The fluttering fiend that casts judgement upon final battles is drawn toward the isolated isles of Forgo Dreams. There, it feasts on the most powerful soul it finds and takes the fearsome form of a scarlet-clad knight... Let the most challenging battle of this new world begin!”
Morpho Knight is a spherical creature with black skin, white glowing eyes and no mouth. He has yellow shoes and gloves and red sparkling butterfly wings on its back. His armor is red with black ornamentations and silver-white shoulder pads with a red swirl on both of them. His mask has horns which resemble antennae. It wields a sword that looks similar to Galaxia, but it has a red and gold coloration with a butterfly pattern on its handle and capri colored jewels on both sides of the sword's blade. What appears to be a blue gemstone can be seen on the handle, which has a thin black line across it, giving it a similar appearance to a snake's eye.
While Morpho Knight EX's physical features remain the same as his original incarnation, but the color scheme has been altered to a mostly black body with a red blade, eyes and wings, and purple highlights on its mask and shoes. His blade also has an eye that resembles the ones marking Void Termina's weak points.
In its initial appearance in Kirby Star Allies, Morpho Knight lacked arms; His appearance in Kirby and the Forgotten Land gives it arms like Meta Knight and Galacta Knight.
General Information[]
While most information is left ambiguous and mysterious in the English versions of Morpho Knight and Morpho Knight EX's pause screen descriptions in Kirby Star Allies, the Japanese versions give more details about what Morpho Knight actually is. The butterfly that is seen before Morpho Knight's birth is described as a "butterfly of paradise". It's said to appear after something perishes, arriving to bring about judgement day. This essentially means that the butterfly is an ethereal being of judgement that decides the fate of the souls of the dead. The butterfly is also stated to have the ability to cross dimensions into other worlds. Morpho Knight himself is seemingly formed only when a butterfly of paradise absorbs a soul that outlasts death through sheer power.
In Japanese mythology, butterflies are often associated with death and spirits, where they are sometimes believed to be guides of the spirits of the dead that take them to the afterlife, akin to a psychopomp, and seeing as how Morpho Knight is a butterfly, this appears to further its association with death.
Morpho Knight appears as the final boss of Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!, with the boss title of Reborn Butterfly. After Galacta Knight, the greatest warrior in the galaxy, emerges from the dimensional rift created by Hyness, a butterfly flutters down from another dimension and resonates with the "screams of the many years spent living" that Galacta Knight has brought with him. It then absorbs Galacta Knight's power, seemingly disintegrating him in the process, and is reborn as a "knight of the underworld".
Morpho Knight EX is the form Morpho Knight takes when it has mastered its new abilities after amplifying the power it has inherited from Galacta Knight to make it its own.
Battle[]
Morpho Knight[]
Morpho Knight behaves just like Meta Knight and Galacta Knight in that he uses sword attacks, but his sword is imbued with fire. If the player or friend has a Sword ability, Meta Knight, or Dark Meta Knight, they can deflect its sword attacks by attacking it, making their swords clash and causing it to flinch (though the friendly Sword wielding character will also flip backwards as if they were hit with a basic attack). However, one unique move Morpho Knight has is its ability to teleport. Additionally, Morpho Knight can fly to both sides of the screen, charging its sword, and emitting two giant ghostly faces. Also, Morpho Knight can charge and release sound waves from its wings that turn the leading player's friends against them, similar to what the core of Void Termina does; a Friend Heart must be thrown at the confused friends to return them to the leading player's side. Morpho Knight may also slice forward and then up, trapping Kirby or his allies in the air while performing a single-target, multi-hit 16 slash attack on them before slicing them back onto the ground, dealing massive damage. Morpho Knight will be temporarily invulnerable while performing this attack, and will not take damage until the attack finishes. Also, in its second phase, it creates a second sword, teleports to one side of the screen, and enlarges one of them. It then swings it forward, similar to Ultra Sword, damaging anyone behind it or in front of it. It then repeats this on the other side. After that, it teleports to the center, enlarges both swords, and swings them down on each side. Morpho Knight can also teleport around the arena releasing sound waves whenever it appears. In the second phase, along with emitting two ghastly faces, it can instead emit one huge ghostly face, then fly to the other side of the screen and summon another one. Additionally, it can create one to four tornadoes, depending on how many players there are, that head into the background and then charge into the foreground one at a time, similarly to Meta Knight's and Galacta Knight's Mach Tornado.
