The “fear” that Ender feels is because Bernard is gathering a gang of bullies while Ender has no one, not even Valentine, to protect him. Ender has often stood outside the mainstream (check Chapter 4, where Ender thinks about being like the other boys). But here that isolation comes with an additional cost: it’s not just about being lonely, but being vulnerable. Here’s an unexpected negative side effect to isolation – Ender has no friends to talk to, sure, but he also has no friends to watch his back.

Battle School has some video games in which the players compete against the computer, but most of the games – especially the really important ones – have the students compete against each other. Ender learns from watching the computer and from watching the students, but he only starts making a name for himself when he finally plays against the older boys.

This is Mick’s terrible advice to Ender. But there’s one thing that Mick gets right, which is that at the Battle School, you need to have a team – you need some friends to watch your back. (This is shown to be the case especially in the zero-gravity battleroom, where you need to have someone to push off against.) After all the talk about isolation and how it will help Ender be creative, it’s useful to hear someone forcefully make the opposite argument: Ender will need people.