Starting a new post hello everyone. I’m curious about how other people have decided to interpret Magolor Origins following our Return to Kirby’s Return to Dreamland. There’s a lot of ways you can take Magolor’s admission that he isn’t from Halcandra, and I would like to hear abt what others have done!
As an example, yeag since I’m solidly in AU territory it doesn’t Actually matter, but my Magolor was born on Halcandra but immediately left the planet shortly after birth. He grew up on Skyhigh. Depending on the scope of the “where are you from?” question, he is technically both from Halcandra and NOT from Halcandra at the same time. He can say either and it’ll both be true, technically. Teeechnically. He can admit to “lying” about where he’s from regardless of which planet he initially claimed to be from, lol!
My own batch of headcanons remain pretty close to the games' canon, but Magolor's Halcandran origins is just one of those things I'm wayyyy too attached to to ever get rid of! My chosen workaround is that he's ethnically Halcandran but was born off-planet, only to later become obsessed with the Ancients and effectively strand himself there before excavating the Lor. I actually have him and Hyness as being roughly the same species, but the march of time changed them both from the original Ancient appearance in different ways (generations of genetic drift for Magolor, and the corrupting forces of life-extending magic and perpetual isolation from others of his kind for Hyness)
More warrior cat au stuff! i won't blab on about worldbuilding this time but you can see a full allegiance list of characters I'm including as cats (<-important qualifier) under the cut!
It's my hope that the cats' names are similar enough in vibes and/or mouthsound to their original counterparts that it's clear who's who. my favorite name of the bunch is yolkwhisker i was really proud of that one lol
if you guys happen to remember my Kirby warrior cats AU from nearly a year ago then you'll be happy to know it has. uh. Mutated! hope you like alien cat genetics lmao
Being in the Kirby style, the "cats" are actually aliens that look & behave like cats. I'm considering calling the species "Tabies" (singular is "Taby", as in Tabby + Baby) but i'm not fully set on that yet. They are not the same species as Nago; not even from the same planet.
I've decided that while the warrior cats themselves are mostly adapted from Kirby game characters, the forest itself is in the KRBAY canon. Things just lined up better for the sorts of species I wanted to include. There ARE game enemies I've adapted into "normal" animals to make the world feel more Kirby-like, but overall it was just easier to place everything in a KRBAY setting where they already have things like "normal sheep" and "normal rat" -- not to mention plant species!
Anyway the forest exists in some temperate region on anime Popstar and is not directly part of the tropic-based Dreamland, but does maintain trade relations. I'd actually intended to make the map look like a literal in-universe travel guide to promote tourism, but then I didn't do that. Because it was hard and i didn't want to
The tabies and a handful of other useful species (including Awoofies) were brought over a long time ago when select parts of Popstar were in contact with pre-collapse Forgotten Land. Feral populations have since become naturalized into this temperate region's ecosystem. The ancestors of the Jackal-things from the fourth image were domestic Awoofies that went feral very early after their introduction, making the Jackal-things technically moreso akin to dingoes. Primal Awoofies, on the other hand, are what Awoofies were originally domesticated from, making them like wolves. They didn't bring over any Primal Awoofies to Popstar, I just wanted to draw one.
I'll spare you the Lore™ of these particular warrior Clans for now but it DOES exist and you WILL hear it. eventually maybe idk
Who do you think sealed Dark Nebula and how did it end up with King Dedede?
More answers, see below cut.
Dark Nebula was sealed in the chest a very long time ago; before the Ancients fell, but not THAT long before. So, most of the relevant characters we're familiar with wouldn't have been around to do anything about it. (Hey, maybe Galacta Knight had a hand in sealing it! He'd probably just have killed it though, rather than containing it, so who knows, really.)
As for how the chest ended up in Dedede's possession, Popstar used to be a minor trade hub on the outer reaches of the Halcandran empire, long before Dream Land existed in the form we know it today. The Ancients did lots of things there, such as bringing a Dimension Mirror for faster travel and building the Fountain of Dreams to maintain local spacetime stability (long story).
Even though Popstar was still a relatively minor point on the map for them, it was prized both for its location on the outer edges of the empire as well as its pleasant, semi-tropical climate, perfect for a relaxing vacation! Species indigenous to Popstar still existed, of course, but they did not have power over their planet at this time.
