Guilty Gear XY: The Bridget Retcon Investigated | A Buried History Unearthed

[@DimitriMonroe]

Trending Bridget 70.6k tweets

[@AL-lh2ht]

Character development is not a “retcon”.

[@limabarreto911]

​@@AL-lh2ht character development is not complete regression

[@sanderkiki]

@@AL-lh2ht yeah thats why we dont call Bridget's retcon - "character development"

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@sanderkiki so you, not the people who literally made the game, get to decide her “real character” Cope harder. Let’s be real. This whole thing is about hating trans people. It has nothing to do with her “real character”. I mean Jesus, you are not even using fanon terms incorrectly. It’s shows how obviously disingenuous you are.

[@AL-lh2ht]

⁠@@limabarreto911 you do not remotely know what character progression is.

[@GyaruRespecter]

To me, at 29:58 you put it into words why the Bridget discourse has become so sad. One thing I have noticed is that everyone gets tunnel-visioned when it comes to Bridget's gender, but the way his entire personality has been changed is what really makes it so depressing. I almost never refer to Bridget as a femboy (unless it's to discuss the term itself) because even in his earliest appearances, he had a boyish streak to him. He wasn't like most crossdressing characters that indulged in their cuteness. He didn't care for looks, or require outside validation. Hell, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't even give a damn about the superstition about same-sex twins being bad luck, if said superstition wouldn't result in him getting executed or banished if he ever revealed himself as a boy. Anyone who goes on a journey to become a bounty hunter as a young teenager is already pretty ballsy, so all that was left was showing his town their mistake through his actions. Bridget's story wasn't about 'expressing' or 'discovering' himself, because he knew damn well who he was and what he stood for since day 1. It was about proving a point. Even if he wasn't made a trans girl, making him purposely ambiguous and androgynous is a total misstep in his characterization. His story only makes sense if the player confidently knows who Bridget is as much as the kid himself does. The irony is that after being made a transgender girl in Strive, Bridget has become more of a femboy caricature than she ever was as a boy. Every time I see her referring to how cute she's supposed to be, I have to remind myself that this character is supposed to be Bridget and not Astolfo. As @senatorwilsonphillips8724 put it in his comment, there used to be a young man underneath that girly wrap. But now, it doesn't even feel like Bridget is a trans girl in a girly wrap, just the girly wrap itself; a shallow dress of cuteness without any depth.

[@Ozarka0]

And yet it is still celebrated as a good thing, for some baffling reason. Why do people not actually think about this stuff? Also, holdybshit, thank you for the extra perspective. I hadn't even realized that.

[@NeyamRye]

Fr its deppressing

[@pixels6546]

@@Ozarka0 Because it's all about adding points to a scoreboard

[@mrbanks456]

Trans identity IS a shallow expression of femininity, though. It's every trans girl's dream to "pass" and look sexy, cute, etc. Bridget has turned into the ideal trans girl.

[@พีรพัทธ์ศิริเสรีวรรณ]

Thank you for using 'he' on Bridget.

[@AlquimistEd]

"Have you looked at Bridget? There's no universe where that is a man. Glad the devs finally acknowledged that." - people who are _supposedly_ against traditional gender roles.

[@clarehidalgo]

Yeah for people supposedly against gender-role they are extremely sexist

[@AL-lh2ht]

Straw man fallacy is a interesting choice.

[@AlquimistEd]

@@AL-lh2ht Not a strawman if it's something I've seen people say literally word for word.

[@AlquimistEd]

Like it's literally one of the comments on Dimitri's previous, unlisted video on the topic.

[@Unapologeticweeb]

@@AL-lh2ht that's not what a strawman is tard

[@DMAN99]

Imagine if Strive introduced Ky Kiske by having him state that he realised that he was wrong this entire time about gears, that they *are* monsters and that they deserve death, so he hunts down Dizzy, Sin, Sol, etc and then goes back to being how he was during the crusades. That’s the level of retcon we’re dealing with.

[@HimeTakamura]

It's so weird how we went from strict adherence to gender roles (feminine=girl, masculine=boy, no in between) to freedom from gender roles (girls can be masculine, boys can be feminine) and then circled back around to strict adherence to gender roles (if they're stereotypically feminine they MUST be girls, if they're stereotypically masculine, they MUST be boys, no in between)

[@Dragonage2ftw]

Something that isn’t occurring, okay.

[@Unclaimed_Username]

We've gone full circle, but it's on a downward spiral.

[@Zerarick]

​@@Dragonage2ftw hi yes, you're wrong. I have personal experience with this happening to me

[@Nakeethus_Hunter]

​@@Dragonage2ftw Just like you didn't admit to changing from being a pedo?

[@KiraSlith]

@@Dragonage2ftw Someone doesn't know about the past 4 years of abuse and ridicule the "Otoko no ko" or "trap" (if you're an idiotic westerner) scene has faced for not being trans.

[@JeremyRamse]

The explicit grooming implications that were actively raised in the character's story. It's been, whether you like it or not, the soul of the character since the day he was born. "I did not choose this" is all over the character. It's the exact same thing as the protagonist of Redo of Healer, his noncon abuse is the direct nature of his character and motivates every single action he takes from the start. Now is that character moral? Absolutely not. But is that character motivated by an equally immoral thing that happened to him? Yes. Bridget's entire character hinges on the very basic premise of noncon abuse, and instead of writing him to escape it (the entire point of the character until this point), he was written right back into it. Simply saying "he grew to like it offscreen or something" is the most morally backwards disgusting message you could have possibly concluded with.

[@oyoo3323]

How do you define "grooming"?

[@Radio-97]

@@oyoo3323They explained it pretty much above

[@oyoo3323]

@@Radio-97 really didn't at all. But since you seem to have caught it, do explain please.

[@Radio-97]

@@oyoo3323 ??? I guess reading is hard for you. My condolences on your reading incompetence/deficit. => Bridget was born male, but was stripped away from expressing himself in any way due to the superstition in his village => Bridget‘s agency was taken away since birth => Bridget didn’t like that but had to pretend being a girl to not endanger his family => Bridget had enough and decided to reclaim his denied masculinity by becoming a successful bounty hunter to invalidate the superstition to its core => Bridget wants to destroy said superstition to break free from the ‚shackles‘ made by the superstition that dictated and shaped his life => Bridget corrected characters that misgendered him and is visibly upset if called a girl => Bridget was ALWAYS confident by being a boy (note; self-identified as one) but had to crossdress essentially to protect his family => Bridget was ALWAYS meant by Daisuke Ishiwatari to be a ‚cute boy‘ character as a contrast to all other masculine male fighters (marking him as a ‚feminine guy‘ or short ‚femboy‘) that can kick ass (that also means he was never a trap, a joke character and/or a ‚trans anime gal‘ to begin with) What should’ve happened in Strive as a focus; => Bridget succeeded in defeating the superstition but is left with no further goal or a purpose. Bridget finds out that his family went missing, including his twin brother. The adorable but cunning bounty hunter sets out to find his family again, giving him, although temporary, a new PURPOSE. What we got instead; A Bridget who somehow struggles with his gender identity and goes on by identifying as a girl now… after what he did back in XX before, essentially nuking the entire character’s message of his endeavors and backstory we witnessed before. ArcSys and Daisuke essentially pandered to an audience by warping an iconic character that served as an icon that defied adherent gender roles (=> just because you’re more feminine doesn’t make you less of a man / just because you are more masculine doesn’t mean you are not less of a woman) into a literal trans bait joke (aka ‚if you are girly, you must be a woman/trans woman, bo questions asked otherwise you’re just closeted/transphobic) I‘ve said enough.

[@oyoo3323]

@@Radio-97 no, you haven't said enough... You still haven't defined what "grooming is", you merely described what happened to Bridget, without clarifying what about it is grooming, let alone what that terms means. Again. Forget about Bridget. What is grooming?

[@loathecraft]

it's generally terrifying how they all act like a hivemind ignoring all of the story and acting like disliking a bad retcon is "media illiteracy"

[@silverhawkscape2677]

They call themselves they/them for a reason. In the Bible. So translations refer to legion an Amalgamation of Demons possessing a Man as Them. So their Preferred Pronouns as Them means they aren't individuals but a collective.

[@Sonic2024freedomera]

It is the collective unconscious

[@ergastolo4281]

Tourists are all like this. They pretend to be long time fans so they can feel justified to say whatever they want in any topic about "X" franchise, even if they're completely wrong and they're misinformed or simply don't know anything about the argument. You can find them literally everywhere in the entertainment industry and they're annoying like Hell...

[@ergastolo4281]

Tourists are all like this. They pretend to be long time fans so they can feel justified to say whatever they want in any topic about "X" franchise, even if they're completelt wrong and they're misinformed or simply don't know anything about the argument. You can find them literally everywhere in te entertainment industry and they're annoying like Hell...

[@ergastolo4281]

Tourists or "posers" are all like this. They pretend to be long time fans so they can feel justified to say whatever they want in any topic about any franchise, even if they're completely wrong and they're misinformed or simply don't know anything about the argument. You can find them literally everywhere in the entertainment industry and they're annoying like Hell...

[@Cha_gaming1]

So many terminally online people on twitter are hating on the video without even looking at the contents.

[@starseekernate7244]

Terminally online mfs are people who give a fuck about this “discourse” on any side. This mf made a whole ass hour long video about this discourse that ended literally like a year ago. If that ain’t terminally online idk what is

[@Nakeethus_Hunter]

​@@starseekernate7244 The video is to break down misconceptions from last vid, show inconsistencies in arguments and ultimately say goodbye to Bridget Thanks for saying you didn't bother to watch the vid, you have no right to call someone obsessed when you won't even listen to opposing points

[@starseekernate7244]

⁠@@Nakeethus_Hunter Never said obsessed, just terminally online. Which is still true lmao. This whole discourse reeks of terminally online activity. Who gives a fuck if Bridget is trans or not? And if people say they are, really, who cares? It’s just a video game character. There is no need for an hour long dissection when it comes to the gender identity of pixels bro. Also you say opposing points like I’ve picked a side. I said both sides are terminally online, please read before you reply

[@QuincyQuinn95]

@@starseekernate7244 the "you all are stupid for caring" take, and you could be seen as just as stupid for arguing, commenting,and probably watching the hour long dissection too. like just keep scrolling, bro.

[@starseekernate7244]

@@QuincyQuinn95 still doesn’t answer the question of why care for something like this

[@TheGameDomeGuy]

Ah man you guys remember when headcannons used to be something simple like "I bet this character loves pizza with bell peppers" or shit like that?

[@ohenthevoidwatcher3939]

yeah i do, damn i miss those times

[@Quintapion]

If you only knew how ba- oh wait you do..

[@CorwinTheOneAndOnly]

Unfortunately with tumblr dead those people had nothing left to do but bring their fanfictions that used to be hidden to bear against reality :/

[@FloridusMan]

Derrick J. Wyatt when helping the writing process in Ben 10 Omniverse be like:

[@Perdix64]

I do think people can still have small to big head canons, but when people try to stretch so that it is actually canon, that’s when I say people go too far. For example, I head canon that Kazuya from Tekken didn’t actually suppress his devil gene or merge it with himself, his devil gene put a strangle hold on his “good” side. He’s still a power hungry villain, but most of it was from the abuse from Heihachi and his devil gene messing him up.

[@Mike69917]

That opening statement made me think of Kanji from Persona 4...dude like cute stuff but was insecure because of the negative implications of it and that insecurity got worse when he caught feelings for Naoto whom he thought was a guy. Kanji's arc is so misrepresented nowadays and its annoying since he's probably my favorite persona character.

[@babarshah6479]

Yeah I utterly hate when people think that Kanji is gay...poor guy just loves cute stuff and feels like guys cannot love girly stuff unless they are gay but in the end you can still be straight and like girly stuff. Nowdays people on twitter says he is gay...are they like ignoring Kanji's entire character arc? Same with Naoto Shirogane.

[@maidenofiron]

As a fellow Kanji fan, I 100% agree.

[@babarshah6479]

@@maidenofiron Its just annoying since they are basically making Kanji's fear and self doubt true and real. That there are stereotypes in gender and sexual nature. Also same with Naoto Shirogane somehow being trans even though she is a female hating the idea she is looked down as a female. They are basically saying "Yeah females are bad, be a guy to get respect." Uh...lol thats stupid XD. Hence why Naoto admits she is a girl and doesn't have to hide her gender and do well as herself.

[@AStrangeTrap]

I don't know man, I wouldn't exactly say liking someone you think is a guy is very straight. Kanji isn't said to be gay specifically, but he definitely doesn't seem straight, I'd say he's probably bisexual if anything seeming he shows attraction to naoto either way. (But I will say there's no real way of knowing, because we only see a sliver of his life and he's in fact not a real person. So really you can say he's whatever you like)

[@babarshah6479]

@@maidenofiron Its just annoying since they are basically making Kanji's fear and self doubt true and real. That there are stereotypes in gender and sexual nature. Also same with Naoto Shirogane somehow being trans even though she is a female hating the idea she is looked down as a female. They are basically saying yeah be a guy instead of a girl. Hence why Naoto admits she is a girl and doesn't have to hide her gender and do well as herself.

[@KingoftheBashful]

It's insane that because of all the fiascos that happened surrounding Bridget, Testament was forgotten like yesterday's trash. It's like people only want to care attach themselves onto a character's identity until the next big breakout character comes out, then it's like they never even exist.

[@gamercow4297]

Yes god yes it trend

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

I was, and remain, bothered by Testament. But most people didn't care enough to even have a chance to express my discomfort. You see. In general I think retcons are wrong.

[@luminous3558]

They only care about having the big characters. If the character doesn't get you clout or have a fanbase to piss off then they don't care.

[@AL-lh2ht]

Dude you need to get a life. People live outside of twitter. People do actually like testament.

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@SergioLeonardoCornejo how does testament make you uncomfortable?

[@laytondrake289]

Remember a time when boys can like cute feminine things but still be called a guy and girls who like masculine things that would normally lable as a tomboy? I could have sworn there were lessons in not sterotype the person's interest to fit in society, but now anytime you like something the opposite of your sex you are lable as a closet trans, almost as if liking the sterotype interest suddenly you have to conform the sterotype to fit in with the new group!

[@draykohunter6805]

I know it may seem tengential, but I really do wonder what would happen if we took the premise of Tomo-chan is a girl, flipping it to Tomo-kun is a boy and the chaos that'd come

[@laytondrake289]

@@draykohunter6805 oh that be hilarious and hypocritical, just gaslight them and use their stupidity arguments against them.

[@HelloOnepiece]

There were such times? All I remeber is that we jumped from "You cant like girly things you are a man" and "Hah, gay" to "Dont deny you are trans". They are basically the same thing, just different clothing (get it, cloting)

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 Oh hello again. Why are you here. Get lost if you still don’t get it

[@Radio-97]

@@HelloOnepiece Basically they try to mask a simple ‚no‘ to a confusing ‚yesn‘t‘

[@yoyooo2008]

how unfortunate that guilty gear became popular because of the controversy of Bridget's gender and not because of the actual game itself.

[@DM-Oz]

A better game would not need going down so low. Its expected from western games, but i hoped better from a japanese studio.

