#Allie once again is over analyzing a kid's cartoon

[ninjadudettekira]

Albedo isn't an evil Ben Tennyson, in this essay-

Fuck it the essay is being written cause I'm still seeing people claim he's an evil Ben Tennyson and I'm here to debunk that. (Aka Allie saw a tweet when she originally typed this out, they're entitled to their opinion but they're wrong lmao. No hate to said person tho.) So buckle the fuck up because this is long. Essay under the cut (If you’re on laptop, I think on mobile it doesn’t have 'keep reading’ thing.) 

Aight so: -Alien Force: 

What canon states is the fact that Albedo make his own knock off Omnitrix. And it was stated that Albedo didn't want Ben to have it because he was human and 'unworthy', so he made his own and got stuck with Ben's DNA. Azmuth himself even states that all Albedo wanted to do was restore himself to his original form.

Azmuth decided to keep Albedo in the form he was in because of rebellion and the fact he "put others in danger" and "wanted to use it in his own ways."

So here's the thing. In Good Copy, Bad Copy we only know about Albedo going after Forever Knights, which we've seen time and time again get their ass kicked by Ben. As far as we know that was the only thing Albedo was doing, he wasn't hurting anyone besides them. Once he came across the trio, he really only went after Ben.

Sure he foamed Gwen and Kevin to the wall to get them out of the battle, but he really only fought Ben and left the other two alone for the most part. Albedo knew who Ben was, if he was "evil" wouldn't he have gone after actual civilians using Ben's form? No all he was trying to do was fix his fuck up.

And what did Albedo get for it? Going to prison while trapped in human DNA. Yeah no shit he decided to work with Vilgax after that point, during The Final Battle and no shit he became bitter. (Altho Ben really couldn't do anything to help Albedo let's be real here. He was dealing with the Highbreed shit and needed to keep the Omnitrix.)

Albedo also, for whatever reason, was kinda against the idea of going after Ben's friends until Vilgax explained. Probably so the audience knew why that happened I guess idk. But he was more indifferent towards it all, and questioned why they were going after Gwen and Kevin. He probably did it because he thought it was gonna lead to him becoming a Galvan again. (And come on only tying Gwen and Kevin up? Y'all can do better than that.) He'd do whatever it took to get his Galvan body back, and since they were Ben's friends it was fine going after them.

-Ultimate Alien: 

AND AFTER BEN'S IDENTITY WAS REVEALED ALBEDO DIDN'T REALLY DO SHIT. So like Ben's entire villain gallery came to Bellwood to go after Ben's family, but all Albedo did was make Ben 10 Live. He even says so in Double or Nothing that he's been doing it since being stranded after Vilgax's ship blew up. And we can assume money went towards getting the parts for the machine to turn him back to Galvan. Tell me would an evil character be a fucking theater nerd???

EVEN WHEN HE WAS GALVAN DURING THAT EPISODE HE SAID HE WASN'T GOING AFTER BEN ANYMORE. He had what he wanted. He was confused that Ben still thought he was going to go after him after being Galvan again. All he wanted was to not be stuck as a human anymore, and when he had that he was going to leave and never see Ben again....until that was fucked up. Of course Albedo's gonna fight Ben after that point. He wasn't going to take it out on Hugh after that whole explanation on why Hugh lied to the trio. So Ben got the brunt of that. Did Ben deserve that? Probably not.

Hell even BEN HIMSELF was happy for a second there that Albedo was cured, and genuinely felt bad when Albedo revealed the motivations behind the machine. Yeah Ben seemed like he was about to murder Albedo at the end there with Ultimate Echo Echo but he was NOT doing okay during UA let's be real. (That's also another whole essay but that's also based on other people talking about how Ben got darker during UA. There was a justifiable reason that Ben went straight to thinking of murdering Kevin after his 3rd mutation and I kinda get it. But again that's another essay that I gotta find sources for since other people talked about it and I can't remember who did.)

Night of the Living Nightmare all we know was that Albedo wanted to stick the Dream Eater on Ben. Probably as a way to steal the Ultimatrix but all he had to do was knock Ben out for a bit and take it. It's easily removable, he of all people should know that. He also has Ben's voice so it really shouldn't have been that hard, but I guess Albedo wanted Ben to suffer like he did.

-Omniverse:

(Side note before I get into this, I was typing this on my phone and when I app switched to do research on an episode the fucking app reset and I lost all my Omniverse talk so gdi here we go with a retype of that section.)

