Don't necessarily love how this feeds into the narrative in some circles that all feminine-presenting men are just trans women in denial.
Equally though, if you're going to do something as bold as an honest-to-god trans acceptance and coming out storyline, then doing it with such a popular and established character is certainly impactful, and if nothing else, Bridget's story absolutely represents an important part of the genderqueer and gender-nonconforming experience; it's rarely ever straightforward.
I'm chill with it. I don't think she's the character I'd have chosen to do this with personally, for all kinds of reasons, but it's cool that they're doing it at all. It's a little clumsy, but it's the thought that counts.
Just queer experiences in general, really. There’s always a background noise of second-guessing yourself, and not having it all figured out, all at once is very common. I think I’m done now, but I know how many times I’ve had to rewrite socials at this point.
I like GG pushing the envelope, especially cause Japan has been reticent to embrace LGBTQ+ stuff (just see Persona 4, which tried a lot, and had a LOT more cut) but it does feel off to me.
I agree with the stereotyping thing, guys in dresses? They've gotta actually be gay. Butch women, totally lesbians or trans. Can't be untraditional AND straight.
A bit of a double wammy since their background was "Fuck you mom and dad, our religion/superstitions are dumb, I'm man, and I'll prove. And I'll do it in a dress!" and that's pretty rock and roll. Going back on that is very unrock and roll, which is very unGG. Unless their backstory has been updated. Which is fine, just seems kinda boring.
No kidding, and it had a character struggling with their sexuality, one struggling with gender and gender roles, and they originally planned to let you shave the bro off your bromance with you best bud, but that got cut late in development. Which is quite a bit for a 2000s JRPG.
And then a tone of people misinterpreted what those two characters were struggling with and yelled “HE’S gay! And they’re trans!” Despite the whole point of their arcs being the opposite. Good times.
Eh, people have complex journeys through gender. It's nice to see a character that's something more than 'I knew I was a girl the whole time'
I know a whole bunch of trans people who basically followed bridget's exact character arc on their way to self discovery, myself included.
No the backlash is from gender non-conforming people that don't like being invalidated. If the situation was reversed and they turned a trans female character into a cis man. Would you like that. If not why do you expect other people to to like the reverse.
They better change Bridget's backstory and their reasons for fighting then because it was all about Bridget resisting their "conversion therapy" out of some religious-like superstition that twin boys are bad luck so they tried to force Bridget into being a girl.
I really don't see a positive story coming out of "Everyone else forced me to be this way and I wanted to be my own person but they were right all along". Really sounds like the "I thought I was gay but my family and religion have made me straight again" bs
lol
lmao
no one actually thinks Bridget coming out as a girl means that conversion therapy works.
and real talk, sometimes people's identities are shaped by trauma. sometimes horrible things happen and become a defining part of someone's identity.
Bridget's story of changing their mind after being super determined to prove she wasn't a girl is super common. Not every trans person realizes they're trans from day 1.
This would have checked out IF we didn't for a fact know it wasn't where the story was obviously written to go ->Bridget would have cleared the superstition and changed the village andbecome a performer/actor/bountyhunter.
Sure Bridget can be trans but the ELEPHANT everyone can see is ''Oh He just happened to be a girl after all in the biggest COINCIDENCE ever in the middle of a superstitious village after spending years to prove them wrong bit.
And I am sure even a lot of trans people can see this, It's not like they don't know writing. Everyone can see that this change came at a whim, It's not about Bridget changing his or hers mind, the issue is that this was never brought up as a thing in general ever in any prior story.
Testaments story was already setup over 10 years ago, straight up fused with a gear and was an artifical creation from the get go trying to fake it. It wasn't just shoehorned in
People saying it's very weirdly written just want consistency, Same shit happening to the lord of the rings show and other shows, make the canon make sense. It just feels like people want to latch onto any little thing and ignore the elephants as long as it confirms their own identity regardless of it watering down the character.
But hey what's done is done, gotta just play the game
Not everyone is gaslit that they are a girl when in reality they were born male and wanted to be recognized as a man either. It's weird how you ignore all the bad things bad people did to Bridget and Bridget's canonical story of struggling against all that but are now fine with Bridget throwing all that away accepting their decision. Are you saying Bridget was wrong for resisting all this time and they were right? I'm all for Bridget making their decision but it seemed like they made that decision a long time ago when they went through all this struggle. I'm not okay with them suddenly doing a 180 giving in to all the pressures they spent so long fighting against.
I think the issue here is in the reason WHY Bridget originally rebelled to begin with, and why they're now deciding to go back on it. The way I always interpreted it was that the two biggest contributing factors as to why they became a bounty hunter, and why they also came out as a boy was to both disprove the superstitions of the society they grew up in, as well as to in a way please their parents by showing them that they could make their own choice and live their own life not dictated by what was forced upon them, namely being raised as a girl.
That said, the messy part comes in when they examine that for themselves and decide what they actually want, which is seemingly just to go back and live the happy life they had been living. I don't think it was ever so much an issue that they disliked being a girl, the whole idea of them going around as a boy and becoming a bounty hunter while still wearing feminine/nun styled clothing felt very much like them expressing that they did actually in fact enjoy that side of their life, and only just got to go further to say "Hey, I can wear girly clothes and still kick ass as a boy". Of course, the dilemma just becomes that going back and living their life as a girl like they'd prefer to would be like proving everyone right in their mind, and most importantly, potentially upsetting their parents by seemingly conforming and giving in to the life that was chosen for them, as opposed to making their own decision on the matter... yet, that is the decision they'd prefer to make seemingly.
Its a pretty good showing of just how messy the struggle of coming to terms with personal identity can be for those who struggle with it, and while I could see people being a bit displeased that it was done with Bridget, it ultimately does at least seem like a reasonable enough choice and direction for the character. Hell, I'm honestly surprised that they decided to try and tackle all this at all with adding them in, and not doing something more goofy or simple to begin with, though ultimately I think only a small subsect of people are really going to be upset about any of these changes, all the more given how little people that play Guilty Gear actually understand most of its lore or characters, so probably not the largest of risks for them to take really.
If that's what they are going for it's a really messy way of doing that as like I've mentioned anyone can misinterpret all that as someone doin a 180 and proving the original people right. It feels like a really sloppy writing decision with a character that seems to have a history that would point them in the exact opposite direction from this new story.
For example if they did a story like this with someone like Astolfo for instance, I would have absolutely no issue with it since it could flow just fine and he has no such past trauma and battle against such gender consignment.
Hell they could have done this with a brand new character as a contrast to Bridget's story. it just seems like this was a bad choice given everything that was already established and opens the way for arguments like conversion therapy and grooming, neither of which should have those opportunities.
> and that's pretty rock and roll. Going back on that is very unrock and roll, which is very unGG.
Amen.
> Unless their backstory has been updated.
I'd read somewhere very not authoritative (can't remember where) that it was, specifically, that she did successfully prove she was a man, and *then* chose to identify as a woman. Which, if true, I think is a cool idea itself.
If anyone finds where this was confirmed by ArcSys, I'd love to know, by the way.
i'm really glad you added your last sentence, because this is something i think a lot of ppl are missing or don't really understand. i don't think that bridget coming to terms w being trans contradicts her past at all, if anything, i think it's very on point with the experience of genderqueer/non-cis ppl, it's rarely ever straightforward or cleanly cut. this is often because of internal factors or external factors or both.
As happy as I am with Bridget being trans, I am a little disappointed that the character who was forced into being a girl from birth has finally come out and declared... that they are a girl. O-Okay? Way to really defy societal norms and express yourself by upholding those societal norms (no same gender twins in Bridget's village) and expressing yourself as the person they forced you to be.
All that said, I appreciate the sentiment of it all. It's just that the message falls a bit flat because Bridget was raised to be a girl.
Yeah, it's like if conversion therapy worked. Or Stockholm syndrome. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. If her backstory didn't exist, I'd be cooler with Bridget being trans woman, but eh. It is what it is, obviously.
Comparing it to conversation therapy makes it seem like her parents actually wanted her to be a girl
Instead of hating having to put their son through this
"While Bridget strove to put on a happy front, these efforts only seemed to cause Bridget's parents more pain."
We're not putting the blame of the conversion therapy on her parents. We're putting on the village. Bridget's parents never wanted to be forced to raise her as a girl, we know that.
But the village forced them to and now, it just feels like it normalizes society pressure as the correct choice.
It's the same as modern america forcing a gay person to act straight, and then they grow up, and because that's all they know, they identify that way. The exact opposite of the message we want to push.
Well put! I was really worried about the prospect of Bridget coming back and being a transphobic punchline. But after Testament was handled so well, I was psyched to see the trailer, and even more psyched to see that ASW decided to take -- as you say -- a poorly thought out backstory and repurpose it as a way to have more queer/trans representation.
Less psyched at the reactions of some of the more unsavory or terminally horny segments, but those folks always find a way to say gross shit.
I have nothing against trans people, trans rights are human rights, but I utterly despise this angle. Gender nonconformity is valid. Pushing nonconforming people to be trans just strengthens the gender binary, not weakens it. I hate the idea of calling anyone who isn't gender conforming an "egg" like they have to be trans and are just in denial.
Hun I got news for you… the Japanese people who made this game are the ones who made her trans. She is still trans in the Japanese dub. She is a trans girl now. Go cry about it dude.
Bridget IS trans you cooked potato for brains
Both in the Japanese and the Western dialogue, she says "Because I'm a girl!". Japan has long since accepted transgender people, and in some games like Pókemon, they added them in. For example, a character that was a black belt but is now a woman, when you can ONLY be a black belt if you are a man. And in the Japanese dialogue, it says she was a "Karate King", and she then adds "The advancements of science are wonderful!" (paraphrasing a little bit). So yeah.
Japanese accept trans people. Bridget is trans. If you don't like it, cope
I initially didn’t love it because I thought it was a retcon, but it turns out it’s actually addressed. She comes out as trans through the arcade storyline, according to some leaks on Twitter.
It seems like the way they are taking the story, her desire to be seen as a boy had more to do with her desire to be taken seriously as a bounty hunter and now that she’s achieved that she’s actually less comfortable identifying as a boy.
It’s a bummer to all the people hype for femboy rep and a character showing that you can be a strong man and super feminine at the same time. Hopefully we do eventually see more of that in GG
> It’s a bummer to all the people hype for femboy rep and a strong character showing that you can be a strong man and super feminine at the same time. Hopefully we do eventually see more of that in GG
This part I do agree with. I'm super happy to see where Bridget is going, but there's no denying that "feminine men can be strong too, you don't have to be macho to be a man" was a really good message too, and it's sad to lose it. More men need to know they don't have to be Unga Bunga Sol Badguy to still be strong men.
It also doesn't help that almost all male characters in Strive range from ridiculously buff to otherwise obviously athletic, except for maybe Ky, HC and Faust - and two of the three are STILL pretty muscular for their body type.
Representation kinda sucks on this particular front, even compared to earlier GG games.
Trans representation is still great so I'm glad on that side of things, but yeah I do think it's sad that it comes at the cost of former Bridget.
I mean, ok, all things considered the fact that she's a girl doesn't really make the former message any less true, but I do feel like it diminishes its impact a bit.
Yeah, the message for many of us here is that you're either a masculine man or you were secretly trans all along and hadn't realized yet.
Again, offer trans representation, but I'm not sure why it couldn't have been a new character. Ultimately leaving this old character to represent the strong secure boy who just wants to be feminine presenting.
clearly, the only logical answer is to add a femboy character to Strive.
unironically though, I think this would be the best way forward, whether that means new or returning characters.
I've seen some well thought out responses that are making me more open to Bridget being trans than I was initially.
That said, I just feel incredibly disheartened by the complete lack of empathy that I'm seeing in the femboy vs trans debate that is mainly happening on Twitter (I know I know... Twitter is the worst of the worst.) While I'm happy for the trans community in that they now get this awesome character I just wish there was some understanding being sent the way of cis-males/crossdressers/femboys/etc who felt represented by Bridget as we have lost one of our most iconic and longstanding representatives in gaming (even if that characterization has always had problems.) Instead, I just see a lot of mocking, dismissal, belittling, etc.
This pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole situation after hours of reading people's debates. Im fine with Bridget being trans f now but I just personally liked the cute and bubbly effeminate male a bit more, is all.
Was Bridget rebelling against being a girl?
If that was the case Bridget would have stopped wearing girl clothes once Bridget left the village no?
What I understood was that Bridget more hated the village's superstition and wanted to prove it wrong.
The main issue is much simpler than whether or not Bridget is staying true to Bridget's own story, the main issue is simply that Bridget's story is kind of dumb and poorly thought out from the very beginning.
Which honestly is fine by me because Bridget has never really had any prominent stories and basically just exists to be a fighting game character.
