Ben 10 Fans

@ultraalien It's unbelievable just how incompetent and out of touch the people running Cartoon Network are. Time Warner or AT&T or whoever really needs to step in and change some seats around. Get some new and more competent folks to step in and run Cartoon Network. This is getting freakin ridiculous.

I had heard, but i must admit it's rather depressing, considering the show was beginning to improve a little, and showed potential. It wasn't even all that bad. I mean, it wasn't great or anything, but it was enjoyable enough for me to watch.

Cartoon Network Has Given Up on Mega Man: Fully Charged
by Vailskibum94
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SodIDKRXBxc

I can imagine a lot of shows that are struggling would have more breathing room if they had 30 minutes. Although some are better with just 11 minutes.

Forgot to mention: The plumbers are more like an army of peacekeepers then a police force. I think that is important to mention.

@tactical-ochoa oh, and uh...for the record....you're talking about the reboot, not at all what i'm describing here. i mean, i gave the outline, but the journey there is an unknown to you, so you could i no way say what i've suggested here would be bad. This reboot i have conceptualized isn't the show on cn. if you're going to criticize it, please do so on what i have told you, not by talking about the cn reboot. This is how i would've rebooted it. not "how i would've made the next ben 10"

In rebooting the Ben 10 series, i would go back to the road trip format, as it enables a greater amount of variety in what the characters experience. However, despite Grandpa Max, Gwen, and Ben himself all being on this trip, their personalities would be tweaked a bit, in the interest of revisiting the concept and trying something new with it. in this article, i will cover Ben, Gwen, Vilgax, and Grandpa max.
Ben would be a little less brash, and more of a shy kid who wants to be a hero, but is picked on by everyone. He would grapple with some insecurities about feeling useless. He and Gwen would fight a lot, because they're cousins and just don't like each other much at first. But during that night of summer vacation, he'd find the omnitrix. He'd have the chance to be a REAL hero. 10 of them. It'd be up to him to master control of the omnitrix, and to use it responsibly. After obtaining it, he'd look for any chance he could find to use it. He'd become more friendly, more open. He'd show more of his somewhat reckless but heroic(kinda) personality.Eventually, he'd start getting cocky, starting to feel like he's finally somebody. Somewhere along the line, he'd be put in a situation where the omnitrix doesn't work, or he loses, and he'd worry that he's not good enough, and maybe he doesn't deserve the omnitrix, until he comes to the conclusion that it's not coming off, and if he's going to have this thing stuck to his arm, he's gonna go down fighting, whether he's a failure or not.
Gwen would be a bit of a nerd. Not the glasses wearing kind (like omniverse. still gives me nightmares), but she'd be fairly knowledgable of sci-fi and fantasy. She occasionally tinkers with machines, but she's no expert. Ben would be dismissive of her at first, not wanting to talk to the family. After getting the omnitrix, she'd be facinated with it, yet jealous of ben, feeling as though she could've used it better. Gwen isn't afraid to be blunt and say stuff most people would be to afraid to say. She and Ben, being cousins, would argue a lot, but eventually, they'd come to trust each other, feeling like they can trust one another. Gwen would help on the "let me research this dude you're fighting" side of things, but would sometimes try to help with some small invention she has made, wanting to be a hero as well. She feels some solace in being the smarter cousin, but does still feel like her and Ben's posistions should be reversed. This could easily lead to a breaking point, where Gwen leaves Ben to deal with his own problems, leaving a fracture in the friendship. Eventually, she'd come back to help Ben when he needs her advice most, restoring their friendship.
Grandpa Max would still be a retired plumber, but instead of just being a very skilled plumber, he is a veteran of an interstellar war. He had been recruited from his place on earth, forced to join the long war. Max would have seen a lot of tragedies, losses, and suffering. As far as his family knew, he went on a long trip across the world. He'd have returned a man happy with his family, but determined to keep them out of anything relating to the plumbers. When Ben got the omnitrix, he was sad about this, knowing Ben would most likely become wrapped up in something he was too young for. He'd provide words of wisdom for Ben, and some tips about fighting, but would refuse to fight himself, having seen to much violence to partake in anymore. Until, that is, he is forced back into action...
Vilgax has seen the most drastic changes. His species is on the verge of extinction, and it is all because of the war Max fought in. He was a commander of the Chimera su genesis legion, who fought on the side of the plumbers. He and Max were, in fact, friends, at a point. Where Max loathes violence though, vilgax gloried in it. He enjoyed the violence, the conquest, and when the war was over...he wanted more. He turned against the plumbers, taking their weaponry and threatening their main base, asking Max to join him. Max instead stopped him, destroying vilgax's arm during their fight. During their battle, the plumbers decided to not wait on Max and launch a planetkiller at vilgax's homeworld, in an effort to destroy the weapons there, as well as to eradicate the hostile species before they undid their efforts to bring peace. Max got away in an escape pod, being warned over an intercom about this strike, and vilgax was presumed dead. They thought wrong, as vilgax had escaped, and he was enraged. The peacekeepers had destroyed his planet, a casualty he wasn't expecting. He blamed Max for this treacherous act, and swore to destroy him and his bloodline, the next time he saw him. During that time, he discovered a weapon he could use to continue conquering, a weapon that would allow him to destroy all the plumbers. The omnitrix. All he needed to do was to find it...

