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Practical Philosophy, Wednesday

It was a somewhat tired-looking Ender that met them outside today. He hadn't slept well last night, and he had no doubt his class would suffer because of it. Ah, well; it wasn't like the fate of the planet rested on his shoulders.

"I spent some time talking to some of you about attachment last week," he said. "It's as good a topic as any to head into further, considering that the most notable event of the week was the invasion of a series of clones... and I'm not sure how interesting discussing the ethics of cloning would be."

Or pink ponies, for that matter.

"So. Attachments. Do you need them? Don't you? When do they go 'too far'? Human social structure relies on them - in so many ways - but for us personally the experience of them can differ wildly, depending on our circumstances. Sometimes it may be advantageous to avoid them altogether, to get rid of distraction. And sometimes they can suddenly come through in unexpected ways, as our friends swoop in to clear debris and fight battles we thought we had to face alone."

He shrugged lightly.

"I have a complicated relationship with the notion myself," he said. "I'm an introvert. I prefer to keep my circle small, so it doesn't suck up too much of my energy, and so I can rely on the fact that those I care about are invested enough to stick with me."

To a point. Ender's real thoughts on the matter were rather more complicated.

"Some of you are social butterflies. Some of you aren't. Some people have a near traumatic reaction to the end of the summer - the time of year when all the graduates leave. I wonder how all of you'll handle that."

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"Not really," Ender said. "Though I wish I'd had the time to talk to her... but I picture it as talking to her as I am now."

"Not as a fourteen year old?" Cade smiled slightly. "Go figure. What would you've said?"

"I don't know," Ender said wryly. "I would've sat down and had a conversation with her. I'd be interested in finding out if she knew what she was doing as a parent better than Luke did."

Cade snorted and flung his arm up to cover his eyes. "That can't be too karking hard."

"It's complicated," Ender said.

"It always is with our family," Cade replied, less bitterly than he normally managed.

"From what I can tell," Ender said quietly, "We tried to make your father and your uncle and aunt our priority."

"You did," Cade said. "Dad...felt that left him a lot of the galaxy to clean up." He shrugged. "I don't get it, personally. Talking to Atton....the galaxy's always been karked. Doesn't matter if there's a Skywalker there to fix it or not."

"Some days, I'm not so sad that it takes such a long time for anyone in my galaxy to get to any other place in my galaxy," Ender replied. "Whatever internal rot gets built up, it tends to stay in one place."

Cade nodded. "And then Aunt Val skewers it until everyone cries."

Ender smiled a little. "I hope she will," he said. "It's a lot easier to fix individual communities than it is to change an entire galaxy founded on two superpowers who will never genuinely step down."

"Well, one obliterated the other, so that's kind of the same," Cade muttered.

Edited 2014-07-10 11:51 (UTC)

Ender let out a soft snort. "The Jedi will be back," he said. "They always are. Likewise for the Sith."

"Can the Imperial Knights count?" Cade asked a little plaintively. "I'm not jonesing for a reboot."

"I don't know," Ender said. "The thing is, as long as Force sensitives keep being born, as long as there's still pockets of Jedi knowledge somewhere - and if you escaped, then it's likely many more Jedi did - they'll come back."

Cade let out a low sigh. "It doesn't have to be me, right?"

Ender offered him a small smile. "No," he said, "It doesn't."

"Thanks," Cade murmured. "Luke kinda had a different answer."

"Of course he did," Ender said. "Luke has an unfortunate problem with nepotism and tunnel vision that he won't really acknowledge."

Cade nodded. "He took being the last of the Jedi way too much to heart," he decided after a moment. "Like it was his job to make up for Anakin's terrible life."

"Worse than that, he seems to think it's his entire line's job to make up for Anakin Skywalker," Ender said, "as if every Sith and enemy that came after could also be traced back to that source."

"Putting a lot of credit on Anakin," Cade snorted. "I've seen the guy. He's not exactly an evil genius."

"Anakin is a temperamental fool," Ender said mildly. "Going by what I heard, he let his own temper drag him into what he became."

Cade laughed humorlessly. "Seems about right."

"Skywalkers are easily led by their own emotions," Ender said quietly. "Luke's behavior in this case points to that. As does yours."

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