Because it would appear people don't read descriptions and instead go straight for the comments, here is the list of sources I used to make the video. I strongly urge you read at least a few of them. If you are confused by the presence of political articles, this video was originally 36 minutes with a discussion on human right violation by the Japanese government. The last section was removed due to audio copyright. Hope this helps. Strive and Bridget's inclusion: - Bridget boosts Guilty Gear Strive’s player count as the character’s gender identity becomes a hot topic automaton-media.com/en/news/2... - Arc System Works warns of fake images, in response to tweets about the bridget’s gender identity automaton-media.com/en/news/2... - dev backyard #11 - Daisuke Clarifies his intent www.dropbox.com/s/extjlcjle6q... Trans rights issues in Japan: - Japan's first trans march held in Tokyo's Shinjuku area to raise awareness on rights mainichi.jp/english/articles/... - Interview: The Invisible Struggle of Japan’s Transgender Population www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/19/i... - Misinformation on transgender women spreads in Japan, even at LDP study session mainichi.jp/english/articles/... - Why LGBT Advocates Say Bathroom 'Predators' Argument Is a Red Herring time.com/4314896/transgender-... - Ipsos international LGBT survey LGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey points to a generation gap around gender identity and sexual attraction | Ipsos - GID act www.hrw.org/report/2021/05/25... - GID reform Pressure www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/25/j... LGBT Rights in Japan: - Sapporo Court deems ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978148... - Osaka Court Deems ban Constitutional www.npr.org/2022/06/20/110631... - Japanese LGBT undeterred time.com/6189670/japan-same-s... - Tokyo to recognize marriages but not make it legal www.washingtonpost.com/world/... - Letter to Prime Minister www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/l... - Japan: Introduce LGBT Equality Act Before Olympics www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/j... - A Gold Medal for Homophobia in Japan www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/22/g... - Japan LGBT bill Falls Short www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/07/j... - Tokyo moves to allow same-sex partnerships, but not as legal marriage www.washingtonpost.com/world/... - Sexual And Gender Minorities and Bullying in Japan (page185) books.google.com/books?hl=en&... Sexism in japan: - Why Japan Can’t shake Sexism www.bbc.com/worklife/article/... - Japan's LDP party invites women to 'look, not talk' at key meetings www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-5... - Japan Ranks 116th in 2022 Global Gender Gap Report www.nippon.com/en/articlelist... - Japanese women over 30 stay in workforce and parental benefits improve asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan...
Hey I wanted to say that this was a fantastic video with an actual nuanced view on how it'll impact other queer communities that might have identified with the character.
@orcamincora And you won't redo it or discuss what is arguably the most important part of this video, a real-world issue rather than a discussion over a fictional characters gender?
when a random video essay on a fictional character has a more nuanced view on trans people and gender conformity than any of my politicians. i love the internet. good shit.
politics just want your vote, a good chunk of them could give less of a rats ass what theyll say or even believe if it means they can have your support. internets where theyre are unfiltered views of real people with real views, real emotions, and real reasons. really. people online generally have nothing to gain. unless theyre trying to push a view point, which is likely too. especially given the topics of this video lol
@@neekxd2451 I thought you got the same img as mine but it's different, because mine is one that I got years ago and some people thought it's original by me, because you need to search specifically for my pfp and can't find by just searching in google images "niko oneshot" Also don't change pfp, there's a whole random community about people having oneshot related pfp, but I won't force you to not do it
See I don't hate Bridget because she's trans, good for her. I hate Bridget because fighting her in neutral as millia makes me want to eat metal filings.
It was always strange that the "bad ending" was the one where Bridget was finally happy with herself and found self confidence thanks to supportive buff biker grandpappy. How is that a bad ending exactly? Bridget is happy with herself and gained confidence, that's character growth and caps off her entire experience with looks towards a happier and fuller future. But the one where she stays closeted and bottles it down inside her is the good one? Also, in both endings it's really REALY clear she's still trans, it's just that in one of them she actually comes out and says it. The others she just doesn't gain the courage and confidence to say what she feels with her whole chest out and just keeps it inside. It's not like she says "Actually, I feel like I'm truly just a boy, a cisgender boy and that's what I am.", what she did was just accept what she thought was right to do and not be true to and live for herself. Shows a lot when someone being trans is the "bad ending" in these people's minds.
Sometimes (and weirdly enough due to how they name it) its not always what happens to the character is bad that makes it s a bad ending. Sometimes Its suppose to be bad you got the ending because thats not what you are suppose to be going for. In this case, we are suppose to be Bridget who is going out of their way to prove their manhood. If we detour from that, thats what we get for not completing the objectives needed to get the good/true ending. Either way with Bridget last time I checked since its been ages since I played Guilty Gear XX, but if I recall someone mentioned Bridget meets Ky, was explaining his situation to Ky about how people wanted to see him as a girl. Ky's response was basically don't worry about what others think and at the end, they are them. Either way Bridget would end up being happy with themselves from the sounds of it if I am correct. Also I apologize if this seemed ranty, or ignorant as I admit, I'm not a fan of the character direction, and could do my own research, but sadly too lazy to lol.
@@etrotm1226 In the older games, in Japanese at least because localizers actually DID change the bios in the XX games, trying to be prove her manhood was only about disproving the village superstition so her parents could stop feeling guilty. She spent years living as a boy and working to finally get rid of that superstition so her parents could finally stop feeling guilty for having her pretend to be a girl growing up, and without that driving goal behind her anymore she can't keep pushing down her actual feelings about living as a boy. She's afraid of how her parents would react to her coming out because she spent about a third of her life living as a boy and working to make them feel better and it would devastate her if they rejected her for being trans. Ky essentially helps convince her that she can't keep ignoring her own feelings out of fear of how others will react and she needs to do what will make her personally happy.
This was my same thought process when I first saw arguments about it. "Only in the bad ending!" "What was bad about that ending? They're literally happy."
listen, I didn't know I needed Bridget to break transphobes' backboards with the power of god and anime on her side... but it's such a great visual! :)
The most hilarious thing is people thinking they know Japanese and going "look! this was said therefore the English translation is false!" despite the Japanese being...literally the exact same as the English lol
Yeah Dimitri is the king of exploiting weebs obsession over the japanese as a way to justify his dogshit opinions. cherry picking and finding the comments that agree with him and going "LOOK GUYS JAPAN AGREES WITH ME!" acting as if these communities in japan are an all agreeing hive mind and not.. you know literally every other community in the world that disagrees with eachother all the time over everything.
Great video, I think lots of people forget just how long Daisuke and Arcsys by extent has been experimenting with gender and sexuality in they’re games. This is one of the few good takes I’ve seen on the matter of Bridget’s gender.
My biggest problem with Bridgette being a girl was so everything she did was pointless ? the prophetie of her village was right ? is this like naruto who Neiji was right all along ? Did you ruine Bridget ? Then i read the lyrics of her them and she say that's one of her fear in it, if she became her true self what will happen to the village, she is afread to return because of this. I think this is pretty cool she didn't just get retcon, they give her even more depth !
@@halfeimazuris6419yeah she is literally afraid of coming out because of her village and her story Its like in her character We dont see as much because we only have the arcade mode to flesh her out
@@halfeimazuris6419 She never cared about being seen as a boy or the superstition though. She just wanted her parents to stop feeling guilty and her way to do that was living as a boy and making so much money no one could think she's a bad omen, thus disproving the superstition. This was pretty explicit in the Japanese XX bio but removed in the localized versions. She literally only tried to be a boy for the sake other people, which then ties into Strive which is about her resolving to do things for the sake of her future self and her own happiness rather then other people.
@@Alice-May "She never cared about being seen as a boy (if so why she always corrected people ? ) or the superstition though. She just wanted her parents to stop feeling guilty and her way to do that was living as a boy and making so much money no one could think she's a bad omen" You just contradict yourself here or i missinterpreting what you are saying (my bad if tho i'm not good in english), and that's exactly the part i was talking about if Bridget is a girl she never was a bad omen and never proove the village was wrong that's one fear you can clearly hear in the song.
@@halfeimazuris6419 She's a trans girl, meaning she was assigned male at birth. Her parents had her pretend to be a girl so the villagers wouldn't kill her and felt guilty about this. She tried to be able to publically live as a boy and get rid of the superstition so her parents could stop feeling guilty. After she accomplished that she found she didn't enjoy living as a boy. She never wanted to be a boy for her own sake, only as part of making her parents feel better. Sorry if I wasn't clear before.
When it comes to how Bridget has been written, I think there are two facets people don't talk about enough. For one thing, the way she originally was written isn't very kind representation of josou. Lots of anime and video games fall into this habit of depicting josou as something the male character is forced into: coerced into it for money, or forced to do it for some bizarre family ritual, or to go undercover, or something like that. If you look at people who really practice josou in real life, it's not like that at all. For them, it's a part of their identity and it's an artform. It's the manifestation of an ideal. The way most anime and video games depict it is very antiquated and based on an outsider's perspective of what josou is like and what it means to people who practice it; and the way Bridget is initially depicted is much the same way. Now I do think there is some wiggle room, in that art doesn't need to depict things exactly the way they are in real life to say things that are meaningful to real people - but I don't think most depictions of josou are like this. I think most of them are coming from a place of interest, but not necessarily empathy or understanding. The other thing about Bridget's depiction as trans is that, retcon or not, the way she's written does something very interesting that I almost never see in depictions of trans people. It's kind of clear by the point of -Strive- that Bridget knows she's trans and is keeping that bottled up, because she's afraid of losing the progress she's made dispelling her hometown's superstitious beliefs. If she acknowledges she's trans, then that might undo all that - because then people will say that twin boys or twin girls could still be bad luck, since she was never a "son" to begin with. And while it's a bit out-there, a lot of trans people face similar dilemmas. When you come out later in life, it's never just over and done with at that point. You've got to consider getting prescriptions for HRT. You've got to consider changing your name on official documents. You've got to consider whether friends you've known for years will stop associating with you. You've got to consider if you'll have to quit the sports team you're in, or quit your job. You're going to have to re-evaluate a lot of things, and you're going to have to question a lot of things about yourself that you took for granted. Accepting you're trans is often just the first step of a long and rocky road for a lot of people. So that's why I like the way they handled Bridget being trans. The question isn't whether or not she's trans: the question is, what is she going to do about all the stuff tied up in her gender identity? What's she going to do about her whole life so far? How is she going to negotiate all those different things with each other, and what is she going to lose? But at the end of the day, the conclusion is this: while Bridget's still got a long road ahead of her and it won't always be easy, it's better to walk that road and be true to who you are than to live a lie. Looking at it through that lens, I think Bridget is one of the better written trans characters we've gotten in a long time.
I really like your thoughtful take on that! Yes, the event of coming out and the external self-realization involved isn't the capstone, it's an important stepping stone onto the greater path forward!
The second bit is what her theme The Town Inside Me is all about as well. That's why I find it confusing whenever people try to point out some non-existent language discrepancies when the song is in the same language for everyone.
Hey yggdraseed I wanna say you helped clear up some rough spots in Bridget's story in the game. Also you did an amazing job explaining the reason why she did what she did, again thanks mate.
Yeah in general Anime tends to go for a very uh, soap opera dramatized approach to pretty much anything societal; very much the "has this writer ever met a real [X[ in their life?". Its why you get tomboy characters who have to 'discover' their femininity, or convoluted tragic reasons some cisguy just wants to dress up like a girl and look pretty, or even the stereotype of Americans being some blonde guy. Just real basic cliches other folks have ditched for ages.
Imma be honest. My first exposure to not just the controversy but bridget and even guilty gear as whole was from Dimitri monroe who made the video about bridget. And honestly I ate it all up mainly because I didn't know anything. I didn't really participate in any of the arguments mainly because I didn't really want to embarrass myself but I do still kinda cringe at the fact that I used to so genuinely believe that bridget wasn't trans and that her being trans was a bad thing even though at the time , some of the arguments felt off to me ? Like when people were arguing for bridget not being trans and use arguments like "bridget is bridget" it felt like an insult to my intelligence. Honestly while I still don't like the decision cuz it made me feel like an asshole for a few days I can honestly say that bridget being trans was still a good decision and no amount of me being an edgy teenager was gonna change that. Congrats bridget fans, you deserved that w Edit : wow I'm actually so happy I wrote this comment. Seriously I was worried I was some piece of shit transphobe for a while now but after writing this I felt so much closure. Like I just told myself "nah you ain't Dimitri is just cringe"
Its fine And dimitri kinda like appears to know stuff if you watch it without context Its not you being transphobe is just like people appearing smarter than they are so you believe them
I think it's important to acknowledge that the older concept of Bridget as someone who was simply expressing masculinity in a different way was something that really encouraged and helped a lot of gender-non-conforming male and non-binary people. That concept was crucial to helping me understand and come to terms with my own "Third Gender" existence, actually. A think a lot of us were just excited to see that rare and unique representation return, and the disappointment of being overshadowed as usual, but specifically by a character that once represented you so well, is a hard pill to swallow. Anybody who begrudges anyone else's representation is obviously in the wrong, and to me that includes people who seem to want to gloat over those who are no longer represented by the character. I get that this kind of conversation can be easily hijacked by bad actors who just want to hate on trans people, but that's no reason to write off those of us who were genuinely saddened by the loss of something that's been meaningful to us for so many years, something we've been able to look at that told us, "You can do this." Fortunately, there are still other somewhat similar characters, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a character quite like the original Bridget, who looked, acted, and sounded that way and presented the concept of, "This is me, I am a man, this is what me being a man is, deal with it," to a lot of us who were struggling to understand ourselves in a much, much different world from the one we see now. Some of my fondest memories were of using Bridget to express my closeted self when the character was first introduced. The character being changed does not take that from me, but the people acting like my experiences are now invalid are hurtful. I wish everyone the best with their newfound representation in the character. I've always been a friend to trans people, both personally and generally. I think the "old Bridget experience" and "new Bridget experience" should be able to coexist, as this is a fictional character whose experiences are ultimately ours. I think a lot of people feel like people like me are trying to push against real life trans experiences, but that's absolutely not the case; you get to cast off your dead name and everything attached to that phase of your life if that's what you need to do. I just don't want anyone to minimize my experiences with a character because they are now having new experiences with that character due to changes that are, of course, a natural part of storytelling. People *do* change over time, and so do characters. Just don't hate me for saying, "I'm like the old Bridget, but I respect and support people who are like the current Bridget." It's not hard for those of us who are differently-gendered to coexist, and we need camaraderie in a world where the status quo still looks down at us all with sheer disdain. I get yelled at by bigots, too, ya know? Maybe we should reserve all the attitude for dealing with them instead of tearing each other down over minor differences like there's some kind of religious schism poisoning our brains. ;p
"I know representation is important for trans women, a notoriously underrepresented demographic, but have you considered the feelings of me, a cis man?" Look, I understand how painful it can feel to have a character you thought represented you ripped away for a completely different, largely unrelated demographic (hell, Fire Emblem's done that to me twice with characters like Forrest and Rosado, where I thought we were finally getting decent trans woman rep both times only for them to just be cis GNC men), but this weird selfish "but what about the poor underrepresented cissies' is exactly why I hate people on your side of this discourse. You cannot claim to respect trans people if you are still clinging to no longer valid interpretations of characters that erase their transness because that is more personally comfortable to you. Characters like early 2000s Bridget that are trans girls in all but name as the author and the story itself desperately tries to convince you they're just cis men are a dime a dozen in pretty much any Japanese media from the past 20 years are so mind numbingly common that if you seriously think you're losing representation because we finally managed to get *one* trans character, that makes me almost want to claim them as trans out of spite. Chihiro from Danganronpa? Forrest and Rosado from Fire Emblem? Astolfo from Fate? All of them are trans women now.
