Awesome / Aztec

• Mixtli's snarks borders on effrontery towards his audience but he gets away with it even his criticisms because, as he knows, there's nothing that they can do about it or to him until the chronicle is finished so he might as well have fun.
  • Mixtli trolling them is both this and funny.
• Mixtli using his teacher’s harsh words to criticize Pactli’s work when the latter demands that Mixtli help him with it.
• The speech that Tzitzi delivers when the family is discussing her marrying Pactli:
  Tzitzi: If Pactli demands me and you acede, not you or he will ever see me again. I will leave the island forever. If I cannot borrow or steal an acáli, I will swim. If I cannot reach the mainland, I will drown. Not Pactli or any other man will ever touch me, except a man I can give myself to.
  • Her previous words in the conversation deserves a mention too. Their mother has repeatedly slapped Mixtli for speaking ill of Pactli and while Tzitzi is doing the same, she moves to hit her as well. Tzitzi's response? "Do not raise your hand to me, Mother. I am a woman grown and I will strike you back." It actually makes their mother back down and she can only shout impotently at Tzitzi.
• Even if it wasn't what he expected, Mixtli finding Aztlan after his long journey still counts as this.
• Mixtli keeping his childhood vow and showing calm at his death on the pyre, something even the Bishop has to acknowledge with respect to the King of Spain in his final letter. As the book and its sequel shows, he never once showed fear nor did he make a sound as the fires consumed him.

  Mixtli: Your Excellency, once when I was still a child I vowed to myself that if ever I were selected for the Flowery Death, even on an alien altar, I would not degrade the dignity of my going.

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