Book 3 Theory / Prediction

[MCrockett]

Towards the end of Chapter 18 of Skyward, Spensa tells M-Bot a story about a writer who woke up one day only to discover that his shadow had vanished. With the passage of time, the shadow eventually came back. The shadow explained to its master that it traveled the world and had "come to understand men." In fact, the shadow understood men better than its master and had seen evil in the hearts of the men of the land. The shadow soon persuaded its master to switch places with it so it could show him the world. Unfortunately, the shadow would never let him go free. Instead, the shadow married a princess and became wealthy while the real man wasted away. 

Due to her cytonic abilities, Spensa feels like she is the shadow in this story which is reinforced by the kitsen's name for people with cytonic abilities, 'shadow-walkers' (chapter 17). We learn the kitsen had cytonics, or shadow-walkers, among them but their people did not trust them. Eventually the shadow-walkers left the kitsen homeworld effectively stranding the kitsen for centuries until the Superiority made contact (chapter 20). 

Prediction: Spensa will have to face the difficult decision of somehow giving up her cytonic abilities or leaving the humans for good. I don't know how that will work out but while she's a shadow-walker, she won't be trusted and perhaps she won't even trust herself. 

So many possibilities though. Who knows what will happen? I can't wait for the next book!

[Draginon he/him]

I have a theory that advanced AI like M-Bot are actually figments stuck in a machine. In Starsight when Cuna sees Spensa’s drone Vapor mentions it resembles figment technology. Now why would M-Bot have schematics for their technology and why his parts specifically would resemble it? When Vapor mentioned it my first thought was “wait, is M-Bot actually a figment stuck in a starfighter?”

It would make sense why there were parameters to stop certain actions since figments can completely control a starfighter, as seen by Vapor with the drones she ‘pilots’ and when Spensa, Vapor and Hasho’s crew fight Brade she even mentions that there are manual overrides on manned ships. We don’t know how far it goes but what if it traps a figment inside?

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

This theory doesn't quite click with me, but I also won't be completely shocked if it happens. 

My prediction for book 3 is that the Delvers are actually the cytonics of old, who eventually advanced so much they either got stuck in the nowhere or willingly went there to have peace from the world. Maybe at first they remembered pieces of who they were and with time became completely other and forgot everything. My crazy theory is that Spensa will end up transforming into a Delver, the question is if she will return to human or stay a Delver and leave for the nowhere as well.