Kirby/YMMV


 * Alas, Poor Villain: After you defeat masked Dedede in Kirby Super Star Ultra, you get a surprisingly depressing scene of King Dedede sulking off into the sunset as somber music plays. Thankfully, it makes a transition into heart-warming since King Dedede's Waddle Dees slowly go and follow him, showing that no matter how many times he's defeated, they will never abandon their king.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Kirby is quite a cocky Jerkass in Kirby's Avalanche (even though the game is not technically canon).
 * More famously: Kirby is notable for being a much less straightforward hero then most of them, notably eating definitely sentient beings alive, releasing eldritch abominations on a daily basis, and sometimes, going on quests and slaughtering people for rather... ambiguous reasons (in Squeak Squad: CAKE.) This led to many alternative interpretations of Kirby.
 * Brawl in the Family plays with this; for instance, Meta Knight once says to Dedede: "Like it or not, you and Kirby aren't that different, but where he has childlike optimism, you have untempered malice."
 * There Will Be Brawl plays with it too, and how.
 * Sonic for Hire plays this as well in this episode. He.
 * It should be noted that Dedede has a LOT more friends than Kirby in the games. Pretty much his only in-game friends outside of Kirby 64 are all created by him somehow. Pretty much everybody else has tried to kill him at least once.
 * Actually, three of his friends in that game have tried to kill him too. (Adeleine during two demonic possessions though) But he's been shown to spend time with his friends there and with the Dreamland 2 and 3 friends.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: After about 6 years of delays and hiatus, the Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards Wii follow-up has finally been confirmed for a release, and plans to feature, after Kirby's Epic Yarn, the return of Kirby's Mega Manning, as well as brand new abilities and Final Smash-like moves. Needless to say, fans exploded with Tears of Joy.
 * They did so even more when it was revealed Meta Knight, King Dedede, and the bandana Waddle Dee were playable characters.
 * There's more: Kirby's Adventure is confirmed as a 3D Classic for Nintendo 3DS.
 * Anticlimax Boss: Waddle Dee. In Revenge of the King, he is the last boss before King Dedede. He's laughably easy.
 * It's the same Waddle Dee that appears in the Arena in Kirby Super Star Ultra.
 * Awesome Music: There are a massive list of songs from the series that are just plain amazing to hear, a list can be found here.
 * Complete Monster:.
 * Necrodeus seems to be one, given that it split Kirby into ten and quickly killed off each individual form except the last who made a miraculous escape, mainly because of how cruel it is to murder nine different sentient beings while it was only necessary to kill Kirby once.
 * Nightmare is the franchises' biggest example, but only his anime incarnation (The one in Kirby's Adventure is pretty much a Generic Doomsday Villain).
 * Crazy Awesome: King Dedede. He's the king of Dreamland, wears a pimp coat, and fights with a hammer. Also? He is a blue penguin.
 * Masked Dedede takes this Up to Eleven. Case in point: the fight takes place in an electrified cage.
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: The series has its moments, but above them all stands the Kirby Super Star segment "Revenge Of Meta Knight" in its entirety. Storming the Castle turned Up to Eleven, reaching HSQ levels. Seriously. And you get to hear the bad guys becoming progressively more and more afraid of you, as if you were the goshdang Batman, while you singlehandedly destroy a frickin' airship! Hell yeah.
 * The whole "storm the castle while your enemies panic" bit is repeated in the final level of "Revenge of the King" in Super Star Ultra.
 * Meta-Knight wishes to have released the strongest warrior in the galaxy, locked away for fear of his power, for the sole purpose of kicking said warrior's ass. Which he proceeds to do Why? For training purposes. Or fun. Or just to prove he could.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: Kirby Super Star again. When you start "Milky Way Wishes", the tutorial tells you that . Cue Kirby's obvious, hilarious Oh Crap.
 * Have fun with the rest.
 * Cult Classic: Air Ride has been getting more and more popular each year since its release.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Many Kirby fans think Zero is a lonely, sad being that just wants some friends - though this does have some basis in canon, as it's stated that it can't feel positive emotions and wants to destroy the world out of jealousy. The awesome battle music probably helps (especially the Zero 2 music mentioned above.)
