#Everyone go to Youtube and search Kirby + HEXL right now!!

[desultory-novice]

Continuing the fine trend of talking to myself... 1/2

Dess Plays The Ask Game With Myself!

003 Marx

How I Feel About This Character: 

...Very Soft.  I do like Marx as a troll and his delightful role as an unhinged villain, but maybe it's all the Pixiv fanart, because I also legit see a lot of deeeeeply concealed melancholy in him. Whether it's the potential for hand-envy in a world full of hugs and snuggles, or him being a tsundere little gremlin unable to say "Hey do you want to be friends already or what?!" so he kicks people in their little orb shins and runs away instead, or his feeling like a complete outsider in the too peaceful kingdom of Dream Land, even though he deeply, desperately loves the place enough to -literally- wish on a star to make it his own...as a whole, it’s just very endearing to me.

Any/All the People I Ship Romantically With This Character: 

...Romantically? Magolor. I already ranted about this but Magolor is one of the very small group of people I could ever see Marx opening up to. And Magolor is only one he’d be like, “Omg, you like <conquest/black holes/tricking people> too?! I love you!”

My Favorite Non-Romantic Relationships For This Character: 

Kirby-Kirby-Kirby....Also Gryll, who I headcanon as Marx’s adoptive sibling. Speaking of headcanon, I also HC Drawcia as Marx’s magic teacher, so she and her sisters are his extended family too, at least in my personal Kirby-verse.

My Unpopular Opinion About This Character: 

I don't know if it's unpopular but I definitely don’t like "Marx is just a psychopath" as a take. Also, are there people out there who really think his diabolical plan caused that much damage? Because I don’t think it did. I mean, Kirby stopped it, so obviously (and Marx would have been an AWFUL god if he had succeeded, though I also see him growing bored of it eventually and just giving up on his domination of Popstar, had he won) but if you’re going to say that him messing with the sun and moon caused, like, horrific tidal problems that displaced hundreds of Cappys and Dees...you know the moon BLEW UP in NiDL right? His impact on Dream Land in Milky Way Wishes was canonically so low that King Dedede doesn’t even know who he is.

Lastly, I think this one is only unpopular by virtue of me being the first/only one (?) to propose the idea, but I am completely mentally stuck on the idea of Nightmare and Marx being deeply connected/Nightmare being responsible for Marx’s creation.

One Thing I Wish Would Happen / Had Happened With This Character In Canon: 

...Just confirm that Marx canonically survived the events of Milky Way Wishes already, damn you! If he is the person Magolor is talking about, that conversation would almost have to have happened post-Super Star. How else would the semi-planet-locked Magolor know Marx and Kirby fought unless Marx brought him that news himself?! Bring Marx back into the larger universe of Kirby characters again. He seems popular enough in merch lines.

Favorite Friendship For This Character: 

Marx and Magolor teaming up to slowly drive poor, gentle Taranza insane. Also the crack friendship I made up consisting of Marx, Adeleine, Ribbon, and Dark Meta Knight. Two peace-makers and two uncontrollables that are really just tsunderes beneath the propensity for aggression. It’s a fun matchup.

My Crossover Ship/FREE SPACE: 

Marx actually scared the heck out of me when I first saw him and I stopped playing Kirby for a little bit because I didn't know it was "...a scary game." (My sweet summer child years...) Only later would I come back around and realize he checked all my boxes for a favorite character. Oops!

Oh, and because this is the only place I'm going to get to talk about it, I want to rave about how amazingly beautiful スーパー膝太郎’s Marx AMV “HEXL” is?! 

If you’re a Marx fan, and you haven’t seen it, look it up on Youtube, please! You really need to see it! It’s in Japanese but I’m about to explain the “story” so...

Okay, it’s about Marx playing Super Star on NSO and he gets to the Heart of Nova pause screen and it says (this is 100% true, but only in the JP version) "...Hurry up and beat that clown so you can eat up and catch some zzzs!" That's not exactly literal, but it is that level of “lulz” casual about Marx.

(Note: Using screenshots like this feels like reposting the art, which スーパー膝太郎 expressly forbids, but it’s tricky to talk about this part without at least one screenshot, so everyone be good, okay...?)

Marx sees that description and is like "...wtf...?" He’s shocked that he’s barely even a road bump to Kirby. Less important than food and naps. So he reaches the boss fight and decides to -not- press any buttons so the in-game Marx will win and he can watch Kirby get beaten up. And it feels good! ...at first. Because Marx also wants friends. Marx wants to be understood for who he is.

He keeps playing the game/envisioning himself clashing with Kirby and winning, but Marx realizes at the end, more than anything, he just wants to be seen - even if that means embracing his role as the "villain" defeated by Kirby's "hero."

So at last, he presses continue, resolves to start playing the game for real as “Kirby” and defeats "himself" in-game and just...

...all the sudden it cuts to an alternate version of their real battle and this time, Kirby stops right before finishing Marx off and he holds him in his hands and just  -looks- at him and smiles understandingly, and a conflicted Marx smiles too at last, but he's crying and ahhhhhhhhhhh...

And at the end, when Marx sees Kirby again in Star Allies, he really does seem at peace with his role as both villain...and friend. It is such a great Marx take!