Ender's Game Question: How Did His Friends Get To The ah heck World So Quickly?

[sao123]

I did read the whole book; I didn't read Cliff's Notes, and I re-read the last couple chapters I understand Ender was commanding real ships, fighting real Buggers, the Buggers could grok Ender's mind through the ansible, etc. My one question, which truly was not explained in the book (though maybe in later books it is), was where his friends were during the simulations-that-were-real. It doesn't say if his friends were physically in the ships Ender was commanding, or whether they were sitting in simulators on Eros, but remote-controlling real ships under Ender's command. At one point Ender is told "From this point on, you won't be piloting an individual ship. You'll be commanding a fleet of ships, and you can see what your individual pilots are seeing." These pilots are, presumably, his group of friends, with whom he is communicating, and at least some of whom seem to be piloting individual ships, not sub-fleets of ships. What I have been confused about, and what the book never directly says, is whether his friends were physically in the ships (so when Ender thought he was only observing their actions in their own simulators, he was actually observing their actions in real life), or whether they were sitting in "simulators," remote-controlling real ships unbeknownst to them as well as Ender.

They were essentially making the very top of a battle FLEET command structure, the fleet may have consisted of hundreds or thousands of ships. Each was given the task of commanding, not piloting, from a single ship up to a small group of ships. Each would be assigned a task. Ender would coordinate all of those task groups for the entire battle.

 

[Queasy]

Just think of it as an RTS game. Ender and his classmates were controlling fleets/squadrons like in Homeworld or something. Except the ships were piloted by real people fighting in real battles.

I'm honestly surprised that Ender's Game hasn't actually been turned into an RTS game. Last I heard, a game based on the zero-g wargames in the Battle School was being developed but got canceled.

 

[Adam8281]

Got it - very well explained sao123 and Queasy (and others) - thanks!

 

[Ancalagon44]

In the UK "ah heck" has a specific meaning which makes this thread hilarious. :thumbsup:

Its even worse for South Africans who move to the UK - the word ah heck has no negative connotations, and is in fact used to refer to a male friend. Buggered means you are tired. No, dead serious.

So, many a South African has been surprised to hear that when he says to his new British friends that he is really buggered, he is saying he has just been sodomized.

 

[TheStu]

Its even worse for South Africans who move to the UK - the word ah heck has no negative connotations, and is in fact used to refer to a male friend. Buggered means you are tired. No, dead serious.

So, many a South African has been surprised to hear that when he says to his new British friends that he is really buggered, he is saying he has just been sodomized.

Wait.... ah heck is a term for a male friend in S Africa. So, Me and my ah heck, John went out to the bar last night.

However, ah hecked means to be tired. That strikes me as a little odd.

On topic, until the OP quoted the actual sentence I honestly couldn't remember where it was specifically said, I have read Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow so many times that they are practically one book in my head. I know the Ender and Bean specific bits, but when they merge back together on Eros... ugh, i can't keep it straight.

So I was just thinking, I don't know if they ever actually said it, but that had always been my perspective, that his friends were there on Eros with him, but he was not actually in contact with them. Nothing else made a whole lot of sense. However, now that I know that the book explicitly states it, then well... OP, dude, you kind of walked right into that one.

 

[angminas]

Spoiler thread title imo.

Ender's Game was amazing, but I never understood how people thought Speaker was anywhere near as good. I wrote a short bit of dialog between Ender and Mazer once where Mazer explained that putting Ender and his crew in unfair, impossible situations was the only way to prepare them for what lay ahead. Need to find that.

 

[jonks]

Let's be thankful for small favors, that the movie has been held up long enough so that Jake Lloyd can't destroy another sci-fi series.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

I'd find it hard to get past the word ah heck used so liberally without s******ing, and that would remind me what a judgemental douche the author is, and that would kill the enjoyment for me.

Edit:Why is s******ing censored?

Edit2: sni*ggering ****** s******

Edit3:LOL thats quite funny.

It's worth a read, even if you smirk at the buggers being the aliens, it's been quite a while since I read any of them, but the aliens are really called the Formics.