@@ravenfrancis1476 Pensive scarlet outright stated they're nonbinary, and the experiences of being sidelined for not conforming to typical societal gender expectations has significant overlap with being a trans women, down to the dysphoria and the threats of violence. There's no sense in fighting other people over the characters that they relate to, or the feelings they have about those characters, especially when they're taking the time to specifically try to not push away the people who like the newer Bridget. GNC folk aren't a largely unrelated demographic, transgender folk are well within that bubble, and even within this there's distinct splits in opinion and story. You totally can claim GNC characters as trans, and that is quite honestly the normal state of audience association with gender non-conforming characters! people have been looking at them and claiming them as "like me" for decades- i'm very new to anime and japanese games as a whole so i don't have any good examples in it but fan analysis of Sauron of all characters presents a surprisingly nuanced version of this. Diversity of opinion is good, and the representation doesn't have to be ripped away- characters can stay available to being analyzed from multiple viewpoints.
@@jessehunter362 Or you can just accept trans characters are trans and fuck off. Trying to argue that a canonically trans character is not trans and is in fact just a GNC cis person is erasure, just like trying to argue that a gay character being straight is erasure.
This is honestly a really good video and makes a lot of sense. This makes me love Bridget more and see them as better representation than ever, even if I haven’t done anything to go through with my transition yet
@@xzgears929 Wow, great job lying and leaving out both how that experiment went in real life the fact Bridget knew she she was AMAB and her parents wanted her to live as their son. You're pathetic.
@@xzgears929 nah, you're just being a pussy about it. bridget was *instructed* to *pretend* to be a girl growing up, but knew they weren't born as a girl, otherwise bridget wouldn't have set out on their journey in the first place. and in the end turned out that she liked being a woman, you're just trying to find any reason to complain.
I’d LOVE to learn Strive because Bridget is not only cute, but looks like the kind of fighter I’d to play. The issue is I’d have to buy the PC version and then I wouldnt be able to play on ethernet…
If the issue is distance, try a powerline ethernet adapter. You plug it into a wall, and it uses those wires to send internet data to another room in the house, while still being ethernet speeds
Its amazing how the japanese character writer can directly confirm; bridget is a trans girl, she was amab but uses she/her. The scene in which she says "im a girl." Is her canonically coming out as trans. And we still have people insisting that its actually not like that at all, because five thousand years ago the character said they were a guy (trans people always know they are trans from the second they are born, and are never in the closet) and also its not canon despite what the literal writers say, and also also everyone else just doesnt know the intricate historical context of japaenese culture and linguistics (They spent ten minutes on wikipedia and used google translate) that invalidates what the f*cking japanese writer said.
@@miigi-p4939 A rly long comment about how the localization is actually wrong, and there is a twist in the words that has deep roots in japanese crossdressing culture. Basically exactly what i said. Iirc they even talked about the whole "non cannon/bad ending stuff"
It's wild how it's been four months since you made this vid and it continues to be relevant. Glad I found it though, it's a pretty great vid, thorough without being overly long.
Trans characters and crossdressers are already linked and swapped back and forth because a lot of "otokonoko" characters were like trans or trans coded because to many japanese mangaka without actual knowledge of the difference and AMAB in female clothing was the same. Even more modern "femboys" have these issues. Felix in the Re:Zero anime reads as a simple femboy. Ferris (Felix's chosen name) in the novels can be read as trans on non-binary coded what with them literally praying away male puberty and having a mantra about how they are a girl. Also, the idiots who view femboys as a fetish already call canon trans characters "tr*ps" like Alluka from HunterxHunter
Wait I’m a femboy and my bf loves me and kisses me every night does that make me wrong for not being Trans or him wrong for liking femboys. Also I call myself a trap I don’t understand why the word has to be censored, most gay femboys are traps.
you don't have to censor "traps", it's not a slur or bad word(even if, in the example you gave, it was indeed misused from the sound of it... though I didn't read/see HunterxHunter)
Ferris as a character is a bit complicated, cuz they’re not trans and don’t personally want to crossdress. I don’t mind them, but their history is that they’re discriminated against for being part beast and are accused of being the offspring of an affair (when they weren’t, cuz they were unlucky and got some recessive genes). And the only one who saves them is the first sees them as attractive and likes them crossdressing, so they crossdress for her. Ferris in love with her, but she doesn’t see them that way. So they keep overcompensating. It’s only when they’re faced with someone who could be against deviation from traditional gender roles and transphobic where they seem to realize they might actually be trans (or like NB or something. Or at the very least a man who likes to crossdress for their own happiness). The creator is weirdly both against LGTBA and gender roles and for LGTBA with their writing choices. They also might fetishize crossdressing, but also advocates for putting his main characters, both masculine and androgynous, in pretty dresses without the intent of it being a joke.
@@Phos67 character implied trans that can’t be fully stated as such due to censorship/wanting to keep the interest of transphobes so they can still tell the story they want to but still get transphobes’ money.
Bridget being trans makes perfect sense and shows off a part of being trans that is often overlooked: denial (aka being an “egg”) She tries to prove her masculinity, which is a thing a lot of trans women do because they can’t accept that they are trans.
I'm just going to say this. THANK YOU FOR PRESENTING GOOD FAITH ARGUMENTS. I mean the extended dunking on people was amusing (albeit not informative to myself) but really, what mattered to me was the addressing of the "grooming" argument and the use of "Otoknoko" and providing information I was missing. Yeah, I was on the angry at direction camp before watching this video, and I'm *glad* you actually showed me what was going on with the word usage since that was the one reason I though there was something distinctly contradictory.
"In the case of Strive." This guy had a way out, could've been arguing deferred to the series standard, but no! No, he singles out _the_ GG which _doesn't_ have "bad" split paths, absolutely inspiring!
honest to god,to be this stupid and braindead is an achievement on itself lol. Dimitri taught me the power of mental gymnastics,it is truly entertaining
You mentioning Dimitri Monroe was like being hit by a concussive grenade, it was someone I had completely forgotten about that I now feel extreme agony in remembering, good video
I accept Brisket as a trans representative character. However what I don't accept is her being British. I keep having to remind myself because of how frequently I forget. I've been studying Japanese for maybe like 3 years now. Shit's hard for a native English speaker, and I even have to rely on a second hand translation for a lot of things. I do like to browse Japanese spaces sometimes to see what the conversation's like, especially for more progressive topics. A common thing I've read is 「ブリジットはブリジット」 ("Bridget is Bridget"). I think it's a generally well intentioned comment to make, suggesting that people will like and support Bridget regardless of how she identifies, but I worry that it's not very affirming since we know she's identifying as a girl now. What's clear is that there's definitely not one singular unanimous stance, despite what some would have you believe. As a side note, whenever I hear someone pronounce 男の娘 in their western accent while claiming to be a reliable source of the Japanese perspective is painful because of how wrong it sounds.
Dimitri trying to say that Daisuke didn't have control over the story of Strive is honestly the funniest part, does he know who Daisuke is??? Yknow, the guy who has proven over and over again that GG is his pride and joy. The guy who has decided to make every character have lyrical themes, made the story basically have a movie, and probably has five games worth of story arcs already written. Daisuke has probably sold his soul to make GG, the guy is definitely very hands on with the story.
I can't believe I went from being gay for bridget to being gay for bridget. Too bad that I hate her playstyle lol, I need the paint drinking goodness of Potemkin. He probably would've been my first pick for helping her along in her arcade story, but goldlewis and ky were great.
That Boku No Pico thing hit me like a bombshell. I remember when everybody was talking about that "show" but I don't remember ever hearing about Bridget being the inspiration.
The best thing about Dimitri's video is that it showed me how stupid i was for listening to what boils down to a creepy discord e-boy with zero credibility to his name especially when he gets things so wrong in his video that he says things about "the writing doesn't matter because the localization is misrepresenting the creators" but when that was shown to be not true he moved the goalpost to "well um i actually cared about the writing and the creator is wrong" as someone who's enjoyed GG for a long time it's very frustrating to have someone who knows jack shit about it and barely touched the games try to act as some sort of arbiter for both the story and the Japanese fanbase I used to like Dimitri's videos some time ago but that video made me realize not only is Dimitri not concerned on being right and only cares about looking like he's right while conveniently bashing anything that has to do with trans people and his precious Japanese media but it also made me realize just HOW MUCH his fanbase is hard core transphobic crazy people. If you're trans or anything like that don't be fooled by people like Dimitri, their goal is to make sure you remain as an OTHER in their world. they might not say they are transphobic but their actions are to belittle the existence of them as a form of "don't ask don't tell" policy. aka we won't go after you as long as you don't act like you're the same as us. If you are then you're pandering.
RUclips is being fucking stupid and wont let me put links in the fucking description so here's all the Sources: Art used in the video by Machitoons: twitter.com/MachiToons www.newgrounds.com/art/view/machitoons/basket-3 All Bridget and particle Mods seen in the video were created by me: gamebanana.com/members/1915165 Millia jeans mod: gamebanana.com/mods/342180 Sources and articles used to make this video: Strive: - Bridget boosts Guilty Gear Strive’s player count as the character’s gender identity becomes a hot topic automaton-media.com/en/news/20220810-14839/ - Arc System Works warns of fake images, in response to tweets about the bridget’s gender identity automaton-media.com/en/news/20220827-15286/ - dev backyard #11 11th volume of “Developer’s Backyard”(9/14 Release) | NEWS | GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- | ARC SYSTEM WORKS - Daisuke Clarifies his intent www.dropbox.com/s/extjlcjle6qroya/bridget%20trans.pdf?dl=0 Trans rights: - Japan's first trans march held in Tokyo's Shinjuku area to raise awareness on rights mainichi.jp/english/articles/20211122/p2a/00m/0na/006000c - Interview: The Invisible Struggle of Japan’s Transgender Population www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/19/interview-invisible-struggle-japans-transgender-population - Misinformation on transgender women spreads in Japan, even at LDP study session mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210519/p2a/00m/0na/025000c - Why LGBT Advocates Say Bathroom 'Predators' Argument Is a Red Herring time.com/4314896/transgender-bathroom-bill-male-predators-argument/ - Ipsos international LGBT survey LGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey points to a generation gap around gender identity and sexual attraction | Ipsos - GID act www.hrw.org/report/2021/05/25/law-undermines-dignity/momentum-revise-japans-legal-gender-recognition-process#2081 - GID reform Pressure www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/25/japan-new-momentum-reform-transgender-law LGBT Rights: - Sapporo Court deems ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978148301/in-landmark-ruling-court-says-japans-ban-on-same-sex-marriage-is-unconstitutiona - Osaka Court Deems ban Constitutional www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106313824/japan-court-ban-on-same-sex-marriage-constitutional - Japanese LGBT undeterred time.com/6189670/japan-same-sex-marriage-lgbt/ - Tokyo to recognize marriages but not make it legal www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/tokyo-same-sex-japan-lgbtq/ - Letter to Prime Minister www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/letter-prime-minister-yoshihide-suga-regarding-national-lgbt-non-discrimination-act - Equality Act Letter www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/05/Equality_Act_Japan_Corporate_Letter05282021.pdf - Japan: Introduce LGBT Equality Act Before Olympics www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/japan-introduce-lgbt-equality-act-olympics - A Gold Medal for Homophobia in Japan www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/22/gold-medal-homophobia-japan - Japan LGBT bill Falls Short www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/07/japans-ruling-party-lgbt-bill-falls-short - Tokyo moves to allow same-sex partnerships, but not as legal marriage www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/tokyo-same-sex-japan-lgbtq/ - Why Transgender People In Japan Prefer To Be Told They Have A "Disorder" www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/transgender-in-japan - Sexual And Gender Minorities and Bullying in Japan (page185) books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TflQEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA185&dq=Sexual+and+Gender+Minorities+and+Bullying+in+Japan&ots=XIi7LJpYxx&sig=IWmm3r1osqPNeI4umU--XgX3riE#v=onepage&q&f=false - LGBT women in japan tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/JPN/INT_CEDAW_NGO_JPN_20695_E.pdf Sexism: - Why Japan Can’t shake Sexism www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210405-why-japan-cant-shake-sexism - Japan's LDP party invites women to 'look, not talk' at key meetings www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56095215 - Japan Ranks 116th in 2022 Global Gender Gap Report www.nippon.com/en/articlelist.html?f=ncf-tag&s=society&pnum=3 - Japanese women over 30 stay in workforce and parental benefits improve asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan-women-in-30s-stay-in-workforce-as-parental-benefits-improve
Thanks for the video, it really help me to have a more broad perspective about all this shit show, since I'm relativity new in the FGC only entering a year ago, so when this controversy appear on my recommendation feed this was a rabbit hole that I was completely unprepared to deal with. The first video that I found was praising this decision to high heaven saying that Bridget was by far the most relevant and impactful character in all of the Fighting Games which I was like "Hey is nice to see you being happy for this decision and feeling represented but even I, a person relative new to scene, know that in Blaze Blue alone there is at least 2 or 3 major LGBT characters, is this such a big deal or is she overselling?". And the exact second video that I found on the subject was the Dimitri Monroe one, which was completely negative and while I could agree with his points about Bridget backstory being really fucked up for the direction that she was being lead and that a bunch of other people really feel represented by Bridget early depictions. I was not familiar enough with the series to take everything he said at face value and even for me some of his points were a bit if and all that shit about good and bad endings just confuses me more. So your more neutral take on the whole situations and you actually citing the main author behind the work really help me to come to terms with all this.
Words cannot express how happy I am with this video and even your subsequent comment, I am just so proud people like you exist, it really brings me a lot of joy. Transfem sending love for your wonderfu video!!! 💙💖🤍💖💙
I really loved this video and how it breaks down the culture behind the language used, as well as delving into the perspectives how even trans people view Bridget.
the fact that people were so willing to sexualize +R bridget (who was 14 at the time) but are suddenly put off at the idea of bridget coming out as a trans woman is so icky to me
I always though Bridget was going to embrace their original identity and get a change of style to reflect that but the last thing i expected was a double down of the whole girl thing, I'm not mad and i like them just fine but it kinda threw me for a loop when i first heard....it is what it is.
Wow, you really came with receipts. It really is interesting to see a more in-depth view of Japan's sociopolitical landscape, I'd heard before there's a lot of conservatism but also that there's a lot of government manipulation to undermine democracy. In terms of Bridget and Guilty Gear themselves, I like how you acknowledge the character isn't perfect, but that's it's still not right to throw away the story because of that. I'm personally very excited for the directions Bridget's character may take in the future, and also think we should be more accepting of "imperfect" representation, as backlash towards such things can easily lead down the road of harassing and gatekeeping a creator for depicting their own experiences instead of yours. Overall, very insightful. I'm interested to see what you do next.
This is a fantastic video and the most articulated take I've seen about this discourse. I highly appreciate the effort you put in this video to go beyond just the petty internet fighting and address the real world problems. I am a Trans Woman. I've struggled with Gender dysphoria all of my life , and only just begun to truly understand it from 2019 onward. I've also been a Guilty Gear fan since 2006 with Judgement. Bridget has been my favorite character ever since. I've only recently started to embrace the fact that I am Trans. Bridget's coming out has helped me immensely with doing so. It made her character incredibly personal for me. I would have been fine if Bridget came back as before , but what this did to help me , I can't possibly describe. I've been afraid for so long and being true to myself in this way. It's been an immense struggle. I've only just begun to have the courage to tell others. I appreciate the effort Daisuke and ARCSYS put into Bridget with this , because they definitely did their homework. I didn't know the state of things in Japan. I've only heard vague statements prior. I definitely appreciate being educated on that , thank you.
As a trans person who was honestly feeling kind of upset with the mass amount of negativity towards this newly found character I can see myself in, seeing such a level headed video like this really means a lot. Thank you for being such a good voice on the topic
Also, this might be one of the funniest videos I've ever seen. The way you cut in on Dimitri's bullshit so incisively always has me laughing my ass off. What a great video.
Never trust surveys in Japan Since even in private most people in Japan try there best to conform to the "Accepted" I don't think Japan is as transphobic or Homophobic as people think Its only really the people in power who are , while its more and more accepted in the younger generations Don't get me wrong Japan is still very bad when it comes to these things
Agreed. Most people in politics or power are pushing 70+ here, even our minister of telecommunications uses a flip-phone (not to say the phone's old, those things are still being produced in Japan) and doesn't even understand email... So like you said, one shouldn't really look at the abhorrent things japanese laws do in regards to gender and transitioning. The Japanese people (and non-japanese residents) will have opinions running the entire spectrum of love/acceptance/tolerance/indifference/intolerance/unacceptance/hate.
