The Switch remake of Nintendo’s classic 2004 role-playing game Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Gate appears this week and according to the reviews, it’s a blast. But that’s not all that surprising considering that’s what the GameCube original has always been preferably Paper Mario Game. What’s surprising is that the remake reverses one of the notable localization changes from the original, which erased a character’s transgender identity.
Vivian is a villain turned party member The Thousand Year Gate
In this version, Vivian was often referred to with male pronouns as an insult, despite claiming that the Shadow Sirens were made up of three sisters. The group’s introduction in Japanese and several other localizations led to Vivian introducing the group as sisters, which resulted in her sisters insulting her and calling her a man. The English localization however I rewrote the scene to get her to misrepresent the group’s name as “Shadow Beauties”, which led to angry but non-gendered insults from her sisters about her appearance.
In the Switch remake, Vivian explicitly talks to Mario about her gender identity and her sisters’ transphobia. She says she realized she was “her sister… and not her brother” and that the bullying from her sisters has gotten worse since then. Her sisters’ constant insults lead Vivian to join Mario’s group, and now players new and old can see the original context in 2024.
Nintendo lifeThe complete dialogue can be seen after about five minutes in the video review. Vivian’s story is only a few scenes long, but now you have the satisfaction of taking down transphobic assholes on the Switch.
Paper Mario: The Gateway to Legend The remake will be released on Thursday, May 23rd for the Switch.
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