EnderWiggin.net – Ender's Game Movie Fansite

Tag: Battle School

MIT Students Celebrate Ender’s Game Movie Release

Looks like some students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are major fans of Ender’s Game and decided to celebrate the advent of the movie by transforming MIT into Battle School. Those banners are awesome, even though I do wonder why they chose Griffin and Leopard over Salamander and/or Rat, and it seems they found enough dummies to demonstrate that, indeed, the enemy’s gate is down.

Check out MIT student Hairuo G.’s pics on the MIT Admissions Blog and Slice of MIT, the Institute’s Alumni page.

Sources: MIT Admissions Blog, Slice of MIT

November 12, 2013
VIDEO: Ender’s Game Clip from London ‘Welcome to Battle School’

It’s raining clips! Movieweb has also released the clip that was shown last week at the London Q&A at the Odean, an extended version of ‘Welcome to Battle School’.

October 16, 2013
FANSITE EXCLUSIVE: ‘Ender’s Army’ – First Clip from ‘Ender’s Game’

EnderWiggin.net is very happy to be one of the Ender’s Game fansites to exclusively debut the very first clip from Ender’s Game, now 27 days from release in the United States.

Watch below in the clip titled ‘Ender’s Army’ as Colonel Hyrum Graff of the International Fleet’s Battle School discusses with esteemed student Ender Wiggin his impressive record at the school and what’s in store for someone who is both excelling and struggling under Commander Bonzo Madrid of Salamander Army.

What do you guys think of the clip? I loved that they included the bit about the uniforms, which is pretty close to the scene in the book!

“I’ve never heard of Dragon Army,” Ender said.

“That’s because there hasn’t been a Dragon Army in four years. We discontinued the name because there was a superstition about it. No Dragon Army in the history of the Battle School ever won even a third of its games. It got to be a joke.”

“Well, why are you reviving it now?”

“We had a lot of extra uniforms to use up.”

For some reason I also loved the hum in the background, lending to the fact that they’re in space. I also cracked up that Graff seems to slouch. Perhaps that’s their substitute for the big belly?

Listen to EnderCast Episode 33.5 below to hear Kelly and I watching the clip for the first time!

Ender’s Game is in theaters November 1st.

October 5, 2013
GALLERY: 66 Screencaps of ‘Battle School Needs You’

Here are 66 screencaps from the recent video ‘Battle School Needs You’, which can be viewed below:

July 30, 2013
PHOTO: Graff Greets Battle School Students

Check out this hi-res image of Harrison Ford addressing Battle School students. Since they’re dressed in yellow, these are likely Launchies. As for the video they’re watching, it’s likely Mazer Rackham’s Run:

Thanks to Summit for the image! This image first appeared in the print edition of Empire magazine.

July 26, 2013
Take the Battle School Aptitude Test

San Diego Comic Con officially kicks off tonight with Preview Night and to launch what’s turning out to be a massive marketing campaign at the convention, Summit has launched a Battle School aptitude test at IF-BattleSchool.com for you to take.

Find out whether you make the cut and what army you’ll be assigned to. Will it be Dragon Army under the great Ender Wiggin? Or will you fall under the strict command of Bonzo Madrid in Salamander Army?

Take the International Fleet’s Battle School Aptitude Test and find out if you have what it takes to lead our fight in protecting Earth from the Next Invasion. Our future depends on it!

Watch the video on Facebook here.

July 17, 2013
Aaron Johnston on the Children Who Inspired Battle School

Aaron Johnston, co-author for the First Formic War books wrote a piece about the children who inspired Battle School on publisher Tor’s blog.

In Earth Unaware, we met seventeen-year-old Victor Delgado, an ingenious mechanic who risks his life to warn Earth. We also met his cousin, fourteen-year-old Edimar, who discovered the Formics’ approach.

In Earth Afire, we meet Bingwen, the most Enderlike child yet — a dirt-poor, eight-year-old farm boy from a tiny rice village in southeast China. Through his association with Bingwen, Mazer Rackham comes to realize what children truly have to offer. And the rest, as we say, is history. Or in our case, the future.

