Adeleine

"Adeleine, an aspiring artist, comes to Pop Star to study art but finds herself in the middle of a Dark Matter mess."

- Instruction manual

Adeleine, also known as Ado, is a character in the Kirby series, appearing in Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. She is also set to return in Kirby Star Allies along with Ribbon as a Dream Friend. She is a gifted young human artist with ability to make pictures she paints come to life.

Physical Appearance
Adeleine is portrayed as a young girl with short black hair and black eyes, wearing a long-sleeve, bright green (which is shown as teal in official art) collared smock with a single yellow button near the top. She also wears a very short gray skirt, blue knee-high socks and large brown shoes with yellow laces. She also wears a bright red beret that covers most of her hair, and official art seen in the credits portrays her with a light brown hairclip in her hair. She is almost always seen with her blue brush with multi-colored paint on the tip, her dark brown paint palette with red, blue and yellow paint and her large easel. She always appears to be blushing, although this may just be due to the fact that almost all characters have cheeks like this. In sub-games she can wear a lavender smock with a violet beret, a beige smock with a chestnut beret, or a cyan smock with a yellow beret, in addition to her plain green and red outfit. She is quite unique in being one of the only humans to actually live in Dream Land and make an appearance in the series. In Kirby Star Allies, she now has a small, stubby nose, lavander eyes, a single fringe of hair on the left side of her forehead, and five fingers on each hand.

Personality
Not much is known about Adeleine's personality. What is known is that she is very artistic and creative due to the fact that she is almost always seen with her art equipment and that she can create various works of art in less than five seconds. Adeleine also has some resourcefulness to her, as she can quickly use her painting abilities in a variety of useful ways, such as painting hints and food for Kirby. She appears to be somewhat hesitant to join Kirby and the gang initially, but eventually begins to warm up to them as seen in the cutscenes. Like Kirby, she appears to be a cheerful soul, as she is noticeably happy most of the time.

Kirby's Dream Land 3
Adeleine, name shortened to "Ado," makes her first appearance as the boss of Cloudy Park. During the battle, Adeleine stands safely behind her large, cloud-constructed canvas and paints enemies to attack Kirby. After Kirby defeats one of her drawings, she will get mad and make another. Her paintings are all old bosses from Kirby's Dream Land 2. They include Ice Dragon, Sweet Stuff, Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright, and Kracko (in that order), none of which spawn enemies/obstacles that grant abilities. After Kirby defeats them all, Adeleine, in a fit of rage, steps down from her canvas and attacks Kirby. She is defeated in one hit, however. Once Kirby lands just a single slide attack on her, Adeleine rolls off-screen, signifying Kirby's victory.



If all the Heart Stars are collected for Cloudy Park after the boss battle, Adeleine will become friendly and paint a randomly-selected drawing whenever Kirby enters her arena. In Boss Butch, the cloudy battlefield becomes gray and stormy.

Adeleine appears during the credits alongside the rest of the game's bosses as they socialize with Kirby. The game ends with Adeleine dashing across the screen as she swiftly ends the game by painting the word "END" in bright colorful letters in the corner of the screen.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Adeleine reappears in the second stage of the first world, Planet Popstar. She is simply painting a picture when a Crystal Shard falls next to her. She turns and picks it up, when an orb of Dark Matter materializes on her easel and possesses her. Kirby, Ribbon, and Waddle Dee then arrive to find her possessed, and are forced to battle her. Adeleine summons various monsters from Kirby's past, as well as a mass of pixels and an unidentifiable enemy that somewhat resembles both a Gordo and a Mariel. After Kirby and the gang defeat Adeleine, she agrees to join their team and the three set out to find the rest of the Crystal Shards.

Throughout various levels of the game, Adeleine will appear and paint items for Kirby. If Kirby enters the area Adeleine is in with full life, she paints a 1UP, otherwise she paints a Maxim Tomato. She may also paint pictures to help Kirby solve puzzles so he can obtain a shard.

Adeleine is also playable in the multiplayer mode of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. In this mode, she has four different outfits - her normal green and red outfit, a purple outfit, a brown costume, and a blue and yellow costume. It was also revealed through screenshots that she was originally intended to be a playable character in single player, but this was not implemented for unknown reasons.

Kirby Star Allies
Adeleine is set to appear in Kirby Star Allies as one of the Dream Friends coming in the second update. She is shown to be able to create paintings of past enemies such as Batamon, which walks around, Ghost Knight, which thrusts its lance forward, I³, which moves forward and crushes enemies below it. A powered-up version of this move allows her to paint and ride Waiu, who can throw cutters, stomp the ground and send a purple star traveling along it, and deliver swift kicks, Kracko, who shoots out lightning and uses his star beam, and Ice Dragon, who can breathe ice and rain icicles. She can also run while rapidly swiping her brush, referencing her only direct attack as a boss. Her guard involves hiding behind a canvas, in which enemies simply pass by instead of running into. Instead of having Still Life as her team attack, she paints the same picnic from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, which then creates a bunch of food and Point Stars. Ribbon also shares the spot with her, with both acting as one Dream Friend in a similar manner to Rick & Kine & Coo. Ribbon can carry Adeleine in order to fly, and Adeleine can use Ribbon's Crystal Gun while being carried. Adeleine and Ribbon can also twirl around in the air, damaging nearby enemies.

