Klonoa / WMG - TV Tropes

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Existing Klonoa games and other media

Ghadius is an extension of the King of Sorrow.

Ghadius is described as a being of pure nightmares who was rejected and sealed away long ago by the people of Phantomile. He escaped to seek revenge for his imprisonment by destroying the world. The King of Sorrow's history and motivations are almost exactly the same: revenge on Lunatea for being rejected and banished from that world. Ghadius looks rather strange, too: he looks like nothing more than a mask and a cloak which leads to a starry void. The King of Sorrow was controlling the puppet known as Baguji; Ghadius' cloak could be connected to wherever the Kingdom of Sorrow was sealed. This would also explain why the King summoned Klonoa to Lunatea as part of his revenge, even though Klonoa wasn't from that dimension: he was seeking revenge for his previous defeat at Klonoa's hands when he was masquerading as Ghadius.

Klonoa is the player.

Think about it: toward the end of Door to Phantomile, Huepow talks about how Klonoa isn't from their world and how he needs to be sent back to his own. We never see what Klonoa's real world is. It's because Klonoa is you, the player. The game ends with Klonoa going back to his own world; you then become aware of your own surroundings again as the credits roll. The whole "dream traveler" motif could just be an extension of the player, an avatar of whom is exploring fantasy worlds. When the game is over, Klonoa travels yet again—simply waiting for the player to pick up a new game. Even more evidence is at the end of the credits: in "Door to Phantomville," the name you chose for the save file is on the cover of the book (as if you're the "author"); in LV, the game says "good morning," addressing you by your save file name.

Klonoa is a Time Lord.

It's possible, since at the end of the first game, it's revealed that Klonoa comes from an alternate version of Phantomile.

And the famous wind ring is his TARDIS.

Klonoa is really a terminally ill child.

At the beginning of both console games, it talks about how, essentially, the game you're about to play is a dream, or a look into Klonoa's imagination. By it being all set within his imagination, Klonoa can do whatever he wants within his Dream World. He invented everything - Huepow, his "Grandfather" (perhaps because his own died sometime before), the Wind Village, all of it. This is because the real Klonoa has a potentially life threatening condition - heart condition, tumors, what have you - his parents know that, eventually, their son is going to die. They try to make life for him as normal as they can, but the one thing he can't do is go outside and play with other children like he wants to. So, he created the fantasy world, to cope with what he can't do. The villain in the first game is just his mental image of his sickness. Like any optimistic child, he defeats Ghadius, and believes he can continue within his "dream". However, he's snatched away from the safety of "Phantomile" by a confirmation of the fact that, yes, he is going to die. Thus, the events of the second game are set up. Depressed by the revelation, he retreats into dreams again, but creates a new place, Lunatea, under the belief that Phantomile is too much of a good place. In Lunatea, the entire journey is him coming to grips with his sadness over the ever-nearing end of his life. In the end, he decides to enjoy the time he has left, and voluntarily leaves Lunatea behind.

The King of Sorrow is the personification of Klonoa's own sorrow from Door to Phantomile.

To take this further, the entirety of Lunatea's Veil is a reflection of other aspects of Klonoa himself.

Klonoa's real world is a Crapsack World

And it's so horrendously awful that the inhabitants, including Klonoa himself, often use hallucinogens to escape it, causing them to imagine that they are in happy, colorful dreamworlds. (Hence, Phantomile.) But it eventually wears off, snapping them out of the dream-state. (Hence, Klonoa getting sucked out of Phantomile instead of simply leaving it

Lunatea's Veil is Klonoa's coping mechanism of getting over being separated Huepow and having his memories toyed with

