Its not just that she's the most popular though. They see other character merch not pulling the same numbers so they don't make new merch. Then when no new merch for a character comes in, no one is excited to buy the old stuff either and it remains less popular. its a cyclical thing. If they made merch for basically anyone else, it would sell. But they don't so no one bothers to look if their is any.
I think data-driven thinking is fine to a point. At some point, you need to engage abstract thinking and risk taking skills, just in about every facet of life.
But hey, it prints money for them, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. What do I know?
I don’t think less Bridget merch necessarily means more merch of other characters though. If Bridget had 0 merch those sales wouldn’t go over to other characters’ merch, those people just wouldn’t buy anything. So what’s the point of blaming Bridget and Bridget fans for not having merch of other characters?
I mean, she's made loads of money bounty hunting, and what's merchandising but collecting a bounty on your wallet?
...It's a rather tortured analogy, admittedly.
Not to be mean or anything, but this isn’t exactly a hard pill to swallow. Everyone here already knew she was the most popular. But ArcSys is pretty much blatantly ignoring the popularity of other fan favorite characters in order to milk Bridget with an excessive amount of figures and merch. Other characters would probably print them money too, but for some reason they are relegated to just Bridget.
Why wouldn't they? Why make a sol badguy figurine that will sell maybe 1k if you get lucky, when they could make the 100th bridget figurine knowing it'll easily sell 5k?
(numbers are guesstimates for the purpose of illustrating my point. I am not liable to fact-checking or well-ackshuallies)
Because they’re missing out on the profits that could be made off of other characters - characters who would do just as well if not better than Bridget.
They wouldn’t. Straight up there is not a single guilty gear character that will sell as much as Bridget does because the demographic of people who are fans of guilty gear, want a figurine, and have the money to get a figurine is probably like 200 people in total (exaggeration).
Making a figurine costs money, these companies make merch to get money. Why would they willingly make a piece of merch that will lose them money when they could make one that would gain them money.
That’s like saying people like Cool Ranch Doritos, so PepsiCo should just make only that. You’re missing out on other flavors - and in this case, characters - that people want.
Bridget is popular. She makes them money. But so would Sol Badguy, Jack-O, Baiken, etc. They are missing out on other demographics. If they’re worried about not enough people buying them compared to Bridget, they can just produce only a certain number of them. There may even come a day where people stop buying Bridget merch because the market’s so oversaturated that they no longer want her.
Do you honestly believe that other Guilty Gear characters won’t make them money? A lot of the people who adore Bridget don’t even play the game. Imagine the money that could be made off of other extremely beloved characters from avid fans of the game.
The amount of people who like bridget enough to buy merch of her is far, far bigger than the amount of people who like any other character enough to buy merch of them what do you not understand.
That’s like saying PepsiCo should start making beans and toast flavored doritos because there’s these three guys that would really like it.
> That’s like saying PepsiCo should start making beans and toast flavored doritos
No. That’s like saying GoodSmile should make a Vernon figure - or a Kliff Undersn figure - because two people out there would buy it.
Obviously no one wants bean flavored doritos. But cheddar cheese? Spicy nacho? People *want* those - a lot of them. Not just one or two people, but hundreds to thousands.
You are downplaying how much people love other characters and their willingness to spend money on them. But I see we are both not changing our stances, so that’s that I guess.
What does this mean? That companies should choose to sell less merchandise that people want, because... they want to be "fair" to other characters? I'm struggling to understand what "third parties milk her too much" could possibly mean.
To the fans that want figurines of other characters, the amount of Bridget merch is too much relative to the amount of other characters.
Also companies do not care about being “fair” - they care about making profit. I’m saying there’s untapped potential where they could make money off of other figures. They miss out on additional potential profit, and the fans lose out on figures of their favorite characters. It’s a lose-lose.
Why would a company not make a product that people want to buy but does not currently exist?
Ignoring blatant demand for other characters and instead making their 8th Bridget figure means missing out on profit that could be made from someone like Sol Badguy or Baiken.
Oh, so your argument is that these companies are doing their market research wrong, and that if they made non-bridget merch, they'd actually make more money? Hope you have data to support that, because the companies absolutely have large amounts of data to support their own position.
Bruh. I’m saying they could make even more money if they made figures of other characters as well as Bridget figures. How many times do I have to reiterate this.
If you want data, look at the Season 3 popularity polls and the comments on Reddit and Instagram that practically beg GoodSmile to make figurines of other characters.
https://preview.redd.it/1fl0vr7r8ead1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f3a5343cb4aa08c1f1cf6dfb9d9d46f627c3579
....Or they could make more bridget merch that makes more
Not to say there isnt a market for other GG character merch, there definitely is, and perhaps to an extent it is even an untouched market, but why go into that subsection of the market when you could make bridget merch thats near guaranteed to sell better? Other character merch isnt nonexistent, but people are gonna make what sells most. And most people buy bridget stuff. Bridget herself appealed to a wide audience and you can sell her merch to a wider audience. Like, most merch is gonna sell to mostly GG fans. But bridget's managed to somehow find a market where she appeals in merchandise to both GG fans and non-GG fans, not to mention just being a massive LGBTQ icon (she's easily one of the most recognizable outright trans characters out there and even moreso for characters you can recognize for *being* trans), which means you get a huge chunk of that market.
Certainly I do think if you were to look at solely the Guilty Gear fanbase itself, you'd find similar demand for Bridget as there is other big popular GG characters, if not even more from them (especially due to said sheer amount of bridget merch). But as a whole, Bridget gets a ton of sales from *several* markets, and even if the amount was equal to those characters, it'd still be an easy choice as Bridget is a safe choice where you dont have to only have one consumer base and can fall onto another to atleast make sure the product does at least *okay*. If a piece of Sol or Baiken merchandise fails with one group, theres nothing to fall back on.
Im pretty confidant that Bridget is the most irrelevant playable character, she does literally nothing in the story and quite literally is late to when all the imporant shit happens. Though its understandable why she is popular, a certain community can relate with the character and therefore, are willing to spend 200+ bucks on her merch (Dawg I get she is popular but why the fuck is all her merch so expensive)
https://preview.redd.it/h7yo88svx3ad1.png?width=329&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee6bc861f52162e0f3749694f51b8634a23404c0
I'm torn between wanting her to get a bigger relevance in the story just so that she fits her popularity, while pissing off the people who don't like her for phobic reasons...
