History VorkosiganSaga / TropesJToZ

** About the first quarter of ''Memory'' is an extended one of these for Miles, culminating in [[spoiler:Simon Illyan stripping Miles' Horus Eyes badges off his uniform (ripping it in the process) and then ''firing'' him]].

** Lieutenant Vormoncrief, who did truly love Ekaterin (Or at least did truly ''lust'' for Ekaterin), kept butting into her life to "save" her from Miles, all at the prodding of Miles's political rivals. He managed to also draw in several of her relatives. Emperor Gregor himself eventually had to get involved to tell everybody (Except Ekaterin) to grow up, as he did not have the time to deal with their gullibility.

* WarriorPrince: The Hegen Alliance Navy, Emperor Gregor Vorbarra and Admiral Count Aral Vorkosigan, Joint Commanders. Gregor pulls rank on Aral to get a seat on the Command Deck. This is in some ways the acid test of Aral's regency -- he could have legitimately overuled Gregor, citing concerns for the safety of the Imperial person, but does not. Aral is loyal enough that he instead lets go of the reins... although doing so does make his ulcers flare up something awful.

** NoSell: ''Haut'' women are immune to fast penta. ''Haut'' men are very resistant.

* TwerpSweating: In ''Genteman Jole'', Gen. Fyodor Haines complains that even being a base commander doesn't give him enough credibility with boys interested in his 15-year-old daughter.

* TooDumbToLive: Tien Vorsosison failing to keep his breath mask charged, when practically the first thing everyone on Komarr is told is "never go outside the domes without a fully charged breath mask".

* TractorBeam: A mature technology with the usual large scale military/civilian applications (grabbing spacecraft for tactical advantage or careful manipulation such as docking maneuvers), as well as smaller scale uses: Hand tractors for cargo handling and medical hand tractors for fine detail work under sterile conditions. It was also weaponized as the Gravitic Imploder Lance, using a modified version of the technology to inflict catastrophic damage on other ships.

** Aral. When he's ''really'' angry, his voice gets lower, but ''extremely'' intense. Characters like Voreedi and Desplains remind Miles and Ivan respectively when they speak with a soft "dead level" tone, reminding them both of Aral when he's about to spring a verbal trap.

** In memorial services, Barrayarans cut a lock from their hair and burn it ritually. Cordelia was so devastated by Aral's death, she cut off all of her ''waist-length'' hair and burned it. She kept it short thenafter.

* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Miles to Ivan in ''Memory'': "That's Lord Auditor Coz to you." Ivan continues to address Miles as "Lord Auditor Coz" every now and then just to needle him. Mark seems to have picked up the habit (doubtless for the [[SiblingRivalry exact same reason]]); he scores a point or two off of "Lord Auditor Brother." This results in Tej thinking of Miles as The Coz when she meets him -- and thanks to Ivan, as Emperor Gregor as "The Gregor" as well.

** Similarly, a lot of intelligence techniques are pretty accurate. A truth serum exists? Some criminal organizations just assign work to small fry who don't know anything. There are also procedures for taking bribes - and reporting them, of course. At one point, some character wonders how many prostitutes are supplementing their take-home pay with [=ImpSec=] informant money.

* TheSlacker: Quietly deconstructed in Ivan, who appears so casual and indifferent towards work because he is very efficient and does things right the first time, leaving him extra time to slack off. This culminates in him [[spoiler:turning a job as consul's aide on a backwater planet into a three-days-a-week part-time position at full pay on a tropical island on said planet, effctively turning the assignment into an extended honeymoon with his new wife]], simply because he could handle all the position's work more efficiently, directly improving his superior's quality of life at the same time.

* SliceOfLife: ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'' covers the last few months of Cordelia's time as Vicerine of Sergyar and the associated drama of the fledgling colony world. It is decidedly relaxed for the series, with the only turmoil being emotional in nature and the only explosion was due to some unfortunately incendiary wildlife, not a dastardly plot on her life... probably. [[ProperlyParanoid There were Cetagandans present, after all]].

* SpaceCossacks: The Dendarii Mercenaries are a little like Cossacks, being irregulars in the service of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia RecycledInSpace and they contain individuals escaping from social pressure on Barryar including Elena and her husband, and in a different way Miles himself. However, they mostly contain people from any and every world in the Nexus. Also, they play the "screening the Empire from external threats" role.

** Much is also made of the Vorkosigan family's status as the Spares to the Emperor's throne. After Mad Yuri's pruning of the family tree, and since Ezar only had one son (Serg), Aral was the closest thing to a spare if anything happened to Serg or (later) Serg's son Gregor. After Serg died and Ezar soon followed, Aral became Gregor's regent and remained the Spare, followed by Miles later on. [[spoiler:Only it's an open secret that nobody would accept a "mutie" and "cripple" like Miles on the throne, so the real successor if something was to happen to Gregor would be ''Ivan'', who wants nothing of it.]] The Vorkosigan family's proximity to the throne is an extremely important plot point in several books, and the pressure is only lifted off Miles late in the series when Gregor finally gets married and works on some heirs. [[spoiler:Ivan is thrilled when it's pointed out Tej's Cetagandan heritage will remove him and any children from the succession]]
* SpiritualSuccessor: "The Flowers of Vashnoi" can be seen as a followup to "The Mountains of Mourning", as they deal with the older generation of Vorkosigan hill people unable to deal with modernity.

* SuperBreedingProgram: A Barrayaran Count sets up a breeding program using cast-off female eggs and his own sperm in Uterine Replicators to create dozens of his own daughters, not as a bid to create some kind of pure or super race, but to... make more taxpayers for his district? To be precise, it's a scheme to attract young, productive male immigrants looking for wives - a real problem these days on Barrayar thanks to misuse of sex selection techniques. The Countess (who had already given him a few legitimate children) whose consent he did this without was not very happy about it. The punishment? His wife refuses to see him (much less have sex with him), and later, [[spoiler: the Count is expected to provide dowries for each and every daughter.]]

* SellingOnesOwnHair: In ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', Ghem-Estif (formerly Haut-Estif) lets a collector cut her previously-uncut hair (Haut hair being highly valued for rarity and cultural significance) for a chunk of money that [[spoiler: her family needs to travel to Barrayar to re-unite the family after surviving a coup]].

* ShroudedInMyth: [=ImpSec=] is shrouded in myth not only in Barrayar but elsewhere. In Jackson's Whole they are apparently a bogeyman, chiefly due to a single [=ImpSec=] agent ([[spoiler:actually Mark]]) taking down ''all'' of House Ryoval. They also think Illyan possessed a cyborg brain (he has an eidetic memory chip [[spoiler:up until ''Memory'']], but that's the extent of his augmentation).

