Extended Game Timeline

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While the normal game timeline focuses on fleshing out the events of each game and Kirby's adventures, this version serves as a more overall narrativisation of the timeline. It's primarily from the perspective of Kirby's first rival Dedede, as Kirby is a series that has always had more complex background elements with it's villains than with Kirby himself.

Arc 1

Pre-1992, The Self-Proclaimed King

Dedede was a prince from Cookie Country, but far down in the line of succession being the youngest of 10 brothers. He’d felt patronized and ignored all his life by his family, and one day when he was older, decided he would strike out and become his own self-made king. This goal brought him to Dreamland, which was known for being a large and peaceful free country, inhabited by laid-back and apolitical peoples. He came in one day demanding respect from any group he came across, but most just peacefully shooed him away seeing him as nothing but a rowdy outsider. It was a small clique of waddle dees - the most wide-spread populace of the land - who started giving him the time of day, and after a few heroic deeds and bragging he soon earned himself a village-sized “kingdom”.

He spent some more time touring around the country and winning over a few more dees through his subjects' campaigning and his own feats, and became known across much of Dreamland as either a boisterous hero or a egotistical nuisance. But as attention on him grew his original ambitions came back to him. He wasn’t just going to be the hero of the dees, he was going to be the King of the Dees - King Dedede! He was of course proud that he had developed a strong bond with his subjects that went beyond just being their ruler, but he was ready to be treated like the royalty he had made himself. He laid claim to the northern territory of the continent as his capital, and at the very north - across the great Lake Dedede, and atop the humble Mt. Dedede - Castle Dedede was built.

Spring 1992, KIRBY’S DREAM LAND

The waddle dees of Dreamland have a great tradition of holding massive feasts in celebration of projects well done, and after the construction of the great Castle Dedede, one was most certainly in order. King Dedede realized that atop their mountain, his subjects didn’t have the best access to their own food, so as king his first order became a massive tax on the countryside to support his court. When his subjects went to enact this on the uncaring locals they were unsurprisingly rejected, but King Dedede was determined to establish his authority and had his subjects take the food by force, and even take away the sacred Sparkling Stars until they submitted.

It was many months before King Dedede’s tax that Kirby had found his way to Dreamland. Having one day crashed onto the planet like a star and finding himself raised communally by the people in the north. Deceptively strong, intelligent, and kind for such a young boy, when Kirby learned of the tyrant terrorizing his new home he set off to stop him and save his friends. Kirby carved a path from Green Greens, to the Float Islands of Lake Dedede, and up to Bubbly Clouds, collecting the Sparkling Stars which had been left among the King’s goons before finally making his way to Mt. Dedede itself.

Dedede had been made aware of Kirby when the last of his dees returned with bruises and empty hands, but he was determined to have his feast and boasted that he’d face that pink puffball as the finale to their celebration. When Kirby arrived at their glorified mead hall he was led to the center of the castle’s arena which had been made for the king to show off to all his subjects his strength. But unfortunately for Dedede the tiny little thing packed a punch, and helped by the power of the Sparkling Stars he collected, sent the king hurtling clear over the horizon. The Sparkling Stars aid Kirby to pick up the castle full of food and return it to the people of the countryside, leaving behind nothing but the showy arena and King Dedede’s awestruck subjects atop the mountain.

Dedede eventually recovered from his impromptu trip, and it was actually Kirby’s face who he saw first upon waking up. The young hero had basked in the cheer of his friends but still wanted to make sure that his opponent was ok after everything. But Dedede was beyond upset and couldn’t help but see the boy’s mercy as patronizing, storming off back towards his mountain and swearing some sort of vengeance.

Summer 1992, The King and his Knight

King Dedede was only more furious when he returned to the remains of his castle to see his subjects aimless and defeated. Even though truthfully he couldn’t help but feel somewhat the same way, he knew that he had a duty to lead his subjects and raise their spirits. They still had full stomachs and enough food for now, so he immediately demanded that the castle be rebuilt, this time bigger and grander than ever. In the meantime, King Dedede postulated that if he was to protect his rule he would need stronger allies than just his hammer and untrained subjects. A knight was what he needed, what was a king without a knight? There were plenty of warriors who came to Dreamland to train in its beautiful, and fruitful lands, but it was rumors of a strange and mysterious dark knight who made his home on the west coast that really caught the king’s ears.