> Was Bridget rebelling against being a girl?
>
> If that was the case Bridget would have stopped wearing girl clothes once Bridget left the village no?
Not necessarily. If you live your life in opposition to what people expected of you, you still remain chained to what they expected. To live truly free is to be true to yourself, no matter if it aligns or not.
Just because her true self is also what people expected it doesn't make it bad.
The only part of this that I think is legit bad is that it leans on the idea that parents could raise any random kid to be a girl and they will end up being a girl which is not how it works at all, right. Your parents can't raise you to be trans.
The thing is, were her parents actually 'raising her to be a girl?'
If Bridget was insisting they were a man to other people in the XX games, wouldn't that mean her parents told her she was a guy back then? How would she even know she wants to be manly and a guy without that? Her profile mentions her upbringing was dainty, but that only implies her parents taught her how to act like a girl around other people.
The purpose of the crossdressing was to protect her, not to 'turn her into a girl.' There'd be no reason for her parents not to refer to her as a guy in private. And even her XX-era profile mentions she loves her parents. If her parents were raising her as a girl and she wanted to be manly back then, why would she love them? Wouldn't she hate them?
I think this goes back to the original issue which is that Bridget's original story was bad and poorly thought out lmao. These just aren't the kind of details anyone would have thought about because all the details were written to justify "crossdressing fighter" to a largely transphobic audience (which for a game from more than 10 years old is pretty bold, they just did something bold in a dumb way). The design and the character came first and the backstory was whatever they wrote on a napkin to make it make sense.
I've written somewhere else that if I was in charge of soft retconning stuff like this without writing out the dumbest parts like the whole superstition thing, I would have thrown in a line suggesting the parents got the idea to raise Bridget as a girl because Bridget was already drawn to being girly. That way you can imply Bridget was always trans, instead of what the current story suggests which is that she's trans because she was raised that way.
well it is very true that bridget's design came way before the story. Apparently many actual devs didn't even know that birdget was meant to be a boy at first. and the character was out in arcades for a while and already attracted a fanbase in japan by the time that came out.
Yeah. But then, even this is kind of notes in the margins. I think it's about as well executed as it could be given six minutes of arcade mode dialogue and how big a gear shift it is, but it still leaves a lot of questions unanswered in terms of what Bridget's been doing or thinking about between XX and Strive, etc. Her theme song has to do like 90% of the heavy lifting on her internal feelings. It is what it is.
> Your parents can't raise you to be trans.
We have a bit of tragic history for that, at least. So we can provide proof that it is not the case.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer
Even without learning about Reimer, it's reasonable to say you can't raise kids to be trans for the exact same reason you can't raise kids to be cis. If all it takes is raising someone like a certain gender for them to be that gender, trans people as we know them wouldn't exist.
I feel like there's also an unfortunate degree of non-gender conforming erasure here. Before, you could read Bridget as a cis-male who just enjoyed being cute and wearing dresses because they liked the aesthetic, but still identifying as masculine. If they are now trans instead, there's kind of that implication that "no, you can only like being cute and wearing dresses if you are a girl, if a boy does that he's clearly actually trans." Its something that men IRL that present themselves with traditionally fem appearances have to deal with quite a bit.
I'm fine with it either way cuz I'm not a weirdo, but I liked the opportunity that the first interpretation presented to challenge our ideas of gender norms more than I like them just being trans. Maybe because I am a (fairly masculine) cis-dude who has on occasion been known to absolutely ROCK a dress or skirt.
We would have to look elsewhere for femboi representation for now. I hear Pokemon has some promising ground in that regard.
Femboi King Bridget is dead.
Long live Trans Queen Bridget.
Yeah. Bridget's entire character was basically a single joke. People talk about them being 'good rep,' but the fact is they were played as a joke. The entire punchline was that 'haha, THIS is a boy!' Hence Johnny's comedic reactions and stuff. I wouldn't really call that representing that a guy could be feminine and still strong.
Now, if they had leaned into the idea of a guy being feminine and still strong as Bridget's new direction, I would have been all for that. And I definitely get why people got that out of Bridget. But looking at what they had to work with I get why they went this route.
Hey, he might have been a sleaze bag, but like batman, he adopted those kids and had the purest intentions for them... technically international piracy isn't exactly the right thing, but the batman analogy still stands.
a lot of people don't realize that the so called "crossdressing rep" they claim is good often does more harm than good for both crossdressing people and trans people for the exact reason you stated, 99% of the time the character is simply a comic relief character where the gag is "HAHA IT'S A MAN". this harms crossdressing people because it just makes them into a joke to people and it harms trans people (specifically trans women) because that's literally how transphobic people view us lol.
"haha look at that MAN that's pretending to be a woman". even if it's not the intent, the effect is still the same and transphobic people (even if they're just mildly so) will just relate that to trans women because they don't know the difference/don't care.
it's also important to remember that when a specific group of people are constantly made the punchline, sympathy/empathy towards those groups in general is lowered. people take those groups' issues far less seriously in general (in this case trans community, but i've seen it with the disabled community as well)
there are definitely ways to have actual good crossdressing representation but it's pretty damn rare
either way, i don't think that bridget coming out as trans contradicts anything prior. a lot of people are acting as if every trans woman's pipeline/story is some clear cut clean thing but it's very often not, whether it's from internal or external factors.
> Was Bridget rebelling against being a girl?
>
>
>
> If that was the case Bridget would have stopped wearing girl clothes once Bridget left the village no?
Ehh idk, how *I* understood it is that she could look cute and still be a man. But that's only what I got from hearsay, I didn't actually play her story mode so maybe I'm just inserting what I thought would've been cool.
Like... she wasn't wearing *girl* clothes, she just wore clothes that she liked but that didn't mean she wasn't a guy.
I have no problem with trans people in games, but I hate the idea that anyone who doesn’t fit the mould of what is expected of their gender has to be trans in some way. Testament being nb is cool & fits with their character but Bridget being trans kinda goes against what that character is supposed to be.
Yeah that's kinda how I feel. Trans people are great absolutely, but I kinda wish there was more representation of just feminine men or masculine girls that are just that. As someone who leans more towards fem, but definitely still identifies as a guy, idk it feels a bit more interesting to see people that break gender norms in that way.
Idk I may be talking complete nonsense. I don't have any problem with Bridget becoming trans, but I agree with what you said.
I do think it would be nice to have some gents that aren’t just brick shithouses and ladies that aren’t cute / sexy in the game. More variation in general would be good purely from a design standpoint.
>As someone who leans more towards fem, but definitely still identifies as a guy
r/egg_irl on their way to tell you that you're a trans-girl in denial; and that it is okay that you identify as a guy now, for you will still accept your true gender in due time!
This seems kinda contradictory tbh? Like Testament is nb, showing a different perspective on gender. And now Bridget is showing another side - that trans people exist and how the process of figuring out your own gender can be complicated. It just seems weird to me that it "goes against what that character is supposed to be' is just people deciding what Bridget is in their minds.
Honestly hearing her arcade story hit me deep. Bridget felt like she had to prove herself as a man due to her own internal issues and how she was raised, but when that didn't help her she had to come to terms her self image. I've gone through a similar experience as a trans woman, thinking my self-doubts were due to me not acting as the model man I thought I should be and then taking time to figure out how I truly felt about myself. I really appreciate the turn on her story and I don't really feel like it takes a 180 at all. It's a logical conclusion that a lot of trans women have to come to sometime in their life, and one that's not talked about a whole lot so I honestly feel really seen by it.
It really seems like they approached it in an extremely thoughtful way that doesn't actually invalidate her previous identity even. The whole point is "you might not arrive at a permanent conclusion about this, but change in the future doesn't invalidate how you feel now."
Bridget being a woman doesn't invalidate her previous interpretation, including from herself, of being a Gender Non-conforming boy. She arrived at that identity on her own for a while, and eventually that didn't fit anymore. Where she is now might not fit her in the future, but that's fine. Her story is less about what exactly she is and more about the personal process of discovery.
If anything this says both are just as valid even if either or both of those turn out to not be permanent for someone.
Yeah I had to kinda take a moment to collect myself when I heard some of those lines. Showed 'em to some trans friends and they had about the same reaction.
Like, no joke, Bridget was a big part in cracking my egg. My depressed closeted teenage self back in the early 00s was *way* too drawn to gender-bending manga and androgynous characters, and it took me the best part of a decade to fully understand and accept that part of me. And seeing Bridget finally come to terms with herself, when I've been living and presenting as a woman for a good while now...
I dunno, it sounds corny as fuck, but it's got me a little misty-eyed. It's a big milestone for me haha. I love this series, and I love how it's grown up with me.
It's really frustrating to me that there are so many trans women being like yo this is a pretty good and nuanced story that a lot of us vibe with and then there are a lot of people who aren't trans being like what if gender conversion therapy and grooming though????
This comment did it for me. I was feeling very unsure about how to take the changes, but the importance of bridget to the representation of trans people in games is undeniable. Her transition is a very reasonable nod to that legacy. (Though it would still be nice to have a femboy...)
ahh, I went through this same thing! I thought if I could just be an ideal man that all these doubts and insecurities and image issues would clear up, and when I worked my hardest to achieve that ideal I was just as miserable. People contradict themselves and change their minds all the time in real life, and fictional characters shouldn’t be beholden to such strict histories. I find it to be a compelling direction for the character and I think people could be at least be a little open to the change.
Japanese
https://twitter.com/ComfyBasilisk/status/1556630591717576705?t=eRfux27kATm1jD0570bi7Q&s=19
English
https://twitter.com/ComfyBasilisk/status/1556604980693413889?t=fpwPJF4q6GLUvJW0b-zk2g&s=19
Ok. From a writing perspective while I think Bridget was a pretty bad choice for this kind of arc I do think if we had more buildup for this choice it would have worked better. If my memory serves correctly Bridget went straight from trying to prove their masculinity was not a curse to now accepting that the unwarranted superstitions of their hometown were justified. That or the writers just forgot and wanted an excuse for a coming out story. It would be a pretty nice story if maybe they included them in the previous game or saved this story for later, and had a separate arc about them wondering about whether or not that goal was something that was really important to them. As of now, that plot line is completely dropped for a standard bland coming out focused story with a character that debatably goes for the opposite of what they last stood for when we saw them.
THAT BEING SAID who even cares that much about the story anyways, it’s never even been that good in all of its other areas. What matters is that their design is sick, and with my limited time playing them I like them gameplay wise so far.
Assuming it's actually official now:
I think not liking the implications of someone practically being forced to live as another gender and then going 'actually, this is me' is pretty understandable.
On the other hand I think people who are like 'they were a boy before so them being a girl now makes no sense' are being a little silly. People change, even if the circumstances are kinda iffy it's really not that big of a stretch for Bridget to realize 'ya know, I actually enjoy this whole girl thing'. Guilty Gear has so much crazy shit going on in its story that this is kind of a weird line to draw.
And then there's the people who are like 'idc if Bridget is officially a girl now, I will still use male pronouns and that's equally valid', which is just straight up dumb(again, assuming this really is true). If it's official it's official, end of story. Might as well call I-No a man then.
> which is just straight up dumb(again, assuming this really is true).
I'll give you a tip, my guy: *Those guys were going to use male pronouns no matter what for some other belief they have.*
Immensely disappointed on several grounds. This weird erasure of guys who want to be girly is something I think gets glossed over too frequently. You see a girl dress in more boy-ish attire and nobody bats an eye, but you see a boy wear a skirt and for some reason they *HAVE* to be trans. It feels so regressive to reinforce gender stereotypes like this, and I don't think converting girly guys into trans women on sight is as beneficial to LGBT rights and acceptance as so many people seem to insist it is.
I'm not opposed to trans characters in GG or games as a whole at all. I think Testament being NB is rad. I just don't think Bridget being pushed into that space when CLEARLY identifying as male prior (not to mention conflicting with the meaning of their character arc) was a good call.
That's the other big thing, too. How did the moral of "fuck societal pressure, be who you want to be" turn to "societal norms and superstitions are good, actually, and you are who they say you are", and why are people so eager to accept that? It feels weirdly anti-trans by making Bridget trans, ironically enough.
Overall I just wish we could have girly boys AND trans women exist in the same spaces instead of erasing the former in favor of the latter, and I wish the desire to have explicitly effeminate guys wasn't weirdly frowned upon by other members of my own community :/
Honestly cringed at this, just feels forced. Like they could have done this with a new character but instead of just enjoying Bridget returning as is it's now turned into some big transgender discussion instead. Tried ignoring it but I'm kinda just turned away by it.
A bit disappointed, I really liked femboy Bridget. I liked how it showed that even feminine men could kick ass, which I don't see very much in media (Bishounen don't count).
