History Main / TransAudienceInterpretation

* George (short for Georgina) from ''Literature/TheFamousFive'' has gotten this speculation over the years as she seems to have traits that go above and beyond what you would normally expect from a tomboy. She even outright declares that she wishes she wasn't born a girl at one point, although that was arguably more to do with the StayInTheKitchen mentality of the time than anything else.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': Flaky was originally envisioned as male, but after many viewers [[ViewerGenderConfusion thought she was female]], the creators eventually stated her to be female. Because of this, along with her not having [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics eyelashes]] like the other female characters, some fans portray her as a trans girl who hadn't come out yet when her first episodes aired.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGZoIT_RHk&ab_channel=ExplosmEntertainment This]] ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' sketch, as many comments speculate on, doubles as AlternativeJokeInterpretation. The sketch could either be read as a ScatterbrainedSenior not remembering her own child, or as IHaveNoSon with a trans male son.

* Major Motoko Kusanagi from ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' is often read as trans. She was assigned a sexless yet stereotypically female shell by Section 9. She feels a strong disconnect with her body, with that awareness making her feel isolated. She goes out of her way to go diving even if it is something her body wasn't "designed" for. She [[spoiler: merges her consciousness with the Puppet Master]], a being created with no gender, has a female body and uses he/him pronouns, and [[spoiler: gains a new understanding of herself, in a way that could be read as her transitioning]]. Depending on whether one reads the manga or watches the movie, she [[spoiler: is reborn in either a male or female shell, for which she does not seem to care much, as her new consciousness understands her body does not define her]].

** An alternative theory is that the Peter Parker from Gwen Stacy's dimension is also trans due to his somewhat scrawny and weak physical appearance, [[spoiler: and his need to "get stronger" using the lizard serum.]]

** ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'' also has [[spoiler:Jackrum]], who is very frequently interpreted as a trans man due to having spent so long playing SweetPollyOliver that he feels uncomfortable with the idea of returning to a woman identity. The narration also only refers to [[spoiler:Jackrum]] as 'she' during TheReveal, only to return to 'he' during the character's last appearance. Quite a few fans also interpret [[spoiler: Maladict(a) the vampire]] as genderfluid or nonbinary or trans-masculine, because their behavior has ''everyone'' convinced they are male throughout the entire story (even a bunch of [[spoiler: girls who are less successfully crossdressing]]) and because they ''don't'' reveal their biological sex when [[spoiler: all the girls come out to each other as female.]] Instead, they only mention this near the end of the book, when the protagonist gazes admiringly at a female officer from another country who is actually dressed in a uniform that reveals that she is female, thus implying that her superiors don't have a problem with female military service.[[note]] (Though the character in question is actually a police officer, and her boss is adamant that the police should ''not'' operate like a military force. The point about much greater gender equality in Ankh-Morpok still stands.)[[/note]] People who ship [[spoiler: Mal]] and Polly sometimes interpret the former's decision to reveal their biological sex at this particular moment as the action of a person who is generally more comfortable presenting as male and only was like "Oh, so you like boobs? I have boobs too, you know." when they saw their crush admiring a woman in [[FormFittingWardrobe boob armor]]. Especially considering that Polly had shown zero physical attraction to anyone throughout the entire book up till this point,so her sexual orientation is pretty much left up to interpretation both by the reader and in-universe.[[note]] (Her staring at the female officer wasn't about attraction either, though it could easily be interpreted that way by a bystander.)[[/note]]

* Both of the male protagonists in the ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}'' fantasy series by Lynn Flewelling get interpreted as genderqueer by some fans, though for different reasons: The teenager Alec was very obviously based on classic [[TheIngenue ingenue]] tropes[[note]] (blond and blue-eyed; generally kind-natured, caring and somewhat naive personality; lots of blushing and embarrassment about nudity even in an all-male situation; several instances where he is sexually threatened by male enemies; etc.)[[/note]], which the first-time author simply [[GenderInvertedTrope genderflipped]] back in the late 1980s / early 1990s when there weren't really any established writing conventions for m/m romance storylines yet. As a result of this and an almost total lack of typically teenage-male anxieties or MaleGaze in his narration[[note]] (He's supposed to be bisexual, but mostly shies away from girls who come on to him and shows so little attraction to anyone - except Seregil ''after living with him for half a year'', a female sex worker who reminds him of Seregil's female disguise, and a woman with a virgin-fetish who used ''mind-altering magic'' to "seduce" him - that a demi-sexual or gray-ace interpretation makes more sense.)[[/note]], his psychology comes across more like that of a tomboy than that of a cisgender boy. Seregil, the older protagonist, has a more convincingly male personality, but he's a LongHairedPrettyBoy (Alec also grows his hair out in the later books) and he actually spends a good chunk of the first book in female disguise - which he is quite enthusiastic about and he is [[AttractiveBentGender pretty enough while in drag]] and convincing enough in his undercover identity as a young-ish noblewoman that straight men fall in lust with him if they don't know about his real gender and even his straight-identifying male best friend of many years gets uncomfortably confused to the point that he refuses to work with him whenever he's in female disguise. It also helps that both of these characters are of slender/wiry build and [[spoiler: elven]] and thus [[{{Bishonen}} don't really grow body hair]], with Seregil expressing some dysphoria about the beard he gets stuck with for a few days when he is [[FreakyFridayFlip magically body-swapped]] with another male friend.

