Paper Mario remake confirms Vivian is canonically trans
Nintendo GameCube classic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door had its remake released on Switch this week, and it has confirmed that the character Vivian is canonically trans.
In the original's Japanese version, as well as translations for certain European regions, the character was always trans, or at least gender non-conforming. Her sisters in the group the Shadow Sirens bullied her for it, saying that she wasn't like them, which led to her allying with Mario later on in the game.
In the English Gamecube localisation, however, this was censored and no reference is made to Vivian being trans. Instead, her sisters bully her for being ugly.
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In the revised English localisation for the new Switch remake, Vivian being trans is now official across the board. The Japanese version has received a few slight tweaks as well to further specify she is trans, and the game uses more up-to-date terminology.
"Truth is, it took me a while to realise I was their sister... not their brother," she says in the remake's English script. "Now their usual bullying feels heavier."
Outside of TTYD, Vivian has made very minor appearances in Super Paper Mario, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate. With this discrepancy ironed out, could she make more appearances in games going forward?
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Meanwhile, the remake has redone the game's graphics and sound, and added a few quality of life features to make some of the more repetitive elements of the gameplay go by quicker. It does, however, cap the framerate at 30 compared to the original's 60.
Other GameCube games to have been re-released on Switch include Metroid Prime Remastered, the first two Pikmin games, multiple Resident Evil games, and Super Mario Sunshine (which you can inexplicably no longer buy).
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is out now on Nintendo Switch.
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