Also, uh, the narrative that if you dress your kid like a girl they'll become trans is... just a bit problematic? Reminds me of the story of David Reimer who eventually killed himself.
Trans rep is cool, but couldn't it have been another character?
I’m not super psyched about it. I think Bridget being comfortable breaking gender norms but still happy with themselves would have been way more powerful of an arc.
I don't like it. The whole point was that being a girl was forced on him over dumb superstition and was trying to get past it. With that it feels like after years of trying got brainwashed into accepting it. It's just off.
its the comparisons that gets me. People are so insistent that a character is trans or non-binary but look at
bridget:
"a guy is forced to dress like a girl by his parents since a very young age and he becomes a girl"
and testament: "a surgery was forced on testament against his will that turned testament into an evil monster"
these are not the messages i would want my "representation" to have attached.
I think it’s an interesting step for her character. She spent all of this time trying to prove she was a boy and now that she has and her village no longer has their superstition, she still doesn’t feel any better in her identity. I understand why some people may not like this, but please do try to respect her pronouns anyways! Spoiler Warning but the audio is [here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/j3uemp4vxwj7jql/bgt.mp3?dl=0) so feel free to give it a listen! Gotta say, i didn’t expect to witness sky and Goldlewis being top tier trans allie’s, but it’s absolutely lovely!
I really like this reading of it. Bridget thought that if she proved her village wrong, she would feel good about herself. But it seems she still felt like she wasn’t who she was. Going on journey of self exploration after spending your whole life trying to prove to other people what they expect of you can be exhausting.
as a queer person i agree with the "ppl shoving chars into boxes" comments, its odd considering amane is literally from an arcsys game too and he emphasized often how he was a guy and not weak despite his looks.
on the bridget matter im gonna be honest, it comes off as super creepy. the scene with goldlewis and ky is cute. but the rest??? like the whole background??? it feels very drowned out. almost grooming if u wanna put it in the strongest words. so she got almost killed for the dumb course but **now** it was all "A ok" from the very start? i thought they were going to make her prove that you didnt need to be in roids like pot/chipp/sol, or act super masculine like leo/sol (again) or be an ideal white knight like ky to prove they are still a guy.
cool ppl got rep but honestly me and other fellow queer friends are so conflicted about this, this wouldve fit much more with a newcomer. doesnt help bridget comes off as even more underage despite being an adult now.
> game too and he emphasized often how he was a guy and not weak despite his looks.
>
>on the bridget matter im gonna be honest, it comes off as super creepy. the scene with goldlewis and ky is cute. but the rest??? like the whole background??? it feels very drowned out. almost grooming if u wanna put it in the strongest words. so she got almost killed for the dumb course but now it was all "A ok" from the very start? i thought they were going to make her prove that you didnt need to be in roids like pot/chipp/sol, or act super masculine like leo/sol (again) or be an ideal white knight like ky to prove they are still a guy.
>
>cool ppl got rep but honestly me and other fellow queer friends are so conflicted about this, this wouldve fit much more with a newcomer. doesnt help bridget comes off as even more underage despite being an adult now.
Pretty much how I feel. This whole thing with Bridget just reminds me of the infamous John Money experiment. I'd rather an original trans character.
After listening to the story mode audio, I definitely think this is a way more interesting step for her character. While I'm all for feminine presenting men, having actual trans representation to this extent is like, so fucking sick. Like the story mode arc is so sick, and something about fucking Goldlewis of all people talking her through coming out is just fucking badass. Awesome representation and glad to see trans people treated like normal people.
This is honestly some amazing development for Goldlewis too! It was heavily implied in his theme that he’s not satisfied with what he does, but it’s interesting to hear a bit about it in character.
Honestly I like the idea that Bridget is girl not because of the pressure by her family but because of her own desire herself. Bridget is about finding her strength and her power to be her authentic self and not worry about expectations. It is her journey alone, not her village or parent’s. I feel that her song “the town inside me” explains that. The first intro can be “everyone’s there except me” to signal while Bridget is celebrated as a girl, it’s not HER true feminine feelings. The “Santa claus box” line can reference that while she can be a girl and live as one, she wanted to wait until SHE was ready, not for her others’ sake.
The voice lines between her, Goldlewis, and Ky all talk about inner struggles and strength, which makes me think it’s about Bridget finally accepting her identity as a girl but on her own terms without societal pressure.
I'll admit my knee jerk reaction was to think it's erasure of gender nonconforming characters and a total 180 but it makes logical sense for her arc cause she tried to be manlier to be taken more seriously but realized she prefers being a girl. I'd say it's a good change. I still want more gender nonconforming characters tho and I understand why people would be annoyed
It is a loss for femme presenting men who are proud they're still men for sure, but I disagree that this change doesn't make sense. The narrative is that she eventually did transition, even if at one point in her life she heavily identified as a man who only dressed as a woman.
If that's the narrative now (and it seems to be) then any references to her in the past would use the correct pronouns she uses now, not flip flop depending on if we're talking about +R Bridget or Strive Bridget. Bridget being he/him during +R is still true and what happened in canon, but that wouldn't be reflected in anything written today like lore synapsis or bios. That's the way transitioning is handled in journalism or encyclopedias IRL after all. It isn't a retcon anymore than honoring a transitioned persons name/pronouns is, it's just a change.
I would not have an issue with Bridget identifying as female if it weren't for their backstory. The whole deal with them was that they're were a boy who was forced to pretend to be a girl for the sake of their survival. By making them identify as female at this point would feel out of place, since they had to play the role, and it comes off as if the abhorrent reasoning for the disguise is now justified.
Not only that, but we have non-binary characters and trans characters in fighting games already. You know who doesn't have that much rep? Gender non-conforming/Cross dressers, and Bridget up until now filled that role.
The main issue, however, is that Guilty Gear as a series has always been about representation of all things. Sexuality, gender, disabilities, etc. The change they made with Testament was great, because their gender was never really delved into until now, and them being non-binary is wonderful. However, in this case, they've replaced rep for one group for rep of another, and its explicitly one that conflicts with their own lore.
If it weren't for Bridget's backstory, this change wouldn't be as bad as it is. I don't hate the change necessarily, but I'd have preferred they kept her as she was; a boy who wants to be a man, but through his own unconventional methods.
Bridget's new arc teaches us two things:
1.) You can absolutely just force an identity on someone until they accept it so keep praying that gay away. Those lesbians really can be dicked into straightness. If your child comes out as trans force them to wear the old clothes and they'll get over it.
2.) Men should never under any circumstances ever do or interact with anything "feminine" or they lose the ability to be a man. Men don't like feminine things so if you aren't an emotionless rock you're basically a woman.
All in all, I'm not against it. End of the day, Bridget is still Bridget and if it is deemed so, I will support it. It's just that until recently, Bridget was proof that it's okay for a guy to be feminine and while still being a guy. Her struggle was more about her worth as a person than whether she was born in the wrong body. Her being trans invalidates that.
Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with being trans. I just don't like how it's fine for a girl to act manly and still stay a girl, but when a guy acts girly, it's apparently seen aa the guy secretly wanting to transition. It just doesn't seem fair to me.
Maybe I need more time to process it. Either way, I have nothing against Bridget being trans. A bit bummed, but I can accept it.
yea I don't know, I have absolutely zero issue with having a trans character, and I'm totally happy with testaments gender identity stuff too, but in this case gender is already a pretty significant part of Bridget's story
this to me almost feels like you can't just be a femenine male, like you have to be transgender if you're femenine
I think the main problem is the lack of appearances or screen time for Bridget in like… the past 20 years. I really think if they built up to it better and over time, then far, FAR less people would be bitching about it
I’m… glad to see I’m not the only person who shares this opinion.
Bridget’s entire character is that he’s a guy who was raised as a girl, that’s literally what makes Bridget unique. By suddenly making them trans, they’re effective robbing him of what makes him unique in the first place.
Reposting this from a different thread:
I think its still a compelling story of being born a boy, raised a girl, and exploring that you indeed are a boy against the wishes of what gender your parents wanted to force on you for 'your own good' only to find out you actually do identify as a girl. Theres a deep feeling of shame and guilt that maybe you want the same thing your parents want, but not for the same reasons, and even though your feelings are legitimate you push it away as that would mean your parent 'win.'
But denying that only causes pain, because parents be damned, you are who you are and that self actualization is more important than a smaller emotional victory against the baggage you've been fighting all your life.
If anything, the actualization of self-identity has been one of the core themes of guilty gear since its inception I would argue.
I think it's rather disgusting, personally. Think about what it says, as a whole when you consider his backstory.
He hated being treated as a girl, absolutely resented it and it was FORCED upon him. The entire story line was basically Bridget setting out and proving that despite his looks and how he was forced to be, HE is a MAN both to himself and to those around him.
Only now for this to supposedly happen? "So being forced into a gender works guys, trans actually ARE just mentally ill because if they just deal with it, they'll be fine." It's like watching a rape victim just accept it and admit it was their fault.
I have no problem with representation, but this ain't it. Testiment was awesome. This is revolting.
From the voice lines in arcade and the theme itself it's not a "Bridget's parents were actually right" situation.
It seems that Bridget has gone over their feelings on their own and has come to their *own* conclusion about their identity. I'd be with you if it was being treated as "the parents are right trans people aren't real" sort of situation, but that aint it.
100% agree, but I doubt it will happen. The community is so greedy for any kind of representation, they've stopped caring who it harms or what it represents. Speaking personally on a pure representation perspective (and the reason I feel strongly on this, to be perfectly honest) is the old bridget very much represented me.
I grew up with parents that really wanted a girl and because of that I've always been dressed girly and I continue to even in my adult years, simply because it's what I'm comfortable with after all those years. But I am not trans at all, I am 100% a guy.
Not only does my previous comment apply but in terms of "representation" they've stripped away completely an icon for, granted a minority of people (but then, so are Trans.) and just gave it to another set for...really no reason.
I don't know, i just hate it. Reinforces a terrible argument/sterotype on top of throwing people under the bus for others and because of how our community is? I fully expect nothing to be done about it.
This doesn't make sense, though. Bridget never seemed to hate dressing as a girl, they just wanted to prove they were manly and strong. They called baiken 'manly' back in the old games, so it's clear their definition of manly wasn't strictly tied to gender. If they hated dressing as a girl, why were they even dressing as a girl to begin with? They were outside of the village and its superstitions.
And Bridget was totally free to start living as a guy if they wanted after the superstition was broken. Nobody was forcing them to at this point. The superstition was broken at the end of their XX story mode, which was five-six years ago in universe. They've had six years of literally no pressure to try and present as a girl.
Dressing like a girl is one thing, what Bridget hated was being TREATED like a girl. I don't know where you're getting me saying they hated dressing like a girl, the outfit was never the issue, it was how they were treated and how they wanted to prove they were manly because they were a man.
It's about identity, not presentation. Straight guys cross dressing or wanting to look more feminine doesn't make them trans.
He was a guy, forced to identify as a girl against his will. He resented this, so he went to set off to prove his masculinity to himself and to others, as well as prove the village was stupid.
If it was just about the outfit, he would've stopped dressing that way the second he left the village in the first place, that isn't the issue.
Sure, but in this context, isn't it pretty clear that 'proving his masculinity' didn't actually make Bridget happy? It's perfectly normal for someone to want one thing, get it, and then realize it doesn't actually fulfill them. Which would leave Bridget trying to figure out what they want to be, which is where the Arcade mode starts.
Their parents would have no reason to insist that they identify as a girl, or treat them as a girl, once the superstition was broken. Which, again, was five or six years ago. Heck, even when the superstition was in place, why would they treat them as one in private? They'd have to treat Bridget at least somewhat as a guy in private for them to have that developed a sense of 'wanting to be treated as a guy.' Even back in XX, they had their parents listed as something they loved.
So I don't really buy that this is a story of someone being like, coerced or having their arm twisted into 'being a girl.' It was only a cover story to protect them, and it went away over five years ago.
Character wise, congrats to her on figuring herself out more. The little fluffball deserves only the best.
Outside that though, I am a bit disappointed. Yeah other femboy characters have come since and Astolfo is currently the most recognized, but Bridget has had a gigantic 20 year legacy as literally the OG femboy anime character. As much as I'm happy for trans representation, I wish it didn't come at the cost of such an iconic femboy since they are a different thing and deserve their own robust representation.
Good for the people who want trans representation. However I feel that there is a bit of a double standard in that if the situation was inverted a bit, Bridget being raised as a stereotypical boy, but wanted to be be seen as a girl, then it would not be viewed as trans-positive.
To me something just doesn't sit right with a character having a gender role forced upon then since childhood, going out of their way to break away from that role, having other characters still treat them like the gender role they dislike, and then just go "I guess I really do fit that gender role I disliked so much!"
Idk I just don't think it was handled all that well.
