Vilgax (Classic)

Vilgax is an intergalactic alien conqueror, a Chimera Sui Generis from the planet Vilgaxia, who serves as Ben's archenemy and is the most recurring villain in the franchise. He was introduced in And Then There Were 10, and has since appeared in all the seasons of the original series (however the only season 3 episode he appeared in was Ben 10,000), as well as season three of Alien Force. He is stronger than most of Ben's aliens except for Way Big and some Ultimate Alien Forms.

Personality
Vilgax is ruthless, cruel, and power hungry. His primary objective seems to be gaining the Omnitrix so that he can use it to take over the universe. He is known to be very manipulative, notably so of the Galactic Code of conduct, in order to achieve his goals.

Despite his cruel and villainous tendencies, Vilgax does genuinely care about his own people (taking his role as the planet's ruler and champion very seriously), so much so that he is willing to put his own life on the line and use whatever other means necessary to ensure its, and its people's, safety; even if it means uncharacteristically begging his enemies for help.



Background
A vicious galactic warlord known as "the most dangerous being in the universe" Vilgax's goal is to get the Omnitrix and use it to create an army capable of transforming into any alien to conquer the universe. Though he originally chased Ben only because of this, and had few concern about his fate once he would get the Omnitrix, the several failures the boy caused him, as well as an imprisonment in the Null Void, causing his hatred for Ben to grow, so much that, in his last appearances, he seems to want to kill him nearly as much, if not more, as to get the Omnitrix.

Vilgax is one of the most feared beings in several galaxies, having conquered ten planets, destroyed five others and created a black hole. In fact, he is so feared, that almost no biological lifeform is willing to work for him, forcing him to use robots for his entire crew, though he is able to find mercenaries willing to work for him for the right price.

Original Series
Vilgax and his ship, the Chimerian Hammer, first appeared in the first episode And Then There Were 10, where he is seen shooting at Xylene's ship to recover the Omnitrix, forcing Xylene to throw it down to Earth and causing the main plot of the series. His limbs were both destroyed because of the battle, causing him to be placed by his drones in a repair tank for healing, where he stayed for most of season 1.

As the series progressed, Vilgax soon discovered the Omnitrix had been taken by someone else (though ignoring exactly who it was), and made several indirect attempts to get the device back. This includes sending robots from his ship, hiring bounty hunters Tetrax, Kraab and Sixsix and turning Earth's criminal Joey into the cyborg Rojo by fusing her with one of his drones. In the latter, he was able to shortly establish a telepathic link with Ben when the boy was fused to Rojo as Upgrade, warning him he was going to come for him one day.

Eventually, his body was repaired and cybernetically enhanced in Secrets, making him far taller and stronger than before. He then went on Earth to get the Omnitrix by himself. Ben's aliens proved to be no match for him, and Vilgax captured him. Though surprised to see the one who had caused him so much problems was just a human child, Vilgax revealed him his plan for the Omnitrix, and attempted to extract the Omnitrix from him, seemingly by sectioning his arm with an alien tool. After several complications, including interruption from Gwen and Max and Ben losing control of his transformations, the Chimerian Hammer exploded, seemingly with Vilgax still aboard.

In Truth, Max tells Ben and Gwen how he had a run in with Vilgax who was stealing warheads from a military base when Max and his partner Phil showed up. In the resulting fight, Vilgax was strapped to a warhead by Max, and launched into his own ship. At that time, Vilgax was only slightly larger than a human man, compared to his now colossal size (an addition to his cybernetic augmentation).

&nbsp Vilgax appeared in the non-canon episode Gwen 10, where Ben re-lived the day he found the Omnitrix, only for Gwen to find it instead. Unlike the first episode, Xylene's ship self-destructed and Vilgax wasn't hurt. After the drone failed to retrieve the Omnitrix, he went to get it himself and succeeded to capture Gwen, later being overpowered by Max and Ben. Max later threw Vilgax into the Hammer as Upgrade, seemingly killing Vilgax.

At the end of the second season, Vilgax is still alive, having survived the destruction of his ship by teleporting out just before the explosion, but being frozen as a result. He is found encased in ice by Kevin. Discovering Kevin's connection with the Omnitrix, Vilgax decides to team up with him in another attempt to retrieve the Omnitrix, however both are locked away in the Null Void dimension by the end of the episode.

