Dark Meta Knight

"He's back...with a vengeance. The darkest shadow of the strongest warrior. Sealed in the labyrinth of the mirror for aeons, this dark knight has returned with one thing on his mind... Revenge!"

Dark Meta Knight is a darker copy of Meta Knight and a recurring villain in the Kirby series, first appearing as the secondary antagonist and boss character in Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and the surprise final boss of the Dededetour sub-game in Kirby: Triple Deluxe. He is also set to appear as a Dream Friend in Kirby Star Allies in the game's second update.

Physical Appearance
As a mirror world copy of Meta Knight, Dark Meta Knight bears a great resemblance to his original counterpart. The main difference between the two is their coloration. While Meta Knight's design is somewhat vibrant, Dark Meta Knight is gray and dark, perhaps in reference to Meta Knight's original design from Kirby's Adventure.

He has a dark gray body (black in Kirby: Triple Deluxe), bright red sabatons, and pale yellow eyes. His mask is basically the same as Meta Knight's; however, official art and Dededetour show a large scar on one side. He wears a torn black cape that apparently grants him wings like the original Meta Knight, and has thinner but wider eyes compared to his original counterpart, giving him a much more hostile look. His sword, a near-copy of Meta Knight's sword Galaxia, is silver, has seven branches of blades instead of five and has a blue sapphire embedded in its hilt.

In Kirby Star Allies, he maintains the same appearance, but now he has Meta Knight’s emblem on his right shoulder, tattered wings in lieu of his tattered cape, armored plates on his gloves, dark gray feet inside of his sabatons, and additional chinks and scratches on his mask.

Personality
Dark Meta Knight possesses a very different mindset from Meta Knight - he has almost no sense of honor or chivalry, preferring to ambush his foes rather than give them a chance to defend themselves. He also fights much more aggressively than the real one, making frequent use of magic along with his accomplished swordplay as he does so.

Abilities
Dark Meta Knight is capable of using many of Meta Knight's standard abilities, including flight, tornado attacks, sword beams, shock waves, and the dimensional cape; in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, he is also capable of summoning copies of himself, and even causing giant sword blades to pierce up from under the ground to impale his opponents, along with some of Galacta Knight's attacks present in Kirby's Return to Dream Land. He also seems to be capable of summoning mirrors to deflect projectiles.

Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
At the beginning of the game's events, Dark Meta Knight was created by the power of the mirror world, and was made in the likeness of Meta Knight himself. When Meta Knight found that the mirror world was in danger, the mirror created a copy of his dark side, and Dark Meta Knight came to be. Dark Meta Knight first attacks Kirby while he is on a walk, splitting him into four Kirbys as a consequence and prompting the Kirbys to chase the villain into the mirror world. Not long thereafter, Meta Knight duels his dark counterpart and loses, resulting in him being trapped in the Dimension Mirror; to prevent his escape, Dark Meta Knight shattered the mirror into eight pieces.

Kirby confronts Dark Meta Knight twice - first as the boss of Radish Ruins (under the alias of "? ? ?", making him the seventh boss) and later inside the Dimension Mirror, where he serves as the penultimate boss. In neither of the two battles does Dark Meta Knight actually offer Kirby a Sword before the battle, a thing that the real Meta Knight would normally do. However, in Radish Ruins, a Sword copy pedestal appears right before the battle, and all the stars generated by the Knight's attacks give Sword ability if swallowed.

As the boss of Radish Ruins, Dark Meta Knight uses a glamour to disguise himself as Meta Knight, and even fights exactly the same way as Meta Knight did in Kirby's Adventure. After Kirby defeats him, Dark Meta Knight's mask is split in half. Just as Dark Meta Knight flees, his glamour begins to fade, revealing his true form. When Kirby encounters Dark Meta Knight in the Dimension Mirror, he attempts to utilize his glamour again; however, the real Meta Knight watches from above and promptly blows his cover, forcing Dark Meta Knight to reveal his true form and to begin another fight with Kirby. His attacks are essentially the same attacks that Meta Knight used in Kirby Super Star, except significantly more powerful and more difficult to avoid; this power spike is most likely due to his true form being used. Despite this, however, Dark Meta Knight was defeated a second time; this time, he shatters, seemingly destroying him.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe
Despite having seemingly died in his prior appearance, Dark Meta Knight makes a surprise return as the final boss of the game's Extra Mode, Dededetour, as "Dark Meta Knight's Revenge"; he is the implied main antagonist of this mode. Here, he is closer to his Kirby & The Amazing Mirror artwork in appearance, but his cape is not seen, as his wings are always visible.

Notably, the villain seems to have become much more powerful in Kirby's absence, as he is shown to be able to summon and dismiss the Dimension Mirror at will at the beginning of the battle against him, and this fact implies that he may have thus been responsible for creating and perhaps controlling both Shadow Dedede and even Queen Sectonia DX, who are both fought before him. On the other hand, they may have attempted to protect Dark Meta Knight's Revenge from King Dedede of their own accord.

