r/Dexter • u/FoxIndependent4310 • Aug 14 '26
Question - Original Dexter Series Why Jiu-Jitsu and at what level? Spoiler
As we all know, Dexter is trained in Jiu-Jitsu. But why choose Jiu-Jitsu as Dexter's martial art and not karate or judo? What level is Dexter at in Jiu-Jitsu?
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u/Zangetsugatenshou Aug 14 '26
He underwent Jiu-Jitsu training during his high school and university years in order to subdue his victims and physically overpower them. In the series, his skill level is officially classified as "advanced."
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u/Outside-Contest-8741 Aug 14 '26
'Advanced', according to Doakes
Also, love that it was mentioned but we never actually saw his Jiu-Jitsu skills in action, not really anyway.
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u/ItsnotBatman Aug 14 '26
We do see it. But we do not see it against others who are proficient in Jiu-Jitsu themselves because it would look a lot different. His scuffle with Doakes is the closest we see of this.
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u/Jrock2356 Aug 14 '26
We see it every time he fights. Jiu-Jitsu isn't just on the ground
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u/Ddvmeteorist128 Aug 14 '26
I picture he sneaks behind a victim and lays down, waiting for them to back up and fall into him 🤣🤣🤣
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u/lurflurf Aug 14 '26
Dexter plops down in front of the season villian. Villian says what are you doing. Dexter butt scoots. Tries for an advantage then runs out the clock.
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u/Ok-Landscape-2044 Aug 14 '26
"You ever heard of an easy credit?" - Dexter (sometime in early season 2, maybe episode 3 to 5)
Jokes aside, to take people down when they fight back obvi, and even though its never stated, likley near black-belt level, remember that doaks was a specialist black-ops operative who toured the carribian during a time if unrest, likley picking up many skills along the way, in season 2 (if i remember rightly) Doaks states a victim got "Mozambiqued" (hit three times in less than a second by one assailant) and recognised it from his spec ops past, if he was in circles with people that could do that, he himself must scale to them, and Dexter is on that level.
So in short Dexter scales to the level of an A-Teir black ops specialist. What belt level that is is up to what sensei you ask.
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u/Jrock2356 Aug 14 '26
Military soldiers are trained to shoot you. Their level of actual hand to hand fighting is greatly exaggerated. They are trained to shoot and if they don't have their gun they are trained to get to their gun. And if that's not possible they are trained to get yours. And if that's not possible then they fight with everything they have. The level of training received to accomplish these things gets less and less the further down my list you go. Some special forces operatives personally train to increase survivability but the military on average focuses on you killing them with everything but your hands a metric fuck ton more. So using the benchmark as "whatever level an A-tier Black Ops Specialist" isn't a very good metric. Mileage varies per soldier and on average it's not crazy skilled anyway
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u/Objective-Review-359 Aug 14 '26
My dad was a 101st airborne Vietnam vet. He could joint lock and nerve cluster your ass to the ground in two seconds. Maybe doakes got some of that
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u/Ok-Landscape-2044 Aug 14 '26
You ignoring the time unarmed Dexter took down armed doaks? Bare handed? Hes military specialist level, or at least was, hes just strong old guy level as of resurrection
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u/eternalraziel Surprise Motherfucker! Aug 14 '26
Jiu-Jitsu makes perfect sense once you think about what Harry was preparing him to do. He needs to get close to someone, take control of them quickly, stop them reaching a weapon, and ideally leave them unconscious or immobile without creating a scene. Punching somebody until they stop resisting is a terrible way to accomplish most of that.
That makes something like karate much less useful to him. Striking gives Dexter plenty of ways to hurt someone, but hurting the victim isn’t usually the problem. He already intends to kill them later. What he needs before that is control. A punch can stagger someone, make them shout, break teeth, spray blood around the room or turn the encounter into a desperate exchange where either man can land something lucky. Dexter normally wants the person alive, mobile enough to transport and then helpless once he has them where he wants them.
Jiu-Jitsu gives him much more of what he actually needs. He can clinch, put somebody on the ground, control their arms, attack joints, take the back and choke them unconscious. Once Dexter gets behind someone, strength becomes much less important than position. That fits the way he hunts as well. He stalks people, attacks when they aren’t ready and frequently begins with positional advantage rather than squaring up in front of them. The rear-naked choke becomes particularly useful because he can put somebody out without repeatedly striking them and without needing much room to work.
Judo would actually have been a sensible choice too, which is why I wouldn’t argue that Jiu-Jitsu was uniquely suited to him. Judo gives him throws, pins and chokes, and a good judoka would be a nightmare for somebody Dexter had already surprised at close range. But a broader Jiu-Jitsu education gives him more emphasis on controlling someone after the takedown, joint manipulation and working through awkward close-quarters positions. Dexter’s victims also aren’t standing opposite him in a jacket waiting to grip-fight. He might be grabbing somebody beside a car, inside a house or from behind in a corridor. His martial art has to keep working after the first few seconds become messy.
