 Characters and/or events depicted in this article are slightly retconned from the Classic Continuity.
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 The pre-retcon version, presented in this article, belongs to the Original Series Future Timeline. Click here to see the canon version of this article
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| This article is about Ben 10,000's son. You might have been looking for Gwen's brother from the Classic Continuity, or the character from the Reboot Continuity. |
| “ | The call comes in, and my dad takes off to, you know, save the world. And some day, I'll be right beside him. | ” |
– Ken to his friends.[1] | ||
Kenneth "Ken" Tennyson is Ben and Kai's[pop-up 1][1] son and Gwendolyn's brother[pop-up 2][2][pop-up 3][3] from an alternate timeline.[note 1][note 2]
Appearance[]
Regular Appearances[]
Ken bears a striking resemblance to his father when he was his age, albeit inheriting minimal features from his mother. His clothes are modeled after his father's. These include a white skin-tight T-shirt with black accents and borders at the sleeves, and his trademark baggy green cargo pants. Ken's eye color is even the same as Ben's. His skin tone is slightly tanned, his hair is dark brown in color without any strands hanging down the back like Ben's did at his age, and his nose slightly flatter and more straight compared to Ben's, traits which he inherited from Kai.
Occasional Appearances[]
Ken wears long-sleeved light blue pajamas.
Personality[]
Ken is very much like his father was when he was 10 years old, as exemplified by his immediate friendship with fellow troublemaker Devlin Levin.[1]
Ken was shown to be slightly more intelligent and resourceful than his father was at the same age, as he used Grey Matter to hack his Omnitrix and remove the limiter, something that his father seemingly did not consider doing himself.[1]
History[]
Ben 10[]
Ken first appeared in Ken 10, where he celebrated his 10th birthday. Among the gifts he received were a hoverboard from his great-grandfather, a Rock Monster pet from his aunt, and his own Omnitrix from his father. Ken, initially ecstatic about the Omnitrix, was soon disappointed with his pre-selection of aliens. Furthermore, even though Ken was allowed to join his father when he was alien hunting, Ben's years of experience and efficiency left Ken in the dust without any kicks.
Going out flying with the hoverboard, Ken ran into Devlin, a young street urchin who befriended him and consoled him about his issues with his father. Later that night, while his headquarters were being broken into, Ben initially decided to allow his son to join in against whatever foe has broken in this time, until he discovered the one responsible to be none other than his old foe Kevin Levin and grounded Ken to his room.
While the two fought, Ken used Grey Matter to sneak out of his room, eventually arriving in the empty Null Void Chamber just as Kevin fled. Meeting up with Devlin in the morning, he proposed that they try to deduce what was wrong with the Null Void Projector in order to prove themselves to Ben. Having deduced and located the projector, Ken and Devlin broke in, only for Devlin to reveal that he was the one who Ben was fighting.
Furthermore, he released his father, the real Kevin 11,000, who proceeded to beat on the newly arrived Ben, not caring about his son. Ken was able to use Grey Matter to crack the Omnitrix to remove the limiter and aided his father alongside Devlin to fight Kevin. Getting wounded in the crossfire, Ken's injury enraged Ben to the point that he beat Kevin into the ground. Devlin captured Kevin in a Null Void Containment Egg. With Kevin now in custody once more, Devlin came to live with Ben and Ken.
Powers and Abilities[]
Equipment[]
Ken wears an Omnitrix made by his father on his left wrist. Like Ben, Ken had access to only 10 alien forms at first. However, its playlist differed greatly than what Ben started out with. Wanting to make sure Ken wasn't in danger of hurting himself or anybody else like Ben was when he first got the Omnitrix, he took the liberty of downloading some of the least collateral aliens with only minimal battlefield use: Wildvine, Ditto, Buzzshock, Spitter, Snakepit, Sandbox, Shellhead, and Toepick. However, for the sake of having an escape plan, he did leave him with two of his own classics: XLR8 and Stinkfly. Ken convinced Ben to replace Toepick with Grey Matter, whom he later used to remove the limiter of his Omnitrix during his fight with Kevin 11,000.
Ken owns an X321 hoverboard, given to him by Max.
