Bea

Bea
Species	Human
Hair color	Gray
Eye color	Gray
Base	Stow-on-Side
Voiced by	Shara Kirby (2021)
Debut	Pokémon Sword

Bea is one of the eight gym leaders of the Galar region's major division who was featured as an opponent in Pokémon Sword. She is a version exclusive gym leader who only appears in Sword, with Allister appearing instead in Shield. She is the fourth Gym Leader to be battled in the game and specializes in Fighting-type Pokémon.

Background

Bea received special attention from her parents, which caused her to work hard at training Pokémon from a young age. She had a strict upbringing which was said to have placed a burden on her and to be the reason she almost never smiled. Bea honed her judgement skills in order to remain calm and collected even during dire situations in battles, and she rarely showed her emotions in order to not appear to be weak. Even when going against stronger opponents, she did everything she could to try to at least reach a draw.

Within the continuity of Sword, Bea had managed to become gym leader of Stow-on-Side. The gym leaders all battled each other to decide their placement, and Bea ended up being appointed as the fourth gym leader to be faced in the major division. Her gym's gym challenge consisted of riding a cup through a maze that had several boxing gloves that would propel the cup upwards. Within Sword, she was first seen with most of the other gym leaders at the opening ceremony of the gym challenge that was held at Motostoke Stadium. Afterwards, she was challenged and defeated at Stow-on-Side Stadium by Hop, Marnie and Victor/Gloria. She gave each victor a Fighting Badge. Bea also told Victor/Gloria that she was moved by their battle, and that it made her heart dance.

Later on, Bea was among the majority of the gym leaders who fought in the tournament that was held at Wyndon Stadium as the Finals of the Championship Cup. She defeated Gordie in the first round (despite him ranking two spots above her in the gym challenge) and then was defeated by Victor/Gloria in the second round. While she was upset at losing again, she also felt refreshed by the battle and hoped that the trainer would have more battles to nourish their spirit. Afterwards, Bea returned to Stow-on-Side. During the crisis in which forcibly-Dynamaxed wild Pokémon were wreaking havoc in coliseums, Bea had hers evacuated. Victor/Gloria, Hop and Piers arrived to help her, and they split up to defeat the Dynamaxed Pokémon. Afterwards, Bea stayed at the gym to look after the recovering Pokémon and gave Victor/Gloria her League Card. She could also appear in further tournaments held by the player at Wyndon Stadium (either by invitation or at random) for further potential rematches. Bea could also be seen visiting the Isle of Armor and could take part in the Galarian Star Tournament. For the Galarian Star Tournament, she could partner up with Nessa, Gordie or Mustard, or she could become available as a potential partner for Victor/Gloria after the tournament was beaten three times.

Within the continuity of Shield, Allister was the gym leader of Stow-in-Side instead. Bea was not seen or referenced at all, leaving her status in that continuity unknown.

Pokémon Roster

• Hitmontop (gym only)
• Pangoro (gym only)
• Sirfetch'd
• Machamp (Gigantamax)
• Hawlucha tournament only)
• Falinks (tournament only)

At the Star Tournament, Bea uses only Hawlucha, Falinks and Machamp.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Bea and her Sirfetch'd were made available as a playable sync pair that could be recruited at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature after they were added to the game in May 2021. There was also a Palentine's 2022 variant that was paired with Vanilluxe that was made available during limited time periods starting in February 2022. She was also shown using Machamp. Bea appeared during the Story Event "Howling Shield of Eternity", in which she helped Leon and other trainers to deal with an outbreak of forcibly Dynamaxed Pokémon. In the Story Event "Winter Wishes", Sonia joined her in eating desserts at one point at a winter soiree, and Bea assured her that Leon and Nessa would show up in time.

Her Palentine's variant was later featured in the Story Event "Sweet Shenanigans", in which she prepared Palentine's chocolates with Marnie and went after Team Heartbreak with Scottie/Bettie after they were stolen. In an extra scene, it was shown that Bea had made truffles with Marnie, and she gave one Truffle Heart to Scotte/Bettie. It was also revealed that she met the Vanilluxe while training on a snowy mountain and partnered with it to train herself against temptations for sweets. It was also said that Serena helped pick out her Palentine's clothes. In the Solo Event "A Sweet Secret", a trio of NPC trainers sought information on the best sweets to get as gifts for their mentors, whose identities they did not reveal. It was ultimately revealed that those mentors were Bea, Bruno and Grant. Bea was relieved to learn that the students did not use their names when asking for advice. In the "Summer Nights & Wishing Stars" Story Event, it was shown that she had given Hilda a Pokémon Egg that she raised into her Shiny Grappleoct, and they decided to battle to see how strong it had become. She also appeared in the "Strongest Fighters" Solo Event, in which she trained alongside Gloria and Korrina for tournament that was being held for Fighting-type Sync Pairs. They later met Bruno and Chuck, who provided them with advice and Rage Candy Bars, the latter of which she reluctantly accepted. In the "Fashion Week" Solo Event, Sawyer convinced her and Brawly to take part in a fashion weak that uniquely focused on muscular individuals.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Bea has appeared in the Pokémon: Twilight Wings series of anime shorts. In the first episode, she was seen challenging Leon and losing, as well as being shown during a montage at the end of the episode. The second episode focused on her training with her Pokémon (a Machop, Machoke and Machamp) in the Wild Area in hopes of overcoming Leon. She dealt with several setbacks and hardships in the process, such as losing her phone, being injured by her Machamp during a spar and being trapped in a cave-in. She later made a brief appearance in the final episode, as part of a series of video testimonies by the Gym Leaders about Leon, as well as in the bonus episode, where she was invited to take part in the Galarian Star Tournament.
• In the Pokémon anime, Bea appeared during the Pokémon Journeys series, where was one of the competitors taking part in the World Coronation Series. She was featured in one episode where Ash's group met her at the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City within Kanto, where she had defeated the Karate Master. Ash challenged her to a battle and was easily defeated by her, causing her rank to rise while Ash's went down. Several episodes later, they had a rematch at Cianwood Gym in Johto (where she was training with Chuck), which ended in a draw. Bea was later shown to have ascended to the Ultra Class and was ranked 30th. Ash was finally able to defeat her in their third battle. Bea was shown to be absentminded when it came to remembering other's names (particularly Ash's), and she also bonded with Korrina over their shared affinity for Fighting-type Pokémon and sweets.
• In the Pokémon Adventures manga, she appeared during the Sword/Shield arc. It was shown that she and Allister alternated as Stow-on-Side's gym leader. She was defeated by Marnie during the gym challenge, and she later helped to investigate Chairman Rose's plans and to deal with the Dynamaxing outbreak that followed.

Trivia

• Her English name may be derived from the word "beat" and/or "bean". Her Japanese name is "Saito", which is taken from the Japanese word for a "kidney bean" and also references a word meaning "fight".
• Her League Number is 193, which can be read in Japanese as a word meaning "fight".
• She was secretly a fan of sweets, but enjoying it became difficult when her fans found out and started paying her additional attention based on that.
• Bea is known to almost never smile. However, she appears to be smiling when speaking to Victor/Gloria right after being defeated at the championship cup. Her rare League Card also featured a picture of her explicitly smiling while facing an unidentified figure. The card's description speculates that her parents' harsh upbringing took away her smile, and speculates that the only person/people she smiles in front of could be her family, her Pokémon, or "someone else entirely".
• Her Pokémon are kept in Ultra Balls.
• Bea and Gordie are the two gym leaders exclusive to Sword. Bea, Allister and Melony are also notable as being the only gym leaders to only appear in one version of a Pokémon game.