If you read my review for Earth Unaware, you’ll see that I thought Bingwen was one of the best parts of Earth Afire, though I did find him to be closer to Bean than Ender as Aaron mentions.

He also talks about how they had to keep in mind what would cause the world to willingly give up their children to a military program like they do in the Enderverse. It’s something I’d always wondered about myself and it’ll definitely be interesting to hear in the subsequent books just how the IF convinces the world that the ultimate sacrifice is necessary for humanity’s survival.

Read the full editorial at Tor’s blog.

June 7, 2013
DIY Battle School Nails

Even with two kids and more blogs than I know what to do with, I clearly have nothing better to do than to think up ways to show what a ridiculous fangirl I can be. Last week, while trying to figure out a way to save money on those silly little stickers my daughter is always begging me to buy her, I decided to look up whether you can print your own nail decals. Turns out, you definitely can.

I ordered a set and then the Ender’s Game part of my brain started churning and this happened:

I made teeny ones for smaller fingers and bigger ones for thumbs, with the little ones being 1/4 inch and the thumbs being 1/2 inch.

The next step is to coat the printout with clear nail polish, though this became tricky as the ink began to run with strokes. I had to dab and will have to look into just getting an acrylic spray for the whole sheet. I waited for it to dry and painted my nails in various Battle School colors: orange, blue, red, green.

Once they were dry I cut the edges off. Actually, I got lazy on the second hand and left the corners, but you’ll be able to see why this is a bad idea.

Next, submerge it in a bit of warm water. Once the paper backing is soaked, you can remove it from the water to a paper towel and gently peel it off the paper.

Here’s the tiny little decal ready to put on a nail.

Flatten the decal down and then paint over with clear polish.

Here’s my right hand and you can see the corners on the three small army nails. Definitely take the time to cut the corners off! And yes, I know, my nails are kind of sad looking. I only just recently grew them out after like 30 years and my daughter’s constant scolding. I don’t know why but I had the hardest time with the IF decals and they both went on horribly crooked.

My first attempt on my left hand was ridiculous. I made the Rat and Asp upside down, but the Dragon looked okay. All in all, it’s pretty close to what I’d envisioned. Petra Arkanian would scream in horror, no doubt.

I’m hoping to take the thumbnail sizes with me to Comic Con and anyone who can find me while I’m waiting in the Hall H line can get a Battle School thumbnail. If you’re willing to give me a thumbs up pose for the EnderWiggin.net Instagram, that’d be sweet!

May 22, 2013
Ender’s Game Food: Recipes from the Battle School Kitchens
Last week, EnderWiggin.net was one of four fansites that got to reveal the second still from the Ender’s Game movie and with that image came a whole lot of talk about the food they had in front of them. Since I have an entire blog devoted to food from books, tv shows, games, and movies, it was inevitable that I give the Battle School food a try. And boy was it a hassle!

As soon as I got my hands on the still, I went looking online and was shocked at how easy it was to find the same mess tray in the still, easily available on Amazon. It’s shinier than in the still, but really, I wasn’t going to kick up too much fuss about it. It was clearly the same tray and that was all that mattered.

I knew I wanted to cook this, but didn’t realize just how much effort it was going to require until I started. It’s FIVE separate dishes to make! That’s a lot of food.

Before I get into it though, I wanted to mention that Ender News is holding a contest where you make your own Battle School food. I will be a guest judge for the contest, which ends March 6 at midnight. Be sure to give it a go!

First up: carrot jello.

I know, nasty right? Normally for Fictional Food I go for as much realism as I can, but ended up taking a bit of a shortcut with this one. I started by peeling and boiling one carrot, then liquefied it with some water in my blender. I boiled 1 cup of water, added it to a packet of apricot jello, then poured the carrot puree in. I put it in a container and chilled it in the fridge.

The result was just what I’d wanted! And the best part is, it just tastes like apricot jello. You can’t even taste the carrot. Although, I admit I only tried one small corner. I will be feeding it to my children for dessert tonight and we’ll see what they say. Muahahaha!

Next up, the little turnover dessert.

