I källan fanns flera skäl för att välja Ender och hans löjtnantar i en sådan ung ålder;
- Endast Ender, som befälhavare, har tillräcklig empati för att förstå de mycket komplexa flygmönster som används av buggarna (formlerna) men tillräcklig rå aggression för att bekämpa dem på deras egna villkor. Observera att de fortfarande var tvungna att lura honom. Hade han visat att han skickade riktiga män till sina dödsfall, skulle han ha böjt sig.
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."
- Endast barn har den nödvändiga hand-eye-koordinationen som krävs för att styra och kontrollera de massade flottorna.
"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."
- De har odlat och valt barn för kampsport i 50-åriga år. Ender kan vara ung men han beskrivs (all allvar) som att vara bokstavligen en av världens största militära sinnen, oavsett hans ålder
"Does it ever seem to you that these boys aren't children? I look at what they do, the way they talk, and they don't seem like little kids." "They're the most brilliant children in the world, each in his own way." "But shouldn't they still act like children? They aren't normal. They act like history. Napoleon and Wellington. Caesar and Brutus."
Varför valde de inte Mazer eller Graff att leda flottan (utöver ovanstående skäl) är att Graff är en general som aldrig har kämpat för en enda rymdstrid och Mazer anses vara en oddball vars små "strejk" tvinga "gjorde ett vanligt lyckligt sista dunkel slag mot Bugger-flottan. Han har aldrig varit fullt betrodd av förvaltningen eftersom han aldrig har kunnat förklara de ansvariga exakt vad som hände. Det är först när Ender anländer som han äntligen möter ett sinne som är lika med hans eget:
"The videos of the Second Invasion, when they were destroying our fleets out in the comet shell." He began to call them up and display the buggers' patterns. "Show me the queen's ship." It was subtle. Ender couldn't see it for a long time. The bugger ships kept moving, all of them. There was no obvious flagship, no apparent nerve center. But gradually, as Mazer played the videos over and over again, Ender began to see the way that all the movements focused on, radiated from a center point. The center point shifted, but it was obvious, after he looked long enough, that the eyes of the fleet, the I of the fleet, the perspective from which all decisions were being made, was one particular ship. He pointed it out. "You see it. I see it. That makes two people out of all of those who have seen this video.
I filmen har de en del glans över det här, bara notera (i intro )
The International Fleet decided that the world's smartest children are the planet's best hope. Raised on war games, their decisions are intuitive, decisive, fearless. I am one of those recruits.