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!Per wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
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** I think the explanation was that all the other children gave up on the Giant after awhile (except the one that committed suicide for real), but Ender never did, persisting months and months longer than anybody else had, so eventually the Game ([[spoiler:established, especially in later books, as being basically sapient]]) gave in and gave him the option to attack, an option which no other kids had ever been given. But that might not have been the author's intention.
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** I think the explanation was that all the other children gave up on the Giant after awhile (except the one that committed suicide for real), but Ender never did, persisting months and months longer than anybody else had, so eventually the Game ([[spoiler:established, (established, especially in later books, as being basically sapient]]) sapient) gave in and gave him the option to attack, an option which no other kids had ever been given. But that might not have been the author's intention.
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*** Probably for the same reason why nobody ever brought in anything resembling a shield - you couldn't get something that giant past the teachers. Bean's weird rope trick was possible because the stuff was nearly invisible [[spoiler: and he extorted it out of a teacher]]. As a child I always wondered why they didn't cover their suits with some sort of grease (or better yet, sunblock) - it would have been possible to get, and would have had some benefit against enemy lasers.
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*** Probably for the same reason why nobody ever brought in anything resembling a shield - you couldn't get something that giant past the teachers. Bean's weird rope trick was possible because the stuff was nearly invisible [[spoiler: and he extorted it out of a teacher]].teacher. As a child I always wondered why they didn't cover their suits with some sort of grease (or better yet, sunblock) - it would have been possible to get, and would have had some benefit against enemy lasers.
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** It's been a while since I've read it, but I believe the change starts when Bean finally finds out the truth about his condition [[spoiler:where he's destined to die early because of gigantism]]. Being confronted with your impending death can make you do some weird things, in Bean's case it was to hurry up and have a family.
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** It's been a while since I've read it, but I believe the change starts when Bean finally finds out the truth about his condition [[spoiler:where where he's destined to die early because of gigantism]].gigantism. Being confronted with your impending death can make you do some weird things, in Bean's case it was to hurry up and have a family.
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* After reading through ''Xenocide'', the idea came to me that Demosthenes' hierarchy of Alien-ness doesn't really describe different species, but actually the relationships between different species. After finishing the series, I couldn't believe that nobody realized this. For example, the buggers probably would not have had the same communication problems with the piggies as they did with humans, because [[spoiler: the piggies use telepathic communication just like the buggers]]. They would never have had to commit xenocide over a huge misunderstanding. With humans, however, they were varelse for a while because there was no way to communicate and end hostilities, but when a way to communicate was found ([[spoiler: talking to Ender via Jane]]) they became ramen. The buggers themselves didn't change, just their relationship with the humans. How is it that when the main cast is filled with super-genius philosophers and sociologists/"xenologists", and the main plot deals mostly with deciding whether species are raman or varelse, NONE of them realized this distinction?
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* After reading through ''Xenocide'', the idea came to me that Demosthenes' hierarchy of Alien-ness doesn't really describe different species, but actually the relationships between different species. After finishing the series, I couldn't believe that nobody realized this. For example, the buggers probably would not have had the same communication problems with the piggies as they did with humans, because [[spoiler: the piggies use telepathic communication just like the buggers]].buggers. They would never have had to commit xenocide over a huge misunderstanding. With humans, however, they were varelse for a while because there was no way to communicate and end hostilities, but when a way to communicate was found ([[spoiler: talking (talking to Ender via Jane]]) Jane) they became ramen. The buggers themselves didn't change, just their relationship with the humans. How is it that when the main cast is filled with super-genius philosophers and sociologists/"xenologists", and the main plot deals mostly with deciding whether species are raman or varelse, NONE of them realized this distinction?
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** An entire ''fucking'' species that, as far as the humans knew, was hostile. Going off wikipedia, Earth itself got invaded. So, really, it was a [[IDidWhatIHadToDo defensive effort]] [[ShootTheDog to survive]], because only [[WhatAnIdiot an idiot]] would restrain themselves to fighting purely defensive battles. Plus, it can be argued that the various invasions were parts of the same conflict that the Buggers themselves started. Granted, it was a misunderstanding, but from humanity's POV, it was the Buggers who launched the [[KickTheDog "preemptive strike"]]
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** An entire ''fucking'' species that, as far as the humans knew, was hostile. Going off wikipedia, Earth itself got invaded. So, really, it was a [[IDidWhatIHadToDo defensive effort]] [[ShootTheDog to survive]], because only [[WhatAnIdiot an idiot]] idiot would restrain themselves to fighting purely defensive battles. Plus, it can be argued that the various invasions were parts of the same conflict that the Buggers themselves started. Granted, it was a misunderstanding, but from humanity's POV, it was the Buggers who launched the [[KickTheDog "preemptive strike"]]
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** Humans were the Third Invasion. It was not a [[IDidWhatIHadToDo defensive effort]] [[ShootTheDog to survive]], it was a [[KickTheDog preemptive strike]] [[WhatAnIdiot against a no-longer-threatening enemy]].
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** Humans were the Third Invasion. It was not a [[IDidWhatIHadToDo defensive effort]] [[ShootTheDog to survive]], it was a [[KickTheDog preemptive strike]] [[WhatAnIdiot against a no-longer-threatening enemy]].enemy.
