Jermungandr

So back in March, Nintendo released an interview with Sakurai that made people very excited. Specifically, they were stirred up by this particular quote:

"Zorah does not possess malicious intent, and neither does Galactic Nova, for that matter. "It was the same in Kirby Super Star, which he first appeared in. He's a machine that simply receives requests as external commands, and then does everything in his power to grant them."

Kirby fans clung onto this quote and spread it around the internet like wildfire, because it put to bed a debate that had been enthusiastically argued since the game was released: is Nova truly a neutral entity, or does it have nefarious goals that it twists wishes to accomplish?

Now we know for sure that, yes, Nova was always intended to be neutral. Though that still left a lot of questions about how things ended up going wrong during this story in the first place.

But here's the thing, while I've seen this particular quote discussed all over the place, I have seen virtually no acknowledgement of the next comment in the interview, which I find much more fascinating:

"In other words, the incident that occurs midway through Road Trip implies the involvement of another malicious force that seeks to dominate, or even annihilate, Planet Popstar. "...And well, there are all kinds of scenarios which I hope I will have the chance to share publicly someday."

Aha! So there was another player in this story! Some entity was manipulating Nova, somehow, twisting the methods used to grant Zorah's wish. Some nefarious gamble that would result in the destruction of Popstar, granting that entity's own twisted desire.

And that entity is ...?

Well, honestly, it seems almost impossible to know. The game doesn't seem to directly imply anyone, making the game seem even more confusing than it was when Nova's actions appeared to be all their own.

This is why I'm so surprised that I haven't seen much of anyone discussing this particular line. There are so many theories and debates that could be thrown around here, as the game seems to give us pretty much nothing.

... except ... I think it actually does tell us.

Notice the second part of that quote. Sakurai mentions that there are "all kinds of scenarios". That seems to imply that there is no one conclusive answer, or that the answer could change depending on circumstances.

Does that remind you of anything? Kind of like ... how the Road Trip mode itself is different depending on what route you went down?

My personal theory: I believe the authorial intent was that the big bosses you encounter along the way are not just mere random obstacles thrown in to make the game interesting, but rather they were actually intended to tell us both who the antagonist was and what method they were using for that particular story path.

Notice, when you get to chapter 8, you HAVE to fight either Marx or 02, depending on what path you take. Then in chapter 9, you end up fighting either Nightmare, Robo Dedede, or nobody.

So depending on which way you go, you end up with different stories:

Marx -> nobody: Marx was meddling with Nova yet again, which makes the most sense since he's done it before. Attempting to destroy the planet was most likely for revenge for his previous defeat.

Marx -> Robo Dedede: This one is the weirdest because I'd never assume that Marx is a tech guy. But he IS a trickster, and Dedede has quite a few mechs lying around for some reason. I could see Marx weaseling one off of Dedede with a bit of flattery, then putting it in the hero's path as a means of slowing them down.

Marx -> Nightmare: This one is interesting because it suggests that Marx and Nightmare were working together. A team-up I can totally see happening, and they both have good reasons to want revenge. Though you'd think with a team-up like this they'd be more interested in taking over.

Zero 2 -> nobody: This one is interesting because it suggests that Dark Matter at some point contaminated Nova and now exist within him as sort of computer virus. Like it couldn't fully take Nova over, but it can still influence him by corrupting his data.

Zero 2 -> Robo Dedede: Makes a lot of sense, honestly. If this version of Zero 2 is now a completely digital entity, taking control of a robot seems like a logical method of attack.

Zero 2 -> Nightmare: This one I think suggests that Nightmare is the primary antagonist, and the Zero 2 entity we see is a virus created by him, serving as his method of manipulating Nova. The order of events makes more sense here, since it makes sense to reveal the mastermind AFTER taking out its pawn.

I think the story events support this too. For starters, the spider-bot memory is unlocked just before chapter 8, the chapter in which you first encounter one of the big bosses, which makes a lot of sense; they should show up just after everything starts going to shit.

