Ben Tennyson: Current Thoughts
I know I said I was taking a break from Ben 10 and moving onto newer fixations but I have a lot of feelings about the titular character that I want to talk about. It’s kind of a mess so be with me here. I’ve seen a lot of discourse around Ben over the years, and have participated in some myself, regarding his character development and relationships. I wasn’t on tumblr at the time but there were some heated discussions in the past between “Ben stans” and haters with critics calling him a womanizer, misogynistic sociopath and narcissist which got ugly. I am a Ben fan who has a lot of feelings on that and I think a lot of the discourse stems from the problems with the show’s writing including misogyny, ableism, racism and copaganda. He could have been a really good, complex character but was held back by poor character writing. I have a soft spot for the franchise but its writing in general is frankly mid with it only having just enough good and an interesting premise to keep one invested.
Ben 10 at its core is akin to similar IPs like MOTU, Pokemon, Ninjago, TMNT and Transformers. It’s a glorified toy commercial that managed to have a good premise while being a light hearted series for kids that occasionally touched on deeper issues. The sequels created a whole bunch of retcons due to having different writers who had conflicting visions of the direction they wanted to take the series in and it was held back by the Network which refused to allow it to truly grow up. All of that along with the repeated character derailment left the audience with a mess and divided opinions on whether Ben is worthy of his status as wielder of the Omnitrix and if he’s a bad boyfriend and bad person.
I think a big issue with Ben 10 is that it wasn’t really meant to be a serious sci fi drama. This is coming from someone who does prefer AF/UA over the other two but it really worked better as a campy kids show. Whenever the writers tried to tackle mature themes like Ultimate Kevin or Jennifer Nocturne, they often tripped over themselves due to their own shortcomings and CN refusing to let their cash cow truly mature and making Ben the show’s punching bag. The issue with Ben 10’s progressivism is that it often misses the mark and feels shallow. Shows like ATLA, SU or TOH may have not been perfect in executing their progressive themes but they feel a lot more genuine because those shows were meant to be more mature, complex and story based from the get go. That’s not to say a toy commercial show can’t tackle more complex themes or storylines well and the show attempting to do so is noble but it seems like the writers didn’t know their limits when covering addiction or racism.
Adding onto that point about Ben 10’s botched progressivism, it often tried to espouse a pro diversity, anti racist message yet fell flat at good representation. It’s odd that Dwayne McDuffie, who was known for pushing black characters in comics, was show runner for UAF yet there are barely any main black characters besides Alan. It has a diverse cast of women of color like Kai, Julie and Elena yet only allows them to be Ben’s love interests and makes them bland, shallow and unlikable. It often gave redemption to characters who committed genocide like the Highbreed and Sir George while vilifying mentally ill or disabled characters like Malware and Albedo. Ben, Gwen, Kevin and Rook act as agents for an organization whose corruption has repeatedly been swept under the rug by the narrative and they aren’t allowed to really question it. Why would Kevin and the Plumbers kids keep working for the shady organization, which was named after Nixon’s IRL Plumbers, whose black ops unit kidnapped and brainwashed them to turn them into weapons with intent to murder Ben? I’ve been thinking about the way the show and much of the fandom has a pro police, pro punitive justice mindset which may factor into how they treat Ben as a person and character. I like the show but it has some aspects that have aged poorly and its misogyny is quite prevalent on rewatch.
Something I’ve noticed is Ben is barely allowed to be emotionally vulnerable by the show or fandom. I think that may stem from the need to make him into a male power fantasy. He’s barely allowed to cry and while Kevin once referred to him as “kinda girly”, the series was very intended as a “boys show”. I think that combined with the copaganda and Ben being treated as a bratty, immature jock who punches before thinking by both the show and certain characters like Rook plays into him having a lot of dudebro fans. With the exception of debates on whether he was OOC in the Ultimate Kevin arc, he doesn’t really get the same amount of hate or discourse for saving the Highbreed, befriending Sir George or failing to kill Vilgax that Avatar Aang or Steven Universe get for not killing their show’s respective villains.
Going back to that last point, if you go on the r/ben10 subreddit or YouTube, a lot of users there seem to really hate Aang or Steven for being gnc pacifists and “crybabies” compared to Ben. It kind of goes back to Ben not being allowed to cry despite all the sh*t he’s been through that would justify him doing so. The show often glosses over his PTSD and mental health issues aside from occasionally mentioning his nightmares or the trauma from losing Feedback. There is still a lot of conservatism in the Ben 10 fandom with hostility towards trans/queer interpretations. I think this stems from the show being heralded as an example of old cartoons being “better” to newer, more inclusive “sjw” shows, despite own its attempts at pro immigrant, pro diversity messaging.
I kind of side eye Ben 10 fans who prop Ben up to trash pacifist characters because of what it says about their views on justice. I’m critical of pacifism IRL because of how it often both sides and enables oppressive violence but in fiction I think it’s good for children, especially young boys to have role models who are more comfortable with being emotionally sensitive and favor nonviolent solutions. I do not like pro cop media because cops and the prison system are not friends in any way to nonwhite trans women like me. Despite having a SU critical phase that I am embarrassed of, I have grown to be fond of fictional pacifists like Aang, Steven or Emma (TPN) as I think it’s good to have more child protagonists who don’t immediately beat the hell out of those society labels “bad” especially with how easily it is to weaponize that against vulnerable and marginalized people.
