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			{{Short description\|Fictional character from Orson Scott Card's 1985 sci-fi novel Ender's Game and its sequels}}
	'''Andrew "Ender" Wiggin''' is a ] from ]'s ] story '']'' and its sequels ('']'', '']'', '']''), as well as in the first part of the spin-off series, '']''. The book series itself is an expansion of Card's earlier ] "Ender's Game."
			{{one source\|date=January 2021}}

			{{Infobox character
	The book is set in a ] where Mankind needs to defend itself against an alien race of insect-like creatures.
			\| series = ]
			\| name = Ender Wiggin
			\| image =
			\| caption = Ender Wiggin, as portrayed by Asa Butterfield in the film '']''.
			\| first = "]"
			\| last = '']''
			\| creator = ]
			\| portrayer = ] (film)<br>] (audio play)
			\| voice = ] (film, Japanese dub)
			\| alias = Speaker for the Dead, Ender the Xenocide
			\| occupation = Soldier, Speaker for the Dead
			\| family = ] (father)<br />] (mother)<br />] (brother)<br />] (sister)
			\| spouse = ]
			\| children = Miro Ribeira (step-son)<br />Ela Ribeira (step-daughter)<br />Quim Ribeira (step-son)<br />Olhado Ribeira (step-son)<br />Quara Ribeira (step-daughter)<br />Grego Ribeira (step-son)
			}}

			'''Andrew "Ender" Wiggin''' is a fictional character from ]'s 1985 ] novel '']'' and its sequels ('']'', '']'', '']'', '']''), as well as in the first part of the spin-off series, '']''. The book series itself is an expansion of Card's 1977 ] "]."<ref>{{cite web \|last1=Card \|first1=Orson \|title=The Library of Orson Scott Card \|url=http://www.hatrack.com/osc/index.shtml \|website=Hatrack River- Official Website of Orson Scott Card \|publisher=Hatrack River Enterprises Inc \|access-date=13 September 2020}}</ref>
	It offers a striking set of allegorical insights into matters such as man's tolerance for violence towards races considered as 'alien', the chilling effects of military indoctrination, and the ] of warfare in a simulated 'computer-game battlefield'.

			In the 2013 ], Ender is portrayed by ].
	{{spoiler}}
	=='']''==

			==''Ender's Game''==
	Ender was the youngest of three children at a time of a strict two-child policy, his existence called for by a program aiming to produce commanders for humanity's war against the ], or Buggers. The generals had noted the exceptional but unusable abilities of his older siblings, ] (who was said to be too aggressive and impossible to cooperate with) and ] (who was too kind and willing to compromise). Ender was born astonishingly talented and had a balance of Peter's ruthlessness and Valentine's empathy.
			In the first book of the series, '']'', Ender is the youngest and most well-rounded of three children; his parents received permission to have a third child, which is rare because of the state's strict ]. His existence was called for by a program aiming at producing commanders for humanity's war against the ], or "Buggers."

			Ender is bullied at school for being a "Third," particularly by a bully named Stilson. After Stilson engages him in a fight, Ender beats him up so severely that the boy is hospitalized and subsequently dies, although Ender does not learn of this until much later. Ender is tormented by his brother ], a ], who resents the attention Ender gets from the military. His sister, ], is his protector and only friend. When he is accepted into Battle School, he is brokenhearted at leaving her, but she assures him that they will always have a bond.
	At the age of six he was sent to the ] ] that trained similar ]. He received the same education as other children, but the military had recognized him as their best bet for a supreme commander and often bent or broke its own rules to make sure Ender had not only the necessary skills, but also the right conditioning and character traits for their ends. Specifically, Ender was conditioned to be entirely self-sufficient and reliant on no one from a very young age. To this end, Ender was exposed to great emotional and mental anguish and even physical danger, with the administration forbidden from taking action on behalf of his safety in order to guarantee that Ender would never look to anybody else for help.

			Battle School is an ]-orbiting space station that trains and evaluates military ], with the goal of finding the leader they need to win the war. Ender is exposed to significant emotional anguish and physical danger, but it soon becomes clear that he is an exceptional individual, even among the elite students. Ender excels in academics, his main interest being a team-based three-dimensional ] competition in the ] Battle Room. He becomes a masterly player and strategist, and is eventually assigned command of Dragon Army. He molds this group of unwanted students into the most successful army in the history of the school.
	Ender breezed through academics, his main interest being the centerpiece of the school: a team-based three-dimensional ] in ]. He became first a masterful player, then a masterful strategist, and was eventually assigned command of ], which became the most successful army in the history of the school. Despite the manipulation from the school's brass, he gathered a close-knit group of friends and acquaintances (referred to in later books as his "jeesh" or personal coterie): namely, ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].

			Ender's unprecedented success engenders his fellow commanders' jealousy, who subject him to torment. The lead bully, Bonzo, attempts to kill Ender in the shower, but fails. Ender kills Bonzo without knowing it.
	After graduating several years ahead of time, he was transferred to ] on ]. There he trained in interstellar fleet combat with photorealistic ] simulators. After Ender mastered it in ordinary conditions, the game was changed from one with direct control of ships to one where he relayed commands to others—his friends and associates from Battle School—and by pitting Ender against the seasoned commander, and previous savior of humanity, ].

