Skyward

The perceived dichotomy between cowardice and heroism plays a major role in Defiant culture in Skyward, and the pressures of those societal views are amplified for Spensa, the daughter of Chaser, the most famous coward of all. However, Spensa’s experience reveals that the definition of cowardice is not as straightforward as the society of “Defiants” would have it seem. Ultimately, she discovers that being a hero has nothing to do with lacking fear; instead, it means being willing to sacrifice oneself for others when it truly matters despite feeling fear.

Chaser’s legacy of cowardice tarnishes Spensa’s own reputation, fueling her to build a persona that projects her own misguided version of heroism, which she has created by imitating the language and posturing of the Earth heroes from Gran-Gran’s stories. Despite Gran-Gran’s insistence that “[a]ll the greatest warriors fight for peace” (21), Spensa believes that “[c]onfidence [is] the soul of heroism” (25), and she internalizes the idea that any kind of worry or fear is tantamount to cowardice.

This concept is so ingrained that when Spensa finally faces the realities of war, she is ashamed of her natural fear and grief and begins to believe that these are evidence of her own cowardice. This inner conflict slowly shatters her sense of self and destroys her confidence, and she struggles to understand that fear is a natural response to danger and stress. Instead, she berates herself, saying, “A real warrior would shrug it off” (182). Spensa thinks that her emotional reaction to the deaths of her friends marks her as weak and cowardly, and because her flightmates have also been inundated with the Defiant culture’s hatred for cowardice, they intensify Spensa’s insecurities when they face their own emotional difficulties. For example, when Spensa forcibly saves Nedd from the crashing shipyard, his own grief for his fallen brothers compels him to call her a coward, and his accusation deeply affects her even though she tells herself, “Sometimes you had to retreat. […] I wasn’t less of a soldier because I had convinced Nedd to escape” (248). However, this logic does not help her to fully recalibrate her view of cowardice, and when she discovers that her father was not a coward but a traitor, her entire worldview is shattered, and it is only in the novel’s final battle that she is able to reconcile her inner conflicts and embrace her own self-evident heroism.

Notably, Spensa’s family and friends offer her different definitions of cowardice and heroism. Her mother believes that “a coward is a person who cares more about what people say than about what is right” (421), and Gran-Gran asserts that sacrifice is what makes a true hero, saying, “A warrior is nothing if she has nothing to fight for” (427). Spensa only understands her grandmother’s statement when she makes the bold decision to sacrifice herself for the sake of humanity. In this moment, she finally learns that fear does not make her a coward, and by facing her fears, she gains the courage to pursue and discover the vital answers to questions that will ensure the survival of the entire Defiant culture.