Ben 10: Restructuring Ben's Alien Roster
-
On August 14, 2017, I posted an article about how I would restructure Ben’s alien roster in the Ben 10 franchise. Months later on December 1, 2017, I posted a revised version of that same article. Once again, I’m going to tackle this topic to provide a more updated, current, and organized take on this subject.
For those that haven’t read my previous versions of this topic, basically, I find that Ben’s roster of aliens that he had access to by the end of Omniverse (and I guess the new aliens from the reboot could be included here as well) is way too bloated, has too many redundant aliens, and is unbalanced to a ridiculous degree and to the detriment of the franchise and its action elements. I made this article in an attempt to try and address and fix these issues as best I can. To provide a roster of aliens that still has a lot of variety and uniqueness to it while removing as much redundancy from it and balancing it out more so that it doesn’t allow Ben to be so ridiculously overpowering and thus bring some tension back into the action elements.
Now I know that a lot of people are going to point out stuff like how the Omnitrix has over 1 million different DNA samples and therefore Ben is bound to have access to many many many aliens and some aliens are bound to be similar to others and etc. etc. etc. Yes, I understand that and that’s not what I have a problem with. Of course, it would make sense for Ben to gain access to a lot of aliens. After all, Ben 10,000, true to his name, has access to over 10,000 aliens. Here’s the thing though. One, just because Ben can unlock a lot of aliens doesn’t mean he has to use every single one of them. Ben 10,000 has access to over 10,000 aliens yet he continued to use the original set that he started off with and not much else after that. Second, this doesn’t excuse the issues that plagued Ben’s alien roster in the official shows. Ben can have access to a lot of aliens but it shouldn’t be at the cost of factors such as being unbalanced and skewed towards Ben’s side. My preferred roster isn’t so much in regards to what Ben should only have access to but more so in regards to what aliens Ben should rely on and use the most amongst the numerous other aliens that he would gain access to. The roster that I’m providing here is a list of aliens that Ben should rely on the most with no other aliens existing that are more powerful than what’s in this roster and any aliens that aren’t valid enough to be included into this roster are aliens that Ben should not ever use. Hopefully, that makes sense. Otherwise, feel free to comment down below about that reasoning and I’ll try to provide better clarification on it.
With all of that out of the way, here’s my preferred roster of aliens that I say Ben should stick to using. As a disclaimer as well, if there is anything about this list and/or the reasoning behind why that I want to change and improve upon, I’m not going to make another revision article like I did last time. I’m just going to make an edit to this one. Any updates that I make to this article post-release, I’ll notify on down below. Chances are though that this will likely be my final take on this topic but who knows. That might change in the future.
My Preferred Roster:
Heatblast
Wildmutt
Diamondhead
XLR8
Grey Matter
Four Arms
Stinkfly (the original design, of course, because screw the reboot design)
Ripjaws
Upgrade
Ghostfreak
Cannonbolt
Wildvine
Buzzshock
Arctiguana
Benwolf/Blitzwolfer
Upchuck
Ditto
Way Big
Big Chill (as a successor to Ghostfreak)
Spidermonkey
Lodestar
Terraspin
Ball Weevil
Protost alien (Tetrax’s ship pilot, Gluto)
Uxorite alien (Xylene)
Lenopan alien (Lucy Mann)Honorable Mentions:
Atomix
Armodrillo
Feedback (if not Buzzshock)
Pesky Dust
Gravattack
SpitterAs I stated before, my intentions with providing this roster is to remove the redundancies in the roster from the official shows and provide something that I find is much better balanced and much less overpowering while also maintaining the right level of variety and uniqueness to it. Each alien that I’ve selected for this roster all fulfill specific roles with as little to no overlap as possible. Sure, some aliens are more flexible and multipurposed than others but I don’t find it to be something that significantly impacts this roster. Some aliens are better than others but they still fit within the criteria that I have here and the “others” still fulfill roles that I find are unique and necessary enough to be included into this roster. For example, sure, Ripjaws is an alien that best works in water since that he has trouble breathing outside of water if he can’t find a source of water. Sure, pretty much every other alien is better suited on land than Ripjaws. However, Ripjaws is Ben’s best option for underwater combat. Most, if not all, of Ben’s other aliens are not suited for underwater combat. That’s what makes Ripjaws at his most useful despite his limitations and that’s why Ripjaws is in this roster.
