King Dedede

Dedede in KaTFL

**King Dedede**, also written as **King DeDeDe**, or **King De De De** (in certain older games), is Kirby's arch-rival in Nintendo and HAL Laboratory's long-running *Kirby* video game series. He (or something in 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, Meta Knight and Waddle Dee. Due to his many roles as Kirby's main adversary, many consider Dedede to be the series antagonist. Despite this, he has helped more than harmed since *Kirby's Return to Dream Land,* and Nintendo has even described Dedede as Kirby's "arch-frenemy."

He is the greedy self-proclaimed king of Dream Land, which is located on the quaint Planet Popstar. Due to an ambiguous description of the geography of Popstar, it is never made entirely clear how much of the planet King Dedede assumes leadership of, though he seems to have castles and fortresses all across the planet. Even so, he seems to perform no administrative functions, and for the most part, the planet seems to ignore any edicts that are issued by him.

King Dedede's trademark weapon is a large star-studded hammer which he can swing around with the greatest of ease. He is also able to inhale objects and spit them out in a manner similar to Kirby. According to *Super Smash Bros. Melee*, he underwent a series of rigorous training programs to learn and master the use of inhaled air to fly like Kirby at some point after the events of *Kirby's Dream Land*.

## Physical Appearance

King Dedede resembles a penguin-like creature dressed in royal, red finery, with his personal emblem (either a picture of himself performing the peace sign, or, in the anime and later games, just the peace sign alone) embossed on the back of his robe, as well as most of the items or weaponry he owns and/or endorses. King Dedede himself is rather portly, is blue-skinned and has a yellow mouth (which has been depicted as more of a beak). His irises are a blueish hue with a large white highlight in the middle and Dedede's eyelids often varies between blue visible eyelids or simple black dashes. He is consistently seen with his round red cap, which has a yellow or golden rim and a white ball at the top (a crown in *Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards* and the anime pilot). He has blue flipper-like hands, though they are usually covered by a pair of yellow mittens. He has a tan "onesie" (occasionally portrayed as a kimono), that is not shown in some games, revealing a blue belly (or a tan belly marking in *Kirby Squeak Squad* artwork). In addition, he has a red and yellow, zigzag-patterned obi stretched across his waist - concept art has shown that it is separate from his tan garment, being stretched over it.

## Personality

King Dedede is a lazy, greedy, and selfish king who often has little interest in ruling, and loves food. Due to being Kirby’s arch-rival and his many antagonistic roles, many have perceived King Dedede as the main antagonist of the *Kirby* series and a villain. While he has done his fair share of questionable deeds, most of his fights with Kirby following *Kirby's Dream Land* have happened when Dedede is under the influence or control of some other entity — three times by Dark Matter, and once by Yin-Yarn, possibly the Skull Gang, Taranza, and a Jamba Heart shard. Other times, Kirby fights him due to misunderstandings; such as *Kirby's Adventure* and *Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land*, where Kirby fights Dedede without letting the king explain his action of breaking the Star Rod; and during *Kirby: Squeak Squad*, where Kirby accuse him of stealing his Strawberry Shortcake. Many of their duels take place in non-canonical spin-offs, such as in *Kirby Fighters Deluxe* and *Kirby's Blowout Blast*.

Whenever Dedede acts as an antagonist out of his own free will, it is usually due to his own selfish and greedy desires, such as stealing food for himself, or trying to prove himself better than Kirby. Despite his greed and selfishness, however, King Dedede is also shown to have a heart of gold, truly caring for the well-being of his kingdom and others (including Kirby). His action of breaking the Star Rod in *Kirby's Adventure*/*Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land* was ultimately to protect Dream Land's inhabitants from Nightmare by trapping him in the Fountain of Dreams. In the Revenge of the King sub-game of *Kirby Super Star Ultra*, he even spares Bandana Waddle Dee, his loyal follower, from having to fight Kirby. In addition, when a Waddle Dee tripped while trying to flee the Beast Pack late in *Kirby and the Forgotten Land*, King Dedede stayed behind to hold off the Pack as well as threw the Waddle Dee into the elevator before it closed. He also helped Kirby and the gang gather Crystal Shards in *Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards* (albeit reluctantly), and can even be seen crying as they depart from Ripple Star after saying goodbye to Ribbon in the "Fare...well?" cutscene. He can also be quite brave; he aids in taking down powerful adversaries like Landia, Magolor, and Queen Sectonia, and, in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*’s Subspace Emissary, showed no fear of Bowser's rage as he gave him a sharp flick across the nose to direct his attention to Tabuu's threat.

