#but never in a million years would Bonzo had attended battle school if the IF wasn't meddling in his life to begin with | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ken-katayanagi · 21 hours ago

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Plus, SPOILERS: in other books we see how often the chance to go to battle school is kind of held over kids heads. Zeck deeply opposes Battle School as a concept but they basically threaten him with exposing his 'satanic' photographic memory to his father if he doesn't attend (his father who is shown in the first few pages to be abusive to the point of obvious scarring and Zeck letting an insect just crawl all over him (hell I think it might've been his eye) to avoid being accused of 'not listening' in church and thus again being beaten).

Bean attends partially to escape horrific poverty but also because part of his education on planet is predicated on the idea he's going to Battle School.

Hell, even when kids go voluntarily, they go because something big and scary happened and they, being children, feel it's easier just to go to Battle School. Bonzo goes because his parents are on the brink of divorce and he reacts very normally for a child, basically running away from the idea of his family structure changing. Han Tzu's dad gets arrested helping him cheat to get into Battle School (which he rlly didn't need to), and Han is like well my dad just went to jail for this guess I'm going. A less, well, evil system might wait until these big life events have calmed down so that these kids can make more rational decisions.

It's a system very aware of the people it's 'recruiting', and its only voluntary if they can afford to not have you attend.

anyone contrasted Starship Troopers (movie) with Ender's Game (movie) in the way that they both involve teenagers being drafted by a fascist state into genocidal war against aliens?

#enders game #starship troopers #sorry I got in the zone #basically neither is voluntary and if they want u in the army you're going into the fucking army #and I kept my bozo ramblings to a minimum BUT #Amaro very much is not into the idea of Battle School #mainly because he's a nationalist but also it kinda feels like he's almost a little afraid of the IF #which is very fair #but never in a million years would Bonzo had attended battle school if the IF wasn't meddling in his life to begin with #and amaro is not a dumb character so I feel like he knows that about his son. whether it be thru the unfair emotional support #he relies on his son for or the fact that he knows Bonzo is not inherently an aggressive person #and more someone who even at a young age is centered on controlling situtations and people in the same way his parents do #often for their betterment and the betterment of their community #so amaro knows that that is what ultimately the IF also saw in him originally so he's like oh no. bc while he's not aware enough #to know what the IF will ultimately do to that want for control and order and to help ppl rather forcefully #I think he kinda can sense it. again. he is not dumb he's just not rlly aware of what the militarys like up to #anyway I'm done lmao

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