cactusspatz:

Recently, I was re-reading His Majesty’s Dragon right after Blood of Tyrants and I was struck by how much Laurence smiles in the first book. So, being me, and having shiny new digital searchable copies of the series, I did some checking.

I searched for the word strings ‘smile’, ‘laugh’, and ‘grin’ (which included any variations thereof) in relation to Laurence and got a generally accurate idea of his mood throughout the series:

• His Majesty’s Dragon: smiles 14, grins 2, laughs 6
• Throne of Jade: smiles 5, grins 1, laughs 3
• Black Powder War: smiles 1, grins 1, laughs 0
• Empire of Ivory:
  smiles 0, grins 0, laughs 0

• Victory of Eagles:
  smiles 0, grins 0, laughs 0

• Tongues of Serpents:
  smiles 0, grins 0, laughs 0

• Crucible of Gold:
  smiles 0, grins 0, laughs 0

• Blood of Tyrants:
  smiles 0, grins 0, laughs 0.5

• League of Dragons:
  1.5 smiles , 0 grins, 1.5 laughs 
• (.5 = when Laurence ‘almost’ does the thing)

This makes Temeraire’s surprise at Laurence laughing “quite out loud” in LOD that one time EXTRA HEARTBREAKING, GOOD WORK NAOMI NOVIK.