hello. i definitely think dex was academically gifted, and unlike many of the questions and headcanons about him, this one actually has canon supporting it. season 3 gives us a report card from the lyndhurst home for boys showing that he graduated with a 4.0 gpa and earned straight aās throughout his high school education there. obviously i donāt think weāre supposed to take every individual class listed as gospel because there are repeated courses and some inconsistencies that make it pretty clear it was designed as a background prop rather than something they expected fans to study frame by frame lol. but the overall message is still incredibly intentional. regardless of the repeated classes, the one thing they consistently wanted the audience to understand was that benjamin poindexter excelled in school. he wasnāt an average student. he wasnāt someone barely scraping by. he was someone who consistently performed at the highest academic level possible.
i donāt think that revelation is surprising at all when you look at who dex is as an adult.
one of dexās defining characteristics throughout the entire series is just how analytical he is. he notices details that almost nobody else notices. he processes information incredibly quickly, recognizes patterns almost immediately, and has an obsessive level of precision in everything he does. that isnāt something that suddenly appeared when he joined the fbi. those cognitive strengths had to exist long before adulthood. they wouldāve been present during childhood too, and school wouldāve been one of the first environments where those abilities actually had somewhere to go. while other children may have struggled sitting through lessons or organizing assignments, i can imagine dex thriving in that kind of structured environment because structure is predictable. there are rules. there are expectations. there are right answers. for someone whose emotional world was constantly unstable, academics probably offered one of the few places where things actually made sense.
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iāve always imagined that dex genuinely enjoyed learning. not because he necessarily loved being in school, but because he loved understanding things. those are two very different ideas. i donāt think he wouldāve cared much about the social aspect of school at all. if anything, i imagine that wouldāve been the hardest part for him. classrooms are loud, unpredictable, and full of social expectations that donāt always come naturally. i donāt think heād enjoy navigating friendships, group projects, or trying to figure out the constantly changing dynamics between other students. but the actual learning i think he wouldāve loved that. i can picture him becoming completely absorbed in a lesson simply because he wanted to understand how something worked. once something interested him, i think heād throw himself into it completely.
looking at the report card itself, i also think the subjects make a lot of sense for him. math immediately stands out because mathematical thinking is incredibly logical and sequential. every answer follows a process, and dex has always approached problems methodically.
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science also feels fitting because it rewards observation, analysis, and precision rather than emotional interpretation. history is another subject i could easily see him enjoying because itās built around facts, chronology, and understanding cause and effect. even art makes perfect sense to me. people sometimes separate artistic ability from analytical thinking, but dexās extraordinary hand-eye coordination, visual precision, and attention to incredibly small details would probably translate into painting remarkably well. art requires patience, observation, and technical control just as much as creativity, and those are all qualities dex already possesses. as we also saw him drawing in dr mercerās office in 3x05.
i also think he wouldāve been one of those students who almost always had his work finished before everyone else. not because he wanted to compete with anybody (though he wouldāve liked showing off), but because once he understood what needed to be done, he wouldāve focused on it until it was complete. i donāt really imagine teachers having to remind him about homework or missing assignments. i think heād take his responsibilities seriously, partly because thatās just how his brain works, but also because success probably became one of the only reliable ways he knew how to receive positive attention. when youāve spent your childhood constantly being corrected or punished, getting an A isnāt simply getting an A anymore. itās proof that you did something right. itās tangible evidence that you succeeded. i think that wouldāve mattered a great deal to him.
at the same time, i donāt think being an excellent student automatically means he was a perfectly behaved student. i actually think thatās where people sometimes oversimplify dex. intelligence and emotional regulation are two completely different things. you can be exceptionally gifted academically while still struggling enormously with managing your emotions, and i think dex is probably one of the clearest examples of that. we know from canon that emotional regulation was something he struggled with from an incredibly young age. lyndhurst wasnāt exactly an environment that taught healthy coping skills either. so while i think heād always complete his work, answer questions correctly, and respect the educational side of school, i donāt think that means he never got into trouble.
i just donāt think his trouble wouldāve looked like what people usually imagine. i donāt think dex wouldāve been disrupting class because he wouldnāt stop talking. i donāt think he wouldāve been making jokes across the room. i donāt think he wouldāve been skipping homework or refusing to participate.
those behaviors donāt really fit who he is.
if dex got into trouble, i think it wouldāve happened when his emotions overwhelmed him. if another boy repeatedly mocked him, deliberately provoked him, invaded his space, or humiliated him, i could absolutely see him reacting physically before he even had time to think through what he was doing. weāve seen throughout the show that dex doesnāt always experience a slow build toward anger. he often reaches an emotional breaking point very suddenly. when he becomes overwhelmed, his reactions can be immediate and intense. i donāt think that started in adulthood. i think it was probably present as a child too, except he wouldāve had even fewer tools to manage it back then.
