Bede: the snobbish Galar rival who switched types midway

He enters the adventure introducing himself as a genius, and leaves it disqualified from the competition. Bede is the third rival in Sword and Shield, the one you'd rather not run into, yet his arc is the most eventful of the three. Between a secret assignment from the region's chairman, an archaeological disaster and an unexpected career change, he ends up a Gym Leader — and a specialist in an entirely different type from the one he started with.

Contents

• The Rival Who Thinks He's the Chosen One
• Stow-on-Side: The Blunder That Knocks Him Out of the Race
• Ballonlea: The Fallen Rival Becomes a Gym Leader
• From Psychic to Fairy, a Switch Like No Other
• Bede Beyond the Main Adventure
• Bede at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Rival Who Thinks He's the Chosen One

Galar doesn't give the player one rival but three: Hop, Marnie and Bede. He owes his place in the Gym Challenge to an endorsement, one from Chairman Rose, and he never forgets it.

The game describes him as a true battle genius, something he reminds anyone who'll listen. Arrogant, contemptuous, convinced he's the chosen one, he gets no mitigating circumstances: disdain is his default mode, and his pursuit of the Champion title is just one expression of it.

That title isn't his only goal, either. Rose also tasks him with gathering as many Wishing Stars as possible, a private assignment carried out alongside the official competition — and one that will weigh far more heavily than the Challenge itself on the rest of his journey.

Stow-on-Side: The Blunder That Knocks Him Out of the Race

Before his fall, Bede runs into Hop and beats him soundly, then tells him he's an embarrassment to his brother for being so weak. The remark leaves a lasting mark on Hop, who starts to doubt himself: the soul-searching of Galar's most endearing rival begins with a humiliation courtesy of Bede.

In Stow-on-Side, the Wishing Star hunt turns into a disaster. Bede borrows the chairman's Copperajah to dig through the site and ends up destroying the town's ancient relics, wreaking havoc on a place the game presents as part of the region's heritage.

The penalty comes down immediately. Disappointed by his protégé's behavior, Rose disqualifies him from the competition and shatters his dream of becoming Champion. The story then leaves the character alone with his defeat, wallowing in self-pity — the low point of a fall that nothing in his initial attitude made unlikely.

Ballonlea: The Fallen Rival Becomes a Gym Leader

It's Opal, the Ballonlea Gym Leader, who takes him in. She sees her future successor in this humiliated boy and takes him under her wing: in just a few scenes, Bede goes from the candidates' side to the Gym Leaders' side.

At the Champion Cup in Wyndon, he barges in and demands a match against the player; Leon agrees. Bede is beaten once again, but the crowd cheers him on, and he comes away as flustered as he is grateful — the first time a defeat has ever earned him anything.

That doesn't make him likable, though. Bede never really changes: he just learns to respect those stronger than him, acknowledges the player's strength and promises a rematch. And he holds down his post: in the post-game content, he's the only one who handles the Dynamaxed Pokémon in his stadium without any help.

🔥 A fallen rival who ends up a Gym Leader deserves a shelf of his own: browse our Pokémon figures.

From Psychic to Fairy, a Switch Like No Other

The change of mentor comes with a change of specialty. Bede is the only Trainer in the series to have permanently changed his preferred type over the course of a single game: he starts out Psychic and ends up Fairy, as he inherits the Ballonlea Gym.

One Gym Leader had gone down this road before him: Jasmine, who switched from Rock to Steel. The difference lies in how it's staged — her switch predates the events of Gold and Silver and is only mentioned, whereas Bede's plays out right before the player's eyes.

His other distinction is more statistical. Bede is one of only two notable male Trainers who specialize in the Fairy type, the other being Ortega. A club of two, across every game, for a type that had already been around for three generations by the time he took charge of it.

Bede Beyond the Main Adventure

The mobile game Pokémon Masters added him on June 16, 2022 and gives him four outfits. In his canonical version, he teams up with Hatterene, which can Gigantamax, complemented by two alternate sync pairs built around Inteleon and Mawile, the latter obtained in exchange for Training Tickets.

His other looks come with a different partner each time: a Galarian Articuno for his Neo Champion attire, an Iron Valiant for his Sygna Suit, a Galarian Rapidash for his Gym Leader uniform. It's the medium that gives him the most outfits, but the main adventure is still the one that covers him best: it gives him seven different teams, from the first battle in the Galar Mine to the Galarian Star Tournament.

The anime, for its part, gives him only a single shot: in an episode of Pokémon: Twilight Wings, the short series set in Galar, he can be spotted at the stadium in Wyndon, Hatenna by his side, among the spectators watching the battle between Champion Leon and his rival Raihan. On the card front, he made his Trading Card Game debut with the Sword & Shield expansion, released in France on February 7, 2020.

Bede at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Bede in Pokémon Sword and Shield?
  One of the player's three rivals, along with Hop and Marnie. He enters the Gym Challenge on Chairman Rose's recommendation, considers himself a battle genius, and collects Wishing Stars on the side on Rose's behalf.
• Why is Bede kicked out of the Gym Challenge?
  Because of Stow-on-Side. He borrows the chairman's Copperajah there to dig up Wishing Stars and ends up destroying the town's ancient relics. Rose, disappointed, disqualifies him from the competition.
• Does Bede become a Gym Leader?
  Yes. Opal, the Ballonlea Gym Leader, takes him in after his disqualification and chooses him as her successor. He challenges the player at the Champion Cup in Wyndon, loses again, but wins the crowd's cheers and fully embraces his new role.
• Why does Bede change types?
  Because he takes over the Ballonlea Gym, which specializes in the Fairy type, after starting out as a Psychic-type specialist. He's the only Trainer in the series to have permanently changed his specialty over the course of a game; Jasmine had switched from Rock to Steel before the events of Gold and Silver, but her change is only mentioned there.
• Which Pokémon does Bede use?
  In Sword and Shield, he starts out as a Psychic specialist — Solosis, Gothita, Hatenna and Galarian Ponyta, then Duosion, Gothorita and Hattrem — before switching to the Fairy type once he becomes a Gym Leader: Mawile, Gardevoir, Galarian Rapidash, Sylveon and a Hatterene that can Gigantamax. The mobile game adds Inteleon, a Galarian Articuno and an Iron Valiant depending on the outfit. In the anime, he watches the battle from the stands of Wyndon Stadium, with his Hatenna by his side.

In short

Bede is the rival you love to hate, and Galar never tries to make him likable. His narrative value lies elsewhere: he's the only character in the series whose failure genuinely changes his career. Disqualified from a competition he thought was in the bag, he wakes up behind the counter of a Gym that wasn't his, with a type that wasn't his either. He didn't change his personality, he changed his place — and that's already a lot for a rival.