Last time, what will she choose?

Today, Beatrice explains cigarettes exist.

I will never smoke one myself—they are closely tied to vanity—but a crowd of Candor smokes them in front of the building when we get off the bus.

Have you people just forgotten the health issues?

You smoking is an act of selfishness on every level – you’re harming your own health so other people will have to care for you, you’re harming other people’s health, you’re consuming a heavily processed substance that required manpower and factories that could’ve been used for something good, and it’s a substance that started its life monopolizing fields that could’ve grown food or something else useful. Oh, and also having it around is a danger because you could accidentally poison a toddler.

Who the hell thinks vanity is the primary association with cigarettes? They’re not even for vain people today, despite ungodly amounts of marketing. Coolness is the association, but they actually wreck your appearance and people know it, so a vain person isn’t going to pick one up.

And acknowledging the health issues might start to get into how their society can function. The Candor person (why would people obsessed with truth not care about the truth of cigarettes are a dumb idea?) smoking is hurting everyone else. Yet Abnegation does nothing (despite running the government) to stop that. Admitting there’s a society-wide reason to avoid cigarettes as an option would show that these people are crazy supportive of diversity between factions. Perhaps this is kind of like the state’s rights problem in America, where some people really hate the idea of the federal government being able to tell them what to do no matter what it is, and it’s taken to such an extreme that they end up with a hamstrung city government.

Of course, this doesn’t fit with the idea Abnegation can do anything and all the other factions can do is have a representative talk to them, but Beatrice talks as if the rules of their society were laid down at the beginning and changing anything would lead to war, so perhaps Abnegation’s effective power is actually very limited and overstepping it would lead to the other factions turning on them in an instant.

We know factions are in control of the education of members. I’m almost certain factions get a section of money and dole it out to their members because guarding the gates doesn’t generate money all by itself and I’m dubious Erudites could be getting money from scientific breakthroughs when there doesn’t seem to be anything resembling an independent economy so far. If they also control law and punishment within their faction, then yeah, Abnegation’s power is minimal. And that’d be the non-evil explanation for why life sucks for the factionless, Abnegation can only allot so much of the taxes or whatever to the factionless because the other factions don’t want to let go of it.

The elevator is crowded, so my father volunteers to give a cluster of Amity our place. We climb the stairs instead

For twenty stories. You could’ve just been patient and waited for everyone else to finish with the elevator, I can’t imagine it’d take longer.

Time for the ceremony!

Apparently they go alphabetically in general and not by current faction.

She says every year a different faction runs the ceremony, but this year is Abnegation’s, which seems a waste. We’re already told Abnegation runs stuff officially and then runs more stuff by being the only ones interested to volunteer, if this particular area has actual faction rotation why can’t we see someone else do it? Like Amity, all I know about them is they’re defined by cheese. It is done by Marcus, so I guess we get to see the man in contention, but unless everyone’s an idiot I don’t see what that’ll tell us – he’s either legitimately nice or he’s good at faking it enough the faction of nice people can’t tell.

In the last circle are five metal bowls so large they could hold my entire body, if I curled up. Each one contains a substance that represents each faction: gray stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, lit coals for Dauntless, and glass for Candor.

So the Amity farm, maybe? Or maybe they’re just hobbity people who like good food and like the symbolism. Or they’re less pretentious than the rest? Can there be a faction of fuck this you’re all nuts?

For some reason their ceremony is METAL and you hack your hand open with a knife and let your blood drip into the bowl of your choice. Actually this makes even less sense now that I think about it, only the Dauntless should think this is a good idea, and there must be commonalities between factions just by the fact that anything one faction claims the other four have to give up.

My mother hugs me, and what little resolve I have left almost breaks.

Okay, she keeps going on about WHAT WILL I CHOOSE but it sure seems like she’s decided.

Her mom adds that she’ll love her no matter what and this really throws Beatrice even though you’d think Abnegation would be the world champion at pretending to be okay with things.

“Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honor the democratic philosophy of our ancestors, which tells us that every man has the right to choose his own way in this world.”
Or, it occurs to me, one of five predetermined ways.

Yes, dear, that’s still a choice. Also, don’t even try to tell me you only just realized this.

But worldbuilding item – do they no longer hold that democratic philosophy? Obviously non-Abnegation can’t be voted into office, but it’s not too clear on how Abnegation get in. They’re picked from those thought to be best at the job, but we don’t know if that’s by their peers or those above them. We do know Erudite uses IQ scores for the representative so probably for everything.