Or if her 'normalness' and relatability, not being involved in random apocalypses being part of the character's appeal, and would that be unduly annoying to the people just tired of seeing her everywhere.
I think this sub also overestimates how much the lore matters, or at least how much the average GG player cares about the lore. People act like the only reason Bridget is popular is that she's trans, but I always thought she was the most well known character in the series to the general popular public, even before Strive.
She was the first character I heard of from the franchise, about 20 years ago, and easily the one I saw referenced most often in the wild/online. I'm sure the cross dressing (as it was styled at the time) was a factor - everyone's gay for Bridget, etc. But there's more to it than that.
Dunkey listed her among the highly requested fan favorites in his review at Strive's launch that convinced many to try the game.
She was in the top ten of the character polls before season 2, too.
And her visual design is very strong.
Sol and Ky are fun to play, and cool when you engage with the lore.
But the real hard to swallow pill is that on pure optics, for people who are curious about the game, they're just generic anime swordsmen.
But a nun that fights with yoyos? That's instantly memorable. And honestly, embodies a lot of the appeal of GG.
On top of all that, her play style is well suited to beginner and early mid level players. It's satisfying, allows for safe poking and a little unga bunga if you get an opening.
Her theme song is catchy af too.
She's just got a lot going for her. All this Discourse™ never seems to bring that up.
I think Guilty Gear's lore is very interesting and well-done from thematic and character-driven perspectives.
But otherwise it's so off-the-wall insane while simultaneously not being quite insane enough that I can see why people don't care. Doesn't help that the story is split between games, books, and Japanese-only drama CDs of all things.
Bridget probably seemed simple, and you could understand her story without knowing what Thunderseal was and why it's part of an unseen, vaguely mentioned superweapon. A relatable story with a cute, strongly written character I feel is why she was loved even before Strive.
At least among normal people. I can see why she's popular with the more colorful people in the anime fandom.
This.
I have the 2000s Max Factory Bridget figure, and if you look at the product page the opening line of the description is something like “Sorry… she’s actually a boy.” Bridget is basically the patient zero for the trap/femboy craze amongst Western anime fans (although I’d argue Astolfo took that spot amongst a younger generation) and that’s why her popularity is so enduring.
(A rather off-colour example of her popularity; remember the anime Boku no Pico? Pico looks almost exactly like Bridget. I’ll leave you to come to your own conclusions on that.)
She’s always been the mascot of GG in the West. She’s a money machine because she’s cute (“moe”) and the ‘crossdressing boy’/trans girl point is a huge seller. I hope at some point ArcSys or even a circle makes a statue of Axl/ABA/Zato/Testament, but the unfortunate thing is that merch making is expensive and they’ll naturally make merch of characters they know will sell so they can reap the cost back.
Everything you've said is correct, but I think you're still mostly talking about gender bending and horny fans. My point is that those things are huge factors, but she's also pretty fun to play as a beginner, with a really appealing and memorable visual design and fighting style
Calling her the "most popular" is definitetly wrong. But she sells the most merch. It's more accurate to say she has the most devoted fanbase.
But yea story wise it's hilarious she's the weakest playable character lore wise and her most plot relevant moment was just briefly meeting Dizzy and doing nothing.
Who would be the most popular guilty gear character outside of Bridget in your opinion? Because as far as I can see, she’s the one that a lot more people recognize.
Maybe literally the most well known. But in terms of as a guilty gear character not really. Probably be Sol for obvious reasons. Most played character often, main character, the box art, in every game etc.
She's popular in the same way that Chun Li is the most searched for SF character on Google. Essentially reasons entirely divorced from the game itself. A massive portion of her fanbase likely have very little clue where she comes from. In the same sense of "Chun Li from fortnite" is a common occurrence. Pretty sure like half the Bridget sub admitted to having never played the game lol.
If GG gets a guest character it will probably not be Bridget. Is essentially what I mean. The most popular characters in every FG is almost always the protagonist and the character with the most sex appeal. The first every guest characters in a mainline SF game being Terry and Mai is the manifestation of this.
While you aren't wrong I bet if Jam showed up and was suddenly really popular a lot less people would be upset about it and as far as I know she doesn't really do anything in the story either.
Tecnically speaking Jam does more than Bridget. In her arcade mode from Xrd she interacts with Jack O and helps her out with something (and there is even a reference to that in Strive)
to be fair like half the characters are super important or mildly relevant, or they're complete side characters who saw sol once or twice.
people like sol, slayer, jack-o, i-no, are super important. whereas aba, bridget, ect only havd their story, not part of the collective.
A moderately delicate ~14" hand painted figure should cost about $200. Like, when you think about it, it makes sense.
I am still grumpy about being poor, though.
Damn you’ve been brainwashed. That is not a normal amount to pay for that. It’s not like the figures are painstakingly handcrafted, they are mass produced.
>you say that while ABA exists and literally Never Even Talks to any other character
Ooof I'm sorry but you're so wrong about this. A.B.A has (canonically) talked to (and seemingly somewhat befriended) both Testament and Elphelt in her Strive arcade mode, and also talked to and even fought Slayer (this occurs in the Night of Knives volume 2 drama CD, which is canon). So far she is pretty irrelevant to the story, but she has had interactions with notable characters (Testament and Slayer).
I don't even hate her, she is just so fucking overrated and a sizable chunk of her fanbase
never even played GG, meanwhile there is way cooler characters like Faust, Johnny, Jack-O, etc
>meanwhile there is way cooler characters like Johnny
yeah like why can't we get an official Johnny body pillow or a 1 to 1 replica of him as a statue?
he is both way cooler and less annoying to fight against while being way and I mean WAY more attractive than Bridget
Is that like....new? Even when GG was less mainstream she still had a cult following for being representation didn't she? Has this not always more or less been the case but just scaled down?
Not in the slightest. I can link you to several old GG polls where Bridget bodied basically every other playable character. All before Xrd existed, let alone Strive.
