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YMMV / Ben 10

YMMVs for the franchise as a whole:

  • Broken Base: Each new installment the franchise had only divided the fanbase further on which one was the best, or if the show should even have had sequels to begin with. By now, the division in the fanbase can rival the one for Star Wars.
    • The fact the original series is getting a reboot has proven polarizing. Some fans are happy, given that there are a certain group of people who think that the show was best when the main characters were a ten-year-old Ben and Gwen, along with Grandpa Max, while others are accusing the reboot of being an essential attempt to draw more cash out of what is already a large Cash Cow Franchise (merchandise for it has sold over four billions worth) and given that the show isn't even ten years old, an entire reboot is insane with people wondering if this means that the likes of Alien Force or Ultimate Alien will also be rebooted in years to come. For taking a third option, many fans don't like what the art-style for the cartoon seems to be, saying Ben looks a lot younger than ten in it and seems more cartoonish.
      • Those in favor of the reboot also point out that the franchise had suffered so many Retcons that it had become one big Continuity Snarl, so a reboot is the only logical course of action. Some of these fans are optimistic that the new series can bring the things people liked in the other continuities in a more organic way and new fans won't have to suffer Continuity Lockout, while other say they wanted a reboot, just not like this.
      • There's also a sizeable fanbase who wanted a sequel to Omniverse instead of a reboot, especially with the former ending on a Sequel Hook that sounded really promising. (Ben, Rook, Gwen and Kevin going on an interstellar road trip.)
  • Complete Monster:
    • Vilgax, the Overarching Villain of the entire franchise and by far Ben Tennyson's most personal enemy, is a psychopathic galactic warlord. After his evil caused him to be banished from his homeworld, Vilgax went on to assault and conquer numerous planets across the cosmos, outright annihilating the entire planet of Petropia and its billions of inhabitants to make an example of those who resist him. After discovering the existence of the Omnitrix, Vilgax becomes obsessed with possessing the gadget to modify it for his own gain, and spends much of the first series sending wave after wave of his forces to Earth solely to kill Ben Tennyson, a 10-year-old-boy, and steal the watch from him, later trying to viciously saw the boy's arm off and blow up the entire Earth for the trouble it has caused him. In Alien Force, Vilgax builds up his image as a law-abiding citizen by "legally" conquering 10 planets, though ultimately ditches this persona and tries to use the Omnitrix to lead a full-scale war against all who would stand against him. In Ultimate Alien, Vilgax becomes the herald for Diagon before betraying and killing his master and stealing his power, hoping to use it to mind control all life in the universe. In the final series, Omniverse, Vilgax, though at first seeming to have decayed in his evil, pulls out perhaps the most wicked scheme in the entire franchise, using a Chronosapien Time Bomb to wipe out all dimensions and timelines, his own included, to leave only a single, more submissive universe for him to conquer and rule. Vilgax was a purely evil madman who would kill first billions, then insurmountable trillions, just to satisfy his raging desire to be the most powerful being in the universe, and stands out as the most iconic villain in Ben 10 for this very reason.
    • There's also Aggregor & Maltruant. See those pages for details.
  • Escapist Character: Ben starts out as a ordinary kid who by coincidence ends up stuck wearing an insanely powerful device giving him the ability to shapeshift into a large variety of cool-looking aliens with a large variety of super-powers. Using those powers, he starts accomplishing heroic deeds and gets involved in all sorts of strange adventures involving everything from aliens to mutants, to magic. He eventually gets good at using his abilities become famous and beloved as a hero, turns into a Living Legend and saves the Universe several times. It's pretty easy to see how everyone would love to be in his shoes.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Charmcaster.
  • Fanfic Fuel: Each alien in the Omnitrix belongs to an alien species with its own planet and culture, leaving huge possibilities to create various OCs. The Omnitrix is also stated to have at the very least 10,000 aliens (more than 1000,000,000 after Alien Force), meaning fans have a large gap available to imagine and create their own aliens.
  • Memetic Troll: The Omnitrix is often seen by fans as this, thanks to both the hints of it being sentient and the Flanderization of its tendency to give Ben the wrong alien.
  • My Real Daddy: Since the Original Series was the only series produced by Man of Action, there are a sizeable amount of fans who consider it alone canon and regard the various sequels as Fanon Discontinuity.
  • Narm Charm:
    • It's a franchise about a Kid Hero with a watch transforming him into Alien Super-Heroes, fighting a Galactic Conqueror who looks like Cthulhu, with the help of, amongst others, his Magical Girl cousin and his Hawaiian-shirt wearing grandfather who used to be part of a secret organization called the Plumbers. Doesn't prevent the franchise from making some genuinely good stories and nightmarish villains.
    • Dr Animo is as cliche and over-the-top as a Mad Scientist can get, but still manages to be an entertaining villain.
  • Only the Creator Does It Right: Man of Action Studios, due to kickstarting the franchise, tended to be looked at rather fondly, and their lack of involvement with the sequels was criticized. In light of their Marvel cartoons in The New '10s, however, the view has significantly lessened, especially in regards to the reboot sharing a similar Denser and Wackier tone to Omniverse.
