#sorry i'm being so picky i did enjoy the show but season 3 bothered me so so much for so many reasons

[grinchwrapsupreme]

there's this thing in theatre called "cue-to-cue" where you go through the play with minimal to no actual acting or lines, just the actors moving to the spots they will be in when certain lighting and sound effect happen, in order to line things up tech-wise, so watching it has the feel of watching the play with none of the content or meaning and the whole thing is supposed to be done very quickly. Certain parts of Netflix's The Witcher felt like watching a cue-to-cue in that it felt like the characters were just arriving at a place they were supposed to be in, muttering out parts of the scene, and then quickly moving to the next spot they're supposed to be in, like the writers of the show were cue-to-cuing the books, knowing where the characters were "supposed to be" without actually displaying why to a useful degree

the one that particularly stood out to me was the confrontation between Ciri and Cahir where, first of all, Ciri finding Geralt and Yennifer after leaving Jaskier was already very abrupt and lacking reaction, but then running into Cahir and him begging Ciri to kill him? That bit bothered me. Specifically because it all felt very quick and surface level, like the writers knew where the characters were supposed to be and what they were meant to be doing without really giving it space to be examined, so we get that tension between Ciri and Cahir as she holds the sword to his throat and then, just as abruptly, the people on horseback are approaching and Cahir just gets up and goes to fight them off without really any acknowledgment of his desire to be killed literal seconds ago beyond i guess the implication that he's willing to die here, and then he's face to face with these 5 horseback riders, brandishing his sword, and it's so obvious there's nothing he can really do to fight them off, there's literally 5 of them and they already look like they're just gonna brush right past, like Cahir is hitting invisible cues without the substance behind it

and I do think this feeling was worse in the third season than in the first two, but it did bother me enough that i sort of immediately lost interest in Cahir, because the quickness of that scene removed the intensity of it for me, and there were many scenes like it (Jaskier and Radovid's scenes for example) that gave the feeling that what should have been a whole play was reduced to a quick 15 minute run through where the cast are just moving from one spot to the next and it's okay because we'll do the whole thing at the dress rehearsal later

#the witcher #sorry i'm being so picky i did enjoy the show but season 3 bothered me so so much for so many reasons #including this one #also the whole episode with the ball was just very poorly executed imo #i get what they were going for but it felt clumsy to me and actively confused me at one point #and honestly the format felt very unnecessary #like take some of that time you're spending on repeating scenes and give it to plot that's missing depth i'm begging you #thanks for letting me watch geralt fake annoyance at istredd 3 times #but i'd really rather you put some of that effort into figuring out how to make the cahir and radovid plots more satisfying and substantial

[cat-scarr]

Hello! I love your takes on Ben! He's also one of my favorite characters and has been since I was little. Unfortunately my parents thought the shows were too scary for me at the time, (I was probably like 5-10 and I had anxiety issues and other problems) so they tried to discourage me from watching but I would watch the show. I would often watch it in secret.

However, I got a bit of a mystery on my hands and I was wondering if you knew of any episode in Alien Force or Ultimate Alien that may have caused this.

In the middle of watching Alien Force and/or Ultimate Alien something I suddenly grew a very huge disliking for Ben 10 and I came out of it specifically hating Kevin. And heavily disliking Ben and Gwen.

Now I do remember very much loving Ben as a character so I thought this was odd. The adversion was so bad that I refused to participate in anything Ben 10 related even when Omniverse came out and my sister had to practically beg me to watch it.

I have been slowly getting through Alien Force now and haven't quite got to Ultimate Alien yet. I am much less picky than when I was 10 and younger so while I much prefer OG and Omniverse, I still do enjoy Alien Force Ben, even if the first episode of season 3 or so really tried to make me hate his guts. Issue is I still can't figure out what caused me to hate Ben 10 so much when I was younger.

