Favourite episodes from each series
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Original - Pretty hard to decide but here I think I'm going to have to go with "Secrets". This finale of Season 1 was where the series shifted in tone and the story started to become incredibly engaging. Seeing Vilgax for the first time was terrifying and served as a reminder that the Omnitrix does not make Ben invincible in the slightest. The foreshadowed reveal of Max as more than meets the eye was brilliantly done, with the action sequences, character moments and stakes all fantastic. Very honourable mentions go to "Be Afraid of the Dark" and every episode with Kevin in it.
Alien Force - Quite a few solid episodes but my favourite has to be "Alone Together" . Some of my favourite moments in fiction are when the main character and a villain have to put aside their differences temporarily and/or have to speak to each other about their own motivations and it is always really interesting to see how they interact when not hostile. This is that episode of Ben 10. The premise was cool and we begin to learn a lot more about the motivations of the Highbreed through the time that Ben spends with Reinreissag. It is also an episode where we see some of the best traits of Ben: above all his positivity and willingness to help people and give them second chances, even if they are meant to be his adversaries. We see that Ben has a positive effect on Reinreissag and Ben's words are one of the main reasons why he leaves the invasion fleet. Honourable mention to War of the Worlds but the ending was a bit of a Deus Ex Machina.
Ultimate Alien: It's a weird choice but I actually quite liked the episode "Hero Time". I feel that while Ben could sometimes come off as arrogant and occasionally a jerk in Ultimate Alien, in contrast with Carl Nesmith/Captain Nemesis we see how he stays true to his morals and is still at heart a selfless hero unlike Nesmith who is not being a hero for the good of it, but to attract attention. It was also pretty cool how they made him Ben's childhood hero which made the character moments more impactful when he realises just how selfish of a person Nesmith is, and it's cool to see that the lesson that he learned with Grandpa Max in the original actually stuck around. Honourable mentions to "Absolute Power" (both parts) although the ending of it was a little underwhelmingOmniverse: Again, quite a lot of solid episodes but my favourite was "Showdown" (both parts). It was a great conclusion to the Malware arc and was probably the closest that Ben 10 came to capturing it's original tone post-OS. The plot was great, we had a good villain in Malware with an interesting backstory, we got more worldbuilding, good action scenes and most importantly, we saw Ben develop as a character. This was the two-parter that I connected with the most out of all of Omniverse for precisely those reasons. The alternate Ben and Time War episodes were dope as well,, but it did get a bit confusing.
Reboot: I'd probably say "Omni-Tricked". While not on the level of its original series counterpart "Secrets", it was when the reboot showed that it could tell a decent story if it tried. I'll admit that reboot Vilgax is my second favourite iteration after the original both in terms of design and personality, and it was pretty cool to see a Chimera Sui Generis transformation even if it only lasted 5 minutes.
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I'll give my favourite episode from each series when I wake up tomorrow from OS to OV. I didn't watch enough of the reboot to be able to pick a favourite episode from that series.
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I don't know what my favorite episodes would be. It's been so long since I've watched the older shows so I'd probably have to rewatch them before deciding what my favorite episodes are.
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My favorite episodes from each series are: The Alliance, Alone Together, The Ultimate Sacrifice, Malgax Attacks and Alien X-tinction, mostly because of the moral of the stories.
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@Mortie-10 Nice choices. The Alliance was a particularly thought provoking episode of the original, with a main character actually suffering a serious injury (Grandpa Max) and the part where Ben leaves because he believes he’s endangering Gwen and Max by staying near them is a really weighty emotional moment. The stuff with Vilgax throughout the episode was cool too and helped in the build up to the finale.
We both seem to share our favourite Alien Force episode lol , though it is a great one.
The Ultimate Sacrifice is an episode which really shows Ben’s selflessness despite his apparent arrogance - as soon as he truly learns of the sentient aliens’ plight he is wholeheartedly decided to sacrifice himself for them despite Gwen having the power to wipe them out and be done with it, and that goodbye scene with Gwen was pretty emotional. The functionality of the Ultimatrix and the Sentient Ultimates did throw me off a bit hence why I don’t rate it higher, but the themes of the story were solid.
Malgax Attacks was decent especially since it was centred around a fusion between two awesome villains and it’s good to see Ben learn how to work with Skurd after seeing him as nothing more than a pest. . I was never fond of the idea of Skurd even though he’s actually an entertaining character so that’s probably why I find this episode ok rather than great.
Alien X tinction felt a bit fanservice-y for me but it was still a cool finale to the reboot and to see all the Bens Together was pretty awesome. They nerfed Alien X but that was probably necessary.
