 This article belongs to the Classic Continuity
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 This article is about the Alien Force episode. You might have been looking for the Reboot episode, Rath of Con.
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Con of Rath is the thirteenth episode of the second season of Ben 10: Alien Force, and the thirty-ninth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
Ben is on a special mission when the Omnitrix malfunctions and turns him into an Appoplexian named Rath who wants to fight anything that breathes.[CN 1]
Plot[]
The Prince of Lewoda
The episode begins with Gwen waiting for Ben and Kevin so they can go to the beach. She is anxious because their previous plans to go to the beach fell through. Just then, two aliens beam in; Gwen mutters "of course (this happens)" under her breath. They introduce themselves as Ambassador Zaw-Veenull and Cicely from the planet Lewoda. They ask Ben to deliver a peace offering to their enemy, the Pantophage. The offering is Cicily's baby son and their crown prince, the Tiffin.
Energy crackles on the Omnitrix when the Tiffin comes near him, but Ben denies anything being wrong. Zaw-Veenull gives them a gold credit cube, which has no spending limit, and a powerful ship, impressing Kevin. Ben assures Zaw-Veenull that they will deliver the Tiffin and the Omnitrix continues crackling. In the ship, Gwen feels uneasy about using a baby as a peace offering and feels that Zaw-Veenull is hiding something. The Omnitrix malfunctions and transforms Ben into a new alien named Rath. Rath immediately starts throwing things around and screaming at the Tiffin. Kevin leaps onto Rath and Rath viciously attacks him. Gwen puts a Manna bubble on Rath's head. Rath screams and quickly uses up all of his air before passing out.
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Rath tied up by Gwen
When Rath awakens, he is bound by manna and immediately picks a fight with Kevin. Gwen tells Rath that he is an Appoplexian, an aggressive, battle-hungry, unintelligent species. Gwen releases Rath and he tries to transform back into Ben but fails. Rath then tries to tear off the Omnitrix, but he fails at that as well. Rath is hungry, so they go to a cafe inside a space station. Argit is there and he goes to talk to Kevin. Kevin speaks to him about the Tiffin, much to Gwen's displeasure due to not trusting Argit. Argit slinks off and calls someone when The Vreedle Brothers arrive, much to Gwen and Kevin's shock. The Vreedles reveal that they are clones made by their parents with an expired kit and then ask for the Tiffin, intending to hold him for ransom.
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The Vreedles return
Kevin wants to give the Tiffin to the Vreedles, but Rath objects. When the Vreedles see Rath, they get scared and offer 1000 credits to anyone that helps them. The patrons produce guns. Rath attacks the Vreedles and fights the aliens. The aliens try to take the Tiffin, and Gwen and Kevin fight them. Octagon shoots Rath, but he is unharmed, and gets angry because Octagon destroyed his food. Rath quickly defeats Octagon and Rhomboid, blasting them into space.
The team leaves, with Kevin dragging Rath back to the ship. Kevin and Gwen are worried that Rath will never be able to transform back into Ben. Suddenly, they are attacked by Incursean Commander Sangfroid, who is against their mission. He tells them to prepare to be boarded and killed, but Rath yells at him and jumps into the Incursean ship. He defeats the soldiers and attacks Sangfroid. Rath returns to his ship after having negotiated with Sangfroid. The Incurseans still attack them, angering Rath. Kevin pushes the ship's engines to their full power and heads towards a black hole. He is able to maneuver away, but the Incurseans are sucked in.
Later, Rath develops a soft spot for the Tiffin and Kevin says that the engine is damaged, but he has found what he needs to fix it: Taydenite, on the planet Sylex VII. This angers Rath, as he says that every time Taydenite comes up, Vulkanus tries to kill them. Kevin doesn't believe him, but Vulkanus shows up and orders his minions to kill the team. Vulkanus makes fun of Rath, which makes Rath furious. Kevin tries to negotiate with Vulkanus for some Taydenite. He offers 10 times the going rate for Taydenite, while Vulkanus is interested in payment, he is unsatisfied with the amount Kevin is offering. Rath yells at him, calling him a baby man and saying that Kevin's deal was a great deal. Vulkanus tells his minions to kill the team. They engage in a fight and Rath pulls Vulkanus out of his suit and takes Taydenite for the ship after destroying Vulkanus's supply. They finally arrive at the Pantophage home planet. Cicily contacts them and tells the Tiffin that she is proud of him. She begs Rath not to give the Tiffin to the Pantophage, but Rath insists this was her choice and still intends to go through with it.
