It's a dumb joke. Cullen's actually making jokes, which is always a good sign in Alistair's estimation. He refuses to get prickly over it, damn it.

It definitely helps that his main task at the moment is hitting things, however.

He pauses after a time to set the brazier upright and give it a nudge. It wobbles, but not badly enough to upend its hypothetical burning fuel. Excellent. One down.

The other one only needs a handful of hits before it looks nearly as good as new.