Bean (Ender's Game)

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.

Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow

Bean was born in Rotterdam as the result of an illegal experiment in genetic engineering conducted by a scientist named Volescu. Along with Bean the scientist made another child named Fitzhugh. In the experiment, Volescu turned "Anton's Key," which potentially allows for nearly unlimited intelligence, but in turn prevents his physical growth from stopping; this uninhibited growth would eventually produce giantism and Bean's heart would give out, killing him. Bean's parents, Grecians Julian and Elena Delphiki, had conceived one child (Nikolai Delphiki), through in-vitro fertilization. The other embryos were stolen by Julian Sr.'s half brother Volescu, who turned Anton's Key in some or all of the 23 stolen embryos. When Bean was only about a year old, the government found out and Volescu "discarded" all of the babies (euthanizing them and having the babies' bodies incinerated) except Bean, who escaped by crawling into a toilet tank and hiding there for days before being rescued by a janitor. After a short time living with the janitor, Bean wandered out onto the streets of Rotterdam. Around the age of four, Bean joins Poke's Crew. This crew is a group of homeless children living on the streets of Rotterdam. Bean demonstrates his intelligence and worth to Poke, who in turn feeds him and thus saves his life. His meal is a few peanuts, and he acquires his lifelong nickname by Poke saying that 'he wasn't worth a bean'. Bean devises a plan to get more food for the crew by recruiting a bully to get them into the soup kitchen. Poke chooses Achilles, who is the one of the lowest individuals in the bully hierarchy due to his clubfoot. Bean, however, realizes exactly what Achilles is, and warns Poke to kill him immediately ("If you don't kill him, he's going to kill you." "It's your life or his. Kill him and take the next guy"). She shows Achilles the same mercy she showed Bean, however, and spares Achilles' life. Achilles eventually becomes the crew's "papa" and carries out the plan successfully, allowing all of the orphans to get food. This, however, allows Achilles to turn the children's loyalties toward him, eventually draining all of Poke's authority and leaving her powerless in her crew. Bean, through all this, remembers that Achilles hates anyone who sees him in a position of helplessness, and will eventually take revenge for it. When Achilles begins contemplating killing Bean, however, Poke intervenes, and meets with Achilles at night to make a deal with him (although Achilles, of course, has a different view of the events and of Bean). Bean, because of the conversation they had a few minutes before, witnesses this and follows them for a while, but he sees the two kissing. Thinking that he was wrong, he starts to walk home. Then he realizes his mistake. Achilles despised anyone who saw him in a position of helplessness, and someone who actually put him in such a position would be at the top of his death list. Bean turns back to try to save Poke from her impending death. When he gets there, Achilles is gone, but he sees Poke's body floating in the river. This causes Bean incredible guilt, and losing those to whom he owes a lot becomes a theme that runs throughout the book and its sequels. Meanwhile, Bean and Achilles are noticed by Sister Carlotta, a nun who recruits children for the International Fleet's (IF) Battle School. Sister Carlotta discovers that Bean was actually the mastermind behind the plan to create civilization among the street urchins, and also that Bean and Achilles cannot both be sent to Battle School because that action would result in one killing the other. She gets Bean into Battle School and (due to his malice and evil) hides Achilles in a school on Earth in hopes that the IF will not find him and decide to send him to Battle School. Although Bean's test scores and intelligence far exceed those of any other Battle School student— including Ender Wiggin's— Bean is both the smallest and youngest child in the school. He keeps to himself, but shows an intense interest in Ender, the school's most successful and well-known student, because everyone is comparing Bean to him. He does his best to hide his obsession with Wiggin, however. The first friend Bean makes in the school is another boy in his launch group, Nikolai Delphiki. The first person Bean meets outside of his own launch group is Petra Arkanian, a friend of Ender Wiggin. During his stay at Battle School, Bean explores the school and eavesdrops on teachers by crawling through the ventilation system. After a few months, Colonel Graff recruits Bean to create an army from scratch for Ender; this becomes Dragon Army. Ender is rather mean to Bean at first, but a partnership emerges between the two geniuses. While Bean has greater intelligence (Ender is the only student to approach Bean's intellectual level), Ender has the ability to lead and to inspire personal loyalty among his fellow students. After the initial small fights, Ender uses Bean's intellect by assigning him