Each of the kingdoms represents a part of Klonoa's psyche, and the fact that people from the kingdoms don't mingle are symbolic of Klonoa blocking out certain emotions. Lolo is possibly symbolic of his hope or desire to do his best. But most of all, the King Of Sorrow looks remarkably like Huepow (note the ring of rope around his neck and the teal colours); this could represent the lost friendship that he and Huepow had, and how he saw himself in Huepow as one would with a close friend. The icing on the cake is that The Fifth Kingdom is called Hyuponia and throughout the second to penultimate level, hints of the Windmill Song play amongst the twisted music.
There are five kingdoms based on emotions: Tranquility, Joy, Discord, Indecision, and Sorrow. There also happens to be five stages of grief: Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Depression, and Acceptance. Because of imbalance, the kingdoms are displaying their respective stage of grief, and are traveled to in the same order as the stages of grief: La-Lakoosha priestesses in denial that the world has gone into chaos and just waiting for the Dream Traveler, Joliant trying to distract itself with endless entertainment in hopes to stay happy for a little while longer, Volk City devolving into senseless war and Leorina making a ring copy out of anger, Mira-Mira citizens getting depressed and asking "why bother with anything anymore?", and lastly The King of Sorrow accepting that he needs Klonoa's help to end his life. And as each bell is rung, that stage of grief is passed. So during the course of one dream, which in gameplay time is little over 4 hours, Klonoa has coped with grief that would take a normal person many years to resolve. That's pretty badass.
- Also note the symbol of the priestesses of La-Lakoosha, and the statues of the Mother Goddess Claire. The green triangle represents Klonoa's Dream Ring - a fabled artifact spoken highly of by several characters in the game - and the wings are symbolic of Klonoa's ears that he uses to fly (sure it's only for 2 seconds, but it still counts). We can also see this symbolism in the statue of the MG Claire: she has wings that mirror the symbolism of those in the priestess' emblem, and the ball of energy she has in her hands is similar to the ring. The statue of Claire The Ancient has a striking resemblance to Lephise - and the fact it hides The Fifth Kingdom is similar to how the Moon Kingdom was hidden in the first game. Klonoa literally has to overcome his sorrow and accept it, in order to continue with his life.

Lunatea's Veil is Huepow's psyche after Klonoa leaves DttP

Similar to the above, citing most of the same symbolism, but changing target characters; the different kingdoms in LV clearly represent conflicting parts of a healthy psyche, with the final hidden kingdom of Hyuponia being repressed sadness. Also note how Hyupo is phonetically identical to Huepow.
The overall theme of dream traveling could also suggest that he is very literally traveling throughout the dreams of different people, like some kind of adventure platformer psychologist/therapist. The DttP is quite literally helping a child recover from the trauma of a nightmare before it does long term psychological damage, ala Nahatomb. Once Klonoa's job is done there, the closest person in need is Huepow, who is now grappling with depression.
- Yes, this does suggest that Klonoa's progression through the two main PS games is in fact something like Inception style dream-diving.
The music tracks associated with Hyuponia contain echoing samples of music from the first game.

Klonoa was killed on the way back to his universe

Hence why there isn't a Klonoa 3. In the ending of Lunatea's Veil, the portal Klonoa walks through was too powerful, and killed him.

The kicker? Shortly after the portal ripples, Klonoa is surrounded by a bright light, and he is walking into it.

The Mira-Mirans of Lunatea's Veil died of starvation or were turned into trees

Other than the lone woman at the beginning of the Maze of Memories, we never see any other alive Mira-Mirans. From the way that the woman talked, the "indecision" that plagues Mira-Mira could almost be a Does This Remind You of Anything? analogue for crippling depression. That, coupled with the fact that they never go outside of the museum and don't seem to have any food in there implies that many might have starved to death. Maybe hunger eventually triggered them to search for food, but the labyrinthine construction of the museum meant they couldn't escape before dying.

However, we do see a giant talking tree in Indecision Pass consider itself part of the Mira-Mirans after Klonoa and co defeat the Hatchling. Maybe Mira-Mirans don't go outside because they somehow take root and turn into the various alpine trees you see if they do. When you consider the legend of Narcissus and the fact that Mira-Miras stare at things and constantly relive their past in the Maze of Memories, it's not totally out there...

Joka is a mutant Death Moo.

Death Moos are the enemies spawned by Ghadius and Nahatomb. They do look similar to Joka, being Walking Heads with jagged mouths, white faces, and pointy ears. Perhaps Ghadius wanted an assistant, so he spawned a Death Moo, then gave it magical powers like him. The infusion of magic changed his appearance and made him bigger and smarter.

Alternatively, he's a mutant Eclipse.

Eclipses are the enemies in Vision 5-2 that Moos turn into when it gets dark. Eclipses bear a strong resemblance to Joka. They even have the same pointy jester shoes! Also, they assist Joka during his boss battle.

Joka is the result of Ghadius combining a Death Moo and an Eclipse with his dark powers.

