Headscratchers / Kirby's Adventure

• In "Nightmare In Dreamland" we find out at the end that King Dedede didn't steal the rod of dreams from the fountain to be a jerk, but rather to protect it from the Nightmare once he showed up. That said, I have to wonder, why didn't he just tell the citizens of Dreamland "Hey, I found something really scary in the fountain so I'm gonna have to remove the rod of dreams to keep it safe for now" or something like that? then the whole thing could have been avoided.
  • Because he felt they wouldn't have believed him?
  • Maybe he was hoping that no one would notice that the Star Rod was missing while he was possibly trying to find a solution to the problem on his own because he didn't want to worry anyone about how a horrible monster had arrived? Also, when you previously try to steal all of the food in your kingdom and aren't at the point yet where you've proven yourself to be a good person deep down, it's reasonable to assume that people might not believe you when you say that you've destroyed a sacred artifact for the greater good and instead think you're being a Jerkass again.
  • The impression I got from reading the manual for the original game was that Dedede was of the mindset that he's just smarter than the other Dream Landers and therefore knows what's best and doesn't need to consult with or answer to anyone else. He's mentioned as "nonchalantly" starting to explain what he did with the pieces, before Kirby disregards him as being back to his old habits and embarks on his new adventure without bothering to hear Dedede out.
  • Quick refresher: He stole all of Dreamland's food as "taxes". He was willing to let Dreamland STARVE just so he could have a giant picnic. Adventure comes right after Dreamland, so it's almost guaranteed that everyone will still remember what Dedede did in "Kirby's Dreamland". And now he's going to break the Star Rod and make everybody not have dreams anymore. With the Dreamland incident still fresh on everyone's minds, telling everybody "hey, there's this Eldritch Abomination in the Dream Fountain, so I'm gonna have to make everyone stop dreaming until I can fix things" might not be the best idea. Telling people would probably be even worse for him when you consider the fact that he probably didn't know if the Dream Fountain was even fixable at all. It's easily possible that, as far as Dedede knew, it's likely that people will never dream again. So his options were essentially limited to either "tell everyone and let them still dream (due to no one believing him and stopping him from breaking the Rod), but also let them suffer from nightmares", or "don't tell anyone and indefinitely prevent everyone from dreaming, but ultimately protect them from the suffering Nightmare would otherwise spread and inflict". While I sincerely believe that he made the right choice and chose the Lesser of Two Evils, he still should have at least explained after he broke the Star Rod.