Kirby, Kirby, Kirby. That’s the name you
should know, and he’s the star of the show; or rather, the star of his games. With
his bright and friendly personality, it’s easy to see how he can have so many friends.
Of course, with every rule there are exceptions, and this is the list of those exceptions.
I’m Kyle with 1upBinge, and today, we’re taking a look at Kirby’s nicest
nasties, and his most ferocious foes. These are Kirby Villains: Good To Evil. First up, three rules. One, we are only
counting the games and not the anime. Secondly, we are not counting any Smash
Bros games with their single-player modes, be it the world of light or subspace.
And finally, rule three: Any official lore we got from the now-defunct Miiverse will still count.
Simple enough, right? Well, let’s complicate this a bit.
Regarding the list itself, we’re going to be doing this a bit differently than our usual bad
guy lists. Instead of just doing our usual Evil To Most Evil format... We’re going to be a bit more
generous and give these villains more respect, since some of these foes really
aren’t that evil in the first place. Heck, some of them even became good friends of
Kirby later on after their initial villain debuts. On that note, to start this list off, we have
two people who really could be considered heroes; and the only reason we’re covering
them is to just cover all our bases. These two are pretty much heroes. But
consider them honorable mentions, or I guess dishonorable in the eyes of actual villains.
First up in this pseudo category we have the true blue swordsman: Meta Knight. The only
two negative marks we have for him are from his attempt to take over dreamland to make it a
more lively place in Revenge Of Meta Knight, and him teaming up with King Dedede to test Kirby’s
might in Kirby Fighters 2. Aside from those two incidents, he has been as straight as an arrow.
Aside from Kirby, he is usually Dreamland’s most devoted protector, willing to raise his sword
against any threat out to harm Dreamland. Be it against the evils of the mirror world, or
invading threats trying to mechanize the planet, Meta Knight is one of the first responders
to the scene of any crime, ready to slay the darkness. Next up is our truly heroic, albeit
not as heroic as Meta Knight, unofficial king, King Dedede. True, he did start out as a
foe, stealing all the food from the residents of Dreamland. After this stunt, he seemed to at
least try to do good; be it keeping Nightmare sealed away, or helping Kirby after being freed
by any mind control the villain of the week put him under. Sure, you definitely do square off
against him other times, be it by King Dedede hosting a tournament filled with other Kirbys
he created, challenging him to gourmet races, or even a one on one with Kirby for a hammer duel.
In the end, he is a good guy, even if he likes being a rival more than a friend. With that
over, onto the real list. These characters are the Redeemed , or The Good. Sure, they
may have caused Kirby some trouble in the past, but now, they are genuine good guys and nice
folks to be around. Hey, everybody deserves a second chance! For our first truly redeemed
villain, we have the magician from a faraway land, Magolor. Appearing in Kirby’s Return To
Dream Land, he comes in crashing his ship and having to request help from Kirby and his friends
to rebuild. For these efforts, Magolor promises them a trip to his home planet, Halcandra, only
to get ambushed by a dragon with a powerful crown. Wanting to continue helping their new friend,
Kirby and the gang go on to fight this beast, knocking the crown loose. However, this was all
just a ruse by Magolor himself, who wanted the crown to use for himself for power to take over
the universe. That said, these plans really don’t get that far, as Magolor soon finds himself
getting possessed by the crown. This crown, the master crown, is actually sentient and was
more than happy to possess Magolor to take over the universe. So, where does that leave Magolor?
