#change in script luigi

[michaelscorneroftheinternet]

This is an urgent message to SMG4: Mr. Puzzles has taken SMG3 hostage and forced him to open his Guardian Pod!!

...(Part 1/2)....

....0 Asks Remaining....

[fluentmoviequoter]

Please a Tim Bradford x shy!reader?

Since I’m Mexican American who grew up in the USA all my life and almost Halloween 🎃, please Lucy wants to record the shy!reader and her guy friends dressing up as Mario, Luigi and the reader dress as Yoshi while Tim watching the trio and Lucy recording them.

https://youtube.com/shorts/6XvvZw-YDU8?si=tiaHE_uCJfw-9GPK

This ended up being a blurb (set in the same universe as the Firefighters: Friend or Foe series but able to be read without that!). I hope that's okay and you enjoy it! 🤍

0.8k+ words of fluff with Tim x shy!fem!reader

The Pretty Dinosaur

“Good morning!” Lucy calls as she enters your workplace.

You look up from your notebook and furrow your brows when you see several bags hanging from her arm. There is confetti printed on them, and your shoulders automatically tense when she smiles and walks toward you.

“Where are the guys?” she inquires, leaning forward to look over your shoulder.

“Busy,” you answer quietly.

“Is that Lucy?!” one of the guys in question yells before he walks down the hallway. “Lucy!”

“Darry!” she replies, smiling as she fist-bumps him. “I need your help with something.” Turning toward you, she adds, “That means you, too.”

You shake your head, but Darry smiles at you and leans against your desk to distract you while Lucy enters the hallway to find Jay. She and Jay seem to enjoy testing the limits of your shyness more than anyone... except maybe Tim.

“Okay, listen,” Lucy demands as she returns.

You think you see her hand leaving Jay’s. Then she raps on the table and distracts you from your internal evaluation of their relationship.

“This,” she begins, reaching into the bag. “Is for you.”

Your eyes widen as she removes a Yoshi costume, a printed onesie with a hood and shorts, and then tosses it toward you. As you catch it against your chest, she passes Darry and Jay each a bag, winking at Jay before she steps back.

“I was shopping for Halloween decorations for my apartment and saw these. Put them on and we have to film some videos of you guys in them.”

“What even is Yoshi?” you mumble as you examine the costume.

“He’s a dragon,” Jay answers.

“No, bro, he’s a dinosaur,” Darry argues. “Hey, why does he get to be Mario?”

“Because he looks better in the mustache,” Lucy explains.

“You’d think so,” you whisper as you move your chair away from the desk.

Lucy’s eyes widen in surprise at your bold comment, but she waves her hands quickly, encouraging you to change.

“I have scripts!” she adds as you enter the restroom.

When you emerge in your Yoshi costume, Jay twirls the faux mustache beneath his nose and uses an Italian accent to say, “Yoshi! Welcome home!”

“She looks more like she’s in another place that’s four letters and starts with h,” Darry points out.

“C’mon, this is fun!” Lucy encourages, bouncing slightly. “I was thinking that you guys can film a few funny videos on your own and then I can give you the ideas I had.”

“Why?” you ask, holding your fingers together behind your back.

“Just for fun. I won’t post them, I promise. Now, get in your places. And… action!”

Lucy holds up her phone and smiles behind the screen as she records Jay walking into the frame.

“This red brings out my mustache, hey, Luigi?” he jokes in the same accent from before.

“Sure!” Darry agrees, walking behind Jay. “Except nobody’s ever seen a Dominican Mario.”

“He’s from Puerto Rico,” you point out, allowing Darry to push you to Jay’s side.

“My trusty sidekick is right!” he exclaims, placing his hand over your face when you open your mouth to argue that you are not his sidekick. “But it’s the same island!”

“No, it’s not,” you, Darry, and Lucy say together.

“Who’s the game named after?” Jay challenges.

“Who loses his girlfriend to an anthropomorphic turtle every week on date night?” Darry retorts.

“Did someone call the police?”

You turn quickly, disturbing the Yoshi hood over your head, and immediately drop your eyes when you see Tim leaning against your desk, watching the show in his patrol blues.

“I did,” you answer. "Don't worry, Bowser isn't involved this time."

Lucy begins laughing and ends the video as she bends forward and attempts to catch her breath. Jay lays a hand on her shoulder and continues to flirt with her as Darry tries to provoke him further. Meanwhile, you slowly approach Tim’s side with your eyes on your bare legs below the shorts of your costume.

“What are you?” Tim asks, and you can hear the smile in his voice.

“Yoshi,” you murmur, taking his hand to look at it rather than his face.

“Cute.”

“Lucy made me,” you add. “She wanted a funny video for Halloween.”

“I would’ve gotten you a better costume if I knew you wanted one.”

“I didn’t,” you explain as Lucy interjects, “You couldn’t have found better!”

“Maybe we should stop on the way home and I’ll find one you’ll enjoy looking at since you can’t seem to make eye contact today,” Tim whispers as he pulls you closer.

You whine and drop your forehead against his shoulder. He apologizes though he's aware that he’s pushing you but totally insincere.

“Can’t leave yet,” Jay calls. “Lucy isn’t done with us yet.”

“Maybe we should make one to explain why we’re all the wrong race for our characters,” Darry suggests.

“Ooh, yes!” Lucy agrees, raising her phone.

“Nobody messes with Puerto Rican Mario,” Jay purrs in his Italian accent.

“Help,” you whisper against Tim’s shoulder.

“After I hear the explanation of how a girl as pretty as you ended up dressed like a dragon.”

“Dinosaur!” Darry argues as you attempt to hold onto Tim’s hand to escape the camera and the reminder that your friends don’t care about you or how shy they’re making you.

[hollowtones]

Had a dream that you Robby and Wayne were doing a stream where you tried recreating ace attorney in minecraft but you and Wayne kept purposefully messing it up bc you kept changing your skin to Luigi and going completely off script and Wayne turned his model into a realistic looking super buff werewolf

This is awesome. I hope Robby runs me clean through with a broadsword for what I did.

[paledoptera]

SHADOWFELL SAGA CONTENT ARCHIVE (POST 2/2)

welcome back to the shadowfell content archive!

this is going to be the second (and hopefully last) post! keep in mind the "parts" are going to be a lot more brief than the first post, the early game was pretty fleshed out but the rest was pretty much just vague ideas.

in addition to content that would have eventually come out, i'm also gonna be showing off a couple of early drafts and ideas that got cut!!!

SO:

INTERMISSION: BATTLE TIME!!!

so this was the original draft shiiv sent me for "smackdown". for the two tracks they contributed to the game (smackdown & pasta la vista, which you can hear in the last content archive post) they basically made a full song with temporary instrumentation, then i went back and remade the song with more toby fox-y instrumentation. they are FANTASTIC at music writing and i actually kinda love this original version of smackdown, it has some unique charm in how bitcrushed it is

i don't really have much to comment about the battle system, but i'll quickly run through how it would've worked:

basically, it'd be the mario & luigi battle system but with a few small changes.

solo attacks would be weak attacks that cost little BP (bone power)

bros attacks would be strong attacks that cost lots of BP

you can skip your turn and regain BP by using a "pass" action command. this would be the main way to recover BP

i think one flaw in mario & luigi is that BP being a somewhat limited resource kind of force you to use solo (jump/hammer) moves rather than your COOL and hard to master bros moves. i feel like BP being an UNlimited resource would kind of remedy that

here are some ideas we had for bros attacks

(in bone blast, papyrus' gaster blaster would have been FRANK from papyrus belief <3)

yaboinando made this amazing concept for an attack based off of an old "dark darker yet darker" fan animation

last thing i have to say about the battle system: we actually had another form of "bros move" planned out. the whole game is food themed, so i figured it was only natural that a cooking move would be in the game!

PART 4: MOUNT CERAMIA

this area's name actually hovered between "mount ceramic" and "mount ceramia" for a while. i ended up choosing ceramia cuz i thought it sounded more mountain-y the theme is pretty unfinished, but i really like how it sounds anyways. i wanted to establish "our maiden voyage" as the overarching "area theme" for the whole game, but i thought a more percussive and tribal-sounding version of it would be cool for the mountain area

mount ceramia is a giant mountain made of plates and mugs. who would've thought!! i wanted to make a joke about "tectonic plates" here. i liked the section in superstar saga where you climb a giant mountain, which is prob the biggest inspiration of this area.

early on in the area, you meet IMPACT, a skeleton oc with a giant bone club

he was mostly a joke character, but i liked him. he was kinda like a big dumb caveman-y guy. funnily enough, i never envisioned him as a boss or villain. he was always going to be an ally.

(i didn't make it very far in the writing process of his theme song!!)

i can't be bothered to make a whole google doc for his short introduction script, so i'll just copy-paste it to here. (his text was going to be comedically large)

Impact: IMPACT!!! Impact: I AM IMPACT Impact: THE ONE WHO BONKS Papyrus: HELLO IMPACT! IT'S NICE TO- Impact: IMPACT PLAGUED BY Impact: TERRIBLE EGGPLANTS Impact: THEY HARD LIKE ROCKS Impact: AND RUIN MY GARDEN Papyrus: AH, A SKELETON IN DISTRESS! Papyrus: NO MATTER, THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS HERE TO HELP! (papyrus materializes a bone in his hand) Papyrus: I'LL SMASH THESE EGGPLANTS VALIANTLY LIKE- (papyrus swings his bone at the eggplant, it bounces off. he keeps trying) Papyrus: …LIKE SO!! Papyrus: LIKE SO!!! (the bone he's holding cracks) sans: you're cracking me up. Papyrus: SHUT IT SANS! Impact: YOU ARE BABBY BONES. Impact: WEAK LIKE TWIG! Impact: NEED MORE CALCIUM Impact: VITAMINS ARE GOOD. (impact tosses a heavy bone club at papyrus) Impact: THESE ARE REAL BONES. Impact: BONE CLUBS. Impact: IMPACT MADE THEM MYSELF. Impact: THESE ARE REAL BONKABLE. Impact: HELP ME BONK THE EGGPLANTS Impact: AND THEY ARE YOURS. the bone clubs would have basically been this game's replacement for the hammers in m&l. i liked the idea of papyrus and sans just hitting shit with comedically large bones like cavemen

this area was very egg-centric for some reason. i think it's because i got the whole "smashing-plates" thing into my head and wanted to smash other stuff.

PART 5: CARRION ISLES

in earlier versions of the game, the brightwater floats were actually called the carrion isles. i thought that name was too grim for such a brightly colored area though, so i pushed it forward!!!

i don't have any concept art for carrion, but i'd picture it as a collection of super stormy scary piers with constant thunder and scary intense music. it'd have that core-thing going where it'd have really intense area music that keeps playing in the battles.

