King Dedede

King Dedede, also titled as His Royal Nemesis in Kirby Star Allies and 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 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. Due to his portrayal in various games as a villain, King Dedede is the main antagonist of the series. However, Nintendo has described Dedede as Kirby's "arch-frenemy," as he has helped more than harmed since Kirby's Return to Dream Land, which makes it debatable whether or not Dedede is the main (or even an) antagonist any longer.

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 Planet 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.

## Physical Appearance

King Dedede resembles a large 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). 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 piece of clothing, that is not shown in some games, revealing a blue belly. 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 one-piece garment, being stretched over it. His trademark weapon is a large star-studded hammer which he can swing around with the greatest of ease. He is able to inhale objects and spit them out in a manner similar to Kirby. According to *Super Smash Bros. Melee*, he apparently underwent a series of rigorous training programs to learn and master the use of inhaled air to fly like Kirby. This occurred after the events of *Kirby's Dream Land*.

## Personality

Due to being Kirby’s arch-rival, King Dedede is the main antagonist of the *Kirby* series. While he has done his fair share of evil deeds, most of his fights with Kirby following *Kirby's Dream Land* have happened when Dedede is under the possession or control of some other entity — three times by Dark Matter, once by Yin-Yarn, once by Taranza, and once by a Jamba Heart piece that was accidentally dispersed by Hyness. Other times, Kirby fights him due to misunderstandings; such as in *Kirby: Squeak Squad*, where Kirby falsely accused him of stealing his Strawberry Shortcake, or in *Kirby's Adventure*, where Kirby fought Dedede without letting the king explain his action of breaking the Star Rod. Whenever the villain in his own volition, it is usually due to selfish mischief, such as stealing food, or trying to prove himself better than Kirby. Despite his greed and selfishness, he sometimes has pure intentions behind his actions and can be helpful and heroic. His role as the antagonist of *Kirby's Adventure/Kirby's Nightmare in Dream Land* was ultimately to protect Dream Land from Nightmare who had invaded in the Fountain of Dreams by breaking the Star Rod. He has also (willingly or grudgingly) helped Kirby in *Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards* and the Subspace Emissary story of *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*.

In recent games, King Dedede appears to be on much better terms with Kirby, likely due to the events of Revenge of the King, where King Dedede and Kirby fight to end their grudge once and for all (despite them still having a rivalry after the events). In *Kirby's Return to Dream Land*, he happily teams up with Kirby to help Magolor (unlike in *Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards*), and in *Kirby: Triple Deluxe*, where he unhesistantly helps Kirby reach Queen Sectonia after she fused with the Dreamstalk, even saving him from being squeezed to death by her. King Dedede is also visibly very happy to see him towards the end of the Subspace Emissary, even going as far as to run up to hug him, despite previously being at odds in their previous encounter. However, in *Kirby: Planet Robobot*, Susie states that Dedede Clone, a clone made with King Dedede’s DNA, appears to have a grudge against Kirby, likely implying that Dedede still has a grudge against Kirby. This is shown 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 been more of a friendly one in recent times. Amusingly, it is also stated in *Kirby: Planet Robobot* that the test clones of Dedede were afraid of a certain insect, meaning that Dedede has a fear of a certain bug (which is likely a bee, as he showed no fear towards Taranza at the end of *Kirby: Triple Deluxe*, despite him having effortlessly defeated his guards and kidnapped him, but was terrified of Queen Sectonia, who resembled a bee). King Dedede also appears to be trying to better himself and improve his reputation, as his Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! description in *Kirby Star Allies* states that he is trying to clean up his self-image by going out to save his people. His boss battle description expresses shock that Dedede would steal all of Dream Land's food, hinting Dedede has gained more ethical behavior. Despite this, Dedede is still the main antagonist (or the tertiary but more active antagonist compared to the N.M.E. Sales Guy and eNeMeE (Nightmare in the games), who both prove to be a much bigger threat) in *Kirby: Right Back at Ya!*, although it is revealed near the end that he enjoys their one-sided rivalry to an extent and that he does not actually wish for Kirby to die, which eliminates his role as a villain at the anime's conclusion.

Although King Dedede's authority and influence over Dream Land is seldom questioned in the games, events and descriptions in several spin-offs and references including *Kirby: Right Back at Ya!*, and Dedede's trophy description and a Codec conversation with Colonel Campbell in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl* suggests that it is highly subjective depending on context. King Dedede himself takes it for granted, and his army of Waddle Dees serve him and staff at Castle Dedede. Meanwhile, other creatures happily go about their business with or without him. In *Kirby: Right Back at Ya!*, when his people choose to defy him whenever he oversteps his bounds, he has little to no enforcement of his authority to stop them, short of ordering monsters from Nightmare Enterprises and having it backfire on Escargoon and himself.

He is also 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), and 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, finding the entire thing hysterical before being knocked aside by the real King K. Rool.

## History

### In games

King Dedede is usually an antagonist. He often teams up with the villains out of greed instead of evilness.

#### Brutal Mario

King Dedede is a boss in this game. Like the other Kirby fights, Dedede's much similar to the original. You just need to hit him on his head, specifically when he trips and lands after a jump. Eight or nine hits should do the trick.

#### Super Smash Flash 2

In *Super Smash Flash 2*, King Dedede can be spotted as a background character in the stage Dream Land. Just like in *Super Smash Bros.*, Dedede occasionally flies from one side to the other as he crosses the background.

#### Mushroom Kingdom Fusion

In MKF, King Dedede is a member of the Villain Alliance, who try to stop Legion.

### In Movies

King Dedede is usually once again a main or at least major antagonist.

#### Super Smash Adventures

Dedede teams up with the Villains of the World. He was the one who found the Elemental Knights. Dedede would be the comic relief along with King. K Rool.

#### Mario and Kirby's Superstar Legacy

Dedede is one of the main antagonists of this series. He, along side Escargoon, made a robot with Yoshi's likeness. He is more serous and evil in this series.

### In Tv Series

In the tv series, Dedede would be a jerk and a comic relief character. He often joins the Villains' crazy antics and would sometimes argue or insult them. Despite this, they are his friends.

### In Other Media

In official art, he is the closest to his canon personality. He seems to hang out with Bowser the most.