Adaptations change things. Otherwise, what's the point? There's a whole index of 'em. Adaptational Gender Identity is when a character's gender alignment changes — cisgender to transgender, transgender to cisgender, either to nonbinary, etc.
This will often come from the creator's own experiences if the actor playing the character or the writer writing the character are trans. Sometimes it's a Trans Audience Interpretation that was made canon or a character with an Ambiguous Gender or Ambiguous Gender Identity being explicitly made something.
While not a fanfiction trope, it is very common in fanfiction due to the aforementioned Trans Audience Interpretation.
Usually a Sub-Trope to Adaptational Diversity. Compare to Adaptational Sexuality for changes to sexual orientation. Sister Trope to Gender Flip, where an adaptation changes a character's sex without regard to their gender identity, and She's a Man in Japan, where a translation of a work changes a character's sex or gender.
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Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Attack on Titan: In the manga, Hange Zoe's gender is left ambiguous, with the mangaka giving only non-answers. In the anime, she's unambiguously a woman.
- In the remake manga version of Birdy the Mighty, Birdy is surprised to learn that Christella Revi is female when all of the Space Federation's data stated Revi was male — only to learn that Revi was born male and subjected to a forced case of Two Beings, One Body — that failed, resulting in Revi's current form being female. The original manga and the OVA never wrapped their up stories completely, but evidencenote does suggest those incarnations of Revi were born female.
- Bleach: Berenice Gabrielli's gender is ambiguous in the manga, with their not even having dialogue. In the anime, they're written as male, voiced by a male actor, and use the masculine boku pronoun.
- In The Count of Monte Cristo, Peppo is a minor young male bandit who at one point disguises himself as a young woman to capture Albert. In Gankutsuou, she is a seemingly a trans woman (and much more prominent).
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1999): In the original game, Sheik is simply Zelda in disguise. Here, he is a male alter ego for Zelda with a separate consciousness.
- Moriarty the Patriot has Irene Adler transition into a man known as James Bond — who isn't transgender in his canon, either.
- Zig-zagged: the anime for Wandering Son depicts Nitori and Yuki as trans women like in the manga, while Makoto is a Camp Gay boy instead of a trans girl who has yet to transition.
Comic Books
- Alan Scott: The Green Lantern: Part of Alan Scott's backstory in Green Lantern (1941) was that the Starheart was forged into his lantern by an asylum inmate named Billings, who afterwards had his sanity restored. After initially depicted as a cisgender man, this miniseries reimagines the character as a transgender woman named Billie, whom Alan meets in Arkham Asylum when he checked himself in for his attraction to men. It takes Billie becoming an Empty Shell from the efforts to "cure" her to make Alan realize that he's better off accepting that he's gay.
- Anne: An Adaptation: Charlie Sloane, one of Anne's peers, introduces themselves by saying they use they/them pronouns, when they were originally male in Anne of Green Gables.
- In the main DC comics, both the pre-Crisis Black Canary and her Legacy Character daughter are cisgender. Black Canary in DC Comics Bombshells is based on the second Black Canary and is a trans woman.
- Demon Knights: In Seven Soldiers of Victory (2005), Sir Ystin is a cis Sweet Polly Oliver who eventually becomes Queen Ystina. In this version, everyone thinks that, however much they explain they're not a man or a woman.
- Multiversity: Teen Justice:
- Teekl's Earth-11 counterpart identifies as non-binary, when Klarion's familiar was usually depicted as female and was interpreted as male in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory (2005).
- Jesse Quick's counterpart on Earth-11 is Kid Quick, who identifies as non-binary rather than female.
- In the DC Comics 2021 Christmas Episode one-shot Tis the Season to be Freezin', a story featuring the meta-LBGTQ+ support group Justice League Queer reintroduces Sigrid Nansen to the post-Death Metal universe. Previously presented as an Ambiguously Gay woman called Ice Maiden, they are now nonbinary and go by Glacier.
- When Arcee was added to the cast of The Transformers (IDW) comics, the Cybertronians were a genderless race and an experiment was done by a Mad Scientist to introduce gender into their numbers, forcefully turning Arcee from a genderless (but male-presenting) robot to a Fem Bot. Several retcons later, it is eventually revealed that primitive Cybertronians naturally existed as both males and females, and that Arcee was "forged male" and actually approached that Mad Scientist for his help in transitioning to a body that fit her female spark despite her male chassis. Every other incarnation of Arcee simply has her forged female.
- From The Ultimates (2024), there's Earth-6160's version of Hawkeye. In the mainline comics, the role of Hawkeye has been filled by both the cisgender male Clint Barton and the cisgender female Kate Bishop. In this universe, the role is filled by Charli Ramsey, who, per Word of God, is a two-spirit
and uses gender neutral pronouns.
- Wacky Raceland reinterpreted Sergeant Blast, who was a cis man in the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon, as a trans woman.
- Wonder Woman: While not made explicit due to the culture at the time, Wonder Woman (1942) heavily implies Hypnota is a trans man. Every subsequent writer to use the character has called them Hypnotic Woman and removed any traits that could be considered transgender.
