Bean (Ender's Game)

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Bean is a major character in Orson Scott Card's science fiction novels revolving around Ender Wiggin. He is an important supporting character in Ender's Game and the main character of the eponymous Bean Quartet (or Shadow Saga as it is officially known), consisting of Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant. He will be one of the two main characters in the Ender's Game movie.

[edit] Shadow of the Hegemon

Bean's tranquil life with the Delphikis is short-lived. While the family is on vacation, Achilles, who, since the events of Ender's Shadow, has used his considerable intellect to gain influence and power in Russia and other empire-minded countries, tries to kill them outright. Bean and the Delphikis separate; Bean goes into hiding with Sister Carlotta, and the Delphiki family disappears with the help of Graff. Bean later learns that Achilles has captured all of Ender's jeesh except for Bean (whom he tried to kill) and Ender (who is gone). Bean later allies himself with Peter Wiggin to combat this threat. Bean is most concerned for Petra's welfare, and finds a coded message that leads to the release of all of Ender's jeesh except for her.

Bean moves to Thailand, where he helps train a strike force under Suriyawong (a member of Ender's Dragon Army). He assumes the name Borommakot, the name of a former Thai king. Another assassination attempt on him (and Suriyawong) leads Bean to request Sister Carlotta's presence. Achilles, however, blows up the plane in which she is traveling. Near the end of the novel, Bean engineers a rescue mission in which he successfully, and without casualties on either side, rescues Petra from Achilles. A following scene at Sister Carlotta's cenotaph foreshadows Bean and Petra's future romance. Finally, Peter Wiggin, newly-elected Hegemon, bestows the office of Strategos on Bean. Peter relocates the main Hegemony offices to Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, where Bean and his family are reunited.

[edit] Shadow Puppets

The story begins with Bean and Suriyawong about to launch an assault mission on the expanding Chinese empire, (which got its power due to the events of Shadow of the Hegemon), to rescue a certain prisoner from a convoy. Peter, however, orders Bean to stay behind and gives a packet of sealed instructions to Suriyawong. Bean, seeing through it immediately, realizes what's happening; in a moment of monumental stupidity, Peter decided to liberate Achilles from Chinese prison. Which was why he ordered Bean to stay behind: if he had let Bean lead the operation, Bean would have sooner shot Achilles rather than rescue him. Bean leaves Peter the Hegemon's employ due to Peter's liberation of Achilles, and goes into hiding with Petra Arkanian to avoid Achilles and the threat that he presents. Petra, by now, is romantically interested in Bean, and drops a much-less-than-subtle hint that she wants to marry him. Bean, does not want to get married because he does not want to pass his genetic defect on to his children, but Petra convinces him to marry her by taking him to talk to Anton, the man who discovered Anton's key. They go to see Volescu, who can supposedly perform tests to identify embryos with Anton's key turned and those without it. Bean and Petra have nine embryos created via in-vitro fertilization, and Volescu pretends to identify and destroy three embryos with Anton's key. At this point Petra realizes that Volescu is lying about detecting the gene, but does not inform Bean so that he will allow the implantation of an embryo in Petra. As Petra and Bean leave the hospital in separate taxis, Bean is subject to an assassination attempt from Achilles, but is rescued by men presumably sent by Alai, the new Caliph of the Muslim world. Bean learns from these men that Volescu was working for Achilles all along, and has stolen the remaining embryos. Bean and Petra go into hiding with Alai, working to find their lost embryos, as well as helping Alai with his plans to liberate India from Chinese control. Achilles, who has not lost his desire to kill Bean, lures Bean back to the Hegemony compound, which he has taken over, with the prospect of obtaining the missing embryos. Bean goes, along with Peter and four bodyguards, into the Hegemony compound and confronts Achilles. After Bean confirms his nagging suspicion that Achilles does not have the embryos, he suspecting that the embryos have already been implanted in other women. For the coup de grace, Bean takes revenge for all his murdered friends, and shoots Achilles in the head, killing him. He later reunited with his wife, Petra, and they begin searching for their lost children.

[edit] Shadow of the Giant

In this novel, Bean is around sixteen years old (the age is unknown because Volescu destroyed all of his records). Anton's Key has caused his body to undergo rapidly accelerated growth; he is becoming a giant, and is nicknamed the African Giant by the Rwandans, due to his noticeably African features. Bean's time on Earth is very limited; there is simply not enough time left to him to find a cure.

As commander, Bean plays a pivotal role in helping Peter unite the world under the Hegemony. Peter creates the Free People of Earth (FPE) organization. To join, the population of a country must hold plebiscites to vote to ratify the FPE constitution as their own. Once part of the FPE, a country is protected by FPE military forces. Rwanda is one of the earliest countries to agree to join FPE. However, Felix Starman, the head of Rwanda, requests that Giant Julian lead the Rwandan army. Aside from Bean being the greatest military mind in human history, having a commander with some African heritage and features would play to the patriotic side of the Rwandan soldiers. Bean turns the Rwandan army into an irresistible force. The effectiveness of his leadership initially frightens many countries into holding plebiscites to discuss joining FPE rather than getting defeated by an army Bean commands.

From the advice of the Minister of Colonization Graff, Bean follows in Ender's footsteps to live at relativistic light-speed along with three of his children who share his disorder, in the hope that a cure can be found for the condition, while Petra and Bean's five 'normal' children remain on Earth. It is revealed that a ninth child of Bean's, who also has Anton's Key, was birthed by and is under the care of a woman named Randi, who plans to take the child with her to a colony world and raise him as Achilles' heir. By the end of the novel decades later, a cure has still not been discovered, and it is unknown how Bean lives the remainder of his life, nor is the fate of Bean's ninth child revealed.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series
Battle School	Petra Arkanian  · Bean  · Han Tzu  · Alai  · Achilles de Flandres  · Ender's jeesh and other Battle School students
Ender's family	Ender Wiggin  · John Paul Wiggin  · Peter Wiggin  · Theresa Wiggin  · Valentine Wiggin
Other	Han Qing-jao  · Si Wang-mu  · Jane  · The Hive Queen  · International Fleet personnel
Books  · Characters  · Concepts