(enemy designs by the fantastic yaboinando!)

this area was very fuzzy in my head. i wasn't really sure what to do with it, but i wanted some kind of semi sheriff minigame or battle at the end of this. the basic idea i had was that there'd be a "pirate king" and that semi would ally with them, maybe there'd be some kind of silly cannon battle between you on ferryperson's (now repaired) ship and them. another idea i had was that the "pirate king" could have been undyne, who fell into the dark world way after sans and papyrus did. they'd initially be allied with semi, but as soon as she sees her "enemies" are sans and papyrus she jumps ship and joins you on your adventure. i'm not sure how that would work with the rest of the game though!!!

one thing for certain is that after the silly battle, there'd be a big intense betrayal scene where ferryperson fights you. i SWEAR i had some concept art of this but i can't find this. it'd have ferryperson on a giant wave while papyrus and sans are floating on the collapsed remains of their boat though. kinda like this.

this theme was somewhat inspired by alphys takes action, funnily enough. i like how it sounds, though it is very unfinished

(edit) FOUND IT!!!!

this is VERY very early concept art, back when the game had more of an undertale-y UI. originally sans was actually going to be the only one in this battle since papyrus was held hostage, it'd be the thing to push him into finally fighting properly

PART 6: STEEL CALDERA & ZARELLA RESORT

quick warning!!! everything beyond this point is very fuzzy. we had NONE of this solidly planned out

this is the closest thing we have to a theme for steel caldera. it would've been a magma-y volcano area! originally this area was actually called "steamworks" and was a purple-pinkish retro-futuristic city, but undertale yellow came out and i thought it'd look like a ripoff so i trashed that idea lol

in the original script, caldera was also called "mt zarella" but i thought that sounded lame

i had a brief idea for a skeleton in undyne's knight armor called "ROMAN OF STEEL" who was gonna be the main villain for this arc, sort of a big egotistical tough-guy character.

zarella resort was gonna be the part-2 to this area, a fancy italian resort next to the volcano with heavy mafia connections.

r.v pine made some fantastic designs for the cheese mafia that i still LOVE

there was gonna be a meta joke in the resort where papyrus & sans expect to get firehand and thunderhand, but the ancient sites that those powers come from were knocked down and turned into a tourist attraction. some mafia employee goes "I'm sorry, but hand powers have been privatized."

the arc ends with papyrus getting a neverending bottle of hot sauce that he just kind of carries around and uses as a "fire" attack

INTERMISSION: MID-GAME SEMI FIGHT

early on i envisioned some kind of semi-emotional moment where sans and papyrus meet another skeleton with this big western wagon, then they sit by a campfire and talk, then go to sleep. when they wake up, semi sheriff is chasing them with his own wagon, and there'd be this massive battle. i swear i have concept art of this too but i ACTUALLY can't find it this time

PART 7: CAPRESE JUNGLE

this was a very weird area. it was gonna be a jungle based on salad i swear everything i came up with for this area came from some schizo hallucination because i don't remember coming up with any of this.

here are some iterations this strange area went through:

the area was ruled by a fancy skeleton with a fancy feathered hat called "Arial Noire". she spoke french and was a necromancer

the area was ruled by dinosaurs, like papyrus' dino egg oatmeal. there would be a part where semi tries to ambush you, but accidentally shoots a baby dino in its egg and then the baby dino gets pissed and fights papyrus and sans

the area was ruled by a flowey knockoff called "Peppermint".

PART 8: QUICK ROUNDUP OF OTHER AREAS

here are some other area ideas i had for the late-game:

sugarspice peaks, an area with cliffs and moths and stuff. i didn't actually put much thought into this area, i just wanted moths in the game. in the light world this would have been a cupboard

the badlands. this area would have started as a return to flavortown, that ends in a giant journey to catch the IMPASTA, the bandit who framed papyrus & sans and caused semi sheriff to hunt you down throughout the entire game. after you catch impasta, semi sheriff joins your party.

steampunk glacier, basically just the fridge in the light world. this would have been a heavy parallel to "joke's end" in superstar saga. i think paps & sans would have been seperated from semi sheriff (and possibly undyne) for the first half of this section, then they all meet back up near the end. sans also gets a shitty hand power, being a few cubes of dry ice that he just throws at people's eyes

PART 9: WATERFALL PALACE & FINAL BOSS

so, this is something that's oddly personal to me because the stupid, STUPID idea i had for the final boss was my entire motivation to create this game.

the waterfall palace area would be a standard area-before-final-boss-area. in the light world it would be the comedically tall kitchen sink.

at the top of the tower, there'd be a giant faucet with running water and the "dark lord", the overarching villain for this whole thing. you find the "dark lord" and fight him. a theme similar to "in the final" from bowser's inside story would play, but then the boss would be incredibly underwhelming. he'd die in like 3 hits... at which point he reveals he's not the ACTUAL dark lord, and he was just pretending to do so for status. he'd turn off the faucet... and then a giant door would reveal itself behind the great waterfall.

papyrus, sans and semi sheriff would walk through the door... and see a japanese temple.

and then, the ground rumbles.

the FINAL BOSS of this entire adventure would have been a GIGANTIC ANNOYING DOG WITH THREE HEADS. an ANNOYING CERBERUS if you will

you don't understand. the idea of this is so fucking hilarious to me. imagine going on this entire adventure just for the final boss to be an annoying dog joke. this is the first ever idea i thought of for this fucking fangame and i worked backwards from there and thought up EVERYTHING ELSE. JUST to fit the puzzle pieces together for this finale. i thought it would be so fucking funny to troll the players like this.

to bring the joke even further, in most mario & luigi games, you have to collect 8 pieces of some kind of ancient-mythical-powerful-artifact. in this game i decided on "ingredients for the legendary linguine", a bunch of seemingly magical ingredients that come together to make this uber powerful relic of a meal. there was gonna be this dramatic scene halfway through the cerberus fight where papyrus assembles the linguine, throws it at the boss and then NOTHING HAPPENS. a big point of the boss would also be that it'd think papyrus, sans & semi's attacks are just play-fighting, but once they deal enough damage then it'd get angry and just curbstomp them both and they'd seemingly be pretty much dead.

there would be this big power-of-friendship scene where sans, papyrus and semi revive, and then a giant three-headed gaster blaster dragon would be assembled from the bones of their attacks, and there'd be a bowsers-inside-story style giant battle where the megalo dragon finally defeats the annoying dog

and that, my friends, would be the ending of my half-shitpost game, because i think that would have been amazing and hilarious, but unfortunately that reality will never come to fruition.

thank you all for the support. since i posted the first half of this archive i saw a twitter thread posted about the game's cancellation. it's pretty humbling, and dare i say almost inspiring seeing how many people liked the concept so much and were saddened by its cancellation. i have a big problem with announcing projects too soon and then having to cancel them when i inevitably loose motivation, so to avoid this i'll probably be dead quiet on any future big projects until i can release SOMETHING to do with them, whether that's a demo or trailer or anything else. i hope to see you all in whatever project i start next!

SHADOWFELL SAGA ARCHIVE: PART 1 - PART 2

[lizaluvsthis]

Sorry if im late but during that deleted scene of matmtv au i cant help but notice

Why does Meggy not have her hat?

And why does it say Act 2.5??? Does that mean this comic is long and what Act are we on now? I couldnt help it I love your comic!

WAIT I ACTUALLY DIDNT EXPECT SOMEONE WOULD LIKE MY COMIC- THANK YOU SO MUCH... 😭 Might I say it means alot to me receiving these comments, The comic I made for that au is just based on my "Late-Night-Drunken-Doodles"

I want to call it that was cause I've always had runner up marware comics in this au every night, and whenever I write their dialogues they seem unauthentic due to my sleepyness. Wait where was I again? Oh right-

During Act 2, I originally planned to make this part whether she makes her own decisions for herself to NOT cope from the past but atleast focus on the present-future ahead. Thats why when Mario convinced to Meggy that Puzzles is not a bad person anymore, she debated on her mind if she'd give Puzzles a chance even after everything he's done.

(To remind everyone, one shot wren WORKED for Mr. Puzzles and he had admitted that during Puzzlevision Movie that he was the one behind their little adventures)

She faced on the present, proving to herself that anyone can change. Meggy destroys her hat. Forgetting Wren's existance and his bad doings that were growing all over her.

Side note- due to this scene being deleted, I decided to just make her destroy her hat with no Puzzles being in there but Wren. She just wanted to get rid of it.

And if you're also asking the Act, I had already planned a long time ago how it begins and how it ends. Acts are what I used for different side story and ALSO they're the basic set ups of rising actions and the impacts of how this story of the comic will take place in the right time. (My only problem, is that Ive never arranged them properly so my head is exploding)

We are STILL on ACT 1

Act 1 is called "Bond" it's the episode or- well- pages of the story where Mario and Puzzles made sense with each other and had their talks, said as hanging out and doing stuff together while Puzzles never realized something until now.

Although we're finally on Act 1, we have Pre-Act 1 of "Bond" which drags us to the VERY first beginning of a prologue. And yes, it's when Mario saw a TV of a head which we all figured it was actually Mr. Puzzles after his head got bashed into the sky with a luigi meat mallet. Pre-Act is yet to begin the story that would unfold into that chemistry we have going with Mario and Puzzles. So far they're still on progress with working each other out.

It might seems alot, but in a nutshell like any other. It's just some silly comic of the two complicated GAYS.

Act 2.5 in this scene is deleted and was re-written from the script. Meggy and Mr. Puzzles who are originally going to be friends of this story would probably NOT work out because they've JUST been moving on to Puzzlevision Movie after that. In the re-written version I had for her is that Meggy is now the LEAST character who has lines. But is still relevant to the story aside from SMG3 and SMG4.

The comic is atleast longer than um... than 100+ pages and these are just the Pre-Act and Act 1 still... imagine making more of that in 2 notebooks and end up having 500+ that would be a real dedication.

Anyways I think these are all well spoken, I hape to answer more project related or non project related asks. Please feel free to drop down anything on my inbox ^^

- ★Lizaluvs

[mangionebabymama]

https://www.tumblr.com/mangionebabymama/783188326846988289/i-wonder-how-his-mom-would-feel-about-that-bc?source=share

wait now I'm thinking of how would his parents react to Luigi's s/o having tattoos that are not discreet?? like an arm sleeve or something. do u think his parents would judge you or 😭😭 and if they do have a weird reaction, would Luigi defend you or not

ayo shit, this is a good one right here 😭 whew

Now, of course, I don’t think they’d judge you RIGHT then and there to your face—bc come on, after all the amazing things Luigi’s told them about you, nothing but kind, glowing words, and how genuinely excited he’s been to finally introduce you to them—how could they just flip the script the moment they saw a few (or even a lot of) tattoos on your arm? That wouldn’t be fair to you.

But, to be fair, Luigi never really mentioned that you had that many tattoos—at least not ones they’ve actually seen, so it might catch them a little off guard. If they had any kind of weird reaction, Luigi would absolutely defend you. If you stepped away to the bathroom and someone tried to say something, he’d shut it down fast, "Come on now, it’s just tattoos. That doesn’t change a thing about who she is. You haven't even sat down with her to talk."

