Three Shadows

“Let's go, my lovelies! Marilyn! Vivian! Come! We've got a job to do!”

—Beldam, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

The Shadow Sirens are three witches in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. They consist of Beldam, Marilyn, and Vivian (later replaced by Doopliss). They aid Sir Grodus and the X-Nauts in their quest for Crystal Stars and retrieve the Magical Map from Mario and his friends. After Vivian joined Mario's team, Doopliss took her place.

Beldam, the leader of the Shadow Sirens, is often forgetful, and on more than one occasion, her forgetfulness gets Vivian in trouble. She is more of a magic user than the other two are. Marilyn is the biggest and strongest Shadow Siren in the bunch. Other than one line, "The Three", she is unable to say more than "Guh", and various forms of it. She can become stronger and hit hard. The Shadow Sirens are fought twice in the game. Beldam was the merchant from the intro of the game, as when Sir Grodus is talking to the 3, he asks Beldam why she didn't kidnap Princess Peach when she had the chance. Also near the end, Beldam says to the Shadow Queen "I spread rumors of the treasure and found a pure-hearted maiden."

History

Paper Mario series

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

They were first sent by Grodus to ambush Mario, Goombella, Koops, and Punio in Boggly Woods during their quest for the Emerald Star in the Great Tree and retrieve the Magical Map from them. Mario and co. first meet the Shadow Sirens in Boggly Woods as they try to find their picture of Mario, which shows them who they are going after, but they do not fight Mario since they do not recognize him. Considering her forgetfulness and unpleasant personality, Beldam blamed Vivian for losing the picture. By the time the sisters do find the sketch, Mario and friends learn that they stole Flurrie's necklace just as they arrived at her home to ask her for help in opening the secret entrance to the tree. Backtracking through the woods, Mario and friends fought them to get the necklace back.

While Mario, Goombella, Koops, Flurrie, and the Yoshi were searching for the Ruby Star in Creepy Steeple, the Shadow Sirens planned to use an explosive item called a Superbombomb against them, but the item was lost and Beldam, as usual, blamed Vivian for losing the explosive. Mario, after Doopliss stole his appearance and teammates, returned to Twilight Town to find a way to defeat him and found the item for Vivian, at which point she joined his team, not knowing who he really was. When Mario and Vivian confronted Doopliss back at the steeple after they guessed his name correctly, Vivian did a lot of thinking during the battle and decided to be part of Mario's team for good, since he was a lot more kinder to her than her sisters were. The two finally defeated Doopliss and won the Ruby Star and Mario got his body back at which point he explained to his rescued teammates Vivian had now changed. Afterward, the humiliated Doopliss took Vivian's place in the Shadow Sirens group after Beldam and Marilyn spotted him back in Twilight Town while looking for Vivian.

After Mario and his team return from their quest for the Sapphire Star at Keelhaul Key, Beldam, Marilyn, and Doopliss were sent to find the Garnet Star in Poshley Heights. No matter the costs, Beldam, Marilyn, and Doopliss had to prevent Mario and his friends from reaching the Star during a three-day train trip aboard the Excess Express. They first stole a Businessman's briefcase, Toodles' Gold Ring, and the waitress' Shell Earrings, and planned to mix them together to bomb the train with Nitro Honey Syrup, thus resulting in a "sticky, yummy, gooey mess". Beldam and Marilyn even had Doopliss disguise himself as Zip Toad, a pop star, so nobody will suspect they committed the crime, not to mention frame the pop star for said crime. Before putting their evil plans into fruition, Mario and his friends, with Pennington's help, managed to crack the case in time and return the briefcase, the shell earrings and the gold ring to their rightful owners. Since their Nitro Honey Syrup bomb idea failed, they used an alternative-- they ordered Smorgs to raise the drawbridge at the Riverside Station to stop the train from going far, but Mario and his friends managed to fend off the Smorgs and lower the drawbridge. During day three of the train voyage, the Smorgs stowed away onto the train, attacked it, and took passengers hostage. Mario and his friends defeated the monster on the roof of the train and made it safely to Poshley Heights. When Mario and his friends reach the Poshley Sanctum, they discover they are too late, or so they thought; it would seem Beldam, Marilyn and Doopliss beat them to the star, but they eventually discovered the Garnet Star they grabbed was a red herring-- a fake created by Pennington-- at which point Mario and his team found the real one hidden inside the painting.

While Mario and his friends were venturing through the Palace of Shadow, upon opening the secret path to the Shadow Queen's lair, the Shadow Sirens ambushed them again and fought them one last time. After Mario and company defeated them, they continued on to stop Grodus from awakening the Shadow Queen. After Grodus awakened the evil queen from her eternal rest, getting destroyed in the process, Beldam took full credit for the awakening of the queen. In fact, it turns out the Shadow Sirens tricked Grodus into awakening the Shadow Queen. Mario and his team eventually defeated the evil queen for good. At the very end of Mario's adventure, Beldam and Marilyn tell Vivian they'll never be mean to her again.

Super Paper Mario

Unused graphics for Vivian, along with the other partners from previous games, exists with in Super Paper Mario, suggesting she was intended to have a role in the game. In the final, however, she only appears in a group picture with the other partners and as a Catch Card, which mentions Beldam and Marilyn.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Though neither Beldam nor Marilyn appears, Vivian serves as a sticker. Her sticker is small and increases the attack power of energy related attacks by 5. Her sticker can be used by any character.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	カゲ三人組[?] Kage San'nin-gumi	Tri-Shadow Group
German	Schattentrio[?]	Shadow Trio
Spanish	Trío de las Sombras[?]	Shadow Trio

Trivia

• The Shadow Sirens' theme sounds somewhat similar to the song playing when the player is talking to ghosts in Luigi's Mansion.
• The Three Sisters from Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon are very similar to the Shadow Sirens.
• The color of each Shadow Siren's hat is a reference to their attacks. Beldam's hat is blue, while she can use blizzard to freeze Mario and his partner in the second battle. Marilyn's hat is yellow, while she can use thunder to attack in the second battle. Vivian's hat is red, while she can use many fire attacks as Mario's Partner.
• After defeating the Shadow Sirens in the Palace of Shadow, if interacted with by Mario his partner, will comment with, "Let's leave these..." followed by some sort of insult ("doofuses", "louts", "idiots"), but if interacted with Vivian as the active partner, she will say, "I'm sorry, Sis..."