#Ben 10 Analysis | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

geekgirles · 1 year

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Nothing I want more than more expansion on how Kevin must’ve felt during the Dagon arc when Gwen was possessed. The ANGST potential if they expanded on that 😭

OH MY GOD, YESSSSSS

The brainwashing!

The Apocalypse Maiden Undertones!!

The potential angst!!!

How it was pretty much glossed over even though it was featured several times in Ultimate Alien!!!!

If I have to choose a favorite Ben 10 iteration, that would be UAF, and especially Alien Force seasons 1 and 2, but even they aren't exempt of flaws or missed opportunities.

For example, is it just me, or is the Gwevin angst always coming from Kevin?

Whenever the focus was on whatever kind of strain their relationship was going through at the moment, the friction always came from Kevin or was related to something he was going through.

I'd say the first time would probably All That Glitters, where Gwen was willing to try going out with him, but Kevin's hesitance kept in the way. Which combined with the hold Michael then had on Gwen, spurned her into trying to move on, while making Kevin jealous.

Then we have their season 3 drama. Which was caused by Kevin's new mutation but, again, wasn't a result of Gwen's actions or her rejecting Kevin now that he was mutated. In fact, Gwen made it clear practically every time the issue came up that she loved Kevin regardless of his outward appearance. It was never her actions that put a strain on their relationship.

It was Kevin's actions and insecurities that got in the way. Which is realistic and to be expected, truth be told. Given how heavily his original mutation back in OS hung on him, anyone would have deep-seated insecurities linked to their looks and the side effects of their powers in Kevin's shoes. But the thing is, during season 3 nothing Gwen did was the origin of the tension between the two, she wasn't the source of the drama, it was Kevin convincing himself that, either Gwen wouldn't love him now that he wasn't "handsome", or that she was taking advantage of the situation to keep him to herself.

In season 3, the source of the conflict was Kevin unknowingly sabotaging himself and his relationship with Gwen.

And then we have the first season of Ultimate Alien, where once again the main conflict between the two is sparked first by Kevin's Osmosian heritage and his relation to Aggregor, and then by another mutation. Only this time, his mutation drives him crazy and power-hungry, so much so, he becomes an even bigger threat than when he was 11.

In my honest opinion, the Absolute Power Arc was top notch in terms of drama and angst. It delved into Kevin's past in the Null Void, we went back to some Tennyson Cousins Quality Time like we hadn't had since the Original Series, the Gwevin scenes were heartwrenching... The actual end, though, is a tad lackluster.

And by this I mean the last scene where Ben and Kevin decide to go grab some Mr Smoothies while ditching Gwen felt like a huge kick in the gut. I'm sorry, but no matter how you look at it, Gwen is the real hero of the arc, not Ben. Sure, Ben had to go all serious and homicidal to highlight the how high the stakes were, but the one who ultimately saved the day was Gwen.

She believed in Kevin from the beginning, which was proven true when he revealed he was actively trying to stay away from her to protect her.

She tracked down Darkstar to recruit him for her plan to bring Kevin back to normal.

She acted as bait to lure Kevin to them.

No matter how you look at it, it was Gwen's beliefs and efforts what brought Kevin back. In the meantime Ben was planning ways to kill him! And you're telling me the two would just shrug her off like that?

Hell, no! Come back and thank my girl profusely, you morons!

Nevertheless, my point still stands: whenever the writers needed to spice things up a little with Gwevin, they went the Kevin angle, never Gwen's.

Par contrast, whenever it looked like Gwen was in danger or risked crossing over to the dark side, it was but an appetiser. The possibility of Gwen going rogue was an idea they kept bringing up, but never took the chance to materialise.

While Kevin got several arcs all about his inner conflict and his mutations and his backstory and whatnot, every single time Gwen was in any sort of danger of suffering the same kind of fate would immediately be resolved or glossed over until it became relevant again.

Literally most of the times Gwen put herself in danger all it took was for Kevin to say he couldn't afford to lose her, or come up with some sort of half-baked plan and POOF! Crisis averted.

No, Gwen will not be going full Anodite on us and lose her humanity.

You think Gwen's going to carelessly put herself in danger even though she's vulnerable to mind control? Dont'cha worry, Kevin's got ya!

And speaking of mind control, you actually thought we'd let Gwen be a pawn to the season's Big Bad for more than two minutes? Oh, you silly goose!

Unfortunately, Gwen getting the short end of the stick happens constantly in this franchise.

No, I'm serious. Even though in UAF the focus was supposed to be on the Ben, Gwen, Kevin trio, the actual focus was always on either Ben or Kevin. Gwen didn't have nearly as many episodes/plots that were indeed focused mostly on her. Even in episodes that were all about magic/mana and sorcery, most of the time she shared the spotlight with another character, if she wasn't outright eclipsed by them. It was usually Charmcaster, but Kevin and even Darkstar stole the spotlight from Gwen.

The only episodes from UAF to Omniverse that I can think of right now that were indeed about Gwen would be What Are Little Girls Made Of?, Time Heals, It's Not Easy Being Gwen, Mud Is Thicker Than Water and maybe Charm School (and even then, a huge part of the episode featured both Hex and Charmcaster more prominently than it did Gwen).

That's it.

Which is why I am so bitter over the fact that we never got an Unhinged Anodite Gwen Arc. Not only because it would have been amazing to see what an Anodite can do when they're not holding back, or even the fact that I am a certified sucker for when one of the most powerful characters in the cast of a show temporarily joins the bad guys, but because it would have been the perfect chance to finally explore the impact Gwen has had on those around her.

And yes, it would have made for some very sweet Gwevin angst.

TL;DR: we were robbed.

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crossroads-of-the-raven · 11 months

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Just Noticed Something

I'm going to be doing a rewatch of Ben 10 from Classic to Omniverse (slow updates) but I just wanted to post something I just realized as I was comparing the two versions of Ben 10,000 from the original series.

First Ben, Gwen and Max (from Ben 10,000 and Ken 10):

But while I was getting these screencaps I noticed something else

The two images above are from Season 3 episode 1: Ben 10,000

(The first is just after ten-year-old Ben and Gwen arrive to the future)

(The second is during the older and young Ben's fight against Vilgax after the three of them fall from Ben's tower HQ)

The picture above is from Season 4 episode 7: Ken 10 (this one is from just after Gwen gives Ken his birthday present)

I know most people I've heard from, believe that the two episodes are around ten years apart due to the changes in Ben, Gwen, and Max (and the absence of Kenny) and maybe that's still true. Maybe the two kids at Kenny's birthday party just have alien aging that makes them look younger - or somthing.

Or maybe the artist were just recycling character designs, IDK - still, it be interesting to explore a way for this all to make sense.

P.S.

Ken 10:

I've heard the whole, 'the cup of water is her present' thing.

Pretty sure I'm counting five presents here (sans the Omnitrix from Ben)

Three presents from the kids, a hoverboard from Max and a pet golem from Gwen.

Probably being redundant by pointing this out, still, wonder what's in the box.

#Ben 10 #Ben 10 Series #Ben 10: Classic #Episode: Ben 10.000 #Episode: Ken 10 #Ben 10 Analysis #Hostess Speaks #Hostess Analysis #Ben 10 - Hostess Analysis

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jackie-sugarskull · 2 years

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After seeing @jennifer-10nyson’s post discussing Four Arms’ height, it got me thinking about another alien in the series whose height was inconsistent; Rath.

Here’s Rath in his debut episode in Alien Force:

Throughout UAF and OV, his height remained pretty consistent for the most part.

However, there was one glaring exception.

In the episode Catfight, Rath was suddenly freaking GIGANTIC. Nearly the size of Humongousaur and Four Arms!

This got me wondering what his actual height is supposed to be, so I checked the wiki, and…

Expardon me, W H A T ? !

