King Dedede

"'Sing when you want to sing, dance when you want to dance! Everyday, have fun and enjoy life! That’s what it means to be a Great King!'-King Dedede, King Dedede’s Great Escape Strategy"

King Dedede is a main character in the Kirby series. He's the self-proclaimed king of Dream Land and is said to be Kirby's "destined rival", being usually fought as a boss. Despite that, he's actually one of the series' many heroes.

Why He's The King of The Show

 * 1) His design is extremely clever and doesn't really make him look villainous due to the lack of pointy features and angular shapes like ones other Nintendo villains have, like Bowser and Ridley. In other words, it could be said that he's "shaped like a friend".
 * 2) * Some fans will even see similarities with him and Santa Claus, of all people!
 * 3) * When you think about it, this may hint that he wasn't meant to be a villain for the entire franchise.
 * 4) He has a lot of cool and iconic boss battles across the series' history, each with an amazing remix of his iconic theme song their own creative twist that makes every fight feel fresh, while also evolving and adding onto his old moves.
 * 5) Despite being an antagonist in many games, he's not really a villain per se (outside of Kirby's Dream Land). In Kirby's Adventure for example, he only stole the Star Rod to prevent Nightmare from haunting all of Dream Land. In other games where you fight him, he's often possessed or mind-controlled.
 * 6) *Dedede is often called an anti-hero, but this claim is actually false: anti-heroes lack conventional heroic qualities, such as idealism, courage, and morality. That isn't the case with Triple D, as he is now more righteous and responsible (with extremely rare exceptions).
 * 7) He is seen to be on friendly terms with Kirby, especially in the more recent games.
 * 8) * His relationship with him is also quite interesting: Despite their glaring differences, rivalry and amount of times they compete, they also have a lot in common and are on another wave of understanding between each other compared to everyone else they interact with.
 * 9) For a rival to Kirby, he's quite trusting and generous to him:
 * 10) * According to the hammer description in Kirby Star Allies, Kirby has kept that hammer since their duel in Kirby Super Star Ultra and inherited it, and in Forgotten Land, Dedede even gives Kirby an upgrade for the Hammer ability.
 * 11) * Also, the fact that he goes all Meta Knight on Kirby in "Revenge of the King" and gives him a hammer so they can fight like equals is extremely wholesome.
 * 12) While he may look like a big baggy oaf (mostly because of his chunky physiognomy), he's actually barely lazy at all, with some proofs being the fact that he has a boxing ring in his castle and how he trained as hard as he could after his first loss to Kirby according to trophy descriptions in Smash Bros.
 * 13) According to the boss description of Dedede Clone in Planet Robobot, King Dedede is even considered to be one of the strongest beings on Planet Popstar, which is very impressive, especially considering the context that the descriptions in the game are actually being narrated by a super computer (Star Dream).
 * 14) Despite not being known for being any sort of genius, he shows smarts on numerous times. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl's story mode Subspace Emissary, he planned ahead to counter Tabuu by creating special badges that restore his fellow fighters even after everyone has been turned into trophies, and it actually worked.
 * 15) His will is even growing strong enough to fight back being manipulated by the true villains, even if by a little bit. For example: Before the battle against "Forgo Dedede" begins, he can be seen trying to remove the mask that's controlling him.
 * 16) According to Shinya Kumazaki (the current Kirby series director), the reason why he goes so ham with the series is the reveal of Dedede actually being a hero.
 * 17) Unlike Nintendo's other king bosses, Dedede has actually had an endearing arc that spans across multiple games, starting off as a somewhat arrogant, trouble-making, and full of himself jerk and becoming the selfless, courageous and helpful sovereign we know him as nowadays.
 * 18) Despite how evil his anime counterpart is, he still manages to be great fun, in part thanks to his VAs' performances as him there.

Unkingly Qualities

 * 1) Dedede tries to appear more threatening and aloof than he actually is, but he’s not very good at it.
 * 2) In Right Back At Ya!, Dedede was represented as a cruel and abusive dictator who orders monsters to get the job done for him, because he's too much of an incompetent weakling to get the job done himself. not only that, but he rarely uses his hammer in battle. He even beats his Waddle Dees up for fun and sells them without remorse for a quick buck.
 * 3) *While he might have been more caring in "Prediction Predicament" and "D'Preciation Day" (which is when he admits he doesn't actually wish for Kirby to die, by the way), he instantly regresses back into being a despicable dictator in the next episode.
 * 4) *Even in the final moments of the last episode in the series, he still whines about not being able to order monsters and cause mayhem anymore, showing that he hasn't learned a thing.
 * 5) His characterization was also done poorly in Battle Royale: he was hellbent on humiliating Kirby and rigged the entire tournament against him, instead of trying to succeed over him fair and square, like in Revenge of the King.

Trivia

 * The symbol on the back of his robe is actually a very simplified version of a ✌️-sign.
 * He or his likeness has appeared in every game in the series except Kirby & The Amazing Mirror. As such, he is the most recurring major character of the series besides Kirby and Waddle Dee.
 * King Dedede is currently voiced by Shinya Kumazaki, the current series director for Kirby, and in the Super Smash Bros series, King Dedede is voiced by Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of both Kirby and Smash.
 * If you pay close attention to the games Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Planet Robobot and Kirby and the Forgotten Land, you'll notice some very clever moves by HAL involving Dedede:
 * Triple Deluxes title can be interpreted as 3D, and it also released on the 3DS'.
 * Forgotten Land is the very first 3D Kirby game, and Dedede's name has 3 'De's.
 * In Planet Robobot, Susie's Dedede Clone uses a Tri-Dimensional Cannon, 'Tri-Dimensional' also being another play on "3D" and "Dedede".
 * Shinya Kumazaki has mentioned many times that Kirby's Adventure is his favorite game in the series and the one that changed his perception on how videogames of this type even work. The reveal of Dedede actually being a good guy stuck with him and led to becoming his favorite character.

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