[@KingKrouch]

And the playercount for Strive is paying for that as a result. I am not interested in the live service schlock anymore.

[@Fadeintodust]

Remember a guy voicing his disappointment that some people just see guilty gear as "the trans game"

[@Blockygem]

Which really really is a shame, bought the game for the 11/10 soundtrack and was learning the ropes of fighting games once again just for the Bridget catastrophe to happen and completely sour the game for me

[@MasterJongXG]

Legit, main reason I've got into GG was because of the unique original cast and not "OMG THEY HAVE LGBT CHARACTERS"

[@DMAN99]

Time has passed and I have concluded that, in the ruins of what used to be the Guilty Gear fandom; there are Bridget fans, there are Brisket “fans” and then you have the FGC side which doesn’t care about anything other than playing the actual game. Bridget fans like the actual character, Brisket fans like idea of a “cute girl” and the FGC side will side with anything that allows them to keep playing the game whilst avoiding drama best they can. Main thing I’ve noticed as well is that Brisket fans are almost always tourists who just draw or talk about Bridget because Bridget is a “Cute girl”. Never about the story, never about the character, never about the gameplay, just “cute yo-yo girl” that they can plaster blue, pink and white on. A rare time, you may find one that has actually played Guilty Gear but even then, it’s only strive. At this point we may as call strive a tourist destination with Bridget being it’s tourist spot.

[@sirkinsella9831]

Not to mention that these “fans” would try to deny and silence people then label them as “sexist”, “P-addict” and “phobic”, yet they do the same damn thing or something similar/different or actually commit some crimes.

[@Sonic2024freedomera]

then you have powerscaling that is...wait why there is only a tumbleweed?...oh yeah there is no powerscaling here, sadness.

[@KonaKonaKaabisteru]

@@sirkinsella9831 The gooner material that older Bridget was constantly reduced to and getting celebrated "being saved from" (because femboys are either "transphobia-promoting and/or h-fetish") has only quadrupled since Strive releasing the trailer, though with more transition memes (including promoting the egg theory/grooming) and trendy lesbianism as it's other elements. It makes me laugh how hypocritical the current fanbase often claiming old Bridget was bad due being a fetish for cishet gooners/chasers, are now enjoying and treating the character the same way, if not evenmore so than the smaller portion of fans did. The aggravating hypocrisy of it all. 💀

[@sirkinsella9831]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@KonaKonaKaabisteru True. Pretty “hypocritical” indeed it comes to stuff or changing their character arcs or personality like this. Considering some characters (not only Bridget of all characters) like any FE character (including Soleil and four characters from PoR-RD), Vivian & Beldam, any Sonic character and even Yang, Blake, Adam and Ruby freaking Rose for their extreme political headcanon/fanon reasons, and it's insane to me. I had no issues with LGBT content when it's done correctly and I even some fanon ships (mostly a few Yuri ships I had), but seeing these people are just giving some LGBT people (including sane ones) a bad name.

[@FemboyJoe]

Unironically what is supposed to be the "most inclusive community" labelled my identity as a sex joke or fetish because of this character that i once loved. I am a femboy. I enjoy crossdressing but i also love dripping myself out in the most manly edgy clothes possible. But the fact remains that i absolutely am secure in my identity and existence. Obviously i took issue with a character i once related to A WHOLE BUNCH because Bridget to me was a shining example that YES you can be a man. You can crossdress. You can be feminine AND OWN that and i found comfort in this. The change felt so out of left field that when i voiced my concerns i got exposed to so much hate and bigotry from the very people that claim to encourage people being themselves JUST BECAUSE I SAID I DISAGREE with the change, not that it shouldn't be done. i disagreed. And immediately people just started throwing all kinds of invalidating comments about my identity. HOW is this okay but when its the other way around its phobic? How is it ok to say that I AM just a fetish and that im a fucking "egg" is it not rude to just ask a person something so fucking personal? Its like im not "complete" in their eyes therefore im not valid for reassurance or any kind of interaction. And people celebrated this. I... KNOW I shouldn't judge an entire community based on a few bad experiences but if this is the people im meant to accept with open arms without any kinds of doubt or judgement.... I dont think i can.

[@FemboyJoe]

Bridget... Was.. Used to be a character that meant alot to me. He thought me that it was ok to be what i identified as. A bisexual femboy. He thought me that there will be people who wont get it but it doesn't matter because im secure with my identity and i wont change that for anyone. Its just sad that now whenever i hear his name i just remember the fucking drama that took place. With people saying that "its just a character, get over it" said people being of the lgbt community sadly. I have to get over what was essentially the factor that MADE ME DECIDE that i wanted to own my new phase of life that IS NOW RUINED/TAINTED due to all the divide it caused, BECAUSE its not convenient to them that i disagree with the change. It really fucking hurts. It really does but of course. This doesn't fucking matter because im being "phobic" and ultimately my existence doesn't matter because the identity OF A FICTIONAL CHARACTER is more meaningful. *sigh* Hurts bros really does.

[@Raharu95]

​@@FemboyJoemy condolences for your lost dude x_x that is actually soul crushing seeing something you love so much being tainted in such a way. Its something alot of people have been having to deal with now a days with so many franchise decay

[@FemboyJoe]

​@@Raharu95im happy at least that a trans friend of mine genuinely felt "seen" for the first few weeks after the reveal but well after she found out about the drama this caused she apologised profusely like as if she was responsible for what happened. To which i need to add. The way THIS part of the community is reacting is actively harming another part of it. All ive seen is that the people we "need to accept" have become their oppressors, aggressively vouching for the end of a specific type of people just because.... I dont even know. Representation? Lord knows. I am a femboy. Always will be. Although the defining factor as to how ive come to be one is... Being nice.. "changed" i have come far enough to a point where my own existence is my validation.

[@Raharu95]

@@FemboyJoe Unfortunately it really is a desire for represantion, but one that comes at the expense others, the feelings of others be dammed. Its bad enough when it happens to character who you'd call regular, but at the whole Bridget situation shows, other identities aren't immune to it. It sucks that you friend ended up feeling bad for the whole thing.

[@Zerarick]

It's sad cause this z-teir retcon has embolded people to harrass, groom, and gaslight femboys even harder now.

[@sweetpie8]

Man, bringing Bridget back was the biggest Monkey's Paw ever. I can't believe it. Honestly, I wish we could go back.

[@ohenthevoidwatcher3939]

think everyone does, it split the community down the middle

[@Dabajaws]

@@ohenthevoidwatcher3939 I haven't even been a guilty gear fan for that long and i already want to rewind

[@Radio-97]

@@Dabajaws me too

[@bugmom3879]

Imagine being such a cuck that you think "the company says they want ESG and china money so bridget is a girl now" is a legitimate reason to let a company change a characters gender. I abhor your lack of commitment for bridget.

[@GiordanDiodato]

go back to what when DAISUKE HIMSELF said Bridget being trans was planned from the beginning?

[@dood3530]

The funny thing is, even if you accept Daisuke's (verifiably false) claim that the character was always intended to be trans... that implies that he was too much of a coward to stand up for his vision of the character right up until it became popular. Yet this guy is supposed to be their champion.

[@DigitalGame18]

In a way, its a perfect analogy. Far too many creatives have turned out to have either sold out their values and beliefs for short-term gain or were always spinless jellyfish who just 'go with the flow' of whatever's popular. And this current trend.... well, as someone once said "It's not about representation, its about validation of a lifestyle brand, its about chasing coattails in the desperate hope that the damage this whole transgenderism craze will inevitably bring will somehow be outweighed by the amount of support it currently has." No different from those who tell you they are on the right side of history or bullcrap like that.

[@Jabroni_14]

How is it a false claim when he created the characters but didn't write the story for the X games because he said this genre isn't meant for traditional story telling. He tells his stories through character design, winquotes, mechanics and music. It's only gg1 and xrd onwards that he tried to make more "traditional" stories

[@Jabroni_14]

There is literally evidence online that shows he never wrote the X games but he did create the characters

[@Jabroni_14]

Coward is kinda harsh but I see your point. Actually wait no I don't he didn't even want a story mode for the X games so that implies you would need to analyze the other elements for lore

[@Mario87456]

Either way Daisuke is a INSULT to the Japanese people and a TRAITOR to Japan. Considering how RARE it is for anything Japanese to go woke. Not to mention he is also a god damn SELLOUT.

[@trrr3072]

Bridget was about being forced from birth to present as a girl. His story was always about distancing himself from that, and rejecting his forced upbringing. It's such a simple story that is ruined by doing literally the one thing that negates it - accepting his forced upbringing. Total fucking shame.

[@ZachStarAttack]

I mean I agree that this end for bridge is bad but fiction having bad endings is allowed. it makes things interesting. bridge accepting being a girl is sad but bad endings are ok

[@YARGGG_GG]

@@ZachStarAttack yeah duh but it's played off as some kind of victory of self discovery, that's the problem

[@Slidius]

You could easily claim because of bridget being forced to be a girl instead of a boy he experienced gender dysphoria based on he went out of his way to prove his masculinity by becoming a bounty hunter, not letting his appearance define his gender or him as a MAN and would literally correct ppl who misgendered him Weirdly and annoyingly ironic for ppl obsessed with correct pronouns who dont see the irony and complain about toxic masculinity 🤔🤔🤔

[@kobe4212]

I liken it to the situation with Gren from cowboy bebop. He was always a man who was experimented on with drugs that gave him breasts, but a lot of troons on twitter have decided that he's actually trans. Like wtf? It's like these people mentally choose to decide that their beliefs are fact. It's ridiculous.

[@Dragonage2ftw]

Bridget is a girl, weirdo.

[@justinsmyth1534]

Wish you mentioned how Sin, Bedman, and Asuka all got released in the past 10 months and the only thing that trended in any of those three cases was "Bridget" still.

[@senatorwilsonphillips8724]

It's impressive he covered a lot in 50 minutes but the video could still use like 20 more minutes to explain even more points against the retcon.

[@KATinBLACK]

IKR! I was going crazy that my man Sin came out. But I didn’t see a lot of excitement, just Bridget discourse… again

[@Nice_Boy_555]

At least people who played strive were talking a lot about asuka

[@Radio-97]

@@Nice_Boy_555 That’s honestly the only good thing in a while after this fiasco

[@Gamer_Lizard_68]

@@Nice_Boy_555and the reason was because he was the main villain for most of the story.

[@SLAPPAYURFACE]

Wish you went into more detail on certain things, especially the ostracizing some trans voices got absolutely dogpiled, shunned, reported, and banned for even questioning the implications of this change. Or how Japanese Twitter literally blew up and trended Bridget #1 for almost two full days. Still, very in depth on the actual substance of the story.

[@Wolfyprints]

Also wish he went into more detail about the immense disconnect from Bridget's personality game to game. Even Ky says "you haven't changed a bit", when literally the biggest change in the entire fucking series just occurred to him.

[@senatorwilsonphillips8724]

@@Wolfyprints Because Ky,like with Daisuke, only looked at the surface of the character and never on the inside.

[@Dragonage2ftw]

Okay transphobe.

[@senatorwilsonphillips8724]

@@Dragonage2ftw Oh,you're here too?

[@QuincyQuinn95]

@@Dragonage2ftw Stop speaking over trans voices

[@angeloesguerra555]

The sad part is people will keep calling you whatever phob no matter how articulate or well research your argument is,just keep up the good fight brother.

[@bugmom3879]

Imagine being such a cuck that you think "the company says they want ESG and china money so bridget is a girl now" is a legitimate reason to let a company change a characters gender. I abhor your lack of commitment for bridget.

[@flamestoyershadowkill]

Its a religion for them

[@Radio-97]

@@flamestoyershadowkill A religion that should be crusaded

[@d_trich]

Is it true that Dmitri blocked Evelyn Red on Twitter after receiving mild pushback against the content of this video? He should address criticism, not run.

[@Radio-97]

@@d_trich Define ‚mild‘? Because I think it’s anything but mild as far as I heard…

[@samuffert]

What happened to Bridget still fucking hurts to me man, i still vividly remember the moment i was introduced to guilty gear with the wii version when i was less than a 14 y/o I was at a friend's house when he told me that he got some more games, one of them was obviously guilty gear, we had to play in turns because we didn't have enough compatible controllers and after i had my turn trying out may i asked him who he played and he picked Bridget, a made a remark about "her" design because it sure was out there before he told me Bridget is actually a guy, that day i learned both what a Guilty Gear and a Femboy were, at the time i wasn't into fighting games that weren't smash but that pal never gave up and eventually got me hooked to them Year later my friends and i got into +R because of Strive's announcement, so i bought a copy of Strive for myself and around the time Goldlewis was released i participated in a small +R tournament and i won first prize: A copy of Strive which i gifted to my pal, we had some fun times and we both wished for Bridget to be added to the game, little did we know our wish got granted as the worst case scenario, like a monkey paw ready to troll on your hopes.

[@Radio-97]

I mean that’s why people go back to Xrd instead continuing with Strive in all honesty… I feel you. (Also yeah, they had to make the least masculine looking guy into trans, amirite? Nothing sexist there>_>*)

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 The dwindling player numbers say otherwise, delusional sexist.

[@GiordanDiodato]

ok Transphobe

[@Radio-97]

@@GiordanDiodato Look in the mirror and seethe, immature child. But yeah… common sense isn’t common anymore I forgot.

[@NeyamStar]

Yea

[@grandarkfang_1482]

HRT and Feminism hit the nerd communities like Crack and guns hit the Black communities in the '80s.

[@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz]

that's why you gotta hold up the gatekeeping creed.

[@Unapologeticweeb]

its annoying im just so fed up and tired of this crap destroying all of western entertainment wasn't enough they are trying to ruin japanese entertainment too all i wanted to do is play video games and watch anime this is what i believed during 2012(pre GG) and still i just wanted to be left alone but these people wont leave me alone everything need to reflect there ideology

[@greenman5229]

@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz I agree, gatekeeping is the answer

[@flamestoyershadowkill]

@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz the thing is gatekeeping does not work

[@Rey-zx7jz]

@@flamestoyershadowkill It won't have 100% the effect desired but at least we give bad names to the fake fans and discard their experience if it's too superficial/uncultured

[@Gorebag]

The western base didn't view him as trans. Tourist who were new to the series did and bulled anyone who said otherwise.

[@MrAuthor3DS]

Eh, it's not just Guilty Gear that was colonized. Just look at Smash, ever since Melee - now we're stuck with a bunch of arrogant, vulgar-mouthed [naughty]s as the image of the fanbase.

[@sirkinsella9831]

@@MrAuthor3DS I'm honestly tired of Smash being no.1 worst fighting game fanbases when Guilty Gear, Skullgirls (post-censorship), Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat and a few SNK fighting games had shared tons of toxicity.

[@yes3545]

They're twitter users, i wouldn't trust a twitter user to not dox and harass a puppy

[@abrahammesrajecorrea2349]

I mean, I've seen those people (and mind you, I'm talking about the ones "fighting for everyone's rights") doing that to a 5 years old girl so you aren't wrong

[@Radio-97]

@@abrahammesrajecorrea2349 Jeezus Christo I don’t even wanna know about this one…

[@SinclairLocke]

Honestly I'm happy that at least people in Japan still seem to acknowledge he's a boy. I hate how the western world treats femboys (even fictional ones).

