Kirby AUs
What's This?
This is the fun section for AU's! It's a lot more personal and rambly then everything else so be warned. Technically I would consider my headcanon an AU, as I've organized it all into one consistent interpretation of the world, plot, and characters, but I consider that "my canon", which the stuff in here is then based on.
Knirby AU the most important on here as effectively just an extension of my canon, and so there's probably decisions and arcs written about in the Timeline section that are more contextualized seeing where they end up there. And thus, Knirby AU is a springboard for lots of other AUs as well.
Everything I have written about the Kirby anime is here too. Sorry Kirby Anime Star Warriors! I genuinely love the anime, but it's just not where my heart lies.
And as well, as wacky as these AUs get, I hope you understand they're always written with canon in mind somewhere deep in them. They're not considered OC stories for a reason even if they seem divorced from the games.
Canon Based...
Gijinkaverse
A bit less of an AU and more of just, a different filter for my headcanon. (*this is to explain how gijinka stuff is applied to the blorbings)
Knirby AU
Knirby AU is a time-skip AU that basically starts the second game canon ends, but it's plot begins at Kirby's knighthood. Later in his childhood Kirby develops wings which inspires the beginning of his squireship with Meta Knight. As an adult and knight he begins reflecting on his childhood and new role, and revisits lots of old faces.
(See an KNIRBY AU LORE BIBLE for a few more deets!)
PLOT
Many years after the events of the games Kirby continued to live a peaceful life in Dreamland under the care of King Dedede and Sir Meta Knight, who by now had become a couple and ruled jointly. Once Kirby became a young teen and acquired a pair of wings, Meta Knight decided it would be the right time to start training to be a knight so he could continue being his homeland's guardian with class and chivalry.
The AU starts formally on Kirby's final test to graduate from squire to knight, by defeating Galacta Knight, The Strongest Warrior in the Galaxy. After passing his test and mercifully releasing Galacta Knight from his imprisonment, Kirby returns home to be knighted by King Dedede with all his friend and family present. He hadn't really considered a cool title or anything, because he doesn't want too much to change between him and others, but that is a vain hope.
Kirby spends time revisiting old friends and coming to terms with how his life has changed without him fully realizing. From those he hasn't seen in decades having changed or moved on, to those who've watched him grow up yet suddenly treat him differently - it's all a bit stressful. The old cast in this time-skip are revisited one by one in roughly chronological order, each helping Kirby find some new perspective or connection as an adult.
It's rather slice of life. As much as I would like to throw in a dynamic plot and some awesome action sequences, I think the core of this will always be character moments.
CHARACTERS & RELATIONSHIPS
Like I said, character dynamics and personal arcs are the core of this. Some characters show up for important events, like how one of the first major plot points will be Kirby visiting Ripple Star with Gooey to see Ribbon, and some will be reoccurring to hang out and talk, like the Meta-Knights and some other Dreamlanders. There's also spot light on some OCs for worldbuilding purposes, to make Dreamland feel even more lived in.
Kirby's role in this is to be an anchor character to a lot of others as he grows more into his new role himself. He's the sweetest silliest boy, but as much as he is competent and assured in himself, he can be a massive doormat. His compassion and empathy are a strength that helps so many others, but is sometimes a self-destructive reflex he learns to compensate for as well.
The outlined characters so far are a few random Dreamlander ocs whom Kirby reconnects with, Sailor Dee who is like a cousin to Kirby, Chuchu and Nyunpun who are now a couple, and the Star Rod whom Kirby has a special connection with. Outside of Dreamland are Gooey who travels around Popstar and visits Dreamland sometimes, Ribbon who is now queen of Ripple Star and choosing an apprentice, and Magolor who makes rounds to Popstar in between helping revitalize his home planet. Others like Taranza, the Squeaks, Shadow Kirby, Elfilin, and even the Jamba are planned to show up too sometime.
Besides them and inevitable characters like the rest of the quartet, there are some other outstanding arcs too: Marx returns and becomes a nuisance to everybody but ends up dealing with the emotional issues that make him act like such a asshole, and eventually ends up as Kirby's partner through a lot of effort. Despite all his flaws and nasty exterior Kirby loves him to peices, MAYBE BECAUSE HE HAS BAD TASTE IN PEOPLE, but genuinely they become a loving lil' couple. Marx's nastiness actually helps Kirby learn to stand up for himself a bit more, and Kirby supports him through a lot.
