King Dedede

"'プププランドのえらい王様で、デデデハンマーがトレードマークだ. シリーズほぼ全てに登場しているから当然皆も知ってるな！ (I'm the great king of Dream Land, and my trademark is my Dedede Hammer. I appear in almost everything in the series, so of course you knew all that!)' - King Dedede introducing himself on the Official Kirby Japanese Twitter'" 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's Dededelightful

 * 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.  Dedede might have started as a selfish jerk, but he's changed into a better person worthy of being called a "Great King". And the best part is that he did it all on his own! Kirby might have snapped him out of his behavior in the first game, but every righteous decision Dedede makes after that is his own.
 * 2) *Dedede is often called an anti-hero, but this is false. Anti-hero is defined as a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities, such as idealism, courage, and morality. A good example of this is Wario: He’s not a villain for many years at this point and he does good things sometimes, but the difference is WHY he’s doing them. He does them not out of goodness of his heart, but because it usually aligns with his primary goals, which are more often than not are completely self-serving. He might save people, he might save the world, but only if it benefits him, if it helps him get more rich. He has some standards, but ultimately, when he does the right thing only when it’s beneficial to him (with extremely rare exceptions, such as his sentimental attachment to his pet hen).  As proven above, Dedede doesn’t fall under same criteria, since he does things for others more than he does for himself. Therefore, Dedede isn't a villain or anti-hero, he's just a hero. Same as Kirby.
 * 3) He 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.
 * 4) *Many people view Dedede as "the Bowser of the Kirby series", but a better and more accurate comparison would be Knuckles the Echidna. Both start out as antagonists in their debut games, but quickly goes through a redemption arc and becomes one of the main protagonists.  Despite their redemption, both have a “trope” that forces them to be “bad guys” for the sake of having a boss fight with them. That being Knuckles being “tricked” by Eggman time and time again and Dedede being possessed/controlled.
 * 5) Dedede tries 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, Super Star Ultra 's Revenge of the King where he spares Bandana Dee from facing Kirby, Mie Takase's official Kirby novels, and Forgotten Land.
 * 6) 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 actually worked!
 * 7) 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, and instead of ordering others to do the job for him, Dedede usually takes matters into his own hands.
 * 8) Extremely respectable. In Super Star Ultra 's 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.
 * 9) Has a lot of cool boss battles across the series' history, each with their own creative twist that makes every fight feel fresh.
 * 10) *Also, each battle is accompanied with an amazing boss theme. The Great King's theme is very iconic and has had countless remixes and variations across the series' history.
 * 11) 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.
 * 12) 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.

Videos
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Trivia

 * 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.