A dream version of Vilgax appears in the episode Perfect Day, where he appears to confront Ben. The battle lasts for a short time, and then Vilgax tries to send Ben to the Null Void. As Fourarms, Ben throws him in instead, but this proves to be an error on the part of the Forever Knights, as Vilgax was about to send Ben to the Null Void without first obtaining the Omnitrix. It is the same reason why Ben found out that the battle with "Vilgax" is just a set-up.

Vilgax appeared in another non-canon episode Goodbye and Good Riddance, where he threatens Carl's life, forcing Ben to reveal his secret by transforming into Cannonbolt. At the end of the episode, Ben lures Vilgax into the underground bus line and Carl activates the fire system, incinerating Vilgax.

Vilgax reappears in Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix, where he once again attempts to retrieve the Omnitrix, having somehow escaped the Null Void (the enhanced version of Secret of the Omnitrix revealed that he stumbled on a Null Void portal being opened and used it to escape). During a flashback, Tetrax reveals that Vilgax destroyed the Petrosapien's home world, and he (Tetrax) unwittingly gave Vilgax the final element needed to carry out his plan. Vilgax refers to his anger at having been trapped in the Null Void (including showing a short nervous twitch at its mention), which has deepened his grudge against Ben to the point where he refuses to acknowledge the danger threatening the universe if the Omnitrix self-destructs (but nevertheless gains enough respect for Ben to the point of calling him by his first name instead of his last name). He confronts Ben on Tetrax's ship and attacks him, only to be shot out into space through the airlock. He is finally defeated when Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix, gives Ben access to a massive alien, Way Big, who hurls Vilgax into outer space.

Ben 10: Alien Force
Vilgax returns in Ben 10: Alien Force season 3, having come back in a currently unknown way. His appearance has changed again; he is less cybernetically enhanced and his mouth is visible again. In addition to his traditional army of drones, he has been joined by new alien assistant, Psyphon. In order to justify his invasions, he now follows a Galactic law, fighting champions of a planet he attacks and defeating them to gain the right to legally conquer that world. In this manner, he conquered ten worlds, the last of which was Ultimos', and absorbed the champions' powers with the help of Psyphon, giving him powerful, new abilities. Despite all of his new found power, Vilgax retains his obsession with the Omnitrix.

After his victory against Ultimos, Vilgax returns to Earth, where he quickly defeats Max and the Plumbers' kids. He does not however, choose to absorb their powers and instead uses them as messengers to Ben, challenging him in the rules of the Galactic Code, as he did with his other conquered planets, and leaving him 24 hours to answer, after which Vilgax will enforce his legal right to destroy Earth. After accidentally overloading the Omnitrix and recollecting his escaped aliens, Ben comes and fights him. After a long and feral bout, Vilgax eventually smashes Ben as Chromastone to pieces, seemingly killing him. However, as Vilgax is about to take the Omnitrix, it reformats Chromastone's remnants into Diamondhead, bringing Ben back to life. Due to both his age and the practice he had with this form during summers, Diamondhead proves to be strong enough to defeat Vilgax, and the Galactic Conqueror, according to the laws, is forced to leave Earth with his army and never come back. He begrudgingly accepts his defeat, but vows to get revenge on Ben one way or another.

Although Vilgax is manipulating the rules of the Galactic Code (which were established by the peaceful Galvans to prevent the massive loss of live) for an evil purpose, he does follow through on his adherence to them, despite his plan back firing.

In Ghost Town, Vilgax breaks Ghostfreak out of his prison in exchange for the secrets of the Omnitrix. However, Ghostfreak betrays him and invades his homeworld, Vilgaxia, by possessing the majority of its inhabitants and turning them in Ectonurite slaves. After vainly fighting the invasion, Vilgax escapes and reluctantly asks help from Ben and his team. After an uneasy alliance between them, they eventually reached Ghostfreak, and Ben let himself be possessed in order to absorb him back into the Omnitrix. Though it was successful, Ghostfreak took over Ben's personality, resulting in a battle between Ben's team, Vilgax, and himself (the former two parties now in contension over whether or not Ghostfreak should be harmed while in Ben's body). Vilgax was eventually able to produce enough light to weaken Ghostfreak, allowing Ben to take over again and turn back to human form. Vilgax then allows his Ben, Gwen, and Kevin to leave, having earned their freedom for their help. Vilgax later gloats to himself about having aquired the secrets of the Omnitrix.