The breadth of Galacta Knights backstory and his relationship with Morpho Knight are delved into with this AU. His soul was taken in some vague universe in canon, but Morpho decided, not exactly that he deserved a second chance, but that coming to Dreamland would be an interesting experience for the ancient warrior. A lot of his previous angst revolved around not understanding what he was, so to get a chance to be around others of his rare species is a special treat.
There are more smaller arcs that intersect with others and the main characters', but I am admittedly very biased towards my faves. It's only recently this AU has started taking on the shape of a plot and not a bunch of random character moments, so as I think more organized other cool character arcs will evolve out. I swear.
SIGNIFICANCE & INSPIRATION
This AU is sort of the baseline for everything else I write. As I said, a lot of stuff I've written for my canon comes back to this if it seems useless without this as context. Almost every other AU here too is based on the bones of this rather than game canon itself. I really enjoy Knirby as a character, he is delightful to me, and as much as I love the series itself for how it tackles its deeper emotional subjects with a whimsical, distant air, I like having a character who is still very innocent but not ignorant. Who can see the deeper harm and horrors of the world and people around him clearly but still believe in better things wholeheartedly.
As well, developing this AU has 1000% MarxKirby-pilled me. They are very funny characters. It's funny with them as kids too, but there's a clear disconnect because of the fact Marx is clearly just a menace of a child and Kirby is completely oblivious to his evil. But as adults, there's just something deeply funny about this disastrous sociopath and lovestruck sweetheart interacting. And in a way that leads to some very touching emotional beats about connecting with others IMO. I think this relationship as a central point embodies a lot of the ideas that drive my passion for this AU. And you'll see that in the focus of others.
In the end, the biggest inspiration behind this AU, is my wish to explore the character stories of Kirby in a more nuanced and mature setting. This means seeing those stories and characters through the eyes of someone who isn't a child, but also of me choosing to expand on things in a way inappropriate for a story about a child for children. This means getting into very complicated topics like mental illness, and politics, and sexuality, not because I think those are unapproachable for or above children, but I personally want to get into them in a way that is not meant for kids. I think Kirby itself has deliberately or vaguely brushed over nearly every topic I bring up before, and in my headcanon I try to expand them as much as they can while staying in series character. But this is for me to push that a fair bit.
I think this is still a series about the power of friendship and rainbows as told through funny colorful characters. It's just I'm going to pit friendship and rainbows against heartache and trauma and watch it still win. And the characters will be no less funny or colorful as they hurt eachother, reconcile, and grow into flawed but loving people.
Anime Based...
Starcats
Similar to the gijinkaverse this is an anthros design filter.
KRBAY Canon AU
KRBAY AU is similar to Knirby AU as in it's made up primarily of a timeskip to Kirby's adulthood to focus on how he deals with the adventures of his childhood, but there is also focus on pre- and inter-show headcanon. The most important of these being that Kirby is the child of Lady Galacta (shoutout to the fic Mother of Invention whom I stole mom Galacta from lol) and Sir Arthur, and due to his prodigious parentage he is roped into joining the modern GSA despite his wishes to live a humble life.
NME Meta Knight AU
NME Meta Knight AU is identical to the normal KRBAY AU, but in this Meta never defected to the GSA, as he was created after their collapse. He was a monster King Dedede hired to spy on Kirby and the kids, but really he is spying on both for Nightmare, with whom his loyalty lies. But spending time with Kirby and Tiff, he begins to realize how much he yearns for connection with the species he was meant to parody.
Human Based...
Baseball AU
Baseball AU is a lot of things. Primarily it is a humans AU built off the bones of Knirby AU, but it also has a mix of ideas and dynamics from the headcanon here, and a wider range of interpretations of the series. It's also a period piece AU set in 1950s Texas, a political drama about interracial relations, and a love-letter to the golden age of American animation. Above all else, it is incredibly self-indulgent and personal.
