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Character fact sheetName: Olivia (オリビア, Oribia in Japanese) First Appearance: Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch, 2020) Home: Origami Castle (built for the Origami Festival) / the Mushroom Kingdom journey Voiced by: No credited voice actor Associates: King Olly (her older brother and the game’s antagonist), Mario (party leader), Bobby the Bob-omb, Professor Toad, the Origami Craftsman (her creator) |
General profile
Olivia, known in Japan as Oribia, is the principal supporting character and primary party companion of Paper Mario: The Origami King for Nintendo Switch (July 2020). The younger sister of the game’s antagonist, King Olly, she is a small origami figure with a kind, naive and perpetually cheerful disposition who can befriend almost anyone, even Bowser’s minions. She joins Mario’s adventure to oppose her older brother’s scheme to turn the Mushroom Kingdom into a world of origami, and her relationship with Olly forms the emotional core of the entire Origami King narrative.
Olivia’s gameplay role in The Origami King is multifaceted. She functions as Mario’s talking party guide — always present, explaining the battle system and how to fill Not-Bottomless Holes, and offering commentary and hints — and as a source of origami magic. She enables Mario’s Magic Circles and the 1,000-Fold Arms, can take on the appearances of the Vellumentals she meets, and, in the final battle against King Olly, transforms into a giant hammer for Mario to use — an ability given to her by the Origami Craftsman.
Olivia’s defining narrative role is as the empathetic counter-voice to King Olly’s villainy. While Olly hates flat paper and wants to fold the whole kingdom, Olivia believes from the beginning that origami and flat paper can be friends, and she hopes to the end that her brother can change. After the final battle, the dying Olly asks her to fold him into the last crane for the Thousand Cranes; Olivia’s wish to undo all the origami Olly ever folded also erases her own existence, since he was the one who folded her. That ending has been frequently cited as one of the most emotional moments in modern Mario storytelling.
Quotes
Enemies
Olivia’s primary enemy is her own brother King Olly — the antagonist of Paper Mario: The Origami King, whose origami-folding scheme threatens the entire Mushroom Kingdom. The sibling-versus-sibling conflict forms the emotional core of the game’s narrative. She also opposes the Folded Soldiers, the elite origami legion serving Olly’s cause; the Legion of Stationery (Olly’s stationery-themed bosses, such as the Rubber Band, Hole Punch, Scissors and Tape); and the various boss creatures encountered throughout the journey across the Mushroom Kingdom.
Friends
Olivia’s closest companion is Mario, whom she partners with as the primary party throughout the entire game. Their friendship has the dynamic of supportive-and-supported allies: Mario provides the combat capability and platforming skills, while Olivia provides the emotional support, navigation guidance, and tactical advice. She develops warm friendships with several recurring companion characters: Bobby the Bob-omb (an amnesiac Bob-omb whom Olivia names "Bobby"), Bowser (whom she and Mario find folded in Peach’s Castle), Professor Toad (the academic-archaeology Toad), and Luigi (briefly encountered). Her relationship with Bobby is particularly significant: when he sacrifices himself to save her, she is heartbroken until Mario cheers her up with a Goomba Mask.
Appearances
Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch, July 2020)
Olivia debuted in Paper Mario: The Origami King for Nintendo Switch (July 2020), developed by Intelligent Systems. The game is the sixth Paper Mario entry, following Super Paper Mario and others. Olivia is introduced in the game’s opening: when Mario and Luigi visit Princess Peach’s castle for the Origami Festival, Olivia calls out to Mario from inside a wall in the castle dungeon, where King Olly had trapped her as punishment for rebelling.
Olivia Freed from Captivity (2020)
Mario frees Olivia from between the wall sheets with the 1,000-Fold Arms. Together they find a folded Bowser and reach the castle balcony, where a yellow origami Shy Guy reveals himself as King Olly. Olivia pleads with her brother to give up, but he wraps Peach’s Castle in five streamers and lifts it into the air. Mario and Olivia escape and land in Whispering Woods, where their journey begins.
Olivia’s Transformations (2020)
Olivia’s defining gameplay capability is her origami magic. She summons the 1,000-Fold Arms for Mario and, after meeting each Vellumental, can take on its appearance; she can also fold other paper beings into origami, as she does to Bowser during the fight with King Olly. In the final phase of that battle, the reassembled Magic Circle lets her transform into a giant hammer, an ability the Origami Craftsman gave her on Mushroom Island.
The Journey Across the Mushroom Kingdom (2020)
Olivia accompanies Mario across the Mushroom Kingdom — from Whispering Woods and Autumn Mountain to the Great Sea, Shogun Studios and finally Origami Castle. Along the way they face the Legion of Stationery, and Olivia’s wide-eyed commentary — she is easily amazed and easily distracted — is one of the highlights of the modern Paper Mario series.
The Origami Festival Setting (2020)
The game’s setting — a Mushroom Kingdom celebrating the annual Origami Festival, for which the Origami Craftsman built an origami castle, only for King Olly to turn the festival into a kingdom-wide invasion — is one of the most thematically coherent setting designs in the Paper Mario series. Olivia’s relationship to the Origami Festival’s cultural significance — as the cheerful celebrant of origami art versus King Olly’s tyrannical re-purposing of the same tradition — forms a sophisticated thematic exploration of how cultural traditions can be corrupted by ideology.
Olivia Craft Promotion (2020)
Nintendo’s 2020 pre-release marketing for Paper Mario: The Origami King included origami craft material showing fans how to fold their own paper Olivia.
King Olly (Antagonist Brother)
Olivia’s brother King Olly is the principal antagonist of The Origami King. Folded by the Origami Craftsman before her, Olly turned against his creator, trapped him in the wall of his workshop, and then folded Olivia himself to sit beside him as queen. He hates flat paper and wants to remake the kingdom in origami. In the end he regrets his villainy after Olivia reads him the sweet message his creator left on his body.
Trivia & Official Sources
- In-universe, Olivia was designed by the Origami Craftsman as part of the Origami Castle built for the Origami Festival, but it was Olly who folded her, intending her to be his queen.
- Olivia’s Japanese name, Oribia (オリビア), is a play on origami (折紙); "L" and "R" are interchangeable sounds in Japanese.
- Olivia can float, but she says she has to work hard to float even a little — unlike her brother, who floats much higher.
- Olivia’s final wish on the Thousand Cranes undoes all the origami Olly ever folded — including herself, since he was the one who folded her.
- Olivia is the one who names Bob-omb "Bobby". In the game’s 100% ending, a miniature, inanimate Olivia appears in the scaled-down model of Origami Castle beside her brother, as their creator originally intended.
- Olivia was a spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate during a limited-time event from August 28 to September 2, 2020, and she cameos in WarioWare: Move It! (2023).
- In the Japanese version, Olivia tends to end her sentences with "desu wa", a speech pattern associated with princesses and noblewomen in Japanese media.
Sources
- Super Mario Wiki: Olivia
- Super Mario Wiki: List of Paper Mario: The Origami King quotes