Ender's Squadron Leaders

[Person122]

While researching for Orson Scott Card wiki, I stumbled upon this paragraph in Ender's Game:

Mazer explained. He wasn't going to control ships anymore. "You've reached the next phase of your training. You have experience in every level of strategy, but now it's time for you to concentrate on commanding an entire fleet. As you worked with toon leaders in Battle School, so now you will work with squadron leaders. You have been assigned three dozen such leaders to train. You must teach them intelligent tactics; you must learn their strengths and limitations; you must make them into a whole."

For a moment I was stunned, I thought that Ender had 11 squadron leaders he train, his Jeesh. Were there even more unamed people who were also Ender's squadron leaders?

[locke]

probably, but that's too many people to remember and keep track of for an author. especially if most of them are just background characters. It makes sense, merely a dozen squadron commanders for such a large operation would be quite low. I also think a few pages later Ender mentions how he overrelies on certain commanders compared to others, the ones he's closest to and trusts most. It indicates how his judgement is a bit clouded by knowing the jeesh, I think and so because of that he doesn't notice the other two dozen squandron commanders much. they're just names to him (and us) not people.

[neo-dragon]

I think it's probably another little goof on Card's part, in that he forgot ever mentioning that there were that many of them. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense that these mystery commanders weren't even mentioned when the soldiers who served directly under Ender were being kidnapped and later exploited by their home countries. I mean, you'd figure that those other 25 who worked with the Jeesh would also be coveted during the wars on Earth, since even battle school grads like Suriyawong and Virlomi who didn't take part in the Third Invasion at all got pulled into the global conflicts.