Dexter’s Lab Equestria FAQ · 5:05pm Jan 5th, 2015
Dexter’s Lab Equestria FAQ
Hey Everyone, This is just a FAQ in response to some PM’s and comments I get asking these questions. I will be updating this as more questions come.
1.
Q) Why ya gone dun turned em inta a pony?!
A) Through Dexter’s Lab, Dexter has shown and complete and utter disregard for ponies and their feelings. If I brought him to equestria as a human, he wouldn’t be forced into the pony perspective and continue to act like his usual self in regard to how he treats ponys. Then this story would merely become: Look at the super-smart flippant brat continuously be a jerk toward ponies, never learning his lesson or getting to the point of treating the ponies better because of his egotistical nature and shear hard-headedness.
Seriously, he once turned is very own sister into a pony and then proceeded to treat her like dirt – no matter how much she cried.
2.
Q) Why doesn’t Dexter ________________
A) The most common answer I have to that questions would be:____ ________ would make Dexter a Gary-Stu.
According to the Dexter’s lab lore (from both his own show and Bleedman’s comic) Dexter could become a gary-stu very easily. In his own show he brought about world peace, ended world hunger, and proved the existence of aliens, all within thrity minutes (or the time it took him to fart after eating a burrito.)
That’s not all! According to lore he: Can travel through time at will and even slow it down, can be a Batman-like superhero, is proficient at Lightsaber combat, pilots a giant robot, Built a ship that can move faster than the speed of light, can crash the moon into the ground, can blow up the world, can build an armor of giant robots . . . (the list goes on, but let me summarize it.
DEXTER COULD BE A FREAKING LIGHTSABER WIELDING BATMAN JEDI SUPERHERO WHO PILOTS A GIGANTIC GUNDAM STYLE ROBOT WHILE TRAVELING THROUGH TIME AND CRASHING CELESTIAL OBJECTS INTO THE EARTH. - The name of this OP superhero is “Dex-the-Ubber-Stu!”
3.
Q) Why does he seem a bit more abrasive than the Dexter I remember from my childhood? In fact, you said you might make him more abrasive intentionally.
A) Dexter is borderline unbeatable for these ponies. He displays the ability to do things with science that the ponies could hardly even dream of. Now all I have to do is paint him red and black, add a horn and wings, and we have a party! -Never, I feel that emphasizing his abrasive side compensates (partially) for his potential to be a gary-stu.
However, I also wanted Dexter to also have a place to grow from. By emphasizing those abrasive points, I force the reader to take note of them. Dexter has many cannon character flaws from his own show. But Dexter aired over a decade ago, so people just remember the superhero side of him. When they hear that, for example 'Dexter is impatient,' or 'Dexter gets far to angry way too easily' or even 'Dexter's a borderline sociopath,' they protest - but such traits are evident in the first pilot episodes from his show. (Seriously, he arguably tried to kill his sister in the second episode of of his first season.)
Don’t be fooled, Dexter is an abrasive character.
4.
Q) Why doesn’t Dexter just share all his technology with the ponies? Why does he hide his lab away?
A) This is rooted well within Dexter’s own show. Also, if you know Dexter’s show – especially how his primary nemesis was created – Dexter has very good reasons for limited the exposure of his technology.
5.
Q) Why do you have things like Tribalism, and multiple pony languages in your story?
A) These are plot elements I hope to use, as I feel they would have been interesting to mix into a story involving Dexter. I made sure that Dexter didn’t appear into Equestria as a Gary-Stu, now I am making sure that ‘Equestria’ is not the one ‘being a Gary-Stu’ (Something I’d like to term Gary-topia)
I don’t know about others, but I for one am completely tired of reading stories where the one human who shows up is a complete jerk while being stranded in the ‘perfect’ world of Equestria. It feels like a form of self-deprecation for humans as well as a very uninteresting place for a story to take place – everything is predictable and doesn’t get me to think very much about it.
6.
Q) When are we launching Rainbow Dash into space?
A) Soon… Chapter 10 or 11, Chapter 9 if you’re lucky.
Awesome
Loved how you addressed/answered all the questions. I specially loved questions-and-answers 1,3 and 5.
1. Yes by turning him into a pony (which in my perspective of him as a character, a girly creature he despises partially because of his sister) you force dexter into a perspective he would otherwise fail to see. It's interesting to think how dex thinks and feels after becoming the very creature he despises and then develop a certain degree of respect for them. And i agree with your other reasons as well. Thank for not making this another generic 'human goes to equestria'.
3. I admit that i was taken aback by how you portayed dex in one particular chapter (forgot which one) but that aside, i like how you handle and experiment with his character as of late. Your method fleshes out his character even more making him and his experiences in equestria all the more realistic. Though i may still have reservations to what extent his 'abrasiveness' can be i must admit that it turned out pretty well in the end. Kudos to you for sticking to that.