But also there was always the strange fact of: Why even involve the Fountain of Dreams in the chapter introducing Nova's involvement? It's not a place you get to visit in the game, and it is never mentioned again. True, it could have been a simple nod to the fountains in Milky Way Wishes, but it seemed like an awful lot of emphasis for something that could have simply been placed as a background easter egg. It got its own little scene and related dialogue.

But it makes a lot of sense when you introduce Marx and ESPECIALLY Nightmare as potential candidates for main antagonists. Both have associations with these fountains, the latter even more so. It makes sense that one of them might have sensed Fountain activity and got clued in on what was happening.

Marx in the opening cutscene makes a lot of sense too. We see him intentionally using an air ride vehicle to antagonize other dream landers in a destructive manner. Dude is just enjoying the fruit of his machinations. Although choosing him as your rider does raise some questions, this particular cutscene does not contradict the idea that he could be the antagonist.

What happens when a game has a sequel?

Does every game in a series get its own planet? Are there hundreds of planets out there just dedicated to the series' Mario-equivalent?

Could Kit one day encounter a planet where the protagonist is a more mature version of herself? Would her friends and family be still alive there, but no longer recognize her?

Could Gobbles encounter another of his adventures where he encounters another self that is exactly the same, but it's frustrating because he knows nothing and hasn't gone through a character-developing arc yet?

Fact: Dedede is the only member of his bird-like species on Popstar or any of the neighboring planets.

I mean it's bad enough that Nova interpreted Zorah's wish so poorly, which on its own is already a very AI thing to do. But also, just look at that thing that Nova built to be Zorah's new body. It is a giant mess of parts and structures forced together in such an impractical way that no sane engineer would ever design. It's like you asked ChatGPT to create a blueprint of a new vehicle for you and it just created a big jumbled mess.

Honestly, I don't think that is the correct interpretation.

Marx was a little piece of shit before he made his wish. He literally tricked the sun and moon into fighting each other and then tricked Kirby into activating all the Dream Springs for him as part of his nefarious plot way before Nova showed up. And if you look at any Sakurai interpretations of him, including in Air Riders itself, Marx is a chaotic little bastard without any influence. Heck, the wish he made was literally TO RULE THE WORLD. Those are the words that came out of his own mouth, Nova isn't responsible for squeezing those words out of him.

Big round eyes ... polka-dot hat ... often portrayed as pink ... has two feet but no hands ... pretty much describes him to a T.

Just specialize the hat a bit to stand out more and add a bowtie and you basically got him spot on.

So the consensus I've been seeing about the plot of this game seems to be: Zorah fell to Popstar with the rest of the Air Ride Machines, but unfortunately due to his remote location he is never discovered by a Rider. In his anger, frustration, and loneliness, he makes a wish strong enough to reach the Fountain of Dreams, causing it to be fulfilled by Nova. This sets in motion the events of the game, of which there are a lot of possibilities.

And while this is certainly a possibility, I think there is another that is equally as likely or maybe even more so. Consider this:

Zorah in fact fell to Popstar a long LONG time ago, possibly centuries ago. He's been alone and immobile for so long, and all he truly desires is a friend. Over time this desire grows SO strong, that it eventually reaches Nova, who grants his wish by CAUSING the mysterious event of Air Ride Vehicles raining from the heavens. This is the event that "sets fate in motion".

The Air Ride Vehicles would eventually lead potential friends to Zorah, or that is the plan anyways. But it doesn't just attract the attention of the Dream Landers, but new enemies as well. These enemies will not only be competition in seeking Zorah, but they may set their eyes on Nova as well, which explains why we eventually have to go there (and why the enemies have so many space ships).

In other words, Zorah may not be evil or angry. He is simply a lonely, melancholy being whose wish ends up creating more chaos than intended.

