Meta Knight

"Victory is my destiny."

- Meta Knight

Meta Knight, sometimes spelled Meta-Knight, is a recurring anti-hero character in the Kirby franchise. He first appears in Kirby's Adventure. Meta Knight's face is almost always obscured by a metal mask. Meta Knight usually appears as a rival or a boss whom Kirby must fight, but he has teamed up with Kirby on occasion. Meta Knight and Captain Vul are captains of the Halberd ship. In certain games, after Meta Knight is defeated, his mask splits into two, revealing a face near identical to Kirby's, with his dark blue skin tone and yellow eyes being the main difference.

Kirby's Adventure / Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
In Kirby's Adventure, Meta Knight is fought as the boss of Orange Ocean, and he guards a piece of the Star Rod. In some stages, Meta Knight has his group of warriors, the Meta-Knights, fight Kirby. While Meta Knight mostly has a villainous role, he sometimes throws an Invincibility Candy in a stage for Kirby to catch.

Meta Knight's boss fight is centered around a duel between him and Kirby. At the start, Kirby has to pick up a sword, granting him the Sword Copy Ability, which he has for the duration of the battle. Meta Knight's attacks involve the use of his sword, including basic slashes, jumping while spinning with his sword out, and a downward stab. Meta Knight also charges at Kirby in an attempt to then follow up with several consecutive sword strikes. Meta Knight can also use his sword to block attacks. When Meta Knight is defeated, his mask splits into two and falls off, revealing Meta Knight's face for about one second before he uses his cape to cover his face and then retreat.

In Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, clearing Extra Mode unlocks a mode titled Meta Knightmare, which is largely the same as the main game except it has Meta Knight as the playable character instead of Kirby. Meta Knight has only three vitality bars instead of six like Kirby. He only plays through the first seven levels (including a boss fight against a different Meta Knight at the end of Orange Ocean), so the mode is completed once Meta Knight defeats King Dedede at the Fountain of Dreams.

Kirby Super Star / Kirby Super Star Ultra
In Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra, Meta Knight is featured in Revenge of Meta Knight as the main villain and in the Sub-Game Samurai Kirby as the final opponent. In Kirby Super Star Ultra, Meta Knight appears in a few of the added Sub-Games, and most notably has a starring role in Meta Knightmare Ultra, a successor to the Meta Knightmare mode from Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land.

Revenge of Meta Knight
In Revenge of Meta Knight, Meta Knight plans to take over Dream Land, hoping to end its lazy lifestyle by using his massive airship, the Halberd, and with the help of the Meta-Knights and his ship's crew. Kirby goes on a journey to try and destroy the Halberd and thwart Meta Knight's scheme.

In the final chapter, after making his way through a large part of the Halberd, Kirby has to fight Meta Knight in a duel. Like Kirby's Adventure, the battle starts off with Kirby being offered a sword, which grants him the Sword ability, but he can decide to not take it, which causes the battle to start regardless. Meta Knight has a wider range of attacks, such as being able to spin like a tornado, glide with his sword out, or shoot crescent-shaped waves from his sword. Kirby can inhale some of Meta Knight's sword slash attacks and spit it back out at him. When Meta Knight is defeated, his mask splits in two, briefly revealing his face before he covers himself with his cape and retreats.

Shortly after, Kirby climbs on to a Wheelie and rides a straight path to evacuate the Halberd as it is about to sink into the ocean. Meta Knight returns, with his mask back on, and flies after Kirby, insisting that he will not escape. Meta Knight uses similar attacks, such as gliding and charging after Kirby or attempting to use a downward stab on him, but he now frequently attacks by shooting three electrical sparks of energy from his sword. In the ending, Kirby and Wheelie manage to get off the Halberd on time, and they watch as it sinks into the ocean, presumably along with Meta Knight.

Meta Knightmare Ultra
In Kirby Super Star Ultras Meta Knightmare Ultra mode, Meta Knight's role has been expanded upon compared to Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Lands Meta Knightmare mode. He has to travel through the stages in each of the main games, except for Gourmet Race and The Arena. The games in which Meta Knight goes through their stages are done in a similar order to when they are unlocked: Spring Breeze, The Great Cave Offensive, Revenge of Meta Knight, and lastly Milky Way Wishes. Meta Knightmare Ultra also features Meta Points, which are used to each unlock four more moves for Meta Knight via the Touch Screen: Meta Quick, Heal, Summon Knight, and Mach Tornado. Besides this, Meta Knight has a series of usable moves which are named in the pause screen.

