Dexter's alignment (possible spoilers- discussing seasons 1&2)

[sckeener]

My wife and I just finished watching season 2 of Dexter and have been talking about it for four days now....

one of the recurring topics...what alignment is Dexter?

In the first season, my wife and I thought Neutral. He breaks laws, but has a code. He kills, but only the bad guys in a cold ritualistic blood sacrifice.

In season 2, my wife and I are arguing about it. His emotionless personal appears to have some emotions and a small conscious. His code is tossed around. His private serial killer life starts to negatively affect people close to him.

About the only thing my wife and I have agreed on...that bad news Lila...is Choatic Evil and the fact that Dexter gets along with her so well...probably should give some clue as to his alignment.

Any suggestions...care to muddy the waters that my wife and I are considering?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Lawful Evil - because he has a code of conduct (lawful) and he is willing to be judge, jury and execution (murder by horrible means) people (evil).

 

[Cheiromancer]

I don't think that a personal code is enough to make a person lawful. Lawful types have to be integrated into a social network more than Dexter is. Mafia, thieves guild, evil empire: lawful evil types need something to belong to. At the very least a lawful evil type has to have (or want) minions to carry out his dreams of world domination. Dexter, on the other hand, is in a social organization only as camouflage.

So I don't think he is lawful. But he's not chaotic, either- he is trying to figure out how personal relationships work, but he just isn't getting very far.

As far as evil goes- well, he hungers for murder, even if he satisfies it by killing only bad people. Moreover in season two set out to frame an innocent man. I think that he has to count as evil, even though he is a very sympathetic, likable character.

So I'd classify him as Neutral Evil. But an appealing and socially useful neutral evil.

 

[Klaus]

I don't think that a personal code is enough to make a person lawful. Lawful types have to be integrated into a social network more than Dexter is. Mafia, thieves guild, evil empire: lawful evil types need something to belong to. At the very least a lawful evil type has to have (or want) minions to carry out his dreams of world domination. Dexter, on the other hand, is in a social organization only as camouflage.

So I don't think he is lawful. But he's not chaotic, either- he is trying to figure out how personal relationships work, but he just isn't getting very far.

As far as evil goes- well, he hungers for murder, even if he satisfies it by killing only bad people. Moreover in season two set out to frame an innocent man. I think that he has to count as evil, even though he is a very sympathetic, likable character.

So I'd classify him as Neutral Evil. But an appealing and socially useful neutral evil.

What he said. On the one hand, Dexter is vicious (to his victims). On the other, he's very methodical. I'd peg him as NE, same as the killer in Se7en.

 

[sckeener]

Moreover in season two set out to frame an innocent man. I think that he has to count as evil, even though he is a very sympathetic, likable character.

Good point, but besides the killing people, the frame job is the first evil act I've seen. And for awhile he was thinking about not going through with it...

this is the first time Harry's code didn't prepare him for something like this...a crisis and one we'll never know if he could have gone all the way since Lila took the issue out of his hands...

 

[Creamsteak]

I think Lawful Evil. In my game it would be. He seems to want to justify all of his evil acts and believes that the majority of them are for the greater good. In other words, he's willing to do whatever it takes to make things fit his belief system, but his actions are extrenuatingly evil. So I'm going with LE.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well... Whether or not he is Lawful, is determinate on how you view Lawful, if his mental-state (I haven't seen the show, but it is coming to CTV soon ) is one where he is when murdering in his own isolated world, then Lawful could work.

It is something we discussed in Law class the semester, is the idea when one's one laws become practise when inside a wider-society. We decided that a "law" would be when people are isolated, or in this case when his mind is isolated.

In the wider-view of society, I would call him Neutral Evil, he doesn't kill EVERYONE. But he does do whatever he feels to serve his needs (killing murderers)

 

[WayneLigon]

Given what he is - a classic psychopath - I'd actually give Dexter no alignment. Not 'Neutral' but 'none'; he is literally like an animal or construct in this respect (Yes, I know D&D assigns 'Neutral' to animals and constructs - I just think that's silly).

Being a classic psychopath, he has no moral compass of any kind; even an evil person has a moral compass - it just points in a different direction. Instead, Dexter responds like an animals does: stimulus/response; he is driven to kill by his basic impulse. He wouldn't trip off alignment-based effects at all. Thankfully, detect alignment would just fail on him, which would raise alarm in any cleric

I would look at 'The Code of Harry' as a survival mechanism rather than anything like an actual moral code; Dexter can understand the survival instinct. It's one of the few 'emotions' he can actually access (scare quote, because I'm not sure I consider an 'instinct' an 'emotion' ).

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well obviously then Dexter supports 4e, since 4e has unaligned

 

[Mark Chance]

Good point, but besides the killing people, the frame job is the first evil act I've seen. And for awhile he was thinking about not going through with it...

So, if one ignores the dozens of people he's murdered, he's pretty much an okay guy.