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Rath jumps down Jarret's throat
After the team land, they go to the Pantophage's king, Jarret. Rath gives him the Tiffin, and Jarret puts the Tiffin on a pie and eats it, shocking the team. Rath tells Jarret he thought the Tiffin was going to be kept as a peace offering; Jarret tells him that he is all that plus a rare delicacy and that's what a peace offering is on Pantophage, making Rath furious. He jumps down Jarret's throat and rescues the Tiffin. Angered, Jarret threatens war against the Lewodans, but Rath threatens to do worse to him unless he backs off from doing so, which scares him into making peace.
They go outside and Zaw-Veenull and Cicily arrive. Cicily is overjoyed to see the Tiffin alive. Rath tells Zaw-Veenull to never speak to him again. They leave with the Tiffin and Rath transforms back into Ben, who assumes that interference from the Tiffin kept him as Rath, to which Kevin states that he is right. Ben, angry at Kevin for not telling him sooner, transforms into Rath again and yells at him, which prompts Kevin to silently cry for help.
Noteworthy Events[]
Major Events[]
Character Debuts[]
Omnitrix Alien Debut[]
Location Debuts[]
Minor Events[]
- Ben ends up stuck as Rath for most of the episode due to a malfunction in the Omnitrix.
- Rath's species is revealed.
- Kubrick is featured for the first time.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Supporting Characters[]
- Zaw-Veenull (first appearance)
- Cicely (first appearance)
- Prince of Lewoda (first appearance)
Antagonists[]
- Argit
- Vreedle Brothers
- Incurseans
- Commander Sangfroid (first appearance; death)
- Vulkanus
- Pickaxe Aliens
- King Jarret (first appearance)
Transformations[]
- Rath (first appearance; x2; first time was an unintentional transformation; second time was a cameo)
Locations[]
- Earth
- Kubrick (first appearance)
- Sylex VII (first appearance)
- Pantophage (first appearance)
- Jarret's Palace (first appearance)
Quotes[]
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Naming and Translations[]
| Language | Name | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| French | La Paix Mais à Quel Prix? | Peace, but at What Price? |
| Hungarian | Frász Irányít | Rath Controls |
| Italian | L'Offerta di Pace | The Peace Offering |
| Polish | Gniew | Rath |
| Portuguese (Br) | Questão de Ira | Question of Anger |
| Romanian | Furia lui Rath | Rath's Anger |
| Spanish (HA) | Buscando la Paz | Seeking Peace |
| Spanish (Spain) | El Defensor Airado | The Angry Defender |
Cast[]
Continuity[]
- Gwen mentions having tried to go to the beach for a month, indicating that this episode takes place at least a month after In Charm's Way, when the team was last seen at the beach.
- When the Vreedle Brothers enter the cafe inside Kubrick, Gwen mentions that the team saw them go up in an explosion, which occurred in the previous episode.
Allusions[]
- This episode shares similarities with A Small Problem. Both involve:
- The Omnitrix malfunctioning.
- Ben being stuck as an certain alien for the most of the episode (Grey Matter in A Small Problem and Rath in this episode.)
- The title of the episode is a play on the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan.
- When King Jarret says "Certainly you realize this means war," is similar to Looney Tunes when Bugs Bunny recites Groucho Marx's infamous sentence "Of course you realize this means war" when he is offended.
- Argit comments on Kevin's Elemental Form by saying, "Kevin! Long time, no see. You look different. Did you get a haircut?", a phrase which is very similar to his comment about Kevin's form in Simple when he said, "Kevin! Long time, no see! You look different. Did you cut your hair?"
Errors[]
- The closed captions on the Ben 10 Alien Force: Volume 8 DVD misspell Zaw-Veenull, Cicely, and Jarret's names as "Zavinom", "Cicily", and "Jerret".
- When Rath tries to pull the Omnitrix off his chest, the bottom of his mouth is black.
