Digger has some moments that make you punch the air and shout "Yes!" Let's list a few, shall we?
- Digger just about taking out a crossbowman despite the fact that she has the bolt he just fired lodged in her shoulder.
- The ending of chapter 4, as the statue sends out the messenger rats.Statue: I am sending a message to every temple and library that I know, asking if they know of a dead god underground, bound in this fashion.
I am also sending a warning.
Digger: A warning?
Statue: Whatever you have found is the architect—or the victim—of a terrible evil, burrower, and one who has a path directly to the heart of my temple.
If the worst occurs, and my temple falls, others must know what we have learned, and what has happened here.
The rats must fly. - Jhalm standing up to the Cold Ones.Jhalm: If you attempt to harm one of my Veiled, it will go badly for you.
The Cold Ones: [...] A—soldier—of—too many—gods. We—do not—fear—you.
Jhalm: I need no gods to deal with you. - The Veiled's first attempt at arresting Digger goes awry
Listen up, buddy. You've got a sword, but you've also got orders to take me alive. I've got a pickaxe, but I don't really care if you live or die. Do you see your problem? - Ed's not the sort of character you'd expect give a rousing speech.
- Another moment of subtle brilliance from Murai comes in the crevasse, when she makes an observation.Murai: ...the demonspawn ... here...?Digger: That's right, Murai, Shadowchild's here, nothing to worry about...Murai: ...no ... shadow ... shadow made solid ... the demons know ... no barriers...Digger: I'm sorry, Murai, but we really don't have time for mystical—[Beat]Digger: Right, I'm an idiot. Shadowchild, can you carry this end of the rope up to Grim Eyes?Shadowchild: Sure!
- When the innocent Shadowchild encounters Sweetgrass-voice and refuses to eat its friends' shadows, resisting Sweetgrass Voice' manipulations thanks to all the little tidbits of morality Digger taught it during the rest of the story. After reading pages week after week that hinted that this encounter was going to go very very wrong, that moment in which Shadowchild stands for itself, and makes its own critical moral decision without asking Digger first, really makes you scream "Yes!"Shadowchild: You know... she said evil didn't look like anything or that it looked like a lot of things... but I think it looks like you.
- Besides that, he won! Granted, it turns out he was figuratively and literally Fighting a Shadow, but he’s still a juvenile of his species and he ate an aspect of an ancient and powerful elder!
- "Has a name! Name - is - Ed!"
- Also Boneclaw Mother with about every other breath she takes.Choose.
- Murai in Chapters 11 and 12, when she volunteers to delay Jhalm while Digger goes down the hole.Oracle: I have your sword, warrior.Murai You will have to draw it for me, and place it in my hand.Digger: What? Murai? You can't fight Jhalm! He's got an army! You— you've got a broken arm!Murai: Indeed. I have been telling you, have I not, that I believe Jhalm is an honorable man? An honorable man might send an army against a single defender, but I do not believe that he can send one against an injured girl with a sword. I believe he will try to convince me to surrender, and that will buy you time. So I will stand in the doorway with my sword and my broken arm, and we will see which one of us is correct.
- When Sweetgrass Voice tries to intimidate Digger and Ed.Sweetgrass Voice: Kill me? Not even a god could kill me, dirt rat. Twelve thousand years I've been down here with him, and he's never found a way to destroy me. Twelve thousand years, dirt rat! And when his sanity began to fail and I finally drove him blundering up to the surface, what did he do but find dwarves and men and one of your filthy-clawed kind to bind him! Do you have any idea how long twelve thousand years is?Digger: I know it's not long enough to make a good rock.
- Boneclaw Mother's honoring Ed in spite of his former name being "eaten".Boneclaw Mother: You put me in a hard position, daughter. You cannot force gratitude on the unwilling.Digger: You could do it.Boneclaw Mother: Heh! Well. I had been thinking...
