Dexter (Cartoon Network)

Dexter is the main 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 He Rocks

 * 1) He is one of the most memorable Cartoon Network characters of all time.
 * 2) He can have 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 flawlessly and has these science-fantasy based inventions without his parents being aware about 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 [e.g 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.]
 * 5) He cares a lot for his family, even to his sister Dee Dee (despite that she was, at times, annoying and pesky)
 * 6) With that said, Dexter has his reasons to be mean and strict to his sister since she like aforementioned on WHR#4, can be troublesome, bumbling and slow to pick up some potential problems Dexter can have in his lab.
 * 7) His rivalry is with another inventor Mandark, because he was a scientist too, but an rather evil one. So we have a reason to root for Dexter instead.
 * 8) He has a great character design in seasons 1 & 2.
 * 9) He is greatly voiced by Christine Cavanaugh in the first two seasons as well as early Season 3. Additionally, while Candi Milo did very poorly in the rest of Season 3, she improve slightly in Season 4.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) He can be a too much of a jerk at times. Plus, he was out-of-character in 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", 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 or in the "Morning Stretch" episode, when 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 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 with how he worked for his rival Mandark with designing cubicles in the future.
 * 4) One time when he overthought things & stressed himself out with his new experiment in the episode "Dimwit Dexter", his IQ subtly dropped to the point where his brain eventually shuts down and gets a rest, so he acts more childlike & goofy than before and causes problems to his own experiments and can hurt himself because of his idiot counterpart even when Dee Dee eventually witnesses his odd behavior and with surprised delight at his newfound stupidity takes Dexter to her room to play to make Dexter look even more awkward, not realizing that Dexter just needed a rest.
 * 5) His character design in seasons 3 & 4 was a step-down from his previous one, as he looks more rigid and geometric like a square or rectangle.
 * 6) While unchanged for the most part, he was slightly flanderized in Seasons 3 & 4 and became a bigger jerk and/or a bigger punching bag than he was in the first two seasons.
 * 7) * Additionally, many of his experiments in those seasons weren't creative nor inventive.
 * 8) Candi Milo does a poor job voicing Dexter, especially in the third season, as she makes Dexter's Russian accent sound rather forced and cheesy. She did improve slightly in the fourth season, and she doesn’t sound as bad now, though that’s not saying much since it’s only average voice acting at best.

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