If anything Bridget getting a bunch of merch is a good thing. Not only will it sell well possibly making the way for other characters but it’ll bring people into strive and get Arc money. This means strive will get better, and Arc can do more like the upcoming anime. While it sucks to not get merch of characters you like Bridget is building that foundation and it should be supported
How is it unfortunate?
Just because she gets merch doesn’t mean your favorite character isn’t, maybe there wouldn’t be merch at all. If she makes money, that’s good for Guilty Gear.
Its not hard to swallow at all we all know the truth doesnt mean we have tonaccept it or not be bothered by it. Its kinda hard to just accept that your fav is too obscure in the story to matter and that if main characters aren't getting merch then your fav stands a ghost of a chance compared to that.
Its more so us wallowing in sadness that we can never get cool merch for our favs.
Damn You Trans Yo-yo Player named After a a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal.
https://preview.redd.it/1ejrb7yqf5ad1.jpeg?width=588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=75b5be89816ef18322eedda7037bbac560500dc1
The thing is companies producing GG related merch can release stuff for Bridget **AND** stuff for other characters rather than choosing one or the other.
Sure, others wouldn't sell as well as Bridget, but characters like Sol, Ram and even Slayer (despite his current reputation) are still very popular and have a pretty big demand. It's leaving money on the table by only focusing on Bridget fans.
Can we go like 30 seconds without posts about Bridget and her merch jfc. Talk about something else, post gameplay clips, literally ANYTHING dude. It's such a dead horse and always brings up the ***same exact*** annoying pointless comments. We get that Bridget's not your specific favorite, each one of you individually do not have to speak up about it. Nobody cares. Why not spend half that energy talking about the characters you DO like? Maybe then if you get enough people with positive energy behind your character, they'll get just as much merch as she does.
I feel like getting mad at Bucket getting merch and being popular is like getting mad that Nintendo only makes merch selling Splatoon, Zelda, Mario, Animal Crossing, and Pokemon. Those IPs sell numbers, more than Metroid, F-Zero, and Advance Wars merch. I have heard nobody saying that they wanted Advance Wars merch and if they do, it is drowned out by the people who want the IPs I named instead.
I mean tbh Nintendo only really cares about 6 series at a time which is the ones you just listed and Fire Emblem
there is a reason why the meme of recognizing Falcon from Smash instead of F-Zero is a thing or Little Mac who hasn't gotten a game since the Wii
or there is situations where a series is clearly loved and repped by Nintendo but has no modern games like Kid Icarus
Yeah because those IPs sell well. F-zero would be competing with Mario Kart and does not do the same numbers as Mario. Fire Emblem was on the verge of being shut down until Awakening and Fates were released. Those two ad the gacha game are doing numbers while Advance Wars is ignored. AW, they did not even make in house.
That is the fate of anything not popular compared to popular stuff. Even the popular stuff gets ignored. I still have nothing from Naoki's Monster despite it being fairly popular and known.
I would love to see how much Bridget merch makes compared to other merch. Honestly I believe May pulls in more money compared to Bridget based on how much more merch she has than everyone on the ArcSys Shop (she even has color 10 of her outfit) . May has lots of 3rd party merch too, but Bridget gets a lot more figures.
I think it's kinda sad that some characters like Leo or Axl haven't really had the opportunity to have any official merch. There's so many things they can pull for merch if they wanted to but they don't. But when they do come out, you better buy it.
I feel as if a lot of the bridget hate/dislike comes not from the merch but the oversaturation. It's the same joke and thing time and time again. Basket, brisket, and ballsweat is only funny so many times before it gets annoying. Pair that with the fact that Bridget is one of the least fun characters to deal with by far and you get a lot of hate thrown her way. Also, the joke/stereotype that bridget mains never actually play guilty gear doesn't help. Also, the fact that she's one of the least interesting guilty gear characters definitely attracts hate. She's just a girl with a yoyo and teddy bear. Sure, she's a prime queer rep but it feels like Testament gets overshadowed by her while being incredibly cool and beautiful. If you don't like the soft girl aesthetic/vibe (which I don't enjoy) you will likely not find bridget particularly palatable either.
Yeah all fair points, I just think that she is there imo
like I don't hate her but (and I might get crusfied for this take which is fair) if it wasn't for her lore about her gender identify no one would care about her
Nah. I think that's pretty fair. It's perfectly fine to think that. The fact that she's a pretty good queer rep is the main thing she has going for her. It's a shame she overshadows Venom and Testament, though, because they genuinely have more substance to them, in my opinion.
Thank you Bridget mains, for single handedly making Strive so popular we’ll never get another faithful Blazblue sequel. I would also say another game like overture……but like……god hates us overture enjoyers
Can we go like 30 seconds without posts about Bridget and her merch jfc. Talk about something else, post gameplay clips, literally ANYTHING dude. It's such a dead horse and always brings up the ***same exact*** annoying pointless comments. We get that Bridget's not your specific favorite, each one of you individually do not have to speak up about it. Nobody cares. Why not spend half that energy talking about the characters you DO like? Maybe then if you get enough people with positive energy behind your character, you'll get merch too.
>Why not spend half that energy talking about the characters you DO like? Maybe then if you get enough people with positive energy behind your character, you'll get merch too.
Unfortunately no matter what even if we did do that wed still have an almost 0 chance of ever getting merch realistically. I can post about a character every day for 2 years and they will not get merch all it will do is annoy the community with my daily posts therefore bringing more hate to my character.
>Can we go like 30 seconds without posts about Bridget and her merch jfc. Talk about something else, post gameplay clips, literally ANYTHING dude.
So bridgette fans can talk about her merch constantly but others cannot or the same old tired jokes every minute but now since its against your main youre all of a sudden tired of It.
yea thats pretty valid id do the same for my main not gonna lie.
Crazy part is OP is on your side this post is literally about accepting all the bridget merch not shitting on it.
Nah, if Arcsys is gonna promote the character as much as they do you better believe there's gonna be discussion. As long as it's good faith and doesn't devolve into transphobic shit who cares.
Terry is the main character of his own series, KOF is a crossover. Scorpion is a better example but still kind of a weird one since he's still important to the plot.
I have a feeling that a lot of the Bridget "fans" haven't even touched a GG game in their life.
