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Cleretic
@Cleretic

I'm known for Final Fantasy these days, but growing up, it was actually a distant third-favorite RPG series for me. Pokemon was always first, of course--how could it not be--but nestled right there in second place were the Mario RPGs, chief among them being Thousand-Year Door. They're not hard games, even if I think they're mechanically pretty respectable. But of course, the gameplay was never the core appeal: it's that those games are oozing with charm and character.

And right in the middle of the best one, silent and unappreciated for twenty years, has been one of the best trans women in gaming. But today, we've learned she's getting her due.

Vivian's never quite gotten the honor she's deserved.

For people who aren't completely aware, some context: one of the partners in Thousand-Year Door is Vivian, an ex-member of a group called the Shadow Sirens. In the original Japanese--and most other languages--her story was about as clear as you'd get from stories of the era: she's a trans woman, who's constantly bullied and pushed around by her sisters, the other Shadow Sirens, who still see and treat her as a boy. She joins Mario as he himself is in a weird identity-warping situation, finding some camaraderie in their shared situation, and goes on to be a core party member for the rest of the game. (The Shadow Sirens replace her with a man in a sheet.)

In English, they... didn't translate that part; and as much as I wish they didn't, I do understand why, it probably wouldn't have gone over all too well in 2004. But it did rip out what would've been an amazing, surprisingly early piece of representation; unlike Birdo, whose gender identity was largely a gag (and still isn't especially clear), Vivian's story was entirely serious, and entirely sympathetic. In 2004, that would have been ground-breaking; in western media at the time, trans people were still treated as the dead body in crime procedurals, as a joke on Friends, or a shock on a reality show. I've said before that losting Testament's gender non-conforming nature in Guilty Gear left western gaming without a GNC icon, and Vivian joined them in that void. Perhaps the biggest sign of progress in the time between their games' releases was that I distinctly remember fan circles in 2004 being much more aware of the truth about Vivian than Testament; everyone on the GameFAQs TTYD boards knew that Vivian had a different gender identity in Japan, although not everyone was on the same page on what that identity was. Some of that was probably nascent transphobia, but I think a lot of it was also just that basically nobody there was actually any good at translating. So Vivian always sort of existed to me within the sphere of 'trans characters', even if it was never clearly enough for me to properly recognize her. And when the TTYD remake was announced, and people saw even in the first trailer that the script wasn't 100% identical, the question was in the air; would they fix it? Would they be open in this new localization, in the way they never were before?

And today, we know: The answer is yes. And frankly, that alone is a jaw-dropper; that's a sign of great progress over twenty years, that we're at a point where Nintendo is happily and openly putting a trans woman in a goddamn Mario game, and not being subtle about it; that screenshot up top is pretty unmistakeable, and the story doesn't shy away from the truth of it for a second.

But I think it's even more than that. Because Vivian isn't just a trans woman incidentally: being a trans woman is the core part of her story, in a way that's extremely rare for stories about trans people that actually like us: it's not a story about her coming out and becoming who she should have always been. When we meet her, Vivian's already transitioned.

Vivian's story is about fighting transphobia.

In the original English release, Vivian's story didn't quite make sense, and it's only now that I realize that. Vivian's sister Beldam constantly made fun of her for being ugly, even though she was blatantly the most attractive member of the group, even in the super-stylized graphics. There was a cartoonish logic there, it wasn't a world away from something like the Pokemon anime making jokes about Jessie being ugly when she obviously isn't. But it just didn't quite hold together; those jokes about Jessie lasted two seconds, while with Vivian it's intended to be the core of her story, and is never especially treated as very funny; Beldam calls Vivian 'plug-ugly' and she sobs in the back for the rest of the cutscene, that's not how you write that joke.

...but it's how you write it if it's serious.

Vivian's story isn't one of simple trans joy; it's trans joy finding its way out from under a deep shadow, as her transphobic family insults and misgenders her. It's clear with a new, fuller translation that coming out wasn't even what started it, either; it's pretty strongly hinted that they were bullying her even before then, when they thought they had a brother.

This is, sadly, very true to the trans experience. Many a trans woman can tell you about their history of bullying, because even before we came out, everyone could see something was wrong: we just weren't performing masculinity right, even if the reason why wasn't clear. But of course, coming out doesn't fix it; often not even excelling in embracing your identity, as Vivian clearly does, fixes it. Someone will always want to hate you for who you are.

The victory doesn't come in erasing them; for a lot of us, that's not possible. The victory also never comes in pleasing them; their standards can't be met. No, victory comes where Vivian finds it: in escaping them, in embracing who you are on your own terms, around people who love you for who you are.

It's funny, that the trans story that's been only barely visible to me in my life for so long is the one that speaks the most to me, even if I only now put together its depths. I can't embrace a utopia of any kind, I can't believe in a perfect world if I can't see its cracks and shadows. And that's also true of the trans stories I want: I don't want a story with a trans person in it to show them facing absolutely no issues because of it. I want a story where a trans person can stare dysphoria and transphobia in the face, struggle with it, and come out on top.

The fantasy I want to see isn't of a world where problems don't exist. It's a world where those problems are defeatable. Where the trans woman can escape, and even fight back against, the transphobia that haunted her life. This news is reaching twenty years through time, to show me that the trans story I most love was the one that I had the whole time.

...and in retrospect, yes, it is EXTREMELY WEIRD that it's a Mario game that's giving it to me.

Oh, and for the record, if you're someone who's concerned about this: Vivian's among the strongest party members in TTYD. So if you want to celebrate representation in your gameplay, you're far from being handicapped for it: that girl burns down damn near the entire game in an inferno of trans joy.


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in reply to @Cleretic's post:

Its also hilarious to see leadbrains get all uptight about this.

Bro didnt you complain about censorship when that game with the big booty woman was wearing 5% more clothing in the western localisation than in thr original? Shouldn't you be happy that you're getting the uncensored, faithful to the devs intentions, content that you were wailing about? Or was that a fucking lie?

Anyways Vivian is the best.

As funny as it is to see this revealed, it's not a surprise. We all knew they were only going to be consistent about pushing the most hateful and objectifying viewpoint, and taking any argument they could find to do it.

That's a beatifully written analysis, thank you for making the effort to get it all down. I'm pretty curious to see how Vivian's story actually plays out in the remake.

I haven't confirmed that myself, but I've read that the Japanese script itself was changed to make it more obvious / use language closer to today's language. Waiting for more Japanese streamers to reach that point to confirm it myself, but that's even more surprising to me if that is the case

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