@tactical-ochoa that is your opinion. And although you have just written a whole essay about it, the title is "How I'D reboot Ben 10". not how you would. i hear you opinions, but what i have put here is how i would have done it, regardless of how you would have done it.

@offbeatcat No, of course retreading old ground isn't always a bad thing. Otherwise, games such as Doom (2016) and Resident Evil 7 (I know that RE7 isn't really a reboot but it's still a good enough example here) wouldn't have been considered to be good games. It's a matter of whether or not it's necessary. It was necessary for Doom (2016) to go back to its old school shooter roots because that's what made Doom at its best. It was necessary for Resident Evil 7 to go back to the traditional survival horror roots that the classic Resident Evil games had because that's what made Resident Evil at its best. Yes, reboots are allowed to do stuff like this but they must also try to branch off and do something different and interesting. Doom (2016) doesn't follow the same story as the first Doom game. It follows a new story and introduced new lore. You're not some marine corporal (aka Doomguy) that finds himself as the only survivor of his squad and thus the only person left on Mars' moon, Phobos, to stop the demons of Hell. You're the Doom Slayer, a mysterious individual who fought the demons of Hell for god knows how long and thus turns out to be Hell's greatest fear (yeah, that's right, the demons of Hell fear you) and you have to clean up the mess that the UAC created. Doom (2016) treads old ground while also branching out and doing something new and interesting as well. Even remakes have to do something new and interesting. Just look at the Resident Evil 1 remake and potentially the Resident Evil 2 remake. Look at 1982's John Carpenter's The Thing (if you can handle such a scary and grotesque film and yes, it's a remake film).

What is it about the Ben 10 reboot that is new to the franchise? Not really much if not anything at all. Pretty much almost everything that the Ben 10 reboot does has already been done before in other shows (mostly the Original Series) and in a much better way. Meanwhile, anything that is new to the Ben 10 franchise, such as some of the new characters and villains, isn't written and implemented well. In fact, I believe the most that the Ben 10 reboot has done that is new is just introduce new villains and characters and like I said, they're usually not written and implemented well. Often times, the Ben 10 reboot doesn't feel like it's retreading old ground. Often times, the Ben 10 reboot just blatantly copies stuff from the previous shows. Often times, the Ben 10 reboot feels more like a remake than a reboot and not in a good way.

Like I said, it would just be better to just do reruns of the Original Series. It'll work as a much better and more proper way to introduce the new generation to Ben 10; especially when compared to the reboot show. It's a very simple yet effective approach. Also, shows don't need to be made to only cater to a specific demographic. Most, if not all, of the best cartoons out there cater to a wide range of viewers. In fact, the more you try to modernize a show, the more outdated it becomes. The more you try to cater a show to a specific demographic, the more limited your viewer base is and in the case of a well-established franchise such as Ben 10, the more you risk alienating and thus losing your established fan base. Just look at the Powerpuff Girls reboot, which was an absolute failure of a show. Maintaining the fan base is so important to take into consideration of because they're the ones that are going to support the franchise the most. They're the ones that are going to help bring newcomers to the franchise. It is better to make a show that will be timeless and that caters to a wider range of viewers. It is better to make shows such as the original Ben 10, the original Teen Titans, Ed Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, the original Powerpuff Girls, etc. Just because it's current year doesn't mean that younger audiences aren't going to watch something that isn't made a specific way. Kids are always being introduced to the old Looney Tunes shows and loving the heck out of them. Kids are always being introduced to the original Star Wars trilogy and loving the heck out of them and look how old those films are. Guess who's introducing these kids to these works as well? The fans. These works are always going to be remembered and appreciated more (by many regardless of what generation they are) than those that try to be modern. These works are always going to be seen as timeless for a reason.

The Ben 10 reboot isn't a show that's made to be timeless. It's a show made to just be one big advertisement for merchandise. The Ben 10 reboot is overall an unnecessary show that does very little to nothing new for the franchise and there's already another show that does what the Ben 10 reboot does but better. Another thing that a reboot must also do is be an improvement over the original source and the Ben 10 reboot doesn't achieve that. Even if what you described can help to improve the quality of the Ben 10 reboot, if it's not to the point where it makes the reboot better than the Original Series, then you're just wasting your time and effort on it and even then, it would still feel very much unnecessary because we already have the Original Series and again, the Original Series already does what the reboot does but better.

Overall, a much better direction to go is to just take the reboot show, toss it aside, and have the next Ben 10 show do what the next Halloween and Terminator films are doing. Have it act as a new sequel to the Original Series that ignores all of the continuity of Alien Force to Omniverse and have it be a more character driven show that focuses more on building up Ben's transition into Ben 10,000. That is the better and more ideal direction to go. There is a lot more potential and a lot more interesting things that can be done with that direction. Again, look at the Little Moments fanfic series as an example of that. That fanfic series is proof that such a direction can and does work for the betterment of the franchise as a whole.

@tactical-ochoa Well, is retreading old ground ALWAYS a bad thing? Reboots are allowed to do this. This discussion is about how i would handle rebooting the show for a younger generation. This would involve starting simple, for the sake of getting the younger audience on board. This would be very different in some ways, which i'll get to in the characters section of things.