5. I concur.
T;l;dr - great job remaining true to your creative vision. Never compromise if its indeed what you feel is right. As they say, you can't please everybody but i think with this story you've pleased more than enough. Also i admire you for your exactness and clarity with regard to dexter's character.
I watched Dexter's Lab and everything else Cartoon Network when I was in the Art institute to learn animation (Protip; Go ANYWHERE but "Art institute of (fill-in-the-major-city)" if you want an art career) You hit his personality dead on actually, I was just old enough to see his personality when most fans were not.
"I don’t know about others, but I for one am completely tired of reading stories where the one human who shows up is a complete jerk while being stranded in the ‘perfect’ world of Equestria."
Conversely, there's a lot of "human does nothing wrong but all the ponies hate him anyway because they are racists". Those are tiring too. I think you've struck a good balance here with both Dexter and the ponies behaving in a somewhat believable manner.
My question... Will he ever give half-truths, at least, to why he hates the girly? XD I mean... The guy dislikes his sister's nature and everything destructive to do with it, but as I stated in a review... The Decoder Ring Incident. Girly ponies that were, say, with Pinkie-esque dispositions nearly boiled his "seester" alive in boiling wax, simply because the decode-sheets were mixed up.
He's also capable of catastrophic screw-ups, such as in my personal favorite episode "Monstory". Lol.
2702507
I think Dexter, COLT GENIUS, is spot-on.
An edit: ALSO, I FOUND THIS!!
fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/263/2/f/dexter__lab__ego_trip__pony_version_by_riafire-d7zuc64.png
"Now jus' because I'm too old to fly doesn't mean I'm gonna let myself stay grounded. Ain't that right, Billy?"
"It's Dexter."
I cannot let go of the UFO-chair.
2705156 give or take, yes. But either it's spot on or not his dexter kicks butt real good. Badass i say. Badass!
Also, nice find there dude. The artwork is now my new desktop b.g so thnx.
2705267 lol. You're welcome
2705156
2705267
I got some fan art, but I am going to color it some before I share >:)
2705687 Lol. Cool.
I now find myself wondering if he'll ever have an epiphany or break-down about missing his entire family and all their faults even more than he already does, or after a typical-in-fanfiction spat with DT and SS he lets Cheerilee have his opinion of 'girly horses' full force, complete with explanation. I don't know which she'd be horrified by more: his opinions, or his basis that, for the broken record, ponies that acted like, to his view, Pinkie Pie, nearly killed if not nearly maimed his big sister, whom was a FAN.
"And let me tell you something, Miss Cheerilee: I HATE my sister. I hate how she always went into my room and touched, if not broke, my stuff repeatedly. I hate her STUPID girly antics and her dancing of 'the fanciful unicorn' that she had shown me again and again and again! I even nearly killed her at least five times, only once on accident," he confessed, breathing heavily with his hair frazzled and glasses disheveled as he glared up at the teacher's horrified expression, though whether for his half-truth or for his admittance of loathing he couldn't judge. "But in the end, DeeDee was my sister. As much as I hate her, I was not going to let a few horrible and girly horses harm her because of a misunderstanding!"
... Not at all sure how that would be transitioned to.
2705687 Adding on to my previous post, there was an episode in which DeeDee was... insightful, I rewatched just now. "Way of the DeeDee". She tried to change him to be just a bit less like himself and more like her, and at the end, she realized that she transformed him from a glorious creator into a mad destroyer, as she puts it, and left the lab, where Dexter, resigned to his old ways, forlornly puts his gloves back on and gets back to work.
2705800
Dexter is a very dangerous character, but just because of his gary-stu protential, but also because of his potential to just lay waste to everyone and everything he comes in contact with - and when I say 'can' I don't mean his physical ability to, I mean his willingness to do so. He has displayed, on multiple occasions, the willingness to crush opposition or go to extreme lengths to reach his goals.
I mean, he shot down Santa Claus because he thought that Santa was his dad in disguise trying to play a child's game with him. How SHOOTS at Santa? Who shoots at their dad? (barring luke skywalker/darth vader type situations.)
2707208 and it happened before, according to the episode.
I actually like the interpretation of Dexter that you have here. His status as the Fettered, in that he understands the World Is Not Ready, takes away a lot of what makes him a potential Mary Sue. It restrains him from doing anything drastic in a reasonable way. You present him as a believable character that examines the nature of power in a status commonly considered OP, and you resist the negatives by realistically presenting him as a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold, along with all that entails. So far, so good. Update soon.
We never did get to see Rainbow Dash get launched into space, I don't think. Is that still in the itinerary somewhere?
4776320
Was planned for next chapter, though it might get taken out.
4776361
Oh I see. While it would be fun to watch her get launched up into the stratosphere via rocket (tho I'm not entirely sure she'd ever make it that far, since somepony somewhere has got to be running interference), I understand having to do what's best for the story- which, by the way, I've actually begun to reread. I seldom do that with most stories, even less so with stories that are unfinished... but I am very bored, and so I shall while away the time waiting by refreshing myself on the contents of the story thus far. (It's quite entertaining!)