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1''[[AC:On Basilisk Station]]''
2* The narration's description of Dame Estelle Matsuko's... ''irritated'' reaction to being told, essentially, to stop regulating trade with the natives of the planet Medusa and performing customs inspections on incoming and outgoing cargo, as doing so upset the {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s in charge of the trading cartels. Dame Estelle's response to these directives is awesome, yes, but the way that reaction is described is simply hilarious.
3-->[Dame Estelle had] snapped the unlucky messenger's head off and sent him home with it under one arm and a detailed account of the nature and severity of recently discovered violations of Her Majesty's Medusan Protectorate's laws under the other. And, she'd told Honor with grim delight, she'd concluded her report with the observation that the discovery of those violations had been made possible solely by the "dedicated, professional, persistent, and outstandingly successful efforts, both in their own right and in association with the NPA" (that was a direct quote) of Commander Honor Harrington and the crew of HMS ''Fearless''. Under the circumstances, Dame Estelle had added, she had no intention of striving to abate Commander Harrington's activities and every intention of aiding and abetting them in any way she could. And if Her Majesty's Government disapproved of her intentions, she would, of course, submit her resignation.
4* Part of Honor's overwhelming duties at Basilisk Station is to hold customs inspections. The NPA, the local police organization, is mainly ex-Army and ex-Marines and so they have almost no experience finding smuggling compartments or the like. (Which is why it's supposed to be the Navy's job to handle customs in the first place, a duty the previous Basilisk Station commander had been ignoring.) During the meeting with the head of the NPA, she calls in the Bosun.
5-->''"I'm not going to ask you to betray any secrets, Bosun, but what I'm looking for are people who — from their own experience, let us say — would be intimately familiar with the best way to hide contraband aboard a shuttle or a starship."''
6** After the Bosun leaves, Major Isvarian, the head of the NPA customs, intrudes on the conversation:
7--->''"Excuse me, Captain, but did I just hear you ask the bosun to find fifteen ''smugglers'' to man our customs flights?"''\
8''"Of course not, Major. This is a Queen's ship. [[IllPretendIDidntHearThat What would we be doing with smugglers on board?]]"''
9* After Harrington takes out the impeller nodes of the Havenite courier boat by violating its drive safety perimeter with her own (essentially, she moved too close to the other ship), and its commander coms her to protest:
10-->'''Courier Boat Commander:''' Captain Harrington, I protest your reckless, illegal shiphandling! You almost destroyed my ship! Our entire after–\
11'''Captain Harrington:''' I'm very sorry, Captain. [[RefugeInAudacity I'm afraid I wasn't watching where I was going]].\
12'''Courier Boat Commander:''' ''Weren't watching wh–?!''
13
14''[[AC:The Honor of the Queen]]''
15* Allison Harrington is a barrel of laughs, essentially a [[HandsomeLech Pretty Lech]]. For instance, the first time we meet her, upon meeting Honor's new [[NumberTwo executive officer]], she tells Honor how gorgeous the guy is. And how Honor needs to tap that, pronto. Fittingly, her treecat name is Laugh Dancer.
16* Some responses to idiocy transcend millennia, as Sir Anthony Langtry proves. His response to Reginald Houseman's spectacularly uninformed attempt at diplomacy? Why, nothing other than the time-honored FacePalm.
17** Upgraded to a double FacePalm when Houseman continues [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging himself deeper]].
18
19''[[AC:The Short Victorious War]]''
20* The scene where Honor is floating in a pool, and Nimitz starts bombing her with tennis balls. Her warning "Throw it and you're bedroom shoes!" and subsequent [[CatchAndReturn retaliation]] (treecats like water about as much as do the Earth felines for which [[CallASmeerpARabbit they're named]]), is a fun little lighthearted moment. Especially given [[WarWasBeginning what happens later]]. (This leads to a BrickJoke a dozen books later when Honor's best friend Mike Henke is shown to have been given fluffy slippers by Honor — slippers styled to look like purple treecats.)
21* When Honor Harrington asks her old friend Michelle Henke for help with makeup:
22-->'''Mike:''' Our coloring is just a ''[[{{Understatement}} bit]]'' different, you know.[[note]]Honor Harrington is of European and Asian descent and quite pale, while Mike — whose family is descended from Africans — is very dark.[[/note]]\
23'''Honor:''' Does that matter?\
24'''Mike:''' ''[mental facepalm]''
25* When a pair of Peep battlecruiser divisions assigned to ambush a light cruiser accidentally run into a Mantie dreadnought, an inverted DescriptionCut occurs as the narration jumps from the Mantie bridge — where we see the watch officer (a ''communications'' officer, and self-admitted tactical ignoramus) nervously running down a checklist, culminating in an order for the ship to swing to port simply because the starboard sidewall came up first — to the Peep flag deck:
26-->Admiral Pierre swallowed a groan as the dreadnought snapped around and her sidewall swatted his broadsides contemptuously aside. He'd never seen a ship that size maneuver so rapidly and confidently. She'd taken barely ten seconds to bring her sidewalls up and get around — [[MistakenForBadass her captain must have the instincts and reactions of a cat!]]
27* As it turns out, ''everybody'' ships Honor and Paul Tankersley. Including Honor's executive officer-slash-best friend. ''And'' the admiral for whom Honor is serving as flag captain! Even an Admiral who dislikes Honor for her reputation winds up making sure that Paul is a passenger aboard Honor's ship for their voyage home.
28
29''[[AC:Field of Dishonor]]''
30* A discussion after the ''Hephaestus'' CO finally agrees that one of ''Nike's'' graser mounts should be completely replaced on the damage surveyors who made the initial assessment, leads to this exchange between Honor and Paul Tankersley, where the sarcasm is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
31-->'''Paul''': Most survey specialists toss and turn all night, bathed in cold sweat, clutching empty bottles of cheap rotgut in their palsied hands as futile protection against nightmares about their next cost accountability inspection. The last thing they need is some captain with an ironclad case for spending money on his ship.\
32'''Honor''': Poor babies. I weep for them.\
33'''Paul''': Bless you, child. Such sympathy becomes you.
