![]() ![]() Something that feels like a genre’s natural response to a community that is heavily queer itself, with multiple winners from this year's Evolution Champions identifying as trans and non-binary.īridget’s journey to identifying as a trans woman reckons with her problematic past. Combined with the non-binary character Testament, fans are flocking to Guilty Gear Strive due to its sensitive portrayal of queer stories. This comes after years of problematic portrayals of the character rooted in a harmful backstory.īut the team is not just saying she is trans and moving on, Bridget’s story in the game shows the character's ongoing journey of coming out. Most recently the team announced that the fighter Bridget will be coming to the game as a DLC character, as well as confirming she is canonically a trans woman. With the release of Guilty Gear Strive, the seventh mainline installment in the franchise, developer Arc System Works has sought to reckon with the series' past. The fighting game genre itself is even starting to work towards preparing its depictions of LGBTQ+ individuals in games. It is something that feels all too rare in an industry with a problematic history of inclusion. ![]() ![]() While both games had their own flaws in how they told trans stories, they were remarkable for showing a trans story at all. The other was Tyler in Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why. The first was Lev in the Last of Us Part II from Naughty Dog. In 2020 two major AAA games featured trans characters in prominent roles. ![]() Modern video games are slowly creating better representation for trans players. Trans representation in games is slowly increasing over the past several years. In other words, the debate around Poison focuses on if she has a penis or not. Poison is always described as a “crossdresser” or “transexual” and debate continuously revolves around whether she is pre- or post-op. The language surrounding Poison never treats her like a human because of the questions surrounding her identity. As far as Capcom is concerned, the publisher continues to have no stance at all, preferring to leave it to fans. Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono said that in Japan, Poison “tucks her business away” while in North America she is a post-op trans woman. In the Street Fighter x Tekken artbook, Yasuda says that he will always view Poison as cis-gendered in Japan and as a transgender woman overseas. Other characters have remarked in-game that she “is not much of a lady” or straight up said that “she’s a man.” Don’t ask, don’t tell Jokes about Poison’s questionable gender continued as she grew in popularity. But why does the discussion focus on Poison and not include Roxy? In the 2006 Capcom Classic Collection, Roxy is canonically identified as a cis woman, and Poison is referred to as her crossdressing friend. CapcomĪs Roxy and Poison made their way into other Capcom franchises like Street Fighter the debate around Poison’s gender grew larger and larger. A troubled historyĬapcom continues to sit on the fence when it comes to Poison’s transness. With the release of Street Fighter 6 coming next summer, it is time for Capcom to finally make Poison canonically trans. But in the 33 years since her debut representation for trans people in gaming has made leaps and bounds. Yet she has never escaped the problematic jokes and stereotypes that come with being a noncanonical trans character. But Poison continued to appear in Capcom games, eventually making her way into the Street Fighter series. Not even this was enough to save the two girls, as the final American release replaced them entirely with new male characters. Their first idea was to identify both characters as transgender, because in their minds that made them not women (an incredibly harmful notion). When it came time to port the game to North America, developers thought the idea of beating up women would turn off players, so they had to find a way around Roxy and Poison. Amongst the numerous enemies players were able to punch and kick were two women named Roxy and Poison. In 1989, Capcom released the beat-em-up game Final Fight. ![]()
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