#Marx's enby palette may have somewhat purposeful >w<

[desultory-novice]

First off, Anon, thank you! Second, I loved your ideas (which is why I'm going to paste them at the end of this ask) but I also ended up spinning this off in a completey different direction! ^^

I started with summarizing Marx and the Haltmanns because I had the strongest concept for them. Buckle in folks, this is LONG...!!

It's time for a Villain Swap!! (With pictures!)

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Kirby Super Star: "Glittering Galaxy Gambit"

["Milky Way Wishes" ; Marx the Cosmic Jester > Max Haltmann]

Antagonist: "Max the Magician"

-A traveling stage magician who showed up in Popstar a few months back and has become a popular figure thanks to his friendly, jovial dad-figure vibes and dazzling magic tricks that defy reality! (At least, "reality" as the backwards Dream Landers know it! - In actuality, everything is done with holograms and advanced technology. Max doesn't have a drop of magic in him. Plenty of dad vibes though.)

-One day, Max's biggest, most highly anticipated magic show is interrupted: the sun and the moon have started a fight and can't decide whether it's night or day!! The Dream Landers beg him to fix this and he attempts but even HIS "great magic" can't do anything.

-He's knocked back by the attempt. When Kirby runs to check on him, he tells Kirby the legend of Star Dream, a wish granting comet that was long ago broken into pieces. If one can collect the pieces and put it back together again, it will grant a wish. Surely THAT will be powerful enough to restore Dream Land and Popstar to normal!

-When Kirby succeeds in assembling Star Dream, Max, who had been following him, shoves Kirby out of the way! Oh, how he's been waiting for this moment! Having given up a successful business and disguised himself as a traveling entertainer, going from planet to planet, putting on shows for "backwater bumpkins" looking for someone he could use to help him get what he needs!

-Even "the sun and the moon" was a highly advanced hologram to usher Kirby toward his quest. And now that that's done, Max can make his wish: for Star Dream to bring his daughter back to life...!

[Basically Max + Beta Magolor]

-But...Star Dream starts to malfunction immediately Max's wish! A logic error has caused a fatal exception and the wish cannot be executed!! Instead, Star Dream begins opening a planet-sized rift in an attempt to rip several different dimensions through each other!

-"...What have I done? Why did I try to activate such a horrible machine..." Max mourns his mistake, but it's too late. After all, he's just a tech startup CEO masquerading as a showman. He has no REAL power, magic or otherwise to stop this... but Kirby does. Max summons his behind-the-scenes "stage assistant," the Robobot, and instructs it to help Kirby shut down this berserk machine!

-After Star Dream explodes, Max apologies to Kirby for fooling him and everyone... He's a fraud AND a failure. And always was...

-Kirby lets him know that he's not THAT much of a fraud. Everyone on Popstar enjoyed his shows after all, even if they were never real magic. And...if his wish to bring his daughter Susanna back to life didn't work, maybe that means... she isn't truly dead...? Perhaps she's still out there somewhere in this vast galaxy, looking for him too...?

-Max wipes his tears and resolves to follow Kirby's advice and keep looking for her. To continue on as "Max the Magician" putting on his tech-infused magic shows across the galaxy in hopes that someday, he will find Susanna - or vice versa! He also vows to come to Kirbys' aid at any time in thanks for stopping him before it was too late.

:Cue Kirby's Triumphant Return:

--

"Kirby and the Cosmic Circus"

["Kirby: Planet Robobot" ; Max Haltmann > Marx the Cosmic Jester]

Antagonist: "The Ringmaster"

-One lazy day, a giant circus situated atop what will eventually be revealed to be a golden watch appears in the skies above Popstar and now everyone is acting really, REALLY weird?!

-That's because this is no ordinary space-fairing circus, it's the dreaded "Cosmic Circus" and it's run by a mysterious figure known only as The Ringmaster, supposedly a once upon a time clown who's said to have been traveling the stars for countless years.

-Any place his circus visits is soon after forcefully turned into an extension of The Ringmaster's show by powerful Ancient magic. The people are forced to dance and sing and smile and serve popcorn and juggle and tumble and clown around and otherwise perform nonstop in demeaning shows to an audience of their fellow clowns.