34
35''[[AC:Flag in Exile]]''
36* During a period of political unrest in Harrington Steading in which a number of demonstrations had led to fighting in the streets, Honor tries to get her apparently-blind chief armsman to call in an alert about a group of men armed with large clubs entering a park. [=LaFollet=], when he's done laughing, explains to his poor ignorant Manticoran boss that what she's seeing is a pickup baseball game. (On Manticore, the main team sport is UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball.) It only gets funnier when, after [=LaFollet=] explains bats are used on the ball (not the players), the first idea that springs to Honor's mind is a demented variation on golf. Turns into a BrickJoke later on in ''War of Honor'', explained in more detail below.
37* Nimitz (he shows up a lot here, doesn't he?) keeping in hunting practice via counting coup. Poor chipmunk...
38** Of course he shows up a lot here. His name in the treecat language is Laughs Brightly.
39*** And his human ''nickname'' is Stinker, as in [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny "Ain't I a stinker?"]] - pretty much a direct cultural translation.
40** The incredibly helpful description of the Sphinxian Chipmunk given by the narration is worth a mention: It has six legs (like most fauna from Sphinx), [[DisSimile and looks nothing like a Terran chipmunk]]. This sort of disconnect between something's name and its Terran analogue would eventually turn into one of the franchise's {{Running Gag}}s.
41
42''[[AC:Honor Among Enemies]]''
43* In a humorous bit of world-building, it is mentioned that Honor is familiar with powder-fired cartridge weapons (such as 20th century semi-automatic pistols) because when she was younger, she was active with the UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism, which to 20th and 21st century readers is better known for dressing up in armor and fighting with swords.
44* "Thank you for your cooperation and excellent response time, but this concludes our unscheduled exercise."[[note]]For those not in the know, a Navy ship has been forced to escort a trading cartel's owner (the same that threatened Honor in ''On Basilisk Station'') who has taken advantage of this to bring several merchant ships along. Obviously angry about it, he summons his officers to do a little something...[[/note]]
45* The phrasing Harold Tschu chooses when informing Honor that Samantha (his treecat) is pregnant.
46-->'''Tschu:''' I'm afraid I'm going to have to put in for maternity leave.
47* Peep CL engages pirate ships that outnumbers her 3-to-1 to save a ''Mantie'' merchantman, only to see two of them evapourated by a single salvo from the "merchie". And to receive an order to surrender from none but ''Honor Harrington'' herself!
48-->'''Narrator:''' Foraker's shocked exclamation [[note]]Shannon Foraker is an absolutely cold-blooded military tech-geek[[/note]] burned across the bridge like a buzz saw.
49
50''[[AC:In Enemy Hands]]''
51* Andrew [=LaFollet=] trying to coax Jason the treekitten out from under shuttle seats. [=LaFollet=] is way too big to fit beneath the seat, and can't quite reach Jason. Jason is enjoying the game, [=LaFollet=] is wordlessly daring ''anyone'' to say ''one word'', and Honor is stifling a highly-inappropriate giggle fit.
52** The way it gets solved is hilarious, too: Samantha looks at a relaxed Nimitz, and Nimitz tiredly stands up to get his son out from under the seat. You can almost imagine him rolling his eyes, too.
53
54''[[AC:Echoes of Honor]]''
55* Nimitz's [[PsychicPowers telepathic picture show]] showing treecat-Honor (a brown-eyed treecat, wearing an eyepatch, a naval beret, and Commodore's shoulderboards) chasing down a chipmunk with a face patterned after a particularly obstructive admiral. It makes Honor laugh uproariously, and then chide him for his [[DeadpanSnarker low sense of humor]].
56* Some of the delicious banter between members of Honor's crew:
57** When they're scanning the jungle canopy trying to find Camp Inferno:
58--->'''Harkness:''' 'Scuse me, Mr. Tremaine, but I think I see something.\
59'''Tremaine:''' And where would that happen to be, Chief? You really ought to be a bit more precise in making these minor sighting reports, you know.\
60'''Harkness:''' ''[earnestly]'' Yes, Sir. Sorry 'bout that, Sir. Guess I'm just getting old, Sir. I'll try not to let it happen again, Sir. Maybe next time I can find you a younger, fitter flight engineer, Sir. And then–\
61'''Tremaine:''' And then you can tell me where you saw whatever you saw before I come back there and have Master Chief Ascher take care of you for me, Chief!
62** In Camp Charon, Honor is discussing Admiral Styles with [=McKeon=] when Solomon Marchant interrupts:
63--->'''Honor:''' Yes, Solomon?\
64'''Marchant:''' I'm sorry to burst in on you like this, My Lady, but Senior Chief Harkness and I just cracked another security code, and I thought you'd want to know what we found.\
65'''Honor:''' ''[dryly]'' [[NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer No doubt you're right.]]
66* For anybody British, Honor's mental reference to an M&S (maintenance & service) depot for skinsuits.
67%% I presume the above is an allusion to Marks & Spencer, but if an amused Brit could confirm or deny (preferably in [[note]]this format[[/note]], that would be helpful.
68* During a routine mail-drop from a Havenite courier-ship, the courier ship's captain is being questioned over the comm. because the local StateSec detachment is claiming that they haven't given them all their mail. The courier explains that they have, and StateSec demands remote access to their computers to double check. Once they do, they start demanding to know why the courier ship ''deleted'' their mail. The courier, harried and scared out of their wits, tries to explain that they couldn't have done that, because they don't have the access codes. Then the StateSec Colonel who was talking to the courier-ship switches over to his commander: a Lieutenant ''General'', who similarly demands to know what the courier ship is playing at. Terrified, the courier ship explains that it is physically impossible for them to have deleted, altered, or otherwise gotten rid of this phantom message that General Chernock wants to see. Finally, General Chernock dismisses him, and turns to his second-in-command, and asks if he thinks that the courier was telling the truth. The second-in-command says that he does, and the reader finally learns what the important message had been about:
69-->"But that's impossible," Chernock said. "It was Dennis' move."\
70"Sir, I realize [[SeriousBusiness how important your chess games are, but—]]"
71** Even funnier when you consider that, in this case, Citizen General Chernock is ''[[ProperlyParanoid entirely correct]]'' to be so concerned about the missing mesage, given that the only reason Dennis didn't send the expected message was because Honor had seized control of the planet without the Havenite authorities off-world catching wind of it — and didn't learn about Warden Tresca and General Chernock's correspondence chess matches because Dennis Tresca was brutally killed by the prisoners he abused long before the Manties reached his quarters.
