Ben Tennyson (Classic)

Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, more commonly known as Ben or Ben 10, is the main hero character of the series.

He is first introduced in the episode And Then There Were 10, where he finds the Omnitrix and then, throughout the series, learns to use the powerful alien device, including the responsibly of wielding it, to become a true hero.

It should be noted that Ben is three-quarters human/one-quarter Anodite.(though Anodites have no DNA)

Appearance
Ben has brown hair and green eyes (in Alien Force his eyes appear to be of a darker green). In the original series he wears a black and white t-shirt and green pants. In Alien Force he wears a black t-shirt with a green jacket over it and a pair of jeans. His jacket in Alien Force has the number 10 on it.

In the original series it is also mentioned several times that Ben has poor hygiene.

Original series
Ben was originally a typical ten year old boy, who grew up in Bellwood, and was unpopular and bullied in his school.

However, his life changed the day he went in summers holidays with his grandfather Max and his cousin Gwen. A short time after they left Bellwood, Ben went on a walk and witnessed the crash of a strange capsule from space. This capsule happened to contain the Omnitrix, a powerful watch-like device, who fixed itself on Ben's wrist.

At first scared, Ben soon discovered that using the Omnitrix, he was now able to transform into ten super-powered alien creatures. Unable to remove it, he eventually learned to use it (though with relative problems) in order to become a super-hero. Though he occasionnally arrested ordinary criminals, he was quickly led to also fight super-villains, starting with Dr. Animo, Kevin 11, and ultimately Vilgax, a vicious alien warlord who wanted to get the Omnitrix for himself.

Despite being very immature and occasionnally using the Omnitrix for minor selfish purposes, Ben proved to be a valuable wearer for the Omnitrix, defeating Vilgax several times (though it was mostly due to the help from Gwen and Max) and saving people several times.

During this series, Ben's favorite alien is Fourarms, showing his tendency to favor brute force over well-thought plans.

Alien Force


Ben also has a girlfriend named Julie Yamamoto, who marks her first appearance in the pilot episode Ben 10 Returns: Part 1 as a crowd attendent to Ben's soccer game. She then next appears in Pier Pressure, where Ben asks her out and she discovers the Omnitrix and finds it cool instead of running away like Ben thought. It seems that Ben has a very concerned and protective feeling for her and the same with Julie. Ben seems to trust Julie the most. For instance, when Ben's hand is cut-off, it goes in search of Julie and not Gwen or Kevin. And when Big Chill takes over Ben's personality, it is Julie who sincerely takes his problem seriously and tried to help him in every manner. Ben even travelled half-way across the galaxy only to fight against the claim of Baz-L for Ship only for Julie.

When Grandpa Max goes missing, he teams up with Gwen and a reformed Kevin. In the first two seasons, it is shown that Ben has matured dramatically and is a very capable good leader. But in Season 3, after their success at saving the universe at the hands of the Highbreed, Ben seems to have gone back to his immature self and Ben once again favors brute force so his favorite aliens in this season are Way Big and Humongousaur. He has this basic dialogue of saying that "And that's because I saved the whole entire universe" of which Gwen and Kevin have been highly disgusted with. Constantly, they only complete his this dialogue. Ben had also tampered with the Omnitrix which led to the release of Goop, Chromastone, Spidermonkey and Way Big which he got back whereas mutuating Kevin for the second time. Ben and Gwen have also revived their infamous love-hate relationship with each other. Despite their rivalry, their bond is still strong. (e.g. In Time Heals, Ben tells Gwen that he lost her once and he's not losing her again.) Now Ben considers that his "overconfidence" is his most appealing quality and thinks that he is adorable. In The Final Battle: Part 2, during his conversation with Azmuth, Ben starts to regret being overconfident. After the Omnitrix is destroyed which reverts Kevin to his human form, Ben gets the Ultimatrix from Albedo.

Ultimate Alien
In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, sixteen-year-old Ben's identity is revealed to the world and he's now a megastar super hero loved all over by kids but distrusted by many adults. This series will also feature Ben's new car, the DX Mark 10, which marked it's first appearance in Ben 10: Alien Swarm, the car being gifted reluctantly by Kevin. Also he will be seen with Julie, now sharing a stronger bond with her and Julie again helping their team from time to time. He and Julie will also share their first on-screen kiss (though Julie kissed him on his cheeks) in Fame. He also got a lot of confidence after Julie kissed him and Ben appeared to be utterly shocked at Julie kissing him. Also, Ben and Kevin are now true friends and not rivals. Ben is now armed by an evolved version of the Omnitrix, the Ultimatrix which evolves his aliens, and also has every alien he has ever turned into.

Possible Future
See Ben 10,000 (episode) and Ken 10.

