Vivian: Difference between revisions

|footer=In the original Japanese script of ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'', Beldam insults Vivian by calling her ｢オトコ」, "a man". In the English localization of the game, Beldam uses gender-neutral insults instead.

In the Japanese version of ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'', Vivian is implied to be a {{wp|transgender}} girl. While various other characters and narrative text describe Vivian using masculine terms such as ''otoko'' ("man"), and ''otōto'' ("little brother"),<ref name="Japanese boggly"/><ref name="Japanese tattle"/><ref name="Japanese menu"/><ref name="Japanese Goom Goom"/> Vivian initially describes the shadow sirens as ''san shimai'' "three sisters",<ref name="Japanese boggly"/> and routinely uses the feminine first person pronoun ''atai''. However, in ''Super Paper Mario'', Vivian's Catch Card describes her using the term ''{{wp|Otokonoko|otoko no ko}}'',<ref name="Japanese SPM"/> a Japanese-language term that can interchangeably refer to a feminine-presenting man or a crossdressing man, rather than "transgender" (which is identical in Japanese to the English-language word) or ''okama'' (a term for an otherwise masculine man who dresses as a woman, sometimes used as a slur to refer to trans women, even in family-friendly media at the time).

In the English and German localizations of the game, explicit reference to Vivian being either transgender or gender non-conforming is removed, as are references to her using male pronouns. Consequently, Beldam's insults towards Vivian that utilize masculine terms in the Japanese version are changed. However, all other localized versions of the game explicitly retain the transgender portrayal.<ref name="DiMarcoessay" /><ref name="French"/><ref name="Spanish"/><ref name="Italian"/> The Italian version additionally makes Vivian's transgender identity even more explicit; her description as a party member states that "She used to be a man,

but now she's a woman and proud of it," a sentiment that she reiterates during her initial appearance.<ref name="Italian"/><ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20210607111528/http://www.fti.uab.es/tradumatica/revista/num5/articles/06/06central.htm</ref>