Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s remake didn’t make Vivian trangender in some sort of daring woke protest, it was merely staying true to the original Japanese experience. In that version, one of the Three Shadow Sisters actually used to be a brother, but is now presenting as female - but original translations changed this to Vivian just being shunned for being a bit annoying.
Despite Vivian not being entirely accepted by everyone she meets, it’s a heartwarming tale that has the purple ghost persevering through transphobic comments coming from family members who should know better. Through it all, she is brave enough to be herself.
Vivian’s Transgender Identity Is Only Ever Celebrated And Supported
I’m trans, but I never played The Thousand-Year Door as a closeted kid, so one of the things I was told about time and time again ahead of the remake was how excited fellow players were for me to see Vivian for the first time. But I don’t think anyone expected the new translation to be so blunt in its interpretation.Vivian is a fully out transgender woman, and we all love her for it.
Everyone except the typical right-wing reactionaries, at least. They believe that Nintendo included a queer character in this remake because it wanted to appeal to modern audiences, searching for translation loopholes to ‘prove’ that Paper Mario didn’t actually remain true to the original Japanese version. If anything, keeping Vivian trans is actually anti-censorship, and isn’t this what these groups are all about? It’s like they just don’t want queer people to exist or anything. Anyway! Let’s get onto how awesome Vivian is.
When you first meet Vivian on the outskirts of theBoggly Woods, she is quite shy, unsure how to behave in front of her sisters Beldam and Marilyn, and judging by her dialogue, she still fights for support from her family when it comes to being trans and embracing who she is.Fans have taken to comparing Beldam to JK Rowling, while Marilyn just sits around and enjoys the vibe.
The Shadow Sisters being presented through gendered language helps to cement Vivian’s identity even further. It underlines how she is putting herself into a space where it’s not easy to deliberately stand out in pursuit of your own happiness, but yet she does. Yes, she happens to be a Mario character who is also a purple ghost, but she still has feelings.
It makes her eventual character arc, where she embraces who she is and joins Mario on his adventure as a companion, that much more impactful. You want to support her, rally against any potential bigotry, and celebrate this cool little ghost being who she wants to be. I love her personality, starting off rather reserved, but growing more confident, cheeky, and willing to make friends and crack jokes.
This becomes more noticeable when she’s not living in the shadows of her sisters, and exploring the world of her own accord. But you don’t really spendthat muchof the game with her, and Vivian’s true appeal comes from how fans have taken her character so much further.
One of my favourite little things is how Goombella not only calls Vivian cute after she tattles on her in battle, but the fact she is even cuter than she is. These girls are gay; good for them.
From the moment its review embargo lifted, Vivian was the star of the show. Everywhere I looked on Twitter was adorable fanart, fun little observations, or creations from players happy to celebrate the canonisation of a trans character in every version of the game.Players who stream The Thousand-Year Door on Twitchfind their chats bombarded by Pride emojis and comments which champion Vivian as a queer icon. It feels like two full decades of support for this character, which has sadly been stifled by a dodgy translation, are now fully validated by Nintendo, like we’ve been given permission to view Vivian as the woman she’s always been.
It’s cool to see Vivian embraced as a queer character in a franchise as huge as Mario with no room for any other interpretation. A canon queer character in a game that is beloved for its writing, personality, and characters, of which Vivian is one of the most memorable. She is our girl, now and forever.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a remake of the well-loved RPG first released on the GameCube. Relive this iconic adventure that turns 2D on its head and turns Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom into paper.