Appearances[]
Ben 10[]
Season 4[]
- Ken 10 (first appearance)
Trivia[]
- Ken's favorite Omnitrix aliens are Four Arms, Diamondhead, Way Big, and Atomix, the latter of which Ken seemed to be most excited to turn into than any other alien when he got his Omnitrix.[1]
- Ken's mother Kai missed his 10th birthday due to being on a diplomatic mission in the Shadow Realm.[pop-up 1][1]
- Ken was designed by Thomas Perkins.[TP 1]
- Prior to his introduction, Thomas had a story in mind for how the tale of Ben Tennyson would eventually lead to a successor for the Omnitrix.[TP 2] However, Ken's character was ultimately conceived independently by the writers.[TP 3]
- Thomas Perkins had always intended for a future version of Kai to be Ken's mother, even though it was not scripted at the time. This is likely because, during the Original Series, Kai was the only real crush Ben had as far as Perkins can recall.[TP 4]
Notes[]
- ↑ The Omniverse crew brought back the Ben 10,000 from the Original Series instead of working on a new one like in Ultimate Alien.[DJW 1][DJW 2][DJW 3][DJW 4][DJW 5][DJW 6][DJW 7][DJW 8]
- He is from further in the future, after having learnt the lessons from his encounter with his 10 year old self[DJW 8] and lightened up.[DJW 9]
- This is due to:
- The executives' push for having everything more like the Original Series, which was the most successful of the franchise.[DJW 6]
- The crew's preference of the original Ben 10,000[DJW 5] over the Ultimate Alien portrayal.[DJW 7][DJW 10]
- Derrick J. Wyatt made several further statements to corroborate this, expanding on what was known from the Original Series, such as the backstories for the Biomnitrix and Kevin Levin invoking the plotlines of Ben 10,000[DJW 9] and Ken 10[DJW 11] respectively, the defining tragedy in Ben 10,000's life having now occurred at the age of 20,[DJW 12] "shifted" from the original age of 15,[pop-up 4][2] etc.
- The writing of the show also explicitly called this out, such as when Ben identified the future Dr. Animo in Animo Crackers as the same person who he encountered in Ben 10,000,[4] and other efforts were made throughout the last few seasons to align the story with the original future timeline, in terms of character designs, set designs and plot lines.
- ↑ Ben 10,000 is stated to be Ben Prime's true future self.[DJW 4][DJW 13]
- This is evidenced in-show in Omniverse by the fact that both the Ben 10,000[5][6] and the future Dr. Animo[4] recalled characters and events from the present day. Chrono-Spanner also frequently visits present day with effects of his actions manifest in his present.[7] This would not be possible if these characters belonged to an alternate timeline.
- It was pointed out by fans that this created a plot hole with the Original Series, as Ben 10,000 was from an alternate timeline[8][9][pop-up 5][1] in which he never travelled to the future when he was 10, and consequently did not give Max a cake on his 60th birthday, while Ben Prime did.[2] Thus, Ben 10,000 did not recall the events of the episode from his younger self's perspective.[9][DM 1][DM 2][DM 3]
- Derrick responded to the matter by saying: "Your 'plot holes' are irrelevant. Time isn't completely fixed, it's shifting. Events can be subtly altered. But Ben 10,000 is the future for the Ben Prime timeline."[DJW 4]
- He further explained that future is always in flux,[DJW 14] and is constantly affected by current events, especially by the meddling of the present by time-travellers.[DJW 13] This was also showcased in Ben 10,000. Thus, Ben 10,000, ie, Ben's current true future will always be changing, depending on the future writers of the show.
References[]
Crew Statements[]
Derrick J. Wyatt[]
- ↑ http://www.formspring.me/DerrickJWyatt/q/417381300865888378 (no longer accessible)
- ↑ http://www.formspring.me/DerrickJWyatt/q/421752490921325024 (no longer accessible)
- ↑ http://www.formspring.me/DerrickJWyatt/q/425001921745540846 (no longer accessible)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 File:DJW OV Future Response.png
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 File:Derrick goal restore original Ben 10k.png
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 File:OV Ben 10K TPTB statement.png
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 File:Ultimate Ben Is Lame.png
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 File:Ben 10k learned lessons from OS episode.png
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 File:DJW came up with Biomnitrix.png
- ↑ File:OV crew didn't want to do Ultimate Ben.png
- ↑ File:Kevin 11K is Both a Hero and Villain.png
- ↑ File:Ben 10K Now Serious At 20.png
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 File:Future is always in motion.png
- ↑ File:Future in Flux.png
