I Can't Be The Only One Who Thinks Fourth Wing's Military Recruitment Makes No Sense

Summary

Basgiath College’s high mortality rate among recruits seems to serve a brutal military agenda, raising questions about leadership motives.
The recruitment process in Fourth Wing raises suspicions about the ruling class’s control tactics, creating a totalitarian regime feel.
Marked Ones’ involvement in the Riders Quadrant reveals a dangerous power dynamic within Navarre’s military structure, with potential for rebellion.

Fourth Wing’s military is full of contradictions. Desperate for new fighters, the academy Basgiath College paradoxically boasts of a high mortality rate among its recruits. As the title of the series Empyrean implies, Navarre’s military strength relies on the dragons at the heart of the books – they want to bond with the strongest riders, so as brutal as it is, it makes sense to cull the weak. The perceived limitations of Empyrean characters Violet and Sawyer challenge this and provide representation.

This leads me to wonder why those who fail trials aren’t simply demoted. Given the context that leadership is hiding the existence of venin, perhaps they simply don’t want to waste resources on cadets who can’t fly, since the biggest danger is on the ground where venin can drain energy from. Still, they could be retrained as scribes – but for reasons I believe will be explored more throughout the series, more scribes only create more potential problems for the corrupt leadership. Until then, I’m left scratching my head about Fourth Wing‘s confusing military approach.

Onyx Storm Updates: Next Fourth Wing Sequel Release Date, Story & Everything We Know

Fourth Wing fans are eager for another book after Iron Flame’s ending, and Rebecca Yarros is already working on the next Empyrean sequel: Onyx Storm.

I’m Sorry, Fourth Wing’s Military Recruitment Makes Absolutely No Sense

On The Surface, The Graduate Or Die Premise Seems To Be Purely For High Stakes

A composite image of Rebecca Yarros smiling in front of the cover of Fourth Wing — Custom Image by SR Image Editor

The military setup of Fourth Wing is baffling in general, but this is especially true of its recruitment process. All of the Riders Quadrant are volunteers except for the marked ones. The parapet comes before training. Candidates must ascend two hundred and fifty steps to the 18-inch wide stone bridge, 200 feet above ground. Rain or shine, they then have to cross the parapet safely. If they’re too afraid, if a homicidal peer pushes them off, or if they’re simply wearing the wrong footwear, the candidate will fall. This eliminates them before any of the real challenges even begin.

After this, they have to complete a number of challenges, including the “gauntlet” – an obstacle course designed to train cadets how to mount their dragons. Only then are they afforded entry into “threshing” to bond with a dragon. At this point, any dragon could burn them to a crisp on a whim. The premise of Fourth Wing is “graduate or die,” and the mechanics of this seem to be designed to create a high-stakes, Hunger Games environment. However, it doesn’t up when considering Navarre is in the midst of a long war, and needs all the soldiers it can get.

Basgiath War College Should Be Trying To Keep Its Recruits Alive In The Empyrean

The High Death Count Raises Suspicion About Leadership’s Motives

A collage of a black dragon over the official artwork for Onyx Flame — Custom image by Alisha Grauso

Logically, Basgiath War College should be training more fighters – it’s strange that they brag about most of their recruits dying before they get to their second year. This could simply be a fantasy dramatization of real power dynamics in the military. Rebecca Yarros was born and raised in a military family and is an army spouse – she of all people would know how some military programs make it deliberately hard to progress, having high attrition rates. However, in real life, people who didn’t make the cut for special forces would likely be demoted to the regular army.

It reads as a brutal, totalitarian regime – I think this is a deliberate choice on Yarros’ part.

This leads me, among other readers, to question what the motivation could be for making the only other option death. It reads as a brutal, totalitarian regime – I think this is a deliberate choice on Yarros’ part. Because it’s hinted throughout Fourth Wing and built on in Iron Flame that there are a lot of suppressed secrets in Navarre, it’s difficult to tell where toughening up the cadets ends and weakening class consciousness begins. It benefits the regime for the cadets to be so caught up in surviving that they don’t question why this system exists.

Fourth Wing’s Explanation For Drafting Marked Ones Is Completely Backwards

Marked Ones Are Much More Dangerous When Given Dragons And Signets

The covers of Iron Flame, Onyx Storm, and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros against a flaming background — Custom Image by Yeider Chacon

Another confusing detail is that the marked ones were drafted into the Riders Quadrant as part of a deal when their parents rebelled. They had to be punished for their parents’ crimes but were allowed to serve instead of being killed. This seems like a terrible idea – particularly because they were forced to watch their parents’ executions. This was designed to instill fear in the marked ones – however, it’s also a breeding ground for resentment. Not only are they not completely stamping out rebellion by keeping the offspring alive, but they are giving them access to dragons and power.

On the other hand, this reveals the clear hubris of the ruling class in Navarre. Their outlook on this is that there’s a chance they will die in the quadrant. They also have rules to control them – it’s illegal for more than three marked ones to gather. This does nothing to dissuade Xaden and the rest of the marked ones, who have meetings at night. I think their failure to control those with a rebellion relic shows how shortsighted they are in thinking they can control society with fear and oppression.

There are other hints that this fascist-adjacent regime will inevitably fall – another key tool is propaganda. Many readers complain that Violet reciting Navarrian history is a poorly veiled info dump for world-building, but I think it highlights how well history has been rewritten. I think worse is coming in Onyx Storm, and it’s likely to explore more of this corruption, along with the true purpose of various rituals and traditions. For example, I don’t think burning possessions is a tribute to Malek, but serves the regime by destroying information.

Although Navarre is backward and more of the broad strokes of societal corruption could have been established in the first book, the series is confirmed to be five books long. Hopefully, Yarros will explore the purpose of this counter-intuitive system of Fourth Wing more as the series goes on, along with the implications of the huge Xaden twist in Iron Flame. The second book already saw gryphon riders questioning the practices at Basgiath, more evidence that the college’s idiosyncrasies are purposeful. I also hope to learn more about the Great War, which has set up the perfect Empyrean series spinoff.