#all this time I thought he was maybe a little over 7 feet tall #8 feet tops #but NINE?!#damn he big #big angy tiger boi #ben 10 #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 omniverse #rath #ben 10 rath #four arms #ben 10 four arms #ben 10 analysis

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 months

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The real AI fight

Tonight (November 27), I'm appearing at the Toronto Metro Reference Library with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

On November 29, I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

Last week's spectacular OpenAI soap-opera hijacked the attention of millions of normal, productive people and nonsensually crammed them full of the fine details of the debate between "Effective Altruism" (doomers) and "Effective Accelerationism" (AKA e/acc), a genuinely absurd debate that was allegedly at the center of the drama.

Very broadly speaking: the Effective Altruists are doomers, who believe that Large Language Models (AKA "spicy autocomplete") will someday become so advanced that it could wake up and annihilate or enslave the human race. To prevent this, we need to employ "AI Safety" – measures that will turn superintelligence into a servant or a partner, nor an adversary.

Contrast this with the Effective Accelerationists, who also believe that LLMs will someday become superintelligences with the potential to annihilate or enslave humanity – but they nevertheless advocate for faster AI development, with fewer "safety" measures, in order to produce an "upward spiral" in the "techno-capital machine."

Once-and-future OpenAI CEO Altman is said to be an accelerationists who was forced out of the company by the Altruists, who were subsequently bested, ousted, and replaced by Larry fucking Summers. This, we're told, is the ideological battle over AI: should cautiously progress our LLMs into superintelligences with safety in mind, or go full speed ahead and trust to market forces to tame and harness the superintelligences to come?

This "AI debate" is pretty stupid, proceeding as it does from the foregone conclusion that adding compute power and data to the next-word-predictor program will eventually create a conscious being, which will then inevitably become a superbeing. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding faster and faster horses, we'll get a locomotive:

https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/

As Molly White writes, this isn't much of a debate. The "two sides" of this debate are as similar as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Yes, they're arrayed against each other in battle, so furious with each other that they're tearing their hair out. But for people who don't take any of this mystical nonsense about spontaneous consciousness arising from applied statistics seriously, these two sides are nearly indistinguishable, sharing as they do this extremely weird belief. The fact that they've split into warring factions on its particulars is less important than their unified belief in the certain coming of the paperclip-maximizing apocalypse:

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/effective-obfuscation

White points out that there's another, much more distinct side in this AI debate – as different and distant from Dee and Dum as a Beamish Boy and a Jabberwork. This is the side of AI Ethics – the side that worries about "today’s issues of ghost labor, algorithmic bias, and erosion of the rights of artists and others." As White says, shifting the debate to existential risk from a future, hypothetical superintelligence "is incredibly convenient for the powerful individuals and companies who stand to profit from AI."

After all, both sides plan to make money selling AI tools to corporations, whose track record in deploying algorithmic "decision support" systems and other AI-based automation is pretty poor – like the claims-evaluation engine that Cigna uses to deny insurance claims:

https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-pxdx-medical-health-insurance-rejection-claims

On a graph that plots the various positions on AI, the two groups of weirdos who disagree about how to create the inevitable superintelligence are effectively standing on the same spot, and the people who worry about the actual way that AI harms actual people right now are about a million miles away from that spot.

There's that old programmer joke, "There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't." But of course, that joke could just as well be, "There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand ternary, those who understand binary, and those who don't understand either":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/11/the-ten-types-of-people/

What's more, the joke could be, "there are 10 kinds of people, those who understand hexadecenary, those who understand pentadecenary, those who understand tetradecenary [und so weiter] those who understand ternary, those who understand binary, and those who don't." That is to say, a "polarized" debate often has people who hold positions so far from the ones everyone is talking about that those belligerents' concerns are basically indistinguishable from one another.

The act of identifying these distant positions is a radical opening up of possibilities. Take the indigenous philosopher chief Red Jacket's response to the Christian missionaries who sought permission to proselytize to Red Jacket's people:

https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5790/

Red Jacket's whole rebuttal is a superb dunk, but it gets especially interesting where he points to the sectarian differences among Christians as evidence against the missionary's claim to having a single true faith, and in favor of the idea that his own people's traditional faith could be co-equal among Christian doctrines.

The split that White identifies isn't a split about whether AI tools can be useful. Plenty of us AI skeptics are happy to stipulate that there are good uses for AI. For example, I'm 100% in favor of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group using an LLM to classify and extract information from the Innocence Project New Orleans' wrongful conviction case files:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

Automating "extracting officer information from documents – specifically, the officer's name and the role the officer played in the wrongful conviction" was a key step to freeing innocent people from prison, and an LLM allowed HRDAG – a tiny, cash-strapped, excellent nonprofit – to make a giant leap forward in a vital project. I'm a donor to HRDAG and you should donate to them too:

https://hrdag.networkforgood.com/

Good data-analysis is key to addressing many of our thorniest, most pressing problems. As Ben Goldacre recounts in his inaugural Oxford lecture, it is both possible and desirable to build ethical, privacy-preserving systems for analyzing the most sensitive personal data (NHS patient records) that yield scores of solid, ground-breaking medical and scientific insights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-eaV8SWdjQ

The difference between this kind of work – HRDAG's exoneration work and Goldacre's medical research – and the approach that OpenAI and its competitors take boils down to how they treat humans. The former treats all humans as worthy of respect and consideration. The latter treats humans as instruments – for profit in the short term, and for creating a hypothetical superintelligence in the (very) long term.

As Terry Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax reminds us, this is the root of all sin: "sin is when you treat people like things":

https://brer-powerofbabel.blogspot.com/2009/02/granny-weatherwax-on-sin-favorite.html

So much of the criticism of AI misses this distinction – instead, this criticism starts by accepting the self-serving marketing claim of the "AI safety" crowd – that their software is on the verge of becoming self-aware, and is thus valuable, a good investment, and a good product to purchase. This is Lee Vinsel's "Criti-Hype": "taking press releases from startups and covering them with hellscapes":

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

Criti-hype and AI were made for each other. Emily M Bender is a tireless cataloger of criti-hypeists, like the newspaper reporters who breathlessly repeat " completely unsubstantiated claims (marketing)…sourced to Altman":

https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/111464030855880383

Bender, like White, is at pains to point out that the real debate isn't doomers vs accelerationists. That's just "billionaires throwing money at the hope of bringing about the speculative fiction stories they grew up reading – and philosophers and others feeling important by dressing these same silly ideas up in fancy words":

https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/111464024432217299

All of this is just a distraction from real and important scientific questions about how (and whether) to make automation tools that steer clear of Granny Weatherwax's sin of "treating people like things." Bender – a computational linguist – isn't a reactionary who hates automation for its own sake. On Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 – the excellent podcast she co-hosts with Alex Hanna – there is a machine-generated transcript:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417

There is a serious, meaty debate to be had about the costs and possibilities of different forms of automation. But the superintelligence true-believers and their criti-hyping critics keep dragging us away from these important questions and into fanciful and pointless discussions of whether and how to appease the godlike computers we will create when we disassemble the solar system and turn it into computronium.

The question of machine intelligence isn't intrinsically unserious. As a materialist, I believe that whatever makes me "me" is the result of the physics and chemistry of processes inside and around my body. My disbelief in the existence of a soul means that I'm prepared to think that it might be possible for something made by humans to replicate something like whatever process makes me "me."

Ironically, the AI doomers and accelerationists claim that they, too, are materialists – and that's why they're so consumed with the idea of machine superintelligence. But it's precisely because I'm a materialist that I understand these hypotheticals about self-aware software are less important and less urgent than the material lives of people today.