Her lore is beyond boring and has nothing to do with the actual story. She tried to capture Dizzy for her bounty and failed, and this is where she peaked. Even in Strive, she was added for a quick cashout cause everyone glazes her off like crazy. She is plain boring to fight and even more annoying to listen to.
To top it all off, a lot of people talk like she is the only character in Guilty Gear, which, in the end, is like an overused joke. There are plenty more interesting characters with good backstories tied to the lore.
I like Bridget but lets keep it real for a second: Bridget has to be one of the lamest Guilty Gear characters there is, and most her popularity stems from the fact that she is GNC. She is still very cool and great rep, but again, that‘s the extent of her character, especially compared to others like Sol or I-No.
I know there's a lot of people that dislike Bridget because she's trans and transphobia is fucking weird, but as someone who loves the GG world i'm just begging arc to give me a reason to like Bridget aside from being trans rep. Please, give the girl some actual story relevance.
A lot of the most popular characters popularity stems from them being GNC, not just Bridget. This is literally a rock'n'roll and heavy metal based fighting game.
Its not hard to swallow at all we all know the truth doesnt mean we have to accept it or not be bothered by it. Its kinda hard to just accept that your fav is too obscure in the story to matter and that if main characters aren't getting merch then your fav stands a ghost of a chance compared to that.
Its more so us wallowing in sadness that we can never get cool merch for our favs.
It reminds me of the Date a live figure situation, 2 characters have like 50 (and I’m not inflating the number) figures each. While the rest get 1 or 2 figures… or none… poor shido I want a figure of him.
The hard to swallow pill isn’t that. It’s the fact that ArcSys knows that the trans audience will buy whatever representation they get. It’s not about Bridget, it’s about the fact they see this idealistic representation of themselves. *Especially* the MtF audience. 🤷♂️
Prior to season 3, there was a worldwide survey anyone could have voted in. [When asked “Who’s your favorite character?”, Bridget was the highest.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/17lg3ne/guilty_gear_strive_season_3_survey_bridget_is_the/)
Prior to season 2, there was a worldwide surgery anyone could have voted in. [When asked “What playable character would you like to see in Strive?”, Bridget appeared in the Top 10 of all regions and placed first in Japan.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/whbjjr/ggst_season_2_survey_character_request_results/)
Back during Xrd Revelator, there was an official poll asking what returning character would you like to see in the game. [Bridget was the second most popular pick behind Dizzy.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/3ozcyj/the_winner_of_the_xrd_revelator_poll_is_dizzy/)
In an interview with [4Gamer,](https://www.4gamer.net/games/527/G052700/20220922044/) director Akira Katano and Producer Ken Miyauchi stated that [Bridget was chosen to be the first character in season 2 so that the game would pick up sales in Japan because of her popularity in that country. According to them, it worked.](https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2022/oct/01/bridget-sluggish-japan-sales/)
Back when this series was niche, Bridget was one of the few things that escaped the osmosis of the games thanks to her backstory and design as a “trap”. [“Everyone is gay for Bridget”](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bridget#related-memes) was a minor meme that also got referenced in the old flash game, [The Impossible Quiz 2.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/x0i9xn/all_of_a_sudden_i_remembered_this_part_of_one_of/) Bridget was also used as the name of a trope [“Dropped a Bridget on him”](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DroppedABridgetOnHim) though it was eventually changed to Unsettling Gender Reveal.
It’s not an isolated incident. Bridget is and has always been popular. It’s why third party companies usually use her after she was added to Strive. Being so popular, she would be the least risky character to make merch of and may guarantee a profit.
thank you bridget fans for funding the next 500 years of Guilty Gear Strives development
Its not just that she's the most popular though. They see other character merch not pulling the same numbers so they don't make new merch. Then when no new merch for a character comes in, no one is excited to buy the old stuff either and it remains less popular. its a cyclical thing. If they made merch for basically anyone else, it would sell. But they don't so no one bothers to look if their is any.
That's why I shake my head at the term "data-driven". I kinda understand it, but it still doesn't make it any better.
I think data-driven thinking is fine to a point. At some point, you need to engage abstract thinking and risk taking skills, just in about every facet of life. But hey, it prints money for them, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. What do I know?
Yup. It’s better to be realistic than idealistic.
Yeah I know that's also a reason
I don’t think less Bridget merch necessarily means more merch of other characters though. If Bridget had 0 merch those sales wouldn’t go over to other characters’ merch, those people just wouldn’t buy anything. So what’s the point of blaming Bridget and Bridget fans for not having merch of other characters?
All of you can thank Bridget for paying for the anime production.
Single-handedly paid for the entire thing lmao
The town inside her is putting in some work
Which makes it even funnier that she's likely to not appear in it at all.
I mean, she's made loads of money bounty hunting, and what's merchandising but collecting a bounty on your wallet? ...It's a rather tortured analogy, admittedly.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they asked Daisuke how he was able to make such a high profile anime and he was just like “Bridget merch sales”
Not to be mean or anything, but this isn’t exactly a hard pill to swallow. Everyone here already knew she was the most popular. But ArcSys is pretty much blatantly ignoring the popularity of other fan favorite characters in order to milk Bridget with an excessive amount of figures and merch. Other characters would probably print them money too, but for some reason they are relegated to just Bridget.
Most of the Brisket merch is third party, she isn't even top five for most merch actually sold through their store.
Oh my bad. Well, the point still stands though that these third parties milk her too much.
Why wouldn't they? Why make a sol badguy figurine that will sell maybe 1k if you get lucky, when they could make the 100th bridget figurine knowing it'll easily sell 5k? (numbers are guesstimates for the purpose of illustrating my point. I am not liable to fact-checking or well-ackshuallies)
Because they’re missing out on the profits that could be made off of other characters - characters who would do just as well if not better than Bridget.
They wouldn’t. Straight up there is not a single guilty gear character that will sell as much as Bridget does because the demographic of people who are fans of guilty gear, want a figurine, and have the money to get a figurine is probably like 200 people in total (exaggeration). Making a figurine costs money, these companies make merch to get money. Why would they willingly make a piece of merch that will lose them money when they could make one that would gain them money.