@@Cyromantikconforming is silent support so it doesnt really matter. Japanese voter participation and political activity is low, so clearly people support conservative and far-right views on human rights
From a Trans girl who’s never played Guilty Gear, but seen the character around the community a bit and listened to The Town Inside Me about a billion times before and was curious to know more about her and what she’s from: Yeah… I feel like making a character who was originally presented as a femboy into trans rep is kinda silly. It, as you said, kinda creates this false image that femboy=trans, when that isn’t at all the case, all while removing some of the little rep femboys get where they aren’t just a punchline. I would feel glad to have this representation, but much of what the character once was almost seems to be trying to make this representation feel more like an insult, all while, at the same time, having a song that incapsulates how me and many of the other trans people I know’s feelings so perfectly in one song. Which should feel awesome. But instead just feels. Off. Idk. The while segment of her trying to “prove her masculinity” by going off on her own like that to prove it though. Again that’s another part where it’s like “yeah girl, been there. Most of us have.” so again, it should feel like great rep. Like seeing myself in something for once but. Still. Regardless of the nature of the rep, and some of problems I have with what little I know of her and the rep as a whole. Brisket is a girl. And anyone who says otherwise is either a transphobe or, alternatively, a femboy so desperate for representation and feeling so angry about having what little they have being (in their eyes) taken away that they have to fight against it, to preserve the little bit of themselves they once saw in media. Which. Is kinda depressingly understandable… but at the same time. Maybe you don’t need to belittle trans people, our experiences, and our rep to express this anger.
Im kinda sad that us femboys keep losing all of our representation, and that whenever I say that I’m upset about it I’m called transphobic. But if Bridget’s happy I’m happy! (:
@kollie79 Most of the femboys that are left keep getting destroyed because of peoples head canon, example: Ferris Argyle, Astolfo, Hideri Kanzaki, etc. As a femboy I feel like we went from kind fetishized, but at least recognized Group to now where if I go outside my home they no joke, try to groom me constantly I’m happy being a boy but all this stuff is really starting to put a toll on me.
@kollie79 it’s not just online I went to a anime-con with my bf last month(I’m 16) and we ended up having to leave cuz me dressing up as Ferris was apparently Transphobic, and they kept saying that I would look cute as a girl and stuff it makes me really uncomfy and has ended giving me Dysphoria because I can’t go outside in the clothes I used to be proud to wear without people telling me that I should be a girl.
I watched Dimitri most recent video about Bridget and I was following along with it, and I put a big comment about me not agreeing with Bridget's story which i later deleted as I just saw this video as this video has is a much stronger argument, and counter-argument firing back at Dimitri. I still cant believe I ate up Dimitri's video and nearly went on with my day without seeing this. This video does Bridget and the transcommunity JUSTICE. Your mention of people still using Strive's story as "canon", but the arcade mode's endings never being canon is EXTREMELY STRONG and I am so for it. If the arcade mode endings WERE CANON, then according to the wiki page for Guilty Gear, On Potemkin's Page in Guilty Gear XX section, Bridget would be apart of the Zepp Military as a Combat Trainer, which she isnt. "In another ending, Potemkin gets into a confrontation with Bridget, who mistakes Potemkin for a rival bounty hunter pursuing Dizzy. After their fight, Potemkin and Bridget clear up the misunderstanding and become friends; Potemkin recruits Bridget into the Zepp military as a combat trainer, with Potemkin becoming Bridget's first student." Bridget is trans, and if anyone reading this doesmt agree with this, fucking deal with it. Bridgets story is about self exploration: Finding about yourself and being who you truly are. Be who you REALLY want to be, If you wanna stick to your gender then feel free to do so as no one is stopping you. If you wanna change your gender, again feel free to do so, no one is stopping you. Dont let other people control or force or pressure yourself. You Be You. I Personally still am not sure whether im genuinely trans or gender fluid, but I wont let anyone stop or control me, and you shouldnt let anyone stop or control you. Trans Rights people!! Also fucking love your video, subscribed!!
I'll deal with it but doesn't mean I have to like it, I just think it's fucked up since his backstory he was forced to be a girl or else he would've been killed because of it. He becoming she just seems really poor in taste.
This video definitely addressed what my problems were with the statement within the first chapter, and honestly, I appreciate it being real legitimate reasons to dislike the change and not just being called transphobic for it.
There's one absolutely glaring flaw in this video. The way you spent Burst at 29:12? Now you're going into round two against Chaos down a round and with no Burst! You have to hold onto Burst when it's that late in the round. I had no idea about the state of what transgender people go through in Japan. It makes the recent statement about GG's cast being created so everybody can see somebody like themselves be a hero have that much more weight to it. Kudos to you for doing the research. Additionally, during the past few months I remembered that Arc System Works published Swery and White Owls' The Missing, which also centers around LGBTQ+ issues. Interpret that how you will, but my hope is that it means at least a couple people with sway at ArcSys are willing to put their weight behind works that touch upon marginalized peoples' issues.
Awesome stuff! I am ashamed to say that I get really, really emotionally invested when people disagree with me. I am trying to fix that, and I can certainly say that the way you argue is a really good way to go about handling this kind of topic. Thank you! Cheers
It's honestly so good that someone made a full video about the topic debunking every single lie transphobes tried to push regarding her. P.S.: I also appreciate the usage of music from Under Night In-birth in the background :)
I really have to thank you for putting into words what I long struggled to define. A lot of those people who don't believe Bridget is trans believe that the Japanese are for some reason an absolute monolith, a hivemind in regards to sex and gender. They too, are human people. And not even people from a small country/culture have the same idea. So, as you said, gotta be sniffing a lotta glue to think that a whole 125.7 million people all say "Bridget is a boy and it's just been translated bad to pander to the western audience".
I don't think Japan is a monolith, I just don't think woke prog politics that have shit all over everything I enjoyed should have any sway over a seperate country.
@@justiceforjoggers2897 Japan has had LGBTQ+ people since its inception, yes, including trans people. Every single country ever has had LGBTQ+ people. That's kinda how we work. Same with actual progressive ideas, since the existence of people is not an idea, despite your insistence.
Something I often see is that trying to Google Translate Japanese pages is already a massive error. As someone who has been a part of many communities where games may release content in Japanese before English, a VERY common issue is that trying to Google Translate a page can often lead to problems related to pronoun usage, and would often default to masculine pronouns even for explicitly feminine characters. The way pronouns work in Japanese is not the same as English, and Google Translate is not a de-facto perfectly-accurate translation and is only really good for quick, rough translations.
@@cmyk8964 yes, but that’s basically all that Daisuke didn’t do. People don’t try to argue that he didn’t make Slayer, Zappa or I-No because of that; they only try to use that against Bridget.
I'm gonna start this off by saying that I myself am non-binary, and I have multiple friends who are also underneath that umbrella. I do not like Bridget's story, and I think she's bad trans representation. I really do want to be super happy about her being trans in one of the most popular fighting games (and definitely my favorite one), but her story really rubs me the wrong way. She was forced to be a girl, left to pursue being more masculine, then decided she was okay with what was forced upon her? I get that the whole first part is an attempt to counteract this grievance I have, but the argument seems so flimsy to me. It feels like the moral of her story is that you should be okay with things that get forced upon you, and as someone who doesn't want to be referred to by my assigned gender, that feels bad. Yes, she had plenty of time away from her village to dress and act however she wanted to, but I have also been in that kind of situation. I've had environments where I could express my gender freely, but still mostly kept it to myself out of fear that someone who I don't want knowing about my true gender coming around and notice that something's off. Bridget could be under the same pressure there. I will admit that what I just said is also a bit of a flimsy argument, but I'm not trying to argue that she's not trans. I'm trying to say that her story is bad and she feels like a really disingenuous trans character. I think it would make more narrative sense if the village saw she was being successful and asked her to come back home as a man. She'd be torn between presenting as her birth gender and presenting the way she'd chosen to for years (while explaining that yes, she did in fact choose to be that way outside of her village, because the current story does not and it leaves room for people to deny it). Her perfect ending for arcade mode would entail her going home as a girl and coming out to her family, and that would have good weight to it. The village would expect her to want to conform with her birth gender, only for her to say that she likes being a girl. The "bad" ending (where she tells Goldlewis that she's a girl) would probably just have her not go home. At the end of the day, I still have Testament, who is well written imo. They decided to chill out after all of the horrible things that happened to them, and thus, got to explore their gender more. Combine that with the more feminine JP voice and the more masculine English voice (Kayleigh McKee, a trans woman specializing in both masc and fem voices), and you get a character I can really relate to.
Bridget was never forced to be a girl. Bridget pretended to be a girl but there is no time where Bidget ever implies that she thought she was a girl back at that time. more importantly you're reasoning is that her story has problematic aspects that would simply make it confusing for Bridget of what she feels like she is. this is correct but this doesn't make Bridget somehow a disingenuous trans character. are you a disingenuous none-binary person for having those kinds of doubts and concerning upbringing? of course not. that wasn't your choice and it wasn't Bridgets either. I think people try to hard to want bridget be this idealized idea of how a trans person should come to be but that in itself is disingenuous.
I think Bridget's character progression makes a lot of sense. Her hometown had a superstition that male twins brought misfortune -> her parents gave her a girls' upbringing so that one of their twin sons wouldn't have to be sacrificed or exiled thanks to the superstition (her parents felt guilty about it, and Bridget knew that) -> she left and, while "behaving like a man", became a very successful bounty hunter and brought riches to her hometown, thus ending the superstition about twin boys bringing misfortune -> this, however, left her without a goal -> now that she had lived as both a boy and a girl but wasn't bound to either identity, she discovered that she felt more herself as a girl, after all. I'm a cis male, so I don't relate to her experience, but narratively speaking it makes complete sense to me.
@@Peasham This is just my understanding of her story from the bio and what I've seen of her in-game (including arcade). I just want someone to explain to me why she's not bad trans representation. I'm looking for clarity, not a reason to argue. I hoped the video would give a good explanation, but it mainly focused on some other person who tried to argue that she wasn't trans, which we all know is false.
I can totally see why Bridget would be bad rep, the story from that short summary seems a bit cliche. But I can't say I don't like it. As a trans person I really like any kind of representation considering how uncommon it is in games in general. Yes we should strive for more, but I think the confirmation that she is a girl is a step in the right direction.
@@Goblinhandler Daisuke. Do literally any research instead of lying for once. It was literally his idea for her to be a boy in previous games and hid that from the rest of the staff. Why are you obsessed with a character you clearly never knew anything about?
@@Goblinhandler Oh, and even if Daisuke's opinion didn't matter, STRIVE IS STILL CANON so she's still trans. You're a delusional weirdo ignoring the actual game.
I think Bridget being trans makes sense and it's official and all so no point in denying it. But I got introduced to Bridget as femboy, connected a lot as a kid and it was my first cosplay back then as well. And now all I get is hate and being called a transphobe when I say I don't exactly celebrate the change. Can't both be okay...? Fans have always done genderbend versions of characters or Alternative universe versions as well.. is it that bad when I want to draw a femboy Bridget? I think hate should stop in both directions :/
Strive is the first Guilty Gear game I have ever played. I got Bridgette because I like YoYos. I love this character and this video’s explanation of the lore. Thanks for the great content!
I don't even play GGST or care about the Bridget drama, just found this vid in my recommended earlier today and i wanna compliment you on it. Can't believe you have so few subscribers when your content is this solid! Keep it up, you've earned yourself a new sub 👍
The Strive ending for Bridget seems like the most human ending for the character. Accepting the gender you've been living as for years is much more believable to me than switching back on a whim. I'm new to the series and only know the character in Strive, though.
...what? They'd been living as a guy for years. Literally since their first appearance in the series; a guy with a girl's name and clothing, sure, but they always identified as a guy. It was only during their childhood they had identified as a girl, as they were raised as one, but later rejected that and I guess "transitioned" to a man, despite already being biologically male.
@@diodamke1007they werent raised as a girl Her parents aways told her she was born male She needed to pretend to be one to literally not die or be exiled She became a bounty hunter to break the fake curse and it was mostly to make her parents happy I dont think you ever see bridget express not liking to be more girly She corrects people when she is reffered as one because she again wants to break the myth In strive she passed 8 years I think as a man and she realizes she feels happier as a woman
@@miigi-p4939 >She needed to pretend to be one to literally not die or be exiled I'm kinda confused what you mean here. Bridget presented as a girl to avoid being executed, or exiled. Maybe they still identified as a boy during that, but I don't think that's relevant. From what I understand, they've been open about being a man since their first playable appearance up until deciding to identify as a woman in Strive. >I dont think you ever see bridget express not liking to be more girly How girly you are or like to be does not determine your gender.
@@diodamke1007 i know but she literally doesnt care about presenting as a girl in the game Also yes they identified as a boy The way you said it made it seem like her parents lied to her saying she was a girl when she was amab
I was disappointed when this whole thing came out, because I had always seen Bridget as a feminine male character that crossdresses. Also in addition, seeing some comments made it feel like feminine crossdressing men weren't allowed to exist, you had to be trans if you were into that. I've gotten over it by now though. And from the start, I was always saying that I was happy that trans people got their representation, even if I was personally disappointed by it. Also, realizing now how important Bridget can be for Japanese trans people makes me feel even better about it. As a long time anime watcher, it really doesn't come as a surprise that LGBTQ issues lag behind us there, and probably will continue to do so based on how their society is.
Yeah, I mean, when the whole "controversy" started, I was squarely within the "Monroe" camp because it felt like a huge erasure of representation! Bit more time later, when my brain has cooled and I'm less transphobic than I used to be and... it still sorta feels like erasure a bit, ngl. But the answer most certainly isn't to fight over who "gets the character", especially from another very poorly represented group - it's to demand some more bloody representation for everyone because we all deserve it! Also, to celebrate the occasional W's some groups do get. There's like a whole can of worms here about how different groups, all of which may be labeled as "queer", fight with each other when the root cause is found within the ways both poorly fit within a very cishetero-normative society, thus feeling pressured into clawing at each other for any scraps of "normalcy" afforded, further worsened by unaddressed bigotry. At the same time, I don't feel like I can really address this in a comment, so I'll just agree with everything said. Hopefully the "starvation" won't last long.
@@thosebloodybadgers8499 Cis men who wear dresses are not inherently queer, so your notion that this is queer infighting only really makes sense if the cis man wearing a dress is queer outside of the context of him wearing a dress.
@@ravenfrancis1476 I'd argue defying traditional gender norms does make one queer to some extent, as feminine male expression does not fit into cisheteronormativity
@@thosebloodybadgers8499 Being queer us a blanket term for being LGBT+, not just anyone who doesn't fit under cisheteronormativity. Anyone who doesn't fit under cisheteronormatibity but is still cishet is fundamentally incapable of being queer.
I don't really have anything to say about Bridget because you've already made a half-an-hour-long video expressing my thoughts for me (also great work with the research, you quoted more sources than many people even care to look up before opening their mouths and I'm sure that took a lot of time), but I was surprised by what you said about Faust. I know his old design is rooted in contemporary Japanese culture, but I had no idea they changed it because they thought it was gonna be more appealing to a global audience (it sure isn't more appealing to me, but to each their own). Did anyone at ArcSys confirm that?
To be honest, I really hate strive because they toned down everything Which ruins what made guilty gear unique Just look at baiken So I really wanted that problem to be true but I guess you're right
They didn't really tone down what made Guilty Gear actually unique. What made Guilty Gear unique is the fucking bonkers character design and aesthetic. Like, seriously, can you imagine Bedman or Faust in literally any other fighting game? I can't. Making the fighting game playable for anyone other than hardcore sweaty gamer bros who think being asked to press eighteen different button combinations while moving the analog stick 3 and a half different directions all at the same time is a perfectly reasonable request is not sacrificing the actual uniqueness that makes the game interesting.
