Welcome to a section of the site dedicated to me rambling about Kirby lore and theories, because sometimes I have nothing better to do.
This is the first of what may or may not be multiple posts going in-depth in the interconnected and often deeply fucked up aspects of the Kirby series
What better topic to start with, if not...
In Kirby's first ever adventure, the Gameboy's Kirby's Dream Land (星のカービィ- "Hoshi no Kaabi" in Japan), the plot was quite simple: The dastardly King Dedede stole all the food in Dream Land to hoard it for himself, and along on a spring breeze came the pink puffball Kirby to stop him. Standard cutesy platformer things.
However, as early as his second game, Kirby's Adventure for the NES, the series dove into some aspects of Kirby's world. As well as introducing series staples like Copy Abilities and Meta Knight, Kirby's Adventure introduced the importance of dreams through the Fountain of Dreams and the game's true villain and final boss: Nightmare, the first of many god-like beings that Kirby mercilessly kills.
Returning to the Gameboy with Kirby's Dream Land 2, another nightmarish force was added to the mix, and one that wouldn't go away as easily as Nightmare seemingly has. In this game, King Dedede has broken apart the bridges that connect the Rainbow Islands on Planet Popstar, so Kirby sets off with his new animal companions (and, to a lesser extent, a certain slimey friend called Gooey) to set things right. Upon restoring the rainbows, Kirby fights Dedede again atop the Dark Castle and things go... Differently than last time, that's for sure.
Once Dedede is down for the count, it turns out his body was possessed by a dark being, the one truly responsible, that flees into the sky where Kirby follows armed with the Rainbow Sword. After a battle, the spiky swordsman changes forms, becoming something else entirely.
Dark Matter, a being of darkness and negativity that has invaded Popstar. It may be destroyed by Kirby in this game, but it won't go away completely, not yet anyway.
Jumping over Kirby Super Star (Milky Way Wishes comes into play some other time) and onto Kirby's Dream Land 3 on the SNES, Dark Matter returns to invade Popstar once more, more powerful than ever
Engulfing Popstar with a massive cloud of darkness and twisting its inhabitants, Dark Matter's true invasion is in motion, but Kirby, Gooey and the Animal Buddies would never stand by and watch, so they all travel the 5 points of Popstar to stop Dark Matter once again. Helping all the people of Dreamland, and even intergalactic visitor Samus Aran (I'm not kidding), Kirby gathers several Heart Stars and frees each area of Popstar from Dark Matter's influence. Finally confronting Dedede, who's been possessed again, at his frozen castle allows Kirby to vanquish Dark Matter from his body and chase after it into the skies again, with the combined power of the Heart Stars: The Love-Love Stick.
Flying into the "Hyper Zone", Kirby battles the Dark Matter being once again, and worth noting is that, if Gooey is summoned here as a second player or CPU, he grows similar circling orange blobs to Dark Matter, in a form called "Mock Matter", showing that Gooey is a Dark Matter being, just one that split off and became good (This is one of several aspects that will be important later.) Dodging Dark Matter's dark lightning and orange blobs, Kirby hits it with the Love-Love Stick until it is destroyed. However, as it turns out, that thing wasn't the mastermind, let alone the only Dark Matter.
The true core of Dark Matter, Zero, shows itself at last, fighting Kirby in a hectic and disturbing final boss fight as it takes up a quarter of the screen at any given time and attacks you with tiny Dark Matter "drones" as well as its own blood. That's far from a joke either, and you may already know if you're even vaguely aware of Kirby online, Zero bleeds in a colorful SNES game, particularly when it shifts into its second phase, where the small red eyeball rips through the white body to chase you around.
With Zero destroyed, the Dark Matter forces are vanquished from Popstar and peace is restored at last
In Kirby's first Technically 3D game, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards for the Nintendo 64, the distant planet Ripple Star is invaded by Dark Matter, who possess the Fairy Queen and overtake their castle. In the chaos, a fairy named Ribbon escapes with Ripple Star's precious crystal, but she is followed in her interstellar escape and the crystal breaks, becoming the game's titular Shards and its main collectibles all over the different planets that Kirby and pals visit. In Popstar, the first world of the game, each level ends with Kirby encountering a companion who is possessed by a Dark Matter blob: Waddle Dee, who becomes a Waddle Doo for some reason, Adeleine, returning from Dream Land 3, who paints a series of monsters for Kirby to fight, and King Dedede getting body horrored like in the final fights from DL2 and DL3. For much of the game, Dark Matter is sorta just in the background, not entirely mentioned or addressed until you reach Ripple Star, overtaken by a dark fog.
