posted
At the end of Ender's Game, Ender is playing his so called simulation and at one point he can;t go on and we find out in the Shadow books Bean controls these battles.
My question is: Did Ender and Bean really fight ALL of the battles. Command school had plenty of able commanders who must have had some strengths that Ender did not. I wonder if they fought some of the lesser battles alongside Ender. We know Ender fought battles for a long time so I'm assuming he fought more than a hundred (I don't have the book handy right now). What do you guys think? You think Ender and his gang killed the Buggers by themselves?
Posts: 126 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I just finished re(-re-re-re)reading Ender's Game and came up with a similiar - yet totally different - question.
In Ender's Game when Ender is thinking about his commanders at Command School, it says Bean is good with small groups of ships under his command but not overall strategy. It also says Alai is the second best strategist when it comes to overall command.
When challenged by Mazer and asked who could take over if he couldn't do it, Ender answered Alai, not Bean.
Yet, in Ender's Shadow, Bean is the one with the mind second to Ender when it comes to overall command - and everyone else recognizes it. Obviously, it's Bean's book and equally as obvious, Ender's Shadow wasn't even a thought when Ender's Game was written, but still something that makes you go hmmmmmmm.
Posts: 50 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It is clear that this issue is covered in Ender's Shadow, Graff tells Bean that Mazer is deliberately undercutting Ender's confidence in Bean in subtle ways to insure that Bean has as little responsibility as possible so he can keep track of the whole battle and act as Ender's Second.
In the battle where Petra loses it, it is Bean who alerts Ender.
posted
i think that in the shadow series bean is a better commander because he saw how ender did it. in enders game and in battle school he was always watching taking mentle notes. he always did do better with smaller groups though when commanding. he was just a good strategist when it came to the big armies, he never actually commanded the large armies just made the strategy for them.
Posts: 9 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