Maybe Ghadius liked the resulting creature so much, he made it his right-hand man.

In Door to Phantomile and the Wii remake, Ghadius possessed Joka before and during Joka's boss battle.

After Joka had failed to stop Klonoa so many times, it seems very nice for Ghadius to forgive Joka and let him have another chance. Maybe too nice. What if Ghadius actually possessed Joka to strengthen him and make him a competent fighter? After Klonoa defeated Joka anyway, Ghadius released Joka from his control and left Joka to die. This would explain two things: One, Joka suddenly gaining a Voice Ofthe Legion just before his boss battle (and reverting to his regular voice after the battle), and two, Joka shouting Ghadius' name in fear and/or anger during his death.

Tenebrae Hue isn't really a lion.

What if it's just his armor that looks like a huge lion? Or maybe it's actually a robot body? Maybe Tenebrae is actually something smaller and less intimidating. Maybe he's actually a member of Klonoa's species!

The King of Sorrow's name is Ishra, and he's the creator of the ark.

Consider the ark used to reconnect the kingdom of sorrow to the rest of Lunatea. We know that in the past it used to travel between the kingdoms, and that it has the ability to connect Hyuponia to the rest of the world. Furthermore, some time after the King of Sorrow was removed from Lunatea and before Klonoa gets called to help, the ark goes out of commission. What if the reason for this is that the King of Sorrow himself created/controlled the ark, and when the Lunateans decided to hide away Hyuponia the ark could no longer function. It is worth noting that once Leorina rings the bell to open the gateway between Hyuponia and the rest of Lunatea, the ark seems to regain its ability to fly, which seems crucial to connecting all five of the kingdoms. After all, not all of the kingdoms are adjacent to the lake of seclusion.

Klonoa's homeworld has been destroyed.

You'd think a guy as positive and determined as Klonoa would deal with the sorrow and trauma of not being a native Phantomilian, or maybe try to find a way back without getting thrown out by the Song of Rebirth. Heck, finding out your memories are fabricated probably wouldn't cause such a reaction as it did, as long as they became real over the course of the adventure. So why does Klonoa freak out so hard when he's getting pulled out of Phantomile?`

Simple. The Song of Rebirth is trying to send him home...which does not exist. It is destroyed. Gone. Just black interdimensional void left. Maybe during his adventure in regular Phantomile the Alt!Phantomile Ghadius succeeded in ending the world. Heck, maybe Klonoa knew his home was going to be destroyed and escaped to Phantomile willingly before getting fabricated memories overwriting his escape. Thus, it stands to reason he's not freaking out over having to leave, he's freaking out over having to go into the void, a literal unknown, instead of moving in to Phantomile for good. Even the ending could just be a genuine dream of waking up in his homeworld while being blissfully asleep in the void where his homeworld used to be.

In Lunatea's Veil, he willingly goes through the portal. This isn't because he's going home, but because he's made a decision. Maybe him staying could imbalance Lunatea and he couldn't do that to Lolo, or maybe he saw KoS's sadness and decided no one else should suffer the same, fully taking on the mantle of dream traveller and protecting the worlds from harm, and set off on his next adventure.

By the time the manga rolls around, he's found a nice home and even a way to contact previous world and bring people over, hence the existence of Lolo and Garlan in the world. Heck, Dream Champ Tournament could do that, why couldn't the manga?

As for the Moos, one befriended Klonoa and started serving as the postman of Breezegale once the new homeworld was found. In truth, the Moos aren't hostile and mostly content to just waddle around, help where they can and respawn if they should "die". The only reason touching them damages Klonoa is because they secrete a contact poison as a defence mechanism whenever out of their homeworld. Thus, Postman Moo acted as a radar for Klonoa's search for a safe homeworld. When he stopped secreting poison, they were home.

Joilant's mascot in Klonoa 2 is actually Joka in disguise.

He looks kind of reptilian, and Joka's One-Winged Angel form in Door to Phantomile resembles a lizard too. And with the mascot's red and yellow stripes, surely he's at least meant to be a Mythology Gag referencing Joka, but maybe it's more than that. Joka has been shown to be able to shapeshift, so maybe he took the form of this character and became the mascot for Joilant Fun Park. He might have sinister intentions, like spying on Klonoa, but perhaps he really is enjoying it. If nothing else, he must love soaking in the attention.