Following these rumors led King Dedede to Meta Knight, the warrior of Orange Ocean and his band of skilled squires. The knight’s strength and demeanor nearly instantly won him over to hiring him on the spot, and despite appearing far above the scrappy king, Meta Knight accepted. Meta Knight had traveled the cosmos fighting alone for justice, and he had recently settled on Popstar and Dreamland due to picking up his young squires. He had always wanted to fight for a cause greater than just his ideals, and despite the king’s boarish traits, he appeared as a humble (in ambition, not attitude), well-meaning ruler to him. Not to mention that complaining about a powerful young warrior with the stars on his side piqued his interest as well.

Rather instantly after picking up a knight and a few squires, King Dedede was at a bit of a loss on who else to recruit. He already had his allies in Dreamland, and no one else in the country seemed a very powerful help. This was when Meta Knight suggested that he could reach out to those across the sea he was familiar with due to his travels - it wouldn't hurt to have some international relations. The king liked the sound of the plan, and with his new knights and most trusted subjects, set out across the Orange Ocean to befriend the rulers of Butter Building, Yogurt Yard, and the Ice Cream Islands. King Dedede and Meta Knight began growing more and more used to each other's company and rather contrasting styles of leadership, and despite butting heads on many formalities could see themselves being great allies to each other.

By the late summer the group arrived back at Mt. Dedede to find a brand new castle, built more like a fortress than a palace this time, which satisfied both the king and knight. As quickly as possible, Meta Knight is formally dubbed a knight of the court, and his squires are all elevated to full knighthood. Though behind the official ceremony, Meta Knight’s companions make a private show of fealty strictly to him by dubbing themselves in his name, to which the head knight approves. A new feast is held in honor of the revitalized kingdom, though now a little less ambitious having been supplied by new farmers on the green side of the mountain instead of a massive mountain of taxed foods. That along with the coldness and culture shock of the new knights settling in created a less than perfect celebration, but it was still undoubtedly one of progress to King Dedede.

Fall & Winter 1992, Getting Settled

A lot of time was spent getting used to the new state of things among Dedede’s little kingdom. Not just physically with everyone getting settled into the large castle, but structurally with the addition of the new knights. The Meta-Knights caused little moments of trouble every now and then, with their somewhat unruly natures they’d developed as young warriors contrasting with the passive and laid-back attitudes of the waddle dees. And their loyalty to their mentor over the king made them somewhat stubborn with certain orders, but Meta Knight was always somewhere near to calm things with his natural civility. This earned him a good deal of respect among the waddle dees, until they realized that his civility could come off as cold-heartedness, which shook them to their cores as a people built on open friendliness. These were all unfortunate effects of culture shock, especially with Meta Knight who’s attitude was a result of... lacking casual social skills rather than animosity, as King Dedede soon discovered while settling his subjects' concerns about him.

King Dedede and Meta Knight themselves had started as uneasy but eager allies, but slowly their relationship grew more tenuous. The king was happy enough with his new castle and knights and wanted to relax with his spoils, but it seemed that Meta Knight was constantly vigilant and pestering about something new related to made up problems. And Meta Knight was very concerned with how little responsibility the king took with ruling his kingdom, especially as it was bound to grow and would need to develop a bit more formality. Even the only threat they both seemed to take interest in, Kirby - who in all this time had simply been enjoying pastoral life in Dreamland and developing his powers - became a source of contention. King Dedede swore that one day he would have to do something about the little menace, and while Meta showed incredible interest in him he never opened up about why, which made the king suspicious.

The two never stopped recognizing why they respected the other, but these deep-seated personal and ideological contrasts seemed to build and build. King Dedede tried to break the ice a couple of times but the knight never really seemed to relax, and their relationship grew a bit cold. And that coldness started developing a quiet tension within it that it seemed everyone but the two of them could feel. It was not the warmest winter in Castle Dedede.

