I was 9 when the original Ben 10 first aired. Hell, I remember some of the trailers for the show before it even started. When the show started I loved it. Ben 10 was my favorite show as a kid. What's more I re-watched the show last year and I still enjoyed it. I recommended the episodes "Hunted", "A Small Problem",and "Ultimate Weapon" if you want to try out the show.
When I first saw trailers for Ben 10: Alien Force I was worried, but the idea that Kevin being a good guy this time around made me curios enough to watch. Thankfully I loved it. These kids no longer had a mentor in Max to guild them. They had to do it on their own. Kevin was really well done. While Gwen was hit or miss for me in OS, I turned into a fan of her in this season. I liked Julie. I enjoyed the more serious tone of the series. And most important I loved Ben. In five years he had changed from a kid who was giddy at the idea of being a super hero to a teenager who understands the importance of of what he did. Needless to say this is my favorite series of Ben 10. Some of my favorite episodes of Alien Force are "Paradox", "Con of Rath", and "Alone Together". As a side note: alone together is my favorite episode of all of Ben 10.
Ultimate Alien is weird for me. It's really more of the same but with Ben's character being a little different, but I'll talk more about that later. I thought making Ben's identity public was a good idea at this point in time (why his identity becomes public is silly, but I'm amused by it). The idea of having an evolution function was a cool idea but at the end of the day wasted. This season also has the most episodes I recommend: "...Nor Iron Bars a Cage", "Prisoner Number 775 is Missing", "The Ultimate Sacrifice", "Catch a Falling Star", and "Absolute Power part 1 and 2"
Their was also an hour long cross over with Generator Rex. It was good. You should go and watch it.
Ben starts as a ten year old kid. He's not the brightest kid in the world and he can be a bit dickish at times, but he has a good heart as shown when in the first episode he tries to save that kid from the school bullies. When he gets the omnitrix, he then jumps at the chance to become a super hero. He starts out as you would expect a 10 year old superhero to be. He'll use his power for personal gain or to play tricks on Gwen, but he will still stop a T-Rex running through the street when it shows up. Season one taught Ben how to be a hero and just how important what he does is. Season two has Ben becoming more experienced. He's been fighting crime for about a month and with the knowledge of what his grandpa really did for a living, Ben has stepped into a much larger world. And of course all of Ben's experience is put to the test in "Back With a Vengeance". In season three Ben has now faced down many powerful foes, and in most of those instances the final fight was finished by him. Now with Gwen learning magic and Max being more open with what he has learned as a plumber, Ben has a lesson in team work that must be learned and by the end he does. Season four is the end all of the series, and while it doesn't really give much in the way of character development for Ben, it serves as a way to show of just how far Ben has come.
I want to quickly talk about Ben 10: Destroy all Aliens for just a moment. I personally think it was a good look at what happens when Ben gets home from summer vacation. Better then Race Against Time at least.
In the five years between Ben 10 and Alien Force something happened. We aren't told what but the end result was Ben choosing to remove the omnitrix from his wrist. We're given very little information about it, but I think I have a good guess. My guess is that it was not one event but a culmination of a lot of hardship. Something to remember is that Ben is still very young, and with the most powerful device in the universe on his wrist he had to grow up very fast. And for a young boy it was ok. He got to be a hero and do good stuff in the world. But as he got older his cousin Kenny took him to his first soccer game and he fell in love with the sport. He started to notice girls more. He found his true love in Smoothies. After all of this, suddenly a normal life seems pretty nice. So he makes the decision to find a way to remove the omnitrix. This may seem selfish, and that's because it is. But he's not avoiding responsibility. He still keeps the omnitrix and was very willing to put it back on with the knowledge of the Highbreed invasion. With his experience he has become calmer and more understanding. If you want an example of this go watch "Alone Together" their is a reason it's my favorite episode. It shows Ben at his very best. With that said he is not without his flaws. With how quickly Ben had to take charge of this threat his emotions can become a little out of control. He will still at times go into a situation without thinking, and in the mist of this war Ben seems to have developed a bit of a temper. Once he stopped the war he got an ego and became very over confidant. But really, how could he not? He not only saved the earth, but hundreds of other planets, and the Highbreed themselves. What more everyone in the universe now knows the name Ben Tennyson. His closet is full of rewards from various alien civilizations for stopping the Highbreed. Anyone would get over confident. Luckily, him losing to Vilgax and Albedo humbled him a little.
