#from a Kirby AU I'm creating :]

[princepinkart]

I will be your wings.

.

Transcription of my handwriting in the alt text

[jojo-schmo]

✿ Forgotten Land Roleswap AU ✿

✦ 3rd Anniversary ✦

I was hoping to get this Light Novel cover redraw finished by today, but I haven't been feeling well and ran out of time- but I still wanted to at least share this WIP and muse on how much things have grown during these three years, and how much this project has meant to me so far.

April 12, 2022 was the day I created posted the first doodles that would, unbeknownst to me at the time, germinate the idea that would transform into a passion project spanning multiple years. I had just finished Kirby and the Forgotten Land's story and slowly getting back into the Kirby fandom space for the first time in years. It had been a long time since a game made me feel as wonderful as Forgotten Land did. I've loved Bandana Waddle Dee since I first played Return to Dreamland on the Wii when I was a kid, and wished he had more opportunities to shine outside of directly supporting Kirby in the game. I also love "What If" and "Roleswap" AUs, so I considered what would happen if I swapped Bandana Dee and King Dedede's role in the game.

The posts didn't really get much traction at first, which was fine. But I kept going back to the idea after a few days and thinking about how to push it further. Instead of just swapping Bandee and Dedede, what if Dedede was Player 1 to increase the stakes of rescuing the kidnapped Waddle Dees? Dedede wouldn't have access to Mouthful Mode, so how would the gameplay work then? Instead of Kirby taking care of everything with his own Mouthful Mode, it could be more fun to have Meta Knight be Player 2 instead, and explore their teamwork dynamics and problem-solving methods together!

So I explored an alternative- Combo Mode! And developing and researching ideas for that lit a spark within me! I had to keep going after that!

Now I had to consider, if I'm already swapping around all the main characters, I'm starting to have an entirely new universe here! What's next to change up? For the heroes' companion, I felt like Elfilin wouldn't behave very differently in this AU than in canon, he would probably continue to be friendly and helpful and sweet. Which would be okay- but to make things more interesting for myself, what if I played around with the origin story of the missing pieces of Fecto Forgo and switched "Elfilis" and "Elfilin" around? That way there's new obstacles and possibilities there and maybe I can even surprise some people with the lore down the line!

Now I'd had my Dream Team shuffled around, a very different mysterious companion for them... And why stop there? Why not play with the Beast Council's roles too while I'm at it to make things even more interesting for myself to write?!

From the early days of this AU Project...

To my more recent work...

...Now here we are.

It'd been a long, long time since I enjoyed the creation process of anything for myself like this! I was coming out of some pretty hard times in the early 2020s, and in a lot of ways, this AU has been there alongside me during a years-long journey to get help for my mental health, to become more confident in who I am and what I can bring to the world around me, and to love myself. Now I'm the best version of myself I've ever been, and I can pour so much more into my art and writing, especially with this AU!! <3

AND MAN, does it feel good to see physical evidence of my art style's evolution side-by-side! Like comparing my first Light Novel cover redraw from 2022 with my current WIP!

Creating this AU has taught me so much about storytelling, the medium of comics, organization, and most of all, to enjoy the process and really push my personal limits in a positive way. I've met so many amazing people since starting this story, some of whom have inspired me in ways I never could've imagined. Some very key people have even helped me ponder different mediums to tell this story.... Some animatics... or maybe even more interactive storytelling...? I am slow cooking some fun ideas, dear reader....

This AU gave me the confidence to become more involved in the fandom space and find community among people who have taught me so much. I am so, so grateful for this project.

I know it's taken some time to get here. I still work full-time and now I'm pursuing a second bachelor's in hopes of a career change that will allow me more time to focus on creating someday. But for now, free time can be frustratingly limited for me. It's also taken this long because I've put a lot of thought into how to set up the metaphorical "dominos" in the forms of foreshadowing and world-building I want, to do my best to make the wait worth it for the future plot pay-offs and reveals I have planned!! I'm hoping to continue to pick up speed with updates as I increase my skill and solidify my master plan for this story... MUAHAHA....

I plan on seeing this project to the very very end, and I can't wait to continue this journey with you all. Especially with the announcement of Star-Crossed Worlds!!! I'm not too worried about it turning my AU lore upside-down quite yet since it's post-game content and my bigger lore drops are still a little bit away, so I have time to navigate that when it does drop :3

Thank you to everyone who has read, enjoyed, and supported this project in any way, whether it's a like, comment, reblog tag, dm, carrier pigeon, paper airplane- whatever!! <3 I love, appreciate, and am beyond grateful for every reader, supporter, and friend I've gained in the past three years!!

Cheers to a successful three years under my belt, and I look forward to the future!! By the end of this journey, I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

🫧 Love, Jojo T. Schmo 🫧

★○★○★○★○★○★○★○★

♫ Laughing loud! Even if you're far apart, they're right by your side. Hearts full of love! Everyone is welcome to live in this new world. ♫

｡⋆｡˚ ʚïɞ ˚｡⋆｡

[efy727]

Role Swap AU: Susie and Taranza

Hey, hey, hey, new roleswap au!

Ok, ok. I finally decided to post this. This thing is being in the works since 2023. I originally kept it to myself as I perfected the designs and story (and got swept away by other projects...) but here it is: My Kirby Role Swap Au!

It started out with just the idea what if THESE TWO swapped roles. Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot are some the most thematic heavy games, gardens and technology, fairytales and sci-fi, a kingdom and a company.

I kind of goes against my usual patterns, I usually show off main characters first, but I think this duo represents better my vision. I'll slowly showcase other characters whenever I get the chance.

Anyway, let me elaborate in my au versions of these characters.

Taranza:

A young inventor from a distant planet and a rather recent hire of Sectra Labs Inc., a company that specializes in biotechnology and bionics, that is genetic manipulation and mechanical enhancements. This company explores the universe to harvest new specimens for their experiments. In their travels, Taranza hopes of reuniting with an old friend.

When thinking about this au, I didn't want things to be just changing roles, but also a few story details and how they play out. So, I made SLI a bio tec company instead of a robotics one.

Taranza, then, doesn't use magic but his own inventions (he doesn't have any genetic alterations as he is new). I drew how electricity just bolts from his gloves, he also has invisibility and a sticky solution he can shoot. I also gave him these expressive goggles just because I like those.

In story, he is a bit peeved about having to deal with the interloper in his first planetary harvest trip; but we also get to see a dorkier side of him as he gushes about what he or the company has made to deal with the pink pest, I'm thinking Varian from Tangled.