“Decades ago our ancestors realized

WOAH BACK UP.

Decades? Author, do you not know what decades are?

Now, we don’t talk about four score years these days, so I’ll allowed “decades” to mean “any number less than a hundred”. But we damn well do use century, and I see no reason that’d fall out of favor. Other units we use derived from that include half century and quarter century, but let’s say it’s at an awkward point that’s better suited by decades, fine. That’s still somewhere around 90 years max between original America and crazy factionland. Hell, they’re not even much of ancestors at that point! People who made the decision itself might have died (and recently, at that) but their kids would still be around, unless your life expectancy took a hit around when you thought combining open sewers and the drivers of public transit was a brilliant idea.

And ninety years means that far from this being the established way, our narrator’s parents were the first generation to grow up under factionalism. Yet apparently they already had all the swapping business hammered out? She sure doesn’t reference there being a change anytime in living memory, no wish that she was born in a time when she wouldn’t have this impossible choice or gratitude that she does have one.

that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determined that it was the fault of human personality—of humankind’s inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world’s disarray.”

Furthermore! This would not have happened quickly. If the birth of factionalism was a mere 90 years ago, it’d have taken much longer to stabilize the factions and force everyone into them, so you’re looking at an even shorter period of status quo. Her parents would have grown up during this period, if it didn’t extend even further into her own childhood. And the factionless couldn’t have been in their current pathetic state until after the factions finalized, because if they tried to do that to any large number of the population initially, there’d be huge backlash.

This was actually one of the few things Matched ended up doing an okay job of. The change was recent, but they had a massive campaign to control information, so it made sense their world appeared static, and even then there was a lot about the fact there were still bits leftover from the original.

There’s none of that here. No true references to the past world, no movement among the factionless to go back to the way things were before the current system, no sign of what happened to all the diversity or even books from the before-faction time. The closest we’ve seen is that some Abnegation are religious and some aren’t, and there’s no sign of what religion means to her beyond something her dad says.

“Those who blamed aggression formed Amity.”
The Amity exchange smiles. They are dressed comfortably, in red or yellow. Every time I see them, they seem kind, loving, free.
But joining them has never been an option for me.

I guess this is because she’s aggressive and Dauntless. Mind, she’s never actually shown this and the closest we got is her willingness to defend herself, but she feels selfishness yet considered Abnegation and feels fear but wants Dauntless.

Also, isn’t being kind and loving stepping on Abnegation’s toes? It seems like it’s the same goals, they’re just not joyless and repressed about it. In fact, they seem a perfectly good match for someone who can’t take quite how self-sacrificing Abnegation is but still aspires to being a kind person and loves a friendly community. Clearly to her there’s some huge distinction between them and her own faction, even if it’s the sort of nitpicky stuff you get between similar groups that seems huge because they’re otherwise so similar. See also Christianity, every last bit.

I guess this explains the cheese – if you’re not repulsed by the very idea of harming someone, you’re not Amity. But that suggests everyone hates cheese so the only reason to take it is hating the knife more. Also, that means she didn’t actually rule out Amity in her test – she refused to take either and did act repulsed by the knife. That means the actual disqualifications should be Candor and Abnegation, since both were supposed to tell the truth in the last scenario.

“Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite.”
Ruling out Erudite was the only part of my choice that was easy.

Could you give some new information? You already said it and your reason was just “hate ’em”. Do you disagree that ignorance is a problem or just think they’re currently a corrupt faction of assholes? You seem to kind of hate yourself for your tendency to ask questions, is that a component of this, that to you it’s like a deadly sin funfest?

“Those who blamed duplicity created Candor.”
I have never liked Candor.

That sure explains jack and shit.

I honestly wouldn’t mind so much if we weren’t so many chapters in on what’s supposedly such an important choice and she won’t fucking think about the different factions! Given they’re all about honestly and debate they’re probably pretty abrasive to be around, so it shouldn’t be hard to just say that’s the reason.

And more importantly, it’s not about hating people, it’s about being a fit, and you lie all the time and don’t think it’s a big deal, so yeah, you wouldn’t like being one, what does that have to do with disliking the people?

“Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation.”
I blame selfishness; I do.
“And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless.”
But I am not selfless enough. Sixteen years of trying and I am not enough.

