So I just watched the original Ben 10 on HBO Max for the first time, and I loved it. The stories and characters were great, and the art and animation were beautiful.
So I started watching Alien Force, and everyone feels like a completely different character. Ben in particular feels the most drastically changed. For starters, there's absolutely no way the Ben from the original series would take off the Omnitrix. He utterly dreads anything "normal" because of how boring he finds it, and would rather use an Alien to make things strange and exciting. Yet this Ben took it off to live a "normal life" for 5 years. The original Ben couldn't stand the thought of spending an evening with his aunt because of how boring it was. And there's no way he'd take it off while Gwen is still practicing magic. What's more, this Ben has a bizarre relation to Max, where he seems to think Max carried him throughout the summer and feels unsure of what to do without him. The original series had an entire episode where Ben refused to acknowledge Max and Gwen's contributions to the fights because he wanted all the glory of being a hero. This tied back to Ben 10K who didn't want anyone he cared about to get hurt, so he pushed them away and did everything by himself, not letting any other heroes get any action. This Ben's flaws seem to be that he's unconfident, and shy, whereas the original Ben's flaws were that he's egotistical, impatient, and incompetent (because he's still learning). What the fuck happened?
So I started watching Alien Force, and everyone feels like a completely different character. Ben in particular feels the most drastically changed. For starters, there's absolutely no way the Ben from the original series would take off the Omnitrix. He utterly dreads anything "normal" because of how boring he finds it, and would rather use an Alien to make things strange and exciting. Yet this Ben took it off to live a "normal life" for 5 years. The original Ben couldn't stand the thought of spending an evening with his aunt because of how boring it was. And there's no way he'd take it off while Gwen is still practicing magic. What's more, this Ben has a bizarre relation to Max, where he seems to think Max carried him throughout the summer and feels unsure of what to do without him. The original series had an entire episode where Ben refused to acknowledge Max and Gwen's contributions to the fights because he wanted all the glory of being a hero. This tied back to Ben 10K who didn't want anyone he cared about to get hurt, so he pushed them away and did everything by himself, not letting any other heroes get any action. This Ben's flaws seem to be that he's unconfident, and shy, whereas the original Ben's flaws were that he's egotistical, impatient, and incompetent (because he's still learning). What the fuck happened?
