Here’s a thing we need to be able to understand. This is something that I see often happen in the Ben 10 community and I feel like I need to address it.
Just because the original series is episodic that doesn’t make it a bad show. You have to judge shows with episodic nature a lot more differently than you do shows with a single linear story. I see a lot of people talking flak about the OS simply because it is episodic, but does that mean that it’s necessarily bad? No, I don’t think so. Remember, OS’s story is Ben, who is a 10-YEAR-OLD on a SUMMER VACATION, on a TRIP with his Grandpa and cousin. That’s basically the root of the story, hence making Ben’s adventures episodic. And you know what’s great about episodic shows? It’s unpredictability. Yes, we as fans are able to see the patterns well because we are heavily invested in Ben. But at the same time it keeps us glued to what happens next.
“There’s no character development in episodic format”. Are you sure? Because I can certainly say that Ben has grown as a hero and how he uses his aliens throughout all 4 seasons. He’s pretty much connected to the Omnitrix. Granted, he bickers a lot with Gwen, but as annoying as it is, that’s just who he is in the OS. He’s a troublemaker, impatient, sometimes rude, ignorant and very witty. But he’s also a good person at heart as he really cares about all his folks and everyone else. If you notice throughout the OS, Ben would often complain about getting the wrong aliens, but he doesn’t stop and whine about it the entire time he’s alien. He drops a remark and goes on his way.
“There’s more character development and mature stories in UAF”. Of course there are because they are SPECIFICALLY telling us ON THE NOSE that they are going to tackle such stories, and that is partly because the format has changed. Ben is a 15-YEAR-OLD who is NO LONGER ON VACATION and has RETIRED from being a hero at the start of AF. Setting has changed, situation has changed, and Ben himself has changed as he grew up. So the format has to change too. Each season of AF is an arc, which works to their advantage because they are aware that as Ben is growing, so are his troubles.
Remember, we may be seeing Ben from a third person perspective but in reality every series that we have seen so far is really from Ben’s own perspective at how he approaches each era of the Prime Timeline. His character perfectly lines with the tone of the series in every one of them.