This is raising a probably inadvertent point, that virtue and vice aren’t that cleanly linked.

The thing you find the biggest problem may well be a tendency you fight with yourself over. I mean, to get away from Abnegation for a second, people who see the problem as cowardice may be really brave people who don’t get why everyone else is such a wuss, but plenty should also be people who see cowardice as the thing behind their own failings.

But even if the factions let everybody in and only kick you out if you refuse to work at following their rules (which seems a stretch given her terror of failing the personality test and somehow being unfactioned before she even gets a choice, and also a stretch given there must be a hell of a lot of factionless to be doing so many important jobs) there’s still the problem that while the original founders may have decided to pick their lifestyle as a matter of fighting the evil in humanity, not every kid is going to want a life of confronting sin. It’s going to be a much easier life if you pick the faction by what tendency you share, and indeed that seems like it’s what the test was going for, what virtue you default to rather than what failing you view as the root problem.

If she sincerely thinks selfishness is the problem, she shouldn’t be making a selfish choice. She may make a crappy Abnegation, but she’s still going around sacrificing herself for other people if she’s one.

If it was that she valued selflessness but couldn’t live up to it – see how that’s putting the problem a different way? That would fit with her statement that picking for herself was proof she shouldn’t be in Abnegation anyway, she’d just be pulling down their awesomeness.

“Working together, these five factions have lived in peace for many years, each contributing to a different sector of society. Abnegation has fulfilled our need for selfless leaders in government; Candor has provided us with trustworthy and sound leaders in law; Erudite has supplied us with intelligent teachers and researchers; Amity has given us understanding counselors and caretakers; and Dauntless provides us with protection from threats both within and without.

“No one gave us farmers, but who needs food? Also, what are doctors?”

And, so you have no independent media. You fucking morons.

Science is built around the idea that scientists will (and do!) lie their asses off if they can get away with it, which is why there’s all that peer review stuff. Candor would help there. Candor should also be great for making sure Abnegation actually is still benevolent and hasn’t gone all weird about greater good and decided to gas everyone to end selfishness. And that they’re not abusing their kids, but mostly I’d be worried about the gasing thing.

I guess this does mean the individual factions don’t have independent legal systems, though.

But the reach of each faction is not limited to these areas. We give one another far more than can be adequately summarized. In our factions, we find meaning, we find purpose, we find life.”

This is just enough wiggle room to avoid this falling quite so headlong into the insanity of Hunger Games’ one job a district thing, but not enough to stop it from being stupid because no really where the fuck are your farmers you need them to eat.

Come to think of it, are farmers factionalized at all? All we know right now is the farms are far away, maybe they’re not.

This all seems different than the original presentation of people being at the brink of war. It doesn’t seem like the factions can function without each other. Also, it seems like giving all political power to Abnegation wasn’t a fluke and everyone’s happy to recognize that a faction which values X is best at various vital points in your infrastructure that require it.

She references her Faction History class again, which we still haven’t gotten a glimpse of, to tell us that they’re supposed to value faction over family. Even though the factions all have other overriding missions that ought to override either one.

Though it would explain why Abnegation and Amity can survive, if you prioritize selflessness toward your own community and preventing aggression within your own community over to a stranger, they could probably do things to keep the factionless out, like giant fences or something.

The kids go in reverse alphabetical order and the first kid to switch factions is a Tucker from Dauntless. I’d think the Dauntless kids would be most primed to jump factions, unless they get trapped in a reverse crisis as our protagonist and agonize over how does the bravery to jump ship mean they’re actually Dauntless?

He ends up in Candor, which does seem similar.

They will see him as a traitor from now on. His Dauntless family will have the option of visiting him in his new faction, a week and a half from now on Visiting Day, but they won’t, because he left them. His absence will haunt their hallways, and he will be a space they can’t fill. And then time will pass, and the hole will be gone, like when an organ is removed and the body’s fluids flow into the space it leaves.

Shit. So it’s not just Abnegation everyone hates transfers. All that stuff about choice and valuing each other was just Marcus trying to make this seem civil. (Also, why do you know all about organs if you can’t ask questions or study?)

I think her brother is the very next in line, so we’ve gone from Tu to Pr in one jump. It’s hard to get any idea how many kids there are total. We know a bunch of kids didn’t jump faction before now, but how many is that?

