Ben 10 Alien Force

[Mr Light]

So apparently this Friday is the "series finale" of Ben 10 Alien Force. Don't worry there's a third Ben 10 series coming up so it's not really over.

Anyway I've just recently gotten into this show in the past few months. I've been watching it since the "third" season premiere (Vilgax Returns/Attacks). I haven't seen the Highbreed season 1/2 episodes aside from the first two DVD releases from Blockbuster.

I don't find the show to be amazing but just alright. I wonder how good the Highbreed storyline is because S3 is very boring with an endless amount of standalone stories that go absolutely nowhere. And now it's one episode before the finale with zero lead-up to anything.

The show also just feels dead and depopulated. Every episode always takes place at night and there's never any civilians around. They're always sitting at this smoothie bar with no-one else around.

Also, I find Kevin's visual design to just be goofy looking. He has WOODEN legs???

There was also the bit in the third season premiere about Ben becoming an arrogant ass that didn't really go anywhere. He still seems to be a bit of a prick throughout the season. Where's the comeuppance?

I've since seen the entirety of the original Ben 10 series and I definitely preferred that one. Obviously it's geared towards a younger audience but it was more alive and fun. Also there actually was a small amount of story-arc to it.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I loved the original Ben 10 series--enough to get it on DVD--but Alien Force left me cold from the very start. I don't even think I made it past the first three episodes before I decided it wasn't for me.

I've seen end bits and pieces of Alien Force (usually while waiting for Star Wars: Clone Wars to start) and I just don't think I really missed anything by taking a pass on it in general...

 

[Christopher]

I liked the first two seasons of Alien Force much better than the original Ben 10 series. Having Glen Murakami as producer and head designer, Dwayne McDuffie as the story editor, Butch Lukic and Dan Riba as the directors, and Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion, and Kristopher Carter as the composers was like a Justice League reunion. And the story arc of the first two seasons was much better than the standalones of the third. There wasn't even supposed to be a third season of AF; the original plan was to go right from the end of the Highbreed arc into the third series. So this season has felt rather like an afterthought.

Also, I think they've been trying too hard to reintroduce elements from the original series. I guess fans of the original might appreciate that, but I liked AF's fresh approach and reinterpretations. True, the idea that every Plumber on Earth apparently procreated with an alien, as though it were somehow mandatory, is very weird and kinky (though they'd fit right in on the Ringworld). But I was happier with Gwen being part-alien as a retcon for the "magic" stuff. This season, though, they've retconned it right back and reintroduced magic as a real phenomenon without bothering to justify the change.

I wonder how good the Highbreed storyline is because S3 is very boring with an endless amount of standalone stories that go absolutely nowhere.

The first two seasons are much better. They have plenty of standalones, but there's more of a unifying arc, a common premise tying most of them together, and just about everything set up in one episode has a payoff somewhere down the road. And the whole thing is very moody and ominous; they were going for an X-Files vibe. It was darker than the current season.

 

[Mr Light]

Well the series finale aired last night! I'm afraid it was just about the same as the rest of the season. The movie that ended Ben 10 Original was SO much better. I don't even know who the albino was I guess he's from Alien Force S1-2? And the bit where Vilgrax transforms into his "true form", a silly octopus, was just laughable. At least Ben finally got his comeuppance I've been complaining about all season and Kevin won't look so damn stupid anymore. Hopefully the next series will be better! I'll also be checking out this "Generator Rex" show could be cool.

 

[Christopher]

I don't even know who the albino was I guess he's from Alien Force S1-2?

Yes. Albedo was introduced in the second-season episode "Good Copy, Bad Copy."

It was okay, but not as good as the finale to S1/2. It was basically just an excuse to upgrade the Omnitrix and reset Kevin. And I was disappointed that Julie didn't play a significant role in the story. She's Ben's girlfriend, so she should've played a role in helping him get through his issues. And she and Ship are at least peripherally parts of the team, so they should've had more involvement in the climactic action.

It's a bit awkward to reveal all of a sudden that Jetray is capable of operating in the vacuum of space. And the whole "Ultimate evolution" thing is too Pokemon/Digimon-esque. How would Azmuth be able to predict how these aliens would "evolve," and how the hell could that evolution give them rocket launchers?

And they seem to keep retconning the origins of the Omnitrix. Now it was intended for Max?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

And they seem to keep retconning the origins of the Omnitrix. Now it was intended for Max?

Didn't they mention that on Ben 10.

 

[Christopher]

I thought the Secrets of the Omnitrix movie established that Azmuth had created it as a tool for creating understanding among the races of the galaxy or something like that. And later (I think this season) it was retconned as an "ark" for preserving the DNA of all the galaxy's species as a hedge against extinction. Neither of which is consistent with the idea that it was meant to be used for superheroics.

Although this explanation does explain why the Plumbers in AF use badges with the same symbol as the Omnitrix. That always seemed odd to me. It makes sense if Azmuth intended it for Plumber use all along. But I'm not sure that's consistent with previous explanations.

 

[Silvercrest]

Well, what was it doing on Earth in the first place? Seems just as likely that Azmuth would ask the greatest of the Plumbers to guard his creation (even if that's not why he built it.)

I agree about the rocket launchers.

BTW, something I've always wondered: Do Plumbers equate to the real-world Masons? You know, a secret society where no one knows what they're up to, and named after a trade.

 

[Christopher]

The thing that bewilders me about the AF premise is that apparently every human Plumber had a baby with an alien. Even aside from the biological absurdity of interspecies breeding, it's mindblowing that it seems to be a routine practice among the Plumbers. One wonders if it's a custom similar to rishathra from the Ringworld novels -- interspecies sex as a standard diplomatic ritual. Although the point of rishathra is kind of predicated on the fact that it doesn't have any chance of conception.

 

[Silvercrest]

Hey, secret societies = unusual rituals...

 

[Mr Light]

I do recall seeing an episode that revealed the ship heading for Earth with the Omnimatrix in the pilot episode was coming to give it to Max, wasn't it his wife/lover who was the pilot? I think this was in the original series like S3/4.

 

[Christopher]

If you say so. I was only an intermittent viewer of the original show.

 

[Mr Light]

Well I just saw them all for the first time in the past few months

 

[shivkala]

I do recall seeing an episode that revealed the ship heading for Earth with the Omnimatrix in the pilot episode was coming to give it to Max, wasn't it his wife/lover who was the pilot? I think this was in the original series like S3/4.

I remember that, too. She was trying to get it to Max. It was "The Visitor," the end of the 3rd season. Xylene was the woman/alien/thing.

 

[Mr Light]

Last night they aired the season finale to the Highbreed storyline. Now THIS was a great finale, and even though I haven't seen the episodes before it I could still get into it. The stakes were big. They brought in every single character (I guess) that had been appearing and teamed them all up against the unstoppable foe, even the baddies. I really liked Professor Paradox (I had only seen him in one episode before this) helping from the shadows. I really liked that Ben saved the day not with violence but by saving the evil race that was going to wipe out all life and making them "impure" like the rest of the galaxy. Great ending! I wish that the third season had displayed this kind of storytelling. ... So, at the end of this season the accident hadn't happened to Kevin yet. But I started watching the show with the third season premiere. Did the accident happen in that episode and I just don't remember it?

 

[Christopher]

^Yes. The accident happened when Ben and Kevin tried to hack the Omnitrix at the start of season 3.