Ben 10 Fans

So, soon after I posted my previous article about Julie Yamamoto, I had a conversation with Little Moments and Breaking Point writer, shadows59, in regards to Julie and my article about her. There were some pretty interesting points that were made during the conversation that I would like to address. Some of you reading this may be wondering whom this Michelle Hallam is in the title. She's a major supporting character in Little Moments and Breaking Point; Gwen Tennyson's best friend in the story. I'm going to be addressing and analyzing her in relation to Julie Yamamoto's analysis so yes, once again (for god knows how many times now), I'll be referencing the Little Moments series created by shadows59, focusing mostly on this very original character. This can basically be summed up as part 2 of my previous article, Ben 10: How to Fix and Improve Julie Yamamoto and there will be some spoilers to the Little Moments fan fiction series.

While I still find Julie being a Plumbers' kid to still be an interesting direction that could help improve her as a character, her original role in the actual shows did have some significant potential. Something that doesn’t get a lot of focus on in the shows yet would’ve been quite significant to the story and main characters is bringing a sense of normalcy; to display a more normal side of Ben and Gwen’s lives. Life for Ben and Gwen shouldn’t be and isn’t always about fighting bad guys and saving the day. They need to be reminded of the real world. In fact, come to think of it, this makes their more heroic side of their lives almost seem like a fantasy to them and therefore, there are certainly going to be times where Ben and Gwen do need something or someone to help ground them back into reality. Now sure, there’s still justifying that this still doesn’t make Julie a necessary character since that Ben and Gwen do have other factors that gives them some normalcy such as school and their parents and surely giving more screen time on stuff like this would’ve helped improve the shows a little. However, I don’t think this is as significant and impactful to the story and characters as having an outside character be involved such as Julie. This is where Julie’s true potential in the shows comes in. She had the potential to help ground Ben and Gwen back into reality; to give Ben and Gwen that sense of normalcy; to bring Ben and Gwen back to the real world. Julie also had the potential to form her own reaction and set of conflicts as a result of learning about and being involved with Ben and Gwen’s hero lives that could help build up her growth as a character. I find that it could be pretty interesting to see her learning about Ben and Gwen’s hero lives and the existence of aliens and magic and then have her sit herself down and decide if she really wants to be involved in that sort of stuff or not; if that’s the type of life that she really wants to be a part of. However, this is not what we got but instead, as I stated in my previous article, Julie ended up being a wasted character who was reliant on being with Ben in a failed attempt to be interesting and compelling. Julie, as portrayed in the shows, was really nothing more but a Satellite Love Interest and her being Ben’s girlfriend was really the only reason for her to exist in the shows. Julie’s potential as a character was squandered. However, there is still potential for the Ben 10 franchise to have a proper supporting character that can fulfill what the writers didn’t do with Julie. This is where Michelle comes in.

In the Little Moments series, Michelle Hallam is a Lebanese girl who has been in all sorts of places in Europe before her family moved to the US due to her father, being a military Colonel, being assigned to set up a new military base in Bellwood. How convenient considering all the strange activity that’s been happening in Bellwood ever since Ben and Gwen arrived back home after the events of the Original Series. She first appears in Chapter 14 of the story, one year into the events of it, where Gwen meets her for the first time in French class on Gwen’s second day in Adams Middle School and soon after, they become close friends. Much like with Ben, Michelle also has quite a cocky and fun-loving attitude and this mostly, if not entirely, stems from her being the daughter of a high-ranking military officer. In fact, much like how Ben call Gwen a “Dweeb”, Michelle also has her own version of that, nicknaming Gwen as “Crazy” due to the events of their very first meeting together. As such, one way to describe Michelle in Little Moments is that she’s almost like a female version of Ben, which leads to some plenty of hilarious moments of Gwen getting double teamed by both Ben and Michelle in Breaking Point. Of course, there’s more to Michelle than that though. There are plenty of things that Michelle does in the Little Moments series that are quite significant and impactful to the story and main characters. However, what I find to be the most significant aspect about Michelle so far is the conflict that the author plans to have her go through in regards to Ben and Gwen’s hero lives. Much of that conflict has been portrayed in the story but Breaking Point is still on hiatus so there’s unfortunately no conclusion to it until the development of the story becomes active again. Anyways, Little Moments and Breaking Point portrayed Gwen and Michelle having formed a strong friendship and displaying a lot of chemistry to each other. Gwen doesn’t like having to lie to those close to her to keep her hero life a secret and Michelle doesn’t like being lied to when something serious happens. She’s already had enough of that from her father due to the dangers that he would be in because of his military career. Eventually in Breaking Point, Michelle does learn about Ben and Gwen’s hero lives and her reaction to it is most certainly realistic given how she is as a character. Michelle lives a normal life and therefore, she became so freaked out over it; over Gwen having the ability to cast magic and her and Ben reacting to an alien encounter as if it’s an everyday occurrence. That’s part is pretty much self-explanatory since that it’s not normal for something like that to happen to her. What’s even worse though is that Michelle felt betrayed. She trusted Gwen and she thought that Gwen trusted her so it’s also pretty much self-explanatory on how Michelle would be very much upset towards Gwen for having to lie to her and keep secrets from her. Reminds me of how Max kept his Plumbers life a secret from his family, as well although granted, Gwen didn’t take the revelation of it as bad as Michelle did with her. How bad? The prequel chapter, Little Moment: Stone in the River, revealed that Gwen and Michelle are no longer friends. That Michelle cut ties with her. Yeah, that bad but with Gwen’s future self having used the time traveling spell to change the past, Gwen now has a chance to prevent that from happening while Michelle would have to make a very important decision. To decide on whether Ben and Gwen’s hero lives really is something that Michelle really wants to be a part of. Hopefully Breaking Point will eventually become active again and readers get a chance to read about that.

