Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26200221-20151211162449/@comment-26812877-20160216024414

Voice actors get as equal amounts of criticism as everything else. Yes, Yuri Lowenthal was told to portray Ben the way he was told to portray as but that doesn't give him and every other VA a pass from criticism. VAs are very important for the characters. In fact, I feel as if many deservingly good and great VAs don't get enough credit in their roles. The performance of a voice actor can really affect how things work out in the show. They give the characters personality. They greatly help drive the story and character development forward. VAs are what helps greatly define characters for who and what they are. If a voice actor doesn't deliver on the role, things can fall apart pretty easily or at the very least some damage can be done to the characters, story, etc. VAs are very important and without a good performance from them, Alien Force would have really suffered in regards to quality.

Yes, Yuri Lowenthal was told to portray Ben as mature and serious in Alien Force however, at least in my opinion, Yuri was average in his performance as the voice of Ben. The same goes with Ashley Johnson in her role as Gwen. They made their respected characters seem bland and dull and at times it sounded like they were getting bored with voicing these characters. Maybe that last part is just me though. Almost like Yuri and Ashley were aware that the way that Ben and Gwen were portrayed in Alien Force just didn't fit the bill for them or maybe it's the script that they had to work with or maybe it's because of the sudden changes that were made when CN replaced Man of Action with Dwayne McDuffie and Glen Murikami. Who knows, maybe Yuri and Ashley were doing some VA work on Ben and Gwen back when Man of Action was trying to make Ben 10 Hero Generation and the sudden changes from Hero Generation to Alien Force affected their performances on Ben and Gwen. In Man of Action's Hero Generation sequel, Ben and Gwen could have been portrayed at least somewhat differently than when compared to Ben and Gwen in Alien Force. Something happened but either way, Yuri and Ashley did not deliver that well on their roles. Most especially when compared to Tara Strong and Meagan Smith's outstanding performances as Ben and Gwen in the Original Series.

Voice actors are very important for the characters and story and therefore, they deserve just as equal of positive and negative criticism as everything else in the shows.