Though never mentioned in the future, Ben will marry Julie Yamamoto. Also both the above mentioned episodes are non-canon. Though it is stated that Ben 10,000 (episode) is canon, it is not proved to be accurate. For instance, Ben no longer has the Omnitrix and has the Ultimatrix. Also, Gwen's powers are not yellow but are pink (as the Anodite heritage has).

Personality
For most of the series, Ben is portrayed as an immature, sometimes cocky boy who would occasionally take credit he doesn't necessarily deserve. He tempers his immaturity in Alien Force due to Max's disappearance and the threat of the High-Breed Invasion, but tends to relax and turn a little back to his original self in the third season. He also had a complex love-hate relationship with his cousin Gwen in the original show.

Despite his immaturity, Ben is good-hearted, and his actions are motivated above all by a strong and sincere will to help other people. He will stop at nothing to protect his family or anyone in danger. When meeting a ennemy in difficulty (like Kevin in Kevin 11 or the HighBreed's in "War of the Worlds"), he will rather attempt to help him. At one point, he even choosed to save the half-cured DNAlien Tyler rather than take the key for the HighBreed's invasion, even though Tyler was willing to sacrifice himself. Sometimes, his idealistic nature tends to make him act naive, a weakness that was used against him by the Arachnichimp mercenary Simion.

Though often said by many other characters to be quite unintelligent, Ben actually proves to be resourceful, intelligent, shrewd and cunning when needed, which saved him from many situations, especially when the Omnitrix cannot activate or doesn't provide him with the form he originally wanted. When he almost abolished his immaturity in the two first seasons of Alien Force, he proved to be an excelllent leader for his team. Although, after his success at saving the universe from the High-breed invasion, his overconfidence caused him to revert to his immature personality.

It is also pertenant to note that Ben has inherited both his grandparents' personality. Although Ben inherited his Grandmother Verdona's spirit, sense of humour and overconfidence, he also inherited his grandfather's determination, adventurous and self-sacrificing attitude. Even though Verdona stated that Kevin was the exact mirror of Max, Ben was a far much more of a mirror of Max than Kevin. This is proved in the various episodes. Ben is also more of a practical joker like his grandmother.

Kai Green
Kai Green is a girl of Navajo descent and the granddaughter of Wes Green, a former Plumber and a long time friend of Grandpa Max. She appears in the episode Benwolf where Ben catches a glimpse of her dancing and is immediately smitten. At the end of the episode, Ben attempts to establish a relationship with her but is immediately rebuffed when he learns that she had just admired him in his alien form.

Julie Yamamoto
Julie Yamamoto is an Asian-American student and teenage tennis player who is the current Ben's love interest. She first appears in the pilot episode of Alien Force as a crowd attendant to Ben's soccer match. At the end of the two-part season two finale War of the Worlds, Ben and Julie get close to kissing, but decide against it as Gwen, Kevin, and Max were all looking on. In the series premiere of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben and Julie share their first kiss; although technically, Julie kissed him on the cheek, who appears utterly shocked. It said that Ben and Julie will be kissing often throughout the series as their affection for each other grows.

Elena Validus
Elena Validus is one of the Plumbers' kids and a former member of Ben's soccer team. She is mentioned by Gwen as Ben's first crush (though this contradicts what was seen in the original series as Ben met Elena when he was thirteen while he met Kai when he was ten). Ben had to convince his soccer team mates to let her join. She appeared in the live-action film, Ben 10: Alien Swarm.

Powers and abilities
Ben is the wearer of the Omnitrix and later the Ultimatrix, which give him the incredible power and ability to modify his own genetic code in order to turn into various Alien creatures. He traditionally has an arsenal of 10 aliens at the beginning of the original series and Alien Force, but he later gains additional forms both by unlocking other aliens or scan DNA on the creatures he meets. At the end of the original series, his arsenal included 20 aliens, while his current complete list is 38 aliens discovers (Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien), but he have yet to Access the future Aliens,but he can now become ultimate forms versions of his old Alien Force forms.

When transforming into an alien, Ben gets all the creature's features, including its voice, abilities, weakness and appearance. Though he mostly retains his personality, there are some cases where the transformation causes change in it, such as Rath becoming far more aggressive, Spidermonkey acting more childish, or Big Chill being affected by his species' reproduction instincts. Two of the aliens, Ghostfreak, Big Chill even managed to take over Ben's personality twice, though this was a special case. Though her usually uses his alien forms to fight there have been some occasions where he was taken for a real alien by others. At one point, he even intentionnally impersonnated Bivalvan as Water Hazard to convince P'andor to flee from Earth, and though he was unsuccessful to convince him, P'andor actually believed him to be Bivalvan.

