Ask Guru Gobbo #72

0) I probably should have removed that first part as it surely will confuse more people than it will inform. I just guessed it was created on paint. It looked to have single pixel width lines, no aliasing, and appeared to be comprised from tools readily available in Paint. One really could have made it in Paint, but your method was undoubtably easier. ... or at least more productive.

1) Animal Friend Creation lasted some month or two. Of course, a large part of that was just dead time of me not wrapping it up concisely. I would say, certainly, it won't be over any time before November. I like to give these things time to allow people to learn and complete their entries. Unlike the Weekly Polls, this thing can dry up really, really fast.

2) Everyone has had the idea of "Create an Ability". That's the forefront of fan creations in Kirby fandom, I'd say. Being that alpha dog, I really don't want to pull that ace out too soon and would rather have it packed nicely up my sleeve. The whole Interactive Fandom contest notion is just wetting its feet, after all, and I'd like a bit more steam behind it before that flood gate is opened. Because, believe me, it will be a flood gate. A horrible, horrible flood gate full of the most overpowered, non-sense, über powers known to man and puffball alike. Yeah, I definately want to establish more trend and regulation before that day dawns.

Anyhoo, I don't yet have solidified what's next on the menu. After all, to me, this one just started. I worry about things at the eleventh hour. Life's more grand that way.

3) Bebebe sounds like a horrible fan character. Whether or not it is the same one you speak of, I remember hearing the name, at least once, in some plain awful fanatic fiction. I believe "King Bebebe" was the grandfather of King Dedede and father to "King Cecece". Thoughtful. I don't even think any of them really had point to even be mentioned.

The only inspiration ever revealed about Kirby was how his appearance came from a place holder graphic. As for the name, abilities, color, and all that other stuff, nothing is concrete. People have speculated, but Sakurai won't spill the beans. I guess that's why none of the characters have their origins clearly explained in the games. It's how the protagonist was born!

Wow, that's convenient. Much as was just covered in Question #2, origins are never really explained. Things just are. Not everything has some big, fancy origin. King Dedede has hammers. He also has robes, gloves, and a castle. How or why he has any of them is never stated or even attempted at being explained. The Warp Star is much the same way, outside of the animated series. There, I believe, it was some type of power source for Star Warriors or something like that. Not specified so not bothering with.

Now, while nothing has really been said about the Warp Star in the games to this point, but it is suppose to be a key plot element in the "upcoming" Kirby Wii title where King Dedede steals it away. Maybe they'll cover a bit on it or, more likely, completely ignore any such background or plot information like has been done for the past sixteen years. My money is on that latter pony.

To my knowledge, "Galacta" Knight is the most widely used and accepted nomenclature for the newest of the masked roly poly. I believe he is referred to at one point as "Galactic" Knight on one screen, but this should only be a one time occurrence. I've never played it, and there's not exactly an endless supply of information caches laying around, official or fanatic, for me to validate this information, so I'm really just going by what I've seen more from fans.

1) Mega Mushroom? Is that the one that makes you become really big? I haven't followed Mario games, realy, since World (sue me, I don't have the systems). Well, a good stab in the dark here, would he become big? Probably.

2) Never played it, couldn't say.

3) This question is technically flawed in its very nature. It makes since, in a way, to ask for a comparison of all the Game Boy titles Kirby had, but Game Boy Advance was a wholly different system. It literally is like comparing an 8-bit NES game to one of the last SNES titles released. It's unfair and improper to do so. Amazing Mirror has no right to be there. Now, again, I really can't judge this list when Tilt 'n' Tumble, a title I've never played, is incluced. But, even when taking all those out, there's Dream Land 2, which has been numerously stated to be my favorite Kirby title. So, if out of all Kirby titles, I pick 2 as the champion, what would make the assumption plausible that, given a more limited pool to select from, my answer would vary? That's right, folks, Nightmare in Dream Land is the best. Best at sucking!

4) Outside of the obvious graphical difference, 64 lacks Animal Friends while picking up a new means of power combination. It has Bomb as an ability in place of both Parasol and Clean. 3 gives Kirby the possibility to summon Gooey for help while the other allows the player to hold up and throw enemies. That's all of the basic game play differences. If you want to know every difference, we'd be here all day, and I, for one, don't want to nor will do such.

You know, I hate to say this, but... you have a point. Originally, I had this giant spiel written up about, "Oh, that's total bull. Such over-the-top, stupid plots are the stuff of fan fictions, not in-canon game story lines." However, the more you look at it, the more the possibility seems to be. I am not saying it is the case, just that the doors of possible routes isn't locked tight to such an option. If it is taken that Meta Knight is a more aged, developed member of Kirby's kind, like how it was in the animated series, it would fall into reason that Kirby could develop traits like Meta Knight. After all, where did those wings come from? Galacta is pink, and Kirby was the only one, theoretically, who had ever bested Meta Knight, making him the strongest warrior by right.

And that's where it, too, falls apart. If it was Kirby, future Kirby who became more powerful than Kirby ever was, then how did Meta Knight, who could never beat the puffball before, suddenly best a superior version of his adversary? He obviously didn't wane with age. It was the best the galaxy had to offer. That's where it all shakes and breaks down at.

This answer has a follow-up in Session #80

1) I say sashimi is better. Let's combine the two.

