An action cartoon franchise from America; this entry covers the first series.Ben 10 revolves around the adventures of Ben Tennyson, a 10-year-old boy. While on summer vacation with his grandpa Max and cousin Gwen, he comes into the possession of a mysterious alien device - the Omnitrix - that allows him to change into a multitude of alien heroes. At first, there are only 10 aliens (hence the name "Ben 10"), but more forms were eventually discovered.Why isn't the device in more capable hands? Well, once it attached to Ben, it was stuck there. It won't come off.There's more to this show than meets the eye, however. For example, while this and most other American cartoons either Never Say "Die" or push the Thou Shalt Not KillAesop, "people" in this show get killed with reckless abandon with hardly anyone batting an eye. The show's also infamous for the Kissing Cousins vibe between Ben and Gwen. Plus, it has plenty of Nightmare Fuel.Currently, the Ben 10 franchise has four separate series: the original show, the Time Skipped sequel Ben 10 Alien Force, the sequel to Alien Force,Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and the upcoming sequel to Ultimate Alien, Ben 10 Omniverse. The foursome who created the original series, known as Man of Action, went on to create Generator Rex, and later work on Ultimate Spider-Man.Movie-wise, this (the original series) has three based on it. A Live-Action AdaptationBen 10 Race Against Time (Notable for starring Lee Majors as Grandpa Max), a regularly animated hour long flick Secret of the Omnitrix and a (supposedly non-canon) all CGI film called Ben 10 Destroy All Aliens.Not to be confused with the Bren Ten.
This show provides examples of:
Abusive Parents: Kevin's, who apparently threw him onto the street. Later Kevin himself, using his son Devlin to get his revenge on Ben.
It's hinted that it's not the case with Kevin: he either ran away on his own and was thus lying, or his parents threw him out for being freaking nuts and not because of his powers, but in Kevin's mind, his "freakish" powers were the reason.
It is revealed in Ultimate Alien that while they were disturbed by his powers, they never intended to kick him out. But in Kevin's mind, they may as well have.
Action Girl: Gwen, sometimes. More so in the future.
All Myths Are True: On average, for every five or six that can be attributed to aliens, there's one that can't.
All There in the Manual: Pop-up commentary by the creators during a Ben 10 marathon revealed a lot of facts that aren't stated in the show, most notably an extensive backstory for Ghostfreak.
They also spoke about characters that would appear in later series, like SevenSeven, older brother of SixSix, and Race Against Time mentioned a "Paradox" in their pop ups.
Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The show has a different ending theme for the Japanese version called "Ladybird Girl", a love song, which is not very fitting for a show about transforming into multiple aliens.
Almost every episode he abuses his power ends up with him accidentally angering someone and setting off the plot. A good many of his villains are his villains just because he's tried to be selfish with his powers, such as Kevin.
Artifact Title: From the moment Ben discovered the eleventh alien in the Omnitrix.
Ben himself in the episode "Gwen 10" where Ben loses his powers, Ben still proves to be pretty badass, even using Grandpa Max's BFG with no problem.
In "Grudge Match", Ben manages to defeat an alien robot even after his Omnitrix times out. Admittedly, he already weakened it as Diamondhead, but it was still more than capable of killing him.
Be Careful What You Wish For: The beginning of an episode has Ben easily thwart a robbery. At the end of the preview, he outright states if there's anyone who can give him a challenge. Just so happens, it was the Negative 10 episode.
Berserk Button: Let's just say that if you ever hurt anyone Ben cares about, you're going to regret it. A LOT.
Waybig. This troper Lol'd the first time he appeared.
There's a shocking number of comic book characters in "Ready to Rumble" getting the treatment: Wolverine, Cyclops, Wonder Man, Killer Croc, even a gang boss based somewhat on Kingpin. The clincher? Wolverine and Killer Croc were adopted by Aunt May.
Fourarms actually switches to Goro's wardrobe later in Ultimate Alien.