Navigating into the Ripple Star castle from underground, Kirby reaches the mastermind of the Dark Matter invasion and the game's final boss (If you don't have every other Crystal Shard): Miracle Matter
A strange being shaped like a D20 with several eyes, the boss fight with Miracle Matter is among the most interesting because of how it limits your use of abilities, being completely invulnerable in its basic form and only being affected by each transformation's own copy ability, thrown at or used on it. But that's beside the point, as Miracle Matter is... Pretty enigmatic, and there really isn't a lot to go off of as far as game info or lore. It's kinda just a unique form of Dark Matter, although I do have a theory that'll be at the bottom of this monstrosity. As cited, Miracle Matter is only the final boss if you miss any Crystal Shards, and if you actually gather them all (the final piece being inside Miracle Matter) then the darkness is dispelled from Ripple Star, although instead of being completely vanquished it forms into the Dark Star, the site for the game's true final battle.
The Dark Star consists of a single short level, a dark red void where the platforms are entirely made of these cell-like hexagonal blocks with a few N-Zs (Kirby 64's common enemy, since a Waddle Dee is your friend throughout it) walking around. You meet with Adeleine to give you a Maxim Tomato, and then Dedede who catapults Kirby into the heart of the Dark Star, where Kirby and Ribbon arm themselves with a Crystal Shard gun for the final boss fight.
Zero Two, reborn, more powerful, and eerily more angelic than before. Kirby and Ribbon attack it with a Crystal Shard gun, hurting its eye until it tilts down, breaking its halo and then attacking a thorned... Appendage that appears from its bottom to actually harm it. It is an intense boss fight, with an amazing boss theme, as intense and menacing as it is melacholic (We'll get back to that factoid). Once Zero is destroyed once more, the Dark Star collapses, the Fairy Queen of Ripple Star rewards the four heroes in a scene that is definitely a Star Wars reference and the game ends there, and with it ends what many, if not all, fans call the "Dark Matter Saga". And so, Dark Matter stayed "dormant" for the series for a long time, the closest there was to a new Dark Matter threat was Squeak Squad's Dark Nebula... Who doesn't count and is profoundly underwhelming, my site my rules.
Over a decade later, Kirby had come back with the Wii's Kirby's Return to Dreamland, and while we will touch on the lore introduced there eventually, it has nothing to do with Dark Matter... Mostly. There are two general aspects of modern Kirby that are worth establishing prior to our main event and the final stop of this section of this looong long text.
Spoilers For A Decade Old Wii Game: When Landia is defeated, Magolor betrays Kirby and co., ominously applauding how they fell right into his plot to get the Master Crown and command the universe. Magolor transforms into a larger and freakier magician form and takes off to "Another Dimension" where Kirby and friends follow in a Landia-mounting space shmup segment before challenging Magolor, who puts up a Super Ability shield at the latter half of the fight that forces Kirby to grab and use Super Abilities to bust through, culminating in a clash between Ultra Sword Kirby and Magolor and the final blow being dealt, destroying Magolor's physical form while leaving behind the Crown.
At which point, the music picks back up and the Master Crown forms a shambling spirit of Magolor that has some conspicuous design traits.
The Master Crown's true form fused with Magolor is oddly, primarily, a dark orb with a creepy glaring eye at the center, huh? Also worth noting a pattern:
When Zero Two first emerges, it has a similar appearance to Magolor's final form, with the beady false eyes and the wide smile that turns out to be its real eye. This will remain important as we go forth into the final main game to cover here: 2018's Kirby Star Allies for the Nintendo Switch.
The plot of Star Allies is that an artifact known as the "Jamba Heart" is unsealed from its four heart-shaped needles by the "Officiant of Doom", Hyness, and the power released wreaks havoc across the galaxy, alongside Hyness' underlings: The Mage Sisters Francisca, Flamberge and Zan Partizanne. As the game progresses in scale, Kirby and friends finally reach the gigantic temple that is the Jambandra Base and confront Hyness before the altar of the nearly completed Jamba Heart. Before the battle, Hyness notably delivers an extremely long and fast speech.
This will all be important soon. I'd say "don't worry" but I think it's a valid reaction, even if you're already reading this far down.
After Hyness is defeated, he sacrifices himself and the petrified Mage Sisters to complete the Jamba Heart and finally awaken their Dark Lord. As the Jambandra Base collapses, Kirby and his friends unite to create the game's Final Ability, the "Star Allies Sparkler", and fly off to the final battle against...
The destroyer of worlds, Void Termina. It is a hulking titan that stomps around the crystalline platform the battle takes place on, attacking the Star Allies with shockwaves and Ultra Swords, the exact type Kirby could use in Return to Dream Land. To hurt Void Termina, you must dodge its attacks and shoot 5 eye-shaped weakspots on Void Termina's body, and once all of them are taken down it will crumble to the ground and lose its mask, opening a vortex into its innards. Inside is a swirling "organ" or shell that must be attacked until four pulleys appear and it can be cracked open, but before Void's true form can show itself it spits out Kirby and his friends, as well as the unconscious Hyness and Mages.
