Support NeoGAF

[Silky]

There are some moments where Dedede does some evil stuff in the Kirby games and is usually portrayed as the Villain, and there are other moments where he's palling it up with Kirby and he rest of Dreamland. He doesn't do a lot to justify him to be an anti-hero, nor is he 'morally grey'.

It's obvious he's Kirby's (and to a lesser extent Meta Knight's) rival, though. But how 'evil' is Dedede? Is he really 'evil' like Bowser, K Rool, Ganon etc?

 

[Armigr]

He's just really selfish and insensitive, but he's not evil.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Imagine Wario if Bowser wasn't around. Boom: you have Dedede.

 

[The Technomancer]

Imagine Wario if Bowser wasn't around. Boom: you have Dedede.

This is a decent analogy

 

[Matt Attack]

He's way too cool to be evil. There's definitely a heart of gold somewhere under those robes.

I recall him saving the day at the end of the Brawl story mode?

 

[Kuroyume]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

 

[Piers]

Just a dick.
The 'real' villains are typically darker and sinister looking.

 

[Silky]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

...Pretty sure Ganon, Ridley, and some of the Mario & Luigi villains are fucking /evil/.

 

[Nemesis_]

I find it so hard to keep track of the dynamics of all the Kirby characters

 

[SerTapTap]

He's only "evil" in the very first game and sorta in the Anime. He's not even much of a dick in later games, just kind of a greedy slob and often misunderstood or used by the real evil.

 

[G.O.O.]

From what I understand, he's the self-proclaimed monarch of Dream Land but doesn't really do anything to enforce his power, so people don't really care about him.

Yeah, he's just a dick.

 

[brinstar]

If left to his own devices long enough he'll eventually do something stupid that requires Kirby to beat the shit out of him and keep him in line.

 

[BGBW]

I honestly feel that someone who self appoints themselves as king can never be truly evil.

 

[SporeCrawler]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

they own the eternal darkness IP.
i would also say there are some twisted evil guys in the fire emblem series. gangrel, zephiel, sephiran..man

 

[Dark Ninja]

Pretty sure he is only evil when he's

Spoiler

possessed

. Other times he's just selfish

 

[Piers]

I honestly feel that someone who self appoints themselves as king can never be truly evil.

Stannis Baratheon appreciates your sentiments!

 

[Neff]

There aren't many Nintendo villains which are 'evil' evil, (in fact only Ganon, Ghirahim, Ridley and Bayonetta 2's

Spoiler

Loptr

stand out as being truly despicable to me right now). More often than not they're merely just selfish, bullying, greedy, egotistical jerks, or even victims of fate themselves.

Dedede is probably one of the more benign ones, in fact.

 

[Village]

He's just kind of a douche, he'll help out when it comes down to it tho.

 

[Mysterious]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

 

[NEO0MJ]

He's just a prideful asshole who doesn't know when to quit.

 

[ffdgh]

He's a jerk at times but is willing to work with kirby when he needs to.

 

[Blu(e)]

I honestly feel that someone who self appoints themselves as king can never be truly evil.

Too easy.

 

[Rogue Agent]

He's an a-hole but not 100% a dick.

 

[fhqwhgads]

How dare you even consider thinking the King of Dreamland is evil.
Dedede is perfect in every way, all hail your ambiguously penguin-ish overlord.

 

[Rich!]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games.

wrong.

Majora's only goal is to kill everyone in the world, create pain and suffering and despair. It murders various people just for fun.

 

[-tetsuo-]

What is Meta Knight in that universe? Who is he to Kirby?

 

[BlackJace]

What is Meta Knight in that universe? Who is he to Kirby?

A rival. He tests Kirby before the final bosses, hence why his fights are always in the second to last level.

The only antagonistic thing he's ever done is try and take over Dreamland in order to get people to not be so lazy.

 

[iamaustrian]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

Ganondorf is like a mix of Satan and Stalin combined with a german name who did more evil shit in his videogame life than most other VG villians combined.
how much more evil can you get?

 

[SovanJedi]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

Giygas?

 

[Dunkley]

Self-appointed king who's just a dick. He can be nice if he wants to, as seen in Return to Dreamland and 64, and otherwise is never remotely as evil as the main antagonist of any Kirby game. Heck in Kirby's Adventure on the NES his entire deal is breaking the Star Rod to prevent Nightmare from being summoned, and he actively still tries to stop Kirby from putting it back onto the Fountain of Dreams after he was defeated. Kirby does it anyway and summons the big evil, so in some ways he is even less evil than Kirby in that game.

What is Meta Knight in that universe? Who is he to Kirby?

Supporting antagonist, I guess. He fights you in as good as every game by providing you a sword to duel him in some weird rival-training sorta way, and in most games he shows up as supporting character who gives you items, or has a mode that lets you play through the entire game as him.