72
73''[[AC:Ashes of Victory]]''
74* An advisor informs Queen Elizabeth of an urgent matter which demands her attention — presumably, more important than the card game she is losing against the Prince Consort and the Crown Prince (read: her husband and son). The Royal Family proceeds to engage in a light-hearted session of tinfoil hattery, accusing each other of devious machinations and high treason, all over a Pinochle game.
75* When Honor Harrington is mulling on the ultimate fate of the former Citizen Commander Caslet, and [[ImmediateSelfContradiction contrasts the attitudes of "us cynical Manticorans" with that of "we Graysons"]]. Then [[LampshadeHanging she pauses to note how odd that sounds]].
76* While everyone in both the Star Kingdom and on Grayson is quite glad to see Honor Harrington back from the dead, this doesn't stop them from preying upon her natural humility for their own amusement:
77** First, the decision is made to return her from Trevor's Star to Grayson aboard the senior Grayson ship present... which, besides being the perfectly logical choice, allows Admiral White Haven, Captain Greentree, Admiral Yanakov, and the rest to enjoy watching her reaction when she discovers that the superdreadnought she just boarded is the GNS ''Honor Harrington''. Which, as she gripes about, they ''absolutely refuse'' to rename.
78--->"I argued myself blue in the face, you know, but Benjamin says he can't overrule the military, the Office of Shipbuilding says it would confuse their records, Reverend Sullivan insists that the Chaplain's Corps blessed the ship under her original name and that it would offend the religious sensibilities of the Navy to change it now, and Matthews says it would offend the crews' belief that renaming a ship is bad luck. Every one of them is in on it, and they keep playing musical offices. Whenever I try to pin one of them down, he simply refers me — with exquisite courtesy, you understand — to one of the others. And I know they're all laughing in their beers over it!"
79** Second, when she returns to Steadholders' Hall to find a [[EmbarrassingStatue four-meter-tall bronze statue of herself atop an eight-meter polished column]] right in front of the main entrance — a statue which they don't merely refuse to take down upon her return to life, but whose recasting is fully covered by the insurance should any desperately-mortified Steadholder order her armsmen to demolish it one dark night.
80* Honor, having rejoined the Royal Manticoran Navy, proceeds to return to semi-active duty as an instructor at Saganami Island, where her loyal chief steward, James "Mac" [=MacGuiness=], naturally joins her. She reflects that this is slightly peculiar given that Mac is ''retired'' and did not choose to reenlist... making him the only Chief Steward in the Royal Manticoran Navy who is not actually ''in'' the Royal Manticoran Navy.
81-->She'd dragged him into and—barely—out of far too many battles, and she'd wanted him safely on the sidelines.\
82Unfortunately, that was an option she didn't appear to have. She still wasn't sure how he'd gotten his way... again. They'd never argued about it. There'd been no need to. By some form of mental judo which put her own skill at ''coup de vitesse'' to shame, he'd simply avoided the entire discussion and appeared aboard the ''Paul Tankersley'' for the trip to the Star Kingdom. Nor had the Navy been any more successful at imposing its own, institutional sense of order on the situation. [=MacGuiness=] had never reenlisted and showed no particular desire to do so ... [[BavarianFireDrill yet no one in the Service seemed aware that he hadn't.]] Honor was positive that, as a civilian, he must be in violation of about a zillion regulations in his current position. The security aspects of the ATC materials to which he had access alone must be enough to drive a good, paranoid ONI counterintelligence type berserk! But no one seemed to have the nerve to tell him he was breaking the rules.\
83[[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Which, if she were going to be honest, was precisely how she preferred things.]]
84* Michelle Henke's succinct evaluation of Honor's plan to escape from Hades, which required ''everything'' to go right and only worked via a massive stroke of luck, in ''Ashes of Victory'':
85-->'''Henke:''' All things considered, Her Grace's plan may not have been the single rashest, most foolhardy, do-or-die, all-or-nothing throw of the dice in the history of the Royal Manticoran — or Grayson — Navy. If it wasn't, however, I have so far failed to find the plan that ''was''.
86** Honor herself agrees. And says Michelle only exaggerated a ''little''. And if ''any'' student tries the same tactics in her class, she will make Henke's remarks look ''nice''.
87* Sometimes the narration comes up with lines that are just downright ''hilarious''. Case in point, after the first truly successful military operation in nearly three years:
88-->'''Narrator:''' Hamish Alexander stood on ''Benjamin the Great'''s flag deck with his hands clasped behind him and tried very hard not to feel a sense of godlike power.
89* Ties in with [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome CMoA]], but in ''Ashes of Victory'', the discussion about the San Martin government. San Martin had recently been liberated, and was having massive difficulty electing a new leader. After two years, with no progress, Commodore [[MeaningfulName Jesús]] Ramirez, the officer who led the doomed last stand against the original Havenite invasion and the nephew of the last President of San Martin, returns. Every other candidate (except one, and even that one seems to be in it just to have an opposition) instantly drops out of the race. Ramirez wins with 86% of the vote.
90-->'''Narrator:''' Jesús was drafted, almost without being consulted...
91* Honor's mother's inner musings on religious fanatics:
92-->Nuts didn't need religion to make them nuts, Allison had long since decided, but it did seem to give them a certain added sense of commitment to whatever goals their nutdom decided to embrace.
93* White Haven's reaction to Honor reappearing in a stolen, broken-down fleet: "Why can't she ever bring a ship back in one piece?"
94
95''[[AC:War of Honor]]''
96* The baseball tomfoolery that opens (well, opens ''with the main characters'', anyway) ''War of Honor'', in which Honor, who had never so much as ''heard'' of the sport until she saved a star system and got herself adopted by a planetful of Graysons, plays the role of "long-suffering old-time fan suffering the ignorance of newcomers" to the ''hilt'' as she introduces the sport to Michelle Henke. Capped off with a ridiculously funny exchange between Honor and Andrew [=LaFollet=] when she asks him to explain to Mike why baseball fans measure distances in feet instead of converting to meters:
97-->'''[=LaFollet=]:''' Because this is ''[[SeriousBusiness baseball]]'', my lady!\
98'''Honor:''' ''[smugly]'' You see? There's a perfectly logical reason.
