King Dedede

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is a rival of Kirby in Nintendo and HAL Laboratory's Kirby series of video games.  Though not exactly evil, he is quite greedy and often causes problems for the inhabitants of Dreamland (such as by stealing all their food). He (along with the many other bosses) is also often possessed by the evil entity Dark Matter. Despite the fact his antics often put him in opposition to Kirby, he and Kirby have teamed up on a number of occasions to fight a greater foe, such as the Nightmare or Dark Matter.

King Dedede is a large birdlike creature that resembles a penguin (or possibly a duck,) dressed in royal finery with large yellow boxing gloves. He carries a large hammer as a weapon, can fly for short periods (though not in the original Kirby's Dream Land), and also has the ability to inhale and spit out objects like Kirby, although he can't absorb their powers. He appears in every Kirby game except Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.

Dedede was the final boss of the original Kirby's Dreamland, in which his plot to steal all of Dreamland's food for himself was foiled by Kirby.

In Kirby's Adventure, Kirby once again fights him near the end of the game, but it is revealed that by his "evil" doings he merely wanted to keep Nightmare from taking over the Fountain of Dreams (and even helps out by spitting Kirby into space so he can fight the Nightmare). This would begin a trend where Dedede would serve as a Kirby game's apparent final boss, but collecting all the pieces of a magical item would reveal the true final boss and allow Kirby to fight it (almost always, this true final boss would be some form of Dark Matter or other evil being).

In Kirby franchise games that are not part of the main Kirby series, such as the golf game Kirby's Dream Course or the Puyo Puyo clone puzzle game Kirby's Avalanche, Dedede usually serves as the final boss.

King Dedede is widely recognized for the theme song that often plays during battles against him. The song was used for the Dedede battle in Kirby's Dreamland 1, 2, and 3, as well as in Kirby Superstar. Although it was not in the original NES version of Kirby's Adventure, it was added in the GBA remake, Nightmare in Dreamland, for the Boss Tower stage.

[Listen]

Anime Dedede

In the anime series , King Dedede rules Dream Land, despite the fact that his ancestors were not the first people there and that he is a rather incompetent leader. He is often accompanied by his equally bumbling lackey, Escargoon (Ted Lewis), an intellectual snail. Often, Dedede orders monsters from Nightmare Enterprises (called Holy Nightmare in the Japanese version), an evil corporation run by the Cloaked Nightmare from Kirby's Adventure (Dedede doesn't quite know they're evil, though). Dedede doesn't take kindly to Kirby's presence and is ordering these monsters so that eventually Kirby will lose against one and the people of Cappy Town will think less of him. However, none of the monsters get the job done, and as a result, he is left with a large, unpaid bill that he refuses to fork over any money for.

Usually, he will put up some phony exploits that will fool almost all the citizens, but he is always foiled by the end of the episode. Some fans contend that the dub seems to make it like Dedede wants to kill Kirby, and have even edited some of the original plot of some episodes to make this seem true. The explanation given is that Dedede does want to kill Kirby... at first. Later, Dedede grows to respect the pink puffball, and only wants to defeat him.

Early on in the series, Dedede cavorts around in a tank driven by Escargoon. However, in the show's first two-part episode, "The Kirby Derby", Dedede downloads a limousine from N.M.E. in order to win a car race. Since then, the limo is Dedede's primary mode of transportation. Whatever happened to the tank afterwards is unknown.

King Dedede is voiced by Kenichi Ogata in the original Japanese version and by Ed Paul in the English dub.

Name Confusion

There is much controversy and argument over the correct spelling and pronunciation of King Dedede's name. Nintendo has constantly swapped it between Dedede (pronounced day-day-day), and DeDeDe (pronounced dee-dee-dee). A similar problem also happened to another Nintendo character Samus Aran.

{| align="center" class="toccolours" style="width: 40em; text-align: center;" |- ! style="background:#FFCCFF;" | |- | style="font-size: 90%;" |Main characters |- | style="font-size: smaller;" |Kirby | Meta Knight | King Dedede | Cloaked Nightmare | Whispy Woods | Dark Matter | Waddle Dee | Other characters |- | style="font-size: 90%;" | Minor characters |- | style="font-size: smaller;" | Dark Mind | Drawcia | Poppy Bros. | Ribbon | Kracko | Kirby series enemies | Star Warrior | Sirica | Ice Dragon | Majuu | WolfWrath |-