Do you mind making a video the details what you personally deem as good and evil. As this subject is very relative to what the dominant culture and society deem as acceptably good or evil.
Adding a flimsy justification regarding the “value” of human life that fluctuates based on how much good you’ve done personally is exactly how fascists attempt to justify their actions. Perhaps you’re not the greatest judge on what makes a thing right or wrong, just sayn*
It makes me SO happy that you’re acknowledging how Harry plays a big part in why Dexter’s mental is the way it is and that he did more harm then good for Dexter no matter how you try and look at it. Harry’s his dark passenger for a reason
@@TKUltra971 if dexter was an adult, when he came up the "honor" serial killer mindest i would of blamed him fully, but he was from the time he was a little boy manipulated by not only his adoptive father (who called this same little boy a "monster" several times which is child abuse) his dad's collegue and therapist who trained him also....he was a lost cause due to them this happens with cults alot ....the women who murdered sharon tate and her friends all lived with charles manson as little girls thats why they didnt get life as he did.....
That moment when Dexter realized that Miguel was using him and went into a legitimate fucking rage was chilling. To see a guy who's normally so in control finally lose it was incredible.
It was all in his head though, in reality he was just sitting down thinking it over. Most people have intrusive thoughts of going into a rage like that but don’t act on it.
As someone who have ASPD myself, i would say that people don't understand it, the autor of dexter don't understand it, the youtuber don't understand it, the psychiatrists don't understand it and i myself don't understand it neither. For dexter, i would say the hallucinations make no sens, the rest can make sens. Killing doesn't make him happy, it's a dose of drugs. Evil is always a choice you make. But the point is to feel strongly when you normaly feels close to nothing. There is a lot of normal way to get it rather than killing people.
4:39 Harry was one of the series's biggest villains if you think about it. Got Laura killed because he couldn't keep it in his pants and kept cheating on his wife with his women CI'S, turned the traumatised Dexter into his weapon against criminals who got away, abandoned Brian because he was too old to brainwash with the Code and when he saw one of Dexter's kills up close it dawned on Harry what he'd done but the coward killed himself instead of trying to fix it.
@@fideletamo4292 Dexter started out as a kid so traumatised by his mother's murder he blocked it out. But Harry instead of getting him help assumed it had doomed him to become a killer and made his own fears about Dexter a self fulfilling prophecy by turning him into one. Dexter may kill people worse than himself but he kills them for selfish reasons like his own enjoyment, less chance of being caught and more convenient than random murder. I bet half the killers who were let off when Harry was training Dexter escaped justice because Harry sucked as a cop. Far from the "legend on the force" Dexter and Deb believed he was before finding out the truth about him.
Harry didn't even have the Code when he abandoned Brian to the system. He was just "too much work" as an older child with trauma. He didn't even try, just sent him into the foster system to be somebody else's problem.
@@vincentlorusso689 He probably doesn't care too much for publicity or wants to lose his soul in the Hollywood sphere. He has no social media after all.
Dexter is a greek tragedy the likes of which breaking bad perfected. Really the major flaw with Dexter was the end in my opinion. Which felt rushed. But it's arcs were so purposeful and good and unraveling that I still count Dexter as one of the best shows that have been made. And an excellent example of the unreliable narrator trope. Dexter insisting he has no feelings while plainly experiencing them will never not be hilarious to me.
Dexter Morgan is one of the greatest characters ever and the show is one of the best ever for sure. Definitely flawed but I’d still put it at number ten in my top ten shows ever.
Absolutely. And just like w GoT and Chuck, a horrible ending season doesn’t make the entire show itself suddenly bad in general. One or two bad seasons don’t erase the epic + perfect ones that came before it.
I don't think it was JUST the ending that was a problem. Really the last few seasons missed what made Dexter good and it became less morally grey and more glorifying Dexter like a superhero. They didn't go the eventual route of Deb turning on him or him getting caught or him dying largely because of his bad antics. Around season 6 was whej the show truly went downhill.
The series Dexter spread a big chunk of butter in an even bigger piece of bread and ended, yeah... Walter White's character for me is nothing more than a guy who was a coward before cancer, who became just as much of a coward on the other face of the coin, the strength of the series lies in the characters like Mike, Saul Goodman, Jesse and Gustavo.
It's not a mystery that Harry Morgan is the real villain of the series, he pretty much groomed and raised the distressed and traumatized Dexter to be a serial killer by teaching him how to get away with it and only harming those who had ran away from the law(just to flex on his own unsatisfactions with the law), but like any unhealthy obsession it was a slipery slope and soon Dexter start enjoying this, and after realizing he created a monster, he cowardly took his own life leaving Dexter alone to harm more people to feed his obsession and to deal with all the conflicting emotions he started to feel with the dark passenger persona. If Harry looked for a second opinion instead of listening "a professional" who could be a sociopath herself, Dexter could have lived a normal life if his adoptive father wasn't irresponsible with his condition.
Your point about him being misdiagnosed by his adoptive father actually fits perfectly with the biggest hole I saw in the series. Everyone who knew about the real Dexter went on and on about how he wasn't a normal person and he has to pretend because he can't actually connect with real people. However, we see so many instances of his actual connections with people. A great example is the dude that killed the priest that Dexter got close to. He drowned the dude in the ocean with what can only be described as rage. Had he done what he normally does, he would have waited for his moment and did his bay harbor butcher thing. Instead, he heard a man confess to murdering someone and reacted in the moment with anger driven violence. That doesn't happen unless Dexter has an emotional connection with the victim. Time and time again we are given examples that he isn't as far gone as everyone is telling us he is yet it is never actually addressed by the characters in any meaningful way.
It wasn’t about the fact that brother Sam got killed by nick. It was nicks reaction after realising he wouldn’t ever be caught for it. Dexter gave him a chance to turn himself in but once he heard what nick said and saw his reaction Dexter snapped and drowns him. He was actually going to let nick live because brother Sam would’ve wanted it
in regards to "they could've been dealt with if dexter revealed his finding to his collegues" the issue with that is that alot of the evidence dexter finds is obtained illegally, and therefor can not be used in court, so those people would just end up getting away with it.
Also US "double jeopardy" laws would have very specifically prevented many of his victims from ever being tried for crimes they had already been acquitted of. So the only legal methods would have been to 1) find substantial new evidence to try them on for their existing crimes or 2) wait for them to commit new crimes, and hope you can make them stick (which given that the victims all had a track record of dodging the consequences of their previous crimes in the judicial system seems a bit wishful)
Also analyzing a character and theorizing that he would have been great in many other fields or if he had grown up under different circumstances he would have a normal life is pointless. Of course he would be different, it's like saying if Hitler was accepted to art school he wouldn't have turned into an evil dictator. Or if Superman wasn't raised by the Kents but instead he grew up in a lab he would be Homelander. True? Probably. Same character? Not at all. Changing his background would basically be undoing Dexter, I see no point in it.
@@Dora_M_ I think you're over-anazlying a single point. This whole series is to bring a realistic analysis to fictional characters. So you saying that this channel shouldn't be going against that is basically just saying you yourself don't really like the channel, which is totally fine lol. In the video he literally diagnoses a fictional character with like 7 different disorders. If he did analyze superman, he'd probably end with a realistic "all problems in superman life could be avoided by not being a superhero and just being Clark Kent"
Illegally obtained evidence can be used if it isn't the police themselves obtaining it. Like if a guy breaks into a house to rob it, and finds dozens of photo album of children being murdered, he can 100% call the police and everything he found will be used, even if he reported it anonymously.
One thing always stuck out to me was how badly Harry misread certain situations. Like when Dexter killed the neighbours dog because it was keeping his sick mom up at night. Harry saw it as Dexter finding an justification but really it was just a traumatized teenager trying to help his sick mom and thanks to Harry he seemed to only know one way to express feelings and/or help those he deeply cares about. You see it with Rita’s ex when Dexter framed him because he was causing problems
I would agree if it was just that one incident, but Harry also mentioned finding bones that "weren't just Buddy's". So he discovered other animals that Dexter had killed for less of a reason.
@@pyxl666 yes but instead of seeing it as a glimmer of hope that Dexter could heal from past trauma and could in fact feel genuine emotion he took it as confirmation bias of what he already decided Dexter was
"Hmmmm, my boy killed my neighbors dog and might become a serial killer if I don't get him help. What do I do here? I know, I'll make sure he becomes a serial killer by turning him into one, that's the best solution for everyone involved clearly."
Dexter really is tragic, the very fact that he still tries to fight off his urges even with everything trying to push him to be a monster, makes me believe that he ultimately truly wouldn't be one with the right resources.
That’s because harry himself had a vendetta against criminals who escaped the system and he realized that he could turn dexter into a tool to clean up society. What he did for dexter helped dexter, but it was also self satisfying in some sense
I loved the book version of Dexter. He was definitely more dark, he did not just stab and dismember like in the show, he liked to torture and experiment with new tools just like his brother Rudy. I also loved that Rudy was a recurring character in the books.
I’ve seen this series more times than I can remember because it’s my number one favorite show. In one episode, Dexter tells a man on his table that “you’re all just unchecked versions of myself” and I think it sums up the character of Dexter Morgan perfectly. Killing bad people is what prevents/prevented him from killing true victims like innocent people. Without it, he would be just like all of the victims that laid on his table.
Very well said, that quote definitely *does* sum him up perfectly. And it was brilliantly written that they had him say it to Miguel, as he truly was an "unchecked version" of him, someone who justified his killings as being under the umbrella of "justice" but actually was only out for his own personal vendettas. That's why I thought Miguel was a very underrated villain, as he really was a perfect foil and opposite side of the coin of Dexter, and he encapsulated many of the themes of the series as a whole.
@@OutrageIsNow Yes absolutely true! And what made him so fascinatingly nuanced was the guessing game Dexter (and by proxy we the audience) had to go through on him. Was he a good friend or a self interested guy? The story kept fluctuating and revealing different layers. Deep down we probably knew, but we wanted it to end well and for Dexter to have a friend because their “male bonding” moments were so much fun
"Killing bad people is what prevents/prevented him from killing true victims like innocent people. Without it, he would be just like all of the victims that laid on his table." Except Dexter did kill some innocent people.
Im sorry but I must go on full honest words PPL...the bloody disgusting child predator? Even....even... still "jus being a voyer"? He would probably in time go up for awful levels. sooo My own personal opinion is tht, he's in the code.🤨🖤💯
@@tatianavieiradesapires1327 I do agree that a child predator is bad but being sexually attracted to something doesn't automatically make u a sexual predator and even if we are going off of the worst case scenario prison is a worse fate to predators then death
Strongly believe if Rita stayed alive Dexter would have eventually stopped killing. He was slowly becoming more human, social. Getting married, having a family and child himself showed a maturation process. As we saw at the beginning of New Blood he can go without killing for long periods of time if he has life going for him. Despite all the kills before and during his relationship with Rita he still showed signs of being “saved” or normal, once Rita died and the manner she died officially sent him off the deep end and to the point of no return.
I adored Rita and her death gutted me I don't think I've ever cried so hard for a character death before or since. The writing definitely peaked in season 4 and John Lithgow did an amazing performance as well I was blown away
I consider Dexter Morgan, Tony Soprano, and Walter White to be the big three antiheroes of television. There's plenty of them now, but these three set a high bar for interesting, compelling monsters. Edit: Seems like there's some disagreement, so I'll add this. By anti-hero, I mean the central character of a story having a darker side. The hero part is just a stand-in for protagonist. Yes, all three are terrible people and Tony and Walt do become the villains of their stories by their respective endings. They're not heroic, nor do any of them (Save for Dexter) have that many traditionally heroic moments.
Walter White was a full out villain drug lord, we were just given the sad back story of why he did things which made us like him but if we had just been given him with no backstory we would see him as just a villain which is what he is
He does have conscience and seems to feel really bad when his actions cause innocent deaths. That alone is a redeeming quality that seperates him from truly evil characters and serial killers, he even isolates himself because he causes harm to those he loves. If there'd be a scale of evil he'd not be that high, but if you count the amount of pain he caused then he did terrible evil. So maybe not completely evil at heart, but still evil. Good take!
It's a fictional character, but ASD also has lack of empathy, but you have empathy. You just show it differently, but a true honest sociopath feels almost nothing. The difference is a ASD person is self centered due lack of social skills, but sociopath knows better, but doesn't care.
@@Skoopyghost Peoples say sociopaths have no empathy, but also that they have diminished/lesser empathy Having very little of something id extremely diffrerent from having nothing. There’s more difference between having 0 penny and having 1 penny than there is between having 1 penny and having 100 dollars in my opinion
I actually much preferred his death to his faking of it. Harrison killing him was poetic, and well within Dexter's character and lack of understanding how it will negatively affect Harrison (the person he loves). I also don't have much an issue with how he was caught, too. Or his murder of Logan in his desperate attempt at escape. It's all within his character.
@@pyxl666 To me it was a classic "Those who live by the sword die by the sword, the monster must be vanquished" routine we all know. Nothing new under the sun. Bo-ring. But to each their own, of course. There are times when I liked predictable stories nobody else did.
Seeing his personality traits and relationships laid out like this, I can say Dexter shows the most signs of having CPTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder). That disorder manifests very differently from PTSD due to the differences in causes. CPTSD is the developmental and mental version of death by a thousand cuts, especially so if the ongoing trauma happens during childhood development. - Dexter is a Freeze/Fawn type. He dissociates when faced with a difficult situation, or emotions his brain is protecting him from. He's also a people-pleaser, only wanting to do what he believes or has been told is good for people or society, and he gets extremely attached to people that fulfill an emotional need. - He's socially awkward, but not quite in a universal way. He's awkward around people he doesn't know because it scares him, not because he doesn't know how to be. Severe social anxiety is a common symptom of CPTSD, because we learn at an early age and often have it reinforced throughout adulthood that people are unsafe, so it can take us a while to warm up to new people. - He's hypervigilant, which is what makes him so good at his professions. - He feels immense shame and guilt for his mistakes, far above what an average person might feel. - He has a very shaky self-image because he was never taught how to get to know himself. He was only ever allowed to follow how other people saw him.
@@NexLegacyAccount Me as well, but I have "mildly psychotic tendencies" in my file. I was raped by my brother from 3-16 so would I qualify in that sense? I have severe social anxiety, pretty much everything you said, but I'm also bipolar and have major attitude problems to the point I can't remember what happens if I get too angry sometimes.