99** Similarly, Henke learning that the Harrington Steading team almost got named the Harrington Salamanders. Honor got it changed to the Harrington Treecats.
100** This exchange:
101--->'''Henke''': Somehow, the discovery that the founder of your religion was also a baseball fanatic doesn't really surprise me.\
102'''[=LaFollet=]''': I wouldn't say Saint Austin was a fanatic about baseball, My Lady. "Fanatic" would probably be much too mild a term, from everything I've ever read.
103** Henke gets the last laugh, even while Honor and [=LaFollet=] were making fun of her, their team were getting slaughtered at the game.
104* Honor and Michelle Henke are discussing the political situation in Manticore with the High Ridge administration, and they aren't optimistic. They're both very confused by how things have worked out politically both at home in Manticore and over in Haven.
105-->'''Mike:''' Do you think Pritchart and Theisman understand what's happening any better than I did?\
106'''Honor:''' I certainly hope so.\
107''[End of chapter, followed immediately by...]''\
108'''Pritchart:''' [[GilliganCut What the]] ''[[GilliganCut hell]]'' [[GilliganCut do they think they're doing?]]
109* After her deployment to Sidemore, when Honor is brooding about the gross inadequacy of her assigned order of battle to her job, and catches herself being entirely too cynical about the matter:
110-->She scolded herself again, although a bit less forcefully. She really should be careful about imputing sordid motives to the First Lord. Not because she doubted that he had them, but because not even [[CorruptPolitician Sir Edward Janacek]] could have ''only'' sordid motivations. That would have completely devalued [[BaitAndSwitch his ability to do such things out of simple stupidity, instead of calculation]].
111* Eloise Pritchart's long and highly romantic (in the Classical sense) reflection on the events of the past several years, and how Thomas Theisman basically handed her the Presidency of the Republic on a silver platter after determining she had no intention of misusing it... which comes to an abrupt and funny halt when she notes that there are times she's [[BlessedWithSuck highly tempted to shoot him for it]].
112* Shannon Foraker, now a Vice Admiral in charge of Bolthole (the Havenite R&D depot), losing her com a few times a week, and throwing her navy uniform cap at her steward.
113
114''[[AC:At All Costs]]''
115* Alfred and Allison Harrington in some scenes.
116-->'''Alfred:''' I think someone needs a spanking. And not our daughter.\
117'''Allison:''' Oooooh, promise?
118** Later in the same scene, Allison jokingly starts waxing poetic about her excellent qualities.
119--->'''Alfred:''' ''[deadpan]'' Definitely a spanking.
120* During the scouting for a Cutworm mission, the commander of the destroyer HMS ''Ambuscade'' converses with her tac officer:
121-->'''Lt. Harcourt:''' I haven't picked up any grav-pulse transmissions. Anything they did get on us, aside from our footprint itself, has to be coming in light-speed. So whatever it might be, they won't have it for another twenty-five minutes or so.\
122'''Lt Cdr Estwicke:''' By which time we'll have cut even the laser links and be very tiny needles in a very large haystack.\
123'''Harcourt:''' Exactly, Skip. ''[cocking her head]'' By the way, Skipper, there's something I've always meant to ask.\
124'''Estwicke:''' And what might that be?\
125'''Harcourt:''' What the hell is a "haystack", anyway?
126* The literary version of a FunnyBackgroundEvent, where, during some playful banter and conversation, Emily Alexander gives her husband Hamish (at this point, First Lord of the Admiralty and one of the highest ranking people in the Kingdom of Manticore) a DopeSlap.
127* Honor begins running raids on Havenite systems as the CO of Eighth Fleet, and the Republican admirals are baffled by how the target selection is being done:
128-->'''Havenite Admiral Marquette:''' There ''has'' to be some sort of underlying pattern to their target selection. I can't believe someone like Harrington is just reaching into a hat and pulling out names at random. For that matter, the spacing on this cluster of raids demonstrates she isn't. So try to get inside her head. Run it through the computers, kick it around, try to get some sort of feel for what kind of tendencies or inclinations may be pushing her choices.\
129''[later on]''\
130'''Mercedes Brigham:''' ''My'' idea of how to assign the task forces was to pull system names out of a hat. For some reason, neither Andrea nor Her Grace thought that was a wonderful idea.\
131'''Honor:''' What I said was that it didn't seem very professional and it wouldn't do very much for the public's confidence in the Navy if we did it that way and word got out.
132* Queen Elizabeth's reaction to Emily Alexander's tranquil admission that she and Hamish had secretly married Honor.
133-->'''Elizabeth:''' ''[nonchalantly]'' Oh, how my trust in all three of you has been betrayed! Woe and lamentations. And so forth.
134* The ExactWords way Admiral Tourville opens the briefing on Beatrice for his subordinates.
135-->'''Tourville:''' I'm well aware of the sorts of rumors which have been circulating around the fleet. Some of them have been so wild as to be outright ridiculous. For example, the one that says we're going to launch a direct attack on the Manticoran home system in response to Lovat. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial The very idea is preposterous.]]
136* A few treecats play a rather evil prank on the gardeners at Harrington House, burying the halves of a stuffed treecat doll so as to make it seem as if the gardeners accidentally ran over and killed a treecat with a cultivator.
137
138''[[AC:Mission of Honor]]''
139* When Admiral Crandall arrives in Spindle, she waits for a while before opening communications, intending to make the Manticorans sweat. When she does hail them, instead of the terrified Manticoran officer she expects, she gets Gregor O'Shaughnessey, idly reading a novel at his station, [[RefugeInAudacity not even noticing the Admiral at first]]. It's a wonder that Crandall doesn't suffer an apoplectic fit.
140** And, since she'd decided to insult the Manties by parking her ships far enough out that it takes eighteen minutes for a message to get to Spindle and back, he returns the insult by [[TheSnackIsMoreInteresting resuming reading his book between exchanges, while still being on camera the entire time]].
141* When Eloise Pritchart is trying to decide what to do about a pair of troublesome members of her own delegation, she starts to fantasize about having Honor strangle them, noting that Harrington could probably do it without breaking a sweat, and afterward she could just give her a presidential pardon. Then she realizes, hey, Honor has diplomatic immunity anyway!