[simslegacy5083]

Today's (4/16/2025) Episode: Pretty Mommas

A depressed Skye headed out to the endorsement deal that Luigi had predicted xe’d soon be getting in xir own right.

The beauty company xir dad had worked with for ages had reached out to the young photographer and asked if xe’d be willing to film a “before and after” segment using their cosmetics. When baby focused Skye pitched the idea of focusing on moms and moms-to-be his sponsor loved the concept.

As usual Skye called on friends and family to help. In this case new moms Gretchen and Isra and xir soon to give birth cousin Adelaide.

“Thanks so much for coming” xe told them as xir PrimSim contact led them to the small beauty studio upstairs.

Once Elyse’s mother was a captive audience in xir make-up chair an overwhelming desire to pour xir heart out to her overtook the young sim. Maybe Dr. Blevins can’t help me on my own, but she doesn’t know Elyse Skye reasoned Isra raised her, she’s got to have some good advice for me.

Quietly so not to be overheard by the others Skye told xir mother-in-law the bare bones of what had happened.

“Elyse got really bad news at the fertility clinic and now she doesn’t want anything to do with me” xe sighed. “I’ve tried talking to her, I offered to take her to therapy with me, but she isn’t interested. I don’t know how to help us get back to a good place, but I don’t want to lose her.”

Isra frowned. Her daughter’s avoidance of her own calls recently now made more sense. “Aren’t you and your dad filming another one of these endorsements for Family Dinner soon?” she asked. At Skye’s nod she said “OK, do it at my house. While you’re there I’ll talk to Elyse.”

“Perfect, thank you SO much!” Skye smiled gratefully at xir mother-in-law, feeling hopeful for the first time in a long time.

“How’s little Val?” Skye asked when it was Gretchen’s turn. “Sorry we haven’t been by; we’ve just been crazy busy with the holidays and all” xe fibbed.

“I understand completely” Gretchen waved away xir concern “Bailey and I haven’t left the house other than to go to work since she was born! Besides, as much as my dads are over the last thing we need is more visitors, no offense.”

“How are your dads, and your job?” Skye inquired, remembering their last conversation and the awkward family secrets he was privy to.

“Better and worse, respectively” she shrugged “Dad and daddy finally seem to be fixing their relationship but my job… well… I’m bored if I’m being honest. I don’t think I can consider a career change right now, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep running scripts and sitting in meetings.”

“Well, I’ll keep my ears open. If anything comes along that seems up your alley, I’ll let you know” Skye promised, earning xemself a grateful smile.

Last up was Adelaide. “Give me a hand?” she asked, looking unhappily at the raised salon chair.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Skye quickly used the foot pedal to lower the seat down, taking her outstretched hand as she gently settled herself in.

“You’ve been really quiet today.” xe said casually as xe applied powder. “Something on your mind? Anything you want to talk about?”

“I was so excited to get pregnant” Adelaide began “but I didn’t know it would be THIS difficult. I feel sick, everything hurts, and I barely fit anywhere!” As if to emphasize her point she placed a hand on her bulbous belly and shifted uncomfortably in the small seat. “It was so kind of you to ask me to come today but right now you’re just putting lipstick on a pig. You might want to take some photos without me, just to be safe.”

“Nonsense!” Skye shook xir head “I’m sorry pregnancy has been so hard on you, but you look beautiful. Is this why you didn’t want me to do your maternity photoshoot?” Adelaide nodded “Well how about I come over soon, help you pick out a pretty outfit, and we’ll give it a try? If you hate the pictures, we can delete them, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

“OK, fine… as long as I get right of first refusal if I really hate how I look.” she tentatively agreed.

“OK, everyone say “Freezer Bunny” on 3. 1.. 2.. 3!” Skye called out, snapping the final group “after” photo of the trio. “Thanks again for your help!”

Things didn’t improve with xir wife, but the response to their “pretty mommas” campaign gave Skye something to smile about. PrimSim loved it, and they weren’t the only ones. A major women’s fashion magazine picked up the spread, making it the centerfold of their winter edition.

The agent Luigi had insisted Skye hire told xem “This has really pushed you onto the map my friend!” Skye wasn’t sure how xe felt about xir rising star, xe’d never craved the spotlight in quite the same way as xir father, but the stack of fan mail xe received did make xem feel good.

The best part of the positive buzz around the campaign involved Adelaide. Not only had PrimSim not rejected her photos; they wanted to see more of the pretty momma-to-be.

The maternity photoshoot the pair had planned ended up being sponsored by the big box pregnancy clothing store. She and an expectant male sim posed for a variety of photos showcasing that season’s hottest “eagerly expecting” fashion trends.

“I can’t believe it!” she laughed. “Thanks so much Skye, I had a blast, and I feel so much better.” Skye left the shoot overjoyed xe could help bolster xir cousins spirts and hopeful that the upcoming visit to Sulani would improve the outlook of another sim near and dear to xir heart.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[itsawitchyworld]

Time Loop Luigi x Y/N

The clock struck 7:03 a.m., and Y/N’s eyes snapped open. Again. The same faint hum of the ceiling fan, the same pale sunlight filtering through the curtains, the same ache in their chest that hadn’t been there a moment ago—or had it been there for an eternity? They sat up, the sheets pooling around their waist, and stared at the clock. 7:04. It was always 7:04 when they woke up. Always.

“This can’t be real,” Y/N whispered, their voice barely audible over the sound of their own heartbeat. They swung their legs over the edge of the bed, their feet hitting the cool wooden floor. The sensation was so painfully familiar it made their stomach churn. They’d done this before. Hundreds of times. Maybe more. They couldn’t remember the first time anymore, only the weight of it, the inevitability.

Yesterday. That’s what it felt like. Every time. Yesterday. But it wasn’t yesterday—it was today. It was always today.

Y/N padded to the window, pulling the curtain aside just enough to peek out. The street below was quiet, bathed in the soft, early morning light. A bird chirped somewhere in the distance. Everything was exactly as it should be. Except it wasn’t. Because in a few hours, Luigi would knock on their door, his hands trembling, his voice unsure, and he would tell them everything they’d ever wanted to hear. And then—

Y/N’s breath hitched. They didn’t want to think about what came after. They didn’t want to relive it. But they would. They always did.

The day unfolded as it always did. Breakfast, shower, the same playlist on repeat as they dressed. Every action was automatic, every moment a recitation of a script they’d memorized without meaning to. The only thing that changed was the growing sense of dread, coiled tight in their gut, as the hours ticked by.

The knock came at exactly 11:47 a.m.

Y/N froze, their hand hovering over the doorknob. They could feel their pulse in their fingertips, a frantic rhythm that matched the thoughts racing through their mind. What if this time is different? What if I can stop it? But they knew better. They’d tried before. They’d tried everything.

Still, they opened the door.

Luigi stood there, his cap clutched nervously in his hands, his dark eyes wide and unsure. He looked the same as he always did—tall, slightly awkward, impossibly endearing. But there was something different about him today, something Y/N couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was the way he hesitated, the way his gaze lingered on theirs just a moment too long.

“Hey,” he said, his voice soft, almost tentative.

“Hey,” Y/N replied, their own voice steady despite the storm raging inside them.

Continue reading here.

[aedislumen]

Are there any movies, books in which Prieur is in it?

Not many as far as I know. The only two legit examples that come to mind are the documentary Un mètre pour mesurer le monde by the studio Arte and the play I Giacobini (= "The Jacobins") by Federico Zardi.

Left: an unknown guy playing Prieur in the documentary (source).

Right: the actor Luigi Pistilli starring as Prieur in the theatrical representation of Zardi's play of April 13 1957 (source1, source2).

Are these two faithful representations?

As far as the documentary is concerned, aside from the appearance, which could fit the real Prieur, absolutely not.

It's incredible how during his whole lifetime and beyond, Prieur was surprisingly spared from the slanderous propaganda (thermidorian/anglo etc) that his colleagues at the CSP endured, only to be painted as an envious, spoiled child who enjoyed playing dictator in a 2012 documentary on the history of the metric system. He was basically reserved the same treatment of Saint-Just in La Révolution Française (1989).

I will talk at length about Arte's doc in a separate post; for now just know that whatever was said about him is either not true or interpreted in the worst, most negative way possible.

Talking about Zardi's portrayal, it's a bit difficult to judge, because in the play Prieur is a secondary character: he doesn't have much lines. He's presented as military man, friend of Carnot; Robespierre and Couthon are very fond of him, praising his ardent personality, making me wonder if Zardi hadn't merged him with the other Prieur, considering also that he's listed has a Jacobin (Claude-Antoine Prieur never joined the club) and as being 37 years old, the age of Prieur de la Marne in Year II. In spite of that, I was personally very glad to see him being included and described positively.

I was also told by a friend that Prieur de la Côte-d'Or is a character in a play written and staged in 2009 in Paris. I avoid to mention its name, because the whole thing is simply atrocious. Most likely the writers and directors read a few wikipedia pages (in English, because such nonsense can only be found there) on the CSP and thought themselves ready to stage a play about them. Spoiler: they weren't. Moreover there's no script or recording of the play online: it seems to have luckily fallen into oblivion and I don't want to change that.

Last but not least, I wish to mention a fictional character whose personality and background are astonishingly similar to those of Prieur de la Côte-d'Or. I'm talking about Viktor from the show Arcane (season 1):

Both are thin, reserved, introvert, awkward and uncomfortable in public, but incredibly sweet and caring in private. Both had no parents (*) and their mentor/father figure was a chemist, both worked as assistant in a laboratory; both have a limp leg. Both are brilliant scientists, strongly devoted to their work, striving to make the world a better place, but they'll end up using their knowledge to build weapons to defend their country. Viktor's best friend and close collaborator, who he clings to, is another brilliant scientist, who is terribly naive and dramatic, doesn't understand a thing about politics and thus lets himself being played and exploited by politicians without scruples. Both do much of the manual work, but it's always said best friend (hi, Carnot) that gets credit and attention for it, but they don't complain.

It's not a 1:1 perfect comparison: Arcane is a fantasy show after all and Prieur would have never abandoned his mentor because he questioned the ways he was conducting research as Viktor did for instance; still, it's a portrayal that gives an overall fairly accurate idea of his personality.

(*) Prieur had a father, but the latter abandoned him as an infant and the two never really formed a bond, when his father tried to get in touch with him.

[mackerelphones]

Comparing Vivians in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Introduction

Developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door came out in 2004 in Japanese, English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish on the Nintendo GameCube. The original Japanese title is ペーパーマリオＲＰＧ (Paper Mario RPG). It is the second installment of the Paper Mario series and the fourth RPG in the Mario IP overall, after Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, unless we count the RPG elements of the mobile Mario golf and tennis games. A complete remake of The Thousand-Year Door came out internationally in 2024 for the Nintendo Switch under the same title, changing the graphics, music, and, importantly here, the script.

