History Main / HistoricalGenderFlip

* The ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' fan setting ''[[https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=1631 A World Less Magical (But No Less Fantastic)]]'' zig-zags the HistoricalGenderFlip UsefulNotes/UesugiKenshin often recieves by mentioning the theories that Kenshin was a woman, and saying that conventional historians are right to dismiss them; Kenshin was a man. [[https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1631&p=165969#p165969 A transgender man who was assigned female at birth.]]

* The ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' fan setting ''[[https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=1631 A World Less Magical (But No Less Fantastic)]]'' zig-zags the HistoricalGenderFlip Kenshin often recieves by mentioning the theories that Kenshin was a woman, and saying that conventional historians are right to dismiss them; Kenshin was a man. [[https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1631&p=165969#p165969 A transgender man who was assigned female at birth.]]

* The ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' fan setting ''A World Less Magical (But No Less Fantastic)'' zig-zags the trope with regard to UsefulNotes/UesugiKenshin, mentioning the (real) theories that Kenshin was a woman, and saying that conventional historians are right to dismiss them; Kenshin was a man. A transgender man who was assigned female at birth.

* ''VisualNovel/KoihimeMusou'' is an all-female version of ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''. The only historical female-to-male flips in the franchise are Chousen and Himiko, both of which are [[MachoCamp extremely beefy deep-voiced men in microbikinis.]] That said, it's also an AlternateUniverse and involves travel across time, space, and parallel realities.

* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'' does this with two of the Hinomoto Wyrmclan Lords, Nobunaga of the Horse Clan and Mitsuhide, Leader of the Mouse Clan, though it's a case of each one being named after their ancestors regardless of gender. Nobunaga is based on UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga who takes on her historical counterpart's BloodKnight tendencies. Mitsuhide is named after UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide who when she's not being a {{Sleepyhead}} LazyBum, she's still a skilled tactician... at BEING a LazyBum! Her dialogue has references to her historical counterpart's Honnoji Incident.

* ''VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}}'': Tamamo no Mae is a drop-dead handsome {{Bishonen}} and Enma, ruler of Buddhist Hell, is a queenly woman.

** ''Koha-Ace'' features a genderflipped UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga and [[UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi Okita Souji]]. The rest of the cast retain their historical genders until the introduction of [[UsefulNotes/UesugiKenshin Nagao Kagetora]]. Since it's a gag series, it isn't treated particularly seriously, but Nobunaga has actually been fleshed out a bit more in later, more serious works, where she crushed all dissent through force and ruled openly as a woman, and her downfall came when one of her retainers, Akechi, who was in love with her and jealous of her seemingly favoring others, assassinated her out of mad jealousy. It also introduced well in advance the idea that Sun Wukong has the power to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting change his physical gender along with his shape]].

* ''LightNovel/TheAmbitionOfOdaNobuna'' involves a UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod universe where equal primogeniture was widely used. Because of this, many, but not all, of the big names of that era are female in this series, for example UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga (i.e. the titular Nobuna), UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu, UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide, UsefulNotes/DateMasamune, etc.

** Saber's character is thoroughly explored in different ways in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and the prequel ''LightNovel/FateZero''. It should be noted that she is quite insistent [[SheIsTheKing on being called "king,"]] and spent most of her life doing everything she could to ignore or hide her female gender. Due to sexism, she didn't have much choice. A relatively small core of her inner circle knew the truth, including Merlin, Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere, and her older foster brother Kay. Certainly puts a different spin on Lancelot and Guinevere's affair, doesn't it?

** In ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'', Assassin of Black is gender-flipped UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper (though justified as Jack's true identity is unknown, and while Assassin of Black killed prostitutes, she doesn't know for certain if she was Jack due to her vague memories) and Saber of Red is a gender-flipped [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Mordred]] (created through a bizarre set of circumstances involving sorcery who, like her "father," insists on not being treated as female). Non-historically, it also has a gender-flipped [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein's Monster]], because Victor Frankenstein always intended to make a [[AdamAndEvePlot pair]] (instead of being blackmailed by The Creature to make a mate) but just made "Eve" first and was turned off after seeing how she turned out with her wanting him to finish the job. Amusingly, it also features a subversion with Astolfo, who several characters in-universe originally mistake for being female due to both [[DudeLooksLikeALady looks]] and [[{{Keet}} personality]], but he's still a guy, as Jeanne finds out first-hand [[UnsettlingGenderReveal when he comes out of the shower naked with his privates exposed]]. Worth noting is that Astolfo's existence as a gender neutral character is what lead to Modred being made female, so as to avoid having two amibigiously gendered characters.

