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Soon, Dream Land will be wrapped around my knitting needles!
— Yin-Yarn • Kirby's Epic Yarn

Yin-Yarn is the main antagonist and final boss of Kirby's Epic Yarn and its 3DS port, Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn. He shares the name of the stage he appears in, which follows Castle Dedede and preceeds Meta Melon Isle.

He is an evil sorcerer from the world of Patch Land. He can manipulate most things made of yarn with his pair of wooden knitting needles, which are held in each of his hands. Yin-Yarn's true origins and motives are never revealed throughout the course of the game, and he comes across as a land-hungry villain ultimately seeking control of Dream Land, although he confesses himself that he is not sure what to do with it.

Physical Appearance[]

Yin-Yarn's body is made almost entirely out of yarn. He has a button for a nose, a black mustache, purple eyes, and a mouth that is always in a toothy grin with white strings of yarn representing his teeth. His nose also has three hairs rising from it, two yellow and one red. He wears a green hat with a yellow band on his head. He also appears to be wearing an orange poncho with an intertwining red and green design. He wears a green necklace with the stolen magic sock around his neck.

Yin-Yarn's true identity is the two knitting needles he wields, which are actually sentient and are brothers according to his Japanese Cast Description, with his body seemingly only being a disguise. One of the needles has yellow eyes and a single horn, the other has purple eyes and two horns, and also bears a frown.

Games[]

Kirby's Epic Yarn and Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn[]

Story[]

The story begins with Yin-Yarn wreaking havoc in both Patch Land and Dream Land, but his work in Patch Land was already done. He unleashed yarn monsters all over Patch Land, stole one of a pair of magical socks, and unraveled the pieces of magic yarn holding Patch Land together, splitting it into seven pieces. He used the magic yarn to create bosses to stop heroes from reuniting Patch Land. As Prince Fluff later explains, the magical socks function as portals to each other, but with Patch Land in pieces, that power is lost. Yin-Yarn's sock now transports his victims directly into Patch Land, which he controls, and turns them into yarn in the process, and Kirby became his first victim.

Yin-Yarn did all this in Patch Land so he could suck in the residents of Dream Land and make them work for him later, and it allows him to take over Dream Land with little effort. How Yin-Yarn made his way to Dream Land in the first place is not explained. He removed King Dedede from his castle and Meta Knight from the Halberd, controls their minds, and uses them to stop Kirby and Prince Fluff from reuniting Patch Land, which allows them to go to Dream Land and get to him. By the time Meta Knight became his victim, Dream Land is already made of yarn.

After the fight with one possessed Meta Knight, Kirby is saddened by King Dedede's account of how Yin-Yarn took over Dream Land, but with Patch Land fully restored, the magical socks regained their original power (including the one he stole earlier). Kirby, Prince Fluff, Meta Knight (now recovered) and King Dedede go into the remaining sock in Patch Castle in order to confront Yin-Yarn directly, but with Dream Land under his control, Yin-Yarn has already discarded his magical sock, so the heroes end up on a sock in a grassy yarn field instead. They eventually find Yin-Yarn anyway (by getting on his nerves with the Bells of Joy), and Kirby and Prince Fluff confront him in a final showdown.

Kirby and Prince Fluff succeed in unraveling Yin-Yarn and proceed to do the Kirby Dance, but they are interrupted when Yin-Yarn's knitting needles reveal their sentience, and create Mega Yin-Yarn from Yin-Yarn's magic yarn to stop them. Meta Knight flies over all of them and drops a metamortex, giving Kirby and Prince Fluff their Tankbot form, and they proceed to decimate Mega Yin-Yarn. Kirby and Prince Fluff revert to normal after passing a reel gate, trap the scared knitting needles between them, toss them to Patch Land, and finally finish the Kirby Dance.

Dream Land shortly reverts to normal and the ending sequence plays.

Battle[]

SSBU Yellow Kirby See also: Mega Yin-Yarn

Initially, Yin-Yarn re-knits Fangora to stop Kirby and Prince Fluff, and then Capamari's second form, along with his Octopeas. Both bosses only require a single hit to defeat, and the strategies with their battles remain the same as before, except Capamari does not use his tentacle surge.

Right after the defeat of each boss he created, Yin-Yarn drops a curtain in front of Kirby with a single door at the top, and sends endless Soochers in set patterns behind the screen to try and hurt the heroes. The heroes can jump on the stitching left by the Soochers and reach the door above to get in front of Yin-Yarn's curtain and end the sequence.

Yin-Yarn later removes sections of the floor and sends in Scarfys, Buttonbees, Bow Waddle Dees, Uniclods, Chillys, and even Big Waddle Dees in an attempt to knock Kirby and Prince Fluff off, but the heroes can make yarn balls out of most of these and toss them at Yin-Yarn, which brings him to the ground and exposes his weak spot (a large button) to attack.

Etymology[]

Yin-Yarn's name is a portmanteau of "yin-yang" and "yarn."

His Japanese name, アミーボ・アモーレ (Amībo Amōre), comes from the Japanese word for knitting needle, あみぼう/編み棒 (amibō).

Related Quotes[]

This sorcerer uses his knitting needles to weave his evil all across Dream Land!
— Cast Description • Kirby's Epic Yarn

Trivia[]

  • In the English version of the game, Yin-Yarn's true identity is only hinted at through the progression of the final battle, while in the Japanese version, it's made more explicit through his Cast Description, stating that the two knitting needles are brothers.
  • The first part of Yin-Yarn's Japanese name is the same as the collectible figurines, amiibo.
  • During the battle there is a swirling black mass in the background. In the mass, one can see the Halberd, Meta Melon Isle, and Patch Castle, among other things. This is the case even if the player has not unlocked the two bonus levels, Battleship Halberd and Meta Melon Isle.
  • Yin-Yarn's possessed victims' eyes turn purple, the same color as one of the knitting needle brothers' eyes.
  • Yin-Yarn is the only final boss in the Kirby series so far to have facial hair.
  • Yin-Yarn is one of the three final bosses to resurrect previous bosses, the others being Necrodeus and Drawcia. However, Drawcia does not resurrect bosses during the final battle, but during several events of the game.
  • Just like Drawcia, Yin-Yarn transforms Kirby’s world, as well as Kirby's design and battle style.
  • Yin-Yarn does not directly attack in his first form; all of his attacks consist of resurrecting bosses or summoning enemies to attack Kirby.
  • Yin-Yarn appears as a collectible keychain in Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
  • Yin-Yarn and Void Soul are the only bosses in the Kirby series to completely flood the originally land-based arena with liquid.
  • Yin-Yarn's theme (and Mega Yin-Yarn's in addition) was composed by Jun Ishikawa using his regular electronic music style, in contrast to the acoustic instruments used in other themes. This was done intentionally to surprise players during the final boss.[1]

Artwork[]

Gallery[]

Sprites[]

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