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Why don't the bonded first-year riders kill the unbonded first-years after Threshing?
- It's explicit that riders in training are allowed to kill other riders outside their squad. It's explicit that unbonded riders will try to kill bonded riders to claim their bonded dragon. But bonded riders outnumber unbonded, and they have access to magic through the bond, and they're supported by their dragon mounts. If unbonded riders are the threat Violet claims, then the newly-bonded should immediately team up and execute their unbonded rivals to protect themselves. Yes, it's inhumane and vicious, but it's a continuation of the training regimen these soldiers have and it's explicitly self-defense.
- There are many possible reasons. 1), most students don't really buy into the school's "kill or be killed" culture. There are plenty of moments where characters who aren't Violet acknowledge that something is brutal and/or makes them feel guilty, so it's likely that they just don't want to kill, even if doing so makes sense. 2), the school's toughness and isolation bonds its students together. After seeing someone survive the near-death experience that is the first year, their peers sympathize with and admire them to a degree- we see this happening with Xaden's friends and Violet. Bonded students will almost certainly have unbonded friends, mentors, crushes, etc, and they won't want to kill those without a very good reason. 3), Navarrians are big on patriotism, and they're in the middle of an ongoing war. Every peer they kill is one less soldier who might stand between them and the gryphons. Every peer they kill (excepting the marked ones) is a citizen of the country they signed up to protect with their lives. Yes, bullies like Jack aren't motivated by national solidarity- but most students are, even if their commanders aren't.