Cerebus Syndrome: While the series never loses its humor side, it gets a lot more serious and dramatic. Last chapters? Fighting the Knight of Cerebus. First chapters? Fighting Mega-Whatts, a bugman, and a doctor who has a device that basically destroys any laws of biology through use.
Conveyor Belt-O-Doom: "Ready to Rumble" - The mother of two mutant kids was tied to a conveyor belt in an old wood mill. She was heading towards a wood saw that's right between her legs.
Cowardly Lion: Gilbert in "Camp Fear". When he's not running around screaming his head off, he's quite helpful fighting off the mushroom monsters and protecting the younger campers.
Creepy Child: Meet Kevin, eleven years old and willing to kill a subway load of people without a second thought.
Cute Monster Girl: In "My Big Fat Alien Wedding" the majority of the shapeshifting aliens are very ugly non-humanoid sludge monsters in their true form. The non-evil one (who's marrying a human) oddly looks like a fairly attractive purple-skinned woman in her true form. Despite being the daughter of the episode's villains.
Daddy's Little Villain: Charmcaster to Hex (though it's more of a case of Uncle's Little Villain).
Dark Magical Girl: Played with in regards to Charmcaster. She does sincerely have the background of a normal DMG (raised and trained by an evil, abusive guardian,) but she actually chooses to be evil rather than join herMagical Girl counterpart. Since, you know, Evil is Cool (not to mention sexy.)
Description Cut: Vilgax, in the first episode, prattles on about how no one in the universe can stop him. Then the scene cuts to Ben, in school, throwing a paper airplane at his teacher before the bell rings.
And stuck itself upon his wrist with secrets that it hid
Now he's got super powers, he's no ordinary kid
He's Ben 10! (Ben 10, Ben 10!)
Expy: Zombozo demonstrates similar behavior to Pennywise, he even turns into a giant spider in a hallucination(?)!
Extra Strength Masquerade: As a Fantasy Kitchen Sink show borderlining on Planet Eris, it's really inconsistent with regards to whether the existence of aliens, robots, and mutants is commonly accepted knowledge, or whether such things are supposed to be regarded as myth by the general public.
Face Fault: Look hard enough, Gwen in Charmcaster's body in "A Change Of Face" has these.
Flanderization: Early on, the Omnittrix is fairly reliable, only transforming Ben into the wrong alien once every few episodes, and Ben is justifiably surprised when it happens. Fast forward to the Season 3 finale, and out of the four times Ben transformed in the first part, he only got the alien he wanted once, and he's reduced to frantically begging the Omnitrix to please cooperate with him this time...
Justified in that he totaled the controls a few episodes back to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
Family Friendly Firearms: Sometimes justified by the sci-fi setting, but really...where are ordinary gang members, mall cops, and other assorted armed Muggles getting their sci-fi firearms?
Foreshadowing: There are many hints that Max wasn't just a normal Plumber, such as knowing that Heatblast is not a monster but an alien, and mentions of Vilgax making him tense.
Full-Contact Magic: Played perfectly straight; mixing a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and magic alien energy-manipulation powers gives Gwen dynamic and fluid fighting scenes.
Future Badass: Ben 10,000, Gwendolyn, and cyborg Max. That is all.
Future Me Scares Me: When Ben and Gwen go to the future, Future Ben is pretty much a jerk.
Ben: "You guys know way too much about mushrooms!"
In the first episode, Ben's grandfather's car has the license plate "S81Z1M".
Grand Finale: "Secret of the Omnitrix", as Word Of God confirms it takes place after "Ben 10 vs. the Negative 10." However it was aired early on in Season 4's run rather than later.
Grand Theft Me: Charmcaster can't get the Omnitrix off Ben, so she's just going to do this instead.
With Non-Mammal Mammaries, even after she states that her race does not take care of their young at all ("On my planet, once you hatch, you're on your own.")