Fan Works
- In The X-Files fanfic #TrustNo1, Fox Mulder, who is canonically a man, is now non-binary.
- A Wish to be the Sun: In Bluey canon, there is no indication that Brandy is anything other than a cisgender female who might have fertility issues. In this story, she is a transgender female.
- 'And Thus...' (A MHA / XC2 Crossover): In canon, Izuku Midoriya is a cis male. In this story, she is a trans female called Izumi.
- Blessed Curse is an Alternate Universe Fic of Ranma ½ revolving around Ranma as a trans woman and how it changes the story.
- Bloom re-imagines Max Caulfield, of the first Life is Strange (2015), as a trans girl who recently started taking hormones.
- Earlier editions of Bokurano: One More Time presented Nakama as a cisgender girl, just like in canon. However, the final REMIX edition refers to Nakama with they/them pronouns in high school and avoids using pronouns altogether in middle school.
- Boxes decipts Noodle as genderqueer. Noodle is a female in canon.
- The Breaking of Hyrule series depicts The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Zelda as genderfluid.
- Clair de Lune is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Twilight/Luna fic where Luna, canonically a cis female alicorn, comes out as a trans stallion.
- Towards the end of the Dæmorphing series, Tobias realises they're non-binary and changes their name to Toby. As far as we know, Tobias was cis male throughout the entirety of Animorphs.
- DC Alterverse Project:
- The third Flash is a trans woman named Wendy West rather than the cis man Wally West, though her deadname is Wallace West.
- The second Black Canary, a cis woman in comics, is a trans woman here, following her incarnation from DC Comics Bombshells.
- In A Diamond Under Pressure Raquel is revealed to be a transgender man, saying he's Percival's son "now" and not his daughter "anymore".
- Digimon Adventure 02:
- ishikore-dome depicts Yolei, in canon a cisgender girl, as a trans man.
- The Shadow of a Unicorn's Dream portrays Hikari as a transgender girl. In canon, she is a cisgender girl.
- ishikore-dome
- Dream of Acedia (Be Your True Mind): Charlene is initially referred to with feminine pronouns like in OMORI; in Chapter 26, they come out as nonbinary and begin using gender-neutral pronouns.
- Dreamland University Redux: Bandanna Waddle Dee is a trans man in this fic, something canon never hints at.
- Earth-27: In the comics Moonrider of the Forever People is a cis male, while here they were assigned female and identify as non-binary.
- Everyday Craziness in Pontypandy: In canon, Ellie Phillips is a woman. Here, Briar Phillips is nonbinary.
- Everything she deserved: Marcy, Sasha, and Anne were all cisgender girls in Amphibia, but they are all trans or nonbinary here:
- Anne is a trans girl.
- Sasha is bigender and uses both he/him and she/her pronouns.
- Marcy is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.
- Fate/Grand Order: Ring of Promise:
- Ritsuka Fujimura is genderfluid and uses they/them pronouns. In the game, the player character is either cis male or cis female depending on the player's choice.
- Mordred is a trans male. In Fate/Grand Order, she is listed as female though she is portrayed as having an Ambiguous Gender Identity.
- Feralnette AU: Felix is portrayed as nonbinary, using he/they pronouns. In canon, he is a cisgender male.
- In Mystery Skulls Animated, both of Lewis' adopted parents are assumed to be cisgender due to them having biological children that have traits of both. In the Courage the Cowardly Dog crossover fic Forever, Lewis mentions his father is transgender while trying to convince a pair of ghosts in a homosexual relationship that LGBT people are more accepted now than they were when the two were alive.
- Formerly Known as Harry Potter? is a Harry Potter Alternate Universe Fic where Harry's abusive aunt and uncle are arrested and she's taken in by Social Services at age four. She transitions into "Lily" and is adopted by the Grangers, being raised as Hermione's sister.
- In Freaky Fabulous Pretty Cure, Frankie Stein's gender is ambiguous, with her using both she/her and they/them pronouns (a combination of Generation 1 and Generation 3). The most elaboration is that they are simply "not a girl".
- Friday Night Funkin': B3 Remixed: In canon, Girlfriend is a cisgender female, while Shaya (the mod's iteration of her) is a transgender female. Her being transgender actually factors into the mod's backstory, as her stress and dysphoria over her father wanting a male heir leads to her running away, meeting B3 soon after; with his support, she transitions into a body she's much more comfortable with.
- Friday Night Funkin' D-Sides: Daddy Dearest, a cis man in the original game, is a trans man in this universe. He remains Girlfriend's biological father, as she was conceived through magic.
- In Friday Night Funkin' HD, Girlfriend is nonbinary and uses she/her and they/them pronouns. In the original game, she was cis and just used she/her pronouns.
- In Friday Night Funkin' Logic, Taki is heavily implied to be a cisgender female in stark contrast to her portrayal in her home mod, where she is bigender and uses both he/him and she/her pronouns.
- Frontiers Unexplored: Takuya, who is cisgender in canon, is a transgender boy.
