Piecemail doesn't really work in a match-up discussion. A totality of options is required and a discussion of who has dominance in each situation, at least relative to the other. It's a chain of succession.
You need to establish what a high-leveled battle will consist of and from there, discuss who has an advantage in each position.
No. Just no. First of all Dedede doesn't have to try to outprojectile in the first place. He can just SH airdodge all the dins all the way to Zelda, or just run up and then shield, or just throw a dee and then shield, there's all sorts of ways to deal with Din's. You make it sound like Dedede approaching is the worst thing in the world, not all characters on the roster are in possession of crap approach games you know.
The point of that was to establish who has to approach...
Take Falco vs. Marth, Falco has lasers and Marth doesn't have lasers, reflector, a low enough crouch, or any other answers to falco's lasers, he has to approach. But Marth still wins the match-up.
It may not be the worst thing ever, but it means Zelda's approach game is irrelevant.
Lawl. How many Dedede's have you seen approach with an Ftilt. How about his grab which you know.. has crazy speed and range? And is useful? And deals up to like 16% damage depending on what you use it for. AND OMG WHO USES FW FOR SPACING? Not even Luthien does that.
Safely approach... probably should've made it clear, but I realized that I forgot to mention that after it was quoted.
Zelda outranges it, therefore not safe.
He CAN use it, but ultimately he loses out in the approach game.
Regardless, it's not used for spacing much because people there generally is consistent pressure. Lay it off, and it's certainly usable.
Except kicks are easy to see coming. The only time I'm terribly worried about a kick is if I mess up and use a laggy move, or while I'm recovering. They're both very good edgeguarders, I'd say neither has the advantage offstage. And aerially I'd also say they're both pretty even. Sure a sweetspotted kick hurts, but so does a couple of bairs to the groin while you're trying to land that kick. Also his Dair is way underestimated. You could reliably sweetspot if the D3 was an idiot that didn't know how to shield, or move, or bair. Unfortunately no D3's are that stupid, so reliably is not so much.
Zelda's uair> DDD's dair.
The point of that was not to establish that Zelda's kick is an auto-win, merely that she has the advantage. Zelda has better answers to all of DDD's aerials when it comes to an aerial battle, except in one position, when DDD is below her.
Zelda has actually very little when recovering in general, she has to either land on the ground, or sweetspot the edge, otherwise suffer massive landing lag that is just asking for a bair in the face. That leaves only a few options for the Zelda regardless of where she is recovering from. Dedede's offers him some flexibility, in that many people will anticipate where he will land and charge a smash or advance with an aerial, if you cancel that and veer to the other direction, it leaves plenty of time for him to recover while they're off releasing their smash or whatever. Also.. you know, he has useful second jumps.
Ummm yeah...
ex1: ---------------------------------X---
ex2: -------------------X-----------------
The spots marked by the X in examples are soooo similar, right?
Zelda has the option of choosing where on the ground she lands which gives her a lot more options then DDD who is limited to just ground in a totally predictable location or completely defenseless drift, both of which are very easy to punish. Sure, he can choose the timing for the drift, but a smart opponent certainly won't charge a smash, and will make sure a drift on reaction will not save you from the aerial, probably a sweetspotted lightning kick.
No, just no.