I loved so many things about Tomb Quest, but as someone has previously said the whole premise of the show relies on a common ableist trope which made the whole thing feel a bit sour to me, as someone who is disabled myself. I'm going to expand on that a bit in this post because I don't think anyone else has.
A common ableist trope is a disabled person "inspiring" nondisabled people to get their acts together & live more fully, especially if that disabled person has died or is very sick. Often, the disabled person has no other personality or plot than being sick or disabled & inspirational to the nondisabled characters.
Ben fulfills this trope, especially as he was imo given no full personality apart from what was said by the non disabled characters (which was very little apart from him wanting them to finish the game & that his character, Benjamin Blazebeard, was seemingly the best of them- playing into the virtuous disabled person trope). He wasn't on the official show art either even though he was the whole reason they got together, again playing into the idea that the only reason he's part of the show is to give the main (white, nondisabled) characters a reason to get together & ultimately improve their relationships & lives.
Him being Black when the rest of the main cast (not the understudies) are white/white passing obviously plays into racist tropes too as other people have discussed. I think it's important to say that Black disabled people too often face far more stigma, abuse, & neglect than their white or nondisabled counterparts & Ben would have definitely experienced this to some degree whilst alive. Many chronically ill people, myself included, have lost friendships because of ableism & lack of understanding by non disabled people on how to be a good friend to us. Ben very obviously would have loved to finish the game whilst he was still alive, but it looked like no one (except maybe Gary) even thought that might be something that they should make the effort to do.
This imo all makes it feel even ickier that the whole plot was then his white/white passing nondisabled friends coming together after he was no longer able to join them, completing something he so obviously would have loved to finish whilst he was alive, & making their own lives richer in the process.
Obviously I don't think any of this was intentional, but intention doesn't negate impact. Like @midnightnautilus said in their recent post, Starkid needs to do better at hiring or even consulting writers who have the lived experience of the marginalised characters they're trying to depict. There are many ways that Tomb Quest could have been written which didn't negatively impact its Black & disabled audiences. As we say in the disabled community, Nothing About Us Without Us.
Final note. I've seen some negative reactions to marginalised people voicing their criticisms of Tomb Quest so I just wanted to say: Black, disabled, & other marginalised people are allowed to voice their criticism of things that negatively impact them. I love Starkid & I loved Tomb Quest but nuance is important & valid. After all, how are things ever going to be better & more inclusive (& therefore more enjoyable & exciting to watch!) if people are discouraged from saying how something has done harm & how it could be improved?
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