Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24922135-20170810135124/@comment-26812877-20170811174933

Self-insert power fantasy? Explain to me how the Ben 10 franchise is a self-insert power fantasy? Because Ben is a relatable character? If so, sure, he's a relatable character...until Ben puts the Omnitrix on. The Ben 10 franchise does not thrive on a self-inserted power fantasy. The 2005 original show thrived off of having great writing, storytelling, and character development while Cartoon Network tried to make the sequel shows thrive off of the aliens and the lore building so that they could sell more merchandise. Ben 10 was at its best when it had strong and proper writing, storytelling, and characters. Why do you think most fans and viewers still consider the 2005 original show to be the best show in the Ben 10 franchise?

I do agree that the lore building really didn't start off until season 3 of Alien Force. Granted, season 1 and 2 of Alien Force still had plenty of significant flaws with the writing, storytelling, and characters. More so with the writing and storytelling. No new aliens though? You're really going to say that for a show that introduced a new set of aliens for Ben to use right at the start of the first season as well as also introducing and implementing the Highbreed and DNAliens.

And no, Alien Force did not put in a lot of effort into building up Gwen and Kevin and their relationship with each other. Alien Force displayed a rushed and forced transition of Kevin becoming a hero character with Ben and Gwen put in their immediate and unrealistic trust into him as well as rushing and forcing Kevin and Gwen into being in a relationship with each other. Great idea. Let's have Gwen form a romantic relationship with the last person that she could be with let alone someone who can absorb energy and goes absolutely nuts from absorbing too much energy while Gwen's abilities are energy-based. Let's have Gwen form a relationship with someone that tried to kill her, her cousin, and her grandfather on multiple occasions. Let's have Gwen form a relationship with someone that almost killed hundreds of innocent lives just to steal money from a train...at the age of 11. Let's have Gwen stay in a relationship with the same person that later in Ultimate Alien tried to kill her again by absorbing her energy. No, putting in a lot of effort into Gwen and Kevin as characters and their relationship with each other means having Kevin spend months of trying to redeem himself and trying to earn Ben and Gwen's trust in him as well as also Kevin getting some actual help to fix his psychopathic behavior. If they wanted to make Kevin a good guy in Alien Force, that is what should've happened and not what we actually got in the show instead. That's not even the end of it since that, as I stated before, Alien Force still had significant issues with its writing and storytelling.