N64 Month | King Dedede Character Profile

King Dedede
The king is dead…all hail the king!

Statistics

Species: King Dedede is certainly a bit of an oddity, and the closest ‘thing’ people have ever likened him to is a penguin, although we are certainly not looking at another Pingu or Happy Feet-style penguin here, clearly!

Location: Moving from place-to-place, causing havoc wherever he goes, yet sometimes (shockingly) actually do more good than harm! He has been known to hang out in one of his castles atop Mount (Mt.) Dedede, linger around the lower regions of the kingdom of Dream Land, and terrorise the entirety of the quaint five-pointed star planet, Pop Star. Exactly how much of Pop Star King Dedede reigns over is unclear due to some ambiguity across various Kirby adventures, but it is apparent that he lays claim to a multitude of castles and fortresses all over the place.

Birth: Whilst some may believe there is a link between King Dedede and the horde of Waddle Dees that are at his beck and call in almost every Kirby outing, all signs point to him merely ruling over them with a mighty fist, rather than being related in any fashion. The whereabouts of Dedede’s parents, and any knowledge of siblings, has yet to be uncovered. The closest ‘friend’ of Dedede’s has to be the snail-like Dr. Escargoon, who mainly appears in the TV series Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, but also featured briefly in Kirby Mass Attack.

Main Features: This particular penguin is not black and white, as many would expect, yet this could very well be down to how he is uniquely different from the likes of the other popular flightless birds, like Pingu. Instead he is a navy blue hue, which may seem unusual, yet follows a trend for oriental penguin stars being that shade. Take Beckham Kinoshita from the Japanese anime show, A Penguin’s Trouble, or even the South Korean megastar, Pororo, for instance. Dedede is also able to mimic Kirby in several ways, mainly in an effort to overcome his adversary, even sticking to an arduous training regime to desperately learn how to inhale enough air to float off like Kirby regularly does with the greatest of ease, as well as suck up objects and creatures before blowing them back out with immense force.

Clothing: Dedede is a member of royalty, or so he likes to tell people. To reflect this, he dresses in somewhat regal attire, donning a royal red robe, albeit an overly padded one that must result in some awful overheating given the sunny nature of the land he resides in. Instead of a staff or sceptre of sorts, Dedede prefers to keep a-grasp of his gigantic mallet, which depicts the image of what most will see when clattered with it -- stars! In Kirby Super Star Ultra, the hammer can even shoot out missiles, flames, or spin ridiculously fast. Carrying on with the chilly theme, though, perhaps he is extremely thin blooded, feeling too cold all the time, because he is hardly ever seen without yellow mittens or rosy red bobble hat!

Concept

King Dedede is portrayed as quite the nefarious, if moderately incompetent, fiend in the cartoon series -- even going as far as labelling him as malicious at times. However, as time has passed by, King Dedede has in fact revealed himself to be more than willing to team up with Kirby in order to overthrow a common foe. A key flaw to Dedede’s personality, however, is that he is so terribly weak-willed that truly dastardly forces possess his body, with both Dark Matter and Yin Yarn doing just that in recent times, damaging any positive work done over the years.

Appearances

• Kirby’s Dream Land (Game Boy)
• Kirby’s Adventure (NES)
• Kirby Mouse Attack (Nintendo DS)
• Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (Nintendo 64)
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii)
• Kirby Mass Attack (Nintendo DS)
• Kirby’s Adventure Wii

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