Nintendo: "You play the games the way WE demand you do! No control options! And if you find a way to get around playing the game the way we want it played, we WILL patch it out!"

When I saw them I let out such a scream of glee that my cats fled the room.

From a storytelling standpoint, it's clear that the reason why is because the possibility of romance between the two always has to exist, even if it is never played out in the story we're given.

So, back when Kirby's Return to Dream Land was announced for rerelease on the Switch with the Magolor Epilogue, I couldn't help but brainstorm ideas for what kind of story they would create if they were to give the same treatment to rereleases of Triple Deluxe or Planet Robobot with individual stories for Taranza or Susie. While I never came up with anything great for Susie, I did rather like my idea for a Taranza mode, which I will share with you now.

The mode opens up with a scene that appears to take place in the past, showing us a Sectonia who is still in her original, more taranza-esque, pre-corruption form. She is presented with a gift by the People of the Sky: the golden frame of the Dimension Mirror, which they discovered in their domain. Sectonia is instantly thrilled and enamored by the beauty of the golden frame, but she is also disappointed to discover that the face of the mirror itself is incomplete, with only a single shard remaining in the frame.

Taranza, who has also been present for this offering, sees Sectonia's disappointment and, ever the limerent, offers to travel to the world below where the other shards have likely fallen and attempt to retrieve them. Here begins his journey.

The actual gameplay of this mode is a callback to Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. The world he explores is the same type of metroidvania-like maze, but the overall size of the world is much smaller because this is just a bonus mode with a smaller scope. Unlike Magolor's mode, which focused more on defeating enemies to keep combo chains going, this mode is much more focused on exploring and treasure hunting. Unlike the original Amazing Mirror, however, this is closer to a traditional metroidvania, where defeating bosses grants him new abilities that allow him to explore new areas. Instead of defeating enemies for points in order to improve these abilities, like Magolor had, you instead gain upgrade points from discovering chests containing treasures.

The ultimate goal of the mode is to collect all eight shards and return them to the Dimension Mirror, similar to the goal of the Amazing Mirror. However, each time Taranza returns a piece of the mirror, the player can take the time to speak with Sectonia, who seems to be becoming more and more obsessed with the mirror and its restoration with each shard retrieved.

Once the final shard is returned to the golden frame, however, the illusion finally shatters. It turns out, this story was NOT a prequel to the events of Triple Deluxe like it seemed to be this whole time. Rather, the mirror itself has had Taranza trapped in an illusion this entire time, utelizing his limerence of Sectonia in order to trick him into restoring the mirror that had become shattered at some point (suggesting that perhaps the events of Dededetour might actually be canon).

Taranza, now justifiably upset and enraged, must fight to end the Dimensional Mirror's terror once and for all. He is pitted against dark specters produced by the mirror, including a dark form of Queen Sectonia herself. Defeating his queen and obsession shakes Taranza, but also fills him with new resolve as he finally faces the Dimensional Mirror itself in one final battle in the sky.

So that's my idea. There's not a lot to it, but as a bonus mode in a Kirby game I don't think it really needs a whole lot. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like finally understanding the corruption and fighting its embodiment would give him some closure, even if it's a melancholy sort.

Guys, I was just looking at this, and ... is Samus' motorcycle ... sentient? Like, it has a proper name. Samus doesn't even give her many ships proper names. And it's an actual NAME name. Like sure it's represented with hyphens to make it more computer-y, but "Viola" is totally a name you'd actually give someone and not just, like, a pet name or a code.

Looking at the character select screen, it looks like there is room for double the current character slots. Assuming the shadowy mystery figure is an unlockable character, and assuming one slot is for the RANDOM selector, that leaves a total of 10 unrevealed characters. So these are the 10 I think are the most likely.

Mind you, this is not my FAVORITE roster. If it were up to me I'd replace a lot of these. I just think that these ones are the most logical given what we've seen so far.

Marx / Taranza: Super obvious, absolutely happening.