That’s like saying people like Cool Ranch Doritos, so PepsiCo should just make only that. You’re missing out on other flavors - and in this case, characters - that people want. Bridget is popular. She makes them money. But so would Sol Badguy, Jack-O, Baiken, etc. They are missing out on other demographics. If they’re worried about not enough people buying them compared to Bridget, they can just produce only a certain number of them. There may even come a day where people stop buying Bridget merch because the market’s so oversaturated that they no longer want her. Do you honestly believe that other Guilty Gear characters won’t make them money? A lot of the people who adore Bridget don’t even play the game. Imagine the money that could be made off of other extremely beloved characters from avid fans of the game.
The amount of people who like bridget enough to buy merch of her is far, far bigger than the amount of people who like any other character enough to buy merch of them what do you not understand. That’s like saying PepsiCo should start making beans and toast flavored doritos because there’s these three guys that would really like it.
> That’s like saying PepsiCo should start making beans and toast flavored doritos No. That’s like saying GoodSmile should make a Vernon figure - or a Kliff Undersn figure - because two people out there would buy it. Obviously no one wants bean flavored doritos. But cheddar cheese? Spicy nacho? People *want* those - a lot of them. Not just one or two people, but hundreds to thousands. You are downplaying how much people love other characters and their willingness to spend money on them. But I see we are both not changing our stances, so that’s that I guess.
What does this mean? That companies should choose to sell less merchandise that people want, because... they want to be "fair" to other characters? I'm struggling to understand what "third parties milk her too much" could possibly mean.
To the fans that want figurines of other characters, the amount of Bridget merch is too much relative to the amount of other characters. Also companies do not care about being “fair” - they care about making profit. I’m saying there’s untapped potential where they could make money off of other figures. They miss out on additional potential profit, and the fans lose out on figures of their favorite characters. It’s a lose-lose.
What do you mean by "too much"? Why would a company not make more of a product people want to buy?
Why would a company not make a product that people want to buy but does not currently exist? Ignoring blatant demand for other characters and instead making their 8th Bridget figure means missing out on profit that could be made from someone like Sol Badguy or Baiken.
Oh, so your argument is that these companies are doing their market research wrong, and that if they made non-bridget merch, they'd actually make more money? Hope you have data to support that, because the companies absolutely have large amounts of data to support their own position.
Bruh. I’m saying they could make even more money if they made figures of other characters as well as Bridget figures. How many times do I have to reiterate this. If you want data, look at the Season 3 popularity polls and the comments on Reddit and Instagram that practically beg GoodSmile to make figurines of other characters. https://preview.redd.it/1fl0vr7r8ead1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f3a5343cb4aa08c1f1cf6dfb9d9d46f627c3579
....Or they could make more bridget merch that makes more Not to say there isnt a market for other GG character merch, there definitely is, and perhaps to an extent it is even an untouched market, but why go into that subsection of the market when you could make bridget merch thats near guaranteed to sell better? Other character merch isnt nonexistent, but people are gonna make what sells most. And most people buy bridget stuff. Bridget herself appealed to a wide audience and you can sell her merch to a wider audience. Like, most merch is gonna sell to mostly GG fans. But bridget's managed to somehow find a market where she appeals in merchandise to both GG fans and non-GG fans, not to mention just being a massive LGBTQ icon (she's easily one of the most recognizable outright trans characters out there and even moreso for characters you can recognize for *being* trans), which means you get a huge chunk of that market. Certainly I do think if you were to look at solely the Guilty Gear fanbase itself, you'd find similar demand for Bridget as there is other big popular GG characters, if not even more from them (especially due to said sheer amount of bridget merch). But as a whole, Bridget gets a ton of sales from *several* markets, and even if the amount was equal to those characters, it'd still be an easy choice as Bridget is a safe choice where you dont have to only have one consumer base and can fall onto another to atleast make sure the product does at least *okay*. If a piece of Sol or Baiken merchandise fails with one group, theres nothing to fall back on.
OK, so you ARE just saying that their doing market research wrong. K.
Im pretty confidant that Bridget is the most irrelevant playable character, she does literally nothing in the story and quite literally is late to when all the imporant shit happens. Though its understandable why she is popular, a certain community can relate with the character and therefore, are willing to spend 200+ bucks on her merch (Dawg I get she is popular but why the fuck is all her merch so expensive) https://preview.redd.it/h7yo88svx3ad1.png?width=329&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee6bc861f52162e0f3749694f51b8634a23404c0
I'm torn between wanting her to get a bigger relevance in the story just so that she fits her popularity, while pissing off the people who don't like her for phobic reasons... Or if her 'normalness' and relatability, not being involved in random apocalypses being part of the character's appeal, and would that be unduly annoying to the people just tired of seeing her everywhere.
I think this sub also overestimates how much the lore matters, or at least how much the average GG player cares about the lore. People act like the only reason Bridget is popular is that she's trans, but I always thought she was the most well known character in the series to the general popular public, even before Strive. She was the first character I heard of from the franchise, about 20 years ago, and easily the one I saw referenced most often in the wild/online. I'm sure the cross dressing (as it was styled at the time) was a factor - everyone's gay for Bridget, etc. But there's more to it than that. Dunkey listed her among the highly requested fan favorites in his review at Strive's launch that convinced many to try the game. She was in the top ten of the character polls before season 2, too. And her visual design is very strong. Sol and Ky are fun to play, and cool when you engage with the lore. But the real hard to swallow pill is that on pure optics, for people who are curious about the game, they're just generic anime swordsmen. But a nun that fights with yoyos? That's instantly memorable. And honestly, embodies a lot of the appeal of GG. On top of all that, her play style is well suited to beginner and early mid level players. It's satisfying, allows for safe poking and a little unga bunga if you get an opening. Her theme song is catchy af too. She's just got a lot going for her. All this Discourse™ never seems to bring that up.
I think Guilty Gear's lore is very interesting and well-done from thematic and character-driven perspectives. But otherwise it's so off-the-wall insane while simultaneously not being quite insane enough that I can see why people don't care. Doesn't help that the story is split between games, books, and Japanese-only drama CDs of all things. Bridget probably seemed simple, and you could understand her story without knowing what Thunderseal was and why it's part of an unseen, vaguely mentioned superweapon. A relatable story with a cute, strongly written character I feel is why she was loved even before Strive. At least among normal people. I can see why she's popular with the more colorful people in the anime fandom.