** Some fans, such as the authors of ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/218661/chapters/328921 John Egbert and the Goblet of Sick Fires]]'' have interpreted Dave as a trans man. A lot of his character arc involves musing about and struggling with the conventions and expectations of masculinity (his character plays with the 90s TotallyRadical cool guy archetype), bolstering this interpretation, though canon ties this to him accepting his bisexuality. This fan theory got an indirect nod in the post-canon sequel ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues (Meat)'', when [[spoiler: Roxy, Dave's biological mother,]] comes out as transmasculine and becomes basically a clone of Dave, matching his exact appearance and mannerisms. This interpretation became so popular that the idea of trans men naming themselves after Dave became a meme among the fandom.

** Some people interpret the current incarnation of Leylas Kryn as transgender. While it is [[WordOfGod canon]] that she and her consort have had all sorts of bodies and genders throughout their [[TheNthDoctor multiple lifetimes]], there was no official statement on her current identity and she's not listed as a trans character on the wiki. However, the tie-in comic ''The Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen'' noticably avoids showing her torso naked in the brief sex scene (and in an artistic nude alternative cover illustration, her cup size seems so small that she can cover up completely with just her slender hands - which kind of implies that the bust of her usual dresses is padded). Also, she has apparently no problem believing that she could impregnate her currently butch-but-cis-female consort, though there was some unexplained magic involved in this conception. And after the writer got to this scene, the artist started drawing her with noticably more masculine facial features (jawline, nose, etc.) The artist's character design notes also describe her as "broad-shouldered and statuesque". One gets the feeling that at least the comic artist decided that the whole magical child storyline [[spoiler: and the protagonist's frustrated/alienated reaction after she starts suspecting that the kid is not actually hers but rather the result of a vaguely implied sexual assault by a supernatural enemy]] would make more sense if the protagonist was trans, even if that was not the official line that the comic creators got from the webshow's GameMaster.[[note]] (And Matt, being the good ally that he generally is, almost certainly would have mentioned on Twitter if the trans-female interpretation was intended for this character. Unlike with mainstream TV shows, there's literally nothing stopping him, and he has declared a handful of other non-player characters from campaign 2 to be trans.)[[/note]] Also, the narrative framing device of this comic is about a 'teenage' Drow boy who's recovering his memories from a past life as [[spoiler: the Bright Queen's consort]] throughout this storyline and in the end, he(?) accepts that as his(?) identity going forward, though it's left open to the reader's interpretation whether this character keeps identifying as male or switches to a genderqueer self-identification.
** Ashton is canonically nonbinary and uses he/they pronouns, but some fans interpret them as trans-masculine as well. This is partly based on some RainbowLens statements (e.g. that they used to be "soft" as a child and only started developing the literally hard-as-stone body of an Earth Genasi at the age when kids normally enter puberty[[note]] It's left unclear whether this is the normal development pattern for the Earth Genasi race or if some outside influence turned him "hard" artificially, like a metaphor for hormone treatment during transition.[[/note]]), as well as their outfit in the official character art (which seems specifically designed to make the character easy to cosplay if you need to wear a binder, instead of being shirtless like male barbarian class characters are traditionally depicted). And also based on the fact that the player pushed for a bathhouse scene very early on, but then conspiciously ''didn't'' use that scene to reveal what his character looks like in the nude - rather, he just said that Ashton bathes alone and doesn't want to be touched by the bath attendants. (Though this later turned out to be [[spoiler: a chronic pain issue]] and not necessarily a body dysphoria issue.) And there's also the FridgeLogic question why a gruff and buff brawler, who really doesn't have any particularly feminine personality traits, would ever decide to identify as nonbinary, if they were assigned male at birth... (Unlike with most examples on this page, it is entirely possible that this trans-masculine interpretation is actually intended by [[Creator/TaliesinJaffe Taliesin]], Ashton's player, who is bisexual and somewhat gender-nonconforming and clearly cares a lot about providing queer representation even for rarer minorities. But he probably wouldn't ever officially confirm this, because while several of Critical Role's cis-male players have portrayed cis-female characters and this is not considered a problem in this ActualPlay TabletopRPG webshow medium, a cisgender player portraying a transgender character would probably still be considered appropriative by this show's queer fans.)

** The Archfey Artagan is canonically male and [[Creator/MatthewMercer Matt]] gave him a deep, masculine voice, but at the same time his [[TheFairFolk fey nature]], the [[LongHairedPrettyBoy long red hair]] and Matt's somewhat queer-coded body language while portraying this character make him come across as so androgynous that Liam jokingly refers to him as [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} "David Bowie"]]. As a result, it's quite easy to interpet Artagan as genderqueer if you so wish - especially since he also likes to shapeshift for the sake of disguise or just to mess with people, and between campaigns, he [[spoiler: became a TricksterGod, very similar to Loki in the mythology example above]]. Some of the fan artists interpret him as so [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/criticalrole/images/8/8a/Jester_and_Artie_pixelllls.jpg feminine and beautiful]] that it's really hard to tell that he's supposed to be cis-male.

