Galacta Knight

"This legend was sealed away because of his power. Now he defies time to challenge you!"

- Pause screen description

Galacta Knight is said to be one of the greatest warriors who ever lived. He serves as a hidden boss in Kirby Super Star Ultra, Kirby's Return to Dream Land and ''Kirby: Planet Robobot. ''He could be considered the arch-enemy of Meta Knight.

Physical Appearance
Galacta Knight is greatly similar to Meta Knight. He has a hot-pink body, which is slightly darker than Kirby's skin color, dark red eyes (noticeably more rectangular than Meta Knight's eyes), and wears whitish-platinum armor with two golden horns rising up from the top of his mask. He wears sabatons which, unlike Meta Knight's, do not fully cover his feet, as can be more clearly seen in Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby: Planet Robobot. Galacta Knight is roughly the same size as his counterparts, Meta Knight and Kirby, although he was somewhat bigger in his appearance in Kirby Super Star Ultra.

His mask has a vertical and horizontal opening as well as a yellow strap around his head. Galacta Knight also has feathered, angelic, lavender wings, and wields a powerful pink lance with a purple handguard and golden pommel, and also carries a white buckler shield emblazoned with a four-pointed star. Notably, the star on his shield was originally shown to be pink in Kirby Super Star Ultra, but has since been consistently depicted as golden and surrounded by a pink ring near the shield's outer edge from Kirby's Return to Dream Land onward.

Kirby Super Star Ultra
In his first appearance, Galacta Knight shows up as the final boss of Meta Knightmare Ultra, and then as the penultimate boss of The True Arena (in which he fights Kirby before the match with Marx Soul). In Meta Knightmare Ultra, Meta Knight gathers the planets' stars to summon Nova and wishes to become stronger by fighting the greatest warrior in the galaxy. Nova recalls that Galacta Knight was sealed away for fear that his powers were too great, so it in turn summons Galacta Knight from his crystallized prison to do battle.

Galacta Knight's attacks are all variants of the attacks Meta Knight used when he fought Kirby in the Revenge of Meta Knight game. He can also summon alternately-colored versions of Axe Knights, Javelin Knights, Mace Knights, and Trident Knights to help him. Galacta Knight can jump off screen and dash by at high speed, much like Meta Knight. Meta Knight can do this by using Meta Quick and fly around and damage him either by slashing or by wings (Meta Knight's bat-like wings can damage while hovering). His lance can also shoot out a deadly beam whip that directs in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction that causes damage, even while guarding. In addition, he summons tall, skinny flames from the ground. However, the player can see where the fire is about to erupt by looking at the ground. He also sends out a giant tornado or uses Mach Tornado, a move normally used by Meta Knight, although it lasts longer and it appears he has more control over it, as he can more accurately follow the opponent while spinning around, thus making it much harder to avoid. His shield also sends off a yellow energy projectile that is similar to the Cutter power, only it shoots forward and doesn't spin back. If Kirby manages to swallow this, it will give him the Sword ability. Other attacks consist of him flying and attacking the enemy with his lance. The most powerful lance move is a variation of an attack used by Meta Knight, which is a multi-jabbing attack where Galacta Knight remains motionless for a brief moment and then stabs the area directly in front of him a multitude of times with his lance, causing severe damage even when guarding. Unlike Sword Kirby's multisword attack, this attack does not cause any knockback, effectively trapping the player until the attack ends. After using an attack, he stands still for a few seconds, allowing the player to cause him some damage.

When Galacta Knight is defeated, he flickers white and retreats. In Meta Knightmare Ultra, he flies unstably in space, then disappears unarmed in a bright flash.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land
In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Galacta Knight only makes an appearance in The True Arena — specifically Round 13. He is fought in a crystalline arena in what appears to be located within the realm of Halcandra. In this appearance, Galacta Knight is said to be the most powerful warrior in the galaxy from another dimension.

Galacta Knight utilizes moves yet again from Meta Knight's own repertoire of moves, all of which have their own little twist to them. Galacta Knight now possesses his own variation of the Knight Beam; he will conjure and release three Knight Beams at ground level, four at a higher elevation, and then five at the top of the screen. He may perform a more lethal version of this move by flying into the background and summoning twelve Knight Beams to rain upon the battlefield (they may shower from either the right side or the left).

Galacta Knight's Triple Slash is the same as Meta Knight's, but his Multithrust has a slight tweak; the boss will perform this if he is blocking with his shield, and the last thrust will fire off a crescent-shaped wave. His Piercing Slash is relatively the same as Meta Knight's. His Knight Spin has no horizontal momentum, but will fire an energy wave at the player(s) when it contacts the ground. His Down Thrust and his Up Thrust are the same as Meta Knight's. He also gains a Spin Slash as his charge up move, releasing an orange aura as he spins in a twister-like motion. Galacta Knight's Shuttle Loop is also tweaked, as he can bounce off the ground, leaving a star behind, before coming back around for a second dive. Galacta Knight can perform his Ground Twister by striking his lance into the ground.