			With time running short, he is transferred directly to Command School on Eros, bypassing other schools Battle School graduates would normally attend. There he trains in interstellar fleet combat with ] simulators. After Ender masters the game, it changes from one with direct control of ships to one where he relays commands to his classmates from Battle School: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. Under the tutelage of Mazer Rackham, the legendary savior of humanity in the previous war, Ender and his trusted companions take on a grueling series of ever more difficult battle simulations and emerge victorious every time.
	With his trusted companions he took on a grueling series of simulated battles of constantly increasing difficulty, and though they won every battle, the mounting pressure pushed Ender to the edge of his sanity and spirit. The final battle was against apparently impossible odds above a simulated planet, and in response to this ridiculous scenario, Ender finally snapped. He destroyed the planet in the hopes of flunking out for savagery and excessive risk-taking. Not until after the pandemonium that followed was he told that it was not actually a simulation: Instead of taking on Rackham in what they had thought was a long series of simulations, he and his jeesh had been issuing ] orders to ships dispatched at relativistic speeds decades before. The final battle in fact consisted of the destruction of the Bugger home world and the apparent eradication of the Bugger species, resulting in Ender's rise to world adulation. Ender, however, reacted with guilt and anguish for having unknowingly committed xenocide, as well as with anger for allowing the military to use him as a tool.

			The final battle takes place above a planet against an enemy with an overwhelming numerical superiority. Ender perceives this as an unfair test and resolves to break the rules. Worn down almost the point of breaking, he thinks this will convince his instructors that he is not the person to lead the Fleet into battle against the Formics. Instead of fighting a hopeless battle against the enemy, Ender orders his squadron leaders to conduct a series of seemingly purposeless skirmishes. The enemy does not realize until too late that Ender's fleet is gradually drawing closer to the planet. When Ender's surviving ships are close enough, he sends them to destroy the planet itself using Doctor Device, a weapon that destroys matter, but only if it is concentrated enough. Only a few ships manage to get close enough, but they destroy the planet. Afterwards, he is told that it was not a simulation; he and his classmates had been unknowingly issuing orders to real ships in real battles. The last battle destroyed the Bugger homeworld and eradicated the Bugger species. Ender is hailed as a hero, but he is stricken with guilt for having unknowingly committed ].
	In the wake of the war, Ender's sister Valentine informed him that he would never be allowed to return to Earth due to her own actions in an effort to protect him from his brother, who was becoming a major political force on Earth. He instead journeyed with her to one of the colonies being established on the now-abandoned Bugger worlds. Once there, he discovered a fertilized ] of a Queen Egg from the Buggers, hidden in a place that the Buggers knew he would find, and capable of continuing the race. Through rudimentary telepathic communication with the Queen, he learned what he had begun to suspect before the war's end: that the entire conflict had been a mistake, the result of lack of communication between the two warring species. He further learned from the Queen that the Buggers had felt terrible regret for having mistakenly fought humans and that they had forgiven Ender for their own deaths even as he orchestrated their destruction. Empathizing with the Queen, Ender promised to find her a home to grow where the Buggers would not be annihilated by the humans.

			His subordinates are returned to Earth to their various home countries, but Ender is too potent for any one country to have. War would break out over him. So, Peter, who is becoming a major political force on Earth, brokers a deal in which his brother is sent into permanent exile. Ender journeys with his sister Valentine to one of the colonies being established on the now-abandoned Bugger worlds. Once there, he discovers a fertilized ] of a Queen Bugger, hidden in a place that the Buggers designed for him to discover by modeling it to resemble part of an interactive computer game he played during his years in Battle School, which they found out during his dreams of them in Command School. The pupal Queen is capable of restoring the Bugger species. Through rudimentary ] communication with the Queen, he learns that the entire conflict had been a mistake arising from the inability of the two species to establish communication with each other. He also learns from the Queen that the Buggers regretted having mistakenly fought humans and forgive Ender for destroying their world. Ender promises to find the Queen a home to reestablish her people in safety.
	To foster this eventual rebirth, Ender wrote a book called "The Hive Queen" which told the story of the war and life from the Formic perspective. Ender used the pseudonym "Speaker for the Dead" to author it. When his brother Peter, who had advanced to the position of Hegemon of Earth, contacted him, having realized Ender was the writer, the Speaker for the Dead wrote a second novel, "The Hegemon", a human parallel to the first book. The two were combined by popular culture, eventually becoming one of the founding texts of a quasi-religious practice on the colonies of Earth. After writing the book, Ender and Valentine departed in a ship in an attempt to find a planet to allow the Queen to grow.

			Ender writes a book anonymously called '']'', which tells the story of the war from the Formic perspective and starts to change public opinion of him. Peter, who has become the Hegemon, the head of the world government on Earth, recognizes Ender as the author and asks him to write a second work, about him. Ender authors ''The Hegemon''. The two books become very influential, and eventually they are always published together. Ender and Valentine begin to search for a planet where the Queen can restore her race.
	=='']''==
	When Ender shows up in Speaker for the Dead, some 3000 years after the events of Ender's game he is departing a planet where his sister Valentine has found a husband. He has also acquired an integrated computer which he usually uses to communicate to a powerful artificial intelligence known as ], whose existence is not made known to anyone. He is living as an anonymous Speaker for the Dead, keeping his identity as the Ender who orchestrated the victory over the Formics a secret; his self-written book worked well enough that most of humanity now considers Ender to have been a heartless monster who destroyed a race for no reason.

