Literally "Why is that pink buffoon messing up my plans" to "WHERE IS MY PINK BOY AT????" sells DeDeDe for me

*Samus & Ridley:* “Undying Hatred” *Sonic & Eggman:* “Undying rivalry but respects one another and teams up from time to time.” *Bowser & Mario:* “Bowser kidnapping Peach is more like a job and Mario saving her is more like a fun chore, but they both love to hang out with one another” *Kirby & Dedede:* “LITERAL BFFS WITH AN UNBREAKABLE BOND.”

The Virgin Anime Dedede VS The Chad Game Dedede One is too stuck up to even show any bit of kindness and can't fight without monsters, while the other is a brilliant engineer, powerhouse and was willing to give up his life to save just ONE Waddle Dee. The winner is clear.

watching a s tier video essay isn't enough i need to kiss dedede on the lips

I think something worth mentioning is Dedede's role in Brawl's Subspace Emissary campaign. In that game, at first he appears as another villain, smacking the shit out of fighters and turning them to trophies and preserving them in his castle, giving them Dedede badges to show his ownership (lmao). However, later we find out that these badges actually helped the characters by reviving them when Tabuu eliminated everyone else. This even helped Kirby when he swallowed one of these badges and revived him as well. Hell, when Dedede gets revived by Kirby in the Subspace Maze, Dedede is so happy to see Kirby that he tackle hugs him and drags him along to help defeat Tabuu! I know it's definitely not canon, but it's honestly such a great characterization of him that I feel it's worth looking over

Dark Matter tried to ruin DDD's life but Kirby was like "AW HELL NAW"

I had an emotional breakdown from seeing King Dedede prepare to die for a single Waddle Dee. After seeing the entire story be played out through the figurines, he went from my favorite Kirby character to one of my favorite characters of all time.

Then: I wanna CLOBBER that there Kirby Now: I wanna CUDDLE that there Kirby

Can we just talk about Dedede’s Badass moment at the end of dedede tour. He single handed destroyed the dimensional mirror the gateway to a different dimension and the object that turned Sectonia evil. It feels like payback for him not being in amazing mirror lol.

Imagine how cool it could've been if Dedede was only a villain in the first dozen episodes of Right back at Ya and then joined forces with Kirby to stop some dark matter stuff sent from NME

Thank GOD Dedede is Kumazaki's favorite Kirby character, and thank GOD Sakurai threw in a hint of development for the character! Can't wait to see how the King grows more in the future (or more-so, is shown being a hero)

Though his role in Squeak Squad is minimal, Dedede hiding Dark Nebula's chest inside his castle and Meta Knight immediatly rushing to retrieve it could be interpreted as both working together offscreen to keep yet another evil sealed away to protect Dreamland, and I think that's awesome.

Honestly I’d love a new Kirby anime set in the games’s canon where Dedede is one of the main protagonists instead of a villain like right back at ya.

I love how in Revenge of the King, when Dedede claims he’s finally ending his rivalry with Kirby once and for all, he actually keeps his word; after being beaten in that game, he never fights Kirby again of his own volition.

Dark matter: I'm going to enslave dreamland Kirby: That's illegal you can't enslave dreamland! Kirby: King Dedede I've done it. I've destroyed dark matter. King Dedede: Thank you Kirby. Now I'm free to roam this earth without possession. Every other villain: Not if I have anything to say about it! AND I DO!

King Dedede is so cool i wish penguins were real

The description of the dedede clones state that they developed some of the psychological points of the OG king, such as his desire for food or a newly developed fear of bugs (caused by his kidnapping in triple Deluxe)

Oh, King Dedede's character development arc, also known as his journey to essentially becoming a dad to his Waddle Dees (especially Bandee) and Kirby. Combining that with Meta Knight's progressing characterization as a prideful, but clearly caring guy is the perfect recipe for these two incompetent sorta dads to effectively become, like, one functional parent to Kirby. -Kirby is just a small child, benevolent eldritch kids are still kids.- Overall, this was a great video, featuring very accurate analysis that brings my beloved Dedede justice. This video was definitely a pleasure to watch, especially right in the middle of my Kirby phase, and so I thank you so much for putting it out there. Also, it warms my heart to see a fellow enby as a content creator.