It's because I'm a materialist that my primary concerns about AI are things like the climate impact of AI data-centers and the human impact of biased, opaque, incompetent and unfit algorithmic systems – not science fiction-inspired, self-induced panics over the human race being enslaved by our robot overlords.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/27/10-types-of-people/#taking-up-a-lot-of-space

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

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electraslight · 11 days

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ben 10 2006 kevin arc: addicts arent good or bad. they can be kind and good and pure and everything a person 'should' be and circumstances can still align and draw them to addiction. kevin is a sweet kid who wants to make friends and is continually shown to be kind when sober, but even in his very first moments it's seen that his trip can drive him to hurt others and himself. he doesnt have any other choice though, because he couldn't survive without his addiction and the power that it gives him. this is understood, and yet ben's arc is about understanding that no matter how much you may care about an addict or a mentally ill loved one, no matter how many chances you try to give them, there comes a point where it is lethal for you to keep trying to help someone who cannot be helped. Ben gives kevin mercy, tools to help himself, and while their might be animosity about it, he really only wants kevin to be ok but even if you believe in someone with all of your soul, you cannot stay with them if they can't value you in the way you value them. Addiction is not a fault, but it is also not an illness that breeds nice people, and continuing to try and help someone who will hurt you for trying is less helping and more self-flaggelation.

ben 10 ultimate alien kevin arc: hey look at this horrible irredeemable criminal junkie lol. everyone can treat him like shit and ignore his feelings because he was on drugs once, and hes even been to jail!! isnt that horrible? doesnt he deserve to be the narrative punching bag? hes an ADDICT he can take it!! look at him getting off the wagon lol, isnt he awful for that? let's have his girlfriend and best friend call him ugly and have him get molested and enslaved!!! also when dealing with a partner going through a violent relapse its totally cool and romantic to 'believe' in him even when he is actively seeking you out to kill you. you should not distance yourself and get yourself to safety because thats LOVE and you can FIX him and ONLY YOU CAN DO THAT. we are a progressive show that has progressive politics

(these are my own interpretations btw i cant argue for intent only what i took away from it. but uaf's botched 'progressiveism' grates on me heavily when even ogs's villians are treated with more sympathy about factors out of their control than one og the teen main characters. ill make a seperate post about botched themes and whitewashing of actual issues later but focusing on this rn bc this is what made kevin resonate with me in the first place and i hate how they botched it)

#ben 10 alien force #ben 10 2006 #kevin levin #kevin's meta analysis

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clingyduoapologist · 11 months

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About time I made a proper pinned LMAOOOO

Anyways-

Hello, yes, it is I, the famous, suave, and dashing tumblr user clingyduoapologist, or clings if you prefer.

He/him dudebro (woahg just like cTommy :0)

Also here is my ao3

Follow if you like cTommy or just really good posts, also if you like randomly being assaulted by atla/percy jackson/Star Wars (maybe assassin’s creed for some reason)

Block if you hate little guys, if you don’t have a soul, if you despise seeing girl bosses winning etc.

Uh don’t really know what to write here but yeah that’s me say hi I don’t bite I prommy prommy prommy stick your hands through the bars of my enclosure please please please ple

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cat-scarr · 6 months

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That scene in “Rules of Engagement” where Ben tries to talk to Julie again while she’s trying to leave with her new replacement boyfriend lives in my head because like despite it being a lost cause, he still tries to say he “promises to always put her first” and that “he can change.” Like, honey no, there are some things you can’t change. You don’t need to be in a relationship that constantly demands that you change. And if that doesn’t work for her, that doesn’t make you bad.

#oh she found someone who can be what she wants???#all that means is that they weren’t compatible long term #and that still doesn’t make him the bad guy :)#framing him as the bad guy in this situation is insane idc that they do in canon #that’s even fucking worse #benlie #Ben 10 #ben 10 love interests #ben tennyson #analysis files #rules of engagement

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wen-kexing-apologist · 10 months

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Compartmentalizing

So I was re-watching Step By Step Episode 10 yesterday when I started to notice something. I was planning on writing about it today, but @chicademartinica beat me to the punch line.

HOWEVER! There is more I can build off of here and so I am gonna!

I was talking with @shortpplfedup today and she started a fabulous analysis of Jeng that I hope she will post…

When she mentioned that Jeng was trying to compartmentalize Pat from the rest of his life, and both of these things (chica’s post and Nini’s brilliance) spoke to an observation I had also had, and that I touched on in my post the other day.

Boxes.

Last week @respectthepettymade a wonderful post about how Jeng has always been boxed in, separate from Pat and the rest, and how the preview for Episode 10 had Jeng stepping past that barrier line

and well, you would think that after crossing that barrier, that Jeng and Pat would no longer be confined. You’d think that they’d have eliminated everything that was holding them back…

But instead, every single scene with Jeng and Pat together boxes them in. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

And I AM TEARING AT THE CURTAINS BECAUSE OF IT

Scene 1

Pat has his third eye opened thanks to everyone’s favorite Gay Fairy Godmother, Chot and has decided it is time to get over the hang ups he has and be honest with Jeng about his feelings. It is Jeng’s birthday, so on the way to confess his mutual interest, he stops to get a cake (#anticarrotcake for those of you on tumblr following the carrot cake wars)

Pat is boxed in by the display case looking at a cake he is going to get for Jeng.

Scene 2

Pat arrives at the kitchen, and calls after Jeng, who at first remains with his back fully turned, unable to look in Pat’s direction. Until he gets the courage to turn around and

Here Jeng is, in his little box, all alone, but here Pat comes, approaching the edge of the barrier, stepping right up to the line

And collapsing over it, entering Jeng’s space, entering Jeng’s world, barreling right into it face first.

And that is where he and Jeng will stay for the entire episode, inside their own box, inside their own little world.

Scene 3

They finish eating each other and eat cake instead and are immediately trapped together here, walls on either side as they start navigating being openly affection with each other (and perform a phone screen ad) they don’t know it yet, but they’ve already sealed the fate on, and created an inevitable downfall for themselves…at this point though, they’ve merely missed the “turn back, unstable ground ahead” sign.

Scene 4

X amount of time passes and we see Pat and Jeng trying (and failing) to be discreet at the office, going so far as to hold hands, touch arms and legs, and play footsie under the desk

This is a little less obvious of a box but the arms of their office chairs and the side of the desk create a box inside of which their physical affection for one another can exist.

Scene 5

Work ends, Pat and Jeng get in Jeng’s car and the entire day’s worth of unrestrained sexual tension comes crashing together.

Here we actually end up getting a double box, with Pat and Jeng enclosed by the car window, and Jeng’s car, existing as a current space for intimacy with Pat is also sitting in between two barriers (the window support structures in the background). They have had to spend the entire day being aware of the people around them, and while they have ultimately failed to be completely separate in the office, the second they are alone, they re-enter their own little world. Closed off from everything around them.

Scene 6

Jeng is openly flirting with Pat during office badminton, and being so obvious about it that his assistant notices and Chot has to bail him out by asking Jeng for water too so it won’t look like he is favoring Pat. Notably, the three queer men in the office are closed in, closed off from the rest of the group, in their own world. Keep the fact that Chot can enter their box in mind as we continue.

(Chot's hair in this scene is one of the best parts of the episode)

This moment, these barriers are where Jeng and Pat have no longer accidentally missed the “turn back now, unstable ground” sign on their path of doom, but have found caution tape and ducked underneath it to press on.

Scene 7

We cut to Jeng’s condo, and the first image we see is of Pat standing alone inside the double barrier, admiring the view in front of him, we’re about to start heading towards Pat’s office homophobia journey and we’re getting a little foreshadowing here that Jeng is going to end up leaving Pat to his own devices.

But for now, Jeng enters the scene, enters the box where he and Pat can exist together, can share space together, can be open and affectionate and attracted to each other.

Jeng asks Pat to come with him to give some leftover food from the bakery to the homeless.