			==''Speaker for the Dead''==
	He departs for the planet Eros,where a request has been sent out for a speaker to speak on behalf of a researcher who died from contact with the planet's indigenous species. By the time he arrives at the planet 22 years later (relativity having aged him only slightly) he finds that the original call has been rescinded. However two other calls have gone out for more recent deaths.
			'']'' begins 3000 years after the events of ''Ender's Game'' and the Xenocide. Ender is departing from the planet where Valentine has found a husband. He has acquired an integrated computer by which he communicates with a powerful sentient program known as ]. She reveals herself only to Ender. He has taken the role of Speaker for the Dead, keeping his real identity a secret. A Speaker for the Dead volunteers to try to make sense of the life of a deceased individual for the bereaved. Thanks to his portrayal of himself in his books, ''The Hive Queen'' and ''The Hegemon'', Ender is despised as a xenocide: the killer of an entire intelligent species.
	Ender discovers that both calls originated from the same 'family'; the first from the Novinha's daughter ] requesting someone speak for the death of Novinha's husband Marcos, and the second from her eldest son ], who has asked for a speaker for the researcher Libo, who died similarly to the older xenobiologist.

			Ender departs for the planet Lusitania, where a request has been made to speak on behalf of a researcher who has died from contact with the planet's indigenous species, the ]. When he arrives at the planet 22 years later (relativity having aged him less than two weeks), he finds that the original call for a Speaker has been rescinded. Two other requests, however, have been made to speak for more recent deaths. Ender discovers that both calls originated from the same family; the first from ]'s daughter ], requesting someone speak for the death of Novinha's husband ], and the second from Novinha's eldest son ], who has asked for a speaker for the researcher ].
	Ender begins to investigate the Marcos figure first and so has frequent contact with Novinha's family. His honest and open approach endears him to the elder children as a father figure; it's discovered very easily that Marcos was very abusive to his wife and children. With the help of Jane and his connection with the children, he discovers multiple secrets that have been hidden away for years. However, in the process of speaking with the local religious group, the Children of the Mind monastic order on the planet, he tires of Jane's semi-sarcastic commentary and turns off his connection to her, something he has never done before. Jane reacts and sends incriminating reports to the intergalactic authorities who order the arrest of Miro and Ouanda, the researchers and lovers who have been investigating the piggies most recently, and cancel the colony's charter, something which forces the colonists to eventually rely on Ender for guidance.

			Ender begins to investigate Marcos and has frequent contact with Novinha's family. His approach endears him to most of the children as a father figure. He discovers that Marcos was abusive to his wife. While in dialogue with the Children of the Mind, the planet's religious monastic order, he is annoyed by Jane's commentary and turns off his connection to her. Jane, without consulting Ender, sends incriminating reports to the interstellar authorities, who order the arrest of Miro and Ouanda, the researchers who have been investigating the ]. The colony's charter is canceled, and the colonists are forced to rely on Ender for guidance.
	Ender meanwhile has been receiving pressure from the Queen's egg to allow her to settle on this world because she has been in telepathic contact with another race. Ender assumes this race is the piggies, although the bipedal life forms that are the primary contacts of Miro and Ouanda seem very simple and not telepathic at all. After the sanctions are put in place, he gets Miro and Ouanda to allow him to visit the piggies, who have been asking to meet him, the 'original Speaker' (a claim Miro and Ouanda have been dismissing as a misunderstanding). Ender destroys many of the assumptions of the researchers when he not only admits to being the original Speaker, but has the piggies demonstrate that the trees they grow from the corpses of those who have been ritually killed are in fact their second stage of life which allows them to reproduce. The ritual killings that were done of the two xenobiologists were misunderstandings by the piggies, who thought the humans reproduced in a similar fashion.

			Meanwhile, Ender has been receiving pressure from the Hive-Queen's pupa to allow her to settle on this world because she has been in telepathic contact with another race. Ender assumes this race is the piggies, although they seem simple and not telepathic. After the sanctions are put in place, he gets Miro and Ouanda to allow him to visit the piggies, who have been asking to meet him, the "original Speaker". Ender admits to being the original Speaker. The piggies demonstrate that the trees they grow from the corpses of those who have been ritually killed is their reproductive stage. The ritual killings of the two xenologers were misunderstandings; the piggies were under the false impression that humans reproduced in a fashion similar to themselves.
	After those revelations, he proceeds to do his Speaking for Marcos, where he reveals many secrets hitherto buried mostly by Novinha. Foremost among them is that Marcos was incapable of having children, and Novinha's children are all in fact the children of Libo. This is devastating news to Miro, because it means his lover Ouanda is in fact his half-sister. It is around this time that the sanctions from the Intergalactic Congress are learned of. Miro attempts to escape by climbing over the quarantine fence and does massive neurological damage to himself. Ender recommends to the colony that they declare themselves in rebellion, and reestablishes contact with Jane who masks their ansible signal.

