Dexter (Cartoon Network)

Dexter is the titular character and protagonist of Dexter's Laboratory. He's a boy genius who has a secret & solitary laboratory. His notable, high intelligence is what makes him the brains of the family and he is one of the world's greatest inventors, who has experience with creating countless, weird, and amazing machines & experiments.

Why's He's A Smart Heroic Boy Genius

 * 1) He is one of Cartoon Network's most memorable characters, as he was created to be an icon with a simplistic design.
 * 2) He has some quotable lines like "Dad's Trophy!", "No, Dee Dee, no!" or the memetic "Omelette du Fromage." from "The Big Cheese".
 * 3) He is a good inventor and is perfectly capable to invent many things, like making a statue come to life, making robots and so much more.
 * 4) With that said, some of his inventions are quite creative, imaginative, and somewhat impressive when you realize he is an 11-year-old who does all of this rocket science effortlessly and has these science-fantasy based inventions without his parents being aware of it at all (especially Dee-Dee usually being dim-witted and passing it off like nothing hilariously enough) and was proven to keep his property safe from anyone knowing like his parents.
 * 5) * A brief moment demonstrating this was in the episode "Last But Not Beast", when he wiped his parents' memories (as superheroes) about finding out Dexter's secret lab, this could be also why Dee Dee never questions Dexter about his lab since she was the only one who didn't get her memories erased and is always curious & excited to know what Dexter is inventing.
 * 6) As a "jerk with a heart of gold" kind of character, he shows that cares a lot for his family in many episodes, even for his sister Dee Dee (despite that she was, at times, annoying and pesky).
 * 7) With that said, Dexter has his reasons to be mean and strict to his sister since she like the aforementioned on WHR#4, can be troublesome, bumbling, and slow to pick up some potential problems Dexter can have in his lab.
 * 8) He has a rivalry with another inventor Mandark since he is a scientist too, but a rather evil one. Thus, viewers have a reason to root for Dexter instead.
 * 9) He is greatly voiced by Christine Cavanaugh in the first two seasons as well as early Season 3 (until she retired).
 * 10) He pronounces many words in funny ways because of his accent of indeterminate origin, such as the word "stupid". Speaking of that, "YOU ARE STUPID, YOU ARE STUPID, AND DON'T FORGET, YOU ARE STUPID!"
 * 11) His lab is pretty cool looking and even has tons of gadgets. It often appears to change appearance between episodes and Dexter is always building new machines and inventions.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) He can be too much of a jerk in some episodes. One example of when he was out-of-character was the Christmas Special episode, which was way worse than his usual strict but innocent demeanor.
 * 2) In spite of Dexter usually being very responsible in a self-proclaimed way, he has moments when he makes flaws due to his occasional lack of common sense or just short-sighted flaws when his experiments go out of hand. But to be fair he's still a kid, but his accidental experiments can be fallible or chaotic when he tends to not consider the full ramifications of his inventions and schemes like in some episodes like in "The Continuum of Cartoon Fools", when Dexter gets so desperate with keeping Dee Dee out of his laboratory for good & destroys all the secret entrances and even locks the front door, realizing too late that this would keep even himself from entering the lab as well. Also, in the "Morning Stretch" episode, he used a time-slowing helmet to turn thirty seconds into thirty minutes, allowing him the time to get ready for school. Yet he failed to realize that the slowed time would prevent him from properly taking a shower or making breakfast, and his homework ignited from Friction Burn when he tried to finish it.
 * 3) With that said, Dexter being an Butt-Monkey for no reason can also be present when nothing ever goes right for him most of the time. Plus he can also be the show's chew toy since he suffers this greatly in a lot of crazy ways. For example, one time his entire lab was completely destroyed or even the earth was destroyed because of one of many situations he was involved in, one time Dexter turned into a sandwich, etc. He also gets into big trouble from his parents as well. Especially his backbone-lacking teenage/young adult self in the episode "Ego Trip", an example of how he worked for his rival Mandark with designing cubicles in the future.
 * 4) As Christine's replacement as Dexter's voice actress, Candi Milo did very poorly in the rest of Season 3. Fortunately, she noticeably improved in Season 4.