@@ravenfrancis1476 except for some specific characters, the inputs in strive stayed pretty much the same, the main difference that they took a lot of the freedom of movement and the freedom of expression by standardising the characters moves to play a specific topical roles, the biggest offender is baiken they took everything that made her unique
I fucking hate taking part in long dicussions on this subject so it took me a lot of time to watch this video even tho it's popped up for me a number of times, but this whole video is such an excellent summary of the entire discourse, I think this'll be my thing to point to for people who want more information on it. One thing that I'd like to add on (on the off chance nobody else has said it yet) is that not completely unlike the way some trans women in Japan use the word otokonoko to refer to themselves, there is still a sizeable amount of trans women who speak English and derive affirmation from the term femboy. It's ultimately a slightly different situation seeing as Japanese has not made the shift to referring to crossdressing and transgenderism as different things, whereas English has but some people still choose to use the outdated stuff because gender is a social construct so who cares it makes them happy
I just realized how sad it is that not even a fictional character can live her life as trans without backlash. Trans rights are human rights. Let Bridget be happy ffs.
i always found it ironic how the people who called this "grooming" are mad that the once sexualized underage crossdresser character they pretend to like is getting agency in their own identity especially since the claim of grooming only works for how bridget was written in the past, aka the writing these people say they prefer, while this development is overtly Bridgets choice. that is very literally the point of bridgets story in this.
She literally starts seeing herself as a woman and her arc in the manga is partially about it. She's essentially a trans woman who got an instant transition before figuring out she was trans, which has been a trope I've seen in other stories about trans characters for a while.
just wanna slip in with the fact that the "semi-reclaimed" applies to nearly all words that are used for lgtbq etc. Gay, lesbian, queer, fairy, drag, transvestite, transgender have been and are currently used as slurs and words of affirmation, in distinct contexts! The gap between "slur" and "self-identifier" is really not that large. Bit of a second note- not all of the trans english speakers are making the distinction between crossdressing/nonconforming and being trans- plenty of drag queen's i'd say are fully within the trans umbrella, and a least a few of us trans people started out crossdressing and switched labels later, or still make use of "transvestite". I know a few gals who use "femboy", in almost the exact same way you used to describe the use of otokonoko. edit: SEGA BASS FISHING IS A TRANS VIDEO GAME love that thing
I couldn't have said this stuff better. This is an excellent video and if one day I run into someone who still thinks she's a guy, I'm definitely sending this video their way.
Watched the video, and I still think he is a guy, all these was arksys changing a character to be woke and don't say is not woke pandering, because these is not the only thing, like all the females being less revealing, making testament non-binary, to name a few, and if you are going to use the: look at biken, she is pretty much their scape goat on these. At the end if it has a dick is a guy and if he goes around saying he is a girl, well that makes him a trap.
@@juliox9 1 - Your sentences make literally no sense and it's incredibly hard to read them because you have no concept of grammar. 2 - You're clearly just saying "trans = woke, and anything trans is just woke pandering." Woke means literally nothing of value at all, get an actual argument. The only people who actually use "woke" in their sentences are people like you, and for people like you, woke just means "I don't like it." Woke may be used in a political standpoint, and that's the main goal of it, but so many things are called woke that make no sense. Being pro-trans is actually the logical conservative take based on the definition of conservative, since conservatism is supposed to be about giving people their rights, which as of late, is the complete opposite. I'm sure you know that saying "I don't like it" isn't a valid argument by any means, and only a moron would say that, as it means you have no proof at all, so you resort to making nonsensical sentences where you roundaboutly say "I just don't like it." If you want to make a point, make a real point. 3 - You clearly are not a fan of the series whatsoever, you can't even spell Baiken's name right. I can tell that this is just like people getting mad at trans women in women's sports, because you don't give a crap about the guilty gear series at all unless there's some sort of "evil wokeness that we must complain about," just like how people mad at trans women in women's sports usually never watched women's sports to begin with, and say they want to care for women / children, despite the fact that outside of trying to say trans people hurt women and children, they actively make legislation to harm women and children. Don't be a hypocrite. 4 - "Trap" gives the idea that you're tricking people. "Trap" has always had the connotation of "tricking men into sex," but here's the thing: if you care so much about femboys being represented in anime and not trans women, and you actually like femboys (which I'm sure you don't, you're just a transphobic moron who uses things you don't even care about in the first place to try to seem right), you wouldn't want to call them sly, sexual liars. Trap isn't a good term on any front, and while I know you don't care whatsoever because the only people you actually care about are people like you, but I want to put it out there for anyone reading. Stay mad dumbfuck, according to your logic, brussels sprouts are woke if you don't like them.
@@Customfurball28 interesting, my grammar is sometimes off because English is not my native language, but did i resorted to insults, i did not, but you did so who is the immature now, to finish all like I said if he has a dick which bridget does then he is male 😂😂😂, also I have played the series i just messed up baiken name thanks to auto word, enough to say Bridget didn't have the insecurities he showed in strive he already got over them, the fact that they appeared out of nowhere was pretty much arksys wanting to make the character "trans"
@@juliox9 Just because I used insults doesn't negate the points I made, nor does it make me immature, however, I won't use them anymore just to show that I'm not all insults and that I actually have a point. Sorry that I misjudged that you're actually a fan. However, just because someone's born male doesn't make them a boy, and Bridget did not get over her insecurities in the previous games. Bridget wanted to show her town that she was manly enough and to prove them wrong, and she did, but the thing is, proving someone wrong doesn't mean searching for who you are. The only way she could have proved them wrong is by being manly and becoming a bounty hunter, but the funny thing is, she never once gave up her feminine mannerisms or clothes because that was part of who she is as a character. If she wanted to make the town reconsider their beliefs, the ONLY way was to do what she did, but she was so caught up with doing what she did, that she didn't truly think about what she wanted. Arcsys had been planning this before strive, and its not like it was a retcon or some random change to "appease the woke," it was just part of the character. First, she goes out searching for the only way to appease the village, then she realizes it wasn't fulfilling. Simple as that. People are not 1 dimensional, and just because you succeeded at one thing, that doesn't mean that you magically become truly happy. Arcsys knows this and wrote a very good character. Bridget was planned this way in advance, and Arcsys has said it themselves. And what better a time to do it than now, acceptance is rising, and while transphobia is rising too, arcsys is one of the few companies that are making trans characters, so it makes sense for them to give the community just a bit of representation. There, no insults, just facts.
The only thing I seem to agree with Dimitri anymore is *some* of his points on localization, because it *can* and *does* change context of scenes greatly for seemingly no reason at times. But even then he still makes leaps of logic and bad faith arguments about it all the time so it's hard to even say that.
The hilarious part? He's one of the people who thinks Bridget was rebelling against her village. That was added in the localization of XX because apparently letting her parents stop feeling guilty wasn't good enough in the west.
@@mythicalthings1796 ストーリー： ブリジットは大富豪の家庭に生まれ、英才教育を経て礼節極まるお嬢様として育てられた男の子。しかし、村の迷信によって男の双子はその地に不幸をもたらすとして、本来は里子に出さなくてはならないブリジットを、両親のはからいで女の子として育て世間の目を誤魔化してきた。 この不幸な境遇により胸を痛めた両親に、心配をかけまいと明るく務めていたが、自分が幸せを主張すればするほど、両親が心を痛めていることに気が付く。根本的な解決として、自らが男として生きる必要があり、かつ迷信をくつがえすような富を村にもたらさなくてはならない、という結論を出した。 そのとき、ある賞金首の手配書が目に入った。固い決意を旨に、静かに靴紐を縛るブリジットだった。 web.archive.org/web/20080622225147/www.guiltygearx.com/cs/GGXXSPS2/character/story/chara_20.html Straight from the old XX website.
I bought guilty gear strive a month ago and only found out that bridget was a trans girl after buying it, honestly I think it's pretty cool and nice that there's some form of trans representation in the guilty gear series. I dont play Brisket personally but I'll probably buy season pass 2 soon and try her out and see if she's my kind of character. Also Mai from BB is trans? I never knew that and I owned the game for years lmao, guess I should finish the story mode sometime. Still I want to emphasize that I'm glad that there's representation, it makes the cast more diverse and interesting but also more realistic and allows for me and many other LGBT+ folks to relate to characters, I hope arcsys continues to have a few characters that represent us in their future titles. Also you had some great roasts in this vid very nice Anyway thats all from me Trans Rights! 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
Mai going from "guy stuck in a woman's body" to actually admitting she is ok being woman and choosing not to be turned back happens in the 2 spinoff manga about her actually.
Also I’m sorry about my views on the Brisket change, it’s just not fair every single Femboy character has been taken away leaving femboys like me who used to have a ton of representation back to 0 in which now some people will argue with us saying that we should transition because we already “act enough like a girl” it’s not fair. If they change Felix or Astolfo’s gender I will shoot my gun off with a Dessert Eagle (not a joke) everything has been stripped away from us.
amazing video, i applaud you not only for your wise opinions and clear and engaging expression of your thoughts, but also for sega bass fishing. trans rights. 🏳️⚧️
It was weird when Bridget released in Strive and people were not sure how to interpret the multiple endings. But now that it's just word of god and stuff, it's shitty that people are like arguing about it. Fighting games and the FGC are literally the most diverse video game genre and community. It's unfortunate that even there people can't just accept things. God forbid a character have like...development or a journey or something over 20 years idk.
I'm actually glad you brought up dmitri's terrible video, that's actually the one that finally got me to leave that god forsaken channel. Thank you for doing a great analysis on Bridget and dunking on the transphobes.
Bridget is a transwoman? Yeah, sounds about right. And if you feel like bringing up arguments over history or lore what exactly this or that kanji means, I got two words for you. Charlie Nash. What squad/organization/unit was he a part of? How did his confrontation with M.Bison go? Did they even meet at all? Why was he chasing him in the first place? Where was he killed? Who killed him? How? Why? _Was_ he really killed? What happened to him afterward? How was Shadaloo involved? Who does he serve now? Everything... goddam *everything* about him has been rewritten, revamped, retconned, redacted, ripped, roped, relished, and rock-bottomed, _based on what Capcom wanted from him that particular moment._ There was no other reason, and there didn't _need_ to be another reason. Characters can change. Fighting game characters, there's a very good chance they're going to change. You gotta deal. (Don't ever get me started on Yuri Sakazaki. SNK can't even keep her goddam HEIGHT consistent from game to game.)
Dude. You want confidence, start a growth fund. What I told you is the reality. Companies involved in long-running creative works are going to mold them to fit their needs. Anything can be added, excised, or retconned. Bridget being trans requires no more "defence" than Arc System Works liking the idea. Though I do hope it eventually turns out to be magic or ghosts or psychic forces or something because that would be completely irrefutable by real-world science and thus kill the debate. 😁
Because it would appear people don't read descriptions and instead go straight for the comments, here is the list of sources I used to make the video. I strongly urge you read at least a few of them. If you are confused by the presence of political articles, this video was originally 36 minutes with a discussion on human right violation by the Japanese government. The last section was removed due to audio copyright. Hope this helps.
Strive and Bridget's inclusion:
- Bridget boosts Guilty Gear Strive’s player count as the character’s gender identity becomes a hot topic
automaton-media.com/en/news/2...
- Arc System Works warns of fake images, in response to tweets about the bridget’s gender identity
automaton-media.com/en/news/2...
- dev backyard #11
- Daisuke Clarifies his intent
www.dropbox.com/s/extjlcjle6q...
Trans rights issues in Japan:
- Japan's first trans march held in Tokyo's Shinjuku area to raise awareness on rights
mainichi.jp/english/articles/...
- Interview: The Invisible Struggle of Japan’s Transgender Population
www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/19/i...
- Misinformation on transgender women spreads in Japan, even at LDP study session
mainichi.jp/english/articles/...
- Why LGBT Advocates Say Bathroom 'Predators' Argument Is a Red Herring
time.com/4314896/transgender-...
- Ipsos international LGBT survey
LGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey points to a generation gap around gender identity and sexual attraction | Ipsos
- GID act
www.hrw.org/report/2021/05/25...
- GID reform Pressure
www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/25/j...
LGBT Rights in Japan:
- Sapporo Court deems ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional
www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978148...
- Osaka Court Deems ban Constitutional
www.npr.org/2022/06/20/110631...
- Japanese LGBT undeterred
time.com/6189670/japan-same-s...
- Tokyo to recognize marriages but not make it legal
www.washingtonpost.com/world/...
- Letter to Prime Minister
www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/l...
- Japan: Introduce LGBT Equality Act Before Olympics
www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/j...
- A Gold Medal for Homophobia in Japan
www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/22/g...
- Japan LGBT bill Falls Short
www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/07/j...
- Tokyo moves to allow same-sex partnerships, but not as legal marriage
www.washingtonpost.com/world/...
- Sexual And Gender Minorities and Bullying in Japan (page185)
books.google.com/books?hl=en&...
Sexism in japan:
- Why Japan Can’t shake Sexism
www.bbc.com/worklife/article/...
- Japan's LDP party invites women to 'look, not talk' at key meetings
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-5...
- Japan Ranks 116th in 2022 Global Gender Gap Report
www.nippon.com/en/articlelist...
- Japanese women over 30 stay in workforce and parental benefits improve
asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan...
Hey I wanted to say that this was a fantastic video with an actual nuanced view on how it'll impact other queer communities that might have identified with the character.
Lots of those sources are gone, lmao.
@orcamincora And you won't redo it or discuss what is arguably the most important part of this video, a real-world issue rather than a discussion over a fictional characters gender?
RUclips auto-shortened all of these links sadly so none of them work
RUclips automatically shortened the links so they cannot be accessed, but googling the article names would probably return the results.
when a random video essay on a fictional character has a more nuanced view on trans people and gender conformity than any of my politicians. i love the internet. good shit.
politics just want your vote, a good chunk of them could give less of a rats ass what theyll say or even believe if it means they can have your support. internets where theyre are unfiltered views of real people with real views, real emotions, and real reasons. really. people online generally have nothing to gain. unless theyre trying to push a view point, which is likely too. especially given the topics of this video lol
it's probably because it's a pretty touchy subject
@@GiordanDiodatoits really not
Stop trying to police the lives of other people just because theyre different, and offer them basic human decency.
@@V2ULTRAKill based ultrakill fan (were all trans people or femboys or allies theres no in between)
@@Ptr-ck7if schoolgirl v1
Nuff said
My favorate part of this video is that every section of your talking parts, background Bridget won only once in the whole video
I am a Ky main
@@orcaminorca That explains everything then
Ky main too btw
I see… Another Niko pfp.
I will probably change mine to my OC, but, cool!
@@neekxd2451 I thought you got the same img as mine but it's different, because mine is one that I got years ago and some people thought it's original by me, because you need to search specifically for my pfp and can't find by just searching in google images "niko oneshot"
Also don't change pfp, there's a whole random community about people having oneshot related pfp, but I won't force you to not do it
See I don't hate Bridget because she's trans, good for her. I hate Bridget because fighting her in neutral as millia makes me want to eat metal filings.
Just play Happy Chaos lmao
A very valid reason lol
She's trans? I thought it was just a Femboy. I mean basically the same thing lmao
@@sanguis5410 no not the same thing actually
@@sanguis5410 Not even remotely close to the same thing
It was always strange that the "bad ending" was the one where Bridget was finally happy with herself and found self confidence thanks to supportive buff biker grandpappy.
How is that a bad ending exactly? Bridget is happy with herself and gained confidence, that's character growth and caps off her entire experience with looks towards a happier and fuller future. But the one where she stays closeted and bottles it down inside her is the good one?
Also, in both endings it's really REALY clear she's still trans, it's just that in one of them she actually comes out and says it. The others she just doesn't gain the courage and confidence to say what she feels with her whole chest out and just keeps it inside. It's not like she says "Actually, I feel like I'm truly just a boy, a cisgender boy and that's what I am.", what she did was just accept what she thought was right to do and not be true to and live for herself.