The games featured in Meta Knightmare Ultra have some differences to accommodate for the fact that Meta Knight is playable. In Revenge of Meta Knight, there is not a boss fight against Meta Knight at the end unlike Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land's Meta Knightmare mode, which still featured a boss fight against Meta Knight in Orange Ocean. At the end of Milky Way Wishes, Meta Knight's wish to Galactic Nova is to fight the greatest warrior in the galaxy, so Galactica Knight is summoned to fight him as the final boss.

Sub-Games
In Samurai Kirby, since Meta Knight is the final opponent, the player is required to respond the quickest when the exclamation mark appears on screen.

In Kirby Super Star Ultra, Meta Knight is one of the bosses fought in Helper to Hero, but he does not offer a sword at the beginning because Helpers cannot utilize Copy Abilities. Meta Knight also appears in Kirby on the Draw as one of the targets, and is worth 100 points if shot.

Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
In Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, Meta Knight is the first character to go into the Mirror World and stop the evil that threatens both it and Dream Land. In the game, Meta Knight has a Mirror World counterpart named Dark Meta Knight, who resembles Meta Knight but has a gray body, red shoes, a scar on his mask, and a tattered cape. Dark Meta Knight traps Meta Knight in the Mirror World, disguises himself as the real Meta Knight, and attacks Kirby.

In gameplay, if Kirby uses the Magic ability and the roulette lands on a Galaxia card, Meta Knight flies across to damage all enemies onscreen.

When Kirby confronts the final boss, Dark Mind, Meta Knight gives him his sword to use during the battle. When Kirby picks it up, he gains the Master ability.

Kirby: Squeak Squad
In Kirby: Squeak Squad, after Kirby defeats the Squeaks leader Daroach, Meta Knight appears from nowhere and takes the treasure chest that Daroach believes to contain an ultimate power and Kirby believes to contain his stolen cake. He then escapes through a door sealed by five colored stars called the Star Seals. If Kirby collects them he can open the door and follow him to the Secret Sea, where Meta Knight is again in his ship the Halberd, hidden beneath the waters. (It uses the same design as the one from Kirby: Right Back at Ya!)

As the Halberd rises out of the sea and into the Gamble Galaxy, Kirby battles Meta Knight to reclaim the treasure, only to have Daroach take it again. But in truth the chest contained an evil entity called Dark Nebula. It is revealed in the ending that Meta Knight had really only taken the chest to try and stop the revival of Dark Nebula, again attempting to save Popstar.

As with Dark Meta Knight in Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, it is possible to battle Meta Knight without the Sword ability, although the Stars that he creates, when eaten and absorbed, can give Kirby the Sword ability. Meta Knight also has most of Dark Meta Knight's attacks from this game, including the tornado attack.

Kirby's Pinball Land
In Kirby's Pinball Land, it is possible for Meta Knight to make a cameo appearance in the upper level of Kracko Land, but only if King Dedede has been defeated prior. In order for Meta Knight to appear, Kirby has to defeat Mr. Bright so that Mr. Shine appears and then destroy all the stars without defeating Mr. Shine. In doing so, the Mike sound effect from Kirby's Dream Land plays and Meta Knight appears in the center of the stage, but he does not move nor can he be hit.

Kirby's Avalanche
In Kirby's Avalanche, Metaknight is fought as the twelfth and penultimate opponent in the Competition mode, after Kracko but before King Dedede. Before Metaknight's round of Avalanche starts, there is brief dialogue between him and Kirby:


 * Meta Knight: "None shall pass! En garde, Kirby!"
 * Kirby: "But I have no Sword!?!"
 * Meta Knight: "Oh, you're so right... Then Avalanche it is, ha ha ha ha!!"

Kirby Air Ride
Meta Knight was one of the many "rides" in Kirby Air Ride. He can be used in all of Air Ride mode and in the Free Run portion of City Trial, but each mode requires Meta Knight to be unlocked first. In Air Ride, he can be unlocked by gliding for an accumulative total of 30 minutes. In City Trial, he is unlocked by destroying an accumulative total of 1,000 boxes.