Long story short, Dark Nebula's chest was probably being transported somewhere, and was meant to be briefly held on Popstar before continuing on to whatever its intended destination was -- perhaps to some hub of Jambandran culture out there in the stars, to study and learn from it. Then, the Ancients' empire met catastrophe, and some things just got forgotten about.
MANY years later, when Dedede proclaimed himself king, he also more or less forcefully claimed a lot of the leftover treasures lying around, both from the time of the Ancients' occupation and even older. Dedede had NO idea what was in that chest, but kept it around to make himself look richer. The only reason Meta Knight had an inkling as to chest's contents is because he's a history buff who had previously read about the sealing of Dark Nebula and recognized the chest from its description.
Just some Ancient. Not anybody we're familiar with. Most likely a human (for Dreaming reasons), but probably not related to Adeleine.
Tangentially, I do think that Vividria came from a sort of "sequel" painting to the original two, however, explaining why she seems so solidly like a younger sister to them. Artists often create "series" in their art, so it doesn't seem all that far-fetched to me.
I don't know whether or not they intended for the paintings to come to life, though. That may have been a skill the artist didn't know they had.
Same as in canon, I think? Lots of weird things happen in Another Dimension; it's got the fun combo of being ridiculously high in magical energy while also being super unstable in terms of spacetime. So, strange unexplained things can happen.
Apparently, one of the strange unexplained side effects of Another Dimension's weirdness is the creation of Parallel counterparts for different characters. Pretty sure that's just actual canon, if I remember correctly.
This does mean I lump Parallel Susie from the Clash games under the same umbrella as the Parallel bosses from Star Allies, like Parallel Kracko and Meta Knight, rather than with similarly black-and-red counterparts from the Mirror Dimension. Having the same prefix as the Star Allies bosses just feels too major to ignore.
I think also that this means that the Parallel counterparts were just created on the spot, unlike the Mirror counterparts -- i.e., the Parallel counterparts didn't live their own full lives before we fight them.
Dark Mind is the fusion between Mirror Nightmare and Mirror Zero. On their own, both of them filled very similar roles to their regular counterparts -- Mirror Zero was a Dark Matter queen who subjugated countless planets to live in darkness, and Mirror Nightmare was a galactic salesman who sold or rented mercenaries and monsters to whatever warlord paid him the most.
Also like regular Nightmare and Meta Knight, Mirror Nightmare had a hand in molding Dark Meta Knight into the form we know him as now. Unlike their regular counterparts, though, Mirror Nightmare and Dark Meta Knight were closer, and had a SLIGHTLY more healthy familial relationship.
Mirror Zero does not need monsters or mercenaries. He's got a practically infinite amount of Dark Matter drones under his command at any given time, so he has no need for hired help. In fact, Mirror Zero would have an easier time taking over planets if there was no hired help available -- if the planets he's conquering couldn't access legendary monsters to help defend themselves, that's just one less hurdle for Mirror Zero's forces in taking over.
Mirror Nightmare, like regular Nightmare, is something of a con artist at heart. He's willing to make a quick buck off of anybody he thinks he can trick into parting with their money, and he's made a lot of enemies this way.
At some point, Mirror Nightmare thought his next target to dupe would be Mirror Zero. Given what Mirror Zero would have to gain by removing Mirror Nightmare and his monster services from the equation altogether, this went about as well as you can imagine.
Dark Mind operates primarily as a hollow shell of what Mirror Nightmare once was, and his primary emotional outlet is wrath. The monster/mercenary service immediately falls apart without Mirror Nightmare's management, leaving Dark Meta Knight completely alone with an army of Dark Matter and Dark Mind breathing down his neck at every move.
I think it's really interesting to imagine a parallel between what Dark Meta Knight and Taranza both go through, despite Taranza hating all Mirror-worlders' guts. Both would have witnessed someone they spent much of their life with become corrupted, becoming a shell of themselves, their worst parts exaggerated and their violent ambitions amplified to the extreme.
Even still, they would continue to serve this corrupted figure, both out of the hope that their friend/mentor figure would somehow return, and for the fear of what this new threat might do to them if they defect. Of course, neither Taranza nor DMK ever acknowledge this parallel.
To be clear, though, neither Dark Mind nor Dark Meta Knight have anything directly to do with Sectonia's corruption; Taranza simply assumes that's the case. In actuality, it is Dark Taranza who caused Joronia to become Sectonia.
This is a real short one! The answer is YES, they are the same person.
