Nightmare

Nightmare is a final boss character in the Kirby series. He only appears in two games, Kirby's Adventure and its remake Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. As an evil force, he corrupts the Fountain of Dreams but his plans are interrupted when King Dedede takes the Star Rod and breaks it, hiding the pieces, until Kirby unknowingly returns it and empowers Nightmare.

Appearence
Nightmare's look was changed between the two versions, but mainly in the look of his second in-game sprite.

In his initial Power Orb form, Nightmare is a dark sphere covered in stars. This remains the same between game versions.

Later, Nightmare assumes his Wizard form. In this state, he bears the nasty face of a wizened man atop a mass of swirling darkness. He is a sickly color with a long, pointed nose and a jutting, deeply cleft chin. A horned helmet of an elaborate design is worn on his head and a pair of shades conceals his eyes. A black cloak equipped with shoulder guards hangs over his central core (the swilring mass of darkness), keeping it hidden most of the time and a pair of thin, spindly arms hang out of this.

In Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, the basic design remains the same with some slight modifications and clarifications to the graphics. His shoulder guards are now two fold, extending further, the horns on his headpiece are pulled out farther away from his head and rise up higher, and the medallion around his neck is more pronounced and no longer hidden behind his chin.

Games
He serves at the final boss in both Kirby's Adventure and its remake Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. In both, he must be defeated in two forms using the power of the Star Rod.

In his initial form, the "Power Orb", he flies about the screen and shoots empty stars at Kirby who, in turn, is attacking him with stars from the Star Rod. The entire battle takes place as the two are falling back to Pop Star which allows Kirby to freely move in any direction, however, if the Orb is not defeated quickly enough, Kirby will be crushed against the ground. Once the first form is defeated, it flies off. Kirby catches a Warpstar and gives chase as the battle is taken to the Moon, where Nightmare begins to transform.

In the Anime
Nightmare is the main villain in Kirby's anime series (although he appears in only 9 episodes). Nightmare is responsible for the creation of NightMare Enterprises (Holy NightMare Co. in Japan) and dominates much of the universe. He creates the legions of demon beasts that Kirby and the Star Warriors fought. In the English dub, he is normally referred to as eNeME and in the Japanese dub is occasionally referred to as Holy Nightmare.

Appearence
Nightmare appears as a towering figure, with a similar design to the Nightmare in Dreamland Wizard Form. He is shrouded in a purple cape covered with pale star shapes. His face is rather demonic, with gray skin, a long pointed nose and chin, and a mouth full of jagged teeth. (In earlier designs he had more human-like teeth.) In place of his eyes is a pointed visor that shows only what look like stars. Two large, rounded pauldrons are on each of his ‘shoulders’, and he wears a dark blue helmet of sorts topped by two curving golden horns, with three flame-shaped golden emblems on the front with red gems at the center. He also wears a golden necklace with another red gem. His skeletal arms float detached near him, but otherwise he has no body. When he opens his cape it reveals only a black expanse of stars.

Background and Personality
Nightmare’s origins are unclear. He has existed anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of years- or possibly for as long as the universe itself has. As he himself puts it, true to his name he is only a dream- so presumably he’s been around as long as there have been people to dream him.

Though he is a being of pure evil, who desires nothing more than to dominate the entire universe and inflict suffering on its inhabitants, Nightmare is an oddly laid back sort of tyrant. He shows a great deal of apathy towards matters, and also a lot of overconfidence, both of which can probably be attributed to his lengthy existence and current status as ruler of most of the galaxy.

When it comes to his company and dealing with those who oppose him, he tends to just sit back and watch what happens, having Customer Service make many of the decisions, sending demon beasts to do the work, or just making vague threats that he never follows through.

Nightmare spends much of his time in his lair hidden deep within his fortress. It contains only a huge chess board, covered with various strange figures, which is suspended in space. All around it is nothing but a green-red mist. Nightmare makes most of his creations here, presumably.

In addition to being able to create all manner of odd creatures, Nightmare also has the power to control people's minds. However, it seems to be something he can only do under special circumstances. His powers are limited in other ways as well- for example, he can't create things that are automatically obedient, for example, and they must first be trained.

Nightmare is also impossible to hurt under normal circumstances, and will absorb even the most powerful attacks by opening his cloak. He can only be harmed in dreams, and, even then, only by the legendary weapon: the Star Rod.

Nightmare rarely interacts with anyone, except occasionally speaking to Customer Service. Otherwise he remains in the background for most of the series. It’s only in the final episodes that he shows himself to anyone else.

He does show some mild interest in Kirby’s progress, which would make sense if Kirby is indeed his failed creation.

[Category:Final Bosses]]