-"Patty" a pink-haired songstress in a ridiculous looking clown nose and tutu, who confirms she is just one of The Ringmaster's many victims across the galaxy, caught and forced to perform in his show many years ago, appears before Kirby to tell him the origins of the Cosmic Circus and The Ringmaster piece by piece through song as Kirby gets closer and closer to The Ringmaster's main tent... 

-It all started with a spell gone bad... The former clown attempted, on his own, to open a Dimensional Rift to locate/rescue his missing friend and co-conspirator, who'd disappeared in the Mirror Dimension. It was foolish to attempt so without an Ancient Artifact, and when the spell backfired, the clown found himself sent several centuries and several dimensions away. Having lost all hope of seeing his fellow magic-user again, all he wanted now was just to go back home, to where life was simple and fun. A very small wish...

-As luck would have it, the clown DID run across an Ancient Artifact, a wish-granting Clockwork Star! But this star was old and weary looking, and the clown had grown paranoid after his previous failure. He refused to make his single wish for fear it would go wrong and he would be left with nothing again. He poured his soul into magic to form a link between himself and the Star, giving up an eye in the process. The clown had succeeded in BECOMING the star, giving him access to as many wishes as he could possibly need!

-But his fears were right all along. The dusty old Nova was not so good at interpreting the clown's wishes to return to his home dimension, and it's said his many, many attempts to get it right was what originally lead to the creation of the cursed Cosmic Circus: every planet his circus passes by now "becomes" what the Nova believes the clown's former home to be. Or perhaps, it was having so much power and using so many wishes that twisted the clown into becoming The Ringmaster of his own volition? "Who can say...?"

-Kirby reaches the center tent in order to put a stop to The Ringmaster and free the people of Popstar from the Nova's curse.

[Su... "Patty" inherited all of Marx's missing cuteness]

-After an initial Wizard of Oz-esque fight with a giant, threatening Ringmaster that is no more than an illusion, Marx the Clown is revealed to be a surprisingly tiny figure. But boy is he ANGRY! He hooks himself up to Galactic Nova's wiring which acts like set of mechanical arms to try and kill you. How dare you stop his show?! How does someone like you have so much power?!

-But Kirby succeeds in besting Marx again and this time... something familiar sparks in Marx's mind. He... he knows someone strong and pink like you... He knows this place... Is he...? Did he... make it home to Popstar? After centuries, his wish was finally granted...

-He turns to Galactic Nova and tells the machine the show is over. He can rest. They can all rest. The show is done and he "...doesn't need .your broken wishes anymore. Put a stop to it a-..."

-">BUT...THE SHOW MUST GO ON" Galactic Nova sends a powerful shock to Marx through the wiring, knocking him unconscious and absorbs Marx into the machine before Kirby's surprised eyes. The Ringmaster can't be allowed to leave or the circus really will be over.

-Galactic Nova, now that it has fused with Marx and "taken control" refuses to release the performers and threatens to expand the circus's reach to the entire galaxy! Looks like it's time for a fight!!

-But the berserk artifact is too big to take on, being nearly Popstar-sized itself!! From within the machine, a barely conscious Marx weakly informs Kirby the best and most efficient way to stop the star: destroy its wish-granting nucleus, that being Marx himself. 

-"...I got my wish. I made it home, even if it was too late to matter... It's time to make yours. You don't want this for Popstar, right...? Neither do I. This planet is MINE. I won't let this machine ruin it!"

-With Marx's death, the broken Galactic Nova powers down for good and the string of broken wishes they left begin the process of fading away into a distant and mostly awkward memory. Popstar and its residents are returned to normal as the Cosmic Circus's performers are released from their roles at last from all across the galaxy.

-While there is no saving Marx, whose life was forfeit when he first linked his soul to that of the broken star so many years ago, now that the circus has closed down, "Patty the Songstress", aka, Susanna Patrya Haltmann is free at last to reunite with her father, Max the Magician! But...why does she still have a clown nose...??

...And what of that wizard friend of Marx's who wandered into the Mirror Dimension? Will Kirby and friends be in time to save him...?

Given this is the permadeath swap... things aren't looking good for Mags...

-

[Anon's Full Ask - I loved these concepts too btw!]