Spring 1993, KIRBY’S ADVENTURE

As time went on an anxieties built, King Dedede started finding himself at Popstar’s Fountain of Dreams. Situated in northern Cookie Country it was a familiar landmark to Dedede, and he knew that time spent there was good for the mind. Except that day after day the opposite effect seemed to take hold of him. Dedede’s sleep was growing restless and he was so cranky that he even got into a full blown argument with Meta Knight. After that he took it upon himself to better investigate the Fountain to see what was wrong with it, and it was then when he took hold of the Star Rod for but a second that he felt a fiercely dark presence within the sacred spring that shook him so greatly he panicked and broke the artifact into pieces. It had been a complete accident, but he figured disabling the fountain altogether was best to keep whatever that dark force was at bay. He barely had time to inform the local guardians of the spring what had happened before booking it back to his castle to make a plan.

Everyone on Popstar knew of the importance of the Fountain of Dreams as a holy site and breeder of peace among the minds of the inhabitants, so the news that King Dedede had broken it completely sat well with no one in the court. Meta Knight especially seemed beyond words at the king’s actions, but despite all the uproar he demanded that they must stop the Star Rod from being reconstructed until something was done about that presence. This was when he decided it would be best to take advantage of his new list of allies and split the pieces up among them as he and Meta Knight investigated the Fountain. None of his new allies were pleased with his requests but his case was surprisingly helped by Meta Knight, he still seemed upset with Dedede and refused to openly explain his view of things, but in a way Dedede was happy at least one person wasn’t actively arguing with him all the time.

It was when returning to the Fountain to try and come up with a solution to this crisis that a familiar pink puffball showed up. Kirby had been relaxing in Dreamland when he noticed that no one seemed to have dreams anymore. He caught on that it was related to a holy fountain in the north and had trekked over here hoping to save the day. He unfortunately came at just the wrong time for it to look as if King Dedede was playing around in the sacred waters all by himself, and made the rash conclusion that Dedede must've done something selfish again. The king wanted to explain himself, but quickly became irritated by the little kid’s meddling, and decided now was a good time to pay him back for the flight nearly a year ago and knocked Kirby clear over the horizon back to Dreamland. When Meta Knight returned from his usual dawdling however, the king’s triumph waned and he had to admit to him that he had now restarted war with his old enemy.

Kirby was rather oblivious to the complicated politics of why the Star Rod had been destroyed, but knew what he needed to begin questioning the usual subjects about what to do. It was when he defeated Whispy Woods, the forest guardian for the second time now that he confessed Dedede’s plot and set him on the course to the next piece. This became a pattern that helped Kirby navigate the international path towards reconstructing the Star Rod, as none of Dedede’s allies were especially loyal to the plan to begin with. Even Meta Knight, who had appeared to be keeping silent fealty in the king's eyes, began to show to Kirby that his motives were beyond his. From his background Meta Knight was aware that it must've been powerful nightmare magic that infested the Fountain, and though Dedede had been somewhat right in disabling it to stop the force, it needed to be destroyed, not subdued. Meta Knight was also greatly curious of Kirby’s powers and wanted to see him prove himself through the trials of recollecting the Star Rod pieces. For him it would be a passive solution to the issue which would not need him to confront his stubborn king head on, as well as gain him insight.

Kirby was aware that most of Dedede’s goons weren’t on his side, but he didn’t come to understand Meta Knight’s motivation until their fateful duel at Orange Ocean. Kirby’s newly developed copy abilities gave him strength and skill far beyond his own, but it technically wasn’t enough to outdo the knight. But with one lucky swing, Kirby split the knight’s mask in half to reveal that underneath his face greatly resembled Kirby’s. Meta Knight was flustered by this and fled before Kirby could ask anything, but as was right, he left the Star Rod piece in his possession behind for the young warrior to continue on his quest. From there Kirby made his way to the Fountain of Dreams where he rematched King Dedede, and despite the new tricks he’d picked up from Kirby himself, nothing he did could match the boy’s newfound powers, and Kirby had completed his adventure to reconstruct the Star Rod.

Dedede tried desperately to get the kid to understand the situation, but his deceptive strength and determination was nothing, and the two watched in horror as Kirby unleashed the Nightmare Wizard from the corrupted spring. It left both of them in a panic, but irritation gave King Dedede enough clarity to realize that if Kirby was so great to tramp his way up here and ruin everything he could fix it himself, and for the second time Kirby was knocked into the sky, this time with the magical Star Rod in tow as his weapon. Kirby soared through the air with the mystical artifact as his guide, and like the Sparkling Stars before, he harnessed its power to defeat the Nightmare Wizard.

