The Circle is About a Guy Who Can't Go to Heaven....(Guilty Gear Strive Song Breakdown) 

I love Bedman because even though he is cruel, his lessons actually help people like his talk with Ramlethal on the concept of how every life is precious that he went as far as deleting her dog in front of her then creating a new one that is the same appearance as it to show her that life isn't something that you can just throw away, that a person that you build a relationship with is unique and shouldn't be neglected.

As a lore nerd, I'd just like to say that some of the references to infinity and white/black being the same may be less philosphical in this case and more a literal telling of experiencing the afterlife in Guilty Gear. In Guilty Gear, the dead return to The Backyard, essentially an interdimensional space of pure information that contains all of the "data" of the universe. Being a part of the backyard is an overwhelming ordeal of experiencing all information of the universe throughout its history simultaneously, both good and bad. Zato's theme, Let Me Carve Your Way, references this in the chorus as it retells Zato's experience with being dead and how it essentially shortcircuited his ability to feel emotion. "Drowned in pain, I lost my mind... / Drowned in gain I lost my mind, there's no good or bad in there." The afterlife/Backyard is an infinite experience of both pleasure and pain. The overwhelming experience of being part of the Backyard is probably what the song means by "Consuming ten billion years in an instant." I also think its sweet that Bedman, despite experiencing what has been shown through Zato to be a traumatizing afterlife, still protects his sister without hesitation: "And I'll come to you without a second thought."

I always thought the “I’m here, I’m here…” part was referring to Romeo talking to Delilah to reassure her that there’s nothing to be scared of and that her big brother is there

The way I interpreted the metphorical "circle" from a literary perspective is at once the confines of the bed and its ruined form, and the circle of life and him absolutely RAGING against death.

Interesting. I interpreted Bedman's intentions to be the exact opposite of how you interpeted it. You seem to be saying that Bedman is struggling to get _into_ Heaven but is unable to. I always thought it was Bedman struggling to stay _out_ of Heaven and on Earth despite his death, to stay with his sister. I think this is backed up by "the best part of the song" as you called it (I agree) if you take it as one statement and don't separate the lines. "No, you can't see the radiant light, you can't hear the beautiful chant, you can't feel the tenser warmth, *if* you can give someone something." If you can give someone something, you can't see the radiant light. You can't pass on to Heaven while still being able to interact with the material world and living people. As I see it, Bedman is giving up his place in Heaven to stay in this half-dead limbo state -- "on the border of The Circle" -- to be able to protect his sister.

I would say that the concept of the circle isn't so much about heaven as it is about Samsara. According to Buddhist teachings, Romeo would be due for reincarnation instead of transcendence, as he murdered a lot of people (and a dog) in life. His struggle to go outside the circle would probably be so that he could keep watch over Delilah instead of having to leave her behind in order to follow with the cycle of reincarnation. That would make "you can't see the beautiful light / you can't hear the beautiful chance / you can't feel the tender warmth / if you can give someone something" be about his reasons to linger around this world instead of moving on. Funny enough, these themes would connect it to Mirror of the World in a sort of antagonistic way. The lyrics for Mirror of the World include the mantra of light, which is used to relieve a deceased person from karmic burdens and allow them to transcend Samsara so, on one hand, you have Baiken praying that Romeo moves on and is freed from the burden of his crimes and on the other, you have Romeo trying to foresake afterlife as a whole to watch over Delilah.

the interesting bit about bedman's arc is that he started cruel in Xrd however when he dies and pretty much posseses the bed that's when he actually notices everything he's done not only to the world around him but also to his sister.

bedman wasn't even a bad guy he was just manipulated by the universal will he may be hyper inelegant but ironically he was naïve and was tricked his story is filled with irony down to the not believing in love or gamily but being motivated by saving his sister being the strongest but dying to his own illness not even the guys who fought him being rational and logicall but now his own hell is filled with inconsistencies zeros and choirs that he cant hear its all a mess for someone who had everything laid out for him his own nightmare brought upon him self by himself its ironic because his instant kill was a nightmare theatre for his enemies i could go for hours on my own analysis of this song and bedmans character i love him

Yes I did come here early to receive the "Gospel of Guilty Gear" at 1 am... so what?!

I think the song is about the Backyard and Bedman's experiences with it. Being "outside of the circle" could refer to being in a separate reality. He consumes 10 billion years in an instant because of the Backyard's infinite knowledge. With magic, code, etc, there's likely traces of Romeo in the bedframe, so he's on the border of the circle, being partially in reality. The intro is Bedman (alive or half dead) wondering if he'll even have any afterlife, or if it's just silence, and questioning if God awaits. Later, he realizes there is no God in his universe, only the Backyard.

