YMMV / Super Dinosaur

• Crazy Is Cool: The titular character is a T. rex who loves video games and wears a harness with a pair of robotic arms that are covered in guns. And he pilots a Humongous Mecha version of said harness. The confident daredevil Action Hero Derek is no slouch in the craziness department, either. He would need to be in order to keep up with his partner, Super Dinosaur, after all.
• Cliché Storm/Refuge in Audacity: This work is pretty much every Saturday-morning cartoon Cliche rolled together. (Playing with a few) And yet... it finds a way to make it work.
• Rooting for the Empire: The Exile, while obviously dangerous and a threat to the surface world, is at the end of the day just trying to liberate his race from his brothers tyranny. When Derek foils his plan and gets all smug about it, you might find yourself sympathising with the would-be world conquerors.
• The Scrappy: Derek, who spends a little too much time assuring the readers that he's totally awesome. Not to mention a lot of his screen time is spent trouncing much cooler antagonists.
  • Derek being labeled a Scrappy is an interesting case, particularly the why behind it, given the whole point of the character and the book. The label comes from a disconnect between some of the periphery readers and the intended demographic, the latter of whom Derek works as a wish-fulfillment element that they would more readily enjoy. In practice, he really isn't that bad either, outside a few, more egregious exceptions like the one cited in Rooting for the Empire, and the Crazy Is Cool and Saturday-morning-cartoon factor means that, at worst, Derek Crosses the Line Twice to become as cool as he constantly claims.
• Woobie Species: The poor Dino Men were created to be Maximus' servants. However the Dino Men are intelligent and have feelings. The Exile and Tricerachops are trying to free their oppressed people. Not to mention the Dino Men are hybrids not welcome as either dinosaurs or full humans. So sad.

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