I bought a package of puff pastry and made myself some apple pie filling with diced apples (not sliced) and simply rolled up little rectangle turnovers, baked them at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, and then brushed it with a sugar glaze. They were really yummy! The downside was I totally burned my tongue eating a hot one.

This next one is the grossest of the bunch.

Even though Khy Rhambo said that it was pea gelatin, I thought I’d try making a pea quiche. I couldn’t find any recipes, so I just looked up a basic quiche recipe and flung stuff into my blender and baked the result. It’s pretty nasty, tasting exactly like overcooked canned peas. (no surprise there, since I used a can of overcooked peas) It looked terrible, so I just took a butter knife and smoothed it over.

If I were to try it again, I’d try the gelatin route and use fresh peas so that I didn’t have to deal with the yucky dead pea color. Somehow I don’t know if that would help the taste.

Next up, the peanut bar:

Like the peas, I didn’t want to go with peanut gelatin because I actually wanted to be able to eat this one because, well, turns out peanuts are really expensive. As of right now, I’ve only been able to eat half of it because it fell into my stomach like a ton of bricks. I melted butter and marshmallows together, then added unsalted peanuts.

I should have taken the time to take the paper shells off of the other peanuts, but by the time I realized some of them had skins on, I’d already just thrown them in. I pressed it into a mini meat loaf pan I’d greased with shortening and let it cool. It tastes great, but it’s also like shoving a handful of peanuts and marshmallows into your mouth. I suggest sharing one with a friend or two.

For the bread, I made some ciabatta dough and baked little mini loaves that fit the tray. It tasted great the day I baked it but it’s now rock hard. The final full tray of food:

Not a bad attempt if I do say so myself. I’m dumping the pea quiches (I made 3) because they’re awful, but am definitely eating the turnovers and Jello. My hips have had enough peanut bars and I’ll be giving those to my son. The bread will be given to our backyard chickens. Hopefully it doesn’t crack their beaks or anything…

And there you have it, Launchies! A tray of Battle School food just like the soldiers are eating in the still. I admit I couldn’t find a cup like they had, so I just lamely added a metal thermos top. If you try any of these, be sure to let me know!

Orange Battle School Jello
- 1 box apricot gelatin
- 1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
- Knox
- water
1. Boil the carrot pieces until soft. Drain the water, leaving about 1/2 cup and move to a blender. Liquefy the carrot until you have a smooth puree. Set aside to cool.
2. Boil 1 cup of water. Add the gelatin to a medium bowl and then pour the water in.
3. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of Knox onto your carrot puree and let it sit for a minute. Pour the hot gelatin into the puree and mix well.
4. Pour the carrot and gelatin mixture into a container, cover, and refrigerate until set.
Battle School Apple Turnovers
- 2 sheets puff pastry
- 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1/2 Tb butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 Tb cornstarch
- 1/4 Tb water
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1. Defrost your puff pastry by placing it on the counter. It should be ready to roll in about 45 minutes, so you can take your time with the apples.
2. Add the butter to a skillet, then add the apples. Cook for a few minutes, then add the brown sugar and cinnamon, mixing well and cooking the apples.
3. Mix together the cornstarch and water and add to the apple mixture. Cook on low to medium heat until apples are soft and glaze is thick. Remove from heat.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5. Unfold puff pastry sheets and cut into three long sections on the folds. Cut each of these sections in half for rectangles.
6. Add a bit of the apple mixture in the middle of one end and fold it over, pressing down the sides so the apple doesn’t seep out during baking.
7. Scramble the egg and add about 1 Tb of water to make an egg wash. Brush over the top of each pastry, then place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. When you have five minutes left, make the glaze. In a small pot, mix 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar with 2 tsp of water. Stir frequently until evenly mixed and cook on low heat until thickened. Do NOT leave unattended. When pastries are done, remove from oven and brush the glaze over the tops.
Battle School Pea Quiche

Not for the faint of heart
- 1 can of cooked peas
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 egg
- small handful of mozzarella cheese
1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Grease 3 small ramekins very well.
3. Blend together all ingredients until you have a very fine puree. Add to ramekins.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake for 20 more minutes.
5. To remove, gently skim a butter knife around the edges, then turn upside down and gently tap out of the ramekin.
6. Sniff warily and eat at own risk.
Battle School Energy Bars