Now with his new ultimatrix and with his secret identity open to the public (thanks to Jimmy Jones) he seems to have gotten a bit of a childish persona in public. Thankfully this does not bleed over when he is on the job. Yes he still has the problem of not always thinking things through, but he can take a step back and try a different way to combat a situation. For an example I'd turn to "Too Hot To Handle" where Ben turns into Water Hazard to talk down P'andor. It doesn't work but the fact that he came up with the idea by himself is still impressive. We also get to see a little more of Ben's compassion when he chooses to stay and help people instead of going after Aggregor. While it was the right thing to do, and in the end Aggregor does loose it's at the price of Kevin becoming evil again. At this point Ben has another moment of change, but in the wrong direction. He views how he dealt with the situation so far as a failure. Because of this he then becomes very narrow minded and has made it his mission to put Kevin down. His justification for this is that he would always tell himself that when the situation got serious he would get serious. While I don't doubt this claim, that can't be all of it. It was already serious with Aggregor, but Kevin being the problem has change how Ben sees the situation. Most likely Ben sees what happened to Kevin as his fault. If Ben had taken this mission more serious then Kevin wouldn't have had to absorb the ultimatrix and he wouldn't have gone crazy again. All of this is clouding Ben's judgement, blinding him to the fact that Kevin really can be saved. Thankfully, Gwen convinces him otherwise. So far in Ultimate Alien Ben has, and will continue to, see just how dark the world can be. Up till now most of the very dangerous threats he has faced have been other worldly. With "Prisoner 775 is Missing" and "The Purge" Ben has now seen the darkness that lies in human hearts as well which at this point Ben had mostly viewed humans as the victims. The scene when Ben and Gwen come across a crime scene where Captain Nemesis murders a man for his car is especially chilling for a cartoon. The series concludes with the fight with Diagon and then Vilgax. After victory Ben gets a chance for absolute power. At first Ben isn't going to go through with it, but Vilgax makes the point that he could do anything with that power, even make the world free of evil (I don't know why he said it, but he did). And at that moment Ben hesitates. Ben had been through so much and most recently he had seen the darkness that even humans have. The offer is tempting, but with the help of his friends Ben sees how wrong this decision would be, so ends up giving the power up knowing that if he kept the power he would be no better then Diagon.
Before Omniverse started Ben had been through a lot. He has now come to a place were he has found himself. The only real character development for him now would just be him growing up.Were he is right now kind of reminds me of how the Doctor was right after the time war. He had seen so much, made many hard choices, but in the end he was still the victor. But now with that all over, he now wants to take it easy and just stop threats to a single planet. Not the whole Universe. That way he could stay close to normal people and remember what he was fighting for. Will he still charge in without thinking at times? Of course. That's always been part of his character. Would he still have an ego? Of course he would. But he has now shown great humility when it comes to his power. He even has an understanding that the omnitrix is not the end all to his victories. He has fought many people in the past without his omnitrix and still won. He has also shown to be a very understanding person when the situation comes down to it as shown in "Alone Together". And with a new partner fresh out of the plumber academy it could make for some very interesting dynamics. Rook who knows the protocols for all situations from his studies versus Ben whose learned what to do in the field. This being a show still aimed for children we could have lesson for them like, how to work with new people by showing the struggles Ben and Rook have working together at first. The show could teach them that every situation is unique thus the solutions showed be just as unique by having Rook try to solve a problem one way when Ben knows that won't revolve the problem. Or it could teach them the reason rules exist is for a reason by having Ben about to go over the line for a situation but Rook pulling him back and reminding him why they do what they do. Going back to Doctor Who, it would be like Ben was the Doctor and Rook would be his companion who helps him remember what's important. Omniverse as the potential to be the best Ben 10 series ever. So isn't it just a shame we got what we got?
Ben 10 Omniverse has done everything in its power to destroy the character of Ben, the 11 and 16 year old ones. 11 year old Ben is now only the worst aspects of his personality. He is childish, petty, and thinks he doesn't need anyone's help because he has the Omnitrix. While I didn't talk about Ben and Gwen's relationship in the original series let me give you a quick crash course. Ben and Gwen hated each other at the start. While they hadn't become best friends by the end, they had earned the respect for each other. Well with Omniverse you can throw that character development out the window. They're back to petty arguing. What's more, they made kid Ben very annoying. I will never say that Ben didn't get on my nerves in OS I will also never say he bugged me as much as he does in Omniverse. 16 year old Ben doesn't get much better. He so confidant in himself, I want the Universe to just prove him wrong but it never does. He is also a firm believer in the idea that might equals right. It may be pointless to say, but Omniverse is just disrespectful to all the things the character Benjamin Kirby Tennyson has gone through.
The reason I went through all of this is to prove a point. Omniverse is shameful to the Ben 10 series. Now the character development of Ben is only a small part of it all. I may talk about it more in the future but not from a character stand point. I have considered talking about the social problems that make up a fair bit of this show but I'm not well versed enough to talk about them with confidence so instead I have provided a link to someone smart then me on the subject. It's really worth a read. Her talk on misogyny was especially interesting to me. Or even if you don't want to do more reading still check out her page. She is an amazing artist.
Wow, that was all really heavy, let's end on a brighter note with something from Geekvolution.
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