Well, in Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition, he actually does come back, and even apologizes
for the incident and betraying Kirby by building him a giant amusement park. And, his words seem
100% sincere. He did say that he really hoped that he could stay friends with Kirby
should you get all 120 energy spheres, and thanked Kirby for fixing his ship even
as he betrayed him. After that, he stayed on the straight path, with the worst thing he
did was being a shopkeeper and a gateway to microtransactions for the Kirby Team Clash, which
may be bad depending on your stance on the matter. Heck, in Kirby Star Allies, Magolor even pops in
as a Dream Friend, ready to help Kirby stop Void Termina. Overall, with having the most extravagant
and costly way to apologize to Kirby, and keeping his word, and helping him out afterward, Magolor
is the closest villain here to being yet another friend to Kirby. We’re just waiting on an extra
game or two to finally cement it. For the silver medal of truly redeemed villains, Taranza is up
next. A servant to Queen Sectonia, Taranza heads off to Dream World in order to kidnap the hero of
the land, mistaking Dedede for said hero instead of Kirby. Throughout the game, he will cause boss
fights to break out to delay Kirby’s progress, going all the way back to his queen. However, with
all his efforts falling flat, Queen Sectonia takes control of the situation; that being shooting
Taranza off with lightning. Definitely not the warm welcome he wanted. After this betrayal,
he ends up teaming up with King Dedede to help save Kirby and defeat his former master, giving
him a miracle fruit to inhale the evil queen. Sounds simple, right? So, what puts him above
other villains? Well simply put; he really didn’t mean any harm, and just wanted to help his Queen.
We’ll expand on her a bit more later, but all you need to know now is that Taranza cares deeply
for Queen Sectonia, at least before she became the vile insect she is today. All he wanted to do
was give her a mirror to let her see herself and improve her beauty. However, due to this mirror
being a bit, different, she only became cruel and a tyrant. Everything that Taranza did was just out
of blind loyalty and care for his master, and he does become a good ally, so really, we can’t fault
someone with a tragic life like his that much. He really wants to do good and be a worthy ally to
his queen, but in the end, it just wasn’t meant to be. Next up, for third place “goodness in evil”,
we have a pair of three, The Mage Sisters. They are Francisca, the master of ice, Zan Partizanne,
the mage of lightning, and Flamberge, the magician of fire. Before Kirby even meets the trio, they
were all on death’s doorstep, with Francisca nearly drowning in a frozen lake, Zan Partizanne
getting zapped by lightning as she tried to climb a tower in an attempt to take her own life
after being left with nothing, and Flamberge suffocating as fire surrounded her. Thanks to a
kindly wizard by the name of Hyness, the three were not only spared but gained the power of the
elements they almost fell too. Thus, they became Hyness’s most devoted followers, obeying him
even as he went crazy and tried to end the world. What puts these three in the redeemed category
is thanks to the added mode in Kirby Star Allies, Heroes in Another Dimension. Here, Kirby and his
own friends face off against a corrupted Hyness, and after beating him, the three mage sister’s
come in to avenge their fallen master. Even after being tossed aside by him earlier in
the main story and having their life force sucked away to keep Hyness safe, they still view him
with respect and dedication to serve him. After falling to Kirby, he uses the friend hearts
that he collected to not only restore the Mage Sisters but also restore Hyness. By doing
this, he ends up reforming them as well, making them true allies to the stars. And before we reach
the next area, let’s add in Hyness as well. Once a very kind wizard, even saving the previously
mentioned Mage Sisters, he was a part of a clan who aided the people of science and helped further
their discoveries. However, after being rejected by them one day, he ended up letting his heart
get swallowed by the darkness of Dark Matter, a completely more evil threat we’re going to be
touching upon later. He became cold and careless, abusing his own followers if it meant
furthering his goals of releasing Void to create a new peaceful world, destroying
the old world in the process. He even ends up sacrificing his followers to the Jamba Heart,
including himself, to help carry out this idea. As previously stated, however, he ends up
managing to get reformed thanks to Kirby’s efforts in Another Dimension, managing to make peace
with the Three Mage Sisters and starting over, making amends with Kirby. Now, as bad as ending
the world is, this is definitely due to him being corrupted by the Dark Matter and the Jamba
Hearts, so we can let it slide due to him honestly not being in his right mind, letting
him walk away with a, “just good enough”. With the redeemed heroes out of the way, we have
the Wild Cards. These are the Gray Area; People who can help the heroes but just as easily be the
villain or just villains that aren’t as bad as the rest. First up is the master thief Daroach.
