This is topic Ender's Game Mistake that Really Nags at Me: PART DEUX in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by RoyHobbs (Member # 7594) on :
 
At the beginning of Ch 2 of EG during the confrontation with Peter; Ender shows Peter his shoe with Stilson’s blood on it, without telling Peter where it was from.

Peter scoffs at it and says (sarcastically) that it was from a “capper-tiller”. No more comment of the blood is made that night.

The next day (the beg of Ch 3) when Graff comes to get Ender, Peter says “You’re in deep poo. They found out what you did to Stilson.”

What happened in between the "capper-tiller" comment and the "poo" comment?

Wouldn’t finding out that your brother murdered someone warrant more than an off-hand, sarcastic remark?

And how did Peter find out and his parents didn’t? Remember, Graff has to tell them what happened (and even then he doesn’t tell them the whole story). Does Peter have some sort of strange technology that we don’t know about?

This seems to me a glaring inconsistency, at best a poorly explained scene.
 
Posted by Quimby2999 (Member # 7044) on :
 
quote:
“You’re in deep poo. They found out what you did to Stilson.”

Wouldn’t finding out that your brother murdered someone warrant more than an off-hand, sarcastic remark?

Well, if he said "what you did" rather than "murdered" he could just be assuming Ender beat the crud out of Stilson rather than actually killed him.
 
Posted by Kamui (Member # 7619) on :
 
I would assume (of course we know what happens when we assume) that peter would be going to the same school as Ender. and that he would have learned about Ender beating stilson when he heard about it at school and connected the blood on enders shoe with the torment Stilson inflicted upon Ender and Stilson's sudden injuries.

I would think that the "Caper-tiller" comment was made to insult Ender rather then be generally sarcastic. I think that Peter was saying that Ender was too soft to fight Stillson and that Ender was to young/small to really fight anyone.

Edit: To include second paragraph

[ March 28, 2005, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Kamui ]
 
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
 
Do we really have to start a brand new thread for every nitpick? Anyway, I really don't think that Peter knew that he killed Stilson. The IF kept that a very tight secret until after the war, just like Bonzo's death. As for how he knew about the fight at all, *shrug* Peter and Ender might have been attending the same school (does it ever say that they're not), in which case Peter might have heard something about it. News spreads fast among kids, after all. The "capper-tiller" comment was probably just to taunt him, or maybe he heard about it later that day from a friend... Peter might have had friends...!
 
Posted by RoyHobbs (Member # 7594) on :
 
If (IF!) Peter goes to the same school as Ender, then I would assume Val does as well. If, as you assert, that Peter "heard about it" (it being the beating) from kids at school, wouldn't it be safe to assume he would have heard about the monitor being taken out as well? But, neither he nor Val had.
 
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
 
I would think that a kid getting the living crap beat out of him would be bigger news than Ender having his monitor removed. I doubt that anyone would care enough to gossip about that.
 
Posted by Suri-cool (Member # 7599) on :
 
Why in my copy of the book it says to the boy at school not stilson.
 
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
 
Peter said whatever would most annoy Ender or most hurt his feelings. He hadn't the slightest concern about being accurate.
 
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
 
'specially since caterpillars don't squish red. Usually its yellowish or greenish... [Razz]
 


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