Scene 8

Jeng and Pat give away the food and go and sit together under the bridge, where they are immediately boxed in by concrete pillars and discussing cruelty. This is where Jeng and Pat are at their peak. At their strongest, and you can see that because they are literally sandwiched between two concrete pillars rather than thin metal lines of window panes.

They are at their strongest as a couple here, because this is the truest and most honest part of Jeng that he has shown to Pat since they started fucking. (And I will be referring to what they have now as fucking, they are in lust, they are in like, but they are not in love). This is where Pat has his first opportunity to get to know Jeng a bit better, what his mindset away from work is, how he is trying to solve the world’s problems. Pat gets to see the Jeng that Jeng has often had to tuck away, here in their own little world.

And then this person enters, the artist of the stick figure drawing that sits above Pat and Jeng’s head.

Remember Chot? Chot, gay man, one of three in the office? Remember how he was able to enter Pat and Jeng’s barriers at badminton? Alright, well, here again we have someone who doesn’t quite…enter the boundary, but does cross in to it, stands in front of Jeng and Pat in a way that does not place them all the way outside of it especially because his drawing is inside their boundary.

Why is this important?

Well, I wrote about this the other night but that person only says two lines to Jeng and Pat:

“That picture was drawn by me, you look the same,”

“It looks like us”

Which means I have decided to interpret this character confirming his own queerness. So a second queer person is able to join Pat and Jeng in their little bubble. Jeng and Pat have hiked the trail, they have missed one sign, ignored the other, and have found their pristine view.

But, remember, the ground is unstable and the earth is starting to quake (and not just from them...nevermind)

Scene 9

Jeng enters a work meeting with Pat, Chot, and his busybody of an assistant. Again, Jeng is boxed in, but this time he is alone. He is compartmentalizing, trying to compartmentalize his life, here he is trying to put himself back into the box of Boss, and on the surface he appears that way, but in reality Pat is sitting before him. So while Jeng may be trapped here, in the expectations of his family to run this part of the business, he is looking forward, looking forward to Pat.

And where Jeng’s box in this scene is made of glass (we’ve been talking a lot about glass closets recently with this show….anyway) the assistant is also boxed in…around wood. Something you can’t see through. Boxed in, however, by a door. Something that can be opened, something that can be opened and reveal something beyond. Pat has entered Jeng’s world and they have spent all their time together inside that world, inside that barrier, unable to look out, and unwilling to see what is happening around them.

Scene 10

One of the least obvious visible barriers and one of the most obvious emotional barriers

Jeng sandwiched between Pat and Pat’s Dad. But he’s still boxed in here, with the top of that window wall running just barely above his head. Visually, he is still caged in here. But this barrier is made up of potential family, and Pat is out to his father, in a way that I don’t think Jeng is to his. (By that I mean I think, no I am sure, that Jeng’s Dad knows he’s gay, but it’s not exactly like Jeng can take Pat around to meet his pops. Especially not after their first encounter….). Jeng is undeterred, refers to Pat’s father as “Dad” does not try to defend himself against his angry ranting or attempts at instigating a fight cause of how many nights Jeng left Pat crying.

Scene 11

Unsurprisingly I have many additional thoughts about this scene and the way they utilize the boundaries here, but I’m going to save the additional thoughts for a different post.

There are many many many many instances in this scene where Pat and Jeng are trapped in a frame, but I’m using this one for the Dutch angle, because Dutch angles make things seems off-kilter. And unfortunately for Pat and Jeng that’s the way this is going, their foundation has not been built up the way it needs to be for them to be strong and stable. But they are too wrapped up in each other to see the ways things are beginning to turn.

Scene 12

Boxed in yet again, this time with Ae and Kanon pushing themselves between them. But this barrier, this box wasn’t of their own making, this is one that Jeng and Pat were invited in to, (like literally invited to) and it is a box they can not stand together in, they must stand apart.

Scene 13

Jeng is riding the high of unlimited access to young, talented, and enthusiastic dick and starts imagining a wedding between him and Pat. Once again they are boxed in by the archway, and personally I think it is worth noting that the most intricate, decorated, and beautiful barrier Pat and Jeng are placed inside of this entire episode…is in a fantasy.

Scene 14

Jeng calls Pat into his office to talk about the Forge Project and a promotion to manager!

Now, obviously all visual media is up to the interpretation of the viewer. So if you will allow me to be absolutely ridiculous in my interpretation of this shot. The barrier around them here is a little less obvious (similarly to the barrier from Scene 2 when Jeng has Pat pressed up against the glass). The barrier here is made up by two separate walls, one at an angle, and one side of the barrier is hidden by Jeng’s shelves.

Personally, I think Pat and Jeng feel like they are being careful at work, they are certainly not maintaining healthy distances, and they are by far pushing their luck, but the affection we have seen them directing towards each other in the moments in the office are 90% eye contact, 10% everything else so I’m certain in their minds, they are like ‘yeah, no one knows’ and that’s reflected in way this barrier is framed. At first glance the scene looks open, like they have freedom to move around, the windows show the city beyond and so you have all this…space. But the barrier is there, because they aren’t capable of staying in the world outside.

Scene 15

Pat is left to his own devices, Jeng nowhere to be seen, and suddenly the real world is knocking at his door. Pat is left to view homophobic comments about him from the other side of a wall. From the inside, looking out, Pat is suddenly enlightened to the real world consequences of his relationship with Jeng, and those consequences are pressing right up against him. He is trapped here, he has no room to move around, he has no space to breathe in, he cannot fit anyone else in this space with him. He is alone and being crushed.

Scene 16

More homophobia, more vitriol thrown in Pat’s direction, and another box Pat’s found himself in. One he can’t leave, one that makes him a spectacle to others. Pat is on display. Not only does the window trap Pat inside it, but the way the whiteboard and the perpendicular dividers for the cubicles are placed fully makes it feel like Pat’s in an enclosure. Like he’s at the zoo, like he’s putting on a show. Ying and the woman in blue are on the edges of this barrier, the woman in blue peers at Pat in his enclosure, Ying reaches through the bars to keep Pat there. The only person who is fully inside that barrier with him?

Chot.

Once again, the other gay in the office is able to exist inside the boundaries. In this case the boundaries seem more sinister. These boundaries weren’t built by Jeng or Pat, they were created by the other people in the office.

Scene 17

Meanwhile, Jeng is being alerted to the fact there are rumors circulating about him and Pat. But Jeng doesn’t care. Because Jeng has money, has power, and has a second job should all of this go South.

It is as Nini said, Jeng is compartmentalizing hard. Here Jeng is initially standing outside the barrier. Refusing to enter the business side of things. He’s blending in with his surroundings here almost, like if he stood still enough people might not notice him. He doesn’t want to hear anything about the rumors, so he refuses to leave the barriers he has created around himself. But just like Pat in Scene 15, the walls around Jeng are closing in, that space Jeng has around him that is supposed to be for him and Pat is no longer big enough for both of them.

Jeng is told that Pat needs to be taken off the Forge project. Jeng is told the Board is going after Pat.

Reluctantly Jeng steps back into the corporate world.

Scene 18

A long, hard, emotionally taxing day at work for Pat and we get the next box

Okay, I lied, it’s not a box. Pat is standing at the end of a walking path and is no longer able to move forward. And though logically we know that there is legitimately space on either side of Pat that would allow him to walk around or exit, the way the cubicles line up make it look like they are trapping Pat in.

Pat cannot move forward, his next move can only be walking back.

Scene 19

Pat and Jeng are cuddling in the evening and the events around the office are clearly weighing heavy on Pat’s mind, but as we know by now, Jeng is compartmentalizing, Jeng is ignoring the world around him, he doesn’t want to acknowledge it. At the beginning of the episode Pat entered in to Jeng’s world, stepped through Jeng’s barriers, stayed in there with him.

But now?

Now things are changing. Now Pat has seen what lies beyond the walls they’ve put around themselves.