As much as I like Ben and applaud that he proved to Azmuth that he was worthy of the Omnitrix, it feels wasted to be used as a weapon to chase down low level criminals like SSSerpent, Fistrick or Trombipulor. I think a pacifist like Steven, Aang or Emma would maybe use it more for its intended purpose of diplomacy and connecting various species across the universe. Ben does that too but it feels like he’s wasting his time being the Plumber’s secret weapon especially as he doesn’t care much about the badge. Although 10k seems to have distanced himself from them so props there. The Highbreed arc wouldn’t change much but maybe some of his less dangerous or more sympathetic rogues like Albedo would be reformed or pacified if one of those pacifists was the Omnitrix wielder. Ben strikes me as having difficulties with empathy, with possible autistic headcanons and I don’t think that makes him a bad person but some of his villains who are less one dimensionally evil could have been reformed with a bit more empathy. Someone did make a Pink Gentle Ben AU based on that concept a while back which is interesting to think about.
I do think that comic flanderizes Ben a bit as there are moments where he’s willing to try a nonviolent approach or extend a hand to his enemies. Kevin wouldn’t be his best friend if he didn’t and Reiny wouldn’t have changed his ways without him but the show and fandom kind of play him up to be this dumb jock who spams Humungousaur on every villain he meets. He does show a lot more appreciation for the watch and his aliens than given credit for which is why he defended Eunice and was broken by the death of Feedback. He had to mentor Ben 23 to not use it as a toy for his own gain after learning that lesson himself. Whenever he’s written well, Ben is a really good character yet Cartoon Network refused to allow him to truly grow up and made him into the punching bag who’s just an immature brat.
I think what makes Ben an endearing character is that he does try to grow and be a good person despite his shortcomings. I think a lot of fans do imagine him as far more hotheaded than he actually was which is why he gets hit with the opposite kind of flanderization that Steven or Aang do. Despite being a goofy guy who has battles with his own ego and selfishness, he is “one of everybody” and tries to live up to those standards. For all the discourse about him being a bad person, boyfriend, womanizer or sociopath, he has a compelling arc about having to be the world’s savior while repeatedly choosing morals over power. I dislike the idea that he wanted to kill Ultimate Kevin because Kevin saved the universe and not him as it’s often used to paint him as a sociopath but I do wonder if he has some sort of martyr or messiah complex from always having to be the hero and have the solution. He based his self worth on the Omnitrix for the majority of the series and only came to accept he was the thing that was special by Omniverse.
Getting into the discourse about Ben as a boyfriend and his love interests, I think the show’s misogyny really dragged down his relationships. I’ve been getting back into SU and Connverse feels like what Benlie or Benkai should have been as they do have some of the same dynamics but Julie wasn’t allowed to be anything but a satellite love interest and they seemed to love using Ben and Kai arguing as affection. They really didn’t know how to write conflict without making Ben the bad guy and painting him as an uncaring horny philanderer towards Julie or an idiot who deserves to be stepped on by Kai. I think he’s ultimately burned out by relationships by OV and acts dismissive of them. This is where a lot of the queer or aroace interpretations of him stem from. The misogynistic writing and forced Benkai ship does lead him to having much more genuine chemistry with his male friends like Rook, Rex and Kevin. I used to really like Benlie but I can see a lot of the flaws now that I look at it with a more critical eye. It was frankly for the best that they broke up as they weren’t happy together. I do speculate that he settled for dating Kai because of his fear of loneliness and needing someone to be with even if they can barely get along.
Regarding the way fans talk about Kai and Julie as love interests, I have seen takes that Ben stans are racist and misogynistic for trashing them. I do get that because painting an Asian woman as b*tchy and controlling or a brown girl as abusive is not a good look and plays into stereotypes. Women of color are often held to harsher standards than white men. I don’t really hate them the way some Ben fans do, I think they’re victims of sexist or tone deaf writing and the need for the writers to make Ben into a harem protagonist, which he himself is uncomfortable with. Their voice actresses were also treated poorly by both the crew and fans, so I can’t be too hard on them. I think it would be better off if they just stayed friends with him and were allowed to develop as their own characters. Your partner should call you on your BS but they should still make you feel accepted and valued and it feels heteronormative to insist Ben needs a girlfriend when they can’t write a committed, healthy relationship.
I wrote an essay analyzing both Ben and Gwen a while back with some similar points but I think he needs a break from both the show and fans. He has barely any time to be a kid and has to lock down his house just to play video games. The show really needed to allow him to be more emotionally vulnerable, even if it ruins the power fantasy aspect, and I feel bad for him because he damned himself to losing any sort of normality when he put the watch back on. I think he needs therapy more than he does fame. A lot of fans seem to have fragile masculinity when discussing his character which is why they hate pacifist heroes like Steven yet I think there is a reason for all the queer/trans interpretations with his aliens like Feedback and Big Chill. A lot of the issues with his character really come from the Network and writer’s shortcomings. I can understand if some prefer Gwen or Kevin as they do have their own traumas and arcs that are compelling but Ben deserved better than what he got. He’s not my favorite character of all time but I wouldn’t be on this site if it wasn’t for him and for all the flaws of the show, he does teach a lot about being a good person, helping people and standing up for what you believe in.