- Glitter Force: Into the Glitterverse: While Tsubasa's gender identity is never commented on in his origin series, he is a trans boy here, and in The Kedabory Verse in general. However, under the effects of the Glitter Force, he is forced back into being a cis girl. He is overjoyed when he's freed from the Glitter Force and can be a boy again.
- The Alice's Adventures in Wonderland oneshot go back to yesterday explores Alice, who is usually depicted as a cis girl, growing up as a non-binary person in the 1800s.
- The Godmother: Severus is mentioned as being genderqueer in the tags on Archive of Our Own and within the comic, he often switches between masculine and feminine modes of presentation. In canon, Severus is a cis man.
- The Sleepless Domain fanfic Good Reasons and the series of mostly one-shots by the same author center around canon male character Benzene having her egg cracked by the Dream and becoming a transgender magical girl. Transfem Benzene ended up becoming a rather popular fanon for the character, to the point that eventually the lead artist of the comic even drew her in her magical girl form by popular request.
- Gravity Owl AU: Dipper is a trans boy in this AU. In canon he was implicitly cis.
- Guys Being Dudes:
- Arlo's gender isn't elaborated on in canon. He's explicitly stated to be a Transgender man here.
- Spark is still a man, "more or less", but mentions not fully connecting with any label, including "nonbinary".
- Blanche is referred to with neutral pronouns in canon, but their gender identity is left up to interpretation. Here, they're explicitly stated to be nonbinary.
- At the time this fanfic was written, Rhi hadn't gotten a gender confirmation in English, but most sources described them as male. They're nonbinary here.
- Halfling Demon Hunters: In KPop Demon Hunters canon, Rumi was implicitly cis; here she's a trans girl.
- Hammerverse: Izuku Midoriya in My Hero Academia is cis male. Here, as a side effect of having his Gender Bender Quirk from a young age, Izuku identifies as non-binary with they/them pronouns.
- The Some Like It Hot fanfic Had to be you depicts Jerry as genderfluid, genuinely enjoying being "Daphne" even though he no longer has to disguise himself, yet still enjoying being a man sometimes too.
- Here by Accident, Staying on Purpose is an AU comic based on The Fairly OddParents!, where Timmy (a presumably cisgender boy in canon) has come out as a trans woman named Chloe and reunites with Trixie in adulthood.
- Holly Potter and the Witching World is an AU Harry Potter story taking place in a "Witching World" where 90% of the population is female and most of the characters who were male in canon have been Gender-flipped and are female here. One rather unique case is Fred Weasley, who was a cisgender boy in canon but is a transgender girl here.
- Honoka's Bizarre Adventure: Rin Hoshizora is trans female instead of cis female as in canon. Her own arc involves her dealing with feeling that she is not "a real girl" and being a threat to µ's reputation should her being trans come out.
- How Do I Admit I'm Falling Apart is set in a world where Sonic the Hedgehog (who is presumably a cis man in the canonical franchise) was born female and began transitioning between Sonic CD and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. He's inspired by Extreme Gear rider Wave the Swallow, who formerly went by "Wade the Swallow".
- Hunger Games Simulation: In its spinoff RP Another Side, Another Story, Rei, a ghost child, is identified as a transgender girl, unlike their source material where they're identified as a boy.
- Hyrule Castle High is a Legend of Zelda High School AU where Sheik isn't just Zelda disguised as a boy to hide from Ganondorf, but rather a trans boy who chooses the name Sheik.
- I Wanna be the Troll:
- The Guy is a trans girl in this fic, and changes her name to The Girl accordingly.
- Marco Diaz is a trans girl rather than a cis boy, though unlike The Guy/The Girl, she doesn't change her name.
- The Joestar Chronicles: For some JoJo's Bizarre Adventure characters:
- Erina Pendleton, Yukako Yamagishi, and Pannacotta Fugo are all nonbinary with they/them pronouns.
- Okuyasu Nijimura is trans male rather than cis male like in canon.
- I'm a Fool for Love: Caine is genderfluid but was forced to stick with his male avatar and pronouns at the harsh demands of some of his programmers/creators years ago who didn't hold favourable views of nonbinary or trans gender identities (or they simply didn't think Caine was sentient/a person enough to consider he could have a gender identity).
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic It Doesn't Repeat. It Rhymes'', Buffy is a transgender girl.
- In the fanfiction series JoJo's Bizarre Chatfics, Johnny Joestar and Narancia Ghirga, both cis men in canon, are instead openly trans men.
- Junior Officers: There wasn't any evidence that Kwazii was transgender in the canonical series, but in "A Pirate's Tail", he's revealed to have been a girl before he became a guy. This is a reference to the fact that he was a girl in the original books prior to reprints.
- Kedabory's Elmore Chronicles:
- In canon, Richard Watterson is a cisgender male. Here, Daphne Watterson is a transgender female.
- In canon, Steve Small, while having some feminine traits, is presented as unambiguously male. Here, Sybil Small is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.
