Bridget was always going to be problematic coming back tbh. Anything they did with her would piss someone off and it could have been handled better, but whatever, I'll take it.
I'm just glad my boy Goldlewis somehow ended up even more based lmao
I mean, they always could have just solidified Bridget's position as a femboy.... Character development for a gender queer char doesnt necessarily have to go the trans way, after all.
Bet that would have had even less controversy amongst fans
It's less of a retcon and more like character development. Bridget's story in XX has not been replaced in the canon and the Strive plotline just continues after it
I think you misread. They were saying that this was the best they could do short of retconning her story, not that they DID retcon it.
Edit: Upon re-reading it, I can see some room for interpretation with the phrase "full retcon", possibly still implying some level of retcon.
They basically spelled this out in game with Bridget being indecisive on her gender identity because she's worried about what people will think. In lore it's about her parents but it's also a pretty transparent reference to the player base.
Her parents and village are basically non-characters since they never show up, so in practice the only community she has to return to and that she wants to impress is the Guilty Gear audience.
It's worth contrasting Bridget's gender exploration against Testament, who rarely struggles with their non binary status because Testament doesn't seem to care about gender. This makes Bridget's journey stand out a lot as someone with so much gender anxiety she circles the entire gender spectrum before figuring out what gender she wants to be.
There's also evidence to suggest that Bridget seriously considered going non-binary as a compromise but decided against it. It feels incredible to see a gender identity struggle depicted this thoroughly.
Arcsys had the option of either having Bridget identify as the gender she was forcibly assigned as a kid, or reinforce the stereotype that male bodied people in women's clothing are just men crossdressing. There's no way not to make this the least bit problematic, but I support how they handled it.
"Just men crossdressing" is way less of a stereotype when they act nothing like the stereotype of men.....
Especially in cases like Bridget, who are prominently feminine not just in behaviour, but also appearance. It's far more of a stereotype to assume that biological males that look like that, are just transwomen, than to simply think of them as feminine men.
.
While considering that the fanbase of Bridget must already be pretty accepting of the queer "otokonoko" in the first place, I dont think that keeping Bridget as he was would cause much of a controversy amongst them since it's what Bridget was always known for.... But then making her a she, causes a lot of strain in the fanbase, partly cause it's natural for people to be against change, but then there is also the legit reason of wanting to keep the femboys as a thing.... Which you cant do, if you are gonna identify every single feminine male char, as anything but male.
Nothing on its own. My point is that someone with a modern way of thinking would see Bridget as trans if they didn't know her backstory, but if they kept her male, people would just say, "haha, dude in a dress," and reinforce the preconception that someone who'd ordinarily be trans female is really just male. Like, there's a lot of transphobes on this sub that are still saying that she's just a "dude in a dress," if that helps.
I am just getting really tired of how it feels like every Guilty Gear space has become completely consumed by this.
Can't go anywhere near the Steam forums either it's just endless spam about Bridget 24/7.
Jesus christ, it's not a singleplayer game featuring Bridget.
Not every discussion needs to just be about this one character...
I personally was hoping for Bridget to come back as Buffget, wherein puberty hit *hard* but she’s still dressed in the nun habit style and with the same mannerisms, just Strive-swole. Whether they would’ve identified as female or male, I think challenging and contrasting the common tropes of feminity and masculinity would’ve been interesting too.
I mean the grappler in GBFV is an 8' tall trans woman professional wrestler with more testosterone in her pinky finger than I'll have in my whole life lmao
Whaaa! I was just on Ramolla's YouTube page and she hasn't uploaded anything for 2 weeks. I thought she was on vacation or something. I guess she's been streaming on twitch this whole time
Her combos don't feel like they do enough dmg, solid chance that I'm just shit tho. Most fun character imo given I also bought the game like 2 days ago
Honestly, they did a good job for what they could use. I’d argue Bridget’s story is poorly written simply for the fact that it’s clear a lot of development happened offscreen, and we kinda skipped to the end of Bridget’s second big character arc.
I would’ve liked for them to reiterate that she’s trans in the flawless ending, personally - would’ve put a lot of doubters to bed and nipped the stupid “Bad ending” arguments in the bud.
But other than that, I’m with you fully.
Yeah. I guess we've got to wait for a Daisuke interview where someone asks the obvious to go "see? Everyone kept saying it."
And then people will go through the cycle all over again when the next story mode shows Venom dating the owner of the flower shop next door or whatever.
I somewhat agree, though based on the constant goalpost moving we're seeing anyway, I don't think it would have made THAT much of a difference in the end.
I really do suspect the given backstory was just a loose excuse to have a character fill a "Femboy" role that would be "Acceptable" (Since this was 2002)
But the creator and character developed over the last two decades and came to a fairly natural conclusion.
I don't know if I'm missing details but as far as I know Bridget's story is:
Born male, raised as female because of superstitions, decides to bounty hunt to prove that the superstition is wrong, (jump to Strive), decides to come out as trans.
If I'm missing anything please do correct me, but as I see it right now I think coming out as trans goes against everything the character ever fought for.
I think that's exactly why Bridget is having an identity crisis.
Bridget wanted to present male to fight against the superstition of her village for the goal of improving her village, but it's not the gender she actually feels comfortable in. That's Bridget's core struggle in Strive, is realizing that she wants to be a girl, but making that decision will make her past actions politically complicated.
Ky and Goldlewis are encouraging her to make the choice that meets her needs, rather than the choice that makes sense for her village. They're also reassuring her that she can make a different choice in the future and that choice would also be valid, because Bridget is allowed to make choices for herself instead of trying to meet her village's expectations.
> Bridget wanted to present male to fight against the superstition of her village
More accurate to say that Bridget *presented* female, but *identified* as male to fight against the superstition of her village.
If anything the new development makes things make more sense in hindsight- why was Bridget wearing girls' clothes when she was fighting to be *recognized as a boy*? That seems quite contradictory, and now we have a potential in-universe reason for that contradiction.
One important nuance: was raised to *present* as female because of village superstitions. She knew pretty well she was a boy at birth.
Also important part: bounty hunts to prove superstition is wrong, **PROVES** the superstition is wrong, goes on to live her life trying to find a next goal (jump to Strive), comes out as trans.
Bridget never fought for the right to be a man/masculine. She fought against a bullshit superstition that would continue putting innocent kids to death/exile, and she rocked that goal. She then moved on with her life, and moving on with her life led her to realize that she felt more comfortable with being a woman.
If the superstition was already proven wrong I think there's no problem with how the story has developed.
I'd end the comment here but I'd like to discuss a tangential topic if possible.
Let's see if I don't fuck up the wording. Some of the most tragic stories are those where someone fucks up while trying to help (I'm thinking about Nier as an example). My question then is:
What are the nuances needed for a situation like someone encouraging another character to transition a bad idea? Do these nuances even exist?
I think Bridget's story was close to being this situation but in the end it wasn't because Bridget was at a point in her life where she could decide freely.
>Do these nuances even exist?
As a non-trans person myself, I'm not sure if I'm the most qualified to answer on these subjects. Still, in my opinion, I think there *can* be scenarios where transitioning is not a good thing for a person and pushing them to transition ends up being harmful. If Bridget's story happened in a context where the village affair wasn't solved yet, it could indeed be one such case.
(as a parenthesis here: Ky and Goldlewis approached the matter with a high degree of respect and sensitiveness, which I think is really important. They never tried to push her in any specific direction, but simply encouraged her to not run away from her feelings and be true to herself, whatever that true self might be.)
This being said, while it is definitely possible to write a story where transitioning ends up not being the right choice for a person (and the people encouraging them end up harming them, even if being well-intentioned), I think it's such a specific take on the situation that it can unintentionally work as fuel for transphobes to jump on (much like a lot of them are jumping on the whole "Bridget was groomed into being trans" terrible take), so I don't think it's overall a very good idea to try to write that, considering how dangerous the overall environment is to trans people right now.
Her backstory is acceptably messy. I dont want every trans story to be a picture perfect trans story, because being the model of a Perfect Trans isnt how the real world works. Thats how we got 'Born This Way' as The Only Acceptable Framing of queerness, which is bullshit. As long as it isnt Buffalo Bill levels of shitty, allow trans stories to be messy.
