History HonorHarrington / TropesAToF

* BleakBorderBase: Basilisk Station, Manticore's only extrasolar possession at the start of the series, is where the Navy [[ReassignedToAntarctica sends its unwanted officers]] when they can't simply beach them. The system is of little economic importance; Manticore only cares about securing its Junction terminus against a Havenite invasion.[[note]]For political reasons, the Navy can only station a limited number of ships there; rather than use this as a reason to send their best, they instead decide to send their worst, under the presumption that if the system ''is'' invaded, the local picket won't be enough to do anything except call for help.[[/note]] But after Harrington arrives and foils Haven's FalseFlagOperation to take over the system (not to mention her crackdown on the flourishing smuggling trade), Manticore re-evaluates its priorities and stops treating Basilisk as a backwater.

=* BleakBorderBase: Basilisk Station, Manticore's only extrasolar possession at the start of the series, is where the Navy [[ReassignedToAntarctica sends its unwanted officers]] when they can't simply beach them. The system is of little economic importance; Manticore only cares about securing its Junction terminus against a Havenite invasion.[[note]]For political reasons, the Navy can only station a limited number of ships there; rather than use this as a reason to send their best, they instead decide to send their worst, under the presumption that if the system ''is'' invaded, the local picket won't be enough to do anything except call for help.[[/note]] But after Harrington arrives and foils Haven's FalseFlagOperation to take over the system (not to mention her crackdown on the flourishing smuggling trade), Manticore re-evaluates its priorities and stops treating Basilisk as a backwater.

* BlackSheep: Denver Summervale, relative of the well-liked and highly competent Prime Minister Summervale, is a professional duelist/assassin.
* BleakBorderBase: Basilisk Station, Manticore's only extrasolar possession at the start of the series, is where the Navy [[ReassignedToAntarctica sends its unwanted officers]] when they can't simply beach them. The system is of little economic importance; Manticore only cares about securing its Junction terminus against a Havenite invasion.[[note]]For political reasons, the Navy can only station a limited number of ships there; rather than use this as a reason to send their best, they instead decide to send their worst, under the presumption that if the system ''is'' invaded, the local picket won't be enough to do anything except call for help.[[/note]] But after Harrington arrives and foils Haven's FalseFlagOperation to take over the system (not to mention her crackdown on the flourishing smuggling trade), Manticore re-evaluates its priorities and stops treating Basilisk as a backwater.

* {{Bishonen}}: Victor Cachat, repeatedly described as cute, and Jeremy X, who was ''literally'' genetically engineered to be one, to fit his intended role as a jester.

** ''On Basilisk Station'' ends with Honor chasing a ship [[spoiler: that is trying to ''call off'' a Havenite invasion.]] Honor thinks they are trying to summon an invasion. The captain of the opposing ship even lampshades it.

** In ''War of Honor'', Honor reflects how Chakrabarti, № 2 at the Admirality, is likely to tell Sir Edward Janacek, № 1, whatever he wants to hear. The previous time we heard anything about him before that point, it's Janacek thinking about how Chakrabarti keeps bending his ear with increasingly dire predictions. The next time is his first "onscreen" appearance, and it's him begging Janacek to take his (perfectly sensible) advice or he resigns. He resigns. One of the first things she does in the next book is admit she was wrong about him.

* ContraltoOfDanger: Descriptions of Admiral Michelle "Mike" Henke frequently include her 'husky' contralto voice. While she is neither a FemmeFatale nor a classic ActionGirl, she ''is'' an extremely dangerous commander with a devious mind, and a full-fledged FourStarBadass (and member of the [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething royal family]]) to boot.

* CriticalStaffingShortage: Manticore's biggest bottleneck in its war against Haven, and later the Solarian League, is manpower. Even with increasing concessions in automation to reduce crew sizes, they only barely manage to keep up with their shipyards. This forces a Manticoran fleet to get a bit creative after forcing the surrender of a much larger Solarian fleet, since their compliment of marines is nowhere near enough to handle the huge number of prisoners they are now responsible for.

* ExactWords: When confronted with a CompleteMonster pirate who's holding a planet's population hostage, Honor negotiates a deal with him, agreeing to a detailed plan by which she and the pirates will leave the planet on a shuttle together, and how she will not give any chase once he's left the system. One of her subordinates notes that, in all the detailed explanation of this agreement, Honor never actually says she's going to let him leave the system.

* ExactWords: When confronted with a pirate who's holding a planet's population hostage, Honor negotiates a deal with him, agreeing to a detailed plan by which she and the pirates will leave the planet on a shuttle together, and how she will not give any chase once he's left the system. One of her subordinates notes that, in all the detailed explanation of this agreement, Honor never actually says she's going to let him leave the system.

* ExactWords: When confronted with a CompleteMonster pirate who's holding a planet's population hostage, Honor negotiates a deal with him, agreeing to a detailed plan by which she and the pirates will leave the planet on a shuttle together, and how she will not give any chase once he's left the system. One of her subordinates notes that, in all the detailed explanation of this agreement, Honor never actually says she's going to let him leave the system.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged]] somewhat. Honor Harrington herself is an ActionGirl of the most badass sort, partially thanks to being a HeavyWorlder, but most navy commanders are specialized in what they're supposed to be doing -- that is, commanding spaceships from the safety of their bridge, not trading blows with armed assassins planetside. On the other hand, the basic officer training course (at least for the Royal Manticoran Navy) includes some pretty severe close-combat coursework, so there's at least an ''effort'' from the military to make this trope true. Apparently, most commanders just didn't take to that training as easily as Honor did, or they just let their training slip the moment they were out of school. (Honor was also on the unarmed combat team, meaning she put in quite a few more hours beyond the required courses.)[[note]]Not every character who earns their authority earns it through combat; those who don't tend to earn it through political or diplomatic asskicking instead, e.g. Dame Estelle Matsuko.[[/note]]