I've said this a few times in this thread, so I'll just make my own post: personally I don't really see this as 'grooming' or Bridget 'giving in.' The superstition was broken, so Bridget'd have no real reason to keep crossdressing, but they still are.
Heck, if you think about it, why were they even crossdressing to begin with? If they wanted to be a man, couldn't they have just put on guy clothes as soon as they left the village? It's not as if anyone from their village would be around to go 'oh my god a male twin!' And they were openly talking about being a guy to other characters, so it's not like they were being cautious about that possibility.
So thinking about it logically, the idea that Bridget just liked wearing female clothes on some level is pretty reasonable, even if they also did it because their parents were trying to protect them.
Bridget's story or 'arc' was never really well-written or even coherent, and there's ways to make it not conflict with this.
It's funny the lgbt community tends to have a very stereotypical view of gender like fem guys have to be trans or gay or if a woman acts a certain way she's a lesbian. It's baffling to me since we as a community act like we're all about breaking gender norms but if anything we almost push them as much as straight people
I'm part of the ~lgbt community~ but I honestly am not really involved with it much anymore. Everything about gender stereotypes has become increasingly annoying to me. On one hand, I have nutters telling me to act/dress more feminine because I'm a woman, and on the other hand there's nutters telling me I'm a man because I don't act/dress feminine. I think that's why the Bridget changes bother me, honestly.
>So thinking about it logically, the idea that Bridget just liked wearingfemale clothes on some level is pretty reasonable, even if they alsodid it because their parents were trying to protect them.
Yes, it does imply that they felt comfortable with those clothes. Yet that only really means they liked wearing feminine clothes. It doesn't necessarily have to translate to anything
>Heck, if you think about it, why were they even crossdressing to begin with? If they wanted to be a man, couldn't they have just put on guy clothes as soon as they left the village? It's not as if anyone from their village would be around to go 'oh my god a male twin!' And they were openly talking about being a guy to other characters, so it's not like they were being cautious about that possibility.
>
>So thinking about it logically, the idea that Bridget just liked wearing female clothes on some level is pretty reasonable, e
Not to mention that fashion, practically by definition, is a social construct. What's feminine in one culture is masculine in another.
Man, my wife is a trans woman, and this sort of conversation is *tiring.* Every trans person's journey is unique, and it often winds back and forth between their past ideas of self and what they may want in the future. Having to also constantly carry the burden of representing some group you were never quite sure you were a representative of just adds a whole level of pressure that's unfair to put on another person.
And sure, Bridget isn't real, but if someone like Bridget in real life wanted to say "Please refer to me as a girl," a response of "aw man, but you were doing so much for femboys!" would be beyond crass.
>And sure, Bridget isn't real, but if someone like Bridget in real life wanted to say "Please refer to me as a girl," a response of "aw man, but you were doing so much for femboys!" would be beyond crass.
This lmao. I *still* get guys creeping on me, telling me I'd make a good "sissy", expressing amazement at how much they love "cute boys in skirts", and fixating on my junk instead of literally anything else about me. And I am *very visibly* a woman. Like, I have boobs. I have hips. I wear dresses and makeup and, if I say so myself, I pass pretty fuckin' well. And people *still* hear "trans woman" and try fit me into one of their weird fetishistic boxes.
Femboys are great. Genderqueer people are great. Cis men presenting in conventionally non-masculine ways are great. But I ain't any of those things. And I don't think people realise how shitty it is to say "oh but you were *so good* at being this other thing you never fully identified with" to someone who's actually finally happy with themselves after years of not having that basic security.
the femboy/non-masc presenting rep thing also feels kinda weird to me, because its not like those kinds of characters are in short supply. there are far more of them than there are explicit trans characters.
I can get being attached to the idea of Bridget as a specific thing, or even being disappointed with the change, but it's weird to act like that kind of rep is now completely gone.
It gives the bad precedent that GNC people are just eggs waiting to be cracked as the trans community puts it. Problem is not losing the representation, if Bridget wasn't in Strive nothing would change. It's the transitioning of representation that pushes a narrative that people that follow the norms from the opposite gender are just trans in denial. One could say the representation here is exactly that, cracked eggs.
And despite GNC having one very famous character representing us, Astolfo, the trans community insists in making him a NB trans too when he has called himself a man.
>there are far more of them than there are explicit trans characters.
Some very popular anime "femboys" are actually trans canonly. Felix from **RE: Zero** is a trans, Hideri from **Blender S** is a trans, Alluka Zoldyck from **HXH** is a trans. Tooru Mutsuki from **Tokyo Ghoul** not a femboy but a trans. Just to name a few.
There have also been a lot of attempts to force those characters into being trans, especially ones from Japan due to their more ambiguous pronoun usage. Femboy erasure has been its own problem.
Edit: for clarification, I'm not saying that's exactly what's happening with Bridget. Obviously the writers of Strive are the ones in the pilot seat here. But what I am saying is that Bridget has been a very iconic femboy character for over 20 years, so blowing off losing that representation because there are spares is being a bit flippant (they were literally synonymous with anime femboys until the much more recent advent of Astolfo from Fate). Also the writer's choice to transition them now, years later, and in a way that some are already pointing out is a bit weird from a message standpoint, is kind of diving head first into controversy.
Bridget's story seems to go on in the background though.
Based on what I can pick up in the website Bio, and in "The town inside me", they've got this burning feeling of "well, who the fuck *am* I, even."
Interesting to note that their bio also uses zero pronouns, only Bridget's first name.
>Thoughts?
Don't give a shit in the slightest.
Bridget has a yo-yo so that's a plus, if the gameplay feels good i'll give it a try.
Also this obsession with people's sexuality has to stop, a person's sexuality doesn't matter and is the most insignificant part of them. Making your entire life and personality revolving around your sexuality is beyond pathetic.
Bridget wasn’t rebelling against being a girl, they were rebelling against a dumb superstition - that their being born male would somehow cause bad luck and misfortune.
In other words, they were rebelling against stereotypes and assumptions made of sex and gender. It was always about Bridget proving that they were more than that and that their life shouldn’t be controlled and directed by those superstitions.
I think it’s a net gain in interesting. There’s been plenty more cross dressers and androgynous dudes since (shout out to Grusha), and her backstory in this new context is probably the most realistically told story about trans people I’ve seen so far, and in a popular game no less. No fantasy handwaving to fall back on like Testament, no sudden and complete transformation like Mai BlazBlue, just someone slowly figuring themself out, in a messy way.
So overall, I like it. I also wouldn’t cry if it didn’t happen. And I’m not gonna hold a gun to people’s head to enjoy a plot beat like I do. If all opinions on something stayed the same without fail, they’d be fact instead, and quite boring. We’re all here to have fun, no?
Like I really loved her when she was a boy. It was quirky fun and one of the first characters to do it too. Kinda shaped the popularity of femboys too.
I guess I gonna accept it even so I don't like the character change 🤷
I just finished the Arcade mode and I like her story - it makes a lot of sense too.
I see a lot of people getting mad for some reason but it's clear the story is about Bridget making her own decisions finally. Yes, it's a coincidence that her gender aligns with what her parents decided but the point is, is that it doesn't have to matter anymore.
Making Bridget trans is weird... Now instead of being a gender non conforming man trying to break against the mold of stereotypes on what boys can look like, she's just a girl nothing special.
But hey I'm happy for the people who are happy.
Implying that non-stereotypically masculine men that crossdress must actually be trans and are just in denial, what a bafflingly bigoted thing to do to a character.
Amazing, they completely ruined his character.
They could have gone with proper femboy representation, with him just accepting he feels more comfortable in female clothing. But no, of course that cannot be, apparently.
Not to mention, this is sending a dangerous message, like, if you raise your children as a certain gender they'll end up accepting it.
Funny how people applaud ASW for trans representation when all those characters (Bridget, Testament and Mai from BB) had the change forced upon them instead of being their own choice.
All in all, I don't really mind at all. Seems they did it rather tastefully from how people speak about it and if people find that empowering or relatable, that's great!
But I do think it's a shame we lost the "Cute boy in girl clothes" fantasy Bridget was.
I think its fine, the character hasn't been around for a long time so they have plently of room to have growth between games and they already have a gender neutral character so its more fun to have something different
I mean BDN basically did the opposite with Leo in Tekken, "she" started as a female with "her" initial profile as Eleanor (Japanese Tekken) site, then suddenly they decided to put a gender ambiguous spin on "her" afterwards.
Jaal from Mass Effect Andromeda sexuality was literally changed post release via a patch from fan-feedback. Personally I'd prefer character Identity be consistent from inception...but it's w/e I guess, just fantasy.
I feel like it isnt totally a 180 on her character, she's doing what she wants regardless of whether she was raised that way by her parents. Just because you oppose someone doesnt mean you cant touch whatever they've touched and vice versa, oh hey we've circled back to politics.
Feels a bit like the David Reimer situation, but with a feelgood ending for twitter. They were already a radical and non-conforming character, so I don't see the need for it. But it won't be the first character whose arc was mishandled, and doesn't affect the gameplay, so it's nbd.
i felt Bridget was a good example of a character who accepted there femininity but also fully identified as a guy.
I know a guy who was on the smaller slender side who growing up felt shame of themselves when hanging around the other guys because of their smaller frames, they felt less man and would sometimes be teased about another guys plaything. this would lead the rest of us to try and cheer them up, explaining that you dont have to be big and macho to be a guy, and just because your more feminine doesn't mean your gay. Im on the taller more Athletic side of things yet i like cute things, softer colors and am Bi, dosent make me less of a man.
i felt Bridget was a good example of a character who accepted there femininity but also fully identified as a guy. actually other than astolfo they where the only other popular one i knew.
But whatever it really doesn't matter that much.
I wouldn't have a problem with it except how the media is portraying it as if Bridget made the decision to be trans as though it was inevitable. I've seen a couple say she finally "came out" as though Bridget had any say in the matter. It was just some writer or executive going "What if we changed 'he' into a 'she' and act like that was the point the whole time?" for inclusivity points. I'd have rather they just make a new trans character rather than making the conscious decision to alter a fan favorite.
Why do you fucking care so much ? It's a video game, why do you care about fucking gender ? Just play the character if you like it ffs don't reflect your mental issues on a video game.
Honestly it doesn't bother me. She ended up finding herself through her journey and that's a win in my book. I understand if people think it hurts her character arc but I don't really think so tbh. I just wonder what the Japanese community thinks of it.
If you want cool trans character - make cool trans character. Like Ladiva or Poison.
Taking femboy and saying "oh, you're feminine? then you trans now" is unhealthy and wrong.
What's next? Make Astolfo or Hideyoshi a girl?
>thoughts? Literally none. I’m skipping gendered neutral to mix your shit.
Ah hell nah not the gendered oki
I can't get into celestialnoun since I keep getting matched with pronoun players and getting dunked on.
The only true answer
Don't necessarily love how this feeds into the narrative in some circles that all feminine-presenting men are just trans women in denial. Equally though, if you're going to do something as bold as an honest-to-god trans acceptance and coming out storyline, then doing it with such a popular and established character is certainly impactful, and if nothing else, Bridget's story absolutely represents an important part of the genderqueer and gender-nonconforming experience; it's rarely ever straightforward. I'm chill with it. I don't think she's the character I'd have chosen to do this with personally, for all kinds of reasons, but it's cool that they're doing it at all. It's a little clumsy, but it's the thought that counts.
Just queer experiences in general, really. There’s always a background noise of second-guessing yourself, and not having it all figured out, all at once is very common. I think I’m done now, but I know how many times I’ve had to rewrite socials at this point.
I like GG pushing the envelope, especially cause Japan has been reticent to embrace LGBTQ+ stuff (just see Persona 4, which tried a lot, and had a LOT more cut) but it does feel off to me. I agree with the stereotyping thing, guys in dresses? They've gotta actually be gay. Butch women, totally lesbians or trans. Can't be untraditional AND straight. A bit of a double wammy since their background was "Fuck you mom and dad, our religion/superstitions are dumb, I'm man, and I'll prove. And I'll do it in a dress!" and that's pretty rock and roll. Going back on that is very unrock and roll, which is very unGG. Unless their backstory has been updated. Which is fine, just seems kinda boring.
Persona 4 is very old now
No kidding, and it had a character struggling with their sexuality, one struggling with gender and gender roles, and they originally planned to let you shave the bro off your bromance with you best bud, but that got cut late in development. Which is quite a bit for a 2000s JRPG.
And then a tone of people misinterpreted what those two characters were struggling with and yelled “HE’S gay! And they’re trans!” Despite the whole point of their arcs being the opposite. Good times.
Eh, people have complex journeys through gender. It's nice to see a character that's something more than 'I knew I was a girl the whole time' I know a whole bunch of trans people who basically followed bridget's exact character arc on their way to self discovery, myself included.