- The Last Versus: While Marcy's Journal: A Guide to Amphibia shows Terri having they/them pronouns, the fanfic uses she/her pronouns, making that version of Terri female. That said, it's unknown if the author was aware of the book's usage of pronouns or not before she introduced Terri to the story at the end of Chapter 5, which was also released after the book.
- The Loud House:
- In Who You Are, Lynn Loud Jr. (a cisgender tomboy in canon) is a transgender girl trying to do more "girly" things because she's tired of people misgendering her. Lori finds her wearing a blue dress and tells her that not liking girly things doesn't make her any less of a girl and she should just like what she likes.
- The Real Me makes Lynn Jr. a trans girl and Harold McBride (a cis man in canon) a transgender man.
- In Who You Are
- The Love Club: Elphaba is non-binary rather than a woman. She doesn't have preferred pronouns, so Fiyero defaults to "they/them", Glinda uses "she/her", and Crope uses "he/him".
- Make a Man Out of You is a rewrite of Mulan where Mulan is reinterpreted as a transgender man.
- Magical Girl has Homura's promise to keep Madoka from contracting get thrown for a bit of a loop when she discovers that Madoka used her wish to transition, something that isn't implied in canon where Madoka's wish was to revive a cat hit by a car.
- Magical Metamorphosis is another trans Harry Alternate Universe Fic where Holly Potter (who didn't know she was trans at the time) passes through the girls-only dorm room unaffected, to Ron and Hermione's confusion, kicking off the plot.
- Miracle Dragon Ise:
- Issei Hyodo in canon was a cisgender male. Here, they're transgender female and were in the midst of transition when Raynare killed them, Rias speeding the process up when reviving her allowing her transition to reach completion.
- The sorcerer Unas was a cisgender male as far as the OVA depicted him. Here, Unas was a closeted transwoman, her perversion actually her subconsciously suffering gender envy and only realizing it after possessing Ise's body and then feeling gender dysphoria when regaining "his" body.
- More than Meets the Spy:
- Sunstreaker is usually a cis male in most continuities (and female in Transformers: Animated). When first appearing in the Camien Odyssey side story, she's revealed to be a trans woman.
- In IDW, the Combiner Sky Reign identified as male. In the Camien Odyssey side story, they identify as non-binary/enby.
- Murdle:
- Cryptozoologist Cloud is referred to with he/him pronouns in Volume 1 and they/them pronouns in all subsequent books, including prequel The School of Mystery. Cryptozoologist Cloud's Guide to Finding Out If Your Employer Is Secretly a Vampire explicitly states they use both in the tags, and the fic itself uses they/them pronouns in some parts and he/him pronouns in others; a Tumblr post by the author revealed them to be genderfluid.note
- Short fic Moon Cycle depicts Inspector Irratino—likely cisgender in canon, if a Long-Haired Pretty Boy—as a trans man.
- While Deductive Logico in canon is male, Between the 0s and 1snote sees him have something of a gender crisis after a disguise he's in is referred to with they/them and he never gets around to correcting people. He eventually opts to use both he/him and they/them, and while the fic itself never makes any statements about his identity, both the end author's notes and the author's Tumblr say he's a non-binary man.
- Cryptozoologist Cloud is referred to with he/him pronouns in Volume 1 and they/them pronouns in all subsequent books, including prequel The School of Mystery. Cryptozoologist Cloud's Guide to Finding Out If Your Employer Is Secretly a Vampire
- NiGHTS: Quatro Facets of Dreams: In their respective canons, NiGHTS is nonbinary, Frisk is ambiguous but implied to be nonbinary, and Pump is a cis boy. In the fic, NiGHTS and Frisk are demigirls, while Pump is a demiboy.
- In No Cheat Codes Available, Kirito goes from a cis boy to a trans girl.
- No Fate, Only Family: A fair amount of characters that were cisgender in canon are transgender here, in most cases having their canon gender maintained but having been assigned differently at birth and having gone through HRT or some other equivalent, the most prominent example being Amity Blight who is transfem here.List The most notable outlier to this is Hunter, who starts off presenting as male like in canon, but slowly realizes they are transfeminine over the course of the story before eventually transitioning, "Hunter" becoming their deadname and taking on the new name "Helyna Clawthorne". Much of this stems from the author of the fic, Janoha, being transgender herself, drawing on her own experiences when writing various characters as transgender, Amity and Helyna in particular.
- In The Panda Chronicles, Tae-young (presumably a cis boy in the original movie) is a trans boy. "Gone Baby Gone" explains that he was thrown out of his home because of it, which led to him becoming part of 4*Town.
- In Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, Ria Ami's wish was to become a naturally beautiful girl, with her previous appearance undisclosed, but with no hint it related to gender identity. Personal Memories: Broken, But Still Beautiful has this wish be the means for Ria to transition.
- The Phoenix, and Other Early Birds: Both Apollo Justice and Phoenix Wright are trans male, with Phoenix having finished transitioning years before the story. In Ace Attorney, both are cis male.