Her brother picks Erudite and she’s all what the hell where did this come from. This is why you should’ve paid more attention to how freaked out he was.

When I close my eyes, I see the stack of books on Caleb’s desk, and his shaking hands sliding along his legs after the aptitude test.
Why didn’t I realize that when he told me to think of myself yesterday, he was also giving that advice to himself?

Holy shit you seriously didn’t realize that he was also talking about himself?

Anyway, this makes her realize she has to stay with Abnegation.

(You know, no word on if they’re allowed to have lots of kids. Everyone so far has had two. Even Marcus’ one son is because his wife died in childbirth with the other. If it’s two each, her parents can’t even try again.)

So she stabs her hand…

My blood drips onto the carpet between the two bowls. Then, with a gasp I can’t contain, I shift my hand forward, and my blood sizzles on the coals.
I am selfish. I am brave.

That sure wasn’t a surprise.

I mean, it’s a good last minute effort with her going on about how now she can’t possibly leave her parents, but there’s also the part where she kept saying she was selfish and didn’t like Abnegation.

This would work if only the faction hatred wasn’t so insane. If her choice would’ve have been such a big deal if her brother had stayed, then her sudden change of heart when he left would seem more believable. But instead this chapter hammers that it’s even more of a betrayal than previously mentioned to abandon your faction, so it’s not significantly worse to do it after her brother did because it’d devastate her parents either way.

She heads over to the Dauntless who stayed and says that they’re all taller than her. If I knew how often kids changed factions I could speculate about if there might be phenotype differences or if it’s a sign Dauntless is into steroids but the book won’t give me much of a clue there.

My father’s eyes burn into mine with a look of accusation. At first, when I feel the heat behind my eyes, I think he’s found a way to set me on fire, to punish me for what I’ve done

I’d really think of all the factions theirs would take this best, at least outwardly.

Her mom’s smiling though, which I guess has something to do with her saying she didn’t care what Beatrice picked.

She sees the other transfer next to her is looking pretty nervous and she realizes I spent all my time worrying about which faction I would choose and never considered what would happen if I chose Dauntless. What waits for me at Dauntless headquarters? and no, no I refuse to believe that. I will not believe that the people making these decisions wouldn’t consider what their life after transfer would be like. Especially when she was constantly worrying about being factionless and how her life would suck forever if that happened, and she’s often thought of her life if she stays in Abnegation.

And it’s not necessary! She could say the fact her uncertainty about what might happen didn’t dissuade her was part of why she couldn’t shake the idea that Dauntless was her faction. (And maybe she could feel like she ought to reassure the nervous guy, and worries that’s her divergence speaking.)

They all run down the stairs and It is not a selfless act for the Dauntless to take the stairs; it is a wild act. I am moving toward believing there’s no danger outside because this is not the behavior of people who want in charge of the weapons.

I have not run anywhere in a long time. Abnegation discourages anything done strictly for my own enjoyment, and that is what this is: my lungs burning, my muscles aching, the fierce pleasure of a flat-out sprint.

So, Abnegation doesn’t see how being strong and healthy might let you aid people better? Also, if you don’t get exercise how can you be enjoying this? You should’ve used up your energy in the climb up, so it’s not like you even can claim to be running on manic energy, you just would not have proper reserves at this point.

Maybe the author doesn’t get that twenty flights of stairs is an awful lot of stairs?

Then it’s train time!

“Oh no,” mumbles the Erudite boy. “Are we supposed to hop on that thing?”
“Yes,” I say, breathless.

That said, her glee at all this does make the faction switch seem like a good fit. In details, she does seem like a good Dauntless – it’s just that it’s not coming across well in the more spelled out portions. Actually, that probably means the movie will be pretty good, if the results of cutting out Katniss’ horrible internal narration are anything to judge by.

But why is she the only one? Especially an Erudite of all kids, why would the intellect group somehow miss that ALL DAUNTLESS JUMP ON AND OFF TRAINS ALL THE TIME so you’ll have to do it?

Maybe he’s surprised they’re getting thrown into it without training but this is also the group that encourages climbing until you fall and break your leg and values bravery, not competency. We haven’t see any sign at all they care about safety.

