#tldr give the man (bird?) some credit

[galaxias-scabbard]

I don’t think I’ve really seen anyone talk too much about Subspace Emissary in Brawl much in reference to King Dedede and his role in the whole thing + the scenes that were cut from the final project since they happened prior to the start of the story.

While Subspace isn’t canon (arguably) it is still on a project by Sakurai so that means he was still the one with the say on his characters. It can also be a bit confusing since I know that I only now realized some of this once I started digging deeper despite playing brawl for over 200h when I was younger.

In Subspace Emissary it’s assumed King Dedede is a villain as in his first appearance he does turn Luigi into a statue and then steals Ness and Zelda/Peach from Wario. But it comes to light he became aware of Tabuu’s plan to turn everyone to statues, defected, and thus created the 3 badges that ultimately revived Ness, Luigi, and Kirby who swallowed the one from Peach/Zelda.

So we gather a few things from this.

1. Another credit to his smarts/how he’s good at engineering/inventing because presumably he was the one to be able to figure out how to make the timer badges to revive the fighters after a given time and they did in fact revive the fighters after everyone was seemingly wiped out. He was working alone so it’s not really likely anyone else made them for him or would make them in his likeness.

2. He hesitates but ultimately gave the third badge to the princess rather than himself showing that he’s not always selfish and that he put faith in the other fighters to wake him up after they were revived and realized he was the one to revive them. It shows how he’s grown as a character over the years to put others first and that he isn’t still the selfish King he once was in the early days.

3. Overall just how Dedede is often time presumed to be a villain when he isn’t and his intentions are misunderstood when he tries to do good (also see Kirby’s Adventure and Squeak Squad for him trying to do the right thing and things not going the right way). But he does play a role in saving the day as much as even Kirby. Had he not made those badges everyone would have been done for.

We also get more inclination of his good allegiance as Luigi and Ness both stand up for Dedede against Wario, showing they both have some respect for him in saving him and even the cowardly Luigi (I love him but he is scared of his own shadow) make it clear if Wario starts something with Dedede he starts it with all of them. Also the way he reacts to reuniting with Kirby it’s hard to see how people can say Dedede hates the little guy.

Now to go touch on the cut scene involving him and Meta Knight.

It’s set prior to the events of subspace the player experiences and was cut from the final product. In this King Dedede is part of the reason why the Halberd is under Subspace Army control as at the same time the ship was under attack Dedede sought out Meta Knight. The wiki says this was unintentional so presumably he wasn’t working for the Subspace Army any longer and my theory is that he was actually seeking out Meta Knight because who better to hand a Timer Badge to than someone who you know can kick ass. (although Meta’s wiki says Dedede attacked him so maybe Dedede knew Meta wouldn’t trust him and was like “he’ll thank me later” and went in with intent to defeat Meta and keep him as a trophy instead of a cordial hand off.) Meta Knight having his ship being attacked at the moment likely assumed Dedede was a part of it wether attacked or not probably got in a spat with him which meant he didn’t hear Dedede out, and since he was occupied there instead of defending his ship the Halberd ultimately fell. The two fled separate directions and Dedede had to hatch a new plan and realized time was running out if they now claimed the Halberd which is how he ended up with Luigi and Ness. (King Dedede is about to sign adoption papers for that kid btw)

But just the idea that Dedede purposely sought out Meta Knight to give him a Badge to ensure his safety because he knew Meta Knight was someone who could have his back (and the fact Meta Knight likely threw it in his face a bit given the situation) is just an interesting dynamic.

Also seeing as Dedede made 3 badges and there are only 3 fighters from his universe it’s possible he would have sought out Kirby as well given the time. Again, he does know that both Meta Knight and Kirby can be relied on in a fight so it would make sense they would be the two people he’d want to have with him.

Long story short: Dedede saved the day, doesn’t get the credit he deserves, was likely perceived as a bad guy as usual and that his change of heart was only a late game thing when it wasn’t, and he cares for others which many people gloss over.