In the episode 40 of Alien force, Vilgax attacks the planet, Primus, causing the Omnitrix to teleport Ben, Gwen, and Kevin to the world as well. The Omnitrix leaves Ben's wrist to find Azmuth. Azmuth uses the Omnitrix himself to fight Vilgax & protect Primus. Vilgax defeats Azmuth and takes the Omnitrix from him. As the device has recalibrated since he last operated it, Vilgax no longer knows how to do, forcing him to ask Ben for the information in exchange for his friends' lives (after taking them captive). Ben activates the Omnitrix, turning Vilgax into a muscular Goop, but Ben steals the artificial gravity disk and turns it off; leaving Vilgax as an immobile puddle. Ben takes the Omnitrix out of the puddle of Vilgax as Goop, changing Vilgax back to normal and then re-attaches the device to himself. Ben as Cannonbolt throws Vilgax into the Codon stream (which is full of the DNA the Omnitrix accesses to transform its wearer) where he grows considerably larger. Ironically, at the end of this episode Ben throws Vilgax into space after changing into Way Big similar to Vilgax's defeat at Ben's hands 5 years prior. It has been revealed by Dwayne McDuffie that this was intentional. Some time after, Vilgax returns to his usual size.

Vilgax returns in The Secret of Chromastone searching for Tetrax Shard, who had stolen back the crystal Vilgax used to destroy Petropia (which Tetrax had originally sold to Vilgax). Tetrax had discovered (unknown to neither him, nor Vilgax, at the time of the destruction of Petropia) that the crystal serves as a back-up for Petropia and its people. Vilgax tracks Tetrax to Earth and demands he turn over the crystal he stole, only to discover that Tetrax had given it to a freed Chromastone in order to restore Petropia (mistakenly revealed by Kevin). Vilgax leaves Earth and travels to Sugilite's location only to discover the newly restored Petropia. Outraged that "his crystal" was stolen to revive a "dead world" (one he destroyed), Vilgax beats Sugilite (who he compares to little more than a common thief). Sugilite begs Vilgax to let him revive the Petrosapiens and pleads for mercy, but Vilgax reveals he has no mercy to give. Vilgax mercilessly beats the helpless Sugilite, until he is confronted by Ben's Team and an angry Tetrax. Vilgax uses his shield to stop Tetrax's projectiles and then removes the "Petropian backup crystal" from Sugilite's head only to discover its energy had been used up. Seeing that the crystal was no longer useful, Vilgax throws it away and leaves Petropia (seeing it as nothing more than a lifeless planet and no threat to him) in disappointment. However unknown to Vilgax, Sugilite created a second backup crystal which is used by Ben to restore the planets population. Tetrax later tells Ben he plans to settle the score with Vilgax, but Ben wonders how, given Vilgax's current invunerability, he'll be able to do so. Vilgax returns to his home on Vilgaxia and is outraged to find out he had caught Ben's cold. The episode ends with Psyphon handing Vilgax a tissue.

Vilgax reappears in the series finale The Final Battle, wherein he teams up with Albedo, claiming he just wants to kill Ben Tennyson and will let the Omnitrix go to Albedo so he can regain his Galvan form. Though the plan is successful, Ben escapes thanks to Max's help, and Vilgax and Psyphon ultimately betray Albedo, taking him prisoner and keeping the Omnitrix for himself in order to give its powers to his army of Bioids (robots synchronized with the Omnitrix for the purpose of assuming the alien form selected from the device). Ben confronts Vilgax again and activates a lessened form of the Omnitrix's self-destruct mode (one that will destroy the device itself, without destroying the Universe along with it), hoping Vilgax will give it over before it detonates. Vilgax doesn't take his threat seriously however, allowing the Omnitrix to detonate. Enraged, Vilgax programs his ship to crash into Bellwood and attacks Ben and the others. Ben then frees Albedo and forces him to give up the Ultimatrix (which Ben then equips himself with). While Ben fights Vilgax as Ultimate Swampfire, Max, and Gwen, deafet Psyphon and successfully cause the ship to crash in the ocean before reaching Bellwood. Now in the water, Vilgax reveals his "true form", transforming into a giant monstrous, octopus-like creature. He intends to swallow Ben, but the hero escapes, leaving Vilgax behind as his ship explodes. However, Ben, knowing that Vilgax has survived far worse, suspects that he may return.