What do you think HR-D3 is? Is he a machine created by the Humans of the Forgotten Land/Shiver Star due to creating HR-H or did Dedede created the machine? How did it get under Metal General's control?
More asks! answers below the cut.
HR-D3 is a machine made by humans in collaboration with Halcandrans (and others) as part of a larger defense act against future invasions from off-world foes. Both humans and Halcandrans have experience being invaded by alien enemies -- humans with Elfilis specifically, and Halcandrans with all sorts of things, including but not limited to Dark Matter. So, both would have good reason to collaborate on defensive robots like HR-D3 and HR-H.
Part of why both HR-D3 and HR-H are still active for (at LEAST) some centuries after the places they defended fell is because they incorporate magic as an energy source. Lots of electronics and other technologies humans created incorporated magic, once the concept was introduced to them by Halcandrans. It's really very practical! Although, both robots can use alternative power sources as well.
This may not seem relevant to that last point, but it's important to note that Earth physically moved location in the galaxy between its original Solar orbit and when we see it as Shiver Star in K64, and moved AGAIN before it became the Forgotten Land. Specifically, it moved relatively nearby to Popstar for K64, then fell into Another Dimension in KatFL. The first move was violent, the second by chance.
You know how some places are hotter than others, because there's more energy there in the form of heat? Magical energy works like that too, and Earth's original location happened to be eerily low in the stuff -- unnaturally "cold", so to speak. That's part of why Earthly life evolved not to be able to use or sense magic energy, and why Halcandrans were BEYOND surprised to find any life on Earth when they first went to check up on Elfilis -- they didn't think life could exist without magic, let alone intelligent life!
Metal General belonged to a later line of defense robots that were mass-produced, mostly to replace the dwindling population of puffballs that had previously made up a large portion of the Halcandran empire's military. As it was produced later, it's a lot "smarter", and doesn't necessarily have to fill the role of a foot soldier -- it can be a drill sergeant, a tactician, and even a general! That last case was true for Metal General, who was placed in command of many of Halcandra's larger war machines, including HR-D3.
Also, HR-D3 has no connection to Dedede, at least not in my lore. My guess is that the devs for RTDL felt they had to include a Dedede-adjacent fight to make up for the fact that he's not a fightable boss himself, being a playable character and all. In-universe, it's simply just an uncanny resemblance!
So. Um. This is awkward.
I don't consider Rainbow Curse canon to my lore, at all.
This is for two reasons: firstly, because of its concept of "color". As the shown in the game, "color" is something that can be "stolen" and reused for other projects. Claycia's "theft" of it alters Popstar to become gray and lifeless, apparently yielding all that "color" energy for Seventopia's creation, without any obvious energy loss. This MAJORLY messes with the conservation of energy, which is a law in physics I try very hard to adhere to for non-Dreaming processes, including magic.
As a rule of thumb, altering anything takes energy. Altering something by heating it up takes heat energy, and altering something by hitting it takes kinetic energy. Altering something by using magic OUGHT to use up magic energy. You do not "gain" energy from these processes; at least, not any more than you put in. Entropy is a thing, so you MUST lose energy by performing an alteration. No transfer of energy is truly lossless in real life, and that applies to my headcanon lore as well. Therefore, to alter Popstar, Claycia ought to LOSE energy in the process, not gain it -- assuming "color" is even analogous to energy.
secondly, a pause screen in Robobot (which I consider a significantly "more canon" source for information than a spinoff like Rainbow Curse) states that Kirby is a being of infinite energy -- which, yeah, I know, breaks the conservation of energy again, but I keep it in my headcanon lore because it's cool and fits into his gimmick of infinite potential and change. This just... breaks Rainbow Curse.
SO. In the intro cutscene of Rainbow Curse, where Claycia is stealing the "color" of Popstar and its inhabitants, how did she manage to steal all of Kirby's energy if he has an infinite amount of it? I can think of two ways: either she counteracted HIS infinite energy with HER OWN infinite energy(???), or she SOMEHOW managed to defy the laws of physics and losslessly(?) STEAL his infinite energy to create Seventopia. I think both of these explanations are very unlikely, both from an in-universe power-scaling standpoint as well as a narrative one.
Like, power-wise, possessing infinite energy or being capable of "stealing" it would place either Claycia, Dark Crafter, or the possessed fusion of Claycia AND Dark Crafter as being the de facto MOST POWERFUL ENTITY IN THE KIRBY UNIVERSE, which is something I simply cannot stand for. Narrative-wise, if she's got infinite energy (either on her own or by stealing it)… why would she stop at making Seventopia? Why not control all existence? She's being controlled by Dark Matter; isn't subjugating the universe to live in darkness kinda their thing? Why stop at making some pretty islands?