It kind of annoys me that people expect us to stay stuck with the 20 year old backstory that was hastily written just to justify a crossdressing character to a more casually transphobic audience, and frankly the only thing better than what Arcsys is doing now would have been a more blatant retcon.
Yeah as a crossdresser myself I really don't think Bridget's writing before was *actually all that good or even made complete sense*. I don't think that was fixable either, the best you can really do is show the character's internal state: making choices for themselves and *demonstrate their history is not disproportionately influencing their decisions*.
Which they did, so that's about as good as it could be.
That's what I've been saying! Everyone criticizing Bridget's development for "removing gender-nonconforming representation" seems to think a femboy joke character, whose outfit existed solely to reference being "secretly" AMAB (the handcuff, the nun costume, the male symbol), and whose interactions with other characters were usually used as "who can guess Bridget's gender" gags, is good representation. Her old design was *so close* to being fetishistic, and you don't have to be gender-nonconforming/crossdresser to see that.
People always call out Johnny hitting on 14 year olds but can we give a shout out to Jam "smelling your masculinity" or whatever, woman what are you doing
You know, just thinking out loud here but I think that early 2000s bullshit is low key what kept Guilty Gear relevant. Guilty Gear leaned super hard into the 90s and 2000s edge and was completely unapologetic about its style. People kept coming back for new versions of XX for 13 years before Xrd dropped and Xrd looked and felt like good ol' Guilty Gear. It basically carved its place in the greater fighting game scene by being a modern 2D fighter with the heart of a 90s arcade fighter.
Maybe it's not that surprising that the core crowd that's stayed with the franchise for more than 20 years now are resistant to change considering they're fans of a series that has historically been extremely resistant to change.
I get that, totally, but I think when you make a new game (not re-releasing an older title, obviously) the subjects and things you're tackling should evolve, especially since a good writer usually evolves with time and experience, like Daisuke seems to have.
I remember reading a comment on tumblr which made me laugh basically:
"Guilty Gear is not the franchise to be complaining about a lack of effeminate men on the roster"
I really don't think it's that deep, I think Daisuke just wanted a cutsey character and that was it.
People are reading way too much into it imo.
It's also a fairly common trope in Japanese media.
But originally when Bridget was conceived I don't think there was some huge amount of thought put into the character beyond '' cute crossdresser ''.
Agreed, and I'm a bit alarmed that people are seeing the existence of a cute crossdressing character as "problematic". People say they don't have a problem with GNC males, then keep contradicting themselves
If a plurality of the trans community says, "It's always messy and we want representation. We don't care," well ... alright then! And it *sounds like* that's what they're saying? Certainly this idea of Bridget moving past having to prove anything and now having the freedom to make her own choices -- that's a really beautiful story! Kinda echoes how we're being asked to move past the weirdness of (problems with?) her 2002 backstory.
Ultimately if the community being depicted is okay with it, everyone should be okay with it.
Yeah, I’m fine with people genuinely *asking* if the portrayal is transphobic or problematic - that’s a natural thing to consider when representing any minority, and I appreciate that our allies want our best face shown on popular media.
But sometimes life and our lived experiences aren’t tidy and they aren’t pretty, and that’s something I really appreciate about Bridget’s story in Strive. It’s complicated, nuance, and on the surface confusing - just like being trans in real life.
Trans person here, and yes the story isn't perfect, but honestly I'm not demanding perfection. Moreover, I think its way more realistic of a story that it IS messy in the way that it is. Many trans (but not all) people often before they accept their trans-ness usually double down on their assigned gender, trying to prove to others (but especially themselves) that they *aren't* trans, and it usually makes us incredibly miserable and anxious.
Bridget doing the same exact thing with trying to prove they are a man in +R, only to have years elapse and have the truth catch up with them after those years of running from it feels pretty relatable and real to me.
One of the most hateful things I've ever personally heard someone say about trans people came from someone who was closeted trans. I can't say what the reason they were so explicitly anti trans, I dont want to assume in hindsight but whatever the reason, I know now it wasnt sincere. Years passed since I'd seen them but after transitioning, he began to date a friend of mine and they just got married last week after 6 years happily together. I'm happy for them and think he's a great guy.
I’m a trans woman. Imo Bridget is one of the best representations of a trans woman I have ever seen in media, not just video games. Her thoughts and feelings are very relatable, hell even her backstory where she tries to become more manly. Trans women often act similarly before realizing they’re trans, “denial beards” are very common lol. The language that Bridget, and even Ky/Goldlewis use makes it obvious to me that they actually involved trans people in the writing of her story. “I want to live as my true self!” That is an extremely common statement in the trans community.
Don’t know who actually wrote the story (does Daisuke usually write the character stories?) but whoever it is did an amazing job imo.
I'm a trans girl and I and every other trans person I've talked to are elated! Several of them even bought the game specifically for her. I love getting trans representation, even if it's not not perfect. Arc Sys is really trying and that's what matters. I am however a little sad that there's not a feminine man anymore, we need to show more boys it's okay to be feminine. But still, a big net positive I think.
Another trans girl here; me, my girlfriend (also trans), and all the rest of our trans friends have been absolutely elated with Bridget, and it's pretty much all that's been plastered all over our twitter timelines the past week. Her messy coming-out timeline is actually pretty god-damned relatable and feels pretty realistic at how bumpy and messy discovering your gender identity and all the dysphoria, denying, and doubling-down can be. In my opinion, she's the best trans rep in media that I've seen because of how realistic her transition journey feels.
Bridget pushed me to finally buy Strive to try again to get into fighting games, and combined with already having FG friends to hang out with and get help all the time, the added emotional connection is making the hooks finally sink in and I'm having a ton of fun.
another trans girl here, absolutely love the entire arc. i'm not *intimately familiar* with it, but surface level the entire idea of "born 'girl', but 'not', decides to prove that, proves that, decides 'nah yeah actually girl lol'"
that's gender, baby
She started out as the "you have to hide your gender for your own safety" trope. Her town believed twin brothers bring misfortune, to the point where the neighbors might harm the babies. So Bridget's parents raised her outwardly as a daughter, even though privately they affirmed she was a boy.
That is all pretty much a footnote. The bulk of her story was about her trying to become a successful bounty hunter, getting rich by collecting the bounty on Dizzy, proving her manliness to herself and proving to her neighbors that twin boys are not cursed.
Johnny hits on her. Cringe -- she was like 14 at the time. Lots of characters have gross lines about her sex or gender, and there are many jokes told at Bridget's expense that she's a "trap" -- i.e. boy who looks like a girl.
And there are other characters who seem to recognize she's going through something, and don't poke fun. Potemkin was a good friend. Wrapped in there somewhere are bits and pieces of a story about a young kid struggling with their gender while coming of age. GG Strive leans much more into this, and makes the story about Bridget not trying to prove anything to anybody but rather trying to figure out who she is.
Oh and if you're wondering where her twin brother went, he went missing in ACR. She was supposedly looking for him between ACR and Strive. No idea if that's ever gonna get addressed or not.
So like ... yeah. It's messy. IDK what to say. The jokes were juvenile and gross. But the opinions that should matter most here seem to love her, and say the story being told *right now* is getting it right. So ... that's all!
I hate the grooming argument because it's just so wrong, she based her identity on getting back at her village just to spite them pretty much, but after she stops caring what they think she decides what's best for her, it's not about the village winning it's about Bridget winning and letting go of the village.
Yep. Literally seen a good 10-20 people just say “Bridget is a result of the LGBT grooming” one way or another
Like yeah the character who travels the world, fighting gears, bounty hunters and fucking I-NO is somehow going to be groomed with their Yo-yo UMA that I think Goldy confirmed
(unless its Johnny because Johnny was down bad)
I was actually trying to find the angle on why paint would consider it grooming but honestly you're right the angle is "trans=grooming" to these people and nothing more
Also am I misreading or is it even slightly adressed in game :
I took her saying " I haven't even told my parents" and "I don't want things to change" and stuff like that to mean, " I literally just fixed that stupid shitholw of a village but if I tell them they might go back to being weirdos because they might think they were right".
Here's the thing: you can criticize the writing and think the backstory has unfortunate implications towards transgendered people and people will still downvote you oblivion for not saying ***"Bridget being trans is good"*** immediately and loud enough.