But also, as the plot moves, he grows concerned about how intrusive the harvest process actually is as he joined for a legit interest of helping improving lives using processes of nature, like Joronia used to do. Oh, the pain he will find in the end.

Susie:

Through the islands of Crystalia descended a mysterious lady who captured Lord Meta Knight, but why? Whatever her mission is, she won't tell. Yet it's clear she will use any tricks to not let anyone get in her way. With her magic crystal, she can control the elements.

Oh Susie, Susie, Susie. I had this long conundrum. Ok, Tanzy has mechanical enhancements to replace magic, but in a way different to how Susie uses tech (it wasn't always like that); but how do I do something similar to Susie?

I came up with the wand, but that wasn't enough. This came up to me recently, but what if she could just create elemental armor around her? Something like how certain character does in Ninjago Dragons Rising; but is wind, is water, it can be anything! She does have other things too, like her crossbow.

She is a woman on a mission, but this time is Crystalia instead of Floralia. I wanted something natural and pretty, but that kinda aligns better with the characters involved. Kirby still has to climb the Dreamstalk using Sunstones, though.

Opossed to Taranza, Susie seems to have some sort of secret plan. She is less chatty, acts more somber. Could it be related to her being a wanted fugitive by the kingdom?

--

Ok, this winded up longer than intended. I hope you find my idea interesting. I'll get to more entries when I can, might drop at random days, I have other projects I want out. Could look up "EFY's Kirby role swap au" to find more entries... or just follow me (・・。)ゞ

Thanks for taking some interest!

[mrcaffeinatedisopod]

I am SO interested in learning about mad scientist Donnie. Do you plan on writing for him? Like his slow decent into madness after Timothy mutates? 👀👀👀

Oh mi gosh! I can't believe someone is interested in my AU stuff. Thanks for asking!!

Okay, so I will try to make this semi coherent—

*Puts on Yapping glasses*

Mad Scientist Donatello

I thought of Mad Scientist Donatello as I was planning out the arcs for my very self-indulgent OC, Maxine Santos, and the fanfic I'm writing for her. Since I don’t think there is much interest in OC x Cannon, I will likely not post the actual writing— unless I make a drabble just for him— but I can tell you more about him!

More info under the cut, line thingy?

Okay, so one thing that I feel is never properly addressed in the show is the whole Pulverizer/Timothy/Mutagen Man arc. While those 3 episodes are executed masterfully in my opinion and fulfill their narrative purpose, afterward, it's just... abandoned by the show? Everybody just forgets about poor Timothy's existence.

I always thought that was odd and that Timothy's mutation should have a heavier narrative weight on the story, especially on Donatello, since he feels personally responsible for the kid ending up as a blob of acidic mutant goo, so I really like imagining different scenarios for how this would affect Donatello.

The idea is that after some time traveling shenanigans from the Kraang and the turtle's interference, they accidentally create several "bad ending" style timelines for the turtles, each with a different twist, zombie apocalypse, Kraang empire, Footclan!Leonardo, and so on. Since my OC, Maxine, was the one to get caught in the crossfire, Renet— the time master assistant— is the one who requests her help to save those timelines before they become "fixed" and cannot be changed anymore.

In this specific timeline, Timothy actually becomes the second human ally for the turtles— the first being April, of course— because even though they think he is a massive dork, he keeps getting himself into trouble and the turtles have to save his butt every time. But!! Eventually, they create a friendship of sorts, they find out more about Timothy's life, and there's some angst, I haven't decided exactly what yet, but it explains why Timothy is trying to live in fantasy land and play vigilante.

So they have this sorta awkward friendship, and Timothy eventually does start to help out in missions, not physically, but he helps the turtles investigate things that they can't, such as gather intel from other humans, investigate weird stuff happening at the local high-school, and he is a very good gamer, so he controls metalhead before Donnie creates his AI— and he's pretty good at it!

Things are going pretty well for a while until Donatello gets kidnapped by the foot clan, and they're planning on dunking him in a vat of mutagen because evil ninja clan shenanigans.

Despite the other brother's warnings, Timothy follows them because he wants to help Don, things happen, and instead of Donnie getting mutated, Timothy does.

Donatello is overcome with guilt because he is the closest to Timothy, and that's what lays out the groundwork for his madness. He starts obsessing with finding the retromutagen, and every new bad thing that happens keeps pilling up on that until it breaks the cammel's back.

Then Kirby O'Neil gets mutated and April is much meaner about it in this timeline, then they find out Karai is their sister and right after that she gets mutated and tries to kill all of them, she mutates earlier in this timeline, too, btw.

And as if that's not enough pressure on our poor boy Donatello to find the retromutagen no matter what happens, the turtles fail on a mission where the Kraang were trying to use some kind of mutagen infusor on the crust of the earth, and it gets a big part of the city mutated. Leo gets double mutated and goes insane, Master Splinter ends up extremely injured after fighting a mutated Shredder, and April and Raphael are missing. April has been kidnapped by the Kraang, and Raphael has been brainwashed by the foot clan with the brainworm.

SO, at this point, Donatello absolutely loses his shit.

He starts to experiment on Timothy, himself, and his brothers and Master Splinter, because of it, trying to find the retromutagen, but because he doesn't have April's DNA, it's a fruitless task.

Donnie is so far gone down the rabbit hole that he spends long hours down in his lab ranting to Tim about his efforts to find the retromutagen, how he's the only one who can find a cure, his crush on April becomes 10x worse because he's grasping at straws to keep going, Master Splinter has been in a coma ever since his fight with the Shredder and is in no condition to fight even if he woke up, and Leo and Mikey are constantly being experimented on, and can't do anything to save Don from himself. :(

Don is constantly hallucinating April and Tim. His hallucinations for April range from weird self-indulgent and delusional romantic scenarios to her mocking and insulting him for being a mutant, and he believes that if he finds the retromutagen then everything will be alright. His hallucinations for Tim are mostly geared towards friendly banter, with the occasional lashing out when Donatello is going through a particularly bad episode.

Don gets frequent headaches from not eating right, not sleeping right, and the constant experimentation and stress and it's just generally very angsty because I love to put this man through massive amounts of physical and psychological torture :D

Anyways, that's it— thank you so much for asking!!

[george228732]

Hero of Dreams - Kirby of the Stars

I'm back! Time to make the the rest of the ref sheets of my AU! So it's time to talk about the protagonist.

Fun facts:

He has wings! His wings are based on the ones of a Swallow bird! They have little Heart Spear patterns on them because they're cute, duh!

He's the owner of the Heart Spear! It has the hopes he carries, along with the ones that the others carry on him! It's at the very least a memento of his that everything will be fine now.