142** Honor herself fantasizes about the ex-LaResistance assassins in the Pritchart Administration — starting with Pritchart herself! — and wonders if they might be convinced to return to their old methods one last time...
143* Pritchart's memorable {{lampshading}} of the Mesan Alignment's up to eleven DeepCoverAgent strategy:
144-->'''President Pritchart:''' There's got to be at least some contact if they aren't going to lose their assets simply because someone dies before she gets around to telling her son or daughter "Oh, by the way. We're actually secret agents for the Mesan Alignment. Here's your secret decoder kit. Be ready to be contacted by the Galactic Evil Overlord on Frequency X with orders to betray the society you've been raised all your life to think of as your own."
145** Doubly ironic because Harringtons themselves are ''just that'' — a Mesan Alpha line that eventually lost their connection to the Alignment.
146* Toward the end, a lowly ensign has the watch as Admiral Harrington's ship comes docking back in with her flagship, and he begins going through the usual motions. Only to stop as ''the Queen herself'' follows Honor out of the ship. Cue centuries (and a dozen books) worth of military tradition coming to a sudden, abrupt halt at the unexpected arrival. (Can be summed up as: military tradition encounters Queen Elizabeth, and ''loses''.) Despite the gravity of the situation, it's easily the funniest thing in the book.
147** Naval protocol covers such occurrences just fine (a few more sideboys, basically), but the officer of the deck — not to mention his captain — would have appreciated a heads-up. And naval protocol is ''also'' for the seniormost person to board last and leave first, so Queen Elizabeth should have preceded Honor out of the hatch precisely to avoid leaving the poor officer of the deck confronted with a mid-ceremony switch.
148** Then again, there is a sort of RunningGag in the series discussing the relative seniority of Grayson and Manticoran nobility, including the occasional argument in favor of a Grayson Steadholder being senior to the Queen of Manticore on the basis of them being heads of state ''and'' many Steadings (though not Harrington Steading) being older than Manticore itself. Honor's dual Manticore-Grayson status has on many occasions served as sand in the machinery of both military and social expectations.
149
150''[[AC:A Rising Thunder]]''
151* One of the security measures Manticore takes in response to the Mesan threat is to pair up critical personnel with volunteer treecats to gain advance warning against stealth assassinations. [[WorthyOpponent Admiral Lester Tourville's]] assigned minder pointedly objects to his habit of [[CigarChomper lighting cigars at dramatic moments]] by sealing up his space suit as soon as a cigar is unwrapped.
152** In the same scene, Tourville is amused to note that the entire bridge crew, most of whom know him primarily by reputation, are poised in anticipation as he unwraps his cigar, because they know it means things are about to get serious. For the note — Tourville himself started smoking cigars [[CigarChomper entirely for the image]].
153* Emily Alexander gives ''Honor'' a DopeSlap. While the two are watching an episode of ''Into the Fire''[[note]]a political talk program[[/note]] and exchanging snarky commentary about it.
154* Meanwhile, back on Old Earth, a group of conspirators are poking around in one small part of the Navy Archives... which includes countless filing cabinets full of ''[[AnachronismStew decades old paper documents]]'', despite the distant-future setting. One of them, a Marine Intel officer, demands to know if the Navy ''ever'' throws anything out at all.
155** Another one of them, a Gendarmerie officer, has the basics of the plot the League finds itself in outlined for her, along with the request that she help investigate and find evidence of it...
156--->'''Colonel Okiku:''' You are ''so'' going to get all of us killed.
157* Albrecht Detweiler, during his epic OhCrap while Benjamin runs down just how badly recent developments have screwed them over, stops to point out that they actually ''weren't'' responsible for Arnold Giancola.
158-->'''Benjamin:''' In fact, they're busy telling the Manty Parliament — and, I'm sure, the Havenite Congress and all the ''rest'' of the fucking galaxy! — all about the Mesan plan to conquer the known universe. In fact, you'll be astonished to know that Secretary of State Arnold Giancola was in the nefarious Alignment's pay when he deliberately maneuvered Haven back into shooting at the Manties!\
159'''Albrecht:''' What? ''[blinks in surprise]'' We didn't have anything to do with that!
160** And then, just to top it all off, Albrecht sums up the situation with all the prose and eloquence one expects of a [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] such as himself:
161--->'''Albrecht:''' [[OhCrap Aw]] ''[[PrecisionFStrike shit]]''.
162* Honor Harrington ''shoos'' the Republic of Haven's Secretary of War[[note]]Thomas Theisman[[/note]]. Better yet, ''he obeys her''.
163* Anton Zilwicki's and Victor Cachat's response to being called immature:
164-->'''Victor:''' Hey, he started it.\
165'''Anton:''' Did not.\
166'''Victor:''' Did too!\
167'''Anton:''' Didn't!\
168'''Victor:''' Did!
169
170[[AC:''Crown of Slaves'']]
171* Michael Oversteegen unloads with both barrels on his cousin Deborah Fraser, the [[AssInAmbassador Ambassador to Erewhon]]. Despite the severity of the situation, his assessment of her (complete lack of) mental competence is rip-roaringly hilarious, not to mention a verbal double broadside that, if translated to actual missiles, [[Awesome/HonorHarrington would have Honor Harrington applauding]].
172-->'''Oversteegen:''' I will just take the opportunity t' tell you, since I don't believe I've ever done it before at one of our family gatherin's — not precisely, I mean — just how brainless you are, Deborah. Truly brainless. Not simply stupid. ''Bar-ain-less.'' As in: brains of a carrot... I will remind you, Madam Ambassador, that as the senior naval officer in the system, I am obliged to "coordinate" with you but am in no way under your authority. So, Deborah, consider us havin' "coordinated" — [[UnusualDysphemism you are a cretin and I told you so]] — and I will attend t' the Queen's business.
173* Michael Oversteegen has no patience for his cousin whatsoever:
174-->'''Deborah:''' What is it, Captain Oversteegen? And I ''would'' appreciate it if you'd stick to the [[TheyCallMeMrTibbs proper formalities]].\
175'''Oversteegen:''' [[SophisticatedAsHell Get screwed]], [[FirstNameBasis Deborah]].