For those that haven’t seen the previous versions of this topic that I made, you’ll likely notice that there are three new aliens that I included into this roster that we’ve never seen Ben ever use. The Protost alien (Gluto), the Uxorite alien (Xylene), and the Lenopan alien (Lucy Mann and the rest of the Mann family) are aliens that I do think would be really interesting to see Ben gain access to and use. In regards to the Protost alien, I’m sure plenty of people will ask as to why I don’t just include Goop instead. Here’s why. Goop is a unique alien and I wouldn’t mind including him into this roster. The problem, however, is that Goop relies greatly on his anti-gravity projector to maintain his form and be able to function and move around and whatnot. Without it, Goop is just a useless puddle of, well, goop. There is little to nothing that Ben can do as Goop if he loses the anti-gravity projector. The anti-gravity projector is a blatantly obvious weakness that can be easily exploited and that’s why I didn’t include Goop into this roster. On the other hand, Protost aliens don’t have to rely on an anti-gravity projector in order to function and do anything. That’s why I prefer the Protost alien over Goop. Protost aliens may not have all of the same traits as Goop (such as Goop’s acid ability) but it’s a close enough match without the blatantly obvious weakness, which I find makes the Protost alien an ideally balanced enough alien to be included into the roster. As for the Uxorite alien, I included that one in due to its telekinetic abilities balanced out by their lesser durability compared to other aliens. Then there’s the Lenopan alien. I didn’t choose this one for its combat capabilities (although, Lenopans are tough and capable aliens). Rather instead, I picked this alien more for its infiltration and disguise potential. Lenopans can disguise themselves as pretty much anything and anyone, matching their color, texture, I believe voice as well, etc. This can allow Ben to be able to sneak into all sorts of areas. Of course, it is ultimately up to Ben to be able to carry on his disguise effectively and therefore encourage him to be smarter about the situations that he’s in and quickly think and adapt to said situations in order to avoid blowing his cover.
One other thing to mention is the “honorable mentions” section. These are aliens that I do find to be a close fit to be included into the roster but there are certain factors about them that ultimately (for now, at least) didn’t make them make the cut. Atomix would be interesting to include if he wasn’t so incredibly powerful. Too powerful in my eyes. There was an illustration of Atomix that I felt would’ve been much more interesting, unique, and better balanced and thus, make him an ideal fit for the roster. I’ll provide the link below this paragraph. The artist’s portrayal of Atomix is something that I find to be far better than Omniverse’s portrayal. The design is so much more unique and alien and while Atomix is still very powerful, because there’s a risk of causing collateral damage due to him emitting radiation, this properly balances out Atomix. Atomix’s weakness encourages Ben to pick his moments more careful with using this alien. Of course, I’m pretty sure that Ben doesn’t want to cause another Chernobyl incident. Having the ability to burrow underground and drill through various obstacles is what I find makes Armodrillo and interesting and unique alien. My biggest issue, however, is his design. It doesn’t seem alien enough to me. The same goes for Pesky Dust as well. Pesky Dust is a great choice for interrogation purposes but that design just doesn’t work. If those two aliens were redesigned to look more alien, I would be more than happy to include them. Feedback is in the honorable mentions section to really just act as a replacement for Buzzshock. I’ll get to Buzzshock later. Gravattack is a really interesting and unique alien but I’m concerned about his gravity-based abilities. I’m not sure if it makes sense for an alien to have something like that yet and if that makes Gravattack too powerful and unbalanced. I have the Uxorite alien in my roster so maybe Gravattack will end up being considered unneeded here. Finally, there’s Spitter. I really like the design and Spitter is a well-balanced alien. However, Stinkfly already has slime-based abilities. Although, Spitter’s slime does have some attributes that are different from Stinkfly’s slime. Stinkfly’s slime is flammable and explosive while Spitter’s slime can be made acidic and is a good conductor of electricity. Maybe I will make an update and add Spitter to the roster but for now, he’s in the honorable mentions section for the time being.
https://www.deviantart.com/kjmarch/art/Atomix-67594690
Now I’m sure that some people reading this would ask stuff like, “Why include these aliens and not these aliens?”. Again, take into consideration of the criteria that I’ve set up for this roster. The aliens have to be unique and interesting in their design, characteristics, and abilities. There needs to be a necessity for having certain aliens in the roster. That means as little overlap and redundancy as possible. The aliens need to be properly balanced and not overpowering. That especially means no Alien X. Giving Ben the power of what’s essentially a god is one of the biggest mistakes ever made with this franchise. Alien X should have never existed in the first place. What about Clockwork though? While unique, the ability to control and manipulate time is quite clearly overpowering. Why not Humungousaur? I find Four Arms to be the more unique strength-type alien while also finding him to be more agile and flexible than Humungousaur (having four arms as opposed to two sure does make quite the difference). The writers either forgot about or decided to remove Humungousaur’s growth ability and even then, I already have Way Big. I don’t find Humungousaur’s tail in the reboot show to make enough of a difference either. I find Four Arms to be the better and more unique strength-type alien.
Why pick Heatblast and Wildvine instead of Swampfire since that he’s a combination of both? Because Swampfire is the jack of both trades but not the best at either of them. Heatblast is the better fire alien and Wildvine is the better plant alien. There’s plenty of things that they both can do that Swampfire can’t and there’s too little, if not nothing, that Swampfire can do that Heatblast and Wildvine can’t do. Also, considering that it’s really quick and easy for Ben to just switch between each alien form (especially with the Master Control), I don’t find hybrid aliens, such as Swampfire, to be necessary to have.
