Crusade for the Blade

Crusade for the Blade is the sixtieth episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. It is one of the most popular episodes of the anime, alongside "Sword and Blade, Loyal and True / Hour of the WolfWrath". It is notable for the first appearance of Silica and revealing more of Meta Knight's past.

Episode Summary


Kirby and Tiff's family have just finished their supper and Tiff gladly asks Kirby if he would like to stay overnight with them since it's already late. Kirby happily agrees. Suddenly, to their surprise, some kind of shooting star begins streaking through the skies over Castle Dedede and they watch in awe from the family's living room window. As the shooting star crash-lands in a nearby forest and scares away some crows. it eventually turns out that it's not really a shooting star but a spaceship. Inside, it shows some containment which opens up, filling the inside with smoke and revealing a girl that looks strikingly like Tiff (save for the white skin and hair and different clothing)

Afterwards, King Dedede and Escargoon are driving through the forest in their car to investigate the crash-landing. As they do so, Dedede questions Escargoon on why he woke him up (after all, Dedede's such a sleepyhead that he just wants to go back to bed). Eventually, the two stumble upon the crash site of the spaceship. Dedede orders Escargoon to investigate, but the servant snail simply just refuses. Just then, the two are interrupted by the same girl who was sleeping in her own spaceship earlier, who questions them on who they are and what they want. Escargoon introduces Dedede to the girl, who knows right away that she has finally arrived in Dream Land. Dedede becomes angry at her for ignoring him, but she responds by burning Escargoon with her weapon, which is able to change into different weapons. As Dedede and Escargoon escape, the girl blasts them with her flamethrower again, eventually causing an explosion, and they drive back to the castle to recover as the girl walks on to see Castle Dedede from a distance.



There, Meta Knight, Sword Knight, and Blade Knight are watching from one balcony wondering if it really was an alien that crashed into the forest. Dedede orders for the Waddle Dees to watch out and defend the castle from the strange girl, for the whole castle to be locked up, and yells at Meta Knight, Sword, and Blade to help out. As he and Escargoon go to inside, Escargoon suggests that the girl may be another debt-collecting monster from Nightmare Enterprises, and suggests that Dedede pay his debt, which, naturally of course, his majesty refuses to do. Back at the entrance to the castle, the girl from earlier arrives at the castle. the drawbridge is closed, so she gets in by using her weapon's grappling hook. Immediately after landing on the castle wall, she is attacked by some Waddle Dees, and blasts all of them. Watching from their balcony, Kirby and Tiff's family are amazed and retreat inside to the safety of the living room. As the Waddle Dees run around the castle halls frantically looking for the girl, Meta Knight and his followers are looking for the girl. who happen to see the girl, standing on a higher level than the three of them. The girl remarks to Meta Knight that it's been a long time, and MK seems to remember her face and suggests that she may be speaking as though they both met. The girl, realizing that the veteran Star Warrior may not have remembered, reminds him of his old friend Garlude by telling him about her, who happens to be her mother, before proceeding to blast at him with her weapon, which has once again changed, this time into a machine gun. As she chases him through the halls with her weapon, Sword and Blade jump down to protect him and fight against her, allowing MK to get away. She tells them to move but they refuse to do so without a fight. She blasts at the two knights, who dodge her shots. Just then, they get an idea, and Sword runs around the room causing the girl to blast at him, not knowing that Blade is sneaking up on her until she sees him do so, and then she changes her weapon into a sword and blocks Blade's attack only to see that Sword has cut the chains connecting one of the chandeliers to the ceiling of the main hall and that it is about to crush her, and both Blade and the girl jump away at the last second. The girl lands on her frontside as she has dodged the chandelier, and gets back up to continue her quest to get at Meta Knight.