This Kirby has reached full maturity, and treats his friends as family, and in the case of the Dream Team and Fylass, that statement is literal! He's child of the king.

He owns a replica of the mask Void Termina/Niru had, as a way to remember him, because they're technically siblings.

He's inspired by the story The Happy Prince, where a Swallow Bird takes jewels from a Golden Statue to give them to the ones in misfortune, being given to a Seamstress with a sick child, a Playwright too hungry to write, and a Matchseller that wasted all her matches, and thanks to that, the bird is sent to Heaven along with the statue when they die.

He's also owner of the Memento Vivre, that being the cause of his eyes looking like Meta's. This also made him lose all his powers but the ability to create Heart Spears, but gladly, this action untied him to destiny itself, saving him and his friends from a doomed fate.

Kirby is a direct reference and role of one of the Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony.

[brawlmetaknight]

Theories you say?

WELL!!! basically i tend to be a “BOTH meta knight and kirby were nightmare’s creations” believer lol. i like to imagine nightmare wanted to create the most powerful monster, so he made meta knight in the image of a puffball (since they were the most prominent star warriors/biggest threat to him) to specifically fit in and join their ranks to destroy them from the inside. but meta knight was too intelligent and developed a sense of morality of his own. he rebelled, and so nightmare created kirby using meta knight’s DNA, to surpass his old design and be the better, more improved version of the “most powerful monster”. meta knight caught wind of this and foiled him again, sending kirby to deep space to awaken as a star warrior when the time is right.

i just think it’s a bit odd how meta knight seemed to be expecting kirby on pop star. mentioning he knows “everything, or perhaps nothing” about kirby is also kind of an unusual thing to say. in one way he knows things about kirby because kirby was made from him. in another way he DOESN'T know things about kirby because kirby was created with more unusual, all-encompassing abilities than him. plus idk, they have the same kind of starship lol. like who put kirby in that starship??

obviously monsters have a main goal of destroying kirby (i guess mostly because dedede orders them), but there are some episodes where nightmare/customer service recognize BOTH kirby and meta knight as threats that must be eliminated. it kind of mega sucks for nightmare that his escaped creation landed on the same planet as his traitorous creation and now they’re working together, but he's also mega lucky kirby awoke too young. a bit of tit for tat lol.

though to be completely honest i mostly just like this concept because in the same way you could say nightmare was mk’s father, you could say mk is kirby’s father. i'm sure there are definitely plotholes with this theory but i still enjoy it, even just as an AU lol.

[magical-wishies]

Happy 2024!!

Time flies, huh? I'm so glad I got to draw consistently and I think I really improved a lot in such a short time span. Thank you all for the support, I love you all so much <3

I'm posting this exactly on midnight (Not really, but who's counting)! It's been a great year, and I'm so excited to continue drawing and just enjoying life from now on. Cheers! 🌅🎇

(Of course, I had to draw these two to celebrate :D)

Let's not forget about the artist recap everyone does!

A good line-up, I'd say! I'm satisfied with the improvement. Never thought I'd be getting to this point of skill, but here we are! (Lol)

Here are my artist goals for 2024, Kirby Edition:

1. Finish either a comic, two MVs, or an animation!

2. Add more storytelling to my drawings!

3. Create an AU and flesh it out!

4. Learn how to draw Traitor Magolor and Marx Soul (So i can feed you guys some food)

5. Branch out in terms of characters (I want to learn Gryll and King Dedede especially!)

I'm excited about the future now, so let's see how many I can do. That'll be a wrap for this post, wishing you all a Happy New Year!

[still-breathing-au-p3r]

Hello! It's been a joy reading everything you two have put out since the start of this AU and I can't compliment your characterization enough (I love both Junpei and Shinji a lot and the ways you let them shine how only they can have been so appreciated on top of the basis for the AU alone lol).

I wanted, though, to take a moment to compliment the way you write Minato in particular because I find it's so, so difficult to write him without feeling a slight dissonance or projection by the author (no flack for those who do, he just reads a very specific way in the game itself and tends to get OC-ified because it's hard to grasp onto that tiny bit of dialogue he actually speaks), but you guys grasp him in a way that feels so well and truly him: the absent-mindedness, the deal with the problem after you've created it attitude, the unwillingness to open a can of worms unless he Needs to somehow paired perfectly with the nosiness, the emotional shutdowns before he gets pushed to something like actually yelling, the subtle clumsy ways he cares... I've been raving about your work to friends who have no idea what a Persona is just because of scenes like his anthropology habit. And the way you've fleshed out his dynamic with Shinji is absolutely brilliant with the threats that fly over his head unless they're about handling fresh seafood and Shinji himself seeing him as this brat who is nonetheless impressive in so many qualities. So thank you for bringing to life what I consider the best version of him pulling from his best canon showcases!

Sorry this got so long, but if you don't mind me actually asking something now, having read your beautiful headcanons about the differences between everyone's elemental attacks and healing (which I have also been raving about to people), and knowing you guys are also big fans of Kotone, do you also have a breakdown of how her attacks and healing might contrast with Minato and everyone else in a Reload setting?

(omigosh you have NO idea how much this ask means to us. it's funny, because before we started this au, mina was actually one of my least favorite persona protags, just because of how...bland he seemed? he didn't have the chad energy like yu or the unhinged decision making like joker, or even the interesting way he dealt with his depression like kotone)

(and then we started fleshing out his character and suddenly he became my second favorite protag (just barely behind joker). we started paying attention to his more sassy responses in game, and i think it also helps that in reload, his inner thoughts are in first person rather than in second person, like in the ogs. he feels like the most "silent" of the silent protagonists, but really only on the surface level)

(the deeper you go, the more you realize that this character, who basically cares about nothing at the start of the game, grows into someone who cares SO MUCH about everything that he gives his life for it. because even after someone is broken seemingly beyond repair, all it takes is the right group of people to put you back together again. it's incredible and it makes me cry every single time)

(we took a lot of inspiration of minato's character from the p3 movies, but also from characters like sunny from omori, or kris dreemur: the "silent" protags with to much personality that it's unreal)

(our version of minato means SO MUCH to me. and his friendship with everyone makes me so emotional. so all of this to say, thank you for the kind words!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm so glad someone appreciates how we write him as much as we do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) - Kirby

(Kirby hit the nail on the head with everything she said about Minato! We've gotten so deeply attached to him as a result of this project, and it makes us so happy that we're hitting the right notes with our portrayal! Thank you so much for this ask, you really did make our day!!)

(Also!