** The term "charming understatement" in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance''. It becomes a serious-minded BrickJoke when the Arquas get a subpeona "with fangs" from Gregor.

** General Stanis Metzov and Alexi Vormoncrief are later assigned to Lazkowski Base, and it could not have happened to more deserving guys. Vormoncrief in particular provided the page quote for 'Reassigned'.

** At the end of ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', [[spoiler:Ivan and Tej, to backwater planet Ylla rather than Lazkowski Base. Ivan rapidly uses his administrative skills to turn his "exile" into a two year honeymoon in paradise. After a year, Ivan does start to feel the pangs of homesickness.]]

* RewatchBonus: On a second read of ''Memory'', one may realize [[spoiler:Illyan [[SecretTestOfCharacter gives Miles chance after chance to confess his lies]], because he doesn't want to fire Miles.]] And, later on in the book, there are multiple instances where [[spoiler:Haroche winces or looks horrified, which on first impression seems like he's appalled at what's happening/might have happened to Ilyan, but turns out to be because he's guilty about what he did or afraid that he's going to get caught]].

*** The second example would be [[spoiler:the first time Drou and Koudelka have sex]]. While it's ultimately made clear that both parties wanted sex the fact that one party didn't [[QuestionableConsent wait for consent]] and was so forceful that he feared he had raped her means that he was [[MoralLuck lucky]] his partner ended up desiring sex or he would have been a rapist. Though the women in question makes it quite clear that [[ActionGirl there's no way he could have forced himself on her even if he weren't crippled]], and she is actually ''insulted'' the man was thinking she wasn't giving him a wonderful gift.
*** The third instance involves [[spoiler:Mark]] who starts to force himself on someone who was mentally a child [[YoungerThanTheyLook in an adult's body]], and who doesn't understand what is being done to her. The would-be rapist is only stopped due to [[spoiler:his own inability to perform due to past psychological issues owing to his own experience of being raped]], this time the perpetrator does get a clear WhatTheHellHero response from the immediate witnesses who treats it as hitting the MoralEventHorizon, but Cordelia is quite forgiving about the incident, and ultimately the would-be rapist ends up being treated as a protagonist deserving of a happy ending.

* PregnancyScare: in ''Barrayar'', Dru is very afraid that she's pregnant after sleeping with Lt. Koudelka. She doesn't tell him about it, but acts so nervous that he becomes convinced that he had been mistaken about her consent and had raped her
* PrettyBoy: Bel Thorne is described as quite good-looking, in an androgynous sort of way. [[JustifiedTrope Understandable]], since they are a hermaphrodite.

** In ''Diplomatic Immunity'', when Miles learns the Barrayarans set fire to a police station on a ''space station'', while attacking firemen and policemen trying to restore order as the military tried to break the Barrayarans out of jail, his reaction is "Ow, my aching head." Bel tells Miles that they're idiots. Mile's response, "Yes, but they're ''my'' idiots."

** Athos is a planet of only men. Offworlders sometimes derisively call it 'The Planet of Fags.' Athosians need not ''necessarily'' be gay, but most emigres of the culture are [[SituationalSexuality for fairly obvious reasons]]. Their offspring have the same ratio of gay/straight as the rest of the galaxy, however.

* PointyHairedBoss: Bruce Van Atta in ''Falling Free''. A former engineer, transferred to management where he would hopefully cause less damage. When Leo Graf sets off his plan to reconfigure the quaddie's space station so that they can steal it, he tells Van Atta that he will be surprised by how much of the station, which Van Atta thinks is being decommissioned, can be "recycled." Van Atta insists that all of Leo's plans go through his office--so he can take Leo's name off them and replace them with his own so he can take the credit. Leo doesn't mind because he realizes Bruce isn't actually going to look at those plans and after they've gone the plans will provide damning evidence that Leo had practically warned Bruce of his plans to steal the station in advance.

* PoorCommunicationKills: For security and legal reasons, in ''Falling Free'' the Quaddies are listed on the company books as post-fetal experimental tissue cultures. An out-of-system manager ordered the tissue cultures to be disposed of - which Bruce Van Atta deliberately interpreted as permision to kill the Quaddies.

** Barrayar is underpopulated, and has unfettered reproduction (though it is somewhat "backward" and considers all sex out of wedlock to be illicit.)
** Beta Colony is a marginally habitable world, and has strict population control. All babies must be licensed, though getting a baby license seems to be about as difficult as getting a driver's license (at least for the first two.) Since contraceptives are legally required for all females (and hermaphrodites) but ''not'' males for some reason, all sex between consenting individuals is considered to be normal recreational behaviour, though they do have statutory rape laws.
** Athos is underpopulated, but since its entire population is male, it requires major technological assistance for anyone to reproduce. The actual cost of raising children to the age where they are self sufficient is a major part of the planetary government budget, unlike most other planets where it is part of the informal economy.

* NoSell: In ''Barrayar'', Vordarian tries to sabotage Aral and Cordelia's marriage by telling her that "[Aral's] bisexual, you know." Her response: "He ''was'' bisexual. Now he's monogamous," followed by a discussion of her theories about his actually being attracted to soldiers. Don't try to shock a ''Betan'' by telling someone has an alternate sexuality, when they perfected ''reversible'' transgender surgery and created genetically engineered hermaphrodites. Only after seeing Vordarian aghast at her matter-of-fact reaction does Cordelia even realize Vordarian had meant her to be shocked.[[note]]And adding to the {{Irony}}, Aral giving in to his bisexual urges ''and'' not being monogamous only ''strengthens'' their marriage.[[/note]]

* MistakenForGay: Gregor's inability to find someone to produce an heir led to rumors that he was more interest in men. Lady Alys snorted that even if it were true, it wouldn't help with finding an heir for him. [[note]]While it would be technologically possible to produce produce children with another man, just the Emperor producing heirs via uterine replicator with his wife was stretching the limits of Barrayaran cultural boundaries at the time. Gregor's actual concern was that all the potential genetic defects in the High Vor bloodlines might produce insane children. Hence he rejected all the Vor women pitched to him and married a Komarran one instead. Obviously, it wouldn't be politic for him to actually tell people this, although those closest to him were fully aware of his reasoning. Regardless, Gregor announced that his children would be via uterine replicator anyway.[[/note]]

** Drou takes an instant interest in Kou, despite being seriously handicapped (which on Barrayar at the time made him almost an UnPerson.) Kou acts like an idiot in response until Cordelia straightens the BetaCouple out.
* LoveCannotOvercome: Ellie Quinn loves Miles but is horrified by the thought of becoming Lady Vorkosigan. This becomes a recurring theme for his love interests, and Miles eventually jests (with more than a little truth behind the jest) that he has given up on trying to get a women to follow him to Barrayar, and has now decided to find a woman who already loves Barrayar and focus on getting her to love ''him''.