Bonkers / Mr. Frosty: Longstanding midbosses throughout the franchise history with obvious game mechanics as riders.

Blade Knight / Broom Hatter / Bront Burt: Already confirmed to be in the game as track enemies, have obvious mechanics as riders.

TAC: Stayover from previous KAR game. The TAC event is almost certainly going to return in City Trial, and TAC already has canonical copy abilities, making both the method of unlocking him and his game mechanics obvious.

Rick: Tends to be THE representative of the Animal Buddies, adds more representation to the Dark Matter Trilogy. Already has canonical inhale/copy ability.

Mage Sisters / Elfilin: Representatives of most recent games, which so far are unrepresented. Elfilin's game is also getting new content soon, so his presence also serves as an advertisement.

NOW, you may have noticed that I listed 11 characters here when I said there would only be 10. The reason for this is because I feel like the last four on the list are pretty nebulous and any one of them can be dropped.

TAC we don't know for sure if his event will be in the game, it just seems like a safe bet. With Rick, we've already confirmed that Kine is a background element in one stage, and that may end up being the fate of all the Animal Buddies. With the Mage Sisters and Elfilin, I feel like either one could be dropped in favor of the other.

The thing about Elfilin is, allegedly this game was already in development before Forgotten World was, and Sakurai had drawn up all the plans for it before he was even done with the Smash Bros DLC. It's possible he might not make it into the game simply because the timing didn't work out in his favor. Although that largely depends on whether or not there was a lot of communication between Hal and Sakurai's team during the development of both.

So I could certainly see Elfilin not making it in just due to timing, and the Mage Sisters are then included as the representation for the most recent generation of games. But if they do manage to get Elfilin in the game, the Mage Sisters could get dropped due to prioritizing relevance.

But who knows, this is Sakurai we're talking about. He might pull someone super obscure out of left field just because he enjoys doing that. Maybe we'll somehow end up with Gryll on the roster.

Burning Leo (and Hothead and Galbo)

Likeliness: Low

The thing that hurts Leo's chances the most is that we have already seen the enemy in the game that gives the players the Fire Ability; it's that weird black-and-red fairy-thing that people keep gushing over as possibly being Morpho-Knight adjacent. If they were planning on putting Burning Leo or any other fire-based minor enemy on the roster, they most likely would have just used them as the copy-enemy as well.

Mind you, I don't think this logic completely disqualifies any character. It's possible not every minor enemy racer appears as an enemy on the course, and it's also possible that course enemies might have been designed more with natural mobility in mind so not every minor-enemy racer makes for a good copy enemy. My only thought is that it's hard for me to imagine them putting in twice the effort by creating and rigging two different models when it's already been established that racers can appear as course enemies.

That said, I do think Burning Leo's fireball and flame wheel abilities would translate really well into a race setting.

Chilly

Likeliness: Low-ish

Tough call here. Chilly was an enemy in the original Kirby Air Ride, granting the racers the Ice Ability. However, in this game it appears that the Ice Ability has been dropped altogether. So what we know so far is that Chilly is unlikely to appear as an enemy in the game ... or is he? We do know that there is an icy track in the game, and he would make for a great enemy to place in that area for the sake of cohesiveness; so it's possible he might still be an enemy but won't give the racers a copy ability?

But putting all that aside, as at the end of the day appearing on tracks as a minor enemy or not does not necessarily confirm anything, the bigger mark against him is the lack of the Ice Ability altogether. No Ice Ability means it's unlikely that the effects of an ice attack were programmed into the game. Which in turn means it would be difficult to implement any ice-related skills into his racer.

But even still that still doesn't necessarily force him to be cut out, because arguably they could just turn any ice attacks into a generic cold-energy attack without any freezing status behind it; basically just a bluer fire attack when you get down to it. AND the snow-bowl Special is already in the game, which he is canonically the source of in KRtDL.

See what I mean about this being a tough call?