Only the showrunners of Seasons 1-4 understood Dexter's character. A bad guy killing worse people not to save innocents but because he liked it, it satisfied his urges and it was more convenient for him than just picking victims randomly. He had no emotions but faked them to blend in and seem normal. Seasons 5-8 stupidly retconned him from a serial killer pretending to be normal to a normal guy and treated his killing as some "quirky side hobby" rather than the all consuming obsession it was. Changing him from an unfeeling psychopath to someone who could feel but had been convinced by Harry he couldn't was also dumb.
Actually, it happened in Season 2. In S1 he has zero feelings towards anything except maybe for Debra as stated by him. In S2 he starts getting feely which is I think what led to the downfall of the series.
I just remember at some point I started to "watch" Dexter on my second screen while playing minecraft, after couple first seasons. Aka. not really watching. Problem is that Dexter became totally different character, like normal person with heavy trauma. They totally lost what had made the series so interesting and unique at the start. And I can't really remember which season, might be the season 5 as said, but in some season, Dexter totally changes.
While I do think they messed up his character after season 4, my problem was more the show's tendency to glorify his killing habit. I don't think Dexter was ever a cold, unfeeling psychopath. Even in the first season Dexter's deep trauma as well as Harry's influence on him is explored and Dexter is shown to have some caring towards a few people close to him. I think Dexter (at least in s1-4) is an unreliable narrator when it comes to himself. He displays a wide range of emotions, including love and empathy, often without recognizing that he is feeling until he has an outburst. Maybe he was intended to be emotionless, but to me he comes across more as someone with alexithymia and/or a tendency to dissociate. That Dexter is a person whose deep trauma was exploited and used for Harry's vendetta was established by season 2, imo.
@@rowan3682 Seasons 5-8 portray him as a completely justified hero when that was never his character. He didn't really care what the killers he killed did to innocent people and just used their actions to excuse killing them for kicks.
Season 2 is my favorite. Lila noticed how much of an outsider Dexter was and wanted to connect with him, even after finding out he was a serial killer. Unfortunately the burning passion she had for him could never be reciprocated by Dexter
It was woundingly disappointing that he wanted to get rid of her instead of keeping her in his life. That might have developed into a healthier relationship than it was up to that point
@@drone124I don't see how that's possible. She was an incredibly destructive woman and Dexter was one as well. It was never going to last in my opinion.
The show made Homelander so much more interesting than he was on the page in no small part thanks anthony starrs acting chops. Homie would be a long vid though lmao
Dude it's obvious. His childhood, born in a lab, fake childhood, he's no Superman, no Jonathan Kent or Martha Kent, his love ones hate him just ugh it's so plenty. Him and soldier boy the TV show is so crazy but good.
the books are crap, friend. i read the first one and gave another chance and read the second one, and was like welp i won’t get those hours of my life back.
Awesome, Dexter Morgan as a character is so interesting and had so much potential that unfortunately the show didn’t fully use but he’s still a great character. Love seeing you make all these videos on TV shows as it allows these characters to be far better fleshed out and so more interesting than many movie villains. Love your videos, and effort with such depth, nobody does it like you! If you take suggestions I would love if you would check out the FX show, The Shield (2002-2008) as I think Vic Mackey from there, and maybe some other characters, would make a very awesome video though I get this show is not the most popular anymore so it’s probably not great for views. Another potential character would be Elliot Alderson from Mr. Robot though I’m not sure he’d be considered a villain for these videos. Regardless havent finished watching this since it just dropped obviously but if it’s like your other videos it’ll be another great one! Edit: Finished the video, and was great as always! I’m so glad you mentioned how Harry basically forced Dexter to be like this. I would’ve wished that the show would’ve had Dexter realize this himself and then try to change, and it would’ve been very interesting to explore, though personally I love tragic endings so I would’ve either have him fix himself but get caught due to his past actions or eventually regress and become what he feared.
Another one semi-related to that universe is "Sons of Anarchy". The main protagonist (Jax Teller) turning into the antagonist at the end would be awesome to go through. Or an analysis on his stepdad or his mom, both being authoritarian and patriotical.
Such a unique character, I know ppl often compare him to others like Tony and Walter but I think he's in a different field than them, on his own just so unique. Not able to be done again I bet.
The first time I watched Dexter I thought he was a good man trapped in the trauma and conditioning he had to endure. An accidental monster, misunderstood and misguided but deep down a man who if led down a better path would've been genuinely good. I watched the show again though, and noticed a theme, his unrelenting selfishness. Dexter never gives up killing, despite repeated demonstrations of the damage it does to those he loves. He almost never accepts his fate when the chips are down, perfectly willing to let those around him bear the brunt of the consequences. He abandons his family because he can't trust himself not to give into his impulses. Dexter, for all his feelings of wanting to belong and be accepted, has no interest in doing the real work on himself that would be needed to attain these things. He is an addict on every level. And like all addicts, he pursues his pleasure while trying to please those around him, nevertheless making their lives incrementally worse by the day. He is not a monster. He is weak. A sad little creature who risks everything and everyone daily for that next rush.
Funny, because when I first watched dexter I just saw him as a broken person with mental issues. Never occurred to me that he was a good person. Just doing fucked up things for the right reasons. But no matter how hard you try to spin it dexter is anything but a good person. He's like bojack horseman were he's knows what he's doing is wrong but continues to do it anyway because of impulsivity.
He came incredibly close to breaking that cycle and taking responsibility in Season 2 when he had Doakes locked up. He didn't want to kill him. He genuinely didn't know what to do, and I believe he was sincere when he told Doakes that he was considering turning himself in (because for what reason would he have to lie in that moment?). And then Lila "resolved" that problem for him and allowed him to continue. There IS undoubtedly a spark of good in Dexter, though. While he does bad things for selfish reasons, there is a sense of justice buried deep down.
The fact that you associate the disease of addiction as weak proves your ignorance. Not a single valid point in you comment especially since you aren't even taking into account that he suffered a mind-altering trauma inducing event at such a young age. There was no hope for him, that's not weakness that's bad luck. He didn't choose this mentality/way of life and even wished he could be like everyone else.
Dexter does the worse thing for the good reason..he had no conscience was addicted to murder and selfish as hell...even as a kid he was killing animals and tried to kill another kid..he wasn't redeemable..
@@fideletamo4292 Dexter never tried to kill a kid. He only killed animals as a child and his first kill was when he was 19 and he killed a nurse that was purposefully overdosing people. Zero kids were ever his targets. Try again.
A villian of villians. The perfect definition of an Anti Hero. Hope to see more Anti heroes on here. Vegeta comes to mind as I argue he's one of the best.
@NEW Happy Thoughts Aye. But you can argue that Vegeta was traumatized and compensating for his abuse from Freiza. Not to mention, he didn't have many positive influences until he met Goku who challenged his position and his mindset before utterly destroying said mindset by becoming the first Super Saiyan in a long time.
"Spend your entire life ruled by another, watch your race dwindle to a handful, and THEN, tell me the meaning of your own strength. I am a Sayan Prince; he is nothing but a joke, yet I've had to watch him surpass me in strength, my destiny THROWN to the wayside!! He- he's even saved my life as if I were a helpless child. He has stolen my honor, and his debts must be paid!"
@@nickmagrick7702Batman would destroy them all. You could make an argument about Dexter or Sherlock being more intelligent but not only is Batman strong physically, he is rich af, giving a huge advantage over the other two
What perfect timing this is. I just met Michael C. Hall at Fan Expo Dallas this past weekend. He was a pretty nice guy, and this will be a fascinating watch!
I would love one done on Nina Myers from “24.” What makes her lethal is that so few believed she was the traitor in their ranks and as stated by the shows hero Jack Bauer she’s the worst traitor a traitor who believes in nothing.
God I love her. I love her first scene in season 2 when she's brought in to CTU. Her entire look and demeanor is completely different than what we were used to seeing. She's like pale and emotionless. Great character.
@@thewayfarer8849 Yeah there are a ton of villains he could analyze on 24. Charles Logan was probably the greatest villain on that show and he'd make for the best analysis.
Great analysis, this is one of my all time favorite fictional personalities. Dexter Morgan has to be hands down one of the most tragic, cunning and fascinating characters of all time. This was a stroke of creative genius on the part of Jeff Lindsay.
It's not a popular opinion, but I've always maintained that his actions were horrible. But by the end of the series he really had earned/grown a soul. New Blood only confirms that by taking himself off the board so Harrison might have a shot at a normal life. His final selfless act to complete his redemption arc and die as something more than the monster. And while he couldn't properly identify it as an emotion, he did love Hannah and Harrison.
@@hurtcobain3282 I'll agree that a lot of it was not great, but the original plan was always for him to die at the end of the series. And since the network wouldn't let them kill him off they had to come back around years later.
@@hurtcobain3282 you completely missed the point of the show then, and if it were a cash grab they wouldn't have waited so long to continue the story. New blood was an extended and corrected ending, it isn't a reboot or anything else.
It’s worth noting that psychologists have difficulty separating many of the symptoms of PTSD and autism because almost all autistic people have some form of PTSD. But I totally think Dexter’s autistic. Being autistic myself, most people seem to think it’s a social disorder but I think it’s primarily an obsessive disorder. Our brains are wired to think hyper-linearly, meaning we focus in on a topic until our brains are satisfied. I think Dexter’s PTSD and repressed memory of his mothers murder drove him to develop a hyper fixation with death and blood. Because that’s what he remembered. From the two brothers’ behavior we can assume that they each had one thing stick out about that day. For Brian it was probably the body parts: watching them fall from his mothers body and then laying there along side them in a pool of blood. That’s why he dedicated his life to prosthetic limbs and amputation. For Dexter it was the blood: watching it spray all over the shipping container and then sitting in the warm sticky substance for days before they were found. Early in his childhood, this hyper fixation manifested through him killing small animals. This was likely so he could watch them die, try to understand it, and try to scratch that itch in his brain. Again, it’s autistic linear thinking. It wasn’t because he didn’t feel anything for these animals, he just had to know. He had to feel the exact moment their life left their bodies, what made it leave, how close to the edge it could go before it left. And there was likely also the blood. Being covered in it, feeling it on his skin, smelling it in the air, watching the way it flowed out of the animals veins. It would have been strangely familiar. This is what Harry mistook for psychopathy because he never talked to Dexter. He never let Dexter really explain why he killed. He just assumed he did it because he was messed up. It’s sad because if Dexter had gone to a real therapist, maybe one who specializes in childhood PTSD and even autism, Aspergers Syndrome as it would have been called, he could have grown up to live a healthy and normal life. He would still be messed up, he just wouldn’t be a serial killer. Hell, he probably would have still ended up marrying Rita and she’d probably still be alive!
This is very well said and I would like to add ( as an a.s.d person and former addict) upon watching again recently I was picking up on a lot of the addict behavior and many studies show a predisposition to addiction in the a.s.d community. Re-watching dexter after going through active addiction and now sobriety is a very different experience.
Totally agree, not to be a Dexter apologist but on the other hand more people would be murdered and suffering if Dexter hadn’t stopped them. It’s a hard one because who gets to live and who dies but objectively life would be more positive for a lot of people because of Dexter being who he is (not those closest to him mind).
Dexter, i feel, is one of the greatest character studies ever. Its my all-time favorite show for a reason. I've been hoping you'd do a video on it since i've found your channel, andyou did not disappoint. I feel like you should've talked about his relationship with brother sam. He seemed to have been having a huge positive infulence on Dexter, and honestly had a good chance at redeeming him had he not been killed off.
The growth of this channel is insane. I know the character only exists in one movie but i think O-Dog from Menace 2 Society would be a good person for the show. He's good to his friends but a horrifying person to everyone else around him.
These are the characters I hope you eventually do: Homelander - The Boys (2019-) John Milton - The Devil's Advocate (1997) Fast Black - Street Smart (1987) David - The Guest (2014) Jerry Blake - The Stepfather (1987) Lil Z - City of God (2002) Bane - The Dark Knight Rises Steve - Fresh (2022) I really hope you will do them someday!
@@RiverRockRecords I think exploring an older Harrison would be an awesome idea. It would kinda parallel Dexter, in a way. While Dexter did do good things, he was driven by his uncontrollable desire to kill. Harrison appears driven by justice, and I see him being driven to kill for the purpose of being a hero, not because he gets off on it.
The anti-hero/villain protagonist is my favorite genre of character, and love these videos. I'd really enjoy more of these types in particular for that reason. Characters who are simply good or evil are often-times kind of dull, but characters with far more depth to them like this are always the best for storytelling imo.
I think even stories with multiple villains at play who work against one another as well as the protagonist could be interesting too. They've already made a video on Andrew Ryan in Bioshock but I could see a video about Atlas/Frank Fontaine from Bioshock also being just as in depth for the series. Both Fontaine and Ryan are the villains for the player character but the two are at odds with one another yet still evil for their own different reasons and views.
Please do an episode on Barry Berkman. His arc through the series as a hitman trying to abandon the life of crime for an acting career only to be held back by his past is such an amazing one.
@@juliangonzalez4038 The problem with that is, you have to be sure your target is indeed the right one. Dexter did make the mistake of killing an innocent person in the series. This is why in theory a serial killer who kills other serial killers seems like a great concept but in reality this isn't such a good idea. Especially since real serial killers lack empathy and don't really care who their victims are.
@@moonlightj0y serial killers being put down though is something that should just happen though instead of giving them due process. They don't deserve the rights of humans.
@@sillyputtyisfun7567 You can't do that because you don't know who they are. If society behaved like Dexter then there would be many innocent people being murdered because some wannabe vigilante found them suspicious and perceived things wrongly. That is why we have due process being carried out by a police force and a justice system. It's not a perfect system, but it's better than anything else that society has been able to come up with so far.
Dexter, interesting and complex character that he was, still counts as evil. He understood that, on a basic level, what he was doing was “wrong” and that killing gave him personal satisfaction. He also knew those he cared for were at higher risk of harm (physical, emotional, psychological) but he continues anyway. That’s evil. But Harry is the worst (and the quack they added later) since his ongoing betrayal of Dexter was the source of all the other misery that followed.
not evil. Evil is doing harm just for harms sake. Dexter had a purpose behind what he did, and didn't just do what was easiest to control his urges. Does taking another life automatically make someone evil? Are all our military soldiers evil? What about the people who condemn prisoners to a life behind bars, just a slow offset death sentence. Are they evil too?