Shows a lot when someone being trans is the "bad ending" in these people's minds.
Sometimes (and weirdly enough due to how they name it) its not always what happens to the character is bad that makes it s a bad ending. Sometimes Its suppose to be bad you got the ending because thats not what you are suppose to be going for. In this case, we are suppose to be Bridget who is going out of their way to prove their manhood. If we detour from that, thats what we get for not completing the objectives needed to get the good/true ending. Either way with Bridget last time I checked since its been ages since I played Guilty Gear XX, but if I recall someone mentioned Bridget meets Ky, was explaining his situation to Ky about how people wanted to see him as a girl. Ky's response was basically don't worry about what others think and at the end, they are them. Either way Bridget would end up being happy with themselves from the sounds of it if I am correct. Also I apologize if this seemed ranty, or ignorant as I admit, I'm not a fan of the character direction, and could do my own research, but sadly too lazy to lol.
@@etrotm1226 In the older games, in Japanese at least because localizers actually DID change the bios in the XX games, trying to be prove her manhood was only about disproving the village superstition so her parents could stop feeling guilty. She spent years living as a boy and working to finally get rid of that superstition so her parents could finally stop feeling guilty for having her pretend to be a girl growing up, and without that driving goal behind her anymore she can't keep pushing down her actual feelings about living as a boy. She's afraid of how her parents would react to her coming out because she spent about a third of her life living as a boy and working to make them feel better and it would devastate her if they rejected her for being trans.
Ky essentially helps convince her that she can't keep ignoring her own feelings out of fear of how others will react and she needs to do what will make her personally happy.
This was my same thought process when I first saw arguments about it.
"Only in the bad ending!"
"What was bad about that ending? They're literally happy."
Bad because my favorite "femboy" being trans doesn't let me fetishize them
People being anything other than cishet is "the bad ending" to an alarming number of people.
listen, I didn't know I needed Bridget to break transphobes' backboards with the power of god and anime on her side... but it's such a great visual! :)
Thanks. I spent 4 hours making that bit
The most hilarious thing is people thinking they know Japanese and going "look! this was said therefore the English translation is false!" despite the Japanese being...literally the exact same as the English lol
Yeah Dimitri is the king of exploiting weebs obsession over the japanese as a way to justify his dogshit opinions. cherry picking and finding the comments that agree with him and going "LOOK GUYS JAPAN AGREES WITH ME!" acting as if these communities in japan are an all agreeing hive mind and not.. you know literally every other community in the world that disagrees with eachother all the time over everything.
Japanese is a weird language
@@joedatius I can kinda see why he'd think that, given how corrupt the Japanese government can be.
okonoko ≠ woman
@@GiordanDiodato so’s English. Your point?
Great video, I think lots of people forget just how long Daisuke and Arcsys by extent has been experimenting with gender and sexuality in they’re games. This is one of the few good takes I’ve seen on the matter of Bridget’s gender.
My biggest problem with Bridgette being a girl was so everything she did was pointless ? the prophetie of her village was right ? is this like naruto who Neiji was right all along ? Did you ruine Bridget ?
Then i read the lyrics of her them and she say that's one of her fear in it, if she became her true self what will happen to the village, she is afread to return because of this.
I think this is pretty cool she didn't just get retcon, they give her even more depth !
@@halfeimazuris6419yeah she is literally afraid of coming out because of her village and her story
Its like in her character
We dont see as much because we only have the arcade mode to flesh her out
@@halfeimazuris6419 She never cared about being seen as a boy or the superstition though. She just wanted her parents to stop feeling guilty and her way to do that was living as a boy and making so much money no one could think she's a bad omen, thus disproving the superstition. This was pretty explicit in the Japanese XX bio but removed in the localized versions. She literally only tried to be a boy for the sake other people, which then ties into Strive which is about her resolving to do things for the sake of her future self and her own happiness rather then other people.
@@Alice-May "She never cared about being seen as a boy (if so why she always corrected people ? ) or the superstition though. She just wanted her parents to stop feeling guilty and her way to do that was living as a boy and making so much money no one could think she's a bad omen"
You just contradict yourself here or i missinterpreting what you are saying (my bad if tho i'm not good in english),
and that's exactly the part i was talking about if Bridget is a girl she never was a bad omen and never proove the village was wrong that's one fear you can clearly hear in the song.
@@halfeimazuris6419 She's a trans girl, meaning she was assigned male at birth. Her parents had her pretend to be a girl so the villagers wouldn't kill her and felt guilty about this. She tried to be able to publically live as a boy and get rid of the superstition so her parents could stop feeling guilty. After she accomplished that she found she didn't enjoy living as a boy. She never wanted to be a boy for her own sake, only as part of making her parents feel better.
Sorry if I wasn't clear before.
When it comes to how Bridget has been written, I think there are two facets people don't talk about enough. For one thing, the way she originally was written isn't very kind representation of josou. Lots of anime and video games fall into this habit of depicting josou as something the male character is forced into: coerced into it for money, or forced to do it for some bizarre family ritual, or to go undercover, or something like that. If you look at people who really practice josou in real life, it's not like that at all.
For them, it's a part of their identity and it's an artform. It's the manifestation of an ideal. The way most anime and video games depict it is very antiquated and based on an outsider's perspective of what josou is like and what it means to people who practice it; and the way Bridget is initially depicted is much the same way. Now I do think there is some wiggle room, in that art doesn't need to depict things exactly the way they are in real life to say things that are meaningful to real people - but I don't think most depictions of josou are like this. I think most of them are coming from a place of interest, but not necessarily empathy or understanding.
The other thing about Bridget's depiction as trans is that, retcon or not, the way she's written does something very interesting that I almost never see in depictions of trans people. It's kind of clear by the point of -Strive- that Bridget knows she's trans and is keeping that bottled up, because she's afraid of losing the progress she's made dispelling her hometown's superstitious beliefs. If she acknowledges she's trans, then that might undo all that - because then people will say that twin boys or twin girls could still be bad luck, since she was never a "son" to begin with.
And while it's a bit out-there, a lot of trans people face similar dilemmas. When you come out later in life, it's never just over and done with at that point. You've got to consider getting prescriptions for HRT. You've got to consider changing your name on official documents. You've got to consider whether friends you've known for years will stop associating with you. You've got to consider if you'll have to quit the sports team you're in, or quit your job. You're going to have to re-evaluate a lot of things, and you're going to have to question a lot of things about yourself that you took for granted. Accepting you're trans is often just the first step of a long and rocky road for a lot of people.
So that's why I like the way they handled Bridget being trans. The question isn't whether or not she's trans: the question is, what is she going to do about all the stuff tied up in her gender identity? What's she going to do about her whole life so far? How is she going to negotiate all those different things with each other, and what is she going to lose? But at the end of the day, the conclusion is this: while Bridget's still got a long road ahead of her and it won't always be easy, it's better to walk that road and be true to who you are than to live a lie.
Looking at it through that lens, I think Bridget is one of the better written trans characters we've gotten in a long time.
I really like your thoughtful take on that! Yes, the event of coming out and the external self-realization involved isn't the capstone, it's an important stepping stone onto the greater path forward!
The second bit is what her theme The Town Inside Me is all about as well. That's why I find it confusing whenever people try to point out some non-existent language discrepancies when the song is in the same language for everyone.
Hey yggdraseed I wanna say you helped clear up some rough spots in Bridget's story in the game. Also you did an amazing job explaining the reason why she did what she did, again thanks mate.
This is really what it comes down to for me yeah. It's a really nice and rare thing to find.
Yeah in general Anime tends to go for a very uh, soap opera dramatized approach to pretty much anything societal; very much the "has this writer ever met a real [X[ in their life?". Its why you get tomboy characters who have to 'discover' their femininity, or convoluted tragic reasons some cisguy just wants to dress up like a girl and look pretty, or even the stereotype of Americans being some blonde guy. Just real basic cliches other folks have ditched for ages.
Imma be honest. My first exposure to not just the controversy but bridget and even guilty gear as whole was from Dimitri monroe who made the video about bridget. And honestly I ate it all up mainly because I didn't know anything. I didn't really participate in any of the arguments mainly because I didn't really want to embarrass myself but I do still kinda cringe at the fact that I used to so genuinely believe that bridget wasn't trans and that her being trans was a bad thing even though at the time , some of the arguments felt off to me ? Like when people were arguing for bridget not being trans and use arguments like "bridget is bridget" it felt like an insult to my intelligence. Honestly while I still don't like the decision cuz it made me feel like an asshole for a few days I can honestly say that bridget being trans was still a good decision and no amount of me being an edgy teenager was gonna change that. Congrats bridget fans, you deserved that w
Edit : wow I'm actually so happy I wrote this comment. Seriously I was worried I was some piece of shit transphobe for a while now but after writing this I felt so much closure. Like I just told myself "nah you ain't Dimitri is just cringe"
Its fine
And dimitri kinda like appears to know stuff if you watch it without context
Its not you being transphobe is just like people appearing smarter than they are so you believe them
Damn thanks for the kind words in the replies. Much appreciated
You “ate all it up” because he was right.
@@Christian-gr3gu I mean you're gonna tell me the bad ending thing was real
@Christian name checks out 🤡
I think it's important to acknowledge that the older concept of Bridget as someone who was simply expressing masculinity in a different way was something that really encouraged and helped a lot of gender-non-conforming male and non-binary people. That concept was crucial to helping me understand and come to terms with my own "Third Gender" existence, actually. A think a lot of us were just excited to see that rare and unique representation return, and the disappointment of being overshadowed as usual, but specifically by a character that once represented you so well, is a hard pill to swallow.
Anybody who begrudges anyone else's representation is obviously in the wrong, and to me that includes people who seem to want to gloat over those who are no longer represented by the character. I get that this kind of conversation can be easily hijacked by bad actors who just want to hate on trans people, but that's no reason to write off those of us who were genuinely saddened by the loss of something that's been meaningful to us for so many years, something we've been able to look at that told us, "You can do this."
Fortunately, there are still other somewhat similar characters, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a character quite like the original Bridget, who looked, acted, and sounded that way and presented the concept of, "This is me, I am a man, this is what me being a man is, deal with it," to a lot of us who were struggling to understand ourselves in a much, much different world from the one we see now. Some of my fondest memories were of using Bridget to express my closeted self when the character was first introduced.
The character being changed does not take that from me, but the people acting like my experiences are now invalid are hurtful. I wish everyone the best with their newfound representation in the character. I've always been a friend to trans people, both personally and generally. I think the "old Bridget experience" and "new Bridget experience" should be able to coexist, as this is a fictional character whose experiences are ultimately ours.
I think a lot of people feel like people like me are trying to push against real life trans experiences, but that's absolutely not the case; you get to cast off your dead name and everything attached to that phase of your life if that's what you need to do. I just don't want anyone to minimize my experiences with a character because they are now having new experiences with that character due to changes that are, of course, a natural part of storytelling. People *do* change over time, and so do characters.
Just don't hate me for saying, "I'm like the old Bridget, but I respect and support people who are like the current Bridget." It's not hard for those of us who are differently-gendered to coexist, and we need camaraderie in a world where the status quo still looks down at us all with sheer disdain. I get yelled at by bigots, too, ya know? Maybe we should reserve all the attitude for dealing with them instead of tearing each other down over minor differences like there's some kind of religious schism poisoning our brains. ;p
Now those are some comprehensive and complete arguments.
"I know representation is important for trans women, a notoriously underrepresented demographic, but have you considered the feelings of me, a cis man?"
Look, I understand how painful it can feel to have a character you thought represented you ripped away for a completely different, largely unrelated demographic (hell, Fire Emblem's done that to me twice with characters like Forrest and Rosado, where I thought we were finally getting decent trans woman rep both times only for them to just be cis GNC men), but this weird selfish "but what about the poor underrepresented cissies' is exactly why I hate people on your side of this discourse. You cannot claim to respect trans people if you are still clinging to no longer valid interpretations of characters that erase their transness because that is more personally comfortable to you. Characters like early 2000s Bridget that are trans girls in all but name as the author and the story itself desperately tries to convince you they're just cis men are a dime a dozen in pretty much any Japanese media from the past 20 years are so mind numbingly common that if you seriously think you're losing representation because we finally managed to get *one* trans character, that makes me almost want to claim them as trans out of spite. Chihiro from Danganronpa? Forrest and Rosado from Fire Emblem? Astolfo from Fate? All of them are trans women now.
okonoko ≠ woman
@@ravenfrancis1476 Pensive scarlet outright stated they're nonbinary, and the experiences of being sidelined for not conforming to typical societal gender expectations has significant overlap with being a trans women, down to the dysphoria and the threats of violence. There's no sense in fighting other people over the characters that they relate to, or the feelings they have about those characters, especially when they're taking the time to specifically try to not push away the people who like the newer Bridget. GNC folk aren't a largely unrelated demographic, transgender folk are well within that bubble, and even within this there's distinct splits in opinion and story. You totally can claim GNC characters as trans, and that is quite honestly the normal state of audience association with gender non-conforming characters! people have been looking at them and claiming them as "like me" for decades- i'm very new to anime and japanese games as a whole so i don't have any good examples in it but fan analysis of Sauron of all characters presents a surprisingly nuanced version of this. Diversity of opinion is good, and the representation doesn't have to be ripped away- characters can stay available to being analyzed from multiple viewpoints.
@@jessehunter362 Or you can just accept trans characters are trans and fuck off. Trying to argue that a canonically trans character is not trans and is in fact just a GNC cis person is erasure, just like trying to argue that a gay character being straight is erasure.
This is honestly a really good video and makes a lot of sense. This makes me love Bridget more and see them as better representation than ever, even if I haven’t done anything to go through with my transition yet
@@xzgears929 yeah sure leave out every single important information that recontextualises the thing, that's a good argument if i've ever seen one
@@xzgears929 Wow, great job lying and leaving out both how that experiment went in real life the fact Bridget knew she she was AMAB and her parents wanted her to live as their son. You're pathetic.
@@xzgears929 nah, you're just being a pussy about it.
bridget was *instructed* to *pretend* to be a girl growing up, but knew they weren't born as a girl, otherwise bridget wouldn't have set out on their journey in the first place.
and in the end turned out that she liked being a woman, you're just trying to find any reason to complain.
I’d LOVE to learn Strive because Bridget is not only cute, but looks like the kind of fighter I’d to play. The issue is I’d have to buy the PC version and then I wouldnt be able to play on ethernet…
the game is also on playstation and xbox!
@@crillou3556 coming to xbox in like a day, and on gamepass-
Its on xbox now and game pass pc
So you can do it!
The dlc is not tho
But bridget is like 3 dollars i think
Try a moca adapter or powerlan!
If the issue is distance, try a powerline ethernet adapter. You plug it into a wall, and it uses those wires to send internet data to another room in the house, while still being ethernet speeds
Its amazing how the japanese character writer can directly confirm; bridget is a trans girl, she was amab but uses she/her. The scene in which she says "im a girl." Is her canonically coming out as trans.
And we still have people insisting that its actually not like that at all, because five thousand years ago the character said they were a guy (trans people always know they are trans from the second they are born, and are never in the closet) and also its not canon despite what the literal writers say, and also also everyone else just doesnt know the intricate historical context of japaenese culture and linguistics (They spent ten minutes on wikipedia and used google translate) that invalidates what the f*cking japanese writer said.
@@simonw.1223 thx for proving my point
@@minze6982what did they say?
@@miigi-p4939 A rly long comment about how the localization is actually wrong, and there is a twist in the words that has deep roots in japanese crossdressing culture. Basically exactly what i said. Iirc they even talked about the whole "non cannon/bad ending stuff"
@@minze6982 oh god
Wanna bet how much he isnt even japanese or dont even know anything outside of greetings
@@minze6982 Damn, Simon sounds like the most intelligent Bridget denier lmao.
It's wild how it's been four months since you made this vid and it continues to be relevant. Glad I found it though, it's a pretty great vid, thorough without being overly long.