Developers at Intelligent Systems have often taken a more daring and unusual approach to the Nintendo properties they work with. The Thousand-Year Door marks a departure from the studio’s earlier Paper Mario in how far it travels from the usual Mario setting and tone. While still appropriate for children and highly comedic, The Thousand-Year Door offers a more elaborate, sometimes dramatic storyline with darker themes and subject matter than the vast majority of Mario games, a trend that would be still further amplified in its less lauded sequel, Super Paper Mario.

Among the various more mature subjects the script touches on is the gender variance or queerness of Vivian, one of the main characters. While I will not pretend this topic exists in a vacuum, there has been some controversy over the question of whether the 2004 Japanese script depicts Vivian as a transgender woman or an otokonoko/femboy, a point I will return to below. We will look at how exactly the different releases of The Thousand-Year Door portrayed this topic in 2004 and how this depiction was later revised.

If you are the sort who is worried about spoilers, you should not read more of this.

To give credit to the specific real people who worked hard to produce the writing I will be discussing, the credits list Ryota Kawade as the chief director and Kaoru Kita, Tomoaki Fukuda, and Toshiyuki Nagahara as assistant directors. Hironobu Suzuki is listed as script director, but “script” is credited to Misao Fukuda. While “script” could refer to programming in this context, that there are distinct credits for “programming” suggests Hironobu Suzuki and Misao Fukuda were indeed responsible for writing the dialogue. As major a factor for the 2004 English release are the more numerous translators and localizers: Rich Amtower, Nate Bihldorff, Thomas Connery, Scott Richey, Bill Trinen, and Erik Peterson; “localization support” staff Mika Kurosawa and Norihide Sasaki; and “localization management” staff Jeff Miller and Leslie Swan.

The 2024 Switch remake credits Ryota Kawade as supervisor, while the director role passed to Masahiko Nagaya. Oddly enough, although the text of the script is largely identical, the remake’s credits do not clearly list any writers. “Game scripting” is attributed to Ryunosuke Kogi, Tasuku Kondo, Kaori Kawamura, Atsuki Kubota, and Raiki Hirose, but here this seems to mean programming rather than dialogue writing. The Switch remake’s localization credits are so extensive that it would be impractical to list them here. I cannot know what specifically these individuals did, such as whether a creative decision should be attributed to Suzuki or Fukuda or even Kawade, or who among the huge staff made a particular localization decision. Furthermore, different roles can often overlap in game design. What effect did the event designers have on the script writers, for instance, and what does the remake’s credit for “movies” refer to? I prefer to credit work to the people who did it, but given these considerations, I will not specifically refer to any of these creators below.

The different names I provide from the Japanese-language version of the script come from the Super Mario Wiki’s articles on Vivian, Marilyn, Beldam, Goom Goom, and The Thousand-Year Door and its remake; the page on Vivian from the Japanese-language Mario Wiki (apologies for using a Fandom site); and themushroomkingdom.net page “The Thousand-Year Door: From Japanese to English.” The quotations from the script I provide not from these sources I checked by consulting miscellaneous footage uploaded to YouTube as well as my own recordings. None of these are anything like formal academic sources, but they are sufficient for my purposes here.

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 whose name was not changed in localization.

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. The sisters make their escape and do not reappear for the duration of the chapter.

The Three Shadows return in Chapter 4, seeming at home in its dreary gothic horror setting. Beldam has constructed a イチコロバクダン “trouncing bomb,” in English called “Superbombomb,” to kill Mario. However, she loses it in the tall grass of Twilight Town, blames Vivian for her mistake yet again, and forces Vivian to search for it while she and Marilyn “go take a well-earned siesta.” Meanwhile, a malicious shapeshifting monster who is invincible to anyone who doesn’t know his name steals Mario’s body and identity, turning him into a shadow and taking away the entire crew of friends the player has relied on so far. Vivian doesn’t recognize the shadow as Mario. In probably the most extreme example of Mario being kind in the entire franchise, he finds Vivian crying because she will be “punished” again and then locates the Superbombomb for her. However, it is broken.

“What’ll I do? What’ll I do? I guess I was just meant to be punished for life…” (The 2024 remake changes this to, “What’ll I do? What’ll I do? Ohhh, why does everything have to go wrong all of the time?!”)

Mario can respond either, “Hey, don’t feel bad!” or “Here, let me fix it.”

Moved by what might be the first kindness anyone showed her, Vivian, fed up with Beldam’s cruelty, declares her intention to help Mario get back his name and body, kisses him, and abandons the broken Superbombomb. “Gee whiz, you have way worse problems than I do! And you were worried about me that whole time… That’s so…kind…” At this point, the script makes explicit that Vivian is not a cisgender woman. The 2004 script seems to indicate she is a crossdressing boy, but the 2024 remake depicts her as transgender.

This is also when the player can use Vivian’s abilities in gameplay. Her combat powers are enabled via simple quick-time events. She continues to wield fire magic, capable of burning enemies for multiple turns. Another of her abilities is Infatuate, in which she blows a kiss that is able to inflict the Confused status on enemies, a fairly common power in Japanese RPGs (some of them add a unique status ailment specifically for being seduced, rather than the generic Confused status).

Vivian’s most important power is Veil, which conceals her and Mario in the shadows to avoid obstacles and attacks, as well as, only in Chapter 4, to eavesdrop. The latter power is necessary for them to discover the shapeshifter’s name from a parrot he keeps locked in his basement. In the original Japanese script, the name turns out to be ランペル Rumple. Though you would think an English-language audience would more readily recognize the reference, localizers gave him the English name Doopliss.

Mario’s allies believe that he is Doopliss and, seeing him in league with their enemy Vivian, join a battle on the impostor’s side. After the boss fight, Mario recovers his body. Mario’s party members are apologetic to him but unsympathetic to Vivian until he sticks up for her. Having already proven herself, Vivian apologizes for attacking him in Boggly Woods and “REALLY” joins the party.

The primary antagonists in Chapter 6, a gentle spin on Murder on the Orient Express, are the Three Shadows, now Beldam, Marilyn, and Doopliss. Notably, Beldam threatens Vivian specifically: “Normally, this would be where I finally deal with you and that homely traitor, Vivian…” Doopliss impersonates a celebrity as part of a plot to bomb the train Mario is riding. Strangely, the player does not actually fight the group, who simply run away when thwarted and later have a comical scene where they again screw up a scheme. (As a kid, I thought Beldam sends the Smorg monsters that subsequently attack the train as her plan B, but in fact the script never even implies this.) Note that the writers preemptively avoid having Vivian be involved in the more villainous, albeit still ridiculous, train bombing, allowing her redemption to be simpler. While the player can use any party members, Vivian is depicted as proactive about the wacky detective hijinx and thwarting Beldam as the others.

The Three Shadows only return in Chapter 8, the finale, where they attempt to kill Mario’s party inside the Palace of Shadow where the ancient world-conquering demon is sealed. Beldam specifies she intends to kill Vivian. “Ready for the end, my dears?” says Beldam. “You and that traitor Vivian have a date with eternity!” If Vivian is the active party member, now empowered, she inverts Beldam’s perpetual threats of punishment: “Today, Sis…I’m going to punish YOU, you hear me?” While any party member could be active instead, this optional dialogue completes Vivian’s arc: no longer a submissive but villainous victim, she is actively standing up to her sisters. The fight is much tougher than in Chapter 2, but Beldam, Marilyn, and Doopliss are left dazed on the ground with cartoon stars orbiting their heads.

At the climax, Beldam, Marilyn, and Doopliss reappear to deliver a surprising twist. Far from a joke villain, Beldam is the mastermind behind the entire plot to unseal her master, the demonic conqueror the Shadow Queen, and re-enslave the world. If Vivian is the active party member, her surprise and confusion indicate that she was unaware this is what her sister was up to. This has a number of unexplored implications. For one, Beldam must be centuries old, which raises the question of how old Vivian is.

When she suspects they have to kill Princess Peach, whom the Shadow Queen is using as a host body, Vivian shows a darker side. She believes that after Peach is dead, she herself will be able to be together with Mario: “I feel bad for the princess, but that queen must fall before us! And when she does, you and I can… Well, anyway, let’s take this fight to her!” In a long final boss fight, Mario and his friends, with the power of the goodwill of all the people they’ve helped on their journeys, are able to break through the Shadow Queen’s powers, rescue Peach, and kill the demon. Beldam and Marilyn run away.

The tearjerker ending scene has the various party members say goodbye to Mario, really to the player, as the curtain closes on the adventure. Vivian stops just short of confessing that she is in love with Mario: “Uhhhh… Mario… I… I feel… I feel like I’ve grown to lo– Uh, yeah, um, never mind… Y-Yeah, I sure do think that you and Peach make a nice couple… Hmm hmm hmm…” In the epilogue, Vivian is leading a happy life with her sisters, as Beldam has implausibly promised to never be mean to her again. Her replacement Doopliss, meanwhile, has turned over a new leaf in his arrogant quest for attention and uses his shapeshifting powers to perform in stage plays.

Since the original release, some fans have held up Vivian as positive transgender representation. The 2004 English and German releases completely scrub all mentions of Vivian being trans or “a boy” from the script, weakening the drama. However, the 2004 Italian-, French-, and Spanish-language releases retain that Vivian is transgender, and apparently the Italian script even has her call herself a woman and proud of it. The 2024 remake depicts Vivian as transgender in Japanese and in every translation/localization.

To analyze the depiction of Vivian’s gender, I will refer to five different versions of the script: the original 2004 Japanese-language script of the GameCube release; the 2004 English translation/localization of this script; a 2023 fan-made patch by Griscuit called Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door+, which, among numerous other tweaks, restores text about Vivian’s gender; the 2024 Japanese-language script of the Switch remake; and the 2024 English-language script of the remake. My Japanese language skills are poor, but because Paper Mario RPG is intended for elementary schoolers, I can understand the text at least well enough for our purposes here.

In Japanese, Vivian uses the feminine first-person pronoun あたし atashi for herself. Third-person pronouns are less common in Japanese than in English, and I did not notice any used for Vivian in any of the text I checked. All English-language scripts refer to Vivian only with feminine pronouns. Details about Vivian are not the only variations between these scripts, but they might be the most meaningful. Unfortunately, a lot of the specifics we will look at are Vivian being misgendered.

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.

Both the 2024 Japanese and English scripts remove Beldam’s major red-text insult and give Vivian additional dialogue. Instead of Beldam calling Vivian “a man,” Beldam says she isn’t a sister, a subtler insult reflecting the writers’ interest in having more tasteful treatment of the character even when portraying her villainous sister. Now Beldam tells Vivian, 「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！三人組！！三姉妹じゃなく　三人組だって　いつも　いってるじゃないかい！」 “Heeeey! Vivian! What’s that, you dope?! It’s the Shadow Trio! Shadow Trio!! I always tell you we’re not three sisters, we’re a trio!”

