Spensa Nightshade

Spensa Nightshade is main protagonist of Brandon Sanderson's Skyward. She is a young woman who lived on the planet of Detritus, which was constantly under attack by an unknown force. Since her father had been labeled a coward for fleeing battle, Spensa was constantly bullied, growing up to be extremely aggressive and fierce. She eventually joined the DDF and helped found the Skyward Flight. There she proved herself to a be a skilled pilot and to also have cytonic abilities, which made her valuable to the humans of Detritus. As she fought to protect her people, she would eventually merge with a godlike Delver, and help to bring down the galactic empire known as the Superiority.
== Appearance ==
Spensa was a short young woman, being little less than five feet tall and around twenty. She had long brown hair, but her race was left unclear.
== Personality ==
Due to her growing up constantly being accused of being a coward for what her father had done, Spensa constantly felt the need to prove that she was brave, sometimes acting irrationally in order to prove her courage. Spensa was also very aggressive from having to deal with bullies constantly as a child. This made her hot-tempered and prone to lashing out, usually with melodramatic and violent insults or threats that more unsettled her enemies than scared them. She also developed a problem with authority due to being discriminated against by most of the adults in her life when she was a child. Growing up hearing her grandmother's stories, Spensa's dream was to be like one of the heroes from them. There was nothing she wanted more from a young than to heroically fight monsters and go on adventures. 
Over time Spensa began to change as she began to understand her universe better. Although she initially thought of battle as glorious and fun, this viewpoint changed as she witnessed more and more of her friends get killed. She eventually decided that survival and protecting her friends was far more important than proving herself. She also stopped taking pleasure in shooting down enemy ships after spending time with some soldiers on the opposing side and beginning to sympathize with them. As time passed, she began to generally try to be more affable to those around her, although she could still be needlessly aggressive. She also began to understand the stake of her war, and did everything in her power, to prevent the extermination of her people. 
Although she didn't consider herself to be, Spensa was very intelligent. Her resourcefulness helped her out of several diverse situations, and as she grew more cautious, her ability to think ahead became apparent. She could also be charismatic when not being aggressive, and inspired loyalty. However, she was terrible at reading people, often irrationally seeing perfectly innocent people as her enemies. 
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
Spensa was born to one of the human clans in the caverns beneath the planet of Detritus. There, she lived with her father, Zeen Nightshade, her mother, and her grandmother, Becca Nightshade. Zeen was a member of the DDF and fought the Krell on the surface. He would occasionally bring Spensa up there to see the stars, and from a young age Spensa aspired to be like him. However, during the Battle of Alta, her father was apparently caught deserting and shot down by one of his comrades. 
After the Battle of Alta, the human clans united to form one society and a more organized effort against the Krell. However, as conditions improved for humanity, they worsened for the Nightshades. Due to being the wife of a deserter, Spensa's mother was not able to get a job and had to resort to making and selling things at a stand next to the street. Spensa was forced to hunt for rats in the tunnels to keep her family fed. However, as she got used to this she began to enjoy. She also began to take an increasing amount of inspiration from her grandmother's stories of heroes back on Old Earth. 
Spensa began having trouble in school as the other kids bullied her ruthlessly for being the daughter of a coward. However, she still wanted to be a pilot for the DDF so she continued to attend, even if she occasionally had to skip to hunt rats. She eventually befriended Rodge McCaffrey, also called Rig, a shy but intelligent young boy who was her best friend throughout most of her childhood. The two studied DDF ships and techniques tirelessly, hopping to be able to pass the DDF test and join the military once the time came. 
On the day of the exam, she skipped class because she didn't want to listen to the sanitation worker who was speaking to it. In the tunnels, she found an ancient ship that was not a DDF model. She also found a strange yellow and blue slug who repeated everything she said. She named it Doomslug. 
Spensa arrived on time for the test, which was personally administered by Judy Ivans, also called Ironsides, the commander of the DDF. Upon receiving the test, Spensa saw that the questions were all things she never would have studied, and soon realized the test have been rigged against her because Ironsides didn't want her to be able to join the DDF after what her father had done. She failed the test but was later met by Matthew Cobb, an old friend of her father's. Cobb saw that she would have been able to the regular test easily and allowed her to come to join his flight class in the DDF compound. Spensa eagerly agreed. 
=== Flying for the DDF ===
Spensa arrived at the flight school and was befriended by a girl named Kimmalyn. She joined Cobb's class, which they named the Skyward Flight. She developed an instant dislike for the flight's leader Jorgen Weight. Practicing fighting proved tougher than Spensa expected, but they were called to battle faster than usually due to a statistical mix-up. Despite their trouble while practicing, the Skyward Flight was able to defeat one large Krell ship. Thus began Spensa's career as a pilot, although she didn't fly with Rig like she expected since he quit after the first battle. 