This recipe is more of a make as you go kind of thing. I didn’t really measure, just threw more in as I went until the consistency looked right.
- butter
- marshmallows
- peanuts
1. Melt around 1 Tb of butter in a small pot or pan. Add 1-2 cups of mini marshmallows. Melt down completely until you have a good sticky mixture.
2. Add peanuts as needed. I used maybe 1 cup. Mix well together.
3. Generously grease a mini loaf pan and press the peanut mixture in, making sure you don’t burn your fingers.
4. Let cool. To remove, ease a butter knife into an edge and pry out carefully.
I haven’t included the bread recipe as I simply picked a random ciabatta recipe online and I can’t remember which one it was! Hope you guys enjoyed this. Happy eating!
March 1, 2013
Fansite Exclusive: New ‘Ender’s Game’ Movie Still of Salamander Army

Now that you’ve seen EnderWiggin.net’s exclusive reveal of the official Salamander Army logo, as well as the logos for Dragon, Rat, and Asp armies, it’s time to show you why that was just a teaser for today’s reveal. (make sure you enter to win a set of Ender’s Game army magnets or pin buttons HERE)

I’m very happy to be one of four fansites revealing the second official still from the Ender’s Game movie, which, as of today, is 253 days from release. This new still is chock full of amazing new content for fans who have been dying for more since December, when we got our first look at Colonel Graff staring down young Ender Wiggin.

Without further ado, here is a first look at the Battle School mess hall with Salamander Army:

Not only do we see Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin again, you get your first look at Hailee Steinfeld as Petra Arkanian (left), Khylin Rhambo as Dink Meeker (right, next to Ender), and Moises Arias as Bonzo Madrid (end of the table on the left). Since there’s a whole lot more going on besides these four characters (see the Battle Room sphere on the board!?), be sure read my still breakdown article coming later today.

In the meantime, I get to dish a little bit more about our visit to the set last year.

We’d been given a list of people we might be seeing and Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and director Gavin Hood’s names practically screamed themselves from my laptop. I was pretty pumped. We’d also be talking to Conor Carroll (Bernard), Khylin Rhambo (Dink), Aramis Knight (Bean), and Suraj Partha (Alai).

I went into the set visit expecting to see and speak to these seven people, which made me unprepared for all the other people we got to spend time with that day. One of the first surprises of the day was when we were introduced to producer Roberto Orci, which almost made my head explode.

I’d only seen photos of him and hadn’t a clue he’d be there on the set, much less that we’d be spending the day with him. And while it sounds odd to be a “fan” of a movie producer, you have to keep in mind that I’m a huge fan of things like LOST, Fringe, the Star Trek reboots, the Hawaii Five-O reboot, all of which he’s produced or written. I see his name everywhere. And since I have a young son, I’ve seen or been forced to listen to the Transformers movies at least two dozen times which, again, he wrote.

We were in a room whose walls were covered in concept art and storyboards and I almost felt like I should avert my eyes because I’m so used to not seeing such things until a DVD release. A presentation began and we met several producers from Odd Lot Entertainment.

They told us so much in that first hour and a half that I admit I was confused. I’d never expected them to be so open and passionate about the movie, rivaling us fansites. It was like sitting in a room with fans who were 10 times the fans you were. It was humbling to say the least.

After the presentation, they took us on a set tour that included the Launchie barracks that we saw in the first still, Ender’s private quarters, and the infirmary. We were taken to the video village where we saw some scenes being filmed. Garrett Warren, the film’s stunt coordinator came by to talk to us and was so fun to meet.

We headed over to interview the very well-spoken and lovely Hailee Steinfeld, a very intense but also very nice Asa Butterfield, and director Gavin Hood. While it was amazing to interview the young actors who would be playing Ender and Petra, it was eye-opening to talk to Gavin Hood. It was immediately plain to us that he’s a huge fan of the book and after talking to him, I personally felt like the film was in great hands with him.