Identity
For years, it was unclear whether or not Adeleine and Ado were the same character, given their different names and slightly different appearances--Ado's facial structure is different and her hair is rounded and a lighter color.

However, evidence existed that they were in fact the same character. The fact that Adeleine's Japanese name, Adoreenu, is indeed very close to "Ado" implies a connection. The name box for bosses in Kirby's Dream Land 3 is relatively small; the name Adeleine would have been much too long to fit in anyway, leading some to believe that the name was shortened to "Ado" just to make it fit (just like Whispy Woods is sometimes shortened to just "Whispy"). The 20th Anniversary Hoshi no Kirby Pupupu Taizen book leaves this issue open-ended, although it suggests it is likely that Ado is merely Adeleine's nickname.

Another controversy that surrounded Ado and Adeleine was the genders of the characters. While Adeleine is confirmed to be female in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards’s instruction manual and promotional material, no such distinction was made for Ado in Kirby's Dream Land 3. In Japan, the Kirby manga refers to Ado as a female, but it is not canon to the game continuity and Ado's gender outside of Japan was never actually confirmed. It was thought that Ado is bishōnen, a term which literally translates to "beautiful youth" and is used to describe (usually young) males with feminine features which is a common sight in Japanese media. The Kirby manga was the closest official supplement that confirmed a gender, though the fanbase liked to suggest otherwise in a way to differentiate the character from Adeleine. The Japanese-exclusive 20th Anniversary Hoshi no Kirby Pupupu Taizen eventually confirmed that Ado was a girl, who came to Planet Popstar to improve her art skills (just like Adeleine).

HAL Laboratory occasionally referenced Adeleine in games following the 20th Anniversary Hoshi no Kirby Pupupu Taizen, but very rarely did Ado appear from Kirby's Dream Land 3. Ado appeared as a collectible keychain in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, but was not named; the keychain is titled "Sweet Stuff Drawing."

In 2017, a Japanese artbook was released to commemorate Kirby's 25th anniversary. In it, one page showed scans of documents from the development of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, specifically documents regarding the character of Adeleine. The document explicitly states that Adeleine was the artist in Kirby's Dream Land 3, and that the artists and graphic designers for Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards should refer to her then-new redesign as opposed to how she appeared in Kirby's Dream Land 3. Additionally, the document refers to Ado/Adeleine using gender-neutral pronouns, which could imply that the character was initially intended to be androgynous, despite "Adorinu" (アドレーヌ) being a feminine name. In light of this evidence, Ado and Adeleine are now considered the same character.

Etymology
The name Adeleine is is a variation of the name Adeline. It originates from France and means 'noble' or 'nobility.'

Given the pronunciation of the name, it's likely a pun on the phrase "Add a line."

Trivia

 * A pre-release screenshot of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards shows that Adeleine was playable at one point in development.
 * In Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Adeleine's battle theme can be heard from Copy Ability selection screen in the Kirby Fighters sub-game. It was remixed in Kirby Fighters Deluxe.
 * Adeleine makes a cameo as a keychain in Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
 * She also makes a cameo as a sticker in Kirby: Planet Robobot.
 * Adeleine used to be the mascot of the "Galería CN" (CN Gallery) section of the 1991 Mexican Club Nintendo magazine. The section was incorporated late in 2000 and was then named "Galerie d' Adeleine" (Adeleine's Gallery). Subscribers of the magazine could send their own drawings and paintings to the editors with a select few being featured in one issue of the magazine. The gallery's name has since been changed to its current name and removed Adeleine from the section.
 * On February 13, 2017, Adeleine appeared in artwork on the official Kirby 25th anniversary Twitter account, alongside several other prominent female characters in the series. This marks the first time she has made an official appearance in Kirby media since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Since then, she's made multiple appearances in the account's tweets, and a tweet commemorating its 100,000 followers states that she's the one illustrating the account's artwork.
 * The Artist ability, introduced in Kirby Star Allies, is based on Adeleine. Kirby wears a red beret that looks similar to Adeleine's, and one of his moves has Kirby paint characters on an easel to aid him, similar to Adeleine's actions during her boss fights.
 * Kirby also uses his paintbrush to swipe at enemies, which is similar to a beta screenshot of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards showing Adeleine attacking a Mariel in a similar manner.
 * Adeleine and Ribbon are the first two female Dream Friends in Kirby Star Allies.
 * The canvas that Adeleine and Ribbon hide behind in Kirby Star Allies has the same painting that represents stage one on the stage select screen of Planet Popstar in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
 * In Kirby Star Allies, Adeleine will create rideable paintings with the canvas on top of a stump instead of an easel. This is a reference to the big canvas she used in her boss fight in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.