Divergent Worldbuilding and Character Headcanons

[divergent-discourse]

i’m not sure if this was ever discussed but i’ve been rereading/rewatching the series and i just wanna know why a dauntless born initiate wasn’t the first jumper? i mean, they live in that place and you’re seriously telling me they’ve never jumped through the hole?

A great question!!!!!!

The true mark of a book fandom member is the glorious ability to fill in plot holes with theories, or to call them out and try to fix them with more sufficient ideas.

Would the dauntless members know about the net?? OF COURSE. One explaination I’ve just come up with is that dauntless ONLY uses this entrance during initiation. It’s a huge ritual, everyone gets the day off work to cheer for the new imitates, it’s a great party.

Realistically every single kid at school would talk endlessly about their factions initiation practices.

Candor kids would brag about bringing truth serum to school for show and tell, erudite kids would pretend to do IQ tests on eachother about stupid things as a joke, amity kids would promise eachother they’ll always love one another enough to make it, abnegation kids wouldn’t talk about it and dauntless people would be ENDLESSLY discussing their fear landscapes. They’d have memes about it. They’d write rock songs and angsty poetry and wedding vows about them.

[divergent-wbc-headcanons]

I assumed it was an unspoken rule that a transfer should jump first. After all, it's fun to see who's bravest and who's a scared little chicken

[divergent-wbc-headcanons]

Evelyn Johnson was 17 when she had Tobias. Marcus Eaton was 34.

This one is based on the movie, I admit. However, while not explicitly stated, I think this one could hold some truth. Let’s take a look at Evelyn.

She looks young, right? The actor may be 50, but god damn she does not look it. If I personally had to guess, I would say mid-thirties. Okay, sure, Abnegation seems like the kind of faction where having young parents isn’t a big deal. After all, with Christianity being relatively common there, it seems likely that young adults are getting married and having children early. Now let’s look at Marcus.

Now he, he looks way older. We’re talking 50s here. Why does he look way older than Evelyn, potentially old enough to be her father, even? That’s because when they met, he was twice her age. Marcus, as an Abnegation leader, probably was more focused on his career than having a child, at least at first. Eventually, he realized he’d like to leave some sort of legacy. Then, he met Evelyn, a transfer from Erudite, and he was enamored by her. Whether she fell for him back or felt pressured because he was a leader is debatable, but they quickly married after she was initiated. I know this theory isn’t watertight or anything, and I mostly thought of it because of the movie casting. Then again, most of the casting is terrible when it comes to side characters, and considering Evelyn was supposed to be Latina, this may not be the most relevant theory/headcanon.

[divergent-wbc-headcanons]

Erudite borns tend to do better than Candor borns in Dauntless initiation

While neither faction is known for their athleticism, Erudite members had to walk more in their daily lives than Candor, since Candor members all lived in the same building. Erudite members are also better at separating their emotions from the situation at hand when it comes to fights.  Neither of them has a real advantage in the second or third stages.

[divergent-wbc-headcanons]

Amity borns excel at the first stage of Dauntless initiation

That is, once they get over the fact that they’re causing harm to another person. There aren’t a whole lot of Amity born Dauntless, but they all had an advantage because working in the fields built up their endurance and strength. However, they didn’t have any particular advantages in the second or third stages.