Bea

Bea
Species	Human
Hair color	Gray
Eye color	Gray
Base	Stow-on-Side
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 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.

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)

Other Appearances

Video Games

• 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.

Trivia

• Her 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".
• 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.