Another way to take the lyric “consuming ten billion years in an instant” is as a reference to Bedman and Delilah’s ability to think and perceive at an extremely advanced rate. He’s saying that even if he waits billions of years in his own mind, the instant she needs him, he will be there.

Heya, Bed lorehead here! I like your interpretation, here are some small things that I'd like to add! Although its easy to assume, Bedman's soul is not confirmed to be in the bed, nor is it very likely (unfortunately :[). The Bedframe is solely running on magic and code to protect Delilah, and has possibly become "alive" after it has been given this order through Bedman's magic since it does show emotions and care for Delilah; though this has also not been confirmed. Before XRD, he deleted his own ID and became a miltidimensional being, like Nagoriyuki, which caused complications when his soul's essence tried to return to the Backyard (like how burried people give their body back to the earth, in GG something similar happens). In short, you're still mostly right! Bedman is still *somewhere*, and The Circle is less about him being stuck in the Bedframe, and more about him essentially being "outcast from reality", so to say. He can no longer reach this world, Delilah, or an afterlife.

What dying does to a mf

I actually love just letting the video play while I read comments here, some people here give interesting perspectives

Coming in late with this, but there's another lyric on here that is incorrect and was pulled from a fan's interpretation of the lyrics (The official ones still aren't out yet so this and the 'comes to you ten billion years in an instant' are the only two we know for sure are wrong) "And yet the words that won't go waste to ruin my head" is actually "and yet the words that won't go away still rule my head." The second one is more interesting to me, cause the words could refer to the sheer amount of information going through Bedman's brain that forced him into his bed, so even in death his 'mind' is still tormented by information influx and he's just in eternal suffering OR the words could refer to the fact that Bedman had a tendency to remember the names and physical traits of every single person he killed, in the hopes that he could revive them all once he obtained the perfect Absolute World. But after he was betrayed by Ariels, that plan was all for naught. And now he has to live with the names and faces he went through so much pain to burn into his memory, knowing he killed them all for nothing.

i interpret That Bedman's little weird voice he does in the "best part" (i agree) seem like a broken desperate man holding onto the thought that he can stay out of heaven if it means that he can protect Delilah. he desperate for her understanding in arcade maybe, and when Delilah asks for him to away and stuff, he's hurt but is ultimately realizes that his pain from the deteroting bedframe is in vain, and when Delilah asks ram and them to stop fighting, she finally accepts that it's her brother trying to leave her alone against the bed programing to stay with her to protect her. i don't care that the website kinda shoots down the theory of romeo himself in the bed, its my headcannon, ill choose the sad story for my favorite ggst charcater.

I envision the circle as meaning something like the cosmos and its governing rules, since what Happy Chaos says implies Romeo ascended to a multidimensional existence. The dream world in Guilty Gear is also often depicted as solid white so perhaps when the contrast of black and white is brought up, it could be meaning that where Romeo expected to find death, he found what was yet another dream.

I feel that during his favorite part, bedman is very bitter towards god. *congrats, you won but for fuck sake at least let me apologize to my sister*

There's an interpretation of the circle that I've yet to see anyone discuss. Bedman has become code, the machinery of the bed. When you are a program that is running, you are in a loop. Constantly checking logical evaluations. When you reach the end of the list, loop back to start and check them again. That's the new pendulum. The black and white is either the black and white of text, or 1's and 0's being Pure True and Pure False in a Binary sense (this comes up a couple other places in GG lore, like when I-No ascends, looks out at the horizon, and tells Sol that all she sees is 1's - just yes, it exists, it is True). You consume millions of years in an instant because time moves so much faster when you are a magical machine doing so many calculations every second. The border of the circle is when one of the conditionals on the behavior loop finally triggers, reminiscent of how most code 'tabs over' when you're within a sub loop. Romeo isn't actually involved in changing the observations that the robot can make, all he has done is change what the bed does in reaction to information - his influence is the furthest over edge of the code, the part that says what Bedman? executes.

About the 10 billion years line, i somewhat remember that bedman once mentioned having 10 billion years worth of knowledge or something to that effect

This is exactly what I wanted thank you

Master! Congrats!

Bedman it's peak, but I still feel that what we got in Strive it's a fraud. It's not possible that we cannot hear or even SEE HIM again as a ghost on the bed, when Zato-01 literally COME BACK TO LIFE in Xrd, it's just not fair and I want my man again.

I love bedman

LowTierBed

yippee

You keep calling bedman evil but he wasnt, he was lied too, he thought that after all the murder and he made the absolute world he could bring everyone back, he remembered the names of everyone he killed, everyone who was in babylon etc because he thought after he made paradise be could save everyone he hurt to get there, he was then killed after realizing that wasnt going to happen and then used the last of his life to save delilah instead of kill ariels