- Pokémon Crossing: In canon, Benedict's male. In Pokémon Crossing, she's a trans girl named Holly. Angus is also MTF trans, going by the name Amber.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines reveals that Melissa from Pokémon: The Original Series is a trans woman. This is a nod to how her anime counterpart was male in the original Japanese but was dubbed as female.
- The Power of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!) features Seto Kaiba as a trans man and Mai Valentine as a trans woman, while they were both cisgender in the source material.
- Pretty Cure: Magic of the Rainbow: Ellie The Guitar Fairy, a cis girl in canon, is presented as a trans boy and renamed Elliott.
- Princess (Laburnum Steelfang) tries to explain The Penguins Of Madagascar's having matriarchal lemurs ruled by a king by depicting Julian as transgender. The plot kicks off with him accidentally being Forced Out of the Closet by zookeepers who call him a "girl".
- Princess of the Corner has written a Tumblr Post that outlines the plot of Miraculous Ladybug with Marinette as a trans boy named Marin and Adrien as a trans girl named Adrienne. In the show, both of them are cis female and cis male respectively.
- Raise Your Voice Against Liars changes the gender identities of a few characters from Miraculous Ladybug and Persona 5:
- Marc, a cis boy in canon, is genderfluid here.
- Alix and Futaba, both implicitly cis in canon, eventually come out as nonbinary and use she/they pronouns.
- Jagged Stone — implicitly a cis man in canon — reveals he's a trans man to Marinette during the PMAs.
- Naoto Shirogane, who in canon is portrayed as a crossdressing cisgender woman, is here described as non-binary. Naoki Konishi is also a trans girl.
- RWBY: Scars:
- RWBY stars a cis girl named Ruby. In the rewrite RWBY Scars, Ruby is a trans girl who lived as a boy named "Crimson" for the first twelve years of her life.
- Jaune in canon is a cis boy, but he's a transgender boy in RWBY Scars, which adds to his Jeanne d'Archétype inspirations. He transitioned upon coming to Beacon. He cut off his ponytail, stole his grandfather's sword, and ran off without telling his family.
- RWBY Scars turns Weiss' younger brother Whitley into her twin sister Whitley. After being dragged back home by their father, Weiss notices that Whitley has transitioned into living as a boy.
- Sailor Moon Abridged turns cisgender Makoto into a trans girl.
- Scarlet Lady: Marc Anciel is portrayed as nonbinary and uses gender-neutral pronouns. In the show proper, Marc is a somewhat androgynous-looking boy and is referred to with masculine pronouns.
- The Self I Lost: Irina is presented as a cisgender woman in Xenoblade Chronicles X, but towards the ends of the fic, she reveals to a friend that she was actually assigned male at birth before the events of Project Exodus. Since she got to design her mimeosome body anyway, she took the opportunity to design a body she and others would always consider unquestionably female.
- She&Him (Thyl): In canon, Rattie is referred to with she/her pronouns. Here, Axel is referred to with xe/xer instead, suggesting that xey are non-binary.
- Side Stars AU: Twinkleshine is portrayed as a trans mare, while her original self in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a cis mare.
- Silver Rings and Golden Hearts reinterprets multiple RWBY characters as transgender. Penny, Glynda, Blake, Winter and Terra are trans girls/women, Mercury and Jaune are trans boys and Ren is nonbinary they/them.
- Venus/Siren of Marvel Comics was always a cis woman. In Sixes and Sevens, her counterpart Anthea reveals that she is a trans woman.
- SMG4: Love & Cephalopods: Karen (a presumably cis woman in canon) is nonbinary and uses she/they pronouns.
- It's offhandedly depicted in Solarhood that Sonic the Hedgehog (who was presumably a cis man in canon) is trans when he suffers from period cramps.
- In the Baldur's Gate III fic Something Lonesome and Wild, Astarion is depicted as a trans man. In canon, he's cis.
- Spooky Twin Pride Month Stories are a series of Spooky Month fanfics set during Pride Month, reimaging all of the cast as some manner of LGBT: in particular, Roy, Skid, and Kevin are transgender, female to male, Robert is nonbinary (and realizes it during the events of their focus story), and the Candy Dealer is voidpunk.
- In the The Owl House fanfic There's No One Like You, Luz Noceda is a trans girl, whereas she is cisgender in the original show. She experiences some harassment over it, especially after the school learns that she's dating Amity.
- Total Trauma:
- Transitions is a series of Doctor Who fanfics exploring Rose coming out as a trans man, eventually receiving hormone injections and taking the name "Ryan Peter Tyler".
- Transit Twilight is a retelling of The Twilight Saga where Bella is a trans boy named "Jack LaFleche".
- Trans Ponies is a comic where the canonically tomboyish Rainbow Dash undergoes a magic procedure that turns him into a stallion.
- In Undertale, Frisk and Chara both have an Ambiguous Gender and are referred to with they/them pronouns, but have no confirmed label. In Inverted Fate, they are both nonbinary, which is stated on disclaimers at the beginning of later video chapters, and Chara talks a few times about how their abusive birth parents wanted to force them into a traditional gender role, which they hated.