@@nickmagrick7702 I think your definition of evil is very limited - I think there is a spectrum of evil. Your entire second paragraph is you setting up a premise I didn’t endorse, then trying to use reeeeeally broad strokes to refute that premise (that you set up). I didn’t say all killing was evil. But for the sake of (possible continued) discussion, your two examples of soldiers in war and lifelong prison sentences absolutely have the potential for evil. Soldiers can and do commit war crimes. Many wars are frankly unjust, making a possible argument that all killings stemming from unjust wars are evil). And many innocent people have been jailed for decades, or their whole lives, or even executed due to individual corruption and flawed “justice” systems that resulted in unjustified misery for the convicted, even if everything was “lawful”. Neither of your incredibly broad and vague “examples” are inherently evil, but given more specific circumstances they certainly could be.
@@TrueYellowDart as it should be. Evil is reserved for the very worst things in existence, anything less isn't really evil. People do terrible things for self preservation or gain, but its not on the same level as evil. In fact some of the worst, most harmful people to have ever lived had good intentions. My point with the whole war analogy is that we often kill or are responsible for the deaths of many people, but we justify it while calling someone else doing something thats more visceral as evil because it affects us emotionally more. People also tend to kill animals without much of a second thought about it. But that isn't considered evil, even though theres less of a point to it than what Dexter is doing.
@@nickmagrick7702 Since we clearly have very different understandings of what constitutes evil, there’s not much to discuss. Well I guess there actually is but… Look, if we were hanging out and chatting over beverages I’d id be really interested to continue because our base interpretation of evil is so different, but this is the UA-cam comment section and I have e to type all this out on my iPhone and it’s simply not worth any more time/effort. So thanks for the civil disagreement. Your “good intentions” comment almost made me think you were being satirical, but you weren’t.
@@TrueYellowDart ha no problem. Yeah I get that pretty often actually, where im trying to be sincere and it comes off as antagonistic. I try to be as civil as I can Well if you happen to live in the vancouver/portland area in Washington/Oregon, ill have a beer with you.
Dexter is so far from evil. His every waking moment spent devoted to honing his mental illness for the sake of his individual humanity shows as much. His process is airtight and 100% more effective than the very homicide department he works in, he is aware and accepts his faults and refuses to let his addiction rule his life, and he does everything in his power to keep his loved ones safe. Including self-sacrifice. ALL of that speaks to the notion that he is not a psychopath. Being aware of his condition, having a firm grasp on the concept of right and wrong, feeling genuine affection in many capacities towards many people, he lacks the narcissism that would prevent him from feeling guilt or suicidal urges. Dexter was an apex predator culling the herd of monsters that plague his hometown. To condemn him is to condemn every special forces operator, every doctor, every soul that has ever refrained from doing *wrong* as "evil." In the eyes of many, Dexter isn't the villain of the story, he's the hero.
"His every waking moment spent devoted to honing his mental illness for the sake of his individual humanity shows as much." But he didnt murder people for the sake of humanity...that was just a by product. Also, there were times when he murdered individuals who werent criminals or even bad people. So overlooking the the serial killer aspect, Im not sure how Dexter can not be considered evil, when looking at the people he killed that didnt fit the code.
@@derekcash3608 Serial killing serial killers, rapists, and pedophiles is a net positive. I don't really give a shit what the average person thinks about violence, it's part of the natural order and crucial to maintaining a semblance of peace. If Dex wasn't in Miami, the city would overall suffer for it. 3 killers that would make Jack the Ripper blush would still be loose, not to mention over 100 others that weren't so infamous. If you're referring to Doakes or Guerta, they both had shadey history. The former of which was worse than Dex, wiping out villages on black op missions, killing his fellow brothers in arms, and he even proved to use crooked methods to solve his cases. Guerta would back him and both were killed by hands other than Dexter's. Even then he lamented, expressed regret, shame, and guilt. All further indications that he isn't evil or psychopathic. Compulsive, yes, mentally ill, yes. Evil, firmly no.
@@RecluseBootsy 1) Dexter didnt kill Doakes, so Im not talking about him. But regardless, Dexter would have killed him and Doakes didnt fit the code. 2) I never saw anything that illustrated LaGuerta was involved with Doakes "wiping out villagers, killing his fellow brothers in arms, and he even proved to use crooked methods to solve his cases." I just finished watching the series again, but I may have missed something. 3) Dexter was responsible for killing LaGuerta. If Deb hadnt arrived, he would have killed her. She did not fit the code. 4) The list of individuals, who didnt necessarily fit the code, is longer than Doakes and LaGuerta. 5) Again, Dexter didnt kill people for the sake of humanity. He was a serial killer who had to kill people and his actions benefited humanity. Except when he killed innocent people, like the model photographer.
Love that you did a video on Dexter. Definitely would love to see one on Arthur Mitchell, he's such a monster and is definitely the most compelling antagonist of the series
Awesome video, Mr Vile!! Peter Parker: a good person who feels guilt about not being a better person. Dexter Morgan: a good person who feels guilt about doing horrible things for right reasons. With great power, comes great responsibility. Dexter never stood a chance. Between Harry & the Doctor, he was sabotaged into becoming the very monster they feared he had the potential to become. I do believe that Dexter has a core of inner-light that is surrounded by an insane amount of cultivated evil & mental scars but he tries ( & to some extent succeeded) to conceal them with learned behavior & a Knightly Moral Code. He should have been attempting to understand & channel his Cause (extreme Generational Trauma from the loss of his family) instead of mitigating the Symptoms. (Murdering 'criminals who slip through cracks & who deserve it')
Excellently done. Dexter is evil. Dexter was cultivated out of cynicism. Harry was disenchanted by the criminal justice system. Ultimately I believe this is why Dexter feels hopeless and/or cynical that he can change. I’ve been hearing a phrase that goes ‘Evil does not create. It only corrupts and destroys.’ This opens the door to an interesting conversation. What is the distinction between hero and anti-hero?
@@tigernotwoods914 even though the pedo technically didn’t fit the code, he had it coming. He had hurt kids in the past and he clearly didn’t learn from his ‘mistake’ after prison considering he was talking with Astor and took sneaky pics of her on the beach. He deliberately put himself in situations where he could interact or watch kids. Glad Dexter choked him out, he definitely would have hurt another child.
An antihero actually doesn't have to be good at all. You can write a story about a villian who's the main character, and he is an antihero by default by being the main protagonist of the tale. Antiheros traditionally lacked some of the main heroic qualities of heros and became popular durring the great depression. This does not mean they have to be all together evil. Many anti heros walk the line between good and bad. One could argue many old westerns were full of more anti heros than heros. It was a popular trope for their protagonists to be former veterans of the Confederacy.
Dude. Real talk, you're the first youtuber to put out merch that actually looks cool. That's an awesome shirt design for your channel. Love your stuff and I hope to keep seeing you... soon.
I was addicted to this show the when it first came out, after a few seasons it kind of went of the rails, I never really finished it, but I LOVED the idea of dexter as a character. I want to watch this, but I don't remember a lot of the nuance that this show had as it is literally 15 years old. I'm going to "properly buy Dexter and not torrent it, like at all" and then watch the first 3 or 4 seasons and I'll return to this video. Thank you Mr Vile
@@homelander39 Yep. In New Blood Dexter became a sloppy clumsy idiot, despite spending 9 episodes portraying Harrison as a psychopath shaping up to be worse than his dad Dexter and uncle Brian, framing a bullied kid for a fake school shooting just for an excuse to hurt him, breaking a guy's arm in a wrestling match and lunging for his friends with a straight razor the last episode tried to say he was just a normal kid pissed Dexter had abandoned him when he clearly wasn't normal. Angela Bishop made the entirety of Miami Metro look like expert cops when even though she knew Kurt killed the missing girls she dropped the case after his abusive dad sob story and focused on Dexter who she only found out was the Bay Harbour Butcher by coincidence. Angela's daughter Audrey's whole character was just "Harrison's girlfriend." Olsen the oil tycoon was just there for a protest scene and a red herring to make people think Kurt wasn't the killer.
@@connorsims8253 The show died with Rita and I'll die on this hill. There were a few good episodes after that though, but they weren't enough to salvage the train wreck it became.
“The people who may have died in hurricane Laura because Dexter delayed their flights.” That would’ve never occurred to me. Lol. You really think through everything in these videos.
When he said "these people who Dexter indirectly murdered" I have to roll my eyes though. Pick a stance! Is blood on Dexter's hands for every psycho he doesn't find and kill in a timely manner... or is only killing murderous psychos not enough of a moral code to prevent him from being labeled outright evil? Is he responsible for the deaths of every serial killer's victim, or is it meaningless that he kills serial killers?
...I didn't go into my distaste for "the predator who secretly photographed little kids in swimsuits didn't hurt anyone" comment, but I'd have _paragraphs_ to say about it if I let myself boil about it too much. It did make me ultimately dislike the video and unsubscribe despite me agreeing with the rest of the Dexter dissection's arguments though.
@@baydiac I see what you’re saying, but my issue with your criticism of the video is that I think him not picking a stance is precisely his point. BOTH are factors to consider when evaluating Dexter’s morality, so that’s why he chooses to include both instead of straddling the line in between. Also, as for your other comment regarding the “Didn’t hurt anyone” moment, that is a beyond reasonable point to raise and that’s actually something I found weird at first, but I think he only says that to make the point that the sex offender at the market who took pictures of Astor and Cody didn’t fit the code, not necessarily as an actual judgment of his morality as a person. I could be wrong, but I do not get the impression that he was imparting a genuine moral judgment onto Dexter’s victim, rather bringing into question the morality of Dexter’s character by singling out Dexter’s failure to be morally consistent.
Dexter is one of the more interesting sociopathic characters. He seems to very much accept that he is a sociopath. And he doesn’t seem to view himself as being superior to other people. Hence his victims aren’t “cattle” to harvested as he pleases. Dexter isn’t a narcissist like many other sociopathic characters. Dexter’s victims are usually murdered due him following Harry’s code of conduct when it comes to killing. I do wonder how much of Dexter’s behaviour is due to Harry’s programming, his childhood trauma, innate sociopathy or various other mental disorders. Excellent character analysis as always. Villain Profile suggestions. 1. Frank Underwood/ Francis Urquhart (House of Cards) 2. Petyr Baelish (A Song of Ice and Fire) 3. Light Yagami (Deathnote) 4. Frank Gallagher (Shameless US) 5. Marty and Wendy Byrd (Ozark)
sure but Dexter sill kills because he loves it. He does not do it because he wants to save people or punish bad people. He just does it because he enjoys it and not to get caught. There is nothing morraly good about dexter. He is evil. And dont get my wrong, I love the show and i love the character but he is a monster
Frank gallagher isn't evil lmao get the hell out of here, Terry milkovich IS evil not frank. Frank still does genuinely care for his family, he's just a severe alcoholic. Having an addiction doesn't make you evil
I did NOT expect this omg. This is probably my favorite episode now. Would you cover the other character of the series or just keeping it at dexter himself?
I think what’s interesting about this analysis is that it reminds me of some actual historical serial killers. The one that comes to mind as coming close to resembling Dexter is the Frontiersman Lewis Wetzel who lived in the Ohio/West Virginia border region in the late 18th/early 19th century. Wetzel, like Dexter, experienced horrific trauma as a child on the Frontier of what was then called The North West Territory. Family members, including his father, were killed by Native Americans. Wetzel and his brother were also kidnapped by Native Americans as a child in which they didn’t know if they would be killed or adopted which were the two most likely scenarios. He and his brother then made a truly remarkable and courageous escape. Wetzel then grew up on the border frontier where conflict between the American settlers and the Native Americans was brutally savage. Wetzel then grew up into an incredibly talented frontier scout, guide and guerrilla a fighter. Wetzel exhibited some of the same mental health issues Dexter portrays. His action in defense of settlers in the frontier was often incredibly courageous and heroic. Often showing up at the nick of time through incredible dangers and warning communities of eminent attacks and saving many lives. He was also famous for saving settlers who had been kidnapped by Native Americans many who would have been horribly tortured and murdered. Then their was his not so heroic activities in which Wetzel would track down and murder Native Americans who, as far as anyone knew, had done no one any harm. It is estimated that his murders of innocent native Americans was in excess of a hundred. He was so feared by the Native Americans they called him Death Wind. Only the Cutahotha (Simon Kenton) was more feared than Wetzel but Kenton was by no means a serial killer. Kenton was just an incredibly gifted frontiersman and fighter but he didn’t do crazy things like hunting them down and killing them for pleasure or sport as Wetzel did. Wetztel was also uncomfortable and awkward in social interactions, had difficulty speaking properly, was uncomfortable in social interactions, except with children and other characteristics that appear to be similar to Dexter. So was Lewis Wetzel evil or a product of his environment or both. He was both but I do not find this an acceptable reason to not condemn Wetzel for the many evil acts he committed.
25:40 I think one thing that disputes this point is that Dexter almost always gains evidence that his victims fit his code by going beyond the law, like a vigilante. He consistently ignores the legal process through proper warrants, and so even if he shared his evidence to his colleagues this would not work out in the long run. This is one of the points he makes to Deb in season 7 to justify his code, by saying that some people slip through the cracks of the legal system and that he needs to take things into his own hands.
I was hoping someone would also point this out! Dexter even said a few of those people ended up on his table people because they got off free due to technicalities.
Yes that is very true. I think that's why we're able to really root for him in *most* cases, because the criminals he targets are those who slipped through the cracks. It's really Trinity where this becomes more morally murky, as he lets the man live for longer than he should in order to "learn" from him and actively thwarts the Miami Metro efforts to take him in legally (during the DNA test roadblock). This is why the tragedy befalls Rita, which in turn shatters Harrison, and sends a ripple-effect through the rest of the series as a whole. It was a tragic series of mistakes, reminiscent of Hamlet and his indecision to kill Claudius when he had the chance.
It doesn't need to be his evidence, he could give them tips. Like, "John Doe is involved with XYZ activities between these hours at this location on Wednesdays, FYI" and the police could then look into that and get evidence in a legal way. Theoretically.
one of the biggest mistakes was teaching dexter how to fake emotions, most of the time he was cold but when he lost his temper shi hit the fan real quick
I don't think it's really all that underrated. Sure, fans of the show keep on trash talking latter seasons, but overall the show is well known and respected. Not on the same pedestal as Breaking Bad that's for sure, but it's almost unfair to compare those two
@@Vario69 I respect that. I think that Dexter has a valid IMDB score but no one ever talks about it on for example tiktok or youtube and I think that more people should watch it because it is one of my personal favorites.