Trans characters and crossdressers are already linked and swapped back and forth because a lot of "otokonoko" characters were like trans or trans coded because to many japanese mangaka without actual knowledge of the difference and AMAB in female clothing was the same. Even more modern "femboys" have these issues. Felix in the Re:Zero anime reads as a simple femboy. Ferris (Felix's chosen name) in the novels can be read as trans on non-binary coded what with them literally praying away male puberty and having a mantra about how they are a girl. Also, the idiots who view femboys as a fetish already call canon trans characters "tr*ps" like Alluka from HunterxHunter
Wait I’m a femboy and my bf loves me and kisses me every night does that make me wrong for not being Trans or him wrong for liking femboys. Also I call myself a trap I don’t understand why the word has to be censored, most gay femboys are traps.
you don't have to censor "traps", it's not a slur or bad word(even if, in the example you gave, it was indeed misused from the sound of it... though I didn't read/see HunterxHunter)
What the actual fuck is "trans coded"?
Ferris as a character is a bit complicated, cuz they’re not trans and don’t personally want to crossdress. I don’t mind them, but their history is that they’re discriminated against for being part beast and are accused of being the offspring of an affair (when they weren’t, cuz they were unlucky and got some recessive genes). And the only one who saves them is the first sees them as attractive and likes them crossdressing, so they crossdress for her. Ferris in love with her, but she doesn’t see them that way. So they keep overcompensating. It’s only when they’re faced with someone who could be against deviation from traditional gender roles and transphobic where they seem to realize they might actually be trans (or like NB or something. Or at the very least a man who likes to crossdress for their own happiness).
The creator is weirdly both against LGTBA and gender roles and for LGTBA with their writing choices. They also might fetishize crossdressing, but also advocates for putting his main characters, both masculine and androgynous, in pretty dresses without the intent of it being a joke.
@@Phos67 character implied trans that can’t be fully stated as such due to censorship/wanting to keep the interest of transphobes so they can still tell the story they want to but still get transphobes’ money.
Bridget being trans makes perfect sense and shows off a part of being trans that is often overlooked: denial (aka being an “egg”) She tries to prove her masculinity, which is a thing a lot of trans women do because they can’t accept that they are trans.
In her case she tried to be a guy to make her parents feel better, which is also something a lot of trans people deal with.
@@Alice-May exactly. You could also interpret it as her being in denial.
Nah, he literally was forced to be a girl lol
He doesn't want others to think he's one, tho
@@SinclairLocke stop ignoring Strive, tourist. And pretending to be a girl is not the same as thinking she was a girl, you brainwashed fool.
@@Alice-May cope
I'm just going to say this. THANK YOU FOR PRESENTING GOOD FAITH ARGUMENTS. I mean the extended dunking on people was amusing (albeit not informative to myself) but really, what mattered to me was the addressing of the "grooming" argument and the use of "Otoknoko" and providing information I was missing. Yeah, I was on the angry at direction camp before watching this video, and I'm *glad* you actually showed me what was going on with the word usage since that was the one reason I though there was something distinctly contradictory.
"THANK YOU FOR PRESENTING GOOD FAITH ARGUMENTS. " lol
@@LunaGropeAnnelotte awww, is the little bigot angry? You can't handle reality and your life is sad.
based reigen
hey its my dunking bridget! haha, neat (also thanks for credit, i like me my image credits)
Gotta love how people are calling Bridget a victim of child abuse when they probably don't even know Bridget's back story.
This is a really well researched, well spoken, and well executed video. This kind of content is really appreciated, thank you
"In the case of Strive." This guy had a way out, could've been arguing deferred to the series standard, but no! No, he singles out _the_ GG which _doesn't_ have "bad" split paths, absolutely inspiring!
honest to god,to be this stupid and braindead is an achievement on itself lol. Dimitri taught me the power of mental gymnastics,it is truly entertaining
You mentioning Dimitri Monroe was like being hit by a concussive grenade, it was someone I had completely forgotten about that I now feel extreme agony in remembering, good video
The pain is shared
Remember alcohol will *not* null this pain
can you give like a brain damage warning whenever that dimitri dude is talking I feel like I dropped 50 cells every time
Nah dawg cause when I saw his whole vid I honestly thought he was on something tbh
@@dariushouston2826 oh he was, Dimitri was on a whole lot of transphobic copium.
Usually those who say trans people are groomers are groomers themselves
Keep Coping, my guy
@@LavaCreeperPeople stop projecting, groomer
@@LavaCreeperPeople prove me wrong
@@grabelli sgtrfsgytfg to you
@@grabelli wow, you have no life
I accept Brisket as a trans representative character. However what I don't accept is her being British. I keep having to remind myself because of how frequently I forget.
I've been studying Japanese for maybe like 3 years now. Shit's hard for a native English speaker, and I even have to rely on a second hand translation for a lot of things. I do like to browse Japanese spaces sometimes to see what the conversation's like, especially for more progressive topics. A common thing I've read is 「ブリジットはブリジット」 ("Bridget is Bridget"). I think it's a generally well intentioned comment to make, suggesting that people will like and support Bridget regardless of how she identifies, but I worry that it's not very affirming since we know she's identifying as a girl now. What's clear is that there's definitely not one singular unanimous stance, despite what some would have you believe.
As a side note, whenever I hear someone pronounce 男の娘 in their western accent while claiming to be a reliable source of the Japanese perspective is painful because of how wrong it sounds.
my options were either sound american or sound latin. The accent was coming out gaijin either way
I really appreciate bridget's transition and this video also, I hate seeing people create controversy over this for nothing
Dimitri trying to say that Daisuke didn't have control over the story of Strive is honestly the funniest part, does he know who Daisuke is??? Yknow, the guy who has proven over and over again that GG is his pride and joy. The guy who has decided to make every character have lyrical themes, made the story basically have a movie, and probably has five games worth of story arcs already written.
Daisuke has probably sold his soul to make GG, the guy is definitely very hands on with the story.
I can't believe I went from being gay for bridget to being gay for bridget. Too bad that I hate her playstyle lol, I need the paint drinking goodness of Potemkin. He probably would've been my first pick for helping her along in her arcade story, but goldlewis and ky were great.
"non canon bad end"
Even if it was non-canon it can still indicate real things that didn't come up in the canon,
That Boku No Pico thing hit me like a bombshell. I remember when everybody was talking about that "show" but I don't remember ever hearing about Bridget being the inspiration.
17:13 "That's a crunchyroll level of shitty business model." I'm going to start using that freaking phrase from now on. that made me laugh so hard.
damn you should've put a brainrot warning onscreen before Dimitri started talkin
This was a well done and thought out breakdown of the situation.
The best thing about Dimitri's video is that it showed me how stupid i was for listening to what boils down to a creepy discord e-boy with zero credibility to his name especially when he gets things so wrong in his video that he says things about "the writing doesn't matter because the localization is misrepresenting the creators" but when that was shown to be not true he moved the goalpost to "well um i actually cared about the writing and the creator is wrong"
as someone who's enjoyed GG for a long time it's very frustrating to have someone who knows jack shit about it and barely touched the games try to act as some sort of arbiter for both the story and the Japanese fanbase
I used to like Dimitri's videos some time ago but that video made me realize not only is Dimitri not concerned on being right and only cares about looking like he's right while conveniently bashing anything that has to do with trans people and his precious Japanese media but it also made me realize just HOW MUCH his fanbase is hard core transphobic crazy people. If you're trans or anything like that don't be fooled by people like Dimitri, their goal is to make sure you remain as an OTHER in their world. they might not say they are transphobic but their actions are to belittle the existence of them as a form of "don't ask don't tell" policy. aka we won't go after you as long as you don't act like you're the same as us. If you are then you're pandering.
RUclips is being fucking stupid and wont let me put links in the fucking description so here's all the Sources:
Art used in the video by Machitoons:
twitter.com/MachiToons
www.newgrounds.com/art/view/machitoons/basket-3
All Bridget and particle Mods seen in the video were created by me:
gamebanana.com/members/1915165
Millia jeans mod:
gamebanana.com/mods/342180
Sources and articles used to make this video:
Strive:
- Bridget boosts Guilty Gear Strive’s player count as the character’s gender identity becomes a hot topic
automaton-media.com/en/news/20220810-14839/
- Arc System Works warns of fake images, in response to tweets about the bridget’s gender identity
automaton-media.com/en/news/20220827-15286/
- dev backyard #11
11th volume of “Developer’s Backyard”(9/14 Release) | NEWS | GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- | ARC SYSTEM WORKS
- Daisuke Clarifies his intent
www.dropbox.com/s/extjlcjle6qroya/bridget%20trans.pdf?dl=0
Trans rights:
- Japan's first trans march held in Tokyo's Shinjuku area to raise awareness on rights
mainichi.jp/english/articles/20211122/p2a/00m/0na/006000c
- Interview: The Invisible Struggle of Japan’s Transgender Population
www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/19/interview-invisible-struggle-japans-transgender-population
- Misinformation on transgender women spreads in Japan, even at LDP study session
mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210519/p2a/00m/0na/025000c
- Why LGBT Advocates Say Bathroom 'Predators' Argument Is a Red Herring
time.com/4314896/transgender-bathroom-bill-male-predators-argument/
- Ipsos international LGBT survey
LGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey points to a generation gap around gender identity and sexual attraction | Ipsos
- GID act
www.hrw.org/report/2021/05/25/law-undermines-dignity/momentum-revise-japans-legal-gender-recognition-process#2081
- GID reform Pressure
www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/25/japan-new-momentum-reform-transgender-law
LGBT Rights:
- Sapporo Court deems ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional
www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978148301/in-landmark-ruling-court-says-japans-ban-on-same-sex-marriage-is-unconstitutiona
- Osaka Court Deems ban Constitutional
www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106313824/japan-court-ban-on-same-sex-marriage-constitutional
- Japanese LGBT undeterred
time.com/6189670/japan-same-sex-marriage-lgbt/
- Tokyo to recognize marriages but not make it legal
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/tokyo-same-sex-japan-lgbtq/
- Letter to Prime Minister
www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/letter-prime-minister-yoshihide-suga-regarding-national-lgbt-non-discrimination-act
- Equality Act Letter
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/05/Equality_Act_Japan_Corporate_Letter05282021.pdf
- Japan: Introduce LGBT Equality Act Before Olympics
www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/26/japan-introduce-lgbt-equality-act-olympics
- A Gold Medal for Homophobia in Japan
www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/22/gold-medal-homophobia-japan
- Japan LGBT bill Falls Short
www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/07/japans-ruling-party-lgbt-bill-falls-short
- Tokyo moves to allow same-sex partnerships, but not as legal marriage
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/tokyo-same-sex-japan-lgbtq/
- Why Transgender People In Japan Prefer To Be Told They Have A "Disorder"
www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/transgender-in-japan
- Sexual And Gender Minorities and Bullying in Japan (page185)
books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TflQEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA185&dq=Sexual+and+Gender+Minorities+and+Bullying+in+Japan&ots=XIi7LJpYxx&sig=IWmm3r1osqPNeI4umU--XgX3riE#v=onepage&q&f=false
- LGBT women in japan
tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/JPN/INT_CEDAW_NGO_JPN_20695_E.pdf
Sexism:
- Why Japan Can’t shake Sexism
www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210405-why-japan-cant-shake-sexism
- Japan's LDP party invites women to 'look, not talk' at key meetings
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56095215
- Japan Ranks 116th in 2022 Global Gender Gap Report
www.nippon.com/en/articlelist.html?f=ncf-tag&s=society&pnum=3
- Japanese women over 30 stay in workforce and parental benefits improve
asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan-women-in-30s-stay-in-workforce-as-parental-benefits-improve
Thanks for the video, it really help me to have a more broad perspective about all this shit show, since I'm relativity new in the FGC only entering a year ago, so when this controversy appear on my recommendation feed this was a rabbit hole that I was completely unprepared to deal with. The first video that I found was praising this decision to high heaven saying that Bridget was by far the most relevant and impactful character in all of the Fighting Games which I was like "Hey is nice to see you being happy for this decision and feeling represented but even I, a person relative new to scene, know that in Blaze Blue alone there is at least 2 or 3 major LGBT characters, is this such a big deal or is she overselling?". And the exact second video that I found on the subject was the Dimitri Monroe one, which was completely negative and while I could agree with his points about Bridget backstory being really fucked up for the direction that she was being lead and that a bunch of other people really feel represented by Bridget early depictions. I was not familiar enough with the series to take everything he said at face value and even for me some of his points were a bit if and all that shit about good and bad endings just confuses me more. So your more neutral take on the whole situations and you actually citing the main author behind the work really help me to come to terms with all this.
Words cannot express how happy I am with this video and even your subsequent comment, I am just so proud people like you exist, it really brings me a lot of joy. Transfem sending love for your wonderfu video!!! 💙💖🤍💖💙
was there some kind of response from dimitri to this video?
@@Alberto-ke2yt Nope
@@davifelizardo4187 lol
I really loved this video and how it breaks down the culture behind the language used, as well as delving into the perspectives how even trans people view Bridget.
the fact that people were so willing to sexualize +R bridget (who was 14 at the time) but are suddenly put off at the idea of bridget coming out as a trans woman is so icky to me
“I can excuse pedophilla, but I draw the line at trans women”
“You can excuse pedophilla?”
thank you for this video, I needed it, lol, the entire conversation at the time she came out was just sick
I always though Bridget was going to embrace their original identity and get a change of style to reflect that but the last thing i expected was a double down of the whole girl thing, I'm not mad and i like them just fine but it kinda threw me for a loop when i first heard....it is what it is.
Wow, you really came with receipts. It really is interesting to see a more in-depth view of Japan's sociopolitical landscape, I'd heard before there's a lot of conservatism but also that there's a lot of government manipulation to undermine democracy.
In terms of Bridget and Guilty Gear themselves, I like how you acknowledge the character isn't perfect, but that's it's still not right to throw away the story because of that. I'm personally very excited for the directions Bridget's character may take in the future, and also think we should be more accepting of "imperfect" representation, as backlash towards such things can easily lead down the road of harassing and gatekeeping a creator for depicting their own experiences instead of yours.
Overall, very insightful. I'm interested to see what you do next.
8:01 Is that a femboy version of the scurblord's prayer?
These are a combination of words I never thought would come together and it's beautiful
This is a fantastic video and the most articulated take I've seen about this discourse. I highly appreciate the effort you put in this video to go beyond just the petty internet fighting and address the real world problems.
I am a Trans Woman. I've struggled with Gender dysphoria all of my life , and only just begun to truly understand it from 2019 onward. I've also been a Guilty Gear fan since 2006 with Judgement. Bridget has been my favorite character ever since.
I've only recently started to embrace the fact that I am Trans. Bridget's coming out has helped me immensely with doing so. It made her character incredibly personal for me. I would have been fine if Bridget came back as before , but what this did to help me , I can't possibly describe. I've been afraid for so long and being true to myself in this way. It's been an immense struggle. I've only just begun to have the courage to tell others. I appreciate the effort Daisuke and ARCSYS put into Bridget with this , because they definitely did their homework.
I didn't know the state of things in Japan. I've only heard vague statements prior. I definitely appreciate being educated on that , thank you.
10/10 sanest guilty gear player
As a trans person who was honestly feeling kind of upset with the mass amount of negativity towards this newly found character I can see myself in, seeing such a level headed video like this really means a lot. Thank you for being such a good voice on the topic
Also, this might be one of the funniest videos I've ever seen. The way you cut in on Dimitri's bullshit so incisively always has me laughing my ass off. What a great video.
Holy shit dude this is actually hilarious. God I love this channel now, I'ma be looking forward to everything else you've posted.
Not a newly found character they retconned a existing character.
@@SomethingDiabolical-lw5nx Shut up freak
@@GyaruRespecter Yup, when someone uses the wrong pronouns for her it’s very easy to see they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Honestly Guilty Gear's story is so confusing I don't even care anymore.
Friendly reminder: Guilty Gear is one of the most queer games out there. REMEMBER VENOM?
What's so weird about it?
@@oyoo3323its not weird its quuer
@@user-ky2rk8tp5g quuer? What does that mean?