Also, I have… NO idea what "color" even IS. Like, WHAT is it that Claycia even steals from Popstar? Is it their Soul Matter? Maybe some supposed "life energy"? -- that can't make sense, because she steals the "color" from non-living things too, like the sky and the water Kirby's fishing in. Those hold no Soul Matter and aren't even alive. Is it not energy, and instead matter? But nothing changes size or apparent gravity when she steals it??? WHAT IS COLOR IN THIS GAME.
So I just… don't bother. I can't make Rainbow Curse fit into my framework, so I don't include it in my canon! Its prequel, Canvas Curse, IS still canon though. Just in case you were wondering.
And listen: don't take this as me hating Rainbow Curse. I have nothing against that game -- its visual design is SO charming and quirky, and some of my FAVORITE Kirby songs (both remixes and originals!) are from its OST. I haven't played it, so I can't vouch for its gameplay, but I'm sure that's wonderful as well. This is purely a transcription of my own frustrations trying to work its story and concepts into my lore, which I ultimately decided wasn't worth the headache and scrapped entirely.
So uh. Long story short: The events of Rainbow Curse do not happen. Seventopia is never created. "Color", as defined by the game, does not exist. Dark Crafter probably also does not exist, but that's just because I find his design ugly and unappealing. Claycia and Elline likely DO exist, but they're off doing their own things, sculpting and painting to their hearts' content, very far from Popstar.
How many Ancient Civilizations have there been across the dimensions of Kirby?
I've gotten a lot of lore asks over the past, like, two days(?), so I'm going to answer all of these here in a sort of lightning round, so as to not clog up my blog with artless lore posts. I'll also be going back and retroactively tagging all of my recent ask responses as #kirby headcanon ask spree, so that people not interested in hearing me ramble can easily filter it.
Also, assuming these asks are from the same person: first of all, thank you for the opportunity to share my lore, I really enjoy doing it! Secondly, I promise you don't have to hide behind anon or through an empty blog to send me asks -- I don't bite, I swear! Thirdly, there's no need to send the same questions twice. I'll get to them eventually.
Now for lore! :)
I tend to limit the scope of my lore to keep everything manageable, but the answer here is still… a lot. Depending on what you think qualifies as civilization, that number may fluctuate. I mean, real life Earth has tons of unique cultures and civilizations! Imagine that civilization density across a whole galaxy, let alone the different dimensional versions of that galaxy! It's more than I can comprehend!
That said, some civilizations and cultures are more relevant to the wider galaxy than others. The absolute earliest culture to exist was likely the puffballs' Star Warrior culture, closely followed by the Dark Matter hivemind-caste system culture. While the Dark Matter species' culture would exist essentially unchanged for billions of years, Star Warrior culture absolutely morphed and changed with time, and was later pretty heavily gentrified by Halcandrans and Jambandrans. Parts of it still exist to this day, but most have been lost.
When the first Dream Matter-based life arose, Halcandrans (Magolor's ancestors) were among the first to really attempt a large-scale, interplanetary civilization, which later grew to an empire of interdimensional proportions -- which is what modern-day characters would later refer to as the civilization of "The Ancients". There were lots of distinct eras to Halcandran civilization, though, so it's not as helpful to lump them all under that "The Ancients" umbrella as you might think. Jambandrans exist as a cultural offshoot of early Halcandran culture that persisted into later eras of the empire with their own religious practices. While they do constitute a distinct ethnic group, they are still the same species as other Halcandrans.
Besides that, there are many smaller civilizations that are less notable. Most of them never left the planets they originated on, though some were still brought into contact with starfaring Halcandrans or other aliens -- some more intentionally than others. In my own headcanon lore, the first contact that Humanity had with alien life was with Elfilis, who attacked sometime in the mid-20th century. The first PEACEFUL contact humans had with aliens was later, sometime in the 90's or perhaps the year 2000, with some Halcandrans monitoring the spread of interplanetary invasive species. The Halcandrans did NOT expect to find us there, by the way. Happy accidents!
I like to interpret Nightmare in a way vaguely similar to his KRBAY incarnation, since there's next to nothing to go off of from the games. It's far from one-to-one, but it still may be helpful to know where I'm pulling these ideas from. His backstory also connects a bit to the previous question, where I mention humans.