an "ad hoc" toon to come up with crazy stunts, flashy strategies that might come in handy in the battleroom as the teachers keep changing the rules to be biased against Ender's army. After Ender kills Bonzo, Ender effectively quits the game and relies on Bean to plan and execute his final Battle School battle, which is against two armies at once. Dragon Army wins when Bean's toon goes through the enemy's gate early in the battle, although with very few of the enemy frozen and very few of Dragon Army not frozen. After the battle, the teachers make a rule that all enemy soldiers must be frozen or disabled before an army can go for their gate. Later that day, Ender (along with many of the other commanders) is graduated, and Dragon army is dissolved. Bean is put in command of Rabbit Army. In his first day in command, Bean receives a new student in his army; the very last person on Earth he wanted to see again. Achilles. After Achilles subtly attempts to co-opt Bean's control of the army, Bean takes control and orders a member of his army to help Achilles get acquainted with the school, embarrassing Achilles in the process. Bean knows that this action will result in Achilles eventually trying to kill him, so Bean comes up with a plan to get him sent back to Earth. He tells Achilles that the reason Ender was so good was that he spied on the teachers and other armies with him and knew all of their plans. With the help of a small group of other soldiers, Bean has Achilles trapped in the air intake system, hanging by some deadline. They record Achilles' confession of the series of murders he committed. Achilles is immediately sent back to Earth, and eventually to a mental hospital. After a short time, Bean has his first battle. He loses all of his five battles, as he is more interested in training his soldiers and learning from the other commanders than winning. Bean is picked for Ender's "jeesh" (a term coined by Card meaning a group, possibly from the Arabic Jaesh, meaning Army) and sent to Tactical School to train for the Third Invasion. Bean is the second choice for commander in case Ender could not do it. In Tactical School, Bean and the rest of the jeesh study the ships that are being used for the invasion. They are older models, since the ships that will be used were launched soon after the Second Invasion. The group is soon sent to Command School, to train with simulators of the final battles. During this time, Bean is used as the commander. The other children resent him at first for it, but later find great respect. When Bean's simulator breaks down, the technician tells Bean that they did not bother programming in a time lag. Bean then realizes that the lack of a light speed lag in the simulations is intentional, meaning that the IF has the technology to send communications faster than the speed of light. He realizes that at any time, the games that they are playing can become real battles in the Third Invasion without their knowledge. Ender later arrives, and Bean plays the pivotal role of watching the flow of the battle and essentially being a second pair of eyes and ears for Ender. As the battles wear on and Ender tires, Bean begins to take a bigger role, translating unclear instructions. Bean is given the opportunity to take control of Ender's position as commander at any time. Some of the jeesh, such as Crazy Tom, also run their battle plans through Bean. In the final battle, neither Ender nor Bean can see any way to win; Bean remarks, "The enemy's gate is down," an instruction Ender had given to his army back in Battle School. This sparks an idea in Ender's mind, and he gives orders for a suicide run in order to launch their ultimate weapon, nicknamed "Dr. Device" or "Little Doctor", against the planet. More and more of the ships are shot down, and, because of the atmosphere, they are breaking apart. Bean tells his last ship to set off the Little Doctor inside it, and the planet is destroyed. After the battle, Colonel Graff asks Bean why he didn't take control from Ender. Bean responds by saying simply that he couldn't think of anything and he just hoped that Ender could. Once the jeesh wipes out the Buggers, there is an attempted Russian takeover of the IF. A few days later, the children, except for Ender, return to Earth. Bean is introduced to his biological parents, whom Sister Carlotta had found, and learns that Colonel Graff had been telling the truth after all when he'd said that Nikolai was Bean's brother and that Bean would be given the name Julian Delphiki.

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.

Shadow Puppets

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. 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 and confirms his suspicion that Achilles does not have the embryos, suspecting that the embryos have already been implanted in other women. He shoots Achilles in the head, killing him. He later reunited with his wife, Petra, and they begin searching for their lost children.

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 to find a cure in the time left to him. 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.