@Chet31
He's needed for that sweet sweet exposition. The author can't seems to do the "Show don't tell" type of story telling, which is why he rely a lot on that and flashback. Though to be fair, "Show don't tell" is pretty hard to do correctly
About the "reverse scale" thing, it's actually talking about a dragon: "Even a dragon would get mad if you touch its reverse scale." is the full saying. It's referring to someone's weak point or sensitive spot.
This is important because the lord is a dragon, and that brat is the son of a dragon/maybe a dragon too.
I like to think that Loki isn't actually all too harmed from the hit and instead was just launched so much from the punch he's just waiting for the momentum to stop like Vader spinning around at the end of Episode 4. Just "Sigh..I'll stop flying eventually..."