When Halcandrans came to Earth, they introduced the concept of magic to the humans there. If you aren't already familiar with how I define magic in the Kirby universe, I have a post about it here. However, what I didn't mention in that post was that humans, as a rule, cannot use magic whatsoever. We can't even sense it. We can create machines that incorporate magic as an energy source or otherwise use it in mechanical processes to induce various results, but humans cannot wield magic in the innate way that, for example, Halcandrans can. There are more in-depth reasons for why this is, but I won't go into them here.
However, outliers exist in everything. Nightmare happened to be one such outlier. He is the only human in history to have wielded magic innately, and he was good at it. Which is fascinating, because he was otherwise a pathetic loser man. Before the concept of magical energy was introduced to Earth, Nightmare was less of a metaphysical dream-bending lich and moreso a 50-something guy in a dead-end job as a door-to-door salesman. Kind of the opposite of what you'd anticipate for the ONE human able to be a real-life evil space wizard.
Regardless, that 50-something rando saw the opportunity to be an evil space wizard and grabbed it by the throat. He would soon begin using his magical powers to alter cheap, weak objects into potently enchanted weapons that he could sell at a steep price to any entrepreneuring interplanetary warmonger. This also extended into altering living creatures with his magic as well, making them into biological weapons to be bought, sold, or rented out as mercenaries. If he had morals in the beginning, they definitely eroded over the millennia.
Speaking of which, he also used his magic to extend his own lifespan. As time wore on, he depended more and more on magic as his energy of choice, ceasing to eat or sleep, and becoming more spectral. The only parts of his original human body he bothers to maintain are his head and arms, which have become grotesquely exaggerated to the point of cartoonishness over time. This is the same life-extending thing I imagine Hyness must have done as well, to live as long as he has. And they're both purple!
Nightmare does have some power over dreams and nightmares, but that is not due to his magic. I have a parallel "magic" system, called Dreaming, that is completely unrelated to what I call "magical energy" in this universe. It's what Adeleine uses to create real objects from her paintings -- she, like every other normal human, cannot use or sense actual magic. I'll explain it some other time.
Also, as a fan of the "KRBAY!Meta Knight is Nightmare's Son" theory, I couldn't just NOT incorporate it in some way here. Even though they are not biologically related, Nightmare effectively still fulfilled a primary care position for much of Meta's young life, sort of like a parent would. There are also certain traits of Meta's that were directly caused by Nightmare's meddling, both physical and psychological -- and not good ones. Also, I cannot overstate how much Meta hates Nightmare here. It was Not A Good Time For Meta and he very much Does Not Forgive Nightmare One Bit.
Gosh, this is confusing to explain. I'll start with the easy part first -- there are lots of Dimension Mirrors, and the Black Mirror is just one of them that happened to end up in whatever dimension Kirby Clash takes place in. It functions exactly the same as the Dimension Mirror we see in KatAM.
Dimensional Mirrors are artificial rifts to the Mirror Dimension, originally manufactured by the Ancients to facilitate faster travel -- a bit like a Nether portal network in Minecraft. They also happen to showcase a quirk of the Mirror Dimension itself, being that anything reflected on it from another dimension has an alternate Mirror Dimension version that always existed. The mirror doesn't create them.
The Mirror Dimension follows all the same physical laws as Kirby's dimension (for the most part), with one weird exception. Whenever an interdimensional rift forms (naturally or artificially), the Mirror Dimension will be a nearly perfect mirror to whatever is on the other side. But NOT because it "changes" to reflect the other side right then and there -- if a particular rock from Kirby's dimension is reflected in the mirror, the mirror counterpart of that rock will have led a parallel existence up to that moment, having existed just as long as the normal rock, to appear there. They may have cooled from different lava, worn down in different seas, and been carried in different peoples' pockets to arrive on either side of the mirror, but in that ONE moment, they are identical, and they are linked.
HOWEVER, it is important to note that the Mirror Dimension is just as vast as any other dimension, and has plenty of places that have never seen an interdimensional rift pop up. Therefore, those places are completely unique to the Mirror Dimension, with no reflection shenanigans having shaped their formation at all. The Mirror Dimension is not just a remix of other dimensions peeking through; it's got plenty of charm and secrets all its own!