** An alternative theory is that the Peter Parker from Gwen Stacy's dimension is the one who is trans due to his somewhat scrawny and weak physical appearance, [[spoiler: and his need to "get stronger" using the lizard serum.]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGZoIT_RHk&ab_channel=ExplosmEntertainment This]] ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' sketch, as many comments speculate on, doubles as AlternateJokeInterpretation. The sketch could either be read as a ScatterbrainedSenior not remembering her own child, or as IHaveNoSon with a trans male son.

* If the character is a WholesomeCrossdresser, and he crossdress enough to the point that it becomes a part of his entire character, then some may see it as a sign of him being non-binary or a closeted trans woman.

* A character undergoing GenderBending or Crossdressing and enjoying their alternate-gender form.

** In the one-shot special ''The Night Before Critmas''[[note]] (That's not a typo.)[[/note]], [[Creator/MarishaRay Marisha]] played a Christmas elf of indeterminate gender, who can be interpreted in all sorts of genderqueer ways, but there was never any official statement about his/her/their gender identity.[[note]] (This character is a lumberjack with a long, bushy beard, [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics female-style eyes]] in the cartoony official character art, a gender-neutral name, and a gender-neutral personality as TheAce. The other players used various pronouns to refer to this character throughout the game session and Marisha never corrected anyone. Beyond the other players' initial surprise that she decided to give her character a fancy beard, the character's gender presentation was simply never questioned or discussed. The female guest player they had at the table for this one-shot special then proceeded to roleplay her "excited fangirl" type character as having a massive crush on the lumberjack.)[[/note]] Also, [[Creator/MatthewMercer Matt's]] male player character in this one-shot special lends itself to a transgender interpretation - not because of the very traditionally masculine (and slightly axe-crazy) "ex special forces" type personality or because of the rather unremarkable character art, but because Matt decided to both semi-cosplay as his character ''and'' to put on eyeliner and the same body glitter that all the female players at the table were wearing for this festive occasion. Even [[TheDandy Taliesin]] was only wearing eyeliner to help visually reflect his "disaffected teenage goth" character, so the fact that Matt went out of his way to put on makeup that clashes with his character's fashion style and characterization can be interpreted as a subtle suggestion that his character is ''biologically'' the same as the female or genderqueer Christmas elves played by the ladies, underneath his tough and grizzled hyper-masculine presentation. (...Though more likely, Matt just wanted to look pretty for the day and/or wanted to help normalize gender-nonconformity for cisgender men. This is hardly the only time he has worn somewhat feminine makeup or gender-bending cosplay during a special episode of ''[[WebVideo/CriticalRole]]'')

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'': Gwen's sideplot, in which her father disowns her for coming out as Spider-Woman, followed by him reconciling with her when he realizes to accept his daughter for who she is, resonates with many trans viewers who can relate to particularly rocky coming-outs. Her bedroom has a sign reading "protect trans kids" and the scene in which George Stacy accepts his daughter is lit with the colors of the trans flag. George also has what appears to be a small trans flag pin on his police uniform, though it's hard to make out. Part of her arc also revolves around rejecting the binary options of Miguel's rhetoric.

* Waver Velvet from ''Literature/FateZero'' is sometimes interpreted as a trans man due to his very feminine appearance as a 19-year-old and struggle to be accepted as a "real" magus despite being only a third-generation mage being similar to wanting to be seen as a real man. When he appears later in '' LightNovel/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles'' he has undergone a dramatic physical shift akin to the second puberty brought on by HRT, including his voice significantly deepening.

** In the one-shot special ''The Night Before Critmas''[[note]] (That's not a typo.)[[/note]], [[Creator/MarishaRay Marisha]] played a Christmas elf of indeterminate gender, who can be interpreted in all sorts of genderqueer ways, but there was never any official statement about his/her/their gender identity.[[note]] (This character is a lumberjack with a long, bushy beard, [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics female-style eyes]] in the cartoony official character art, a gender-neutral name, and a gender-neutral personality as TheAce. The other players used various pronouns to refer to this character throughout the game session and Marisha never corrected anyone. Beyond the other players' initial surprise that she decided to give her character a fancy beard, the character's gender presentation was simply never questioned or discussed. The female guest player they had at the table for this one-shot special then proceeded to roleplay her "excited fangirl" type character as having a massive crush on the lumberjack.)[[/note]] Also, [[Creator/MatthewMercer Matt's]] male player character in this one-shot special lends itself to a transgender interpretation - not because of the very traditionally masculine (and slightly axe-crazy) "ex special forces" type personality or because of the rather unremarkable character art, but because Matt decided to both semi-cosplay as his character ''and'' to put on eyeliner and the same body glitter that all the female players at the table were wearing for this festive occasion. Even [[TheDandy Taliesin]] was only wearing eyeliner to help visually reflect his "disaffected teenage goth" character, so the fact that Matt went out of his way to put on makeup that clashes with his character's fashion style and characterization can be interpreted as a subtle suggestion that his character is ''biologically'' the same as the female or genderqueer Christmas elves played by the ladies, underneath his tough and grizzled hyper-masculine presentation. (...Though more likely, Matt just wanted to look pretty for the day and/or wanted to help normalize gender-nonconformity for cisgender men. This is hardly the only time he has worn somewhat feminine makeup or gender-bending cosplay during a special episode of [[WebVideo/CriticalRole]])