- Untethered:
- No Significant Harassment is trans-male, having transitioned after the Mass Ascension. He's male in canon, but no indication of him being trans.
- While canon keeps the gender of all slugcats ambiguous, here those that appear are given definite genders.
- Artificer is she/her female, it's even apparent in her scent.
- Spearmaster is they/them.
- Hunter is a he/him, though rarely other people refer to him as "they".
- Artificer's pups are a she/her and a they/them.
- In the RWBY fanfic, War Machines, Ruby is reimagined as a trans woman, contrasting canon where she was a cis woman. In addition, Jaune and Nora are both implied to be transgender.
- Warriors Rewrite:
- Firestar is changed from a cisgender tom to a transgender tom and transitioned as a kit.
- To explain how he's a tortie tom, Redtail is a transgender tomcat.
- In the Love Live! fic When One Becomes Many, Honoka and Tsubasa are trans women, You is a trans man, Rina is non-binary, and Chika is genderfluid. All of them were cisgender in Love Live.
- Woke Up with a Headache: In The Amazing Digital Circus, Jax was all but confirmed to be a closeted trans woman in the original work (with Word of God clarifying that this was the intent), and doesn't qualify after reforming in a more femme form. However, Gangle (who was never implied to be anything but cis) tells Jax she is a trans girl. Implicitely, both she and Zooble (canonically nonbinary) were able to see through Jax's Transparent Closet thanks to their own experiences.
- The Word of Your Body is an Alternate Universe Fic where Tobias is intersex and the core four Animorphs are different kinds of transgender.
- The Wound's Still Bleeding is a Naruto Alternate Universe Fic that reinterprets Kakashi as a transgender woman.
- You Are Lisa Simpson is a The Simpsons fanfic where Lisa Simpson, in canon a cisgender girl, is a transgender girl. Allison Taylor and Samantha Stankey are also transgender girls in the fic.
- In Your Touch | Freedom to be Me, Luz Noceda is a trans girl.
- YuyaVision: the side-story Seraph of Synchro has male Kiryu Kyosuke becoming gender-fluid (crafting his female self as "Kallen"), Placido (an android based on the male Aporia) is non-binary and one-shot opponent Grady (again male) is trans.
Films — Animated
- The Brave Little Toaster: In the original book, the appliances, being anthropomorphic objects, don't have genders, something that confuses a squirrel couple who help get Blanky out of the tree. Here, all 5 of them are referred to with male pronouns onscreen (though Toaster is referred to with female pronouns in outside interviews).
Films — Live Action
- Let Me In: In the novel and film of Let the Right One In, Eli is a trans girl, with the suggestion that human ideas of gender identity simply don't apply to vampires as a whole; Abby is a cis girl..
- The People's Joker is a parody of the Batman franchise which reimagines the Joker as a trans woman on a journey of self-discovery. Additionally, Jason Todd is a trans man, Poison Ivy is nonbinary, and there is now a fifth-dimensional imp named Mx. Mxyzptlk, instead of "Mr".
- In The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, Frank N. Furter, who's usually portrayed as a "transvestite", is portrayed by trans actress Laverne Cox, and has her pronouns changed accordingly. Despite this, she still calls herself a "Sweet Transvestite" in her "I Am" Song.
- In the novel Sliver, the character Vida is a pre-op trans woman (though she has the surgery eventually). In the movie, she's a cis female.
- In West Side Story's original stage version and 1961 film, Anybodys is a tomboyish cisgender girl. In the 2021 remake, he's a trans boy.
- A Wrinkle in Time (2003): The Happy Medium was female in the original novel. In the film, the Happy Medium cheerfully describes his gender as a "happy medium" in between male and female. He is referred to with masculine pronouns as gender neutral pronouns weren't standardized or well-known in 2003.note
Literature
- The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is a retelling of Arthurian Legend with Sir Dinadan being a transgender man.
- The book Cinder Ella 2016 re-imagines Cinderella as a trans girl who falls in love with a princess.
- It's argued in-universe in Forbidden Zone whether René (played by a man) is a girl or a boy in drag. The written decades late novelization says that she's a transgender girl and that people in The '80s didn't know the word or respect the concept.
- Green: In-Universe — the school production of The Wizard of Oz decides to allow anyone to try out for any role they want and interpret the roles according to their own gender identity. This results in the Tin Man being the Tin Queer, played by a girl.
- The real life Chris Chandler came out as a transgender woman in 2014. In the alternate timeline of Massively Multiplayer, Chandler dies in 2001, and for fairly obvious reasons remains a cisgender man.
- Peter Darling features Peter Pan as an adult trans man coming to terms with his childhood past and his relationship to masculinity.
- "The Girl Who Was A Boy" features the titular "Girl", Fet-Fruners, who's delighted to be transformed into a man at the end. At least one modern retelling runs with the idea Fet-Fruners is a trans man, and alters the pronouns used, etc.