When Galacta Knight is backed into a corner, many of his infamous techniques return, and he powers up his previously used attacks. His Revolution Beam makes its return, functioning similarly to its earlier incarnation. Galacta Knight's Ground Columns also return, but no longer possess their fiery properties; he can perform this move consecutively in different positions with the appearance of lightning bolts. Lastly, Galacta Knight's Mach Tornado makes its grand reappearance, still as dangerous and accurate as before.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe
While Galacta Knight makes no physical appearance in-game, he does have minor cameos. He is seen in the audience during the "Kirby Master!" cutscene sitting in between Magolor and Marx. Galacta Knight also appears in this game as a rare keychain.

Kirby: Planet Robobot
Galacta Knight makes a reappearance as the surprise final boss of Meta Knightmare Returns, where he is summoned by the Star Dream as a challenge to Meta Knight's skill. Galacta Knight then damages Star Dream and the battle starts.

Unlike the previous bosses, this is the real Galacta Knight that Meta Knight encounters, rather than being a hologram or a clone. The fight with him is also listed as "Vs. Galacta Knight Returns". The fight with Galacta Knight here is set up much like his fight in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, with two phases, with the first phase using the Grand Doomer battle theme, and  a techno remix of his theme playing  w hen you get the warrior down to half health. Galacta Knight also hovers in the battle like he did in Kirby Super Star Ultra.

Aside from the fact that he uses more electric pillars this time, he also has a few new attacks. He can now open an interdimesional rift which a huge laserbeam comes out of in order to attack his foes. His sword beams at multiple elevations and sword beams from the background are exactly the same here. His revolution beam returns being the exact same. However his ground twister has a slight tweak where zigzags between the background and foreground. He also recycles his first phase attacks.

Interestingly, when Galacta Knight is summoned during Meta Knightmare Returns, he exits from a star shaped portal, and when he is defeated, he is sealed within his crystal prison. When he is encountered at the True Arena, he breaks free from his prison, and when he is defeated, he rapidly flashes white, referencing the ending of Meta Knightmare Ultra, and flies off into the background.

The damage incurred on Star Dream will later activate a hidden program in it, which will result in turning it into Star Dream Soul OS.

In the Super Smash Bros. series
Galacta Knight appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Related Quotes
"This ancient swordsman is feared for his immense power. He is not a clone. He was awakened and brought here via an extra-dimensional road beyond the space-time continuum."

- VS Galacta Knight Returns

"Let us bring back a legendary swordsman from a forgotten time. He may end up destroying a nearby planet or two, but such is life. The benefits of this final battle outweigh the collateral damage. Prepare yourself... Executing Space-Time Transport... Extra-dimensional road... Booting... 3... 2... 1... BEGIN!"

- Star Dream

"The most powerful warrior in the galaxy who somehow drifted into this universe from another dimension. What a dream battle!"

- VS Galacta Knight

"My one wish is to become stronger, so I wish to fight... the greatest warrior in the galaxy!"

- Meta Knight to Nova

Trivia

 * Unlike Meta Knight, Galacta Knight hovers in the air; Kirby can thus dodge his lance slash, his lance beam, and his multistab just by ducking.
 * The video of him (#28) in the Theater is called Galactic Knight in Kirby Super Star Ultra, which is his Japanese name.
 * Galacta Knight's pause description in Kirby's Return to Dream Land mentions that he is the most powerful warrior in the galaxy, even though Meta Knight and Kirby have taken this title presuming the expanded events of Kirby Super Star Ultra are canonical.
 * Or he is still the "most powerful warrior in the galaxy" but not the greatest, having more sword moves than Meta Knight and Kirby.
 * In the Kirby's Return to Dream Land "Kirby Master" Video, Galacta Knight is in the audience, seen to the left of Magolor in the front row. In Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Magolor has Galacta Knight on his right and Marx to his left, in a center row further behind.
 * In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Galacta Knight runs across the ground instead of hovering as he did in Kirby Super Star Ultra. In Planet Robobot, he returns to constant hovering to move around the arena, but he will still run and stay on the ground for some of his attacks.
 * Galacta Knight's mask and wing also appear on a golden statue along with a Meta Knight equivalent as a Stone transformation in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * In Kirby Super Star Ultra, the cross on his shield was originally purple rather than gold.
 * In the first half of Galacta Knight's fight in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Landia's battle music is heard. After his health is halfway gone, a remixed version of his battle music from Kirby Super Star Ultra takes over. This is similar to Masked Dedede and Dark Meta Knight's Revenge in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, in which a remix of their original themes is heard during the second phase.
 * Dark Meta Knight's pause description in Kirby: Triple Deluxe describes Dark Meta Knight as the "shadow of the strongest warrior", hinting that the title has been taken from Galacta Knight. However, it should be noted that Galacta Knight has been referred to as the greatest and the most powerful, not the strongest.
 * In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Meta Knight has a coloration that makes him resemble Galacta Knight. This, along with Meta Knight's Dark Meta Knight coloration and Kirby's Final Smash, Ultra Sword, is one of the only Kirby elements in the game that was created after Masahiro Sakurai left HAL Laboratory.
 * Sometimes, when Galacta Knight opens up an interdimensional rift to fire the laser, the Lor Starcutter may be seen in the laser.
 * In the first half of Galacta Knight's fight in Kirby: Planet Robobot, Grand Doomer's battle music is used. After his health is half gone, a remixed version of his original theme from Kirby Super Star Ultra takes over. This is very similar to his battle in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.

Sprites
Ultra-Knight Galacta Knight Галакта Рыцарь Galacta Knight Galacta Knight ギャラクティックナイト