Ben-101-Rewrite

A project based around rewriting/polishing up the beloved Ben 10 Series

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💚Welcome Ben 10 Fans💚

Welcome to the Ben 101 Rewrite, a personal project where I redesign, rewrite and remake elements from Ben 10 to polish up the ideas of the series. My main goal is to help tell the story I think Ben 10 could have been, by taking the concepts, characters and ideas from the show and giving them the love and attention they deserve. You can call me Crystal, and I hope to do right with the show and you all enjoy what I have to offer. I will also leave a few answers here to the most common questions about this idea, and this blog general. 

Do you take commissions/requests?

Not right now, unfortunately. Things are gonna be busy for me, and I’m not in state of confidence to make things for others. Sometimes I do surprise gifts, and I am planning on raffles and such. But please do not badger me for requests, especially if I have already said no. Respect artist, guys. This also isn’t my main account, and such things shouldn’t be asked here.

How much does your rewrite change?

The general idea of characters, certain plot lines and concepts tend to be recognizable still. Most ideas tend to be polished or fixed up, but there are big changes here and there. Each arc and storyline are mostly in order, though Omniverse is a little twisted around, but the basic idea of Ben becoming a hero with the watch is still, of course, the main focus to this all.

Can I request to see certain characters, objects or plotlines?

Redesigns and drawings for this take some time, but I do put out voting polls whenever a next batch of redesigns are coming in. People are welcome to suggest ideas on what they want to see, as it will give me an idea of what to get around to eventually. But while drawings take time, answering questions is far easier, so feel free to ask about an element in the series to see how I’ve rewritten them if you wish.

What made you commit to this idea?

Ben 10 is one of the biggest examples of “Concept is great, but execution is poor”. That isn’t to say the show is bad, but a lot of us know the truth that many issues got in the way of Ben 10 telling the story it wanted to share. In fact Ben 10 being a mess of concepts is why I fell in love with it, because the ideas it holds gives me great passion to make something out of it. And in honor of the series, I wish to try and do the story and characters justice. 

Is there a full timelines of the rewrite?

Not of right now, but I am planning out each arc with a timeline.

What questions can I ask you?

Feel free to ask anything about this rewrite if you want, I’m pretty easy going and love to answer questions. Things ranging from characters, plots, items, alien races, even perhaps a certain episode you wanna know how I’d rewrite. You can also ask me questions, but I also have a main blog for that stuff too. But I do have my limits, and I don’t want to deal with NSFW things or pure hate, so be respectful around here people. Remember, if you don’t like this kind of stuff, you’re free to scroll on past. 

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Been rewatching Ultimate Alien since they added UA Ben and Gwen to Fortnite (Still holding out hope for our GOAT Kevin to get a skin) , and it made me want to ask;

Will Ultimate Ben 10K still appear in the re-write?

If so, what are some changes you’d make? Ultimate Ben is a cool idea in theory, but I think they executed it poorly.

(Personally, I’d give him a better design, because giving him the recalibrated omnitrix design instead of creating a future ultimatrix.)

(That and probably make it to where he transforms more physically, like actually having to turn his arms into pyronite ones to shoot fire instead of just… shooting flames out of mid air.)

He’s a timeline where he kept the ultimatrix and kept upgraded it, as unfortunately for his timeline it was needed. Lots of wars and fights across the galaxy due to the plumbers collapsing thanks to a combo of Vilgax, the high breeds and a few others. Ultimate Ben hoping someday he can get the old watch back, or at least let the next generation use it instead of the ultimatrix. He comes across as very chipper and friendly, but there is this aura of being very tired because his timeline so happened to be more...hostile. He has a lot of wisdom to share though, and is very encouraging of Ben to be the hero he knows he has to be, but don't lose himself to it either.

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Random ask, but did the thing with Feedback and Malware affect Ben’s ability to use Upgrade for a bit? I’d imagine it’d be hard for Ben since Upgrade is the same species as the one who essentially “killed” one of his favorite forms. (and also essentially a part of Ben himself.)

Malware was very very different to most mechamorphs that Ben didn't think too hard about that aspect. There is most likely some minor subconscious feelings there, but it's not as bad as what Zs'skayr was like when it came to Ghostfreak and Anur stuff in general.