* WhamEpisode: ''Memory''. Miles is [[spoiler:[[TurnInYourBadge drummed out]] of [=ImpSec=] and becomes an Imperial Auditor; Simon is BroughtDownToNormal and learns how to have an actual life.]] All of the Literature/VorkosiganSaga books to date have been published in omnibus editions... except for ''Memory''. Bujold herself called it "the pivotal ''Memory'' left as a stand-alone."

* RewatchBonus: On a second read of ''Memory'', one may realize [[spoiler:Illyan [[SecretTestOfCharacter gives Miles chance after chance to confess his lies]], because he doesn't want to fire Miles.]]

* StandardRoyalCourt: Though slightly more streamlined than most, the Barrayaran aristocracy consists of an Emperor and the high Vor (who are the sum total of the aristocracy), more armsmen (e.g. bodyguards) than you can shake a stick at, then the low Vor (anyone with "Vor" on the front of their name who's not directly in line for a countship; this also includes any non-Vor with a twenty year military service record and an honorable discharge). Unavoidably, there are courtiers in the emperor's orbit, but he does not deliberately [[JustForPun court]] them.

* MadArtist: Cetagandans
** Emperor Yuri's architect who built the Imp Sec building which is so ugly it is a RunningGag on Barrayar.

* MaliciousSlander. Several cases, including Aral Vorkosigan's first marriage, and Miles [[spoiler: when he was accused of killing Ekaterin's husband Tien]]. Aral gave Miles a salient piece of advice regarding reputation and honor:

* MamaBear: Cordelia, especially in ''Barrayar''. In ''Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen'', [[spoiler: Cordelia is extremely overprotective of her new daughter to the point of leaving her nanny in tears, thanks to her never having a ''healthy'' baby. She eventually gets better.]]

* MarriageBeforeRomance: Ivan and Tej.

* MeetTheInLaws: The first half of ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'' was largely about Tej meeting Ivan's family, starting with disreputable cousin Byerly and ending with Ivan's stepbrother, Emperor Gregor. [[spoiler:The second half was largely about Ivan meeting Tej's family, after they turned out not to be dead after all.]]

* MenDontCry: ''Mirror Dance''. Ivan [[spoiler: after hearing about Miles' death.]] Mark notices his tears, but says nothing about them.

* MerchantPrince: The system of Jackson's Whole is run by a set of corrupt merchant princes, including Baron Ryoval, Baron Bharaputra and [[ArmsDealer Baron Fell]]. (The title is honorary.) The only reason they're not considered criminals is that they have all the power, and no other system can enforce its rules on Jackson's Whole.

** This is a talent that the entire Vorkosigan clan seems to have. In ''The Warrior's Apprentice'' Miles starts out with an about to be junked spaceship, with an alcoholic washed up pilot and a cowardly deserter of an engineer; uses them to capture a bunch of total screw-up mercenaries and and turns them all into a crack special-ops team by sheer force of will and making them believe that they can do it. As the former alcoholic washed up pilot says:

* MilitaryMaverick: Miles, in a big way. ''The Vor Game'' starts with him being assigned to Kyril Island because the Academy staff feel he needs to learn how to be a subordinate instead of maneuvering himself into charge. He ends up getting his commander [[ReassignmentBackfire discharged from the Imperial Service]]. By the end of the book he is reporting directly to [[TheSpymaster Simon Illyan]] simply because he makes such a habit of driving his superiors nuts that Illyan cannot, in good conscience, inflict him on anybody else. At one point in ''The Vor Game'', Miles has three different commanding officers (in different contexts) locked up in neighboring cells in the brig. Contrary the trope, Miles ''does'' eventually [[spoiler:get himself discharged in ill standing and does ''not'' get his commission back, even after he saves the day once again]]. Granted, Miles being the sort to "fall into a cess pool and come up with a handful of gold," it works out fine.

* MuggingTheMonster: Well, Predatory lending to a person with an Imperial Auditor in the room and an [=ImpSec=] forensic accountant waiting on the other line.

* MurderBySuicide: In ''Dreamweaver's Dilemma'', dream cartridges are a relatively common form of entertainment on Earth, and an artist devoted to their creation is paid an exorbitant sum to create a particularly nightmarish one. While she's glad of the custom, she eventually realizes might be an attempt at the trope (driving someone to suicidal insanity by shoving them into an endless loop of nightmares). She would have remained troubled but unwilling and unable to delve further for answers had the middleman not gotten greedy and tried to get her killed in an attempt to steal her paycheck.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Aral Vorkosigan during most of ''Shards of Honor'' and ''Barrayar'', where his role [[spoiler: as a conspirator to destroy Prince Serg through the broad assassination tool of an unnecessary war]] destroys his personal honor and leaves him a broken man in the former book; his decision to execute Carl Vorhalas is a prominent example in the latter book.
** In ''The Warrior's Apprentice'', Miles instantly regrets asking Bothari to get a jump pilot to talk. Bothari immediately becomes a NightmareFuelStationAttendant, and the pilot later dies, to Miles deep dismay. He later states that some lessons have prices that are too high.

* NearRapeExperience: Mark is a perpetrator on blonde clone Maree in ''Mirror Dance'', which [[WhatTheHellHero blows all the good will the Dendarii might have had left for him]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In ''Shards of Honor'', Cordelia's Betan Survey crew decides to rescue her from the clutches of the psychotic Butcher of Komarr ... and in exactly the wrong move, they take in two Sergyar-stranded members of the mutiny against Aral (both secret police and nasty pieces of work) and orchestrate their return to the ''General Vorkraft'' where they stage a breakout of their fellow mutineers. They're terribly proud of themselves for being so clever, too. It doesn't help that it gets Koudelka seriously injured via nerve disruptor, someone Cordelia genuinely liked.
* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: Mad Emperor Yuri tried to kill all of his direct blood heirs, including Piotr Vorkosigan's wife and children. Not also targeting Piotr was a serious tactical blunder, as he turned and helped Ezar win the throne.

* NoSell: In ''Barrayar'', Vordarian tries to sabotage Aral and Cordelia's marriage by telling her that "[Aral's] bisexual, you know." Her response, "He ''was'' bisexual. Now he's monogamous," and proceeds to tell him her theories about his actually being attracted to soldiers. Don't try to shock a ''Betan'' by telling someone has an alternate sexuality, when they perfected ''reversible'' transgender surgery and created genetically engineered hermaphrodites. Only after seeing Vordarian aghast at her matter-of-fact reaction does she even realize Vordarian had meant her to be shocked.[[note]]And adding to the {{Irony}}, Aral giving in to his bisexual urges ''and'' not being monogamous only ''strengthens'' their marriage.[[/note]]
* NothingButSkulls: The crazy old woman's house is decorated with the skulls of all the irradiated children who died there in "Flowers of Voshnoi".