			Ender "speaks" for Marcos and reveals many secrets, mostly Novinha's. Foremost among them is that Marcos was incapable of having children, and Novinha's children are offspring of Libo. This means that Miro's girlfriend Ouanda is his ]. Ender recommends that the colony declare itself in rebellion to sanctions from the Intergalactic Congress. He re-establishes contact with Jane, who masks their ansible signal.
	By the end of the book, he has entered into the beginnings of a relationship with Novinha and his sister Valentine has agreed to come to the colony. He has also planted the Queen's Egg on a far side of the planet.

			He enters into a relationship with Novinha. Valentine agrees to travel to the colony. On the far side of the planet, he has discovered a site reminiscent of a dream he had in ''Ender's Game''. With her guidance, he plants the Hive-Queen's pupa in preparation for the rebirth of the Formics.
	=='']''==
	During Xenocide, Ender is looked to as an unofficial leader for the multiple efforts being undertaken in the rebel Colony of Lusitania. He is helping as much as he can with Novinha's work in protecting humans from the descolada virus. The Descolada is fatal to humans, but is essential for the piggies' life and reproduction. The Formics have an immune system that is advanced enough to protect them, and the humans have been using anti-viral dietary supplements, but both defenses are starting to fade in effectiveness in the face of the virus' rampant mutations. Ender is also attempting to keep the peace on planet between the three species where resentment is brewing. The humans are starting to resent the piggies for being the reason they can't just kill the descolada outright. The existence of the new Formic colony is not general knowledge, but Ender knows that their appearance and their non-human way of reasoning would cause friction with the humans. Particularly troublesome are Novinha's two youngest children; Grego, who is something of a rabble-rouser among the humans, and Quara, who sees the virus as sentient and is bringing up problematic objections to the research her mother and sister are doing. The piggies and the Formics are also worried about the approaching human fleet, which is going to destroy the planet due to the threat of the descolada virus if unleashed on humanity.

			==''Xenocide''==
	Eventually research ordered by the government on another planet, Path, leads a young genius girl to deduce the existence of Jane, who is inextricably tied to the ansible system. Jane reveals herself to the girl in an effort to prevent her from informing the authorities by telling her that the OCD her people suffer from was governmentally ordered and orchestrated, a plea which the girl's father and handmaiden agree with. However, the report to the authorities is dispatched regardless and the government enacts a plan to temporarily deactivate the ansible network to purge Jane from the system.
			During the events of '']'', Ender is looked to as an unofficial leader by the rebel colony of Lusitania. He is helping Novinha protect humans from the ]. Descolada is fatal to humans, but is essential for the piggies' life and reproduction. The Formics have an immune system that is advanced enough to protect them, and the humans have been using anti-viral dietary supplements, but both defenses are starting to fade in the face of the virus' mutations. Ender is also attempting to keep the peace on planet between the three species. The humans resent the piggies for being the reason they can't kill the descolada virus outright. The existence of the new Formic colony is not general knowledge, but Ender knows that their appearance and their non-human way of reasoning would cause friction with the humans. Novinha's youngest children Grego, a rabble-rouser among the humans, and Quara, who sees the virus as sentient and is bringing up objections to the research her mother and sister are doing, are troublesome. The piggies and the Formics are worried about the approaching human fleet, which may destroy the planet if the descolada virus is unleashed on humanity.
	The father agrees to help with the Descolada problem regardless of his daughter's actions, in exchange for a cure for the pervasive OCD that plagues them. The Lusitanian researchers agree, but though a cure for both is designed, it proves impossible to synthesize; they can't cure the OCD without removing the genius as well, and the counter for the descolada simply won't form. Meanwhile, putting together facts about Jane's origins, the ansible, and ] they deduce that Jane has the power to take any object she knows about in great detail and pull it outside the known universe, an area where conscious thought has a lot more power than anything else.

			Research ordered by the government on another planet, Path, leads a young genius, ], to deduce the existence of Jane, who is tied to the ] system. Jane reveals herself to Qing-jao in an effort to prevent her from informing the authorities by telling her that the ] her people suffer from was governmentally orchestrated. However, the report to the authorities is still dispatched and the government enacts a plan to temporarily deactivate the ansible network to purge Jane from the system.
	Ender goes on the first test flight because Jane's existence was a direct result of his time at the Battle School, where the buggers established a connection with him via a computer simulation game, therefore Jane is most likely to be able to keep Ender's form in her mind. Since Ender has all but passed Jane off to Miro at this point, due to the previous misunderstanding in Speaker, he must go as well. Ela goes because she is the only one with enough knowledge to produce the needed viruses. The test flight occurs with unexpected side-effects. Ela produces the new viruses, but Miro also gives himself a new body, undamaged unlike his old one. Ender, however, inadvertently creates copies of his brother and sister from his memories. They are more based on those memories than reality, therefore Valentine is very soft and loving, and Peter is almost pure evil and malice. Horrified at what he has created, Ender removes himself from further efforts, as they will all need to involve the instantaneous travel Jane can do by moving things outside and Ender will not risk creating more things like his pseudo-siblings.
			Qing-jao's father agrees to help with the descolada problem regardless of his daughter's actions, in exchange for a cure for the OCD that plagues them. The Lusitanian researchers agree, but though a cure is designed, it proves impossible to synthesize; they can't cure the OCD without removing the genius as well, and the counter for the descolada won't be created. Meanwhile, they deduce that Jane has the power to pull any object she knows about in great detail outside the known universe, where conscious thought has physical power.

