Meta Knight

"The head of the Meta-Knights, and something of a rival to Kirby. He's quite an accomplished swordsman. Following his code of knightly ethics, he once delivered his sword to Kirby and demanded single combat. His giant cape transforms into wings, giving him the power of flight. He's shown his face briefly before, but his relationship to Kirby is still a mystery."

- Meta Knight according to his trophy's description in mh:awesomegames:Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Meta Knight (メタナイト, Meta Naito) is a major character in the Kirby series, first appearing in Kirby's Adventure. He is a mysterious, masked swordsman who leads a band of warriors known simply as the Meta-Knights and the owner of a giant warship designed after himself, known as the Halberd.

Why He Shall Take Off

 * 1) Along with King Dedede and the Waddle Dees, Meta Knight serves as one of the most recognizable characters in the Kirby series aside from Kirby himself.
 * 2) The installments he appear in usually feature him as a boss, but since Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, there have been instances where he is playable in alternate modes, or even teams up with Kirby directly.
 * 3) While he may be one of the most mature characters of the series, he has more in common with Kirby than just their faces' similarities, like his desire to keep Dream Land safe and how caring he is about those dear to him.
 * 4) Despite holding the title of "The Lone Swordsman", he really seems to enjoy being around his friends and/or travel companions Kirby, King Dedede, and Bandana Dee.
 * 5) Much like King Dedede, MK has had his own character growth over the course of the series. By seeing how he's portrayed in Return to Dream Land, you can tell how much he mellowed out since Revenge of Meta Knight.
 * 6) With how dedicated he is in the art of combat, it's no surprise that he always provides a great boss battle, and his battles are constantly evolving with new moves that make each fight feel fresh.
 * 7) Being a chivalrous knight and all, Meta Knight values a fair and equal match. Whenever Kirby has to fight him for different reasons depending on the situation, he provides him with a sword for protection and insists that Kirby uses it.
 * 8) He earned his own "Meta Knightmare" mode in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, Super Star Ultra and Planet Robobot, which makes up for his absence in the latter mentioned game.
 * 9) He has very iconic themes, such as "Boarding the Halberd" and "My Friend and the Setting Sun", which also had many great remixes across the series' history, such as "Take Off!!", which is a vocal arrangement of "Boarding the Halberd" implied to be sung by Meta Knight himself.
 * 10) *It's worth mentioning a fan-made cover of "Boarding the Halberd" by The 8-Bit Big Band won a Grammy in 2022.
 * 11) Like Bandana Dee, he's extremely brave and is always ready to face those who may threaten Dream Land.
 * 12) In mh:besttvshows:Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, he put Eric Stuart's talents to great use and has lots of equally great quotes, ranging from funny to badass.
 * 13) * Eric Newsome's work as him in Smash Bros. is also very awesome and nice to listen to, despite lacking Stuart's Spanish accent.
 * 14) He played many heroic roles in Brawl's Subspace Emissary, like saving Lucas and Pokemon Trainer from falling to their demise and helping Marth and Ike out in battle.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Due to how being “mysterious” is his schtick, we don’t have as much downtime with him as much as we do with King Dedede and Bandana Dee and this may limit him as a character.
 * 2) Even though he was a great addition to the Smash series, he was sadly broken in Brawl and got banned from tournaments for that.
 * 3) He's somewhat out of character in Right Back at Ya: While he's calmer, more collected and has good interactions with Kirby (being a mentor figure for him and all), he usually sits on the sidelines and dumps exposition when needed instead of fighting to become the best knight he can be.
 * 4) Though most of his schemes originate from arguably good intentions, the ways he tries to accomplish his goals are often very extreme and poorly understood by others.
 * 5) * In Revenge of Meta Knight, for example, he tries to use the Halberd to take over Dream Land and end their lazy lifestyle and even attempted to kill Kirby with no discretion at all (That being said, he probably did the latter to avenge his hurt men, but still).
 * 6) His backstory is not clearly shown in the game series.
 * 7) He sometimes leaves his opponents in the dust for no clear reason, like in the Meta-Knights fights in Kirby's Adventure.

Videos
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Trivia

 * His sword wouldn't be named Galaxia until Right Back At Ya.
 * Meta Knight's name was originally based the word "metamorphosis". One of his old design concepts was even based on a butterfly. That concept would be redeveloped into Morpho Knight.
 * It is constantly hinted at that Meta Knight secretly loves sweets:
 * Based on the Kirby Café, Meta Knight abruptly eats an affogato right after waking up, and will occasionally sneak chocolate fondant out of his cape.
 * An official illustration from the Official Kirby Japanese Twitter depicts Meta Knight enjoying a star block cake in a corner where his friends can't see.
 * In both the games and the anime, he's often seen standing on high areas, platforms, tree branches, and statues.
 * This may either be a strategical move to prevent being attacked before the battle or to get a better view, but the reason is never officially explained.