** Miles is really a subversion of the trope. Yes, he is short and has had more breaks than he has bones, but he spends ten years leading covert ops missions, often in the line of fire, and only loses once. Just do not ask him to perform hand-to-hand combat. However, as Enrique Burgos learns, Miles ''does'' have some martial moves that allows him to immobilize targets and seriously threaten them.

** Cordelia notes that Barrayar and Beta Colonies diametrically opposed attitudes towards sex and gender are essentially two different approaches to the exact same problems of human reproduction in a harsh environment, with the differences chalked up to the fact that Beta had sophisticated reproductive medical technology that Barrayar didn't.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: ''In Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen,'' Cordelia and Oliver's frequent trips to Lake Serena inspire all sorts of speculation throughout Sergyar, except for what it actually is, the beginning of a new relationship.'''

** He later {{lampshades}} that at least he got the order right since [[spoiler: he died in ''Mirror Dance'' and broke his oath as an [=ImpSec=] agent in ''Memory'', in part caused by his death.]]
* ObfuscatingDisability: After the destruction of his eidetic memory chip and medical retirement from [[SecretPolice ImpSec]] in ''Memory'', Simon Illyan makes a point of playing up the damage done to his mind when it seems useful or convenient. His short-to-medium-term memory is spotty enough that the [=PDA/voice recorder/GPS unit=] he wears on his belt is anything but a prop, but by every other cognitive measure he remains solidly in the 'dangerously brilliant' area.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Played with, in the case of Ivan: There is a conversation in ''Mirror Dance'' where this possibility is discussed, but Aral Vorkosigan dismisses it, commenting that Ivan has acted stupidly from too young an age for it to be an act. However, when you read the portions of the book from Ivan's perspective, it is clear that he is fairly intelligent, and more in the way of BrilliantButLazy; he has learned that the "reward" for doing a job well is another, harder job. This had already been established in ''Cetaganda'' and ''Brothers in Arms'', where it is clear that Ivan is a perfectly competent young soldier, but that he feels safer if everybody regards him as a harmless fool. Considering he is the effective heir [[note]](Aral and Miles, and maybe Mark have a better claim, but none of them want the job, and neither Miles nor Mark would ever have been accepted anyways)[[/note]] for Emperor of Barrayar, he may also believe that he keeps the people ahead of him safer (all of whom are family who he is close to), by assuring ''nobody'' wants him in charge.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Barrayar's ministries will helpfully give you the runaround...in triplicate. Especially if your business involves a High Vor family (e.g. Vorkosigan) in any sort of negative way.

** At one point Miles mentions that Cordelia, then in her mid-sixties, was just reaching middle age for a Betan, and this leads to rumors about a nonexistent "Betan rejuvenation process" that can extend the lifespan of anybody who can afford it. Miles points out in one of the books that it is just their way of life and their health care system that lets them live longer lives.
** Several of the haut women Miles meets in ''Cetaganda'' are in their nineties and look no older than thirty or so. Lady Moira ghem Estif (a haut by birth) is about 130 at the time of ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'' and looks no worse than "faintly frail".
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: A prime example is Cordelia Vorkosigan's shopping trip during a civil war...which included [[spoiler:bringing the head of the pretender home in a plastic shopping bag]]. Decades later, it's still brought up as why no one invites her shopping, although when it's done good-naturedly, she is glad that Barrayar has advanced to the point where it can be joked about.

** Only a handful of people know that the Escobar invasion was deliberately planned to be a fiasco by [[{{Chessmaster}} Emperor Ezar]] in order to safely kill off his son, Prince Serg and tie up some inconvenient loose ends like the Political Office. With the death of Aral, Cordelia may be the only one still alive who knows. It is unclear if Emperor Gregor knows.

* ThePardon: Aral handed this out generously after the Pretendership.

* PenalColony: "The Borders of Infinity."

* PersonalSeals: During the Time of Isolation the high Vor lords developed the habit of carrying daggers with seals concealed in the hilt; they would use these seal daggers to make an imprint of the seal in their own blood. (Later practice was to use pigments, with various colors signifying different meanings, from love letters to birth announcements to death notices.) Miles has a genuine Time of Isolation seal dagger inherited from Grandfather Piotr; at least when making Anguished Declarations of Love, he goes the full traditional route of sealing the letter with his own blood.
* PhotographicMemory: Due to a computer chip in his head, Simon Illyan has one of these. [[spoiler:Until the chip is sabotaged.]]

* PitySex: Miles finds himself as "an object of charity" in Beta Colony, and does not care for it.

* ThePlotReaper: [[spoiler: Ekaterin's unlikeable, abusive, and all-around JerkAss of a husband dies just as she has decided to leave him, freeing her to be courted by Miles Vorkosigan. Unfortunately, he dies in such a way that fewer than a score of people in the Barrayaran Empire have a high enough security clearance to be able to satisfy themselves that Miles didn't kill him out of jealousy, which causes problems for Miles all throughout the ''next'' book. As for Ekaterin, the reaper didn't strike until after she'd told Tien she was leaving, meaning she gets all the guilt of breaking her word without the catharsis of it actually accomplishing something.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: For security and legal reasons, in ''Falling Free'' the Quaddies are listed on the company books as post-fetal experimental tissue cultures. An out of system manager ordered the tissue cultures to be disposed of - which Bruce Van Atta deliberately interpreted as permision to kill the Quaddies.

** The Cetagandan Empire is a group of planets exercising extreme bio-engineering, where every child "born" (at least among the Haut class) is not only approved but has its genetic makeup designed by the central government. What is more, it would be possible for the child's parents never to have even ''met'', let alone had sex, and they have no choice about or control over what the government does with their genetic material.
* PortalNetwork

* PreventTheWar: In ''Diplomatic Immunity'' the hero is an Imperial Auditor (big-time troubleshooter) sent to calm down a harbor brawl that had escalated into an interstellar incident, only to find that there are more sinister aspects that threaten war with a rival empire.