			Ender goes on the first test flight, because Jane's existence was a direct result of his time at the Battle School; therefore, Jane is most likely to be able to keep Ender's form in her mind. Since Ender has passed Jane off to Miro due to the previous misunderstanding in '']'', Miro must go as well. Ela goes because she is the only one with enough knowledge to produce the needed viruses. The test flight occurs with unexpected side effects. Ela produces the new viruses, but Miro also gives himself a new undamaged body. Ender inadvertently creates copies of his brother and sister from his memories. They are more based on those memories than reality; therefore, Valentine is very soft and loving, and Peter is purely evil. Horrified, Ender removes himself from further efforts so as to not risk creating more things like his pseudo-siblings.
	=='']''==

	In Children of the Mind, Ender is having problems with Novinha relating from the death of Quim. Quim was a child of hers who became a missionary to the piggies. He was killed by radical elements that became reactionary when the humans were trying to research a way to cure the descolada. Novinha blames Ender for her son's death and enters the Children of the Mind monastic order. Ender eventually follows her, but begins to die shortly thereafter. It is discovered that his ''aiúa'', something similar to his 'life force' is now split three ways: one piece inside of him, one in the Peter-clone, and one in the Valentine-clone. Since the two others are more active, being on missions trying to stop the destructive fleet and find the origin of the descolada respectively, Ender is suffering, taking less of his life energy and therefore, wasting away. Eventually Ender succumbs; he places his "self" into Peter in order to (1) get rid of the guilt of xenocide and (2) because he unconciously wanted to have a new life. Similarly, Valentine (the clone, not the original) gives up her life-force in order to allow Jane to occupy her body.
			==''Children of the Mind''==
			'']'' begins where '']'' left off. Ender's story revolves around his "pseudo-offspring" Peter and young Val. Ender's life force is now split between three different people. Throughout the book, Ender has a difficult time maintaining a force strong enough for all three people to live. The maximum number of people Ender can keep alive and healthy at any given time is two. In the beginning young Val suffers the most, because Ender is the least interested in her mission, until it is revealed that she, along with Miro and ], are looking for the home planet of the ]. Peter never has to compete for Ender's life force because Ender is interested in Peter's mission to prevent the Lusitania fleet from using the Molecular Disruption Device on ]. When Ender is fully invested in Peter and young Val, Ender himself begins to deteriorate. This causes Ender to collapse while working in the monastery garden, falling in and out of consciousness for the remainder of the book until his death. Ender's physical manifestation is gone, but his life force continues through Peter (young Val gives up her physical manifestation for Jane and her life force continues through Peter as well).

			==''Ender in Exile''==
			A book that chronicles the lost years between '']'' and '']'', '']'' tells of Ender's initial set-off from Eros, the long journey to the first colony, Shakespeare, as well as his trip to the colony of Ganges. The court-martial of ] is expanded upon; some light is shed on Graff's life after he was made Minister of Colonization, as well as ]'s travels after the Formic War. After defeating the Formics, Ender remains on Eros.

			Throughout the voyage to Shakespeare, Admiral Morgan attempts to usurp Ender's lawful position as Governor of Shakespeare. Dorabella seduces Admiral Morgan and tries to use her daughter, Alessandra, to seduce Ender, hoping that, through her own marriage to Morgan and Alessandra's to Ender, Morgan can rule Shakespeare using Ender as a puppet.

			Upon arrival at Shakespeare, Ender easily crushes Morgan's attempted coup, with help from Hyrum Graff back on Earth. Ender liberates Alessandra from her mother. After two years as governor, and after completing ''The Hive Queen'' and ''The Hegemon'', Ender convinces Valentine to move on.

			Ender's first stop, at the request of Hyrum Graff, is the Hindu colony of Ganges, which is governed by ], a former Battle School student who caused an uprising in India before she was subdued and exiled by Peter Wiggin's Hegemony. Once there, Ender agrees to help Virlomi quell an uprising by a group called the Natives of Ganges, led by a young man named ], who is under the delusion that he is the son of ]. They have adopted "The Hive Queen" as a rallying cry, and have begun to belittle the name of Ender Wiggin, coining the phrase "Ender the Xenocide".

			Ender and Randall engage in physical combat, which leaves Ender near death. Ender reveals Randall's true parentage (two of Ender's old friends and squadron commanders, ] and ]), after which Randall renounces his secret name, Achilles, and renames himself Arkanian Delphiki. Ender reunites Randall and his mother by way of the ansible.

			==References==
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Latest revision as of 02:53, 30 October 2024

Fictional character from Orson Scott Card's 1985 sci-fi novel Ender's Game and its sequels

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Fictional character

Ender Wiggin
Ender's Game character
First appearance	"Ender's Game"
Last appearance	Ender in Exile
Created by	Orson Scott Card
Portrayed by	Asa Butterfield (film) Kirby Heyborne (audio play)
Voiced by	Ryōta Ōsaka (film, Japanese dub)
In-universe information
Alias	Speaker for the Dead, Ender the Xenocide
Occupation	Soldier, Speaker for the Dead
Family	John Paul Wiggin (father) Theresa Wiggin (mother) Peter Wiggin (brother) Valentine Wiggin (sister)
Spouse	Novinha Ribeira
Children	Miro Ribeira (step-son) Ela Ribeira (step-daughter) Quim Ribeira (step-son) Olhado Ribeira (step-son) Quara Ribeira (step-daughter) Grego Ribeira (step-son)

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a fictional character from Orson Scott Card's 1985 science fiction novel Ender's Game and its sequels (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender in Exile), as well as in the first part of the spin-off series, Ender's Shadow. The book series itself is an expansion of Card's 1977 short story "Ender's Game."

