>>724804029
>I have no opinion on the Bridget discourse other than I think he/she is more fuckable with the Strive design.
I definitely like how fluffy he is.
As far as the "discourse", I've come to just accept it. I think Bridget's original story is really poorly written anyway. In a vacuum, looking at AC, you have this kid who was raised as a girl under threat of death and leaves home to prove his masculinity. However, he still insists on dressing and acting super girly and is always super happy. There's a dissonance in his presentation as a character versus his supposed conflict. If he was really sincerely wanting to be masculine, you'd think he'd take the fucking outfit off at least. You could say, well, it's all he knows, but we have real life examples of people raised one way but that conditioning not sticking and their inherent behavior and identity taking over when they're out of the oppressive environment. That's not how humans work.
Strive recontextualizing the old writing as him insisting upon a masculine veneer makes since with how he repeatedly implied his behavior was an act, him asking Baiken to teach him to be less ladylike (which reads like a cope to me), and him still presenting as a girl. Strive's characterization of Bridget is of someone who was born being forced to be something, who then continued to force another thing upon themselves, and is finally accepting that they are simply who they are, instead of a label. I think that's why the symbol on his hood changed from a male one to an androgyne one. Granted, he also had female symbols on his old design, which makes the fusion of the two on his Strive outfit very meaningful.
If people want to interpret this as identifying as a girl, that's fine. It makes those people happy and it means something to them. I see it as less cut and dry, and I still consider Bridget a boy. I think the whole point of the character is that it doesn't matter.