Alright, I might be saying something that’ll sound heretical in some people’s ears but hear me out.
...It may not necessarily be a bad thing if Bandana Dee’s left out of the base roster.
Again, hear me out. I got a reason for saying this.
So we all know that if Bandana Dee doesn’t get into the base game, he’s got an insanely good shot of becoming DLC, I think most of us can agree on that. And therein lies my thoughts: DLC is made after the game is done. Completely untethered from the initial Project Plan back in 2015/2016. If Bandana Dee becomes DLC, would this not give him even more moveset potential than he already had before planet robobot? Think about it. Moves can be taken from Battle Royale such as the Bubble projectile from Parasol and Gale Thrust from Spear. On top of that, we can actually see attacks being inspired from Star Allies. A lot of people bring up the elemental buffs that could have different effects, which would be cool. But why stop there? Give him a charge attack based on the Friend Train for a side special or dash attack, complete with a hat change like King K. Rool’s blunderbuss! We could even have a different Final Smash in the form of the Star Allies Sparkler instead of Megaton Punch. Sure, anyone that’s playable in Star Allies can use these, but who’s a better definition of an ally to Kirby than our Waddleman? I think he’d be perfect for it. Dee becoming DLC may help him stand out more as a fighter moreso than if he gets into the base roster.
Don’t get me wrong. I still REALLY want to see Bandana Dee get into the base roster, but if he doesn’t, we can still theorycraft for DLC, I think we can get a lot more creative with potential movesets if that happens. And if he does get in as DLC, we could be seeing something more special. Not saying a simple moveset is bad by any means (I’d still love a moveset of mostly Spear and Parasol attacks), but we could get more creative with it.
But who knows? Nothing’s set in stone yet. Personally, this helps me cope better if Dee doesn’t get into the base roster. I’m extremely sure Sakurai at least considered him if he doesn’t get in, and with more recent games coming out during Ultimate’s development, I think he could be inclined to take a look at them and be interested in visiting Dee again.