The anime may have put dedede in a worse light, what with him wanting to actively get rid of Kirby from the planet, but how can we not forget that scene were dedede cries on Kirby's shoulder on the swings as their world was about to be destroyed by a meteor? It may not be canon, though I feel it was worth mentioning.

my favourite part of DDD's character arc is when he asks bayonetta out and now they have 3 kids

Man i remember as a kid i was absolutely blown away when dedede picked up the axe in triple deluxe, its one of the few monents in kirny that make you think “shit just got real”

genuinely always felt lucky that superstar ultra was my intro to the series. i knew of kirby long before bc i played melee and also knew of the anime, but id never taken an interest in the series until brawl's release, which featured ddd and mk in the story mode which made me REALLY interested in kirby. im so glad ssu was my first because the masked dedede fight was absolutely iconic for the series. masked dedede is basically a staple now

One big thing you didn't mention is that in many games, Dedede is addressed as a "self-proclaimed king". Dream Land was never a monarchy and Dedede has no royal right to rule, he just showed up one day and said he was the king now. That's why he got up to such mischief in the first game and even used the Fountain of Dreams as a bathing pool in Adventure. As part of his character development, he began to grow into the role of an actual ruler and more importantly *leader,* caring for his subjects and repaying their loyalty. Revenge of the King is the first big instance of this with his interactions with Bandana Waddle Dee, not to mention the ending where he starts out walking away from his castle alone, until the Waddle Dees come up to follow him, one by one. Triple Deluxe is another big case, where Taranza mistakes him for "THE" hero of the lower world. His pause screen text in Dedede-tour (which may not be canon but they say it COULD have happened) states he's setting out to protect his kingdom in Kirby's place. And then, of course, there's Forgotten Land, where he takes a stand, potentially at the cost of his own life, to save a single one of his subjects.

I already mentioned this on my twitter, but man, you did such amazing job with this video. It just makes me happy that more people finally... Get Dedede's character after seeing so many people casually misinterpret him completely in fanworks or even general game/lore discussions. I really hope this video spreads around because more people should know the truth about the best king =)

He is truly like an older brother to a lazy but protective parent 🌝❤

I can kinda imagine the anime writers giving Dedede a proper redemption arc after the 100 episodes had they been able to make a new season after that, maybe even adapt the story from Kirby's Dreamland in the process for one of the story arcs. I'd love to see how a new Kirby anime would go.

Dedede decided to one man army an entire Army of beasts and considering hea completely fine in the post game hub, its safe to assume he cane out of that rampage alive like a fucking chad

Aww man, you can't release a top-shelf Dedede video while I'm making a Dedede video. Imma feel self-conscious because this video is incredibly well done and such a cozy watch that does truly get at the heart of what makes Dedede so great. Seriously, really well done here. Like my only major addition would be going through Dededetour, which I know is non-canon but I love the implications of it for Dedede. The fact that this mirror that defeated Meta Knight is able to look at D3, try to overtake him with the corruptive power of his mirrored self (which... should be really easy given how often he gets possessed), and the King just goes "nah" and not only defeats his shadow self, but Meta Knight's as well is just so cool. Dedede has such a strength of character by this point that's developed even further than where Meta Knight was while Dedede was off doing whatever, and I love having that tangible connection of just how far Dedede's come. Plus I love the idea of Dark Mind taking the form of the one he couldn't corrupt in any form in later spin-offs with King D. Mind, I know I'm reaching there, but I think it's cool. But yes, thank you for the excellent video. Please don't be mean to Cortex though he's, uh, he's really goin' through it, y'know?