176* Ginny Usher gets plastered during Stein's party and then sees a bunch of Solarian people she knows are complicit with (or, at least, implicitly supportive of) genetic slavery (she was one). She proceeds to go to them, tell them they make her sick and pukes all over them. Victor Cachat's first thought is his surprise that one of them actually escaped being puked on.
177
178[[AC:''Torch of Freedom'']]
179* At the end of the book, two main characters of this book only finally [[RelationshipUpgrade upgrade their relationship]]. Since they are both barely out of puberty, this involves her letting him put his arm around her, which is a world-changing experience for them both.
180
181[[AC:''Shadow of Saganami'']]
182* When Midshipman Aikawa Kagiyama is standing watch after their return to Montana from Kornati and, figuring that the rating in [[AwesomenessByAnalysis CIC]] is probably as bored as ''he'' is, orders an analysis performed on a freighter that had just entered orbit ... which, [[SpannerInTheWorks by sheer coincidence]], is the same one that delivered an enormous load of Solarian military arms and equipment to Kornati's terrorists.
183-->'''Terekhov:''' Good work, Aikawa. ''Very'' good work.\
184'''Kagiyama:''' Skipper, I wish I deserved the credit. But it was just one of those things. I can't even say I had "a feeling", because I sure as heck didn't!
185* When the diminutive Provisional Governor makes it very, ''very'' clear that Manticore ''will'' support the local governments who had requested annexation:
186-->[Estelle Matsuko] was the smallest person at the table by a considerable margin, but [[SilkHidingSteel every head nodded very quickly indeed]].
187* Queen Elizabeth III's reaction to the news of Terekhov's unauthorized adventures in Monica:
188-->'''Elizabeth:''' What sort of raw meat do you people ''feed'' your cruiser captains, Hamish?
189
190[[AC:''Storm From the Shadows'']]
191* The MilhollandRelationshipMoment after Admiral Khumalo summons Terekhov to his battleship post-Monica, wherein Terekhov expects Khumalo to be infuriated and [[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving Khumalo explains what he really thinks]].
192* The entire sequence in which Joanna Agnelli, Commodore Terekhov's steward, and Helen Zilwicki, his flag lieutenant, have to [[ForcedIntoTheirSundayBest wrangle him into mess dress]]. Just... the whole thing. He sounds like an eight-year-old boy reluctant to wear a suit, and is frustrated as all get-out by Agnelli and Helen silently invalidating every excuse he can find not to wear it. Three or four excuses in, he finally just gives up. Apparently taking on a bunch of modern Solarian battlecruisers with a ragtag squadron is just fine, but [[NoBadassToHisValet taking on two very determined women is a different story]]...
193* Michelle Henke gleefully trolling her flag lieutenant, Gwen Archer, about his blossoming relationship with Helga Boltitz.
194-->..."I mean, I understand that you actually subjected yourselves to the hardship of dining at Sigourney's just so you could set up that 'dinner party' of mine." Her eyes radiated soulful gratitude as she gazed at him. "I do hope that we're not going to be forced to demand any equally painful sacrifices out of you this time around."
195
196[[AC:''Shadow of Freedom'']]
197* Michelle Henke's comment on the intelligence or lack thereof amongst the Solarian Navy's officer corps:
198-->'''Michelle:''' You know, I’m beginning to wonder exactly what qualifications the Sollies look for in candidates for their naval academy. I mean there has to be a filtering process. You couldn’t just go out and pick middies at random and get such an invariably stupid crop of flag officers. There ''has'' to be some kind of system. If you just picked names out of a hat, for example, ''somebody'' would have to have a functional brain.
199* Augustus Khumalo and Estelle Matsuko have just been hit with yet another piece of unexpected news. So what else is there for them to do but to break out the snark?
200-->'''Matsuko:''' Should I assume Lady Gold Peak sent a recommendation along with her report?\
201'''Khumalo:''' She did, Madame Governor.\
202'''Matsuko:''' And you're not going to tell me what it was unless I pull it out of you with a pair of pliers, right?
203
204[[AC:''Cauldron of Ghosts'']]
205* In a case of StrangeMindsThinkAlike, while watching the exposé on Victor Cachat, Thandi looks to Victor and thinks to herself "''Buster you are ''so'' getting laid tonight.''" Elsewhere in the room, Zilwicki is noticing the extra attention he's getting from his lover Cathy and thinks to himself "''I am ''so'' getting laid, tonight.''"
206* The naming of Torch's elite military force of the "Royal Mouser Corps.", which includes a debate on the heraldry and making sure the word "corps." is included to satisfy the soldiers' dignity, since they'll call themselves "Royal Mousers" on their own anyway.
207* Cachat and Zilwicki return to Manticore to present their findings on the Mesan Alignment in person in a scene that could have been written by TerryPratchett. When the two super spies point out how little they ''actually'' know about the Alignment, they immediately propose returning to Mesa to find more data. They assume the Queen of Manticore will think it suicidal. They do not assume Eloise Pritchart, Tom Theisman, Benton Ramirez y Chou, Protector Benjamin, and Hamish Alexander will share the Queen's thinking. Simultaneously.
208* The repeated fumbling of Berry's underlings to find a title she likes. They eventually settle on "Your Mousety".
209* Berry needs to get to Manticore with pretty much her entire Cabinet. When it is pointed out that she has to leave ''someone'' behind to actually run the planet, she appoints her boyfriend Hugh to be in charge, despite his having no official place in the government. Evidently it causes something of a constitutional crisis.
210-->'''Hugh:''' There really was a guy who went into exile in protest against what he called constitutional irregularities. He posted a long list of them on a public web site. It's still up, if you're curious.\
211'''[=DuHavel=]:''' Constitutional irregularities, is it? Interesting concept — given that Torch hasn't yet adopted a formal constitution.\
212'''Hugh:''' Yup. He listed that as Irregularity Number One.
213** To be able to leave him in charge she had to grant him an official title, but she wanted it to seem as un-threatening as possible to avoid people seeing it as a power grab. Hence how a genetically engineered strongman ended up appointed Minister of the Posterior.
