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What is it with the Kirby series and giant eyeballs as final bosses?

Dreamland 2
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Dreamland 3
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Kirby 64
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Amazing Mirror
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Canvas Curse
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Squeak Squad
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Whoever designs the bosses at HAL could use some more creativity.
 

ChrisD

Member
I always saw Drawcia's Soul as a gaping mouth, personally.

I know that it's been said before that the bosses are always monstrous in comparison to the rest of the game because they're meant to signify nightmares, but HAS it ever been said why the eyeball is such a common design?
 

Nanashrew

Banned
The interesting thing about Dark Nebula in Squeak Squad is the Japanese version it's name is Dark 0 giving it like some connection to 0 and dark matter enemies of the Dreamland series.


Amazing Mirror's final boss. I dunno.
 

Kangi

Member
Giant single eyes have shown up on a lot of other bosses, too. Return to Dream Land's, Rainbow Curse's, etc.

Many cases imply a connection to Zero (from Dream Land 3 and 64), who's essentially the universe's "Big Bad". Dark Matters (Dream Land 2) are direct underlings of him.

Amazing Mirror's final boss is straight laziness, though. And Drawcia Soul (Canvas Curse) isn't supposed to be an eyeball, it's supposed to be a mouth.
 

CrazyDude

Member
The eye ball are a allegory to big brother and the government always watching us. Kirby the allegory of us average joes being suckers. By beating the eyeballs even suckers like us can rise up to defeat the evil big brother.
 

akira28

Member
they're scary? I dunno, I remember fighting giant eyeballs surrounded by floaty things on the school bus on my friend's gameboy. And being kinda freaked out. They look creepy and sinister, while all the other enemies look kinda cute.
 
I mean it's more like a tradition than it is lack of creativity. Nothing wrong with that, Link fights Ganon at the end of every game, Mario fights Bowser...
 

Nanashrew

Banned
Kirby has a lot of deities. 0 is obviously the devil and feeds upon negative emotions and hate, and has tried to infiltrate planet Popstar for awhile now, even possessing characters. And Kirby 64 he's even depicted as a fallen angel. All forms of dark matter are his underlings and do his bidding.

EDIT: And the one eye is the all seeing eye.
 

HiroTSK5

Member
That's all the same dude

source: me

At least for Dreamland 2, 3 and Kirby 64 they actually are, side note all three of those games were directed by Shinichi Shimomura so it was probably intentional.

Amazing Mirror and Squeak Squad however could be chalked up to consistency/laziness with Amazing Mirror's at least having the argument of being the mirror version of Dark Matter.
 

Camjo-Z

Member
Dreamland 2/3/64 are connected, the antagonists in those games are Dark Matter and 0/0². The other three are just homages to them. Kirby in general just likes having creepy end bosses, and it doesn't get much creepier than a floating eyeball.
 
They are all connected except maybe Drawcia's Soul (which is supposed to be a painting that came to life apparently? Perhaps it was a painting of Dark Matter or 0).
Even in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, Dark Mind is probably the mirror world version (a.k.a. the "evil" version) of Dark Matter or Dark Mind. Its first form also resembles Nightmare from Adventure/Nightmare in Dreamland.

The series' final bosses are mostly callbacks/similar in design to previous ones though. I think the only unique one really is Marx.
Look at Drawcia and Dark Matter's first form:
 
Well, it's only speculation, but if the game is supposed to represent dreams, wouldn't an open or awakening eye be the very thing that would bring it all down?
 
Iterative game design, where sequels that aren't retcon are still essentially a re-imagination of the preceding game using all the increased know how, refined skill, fresh tech and new ideas.

In this case it's an eyeball and eyeballs are dope. I used to always draw an eyeball with a spiked collar and a mohawk when I was a kid, and passed it onto my cousin.
 

Gsnap

Member
Much like the eye of Sauron, the singular eye of Kirby's villains represents a singular focus, a singular desire. The desire for power and the inability to see any other way than their own way. An inability to empathize. There is a level of purity to it. And this purity, when focused only on selfish desires, is as evil as evil can be. A true nightmare in dreamland...




Nah, I don't know. It's probably just tradition.
 
0 is more or less the central antagonist of the franchise. The enemy bosses are eyeballs to show that they're tied to him in some capacity.

Specifically, Dark Matter (Dreamland 2) is a lackey, 0 himself shows up in person in Dreamland 3 and 64, Dark Mind (Amazing Mirror) is the Mirror World version, Dark Nebula (Squeak Squad) is a Dark Matter entity and ergo another 0 lackey.

Drawcia is actually irrelevant. She's supposed to resemble a blob of paint more than an eyeball.
 

Nanashrew

Banned
Seems kinda similar to Nintendo's love of "giant disembodied hands" bosses.

I love that, honestly. It's tradition from the olden days. Even Queen Zeal had the giant hands of doom trope, same for the final boss in Okami and several Mega Man X games. It's my favorite boss trope.
 

Yukinari

Member
Marx Soul and Magolor Soul are still my favorite final bosses of any Kirby game. I'll always love Dark Matter but he will never come back even though hes the main antagonist in 3 games.

What all major kirby bosses have in common is the amazing music as usual with the series.
 

Neiteio

Member
All I know is all of those bosses look surprisingly creepy for a game about a pink marshmallow.

Some of those look like the angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
 
Very similar to Nightmare from Link's Awakening, too. When I was a kid I thought Link's Awakening was connected to Kirby for that reason.
 
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