My first (real) attempt at drawing XLR8! Honestly, I prefer the thicker tail of the OG design but, when line-arting, I accidentally made the tail quite slim and did not notice until I started colouring.
Oops.
Something to try again, next time.
Besides that, I love it! The bright cyan, the jovial expression, the theropod gait and the white tail tip totally not inspired by basilisk lizards. So colourful and mesmerizing.
Before I close off, I might as well throw in these sketches (featuring a humble Crashopper):
How do you feel about/what are your thoughts on some of the popular ships in Ben 10? Do you dislike any of them? Do you ship any of them?
Slightly strange question to ask someone who just finished the series but I have some thoughts (please note: this is all based on personal interpretation & opinion and please do not start any shipping wars. Thank you.):
Gwen/Kevin
When I first started Alien Force, I was not vibing with it at all. I'm not a huge fan of the 'Love at First Sight' trope and Gwen never really interacted with Kevin, in the original show.
Plus, 5* years had elapsed since Gwen last saw Kevin, I don't think Ben would have described Kevin in a way that would give Gwen a positive impression of him and, when we first saw Kev in AF, he was an illegal arms dealer who had strong tensions against the cousins.
TL;DR, I did not understand why Gwen immediately fell for him.
Gwen/Kevin, initially, to me, had a very clear 'Sponsored by Heteronormativity' ('We have a girl on the team, therefore she must be with the first, non-related leading man!') stamped on it and I wasn't having it.
Didn't helped that it felt like AF assumed the audience would immediately be on board with the ship so didn't think to include many moments of Gwen & Kevin actually being couple-y. On top of that, I found AF!Kevin to be a little annoying & repetitive (there are only so many times you can go 'I don't want to work with you lot!' before I start questioning why you are even here.).
However!
I did grow to ironically like Gwen/Kevin in a 'Okay, show, go do your 'Boy-and-Girl-Googly-Eyes-Each other' moment before we can go back to the fun bits that I care about' way. And, the best news! : My opinion went completely 180° in Ultimate Alien!
Not only did Kevin became a lot more likeable to me (I remember a scene where there's a destroyed building and Kevin showed concerned for a lost girl and it made me went 'Wait, he cares!?') but he and Gwen showed clear concerned and love and respect for each other.
A micro detail that massively boosted the ship, for me, was that whenever one of them gets knocked out, the other half always go into a mini-rage mode in order to protect them. 9 times out of 10, it leads to the enraged immediately getting knocked out but it's the thought that's cute.
And there are a lot of moments where the pair act like a teen couple and have fun banter with each other and I just became very attached and that has not changed. Out of all the canon couples, they're probably my favourite ♥( ˆ⌣ˆԅ)
Extra important I found them excellent in UA given another ship I was really into was going through... Very Rough Patches.
*Yes, I'm aware, thanks to Omniverse, it has technically been 4 years since they last saw each other and the episode 'From Hedorium To Eternity' made it so that the last time the cousins saw Kevin, they ended on somewhat positive terms (Unless the Rooters incident occurred after this episode). I knew none of this on initial watch-through, however.
Ben/Kevin
Before we get onto that other ship, I want to quickly mention that if the showrunners weren't cowards, Ben/Kevin would've been my preferred ship to make canon.
Don't get me wrong, I love what Gwen/Kevin ended up becoming but think about it. Ben and Kevin had a lot of interaction in the original show, which would make their love story more interesting as they have to navigate the whole 'I tried to kill you' thing and, in 'Ken 10', Kevin's continued obsession with Ben, even after 20 years, could be read as a persistent crush (at least, that's how I originally read it as. Looking back, due to Osmosisian lore, I would read it a little differently, but still).
I'm not saying they should immediately develop crushes on each other (remember, they had not seen each other in 5 or 4 years and things ended sourly) but it made more sense to past me.
But! I never properly shipped Ben/Kevin, neither during my OG watch-through nor any moment beyond that as I learned to work with, and later love, canon Gwen/Kevin. Also, I have yet to interact with fanon Ben/Kevin, in any substantial manner, so I can't comment on that.
Ben/Julie
Ben/Julie
Where the do I begin with this one?
So, one thing I immediately need to make clear: During AF, I was more invested in this ship than fucking Gwen/Kevin.
In the premiere, we are introduced to Ben's crush on her (which, sure, fine, whatever. It has been 5 years; shit can happen). However, it wasn't until their first (from what I recall), major interaction with each other in 'Pier Pressure' that my interest in this ship piqued.
Even though the date ended in a bit of a disaster, the show managed to completely hooked me in and cheer for these two love-birds. Plus, both Ship and Baz-l ended up being my favourite AF characters, so that's a bonus.
For fuck's sake, I was legit pissed that Ben & Julie didn't kiss at the end of Season 2's finale because Alien Force was cartoon released in 2008. The very least I expect, in order to mark the relationship as 'official', is for Leading Man & Leading Lady to kiss and cheesily say 'I love you'. That was procedure for older (frankly, most) media and I was shocked it didn't happened with Ben/Julie (or a proper date episode, outside of 'Pier Pressure')
Then, when UA rolled around, Ben became famous and things became complicated.
Now, I do not fully blame neither Ben nor Julie for the relationship enshittifing! I prefer to view their deterioration via a nuance lens and I genuinely believe they were both responsible but, god, did my heart shatter seeing a couple I was so invested in bicker & fight & borderline start to hate each other.
I know they didn't fight every episode (one of my favourite UA episode, 'Inspector 13', had them do a tennis double-date with Gwen/Kevin) but I cared so much for this ship that I legit wished for them to break up, for the sake of both their mental healths. The relationship was going south and they desperately needed a break from each other.
