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* TaughtToHate: The feud between the Longknife and Peterwald dynasties, which led to a string of sometimes-successful {{Assassination Attempt}}s against the Longknifes by the Peterwalds, all goes back to when a Longknife relieved a subordinate Peterwald of duty in wartime. The Peterwald took that personally and taught his family to hate the Longknifes. [[spoiler:Kris Longknife and Vicky Peterwald finally end the CycleOfRevenge when Kris manages to persuade Vicky that she wasn't responsible for the death of Vicky's brother Hank[[note]]Hank died in a battle where Kris was the opposing commander, but 1) he started it and 2) he would have survived if a third party hadn't sabotaged his EscapePod.[[/note]] and then saves her father's life from an attempted ColonyDrop.]]
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** The Iteeche are a blend of Imperial China and Shogunate Japan, with a bit of ancient Persia for flavor. They're a deeply tradition-bound culture with a GodEmperor, and in the event of the Imperial Planet falling to the rebels in a civil war, the victors typically wipe out its inhabitants and replace them with their own (in reference to several dynasties in China attempting to erase all trace of the one they overthrew). Nobles are followed around by halberdiers who behead Iteeche who break norms or are suspected of rebellion (or even make grammatical mistakes), and people who commit dishonorable acts are required to "make a most sincere apology to the emperor" (i.e. drink a cup of poison that causes an extremely painful death, evidently a variation on {{seppuku}}).

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** The Iteeche are a blend of Imperial China and Shogunate Japan, with a bit of ancient Persia AncientPersia for flavor. They're a deeply tradition-bound culture with a GodEmperor, and in the event of the Imperial Planet falling to the rebels in a civil war, the victors typically wipe out its inhabitants and replace them with their own (in reference to several dynasties in China attempting to erase all trace of the one they overthrew). Nobles are followed around by halberdiers who behead Iteeche who break norms or are suspected of rebellion (or even make grammatical mistakes), and people who commit dishonorable acts are required to "make a most sincere apology to the emperor" (i.e. drink a cup of poison that causes an extremely painful death, evidently a variation on {{seppuku}}).
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* AbsentAliens: {{Justified}} initially: besides the Three, a trio of long-vanished {{Precursors}} that built the jump points and left interesting artifacts lying around many planets, the first six books take place eighty years after a bloody border war with an alien species called the Iteeche, after which TheNeutralZone was established between them which neither side is allowed to cross. The Iteeche take on a much greater role beginning in ''Undaunted'', when they start trying to make diplomatic overtures to Wardhaven's bloc. Later books drop the trope completely, with Kris encountering no less than three additional alien species [[spoiler:not including those the PlanetLooters have exterminated]].
* AbsoluteXenophobe: The PlanetLooters consider all intelligent life other than themselves "vermin" to be eradicated. [[spoiler:{{Justified}}: Based on evidence recovered from their homeworld and nearby star systems in ''Tenacious'', the cast theorize that they were once enslaved by a neighboring species, then overthrew and wiped out their overlords before setting out to remove all alien life that could possibly be a threat to them.]]

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* AbsentAliens: {{Justified}} {{Justified|Trope}} initially: besides the Three, a trio of long-vanished {{Precursors}} that built the jump points and left interesting artifacts lying around many planets, the first six books take place eighty years after a bloody border war with an alien species called the Iteeche, after which TheNeutralZone was established between them which neither side is allowed to cross. The Iteeche take on a much greater role beginning in ''Undaunted'', when they start trying to make diplomatic overtures to Wardhaven's bloc. Later books drop the trope completely, with Kris encountering no less than three additional alien species [[spoiler:not including those the PlanetLooters have exterminated]].
* AbsoluteXenophobe: The PlanetLooters consider all intelligent life other than themselves "vermin" to be eradicated. [[spoiler:{{Justified}}: [[spoiler:{{Justified|Trope}}: Based on evidence recovered from their homeworld and nearby star systems in ''Tenacious'', the cast theorize that they were once enslaved by a neighboring species, then overthrew and wiped out their overlords before setting out to remove all alien life that could possibly be a threat to them.]]



* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Not all of them, but most star systems in the series have at least one habitable planet. Maybe {{justified}} by the jump point system, which is believed to be artificial: if the Three built them, they wouldn't have bothered to build jump points in systems they themselves couldn't use.

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* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Not all of them, but most star systems in the series have at least one habitable planet. Maybe {{justified}} {{justified|Trope}} by the jump point system, which is believed to be artificial: if the Three built them, they wouldn't have bothered to build jump points in systems they themselves couldn't use.



** [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} with Phil Taussig and USS ''Hornet''. In ''Daring'' he and Kris aboard ''Wasp'' split up while fleeing the vengeful HordeOfAlienLocusts, hoping that one of them will make it back to human space to BringNewsBack. Kris makes it, and later tracks the trail of ''Hornet'' to a marginally habitable planet where Taussig abandoned ship and rescues the survivors, captain included.]]

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** [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} with Phil Taussig and USS ''Hornet''. In ''Daring'' he and Kris aboard ''Wasp'' split up while fleeing the vengeful HordeOfAlienLocusts, hoping that one of them will make it back to human space to BringNewsBack. Kris makes it, and later tracks the trail of ''Hornet'' to a marginally habitable planet where Taussig abandoned ship and rescues the survivors, captain included.]]



* HumansAreDivided: {{Subverted}}. Initially humanity is organized under the banner of the [[TheFederation Society of Humanity]], but it breaks up at the end of the first book and several smaller blocs form in its place (Earth's bloc retains the name). In contrast, the Iteeche have a single powerful emperor ruling all of them in theory, though in practice Iteeche nobles often act to expand their holdings into unclaimed space without his knowledge [[spoiler:and start a rebellion against the emperor in the sequel series]]. The Alwans and PlanetLooters, however, have multiple populations that are mostly unaware of each other at first, and the Sasquans are still in an era of warring nation-states.

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* HumansAreDivided: {{Subverted}}.{{Subverted|Trope}}. Initially humanity is organized under the banner of the [[TheFederation Society of Humanity]], but it breaks up at the end of the first book and several smaller blocs form in its place (Earth's bloc retains the name). In contrast, the Iteeche have a single powerful emperor ruling all of them in theory, though in practice Iteeche nobles often act to expand their holdings into unclaimed space without his knowledge [[spoiler:and start a rebellion against the emperor in the sequel series]]. The Alwans and PlanetLooters, however, have multiple populations that are mostly unaware of each other at first, and the Sasquans are still in an era of warring nation-states.



** Kris makes Vice-Admiral at 29, and Grand Admiral (5-star) at 34. She has the talent for it, but even by wartime standards that rate of promotion is somewhat excessive. {{Justified}} somewhat in that her promotions from lieutenant commander up to three-star were originally "frocking-up", i.e. provisional {{Field Promotion}}s to ensure she would remain in command of the Alwa force despite its rapid expansion from a few ships into a fleet of hundreds. Kris refused to be reduced back to her legal rank after leaving command and had the clout to enforce her will. She also wonders occasionally what aspects of learning to be a commander she missed due to her unusual career arc.

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** Kris makes Vice-Admiral at 29, and Grand Admiral (5-star) at 34. She has the talent for it, but even by wartime standards that rate of promotion is somewhat excessive. {{Justified}} {{Justified|Trope}} somewhat in that her promotions from lieutenant commander up to three-star were originally "frocking-up", i.e. provisional {{Field Promotion}}s to ensure she would remain in command of the Alwa force despite its rapid expansion from a few ships into a fleet of hundreds. Kris refused to be reduced back to her legal rank after leaving command and had the clout to enforce her will. She also wonders occasionally what aspects of learning to be a commander she missed due to her unusual career arc.