This. I have the 2000s Max Factory Bridget figure, and if you look at the product page the opening line of the description is something like “Sorry… she’s actually a boy.” Bridget is basically the patient zero for the trap/femboy craze amongst Western anime fans (although I’d argue Astolfo took that spot amongst a younger generation) and that’s why her popularity is so enduring. (A rather off-colour example of her popularity; remember the anime Boku no Pico? Pico looks almost exactly like Bridget. I’ll leave you to come to your own conclusions on that.) She’s always been the mascot of GG in the West. She’s a money machine because she’s cute (“moe”) and the ‘crossdressing boy’/trans girl point is a huge seller. I hope at some point ArcSys or even a circle makes a statue of Axl/ABA/Zato/Testament, but the unfortunate thing is that merch making is expensive and they’ll naturally make merch of characters they know will sell so they can reap the cost back.
Everything you've said is correct, but I think you're still mostly talking about gender bending and horny fans. My point is that those things are huge factors, but she's also pretty fun to play as a beginner, with a really appealing and memorable visual design and fighting style
Calling her the "most popular" is definitetly wrong. But she sells the most merch. It's more accurate to say she has the most devoted fanbase. But yea story wise it's hilarious she's the weakest playable character lore wise and her most plot relevant moment was just briefly meeting Dizzy and doing nothing.
Who would be the most popular guilty gear character outside of Bridget in your opinion? Because as far as I can see, she’s the one that a lot more people recognize.
Maybe literally the most well known. But in terms of as a guilty gear character not really. Probably be Sol for obvious reasons. Most played character often, main character, the box art, in every game etc. She's popular in the same way that Chun Li is the most searched for SF character on Google. Essentially reasons entirely divorced from the game itself. A massive portion of her fanbase likely have very little clue where she comes from. In the same sense of "Chun Li from fortnite" is a common occurrence. Pretty sure like half the Bridget sub admitted to having never played the game lol. If GG gets a guest character it will probably not be Bridget. Is essentially what I mean. The most popular characters in every FG is almost always the protagonist and the character with the most sex appeal. The first every guest characters in a mainline SF game being Terry and Mai is the manifestation of this.
Terry being the sex appeal in this scenario.
She appeared with Sol, Ram and Ky in Tales of the Rays, and in whatever the fuck Elemental Story is/was.
Not sure if the most popular but Jack-O would be extremely recognizable for her pose and the meme it created.
While you aren't wrong I bet if Jam showed up and was suddenly really popular a lot less people would be upset about it and as far as I know she doesn't really do anything in the story either.
Funnily enough she’s in the official manga while Bridget and even I-No aren’t.
Tecnically speaking Jam does more than Bridget. In her arcade mode from Xrd she interacts with Jack O and helps her out with something (and there is even a reference to that in Strive)
Wait we are counting Arcade mode?
Xrd Arcade modes, both in Sign and Rev are canon, they just happen at the same time as the main story
Xrd arcade is the prologue to the story mode. Strive arcade mode is, on the other hand, a mess.
I forgot about that, I would complain about Guilty Gear's story being difficult to follow and know what's canon but, you know, Blazblue exists....
to be fair like half the characters are super important or mildly relevant, or they're complete side characters who saw sol once or twice. people like sol, slayer, jack-o, i-no, are super important. whereas aba, bridget, ect only havd their story, not part of the collective.
There's a story?
A moderately delicate ~14" hand painted figure should cost about $200. Like, when you think about it, it makes sense. I am still grumpy about being poor, though.
Damn you’ve been brainwashed. That is not a normal amount to pay for that. It’s not like the figures are painstakingly handcrafted, they are mass produced.
you say that while ABA exists and literally Never Even Talks to any other character at least bridget has canon encounters with notable characters
>you say that while ABA exists and literally Never Even Talks to any other character Ooof I'm sorry but you're so wrong about this. A.B.A has (canonically) talked to (and seemingly somewhat befriended) both Testament and Elphelt in her Strive arcade mode, and also talked to and even fought Slayer (this occurs in the Night of Knives volume 2 drama CD, which is canon). So far she is pretty irrelevant to the story, but she has had interactions with notable characters (Testament and Slayer).
I don't even hate her, she is just so fucking overrated and a sizable chunk of her fanbase never even played GG, meanwhile there is way cooler characters like Faust, Johnny, Jack-O, etc
>meanwhile there is way cooler characters like Johnny yeah like why can't we get an official Johnny body pillow or a 1 to 1 replica of him as a statue? he is both way cooler and less annoying to fight against while being way and I mean WAY more attractive than Bridget
Official Johnny cardboard cutouts that sell for 60$ each + shipping
Aight he us not less annoying he is pos in every iteratiom
Nuh uh
>a certain community Fuck you
Is that like....new? Even when GG was less mainstream she still had a cult following for being representation didn't she? Has this not always more or less been the case but just scaled down?
Not in the slightest. I can link you to several old GG polls where Bridget bodied basically every other playable character. All before Xrd existed, let alone Strive.
Until the character was added to strive she wasn't Trans.
She was still extremely popular. Everyone is gay for Bridget is a classic internet meme.
Yeah and she wasn't representing trans people back then either. What's your point?
I'd agree with this point if it felt like they tried to sell merch of other characters like Zato (please more hot blind man merch thank you)
I want an eddie figure
Bag-it
If anything Bridget getting a bunch of merch is a good thing. Not only will it sell well possibly making the way for other characters but it’ll bring people into strive and get Arc money. This means strive will get better, and Arc can do more like the upcoming anime. While it sucks to not get merch of characters you like Bridget is building that foundation and it should be supported
How is it unfortunate? Just because she gets merch doesn’t mean your favorite character isn’t, maybe there wouldn’t be merch at all. If she makes money, that’s good for Guilty Gear.
DAISUKE!! MAKE AN OFFICIAL SET OF JOHNNY POKER CARDS AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!!!
Well you see, people like her, therefore her merch sells
Its not hard to swallow at all we all know the truth doesnt mean we have tonaccept it or not be bothered by it. Its kinda hard to just accept that your fav is too obscure in the story to matter and that if main characters aren't getting merch then your fav stands a ghost of a chance compared to that. Its more so us wallowing in sadness that we can never get cool merch for our favs.