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[[folder:The Point of Twist]]
* To put it simply, it doesn't really make sense. From the premise of looking for literal children to control the whole army hoping that they will be better commanders than actual hardened and trained veterans (which requires the presence of enough child geniuses around to make you wonder how the military doesn't have one already) to pretending it was all a game, the whole thing makes less and less sense the more you think about it. Having the commander of your whole force miss some very key information is a ''bad idea'' for several obvious reasons, particularly when you hide from them the very nature and stakes of what they are doing. What would have happened if Ender decided to apply his lateral thinking to test the boundaries of the "game", instead? Losing a huge battle ''badly'' on purpose just to gather data? The whole situation seems to work only if the military already knew what Ender's brilliant epiphany would have been, so why not raise soldiers focused to achieving that objective (like teaching them to see Formian as non-sapient being who you could exterminate without moral qualms, "Starship Troopers" style). It feels like the whole book is born as an attempt to justify the twist rather than the twist naturally emerging from the story, and the point itself of the twist seems to be a) to have a twist and b) to actually absolve Ender of any moral responsibility, to present his struggle in the rest of the series as purely heroic without any moral ambiguity of sorts.
[[/folder]]
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** Which negates the whole issue of Ender being needed for a suicide plan because the others couldn't sacrifice the soldiers. If they are destined to die anyway, wouldn't it be more merciful to have them die in a resolution action than to let them starve to death?
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** Being justified and being at ease are two entirely different things. Ender was a ''child'' who beat and killed another human being, that scars you. It being out of necessity rather than choice makes it harder, since it removes your agency from it.
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*** No, he asks for the value. Pi, and any of its fractions, are a perfectly legitimate value. If the issue was the final decimal, not only he could have asked it more directly, but since the irrational number is pi he could simply write pi. All in all, it's something that only seems clever to kids or people who don't know math. Which probably doesn't help the books YA classification.
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*** By the way, ever heard of people altering their grades or bribing teachers? You presented it as some kind of absurd, but that actually happens: grades are the condition for "victory" (graduation), so people look for ways to satisfy it skipping the whole "studying" part. And, frankly, I know we all like to pretend ye old times were better and purer, but I'm damn sure people cheated on their grades in the 80s already.
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*** But that's why it was not special. Ender wasn't overcoming some moral boundary, he thought he was dealing with data. He just went with the KillEmAll strategy. And that shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. Ender's entire schtick was ignoring the rules when pushed into a corner, and they gave him access to the bomb. What did they think was going to happen? It's almost like they were deliberately trying to create a scapegoat, but they didn't know the buggers were no longer a threat, so why would they?
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*** But that's why it was not special. Ender wasn't overcoming some moral boundary, he thought he was dealing with data. He just went with the KillEmAll strategy. And that shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. Ender's entire schtick was ignoring the rules when pushed into a corner, and they gave him access to the bomb. What did they think was going to happen? It's almost like they were deliberately trying to create a scapegoat, but they didn't know the buggers were no longer a threat, so why would they?
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Fleshed out a bit on the "Beanetics" section
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** Yep, she was indeed lying about that. But even if Nikolai and Bean had been actually identical twins, their wildly divergent experiences during their infancy and youth would have resulted in different epigenetic expression — which are, basically, inheritable changes to '''how and whether or not genes are expressed''', and which are not encoded in DNA and is affected by and an expression of a person's life events and lifestyle.
*** One example of this is how people who go through periods of malnutrition or starvation when young tend to have their growth (mental and physical) be stunted by the experience. Trauma like that is known to have an epigenetic impact, and is inheritable.
*** For a Real Life Example, if you compare the physical traits of Holocaust survivors to extremely close relatives who were able to escape before the Holocaust, not only will the Holocaust survivor be changed by their experience, but their children also will be — even though the DNA itself hasn't been changed.
*** Basically, Nikolai's children and Bean's children (even the ones lacking Anton's Key) would still be noticeably different simply because of Bean's childhood trauma, compared to Nikolai having the good fortune to grow up in a loving family.
*** One example of this is how people who go through periods of malnutrition or starvation when young tend to have their growth (mental and physical) be stunted by the experience. Trauma like that is known to have an epigenetic impact, and is inheritable.
*** For a Real Life Example, if you compare the physical traits of Holocaust survivors to extremely close relatives who were able to escape before the Holocaust, not only will the Holocaust survivor be changed by their experience, but their children also will be — even though the DNA itself hasn't been changed.
*** Basically, Nikolai's children and Bean's children (even the ones lacking Anton's Key) would still be noticeably different simply because of Bean's childhood trauma, compared to Nikolai having the good fortune to grow up in a loving family.
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[[folder: Victim blaming and self victim blaming, Ender vs 5 attackers]]
* After Ender's probe was removed, he was attacked alone by FIVE *MUCH* larger boys, then criticized that he kept attacking the boy after he "won". Excuse me? If you've defeated one of five attackers, you're still in quite grave danger, ever more so since everyone understands the implications of the probe being removed. Nothing about Ender's response could possibly be criticized today, let alone in a world where they are terrified of another massive insect invasion. Even worse, Ender himself is moping to his sister about this.
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* After Ender's probe was removed, he was attacked alone by FIVE *MUCH* larger boys, then criticized that he kept attacking the boy after he "won". Excuse me? If you've defeated one of five attackers, you're still in quite grave danger, ever more so since everyone understands the implications of the probe being removed. Nothing about Ender's response could possibly be criticized today, let alone in a world where they are terrified of another massive insect invasion. Even worse, Ender himself is moping to his sister about this.
[[/folder]]