* Both of the male protagonists in the ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}'' fantasy series by Lynn Flewelling get interpreted as genderqueer by some fans, though for different reasons: The teenager Alec was very obviously based on classic [[TheIngenue ingenue]] tropes[[note]] (blond and blue-eyed; generally kind-natured, caring and somewhat naive personality; lots of blushing and embarrassment about nudity even in an all-male situation; several instances where he is sexually threatened by male enemies; etc.)[[/note]], which the first-time author simply [[GenderInvertedTrope genderflipped]] back in the late 1980s / early 1990s when there weren't really any established writing conventions for m/m romance storylines yet. As a result of this and an almost total lack of typically teenage-male anxieties or MaleGaze in his narration[[note]] (He's supposed to be bisexual, but mostly shies away from girls who come on to him and shows so little attraction to anyone - except Seregil ''after living with him for half a year'', a female sex worker who reminds him of Seregil's female disguise, and a woman with a virgin-fetish who used ''mind-altering magic'' to "seduce" him - that a demi-sexual or gray-ace interpretation makes more sense.)[[/note]], his psychlogy comes across more like that of a tomboy than that of a cisgender boy. Seregil, the older protagonist, has a more convincingly male personality, but he's a LongHairedPrettyBoy (Alec also grows his hair out in the later books) and he actually spends a good chunk of the first book in female disguise - which he is quite enthusiastic about and he is [[AttractiveBentGender pretty enough while in drag]] and convincing enough in his undercover identity as a young-ish noblewoman that straight men fall in lust with him if they don't know about his real gender and even his straight-identifying male best friend of many years gets uncomfortably confused to the point that he refuses to work with him whenever he's in female disguise. It also helps that both of these characters are of slender/wiry build and [[spoiler: elven]] and thus [[{{Bishonen}} don't really grow body hair]], with Seregil expressing some dysphoria about the beard he gets stuck with for a few days when he is [[FreakyFridayFlip magically body-swapped]] with another male friend.

** Back when this webshow didn't have any official transgender representation yet, Vex'ahlia was interpreted as a trans woman by a few fans, due to the fact that she's frequently described as looking [[HalfIdenticalTwins identical to her twin brother]] except for a couple of inches difference in height. There's also the fact that she has a ''very'' unsupportive father (the twins ran away from home as young teenagers because of his neglect and emotional abuse), whom she nevertheless still wants to impress or prove herself to (unlike her brother, who has simply stopped caring about what their father thinks). And while she's normally a very self-confident character, she anxiously fusses with her outfit the night before meeting her father again after many years, trying to make sure she looks "put together". (In canon, this is about her elven father's classism and racism against his own half-human children.)

