Magolor

"I'm so, so thankful for all of your help! High five, low five, all that."

- Magolor

Magolor is the alien first found on the Lor Starcutter, the Galleon-like starship which had crashed during the opening sequence of Kirby's Return to Dream Land. He is understood to be the captain of the ship and serves as a supportive character for most of the game, asking favors out of Kirby and tending to it.

Kirby and company decided to help Magolor out by offering to retrieve all the pieces that had fallen off the ship during the crash, while he stays behind to tend to what remains of it. Throughout the game, Magolor will inform the player when they have unlocked doors in his ship after they have acquired a specific number of Energy Spheres.

Physical Appearance
Magolor is a short alien with no feet and detached hands with white mittens. He is clad in a regal blue suit, complete with a white cape with gold trimmings and a dash of purple, gold-trimmed cog designs, and wears a white scarf with a blue belt interwoven. His face is a very dark brown with oval shaped, glowing yellow eyes.

He speaks gibberish with a squeaky voice. Kirby and company understand him perfectly well, however. Incidentally, he is the only character seen speaking in the game.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Magolor makes his debut in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and is the driving force behind the events of that game. In the game's opening cutscene, Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Bandana Waddle Dee are enjoying the sunshine, when suddenly a wormhole shaped like a star appears in the sky. The Lor Starcutter suddenly emerges from a wormhole. It breaks apart, losing its wings, emblem, mast, and oars along with 120 Energy Spheres as it plummets toward the ground. The ship crashes and the gang goes to see the source of the commotion. Inside the ship, Magolor is found unconscious. He wakes up in a panic and notices his ship has been severely damaged. Distraught, Magolor stares at his now-broken computer screen. Kirby and the others offer to help him, which makes the alien ecstatic. From thereon out, Magolor remains in the ship's control room overseeing its mainframe.

In exchange for Kirby's help, Magolor offers to take him and his friends to his home planet of Halcandra once he can get his ship working again. After beating the Grand Doomer and retrieving the final piece, Magolor fulfills his offer and takes Kirby and the crew to Halcandra. When they arrive, they are immediately attacked by the monstrous Landia. The Lor Starcutter makes a crash landing once again, but luckily stays intact this time. Magolor explains Landia's history and is confused as to why it attacked the Lor Starcutter. Kirby and the gang offer to defeat the dragon for him.

After Landia is defeated, the golden crown it was wearing falls to the ground and Magolor appears, applauding ominously. He grabs the crown from the ground and puts it on his head, simultaneously revealing it to be the Master Crown. The crown gives him great powers and he assumes a new form resembling a jester. Meanwhile, the gang is completely dumbfounded and horrified by his unforeseeable deceit. Now with the crown in his possession, Magolor can go on to take complete control of the entire universe, starting with world domination on Planet Popstar. Kirby and company set out to stop Magolor, with the help of the now awakened Landia.

In his new state, Magolor has a gaseous, blood-red colored body with a blue aura emanating from it, similar to that of Nightmare's. His big thick and gloved hands remain detached from his body, but they are each now separated by a pair of magical sun-shaped runes. Magolor's hat grows outward and furls into a jester's hat, obtaining a purple hue with white at the tips. His scarf remains white, but it is larger and is cinched together by purple, silver-buckled belt. The Master Crown sits atop his head, its claws noticeably clasping down on his head and even wiggling and bouncing from time to time (perhaps evidence that the crown is controlling Magolor).

After being defeated once, the Master Crown revives (and perhaps possesses) Magolor. Magolor's hat now grows to enormous proportions and becomes even more curved at the ends, now resembling a ram's horns. The Master Crown has sprouted golden tentacles that wrap around Magolor's horns and head. Magolor's red, gaseous body reforms itself to become two large wings outlined in blue that are set behind his hat and a pair of smaller ones located at his base. Magolor has a pair of red eyes and an empty white grin on his face. Magolor's hands now have black finger tips. Magolor periodically shuts and opens his mouth to reveal an eyeball with a red iris and a black pupil (very similar to Dark Matter and, to a lesser extent, 0 and 02) in place of that vacant grin. Magolor's face is entirely black, with a droplet of his upper lip dripping over his "grin" to connect with his lower lip, giving him the appearance of slightly melting.