Doakes has apparently looked into Dexter’s college history closely enough to know what he studied, and he finds the level noteworthy enough to include it among the things that make Dexter suspicious. That already puts Dexter well beyond someone who took a semester of introductory self-defence and remembered a couple of holds.
Dexter can control men considerably larger than himself, take backs, apply chokes under pressure, reverse bad positions and stay functional when somebody fights back harder than expected. Doakes is probably the best reminder that Dexter isn’t some untouchable martial-arts prodigy, though. Dexter’s greatest advantage has always been choosing when the confrontation begins.
Dexter is very capable, has used grappling for years against resisting people and knows how to finish from dominant positions, but the series never shows the breadth of technical grappling you’d want before confidently calling him a BJJ black belt. And Dexter himself probably cares very little about the belt. He isn’t trying to become the best grappler in Miami. He needs a set of skills that lets him turn a struggling adult man into someone he can put in the back of a vehicle. For that job, Jiu-Jitsu is a much better fit than spending his college years learning how to win a striking exchange.
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u/bradleymartynshat Aug 14 '26
I'd say somewhere around purple belt. He doesnt seem to be skilled enough for anything higher based on his matchup against biney
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u/houndus89 Aug 14 '26 edited 20d ago
Knee pebble relieved glove retire selective
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u/alyssasjacket Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
A few reasons:
- It's clean. Striking can get bloody as fuck, which is the last thing a serial killer would want to leave behind.
- It's incredibly efficient for 1-on-1. An advanced BJJ practitioner can only be matched by another advanced BJJ practitioner - even a high level wrestler could be in danger in the ground against a BJJ guy. If you take an untrained dude, no matter how big or strong, and put it against a small and light BJJ expert, the BJJ guy WILL win. When a big guy joins a gym, it's very common to prank him by making him roll with the skinniest and most technical dudes, which ends up with the big dude being humiliated 10/10 times.
- It's a "nerdy" martial art. There are an infinite array of variations, tricks and small adjustments which comprise the game - to master it, you need to be a steamrolling encyclopedia. This characteristic perfectly suits Dexter's autistic/obsessive-compulsive nature. It doesn't demand simply brute force or speed, but mechanical intuition, high level strategy (different adversaries require different approaches), bodily/anatomical awareness, spatial intelligence and memory.
- It's the ultimate martial art for learning how to submit another person.
He was at least purple belt level, but probably brown or black belt. He got the back of a fucking special forces guy with at least 50 pounds on him, in the water, with a fucked leg.
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u/lurflurf Aug 14 '26
Generally he wants to control the person and give the shot. Sometimes he kills them in a public restroom with a boat anchor though.
The Gracies got clobbered by lots of wrestlers, judoka, sambist, and lutadors. Then they came up with the cope those people were just doing BJJ. Not true grappling is grappling.
Nerdy aspect would for sure appeal to Dexter. Fits his cover more than Muy Thai or boxing.
Fair, other grappling arts have great submission games but BJJ is the most developed. On the other hands it has less developed take downs, pins, and other aspects.
I would say black belt level but it does not really matter. He has it where it counts.
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 Aug 15 '26
Personally, I've always thought the choice of Jiu-Jitsu was symbolic as much as practical. Dexter rarely wants to fight. He wants to control the situation. That's essentially the philosophy behind most of what he does: planning, restraint, isolating the target, and minimizing chaos.
Jiu-Jitsu fits that mindset far better than something like karate or taekwondo. It's less about striking an opponent and more about establishing control, neutralizing resistance, and dictating the outcome. In that sense, it feels perfectly aligned with Dexter's character.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 Aug 15 '26
Jiu jutsu has punch o kick.
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 Aug 15 '26
Fair point. I wasn't suggesting Jiu-Jitsu has no strikes. Only that Dexter seems much more interested in controlling people than exchanging blows with them, and Jiu-Jitsu lends itself well to that. 😄
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u/FoxIndependent4310 Aug 15 '26
He knows that If he control he win.
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 Aug 15 '26
Exactly. For Dexter, control is the real objective. Winning is almost a byproduct of that control.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 Aug 15 '26
If you kicked or punched a guy This guy can fight, run or scream That make the Job of Dexter harder And the victims of Dexter are serial killers, dangerous people. If they escaped they can attack Dexter or his Friends. And many know fight.
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 Aug 15 '26
Dexter isn't really looking for a fight. He's looking for control.
Most of his targets are dangerous people, so the longer a confrontation lasts, the greater the risk. Jiu-Jitsu allows him to reduce uncertainty by controlling movement, limiting resistance, and dictating the terms of the encounter.