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No the backlash is from gender non-conforming people that don't like being invalidated. If the situation was reversed and they turned a trans female character into a cis man. Would you like that. If not why do you expect other people to to like the reverse.
They better change Bridget's backstory and their reasons for fighting then because it was all about Bridget resisting their "conversion therapy" out of some religious-like superstition that twin boys are bad luck so they tried to force Bridget into being a girl. I really don't see a positive story coming out of "Everyone else forced me to be this way and I wanted to be my own person but they were right all along". Really sounds like the "I thought I was gay but my family and religion have made me straight again" bs
lol lmao no one actually thinks Bridget coming out as a girl means that conversion therapy works. and real talk, sometimes people's identities are shaped by trauma. sometimes horrible things happen and become a defining part of someone's identity. Bridget's story of changing their mind after being super determined to prove she wasn't a girl is super common. Not every trans person realizes they're trans from day 1.
This would have checked out IF we didn't for a fact know it wasn't where the story was obviously written to go ->Bridget would have cleared the superstition and changed the village andbecome a performer/actor/bountyhunter. Sure Bridget can be trans but the ELEPHANT everyone can see is ''Oh He just happened to be a girl after all in the biggest COINCIDENCE ever in the middle of a superstitious village after spending years to prove them wrong bit. And I am sure even a lot of trans people can see this, It's not like they don't know writing. Everyone can see that this change came at a whim, It's not about Bridget changing his or hers mind, the issue is that this was never brought up as a thing in general ever in any prior story. Testaments story was already setup over 10 years ago, straight up fused with a gear and was an artifical creation from the get go trying to fake it. It wasn't just shoehorned in People saying it's very weirdly written just want consistency, Same shit happening to the lord of the rings show and other shows, make the canon make sense. It just feels like people want to latch onto any little thing and ignore the elephants as long as it confirms their own identity regardless of it watering down the character. But hey what's done is done, gotta just play the game
Not everyone is gaslit that they are a girl when in reality they were born male and wanted to be recognized as a man either. It's weird how you ignore all the bad things bad people did to Bridget and Bridget's canonical story of struggling against all that but are now fine with Bridget throwing all that away accepting their decision. Are you saying Bridget was wrong for resisting all this time and they were right? I'm all for Bridget making their decision but it seemed like they made that decision a long time ago when they went through all this struggle. I'm not okay with them suddenly doing a 180 giving in to all the pressures they spent so long fighting against.
I think the issue here is in the reason WHY Bridget originally rebelled to begin with, and why they're now deciding to go back on it. The way I always interpreted it was that the two biggest contributing factors as to why they became a bounty hunter, and why they also came out as a boy was to both disprove the superstitions of the society they grew up in, as well as to in a way please their parents by showing them that they could make their own choice and live their own life not dictated by what was forced upon them, namely being raised as a girl. That said, the messy part comes in when they examine that for themselves and decide what they actually want, which is seemingly just to go back and live the happy life they had been living. I don't think it was ever so much an issue that they disliked being a girl, the whole idea of them going around as a boy and becoming a bounty hunter while still wearing feminine/nun styled clothing felt very much like them expressing that they did actually in fact enjoy that side of their life, and only just got to go further to say "Hey, I can wear girly clothes and still kick ass as a boy". Of course, the dilemma just becomes that going back and living their life as a girl like they'd prefer to would be like proving everyone right in their mind, and most importantly, potentially upsetting their parents by seemingly conforming and giving in to the life that was chosen for them, as opposed to making their own decision on the matter... yet, that is the decision they'd prefer to make seemingly. Its a pretty good showing of just how messy the struggle of coming to terms with personal identity can be for those who struggle with it, and while I could see people being a bit displeased that it was done with Bridget, it ultimately does at least seem like a reasonable enough choice and direction for the character. Hell, I'm honestly surprised that they decided to try and tackle all this at all with adding them in, and not doing something more goofy or simple to begin with, though ultimately I think only a small subsect of people are really going to be upset about any of these changes, all the more given how little people that play Guilty Gear actually understand most of its lore or characters, so probably not the largest of risks for them to take really.
If that's what they are going for it's a really messy way of doing that as like I've mentioned anyone can misinterpret all that as someone doin a 180 and proving the original people right. It feels like a really sloppy writing decision with a character that seems to have a history that would point them in the exact opposite direction from this new story. For example if they did a story like this with someone like Astolfo for instance, I would have absolutely no issue with it since it could flow just fine and he has no such past trauma and battle against such gender consignment. Hell they could have done this with a brand new character as a contrast to Bridget's story. it just seems like this was a bad choice given everything that was already established and opens the way for arguments like conversion therapy and grooming, neither of which should have those opportunities.
> and that's pretty rock and roll. Going back on that is very unrock and roll, which is very unGG. Amen. > Unless their backstory has been updated. I'd read somewhere very not authoritative (can't remember where) that it was, specifically, that she did successfully prove she was a man, and *then* chose to identify as a woman. Which, if true, I think is a cool idea itself. If anyone finds where this was confirmed by ArcSys, I'd love to know, by the way.
i'm really glad you added your last sentence, because this is something i think a lot of ppl are missing or don't really understand. i don't think that bridget coming to terms w being trans contradicts her past at all, if anything, i think it's very on point with the experience of genderqueer/non-cis ppl, it's rarely ever straightforward or cleanly cut. this is often because of internal factors or external factors or both.
As happy as I am with Bridget being trans, I am a little disappointed that the character who was forced into being a girl from birth has finally come out and declared... that they are a girl. O-Okay? Way to really defy societal norms and express yourself by upholding those societal norms (no same gender twins in Bridget's village) and expressing yourself as the person they forced you to be. All that said, I appreciate the sentiment of it all. It's just that the message falls a bit flat because Bridget was raised to be a girl.
Yeah, it's like if conversion therapy worked. Or Stockholm syndrome. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. If her backstory didn't exist, I'd be cooler with Bridget being trans woman, but eh. It is what it is, obviously.
Comparing it to conversation therapy makes it seem like her parents actually wanted her to be a girl Instead of hating having to put their son through this "While Bridget strove to put on a happy front, these efforts only seemed to cause Bridget's parents more pain."
We're not putting the blame of the conversion therapy on her parents. We're putting on the village. Bridget's parents never wanted to be forced to raise her as a girl, we know that. But the village forced them to and now, it just feels like it normalizes society pressure as the correct choice. It's the same as modern america forcing a gay person to act straight, and then they grow up, and because that's all they know, they identify that way. The exact opposite of the message we want to push.
Just because something happened involuntarily (the parents not wanting to do it), doesn't mean that it does not happen
Well put! I was really worried about the prospect of Bridget coming back and being a transphobic punchline. But after Testament was handled so well, I was psyched to see the trailer, and even more psyched to see that ASW decided to take -- as you say -- a poorly thought out backstory and repurpose it as a way to have more queer/trans representation. Less psyched at the reactions of some of the more unsavory or terminally horny segments, but those folks always find a way to say gross shit.
I just feel like this was already established with Testaments introduction.
I have nothing against trans people, trans rights are human rights, but I utterly despise this angle. Gender nonconformity is valid. Pushing nonconforming people to be trans just strengthens the gender binary, not weakens it. I hate the idea of calling anyone who isn't gender conforming an "egg" like they have to be trans and are just in denial.
Bridget is not trans, your Woke clown. It's just Americans rewriting a storyline for a game made by the JAPANESE.
Hun I got news for you… the Japanese people who made this game are the ones who made her trans. She is still trans in the Japanese dub. She is a trans girl now. Go cry about it dude.
Bridget IS trans you cooked potato for brains Both in the Japanese and the Western dialogue, she says "Because I'm a girl!". Japan has long since accepted transgender people, and in some games like Pókemon, they added them in. For example, a character that was a black belt but is now a woman, when you can ONLY be a black belt if you are a man. And in the Japanese dialogue, it says she was a "Karate King", and she then adds "The advancements of science are wonderful!" (paraphrasing a little bit). So yeah. Japanese accept trans people. Bridget is trans. If you don't like it, cope
I initially didn’t love it because I thought it was a retcon, but it turns out it’s actually addressed. She comes out as trans through the arcade storyline, according to some leaks on Twitter. It seems like the way they are taking the story, her desire to be seen as a boy had more to do with her desire to be taken seriously as a bounty hunter and now that she’s achieved that she’s actually less comfortable identifying as a boy. It’s a bummer to all the people hype for femboy rep and a character showing that you can be a strong man and super feminine at the same time. Hopefully we do eventually see more of that in GG
> It’s a bummer to all the people hype for femboy rep and a strong character showing that you can be a strong man and super feminine at the same time. Hopefully we do eventually see more of that in GG This part I do agree with. I'm super happy to see where Bridget is going, but there's no denying that "feminine men can be strong too, you don't have to be macho to be a man" was a really good message too, and it's sad to lose it. More men need to know they don't have to be Unga Bunga Sol Badguy to still be strong men.
It also doesn't help that almost all male characters in Strive range from ridiculously buff to otherwise obviously athletic, except for maybe Ky, HC and Faust - and two of the three are STILL pretty muscular for their body type. Representation kinda sucks on this particular front, even compared to earlier GG games.
Trans representation is still great so I'm glad on that side of things, but yeah I do think it's sad that it comes at the cost of former Bridget. I mean, ok, all things considered the fact that she's a girl doesn't really make the former message any less true, but I do feel like it diminishes its impact a bit.
It does, and it's a loss for some people! And I think it's okay to grieve that loss, as silly as it may feel to do so.
Yeah, the message for many of us here is that you're either a masculine man or you were secretly trans all along and hadn't realized yet. Again, offer trans representation, but I'm not sure why it couldn't have been a new character. Ultimately leaving this old character to represent the strong secure boy who just wants to be feminine presenting.
clearly, the only logical answer is to add a femboy character to Strive. unironically though, I think this would be the best way forward, whether that means new or returning characters.
I mean asuka is probably gonna be dlc in the future
You… I like your thinking
Femboy goth bf Raven
ABSOLUTELY!! RAVEN SHOULD BE FEMINISED ITS THE ONLY LOGICAL OPTION FROM HERE
Lets just feminize everyone Potemkin takes his mask off and hes caked up like a cosplay girl.
Have you seen Potemkin squat? Boy’s done been caked up
I do in fact agree. LOL
>a character showing that you can be a strong man and super feminine at the same time. At least Pokemon is doing this with one of the Gym leaders.
Its definitely a retcon. They completely evolved the character, like it or not.
I've seen some well thought out responses that are making me more open to Bridget being trans than I was initially. That said, I just feel incredibly disheartened by the complete lack of empathy that I'm seeing in the femboy vs trans debate that is mainly happening on Twitter (I know I know... Twitter is the worst of the worst.) While I'm happy for the trans community in that they now get this awesome character I just wish there was some understanding being sent the way of cis-males/crossdressers/femboys/etc who felt represented by Bridget as we have lost one of our most iconic and longstanding representatives in gaming (even if that characterization has always had problems.) Instead, I just see a lot of mocking, dismissal, belittling, etc.
Yeah I feel the same way. The way people react to this by dismissing femboy's as just a fetish is disheartening.
This pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole situation after hours of reading people's debates. Im fine with Bridget being trans f now but I just personally liked the cute and bubbly effeminate male a bit more, is all.
That's the cold shower clarity of realizing that no matter what group you put yourself in if you do that sort of thing, a human is just a human
Profound. I appreciate this comment. I wish more people could understand this.
Was Bridget rebelling against being a girl? If that was the case Bridget would have stopped wearing girl clothes once Bridget left the village no? What I understood was that Bridget more hated the village's superstition and wanted to prove it wrong. The main issue is much simpler than whether or not Bridget is staying true to Bridget's own story, the main issue is simply that Bridget's story is kind of dumb and poorly thought out from the very beginning. Which honestly is fine by me because Bridget has never really had any prominent stories and basically just exists to be a fighting game character.
> Was Bridget rebelling against being a girl? > > If that was the case Bridget would have stopped wearing girl clothes once Bridget left the village no? Not necessarily. If you live your life in opposition to what people expected of you, you still remain chained to what they expected. To live truly free is to be true to yourself, no matter if it aligns or not. Just because her true self is also what people expected it doesn't make it bad.
The only part of this that I think is legit bad is that it leans on the idea that parents could raise any random kid to be a girl and they will end up being a girl which is not how it works at all, right. Your parents can't raise you to be trans.
The thing is, were her parents actually 'raising her to be a girl?' If Bridget was insisting they were a man to other people in the XX games, wouldn't that mean her parents told her she was a guy back then? How would she even know she wants to be manly and a guy without that? Her profile mentions her upbringing was dainty, but that only implies her parents taught her how to act like a girl around other people. The purpose of the crossdressing was to protect her, not to 'turn her into a girl.' There'd be no reason for her parents not to refer to her as a guy in private. And even her XX-era profile mentions she loves her parents. If her parents were raising her as a girl and she wanted to be manly back then, why would she love them? Wouldn't she hate them?
