Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory has Asperger's syndrome.
Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory was the envy of every science-minded kid who had to make do with an incomplete junior chemistry set and some hand-me-down LEGO Technics.
He had a huge secret lab under his house and seemingly unlimited resources to build anything he imagined -- for instance, his own Dexo-Transformer, which he used to terrorize his bullies in dodgeball.
Dexter's life isn't as cool as it looks, since he suffers from Asperger's syndrome ... but, you know, so do half the My Little Ponies, probably.
If there's one thing the Internet loves more than fake diagnosing itself with Asperger's, it's fake diagnosing its favorite characters with it.
A strong case can be made for Dexter, though.
Look at his personality: He struggles to interact with others socially, has repetitive patterns he adheres to, and has very unique interests -- if Dexter could, he wouldn't leave his lab.
These are all signs of Asperger's, as is his baffling pseudo-Austrian accent: A lot of people with this condition sound like foreigners to their own families because they mimic words the way they were pronounced when they first heard them (in many cases, on TV).
OK, so the kid might be an Aspie, but does that change anything in the show?
Actually, it changes everything, because we view all the other characters through Dexter's lens, and people with Asperger's have trouble empathizing with others.
He views his sister Dee Dee as a huge dolt, but what if he just doesn't understand girls?
His mom appears to have constant mood swings, but could it be that Dexter doesn't know when he's making her angry?
Meanwhile, his dad is always a bumbling incompetent, but maybe Dexter is simply disappointed that he isn't a world class genius.
Then there's Dexter's rival, Mandark, who is practically a supervillain when we first meet him, but becomes a much more sympathetic character when we're not looking at him from the Asperger's-having protagonist's point of view.
At any rate, this makes way more sense than the "Dexter becomes a serial killer on Showtime" theory.
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Cartoon Theories
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