Morpho Knight appears in The Ultimate Choice. He appears in the original three highest levels of difficulty (Fiery Showdown, Infernal Crisis and Soul Melter).
Morpho Knight EX[]
Morpho Knight EX appears as the final boss of Guest Star The Three Mage-Sisters: From Prayers to Hope, as well as the penultimate boss of The Ultimate Choice's Soul Melter EX difficulty, with the boss title of Dark-Winged Disaster; he retains many of his old moves, but uses them at a faster rate and teleports more often. It should be noted that when he teleports, he leaves behind a small wave that can damage Kirby. Some of his old moves have also been altered to deal more damage or more difficult to avoid. Instead of releasing two medium-sized ghastly faces from his sword, he releases a large number of smaller faces that sweep across the battlefield in an arrow formation or a wave formation. He also gains Parallel Meta Knight's counter ability, but instead of retaliating with a swipe of its sword, Morpho Knight EX responds with his trapping aerial slash technique, which is far more damaging. When Morpho Knight EX is preparing to swing his enlarged swords, he summons small vortices that pull Kirby and his allies towards the area where the swords will strike, making it more difficult to evade the swings. Finally, instead of creating a number of tornadoes proportional to how many players there are, he summons five tornadoes that remain in the background before one at a time charging into the foreground.
Morpho Knight appears as the final boss of Isolated Isles: Forgo Dreams, usurping the role from Soul Forgo, with the boss title of Fluttering Dream Eater. After his initial defeat, the player is given a Blueprint for the Morpho Knight Sword.
Story[]
After traveling throughout Isolated Isles: Forgo Dreams and collecting all the pieces of Leongar's soul, Kirby and Elfilin make their way to Forgo Land, where Leongar's body is kept. They revive him with the collected pieces and celebrate before his mind is taken over by Soul Forgo. Kirby battles the possessed beast and knocks Soul Forgo out of his body. Soul Forgo prepares to do battle with Kirby, but a butterfly flutters in from nowhere and lands on their face before absorbing their soul, allowing it to become Morpho Knight.
Upon defeat, Morpho Knight vanishes into light and merges with Soul Forgo and the souls of the Beast Pack they absorbed, creating Chaos Elfilis.
Battle[]
Morpho Knight retains most of his various moves from Kirby Star Allies, though he has been altered to accommodate the 3D environment. Morpho Knight teleports around, slashes with its sword, and can fire crescent-like waves. Sometimes, he might teleport away for a few seconds, then appear right next to Kirby before slashing at him. Morpho Knight can do his sound wave attack like normal, but due to the friend system being absent, getting hit by it distorts the music and tilts the screen sideways. This is designed to throw the player off and make it harder to dodge its attacks. The player can recover from this effect by landing a direct hit on Morpho Knight. Also, Morpho may immediately attack if the player attempts fighting it while its guarding.
One of his new moves is to teleport to a corner of the arena, cover his blade in flames, and swing it, creating an expanding wall of fire that will sweep the whole arena. The wall can not be jumped over save for a small section of smaller flames. His ghost face attack has been altered: Morpho Knight will summon a single face in the shape of Soul Forgo that will purse Kirby for some time while it does its other attacks; at low enough health, Morpho Knight will summon two. Morpho Knight also can summon a group of Ground Twisters in various formations.
When Morpho Knight reaches 50% health, he will begin his second phase. He will start by enlarging its swords. The attack is similar from Star Allies (albeit in 3D), with one major difference. When Morpho enlarges both of its swords, he teleports to a corner instead and strikes them parallel to the sides of the arena, creating flaming trails on impact. The two trails then close in on each other, forcing Kirby to jump over them. Staying in the middle won't work, as they expand vertically when the flames impact each other; Kirby must jump to the side to dodge it. Morpho then follows up with multiple sound waves, and will try to predict where Kirby is going to move to catch him off guard. Morpho Knight ends this by charging up some more then unleashing a giant sound wave that covers more area and lasts longer.
After this, Morpho will fight as normal, but with some of his attacks enhanced. Its flame wall attack may be done twice, it uses more elaborate patterns for its ground twisters, and it's more unpredictable in its teleportation.