The leader of the Squeak Squads, this thief appears stealing Kirby’s cake piece seemingly
out of nowhere. However, his true prize lies in a treasure chest in Dedede’s castle. Chasing after
them throughout the world, their adventure reached an unexpected turn when Daroach opened the chest,
only to be greeted by Dark Nebula possessing him. After Kirby saved him from Dark Nebula’s power,
he ends up apologizing to Kirby by giving him the same cake piece that Kirby was about to eat at
the start. In his next appearance in Mass Attack, he serves as a way to help Kirby, now in his small
size, to get around the world. He even lets slip that he sees the Squeak Squad as a family to
him and even tells Kirby about Necrodious. However, he manages to miss out on the redeemed
category thanks to him still being a proud thief. He is happy to continue his thievery ways,
even if he still acts friendly with Kirby, even helping him in Star Allies, if only so he
can steal the Jamba Hearts. Sure, in comparison to other thieves and villains on this list, he
is nicer, but he still is more than happy being a villain, and as such, we have to treat him like
one. Onto the most mysterious face on this list, Galactic Knight. For someone who has been around
for a while, he is still quite mysterious. Being first introduced as the strongest warrior in the
galaxy, he ended up becoming Meta Knight’s rival, always challenging him after any of Meta Knight’s
sub-modes. His power is said to be so mighty that it could destroy planets, but yet, we don’t get
any concrete proof of how evil he may be. But in Super Kirby Clash, we do know that Galactic Knight
once went under an alias called the Aeon Hero, so he was definitely a hero at some point, Then there
are questions about just how much of these modes are truly canon, leaving much to the imagination.
In the end, Galactic Knight is just one giant piece of confusing lore. Bet you didn’t think
this small cute puffball had such a rabbit hole of a story, huh? Next up, we have one of Kirby’s
more noticeable foes, Marx. Appearing in Milky Way Wishes, he starts off telling Kirby about
a way to stop the moon and sun from fighting; namely wishing for them to stop by summoning a
wish-granting comet called a “Galactic Nova”. There was just one problem; he was the one that
made the sun and moon fight in the first place, and his true goal is to steal the wish to take
over Popstar. Thankfully, Kirby manages to return the favor and stop him in his goal. The reason
Marx did this in the first place? Why, he was just hungry! As relatable as that is, it still
is a very flimsy excuse for planetary domination. But at least once Marx is fed he does appear to
be a...decent person. The lack of empathy for betraying Kirby and almost taking over Popstar by
causing a space fight between two celestial bodies definitely is harder to forgive than Magolor’s
sincere apology, to put it lightly. Second, to last here, it’s the stern secretary, Susie.
