Vivian

Personality: Vivian is best characterized by her shyness. Throughout the game, she is unable to stand up to Beldam and her cruel nature, constantly taking the blame for things that are really Beldam's own fault. She develops herself in Chapter 4 when she decides to join Mario and leave her family after he shows her an act of kindness. In the Palace of Shadow, Vivian gains the confidence to battle Beldam as payback for all the abuse she suffered. She is still loyal to Beldam, though it is mostly out of fear or dislike of getting "punished" by her. Unlike her sisters, Vivian is caring and kind. She wonders if it is bad to do away with Mario and his partners in Chapter 2, and she is a forgiving person, going back with her sisters in the epilogue (despite all the trouble Beldam caused). She seems to have a fondness for jewelry, because when she finds Flurrie's Necklace, she quickly took it, and was upset when Beldam took it from her. In the original game, due to how much Beldam calls her sisters "lovelies", Vivian refers to the group as the "Shadow Beauties" when introduced, much to Beldam's anger. In the remake, she instead introduces the group as "Shadow Sisters", because it makes her happy when Beldam calls her "sister".

Physical Appearance: Vivian appears as a curvy dark purple ghost-like being, having a rather indistinct physical frame and generally flowing form. Her light-pink hair covers most of her face, leaving only her mouth and the blushes of her cheeks visible. Aside from her white gloves, Vivian wears only her pink-and-white witch hat. She has a cheerful expression and is very graceful in her movements. In the Nintendo Switch remake, Vivian is treated more overtly as a transgender woman. The Japanese script adds in a line where Vivian says, "I have a boy's body, but my heart is a cute girl's!" Additionally, Vivian's party description is changed from "She looks like a girl, but she's really a boy," to "She has a boy's body, but the heart of a girl." The Japanese script also removes lines that refer to Vivian as a man; for example, Beldam's line 「どこが　三姉妹だよ！あんた　オトコじゃないかい！」 ("Where do you see three sisters?! Aren't you a man?!") is replaced with 「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！」 ("I always tell you we're a trio, not three sisters!") Goombella's tattle also no longer refers to her as a man, or mentions her gender at all. The English localization likewise makes it clear that Vivian is transgender, a change from the English release of the GameCube version. Her dialogue now includes a line where she says, "Truth is, it took me a while to realize I was their sister...not their brother.” Much like in the Japanese script, Vivian refers to the Three Shadows as the "Three Shadow Sisters", and Beldam corrects her without insulting her appearance, instead making a point of refusing to call her "sister"

Abilities: Outside of battle, Vivian possesses a similar ability to Lady Bow's ability in Paper Mario. While it functions essentially the same, Vivian pulls Mario into her shadow, allowing the two to hide, unlike Lady Bow, who rendered herself and Mario invisible. This allows Mario and Vivian to get past objects that move over them and avoid sight from enemies and their attacks. In battle, Vivian can also attack with fire-based magic, most notably with her Fiery Jinx, which can burn and pierce the defense of every enemy in the battle. In the Japanese version, while in the ground with Vivian, the player is able to open the pause menu at any time, even when in a cutscene. If the player does this during Vivian's tutorial, the game will soft-lock afterwards.