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
He is mentioned in Cosmic Destruction. Psyphon says he left Vilgax' side for a small time because he only serves the most powerful, such as Aggregor (who prefers to work by himself), and so the most powerful, Evil Way Big, who is really Albedo, is Psyphon's master throughout the game. In the Paris level, Kevin mentioned he heard that Vilgax is living out a van by a river after his latest defeat at Ben's hands. In Ultimate Alien, in the episode, The Big Story, Ben tells Jimmy Jones he has nightmares about Vilgax. In Ben 10,000 Returns, it is revealed by future Ben that Vilgax is alive and will return in the third Vilgaxian invasion. It is confimed by the DVD that Vilgax will make an re-appearance.

Ben 10

 * And Then There Were 10 (first appearance)
 * Hunted
 * The Alliance
 * Secrets
 * Truth (flashback)
 * Gwen 10
 * Back With a Vengeance
 * Ben 10,000 
 * Perfect Day (dream in Ben's / Enoch's Dream World)
 * Secret of The Omnitrix
 * Goodbye and Good Riddance

Ben 10: Alien Force

 * Vengeance of Vilgax: Part 1 
 * Vengeance of Vilgax: Part 2
 * Ghost Town
 * Primus
 * The Secret of Chromastone
 * The Final Battle: Part 1
 * The Final Battle: Part 2

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

 * A Knight to Remember

Alternate Future
In the episode Ben 10,000, set twenty years in a now alternate future, Vilgax eventually escaped the Null Void by stumbling across a Null Void portal being opened on another planet. In this time-line Ben didn't take any chances in defeating Vilgax and "left him in pieces." The Ben 10 enhanced episode of Ben 10,000 reveals that this battle happened when Ben was 15. Dr. Animo resurrects Vilgax using his Transmodulator. He now has a retractable tentacle and is able to shoot organic bombs from his right wrist. His strength has been doubled and he has all of Ben 10,000's alien moves programed into his DNA. Despite that, both Vilgax and Dr. Animo are defeated by both future and present versions of Ben and Gwen. At the end, Ben defeats Vilgax by freezing him into a river using Articguana. It is unknown what became of Vilgax after this.

Ben 10
Before his augmentation, Vilgax didn't display any special powers or abilities, save for tremendous agility and hand-to-hand combat skills. He already had some superhuman strength, as he was seen easily sending human Ben away with little effort in the episode: Gwen 10. He also already had tremendous resistance to harm, once surviving a nuclear explosion at point blank range, though it's made clear he was seriously injured and widely believed to be dead.

Thanks to his cybernetic enhancements, he became much taller and was granted immense strength and near invulnerability, allowing him to easily leap above skyscrapers and survive in space. His arms were equipped with boost steroids, allowing him to increase his own strength even further at will. Though it causes him great pain, the boosters give him enough strength to smash apart mountains with his bare hands. He proved to be quick, strong and durable enough to withstand Heatblast's most powerful firewave, break through Stinkfly's goop and once stop a full-speed XLR8. Diamondhead once shattered his own fist against Vigax's bulk. For most of the original series, Ben was unable to defeat him alone, always winning thanks to external help. Once Ben gained acces to Way Big, he was able to defeat Vilgax with ease (the first alien to do so).

In Ben 10,000, Dr. Animo gives him a new, stronger form with enhancements such as genetically implanted weapons (among these are ropes and grenades in his right arm), bio-boosters, and knowledge of all of the future Ben's alien moves downloaded into his DNA (making predicting the ben's next moves practically instinctual).