Even with his fiendish new powers, however, Magolor was no match for Kirby and his pals. They succeeded in stopping his galaxy-conquering goals, and shattered the Master Crown in the process. After the crown shatters, Magolor seemingly fades away into nothingness, leaving behind particles similar to those he had created in his first form while teleporting. It is revealed in the subsequent installment of the series that he somehow survived.

Extra Mode
Magolor's story role in EX mode is almost identical to that in Main Mode, but after shooting down Kirby and his friends immediately before the final battle begins, he abruptly decides to tap into more of the Master Crown's power, resulting in a different cutscene which shows Magolor turning himself into Magolor EX. On the battlefield, however, Magolor's attacks have received a cosmetic update and some of them now have properties that make them more dangerous.

During Extra Mode, both of Magolor's appearances are much darker and grimmer than they were before. His wisp-like body in his sorcerer form is completely red with a deeper shade around the edges instead of being blue. Magolor EX's hat is now black with red at the tips and the Master Crown now has a purple jewel in its center. The scarf around his neck turned black and the belt interwoven in the scarf is red. Magolor EX's face now has glowing white skin and his eyes are hot pink instead of red (they turn red when Magolor's health is halved). Sometimes while bending his body in both the battle and the cutscene showing his transformation, a hot pink feature (similar to his eyes in color) is visible under his scarf.

Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition
Magolor returns as an opponent in the exclusive challenge stages as a competitive rival of sorts. As Kirby races him, he will summon common enemies and shoot purple fireballs to slow him down, and even attempt to pick up Score Coins. Magolor will also spiral through the air at high speed and use his wizardly powers to phase through breakable walls and obstacles. He will occasionally gloat and laugh at Kirby if he happens to fall behind. The final race, aptly named "Magolor Race EX," features Magolor embracing his darker powers and using them to race more quickly and strategically.

Since their last encounter, the two appear to be on friendlier terms. The two share a friendly and playful rivalry with each other. The races take place on mechanical gear-filled racecourses that match his personal attire and styling. The races are suspended high above the skies of Dream Land, the final of which during the EX race takes place in the dark and collapsing Another Dimension.

Aside from that, a commemorate gold 8-bit statuette of Magolor is visible in the museum mode and also appears as one of Stone Kirby's transformations. Magolor also appears in the credits, escorting Kirby across the screen as the credits roll underneath. As the credits finish rolling, Magolor returns to the Lor Starcutter and bids Kirby farewell before flying away.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe
Though he does not physically appear in the game, Magolor makes several cameo appearances in Kirby: Triple Deluxe:
 * Stone Kirby can transform into many different statues; one of these being Magolor, who is seen alongside Marx. As it is an Easter egg, it is somewhat rare and has a lower probability of appearing than other forms. The Lor Starcutter, Magolor's ship, also makes an appearance as a statue.
 * Circus Kirby can use a move called "Balloon Pop Art," in which Kirby blows up a balloon to attack enemies. One of the balloon sculptures Kirby can create is of Magolor, which once again is rare and will not frequently appear.
 * In the last room of Stage 3 of Wild World, A painting of Magolor can be seen hanging on a wall in the background.
 * Magolor is one of 256 keychains found in the game, being the 254th one. He is the only keychain from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * Lastly, Magolor is seen among other baddies such as Marx and Galacta Knight in the cutscene "Kirby Master!", which is earned by completing the game 100%.

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

First Phase
Magolor's main attack during the final battle is teleporting around the field constantly. He can summon and launch purple orbs with black holes in their centers making them look like donuts. He can shoot these weak orbs in multiple formations. These orbs can be destroyed, guarded against, or inhaled. Sometimes, he can create puddles of pinkish liquid which eventually become tall spikes when he thrusts his hands upward. This attack can be guarded against or just easily avoided by watching which spikes burst from the ground first. Magolor can teleport himself to the background and hold one of his hands as it glows blue, then he launches five blue fire blasts that explode upon contact with the screen. Occasionally, he can open a star-shaped inter-dimensional rift to send out three or more mini Sphere Doomers, which attack by flying in circles or moving in a wave-like pattern.