** ''LightNovel/FateRequiem'': Erice Utsumi ponders on the series' tendency to have men in history and myth actually be women, using Francis Drake as an example, as all of her contemporaries remember her as either male or female. Erice concludes that Drake's actual gender doesn't really matter, compared to the great feats achieved. So far, the Greek mathematician Euclid has been revealed as a woman.

** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', having a huge cast compared to most other entries in the franchise, has naturally added many more examples, such as Minamoto-no-Raikou and her descendant Ushiwakamaru. As early as the first event, the developers had already begun to parody the trope with [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Artemis]], who originally pretends to be a gender-flipped Orion, and the cast buys it before the ''real'' Orion, whom she's trapped as a stuffed animal, starts to speak up. In fact, gender-flipping historical figures has gotten so common that the franchise has begun to try to be clever about it. UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi is a woman, but she actually comes from an AlternateTimeline while the "main" Nasuverse's Miyamoto Musashi is explicitly referred to as male. Creator/LeonardoDaVinci appears as a woman, but is confirmed to have been male in life; his obsession with aesthetics and the Golden Rule (Beauty) skill altered his appearance and gender into that of the Mona Lisa (not that da Vinci seems to mind). And the original Katsushika Hokusai takes the form of a tiny octopus that floats near his daughter Oui (the "Servant Hokusai" is ''both of them'', since Oui produced some of her own art under her father's name). Xu Fu is a woman and comments that some bureaucrats hated her seemingly for being a woman given the important task of discovering immortality for the emperor and thus wrote her as being a man just to spite her (her own androgynous looks combined with her clothing doesn't hurt either). Van Gogh claims to be a female Creator/VincentVanGogh, but it is noted that the real one was male, with lots of evidence to counter her claim; [[spoiler:she is eventually revealed to be an artificial mashup of Van Gogh's memories and the body and soul of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Clytie]], created by an EldritchAbomination after the real Van Gogh refused to serve its plans to the point of killing himself.]] Meanwhile, Kiichi Hougen appears to be another genderbent servant, but it turns out that Hougen has [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the ability to shapeshift into different genders]] (in which their gender is listed as unknown instead). Lostbelt 6 introduces GenderFlip and Fairy versions of Lancelot, Gawain, and Tristan that serve Morgan le Fay. [[spoiler:However, they are revealed by the Tristan from Proper Human History to actually be Fairies that have stolen the identities of the real knights]]. Russian folk-hero Dobrynya Nikitich appears as a woman rather than a male, [[spoiler:though it's revealed that like Artemis with Orion, it is actually Dobrynya's wife Nastasia taking over his Spirit Graph when summoned]]. Literature/DonQuixote's squire Sancho Panza is a [[LittleBitBeastly horsegirl]], but rather than being gender-flipped, she's a [[CompositeCharacter composite]] of Don Quixote's supporting cast, including Sancho, Dulcinea, Altisidora, and his horse Rocinante.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' applies this trope to the BeastOfTheApocalypse, being female despite being referred to as male in the Literature/BookOfRevelation. Justified, however, since this version of the Beast is the final form of [[AbusiveParents Isaac's Mother]] taking on the form of The Beast, [[ZigZaggingTrope and downplayed]] in that it's [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane likely]] not the actual Beast, and is just Isaac's imagination.

* ''Literature/TheConquerorsSaga'' is AlternateHistory where UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler was a girl. The misogyny of her time adds considerable difficulties towards her journey to the throne of Wallachia, which she tends to overcome through [[KillEmAll sheer]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice brutality]].