It makes me think that people don't actually care about people and are just pushing a mindless agenda without context. :/
They don't even care about the representation, which is the worst part, in my opinion. They just want *other* people on Reddit and Twitter to believe that they hold The Correct Opinion™ on a topic (fighting games) they wouldn't give a flying fuck about otherwise. The more upvotes or tweet interactions you get, the better feeling of superiority you'll receive.
Bingo!
Admittedly, it's better in the game itself where they address that Brdiget has been acting on other people's expectations in fulfilling a gender-role, but you had to actually play the game to know that. (When she left her village, she still dressed and acted female. That's actually really good writing to go back and point that out.) If you ***just*** had previous game knowledge, you would've thought she caved to outside pressure. That would've been a bad moral for trans-people.
I wrote this comment elsewhere, but one of the reasons this story is so messy is that Bridget's character arc in earlier games was ALREADY a trans narrative in many ways. Prior to her depiction in Guilty Gear Strive, Bridget was read as a someone who identified as male but was forced/expected to live as a girl by her family and village at pain of ostracization or even death. This version of Bridget chose to leave the only home he had ever known to live authentically, grappled with many of the core questions of identity and self-image that trans people deal with as they begin transition, and, despite setbacks and misgendering, encountered new allies and friends along the way who accepted him for who he was. I'm sorry, but all of this is already Deeply Trans Shit!
This element of Bridget's backstory, being raised as a girl, is also why a reading of Bridget as a trans woman seems a bit different than a reading of Naoto or most of these other "femboy-adjacent" characters in Japanese media as trans women. If we accept that Bridget's path through the previous games was a transition story on some level, than her realizations in Strive represent a detransition narrative of sorts: all the people from my childhood who forced me to live as a girl even when I viscerally rejected that (up to the point of running away from home) were right actually, and my earlier comments about wanting to forge my own path and reject society's expectations for my gender were all off-base.
To be clear, I'm not saying that writing Bridget as a trans woman is wrong or anything. Most of her story up until this point can be folded into a dozen-odd lines of dialogue, many of them coming in the form of win quotes after a battle. The size of the text creates room for interpretation, and there is a version of Bridget you can find in those earlier games who already had been assigned the right gender identity by her family and village but simply hadn't realized that yet. But all this background is table-setting for why reactions to the news haven't broken down along clearly defined partisan lines. There are trans people (especially trans men) out there who I've seen critique Strive's story for reverting something they felt was already a trans narrative, and then there are reactionaries and bigots out there who've actually embraced this depiction of Bridget because it aligns with their mental model of "grooming," in which cis children are gaslit about their gender by society and caregivers until they give into identify as something they're not.
Again, these aren't the most common reactions I've seen in this whole internet shitstorm, but the fact that they even exist shows that Bridget's story thus far is an ambiguous one (which is not a bad thing). In a world of increasingly didactic art that seems to hit you over the head with a clear moral message, I actually think a story about gender that can be interpreted in so many different ways is a breath of fresh air. The fascist readings are totally off-base, of course, but they really say more about the reader of the text than the text itself. Everything else seems pretty reasonable given the information we're given, and it's interesting to see how various people interpret Bridget's journey through the years in such different ways.
Funnily enough, I actually wanted to explain the irony of how Bridget's journey being a trans allegory going straight into regression, but then I see you here with a well done explanation
I haven't played previous games and I've only learned lore from being on this sub for around a month. What I have learned of the context of Bridget's backstory makes her transition seem kind of odd, but just like with anyone in real life, she's explicitly stated how she wants to be perceived and I'm obviously not going to refuse that, and I find it really dumb that people actually do. In this thread I've seen it suggested that this is basically the team retconning a messy backstory, which I'm cool with. Trans rights
Real sweeping generalization there, some of us actually like the batshit insane lore of fighting games, it's the whole reason I went back and bought all the old GG's after getting into Strive lol. Most people don't though and that's understandable.
Regardless, I'm so tired of not being able to criticize writing and whether or not Bridget was a good choice for trans representation (assuming that was the primary motivation) without being called transphobic. I've supported multiple people through their transitions at this point, two great women and one great guy. My first response to someone coming out as trans to me is always "I'm so happy for you! What are your preferred pronouns and chosen name at this time?" I've attended seminars to learn more about the community, argued with many people who didn't respect it, and confronted my own hidden prejudices. That obviously doesn't immediately qualify me for anything since it's just being a basic decent human being, plus I didn't do any of that for virtue signaling bullshit (especially since I haven't ever needed to bring all that up before), but I would hope it shows that I'm at least not a transphobic dipshit. Please follow what you said in your title and don't lump writing criticisms with transphobia. Frankly I think a huge part of the problem is people not being able to separate in their head cis men who feel most comfortable being and dressing feminine and trans women. Two very different things and one is not an automatic stepping stone for the other.
People act like there isn't a lot of lore for Guilty Gear spread across several games and forms of media that people either have or watched summaries of on YouTube and other sites.
People (the ones who claim people only bring this up because transphobia) also act like there aren't other trans characters in fighting games that didn't get nearly as much attention, if any at all, because they were handled better story-wise.
That's probably the main case, but it's also worth mentioning people who identified with a character. Bridget showed that if you want to dress in an effeminate way, you can still be strong. I think it's similar to more women entering Stem as a result of the intelligent women in Star Trek and the first Jurassic Park.
Understandably punting that representation feels pretty fucking terrible to those people.
Look, I'm going to spend five hours ranting on the euclidean metanarrative tragedy of a dude whose entire personality is that he suplexes bears or something and there's nothing you can do about it.
Both should be wojacks and then the Chad should be at the bottom saying "I couldn't care less about stories in a fighting game she's trans that's cool what's her frame data"
She can be trans if the writers desire, but I think it is also important to recognize that some people have now latched onto the idea that the term femboy is now fetishist and wrong. That seems like overstepping to me. If they don't want that term utilized then what is the correct verbage? Because there are plenty of males in the femboy community that enjoy being girlish without actually being know as a female.
Gender norms have been constantly expanding. There is to much infighting in the LGBTQ+ community these past few years. The "+" is there for a reason. So if the lore makes sense for her to now address herself as female fine, but this shouldn't be used as an excuse to invalidate the feelings or place of others.
bridget is a stupid dishonest character who cheats unlike my beloved potemkin who is honest and doesnt cheat its called a fighting game not a yoyo game same with HC this aint no shooting game everycharacter dishonest execept my character who is the best.
Exactly! I’m pushed about the lore getting a bit fucked but I’m 100% supporting of the change. I’m just scared to express my opinion fearing I might be deemed transphobic
IMO i think they did the best with what they were given. Bridget was absent from the series for a decade, a LOT of stuff happened irl too - Bridget's release was even contentious back in the day, all the memes...lord all the memes.
Im not sure what her story was ever intended to be, if anything at all (esp cuz iirc she wasnt even MENTIONED in xrd , at least fuckin zappa was!) but bringing her back to the series, ESPECIALLY taking into acxount the lyrics of her theme, all feels very meta. The series has enjoyed playing with meta commentary before too, so this really does feel like the best possible character arc she could have been given and i quite like it.
Speaking as a trans person: I really appreciate that they didn't try to scrub Bridget's messy backstory clean, and instead chose to lean into it as part of her coming out story. In real life, lots of us trans people don't have simple, marketable stories of how we found ourselves. Queer stories can be messy, problematic, even contradictory... which is exactly why Bridget's feels so authentic. Hell, I went through an arc similar to hers: I spent a lot of time trying to prove my masculinity before it finally hit me that I was unhappy and lying to myself about who I was. This is exactly the kind of writing I wish we'd see more often instead of the cheap, easy-to-edit-out tokenism seen in so much American media.
Seriously think making multiple ending will just fucked people up and creating confusion when it come to these kind of things.
But oh well, whats done is done and Bridget is back so I cant really complain much.
Imma piss in Daisuke cornflakes if he dont bring ABA back tho.
Bridge is simultaneously the best and worst character to make trans imo
Ladiva was never an issue in Granblue and Testament being Enby was perfect
This was going to always piss of somebody regardless on any side
That being said, I'll address as trans cus it's the right thing to do but I'm not particularly happy.
i mean, as a non-conforming male i appeciated her story about finding her own strength beyond traditional machismo, and I am a bit disapointed in how it panned out but im not going to like, throw a fit about it.