whatās important, though, is that i donāt think heād enjoy getting into trouble. i actually think heād hate it. after an outburst, i imagine the guilt would hit almost immediately. dex tends to carry an enormous amount of shame after losing control. throughout the series we repeatedly see someone who desperately wants to maintain control over himself, even when he ultimately canāt. i think younger dex wouldāve been very similar. heād probably replay the situation in his head over and over, wishing heād handled it differently, feeling embarrassed that heād reacted so strongly, and trying even harder to keep himself under control next time. thatās a pattern that honestly follows him throughout his entire life.
iāve also always imagined that teachers probably liked him, even if they didnāt always fully understand him (and probably feared him because of what happened with coach bradley.) he probably wasnāt the student constantly raising his hand to answer question or trying to make friends with everyone. i think he was quiet, observant, and polite for the most part. but when a teacher asked him a question, heād answer it. when they explained something interesting, heād listen. and when they praised him for getting something right, i think that praise wouldāve stayed with him far longer than they ever realized. positive reinforcement seems incredibly significant for dex throughout the show. approval matters to him because he spent so much of his life feeling like he was fundamentally wrong. hearing āgood jobā or āthatās correctā probably meant more to him than it would to most students.
i even think he wouldāve preferred one-on-one instruction whenever possible. not fully because he wanted to be treated as more important than everyone else, but because one-on-one interaction removes so much of the social chaos that comes with a classroom. thereās less noise, fewer distractions, fewer people to interpret. just clear communication between him and the teacher. that kind of environment probably wouldāve allowed him to learn even more effectively than he already did.
the report card also makes perfect sense when you consider where his life eventually leads. even though the showās timeline around if he got a college education is inconsistent, becoming an fbi agent requires an enormous amount of discipline, intelligence, and academic competence. dexās extraordinary marksmanship often overshadows how intellectually capable he actually is, but throughout the series we constantly see someone who processes information at an incredibly high level. he wouldāve had to analyze crime scenes, he predicts movements, notices microscopic details, and adapts to situations almost instantly. none of those skills exist independently from intelligence. theyāre all connected. his academic success at lyndhurst feels less like a random detail and more like the foundation for the adult we eventually meet.
thatās why i think this report card is one of the many sad little pieces of canon we have about dex. it shows that the problem was never his intelligence. it was never his ability to learn. it was never his work ethic or his potential. he had all of those things from the beginning, and dr mercer pointed that fact out with her therapy notes.
what he didnāt have was the emotional support, stability, and healthy guidance to grow alongside those gifts. the report card reminds us that benjamin poindexter was a child with extraordinary potential who consistently did everything that was asked of him academically, yet still grew up feeling fundamentally broken because nobody taught him how to understand himself. to me, thatās what makes those straight Aās so sad. they arenāt simply evidence that he was smart, theyāre evidence of how much potential existed in a child who was failed by the adults responsible for helping him grow.
āSo whatās this fishing thing? I donāt remember.ā āOh yeah, that was Connor, actually. Connor took me on that. But, you knowā¦ Single, multi-use, happy childhood memory, so. Yeah.ā
Was very fortunate to catch not one but two of the Amonklok tour dates! After gifting him a custom CFO figure in 2024, I knew I wanted to give Brendon Small the custom Nathan Explosion I also made a few years back. Brendon was SO thrilled and told me he still has Charles back at home, and asked if he could show Nathan to everyone like he did with Charles. I was not prepared for him to showcase Nathan on his accounts later lol.
For my birthday I was able to make it out to Las Vegas for the last date. Probably the best birthday present ever because I was able to meet Brendon and Gene again, which was embarrassing because Brendon immediately recognized me and was like āhello again!!!ā At the Vegas show I gave Brendon and Gene a drawing/some prints I did because I hate coming empty handed š .
He also said thank you for the Nathan again, and that they all love playing with him lmao, he just immediately started talking about the action figure lol. It was basically like picking up where the conversation ended last time. Lots of talking about art and stroking egos icl.
More pictures from both experiences and some more rambling below the cut
I laser cut gear keychains a few years ago to hand out at the 2024 show (in pic with Charles) and had some left over, one of which ended up on Geneās drum kit! Iām so incredibly grateful to have had these opportunities, Metalocalypse has inspired so much of my creativity in ways I couldnāt have ever imagined before. It means a lot to be able to share that with the person responsible for it all, and to have a mutual appreciation for each other.
prguitarman