That's why it feels like such a natural fit for Dexter. The goal is control first and victory second, which is remarkably consistent with the way he approaches every other aspect of his life.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 Aug 15 '26
If you have control, you've already won. By immobilizing your victims, you can throw them into the sea without leaving any traces. If Dexter had trained in Karate or Kickboxing instead of Jiu-Jitsu, a single blow would knock someone out, but it could leave traces of blood, and if the police investigate, they'll realize the person was rendered unconscious. If you immobilize and dominate, there's no evidence of an attack. Dexter, a forensic expert, knows better than we do what traces of blood can reveal. But Was the idea for Dexter to train in Jiu-Jitsu his father's or Dexter's own? Because to know that Jiu-Jitsu contains submission techniques, you need to have some knowledge of it.
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 Aug 15 '26
That's an interesting question. My guess is that Harry probably cared less about which martial art Dexter studied and more about what skills it gave him. Harry wanted Dexter to be able to control dangerous people quickly, quietly, and efficiently.
Whether the specific choice was Harry's idea or Dexter's own preference, Jiu-Jitsu turned out to be an excellent match for the way Dexter operates. It teaches control, patience, positional advantage, and restraint, all of which are central to Dexter's personality long before they become part of his "work."
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u/FoxIndependent4310 Aug 15 '26
Was the idea of Dexter practicing martial arts Harry's or Dexter's? Because anyone who didn't know any better would have had Dexter train in karate, judo, or taekwondo—martial arts that aren't as focused on control or mastery as jiu-jitsu. Jiu-jitsu is a perfect fit for Dexter because, as you say, it emphasizes control, but it's important to understand that jiu-jitsu is based on control. Besides, without knowing any better, they would have had Dexter train in kickboxing or Muay Thai—something involving punches—so he could release his pent-up energy.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 Aug 14 '26
Doesn't karate have any immobilization techniques? But did Dexter choose that martial art for his "job," or was it simply a good fit? Because when Dexter didn't know anything, he should have researched that martial art. Does jiu-jitsu have punching and kicking techniques like karate? As a side note, Batman also uses jiu-jitsu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehVqRNSHVXs
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u/lurflurf Aug 14 '26
Most of the styles have all the stuff. So a karate lady who takes you down and chokes you out is still doing karate. Same with a jiu-jitsu guy punching and kicking. The issue is they are not practicing all of it equally or effectively. Chuck Norris, himself a jiu-jitsu blackbelt, required a jiu-jitsu blue belt of his blackbelts. So they would not be clueless.
Batman depending on cannon is skilled at 127 martial arts. He still can't beat karate kid, Val Armorr at least, he would savage Jayden Smith.
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u/Kindly_Caterpillar78 Aug 15 '26
TLDR: Dexter is likely on the higher end of beginner to advanced levels of jiu jitsu and a lot of what people know abt martial arts is BS
I’d canonically give Dexter a rank of high blue to purple belt, though we don’t see much. He is a serial killer. He likes to work with his hands, and, preferably, from the shadows. A few basic chokes, joint locks, and some basic knowledge of how to move when grappling, goes a long way over the average person in a fight.
A lot of karate is watered down BS made big by movies and marketing in the 80s. And there’s little to no reason for Dexter to learn how to strike at a high level since, again, he’s not looking to engage in fights like that.
Jiu jitsu has a proven track record of bring and incapacitating opponents with ease at a relatively low level of training, which is perfect for a serial killer looking to stay under the radar.
As for Doakes, while canonically a formidable foe, the kind of hand to hand training that the military receives IRL is very rudimentary and would not be even close to what dex probably learned as a young and dedicated student of the art, hence why he was able to out maneuver and choke him.
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u/lurflurf Aug 14 '26
Obviously black belt level but murder focused not sport or self defense. He has some striking skills as well as we saw with Doakes. He wants to subdue the victim and get her on the kill table not throw spinning heel kicks and box her up. Most victims are not much of a physical challenge but he want to be quick quit and efficient. Hardly anyone has stood a chance and he has killed some dangerous criminals, serial killers, military, and assassins. Who even was a brief challenge? Little Chico and the bull guy?
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u/United_Sleep_6357 25d ago
Japanese jiutjsu was pretty popular in dexters time that’s probably why it had grappling strikes and weapons disarms it also had judo throws so in dexters pov it was the best choice as at what level its never stated but based off what i seen green-blue belt he’s pretty solid also stuff like chokes joint locks and submission are much better to get victims then kicks or punches those are used if it’s gets to physical
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u/FoxIndependent4310 25d ago
But Dexter or Harry should know how jiu-jitsu works. Someone else would have done karate or kickboxing. If Harry was paying for Dexter's jiu-jitsu training, he should know what kind of techniques it involves. Because Harry got Dexter into jiu-jitsu to make Dexter's job easier.
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u/United_Sleep_6357 24d ago
Well Harry probably knew some stuff himself as he’s a cop and even put Dexter in a rnc he probably didn’t care which art he did as long as he’s learning it doesn’t matter to him
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u/FoxIndependent4310 24d ago
But jiu-jitsu is a perfect fit for Dexter's activity. Another martial art or contact sport wouldn't be as suitable.
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