#and ''bridget being trans is canon''

[werewolf-cuddles]

okay first you bend over the woke mob and say bridget is a transwoman and now you're saying gwen is trans? come on man what happened to you? you're slowly becoming an sjw

Acknowledging that trans people exist is "becoming an SJW"?

lmao, sure buddy

[solradguy]

The "I thought that was a butch lesbian but it's just Sol Badguy" meme has me convinced that a significant portion of GG fans don't know that Guilty Gear even has women in it

[c0rpsedemon]

the thing about the queer media tournament that really gets me is that last i checked there wasn't a single mxtx work on it. like not even the untamed made it in and don't get me wrong the og mo dao zu shi books are huge but cql is def more popular among tumblr circles. idk it just really rubs me the wrong way how every single piece of western media that ppl have ever gotten a lil bit aggressive abt shipping with is there and then for east asian media there's utena and madoka magica and the handmaiden and last i checked that was pretty much it. and then for the rest of the world there's next to/nothing but idk enough to really make judgements there.

[tillman]

I should also clip that ds bit millia has a very nice and cute chat with may dizzy and bridget who all are very sweet to her snd she seems genuinely happy. 💪 #girlies.

[demilypyro]

I think the reason Guilty Gear in particular tends to resonate with trans people is because it consistently champions themes of recklessly being yourself and living freely. Obviously there's canonically genderqueer characters like Bridget and Testament and that representation draws queer people in, but the reason they're here in the first place is because of those themes.

The characters all have things they want to break free from, most often societal obligations, and many of them have succeeded in this by the time Strive takes place, having become happy, actualized people. When you listen to the soundtrack, you get rock ballad after rock ballad about wanting to do things your own way, and be yourself. At its very core, Guilty Gear is a game that's in love with the idea of people finding themselves. Heck, the main character has the word "free" literally written on his outfit.

It's more punk than Street Fighter, more optimistic than Mortal Kombat, more relatable than Tekken. And the music slaps, too.

[balis77]

Yeah yeah Bridget being trans is cool and all, good for her. But what does not get enough attention is that she also has a teddy bear that is canonically possessed by the ghost of an ancient warrior with like, 0 explanation as to why that exists or how she even got it?

Like this information is barely mentioned in-game. The game just casually is like “Oh yeah Bridget’s murderous teddy bear is sentient and possessed btw” with like 0 context. You just have to accept that because you’re not getting any further explanation.

What the fuck even is Guilty Gear lore 

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

No one asked for it but these are my very specific gg character gender headcanons: I think Bridget, Ky, and Axl were all transfem eggs.

Obviously Bridget figured it out in arcade mode like we all saw

After the events of Xrd, Ky came close to cracking his egg, but then cut his hair and tried to dress more manly to prove to himself that he isn’t.

And Axl speedran the egg cracking -> being comfortable as a butch trans woman with his time powers. Try to tell me I’m wrong about this one I mean look at her

Also Baiken is non-binary, but that one is barely a headcanon it’s basically canon. I don’t think she would actively identify as such, but they don’t have a gender

[evergreenalice]

fun fact

during Johnny's card attack, Bridget is a queen, Testament is neither king nor queen, being a jack instead, and Sol is a queen

because Johnny is a trans ally

(jokes aside, Sol being a queen is probably a reference to him canonically really liking the band Queen)

[doedipus]

Guilty gear fandom misogyny is so incredibly frustrating

Like you can pick any boy out of the roster and the entire fanbase is probably falling over themselves to hype them up; people pop off for their associated players' gameplay, they construct elaborate fan media that brings out the intricacies of the characters and shows off their best points, and won't take no for an answer if someone claims to not find them maddeningly attractive

But then with the girls, at best nobody cares about them besides the dedicated superfans, and at worst literally every other player only speaks the character's name to complain. They'll get nothing but vapid pinup fanart with no regard for character, if they're even on the radar at all. Whenever one of the female characters gets a buff or a player makes a good tournament run, everyone stops what they're doing to complain for a month, until they go back to largely ignoring them again. And then whenever a patch brings a new boy people convince themselves is cool, or gives an existing one significant buffs, half the players on a female character drop her to switch. It's like clockwork.

Also for some reason every male character has people headcanoning them as trans in both directions, regardless of anything about their actual characterization, but none of the not-canonically-transfem girls really get that kind of fan attention, which is disappointing. Except that one artist who thinks elphelt should be transmasc.

