We all know somewhere, deep down in that battered, broken down bed… Bedman is still writing a paragraph on why you’re inferior and reading it at Mach 8.

When Bedman saw the Abyss, he shuddered in fear and tethered himself to his humanity. When Happy Chaos saw the Abyss, he said "well shit." It screamed back. He screamed back. This went on for several hours before "fuck you get out of my house" was uttered and Happy Chaos got the bright idea to make on omelette.

Naoki has confirmed that it's not "Come to me ten billion years in an instant" but "*Consuming* ten billion years in an instant" which makes more sense to me.

This feels like the flipside of Drift and it's great for it. Chaos saw both sides of existence and said "screw it, I'm gonna enjoy myself." Bedman saw it and found pure empty terror.

every Guilty Gear theme sounds weird when you first listen to it but they always grow on you overtime

The last "I'm here, i'm here" is so fucking sad, you can feel Bedman's sorrow for not being able to be there for his sister.

Aint no way they turned the last living thoughts of a dying man into a requiem for his character theme

Strive’s soundtrack really emphasizes the advantage of using lyrical tracks for character themes as a way to convey their stories. Naoki and Aisha keep killing it every single time!

Radiant light: *Seen* Beautiful chant: *Heard* Tender warmth: *Felt* Ten billion years: *Consumed* (in an instant) Me: *By your side* Also me: *On the border of the CIRCLE*

I noticed that in Guilty Gear whenever a character dies and gets brought back, they usually are only have strong emotions for one specific person. Zato can only feel around Millia, S-Ko is STILL haunting Zappa, and now Bedman literally can’t do anything else but protect Delilah. Bedman spent all of Xrd trying to create a perfect world, but when he actually got a chance to go to Heaven, he chose to stick around in a broken busted up bed to protect his sister.

this is a funeral song for a brother who has a determination to protect his sister so strong that death itself won’t stop him

this song deadass makes me emotional fr especially the part near the end with "I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE YOU SMILE, BUT I'LL NEVER MAKE YOU CRY EVEN ONCE" hits especially hard if you also have a younger sibling

Bedman gameplay: Haha funny buzzsaw Bedman lore:

Finally... I can sleep peacefully after knowing the lyrics.

3:13 This entire sequence is genuinely heartwrenching, and it puts the entire song together PERFECTLY. It fits the ordeal Bedman is going through, being too damn brotherly to die

the way Naoki pronounces "Copy That" near the end being different the two earlier Copy That's in the song to me makes it feel like Bedman himself made a personal statement, and not an order to his bed that he will be there to protect Her.

This song and its implications hurt infinitely more when you remember Bedman's immediate reaction to Elphelt's instant kill is "You cannot replace Delilah!"

heres some bedman lines that are now really damn funny in retrospect: -"The existence of your friends and family does not give you strength. Let me ask you this: Did you lose because they weren't enough? Sounds like an excuse to me." -"I do not understand humans who are motivated by love. a person is born, lives for a number of years, and interacts with up to eight billion people. What proof is there of something they can't even define?" -"Associating ghosts with 'death' is a very occult approach to observing reality. But if you consider for a moment that it might be alive, then it's hardly amusing. Now, what becomes problematic here is the definition of life and death. I'm not one for the abstract or romantics, but I do have an understanding of it."

I still can't help but interpret this theme as the thoughts Bedman was having in his final moments. The final "I'm here" abruptly ending the vocals comes off as the moment Bedman's life finally fades, leaving behind only the scattered programing in his Bedfame, and the resolve to protect his sister. These tracks do not miss.

the virgin "this song is bad because its not good to listen to in game" the chad "this song is good because its good"

The "No, you can't see the radiant light" section is genuinely beautiful. Bedman(?) is actively refuting *God* from giving him an afterlife. It's worth *nothing* to him, because it doesn't have what he really wants, and that's his sister's safety. Because it's not there, he argues that God HIMSELF doesn't understand it, that God doesn't understand how much devotion and resolve it takes to let your soul remain in a battered husk if it meant protecting the people you love. That God doesn't understand the connection that he had to his sister. Bedman sacrificed everything he ever was, his voice, his flesh, his mind, his chance for peace, and maybe even his soul to protect Delilah. The best part? He thinks that any other option is stupid.

I love almost every song in Strive, but The Circle combines awesome music with one of my favourite motives in fiction: (un)death. Clinging to a part of one's humanity, but not being exactly here, on the verge of madness and chained by something eldritch. And yet that piece of soul still driven by something precious in the mortal world, a task too important to abandon even despite the death itself.

