User:1337star/Work

Personal work page/sandbox.

Current task(s): Suggested revision to Vivian's page

Gender
In the Japanese version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Vivian is described with the term otoko no ko, a Japanese word that could simply mean "boy" but is also used to refer to a male who chooses to wear female clothing and sometimes takes on traditionally female mannerisms. Other characters, as well as narrative text, describe Vivian using masculine terms such as otoko "man", and otōto "little brother". However, Vivian initially describes the Shadow Sirens as san shimai "three sisters", and routinely uses the feminine first person pronoun atai. The term otoko no ko is also used in the Japanese version of Super Paper Mario.

In the English and German localizations of the game, all masculine descriptions of Vivian are removed, and she is referred to with exclusively female pronouns. Consequently, the nature of some of Beldam's insults towards Vivian was altered, as they originally focused on her masculinity. Other localized versions of the game, however, retain references to Vivian being male. In particular, the Italian localization team opted to portray Vivian as transgender and altered the relevant dialogue slightly to have Vivian display pride rather than shame at her decision to present herself as a female.