Ben 10 over the years [Part 3 of 3]

Ben 10 is an interesting series for me. Well... I only watched the original cartoon and the movie all the way through but I did some extra research for this post to help make my point.

Ben 10 is alot like He-Man, Transformers, My Little Pony and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was made to make toys. Even though I didn't even bother getting any quotes to back this up, it's obvious to me it was or was only recognised later that it could be used to sell a huge abundance of merchandise.

Ben 10: Omniverse

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Granted, I'd never seen Omniverse but after watching it for the first I can safely say that it does some things right.

The usual spinoff changes are made from roster to watch but weirdly it features episodes of Ben when he was 10 and Ben when he is 15.

Frankly, I think Ben looks like he's 15 this time and to amend what I said earlier about how Ben looks when he's 10. I think he looks at least 12.

The show revolves around different dimension versions of Ben later on in the series but for now there's plot clues between Ben 10 and Ben 15 episodes as well as the secret organisation, the Plumbers, assigning Ben 15 (that's just a nickname I gave him) a partner named Rook. A l clear parody of 'Rookie' but I'm not complaining. I've heard worse.

The art style oddly looks more cartoony and round eyed than the previous series' that were animated more humanly. In fact I compared those series' with the Teen Titans cartoon. I'd go as far to compare Ben 10 Omniverse and the Ben 10 reboot to Teen Titans Go!

Not for the humour though. That would be cruel.

The writing is better than expected for the most part. Aliens have settled into human society and everything seems good. Don't ask how it happened though. I probably didn't read enough lore to cover it.

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Ben 10 [Reboot]

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This is the most disappointing out of all the spin off series'.

This series is of course a reboot apparently of the original Ben 10 series. At least I assume this since they didn't add something to the title. They just named it 'Ben 10' again.

In agreement, yes, this series started around a year later from Omniverse so it would feel lie a continuation, however through my logic it seems they've presented this as a complete retelling of the Ben 10 story.

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Except it doesn't

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I watched the first few episodes, a random episode midway and the last episode and it never tells the origin story of Ben 10. It is confusing on many levels.

I suppose the animation is... well, it's worse now. They changed some designs of aliens which I say is worse.

See the blue winged thing on the toy line-up for Ben 10. That's not BigChill. That's StinkFly.

The writing feels like Ben 10... nothing new or even canon heavy, just shenanigans that Ben would get into. I did notice a tiny bit of Gravity Falls humour seeping through but it's so watered down it's a wonder I noticed it.

What I'm talking about is the odd laid back joke and cute face. Not even clever though.

Remember Kevin 11!? He's not in this show! This is what they have instead!

Disappointing indeed.

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I find it sad that a show with a premise with so much potential ended up on a steady decline until it became so overplayed that there isn't anything else you can do with it. It had upgraded aliens, alternate dimension story arcs, time travelling and had all kinds of villains with different abilities. My favourite being one of Omniverse's villains, Khyber, who I didn't mention since I didn't feel like it was necessary unless he was terrible, which he isn't.definitely

He wields the Nemetrix which turns the user into the predator of a specific species. I really like this concept because of its way to expand the universe.

A shame that the Ben 10 reboot does nothing to expand the lore or brings any new ideas to the show. I don't think you can recover Ben 10 again until years later when nostalgia hits again and you reboot the series with a fresh animation style and writing.

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[Part 1] [Part 2)