Here’s one of the clearest statements of an issue that bothers Ender (and will continue to bother him): that even though he’s competing against the other boys, the school administrators are screwing with him. They make Dragon Army fight earlier and more often than any other team. Ender feels like his competition isn’t just against the other boys – it’s against the whole school.

What does this mean? Anderson tries to tell Imbu that Ender isn’t really scary (at least not to people) because he’s not a killer, just a winner. This seems like a slight cheat since what Ender is winning (and will continue to win) is a competition to the death. It’s like saying of a gladiator that he’s not a killer, he just wins… by killing the other guy. By putting this into terms of winning, Anderson seems to hide the dangerous aspect of competition here – that competition is about war.

After all the torture that Ender endures at Battle School, it's surprising to hear him think this about that place. Sure, being in zero gravity is cool, but being isolated and attacked by bullies is the dictionary definition of <em>not</em> cool. So why does Ender suddenly feel like the Battle School is the place he belongs? Is it just an issue of the physical environment? (After all, Ender is used to the weird gravity of the Battle School, which is pretty different from Earth.) Or is Ender missing something of the social community as well? Does he miss living in a place where people share some feelings and hobby? Is that enough to form a community?