were less concerned with individual lives than even the Soviet Union.

* [[Stay in the Kitchen]]: Subverted, sort of. The Mobile Infantry is exclusively male, but women serve in the Navy as pilots (and are the majority of them) and other dangerous things. Amusingly, the protagonist wanted to be a pilot and his last choice was the MI.

* [[Tanks for Nothing]]: Tanks are explicitly stated to be useless against Mobile Infantry.

* [[Team Dad]]: Rico describes both Jelly and Lt. Razchak as this.

** Later, {{spoiler|Rico and his father}} become this to the Roughnecks.

* [[Theme Naming]]: Terran troop transport ships are named after either famous battlegrounds (large ships like the ''Valley Forge'') or heroic individual soldiers (smaller vessels like the ''Rodger Young''). This mirrors the [[Theme Naming]] practices of most real-world navies.

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: Denounced through the mouth of Sergeant Zim. See that article's quotes page.

* [[The Reveal]]: The identify of Rico's [[Everybody Calls Him Barkeep|unnamed]] platoon sergeant: {{spoiler|Sergeant Zim}}

** A minor one, but it does happen at the end of the book. Johnny's race or nationality are never mentioned, and his father's Harvard accent might lead one to think they're American, possibly of Latino extraction. Then at the end he mentions that his native tongue is Tagalog, implying that he's Filipino.

* [[Training From Hell]]: Mobile Infantry Boot Camp is described by Rico as being extremely grueling and even dangerous at times. Out of Rico's original group of over 2,000 recruits less than 400 manage to complete their training (with a handful of recruits actually being killed from training accidents). Later in the book when Rico attends Officer Candidate School he describes it as being even ''harder'' than basic training because in addition to all the physical training and combat drills he is also required to become proficient in several academic subjects like math, science, history, military law, and strategy.

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* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: A third race referred to as the Skinnies, humanoids with some kind of alliance with the Bugs, are the target of the first raid in the book. Somewhat later in the book Johnnie mentions that the Terrans have managed to break that alliance and turn the Skinnies into Terran allies of sorts (in fact, that's what the raid was about), but their eventual fate is never revealed.

* [[World War Three]]: The war between the Anglo-American-Russian alliance and China.

* [[Writer on Board]]: As pointed out above, that was the reason it was written. Heinlein stopped working on ''Stranger In A Strange Land'' just so that he could start this book.

* [[Writer on Board]]: As pointed out above, that was the reason it was written. Heinlein stopped working on ''[[Stranger in A Strange Land]]'' just so that he could start this book.

* [[You Are in Command Now]]: Discussed multiple times; happens to Johnnie during Operation Royalty.

* [[Zerg Rush]], subverted: the rush was mostly composed of non-combatant bugs and was meant as a decoy. Played straight later when the Cap Troops actually get rushed by warriors when moving in to rescue {{spoiler|Sergeant Zim}} who'd captured a brain bug. Due to the close proximity of the bugs and the fear of friendly fire (which the bugs don't have towards other warriors) the MI are forced to fight the bugs hand to hand. {{spoiler|Sergeant Zim}} used a similar tactic with regards to the Brain Bug. He rushed in alone and captured it, then positioned himself so to fire on him was to shoot the Brain Bug. For the bugs to attack him would literally require [[Boom! Headshot!]].

[[Category:Robert A. Heinlein]]

[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]

[[Category:~~Starship Troopers (novel)~~]]

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[[Category:Literature]]