Pokémon Twilight Wings: Gym Leader Bea Goes Toe-To-Toe Against Machamp

Pokémon Twilight Wings’ second episode highlights the franchise’s core message of teamwork while also giving fans incredible human vs. Pokémon action.

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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Pokémon Twilight Wings, “Training,” available to watch in English from The Official Pokémon Channel on YouTube now.

If the first episode of Pokémon Twilight Wings didn’t make you a little misty-eyed, then the second will definitely hit that emotional sweet spot. “Training,” the second of a seven-episode long series of web shorts set in the Galar region, stars Sword and Shield Gym Leader Bea, who gets dropped off in the middle a wild area to embark on a brutal training regime.

The impetus for this, as we learn from her phone call to Chairman Rose’s office at the beginning of the episode, is losing to Champion Leon. After jumping down from her alarmed driver’s Corvinknight taxi into the stormy desert, she wastes no time in releasing her Machop, Machoke and Machamp trio from three Ultra balls and running head-first into a battle against a wild Rydon. This is just the first taste of Bea’s headstrong recklessness, which later provides one of the most badass moments in Pokémon anime history.

The episode then cuts to a classic ’80s movie-aping training montage, which not only showcases Bea continuing to work up a sweat closely alongside Pokémon’s beefiest bros, but also brilliantly differentiates the three Pokémon’s distinct personalities: Machop, the feisty optimist; Machoke, the slowpoke try-hard and Machamp, the stern but compassionate head of the evolutionary line. At every turn, we see Bea matching and even besting the trio — bench-pressing two large rocks at a bruising pace while the other three slowly lift one each.

The fact that Bea is toughest on herself doesn’t go unnoticed by her partners. When Machop tries to lure her into taking five with the offer of what looks like a protein bar, she refuses: “Not enough… gotta work harder.” This comes to a head when we’re shown exactly what she means by that: Sparring head-to-head against Machamp. Humans fighting Pokémon in this way is very rare, and it’s even rarer to see someone appear to be on level form with such a powerful creature. Bea blocks first a punch and then a kick from Machamp before it lands a defeating blow to her arm from one of its four.

An iconic monster of the first generation, Machamp’s Pokédex entries describe it being capable of everything from “launch[ing] a flurry of 1,000 punches in just two seconds” to moving mountains with just one arm. Its Sword & Shield entries boast that it can “react more quickly than it can think.” Of course, despite being a Professor-approved tool for scientific research, the Dex is prone to exaggeration. It’s also possible that, knowing its own mountain-moving strength, Machamp might be pulling its punches a little to compete with a human opponent. None of this, however, detracts from having the guts to even want to square-off against a near 300 lb. grapple-monster in the first place.

Machamp’s fearsome persona melts away instantly when it sees the damage it inflicted on its trainer but Bea is unperturbed — demanding a rematch that her sparring partner stoically declines. More than just demonstrating her outer strength, the episode does well to also add an extra inner dimension to Bea, as hinted at by her Normal and Rare League Cards in Sword & Shield. After taking shelter from the rain in a nearby cave, a cave-in forces Bea, who left her phone behind in the Flying Taxi, to desperately search for an exit.

This is when the real after-school-special message of “Training” kicks in: She doesn’t find what she’s looking for by pushing herself to her limit, but instead when another defeat forces her to finally take a break. While Bea wallows in self-doubt, her Machop again offers her the protein bar, which she gratefully accepts this time, and the glint of sunlight reflecting on the foil wrapper points to a way out. Working together, they’re able to shift enough fallen rocks out of the way to escape — a feat of teamwork that brings tears to the worn-out trainer’s eye.

What more could you ask for from six-minutes of pitch-perfect Pokémon content?

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