Ben 10 (classic)

Still, the franchise has been silent for a while. I'd have expected something to be announced by now.

Considering the Zaslav madness of Warner Bros, I doubt anything's getting greenlit as long as Zaslav is running things.

Anyone find it pretty funny how Gwen has no problem telling Vilgax to "be quiet" in the series finale of Ultimate Alien as he tries to persuade Ben into using the sword for selfish reasons?

Say, as long as we're talking about the show universe itself, has anyone else discussed the ethical implications of using the Null Void? In the classic show you'd think at first it's just used to contain entities that are too dangerous to rehabilitate or imprison in this dimension, hence why Phil getting zapped was an accident, and Max only pulled it out on Vilgax and Kevin, the two deadliest foes at the time.

Come Ben 10,000 though we see the Null Void apparently gets used for every criminal, regardless of the threat or sapience level. Even Future Dr. Animo, despite him being a head in a Jar you could just put in a cell. Remember, this is an endless Eldritch Location brimming with horrible monsters and no food or shelter for miles. And unlike the Phantom Zone, you're definitely not immortal there. Being sent to the Null Void is for all intent a death sentence.

UAF kind of softens this by showing the dimension has settlements and prison facilities with the Null Guardians(The squid Bat creatures) protecting people so it's not completely uninhabitable, but we are given no indication of that in the original show. For all we know Ben 10,000 was leaving small time guys like Charmcaster, Rojo, and the Circus Freaks to die in interdimensional hell.

Maybe monsters like Vilgax or Z'skayr would deserve it(although in Z'skayr's case he might not mind) but does some random alien smuggler deserve to have the shit beaten out of him, left to rot without a trial, and get eaten by giant space worms?

Edited by Snailfish on Apr 28th 2024 at 4:42:04 AM

The Null Void becomes an actual prison by the time of UAF, which it only sorta was in classic. Like, Kevin is in actual jail in his Flashback episode in Ultimate Alien, but he's only kinda wandering around in the episode where him and Vilgax get trapped there.

I should reiterate that in the first Ben 10,000 future, there's a "null void chamber" where criminals are transported. There was no mention of a prison facility in there, so for all we knew future Ben and pals were just dumping their enemies into an unending wasteland to die. Made me think, What the Hell, Hero?

Ben 10k was a cynical and humorless guy (at first) in his debut episode, so it might explain why he would be more merciless towards his enemies.

Anyone else remember that weird AF episode where Animo, probably the goofiest os villain, suddenly became a dead serious evil overlord named D'void and ditched his mutant pets?

What was up there? Did they try to retool him to be less silly but found he was blander? Because he snaps back afterwards and it's never mentioned again. Maybe Animo experimented on himself to evolve into a superhuman, it altered his mind, and afterwards he decided "well that wasn't as cool as I thought, better go back to siccing animals on people."

Most likely. There was quite a bit of AF that tried to spin itself as the darker and edgier, no nonsense take on Ben 10, and sometimes that led to things getting bland.

Them mostly dropping that in UA (with some exceptions, like the Captain Nemesis episode) was imo a marked improvement.

I never understood why they couldn't just create a whole new character instead of making the crazy animal guy a...buff Dimension Lord?

Either way, I still D'void. I think AF handled all classic series villains well except for Vilgax.

One thing I'm sad about is UAF depicts Hex as a way calmer, more competant villain. Whose matured out of being a smug dumbass from the original series. And sadly they rarely gave him many appearnaces to capitlise on that before his redemption.

I thought Animo mind controlling the null void creatures was supposed to be like a natural evolution from his animal shtick.

The only weird thing to me was that they made him buff. It doesn't fit his character at all.

I am astounded as to why Cartoon Network Latin America hasnt comissioned a new series. Sure, its just a local branch, but in this branch CN rules with an iron fist. Its been the number 1 channel for decades in the region and Ben 10 was mega huge over here, especially the toys. And Discovery Kids Latin America commisioned the new Totally Spies show.

I notice Animo/D'Void was using alien minerals to max out his stats. Maybe that altered his mind a bit and when it wore off, he got amnesia and went back to his usual M.O.

Dude mutates things and controls animals, so even if oddly used, what he had in the Null Void made some sense. If only he keeps his usual demeanor, it would have been better, though. And possibly some Body Horror in the transformation.

Edited by Blueace on May 1st 2024 at 3:25:17 PM

Since we're talking about Dr. Animo now, anyone wonder how the heck his brain ended up in a glass dome in Omniverse?

Looking at him in OV:

Looks so weirdly different from his final appearence in Ultimate Alien:

What happened to his head and brain to make it so radically different between series?

Animo's OV design really is hard to look at. Not one of the better designs to come out of that show.

It's like the opposite of his UAF design, which imo was too bland. His OV design on is just too busy. There's too much crap going on there. It clashes.

Edited by KnownUnknown on May 1st 2024 at 1:07:22 AM

You think Animo's design is overdetailed? Look at Paradox.

I figure UA Animo just worked out since Prisons Are Gymnasiums

So like we're all of the negative ten dumped in the null void. Hence why Animo was their.

I don't think so. Charmcaster never mentions being in the void, and in the og the heroes only used that on seriously powerful threats.

Speaking of the void,I sometimes debate which villain suffered the most, between Kevin(lonely childhood, mutated into a monster), Albedo(trapped in a body he hates),Ghostfreak(sealed in a watch for hundreds of years) and Malware(born deformed and unstable, felt abandoned by his creator).

Then I remember poor ol Phil. Thrown into another dimension, alone for years and hunted by beasts, captured and tortured, test subject for an unstable Omnitrix, and had his mind taken over by an alien entity that warped his body into a monster. All because he wanted to relive his plumber glory days. Holy Shit.

So how did he end up their? I don't think it's explained what they did with the original negative ten after beating them.

Also kinda wild we never saw another incarnation of them. Seems a waste of a great concept even if the execution is underwhelming in membership (Clancy really?),

Charmcaster wouldn't be sent to the null void anyway because by that point in the show they were still sending characters to normal jail. It's a major plot point in that body swap episode.

Aw ,I actually liked Clancy. Would much rather they brought back him than that Kangaroo Commando loser. A Mysterious vagrant with telepathic symbiosis with insects is a Creepy Awesome concept. Makes me wish we could've seen how he'd affect Stinkfly and Big Chill.

I like to think that after Negative 10, Clancy left the country to find a place where his home wouldn't be disturbed by kids with alien watches. Maybe he even met the baby Big Chills and took them in.

Edited by Snailfish on May 5th 2024 at 2:38:50 AM

I wouldn't call Negative 10 such a great concept. It's just Villain Team-Up and with 10 characters, it can be a struggle to give all of them proper focus. And since putting all big bads on one team like Vilgax, Eon, Malware or Aggregor feels a bit impossible, you will have to put some low-level thugs. Minus 10 was heavily limited by the fact that Ben didn't have that large villain gallery at the time, they werent bringing up big guns like Kevin just for the team-up, not to mention a complete lack of aliens. The show was just too grounded at the time for a human villain to recruit extraterrestrials.

For what it's worth, "Special Delivery" ended up with Ben facing 10 villains - Fistrick, Vreedle Brothers, Vulkanus, Zombozo, Fistina, Sunder, Tummyhead, Trombipular and Psyphon.