Ostensibly a super-scientist, Dr. Venture's life has left him scarred, emotionally insecure, apathetic, cynical, stressed out, and addicted to pills. He lives - and is effectively trapped - in the shadow of his famous father, Dr. Jonas Venture Sr., an incredibly renowned and universally respected genius in virtually every field of science and engineering who built a space station, fought diseases, solved mysteries, and is usually indirectly linked to most of the advanced technology on the show. Dr. Rusty Venture, however, is a sad failure of a man in every fashion, crushed under the weight of the expectations placed upon him; equally imprisoned by his crippling feelings of inadequacy and self-imposed incompetence caused by intense sloth and brutal emotional bullying by his father as a teen. Despite being the supposed protagonist of the show, Rusty is extremely self-entitled and a narcissist, believing he deserves better than his fate, and often is prone to bouts of overconfidence.