King Dedede

King Dedede (written as King DeDeDe or King De De De in certain older games) is Kirby's arch-rival and a main protagonist in Nintendo and HAL Laboratory's long-running Kirby video game series.

Why He Rocks

 * 1) Unlike Nintendo's other king bosses, Dedede has had actual character growth. In his debut, he did a legitimately villainous thing by robbing the inhabitants of Dream Land of their food and sparkling stars, but after being taken down a peg by Kirby, his character starts to take a different direction. In Kirby's Adventure, he was simply protecting Dream Land from the outside threat, he didn’t want any recognition for his actions, he simply was doing what was right. Kirby didn’t even want to listen to what he had to say, but it didn’t make Dedede stop what he was doing simply because he didn’t get the praise for his heroics. In Kirby 64 his motivation for going on the Crystal Shards hunt was purely because he was worried for safety of the kids. He had no other reason to join other than that. In Return to Dream Land he was the first one to notice the Lor Starcutter crashing and offered Magolor his help, even though he didn’t offer anything in return. He was just helping out a stranger, because he thought it was right thing to do. In Triple Deluxe he was involved into whole Sectonia incident essentially against his will, and yet, not expecting ANY sort of recognition he was basically the main reason why Kirby succeeded at saving the day. And finally, Star Allies cements his motivation in words. He wants to bring peace to Dream Land, simply put. Nothing more or less. English localization adds bit of him “wanting to clean up his reputation” which might seem a bit self-serving, but that was nonexistent in Japanese original.
 * 2) Has an interesting relationship with Kirby. They are very similar people at their core, both are fairly happy-go-lucky, gluttonous, love peace and quiet, fairly blunt and straightforward, prone to impulsive decisions, but also charismatic leaders that attract a lot of people that genuinely admire them. The fact that they compete so much is fairly obvious, they are on another wave of understanding between each other compared to everyone else Kirby or Dedede interacts with. Dedede understands Kirby the best and vice-versa. They are two sides of the same coin. This is why they do silly gourmet races and test each other’s strength so often. They are only people to each other they genuinely recognize as rivals. If you think about how Meta Knight sees Kirby as his rival, Kirby doesn’t feel the same way towards him. Meta Knight is kinda this weird dude that is very distant but loves challenging you on occasion. and Kirby would never go out of his way to fight Meta Knight unless he’s caught up in the moment. While Dedede is very simple to understand but this is also why Kirby almost always accept his challenges without hesitation.
 * 3) Dedede wants to seem more threatening/aloof than he actually is, but he’s bad at it. It’s quite clear he cares about his friends a lot. This is easily seen in Kirby 64 's cutscenes, Revenge of the King where he spares Bandana Dee from facing Kirby, Mie Takase's official Kirby novels, and Forgotten Land.
 * 4) While he may seem like a wacky doofus, he's shown to be an intelligent and capable leader on multiple occasions. In Kirby's Adventure and Squeak Squad, Dedede had already defeated and imprisoned the main villain before Kirby arrived. And in Super Smash Bros. Brawl's story mode "Subspace Emissary", he created special badges restore his fellow fighters even after everyone has been turned into trophies, and it worked.
 * 5) Despite how most may see him, Dedede isn't lazy. Even before Kirby came into the picture, he had an arena in his castle specifically for himself, implying that he's an active fighter. Instead of ordering others to do the job for him, Dedede usually takes matters into his own hands.
 * 6) Extremely respectable. In Revenge of the King, he challenges Kirby once more (by his own free will) to finally settle their grudge, and when he loses... He keeps his word.
 * 7) Has an amazing boss theme that has countless remixes and variations across the series' history.
 * 8) Has a lot of cool boss battles across the series' history, each with their own twist that makes every fight feel fresh.
 * 9) Has the most redesigns across the entire series' history. While the inconsistency may seem like a bad quality for some, a lot of these designs are all good in their own way and give a lot of variety for fan artists.
 * 10) Like a fellow Nintendo veteran, all-star, and former baddie, Donkey Kong, he is wonderfully animated with numerous cartoonish and goofy expressions that make up his wacky personality.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) In the non-canonical anime (Right Back At Ya!), Dedede was represented as a primary antagonist: jerky and abusive dictator, who orders monsters to get the job done for him, because he's too incompetent himself.  Much more people seen the show than actually play the games, which resulted in this version of the character to become more known among casual audiences.
 * 2) While it makes for a ton of awesome boss battles, Dedede gets possessed and mind-controlled far too often. It's becoming old. Hopefully in future installments he gets to adventure along with Kirby & friends like he did in Return to Dream Land.

Trivia

 * It is debated whether or not Dedede is the main (or even an) antagonist any longer.
 * Nintendo has described Dedede as Kirby's "arch frenemy," as he has helped more than harmed him since Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * 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.
 * He spawned some memes, like his famous "I NEED A MONSTER TO CLOBBER THAT THERE KIRBY!" quote.