Trivia Browser

Tagsarrow_right
Filter:
Platformsarrow_right
Filter:
Yearsarrow_right
Filter:
Genresarrow_right
Filter:
Collectionsarrow_right
Filter:
Franchisesarrow_right
Filter:
Companiesarrow_right
Filter:
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
subdirectory_arrow_right Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Game)
▲
4
▼
Attachment The gender identity of the party member Vivian is inconsistent between different language translations of the original game. In the Japanese version, Vivian identifies and presents as female, but is described by other characters in the game as actually being an effeminate-looking male, aligning with common media depictions of transgender or gender non-conforming characters at the time, but not explicitly referring to Vivian as such. A rough translation of the Japanese text for Vivian as a party member reads:

"カゲ三人組の一人だった　オンナのコのようで　ホントは　オトコのコ"
"One of the shadow group, Vivian appears to be a girl but is really a boy."

The French version directly carries this over and additionally describes Vivian as a boy pretending to be a girl, while the Spanish version describes Vivian as a boy who looks like a girl. However, according to former Nintendo of Europe translator Pol Roca, Vivian's Spanish name "Bibiana" was intended to be a reference to the Spanish transgender actress Bibiana Fernández, who starred in the 1977 film Cambio de Sexo (or Sex Change).

The English and German versions remove any references to being transgender or gender non-conforming, implicitly portraying Vivian as a cisgender woman with "a bit of an inferiority complex". Instead of being bullied over her biological sex, her sisters instead belittle her for her appearance.

The Italian version of the game on the other hand explicitly depicts Vivian as an openly proud transgender woman, with the localization reconfiguring her relationships with gender identity and her sisters by having Marilyn and Bedlam's bullying being rooted in jealousy, traits which are absent in the Japanese script:

Vivian: "We'll defeat that Mario guy! 'Cause we are 'The three shadow sisters'!"
Marilyn: "How can you define us as 'The three shadow sisters'? You are a man! A MAN!"
Vivian: "That’s true, you are two sisters… But I am a woman too now, and I'm proud to have turned into a woman!"
Marilyn: "Hmph. And you surely think you are more beautiful than we are, huh? You deserve a punishment for that!"

The English release of the Nintendo Switch remake follows the Italian version of the original game in unambiguously describing Vivian as a transgender woman, most prominently featuring a line where Vivian states that "it took me a while to realize that I was [Marilyn and Beldam's] sister... not their brother." It's currently unknown if Vivian's portrayal in other translations of the remake has changed from the original release.
sell
Censorship, Development, General, In-Joke, LGBTQ+, Male/Female Gender, Name Change, Reference, Regional Difference, Release Difference, Version Difference
person gaiages calendar_month April 11, 2013
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
The Cutting Room Floor article on original GameCube release differences:
https://tcrf.net/Paper_Mario:_The_Thousand-Year_Door/Regional_Differences#Vivian

Japanese script example of Vivian's original portrayal:
http://themushroomkingdom.net/pmttyd_j2e.shtml#vivian

"Transgender in Games: A Comparative Study of Transgender Characters in Games" by Emil Christenson and Danielle Unéus:
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1146698/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Article about Italian localization in video games by Francesca Di Marco, a former localization specialist for Square Enix, including a section on Vivian's portrayal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210607111528/http://www.fti.uab.es/tradumatica/revista/num5/articles/06/06central.htm

Pol Roca tweet and Bibiana name in the Spanish version [info and links provided by Rocko & Heffer]:
https://www.twitter.com/polroc/status/1702660171737059808
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fumoIEFxjKU#t=1102s

My Nintendo review which discusses the restoration of Vivian's transgender identity in the English release of the Switch version:
https://mynintendonews.com/2024/05/21/review-paper-mario-the-thousand-year-door-for-nintendo-switch/


Attachment sources for "Looking for a gal!" Trouble Center mission Vivian interactions in the original game. Footage of the Vivian interaction in the French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations could not be found at this time:

English version ("Whoa! You sure are cute... But, um... That whole goth shadow thing is a bit... Creepy! There, I said it!"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI_xG-knJE8#t=39s

Japanese version ("おお! これは かわいい。。。 ってキミ。。。 どっちゃなの?。。。 オトコ。。。 だよね。。。
ようするに オスじゃん!"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIFTyRFZJO4#t=86s
keyboard_double_arrow_leftFirst keyboard_arrow_leftPrev Page of 5 Nextkeyboard_arrow_right Lastkeyboard_double_arrow_right