In addition to his Omnitrix shape-shifting powers, Ben, in Alien Force, has been trained in hand-to-hand fight by his black belt cousin Gwen (as shown in Be-Knighted), his former plumber grandfather Max, as well as various years-fighting aliens, and received a basic Plumber training (all of this according to Dwayne McDuffie). He is much more altheltic than his younger self. Though he has only been trained on week basis in order to be able to handle himself if the Omnitrix doesn't work, he's still proved to be quite skilled, being able to take off Manny's blasters while in human form in Above and Beyond. It is possibly that Anodite powers and abilities will slowly awaken within him though he is not in the same leauge as Gwen.

Trivia

 * Ben suffered from a fear/dislike of clowns up until the events of Last Laugh, when he realized that there were actually more serious things to be scared of, like "losing [his] family to some 'goofball emotional vampire'," finally 'scaring the fear' right out of him.
 * In A Change of Face, it is mentioned that a 10-year-old Ben still slept with his teddy bear, called "Furry Fred(dy?)."
 * It was shown in Monster Weather that Ben knows how to play the guitar and the drums.
 * As a kid, Ben was a fan of the Sumo Slammers franchise and of a Manga comic series called "Ultra Boy", even imagining himself as "Ultra Ben" (see: The Galactic Enforcers and Perfect Day.) To this day, Ben remains a Sumo Slammers fanatic, but it remains to be seen if he still reads Ultra Boy or not.
 * Although he, like his cousin Gwen is descended from the Anodite race, he has not shown any signs of having Anodite powers. Although If seen briefly, after Ben reverted back from Spidermonkey, in the series premiere of Ultimate Alien, Fame Ben's eyes gleam pink for a moment. Also, in Voided, he saw Dr. Animo absorbing energy, and that is a form of mana increase, so anodites or part anodites should be the only ones that are capable of interpreting it. This might mean that Ben actually does has Anodite powers and abilities lying dormant within him but it is unknown what keeps Ben away from obtaining "the spark" like Gwen. It might be possible that every time Ben transforms into his alien's ultimate forms his dormant Anodite powers and abilities will slowly awaken and start to fully mature into a full-fledged Anodite alien. This could occur at the end of the first season or ever further in the series.
 * In the episode "Voided" although Ben was able to see mana being drawn, it's unknown if this is because of his Anodite DNA. As Charmcaster is also able to see mana being absorb, and is human.
 * As mentioned in Primus, he is just a "regular guy" without the Omnitrix. This means that despite being a Plumber's grandson, Ben does not have any superpowers and super-abilities. This makes Ben one of the two official Plumber kids who does not have natural powers.The other being Elena. Though this could change futher into the series.
 * Ben's situation is like Julie's, it's the Omnitrix adding to Ben's strength. Julie too, though not related to the Plumbers, only has superhuman abilities and durabilities if her pet Ship, a Galvanic Mechamorph, can merge with her. This point is noted in the episode Vreedle, Vreedle when Ship enveloped her, becoming a exoskeletal mecha suit.
 * As revealed in the episode Good Copy, Bad Copy, Ben's left eye twitches whenever he tells a lie. Kevin seems to be the only one who noticed this.
 * He has a strong affinity for smoothies and chili fries.
 * Julie is Ben's first girlfriend.
 * In the third season of Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Ben has not altered his wardrobe like Kevin and Gwen had.
 * Like Max and Gwen, Ben thinks that the summer he found the Omnitrix was the best summer ever.
 * He made a cameo appearance alongside several over cartoon characters in the BBC Children in Need's 2009 Charity Single as a member of the "Peter Kay's Animated All-Star band".
 * In Alien Force, Ben usually wears his "lucky T-shirt" during soccer.
 * Ben's aliens do not have the same costume style as in Ben 10, Ben as when he wears a swimming costume, pajamas or a suit he still wears his black and white t-shirt in alien form.
 * Starting in Alien Force, Ben almost always calls out the name of the alien he turned into right after the transformation is complete.
 * Ben's middle name is Kirby. This is proven by his cousin Gwen in the Ultimate Alien episode, Duped. Kirby is also the same name of the character from Nintendo.
 * Sometimes Ben cannot tolerate going in high speed. This point is seen in 3 places: First, in Pet Project, when Ship is flying very fast, Ben almost begs him to drive slowly. Second, in War of the Worlds Part 2, when Kevin is driving the car, Ben scolds him for that, Third, when Brainstorm is driving Ship and he flies very fast, he vomits up all on Azmuth, and fourth, in The Final Battle: Part 1, when Ben tells Kevin that he can't wait for his license because he was fed up of Kevin's bad and rash driving (although Kevin was flying a plane).