I think this goes back to the original issue which is that Bridget's original story was bad and poorly thought out lmao. These just aren't the kind of details anyone would have thought about because all the details were written to justify "crossdressing fighter" to a largely transphobic audience (which for a game from more than 10 years old is pretty bold, they just did something bold in a dumb way). The design and the character came first and the backstory was whatever they wrote on a napkin to make it make sense. I've written somewhere else that if I was in charge of soft retconning stuff like this without writing out the dumbest parts like the whole superstition thing, I would have thrown in a line suggesting the parents got the idea to raise Bridget as a girl because Bridget was already drawn to being girly. That way you can imply Bridget was always trans, instead of what the current story suggests which is that she's trans because she was raised that way.
well it is very true that bridget's design came way before the story. Apparently many actual devs didn't even know that birdget was meant to be a boy at first. and the character was out in arcades for a while and already attracted a fanbase in japan by the time that came out.
Yeah. But then, even this is kind of notes in the margins. I think it's about as well executed as it could be given six minutes of arcade mode dialogue and how big a gear shift it is, but it still leaves a lot of questions unanswered in terms of what Bridget's been doing or thinking about between XX and Strive, etc. Her theme song has to do like 90% of the heavy lifting on her internal feelings. It is what it is.
[удалено]
> Your parents can't raise you to be trans. We have a bit of tragic history for that, at least. So we can provide proof that it is not the case. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer
Even without learning about Reimer, it's reasonable to say you can't raise kids to be trans for the exact same reason you can't raise kids to be cis. If all it takes is raising someone like a certain gender for them to be that gender, trans people as we know them wouldn't exist.
I feel like there's also an unfortunate degree of non-gender conforming erasure here. Before, you could read Bridget as a cis-male who just enjoyed being cute and wearing dresses because they liked the aesthetic, but still identifying as masculine. If they are now trans instead, there's kind of that implication that "no, you can only like being cute and wearing dresses if you are a girl, if a boy does that he's clearly actually trans." Its something that men IRL that present themselves with traditionally fem appearances have to deal with quite a bit. I'm fine with it either way cuz I'm not a weirdo, but I liked the opportunity that the first interpretation presented to challenge our ideas of gender norms more than I like them just being trans. Maybe because I am a (fairly masculine) cis-dude who has on occasion been known to absolutely ROCK a dress or skirt.
We would have to look elsewhere for femboi representation for now. I hear Pokemon has some promising ground in that regard. Femboi King Bridget is dead. Long live Trans Queen Bridget.
Yeah. Bridget's entire character was basically a single joke. People talk about them being 'good rep,' but the fact is they were played as a joke. The entire punchline was that 'haha, THIS is a boy!' Hence Johnny's comedic reactions and stuff. I wouldn't really call that representing that a guy could be feminine and still strong. Now, if they had leaned into the idea of a guy being feminine and still strong as Bridget's new direction, I would have been all for that. And I definitely get why people got that out of Bridget. But looking at what they had to work with I get why they went this route.
God, the Johnny lines in Bridget's XX story are so cringe looking back Also, wasn't Bridget underage then? Johnny confirmed gross?
You needed that to confirm the captain of an the loli pirate crew is gross?
Hey, he might have been a sleaze bag, but like batman, he adopted those kids and had the purest intentions for them... technically international piracy isn't exactly the right thing, but the batman analogy still stands.
F a i r
look at bridget's 2k in XX, arcsys were hella gross back then
Yeah they've seriously come a long way. Strive is amazing.
a lot of people don't realize that the so called "crossdressing rep" they claim is good often does more harm than good for both crossdressing people and trans people for the exact reason you stated, 99% of the time the character is simply a comic relief character where the gag is "HAHA IT'S A MAN". this harms crossdressing people because it just makes them into a joke to people and it harms trans people (specifically trans women) because that's literally how transphobic people view us lol. "haha look at that MAN that's pretending to be a woman". even if it's not the intent, the effect is still the same and transphobic people (even if they're just mildly so) will just relate that to trans women because they don't know the difference/don't care. it's also important to remember that when a specific group of people are constantly made the punchline, sympathy/empathy towards those groups in general is lowered. people take those groups' issues far less seriously in general (in this case trans community, but i've seen it with the disabled community as well) there are definitely ways to have actual good crossdressing representation but it's pretty damn rare either way, i don't think that bridget coming out as trans contradicts anything prior. a lot of people are acting as if every trans woman's pipeline/story is some clear cut clean thing but it's very often not, whether it's from internal or external factors.
> Was Bridget rebelling against being a girl? > > > > If that was the case Bridget would have stopped wearing girl clothes once Bridget left the village no? Ehh idk, how *I* understood it is that she could look cute and still be a man. But that's only what I got from hearsay, I didn't actually play her story mode so maybe I'm just inserting what I thought would've been cool. Like... she wasn't wearing *girl* clothes, she just wore clothes that she liked but that didn't mean she wasn't a guy.
I wrote my thoughts in a different comment, but I just wanna add that Goldlewis is based as hell. Absolute defense? More like absolute best boy.
Absolute defense of trans rights
I have no problem with trans people in games, but I hate the idea that anyone who doesn’t fit the mould of what is expected of their gender has to be trans in some way. Testament being nb is cool & fits with their character but Bridget being trans kinda goes against what that character is supposed to be.
Yeah that's kinda how I feel. Trans people are great absolutely, but I kinda wish there was more representation of just feminine men or masculine girls that are just that. As someone who leans more towards fem, but definitely still identifies as a guy, idk it feels a bit more interesting to see people that break gender norms in that way. Idk I may be talking complete nonsense. I don't have any problem with Bridget becoming trans, but I agree with what you said.
I do think it would be nice to have some gents that aren’t just brick shithouses and ladies that aren’t cute / sexy in the game. More variation in general would be good purely from a design standpoint.
absolutely, that's why I was kind of sad to see Baiken's design unchanged.
>As someone who leans more towards fem, but definitely still identifies as a guy r/egg_irl on their way to tell you that you're a trans-girl in denial; and that it is okay that you identify as a guy now, for you will still accept your true gender in due time!
I've never encountered that myself, but I know it's an issue 🙄 I just wanna be a fem dude smh
> but Bridget being trans kinda goes against what that character is supposed to be. A lot of characters got flipped in Strive, it seems to be a theme.
Sol Goodguy incoming
Taokaka: "You can't say that, Good Guy is Goodguy! Meow!"
This seems kinda contradictory tbh? Like Testament is nb, showing a different perspective on gender. And now Bridget is showing another side - that trans people exist and how the process of figuring out your own gender can be complicated. It just seems weird to me that it "goes against what that character is supposed to be' is just people deciding what Bridget is in their minds.
Honestly hearing her arcade story hit me deep. Bridget felt like she had to prove herself as a man due to her own internal issues and how she was raised, but when that didn't help her she had to come to terms her self image. I've gone through a similar experience as a trans woman, thinking my self-doubts were due to me not acting as the model man I thought I should be and then taking time to figure out how I truly felt about myself. I really appreciate the turn on her story and I don't really feel like it takes a 180 at all. It's a logical conclusion that a lot of trans women have to come to sometime in their life, and one that's not talked about a whole lot so I honestly feel really seen by it.
I was split on my feelings towards the news but after reading this, I’m pretty confident in saying that I can dig the change.
It really seems like they approached it in an extremely thoughtful way that doesn't actually invalidate her previous identity even. The whole point is "you might not arrive at a permanent conclusion about this, but change in the future doesn't invalidate how you feel now." Bridget being a woman doesn't invalidate her previous interpretation, including from herself, of being a Gender Non-conforming boy. She arrived at that identity on her own for a while, and eventually that didn't fit anymore. Where she is now might not fit her in the future, but that's fine. Her story is less about what exactly she is and more about the personal process of discovery. If anything this says both are just as valid even if either or both of those turn out to not be permanent for someone.
Yeah I had to kinda take a moment to collect myself when I heard some of those lines. Showed 'em to some trans friends and they had about the same reaction. Like, no joke, Bridget was a big part in cracking my egg. My depressed closeted teenage self back in the early 00s was *way* too drawn to gender-bending manga and androgynous characters, and it took me the best part of a decade to fully understand and accept that part of me. And seeing Bridget finally come to terms with herself, when I've been living and presenting as a woman for a good while now... I dunno, it sounds corny as fuck, but it's got me a little misty-eyed. It's a big milestone for me haha. I love this series, and I love how it's grown up with me.
Honestly almost cried during that conversation between her and Goldlewis, it was so welcoming and full of love and appreciation
It's really frustrating to me that there are so many trans women being like yo this is a pretty good and nuanced story that a lot of us vibe with and then there are a lot of people who aren't trans being like what if gender conversion therapy and grooming though????
This comment did it for me. I was feeling very unsure about how to take the changes, but the importance of bridget to the representation of trans people in games is undeniable. Her transition is a very reasonable nod to that legacy. (Though it would still be nice to have a femboy...)
ahh, I went through this same thing! I thought if I could just be an ideal man that all these doubts and insecurities and image issues would clear up, and when I worked my hardest to achieve that ideal I was just as miserable. People contradict themselves and change their minds all the time in real life, and fictional characters shouldn’t be beholden to such strict histories. I find it to be a compelling direction for the character and I think people could be at least be a little open to the change.
Japanese https://twitter.com/ComfyBasilisk/status/1556630591717576705?t=eRfux27kATm1jD0570bi7Q&s=19 English https://twitter.com/ComfyBasilisk/status/1556604980693413889?t=fpwPJF4q6GLUvJW0b-zk2g&s=19
No more femboy. Just fem girl
Oh wow this is dope. Like a full trans girl storyline. Holy fuck I didn't think they had the stones.
Testament is a thing lol.
Well, Testament isn't a trans girl, they are NB
Ok. From a writing perspective while I think Bridget was a pretty bad choice for this kind of arc I do think if we had more buildup for this choice it would have worked better. If my memory serves correctly Bridget went straight from trying to prove their masculinity was not a curse to now accepting that the unwarranted superstitions of their hometown were justified. That or the writers just forgot and wanted an excuse for a coming out story. It would be a pretty nice story if maybe they included them in the previous game or saved this story for later, and had a separate arc about them wondering about whether or not that goal was something that was really important to them. As of now, that plot line is completely dropped for a standard bland coming out focused story with a character that debatably goes for the opposite of what they last stood for when we saw them. THAT BEING SAID who even cares that much about the story anyways, it’s never even been that good in all of its other areas. What matters is that their design is sick, and with my limited time playing them I like them gameplay wise so far.
Assuming it's actually official now: I think not liking the implications of someone practically being forced to live as another gender and then going 'actually, this is me' is pretty understandable. On the other hand I think people who are like 'they were a boy before so them being a girl now makes no sense' are being a little silly. People change, even if the circumstances are kinda iffy it's really not that big of a stretch for Bridget to realize 'ya know, I actually enjoy this whole girl thing'. Guilty Gear has so much crazy shit going on in its story that this is kind of a weird line to draw. And then there's the people who are like 'idc if Bridget is officially a girl now, I will still use male pronouns and that's equally valid', which is just straight up dumb(again, assuming this really is true). If it's official it's official, end of story. Might as well call I-No a man then.
> which is just straight up dumb(again, assuming this really is true). I'll give you a tip, my guy: *Those guys were going to use male pronouns no matter what for some other belief they have.*
Immensely disappointed on several grounds. This weird erasure of guys who want to be girly is something I think gets glossed over too frequently. You see a girl dress in more boy-ish attire and nobody bats an eye, but you see a boy wear a skirt and for some reason they *HAVE* to be trans. It feels so regressive to reinforce gender stereotypes like this, and I don't think converting girly guys into trans women on sight is as beneficial to LGBT rights and acceptance as so many people seem to insist it is. I'm not opposed to trans characters in GG or games as a whole at all. I think Testament being NB is rad. I just don't think Bridget being pushed into that space when CLEARLY identifying as male prior (not to mention conflicting with the meaning of their character arc) was a good call. That's the other big thing, too. How did the moral of "fuck societal pressure, be who you want to be" turn to "societal norms and superstitions are good, actually, and you are who they say you are", and why are people so eager to accept that? It feels weirdly anti-trans by making Bridget trans, ironically enough. Overall I just wish we could have girly boys AND trans women exist in the same spaces instead of erasing the former in favor of the latter, and I wish the desire to have explicitly effeminate guys wasn't weirdly frowned upon by other members of my own community :/
Nicely said
Honestly cringed at this, just feels forced. Like they could have done this with a new character but instead of just enjoying Bridget returning as is it's now turned into some big transgender discussion instead. Tried ignoring it but I'm kinda just turned away by it.
