Bridgeburner Issue

Hey guys, so I’m about 900 pages into TtH and there’s something that’s been bothering me about the way this series has been talking about the Bridgburners since the end of MoI. Basically whenever a character brings them up they talk as if 90% of the bridgeburners have died, and that there are only a few remaining.

And like I guess on a technical level that is true, since a bunch of them died in the cave in before the series even started, and then a bunch more of the underdeveloped guys died during the final battle in MoI. But it’s clear to me that the series wants me to feel that loss as well and keeps talking about Picker, Blend, and Antsy like they are the few that remain. But my problem is that while intellectually I know that is true, emotionally it doesn’t feel like that at all to me because majority of the Bridgeburners that actually got any development or character focus are still alive.

Like honestly the only Bridgeburners with any development right now that died (and stayed dead) are Whiskeyjack, Dujek (if he counts), Trotts, and Mallet. Meanwhile Fiddler, Kalam, Quick Ben, Paran, Apsalar, Hedge, Spindle, Picker, Blend and Antsy are all still alive, and those guys are majority of the Bridgeburners the series even developed at all. So it’s hard to feel this loss of the Bridgeburners like the series keeps wanting me to feel when genuinely pretty much all the Bridgeburners I was given a reason to care about are still alive.

It just feels like the series has been trying to have it’s cake and eat it to. It wants me to feel like basically all the Bridgeburners died and that only the scraps remain, while killing off very few of the ones the audience is actually attached to. Anyone else feel this way or am I alone on this?