The door of each car is open, waiting for the Dauntless to pile in, and they do, group by group, until only the new initiates are left. The Dauntless-born initiates are used to doing this by now, so in a second it’s just faction transfers left.
I step forward with a few others and start jogging. We run with the car for a few steps and then throw ourselves sideways. I’m not as tall or as strong as some of them, so I can’t pull myself into the car. I cling to a handle next to the doorway, my shoulder slamming into the car. My arms shake, and finally a Candor girl grabs me and pulls me in. Gasping, I thank her.
I hear a shout and look over my shoulder. A short Erudite boy with red hair pumps his arms as he tries to catch up to the train. An Erudite girl by the door reaches out to grab the boy’s hand, straining, but he is too far behind. He falls to his knees next to the tracks as we sail away, and puts his head in his hands.
I feel uneasy. He just failed Dauntless initiation. He is factionless now. It could happen at any moment.

Holy shit this is so fucking stupid.

Even assuming they’re really more like the thug faction and value physical strength as much as bravery, she just said her faction refuses to let you exercise. I would expect the same is true for Erudite and possibly Amity if they think it seems violent. A kid not running fast enough to jump the train isn’t even showing they’re necessarily a weakling, maybe they’d have done it if they’d had time to exercise a bit and built up muscle.

Now, if there were enough cars that this was a sign of lagging behind and not being brave, sure, but what we see is someone desperately trying to catch up and not able to, and she nearly fails just because she can’t get herself inside.

And that’s all it takes to be exiled to open sewer town. Not running fast enough. No second chance where you’re set a test of bravery you can’t fail for a different reason, no ability to go back to your home faction let alone try out a different one.

The girl who pulled her in gets a description and name: She is tall, with dark brown skin and short hair. Pretty. …“I’m Christina,” she says

The train is picking up speed. I sit down. It will be easier to keep my balance if I’m low to the ground. She raises an eyebrow at me.
“A fast train means wind,” I say. “Wind means falling out. Get down.”

I think I’ll just hope that the way she keeps doing this is meant to be divergence too, with her being all Erudite here. I guess it is nice to have a smart protagonist, so I’ll try not to complain about her not being solidly Dauntless enough.

She thinks about her brother, remembering the books she saw in his room and imagines there’s more hidden everywhere.

Did he always know that he would choose Erudite? And if he did, how did I not notice?
What a good actor he was.

You asshole he obviously didn’t know until the test. That’s why he was so freaked out.

Anyway, now they’ve arrived at probably Dauntless HQ and have to jump off onto the roof of a seven story building. The transfers continue to be surprised by the idea.

The idea of leaping out of a moving train onto a rooftop, knowing there is a gap between the edge of the roof and the edge of the track, makes me want to throw up.

Sadly there continues to not be the detail I need. How big is this gap? Are we talking technically there’s some space or a situation where you might not make it?

Only another girl named Molly points out that they shouldn’t be surprised by this, and an Amity kid says no.

I’d rather be factionless than dead!” The Amity boy shakes his head.

Then why the fuck pick Dauntless?

The author keeps writing Beatrice as 90% an ordinary teen here, and then she writes the rest of the kids as even more ordinary. Even before getting into the fact these kids selected this faction, they grew up in a world seeing the Dauntless kids express their belief stopping trains is for wusses every single day, so even a random batch of kids should be less shocked by all this. It really seems like it’s to make the situation relateable to the reader and/or make Beatrice look better by comparison.

Really, the only way this would make sense is if it wasn’t a choice. Maybe there’s an initial test to give you a day to soulsearch and see what you really value, then a second quick version that reads your current state of mind. Or just have the results processed for a day before the result’s announced officially. Add in that the factions have a certain quota they need filled (it does seem like they’re the sort to want to keep faction sizes equal) and you could end up with kids in Dauntless who don’t actually want to be there.

She does return the favor of saving her by saving Christina back, when she admits “I just…can’t do it unless someone drags me.” And given she was horrified by the gap, it actually is a sacrifice, since if Christina can’t launch herself at all, she might pull them both down. Luckily they make it, and Christina bursts out laughing and says it was fun.

Then I hear a wail. I turn my head, searching for the source of the sound. A Dauntless girl stands at the edge of the roof, staring at the ground below, screaming. Behind her a Dauntless boy holds her at the waist to keep her from falling off.
“Rita,” he says. “Rita, calm down. Rita—”
I stand and look over the edge. There is a body on the pavement below us

So the Dauntless not only fail to make the first test a true test of bravery, disqualifying one kid already, but they can’t even make their second test only appear dangerous. And it sure seems like it’s simply an accident given it’s another Dauntless girl who’s dead.

