Something that saddens me about the Kirby fandom is how they tend to be ""afraid"" of portraying King Dedede as how he is??? Giving him a "too softie" version of his personality.
Like, King Dedede is good AND had that softer side, but he isn't that the calm and good-natured personality I usually see how others make him be?
Especially the part about him being so... calm and mentally stable? Like its more than good and ok you wanna do him like that,but i even saw people genuinely thinking he is like that in canon? Which that confuses me ?
/// No shade here if you do btw,this is not meant to bully or bring unnecessary discussions,im giving here just my thoughts xD ///
anyways im rambling more here ⏬
Like... King Dedede is and always was and will be the selfish, gluttonous, greedy, lazy, and demanding, with such a huge ego that he's proclaimed himself the "King of Dreamland" when he's really no one's king (well maybe to the waddle dees cuz they do adore him sm) ,he has a "frenemy rival" with Kirby (probably out of envy) just of course over the years we saw him doing a bit more of good than bad,but that part of his ol' time personality is still there.
And it's sad that people seem """afraid""" of that because i tend to see people don't like that much the King's brutish nature, cuz I've always thought that's what gives him his charm,after all beneath it all, he really cares about Kirby if they are in danger,he cares about his servants even if he can be an absolute jerk with how he treats them alot of the times, and he cares about everything staying good,after all,if someone gotta mess with """his land and his arch-frienemesis""" that gotta be him! And thats super cute to me
And even though he's a bully on many (too many) occasions, his heroic side shines through; To me that's where it's shown why the Waddle Dees follow him blindly despite his nature, because in important moments he will do the right thing and show his tender side!
And all of this is not something im taking out of my butt,its literally alot of decriptions of Dedede even the most actual ones
For example the amiibo one " Every hero needs an arch frenemy, and King Dedede is Kirby’s! He calls himself the King of Dream Land, but he doesn’t have a lot of interest in ruling. His hobbies include eating, stirring up trouble, and yelling orders at his loyal Waddle Dees while bashing things with his huge hammer."
while the Nintendo today remarks too in the description it has of him as " Mt. Dedede, where he cooks up trouble with his minions; He tries to keep Dream Land safe, and sometimes helps out Kirby in a pinch. Any way you look at it, he has a kind side too"
And cleary in alot of other descriptions and actions of his own in the games remarks more these things,he can be bad and be a troublemaker but he is kind and good deep down and thats what makes him the goat to me <3
Other thoughts but to the anime version:
It also saddens me to see so much hatred for the anime version of King Dedede in the fandom nowadays , i saw alot of people calling him "inaccurate" when... that's how King Dedede really was back then?? And at least how i see that version to me it's the second closest to the games, after the novel version (which is 99% more similar to the current Dedede,to not say is basically the same guy tbh...)
The King Dedede of the anime is exactly like DDD was at the beginning of the franchise, only the comedy and pacing of the anime brought out his worst sides because that's how the series was structured BUT even being a tyrant, there were moments where you could see that he... had tender moments or that brought out his more "childish" or endearing side, like the episode that references the Jurassic Park movie.
Like,genuinely, until DDD decided to do evil because the villain told him he could beat kirby with the dinosaours, he only wanted to bring dinosaurs cause he had extreme joy because of it, and you see him at the beginning crying like a little kid angry that because of how excited he is about it.
And if small things like that weren't enough, there's the meteor episode of the anime. What does DDD do when he sees that everyone is supposedly going to die without any hope of salvation? The first thing he does is go and build a park for Kirby to enjoy in his last moments! HIS ENEMY, whom he has tried to destroy throughout the entire series,i honeslty think the Dedede is like the big unattented kid (coughMANCHILDcough) that got so SO jelaous of the new ,more cute,much better and kinder new popular kid
Although this is just my own theory, it was noticeable that the anime writers wanted to give some short Dedede a redemption arc, especially since many elements of the original anime plot, like Yamikage, Sirica, Meta Knight, etc., were abandoned for some reason to stretch out the episodic humor, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's clear they left a huge gap of content that was needed and Dedede was also affected because they didn't develop him further,which is sad,but again my own theory,call it biased or not xD
And for me,i think the anime version of Dedede should really be viewed not as "he's a really a villain, we have to hate him" but more like "This Dedede isn't our Dedede yet, and this is how the king was, especially at the beginning of the franchise" specially considering the anime was out in 1999(?)-2000
AND AGAIN as i said,is not bad if you consider him in a more softer side,is just,not my cup of tea and thats totally ok too,i just wish people enjoyed more his rough sides too,i love this guy being loud and angy sjsj x,D
And thats my whole ted talk wall,thx for reading me and dedicate the time,regarless if u agree or not <3