Luckily, I got my wish in Season 3, Episode 8 of Omniverse: 'Rules of Engagement' (an episode I actually liked & rewatched). Yes, the reason why Julie broke up with Ben is stupid (why Ben didn't mentioned he was playing a video game is beyond me) but honestly, given the hell I went through, it felt like the only way for Ben & Julie to break up.
And I was legitably happy for this and very glad that Julie found herself a new boyfriend!
Due to all this, I do not want them to become romantic, again. At best, I want them to become friends after recovering from the... everything that was UA Ben/Julie. I still very much care for this ship but in an atypical way. I guess this is, in a sense, my 'divorce ship'.
Looma, Attea & Ester (when shipped with Ben)
Grouping them together because this post is getting long and I want to cover them quickly.
All of them have the same problem that Ben doesn't want to be with them.
Looma was an arranged marriage that Kevin punted onto Ben.
Attea's case is a bit more vague since Ben briefly flirted with her, as Bullfrag, in 'The Frogs of War' (Omniverse. Season 3, Episode 7) but, as far as I recalled, Ben showed little interest in her beyond that.
And Ester sorta forced, via persistence, Ben to start dating her. Like, no offense to the girl (and I even feel bad for her due to the whole Ben/Kai Destiny situation), but Ben showed zero interest and just went along with the motions because 'I guess this is what people do when they date'.
I don't hate any of these characters (that, in this context, feels a little mean) but they have interesting lives outside of trying to fuck Ben and if Ben is uncomfortable with dating/marring them, then I'm not gonna force him into a romantic relationship with them. (and Ben is most likely aro) This opinion might change with the fanon version of these ships, however.
Ben/Kai
The elephant in the room and Omniverse's (+ Kenny's, obviously) OTP
So, I already knew, vaguely, about the whole destiny situation years before I started watching the shows (and Omniverse's love interest problem which might've contributed to how I viewed them) but I'm still iffy on canon Ben/Kai.
Sure, I found their dynamic in 'An American Benwolf in London' (Season 5, Episode 4) enjoyable, if nothing to write home about and 10K Ben & 10K Kai looked fine but the whole destiny thing really puts a bad taste in my mouth.
And how said destiny affects Ester makes me, like I said earlier, really sad and dislike that aspect of Ben/Kai even more. Like, I have a document I created during my Omniverse watch-through and I wrote, for 'Fight at the Museum' (Season 7, Episode 6):
...
Kenny’s attempts at shipping (which also included trying to (metaphorically) shove Ester out of the way ‘cause she’s ‘a threat’ and contrive situations to make the OTP bond with each other, like he’s one of those shippers) comes with some less than pleasant implications ... I understand why he wants to guarantee his own existence ... But the railroading makes me uncomfortable and I feel slightly bad for Ester, who was in the same room when the reveal happened (On her date night with Tennyson)! At least gently tell it to her, sometime after the fact!
...
So yeah. I’m never a fan of any sort of ship-bashing [bringing another ship down in order to prop another one up] ... BenKai, in the England episode, looked like it had the potential to be fun, just don’t load it with all this baggage.
Also, while I completely understand the appeal, I didn't like their later bickering and them learning about their own, inevitable marriage didn't helped.
Like, I can see them working but the baggage is a bit much, for me.
But, if there's one positive thing to say about this, is that Kai Green is definitely a kinky-ass monster-fucker! In this essay, I will- !
Rook/Rayona
Rayona is in, like, 3 total episodes and only, truly interacted with Rook in one of them but I actually think they're neat. Her first appearance in 'Bros in Space' (Season 2, Episode 7) had me afraid she would be a personalityless, token girlfriend that Just Exists but 'Catfight' (Season 5, Episode 9) genuinely surprised me.
Besides being an episode I absolutely adore due to its chaos, despite heavily featuring Ben's love interests (+ Nyancy) fighting over him, Rook's and Rayona's interactions with each other make me went 'Oh! I can see why they like each other.' and actually enjoy them as a pair.
There is not much more I can say, due to Rayona's lack of screen presence, but unlike other characters, I think she is fine as a love interest.
Ben/Rook
Last, but not least, is Ben/Rook. From what I can tell, it is an extremely popular ship and I completely get it because it is a tale as old as time:
Male Character 1 has So Many Love Interests to the point it has become a bit of a mess to sort out who's the 'true' one and the other half, Male Character 2, has a canonical girlfriend who is barely present, at all. And since 1 & 2 have laughably stronger chemistry with each other than any of their lovers, combined, it is only natural that people will see them as soulmates, despite canon's protests.
I mean, Rook & Ben literally saw the universe's fucking creation with their very own eyes, together. It is very hard to top that level of a bonding experience.
And, unlike the majority of the other ships mentioned, I actually read some Benrook (although, I find 'Omniboyfriends' to be a very cute & fitting name) fanfiction!
While I'm gonna have to figure out what exact flavour of Benrook I prefer, I think it's a really cool ship and I can see it happening, given how much Ben & Rook care for each other in canon.
(Plus, I headcanon that one of the reasons why Mad Rook stuck with Mad Ben for as long as he did is 'cause he had a crush on him)
TL;DR
Currently, of the ships I'd mentioned, I enjoy Gwen/Kevin, Ben/Rook, Rook/Rayona and Platonic Ben/Julie (romantic if set Pre-UA), although I am thinking about exploring Ben/Kevin.
All other ships I'm tentative on since I'm not the biggest fan of how canon handled them but I'm not familiar enough with the fandom versions of them to comment on that.
However, I do consider myself a flexible shipper and I'm practically willing to read anything, as long as it's interesting and nothing about it makes me uncomfortable.