@@oyoo3323 gay or trans is queer.
You basicly just called gay and trans peopel weird i thought you were trying to insult us
@@oyoo3323 queer means that smth is gay or trans .
Never trust surveys in Japan
Since even in private most people in Japan try there best to conform to the "Accepted"
I don't think Japan is as transphobic or Homophobic as people think
Its only really the people in power who are , while its more and more accepted in the younger generations
Don't get me wrong Japan is still very bad when it comes to these things
Agreed. Most people in politics or power are pushing 70+ here, even our minister of telecommunications uses a flip-phone (not to say the phone's old, those things are still being produced in Japan) and doesn't even understand email... So like you said, one shouldn't really look at the abhorrent things japanese laws do in regards to gender and transitioning. The Japanese people (and non-japanese residents) will have opinions running the entire spectrum of love/acceptance/tolerance/indifference/intolerance/unacceptance/hate.
Threat as old as time, old people lagging on their way out holding on to power for as long as they can. Nothing new 😬
@@Cyromantikconforming is silent support so it doesnt really matter. Japanese voter participation and political activity is low, so clearly people support conservative and far-right views on human rights
From a Trans girl who’s never played Guilty Gear, but seen the character around the community a bit and listened to The Town Inside Me about a billion times before and was curious to know more about her and what she’s from:
Yeah… I feel like making a character who was originally presented as a femboy into trans rep is kinda silly. It, as you said, kinda creates this false image that femboy=trans, when that isn’t at all the case, all while removing some of the little rep femboys get where they aren’t just a punchline.
I would feel glad to have this representation, but much of what the character once was almost seems to be trying to make this representation feel more like an insult, all while, at the same time, having a song that incapsulates how me and many of the other trans people I know’s feelings so perfectly in one song. Which should feel awesome. But instead just feels. Off. Idk.
The while segment of her trying to “prove her masculinity” by going off on her own like that to prove it though. Again that’s another part where it’s like “yeah girl, been there. Most of us have.” so again, it should feel like great rep. Like seeing myself in something for once but. Still.
Regardless of the nature of the rep, and some of problems I have with what little I know of her and the rep as a whole. Brisket is a girl. And anyone who says otherwise is either a transphobe or, alternatively, a femboy so desperate for representation and feeling so angry about having what little they have being (in their eyes) taken away that they have to fight against it, to preserve the little bit of themselves they once saw in media. Which. Is kinda depressingly understandable… but at the same time. Maybe you don’t need to belittle trans people, our experiences, and our rep to express this anger.
Im kinda sad that us femboys keep losing all of our representation, and that whenever I say that I’m upset about it I’m called transphobic. But if Bridget’s happy I’m happy! (:
@kollie79 Most of the femboys that are left keep getting destroyed because of peoples head canon, example: Ferris Argyle, Astolfo, Hideri Kanzaki, etc.
As a femboy I feel like we went from kind fetishized, but at least recognized Group to now where if I go outside my home they no joke, try to groom me constantly I’m happy being a boy but all this stuff is really starting to put a toll on me.
@kollie79 it’s not just online I went to a anime-con with my bf last month(I’m 16) and we ended up having to leave cuz me dressing up as Ferris was apparently Transphobic, and they kept saying that I would look cute as a girl and stuff it makes me really uncomfy and has ended giving me Dysphoria because I can’t go outside in the clothes I used to be proud to wear without people telling me that I should be a girl.
@@averagepufferfish5612 The sheer volume with which this has not happened to you is astounding
@@Goblinhandlerstop lying
I don't know I fell in this rabbit's hole, but the trip was very interesting, even from a total outsider view (both about Guilty Gear or trans right).
The strive severs are doing a better job at making people boycott this game then these people ever did.
I watched Dimitri most recent video about Bridget and I was following along with it, and I put a big comment about me not agreeing with Bridget's story which i later deleted as I just saw this video as this video has is a much stronger argument, and counter-argument firing back at Dimitri. I still cant believe I ate up Dimitri's video and nearly went on with my day without seeing this. This video does Bridget and the transcommunity JUSTICE. Your mention of people still using Strive's story as "canon", but the arcade mode's endings never being canon is EXTREMELY STRONG and I am so for it.
If the arcade mode endings WERE CANON, then according to the wiki page for Guilty Gear, On Potemkin's Page in Guilty Gear XX section, Bridget would be apart of the Zepp Military as a Combat Trainer, which she isnt.
"In another ending, Potemkin gets into a confrontation with Bridget, who mistakes Potemkin for a rival bounty hunter pursuing Dizzy. After their fight, Potemkin and Bridget clear up the misunderstanding and become friends; Potemkin recruits Bridget into the Zepp military as a combat trainer, with Potemkin becoming Bridget's first student."
Bridget is trans, and if anyone reading this doesmt agree with this, fucking deal with it. Bridgets story is about self exploration: Finding about yourself and being who you truly are.
Be who you REALLY want to be, If you wanna stick to your gender then feel free to do so as no one is stopping you. If you wanna change your gender, again feel free to do so, no one is stopping you. Dont let other people control or force or pressure yourself. You Be You. I Personally still am not sure whether im genuinely trans or gender fluid, but I wont let anyone stop or control me, and you shouldnt let anyone stop or control you.
Trans Rights people!! Also fucking love your video, subscribed!!
I'll deal with it but doesn't mean I have to like it, I just think it's fucked up since his backstory he was forced to be a girl or else he would've been killed because of it. He becoming she just seems really poor in taste.
@@l0sts0ul89 really shit backstory to be fair
@@hihihellohihello I mean religious folk and just paranoid people in general are crazy
@@l0sts0ul89Hm, is that her entire backstory? Feels like you're leaving out a few details.
@@l0sts0ul89 Yeah nothing crazy about claiming men can become women.
You people can't hear your own thoughts.
This video definitely addressed what my problems were with the statement within the first chapter, and honestly, I appreciate it being real legitimate reasons to dislike the change and not just being called transphobic for it.
There's one absolutely glaring flaw in this video. The way you spent Burst at 29:12? Now you're going into round two against Chaos down a round and with no Burst! You have to hold onto Burst when it's that late in the round.
I had no idea about the state of what transgender people go through in Japan. It makes the recent statement about GG's cast being created so everybody can see somebody like themselves be a hero have that much more weight to it. Kudos to you for doing the research. Additionally, during the past few months I remembered that Arc System Works published Swery and White Owls' The Missing, which also centers around LGBTQ+ issues. Interpret that how you will, but my hope is that it means at least a couple people with sway at ArcSys are willing to put their weight behind works that touch upon marginalized peoples' issues.
*"BRIDGET IS BRIDGET"*
Ye :)
Nuh uh she’s bucket
Awesome stuff! I am ashamed to say that I get really, really emotionally invested when people disagree with me. I am trying to fix that, and I can certainly say that the way you argue is a really good way to go about handling this kind of topic. Thank you! Cheers
20:40 Hey not all Slayer players huff glue...some of us enjoy the acquired scent of dry erase markers.
What about crayons
@@Mike-zb1cgObviously crayons are a welcome side dish!... God!
It's honestly so good that someone made a full video about the topic debunking every single lie transphobes tried to push regarding her.
P.S.: I also appreciate the usage of music from Under Night In-birth in the background :)
I really have to thank you for putting into words what I long struggled to define. A lot of those people who don't believe Bridget is trans believe that the Japanese are for some reason an absolute monolith, a hivemind in regards to sex and gender. They too, are human people. And not even people from a small country/culture have the same idea. So, as you said, gotta be sniffing a lotta glue to think that a whole 125.7 million people all say "Bridget is a boy and it's just been translated bad to pander to the western audience".
I don't think Japan is a monolith, I just don't think woke prog politics that have shit all over everything I enjoyed should have any sway over a seperate country.
@@justiceforjoggers2897 Japan has had progressive politics since its inception.
@@Peasham
Not engaging with your schrodinger's Progress definition.
@@justiceforjoggers2897 ????
@@justiceforjoggers2897 Japan has had LGBTQ+ people since its inception, yes, including trans people. Every single country ever has had LGBTQ+ people. That's kinda how we work. Same with actual progressive ideas, since the existence of people is not an idea, despite your insistence.
literslly the first time ever ive seen a voice over gameplay youtuber say trans rights tysm 😭
Yeah and the more we hear it the more people get fed up.
@@SomethingDiabolical-lw5nx No, you're just an angry little bigot.
Something I often see is that trying to Google Translate Japanese pages is already a massive error. As someone who has been a part of many communities where games may release content in Japanese before English, a VERY common issue is that trying to Google Translate a page can often lead to problems related to pronoun usage, and would often default to masculine pronouns even for explicitly feminine characters. The way pronouns work in Japanese is not the same as English, and Google Translate is not a de-facto perfectly-accurate translation and is only really good for quick, rough translations.
My favorite part is that Google translate insists that every woman in Strive is a guy, as it uses male pronouns lmao
Apparently the hobgoblin made a new video a few months back citing Vastedge, editing interviews and claiming Daisuke didn’t make Bridget after all
Citing cut content from Vastedge that seemed to be left over from other games at that.
@@Alice-May a game most people can’t even experience anymore at that
Oh so he was just lying again. Wow.
@@cmyk8964 yes, but that’s basically all that Daisuke didn’t do.
People don’t try to argue that he didn’t make Slayer, Zappa or I-No because of that; they only try to use that against Bridget.
I'm gonna start this off by saying that I myself am non-binary, and I have multiple friends who are also underneath that umbrella. I do not like Bridget's story, and I think she's bad trans representation. I really do want to be super happy about her being trans in one of the most popular fighting games (and definitely my favorite one), but her story really rubs me the wrong way. She was forced to be a girl, left to pursue being more masculine, then decided she was okay with what was forced upon her? I get that the whole first part is an attempt to counteract this grievance I have, but the argument seems so flimsy to me. It feels like the moral of her story is that you should be okay with things that get forced upon you, and as someone who doesn't want to be referred to by my assigned gender, that feels bad. Yes, she had plenty of time away from her village to dress and act however she wanted to, but I have also been in that kind of situation. I've had environments where I could express my gender freely, but still mostly kept it to myself out of fear that someone who I don't want knowing about my true gender coming around and notice that something's off. Bridget could be under the same pressure there. I will admit that what I just said is also a bit of a flimsy argument, but I'm not trying to argue that she's not trans. I'm trying to say that her story is bad and she feels like a really disingenuous trans character.
I think it would make more narrative sense if the village saw she was being successful and asked her to come back home as a man. She'd be torn between presenting as her birth gender and presenting the way she'd chosen to for years (while explaining that yes, she did in fact choose to be that way outside of her village, because the current story does not and it leaves room for people to deny it). Her perfect ending for arcade mode would entail her going home as a girl and coming out to her family, and that would have good weight to it. The village would expect her to want to conform with her birth gender, only for her to say that she likes being a girl. The "bad" ending (where she tells Goldlewis that she's a girl) would probably just have her not go home.
At the end of the day, I still have Testament, who is well written imo. They decided to chill out after all of the horrible things that happened to them, and thus, got to explore their gender more. Combine that with the more feminine JP voice and the more masculine English voice (Kayleigh McKee, a trans woman specializing in both masc and fem voices), and you get a character I can really relate to.
Bridget was never forced to be a girl. Bridget pretended to be a girl but there is no time where Bidget ever implies that she thought she was a girl back at that time. more importantly you're reasoning is that her story has problematic aspects that would simply make it confusing for Bridget of what she feels like she is. this is correct but this doesn't make Bridget somehow a disingenuous trans character. are you a disingenuous none-binary person for having those kinds of doubts and concerning upbringing? of course not. that wasn't your choice and it wasn't Bridgets either. I think people try to hard to want bridget be this idealized idea of how a trans person should come to be but that in itself is disingenuous.
I think Bridget's character progression makes a lot of sense. Her hometown had a superstition that male twins brought misfortune -> her parents gave her a girls' upbringing so that one of their twin sons wouldn't have to be sacrificed or exiled thanks to the superstition (her parents felt guilty about it, and Bridget knew that) -> she left and, while "behaving like a man", became a very successful bounty hunter and brought riches to her hometown, thus ending the superstition about twin boys bringing misfortune -> this, however, left her without a goal -> now that she had lived as both a boy and a girl but wasn't bound to either identity, she discovered that she felt more herself as a girl, after all.
I'm a cis male, so I don't relate to her experience, but narratively speaking it makes complete sense to me.
Ah the classic "if I lie about Bridget's story then it's transphobic"
Stop. Please.
@@Peasham This is just my understanding of her story from the bio and what I've seen of her in-game (including arcade). I just want someone to explain to me why she's not bad trans representation. I'm looking for clarity, not a reason to argue.
I hoped the video would give a good explanation, but it mainly focused on some other person who tried to argue that she wasn't trans, which we all know is false.
I can totally see why Bridget would be bad rep, the story from that short summary seems a bit cliche. But I can't say I don't like it. As a trans person I really like any kind of representation considering how uncommon it is in games in general. Yes we should strive for more, but I think the confirmation that she is a girl is a step in the right direction.
Daisuke says there is no “bad ending” and Bridget us trans. Conservatives are j mad
@@Goblinhandler prove it
@@Goblinhandler Daisuke. Do literally any research instead of lying for once. It was literally his idea for her to be a boy in previous games and hid that from the rest of the staff. Why are you obsessed with a character you clearly never knew anything about?
@@Goblinhandler Oh, and even if Daisuke's opinion didn't matter, STRIVE IS STILL CANON so she's still trans. You're a delusional weirdo ignoring the actual game.
15:26 the dawg is moonwalkin' doe :0
I think Bridget being trans makes sense and it's official and all so no point in denying it.
But I got introduced to Bridget as femboy, connected a lot as a kid and it was my first cosplay back then as well.
And now all I get is hate and being called a transphobe when I say I don't exactly celebrate the change.
Can't both be okay...? Fans have always done genderbend versions of characters or Alternative universe versions as well.. is it that bad when I want to draw a femboy Bridget?
I think hate should stop in both directions :/
Cool arguments, but Bridget is, and always will be, best boy.
I for one will continue playing my favorite character from XX proudly. She's badass.
"Male Daughter" goes so fucking hard
I really love this video, as a transwoman myself im extremely happy that people who defend bridgets transition are super smart like you
Pretty solid video, hope to see more from you if you are still making videos
I'm working on stuff! Just hard to find a style I'm happy with rn since im just starting out
@@orcaminorca I get what you mean, hopefully you find a style you are comfortable with
Strive is the first Guilty Gear game I have ever played. I got Bridgette because I like YoYos. I love this character and this video’s explanation of the lore. Thanks for the great content!
I don't even play GGST or care about the Bridget drama, just found this vid in my recommended earlier today and i wanna compliment you on it. Can't believe you have so few subscribers when your content is this solid! Keep it up, you've earned yourself a new sub 👍
"Hero Hei, the RUclips equivalent of a screenwrite article" is now the only way I will refer to him.
The Strive ending for Bridget seems like the most human ending for the character. Accepting the gender you've been living as for years is much more believable to me than switching back on a whim. I'm new to the series and only know the character in Strive, though.
@@gbdeck200 fax
...what? They'd been living as a guy for years. Literally since their first appearance in the series; a guy with a girl's name and clothing, sure, but they always identified as a guy. It was only during their childhood they had identified as a girl, as they were raised as one, but later rejected that and I guess "transitioned" to a man, despite already being biologically male.
@@diodamke1007they werent raised as a girl
Her parents aways told her she was born male
She needed to pretend to be one to literally not die or be exiled
She became a bounty hunter to break the fake curse and it was mostly to make her parents happy
I dont think you ever see bridget express not liking to be more girly
She corrects people when she is reffered as one because she again wants to break the myth
In strive she passed 8 years I think as a man and she realizes she feels happier as a woman
@@miigi-p4939 >She needed to pretend to be one to literally not die or be exiled
I'm kinda confused what you mean here. Bridget presented as a girl to avoid being executed, or exiled. Maybe they still identified as a boy during that, but I don't think that's relevant. From what I understand, they've been open about being a man since their first playable appearance up until deciding to identify as a woman in Strive.