6:40 1 like to think Kirby battle royale happens in between Kirby super star ultra and return to dreamland, where he decides to truely finally settle the dispute in a friendly competition, and testing to see if Kirby can face them and get the cake, they created the Kirby clones to make sure Kirby would be up to snuff, and because their loyal subjects didn’t want to join in. So, they created the Kirby printer to test Kirby against themselves so they could have more competitors, but has a huge temper tantrum due to wanting to just win once, showing his pride.

Apparently Sakurai in a recent video said that He helped oversee the anime. So Dedede has canonically always had an antagonistic side to him. I think being bad and becoming a better person is more impressive anyways.

Bro went from “I can and will clobber this pink blob,” to “WHERE IS HE WHY ISN’T HE IN THIS NEW WOLRD WITH ME!!??”

This video made me realize how much I love King Dedede. This chonky penguin has such good character development

Essay incoming, sorry about that. As much as I love the anime (well in Japanese anyway), it sort of created an awkward pause in Dedede and Meta Knight's character arcs, and with Nightmare in Dream Land being the first game to come out during the anime's original airing, sort of rebooted the franchise for a short while. Dedede's last major appearance was Kirby 64, which solidified him as a straight up good guy and friend of Kirby, only to have that characterization be more or less ignored by the releases of an anime in a different continuity that had him as a spoiled (if entertaining) asshole, a remake, a game that didn't so much as mention him, and a couple spin offs where he's there without being there. At least Squeak Squad didn't picture him in an antagonistic light, but finally, thanks to Revenge of the King we got a tad more progress even if he was back at being kind of a baddie, but with stand out moments with Bandana Waddle Dee and his subjects during the ending. Then after Epic Yarn being on a decent track (something you missed to mention) and Mass Attack being another possession episode, Return to Dream Land kind of jumped the gun a little too quick having him come back as a friend, with Triple Deluxe FINALLY putting things back on the right track. Even with the complications Dedede was still decently portrayed, a lot better than Meta Knight if you want my opinion (and even then it's just me rambling: I don't really have an issue with it I just find it interesting to point out): dude's last major appearance before the "anime soft reboot era" was Super Star where he tried to take over Dream Land, only to be treated as this "cool heroic figure" in Amazing Mirror thanks to the anime and Nightmare in Dream Land doing just that. Squeak Squad had amazing continuity with the Halberd but Meta Knight himself was just kind of Adventure Dedede. Super Star Ultra finally reminded everyone that "oh yeah he do be a little troublesome" (although you'll never hear me complain about Meta Knightmare Ultra). Like with Dedede, Epic Yarn did him justice (aside from being absorbed into a sock) but Return to Dream Land too quickly considered him a friend, with Planet Robobot being the actual redemption arc he needed to truly make him Kirby's friend, finally making our trio a believable group of friends, with a few strifes (like Battle Royale and Fighters 2, which I do consider canon along with almost every spin off except for the ones with no story at all, retellings like Blowout Blast or the Clash games). Forgotten Lang nailing both characters was amazing to see and makes me super excited to see what will happen next (hell I'm even excited for Dream Buffet containing anything Meta Knight or Dedede related!) Even if the arcs weren't super consistent, seeing characters from a platformer series of games grow and soften over time is something I absolutely love about Kirby. Anyway, fantastic video Pari!

You didn't just spend a long time rambling about a fictional penguin. You spent a long time about the best fictional penguin in media, and I'm all for it! As for why he didn't just tell Kirby what he was doing when he took the Star Rod... well, don't forget that he was still a self-proclaimed king at that point. He'd want to impose respect, obedience, get all the perks that come with being a king without really having the responsibility of one. And yet Kirby was the only one who defied him. Not only that, he succeeded. So Dedede would probably want to do good for Dreamland all by himself, maybe even pushing Kirby away, not letting him help, to show that he didn't need Kirby's help to do what he thought was right, to show that he was better than Kirby. Revenge of the King is probably the time where most of Dedede's ill will towards Kirby was put to rest for good. I think his biggest fear was that Kirby would forever outshine him, put his authority into question, and that eventually everyone would turn away from him, and look at Kirby as their true leader instead, and only see him as a bad guy over a mistake he made years ago and now regrets. The fact the boss arena is completely empty save for Bandee, his most loyal subject, was probably a sight that drove home those fears. At the end credits though... all Waddle Dees still stand by his side. They'll always stand by him, no matter what, which makes us ponder what amazing deed Dedede did to warrant such loyalty! I think that, with these fears put to rest, Dedede could finally move on and focus on becoming a better ruler (albeit still a lazy and gluttonous one, this is still Dreamland after all, the only time someone decides to get up from their nap is to eat, and the only thing of interest that happens is when the apocalypse is coming, so... yeah, but he still gets better).

