#also yes i know landia canonically uses he/him but seeing as how that was a stupid ass decision i’m electin to ignore it

[giantchasm]

Random Kirby Headcanon #33

Believe it or not, Landia is technically a child… in a way.

Only someone truly pure of heart, such as an innocent child, can resist the temptations of the Master Crown. Because of this, following Halcandra’s fall, a young Landia was granted the role of watching over the crown, then left on the ravaged planet as the other survivors fled. Before they left, however, magic was used to grant her eternal youth, ensuring both that she’d never die and she’d never lose her innocence.

That’s why she looks like that. Actual dragons are much, much bigger, and certainly less chibi, but she never got the chance to grow.

Originally, she wasn’t four dragons— she was just one. But in her loneliness, eventually she became desperate for a friend. Because of this, the powerful magic within her granted her wish, splitting her into four and ensuring she’d never be alone again.

Now that the Master Crown is gone, she’s free to do whatever she’d like… although she’s not all that sure what that is. She never expected an opportunity like this.

Surprisingly, she’s not angry at Magolor. In fact, she quite likes the foolish kitty. As soon as he apologized and invited her to his super cool theme park it was pretty much immediately water under the bridge.

…I suppose it makes sense, considering her pure, untainted heart.

[desultory-novice]

who would be more traumatized?

Marx who literally was to the verge of death <like this close 🤏>

or

Magolor who got possesed with an acient artifact? <he wasnt as close as Marx to dying tbh>

In strictly canon terms, Magolor went on to build a theme park and literally invite the Master Crown (riding Landia) to come play and Marx seems really gleeful to be Marx so I'd argue neither of them!

^_^

.............

:psst psst: ...But if we're talking Dess's very particular brand of Kirby-verse, and I assume you wouldn't be writing me if you didn't want to hear my very specific Kirby worldview...

...Okay, so, the first time I rolled this answer over in my head, my heart immediately spat out: "Marx."

Because Magolor does have his theme park! He has his ambitions. The crown manipulated him in a lot of horrible ways, but he has something outside of that, which he is slowly regaining. He also has friends - though the degree of friendship was in doubt for about 10 years. Yes, I'm certain that having your warped and twisted body, practically bursting with power too great for you to possibly wield and puppeted by a malevolent artifact while you're not even free to scream about it is an experience beyond horrible...!

But...let's look at Marx here.

Marx has no friends.

We GIVE him friends. We say he's friends with the Wave 1 group and we see no strong reasons he shouldn't be. (Even if we don't know what they have in common...) But a few of us have tried to advance the cause of Marx + Animal Friends + Gooey = good pals! We also say he's friends/found family with Gryll, a character he's never been on screen with! We say he's friends (and some of us say he's more than) with Magolor - who he also hasn't TRULY been on screen with!

The closest thing he has to a friend is Kirby. And some of that stems from the fact that a very "...distinctive..." looking gag manga made up The Most Believable Backstory for Marx in his 25 years of existence! This isn't the first time people have assumed Marx and Kirby had a complex friendship, however. (And I'm incredibly fond of reading a lot into their having something, with or without any canon backing.)

But...

...While Magolor remembered HIS wish, Marx never did - if he even had one. We won't know until further evidence is provided if Marx was manipulated into wanting control of Popstar but if he did, then he was just as much a victim as Magolor...

And if he wasn't manipulated... well, he's just empty, isn't he? And isn't that more sad, in a way? The silly clown just wanted one star. One star, all for his own. And it's a wish he'll never, ever get...

Marx is considered by some to kind of an empty character. I would say to be so "empty" is actually really tragic...

(You don't even have to get into HC territory, about Marx's lack of hands or Marx's resemblance to a Noddy or Marx sharing a few design elements with Nightmare but if you do, it gets WORSE.)

Back to canon, we have no idea how long Marx was floating through space, in a state of near/undeath, unable to move. We only ASSUME Magolor picked him up in the Starcutter. But if so... when...?

And you know how 'everything is a MF Jojo's reference?'

I made a slight note in a random post last year about Marx's heart theming reminding me of Dio, but I gotta say, the JJBA villain that Marx reminds me of the most is Kars. His "death" just gives very "Eventually he stopped thinking" vibes. (I suppose there's a chance that actually factored into my "Clockwork Marx = Marx Can't Die" theory, now that I put it all together like that.)

And even though Marx is back again, one has to question what the overall effect of his experiences was on him? We don't see if Magolor has crown scars under his silly tophat. But we know Marx bleeds Fecto Green and can do other scary tricks. Does he love them?

He seems to. But just as a lot of people DO headcanon Magolor to have those scars, just as many people have HC'd that Marx can...lose control of his body horror tricks. And the results aren't pleasant.

Of course, ju~st as soon as I had settled on Marx's personal and unspoken tragedy being kinda more sad than Magolor's, well...

...I remembered The True Arena...! DAMN YOU, TRUE ARENA MAGOLOR...!! :sobbing endlessly:

Because we can't just stop at "had his body puppetted against his will while he was forced to watch" now can we?! Noooo! Because Kumazaki won't give us anything nice! (Just kidding & thank you for all the good angst food every time, Director, sir! Love it!)