And when Pat suggests he and Jeng stay apart for a little bit, while Pat is laying in Jeng’s space, Jeng does not want to entertain the conversation and tries to shut it down in every way he can.

And he is only successful when he moves in to Pat’s space, but it’s not because Jeng’s successfully soothed Pat’s fears. No, it’s because Pat gave up trying to express his concerns to Jeng.

And Pat is left alone, stuck in his own head, while Jeng rests peacefully outside Pat’s world.

Scene 20

I have to give it up to Pat for valuing himself enough to ditch Jeng in the middle of the night, and then go over Jeng’s head to Jeng’s father and resign from the company. Pat’s pissed, Pat is being the responsible one, and Jeng knows he fucked up. When we see him sitting in that conference room he is moping. Full on kicked puppy dog, and I’d hope that that would be enough for Jeng to do some introspection, and to finally stop trying to keep Pat separate from everything else in his life. But we will have to wait and see how the next two episodes go.

We end the episode with Jeng, sipping coffee, stuck back between two barriers that can barely fit him.

That is every single scene with Jeng and Pat together and even a few where they are apart, and this whole essay has been my evidence that they are throwing walls up everywhere this episode.

The lesson here, kids, is that Jeng and Pat rushed in to this too fast. They spent all this time in a slow burn because they were valuing the workplace, because Pat was trying to get over his crush on his boss, because there were a lot of fucking considerations that needed to happen.

But Jeng grew impatient, and got swept up in the moment, and Pat was stuck right in there with him. They closed themselves off to everything around them. They stopped paying attention to anything but each other, which meant they weren’t careful, which meant other people caught on, which meant that Pat, who has no power in this company, was forced to face reality and Jeng, who has power and is happy for the first time in who knows how long, stuck his head in the sand, refused to look at Pat’s reality, and ultimately let Pat down in a big way, and he’s gonna suffer for it. They are both going to suffer for it.

Onwards towards the Episode 11 Curse!

#step by step #step by step the series #step by step meta #step by step analysis #step by step ep 10 #manben #benman #patjeng #jengpat #jeng x pat #pat x jeng #man trisanu #ben bunyapol #dee hup house

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kariachi · 3 months

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Skimming a transcript of What Are Little Girls Made Of and damn, no wonder that girl jumped when Kevin said he wanted her to stick around. Verdona goes 'hey, run away to another planet with me, a relative you've known less than three hours' and when she turns to her parents for help her dad is just 'well I never got the chance to run off to another planet' and her mom- of "polite people don't glow" fame- starts off with "we hoped you'd take after my side of the family" before going down the 'we won't stop you' path.

Because gods know that shit's what a teenager who just had their life turned upside down wants to hear. Not 'you should sleep on it' or 'slow down mom you've been back like an hour' but 'I never got this chance' and 'we hoped you wouldn't be like this' and 'we won't stop you going'.

And of course Verdona just immediately 'that's that settled let's go' with no actual input from Gwen because she's like that. So Gwen runs off because everything is a lot, and the boys follow, and then Ben decides to be supportive. By telling her that yeah they'll miss her if she leaves for possibly forever, but it's okay because they'll easily be able to replace her on the team.

Just, Benjamin.

This is what happens when you're too focused on 'must be supportive' that you fail to read a fucking room. Of course Gwen immediately goes 'then I won't go' when Kevin says he wants her around, because she's got her grandma going 'fuck this shit come with me and you'll actually be happy', and her dad going 'this is opportunity I never got', and her mom's bullshit plus 'we're not gonna do anything to stop you going', and Ben immediately segueing how they can replace her- Poor girl is overwhelmed and uncertain and most definitely feels like all her relatives except the one who didn't give two shits until she showed the Spark are going 'we don't care about having you here or if we ever see you again'.

And then Kevin, who I am reasonably certain is a case of 80% selfishness and 20% being the only person here who can read a room, when asked if he agrees with Ben, says no. Say's he can't believe she'd even consider it. Says he wants her around.

And Gwen immediately takes it, because this girl is looking for fucking permission. Seriously. We've seen enough of the Tennysons to know they're a 'but they're family' family, and Gwen was raised to be very polite, and Verdona's a fucking whirlwind of a personality coming in like a tornado to flip her life and try to take her away, ten to one Gwen honestly at this point feels like all the pressure is on her to say yes. Verdona wants her to come along and while it's not their intention her family's attempts at support easily come off as 'are you still here?' And the things Gwen herself says on the matter, immediately going to how she'd probably be gone a long time, that she might not even come back, and her wondering if she even belongs- When Ben says they'd miss her she actually asks him if they really will. To which his response is functionally 'yes but we can replace you'.

Any doubts and uncertainties she already had, her family is just compounding them, and I think by the time she turns to Kevin she knows she doesn't want to leave. I think she always did, but with everything happening at once... I think she knew she didn't want to go, but was beginning to wonder if anyone would care if she did. She mentions having never felt entirely like she fit in, and with her mom's shit... Having everyone going 'yeah you should go right now we support you without question' just makes her feel like maybe she should go, whether she wants to or not, because clearly here, the people she's closest to are all but packing her things for her.

They don't mean to come off like that, they only want to support her, but they're so focused on supporting what they think she wants that they don't stop to learn what she does want, or even give her the time to figure that out herself.

Then she turns to Kevin. And Kevin's quote- "Why would you even think about it? I want you around."

And immediately 1) any doubts she's been having as regards going are validated in that 'why would you think about it', because she does not know this woman and is being asked to give up everything she does know on no notice for her promises, and 2) even if her grandma only gives a fuck because she's Sparky and her family are damn near shoving her out the door, somebody wants her around. The world won't just go 'whoo, finally got rid of her' if she leaves, at least one person would be sad to see her go.

Somebody agrees that this isn't just a 100% great deal we're so happy for you. Somebody will care if she's gone.

And that's all she needs, is someone to back her up on not going, and to make it known that she's wanted where she is. That the hole she would leave can't just have somebody else slotted into it and everything's fine.

And of course it's the guy from the broken home that gave it to her.

#ben 10 #ben 10 analysis #gwen tennyson #ben also insists they're practically rolling in people to replace her with like boy you have alan #and he's too good for you fuckers #gwen in this episode needs a hug and a nap #ben too but to a much lesser degree #he already hadn't earned as much of it and then he lost some privileges by segueing immediately #from 'we'll miss you' to 'don't worry you're replaceable'#that shit's why i had to make this post #'why does team tennyson need a con artist?' because nobody in this family can read a fucking room

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phoenix-before-the-flame · 2 years

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Day 8- Fashion

Erza finally gave in to all the hounding and finally did the modelling gig

#fairy tail #fairy tail fanart #erza scarlet #ft erza #blacktober 2022 #blacktober #fanart #digital drawing #digital art #my art #phoenix draws #even tho its half past midnight its still counts as being the 8th #just trust me #now if u excuse me i got a hour and a half ben 10 analysis video to go watch

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sparklinpixiedust · 2 years

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The Flash

I know ben 10 is technically DC , but this is this first time I've actually seen another actual DC hero being mentioned in the ben 10 universe.

#ben 10 #ben 10 uaf #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 analysis #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 omniverse #b10 #ben ten #ben tennyson #the flash #dcmultiverse

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geekgirles · 2 years

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So I know a usual criticism regarding the introduction of Anodites, and hence linking magic and more specifically Gwen's powers to aliens, is about how they sort of "robbed" the franchise of one of its core elements. But have you ever thought that, given the additional information from the OS, something like that might have been Man of Action's intention all along?

I mean, Omniverse retconned Bezel as a part of the franchise. He was introduced as the greatest sorcerer in the universe, as a person, but that was only because the team couldn't get their hands on all the pop-ups from the original show.

You know what the pop-ups said?