** Ashton is canonically nonbinary and uses he/they pronouns, but some fans interpret them as trans-masculine as well. This is partly based on some RainbowLens statements (e.g. that they used to be "soft" as a child and only started developing the literally hard-as-stone body of an Earth Genasi at the age when kids normally enter puberty[[note]] It's left unclear whether this is the normal development pattern for the Earth Genasi race or if some outside influence turned him "hard" artificially, like a metaphor for hormone treatment during transition.[[/note]]), as well as their outfit in the official character art (which seems specifically designed to make the character easy to cosplay if you need to wear a binder, instead of being shirtless like male barbarian class characters are traditionally depicted). And also based on the fact that the player pushed for a bathhouse scene very early on, but then conspiciously ''didn't'' use that scene to reveal what his character looks like in the nude - rather, he just said that Ashton bathes alone and doesn't want to be touched by the bath attendants. (Though this later turned out to be [[spoiler: a chronic pain issue]] and not necessarily a body dysphoria issue.) And there's also the FridgeLogic question why a gruff and buff brawler, who really doesn't have any particularly feminine personality traits, would ever decide to identify as nonbinary, if they were assigned male at birth... (Unlike with most examples on this page, it is entirely possible that this trans-masculine interpretation is actually intended by Taliesin, Ashton's player, who is bisexual and somewhat gender-nonconforming and clearly cares a lot about providing queer representation even for rarer minorities. But he probably wouldn't ever officially confirm this, because while several of Critical Role's cis-male players have portrayed cis-female characters and this is not considered a problem in this ActualPlay TabletopRPG webshow medium, a cisgender player portraying a transgender character would probably still be considered appropriative by this show's queer fans.)
** The fans who interpret Ashton as trans-masculine often also head-canon Orym as transgender, especially in fanfic that ships these two together. There's actually little basis for this, other than gay trans-male fans identifying with Orym's attraction to muscular guys who are a good deal taller than him. (He's a gay Halfling, so that's true for most of his potential shipping pool anyways.) And, well, Liam (Orym's player) is a very emotionally expressive and romantic soul who likes to cuddle with whoever sits next to him at the table (in campaign 3, that includes Taliesin, Ashton's player) and he just has something about him that leads even some ''lesbian'' fans to say that they're attracted to him or to his cis-female one-shot characters[[note]] (Liam does ''not'' dress up in drag for these female roles, and his personal style isn't gender-nonconforming at all, unlike with Taliesin or Matt, who sometimes wear nail polish and/or eyeliner. With Liam, it's purely a matter of conveying femininity through understated but oddly convincing body language and a soft-spoken voice.)[[/note]] (and in some cases also to Vax'ildan, who is cis-male but very much an elven LongHairedPrettyBoy). And besides that, there's probably also a factor involved where some afab nonbinary or trans-male-but-not-dysphoric fanfic writers prefer to write erotic fanfiction that only involves characters who have body parts that they can identify with.
** The Archfey Artagan is canonically male and Matt gave him a deep, masculine voice, but at the same time his [[TheFairFolk fey nature]], the [[LongHairedPrettyBoy long red hair]] and Matt's somewhat queer-coded body language while portraying this character make him come across as so androgynous that Liam jokingly refers to him as [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} "David Bowie"]]. As a result, it's quite easy to interpet Artagan as genderqueer if you so wish - especially since he also likes to shapeshift for the sake of disguise or just to mess with people, and between campaigns, he [[spoiler: became a TricksterGod, very similar to Loki in the mythology example above]]. Some of the fan artists interpret him as so [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/criticalrole/images/8/8a/Jester_and_Artie_pixelllls.jpg feminine and beautiful]] that it's really hard to tell that he's supposed to be cis-male.
** In the one-shot special ''The Night Before Critmas''[[note]] (That's not a typo.)[[/note]], Marisha played a Christmas elf of indeterminate gender, who can be interpreted in all sorts of genderqueer ways, but there was never any official statement about his/her/their gender identity.[[note]] (This character is a lumberjack with a long, bushy beard, female-style eyes in the cartoony official character art, a gender-neutral name, and a gender-neutral personality as TheAce. The other players used various pronouns to refer to this character throughout the game session and Marisha never corrected anyone. Beyond the other players' initial surprise that she decided to give her character a fancy beard, the character's gender presentation was simply never questioned or discussed. The female guest player they had at the table for this one-shot special then proceeded to roleplay her "fangirl" type character as having a massive crush on the lumberjack.)[[/note]] Also, Matt's male player character in this one-shot special lends itself to a transgender interpretation - not because of the traditionally masculine (and slightly axe-crazy) "ex special forces" type personality or because of the rather unremarkable character art, but because Matt decided to both semi-cosplay as his character ''and'' to put on eyeliner and the same body glitter that all the female players at the table were wearing for this festive occasion. Even [[TheDandy Taliesin]] was only wearing eyeliner to help visually reflect his "disaffected teenage goth" character, so the fact that Matt went out of his way to put on makeup that clashes with his character's fashion style and characterization can be interpreted as a subtle suggestion that his character is ''biologically'' the same as the female or genderqueer Christmas elves played by the ladies, underneath his tough, grizzled and very masculine presentation.

** The Archfey Artagan is canonically male and Matt gave him a deep, masculine voice, but at the same time his [[TheFairFolk fey nature]], the [[LongHairedPrettyBoy long red hair]] and Matt's somewhat queer-coded body language while portraying this character make him come across as so androgynous that Liam jokingly refers to him as [[Creator/DavidBowie "David Bowie"]]. As a result, it's quite easy to interpet Artagan as genderqueer if you so wish - especially since he also likes to shapeshift for the sake of disguise or just to mess with people, and between campaigns, he [[spoiler: became a TricksterGod, very similar to Loki in the mythology example above]]. Some of the fan artists interpret him as so [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/criticalrole/images/8/8a/Jester_and_Artie_pixelllls.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210718032651 feminine and beautiful]] that it's really hard to tell that he's supposed to be male.

** Some people interpret the current incarnation of Leylas Kryn as transgender. While it is [[WordOfGod canon]] that she and her consort have had all sorts of bodies and genders throughout their [[TheNthDoctor multiple lifetimes]], there was no official statement on her current identity and she's not listed as a trans character on the wiki. However, the tie-in comic ''The Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen'' noticably avoids showing her torso naked in the brief sex scene (and in an artistic nude alternative cover illustration, her cup size seems so small that she can cover up completely with just her slender hands - which kind of implies that the bust of her usual dresses is padded). Also, she has apparently no problem believing that she could impregnate her currently butch-but-cis-female consort, though there was some unexplained magic involved in this conception. And after the writer got to this scene, the artist started drawing her with noticably more masculine facial features (jawline, nose, etc.) The artist's character design notes also describe her as "broad-shouldered and statuesque". One gets the feeling that at least the comic artist decided that the whole magical child storyline [[spoiler: and the protagonist's frustrated/alienated reaction after she starts suspecting that the kid is not actually hers but rather the result of a vaguely implied sexual assault by a supernatural enemy]] would make more sense if the protagonist was trans, even if that was not the official line that the comic creators got from the webshow's GameMaster. Also, the narrative framing device of this comic is about a teenage boy who's recovering his memories from a past life as [[spoiler: the Bright Queen's consort]] throughout this storyline and in the end, he(?) accepts that as his(?) identity going forward, though it's left open to the reader's interpretation whether this character keeps identifying as male or switches to a genderqueer self-identification.