After Dedede defeats both Queen Sectonia DX and Shadow Dedede, he enters the Dimension Mirror that summoned Shadow Dedede and was left behind after his defeat. In an alternate dimension-like area, the Mirror appears again, and Dark Meta Knight's Revenge emerges and confronts Dedede. Compared to his previous incarnation, Dark Meta Knight's Revenge has many new attacks in this fight, such as raising giant swords from the ground to attack his foe, throwing mach tornadoes from the background, and splitting into three mirror shard-copies; only one is the real one, and if the clones are attacked, they shatter into glass shards which try to home in on Dedede. When he is finally defeated, the Dimension Mirror appears and sucks Dark Meta Knight's Revenge into it, and King Dedede proceeds to destroy the mirror with his hammer, completing Dededetour.

Dark Meta Knight's Revenge is also fought by Kirby as the penultimate boss of The True Arena. Here, Dark Meta Knight's Revenge uses the same tactics as before, but upon defeat, he violently shatters into pieces of glass rather than being sucked back into the Dimension Mirror.

Kirby Star Allies
Dark Meta Knight is set to appear in Kirby Star Allies as one of the Dream Friends coming in the summer update. He is shown to be able to summon giant swords from mirrors just like in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, and when guarding, encases himself in the mirror he used to split in three, which can reflect projectiles. In addition, he uses mirror projections to attack in a similar fashion to Mirror Kirby's split and ring techniques. He also has a different attribute than Meta Knight when using the Spin Slash; he forms a barrier that reflects projectiles back to their enemy. He can also perform triple sword beams and the rapid slash move that Meta Knight and Morpho Knight do, except he creates a clone of himself to do it with. When using his Drill Stab attack, he can swing and spin his sword upwards and summon a giant sword from a mirror, which sends enemies towards the ground when hit, or he can summon three smaller swords protruding from mirrors in front of him. He can also summon a wall of glass around him to protect himself and reflect enemy projectiles. He has a unique defeat animation, shattering like he does when defeated in Kirby & The Amazing Mirror.

Canonicity
Dark Meta Knight's battle with King Dedede is non-canon, as it occurred during Dededetour, a non-canon sub-game. However, his appearance in that game may still be canon, but only limited to pulling strings behind-the-scenes (such as possibly corrupting Queen Sectonia with the Dimension Mirror).

Related Quotes
"This headgear has the look of that dark knight sealed in the mirror."

- Outfit description "The second character is Dark Meta Knight from the Kirby & The Amazing Mirror game. Dark Meta Knight is a shadow of a powerful knight that made a great impact to Mirror Land, located high above Dream Land. In addition to sword attacks, Dark Meta Knight can use mirrors in a variety of ways, such as reflecting enemy attacks back where they came from."

- Kirby Star Allies Channel (Update 7)

Trivia

 * Dark Meta Knight is the only suspected member of Kirby's species to be inherently evil - all other members and suspected members of Kirby's species are either heroes or are neutrals who vary in alignment from game to game.
 * Oddly, the real Meta Knight does not appear at all in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, while Dark Meta Knight's Revenge is a major villain in that game.
 * Dark Meta Knight Revenge's blade appears to be a version of Galaxia, with a more "blocky" edge to it. This is also true in the artwork of the original Dark Meta Knight.
 * Although not making an actual appearance in Kirby Super Star Ultra, a card of Dark Meta Knight appears in the sub-game Card Swipe.
 * Dark Meta Knight is far more powerful in Kirby: Triple Deluxe than before in Kirby & The Amazing Mirror. This may imply that he no longer needs Dark Mind or his power.
 * During his boss introduction in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, he slashes his sword as he enters the area. Blood flies off him as he does so, disappearing in different directions. He also bleeds when he reopens his wings right before the second round of the fight, and also whenever him and his mirror duplicates combine during the second half of the fight.
 * This makes Dark Meta Knight the fourth boss in the Kirby series to shed blood, alongside Zero, Zero2, Shadow Dedede, and Star Dream Soul OS.
 * Much of Dark Meta Knight's first phase in Kirby: Triple Deluxe consists of moves copied from Galacta Knight's moveset in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * Even the way Dark Meta Knight breaks out of the Dimension Mirror is similar to how Galacta Knight breaks out of his crystal.
 * Despite being destroyed with the Dimension Mirror, Dark Meta Knight is briefly seen flying with the People of the Sky in Kirby: Triple Deluxe 's "Kirby Master" video.
 * In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Meta Knight has a coloration that makes him resemble Dark Meta Knight- albeit with no scar and an incorrectly-colored sword (the standard gold-and-red Galaxia rather than the silver-and-blue one he normally wields), cape (dark purple instead of black) and sabatons (dark purple, rather than red).
 * This, along with Meta Knight's Galacta 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.
 * In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Dark Meta Knight costume for Meta Knight is now fully modeled after the former; he even has the scar on his mask.
 * Dark Meta Knight appears in a cameo as one of the balloons the Circus ability will produce in Kirby: Planet Robobot, replacing the original Meta Knight balloon.
 * 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.
 * Dark Meta Knight will be the first secondary antagonist to be a playable character in Kirby Star Allies.
 * According to Japan-exclusive 20th Anniversary Hoshi no Kābī Pupupu Taizen, Dark Meta Knight got his scar from dueling Meta Knight during their first battle.

Sprites and Models
Dark Meta-Knight Meta Knight Oscuro Dark Meta Knight Meta Knight Nero ダークメタナイト Тёмный Мета Рыцарь 黑暗梅塔骑士