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Because Japan is not yet infected with the mind virus.

[@limabarreto911]

YT keeps deleting my response, i can't even with this site

[@limabarreto911]

I remember when they forcd people to stop using "trpa", then started complaining about "fmeboy" as well.

[@AL-lh2ht]

Cope harder

[@Unapologeticweeb]

@@AL-lh2ht cry harder

[@mluminoth6379]

The answer to the 'why do developers contradict their prior statements?' question is simple: Money

[@GiordanDiodato]

lol you realize LGBT people only comprise of 5% of the total world population, right?

[@abrahammesrajecorrea2349]

​@@GiordanDiodatothat still didn't stop ArcSys from realising so much Bridget merch since turning him into a trans woman as opposed to the other characters in Strive.

[@Radio-97]

Yep, nothing is save from corporate greed. I feel like Bridget is Spongebob in the one episode where Mr. Krabs just sold his soul for I guess 62 cents.

[@RyderTheGayRaptorUwU]

Except that Bridget is always been popular like to the point where she’s one of the most influential video game characters of all time

[@Radio-97]

@@RyderTheGayRaptorUwU Yeah, previously popular as a ‚joke‘ for the trans-activists… And now they celebrate the same character after Daisuke decide to turn him trans when the point of Bridget was that he isn’t trans/a girl, etc.

[@Phos906]

Inb4 "Wanting gender non conforming men is literally transphobia!"

[@DarkSamael55]

What a time we live in that people nowadays (who are mostly chronically online especially on twitter) consider femboys transphobic. Same thing with twinks and crossdressers. And then they tell us to cope and seeth.

[@Dragonage2ftw]

Literally nobody said that, bigot.

[@talkingtakotaco8611]

​@@kevinaosei gender non conforming just means being ONE gender, like being a boy, but not doing or liking typical things a boy would. Such as liking cute things or using makeup or etc. Or vice versa with girls liking or doing typically boy things. The phrase makes sense, but people are prepared to slap it on anything, because it's basically a fancy way of saying you are different. In essence, people who are supposed to support trans people are actually being hyper traditional and saying boys must do boy things and girls must do girl thing. If you are different in any possible arbitrary way, then you must be trans, according to their logic. Which is just silly.

[@daskampffredchen]

@@talkingtakotaco8611 Same people who argued against gender stereotypes and gender roles less then 5years ago now say that if a boy likes pink he must be a girl

[@ArtificialQT]

​@@daskampffredchen They've technically been doing it for 10 years. The Dutch model was forcefully adopted in medical research 10 years ago. The Dutch model, better known as Gender Affirming Care, is built entirely on the presumption that if a boy or a girl displays gendered behaviors and expressions that are not commonly associated with their gender, that means that they must be trans are are immediately put on the transitioning tract. Starting with "social transitioning". Any Gender Non-Conforming boy or girl today, aka femboys and tomboys, who seek out professional help in a country that practices the Dutch Model are immediately flagged as trans. If they eventually decide to not fully transition, they're considered to be "failed transitioners".

[@TonyTama]

The butt of the joke to all the bridget "stans" is that they admit rather openly they don't play the games or only bandwagoning cus bridget is attractive when we see revulsion from the same crowd when real trans characters exist.

[@TonyTama]

Also Ky is still the best boy.

[@МагжанЖаксылык-м1с]

​@@TonyTama king with monster girl wife and a cool sword. He is a MAN ,not a boy

[@ShebaFr]

They turns into dust like vampires the instant we show them the average reddit twitter Netflix tier tgender: a repulsive manchild larping as a caricature of a woman

[@Goblinhandler]

They’re the same ones who find LaDiva from Granblue gross

[@Radio-97]

Funny is that they would argue with actual trans people who don’t support this change and call them ‚transphobic‘ as well. The hypocrisy Edit; The stans act completely surprised that Bridget existed before Strive… like they couldn’t be bothered to either play/watch an older game like XX or read simple wiki pages regarding that. It’s funny

[@dazzylindsey2880]

I couldn't talk about Guilty Gear nowadays thanks to the Bridget retcon, it really brought a lot of toxic people into the fanbase. At least people in Japan still know he's a boy.

[@AL-lh2ht]

A the subtle taste of trans hatred is interesting.

[@megamonmon]

Unfortunately word of God say they aren't so unless they change their minds Bridget is canonically a trans woman, regardless on how well that change works

[@kevinaosei]

@@megamonmon no

[@Shamshiro]

@@megamonmon How come Bridget didn't die when Hogwars Legacy got released?

[@StarDowner41]

​@@megamonmon lmao ratio

[@senatorwilsonphillips8724]

After finishing the video I want to point out probably the most important interaction in Bridget's story, because it's not something that you can see in his own story, but when he LOSES to Baiken in her GGXX route: Baiken: Now get lost! Baiken: If you get involved in that work at your age... Baiken: You'll end up dying in a pathetic death. Bridget: I'm prepared for my last days to be miserable. Bridget: After all ,I may not look like it,but I'm actually an actor This is what defines Bridget for me: someone that behind that "cute girl" act is really self-aware of what he's doing: that he was raised as a girl under threat of death and letting slip that he's a boy will put his family in danger. That he is a 14 year old that left his home to work on a job in an unknown world that will put him against really dangerous individuals. And even with death always so close on his life,he doesn't let any of that affect him and chooses to move forward with a smile. GGXX Bridget was polite, mature, but still with a touch of innocence as he was still a kid. Sure, he didn't have muscles or was necessary tough, but he already was a little man in a girly wrap. That's the beauty of his character: that looks are deceiveful and you need to look into what's inside. Strive Bridget feels like the cover of a book whose pages were ripped out. All that maturity the original had been removed,as that was deemed as "too manly", and all that's left is cuteness to fill the gaps. It's ironic how Strive Bridget feels way more childish than 6 years ago, it's a full on regression.

[@AL-lh2ht]

She also literally states she is a girl so…

[@Fenrirk-c2i]

@@AL-lh2ht*He It’s ironic how little self awareness you possess to realize the transphobic undertones of the retcon lmfao

[@callanevermelt6392]

yes, but groomers gonna groom

[@flamingscar5263]

​@@AL-lh2ht in an ending not considered as cannon

[@daskampffredchen]

@@AL-lh2ht Why do you want to celebrate grooming so bad?

[@umarun9562]

My boyfriend was devastated with Bridget's retcon, as he has always been ill at ease with male stereotypes, but still feel like a man in body and soul. Bridget was a comforting character for him. He said to me once: "why didn't they took Bridget's brother to make this new narrative instead ? It wouldn"t have retconned Bridget's personality and would have opened the way to intersting situations and dialogues."

[@USSMariner]

The same reason blackwashing exsists: laziness and name recognition.

[@TrinityArt373]

your boyfriend is a fragile little moron who never paid attention to the games

[@Taribunny]

cry about it

[@OneManCast]

@@Taribunny This is why normal people hate you.

[@Mario87456]

@@Taribunny Shut up delusional trans Bridget fan we are all sick of what they did to Bridget so GO THE FUCK AWAY!

[@Princessmisery]

I’ll never understand the trend on erasing cute boys from media. Let boys be cute!

[@limabarreto911]

Tomboys are targeted as well. You should break the gender roles, but only in the way they deem acceptable.

[@bruhmoment3106]

Ironically the people who are actively going for the tomboys and femboys are the people who screech about pronouns and trans representation and everything inbetween. They’re erasing these characters identities to promote an ideology. They’re not protecting or want trans people or they/thems in media they just want to take down others to promote their own.

[@freaskydoodle999]

@@limabarreto911 femboy lovers and tomboy enjoyers doing the predator handshake

[@Princessmisery]

@@limabarreto911 nothing is sacred...

[@AL-lh2ht]

⁠@@Princessmisery a video game character with barely a story is “sacred”? Or do you just hate trans people?

[@GyaruRespecter]

Actually, something else that didn't hit me until I've slept on it for a few days. Isn't Bridget in Strive behaving EXACTLY like how his profile in XX said he used to act when he tried to convince his parents he was happy with his upbringing? Putting on a happy front that was so out-of-character no one bought it? He's overplaying the two things he hates being called the most (acting girly and overly cutesy), yet he is extremely insecure in his story despite the earlier games opening his arcade modes with him showing off that he's confident in who and what he is. All of the maturity attained from his character development is gone, pretty much the only thing left intact is his desire to be a performer. It's like looking directly into his backstory. I don't actually have any faith that Daisuke has anything good cooking after he retconned Bridget into suddenly loving his own grooming, but if this was made by a better writer, I could easily see this as a 'relapse' arc for Bridget where he just gave up on himself because people kept treating him like a girl no matter how hard he tried to assert himself, and went back to being the 'actor' he talked about after his fight with Baiken. He'd finally have reached the limit of his belief in himself in a world that constantly treats him like nothing but a pretty face, and it would take characters who have seen first-hand what he's capable of like Jam to remind him that he's still his own man. As I said before in my earlier comment, this entire thing about him being trans would be slightly less awful if at least his personality didn't change completely. A lot of videos are discussing his gender, but is there any chance we'll ever see another one like this, except you do what you did in the 'STRIVEing for a Retcon' session throughout all of it and focus entirely on the changes in his behavior, and how Strive!Bridget is exactly what OG!Bridget feared the rest of his days would be like?

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

37:15 I love how he reads Californians saying "global audience" as Americans and doesn't even bother to explain that because we all know exactly why.

[@Red_Zeke]

How frequently people make assumptions about who you are, what you are, and what you believe online nowadays is probably why I'm so scared to enter this space with my own opinions. I think I'd fold under the sort of pressure these people put. Huge props for sticking to you guns and having way more fortitude than me.

[@Nyahahameha]

That is a totally understandable and respectable fear to have. Honestly, you're probably better off for it. Having fortitude doesn't always mean a person can come out of a rough situation unscathed.

[@bloody4558]

Just do it like me, expose your opinions and if someone tries to judge you for them, put them in their fucking place and expose their hypocrisy while doing it. I used to be a pretty calm and nice person. Until the Internet completely shattered all the respect and understanding I had towards people

[@DeltaLunar2]

@@bloody4558 I....Can relate. More specifically towards players. (But maybe that's just Roblox.) People can be hella chaotic. Though, on the other hand, Generation Z is kinda sh_t, ngl...At first I thought it was just the people I grew up around......... Yeah, then TikTok showed up. [Edit: Had to fix a wrong word and a slight spelling error.]

[@Radio-97]

@@DeltaLunar2 TikTok literally managed to create a lower standard for everyone. „Amazing“

[@RyderTheGayRaptorUwU]

The guy has the video called the problems with the LGBTQ community also is weird in general as a video about anime characters he wants to bang and think that localization is the worst thing in human history, so yeah this guy gives your average weeb vibes

[@zXDaishiXz]

Next game they should just make him be like "nah he's a guy." walking the whole thing back.

[@Len-rx78]

I'm not going to lie that be pretty funny

[@RidleyUwO]

It’s a sad day when the fans of a piece of art have more love and respect than the artist has for his own creation. What an absolute disgrace.

[@caspianbchalphy]

the main thing that gets to me is that Bridget is literally a grooming victim. He was literally groomed into being a girl and if we accept he is trans we are accepting a grooming attempt succeeded. That’s not a very good look. Especially because I’ve seen so many trans people try to defend themselves and other trans people against accusations of being groomers. If you guys aren’t and are against that then maybe don’t try pushing for a grooming victim to be trans. not a good look

[@estoystrandom5998]

Yeah it's pretty weird to see. I get what they are going for, but you need to look past so much stuff that I feel like they would've been better off making a new character. The character doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's one of the biggest pet peeve I have with the community is that once someone is in you aren't allowed to criticize any aspects or else you secretly hate everyone. It's pretty telling with how many comments just call him a porn addicted piss baby instead of actually refuting his points.

[@grandarkfang_1482]

Also, this is the "Kanji is gay, Naoto is Trans" horseshit all over again.

[@Sagi.Baten.Kaitos]

It's really not up for debate as to whether or not Kanji likes dudes

[@QuincyQuinn95]

Naoto is a crossdresser, but Kanji literally liked her when he thought she was a man - idk how to interpret him as anything other than bi

[@SorarikoMotone]

@@QuincyQuinn95 easy - by remembering that, in that moment, naoto was pretty much the only person, other than his mom, who spoke to him normally, and not like he's a freak. Him being bi or gay doesnt matter to the story - his actions are not about that.

[@grandarkfang_1482]

@Knight of Rage no, he's bisexual because all they can think about is the surface-level analysis.

[@SorarikoMotone]

@@grandarkfang_1482 exactly! Rendering his actions to sexuality is absolutely surface level analysis, and basically doing the same as what the dungeons in the game were doing - and same for naoto. Aka a caricature of what character really is.

[@death-by-ego]

Still one of the craziest uproars. Mostly by people who know nothing of the character. If people wanted him as trans, he might be one of the worst possible examples you could have if you are saying grooming and indoctrination of young children isnt a thing. Hilarious thing is that if he just remained what he was originally, he would be a far better example for the trans community. Fighting against what he was born into, staying true to himself and showing that he is not a girl like everyone thought he was or told he needed to be but instead being the boy he knew he was.

[@draykohunter6805]

It writes itself

[@bloody4558]

Those fools had been trying to turn him trans for years. Daisuke had always reminded them that the cahracter was male, but now he does a 360º and makes the change. I'll never understand that.

[@multifandommaster9303]

You’re acting like he caved in to the mob but the creator wanted to make testemant non-binary for YEARS but wasn’t allowed lol. So stfu

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

They don't care if it's bad. They want Power of Representation, to be the ones in popular, the dominant. It's all power and Corruption Culture.

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

@@bloody4558 That fool don't know how much that was a screw up. Then again the FGC overall wouldn't see that either.

[@WardofSquid]

What pisses me off the most about this self-deprecating retcon is that it drags down Goldlewis and Ky with it; everyone,especially Bridget, deserved better

[@TheTartKnight]

Honestly I am still genuinely confused on why they turned Ky into a delinquent, no no seriously, I am legitimately curious why they made that choice.

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 No they didn’t

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 No they didn’t

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 Stop being in denial it’s annoying

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 Nope. Everyone has the right to call someone out when they are coping out of denial. Deal with it

[@Er404ChannelNotFound]

Imagine if by the end of Cinderella, she decides she likes being an abused maid and returns to her stepmother. That's the thematic conclusion of this retcon.

[@multifandommaster9303]

Or maybe comparing someone finding comfort in someone’s gender and being litterally abused aren’t something that you should ever compare because they’re entirely different thingsb

[@Kumaa177]

​@Multifandom Master it's the perfect analogy for the current bridget drama though Did you even watch the video?

[@multifandommaster9303]

@@Kumaa177 yeah I did, and the creator didn’t “bend the knee” to the “left” we’re talking about the same man who had wanted ti make testament non-binary for YEARS. She’s trans, get tf over it.

[@Er404ChannelNotFound]

@@multifandommaster9303 So not only you didn't watch the video but you also don't play the games. Got it.