That is a super interesting question about Kotone’s elemental powers and I’m kind of amazed at myself for not thinking much about it before now??? Lemme rectify that!

Fire: Kotone’s fire magic manifests with an appearance almost like fireworks– multi-colored but tending to be dominated by bright, rosy-red flames.

Ice: Manifests like frost spreading across the surface of her attack’s target in snowflake-esque patterns.

Wind: It’s not hot or cold in particular, temperature-wise, but it’s particularly frenzied and erratic, changing direction wildly.

Lightning: In Kotone’s case, it might be more accurate to call it ‘electric’ rather than ‘lightning’ magic– it manifests like the target suddenly being beset by static so intense that it’s as damaging as a lightning strike.

Bless: The light generated by Kotone’s Bless attacks is a warm orange-pink like the light at sunset.

Curse: Kotone’s curse magic looks like nothing so much as hands– hands made of fluid-esque darkness that grab at the target, dragging them down, clawing at them, etc.

Healing: Kotone’s healing feels like sipping a hot drink, in comparison to Minato’s cold– a soothing heat that warms you up from the inside-out) - Lacey

[kuromipuzzles2000]

Welcome to my blog (i guess)

the name's Crystal, code-name: kuromipuzzles2000 and i'm...an amateur (?) artist not the best but i like to art actually, i love roleplay as well, i am a Mr. Puzzles and Shadow Milk Cookie! simp and i love them so much fr, fr....apart there's Kuromi and Spamton...oh! and here's my sona reference

i am an weird mix of aesthetic and pastel goth girl lover

i am 24, my birthday being on June 22

errr i'm mexican

I AM TAKEN (errr hasn't edit this post twice, no no)

i have many fandoms which are: Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, Animal Crossing, Cookie Run Kingdom, Among Us, Creepypastas, Bendy and The Ink Machine, Pikmin, Sanrio, Steven Universe, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, Undertale/Deltarune, SMG4, Star vs the forces of evil, Gravity Falls, Five Nights at Freddy's and a big etc

actually jobless

i have various mental issues, between these, that i get sad randomly and i feel unmotivated to do shit of time by time, be warned by that

my favorite holiday is Christmas uwu

i love cats and chocolate hehe

my main focus is SMG4 and would...rarely (until the SMG4 Hype goes down that gonna be when Mr. Puzzles disappear) draw of other fandoms, mostly i focus on my OC's only, not much on do canon art, my OCS are all based from Mr. Puzzles

my Mr. Puzzles ocs that had gave recognization to this blog:

SMGP (Super Meme Guardian Puzzles) the least Popular of the 4, belongs to #swap au, he is just simply a swap between SMG4 and Mr. Puzzles, Mr. 4's reference can be find on my profile, if you're in mobile just click my profile and search: "swap au" in tags, with a plot twist, he decapitated, no was born with a tv head already

🔥Trickster Mr. Puzzles🔥 the most popular of the blog, he is simply Mr. Puzzles but he engaged Trickster mode! (Trickster Mode from Homestuck) the first one on engage the Trickster Mode on SMG4 universe, he wants spread the Trickster Mode around the mushroom kingdom, and create the reborn of "Puzzlevision" but under the name of "Trickstervision"

Guardian of Popstar Mr. Puzzles, the 3rd popular of the blog, he is an Mr. Puzzles that had swallowed his pride and apologized and asked a second opportunity to SMG4 after had a strong fight with "the entity" . . .SMG4 just for get rid of him sent him to Popstar/Dreamland and now he is a father to Kirby, Kirby got very used and is happy to have a dad

🔥Mr. Puzzles: Trivia🔥 the second most popular of the blog, being the first transexual character i ever made, he is transexual female to male, Trivia is shy, nerd, aesthetic babygirl/boy (he is called babygirl by the fans XD), his apparence takes after Mr. Puzzles and Spamton G. Spamton, he is a dealmaker but very amateur, he lives on a very futuristic mushroom kingdom thanks to a strange group of scientists that came from future to stay, his ratings are stars and likes, he just is a chill guy who try to re-do his life after his father ruined it, he got a little friend group called "alternative fun gang" conformed by Strawberry, the neko Mario recolor, Noelle, Berdly and SMGS "Super Meme Guardian "Shadow""

Doll Puzzles, the freshly new AU addition! he is a real sized porcelain doll, approximately, 10ft tall (second shortest, the shortest is SMGP) he is mute and inside, it's a kid, that's why i rather you to refer him like Doll Puzzles or just Puzzles, since he is by inside a kid, calling him "Mr. Puzzles" would weird him out, he lives with SMG4 and his crew after live a hell on the now abandoned Drevis mansion very well protected and happy even if he still miss his parents! would you like to stay with him too?

rules:

suggestive is good as long as you no start a sexual shit on time line, if u want a +18 thing (of course being an adult) send me a dm

no ask for donations, please, real life subjects make me so nervous, and this is a art blog, i no want be rude, i just no want mix my art/vent blog with real life things of wars and etc

not be annoying or not use to sarcasm with me unless you do /joke, /silly OR XD at the end of a sarcasm, if you don't you'll have 5 strikes, you'll be blocked, i am very sensitive, i'll try do the same, even if my humor seems i am mad or something-

i am spanish, english isn't my main language, please don't judge my english grammar, or if you gonna do, do it respectfully

DON'T ASK FOR COMMISSIONS, I DON'T DO COMMISSIONS!! i accept art ideas and etc, if i do art i do it from the bottom of my heart and as a fanart for friends!

it's all you need to see my blog and follow if you want and decide stay by my side! thanks you for read, and hope you enjoy your stay!

[raccoon-crown]

DREAM LAND AU: The novate and the painter

Hi there! I know this particular page may be resulting confusing even to some Kirby Fans.

Let me explain a bit, in the Triple Deluxe arc, Charmy makes his first appearance but Maria has already been around for a while (once I'm almost done with this arc I'm going to explain where she started and some things this encounter would cause for her) but she has some reasons to be here.

Explanation under the cut!

As for Charmy, he is a Young pierce knight (those enemy bees in the Triple Deluxe game) and a really young one.

Pierce knights start at a young age as bronze knights and they keep progressing with time, and... Well Charmy is one of the new ones!

Even though he was excited to become a knight, he didn't do a good job because after facing Kirby Amy when she arrived in Floralia, he ended up becoming her friend.

He found her while she was looking for Taranza, the kid misunderstood everything and thought she was a royal guest, reason why he worked as a guide through her journey around the kingdom and began to discover many things the Queen had been causing.