After losing half his HP, Magolor becomes much more aggressive and brutal. He immediately resumes the fight by creating a giant version of one of his magic runes in the background and disappears. This hex then turns into a star-shaped black hole that is placed in the middle of the battlefield. This attack can only be avoided by running at full speed, but it is difficult, because the player(s) are being pulled closer to it. If the player keeps running, the black hole will eventually disappear after a short time; however, if the player is unsuccessful at avoiding it, he/she will lose whatever ability he/she had and will take heavy amounts of damage. Notably, not even the Stone or Leaf abilities will protect the player from the black hole. Magolor will also cross his hands repeatedly and put them together to launch a powerful laser beam cannon; however, this attack can be avoided by staying out of its range. If somebody gets hit, though, it can go for as much as half a health bar. The boss will summon and fire more dark orbs at a faster pace. Magolor adds another set of protruding spikes to his attack along with faster-moving blue fire blasts. When his health is near zero, similar to the fight with the Grand Doomer, the only exception being that Magolor will protect himself with five shields (which creates one giant star shield), instead of four shields, which must be destroyed by using Super Abilities. Magolor will open three portals summoning three different enemies, one of which will be a Super Ability enemy. Magolor will then stand off in the background using his orbs against Kirby; however, with the Super Ability, they can easily be dealt with. After landing two hits with a Super Ability, Magolor will dispel the ability and will repeat the aforementioned pattern. The order of the abilities in Main Mode are Monster Flame, Flare Beam, and Ultra Sword. After destroying all his shields using the Ultra Sword, Magolor will rush to the center of the screen and attempt to recover a part of the shield: this means Kirby must now finish Magolor off with the Ultra sword. Climatically, Magolor will react instantly and try to repel the sword in one last attempt to save himself. Engaged in a deadlock, the player must shake the Wii Remote vigorously in order to have Kirby overpower him. If the remote isn't shaken enough, Magolor will push Kirby away and dispel the Ultra Sword from him. Otherwise, Kirby will deplete the last of Magolor's health bar and seemingly slay him, the crown-toting traitor exploding so violently it turns the screen white. (It should be noted that if multiple people are playing, a player without Ultra Sword can defeat him by striking him after Kirby breaks his final shield).

Second Phase
Seconds after Magolor finishes exploding, he is revived by the Master Crown into his second form: the real final battle against Magolor begins with him dispelling Ultra Sword from Kirby, unless the player willingly dispels it beforehand. Magolor will proceed to juggle and throw random enemies at Kirby from which the player can get another ability to fight. For his next attack, Magolor will create several star-shaped inter-dimensional rifts in different locations, which protrude large spikes after a set amount of time. He retains a few of the attacks that he used in the first fight, like the purplish-black orbs, black hole, and the beam cannon, which are still avoided in the same ways (although players should take note that the latter two attacks come out much faster than they did in the first battle). When he first warps into the background, Magolor can use a star-shaped inter-dimensional rifts to warp himself out of sight. From there, he will summon two inter-dimensional rifts in the foreground and try to ram the player by flying out of one and into the other. Guarding is ineffective against this attack. Magolor can also create a mass of darkness in the foreground, the shape of which is revealed when he draws it in white ink in the background, before it abruptly enlarges itself on screen.