  • Sequelitis: Ben 10: Omniverse is generally seen as the worst entry of the lot, although Alien Force and Ultimate Alien have their fair share of detractors too.
  • So Okay, It's Average: The franchise as a whole is usually seen as this by non-fans. While it has a lot going for it such as good fight choreography, creative aliens, and a lot of good talent, writers and voice actors alike, it also suffers from inconsistent writing, fairly basic characterization, and rarely goes very far into worldbuilding the universe the characters live in. Even some actual fans will admit that while they love the franchise, they do wish it had been more.
  • Tainted by the Preview: The Comic-con preview clip of the reboot has already gained a large amount of flak. Points of interest include Gwen having a different Voice Actress, Diamondhead having different powers, the more simplistic design, and the background characters having the same problem as in The Powerpuff Girls (2016). note 
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Some fans find it jarring how chummy Ben and Gwen are in the reboot. Though those that liked how friendlier they were in the previous series see this as one of the few positives of the reboot.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The Original Series made heavy use of Bizarre Alien Biology to create characters with absolutely nightmarish designs, the sequels involved themes such as Nazi-esque attempts at genocide, powers with drug undertones and implied Serial Killers, and all four entries have at least one, if not multiple, cases of Vile Villain, Saccharine Show. By the time of Ultimate Alien, things had become so dark the writers decided to go Lighter and Softer in the next entry in order to avoid Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy.

YMMVs for the Original Series:

  • Ear Worm: The theme song. Despite all the disagreement in the fanbase, almost everyone agrees the Original Show had by far the catchiest theme song.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Lucky Girl, who is ironically one of the leads in disguise. Her nemesis Charmcaster qualifies on the villain side of things.
    • Naturally, some of Ben's aliens are more popular than others, but the one who takes the cake (from the original series, at least) is Heatblast. He's enough of a dark horse than a Ultimate Alien DVD was titled the Return of Heatblast.
      • XLR8 is also pretty popular, which makes it extra baffling that they went and made Fasttrack.
      • Ghostfreak, mainly because of his Face–Heel Turn.
      • Buzzshock and Articguana, two of Ben 10,000's aliens, are surprisingly rather popular among the fanbase, despite the fact neither have ever appeared outside of that episode aside from a cameo in Ultimate Alien's theme. Articguana is finally used by the 16-Year-Old Ben in Omniverse, and Buzzshock appears even later.
    • Grandpa Max, as detailed in the Just Here for Godzilla entry, even moreso as of the newer series' when he's not a main character anymore.
    • Sixsix, a minor villain from early in the series, quickly became beloved by fans due to essentially being the Ben 10-verse's equivalent of Boba Fett. He was so popular that not only was he brought back later on but the sequel series introduced his family made up of his equally badass brother and two sisters, changing him from a one-off mook to a series mainstay.
  • Evil Is Cool: This show is a master at creating awesome bad guys. Vilgax, Kevin, Ghostfreak, Hex, Charmcaster, the Forever Knights (especially the Forever King), Sixsix and his family, and nearly all the other villains (with the exception of Sublimino) who made up the Negative 10 could count.
  • First Installment Wins: While the other shows have their fanbases, many fans are very loyal to the first series. That it's the only one the actual creators worked on (until the Continuity Reboot) helps matters.
  • Foe Yay: Ben and Kevin, who have been chained to each other for an episode, and Gwen and Charmcaster, who spent a good part of one episode inside each other.
  • Franchise Original Sin: One complaint about the sequel series is how redundant some of Ben's aliens can be. The first series has many aliens who, while having unique abilities, some have similar advantages to one alien that leave another alien functionally redundant (particularly Benvicktor/Frankenstrike, who on top of having super strength, has lightning abilities), indicating that there were ability and redundancy problems even before the sequels.
    • A lesser example, but one of the major criticims done to Alien Force was (amongst other things) about the Plumbers being inexplicably active again despite being stated to have disbanded in the first series; Big Fat Alien Wedding, while not explicitly stating the Plumbers were still active, made mention of a war between them and the Sludgepuppies that was apparently still going on (the whole point of the episode was to end it), suggesting at least some of them kept fighting.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Gwen is apparently popular enough in Southeast Asia that Cartoon Network Asia gave her a website and a good amount of merchandise. A spin-off show about her was even considered at some point in answer to her popularity, with Omniverse episodes serving as a Poorly Disguised Pilot.
    • The franchise is also very popular in Denmark, where many stores hold entire sections of Ben 10 merchandise.
    • The franchise has a strong following in Latin America as well, seeing as at one point nearly all of its schedule was devoted to showing Ben 10 episodes.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: The episode Ken 10 had Ben's future self Ben 10,000 name his son Ken. The follow-up series Ben 10: Alien Force revealed that Ben's cousin Gwen had a brother also named Ken, which makes it rather sweet when you realize that Ben may have named his son Ken after his cousin Ken.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Remember that ending in Gwen 10 where the Omnitrix ultimately ended up on Grandpa Max? Several episodes later, some alien named Xylene, a person from Max's past, revealed that the Omnitrix was originally for Max. But thanks to the fact that Ben's DNA was close to his, and Ben was the one who discovered it, it ended up on him.
