I really enjoyed the first Red Rising trilogy, but I can’t get past the logic of the Passage. We see how much damage one feud between the Bellona and the Augustus can do.
But somehow that was the only one that significantly mentioned.
If you kill off 50% of the academy every single year, the Society wouldn't be a stable empire; it would be a permanent, bloody civil war. How can these people serve on the same bridge or sit in the same Senate knowing they've all murdered each other's children?
Then there’s the "Secret." We’re supposed to believe that every single Gold parent people who are shown to actually love their kids values a tradition more than their child's life? It’s hard to buy that "loyalty to the Color" consistently beats out parental instinct.
Does it take anyone else out of the story, or is the "Iron Gold" brainwashing supposed to be that strong?
I feel like there would have been other solutions with their level of technology to ensure all peerless scared have killer instinct without the murder of gods.