Reviews for the Nintendo Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door dropped earlier today (including our own), and they’ve unsurprisingly been overwhelmingly positive. What is surprising, though, is that among the game’s quality-of-life updates includes a revised localization and script, which unambiguously cements the character of Vivian as a transgender woman.
This was highlighted in Nintendo Life’s own video review on the remake, which shows off this line from Vivian that wasn’t present in the original Western release: “Truth is, it took me a while to realize I was their sister… not their brother. Now their usual bullying feels heavier.”
For context, Vivian was always written as trans in the original The Thousand-Year Door, at least in the Japanese script. In fact, this was central to Vivian’s character arc as she eventually joins Mario as a party member, having grown sick of her sister Beldam’s insults whereas Mario treats her with kindness.
When the game was localized and released in the West, this aspect was rewritten; Beldam was still a nasty bully who belittled Vivian’s appearance and clumsiness, but any allusions to Vivian’s gender were excised. For the remake, though, the updated script goes out of its way to ensure there’s no room for debate or alternative reading; Vivian is unquestionably trans.
I’m honestly shocked this has even happened, but it’s awesome nonetheless. Aside from allowing Vivian’s character arc to be fully realized with no compromises, it’s just nice to see more positive trans representation, particularly in a franchise as huge and popular as Super Mario. Fans of Vivian on Twitter are seeing this as an absolute win, though they also acknowledge this is going to invite the usual tired discourse and outrage. I must reiterate, this isn’t ‘forced diversity’ on the part of the localization team; Vivian is trans in the original Japanese, so this is an accurate translation.
The remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was always going to be worth checking out if only for the pedigree of the original. It would’ve received praise for its combat, funny dialogue, pleasing visuals, and quality-of-life updates anyway, but this tiny clarification to the script is a big deal for a lot of people, and one worth celebrating.