- When the Incursean ship fires lasers at the Tachyon 930, the lasers seem to come out of the ship itself instead of any guns.
- When Kevin goes to negotiate with Vulkanus, the fur under Rath's chin is orange instead of white. This error occurs again when Rath plays with the Prince before the team lands on Pantophage.
- Before Rath returns the Prince to Cicely, his black stripes overlap the white part of his body.
- Before Ben transforms into Rath for the second time, his hologram faces away from him.
- The end credits misspell Octagon and Vulkanus' names as "Octogon" and "Vulcanus", respectively.
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Trivia[]
- The episode's title is listed as The Con of Rath in the script,[script 1] on the Ben 10 Alien Force: Volume 8 DVD and iTunes, and Con Of Rath on Amazon Prime Video.
- Despite being confirmed to have died in Busy Box, the Vreedle Brothers reappear in this episode. The Vreedle Brothers go on to explain that they are in fact clones created by their parents via an "expired cloning kit".
- This episode, and by extension, Rath's existence, were hinted at by Dwayne McDuffie on March 29, 2009, when asked if there were any aliens similar to Blitzwolfer, whom Ben had to control to struggle against Loboan savagery.[DM 1]
- The date each version of the script was completed is:
- Outline first draft: December 19, 2008.[outline 1]
- First draft: February 3, 2009.[script 1]
- Second draft: February 9, 2009.[script 1]
- Final numbered draft: February 9, 2009.[script 1]
- Revised numbered draft: February 10, 2009.[script 1]
- As-recorded: February 11, 2009.[script 1]
- As-broadcast: October 29, 2009.[script 1]
- The episode's working title was Rath.[outline 1]
- This episode was originally meant to be the 14th episode of Season 2, while Primus would have been the 13th episode.[sched 1]
- In the first draft of the script outline:[outline 1]
- The episode begins with Kevin fixing the damage his car suffered during a run-in with a city bus.
- Zaw-Veenull, Cicely and Jarret are named Caput, Projen and Bleb.
- Zaw-Veenull gives Kevin a Credit Fob instead of a Credit Cube.
- Gwen purposely sucks out the air from the manna bubble around Rath's head, instead of Rath using up the air himself.
- Rath is tied to his chair by manna instead of being held in place standing up. He also breaks free of his restraints himself instead of Gwen letting him go.
- Octagon and Rhomboid's clones are named Hexagon and Tesseract.
- Emperor Milleous takes Commander Sangfroid's role.
- Rath wears a spacesuit when he goes to confront the Incurseans, and the battle is shown on-screen rather than being implied.
- Jarret's design was originally meant to be all mouth and teeth, a grotesque blob, even more repulsive than Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars.
- Ben theorizes that interference from the Prince of Lewoda messed with the Omnitrix, instead of Gwen.
- In the script outline, second draft and as-broadcast scripts, the team lands on Sylex VII during the daytime. It also has a forest with Taydenite, rather than a badlands-like landscape.[outline 1][script 2][script 1]
- In the second draft of the script:[script 2]
- After meeting Cicely, Ben and Gwen ask her whether she is fine with giving away the Tiffin.
- The Credit Cube is black.
- Gwen has extra lines while telling Rath to put on a space suit. He then wears a glass space helmet while confronting Sangfroid.
- In the second draft and as-broadcast scripts:[script 2][script 1]
- Gwen carries a picnic basket instead of a purse.
- When Gwen calls Kevin's name to get him to hurry up, she cups her hands over her mouth.
- Gwen tosses her picnic basket and umbrella aside instead of just dropping them.
- Gwen cocks a finger and beckons Ben closer when pointing out his talking about himself in the third person.
- When Gwen and Kevin tell Rath they researched his species in the Alien Life-Form Database, the Tachyon 930's dashboard shows a holographs of alien glyphs and a rotating diagram of an Appoplexian.
- When the Vreedle Brothers enter the cafe, tiny wiggling tentacles dangle from one patron's mouth.
- Rath and the Tiffin are covered in saliva after coming out of Jarret.
- This is Len Uhley's favorite episode to reminisce,[LU 1] and Dan Riba's favorite episode to work on.[DRi 1]