>I dont think you ever see bridget express not liking to be more girly
How girly you are or like to be does not determine your gender.
@@diodamke1007 i know but she literally doesnt care about presenting as a girl in the game
Also yes they identified as a boy
The way you said it made it seem like her parents lied to her saying she was a girl when she was amab
I was disappointed when this whole thing came out, because I had always seen Bridget as a feminine male character that crossdresses. Also in addition, seeing some comments made it feel like feminine crossdressing men weren't allowed to exist, you had to be trans if you were into that. I've gotten over it by now though. And from the start, I was always saying that I was happy that trans people got their representation, even if I was personally disappointed by it.
Also, realizing now how important Bridget can be for Japanese trans people makes me feel even better about it. As a long time anime watcher, it really doesn't come as a surprise that LGBTQ issues lag behind us there, and probably will continue to do so based on how their society is.
Yeah, I mean, when the whole "controversy" started, I was squarely within the "Monroe" camp because it felt like a huge erasure of representation!
Bit more time later, when my brain has cooled and I'm less transphobic than I used to be and... it still sorta feels like erasure a bit, ngl. But the answer most certainly isn't to fight over who "gets the character", especially from another very poorly represented group - it's to demand some more bloody representation for everyone because we all deserve it! Also, to celebrate the occasional W's some groups do get.
There's like a whole can of worms here about how different groups, all of which may be labeled as "queer", fight with each other when the root cause is found within the ways both poorly fit within a very cishetero-normative society, thus feeling pressured into clawing at each other for any scraps of "normalcy" afforded, further worsened by unaddressed bigotry. At the same time, I don't feel like I can really address this in a comment, so I'll just agree with everything said. Hopefully the "starvation" won't last long.
@@thosebloodybadgers8499 Cis men who wear dresses are not inherently queer, so your notion that this is queer infighting only really makes sense if the cis man wearing a dress is queer outside of the context of him wearing a dress.
@@ravenfrancis1476 I'd argue defying traditional gender norms does make one queer to some extent, as feminine male expression does not fit into cisheteronormativity
@@thosebloodybadgers8499 Being queer us a blanket term for being LGBT+, not just anyone who doesn't fit under cisheteronormativity. Anyone who doesn't fit under cisheteronormatibity but is still cishet is fundamentally incapable of being queer.
I don't really have anything to say about Bridget because you've already made a half-an-hour-long video expressing my thoughts for me (also great work with the research, you quoted more sources than many people even care to look up before opening their mouths and I'm sure that took a lot of time), but I was surprised by what you said about Faust. I know his old design is rooted in contemporary Japanese culture, but I had no idea they changed it because they thought it was gonna be more appealing to a global audience (it sure isn't more appealing to me, but to each their own). Did anyone at ArcSys confirm that?
To be honest, I really hate strive because they toned down everything
Which ruins what made guilty gear unique
Just look at baiken
So I really wanted that problem to be true but I guess you're right
Not caring for the changes to gameplay in Strive is valid.
@@Alice-May especially no BUYken sense they fuck up baiken
Mad respect. Being wrong is an improvement opportunity - being afraid of being wrong is to stifle yourself!
They didn't really tone down what made Guilty Gear actually unique. What made Guilty Gear unique is the fucking bonkers character design and aesthetic. Like, seriously, can you imagine Bedman or Faust in literally any other fighting game? I can't.
Making the fighting game playable for anyone other than hardcore sweaty gamer bros who think being asked to press eighteen different button combinations while moving the analog stick 3 and a half different directions all at the same time is a perfectly reasonable request is not sacrificing the actual uniqueness that makes the game interesting.
@@ravenfrancis1476 except for some specific characters, the inputs in strive stayed pretty much the same, the main difference that they took a lot of the freedom of movement and the freedom of expression by standardising the characters moves to play a specific topical roles, the biggest offender is baiken they took everything that made her unique
I fucking hate taking part in long dicussions on this subject so it took me a lot of time to watch this video even tho it's popped up for me a number of times, but this whole video is such an excellent summary of the entire discourse, I think this'll be my thing to point to for people who want more information on it. One thing that I'd like to add on (on the off chance nobody else has said it yet) is that not completely unlike the way some trans women in Japan use the word otokonoko to refer to themselves, there is still a sizeable amount of trans women who speak English and derive affirmation from the term femboy. It's ultimately a slightly different situation seeing as Japanese has not made the shift to referring to crossdressing and transgenderism as different things, whereas English has but some people still choose to use the outdated stuff because gender is a social construct so who cares it makes them happy
I just realized how sad it is that not even a fictional character can live her life as trans without backlash. Trans rights are human rights. Let Bridget be happy ffs.
video game controversies are weird
i always found it ironic how the people who called this "grooming" are mad that the once sexualized underage crossdresser character they pretend to like is getting agency in their own identity especially since the claim of grooming only works for how bridget was written in the past, aka the writing these people say they prefer, while this development is overtly Bridgets choice. that is very literally the point of bridgets story in this.
21:30 Haha yeah, some people really think of gender and sex through nhentai tags
I really love that they solidified bridgette is just a girl. A trans girl. The trap stuff she inspired in people always rubbed me the wrong way lol
19:36 and the floor, and the ceiling, and in the corners, and everywhere else you could possibly think to imagine.
Interesting topic
Wait, Mai's trans? Well I guess technically he is being a guy in a woman's body but, are you saying Mai's a MtF trans?
She literally starts seeing herself as a woman and her arc in the manga is partially about it. She's essentially a trans woman who got an instant transition before figuring out she was trans, which has been a trope I've seen in other stories about trans characters for a while.
@@Alice-May oh wow, good for her. Also, thank you.
@@GoodNeutralEvilChaos no problem.
the good ending
@@21Handguns considering the alternative is a man forced to live in a body he's uncomfortable in, absolutely it's the good ending.
just wanna slip in with the fact that the "semi-reclaimed" applies to nearly all words that are used for lgtbq etc. Gay, lesbian, queer, fairy, drag, transvestite, transgender have been and are currently used as slurs and words of affirmation, in distinct contexts! The gap between "slur" and "self-identifier" is really not that large. Bit of a second note- not all of the trans english speakers are making the distinction between crossdressing/nonconforming and being trans- plenty of drag queen's i'd say are fully within the trans umbrella, and a least a few of us trans people started out crossdressing and switched labels later, or still make use of "transvestite". I know a few gals who use "femboy", in almost the exact same way you used to describe the use of otokonoko.
edit: SEGA BASS FISHING IS A TRANS VIDEO GAME love that thing
I couldn't have said this stuff better. This is an excellent video and if one day I run into someone who still thinks she's a guy, I'm definitely sending this video their way.
Watched the video, and I still think he is a guy, all these was arksys changing a character to be woke and don't say is not woke pandering, because these is not the only thing, like all the females being less revealing, making testament non-binary, to name a few, and if you are going to use the: look at biken, she is pretty much their scape goat on these. At the end if it has a dick is a guy and if he goes around saying he is a girl, well that makes him a trap.
@@juliox9
1 - Your sentences make literally no sense and it's incredibly hard to read them because you have no concept of grammar.
2 - You're clearly just saying "trans = woke, and anything trans is just woke pandering." Woke means literally nothing of value at all, get an actual argument. The only people who actually use "woke" in their sentences are people like you, and for people like you, woke just means "I don't like it." Woke may be used in a political standpoint, and that's the main goal of it, but so many things are called woke that make no sense. Being pro-trans is actually the logical conservative take based on the definition of conservative, since conservatism is supposed to be about giving people their rights, which as of late, is the complete opposite. I'm sure you know that saying "I don't like it" isn't a valid argument by any means, and only a moron would say that, as it means you have no proof at all, so you resort to making nonsensical sentences where you roundaboutly say "I just don't like it." If you want to make a point, make a real point.
3 - You clearly are not a fan of the series whatsoever, you can't even spell Baiken's name right. I can tell that this is just like people getting mad at trans women in women's sports, because you don't give a crap about the guilty gear series at all unless there's some sort of "evil wokeness that we must complain about," just like how people mad at trans women in women's sports usually never watched women's sports to begin with, and say they want to care for women / children, despite the fact that outside of trying to say trans people hurt women and children, they actively make legislation to harm women and children. Don't be a hypocrite.
4 - "Trap" gives the idea that you're tricking people. "Trap" has always had the connotation of "tricking men into sex," but here's the thing: if you care so much about femboys being represented in anime and not trans women, and you actually like femboys (which I'm sure you don't, you're just a transphobic moron who uses things you don't even care about in the first place to try to seem right), you wouldn't want to call them sly, sexual liars. Trap isn't a good term on any front, and while I know you don't care whatsoever because the only people you actually care about are people like you, but I want to put it out there for anyone reading.
Stay mad dumbfuck, according to your logic, brussels sprouts are woke if you don't like them.
@@Customfurball28 interesting, my grammar is sometimes off because English is not my native language, but did i resorted to insults, i did not, but you did so who is the immature now, to finish all like I said if he has a dick which bridget does then he is male 😂😂😂, also I have played the series i just messed up baiken name thanks to auto word, enough to say Bridget didn't have the insecurities he showed in strive he already got over them, the fact that they appeared out of nowhere was pretty much arksys wanting to make the character "trans"
@@juliox9 Just because I used insults doesn't negate the points I made, nor does it make me immature, however, I won't use them anymore just to show that I'm not all insults and that I actually have a point. Sorry that I misjudged that you're actually a fan. However, just because someone's born male doesn't make them a boy, and Bridget did not get over her insecurities in the previous games.
Bridget wanted to show her town that she was manly enough and to prove them wrong, and she did, but the thing is, proving someone wrong doesn't mean searching for who you are. The only way she could have proved them wrong is by being manly and becoming a bounty hunter, but the funny thing is, she never once gave up her feminine mannerisms or clothes because that was part of who she is as a character. If she wanted to make the town reconsider their beliefs, the ONLY way was to do what she did, but she was so caught up with doing what she did, that she didn't truly think about what she wanted.
Arcsys had been planning this before strive, and its not like it was a retcon or some random change to "appease the woke," it was just part of the character. First, she goes out searching for the only way to appease the village, then she realizes it wasn't fulfilling. Simple as that. People are not 1 dimensional, and just because you succeeded at one thing, that doesn't mean that you magically become truly happy. Arcsys knows this and wrote a very good character.
Bridget was planned this way in advance, and Arcsys has said it themselves. And what better a time to do it than now, acceptance is rising, and while transphobia is rising too, arcsys is one of the few companies that are making trans characters, so it makes sense for them to give the community just a bit of representation.
There, no insults, just facts.
@@simonw.1223 did you even watch the video, it isn't a product of localization. daisuke said it himself, bridget is trans.
OrcaMinorca: *makes video covering drama*
Me: aight bois place your bets and lets find out who'll win, millia rage or millia rage?
The only thing I seem to agree with Dimitri anymore is *some* of his points on localization, because it *can* and *does* change context of scenes greatly for seemingly no reason at times. But even then he still makes leaps of logic and bad faith arguments about it all the time so it's hard to even say that.
The hilarious part? He's one of the people who thinks Bridget was rebelling against her village. That was added in the localization of XX because apparently letting her parents stop feeling guilty wasn't good enough in the west.
@@Alice-May Oh that would be delicious irony. Mind finding me a source?
@@mythicalthings1796 ストーリー： ブリジットは大富豪の家庭に生まれ、英才教育を経て礼節極まるお嬢様として育てられた男の子。しかし、村の迷信によって男の双子はその地に不幸をもたらすとして、本来は里子に出さなくてはならないブリジットを、両親のはからいで女の子として育て世間の目を誤魔化してきた。 この不幸な境遇により胸を痛めた両親に、心配をかけまいと明るく務めていたが、自分が幸せを主張すればするほど、両親が心を痛めていることに気が付く。根本的な解決として、自らが男として生きる必要があり、かつ迷信をくつがえすような富を村にもたらさなくてはならない、という結論を出した。 そのとき、ある賞金首の手配書が目に入った。固い決意を旨に、静かに靴紐を縛るブリジットだった。
web.archive.org/web/20080622225147/www.guiltygearx.com/cs/GGXXSPS2/character/story/chara_20.html
Straight from the old XX website.
@@mythicalthings1796 Unsure if it posted because RUclips censoring links, but the original Japanese XX bio from its official site.
I bought guilty gear strive a month ago and only found out that bridget was a trans girl after buying it, honestly I think it's pretty cool and nice that there's some form of trans representation in the guilty gear series.
I dont play Brisket personally but I'll probably buy season pass 2 soon and try her out and see if she's my kind of character.
Also Mai from BB is trans? I never knew that and I owned the game for years lmao, guess I should finish the story mode sometime.
Still I want to emphasize that I'm glad that there's representation, it makes the cast more diverse and interesting but also more realistic and allows for me and many other LGBT+ folks to relate to characters, I hope arcsys continues to have a few characters that represent us in their future titles.
Also you had some great roasts in this vid very nice
Anyway thats all from me
Trans Rights! 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
Mai going from "guy stuck in a woman's body" to actually admitting she is ok being woman and choosing not to be turned back happens in the 2 spinoff manga about her actually.
There already was a LGBTQ character in Strive I forget their name cuz I’m horrendous with them, but there is Non-Binary character in the game
@@averagepufferfish5612 That is Testament.
@@ravenfrancis1476 I’m gonna be honest… Testament is hot af!!!
Also I’m sorry about my views on the Brisket change, it’s just not fair every single Femboy character has been taken away leaving femboys like me who used to have a ton of representation back to 0 in which now some people will argue with us saying that we should transition because we already “act enough like a girl” it’s not fair. If they change Felix or Astolfo’s gender I will shoot my gun off with a Dessert Eagle (not a joke) everything has been stripped away from us.
Best take ive heard tbh
Tbh, idc about genders In fighting games ngl. I would play a fucking chair if it was in the game because in the end it's legit just a game.
God this was so fucking refreshing to hear. Thank you for making this video.
amazing video, i applaud you not only for your wise opinions and clear and engaging expression of your thoughts, but also for sega bass fishing. trans rights. 🏳️⚧️
SEGA BASSED FISHING
It was weird when Bridget released in Strive and people were not sure how to interpret the multiple endings. But now that it's just word of god and stuff, it's shitty that people are like arguing about it. Fighting games and the FGC are literally the most diverse video game genre and community. It's unfortunate that even there people can't just accept things. God forbid a character have like...development or a journey or something over 20 years idk.
I'm actually glad you brought up dmitri's terrible video, that's actually the one that finally got me to leave that god forsaken channel. Thank you for doing a great analysis on Bridget and dunking on the transphobes.
Bridget is a transwoman? Yeah, sounds about right.
And if you feel like bringing up arguments over history or lore what exactly this or that kanji means, I got two words for you.
Charlie Nash.
What squad/organization/unit was he a part of? How did his confrontation with M.Bison go? Did they even meet at all? Why was he chasing him in the first place? Where was he killed? Who killed him? How? Why? _Was_ he really killed? What happened to him afterward? How was Shadaloo involved? Who does he serve now? Everything... goddam *everything* about him has been rewritten, revamped, retconned, redacted, ripped, roped, relished, and rock-bottomed, _based on what Capcom wanted from him that particular moment._ There was no other reason, and there didn't _need_ to be another reason.
Characters can change. Fighting game characters, there's a very good chance they're going to change. You gotta deal.
(Don't ever get me started on Yuri Sakazaki. SNK can't even keep her goddam HEIGHT consistent from game to game.)
And Bridget wasn't even retconned, it's character development lmao
Dude. You want confidence, start a growth fund. What I told you is the reality. Companies involved in long-running creative works are going to mold them to fit their needs. Anything can be added, excised, or retconned. Bridget being trans requires no more "defence" than Arc System Works liking the idea.
Though I do hope it eventually turns out to be magic or ghosts or psychic forces or something because that would be completely irrefutable by real-world science and thus kill the debate. 😁
This video was recommended after listening to "Feel the Heat"
At the end, I understood why.