Back at Tiff's family's living room, Sir Ebrum and Lady Like are having a conversation, hoping that the onslaught is over, while Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby leave the room to get to the bottom of that onslaught. Meanwhile, in one of the castle halls, the white girl blasts through a wall with her weapon, wondering where Meta Knight is, when she is suddenly about to be attacked from both sides by Sword and Blade. Thinking ahead, she uses her grappling hook and swings over to Dedede's room, kicking right through the windowed door to it from his balcony and taking Dedede and Escargoon by surprise. She blasts at them with her flamethrower again, scaring them out of the room, before continuing her search for Meta Knight. In another castle hall, Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby are surprised to see many Waddle Dees running wildly through the halls and wonder what's making them this way when suddenly they see the white girl blast them again with her bazooka and once again wonder where Meta Knight is. Just then, she spots the three heroes, who are amazed to see that their alien invader is indeed the girl. As the girl confronts the three, Tiff questions her on who she is and why she is after Meta Knight. The girl introduces herself as Silica and explains that he has something that she believes is very precious to her - his sword, Galaxia. Silica explains as she does a flashback to the time when Meta Knight and Garlude were adventuring together to reclaim the holy sword, which had apparently been stolen and guarded within a dark cave by the legendary beast Kirisakin. The two heroes fought against the savage sickle-handed sloth and Garlude eventually grabbed and attempted to pry Galaxia from the ground. As that happened, the story in Silica's mind suggested that MK may have just waited and watched without any care as Garlude was overpowered by the beast, who eventually claimed her life. As that happened, Meta Knight stole Galaxia and left the cave, leaving Garlude to perish. After the flashback in Silica's mind ends, Tiff and Tuff angrily disagree with the story in her mind, but just as the girls are about to get into a rather hissy catfight, Meta Knight and his allies intervene and Sword and Blade are just getting the kids away as Silica blasts Meta Knight with her bazooka, badly injuring him. She then proceeds to blast at everyone else, who manage to get the injured veteran soldier to safety as a hole in the top of the castle is made from all those explosions. Seeing that MK is badly injured, Kirby and co. decide to help him recover, so they get him to the safety of Kabu Canyon. Afterwards, Tuff and Kirby later receive some medicine from Ebrum and Like and proceed to carry it to the canyon, while Lady Like tells them to be careful as they do so. Of course, however, Silica sees this and smiles evilly, knowing that she can find MK if she follows them both, and she does so. Along the way to the canyon, Kirby gets a strange feeling and turns around just to see nothing behind him, and Tuff tells him to hurry up, and Kirby does so. Unknown to them both, however, the two boys are leading Silica to Kabu Canyon.

Back at the castle, Dedede and Escargoon consult with the NME Salesman about Silica, telling him about the description of her physical appearance as well as her additude, and he suggests that they send over the "big guy", and therefore downloads yet another monster to the castle, this time being a huge purple ape-like monster with pink stripes on his back and a horn on his forehead as well as scythes for hands. The monster is Kirisakin, who roars in might as he does a battle pose, clashing his scythes above his head. Dedede is amazed and proceeds to say, "Now that's a monster!", while Escargoon says he thinks he's going to faint.

Meanwhile, at Kabu Canyon, Sword and Blade are on watch duty as Tiff tends to Meta Knight's wounds. She asks him if he really did steal Galaxia just for himself and leave Garlude to die at Kirisakin's hands, and Meta Knight says that, indeed, he did not do any of that as well. Unfortunately, Meta Knight feels that he himself cannot successfully convince Silica of such a notion, so he suggests that Galaxia should do the convincing for him. Tiff wonders how, since she says that it's not like his sword can speak. Meta Knight then suggests that they let Kabu talk about Galaxia for them. Kabu does a flashback to the years while the universe itself was young, taking the two on a deja vu trip to that same past. Kabu explains that Galaxia was forged by Photron those same years, and took them many years to make. According to Kabu, Galaxia is no ordinary sword, but it emits incredible power as well as consciousness. After its completion, NME sent Kirisakin to steal and guard the sword within a certain dark cave. Meta Knight and Garlude traveled together to search for the heavenly blade of Galaxia, and eventually stumbled upon the cave of Kirisakin, where they finally found the sword. Meta Knight was able to claim Galaxia as his own, and thus, NME no longer had the power to control the universe. As the flashback ends, Tiff begins to wonder what truly happened to Garlude, when Sword and Blade alert them that Tuff and Kirby have returned with the medicine. Tiff is happy to know that, and now they can make MK better again. Just then, however, Silica appears to intervene and tells everyone to fork over Galaxia before blasting at them with her machine gun. Blade and Sword attack her again, but she manages to escape from them, and blasts at them again, this time with her bazooka, until Meta Knight interrupts them, finally having had enough of running away from Silica and deciding to take her head-on. His friends try to get him not to fight her, as he is injured, but the veteran warrior refuses to listen to them and unsheathes Galaxia. Silica is happy to know that MK finally feels like meeting her in combat, and the two do battle, where she manages to get the upper hand and eventually knock the sword out of MK's hands and then dash for it. Meta Knight tells her to wait, but she just doesn't want to listen, saying that she is Galaxia's rightful owner. She then attempts to pry Galaxia from the ground, only to be repelled by its overwhelming electrical energy.