I think the only guilty gear girl to escape this is Bridget, by dint of being a little sweetie pie. But she's still like a purely auxiliary character to the canon, so there's not a ton to talk about besides decade old discourse, and she's underdeveloped at a top level, with the only notable reps being players who use her to try and scam opponents out of a few games before switching to their real mains once they drop one themselves. Like despite her popularity among casual fans there's still no daru for Bridget

And honorable mention to season 2 baiken, who attracted a lot of upper level players who were unsatisfied with their mains at the time, who then nearly unanimously dropped her for John or sin in S3 when it became apparent that it wasn't as easy to win with her as they initially thought

[lesbianchemicalplant]

people will tut-tut and lecture trans women for not embracing cis self-described “femboys” as if they’re not extremely hostile, ignorant, and transmisogynistic toward us

this is someone who thinks that trans people transition just to Become Hotter, denigrates trans people for not being attractive enough to them, and preys on trans people’s physical insecurities

(if you haven’t, really think for a second about someone conceptualizing HRT as a substitute for dieting. if that isn’t immediately flooring you, turn it around in your head for a bit. particularly think about what trans women on HRT often want from hormones)

self-described “femboys” in general deeply resent trans women. they still moan and whine at trans women “erasing femboy representation” over Bridget Guiltygear canonically being recognized as a trans woman. “femboy” itself isn’t a generic term for feminine or GNC men, it’s a transmisogynistic epithet from fetish shit focused on misgendering trans women, just like “trap”

but trans women are blamed and denigrated as Closeminded, Bigoted, and Making Everything About Us when we’re not friendly toward cis dudes who not only refer to themselves by that epithet, but also constantly harass and misgender us for being trans women. deranged

[guilty-gear-hot-take-hellhole]

Ya know, I was procrastinating on reviving this old blog instead of lurking through Tumblr for a while, and I can’t believe that Bridget discourse pushed me to do it. VERY long rant ahead because boy do I have some opinions.

The other day I saw a tweet (I don't remember where) saying how glad they were that a queer character was getting a bunch of spotlight in regards to the new Bridget figure; then after that I IMMEDIATELY saw someone punching down on people asking for other characters and bringing up Anji specifically, and it's like holy shit, either you're genuinely ignorant or an idiot.

There are 3 other canon queer in Guilty Gear, yet people only want to focus on Bridget, and I could honestly go on about it.

Testament obviously suffers the least from this, but it’s still noteworthy how people will ignore them being queer since 1998, and before anyone says, "They used he/him and were only GNC." 1. That was a botched localization, & 2. There’s a queerness in gender nonconformity, which makes it devastating that Baiken has been made less nonconforming for the sake of sexualization.

In a similar vein, Anji's queerness is often ignored by a good chunk of the fandom, which is in itself a can of worms considering he's a GNC man who is treated normally (unlike Bridget who was essentially a gag character while she still identified as male) and bisexual, which seems to really stir up shit when said bisexual character shows attraction to the opposite sex, which is probably why people don't acknowledge him.

Lastly, there's Venom, and I'm gonna preface this by saying that I'm a lightskin before I'm queer, so I find it very interesting that they wrote out an explicitly gay POC out of the story. Don't get me wrong, I love this series, but once I noticed that fact, it didn't sit with me well, especially since Venom being gay is an integral part of his character that can't be hidden.

And that's what pisses me off the most, the fact that people aren't realizing that the reason Bridget is the only being pushed because her queerness isn't blatantly obvious at first glance and she fits the mold of a popular, fair-skinned, and cute that figure distributors love. I want ya'll to realize that Bridget being trans is overshadowed by her being a white girl, which is a real shame because it means other queer characters won't get attention because they don't fit this standard. The worst part is that people just ignore this, which makes it painfully obvious that they don't care for queer characters; they care for Bridget.

I this isn't everyone, but I ask that Bridget fans slow down on mindlessly buying merch of her because all it does is show distributors that you guys are cashcows ready to be used at any moment and PLEASE don't punch down on people asking for other characters. Seriously, some of ya'll are way too comfortable mocking other people because you got what you wanted. As for the other characters, show them some support and buy their merch if you have the means to (god knows I don't). Even just picking up the character can show that people care about them and want to see them more. I know it's little more than delusion on my part, but it’s at least something.

Tl;dr: Don't be pretentious about a queer character getting merch if you only care about Bridget and support other characters. Sorry about this being so long.

Yeah I think I may know the tweet you’re referring to…

Another tweet I saw on the topic also featured a family guy meme about thanksgiving

Anyways ON GOD !

[solradguy]

I was thinking about goodlewis and his special coffin friend and my first thought was “wow guilty gears first gay men!!!” and then I thought about venom and he was just like…a child I forgot in the rain. He was just out of sight and out of mind for me, completely.

How could you forget about Venom Ballguy, Lover of Balls

Venom and Goldlewis could be boyfriends, I think

[odysseys-blood]

theres a lot of back and forth about paimon especially so i just wanna put in my two cents about it bc speculation on paimon and gender can be tricky and theres a lot to take into consideration. this isnt an end all be all post and not the best written but im just speaking from my place as someone who is trans (though i myself am tme) and works with gender themes in my own characters so this is gonna be kinda long

So! Paimon

a lot of the issue from the back and forth stems from how paimon is written by default. When you meet paimon, he's designated as just a pretty boy that likes to crossdress and they emphasize heavily that paimon is a man every time they talk about his femininity and how he presents himself.

