You see, as his mom is dragging him away, he is still not picking up on the reality of the situation. Which for him makes sense given how he was in the last episode. The cruel part of losing his mother, which was the breaking point. The scene where he says adults are liars since the war wasn’t supposed to happen. Then him saying he was a liar hits hard. As of course none of the adults would have expected this war, and the same for Twilight having to tell his father about the lie because he never returned home.
Then seeing Twilight enlist in the military, and honestly, if the series started in his youth, this could have been a more traditional war series. Though he met Frankie, the point is that the common man who is actually fighting the war doesn’t want it. Of course Twilight can’t view that because he has only seen his side. Though this reaches more to his current self and trying to stop another war because he saw what the damage the one in his youth did. Also, it’s funny this is Twilight’s first meeting with Frankie. They are from opposite sides, but they want the same thing.
Furthermore, to the point of how ignorance is a weakness. Of course there is the saying ignorance is bliss. But you can understand from his POV why Twilight would think that. He didn’t understand the horrors of war. His blind hate for the enemy. You could see why with the current him; he works relentlessly to know everything because not knowing something can bite him in the ass like it did for so much of his early life.
Lastly, we saw how he gets recruited and how this guy resembles the current Twilight in some ways. There is no name, but I can only assume he is Handler’s senior if I had to guess.
This flashback sets the tone for what Twilight is trying to prevent in another way. I love the scene where he gets asked what he is fighting for. As we see with the kids laughing and running, we can tell that he is doing it for the future generation. Granted, Twilight did say in the beginning of the series he wants to make a world where no kids have to cry. Though this flashback enhances those words even more.