 * Ear Worm: Pick a song, ANY song from the games. Case in point: the Invincibility jingle. It doesn't help that the games have a habit of endlessly recycling/remixing music used from previous games.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Galacta Knight of Kirby Super Star Ultra. He only showed up for one battle and didn't even get a single line of dialogue, yet already fans are spinning Fan Wank about his origins and clamouring for him to appear in another game,
 * Meta Knight. To the point where he gets to be a playable character in Air Ride, Nightmare in Dreamland, and Super Star Ultra, and now Return to Dreamland. His Face Ship, the Halberd, is a major plot point in the Subspace Emissary and the only original Kirby stage in the game.
 * Adeleine from Kirby 64. For being a minor character in one (or two?) games, she has quite a fanbase - possibly helped by Brawl in the Family, where she's a prominent character.
 * Arguably Nightmare, despite only appearing in the second game, its remake, and the anime, fans remember him and want him to make a comeback. He's not as popular as Marx, but more or less, Nightmare's memorable.
 * Ribbon. Kirby's first love interest, ? Hell yeah.
 * Bandana Dee, a Waddle Dee with a bandana seems to be rapidly gaining popularity, especially after the announcement he was playable in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * Lampshaded by his pause screen description in the game, which calls him "everyone's favorite idol".
 * Magolor seems to be quickly becoming this. It probably helps that he has one of the best character designs in the whole Kirby series, and that when he pricks his ears down, his cuteness rivals Kirby's.
 * Even Better Sequel: The original Kirby game was a fairly standard side-scroller that was pretty enjoyable for what it was, but was laughably short and easy (although the latter is compensated by the unlockable Hard Mode--and it lives up to its name, all right) and didn't even allow you to copy abilities! Kirby's Adventure then came out on the NES and blew the original out of the water by offering more levels, the series-trademark copy abilities, and a save feature! Kirby's Dreamland 2, while not quite as good as Adventure, at least brought these improvements down to a portable level.
 * Excuse Plot: Most of the games don't have seriously deep plots, but in Kirby Squeak Squad, the plot is simply "Kirby's strawberry shortcake gets stolen. Find out who stole it so Kirby can eat it." Even after Kirby  this is still his primary motivation.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Why are the Big Bads of the games usually so nightmarish? Because it's Dreamland, it's only fitting that the antagonists inspire nightmares.
 * Fridge Horror: Jim Sterling gives a lecture on the Fridge Horror of the Kirby franchise in this episode of the Jimquisition.
 * Game Breaker: You can destroy The Arena (and later The True Arena) with Hammer and Plasma, the former having Hammer Flip, which does one of the highest damages of a non one-time-use ability in the game, and the latter of which provides an extra shield when fully charged. This makes them both Awesome Yet Practical.
 * If you master the quick charge trick, the aforementioned Plasma power from Kirby Super Star becomes the most broken power the series has ever seen. Due to this, it was slightly Nerfed in the DS version, requiring more charge-up time.
 * There's also Tornado, which has the amazing ability to kill almost every boss in the series. In fact, every boss in Squeak Squad can be killed very easily with it, including the final boss. It's an even better choice for the final boss than the Eleventh-Hour Superpower! Cranked Up to Eleven in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, where stronger moves were made avaliable. Heck, you can annhilate pretty easily with Tornado. Yep, an Infinity-1 Sword in comparison to Super Abilities.
 * Also Hi-Jump, at least in Kirby's Adventure, which not only does high damage to bosses, but makes you invincible while doing so and sending you out of harm's way. Not always useful outside bosses, however.
 * The Copy helper (TAC) in the original Kirby: Super Star on the SNES. Normally, it allows the helper to copy abilities like Kirby himself. But if there's no power to copy (mostly on bosses), it just does massive damage! And it's spammable! See for yourself, especially 2:52. It completely heals every time you copy a power, and when it guards, you become immune to all damage as well.
 * In Dreamland 2, Coo + Parasol can rip apart everything including the angry Propeller Bombs. The whole thing got a well deserved nerf in 3.