Meta Knight can be seen as possessing both the Wing and Sword abilities in one, as he uses his bat-like wings to glide across the track and uses his sword to attack. Because of this, Meta Knight has decent top speed with good acceleration, but lacks the ability to boost. He is also a little bit slower than Wing Kirby. In City Trial, because Meta Knight he is not a machine, and therefore cannot blow up, he falls down when his health is reduced to zero, and becomes barely capable of moving.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Although he does not appear as a playable character, Meta Knight has a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, which can be randomly obtained. The trophy's title says Meta-Knight, referring to the group rather than the individual. The trophy incorrectly lists Meta Knight's first appearance as Kirby Super Star instead of Kirby's Adventure.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Meta Knight appears as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He is a small, quick fighter with fast yet weak attacks. Like in the Kirby franchise, Meta Knight's cape can transform into a pair of wings which not only grant him multiple jumps but also the ability to glide. His ship, the Halberd, also appears as a stage. Meta Knight is voiced by Atsushi Kisaichi in the Japanese version, and Eric Newsome voices him in other versions. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the first video game in which Meta Knight has a voice actor.

Meta Knight's special moves are mostly based on attacks that appear in the Kirby series, his own or otherwise. His standard special is Mach Tornado, which causes Meta Knight to spin around rapidly to deal damage. His side special is Drill Rush, in which Meta Knight charges forward in a spinning motion. His up special is Shuttle Loop, in which he loops around before flying directly up, dealing two hits afterward. His down special is Dimensional Cape, in which Meta Knight teleports and can attack by holding the button. His Final Smash is Galaxia Darkness, in which Meta Knight traps opponents by swiping his cape then deals a large sword swipe.

Meta Knight is the only character in the game who does not share a victory theme with the other characters from his series, instead using a metal arrangement of the traditional Kirby victory theme. However, this trait would later be shared with other characters in future installments, such as Bowser.

The Subspace Emissary
Meta Knight's story starts before the events of the actual game, trying to defend the Halberd from Master Hand and the Subspace Army, but was unwittingly prevented from doing as such by King Dedede. His actual first appearance is when he suddenly attacks Marth, who is investigating the activity going on in the Battlefield Fortress. Their duel is interrupted when they are surrounded by Primids, and Meta Knight and Marth see they're both against the Subspace Army and team up. Afterwards, they chase after the Ancient Minister. Meta Knight is disarmed when the Minister disables his wings and forces him to change them into a cape. Out of nowhere, Ike shows up and disarms the Subspace Bomb the Minister had been carrying.

Meta Knight, Marth, and Ike ultimately lose the Ancient Minister near the edge of the Wilds, but they find Galleom in the middle of the desert. After it is defeated, Galleom goes to the Ruined Hall and comes out holding Lucas and the Pokémon Trainer in one hand, with a Subspace Bomb about to go off in its head. Although Lucas manages to free himself and the Trainer, Meta Knight saves them when they almost hit the ground.

Meta Knight and his group find the Halberd fighting the Great Fox above the Glacial Peak, and he climbs the mountain while Marth, Ike, Lucas, and Pokémon Trainer stay behind. As he does this, however, the Ice Climbers race him and beat him to the top. At the summit, Meta Knight discovers the Aura Pokémon Lucario, who challenges him to a duel. The duel ends, the loser gets turned into a trophy and the winner taps on the trophy base to recover him.

After the battle, Meta Knight and Lucario agree to team up and enter the Halberd, where they find Solid Snake thanks to the use of Lucario's Aura. Lucario assures Meta Knight and Snake that they are on the same side and they join forces in taking back the Halberd as Primids approach. The three of them rescue Peach and Zelda from their evil counterparts before heading to the cockpit to find many Mr. Game & Watches controlling the Halberd. Lucario and Snake take care of them with the princesses, Fox McCloud, and Falco Lombardi while Meta Knight takes the helm, regaining his ship.

Eventually, Meta Knight goes into Subspace with the other heroes, although the Halberd is destroyed by the Subspace Gunship as they do this. They find the real mastermind, Tabuu, who fires his Off Waves at them and turns them into trophies. Kirby, however, is revived by one of King Dedede's badges and recovers Meta Knight along with some of the others before they go into the Great Maze to stop Tabuu.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U
Meta Knight returns as a playable character for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. He, along with other winged characters Pit and Charizard, can no longer glide, either normally or at the end of Shuttle Loop, though Shuttle Loop now hits twice instead. Aside from this, however, Meta Knight's moveset has not been changed. His design has been slightly altered for this installment, giving him metal gauntlets over his gloves. Meta Knight's mobility is improved, but his overall damage output is toned down, his recovery is worsened, his attacks are slower, and their range is decreased.

One of Kirby's alternative palettes is identical to what Meta Knight looks like without his mask (though the palette has yellow eyes), armor and cape in the early Kirby games. In addition, two of Meta Knight's new alternate costumes are based on Dark Meta Knight and Galacta Knight.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Meta Knight returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an unlockable playable character. Meta Knight benefits from universal changes: his mobility is faster, his short hop timing is shortened, the landing lag in his aerials is reduced, the reintroduction of directional air dodging extends his recovery, and he gains the abilities to use any ground attack out of a run and his aerial attacks on ladders. Meta Knight also receives direct improvements, such as his forward tilt and forward and back aerials having larger hitboxes, and his dash attack and up and down smashes dealing more damage.

