Recap / Ben 10 S 2 E 12 Dr Animo And The Mutant Ray

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Tropes:

• Awesome, but Impractical: Ben merging his alien forms together seems like a cool idea on paper, as it could potentially allow him to combine their powers together in a similar way to how Kevin 11 does. In practice though, it turns out that the merged forms end up making Ben weaker, as most of the merged forms have abilities that either cancel out or flat-out hinder each other for the most part. The fact that Ben isn't able to properly select the fusions doesn't help.
• Bat Out of Hell: A bat makes the mistake of trying to roost near Dr. Animo just as he needs a test subject for the Omnitrix-powered mutant ray. The end result is a Heatblast-sized bat with an infernal appearance to match.
• Binomium ridiculus: Averted. When Animo first notices the bat, he actually identifies it by it's proper binomial nomenclature, Eptesicus fuscus. He was a veterinary scientist before he went crazy after all.
• Body Horror: Dr. Animo's titular mutant ray reduces Max into a drooling Stinkfly-esque slug.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Mocked by Dr. Animo, who reveals that he was able to track Ben from Washington to Louisiana by following news of aliens saving people.
• Continuity Snarl: One of the potential fusions Ben mentions at the end is "XLRFreak", even though he lost Ghostfreak the episode prior. Justified due to this episode being produced before "Ghostfreaked Out".
• "Eureka!" Moment: Ben figures out that his shapeshifting is the key to fixing the Omnitrix, so reattaching the faceplate just as he changes back will meld the broken parts together again.
• I Warned You: After Dr. Animo takes the faceplate of the Omnitrix, Ben dares to say, "I told you so!", after she previously warned him not to tamper with the Omnitrix, getting frustrated when Gwen refuses to indulge him. After the day is saved and the Omnitrix is fixed, Gwen finally yells the words at Ben.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Animo ends up with the detached faceplate of the Omnitrix, which he learns is self-powered and contains all the genetic samples of Ben's aliens. He uses it as a component in his eponymous ray to create hybrid mutants of Ben's aliens.
• It's All My Fault: Ben comes to this conclusion when his meddling with the Omnitrix leads up to Dr. Animo turning Max into a mutated slug.
• Here We Go Again!: Subverted. Ben pretends to have Aesop Amnesia at the end of the episode where he makes like he's going to try and mess with the Omnitrix again to get cooler hybrid forms than the ones he used, shouting "Kidding!" when Gwen and Max chide him for it.
• Merging Mistake: Ben's tampering removes the faceplate on the Omnitrix, causing it to glitch and transform him into unstable fusions of his aliens.
  • Stink-Arms is too heavy to make use of Stinkfly's wings and isn't nearly as strong as Fourarms.
  • Diamond-Matter lacks Greymatter's maneuverable smaller size, and his lack of Diamondhead's durability leaves much to be desired.
  • Heat-Jaws is one of the worst combos, dousing Heatblast's flames, and drying out Ripjaws' gills.
• No-Sell:
  • When Dr. Animo tries to use his mutant ray on Ben, nothing happens, with Animo concluding that Ben's transformed state made him immune to the effects of the ray.
  • Heat-Jaws tries blasting Heat-Bat with his flames. It has zero effect on the mutant bat, and its retaliation nearly cooks Heat-Jaws alive.
• Not Quite Back to Normal: Ben and Gwen manage to change Grandpa Max back from his mutant slug form. However, there are residuals of his transformation, as Grandpa wonders why he has a taste for rotten meat and sugar water.
• Oxymoronic Being: Heat-Jaws is a fish partially made of fire. Ben is only able to get use of him briefly while underwater where he could breathe but exhausted himself trying to keep his flame going.
• Reverse the Polarity: Gwen tests this out with the mutant ray in order to change Max back to normal. It works.
• Too Dumb to Live: Ben trying to take apart a piece of super-advanced alien technology that splices his DNA with alien species is a whole new level of stupid. He’s beyond lucky it didn’t get him transformed into a puddle of genetic slag with no organs.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ben pulls off the Omnitrix's faceplate, causing it to glitch his alien forms together when he tries to use it. To make matters worse, Animo recovers the faceplate and is able to use it to complete his mutant ray, giving him the means to mutate the entire world at once.