In the 2013 film adaptation of Ender's Game, Ender is portrayed by Asa Butterfield.

Ender's Game

In the first book of the series, Ender's Game, Ender is the youngest and most well-rounded of three children; his parents received permission to have a third child, which is rare because of the state's strict two-child policy. His existence was called for by a program aiming at producing commanders for humanity's war against the Formics, or "Buggers."

Ender is bullied at school for being a "Third," particularly by a bully named Stilson. After Stilson engages him in a fight, Ender beats him up so severely that the boy is hospitalized and subsequently dies, although Ender does not learn of this until much later. Ender is tormented by his brother Peter, a sadist, who resents the attention Ender gets from the military. His sister, Valentine, is his protector and only friend. When he is accepted into Battle School, he is brokenhearted at leaving her, but she assures him that they will always have a bond.

Battle School is an Earth-orbiting space station that trains and evaluates military child prodigies, with the goal of finding the leader they need to win the war. Ender is exposed to significant emotional anguish and physical danger, but it soon becomes clear that he is an exceptional individual, even among the elite students. Ender excels in academics, his main interest being a team-based three-dimensional laser tag competition in the zero-g Battle Room. He becomes a masterly player and strategist, and is eventually assigned command of Dragon Army. He molds this group of unwanted students into the most successful army in the history of the school.

Ender's unprecedented success engenders his fellow commanders' jealousy, who subject him to torment. The lead bully, Bonzo, attempts to kill Ender in the shower, but fails. Ender kills Bonzo without knowing it.

With time running short, he is transferred directly to Command School on Eros, bypassing other schools Battle School graduates would normally attend. There he trains in interstellar fleet combat with holographic simulators. After Ender masters the game, it changes from one with direct control of ships to one where he relays commands to his classmates from Battle School: Julian "Bean" Delphiki, Alai, Shen, Petra Arkanian, Dink Meeker, Crazy Tom, Hot Soup, Fly Molo, Vlad, Dumper, and Carn Carby. Under the tutelage of Mazer Rackham, the legendary savior of humanity in the previous war, Ender and his trusted companions take on a grueling series of ever more difficult battle simulations and emerge victorious every time.

The final battle takes place above a planet against an enemy with an overwhelming numerical superiority. Ender perceives this as an unfair test and resolves to break the rules. Worn down almost the point of breaking, he thinks this will convince his instructors that he is not the person to lead the Fleet into battle against the Formics. Instead of fighting a hopeless battle against the enemy, Ender orders his squadron leaders to conduct a series of seemingly purposeless skirmishes. The enemy does not realize until too late that Ender's fleet is gradually drawing closer to the planet. When Ender's surviving ships are close enough, he sends them to destroy the planet itself using Doctor Device, a weapon that destroys matter, but only if it is concentrated enough. Only a few ships manage to get close enough, but they destroy the planet. Afterwards, he is told that it was not a simulation; he and his classmates had been unknowingly issuing orders to real ships in real battles. The last battle destroyed the Bugger homeworld and eradicated the Bugger species. Ender is hailed as a hero, but he is stricken with guilt for having unknowingly committed speciocide.

His subordinates are returned to Earth to their various home countries, but Ender is too potent for any one country to have. War would break out over him. So, Peter, who is becoming a major political force on Earth, brokers a deal in which his brother is sent into permanent exile. Ender journeys with his sister Valentine to one of the colonies being established on the now-abandoned Bugger worlds. Once there, he discovers a fertilized pupa of a Queen Bugger, hidden in a place that the Buggers designed for him to discover by modeling it to resemble part of an interactive computer game he played during his years in Battle School, which they found out during his dreams of them in Command School. The pupal Queen is capable of restoring the Bugger species. Through rudimentary telepathic communication with the Queen, he learns that the entire conflict had been a mistake arising from the inability of the two species to establish communication with each other. He also learns from the Queen that the Buggers regretted having mistakenly fought humans and forgive Ender for destroying their world. Ender promises to find the Queen a home to reestablish her people in safety.

Ender writes a book anonymously called The Hive Queen, which tells the story of the war from the Formic perspective and starts to change public opinion of him. Peter, who has become the Hegemon, the head of the world government on Earth, recognizes Ender as the author and asks him to write a second work, about him. Ender authors The Hegemon. The two books become very influential, and eventually they are always published together. Ender and Valentine begin to search for a planet where the Queen can restore her race.

Speaker for the Dead

Speaker for the Dead begins 3000 years after the events of Ender's Game and the Xenocide. Ender is departing from the planet where Valentine has found a husband. He has acquired an integrated computer by which he communicates with a powerful sentient program known as Jane. She reveals herself only to Ender. He has taken the role of Speaker for the Dead, keeping his real identity a secret. A Speaker for the Dead volunteers to try to make sense of the life of a deceased individual for the bereaved. Thanks to his portrayal of himself in his books, The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, Ender is despised as a xenocide: the killer of an entire intelligent species.