At half of his HP, Magolor will begin using "dark" versions of the Super Abilities. He will first summon two large dark swords, portraying the Ultra Sword ability, which he will swing, first from the right side of the screen and then the left, or vice-versa, so the player must obviously go to the opposite side of the screen to avoid the strikes. Magolor will use his own version of Monster Flame's attack which attack from the left and right side of the screen, usually in the order left, right, or the other way around, and then both. The player can estimate where the attack will be coming from by looking at Magolor's location and his hand-gestures. Finally, Magolor can attack with his own dark version of the Flare Beam. He will hover in the middle of the screen and start gathering energy around himself (during this moment, Magolor is extremely vulnerable to the player's attacks and cannot retaliate for quite some time). After he has charged up enough power, Magolor will start bouncing around the arena as a large orb of shadowy energy, ricocheting in another direction whenever he makes contact with a side of the screen. After he has rolled around for a bit, Magolor will suddenly zoom off into the background and then try to quickly smash into Kirby and his friends, much like the rocket attack used by Metal General. Guarding will do the player no good against these attacks. Magolor will sometimes shoot his beam cannon through a star-shaped inter-dimensional rift. Then several inter-dimensional rifts will appear, with the beam cannon passing through them, so the player must be outside of its trajectory. He will continue to use a random assortment of his normal attacks and dark Super Abilities until the last of his HP is depleted and the battle is won.

Extra Mode


In the Extra Mode, Magolor EX's attacks are frequently more potent. As with the Main Mode battle, Magolor's first and most common attack will be to create three or more spherical projectiles to fire at Kirby; however, these projectiles are now fired much faster than those fired by his Main Mode counterpart, and they are now red with a more unstable appearance. Magolor EX's paint spike attack now shoots out green, cactus-like spikes (which curiously resemble 02's weakpoint from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and mirror one of Marx's attacks) and his blue fire blasts are now orange and significantly larger. Furthermore, Magolor EX is more careful with his aim, often firing leading shots so as to get Kirby trapped in the middle of the screen to get hit by a fifth blast. Magolor EX will summon Ice Sphere Doomers that are considerably larger than their appearance in the original battle.

Upon half his health being depleted, Magolor EX will pull out his black hole attack. The black hole is now a gloomy brown and it will wipe out around 3/4 of the player's health if it manages to suck somebody in. It does not pull any harder than its Main Mode counterpart, making it just as easy to avoid. After firing off two sets of the projectiles instead of one, Magolor will prepare his laser attack. The laser is now brown with white flecks in it and is slightly larger than the original. The laser deals more damage should Kirby or somebody else get hit by it.

The largest difference to this battle, however, is the Super Ability section. When Magolor surrounds himself in a golden, near-impenetrable star-shield, it will take the combined strengths of the Snow Bowl, Grand Hammer, and Ultra Sword abilities to obliterate the shield and finish off Magolor EX. He now seems to be aware of the need to avoid being hit by the super abilities. When coming to the foreground while Kirby has Snow Bowl, Magolor EX will use a strong gust of wind to push Kirby away. If Kirby does not hit him fast enough, he will start firing Ice Sphere Doomers at the party. The Sphere Doomers will instantly be defeated if hit with Snow Bowl. While Kirby is wielding Grand Hammer, Magolor EX will teleport off-screen and cause several portals to appear in quick succession on the floor; the first few will release a projectile which will turn into 6 that all go off in different directions if not destroyed immediately. Magolor EX will rise out of the last portal and either launch four projectiles straight above him or try to use his paint spike attack. Only Ultra Sword is unchanged from its original use. However, Magolor EX will increase the number of projectiles.

Once again, upon having his shield completely obliterated, Magolor will rush to the middle of the screen. To avoid having Magolor recover a piece of the shield and having to repeat the process of destroying the shield piece, Kirby must strike Magolor EX with Ultra Sword (in multiplayer, however, any form of dealing damage is sufficient). Much like in Main Mode, Magolor will grab the sword and try to push it away just before it is about to hit him, so the player must quickly shake the Wii Remote to bypass Magolor EX's hand and slay him. Upon defeat, Magolor EX explodes with his hexes being added to the explosion. This is possibly a subtle foreshadowing of his second form, known as Magolor Soul.

Personality
No strong evidence of Magolor's true intentions are shown until Kirby and the others reach Halcandra. Magolor is an adept speaker who acts very politely, giving Kirby encouragement whenever the player visits him in the Lor Starcutter. He also appears to be very friendly at first, and tells Kirby that he loves Popstar so much he doesn't want to leave it (interestingly, the latter is true). Once Kirby gets the Master Crown, however, Magolor completely breaks cover and turns into a cruel villain whose only goal is to conquer the universe. Magolor has no remorse using his Lor Starcutter (that Kirby just rebuilt for him) against Kirby and Landia, nor for shooting them down after the Lor is defeated.