This:

Bezel was never supposed to be a great sorcerer, but a different dimension that was more technologically advanced than Earth! The charms only seemed magical because they were literally too advanced for humans to really understand how they worked.

That's how Gwendolyn was able to wield them in the future even though she destroyed them years ago. She went to the dimension of Bezel and asked for new ones.

So given the charms' initial origins, the fact that there were more advanced magical artifacts that, for some reason, Gwen could handle just fine (the Staff of Ages), and the heavy sci-fi setting of the show, is it really that difficult to believe what we came to know as magic was, deep down, some sort of alien energy/technology we didn't understand or know of?

Because it that was Man of Action's intentions all along, then having Gwen's proficiency with magic be due to belonging to a race of mage aliens is a perfect way to answer the questions raised back in the OS.

Now, this admittedly seems like it's disregarding a beloved aspect of the franchise entirely. I personally would feel cheated too if it turned out there was no such thing as magic in the first place, but luckily UAF managed to avoid just that with the introduction of the Alpha Runa and Ledgerdomain.

Although I just found this pop-up that seems to indicate Hex and Charmcaster were originally intended to be from Bezel, as well.

Having said that, if you ask me, I think that in the end the UAF team did a perfect job at blending both interpretations.

If Man of Action did intend to reveal magic was just something too advanced for humans or that we simply didn't understand or know of, the introduction of Anodites and mana covered that splendidily. And on the other hand, the Ledgerdomain lore served its purpose of keeping magic alive and real.

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zonedelicious · 1 month

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Defending Ben 10 Alien Force Season 3 With My Life!

(An analysis of Ben's character and why I find it consistent up to this point)

This essay thingy is part one of a bigger project where I rewatch all of Ben 10 and look back on the series. A sort of retrospective.

Originally I wanted to watch all the shows, and then write one big post. But I decided to do it in parts to make it easier. And since the final season of alien force is largely hated, I thought I should focus on it specifically (since I have very different opinions than everyone on this).

Now when starting I did expect to see Ben's character be inconsistent, going from classic, to alien force, to season 3 of alien force. That is the popular opinion online and the one I had as a kid. Ben goes from childish kid, to mature teen, to an even more childish kid.

So I'm sure a lot of people are going to be shocked when I say that not only do I completely disagree with this perspective, I found Ben's character strangely consistent through both shows and I think he only becomes more nuanced and interesting by the end.

First I think most people who say Ben is either childish, or mature, or a psychopath, don't really know what these words mean, or don't even understand how Ben's character traits work.

(the psycho thing we'll get to in the next post since we haven't gotten to ultimate alien yet)

Does being mature mean you can't be petty or selfish sometimes? Does having negative traits automatically make you a child? This is the kind of flaw in ben 10 discussion I have noticed with this rewatch, we associate bad traits with regression and good traits with development. But that is very shallow way to look at fiction. Characters can have more than one trait, they can even have conflicting traits. And character development can also include negative development.

I think Ben's maturity is something that's greatly overstated, because his personality in Alien Force is a trait he has shown in the classic series many times. And by boiling him down to childish and mature Ben, it takes away a lot of the nuance he has as a character.

So enough about that, let's go back to the beginning.

Ben 10 (the original show)

The start of the series shows us that Ben is a kid who just wants to sit back and enjoy life, but hates bullies and wants to help others. And also he really loves his grandpa (this is a clue that will help us later).

Throughout the first season Ben struggles with being a hero. He struggles to differentiate helping people selflessly, and helping people because he gets a kick out of it. For a 10 year old his behavior is very realistic. Of course he wants to be seen as a big shot and be validated for his actions.

It isn't until Max is hospitalized that Ben finally realises the dangers of the world he's in. That's when we see Ben drop the hero act and turn into a scared kid. We see him at his most vulnerable. The first look at the real Ben.

Ben and Max fight a lot in the original show, but despite that Max is probably the most important person in Ben's life. Even more than his parents. And I think it's largely because Ben wishes he can be more free like his grandpa. Living in an rv and going wherever you want. So losing Max for 10 year old Ben is the worst thing that can happen to him. He not only looks up to grandpa Max, he idolises him and wants to follow in his footsteps. Which becomes more obvious once Ben finds out about the Plumbers. And now season 2 is about Ben becoming an even bigger hero.

The first season definitely has the most consistent narrative of the classic series. I think Ben doesn't really learn much until the movie. He does learn to be closer with his family, but there's no real challenge for him like the first season. People will say this is the show recycling his character arc, which I sort of get, but it's not the same to me. Ben isn't being challenged on the same level, he's just going through episodic cartoon plots. A lot of it isn't serious so Ben isn't really being serious. To him he's the cool alien with a badass grandfather and can solve any problem. It's all a fun adventure to him.

Even when he meets his future self the message is that Ben being a kid and having fun is what makes him Ben. It's future Ben who has to learn to have fun and be a kid again. A clever twist on the time travel trope.

Despite that Ben is shown to be more responsible with the hero stuff. He tries to help others not just by literally saving their lives, but also talking to them, or standing up to villains. Kevin being the best example. Ben tries to befriend him many times, but will also risk his own life to stop Kevin from hurting Gwen. Which at the moment Ben didn't even have the Omnitrix at the end of season 2. We see that despite being a kid he's also gotten braver.

Another note, Gwen and Ben have a pretty good relationship from the start. While they do fight it's never anything serious, they're just being kids and fooling around. The kind of childish arguments you forget in an hour. Yet they're very close and love goofing around together. You can tell that they care for each other despite the petty banter.

Of course once we get to the secret of the Omnitrix (the true ending of the first show imo) Ben's character is finally given its conclusion for the classic series. Here Max's role is swapped with Tetrax, Ben looks up to Tetrax in a similar way, and while Tetrax is friendly, he's also the guy who really knows how to get Ben to reflect on his actions. Once Ben thinks he has lost Gwen he is back to the scared vulnerable kid. We see all his aggression, how he blames himself, how all that weight is really hard for him to process at such a young age.

What's even better about this is how the movie starts with Ben causing trouble for Gwen and they get in a fight. But Gwen still sneaks into Tetrax's ship to help Ben. So losing Gwen is not only him losing his cousin. Ben's losing someone he felt responsible for. He's failing Gwen, himself, and grandpa Max all at the same time.

Of course Gwen is alive but it doesn't change that Ben has finally opened up about his insecurities and we finally get a full look into his inner self. Which brings us to...

Alien Force, the show that made Ben mature (or did it?)

Now remember everything I said about his character? Now think about the plot of alien force. Ben realises his grandfather is missing, there's an alien conspiracy that his grandfather entrusted him to solve, and even an old foe is there he needs to ally with.

Ben is essentially forced to take up the role of grandpa Max in the story. And for a 15 year old that's a lot of pressure to take.

I'd say Ben's character shift for Alien Force is not only organic, it's the natural follow up to his character arc in the classic show. As someone who's always seeking validation now finally being put in a position where he has to be the person he always looked up to. Sure the stakes were high in classic, but Max (and Tetrax) was always there to help and give Ben motivation.

There's an aura of tension early on as Ben still doesn't even trust Kevin. He doesn't understand the new Omnitrix or the new aliens. He has to watch max die and still keep his cool. Because he was trusted this role and can't let Max down.

I don't think Ben matured, he was forced into a role of being the mature adult at 15.

Even Ben's parents are mad at him for doing all this. As they should because Ben is still a kid. He shouldn't be risking his life. He should literally be at the club. The first thing he does before he puts on the Omnitrix again is talk to Gwen. Because he needs her help. And Kevin. Later from other plumber kids too. He isn't doing it all by himself, and he understands that he can't do it alone to an extent. But despite that there's still that urge to be the leader. The one who has to be in charge all the time. He wants to prove himself after all.