A crying Vivian gives an expanded, sadder version of her response from the original: 「ゴメンナサイ～　お姉さま…　アタイも…　ココロの中では　妹だから　つい…」 “Sorry, Big Sister… I said it by mistake since I’m also… a sister in my heart…” Vivian being a girl “in her heart” recurs in the 2024 Japanese script.

Beldam retains the same line from the original but it seems even more vicious: 「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!!” As in the 2004 release, Vivian then falls to her equivalent of knees in sadness.

The 2024 English release resembles the revised scene in the Japanese script, losing the weaker dialogue about Vivian being ugly. When Vivian calls the Three Shadows the “Three Shadow Sisters,” Beldam shouts, “Vivian! You nincompoop! What are you babbling about? It’s just SHADOWS! The Three SHADOWS! ‘Sisters’ makes us sound less mysterious…and less scary! How many times must I remind you?!” This sentiment about the relative scariness of “sisters” is absent from the slightly more repetitious Japanese text.

The crying Vivian responds, “Aw, right, Sis. I’m sorry… It’s just, it makes me really happy when you call me your sister, so…” Instead of saying she is a sister inside her heart, Vivian leaves her transness subtler than in the Japanese script.

Then Beldam claims Vivian will be punished not for wanting to be a sister but for being “sappy”: “How insufferably sappy! Ooh, you’ve got some FIERCE punishment coming your way!”

Vivian falls to her equivalent of knees. To further rub it in, before the fight, Beldam declares, “The might of The Three Shadows—RELATION WITHHELD—will be more than enough to win the day!” There is no equivalent of “RELATION WITHHELD” in the corresponding Japanese text: 「われら　カゲ三人組の　チカラを　たっぷりと　見せてやるわさっ！」 “We shall display the might of the Shadow Trio!” Although カゲ三人組 is also a gender-neutral term, the English script emphasizes that Beldam avoids the term “sisters” to insult Vivian.

Tattle

In the subsequent battle against the Three Shadows, Goombella can use her Tattle ability on Vivian. With Tattle, Goombella looks up bosses and enemies in a guidebook to provide some information about them. In the 2004 game’s Tattle log, Goombella hesitantly calls Vivian 弟 “younger brother”: 「『ビビアン』よ　カゲ三人組の一人で　いちばん下の妹　…じゃなくて　弟ね 」 “That’s Vivian. Of the Shadow Trio, she’s the youngest sister… er, brother.” If Vivian is a trans woman, as the preceding scene implies, this is very insulting. If she is instead a crossdressing man, it would be less so. This establishes the pattern of Vivian’s portrayal in the original script where she is often identified as the latter.

In the fan patch, Griscuit rewrites the Tattle so that Goombella is more supportive of Vivian: “According to the book, she’s the youngest brother of the trio. …Wait, what?! She looks like the youngest sister to me!” While still preserving the structure of the Japanese Tattle, this version draws attention to the fact that the book, rather than our friend Goombella, is identifying Vivian as the youngest brother.

In every version of the Japanese and English scripts, whether she calls Vivian the youngest sister or youngest brother, Goombella then goes on to ramble about how Vivian is very cute, possibly cuter than her. In both Japanese and English, the 2024 release removes the line about Vivian being the “youngest brother” and moves directly to Goombella commenting on how cute Vivian is.

Interestingly, Goombella’s lines about Vivian’s cuteness were slightly tweaked between the 2004 and 2024 releases in both Japanese and English. In the 2004 Japanese script, Goombella ends her comments about Vivian’s cuteness with, 「やだっ…あたしったら　なにを　かんがえているのかしら」 “No way… What am I thinking?” The particle ったら indicates this is frustrated in tone. The English script is more or less the same: “…Uh… What am I thinking?” The original could be read as Goombella wondering why she is comparing her attractiveness to someone she has just identified as a man. But I am probably not the only player who read the line as suggesting Goombella is attracted to Vivian. Whether to remove Goombella being transphobic or Goombella being bisexual, the 2024 remake replaces this line with, 「やだっ…あたしったら　アキモチ やいているのかしら」 I think this means something like, “No way… Feeling second-rate is burning me up!” Conveying the same sense, the 2024 English script has Goombella conclude, “Wow. I think I might be jealous.”

Tattle Log

Besides the Tattle that can be read in battle, there is also a Tattle Log that records information about each Tattled enemy and boss. The text of the Tattle Log is always different, and usually less colorful, than what Goombella says in her dialogue. This is the description in Vivian’s Tattle Log entry, with some added punctuation for clarity: 「カゲ三人組の　一人で　マジョリンの妹…もとい 弟。オトコのコだけど　その　かわいさに　みんな　メロメロかもね」 A translation will inevitably have some awkward pronoun reference, but since this character has only ever been referred to in English as she/her and since the Japanese text uses no pronouns, I will still use she/her: “One of the Shadow Trio, Beldam’s little sister… rather, brother. She is a boy but so cute that anyone might fall head-over-heels in love with her.”

Vivian is yet again identified as a cute boy who looks like a girl. The bit about Vivian being cute enough that anyone can fall in love with her uses the word メロメロ, which I rendered as “head-over-heels in love.” This alludes to the ability メロメロキッス “Head-Over-Heels Kiss” or, as the Super Mario Wiki renders it, “Heart-Melting Kiss,” which the English release calls Infatuate. Perhaps this bewitching cuteness accounts for Goombella’s reaction.

Another point of contention is that the word “boy” in this description, and in other menu text about Vivian, is オトコのコ otokonoko. Because it is written not in kanji but in phonetic katakana, this word has two possible meanings. The one probably intended here is 男の子, which means “boy.” The other, however, is also relevant in this context: 男の娘, literally something like “male girl.” The word 男の娘 became popular in manga culture in the early 2000s (and remains so). In the mainstream sex-gender taxonomy, an 男の娘 would usually be an effeminate crossdressing cisgender man. The word “femboy” originated in English-language manga discussion online in the 2000s to describe otokonoko characters and has an identical, or near-identical, meaning. I do not believe that “otokonoko” or “femboy” are usually regarded as pejorative, though on occasion I have observed some people consider them so. While these terms would be misgendering if used for a trans woman, I have noticed a small number of trans women online (two total) refer to themselves as “femboys,” as well as some nonbinary people. But I have observed effeminate cisgender men use the term “femboy” for themselves much more frequently. And I have seen such terms applied more often to fictional characters in anime and manga than real people. The use of “otokonoko” to describe Vivian in the original Paper Mario RPG is the most commonly cited evidence that the character is not transgender.

The equivalent English text in the 2004 release reads, “One of the Shadow Sirens and Beldam’s youngest sister. She’s so cute, she’s able to infatuate anyone.” There is no allusion to Vivian being anything but a girl. The reference to her メロメロキッス is preserved, however, since this kiss is called Infatuate in the English release.

In the fan patch, Griscuit did not change the Tattle Log text from the 2004 release.

The Switch remake removes any reference to Vivian’s gender from the Tattle Log:「カゲ三人組の　末っ子。　その　かわいさに　みんな　メロメロかもね」“Youngest sibling of the Shadow Trio. She is so cute that anyone might fall head-over-heels in love with her.” The reference to her Infatuate ability remains intact. But there is literally no reference to her gender in the text because she is called a “sibling” rather than a “sister.”

In the 2024 English script, the Tattle Log entry is almost identical to the 2004 script, simply updated to reflect the new localization: “The youngest of the Three Shadows. She’s so cute, she’s able to infatuate anyone.”

Following Mario

Vivian’s big spotlight comes in Chapter 4. In the 2004 script, when Vivian chooses to run away from Beldam and Marilyn, she doesn’t make any reference to her gender. I will add some punctuation to the Japanese text for clarity. Near the end of the scene, she says, 「いいの　いいの。アタイのことは　気にしないで。どうせ　お姉さまたちと　いっしょに　いても　ちっとも　いいことないし…　それに あなたの　やさしい　キモチに　アタイも こたえたいの。」 “It’s fine, it’s fine! Don’t worry about my problems. Anyway, being together with my sisters also isn’t much good for me… Besides, I need to repay your earlier kindness.” Then she kisses Mario, establishing her crush on him for the remainder of Paper Mario RPG.

Her equivalent lines in the 2004 English script are as follows: “Hey, that’s OK! Don’t worry about my problems… I’m not sure I really want to stay with my sisters anymore, anyway… And I feel like I need to repay your earlier kindness. It’s the right thing to do.” Then she kisses Mario. The 2023 fan patch version of this scene is identical to the official English GameCube game, which was already accurate to the Japanese script, aside from adding Vivian remarking on the rightness of helping Mario. This, perhaps, reiterates that she understands right and wrong, as in her debut scene where she, albeit unseriously, comments it might be “bad” to kill Mario. So no details were lost to censorship in this case.

As well as giving Vivian her own theme music that begins to play, the 2024 remake expands her dialogue in this scene: 「いいの　いいの。アタイのことは　気にしないで。どうせ　お姉さまたちと　いっしょに　いても　ちっとも　いいことないし…　それに　じつは　アタイ…　体は　オトコのコだけど　ココロは　カワイイ　オンナのコなの。あなたの　やさしい　キモチに　アタイも　オトメゴコロで　こたえたいの。」 “It’s fine, it’s fine! Don’t worry about my problems. Anyway, being together with my sisters also isn’t much good for me… Besides, to be honest, I… have a boy’s body but a cute girl’s heart. I want to repay your kindness with a girl’s heart too.”

Now, before kissing Mario, Vivian states, without ambiguity, that she is not a boy, as the menu and Tattle of the original game would have it, but a woman with a male body. She clarifies that, while Mario/the player might have thought otherwise, perhaps from playing the original release, she is a woman and will repay his kindness as a woman would (with a kiss, as apparently women kiss people who help them). The line also calls back to her remark in Boggly Woods about being ココロの中では妹 a sister in her heart, and is echoed in her menu description that she has a girl’s heart, as I explain below. Delivering this speech before kissing him may also provide a more obvious setup to Vivian being in love with Mario.

The corresponding lines in the English remake remove the romantic overtones: “Hey, that’s OK! Don’t worry about my problems… I’m not sure I really want to stay with my sisters anymore, anyway. We aren’t very happy together. Truth is, it took me a while to realize I was their sister…not their brother. Now their usual bullying feels heavier. I also feel like I need to repay your earlier kindness. That’s the right thing to do, right? Right!”

As in the original, the kiss seems somewhat more sudden than in the 2024 Japanese script. However, the unambiguous revelation that Vivian is transgender is preserved. Instead of being incorporated into a setup for the kiss, Vivian’s transness is an additional insight into why she is leaving her sisters: Beldam was already mean to her but became even worse after she came out of the closet. This contextualizes the bullying more interestingly than the Japanese script.

Menu Description

In the character selection menu, every party member has a short bio in authoritative narration, as well as a description of his or her abilities. When Vivian joins Mario’s party, she receives some menu description too. Several versions use this to mention her gender.