* PromotionNotPunishment: Miles Vorkosigan has a...problem with following orders, and those above constantly complain about his "excessive initiative" or curse him by wishing he one day commands someone "just like him". In ''Vor Games'', he is put under the one man who could possible deal with him and sent on a simple intelligence gathering mission. By the end of this he manages to have 3 separate 'superior officers' locked in the brig so he can go about leading a mercenary troop to defend a wormhole from an enemy invasion which no one ever asked him to do. [[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving But since he did manage to save everyone]] he ends up with a promotion and his dream job of playing admiral for the military fleet.
** Discussed in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', as [=ImpSec=] HQ is sinking into a mudhole, and people leave the building or stay at their posts:

** Usually well averted, but the ending of Mark & Kareen's plot in ''A Civil Campaign'' drifts into this. The officers sent to arrest a man who ''actually ripped a lot of people off'', even if he did it out of naivete, are sent packing by general agreement of the protagonists; even [[TheConscience Ekaterin]] approves. No one expresses any concern for the cheated investors at all. Could border on GreyAndGrayMorality, given that there were multiple other people who would have wasted their money hard work if he were arrested, his Escobar creditors would lose ''any'' opportunity to get their money back, and the officers were invading a very important Count's house to make the arrest (they didn't have a warrant from the Vorkosigan district, assuming Miles was right).
** Reading ''The Warrior's Apprentice'' before reading ''Shards Of Honor'', it is shocking how little Miles is bothered by the eventual revelation of Elena's parentage, especially given how little he actually does know at that point about what happened and why. [[spoiler: Having read the other book, we have sympathy for Bothari's insanity and his struggle to make something good out of the terrible things that happened. But all the characters should know at that point is 'prolonged rape and torture'.]] Possibly justified by the fact that Miles has known Bothari all his life and is quite aware of both the man's mental issues and his efforts to overcome them. Elena, on the other hand, is traumatized for a ''very'' long time by this knowledge.

*** The first rape being [[spoiler: mentioned in the previous bullet point, as are the reasons Bothari is forgiven]]. Despite the extenuating circumstances there is a surprising level of trust and sympathy given to the rapist by protagonists later. However, Bothari gets RedemptionEqualsDeath by allowing his victim to kill him; his last words are "Rest easy now." The rest of the series deals with how the progeny born of rape deals with her own existence and her need for a mother, and how the mother deals with her.

*** The third instance involves [[spoiler:Mark]] who starts to force himself on someone who was mentally a child [[YoungerThanTheyLook in an adult's body]], and who doesn't understand what is being done to her. The would-be rapist is only stopped due to [[spoiler: his own inability to perform due to past psychological issues owing to his own experience of being raped]], this time the perpetrator does get a clear WhatTheHellHero response from the immediate witnesses who treats it as hitting the MoralEventHorizon, but Cordelia is quite forgiving about the incident, and ultimately the would-be rapist ends up being treated as a protagonist deserving of a happy ending.

** Some of the ''many'' Barrayaran uniforms enter this territory, to include jackboots, jodhpurs, high collars, peaked caps and capes. Miles offers a [[JustifiedTrope justification]] in ''Cetaganda'', when he muses that it is derived from horse cavalry uniforms. Then he lampshades it, admitting it is a little silly to keep the boots when the last time the military used horses was his grandfather's time -- and that, according to the old man, Horses saved his forces during his campaigns mostly by being edible. Aral at one point remarks that the officers must use them for riding hobbyhorses, high horses, and nightmares.

** At the end of ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', [[spoiler: Ivan and Tej, to backwater planet Ylla rather than Lazkowski Base. Ivan rapidly uses his administrative skills to turn his "exile" into a two year honeymoon in paradise. After a year, Ivan does start to feel the pangs of homesickness.]]

* RecruitedFromTheGutter: Sgt Bothari was an AxCrazy slum orphan who entered the Barrayaran Imperial Service to find someone to control his violent impulses. Later he was used as a minion by a sadist to torture prisoners, until he refused to torture Cordelia Naismath, the heroine, and killed his master. When Cordelia married a Barrayaran aristocrat Bothari became an honoured bodyguard.

** Leo Graf from ''Falling Free'', who [[spoiler: hijacks an ''entire space station'' by reconfiguring it into a starship.]]

* RejectedMarriageProposal: Ekaterin turns down marriage proposals from Venier in ''Komarr'' and from Alex Vormoncrief in ''A Civil Campaign.'' In fact, she turns down proposals from Vormoncrief twice, the second time hitting him in the nose when he grabs hold of her. She also storms out of a large dinner party after a horribly awkward proposal from Miles - but without actually saying "no", a fact that both Ekaterin's aunt and Miles find to be highly significant. [[spoiler: Ekaterin later proposes to Miles in an even more public setting and Miles accepts]].

%%* TheResenter: Mark, at first. He gets better.

%%** Ser Galen's treatment of Mark.

* RewatchBonus: On a second read of ''Memory'', one may realize [[spoiler:Ilyan [[SecretTestOfCharacter gives Miles chance after chance to confess his lies]], because he doesn't want to fire Miles.]]

* RomanticFakeRealTurn: [[spoiler: Ivan and Tej in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance.]]

* RulesLawyer: In ''Barrayar'', Aral Vorkosigan tells Bothari to obeys his wife's command as if they were his own and never rescinds the order. Aral probably meant that order as coming from Lord Vorkosigan. Bothari interprets it as coming from Lord ''Regent'' Vorkosigan, equivalent to an order from the Emperor himself. Cordelia invokes the trope, breathily remarking she never knew Bothari was a "barracks lawyer".

* SadisticChoice: In ''Barrayar'', Aral has to decide between the letter of the law and compassion: execute a young man for a drunken play-duel that became a ''real'' one, or pardon him for his crime. Aral chooses the law, due to Barrayar's political instability and fears that favors to friends would lead to rampant nepotism. This forever estranges him from his friend Count Vorhalas, and leads directly to Miles' exposure to soltoxin. It also allows Gregor to, sixteen years later, take control of a relatively stable multi-planet empire, where even the political opposition is a loyal one--led by Vorhalas, determined to make sure his son did not die for nothing.

** Exercising his connections in a particularly blatant manner is also what get him ejected from the Barrayaran military command line and transferred laterally into Imperial Security. [[spoiler: He participates in a mutiny against his commanding officer who ordered technical specialists into a hazardous and unnecessary situation, then hopscotched the chain of command in order to use fresh trainees as an impromptu firing squad when they refused. His Vor name means he is automatically charged with high treason due to this act. He's warned that he can squeeze himself out of it after a good show of punishment and being kept out of the public eye for a few years, but that the other mutineers will probably be dishonorably discharged without trial...unless, as Miles proposes, the charges of mutiny are quashed in their entirety. However, as his father notes, this would thoroughly wreck Miles' reputation. No commander would willingly have him due to this blatant exercise of his father the Regent's political influence to protect him, and anyone forced to take him as a subordinate would end up working "with their neck cranked over their shoulder." [[FriendOrIdolDecision Miles asks for the charges to be quashed to protect them, even if the price ends up being his resignation from the service entirely]]. Fortunately for him, they don't end up needing his resignation: he is instead transferred to [=ImpSec=], which is framed as an internal demotion into a do-nothing sinecure post meant to disgrace him]].