** {{Subverted}} later: while commanding Alwa Station, Kris relaxes the fraternization regs, which leads to one of her subordinate [=COs=] sexually assaulting an enlisted woman. She reassigns him to command the manure works. [[spoiler:He does a good job and shows remorse for the act at later encounters, which leads her to use him as commander of several {{Suicide Mission}}s instead to earn his way back into her good graces.]]

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** {{Subverted}} {{Subverted|Trope}} later: while commanding Alwa Station, Kris relaxes the fraternization regs, which leads to one of her subordinate [=COs=] sexually assaulting an enlisted woman. She reassigns him to command the manure works. [[spoiler:He does a good job and shows remorse for the act at later encounters, which leads her to use him as commander of several {{Suicide Mission}}s instead to earn his way back into her good graces.]]



* SpaceIsCold: {{Averted}}.

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* SpaceIsCold: {{Averted}}.{{Averted|Trope}}.



* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: The first book takes part with the backdrop of "devolution", the impending breakup of [[TheFederation the Society of Humanity]] after eighty years of peace and mounting cultural-political tension between the urbanized, overpopulated, crime-ridden welfare states of the early planets (e.g. Earth and New Eden) and the less populous, more conservative Rim. But actual war is {{defied}}: [[spoiler:Kris leads a mutiny when the commanders of Attack Squadron Six try to attack an Earth fleet and start war between the core worlds and the Rim (with the suspected connivance of Greenfeld), and devolution happens peacefully as a result. Earth awards Kris the Order of the Wounded Lion, its highest decoration for valor, for this.]]

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* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: The first book takes part with the backdrop of "devolution", the impending breakup of [[TheFederation the Society of Humanity]] after eighty years of peace and mounting cultural-political tension between the urbanized, overpopulated, crime-ridden welfare states of the early planets (e.g. Earth and New Eden) and the less populous, more conservative Rim. But actual war is {{defied}}: {{defied|Trope}}: [[spoiler:Kris leads a mutiny when the commanders of Attack Squadron Six try to attack an Earth fleet and start war between the core worlds and the Rim (with the suspected connivance of Greenfeld), and devolution happens peacefully as a result. Earth awards Kris the Order of the Wounded Lion, its highest decoration for valor, for this.]]



** {{Justified}} in the backstory. The humans and Iteeche first encountered each other when human and Iteeche SpacePirates started hitting each others' unrecorded colonies, then lied to their respective governments about what they themselves were doing (piracy being a capital offense for both species). After months of bloody war, Ray Longknife and Roth'sum'We'sum'Quin managed to make contact with each other and negotiate TheNeutralZone. The two species did their best to ignore each other for the next eighty years, [[MirroringFactions all the while convinced that the other side had intended their extermination and they had survived by the skin of their teeth]].

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** {{Justified}} {{Justified|Trope}} in the backstory. The humans and Iteeche first encountered each other when human and Iteeche SpacePirates started hitting each others' unrecorded colonies, then lied to their respective governments about what they themselves were doing (piracy being a capital offense for both species). After months of bloody war, Ray Longknife and Roth'sum'We'sum'Quin managed to make contact with each other and negotiate TheNeutralZone. The two species did their best to ignore each other for the next eighty years, [[MirroringFactions all the while convinced that the other side had intended their extermination and they had survived by the skin of their teeth]].
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** For her part, the [[BuxomIsBetter much curvier]] Vicky Peterwald [[InvertedTrope inverts]] it: while [[IHaveBoobsYouMustObey wholly unafraid to use her assets to her advantage]], she complains to Kris at the end of ''Intrepid'' that [[DCupDistress they get in the way in her military career]] (they give her back pain and get in the way during PT). Also played straight in ''Redoubtable'' when she tells Kris that while they're large, they came in late.