Now crossdressing itself is not at all transphobic, hell drag is a big thing and its not uncommon for queens do figure out that they're transfem when they get into it. In fact a lot of queer people do push to erase gender boundaries within clothes because in the end....clothing is just cloth wear what you want be who you want to be, whether it be a woman wearing masc clothing, a man wearing femme clothes, or anyone just wearing something neutral feeling.

Where it becomes a problem is the push to enforce paimon's masculinity at every turn. While its good that paimon isn't a character that's put in to be played for laughs (as feminine men and trans women often are in media), it comes off odd in a way for paimon to have a feminine voice, dress femininely, love feminine things...and then at every point have it enforced heavily that paimon is a man. THAT is where a lot of the issue stems from at when you see it happening as someone who has seen transmisogyny (if this is your first time seeing the word, its transphobia that arises specifically for a trans woman being a woman. ergo the word being a mix of transphobia and misogyny) in practice it looks worrying. When you're someone who knows how to spot this kind of thing it can feel like paimon's gender nonconformity is being demonized (while they also highlight it. its an odd mix).

This isn't to say that it is a concious thing that's being pushed either i'm not saying the writers are personally transmisogynists at all, HOWEVER since transphobia and transmisogyny is rampant in society to the point where it subconsciously controls biases, thats how it can come off transmisogynistic. Think of it as similar to racism: even if you think you yourself are not racist theres still likely biases you have picked up or have been taught just because theyre so pervasive in society. This doesnt mean its your fault it just means its something that you have to unlearn conciously and put in the work to do so.

This is also not just a problem with whb because again like i said, its systemic. Think about other characters in media who are written this way, such as Bridget from Guilty Gear, or Vivian from Paper Mario. While these two are different in that their status as trans women have been solidified, the treatment they've gotten is largely the same. Especially bridget considering how she for the longest was the poster child for the "femboy" archetype and how femininity is enforced yet also discouraged in these characters until she was finally labeled transgender in gg strive.

All this to say...its messy and theres a lot of points to consider so there really isnt a reason to go at each others throats. Using paimon's canon pronouns and gender isn't exactly a problem and neither is choosing to instead see paimon as a transgender woman and using she/her pronouns. But at the very least it doesn't hurt to educate yourself also and understand why paimon's writing can come off transmisogynistic and transphobic. WHB is not a game thats heralding itself on being progressive (even if there are aspects to it that might seem so) so there's not much to expect from it in that regard but still we can be mindful and discussion isnt bad.

(also a footnote i dont think ive seen any transfem or tma players of whb in the tag....ever but if anyone is and wants to add on or thinks ive overstepped let me know)

[saturnalorbit]

when bridget was confirmed as trans a lot of people were upset that it felt wrong for how her story began, and on one hand i'm kind of able to understand their thought process?

like, i can get that the original idea was that by identifying as male, she was standing up to the superstition that male twins brought misfortune, and carving her own path regardless of her parents' worries for her safety

on the other hand though, i really like the idea that a trans character can come from absolutely anywhere! that a character doesn't need to have being trans be a core part of their character at their creation, and instead it can just... happen, just like it does in real life - sometimes there just aren't any signs, and that's totally valid!

i think it works especially well for bridget considering that she built up a lot of experience with what identifying as a girl feels like, and she was able to realise that that was the way she preferred to be - not a lot of amab people would have as much experience as she had with identifying as a girl, so i think it makes a lot of sense that she could decide that she preferred it in the end

pretty much yeah you shouldn't need to "justify" your character being trans, because realistically it just kinda happens regardless of whether it "works well" with your life experiences, the thing is euphoria and dysphoria don't discriminate who they'll affect based on their past experiences so there's no justification needed for a trans headcanon or canon imo

[demilypyro]

The fact is that most “crossdressing boy” mangas we have nowadays can trace their lineage back to Stop Hibari-Kun (1982) which carried the same general premise of the male lead being confused by an amab love interest who dresses as a woman, but critically also had the context of Hibari explicitly being a trans woman who hid this fact from her peers. This gave her a real, grounded reason to be the way she is.

Without the love interest being trans, the modern crossdressing boy trope just functions entirely on make-belief scenarios of a guy just randomly deciding to come to school as a girl one day while skirting around the obvious trans implications with little more than a “nuh-uh he’s still male because I said so”, and once you recognize that’s what’s going on it becomes hard to see most crossdressing boys in media as little more than a kind of tourist version of attraction to trans women, letting cis readers live out a fantasy of trans sexuality without ever having to engage with the reality of the problems real trans people face. We saw this in action recently with the confirmation that Bridget from Guilty Gear is canonically a transgender woman: a lot of people were outraged at the idea of not being able to have sexual fantasies about her without acknowledging that she was transgender.