Dedede:*starts sulking* Kirby:you are not allowed to be sad here. edit:you're calling gourmet race the most iconic song? It's obviously green greens!

In Dedede tour, he defeats Shadow Dedede and Dark Meta Knight's Revenge

Dude this entire video really does explain King Dedede isn’t a bad guy anymore he’s not a frienemy either he’s one of Kirby’s friends

Epic yarn too. King dedede got possessed by Yin Yarn.

Normally I don't actually sit and watch these sorts of videos I just listen to them and occasionally switch over if they have something that you need to actually see. But this held my attention well enough that i could actually just watch it :0

THANK YOU. We need more truths being spread about the hero king of dreamland!

This video is absolutely phenomenal! It does an excellent job at showcasing just how much our king has grown from Kirby's Dream Land to Forgotten Land... and it even came with some Anime!Dedede slander, too! Overall, this is one of the best videos regarding King Dedede out there in my book. Outstanding work!

KIng Dedede went from "I own this land now, obey me!" to "Alright Waddle Dees, lets go home, we got some chess to play" (never forget) I legitimately think King Dedede is my top 3 favorite Kirby characters, just below Magolor, even above Kirby himself. He is just such a goof ball! Great video!!!!

based and dededepilled

king dedede is probably my favorite character of the kirby games………and his evolution is one of the main reasons why. also mainly because of my love for the winter season haha.

King Dedede and Kirby are like brothers

another thing to note, idk if somebody said this already, though noncanon.. i thought dededes role in brawl, saving others and sacrificing himself as well, truly touches my heart. this is the most well designed villain to hero i've ever seen in video games as a whole edit: i didn't scroll down whatsoever, so take my comment as a take on the situation instead of information

DeDeDe will *always* remain a hero to me, even if he does have his weaknesses. Heck, I think that he just saw Kirby's immense appetite in their first encounter and he took desperate action to try and *save* all of Dream Land's food! Look at it this way: If you saw someone with an immense appetite, wouldn't you also assume they might eat all the food in the city? I think *that's* the only thing DeDeDe did wrong: assume. But once he saw that Kirby was more than that, he decided, "Y'know what? I'm gonna try and be more like that there Kirbeh!" (Yes, that's his anime voice, but I couldn't think of any other voice.) Therefore, Kirby's Dream Land is nothing more than a misunderstanding in my eyes. *LONG LIVE D-MEISTER!*

Your content is so high quality and for what You deserve much more attention!

i love the usage of found family here because it really does feel like that more and more.

The algorithm has blessed me with finding a new awesome content creator. Great video, P! When friends not familiar with Kirby have asked what the King is like, I usually tell them he’s like a former bully in school. He likes to act tough and cool, flaunting a bit of an ego, but he really does care.