(IT IS HIGHLY RECCOMENDED YOU FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH KNIRBY AU BEFORE READING ABOUT THIS AU)
CW: Talking About Historic Racism and Other Bigotries, Sometimes Using Outdated/Politically Incorrect Language; Most Of That Isn't In This Summary, But Would Be Part of Further Discussion
THE MEDIUM
Being greatly inspired by mid-century American animation and culture, more than any other AU the visual aspects of it are very important. UPA is the main inspiration for the style of the AU, but in their own experimental and adaptable spirit, it's not trying to copy a specific short or artist's style. It is meant to be my own with the philosophy of limited animation they pioneered for the medium. As such, the artstyle from colors to complexity and other details is subject to change based on what's most economic.
The characters are entirely human, but are heavily stylized to sometimes appear as if they still have fantastical colors or features. Likewise, whether the cast are meant to serve entirely as cartoons or as dramatic characters changes on a whim. To me there is no such thing as dramatic dissonance, and I highly believe this was in the philosophy of UPA as well.
The usual joke is that Baseball is a modern adult animated sitcom that borrows heavily from the aesthetics of UPA and Hanna-Barbera in look and movement, and in a world where I am productive that would be it's primary medium of expression. But mostly it is told through comics that still carry that artstyle even if lacking the animation style. Animation is my biggest interest, but comics as another great visual medium are something I want to study as well for optimal vintage effect(tm).
There is also the joke of a BBAU video game. A Dreamcast Dating Sim from the year 2000 in which you play as Marx and try to woo various men in the cast. This one is 3d and features stylized models, which is sadly very hard for me to try and express due to having only about a year of 3D modeling experience, and a couple disparate months of video game programming. But here, as well as being a love letter to mid-century animation, it is a love letter to it's revival in the late 90s and early 2000s, which is the entire reason I have fondness for this aesthetic.
EVOLUTION AND PLOT
Baseball AU is directly derivative of Knirby AU with its origins as a joke about Marx and Kirby's relationship playing out like a cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie, except with the twist that at the last minute Kirby explains that his family is Jewish so by the end they're celebrating Hanukkah instead. From that it also got combined with a joke about Marx sucking at baseball and screaming his head off, and some random race related stuff that was always in the background of my coding for the gijinkas. Soon I had the concept of a more rom-com-y version of Knirby AU set in mid-century US for the sake of playing with sitcom aesthetics and race relations, where our beloved losers Kirby and Marx play some goddamn baseball. Combine that with an aesthetic gimmick of using the artstyle of the relevant decade, and BBAU reached it's final form.
The plot has been workshopped consistently since inception, but is a lot simpler than what I want to do with Knirby AU, leaning even harder into the episodic slice of life angle.
The inciting incident of the AU is the very white and very new in town Marx fumbling pick-up questions with Kirby due to not knowing how to flirt with a very cute but still large and possibly straight black guy. So their pseudo date ends up being a casual game of baseball, which Kirby agrees to because - race be damned - he loves making friends. A lot of the other young adults in the tiny southern town end up dragged into, much to their chagrin as the teams end up being entirely white vs "colored". These antics slowly turn everyone else away till its just Kirby and Marx hanging out, and soon enough they become close and comfortable enough with each other to admit they both wanted to be romantic for a while now. Their ridiculous months-long courtship dance concludes and they start dating for real, often still hanging out at the baseball diamond on the edge of town.
From there NEW antics ensue! Marx meets Kirby's father and this AU's Meta Knight, Inigo, and that initial joke comes back as he learns they're afro-latino jews (a nearly non-existent demographic that was fun to cobble together). Marx also comes to meet most of Kirby's friends (whom are mostly represented by non-dee enemy characters) by loitering on the colored side of the town with him, and this AU's Bandana Dee and King Dedede in the form of the town sheriff and mayor, likely through more loitering but on the white side of town. Later on Magolor and Galacta Knight become regulars in the characters of Madiyar (who goes by "Maddie to seem less foreign) and Valentine, whom are refugees from the Soviet Union because of their own antics. From there, like in Knirby AU, when not simply focusing on the pre-established characters, other such as Chuchu, Susie, Elfilin, etc get thrown in from time to time. Not counting those who are already relevant to the characters' pasts like Zero, Galaxia, Ribbon, and a gijinka of the Star Rod.