Taking on a new winged form, Void continues to attack. One may note how its wings have a similar design and color to Zero Two's. Here, Void Termina will sweep the arena with its wings or a giant axe hanging down from its body, or rain down magical spears you have to dodge from the reflections on the platform, or it may use its most curious attack:
It will summon a Master Crown that fires out lasers across the arena. Not something that might look like the Master Crown, that's just the thing itself. In any case, upon defeating this form by hitting Void Termina's 5 weakspots again, it will collapse on the ground again and Kirby will be pulled back inside, where we finally see what was inside the shell.
First you draw a circle, then you dot the eyes, add a great big smile and presto! It's...
So the true form of this god of chaos and destruction, a being capable of destroying all reality as we know it, has the same face as Kirby. I think you can tell where all of this is headed, if you didn't already know. Perhaps now would be a good time to revisit an earlier factoid: The pause lore of modern Kirby games, which Void Termina has... A LOT of.
That last one is particularly interesting. The "Spring Breeze" phrase is commonly associated with Kirby's origin, as cited in one of the first paragraphs here, and it seems to give an air of finality to facing off against Void Termina. However, it being so tied to Kirby will become more and more apparent.
As the battle progresses, Void Termina will use many attacks, some of which outright mimic Miracle Matter's attacks, and it will also immitate Zero Two's creepy face with the two false eyes and wide smile, and it reaches a climax as it take on a different form that's a little more fitting for a dark god:
From looking like Kirby to looking like the original form of Dark Matter, huh. Upon defeating Void Termina's final form, it will spit out Kirby as well as its own core, leading to a finisher beam clash that destroys Void Termina once and for all... Or at least, this should be that simple, but Void Termina goes a little deeper. Ever since the DS' Kirby Super Star Ultra, Kirby games have included a "True Arena", a super hard gauntlet of beefed up bosses ending with a true final boss, which in itself is usually a juiced up take on the main final boss, its "Soul Form". Soul bosses in Kirby tend to share some moves, and I plan on getting into detail in future infodumps of this sort, but said moves usually include a rain of painful globs, dashing at Kirby like a fireball, bouncing from the background to crush you and sending out cutter boomerang projectiles. Kirby Star Allies is no different, with its Arena being called "The Ultimate Choice" and having a difficulty setting system equated to how "spicy" you want your boss gauntlet. The equivalent to the True Arena is the spiciest option, called "Soul Melter", and concludes with a palette swapped Void Termina with trickier attacks, nothing too special here.
But of course, the Soul Melter variant of Void Termina (The Embryo form in particular) and its new final form, "Void Soul", have unique pause screen flavor text
What do we learn from this? Well, that Void might be infinitely old, as darkness and emptiness usually are, and he is beginning to "feel" and "think". On top of that, Void is actually meant to be a neutral being, influenced by positive or negative energies around it, and under the right circumstances it can be reborn as "a friend". Unlike other games, Star Allies has one more trick up its sleeve, one more Definitive Final Ultimate ULTIMATE Challenge. Upon beating all other extra content in the game, including Soul Melter, one last difficulty is unlocked for The Ultimate Choice: SOUL MELTER EX (Note Kirby's face on this selection screen)
At the end of Star Allies' hardest possible challenge, awaits yet another palette swap of Void Termina, now labeled "The True Destroyer of Worlds", but for the most part it's a beefed up version of the other two fights. And just like Void Soul, its final form comes with a new title and name: "Astral Birth - Void"
Note how, much like Zero before it, Void is now white and red. This form pulls out all stops, using every attack it already had and all the "Soul attacks" to their fullest, even throwing in attacks from bosses like Dark Mind from Amazing Mirror. Once again, this new fight has different flavor text, and notably phases 1 and 3 are specifically formatted like lyrics and are an extended form of the original fight's phase 1 description. Perhaps these are the Jamba Religion's chants and prayers to Void Termina? In any case:
Phases 2 and 4 reinforce the established idea that Void is influenced by positivity or negativity, with phase 2's notable choices of words being saying that "Void exists in all dimensions", which may explain why it has Dark Mind's attacks: Dark Mind is the mirror world Void/Dark Matter (But I'll talk about the Amazing Mirror more another time). As well as specifically setting the two possibilites as "a destroyer of worlds, or an ally of the stars? Meanwhile, phase 4 outright alludes to dreams, breezes, treats and a "Dream of friends reunited!"
If you weren't already aware or it didn't click about 20 lines ago: Void is the origin point of both all Dark Matter and Kirby himself. And also Gooey, by extension. At some point in the past... Too Many years, maybe even centuries or millenia,
But what matters is that Void Termina is their "missing link" and, in essence, a living primordial soup of emotions and power. What also matters is that I am effective done spilling the main facts of the actual games, and can move on to the REALLY fun part!