Funny / Skyward

Skyward

• One of Spensa's first interactions with Jorgen.
  Spensa: Always attack from a position of superior advantage! When this is done, Jerkface, I will hold your tarnished and melted pin up as my trophy as your smoldering ship marks your pyre, and the final resting place of your crushed and broken corpse!
  [beat]
  Jorgen: All right... Well, that was... descriptive.
• At the club, Kimmilyn reveals that all her quotes from "the Saint" are, in fact, things she just makes up. Meaning all those times it sounds like she's accidentally picking a semi-insulting quote are actually completely on purpose.

Starsight

• Hesho's people, the kitsen, look like adorable foxes. They are also a Proud Warrior Race only a couple steps below Spensa herself.
• The kitsen were an absolute monarchy for generations, but transitioned to a democracy for Superiority membership. The fact that they all treat Hesho like a king is a complete coincidence.
• Okay, it's also kind of sad, but the way that Spensa is absolutely convinced that her housekeeper is a spy rather than a nice old lady is pretty funny.

Sunreach

• A dark one, but when it looks like Jorgen is going to have to abandon his flight for the sake of the mission, the slugs start teleporting them all out of their ships. Everyone is saved and it's a very important moment for the future... but they almost all die anyway because they're just so confused as to what happened.

ReDawn

• Alanik escapes her civil war in search of the fabled humans, legendary warriors who even the Superiority fears. She finds a bunch of kids carrying around adorable slugs in slings. She is very confused.
• The pilots have taken to spelling "h-o-m-e" (which Alanik's translator is terrible with, confusing her further), because they accidentally made that the codeword for the taynix to teleport home, which they will do the absolute second they hear it.
  Jorgen: Which is only an inconvenience if they were, say, in the mess hall or something.
  Kimmalyn: But it's a lot more annoying if you were about to climb into a cleansing pod, naked as the day you were born.
  FM: Not that she would know.
  Kimmalyn: Bless the stars of those startled engineers.

Cytonic

• Chet and Spensa bond over stories of ancient heroes. Odysseus, Hercules... and Satan.
  Chet: Excuse me?
  Spensa: Satan? The hero?
  Chet: The... hero.
  Spensa: Yeah. Gran-Gran told me the story. Satan got thrown into a place of fire, but he was like, "Hey, everyone. It doesn't matter, so long as we have each other. We can make this place as good as any paradise." Then he volunteered to infiltrate the enemy's world and went on this big quest through the Abyss.
  Chet: Now, my memory—as I've warned you—isn't great. But that sounds like the old poem Paradise Lost. I... think you might have misinterpreted it.
  Spensa: What? Who do you think was the hero of that story?
  Chet: Adam and Eve.
  Spensa: Those losers? They didn't do anything but sit around! Everyone else had flaming swords and dramatic battles!
• Spensa finds Hesho, thought dead, alive in the Nowhere missing his memories. Unfortunately, he's not willing to believe Spensa that they used to be allies.
  "I have only the instincts of a warrior to guide me," he replied. "You will not distract me from my current purpose, adversary. Though you have fought admirably, I will defeat you, then compose poetry for your funeral."
  "This... um... isn't to the death, Hesho."
  "I will defeat you," he said in the same exact tone, "and compose poetry for your retirement party."

Evershore

• At the start of the book, Jorgen has practically taken over the DDF by citing a bunch of obscure rules that basically boil down to "you idiots didn't notice that your superior officer had been replaced by an alien, so I'm ignoring you all now."
• A comm tech tells Jorgen that the National Assembly is calling. Jorgen tells him to take a message. By regulation, the DDF has three days to respond to the Assembly, so the tech is to take down a detailed message, then set an alarm for two days and twenty-three and a half hours to remind them to answer. Jorgen then hopes that Cobb will be back by then to deal with it.
• Goro is basically an antagonistic, kitsen version of Spensa, going on at embarrassing lengths about honor and glory and challenging everyone to duels. While he does have some political power and causes quite a bit of trouble for the humans, most kitsen just kind of grimace whenever he talks.
  Over at Goro's table, I heard him comparing his fish to a worthy foe slain in battle. That seemed like a stretch to me, but I'd once heard Spensa muttering something that sounded a lot like "fear the wrath of my very soft socks" on requisition day, so she probably would have approved.

Defiant

• Hesho is still around, and Spensa comments that he's like a ninja. Hesho confirms that (assuming the translator got that word right), then yes, he's technically a kitsen ninja. Spensa has to take a few moments to process how awesome that is.
• Spensa complains that carrying the slugs around in "slings" sounds silly, like something for a baby. She decides to call it a "holster" instead.
• Spensa wants to go on a solo mission to save the day, but is convinced to talk to Kimmalyn first. Kimmalyn convinces her to talk to Arturo, who convinces her to talk to Alanik. Resulting in four people coming along on her "solo" mission.
• Nedd quotes Shakespeare. Correctly. Arturo stares at him in shock, looks up the quote, and confirms that yes, it is definitely an accurate quote. Ned spends the rest of the scene speaking almost entirely in Shakespeare quotes.