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** For her part, the [[BuxomIsBetter [[BuxomBeautyStandard much curvier]] Vicky Peterwald [[InvertedTrope inverts]] it: while [[IHaveBoobsYouMustObey wholly unafraid to use her assets to her advantage]], she complains to Kris at the end of ''Intrepid'' that [[DCupDistress they get in the way in her military career]] (they give her back pain and get in the way during PT). Also played straight in ''Redoubtable'' when she tells Kris that while they're large, they came in late.
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* ChafingAgainstTheDressCode: Both Kris and Vicky Peterwald are deeply displeased at the standard dress uniform for female military officers in the Society of Humanity and later [[BalkanizeMe its successor states]], which consists of a white business jacket and a shapeless long skirt.
** In ''Mutineer'', Kris narrates when she has to wear one for an official function that it was clearly designed by male officers to make female officers as unattractive as humanly possible.
** In ''Target'', Vicky outright refuses to wear the standard dress uniform and commissions one all her own from an admiral's fashion designer wife, ending up with a slinky white gown paired with a bolero-style jacket for her [[ChestOfMedals party salad]].

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* AlienLunch: In ''Kris Longknife Among the Kicking Birds'', Kris witnesses an Alwan mother regurgitating meat to a chick. They are, after all, biologically birds.


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* WeirdWorldWeirdFood: In ''Kris Longknife Among the Kicking Birds'', Kris witnesses an Alwan mother regurgitating meat to a chick. They are, after all, biologically birds.
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Up To Eleven is a defunct trope


* CrazyPrepared: In ''Defiant'' Abby manages to produce clothing, including correct-size undergarments, for a woman she'd never heard of a week before. Then she dials it UpToEleven and produces enough bulletproof bodysuits and ceramic trauma plates to outfit an an entire Marine squad.

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* CrazyPrepared: In ''Defiant'' Abby manages to produce clothing, including correct-size undergarments, for a woman she'd never heard of a week before. Then she dials it UpToEleven up to eleven and produces enough bulletproof bodysuits and ceramic trauma plates to outfit an an entire Marine squad.
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* NoNameGiven: [[spoiler:The PlanetLooter HumanAliens]] are referred to by names like "aliens" or "raiders", since their own name for their race is not known.

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* NoNameGiven: [[spoiler:The PlanetLooter PlanetLooters HumanAliens]] are referred to by names like "aliens" or "raiders", since their own name for their race is not known.
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* HumanAliens: Ironically enough, the one alien species that looks human enough that they're virtually indistinguishable externally are [[spoiler: an omnicidal HordeOfAlienLocusts whose thought processes are the the most alien of the non-human intelligent species humans have met.]]

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* HumanAliens: Ironically enough, the one alien species that looks human enough that they're virtually indistinguishable externally are [[spoiler: an omnicidal HordeOfAlienLocusts whose thought processes are the the most alien of the non-human intelligent species humans have met.]]
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* NuclearTorchRocket: Fusion torches are used for starship propulsion almost exclusively throughout the series.
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* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: The series sits roughly at Mohs/PhysicsPlus. FasterThanLightTravel and {{Subspace Ansible}}s are only possible by means of preexisting jump points (messages are passed between systems literally by having a buoy pop through the jump point and retransmit it), ships must take orbital physics into account (they also affect the position of jump points), and [[SpaceIsCold heating and cooling is an issue during combat]]. However, the series also prominently features ArtificialIntelligence and {{nanomachines}}, and new technologies begin to be developed in later books: [[spoiler:first a telescope to see through jump points, then continuing with a weak TractorBeam that can lift a few milliliters of material off a neutron star, which is combined with {{antimatter}} for a multi-teraton torpedo warhead.]]
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* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Vicky's father reportedly insists that Greenfeld's newly established Medal of Honor-equivalent military decoration, the Order of Merit, is supposed to be pronounced ''Mérite''. Vicky thinks he's being ridiculous.


