Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-241978-20141030044711

In her debut episode Sunny is outright stated to be Gwen's cousin, Ben assumes he's her cousin, and she refers to Verdona as "grandma." Natalie Tennyson is on good terms with Sunny's parents and was not previously aware Sunny was an anodite (an energy being, not a gifted human), who Natalie dislikes for their wild behavior, because Sunny and her parents pretended to be (or actually were) normal humans. Natalie knew their relation to Verdona but still assumed they were human like her husband and brother-in-law. Sunny and her parents lived on another planet at the time (Sunny considers the Tennysons "small-planet hicks"). Natalie didn't seem surprised that her husband's seemingly human relatives were living on another planet or else was told that they lived on Earth as part of their charade. Sunny makes no attempt at maintaining the charade when she is sent to stay with Gwen and uses her powers as soon as she gets a good opportunity to destroy things, despite having pulled off the human charade as a toddler (either her parents didn't tell her to pass as human or she disobeyed them if they did). Despite only being a disguise, Antonio recognizes Sunny's human disguise immediately (suggesting she's worn it before on other planets, which doesn't explain why it looks like Gwen).

The (admittedly extremely vague) way Sunny's character is handled heavily implies that Max Tennyson is not her grandfather. The problem is that this is never addressed in the show itself, so we don't know whether Verdona had an anodite boyfriend before or after Max or whether she cheated on Max at the same time she was living with him and raising their kids. I doubt the network censors would've allowed the 2nd option. The 1st is just confusing because Verdona never once mentions she had another relationship when she explains her search for anodite sparks in Max's descendants. Natalie was already on good terms with her husband's half-sibling and believed him/her to be human at the time, but neither mention that Verdona skipped over them during the conversation. Verdona nevers gives any indication she had children with anyone other than Max, who she admits to still pining for in the years after leaving him and not any other significant other she might have had.

If we drop that possibility and assume Sunny was Max's granddaughter (even though her surname is never specified and her name doesn't rhyme with Ben/Gwen/Ken) then Max's third child couldn't have been a known anodite before the events of Alien Force because then s/he would've been mentioned when Gwen discovered herself to be an anodite (even if that relative otherwise couldn't be reached because s/he lived on another planet at the time). So this Tennyson family member was (or assumed to be) human at the time Alien Force started and the time of Sunny's birth 15 years previous. This wouldn't explain why s/he and his/her spouse lived on another planet (it's never specified what planet they lived on or where Sunny's boyfriend Antonio lived). His/her spouse is assumed to be human or anodite. It's unclear whether Sunny was born an energy being or was born human and became an energy being later; this depends on whether one or both of her parents were energy beings at the time. If one or both of Sunny's parents were human (not pretending), then Sunny was born human and interacted with Gwen as any other normal toddler, then became an energy being before they meet again in Ultimate Alien. If she was born an energy being, then she was capable of passing as a normal human toddler and didn't say or do anything to upset the charade (which implies her parents had extensively coached her and maybe even locked her powers). Overall, the simplest explanation is that her Tennyson parent was human, her other parent was or pretended to be human, and Sunny herself was born human only to become an energy being sometime between ages 3 and 15.

Regardless of whether you assume Sunny is or isn't related to Max, her backstory is filled with plotholes. Asking the crew of the show doesn't yield useful answers either.

Asking Eugene Son (the writer of Sunny's debut episode) reveals only the following:

"I don't have a family tree for the Tennysons, but we established that Sunny is their [Ben and Gwen's] cousin. She's from the Anodite side of the family. [...] I'm not a genealogy expert, but I think they're [Sunny and Max Tennyson are] cousins. At least once removed? Grandpa Max isn't Anodite, but Grandma Verdona is."

Eugene doesn't seem to understand that the word "cousin" refers to a person with whom you share a grandparent (or earlier ancestor). He seems to be saying that Sunny is not blood-related Max, but doesn't take into account the plotholes this creates.

Asking Derrick Wyatt only reveals that:

"That's [Ben 10 is] not my show, but I would guess [Sunny is] step-granddaughter or farther removed [from Max Tennyson]."

Basically, her relation to the Tennysons isn't precisely known and is subject to change if it is ever addressed in the show. She might be Max's step-granddaughter or she might be further removed. If the latter, then she is also further removed from Verdona as well.

This opens the possibility that Sunny isn't literally Verdona's granddaughter but that of one of Verdona's anodite relatives, which neatly solves the plothole of Verdona never mentioning any significant others or descendants other than the Tennysons. In such a case Sunny might be Verdona's adopted/foster granddaughter, goddaughter, or similar relation (explaining why Sunny calls Verdona "grandma") and "cousin" is a shorthand for Sunny's actual relation to Ben and Gwen (second cousin? cousin once removed? cousin-in-law?). Lucy (cousin-in-law once removed) and Clyde (second cousin) are both referred to as cousins for shorthand.

Or the perceived conflict could simply be chalked up to lapses in the writing. In any case, Sunny doesn't play much role in the series and thus her family tree is irrelevant.

What does anyone else think? 