214* Anton Zilwicki to Yana Tretiakovna:
215-->You're still holding a grudge about the tits aren't you?[[note]]In reference to the boobs Yana had to adopt as per disguise on Mesa.[[/note]]
216* One minor character is suddenly recruited into the ''"Oh look [[IndyPloy Victor's improvising again]]!"'' club. The narration swings back a paragraph or two later to clarify: It is ''not'' a fan club.
217** Said character, several pages later, joins another Victor club: the "Victor you're fucking insane" club. "Also not a fan club", clarifies the narration.
218* Anton needs to leave Victor on Mesa so he can get to Manticore to summon reinforcements, he and Victor have a long meaningful moment between two men too stoic to express such emotions as they're feeling... and Yana goes ahead and hangs a lampshade on the HoYay between them and kisses Victor on Anton's behalf so it doesn't get weird.
219 * Quite a bit of text is spent describing General Howell's incompetent efforts to blame the Audubon Ballroom for the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians, the destruction of hundreds of millions of credits worth of infrastructure (from the bombing which murdered those civilians), and the loss of three battalions of shock troops against people the Mesan view as their genetic inferiors.
220--> It was possible --''remotely'' possible--that a particularly credulous ten-year-old might actually believe that, Drescher thought. No military analyst or trained physicist who examined the site was going to buy it for a moment. And neither were the non-Mesan newsies who were already on-planet or undoubtedly swarming towards it by way of the Visigoth Wormhole at this very minute.
221
222[[AC:''Shadow of Victory'']]
223* Everything that has to do with Charlie O'Daley, Aivars Terekhov's [[InsufferableGenius insufferable]] layabout brother-in-law and Special Intelligence Service's finest field agent. It's as if [[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Byerly Vorrutyer]] decided to visit a sister series. The fact that the list of the favors he did to the Crown is no shorter than his brother-in-law's doesn't change the fact that he's a pompous, overbred and silly UpperClassTwit, and ThePrankster of the highest order to boot… except that he's not actually a '''twit''', just like his associate and friend Michael Oversteegen (with whom he shares the same annoying aristocratic accent, a first person to do so in the series).
224** A case in point of his questionable sense of humor: after Sinead Terekhov has chased her husband about the whole Star Empire, on the day they'd finally have met, Charlie decided to give his sister "a pleasant surprise", so he went and hacked her comm account to block Aivars' number.
225--->You are so going to die, Charles Travis O'Daley!
226
227[[AC:''Uncompromising Honor'']]
228* The narration notes that Admiral Shannon Foraker could be an intensely focused individual... in certain key areas. Otherwise, she "[[CloudCuckoolander often seemed to inhabit a different universe.]]"
229** Thomas Theisman describes the combined forces of Shannon Foraker and Sonja Hemphill as a "Congress of Geeks". Empress Elizabeth is ''pretty sure'' he means it as a compliment.
230** Honor, meanwhile, simply nicknames Foraker-and-Hemphill "the Demonic Duo".
231--->'''Honor''': ...On the other hand, the Demonic Duo might have come up with a solution for that particular problem.\
232'''Elizabeth''': "Demonic Duo"?\
233'''Honor''': Sorry. My personal nickname for the firm of Hemphill and Foraker, Inc. Either of them alone was bad enough. The two of them together are ''scary!''
234* The Queen describes Theisman as being entirely too smart to get into electoral politics, the main thing keeping him from becoming the next President of Haven. Darkly funny if you recall [[MilitaryCoup his involvement]] in what happened to the ''previous'' Havenite head of state.
235* Damian Harahap, AKA Firebrand, a Solarian agent provocateur and more recently a relatively low-ranking agent of the Mesan Alignment, unexpectedly bonds with Clean Killer, a Treecat who had, until they met, wanted nothing more than to kill him for his tangential role in the Yawata Strike. Patricia Givens first reacts with dismay when she thinks the treecat is about to kill Damian, then in exasperation when she realizes what actually happened.
236-->'''Givens''': [[OhCrap Oh shit!]] [[{{Beat}} ...]] ''[[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe Oh shit!]]''
237** The treecats decide to dub Damian "Plays With Fire", and [[TheComicallySerious Clean Killer]] can't seem to figure out why the two-legs find this hilarious. Then Clean Killer takes a new name... Fire Watch. He can't figure out why the two-legs find ''this'' hilarious either.
238* Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki reunite after many months apart and Cachat's near-death experience fighting on Mesa. After the two hesitate to show any fraternal intimacy, they decide to go ahead and hug, before Thandi Palane loses her patience and hurts them.
239* Honor and Hamish describe different tactics to be used for the nigh-impossible challenge Honor faces. Emily chides them both by reminding them that they are trying to feed a child, not win a war. Then she realizes that there really isn't much difference between the two.
240* Honor's uncle Jaques is a bit... eccentric. His personal spaceship is, for purely aesthetic reasons, designed to look something like a 20th century airliner (or, by extension, a RaygunGothic spaceship), just because it is the sort of thing everyone expects him to do with his money. It is also secretly armed to the teeth, due to his high position in the government's intelligence services.
241* While the Manticorans have come to rely on the empathic treecats to smoke out Alignment moles in their government, the Solarians stumble on a much cruder but just as effective method: confront suspected moles with the evidence, [[BlackComedy and see if they keel over on the spot]].
242** Once Admiral Kingsford is briefed on what is going on, he simply has each of his senior officers brought to his office to be confronted one at a time to be accused and either cleared of suspicion or discreetly disposed of by the Gendarmerie. He absolutely does not want to think about ''why'' the Gendarmerie is so good at hiding bodies.
243
244[[AC:To End in Fire]]
245* Several slimy Mesan officials hiding in a bunker are herded out with the gas that they've spent centuries using on slaves and end up vomiting on each other as they fly through a narrow corridor. The military and government officials who are shown the surveillance video have a hard time stopping themselves from laughing.
246** ''One'' of the officials has a hard time stopping himself from laughing. The rest of them fail entirely.
247** The surveillance video begins with [[ItMakesSenseInContext all of the toilets in the bunker exploding]].
248* By this point, Sonja Hemphill is so used to Shannon Foraker's ForgetsToEat tendencies that she's taken to automatically ordering food for them both every time Foraker stops by with a new brainstorm, on the (almost always correct) assumption that Shannon will have forgotten to eat something ''again''.
