YMMV / My Pride

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • The three goddesses; benevolent protectors of lionkind who have been cursed through misfortune into a position where they cannot actively save their wayward children, or Jerkass Gods who let a powder keg get out of control and refuse to fix their mistakes directly after 1,000 years?
  • Lite: A narcissistic monster, or an Unwitting Pawn in the goddesses' game?
  • Was Fire always the snotty jerk he was as a cub, or did he genuinely mature and become kinder as he grew up after Nothing's injury, only for the brutal reality of living on the Prideless Stretch as a No-Mane beat it out of him?
• Broken Base:
  • Nothing keeping her name rather than changing it. It's either empowering to see her reinvent the meaning of her name (with Feather's help) and stripping it of its initial abusive meaning via turning it from "this Lion is worthless" to "this Lion fears nothing"... or it comes off as a very forced Ass Pull to avoid renaming the protagonist and is ultimately demeaning to her.
  • Similarly, the use of homophobia as a plot element, and the reveal later in the series that lioness/lioness pairings are punishable by death via the strict definition of pride law, is this. Either its handled well, or it comes out of nowhere, is handled at least mildly offensively, and the fact that it's tied to the myth arc of how pride law came to be is too gross/disturbing to deal with. It's enough of a problem that some people stopped watching the show because of it.
• Designated Hero:
  • Hover is this in spades to some people. While she does seem to love Nothing, their first meeting involved her mocking and laughing at her because of her name and appearance, which was only egged on because Nothing refused to talk about it in the first place. It only got worse in episode 5 after Nothing missed her (Hover’s) Huntress Assessment due to meeting up with her brother, who she hasn’t seen in over a month, mind you, and losing track of time, chewing her out because the test was important to her. Never mind that she didn’t care about Pride Law at all until she joined Nothing’s Pride, it goes over the edge when she refuses to help Nothing save Fire from Quickmane’s wrath because of this reason, telling her to solve the problem herself, even though she could very realistically get herself killed herself. Yet we’re still meant to empathize with her and support her and Nothing’s relationship despite how toxic it plays out in practice.
  • Powerstrike gets this treatment too. Her treatment towards Nothing throughout the series involves her suggesting the very insensitive and ableist name “Hobblestep” before she even has a chance to prove herself in her Huntress Assessment, saying that said assessment was a waste of time when she failed, named her NOTHING because of it, refused to accept her sympathy after Sharptongue died, and blaming every last bit of her problems on her because of an injury that wasn’t even her fault to begin with. Much like Hover above, in episode 7, we’re made to feel sorry for her when she starts talking about how much she misses her despite none of her attention toward her being loving in any sense of the word.
  • Surprisingly, Quickmane suffers from this as well! In his death, we’re meant to feel upset that he’s no longer with the pride as Feather laments his sorrow to Nothing, and Powerstrike calls out Proudmane’s reluctance to follow the Sisters Steppe’s take on a more modernized bit of Pride Law, saying that even though both of them knew Nothing and Hover were an item, that they accepted them regardless of the supposed forbiddance of same sex relationships within a pride. Earlier episodes even try to paint him as a good father to his children despite his aggressive nature. All this despite being just as mentally abusive to Nothing as Powerstrike is, him being the one who crippled Nothing in the first place, AND threatened her with death because she tried to hide the fact that Fire was in the area.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Nothing freezes when she sees Fire kill Barkmane, remembering when their father Starmane died, seeming to have PTSD.
• Fanon:
  • Nothing will either be called Braveheart, Something, Brave, Loyal, or something of the kind. Though some would prefer her to keep being called Nothing. After the events of the finale of season 1, Nothing getting renamed is pretty much Jossed.
  • A lot of people seemed convinced that Fire cannibalized Tangle after killing him on the Stretch. The crew of the show also made jokes pointing to this, but Tribble dismissed this theory.
  • While also a discredited theory, many assume that Waterhunter doesn't speak because she's mute.
  • There is a wide range of people who believe that Spark, Nothing's brother who was killed by Quickmane as a cub, is Ghost.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Like Tribble would really let Fire actually kill Feather.
