The Trans Lebanne Meta Post
So I’m sure most people have seen this theory floating around, so I went in and decided to compile evidence towards this theory.
(As always with a meta post- this is not saying these theories are explicitly canon in and of itself, but more using canon tidbits to build a bigger picture.)
Evidence Part 1: The Punk Guy to Battle Maid Pipeline
As stated in the original post, we can see our one XY trainer with a similar hair and eye color happens to be the male Punk Guy trainer class.
This class (Male Punk Trainer) has two appearances in Lumiose in XY. And the only Punk Guy with a dragon on his team happens to be the Lumiose Gang Member Nix (who I suspect was a mentor to Lebanne). According the manga, this gang is made up of homeless children who live in the city’s alleys.
Lebanne’s backstory aligns well with this past. According to her, she’s a fighter who isn’t afraid to use her fists and she calls others things like “kid” and “punk.” Also given her natural speech patterns, she clearly didn’t come from higher society and has only adopted that speech type thanks to Jacinthe.
Also of note: Lebanne has multiple piercing holes in both ears that are now earring-less, implying she used to be someone who had multiple piercings but given her current circumstances she no longer wears them.
Evidence Part 2: What’s in a Name?
The original Japanese name (Harujio) and the adaptions such as Lebanne are flower-names inspired by the fleabane flower (Erigeron). Which is interesting to me because that means she has a flower name like Jacinthe.
other SBC trainers include the dragon themed name Guivre, which to me would’ve made more sense for Lebanne’s name if it was her original name.
The fact it matches themes with Jacinthe implies to me Jacinthe had something to do with picking it out. Lebanne’s past does not indicate anything that would fit a pretty flower name.
Its English name, fleabane, appears to be derived from a belief that the dried plants repelled fleas or that the plants were poisonous to fleas. So why would Jacinthe choose this flower unless Lebanne’s background involved a living situation where she would be mangy/flea-ridden?
Evidence Part 3: Pokemon Teams of the SBC (and the connection of team to gender)
In the SBC- all Male trainer models have a team of male only dragons. All females (except two*) have a team of female only fairies.
*There are two exceptions to this rule.
Trainer Guivre (from the Dragon sidequest) who is a Female trainer model with a team of Female Dragons.
Lebanne who is female and has a team of Female Dragons.
My theory is both these two chose female dragons before transitioning, because they felt a pull towards that gender. Of course, they didn’t ditch their beloved Pokemon team when they did transition so the oddity of them stands out in the pattern set by the other SBC members.
Guivre seems to look up to Lebanne and recites her motto, so it makes sense she (despite most SBC NPCs speaking of Jacinthe only) would be closest to Lebanne if they shared that past transition in common.
In my opinion, while Jacinthe might have been the catalyst to cracking this egg, the seeds of Lebanne’s desires towards a female presentation for herself were already planted.
Mostly of note, who promises to be a maid to a high society woman who doesn’t have any other maids or butlers as a deal over a Pokémon battle? You could argue that Lebanne’s pride blinded her to the potential fallout, but the fact she made the bargain says a lot. This ties into her maid outfit.
Despite all other female characters of the SBC wearing skirts or dresses, Lebanne wears bloomers, which is actually very uncommon in a maid outfit. I feel this may have been a compromise of Jacinthe’s to not forcefem Lebanne too hard right away and make her regret it. And while Lebanne seems to have some regrets about her deal, her now female presentation doesn’t seem to be one of them.