Plots like the new character introductions, holiday specials, one-offs & crossovers, elections, spicy secrets revealed, and other stuff comes as they do, mostly with a focus on the characters arcs rather than a greater plot. It just keeps going as I gain ideas, like eventually Marx and Kirby move out together and try to start their own life on the west coast so they can try to make it in show business, and a very interesting dynamic forms between Inigo, Valentine, and D.D.D. surrounding politics back in Dreamland. It's a very malleable AU with lots of stuff to explore.
CHARACTER DYNAMICS AND THEMES
The dynamics in this AU are endlessly entertaining to me. First off, you have the leading couple who's relationship hinges on a shared rebelliousness and joviality, that come from incredibly different places - for Kirby a radical sense of acceptance and positivity, and for Marx a sociopathic devil-may-care attitude. In both Knirby AU and this their relationship focuses a lot around themes of trauma, empathy, trust, and other cheesy stuff like that, and means a lot to me. I also keep finding more depth to write into their childish attitudes in adulthood as I grow into my own, whether they're parroting each other's silly tics because they can't take themselves seriously, or talking about childhood comforts they still love for no logical reason. I myself am using the language of cartoons and an unrelated kids series to tell these stories, which is my expression of a... somewhat absurdist worldview I think they share as well.
Then you have my beloved Inigo, whom can be socially conservative and judgmental, but still trusts his son's judgment and tries to bond with Marx on a few occasions, only to bounce right off of his irresponsible and irritating personality. When not involved in judging his son's love life though Inigo has a long-standing friendship with the mayor D.D.D (not his real initials). They were introduced to each other through family and chance when Inigo and Kirby first moved to Dreamland from Mexico, and Inigo with an unfinished law degree, a sharp tongue, and nothing better to do began badgering D.D.D. about problems with the town until he earned the mayors respect. A failed lawyer may seem a bit away from a renegade knight, but at the center of both his original headcanon and this is a very insecure, idyllic, and terrifyingly driven man.
D.D.D. is a genuinely well-meaning and liberal mayor, but he's just charming enough to cover up his incompetence, and outside of Inigo - whom he's friends with out of fascination - he usually surrounds himself with yes-men, like his sheriff. Sheriff Bandana (who was nicknamed this against his will for his fashion choices) is a fair bit younger than D.D.D., and used to look up to him for his charisma before he became sheriff, but ever since joining that station has only had a front row seat to his expectations of him as a strong-willed and creative leader being shattered. He and D.D.D. are somewhat in their pre-modern arc states, which is actually incredibly fun to explore with them on their own, and for the sake of themes about political complacency. You can assume that most of my cast who aren't these two aren't fond of a lot of things in their poor, segregated, Texas town.
Lastly, Madiyar and Valentine are introduced into the town a bit into the main plot, and most of their antics at first surround the unavoidable xenophobia of a tiny hick town and the boogeyman-ification of the USSR during this period of American history. The both of them are political refugees for utterly different reasons, Madi for being a capitalist and industrialist theory fanboy, and Val for being a diehard Soviet war hero who nonetheless was cannibalized by his allies. Madi's predatory business practices and Valentine's asocial, America-hating behavior fails to endear them to anyone, except Kirby of course, who finds himself closest with Valentine over shared black Jewish identity and progressive worldviews. Kirby eventually introduces Valentine to his more politically well-read dad, which goes fine save the fact they probably got into a fist fight over something silly at first. The two of them as the story progresses become central figures related to themes about the aesthetics/optics/theater of political radicalism, an extension on their original evil angel-good demon motifs.
This is just the surface as I have poured a lot of personal political and philosophical ideas into this AU, many of which are not worth blabbering about for this overview. They're also not exactly easy to layout just through a plot synopsis because overtly the plot is very lighthearted, with the more serious ideas and topics being subtextual or introduced for the sake of satire. For example, the biggest elephant in the room of the AU being the segregation and racism of the town, which is not treated as some moral antagonist tragically pulling apart the love-birds, but a reality of their lives that is cruel as it is and absurd and therefore sometimes the butt of jokes. The racism is mundane but not benign - not a reflection of its deepest evils, nor of rose-tinted revisionism that pervades this time period in popular culture - it's just there as it always was, and still is, and my characters are gonna survive around it and live their silly little lives.
