Magolor

"I'm so, so thankful for all of your help! High five, low five, all that."

- Magolor

Magolor is the alien found on the Lor Starcutter, the Galleon-like starship which crashed during the opening sequence of Kirby's Return to Dream Land. He is understood to be the captain of the ship and serves as a supportive character for most of the game, asking favors out of Kirby and tending to it.

Kirby and company decided to help Magolor out by offering to retrieve all the pieces that had fallen off the ship during the crash, while he stays behind to tend to what remains of the it. Throughout the game, Magolor will inform the player when they have unlocked doors in his ship after they have acquired a specific number of Energy Spheres.

Physical Appearance
Magolor is a short alien with no feet and detached hands with white mittens. He is clad in a regal blue suit, complete with a white cape with gold trimmings and a dash of purple, gold-trimmed cog designs, and wears a white scarf with a blue belt interwoven. His face is a very dark brown with oval shaped, glowing yellow eyes.

He speaks gibberish with a squeaky voice. Kirby and company understand him perfectly well, however. Incidentally, he is the only character seen speaking in the game.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Magolor makes his debut in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and is the driving force behind the events of that game. In the game's opening cutscene, Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Bandana Waddle Dee are enjoying the sunshine, when suddenly a wormhole shaped like a star appears in the sky. The Lor Starcutter emerges from the wormhole. It breaks apart, losing its wings, emblem, mast, and oars along with 120 Energy Spheres as it plummets toward the ground. The ship crashes and the gang goes to see the source of the commotion. Inside the ship, Magolor is found unconscious. He wakes up in a panic and notices his ship has been severely damaged. Distraught, Magolor stares at his now-broken computer screen. Kirby and the others offer to help him, which makes the alien ecstatic. From thereon out, Magolor remains in the ship's control room overseeing its mainframe.

In exchange for Kirby's help, Magolor offers to take him and his friends to his home planet of Halcandra once he can get his ship working again. After beating the Grand Doomer and retrieving the final piece, Magolor fulfills his offer and takes Kirby and the crew to Halcandra. When they arrive, they are immediately attacked by the monstrous Landia. The Lor Starcutter makes a crash landing once again, but luckily stays intact this time. Magolor explains Landia's history and is confused as to why it attacked the Lor Starcutter. Kirby and the gang offer to defeat the dragon for him.

After Landia is defeated, the golden crown he was wearing falls to the ground. Magolor suddenly appears, applauding ominously. Magolor grabs the crown from the ground and puts it on his head, simultaneously revealing it to be the Master Crown. The crown gives him great powers and Magolor assumes a new form resembling a jester. Meanwile, the gang is completely dumbfounded and horrified by his unforeseeable deceit. Now with the crown in his possession, Magolor can go on to take complete control of the entire universe, starting with world domination on Planet Popstar. Kirby and company set out to stop Magolor, now with the help of Landia.

In his new state, Magolor has a gaseous, blood-red colored body with a blue aura emanating from it, similar to that of Nightmare's. His big thick and gloved hands remain detached from his body, but they are each now separated by a pair of magical sun-shaped runes. Magolor's hat grows outward and furls into a jester's hat, obtaining a purple hue with white at the tips. His scarf remains white, but it is larger and is cinched together by purple, silver-buckled belt. The Master Crown sits atop his head, its claws noticeably clasping down on his head and even wiggling and bouncing from time to time (perhaps evidence that the crown is controling Magolor).

After being defeated once, the Master Crown revives (and perhaps possesses) Magolor. Magolor's hat now grows to enormous proportions and becomes even more curved at the ends, now resembling a ram's horns. The Master Crown has sprouted golden tentacles that wrap around Magolor's horns and head. Magolor's red, gaseous body reforms itself to become two large wings outlined in blue that are set behind his hat and a pair of smaller ones located at his base. Magolor has a pair of red eyes and an empty white grin on his face. Magolor's hands now have black finger tips. Magolor periodically shuts and opens his mouth to reveal an eyeball with a red iris and a black pupil (very similar to Dark Matter and, to a lesser extent, Zero and 0²) in place of that vacant grin. Magolor's face is entirely black, with a droplet of his upper lip dripping over his "grin" to connect with his lower lip, giving him the appearance of slightly melting.

Even with his fiendish new powers, however, Magolor was no match for Kirby and his pals. They succeeded in stopping his galaxy-conquering goals, and shattered the Master Crown in the process. After the crown shatters, Magolor seemingly fades away into nothingness, leaving behind particles similar to those he had created in his first form while teleporting. It is revealed in the subsequent installment of the series that he somehow survived.