i feel like a lot of video games just make all their important politician characters one-dimensional and corrupt villains who make me sad and remind me that those characters are the same ones who control our governments in the real world🤧 so it's always super refreshing when nintendo gives us franchises whose monarchs are truly benevolent and actively DO THE WORK to EXEMPLIFY what being a good leader truly means. my first thought for this trope is usually princess peach: in mario & luigi superstar saga she is the only person in the world with a heart pure enough to harness the beanstar. in super mario 3d world she IMMEDIATElY jumps into the clear pipe before anyone else to save the captured sprixies (only one of whom she's even met) from bowser bc she knows what it's like and wants to save them from the same fate. in luigi's mansion 3 you can briefly see her standing protectively in front of the cowering luigi during the king boo confrontation bc even though she can't do much against a giant superpowered ghost, she cares about keeping the mario bros safe in return for all the times they've helped her and won't go down without a fight (not to mention how she and the others befriend the ghosts luigi freed from hellen's brainwashing, help rebuild the hotel, and don't leave until it's reopened). in the mario + rabbids games she TEACHES HERSELF TURN-BASED GUN TACTICS while you're doing worlds 1 & 2 so she can join the team and do whatever she can to keep her people safe from the megabug, that last part being emphasized by her special abilities in both games focusing on PROTECTION. but i feel like whereas peach had little to no development and was always meant to be this kind of ruler, dedede had to go on a journey to BECOME the same way. he started out as a careless and selfish king who horded all the food in dream land for himself, but kirby's endless kindness and optimism inspired him to become a better ruler. he still made some mistakes along the way (such as not informing kirby about the star rod) but he made the decision to change and more importantly FOLLOWED THROUGH WITH IT. this rant is WAY longer than i meant lol but in short peach walked so dedede could fly in the stars (pun absolutely intended) and i hope we can see more of these rulers who are sweet & caring but more clever & powerful bc of it. in addition to just being an escape from the bullshit of the world they also provide a sign of HOPE for the true goodness that lies in all of us🥰

I mean the way how I see it, I would say that the fans misinterpreted King Dedede as a villain for the combination of all three. Dedede getting possessed by a greater evil, the fans holding a grudge over Dedede from the early days of Kirby, & most definitely the animated series of Kirby Right Back At Ya.

Man super star ultra brought back memories one of my favourites on the ds replayed it alot

Aw…Lost World wasn’t THAT bad… At least not the 3DS version! (It’s your opinion though, and I respect it…) But, seriously though, you’ve made some good points with Dedede here. He definitely is one of the best anti-villain video game characters out there. His long-standing friendly rivalry with Kirby just wouldn’t be the same with any other Kirby characters. Sure, Meta Knight is cool, but I feel he mainly would serve as a swordsman-typs rival to Kirby…and Dedede being Kirby’s “hammer bro” rival… I guess along with Bonkers.

To me, Dedede is like Piccolo to me. Just someone who started out evil but became good thanks to the Protagonist

I guess King DeDeDe and I have something big in common! 😅

So true this is a wonderful video i love it so much!

Shout out to Channel Kirby’s awful Dedede take

I think Dedede got so petty in Battle Royale due to spending so much time, effort and money into this whole tournament, its still the first time he ever has gone through so much process just to beat Kirby and it was not working, so he got really fed up and desperate.

This is why Dedede is the best Kirby character

He's my favorite character

King dedede: What a BEAUTIFUL MORNING to play chess with my beloved waddle dee! Literally any villain ever: YOU! King D3DededetripleDe: here we go again! :P

I think it's the anime's fault for giving us all bad impressions of King Triple D. When you go back to watch it again, it reminds you of how much of a selfish and heartless king he was. Summoning monsters from Nightmare Enterprises, terrorizing his own kingdom and wasting all of his royal welt because he was so obsessed with destroying his most hated nemesis. Thank god the DDD from the anime is in the past and not canon to the games because I can't stand him anymore.

Yeah dude, the true villains are the goofy ah antagonists with sad stories... ...And that eldritch horror-like beasts as true final Bosses

Bro purepari you need more attention

Honestly my man king dedede is one of my favorite characters, I just love him so much as a character, and just how broken he is in return to dreamland dx. Although I wanna say the anime is just too perfect for me not to smile at, especially his laugh, gets me every time!