Poppy Bro. Jr or Sr

Likeliness: Medium-Low

So, Poppy Bro. Senior was a mini-boss that was very prominent in the Sakurai era of the franchise, appearing as a mini-boss in all of the games he directed. Since then he's only appeared in his Junior form, usually to serve as the source or ally for the Bomb ability.

Does any of this help or hurt his odds of being in the game? Not really, although one could use this info to provide an argument under the "Sakurai is biased" theory, if someone reeeeeeally wanted to stretch it.

One thing I think Poppy really has going for him isn't his role as "the bomb guy", but rather his more silly antics that we saw in the early Kirby games. Things like balancing on rolling apples, or riding on the backs of Grizzos or Nruffs. Since these antics give him momentum, they are things he could easily do as a track-enemy for some flavor. And remember, Poppies in games don't always give the Bomb ability, even in games where Bomb is present, so the fact that there is already another Bomb enemy present does not disqualify him.

As a rider though, I think the weakest thing he has going for him is what kind of abilities to give him. The Bomb ability in Air Ride tends to be a bit of a showstopper ability that can really devastate other players or even yourself. Even if you give him an ability that was just like miniature versions of that, it might be too damaging to the flow of the game, which seems to be a primary concern within this game's development.

Plasma Wisp

Likeliness: Medium

I'm going with a middling "maybe" on this one. On one hand, Plasma Wisp IS already in the game as an enemy, AND he has the advantage that he'd most likely be easy to animate, since his body is just a constant visual effect and you'd only need to animate his hands (which do no even appear at all times) and eyes (which would be a flat texture). Turning him into a racer from an enemy would be fairly easy.

The flipside to this is that Plasma is a very powerful ability in this game. You'd have to assume that he wouldn't have access to it all the time, of course, but then that would create a disparity between enemy and player forms. Not ideal, but doesn't disqualify him.

Rocky

Likeliness: Medium

Now Rocky is a popular one, just because despite only being a rock he manages to be oh-so-cute. Just look at 'em! That said, the actual Rock ability doesn't give him much of an advantage as a racer. HOWEVER, I think he could still work well as a pseudo-clone of Cappy, where his ability is all about his tough defense. Just replace the rocket-cap Special with a variation of the Steel Ball or Snow Bowl attacks, and there you go! Plus his victory pose can involve turning into a statue or a trophy, which is fun.

Capsule J / J2

Likeliness: Medium-High

The thing about him is, I don't believe we've seen the track-enemy that provides the Jet ability yet, despite the fact that we know the ability is in the game. Capsule J could easily be the source of the ability, and how his mechanic would work in game seem fairly straight-forward, so I think he's a plausible racer, even if I'm not a super fan of his J2 redesign.

Birdon

Likeliness: Low

Birdon is my personal favorite Helper from the original Kirby Super Star. He's so goddamn cute and he wears a little aviator helmet! So adorable! And honestly, I think he could translate well into a racer. He'd be a rider with a big boost in gliding, and despite the fact that the Wing was replaced with Jet for this installment, Meta Knight's Special is basically just Wing but with a sword, and Birdon could emulate that for his own Special. Easy peasy.

But you may have noticed despite all this I set his likeliness to "low". Well, that is because of this guy:

This is Flappy, the enemy that gave you the Wing ability in the original Kirby Air Ride, and almost replaced Birdon in KRtDL as well (instead they both got replaced by Owgulf). So far we've seen almost all of the enemies from the original Air Ride return, so even if he no longer yields the Wing ability, if there were any bird-like enemies in the game, it would probably be THIS GUY over my precious innocent Birdon who would do no harm. Ugh.

(Okay okay, Flappy would actually be really cute if it weren't for his weird fleshy legs that end in a single talon each. So creepy and weird).

