The Nintendo Switch remake of the iconic role-playing game “Paper Mario: Door into the Millennium Kingdom” will feature a transgender character, the game's creator has confirmed.
The transgender character, Vivian, originally appeared in the 2004 version of the game released for the Nintendo GameCube.
In a new update for the game released on Thursday, Vivian, who was born male, will initially appear as a villain alongside her sisters Marilyn and Bedlam.
The three plot against the main character, a plumber named Mario, but due to constant bullying from her sisters, Vivian decides to leave them behind.
“It took me a while to realize that I was, in fact, their sister, not their brother,” Vivian says in the game. “And now their constant bullying feels even worse.”
But the new version of Paper Mario: Millennium doesn't seem to be a woke reboot.
Interestingly, in the original 2004 Japanese version, Vivian was transgender and was often the target of teasing from her sisters.
In the English version published the same year, the character was not transgender, but rather was bullied for being “ugly”.
The main difference in the new 2024 version is that the teasing has been toned down and the game's makers have taken a more celebratory attitude towards Vivienne's transgender identity.
Meanwhile, Vivian isn't the first transgender video game character to appear on console screens recently.
In February 2023, the Harry Potter video game Hogwarts Legacy introduced the first transgender character in the Harry Potter world: Sirona Ryan, a bartender at the Three Broomsticks tavern in Hogsmeade village.