    • In the end of "Kevin 11", Ben offers Kevin to join him and become allies. Sound familiar?
    • Steve Blum (Ghostfreak) voicing another Big Bad who wants to take over someone's body is funny enough, but it's funnier when that someone is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, who voices teenage Ben in the sequel series.
    • In "The Big Tick", while trying to figure out what Cannonbolt does, Ben lists powers of aliens he will receive in the future: breathing firenote , firing freeze rays from his eyesnote , and magnetic blastsnote .
    • Vilgax is an expy of Darkseid and in the original series and Omniverse, he was voiced by Steve Blum. Guess who voiced the actual Darkseid in Justice League: War.
    • Ben's dislike of the Super Alien Hero Buddies for being bastardizations of his own alien forms in "Super Alien Hero Buddy Adventures" is funnier to look back on in light of the controversy and polarization caused by Omniverse and the reboot trying to be Denser and Wackier than Alien Force and Ultimate Alien.
  • Hype Backlash: The huge success this series had, and the fact many fans are only loyal to it, has caused many people (both fans of the sequels and people who don't particularly like the franchise) to be more critical toward it and point out its flaws. Common criticisms include the lack of Character Development, Ben's and Gwen's bickering being perceived as annoying, the waste of many good characters (Xylene) and plots (How Ghostfreak ended up in the Omntrix) and the villains being one-dimensional. Similarly, Man of Action Studios used to be considered My Real Daddy for the franchise and the fact they only worked on that show was used as a justification for not liking the sequels; since then, their work on very unpopular Marvel cartoons have caused many people to notice flaws in their writing that already existed in the original Ben 10.
  • It Was His Sled:
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Some people just watched the show to see Grandpa Max be completely awesome.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Vilgax destroys the planet where all of Tetrax's race lives, killing hundreds of innocent lives for no reason other than to test his brand new toy.
    • And Ghostfreak wanted to plunge Earth into darkness, the result of which is shown to be horrifying mutations of all living things.
      • Also note, that was just a side effect of his plan that he didn't even care about.
    • Zombozo gets his by kidnapping a 10 year old girl and draining her of her energy until she's nothing but a shrivaled husk of her former self, speaking of it so lightly that it's implied it's not the first time.
    • As if it wasn't clear that the Forever King is more evil than Enoch, he deliberately leaves Enoch trapped forever in his Lotus-Eater Machine just to spite him for not getting the Omnitrix.
  • Older Than They Think: There really was a secret organization called the Plumbers - Richard Nixon's private police who did the illegal surveillance of the Watergate hotel.
  • The Producer Thinks of Everything: One of the first line readings for the role of Ghostfreak?
    Ghostfreak: Ben's not here anymore.
  • Relationship Writing Fumble: Ben and Gwen, in an almost reverse case of the usual trope. The writers PROBABLY viewed them as just bickering, if still loving, cousins (and nothing else), and tried to write them as such. To most of the rest of us...
  • The Scrappy: Kai Green does have some fans, but mostly she has a very sizable hatedom, due to her only episode portraying her as a rather unsympathetic character who Ben fell in love with for no real apparent reason before she rejected him rather callously (and unlike Julie, no effort was made by the writers to rescue her from the Scrappy Heap) and being an obstacle to Bwen.
  • Seasonal Rot: The third season is generally considered the weakest due to less impressive episodes and overall story arc than the other seasons have.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Race Against Time. Dear lordy, Race Against Time. Some fans were NOT happy when they realized the aliens were not voiced by the original voice actors.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Xylene. An alien Action Girl with cool powers and design, a big part in Ben's origin (she was the one who brought the Omnitrix to Earth and a past relationship with Max. She appeared for exactly one episode and never shew up again. Even in the sequels, all she got is a very brief mention in a dialogue.
    • The Galactic Enforcers only shew up for one episode plus a cameo in the future episode, despite having included Ben in their ranks as a honorary member.
    • At the end of the third season, Ben gets three new aliens, each based off a different monster. A werewolf, a mummy, and Frankenstein's monster. Despite all being pretty cool, they don't appear at all for the rest of the series, and it isn't until an alternate timeline episode in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien that any of them reappear. They aren't even properly named, being referred to as "Ben*monster name*" in the credits. It took until Ben 10: Omniverse for them to even be given proper names.
    • While Ghostfreak is a cool villain by himself, you could argue he was wasted motivation-wise: When he first escapes the Omnitrix, his dialogue implies he is motivated by revenge toward Ben for having him prisoner in the Omnitrix for so long. This idea is completely dropped right in the same episode, and for all his next appearances in both this series and the sequels, he is portrayed as an generic "I want to conquer the Universe" villain.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Ben 10's character, Ripjaws, is part deep-sea creature and merMAID, so he might seem like a female, but he's actually a male.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/Ben10