Ender departs for the planet Lusitania, where a request has been made to speak on behalf of a researcher who has died from contact with the planet's indigenous species, the piggies. When he arrives at the planet 22 years later (relativity having aged him less than two weeks), he finds that the original call for a Speaker has been rescinded. Two other requests, however, have been made to speak for more recent deaths. Ender discovers that both calls originated from the same family; the first from Novinha's daughter Ela, requesting someone speak for the death of Novinha's husband Marcos, and the second from Novinha's eldest son Miro, who has asked for a speaker for the researcher Libo.

Ender begins to investigate Marcos and has frequent contact with Novinha's family. His approach endears him to most of the children as a father figure. He discovers that Marcos was abusive to his wife. While in dialogue with the Children of the Mind, the planet's religious monastic order, he is annoyed by Jane's commentary and turns off his connection to her. Jane, without consulting Ender, sends incriminating reports to the interstellar authorities, who order the arrest of Miro and Ouanda, the researchers who have been investigating the piggies. The colony's charter is canceled, and the colonists are forced to rely on Ender for guidance.

Meanwhile, Ender has been receiving pressure from the Hive-Queen's pupa to allow her to settle on this world because she has been in telepathic contact with another race. Ender assumes this race is the piggies, although they seem simple and not telepathic. After the sanctions are put in place, he gets Miro and Ouanda to allow him to visit the piggies, who have been asking to meet him, the "original Speaker". Ender admits to being the original Speaker. The piggies demonstrate that the trees they grow from the corpses of those who have been ritually killed is their reproductive stage. The ritual killings of the two xenologers were misunderstandings; the piggies were under the false impression that humans reproduced in a fashion similar to themselves.

Ender "speaks" for Marcos and reveals many secrets, mostly Novinha's. Foremost among them is that Marcos was incapable of having children, and Novinha's children are offspring of Libo. This means that Miro's girlfriend Ouanda is his half-sister. Ender recommends that the colony declare itself in rebellion to sanctions from the Intergalactic Congress. He re-establishes contact with Jane, who masks their ansible signal.

He enters into a relationship with Novinha. Valentine agrees to travel to the colony. On the far side of the planet, he has discovered a site reminiscent of a dream he had in Ender's Game. With her guidance, he plants the Hive-Queen's pupa in preparation for the rebirth of the Formics.

Xenocide

During the events of Xenocide, Ender is looked to as an unofficial leader by the rebel colony of Lusitania. He is helping Novinha protect humans from the descolada virus. Descolada is fatal to humans, but is essential for the piggies' life and reproduction. The Formics have an immune system that is advanced enough to protect them, and the humans have been using anti-viral dietary supplements, but both defenses are starting to fade in the face of the virus' mutations. Ender is also attempting to keep the peace on planet between the three species. The humans resent the piggies for being the reason they can't kill the descolada virus outright. The existence of the new Formic colony is not general knowledge, but Ender knows that their appearance and their non-human way of reasoning would cause friction with the humans. Novinha's youngest children Grego, a rabble-rouser among the humans, and Quara, who sees the virus as sentient and is bringing up objections to the research her mother and sister are doing, are troublesome. The piggies and the Formics are worried about the approaching human fleet, which may destroy the planet if the descolada virus is unleashed on humanity.

Research ordered by the government on another planet, Path, leads a young genius, Han Qing-jao, to deduce the existence of Jane, who is tied to the ansible system. Jane reveals herself to Qing-jao in an effort to prevent her from informing the authorities by telling her that the OCD her people suffer from was governmentally orchestrated. However, the report to the authorities is still dispatched and the government enacts a plan to temporarily deactivate the ansible network to purge Jane from the system. Qing-jao's father agrees to help with the descolada problem regardless of his daughter's actions, in exchange for a cure for the OCD that plagues them. The Lusitanian researchers agree, but though a cure is designed, it proves impossible to synthesize; they can't cure the OCD without removing the genius as well, and the counter for the descolada won't be created. Meanwhile, they deduce that Jane has the power to pull any object she knows about in great detail outside the known universe, where conscious thought has physical power.

Ender goes on the first test flight, because Jane's existence was a direct result of his time at the Battle School; therefore, Jane is most likely to be able to keep Ender's form in her mind. Since Ender has passed Jane off to Miro due to the previous misunderstanding in Speaker for the Dead, Miro must go as well. Ela goes because she is the only one with enough knowledge to produce the needed viruses. The test flight occurs with unexpected side effects. Ela produces the new viruses, but Miro also gives himself a new undamaged body. Ender inadvertently creates copies of his brother and sister from his memories. They are more based on those memories than reality; therefore, Valentine is very soft and loving, and Peter is purely evil. Horrified, Ender removes himself from further efforts so as to not risk creating more things like his pseudo-siblings.