I don't delude myself into believing that this AU is very relevant to Kirby as a series, but they do have thematic roots. The theme that attracts me so much to the Kirby series that I've dedicated this much of my creative energy to it, is that the world can have darkness and cruelty and tragedy, but there is far so much to be offered in moments, big and small, of compassion, companionship, and understanding to all. Which is no where near a unique mission statement for Kirby to have, but it executes it with a ridiculous amount of care towards illustrating those strengths simply and lightheartedly through little cartoon guys. So I'm borrowing its characters I love to talk about different evils in a different cartoon style cause it makes me happy :3.
WII Baseball AU
This one is a bit more of a mess. Unlike BBAU which has an organized theme of being based in mid-century America, this is both an 80s highschool au for the older generation, and a 2000s/2010s one for Kirby's generation. It's soup right now but fun soup for jokes and bits, and a meaningful character arc every now and then.
Others...
Alpha an Omega AU (Wolves Xenofiction AU)
Do not worry your pretty little head for a second, this is NOT OMEGAVERSE!! I think that shit's repulsive honestly, this is far more cringe AND respectable. It's a xenofiction AU based on the, honestly awful, Alpha & Omega animated kids movie from 2010. I watched it just as a joke while making wolf designs of the Knirby AU cast, and tragically became hyperfixated on fixing it's plot with my Kirby characters. A real mess for the ages.
(IT IS HIGHLY RECCOMENDED YOU FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH KNIRBY AU BEFORE READING THIS)
ORIGINS AND MEDIUM
PLOT
ROLE CHOICES
EXTRA STUFF
Warrior Cats AU (Xenofiction AU)
Same vein as the Alpha and Omega AU really. I do think Warriors is undoubtably higher quality than that movie, and I have far more fondness for it, but it still sucks and I can fix it with characters from a property I like more!! This is a hypothetical WC arc inspired by the events of Kirby's Adventure and various other aspects of the series.
ORIGINS AND MEDIUM
Ever since I'd finished the first four arcs of the WC series sometime in 2018 I had fallen out of love with it. I tried to read some of A Vision of Shadows but after the first book the drama somewhat bounced off of me. But in 2022, I saw a PMV for the character Shadowsight from the proceeding arc, The Broken Code, and combined with stuff I'd heard about it I decided to give it a shot. I ended up VERY enthralled, the plot felt fresh and full of mystery and the characters were delightful, barring some pitfalls due to misogyny and love triangles. What killed me was the ending! It was horrible! And it made me realize, this series had no gawdamn themes!! It was made of paper and actively refused to ever say anything.
For that arc itself I have my own rewrite ideas, but just in general it made me remember how much I loved this series despite how little it delivered. So combining ideas from across the series and ones from better ones, I decided to make a Kirby AU that would address my problems with the series.
I suppose in the spirit of it's source, this should be seen as the outline of a book series. Of a typical 6 book arc and all. Writing, as in narrative prose, is not my forte, but it would be fun to think of this AU as a low-stakes space to experiment with my writing.
PLOT
Kirby is a rogue kitten who happens to come across the clans in a time of stress and fits their most recent prophecy. The clans, (as of right now) based on Dreamland, The Meta-Knights, and Floralia/The Land of the Sky, constantly fight over custody of the prophecy baby while only exasperating the conflict they all pretend to be worried about. As Kirby goes from clan to clan he has a way of highlighting all of the clans' pretensions and hypocrisy, while still befriending many of his peers and showing them there's more to clan life than endless squabbling.
The conflict plaguing these clans, is that their beloved Moonpool/Dream Spring has been unresponsive lately, and it puts them all at unease. Nightmare, embodied through some ancient curse or cat has been tampering with it to seek revenge and let the clans fall apart under their own weight of pettiness and hatred. By exposing the leaders to their own vices and inspiring his younger peers, Kirby is able to bring all of the clans together to defeat this evil as one.
After the mandatory big battle, the clans actually reconcile with how they've let rules and borders come between them and their shared experiences. And afterwards choose to live as allies and neighbors rather than as warring clans. Kirby is asked by many to become a leader, but instead decides he wants to live as a sort of clanless mediator and move between his friends as he pleases.