Hurricane of Puns: Witty one-liners make up a good 75% of dialog, mainly when Ben is in alien form.
Hypocritical Humor: A bit of it in "Gwen 10", where Ben keeps telling off Gwen for doing things he knows perfectly well he did in the past.
I Am Not Left-Handed: A couple of occasions, but possibly the most awesome is in "Grudge Match", where Kevin 11 has Ben trapped, and boasts that he can handle any of Ben's 10 aliens, since he IS all those aliens combined. Ben then reveals that he's unlocked a new form since Kevin last saw him: Cannon Bolt. Kevin gets hammered.
A similar, if more subtle version comes from "Ben 10,000", when Vilgax makes the same boast about all TEN THOUSAND of Future Ben's aliens, except that Future Ben has one form Vilgax overlooked: human.
Instant Expert: Gwen when she gets the Omnitrix in an alternate timeline. Subverted with her magic, which she bumbles through for many episodes before getting good at it.
Joker Immunity: Vilgax. Helps that he's Nigh Invulnerable, of course. It's a bit hard to kill somebody who survived being nuked. And has upgraded himself since then.
Fight Fire With Fire: Present in the very first episode, Ben accidentally starts a fire, Grandpa Max tells Ben that in order to stop it, he should start another one.
Knight of Cerebus: The series, at it's heart, is about a kid who does heroics and stupid things with his Omnitrix, but when Vilgax or Kevin appear, the episode's gonna take itself fairly seriously. Zs'kayr and the Forever Knights to a lesser extent, they made only a few occasional appearances, but they did establish themselves as threats later on.
Lamarck Was Right: Averted in "Ken 10"; Kenny needs his own Omnitrix to get his own powers.
Leitmotif: Several, including ones for Ben's aliens and a one for the occasional instances of Sky Surfing that happen a few times over the series.
Limited Wardrobe: A subtle nod to this in "Gwen 10": Ben throws several shirts identical to his own out of his suitcase while he's searching for a lost item.
Subverted in the live-action movie of course. But Ben wore this very shirt later in the movie.
Magic Misfire: Gwen, too. She even figured out how to use the misfire to her advantage. Sort of.
Magic Pants: ANYTHING that Ben was wearing before he goes alien - no matter how badly it was ripped during the transformation sequence - will be back, in perfect condition, when the Omnitrix runs out of juice.
Mook Horror Show: Ben sometimes invokes this on criminals. This includes one time when he was fighting two robbers as Ripjaws. However, the most noteable time is when he literally scares Zombozo to death as Ghostfreak.
There's also the live action movie Race Against Time. Now if only the guy who directed Men in Black directed this movie and Tommy Lee Jones played Grandpa Max, the movie would've been a thousand times cooler.
Negative Continuity: Later in the series, almost all the time, ranging from changes in height to more plot related problems (Stinkfly's sudden inability to swim in They Lurk Below, the event noted in the Ben 10 entry in Freaky Friday Flip, etc.)
Never Say "Die": All the deaths are either offscreen, not outright stated, or obscured by explosions, with a good dash of What Measure Is a Non-Human? to 'lighten' it further.
No Ontological Inertia: The episode "The Big Tick" features an Eldritch Abomination which completely ravages its surroundings for several hundred meters around. After it's destroyed, the local area returns to its former state immediately, despite there being nothing to suggest that the destruction was illusory! For some reason, the characters find this to be perfectly acceptable.
No Sense of Humor: Adult Ben, as seen in the episode "Ben 10,000". He gets better in the end and continuing into "Ken 10".
Oblivious Mockery: Early in the What If? episode "Gwen 10", Gwen gets the Omnitrix stuck on her wrist and turns into Heatblast. Ben, who remembers going through this before, warns her about the danger of using fiery powers in the middle of a forest. She immediately responds that only an idiot would set the forest on fire. Naturally, that's exactly what Ben did in the first episode.