Ben 10: Alien Force
In Alien Force, after he became the "Conqueror of 10 Worlds", battling and defeating the champions of each, he drained their powers and abilities and added them to his own arsenal. One of those warriors was Ultimos. He is without his bio-boosters in his appearances in this series. Depite these new abilities, Ben is able to match Vilgax closer than ever before. Vilgax's new powers include:


 * Superhuman Strength: He was able to easily defeat Humungousaur in his giant form, Manny in a hand-to-hand fight, and Ultimos with a single punch (the impact of which created a large crater in the ground).
 *  Near-Invulnerability : Vilgax could easily withstand Swampfire's fire blasts and Chromastone's lasers with no visible damage and recover within seconds from the Omnitrix's explosion on his own wrist. At one point in "Vengeance of Vilgax", Max even shot him point blank with a laser blaster, and still was unable to hurt him. Despite this, he is vulnerable to the common cold.
 *  Flight : He can fly at high speeds. Vilgax was also seen several times flying through space without a ship, where he was seemingly able to breathe without any visible equipment and pass through Earth's atmosphere with no damage at all.
 *  Laser Vision : He can project red laser beams from his eyes, capable of making drastic arcs to assist the pursuit their target. While they don't seem truly lethal, the beams were powerful enough to knock Helen out, force Azmuth to revert from Humongousaur to his true form, and destroy the wind shields of Vilgax's ship. They were also shown to be incredibly fast, enough to reach a running Kineceleran (Helen Wheels in Vengeance of Vilgax: Part 1). They were also shown to burn Ghostfreak, and his minions, in his natural state.
 * Super-Hearing: Vilgax can hear sounds that are too faint for normal hearing to detect (such as Ben sneezing from a considerable distance away). A weakness for this power is high frequency sound (such as Echo Echo's sonic screech), this weakness was never used however.
 *  Wind Breath : He has breath so powerful it can cause cyclone-like winds. His breath is shown to be powerful enough to put out a Pyronite's flames, do visible damage on robots such as Voliticus Biopsis, and even knock Kevin and Gwen out and send them flying.

In addition to his seemingly organic/physical powers, Vilgax now wears various weapons and equipment, also supposedly taken from champions. These included:
 * The Ruby Ray of Ulo: A red gemstone mounted on the back of his right hand. this gem could be used as a laser projector, and was able to considerably weaken Ultimos with one shot. According to Vilgax, Ultimos's ability to survive the shot was unusual, suggesting that most other beings would be either immediately killed or defeated.
 * The Shield of Ziegel: A golden gauntlet on his left hand mounted with a yellow gem, able to generate a powerful personal force field to protect himself. The force field can become a knight-like shield on his arm or a dome/sphere to protect his whole body, and is able to defend him from attacks such as Ultimos' punches, Jetray's neuroshock blasts, or the guns of a large spaceship. It can even let Vilgax cut clean through that same spaceship. In "Vengeance of Vilgax", he used the gauntlet as a taser, alowing him to touch and shock an intangible Big Chill. The only thing that was shown to shatter it was Diamondhead's exploding crystal shards.
 * An unnamed sword that can project energy beams and coat its blade in flames, or crystals able to refract energy blasts such as Chromastone's. Even without the flames or crystal, this sword is incredibly sharp, able to easily cut though stone, Chromastone's body, and even an entire space ship with a single stroke.
 * Raygun: Vilgax keeps a raygun in a holster on his right hip. He never uses it in the TV series, but he does in the Vilgax Attacks video game (he is even pictured using the ray gun on the Vilgax Attacks game cover).
 *  Light Energy Gloves : Vilgax once demonstrated the abillity to coat his hands in light energy and use them as boxing gloves in "Ghost Town".

In the series finale, he reveals his ability to turn into a giant octopus-like monster (which he referred to as his true form) in the Ocean. According to Dwayne McDuffie, he had this ability since the very beginning, and can transform at will (though this form would probably be useful only in water). As a result of his transformation, Vilgax lost his stolen equipment, which is either buried at the bottom of the ocean or destroyed with his ship.

Ben 10

 * Transforming Alien Rocks Ben Tennyson and Vilgax
 * Vilgax Battle-ship playset - includes: Vilgax (Space mode) and clear Ben Tennyson
 * Sumo Slammer Vilgax (Space mode)
 * Sumo Slammer Vilgax (Earth mode/Battle mode)
 * 4 inch Alien Collection Vilgax (Space mode)
 * 4 inch Alien Collection Vilgax (Earth mode/Battle mode)
 * Hyper Alien Vilgax

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien/Ben 10: Alien Force
NOTE #1: THIS PACK INCLUDES A COMIC ABOUT Ben Tennyson, Paradox and Vilgax.
 * Comic 2-pack #2 - includes: Vilgax (Version #2/Alien Force) and Classic Ben Tennyson

NOTE #2: THIS PACK WAS MEANT FOR BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE.