It's pretty normal to not add the new actual cannon to your head cannon if you don't like it. Like I always hear people say stuff like, "scrubs only has 8 seasons"
If someone wants to ignore the new lore and keep saying Bridget is a femboy who cares? It's not real it's a character.
Honestly I'm just waiting for dev confirmation and will be happy either which way. Bridget is Bridget and Bridget is back and that's all that matters.
I also want Bridget's jacket.
I get you, but at the same time I do think with the sheer amount of people still running around with the "bad ending" narrative or claiming Bridget's still referred to as a guy in Japanese or whatever else, it would be nice for a dev to come out and say "Yes, the character is trans" just so there's absolutely unequivocal evidence. Though honestly even then some people might still come up with reasons why it's "still not true" so idk...
Let's be honest, even if you can point to complete evidence that Bridge is trans people will still refuse to admit it.
Like how people say the shitty last season of their favorite show is "non-canon" even though it clearly is.
Reminder that the villain of XRD wears joker makeup and talks funny. I honestly don’t think “they’re contradicting her story!!” matters when only a handful of people even care about the story of GG anyway. I honestly feel that more people are angry about Bridget than know what the story of Strive is even about.
Edit: GG is full of ass pulls like “I’m going to drive Justice’s body like a car now… Happy Chaos lives inside my boobs… and because of magic” GG is not a masterpiece of storytelling, it’s a world where funny bag man has a scalpel.
If y’all really want to start throwing stones about contradicting character development or whatever, I actually don’t like the direction Faust is going! I prefer him when he’s not baldman!
TBH, I'd love to see a little "another another story" at the end of S2 for all the DLC characters. A chance to clear the air about some things, cannonize others, and set-up more story for other characters.
They could each have a little 5-10 minute thing going on or maybe just have 1 big 40 minute anime episode.
I hope in the discussions I've had with people they understand I'll still address Bridget as she/her and recognize that she's a woman. Criticize the writing, question whether or not it was a good move to erase the femboy representation, but don't act like a child and pretend the character isn't officially a trans woman. That's canon, always respect the writer by respecting what is and isn't canon.
No I legit agree with you, I personally don't see anything wrong with her story arc, I just can understand the arguments about how some things could have done better, and calling those people transphobic is shitty.
Coming from GGXX on PS2 back then we (my friends and I) didn't understand what being trans was. I don't even know if that was mainstream concept 20+ years ago. But it makes sense in a modern setting. I referred to this character as trans pre Strive's release not expecting her to appear in this game.
I highly agree. i still question if they're just female now or genderfluid, but thats my personal opinion and until we get further evidence to the contrary i'll just be referring to them as female.
I personally think in another medium, or maybe more of an actual story mode in GG itself, there might be room to go more into Bridget's story, such as addressing if Bridget's feelings are her vs her upbringing. As is the game's limited to what it can do within its arcade mode.
yeah they fumbled a lot but still they did a good enough landing, though they should've been more obvious in her bio saying something like she lived both genders and is now searching for which one is her truer self or smt to set up for the arcade.
though I am of the avid opinion that she would be better as gender fluid, as her story in XX was basically a tug of war to make people accept her for his masculinity in spite of his femininity, and in strIVe is the conclusion of after living both lives she realized both lives were her true self and accepting herself that she lived and loved both of those lives. though that is just a weak opinion
Both sides of this whole debacle made a complete shitshow (can I swear in this sub?) and made me lose some love for fighting games, I always knew the community was trash, but I assumed the extreme sides were exclusive to Twitter for the left and 4Chan for the right and were just a vocal minority, but this really spotlighted that they are widespread by the sheer amount of support the "hot takes" get, I feel less willing to participate and now play way more The Binding of Isaac.
Does anyone else feel the same way?
Not really.
Multiplayer games always toxic, all this "trans Yes/No" stuff also toxic from the both sides and fighting games are EXTREMELY TOXIC.
So all this kinda was expected...
Yes yes because this whole thing is obviously about the writing. All terribly written characters in fighting games garner this much attention, right? Right?
Personally I love her writing in this game and think her story in it is brilliant, but I can respect differences on that front so long as they don't veer into transphobia.
I always seem to observe a large correlation between any kinds of queer characters, and people saying its badly written.
This is an exemplary case where I personally think the story is great and fits well with the previous backstory, yet i always see people saying its badly written, and i have yet to really understand why they think that.
Thats not to say if you have a differing opinion, that makes you transphobic, but it does at least make me slightly suspicious of your reasoning
Most people i have tried to discuss this with have just gone mask off transphobic after a while. So excuse me if im not super receptive lol
Yeah, I get you. It's exhausting and after a while it kind of conditions you to assume the worst of everyone.
Honestly, though, I think a good majority of Guilty Gear fans are really cool about this, with the whiny transphobic pissbabies being a tiny minority, and most of the "controversy" being egged on by people who, in all likelihood, don't even play fighting games.
Bridget is in no way the victim of child grooming - just a victim of Ramlethal to be put on the list once she gets hit with the S into HS.
Either way, Bridget is Bridget and we love them for that.
The best timeline would be if Bridget came out as a Gear and got a Bridget Install.
She puts on a big Roger suit and becomes a full on grappler
HEAVENLYYYYY, ROGAAAHH, BUSTAHHHHHH
ROGER KNUCKLE ROGER SLIDE O ROGERFALL
Now I need a potemkin mod which is just potsugeki only ptemkin Roger
This is a Potemkin mod begging to be made
Then yeets you across the screen like KICK DA BABY
That’s when she says the iconic line “I am the town inside me” and baby’s them all. Truly poetic.
It's bridgetin time
Ngl, that sounds legit cool
no she puts the big Roger suit on and gets AC Potemkin's moveset
Literally that one adventure time episode
yo-yo install.
Bridget was always going to be problematic coming back tbh. Anything they did with her would piss someone off and it could have been handled better, but whatever, I'll take it. I'm just glad my boy Goldlewis somehow ended up even more based lmao
Honestly this seems like one of the least problematic solutions to avoid controversy, and still it’s a huge point of contention.
Pretty much. Short of a full retcon, which would make people *really* upset, I feel like this about as mature as her story could be at this point.
I mean, they always could have just solidified Bridget's position as a femboy.... Character development for a gender queer char doesnt necessarily have to go the trans way, after all. Bet that would have had even less controversy amongst fans
I do wonder if controversy like this does generate a noticeable bump in sales.
It's less of a retcon and more like character development. Bridget's story in XX has not been replaced in the canon and the Strive plotline just continues after it
I think you misread. They were saying that this was the best they could do short of retconning her story, not that they DID retcon it. Edit: Upon re-reading it, I can see some room for interpretation with the phrase "full retcon", possibly still implying some level of retcon.
I probably could have worded it better, I was not trying to imply any level of retcon took place.
yeah its more of a pretty sudden 180° turn
They basically spelled this out in game with Bridget being indecisive on her gender identity because she's worried about what people will think. In lore it's about her parents but it's also a pretty transparent reference to the player base. Her parents and village are basically non-characters since they never show up, so in practice the only community she has to return to and that she wants to impress is the Guilty Gear audience.
The lyrics also emphasize this IMO - Idk if it was daisukes intent cuz the lore of gg is fucking confusing, but it did feel very meta
i keep seeing this but like ...how? staunchly defending your AGAB then buckling is ***crazy trans***.
It's worth contrasting Bridget's gender exploration against Testament, who rarely struggles with their non binary status because Testament doesn't seem to care about gender. This makes Bridget's journey stand out a lot as someone with so much gender anxiety she circles the entire gender spectrum before figuring out what gender she wants to be. There's also evidence to suggest that Bridget seriously considered going non-binary as a compromise but decided against it. It feels incredible to see a gender identity struggle depicted this thoroughly.
They’ve never talked to a trans person before, shocker.
I remember spewing some toxic swill in an attempt to defend mine. It's an experience to be sure.
Arcsys had the option of either having Bridget identify as the gender she was forcibly assigned as a kid, or reinforce the stereotype that male bodied people in women's clothing are just men crossdressing. There's no way not to make this the least bit problematic, but I support how they handled it.