[@multifandommaster9303]

@@Er404ChannelNotFound sol bad guy’s design is based off of Freddie mercury lol. Like word from mouth from Daisuke

[@gamefreakDX]

On my end, I just never want to associate with Bridget again. I see the guy a lot on Twitter (by fanart or ArcSys themselves) because the dude's pushed so hard. I actually like Bridget, but this whole gender debate that I still believe didn't need to exist EVER has really made me move away from the character. I'm just sick of it.

[@abrahammesrajecorrea2349]

Same, now Bridgette is just a marketable character whose story no longer matters if it works to pander a group of people to sell tons of different action figures of the character

[@Radio-97]

Trans Bridget is an icon for the toxic twitterfolk ‚trans community‘ (aka ‚self-identified‘ trans people who really are just delusional and never go through any transitioning and non-binary people trying to capitalize on the ‚trans trend‘ for ‚queer points’ etc whatnot, not ACTUAL Nb people mind you). Can we all agree that it’s ok to nuke the LGBT community? Keep in mind; the ‚community‘ that are so vocal they verbally overshadow actual IRL LGBT people, not the actual LGBT people. Even the actual LGBT people hate the community, so why not at this point?

[@GardoGamer]

Same.. I was always curious about Brigette back then.. I really thought he was gay or something coz I'm not familiar about otokonokos.. when I delve into his lore I was like "Oh so he's not gay, this is is more interesting"... that's what I appreaciate about this character... he is somewhere out there.. he is not from this world.. like the theme of GG... weird.. Making it "Current day" for me lost it's charm... no more mystery... it's like a perceive notion of the future based on our current beliefs rather than predicting a future with things that are currently inconceivable... I don't know if I'm making sense here.. I hope I do...

[@ShyBiiteVT]

Thank you for this video. To learn that this whole situation is far worse than I thought is really eye opening. This whole situation has bugged me for so long. Despite what those people on Twitter are saying, there are people IRL who look and dress as girls but still refer to themselves as boys, just like how there are girls who dress and act as boys but still refer to themselves as girls. Bridget here (if unintentionally) sent the positive message that it's okay for men to enjoy girly things. And this change completely spits in the face of that message. Now it's sending the extremely negative message that it's NOT okay to crossdress. That you will HAVE to inevitably transition. I kept quiet about it for so long because I was afraid of being ostracized because I'm an extremely small vtuber. But I just couldn't hold it in anymore and had to speak out and say my peace on Twitter. While I did get a couple people who didn't agree with me (one fiercely tried to disprove me by showing a bunch of bogus links about how all crossdressers are transfem), I'm glad that there were far more people who supported me and my stance.

[@Radio-97]

Consider yourself getting a new subscriber then:3 I still don’t understand how the creator thought about this and saw no issue whatsoever; either he didn’t get the memo of how transgender works and is or he just was to lazy to come up with an entirely new character who happened to be trans. I also don’t get people liking this version of Bridget that essentially is a hurtful and stereotypical message for the trans community; they just fawn over trans Bridget now because they like ‚being visible now‘ and that they have now a popular character to represent them. But they seemingly don’t realize that Bridget’s backstory from XX contradicts what we see now in Strive. I‘ll criticize it to the bitter end, not because I‘m ‚transphobic‘ or have against trans people, I‘m actually FOR it to have representation, but it needs to be done RIGHT. And turning Bridget trans wasn’t right. I myself want to create LGBT characters for a story/campaign and the most common advices boiled down to write them as natural as other characters (aka not much different then cisgender/hetero characters and make their sexual identity/orientation NOT their priority and avoid using it to describe them when asked about their personality. All what I now hear from Bridget is ‚omg our trans girl!‘ and similar quotes which is dumb. Bridget was a brave boy who has gone to a risky mission as a bounty hunter to prove his masculinity (btw the thing that he identified with heavily and resented to being called a girl as he was forced to be a girl for almost his entire life) to destroy a generations-old belief. And he was still a kid doing that. Mad respect for him. And Strive just thought „nah he looks very girly so it’s seems that it’s ok to turn him a girl“. And people came up with all sorts of explanations to justify this bad writing (i.e. „during the time between XX and Strive he started to feel more comfortable as a girl“ etc.) No, timeskips do NOT explain anything. It’s avoiding to try justifying any writing attempt. Writers would cry at this as this is an amateur mistake. And ‚being comfortable‘ almost sounds like the case of Chihiro from Danganronpa; it’s escapism, not acceptance. „But maybe Bridget wasn’t comfortable as a boy either and she was just in denial“ is also wrong because Bridget WANTED to look more masculine by building more muscles (when talking with Baiken who is a badass woman) and corrected others (most famously to Johnny) when addressed as a girl by accident. He was confident as a boy and stood to his gender identity as male… so how does it make sense that now he wants now to be a girl. Also isn‘t Bridget now +18 years old? Why does he look even girlier now? Last time I checked male puberty hits harder on a biological basis. I mean even May grew up quite well as young woman and it’s visible. Also the new symbol is the bigender symbol on Strive Bridget which is the symbol for people who go by either gender pronounces, so it’s not a trans symbol (otherwise they should’ve chosen the female symbol only). Sorry for the long rant, but I loved Guilty Gear until this debacle nuked and polarized the fandom (alongside with other things such as Faust‘s rewrite, the underwhelming appearance of Asuka, gameplay issues and horrible lobbies and waiting time… it’s a mess. They tried to please everyone (as in veteran and casual players, lore enthusiasts and simple gamers, Japanese and Western audiences, etc), but ended up pleasing no one and infuriated everyone. Anyone liking Tekken and Street Fighter? Heard that they get interesting

[@GiordanDiodato]

if that's your interpretation, you need help

[@Radio-97]

@@GiordanDiodato Unnecessary comment Also I guess you need help if you are that offended somehow

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 I would prefer that you stay away from Tekken and Street Fighter; I and others frankly don’t want toxic trash like you there. And… your ‚Arguments‘ are still shite and explain nothing. You are just delusional because you don’t want to admit that making Bridget trans nuked the entire character as I described it pretty much. Cease

[@SorarikoMotone]

ah yes, it would be more interesting to a groomed child to give into the grooming, how amusing @@Jdudec367 darling your points are more transphobic that anything this person you talking to in particular had said in all the comments i've seen them

[@malefic5254]

You're best boy Dimirti, don't let the terminally online weirdos bring you down. Bridget is always going to be a good boy in our hearts.

[@mooks500]

I think caring about this shit at all makes you terminally online

[@michaelhall736]

@@mooks500 Says the one who calls people porn addicts for liking femboy Bridget.

[@TrueCrouton]

@@mooks500 And yet here you are.

[@otakuthegreat]

@@mooks500 It only works for one side but you labelled the wrong side funny you are here though

[@Radio-97]

@@mooks500 Piss off, will you?

[@AkuTenshiiZero]

From his introduction to now, Bridget has always been clear that he's a man, and he showed pride in being a man. Changing him like this just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and does not fit at all with the character's history.

[@MrAnthonyIII]

Exactly. They really just made him into a girl to appease the "femboys are just eggs in denial" perspective.

[@silverdededestruction2197]

@@MrAnthonyIII I want to say so much about egg culture and how it's devolved into a horrid mess. I really want to talk about how egg culture practices some of the most sexist shit I've seen in years, and worse is that the way egg culture works is horrible. Do you know what kind of person would decide what your gender identity is based on just a few details they noticed? A transphobe would do that. It's a horrible realization that no one seems to notice because criticism of trans people isn't tolerated

[@AkuTenshiiZero]

@@silverdededestruction2197 So I had to google what "egg" refers to, and...It's literally a grooming target. These freaks aren't even hiding what they're doing.

[@RilfDanielson]

​@@silverdededestruction2197just the name "egg" itself is so predatory lol

[@VF-Logos]

You know the saddest thing for me? I was good enough to play Bridget (and Dizzy) to beat the toughest arcade boss Order Sol back in GG XX: Midnight Carnival game. I literally was just a gamer that found a cool character (with dancing idle animation) + fast atks to play as, nothing more, nothing less. His backstory was easy to understand, nothing special and not complicated (Superstition Village upbringing and Bridget just wanting to proof himself of his manliness & worthiness as bounty hunter) vs Dizzy's backstory. 10+ years later, feel stoked to support new GG game, bought it but i didnt play it much at all due to two of my favourite characters weren't in it (Bridget & Dizzy). I did it to support the devs anyway. Bridget DLC were great news to be heard. But drama on his release ruined my perception of the game and I just lost interest overall. People already pointed out first hand the different endings Bridget can have on Strive and the best ending was Kiske telling him to "just be yourself". So I wasn't 100% clueless. Which I interpreted as "being yourself that already proved to everyone that you are a manly bounty hunter that is capable of keeping up with one of the strongest fighter in the game". Not this trans retcon from Daisuke's BS interview (it wasn't even suggested in-game) and the people that supported that notion don't even FUCKING play or buy the game.

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 It is a retcon

[@SorarikoMotone]

it is literally a retcon because nothing in his character said he was a transwoman besides the retcon in strive, of course, nor does it makes sense to him to even become such a.... floor rug, when he was a confident and very strong character in prev games. You dont have to accept every trans rep - not all trans rep is good, and bridget is a great xample of how not to write trans rep. You want good trans rep? Get to know about Cagliostro and Ladiva from GBF @@Jdudec367

[@rubikscubegaming2412]

@@Jdudec367is this some big brother bullshit? “Your argument is wrong and I prove it by saying the exact opposite.” “Obey” “Obey” “Obey” “Obey”

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 It is pretty obviously one. Fact

[@Radio-97]

@@rubikscubegaming2412 No, Jayden Clown is like this… We haven’t found a cure for them yet

[@Hikkikomogirl]

I have never played any game in the Guilty Gear saga, but I ended up finding out about Bridget's situation and ended up researching it on my own. When I found out about his entire story, I felt bad, because I couldn't convince myself that being trans was a 'nice' ending to his story... I mean, he was forced to live pretending to be a girl since he was born, because if he did not, he was going to be murdered... it was never his decision, but even with that he had enough strength to live acting and also develop his own personality and qualities as a boy when he wasn't busy pretending. I was fighting with myself because I saw that a lot of people were happy with his change, but for me... it felt strange, it felt like if a bunch of people had screamed at Bridget that he was a girl until he had broken down and ended up believing that claim* out of pressure. I dont have anything against trans people, but Bridget suddently changing his gender didn't felt like something that would naturally happen... Like, it only took me a quick search on google to know that this change was out of character... and actually made his story far more dark than before :((

[@isaaccooper862]

Funny enough, Bridget is actually how I learned about Guilty Gear years ago. I was on Wikipedia looking up crossdressing characters in video games (I think the article was LGBT references actually, which now that I think about it isn't accurate to what Bridget was), and Bridget was listed. There I read all about his lore, how he was ràised as a girl to avoid him or his brother being killed due to a village superstition. But he still accepted he was a boy, and despite presenting feminine, he was confident in being a man. I liked that lore not just cause it was a deeper explanation on why he was a girly boy, but it made me less insecure about being tomgirlish myself. Fast forward to 2022, I already started losing interest in Strive because of the discourse around Testament, which I _may_ see why people say he's nonbinary since he hates humans anyways (why would he go by human identifications), but I still like to think of him as a androgynous male, since that's what he was before he became a Gear. I also quit cause Ramlethal was my first main in Xrd Rev 2 (she wasnt super strong, I tried some other characters though), and I could never find any matches, especially since in battle lounges people only played against the "cool kids," but in Strive, she has constantly been the best character in the game. So I was in a dilemma. Play Xrd and never get to really practice, or play Strive and lose to Ramlethals all the time/see Testament discourse in lobbies sometimes. Then Bridget was announced, and immediately my interest went up. After the release, I saw some Bridget fanart (not the most wholesome lol), and I saw people saying "she" and "her" a lot. I didn't think anything of it at first, I thought "This person must not know his lore lol." Then Bridget was trending, and a bunch of Tweets were _also_ using "she" and "her," referencing the arcade mode. I was confused, so I watched the cutscenes, and I was pretty disappointed. For one, it essentially felt like Bridget was pressured into saying he is a girl, but I was actually confused because I thought that's exactly what he was trying NOT to be. Even "otokonoko" means "appearing female," either by crossdressing or natural looks, but the individual is still a man. But basically like the video said, anyone that questioned the new lore basically was called a transphobe and to cope by people that stan Bridget only because Daisuke said Bridget is a girl now, even though none of these people even cared about this character before. I didn't even know people were harassed because of this online, but based on the debates and arguments that are in every video/post about Bridget, whether that be a breakdown video or a pro-level set video, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I was also disappointed because it feels like that's what people are eventually pressured to do, people act like feminine guys just don't exist anymore. Long story short, I just moved onto other games, cause if these people are who Dasiuke wants as his audience, then he can have them. I bought the game on release, but I had a feeling something like this was going to happen, so I didn't continue to spend money on the game. Daisuke used to be one of my inspirations when it came to creative individualism, I even made an idea inspired by Guilty Gear that I won't speak about cause it's not super interesting anyways. But after seeing him focus more on sales than his world he has been building for years, it's really disappointing to hear, if I'm gonna be honest.

[@naquangreen2192]

Used to be a fan of guilty gear as well (XRD and revelator) Strangely enough I would like to hear your ideas for a guilty gear inspired game/story.

[@isaaccooper862]

​@@naquangreen2192Thanks for your interest! I'll return to this comment in the morning and fill you in, I have to find the notebook

[@isaaccooper862]

@@naquangreen2192 Ok, so, like I was saying, thanks for the interest! If you're familiar with a game called Lethal League: Blaze, basically the gameplay was inspired from that, although instead of the objective being to hit the ball into each other, you actually are trying to score points; the fun part would be the mechanics to power the ball up and break the goal shields, or dodge incoming tackles, and this battle could be played by people of all kinds of sport backgrounds, like basketball, baseball, American football, ect. This idea I have is called AnomaLeague. The story is still a WIP since I was working more on gameplay and character designs than the story, but essentially there was a anomaly that happened from unknown causes that people just termed "Neutral," since it destroyed the infrastructure and systems that Earth functioned with. Many athletes from around the world were recruited in order to help rebuild a new society, being called the New Earth Defense Order, which was funded by a company called Metri-Plex Global. These people were legends in all different kinds of sports, and once society was rebuilt to New Earth, sports became a popular spectacle again. However, under the new CEO's demand, she created the AnomaLeague as a way to bring order to sports, hence why all kinds of sports games would play the same sport, and it caught on (sorry if this isn't making sense, I'm still trying to think of a reason why AnomaLeague exists that makes sense). But there are specific legends from each sport that you play as, each with their own ambitions basically. I can probably share the character designs I made on Discord if you have it, the0t4ku is my name

[@abrahammesrajecorrea2349]

I was also a fan since The Midnight Carnival (Bridget's introducgion point)... and I hate how the franchise has evolved. I was thinking of buying Strive on discount in PSN before Bridget appeared... now I wouldn't want Strive even if it was free and I was paid to play it. Bridget isn't the only victim in character assassination, other characters have been retconed in the later games by Daisuke. Axl and Raven no longer are implied to be connected; Anji no longer works for That Man; I-no is now Axl's girlfriend from the past instead of S-ko, the ghost girl that possesses Zappa. At this point I'm just disappointed on what Guilty Gear has become... maybe it should've stayed dead after XX Accent Core Plus R. Not dissing on Xrd or Rev 2... but after they came, Strive happened.