Psycho for Hire: Kevin 11. As noted in "Grudge Match", while his main desire is revenge on Ben, he likes to seek any excuse to fight, brutalize, or even kill various opponents.
Puny Earthlings: Humans are the only species that doesn't have at least one ability that would be classified as a superpower.
Retroactive Precognition: Ben has this in "Gwen 10" when he gets mysteriously transported to the past, and remembers everything that happened over the past several months, but nobody else does. In an odd case of Plot-Induced Stupidity, it takes Max a while to believe Ben, despite the fact that Ben now knows about Vilgax, who only Max has met, and the Omnitrix, which is unknown to most people on Earth.
It seemed less like disbelief and more like denial.
Unfortunately for Ben, things have changed enough that his knowledge of future events is limited in its usefulness.
Not to mention the fact that, when the Big Bad finally absorbs this ultra-powerful energy source into his Powered Armor, the most he can think to do with it is use it to shoot rather mediocre eyebeams.
And in Ben 10,000, to unlock ten thousand alien forms in thirty years would require an average of one new alien form every single day for the entire time, though that would leave a bit of extra time.
Or once you unlock master control a few thousand aliens come with it.
And of course one to Naruto at the end of the Christmas episode.
The Pisciss Volann (Ripjaws) Plumber in "The Mother of All Vreedles" looks and sounds like The Incredible Mr Limpet.
Silver Age: The show looks almost like a love letter to the Silver Age.
Snap Back: Ben never seems to learn from the Aesop in any episode and at the start of the next episode continues behaving like an idiot bent on doing things his way no matter what, despite his level of intelligence and understanding to the contrary.
This is actually lampshaded at the end of the CGI "Destroy All Aliens" film.
Tastes Like Friendship: Subverted. Feeding theobromine compounds to an extra-terrestrial may not be the best idea...
The Group: The Forever Knights' cover name is The Organization.
Theme Naming: Ben Tennyson is ten years old. Kevin E. Levin is eleven.
Ben gives his alien forms extremely marketable names based on their appearance or powers.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: In "The Big Tick", the episode where Ben first unlocks Cannonbolt, he initially hates the alien form for being unwieldy and uncontrollable, and refuses to use it again. Guess which alien turns out to be the only one capable of defeating the Eldritch Abomination threatening the Earth that episode?
XLR8 is exactly as fast as the plot calls for, and no faster. Sometimes it's literally too fast to see, most of the time not so much. Thus, aliens with nowhere near its speed can still hit it.
The Omnitrix's "ten minute" time limit is usually quite a bit shorter than that, to ensure that Ben can't beat the Monster of the Week too quickly.
From the moment when the Omnitrix starts beeping and flashing red, there is variable time until the moment Ben returns to his human form - sometimes it is almost instant, and sometimes... it takes a while.
Tree Cover: In "The Visitor", Ben eavesdrops on Max and Xylene by turning into Wildvine and merging with the tree.
Tuck and Cover: Cannonbolt's function in a rescue operation.
Webcomic Time: The summer road trip lasted nearly the whole of the original series.
Wham Episode: "Secrets", which resolves the Myth Arc hinting at Max's past and formally introduces Vilgax to Ben's life.
What If?: The out-of-mainstream-continuity episode "Gwen 10"; some would classify the "Ken 10" episode under this.
Not to mention the show's last episode: "Goodbye and Good Riddance"
Word Of God in the DVD commentaries states that the "Ken 10" episode is one of "many possibilities" of the future.
What Could Have Been: Some of the concept art for Ben 10 included superheroes, rather than specifically aliens, one transformation of which was a girl, which could have a set off a Gender Bender trope.
Where's the Fun in That?: In the What If? episode where Gwen was the one the Omnitrix attached itself to, Vilgax has her restrained and selects from a range of sharp-looking tools to forcibly remove it from her.
Gwen [nervously]: Couldn't you just slip the watch off? Vilgax: And what fun would that be?
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