Extra Mode
Magolor's story role in EX mode is almost identical to that in normal mode, but after shooting down Kirby and his friends immediately before the final battle begins, he abruptly decides to tap into more of the Master Crown's power, resulting in a different cutscene which shows Magolor turning himself into Magolor EX. On the battlefield, however, Magolor's attacks have received a cosmetic update and some of them now have properties that make them more dangerous.

During Extra Mode, both of Magolor's appearances are much darker and grimmer than they were before. His wisp-like body in his sorcerer form is completely red with a deeper shade around the edges instead of being blue. Magolor EX's hat is now black with red at the tips and the Master Crown now has a purple jewel in its center. The scarf around his neck turned black and the belt interwoven in the scarf is red. Magolor EX's face now has glowing white skin and his eyes are hot pink instead of red (they turn red when Magolor's health is halved). Sometimes while bending his body in both the battle and the cutscene showing his transformation, a hot pink feature (similar to his eyes in color) is visible under his scarf: This is presumably his mouth.

Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition
Magolor returns as an opponent in the exclusive challenge stages as a competitive rival of sorts. As Kirby races him, he will summon common enemies and shoot purple fireballs to slow him down, and even attempt to pick up Score Coins. Magolor will also spiral through the air at high speed and use his wizardly powers to phase through breakable walls and obstacles. He will occasionally gloat and laugh at Kirby if he happens to fall behind. The final race, aptly named "Magolor Race EX," features Magolor embracing his darker powers and using them to race more quickly and strategically.

Since their last encounter, the two appear to be on friendlier terms. The two share a friendly and playful rivalry with each other. The races take place on mechanical gear-filled racecourses that match his personal attire and styling. The races are suspended high above the skies of Dream Land, the final of which during the EX race takes place in the dark and collapsing Another Dimension.

Aside from that, a commemorate gold 8-bit statuette of Magolor is visible in the museum mode and also appears as one of Stone Kirby's transformations. Magolor also appears in the credits, escorting Kirby across the screen as the credits roll underneath. As the credits finish rolling, Magolor returns to the Lor Starcutter and bids Kirby farewell before flying away.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe
Though he does not physically appear in the game, Magolor makes several cameo appearances in Kirby: Triple Deluxe:
 * Stone Kirby can transform into many different statues; one of these being Magolor, who is seen alongside Marx. As it is an Easter egg, it is somewhat rare and has a lower probability of appearing than other forms. The Lor Starcutter, Magolor's ship, also makes an appearance as a statue.
 * Circus Kirby can use a move called "Balloon Pop Art," in which Kirby blows up a balloon to attack enemies. One of the balloon sculptures Kirby can create is of Magolor, which once again is rare and will not frequently appear.
 * In the last room of Stage 3 of Wild World, A painting of Magolor can be seen hanging on a wall in the background.
 * Magolor is one of 256 keychains found in the game, being the 254th one. He is the only keychain from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * Lastly, Magolor is seen among other baddies such as Marx and Galacta Knight in the cutscene "Kirby Master!", which is earned by completing the game 100%.

Attacks
Magolor's main attack during the final battle is teleporting around the field constantly. He can summon and launch purple orbs with black holes in their centers making them look like donuts. He can shoot these weak orbs in multiple formations. These orbs can be destroyed, guarded against, or inhaled. Sometimes, he can create puddles of pinkish liquid which eventually become tall spikes when he thrusts his hands upward. This attack can be guarded against or just easily avoided by watching which spikes burst from the ground first. Magolor can teleport himself to the background and hold one of his hands as it glows blue, then he launches five blue fire blasts that explode upon contact with the screen. Occasionally, he can open a star-shaped void to send out three or more mini Sphere Doomers, which attack by flying in circles or moving in a wave-like pattern.