The relevant description text in the 2004 Japanese release says this of Vivian: 「オンナのコのようで　ホントは　オトコのコ」 “Looks like a girl but really is a boy.” Note that the term used is, as usual, otokonoko. Whatever we take this to mean, the Japanese description again states that Vivian looks like a girl but is something else.

As usual, the 2004 English release cuts any reference to the topic. The menu description instead gives the understatement, or mischaracterization of how badly Beldam treats her, “Vivian suffers from a bit of an inferiority complex.”

The 2023 fan patch adjusts the menu description to state Vivian is transgender: “Vivian was born male, but she prefers being a girl.” The 2004 Japanese script somewhat confusingly identifies Vivian as a crossdressing boy even as her introductory scene establishes her wanting to be called a woman. Clearly Griscuit falls on the side of considering the character trans.

In the Switch remake, the equivalent Japanese menu text is similar to some of Vivian’s new dialogue and equally as explicit as Griscuit’s script: 「体は　オトコのコで　ココロは　オンナのコ」 “Her body is a boy, but her heart is a girl.” Note the recurrence of the concept that she is a girl in her “heart.” The word “transgender” is not used, but this description no doubt depicts her as a trans girl (オンナのコ is “girl,” not “woman”). Describing a trans woman as having the body of a boy but the heart of a girl might be conventional in Japanese pop culture. For instance, in the article “LILY EXPLORES Ten Transgender Manga,” Lily Valeen concludes the survey mentioning, “‘I have the body of a boy, but the heart of a girl’ is still a notably common refrain across all of these stories.” Vivian, then, is in this tradition. Her portrayal follows the common “wrong body” transgender narrative, or perhaps not since the script never implies Vivian is at all unhappy with herself. This still might, however, be a flawed description: if someone is a girl, then her body is, by definition, a girl’s body regardless of that body’s physical features.

The full English menu text in the 2024 remake does not reference Vivian’s gender identity: “Vivian was one of the Three Shadows but now has chosen to leave her two sisters behind.” The Switch Japanese text is not more explicit than the Switch English text that Vivian is trans but does mention this point in more places.

Goom Goom Is a Cad

After Chapter 5, the player can embark on a sidequest called “Looking for a gal!” This involves meeting an extremely minor character called クリチェロ Kurichero in Japanese and Goom Goom in English. Goom Goom is an unsavory former sailor who wants a girlfriend to meet him in a haunted cave, for some reason. Though he is crass, he is also the butt of the joke.

The writing telegraphs that Goom Goom wants to meet Goombella (who herself even says she might “qualify as a cute Goomba gal” like he wants). The player can instead present him with any of the party members. The different versions of his reaction to Vivian follow the same pattern of changes we have discovered so far. In the original Japanese script, Kurichero says, 「おお！　これは　���わいい…　ってキミ…　どうちなの？…　オトコ…　だよね…　ようするに　オスじゃん！ダメだよ～　ちゃんとしてよ～　ちゃんと　おぼえてよ～」 “Ooh! You’re cute… but… what’s up with you? You’re a boy… aren’t you? To sum up, you’re male, right?! No good! Take this seriously. Seriously, remember it.” If Vivian is a trans woman, this is rude to the point of bigotry. Vivian’s response to these insults might be the only occasion she is bluntly impolite: 「こんなヤツ　アタイから　おことわり！」I tentatively think this means something like, “I have to turn down this jerk!”

In the 2004 English release, Goom Goom rejects Vivian for a completely unrelated reason: “Whoa! You sure are cute… But, um… That whole goth shadow thing is a bit… Creepy! There, I said it! This is all so very wrong!” Vivian’s uncharacteristic rudeness is preserved: “You’re not really doing much to impress me either, bud!”

The 2023 fan patch softens Goom Goom’s response: “Whoa! You sure are cute… But, um… I can’t quite tell… Are you a…? Or…? Ack! My brain can’t take this! It’s all too confusing for me!” This version increases how offended Vivian is relative to the 2004 English release: “Whuh… RUDE! You’re not really doing much to impress me either, bud!” As usual, the Thousand-Year Door+ script aims to depict Vivian more respectfully as a trans character. Avoiding the overt trans panic joke with Goom Goom may keep the tone of the scene from becoming too extreme.

The 2024 Japanese script removes the entire joke. While all versions have Kurichero pass on Vivian, and anyone but Goombella, for not being a Goomba, this is now his only reason for rejecting Vivian: 「おお！　これは　かわいい…　ってキミ… クリボー じゃないし！ダメだよ～　ちゃんとしてよ～ ちゃんと　おぼえてよ～」 “Ooh! You’re cute… but… you’re not a Goomba! No good! Take this seriously. Seriously, remember it.” It is nice the scrip aims not to be offensive, but the writers should have replaced the original lines with some new joke or interesting detail, instead of with nothing. Perhaps Kurichero could say he hates fire magic or drop lines more like in the English version.

The Goom Goom scene in the 2024 English script is almost the same as the 2004 English script: “Whoa! You sure seem nice… But, um… That whole goth shadow thing is a bit… Creepy! There, I said it! You’re too goth for me!” For some reason, unlike in every other version, Goom Goom calls Vivian “nice” instead of “cute.”

In Super Paper Mario

Stepping outside of The Thousand-Year Door, the 2007 sequel Super Paper Mario features Vivian on one of the in-game collectible Catch Cards. The English-language version continues to use feminine pronouns: “It’s Vivian from the last Paper Mario adventure. She was a great friend once she split from her sisters.” The card’s totally different description in the Japanese release gives more detail: 「どうじょうした　マリオのなかも　火の魔法を　使う　キュートな　オトコのコ　カゲ三人組という　てきの一人だった」 This text uses no pronouns but calls Vivian キュートな　オトコのコ “a cute boy” or “a cute otokonoko,” understanding the character, then, as a crossdressing boy.

I am aware of no further specific references to Vivian’s gender in the franchise (aside from feminine pronouns).

Assessments

The 2004 Japanese-language script is mixed, conflating being a transgender woman and a crossdressing man/femboy. Vivian does seem to behave as though transgender, invariably acting like a woman and wanting to be identified as one in an early character-establishing scene, yet the menu text and Tattle Log consider her a boy, and Goombella can call her the “youngest brother” without, apparently, being considered a jerk for doing so. However, at the same time, the villainous Beldam is depicted as a cruel bully for calling Vivian a man. This seems to be a case of friendly intentions somewhat bungled, as opposed to a deliberately disrespectful treatment of a trans character, as Vivian is written sympathetically throughout. The 2004 English script definitely loses depth, to the degree there is any, by removing this aspect of Vivian’s character.

In The Thousand-Year Door+, a desire to respect Vivian as a transgender character butts up against the edgier misgendering that was considered less unacceptable in 2004 and the writers often stating Vivian is a crossdressing man. Griscuit found ways to blunt the writing’s edges while also preserving the structure and tone of the relevant dialogue. However, the menu text that specifies Vivian was “born male, but she prefers being a girl,” rather than someone who “looks like a girl but really is a boy,” is a case of just rewriting.

The 2024 Japanese remake scrubs scenes of more explicit transphobia and the previous references to Vivian being a boy and gives her additional dialogue depicting her as transgender with no ambiguity. The writers understand her to be a trans woman and want to portray her with more care and respect than the first attempt did. The 2024 English script follows the 2024 Japanese script, unambiguously depicting Vivian as transgender. Where the Japanese script may emphasize this to a degree that risks overshadowing her other character traits, the English script is subtler, only including a few references in the dialogue.

I had hoped to find a script in which the character is unimpeachably trans. However, interpreting the 2004 Japanese Paper Mario RPG version of Vivian as a crossdressing man instead of a trans woman is reasonable, not a misreading or misinterpretation. (Not that it makes a difference in this case, but at risk of redundancy, and given that it’s a point of discussion online, Vivian is never clearly called 男の娘 “femboy” instead of the phonetically identical 男の子 “boy” in any of the text I have examined.) In this context, though Beldam remains a bully, her red-text insult in Boggly Woods may be intended to be comical rather than especially cruel, a kind of punchline revealing an unexpected silly aspect of the situation. It may also follow that Vivian’s love for Mario is meant to be slightly comical, particularly in her final scene when she feigns that she is happy he is together with Peach. Though this would mean there is a Mario game in which he has a gay kiss.

However, the 2004 version is still amenable to the trans reading. Vivian is introduced wanting to be considered a woman and speaks, acts, and looks like a woman from start to finish. She comes across as transgender based on the actual dialogue and story instead of less important supplemental text such as the Tattle Log or the Catch Card in the sequel. The confusion between crossdressing and transness seems to not be so much a deliberate writing choice as a reflection of a less socially aware climate. In 2004, people outside of LGBT spaces would tend more often to conflate crossdressers, transgender people, drag queens, etc. out of ignorance there was a difference between these kinds of gender variance. The 2024 releases of The Thousand-Year Door forced Intelligent Systems and Nintendo to return to the old script in a time when there is more public awareness of and respect for queer identities. So now they consistently depict Vivian as trans, a more plausible characterization, giving official clarification to the 2004 portrayal.

As with Bridget from the Guilty Gear franchise, the conservative “culture war” desire to regard Vivian not as a trans woman but as “just” a man who looks like, dresses as, speaks like, and is treated as a woman is fueled more by a desire to erase transgender visibility, even in innocuous corporate children’s entertainment, than by a hallowed respect for effeminate men. In any case, while the femboy reading is reasonable in the 2004 GameCube game, it is certainly not supported by the 2024 Switch game.

The variants of The Thousand-Year Door have more in common than they have differences. The text I’ve looked at is a minuscule fragment of a sprawling script. How little about Vivian was changed from the original to the remake may indicate how uplifting a trans character the 2004 release depicted, despite its ignorance. Her transgender status is not used as a joke. The writing treats her no differently than the various other cute girls who kiss and flirt with Mario. (Every single woman in his party kisses him.) Though she displays gender variance, this is not her only defining trait. She is happy with herself and remains feminine to the end (compare that to, for instance, the quashing and rejection of queer identities in Summon Night: Swordcraft Story). Vivian is heroic, polite to a fault, given a cute design, considered extremely attractive by other characters, and no less intelligent than the rest of Mario’s crew.

A limitation of the writing is that any one party member can be active in any given scene. As a result, despite their different personalities and motives, their dialogue and actions are largely variations of the same observations and thoughts (though this would not be obvious except upon more than one playthrough). Ironically, the longer a character goes before joining Mario’s party, the more he or she can be developed. Vivian receives more opportunities for characterization than any party member besides Goombella and Ms. Mowz. She also enjoys a fuller arc (arguably) than the other party members, switching from villain to hero, courageously escaping an abusive situation, becoming stronger than her sisters, and thwarting their plan to conquer the world. Her major role in Chapter 4, more prominent than any other party member’s in the whole adventure aside from Goombella’s, may also be thematically relevant to her being a trans woman: she chooses to help Mario specifically when he is without his rightful body and nobody respects his identity (another point favoring a trans interpretation even in the original).