By the moment they find Taranza, even though he doubted a little, Charmy decides to take Amy side and helps her to reach the almost the end.

At the end, for the treason, Taranza traps Charmy in a Web when they find him and King Knuckles to avoid him to interrupt the fight.

When Kirby Amy defeats both, she released Charmy but when the Queen appears both Charmy and Taranza are flown away.

Charmy is the one that Helps Taranza to return with the fruit of Dreams to help Amy recover in the middle of the battle against the Queen.

And for Maria besides her already being friends with Amy by this moment here are some things for this arc:

Remember when I said Taranza actually kidnapped not only Knuckles but also some other potential heroes around? Well, one of them was Maria (Not Meta Sonic because he was involved in other thing while this happened)

Why Maria? Well... this technically is a spoiler from another arc, but Maria in this world takes Adeline's place (and this arc is a little wink to the Ado theory). And she was one of the reasons why in Floralia were found many enemies from the past, because her powers bring anything she paints to live or make them real. (Yes in this world even if she is still a little delicate, she is not dying anymore) and since Taranza discovered that he controlled her to create monsters that could protect the Queen on the way.

Maria is discovered by Kirby Amy and Charmy almost by the end before the Battle with Dedede, and Kirby Amy set her free from Taranza's control.

By this moment Maria is too week to follow Amy, but staying behind helped her to catch a certain Spider and a Bee that were Falling from the top of a Building.

Also when Sectonia fuses with the Dream Plant almost by the end, it's Maria the one that creates some surfaces for Amy to step during the Battle with the Queen (She would have been able to do more if Taranza didn't forced to create tons of bosses before!!).

When Amy wins, Maria uses the remaining strength she had at the moment of to treat Jewel once the curse of the mirror has passed and gives everyone a moment almost passing out.

After all that, she becomes a good friend with the Floralians and accords to go visit again to help repair some of the destruction caused once she recovers.

As for the origin story for Maria, that's for some 'classic time' I haven't fully shown you yet

[hyperfixationsgoweeeee]

Made a thing for Trav that he uses on the regular. Basically, an easy way to see what universe is in danger and how severe it is and such. Infodump under the cut

So the thing that powers it is a dying universe since what do you know, he has to watch universes die sometimes. He got some of the interdimensional magic from it, which in the form it was gotten, it could be used for a universal device/universal travel. The main idea behind this is that an inherent magic that is within the Kirby universes is interdimensional, which in it's purest form, can be harnessed for universal travel and such.

Trav created that device after finding the dying Universe, making it his life to not allow anymore universes to die. Thankfully there haven't been any of them in quite a while...almost like the cause of it is unable to do anything...hm.

Anyways, for the logistics of this device, the two round buttons are basically an enter and backspace button, and the keyboard is modeled after the flip phones, with the two buttons on the bottom basically being an uppercase/lowercase button, and number/letters button. Then of course the arrows are for scrolling through the aus if needed or fixing something if he accidentally messed it up.

For the Universe IDs, if the way it's described a bit confusing, allow me to elaborate. Basically, the way it's done is an abbreviation of the Creator's User, a number which can be just a random number and/or how many aus came before it, then the letters are just little extras that can be anything, fandom, creator's user again, name of the character, ect. If you need an example, I'm gonna just use Ut Mago as one since I already thought of this with him, basically, his universe is identified as CB-02-ut, CB being in reference to "Cherry Blossom" with @cherry-blossom-qf's (Don't mind that I tagged you, I'm just sacrificing you using you as an example) user, the "02" is in reference to this being Cherry's second au, and of course, ut is in reference to the game Magolor was thrown into, Undertale.

Then of course, we have issue and danger level, these are self explanatory, issue is basically what's wrong, which could be many things, such as foreign entity, missing entity, reality warping, and more, with the danger level being based on how much danger is the universe in being destroyed.

So yeah! Basically TL;DR: A thing that helps Trav make sure the multiverse doesn't implode

[jojo-schmo]

hi jojo! im just wondering but ive been wanting to make a comic for a little while but im not too sure where to start 😅. i really love your style of art and your forgotten land roleswap, and i was wondering if you had any tips for beginners?

Hello, hello! Thank you for enjoying my Forgotten Land Roleswap comic, it means a lot! <3

I'm very honored that people have been asking me for tips and advice. All of this is coming from a hobbyist who draws these comics purely for fun outside of my regular day job. Some of my methods would probably deal psychic damage to a professional, LOL. But I'm more than happy to share some things I've personally learned! :)

First of all, the book, "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud ROCKS. It literally gave me a new dimension to understand the medium of comics and how it presents ideas and emotions to readers! And I haven't even had the chance to finish it all the way! I'm very happy I own a copy and I recommend having one of your own if you can, but it's archived here if you want to read it :D

I also like analyzing other comics and thinking about how they get information across to me as a reader. It's helped me learn more effective ways to visually tell a story, like what to include in a frame, how zooming in or out affects the feeling from the panel, maybe building a scene by focusing on other stuff if someone is talking a lot... etc.

ANYWAYS-! Some other tips I've learned through my personal experience-

I had to overcome a lot of negative self-talk in order to tackle a huge comic project like this and stay committed. I was a pretty severe self-deprecator for most of my life so far, and getting help has allowed me to catch myself when I'm slipping back into those habits, look in the mirror, and go, "NO, JOJO! You pour your heart into what you make and that is a wonderful thing! You are appreciated and loved and you deserve to have fun making something you are passionate about!!" Some examples of the negative self-talk I catch myself in....

"I'm a noob at writing and making a story interesting... What's the point of even trying?"

When it comes to starting a project, whether it's 2 pages or 2000 pages, is to just jump in and start! It's okay to be a little insecure or nervous about your technical art skills, writing skills, etc... But writing a "bad" scene is better than no scene- because you can always edit a "bad" scene down the line, but what can you do with nothing? Nothing!! I also put "bad" in quotation marks because I am trying to use that term less, and instead call them "early drafts." or "works in progress."

The first Roleswap scene I fleshed-out was the first Bandee boss fight, in May 2022. I made this drawing on an impulse, getting my ideas down on the page without thinking about the technical stuff like comic panel borders. I consider it like a "pilot episode" almost, haha. The final project is going to be very different from how things play out here. But it got me interested in the concept and excited to see where I could take it, and I made the decision to commit to an entire game plot's worth of AU comics!!