Here's a compromise: He was supposed to spy on Klonoa, but he enjoyed being the mascot so much that he completely forgot about being a bad guy.

In-universe, Klonoa's species is mythical.

At the end of the Wii remake, Huepow says that in Phantomile, Klonoa's world "is considered nothing more than a strange dream." This implies that Klonoa's species and world are widely known, but also, possibly, that most people in other worlds don't believe in Klonoa until they actually see him. It would be interesting to find out what exactly the legends about Klonoa's world are, and to see some characters who don't believe these legends.

Probably jossed. Grandpa, Balue, and the other Breezegale residents are Klonoa's species, and they're all basically normal people... Unless there's something going on with them that we don't know.

Klonoa is the only dream traveller, possibly either The Chosen One or the Last of His Kind.

The above WMG assumes that Klonoa's species is like an elite corps of dream travellers. But now that that WMG has been mostly jossed, let's think about this another way. If there was a group of dream travellers, why send a kid to complete these missions alone? Admittedly, he can handle fighting all these nightmares and monsters, but the emotional strain of being forced to leave each world clearly upsets him a lot. What if there's no other way? What if Klonoa is really, truly the only one who can save the dream worlds? This ties in nicely with the "Klonoa's world has been destroyed" theory above.

Evidence:
- Ghadius calls Klonoa a "strange dream." He seems to know more about Klonoa than we do, but although he doesn't reveal much, he does seem to imply that Klonoa is the only strange dream.
- The webcomic is called Dream Traveler of Noctis Sol. Singular form. While Klonoa's friends also travel between worlds in the comic, maybe Dream Traveler is like an official title that only Klonoa has?

Klonoa Moonlight Museum is a false memory planted by Huepow.

Moonlight Museum is implied to be canon in Lunatea's Veil in the Maze of Memories level so the game must be a prequel to Door to Phantomile but it's implied that Klonoa arrived in that world recently due to Huepow deciding to plant fake memories to encourage him to fight Ghadius. It would therefore make the most sense if Moonlight Museum was one of the fake memories planted of Klonoa and Huepow having adventures together. The Maze of Memories reflects memories after all so Moonlight Museum could be a big part of it since Klonoa still possesses those fake memories as far as we can tell.

Klonoa is a Messianic Archetype.

Like Jesus, he is an All-Loving Hero who is sent into unfamiliar worlds by a mysterious force to rid those worlds of evil. He turns his anger against some enemies (One example of Jesus doing this is when he visits the temple in Matthew 21:12), but redeems others (although, admittedly, Jesus focused much more on redemption.) This is especially noticeable in Lunatea's Veil, which uses religious imagery rather prominently in La-lakoosha and the Terminus of Tears. Klonoa makes friends along the way, but he must eventually leave each world he visits to return to his own. In Klonoa 2, he remains calm and optimistic as he leaves Lunatea and heads into the light. This is reminiscient of the Christian song "The Commission" by CAIN, which is sung from the perspective of Jesus as he awaits his death sentence. It is doubtful whether or not these similarities were intentional, as Klonoa is a Japanese series, and Japan has a very small Christian population, but it is one way of looking at the series.

If this is true, then Ghadius makes for an easy Satanic Archetype. Like Satan, he is associated with darkness. Ghadius rebelled against his fellow spirits and was punished for it. His new goal is to destroy all of creation and plunge it into oblivion.
The King of Sorrow, despite having supernatural powers, could be interpreted as just an average, sinful person who is lost and depressed. After meeting Klonoa, the King of Sorrow is literally reborn, similar to how people who convert to Christianity are metaphorically "reborn."

The King of Sorrow was voiced by Kumiko Watanabe, Klonoa's voice actress.

Not much evidence for this except that he does sound like he has Crossdressing Voices, like Klonoa and Popka. It would be very thematically fitting for the King of Sorrow to share Klonoa's VA because he is clearly an Evil Counterpart to Klonoa, possibly even representing Klonoa's depression from the trauma inflicted on him in the previous game.

Upcoming or cancelled materials

If the series is ever picked back up...

Some of the unused character designs from Door to Phantomile will be recycled into new characters. Ghadius' Monster Clown design, for example, would make an interesting boss, if not the Big Bad.

If not, then the franchise will get a Spiritual Successor.