Because Magolor is literally crying for help. Have you listened to "Supreme Overlord's Coronation" recently?! God... the sounds he makes... He can barely get out Kirby's name amidst his gasps. The Master Crown has rendered him blind, having Stolen His Eyes along with everything else, so that Magolor can't even visualize whether there is any hope; whether "he" has killed Kirby or Kirby is still fighting for his sake (and can he HEAR at this point or is that gone too?) but he never.stops.calling.for.him. Let me say that again:

He never stops crying out for Kirby to save him. Can you imagine being in THAT much pain?! That's hurt and fear and death all in one. But he doesn't even have the mercy of dying...?! He's carried away from us, out of reach, still a victim of the crown, his haunting cries echoing in our ears. Where has he gone? Will he ever be free or will Magolor's fate linger in our nightmares for another decade?

Of course, True Arena Magolor may just be out of the running for this whole argument because, again, as we don't know if he shall ever be free, it's hard to talk about how traumatized he is if the trauma is actually unending/still present. But if he is ever rescued alive from that fate worse than death (else he may just suffer until the Crown has finished absorbing the last bits of his soul and he ceases to be "Magolor") I would think the mental scarring from that experience is probably going to be as near to permanent damage as you can get.

So, from least traumatized to most: Game Marx < Game Magolor <<<<< Dess's Magolor < Dess's Marx <<<<<<<<<< True Arena Magolor

[desultory-novice]

//rtdldx, Magolor epilouge main spoiler

Ok how do you think about the ending of Magolor epilouge ?

I'm pretty satisfied but I've seen some people who don't like it, because it's even more vague if the main mode Magolor really come back to Dreamland.

But regarding of the Ultimate Sword move in Star Allies, I think they are all the same Magolor. Maybe Lor found him in that *Spoiler* dimension and they come back together (20th anniversary).

I believe that Magolor still misses Kirby and the rtdl team, even those characters in *Spoiler* world parallel those in the og universe, they are still not the same. Hal, please don't prove us that Magolor abandons every relationship he had had in the og universe. (Start to feel scared.) Ok... let me drink some water... and calm down. I don't think Magolor would do that, although I only have some little evidence.

But hey! Your headcanon get somehow justified! *Spoiler* Magolor is the og Magolor!

I saw that some people didn't like it! To be honest, I was surprised to learn that! Not that there's anything wrong with people feeling that way. It's going to touch everyone differently, but I felt satisfied through pretty much the whole experience!

I DID drop my controller and scream and point at the TV when I saw Kirby Clash Magolor, but since I was always a fan of "Magolor ended up in Kirby Clash after his loss in RtDL" one of my rare HC getting justified made me excited!

And yes, I think it's pretty seriously likely that Magolor managed to find his way back to Dream Land/Pop Star. This game doesn't exactly de-canonize Kirby's Dream Collection, and Magolor and the Lor had to have reunited at some point...

Plus, it always seemed to me as if buying out Shopkeeper Magolor's shop, allowing him to re-decorate his store to be gold, blue, and gear themed, and having him switch into his original clothes, was emblematic of a "My time here is over!" moment for him.

That's always when I pictured him finally being "free" to return to Dream Land. (And now that we know there's some kind of power - Master Crown Power, to be precise - attached to the Gem Apples, it makes sense that he'd need to collect them in order to gather enough power to return to the Lor/Dream Land. In fact...)

...It's kind of fun to speculate!

Maybe Magolor was unable to/unwilling to collect the gem apples himself? (I mean, why run a store right next to a literal "gold mine?" Just get the money yourself!) Or maybe he's still a little traumatized from the whole Master Crown thing and didn't want to touch the tree... (You can see him visibly shaking/crying after the Epilogue boss fight, poor guy) Or maybe he COULDN'T harvest from the tree directly? Maybe he feared corrupting it/being corrupted by the power of the Master Tree Crown again!

The end result is, Magolor needed even more power to return/cross dimensions, but he also needed someone else to provide it for him. Someone pure of heart and unable to be corrupted. (As even Landia struggled with the crown.) Thus, Team Kirby enters the picture.

...Also, he also always wanted to run his own shop, so I guess that's convenient!

But I think your theory that the Lor comes and finds him  (aka, the Dream Collection theory) is a great one too! It didn't make sense for the Lor to rescue Magolor immediately after him going overlord, but after Magolor's worked hard for days/months/years/??? to change and become better? And has been living side by side with the Master Tree Crown for all that time without being tempted by it? (As the new pause screens suggest the Lor didn't "talk" to him before because it suspected he was being influenced by the crown)

And yes, I absolutely agree with you that Magolor cares about his bonds with the RtDL group and wants to see them all again!

-

Circling back around, I saw someone mention that it seemed cruel for Magolor to abandon (or potentially betray) the people he met in Dream Kingdom to return to Pop Star, but there is such a thing as making friends in a new place while still having another, separate place that's more "home" to you.

It's pretty clear that Bandanna Waddle Dee makes a fine guardian for the tree, and Team Kirby will keep Dream Kingdom safe. Even though Magolor probably WAS on good terms with the people of Dream Kingdom, I think that for him, it would still be kind of mentally exhausting/emotionally painful to deal with people who only LOOKED like those he wanted to see again day after, day after day.

:cough cough: and there's no Marx anywhere in Dream Kingdom, which would also be sad for him </Marxolor feels> :cough cough:

Magolor really does need to go home. Even if Team Kirby sees him as a friend, the person he REALLy wanted to be friends with... was OUR Kirby.

...I'll talk more about that later of course!