Also, what's the point in trying you ask? The point is to have fun! Making a fan comic in my free time means I don't have restrictions like deadlines, nobody's telling me what I can and can't write, and I can make the story as long or as short as I want! I have full control, which means the world I'm writing is all mine to create! Yes, with a fan comic there is a pre-established world with existing characters. But a universe like Kirby has enough open-ended concepts for people to take basic concepts in the world and take them to whole new levels! I think that's why there are so many amazing fan interpretations of Kirby characters and OCs. The rules are so vague, you can just make up your own a lot of the time!! And it's a wonderful exercise to learn skills for someday building an original world with all original characters from scratch! Magical!!!

"I'm not good enough to make a comic. I don't understand perspective or color and other stuff. Anything I make will look bad.

I once read a two panel comic on here. I can't find it anymore but I remember most of it. First panel showed the artist looking at what they're drawing on their tablet, looking defeated and sad. "Man, I don't even know how to draw this....."The next panel was like them smiling and shrugging, I think rainbows and sparkles were coming out of their tablet, ".....I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO DRAW IT SHITTY!! :D "

IF ANYONE KNOWS THIS COMIC I'M REFERENCING, PLEASE TELL ME AND I'LL LINK IT!!! Because it permanently and positively changed my brain chemistry.

No kidding, making the decision to just do my best even if it's not perfect, helped me a LOT. I was always waiting to "reach a certain level" to tackle a huge project because I felt like I'd never do it justice at my current state. Except I had been telling myself that kind of stuff for years and I still didn't start any projects!!

So the day I said, "Oh well! If I draw backgrounds shitty, then it is what it is! I'll learn from it and draw the next background a little better," Was the day I could commit fully to the project. I'll keep studying how to draw them better for my own benefit, but I won't let my skill issues stop me from even trying!

And for my limited confidence in full-color art, I solved that by making the comic in black and white with no-to-minimal shading lolol. Because I can only address one skill issue at a time before it takes me 25 years to finish this HAHAHA.

It saves a BUNCH of time to work with skill issues rather than against them! Because at least experience is gained in other ways, and who knows, maybe that new knowledge will help address the skill issues someday! So identifying your personal skill issues and deciding which one to try to grow stronger, and which one to work around, could help with big projects!

"Nobody will read this. I'm going to put months or years of my life into a dumb little thing nobody will even care about."

Learning how to draw for my own enjoyment instead of somebody else's was one of the biggest breakthroughs I ever made. Enjoying the feeling of being challenged artistically and just doing my best, even if it's not technically perfect, is the reason why I was even able to start this!

And just because someone doesn't directly like, comment or whatever on a post doesn't mean nobody saw it! I used to get really down on myself for the lack of engagement on my art on other websites.

I was a lurker for pretty much my entire teenage years and never posted my own stuff or commented much. But that didn't take away the fact that I really enjoyed the things I saw online. Those positive feelings were real to me, even when I didn't know how to articulate it in words. Granted, I grew up into a Words of Affirmation main, and I use words to tell people the positive things I think about them as much as I can! But I know not everyone prefers words to express themselves. So I think about the people that I don't know enjoy my work- that just because I don't see it doesn't mean I didn't make a positive impact on someone by sharing my stories.

THIS IS GETTING LONG-- UHHH, STORY TIPS!!

If you work best on technology, start building the story in a Notes app, or a Google Doc! If you work best with pen and paper, start a notebook and rearrange stuff as you need to!

Or if you're chaotic like me, a mix of tech and paper!! I bought a notebook with ring binding so I can remove and rearrange pages of drafts as much as I wanted to! Like here's two very rough concept pages of one Chapter 1 scene made months apart.

I'd say planning out the biggest basic plot points and then filling in between as I went was most helpful! I also have separate notes for character motivations, important story-changing events, etc... So I can have my own reference when I'm writing new scenes!

Okay this was a lot, sorry about the yapping! Hopefully it helps even a tiny bit. If you have any specific questions I'm happy to talk about my experience in the creation process! Or elaborate on anything I said above.

And finally, because I'm not a professional there are probably plenty of other tactics that could work better for some people. My ADHD probably doesn't help with the chaos of my process either, HAHA. But thank you for reading this far and enjoying the peek into the rainbow glitter and soap bubbles that inhabit the right side of my brain, heehee.

[theywerebothgirls]

while I'm delirious from my cold it occurred to me to create an au like if glee characters were streamers/youtubers:

- santana would be a criticism youtuber with gameplay in the background who always talks about controversies and things like that. A.

- quinn might be a game streamer, i see her playing puzzle games or RPGs. also according to a certain person she would be a lol player, which may be a possibility.

- brittany would be a nintendo youtuber, like most of her videos are playing animal crossing or kirby

- rachel would have a channel about musicals, movies and series where she would also criticize. she would probably live fighting with wantana. she would have an alternative channel where she would upload games but she is not that good at playing, I imagine a scene where they would send her to play fnaf and she would suffer horribly.

- blaine gives me true crime youtuber vibes.

- kurt would make videos of him putting on makeup while telling storytimes, occasionally he would play a game that was recommended to him.

- finn would be a streamer of shooter games like cod or halo. i don't see any other future. he would live in controversies because he doesnt know how to express himself well WISKSKS

[starflungwaddledee]

clearing my inbox of a variety of asks with text replies, or ones that will get art answers later but that i still figured i could get back to now with simpler responses in the interim.

lots of anons, but i'll ping anyone who i can!

topics include: general nice words + people's theories (thank you!!), dededesign, daroach (sorry), sentient ancient artifacts, magolor (sorry...), whispy woods (SORRY...). there's also a decent scattering of awtdy and clockwork heart tidbits but they're all over the place, and a small collection of increasingly desperate asks hoping bandee will be released from morpho dee 😂

oohh this one is actually super old, sorry that i never got back to it! i get a little overwhelmed by the Nice Words ones sometimes and i'm not sure what to say besides 'thank you!!' because it means a lot to me and 'thank you!' just sometimes feels like it doesn't cut it...?

anyway, i'm very grateful!! i'm thrilled if i could inspire you to try out any constructed-language work of your own!! i'd love to see more of that going on in the kirbyverse so if you ever give it a crack feel free to lmk!

i'm glad you like the full penguin dededesign; quite a few folks seemed to enjoy that actually and i was pleasantly surprised! i haven't drawn that much of most characters besides bandee, to be fair, but the next comic will be about dedede and should answer some of the other questions i've been getting about him too!

i should say that it's likely the totally full penguin design won't make it for the comic, because it's hard to draw the sheer length of their bills from many angles or having the expressiveness i need for dedede, and i really only did that one for funsies. but i'll hopefully find a nice compromise!

aaaa the joy of being mentally unwell about The Characters and The Story. thank you, glad i can be of service! 👍

this is quite perceptive of you to notice and it's definitely something that occurs in the timeline. due to galacta knight's influence (and kirby's altered reputation) visitors and threats- both international and intergalactic- start to think twice before risking an approach.

alas, because daroach appears in the timeline before galacta knight's switch-in occurs, he would already be in contact and friendship with kirby. that unfortunately means he'd meet the same fate as the rest of kirby's existing allies.