We've got Mighty No. 9, and Yooka-Laylee on the way, so why not?

The upcoming movie's plot

That's right, Klonoa is getting a movie

. What will it be about?

A retelling of Door to Phantomile, which would make up for the Wiimake's somewhat lackluster performance. It could be a retelling of Lunatea's Veil or Empire of Dreams too, although those seem less likely.
A retelling/continuation of the webomic, Dream Traveller of Noctis Sol. We've gotta find out how Klonoa defeats Tenebrae Hue!
- Supported by the involvement of Henshin, Rob Pereyda, Hiroshi Ariga, and Ash Paulsen.
  - Jossed. Rob confirmed on Kitsu that the movie�s story won�t be a rehash.
  - Unless he was specifically referring to "Door to Phantomile".
A completely new story. Although, of course, some characters from previous games would return. Let's theorize which characters might appear if this is the case:
- Joka. Whoever the new Big Bad would be, it wouldn't be fun if Joka didn't once again step up as The Dragon!
- Lolo, to hopefully cement her and Klonoa as an Official Couple.
- Huepow. It would be nice to see Klonoa's old friend again.
We'll never know, since it was cancelled in January 2019.

The movie's Big Bad will be a Satanic Archetype.

If you're going for a Big Damn Movie, why not have the most evil villain in the entire series? This villain will deceive Klonoa throughout the movie, and try to drive him over the Despair Event Horizon so that he will stop fighting and join the dark side. He may even succeed, but probably not for long.

Jossed. mostly because the movie is cancelled.
This WMG assumed that the movie's villain would be the main villain of the entire series, responsible for all the nightmares across all the dream worlds. Ghadius may not be responsible for the nightmares in every world, but there is at least enough evidence to call him the Satanic Archetype of Phantomile. See the "Klonoa is a Messianic Archetype" theory in the first folder.

If the webcomic had continued, Nightmare Klonoa would have taken over Tenebrae Hue's position as the Big Bad

Considering that he is the Evil Counterpart to Klonoa, an All-Loving Hero, it would make sense for him to do something so selfish. Besides, giving Nightmare Klonoa Big Bad status would increase his chances of having a long, epic fight with Klonoa, which would have been one heck of a Moment of Awesome.

"Klonoa of the Wind Encore."

...is a trademark Namco recently filed, as mentioned on the main page.

Now, let's guess what this trademark could be for.
- Another remake of the first game.
- A remake of Klonoa 2.
- The "Encore" is a Red Herring, and it's actually Klonoa 3.
- A bundle of either two or all three of the above.
- A simple compilation rerelease of some or all of the games.
- Seeing how the Mr. Driller encore ended up it is most likely going to be a remaster or remake.
The game, officially titled KLONOA Phantasy Reverie Series, is confirmed to be a remaster of games 1 & 2.

Crossovers/Misc

Klonoa's species is related to the Noops and the Wuts.

Klonoa and other members of his species get their rabbit-like features from the Noops, and their dog-like features from the Wuts. Unlike Noops and Wuts, who stay in the Land of Dreams, the members of Klonoa's species are like soldiers who travel into other dreams to fight nightmares. Perhaps the Dream Maker created Klonoa and the others for this purpose.

Here's a little evidence: Though this may not have been intentional, Klonoa is like a Composite Character of the Noops and Wuts: He has the Noops' friendliness, and the Wuts' badassery.
Continuing from this, what if all the villains in the series were created by Zordrak? What if he is the true Big Bad of the games?

Klonoa is somehow related to the Wattersons.

They're a family of cats and rabbits, and he's a cat/rabbit! Maybe they have relatives whose kid was a cat-rabbit hybrid instead of one cat and one rabbit. Also, the Medium Blending in Gumball's world makes it look like the characters there come from many different dream worlds, similar to Tenebrae Hue's plot to collect different dream creatures

in the webcomic.

A Lolo spinoff game will be a Psychological Horror game.

Hypothetical movie cast

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie casted celebrities as iconic video game characters. WMG.The Super Mario Bros Movie and WMG.Sonic The Hedgehog 22022 both have sections listing hypothetical castings for other characters in the series. Klonoa may never get a movie, much less one with celebrity actors, but let's be honest, hypothetical casts are fun.

Kumiko Watanabe cameos