After losing half his HP, Magolor becomes much more aggressive and brutal. He immediately resumes the fight by creating a giant version of one of his magic runes in the background and disappears. This hex then turns into a star-shaped black hole that is placed in the middle of the battlefield. This attack can only be avoided by running at full speed, but it is difficult, because the player(s) are being pulled closer to it. If the player keeps running, the void will eventually disappear after a short time; however, if the player is unsuccessful at avoiding it, they will lose whatever ability they had and will take heavy amounts of damage. Notably, not even the Stone ability will protect the player from the void. Magolor will also cross his hands repeatedly and put them together to launch a powerful laser beam cannon; however, this attack can be avoided by staying out of its range. If somebody gets hit, though, it can go for as much as half a full bar of HP. The boss will summon and fire more dark orbs at a faster pace. Magolor adds another set of protruding spikes to his attack along with faster-moving blue fire blasts. When his health is near zero, similar to the fight with the Grand Doomer, the only exception being that Magolor will protect himself with 5 shields (which creates one giant star shield), instead of 4 shields, which must be destroyed by using Super Abilities. Magolor will open 3 portals summoning 3 different enemies, one of which will be a Super Ability enemy. Magolor will then stand off in the background using his orbs against Kirby; however, with the Super Ability, they can easily be dealt with. After landing two hits with a Super Ability, Magolor will dispel the ability and will repeat the aforementioned pattern. The order of the abilities in normal mode are Monster Flame, Flare Beam, and Ultra Sword. After destroying all his shields using the Ultra Sword, Magolor will rush to the center of the screen and attempt to recover a part of the shield: this means Kirby must now finish Magolor off with the Ultra sword. Climatically, Magolor will react instantly and try to repel the sword in one last attempt to save himself. Engaged in a deadlock, the player must shake the Wii Remote vigorously in order to have Kirby overpower him. If the remote isn't shaken enough, Magolor will push Kirby away and dispel the Ultra Sword from him. Otherwise, Kirby will deplete the last of Magolor's HP meter and seemingly slay him three times, the crown-toting traitor exploding so violently it turns the screen white.

Seconds after Magolor finishes exploding, he is revived by the Master Crown into his second form: the real final battle against Magolor begins with him dispelling Ultra Sword from Kirby. Magolor will proceed to juggle and throw random enemies at Kirby from which the player can get another ability to fight. For his next attack, Magolor will create several star-shaped voids in different locations, which protrude large spikes after a set amount of time. He retains a few of the attacks that he used in the first fight, like the purplish-black orbs, black hole, and the beam cannon, which are still avoided in the same ways (although players should take note that the latter two attacks come out much faster than they did in the first battle). When he first warps into the background, Magolor can use a star-shaped void to warp himself out of sight. From there, he will summon two more voids in the foreground and try to ram the player by flying out of one and into the other. Guarding is ineffective against this attack. Magolor can also create a mass of darkness in the foreground, the shape of which is revealed when he draws it in white ink in the background, before it abruptly enlarges itself on screen.

At half of his HP, Magolor will begin using "dark" versions of the Super Abilities. He will first summon two large dark swords, portraying the Ultra Sword ability, which he will swing, first from the right side of the screen and then the left, or vice-versa, so the player must obviously go to the opposite side of the screen to avoid the strikes. Magolor will use his own version of Monster Flame's attack which attack from the left and right side of the screen, usually in the order left, right, or the other way around, and then both. The player can estimate where the attack will be coming from by looking at Magolor's location and his hand-gestures. Finally, Magolor can attack with his own dark version of the Flare Beam. He will hover in the middle of the screen and start gathering energy around himself (during this moment, Magolor is extremely vulnerable to the player's attacks and cannot retaliate for quite some time). After he has charged up enough power, Magolor will start bouncing around the arena as a large orb of shadowy energy, ricocheting in another direction whenever he makes contact with a side of the screen. After he has rolled around for a bit, Magolor will suddenly zoom off into the background and then try to quickly smash into Kirby and his friends, much like the rocket attack used by Metal General. Guarding will do the player no good against these attacks. Magolor will sometimes shoot his beam cannon through a star-shaped void. Then several voids will appear, with the beam cannon passing through them, so the player must be outside of its trajectory. He will continue to use a random assortment of his normal attacks and dark Super Abilities until the last of his HP is depleted and the battle is won.

In the Extra Mode, Magolor's attacks are frequently more potent. As with the first battle, Magolor's first and most common attack will be to create 3 or more spherical projectiles to fire at Kirby; however, these projectiles are now fired much faster than those fired by his largely blue counterpart, and they are now red with a more unstable appearance. Magolor's puddle spike attack now shoots out green, cactus-like spikes (which curiously resemble 0²'s weakpoint from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and mirror one of Marx's attacks) and his energy blasts are now orange and significantly larger; furthermore, Magolor is now somewhat more conscientious of his aim, often firing them in front of where Kirby is sprinting towards so as to get Kirby caught in the middle of the screen to get hit by a fifth blast. Occasionally, Magolor will summon Sphere Doomers, which are now Ice Sphere Doomers rather than the normal purple ones, and are considerably larger than they were in the original battle.

Upon half his health being depleted, Magolor will pull out his black hole attack; the black hole itself is now an ominous brown color and will wipe out 75% of Kirby's HP if it manages to suck him in, but it does not pull any harder than its normal mode counterpart does and is still just as easy to avoid. After firing off two sets of the projectiles, Magolor will prepare his laser attack. The laser, now brown with white flecks in it, is slightly larger than the original and deals significantly more damage should Kirby miraculously get hit by it (this attack is just as predictable as in normal mode).