JFC... everything is So uNdERAtEd. Shit is getting old. Dexter is the furthest fucking thing from underrated dude. I wish 90% of UA-camrs would actually learn the definition of underrated before spewing it out every five minutes.
Fantastic video. Would love you to also cover The trinity killer from s4. He was definitely Dexter's most interesting rival across the series. And I also found the s5 antagonist, Jordan Chase, to be somewhat interesting as well. He definitely had an interest in power dynamics and having power over others. So, selfishly, I love to see a video on him as well. Really, you could do a whole mini series of videos on some of the villians from the show as there are plenty to choose from. Miguel Prado, The Ice truck killer, Lyla, etc.
I have been following this series WAITING for this episode. And once it came up I swore I would subscribe. So here's that and thank you for all the amazing content!
Never clicked so fast, really interesting how the show convinces u that these people who were killed indirectly or as an innocent deserves it. It’s Credit to the writing for conveying these people through dexters eyes
good point on dr vogal being a psychopath herself..thats why she understands them so well and her own son was one and we know these things can run in families...she may have even taught her own son to kill
I'm interested in hearing about book Dexter. I don't have the time to read through the books so hearing about him summarized in one of your videos would be great.
Perfect timing! I just got done re-watching the series and watching New Blood for the first time. Ended up enjoying it more on the second watch. It's hard not to sympathize with him given his trauma and his desire to be normal and have genuine human connection.
Sir, I have binged watched the first four seasons of Dexter this past two weeks. I hear that the show goes downhill after season 4. Is it worth watching the rest of the series?
I love the "did I miss anything" at the end. NO! You are ridiculously thorough and accurate with what you portray and analyze. And that, my friend, is why you are the best at this.
The first four seasons of this show are gold, everything afterwards begins to steadily decline in quality Great video as always, I know I'm super late to watching
I would have never known that you would do so this, I love dexter ever since I was exposed to it. I love your channel Vile, sleepless nights fulfilled by your videos.
A important thing is that he is not a psychopath He is a sociopath who just have murderous tendencies or bloodlust from his early traumatic childhood experience Truly an awesome show
@@kimmyfreak200 yeah but psychopaths are just a advanced version of sociopaths , always calm , no anxiety , no fear , no empathy or sympathy they are the example of a wolf in sheep's clothing . Hiding in plain sight, beautiful and terrifying in the same time
people, even professionals get those 2 terms wrong all the time. Ive heard both of them used both ways so many times it gets really confusing. But you're right
He actually shows more traits of primary psychopathy than "sociopathy" (secondary psychopathy) according to the PCL-R. He shows: Boldness, fearlessness, invincible sense of self, egocentrism (Season 2 demonstrates this one really well), blunted affect, remorselessness, lack of empathy, superficial charm, cold aggression, pathological lying, etc. He shows almost no impulse-control issues and doesn't struggle with boredom or a need for stimulation. He's not short-sighted or a pathological non-conformist. He doesn't show an inability to learn from his mistakes. He doesn't have a history of criminal recidivism. He doesn't really have anger issues or lie compulsively. These are sociopathic traits, and they're what AsPD is based on. Dexter might be a sub-clinical psychopath in the sense that he doesn't meet criteria for both primary and secondary psychopathy, which is necessary to be diagnosed with psychopathy. However, he's also not a sociopath.
@@AbandonedVoid yes , you are kinda right . He is a secondary psychopath because he wasn't born as a psychopath but was so mentally scarred that it made him one - kinda like that btw you should post this in the main comment section
Personally, after reading a shit ton of the top comments so far I am sad to see no one mention Sgt Dokes (sp? he's the black dude that was killed off) and Dexter and his relationship in the early seasons. He was a thorn in Dexter's side for the longest time but it was almost like he was a necessary annoyance for Dexter to deal with to keep him from going too far off the rails. I think they were Partners at one point and I think Dexter truly respected Sgt Dokes since they were both really similar in many ways, especially when you compare both characters' hidden and repressed persona's to each other. That dumb bitch just had to kill Dokes though... One of the most significant flaws in this show, in general, was how they killed off certain vital characters (Likes Deb which still blows my mind how the writers thought a freak surgical accident or w/e was the way to go with her death liked srsly wtf that's the biggest cop-out for a death I've ever seen). Also Dexter was good at his craft but not perfect, that one dude that was 7 feet tall and freak strength broke out of his duct tape and almost got away.
Great point that was missed in the video. That’s why the first 2 seasons of the show are where the most tension lies. Season 4 was amazing but I wasn’t as tense about if Dexter would reveal himself. 1 and 2 show that there’s people Dexter interacts with on a daily basis who could easily ruin his life. The Deb death was awful but at that point in the show she was literally the ONLY person that could effect Dexter personally.
killing off vital characters is sometimes the only way to raise the stakes and make it feel real. Questionable but I don't think it was a mistake in a murder mystery soap opera drama show.
i agree with everything your saying but i will point out that big fucker little chino did get away at first but thats when dex had just killed his brother brian and was also being tailed by dokes he was basically a mess at that point and trying to get back into the swing of things which is why it took three tries to kill chino
This comment section is funny. People seem to think evil only exists in some cartoonish villain or some extreme version of a human. Evil people can do good things and good people can do evil things. The world would be much simpler if that were not true, but it is. Dexter is an evil person we want to be good, because there is good in him. What can we point to as a definitive line which people can cross that makes them evil if not murdering dozens of people, regardless of those people's crimes? How about letting other, actual good people die to hide your crimes? The reason we root for Dexter is simple bias. We are presented everything from his point of view, he is the narrator and main character, we are invested in his story. If his sister Deb, or anyone dealing with the fall out of Dexter's actions, were the main character whose eyes through which we view the story, we would most likely fee different about Dexter. If you think Dexter is a good person, you might have some issues of your own.
I believe a analysis of Netflix's Frank Castle/The Punisher would be great to look into. Jon Bernthal's performance is stellar. But absolutely loved this Dexter Morgan breakdown. One of my favorite shows of all time and I literally just discovered your channel yesterday and been binging ever since. Right on time!
@@lkl8425 It depends on the incarnation. In the Netflix show he is. He's motivated solely by his bloodlust and his goals are sadistic vengeance. People around him try to rationalize his actions as being more noble than they are, but he consistently rebukes it. He's just the lesser evil compared to those he's fighting because he's still compassionate and considerate on some level, but that doesn't erase his violent, cruel malevolence.
@@AbandonedVoid doesn't make him evil he only goes after those who truly deserve it but the law cant touch rapists pedophiles and murderers it would be cool to see a video on him but hes not evil to lots of people
as Matt says, he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. He has the same reasoning as Matt has for doing the things he does, protect the innocent.
Aside from the killing and urges he has, I find Dexter incredibly relatable as a character with troubles getting close with other people :D I think it's my most re-watched series and the first four seasons are excellent
he is supposed to be. I think hes kinda living out our fantasies of dealing with all the cruel injustice in the world, taking out the people who abuse the law and sometimes get away with literal murder if not just offset murder by things like poisoning or destroying peoples lives like many corporations do.
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can u do t-bag from prison break? and light yagami from the anime called death note,imo there both the most evil characters we ve seen
Thanks for the great video 📹
Do you mind making a video the details what you personally deem as good and evil. As this subject is very relative to what the dominant culture and society deem as acceptably good or evil.
Adding a flimsy justification regarding the “value” of human life that fluctuates based on how much good you’ve done personally is exactly how fascists attempt to justify their actions. Perhaps you’re not the greatest judge on what makes a thing right or wrong, just sayn*
The tags on this video are wrong
It makes me SO happy that you’re acknowledging how Harry plays a big part in why Dexter’s mental is the way it is and that he did more harm then good for Dexter no matter how you try and look at it. Harry’s his dark passenger for a reason
Mr. Brooks has the best portrayal of a dark passenger theme. Chilling and a great ending.
Everyone gives harry a pass. I'm like, he was just as crazy and a cheating ass. Like Lundy.. oh god effing LUNDY.
@@TKUltra971 if dexter was an adult, when he came up the "honor" serial killer mindest i would of blamed him fully, but he was from the time he was a little boy manipulated by not only his adoptive father (who called this same little boy a "monster" several times which is child abuse) his dad's collegue and therapist who trained him also....he was a lost cause due to them
this happens with cults alot ....the women who murdered sharon tate and her friends all lived with charles manson as little girls thats why they didnt get life as he did.....
Wrong...
Dexter was already killing animals as a kid and tried to kill another kid..Harry didn't made him a Monster he already was.
That moment when Dexter realized that Miguel was using him and went into a legitimate fucking rage was chilling. To see a guy who's normally so in control finally lose it was incredible.
I agree
It was all in his head though, in reality he was just sitting down thinking it over. Most people have intrusive thoughts of going into a rage like that but don’t act on it.
@@heisenberg4406 Are you saying Dexter never killed anyone?
@@rabbitholegirl1 No the scene where Dexter goes into a rage after he realized Miguel was using him didn’t actually happen, he was just imagining it.
@@heisenberg4406 Oh yes that was in his head
In short, Dexter Morgan is a shining example of, “If you treat ppl like animals, they’ll probably act like animals”.
He's like the Joker. An amalgamation of different madnesses and social commentary.
As someone who have ASPD myself, i would say that people don't understand it, the autor of dexter don't understand it, the youtuber don't understand it, the psychiatrists don't understand it and i myself don't understand it neither. For dexter, i would say the hallucinations make no sens, the rest can make sens. Killing doesn't make him happy, it's a dose of drugs. Evil is always a choice you make. But the point is to feel strongly when you normaly feels close to nothing. There is a lot of normal way to get it rather than killing people.
@@kokayinewsome9308 Wrong idiot, Joker is not a good person in any way shape or form
@@luiscluzano2436 ASPD who has his real name outing himself, Your iq must not be high and your ability to manipulate is very low
@@luiscluzano2436 What a load of shit😂😂 Go outside and brush ur hands against the delicate blades of grass
4:39 Harry was one of the series's biggest villains if you think about it. Got Laura killed because he couldn't keep it in his pants and kept cheating on his wife with his women CI'S, turned the traumatised Dexter into his weapon against criminals who got away, abandoned Brian because he was too old to brainwash with the Code and when he saw one of Dexter's kills up close it dawned on Harry what he'd done but the coward killed himself instead of trying to fix it.
Without Harry, Dexter would have killed random innocent people for no reason instead of criminals, Harry wasn't the problem, Dexter was...
@@fideletamo4292 Dexter started out as a kid so traumatised by his mother's murder he blocked it out. But Harry instead of getting him help assumed it had doomed him to become a killer and made his own fears about Dexter a self fulfilling prophecy by turning him into one. Dexter may kill people worse than himself but he kills them for selfish reasons like his own enjoyment, less chance of being caught and more convenient than random murder. I bet half the killers who were let off when Harry was training Dexter escaped justice because Harry sucked as a cop. Far from the "legend on the force" Dexter and Deb believed he was before finding out the truth about him.
And all but ignored his daughter
Harry didn't even have the Code when he abandoned Brian to the system. He was just "too much work" as an older child with trauma. He didn't even try, just sent him into the foster system to be somebody else's problem.
He also was neglectful to Deb.
Dexter is wild. Goes to show just how hard it is to come back when you were never given a chance to be normal.
Dexter is wild👍
Something my family doesn't understand about me, nor they probably ever will.
@@AloneWriter1993edge guy
@@AloneWriter1993 you good!?
@@kyesanders3209 you fucking cringe
Props to Michael C Hall to become one of the underrated actors in America
@Royal Messiah He was much better in Six Feet Under
His Voice as Batman in Justice League: Gods & Monsters was Spectacular!!!
@Royal Messiah Bro Gamers was trash. Not even Michael could save that movie
It really is crazy that he hasn't taken over Hollywood. He's magnificent.
@@vincentlorusso689 He probably doesn't care too much for publicity or wants to lose his soul in the Hollywood sphere. He has no social media after all.
Dexter is a greek tragedy the likes of which breaking bad perfected. Really the major flaw with Dexter was the end in my opinion. Which felt rushed. But it's arcs were so purposeful and good and unraveling that I still count Dexter as one of the best shows that have been made. And an excellent example of the unreliable narrator trope.
Dexter insisting he has no feelings while plainly experiencing them will never not be hilarious to me.
Dexter Morgan is one of the greatest characters ever and the show is one of the best ever for sure. Definitely flawed but I’d still put it at number ten in my top ten shows ever.
He's got a mix of Sweeney Todd as well
Absolutely. And just like w GoT and Chuck, a horrible ending season doesn’t make the entire show itself suddenly bad in general. One or two bad seasons don’t erase the epic + perfect ones that came before it.
I don't think it was JUST the ending that was a problem. Really the last few seasons missed what made Dexter good and it became less morally grey and more glorifying Dexter like a superhero. They didn't go the eventual route of Deb turning on him or him getting caught or him dying largely because of his bad antics. Around season 6 was whej the show truly went downhill.
The series Dexter spread a big chunk of butter in an even bigger piece of bread and ended, yeah... Walter White's character for me is nothing more than a guy who was a coward before cancer, who became just as much of a coward on the other face of the coin, the strength of the series lies in the characters like Mike, Saul Goodman, Jesse and Gustavo.
It's not a mystery that Harry Morgan is the real villain of the series, he pretty much groomed and raised the distressed and traumatized Dexter to be a serial killer by teaching him how to get away with it and only harming those who had ran away from the law(just to flex on his own unsatisfactions with the law), but like any unhealthy obsession it was a slipery slope and soon Dexter start enjoying this, and after realizing he created a monster, he cowardly took his own life leaving Dexter alone to harm more people to feed his obsession and to deal with all the conflicting emotions he started to feel with the dark passenger persona. If Harry looked for a second opinion instead of listening "a professional" who could be a sociopath herself, Dexter could have lived a normal life if his adoptive father wasn't irresponsible with his condition.
in the books the Dark Passenger was like a demon tha forces them to kill so Harry saved him
@@seabreeze4559 The books must have been radically different from the show then.