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Which parts of Earth culture was Rook most confused by when he first became Ben's partner? I can see him being very confused by whatever the Ben 10 universe's equivalents of Skibidi Toilet and 67 are, trying to find some logic in them that doesn't exist.

It'd most likely just be day to day stuff. Realistically when you go overseas to a culture you've never interacted with before, it's very easy to get tripped up by a lot of little things. Like when I go to the USA, the tipping culture tends to confuse me. So for Rook it would just be casual common things.

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How prime interact with each Bens?

I presume you mean the different Alt Bens/Folks from the Eon Vs Ben Prime fight, so.

Gwen 10 = Pretty casual with her, kind of slips into the routine of her being similar to his own Gwen, though he is able to pick up on her differences over time. They still act like family though.

Ben 23 = Acts like a sort of big brother to Ben 23, primarily in a mentorship kind of way. He recognises that Ben 23 is a good person, and wants to be a hero, he's just been through a lot and needs help. Still gets his frustrated moments with him though, lol.

Ben 10k = Compared to the others, Ben 10k will often share the leadership role with Ben Prime, which makes sense since he is the oldest. He gives Ben much needed advice, while not holding his hand.

No Watch = He's very encouraging towards No Watch Ben, really wanting him to know that he can still be something without the watch, a lot of their dynamic providing self reflection for Ben Prime.

Omni Ben = He was admittedly confused by his existence at first, before finding it rather cool. Omni Ben is, for a lack of better term, alien compared to the rest of the crew, but Ben Prime recognises there is something to gain from that.

Jen 10 = Pretty chill with each other. They like asking each other what it's like being the opposite gender.

Julie 10 = A nice but complicated dynamic, mostly due to the nature of each other's counterparts in their own worlds. I imagine it being akin to Spiderman and Spidergwen, though in this case Julie and Ben didn't die in their respective worlds lol.

Sentient Omnitrix & Ben = Normal with the Ben from this world, but is sometimes off put by Omnitrix's personality, as it's not how he imagined the watch if they were alive, more akin to someone like Omni Ben. But her Ben says it's fine so he'll take his word for it.

Rooters Ben = Unsure how to approach. He was hostile at first, but slowly came to recognise what Rooters Ben is really meant to represent, and that he's nothing like the ones he had to deal with in the Prime Timeline, eventually valuing his input, being the only one who will say the harsh things.

Eon = It's...a long wild story. He doesn't like Eon, that's clear, and he will do whatever he can to stop him, but Ben isn't dumb, he knows that Eon is this way because something bad happened to him, and the more and more he learns about Eon' story, the more he feels sorry for the man, knowing all it takes is one really bad outcome for even himself to turn rouge. But it won't slow him down in stopping this man before he goes too far.

Bad Ben = Doesn't like him one bit. He's an awful reflection to deal with. Doesn't play fair and has an ego that makes Ben feel embarrassed with himself, while also not underestimating him.

Mad Ben = Doesn't like him either, but also feels bad for the path he's own, knowing very well Vilgax screwed over his life in a way that makes Ben's skin crawl. He also recognises how dangerous Mad Ben is due to his strength and intelligence, a battle master.

Negative Ben = One of the few he struggles to fight against due to a moral sense. Negative Ben is in a bad place mentally and it makes it awful to fight against him, especially since he's barely trying. He does try and help, but it's gonna take more than some nice words to help Negative Ben.

Benzarro = Fully creeped out by this ghostly fusion of himself. Seeing the bits of himself and Zs'skayr put into one. Not helped that Benzarro has no issue understanding many of Ben's insecurities, loving to play mind games.

Malware Ben = Complicated bag since this is two people stuck together, what Malware did to Ben Prime still a sore spot. He understands that Malware Ben is very desperate and lost, force to listen to an awful influence non-stop.

Forever Knight Ben = Not exactly a fan of himself that's racist towards aliens.

Fusion Ben = Want to help in anyway he can, knowing fully well this version of himself is not in control of himself.

Ultra Ben = A very bitter self reflection of who he could have been, similar to Eon, but a lot more ugly in a sense. Doesn't like engaging with him.