Like the abilities of Mario’s other party members, Veil remains indispensable to avoid obstacles throughout the subsequent chapters, ensuring Vivian remains consistently in use in the gameplay. In the finale, Vivian also has the honor of being essential in a way no other party member is: With Veil, she is the only one who enables Mario to avoid the Shadow Queen’s deadly charged attack. This is particularly notable because the twist ending reveals Beldam is effectively the Shadow Queen’s understudy. Though in the last Three Shadows boss fight Vivian can boldly declare she will punish Beldam this time, completing her arc, the player is not required to use her there. But because Veil is (at least almost) essential for the Shadow Queen battle, Vivian also, in this way, must be used against Beldam’s plot no matter what other party members the player chooses to utilize in the final boss fight. This ensures she will complete her arc and thwart Beldam at the climax.

However, Vivian’s story has a somewhat strange ending. The epilogue takes the form of a letter Goombella writes to Mario some time after the finale. Beldam has been portrayed as a relentless and cowardly abuser and deceiver motivated by devotion to an evil demonic conqueror who feeds people to dragons. In her last several appearances, Beldam has unfailingly tried to kill Vivian. But Goombella indicates Vivian has returned to live with Beldam and Marilyn. She also writes that, with the loss of the Shadow Queen, Beldam has given up on evil and promised to never be mean to Vivian again. The accompanying visual shows Goombella chatting with a happy Vivian in Twilight Town. This abrupt resolution is unearned. Beldam shows no redeeming qualities before this point, and the notion that such a deceptive, selfish character could be taken at her word strains credulity.

Specific scrutiny of the phrasing used will be as worthwhile as the rest of this analysis (however worthwhile that is). The text is mostly identical between versions. In both the 2004 and 2024 Japanese releases, Goombella writes, 「ビビアンは　お姉さんたちの　ところに　もどりました」 “Vivian has gone back to the place her sisters are.” In 2004, the localizers may have realized this is unbelievable because they added an emendation: “Vivian’s gone back to hang out with her sisters. Family is important, after all…” The comment with ellipsis implies Goombella thinks Vivian returning to Beldam and Marilyn is weird. The remake’s English script alters the line yet again: “Vivian’s gone back to hang out with her sisters. She wants to give them another chance.” Where the 2004 English text is slightly condescending, the 2024 line at least attempts a more positive framing, giving Vivian the initiative. However, while a story where Beldam changes and Vivian forgives her is possible, this story is nonetheless not the one presented in The Thousand-Year Door.

Vivian’s reconciliation with her sisters is just one of the over-the-top saccharine endings that defang some of the drama. Whether this is worse writing than retconning, within the same script that established their deaths, that Grodus, Crump, and TEC are inexplicably still alive remains to be seen. The writers might as easily have had Vivian decide to go to school with Goombella or some other less unearned resolution. Ultimately, however, there is only so much Vivian was ever going to be able to do as a one-off character in a Mario game. She could never have much of a relationship with an untalking robot of a player avatar who is also a strictly regulated corporate mascot with an established love interest. Despite how many words I have spilled, let’s not forget that the entire cast are effectively meant to be children’s toys bouncing around a world of dioramas.

Vivian’s last line of dialogue is her asking Mario, really the player, not to forget her: “I’ll never forget my time traveling with you. So… Don’t forget me either…” And the onus was on players. Starting in 2012, Nintendo moved to relegate the narrative-focused half of the Paper Mario franchise of which Vivian is a part to the past, even having the series written out of canon in 2015’s Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. I hope that the suits at Nintendo green-lighting a remake of The Thousand-Year Door in 2024 signals a return of openness to more complex stories, and characters like Vivian, in future products.

She is certainly better representation than the Mario franchise’s old trans punchline, Birdo, but whether or not Vivian is “good” representation is not ultimately for me, a cisgender man, to decide. I can say, anecdotally, that the handful of trans people I’ve seen online who care about such things love Vivian. And I can also say the willingness to embrace rather than downplay this aspect of the character, much less to include it at all in the 2024 English release, are welcome developments. Vivian’s unique role means many fans of The Thousand-Year Door will indeed not forget her for some time.

This essay was originally posted on my website.

You can also read it on Medium.

9 July 2024

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic X Shadow Generations (PS5)

A wonderful 13th anniversary celebration of a 20th anniversary celebration.

The latest release in the Sonic series packs a remaster of Sonic Generations—considered by some to be the peak of the franchise—with a new game tying into the year of Luigi Shadow that revisits the concept from the ultimate Edgehog's perspective. Sonic Gens is still solid and benefits from a few tweaks but Shadow Gens rises above the level of side-content companion piece, feeling like a true next-generation (pun intended) Sonic game.

This is my second time playing through the [console version of] Sonic Generations, only this time I've actually played most of the games it's calling back to very recently. This let me appreciate much more what they're doing, creating new levels using iconic concepts from previous games. These levels definitely have the budget and design to be top-shelf 3D Sonic, and they gave Sonic Team the excuse to revisit cool ideas and up the ante, adding detail and bombast (like the souped-up City Escape truck chase, or the vibrant Rooftop Run with its new festival flair and Spagonia University being rendered within the level) or in some cases, actually make it good this time (like the Shadow and Silver boss fights). It's true that an unusually high proportion of stages are based in cities, but there's an effort to make them distinct. It is still a 3D Sonic game, so sure, I fell through the floor a few times, but this still remains excellent and highly polished, easily the best of the 3D boost formula, with some great [non-sluggish-feeling] classic-style takes on levels too.

As far as changes in this rerelease go, it's nice to see Generations shine with higher quality graphics, faster loading times, etc. The dialogue script has been updated a bit with new Ian Flynn writing replacing the Colours Chuckle Brothers quips; some of the changes have the anti-woke chuds up in arms, but Amy is in line with her more recent non-creepy characterisation and there's more acknowledgment of the past, fitting for a game built around that concept. Lives have been removed [yay!] but can be toggled back on, the drop dash is added to both Sonics, unique Chao have been added to each stage as collectibles, and the pinball DLC is included by default. The updates and additions are minor but they add up to make the package a bit smoother and more full-bodied. Like a fine wine, Generations has aged gracefully in 13 years.

This time I appreciated the selection of music that can be played over any stage or challenge; the vocal version of Endless Possibility is included despite not being available on streaming, and the vocal His World is also here despite not being in Frontiers, but Right There, Ride On from Rush has been removed, probably due to rights issues (this also affects Almost Dead in Shadow Gens, sadly).

My only real complaint is that this presented an opportunity to incorporate Dimps's 3DS version, and it's been completely and totally ignored for this release. I gave it a replay alongside this, and I love its Sonic 4-style take on Classic Sonic with a homing attack alongside its Rush-style Modern stages. I love its robust Mission mode, and the choices for stages that broaden the representation of the source games. It also has unique gallery images and unlockable music tracks that aren't in the console version. It has different boss choices, Special Stages, a Vs. mode, more fun Wisps in the Colours stage, and the final boss is less ass. None of that is in this remaster, and I think that's a shame.

Now, Shadow Generations is the other half of this package, and it's a doozy. Building on the events of Sonic Gens, it proposes that Shadow was in his own White Space thanks to the Time Eater while Sonic was doing his business. It complements the main event well by incorporating characters who were missing there: Omega, Big, Orbot & Cubot, [Rouge shows up too,] and a surprise time-shifted appearance by Maria and Gerald! The latter two in particular bring lots of opportunity for drama, character development, and lore, although all have interesting things to say as the plot progresses, so it's worth going back and chatting to them. Thanks Ian Flynn!

In Shadow's case, he has levels based on his major game roles: Adventure 2, Heroes, Sonic 06, and Forces... also there's a Frontiers level even though he had no presence in that game whatsoever?? It's a good level and cool to reinterpret that game's iconography into traditional-style gameplay, but it's an odd choice for a Shadow-focused game. Even odder is the lack of a specific Shadow 05 level, although there is overlap in that game with locations from SA2 and Heroes, I guess. The stages are lots of fun, mostly with Act 1 being a big setpiece-driven 3D affair and Act 2 being a more straightforward 2D experience. These are then fleshed out with smaller challenges just like in the Sonic portion, although all are mandatory this time. A DLC update also added a single-Act level based on the Sonic 3 movie, with Shadow (with a movie-inspired look and Keanu Reeves voice) running through Tokyo. It's inconsequential to either plot but still a fun level and a nice bonus.

In between levels the White Space is now an explorable 3D area, taking some cues from Frontiers' open zones. I loved zooming around this place, finding collectibles and doing little challenges, and it continues to open up as you make progress. Shadow's new abilities play into this as he gains new movement tech by accessing his Black Doom-derived biology. These are mostly contextual, like a water surfing power or a kind of octo-morph for traversing goop, which make for a change of pace within levels and exploration keys in the overworld. I thought these were implemented better than gimmicky Wisp powers, since they're always available once unlocked and don't intrusively change the gameplay too much. The equivalent to a Super state is some grody alien wings that sprout from his back; these cost rings to use but let Shadow fly in a straight line to totally cheese certain levels.

Just like Sonic Gens, the represented locations and setpieces are enhanced from their original appearances; everything looks fantastic! Aside from the explicit references, I thought I detected some Lost World influence in the tunnel sections, and even got some Rise of Lyric vibes from some of the overworld stuff... that might just be me projecting though. During most levels, Black Doom (he's back!) interrupts proceedings to taunt Shadow and warp the world, with some fun and surreal kaleidoscopic effects as the environment bends and shifts; this felt like an expansion on the idea of Inifinite doing similar things in a Metropolis level in Forces. Sequences like this and others are accompanied by brief cutscene-like events, which can be a little annoying if you're replaying the level for goodies or a better time, but they're pretty quick so it's not too bad.

Speaking of Infinite, I think it's a shame that he has no presence in this game at all when his conflict with Shadow is the most significant thing Shadow has done in a game since 2008 or 9. The game is otherwise pretty stacked with great boss encounters, with Biolizard (in a much more expanded fight than the Generations 3DS rehash), Metal Overlord, Mephiles (who wants to restore his existence to the timeline while Shadow doesn't remember him [Sonic does apparently remember the events of Sonic 06 though??]), and a final battle with Black Doom.

Shadow plays great, even with new abilities piled on like Chaos Spear projectiles and a Chaos Control time-stop. Unlike Sonic Gens, you can rail-hop with the shoulder buttons, although oddly you can't use the D-pad to move in 2D sections. Shadow Gens carries over some of the player-controlled movement tweaking that Frontiers had which is a nice touch. I didn't really use him much in Forces, but here in his own game with a raft of unique powers, Shadow does stand out as more than just a faker.