Everyone: "Surely, you can't keep making banger after banger." Daisuke:

I find it beautiful how this song has people giving it such interesting interpertations as to what the lyrics mean. One thing remains the same: "Bedman rejected death and what comes with it to protect Deliah". But the thing that is always different is the interpertation of the death itself. The lyrics are so vague about the death of Romeo, that you can see everything about wether or not the After Life exists as correct. Tons of lyrics that sound Nihilistic such as "Nothing Here" and "You can't see the Radiant Light", implying that Romeo found nothing, but also lyrics that simply don't make sense if that really were to be the case. The reason behind this? *"Pitch Black, Pure White, All the same"* . The reason the lyrics are so vague on the concept of the After Life is because Romeo doesn't know the answer to it, because he didn't stay there long enough to find out. The song talks in vague tongues as it symbolizes Romeo at the exact moment he dies. He asks god if he can feel the tender warmth of heaven, while having second thoughts and thinking that maybe there is *"Nothing here"* . But near the end, he says *"NO! You can't see the Radiant Light"* , and that's not because he realized that there is nothing, but because he realized Robo-Ky's words, the ones he spoke before he and Venom killed Romeo, how he is satisfied as long as he can help someone. At that moment, Romeo realizes that he doesn't want his question answered, so he puts words in God's mouth to piss him off and make sure no answer is provided. Then, Romeo predicts that God would ask him about how can he even DARE to put words in GOD's mouth of all people and not desire the answer he seeked all this time. So, he answers God's question before he can even ask it, by reciting Robo-Ky's own words, *"If you can give someone something"* . He basically tells God to go fuck himself, and that he won't be staying to find the answer. He rejects death and embraces a life of suffering. He comes into terms with the fact that there is *"No Home"* for him to go back to due to now being nothing but a nameless machine, there is *"No Rest"* for him because he will continue living as a broken husk that keeps itself awake by feeling nothing but pain, and that there is *"No Hope"* for the perfect world he tried to build to save everyone, but he can still give something to Deliah, he can still protect her. He could have embraced the eternal rest of peace, whether that would be within the Tender Warmth of Heaven, or the Dark Endless Void of Nothingness, but he'd rather stay with Deliah, because as long as he can help her, then he is satisfied.

This song gives me the determination to protect Delilah. On God, nobody is even TOUCHING her when I'm on the controller

Honestly, this is the 1 song that hits the hardest because of how much I relate to it, I'm the oldest amongst my siblings, and I had a good hand in basically raising them, I've done a lot of things for them because of personal reasons, I've given a lot of myself for their sake and I've gotten myself in a lot of situations for their sake, damn near dying a few times. And I'd do it all again. Hell, I'd fucking die for them.

I love the idea of Bedman having so much willpower, that his spirit possessed the bedframe. It's so fucking badass and haunting.

Fun Fact: Delilah and Romeo (OG Bedman) is named after 2 of Freddy Mercury’s Cats

"Circle!" Man got me crying, those profound lyrics, its just so deep and tragic, truly a masterfully written song Nah but for real the song slaps damn hard

That's definitly a GGS theme. "Yeah not to sure about this one" on the first listen, and then listening to it on repeat for hours

Some things I feel need addressing with regards to the song's meaning. "Where there is no beginning and no end, will I be like that?" "World I left and can't reach" "Endless, finite" "Nothing here but" "You can't feel the tender warmth if you can give someone something" There IS an afterlife. These lyrics wouldn't make sense if there wasn't. Bedman has reached the afterlife, but there is nothing in it he recognizes, nothing of importance to him. He's trying to reach the mortal world, but he failed. He's stuck in a circle, a shape with no beginning and no end, yet finite in its volume. Something does exist, and he's actively trying to escape it, because none of it consists of Delilah. He can't let go. He can't move on and experience the radiant light, the beautiful chant, and the tender warmth, because he can still give someone something. He can still protect Delilah and give her the life he can no longer have. So long as that's true, he's not letting go. It's not that there's nothing, there's clearly something, it's that there's nothing that's so good he would give up Delilah for it.

4:23 “I may not be able to make you smile, but I’ll never make you cry even once.” That, my friends, is LOVE.

Strive's probably the first game I saw with both an beautiful orchestral song that makes you feel the pain inside the character's mind and a death metal that makes you shake your head and break your walls Truly a masterpiece of a game

"God! Do see the radiant LIGHT" gives me chills I love it.