The largest difference to this battle, however, is the Super Ability selection; when Magolor surrounds himself in a near-impenetrable star shield, it will take the combined strengths of the Snow Bowl, Grand Hammer, and Ultra Sword abilities to take the shield down and finish off Magolor's first form, and Magolor himself seems to be much more aware of the need to avoid being hit by the super abilities. When coming to the foreground while Kirby has Snow Bowl, Magolor will use a strong gust of wind to push Kirby away. If Kirby does not hit Magolor fast enough, he will start firing Ice Sphere Doomers at the party; the Sphere Doomers will instantly be killed if hit with Snow Bowl. While Kirby is wielding Grand Hammer, Magolor will teleport off-screen and cause several portals to appear in quick succession on the floor; the first few will hold a projectile which will turn into 6 that all go off in different directions if not destroyed immediately, and Magolor will rise out of the last, largest portal and either launch four projectiles straight above him or try to use his green spike attack. Only Ultra Sword is largely unchanged from its original usage in the final boss, and can be treated identically to when it was used in fighting Magolor outside of EX-mode, excluding the slightly increased number of projectiles.

Once again, Magolor will rush to the middle of the screen almost as soon as his star shield is destroyed; to avoid having Magolor recover a piece of the shield, the Kirby wielding Ultra Sword must strike Magolor with the super ability. Much like in normal mode, Magolor will grab the sword just before it is about to hit him: the player must shake the Wii Remote rapidly to bypass Magolor EX's hand and slay him. Magolor EX explodes shortly after the final hit from Ultra Sword with the hexagonal hexes added to the explosion possibly being a subtle yet eerie foreshadowing of his second form.

Personality
No strong evidence of Magolor's true intentions are shown until Kirby and the others reach Halcandra. Magolor is an adept speaker who acts very politely, giving Kirby encouragement whenever the player visits him in the Lor Starcutter. He also appears to be very friendly at first, and tells Kirby that he loves Popstar so much he doesn't want to leave it (interestingly, the latter is true). Once Kirby gets the Master Crown, however, Magolor completely breaks cover and turns into a cruel villain whose only goal is to conquer the universe. Magolor has no remorse using his Lor Starcutter (that Kirby just rebuilt for him) against Kirby and Landia, nor for shooting them down after the Lor is defeated.

Strangely, in Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition, Magolor remembers what Kirby did to him but doesn't seem particularly disturbed by it. In fact, he builds Kirby an entire theme park to make up for his evil actions. This gives further credence to the theory that Magolor was corrupted by the power of the Master Crown (although exactly when this occurred is harder to determine): however, it's also possible that Magolor had finally grown remorseful for his actions, which may be evidenced by Magolor Soul's pause description describing him as "a sad shell", suggesting that he no longer wished to fight Kirby.

Etymology
Magolor's name was based on the word magic, referencing his magical abilities. It also coincides with the Lor Starcutter.

Related Quotes
"Magolor deceived Kirby and stole Halcandra’s legendary treasure, the Master Crown! It’s up to Kirby to save the universe."

- VS Magolor

"Magolor stole the Master Crown and the Lor from their sacred resting places on Halcandra. He’s a liar and a wizard… Defeat him!"

- VS Magolor EX

"Hi there! My name is Magolor. I'm from another dimension, but I just love Planet Popstar. I can't get enough of it! Things got a bit hectic when I first arrived, but that's all in the past, thanks to Kirby. To make up for all that fuss, I built Kirby a theme park right here in Dream Land! It's got special stages where you can play with different Copy Abilities. You know, some of those stages can be a bit difficult... Hmmm... Oh, but I know YOU'LL be just fine! Why don't you try to clear them all? You can even face off against me in some of the stages! Hee hee hee...! So, what do you say...? Are you ready to check out my amazing theme park? Let's go!"