In The Ultimate Cup Z EX, Morpho has access to all his attacks at the start of the battle (except the giant sword attack), and the attack patterns are altered to make them more difficult to dodge. Most notable of these changes is that Morpho goes on extreme defensive and teleports away if attacked while in guarding stance. Others includes warping before spawning an even larger ghost that also periodically fires a slightly smaller soundwave for 3 times, 3 smaller ghosts spawned without teleporting, and upon reaching second phase warps around spawning 4 regular ghosts in pairs (1st time immediately follows with the enlarging swords) with the previous ghosts being doubled too. Its yet to be confirmed whether Morpho's 2nd phase soundwave spam attack had been altered.
Related Quotes[]
“
On the day of judgment, this fluttery fiend will fly into action. Brought into existence by "the greatest warrior in the galaxy" and reborn as a knight of doom through years of adversity—now begins an epic battle with a pure being twisted by a dark past.”
Come judgement day, this fluttery fiend will fly into action. Will it land in a dream world, or a nightmare? It has mastered its new abilities, now all will witness its true power!”
— VS Morpho Knight EX • Kirby Star Allies
“
A sword that resembles a butterfly of paradise. Legend says it strikes a bright flash.”
Before the final battle, a fluttering fiend arrives to cast its judgment. This dangerous weapon grants that form to any who wield it. For Kirby, handling this power is...a breeze.”
Morpho Knight's name may hold multiple meanings. "Morpho" means "changed" or "modified", referencing how the butterfly transforms into Morpho Knight upon making contact with Galacta Knight and Soul Forgo; this is also a reference to the process of metamorphosis through which caterpillars transform into butterflies. Morpho is also a genus of tropical butterflies, although this is likely a coincidence with regards to Morpho Knight's name, as Morpho butterflies have ocelli (eyespots), which Morpho Knight lacks, and Morpho butterfly wings don't have tails, unlike Morpho Knight's. Its name may also be derivative of Morpheus, a god associated with sleep and dreams, in reference to its boss title of Fluttering Dream Eater.
His Japanese name, バルフレイナイト (Barufurei Naito), may be a portmanteau of Valkyrie, バルキリー (Barukirī); and butterfly, バタフライ (Batafurai). ナイト (Naito) simply means knight.
In Other Languages[]
Names and etymology in other regions
Language
Name
Definition, etymology, and notes
バルフレイナイト
Translates to Valfrey Knight.
Morpho Knight
冥蝶騎士
Translates to Underworld Butterfly Knight.
冥蝶骑士
Translates to Underworld Butterfly Knight.
몰포 나이트
Translates to Morpho Knight.
Morpho-Knight
Same as English but adds a hyphen between "Morpho" and "Knight"
Morpho Knight's battle and birth are not canon in Kirby Star Allies, since these events only take place in non-canon sub-games; however, its battle and birth in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, as well as its role as a being of judgement, are canon.
Trivia[]
The original artwork of Morpho Knight
Morpho Knight's design was first shown in the Japanese 20th Anniversary booklet. Because it was shown in Meta Knight's section, many assumed it to be a beta design of Meta Knight. However, in a Nintendo Dream interview with Shinya Kumazaki, he confirmed that the design was originally for an entirely different knight that would have appeared in the cancelled Kirby GCN.[1] Morpho Knight's design remains unaltered in Kirby Star Allies, though the wings slightly differ, and Morpho Knight's sword is different from that shown in the concept art.
While the English localization of Star Allies was unclear whether or not Morpho Knight is the butterfly itself or a fusion between it and Galacta Knight, the Japanese version clarifies the butterfly was reborn as Morpho Knight by Galacta Knight's pleas for life. This is further evidenced in the description for the Morpho Doomhelm in Super Kirby Clash.
Morpho Knight is the first character in the main Kirby games to originally appear as a non-canon boss, but become canon in a later appearance.
Morpho Knight's butterfly form is nearly identical to the orange butterflies that are seen in several of the newer Kirby opening and ending cutscenes. Whether Morpho Knight was of those butterflies, in particular, is unknown.
Morpho Knight's battle theme has a similar beat to Meta Knight's battle theme from Kirby Super Star.
When playing as one of the Dream Friends in Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! and the Soul Melter EX difficulty of The Ultimate Choice (though in the latter, this only occurs if there is one player, any more players will result in the default theme being used instead), different music plays while fighting Morpho Knight. As such, Morpho Knight has a total of 12 different battle themes, which is the most in the Kirby series.
"Butterfly of Judgement: Morpho Knight", Morpho Knight's default theme, plays normally.