@i-only-created-this-to-read a little similar to the above ask, yes, the intergalactic picture of popstar is definitely changed by the presence of a violent, otherworldly warrior and a ruthless hero. i also answered your questions about necrodeus previously and am not sure what else to say about him.

i have confirmed before that dedede is not dead, and more about his scenario and overall role in the plot will be revealed in comics. but i will say that he's a smart guy, despite his silliness, and a loving king. he absolutely came to the same conclusion about the frequency of his own possessions as well, through no small amount of heartbreak.

i definitely headcanon the Lor as sentient; in the light novels, bandee also speaks to her fairly directly. i actually headcanon all the Ancient artifacts as having an amount of sentience (this seem in line with what we've seen in canon, so i don't think it's a reach) and the lor herself seems especially benevolent to me.

our headcanons for the novas are different to yours, though that plays more of a role in the clockwork heart au. i quite enjoy your theories about how the ending might go and you've definitely picked up some details!! i won't confirm or deny anything, but i will say the lor is present in the AU, and that magolor has enough knowledge of artifacts to know that a wish on a wishing star could be a viable solution.

it took a while for folks to start asking me about magolor actually, which i found kind of amusing because he's the deuteragonist (second protagonist, after bandee) of the au!

i do definitely think that canonically magolor lives on the lor starcutter; though he does say he wants to buy a holiday home on popstar! however in awtdy, unlike the dream land four three, magolor's entire timeline is trashed from the get-go by galacta knight's arrival

some of these answers will take me longer to get to as i'll provide them in comics (it should be a fun reveal at least), but i will say: he hates popstar. he hates it there. he'd give just about anything to be anywhere else.

until he meets bandee, of course.

the rest of popstar fare a little better or a little worse at various points in the au, kind of like in the mainline canon timeline. for the most part, galacta knight isn't that interested in most of popstar. he enjoys living there, it's peaceful and undeniably pleasant, and frankly he'd like to continue doing so!

he can be convinced (by kirby, and the maintenance of the lie) to perform care to some of its citizens when necessary- such as rebuilding after a crisis. but in general he minds his business in dream land, and occasionally off-world or interdimensionally with kirby and bandee on missions.

whispy, who also keeps to his own in the woods and is just a cantankerous old tree, is probably fine. at least up until star allies, when he, you know. gets possessed.

@pumpkinnkidd oh absolutely.

@torrentialchaos2 that would be a different story to chrysalis au, i think! one i could write, but haven't. chrysalis au is specifically about bandee, you can't really extract him from it? 😭 but if morpho possessed magolor it would depend on a lot of things: like what is everyone's relationship to him when it happens? i think even when he comes back from his redemption arc, magolor and the gang are friends, but it's not the same as bandee, who is a core member of their unit.

we've already seen what happens when magolor gets possessed and kirby has to Beat His Ass to get him back to normal. and we've seen that when morpho possesses others who are capable fighters, kirby doesn't hold back. so maybe that? magolor is a magical little guy; he's got a better chance of getting spat back out unscathed.

i could however probably write a version of this for magicapple if i wanted, which would be much more emotionally pulverising lmao

@trainerbob23 thank you!! this one took me a bit to respond to sorry, but i'm grateful for the warm welcome! the AUs are definitely my primary investment and i'm glad that folks are enjoying seeing them develop! some of them are connected to each other (awtdy + it's various endings/alts) but others are separate.

i also do have some backstory/lore for starstruck dee, which i'll hopefully get to soon as well. i would say that she is... very much related to stars and the cosmos, yes.

@eliastheownerof0axolotls this one was part of a longer ask (that i've answered part of, and still have another part of in my queue... sorry;; ) but i think this part- especially in terms of kirby- has probably been mostly answered by now! both kirby and dedede have significant roles!

i view dedede as having a mentor-like dynamic with bandee as well as with kirby, and they all care about each other very much! but (especially because they are all adults in my hc) he also absolutely trusts them to handle themselves.

referring to this post and the (cw angst) art at the end. i will hopefully answer some other asks about the clockwork heart au which will satisfy more of its overall premise and timeline and all, but in regards to the peculiar image...

why that picture is completely normal!! bandee is super fine and normal in it and everything is great and good and fine and fine and fine and fine!!! hhahaha!!!

(something very bad is happening, lmao. entirely doomed by the narrative.)

speaking of bandee being doomed by the narrative:

some tags here as well, but i just love the frequency of these...

bandee gets possessed one time and everybody loses it... quick!! when will he get unpossessed!!! save that little guy!!! he's sad so we're sad!! (relatable. everyone is so valid.)

the tags on the main posts about morpho dee are just full of people screaming and crying and being like "NOOO I HATE THIS SM I'M IN PAIN /pos" and it's so good hahahaha

sorry to the folks who hate to see him going through the blender, he's being spun in the microwave at like 90mph on my blog. but don't worry, chrysalis au does have a predictably good ending; though obviously bandee has some capital S Stuff to unpack afterwards!!

🌟⭐✨

aaand i think that's all for now! hopefully if you've been hanging out for an ask for a while you're answer is here, and if not (and possibly even if it is), it's most likely taking me so long because i want to do an answer with art.

i'll try not to let these build up again like this, thank you for your patience!

[cherry-blossom-qf]

Sketch Dump of the cat x tree first steps into their strange relationship.

Context: AU INFO HERE

--INFO DUMPING BELOW THE CUT--

The being was an awkward start. Magolor being terrified of Oakley and Oakley just being awkward with trying to make this work.

But just like Beauty and The Beast (a movie I reference a lot in this AU cuz I love that movie damnit), they got closer together once they got to know each other.

As you can tell from theses sketch dump, there's few benefits in this marriage (other than having a cool tree monster to protect you lol). Like learning the ability to absorb Dark Matter and manipulate it through magic! Aka, Dark Magic! (if you thought I was gonna have a better name for that, then you're wrong. this is a Kirby AU, not Greek Mythology AU)

And as you can see in the sketch dump, Magolor was able to use Dark Magic to create his Prince Form.