King Dedede and Kirby appear to be on better terms as friendly rivals since *Kirby Super Star Ultra*, possibly due to the events in Revenge of the King where Dedede and Kirby fought to end their grudge "once and for all." In *Kirby's Return to Dream Land*, he works together with Kirby and co. to help Magolor, and joins forces with Kirby, the People of the Sky, and Taranza in defeating Queen Sectonia after she fuses with the Dreamstalk, even saving Kirby from being squeezed to death by her, in *Kirby: Triple Deluxe*. However, *Kirby: Planet Robobot* implies Dedede still harbors some of his former misgivings towards Kirby; Susie states that Dedede Clone, a clone made with King Dedede’s DNA, appears to have a grudge against Kirby. This is also exemplified in *Kirby Battle Royale*, where Dedede is the main antagonist and wants to humiliate Kirby by making him lose in The Cake Royale, despite their rivalry having become more friendly in recent times.

King Dedede appears to be trying to better himself and improve his reputation with his subjects, as his Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! description in *Kirby Star Allies* states that he is trying to clean his self-image by going out to save his people. His boss battle description emotes disbelief that Dedede would steal all of Dream Land's food, hinting King Dedede's behavior has become more ethical. The intros of *Kirby: Planet Robobot* and *Kirby Star Allies* show that he likes to play chess and gaze at the sky with his Waddle Dee servants. The ending picture of his and Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee's Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! displays them resting outside in the tree shade together, and the Celebration Picture "Friends' Getaway" depicts them and Kirby relaxing in the Fountain of Dreams, showing how he became more sociable and formed good friendships with his subjects and long-time rival.

King Dedede is shown to have formed a close bond with Meta Knight, Kirby's other rival from their shared inability to defeat Kirby in battle. King Dedede appears to dislike this fact, as in *Kirby Fighters 2*, he teams up with Meta Knight to claim a victory for once, and they go through desperate measures to do so.

King Dedede has his own sense of humor and is rather expressive. For instance, in the ending of *Kirby's Dream Land*, he expresses shock with a humorous expression after being defeated and throws fits and cries. On the title screen of *Kirby's Return to Dream Land*, where he makes an amusing face at Kirby, who simply tilts his head in confusion, causing the king to laugh at his reaction; in the same game, the King reacts with a look of absolute shock following Magolor's betrayal, with shrunken irises and his mouth gaping wide open. On the title screen of *Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition*, Dedede blows a kiss toward the player before laughing. He is shown in some mediums to be something of a prankster, as in *Kirby: Right Back at Ya!*, he tried to feed bombs to Kirby as a joke (before being led to believe his joke may have gotten Kirby killed). In King K. Rool's debut trailer for *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*, "The Rivals," where he disguised himself as King K. Rool in an attempt at pranking Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, laughing hysterically before being knocked aside by the real K. Rool.

Amusingly, it is also stated in *Kirby: Planet Robobot* that the test clones of Dedede were afraid of a certain insect, meaning that Dedede likely also has a fear of a certain bug (possibly bees, as he showed no fear towards Taranza at the end of *Kirby: Triple Deluxe*, but was terrified of Queen Sectonia, who resembled a bee).

Although King Dedede's authority and influence over Dream Land is seldom questioned in the games, events and descriptions in several spin-offs and *Kirby: Right Back at Ya!*, as well as his trophy description and Codec conversation with Colonel Campbell in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*, suggest that it is highly subjective depending on context.