** The fans who interpret Ashton as trans-masculine often also head-canon Orym as transgender, especially in fanfic that ships these two together. There's actually little basis for this, other than gay trans-male fans identifying with Orym's attraction to muscular guys who are a good deal taller than him. (He's a gay Halfling, so that's true for most of his potential shipping pool anyways.) And, well, Liam (Orym's player) is a very emotionally expressive and romantic soul who likes to cuddle with whoever sits next to him at the table (in campaign 3, that includes Taliesin, Ashton's player) and he has something about him that leads even some ''lesbian'' fans to say that they're attracted to him or to his cis-female one-shot characters[[note]] (Liam does ''not'' dress up in drag for these female roles, and his personal style isn't gender-nonconforming at all, unlike with Taliesin or Matt the GameMaster, who sometimes wear nail polish and/or eyeliner. With Liam, it's purely a matter of conveying femininity through understated but oddly convincing body language and a soft-spoken voice.)[[/note]] (and in some cases also to Vax'ildan, who is cis-male but very much an elven LongHairedPrettyBoy). And besides that, there's probably also a factor involved where some afab nonbinary or trans-male-but-not-dysphoric fanfic writers prefer to write erotic fanfiction that only involves characters who have body parts that they can identify with.
** In the one-shot special ''The Night Before Critmas'', Marisha played a Christmas elf of indeterminate gender, who can be interpreted in all sorts of genderqueer ways, but there was never any official statement about his/her/their gender identity.[[note]] (This character is a lumberjack with a long, bushy beard, female-style eyes in the cartoony official character art, a gender-neutral name, and a gender-neutral personality as TheAce. The other players use various pronouns to refer to this character throughout the game session and Marisha never corrects anyone. Beyond the other player's initial surprise that the cis-female player decided to give her character a fancy beard, the character's gender presentation is simply never questioned or discussed. The female guest player they had at the table for this special then proceeds to roleplay her "fangirl" type character as having a massive crush on the lumberjack.)[[/note]] Also, Matt's male player character in this one-shot special lends itself to a transgender interpretation - not because of the traditionally masculine (and slightly axe-crazy) "ex special forces" type personality or because of the rather unremarkable character art, but because Matt decided to both semi-cosplay as his character ''and'' to put on eyeliner and the same body glitter that all the female players at the table were wearing for this festive occasion. Even [[TheDandy Taliesin]] was only wearing eyeliner to help visually reflect his "disaffected goth teen" character, so this can be interpreted as a suggestion that Matt's character is ''biologically'' the same as the female or genderqueer Christmas elves played by the ladies, underneath his tough, grizzled and very masculine presentation.

** The fans who interpret Ashton as trans-masculine often also head-canon Orym as transgender, especially in fanfic that ships these two together. There's actually little basis for this, other than gay trans-male fans identifying with Orym's attraction to muscular guys who are a good deal taller than him. (He's a gay Halfling, so that's true for most his potential shipping pool anyways.) And, well, Liam (Orym's player) is a very emotionally expressive and romantic soul who likes to cuddle with whoever sits next to him at the table (in campaign 3, that includes Taliesin, Ashton's player) and he has something about him that leads even some ''lesbian'' fans to say that they're attracted to him or to his cis-female one-shot characters[[note]] (Liam does ''not'' dress up in drag for these female roles, and his personal style isn't gender-nonconforming at all, unlike with Taliesin or Matt the GameMaster, who sometimes wear nail polish and/or eyeliner. With Liam, it's purely a matter of conveying femininity through understated but oddly convincing body language and a soft-spoken voice.)[[/note]] (and in some cases also to Vax'ildan, who is cis-male but very much an elven LongHairedPrettyBoy). And besides that, there's probably also a factor involved where some afab nonbinary or trans-male-but-not-dysphoric fanfic writers prefer to write erotic fanfiction that only involves characters who have body parts that they can identify with.

** ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'' also has [[spoiler:Jackrum]], who is very frequently interpreted as a trans man due to having spent so long playing SweetPollyOliver that he feels uncomfortable with the idea of returning to a woman identity. The narration also only refers to [[spoiler:Jackrum]] as 'she' during TheReveal, only to return to 'he' during the character's last appearance. Quite a few fans also interpret [[spoiler: Maladict(a) the vampire]] as genderfluid or nonbinary or trans-masculine, because their behavior has ''everyone'' convinced they are male throughout the entire story (even a bunch of [[spoiler: girls who are less successfully crossdressing]]) and because they ''don't'' reveal their biological sex when [[spoiler: all the girls come out to each other as female.]] Instead, they only mention this near the end of the book, when the protagonist gazes admiringly at a female officer from another country who is actually dressed in a uniform that reveals that she is female, thus implying that her superiors don't have a problem with female military service.[[note]] (Though the character in question is actually a police officer, and her boss is adamant that the police should ''not'' operate like a military force. The point about much greater gender equality in Ankh-Morpok still stands.)[[/note]] People who ship [[spoiler: Mal]] and Polly sometimes interpret the former's decision to reveal their biological sex at this particular moment as the action of a person who is generally more comfortable presenting as male and only was like "Oh, so you like boobs? I have boobs too, you know." when they saw their crush admire a woman in [[Form-Fitting Wardrobe boob armor]]. Especially considering that Polly had shown zero physical attraction to anyone throughout the entire book up till this point,so her sexuality is pretty much left up to interpretation both by the reader and in-universe.[[note]] (Her staring at the female officer wasn't even really about attraction either, though it could easily be interpreted that way by a bystander.)[[/note]]

* Both of the male protagonists in the ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}'' fantasy series by Lynn Flewelling get interpreted as genderqueer by some fans, though for different reasons: The teenage Alec was very obviously based on classic [[TheIngenue ingenue]] tropes (blond and blue-eyed; generally kind-natured, caring and somewhat naive personality; lots of blushing and embarrassment about nudity even in an all-male situation; several instances where he is sexually threatened by male enemies; etc.) which the first-time author simply [[GenderInvertedTrope genderflipped]] back in the late 1980s / early 1990s when there weren't really any established writing conventions for m/m romance storylines yet. As a result of this and an almost total lack of typically teenage-male anxieties or male gaze in his narration, his psychlogy comes across more like that of a tomboy than that of a cisgender boy. Seregil, the older protagonist, has a more convincingly male personality, but he's a LongHairedPrettyBoy (Alec also grows his hair out in the later books) and he actually spends a good chunk of the first book in female disguise - which he is quite enthusiastic about and he is [[AttractiveBentGender pretty enough while in drag]] and convincing enough in his undercover identity as a young-ish noblewoman that straight-identifying men fall in lust with him if they don't know about his real gender and even his male best friend of many years gets uncomfortably confused to the point that he refuses to work with him whenever he's in female disguise. It also helps that both of these characters are of slender/wiry build and [[spoiler: elven]] and thus [[{{Bishonen}} don't really grow body hair]], with Seregil expressing some dysphoria about the beard he gets stuck with for a few days when he is [[FreakyFridayFlip magically body-swapped]] with another male friend.

** ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'' also has [[spoiler:Jackrum]], who is very frequently interpreted as a trans man due to having spent so long playing SweetPollyOliver that he feels uncomfortable with the idea of returning to a woman identity. The narration also only refers to [[spoiler:Jackrum]] as 'she' during TheReveal, only to return to 'he' during the character's last appearance.

* Both of the male protagonists in the ''Literature/Nightrunner'' fantasy series get interpreted as genderqueer by some fans, though for different reasons: The teenage Alec was very obviously based on classic [[TheIngenue ingenue]] tropes (a generally kind-natured, caring and somewhat naive personality; lots of blushing and embarrassment about nudity even in an all-male situation; several instances where he is sexually threatened by male enemies; etc.) which the female first-time author simply genderflipped back in the late 1980s / early 1990s when there weren't really any established writing conventions for m/m romance storylines yet. As a result of this and an almost total lack of typically teenage-male anxieties or male gaze in his narration, his psychlogy comes across more like that of a tomboy than that of a cisgender boy. Seregil, the older protagonist, has a more convincingly male personality, but he's a LongHairedPrettyBoy (Alec also grows his hair out in the later books) and he actually spends a good chunk of the first book in female disguise - which he is quite enthusiastic about and he is [[AttractiveBentGender pretty enough while in drag]] and convincing enough in his undercover identity as a young-ish noblewoman that straight-identifying men fall in lust with him if they don't know about his real gender and even his male best friend of many years gets uncomfortably confused to the point that he refuses to work with him whenever he's in female disguise. It also helps that both of these characters are of slender/wiry build and [[spoiler: elven]] and thus [[Bishonen don't really grow body hair]], with Seregil expressing some dysphoria about the beard he gets stuck with for a few days when he is [[FreakyFriday magically body-swapped]] with another male friend.