Biospark

Likeliness: Medium-High

Biospark has a lot going for him. Everyone loves the ninja ability, Biospark himself has a great design that makes him popular, and a lot of the game mechanics already present in the game can be easily applied to him. Throwing knives like Waddle Doo's beam, slashing his Katana like Meta Knight's sword, laying traps as he lands like Magolor, etc etc. He should be a very easy sell both to the developers and the players alike. The only thing really going against him is that there isn't really a reason to even consider him in the first place. He doesn't really fill any niches in the game, with most of his plausible abilities being variations on things we already have in other characters. Still, I think that only knocks him down a small notch altogether. The only thing really keeping him out of the game is whether or not the developers WANT to include him.

Still if you want to give him a unique mechanic, here's one to consider: maybe he could have a sort of sneak-move, where after a big charge there's a puff of smoke and he appears invisible (and intangible) to other players for a brief moment.

Gim

Likeliness: Medium-High

The argument for Gim is basically exactly the same as Biospark's. He's got a fun ability, his design is cool, he's well liked, and his main mechanics are already in the game in some form or another. The obvious thing is to make him similar to Gooey, seeing as they both have a tether capture technique and Gooey is already copying Gim's Gazer Spiral move when spinning anyways. It really all comes down to whether or not the developers want to go through the trouble of including him.

Simirror

Likeliness: Low

Um, I think I'm going to have to go with extremely unlikely with this one. While one could make the argument that Simirror could be included as a defensive character similar to Cappy, if I were the game's developer I think just wouldn't see the point of including him if they weren't going to go through the trouble of implementing some sort of mirror mechanic, which doesn't seem very feasible in this game.

Bugzzy

Likeliness: Low

Yeah I don't see it. Don't get me wrong, I love Bugzzy; but his whole thing is grabbing his enemies and throwing them around. Not really a skill that translates well to a racing game all about attacking enemies to keep your momentum going without disrupting theirs. I could see him as a sort of arena boss though, where you have to avoid getting grabbed by him or your ride will be smashed and thrown about. Could be interesting.

OKAY! So that's it for the Kirby Super Star helper characters that I hadn't already covered in a previous post, but let's look at some select helpers from other games real quick.

Como

Likeliness: Low

A bit of an odd one to bring up, I know, but if Taranza is in the game (which seems extremely likely), Como makes a good alternative character for him, as another character with spider-based abilities but likely with different stats. I think his odds are low due simply to being kind of a ho-hum character, but Taranza alone makes him worth the mention.

Driblee

Likeliness: Low

Driblee is also a bit of a ho-hum character in my opinion, but we haven't had any aquatic characters yet, so it seemed worth the mention. Also the Water ability move where he surfs on a big wave might make for a cool Special move.

Wester

Likeliness: Low

Might be considered kind of a throw away character, heck I couldn't even find decent official art of him. But I think the whip ability itself translates well to the game, and the wild west theming is always fun.

Vividria

Likeliness: Low

Assuming Adeleine makes it into the game, Vividria could serve as a decent alternative with similar paint-based abilities but different stats. But the same could also be said for Drawcia, Paintra, or even Paint Roller.

And finally let's round this out with just some basic minor enemies that I think might be fun inclusions:

Bronto Burt

Likeliness: High

This guy has already been confirmed to be in the game as an enemy, which makes sense since he was in the original Air Ride as well. In fact, he's appeared in just about every single Kirby game to date, with the one exception being Pinball Land. And doesn't he deserve some recognition for that level of tenacity? As a rider, he makes for a decent alternative to Birdon, as a light character that brings an awesome gliding stat to the table.

Squishy

Likeliness: Medium-Low

Squishy is another character that has been around the block quite a bit. Like Bronto Burt, he's also appeared in almost every game. As a rider, I think he makes for a good alternative to Driblee as the game's aquatic representation, and could even use the same type of wave attack. Plus he's got those tentacles for capturing enemies. At the very least he deserves to make it into the game as set dressing in an aquatic stage.

Gordo

Likeliness: Low