Metadede

Metadede is the slash ship between Meta Knight and King Dedede from the Kirby fandom.

Canon
Starting off with Kirby's Adventure for the NES in 1993, Meta Knight is one of the many friends of Dedede. who act as the game's bosses, all of who were given a shard of the Star Rod to guard so as to prevent Nightmare from emerging, Meta Knight would go on to actually help Kirby, hoping to strengthen the pink warrior enough to face Nightmare and defeat him for good, he serves as the penultimate boss before the last level and after being defeated and exposed retreats and isn't seen again in the game, while Dedede aids Kirby in beating Nightmare for good. Meta Knight wouldn't appear again until Kirby's Avalanche, which won't have more said about that, but his true comeback to the franchise being in Kirby Super Star, released in 1996 for the SNES, where in the subgame; The Revenge Of Meta Knight Meta Knight decides to overthrow Dedede out of a belief that the King is unfit to be Dreamland's ruler and he would do a better job of leading the nation; his plans are cut short by Kirby and presumably gives up for good on trying to take over Dreamland from Dedede going back to his dynamic as his friend. The two would appear in later games but never interacting or even meeting onscreen.

Jumping over to Kirby's Return To Dreamland, both Meta Knight and King Dedede interact onscreen once more and now partner up with Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee as part of a heroic quartet and are made playable as optional multiplayer characters, and can also be played as during single player in the Arena and True Arena respectively. In Kirby Star Allies, both King Dedede and Meta Knight are dream-friends that join Kirby in his quest to stop the Jambastion Cult and can be played as in either multiplayer or the Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go mode either as partners or on their own, and in their Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go picture shows them resting alongside Bandana Waddle Dee with Meta Knight mostly relaxing on his own under a tree while Dedede and Bandana rest under the sun. In Kirby Fighters 2, Kirby is invited to fight in the Battle Buddy Tower that Meta Knight and King Dedede had built together, and the 2 are fought as a team 3 times, as their bond grows stronger alongside the two challenger fighters (Kirby and an ally that can be Bandana Waddle Dee, Gooey, Magolor or another Kirby, Meta Knight or Dedede), culminating in the duo's desperate desire to beat their rivals by bearing two powerful masks that corrupt them into savage warriors; regardless of all this they fail and are beaten for good at the end being sent flying into the distance. At the end of the game, the narration states that their bond and strength were both strong enough, and the magical masks weren't truly needed for them to give a good fight as they had such a strong bond that their joint power would make them good rivals, at the end of credits when a sulking Dedede falls over after walking away in shame of his repeated failures, Meta Knight helps him up. In Kirby And The Forgotten Land, Dedede and Meta Knight spend almost the entire game split apart from each other as Dedede is brainwashed by Fecto Forgo and Meta Knight takes up the job of protecting Waddle Dee Town from the Beast Pack, they only meet back up in the postgame after Elfili's defeat where Dedede takes up residence to recover in Waddle Dee Town though they don't meet or interact with each other as far as we're shown.

Fanon
The ship was fairly niche in the start of the Kirby fandom's earliest days with it mostly being a never-met pair as the only known relation between Meta Knight and Dedede was of friends due to Meta Knight having a piece of the Star Rod in Adventure (though his willingness to help Kirby showed he wasn't entirely loyal to the King), but the ship exploded in popularity after Kirby Fighters 2 where the two are portrayed as best friends and battle partners (if only for the Buddy Towers matches) MANY fans latched onto the ship quicker than the sinking of the Titanic back in 1912 and it quickly became both Meta Knight's and Dedede's most popular ships, at least in the West. Lots of fan portrayals will portray Dedede in a kind caring manner, similar to his portrayal in Kirby and The Forgotten Land, and Meta Knight in a way that almost feels like a combination between the games and the anime's personality (as in the games he's friendlier to Dedede but less overtly emotional while the anime version only works with Dedede to further his goals but is far kinder outside of battle), which albeit the fact that it sounds quite odd to do so, but it's kind of how he's portrayed, often, Dedede and Meta Knight are also portrayed as being father figures to both Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee, treating them as their own children (based mostly on the respective dynamics Dedede and Meta have with Bandana Waddle Dee and Kirby, respectively).

The ship faces some slight but not too notable competition from other Meta Knight or Dedede ships such as Metagala, but there rarely is much of a fight with that side of the fandom. On the other hand, things can get heated when discussing against Metasusie shippers as fans of Metadede will accuse the former group of supporting abusive relationships and other things which leads to heated arguments when they arise. Besides that, other Dedede or Meta Knight ships don't come into conflict often against the Metadede shippers most of the time.

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