It is here that Meta Knight then explains that only those who have the power may claim Galaxia as their own, and that those who are not worthy may end up infusing evil upon themselves. Suddenly, a familiar roar is heard by everyone, and they see that Kirisakin has come to reclaim Galaxia for his superiors, much to Silica's and Meta Knight's horror. Meta Knight decides that everyone must stop him, so Silica goes first in trying to fend off the great beast. Unfortunately, she is unable to do so, even when she stabs him in his shoulder with her weapon, which he knocks away with his scythes after knocking her away and unconscious. Sword and Blade attack him next, but they get quickly bested by him as well. Tiff then tells Kirby to "Suck it Up" and he proceeds to inhale Sword Knight's sword and become Sword Kirby. Meta Knight knows that Kirby must defeat Kirisakin, and watches as Kirby clashes blades with the behemoth, and then uses his Spinning Sword attack, which breaks one of the ape's scythes. Then, he watches to his surprise as Kirisakin's scythe regenerates. The beast then proceeds to begin slashing wildly at a shocked Kirby, who dodges and attempts to block his slashes. Silica watches as she regains consciousness, and gets up with her left arm in pain. She decides to use this distraction as her chance to grab Galaxia again, and attempts to pry it from the ground again. As she does so, she is suddenly engulfed by a heavenly light, and hears Galaxia actually speak and tell her the shocking truth - her mother knew that Meta Knight was meant to wield Galaxia and be its chosen one, and was able to get it to him in her ultimate sacrifice. Meta Knight was able to claim Galaxia as his own, therefore meaning that Garlude was right about it after all, and then proceeded to fight Kirisakin to try and save her. Now that she knows the truth, Silica is finally successfully able to pry the sword from the ground, screaming in might as she does so and saying that if her mother gave her life for Galaxia, then she would too.



As that happens, Kirisakin finally manages to break Kirby's sword to Tiff and Tuff's horror. Just then, Silica tosses Galaxia to the two oppositions, and they both fumble for Galaxia, but the beast shoves Kirby and grabs the sword first. However, not willing to let the beast get away with such a heavenly weapon, Meta Knight grabs Sirica's weapon and blasts him with the bazooka, making him let go of the sword and therefore allowing Kirby to pick it up. Now Galaxia Kirby, he raises the blade in the air and calls down light from the heavens, blinding the beast. After charging up the sword with enough of that light, Kirby unleashes the Galaxia Sword Beam, which goes straight through the ape and cuts him cleanly in two (despite his attempts to block it with his scythes, which, of course, was futile, and they got broken in the process). Kirisakin then explodes, having been destroyed by the Sword Beam, and Kirby and Meta Knight's friends rejoice, and Kirby lands, striking another pose with Galaxia. Silica is then happy to know what a great warrior her mother was to the end, and MK reminds her that her mother would have been so proud, therefore making peace finally come between them both and therefore causing Silica to find new friends in Kirby and co.

The next day, Silica bids goodbye to her new friends as she departs from Pop Star on her spaceship, and they wave goodbye to her. Tiff says, "Wow, Meta Knight... She was a great warrior," as the group continues waving goodbye to their new friend, and the episode ends as we see them continue to do so from the back view and it fades out to white (instead of doing the usual star-shaped fade-out).

Changes in the dub

 * Galaxia has a male voice in the Japanese version and a female voice in the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version, Meta Knight says that anyone unworthy who tries to claim Galaxia as their own will be overwhelmed by its energy, suffering excruciating pain or even death. In the English dub, he says that those who are not worthy of holding Galaxia who try to claim it as their own anyway will end up infusing evil upon themselves.
 * Kirisakin's kaiju-esque roars in the Japanese version were replaced with lion-esque grunts and roars in the English dub. This is probably confusing to most fans, as Kirisakin is more of an ape than a lion.
 * In the Japanese version, Silica says that Garlude was a Galaxy Soldier. As all references to the Galaxy Soldier Army were removed in the English dub, in said dub she just says that her mother was a Star Warrior.
 * Originally, Silica's gun would shed machine gun shells as bullets came out. The dub removed the shells that came out.
 * For unknown reasons, part of the scene where Galaxia being forged was cut out.
 * In the Japanese version, Photron was called the race of light. In the English dub, it was called the king of the ancient fire race.
 * Minor profanity was removed from the dub.

Trivia

 * Silica's name is also sometimes spelled and pronounced "Sirica". The same can also be done for Garlude's name.
 * It is unknown how Sword Knight's sword is repaired in later episodes after Sword Kirby's sword is broken by Kirisakin not long after Kirby becomes said form through inhaling that said sword.
 * Kirisakin is deemed by the Japanese version as a super-powerful monster, while the English dub knows him as the great beast, or, as the NME Salesman calls him, the "big guy".
 * As said in the episode plot written above, Silica's spaceship looks strikingly like Sir Gallant's spaceship. The differences are the color scheme, as well as its inside.
 * When Silica is shooting fire at Dedede and Escargoon in the crater, an NME symbol can be seen on her gun's handle. It's unknown how this gun was obtained by Silica.