This is Dink being Dink – according to him, if everyone thinks the aliens are out to get us, then the military can effectively have control. And who doesn’t want to have control, right? Man, being in charge of everything is just super great. (Sarcasm alert.) This helpfully reminds us that the war (which Ender never really sees) is considered really important – but that no one else has really seen this war either. (With the exception of Mazer.)

This is the message that Rose de Nose gets across to Ender when he joins Salamander Army – and Ender really internalizes it. Even though these are just games, winning comes to be a life-and-death situation. Partially because it really is – there might be aliens coming to attack them. But partially this focus on winning the games is… well, maybe some students are losing their sense of what’s really important.

This is Dink’s diagnosis of why Rose is crazy (and why everyone else is also nuts). The students at the Battle School have elevated competition to being the only thing they care about. But Dink remembers that this is just a game, even though he loves it; and he recognizes that the uncertainty of the game can be a little damaging to these kids’ psyches. Competition can bring out the best of us, but it can also deform the players.