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Starship Troopers (novel): Difference between revisions
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** 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 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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* [[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.
* [[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]]: 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.
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* [[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.
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* [[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
* [[Un Paused]]: When Johnny Rico is put to sleep via post-hypnotic suggestion and then woken up again, he doesn't realize he's been asleep for more than an hour. He continues talking to the commanding officer who put him to sleep as if it hadn't happened.
** The topic of discussion? [[Irony|Rico refusing to go to sleep.]]
* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: To "Dance to Danny Deever" is to be hanged. (A man dropped at the end of a rope tends to bounce around for a bit.) The choice is apt, since the song "Danny Deever" is about a soldier who is hanged for murdering a fellow soldier, and apparently the tune is played at MI executions.
** "Buying the farm" has long been a euphemism for dying. However, the soldiers often talk around this, for example calling it a "real-estate deal".
*** Most commonly, it's referred to simply as "buying it."
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