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* PretentiousPronunciation: Vicky's father reportedly insists that Greenfeld's newly established Medal of Honor-equivalent military decoration, the Order of Merit, is supposed to be pronounced ''Mérite''. Vicky thinks he's being ridiculous.
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* MixedAncestry: Kris is depicted as a blonde white woman both in the text and on the covers, but mentions to Nelly in ''Tenacious'' that she has significant Native American ancestry. This is prominent in ''Among the Kicking Birds'', as Kris refuses to repeat white colonists' treatment of her own ancestors with the originally pre-industrial Alwans, wanting to deal with them fairly and with a minimum of harm to their native cultures. Also, Jack is Hispanic, [[spoiler:which makes their daughter Ruth Maria half-Latina as well]].
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Not So Different has been renamed, and it needs to be dewicked/moved

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Not So Different has been renamed, and it needs to be dewicked/moved


* MirroringFactions: The humans and the ''Iteeche'', surprisingly enough. While [[StarfishAliens biologically quite different]], they have similar thought processes and many of the same internal political problems as humans do [[spoiler:and both falsely accused the other in {{propaganda}} of trying to exterminate them]].



* NotSoDifferent:
** Vicky eventually realizes that superficial differences to the contrary, she does have things in common with her (former) archenemy Kris, and later deliberately seeks to emulate her and use her as an example.
** The humans and the ''Iteeche'', surprisingly enough. While [[StarfishAliens biologically quite different]], they have similar thought processes and many of the same internal political problems as humans do [[spoiler:and both falsely accused the other in {{propaganda}} of trying to exterminate them]].

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* NotSoDifferent:
**
NotSoDifferentRemark: Vicky eventually realizes that superficial differences to the contrary, she does have things in common with her (former) archenemy Kris, and later deliberately seeks to emulate her and use her as an example.
** The humans and the ''Iteeche'', surprisingly enough. While [[StarfishAliens biologically quite different]], they have similar thought processes and many of the same internal political problems as humans do [[spoiler:and both falsely accused the other in {{propaganda}} of trying to exterminate them]].
example.



** {{Justified}} in the backstory. The humans and Iteeche first encountered each other when human and Iteeche SpacePirates started hitting each others' unrecorded colonies, then lied to their respective governments about what they themselves were doing (piracy being a capital offense for both species). After months of bloody war, Ray Longknife and Roth'sum'We'sum'Quin managed to make contact with each other and negotiate TheNeutralZone. The two species did their best to ignore each other for the next eighty years, [[NotSoDifferent all the while convinced that the other side had intended their extermination and they had survived by the skin of their teeth]].

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** {{Justified}} in the backstory. The humans and Iteeche first encountered each other when human and Iteeche SpacePirates started hitting each others' unrecorded colonies, then lied to their respective governments about what they themselves were doing (piracy being a capital offense for both species). After months of bloody war, Ray Longknife and Roth'sum'We'sum'Quin managed to make contact with each other and negotiate TheNeutralZone. The two species did their best to ignore each other for the next eighty years, [[NotSoDifferent [[MirroringFactions all the while convinced that the other side had intended their extermination and they had survived by the skin of their teeth]].
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* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: The series is ''usually'' pretty good about averting this, jump points notwithstanding. However, plot points in a couple of the later books are made of a {{technobabble}} beam that can knock chunks off a neutron star, which are first captured and used as part of the warhead of Hellburner torpedoes, [[spoiler:then used as kinetic bullets by Kris in the climactic battle of ''Unrelenting'']]. In reality this would not work: the neutron-degenerate matter that makes up neutron stars (popularly known as "neutronium") only stays that way under the intense gravity of a neutron star. Outside of such a heavy gravity field, it undergoes beta decay into protons and electrons.

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* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: ArtisticLicenseSpace: The series is ''usually'' pretty good about averting this, jump points notwithstanding. However, plot points in a couple of the later books are made of a {{technobabble}} beam that can knock chunks off a neutron star, which are first captured and used as part of the warhead of Hellburner torpedoes, [[spoiler:then used as kinetic bullets by Kris in the climactic battle of ''Unrelenting'']]. In reality this would not work: the neutron-degenerate matter that makes up neutron stars (popularly known as "neutronium") only stays that way under the intense gravity of a neutron star. Outside of such a heavy gravity field, it undergoes beta decay into protons and electrons.

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