Trivia

 * He's the first villain to be found by another villain in a block of ice. The second being Dr. Vicktor in Viktor:The Spoils.
 * In Ben 10: Alien Force, whenever Vilgax made an appearance, Humungousaur appeared too.
 * In Ben 10, Vilgax seemed more mechanical than organic but in Alien Force, he's more organic than mechanical.
 * He is the first aquatic alien to appear in the Ben 10 continuity.
 * In the original series, Vilgax said that he was the master of the Omnitrix, but in the Alien Force episode: Primus, he couldn't operate the device.
 * Like fellow villain Megatron in Transformers Animated they couldn't appear in battle after being destroyed/injured after a battle in the first episode but then later were able to appear after healing (Megatron was merely a head while Vilgax had most of his body obliterated). Also, Megatron had an arm cannon, and Vilgax had the Ruby Ray. Both of them had their weapons on their right arm (wrist for Vilgax, and forearm for Megatron) and they both lost these weapons in the last episode of the third season (The last episode of both Alien Force and Transformers Animated).
 * Vilgax's laser vision is similar to the DC Comics supervillain Darkseid's Omega Beams as both of them can change direction in accordance to their "projector's" whim.
 * He is similar to Cthulhu, both in appearance and in his plan to conquer the universe.
 * When Vilgax obtains the Omnitrix, he uses the same names Ben does to refer to the Omnitrix aliens. This however could be due to Ben's DNA, since the bioids were made to copy the Omnitrix. It's also possible that Vilgax knew Ben made up these names and just kept them as a means of rubbing it in Ben's face.
 * At the end of the episode The Secret of Chromastone, Vilgax is shown to have contracted Ben's cold. It is unknown if this succeptability holds true for his race, as Vilgax has been heavily altered from his original state and could have aquired it as a consequence of said alterations.
 * In the original series, Vilgax's homeworld was mentioned as the Null Void Frontier or the Shadowy Realm, but then in Alien Force, its revealed to be called Vilgaxia. It is likely, however, that it was simply renamed in his honor after he became its ruler.
 * In Primus and The Final Battle: Part 2, the Omnitrix is worn on Vilgax's right wrist, unlike Ben, who wears the Omnitrix on his left wrist (also for some reason, in Primus, the Omnitrix seemed to have been sucked into his arm, as only the faceplate was visible under folds in his arm). This may indicate that Vilgax is left-handed.
 * In the original series, Vilgax knew the secrets of the Omnitrix, but 5 years after the original series, he can't even use the alien selector. Dwayne said that Ben changed the codes (taught how to do so by Azmuth) and made few other unknown changes to the Omnitrix so Vilgax wouldn't be be able to use it.
 * Vilgax is noticeably larger and more muscular than any other member of his race. It is most likely due to the enhancements he has made to himself to gain power.
 * The producers refer Vilgax as 'Darth Vader without a sense of humor'. He could have been based off of Darth Vader, though with him being the first main boss antagonist of the series, as well as a feared galactic conqueror who only needed one more item to complete his ultimate plans, he also shares many traits with characters such as Frieza from the Dragon Ball universe.
 * Vilgax is a playable character in Cartoon Network's game, TKO. His special moves are the Ruby Ray and the Cyber Kick. His super move is his Laser Eye Vision.CN_Fighter_VilgaxPaint.jpg
 * According to the Ben 10 pop-up marathon, Vilgax will meet his final and permanent end approximately 200 years from the original series.
 * Although Vilgax was originally meant to be a much greater threat than anyone in the galaxy, his might has been eclipsed by Aggregor (even before becoming Ultimate), and Darkstar according to Dwayne McDuffie.
 * Even after absorbing the energy of the Codon Stream, he still wasn't strong enough to beat Way Big.
 * In the original series, Vilgax appeared in every season except for the third.
 * On The Cartoon Network website, Vilgax has some kind of hammer thing.
 * He was mentioned by Kevin in Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction at the beginning of level 2.