Paper Mario Remake Restores Character’s Transgender Identity 20 Years After Erasing It In English Version
The beloved Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has been revamped for the Nintendo Switch, and it brings an exciting, heartwarming change: Vivian is now officially a transgender woman in the English version for the first time.
The original Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, launched in 2004 as a sequel to the N64’s Paper Mario, was a GameCube classic that set a new bar for role-playing games, owing to its charming art style, witty writing, and memorable characters. Years later, the Nintendo Switch remade the game after much anticipation from fans.
One of the most welcomed changes to the remake was the confirmation of Vivian being transgender.
Vivian’s gender identity has been restored in the Nintendo Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Image credits: Nintendo via Nintendo Life
The fan-favorite character has always had a compelling story arc in the original Japanese version. Initially, Vivian was one of Mario’s adversaries, teaming up with her sisters, Marilyn and Beldam, to thwart the hero. However, constant bullying from her sisters drove Vivian to switch sides and join Mario’s party. This shift in allegiance makes her one of the most memorable characters in the game.
In the 2004 Japanese version, Vivian was always portrayed as a transgender woman. Unfortunately, this aspect was erased in the English version.
Instead of facing taunts about her gender, Vivian was simply called ugly by her bullying sisters in the English version after the localization process. But now, about 20 years later, the Switch version has restored her true gender identity in the remake.
Beloved Vivian was always transgender in the original Japanese version, but the English localization for the 2004 version omitted and changed this detail
The remake is also more affirming of Vivian’s character and has changed some sexist taunts. Additionally, in a brief but poignant conversation with Mario, the character tells him: “‘Truth is, it took me a while to realize I was their sister… not their brother. Now their usual bullying feels heavier.”
Though it was disappointing that the 2004 English version did not portray her as transgender, fans welcomed the remake’s restoration of Vivian’s gender identity about two decades later.
The character’s gender identity, which should have always been in the 2004 English version, was welcomed by fans in the new remake
Got this comment on my YT community post about Vivian and it’s so freaking sweet my heart melted
I’m so glad that more and more kids in the LGBTQ get to have the supportive parents I never had pic.twitter.com/a6g7AD80k7
— renni (comms closed) (@selectwario) May 21, 2024
“Oh my goodness gracious. this is not an edit. we won. we won so hard,” one social media user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“One little bit of good news in today’s bleak games and games media landscape,” said another comment, while a third wrote, “Vivian paper mario being officially trans makes me really happy, good for her.”
Another said, “Congrats to the Paper Mario fans getting back their Trans Rep!”
The company announced that the brand new Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will be available on the Nintendo Switch console on May 23, 2024
“Vivian having her trans identity restored honestly makes her being the one to help Mario finding his name again is so f—ing good.”
“Again its honestly refreshing how upfront nintendo is about vivian being trans especially in a series as big as f—ing mario sh-t makes me happy man,” another said.
Japan's video game industry has always had an interesting relationship/representation/fascination (of sorts) with trans folks. Usually trans women. The earliest one I can remember is Birdo from Super Mario 2 where it explicitly says it in the manual something along the lines of "Birdo thinks he is a girl..."
As someone who loves the original TTYD, and specifically loves Vivian within that game, I must say that this is delightful to see. It has been many years since I've played the game, but if I remember correctly isn't there an implication that Vivian is trans in the English version? Or am I just misremembering?
Japan's video game industry has always had an interesting relationship/representation/fascination (of sorts) with trans folks. Usually trans women. The earliest one I can remember is Birdo from Super Mario 2 where it explicitly says it in the manual something along the lines of "Birdo thinks he is a girl..."
As someone who loves the original TTYD, and specifically loves Vivian within that game, I must say that this is delightful to see. It has been many years since I've played the game, but if I remember correctly isn't there an implication that Vivian is trans in the English version? Or am I just misremembering?
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