Since Ironsides wouldn't let her live in the DDF, Spensa slept in the cave where she had found the ancient ship. She got Rig to help her repair it and stole pieces of DDF ships for materials, particularly from Jorgen. Eventually, they got it to work and discovered that the ship was an AI called MB-1021, or M-Bot. Spensa hoped to make M-Bot her ship, but the AI claimed that the only thing he remembered was his previous pilot's final order, which was to lay low. Despite this, Spensa and Rig continued to work to fix him. 
Spensa began to sleep occasionally sleep in the DDF compound with some of the girls from Skyward Flight, and as they continued to fight the Krell she grew closer with all members. During various battles, Skyward Flight members Hudiya, Magna, and Bim were all killed. Spensa had grown particularly close with Bim, and after his death hit Jorgen in a fit of rage. Her opinion of Jorgen began to change when he easily forgave her for this, and later when he helps her find Hudiya's body. 
Spensa didn't believe that her father really was a deserter and tried unsuccessfully to get information from Cobb. She eventually stole a recording of the battle and played it on M-Bot's computer. She saw that her father was an amazing pilot, somehow reacting to a Krell ship's moves before they made them. However, he flew up into space to try to see where the enemy was coming from, and when he came back down, he began shooting down other human pilots. Cobb was forced to kill him to end his murder spree. Ironsides had determined that he had had some sort of defect that allowed the Krell to control him. She believed that Spensa had the same defect, which was why Spensa was not allowed to fly for the DDF. 
Eventually Skyward Flight members Nedder Strong, Arturo Mendez, and Kimmalyn all ended up leaving the DDF, leaving on Spensa, Jorgen, and Freyja Martin in the Skyward Flight. During a battle, Spensa's ship was shot, and she ejected. Although this saved her life, the DDF thought that she was a coward like her father and Ironsides used this as an excuse to kick her out. However, when a massive fleet of Krell showed the intention to completely wipe out humanity, Spensa convinced Nedder, Arturo, and Kimmalyn to steal some ships and help the DDF fight. During the battle, Rig arrived in M-Bot, who revealed that he had managed to rewrite his programing so that he could help fight. 
Spensa was able to personally destroy the Krell ship carrying the bomb that would wipe out all life on Detritus. She then decided to fly up to the stars as her father once had and see where the Krell were coming from. She discovered that the Krell were in reality a type of police force working for an organization called the Superiority who believed that humans had to be contained. She returned to Detritus and told this to the DDF. 
This information didn't change anything and the DDF was forced to continue fighting the Krell. One day, Spensa found a crashed ship containing a humanoid alien named Alanik. Alanik had been heading towards to Superiority capital space station of Starsight. Needing information on their enemies, Spensa used M-Bot's holographic technology to disguise as Alanik. She kissed Jorgen out of the blue before flying off in M-Bot to Starsight. 
=== Life in Starsight ===
Spensa arrived at Starsight where she met Minister Cuna, a Superiority politician who was in hoped to civilize the "lesser species", such as Alanik's species the Urdail. She explained that they were looking for people called cytonics who were people like Spensa and Alanik who had special abilities. They were to join an elite military force run by a different politician named Ohz Burtim Winzik, who was the same politician responsible to keeping humanity imprisoned. A godlike planet destroying monster called a Delver had emerged from its dimension called the Nowhere and was a threat to the Superiority. Cuna and Winzik believed that cytonics were the only people who could stop it. 
Spensa began living in a small apartment in Starsight and initially saw every person she met as an enemy, since they all hated humans for being too aggressive. Spensa's view of aliens changed over time as she saw that they were very similar to humans. She also began trying to help M-Bot, who was trying to rewrite his code so that he could prove he was alive. 
Spensa was placed in the Delver fighting group which was named "Flowers of Night's Last Kiss Flight" by Hesho of the Kitsens, one of Spensa's new flight mates. Although the flight was initially run by a Figment named Vapor, they unanimously decided that Spensa should, since she had more experience. There, Spensa met Brade Shimabukuro, Winzik's "pet" cytonic human. Spensa believed that Brade had been brainwashed into working for the Superiority and encouraged her to think on her own. Spensa also befriend a Dione named Morriumur. 
Spensa practiced with her knew flight and was shocked by how intense Winzik made their drills, legitimately putting their lives at risk. They eventually began practicing fighting delvers through fake delver mazes with holograms that mimicked the illusions you saw when you were close to one of the creatures. 
Spensa continued to do spy work in the Superiority by releasing a drone created by M-Bot. She discovered that they used a species of slug called the taynix to travel between planets. However, the drone was discovered by Cuna and Shiver, who believed that she was an Urdail spy. They told her that they had Winzik's plan was to wipe out any rebellious planets by controlling the Delvers and asked for help from the Urdail. Spensa decided she trusted them and revealed herself to be human, offering the help of the humans of Detritus. While surprised, Cuna and Shiver did not turn her in for being human. 
Emboldened by Cuna and Shiver's reactions, Spensa revealed her species to Brade. This proved to be a mistake, and Brade immediately reported her, forcing her to flee Starsight. She didn't have time to bring M-Bot and abandoned him when she returned to Detritus. 
Category:Female
Category:Protectors
Category:Tragic
Category:Science Fiction Heroes
Category:Book Heroes