[@isaaccooper862]

@@abrahammesrajecorrea2349 I don't even think it's cause of Xrd because all of the Xrd or Relevator games didn't sell super well, GG was still a pretty niche franchise at that time. The biggest gate was the learning curve for a lot of the characters, and the movement if you weren't used to anime fighters at all (I came into the game after only playing Smash, which was the most similar, Street Fighter, Injustice, and Fighting EX Layer, so I had to learn how different neutral was). Strive was the best selling one mainly because of the visuals and the animations, everything looks super crisp and pretty, not to mention it wasn't super hard to pick the game up. Because it was the best seller, apparently Daisuke decided to take the corporate route and do everything possible to market the game to Western audiences, at the cost of his creative individuality, and it's just kinda frustrating to see, both about Bridget, and entertainment in general.

[@stockp45510]

I was interested in guilty gear, wanted to check the game out. Saw this type of stuff that was happening, how horrible the vocal part of the fan base is, I know there are chill guilty gear fans. But the vocal part was so annoying, and the devs losing all credibility. I’m now a melty blood player.

[@schmutlerfgc]

MY BOY!!!

[@ammi5311]

Based

[@Strikerkong]

Buru nyaa

[@stockp45510]

@@Strikerkong true

[@isaaccooper862]

I got Strive in 2021, was annoyed from the whole Testament discourse, but I got excited for Bridget, then the whole discourse happened AGAIN. I just moved on to other games. If these people who want to have representation of a boy groomed into being a girl is the audience Daisuke wants, more power to him. I haven't touched the game since Testaments release though.

[@crestofhonor2349]

Japanese artists still tag Bridget as Otokonoko as I'm certain most of them aren't even aware of the crap show that has been going on in western media. I was a fan of bridget because of his apperance in the only Guilty Gear game I own, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R. Also I just like Otokonokos in general, well before most people were aware of them

[@meteordmsyu6298]

Japanese artists matter far less than the japanese creator and developer, what on earth is this cope

[@michaelhall736]

​@@meteordmsyu6298Found some more femboy hating pinkpillers.

[@sagajc037]

@@meteordmsyu6298 they are the fans who asked for the character, canon is on the developers, but as fans, we all can agree to ignore it

[@death-by-ego]

@MeteorD Msyu ok. Im going to explain something to you since you seem to be not in the know when it comes to this genre. The creator said otherwise until recently and even that is sort of kind of. Why is that? Japanese Fighting games, despite often being released in the west, have never been made for the west until recently. They were made for a Japanese audience in Japan. Their entire profit structure was based around arcades and local consoles. Despite rollback netcode and netplay being sorted for years and years for optimal play, they never adopted it, because arcades and focusing on Japan. These attitudes have shifted over the past few years. Arcades have been dying and they finally realize that you need to care about the west to be profitable and expand. Strive marks the first game in the series that has actually put an emphasis on the Western Market. Things like rollback were highly pushed in marketing. They made sure to have english in voice overs. They adopted a season formula for new characters added instead of releasing revisions (revisions were mostly needed due to the arcade system). All marketing was made sure to have an english version or translation. Strive has been their most successful game in the series due to this Western emphasis approach. So why did his attitude on Bridget shift with Strive? The West, America specifically. Trans is being pushed. Activists are loud and call anyone else with an opinion against their religion, transphobe. You cant have a trap and/or femboy character in the west without it being called transphobic, bigoted or trying to make them trans. This decision by Daisuke was a political one due to the market he is focusing on. Backstory be damned... because luckily these activists are more about the "oooo a trans character" rather than realizing they are praising a character, if trans, would have been groomed from birth, which is a thing they are proclaiming is not happening

[@mortaldog1746]

​@@meteordmsyu6298When Canon is inconsistent fans fix it.

[@autonomusprime9729]

No one ever wants to talk about the trans identity being forced onto characters and even people, from people who talk about accepting your identity or who you are, are mostly always the first person to slap a label on you

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

Some I talked to apparently are fine with it since they hated Femboys and traps,etc and hope they get the wall as the rest. These people are what these nuts use to justify their actions, and they don't get that.

[@ktrimpx]

Because gender ideology and gender identities aren't about embracing yourself. It's about rejecting yourself and conforming to what society expects from people, and there's nothing a rabid conformist hates more than somebody who has the independence and courage to be themselves.

[@autonomusprime9729]

@@ktrimpx yeup

[@NeyamStar]

Mhm 👍

[@DigiThorn]

Got to love how this retcon changes Brigitte’s back story from “I’m not gonna let my upbringing define me” to “I was groomed and pressured into being trans” and that the very people insisting that isn’t a thing are the ones celebrating the change 😂

[@mortaldog1746]

Well Bridget was forced into a female role, then tried to demonstrate that wathever they put you in does not define your being, and suddenly its mind changes with no logical reason.

[@WardofSquid]

GG has such a rich history and it’s 20 YEAR OLD characters have been meticulously crafted. Daisuke is very careful with his creations,so this gross mishandling of Bridget’s consistent narrative infuriates me. Makes me wonder if HE really made this decision all by himself, or was coerced to in order to make GG More marketable

[@davidsplooge14]

​@@WardofSquidschizo

[@mortaldog1746]

@@Jdudec367 No the changes are not logical, you just need to see the wiki if you are lazy to actually play the games.

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367They are not logical. He fought for his masculinity only to conform to his groomed gender role back? That’s messed up

[@katanadragon]

I am rewatching this video because i am once again in an argument with someone about this. This whole thing makes me sad, honestly. Good work on the video regardless.

[@ChandlerVanFossen]

Posted a shoutout to this video on my Twitter, and IMMEDIANTLY someone said that it was full of lies, deliberate misinterpretation and forged evidence. And they even said and I quote, "Dimitri is wrong and definitely should not be a go-to source for anything involving transness." Instantly blocked them cuz I ain't dealing with that shit.

[@runefaustblack]

Oh, nice, they were completely correct.

[@sirkinsella9831]

@@runefaustblack You: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2jCdXeli6qqb6M

[@Radio-97]

@@runefaustblack Ehm, no. Dimitri had made valid points about the subject, so the other person was just seething because they couldn’t bear the criticism

[@TheSecondCantaloupe]

honestly I'm new to guilty gear, I got into it because of bridget but I never knew this happened until just now, and hearing about it, seeing that the west basically forced ArcSys to turn him into a girl honestly ruined my view on the whole franchise, I think it's best if I just look away from guilty gear as a whole due to this, I'm a person questioning my own gender and I feel like i've been used like a dirty rag.

[@SinclairLocke]

It's ironic since at first the Guilty Gear franchise was about "be yourself, not who others want you to be". So turning him into who others wanted him to be, instead of letting him be himself, outright goes against that.

[@TheSecondCantaloupe]

@@SinclairLocke Yeah, very ironic, ArcSys basically scrapped that and forgot about it when they made Bridget trans

[@Len-rx78]

Even though I agree with your feelings I urge you to not give up on guilty gear it's got a very interesting story and characters the vibe is something that can only be found in this series the only thing that I think can come close is blaze blue

[@baka030hydroid]

I'm glad you made a video on this topic, mainly because I personally find the blatantly purposeful misunderstanding of the logic offensive. My brother was just like Bridget, almost to a T: he was raised as a girl, because his mother didn't want to have any sons. He was forced to wear girl clothes, grow his hair out, and present himself as feminine. As he grew up and eventually would have a brother and then a sister, he began to distance himself from that lifestyle while still retaining things he didn't mind: he did feminine things sometimes, still wore women's jeans, and trended towards more feminine associated colors. But, above all else, he was clear to everyone that he wanted to be called a man. Child grooming is not ok, whether it's the parents doing it or not. Trying to accept Bridget as being trans when that clearly wasn't the goal is affirming that being forced into a gender role, regardless of whether it's opposite or same, is child grooming, and therefore a bad thing.

[@theboneman7379]

Damn his mother is fucked in the head. Hope he's doing OK now.

[@legendarymarston9174]

I'm sorry but your mom is a horrible person for doing that.

[@abrahammesrajecorrea2349]

I'm sorry your brother had to go through that... and I'm also sorry I know there will be people dillusional enough out there to think you're either making this up, your brother's situation has nothing to do with this despite being a real life instance... or how your brother just is a "trans in the closet" (believe me, I've seen people in the internet being this crazy in the last case scenario). Hope he's doing better

[@Radio-97]

By everything that’s holy WTF… Your mom is a monster by just reading this… Just because you wanted daughters doesn’t mean you should torture your son like this; children can’t control what they are born with, but a parent‘s job is to love their child unconditionally, doesn’t matter if boy or girl. Every child deserves parents, but not every parent deserves a child. I hope your brother is doing fine in life. Bless him.

[@baka030hydroid]

@@Jdudec367 For both you and that commentor, the condolences are appreciated. That being said, considering that he was raised from birth to be this way, it doesn't matter if the superstition broke. That is still grooming. Furthermore, the fact that she's now being taken advantage of by another character who is enforcing that identity change is also grooming. That is, by it's definition, grooming. PS: I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to have trans icons in media, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, taking over a pre-existing character isn't the way to do it. Furthermore, it makes the community an easy target for haters. I would recommend anyone to create their own franchises and icons rather than taking the aggressive move of hijacking others.

[@Nyasahi]

I lost all respect for the weird 'egg' community western trans have when they started trying to groom me as a minor for doing online cosplay and liking pink. I watched this when you posted it but didn't comment so thanks for making it.

[@Nyasahi]

My first costume was Bridget as a little kid so it hits an especially weird place.

[@sirkinsella9831]

I'm sorry for what happen they do this to you. I'll never forgive these perverted scumbags.

[@Senshi00]

The weirdos who came out of hiding assassinated Bridget’s character.

[@byronritchie5449]

How is a character become trans assassinating it?

[@thewackinessgoeson-mr4on]

@byronritchie5449 Cause a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That's like someone trying to eat a hamburger though their nostril it's not that complicated it's just wrong

[@byronritchie5449]

@@thewackinessgoeson-mr4on is aChair still a tree?

[@MexicanoLive]

@@byronritchie5449when the story of the character is everyone assuming he’s a girl because he has a girly face and is dressed like a girl, while he wants to live as a boy, it’s definitely a retcon to say he actually has always wanted to be a girl, and it’s a depressing ending if it he was to give up on his goal of making everyone see him as a boy and started living as a girl. No matter how modern ideas might change, the idea of a boy living as a girl being good or bad, the point that matters is that a character has a goal, and if they achieve that goal, it’s usually a happy end, and if a character fails in achieving that goal or even gives up on it, it’s generally a sad/bad ending. We wouldn’t like lord of the rings if the party just decided “this is too much work, let’s go home” and gave up. We wouldn’t like if Batman said “Gotham sucks” and lives the rest of his life as Bruce Wayne. So what makes Bridget having everyone say “you’re a girl” and him changing from “no I’m not” to “yes I am” a good ending?

[@paledrake]

@@byronritchie5449 Did you even bother watching the video? Bridget was literally groomed to pretend to be a girl. In the previous games his story was to finally break free from the pressure and expectations others set on him and basically go "Yeah I'm a boy, so what? Deal with it." while enjoying what people might consider feminine and masculine things, though mostly the former. It was a story about breaking down gender-norms and tropes. Now it just seems like he caved to the pressure and/or got groomed into being a girl. It's LITERALLY character assassination.

[@itsmikhail4056]

I've been very afraid of arguing this point online because I immediately get labelled a transphobe by people who do not play Guilty Gear or who are familiar with its story in any capacity. I do not have a problem with any character being trans but this is the last character that should be.

[@otakuthegreat]

You can argue and tell that they are wrong and dumb cause the only have one buĺlet in the chamber while the true fans have a plethora

[@bfFAN221]

@@otakuthegreat If the "transphobe" card is the one bullet they got - then it's one hell of a dud xddddd

[@Radio-97]

Come to think of it… Bridget’s story can be seen as a good story for detransitioned trans people.

[@sirkinsella9831]

Not only people who have not played or are familiar with story, but their are some of these people who had are aware of the story and have played previous games before Strive, but choose to ignore Bridget's story arc since XX. I'm sick and tired of people who treats this character like a real person. And I found kinda ironic that Poison from Final Fight/Street Fighter (at some degrees) who is a trans character and she has this trait from very beginning, and she somehow barely gets treated like a real person. But in comparing to Bridget, this character gets treated like real person in (almost) 100% of the time.

[@NeyamStar]

Exactly

[@GuiltlessGear]

HE'S NOT BACKING DOWN THAT EASY, THATS MY BOY! GO GETTEM DIMITRI

[@DimitriMonroe]

HOLD THE LINE

[@babarshah6479]

@@DimitriMonroe NEVER GIVE UP!

[@otakuthegreat]

@@DimitriMonroe NEVER GIVE IN! TRUE FANS ALWAYS PREVAIL!!!

[@babarshah6479]

@@DimitriMonroe I love your stuff and stay awesome! I really love this Bridget video as you explained and explored the issues that the West tried to force on characters like Bridget, as they do with Naoto from P4. Oh and your latest stream with showing the Summer Games Fest was oddly blocked in my country due to the fact the video contains content from NBC Universal, which has blocked it in the country on copyright grounds that I am in. I can still go on your videos and other streams but that one seems to be acting weird.

[@Radio-97]

@@Jdudec367 The only one lying is you, you delusional brick wall. Can‘t you see that no one agrees with you and that you are wrong. Just accept it

[@zragon3k]

I always liked Bridget because I have been viewed as being girly a lot in my life. If I was born just 10 years later, I'd have probably wound up on HRT because of how different such a thing is viewed. It's also worth noting that 男の娘, otokonoko, meaning "male daughter", very much specifies that the daughter is male. 男 is male. It is a complete character. 娘 on the other hand, while using 女 and 良， does not necessarily denote female. It can be used for virtue as well. This also plays into Bridget's nun outfit, being that he's a man that's being portrayed as a woman of virtue. I have no choice but to accept the direction they've taken now, but it will never be at the same level of creativity that we had before. I hope that Toshimichi Mori is able to give us a great game with a different company.

[@destinpatterson1644]

I have to agree with you, I really like Bridget, I have a fairly feminine personality, likes, and mannerisms, to the point that I was either horribly bullied when I was younger by being called gay, or I'd be genuinely thought of as gay even without the bullying, I'm not gay at all. I respect Bridget in that they're an even more feminine man than me and they're still proudly a masculine man. Bridget will always be a crossdressing nun to me

[@LeafMaltieze]

I relate to this. I wasn't really viewed as girly, but I had a period of my life where I was very depressed, and I started to fantasize about being a girl, falsely believing that it would have made my life better, and/or easier. Over time I came to accept myself, and move on with my life. Had my 16 year old self I had those feelings in modern day, they would have been heavily encouraged to change genders, and I might never had grown to just accept myself, and be honest with myself. I am very lucky that I was born in the 90s, and not in the 00s.

[@destinpatterson1644]

@@LeafMaltieze And that's a massive thing that doesn't get talked about enough, I guess it's somehow transphobic, I don't know, and that's that almost everyone who has gender dysphoria will grow out of it by the time they're 18. And interestingly enough, people actually believe that it's caused by a chemical imbalance when the mother was pregnant, excessive levels of testosterone if they are pregnant with a girl, or most commonly, excessive levels of estrogen if it's a boy.