** In an early book Miles notes (only half-facetiously) that when you belong to an aristocracy nepotism isn't a sin, it's a lifestyle.

* SecretIdentityIdentity: Miles.
* SecretSecretKeeper: Both Ky Tung, and Bel Thorne reveal that they've known about Admiral Naismith's real identity for some time, Ky when announcing his retirement to Miles, and Bel when it's officially read in on the secret in ''Mirror Dance.''
* SecretSnackStash: In ''The Vor Game'' one of the trainees at Camp Permafrost has a secret stash of pastries--not only are they likely much better tasting than the standard chow at the camp, they're almost certainly a care package sent from someone back home. The poor soldier, anxious to keep his secret stash of homemade (and homesickness averting/exacerbating) pastries safe from his ravenous bunkmates, hides them in a drainage culvert. During a rainstorm he apparently becomes worried about their "liquidity", goes to retrieve them, accidentally winds up in the wrong culvert in the darkness and storm, gets himself wedged in, and drowns.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Emperor Yuri was convinced that his relatives were planning to kill him and take the throne. So he sent out assassins to kill them first. Those of his relatives who survived that night (Along with General Count Piotr Vorkosigan, who did NOT take having his wife, daughter and eldest son murdered at the dinner table well) decided that this was the final straw and launched a civil war to overthrow and kill the mad Emperor.

** The Saga starts on the newly discovered world of Sergyar, and its colonization is part of the backstory of the rest of the series—especially after Aral is appointed viceroy of the new colony.

* SexAsRiteOfPassage: Betans are apparently big on this. As soon as you get your contraceptive implant and your hymen surgically cut, you are expected to try it out. Hiring a professional for the occasion if necessary.
* ShadyLadyOfTheNight: In ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'' By reveals that Impsec often recruits prostitutes to work as spies. Their logic is that it is easier to convince a prostitute to act as a spy than to convince a spy to sleep with an enemy target when necessary.
* ShavingIsScience: Rather than a razor (straight razor, safety razor, or electric razor) Miles uses "depilatory cream". In ''Komarr'' it's mentioned that if you leave this stuff on for too long it will start ''eating through your skin''. (Although it's ''possible'' that Miles is exaggerating the effect--he's talking to a nine-year-old to whom "depilation is still a bit of a mystery" and is explicitly trying to fast-talk his way into the bathroom where the kid has barricaded himself because he doesn't want to go to school.)

* ShockStick: Used throughout the series (referred to as either "shock-sticks" or "shock sticks"), they are baton-like non-lethal electric weapons, which can be sufficiently painful as to cause the victim to lose consciousness. In ''The Vor Game'' (the first mention within the saga) one is used on Miles by Jacksonian goons, and later on Gregor (although as Miles points out, they only used the low power setting on Gregor). They also feature prominently in Mark's backstory in ''Brothers in Arms'' and ''Mirror Dance'', including Ser Galen using a shock stick to sexually assault Mark as part of his "training".

* ShootTheHostage: Miles threatens to shoot Gregor, Cavilo's hostage, in ''The Vor Game''. [[spoiler: He is bluffing, since his plasma cannon is unpowered.]] As Miles puts it the hostage problem is essentially unsolvable but threatening to shoot Gregor makes it Cavilo's problem, not his.

** In the same book, Ivan on looking at the {{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}} on Cockroach Central, is reminded of their appearance in "a short-lived children's animated show."

** Cetagandan Haut Ladies all look like extras from a Creator/LeijiMatsumoto anime.

* ShroudedInMyth: [=ImpSec=] is shrouded in myth not only in Barrayar but elsewhere. In Jackson's Whole they are apparently a bogeyman, chiefly due to a single [=ImpSec=] agent taking down ''all'' of House Ryoval. They also think Illyan possessed a cyborg brain.

** This is Miles' and Elli's initial reaction to the fur blanket they find in a shop in London. To be specific, this blanket is alive, purrs and snuggles closer when stroked and feeds on ambient EM fields.
** Applied to political infighting when one prospective heir of the late Count Vorryuter tries to disqualify the other via emasculation and loses the bulk of his political allies. [[spoiler: Given that the former is an extreme conservative and the latter [[GenderBender a voluntarily transgender man]], there are several levels of [[{{squick}} intense discomfort]] to choose from.]]

* SingleStrokeBattle: Aral Vorkosigan's brilliant conquering of Komarr in his BackStory -- too bad his political officer turned him into TheButcher with a single betrayal.

* SituationalSexuality: Athos for obvious reasons, as not only are women not allowed on the planet, but all media containing them are tightly censored. After two centuries of this most men on the planet have long since stopped caring and just have relationships with each other. Those who are presumably strongly heterosexual simply opt for celibacy.

* SliceOfLife: ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'' covers the last few months of Cordelia's time as Vicerine of Sergyar and the associated drama of the fledgling colony world. It was decidedly relaxed for the series, with the only turmoil being emotional in nature and the only explosion was due to some unfortunately incendiary wildlife, not a dastardly plot on her life... probably. [[ProperlyParanoid There were Cetagandans present, after all]].

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Elli Quinn: after getting her face burned off in a space battle, Miles pays for it to be replaced with the best face that 30th century reconstructive surgery can supply. She is initially delighted with her new face "but the second time a soldier made a pass at me instead of following an order, I knew I definitely had a problem." She goes on to explain that her problems do not arise because she is beautiful, but because she does not have the experience of knowing how to properly deal with her admirers that naturally-beautiful women would have gained while growing up.
* TheSociopath: Practically everyone from the high class of Jackson's Whole has sociopathic tendencies. [[spoiler: When the Cordonahs casually discuss how to profit at many Barrayarans' harm it was quite chilling. And the Barrayarans in questions had been nothing but kind and welcoming to them, even though the Cordonahs had a Cetagandan haut as part of their family.]]

** For the matter of that, it is implied that grandma Arqua was at least a minor accessory to war crimes during The Occupation probably including involuntary human genetic research.

** To a lesser extent Miles' father Aral, who murdered his political officer with his bare hands after the latter ordered a massacre of civilian prisoners; and earlier had murdered his first wife's two lovers, one in a fair duel, the other in more-or-less cold blood.

** [[spoiler: The villain of ''Diplomatic Immunity'' very nearly gets away with multiple murder, stealing the uterine replicators of Rho Ceta, and instigating a war between Barrayar and the Cetagandan Empire. But they couldn't plan for a) Russo Gupta managing to survive the contagion they infected him and his friends with and b) Gupta then managing to track them down, raring for revenge, thus alerting Barrayar and crucially ''Miles'' to what's really going on, as well as unwittingly giving him a hint of how he can survive the bioweapon when the villain infects him with it as well.]]