249** Hemphill's steward implies that he was preparing the breakfast before being ordered to just because he saw Foraker coming and made the same assumption Admiral Hemphill had.
250* Victor is challenged to think of something more ridiculous than "a one-armed bimbo" and he spends several minutes in intense thought working on that. Tretiakovna decides to have a seat because Victor Cachat thinking is "[[ThisIsGonnaSuck the stuff of nightmares.]]"
251** The answer, incidentally, is to recruit a bunch of imprisoned StateSec spacers to pretend to be SpacePirates. Victor is pretty confident that [[EnemyMine he can sell the Peeps on the upsides of the plan]].
252* An officer with the [[StateSec People's Navy In Exile]] is having a discussion with Princess Ruth Winton, and struggles to find a way to address her, given [=StateSec's=] taboo against classist titles. He briefly considers "Citizen-Princess" before discarding it as absurd.
253* Daud al-Fanudahi is quite upset with how the events of ''Uncompromising Honor'' have left him in the worst possible position: A rising star in the Solarian Navy, which means, as far as he's concerned, a target on his back given both the extensive corruption in the Navy and the actual identity of the conspirators he was working to hunt down still unknown. He's not relieved to learn that instead of getting a promotion and a big office in Old Chicago, he is getting deployed to Mesa to pursue his investigation further. [[Film/TheHuntForRedOctober He's not a field agent, he's an analyst!]]
254** Daud al-Fanudahi is quite thrilled to learn his new workplace on Mesa is buried deep within a massive labyrinthine building, and is listed on the building schematics as a linen closet. His partner, Irene Teague, explains to Victor Cachat that al-Fanudahi has a fetish for hiding from bureaucrats and flag officers.
255-->"That's not a fetish," Victor Cachat shook his head. "That's just common sense."
256* For all of the previous book, and much of this one, the [[BenevolentConspiracy Mesan Alignment]] has been quite upset that the Manticorans have been dragging their name through the mud (due to the actions of a separate and quite sinister conspiracy by the same name). The Grand Alliance has taken to referring to the two conspiracies as the Benign Alignment and the Malign Alignment. After hearing a few of the stories of things the Malign Alignment have done, as well as the nicknames the GA has begun using for the two groups, Chicherin takes Olonga aside and insists that they need to change their organization's name.
257
258[[AC:Anthologies]]
259* In "Fanatic" from ''Service of the Sword''. Victor Cachat has spent the last few months terrorizing, beating, and torturing the naval staff of a Havenite sector headquarters so that he could neutralize and dismantle the StateSec keeping an eye on them. This includes nearly beating the local commander and his NumberTwo to death, more than once. When Ginny Usher (Cachat's boss's wife and Cachat's CoolBigSis) shows up, Victor tells her he's very tired and "just wants to leave". In what the narration describes as proof that there is no justice in the universe...
260-->'''Ginny:''' Victor Cachat is the sweetest kid in the world! And you– You dirty rotten bastards! You were ''mean'' to him.
261* Also from ''Service of the Sword'', we have "A Ship Named Francis". An [[TheAllegedCar alleged ship]] in the Grayson Navy, the GNS ''Francis Mueller'' is so old it might as well be a sailboat compared to every other vessel in the Honorverse. Everything about this story runs on RuleOfFunny, including (but not limited to):
262** The BunnyEarsLawyer Captain Zemet, who rose through the ranks so quickly he was effectively ReassignedToAntarctica. The captain likes to spend his downtime on the ship going sledding through a cargo chute via potato sack, only to be horrifically injured and put into a coma...
263** Thus installing [[GeneralRipper Lieutenant Commander Green]] as the acting captain of the vessel, as he prepares to sentence half the crew to death for insubordination and a general "slackness".
264** The DrFeelgood Warrant Officer Robert Kearns, who solves most crew disputes and shockingly frequent cases of space dementia via tranquilizer. It's Kearns and newcomer [[TheIntern Sean Tyler]] who save the crew from Green's mass executions by convincing the madman that the crew are actually all dead (and [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not tranquilized in the sick bay]] at all).
265** The ship's Chaplain Olds suffering both from insomnia and over-imagination, giving morning prayers that feature more and more imaginative ways that their aging ship could explode, or worse, stop working, leaving them to cannibalize one another and slowly suffocate in the maddening darkness of space with no one ever finding them and no way to fly back home...
266* In "Obligated Service" from ''Beginnings'', Ensign [=LeCroix=] has been micromanaging the equipment maintenance schedules for the ship's various departments. The Lieutenant she works for explains that she needs to back off and let the noncoms do the jobs they were trained for, and not to worry if the occasional piece of equipment breaks. [[GilliganCut One paragraph break later]], it is mentioned that the machine which fabricates medication on the ship has broken just in time for the entire crew to come down with a nasty stomach bug, and the same Lieutenant takes a break from dry heaving to contact [=LeCroix=] and inform her that she is to micromanage the medic's equipment maintenance schedule to within an inch of his life from now on.
267** From the same story, the male crewmembers learn that the other female officer aboard, [[ThePollyanna Ensign Rustin]], routinely suffers menstrual cramps on par with the symptoms they temporarily suffered under due to the stomach bug, not that you'd ever know it from her incessantly cheerful attitude. She thus develops a reputation as a MemeticBadass amongst her male subordinates.
268*** Those same subordinates also start giving the ship's medic a hard time due to him not bothering to stock the medicines she needs to prevent this. What makes it funny is that Ensign [=LeCroix's=] subordinates start giving him a hard time as well in what is essentially female solidarity by proxy.
269** When [=LeCroix=] finds her career in trouble due to her immature family patriarch's shenanigans, her superiors briefly toy with the idea of [[LoopholeAbuse exploiting an unintended intersection in Grayson laws]] to have her legally declared a Gentleman. She won't have any of it and finds another way.
270* In "Beauty and the Beast", also from ''Beginnings'', Allison Chou, curious about new transfer student Alfred Harrington (most particularly, why her ex has taken such a hate-on for him), engineers a CrashIntoHello with him so she can get to know him. She miscalculates just how fast Alfred is moving, and how much inertia he's carrying due to his HeavyWorlder status, and the petite woman is nearly sent tumbling ass over kettle by the resulting collision.
271

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