Marukabi

"It will be difficult, Kirby, but you can do it! We are counting on you. Good luck!"

- Marx to Kirby, Kirby Super Star

Marukabi ( マルカビ ) is the non-binary ship between Marx and Kirby from the Kirby fandom.

Canon
When the sun and moon of Planet Popstar start fighting each other and knocking each other out of the skies, a small jester-like being who goes by the name of Marx tells Kirby that the only way to stop the fight between the two is to gather the power of the surrounding stars and use them to summon Nova, a planet-sized, mechanical "comet" that can grant wishes. Before Kirby hops on the Warp Star, Marx wishes him good luck.

After gathering the power from the seven planets' Fountains and summoning Nova, Kirby goes before Nova to make his wish to save Popstar. Marx knocks Kirby away before he can, however, and makes his own selfish wish — to take complete control of Popstar. When this happens, he transforms into his monster form and gains new powers. Marx reveals that he tricked the sun and moon into fighting each other as well as Kirby, in a master plan to conquer Popstar. Afterward, Nova begins looming towards Popstar, leaving Kirby alone to float in space. The power Kirby had gathered comes together and creates a Starship for him to stop Nova with, however. Nova's journey to Popstar is suddenly hampered by the sun and moon, giving Kirby the chance to enter him. When Kirby destroys his heart, Nova is injured, and an angered Marx attempts to attack Kirby himself in a purple arena. In Kirby Super Star Ultra, after Marx has taken sufficient damage, the screen will occasionally start changing colors between blue, green, and red, possibly an effect of him straining his powers to the maximum in an effort to finish Kirby off for good. In spite of Marx's fearsome and deadly new powers, Kirby manages to win and send Marx flying into Nova.

In Kirby Star Allies, however, Marx appears as a Dream Friend, added in the first update to Kirby Star Allies, primarily using his jester form. According to the game's Flavor Text, Marx somehow survived the crash into Nova in Milky Way Wishes and sensed danger from afar, coming to Kirby's aid despite their past history, in order to stop the threat looming over the galaxy. However, since more then one of every dream friend can be summoned, whether this is the real Marx or just a copy is unknown. Marx's moveset uses most of his attacks from his boss fights in Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra. On the ground, he is in his normal form, using his ball to roll around and attack, while in mid-air he becomes his monster form.

Fanon
Marx and Kirby are shipped in both a romantic and platonic way. Some users claim that as long as they are hanging out, they'd be happy, while others are dead sure that Marx and Kirby belong together in a romantic way. It is described as a cute ship, and some claim that Kirby can help Marx become a better person. Some users are so in love (ha ha, get it?) with the ship that they name their accounts (On various social media platforms) after it. Some users claim that Marx and Kirby are enemies and would never get together, or that Kirby deserves someone better then Marx, but Marukabi shippers somehow are always able to prove them wrong.

The only Marx ship more popular then Marukabi is Marxolor, which it rivals every now and then.

Fandom

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