On mirror counterparts: Are you familiar with Schrödinger's cat? How, if you don't look into the room where the cat is held, you have no idea if it's alive or dead? Looking into a Dimensional Mirror is like that. You simply can't know if you have a Mirror counterpart unless you look in the mirror to find out -- but, by looking in the mirror, you inherently confirm the reflection's existence. You cannot look in the mirror and NOT have a reflection -- but if you NEVER look, you will NEVER know if they exist or not! And they still might!!
So, again, BEFORE you look in the mirror, your mirror counterpart is in the superposition of both existing and not existing -- but by observing your reflection, you force the superposition to collapse into the counterpart having ALWAYS existed. I hope I'm making sense here.
That's how it works for the FIRST time you look into the mirror, anyway. Later viewings do not guarantee your counterpart will be present. They have a life outside of appearing to you -- the only GUARANTEED time you see them is during your first reflection in the mirror. After that, the two of you are desynced, and may not appear together. It's very eerie.
Also, mirror counterparts don't necessarily have to be "edgy". Most of them actually aren't! The only reason the mirror counterparts of the Dreamland crew happen to be all edgy-fied is because Mirror Dreamland fell under the dominion of Dark Matter after a successful invasion by Dark Mind. They essentially got the "bad ending" of DL3 where Dedede stays possessed and Dark Matter uses him as a puppet ruler.
If a mirror counterpart has "Dark" in their name, it signifies that they sided with the Dark Matter invaders in exchange for not being assimilated by force. Mirror counterparts with "Shadow" names either fought back against Dark Mind or were otherwise unaffiliated with either side. "Parallel" counterparts do not come from the Mirror Dimension.
What is your interpretation of Meta Knight's Sword the Galaxia in your headcanon?
oooh I love Galaxia! It's funny -- she doesn't even really exist in the games beyond being an object with a cool name, but I still think about her lots.
I will occasionally pull lore bits from KRBAY to supplement areas the games haven't explored, and this is one of those occasions. I do change aspects of her lore to make it fit in better with the rest of my interpretations, though, so you won't find any "Photron" here.
I'm gonna skim the timeline so as not to get too bogged down, but there was a great expanse of time between the Kirby universe's creation and the eventual rise (and fall) of the Ancients. This period predated the evolution of Dream Matter-based life, and was therefore dominated by the two lively Matter-types that did exist: Dark Matter, as themselves, and Heart Matter, as puffballs. There are some differences that exist between these early puffballs and the ones that would come later, such as Meta and Galacta Knight, but for the purposes of explaining Galaxia's origins they are effectively the same.
Puffballs of this time period operated under a highly honor-based warrior culture that I have, very anachronistically, been dubbing the "Star Warrior" culture. They were around for a very, VERY long time, and had literally billions of years to create all sorts of secrets that would be lost to the ages. One of those secrets parallels the real-life lost art of forging Damascus steel -- many of the golden weapons that serve as endgame abilities, such as Galaxia and Rainbow Sword, were made using a technique of the Star Warrior culture that has been lost to time. I generally call this golden metal "Heartsteel".
The heartsteel objects forged this way house both the Heart Matter and Soul Matter of a dying Star Warrior, though the latter may deteriorate over time. These objects may also be enchanted to more effectively channel certain types of energy, usually in ways that reflect how the Star Warrior chose to wield magic in life. In Galaxia's case, she favored using magic to unleash fire upon her enemies as a living warrior, so now she channels a sacred flame as a sword that burns all who are unworthy. Also, because the material contains Heart Matter, it is especially effective against Dark Matter-based opponents, as the Matters will "cancel each other out".
In life, Galaxia was one of the most fearsome and clever warriors of her day, and was remembered for her many victories, both in tactics and pure strength. Later Star Warriors effectively deified her through exaggeration through the generations, and the watered-down version of the Star Warrior culture that persisted in the time of the Ancients still acknowledged her as the goddess of victory. However, the fact that she became a sword is long-forgotten; they only acknowledge how she was in life.
It has been, at the ABSOLUTE least, many millennia since Galaxia was forged, and longer since she lived as a puffball herself. Although heartsteel objects like these were super common to make and have in the pre-Ancient days, they are unfathomably rare in modern times, and only Galaxia herself retains the ability to telepathically communicate with her wielder. Galaxia's previous wielder was actually one of Meta's parents, but that gets into OC territory that I'm not sure I want to get into here. Regardless, Meta eventually retrieves Galaxia from where she'd been contained by Nightmare and has been her chosen wielder ever since!