** Much is also made of the Vorkosigan family's status as the Spares to the Emperor's throne. After Mad Yuri's pruning of the family tree, and since Ezar only had one son (Serg), Aral was the closest thing to a spare if anything happened to Serg or (later) Serg's son Gregor. After Serg died and Ezar soon followed, Aral became Gregor's regent and remained the Spare, followed by Miles later on. [[spoiler:Only it's an open secret that nobody would accept a "mutie" and "cripple" like Miles on the throne so the real successor if something was to happen to Gregor would be ''Ivan'', who wants nothing of it.]] The Vorkosigan family's proximity to the throne is an extremely important plot point in several books, and the pressure is only lifted off Miles late in the series when Gregor finally gets married and works on some heirs. [[spoiler:Ivan is thrilled when it's pointed out Tej's Cetagandan heritage will remove him and any children from the succession]]

* TheSpymaster: Simon Illyan, and his predecessor Captain Negri, dubbed "Ezar's Familiar". And [[spoiler: General Guy Allegre,]] who succeeds Simon, although in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'' it's clear that Simon can't stop playing Spymaster just because he's retired.

** In ''Shards of Honor'', when Sergeant Bothari refuses to rape [[spoiler: Cordelia]] as per Admiral Vorrutyer's orders.
* SuddenlySignificantRule: In ''A Civil Campaign'', Ekaterin's fiendishly brilliant idea for dealing with Count Vormuir's own LoopholeAbuse regarding his bevy of replicator-birthed daughters is to dust off the old laws regarding the duty of a high-born father to provide dowries for his acknowledged female bastards--in Vormuir's case, ''one hundred and eighteen'' dowries.
* SuperBreedingProgram: A Barrayaran Count sets up a breeding program using cast off female eggs and his own sperm in Uterine Replicators to create dozens of his own daughters, not as a bid to create some kind of pure or super race, but to...make more taxpayers for his district? To be precise to attract young, productive male immigrants looking for wives - a real problem these days on Barrayar thanks to misuse of sex selection techniques. The Countess (who had already given him a few legitimate children) whose consent he did this without was not very happy about it. The punishment? His wife refuses to see him (much less have sex with him), and later, [[spoiler: the Count is expected to provide dowries for each and every daughter.]]

** Rish and the rest of the Jewels--among other things, Rish can hear heartbeats and smell when someone is aroused. (Their DNA comes from a half-''haut''/half-''ghem'' Cetagandan woman.) Also Tej and her other siblings, to a lesser extent (their genetics come from their mother and their non-Cetagandan father). Sometimes a downside, since they're also trained to have a refined sense of aesthetics and are very sensitive to bad cooking or clashing colors. They also suffer very bad disorientation during wormhole jumps and thus find jumpship travel extremely unpleasant.

** ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'': Cordelia and Oliver

* TakeAThirdOption: In "The Mountains of Mourning" [[spoiler:Miles has to punish Mara Mattulich -- who murdered her granddaughter for having a harelip, and who killed two out of four of her own children (the one with too many fingers and toes and the one with a bulgy head; the other two were born dead) for mutations when she was younger, albeit forced to do so by her own mother -- in a way that will also discourage other infanticides happening in the future. The obvious course, and the only suitable punishment anyone can think of, is to execute her...but no one really wants to kill an old woman who's as much a victim as a sinner, however hateful she is; and her death won't send the necessary message. Miles instead declares her ''legally'' dead, removing her right to own anything, to enter into any legal business or to leave her village, and leaving her entirely dependant on the charity of Harra, the daughter that she wronged. He also forbids anyone to mourn her or burn a funeral offering after she dies, meaning "she will die as the childless do, without remembrance." To the older generations of the hill folk of Barrayar (for whom DueToTheDead is serious business) this is worse, and more effective, than a simple execution.]]
* TakeMyHand: Subverted in "The Borders of Infinity" then deconstructed in ''Komarr'', as Miles belatedly realizes what the consequences of a successful TakeMyHand moment would actually have been. They were in a space shuttle, the other person weighed significantly more than Miles, and Miles was not anchored in any way.

** Cetagandan haut have genetic constellations rather than family lines, aided by the fact that every child is conceived by decree of the Star Creche, and the parents may never even ''meet'' each other, much less actually have sex. Trying to draw their genetic connections on paper would result in a mesh (or a mess) rather than a tree.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: InUniverse -- when Jole finds out to his shock that the ''Prince Serg'', a dreadnought that was the fleet's flagship, is being decommissioned and scrapped. He fights his NostalgiaFilter to recognize its weaponry after 20 years is pathetically inadequate now, but he still reminisces about the CurbStompBattle in the Hegen's Hub battle when the gravitic lancers were state-of-the-art.

%%* ThickerThanWater

* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Miles with ''all'' of his sexual/romantic partners, but ''especially'' Taura.
* TooCleverByHalf: Miles.

--->Gregor had grown so neutral as to seem almost gray. S''o, that's what rage looks like on him.'' Miles wondered if Haroche realized what Gregor's extreme lack of expression meant.

* TranshumanAliens: The Cetagandans & the quaddies. Ironically, the Cetas, who look like standard humans, are actually more alien in their thinking than the quaddies. After all the genetic engineering they have done on themselves, Miles wonders whether the Cetan Haut class can even be considered part of the same species as the rest of humanity. Or the reverse: how long before the Cetagandans stop considering non-Cetagandans human?

** The Haut ladies of Cetaganda ''never'' cut their hair. In ''Cetaganda'' one is held prisoner by clamping her hair. She and another Haut lady react with horror to Miles' suggestion to just cut her loose. [[spoiler: Then he distracts them and cuts her loose anyway.]] In ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', one sells her hair for an unstated but significant amount of money; her (half-haut, half-ghem) daughter's hair had been cut by her captors.

** After seeing Gregor's betrothal ceremony to its conclusion, and before preparations for the Wedding start gearing up, Alys Vorpatril -- to Ivan's extreme discomfort, if not dismay -- plans to spend a couple of weeks with Simon at some prole resort on the south coast so dull that it had never come to [=ImpSec=]'s attention. Ivan mutters about "those disgusting drinks with the fruit on a stick in them" among other things.
** ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'' ends with a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue via emails read on a tropical beach. [[spoiler:[[HypocriticalHumor Ivan himself happens to be enjoying one of those drinks at the time, with his wife]].]]

* TrulySingleParent: the Durona group.