Giving an opportunity to delve into his character is very welcome too. Shadow Gens really makes a case for him as a compelling character in a way that very few Sonic games have before (Battle and Shadow 05 are the main ones I'm thinking of). This is aided by a 14-minute anime prologue called Dark Beginnings which showcases some awesome animation and sets up the premise, as well as flashing back to Shadow's time on the Ark. Don't miss the fight scene with Emerl! I'm glad I dipped back into the Dreamcast-and-beyond era, since this all hits that much harder with that context, and once again we have Ian Flynn to thank for bringing it home with the story and writing.

I wasn't too impressed by this package at its announcement, but the more I've immersed myself in the Sonic seas the more appealing it became. Revisiting Sonic Generations came at the perfect time for me, and Shadow Generations is a great expansion that brings so much more to the table... I just wish it was even bigger and not relegated to a kind of side dish! (My normal playthrough was a little shorter in Shadow's campaign, but doing all the extra side stuff doubled that length.) It also fires the imagination... what would a Blaze Generations look like?? Or a Big X Froggy Generations???? Keep an eye on those prolific fangame creators...

[michaelscorneroftheinternet]

What's everyone's reactions to Mr. Puzzles fans? The thirsty ones I mean.

.

.

.

...5 Asks Remaining...

[viaviv124]

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Set It Off I can't animate for shit so i basically wrote a "Script" how i would imagine each scene. This is in the context of my Evil Luigi AU thingy

"Beware beware, be skeptical"

Zoom into the castle

"The smiles, the smiles, the painted gold"

Peach and Mario talking while smiling

"Deceit so natural"

It turns dark, Mario and Peach look around confused and startled

"But a wolf in sheep′s clothing is more than a warning"

Luigi appears with his ghosts, giving Mario and Peach wide eyes

2 Ghosts crudely disguised as Mario and Peach, almost in an insulting manner actually

"Bla bla black sheep, have you any soul?"

Mario ghost seems overly oblivious, delivering the line with an over exaggerated innocence

"No sir, by the way what the hell are mortals?"

Peach ghost with the same played innocence while moving and posing dramatically

"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick"

Luigi behind Mario

"Jill's a little whore and her alibies are turning tricks"

Luigi taking Marios head and makes him look at Peach, his mouth at Mario's ear

"So could you..."

Luigi moving away from them

"Tell me how you′re sleeping easy"

Luigi looking incredibly spiteful

"How you're only thinking of yourself"

Cut to Mario & Peach as they shrink away slightly, having some sort of fear and disbelief in their eyes

"Show me, how you justify"

Luigi crosses his arms

"Telling all your lies like second nature"

Cut to a pic of basically black Peach and Mario silhouettes with only a big white grin visible seemingly whispering something to Luigi (pre villain arc drip obv)

"Listen, mark my words one day"

Shot of Luigi towering menacingly

"You will pay,"

Luigi holding electricity in one hand

"you will pay"

Mario and Peach looking scared

"Karma's gonna come collect your debt"

Some boos get around Mario and Peach, telling them that

The short instrumental shows Mario & Peach running away, the last Note before the lyrics showing a close up of Luigi smirking (you cant see the eyes and the upper part of the face you can see slightly has this typical anime shadow)

"Oh well, oh well you stalk your prey"

Luigi walking through the halls with his Ghosts

"With criminal mentality"

Just a creepy shot of the inside of a dark closet Luigi opens (and basically jumpscares) with a smirk, before frowning bc no one was in there

"You sink your teeth into the people you depend on"

Luigi dismissively looking at a portait of peach before zapping it to ashes

"Infecting everyone, you′re quite the problem"

Peach in her hiding space with Mario, holding her hands over her mouth and screwing her eyes shut, tears in the corners

Cut back to boo's in the hallway

"Fee fi fo fum,"

One boo swaying from side to side

"better run and hide"

Same boo with a nasty grin

"I smell the blood"

Another boo grinning

"of a petty little coward"

Another inside of a closet but this time you can make out Mario's head on the bottom of the screen as the boo slams the closet open

"Jack be lethal,"

Luigi suddenly appears behind them, shoving Mario out

"Jack be slick"

The boo drags Peach out

"Jill will leave you lonely dying in a filthy ditch"

A shot of peach alone looking up terrified as boos surround her

"So could you...

Tell me how you′re sleeping easy

How you're only thinking of yourself

Show me, how you justify

Telling all your lies like second nature

Listen, mark my words one day"

This scene is effectively the same as before with just a few tiny changes to fit the new background basically and that Mario and Peach arent in frames together anymore.

"You will pay,"

Just Luigi with a spiteful expression

"you will pay"

Expression hardens

"Karma′s gonna"

Mario looking terrified, a small text next to him saying 'Luigi...'

"come collect your debt"

Luigis gaze gradually softens as he looks at Mario

"Maybe you'll change"

Luigi kneels down to Mario

"Abandon all your wicked ways"

Luigi helps him up

"Make amend and start anew again"

Luigi smiles sadly as Mario tears up, also smiling slightly

"Maybe you′ll see,"

Hold earlier frame

"all the wrongs you did to me"

Luigi closes his eyes (bit like it's the ^ closed instead of the v closed if that makes sense), also has slight tears in the corners of his eyes now

"And start all over,"

They hug, Mario holds onto him tightly

"start all over"

Luigi opens his eyes with a cold expression

"Ha ha,"

Close up to Luigis face with an insane expression

"who am I kidding?"

Close up to Mario, he opens his eyes, shocked

"Now let's not get overzealous here"

Luigi pushes Mario off, he falls to the ground. He holds his head for a second before looking up

"You′ve always been"

Luigi looking down at Mario resentfully

"a huge piece"

Luigi's face gets gradually more angry

"of shit"

Luigi steps hard on Marios hand

"If I could kill you"

Luigi has an uninterested face, uses electro hand to hold some lightnings

"I would"

Luigi gets on Mario's Level, holding his hand dangerously close to his face, he has a slight grin

"But it's frowned upon in all 50 states"

Luigi sighs, desummons the electricity and gets back up

"Having said that,"

Luigi smiles kindly with his eyes closed

"burn in hell"

Luigi holds his hands up, electricity fills the room, the crystals on his brooch and crown glow as more and more Ghosts appear

"So tell me how you're sleeping easy

How you′re only thinking of yourself

Show me, how you justify

Telling all your lies like second nature

Listen, mark my words one day

You will pay, you will pay

Karma′s gonna come collect your debt

Karma's gonna come collect your debt

(Oh, oh, oh)

Karma′s gonna come collect your debt"

No idea for that but just a bunch of ghosts (and Luigi) bullying Mario and Peach as the two of them are horrified

[thesettingsun-utau]

Sunsetter and Sunsetter!

Basically SwapSwap, or something!

Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child named Frisk who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface, although some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.

Outside of artwork and character designs by Temmie Chang and other guest designers, Fox developed the entirety of the game by himself, including the script and music. The game took inspiration from several sources, including the Brandish, Mario & Luigi, and Mother role-playing game series, bullet hell shooter series Touhou Project, role-playing game Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, and British comedy show Mr. Bean. Undertale was originally meant to be two hours in length and was set to be released in mid-2014, but received delays.

The game was released for OS X and Windows in September 2015. It was also ported to Linux in July 2016, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in August 2017, the Nintendo Switch in September 2018, and Xbox One in March 2021. The game was acclaimed for its thematic material, intuitive combat system, musical score, originality, story, dialogue, and characters. The game sold over one million copies and was nominated for multiple accolades and awards. Several gaming publications and conventions listed Undertale as game of the year, and others have since listed it as one of the greatest video games ever made. Two chapters of a related game, Deltarune, were released in 2018 and 2021.

[strikercreations]

SPOOKY MONTH IS COMING

So we are getting very close to the infamous Spooky Month and this time around I've prepared some special extra spooky videos for the special occasion.

Across October I'll be releasing three of biggest videos and spookiest I've ever made (I'm sure I'll look back later and want to change something lol)

Starting on the 4th October with my Five Nights at Freddy's Retrospective which has had it's script rewritten at least seven times and I started working on it a solid Three Months ago.

Secondly, on the 18th of October I'll be making a video about A Shadow Over Freddy's which is a very spooky fangame which I also started making a few months ago.

And lastly, my Luigi's Mansion retrospective which I started making last October is finally nearly done and I'm writing the rest of the script tonight this will release on Halloween!

I'll see you all then.

[the-lion-guard-88]

SMG4 The Musical has been complete!

Yesterday at 11:20 PM EST I finished Act V

Which means that after 35 days of Production on SMG4 The Musical, it has been fully complete

Act V consists of 34 pages and 7 songs

As usual I will review the songs

Song 1: Confess

This is the eighteenth song of SMG4 The Musical and follows up to SMG4 meeting Mario after he escaped from Prison after stealing SMG3’s Notebook and telling Mario to confess what he did and what happened.

Song 2: Puzzlevision

This is the nineteenth song of SMG4 The Musical and takes place at an event going on at the theater in their town where they meet Mr. Puzzles who talks about Puzzlevision, his shows and his goal for a five star rating.

Song 3: Creative Control

This is the twentieth song of SMG4 The Musical and the third song from an SMG4 episode being added to the musical, we all know what happens during this song.

Song 4: Mr. Puzzles Wacky Spectacular Fantabulous Epicentric Variety Show

This is the twenty first song of SMG4 The Musical and the fourth song from an SMG4 episode being added into the musical, we all know what happens during this song.

Song 5: The One Who Controls This is the twenty second song of SMG4 The Musical and follows up when Mr. Puzzles got technical difficulties during the Variety Show due to SMG4 speaking in which he finds out it’s because he has 4.9 stars in which after a bit it regains to 5.

Song 6: Remember You

This is the twenty third song of SMG4 The Musical and follows up when Mr. Puzzles is about to kill the SMG4 Crew, so unfortunately Luigi The Meat Mallet will not be present in this show because it will be taken super out of context given the fact that Mario’s Mysteries doesn’t happen, not only that but how can an actor on a stage portray their head on a meat mallet? Like what? So I decided to rewrite this part and kill off a character because it wouldn’t make any sense for the whole Luigi The Meat Mallet ordeal to happen, it’d be taken so out of the blue and not only that but when he turns back to normal people would question how he got back to normal. So yeah I rewrote this part for a specific character (not saying who) to be killed off and this song takes place after the battle with Mr. Puzzles in which a person who is badly effected by this character’s death starts to sing.

Song 7: The SMG4 Crew (Reprise)

This is the twenty fourth and final song of SMG4 The Musical where it features that after the Crew got to 5.5/5 stars on their content that they decide to make a YouTube channel called…SMG4, this is also the song where bows take place, closing the musical.

In conclusion, SMG4 The Musical is 183 pages long, consists of 24 songs and 33+ characters

This was a very fun project to work on and before I can send the script out to the public domain I’m going to have some handy dandy Discord Server members help me review the script and check for some changes that should be added for feedback and I also need to add a watermark to my script so I can avoid people trying to steal my work and claim it as theirs I hope you can hold your patience for just a teensy bit longer before the script goes out to everybody, I can’t wait to show this project to you guys!

See you then!

-The Lion Guard 88 💚🖤❤️