Not sure if this has been answered, but what is your interpretation of Zero-2?
you're all good, I don't think I've talked about this before. Mostly, my interpretation boils down to "they're not LITERALLY Zero, but they might as well be. Mostly."
Zero dies at the end of DL3, very solidly defeated by Kirby and Gooey. In the transition to his final phase, though, he loses his hard outer shell, which cracks open and falls away as the battle continues. It shows up again in K64, held together by bandages, on Zero-2.
Zero was the only active Dark Matter queen in Kirby's galaxy and dimension, and was therefore vitally important to the continuation of the Dark Matter species in those areas. Without him, the existing stock of Dark Matter drones would be the last generation of Dark Matters before facing extirpation, and they wouldn't even have a leader to see them through it! This is a major problem for a species that (largely) operates as a hivemind with their leader calling all the shots.
Dark Matter drones have the minimum amount of actual Dark Matter required to function as part of the species. They can't afford to donate any of their Dark Matter to create offspring -- there's just not enough to go around, and it's not their purpose as a drone to reproduce anyway. To attempt it would kill the drone and ultimately achieve nothing.
However, like with puffballs, if enough Dark Matter drones pitch in together, they may be able to achieve… something. The drones just wouldn't survive that process. And, on the precipice of extinction, the existing Dark Matter drones who had served under Zero were desperate enough to try -- and there were a lot of them.
The drones converged within the shell of their leader, hoping to recreate him, but something went very wrong with Zero-2. In desperation, the Dark Matter drones had thrown whatever Dream Matter they could to supplement what little Dark Matter their sacrifice could muster, but it only created misshapen amalgam with a leaking tail, veins spilling from its sides, and a gaping hole where Zero's eye used to be. They wanted a new queen, but I don't think that's what they got.
Whatever Zero-2 was, they did not live long enough to really find out. Attacking any planet is a dangerous game with someone like Kirby around, even if you purposely avoid going after Popstar! If they had survived, I think they would have a really unique relationship between the plurality of their origin and their single-minded goal of emulating a dead queen they never truly met.
They are significantly less powerful than Zero was, which partly ties into how they were defeated by something like Ribbon's Crystal instead of the golden weapons required to kill most other Dark Matter-based bosses (Triple star, Love-love stick, Rainbow sword, etc.). I'll talk more about golden weapons when I cover Galaxia.
Following the deaths of Zero, Zero-2, and Dark Nebula, there are no more Dark Matter queens in Kirby's galaxy. What few Dark Matter globs remain are living on borrowed time, and the species will soon become extinct.
Where does Dark Nebula fit into your headcanon of Kirby?
There's something of a tradition that is necessary for Dark Matter clans to continue in the event that their sole reproductive member dies somehow. Basically, that reproductive member (or "queen") will produce a "protégé" to carry on the lineage in case they die -- but they don't want the protégé to be TOO strong, in case they become a threat to the existing queen's rule.
Dark Nebula was an early attempt at a protégé by Zero. They have a significantly higher concentration of potent Dark Matter compared to filler Dream Matter in their body than "drone" Dark Matter globs, and they have enough magical ability to control the elements (fire, ice, electric) and possess people... but they don't have much more going for them than that.
While they ARE significantly stronger than normal "drone" Dark Matter globs (which are still individually powerful enough to take over entire planets on their own, like in DL2+3!), they're nowhere near enough to pose any threat to Zero. Other, more functionally powerful instances of Dark Matter were also created under Zero, like Gooey and Miracle Matter, but they weren't given enough Dark Matter to reproduce because Zero feared they might replace him, given the chance. They were more of experiments anyway, and failed ones at that.
Sometime in the past Dark Nebula must have gotten frustrated serving under Zero and tried to strike out on its own, got sealed in the chest, and was largely forgotten about until it was freed in Squeak Squad. I've chalked up the "ruler of the underworld" claim as in-universe over-exaggeration of Dark Nebula's power post-sealing. Pretty much all of this applies to how I see Necrodeus as well, only he was a drone, not a protégé. also he committed some pretty major identity theft but that's not relevant to Nebula here.
Side note, but Zero was also once a "protégé" offspring from some older, unnamed Dark Matter queen. He's not a first generation Dark Matter -- I like to think he's a second-gen one. Whichever original queen spawned him must been much, MUCH more powerful than he was to not see his power level as a threat. His power must've only been a sliver of theirs! Wild!