- Sleepaway Camp: In the original film (not counting the sequels) Angela is a cis boy raised by his aunt as a girl against his will. In the novelization written over 40 years after the movie came out, Angela is explicitly transgender. Her father worries in the opening that she will be treated cruelly by the world for being different, she is open to the idea of the girls clothes that Aunt Martha provides her, and at the end of the book she clearly states that she is a girl when called a boy by the camp councilors that find her. She even chooses to transition fully with the help of the staff at the asylum she is sent to after her rampage. Her internal gender conflict is instead about being forced to pretend to be her dead twin sister, as opposed to getting to be her own person.
Live-Action TV
- In The Baby-Sitters Club, Mary Anne is the preferred sitter for a little girl named Jenny, who is four years old and rather on the prissy side but otherwise fairly unremarkable. Mary Anne is her regular sitter because none of the other sitters like her very much. In the Netflix series revamp, Jenny has been changed to a young transgender girl named Bailey, and Mary Anne is her regular sitter because Bailey's mom trusts Mary Anne — whose father is a coworker — more than she would any other sitter since she quickly understands that Bailey is trans, and stands up for her as well.
- In the Batwoman comics, Wolfspider is a cisgender man. In the 2019 Batwoman series, Wolfspider is genderfluid.
- In Cowboy Bebop (2021), Gren is reimagined as non-binary, portrayed by nonbinary actor Mason Alexander Park. The character's pronouns are he/him in the original Cowboy Bebop anime.
- Doom Patrol (2019): Danny the Street is non-binary in this continuity, when Doom Patrol comics printed prior to the show's production had the sentient street addressed with male pronouns.
- Elementary: Ms Hudson, who was cisgender in the original Holmes novels, is now a transgender woman who mentions being a Boy Scout as a child.
- Good Omens (2019): In the book, Pollution is described as a sickly-looking young man. In the show, they are non-binary (and played by an Asian woman), with even God themself referring to Pollution with they/them pronouns.
- Gotham Knights (2023): Cullen Row is reimagined as a trans boy while his original iteration in the comics is presumably a cis boy.
- Yuji from Liar Game is a trans woman. The Live-Action Adaptation Liar Game made her a cis male with a different design, who was originally Disguised in Drag. The Korean adaptation makes her equivalent a cis woman.
- In The Marvelous Land of Oz, Tip is revealed to have been turned into a boy as a baby and Raised as the Opposite Gender. Though she initially doesn't want to turn back into a girl, she shows no discomfort after turning back into Princess Ozma. In Emerald City, Tip doesn't identify as female when he's changed back into his original form, and only reluctantly stays in a female form to assume the role of Princess Ozma. Later on magic lets him shift back and forth between forms at will.
- One of Us is Lying: Janae is a cisgender girl in the book. Here, in Season 2 it's revealed Janae is genderfluid, coming out to their Love Interest Maeve (who's accepting).
- In Supergirl (2015), Dreamer is a trans girl, whereas her comic book counterpart, Dream Girl, is a cisgender girl. Later subverted, as Winn Schott accidentally reveals that there is a Dream Girl in the 31st century, and Dreamer is her very distant ancestor. The TV present-day version of Dreamer was then introduced to the main DC comic continuity as a Canon Immigrant.
- The original The Umbrella Academy has Vanya as a cisgender woman. In the TV adaptation, Viktor is a transgender man; he undergoes a gender transition in Season 3 following his actor Elliot Page's own gender transition.
Music
- The Mechanisms In their album "High Noon over Camelot", the classic Arthurian character Mordred is AFAB, originally given the name Morgause. They've also clearly transitioned, as even his own father doesn't recognize him when they're reunited after being thought dead.
Theater
- While the original film has Jerry remain a cis man after the Disguised in Drag plot is revealed, the stage adaptation Some Like It Hot has the character fully embrace the Daphne persona as her real self.
Toys
- In the original Monster High continuity, Frankie Stein was a cis girl. In the G3 reboot, they're nonbinary.
Video Games
- CookieRun:
- In the LINE version of Cookie Run, Devil Cookie was male. In LINE's successor, OvenBreak, Devil Cookie is instead nonbinary.
- In LINE, Zombie Cookie was male. In OvenBreak, it is instead nonbinary, being referred to with it/its pronouns.
- Zigzagged: in LINE, Angel Cookie, Cinnamon Cookie, Peppermint Cookie, and Snow Sugar Cookie are referred to with it/its pronouns. In OvenBreak, Peppermint Cookie is still nonbinary but had their pronouns changed to they/them, Cinnamon is male, and Angel and Snow Sugar Cookie's genders are left unspecified.
- When DJ and Sorbet Shark Cookie were introduced in OvenBreak, their genders were unspecified. In Kingdom, they are both explicitly referred to with they/them pronouns.
- In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Kyza was male, but in Japan, their identity was a bit messier due to frequent use of female speech patterns and pronouns, a trait often associated with Camp Gay stereotypes. In Fire Emblem Heroes, Kyza now goes by gender-neutral pronouns outside of Japan, heavily suggesting they are non-binary.