Meta Knight can be unlocked by playing VS. matches, being the 38th character to be unlocked. Meta Knight can also be unlocked by clearing Link's Classic Mode route, being the fourth character unlocked after Simon. A dark puppet fighter of Meta Knight is featured in Hero's reveal trailer, where it, alongside a puppet fighter of Marth, is shown battling Link.

In the adventure mode, World of Light, Meta Knight is not seen when the fighters oppose Galeem for the first time. However, he, like every fighter except Kirby, is hit by one of Galeem's beams of light and imprisoned in the World of Light, where a puppet fighter of him is created. While the Meta Knight puppet fighter initially serves Galeem, Dharkon later takes control of the puppet fighter. Kirby's team defeat the Meta Knight puppet fighter and free the real Meta Knight, who joins them against Galeem and Dharkon.

Super Mario Maker
In Super Mario Maker, Meta Knight is featured as a Mystery Mushroom costume, and his in-game appearance from Kirby's Adventure is reused. The costume can be unlocked by scanning a Meta Knight amiibo or at random after completing the 100 Mario Challenge on Normal difficulty or higher.

Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Meta Knight is a recurring character in the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. He is a member of the Star Warriors, like Kirby, and is a high ranking and respected member of the Galaxy Soldier Army which fought against the armies of Nightmare. Meta Knight works for King Dedede, but is in truth an ally to Kirby, as he only stays with King Dedede to keep a close eye on his schemes. Meta Knight wields a golden, spiked sword called Galaxia.

Personality
He acts as a mentor to Kirby, occasionally training him or defending him when needed, but above all he wants Kirby to learn for himself to eventually be able to defeat Nightmare. (However, his idea of training is to 'push him to his limits', which typically involves putting Kirby into life-threatening situations.)

He had a rather tragic past, as every one of his comrades was killed by Nightmare's monsters, leaving him as one of the only surviving members of the Star Warriors and GSA. Despite this, he does not come across as a depressed or irritable character.

Meta Knight manages to be a satirical yet serious character, with many odd quirks and habits that seem to parody the 'stoic loner' stereotype so commonly seen. One example is his habit of seemingly appearing from nowhere, often startling other characters. This entrance scheme (which is only used by Meta Knight in the anime, thereby adding to his enigmatic personality) becomes a sort of running gag as the series progresses. He nearly always appears standing on top of objects, from tables to statues to trees (some say that he's actually trying to compensate for his height).

He is described as being rather cold, especially by Tiff, who often berates him whenever he allows Kirby and others to get in danger so they will learn their lesson the hard way. He shows a great dislike for stupid people and often refuses to fix other people's mistakes.

He'll usually save someone if the situation isn't their fault, but if it is the result of their own action, he believes they should get themselves out of it. Rarely does he show a softer side, but he is often seen doing rather mundane things, like watching television or going grocery shopping which can have a surreal effect.

Relationships
Though he works for Dedede, he is merely manipulating him so that he can keep an eye on his endeavors. He will obey or disobey him based on whether the king's orders further his own agenda of training Kirby. At one point, when Dedede questioned his loyalty, Meta Knight insisted that he was his faithful servant, before kicking him off of a cliff.

Meta Knight is accompanied by Sword Knight and Blade Knight, both of whom originally appeared as sword-wielding enemy drones in Kirby's Adventure. The back-story of their connection to Meta Knight is revealed in "Hour of the WolfWrath." Nightmare's army attacked their home, leaving death and destruction in its wake, and the pair became bandits so they would not starve. During the pair's travels they attempted to rob Meta Knight and were attacked by a monster called WolfWrath. Meta Knight rescued them, after which they swore loyalty to him and joined him to help out on his quest to find more Star Warriors.

The two of them are fiercely loyal to him, saying they would give their lives for his sake. They aren't as skilled in swordplay as he is, but they are quite intelligent with much of their strength in the building and repair of starships. While in the English dub they both had gruff, deep voices (only mumbling in the case of Blade Knight), in the original they were both voiced by women and sounded much younger.

The only character he regularly associates with aside from them is Tiff. She can be seen as a rare source of intelligent conversation in Dream Land, though she often disagrees with Meta Knight's methods of training Kirby and him having a cold-hearted nature, they get along fairly well. He often goes out of his way to help her when she is in danger or needs assistance. Meta Knight is often described as chivalrous, which could explain why he often protects her.