Fantastic take on the series
@@wilymuppet8941 VERY different. Not nearly as good. First two books were ok, went downhill fast.
Wow!!!
Your point about him being misdiagnosed by his adoptive father actually fits perfectly with the biggest hole I saw in the series. Everyone who knew about the real Dexter went on and on about how he wasn't a normal person and he has to pretend because he can't actually connect with real people. However, we see so many instances of his actual connections with people. A great example is the dude that killed the priest that Dexter got close to. He drowned the dude in the ocean with what can only be described as rage. Had he done what he normally does, he would have waited for his moment and did his bay harbor butcher thing. Instead, he heard a man confess to murdering someone and reacted in the moment with anger driven violence. That doesn't happen unless Dexter has an emotional connection with the victim. Time and time again we are given examples that he isn't as far gone as everyone is telling us he is yet it is never actually addressed by the characters in any meaningful way.
Well said❤
It wasn’t about the fact that brother Sam got killed by nick. It was nicks reaction after realising he wouldn’t ever be caught for it. Dexter gave him a chance to turn himself in but once he heard what nick said and saw his reaction Dexter snapped and drowns him. He was actually going to let nick live because brother Sam would’ve wanted it
in regards to "they could've been dealt with if dexter revealed his finding to his collegues"
the issue with that is that alot of the evidence dexter finds is obtained illegally, and therefor can not be used in court, so those people would just end up getting away with it.
Also US "double jeopardy" laws would have very specifically prevented many of his victims from ever being tried for crimes they had already been acquitted of. So the only legal methods would have been to 1) find substantial new evidence to try them on for their existing crimes or 2) wait for them to commit new crimes, and hope you can make them stick (which given that the victims all had a track record of dodging the consequences of their previous crimes in the judicial system seems a bit wishful)
Also analyzing a character and theorizing that he would have been great in many other fields or if he had grown up under different circumstances he would have a normal life is pointless. Of course he would be different, it's like saying if Hitler was accepted to art school he wouldn't have turned into an evil dictator. Or if Superman wasn't raised by the Kents but instead he grew up in a lab he would be Homelander. True? Probably. Same character? Not at all. Changing his background would basically be undoing Dexter, I see no point in it.
Can confirm that it wouldn't have worked out as well as my preferred method
@@Dora_M_ I think you're over-anazlying a single point. This whole series is to bring a realistic analysis to fictional characters. So you saying that this channel shouldn't be going against that is basically just saying you yourself don't really like the channel, which is totally fine lol. In the video he literally diagnoses a fictional character with like 7 different disorders. If he did analyze superman, he'd probably end with a realistic "all problems in superman life could be avoided by not being a superhero and just being Clark Kent"
Illegally obtained evidence can be used if it isn't the police themselves obtaining it.
Like if a guy breaks into a house to rob it, and finds dozens of photo album of children being murdered, he can 100% call the police and everything he found will be used, even if he reported it anonymously.
One thing always stuck out to me was how badly Harry misread certain situations. Like when Dexter killed the neighbours dog because it was keeping his sick mom up at night. Harry saw it as Dexter finding an justification but really it was just a traumatized teenager trying to help his sick mom and thanks to Harry he seemed to only know one way to express feelings and/or help those he deeply cares about. You see it with Rita’s ex when Dexter framed him because he was causing problems
I would agree if it was just that one incident, but Harry also mentioned finding bones that "weren't just Buddy's". So he discovered other animals that Dexter had killed for less of a reason.
@@pyxl666 yes but instead of seeing it as a glimmer of hope that Dexter could heal from past trauma and could in fact feel genuine emotion he took it as confirmation bias of what he already decided Dexter was
"Hmmmm, my boy killed my neighbors dog and might become a serial killer if I don't get him help. What do I do here? I know, I'll make sure he becomes a serial killer by turning him into one, that's the best solution for everyone involved clearly."
Dexter really is tragic, the very fact that he still tries to fight off his urges even with everything trying to push him to be a monster, makes me believe that he ultimately truly wouldn't be one with the right resources.
That’s because harry himself had a vendetta against criminals who escaped the system and he realized that he could turn dexter into a tool to clean up society. What he did for dexter helped dexter, but it was also self satisfying in some sense
I loved the book version of Dexter. He was definitely more dark, he did not just stab and dismember like in the show, he liked to torture and experiment with new tools just like his brother Rudy.
I also loved that Rudy was a recurring character in the books.
He's a bit of a recurring character in the show too via flashback.
I rlly didnt like the ending of the first book compared to the show
I would like to see more about the book version of Dexter.
Remember how his dark passenger turned out to be a sentient being from ancient Egypt times or some shit, that transferred from person to person?
@@BoooozleThat entity or one similar to it was inside Rita's son too
I’ve seen this series more times than I can remember because it’s my number one favorite show. In one episode, Dexter tells a man on his table that “you’re all just unchecked versions of myself” and I think it sums up the character of Dexter Morgan perfectly.
Killing bad people is what prevents/prevented him from killing true victims like innocent people. Without it, he would be just like all of the victims that laid on his table.
Very well said, that quote definitely *does* sum him up perfectly. And it was brilliantly written that they had him say it to Miguel, as he truly was an "unchecked version" of him, someone who justified his killings as being under the umbrella of "justice" but actually was only out for his own personal vendettas. That's why I thought Miguel was a very underrated villain, as he really was a perfect foil and opposite side of the coin of Dexter, and he encapsulated many of the themes of the series as a whole.
@@matthewrocca4197 I love season 3. Miguel was a bastard lol but he was a great nemesis.
@@OutrageIsNow Yes absolutely true! And what made him so fascinatingly nuanced was the guessing game Dexter (and by proxy we the audience) had to go through on him. Was he a good friend or a self interested guy? The story kept fluctuating and revealing different layers. Deep down we probably knew, but we wanted it to end well and for Dexter to have a friend because their “male bonding” moments were so much fun
"Killing bad people is what prevents/prevented him from killing true victims like innocent people. Without it, he would be just like all of the victims that laid on his table."
Except Dexter did kill some innocent people.
@@derekcash3608 unknowingly
OH YESS I LOVED Dexter, that show was my jam, & Love hearing your input on Anti-heroes and Anti-villains too
Can we expect a serial killer exercise routine anytime soon?
Bruuuh
It’s your again 👀
after season 4 the series took a dive imo. I think that's when they departed from the novels, too.
Im sorry but I must go on full honest words PPL...the bloody disgusting child predator? Even....even... still "jus being a voyer"? He would probably in time go up for awful levels. sooo My own personal opinion is tht, he's in the code.🤨🖤💯
@@tatianavieiradesapires1327 I do agree that a child predator is bad but being sexually attracted to something doesn't automatically make u a sexual predator and even if we are going off of the worst case scenario prison is a worse fate to predators then death
Strongly believe if Rita stayed alive Dexter would have eventually stopped killing. He was slowly becoming more human, social. Getting married, having a family and child himself showed a maturation process. As we saw at the beginning of New Blood he can go without killing for long periods of time if he has life going for him. Despite all the kills before and during his relationship with Rita he still showed signs of being “saved” or normal, once Rita died and the manner she died officially sent him off the deep end and to the point of no return.
I adored Rita and her death gutted me I don't think I've ever cried so hard for a character death before or since. The writing definitely peaked in season 4 and John Lithgow did an amazing performance as well I was blown away
After a while, I started hating Rita and her simpering, whispery voice, whining, whingeing, demanding Guilt tripping needy wife
I consider Dexter Morgan, Tony Soprano, and Walter White to be the big three antiheroes of television. There's plenty of them now, but these three set a high bar for interesting, compelling monsters.
Edit: Seems like there's some disagreement, so I'll add this. By anti-hero, I mean the central character of a story having a darker side. The hero part is just a stand-in for protagonist. Yes, all three are terrible people and Tony and Walt do become the villains of their stories by their respective endings. They're not heroic, nor do any of them (Save for Dexter) have that many traditionally heroic moments.
I couldnt agree more
I disagree with Walter White being an anti-hero. He was a villain with a good backstory and understandable motives (in the beginning at least)
@KHANSTER1029 that's what an anti villain is
Tony Soprano and Dexter Morgan are just straight up villains. Their evil actions are central to their respective plots.
Walter White was a full out villain drug lord, we were just given the sad back story of why he did things which made us like him but if we had just been given him with no backstory we would see him as just a villain which is what he is
He does have conscience and seems to feel really bad when his actions cause innocent deaths. That alone is a redeeming quality that seperates him from truly evil characters and serial killers, he even isolates himself because he causes harm to those he loves. If there'd be a scale of evil he'd not be that high, but if you count the amount of pain he caused then he did terrible evil. So maybe not completely evil at heart, but still evil.
Good take!
It's a fictional character, but ASD also has lack of empathy, but you have empathy. You just show it differently, but a true honest sociopath feels almost nothing. The difference is a ASD person is self centered due lack of social skills, but sociopath knows better, but doesn't care.
@@Skoopyghost
Peoples say sociopaths have no empathy, but also that they have diminished/lesser empathy
Having very little of something id extremely diffrerent from having nothing. There’s more difference between having 0 penny and having 1 penny than there is between having 1 penny and having 100 dollars in my opinion
The true villain of Dexter are the writers who gave him TWO terrible endings.
Sucks and hurts that they blew it twice
Your g-damn right. Those butchers!
I actually much preferred his death to his faking of it. Harrison killing him was poetic, and well within Dexter's character and lack of understanding how it will negatively affect Harrison (the person he loves).
I also don't have much an issue with how he was caught, too. Or his murder of Logan in his desperate attempt at escape. It's all within his character.
@@pyxl666 To me it was a classic "Those who live by the sword die by the sword, the monster must be vanquished" routine we all know. Nothing new under the sun. Bo-ring. But to each their own, of course. There are times when I liked predictable stories nobody else did.
@@pyxl666 he should’ve been taken back to Miami to face all the people he lied to and tricked
Seeing his personality traits and relationships laid out like this, I can say Dexter shows the most signs of having CPTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder). That disorder manifests very differently from PTSD due to the differences in causes. CPTSD is the developmental and mental version of death by a thousand cuts, especially so if the ongoing trauma happens during childhood development.
- Dexter is a Freeze/Fawn type. He dissociates when faced with a difficult situation, or emotions his brain is protecting him from. He's also a people-pleaser, only wanting to do what he believes or has been told is good for people or society, and he gets extremely attached to people that fulfill an emotional need.
- He's socially awkward, but not quite in a universal way. He's awkward around people he doesn't know because it scares him, not because he doesn't know how to be. Severe social anxiety is a common symptom of CPTSD, because we learn at an early age and often have it reinforced throughout adulthood that people are unsafe, so it can take us a while to warm up to new people.
- He's hypervigilant, which is what makes him so good at his professions.
- He feels immense shame and guilt for his mistakes, far above what an average person might feel.
- He has a very shaky self-image because he was never taught how to get to know himself. He was only ever allowed to follow how other people saw him.
He did get over his killing of "an innocent man" pretty fast in season 4. Guess he justified the killing as a proactive measure on a misogynist
You described ME!!!
@@dixbowman3452 I described myself. 😅
I don't like how familiar all that sounds
@@NexLegacyAccount Me as well, but I have "mildly psychotic tendencies" in my file. I was raped by my brother from 3-16 so would I qualify in that sense? I have severe social anxiety, pretty much everything you said, but I'm also bipolar and have major attitude problems to the point I can't remember what happens if I get too angry sometimes.
Dexter is my all time favorite drama series! Thanks for covering this amazing character!
Only the showrunners of Seasons 1-4 understood Dexter's character. A bad guy killing worse people not to save innocents but because he liked it, it satisfied his urges and it was more convenient for him than just picking victims randomly. He had no emotions but faked them to blend in and seem normal. Seasons 5-8 stupidly retconned him from a serial killer pretending to be normal to a normal guy and treated his killing as some "quirky side hobby" rather than the all consuming obsession it was. Changing him from an unfeeling psychopath to someone who could feel but had been convinced by Harry he couldn't was also dumb.
I believe he eventually enjoyed saving lives, in some twisted way. He even thinks of himself as some superhero in one scene
Actually, it happened in Season 2. In S1 he has zero feelings towards anything except maybe for Debra as stated by him. In S2 he starts getting feely which is I think what led to the downfall of the series.
I just remember at some point I started to "watch" Dexter on my second screen while playing minecraft, after couple first seasons. Aka. not really watching. Problem is that Dexter became totally different character, like normal person with heavy trauma. They totally lost what had made the series so interesting and unique at the start. And I can't really remember which season, might be the season 5 as said, but in some season, Dexter totally changes.
While I do think they messed up his character after season 4, my problem was more the show's tendency to glorify his killing habit. I don't think Dexter was ever a cold, unfeeling psychopath. Even in the first season Dexter's deep trauma as well as Harry's influence on him is explored and Dexter is shown to have some caring towards a few people close to him.
I think Dexter (at least in s1-4) is an unreliable narrator when it comes to himself. He displays a wide range of emotions, including love and empathy, often without recognizing that he is feeling until he has an outburst. Maybe he was intended to be emotionless, but to me he comes across more as someone with alexithymia and/or a tendency to dissociate.
That Dexter is a person whose deep trauma was exploited and used for Harry's vendetta was established by season 2, imo.
@@rowan3682 Seasons 5-8 portray him as a completely justified hero when that was never his character. He didn't really care what the killers he killed did to innocent people and just used their actions to excuse killing them for kicks.
Dexter is an epic must watch of a series. An all time classic along with Breaking Bad.
Without question 🤝
Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Wire, alllll must watch Crime shows
@@lunacy9825 for sure all are in my top ten shows I’ve seen!’
So sad that an amazing series like Dexter takes a nose dive quality wise in later seasons and has 2 horrible endings.
@1997lordofdoom yeah seasons 6, 7 and 8 were horrible.
Season 2 is my favorite. Lila noticed how much of an outsider Dexter was and wanted to connect with him, even after finding out he was a serial killer. Unfortunately the burning passion she had for him could never be reciprocated by Dexter
I see what you did there... "burning passion"
I'll see myself out. 😂
It was woundingly disappointing that he wanted to get rid of her instead of keeping her in his life. That might have developed into a healthier relationship than it was up to that point
@@drone124 true. Other than him still killing people lol
@@drone124I don't see how that's possible. She was an incredibly destructive woman and Dexter was one as well. It was never going to last in my opinion.