** The fans who interpret Ashton as trans-masculine often also head-canon Orym as transgender, especially in fanfic that ships these two together. There's actually little basis for this, other than gay trans-male fans identifying with Orym's attraction to muscular guys who are a good deal taller than him. (He's a gay Halfling, so that's true of most for his potential shipping pool anyways.) And, well, Liam (Orym's player) is a very emotionally expressive and romantic soul who likes to cuddle with whoever sits next to him at the table (in campaign 3, that includes Taliesin, Ashton's player) and he has something about him that leads even some ''lesbian'' fans to say that they're attracted to him or to his cis-female one-shot characters[[note]] (Liam does ''not'' dress up in drag for these female roles, and his personal style isn't gender-nonconforming at all, unlike with Taliesin or Matt the GameMaster, who sometimes wear nail polish and/or eyeliner. With Liam, it's purely a matter of conveying femininity through understated but oddly convincing body language and a soft-spoken voice.)[[/note]] (and in some cases also to Vax'ildan, who is cis-male but very much an elven LongHairedPrettyBoy). And besides that, there's probably also a factor involved where some afab nonbinary or trans-male-but-not-dysphoric fanfic writers prefer to write erotic fanfiction that only involves characters who have body parts that they can identify with.

** Some people interpret the current incarnation of Leylas Kryn as transgender. While it is [[WordOfGod canon]] that she and her consort have had all sorts of bodies and genders throughout their [[TheNthDoctor multiple lifetimes]], there was no official statement on her current identity and she's not listed as a trans character on the wiki. However, the tie-in comic ''The Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen" noticably avoids showing her torso naked in the brief sex scene (and in an artistic nude alternative cover illustration, her cup size seems so small that she can cover up completely with just her slender hands - which kind of implies that the bust of her usual dresses is padded). Also, she has apparently no problem believing that she could impregnate her currently butch-but-cis-female consort, though there was some unexplained magic involved in this conception. And after the writer got to this scene, the artist started drawing her with noticably more masculine facial features (jawline, nose, etc.) The artist's character design notes also describe her as "broad-shouldered and statuesque". One gets the feeling that at least the comic artist decided that the whole magical child storyline [[spoiler: and the protagonist's frustrated/alienated reaction after she starts suspecting that the kid is not actually hers but rather the result of a vaguely implied sexual assault by a supernatural enemy]] would make more sense if the protagonist was trans, even if that was not the official line that the comic creators got from the webshow's {{DM}}. Also, the narrative framing device of this comic is about a teenage boy who's recovering his memories from a past life as [[spoiler: the Bright Queen's consort]] throughout this storyline and in the end, he(?) accepts that as his(?) identity going forward, though it's left open to the reader's interpretation whether this character keeps identifying as male or switches to a genderqueer self-identification.
** Ashton is canonically nonbinary and uses he/they pronouns, but some fans interpret them as trans-masculine as well. This is partly based on some RainbowLens statements (e.g. that they used to be "soft" as a child and only started developing the literally hard-as-stone body of an Earth Genasi at the age when kids normally enter puberty[[note]] It's left unclear if this is the normal development pattern for the Earth Genasi race or if some outside influence turned him "hard" artificially, like a methaphor for hormone treatment for transition.[[/note]]), as well as their outfit in the official character art (which seems specifically designed to make the character easy to cosplay if you need to wear a binder, instead of being shirtless like male barbarian class characters are traditionally depicted). And also based on the fact that the player pushed for a bathhouse scene very early on, but then conspiciously ''didn't'' use that scene to reveal what his character looks like in the nude - rather, he just said that Ashton doesn't want to be touched by the bath attendants. (Though this later turned out to be [[spoiler: a chronic pain issue]] and not necessarily a body dysphoria issue.) And there's also the FridgeLogic question why a gruff and buff brawler, who really doesn't have any particularly feminine personality traits, would ever decide to identify as nonbinary, if they were assigned male at birth... (Unlike with most examples on this page, it is entirely possible that this trans-masculine interpretation is actually intended by Taliesin, Ashton's player, who is bisexual and somewhat gender-nonconforming and clearly cares a lot about providing queer representation even for rarer minorities. But he probably wouldn't ever officially confirm this, because while several of Critical Role's cis-male players have portrayed cis-female characters and this is not considered a problem in this ActualPlay {{TabletopRPG}} webshow medium, a cisgender player portraying a transgender character would probably still be considered appropriative by this show's queer fans.)
** The fans who interpret Ashton as trans-masculine often also head-canon Orym as transgender, especially in fanfic that ships these two together. There's actually little basis for this, other than gay trans-male fans identifying with Orym's attraction to muscular guys who are a good deal taller than him. (He's a gay Halfling, so that's true of most of his potential shipping pool anyways.) And, well, Liam (Orym's player) is a very emotionally expressive and romantic soul who likes to cuddle with whoever sits next to him at the table (in campaign 3, that includes Taliesin, Ashton's player) and he has something about him that leads even some ''lesbian'' fans to say that they're attracted to him or to his cis-female one-shot characters[[note]] (Liam does ''not'' dress up in drag for these female roles, and his personal style isn't gender-nonconforming at all, unlike with Taliesin or Matt the {{DM}}, who sometimes wear nail polish and/or eyeliner. With Liam, it's purely a matter of conveying femininity through understated but oddly convincing voice timbre and body language.)[[/note]] (and also to Vax'ildan, who is cis-male but very much an elven LongHairedPrettyBoy). And besides that, there's probably also a factor involved where some afab nonbinary or trans-male-but-not-dysphoric fanfic writers prefer to write erotic fanfic that only involves characters who have body parts that they can identify with.