Ribbon

"A fairy from Ripple Star, Ribbon escapes the planet with the fairies' Crystal, only to fall victim to a Dark Matter ambush. When she loses control of the Crystal, she turns to Kirby for help."

- Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards instruction manual

Ribbon is one of Kirby's friends as well as his presumed love interest in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Ribbon is a fairy from the planet Ripple Star who journeys with Kirby to defeat the invading Dark Matter and gather the pieces of the Crystal that Dark Matter broke apart. Ribbon is one of the only character in the games to have any sort of indicated romantic interactions with Kirby (ChuChu had an official interest in the manga only, although it seemed implied in the games).

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Ribbon makes her debut in the Nintendo 64 game, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. In this, she resides on the heart-shaped planet, Ripple Star. When the giant cloud of Dark Matter takes over her home, she rushes to the castle to alert the Queen Fairy. The queen then tells her to take the Crystal and safely escape from Ripple Star. Ribbon then grabs the Crystal and flies away, but is tailed by three smaller clouds that split from the mass. The three attack the fairy and shatter the Crystal into at least seventy-two shards which are scattered across the solar system. Ribbon then crashes onto Planet Popstar, right on top of our star-gazing hero, Kirby. He sees that a piece of the crystal on the ground is the same as the one Ribbon has, and offers to help her restore Ripple Star to its former glory, and the two set out to find the rest of the Crystal Shards. Along the way, the duo encounter three inhabitants of Popstar who have found Crystal Shards and have been possessed by Dark Matter -- Waddle Dee, Adeleine and King Dedede. After freeing them, the three then agree to join Ribbon and Kirby save Ripple Star.

Eventually the team of heroes reach Ripple Star only to find that it has been almost entirely been covered in darkness while they were finding the Shards. Eventually, Kirby reaches the top of Ripple Star's grand castle and encounter Miracle Matter - the apparent cause of Dark's Matter's appearance on Ripple Star. After a long battle, Kirby manages to defeat it. However, while Dark Matter has very visibly left Ripple Star, an abnormally powerful presence resides within the Queen Fairy. Once the gang has found all of the Crystal Shards, a beam is shot from the completed Crystal at the Queen Fairy, freeing her from its evil grasp. The remaining force then leaves the atmosphere and, in a last-ditch effort to salvage its plans, forms a foreboding giant planet known as the Dark Star nearby. Once they arrive at the core, Ribbon carries Kirby, allowing the player to fly freely during the battle against the real villain, 02. After Kirby and the group defeat 02 using a gun made from a Crystal Shard, the threat is over and the band of heroes return to Ripple Star. There, they are given crystal medals of honor. Ribbon gives Kirby a quick kiss on the cheek, who blushes profusely and then bashfully dances in a stupor as he accidentally crashes the ceremony.

Physical Appearance
Ribbon is portrayed as a tiny fairy with dark blue eyes and rosy cheeks. She has light pink, messy shoulder-length hair. Her clothes consist of a large red ribbon in her hair (hence her name), a long-sleeved crimson dress (which sometimes appears to be bright red in the actual game) with two golden buttons and a frilly white collar, and a pair of small beige shoes. Being a fairy, she has a pair of nearly translucent cyan wings attached to her back that allow her to hover and are shown to have enough strength to fly her through the galaxy. Though the upper part of her body has a humanoid appearance, her legs are short and stubby just like Kirby's.

Personality
Ribbon is portrayed as a courageous character with many different personality traits. At first, Ribbon appears to be a very carefree character, as seen when she is frolicking before Dark Matter takes over Ripple Star and when she chases a butterfly right before she and Kirby encounter Waddle Dee. She is also seen to be very friendly such as when she immediately makes friends with Kirby. However, she is actually much more complex. She is actually shown to be very sensitive, as is shown when she is nearly crying over the loss of her home to the Dark Matter invasion and when she says goodbye to Kirby with either a handshake or a kiss (depending on the ending). She is also brave, immediately going to the queen to protect her and then making a getaway with the Crystal without hesitation when the queen begs her to do so, and helping Kirby fight 02.

Related Quotes
"Does Kirby have a girlfriend? Does the fairy have an it-friend? Is that a Blue Rupee she's holding, or could it be a magical Ocarina that allows Kirby to travel through time? Does this fairy constantly scream "Hey!" at the top of her lungs? Only time will tell."

- Teaser description

Trivia

 * A description on Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards ' teaser website jokingly compares Ribbon to Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as both characters are fairies.
 * Ribbon's pink hair with a red bow looks similar to ChuChu, a character who showed romantic interest towards Kirby in the manga.
 * Also like ChuChu, Ribbon has the same color scheme as Kirby.
 * Ribbon appears as a rare sticker in Kirby: Planet Robobot. This marks the first time she has made an official appearance in Kirby media since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
 * On February 13, 2017, Ribbon appeared in artwork on the official Kirby 25th anniversary Twitter account, alongside several other prominent female characters in the series.
 * Ribbon appears alongside Susie in one of Stone's transformations in Kirby Star Allies.