Dont you guys love it when the man in the bed known as bedman in a bed frame dies and turns into the bedman in the bed, man?

a mechanical bed: "i may not be able to make you smile (but...) BUT ILL NEVER MAKE YOU CRY EVEN ONCE! *NEVER!* " me: *crying in a corner*

I don't get how this song has so much hate on Twitter. On top of being a great song, it's deep as ffffffffff dude. There's so many experiences of people dying saying they were going through a tunnel or a bright light... chanting or choir of angels... He can't pass on. Or rather, he refuses too to the point that's it's absurd. He found a way to exist separately from the circle of life and death that everyone else experiences. Struggling to deny his soul passing on and cling to the bed since his mortal body perished, to protect his sister... You won't here the chants, or exist in a higher plane, or feel the warmth and love of the creator. He's put himself in a purgatory of sorts and might be... stuck? He got what he wanted, but he may be doomed to remain this way? At least until the bed finally breaks for good. It's beautifully tragic and paints an incredible picture of what he's going through just to be there for her in ANY capacity. I don't care what anyone else says, this is ART.

10 billion years in the joint made you a fucking bed

Can we talk about how perfectly the music and the moves sync at 1:30? incredible job, love these videos

There's no character archetype that I love more, than the brave, staunch protector who does everything out of love. Whether that love is toward everyone of a people, or someone who is precious to the protector; they do it without relenting and without a care for anything else, for they know what is most important to them. I wish to be that protector for someone I love some day.

I just realized what the 'Radiant Light, Beautiful Chant, Tender Warmth' is supposed to be. Heaven, an afterlife to pass onto. This makes me think about the bed itself, if its truly the spirit of Bedman. What if it *isn't*, actually? Isn't that more tragic? The idea that this machine is clinging so desperately to this directive because without it, it has no purpose or will of its own to carry on. It has no afterlife to pass onto. There's probably a place afterwards for Bedman to pass onto, but not the machine. So, in order to continue, it channels the motivation of its creator and clings desperately to its final directive: Protect Dalilah, as long as it can. Otherwise, it must return to oblivion. That's what 'NO, YOU CAN'T FEEL THE RADIANT LIGHT, YOU CAN'T HEAR THE BEAUTIFUL CHANT, YOU CAN'T FEEL THE TENDER WARMTH' is. It's the bed recognizing that if it stops, there's nothing after this.

So the lyrics to The Circle were updated on the Guilty Gear wiki. The changes are: "And if the words that won't go waste to rule my head" is actually "And if the words that won't go away still rule my head" "Comes to me ten billion years in an instant" is actually "consuming ten billion years in an instant" "I've watched a new pendulum" is actually "I've watched and you've been alone" "Where I'm left and can't reach" is actually "World I left and can't reach" "Where I can find with access to the back of my eye lens" is actually "What I can find with access to the back of my eyelids" "No" is actually "Go" Just wanted to list these.

I don't listen to new guilty gear strive themes until CloudDrop drops it

yk now Bedman's intro became so much funnier because i thought of the idea that Delilah just ended up wandering into whatever the stage is and Bedman just drops in from fucking nowhere directly at Delilah's location

circle feels so: c̷̢̬̼͎̑̔͜ì̵̙͔̗̦̻ȑ̴̛͙͚̖̼͙̫̻͓͎͋̉̅̔̄́̈́͋̔̀͛̓̇͝ͅc̴̢̡͕̬̬͎̖̩̣̭̳̎̿͒͆̅͛̓̓͑́̀l̸̛̘̳̞̟̩̼̪͔̥̠͆̃̅̊̿̔̽̃̽͆̌̐́́͌͋̈́̾̈́͊͠e̷͈̱̰͈̮̺̤̪̗̘̲͊͗͋̒̅̈͘