Working under Haltmann, her goal is to mechanize the planet and its inhabitants, and Kirby and his
friends are just in the way too much. Starting off just fighting Kirby, she soon ends up brainwashing
Meta Knight and corrupting him with a mech suit to get him to do the deed, only to fail and have to
rely on Dedede clones. Even after all that, she still failed to the pink demon. Letting Haltmann
take control, she ends up stealing a helmet that he had on to control Star Dream in order to
teach him a lesson and to make him come to his senses. Despite helping Kirby once Star Dream
went haywire, she still didn’t seem deterred from continuing her company’s mission, even becoming
the president and continuing Haltmann’s legacy, who just so happened to be her father. However,
this is just in the English version of the story. In the Japanese version, she insists on using
her technology to make others happy and to stop any savage people. So, we’re just going to be safe
and put her this low, at least until a definitive answer comes out. Like daughter, like father,
Haltmann joins his daughter here. The original ruler of Haltmann Works Company, his original
goal was to repower a wish-granting star. However, tragedy struck when his daughter, Susanna,
was teleported away. Thinking she died in the accident, his goal changed from getting the
star to work, to wishing for his daughter to come back to life. However, with each attempt,
he lost more and more of his memory, until he completely forgot his original goal and it
became to turn planets into mechanic wonderlands, to ensure his company is forever maxing
out its profits.Susanna does return to him, now under the name Susie, and he forgot all about
her, even if she feels familiar to him, as he gave her a high position in his company. However, after
trying to use Star Dream and getting his control helmet stolen by Susie, he ends up losing his
soul to the computer. It’s not completely gone, as some pause menu text during the True Arena
reveals that he is still alive and greatly regrets building this machine, realizing how foolish
it was to ask for his daughter to come back. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get much better, as once
Star Dream takes enough damage, his very soul is destroyed and replaced by the machine. He’s quite
possibly one of the most tragic villains here. What started out as a man wishing for his daughter
to come back became a story about how he died, not realizing he managed to get her daughter
back. As bad as he is, he’s also just as pitiable. Finally, we have the real villains; the True
threats: These are the worst of the worst with very little kindness in them, if any. Redemption
is out of the question for them. First up for our true threats, it’s the true foe of Squeak Squad,
Dark Nebula. Out of all the villains here, this guy is the one with the least amount of
information. There are a couple of things we know about him. First thing is that he was locked
up in a treasure chest that both King Dedede and Meta Knight would rather not let out. Secondly,
he is the ruler of the underworld. And finally, he ended up possessing Daroach after he opened
the chest, trying to get ultimate power. That’s, pretty much it. After Kirby beats it, the being
just disappears. Heck, we don’t even know if he really is the ruler of the underworld, or if it’s
just a fancy title for a strong evil being. He certainly did cause some ruckus, making him a true
fiend, but due to just how little he affected the world in the end, he can’t go any lower on this
list. We’re taking a break from Popstar to go into the Mirror World to discuss Dark Mind. Quite
similar to Dark Matter, Dark Mind is the villain of this place. Feeling that his power was becoming
a threat to not only that place but Dream World as well, Meta Knight races off to confront the source
of the power, as Kirby is split into four versions of himself thanks to Dark Meta Knight. Truthfully,
this is just another one of those villains that we really don’t know a lot of. We know that Shadow
Kirby is there to help protect the Mirror World and step up to Dark Mind, and that he is
threatening more than one world, putting him above others, but really; that’s about it. Some
of these foes are just evil for the sake of it, putting them above others, but with so little lore
behind him, that can only go so far. Our next real threat is the creature created by crafting, Yin
Yarn. This villain came from the side game, Kirby’s Epic Yarn. His goal throughout the game
is to turn the entirety of Dream Land into yarn, kidnapping the residents to send them to his home
and to be forced into serving him. He comes from Patch Land, a planet he already wrecked havoc
on. He tore the world into 7 pieces and unleashed his monsters on the land. However, thanks to
the heroic efforts of Kirby and Prince Fluff, the land is eventually stitched back together and
Yin Yarn is defeated. As evil as he is, we do have to give him some credit for not destroying the
place or rendering it unable to continue living. Forcing others to serve you is bad, sure,
but there are definitely way worse fates out there for others to exploit. However, Drawcia
still manages to beat him in terms of evil. The star villain in Kirby’s Canvas Curse, she was born
from a painting and wished to rule over the world, turning the entire place into a place created as
a literal work of art. She even manages to turn Kirby into a defenseless ball. She spawns forth
monsters and bosses from art for the sole purpose of stopping and killing Kirby. Truthfully, she is
kind of similar to Yin Yarn in terms of motivation and goals, only being more forward with her
attempts at killing Kirby, ranking her higher than the two needles. That is, if only due to
just how more involved she is in destroying Kirby. For the most evil of the crafters, we have the
appropriately named Dark Crafter. When we first play through Kirby And The Rainbow Curse,
we first believe that Claycia was the villain, turning on her friend Elline and stealing the
color from planet Popstar, rendering the land completely inanimate. However, this is just
another case of someone’s body getting hijacked to serve the villain. After knocking some glasses
off of Claycia, she soon regained her senses as the true threat, Dark Crafter, escapes the scene,
only for Kirby to chase after him and finally end Dark Crafter. As another one off villain, he
manages to score higher than Yin Yarn due to him being more threatening to Dreamland, completely
making all the inhabitants there inanimate, and only being able to be undone thanks to Elline’s
power. Definitely the meanest of the three craft based villains. Remember Taranza from way back?