Live Scargoo reaction: 🐌

I love this video

That's why he's my favorite Kirby character

I think what happened was Dedede's degrading as an antagonist just stems from there being far greater threats. At base level Dedede is about as threatening as K. Rool and by K. Rool I mean the DKC1 version that just steals bananas. K. Rool steals bananas. Dedede steals food. Not really threatening. This is probably why each Kirby game afterwards introduced a new antagonist afterwards that was an actual threat . Nightmare/eNeMeE was the first instance of a main antagonist that wasn't Dedede being used then Dark Matter/Zero was introduced afterwards and so forth. As these new threats kept being introduced Nintendo probably decided that Dedede had his time and chose to slowly develop him into a hero and friend of Kirby because his threat would already be overshadowed by the other eldritch horrors Kirby faces. When you think about it Dedede was only the main antagonist of three mainline games. Kirby's Dreamland 1, Spring Breeze (which is just a remake of Dreamland 1 that's shorter) and Revenge of King (Which is just a remake of Dreamland 1's EX Mode) and the latter two appearances were part of a compilation of games from Kirby Superstar and even then Dedede wasn't the final boss of the entire game compilation. That went to Marx and in the case of the remake Marx Soul. Both who were a far greater threat then King Dedede considering he tried to collide NOVA into the planet.

1:50 Sensist2011:

Ok even though Anime DDD was a jerk the whole way through he still had his moments and come on you can’t tell me he wasn’t enjoyable to watch lol

thanks, king dedede is my favourite character and whenever someone said he was evil i would try to argue with em so now i have evidence

I feel baffled that there was no mention of the DDD tour in triple deluxe

1:18 Bro what was kirby Chomping on 💀💀

long live to King Dedede

Best theme ever

Hmm yes lore of king dedede

I told myself Fecto Forgo also made Dedede have his appearance from dreamland 3 and 64

the anime is perfect haters are FUMING

omg hi purepari your so cool!!!

He is so cute.

THEFEAR

Bro ran a diss on SLW I could never

He should’ve danced in club penguin style

What’s the music in the beginning 0:05

With King Dedede there is thing frustrating thing about the possessions and that's that the games could have easily incorporated it into a part of his redemption. If they'd just went with teh explanation of To get his self-proclaimed king position he initially made some sort of deal with an evil force that now as a good guy forever renders him as an especially vulnerable target to other evil forces. Just make it part of the character arc that having taken the role as king by force came around to bite him and now in his redemption he has to push through all that and that's how he shows himself worthy of being viewed as a fiend turned ally AND the ruler for real. Use it FOR the character arc that Dedede was once a bad guy and had Dark zero (was that it's name? I'm new to the franchise) locked away in his castle. That's how you can explain why evil forces always go after him specifically, because of a dark deal he made in the past WITH Dark Zero and that vulnerability he then had to face after he made a turn for the better was the reason why he tried protecting the land from Dark zero. Eventually you can then have a game where Kirby can set Dedede free from this self-emposed curse all together. After he fully redeemed himself narrative wise and the game writers found a suitable new way to utilize him in the narrative. JUST DO SOMETHING, *DAMN IT!* I've never played a Kirby game and even I can figure out a solution to this narrative problem!

Don’t worry guys,king dedede always comes back right?

dedede saved all of smash

And Ganondorf who fought Link in the Zelda Series!?

Flash example from kobe zomeland

Kirby was not his name his name was popopo

🔨👑🐧

Stuff like Smash still siding him as a bad guy doesn't help, sure he is a good guy in Subspace Emissary but he (and Meta Knight to a lesser extent) gets grouped up with the baddies like Bowser, K. Rool and Ganondorf, to the point that when Splatoon 2 made a Smash themed "Heroes vs Villains" Splatfest, Dedede was on the villain side. This could be easily fixed in the series if they ever added an actual Kirby villain to the roster.

I’m glad someone else shares my grievances on the anime interpretation of Dedede. -_-‘ Like, I get it, interpretations exist but he’s so out of character in the anime it’s not even funny.

Dedede is most likely one of the “Multiverse Threat” type characters of the Kirby universe. He competed with Kirby, a god that can’t lose in fights, and did it multiple times, in fact he’s recognized as an extremely powerful lifeform, except he’s too lazy and laid back to actually fight, but hey, at least it’s there!

King Dedede's Redesign sucks. I hate it so much.

wait kabula is a she?

Thanks for letting me know you're nonbinary.