| “ | When the Jamba Hearts rained down, Meta Knight set out alone to protect the Sacred Square. Ah, but he was turned by the dark power of the hearts...and reborn as a deviant corruption of his usual chivalrous form!” |
| — VS Parallel Meta Knight • Kirby Star Allies |
Parallel Meta Knight is a boss in the Kirby series, debuting in Kirby Star Allies. He is the Another Dimension counterpart of Meta Knight.
Physical Appearance
Being a parallel counterpart, Parallel Meta Knight has a similar build to Meta Knight apart from his colors. Parallel Meta Knight has a black, spherical body with stubby arms that have digits. He dons a pale golden mask that covers his face, leaving only his red eyes visible. He wears crimson pauldrons that have a yellow lining on his shoulders, with Meta Knight’s emblem on his left one. He wears white gloves with silver plates on his hands and bronze sabatons on his feet. He also wears a brown cape with black trimmings that can transform into two brown, bat-like wings, which enable him to fly. His Galaxia that he wields is bronze and has a ruby imbedded in its hilt. When his mask is broken, Parallel Meta Knight is revealed to have a face similar to that of Kirby’s.
General Information
Parallel Meta Knight’s origin is misinterpreted in the English localization, where it states that Parallel Meta Knight is Meta Knight himself, consumed by darkness and reborn as a corrupted version of his normally chivalrous form. In the original Japanese version of his pause screen description, it is stated that, after Meta Knight was freed from a Jamba Heart shard’s possession by Kirby and friends, the shard was cast away into Another Dimension along with Meta Knight’s own spirit, creating Parallel Meta Knight as a result. Together with Parallel Woods, Parallel Kracko, and Parallel Dedede, they are known as “The Otherworldly Four Kings,” which is not in the English localization.
Games
Kirby Star Allies
Parallel Meta Knight is fought in Dimension III of the Heroes in Another Dimension sub-game, serving as the third boss and as a harder version of Meta Knight, with the boss title of Otherworldly Frost Blade.
Parallel Meta Knight has more powerful variations of Meta Knight’s attacks. He can swing his sword at foes as any other sword wielder, but he can also perform a move called Hyper Rush, where he rapidly swings his sword before finishing with a Crescent Shot. He can jump into the air and perform Air Crescent Shot, firing three Crescent Shots at the ground, and can perform a Shuttle Loop to ram into the player. He can also perform the Triple Crescent Shot, performing three slices, each producing a crescent-shaped Sword Beam. When jumping over someone, he can perform a Down Thrust or a Knight Spin. Parallel Meta Knight can charge up in order to perform Upper Caliber. If anyone is caught in this attack, they will be sliced multiple times before being sent plummeting to the ground. He also has the Galactic Counter; if anyone attacks him while performing his counter, the attack will be blocked and Parallel Meta Knight will quickly slice them. Parallel Meta Knight can guard in order to block attacks as well, receiving no damage when hit. The Sword ability, Meta Knight, and Dark Meta Knight can also parry his sword attacks, leaving him stunned for a few seconds.
Much like Meta Knight, when his health is depleted halfway, Parallel Meta Knight will split into copies of himself equal to the amount of players (except if there is only one, in which he will split into two). Immediately after splitting, two knights will perform Air Crescent Shot. If there are three knights, the third one will Down Thrust, and if there are four, the other two will perform Shuttle Loops. Then, two Parallel Meta Knights will create a dark energy-like orb that they then fire at the players to capture them, similarly to Taranza’s web attack in Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. If anyone is caught, the orb will slowly damage them. After a while, the Parallel Meta Knight will slam the captured character on the ground, which is a signal that he will soon throw the orb, along with those in it, at the opposite corner, damaging anyone in its way. During the battle with the copies, each copy assigns himself to a certain part of the arena for certain attacks, acting as if they were a coordinated team. Two knights will stay on the ground, while any others will predominantly attack from the air. The ones on the ground will perform most of Parallel Meta Knight’s previous moves, while the ones in the air perform Air Crescent Shots or Shuttle Loops. The Parallel Meta Knights then fly into the background after fighting for a while and raise up several boulders with their dark power, where they next throw them into the foreground. The boulders land in stacks in four, and the knights proceed to jump into the air in order to slice them, with a streak of light showing where they will land. If they successfully slice the boulders, two small rocks will be left behind that damage anyone on contact. However, if the player destroys the boulder stacks before the Parallel Meta Knights can slice them, the respective Parallel Meta Knight will get his sword stuck in the ground for a period of time, leaving him vulnerable to attack. Soon after the attack, the copies fuse back into one, and Parallel Meta Knight uses his previous attacks. Parallel Meta Knight can now create tornadoes as well, however, 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. When splitting into copies and flying into the background once again, the Parallel Meta Knights float down from the sky and charge at the player three times before raising boulders once more.
Trivia
- Despite being titled as “Otherworldly Frost Blade,” Parallel Meta Knight has nothing to do with ice. However, this may reference the fact that “frost blade” is a figurative way of saying “sharp blade” in Chinese literature.
Concept Artwork
Gallery