 * Chu Chu's Clean power trivializes pretty much any midair segment (short of those that require quick movement).
 * Gannon Banned: Some parts of the Kirby fandom don't seem to accept any other variations of the name "Meta Knight".
 * Goddamned Bats: The Bronto Burts and Pteran placement in the later levels of Dreamland 3 rival that of the Medusa heads in the early Castlevanias. And yes, also bats.
 * Hell Is That Noise: Combining this with Most Annoying Sound gives you the final phase of "Revenge Of Meta Knight".
 * The music for Ripple Star's second level. The cute Sugar Bowl of the first level is quickly cut off when you reach the second and are welcomed with the ruined fairy castle and hear that damn Scare Chord dirge.
 * That... bloodcurling... SCREAM!
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: One look at this commercial for Kirby's Adventure and suddenly the concept of Kirby's Epic Yarn becomes all the more hilarious.
 * Also, Marx's mouth laser attack. Imma Firin Ma Lazah!
 * Rick the Hamster. With the Stone ability, he can roll.
 * It's Easy So It Sucks: The games may be easy, but this is generally averted - they were actually designed to be very easy yet nobody seems to have any problem. This becomes quite weird when you hear this trope being invoked elsewhere, since how many other games allow you to fly over most of the stage without even having to find a power-up?
 * Jerkass Woobie: Some sources on the English side claim that Zero wants to have a friend, but it cannot. Who could love or be friends with a giant eyeball? Zero is also an entity that feels only negative emotions and is unable to feel happiness or any positive emotion. It attacks Dreamland because it thinks that if it cannot be happy, then neither can anyone else. Sad, isn't it?
 * Magnificent Bastard: Without a doubt, Meta Knight. In fact, even leaning more towards being a Guile Hero in Kirby Right Back At Ya.
 * Memetic Badass: During the Boss Rush in Super Star, you will have to fight a Waddle Dee with five times the health of a normal Waddle Dee. It's still a Curb Stomp Battle Breather Boss (he doesn't move, and you can still inhale him.) A video on the internet portrayed him as an unstoppable god of destruction (via a player who thought it would be hilarious) and the fandom's pumped him up ever since.
 * Kirby himself is this. There are Nintendo fans who firmly believe the pink puff's badassery is only rivaled by Captain Falcon.
 * Memetic Mutation: Gourmet Race has become one of the most remixed songs on Youtube. Sand Canyon and Candy Mountain/Skyhigh are hot on its tail. Stupid Statement Dance Mixes of Lucky Star voice clips to the tune of various Kirby Super Star tracks are also quite popular.
 * Recently, there was a Youtube fad involving Dedede screaming random things after getting beaten at the end of Spring Breeze.
 * INVINCIBLE CANDY! (A running gag on Something Awful Let's Play of any Kirby game, second only to...)
 * DELICIOUS! (Whenever any food item is eaten, but especially Maximum Tomatoes.)
 * The "Kirby ASCII Dance": (> ")> <(" <) (^ ")^ (v ")v
 * Kirbys Epic Yarn brings us Kirby's arrival in Patch Land and his observation that the grass feels like... pants.
 * Never Live It Down: In Kirby Squeak Squad, Kirby went on a rampage over a piece of cake. In every other platform game, his goals are more noble, although some fans hang on to this one instance and insist Kirby is a Sociopathic Hero.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The series is placed in Dream Land, so it's obvious that the enemies are related to nightmares. And you WILL have them.
 * Periphery Demographic: Though the games are and remain mostly geared for children just beginning to play videogames, a good chunk of the fanbase are experienced gamers who grew up playing them and who gleefully return to each new installment, no matter how short or easy it is.
 * Rule 34: Not even Kirby is immune to it.
 * Scenery Porn - Kirby games, which are often produced late into a system's lifespan, will try to use the color palette at its greatest, resulting some of the impressive-looking backgrounds.
 * Self-Imposed Challenge: Doing a single ability run of any game's Boss Rush is popular among fans. Although doing one on Squeak Squad's Boss Rush is impossible because the game actually forces the Eleventh-Hour Superpower on you, destroying your current ability!