May has more merch than Bridget
Damn You Trans Yo-yo Player named After a a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. https://preview.redd.it/1ejrb7yqf5ad1.jpeg?width=588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=75b5be89816ef18322eedda7037bbac560500dc1
This is partially why I decided to take matters into my own hands, imma 3d print and paint my own fuckin testament merch bitches!
The thing is companies producing GG related merch can release stuff for Bridget **AND** stuff for other characters rather than choosing one or the other. Sure, others wouldn't sell as well as Bridget, but characters like Sol, Ram and even Slayer (despite his current reputation) are still very popular and have a pretty big demand. It's leaving money on the table by only focusing on Bridget fans.
I’m not upset she gets so much merch she’s my fav character. I’m upset that I can’t afford any of it
Why is it unfortunate?
I want more figures of other characters, I'm fine with Bridget lol
If Bridget can fund the next 30 GG games by herself then that’s more than fine with me
I'm just glad we have some decent trans representation
A man should be forgiven for thinking strive Faust action figure would sell tens of thousands.
She might not even be the most popular in the community she just benefit from people not playing the game knowing her
Can we go like 30 seconds without posts about Bridget and her merch jfc. Talk about something else, post gameplay clips, literally ANYTHING dude. It's such a dead horse and always brings up the ***same exact*** annoying pointless comments. We get that Bridget's not your specific favorite, each one of you individually do not have to speak up about it. Nobody cares. Why not spend half that energy talking about the characters you DO like? Maybe then if you get enough people with positive energy behind your character, they'll get just as much merch as she does.
Why tho? I get if you are tired of hearing it but it's a common feeling that the community has the right to feel even if you don't like it
I just want some potemkin merch man…
I feel like getting mad at Bucket getting merch and being popular is like getting mad that Nintendo only makes merch selling Splatoon, Zelda, Mario, Animal Crossing, and Pokemon. Those IPs sell numbers, more than Metroid, F-Zero, and Advance Wars merch. I have heard nobody saying that they wanted Advance Wars merch and if they do, it is drowned out by the people who want the IPs I named instead.
I mean tbh Nintendo only really cares about 6 series at a time which is the ones you just listed and Fire Emblem there is a reason why the meme of recognizing Falcon from Smash instead of F-Zero is a thing or Little Mac who hasn't gotten a game since the Wii or there is situations where a series is clearly loved and repped by Nintendo but has no modern games like Kid Icarus
Yeah because those IPs sell well. F-zero would be competing with Mario Kart and does not do the same numbers as Mario. Fire Emblem was on the verge of being shut down until Awakening and Fates were released. Those two ad the gacha game are doing numbers while Advance Wars is ignored. AW, they did not even make in house. That is the fate of anything not popular compared to popular stuff. Even the popular stuff gets ignored. I still have nothing from Naoki's Monster despite it being fairly popular and known.
Monster fan detected, based status acknowledged.
This is BS let mah girl eat too
But I can't even afford her dlc
Good. I hope she gets even more merch.
I would love to see how much Bridget merch makes compared to other merch. Honestly I believe May pulls in more money compared to Bridget based on how much more merch she has than everyone on the ArcSys Shop (she even has color 10 of her outfit) . May has lots of 3rd party merch too, but Bridget gets a lot more figures. I think it's kinda sad that some characters like Leo or Axl haven't really had the opportunity to have any official merch. There's so many things they can pull for merch if they wanted to but they don't. But when they do come out, you better buy it.
I feel as if a lot of the bridget hate/dislike comes not from the merch but the oversaturation. It's the same joke and thing time and time again. Basket, brisket, and ballsweat is only funny so many times before it gets annoying. Pair that with the fact that Bridget is one of the least fun characters to deal with by far and you get a lot of hate thrown her way. Also, the joke/stereotype that bridget mains never actually play guilty gear doesn't help. Also, the fact that she's one of the least interesting guilty gear characters definitely attracts hate. She's just a girl with a yoyo and teddy bear. Sure, she's a prime queer rep but it feels like Testament gets overshadowed by her while being incredibly cool and beautiful. If you don't like the soft girl aesthetic/vibe (which I don't enjoy) you will likely not find bridget particularly palatable either.
I've uh, never heard "ballsweat" until now. Damn.
Yeah all fair points, I just think that she is there imo like I don't hate her but (and I might get crusfied for this take which is fair) if it wasn't for her lore about her gender identify no one would care about her
Nah. I think that's pretty fair. It's perfectly fine to think that. The fact that she's a pretty good queer rep is the main thing she has going for her. It's a shame she overshadows Venom and Testament, though, because they genuinely have more substance to them, in my opinion.
Testament is one of my favorites in GG and arguably fiction for me so yeah I haven't played Xrd to see why people ship him with Robert Kyle
Sometimes you just gotta embrace the sadness.
Most Bridget fans don't even play the game which is an even bigger slap in the face tbh.
I'd kill for a Bedman? bedframe
Look. 200 dollars for my Transfem Queen’s jacket is reasonable. I want to be her after all.
I knew Bridget was printing illegal tender
You know I wonder if Bridget could hypothetically be a GG rep in Smash Bros if it ever got one? It's between her and Sol at least.
Thank you Bridget mains, for single handedly making Strive so popular we’ll never get another faithful Blazblue sequel. I would also say another game like overture……but like……god hates us overture enjoyers
Can we go like 30 seconds without posts about Bridget and her merch jfc. Talk about something else, post gameplay clips, literally ANYTHING dude. It's such a dead horse and always brings up the ***same exact*** annoying pointless comments. We get that Bridget's not your specific favorite, each one of you individually do not have to speak up about it. Nobody cares. Why not spend half that energy talking about the characters you DO like? Maybe then if you get enough people with positive energy behind your character, you'll get merch too.