Anyways, it’s stuff like this that makes Michelle such a significantly important character that would fit in well in the Ben 10 franchise. If Julie Yamamoto were to be removed from at least most of her scenes, it really wouldn’t impact the shows that much because she’s just such a wasted and unnecessary character. However, to remove Michelle from the Little Moments series would certainly cause a significant impact to it. Many of the scenes in the Little Moments series wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for Michelle. Some aspects of Gwen’s character development wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t meet Michelle. Michelle Hallam is the very character that Julie Yamamoto should’ve been. In fact, Julie is one of the reasons why Michelle was even created in the Little Moments series. The author realized the potential that Julie had as a character and fulfilled that very potential with Michelle. Michelle brought that proper sense of normalcy to Ben and Gwen’s lives but of course, Ben and Gwen’s lives were never normal to begin with and eventually Michelle would find herself to be a part of their lives if she does decide to be involved in it. If Julie were handled in a way that Michelle was, she would’ve been a much better character than how she was actually portrayed as in the shows. Michelle is another prominent example of how to fix and improve Julie and if this article didn’t really explain that well enough to anyone reading it, then I recommend reading up on Michelle in Little Moments and Breaking Point and see for yourselves on how this fan fiction series portrays Michelle and her importance to the story and main characters.

If anyone has any thoughts of their own in regards to the topic of this article, feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Nice pics of Charmcaster. Love to see more new cartoon pics of Ben 10 Reboot season 2 including new episode "Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom" in the episode when Dr. Animo turned Grandpa Max into a chicken.

@ultimate-omnitri Pretty much wish I didn't see that. And @james is right. Charmcaster does look too gothic. Just...really? This is really what they decided to go with for her?

@ultimate-omnitri she looks too gothic

First look at charmcaster in the reboot,

I like it

There are clips from foreign CN eps that are out from That's The Stuff, and of course the Alien Madness promo (that we didn't get to discuss because of the awkward glitch on the site)
Chances are the aliens for That's The Stuff are Grey Matter, OE Four Arms and OE Diamondhead.

@car54 I recently had a conversation with shadows59 about Julie and it did make me think of another direction that I want to address about her that could work well too. If I'm able to, I plan to cover and address that tomorrow.

Oh I bet this is going to push some buttons among some of the Alien Force and Ultimate Alien fans, if my other recent articles hadn't done so already since that I believe Julie is a popular character in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that. Let's discuss Julie in the Ben 10 franchise and her biggest issue as a character. She's a Satellite Character...or more specifically a Satellite Love Interest. Julie, of course, is the love interest of Ben Tennyson in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien...and that's pretty much what sums up most of her as a character. Most of the time that we see her in the shows is so viewers could be reminded that she's Ben's girlfriend and "Oh, they look so cute together" and all that other pointless stuff. I find that this works against her as a character. That how the writers made her so reliant on Ben just so she could be interesting and compelling and have a purpose in the shows hindered and limited Julie's potential. She did get a little better in Ultimate Alien but I don't find that to be enough for her and they certainly made the right call to have Ben and Julie separate in Omniverse. Julie is by far one of the, if not the most, pointless characters in the Ben 10 franchise. She is so bland, boring, uninteresting, and so reliant on Ben to even have a reason to be in the show, it ultimately doesn't make her relationship with Ben work well for both characters and the shows overall. It certainly doesn't help either that, much like with Gwen and Kevin's relationship, Ben and Julie's relationship was rushed in Alien Force as well. Overall, Julie isn't a good character. She is a pointless character that either really needs some help here to gain some significant ground or she shouldn't have even existed in the Ben 10 franchise in the first place. I do have some ideas and suggestions that might help make Julie a much better character though; a character that does have a much greater purpose of being in the show than just being the main character's girlfriend.