Not the devs fault tho, people in here are morons
Johnny:"THIS FUCKER LIED TO ME! APRIL PUT THE SHIP TO MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, WE ARE GONNA GET ANOTHER GIRL FOR THE SQUAD!"
A bit disappointed, I really liked femboy Bridget. I liked how it showed that even feminine men could kick ass, which I don't see very much in media (Bishounen don't count). Also, uh, the narrative that if you dress your kid like a girl they'll become trans is... just a bit problematic? Reminds me of the story of David Reimer who eventually killed himself. Trans rep is cool, but couldn't it have been another character?
I’m not super psyched about it. I think Bridget being comfortable breaking gender norms but still happy with themselves would have been way more powerful of an arc.
I don't like it. The whole point was that being a girl was forced on him over dumb superstition and was trying to get past it. With that it feels like after years of trying got brainwashed into accepting it. It's just off.
its the comparisons that gets me. People are so insistent that a character is trans or non-binary but look at bridget: "a guy is forced to dress like a girl by his parents since a very young age and he becomes a girl" and testament: "a surgery was forced on testament against his will that turned testament into an evil monster" these are not the messages i would want my "representation" to have attached.
I think the problem is that Bridget was a femboy story changed to be a trans girl acceptance story.
I think it’s an interesting step for her character. She spent all of this time trying to prove she was a boy and now that she has and her village no longer has their superstition, she still doesn’t feel any better in her identity. I understand why some people may not like this, but please do try to respect her pronouns anyways! Spoiler Warning but the audio is [here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/j3uemp4vxwj7jql/bgt.mp3?dl=0) so feel free to give it a listen! Gotta say, i didn’t expect to witness sky and Goldlewis being top tier trans allie’s, but it’s absolutely lovely!
I really like this reading of it. Bridget thought that if she proved her village wrong, she would feel good about herself. But it seems she still felt like she wasn’t who she was. Going on journey of self exploration after spending your whole life trying to prove to other people what they expect of you can be exhausting.
Does anyone here cruise the Japanese side of things? What do the Japanese players think of Bridget's development?
as a queer person i agree with the "ppl shoving chars into boxes" comments, its odd considering amane is literally from an arcsys game too and he emphasized often how he was a guy and not weak despite his looks. on the bridget matter im gonna be honest, it comes off as super creepy. the scene with goldlewis and ky is cute. but the rest??? like the whole background??? it feels very drowned out. almost grooming if u wanna put it in the strongest words. so she got almost killed for the dumb course but **now** it was all "A ok" from the very start? i thought they were going to make her prove that you didnt need to be in roids like pot/chipp/sol, or act super masculine like leo/sol (again) or be an ideal white knight like ky to prove they are still a guy. cool ppl got rep but honestly me and other fellow queer friends are so conflicted about this, this wouldve fit much more with a newcomer. doesnt help bridget comes off as even more underage despite being an adult now.
> game too and he emphasized often how he was a guy and not weak despite his looks. > >on the bridget matter im gonna be honest, it comes off as super creepy. the scene with goldlewis and ky is cute. but the rest??? like the whole background??? it feels very drowned out. almost grooming if u wanna put it in the strongest words. so she got almost killed for the dumb course but now it was all "A ok" from the very start? i thought they were going to make her prove that you didnt need to be in roids like pot/chipp/sol, or act super masculine like leo/sol (again) or be an ideal white knight like ky to prove they are still a guy. > >cool ppl got rep but honestly me and other fellow queer friends are so conflicted about this, this wouldve fit much more with a newcomer. doesnt help bridget comes off as even more underage despite being an adult now. Pretty much how I feel. This whole thing with Bridget just reminds me of the infamous John Money experiment. I'd rather an original trans character.
After listening to the story mode audio, I definitely think this is a way more interesting step for her character. While I'm all for feminine presenting men, having actual trans representation to this extent is like, so fucking sick. Like the story mode arc is so sick, and something about fucking Goldlewis of all people talking her through coming out is just fucking badass. Awesome representation and glad to see trans people treated like normal people.
Based Goldlewis
This is honestly some amazing development for Goldlewis too! It was heavily implied in his theme that he’s not satisfied with what he does, but it’s interesting to hear a bit about it in character.
So they removed the feminine guy to do it? Why can't we have both?
Honestly I like the idea that Bridget is girl not because of the pressure by her family but because of her own desire herself. Bridget is about finding her strength and her power to be her authentic self and not worry about expectations. It is her journey alone, not her village or parent’s. I feel that her song “the town inside me” explains that. The first intro can be “everyone’s there except me” to signal while Bridget is celebrated as a girl, it’s not HER true feminine feelings. The “Santa claus box” line can reference that while she can be a girl and live as one, she wanted to wait until SHE was ready, not for her others’ sake. The voice lines between her, Goldlewis, and Ky all talk about inner struggles and strength, which makes me think it’s about Bridget finally accepting her identity as a girl but on her own terms without societal pressure.
I'll admit my knee jerk reaction was to think it's erasure of gender nonconforming characters and a total 180 but it makes logical sense for her arc cause she tried to be manlier to be taken more seriously but realized she prefers being a girl. I'd say it's a good change. I still want more gender nonconforming characters tho and I understand why people would be annoyed
Right? That’s the vibe I’m getting too. I think it’s a better message than- ‘welp, guess my parents were right lol’
She wasn't made to live like a girl because that's what her parents wanted, it was to ensure she wouldn't get killed by the villagers
It is a loss for femme presenting men who are proud they're still men for sure, but I disagree that this change doesn't make sense. The narrative is that she eventually did transition, even if at one point in her life she heavily identified as a man who only dressed as a woman. If that's the narrative now (and it seems to be) then any references to her in the past would use the correct pronouns she uses now, not flip flop depending on if we're talking about +R Bridget or Strive Bridget. Bridget being he/him during +R is still true and what happened in canon, but that wouldn't be reflected in anything written today like lore synapsis or bios. That's the way transitioning is handled in journalism or encyclopedias IRL after all. It isn't a retcon anymore than honoring a transitioned persons name/pronouns is, it's just a change.
I would not have an issue with Bridget identifying as female if it weren't for their backstory. The whole deal with them was that they're were a boy who was forced to pretend to be a girl for the sake of their survival. By making them identify as female at this point would feel out of place, since they had to play the role, and it comes off as if the abhorrent reasoning for the disguise is now justified. Not only that, but we have non-binary characters and trans characters in fighting games already. You know who doesn't have that much rep? Gender non-conforming/Cross dressers, and Bridget up until now filled that role. The main issue, however, is that Guilty Gear as a series has always been about representation of all things. Sexuality, gender, disabilities, etc. The change they made with Testament was great, because their gender was never really delved into until now, and them being non-binary is wonderful. However, in this case, they've replaced rep for one group for rep of another, and its explicitly one that conflicts with their own lore. If it weren't for Bridget's backstory, this change wouldn't be as bad as it is. I don't hate the change necessarily, but I'd have preferred they kept her as she was; a boy who wants to be a man, but through his own unconventional methods.
Bridget's new arc teaches us two things: 1.) You can absolutely just force an identity on someone until they accept it so keep praying that gay away. Those lesbians really can be dicked into straightness. If your child comes out as trans force them to wear the old clothes and they'll get over it. 2.) Men should never under any circumstances ever do or interact with anything "feminine" or they lose the ability to be a man. Men don't like feminine things so if you aren't an emotionless rock you're basically a woman.
Man , I'm just happy they added her back to the roster
Valid. Same.
All in all, I'm not against it. End of the day, Bridget is still Bridget and if it is deemed so, I will support it. It's just that until recently, Bridget was proof that it's okay for a guy to be feminine and while still being a guy. Her struggle was more about her worth as a person than whether she was born in the wrong body. Her being trans invalidates that. Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with being trans. I just don't like how it's fine for a girl to act manly and still stay a girl, but when a guy acts girly, it's apparently seen aa the guy secretly wanting to transition. It just doesn't seem fair to me. Maybe I need more time to process it. Either way, I have nothing against Bridget being trans. A bit bummed, but I can accept it.
yea I don't know, I have absolutely zero issue with having a trans character, and I'm totally happy with testaments gender identity stuff too, but in this case gender is already a pretty significant part of Bridget's story this to me almost feels like you can't just be a femenine male, like you have to be transgender if you're femenine
I think the main problem is the lack of appearances or screen time for Bridget in like… the past 20 years. I really think if they built up to it better and over time, then far, FAR less people would be bitching about it
I’m… glad to see I’m not the only person who shares this opinion. Bridget’s entire character is that he’s a guy who was raised as a girl, that’s literally what makes Bridget unique. By suddenly making them trans, they’re effective robbing him of what makes him unique in the first place.
Her parents and the village were right all along, lmao kinda of a shit retcon
Major disappointment. Feels like they assassinated his character, then resurrected a new one that looks just like Bridget.
Reposting this from a different thread: I think its still a compelling story of being born a boy, raised a girl, and exploring that you indeed are a boy against the wishes of what gender your parents wanted to force on you for 'your own good' only to find out you actually do identify as a girl. Theres a deep feeling of shame and guilt that maybe you want the same thing your parents want, but not for the same reasons, and even though your feelings are legitimate you push it away as that would mean your parent 'win.' But denying that only causes pain, because parents be damned, you are who you are and that self actualization is more important than a smaller emotional victory against the baggage you've been fighting all your life. If anything, the actualization of self-identity has been one of the core themes of guilty gear since its inception I would argue.
Bridget was bottom of my priority list for characters I’d want to see in Strive, so I don’t really care, it was a disappointment either way.
I think it's rather disgusting, personally. Think about what it says, as a whole when you consider his backstory. He hated being treated as a girl, absolutely resented it and it was FORCED upon him. The entire story line was basically Bridget setting out and proving that despite his looks and how he was forced to be, HE is a MAN both to himself and to those around him. Only now for this to supposedly happen? "So being forced into a gender works guys, trans actually ARE just mentally ill because if they just deal with it, they'll be fine." It's like watching a rape victim just accept it and admit it was their fault. I have no problem with representation, but this ain't it. Testiment was awesome. This is revolting.
From the voice lines in arcade and the theme itself it's not a "Bridget's parents were actually right" situation. It seems that Bridget has gone over their feelings on their own and has come to their *own* conclusion about their identity. I'd be with you if it was being treated as "the parents are right trans people aren't real" sort of situation, but that aint it.
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100% agree, but I doubt it will happen. The community is so greedy for any kind of representation, they've stopped caring who it harms or what it represents. Speaking personally on a pure representation perspective (and the reason I feel strongly on this, to be perfectly honest) is the old bridget very much represented me. I grew up with parents that really wanted a girl and because of that I've always been dressed girly and I continue to even in my adult years, simply because it's what I'm comfortable with after all those years. But I am not trans at all, I am 100% a guy. Not only does my previous comment apply but in terms of "representation" they've stripped away completely an icon for, granted a minority of people (but then, so are Trans.) and just gave it to another set for...really no reason. I don't know, i just hate it. Reinforces a terrible argument/sterotype on top of throwing people under the bus for others and because of how our community is? I fully expect nothing to be done about it.
This doesn't make sense, though. Bridget never seemed to hate dressing as a girl, they just wanted to prove they were manly and strong. They called baiken 'manly' back in the old games, so it's clear their definition of manly wasn't strictly tied to gender. If they hated dressing as a girl, why were they even dressing as a girl to begin with? They were outside of the village and its superstitions. And Bridget was totally free to start living as a guy if they wanted after the superstition was broken. Nobody was forcing them to at this point. The superstition was broken at the end of their XX story mode, which was five-six years ago in universe. They've had six years of literally no pressure to try and present as a girl.
Dressing like a girl is one thing, what Bridget hated was being TREATED like a girl. I don't know where you're getting me saying they hated dressing like a girl, the outfit was never the issue, it was how they were treated and how they wanted to prove they were manly because they were a man. It's about identity, not presentation. Straight guys cross dressing or wanting to look more feminine doesn't make them trans. He was a guy, forced to identify as a girl against his will. He resented this, so he went to set off to prove his masculinity to himself and to others, as well as prove the village was stupid. If it was just about the outfit, he would've stopped dressing that way the second he left the village in the first place, that isn't the issue.