Ben's ability to befriend others, is ultimately his strongest trait in the first 2 seasons. It's what ends up saving the universe after all. Something that wasn't all that present in the original show, but can be seen through characters like Kevin, who Ben tried to help many times. And now he's his best ally.

A lot of this is very subtle, and some of it might even be my own interpretation of the story. I don't know if the writers intended all this nuance I'm describing. It is only interesting to look back and analyse it.

The mystery and the slow lumin threat of the highbreed is a good plot for Ben's arc of taking up responsibility. It's something he can't directly solve as easily as in the classic show. Where in the classic show any problem he faced was over in 1 or 2 episodes. All mystery was behind the scenes with him not being aware.

But now it's different. The mystery comes crashing into him. He literally got a football medal the same day he found out his grandfather has went missing because of a secret alien invasion that's been going on for a long time. Again the pressure he's put under comes at him suddenly and he has to adjust to it all in the moment. He's 15 years old.

And despite all odds Ben comes through and stops the invasion, saving the entire galaxy. With the help of all the people he befriended of course. Ben finally proved himself to his grandfather and to the entire universe that he is worthy of being a hero. In the classic series he showed he was a hero, but was still a kid who had learning to do. But now he proved he can stand on his own as a man at age 15.

So naturally Ben took a break.

The part where I shamelessly defend season 3 with my life

The shift for season 3 is off (especially when the first episode starts with an argument we have no context for) and I understand some of this was a mandate, yet I love it. It's a strange shift at first until you start to think what is actually going on in Ben's head.

He finally did what he always wanted to achieve. Become a great hero like his grandfather. The galaxy loves him. And all that validation is more than enough to tell him to relax for now.

Ben had to take a break after all the pressure that was placed on him. He needed a break. He needed to be a teenager again who watches cartoons and has fun. It's important for his mental health after all.

Of course this is a cartoon and he isn't real. But this analysis isn't about that, it's about trying to understand what kind of person Ben is.

Still i do not see how Ben is stupid or childish in these episodes. Relaxed and silly yeah, but in a teenager way, not a 10 year old Ben way. With the gold poop episode for instance I went in expecting to hate it, but now I love it. It's a decent mystery, and Ben's chill attitude makes sense for the situation. It's a celebration and Ben loves to party. Of course he'd be silly with the little aliens.

What I have noticed however is despite Ben being relaxed he's still pretty clever and mature throughout season 3. His quick thinking is actually a major part of this season. With it being directly referenced and even being how he saves the day at the end of the season. I did not expect the show to directly point out Ben's most useful trait and then focus on it durring what's basically his downfall arc.

To reference a few times Ben does this in this season:

In the vreedle episode, Julie emergency calls Ben and Ben shows up seconds later. He didn't wait to think, he arrived as fast as possible once finding out she's in danger.

In the episode where Ben is trapped in the null void without the Omnitrix, we see him actually surviving and doing smart things like covering himself in mud so he won't get spotted.

In the plumber kids episode, Ben is playing the role of the villain mastermind and he has to quickly adapt to the situation and train these kids while not breaking character.

In Charmcaster's debut episode, Ben calls out Kevin for not trusting Gwen. Ben being the mature one in this situation.

We see Ben hasn't changed at all from previous seasons. Season 3 having some of his best moments even. What has changed is the context and circumstances of his actions. He's trying to stay cool and simple because he wants to live his childhood stress free, even if the universe keeps calling him back over and over again, he wants to stay a kid. And that's interesting. We haven't seen that in ben yet. In the classic show he was trying to be a big hero. But now he's tired of all that weight on his shoulders.

Unfortunately the universe keeps calling for his return. The moment Ben tries to relax Vilgax is back. He has taken over 10 planets. And has killed the galactic enforcers trio (they are 100% dead he literally killed 3 side characters just like that). And Ben of course does the reasonable thing and tries to hack the Omnitrix yet again. With horrible results.

People try to use this as an example of Ben being dumb but you gotta realise he's panicking and not thinking straight, and the result is him causing a mess for himself and Kevin. The show is aware Ben is in the wrong here and his actions have consequences. The rest of the season will spend its time exploring Ben's actions and how his quick thinking is both his strongest weapon, as well as his biggest flaw.

Anyway the fight with Vilgax is brilliant and really shows how much Ben had grown. With the return of Diamondhead being both nostalgic and a great way to show his growth. As well as giving Ben another victory that increases his huge ego.

But I must also mention the visuals being beautiful themselves. Season 3 of Alien Force has a subtle upgrade in visuals that I never see mentioned. Everything is more colorful, backgrounds more interesting, the animation more smooth, and the storyboarding is simply wonderful. Don't know why people never talk about this. I guess it will ruin the narrative this is the worst season ever made because of like 4 boring episodes. But I digress.

Still apparently people hate this fight too and claim this scene RUINED Vilgax. How? The only argument I see is he got defeated too easily which.. Have you watched the classic show? Vilgax gets defeated in one single episode by a 10 year old. Vilgax is actually stronger in Alien Force if anything. I don't get how this ruined him at all.

Don't get me wrong. I also prefer his original design and personality. I think this was a poor choice to change him so drastically when the point was bringing back an old foe. But that doesn't mean he's weak. He's clearly stronger. He does a good job fighting Ben. And has even killed 3 characters that you'd expect wouldn't die considering they showed up in a ben 10k episode.

(remember when I said I will be fighting for my life here? I wasn't kidding)

The rest of Season 3 is very episodic ,which is an interesting shift from the previous 2 seasons since they didn't have to make it like this. They had more episodes this time too and cartoon network wasn't against plot or lore. So I'd say this was more of a creative choice than a mandate. Ben's more relaxed so we go back to less world ending threats. Which is good imo because the best standalone episodes are in this season.

Notably Gwen and Kevin get a good focus here (even Julie who should have been the 4th member). With Gwen's best episode so far is in this season. We get more character development for the other 3 protags. And it's very much needed.

Gwen I think didn't get much in the first 2 seasons. She did feel a bit of a downgrade from her classic self. Now however her rivalry with Charmcaster is back, she has her magic, and she has one of the best episodes in the season. The time travel episode is beautiful both visually and naratively, not to mention it's basically writen like a Doctor Who episode, and you gotta love that. But what I love more is how we see Gwen making a huge mistake. Gwen so far hasn't been writen with flaws, unlike Ben and Kevin she isn't given as much depth. So to have an episode that gives Gwen time to make a mistake and fix it, while showing all the effort she'd go through to help Kevin. It was very much needed. Her character deserves more moments like this.

Julie's relationship with Ben is given a bit of drama but in a way where they do communicate and aren't in anyway toxic. I hear this is when their relationship fell off but I don't see it. Their arguments are something Gwen and Kevin often have too and are only there to strengthen their bond. Julie definitely needs to be characterized outside being Ben's girlfriend though, but she's never in a position where she's just Ben's girlfriend. If anything her friendship with Gwen is given more spotlight. Her last appearance for the season being her hanging out with Gwen. Julie definitely deserved to be more than just a side character.

On the other end Kevin gets a huge upgrade with his story line being imo significantly better than what they originally had planned. Originally the story was going to have Kevin turn evil and I am grateful they saved that story line for a later season while this one builds up to it more organically. Here we see how desperate and insecure Kevin is. He even goes back to his more evil self at times. But never too much. His badness is due to his circumstances. He wants to turn back to human. He gets angry. He doesn't trust Gwen. He teams up with villains. But all because he's being pushed into being vulnerable rather than him turning evil suddenly. It's a good small arc that builds up to something bigger later.

As you can see I value character flaws as much as their positive traits. To me a character is less interesting if the story avoids giving them a human element. That's why the character assassination of Ben Tennyson that people talk about to me is one of the best things to ever happen to him.

