The revelation that Moonstrike, the mate of Barkmane seen at the end of Season 1, is transgender initially threw me off. Far be it from me to demand an explanation for why a character belongs to a minority group; it just seemed incongruous given how cruel the setting is. Given how Pride Law functions, I thought, surely a trans lioness would be doomed to be misgendered and sent to live as a no-mane? Would have put this under Headscratchers, then I recalled a few things:
First, Powerstrike's comment about how the homophobic aspects of Pride Law are "seldom enforced", something she was very quick to point out in Nothing and Hover's defense when Proudmane bristled at their relationship. Given how committed to the law the Sisters Steppe pride were until that moment, and that she'd never defended Nothing before then, she must have really meant seldom.
Furthermore, look at the near-complete acceptance that the Sisters Steppe pride showed when they were taken over by Quickmane and subsequently Proudmane, and compare that to Moonstrike's cold refusal to let Fire take charge. Even if we assume most prides don't really care about the anti-LGBT aspects of Pride Law, Barkmane's pride comes across as not caring about Pride Law at all. Perhaps Nothing's former pride is simply behind the times, and whatever pride Proud came from even more so. Perhaps a few other prides have come to recognize what Nothing and her loved ones have, that Pride Law is cruel and that there are no longer any Emerald Valley leaders to enforce it. As Fire mentions, Barkmane has no cubs, which might suggest that he and Moonstrike were also monogamous, another deviation from Pride Law norms.
Another possibility: Proudmane specifically says that relationships between lionesses are forbidden. It's possible that this is the only anti-LGBT rule in Pride Law. Without further confirmation either through the show itself or Word of God on just how these intricacies work in the My Pride universe, we might never know for sure.
This is true. Since Lite's entire motivation for writing Pride Law was his rage at losing his betrothed to another lioness, he may very well have thrown in a very specific "no lesbians" rule in there out of spite. Trans acceptance does still seem out-of-place in a world with such dystopian gender roles, but the rules being totally arbitrary and tailored to what the despot finds distasteful does tend to be a regular feature of tyrannical systems like that.
Waterhunter is shown to already have another litter of cubs during the Episode Seven teaser. What do you want to bet that the mating was less than consental.