• Narm: Nothing screaming that her name is Nothing to the heavens when she gets into a fight with Fire after he supposedly killed Feather and repeatedly keeps calling her “sister” as he did when they were younger comes across as this when, if applied to a more familiar naming convention, would be akin to someone yelling “My name is Dumbass!” Or Dipshit, or any other name just as demeaning.
• The Scrappy:
  • Many viewers grew to hate Fire after he Took a Level in Jerkass, acts just as ableist as the rest of his family, killed his best friend, and seemingly kills his cousin Feather.
  • Same goes to Powerstrike for being an ableist and being an Abusive Parent to Nothing.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The show is supposed to be about an LGBT couple overcoming the hardships of a homophobic society, but as the main LGBT couple have broken off halfway into the first season, we hardly get more than 15 minutes of that plot before it gets bogged down by reincarnation prophecies surrounding Nothing.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Waterhunter and Silentstalk don’t do much aside from stand next to their respective sisters, Powerstrike and Farleap. Episode 7 in where Hover leaves the Sister Steppe to find Nothing after getting into an argument with Proudmane about her being dead or alive could have been used to flesh them out more as characters as they were strangely neglected in comparison to their sisters, but they merely get left behind with Proudmane with their fates uncertain and hardly any form of communication between the two parties. To make matters worse, is that this is THE episode that gives Powerstrike and Farleap sympathetic qualities despite how unfairly cruel they were to Nothing before she left herself.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A lot of people have this reaction after the season 1 finale, where after an entire season of damn near every single character abusing Nothing, she meets up with her brother (one of the few nice characters) who Took a Level in Jerkass, acts just as ableist as the rest of her family, killed his best friend, and seemingly kills her cousin Feather. Even when Feather is revealed to be alive, the two are still separated. Making things worse is that she decides to keep the name "Nothing" which was given to her by her mother as an act of cruelty, when most fans thought she would rename herself to something less demeaning. Overall at the end of the season Nothing has had no hopeful moments and seems like the punching bag of the universe.
• Too Cool to Live: Sharptongue was a badass Hunt Chief and a wise storyteller, but ultimately dies of old age and sickness in episode 3. It helps that she is one of the few characters who is nice to Nothing.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Hover, Farleap, and Powerstrike all get hit with this.
  • Powerstrike is an ableist Abusive Parent to Nothing, even giving her daughter said name as an active cruelty towards her and her handicap. Yet we're meant to sympathize with her when she openly says she's ashamed of Nothing because she had high hopes for her prior to her injury. Not even watching her grieve her mother was enough to make fans sympathize with her, as she lashes out against Nothing during the ordeal when Nothing tried to comfort her. Fans are very skeptical of her apparent Heel Realization at the end of the season as a result.
  • Farleap is similarly abusive to Nothing, verbally harassing her and trying to insert herself between Nothing and Hover's relationship. She's also a Green-Eyed Monster who's jealous of Nothing for taking up Powerstrike's attention, believing it makes her Always Second Best in their mother's eyes... nevermind that said "attention" is often abusive in nature. Judging by Hover's in-universe reaction to Farleap lamenting this, we're suppose to sympathize with her over this.
  • Lastly, Hover/Longrun. In the beginning of the series, she acts as the only good thing in Nothing's life. However, after circumstances prevents Nothing from attending her naming ceremony, Hover immediately turns on her mate, and sides with her abusers. Thus making her come off as a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing bastard girlfriend to many viewers. While she is shown to regret her decision later, many find it to be too little too late, especially since she's bringing the two above to help her search for Nothing.
• The Woobie:
  • Nothing is a Stoic Woobie, because of all the stuff she goes through and never shows it affects her.
  • Feather is a sweet cub that has to deal with the deaths of his father and sisters, because of him spilling the fact that his dad has problems seeing out of one of his eyes.
  • Hover spent her whole life taking care of herself on the stretch then fell in love with Nothing. She decides to give up her name. She yells at Nothing for missing her ceremony then she is lead to believe that Nothing is dead.
  • Waterhunter loses her son and daughters then has Proudmane's cubs quickly after.
  • Asra has to watch her love die from a lightning strike caused by her sister and ends up blind from the same lightning.

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