[@GiordanDiodato]

um... Otokonoko is often used by trans women to refer to themselves. Also, after BBTTB, I'm glad Mori's gone. btw BB had Mai Natsume.

[@Radio-97]

@@GiordanDiodato Otononokos (literally translated as „male daughter/girl“) are men with feminine expressions and/or crossdress often as feminine. They are different from transgender; they refer to themselves with their born male gender instead female. When they adopt a female identity instead, then they are trans. Get the definitions right. Not every ‚otononoko‘ is automatically trans.

[@cyrinaefox6828]

As a trans woman myself, I feal like Bridget was the worst possible option to make trans. This kinda promotes the idea that trans people are brainwashed, and that's not something I'm going to celebrate. Is it possible for Bridget's history to happen to someone who would have been trans anyway? Sure, but it's not likely. If they were going to have someone transition, it should have been someone else. *Especially* if it's for representation.

[@Gonzora]

THANK YOU! Since this drama has existed I have explained my point of view by concluding each time that I do not understand how it is positive for trans people that the character officially becoming one is the guy who has been raised since childhood as a girl + a femboy who always claimed to be a man. Each time, people dare to tell me that I don't understand anything or that I'm transphobic when in fact I am just an autistic fan hating retcons/plotholes/storyline inconsistencies and generally everything that goes against logic so yeah, I'm not woke, but that does not mean that I hate trans people. The fact is that i don't care about sexuality, skin color or otherwise. All I ask of anyone is to be nice and interesting enough to intellectually stimulate me. Besides, for me Bridget will always be a man and I stick to my initial conclusion: if they wanted to talk about transidentity so badly, they just had to do it with a new character because flouting the backstory of an already existing character is not okay.

[@Misanthropolis]

Even though I have negative opinions about the T in LGBT in general, I would like to point out how ironic it is that the LGBT people of Twitter literally agreed that grooming is a valid way to create a trans person lmao. Like way to go, you just gave more power to people who find your issue a case of grooming, brainwashing and poorly addressed trauma response.

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

​@@Misanthropolis I do not think most people are fans of this series to even know about the backstory they just like character for being a trans icon that being said this is just a bad way to represent a trans character they should have created a new character and kept Bridget as a femboy

[@Misanthropolis]

@@tennypaiLitearlly the whole video is about the fucking games. This has to be bait. He DID get brainwashed, he DID get groomed. They retconned him into ACCEPTING the grooming, not rejecting it like he did originally.

[@Radio-97]

Thank you for stating these.

[@VanFinale]

The Bridget stuff has really just soured my entire enjoyment of the series, for now. I just scroll past any fan art or whatever I see of Guilty Gear or any other ArcSys thing. I just associate the entire company with that gross feeling now. Though if every other time someone goes for the widest audience is any indication a lot more people will start ignoring ArcSys in a few years.

[@jormilos]

I can relate. Bridget was an icon for the internet for over a decade, and now we have this. I'm glad Mori has left so the soul of Blazblue can follow him to another series. Meanwhile, I'll happily play whatever game French Bread puts out (they make better fighting games anyways). I look forward to another 4 (potentially free) dlc characters for Melty Blood Type Lumina

[@Videospiel-Man5730]

I dont even know why they had to make it more accsesible dbfz was literal casual and pro fighting game perfection! I made my first quartercircles there!

[@GiordanDiodato]

so we're gonna ignore Faust being changed to fit more western audience tastes?

[@GiordanDiodato]

@@jormilos you know BB has Mai Natsume, right?

[@jormilos]

@@GiordanDiodato yes. Didn't the grimoire essentially force an entire mental change on them? Mai Natsume may as well be a completely different character from who they were before the grimoire affected them. But Blazblue also doesn't paint them as transgender. They were completely magic'd into the opposite sex

[@KarasuMayonaka]

I more or less stopped paying attention to strive after all the Bridget stuff came about. It didn't exactly bring the nicest group of people around with it.

[@AL-lh2ht]

Elaborate

[@Unapologeticweeb]

i am a huge fan of the previous games quit because strife was generic dumbed down ass came back when my favorite character got a dlc(i have a thing for femboys) left because of this toxic discussion because a certain movement cant stop infesting every hobby imaginable and because the game still plays like generic ass removing anything that was good in the previous games

[@sean5038]

​@@Unapologeticweeb The gameplay is so muh, I went back to REV2.

[@daskampffredchen]

@@AL-lh2ht Groomers like you

[@Nyahahameha]

@@AL-lh2ht "Elaborate," demands the person depicting themself as the perfect example of what OP was referring to in every other comment's replies. Seriously, what are you doing? Why are you devoting so much time to it? If I had to guess, you're attempting to be the hate sink for the this video's entire comment section, in a "I'll unite the world by being everyone's common enemy" way, which if so, kind of admirable, honestly? But that can't be healthy.

[@Wolf_Dominic]

It is extremely saddening that people are still harassing people for wanting to identify the way they want. Especially since the harassment is coming from people that claim they’re all for personal identity. It’s blatantly “You can identify as anything you want, as long as it’s what I want.”

[@AlquimistEd]

The cult just can't let go from gender stereotypes in a backwards way.

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Or grooming.

[@AL-lh2ht]

She literally calls herself a girl

[@timdoe8895]

​@@AL-lh2ht He literally calls himself a man.

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@SergioLeonardoCornejo just admit you hate trans people. I don’t know why you call them pedos and yet refuse to express your true feelings.

[@Unapologeticweeb]

@@AL-lh2ht what female uses the male honorific boku?

[@GIRru11]

The truly sad part about this is the messed up message this gives. Bridget was groomed as a kid, and they chose to make him trans? Does no one really see the massive issue presented here? No, because by being trans suddenly everything is okay. I hate how quick people are to throw that label around at everything and demanding it sticks

[@Rukalin]

Y'know, I'd thought that I'd gotten numb to the Bridget situation but everytime I see fanart, whether it's trans-artwork or not, I just feel that pit in my stomach growing again. Thanks for making this video, it's a cathartic watch.

[@Radio-97]

Yeah now suddenly Bridget is marketable enough as now an ‚Anime Girl‘. It’s gross and shameless honestly

[@bansho7076]

Even the name Bridget does this to me now.

[@Radio-97]

@@bansho7076 Your name is Bridget?

[@GiordanDiodato]

@@Radio-97 oh but marketing Astolfo as the femboy for edgy assholes is ok because...?

[@laytondrake289]

I agree is just sickening to see a character being used for only to pander, even though it defeats the entire purpose of Bridget's existance.

[@zeroderorero3948]

"If Bridget dresses and looks like that then she is female" Ladiva: you seen this shit? Amane: yes and I hate it

[@sirkinsella9831]

Poison (Final Fight/Street Fighter): "That little brat and he- no, his creator are trying rip-off my thing that I was actually trans from beginning!" Sylvia (Konosuba): "Hmph. These people are such a disgrace to trans community".

[@klonrymeryme5293]

the saddest part of all this fiasco and that writer bad choice of decision is after a year passed now is people will remember how avoidable this madness really are too bad they bend the knee, some rejoice but many pretend Game before Strive are cannon the rest are not. The saddest part all of this are, there are really one lethal and effective solution rather than re retcon his story arch and that is kill the character off canonly and never bring him back so it's going to be a hard lesson to never destroy an already good but already tainted character storyline. like seriously is it that hard to make a new character for that specific type?

[@Jh5kRadio]

anyone remember the stupid "Samus Aran is Trans" discourse?

[@Radio-97]

OH GOD THIS DEBATE. I was honestly pushing this into the deepest corners of my brain in order to forget it… frick

[@Realmidboss]

IDK if is a famous quote, but in situations like these (the whole Bridget debacle and "this will be the truth from now on, face it you lose") I always say: If you think everyone is the enemy maybe the real enemy is you.

[@spaceracer6861]

Everyone is the enemy up until the narrative shifts slightly and now you are targeted too.

[@spaceracer6861]

Also, a more memorable way of saying that is ''if everyone you meet reeks of shit, check your shoes''.

[@michaelhall736]

@@aubrey143. Go away, pinkpiller.

[@Realmidboss]

@@aubrey143. Never heard of that character before. Need some more explanation, my fellow KZbin user.

[@Realmidboss]

@@aubrey143. Wow, so original. The same type of response or comment that pops up every now and then like a copypaste machine.

[@HappyLittleBoozer]

Making bridgete "trans" was a briliant marketing move, considering the amount of mentally ill people that bought the game because of it. Perfect timing for it too - at the very height of this cult escalating in size and influence before any real popular counter appeared in reaction. You make a very good point about the long-term harrasment though. Pandering to cults, profitable as though it may be, is a deal with the devil and only ends in pain.

[@freshlycannedwater]

Good thing somebody brought this up, censorship on yt is crazy.

[@matteste]

I think that Bridget's story really highlights once again once of the most common and central problem it comes to this kind of fiction. Very few clearly want to actually put in the legwork to make us actually care for the character. They just ask us to accept and understand even when they make no effort in the slightest to be understood. I might ruffle a few feathers saying this, but the reality of the situation is that things such as transexuality is a thing that is alien to most people. They have no way to actually understand what it is like or what people like it feel. Therefore, if one would want a trans character to actually be understood one would have to work to actually build that understanding, which is the kind of writing most authors clearly don't want to engage with or lack of skill to execute. Take me as an autistic for instance, I know full well that to the greater population, I am alien and difficult to understand at the best of times. I am a minority, and thus I have to put in the extra work to be understood. That is the unfortunate reality of a minority. Even as we already have our own struggles we still have to struggle more to find our place in the world. Its unfair, but that's is a fact we have to accept. And this is also why I tend to feel that a lot of these supposed inclusion characters feel so false. Often they are written by people not part of the group, or those of high privilege. Those who have not have had to deal with that unfairness and thus does not know what one has to do to communicate oneself to a world different from yourself. More often than not they are created from a position of privilege by those simply looking down like one would ants on the road. Sure they might study them, but never truly understand their perspective. Similarly, this is why I believe a lot of this supposed acceptance we see is less actual acceptance and more just people not wanting to be seen as wrong or "evil" to society, more a shallow curiosity that you just accept rather than actual understanding. It is more like the writers are acting as conquerors rather than ambassadors. Let's say we have a work with a supposedly well written autistic character. Even if the character themselves is well done and "I" might understand them, unless the work itself is able to properly communicate what they think and feel and their underlying logic to regular people, then the character might as well be an alien as that all too important bridge of communication is lost. It just saddens me that this kind of shallow stuff gets such wide acceptance when all it is really doing is harming people of all stripes in the long run and creates hatred and disillusionment, not really doing anything to solve the underlying problems that plague this whole discussion.

[@megabear8905]

OFC he was groomed. He either wore the frilly dress, or died. "Well then why didn't he change clothes when he left the village?" Imagine going your entire life right-handed and then trying to be left-handed. It would take you months, even years to be competent at it. So much so that you'd be tempted to just settle for being a righty. Bridget couldn't be a traditonal boy even if he tried.

[@whatsgoingonguysdaily4596]

Great point. Although I think what Bridget’s parents did was somewhat justified given the circumstances, it clearly could have a negative effect on how someone can live the rest of their lives.

[@Radio-97]

@@whatsgoingonguysdaily4596 Even if they did was to protect Bridget, it caused Bridget also pain. It’s still not alright to do that… makes me think sometimes that they should’ve left the village so that the twins could’ve lived their life as they desired rather that one is coerced to a role

[@whatsgoingonguysdaily4596]

@@Radio-97 I’m not an expert on the Guilty Gear lore, so I’m not sure how easy it would have been for Bridget’s parents to just leave the village. If it was possible, they probably should have done that instead, but I don’t know if that’s something they could easily do.

[@Radio-97]

@@whatsgoingonguysdaily4596 True. Other than the belief we don’t now anything much about this village (aside that it’s somewhere in England/Britain in GG idk) and if they could just easily leave it. Maybe it’s a tight-knitted community and leaving it is seen as a sin or something. Who knows

[@whatsgoingonguysdaily4596]

@@Radio-97 I remember several months ago being somewhat aware of the fact that Bridget was a trans character, and originally when it was mentioned they were in a game called “Guilty Gear”, I thought it was gears of war, as I had never heard of Guilty Gear as a franchise, at least not as much. I also remember a comment under the post saying that Bridget always had an ambiguous gender, and I believed that for several months until a few weeks ago when I decided to do some proper research on what actually happened. That’s when I figured out what actually happened. I’ve never played a Guilty Gear game, don’t play fighting games much at all, but seeing how important Bridget was to femboys and for that to just be taken away just doesn’t sit right for me. I know trans people in real life, and one of them the signs were always there, but the other one the signs weren’t as obvious. That might be due to the fact I knew one a lot more than the other. The point is, I think the six-year (in-universe) time period between the last time Bridget was in a GG game not being explained is the biggest problem. It’s blatant lazy writing. The main thing in storytelling in a visual media is show, don’t tell, and it doesn’t even tell! It’s just vague nonsense, and people saying “Oh, but real coming out stories can be confusing.” Yes, I agree 100%. However, this game isn’t real life, so it should try to make narrative sense, otherwise it’s still bad writing. As far as I’m aware, Bridget doesn’t mention his parents or brother in Strive (correct me if I’m wrong on that.) Even just some lines linking to that would at least make the character ark feel a bit more connected. I honestly think they only did this to Bridget because money. And the whole argument that trans people “Need representation” in video-games is just wrong. I think they should have reputation, but not if it means that other minorities lose representation. If a character went from being white in an old game to being black in a new game(transracial), these twitter people would have a conniption., even though this is the same concept (losing one representative for another). In conclusion, game devs should write a good character that happens to be trans, not a character that exists just to push a message. And also, stop femboy erasure, it’s disgusting. Sorry if this was a long comment, just needed to vent a bit about this.

[@endlessnameless724]

My personal belief as to why this happened to Bridget is how easy it is to monetarily exploit LGBT+ people, especially in America. Every time there is any kind of company, excluding huge ones like Apple, that suddenly announces that they support LGBT views, it causes people that did not care about their product before to suddenly purchase it, despite never intending to ever use/play it. Companies have learned that all you need to do to increase revenue is to just say a few words and put a rainbow filter over your logo. It really is that easy.

[@EpicNinjaShiro]

I'm mostly convinced (as it lines up with the overall timeline) that the change happened around the time China went on the law passing thing about [depictions of] girly men, whether for potential sales or monetary funding reasons in the company [which, it is easier to argue against than someone that merely is a boy in girl's or cute clothing who blatantly states they are still a boy (well man based on age)]. For a side example, we know from official GG development pics of Testament that early on in Strive's dev cycle for the character, Testament's upper body was drawn more bulky in attacks like a bruiser of a man. Between the start of that cycle from what we know and release/reveal proper Testament was slimmed down, and Bridget went into development after. It also isn't the first time they've changed something in the game due to China, as they removed certain factual and unflattering references to China from the in game info on the world. Rainbow capitalism, in my opinion, was a secondary bonus.