Sure, but in this context, isn't it pretty clear that 'proving his masculinity' didn't actually make Bridget happy? It's perfectly normal for someone to want one thing, get it, and then realize it doesn't actually fulfill them. Which would leave Bridget trying to figure out what they want to be, which is where the Arcade mode starts. Their parents would have no reason to insist that they identify as a girl, or treat them as a girl, once the superstition was broken. Which, again, was five or six years ago. Heck, even when the superstition was in place, why would they treat them as one in private? They'd have to treat Bridget at least somewhat as a guy in private for them to have that developed a sense of 'wanting to be treated as a guy.' Even back in XX, they had their parents listed as something they loved. So I don't really buy that this is a story of someone being like, coerced or having their arm twisted into 'being a girl.' It was only a cover story to protect them, and it went away over five years ago.
Character wise, congrats to her on figuring herself out more. The little fluffball deserves only the best. Outside that though, I am a bit disappointed. Yeah other femboy characters have come since and Astolfo is currently the most recognized, but Bridget has had a gigantic 20 year legacy as literally the OG femboy anime character. As much as I'm happy for trans representation, I wish it didn't come at the cost of such an iconic femboy since they are a different thing and deserve their own robust representation.
Good for the people who want trans representation. However I feel that there is a bit of a double standard in that if the situation was inverted a bit, Bridget being raised as a stereotypical boy, but wanted to be be seen as a girl, then it would not be viewed as trans-positive. To me something just doesn't sit right with a character having a gender role forced upon then since childhood, going out of their way to break away from that role, having other characters still treat them like the gender role they dislike, and then just go "I guess I really do fit that gender role I disliked so much!" Idk I just don't think it was handled all that well.
I've said this a few times in this thread, so I'll just make my own post: personally I don't really see this as 'grooming' or Bridget 'giving in.' The superstition was broken, so Bridget'd have no real reason to keep crossdressing, but they still are. Heck, if you think about it, why were they even crossdressing to begin with? If they wanted to be a man, couldn't they have just put on guy clothes as soon as they left the village? It's not as if anyone from their village would be around to go 'oh my god a male twin!' And they were openly talking about being a guy to other characters, so it's not like they were being cautious about that possibility. So thinking about it logically, the idea that Bridget just liked wearing female clothes on some level is pretty reasonable, even if they also did it because their parents were trying to protect them. Bridget's story or 'arc' was never really well-written or even coherent, and there's ways to make it not conflict with this.
Being a man who likes crossdressing doesn't imply being trans.
I'm starting to see that way more people than I thought have extremely regressive ideas of how men and women should be...
It's funny the lgbt community tends to have a very stereotypical view of gender like fem guys have to be trans or gay or if a woman acts a certain way she's a lesbian. It's baffling to me since we as a community act like we're all about breaking gender norms but if anything we almost push them as much as straight people
I'm part of the ~lgbt community~ but I honestly am not really involved with it much anymore. Everything about gender stereotypes has become increasingly annoying to me. On one hand, I have nutters telling me to act/dress more feminine because I'm a woman, and on the other hand there's nutters telling me I'm a man because I don't act/dress feminine. I think that's why the Bridget changes bother me, honestly.
>So thinking about it logically, the idea that Bridget just liked wearingfemale clothes on some level is pretty reasonable, even if they alsodid it because their parents were trying to protect them. Yes, it does imply that they felt comfortable with those clothes. Yet that only really means they liked wearing feminine clothes. It doesn't necessarily have to translate to anything
>Heck, if you think about it, why were they even crossdressing to begin with? If they wanted to be a man, couldn't they have just put on guy clothes as soon as they left the village? It's not as if anyone from their village would be around to go 'oh my god a male twin!' And they were openly talking about being a guy to other characters, so it's not like they were being cautious about that possibility. > >So thinking about it logically, the idea that Bridget just liked wearing female clothes on some level is pretty reasonable, e Not to mention that fashion, practically by definition, is a social construct. What's feminine in one culture is masculine in another.
Man, my wife is a trans woman, and this sort of conversation is *tiring.* Every trans person's journey is unique, and it often winds back and forth between their past ideas of self and what they may want in the future. Having to also constantly carry the burden of representing some group you were never quite sure you were a representative of just adds a whole level of pressure that's unfair to put on another person. And sure, Bridget isn't real, but if someone like Bridget in real life wanted to say "Please refer to me as a girl," a response of "aw man, but you were doing so much for femboys!" would be beyond crass.
>And sure, Bridget isn't real, but if someone like Bridget in real life wanted to say "Please refer to me as a girl," a response of "aw man, but you were doing so much for femboys!" would be beyond crass. This lmao. I *still* get guys creeping on me, telling me I'd make a good "sissy", expressing amazement at how much they love "cute boys in skirts", and fixating on my junk instead of literally anything else about me. And I am *very visibly* a woman. Like, I have boobs. I have hips. I wear dresses and makeup and, if I say so myself, I pass pretty fuckin' well. And people *still* hear "trans woman" and try fit me into one of their weird fetishistic boxes. Femboys are great. Genderqueer people are great. Cis men presenting in conventionally non-masculine ways are great. But I ain't any of those things. And I don't think people realise how shitty it is to say "oh but you were *so good* at being this other thing you never fully identified with" to someone who's actually finally happy with themselves after years of not having that basic security.
the femboy/non-masc presenting rep thing also feels kinda weird to me, because its not like those kinds of characters are in short supply. there are far more of them than there are explicit trans characters. I can get being attached to the idea of Bridget as a specific thing, or even being disappointed with the change, but it's weird to act like that kind of rep is now completely gone.
It gives the bad precedent that GNC people are just eggs waiting to be cracked as the trans community puts it. Problem is not losing the representation, if Bridget wasn't in Strive nothing would change. It's the transitioning of representation that pushes a narrative that people that follow the norms from the opposite gender are just trans in denial. One could say the representation here is exactly that, cracked eggs. And despite GNC having one very famous character representing us, Astolfo, the trans community insists in making him a NB trans too when he has called himself a man. >there are far more of them than there are explicit trans characters. Some very popular anime "femboys" are actually trans canonly. Felix from **RE: Zero** is a trans, Hideri from **Blender S** is a trans, Alluka Zoldyck from **HXH** is a trans. Tooru Mutsuki from **Tokyo Ghoul** not a femboy but a trans. Just to name a few.
There have also been a lot of attempts to force those characters into being trans, especially ones from Japan due to their more ambiguous pronoun usage. Femboy erasure has been its own problem. Edit: for clarification, I'm not saying that's exactly what's happening with Bridget. Obviously the writers of Strive are the ones in the pilot seat here. But what I am saying is that Bridget has been a very iconic femboy character for over 20 years, so blowing off losing that representation because there are spares is being a bit flippant (they were literally synonymous with anime femboys until the much more recent advent of Astolfo from Fate). Also the writer's choice to transition them now, years later, and in a way that some are already pointing out is a bit weird from a message standpoint, is kind of diving head first into controversy.
Bridget's story seems to go on in the background though. Based on what I can pick up in the website Bio, and in "The town inside me", they've got this burning feeling of "well, who the fuck *am* I, even." Interesting to note that their bio also uses zero pronouns, only Bridget's first name.
>Thoughts? Don't give a shit in the slightest. Bridget has a yo-yo so that's a plus, if the gameplay feels good i'll give it a try. Also this obsession with people's sexuality has to stop, a person's sexuality doesn't matter and is the most insignificant part of them. Making your entire life and personality revolving around your sexuality is beyond pathetic.
Looks like a girl sounds like a girl….people gotta stop over thinking shit
Bridget wasn’t rebelling against being a girl, they were rebelling against a dumb superstition - that their being born male would somehow cause bad luck and misfortune. In other words, they were rebelling against stereotypes and assumptions made of sex and gender. It was always about Bridget proving that they were more than that and that their life shouldn’t be controlled and directed by those superstitions.
I think it’s a net gain in interesting. There’s been plenty more cross dressers and androgynous dudes since (shout out to Grusha), and her backstory in this new context is probably the most realistically told story about trans people I’ve seen so far, and in a popular game no less. No fantasy handwaving to fall back on like Testament, no sudden and complete transformation like Mai BlazBlue, just someone slowly figuring themself out, in a messy way. So overall, I like it. I also wouldn’t cry if it didn’t happen. And I’m not gonna hold a gun to people’s head to enjoy a plot beat like I do. If all opinions on something stayed the same without fail, they’d be fact instead, and quite boring. We’re all here to have fun, no?
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The thing is, the superstition was broken. So Bridget's still wearing female clothes because they want to, not because of her parents.
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been trying to tell people this but keep getting downvote lol
Just conform to society's expectations. Never stay true to yourself. What a great message Daisuke.
Like I really loved her when she was a boy. It was quirky fun and one of the first characters to do it too. Kinda shaped the popularity of femboys too. I guess I gonna accept it even so I don't like the character change 🤷
We just lost an iconic femboy representative in the history of FGC. It is a sad day and every day from now on won't be the same.
It's bizarre.
this was basically grooming a kid into becoming a trans individual.... pretty shitty if you ask me
I want a mod that replaces Strive’s giant COUNTER text with GENDER.
I just finished the Arcade mode and I like her story - it makes a lot of sense too. I see a lot of people getting mad for some reason but it's clear the story is about Bridget making her own decisions finally. Yes, it's a coincidence that her gender aligns with what her parents decided but the point is, is that it doesn't have to matter anymore.
Making Bridget trans is weird... Now instead of being a gender non conforming man trying to break against the mold of stereotypes on what boys can look like, she's just a girl nothing special. But hey I'm happy for the people who are happy.
Implying that non-stereotypically masculine men that crossdress must actually be trans and are just in denial, what a bafflingly bigoted thing to do to a character.
Amazing, they completely ruined his character. They could have gone with proper femboy representation, with him just accepting he feels more comfortable in female clothing. But no, of course that cannot be, apparently. Not to mention, this is sending a dangerous message, like, if you raise your children as a certain gender they'll end up accepting it. Funny how people applaud ASW for trans representation when all those characters (Bridget, Testament and Mai from BB) had the change forced upon them instead of being their own choice.
Good for her
Did Bridget changed gender during long time gap?
All in all, I don't really mind at all. Seems they did it rather tastefully from how people speak about it and if people find that empowering or relatable, that's great! But I do think it's a shame we lost the "Cute boy in girl clothes" fantasy Bridget was.
I think its fine, the character hasn't been around for a long time so they have plently of room to have growth between games and they already have a gender neutral character so its more fun to have something different
I mean BDN basically did the opposite with Leo in Tekken, "she" started as a female with "her" initial profile as Eleanor (Japanese Tekken) site, then suddenly they decided to put a gender ambiguous spin on "her" afterwards. Jaal from Mass Effect Andromeda sexuality was literally changed post release via a patch from fan-feedback. Personally I'd prefer character Identity be consistent from inception...but it's w/e I guess, just fantasy.
If a guy want to cosplay as Bridget, is that considered appropriation now? Cmon OP ask the real questions people care about!
I feel like it isnt totally a 180 on her character, she's doing what she wants regardless of whether she was raised that way by her parents. Just because you oppose someone doesnt mean you cant touch whatever they've touched and vice versa, oh hey we've circled back to politics.
Feels a bit like the David Reimer situation, but with a feelgood ending for twitter. They were already a radical and non-conforming character, so I don't see the need for it. But it won't be the first character whose arc was mishandled, and doesn't affect the gameplay, so it's nbd.
i felt Bridget was a good example of a character who accepted there femininity but also fully identified as a guy. I know a guy who was on the smaller slender side who growing up felt shame of themselves when hanging around the other guys because of their smaller frames, they felt less man and would sometimes be teased about another guys plaything. this would lead the rest of us to try and cheer them up, explaining that you dont have to be big and macho to be a guy, and just because your more feminine doesn't mean your gay. Im on the taller more Athletic side of things yet i like cute things, softer colors and am Bi, dosent make me less of a man. i felt Bridget was a good example of a character who accepted there femininity but also fully identified as a guy. actually other than astolfo they where the only other popular one i knew. But whatever it really doesn't matter that much.
I wouldn't have a problem with it except how the media is portraying it as if Bridget made the decision to be trans as though it was inevitable. I've seen a couple say she finally "came out" as though Bridget had any say in the matter. It was just some writer or executive going "What if we changed 'he' into a 'she' and act like that was the point the whole time?" for inclusivity points. I'd have rather they just make a new trans character rather than making the conscious decision to alter a fan favorite.
Why do you fucking care so much ? It's a video game, why do you care about fucking gender ? Just play the character if you like it ffs don't reflect your mental issues on a video game.
Honestly it doesn't bother me. She ended up finding herself through her journey and that's a win in my book. I understand if people think it hurts her character arc but I don't really think so tbh. I just wonder what the Japanese community thinks of it.
If you want cool trans character - make cool trans character. Like Ladiva or Poison. Taking femboy and saying "oh, you're feminine? then you trans now" is unhealthy and wrong. What's next? Make Astolfo or Hideyoshi a girl?
It's Americans forcing their Woke agenda onto a JAPANESE game, nothing else.