Strangely, in Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition, Magolor remembers what Kirby did to him but doesn't seem particularly disturbed by it. In fact, he builds Kirby an entire theme park to make up for his evil actions. This gives further credence to the hypothesis that Magolor was corrupted by the power of the Master Crown (although exactly when this occurred is harder to determine): however, it's also possible that Magolor had finally grown remorseful for his actions, which may be evidenced by Magolor Soul's pause description describing him as "a sad shell", suggesting that he no longer wished to fight Kirby.

Etymology
Magolor's name was based on the word magic, referencing his magical abilities. It also coincides with the Lor Starcutter. His Japanese name is pronounced similar to mahoroba, a Japanese word meaning wonderful place.

Related Quotes
"Magolor deceived Kirby and stole Halcandra’s legendary treasure, the Master Crown! It’s up to Kirby to save the universe."

- VS Magolor

"Magolor stole the Master Crown and the Lor from their sacred resting places on Halcandra. He’s a liar and a wizard… Defeat him!"

- VS Magolor EX

"Hi there! My name is Magolor. I'm from another dimension, but I just love Planet Popstar. I can't get enough of it! Things got a bit hectic when I first arrived, but that's all in the past, thanks to Kirby. To make up for all that fuss, I built Kirby a theme park right here in Dream Land! It's got special stages where you can play with different Copy Abilities. You know, some of those stages can be a bit difficult... Hmmm... Oh, but I know YOU'LL be just fine! Why don't you try to clear them all? You can even face off against me in some of the stages! Hee hee hee...! So, what do you say...? Are you ready to check out my amazing theme park? Let's go!"

