Shadow Sirens

“Let's go, my lovelies! Marilyn! Vivian! Come! We've got a job to do!”

—Beldam, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

The Shadow Sirens are three witches in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. They consist of Beldam, Marilyn, and Vivian (later replaced by Doopliss). They aid Sir Grodus and the X-Nauts in their quest for Crystal Stars and retrieve the Magical Map from Mario and his friends. After Vivian joined Mario's team, Doopliss took her place.

Beldam, the leader of the Shadow Sirens, is often forgetful, and on more than one occasion, her forgetfulness gets Vivian in trouble. She is more of a magic user than the other two are. Marilyn is the biggest and strongest Shadow Siren in the bunch. Other than one line, "The Three", she is unable to say more than "Guh", and various forms of it. She can become stronger and hit hard. The Shadow Sirens are fought twice in the game. Beldam was the merchant from the intro of the game, as when Sir Grodus is talking to the 3, he asks Beldam why she didn't kidnap Princess Peach when she had the chance. Also near the end, Beldam says to the Shadow Queen "I spread rumors of the treasure and found a pure-hearted maiden."

History

Paper Mario series

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

The Shadow Sirens were first sent by Grodus to ambush Mario, Goombella, Koops, and Punio in Boggly Woods during their quest for the Emerald Star in the Great Tree in an attempt to cut them off from the Star and retrieve the Magical Map from them. Mario and company first encountered them in Boggly Woods, when they were trying to find a sketch of Mario given to them by the X-Nauts so that they knew who they were supposed to attack. However, because they had lost the sketch, they were unable to recognize Mario as their enemy, and Beldam simply dismissed him and his crew as they approached. After finding the sketch and realizing their mistake, Beldam blamed Vivian for losing the picture, a prime example of both her forgetfulness and unpleasant personality. Eventually, Mario and friends learned that the Shadow Sirens had Flurrie's necklace (Vivian having picked it up after Flurrie lost it in the woods). Since Flurrie refused to come out of her room without the necklace, Mario and company went to take it back from the Sirens, easily defeating them in battle and succeeding in getting the necklace.

Later in the game, while Mario, Goombella, Koops, Flurrie, and the Mini-Yoshi were searching for the Ruby Star in Creepy Steeple, the Shadow Sirens planned to ambush them in Twilight Town and use an explosive item called a Superbombomb against them. Unfortunately for them, the item was lost, and Beldam, as usual, blamed Vivian for losing the explosive. Mario, having had his name, appearance, and teammates stolen by Doopliss after their first battle with each other, returned to Twilight Town to find a way to defeat him. There he encountered a distraught Vivian, who was fruitlessly searching for the Superbombomb. Mario eventually found the item for Vivian, and after she learned of his current situation, she decided to help him in return, not knowing who he really was. When Mario and Vivian confronted Doopliss back at the steeple after guessing his name correctly, Vivian initially felt betrayed after learning that she had teamed up with her enemy, and left the battle. However, after realizing that Mario had been much nicer to her than either of her sisters had ever been, she re-joined the battle and decided to be part of Mario's team for good. The two finally defeated Doopliss, gaining the Ruby Star and winning back Mario's name and identity in the process. At this point, Mario explained to his hoodwinked-- and rescued-- teammates that Vivian had switched to their side. Afterward, the humiliated Doopliss took Vivian's place as part of the Shadow Sirens after Beldam and Marilyn spotted him back in Twilight Town while looking for Vivian.

After Mario and his team returned from Keelhaul Key after getting the Sapphire Star from Cortez, Beldam, Marilyn, and Doopliss were sent to find the Garnet Star in the Poshley Sanctum in Poshley Heights, and they had to prevent Mario and his friends from reaching the Star during a three-day train trip aboard the Excess Express. After leaving Mario and his team a message in their cabin that threatened to destroy the train and everyone on it in a "sticky, yummy, explosion", the evil trio would carry out their plan on day two of the voyage: they stole a Businessman's briefcase, Toodles' Gold Ring, and the waitress' Shell Earrings, and planned to mix them together to blow up the train with Nitro Honey Syrup, which would explode if mixed with the calcium of a seashell and some gold. Beldam and Marilyn even had Doopliss disguise himself as Zip Toad, a famous movie star, so that nobody would suspect that they had committed the crime, instead framing the actor for it. However, before they could fully carry out their plan, Mario and his friends, with Pennington's help, managed to crack the case in time and returned the briefcase, the earrings, and the ring to their rightful owners. Following this failure, the Sirens decided to use a different plan that took advantage of the train's routine stop at Riverside Station to refuel. The villains ordered a horde of Smorgs to raise the drawbridge at the station to stop the train from leaving. Doopliss also managed to escape custody during this stop. Venturing inside the station, Mario and his friends managed to fend off the Smorgs and lower the drawbridge. Little did they know, just as the train was leaving the station, the creatures managed to stow away in the baggage car of the train. On the morning of day three, the Smorg horde attacked the train and took the passengers hostage. When confronted by Mario and crew on the roof of the train, the Smorgs congealed into a single, massive creature and attacked them. Mario and his friends defeated the monster, rescued the passengers, and made it safely to Poshley Heights. When they reached the sanctum, they discovered that they were too late, as Beldam, Marilyn and Doopliss had beaten them to the Garnet Star. However, Mario and co. eventually discovered that the Star the Shadow Sirens had stolen was a red herring-- a fake created by Pennington-- and they eventually found the real one hidden inside a large painting in the Sanctum.

While Mario and his friends were venturing through the Palace of Shadow, upon opening the secret path to the Shadow Queen's lair, the Shadow Sirens ambushed them again and fought them one last time. After Mario and company defeated the three evildoers, they continued on to stop Grodus from awakening the Shadow Queen. After Grodus awakened the evil queen from her eternal rest (getting destroyed by her in the process), Beldam took full credit for the awakening of the queen. She revealed that she had been orchestrating the Shadow Queen's revival from the very start, and the Shadow Sirens had tricked Grodus into thinking he could control the queen. At the very end of the adventure, after Mario and his team finally defeat the evil queen for good, Beldam and Marilyn told Vivian they would never be mean to her again, and the three settled down peacefully in Twilight Town.

Super Paper Mario

Unused graphics for Vivian, along with the other partners from previous games, exists with in Super Paper Mario, suggesting she was intended to have a role in the game. In the final, however, she only appears in a group picture with the other partners and as a Catch Card, which mentions Beldam and Marilyn.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Though neither Beldam nor Marilyn appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Vivian serves as a sticker. The sticker increases the attack power of energy-related attacks by 5 points and can be used by any character.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	カゲ三人組 Kage San'nin-gumi	Tri-Shadow Group
German	Schattentrio	Shadow Trio
Spanish	Trío de las Sombras	Shadow Trio

Trivia

• The Shadow Sirens' theme sounds somewhat similar to the song playing when the player is talking to ghosts in Luigi's Mansion.
• The Three Sisters from Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon are very similar to the Shadow Sirens.
• The color of each Shadow Siren's hat is a reference to their attacks. Beldam's hat is blue, while she can use blizzard to freeze Mario and his partner in the second battle. Marilyn's hat is yellow, while she can use thunder to attack in the second battle. Vivian's hat is red, while she can use many fire attacks as Mario's Partner.
• After defeating the Shadow Sirens in the Palace of Shadow, if interacted with by Mario his partner, will comment with, "Let's leave these..." followed by some sort of insult ("doofuses", "louts", "idiots"), but if interacted with Vivian as the active partner, she will say, "I'm sorry, Sis..."