We need a Dreamland Historia.

 

[The Bankslammer]

king dedede steals dreamland's food once and kirby forever suspects him of being the source of his problems (counting spring breeze as a retelling of the first game)

though dedede also gets possessed by the big bad, like, a million times

 

[Dr. Buni]

He is just selfish, exactly like Kirby.

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world.

lmao

Giygas, Porky, Majora, Demise, Ridley (and tons of other wicked characters from Metroid), etc. Even in Kirby, you find some fucked up characters like Zero and Magolor.

 

[Robin64]

I actually just started playing Triple Deluxe on the 3DS and the game opened with Dedede being captured by some bad guy. My first thought was for Kirby to just go back to bed and leave it.

 

[Jindrael]

Selfish, ignorant and dickish but mostly not evil.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

King Dedede and Wario are Donald type characters. Dedede has a king "position" (self appointed) and thats why he looks more "evil", but thats kind of what Donlad would do with that type of power.

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

Ehhhh, that's not true.
Even in some mario RPGs there some evil shit lurking, and bowser can a be fucking evil sometimes, like when he wanted to use stars to power his space reactor creating havok on the way (and it exploding the freaking universe and killing everything on it when is destroyed) because of he wanting to be a dick and have power. You don't need to kill things on purpose to be evil.
And then theres of course Mother, Metroid, Zelda... were the villians are vicious and evil, or just mainly evil incarnate the majority of the time.

 

[Stopdoor]

This topic is really making me appreciate the nuance of Dedede's character, I bet he could carry his own game.

 

[BlackJace]

Yeah, even though Kirby's the hero, many of his feats are the result of him stumbling into it. He has the skill to handle whatever, but I think (due to his infant age and immaturity) he would rather his days of laziness be uninterrupted.

Think about it, Squeak Squad began because someone stole his shortcake. Had he not been interrupted, who knows if he would've ever started the quest to defeat the Dark Star?

 

[SturokBGD]

He's like Nelson from the Simpsons. He's a schoolyard bully but he really just wants to be your friend.

 

[Giever]

Kirby and Dedede are the same. The only difference is Kirby's friendlier and Dedede's more of an anti-social grump.

 

[LurkerPrime]

King Dedede's a clumsy tyrant that's easily manipulated by greater foes. It's not that he's evil per se, rather that he's shortsighted more than anything.

Didn't y'all play Kirby's Adventure? It explains everything.

 

[Foffy]

King Dedede seems more like an egotistical king. He doesn't want conquest like Bowser, who does shit to rule.

In fact, hasn't Dedede been seen as a bad guy in most of the games due to circumstance instead of the direct cause of the problem? I know in Kirby's Dream Land he's the central villain, but in Kirby's Adventure/Nightmare in Dreamland

Spoiler

he's actually trying to stop Nightmare from returning, but Kirby fucks that up.

 

[The Technomancer]

Does that Kirby anime hold up at all?

 

[Piston Hyundai]

Dedede needs to be the final boss of another Kirby game. I love the idea of the whole game leading up to just setting that asshole straight again.

 

[Phamit]

King Dedede is not evil, he only gets manipulated by the true evil in the Kirby Universe such as Dark Matter, maybe because he has a lot bad traits

 

[KelpPlankton]

He's stupid and selfish, a 'king' of nothing, but he usually thinks he's doing useful things... Or he's just being selfish. He's never really malicious, and he cares about Dreamland (as any self-appointed king should) so he helps out when it's in danger.

But most of the time when he fights Kirby, it's either because he's oblivious to what he's doing (I'm hungry so I'm going to take ALL THE FOOD) or he's possessed by Dark Matter or something.

He's a silly guy. My favorite Nintendo bad guy.

 

[OMG Aero]

King Dedede was only really bad in the first game and its remake. Since then he has either been possessed or stopping a greater evil until Kirby comes and fucks up his plan and then has to beat up the real villain by himself.
King Dedede and Kirby are just buddies now. In Kirby 64 and Return to Dreamland he goes along with Kirby and helps him out and in the most recent game, Triple Deluxe, Dedede gets kidnapped and Kirby goes to save him.

 

[Brazil]

There is no such thing as evil in the Nintendo world. Everything in Zelda, Mario, Metroid pales in comparison to darker stuff in other games. I suppose if you include Eternal Darkness in there that could be it but I don't know if they own that.

And the answer therefore is that Dede is a dick.

Fucking what.

There are a million exemples of terribly evil Nintendo characters.

 

[Thores]

Yeah, he's actually more of an anti-hero these days. A goofy, ridiculous anti-hero.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Please don't say dick in the same sentence as King Dedede

I remember that thread with that set of ceramic plates, it scarred me for life

 

[Foffy]

Please don't say dick in the same sentence as King Dedede

I remember that thread with that set of ceramic plates, it scarred me for life

OH MY GOD