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' applies this trope to the BeastOfTheApocalypse, being female despite being referred to as male in the Literature/BookOfRevelation. Justified, however, since this version of the Beast is the final form of [[AbusiveParents Isaac's Mother]] taking on the form of The Beast, and downplayed in that it's [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane likely]] not the actual Beast, and is just Isaac's imagination.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Team JNPR is composed of gender-flips of four historical crossdressers: Jaune is a male UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, Nora is a female [[Myth/NorseMythology Thor]], Pyrrha is a female [[Literature/TheIliad Achilles]], and Ren is a male [[Literature/TheBalladOfMulan Mulan]].

* A manga called ''[[http://myanimelist.net/manga/67315/Shiroi_Majo/ Shiroi Majo]]'' was released in 2014 which features Simo Häyhä in the middle of the Winter War in 1939. Just one slight difference from reality: "Simo Häyhä" is [[GenderFlip a teenage girl]] who looks [[{{Expy}} outrageously similar]] to [[LightNovel/SwordArtOnline Sinon]].

* ''LightNovel/SamuraiGirls'' is a "JidaiGeki figures [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] in the modern world" example... but it's an AlternateUniverse where modern Japan still looks like JidaiGeki.
* In ''LightNovel/UlyssesJeanneDArcAndTheAlchemistKnights'', Arthur de Richemont, Philip of Burgundy, La Hire and Charlotte de Valois are all gender flips of characters from UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar. Considering it is from the same author as ''The Ambition of Oda Nobuna'' above, is no surprise.

* "Once and Future" by Creator/TerryPratchett is about a time traveller called Mervin realising that he's at the beginning of the [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian]] era and in the perfect position to be Merlin. It ends with the youth who pulled the sword from the stone (an electromagnet controlled by Mervin) removing ''her'' hood, and Mervin frantically trying to remember if Nimue ever actually told him the sex of Uther's lost heir. (She didn't, probably on purpose.)

* In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' "[[Recap/LegendsOfTomorrowS2E12Camelot3000 Camelot/3000]]" has two of these. Stargirl having traveled back to Camelot is revealed to actually have become [[Myth/KingArthur Merlin]]. In addition, while most of the Arthurian figures are present, there is a noticeable absence of Lancelot, that is until Guinevere says to Sara "I enjoyed meeting you, Sara Lance-a-lot", revealing Sara to be the inspiration for the legendary knight who wooed Arthur's wife.

** In ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'', Assassin of Black is gender-flipped UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper (though justified as Jack's true identity is unknown, and while Assassin of Black killed prostitutes, she doesn't know for certain if she was Jack due to her vague memories) and Saber of Red is a gender-flipped [[Myth/KingArthur Mordred]] (created through a bizarre set of circumstances involving sorcery who, like her "father," insists on not being treated as female). Non-historically, it also has a gender-flipped [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein's Monster]], because Victor Frankenstein always intended to make a [[AdamAndEvePlot pair]] (instead of being blackmailed by The Creature to make a mate) but just made "Eve" first and was turned off after seeing how she turned out with her wanting him to finish the job. Amusingly, it also features a subversion with Astolfo, who several characters in-universe originally mistake for being female due to both [[DudeLooksLikeALady looks]] and [[{{Keet}} personality]], but he's still a guy, as Jeanne finds out first-hand [[UnsettlingGenderReveal when he comes out of the shower naked with his privates exposed]]. Worth noting is that Astolfo's existence as a gender neutral character is what lead to Modred being made female, so as to avoid having two amibigiously gendered characters.

* This is the entire point of ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'', a historical alternate universe where an even-more virulent version of smallpox kills practically every man in seventeenth-century Japan and various historical figures are replaced by female versions. [[spoiler:This tendency carries on well into the 19th century after the pox is eradicated by a vaccine.]]

** In ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'', Assassin of Black is gender-flipped UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper (though justified as Jack's true identity is unknown, and while Assassin of Black killed prostitutes, she doesn't know for certain if she was Jack due to her vague memories) and Saber of Red is a gender-flipped [[Myth/KingArthur Mordred]] (created through a bizarre set of circumstances involving sorcery who, like her "father," insists on not being treated as female). Non-historically, it also has a gender-flipped [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein's Monster]], because Victor Frankenstein always intended to make a [[AdamAndEvePlot pair]] (instead of being blackmailed by The Creature to make a mate) but just made "Eve" first and was turned off after seeing how she turned out with her wanting him to finish the job. Amusingly, it also features a subversion with Astolfo, who several characters in-universe originally mistake for being female due to both [[DudeLooksLikeALady looks]] and [[{{Keet}} personality]], but he's still a guy, as Jeanne finds out first-hand [[UnsettlingGenderReveal when he comes out of the shower naked with his privates exposed]].

** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', having a huge cast compared to most other entries in the franchise, has naturally added many more examples, such as Minamoto-no-Raikou and her descendant Ushiwakamaru. As early as the first event, the developers had already begun to parody the trope with [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Artemis]], who originally pretends to be a gender-flipped Orion, and the cast buys it before the ''real'' Orion, whom she's trapped as a stuffed animal, starts to speak up. In fact, gender-flipping historical figures has gotten so common that the franchise has begun to try to be clever about it. UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi is a woman, but she actually comes from an AlternateTimeline while the "main" Nasuverse's Miyamoto Musashi is explicitly referred to as male. Creator/LeonardoDaVinci appears as a woman, but is confirmed to have been male in life; his obsession with aesthetics and the Golden Rule (Beauty) skill altered his appearance and gender into that of the Mona Lisa (not that da Vinci seems to mind). And the original Katsushika Hokusai takes the form of a tiny octopus that floats near his daughter Oui (the "Servant Hokusai" is ''both of them'', since Oui produced some of her own art under her father's name). Xu Fu is a woman and comments that some bureaucrats hated her seemingly for being a woman given the important task of discovering immortality for the emperor and thus wrote her as being a man just to spite her (her own androgynous looks combined with her clothing doesn't hurt either). Van Gogh claims to be a female Creator/VincentVanGogh, but it is noted that the real one was male, with lots of evidence to counter her claim; [[spoiler:she is eventually revealed to be an artificial mashup of Van Gogh's memories and the body and soul of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Clytie]], created by an EldritchAbomination after the real Van Gogh refused to serve its plans to the point of killing himself.]] Meanwhile, Kiichi Hougen appears to be another genderbent servant, but it turns out that Hougen has [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the ability to shapeshift into different genders]] (in which their gender is listed as unknown instead). Lostbelt 6 introduces GenderFlip and Fairy versions of Lancelot, Gawain, and Tristan that serve Morgan le Fay. [[spoiler:However, they are revealed by the Tristan from Proper Human History to actually be Fairies that have stolen the identities of the real knights]]. Russian folk-hero Dobrynya Nikitich appears as a woman rather than a male, [[spoiler:though it's revealed that like Artemis with Orion, it is actually Dobrynya's wife Nastasia taking over his Spirit Graph when summoned]].

** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', having a huge cast compared to most other entries in the franchise, has naturally added many more examples, such as Minamoto-no-Raikou and her descendant Ushiwakamaru. As early as the first event, the developers had already begun to parody the trope with [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Artemis]], who originally pretends to be a gender-flipped Orion, and the cast buys it before the ''real'' Orion, whom she's trapped as a stuffed animal, starts to speak up. In fact, gender-flipping historical figures has gotten so common that the franchise has begun to try to be clever about it. UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi is a woman, but she actually comes from an AlternateTimeline while the "main" Nasuverse's Miyamoto Musashi is explicitly referred to as male. Creator/LeonardoDaVinci appears as a woman, but is confirmed to have been male in life; his obsession with aesthetics and the Golden Rule (Beauty) skill altered his appearance and gender into that of the Mona Lisa (not that da Vinci seems to mind). And the original Katsushika Hokusai takes the form of a tiny octopus that floats near his daughter Oui (the "Servant Hokusai" is ''both of them'', since Oui produced some of her own art under her father's name). Xu Fu is a woman and comments that some bureaucrats hated her seemingly for being a woman given the important task of discovering immortality for the emperor and thus wrote her as being a man just to spite her (her own androgynous looks combined with her clothing doesn't hurt either). Van Gogh claims to be a female Creator/VincentVanGogh, but it is noted that the real one was male, with lots of evidence to counter her claim; [[spoiler:she is eventually revealed to be an artificial mashup of Van Gogh's memories and the body and soul of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Clytie]], created by an EldritchAbomination after the real Van Gogh refused to serve its plans to the point of killing himself.]] Meanwhile, Kiichi Hougen appears to be another genderbent servant, but it turns out that Hougen has [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the ability to shapeshift into different genders]] (in which their gender is listed as unknown instead). Lostbelt 6 introduces GenderFlip and Fairy versions of Lancelot, Gawain, and Tristan that serve Morgan le Fay. [[spoiler:However, they are revealed by the Tristan from Proper Human History to actually be Fairies that have stolen the identities of the real knights]].

