Challenges vs Hazing

Thanks for all of your excellent suggestions. They've made me think again about what I'm trying to do here. My original idea was to give the senior cadets a chance to cull the junior, but that's giving them too much power. I can see them hazing the 2nd years, though, as they would have the first years if both had been at Tentir at the same time. The third year cadets are proud of having been blooded at the Cataracts, but at the same time they missed most of their year at the college (if I haven't gotten their years mixed up). What they do at Kothifir is a lot more like hazing than challenging. It won't necessarily change any randon minds, but they will pay attention, especially if things get out of hand.

What Jame gets is more like a taunt -- something she has no intention of doing but will possibly end up doing nonetheless. She doesn't have to win the support of the older cadets, but she would like to. Maybe in the end she has to. I guess I see her life as a series of challenges, proving herself to one group after another, none of them being inclined to take her on trust. If nothing else, it's become a structural feature of these novels.