Naoki's scream & growl misses sometimes but he really nailed it in this song

4:23 this whole section is absolutely beautiful

So I saw this somewhere else but this song might be the representation of Bedman's final moments. The more I thought about it, it made perfect sense. The song starts with Bedman seeing the "circle" (or the edge of death.) The chanting maybe being the last things Bedman can hear. He first assesses the situation before realizing something, there's silence everywhere. He then asks God if there's a heaven afterwards. He's starting to fear what's happening. But there's "nothing here". He starts to panic, black, white, infinite, finite, it all mixes up. That's when a voice says "Copy that", that voice likely being the bed but I'll get to that later. "Comes to me ten billion years in an instant." Is him starting to fade away as he sees it all. Everything that's happened comes to him in one instant. But in that instant of seeing everything, he remembers his sister. He says he'll come to her without a second thoughts, trying to cling on to something. He's now on the border of the circle, the border of death. As for the new pendulum comment... I have no clue, if someone has an idea then tell me. He truly is getting desperate at this point, there's nothing the further he gets past the circle, the instrumentals getting more frantic until he asks again. Is there a heaven, he know the answer but he's trying to cling onto anything. But he finally realizes there is absolutely nothing. No radiant light, no beautiful chant, no tender warmth, nothing. (The "if you can give someone something" I can not find the meaning of.) No hope, no rest, no home, he knows the he will finally be gone forever. The chorus plays one last time, but with a change. He knows he'll be gone with only the bed left, but he knows the bed is listing. He knows he won't be able to make Delilah smile but he promises to never make her cry and protect her. He let's put the final "I'm here" before cutting out abruptly before the instrumentals, him finally having gone past the border of the circle. EDIT: So after reading the replies I have to say that this song is really deep, and while I don't agree with some of the replies interpretation, I still acknowledge that they can be correct. This song is one of the deepest in strive and I think that there can multiple interpretations of it, honestly I'd like to hear more of them.

at 3:10-3:32 I imagine Bedman/Romeo (His human form) raising a careful hand and caressing Delilah's tearful face slowly, and Delilah grabbing onto it as she leans closer into her brother's hand. Then, right when the chorus says "No", Bedman blinks, and sees that his hand is replaced by the mechanical arm of his weapon. Then at 3:34 Delilah leans closer to his mechanical arm as the chorus reminds the listener that Bedman(?) is not truly Romeo himself. Just a shadow of what he once was. Once the line "If you can give someone something" a raindrop falls from the sky and acts as a tear for Bedman(?) to cry, and the POV shifts to the tear itself as it falls to the ground, and soon, transforms into Romeo himself, twirling in midair diving into the darkness of the unknown with his eyes closed. The POV would then shift ever closer to Romeo's face with these three lines "NO HOME" "NO REST" "NO HOPE" Romeo would then open his eyes and extend his arm as though to command his weapon, The Bed, to protect Delilah. *"Copy that"* Easily one of the best parts of the entire song. I love it.

WE MAKING IT OUT OF THE BACKYARD WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

"I see the circle ay ya ya ya" best lines ever.

The idea Bedman is going through literal hell just for his sister is both incredibly sad yet also unbelievably wholesome, guy just wants to see his sister stay safe even after his own demise.

I'M HERE! I'M HERE!!! ... He's not here anymore is he.

Even on deathbed and in verge of losing himself, he still trying to save his sister and when he success, he leave behind the guardian, a part of himself in form of his bed, to protect his sister. While he failed his sister by leaving her behind, he's make sure nothing will happen to his sister and fulfill his original goal, to releasing her from Dream World and live as normal girl

The way he screams “circle” keeps me up

That song breaks me... Its lyrics sounds more sad than others, describes suffering that a character is feeling right now, inside his bed, while Leo's theme is more about memories and I-no arc is over at end of game, Bedman(?)'s suffering continues...

Listening to this while watching the solar eclipse rn also.

I’ve had this song stuck in my head since yesterday when they came out so I’m glad we have the lyric video already

I've listened to a lot of sad music and beautiful music... But nothing has truly brought me to tears the way this has... This is a clear masterpiece.

I love the "cute little kid protected by this huge, scary guy" trope

1:05 this part is fucking INCREDIBLE

Bedman: about to die Also bedman: lemme drop this banger real quick

I just realized I'm banging my head with a song about a killer bed-machine that protects a little girl. C O P Y T H A T

"Pitch black! Pure white!" Hit quite hard

Just thought i'd let you all know that the chorus has now been confirmed by naoki himself to be "consuming ten billion year's in an instant, and i'll come to you without a second thought", not "comes to me ten billion year's"

Daisuke didn't just cook he did a full on gourmet meal with this.

A common thread I’ve seen with a lot of GGS character themes is their relationship with attachments. Bedman’s attachment to his sister, Zato-1’s attachment to Millia, Potemkin’s attachment to the world preventing him from achieving nirvana , I-No’s attachment to her old love driving her insane, Axl letting go of his attachment to his old world, etc. I’m sure there’s more but it’s interesting that so many characters are focused on their earthly attachments that it gives some the will to literally defy death. Edit: Happy Chaos’ theme in particular is entirely focused of his lack of attachments, leaving him unanchored and adrift, while Bedman’s attachment to his sister has him desperately clinging to the world despite being dead.

i dont fear the machine i fear the strong will of a dead spirit that simply ignores that it is dead.