Light Magic Ben = Doesn't know how to engage with, both because of his mental state and because magic isn't his specialty. But he knows it's bad, and that he needs to be stopped or helped.

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So, for some reason, I've lately been going down the rabbit hole of figuring out what Ben's ethnic and cultural background could be. I've seen some interesting suggestions and some of them are certainly compelling (Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian because of the -son suffix, Eastern European as his great-aunt's name is Vera, Jewish because of his middle name Kirby). Did you ever have your own personal headcanons about that and does Ben have a specific background in the rewrite?

Also, how do you feel about Ambiguous Cartoon Ethnicity as a thing in general? It's not a bad thing per se but personally, I do feel like more interesting stories can be told when a character has a specific background to pull from in terms of traditions, superstitions, holidays, etc.

Ben's history always screamed to me as someone who is very white european lmao, so lots of scattered backgrounds, but he's also a few generations in when it comes to living in America, so his cultural ties that he's invested in the most are in the USA. If anything, as time goes on I always picture Ben being more invested in alien cultures compared to earth ones. Not that it never delves into them over time, but he's time out in space is where it puts most of his time, especially when connecting with his alien forms. In terms of the ambiguous concept, I don't mind it depending on what the author wants. Of course, a character's culture and ethnicity can be one of the biggest things about them, including how they react to the world. They can also provide a different view point for the viewers at home to engage with, and it's super important. But not every character needs to be full on presenting this aspect about themselves either, both because of what the story they're in might be about, to just a realistic point in how different people handle this trait about themself. Some people are very open and talkative about the subject, some don't really care or bring it up so little, to many out right rejecting that part of themself. So really it just depends on the character and story for me, but it never hurts to have.

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So in the re-write, does Ben still have that “chapter and a half” made about him for the Plumber trainees?

And if so, does he take the time to actually sit down and read it, because I’m just imagining Ben stoping half way through the chapter and going “Well that’s just flat out wrong” to one or two things

(I’m also just assuming that Max would’ve probably fact checked a majority of the writing)

He does, and it most likely gets a bit longer over time. Not a book's worth, but enough for most Plumbers to get a good run down on him and how he effects the field when he's around. What they write is accurate, as I imagine they get Ben and Max's input on it.

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The holidays have already passed, but does the Tennyson family have any interesting holidays traditions on either side (by which I mean on Gwen or Ben's mother's sides)?

Also, is there a place at the table for Rook's family and Azmuth? They definitely feel like characters who have basically become honorary members of the family.

Natalie has a large family on her side, so her and Gwen probably do a lot of stuff with them on Christmas Eve before coming back to celebrate Christmas with the Tennyson side. Sandra's side is smaller but more close-knit, and are the kind of family to have 50th recipes of Christmas food that are passed down, so Ben partakes in cooking with his mum. I imagine Sandra would drag Rook in even if he would feel awkward at first, because she would invite anyone who doesn't have anything for the holidays. At the very least Rook takes this a good opportunity to learn some more earth cultures and perhaps pass on some of his home traditions his homeworld holidays. Azmuth and his family sometimes pop in, but at most Ben brings them gifts since I see Ben being a gift giver.

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Has ben been with any men in thus universe? I know the end game ship is benile but he has to been dating SOME people before her

Ben is kind of into anything as he gets older, both because of his original preferences and because of how he watch has influenced him, so he's had crushes on any gender/species across the board. I imagine he went on one or two dates before Julie, but Julie, Kai and Ester were his official relationships, but in between them he did go on dates with other people. Guys, girls, nonbinary, fluid, pyronite, polymorph, human and so on.

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What does amzuth think about kenny in your rewrite? Does he think he worthy of the omnitrix

Within the prime timeline of the rewrite Ben has Jay with Julie. Kenny does exist in the multiverse but not the prime timeline. Prime Azmuth quite likes Jay, especially since got Julie's polite nature lmao. And he helps the kid out a lot regarding his powers.

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Are Boston and Zed friends?

Because I’d imagine Ben would try and help Kevin with being a new dog owner and also help Zed with socializing with other animals/pets.