So what can be done to help make Julie Yamamoto an overall much better and more significant supporting character? Well first off, don't pair her up with Ben. We've already seen the result of that and like I said, it doesn't work for her as a character and it doesn't make their relationship with each other work either. Again, Julie was too reliant on Ben to even have a reason to be in the shows. She needs more substance in her and just having Julie be nice and cute most of the time isn't enough. What I think is a good start for her is to get Julie more involved in the action and I say that a good way to do that is to make her a Plumbers' kid. I say that this will help give her some more room to develop as a character; to make her more interesting and compelling while also keeping her as a minor supporting character. What sort of abilities can she have as a Plumbers' kid? I'm not entirely sure on that yet. Since that Julie has a connection with Ship, maybe she could have Upgrade's abilities. That was the first thing that came to mind for me with her but again, I'm not entirely sure on that. If anyone has any ideas of their own, feel free to state them in the comments below and explain why. Overall, again, I think this is a good start for her. Julie being a Plumbers' kid can help to get her involved in more situations in the franchise and help to give her some more substance to her as a character while also having her be less reliant on being with Ben just so she has a reason to exist.

That's not the end of it though. Like I said, just having Julie be nice and cute isn't enough. Again, it's stuff like this that makes her feel bland, boring, and uninteresting. Possibly even generic for her. In fact, I even say that Alien Force and Ultimate Alien are quite significantly generic overall as well. Anyways, I say that she needs more to her personality. It's fine for Julie to be nice and sweet and cute and all that but she needs some more to her to make her stand out some more. The shows established that Julie is a tennis player and often times she attends tennis games and tournaments. Because of this, I can see Julie be quite a competitive character. I can see her often express a competitive attitude in various situations with a strong desire to win. Another major aspect that inspired me to think of this direction for Julie comes from the iconic character, John-117 aka the Master Chief from the Halo franchise, most notably and specifically how he was portrayed in the canon novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach. The book describes the Master Chief as a very competitive individual who is so determined to win at any situation at all costs. During his Spartan II training, Master Chief had to learn teamwork. He had to learn to take his desire to achieve personal victory and make it into a desire to achieve victory for his team and the human race overall. While I don't see my idea of Julie's competitive nature and desire to win to be as extensive and deep as that of the Master Chief's, if viewers want to see Julie go though some character development, I can see Julie going through a similar direction to this. I believe that most, if not all, of her tennis games are 1v1 type of games, which leaves very little to no room to practice proper teamwork. Having Julie become a more competitive character could possibly lead to her revealing an intended character flaw among the other Plumbers' kids. That her having a strong desire to win in various situations could lead to her not exercising proper teamwork with the other Plumbers' kids, which could thus lead to significant consequences that would encourage her to tone back her competitive nature (doesn't have to be completely but at least significantly enough) and learn proper teamwork. Again, not to the extent and depth of the Master Chief's character development because Julie is a minor supporting character and it's important to maintain that status for her. The Master Chief is the main character of the Halo series. Julie is not the main character in the Ben 10 franchise. If Julie were to go this very direction in her character development, it needs to be significant enough to make her a more interesting, compelling, and unique character without her taking too much of the spotlight away from Ben and Gwen. The same needs to go with the other Plumbers' kids as well. Every Plumbers' kid can have their own set of characteristics and character development to make the each of them stand out more but they are minor supporting characters while Ben and Gwen are the main characters and it's important for that status to be maintained within the Ben 10 franchise. Plumbers' kids should all be interesting and compelling in their own right if possible but not to the point where it overpowers Ben and Gwen's characteristics and character development.

In the end, I do think that this could be a good and fitting direction to take for Julie in order to help make her a much more interesting, compelling, and unique character than how she was portrayed in the actual shows. A direction that could help fix her glaring issues and vastly improve her as a character. If anyone else has any thoughts of their own on the topic of this article, feel free to leave a response in the comments section below.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, Deviant-art, and the Ben 10 Club. Links are down below.

Twitter:
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Also, feel free to help support the Ben 10 Club by subscribing to their YouTube channel and watching and liking their videos as well as signing up on the official website itself and going to the "Donate" link on the top of their website home page to donate to them through PayPal to help keep the website up and running. The Ben 10 Club also has new merchandise available to purchase on Teespring. If anyone is interested in checking out the new merchandise, feel free to check out this page on the Ben 10 Club website in the link below.
https://ben10club.org/topic/366/new-ben-10-club-merchandise

Official Website:
https://ben10club.org

YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVuVgrKdnHirU63g1BCN2fA

Twitter:
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I checked out New episodes of Ben 10 Reboot season 2 on CN website and CN app too on my tablet too. Can't wait to see more new Ben 10 Reboot episodes including "That's The Stuff" and "Chicken Nuggets Of Wisdom" really soon