- In Pesterquest, Vriska Serket, Sollux Captor, and Eridan Ampora are all implied to be under the trans umbrella (Vriska being a trans girl, Sollux being a trans boy and Eridan being ambiguous but possibly nonbinary); none of this was hinted at in the original comic and all were assumed to be cis. Sollux, at least, was later "canonized" by Hussie, though it's hard to tell how serious he was being seeing as the canonization was done in a tongue-in-cheek essay involving Eridan idolizing Shrek (yes, really).
- The Space Goofs adventure game Stupid Invaders turns Candy (who in the show is just an effeminate guy) into a trans woman.
- While an Image Song establishes that the Visual Novel version of Steins;Gate's Urushibara Luka is a cis man, but gay, the anime version, especially the English Dub, says that he feels like he should have been born a girl. The two versions tend to be differentiated by referring to the anime version as Ruka (with an R) or Rukako.
Webcomics
- Alienby Comics:
- "Awakening" is a The Legend of Zelda fanfic in which Zelda is Link's post-transition self.
- "In Full Swing" is based around the common headcanon that Spider-Gwen in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a trans woman.
- "Ready to Stand" imagines Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989) as not only wanting to go up to the surface, but also wanting to be a human woman as well.
- "Awakening"
- The original Dead End animated short had Barney as an Ambiguously Gay cis man, while the DeadEndia webcomic and later Dead End: Paranormal Park cartoon series made him an explicitly gay and transgender boy.
- The Meaty Yogurt novelization makes Jackie's friend and roommate Saffron transgender.
- Yellow Brick Ramble reinterprets Ozma from The Marvelous Land of Oz as a trans girl to explain why Tip was so willing to stay as Ozma for the rest of her life after being transformed back in the original book. It also has the Sawhorse (Named by the Adaptation as Logan) unsure about his/her own gender identity and experimenting to see if any particular gender fits. And finally, the minor character Dashemoff Daily at least claims to be unsure about his gender identity and trying to figure it out also, though it's possible that was just a ploy to get Logan to agree to go on a date.
Web Original
- The 5 Gods (2021): In the original version, Scarlet is a cisgender woman, whereas in this version they are male in their god form and female in their mortal form.
- FNAFNG:
- Mangle's gender is intentionally left ambiguous in canon, while she is female in the AU.
- Spring Bonnie's gender is not stated, while he is male in the AU.
- Funtime Foxy's gender is not explicitly stated, though the AU explicitly confirms that they are non-binary.
Web Videos
- Carmilla the Series: LaFontaine gets their name from a minor character in the original novel, Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, who's one of Laura's governesses, and an upper-class cisgender woman. In the show, LaFontaine is non-binary, and only a couple years older than Laura, now being one of her dorm's RAs.
- Nomad Bones: In the review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Henry of Skalitz (a cis man in the actual game) is stated to be the daughter of a blacksmith who tries to be the son of a blacksmith, though it's not easy.
- Paint: The After Ever After series reinterprets Mulan as a transgender man.
Western Animation
- During the time when Face was the mascot of Nick Jr. in the '90s, he was explicitly male and used "he/him" pronouns. In the 2022 reboot Face's Music Party, their gender is more ambiguous and they now use "they/them" pronouns.
- Much like in the live-action film, the 2022 animated adaptation of Monster High has Frankie Stein, originally a cis girl, identify as nonbinary:
"I'm Frankie! Frankie Stein. I'm 15 days old, and my pronouns are they/them."
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
- Double Trouble was portrayed as a cisgender woman in her appearance in a side comic for She-Ra: Princess of Power but in the reboot, Double Trouble is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.
- Perfuma, who was cisgender in the original, was designed to be read as a transgender woman, as stated by Rae Geiger and supported by ND Stevenson, though this is not touched on within the show.
- The Star Sisters from the prior show are adapted in the reboot as the Star Siblings, with Jewelstar being the sole brother and a trans man.
- Tiny Toons Looniversity:
- While not directly confirmed at this point in time, Dizzy Devil (voiced by a woman) is heavily implied to be non-binary in the series. There are a few instances where they are referred to with they/them pronouns. In the original, Dizzy was a male.
- Buster refers to Tweety Bird as "they" in the first episode.
"It's where Tweety first tawt they taw a puddy tat!"
- While still set in the 1990s like the original X-Men: The Animated Series, hence the character not actually adopting the use of "they/them" as pronouns to avoid Anachronism Stew as views on gender identity weren't as developed as they are in the 2020s, Word of God is that Morph, depicted as a cisgender man in the comics and original series, is non-binary. This would gain more attention in the sequel series.
- Young Justice (2010):
- The original Halo from Batman and the Outsiders was a cisgender young woman. In "Outsiders", Halo identifies as neither male nor female. The character continues to go by she/her pronouns. In the Phantoms season, Halo explicitly labels their gender as non-binary and says that they like they/them pronouns the most, although being referred to as "she" doesn't bother them.
- Series creator Greg Weisman has confirmed that this continuity's interpretation of Infinity, Inc. member Fury (specifically based on the knockoff Infinity, Inc. founded by Lex Luthor in 52) is a transgender woman, when her comic counterpart was a cisgender man who had the power to change genders.