Por que Ender está tão chocado no final?

** * ****. SPOILERS AHEAD ** * ** * *

Ele só foi informado de que ele destruiu os Formics assim que ele ganhou a última batalha.

Graff e Mazer explicam para ele mais adiante no livro:

"Of course we tricked you into it. That's the whole point," said Graff. "It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it. It's the bind we were in. We had to have a commander with so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, understand them and anticipate them. So much compassion that he could win the love of his underlings and work with them like a perfect machine, as perfect as the buggers. But somebody with that much compassion could never be the killer we needed. Could never go into battle willing to win at all costs. If you knew, you couldn't do it. If you were the kind of person who would do it even if you knew, you could never have understood the buggers well enough."

**"And it had to be a child, Ender," said Mazer. "You were faster than me. Better than me. I was too old and cautious. Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart. But you didn't know. We made sure you didn't know. You were reckless and brilliant and young. It's what you were born for."

** Ender grabbed Mazer's uniform and hung onto it, pulling him down so they were face to face. "I didn't want to kill them all. I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm not a killer! You didn't want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it!" He was crying. He was out of control.

Aqui há spoilers!

Ender had no idea what he was doing. He is surprised because he assumed after going to Command School, he would now be leading a fleet against the Formic enemy.

Isso faz parte da grande discussão que está sendo realizada pelos líderes da Escola de Comando.

The book would have had a bit more explanation regarding the idea that Ender really believed he was involved in a game, not a real time simulation that was actually engaged in fighting and destroying the enemy. This is part of the deception that makes it possible for Ender to do what is necessary to completely devastate the enemy. The belief by the Command School leaders is if Ender knew what he was doing, he would hesitate to sacrifice his men AND in the destruction of the enemy.

Durante os Créditos de abertura, havia uma citação de AE Wiggin dizendo basicamente que se você quer derrotar seu inimigo, você deve amá-lo. Eu acho que no ponto em que ender estava fazendo o exame final, ele estava sentindo compaixão e queria assisti-los e estudá-los antes de engajar eles. Além disso, a maior mentira era que Ender e o mundo inteiro estavam sendo informados de que os insetos estavam vindo para uma segunda invasão. O teste final de invadir seu mundo natal deveria ser apenas um cenário. Eu amo tudo Ender e, francamente, entrei neste filme com baixas expectativas e me surpreendi agradavelmente.

Chama-se Enders Game porque ele achava que era apenas isso, um jogo. Ele pensou que era tudo um exercício de treinamento.

Se ele soubesse que era "real", então seria altamente improvável que ele tivesse escolhido as táticas que fez.

Como você se sentiria se fosse dito depois de jogar Halo ou Mass Effect ou qualquer outro jogo de computador que tudo era real? Você estava controlando remotamente um super-soldado que matou centenas de alienígenas.

Ender teve que aprender a entender os Formics para derrotá-los. Ele achou que estava sendo testado.

In real life he would never have wanted to commit xenocide of an entire species he had come to understand as intimately as his own. He wanted to protect earth and humanity, not utterly eradicate an entire alien race. Also in the book he thought he was training to stop the Buggers from launching a third invasion.