@@evyatarhadar8867 a man can dream
I’ve never read the books but I’d like to hear your input on it.
Also when The Boys gets finished, I’d absolutely love a Homelander video.
The show made Homelander so much more interesting than he was on the page in no small part thanks anthony starrs acting chops. Homie would be a long vid though lmao
Omg yess
YES!
Dude it's obvious. His childhood, born in a lab, fake childhood, he's no Superman, no Jonathan Kent or Martha Kent, his love ones hate him just ugh it's so plenty. Him and soldier boy the TV show is so crazy but good.
the books are crap, friend. i read the first one and gave another chance and read the second one, and was like welp i won’t get those hours of my life back.
Awesome, Dexter Morgan as a character is so interesting and had so much potential that unfortunately the show didn’t fully use but he’s still a great character. Love seeing you make all these videos on TV shows as it allows these characters to be far better fleshed out and so more interesting than many movie villains. Love your videos, and effort with such depth, nobody does it like you! If you take suggestions I would love if you would check out the FX show, The Shield (2002-2008) as I think Vic Mackey from there, and maybe some other characters, would make a very awesome video though I get this show is not the most popular anymore so it’s probably not great for views. Another potential character would be Elliot Alderson from Mr. Robot though I’m not sure he’d be considered a villain for these videos. Regardless havent finished watching this since it just dropped obviously but if it’s like your other videos it’ll be another great one!
Edit: Finished the video, and was great as always! I’m so glad you mentioned how Harry basically forced Dexter to be like this. I would’ve wished that the show would’ve had Dexter realize this himself and then try to change, and it would’ve been very interesting to explore, though personally I love tragic endings so I would’ve either have him fix himself but get caught due to his past actions or eventually regress and become what he feared.
Oh hell yeah The Shield was an awesome show great suggestion man.
Another one semi-related to that universe is "Sons of Anarchy". The main protagonist (Jax Teller) turning into the antagonist at the end would be awesome to go through. Or an analysis on his stepdad or his mom, both being authoritarian and patriotical.
@@stoner_99 excelent idea👊☮️🍀 TC n be safe
The show Dexter is likeable. The book Dexter has nothing to like because there’s nothing there. 🤣
Vic and Shane would be awesome episodes to watch! So much to work with there, gimme gimme gimme
Such a unique character, I know ppl often compare him to others like Tony and Walter but I think he's in a different field than them, on his own just so unique. Not able to be done again I bet.
He's nothing compared to Tony or Walter lol. Don Draper is more comparable to them. And even he is less of a great character.
@@stairwaytoheaven8 who the fuck is tony or walter?
@@cptnhero6116 Walter white tony soprano
@@alyssalouard8549 ahh alright thanks :D
You need to sleep with the fishes for this take
Rewatched this just last month and it holds up so well on a second viewing. The first few seasons are amazing
falls off a cliff after season 3, but 3 was soooo good too. Probably shoulda ended it on that high note.
Season 4 is the best and it’s almost not close
@@hailhydra5738 yeah I disagree with this other person that it fell off after season 3. I would say season 5 is when it started to go downhill
@@hailhydra5738 season 4 is when the writting abbadoned logic over melodrama.
The first time I watched Dexter I thought he was a good man trapped in the trauma and conditioning he had to endure. An accidental monster, misunderstood and misguided but deep down a man who if led down a better path would've been genuinely good. I watched the show again though, and noticed a theme, his unrelenting selfishness. Dexter never gives up killing, despite repeated demonstrations of the damage it does to those he loves. He almost never accepts his fate when the chips are down, perfectly willing to let those around him bear the brunt of the consequences. He abandons his family because he can't trust himself not to give into his impulses. Dexter, for all his feelings of wanting to belong and be accepted, has no interest in doing the real work on himself that would be needed to attain these things.
He is an addict on every level. And like all addicts, he pursues his pleasure while trying to please those around him, nevertheless making their lives incrementally worse by the day. He is not a monster. He is weak. A sad little creature who risks everything and everyone daily for that next rush.
Funny, because when I first watched dexter I just saw him as a broken person with mental issues. Never occurred to me that he was a good person. Just doing fucked up things for the right reasons. But no matter how hard you try to spin it dexter is anything but a good person. He's like bojack horseman were he's knows what he's doing is wrong but continues to do it anyway because of impulsivity.
He came incredibly close to breaking that cycle and taking responsibility in Season 2 when he had Doakes locked up. He didn't want to kill him. He genuinely didn't know what to do, and I believe he was sincere when he told Doakes that he was considering turning himself in (because for what reason would he have to lie in that moment?). And then Lila "resolved" that problem for him and allowed him to continue.
There IS undoubtedly a spark of good in Dexter, though. While he does bad things for selfish reasons, there is a sense of justice buried deep down.
The fact that you associate the disease of addiction as weak proves your ignorance. Not a single valid point in you comment especially since you aren't even taking into account that he suffered a mind-altering trauma inducing event at such a young age. There was no hope for him, that's not weakness that's bad luck. He didn't choose this mentality/way of life and even wished he could be like everyone else.
Dexter does the worse thing for the good reason..he had no conscience was addicted to murder and selfish as hell...even as a kid he was killing animals and tried to kill another kid..he wasn't redeemable..
@@fideletamo4292 Dexter never tried to kill a kid. He only killed animals as a child and his first kill was when he was 19 and he killed a nurse that was purposefully overdosing people. Zero kids were ever his targets. Try again.
A villian of villians. The perfect definition of an Anti Hero. Hope to see more Anti heroes on here. Vegeta comes to mind as I argue he's one of the best.
Didn’t Vegeta commit global genocide with Napa?
More than that. But his development throughout Z and Super is worth analyzing.
@NEW Happy Thoughts Aye. But you can argue that Vegeta was traumatized and compensating for his abuse from Freiza. Not to mention, he didn't have many positive influences until he met Goku who challenged his position and his mindset before utterly destroying said mindset by becoming the first Super Saiyan in a long time.
"Spend your entire life ruled by another, watch your race dwindle to a handful, and THEN, tell me the meaning of your own strength.
I am a Sayan Prince; he is nothing but a joke, yet I've had to watch him surpass me in strength, my destiny THROWN to the wayside!!
He- he's even saved my life as if I were a helpless child.
He has stolen my honor, and his debts must be paid!"
@@newhappythoughts1628 Not in the manga, so no.
Yeah given how ridiculously smart and objective he is, he'd probably be the best detective in Florida.
it might be cool to see some sorta Dexter vs Sherlock or Dexter vs Batman kinda mashup. If it was done right
@@nickmagrick7702Batman would destroy them all. You could make an argument about Dexter or Sherlock being more intelligent but not only is Batman strong physically, he is rich af, giving a huge advantage over the other two
@@Chadius_Thundercock obviously not in a head to head fighting competition. There is more than one way to right a story
@@nickmagrick7702 I’m confused do you mean in writing or a competition between each character?
@@Chadius_Thundercock a story in which there is either a conflict or collaboration of the two
What perfect timing this is. I just met Michael C. Hall at Fan Expo Dallas this past weekend. He was a pretty nice guy, and this will be a fascinating watch!
its the nice guys you gotta watch out for (says society)
The show was so great for the first 4 seasons. It makes me so sad that the quality took a major nosedive
Season 5 episode 1 made my cry but pretty much everything after that is meh
I would love one done on Nina Myers from “24.” What makes her lethal is that so few believed she was the traitor in their ranks and as stated by the shows hero Jack Bauer she’s the worst traitor a traitor who believes in nothing.
God I love her. I love her first scene in season 2 when she's brought in to CTU. Her entire look and demeanor is completely different than what we were used to seeing. She's like pale and emotionless. Great character.
Man I haven't thought about that in years. She is a great character though
"24" is a massively underrated show. They pulled off such a difficult task with the real-time narrative.
Good idea, not heard much analysis of the series
@@thewayfarer8849 Yeah there are a ton of villains he could analyze on 24. Charles Logan was probably the greatest villain on that show and he'd make for the best analysis.
Great analysis, this is one of my all time favorite fictional personalities. Dexter Morgan has to be hands down one of the most tragic, cunning and fascinating characters of all time. This was a stroke of creative genius on the part of Jeff Lindsay.
AGREED!
"Are you getting off on this? Seeing all this blood, Dexter Morgan? - "James Doakes
Yes he was Doakes... Yes he was
So what's that, a titty site?
It's not a popular opinion, but I've always maintained that his actions were horrible. But by the end of the series he really had earned/grown a soul. New Blood only confirms that by taking himself off the board so Harrison might have a shot at a normal life. His final selfless act to complete his redemption arc and die as something more than the monster. And while he couldn't properly identify it as an emotion, he did love Hannah and Harrison.
This is kinda off topic but I hate New Blood so much. It didn’t feel like “Dexter” one bit. Just felt like a quick cash grab.
@@hurtcobain3282 I'll agree that a lot of it was not great, but the original plan was always for him to die at the end of the series. And since the network wouldn't let them kill him off they had to come back around years later.
The dude kills serial killers and rapists. He's the kinda monster we need more of in this world
@@hurtcobain3282 you completely missed the point of the show then, and if it were a cash grab they wouldn't have waited so long to continue the story. New blood was an extended and corrected ending, it isn't a reboot or anything else.
@@hurtcobain3282 What you said isn't off topic, lol
It’s worth noting that psychologists have difficulty separating many of the symptoms of PTSD and autism because almost all autistic people have some form of PTSD. But I totally think Dexter’s autistic. Being autistic myself, most people seem to think it’s a social disorder but I think it’s primarily an obsessive disorder. Our brains are wired to think hyper-linearly, meaning we focus in on a topic until our brains are satisfied.
I think Dexter’s PTSD and repressed memory of his mothers murder drove him to develop a hyper fixation with death and blood. Because that’s what he remembered. From the two brothers’ behavior we can assume that they each had one thing stick out about that day. For Brian it was probably the body parts: watching them fall from his mothers body and then laying there along side them in a pool of blood. That’s why he dedicated his life to prosthetic limbs and amputation. For Dexter it was the blood: watching it spray all over the shipping container and then sitting in the warm sticky substance for days before they were found.
Early in his childhood, this hyper fixation manifested through him killing small animals. This was likely so he could watch them die, try to understand it, and try to scratch that itch in his brain. Again, it’s autistic linear thinking. It wasn’t because he didn’t feel anything for these animals, he just had to know. He had to feel the exact moment their life left their bodies, what made it leave, how close to the edge it could go before it left. And there was likely also the blood. Being covered in it, feeling it on his skin, smelling it in the air, watching the way it flowed out of the animals veins. It would have been strangely familiar.
This is what Harry mistook for psychopathy because he never talked to Dexter. He never let Dexter really explain why he killed. He just assumed he did it because he was messed up. It’s sad because if Dexter had gone to a real therapist, maybe one who specializes in childhood PTSD and even autism, Aspergers Syndrome as it would have been called, he could have grown up to live a healthy and normal life. He would still be messed up, he just wouldn’t be a serial killer. Hell, he probably would have still ended up marrying Rita and she’d probably still be alive!
This is very well said and I would like to add ( as an a.s.d person and former addict) upon watching again recently I was picking up on a lot of the addict behavior and many studies show a predisposition to addiction in the a.s.d community.
Re-watching dexter after going through active addiction and now sobriety is a very different experience.
Highly doubt he has Aspergers. He's just a psychopath who enjoys killing people.
How does one manage this autistic linear thinking, to live and function on the same level as neurotypical??
Yes! If he had only redirected Dexter's interests....Dexter could have become a brilliant surgeon or medical researcher.
Totally agree, not to be a Dexter apologist but on the other hand more people would be murdered and suffering if Dexter hadn’t stopped them. It’s a hard one because who gets to live and who dies but objectively life would be more positive for a lot of people because of Dexter being who he is (not those closest to him mind).
Next on Analyzing Evil: The writers of Dexter
Dexter, i feel, is one of the greatest character studies ever. Its my all-time favorite show for a reason. I've been hoping you'd do a video on it since i've found your channel, andyou did not disappoint.
I feel like you should've talked about his relationship with brother sam. He seemed to have been having a huge positive infulence on Dexter, and honestly had a good chance at redeeming him had he not been killed off.
the guy that almost murdered his sister? I don't think he was redeemable
@@nickmagrick7702 Wrong character. Brother Sam was someone who appeared in Season 6
@@abf7846 he had 2 brothers? .... vaguely starting to remember it I think
@@nickmagrick7702 Nah, Brother Sam is a former criminal who got Religious and pushed off his dark urges. "Brother" isn't a relation, its his Title.
"Dexter isn't actually a psychopath, he's just autistic" is not the take I was expecting but now that you mention it, yeah that makes more sense tbh
That’s why I relate to him so much 😭😭 without the killing
The growth of this channel is insane. I know the character only exists in one movie but i think O-Dog from Menace 2 Society would be a good person for the show. He's good to his friends but a horrifying person to everyone else around him.
Hey this is a good idea. Would love to see it happen
That would be a great analysis O-Dog is a whole case
I would definitely watch that one
He’s a massive psychopath, would be a interesting video.
O-Dog is a terrific choice
These are the characters I hope you eventually do:
Homelander - The Boys (2019-)
John Milton - The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Fast Black - Street Smart (1987)
David - The Guest (2014)
Jerry Blake - The Stepfather (1987)
Lil Z - City of God (2002)
Bane - The Dark Knight Rises
Steve - Fresh (2022)
I really hope you will do them someday!
He covered Lil Ze!
I think David from the Guest would be a really interesting video. That movie never gets much attention but I think it’s pretty entertaining.
He should also do joe Goldberg from you. And he should do nate jacobs from euphoria. Also perhaps some of the Roy family from succession
Dexter's biggest downfall was by far his pride. The box of blood slides and his chasing of the Trinity Killer really summed up his MO.
The definition of a sympathetic villian that gives you chills at the same time.
And I love Morning Brew!😍 I recommend them to anyone I'm close to.
I'm still sad he's dead, such a fascinating character, i think i never going to see a character like this one again.
They legit setup his son for another Series. lol
@@RiverRockRecords An older Harrison could be interesting but Dexter will always be the best.
@@RiverRockRecords I think exploring an older Harrison would be an awesome idea. It would kinda parallel Dexter, in a way.
