Vivian

Overview

Vivian is the youngest member of the Shadow Sirens, three siblings who serve as Grodus' henchwomen in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

Vivian is constantly berated by her eldest sister Beldam, which has led her to develop an inferiority complex. In Twilight Town, she agrees to help out Mario after his name was stolen by Doopliss, and fights alongside him from then on against her own sisters. However, upon discovering Mario's true identity, she briefly leaves him, only to rejoin him permanently after realizing that Mario was the only person who had ever been nice to her.

In the field, Vivian is able to hide Mario by pulling him into the ground, hiding him from any nearby enemies and allowing them to travel under some fences and dodge spikes. In battle, Vivian is skilled with fire attacks and is able to hide Mario from enemy attacks.

Gender

In the original Japanese version of The Thousand-Year Door, some dialogue heavily implies Vivian to be a transgender woman. For example, Vivian initially refers to the Sirens as the Shadow Sisters, prompting Beldam to demean her and call her a man. These lines remained in most localizations of the Gamecube release (and were taken further in some, such as the Italian localization,) though notably were removed in the English release in favor of having Beldam call Vivian "plug-ugly".

The localization change became fairly well-known amongst fans of the game afterwards, and Vivian gained a particular following from transgender fans of the Mario series.

In the 2024 remake of The Thousand-Year Door, however, all lines implying Vivian to be transgender were kept in-tact.