Alright so we're gonna tackle Omniverse Albedo. I know I usually don't touch OV Al with a 10 foot pole and chalk it up to "Bellicus and Serena fucked up the universe when they reset it" but that's a cop out without explanation so we're explaining.

Aight so the first time in OV we see Albedo is a flashback episode (Trouble Helix) where he's working with Azmuth, and he's indirectly the cause of Malware getting more powerful. In the episode he's more indifferent towards Ben than anything, and very respectful towards Azmuth. He's more concerned if Ben could defeat Malware later on and asks Max if Ben's able to do so. When Malware is supposedly defeated, Albedo kinda sticks it in Ben's face when Ben gloats about defeating him. Nothing really too bad, or anything to indicate that he hated Ben. Hell he wasn't even against Ben wearing the Omnitrix at the point? Something had to have snap, but nothing tells us that.

Next time in OV we see Albedo, it's him changing places with Ben cause of Khyber in The Ultimate Heist (How did Albedo work with Khyber? Who the fuck knows, plot cause there's no explanation for it.) Albedo is able to pull off acting like Ben for a few days because he acts how Rook wants Ben to act so he's none the wiser. (Which that's a whole other essay about how people see Ben but other people tackled that.) Then when he was able to get what he wanted, he reveals that it's him. He gets the crystal he needed to stabilize the knock off watch and he can transform again. He's back to being able to become a Galvan, but Albedo ain't leaving after that.

He comes back a few episodes later in A Fistful of Brains and gets Ben to chase him through Undertown so Khyber can kidnap him. Albedo fights Ben later on with the Ultimate Galvan form and goes after Azmuth to get his brain. Ben remarks about why Albedo doesn't just go away because he can be a Galvan again, and Albedo explains it's cause of the imprisonment he faced (either by Azmuth/the Plumbers, or being trapped with human DNA, or both.) and the chili fries craving.

The episode continues into For a Few Brains More where it’s just them trying to get Azmuth’s brain back. At the end of that episode Azmuth traps Albedo as an 11 year old Ben Tennyson. Which btw was a dick move on Azmuth's part, sure Albedo snapped but there could've been other things he did. Azmuth probably remembers what Ben was like at that age, and wanted Albedo to suffer more than he did. (There's a trivia thing about the crew saying that Azmuth would make Albedo a toddler if he had to, which that's fucked. But that's besides the point. I can’t remember where I read it, but I swear I’m not making it up.)

After that we see him in the No Watch Ben episodes. (And Then There Were None/And Then There Was Ben) Vilgax and Eon got all the "bad" Bens together to go after the "good" ones, and Gwen 10. Albedo shouldn't have even been a part of that, he's not even a BAD Ben, just someone who looks like him with a watch that's not a hero. Everyone else was their own version of Ben, or in Gwen's case she had the Omnitrix. 11 Year Old Albedo 100% wasn't thinking clearly working with Vilgax since Vilgax already betrayed him before. *coughTheFinalBattlecough* 11 year olds can't make good decisions like that. But I'm just speculating on why Albedo worked with Vilgax again.

After the No Watch fiasco, he's working with Vilgax a THIRD time In Malgax Attacks after all the betrayals to release Malware's remains. (Which he should know is a bad idea from years prior but kid Albedo probably isn't thinking straight with all the human emotions he's dealing with at that age.) He thinks he killed Azmuth. (I actually haven't seen that episode when writing this so gonna go do that and come back.)  And like a month later I actually get around to seeing the episode. This episode was like near the end of Omniverse, so I guess they wanted one last Albedo episode but had no clue what to do with him so we got a 3rd partnership with Vilgax and an out of the blue motivation. So basically Albedo's motivation in this episode is to take Azmuth's place and see his 'secrets of the universe'. I- How would Albedo not have known Azmuth's secrets? Granted I think in the Albedo triology, he wanted to be above Azmuth so I don't think the plot came totally out of left field. They worked together on the Omnitrix, Albedo should've known about that stuff??? Also since when did he want to rule Galvan Prime??? What would that accomplish??? I was confused the whole episode about why Albedo was even there. I guess because he knew Galvan Prime’s defenses and could attack it with Vilgax. I never wanted to punt a fictional 11 year old character more. End of the episode he has a concrete guard on his right wrist and shackle on his left leg and was sentenced to clean Galvan Prime from the mess he caused for the next 30 Galvan solar cycles. And that's the end of Albedo in the franchise. He's back on Galvan Prime, but stuck doing community service. (I think people forget that this episode exists since every redemption fic after OV doesn't reference this episode and only references up to the No Watch Ben episodes.)