 * Actually, you can willingly discard your ability, which starts bouncing around the screen as an inhalable star. If you discard your power, inhale the star, and hold it in Kirby's mouth instead of swallowing it, it'll still be in his mouth after you grab the Triple Star, at which point you can swallow your old power and get it back.
 * Sociopathic Hero: Kirby has shades of this. As an example, look at what happens when his cake gets stolen. Instead of asking around, he just devours/beats the shit out of everything in his path just because he wants his goddamn cake.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Kaboola/Kabula, Mr. Frosty/Mr. Flosty, Combo Cannon/Main Cannon #2, Aqualiss/Aquarius, Cavios/Cavius, Mecheye/Mekkai, Iron Mam/Iron Mom. There's also some confusion on whether or not Ado and Adeleine are supposed to be the same person.
 * Is it Meta Knight, Meta-Knight or Metaknight? The most-often-used spelling in the games is Meta Knight, but his trophy in Super Smash Bros Melee calls him Meta-Knight. And of course, it's written as one word (Metanaito) in Japanese, since the Japanese language doesn't use spaces. Most people get Gannon Banned for calling him anything but Meta Knight, though.
 * Squick: In Super Star (and a few other games with co-op) A player can share the effects of a recently consumed food item by walking up to their ally at which point the two get face to face for a second. There's really no other way to interpret this animation as anything but player 1 spitting up what they had just eaten into player 2's mouth...
 * Or they share the health gain with a kiss. There's a distinct smacking sound when you do it.
 * Note that some of Kirby's helpers and all of his Return to Dream Land partners are male.
 * In Meta Knightmare Ultra, Metaknight does this with his helper as well.
 * Wait - he does this through his mask?
 * Tastes Like Diabetes: The entire series, until Mood Whiplash kicks in and you fight the final boss.
 * Tear Jerker: The ending of Revenge of the King in Super Star Ultra. Poor Dedede.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks / It's Easy, So It Sucks: Nightmare in Dream Land is markedly easier than the game it's a remake of, Kirby's Adventure... and it removed the rotating tower segments from Butter Building for no apparent reason. Fans were not pleased.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Kirby. Kirby. Think for a second... Why would freakin' Meta Knight steal a chest containing cake!?
 * Meta Knight counts too, mostly for deciding to fight Kirby instead of bothering to let him know that the chest contained the Monster of the Week.
 * That goes for Dedede and Meta Knight in Kirby's Adventure. And Meta Knight doubly so, for throwing Kirby a sword when the fate of the universe is on the line (although it’s implied that he's trying to help prepare Kirby for a fight with Nightmare).
 * Meta Knight again in his version of Milky Way Wishes, for wishing to unleash the most powerful warrior in the universe, locked away specifically because people were afraid of it, just so he can kick its ass to prove he's stronger. Then again, if he weren't such an overconfident, arrogant badass, he wouldn't be Meta Knight. And he did win.
 * Villain Sue: Nightmare is this personified. In the games, his cape protects his tornado-like body, which is his weak spot. In the anime, he uses his cape to absorb attacks. He even treated the final battle as pretty much a joke and a fun game until he saw Kirby . To be fair, he lives up to his name since he's a living nightmare and therefore.
 * Wild Mass Guessing: We've got a whole page for it here.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Zero can't feel positive emotions and is jealous of Dreamland's happiness, reasoning that if it can't be happy, nothing will be. Due to this, some of the Kirby fandom sees Zero as a Draco in Leather Pants.
 * Villain Sue: Nightmare is this personified. In the games, his cape protects his tornado-like body, which is his weak spot. In the anime, he uses his cape to absorb attacks. He even treated the final battle as pretty much a joke and a fun game until he saw Kirby . To be fair, he lives up to his name since he's a living nightmare and therefore.
 * Wild Mass Guessing: We've got a whole page for it here.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Zero can't feel positive emotions and is jealous of Dreamland's happiness, reasoning that if it can't be happy, nothing will be. Due to this, some of the Kirby fandom sees Zero as a Draco in Leather Pants.