- Magolor

Trivia

 * After 120 Energy Spheres are collected, Magolor explains the details of how he acquired his ship. However, speaking to him a second time will have him tell Kirby that he has heard of him much before their fateful encounter. In the Extra Mode, he goes into more details with both, loosely recalling the events of Milky Way Wishes — and stating that there is someone that he knows in particular who knew Kirby fairly well. This person is theorized to be either Marx, Galacta Knight, or someone else entirely.
 * Similar to how other content from Kirby's Return to Dream Land was carried over from Kirby GCN, Magolor's first form resembles the unused concept design of its final boss. Both have long, sculpted horns, a shadowy face and body, and red clothing.
 * It also appears that this unused final boss concept inspired Magolor Soul's design to some extent, as the two have a very similar color scheme.
 * The Lor Starcutter may very well not be his own ship, as one of his battle quotes (from Magolor EX) implies that he stole it from somewhere. After collecting every Energy Sphere, he will reveal more info on the vessel and claims that he 'excavated' it from the volcano Landia lives in.
 * As mentioned above, Magolor EX has a hot pink/purple accessory below his eyes that is presumably his mouth. However, taking a look at the eye textures for Magolor EX show that this is simply the area around his eyes.Magolor EX.png
 * Magolor Soul has an eye that resembles Dark Matter's eye as well as the large "stomach eye" King Dedede gained when possessed by Dark Matter. This may suggest that Magolor came under the influence of Dark Matter or Zero at some point.
 * His normal eyes also resemble  0² 's fake "eyes", and the eye in his mouth also resembles  0² 's real eye.
 * The level before the fight against Magolor is similar to the inside of Galactic Nova from Kirby Super Star/Ultra, which Kirby went through before fighting Marx in said games.
 * Like Marx before him, Magolor shows up in the front row of the unlockable "Kirby Master" video for 100% completion. He applauds the cast in spite of his defeat.
 * Magolor, Dark Mind, and Queen Sectonia are the only final bosses to have more than two forms in one game.
 * In the third phase of the battle with Magolor, when he throws enemies at Kirby, he will always send out an enemy containing the copy ability Kirby used before having to discard it to use the Super Abilities to destroy Magolor's shield.
 * Magolor's battle theme during the second phase starts with a heavy remix of Dark Matter's theme from Kirby's Dream Land 3, followed by a portion of the Squeak Squad's theme from Kirby: Squeak Squad and finally ending with 0² Battle theme from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
 * During the third phase, parts of Milky Way Wishes can be heard.
 * It's unknown if Magolor was evil all along and sought the Master Crown for its power, or was simply being manipulated by the artifact itself, as Magolor Soul's pause screen description describes him as a "sad shell" of the Master Crown's power.
 * It is also unclear whether Magolor was already powerful before he obtained the Master Crown or whether his powers stemmed entirely from it, as Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition reveals that even without the crown (which is presumably non-existent at this point, its shards having faded with Another Dimension's demise) Magolor is still capable of spawning normal enemies and even firing large energy projectiles akin to those he fired during the battle against him in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and Magolor EX's pause description describes him as "a liar and a wizard," implying that he may have already had a significant amount of power before seizing the crown.
 * In Extra Mode, Magolor explains how the Lor Starcutter was built, and says it was the same power that gave rise to "clockwork stars." This hints at a possible connection to Nova.
 * Magolor bears a striking resemblance to the Kirby's Dream Land 3 enemy, Madoo.
 * The battle with Magolor seems to contain references to almost every previous final boss. The Lor segment is a shooter, like Dark Matter and Zero. In his first form, he teleports with a flash and sound similar to Nightmare and Dark Mind. He fires huge lasers and summons black holes like Marx. His final form has his mouth melting down, somewhat like Drawcia Soul. He also summons spikes, like Drawcia, and flies across the screen like Drawcia Soul. His Soul form has a red eye in his mouth, a trait often associated with Dark Matter. The eye in his mouth is also similar to Necrodeus's third eye (or 0²'s real eye) . Visually, his first form loosely resembles Nightmare, and his Soul form resembles Dark Mind's first form.
 * During the battle against Magolor, a portal to Popstar is visible in the background. It starts on the right side of the screen and gradually moves toward the center. It grows rather quickly throughout the fight's multiple segments, eventually almost dominating the backdrop in the last phase. If the player slowly proceeds through the fight, though, he/she will be able to see the portal gradually growing larger.
 * Magolor is one of two bosses to have deceived Kirby for his own gain (the other is Marx).
 * If Kirby does not attack the enemies Magolor summons within a short amount of time, they will vanish into thin air in a manner similar to teleportation..
 * Magolor has some unused screams that are unlocked in the Sound Test after defeating him in Extra Mode.
 * Hanging nearby Magolor's painting in Stage 3 of Wild World is a painting of Taranza. Both characters bear a strong resemblance to each other, and this implies that they are likely related members of the same species.
 * Notably, Taranza is shown to be capable of firing energy projectiles very similar to those Magolor fires during his races against Kirby in Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition.
 * Magolor appears in Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe during the C-R-O-W-N-E-D (Reprised) level, holding the blind curtain.