Children of the Mind

Children of the Mind begins where Xenocide left off. Ender's story revolves around his "pseudo-offspring" Peter and young Val. Ender's life force is now split between three different people. Throughout the book, Ender has a difficult time maintaining a force strong enough for all three people to live. The maximum number of people Ender can keep alive and healthy at any given time is two. In the beginning young Val suffers the most, because Ender is the least interested in her mission, until it is revealed that she, along with Miro and Jane, are looking for the home planet of the descolada virus. Peter never has to compete for Ender's life force because Ender is interested in Peter's mission to prevent the Lusitania fleet from using the Molecular Disruption Device on Lusitania. When Ender is fully invested in Peter and young Val, Ender himself begins to deteriorate. This causes Ender to collapse while working in the monastery garden, falling in and out of consciousness for the remainder of the book until his death. Ender's physical manifestation is gone, but his life force continues through Peter (young Val gives up her physical manifestation for Jane and her life force continues through Peter as well).

Ender in Exile

A book that chronicles the lost years between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, Ender in Exile tells of Ender's initial set-off from Eros, the long journey to the first colony, Shakespeare, as well as his trip to the colony of Ganges. The court-martial of Hyrum Graff is expanded upon; some light is shed on Graff's life after he was made Minister of Colonization, as well as Mazer Rackham's travels after the Formic War. After defeating the Formics, Ender remains on Eros.

Throughout the voyage to Shakespeare, Admiral Morgan attempts to usurp Ender's lawful position as Governor of Shakespeare. Dorabella seduces Admiral Morgan and tries to use her daughter, Alessandra, to seduce Ender, hoping that, through her own marriage to Morgan and Alessandra's to Ender, Morgan can rule Shakespeare using Ender as a puppet.

Upon arrival at Shakespeare, Ender easily crushes Morgan's attempted coup, with help from Hyrum Graff back on Earth. Ender liberates Alessandra from her mother. After two years as governor, and after completing The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, Ender convinces Valentine to move on.

Ender's first stop, at the request of Hyrum Graff, is the Hindu colony of Ganges, which is governed by Virlomi, a former Battle School student who caused an uprising in India before she was subdued and exiled by Peter Wiggin's Hegemony. Once there, Ender agrees to help Virlomi quell an uprising by a group called the Natives of Ganges, led by a young man named Randall Firth, who is under the delusion that he is the son of Achilles de Flandres. They have adopted "The Hive Queen" as a rallying cry, and have begun to belittle the name of Ender Wiggin, coining the phrase "Ender the Xenocide".

Ender and Randall engage in physical combat, which leaves Ender near death. Ender reveals Randall's true parentage (two of Ender's old friends and squadron commanders, Julian 'Bean' Delphiki and Petra Arkanian Delphiki Wiggin), after which Randall renounces his secret name, Achilles, and renames himself Arkanian Delphiki. Ender reunites Randall and his mother by way of the ansible.

References

Card, Orson. "The Library of Orson Scott Card". Hatrack River- Official Website of Orson Scott Card. Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. Retrieved 13 September 2020.

External links

Works by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game series

Books

Ender Series	Ender's Game (1985) Speaker for the Dead (1986) Xenocide (1991) Children of the Mind (1996) Ender in Exile (2008)
Shadow Saga	Ender's Shadow (1999) Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) Shadow Puppets (2002) Shadow of the Giant (2005) Shadows in Flight (2012) The Last Shadow (2021)
Formic Wars	Earth Unaware (2012) Earth Afire (2013) Earth Awakens (2014) The Swarm (2016) The Hive (2019) The Queens (TBA)
First Meetings (2002) A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007) Children of the Fleet (2017)

Short stories

Other media

Comics
Film

Characters

The Tales of Alvin Maker
Books	Seventh Son (1987) Red Prophet (1988) Prentice Alvin (1989) Alvin Journeyman (1995) Heartfire (1998) The Crystal City (2003)
Other media	"Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" (poem, 1989) Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker (comic book, 2006)

The Worthing series
Books	Capitol (1979) Hot Sleep (1979) The Worthing Chronicle (1983) The Worthing Saga (1990)

Other works
Homecoming Saga	The Memory of Earth (1992) The Call of Earth (1992) The Ships of Earth (1994) Earthfall (1995) Earthborn (1995)
Women of Genesis	Sarah (2000) Rebekah (2001) Rachel and Leah (2004) The Wives of Israel (TBA)
Mithermages series	Sandmagic (1979) Stonefather (2008) The Lost Gate (2011) The Gate Thief (2013) Gatefather (2015)
Mayflower series	Lovelock (1994) Rasputin (TBA)
The Empire duet	Empire (2006) Hidden Empire (2009)
The Pathfinder series	Pathfinder (2010) Ruins (2012) Visitors (2014)
Standalone novels	A Planet Called Treason (1979) Songmaster (1980) Hart's Hope (1983) Saints (1984) Wyrms (1987) Treason (1988) The Abyss (1989) Lost Boys (1992) Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996) Treasure Box (1996) Stone Tables (1997) Homebody (1998) Enchantment (1999) Magic Street (2005) Invasive Procedures (2007) Bully and the Beast (TBA)
Story collections	Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories (1980) Cardography (1987) The Folk of the Fringe (1989) Maps in a Mirror (1990) Keeper of Dreams (2008)
Other works	Listen, Mom and Dad (1977) Ainge (1981) Saintspeak (1981) Eye for Eye (1987) Loom (1990) The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) The Dig (1995) NeoHunter (1996) Magic Mirror (1999) Robota (2003) An Open Book (2004) Ultimate Iron Man (2005) Advent Rising (2005) InterGalactic Medicine Show (2005) Hamlet's Father (2011) Firefall (2014)

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