How I'd reboot Ben 10: Part 1, Story (season 1)
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Normally, I try not to force my opinions on others, and i focus on optimistic statements. however, after season 2 of the Ben 10 reboot turned out to be a total flop, i've decided to pitch some ideas about how i would do things differently. I miiiiiiight take certain episodes and say how i'd rewrite them, but that's not certain. What i'm focusing on is how i'd change the main story, the main cast, and the omnitrix. This article will focus on story.
First order of business, the episodes would be extended to 30 minutes, offering more time to have a cohesive plot, and more room to do things with a single episode. The plot of season 1 would revolve around Ben finding the omnitrix during a camping trip (as always), and learning to master the aliens within it. These episodes wouldn't give him full control of his alien's abilities (like the original did after episode 1), but he'd be learning how to use each one, figuring out how he can best use their powers. Each episode would not only put him in a situation where some aliens would work better then others, but they'd test him as a person, helping him learn and grow to become less selfish and reckless. The season would culminate with a fight against Vilgax, where he gets cocky and loses, vilgax kidnapping grandpa max for reasons only known as "personal" to the audience. Ben grapples with feeling like he isn't powerful enough, and feels useless. Gwen manages to remind him that he is a hero, and that with all grandpa max has done for him, Ben should do as much as he can to repay that trust and love. Ben beats vilgax in a battle, saving grandpa max and supposedly destroys him with his ship. However, it is revealed Vilgax has sampled both a bit of grandpa max's tennyson dna, and during their first fight, got a bit of dna from the omnitrix, which he plans to try and use to create a warrior with it's own omnitrix...Nobody gets to choose how it happens.
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@offbeatcat Some of it seems like a good step in the right direction but overall, I would ditch the summer road trip story entirely...because it was already done before in the Original Series and in a much better way. We don't need to see Ben learn how to use the Omnitrix and how to use each of his aliens...because we already saw that in the Original Series and done so in a much better way. We don't need a season that builds up Ben's first meeting and battle with Vilgax...we already saw that done before and in a much better way in the Original Series. That's one of the biggest problems overall with the Ben 10 reboot. It's just basically the Original Series but done in a way that makes it worse than the Original Series. It's just basically a bland and mediocre shell of what the Original Series was. As such, it makes the reboot show an overall unnecessary show to have around. It would've been better to just simply do reruns of the Original Series instead of just wasting time, effort, and resources on making a show that is, again, just basically the Original Series but with worse quality to it.
Therefore, if I were to make the next Ben 10 show (reboot or not), I rather go the direction of the Little Moments fanfic series. I rather have a Ben 10 show that acts as a new sequel to the Original Series that ignores everything from Alien Force to Omniverse (but I am willing to bring back some elements of these shows such as the Highbreed, much like with what the Little Moments series did), is more character driven, and focuses on Ben becoming Ben 10,000. Then I would follow that up with a Ken 10 series. That is where I find that the franchise has the most potential in. That's what I find to be the best direction for the franchise to go towards.
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@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.
Nobody gets to choose how it happens.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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"
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Story revision #1: Gwen would have a character arc throughout this season, of at least learning to be the support for Ben that he needs, and learning how she can be a hero, with what little she can do.