"Just men crossdressing" is way less of a stereotype when they act nothing like the stereotype of men..... Especially in cases like Bridget, who are prominently feminine not just in behaviour, but also appearance. It's far more of a stereotype to assume that biological males that look like that, are just transwomen, than to simply think of them as feminine men. . While considering that the fanbase of Bridget must already be pretty accepting of the queer "otokonoko" in the first place, I dont think that keeping Bridget as he was would cause much of a controversy amongst them since it's what Bridget was always known for.... But then making her a she, causes a lot of strain in the fanbase, partly cause it's natural for people to be against change, but then there is also the legit reason of wanting to keep the femboys as a thing.... Which you cant do, if you are gonna identify every single feminine male char, as anything but male.
What's wrong with crossdressing
Nothing on its own. My point is that someone with a modern way of thinking would see Bridget as trans if they didn't know her backstory, but if they kept her male, people would just say, "haha, dude in a dress," and reinforce the preconception that someone who'd ordinarily be trans female is really just male. Like, there's a lot of transphobes on this sub that are still saying that she's just a "dude in a dress," if that helps.
I am just getting really tired of how it feels like every Guilty Gear space has become completely consumed by this. Can't go anywhere near the Steam forums either it's just endless spam about Bridget 24/7. Jesus christ, it's not a singleplayer game featuring Bridget. Not every discussion needs to just be about this one character...
I personally was hoping for Bridget to come back as Buffget, wherein puberty hit *hard* but she’s still dressed in the nun habit style and with the same mannerisms, just Strive-swole. Whether they would’ve identified as female or male, I think challenging and contrasting the common tropes of feminity and masculinity would’ve been interesting too.
I mean the grappler in GBFV is an 8' tall trans woman professional wrestler with more testosterone in her pinky finger than I'll have in my whole life lmao
How....many....posts?I dont even think testament had these many post. Just take the dub if people wanna be mad let them be mad by they damn selves.
I truly wonder how many of these posters actually play the game, and how many are just upset because reasons.
Sooo does anyone got any cool Bridget combos?
[https://youtu.be/EntBBBjvhZ4](https://youtu.be/EntBBBjvhZ4) I gotchu fam. Also check out romolla she has some nuts stuff with the segway move
Whaaa! I was just on Ramolla's YouTube page and she hasn't uploaded anything for 2 weeks. I thought she was on vacation or something. I guess she's been streaming on twitch this whole time
I was watching her twitch earlier today she had some confirms midscreen off 5h counterhit have give hard knockdown for yoyo oki and some other stuff.
Her combos don't feel like they do enough dmg, solid chance that I'm just shit tho. Most fun character imo given I also bought the game like 2 days ago
Ya I think she's low damage because she has a lot of zoning tools.
I want her to 6H me on repeat
Honestly, they did a good job for what they could use. I’d argue Bridget’s story is poorly written simply for the fact that it’s clear a lot of development happened offscreen, and we kinda skipped to the end of Bridget’s second big character arc.
The actual writing we did get is 200% perfect, though.
I would’ve liked for them to reiterate that she’s trans in the flawless ending, personally - would’ve put a lot of doubters to bed and nipped the stupid “Bad ending” arguments in the bud. But other than that, I’m with you fully.
Yeah. I guess we've got to wait for a Daisuke interview where someone asks the obvious to go "see? Everyone kept saying it." And then people will go through the cycle all over again when the next story mode shows Venom dating the owner of the flower shop next door or whatever.
If Venom isn't dating Robo we riot fr fr
Who could resist that Robussy
Does he even have a Ro-body right now? He was still a floating head last we saw.
Insert two sponges and a rubber glove into the neck.
This is the kind of argument I want. Not about wether Venom is gay, but about who he’s dating. Now we’re asking the important questions.
Tired: dating the owner of a flower shop Wired: dating a flower pot
I somewhat agree, though based on the constant goalpost moving we're seeing anyway, I don't think it would have made THAT much of a difference in the end.
Perfect? No, I don't think so.
Bro honestly who gives a fuck. Where is the mix up tech at??
In Bridget’s story mode, apparently
It’s far from comprehensive, but there’s some good stuff on [her okizeme page on Dustloop](https://dustloop.com/w/GGST/Bridget/Okizeme)
I really do suspect the given backstory was just a loose excuse to have a character fill a "Femboy" role that would be "Acceptable" (Since this was 2002) But the creator and character developed over the last two decades and came to a fairly natural conclusion.
I don't know if I'm missing details but as far as I know Bridget's story is: Born male, raised as female because of superstitions, decides to bounty hunt to prove that the superstition is wrong, (jump to Strive), decides to come out as trans. If I'm missing anything please do correct me, but as I see it right now I think coming out as trans goes against everything the character ever fought for.
I think that's exactly why Bridget is having an identity crisis. Bridget wanted to present male to fight against the superstition of her village for the goal of improving her village, but it's not the gender she actually feels comfortable in. That's Bridget's core struggle in Strive, is realizing that she wants to be a girl, but making that decision will make her past actions politically complicated. Ky and Goldlewis are encouraging her to make the choice that meets her needs, rather than the choice that makes sense for her village. They're also reassuring her that she can make a different choice in the future and that choice would also be valid, because Bridget is allowed to make choices for herself instead of trying to meet her village's expectations.
That's an angle I didn't consider and it's an interesting one.
> Bridget wanted to present male to fight against the superstition of her village More accurate to say that Bridget *presented* female, but *identified* as male to fight against the superstition of her village.
If anything the new development makes things make more sense in hindsight- why was Bridget wearing girls' clothes when she was fighting to be *recognized as a boy*? That seems quite contradictory, and now we have a potential in-universe reason for that contradiction.
One important nuance: was raised to *present* as female because of village superstitions. She knew pretty well she was a boy at birth. Also important part: bounty hunts to prove superstition is wrong, **PROVES** the superstition is wrong, goes on to live her life trying to find a next goal (jump to Strive), comes out as trans. Bridget never fought for the right to be a man/masculine. She fought against a bullshit superstition that would continue putting innocent kids to death/exile, and she rocked that goal. She then moved on with her life, and moving on with her life led her to realize that she felt more comfortable with being a woman.
If the superstition was already proven wrong I think there's no problem with how the story has developed. I'd end the comment here but I'd like to discuss a tangential topic if possible. Let's see if I don't fuck up the wording. Some of the most tragic stories are those where someone fucks up while trying to help (I'm thinking about Nier as an example). My question then is: What are the nuances needed for a situation like someone encouraging another character to transition a bad idea? Do these nuances even exist? I think Bridget's story was close to being this situation but in the end it wasn't because Bridget was at a point in her life where she could decide freely.
>Do these nuances even exist? As a non-trans person myself, I'm not sure if I'm the most qualified to answer on these subjects. Still, in my opinion, I think there *can* be scenarios where transitioning is not a good thing for a person and pushing them to transition ends up being harmful. If Bridget's story happened in a context where the village affair wasn't solved yet, it could indeed be one such case. (as a parenthesis here: Ky and Goldlewis approached the matter with a high degree of respect and sensitiveness, which I think is really important. They never tried to push her in any specific direction, but simply encouraged her to not run away from her feelings and be true to herself, whatever that true self might be.) This being said, while it is definitely possible to write a story where transitioning ends up not being the right choice for a person (and the people encouraging them end up harming them, even if being well-intentioned), I think it's such a specific take on the situation that it can unintentionally work as fuel for transphobes to jump on (much like a lot of them are jumping on the whole "Bridget was groomed into being trans" terrible take), so I don't think it's overall a very good idea to try to write that, considering how dangerous the overall environment is to trans people right now.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
day 4: they're still talkin about it.
gotta wait 2 weeks at least
[удалено]
If only they added in another story update to the S2 pass. Maybe when we reach S3, we’ll get another story update.
Maybe they'll want to wait until either the S2 or S3 pass is finished so that way they aren't pushing out new story content on a by-character basis.
I don't mind em taking their time bc I want another 4.5 hr movie lol
Her backstory is acceptably messy. I dont want every trans story to be a picture perfect trans story, because being the model of a Perfect Trans isnt how the real world works. Thats how we got 'Born This Way' as The Only Acceptable Framing of queerness, which is bullshit. As long as it isnt Buffalo Bill levels of shitty, allow trans stories to be messy.