[@flannerysnotebook]

What you're referring to is Rainbow Capitalism, and it does not work. Disney, for example, is mocked for it ruthlessly every time they announce their first openly gay character. (Unironically on their tenth first.) At best RC allows moderates who want to be socially conscious to feel comfortable buying from them as opposed to a competitor if they were already a customer. It's a way to avoid losing business not to gain business, effectively. In the case of Bridget though, this isn't just a rainbow filter. This is full-on representation which is not something Rainbow Capitalism does. And when you consider trans people saw the trans narrative for decades... it's not like this came out of nowhere. This isn't a "Dumbledore's gay, but we're too cowardly to put it in the text," situation. This is a "Brisket is trans and we're making sure it's not a question within the text," situation. And the trans community doesn't get that. One of the only other recent examples we had was Testament by the same company. A few years before that we had Erica Anderson from Catherine. It's not like this is some pandering where we get told they're queer and nothing comes of it... them being trans is part of their stories which... yeah, we need more stories like that and if it means supporting corporations to get more stories like that out there... I'll support a company who is willing to show trans people are just people in a way that's not just easily cropped out for international releases like the House of Mouse does. You're calling it a rainbow filter, but that's wrong... It's full-on representation. And that's a good thing.

[@MegaHI32]

​@@flannerysnotebook honestly, it seems like the perfect sort of representation for this because Bridget started life as a boy forced to live as a girl, and continued to be forced to until he accepted that he was a transfem that the world always said he was, like that sexual abuse victim that killed himself for being forced to live as a girl by his parents and therapist

[@flannerysnotebook]

@@MegaHI32 You're referencing David Reimer and the horrific experiment performed by Dr. Money back in the 60s. First, the fact you have to reference something from 60 years ago to make a point shows how little of a point you have. But even then, Dr. Money's experiment was intended to prove that gender is learned. His intention was to prove you teach gender and that it is all sociological. In reality, he actually proved the opposite of what he intended. He instead proved that gender is innate, but because he tried to force someone to live as a gender they weren't, David Reimer lost his life. If you compare Bridget to David Reimer, their stories are only similar in that they both were made to live as girls. BUT there's a core difference: Bridget actually WAS a girl and David was not. She found affirmation in womanhood. David was not a girl but being made to live as one regardless. That detail, the fact Bridget was actually a girl and David wasn't, literally makes all the difference.

[@suijin1234567890]

Bud Light proves otherwise. It has less to do with a tiny portion of the population that can be easily manipulated into paying for anything with a rainbow on it and much more to do with big budget investment firms who will literally pay companies for putting rainbows on things. Of course, nowadays more and more companies are learning what the phrase "The customer is always right" *actually* means. Remember: many of those people who claim to be fans of Nu Bridget will openly admit that they've never played the games, or have any interest in them. They're not customers, they're marketing.

[@ponikoTV]

Funny that most bridget fans never played the actual game

[@abrahammesrajecorrea2349]

Just tell them to play The Midnight Carnival or XX Accent Core + R... none will understand what the hell you're talking about or will tell you the classic "that's too old for me to play, totally outdated"

[@Radio-97]

That’s the funny thing; Strive attracted the most hypocritical crowd of people to the fandom Update; Like Jayden C and his fellow degenerates who seem to be ok to gaslight others and seems ok with giving mirror emojis alongside with people who give su1c1de/de@th threats to people… and for some reason YT doesn’t take these down. Enough said I guess; being trash, always trash. And then they wonder of why people hate them… but they‘ll deny it as per usual

[@runefaustblack]

You mean like Dmitri?

[@Radio-97]

@@runefaustblack Ah I see. You don’t play the games either

[@runefaustblack]

@@Radio-97 Gotta love this guess based on absolutely nothing xD Do _you_ play the games? Dmitri doesn't.

[@guedeto1995]

Character literally was forced to be raised as a girl under threat of either him or is brother (probably him) being banished at best and killed at worst. Mind you it does not seem as though they gave a grace period to prepare the child before banishment and since it is in regards to a superstition of bad luck I doubt the rest of the village would give you 20 years to prepare the child for the outside world so banishment probably meant laying the baby in the woods outside the village, so death. This person who experienced this and left the village to find fortune to prove the superstition wrong is who the trans lobby would claim? that is kinda fucked.

[@TheNexDude]

This whole situation is even more sad because of who Bridget was. He was comfortable with who he is and how people perceived him as he wanted them to see he is a capable bounty hunter.

[@sunderkeenin]

That's the whole thing which weirded me out with the whole thing. Bridget was Bridget. He was always enough.

[@entropy7705]

Why y'all this invested with the least interesting character in this game

[@sunderkeenin]

@@entropy7705 because the situation is weird, and it's weird in a way which has negative implications for the quality of media in general, including Guilty Gear.

[@TrinityArt373]

Her whole story is about how uncomfortable she is with who she was and discovering herself. Sorry you don't like what she discovered.

[@karloalcazar9892]

@@TrinityArt373 So discovering that he's accepted being a curse to his village is a good thing? Piss off tourist.

[@TecnoButter]

Oh Bridget Bridget, my poor boy Bridget, got turned into a symbol by force and the worst is the people not understanding why some fans got mad, they just wanted an icon no matter what Edit: there, video is done and I have to say, really good job Dimitri, this is wonderful and I can finally point at the people that still foam at the mouth that feminine boys are still boys and say "Go watch this vid before putting a freaking trans flag as background for Bridget, please?" that aside, the send-off to what Bridget was, to what was done to his character was certainly touching, even more when you brought that egg thing, jeez that was creepy I hope you are alright, and... yeah this and Hogwarts Legacy definitely sent the whole transtrender Twitter dweller in the spotlight and it hurt a lot of good people but I'm glad that it's finally getting called out, the grooming angle I've always found it freaking obvious for anyone that is *not* new to Guilty Gear and how the new arrivals treated as a wholesome great thing? eugh, some people I swear, but anyways thank you again and femboys forever, and Bridget is still best boy

[@AL-lh2ht]

The game literally has her call herself a girl. You…didn’t play the game did you?

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

More to subvert so much and make you hate what you love to demoralize and destroy you. Gramscian Shit.

[@TecnoButter]

@@AL-lh2ht ...you didn't saw the video did you?

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@TecnoButter half of the stuff said in the video is straight up wrong, hyperbole, or disingenuous. I mean Jesus every three sentences he goes into some random tirade about something barely connected.

[@Unapologeticweeb]

@@AL-lh2ht saying nuhu isn't a counter argument what did he say was wrong or hyperbole or disingenuous? what random tirades?

[@truthchanMSV]

I didn't even know Daisuke was lying this hard about the whole spectacle, it's embarrassing. And to think people *completely unironically* misattribute the creation of the entire franchise to him solely in an attempt to prove a false narrative is just sad. I have a lot of words on this whole situation even a year later, but I'll leave it at that because this comment would be far too long otherwise. I'm also sorry to hear about the harassment you received in the past from those ghouls. It's truly disgusting.

[@bloody4558]

I knew it was a lie from day one because I actually watched the original interview he had about the character with him openly stating that Bridget was a boy, and it wouldn't make sense otherwise. Not only that I cleared all of the different endings in Guilty Gear XX and it's sequels. So I know the entirety of his story and he was NEVER trans.

[@truthchanMSV]

@@bloody4558 I always had a gut feeling there was something shady going on, especially with Daisuke saying this was the plan from day one. Which, no, it's *very obvious* that that's not the case. But I gave the benefit of the doubt to him and concluded that there was just a lot of confusion, because he's literally John GuiltyGear. But it seems that I shouldn't place my trust in even people that I (formerly) respect(ed). I almost wish I didn't know, because it left me feeling even more bitter than before about the whole ordeal.

[@Jabroni_14]

​@@bloody4558 he never wrote the X games story and he went on record recently saying he never wanted a story for them. Not a traditional one anyway l, it's probably why there are so many win quotes, unique aminations and mechanics that have story in them

[@bloody4558]

@@Jabroni_14 pretty much, of there's one thing Daisuke never even touched was the story. He designed characters, made the OST had the whole Idea about the game mechanics. But not the story he had no part on that one

[@Jabroni_14]

@Bloody except for 1, xrd, strive and all the immersion storytelling. Like X arcade mode has a twist ending with zero dialogue that basically tells you that you're the viallan of the story and Dizzy is the protagonist. It's all told through visual and sound design as well context of the first games story and themes

[@Eragarev]

I mean, Bridget is basically the first *desister,* ever, in a fighting game, with his gender noncomformity merely being the result of his upbringing. However, during his journey, he realizes that his expression doesn't negate his maleness, but rather his accomplishments make the man. He embraces his expression and proceeds with his life. [12 year hiatus and being reintroduced at a time where there's a hard push to transition everyone around us..] "I'm A GirL nOw!"

[@ergastolo4281]

Those people are the reason why gatekeeping is coming back on trend

[@kitsuaria]

I was a bit curious about that part where you mention Bridget receiving a huge influx of porn since "she" was added to Strive. I had no reason to doubt that, but I wanted to do my own research just to see the exact amount. At the time of this comment there are 2234 images tagged with Bridget on r34. With the first upload being on 2010-11-12. Meanwhile the first image using the Strive design was uploaded on 2022-08-08. And the most recent being posted yesterday. Between 2010-11-22 and 2022-08-08 there were a total of 788 uploaded images. Which makes up roughly 38% of all r34 art of Bridget. The remaining 1446 which make up the 62% of all of them were uploaded in the past 10 months. More than half of all Bridget r34 was made in less than a year since her inclusion in Strive.

[@TrinityArt373]

wow it's almost like when new media featuring characters is made, artists do their thing and draw r34. how dense are you?

[@michaelhall736]

@@TrinityArt373 It's hypocritical because you're all calling us porn addicts.

[@ThatOneGuyWithAFork]

As much as I like Dimitri's video, I'm not fond of this particular argument. I'd be interested to know what percentage of this NSFW work made since Strive still depicts Bridget as a femboy. As Dimitri mentions, many Japanese artists still depict Bridget as a male in their art even after Strive released, and just at a glance, much of the NSFW art posted since Strive (especially NSFW art from Japanese artists) depicts Bridget as male too. I think it's better to just call out the ad hominem and leave it at that.

[@bloody4558]

That's good and all but you're forgetting that older Doujinshi with the character exists, and those greatly increase the amount of past hentai art on the character.

[@DeltaLunar2]

If anything, making Bridget a girl, in the sense of R34 is..."worse," y'know? And from what I've stumbled across on Twitter (because of course it had to be Twitter,) it's mostly feet festishers. (Edit: Missed 2 words, lol)

[@pickled_pear]

Saw this video and immediately clicked it. I knew it was going to be a wild ride, just what I needed for a long night of writing a paper. I've missed your videos, Dimitri! As someone who identifies with gender-nonconformity, especially in an environment that frowns upon it, Bridget has been a character I had a soft spot for for almost a decade. That's why, seeing their identity retconned and how people went after you for disagreeing with the retcon broke my heart. I appreciate your well-rounded in-depth research, and I'm so sorry people are forcing their gender worldview upon you. Sincerely, a butch lesbian

[@AL-lh2ht]

Character development is not a retcon.

[@Amatarias]

@@AL-lh2ht Bridget’s character development already happened. They had already accepted their identity as a man proving the village’s harmful superstitions wrong.

[@Fenrirk-c2i]

@@AL-lh2htyour lack of self awareness is hilarious Cope more

[@TonyTama]

@@AL-lh2ht your lack of self awareness and need for Bridget to be trans regardless of your reasoning be it self validation or whatever is getting annoying in all the comments you feel the need to insert yourself into

[@ZeOHKay]

@@AL-lh2ht Wow, I'm seeing you everywhere in this comment section. How about instead of trying to start shit with randos, you find something better to do with your time. Like, it's actually kind of concerning.

[@zeroderorero3948]

Ok so I know this sounds very out of context but I hate a part of Gekkosquirrel's last video. He basically said "A cyber character is incompatible with Guilty Gear, but I will get to that in a future video" OH SO *NOW* THE LORE MATTERS, MR."IF YOU CALL BRIDGET A MAN YOU'RE A BIGOT"??

[@sirkinsella9831]

And Gekkosquirrel doesn't care at all if it benefits him. Without noticing about Bridget's storyline in JP version of Strive seems pretty different than we have it despite Daisuke telling overseas fans that Bridget and Testament are “trans from the start”.

[@elgrandeandre5045]

While a lot of people were stunned by this decision, that's only because they keep trying to understand Bridget's change from a pure writing standpoint. Picture this: You work for ArcSys, a company that has recently turned its eyes to the western market following the home run that was Dragon Ball FighterZ. Your team just developed Strive with the sole purpose of being as beginner-friendly as possible, to appeal to a place that up until now treated your series as a neat novelty at best, with only dedicated fighting communities paying Guilty Gear any mind. Not only does *it work* but you also release it during a season where the world was recovering from COVID and competition is non-existant because of it. You're now in the zone, you have the opportunity to turn your franchise into a top contender. While you're not even close to the likes of Street Fighter, Tekken, or even the previous FighterZ, you're getting there. Still, sales in your native Japan are kinda low. If Bridget returns, everyone will buy your game just to see him again. This is where it gets messy. Bridget's entire character progression was about distancing himself from the feminine role that was pushed upon him. Not only that, but he also actively DISLIKES being judged by his appearance, wishing to make it in life on his own through his actions. Meanwhile, Japan only cares about him because of the fact he's a crossdresser, and the western culture you're trying to appeal to thinks gender non-comforming people were actually born in the wrong body and need to be 'fixed' through drugs and surgeries. If you let him grow into an androgynous adult like his arc was building up to, you fulfill his arc, but you also appeal to neither Japan nor America. BUT, if you were to, say, turn him into someone who's a 'girl inside, boy outside', AND tell everyone that he actually always liked being feminine... Suddenly, not only do you get the attention from your native market that you were looking for, with otoko-no-ko fanart being made on the daily bringing even more attention to Strive, but westerners (who have zero interest in your older titles) can completely ignore his early arc in favor of the new character put in front of them - a cute trans girl that just wants to be cute and girly. Result: You sell your game, you keep the status quo, AND you're hailed as a progressive superhero by people who only ever heard of your franchise in passing. All it took was throwing a character under the bus. A character that, mind you, you did not even write or design in the first place, and therefore feel NO attachment to as a creator. From a writing standpoint, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It goes against literally everything Bridget ever wanted or learned throughout his arc. But from Daisuke's standpoint, making Bridget trans wasn't just *a* option. It was the *only* option that made any sense whatsoever.

[@gourilla9381]

I guess you must have hit the nail on the head, no if and’s or buts about it! It’s funny because we don’t allow young ones to make decisions in real life because they still have yet to discover what actually is right for them. Yet you and the like minded are perfectly set on saying Bridget knew from a teenager exactly what she wanted! There is NO CHANCE someone who was born a male, raised as female that never had a chance to embrace masculinity, went ahead and attempted to do so only to find out that she in fact felt most comfortable identifying herself as how she grew up, that just wouldn’t ever happen? Regardless of the reasons the company chose to do so, it is absolutely not out of line for someone who became an adult to land on the decision she ultimately did. You completely misinterpret and downplay a character over disagreement which is harsh and disrespectful to those who still are a fan and those who got into the actual game for her. There is nothing wrong with appreciating what we have. That is fine to disagree but please don’t act as though your reasons for the dislike are factual when they are of your own opinion.