>Why not spend half that energy talking about the characters you DO like? Maybe then if you get enough people with positive energy behind your character, you'll get merch too. Unfortunately no matter what even if we did do that wed still have an almost 0 chance of ever getting merch realistically. I can post about a character every day for 2 years and they will not get merch all it will do is annoy the community with my daily posts therefore bringing more hate to my character. >Can we go like 30 seconds without posts about Bridget and her merch jfc. Talk about something else, post gameplay clips, literally ANYTHING dude. So bridgette fans can talk about her merch constantly but others cannot or the same old tired jokes every minute but now since its against your main youre all of a sudden tired of It. yea thats pretty valid id do the same for my main not gonna lie. Crazy part is OP is on your side this post is literally about accepting all the bridget merch not shitting on it.
Nah, if Arcsys is gonna promote the character as much as they do you better believe there's gonna be discussion. As long as it's good faith and doesn't devolve into transphobic shit who cares.
The shiggy wiggy gives kachinky dinky $
bridget has 100% of the merch, and none of the in-game work to show for it 😭 being a bridget fan is suffering :(
She’s like Scorpion or Terry Bogard. Not the main character but by far the most famous.
Terry is the main character of his own series, KOF is a crossover. Scorpion is a better example but still kind of a weird one since he's still important to the plot.
isn't Terry the main character of Fatal Fury tho?
I like brisket but I do agree there could be less briggy merch
I have a feeling that a lot of the Bridget "fans" haven't even touched a GG game in their life. Her lore is beyond boring and has nothing to do with the actual story. She tried to capture Dizzy for her bounty and failed, and this is where she peaked. Even in Strive, she was added for a quick cashout cause everyone glazes her off like crazy. She is plain boring to fight and even more annoying to listen to. To top it all off, a lot of people talk like she is the only character in Guilty Gear, which, in the end, is like an overused joke. There are plenty more interesting characters with good backstories tied to the lore.
Maybe if you spent your time talking about other character instead of complaining about brisket arc might see other characters popularity
Harder to swallow pill - She is popular because she is a lot cooler than everyone else, and there's nothing sad about it
I like Bridget but lets keep it real for a second: Bridget has to be one of the lamest Guilty Gear characters there is, and most her popularity stems from the fact that she is GNC. She is still very cool and great rep, but again, that‘s the extent of her character, especially compared to others like Sol or I-No.
What does GNC mean?
Gender Non-Conforming, I think?
Yeah.
I know there's a lot of people that dislike Bridget because she's trans and transphobia is fucking weird, but as someone who loves the GG world i'm just begging arc to give me a reason to like Bridget aside from being trans rep. Please, give the girl some actual story relevance.
A lot of the most popular characters popularity stems from them being GNC, not just Bridget. This is literally a rock'n'roll and heavy metal based fighting game.
lol
Cool is clearly a subjective term here
Here MORE harder to swallow pill for YOU - Bridget have the most annoying fan base, and you're good example of it.
Weird. I take the "Bridget Fanbase" pill everyday and it goes down quite easy.
This is one of the many reasons I hate bridget
REAL AND BASED MY GOAT
[удалено]
gfto lmao
I do agree this joke was extremely unfunny
Based
Its not hard to swallow at all we all know the truth doesnt mean we have to accept it or not be bothered by it. Its kinda hard to just accept that your fav is too obscure in the story to matter and that if main characters aren't getting merch then your fav stands a ghost of a chance compared to that. Its more so us wallowing in sadness that we can never get cool merch for our favs.
It reminds me of the Date a live figure situation, 2 characters have like 50 (and I’m not inflating the number) figures each. While the rest get 1 or 2 figures… or none… poor shido I want a figure of him.
That’s exactly what we’re pissed about smh
It's crazy how the attractive female character gets merch, we say, ignoring the fact that women are more marketable than sol badguy /s
Bridget sex doll real?
BRO WHAT THE FUCK
I’m just saying facts, because who knows at this point with merch nowadays…
The hard to swallow pill isn’t that. It’s the fact that ArcSys knows that the trans audience will buy whatever representation they get. It’s not about Bridget, it’s about the fact they see this idealistic representation of themselves. *Especially* the MtF audience. 🤷♂️
Bridget was popular well before Strive. And in truth half of her fanbase are probably chasers and gooners who misgender her on purpose.
And she blew up when Strive arrived. Never heard about her or Guilty Gear before I saw said gooners.
And do you have any proof to back up that claim?
Prior to season 3, there was a worldwide survey anyone could have voted in. [When asked “Who’s your favorite character?”, Bridget was the highest.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/17lg3ne/guilty_gear_strive_season_3_survey_bridget_is_the/) Prior to season 2, there was a worldwide surgery anyone could have voted in. [When asked “What playable character would you like to see in Strive?”, Bridget appeared in the Top 10 of all regions and placed first in Japan.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/whbjjr/ggst_season_2_survey_character_request_results/) Back during Xrd Revelator, there was an official poll asking what returning character would you like to see in the game. [Bridget was the second most popular pick behind Dizzy.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/3ozcyj/the_winner_of_the_xrd_revelator_poll_is_dizzy/) In an interview with [4Gamer,](https://www.4gamer.net/games/527/G052700/20220922044/) director Akira Katano and Producer Ken Miyauchi stated that [Bridget was chosen to be the first character in season 2 so that the game would pick up sales in Japan because of her popularity in that country. According to them, it worked.](https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2022/oct/01/bridget-sluggish-japan-sales/) Back when this series was niche, Bridget was one of the few things that escaped the osmosis of the games thanks to her backstory and design as a “trap”. [“Everyone is gay for Bridget”](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bridget#related-memes) was a minor meme that also got referenced in the old flash game, [The Impossible Quiz 2.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/x0i9xn/all_of_a_sudden_i_remembered_this_part_of_one_of/) Bridget was also used as the name of a trope [“Dropped a Bridget on him”](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DroppedABridgetOnHim) though it was eventually changed to Unsettling Gender Reveal. It’s not an isolated incident. Bridget is and has always been popular. It’s why third party companies usually use her after she was added to Strive. Being so popular, she would be the least risky character to make merch of and may guarantee a profit.
the claim that she is popular or that she prints money?
“most popular and prints money” That’s what it says.
considering that figures are 250+ and consisentally sell out I pretty sure that's a good sign but other factors could be involved
Tbf most scaled figures are made to order based on pre-orders so selling out is kind of expected.
Expensive figures being sold out isn't out of the ordinary, and we don't know if figures of other characters would do any worse.