CHARACTERS
Kirby is likely a cream-colored, long haired tabby with blue eyes. He might be a colorpoint to so that he can have a big cute heart shaped-marking on the middle of his face. He starts out as the tiniest little kitten you ever did see, and by the end is a big jolly warrior who loves eating any prey he can find and sunbathing all day.
Leading our version's Thunderclan would be Dedede, who's name is Oakstar. A big brown shorthair with a big muzzle and big expressive blue eyes. His clan is tree themed, maybe living in or near a grove of apple trees. Oak himself wasn't clanborn and used to be a kittypet, so he overcompensated by being as ambitious as possible and earned himself the leader position, a loud mouth, and an ego. Bandana Dee now named Appleear is a ginger shorthair and the clan's deputy seemingly for no reason other than Oakstar liking him. And two waddle doo OCs of mine who've been turned into a pair of silly cream-colored medicine cats. A bunch of miscellaneous waddle dees make up the rest of their ranks.
In charge of the water themed clan is Meta Knight, now Midnightstar - a small but intimidating black spotted tabby. He's the oldest cat in the clans due to his unmatched fighting skills and wisdom which have allowed him to keep so many lives. He's still not above being a bit pretentious however. Captain Vul is his deputy as a beige and white older cat named Eaglesplash, and a ginger lil kitten representing Sailor Dee is all they have for a medicine cat. The other Meta-Knights are senior warriors too, and a few characters from water related regions are among them too like the animal friends.
Lastly is a very underdeveloped Floralia themed clan, ofc headed by the unproblematic Queen Sectonia, now know as Waspstar. Like Oakstar, her deputy is just some runt she picked out of nowhere - Taranza who is probably named Spiderstep. They probably live on a high ridge abundant in flowers and fruits, making them so familiar with insects.
Characters who are generally unaligned in canon make up the countless rogues roaming about who are usually harmless and more creeped out by the clans than hostile. And one in particular is a large mysterious ginger tabby, named Lionflare - who is this AUs Galacta Knight. He was an old leader who left after being a prophecy child himself, but only earning the luxury to watch the clans continue to bicker for generations. Anytime Kirby is lost or between clans he seems to come around and guide him.
REVISED WORLDBUILDING
The biggest revision is the addition of NARRATIVE THEMES to these stories. Friendship and rainbows ofc, but more refined to be - the importance of building community in times of strife instead of erecting walls and paranoia. Very specifically I was inspired by AVOS and how interesting the prophecy kittens were to be rogues and thrown around the clans, but the book seemingly had no issues with that fundamentally. I DO, and I'm going to use it to emphasize how the clans have more in common than different and that the barriers they construct between eachother are arbitrary. A kitty who makes the best out of being thrown around between them by befriending the younger cats and showing new perspective is really fun.
Another massive complaint I have with this series is how obvious it is that the authors don't care about cats lmao. I love animals and how creative xenofiction can be with exploring the world from the eyes and relationships of non-human creatures. With this like the A&OAU I wanna bring in a bit more animal realism when it comes to how the animals communciate and organize. More stuff about animal body language and how their social groups are usually family or clique-based. One specific example of this I like is how when cats interact with each other they usually don't meow or make other vocalizations, its for kittens and housecats trying to communicate with us. Oakstar used to be a kittypet so he's used to doing that, and it therefore makes him seem loud, childish and obnoxious compared to others. Just like our lovable, king.
There's also many changes to the way Starclan and the mystic aspects work I can think of, mostly of making them more distant and magical realism-y. But one thing is that with the 9 Lives I want them to have more impact. Leaders still live not too long lives in WC cause they lose them more than other cats or something like that, in this they make most cats far outlive others. This is going to be prevalent in the lives of Midnightstar as well as Lionflare, in supporting the idea of how cyclical the clan's fighting is and how much they need to rise above it. As well for a character like Waspstar it could show how the mystic qualities of a leader are sought for selfish reasons, like seeking a functional immortality.
My Little Pony AU
This is a highly "for-funsies" AU, without any real plot or writing besides me just loving the funny pony show.