2) I hadn't considered the entire "Star Warrior" angle. Let me join you in that shutter. As I've mentioned before, the two worlds of Kirby and animated Kirby are being drawn together. They're trying to incorporate aspects from the other franchise to "help" the game series. I had only considered Galacta being a masked puffball since Meta is the same, but it makes sense that he could be a foot in the door for having a more "Star Warrior" based thing going. Hopefully not. Hopefully, he was a one time thing, and he can be forgotten about like a bad dream, a bad dream I call "Kirby: Right Back At Ya".

3) By right, Kaboola's name is exactly the same. Either spelling is the same pronounciation and is acceptable as a romanization of the given katakana. The same thing happened a while back with Mr. Frosty. One of the games, for no real reason, made him Mr. Flosty. There's an R/L swap in Japanese, but when it's obvious what letter is suppose to be there, there isn't a problem. Apparently, these translators never heard of frost before. Anyhoo, the change from "oo" to "u" is technically a more accurate reflection of the truth spelling of how the name would be translated. It's possible that rather than sticking with the old naming convension, they felt sticking "truer" to the Japanese spelling/name would appease otaku losers. That's right, I'm attacking them unprovoked now. Take that, ya gits. * kick, kick *

4) Rolling Turtle was ugly, yes. I know I use to hate the guy. Phan Phan gives me more nightmares, tho'. There's just something about half an elephant that's unsettling. Anyhoo, I think Phan Phan is more in line with the character design seen in Kirby games. He sure comes across as a lot cuter. Phan Phan about simutaneously debuted in the animated series and the game series, at least on a backstage, production angle, which leaves the impression that it was engineered to incorporate the two media. But, you know, they took out Bounder for a flapping pig's head. I don't think they had much reason behind their actions.

Nice. I couldn't quite tell if that was you or not. I, um, didn't really pay attention to the source. What was with that whole "Mex" thing, anyways? Was he part burrito?

Anyhoo, as for the limbing in Canvas Curse, the only explanation I can think of is a lack of consistancy. There's a traditional dying animation used in all the games, even Dream Course. They probably put it into Canvas Curse before or without realizing the limbless plot. That, or when you died under the spell of Drawcia, your limbs came back so that the comical throes of death could be seen. After all, what good would it be without them?

1) No. I've answered this question a few times before, have ignored it more than that, and don't feel like digging through the archives myself for such an ambiguous answer. He'd eat stuff, there'd be chaos, bla bla bla.

2) "Seems like"? No, I quite specifically state such, claiming that the whole character model used in the animated series were nothing but "armed bowling pins that should be shot in their ugly anime faces". Okay, I didn't say all of that. It's still true.

3) The egg would have to have come first. The chicken couldn't really hatch out of anything without the egg. Whatever jungle fowl eventually developed into the farming staple sure didn't give live births until the genetics of a chicken were compiled.

What comedic timing for this question to have arrived.

1) I would think the name is more just a reflection of "galactic" than anything else. He is the most supreme warrior in the galaxy, after all, making him, in ways, the "galactic" knight. He doesn't have any real connection with Meta Knight's animated series' sword's name. In fact, he doesn't even wield a blade of his own. This dude packs a lance. So, unless the stretch is made between the fringes on Galaxia's edge looking like the features in his wings leading to the harebrained assumption that Galacta Knight is the sealed presence within Meta Knight's sword in an alternate dimension, which is thirty-one flavors of crazy, made-up, total garbage, I'm sticking my guns on "space" being the root cause.

2) An easy solution to that problem is to, you know, just not ask a question until there's something you want to know.

3) Secretly, he's you.

1) The first half is easy to answer. Poppy Bros. Jr. didn't give the bomb ability prior to, and sometimes after, Super Star since it didn't wield bombs. You can't copy an ability from something that isn't displaying it. Broom Hatter, of course, throws this solution out the window. Thus, I call upon the "he didn't know better" answer. The gluttonous hero just didn't know there was anything to take from ol' Hatty. However, once he saw more sweepers than the familar gumdrop and an actual need for cleanliness, he said, "I bet I could copy that." Later on, he just recalls how worthless an ability it was and passes on taking up the broom in later titles... for the most part. After all, he didn't copy anything in Dream Land I, so in non-game terms, it'd be assumed that he had to learn or realize he could mimic certain abilities. And, in retrospect, I could have probably said that to begin with. I mean, he doesn't take Bounder's ability to climb walls and hurl stars, right? That's an ability, but Kirby can't copy it. However, nothing's saying that he couldn't later on.

2) The Laser Ball phenomenon is about the only case of that. I guess Chilly and jumping from Freeze to Ice is another half-case. Normally, these power jumps are never too broad. Much like condensing Burning and Fire into one and Freeze and Ice into another, Laser and Beam are the other odd mash up. The foe still is, after all, shooting out a beam, just not in the same manner. Of course, nothing in Super Star is really a direct reflection of what the enemy does with all the variations of execution.

3) Sparky isn't suicidal, he's just over-confident. He assumes his blobby self can leap over the pit to reach his enemy. However, somebody has been snacking too much and could stand to lose more than a few pounds. Only standing at 8", a few pounds is the difference between anorexic and morbidly obese.

4) Waddle Dee does have a mouth, though. It's surfaced a number of times in Super Star, the manga, and these sessions. It just isn't visible most of the time. The same probably holds true for ears, noses, eyes, and other phantom facial features found on foes outside those you mentioned.

5) Pop Star has never been shown to congregate to any sort of temple, church, or standing stones. I would say they hold no higher power to mind or practice a more Shinto-Buddism like there-but-not religious philosophy. It is Japanese in origin, after all, so something similar to the law of the land probably holds for them.