While Dexter did do good things, he was driven by his uncontrollable desire to kill. Harrison appears driven by justice, and I see him being driven to kill for the purpose of being a hero, not because he gets off on it.
@@pyxl666 they ruined it TWICE they need to let it die
@@hgrihdrhbvgguggguhvv8016 pretty sure Dexter is dead so yeah
Finding out about his brother and his mother and his trauma is truly the peak of the entire show.
The anti-hero/villain protagonist is my favorite genre of character, and love these videos. I'd really enjoy more of these types in particular for that reason. Characters who are simply good or evil are often-times kind of dull, but characters with far more depth to them like this are always the best for storytelling imo.
I think even stories with multiple villains at play who work against one another as well as the protagonist could be interesting too. They've already made a video on Andrew Ryan in Bioshock but I could see a video about Atlas/Frank Fontaine from Bioshock also being just as in depth for the series. Both Fontaine and Ryan are the villains for the player character but the two are at odds with one another yet still evil for their own different reasons and views.
Please do an episode on Barry Berkman. His arc through the series as a hitman trying to abandon the life of crime for an acting career only to be held back by his past is such an amazing one.
Dexter is the only serial killer that wouldn't make me nervous. He does a service the law refuses to do.
Exactly. I can’t ever understand how people find what he does sick. I have a twisted sense of justice my self, and just love the eye for an eye stigma
In a morbid way its this:"The average man doesn't have to fear Dexter"
@@juliangonzalez4038 The problem with that is, you have to be sure your target is indeed the right one. Dexter did make the mistake of killing an innocent person in the series. This is why in theory a serial killer who kills other serial killers seems like a great concept but in reality this isn't such a good idea. Especially since real serial killers lack empathy and don't really care who their victims are.
@@moonlightj0y serial killers being put down though is something that should just happen though instead of giving them due process. They don't deserve the rights of humans.
@@sillyputtyisfun7567 You can't do that because you don't know who they are. If society behaved like Dexter then there would be many innocent people being murdered because some wannabe vigilante found them suspicious and perceived things wrongly. That is why we have due process being carried out by a police force and a justice system. It's not a perfect system, but it's better than anything else that society has been able to come up with so far.
Dexter, interesting and complex character that he was, still counts as evil.
He understood that, on a basic level, what he was doing was “wrong” and that killing gave him personal satisfaction. He also knew those he cared for were at higher risk of harm (physical, emotional, psychological) but he continues anyway. That’s evil.
But Harry is the worst (and the quack they added later) since his ongoing betrayal of Dexter was the source of all the other misery that followed.
not evil.
Evil is doing harm just for harms sake. Dexter had a purpose behind what he did, and didn't just do what was easiest to control his urges.
Does taking another life automatically make someone evil? Are all our military soldiers evil? What about the people who condemn prisoners to a life behind bars, just a slow offset death sentence. Are they evil too?
@@nickmagrick7702 I think your definition of evil is very limited - I think there is a spectrum of evil.
Your entire second paragraph is you setting up a premise I didn’t endorse, then trying to use reeeeeally broad strokes to refute that premise (that you set up). I didn’t say all killing was evil.
But for the sake of (possible continued) discussion, your two examples of soldiers in war and lifelong prison sentences absolutely have the potential for evil. Soldiers can and do commit war crimes. Many wars are frankly unjust, making a possible argument that all killings stemming from unjust wars are evil). And many innocent people have been jailed for decades, or their whole lives, or even executed due to individual corruption and flawed “justice” systems that resulted in unjustified misery for the convicted, even if everything was “lawful”.
Neither of your incredibly broad and vague “examples” are inherently evil, but given more specific circumstances they certainly could be.
@@TrueYellowDart as it should be. Evil is reserved for the very worst things in existence, anything less isn't really evil.
People do terrible things for self preservation or gain, but its not on the same level as evil. In fact some of the worst, most harmful people to have ever lived had good intentions.
My point with the whole war analogy is that we often kill or are responsible for the deaths of many people, but we justify it while calling someone else doing something thats more visceral as evil because it affects us emotionally more.
People also tend to kill animals without much of a second thought about it. But that isn't considered evil, even though theres less of a point to it than what Dexter is doing.
@@nickmagrick7702 Since we clearly have very different understandings of what constitutes evil, there’s not much to discuss. Well I guess there actually is but…
Look, if we were hanging out and chatting over beverages I’d id be really interested to continue because our base interpretation of evil is so different, but this is the UA-cam comment section and I have e to type all this out on my iPhone and it’s simply not worth any more time/effort. So thanks for the civil disagreement. Your “good intentions” comment almost made me think you were being satirical, but you weren’t.
@@TrueYellowDart ha no problem. Yeah I get that pretty often actually, where im trying to be sincere and it comes off as antagonistic. I try to be as civil as I can
Well if you happen to live in the vancouver/portland area in Washington/Oregon, ill have a beer with you.
This dude is beyond iconic this puts the biggest smile on my face plus anti heroes are my favorite type of heroes.
Dexter is my favorite guy to root for who you normally wouldn't. Somehow he comes off likable and even his murders justifiable.
@@zandy7425 exactly I couldn’t have said this better myself.
Dexter is an anti-hero that’s neutral he’s evil and good
Dexter is so far from evil. His every waking moment spent devoted to honing his mental illness for the sake of his individual humanity shows as much.
His process is airtight and 100% more effective than the very homicide department he works in, he is aware and accepts his faults and refuses to let his addiction rule his life, and he does everything in his power to keep his loved ones safe. Including self-sacrifice.
ALL of that speaks to the notion that he is not a psychopath. Being aware of his condition, having a firm grasp on the concept of right and wrong, feeling genuine affection in many capacities towards many people, he lacks the narcissism that would prevent him from feeling guilt or suicidal urges.
Dexter was an apex predator culling the herd of monsters that plague his hometown. To condemn him is to condemn every special forces operator, every doctor, every soul that has ever refrained from doing *wrong* as "evil."
In the eyes of many, Dexter isn't the villain of the story, he's the hero.
"His every waking moment spent devoted to honing his mental illness for the sake of his individual humanity shows as much."
But he didnt murder people for the sake of humanity...that was just a by product.
Also, there were times when he murdered individuals who werent criminals or even bad people.
So overlooking the the serial killer aspect, Im not sure how Dexter can not be considered evil, when looking at the people he killed that didnt fit the code.
@@derekcash3608 Serial killing serial killers, rapists, and pedophiles is a net positive. I don't really give a shit what the average person thinks about violence, it's part of the natural order and crucial to maintaining a semblance of peace. If Dex wasn't in Miami, the city would overall suffer for it. 3 killers that would make Jack the Ripper blush would still be loose, not to mention over 100 others that weren't so infamous.
If you're referring to Doakes or Guerta, they both had shadey history. The former of which was worse than Dex, wiping out villages on black op missions, killing his fellow brothers in arms, and he even proved to use crooked methods to solve his cases. Guerta would back him and both were killed by hands other than Dexter's.
Even then he lamented, expressed regret, shame, and guilt. All further indications that he isn't evil or psychopathic. Compulsive, yes, mentally ill, yes. Evil, firmly no.
@@RecluseBootsy 1) Dexter didnt kill Doakes, so Im not talking about him. But regardless, Dexter would have killed him and Doakes didnt fit the code.
2) I never saw anything that illustrated LaGuerta was involved with Doakes "wiping out villagers, killing his fellow brothers in arms, and he even proved to use crooked methods to solve his cases." I just finished watching the series again, but I may have missed something.
3) Dexter was responsible for killing LaGuerta. If Deb hadnt arrived, he would have killed her. She did not fit the code.
4) The list of individuals, who didnt necessarily fit the code, is longer than Doakes and LaGuerta.
5) Again, Dexter didnt kill people for the sake of humanity. He was a serial killer who had to kill people and his actions benefited humanity. Except when he killed innocent people, like the model photographer.
@@RecluseBootsykeep it hush boy
He’s deliberately broken his code at times or accidentally caught the wrong person.
Love that you did a video on Dexter. Definitely would love to see one on Arthur Mitchell, he's such a monster and is definitely the most compelling antagonist of the series
and Brian Moser
Awesome video, Mr Vile!!
Peter Parker: a good person who feels guilt about not being a better person.
Dexter Morgan: a good person who feels guilt about doing horrible things for right reasons.
With great power, comes great responsibility.
Dexter never stood a chance. Between Harry & the Doctor, he was sabotaged into becoming the very monster they feared he had the potential to become.
I do believe that Dexter has a core of inner-light that is surrounded by an insane amount of cultivated evil & mental scars but he tries ( & to some extent succeeded) to conceal them with learned behavior & a Knightly Moral Code.
He should have been attempting to understand & channel his Cause (extreme Generational Trauma from the loss of his family) instead of mitigating the Symptoms. (Murdering 'criminals who slip through cracks & who deserve it')
I cant believe The Vile Eye was the best breakdown channel the whole time
You should do Eric Cartman from South Park
now theres an actual evil character
Excellently done. Dexter is evil. Dexter was cultivated out of cynicism. Harry was disenchanted by the criminal justice system. Ultimately I believe this is why Dexter feels hopeless and/or cynical that he can change.
I’ve been hearing a phrase that goes ‘Evil does not create. It only corrupts and destroys.’
This opens the door to an interesting conversation. What is the distinction between hero and anti-hero?
Superman = hero. Punisher = antihero. That's my simplistic breakdown. But the lines blur quickly from antihero to villain in my estimation.
He’s not evil. He’s a victim of his circumstances and I’d argue he’s a hero. He killed pedos and predators not innocent randoms
@@tigernotwoods914 even though the pedo technically didn’t fit the code, he had it coming. He had hurt kids in the past and he clearly didn’t learn from his ‘mistake’ after prison considering he was talking with Astor and took sneaky pics of her on the beach. He deliberately put himself in situations where he could interact or watch kids. Glad Dexter choked him out, he definitely would have hurt another child.
@@feyrol42 for real. He definitely did more good than harm. I haven’t watched the whole series but every episode I saw he was taking out the trash.
An antihero actually doesn't have to be good at all. You can write a story about a villian who's the main character, and he is an antihero by default by being the main protagonist of the tale. Antiheros traditionally lacked some of the main heroic qualities of heros and became popular durring the great depression. This does not mean they have to be all together evil. Many anti heros walk the line between good and bad. One could argue many old westerns were full of more anti heros than heros. It was a popular trope for their protagonists to be former veterans of the Confederacy.
Dude. Real talk, you're the first youtuber to put out merch that actually looks cool. That's an awesome shirt design for your channel. Love your stuff and I hope to keep seeing you... soon.
I think a comparison between show and novel Dexter would be really interesting to hear
I was addicted to this show the when it first came out, after a few seasons it kind of went of the rails, I never really finished it, but I LOVED the idea of dexter as a character. I want to watch this, but I don't remember a lot of the nuance that this show had as it is literally 15 years old. I'm going to "properly buy Dexter and not torrent it, like at all" and then watch the first 3 or 4 seasons and I'll return to this video. Thank you Mr Vile
This new last season succckkedddd
@@homelander39 Yep. In New Blood Dexter became a sloppy clumsy idiot, despite spending 9 episodes portraying Harrison as a psychopath shaping up to be worse than his dad Dexter and uncle Brian, framing a bullied kid for a fake school shooting just for an excuse to hurt him, breaking a guy's arm in a wrestling match and lunging for his friends with a straight razor the last episode tried to say he was just a normal kid pissed Dexter had abandoned him when he clearly wasn't normal. Angela Bishop made the entirety of Miami Metro look like expert cops when even though she knew Kurt killed the missing girls she dropped the case after his abusive dad sob story and focused on Dexter who she only found out was the Bay Harbour Butcher by coincidence. Angela's daughter Audrey's whole character was just "Harrison's girlfriend." Olsen the oil tycoon was just there for a protest scene and a red herring to make people think Kurt wasn't the killer.
The first four seasons were good. Up to the trinity killer.
@@connorsims8253 i though s5 was OK. But after that, it completely fell apart.
@@connorsims8253 The show died with Rita and I'll die on this hill. There were a few good episodes after that though, but they weren't enough to salvage the train wreck it became.
Can't believe the vile eye was the bay harbor analyser.
“The people who may have died in hurricane Laura because Dexter delayed their flights.” That would’ve never occurred to me. Lol. You really think through everything in these videos.
When he said "these people who Dexter indirectly murdered" I have to roll my eyes though.
Pick a stance! Is blood on Dexter's hands for every psycho he doesn't find and kill in a timely manner... or is only killing murderous psychos not enough of a moral code to prevent him from being labeled outright evil?
Is he responsible for the deaths of every serial killer's victim, or is it meaningless that he kills serial killers?
...I didn't go into my distaste for "the predator who secretly photographed little kids in swimsuits didn't hurt anyone" comment, but I'd have _paragraphs_ to say about it if I let myself boil about it too much.
It did make me ultimately dislike the video and unsubscribe despite me agreeing with the rest of the Dexter dissection's arguments though.
@@baydiac I see what you’re saying, but my issue with your criticism of the video is that I think him not picking a stance is precisely his point. BOTH are factors to consider when evaluating Dexter’s morality, so that’s why he chooses to include both instead of straddling the line in between. Also, as for your other comment regarding the “Didn’t hurt anyone” moment, that is a beyond reasonable point to raise and that’s actually something I found weird at first, but I think he only says that to make the point that the sex offender at the market who took pictures of Astor and Cody didn’t fit the code, not necessarily as an actual judgment of his morality as a person. I could be wrong, but I do not get the impression that he was imparting a genuine moral judgment onto Dexter’s victim, rather bringing into question the morality of Dexter’s character by singling out Dexter’s failure to be morally consistent.
You guys can I ask if you have a profession in deep analysis? Because this is a UA-cam comment section and you’re going off
Dexter is one of the more interesting sociopathic characters. He seems to very much accept that he is a sociopath. And he doesn’t seem to view himself as being superior to other people. Hence his victims aren’t “cattle” to harvested as he pleases.
Dexter isn’t a narcissist like many other sociopathic characters. Dexter’s victims are usually murdered due him following Harry’s code of conduct when it comes to killing. I do wonder how much of Dexter’s behaviour is due to Harry’s programming, his childhood trauma, innate sociopathy or various other mental disorders.
Excellent character analysis as always.
Villain Profile suggestions.
