Summary
Out of all ofMario’s GameCube offeringsPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorstands out for many good reasons, but it also suffered from a fair deal of controversy over the years due to how one of its characters was censored for English players. However, in the recently released version ofPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Dooron the Switch, the original version of the character was restored, as the party member Vivian’s storyline deals with her gender identity.
Though the new version of theMarioRPG from the GameCube era fixes many old mistakes, fans hoping for Vivian’s trans narrative to make it into the English version didn’t hold their breath. However, once it was made clear through reviews of the game that Vivian was once again proudly LGBT, fans were reasonably excited since it was a change they never expected Nintendo to go through with - and for good reason. Nintendo’s history of LGBT representation hasn’t been the most reliable, but with Vivian leading the charge, this will hopefully change going forward.
The Care Taken into Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Should Continue for More Inclusive Nintendo Games
Vivian, for a lot of reasons, is an incredibly unique member ofMario’s party inPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, yet her gender identity had remained a point of contention for 20 years. This was because the language used to reveal Vivian as a transwoman in the original Japanese version became outdated and full of misunderstandings, leaving room for her identity to be debated. What makes Vivian’s situation in the Switch remake all the more special is not only that her identity is restored and respected, but even the Japanese dialogue has been changed to be more respectful and up-to-date when it comes to terminology. Now, it’s very clear Vivian is a transwoman across all versions.
It’s not often that an LGBT character in a situation like this not only gets uncensored in a rerelease, but also has their Japanese dialogue updated to be more inclusive. Thisparticular action from Nintendo is rather surprising, as the company rarely goes out of its way to focus on diversity and representation, so Vivian can be viewed as a big step forward. This is all the more powerful with the amount of care put into her dialogue. Though Vivian only discusses it in detail a few times, she mentions that her identity took a while to figure out and that being called Marylin and Beldam’s sister rather than their brother makes her happy; feelings that trans people most certainly sympathize with.
Nintendo’s History with LGBT Topics and What More It Could Do
When it comes to LGBT characters in Nintendo games, there are a very small few to the company’s name, and they’re not exactly treated as well as they could be.Birdo ofSuper Mariofame, for example, hasn’t had her identity respected in full for 36 years. As previously mentioned, Nintendo has let players express themselves in games likeAnimal Crossingby making clothing not locked to gender, yet gay marriage wasn’t made an option inTomodachi Life, leading to plenty of backlash about the decision.
It could be said that Vivian is one of the most inclusive characters Nintendo has now, which is amazing considering her history. Consideringhow well-receivedPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s Switch remake has been, it may push Nintendo to consider either including more characters like Vivian or encourageing the company to revisit existing ones that have needed a second look like the one the member of The Three Shadows was given. As it stands, though, Vivian’s storyline is finally allowed to be seen by those playing the game in English, and that’s a great step forward. The LGBT fans ofTTYDcan finally see someone like them go through a storyline of finding a place to be respected alongside a famous hero like Mario, and newer fans can understand that it’s okay being who they are through watching Vivian.