Well, now it’s time to talk about his ruler, Queen Sectonia. She used to be like him
once; a happy and fair ruler of the sky. However, she wanted to become more beautiful, so
tasked her subject, Taranza, to find something to help her. What he came back with was the Dimension
Mirror, and while looking into it, she became more and more corrupted by its power and her greed
for beauty. As such, she started to turn on her subjects and her servants, forcing them to
serve her on her quest for everlasting beauty. Eventually, she ended up taking over her kingdom
and started to spread her influence to Popstar. Thanks to her former citizens sending
a seed down to create the dream stalk, Kirby was able to make the climb to
her throne room and eventually stop her just before she covered the entirety of Popstar in
her vines after fusing with the dream stalk. Sure, she may have been a good person before, but now;
after losing herself to the Dimension Mirror, she is just a shadow of her true self. In a
similar vein to wrapping up Triple Deluxe, let’s finish Planet Robobot with Star Dream, aka
the Mother Computer. Originally, it was just a Galactic Nova soaring the cosmos, granting wishes
to whoever can summon it. However, after being used by Haltmann for so long, this unit decided
that it had enough. Taking control over Haltmann, Star Dream has a new goal. Seeing that all organic
life is bad, it decided that the best course of action was to just destroy all life and start
anew to ensure a prosperous future. Sure, his goal is noble, putting him above other villains,
but he is still very much vile. For starters, he took over Haltmann and pretty much destroyed
his soul. You can even hear his soul cry out in pain as the true final boss in the True Arena
is knocked out and permanently killed. Secondly; there is the matter of the whole genocide thing.
He’s not even being as benevolent as Thanos is and plotting on sparing only half of life in
Infinity War; nope, he is plotting on a full scale universal wipeout of organic life. Sure Thanos got
that idea later, but only after being hounded and beaten by Marvel’s finest. Star Dream comes out
swinging with this plan, putting him this high up here. Coming up to Kirby’s latest foe, we have
Void Termina. This is the beast that Hyness wanted to release in the first place. Anyone who
got the nickname of “Destroyer of Worlds” and “Dark Lord” is definitely worth watching out for.
He is a being born out of Void, which is basically a being that is created from all the malicious
energy and darkness. This being was born and brought forth to this world by Hyness to destroy
the world to seek revenge after his own clan perished. Due to the heroic efforts of Kirby and
his friends, they were able to finally put a true end to this universal threat. However, there is
one big difference between him and other villains that put him lower than the rest. Void Termina
was born from Void, and what he ends up as, be it a friend or a foe, is all dependent on the
energy surrounding him. Thanks to how filled with hate Hyness was, he turned out to be an evil
capable of destroying the universe. However, after losing to Kirby, and picking up on a couple
of his traits, Void Termina started to think and look a bit like him, even dying in the ultimate
choice as Astral Void with a smile on his face, as if he will come back as a friend. As
such, while we are ranking him this high, we hope we can see him again, this time as a
star ally. Just sitting, or in this case flying, outside the final three, we have one Zero Two.