** Miles demonstrates an anomalous reaction to it in ''Brothers in Arms'', where he becomes hyperactive instead of calm. Instead of compelling him to tell the truth in response to a question, every single thing he thinks just spills out of his mouth (truthfully, but not necessarily in response to what he was asked, which is the problematic bit from the interrogator's point of view) and it is ''impossible to shut him up''. He realizes that he can evade questioning by "free associating" the questions to irrelevant topics, such as memorised poetry or plays, and ends up reciting the entirety of ''Theatre/RichardIII'' as a one-man show at top speed before vomiting and passing out. Most of this recitation took place after the interrogators gave up and dumped him back in his cell -- the chain association was ''that'' strong.

* UglyGuyHotWife: To be fair, Baron Shiv isn't really ugly by any means, but he's not exactly described as a looker. Baronne Udine, meanwhile, is half-ghem and half-haut. That is, half unbelievably beautiful and half ''mind-shatteringly'' beautiful.

* UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn: Aral and Helen.

* UnwantedAssistance: Duv to Miles [[spoiler: after Miles, having accidentally sabotaged Duv's chances with Laisa Toscane by introducing her to Gregor, offers to assist Duv in his courtship of Delia Koudelka.]]

** Prince Serg in ''Shards of Honor''. [[spoiler: We later learn Aral was goading him into leading the charge so that the Escobarans would kill him.]]
** Miles goads [[spoiler: Count Vordrozda and Admiral Hessman]] into one at the climax of ''The Warrior's Apprentice''.
** Richars Vorrutyer in ''A Civil Campaign''. [[spoiler: He was encouraged by Byerly into making an unwise attack on Dono.]] His abrasive personality may have doomed him to failure, as exemplified by his political mistakes and his performance at the Council of Counts. Twit.

* WalkingTransplant: The fate of clones from Jackson's Whole.

* WaterTorture: In ''Shards of Honor'', Cordelia repeatedly dunks the head of her psychologist (who wants to force her into a rather severe treatment program) into the aquarium in order to find out how many guards she had brought.

* WeddingDeadline: [[spoiler: Ivan and Tej have to marry before the police get through the doors to arrest them.]]

* WelcomeToMyWorld: Martya's tart response when Miles wonders why René's genes should trump his competence in ''A Civil Campaign''. As a girl she is ineligible to become a count however competent.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Apparently Miles had a man tortured to death, hijacked a spaceship, commandeered a mercenary fleet and won a minor war ''to impress his dad''. Or possibly his late grandfather. Or maybe his love interest at the time, his bodyguard's daughter, who was the impetus of the entire trip. Though to be fair to Miles he had little idea of Bothari's true psychotic nature and didn't realize he'd resort to torture when asked to question someone. "Impress his dad" can be taken as a proxy for "justify my existence".

* WeWillAllFlyInTheFuture: Although groundcars are still widely used (apparently even these are some sort of hovercraft: "the groundcar rose on its skirts") aircars, lightflyers, float-bikes, and lift vans are also in very widespread use. In ''A Civil Campaign'' Armsman Pym wonders when Vorbarr Sultana is going to get its "municipal traffic control system" for groundcars up and running; Miles replies they're prioritizing the "automated air system" on account of the increase in fatal lightflyer accidents.

* WhamEpisode: ''Memory''. Miles is [[spoiler: [[TurnInYourBadge drummed out]] of Imp Sec and becomes an Imperial Auditor; Simon is BroughtDownToNormal and learns how to have an actual life.]] All of the Literature/VorkosiganSaga books to date have been published in omnibus editions...except for ''Memory''. Bujold herself called it "the pivotal ''Memory'' left as a stand-alone."
* WhamLine: In ''Cryoburn'': [[spoiler: ''Count Vorkosigan, sir?'']] It was foreshadowed in the very first Miles Vorkosigan adventure, ''The Warrior's Apprentice'' when [[spoiler: he was addressed as ''Lord'' Vorkosigan when his grandfather died. In a later book, he admitted dreading hearing those exact three words, "Count Vorkosigan, sir?" and begged his father ''in absentia'' to live a long life.]]

** At the end of ''Mirror Dance'', he confronts Taura and Quinn over essentially [[spoiler: abandoning Mark to be tortured for five days]]. He then [[spoiler: cashiers Bel Thorne]] for having knowingly [[spoiler: led his troops into a botched and unsanctioned mission under false pretenses, which resulted in a number of deaths]]. Subverted in that [[spoiler: Bel already expects the expulsion and is perfectly okay with it. Miles isn't angry when he does expel Bel, either.]]

** More than one person in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', on finding out about [[spoiler: Simon Illyan]]'s actions, asks "what the ''hell'', [[spoiler: Simon]]?"

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Or, in Miles' case, an old wing chair in a small room. Simon Illyan later reveals that he thought Miles was joking about the following interchange; he was not.

* WhenHeSmiles: When Aral--the [[TheStoic frighteningly stern]] yet [[OfficerAndAGentleman chivalrously professional]] Barrayarran officer--gives [[AMatchMadeInStockholm Cordelia-his-prisoner]] a sudden grin, she is shocked and discomfited by how boyish and appealing it is.

** In ''Mirror Dance'', Mark wonders who psychoanalyzes Cordelia, who psychoanalyzes everyone, pondering "Who shaves the barber?" He later gets his answer: [[spoiler: Emperor Gregor]].

** Ivan is afraid of enclosed dark spaces filling with water thanks to Mark and Galen's method for holding him hostage on Earth. So in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'' [[spoiler: he gets trapped in a collapsed tunnel filling with water after an accidental explosion.]]

* WretchedHive: Jackson's Whole is a planet-sized version. An amnesiac Miles, on realising what planet he's on, blurts out "[[OhCrap Oh, Shit!]] I'm on ''Jackson's Whole!''"

* YetAnotherStupidDeath: Lazkowski Base on Kyril Island (AKA Camp Permafrost) gets a lot of these. The record for the most original and idiotic death goes to the guy Miles found wedged in a drainpipe, having drowned trying to save his cookie stash.[[note]]It was originally to be money, but Bujold realized it would make the death look less foolish and more sinister and mysterious.[[/note]]

* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Piotr essentially saying that Mad Emperor Yuri's death squad killed the wrong son, near the end of ''Barrayar'', is the final straw in his deteriorating relationship with Aral, leading to a five year estrangement between them.

* SilkHidingSteel: Alys Vorpatril. Later on, Ekaterin Vorsoissan also manages to find her steel and develop into this.

* PlayingWithSyringes: Taura.

* PowerDegeneration: Taura.

** The Cetagandan Empire is a group of planets exercising extreme bio-engineering, where every child "born" (at least among the Haut class) has its genetic makeup designed by the central government. What is more, it would be possible for the child's parents never to have even ''met'', let alone had sex.