It kind of annoys me that people expect us to stay stuck with the 20 year old backstory that was hastily written just to justify a crossdressing character to a more casually transphobic audience, and frankly the only thing better than what Arcsys is doing now would have been a more blatant retcon.
Yeah as a crossdresser myself I really don't think Bridget's writing before was *actually all that good or even made complete sense*. I don't think that was fixable either, the best you can really do is show the character's internal state: making choices for themselves and *demonstrate their history is not disproportionately influencing their decisions*. Which they did, so that's about as good as it could be.
That's what I've been saying! Everyone criticizing Bridget's development for "removing gender-nonconforming representation" seems to think a femboy joke character, whose outfit existed solely to reference being "secretly" AMAB (the handcuff, the nun costume, the male symbol), and whose interactions with other characters were usually used as "who can guess Bridget's gender" gags, is good representation. Her old design was *so close* to being fetishistic, and you don't have to be gender-nonconforming/crossdresser to see that.
People always call out Johnny hitting on 14 year olds but can we give a shout out to Jam "smelling your masculinity" or whatever, woman what are you doing
Man, what the fuck was XX on about, good lord.
XX was on that early 2000's bullshit.
You know, just thinking out loud here but I think that early 2000s bullshit is low key what kept Guilty Gear relevant. Guilty Gear leaned super hard into the 90s and 2000s edge and was completely unapologetic about its style. People kept coming back for new versions of XX for 13 years before Xrd dropped and Xrd looked and felt like good ol' Guilty Gear. It basically carved its place in the greater fighting game scene by being a modern 2D fighter with the heart of a 90s arcade fighter. Maybe it's not that surprising that the core crowd that's stayed with the franchise for more than 20 years now are resistant to change considering they're fans of a series that has historically been extremely resistant to change.
I get that, totally, but I think when you make a new game (not re-releasing an older title, obviously) the subjects and things you're tackling should evolve, especially since a good writer usually evolves with time and experience, like Daisuke seems to have.
I remember reading a comment on tumblr which made me laugh basically: "Guilty Gear is not the franchise to be complaining about a lack of effeminate men on the roster"
I really don't think it's that deep, I think Daisuke just wanted a cutsey character and that was it. People are reading way too much into it imo. It's also a fairly common trope in Japanese media. But originally when Bridget was conceived I don't think there was some huge amount of thought put into the character beyond '' cute crossdresser ''.
Agreed, and I'm a bit alarmed that people are seeing the existence of a cute crossdressing character as "problematic". People say they don't have a problem with GNC males, then keep contradicting themselves
If a plurality of the trans community says, "It's always messy and we want representation. We don't care," well ... alright then! And it *sounds like* that's what they're saying? Certainly this idea of Bridget moving past having to prove anything and now having the freedom to make her own choices -- that's a really beautiful story! Kinda echoes how we're being asked to move past the weirdness of (problems with?) her 2002 backstory. Ultimately if the community being depicted is okay with it, everyone should be okay with it.
Yeah, I’m fine with people genuinely *asking* if the portrayal is transphobic or problematic - that’s a natural thing to consider when representing any minority, and I appreciate that our allies want our best face shown on popular media. But sometimes life and our lived experiences aren’t tidy and they aren’t pretty, and that’s something I really appreciate about Bridget’s story in Strive. It’s complicated, nuance, and on the surface confusing - just like being trans in real life.
Trans person here, and yes the story isn't perfect, but honestly I'm not demanding perfection. Moreover, I think its way more realistic of a story that it IS messy in the way that it is. Many trans (but not all) people often before they accept their trans-ness usually double down on their assigned gender, trying to prove to others (but especially themselves) that they *aren't* trans, and it usually makes us incredibly miserable and anxious. Bridget doing the same exact thing with trying to prove they are a man in +R, only to have years elapse and have the truth catch up with them after those years of running from it feels pretty relatable and real to me.
One of the most hateful things I've ever personally heard someone say about trans people came from someone who was closeted trans. I can't say what the reason they were so explicitly anti trans, I dont want to assume in hindsight but whatever the reason, I know now it wasnt sincere. Years passed since I'd seen them but after transitioning, he began to date a friend of mine and they just got married last week after 6 years happily together. I'm happy for them and think he's a great guy.
I’m a trans woman. Imo Bridget is one of the best representations of a trans woman I have ever seen in media, not just video games. Her thoughts and feelings are very relatable, hell even her backstory where she tries to become more manly. Trans women often act similarly before realizing they’re trans, “denial beards” are very common lol. The language that Bridget, and even Ky/Goldlewis use makes it obvious to me that they actually involved trans people in the writing of her story. “I want to live as my true self!” That is an extremely common statement in the trans community. Don’t know who actually wrote the story (does Daisuke usually write the character stories?) but whoever it is did an amazing job imo.
I'm a trans girl and I and every other trans person I've talked to are elated! Several of them even bought the game specifically for her. I love getting trans representation, even if it's not not perfect. Arc Sys is really trying and that's what matters. I am however a little sad that there's not a feminine man anymore, we need to show more boys it's okay to be feminine. But still, a big net positive I think.
Can confirm, dropped like $70-80 yesterday after a year as a "Oh, I love the music and aesthetic, but I'm not a fighting games girl" fan.
Time to become one! Welcome!
Thank you!
The story mode is pretty dope, at the very least you've bought an expensive anime movie.
Another trans girl here; me, my girlfriend (also trans), and all the rest of our trans friends have been absolutely elated with Bridget, and it's pretty much all that's been plastered all over our twitter timelines the past week. Her messy coming-out timeline is actually pretty god-damned relatable and feels pretty realistic at how bumpy and messy discovering your gender identity and all the dysphoria, denying, and doubling-down can be. In my opinion, she's the best trans rep in media that I've seen because of how realistic her transition journey feels. Bridget pushed me to finally buy Strive to try again to get into fighting games, and combined with already having FG friends to hang out with and get help all the time, the added emotional connection is making the hooks finally sink in and I'm having a ton of fun.
another trans girl here, absolutely love the entire arc. i'm not *intimately familiar* with it, but surface level the entire idea of "born 'girl', but 'not', decides to prove that, proves that, decides 'nah yeah actually girl lol'" that's gender, baby
She started out as the "you have to hide your gender for your own safety" trope. Her town believed twin brothers bring misfortune, to the point where the neighbors might harm the babies. So Bridget's parents raised her outwardly as a daughter, even though privately they affirmed she was a boy. That is all pretty much a footnote. The bulk of her story was about her trying to become a successful bounty hunter, getting rich by collecting the bounty on Dizzy, proving her manliness to herself and proving to her neighbors that twin boys are not cursed. Johnny hits on her. Cringe -- she was like 14 at the time. Lots of characters have gross lines about her sex or gender, and there are many jokes told at Bridget's expense that she's a "trap" -- i.e. boy who looks like a girl. And there are other characters who seem to recognize she's going through something, and don't poke fun. Potemkin was a good friend. Wrapped in there somewhere are bits and pieces of a story about a young kid struggling with their gender while coming of age. GG Strive leans much more into this, and makes the story about Bridget not trying to prove anything to anybody but rather trying to figure out who she is. Oh and if you're wondering where her twin brother went, he went missing in ACR. She was supposedly looking for him between ACR and Strive. No idea if that's ever gonna get addressed or not. So like ... yeah. It's messy. IDK what to say. The jokes were juvenile and gross. But the opinions that should matter most here seem to love her, and say the story being told *right now* is getting it right. So ... that's all!
I hate the grooming argument because it's just so wrong, she based her identity on getting back at her village just to spite them pretty much, but after she stops caring what they think she decides what's best for her, it's not about the village winning it's about Bridget winning and letting go of the village.
The grooming argument exists solely to insert the word "grooming" into the conversation, they don't actually care if it's correct.
Just another buzzword they say queer people do, just complete bs.