You see, as a kid, Magolor loved everything about the ancients to the point where he wanted to dress up like them. So with a little practice with Oakley and a more accurate description as to what the ancients looked like, Magolor has a new form that is.... well... 50% accurate. Magolor still wanted to keep his cute marketable charms while fulfilling his childhood dream.

Another perk to this is royal feasts every day! Which is breath of fresh air if y'all remember that my headcanon is that Magolor grew up on the streets. It's good to see the little guy get treated well. (perhaps i should make a post about my version of magolor's backstory, since all of my magolors have the same history and shit)

If you read all this, thank you for your time. I hope all this rambling made any sense (I'm still very dyslexic) and I wish you all a wonderful day!!

[dededaio]

Does Kirby's extended cast get underutilized?

This i something I heard a lot of Kirby fans bring up in recent years. That despite big cast of memorable characters, Kirby tends to shove them to the side in favor of introducing new ones and putting the older ones on the back burner never to be used again. But just how true this is?

Warning, rather big post ahead!

Let's take a look at almost all modern Kirby games (including spin-offs) and summarize how each of them treated the extended cast.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - re-established King Dedede and Meta Knight as the part of the "main four" of the franchise, introduced Bandana Waddle Dee into the main cast after his role in Super Star Ultra. Introduced Magolor. Referenced Wham Bam Rock, Dragoon from Air Ride and Marx via stone transformations. Galacta Knight returns from Super Star Ultra as a surprise boss in the True Arena.

Kirby's Dream Collection: New Challenge Stages (yes, i'm going to count it, since Kumazaki confirmed that Magolor moved to Dream Land when he reformed and this is so far the only game to actually show it), - but, yeah, we see Magolor again in a fairly major role, the first time he appears as a good guy with a bit of a trickster streak to him, suggested that he stayed in Dream Land after he gifted Kirby and co a theme park.

Kirby Triple Deluxe - cameos of a lot of characters from sprite-based games via keychains (of note, Magolor and Yin Yarn got special keychains with exclusive 8-bit sprite artwork), animal trio from Dream Land 2 appear as stage hazards in Kirby Fighters, Shadow Kirby appears as the final boss of Kirby Fighters, Magolor cameos as a painting in the haunted mansion level of the Wild World, the dimensional mirror and Dark Meta Knight return after the long absence. Introduced people of the sky, Taranza and Queen Sectonia.

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - Taranza is featured as one of Dedede's friends and supporters on the trophies and on the title screen. It was confirmed that the game itself is set in a theme park Magolor created for Dedede, Magolor himself appears in the final, most difficult, stage.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse - Bandana Dee is reinforced as Kirby's true P2 character, Drawcia is referenced and got a special collectible in a figurine, being one of the few spin-off characters to appear more than once alongside Yin-Yarn. Animal buddies are referenced in Kirby transformation sequences. Pon and Con get a cameo in Elline's diary as comedy show hosts.

Kirby Planet Robobot - Oh boy. This one. Well, we of course have a LOT of returning bosses from the past games, such as clones of Dark Matter and Queen Sectonia (giving us a glimpse as her original body before she transformed, adding a major lore revelation past her introduction), people of the sky and floralia are mentioned on numerous occasions in the pause screen descriptions, quite a few characters got brand new artwork via stickers (such as daroach, magolor and taranza). And the last but certainly not least, we have Star Dream which is one of the clockwork stars like Galactic Nova. While not exact same as Nova, it's meant to be of the same species as Nova and the reveal banks on you knowing that, so it's one of the most direct continuity nods in the franchise.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe - this game features, although AU versions, but still, of Susie and Taranza, and, unknowingly at the time, the same Magolor we already know and love in a different role entirely. Although it's technically different versions of the characters, I still count it, because it's still new game and new story that uses familiar faces.

Kirby Star Allies - i will die if i try to list everything this game has. but let's just say pretty much every mainline kirby game (and a lot of spin-offs) were referenced in some capacity, and 90% of major characters of all mainline kirby games are accounted for and PLAYABLE in this one.

Super Kirby Clash - Magolor is once again is the shopkeeper, AU Taranza and Susie have major roles once again, au version of NIGHTMARE of all characters is the main villain, technically making him the first antagonist since Dark Matter to appear in more than one game, King D-Mind returns by the virtue of this game being a sequel to the original Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, Galacta Knight re-appears as Aeon Hero, hinting at his origins.

Kirby Fighters 2 - Magolor and Gooey are playable characters, implied to be a part of Kirby's inner friend circle on the level of Bandana Dee, Meta Knight and King Dedede. The first spin-off to include playable characters outside of the primary main cast. Several newer characters such as Flamberge were referenced via unlockable costumes, as well as appearing (alongside her sisters) as stage hazards on the Jambastion stage.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - this is perhaps the first Kirby game on this list where I can't say they concerned themselves with referencing the past much. But that's kind of the point, Shinya Kumazaki described Star Allies and Forgotten Land as "sister games" and in this sense, you can say that SA got all the unsubtle continuity and references, while FL is definite step towards new original direction. However, it's still got a lot of subtle connections AND UNEXPECTED canonization of Morpho Knight. A character that was literally introduced a GAME AGO. It's also been heavily alluded that the civilization formerly inhabiting the New World is heavily related to the (eventually) Halcandran ancients, giving us a genuine glimpse at their culture. Even then, this game is the exception that proves the point. Lack of references and fanservice, or major character comebacks is this game's specific weird factor, not the rule.

Kirby's Dream Buffet - this is similar to Star Allies where there's a LOT of references to past games. You can pretty much dress up Kirby as almost every character in the series, including the likes of the Mage Sisters and newly introduced Elfilin from Forgotten Land.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe - Merry Magoland introduces masks which not only make it so all of the dream friends and helpers from Star Allies cameo in this game, as well as new characters from the Forgotten Land, they also make it so this isn't exclusive to purely playable characters. Giving us masks of Hyness, Queen Sectonia and Leongar. Magolor Epilogue is one huge mode focused on Magolor specifically, the first time such luxury been given to someone outside of the primary main cast. Said mode also references and alludes to a lot of games (including Dream Collection), as well as tying it towards Kirby Clash games in another unexpected continuity moment.

As you can see, not a lot of these roles are major, but it's not the main point I'm trying to come across. HAL remembers about these characters and definitely knows that fans love them and want more of them. It's simply the matter of building up the series from ground up after what essentially amounted to big hiatus in the 00s. Returning characters in another mainline game just right after they were introduced would be a tacky move that would be way too safe and complacent. Building up the cast was the right move and they are slowly but surely started embracing it more and more over time. Forgotten Land is distinctly only game in this list that mostly avoided direct returns and callbacks and it still got Morpho Knight.