* ''Literature/TheGraceOfKings'' and its sequels are comprised of characters who are mostly counterparts of historical figures connected with the founding of China's Han dynasty, with the first book being about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%E2%80%93Han_Contention Chu-Han Contention]], and the second about the aftermath of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Gaozu_of_Han Liu Bang]], called Kuni Garu in the novel, gaining the throne. One of Kuni's allies is the street rat turned general Gin Mazoti, who is a gender-flipped version of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Xin Han Xin]], whose backstory is essentially identical to that of the historical figure (or at least legends about him), except for an added element of SweetPollyOliver.

** ''Koha-Ace'' features a genderflipped UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga and [[UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi Okita Souji]]. The rest of the cast retain their historical genders until the introduction of [[UsefulNotes/UesugiKenshin Nagao Kagetora]]. Since it's a gag series, it isn't treated particularly seriously, but Nobunaga has actually been fleshed out a bit more in later, more serious works, where she crushed all dissent through force and ruled openly as a woman.
** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', having a huge cast compared to most other entries in the franchise, has naturally added many more examples, such as Minamoto-no-Raikou and her descendant Ushiwakamaru. As early as the first event, the developers had already begun to parody the trope with [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Artemis]], who originally pretends to be a gender-flipped Orion, and the cast buys it before the ''real'' Orion, whom she's trapped as a stuffed animal, starts to speak up. In fact, gender-flipping historical figures has gotten so common that the franchise has begun to try to be clever about it. UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi is a woman, but she actually comes from an AlternateTimeline while the "main" Nasuverse's Miyamoto Musashi is explicitly referred to as male. Creator/LeonardoDaVinci appears as a woman, but is confirmed to have been male in life; his obsession with aesthetics and the Golden Rule (Beauty) skill altered his appearance and gender into that of the Mona Lisa (not that da Vinci seems to mind). And the original Katsushika Hokusai takes the form of a tiny octopus that floats near his daughter Oui (the "Servant Hokusai" is ''both of them'', since Oui produced some of her own art under her father's name). Xu Fu is a woman and comments that some bureaucrats hated her seemingly for being a woman given the important task of discovering immortality for the emperor and thus wrote her as being a man just to spite her (her own androgynous looks combined with her clothing doesn't hurt either). Van Gogh claims to be a female Creator/VincentVanGogh, but it is noted that the real one was male, with lots of evidence to counter her claim; [[spoiler:she is eventually revealed to be an artificial mashup of Van Gogh's memories and the body and soul of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Clytie]], created by an EldritchAbomination after the real Van Gogh refused to serve its plans to the point of killing himself.]] Meanwhile, Kiichi Hougen appears to be another genderbent servant, but it turns out that Hougen has [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the ability to shapeshift into different genders]] (in which their gender is listed as unknown instead). Lostbelt 6 introduces GenderFlip and Fairy versions of Lancelot, Gawain, and Tristan that serve Morgan le Fay. [[spoiler:However, they are revealed by Pan-History Tristan to actually be Fairies that have stolen the identities of the real knights]].

As exemplified by most of the examples on this page alone, in published works this trope is almost AlwaysFemale, likely due to the vast number of prominent male historical figures. Male examples do exist but they're exceedingly rare.

* ''LightNovel/SamuraiGirls'' is a "JidaiGeki figures [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] in the modern world" example... but it's an AlternateUniverse where modern Japan still looks like JidaiGeki.

* ''LightNovel/HyakkaRyouranSamuraiGirls'' is a "JidaiGeki figures [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] in the modern world" example... but it's an AlternateUniverse where modern Japan still looks like JidaiGeki.