Meta Knight has had many more acquaintances in the past, mainly his fellow Star Warriors and others in the GSA. Some of them received more focus in different episodes. One was the unnamed father of Knuckle Joe, who had been a Star Warrior and a good friend of Meta Knight. At one point Joe's father was captured by Nightmare's forces, and when he returned, he was under Nightmare's control and Meta Knight was forced to kill him.

Another was the mother of Sirica, Garlude. Meta Knight doesn't actually talk about her himself, instead having the statue Kabu tell the story. She was a member of the Galaxy Soldier Army, and she and Meta Knight had gone to the lair of Kirisakin to retrieve the sacred sword Galaxia. Garlude was killed in the process, despite Meta Knight's attempts to save her.

Miscellaneous
Meta Knight's actual bedroom is never shown, however we do often see him in his small living room. It is decorated sparsely, in a rather Japanese style with a tatami mat, paper lantern and hanging watercolor scroll. Weapons that belonged to Sword and Blade are hung on the walls, they say to remind them of Meta Knight's kindness. There is also a large jar of candy on display. Meta Knight also has a television, and sometimes watches Dedede's network Channel DDD, which he finds humorous.

His eyes also change colors to indicate his mood, perhaps to compensate for how his mask hides most of his face. Yellow is the normal color, while green seems to indicate a serious or thoughtful mood, with blue for happiness, pink for amusement, and red for anger. Occasionally they flash white, but there doesn't seem to be a particular mood attached to it. When he sleeps his eyes do not appear to close - they only dim to a dull amber color. Also his face behind the mask was never shown, although in the video games, once he is defeated as a boss, is revealed to look almost exactly like a blue Kirby.

Meta Knight does not have wings or any of the other special abilities he shows in the games. The only special technique he uses is the Sword Beam. It is a massively powerful attack, capable of slicing through solid stone.

In the English-dubbed version of the anime, Meta Knight spoke with a Spanish accent (provided by Eric Stuart), possibly a reference to, a well known masked swordsman. Similarly, the dubbed voice of Sword Knight had an English accent, while Blade Knight's dubbed voice usually mumbled.

In the original Japanese version, Meta Knight is voiced by seiyū Atsushi Kisaichi. There he has no accent to speak of, his only speech quirk being a tendency to use random English words in his sentences.

Meta Knight also appeared in the prototype for the anime as one of Nightmare's monsters. Unlike his counterpart in the final version of the anime, the prototype anime Meta Knight seems to show some expression on his mask as well as in his eyes.

Characteristics
Meta Knight wields a powerful sword, and wears a blue cloak and light blue-silver mask. In some games, his mask is removed, revealing that he looks like Kirby, except that his body is blue (black in earlier appearances) while his eyes and mouth are white. In Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu, Meta Knight's gloves are also removed, revealing that he has no hands but stubby arms similar to Kirby's. There is a symbol on Meta Knight's left shoulder patch, the letter "M" with a sword behind it. It was first used as his symbol in Kirby Super Star and could be seen on the Combo Cannon. It was also used in the anime series.

In the anime, Meta Knight appears to dislike people who lack common sense. He refuses to help people who are at complete fault for getting themselves into a bad situation. However, he will help those who fall into a bad situation through no control of their own. Meta Knight seems to have a close relationship with Tiff, but that is because Tiff seems to be the closest to Meta Knight's intelligence. Also, in the fourth episode of the series, Meta Knight tells Tiff a lot about Kirby and Meta Knight's past inside of Kabu. That moment has been referred to in some episodes.

amiibo

 * Kirby's mysterious rival, this masked swordsman appears in several Kirby games. His giant cape transforms into wings, giving him the power of flight. He also captains a giant battleship, the Halberd, in order to take control of Dream Land. Meta Knight has shown his face briefly before, but his relationship to Kirby is still a mystery.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Super Smash Blog bio

 * This fighter not only has tons of quick moves, he can perform a midair jump five times! All his special moves have a recovery aspect, so use them at the right time. His Final Smash is Darkness Illusion, which unleashes a fast series of aerial attacks.

Quotes

 * "Fight me." - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * "Come!" - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * "Come back when you can put up a fight." - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * "You have much yet to learn." - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * "Know my power!" - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * "Behold!" - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * "Victory is my destiny." - Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Trivia

 * Meta Knight is also in both versions of Nintendo Monopoly, where he takes the position of St. Charles Place, and costs $140.