"Battle of Nightmares", a remix of "Final Boss" from Kirby's Adventure, plays for King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee.
"Dark & Cloudy", a medley of "Real Dark Matter" and "Cloudy Park", plays for Rick & Kine & Coo.
"VS Marx — Star Allies Dream Ver.", a remix of "VS Marx", plays for Marx.
"Dark Matter in the Hyper Zone", a remix of "VS Dark Matter", plays for Gooey.
"The Girls Who Fought the Darkness", a medley of "Zero Two Battle", "Miracle Matter", and "Ripple Star: Stage Select", plays for Adeleine & Ribbon.
"Dark Mirage", a medley of "Boss Battle Theme" and "Final Boss (Second Form)", plays for Dark Meta Knight.
"True Squeak Squad Theme", a remix of "Squeak Squad Theme", plays for Daroach.
"Supreme Ruler's Coronation - OVERLORD", a medley of "C-R-O-W-N-E-D", "Dangerous Dinner", "Fly, Kirby!", "Limitless Power", "Road to Victory", and "Sky Tower", plays for Magolor.
"Phantom of the Moon Soul", a medley of "Sullied Grace", "Fatal Blooms in Moonlight", and "The World to Win", plays for Taranza.
"A Deus Ex Machina from Childhood", a medley of "Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection" and "VS Star Dream", plays for Susie.
"Oracles of the Threefold Glint", The Three Mage-Sisters' boss theme, plays for The Three Mage-Sisters.
In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, "Morpho Knight", a remix of "Butterfly of Judgement: Morpho Knight", plus hints of "Running Through the New World" and "Welcome to the New World!", plays during his fight in Forgo Land and The Ultimate Cup Z. "Suite: The Star-Conquering Traveler (Movement 4: The Birth of Hope)", Void Soul's boss theme from Kirby Star Allies, plays during his fight in The Ultimate Cup Z EX.
Each update of Kirby Star Allies had Morpho Knight's arena getting a revamp in design, which can be seen when fighting him as a Dream Friend in Star Allies Go! and Soul Melter. The alternate arenas contain familiar locations in the center pool.
In the Wave 1 arena, Hyper Zone from Kirby's Dream Land 3 is visible in the pool.
In the Wave 2 arena, Dark Star from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is visible in the pool.
In the Wave 3 arena, Another Dimension is visible in the pool. This arena is also the default Morpho Knight EX arena in Soul Melter EX, regardless of character.
In Super Kirby Clash, an armor set and sword based on Morpho Knight and his sword appears as an armor and weapon, respectively.
Some of the concepts for Morpho Knight's sword resemble the eye and talons of the Master Crown (particularly around the sword's guard).
In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Morpho Knight's sword glows in the shape of Galaxia during some attacks. This may be a technical oversight, as Morpho Knight's animations and attacks are based heavily on Meta Knight's.
Any souls absorbed by Morpho Knight don't appear to have any effect on his physical form, as it took on a knight-like appearance after absorbing Soul Forgo, who has a fetus-like appearance. However, it may have an effect on some attacks, as Morpho Knight's ghostly face attack from Kirby Star Allies is changed to a ghostly Soul Forgo in Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
Morpho Knight is the only character to usurp the role of secret final boss in a game's Extra Mode twice. He usurped the role from Galacta Knight in Kirby Star Allies, and usurped the role from Soul Forgo in Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
Morpho Knight is the only character introduced in Kirby Star Allies to appear in Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
Morpho Knight has either appeared or have been referenced in some capacity in every Kirby title for Nintendo Switch except Kirby Fighters 2.
Morpho Knight EX is the only non-final boss in The Ultimate Choice to have a splash screen that appears in the mode.
Initially in Kirby Star Allies, whenever Morpho Knight teleports and is defeated, his whole body glows in a bright orange hue. After version 2.0.0, only its sword glows during those moments.
Alternate arena when playing as DLC Dream Friends in Version 2.0.0. Note that Hyper Zone from Kirby's Dream Land 3 is seen in the pool.
Alternate arena when playing as DLC Dream Friends in Version 3.0.0. Note that Dark Star from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is seen in the pool.
Alternate arena when playing as DLC Dream Friends in Version 4.0.0, as well as the default arena in Soul Melter EX. Note that Another Dimension is seen in the pool.
.png "Morpho Knight EX (image-webp).png (594 KB)")