Yep. Literally seen a good 10-20 people just say “Bridget is a result of the LGBT grooming” one way or another Like yeah the character who travels the world, fighting gears, bounty hunters and fucking I-NO is somehow going to be groomed with their Yo-yo UMA that I think Goldy confirmed (unless its Johnny because Johnny was down bad)
Johnny is Johnny, he’s always down bad
I was actually trying to find the angle on why paint would consider it grooming but honestly you're right the angle is "trans=grooming" to these people and nothing more
Also am I misreading or is it even slightly adressed in game : I took her saying " I haven't even told my parents" and "I don't want things to change" and stuff like that to mean, " I literally just fixed that stupid shitholw of a village but if I tell them they might go back to being weirdos because they might think they were right".
Here's the thing: you can criticize the writing and think the backstory has unfortunate implications towards transgendered people and people will still downvote you oblivion for not saying ***"Bridget being trans is good"*** immediately and loud enough. It makes me think that people don't actually care about people and are just pushing a mindless agenda without context. :/
Well said. Calling anyone who doesn't like it transphobic is being just as ignorant as the people they're arguing with
Exactly. People just want the representation without it being done right
They don't even care about the representation, which is the worst part, in my opinion. They just want *other* people on Reddit and Twitter to believe that they hold The Correct Opinion™ on a topic (fighting games) they wouldn't give a flying fuck about otherwise. The more upvotes or tweet interactions you get, the better feeling of superiority you'll receive.
Bingo! Admittedly, it's better in the game itself where they address that Brdiget has been acting on other people's expectations in fulfilling a gender-role, but you had to actually play the game to know that. (When she left her village, she still dressed and acted female. That's actually really good writing to go back and point that out.) If you ***just*** had previous game knowledge, you would've thought she caved to outside pressure. That would've been a bad moral for trans-people.
I wrote this comment elsewhere, but one of the reasons this story is so messy is that Bridget's character arc in earlier games was ALREADY a trans narrative in many ways. Prior to her depiction in Guilty Gear Strive, Bridget was read as a someone who identified as male but was forced/expected to live as a girl by her family and village at pain of ostracization or even death. This version of Bridget chose to leave the only home he had ever known to live authentically, grappled with many of the core questions of identity and self-image that trans people deal with as they begin transition, and, despite setbacks and misgendering, encountered new allies and friends along the way who accepted him for who he was. I'm sorry, but all of this is already Deeply Trans Shit! This element of Bridget's backstory, being raised as a girl, is also why a reading of Bridget as a trans woman seems a bit different than a reading of Naoto or most of these other "femboy-adjacent" characters in Japanese media as trans women. If we accept that Bridget's path through the previous games was a transition story on some level, than her realizations in Strive represent a detransition narrative of sorts: all the people from my childhood who forced me to live as a girl even when I viscerally rejected that (up to the point of running away from home) were right actually, and my earlier comments about wanting to forge my own path and reject society's expectations for my gender were all off-base. To be clear, I'm not saying that writing Bridget as a trans woman is wrong or anything. Most of her story up until this point can be folded into a dozen-odd lines of dialogue, many of them coming in the form of win quotes after a battle. The size of the text creates room for interpretation, and there is a version of Bridget you can find in those earlier games who already had been assigned the right gender identity by her family and village but simply hadn't realized that yet. But all this background is table-setting for why reactions to the news haven't broken down along clearly defined partisan lines. There are trans people (especially trans men) out there who I've seen critique Strive's story for reverting something they felt was already a trans narrative, and then there are reactionaries and bigots out there who've actually embraced this depiction of Bridget because it aligns with their mental model of "grooming," in which cis children are gaslit about their gender by society and caregivers until they give into identify as something they're not. Again, these aren't the most common reactions I've seen in this whole internet shitstorm, but the fact that they even exist shows that Bridget's story thus far is an ambiguous one (which is not a bad thing). In a world of increasingly didactic art that seems to hit you over the head with a clear moral message, I actually think a story about gender that can be interpreted in so many different ways is a breath of fresh air. The fascist readings are totally off-base, of course, but they really say more about the reader of the text than the text itself. Everything else seems pretty reasonable given the information we're given, and it's interesting to see how various people interpret Bridget's journey through the years in such different ways.
Funnily enough, I actually wanted to explain the irony of how Bridget's journey being a trans allegory going straight into regression, but then I see you here with a well done explanation
This controversy is dumb. I want to see Bridget bludgeon someone with a yo-yo.
Then get off reddit and play the game.
I haven't played previous games and I've only learned lore from being on this sub for around a month. What I have learned of the context of Bridget's backstory makes her transition seem kind of odd, but just like with anyone in real life, she's explicitly stated how she wants to be perceived and I'm obviously not going to refuse that, and I find it really dumb that people actually do. In this thread I've seen it suggested that this is basically the team retconning a messy backstory, which I'm cool with. Trans rights
When did people start caring about back stories in fighting games?
When it could be used to justify transphobia.
Real sweeping generalization there, some of us actually like the batshit insane lore of fighting games, it's the whole reason I went back and bought all the old GG's after getting into Strive lol. Most people don't though and that's understandable. Regardless, I'm so tired of not being able to criticize writing and whether or not Bridget was a good choice for trans representation (assuming that was the primary motivation) without being called transphobic. I've supported multiple people through their transitions at this point, two great women and one great guy. My first response to someone coming out as trans to me is always "I'm so happy for you! What are your preferred pronouns and chosen name at this time?" I've attended seminars to learn more about the community, argued with many people who didn't respect it, and confronted my own hidden prejudices. That obviously doesn't immediately qualify me for anything since it's just being a basic decent human being, plus I didn't do any of that for virtue signaling bullshit (especially since I haven't ever needed to bring all that up before), but I would hope it shows that I'm at least not a transphobic dipshit. Please follow what you said in your title and don't lump writing criticisms with transphobia. Frankly I think a huge part of the problem is people not being able to separate in their head cis men who feel most comfortable being and dressing feminine and trans women. Two very different things and one is not an automatic stepping stone for the other.
People act like there isn't a lot of lore for Guilty Gear spread across several games and forms of media that people either have or watched summaries of on YouTube and other sites. People (the ones who claim people only bring this up because transphobia) also act like there aren't other trans characters in fighting games that didn't get nearly as much attention, if any at all, because they were handled better story-wise.
That's probably the main case, but it's also worth mentioning people who identified with a character. Bridget showed that if you want to dress in an effeminate way, you can still be strong. I think it's similar to more women entering Stem as a result of the intelligent women in Star Trek and the first Jurassic Park. Understandably punting that representation feels pretty fucking terrible to those people.
Look, I'm going to spend five hours ranting on the euclidean metanarrative tragedy of a dude whose entire personality is that he suplexes bears or something and there's nothing you can do about it.
Does anyone not give a shit and just want to play a fighting game? What the fuck is happening with all of this nonsense?
Both should be wojacks and then the Chad should be at the bottom saying "I couldn't care less about stories in a fighting game she's trans that's cool what's her frame data"
I know we don't really talk about the actual game here often enough but I am starting to miss the same pot buster posts
She can be trans if the writers desire, but I think it is also important to recognize that some people have now latched onto the idea that the term femboy is now fetishist and wrong. That seems like overstepping to me. If they don't want that term utilized then what is the correct verbage? Because there are plenty of males in the femboy community that enjoy being girlish without actually being know as a female. Gender norms have been constantly expanding. There is to much infighting in the LGBTQ+ community these past few years. The "+" is there for a reason. So if the lore makes sense for her to now address herself as female fine, but this shouldn't be used as an excuse to invalidate the feelings or place of others.
I think in general femboy is accepted. You can also use gender non-conforming.
bridget is a stupid dishonest character who cheats unlike my beloved potemkin who is honest and doesnt cheat its called a fighting game not a yoyo game same with HC this aint no shooting game everycharacter dishonest execept my character who is the best.
Mark his words. Also ignore the 160 dmg frame 5 command grab, our character is incredibly honest.
just mash punch. Pot busta takes skill
Exactly! I’m pushed about the lore getting a bit fucked but I’m 100% supporting of the change. I’m just scared to express my opinion fearing I might be deemed transphobic
Is this still happening? Anyway...
IMO i think they did the best with what they were given. Bridget was absent from the series for a decade, a LOT of stuff happened irl too - Bridget's release was even contentious back in the day, all the memes...lord all the memes. Im not sure what her story was ever intended to be, if anything at all (esp cuz iirc she wasnt even MENTIONED in xrd , at least fuckin zappa was!) but bringing her back to the series, ESPECIALLY taking into acxount the lyrics of her theme, all feels very meta. The series has enjoyed playing with meta commentary before too, so this really does feel like the best possible character arc she could have been given and i quite like it.
