Do you have any headcanons on Rex? And on that note, assuming that he'll return for Season 8, do you think that he'll redeem himself like Paisley or succeed her as Villain #4?
Alright so I rewatched all the episodes with Rex in them (Spirit Bear, Elephant Brains!, Creepy Creatures!, Amazin' Amazon Adventure, and Race to Goat Mountain) and tried to take notes to get as much info as I could. There… wasn't much.
Rex only had substantial roles in Spirit Bear and Elephant Brains!. In Creepy Creatures! And Race to Goat Mountain he had very little screen time and very few lines of dialogue. In Amazin' Amazon Adventure, he only briefly appeared in the background once and had zero lines of dialogue.
He makes no decisions on his own, only ever following Paisley's orders. He has no real thoughts of his own, only agreeing with everything Paisley says. He seems to only have one personality trait, and that's "enthusiastically loves to pave".
Dabio has a similar role, also being a villain henchman, (and fun fact, Dabio and Rex have the same voice actor, Cory Doran) and yet he has far more personality and feels much more well-rounded as a character. He has his own thoughts and makes decisions by himself from time to time. Sometimes he even disagrees with Donita or does things she doesn’t like.
↑ Dabio thinking that Donita’s plan to skin the salamanders is mean, and making the plot-relevant choice to free Chris from the pose-beam, all on his own.
So you can't excuse his flat-ness with "well he's just a henchman so he doesn't need to be well developed" because Dabio has set a precedent with higher standards.
Dabio feels like an actual person with thoughts and autonomy while Rex just feels like an over-excited robot that’s only capable of doing what it’s told.
It pains me to say it, but I have to admit that Rex is a nothing-burger of a character. He has absolutely no substance and is not significant in any way. That makes it hard for me to make headcanons about him bc I have basically nothing to work with.
I think it's because Paisley was always meant to be redeemed from the moment of her conception (I can't prove that, it's just my theory) which is why her redemption came so quickly, and is why the writers neglected Rex. They were so caught up with Paisley's characterization that they completely forgot to give Rex any.
It is for this reason that I do not think Rex will become a solo villain.
I have a very very hard time believing that Rex is going to suddenly become a major character after being nothing for his whole run time.
Instead, I think there's a 50/50 chance that either…
- Rex will continue to work with Paisley, but maybe not as a "henchman", and more as an equal, since they're not villains anymore. I also don't think he'll actually have a defined redemption arc, I think he would redeem himself off-screen so he can immediately jump back into the story.
- Or we'll never see Rex again.
Sorry bro, I know that answer isn't very satisfying, but unfortunately that's the only conclusion I can reasonably come to from what we've seen. Rex only exists in relation to Paisley. His character just isn't strong enough to stand on his own, nor is he important enough to be given the amount of attention necessary for an on-screen redemption arc. (At least for now. Maybe if he does come back he’ll get more development as he gets more screen time.)
That's not to say it's impossible, I can't know anything for sure, I just think it's very unlikely.