I can imagine they'd get along haha. By then Boston would be an older dog, so I can see him being the one who does a lot of dog teachings with Zed, like barking at her when she bites someone a little too hard or tries stealing food. Despite the fact she could probably take Boston in a fight, their instincts make her respect him.

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So do the events or “Save the Last Dance” go about the same in the re-write (other than the baby chills, y’know, existing I mean.) Because it irked me a little that Ben wouldn’t go straight to Gwen with his concerns, especially if he thinks it’s another Zy’Skayr situation. (Granted, Ben probably didn’t want to ruin the dance for Gwen, and the pregnancy was effecting his behavior so.)

And on a SLIGHTLY similar note, was Zy’Skayrs entrapment the same as the original series? He was scanned while he was possessing a Florauna at the time (investigating the omnitrix or drones I think?) and if that’s true in the re-write did Azmuth not notice that an econurite sample was taken at an odd moment or was it just “Huh, guess we got that sample already, neat.” (and as I’m writing this, did Zy’Skayr’s escape make the original/current sample benign or did Azmuth just replace it with a different sample?)

It's roughly the same, the more major aspect comes later in that the babychills return and get to be characters. I can get the frustration on him not going to Gwen, but I can see Ben not wanting to jump the gun. I know they make comparisons to Ghostfreak, but I can also buy Ben just thinking this could be any number of reasons the watch is making him black out. Ghostfreak did a lot of things but I don't recall a point where Ben blacked out as him and woke up in a ditch. He tended to be aware when Zs'skayr tried doing his thing. So Ben wanting to find more clues before ruining Gwen's day is logical. Plus I like that it both shows that he is considerate of his cousin's life to show growth from when they were kids, and that him and Julie get to do things together on screen. It shows he can have support outside of Gwen and he was smart in how he was trying to figure things out. And regarding Zs'skayr himself, I chucked out the whole "ectonurites are alive in any form of DNA" because that's always been a little dumb to me lol. You're telling me if this dude gets a papercut then he gets a clone? What happened in the rewrite is that Zs'skayr approached Myaxx to offer help, but what he was really doing was getting info on the watch, following her back, and then tried to take over the watch. But because of it's in work state and the nature of his possession, he got stuck in it instead of wearing it. Azmuth did see the DNA sample but Myaxx mentioned encountering an econurite, and while it's not common for them to leave the Anur System, it's not like one has never ever stepped foot outside the solar system, so Azmuth just figured Myaxx got a DNA sample from the stranger.

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In the rewrite, does Rook have some favorite genres when it comes to media (movies, shows, books, music etc.) or does he give everything a fair chance? I like to think he does, given that's he's a reasonable guy.

Are there also media that he considers insulting in some regard, either for personal reasons or more general reasons like presenting something nuanced very unfavorably?

I can see him being into mystery genres, and he has a soft for adventure stories all about a hero rushing to the call. When it comes to the media, I feel like based on his background he prefers books and music, and with tv and movies he will watch some here and there, but that's mostly through friends showing him something, starting it on his own is rarer. And I can't really see him getting picky about genres as a whole. If he doesn't like them it'd be a taste thing. It'd be more tropes and stereotypes he'd critic.

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I've been getting into this ghost hunting channel called AmysCrypt lately, and it got me wondering: has Ben ever done urban exploring or ghost hunting with Rook? the idea of Ben taking Rook on an urbex trip, only to reveal that the place is also haunted, just seems so funny and a very Ben thing to do in all honesty.

Also, how would Rook react to that scenario? He seems more like the sceptic type to me but he might be a little different in the rewrite.

Given the nature of the Ben 10 world within the rewrite, I imagine Ben would be open to it being ghosts (There are sort of cases like that within the rewrite, though not traditional ghosts). Ben is very open to anything new, given what he's run into. Rook would probably want to be reasonable and logical, but if proof is presented to him he might change his tune. I can't imagine they'd do urban exploring though randomly. Maybe Ben but I'm not sure why Rook would tag along. The most I could see is a case where they stumble across somewhere said to be haunted during the mission, and Ben decides to just roll with it.