Grant it, I recognize that the discouragement of my parents may have had something to do with it but I don't think it was entirely that. And since I really liked Ben I was wondering if there were any episodes where Ben is written not as well as usual and Kevin just kind of sucks that would appear really bad to a 10 year old or younger? Because so far I'm getting nothing and it's nagging at me but I think that's just because I'm older now and not so easily swayed by little problematic things characters may do sometimes.

I love these characters now and will still love them even if AF isn't quite my favorite version of Ben 10 and it's been quite a fun watch so I'm very sad I didn't get to enjoy this when I was younger.

Sorry if this is odd I'm just really trying to figure out what happened and I figured a fellow Ben lover might be able to give some insight.

wow, proof that Ben 10 is hated for no reason? what did I tell u fandom

No seriously, I thought about this for a while, but the fact that it bothers you to feel that way is a good sign, actually, because you realize there’s something not right about that. You love these characters. That doesn’t have to mean that you agree with them all the time or have to unapologetically forgive everything they do because they’re special to you like I do. But despite their flaws, you love these characters. You don’t want to believe there’s any good reason to hate them. 

Before I continue, I have to put this out there. I hold myself back from being a huge bitch about it, but this kind of thing has been happening in the fanbase for years. Not just because of one popular user or creator, but because the way that being popular in itself is enough to persuade the majority to believe what is being said is correct, accept that it is undeniably correct, and worth going around repeating. Victims of the fandom repeating the same take over and over until it gets ingrained in everyone’s brain syndrome. And then majority rules, even if it shouldn’t. 

Which is depressing, because a lot of the fanbase who does repeat these takes are clearly impressionable. Which means they’re often younger. If you’re active in internet fandoms, this is practically inescapable. 

The Ben being a bad boyfriend argument is a great example that I’ve beaten to death at this point. Do you know how many times I’ve come across people who liked him as a character, even had a crush on him, and still believed this was true? Didn’t question it? Didn’t take a look at the circumstances which painted him in a negative light undeservingly? Didn’t recognize that the series literally had him try to resolve those conflicts and make things right, which would ultimately point to meaning he isn’t nearly as bad as they say? 

To answer your specific question at the end there, I wouldn’t say Ben has ever done anything so horrible it was beyond understanding or logical explanation. This is because, in Ben 10 especially, conflicts are presented in order to be resolved. Not for chaos's sake, but in order to learn from them. Or, in order to cement the same lesson time and time again as a running theme of the show. In order to have several instances as proof of that lesson, not to make it seem as though the titular character is so stupid he forgets what he’s learned. It is much stronger proof, I think, to have several instances of a recurring behaviour pattern than only one lesson learned one time. This actually establishes consistency in characters. Whether they’re consistently problem solvers, consistently confused by customs foreign to their own, or even consistently abusive and toxic, just to name a few. 

I don’t analyze them often, but Gwen and Kevin were kind of inconsistent during those arcs, too. It’s not just Ben to some extreme degree. I can make less sense of Gwen and Kevin trashing Ben's boyfriend skills than I can of Ben’s “overconfident” attitude or him getting so serious about his responsibilities that he considers taking down threats permanently. I guess watching characters who should otherwise be able to understand being forced to villainize another character even when it doesn't make sense can cause them to come off unlikable.

There was a tonal shift during Alien Force’s season three and Ultimate Alien. I won’t deny that. That did have an impact on the characters. But that being said, I wouldn’t say it ruined the characters. 

If there is any reason for what you might have felt, besides real life factors, perhaps it was a mix of the slight changes in creative direction behind the scenes and negative fan feedback that affected your viewpoint subconsciously. Being younger and more impressionable can have that effect, even if you don’t realize it.

I hope I offered some new perspectives. Thanks for reading my blog <3

#truth be told when I got into the show Kevin wasn’t my fave #but that was cause of the way he treated my fave #who is Ben obviously #though I understand now that’s their relationship dynamic #anyway this is a Ben stan account lol so #ask #ben 10 #ben tennyson #ben 10 fandom #ben 10 uaf #I'm also gonna attach my #ben 10 love interests #tag for reference