And no, we’re not talking about the anime girl; we’re talking about the floating eyeball. Maybe
another time. Anyway, this creature spawned from Dark Matter’s defeat is the threat of Kirby 64:
The Crystal Shards. Taking over the planet of the Fairies, Ripple Star, he ends up almost destroying
that planet, but also Pop Star, using dark matter forces to brainwash some residents into working
for him. It is definitely at the very least aware of what can kill him, as it tries its hardest to
ensure that Ribbon and the Crystal don’t survive the trip to Popstar. For its credible threat,
use of Dark Matter, and almost destroying two planets and getting much further than any other
foe, we give Zero Two this high of a spot up. We finally reached the top three, and first up to
bat for the bronze is the original true villain, Nightmare. One of the more recurring fiends to
Dreamland, his goal is basically in his name. He wants to spread his nightmares and powers
across the cosmos. His ways of accomplishing this feat were by tampering with the fountain
of dreams, to give everyone nightmares. King Dedede managed to trap him in the fountain,
and once Kirby accidentally freed him, Kirby soon finished the job and properly killed
him. That said, we do run into a bit of a problem that prevents us from ranking him any higher. His
other major roles are either stuck in subgames, which have rather questionable continuity, or
in the anime, which we aren’t counting, even if that would put him in the gold for certain due to
providing so many monsters. Even then, with how many times he keeps appearing in these extra game
modes as a villain, we do have to give some props for at least constantly trying, regardless of
continuity. That said, even with all these things going against him, Kirby’s first major threat
still remains one of his most hostile and cruel, and he isn’t going to be going anywhere soon even
if it is just another side game, for better or for worse. Probably the latter. What did Necrodious
do to get this low a place on this list? Well, a fair bit to put it lightly. Firstly, he wants
nothing less than the heat death of the universe, destroying stars just because they are too bright.
He ends up attempting to destroy Planet Popstar’s light, as to him, it’s the brightest star in
the universe. As we seen by now, Kirby isn’t that unfamiliar with facing giant evil gods of
death. So, Nercodious decides to play it smart and safe by sneak attacking Kirby and killing him,
or at least splitting him up into 10 and killing 9 of the 10 copies. It was only because he smugly
thought he killed them all that one survived. Necrodious ended up being the villain who
was the closest to permanently killing Kirby. Add this alongside his attempts to drown the
entire universe in darkness, and you get a recipe for a pretty deranged foe worthy of being
this high up. The only reason he isn’t number one is that he only been around for about 100
years, and not for way longer like number one. Finally, it’s the true villain. The overarching
threat for this entire series and it’s none other than Dark Matter. Now, this species is such a
can of worms that trying to explain everything about this being in a short time is a tall
order, but hey, we will try. This is Kirby’s most constant and recurring threat. Not only was
it a continuing threat in Kirby Dream Land 2, 3, and Crystal Shards, but it’s possible that
its reach extends far past these games. His goal is to drown the world in darkness, be it by
sealing Dream Land away from the Rainbow Islands, possessing everyone it can and covering the planet
in darkness, or being led by Zero Two to destroy the galaxy, one planet at a time. What makes
this threat much more menacing than the others is just that we really don’t know how much this
species extends. We have the vile Dark Matter and Zero Two as leaders, sure, but we also managed
to have a friendly Dark Matter being called Gooey, Kirby’s best friend as a matter of fact.
But then we have all the possible villains that just may be connected to it. Ranging from
Dark Mind in the Mirror World, Void possibly being affected and influenced by it, even the
Master Crown being influenced by Dark Matter, this threatening species managed to persist after
so long due to just how unknown it is. There are extreme implications and they aren’t outright
confirmed, sure, but with so many villains having so many similarities to this threat, we feel very
confident calling Dark Matter the true threat to Kirby, and giving it the gold for villainy.
But what do you think? Which Kirby Villain is truly the worst of the worst? Let us
know in the comment section. Don’t forget to hit that notification bell and binge our
Good-to-Evil playlist. Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite
games. But most importantly, stay wicked.
I wonder where anime Dededee would be. Anime Nightmare/"NME" would be the top if the anime counted, as stated in the video.