Having been a fan of Game of Thrones for over ten years, it was surreal when the monstrously large Nonso Anozie (Sergeant Dap in Ender’s Game and Xaro Xhoan Daxos in Thrones) walked– or rather, hunched over — to get into the room. Getting to then discuss movies and Pop Tarts with him was just amazing. We met a lot of the Battle School cadets, including Bean, who all seemed to be great kids who were huge fans of the novel and extremely excited to be a part of the film.

Our tour continued after lunch with a meeting with costume designer Christine Bieselin-Clark, who actually let us touch the flash suits. Nerd out!

We continued on to the props department, which was really cool because even that guy could bring up scenes from the book as if it was nothing. We then talked to set designers Ben Procter and Sean Haworth, who immediately passed our now standard Did-You-Read-Ender’s-Game Test. We were back to sitting in the Launchie barracks again and with that scenery around us, I think the sole question in all of our minds was just, “How do you build something like this from the ground up?” It was a continual thought in my mind as we walked through the Battle School and Eros sets.

And with that, yes, we did get to walk around on Eros. We were actually very fortunate in that they were at the point of production where they were filming Ender’s final battle scene. We stood on that set and I had to resist the urge to turn to my fellow tourists and shake them senseless in excitement. All I will say at this point is that the finale scene that I’d imagined seemed like a shriveled raisin compared to what they had in production.

As if that wasn’t enough, towards the end of our day, they told us they were able to get us 10 minutes with Sir Ben Kingsley. Let me tell you, sitting in a dark Formic room frantically trying to think of questions to ask a knighted actor is a whole lot of pressure.

Those of you that have been reading my site for a while have probably wondered why I seem so on board with the film despite some the changes (which are inevitable with a book to film adaptation). Hopefully this gives you a better idea of why. Everyone we met from the crew to the actors to the producers were all fans of the book and were all so excited to be working on the movie.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve left out specific details and quotes, as that’s all still to come as we approach the movie’s release come November 1st.

To stay up to date with all the latest news about the movie, the actors, and upcoming book releases in the Enderverse, be sure to follow EnderWiggin.net, available on the following social media networks:

If you’ve been looking for an Ender’s Game podcast, be sure to check out the podcast EnderCast, which I co-host with Kelly from Ender News.

February 20, 2013
Hi-Res Version of Ender and Graff Still

Thanks to Summit, we now have the unwatermarked version of the first official still. The image has been uploaded to the EnderWiggin.net Gallery.

With a hi-res still, we can do a better analysis of the details of the image including something Kelly and I talked about on the premiere episode of EnderCast: Graff’s shoulder pin.

As you can clearly see, his pin does indeed have the IF Phi on it. As mentioned on the EnderWiggin.net Facebook, it’s possible we’ll be sitting in line for midnight premieres of Ender’s Game on Halloween 2013! Any cosplayers out there ready to start making their IF costume for SDCC? I know if I knew how I would be!

Another thing to note about the still is that you can now clearly see that there are six people standing on the same side as Ender, which makes it safe to assume that there are only 12 launchies to a barracks, since the soldiers are standing on numbers starting from 01 with the girl in yellow on the left and then going to 02 under Ender’s feet. There also appears to be an additional girl on Ender’s side of the barracks.

Pick up any other details? Comment and let me know what you find!

December 17, 2012
‘Ender’s Game’ Production Blog Posts Utility Deck Photo

The Ender’s Game production blog posted a new image today of Utility Deck G in Hall Number 0058 with the following:

If you think regular school is tough, try it in a rotating space station. And by the way, do you have a hall pass for hall number 0058? Because if you don’t, you could end up scrubbing the showers. When you first arrive at Battle School, all you perceive is its utility, its functionality… that is until you enter the BATTLE ROOM, where there is no up, no down, and ZERO G’s. Movie making can become overly reliant on digital worlds, and nothing can replace a well-built set that you can see and touch and stand in the middle of, fooling you into thinking you are really there. Enjoy this small taste of Ender’s big world. We’ll see a lot more in the weeks to come.

The really strange part? The description on this image is “BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA 3”. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a connection, but so far I can’t make anything out of it.

March 29, 2012