It's just like you to contest
Wear it like a label on your breast
Don't you see what this takes of me?

A certain callousness complies
With your charm and in your pride
A hopeful look draped in despise

I want to give you
Whatever you need
What is it you need?
Is it what I need?
I want to give you
Whatever you need
What is it you need?
Is it within me?

It's hard to explain
How I am getting by on so little from you
It's hard to believe
That I would let myself get so wrapped into you

There's gotta be something
That would be worthwhile for me to give to you
We need a connection
But you seem to push me far away from you
From you, from you

The harder I push
The further I fall
Well, you don't mind me being headstrong
But you don't want to sing along
Maybe it's trite but I can always
Always, always be wrong

I want to give you
Whatever you need
What is it you need?
Is it what I need?
I want to give you
Whatever you need
What is it you need?
Is it within me?

It's hard to explain
How I am getting by on so little from you
It's hard to believe
That I would let myself get so wrapped into you

There's gotta be something
That would be worthwhile for me to give to you
We need a connection
But you seem to push me far away from you
From you, from you

The harder I push
The further I fall
Well, you don't mind me being headstrong
But you don't want to sing along
Maybe it's trite but I can always
Always, always be wrong

Try not to be wrong



Lyrics submitted by BrandNew1208

Track duration: 05:12

"Ender Will Save Us All" as written by Christopher Andrew Carrabba

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Ender Will Save Us All song meanings
Add your thoughts

146 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment:i've thought this for about 8 years now... Ace Ender????
    Flag Heathathnasooduaon February 23, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:a hopeful look draped in despise
    Flag dazzle22on February 11, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"a hopeful look draped in despise"

    so like .. she seems hopeful for the relationship but she is really hiding she doenst care?

    im consued someone explain!
    Flag dazzle22on February 11, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i think this song is about a relationship going bad, but they still want it to work.
    "i want to give you, whatever you need. what is it you need? is it what i need?"
    that part just gets me everytime. they want it to work so so bad but they don't know whats happening..
    Flag ComeOnLoveRunWithMeon January 16, 2009   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:Ok, so this is simply my opinion on how it relates to Ender's Game.

    "It's just like you to contest
    Wear it like a label on your breast
    don't you see what this takes of me?
    A certain callousness complies
    With your charm and in your pride
    a hopeful look draped in despise."

    “It's just like you to contest” The Game Room and the Battle room, Graff and the other people running the Battle School.
    “Wear it like a label on your breast,” an insignia of rank, such as Admiral, or Colonel Graff, his love for the battle room, and the Game and such.

    “Don't you see what this takes of me,” is self explanatory, when Ender breaks down.

    “A certain callousness complies/with your charm and in your pride/a hopeful look draped in despise.” The supposed callousness with which the teachers treat the students, but they keep the students favor by helping them, even though the students don’t see it. The hopeful look is hoping that Ender is the right one, and they have to pretend that they’re not his friends, so that he doesn’t become dependant on them.

    “I want to give you
    whatever you need.
    What is it you need?
    Is it what I need?
    I want to give you
    whatever you need.
    What is it you need?
    Is it within me?”

    Ender wants to help, but he’s not sure if he can (“is it within me”) all throughout the book he realizes that he’s being manipulated, but goes along with it, because he knows that there’s no other choice. It also, in my opinion, has to do with Valentine. He does everything for her, he wants to give her what she needs, whatever that may be. He would do anything for Valentine.

    “It's hard to explain how I am getting by
    on so little from you.
    It's hard to believe that I would let myself
    get so wrapped into you.
    There's got to be something that would
    be worthwhile for me to give to you.
    We need a connection but you
    seem to push me far away from you, from you, from you.”

    Ender doesn’t know why he keeps going on, he’s completely isolated, and isn’t getting help from anywhere,( It's hard to explain how I am getting by on so little from you.)

    But he still can’t believe that he’s trusting the teachers, that he still expects them to come to his aid.( It's hard to believe that I would let myself get so wrapped into you.)

    He knows there’s something that he could give them to make sure they left him alone. (There's got to be something that would be worthwhile for me to give to you.)

    He needs friends, he needs someone, but they keep him isolated, so that he can’t. (We need a connection but you seem to push me far away from you, from you, from you.)

    “The harder I push the further I fall.
    Well you don't mind me being headstrong.
    But you don't want to sing along.
    Maybe it's trite but I can always, always, always be wrong”

    “The harder I push the further I fall” Where he’s always trying so hard to win, that’s his main focus, and it’s killing him. When he passes out, when he fights and kills Bonzo and Stilson, and the Formics (buggers) the more he tries to win the more he hurts people, and he doesn’t want to do that, pushing him deeper into despair.

    “Well you don't mind me being headstrong” He always tries to beat the teachers, not the other students, and he goes to great lengths to do this.

    “But you don't want to sing along.” I interpret this as playing fair, how the teachers stack everything against him, and they don’t want to ‘play fair’ or ‘sing along’

    “Maybe it's trite but I can always, always, always be wrong” There’s many points where Ender is completely apathetic, and he gives up, and he says he doesn’t want to play the game anymore. He can be wrong, maybe it’s overused, typical rebelliousness, but he can still be wrong, and they adults never understand this. He CAN give up, but he doesn’t because he realizes the importance of what he’s doing, or what he thinks he’s being trained to do. He can break the rules, because the rules aren’t there. The adults don’t get this either. What seems wrong to them is right to Ender, because he realizes that you can break the rules, because the rules were simply constructs in a game that was unfair and irrational from the beginning.

    This is simply my opinion. Email me if you want (I love to talk) at star_wars_geek@yahoo.com put in the subject Desino so I don’t delete it as spam. :)

    Flag ThrawnManiacon January 02, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Aw, too bad I was hoping Ender refered to Ace Enders.
    Flag hollyy.heart.attackon July 03, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is about the classic one-sided relationship. Where neither person wants it to end, but one person puts soooo much more into it than the other.

    Pretty much one person is just coasting along doing the bare minimum while the other person is putting his or her all into the relationship.

    And the harder the one person tries, the more distant the other becomes.
    Flag StupidKid67on June 02, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:with reading the first comments, the song title says SO much about the band.. and even the song.
    i think its really cool how they came up with the names, and if you think about it, all of the dashboard confessional song names, are really unique!

    -ender will save us all
    -bend and not break
    and
    -hands down
    all really are cool=]
    Flag jordan_24on February 07, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I love the story behind this song, with "Ender's Game" being the connection between him and his friend... it's just great. He's great.
    Flag awkward/innocenton July 05, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I love this song and the book "ender's game" when i saw the title i had a feeling it was sorta about the book but now i know it is by the people on the site.
    Flag Truenoon March 28, 2007   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

Back to top
explain