History Literature / PrinceRoger

* DeadBecauseOfMe: Prince Roger goes through a lot of SurvivorGuilt as he sees more and more people die on his behalf, especially when it's the result of one of his many (usually minor) lapses in judgment.

A series by Creator/DavidWeber and Creator/JohnRingo. Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang [=MacClintock=] was the third and youngest child of Alexandra VII, Empress of Man. Roger is TheUnfavorite of his mother, considered a foppish clotheshorse who looks a bit too much like his [[{{Bishonen}} father]] for his mother to trust him. With a crisis on the horizon he's sent off to represent the Royal family in a sector capital's chief festival. During transit the crisis starts for real with an attempt on his life. The destroyer transporting him is sabotaged, but Roger and his company of [[SpaceMarine Marines]] manage to land on a primitive planet on the farside of the planet from the Imperial trading post.

** His tutor/Chief of Staff really is TheLoad and feels guilty about it but the Marines reassure her; she didn't volunteer for this and it's no fault of hers she's been thrown in the fecal matter.

* CoolPet: Dogzard, a roughly Great Dane sized lizard serving as the Mardukan equivalent of a dog for humans. In ''We Few'' we get a bit of Dogzard's view of things, which is modeled under the common belief of how dogs view their human owners.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: All the Mardukans, which evolved from a six-limbed, amphibious ancestor. Special credit to Rastar, who can [[DualWielding quadruple-]][[UpToEleven wield]] pistols and still fire all of them with pinpoint accuracy.

** The "[[BiggusDickus embarrassingly male]]" Mardukans are actually female by biological definition, based on the fact that they produce ova. Their "penis" is actually an ovipositor (egg-placer), and the actual males are the gender that receives the eggs, fertilize them, and carry them to term. After this is initially sorted out, the series continues to go with calling the biologically female gender "male" based on their appearance and societal role.

* DeathWorld: Marduk qualifies due to the large and angry (and more common than should be ecologically possible, until justified) wildlife, but the sneaky, venomous wildlife is NightmareFuel as well.

* RedShirtReporter: Harvard Mansul, IAS. We first meet him as a prisoner in a Krath fortress after being sent to investigate Shin barbarians. He ends up following Prince Roger (the story of millennia) through all sorts of combat hell. In his past, he'd encountered bandits and pirates, gotten shot at by inner-city gangs, been stabbed, and nearly died while lost in a desert.

* TheMagnificent: A future historian looking back on the events of the books says that the writers of his time called Prince Roger [[spoiler: Roger the Terrible, Roger the Mad, the Tyrant, the Restorer, or even the Kin-Slayer. Ouch. Talk about ZeroPercentApprovalRating.]]

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: Q'Nkok is a relatively innocuous example - or at least easily fixed. Mashad is ''much'' worse but what really shocks Pahner is that Roger seems completely unaware that he's lived in just such a court his entire life.

* {{Adorkable}}: Roger whenever he tries to talk to Despreaux.

* DirtyCoward: Prince Jackson Adoula. [[spoiler:Runs away as the counter-coup starts and sacrifices underlings several times just to save his skin.]] Also, his co-conspirator [[spoiler:New Madrid, Roger's father,]] who is pretty much unable to handle meeting Roger. Granted a pissed off Roger would terrify anybody.

* NestedOwnership: D'nal Cord [[IOweYouMyLife owes Roger his life]], and later acquires a life-debt of his own when he saves Pedi Caruse from pirates. Prince Roger has a good laugh at the latter, noting that Cord's OhCrap reaction when he realizes Pedi's culture has life-debts exactly mirrored his own after he saved D'nal.

"Denat," Julian said over the earbud the intel NCO'd installed," if you're having translation problems ask me. I'll give you the right words. You just said 'I sneeze you in the name of The Idiots."