Ironic enough i slept on this song, it fucking slaps

Kids worry of the monster under the bed but those monsters should worry of the bed itself

I was listening to this on the bus and I almost cried It hits so fucking hard

What makes this song even more sick is that its basicaly bedman calling god a scrub for not being able to take him away from delilah

I love how this song goes directly from "comes to me 10 billion years in an instant" directly to "I'll come to you without a second thought." Because it shows that even though he's trapped in Hell, he doesn't care because he still has to protect Delilah.

Kinda ironic how a character named BEDMAN can't get any rest.

This song just proves that Bedman is rolling in his grave

I feel like a song has not ever made me feel the way I did in 3:34 . The heart wrenching, crushing realization after asking yourself several times, that there is nothing after death. There's no light of salvation, no beautiful sounds, no warmth embracing you. There's only the silent, empty, sheer-cold reality, nothing less, nothing more.

I just realized something, the Bridge ends with the reason why he can't find peace. "You can't see the radiant light, you can’t hear the beautiful chant, you can't feel the tender warmth, if you can give someone something." Its an answer to why he can't find peace, saying he won't experience any of that while he still has something left to give someone, in this case his sister.

I like how after the "Copy that." bit there is a robotic boot up sound, making it seem like Bedman is giving the bed orders from the after life instead of his soul controlling the bed, giving the "I'm here. On the border of the circle." lyric a pretty neat meaning.

This song is growing on me scarily quickly, Daisuke keeps knocking it out of the park

3:13 this feels like the moment Bedman first woke up after his fight with Venom and Robo-ky and met Ariels (and by proxy happy chaos) and realizing that she had absolutely no interest in saving humanity and that he was tricked. the way the song abruptly goes "NO" feels so heartbreaking as if Bedman finaly realize that he's been manipulated the whole time

God, this guitar at the end just gives me life. The rest of the track is amazing and has been on the loop (heh) since the release, but that guitar part is just.. Nirvana

4:24 This part speaks to me on an emotional level

Bedman's fate is heartbreaking, so to make myself feel better, I like to imagine that even though the bed is busted, Bedman himself is still hanging around, shit-talking his opponents even as a ghost.

Okay bedman, what's your favorite shape? Bedman: 3:03

It's something about hearing the word "circle" pronounced with such energy

This came out when I was at my lowest. I think it deserves a praise from me, for this song introdused me to metal

I would give the sloppiest top for clouddrop to upload the gravity

When you get so mad you become god for two seconds

As someone who is both an older sibling and who has experienced near death several times this song holds so many unique meanings to me. Having spent so much of my life skirting about the edge of the circle of life and death while sometimes holding on for the sole sake of not leaving my younger siblings alone in the world. The shear panic in realizing that death may be an incomprehensible mind shattering void as you are staring death in the face. The acceptance of your fate. And finally breaking out of the circle only to rejoin knowing that one day you will break out in the opposite direction and it will be all over. An absolute banger by Daisuke as always.

The Lyrics always go so well with the lore of the character is insane.

This quickly became my favorite theme as far as the story it tells. Some of these lines hit hard man. The almost desperate yet determined "I'm here!", "I'll come to you without a second thought", and especially "I may not be able to make you smile, but I'll never make you cry even once. Never!" really communicate Bedman's mission to protect Delilah so beautifully.

I don’t even play guilty, but bedman? Is my favorite

I'll absorb all my Guilty Gear knowledge the same way I got half of RWBY's character development. An egregious amount of the banging music thrown on repeat.

I think I'm starting to see that "the circle" is life, and the cycle of life and death, and he's telling her he's not moving on until she's ready

When you're a brother and you are are so ride or die to protect your siblings that not even death itself can stop you. There's something endlessly beautiful about that.

as a metalhead, i really like this song even though a lot of other strive players apparently dont. i also like that even though romeo is dead, the lyrics are telling a story from his point of view. even though hes gone, his will and final wishes were programmed into the bed, effectively suspending him outside the circle of life and death in a way, making it so that even if his body and soul have moved on, his will lingers in perpetual animation to protect deliliah. really cool little detail for a character no one really liked or cared about in xrd

Bedman is such a undervalued character. he saw the infinite void that comes after death...stuck in a featureless space where he cannot do anything but feel time ticking by. But no matter how much time passes, he refuses to fade away....because he still has a job to do.... and that's how we got Bedman?.

Romeo dropping bangers even in deathbed

Redditor attempts genocide (dosen't live to regret it)

The "circle" is a clear reference to the cycle of life and death, but the song itself is about Bedman breaking free of that cycle just to be with his sister.