Gwen Tennyson (Classic)

Gwendolyn "Gwen" Tennyson is Ben Tennyson's cousin (the two share the same birthday). Throughout the original series, she constantly bickers and insults him with dry wit and sarcasm. Gwen was first introduced in "And Then There Were 10". She uses her laptop to research any strange people and/or creatures they might come across.

Synopsis
In the original series, Gwen shares a love-hate relationship with Ben, insulting him with dry wit and sarcasm most of the time, in part due to their shared birthday. She uses her laptop to research any strange people and/or creatures they might come across, and is a capable gymnast and has had some training in martial arts. She has also shown an almost innate skill in using various complicated devices or objects, such as in the "What If?" episode "Gwen 10", when Gwen gained the Omnitrix instead of Ben and proved to be far more adept in its use than he initially was. In the sequel series, Ben 10: Alien Force, Gwen (voiced by Ashley Johnson) has grown into a calm and collective teenager. In this version, Gwen wears a plain, white shirt, loosely-buttoned blue sweater, a black skirt with black tights, her hair is much longer and darker, her eyes are much darker, and her lips are more visible. Gwen, despite now being a black belt, tends to favour her magical powers over her martial art skills. She is able to create energy constructs for nearly any purpose, usually creating platforms to levitate herself (and others), beams to grab enemies, circular blasts to knock enemies back, projecting beams from her eyes that seem to simulate heat vision, and opening up interdimensional portals. She also has a wide range of other loosely defined magical abilities, such as dowsing, limited telepathy, and clairvoyance. Her powers are revealed to be alien in origin; her grandmother, Verdona, is an energy being known as an Anodite and surprisingly she is the only descendant of hers who inherited Verdona's powers. Verdona tells Gwen that what she and others originally thought of as "magic" was actually the manipulation of mana. Verdona offers to take Gwen to her home planet and train her in the mystical ways of the Anodites, but Gwen prefers to remain on Earth with Ben and Kevin. She hates being called an "energy being", referring to her Anodite heritage.

In the episode "Unearthed", an alien creature is able to see her as an Anodite, in which she looks exactly like her grandmother's true form, but slightly shorter. In "War of the Worlds", when Kevin was threatened by a Highbreed commander, she assumes her Anodite form for the first time and easily defeated the commander. She was almost overwhelmed by her own power before Kevin snaps her out of it.

During the course of the series she has developed a romantic relationship with Kevin. They have also been shown to have arguments, usually starting with Gwen always trying to force Kevin to "ask her out" and him always answering "don't push me".

In the season three premiere, Gwen gets a new outfit, a red shirt, a black vest with gray pants. Also she now holds her hair in a ponytail. Ben and Gwen seem to have revived their infamous rivalry from the original series, in part due to Ben's cockiness and inflated ego; in the third season, Gwen pours a smoothie over Ben's head, and he nearly returns the favor. In the episode "Inferno" it is revealed that Gwen suffers from claustrophobia, but she denies having it but nearly snapped under the pressure.

Energy Manipulation
Given her Anodinian liniage, Gwen is capable of energy manipulation. She also has a wide range of other loosely defined magical abilities, such as dowsing, telepathy and clairvoyance.

Her powers are revealed to be alien in origin; her grandmother, Verdona, is an energy being known as an Anodite. Verdona tells Gwen that what she and others originally thought of as "magic" was actually the manipulation of a Force-like energy called mana. Verdona offers to take Gwen to her home planet and train her in the mystical ways of the Anodites, but Gwen prefers to remain on Earth with Ben and Kevin. She hates being called an "Energy being", referring to her Anodite heritage. In 'War of The Worlds', Gwen releases her Anodite form, and was almost overwhelmed by her own power before Kevin snaps her out of it.

"Magic"


Overall, her most notable skill is her innate, if latent, ability at magic (see Gwen's Spells). Having within her what Charmcaster calls a "magical aura", Gwen is capable of using various magical artifacts and spells. When using the magical, luck-giving Charm of Bezel, she was able to activate it instinctively, whereas Hex did or could not. Later on, when she takes and uses his staff, she was able to make it fire an energy blast—according to Charmcaster, only someone of Hex's skill should have that power. Gwen starts tapping into her magical powers when she procures a book of spells from Charmcaster in the episode "A Change of Face".

On two occasions, Gwen has the Charms of Bezel to become a superheroine by the name of Lucky Girl. At first, her ability drew from the "luck" Charm of Bezel, which innately gave her perfect luck. While wearing the charm, any action she took would result in an Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction benefiting her original intent, but usually injuring Ben in the process. She later brought back her superhero identity after obtaining the Keystone of Bezel, which increased her natural abilities to superhuman levels rather than just affecting her luck. Both times, Gwen was forced to retire when the Charms of Bezel were destroyed.

Athletics
Gwen is a capable gymnast and has had some training in martial arts. At the age of fifteen it is revealed that she has already received a black belt in karate and has even started teaching Ben.

Possible Future
In the possible future of "Ben 10,000", Gwen has gone by her full first name since college. A combination of physical and magical training leads her to become both a black belt and a master magician using the Charms of Bezel (Gwen has traveled to the Dimension of Bezel where a new set of charms was created for her), which makes her a hero in her own right.

She does not appear in person during the episode, being on a mission on another planet, but she makes two appearances as an astral projection; first appearing during Ken's birthday party to give him his present (a self-regenerating, dog-like member of the stone creatures that Charmcaster commonly uses as watchdogs and familiars), and then talking privately with Ben about Ken's behavior with his Omnitrix after Devlin's attack on their home.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the original series, Gwen is voiced by Meagan Smith.
 * In Ben 10: Alien Force, Gwen is voiced by Ashley Johnson.
 * In the episodes "Ben 10,000" and "Ken 10", Gwen is voiced by Tara Strong. Incidentally, Strong also voices the 10-year-old Ben.
 * In the live-action movie, Ben 10: Race Against Time, Gwen was played by Haley Ramm.
 * Gwen's magical abilities and even her name might have been inspired by the Sibyls from Chris 'D Lacey's series of books,The Last Dragon Chronicles. In the series, Sibyls are able to command the supernatural, and they are the descendants of a powerful magics user, Gwendolen.
 * Gwen`s lucky girl suit looks simlar to Hellcat from Marvel.
 * The Cat logo on Gwen in the first series looks very similar to Sly Cooper's logo.