Okay slightly away from Albedo for a second, but was Malgax REALLY that powerful that Ben was defeated so easily??? Like Ben the Omnitrix can quick change, you can change aliens easily. Despite Skurd being cool, you have more powerful aliens you could've used and you barely tried. Idk I think I just forgot how powerful Malware was since I haven't seen Omniverse in awhile. I don't wanna start a new essay but what the f was that episode? Wasn't bad, and there's good moments but, definitely not on my rewatch list. (Also wasn't worth the amount of effort I had to do to download it since I plan to use it for Albedo edits cause I got ideas.) -Non Canon Things:

In Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks video game, there's this line that I gotta mention: "Is it my fault that I'm stuck looking like you?!... Oh wait it is." In Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction video game all I know is that he was beat with a wrench at the end of the game. In Double Trouble, one of the CN comics from the Action Pack series, he pretends to be Ben and Sandra and Carl 100% believe him till Ben comes home. (Aka Albedo is a little shit.) Albedo gets trapped in a teleporter.

In Double Negative, a chapter book that was put out that took place during AF Season 3, but was non-canon. Guess who Albedo is working with? Fucking Vilgax. I read this book online a few months back, and guess what the plot is? Albedo pretending to be Ben with Julie realizing that something is wrong and getting Gwen and Kevin involved. I just wanna talk about this book for a second, Albedo ends up working with the group to get Ben back. Ben was sent to Incarcecon(? can't remember but he was in prison in Albedo's place I'm guessing? He started a riot and tried to get other prisoners out.) I remember this one joke Albedo made about "Looking like Tennyson" and I think it described him smirking in order to fool Vilgax and genuinely working with Gwen, Kevin, and Julie. They used Kevin's ID mask so Albedo could pretend to be Ben, which was neat ngl. His interactions with the group was actually fun, and omg I wish this was somehow canon. At the end it almost seems like Albedo was turning over a new leaf, but nope it was all a ploy to get Ben's Omnitrix, Azmuth teleports in and puts Albedo back in prison. But for a split second Ben thought Albedo went back to being Galvan, and seemed happy about it.

Summary:

UAF Albedo and Omniverse Albedo aren't the same. UAF Albedo just wanted his Galvan body back, but OV Albedo snapped and everything that happened was the result of that. Maybe he snapped after he got the Dream Eater stuck on him, and that pushed him over the edge but who knows. He just wanted everyone to pay, even after he had what he wanted. I wouldn't call him "evil" and I hate how the franchise kept treating him as if he was just an "Evil Ben" when Albedo has ALWAYS been his own person. He just wanted to fix his fuck up, but when he couldn't do that took it out on everyone because human emotions be a bitch on your psyche But maybe I just hyperfixate too much on a fictional character.

Btw: This is sorta Azmuth's fault that Albedo snapped. Ben could have done more, but he's a teenager who was dealing with a Highbreed war the time they met again. He probably wouldn't have gone against Azmuth at that point. Azmuth could've turned Albedo back to normal because even he knew Albedo only wanted the Omnitrix to go back to being a Galvan, but instead imprisoned him then turned him into an 11 year old.

And no this isn't a "Albedo did nothing wrong uwu" post. Albedo was 100% at fault for turning himself into Ben, I'm not denying that. As well as making the choices he did, when all he had to do was explain without the lies. We're also only hearing Azmuth's side of things, and of course since Azmuth is "good" we're expected to take his side. We never heard Albedo's side fully because the narrative didn't allow it. The narrative wanted Albedo to be "bad" so that's what we saw. The narrative didn't allow Albedo to fix his fuck up. Kinda sad really, especially how the franchise treated him at the end.

TL;DR: Albedo has never been an evil Ben, but snapped as time went on because everytime he tried to become Galvan again it was always screwed up. And when he finally became Galvan again, wanted to make everyone suffer for the things he was put through and I can’t really blame him.

#Ben 10 #albedo ben 10 #ben 10 albedo #long post #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 ultimate alien #Allie once again is over analyzing a kid's cartoon #Here's those comments I was referencing in my 'Night of the Living Nightmare' analysis #ben 10 uaf #Albedo deserved better #Albedo isn't an Evil Ben in this essay- #Albedo wasn't 100% innocent either but Azmuth was 100% a dick #Yes I mentioned non canon stuff despite it not adding anything to keep all my Albedo stuff in one post #I might go more in depth about the chapter book cause I enjoyed it and the character interactions were just 10/10 #This was a lot #Allie hyperfixates on a fictional character #Here's the essay no one asked for