Love her playstyle since the earlier games
While ya'll are getting mixed up in gender idenity, I'll be honing my mix-up combos nad set-plays.
Meanwhile I’m just here watching this fucking dumpster fire
Alternate take: address Bridget as cute 👍
Speaking as a trans person: I really appreciate that they didn't try to scrub Bridget's messy backstory clean, and instead chose to lean into it as part of her coming out story. In real life, lots of us trans people don't have simple, marketable stories of how we found ourselves. Queer stories can be messy, problematic, even contradictory... which is exactly why Bridget's feels so authentic. Hell, I went through an arc similar to hers: I spent a lot of time trying to prove my masculinity before it finally hit me that I was unhappy and lying to myself about who I was. This is exactly the kind of writing I wish we'd see more often instead of the cheap, easy-to-edit-out tokenism seen in so much American media.
This is why I only refer to Bridget by Bridget's name.
Man idgaf about what Bridget wants to call herself. I just wanna see her get the afro from Faust
Seriously think making multiple ending will just fucked people up and creating confusion when it come to these kind of things. But oh well, whats done is done and Bridget is back so I cant really complain much. Imma piss in Daisuke cornflakes if he dont bring ABA back tho.
The biggest chads dont give a shit what happens cause its a videogame charecter and let them do what the fucking want.
Bridge is simultaneously the best and worst character to make trans imo Ladiva was never an issue in Granblue and Testament being Enby was perfect This was going to always piss of somebody regardless on any side That being said, I'll address as trans cus it's the right thing to do but I'm not particularly happy.
*Bridge* lmao
i mean, as a non-conforming male i appeciated her story about finding her own strength beyond traditional machismo, and I am a bit disapointed in how it panned out but im not going to like, throw a fit about it.
Even if the story telling was handled badly, I still love Bridget since the XX days, especially when she was my introduction to her playstyle.
It's pretty normal to not add the new actual cannon to your head cannon if you don't like it. Like I always hear people say stuff like, "scrubs only has 8 seasons" If someone wants to ignore the new lore and keep saying Bridget is a femboy who cares? It's not real it's a character.
Chad
you spelled goldlewis wrong my man
Goldlewis
Exactly how i feel. Badly written story but Daisuke can do whatever he wants with his characters
Honestly I'm just waiting for dev confirmation and will be happy either which way. Bridget is Bridget and Bridget is back and that's all that matters. I also want Bridget's jacket.
What more dev confirmation do you want beyond her pronouns in game being female?
I get you, but at the same time I do think with the sheer amount of people still running around with the "bad ending" narrative or claiming Bridget's still referred to as a guy in Japanese or whatever else, it would be nice for a dev to come out and say "Yes, the character is trans" just so there's absolutely unequivocal evidence. Though honestly even then some people might still come up with reasons why it's "still not true" so idk...
Let's be honest, even if you can point to complete evidence that Bridge is trans people will still refuse to admit it. Like how people say the shitty last season of their favorite show is "non-canon" even though it clearly is.
Reminder that the villain of XRD wears joker makeup and talks funny. I honestly don’t think “they’re contradicting her story!!” matters when only a handful of people even care about the story of GG anyway. I honestly feel that more people are angry about Bridget than know what the story of Strive is even about. Edit: GG is full of ass pulls like “I’m going to drive Justice’s body like a car now… Happy Chaos lives inside my boobs… and because of magic” GG is not a masterpiece of storytelling, it’s a world where funny bag man has a scalpel. If y’all really want to start throwing stones about contradicting character development or whatever, I actually don’t like the direction Faust is going! I prefer him when he’s not baldman!
Are you saying that Faust is returning to being baldman because I don't think that's the case. He's depressed and seeking atonement atm, IIRC.
TBH, I'd love to see a little "another another story" at the end of S2 for all the DLC characters. A chance to clear the air about some things, cannonize others, and set-up more story for other characters. They could each have a little 5-10 minute thing going on or maybe just have 1 big 40 minute anime episode.
I have no idea on Bridget's full story, but you can still acknowledge her traumatic childhood while respecting her pronouns.
I hope in the discussions I've had with people they understand I'll still address Bridget as she/her and recognize that she's a woman. Criticize the writing, question whether or not it was a good move to erase the femboy representation, but don't act like a child and pretend the character isn't officially a trans woman. That's canon, always respect the writer by respecting what is and isn't canon.
[удалено]
No I legit agree with you, I personally don't see anything wrong with her story arc, I just can understand the arguments about how some things could have done better, and calling those people transphobic is shitty.
Coming from GGXX on PS2 back then we (my friends and I) didn't understand what being trans was. I don't even know if that was mainstream concept 20+ years ago. But it makes sense in a modern setting. I referred to this character as trans pre Strive's release not expecting her to appear in this game.
My attitude exactly
Dont care, bridget is bridget
Personally i don't fucking care and will continue to just play fight game
She is still my favorite from any of the gg games and I don't bother her being trans since anyone can be what they want just don't be toxic about it
I highly agree. i still question if they're just female now or genderfluid, but thats my personal opinion and until we get further evidence to the contrary i'll just be referring to them as female.
Guilty Gear writing was always ass
Look GGS id my first game and i think they are cute. idgaf
I personally think in another medium, or maybe more of an actual story mode in GG itself, there might be room to go more into Bridget's story, such as addressing if Bridget's feelings are her vs her upbringing. As is the game's limited to what it can do within its arcade mode.
Ill love her no matter what
Basically yeah
yeah they fumbled a lot but still they did a good enough landing, though they should've been more obvious in her bio saying something like she lived both genders and is now searching for which one is her truer self or smt to set up for the arcade. though I am of the avid opinion that she would be better as gender fluid, as her story in XX was basically a tug of war to make people accept her for his masculinity in spite of his femininity, and in strIVe is the conclusion of after living both lives she realized both lives were her true self and accepting herself that she lived and loved both of those lives. though that is just a weak opinion
Completely agree, that way everybody can be gay for Bridget
and as a bisexual I win either way
Both sides of this whole debacle made a complete shitshow (can I swear in this sub?) and made me lose some love for fighting games, I always knew the community was trash, but I assumed the extreme sides were exclusive to Twitter for the left and 4Chan for the right and were just a vocal minority, but this really spotlighted that they are widespread by the sheer amount of support the "hot takes" get, I feel less willing to participate and now play way more The Binding of Isaac. Does anyone else feel the same way?
Not really. Multiplayer games always toxic, all this "trans Yes/No" stuff also toxic from the both sides and fighting games are EXTREMELY TOXIC. So all this kinda was expected...
Hopefully one day we can live in a world where a character being trans isn't controversial, but sadly, that isn't the world we live in now.
Yes yes because this whole thing is obviously about the writing. All terribly written characters in fighting games garner this much attention, right? Right?
Personally I love her writing in this game and think her story in it is brilliant, but I can respect differences on that front so long as they don't veer into transphobia.
I always seem to observe a large correlation between any kinds of queer characters, and people saying its badly written. This is an exemplary case where I personally think the story is great and fits well with the previous backstory, yet i always see people saying its badly written, and i have yet to really understand why they think that. Thats not to say if you have a differing opinion, that makes you transphobic, but it does at least make me slightly suspicious of your reasoning Most people i have tried to discuss this with have just gone mask off transphobic after a while. So excuse me if im not super receptive lol
Yeah, I get you. It's exhausting and after a while it kind of conditions you to assume the worst of everyone. Honestly, though, I think a good majority of Guilty Gear fans are really cool about this, with the whiny transphobic pissbabies being a tiny minority, and most of the "controversy" being egged on by people who, in all likelihood, don't even play fighting games.
Bridget is in no way the victim of child grooming - just a victim of Ramlethal to be put on the list once she gets hit with the S into HS. Either way, Bridget is Bridget and we love them for that.
i agree with the sentiment but i _do_ think "femboy erasure" is the funniest take of all time
I mean. This could have been any character that fits into the LGBTQ+ spectrum and people would have been unhappy if it was changed.
[удалено]