In Boggly Woods
The scene before Mario’s battle against the Three Shadows in the Boggly Woods (in Japanese ふしぎの森 “Forest of Mystery”) is the first in which the writers broach the subject of Vivian’s gender. Vivian introduces the カゲ三人組 as the Three Shadow Sisters. In the original game, Beldam, in yet another tirade, screams that Vivian is オトコ “a man”: 「コラッ！ビビアン！！なに いってんだよ あんた！カゲ三人組だろ！どこが 三姉妹だよ！あんた オトコじゃないかい！！！！！！」“Heeeey! Vivian! What’s that, you dope?! It’s the Shadow Trio! Shadow Trio!! Where do you see three sisters?! Aren’t you a man?!?!?!?!?!?!”
In response, Vivian begins crying. Clearly inured to this kind of bullying, she says, 「ゴメンナサイ～ お姉さま…つい…」“Sorry, Big Sister… I said it by mistake…”
Unmoved, Beldam threatens Vivian with punishment, as she has in every one of their interactions so far: 「つい… じゃないよ！あとで きっちり オシオキしてやるからね！！」“By mistake… not! Later, you’ll be punished properly!!”
Then Vivian falls to her knees, or equivalent thereof, in sadness. Calling Vivian a man is depicted as particularly cruel on Beldam’s part, as the word “man” is written in red text for emphasis. Though other parts of the 2004 script understand Vivian as a crossdresser, in this scene she seems to want other characters to perceive her as a woman.
The milder 2004 English script rewrites the scene so that Vivian introduces the group, called Shadow Sirens in this version, as “Shadow Beauties.” Beldam does not yell about Vivian’s gender: “Vivian! You nincompoop! What are you babbling about? It’s Shadow SIRENS! I don’t see three beauties! I see two, but then there’s you, and you’re PLUG-UGLY!!!” “PLUG-UGLY” is in red text, replacing オトコ from the Japanese. While Beldam is no doubt a cruel bully and Vivian’s mistreatment is, if anything, still overdone, calling Vivian ugly is less nasty than misgendering her.
Crying, Vivian no longer claims she said “sisters” by mistake: “Aw, right, Sis, I’m sorry… It’s just, you always call us ‘lovelies,’ and…”
Beldam cuts her off: “It’s just a figure of speech! Ooh, you’ve got some FIERCE punishment coming your way!”
The 2023 fan patch restores the sense of the original scene, with Vivian introducing the group as the “Shadow Sisters” and being met with backlash from Beldam, who does not recognize Vivian as a woman: “Vivian! You nincompoop! What are you babbling about? It’s Shadow SIRENS! I don’t see three sisters! I see two, but you, Vivian are hardly a sister!!!” Now the red-text phrase is the less direct “hardly a sister.” What has set off Beldam is a not as clear in this script, however. A “siren” is conventionally female, so even if Vivian said “sirens” instead of “sisters,” she would still seem to be identifying herself as a woman. This issue accounts for the English remake calling them the Three Shadows instead of the Shadow Sirens.
While the corresponding dialogue is less relevant, I will include it for consistency’s sake. Vivian begins to cry and says, “Aw, I’m sorry, Sis… I didn’t meant to upset you, I just misspoke…” Beldam responds, “Just a slip of the tongue? I find that hard to believe! Ooh, you’ve got some FIERCE punishment coming your way!” Vivian then falls to her equivalent of knees. Griscuit continues to revise the bowdlerized 2004 English scene to follow the Japanese one.