[@elgrandeandre5045]

@@gourilla9381 Dimitri has already explained in the video why all of that is impossible, so instead of insisting on Bridget, I'll try to write down why Strive is just plain watered-down in general. You know Elphelt? When she was released for Strive, it was pretty controversial, though obviously not as awfully-received as Bridget. The reason for that is that Elphelt as a character is deeply motivated by romantic love. She's a howitzer in a wedding dress. Though she obviously goes through her own struggles in her previous stories, her obsession with romance is a huge part of her, ever since her programming more-or-less (it's complicated) backfired and led to her emotions awakening. Strive turned her into a rock star while greatly toning down her desire for marriage aside from A SINGLE CHARACTER, which has very little connection with her as a character. The first and most obvious one is that she was never shown to be musically inclined, and second is that if she WAS to become a singer, she'd probably become a Japanese-style idol singer, which would fit more with her character. Having a character suddenly adopt traits they never showed beforehand out of nowhere is pretty bad. But now I want you to imagine Elphelt if her entire backstory as a Valentine had to do with her being forced into being a rockstar for one reason or another. Maybe she was turned into a singer because her voice had superpowers or something. Then, in this backstory, Elphelt's profile would mention her constantly trying to get away from anything rock-related because of it. I want you to imagine Elphelt developing her tastes for romance specifically BECAUSE she would fantasize about a handsome knight in shining armor coming to save her from a lifetime of rock songs and having to be a tomboy weapon when she's actually a feminine girl. Perhaps in some parts of the story, people would recognize her as a rock singer and Elphelt would look at them with eyes that are either annoyed, depressed, or just plain dead inside, and say "no, you're confusing me with someone else". Finally, her development in Xrd would result in her learning that music isn't all that bad, and learning to reconnecting with music again through different genres, STILL distancing herself from rock because it's the one genre she dislikes. In her endings, it would be shown that she's genuinely happy thanks to her choice, finally being able to express herself without the discomfort that she felt constantly having to sing hard music. Then in this hypothetical, alternate universe version of Elphelt, Strive would come along, shit all over her backstory, and reveal that, actually, all her attempts to get into music again failed miserably, made her depressed, and that Elphelt is the biggest rock fan in the universe now. She loves rock music, she loves singing rock songs, she takes a shit on literally all other genres. Romance novels? Marriage? Elphelt fucking hates that. She's a hardcore loner that despises dating and romance. Then, when old fans would inevitably ask, stunned, what the fuck happened in between games to make Elphelt completely turn against everything she ever loved, and embrace everything she ever hated, teenagers who only played Strive would come along and ask those oldfags how, HOW they could be so media-illiterate to not see how incredible her character development was, how organic it is that she would change into a completely different character that does not resemble her old self in the slightest with absolutely no prompt and completely offscreen. Did you even pay attention to her character, bro? Maybe if you did, you wouldn't have missed out on all the subtle foreshadowing that pointed towards her reverting back to the very person she was programmed to be since day one. Her happiness in the other endings? THAT was her lying to herself. This is the one and only case of her being actually honest. Bridget is Guilty Gear's version of Shaundi from Saint's Row, the only difference is that no one was defending Shaundi when she was completely warped by the third game's bad writing.

[@gourilla9381]

@@elgrandeandre5045I don’t understand why you need to jump to such extremes and negate the fact that Bridget was a TEENAGER herself prior to Strive. In fact, jumping in line with my own outlook of enjoying what we’ve been given and that the more I see any of my opponents in Strive, the more interesting these other characters become to me. When meeting someone new, do you demand their entire backstory from the start or do you learn about and get to know them? Even in that, do you listen to what others have to say about said person or do you learn for yourself? All I personally see is characters I would enjoy getting to know, while at the same time not stepping on any previous fans toes. That also doesn’t mean I am ignoring old storylines either but more so willing to try and connect dots rather than naysay or deny development. We can have a total reset of the status quo, which Strive essentially seemed to have done in a way that adapts where you will claim it destroyed. My point is that things will change but these are not your characters or story to tell. At least those currently at the helm now have rights to do so and trust behind them.

[@BDB-ub5kj]

@@elgrandeandre5045 This kind of brings up other things I've noticed regarding STRIVE recently. ABA's bloodbags? Gone, replaced with her jealousy meter, Paracelsus's head no longer changes to that of a goat's and instead goes all weird. She has less blood on her body, Slayer lost his big ass cross on his chest, and replaced it with all the smaller cross shaped buttons. Elphelt was a giant Guns and Roses reference, and wore a wedding dress and now she's an idol. Bridget's nun habit got replaced with a habit-shaped coat. It honestly feels like these 'edgier' and 'problematic' characters are consistently being sandpapered down to appeal to the 'wider audience', like you look at their themes and ideas and yeah you can say that they're 'technically' still there, but they're no longer centered as if Arcsys viewed their old versions as offensive and problematic somehow, (Dimitri outright says that the sentiment in Japan is that Bridget didn't come back for Xrd because he wore a nun's habit, and that would be offensive to Christians). To relate to that. I don't think people got angry about Shaundi's writing because tons of people were introduced to the series through "The Third", much like Strive, and the previous games are exceptionally hard to play on modern hardware. They didn't have the context to who Shaundi was supposed to be. There's less of an excuse like that for Guilty Gear obviously, XX and +R are available on Steam for cheap, and ML and X can be emulated (because missing link's steam port is an abortion). For people like Gourilla, STRIVE is the character context and the previous stories are just bonus material as sad as it sounds.

[@gourilla9381]

⁠​⁠@@BDB-ub5kjNo, Strive is just the latest game we have, the likes of which you even agreed how Bridget’s story COULD technically connect. Funny how Elphelt was apparently a giant Guns N Roses reference only to become a rock star herself. HMMMMM.. Edit: LOL, oh and reading a bit into Elphelt’s history, she literally was a Fiancé to a death metal singer?? Has no connection whatsoever to music?? Within the actual story, Elphelt got a job in Strive that she couldn’t keep up with and it’s an entire out of character jump that she found herself becoming a rock star when she almost married one.. Yea, just because you are attracted to someone doesn’t mean you become them, however is it out of line for an interest to peak when exposed to such a situation? I’ve been with a partner or two where I got into something they were into first. I don’t know, just different perspectives I guess.

[@D-Havoc]

I used to be subscribed to JoCat's YT because I genuinely found him entertaining with his ffxiv videos. I didn't think he'd be one of the ones that would side on harassment towards people playing a video game. A video game that, in truth, is more accepting of who they claim are in danger by it's existence. I'm not on Twitter, and this is why.... You end up feeling more disappointed in people and their (lack of) humanity if you come across their tweets.

[@yoman8027]

Wait, what did he do?

[@otakubartender7764]

​@@yoman8027 played off the harrassment people got for playing Hogwarts legacy

[@yoman8027]

@@otakubartender7764 Ugh, what scum

[@otakubartender7764]

@@yoman8027 I too was a huge fan till that shit happened, same thing with Shenpai, and she even went onto say there weren't any harassment and goes onto talk about she is friends with pikamee. Friends don't downplay your suffering

[@QuincyQuinn95]

@@otakubartender7764 oh wow, Shenpai said that shit? I don't have a Twitter to follow these people, sorry to hear. And I kept hearing about JoCat for the D&D/FFXIV scene and was thinking of checking out his stuff, not anymore though. :/ I quit Twitter for mental health purposes, but sometimes you gotta know who to unsub to. And I used to be in her FFXIV FC too, damn.

[@KonaKonaKaabisteru]

One of most aggravating and cynicism-inducing things to me about this Bridget's cap clear shows him wearing an androgynity symbol in Strive, implying he's fine being perhaps seen as someone visually resembling both genders yet identifying as a hetero-sexual male (if going by his Eng Bio-based dislikes) - yet people had come in droves to try explain how that symbol doesn't really have any relevance to this discussion because either: - It's actually used by transgender people in Japan - this I have to see much concrete source for - the only one I found was an old reddit thread talking about a small trans people group from 2018 called Himitsu No Otome as their logo. - The symbol was mistook as a one for transgender people by ArcSys perhaps inspired by above believe, hence why it ended on him even in the final design. Even with all this, fans in West have completely ignored this symbol in wake of Bridget being marketed/accepted this trendy cute transgirl - in spite of everything prior making it look very insincere from ArcSys's part, mainly in Japan where they still stick to depicting him as a guy in the official text and even the merch-related marketing. It really makes me feel like people championing on the expressions of one's gender identity are willing to throw it all into the sun with fictional characters - yet can police you and label you in droves incase you don't go with the current trending/favored grain, no matter how poorly written or demographic approval for "modern audiences" and also stock investors-driven it might be. The only silver lining I'm getting from all this is Bridget essentially proving how none cares about how he presents his gender even if it's clearly show on his cap - which is kinda like... what happened in the canon prior to Strive anyway. But this time during talking with Ky, he comes to not care anymore what others think, and lets people I guess, lets people continue on showing their true colors of ignorancy due their gender-normative beliefs... Or inn a meta sense, the new fans essentially embracing egg theory movement (aware of it or not) or using him as a speakpiece to label anyone who doesn't agree with this out-of-character take on him as "transphobic".

[@TyzyGhostlinger]

it's probably gonna be a comment that is drowned in the sea of comments but i wanted to explain my situation regarding this. I suffer from very life-changing mental illnesses that causes my everyday to be hellish, especially anxiety and emetophobia. Most of my life i liked cute things but couldn't express it because of a religious upbringing; but when Bridget came into my life i found an anchor to stick to. Girly boy that is not trans or gay; i wanted to be like him, and i held him in high regards for ten years waiting for him to come back. When he was announced back but as a "girl" i mentally locked up and couldnt eat or sleep and had to be driven to the psych ward again so they gave me heavier meds to calm me down. Ever since, seeing Bridget, or seeing him brought up, causes atrocious anxiety and frustration that is beyond my control. God thought it'd be really fcking funny if he made me freak out over a silly yoyo boy, and it's not something i have chosen. What Daisuke and his peers did to me and will never know or care about it is inhumane. I can't see bridget as a girl because to me he is the representation of everything i, a trap, desired to be, without the baggages of being questioning my gender identity; and it's been taken away from me. I wish God gave me more normal reasons to shut down and have myself die over something wortwhile instead of silly yoyo boy but i havent chosen this life and what to fear and experience. So i really appreciate that there are still people who say he's a boy, it gives me hope in the midst of s**cidal ideation. so thank you.

[@keepingates]

that sounds like a you problem

[@TyzyGhostlinger]

@@keepingates and then you wonder why nobody likes you

[@TrinityArt373]

why do you need her to be a boy? you're fucking fragile.

[@minepose98]

@@keepingates Jesus Christ.

[@CalloftheBlademaster]

​@@keepingates Big old yikes right here

[@AzureWiler]

Why does the Ts have to make everything tans? Cant they be just gay lesbian or queer? I dont event know why do they have so many letters in LGBTQ+ anymore when they always try to push EVERYTHING into the T

[@MrAuthor3DS]

It feels like some jerks are just trying to turn it into the "anti-normie club". As an autist, I really hate that I might technically qualify for this bunch now.

[@mrkisukes]

The whole egg thing is what I take issue with, it's pure evil and narcissism coming from those doing it.

[@IamDaBlitz64]

Yes, that's especially egregious, almost cult level "one of us" bits. 😰 And I know it was a coincidence, but Trans "Awareness" Day and Easter falling on the same day has folk agreeing with the religious nutcases "Please DO NOT Associate Transgenderism with Easter."

[@JomasterTheSecond]

I hate Arcsys. Ruining Kunio, ruining Bridget, ruining BlazBlue. I hate this.

[@fukaze2021]

I didnt scroll down enough to see your comment in the past but yeah i totally hate the direction they went with river city ransom, the game totally lose its charm and now they are trying to make it into three kongdoms bullshit

[@niedlichundlustig4159]

Round of applause for not only updating with this level of research, but gathering all of these buried facts in one place Great work

[@otakuthegreat]

It's thanks to people like me we been around since the start and we never gonna stop

[@cyberneticghost47]

They saying spider gwen is trans now.

[@ItsTanuki0_Clock]

And ironically I saw one person who claims Bridget is trans deffending that Gwen could not be trans because not only we are stated in the previous film why is she struggling with her identity, but also because it would be a "retcon" from the previous movie. In addition this are the ones who are sending Oda death threats because he didn't made Yamato be a trans man and are saying they don't care about his words because "not making Yamato trans is transphobic" This people don't really care about authors' words, they only care when it favours them

[@otakuthegreat]

@@ItsTanuki0_Clock yeah i saw that post too and the fool deleted it lol

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Anyone who played the games prior to Overture knows this was a retcon.

[@AL-lh2ht]

Do you not know what character development is?

[@yoman8027]

@@AL-lh2ht Do you know what bad writing is? Like, when Lorna Dane in X-Men was changed into a psychotic, possessive, cheating bitch. Character development. That doesn't mean it's good.

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

@@AL-lh2ht leave, infiltrator.

[@daskampffredchen]

@@AL-lh2ht Go away groomer

[@Radio-97]

@@AL-lh2ht Apparently you don’t know that as you confuse it with ‚derailment‘

[@laughingarrancar6859]

The Bridget retcon was really disappointing. Not only because of the dogshit writing that contradicts the original character, but because it shows Arcsystem and Daisuke didn't even bother to make a cool new character that happens to be a trans woman. Imagine all the cool stuff could be done with a new character in terms of design(that could bring a new rock n roll genre to the roster) , personality, lore and fighting style/gameplay moveset. But instead they went with the easy(lazy) option of twisting Bridget's character and using than as a cheap marketing tool.

[@BDB-ub5kj]

Eh, I think a fun way to fix this would be to have Strive Bridget be Bridget's twin who discovered that she was trans, and have Bridget go off to be his own new character with a new gameplay style. (The one big thing I think about when remaking XX bridget as his own character would be that he would keep his yoyo set command that replaces his heavy attacks and not having Roger anymore as he gave him to his sister). Maybe he could have picked up some of his new style from Jam but replacing Ki with his yoyos? He'd also keep the supers "Maintenance Disaster" and "Shoot the Moon" (which would no longer be an IK obviously, and just throw the opponent into the next setpiece as a stage transition).

[@fukaze2021]

​@@BDB-ub5kjhonestly the damage is already done, there is nothing fans can do to fix this collateral damage done by daisuke and asw, and that narrative wont work because its already written in his bio that this is the same bridget from the first game

[@yanderemystery5548]

I just want to play as cute boy in a dress kicking ass, nothing screams more badassery than rocking a dress as a guy, beating the crap out of someone in a video game!

[@abrahammesrajecorrea2349]

That's the exact same reason I enjoy using Teddie in P4AU. I mean, Teddie doesn't exactly have a gender for being a shadow... but it's pretty obvious he identifies as a he... yet he can rock a gir'l look. His final winning pose dressed as Alice and saying "give me your hearts" is just the best lmao

[@LoliconSamalik]

I was even planning on buying Strive for that reason.... then the controversy happened and killed by enthusiasm.