One episode I HATED as a kid, but now love is the one where the gang go to an alien planet to solve a conflict between 2 identical armies. Kid me hated this because Ben kept messing up and there was no solution in the end. Now however I see the political genius that it is.

While I think this was meant to parody the political system of the US (one group being red and one blue doesn't make it all that subtle), i think the other message I got from it is showing the problems with white saviorism. Ben comes to a planet he has zero political understanding of, and decides he knows how to solve all their problems and can save the day in like 3 hours. Of course he won't and of course he'd end up making things worse.

If you're expecting things to actually be solved and characters to make logical and satisfying actions then this episode is definitely one of the bad ones. But for me, someone who likes to see how characters mess up and the story to collapse on them I really found this episode enjoyable. It's also just very funny. Ben comes off as very comedic to me in his attempt to be helpful and reasonable. He's not being immature but he's being very self centered and too up his own ass to notice that he's coming off as a dick.

I think that's what this season is focusing on. Not Ben becoming immature or childish as like a singular character trait he switches to. No, what the season is telling us is despite Ben being a great hero and a quick thinker, he's also easily able to fall into the arrogant asshole type if he doesn't control himself.

In the ghostfreak episode we even see how despite being his quick thinking self, he doesn't trust Gwen and Kevin as much as before. His ego is getting to him and others are taking notice.

Ben's behavior to me comes off as very realistic. I cannot hate a character who's flawed in a way that a real person is flawed. I don't see a switch in personality. I see one person displaying their traits in different ways depending on the scenario they are in.

So why people hate this season so much I will never understand.

Anyway let's talk about the worst episode in alien force.

Primus

Okay people you're right about this one. Primus sucks. It's bad. It's meaningless. It's confusing. And it's counterproductive for what it's trying to do. Honestly it feels like a rough draft of an episode before they actually start writing it.

Ignoring the fact that the concept itself is flawed, there's no time given to even show us Primus or make us understand it. And it ruins Vilgax's arc by giving him the Omnitrix WAY TOO EARLY. It kind of ruins the finale too since Ben giving the Omnitrix away is part of the climax of this season. Both Vilgax and Azmuth are pretty dumb this episode and it's weird watching them here. Vilgax is a bit better until he gets the Omnitrix and becomes dumb for no reason. Couldn't they just make it so Ben is the one with the key to activate the Omnitrix? Azmuth also what do you mean you turned into Rath to fight Vilgax instead of like way big? Ben isn't dumb in this one though. His trick to get back the Omnitrix is smart even though the way it was written is dumb. And we do get to see him vulnerable after losing the Omnitrix. Still this episode should have been replaced with something better and the show would have been better off for it.

This episode is brought up often because it is the weakest and if it was your impression of the season you'd think it's bad too. I don't even think Vilgax is bad this season but he definitely is poorly writen here.

So yeah this episode is very bad. Like couldn't they have replaced this with an extra Tetrax episode? That man deserves it.

Oh right Tetrax

Tetrax episode is peak fiction and I don't care about the haters. I'd argue it's one of the best episodes in the series and the fact we never got a follow up is baffling.

For starters Tetrax is Ben's real dad. Let's be real. He fills the same role as grandpa Max and so Ben has the urge to prove himself to him. That's why watching Ben fulfill the propercy of the diamondhead people and save Tetrax's planet is one of the most satisfying moments in the series for me. Tetrax destroyed his planet. He made a huge mistake that Ben could have easily made if he didn't have a mentor figure. And now once he sees he has an opportunity to bring everyone back he goes straight to shattering Ben into pieces with no explanation. (Tetrax pretty much is Ben without grandpa Max if you think about it)

This episode is a meme for the Jesus bits. but it works. It's good lore. And it's a great conclusion to a character arc and storyline.

The fact this episode is a follow up to Tetrax origin and incorporates a new alien into it is really smart. Obviously they didn't plan this at first so it's great when things work out like that.

It works as a Vilgax episode too because we see how big of a threat he is. Everyone's struggling to fight him, even Tetrax and Ben. He's not some pushover as people claim.

But more importantly Ben redeems Tetrax by saving the diamond people and that's something he wouldn't be able to do if he's some dumb kid. Ben is a true hero again in this episode. He sees what the threat is and he solves it with his quick thinking and courage. And I think it's thanks to Tetrax's presence that Ben is back to the more serious role, because he wants to prove himself to him.

(if only Tetrax had a bigger presence)

And now the ending

The ending is what made me want to take a different look at this season before rewatching because I remember how cool the Azmuth and Ben scene was. On a rewatch i was not disappointed.

For starters animation was really good and the fights with Albedo specifically were choreographed well. Kevin and Gwen were even using their powers in a unique way.

Then we have Vilgax weakening Ben by taking away Gwen and Kevin. Seems simple at first, but when you think of the narrative of this season you realise it's about making Ben vulnerable both physically and mentally.

And once Ben loses the Omnitrix he has a full mental breakdown and this entire sequence is one of the best moments in Ben 10 ever. The way he runs off into the forest. The small chat with Gwen. How he begs Azmuth for help. The little mutual understanding at the end of their argument. It's peak fiction at its most peak fictionest.

For the entire season Ben tried to relax, he tried to be more straight forward, not looking for others for help. But now he's back at being the vulnerable kid he was at the start of the entire series. And I think it's not just that he lost his powers that's hurting him, but that he's also taking out all the pressure he had building up inside. And now he's asking for others to help him.

This moment makes this season work for me. We see a deconstruction of sorts of the kind of person Ben is. Not mature or immature. But this kid who wanted validation until the pressure was too much for him. He tried to act cool like nothing happens. But then he messes up and he's the one who needed to be saved.

This emotional moment was what Ben needed to come up with a genius plan. Go to Vilgax's ship and activate the self destruct feature of the Omnitrix. Honestly I forgot about this part on my rewatch so it came out of nowhere for me. Ben making a bomb threat as his great 4d chest move? You just gotta love that. Remember he's got nothing on Vilgax right now. Vilgax can easily kill him. So for Ben to confidently come in and threaten to blow up the Omnitrix, that he cares about too, it takes courage.

If there's one thing I'd change about the ending it's bringing back Tetrax. He seemed like he would be a part of this and it would have probably mad the mental breakdown of Ben Tennyson more impactful if Tetrax was there too. Or maybe I love this minor character a bit too much. Maybe way too much I admit.

Conclusion

For me what sells season 3 of Alien Force is Ben's character downfall that builds up to this ending. It's not just that he becomes dumb and then is told to stop being dumb. It's that he's struggling in the role of hero. He's struggling to be both the serious badass and a goofy kid. And letting go of the responsibility and trying to act normal only created a different kind of pressure.

Ben for me is a character who was forced into a role he wasn't prepared for and we get to watch how that affects him. Naturally he will have shifts in how he acts. His environment will affect his behavior. That's just life. That's what being a teenager is like. You're always gonna be screwing up in one way or another. Ben's flaws in season 3 aren't about him being childish. He's not dumb or less mature. Ben still does smart things and is shown to care about Gwen, Kevin, Julie, Tetrax, and everyone that comes to his aid.

And of course his ideas and actions aren't always good. They can be stupid or selfish. And that's also fine. Because he's only human. And his humanity is what makes him Ben. Take that away and he'd grow up to become the Ben 10k who refused to transform back to human.

Most of this is my interpretation of events. Other people watching will have different takes. And that is fine. I'm fine with knowing I'm like one of 10 people who loves season 3 of alien force. I'm just here to write a different perspective and hopefully it will encourage more deeper readings of Ben 10 as a series. But mostly I'm fine knowing someone else read all this. So thanks for getting this far.

See you next time when I will be breaking down the neoliberalism of shadow the hedgehog the video game.

/jk

/or am I?

#zone analysis #Ben 10 #Ben 10 retrospective #Alien force #Season 3 is good #Tetrax should have appeared more though #Long post

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