- Magolor

Trivia

 * After 120 Energy Spheres are collected, Magolor explains the details of how he acquired his ship. However, speaking to him a second time will have him tell Kirby that he has heard of him much before their fateful encounter. In the Extra Mode, he goes into more details with both, loosely recalling the events of Milky Way Wishes—and stating that there is someone that he knows in particular who knew Kirby fairly well. This person is speculated to be either Marx, Galacta Knight, or someone else entirely.
 * Many of the character models and concepts from Kirby GCN ' s development cycle were carried over from Kirby's Return to Dream Land. Magolor's first boss form resembles the unused design of Kirby GCN ' s final boss. Both have long, sculpted horns, a shadowy face and body, no visible mouth, glowing eyes, and red clothing.
 * It also appears that this final boss's concept inspired Magolor Soul's design to some extent, as the two share a similar color scheme.
 * The final boss's concept art depicts the character as being colossal in comparison to Kirby, as Sword Kirby can be seen in the bottom left corner of the above image, along with a Golem.
 * The Lor Starcutter may very well not be his own ship, as one of his battle quotes (from Magolor EX) implies that he stole it from somewhere. After collecting every Energy Sphere, he will reveal more info on the vessel and claims that he 'excavated' it from the volcano Landia lives in.
 * As mentioned above, Magolor EX has a hot pink/purple accessory below his eyes that is presumably his mouth. However, taking a look at the eye textures for Magolor EX show that this is simply the area around his eyes.Magolor EX.png
 * Magolor Soul has an eye that resembles Dark Matter's eye as well as the large "stomach eye" King Dedede gained when possessed by Dark Matter. This may suggest that Magolor came under the influence of Dark Matter or Zero at some point.
 * The level before the fight against Magolor is similar to the inside of Galactic Nova from Kirby Super Star/Ultra, which Kirby went through before fighting Marx in said games.
 * Like Marx before him, Magolor shows up in the front row of the unlockable "Kirby Master" video for 100% completion. He applauds the cast in spite of his defeat.
 * Magolor, Dark Mind, and Queen Sectonia are the only final bosses to have more than two forms in one game.
 * In the third phase of the battle with Magolor, when he throws enemies at Kirby, he will always send out an enemy containing the copy ability Kirby used before having to discard it to use the Super Abilities to destroy Magolor's shield.
 * Magolor's battle theme during the second phase starts with a heavy remix of Dark Matter's theme from Kirby's Dream Land 3, followed by a portion of the Squeak Squad's theme from Kirby: Squeak Squad and finally ending with 02 battle theme from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
 * During the third phase, parts of Milky Way Wishes can be heard.
 * It's unknown if Magolor was evil all along and sought the Master Crown for its power, or was simply being manipulated by the artifact itself, as Magolor Soul's pause screen description describes him as a "sad shell" of the Master Crown's power.
 * It is also unclear whether Magolor was already powerful before he obtained the Master Crown or whether his powers stemmed entirely from it, as Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition reveals that even without the crown (which is presumably non-existent at this point, its shards having faded with Another Dimension's demise) Magolor is still capable of spawning normal enemies and even firing large energy projectiles akin to those he fired during the battle against him in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and Magolor EX's pause description describes him as "a liar and a wizard," implying that he may have already had a significant amount of power before seizing the crown.
 * In Extra Mode, Magolor explains how the Lor Starcutter was built, and says it was the same power that gave rise to "clockwork stars." This hints at a possible connection to Nova.
 * The battle with Magolor seems to contain references to almost every previous final boss. The Lor segment is a shooter, like Dark Matter and Zero. In his first form, he teleports with a flash and sound similar to Nightmare and Dark Mind. He fires huge lasers and summons black holes like Marx. His final form has his mouth melting down, somewhat like Drawcia Soul. He also summons spikes, like Drawcia, and flies across the screen like Drawcia Soul. His Soul form has a red eye in his mouth, a trait often associated with Dark Matter. The eye in his mouth is also similar to Necrodeus's third eye (or 02's real eye). Visually, his first form loosely resembles Nightmare, and his Soul form resembles Dark Mind's first form.
 * During the battle against Magolor, a portal to Popstar is visible in the background. It starts on the right side of the screen and gradually moves toward the center. It grows rather quickly throughout the fight's multiple segments, eventually almost dominating the backdrop in the last phase. If the player slowly proceeds through the fight, though, he/she will be able to see the portal gradually growing larger.
 * Magolor is one of two bosses to have deceived Kirby for his own gain (the other is Marx).
 * If Kirby does not attack the enemies Magolor summons within a short amount of time, they will vanish into thin air in a manner similar to teleportation.
 * Hanging nearby Magolor's painting in Stage 3 of Wild World is a painting of Taranza. Both characters bear a strong resemblance to each other, and this implies that they are likely related members of the same species.
 * Notably, Taranza is shown to be capable of firing energy projectiles very similar to those Magolor fires during his races against Kirby in Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition.
 * Magolor appears in Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe during the C-R-O-W-N-E-D (Reprised) level, holding the blind curtain.
 * In the Kirby's 20th Anniversary puzzle in StreetPass Mii Plaza, Magolor's sprite depicts him with black skin rather than his usual brown. This sprite, unaltered, was reused for his keychain in Kirby: Triple Deluxe. The balloon sculpture Circus Kirby can make of him also uses black for his facial color, as does official merchandise of him.
 * According to director Shinya Kumazaki, Magolor was sent to a dimension beyond space and time after his demise at the end of Kirby's Return to Dream Land. How this happened remains unknown, but one can presume that Magolor was teleported rather than disintegrated upon his defeat.
 * Two sound files in Kirby's Return to Dream Land contain death screams that would have been used by Magolor. However, these sound files remain unused in-game, and cannot be accessed in the Sound Test either.
 * Magolor is the only villain who both has a soul form and is confirmed to have survived a final battle with Kirby.
 * The developers of Kirby's Return to Dream Land initially intended to make the scene of Magolor fading into light only viewable to players who collected every Energy Sphere. They ultimately decided to include it regardless of the player's total Energy Sphere count, as they felt it would be wrong to "leave Magolor's liberation of his crimes out of the main storyline."