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“Valentine loves me.” “With all her heart. Completely, unstintingly, she’s devoted to you, and you adore her. I told you it wouldn’t be easy.”
To convince Ender to attend the Battle School, Graff tells Ender that his brother Peter hates him and his parents resent him. In response, perhaps even to comfort himself, Ender tells Graff that his sister Valentine loves him, and Graff agrees. While readers do not know much about Ender and Valentine's relationship yet, readers learn that she loves him unconditionally and would do anything for him.
But Valentine had not forgotten him. She did not let her parents know, and above all never hinted to Peter how often she thought about Ender, how often she wrote him letters that she knew he would not answer.
The narrator reveals that Valentine continues to write Ender letters, despite the fact that he doesn’t ever write back. She reflects on the fact that the rest of the family views Ender as essentially dead and they seem to have forgotten him entirely. Even though Peter and their parents consider Ender an embarrassment by being a “Third,” Valentine feels too much compassion to feel that way about Ender, and she doesn’t give up hope of seeing him or hearing from him again.
She couldn’t explain what it was like to think of her little brother, who was so good, whom she had protected for so long, and then remember that now she was Peter’s ally, Peter’s helper, Peter’s slave in a scheme that was completely out of her control. Ender never surrendered to Peter, but I have turned, I’ve become part of him, as Ender never was.
After Graff asks Valentine about the relationship between Ender and Peter, she becomes upset thinking about the fact that she now works with Peter. She admires that Ender never played into Peter’s games or returned his cruelty, but she also remains unaware of how violent Ender can be when necessary. Despite appearing different on the outside, Peterm Valentine, and Ender share many core characteristics.
Perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be. She thought of that, worried about it for a few days, and then wrote a column using that as a premise…
When Valentine starts writing as Demosthenes, she does not believe anything that she writes. However, after some time, she begins to think too much like Demosthenes and wonders if she is becoming him. Rather than stop writing, she uses this idea to write another work as Demosthenes. Although Valentine feels as much compassion as Ender, she enjoys the idea of control like Peter.
I showed Peter all the evidence that I had assembled, enough to prove in the eyes of the public that he was a psychotic killer. It included full-color pictures of tortured squirrels and some of the monitor videos of the way he treated you. It took some work to get it all together, but by the time he saw it, he was willing to give me what I wanted. What I wanted was your freedom and mine.
When Valentine comes to see Ender to convince him to go with her to a new colony, she explains how she convinced Peter to let Ender go. Like Peter, Valentine possesses strong powers of manipulation. Rather than using force or fear of physical pain, Valentine takes her time to present Peter with the facts. Even after all she has been through as Demosthenes, protecting Ender remains the most important thing to her.