When King Dedede on the ground saw that a hole was blown in the side of the moon he grew worried, but as he flew into the air after the fighting duo he couldn’t help but be relieved to see his little pink rival fly back and return the Fountain to it’s former glory. Kirby left with a wave, leaving the exhausted king all alone until his knight showed up. After the two exchanged a few words about how short-sighted their original plan was and how thankful they were for Kirby’s power, it started creeping up on the king that his knight had planned this all along, which made him furious. The knight defending his obtuse actions in his usual cool, aloof tone fanned the flames or irritation even further, and finally, after the nearly half a year of dealing with the knight’s attitude, Dedede put his foot down - Meta Knight was royally fired as his knight. And though the knight left coolly as if unphased, and the king didn’t falter in his anger, both of them left the fountain feeling incredibly betrayed.

Fall 1993-1994, Shenanigans era

Upon returning to his castle after a dreadful walk home, Dedede arrives to find that his knights have already completely abandoned his castle leaving his subjects rather confused. Meta Knight had flown back on his own and commanded his knights to leave, relaying only deadly contempt towards any dee who tried to question his actions. His knights understood him better than any of Dedede’s subjects however and backed him up unquestioningly. When all this was relayed to the king upon his return it only struck him as Meta Knight being his usual self-absorbed self. The castle definitely felt a bit emptier without the knights despite them numbering nowhere near as many as the dees. And Dedede’s sour mood over the betrayal seemed to fill their place to his subjects as he became snappy and ruder than usual.

In contrast, Kirby returned to Dreamland dubbed a hero for a second time in a row. No one there was really aware of how much he’d messed things up in the middle, but no matter what he was still the young warrior who came in on a spring breeze to save them from the tyrannical penguin of Mt. Dedede. His latest adventure also put it in the minds of the Dreamlanders that Kirby was now independent enough to have his own home, and he greatly enjoyed having his own little space and bed to sleep in, even if he still spent most times hanging out with others. Over time though, Kirby noticed something strange about his dreams… they started becoming very realistic and often lucid. As if he was walking in a new world instead of just aimless collages of thoughts. Sometimes he’d have odd dreams mixing games he’d played the day before with plots about Dedede stealing stars, or imagine he was on a quest to save Dreamland but had to defeat people through odd puzzle games.

Knowing that anything related to his dreams was related to the Star Rod, Kirby began making trips there curious about why his dreams were so odd. Kirby wasn’t fluent enough to explain his odd dreams to the people there, nor did he really grasp what they explained to him, but what he did begin to understand was that he had a special connection with the Fountain of Dreams now. Visiting it became a new favorite trip of his, and everytime he felt more and more like the Star Rod was communicating to him, like it wanted to be his friend for saving it. Kirby was always happy to make a new friend even if they were an odd magical artifact who spoke in his head, and he cherished the odd and whimsical dreams it allowed him to have.

Ironically even as Kirby now had a permanent residence he became harder and harder to keep track of, which made his old rival, King Dedede, become oddly antsy. His subjects noticed that he seemed to be replacing any normal coping mechanisms for having lost valuable friends with spying on Kirby and coming up with elaborate schemes to mess with the kid. It didn’t help that after all the effort he’d put into keeping the world safe from Nightmare that he was only regarded as a tyrant again by everyone but his subjects. Anytime Kirby returned to his home he no doubt found some new trick, trap, or invite to a competition waiting for him from the king. One very elaborate plot was when King Dedede had a grand golf course built on the land behind Mt. Dedede, and challenged Kirby to play on it. It oddly cycled between Dedede frustrated but constructively trying to teach Kirby how to actually play the game and trying to use weird traps and contraptions to ruin him. It was an odd time for Dedede’s ego.

Winter 1994, Dark Matter

Spring 1995, KIRBY’S DREAMLAND 2

Spring 1996, KIRBY SUPER STAR P1

Early Summer 1996, KIRBY SUPER STAR P2

Late Summer 1996, KIRBY SUPER STAR P3

Arc 2

Fall 1996, KIRBY SUPER STAR ULTRA P1

Fall 1996, KIRBY SUPER STAR ULTRA P2

Winter to Summer 1997, Calm Before the Storm

Summer 1997, KIRBY’S DREAM LAND 3

1998 - 2000, Peace Times

Late Spring 2000, KIRBY AND THE CRYSTAL SHARDS