1. Frank Underwood/ Francis Urquhart (House of Cards)
2. Petyr Baelish (A Song of Ice and Fire)
3. Light Yagami (Deathnote)
4. Frank Gallagher (Shameless US)
5. Marty and Wendy Byrd (Ozark)
Baelish would be an awesome choice
Marty is far from being a villain..he's an antihero, not a villain
sure but Dexter sill kills because he loves it. He does not do it because he wants to save people or punish bad people. He just does it because he enjoys it and not to get caught. There is nothing morraly good about dexter. He is evil. And dont get my wrong, I love the show and i love the character but he is a monster
Frank and Claire would be a fascinating episode! She’s the most evil.
Frank gallagher isn't evil lmao get the hell out of here, Terry milkovich IS evil not frank. Frank still does genuinely care for his family, he's just a severe alcoholic. Having an addiction doesn't make you evil
Dexter looks a hell lot like Matpat in that thumbnail and I can't unsee it now
I would love to see a video based on Jax Teller or The Punisher. This one was fantastic.
You good sir have good taste
I did NOT expect this omg. This is probably my favorite episode now. Would you cover the other character of the series or just keeping it at dexter himself?
Shouts to Dexters character getting continuations (a prequel and a new blood sequel, he spoiled he isn't dead in an interview).
I think what’s interesting about this analysis is that it reminds me of some actual historical serial killers.
The one that comes to mind as coming close to resembling Dexter is the Frontiersman Lewis Wetzel who lived in the Ohio/West Virginia border region in the late 18th/early 19th century.
Wetzel, like Dexter, experienced horrific trauma as a child on the Frontier of what was then called The North West Territory. Family members, including his father, were killed by Native Americans. Wetzel and his brother were also kidnapped by Native Americans as a child in which they didn’t know if they would be killed or adopted which were the two most likely scenarios. He and his brother then made a truly remarkable and courageous escape.
Wetzel then grew up on the border frontier where conflict between the American settlers and the Native Americans was brutally savage.
Wetzel then grew up into an incredibly talented frontier scout, guide and guerrilla a fighter.
Wetzel exhibited some of the same mental health issues Dexter portrays. His action in defense of settlers in the frontier was often incredibly courageous and heroic. Often showing up at the nick of time through incredible dangers and warning communities of eminent attacks and saving many lives. He was also famous for saving settlers who had been kidnapped by Native Americans many who would have been horribly tortured and murdered.
Then their was his not so heroic activities in which Wetzel would track down and murder Native Americans who, as far as anyone knew, had done no one any harm. It is estimated that his murders of innocent native Americans was in excess of a hundred. He was so feared by the Native Americans they called him Death Wind. Only the Cutahotha (Simon Kenton) was more feared than Wetzel but Kenton was by no means a serial killer. Kenton was just an incredibly gifted frontiersman and fighter but he didn’t do crazy things like hunting them down and killing them for pleasure or sport as Wetzel did.
Wetztel was also uncomfortable and awkward in social interactions, had difficulty speaking properly, was uncomfortable in social interactions, except with children and other characteristics that appear to be similar to Dexter.
So was Lewis Wetzel evil or a product of his environment or both. He was both but I do not find this an acceptable reason to not condemn Wetzel for the many evil acts he committed.
25:40 I think one thing that disputes this point is that Dexter almost always gains evidence that his victims fit his code by going beyond the law, like a vigilante. He consistently ignores the legal process through proper warrants, and so even if he shared his evidence to his colleagues this would not work out in the long run. This is one of the points he makes to Deb in season 7 to justify his code, by saying that some people slip through the cracks of the legal system and that he needs to take things into his own hands.
I hoped someone brings this point up. If he was to act legally at all times, he wouldn't be nearly as effective.
I was hoping someone would also point this out! Dexter even said a few of those people ended up on his table people because they got off free due to technicalities.
Yes that is very true. I think that's why we're able to really root for him in *most* cases, because the criminals he targets are those who slipped through the cracks. It's really Trinity where this becomes more morally murky, as he lets the man live for longer than he should in order to "learn" from him and actively thwarts the Miami Metro efforts to take him in legally (during the DNA test roadblock). This is why the tragedy befalls Rita, which in turn shatters Harrison, and sends a ripple-effect through the rest of the series as a whole. It was a tragic series of mistakes, reminiscent of Hamlet and his indecision to kill Claudius when he had the chance.
It doesn't need to be his evidence, he could give them tips. Like, "John Doe is involved with XYZ activities between these hours at this location on Wednesdays, FYI" and the police could then look into that and get evidence in a legal way. Theoretically.
I can't believe The Vile Eye was the Bay Harbor Butcher!
One of my favorite shows. Thank you for posting this I’m so excited for this 30 minutes
This was a masterpiece. Thank you. Been waiting for this analysis of Dexter
one of the biggest mistakes was teaching dexter how to fake emotions, most of the time he was cold but when he lost his temper shi hit the fan real quick
It is a crime how underrated this tv-show is. Really one of the best tv-shows of all time in my opinion and one of the best characters
I don't think it's really all that underrated.
Sure, fans of the show keep on trash talking latter seasons, but overall the show is well known and respected.
Not on the same pedestal as Breaking Bad that's for sure, but it's almost unfair to compare those two
@@Vario69 I respect that. I think that Dexter has a valid IMDB score but no one ever talks about it on for example tiktok or youtube and I think that more people should watch it because it is one of my personal favorites.
JFC... everything is So uNdERAtEd. Shit is getting old. Dexter is the furthest fucking thing from underrated dude. I wish 90% of UA-camrs would actually learn the definition of underrated before spewing it out every five minutes.
@@Vario69 lol people always randomly mentioning breaking bad 😂😂but I do agree breaking bad is definitely better.
Fantastic video. Would love you to also cover The trinity killer from s4. He was definitely Dexter's most interesting rival across the series. And I also found the s5 antagonist, Jordan Chase, to be somewhat interesting as well. He definitely had an interest in power dynamics and having power over others. So, selfishly, I love to see a video on him as well. Really, you could do a whole mini series of videos on some of the villians from the show as there are plenty to choose from. Miguel Prado, The Ice truck killer, Lyla, etc.
I just binged watched the first four seasons. From what I hear, the show goes downhill. Is it still worth watching after season 4?
@@williamwalsh1533Ok it's been a year but I believe so. It isn't as strong as 1-4
@@animeking830 So season 5 is a go, but how about the other seasons? When should I stop?
He killed serial killers. He was a hero for sure
I have been following this series WAITING for this episode. And once it came up I swore I would subscribe. So here's that and thank you for all the amazing content!
Haha that's awesome
ua-cam.com/users/shortsBmc9NFfhx74?feature=share
Never clicked so fast, really interesting how the show convinces u that these people who were killed indirectly or as an innocent deserves it. It’s Credit to the writing for conveying these people through dexters eyes
“You’re a good man Mr Morgan”
Do an analyzing evil for Lots-o-huggin bear, Johan Liebert, Lord Shen, Angel Eyes, Xenomorph, and Koba.
Johan Liebert would be an amazing character to cover, literally the definition of absolute evil
Lol Xenomorph.. really, dude?
@@SkyeDoesRJ I think Johan Liebert will be too complicated even for this guy.
And yes that's a challenge.
Koba is a good choice 👍
I bet the complex motives and background on the xenomorphs are fascinating
good point on dr vogal being a psychopath herself..thats why she understands them so well and her own son was one and we know these things can run in families...she may have even taught her own son to kill
I'm interested in hearing about book Dexter. I don't have the time to read through the books so hearing about him summarized in one of your videos would be great.
I believe Hannah really did love dexter and understood him completely his light and dark side
Perfect timing! I just got done re-watching the series and watching New Blood for the first time. Ended up enjoying it more on the second watch. It's hard not to sympathize with him given his trauma and his desire to be normal and have genuine human connection.
Sir, I have binged watched the first four seasons of Dexter this past two weeks. I hear that the show goes downhill after season 4. Is it worth watching the rest of the series?
I love the "did I miss anything" at the end. NO! You are ridiculously thorough and accurate with what you portray and analyze. And that, my friend, is why you are the best at this.
Bruh this deserved a 2 hour episode. Dexter the best protagonist ever
The first four seasons of this show are gold, everything afterwards begins to steadily decline in quality
Great video as always, I know I'm super late to watching
Doomsday killer is amazing tho
I was literally about to comment this on one of your videos to do dexter. And it came up. I'm so happy.
I would have never known that you would do so this, I love dexter ever since I was exposed to it. I love your channel Vile, sleepless nights fulfilled by your videos.
Him killing a cop for getting in his way puts him in Light Yagami territory.
Ive been wondering why no one talks about how similar light yagami and dexter are 😂
Dexter is still the traumatized child who watched his mother be mutilated by chainsaw ......
Idk if you watched the show all the way through but it turns out he was placed into a bloody shipping crate as an experiment to see how he'd turn out
A important thing is that he is not a psychopath
He is a sociopath who just have murderous tendencies or bloodlust from his early traumatic childhood experience
Truly an awesome show
a sociopath can also have psychopathic traits
@@kimmyfreak200 yeah but psychopaths are just a advanced version of sociopaths ,
always calm , no anxiety , no fear , no empathy or sympathy they are the example of a wolf in sheep's clothing . Hiding in plain sight, beautiful and terrifying in the same time
people, even professionals get those 2 terms wrong all the time. Ive heard both of them used both ways so many times it gets really confusing. But you're right
He actually shows more traits of primary psychopathy than "sociopathy" (secondary psychopathy) according to the PCL-R. He shows: Boldness, fearlessness, invincible sense of self, egocentrism (Season 2 demonstrates this one really well), blunted affect, remorselessness, lack of empathy, superficial charm, cold aggression, pathological lying, etc.
He shows almost no impulse-control issues and doesn't struggle with boredom or a need for stimulation. He's not short-sighted or a pathological non-conformist. He doesn't show an inability to learn from his mistakes. He doesn't have a history of criminal recidivism. He doesn't really have anger issues or lie compulsively. These are sociopathic traits, and they're what AsPD is based on.
Dexter might be a sub-clinical psychopath in the sense that he doesn't meet criteria for both primary and secondary psychopathy, which is necessary to be diagnosed with psychopathy. However, he's also not a sociopath.
@@AbandonedVoid yes , you are kinda right . He is a secondary psychopath because he wasn't born as a psychopath but was so mentally scarred that it made him one - kinda like that
btw you should post this in the main comment section
Personally, after reading a shit ton of the top comments so far I am sad to see no one mention Sgt Dokes (sp? he's the black dude that was killed off) and Dexter and his relationship in the early seasons. He was a thorn in Dexter's side for the longest time but it was almost like he was a necessary annoyance for Dexter to deal with to keep him from going too far off the rails. I think they were Partners at one point and I think Dexter truly respected Sgt Dokes since they were both really similar in many ways, especially when you compare both characters' hidden and repressed persona's to each other. That dumb bitch just had to kill Dokes though... One of the most significant flaws in this show, in general, was how they killed off certain vital characters (Likes Deb which still blows my mind how the writers thought a freak surgical accident or w/e was the way to go with her death liked srsly wtf that's the biggest cop-out for a death I've ever seen).
Also Dexter was good at his craft but not perfect, that one dude that was 7 feet tall and freak strength broke out of his duct tape and almost got away.
Doakes was the best character in the show
Great point that was missed in the video. That’s why the first 2 seasons of the show are where the most tension lies. Season 4 was amazing but I wasn’t as tense about if Dexter would reveal himself. 1 and 2 show that there’s people Dexter interacts with on a daily basis who could easily ruin his life. The Deb death was awful but at that point in the show she was literally the ONLY person that could effect Dexter personally.
@True Combat ALL RISE MOFO
SOME FRIES MOFO
GREAT THIGHS MOFO
killing off vital characters is sometimes the only way to raise the stakes and make it feel real. Questionable but I don't think it was a mistake in a murder mystery soap opera drama show.
i agree with everything your saying but i will point out that big fucker little chino did get away at first but thats when dex had just killed his brother brian and was also being tailed by dokes he was basically a mess at that point and trying to get back into the swing of things which is why it took three tries to kill chino
This comment section is funny. People seem to think evil only exists in some cartoonish villain or some extreme version of a human. Evil people can do good things and good people can do evil things. The world would be much simpler if that were not true, but it is. Dexter is an evil person we want to be good, because there is good in him. What can we point to as a definitive line which people can cross that makes them evil if not murdering dozens of people, regardless of those people's crimes? How about letting other, actual good people die to hide your crimes? The reason we root for Dexter is simple bias. We are presented everything from his point of view, he is the narrator and main character, we are invested in his story. If his sister Deb, or anyone dealing with the fall out of Dexter's actions, were the main character whose eyes through which we view the story, we would most likely fee different about Dexter.
If you think Dexter is a good person, you might have some issues of your own.
Now, this is a very interesting choice Because it's evil killing evil.
He killed innocent people to show us that he is 100% evil. I don't think any director will have the guts to show what you are describing.
I believe a analysis of Netflix's Frank Castle/The Punisher would be great to look into. Jon Bernthal's performance is stellar.
But absolutely loved this Dexter Morgan breakdown. One of my favorite shows of all time and I literally just discovered your channel yesterday and been binging ever since. Right on time!
Frank castle isn't evil
@@lkl8425 It depends on the incarnation. In the Netflix show he is. He's motivated solely by his bloodlust and his goals are sadistic vengeance. People around him try to rationalize his actions as being more noble than they are, but he consistently rebukes it. He's just the lesser evil compared to those he's fighting because he's still compassionate and considerate on some level, but that doesn't erase his violent, cruel malevolence.
@@AbandonedVoid doesn't make him evil he only goes after those who truly deserve it but the law cant touch rapists pedophiles and murderers it would be cool to see a video on him but hes not evil to lots of people
as Matt says, he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. He has the same reasoning as Matt has for doing the things he does, protect the innocent.
This may be due an expansion with the coming "Dexter: Original Sin" and "Dexter: Resurrection". I'm pumped!
Aside from the killing and urges he has, I find Dexter incredibly relatable as a character with troubles getting close with other people :D
I think it's my most re-watched series and the first four seasons are excellent
he is supposed to be. I think hes kinda living out our fantasies of dealing with all the cruel injustice in the world, taking out the people who abuse the law and sometimes get away with literal murder if not just offset murder by things like poisoning or destroying peoples lives like many corporations do.