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Okay so i got a few small questions that i decided to ask all together since they are all related to each other, sorry if it is too much

In your rewrite what happens with Technorg? I always thought it was weird how he just straight up disappeared between episodes

Also another que how are Vilgax and Kevin gonna meet for their team up? Vilgax just randomly floating in space didnt really made much sense without the popups

And lastly, will their team up ever be brought up by either of them? I just feel like it should have come up at least once lol

Technorg goes onto lead his own group to take down any illegal fighting rings/kidnapping organizations he can find, wanting to prevent what happened to him with many others. Most of his crew is built up by these people he's recused. Ben and him also get to meet again here and there. Vilgax and Kevin meeting each other I still need to think about, but my best idea is having Vilgax track down Kevin instead, obviously getting bizarre omnitrix readings from him as he hunts down for a new method to target Ben. And I would have them bring up their old teamworking business, mostly on Kevin's end though as it feels fitting for Vilgax's character to not consider much about it as it is not the first time he's teamed up with someone he doesn't care for.

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I was really invested in this project a while ago, but as my interests shifted into non Ben 10 things i started stopping keeping track of it, now that i am getting into Ben 10 again i remenbered this and decided to check it out again! So i have two questions if it is not much

I remenber the last time i checked there was a link to a timeline of all the arcs within the pinned post, now it isnt there anymore, so huh, what happened?

Also, the last time i checked i remenber the last arc you did a full rewrite on was the Vilgax's Regurn arc, have you made any other arc rewrites yet? If no, then which arc are you working on next?

Sorry if they are too many questions, im just kinda excited over finding this project again

When I originally started this blog/project it was admittedly just a small thing I was only doing for fun, and didn't expect it to gain this much attention, lol. So as more happens and the more I grow, I've had to change a few things up. I removed the link on the pin posted to the arc stories since I need to rework them, though you can still find the arcs I did write up through searching the page, I just removed the link to sort of let it be known that they weren't entirely canon anymore. I've been working on doing more videos about this project, able to get the first redesign video up last year, with a note saying that things posted on here are up for changing, but anything in the video is the full facts at the end of the day (not saying that ideas can't change there either, but they're the most solid ideas/concepts I have to offer). By now I had been hoping to have made a few more redesign videos by now, but a few things happened after making that redesign video before working on the big shipping video I did for Ben 10. A combo of the video being longer than I planned, getting sick, still being sick, death of a pet, working on other projects, being hired on other projects, and dealing with bad laptop issues. A few of those things have been sorted out, including getting a new PC finally! But as it is it's hard to keep up at times, and I am very grateful for the folks who are still very interested in this side project of mine and all the support! I do apologies for all the waits, but sometimes that's just life sadly. It also means I haven't properly written any new arcs publicly, but I have a lot of background notes and answered a lot of questions on certain arc moments people have asked about. I'm currently trying to figure out a new method of showcasing the rewrite Ben 10 arcs, mostly through video formatting, and I'm wanting to present this from the group up instead of jumping between arcs, as that way I can avoid things like plot holes or being stuck with needing to change the past arcs because of something I didn't think through with a future arc. Most of the arcs still have a similar outline based on what I wrote, so it's mostly about polishing. Again thank you all for sticking around for this, I never really thought that many would care about it, and I really do hope I can present more as time goes on! I do have a lot of Ben 10 art outside of this, as again this is not my main account, Crystalmoon101 is. So if you wanna see what I've been up to/want more, feel free to check out what else I have to offer. 💙

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Bivalvan, Galapagus, Andreas, Ra'ad and P'andor will stay dead after the Ultimate Kevin arc right? I always thought that they coming back at the last minute felt like a studio mandated thing to make the ending more kid friendly

They don't die in the rewrite, but they also don't come out unharmed either. When Aggregor uses his powers and the machine of them, I won't have them disappear into thin air, lol. Instead they're severely weakened, their normal health has been tanked and even after Aggregor is stopped, there's no repairing what he did to them. The entire group is now stuck with debilitating health, which basically intales some chronic pain, almost always feeling tired, brain fog, and all that not so wonderful stuff. They can still live a life, but it takes some good habits to build up and management, help from medical professionals too. I didn't want to kill the five of them off, but giving consequences from Aggregor's actions can come in more flavours than just murder. The five might not be dead, but he's effectively changed their lives for the worse forever, even if they find ways to heal from it.