TIMESavior of

Humanity?Looking

Back at the man, the

legend, and who he

really was and his

impact on our world 50 years later. -by Garrett Peterson

December 1, 2156

1

Savior of Humanity?Who is Ender Wiggin

Born in the year 2106, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin was the 3 child born into the Wiggin Family. He is the youngest child of the family of three; he has a brother, Peter, and a sister, Valentine. Both, like him, in their early lives showed extreme intelligence and because of this, they became potential candidates for battle school. However, neither of them were selected because of their personality traits (Valentine was deemed to caring and Peter was to violent and wasn’t likeable). Growing up, Ender had much

difficulty, especially with his brother Peter, who continually harassed him and beat him. However, these experiences, while painful and terrible, allowed him to grow, and helped him to get to where he got. He was the perfect combination between his brother and his sister, caring, yet cunning and not afraid to defend himself and others. These character traits would go on to serve him well in Battle School.

2

Con’t: Who is Ender Wiggin

In around 2115, Ender was accepted to Battle School, which is a combat training school for children as young as six to develop their strategic and tactical combat skills. At ten, Ender show great promise and was selected to become commander of Dragon Army. From that experience of leading his troops against all other trainee armies, he proves himself to Major Graff and others at the Interation Fleet. He

then, at the age of 10, was sent to Command School so that he could complete his training. He then, after completing his training, he took the fight to the buggers, and his strategic thinking and leadership helped humanity to win the last Bugger War. He, after accepting a position as Governor of one of the worlds that was annexed by Earth after the war. After a while, he went off with his sister, Valentine, on a ship and hasn’t been heard from for many years.

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Looking Back, how did Ender Wiggin Change our world?

While Ender Wiggin may have won victory in the last Bugger War, there have been consequences because of that victory. It, for one, led to political instability on Earth for at time with the rise of our dear former leader Peter Wiggin. This was due to the fact that political tension was very high even during the war, but everyone put that aside to fight the buggers, and once the war ended, a civil war ensuded. Moreover, another consequence has been the widespread, persistent fact that the International Fleet and Graff, thanks to the his

Court Marshal trial (which he was found not guilt), caused Ender Wiggin to be label as a killer, which thanks to whistleblower testimony years later, we know is not true. However, this had no stick due to the fact that Ender Wiggin became the “Speaker of the Dead”, and helped to found this new religion. Because of him, our world did change in very radical ways, and his impact from a historical prospective is undeniable.

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145th Anniversary of the Divergent Series, would they have see Ender Wiggin as their “New Dystopian Hero”?

Looking back at the early 21st century and this still highly acclaimed novel in addition to dystopian literature, that book and genre became extremely popular, especially among the Millennial Generation. While it had exist prior, it was much different than works such as 1984 written in 1949 by George Orwell. It was very much related to them, and individuals in these movies were around the same age as they were at the time, which would be around 18. This gave it that more relatability to them. Moreover, if this world that we have lived in the last, especially 56 years, would have been written as

a story, it would’ve fallen into this genre because they would have seen it as just like Divergent. Furthermore, they even may have named him, at the time, the “New Dystopian Hero”. The reason for this is simply because, for one, he is the underdog fighting a insurmountable foe, at first being the buggers, and then his own government and society. He goes against the establishment so to say, and in the end stands up for what he believes in, and what he knows to be right, and inspires others to do the same to a certain extent. Secondly, he thinks about how his actions effect everyone else, and that is what helped him to make logical and ethical decision. Those two things alone would have definitely put him over the top.

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Speaking of Dystopia, If we could only warn the past.

While on the subject of Dystopia, our past world to those of the Millennial Generation would have seemed Dystopic in nature to them, and there is no question of that. But, if we were able to go back and warn them of certain things, what would they be. Well, one would have been what President Ronald Regan said about 140 years ago, “Trust but Verify”. In our case, it was with Ender Wiggin. He made one mistake in the course of our history, and that was him being naïve. He trusted people who claimed to be their to help him when he could have done something to verify what they had said. In addition, this has

been something that has gone across our society for decades, and part of it lies with the Millennial’s. They were, not all but for the most part, naiive. They believed most of what they had been told, whether on the ancient social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the network news stations at the time, and even the Government without confirming what they had been told. This is perhaps the biggest warning that, if given the opportunity to go back and warned them that they must not ever believe what they are told, but to verify it , or they will be in the pickle we still find ourselves in today.

All images were retrieved off of the database of Google Image Search.