I tell myself, as sternly as possible, that is how things work here. We do dangerous things and people die. People die, and we move on to the next dangerous thing.

Your faction is a faction of the stupidly insane.

She checks her skinned elbow and a boy immediately mocks her for showing any flesh when she’s Abnegation, even though they’re all Dauntless now, and My cheeks heat up, and I let my sleeve fall. thus furthering my theory that the Dauntless is actually the peer pressure faction and not the bravery one.

Cut to faction leader Max!

he stands on the ledge like it’s a sidewalk. Like someone didn’t just fall to her death from it. “Several stories below us is the members’ entrance to our compound. If you can’t muster the will to jump off, you don’t belong here.

See, this makes so much more sense as the actual test. It’s a choice, you jump or you don’t. Why have it come after the other two failure points? Also, they just saw someone die, so, at this point jumping off isn’t bravery, it’s stupidity.

Granted, having the right answer being to refuse and show your willingness to accept being factionless over obeying stupid orders would irk me. I remember that in Naruto there was this whole ninja exam section where they rewarded the kids for seeing through their lies and disobeying instruction, and that was so stupid, because it just trains them not to listen to orders. You’d never be able to run a faction if you constantly told people to second guess you.

Anyway they’re all not happy with this, especially when someone just actually died. An Erudite girl tries asking if the fall isn’t deadly, and he’s all you’ll have to find out! And yeah, if she wanted people to answer questions she should’ve stayed Erudite, but this part actually makes sense in that she’d have grown up in that culture and be so used to people giving her the information needed.

I am proud. It will get me into trouble someday, but today it makes me brave. I walk toward the ledge

No you’re not, because you just got done saying that to be factionless is worse than death.

I guess pride is getting you to do it first but given the fact Dauntless seems built around fucking with people and has no regard for their lives it’s entirely possible that when half the kids finish Max will go TOO LATE SUCKERS YOU’RE FACTIONLESS NOW. Plus this “pride” business seems to have an awfully large chunk of peer pressure fear in it.

This is a scare tactic. I will land safely at the bottom.

Erudite.

Before she jumps she takes off her shirt to reveal…another shirt, this one a t-shirt. I wonder if the original idea was for her to just be in a bra or at least an undershirt, because in addition to why would they wear two layers like this, not only does she feel exposed but I hear catcalls and shouts behind me. so other people are acting like it’s exposing more than usual by their standards as well.

But yeah she’s saying she’s not Abnegation, and then she jumps as the punchline. She lands on a net and someone pulls her out.

and I would have fallen face-first onto a wood floor if he had not caught me.

This is the first sign of any consideration for their new members’ wellbeing. Perhaps they’ll stop trying to get rid of them now that they’ve reached test three. She then talks about the guy’s eyelashes and the dreaming color of his dark blue eyes so hello love interest.

A girl then says “A Stiff, the first to jump? Unheard of.” despite absolutely nothing about “selflessness” translating to “biggest coward faction”, and dreamy eyed love interest points out that “There’s a reason why she left them, Lauren,” he says. and yeah what is with continuing to treat the faction transfers as their original group? It makes sense for her to be doing it because she doesn’t know them and needs a clear way to differentiate them, but from Dauntless’ POV, they’re people who renounced that faction for this one.

He asks her her name and she realizes that she needs a new one to tell hot guy.

“Think about it,” he says, a faint smile curling his lips. “You don’t get to pick again.” so apparently this is actually an established thing? Because if it was just “Think about it. You’re starting a new life.” instead of “THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE WE’RE DAUNTLESS NOT PAPERWORKLOVER WE DON’T DO FORMS TWICE” bit it’d just seem like a reasonable thing to say to a hesitant newcomer.

A new place, a new name. I can be remade here.

Yes but also bear in mind he’s apparently saying if you renounce your name now you also never can get it back.

“Tris,” I say firmly.

Eh, fine, it’ll be easier to type when I inevitably yell at you.

We then see a sign they really have switched over to safety by the fact he shouts her name as the first jumper and only then does the next person jump, so I think they aren’t risking kids hitting each other in the next.

Her screams follow her down. Christina. Everyone laughs, but they follow their laughter with more cheering.
Four sets his hand on my back and says, “Welcome to Dauntless.”

Aw, they’re finally being friendly and not insane. And they only lost three kids to get this far!