Meet Vivian
To begin, I will consider Vivian’s overall role in the adventure.
Vivian first appears as a member of a group of three witches called カゲ三人組 Kage Sannin-gumi, “Shadow Trio.” The 2004 English release calls them the “Shadow Sirens,” while the 2024 English release, perhaps to preserve the gender-neutrality of the original name, renders the name as “Three Shadows.” What kind of creatures the Three Shadows are is never entirely clear. They may be demons, as they seem to be smaller, cuter versions of the demonic final boss, the Shadow Queen, who even uses a variant of Vivian’s Veil power to pull Mario into shadows.
The eldest sister is マジョリン Majorin, renamed Beldam in the English release. This might vaguely preserve the magical allusion: マジョ“majo” means “witch” in Japanese, while “beldam” is an archaic English word for a hag. I will call the character Beldam. She is portrayed as a cackling evil witch, no more sympathetic than the Wicked Witch of the West, with whom she shares a sharp nose. Beldam wields ice magic, and though the tiniest, she is the leader, bossing the other sisters around. The powerhouse middle sister, who uses lightning magic, is called Marilyn in English and in Japanese, and with one exception seems to be unable to speak. Vivian, the youngest sister, uses fire magic and also has the same name in both languages. She is actually the only party member with the same name in both languages.
The three witches join the rogues gallery near the end of the first of eight chapters. Though Beldam is a major villain in the story, the Three Shadows largely serve as bumbling, comedic antagonists. Mario and his friends first encounter the them as a boss fight in the second chapter.
Ironically, given her general politeness, Vivian’s first lines of dialogue have her casually talking about killing Mario, and wondering if that will be bad. Beldam replies, “Oh, bad things happen all the time, Vivian.” Vivian is excited to find a pretty necklace in the Boggly Woods, but Beldam tells her off for being “disgusting” in response. Beldam does not know what Mario looks like, only having a single sketch for reference, but she discovers she has lost it: “Vivian, my dear pack rat… Bring out the sketch of that Mario guy that you got from Grodus! Mmmmmwee hee hee!”
Vivian responds, “Eeep! Wh-what? You said it was way too important, so you took it. You should have it…”
Beldam blames Vivian for her own mistake and berates her: “Don’t be ridiculous! I don’t have that thing. You were in charge of it! You wretched little worm! Blaming me for something you probably screwed up!”
Here and in Chapter 4, Beldam does little except berate Vivian to the point of tears and use her as a scapegoat for her own mistakes. She frequently menaces her with オシオキ (お仕置き) “punishment,” perhaps made more sinister by remaining unseen and undefined. As Beldam yells at Vivian, Marilyn attempts to point out that Mario and his friends are running by them, but Beldam ignores her. Soon, the player (Mario and his party) learns the necklace Vivian found belongs to Flurrie.
As the player heads back to retrieve the necklace, Beldam finds the picture of Mario (and, realizing she ignored him when he ran past her, blames Vivian). When their target turns up, the Three Shadows introduce themselves, and then Mario and his friends defeat them. They make their escape and do not reappear for the duration of the chapter.