Big Chill is a bit of an exception though. The reason why is that while I do have Ghostfreak in my roster, the issue with Ghostfreak is, well, the nature of Ectonurites in general and how their consciousness lives within even the smallest of samples of an Ectonurite. I’m pretty sure that Ben and his allies don’t want another situation like with Zs’Skayr back in the Original Series. That’s why I included Big Chill in the roster. As far as I can tell, he’s the closest in similarity to Ghostfreak that I can think of. Therefore, I find Big Chill to be a worthy enough successor to replace Ghostfreak if there isn’t a way to properly control Ghostfreak. Sure, Big Chill can’t possess people and can’t go invisible (apparently, from what I’ve heard a while back, the one time that he did was an error made by the writers of the show and stuff like this happened pretty often (remember Humungousaur)) but being able to become intangible is good enough in my book.
Why pick Ditto over Echo Echo and Slapback? Slapback is…ok, I guess. The issue, however, is that Slapback is also just another strength-type and brawling-type alien and I already have that covered in the roster. As for Echo Echo, he is one of the most subtly overpowered aliens in the franchise. The issue with Echo Echo is that unlike Ditto, Echo Echo doesn’t have any link between his duplicates. Therefore, there is no consequence to any of Echo Echo’s duplicates being destroyed. As long as one Echo Echo remains, Ben can easily replace the ranks of those that were destroyed and there’s no limit to how many duplicates that he can make. If one Echo Echo dies, ten more can replace its rank. It doesn’t even matter much that Echo Echo is a fragile alien because there’s no check and balance made to his duplication ability. Without that ability, I probably would’ve replaced Blitzwolfer with Echo Echo, although the issue with that is at that point, I think Echo Echo would just be too fragile of an alien for Ben to use so I think I’m just going to stick with Blitzwolfer for fulfilling the sound-based ability spot. I picked Ditto because his link between each of his duplicates encourages the greatest amount of strategy and tactics over the other duplication aliens. Because harming and killing one Ditto affects the rest, this keeps Ditto’s duplication ability from making him too powerful. Ditto isn’t as capable as Ben’s other aliens and therefore, Ben has to rely on having a numbers advantage in order for Ditto to be at his most effective but Ben has to rely on a numbers advantage in a strategic manner. Ben has to play things smart as Ditto and that’s why I find Ditto to be the most interesting, unique, and overall the better duplication-based alien.
Now I’m sure that people will point out Buzzshock and his ability to duplicate. That’s something that I find to be interesting about Buzzshock. Nosedeenians can indeed duplicate via taking damage and absorbing energy, and yet, as far as I can recall, we never see Buzzshock himself make duplicates, despite how useful that ability would be to him; likely too overpowering and unbalanced. To me, it feels like there’s more than meets the eye with Buzzshock and other Nosedeenians. Maybe what’s assumed to be duplication is really multiple Nosedeenians combined into one or something of the likes but so far, that’s just a theory. I rather prefer to have Buzzshock in my roster because I find him to be the most unique electric-based alien in the franchise. Like I said before as well, I also have Feedback in the honorable mentions section to act as a replacement for Buzzshock if Buzzshock doesn’t end up working out in the end.
I’m sure some people are going to point this out as well and that is why Rath isn’t in the roster here. I find Rath to be one of the most overrated aliens in the franchise. There’s not really anything that’s unique about Rath other than he’s the most comedic alien. Rath is strong but not the best strength-type alien. Rath is fast and agile but is outmatched by those such as XLR8. Rath has razor-sharp talons but there’s plenty of other aliens in my roster that has some form of a razor-sharp weapon, such as Diamondhead. Rath can’t shoot fire, can’t fly, can’t freeze stuff, isn’t the smartest, etc. I find Rath to overall be unnecessary. Let’s add liability to Rath as well. Again, Rath isn’t the smartest alien. In fact, he’s pretty much one of Ben’s dumbest aliens. That combined with him being so overly aggressive and so easy to distract makes Rath too much of a liability for me to also pick him for the roster. That’s why I didn’t pick Rath. Now I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of people that are going to take issue with that so if you disagree, feel free to comment down below as to why. Not going to matter much anyways. My mind is already set with Rath.
I believe I haven’t covered everything here but I say that I’ve provided enough as it is to back up my claims and explain the general gist of this article here. This article is already long enough as it is so for the time being, I feel like not needing to go any further. Like I said before as well, if there’s anything here that I want to change, fixes, and/or improve upon, I’ll make an edit to this article to update it. If anyone has any thoughts of their own on this topic and my coverage of it, feel free to comment down below.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter, Deviant-art, and the Ben 10 Club. Links are down below.
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TacticalOchoaDeviant-art:
https://tacticalochoa122.deviantart.comBen 10 Club:
https://ben10club.org/user/tactical-ochoaFeel free to also join and help support the Ben 10 Club and follow them on their social media accounts as well. Links are down below.
Official Website:
https://ben10club.orgYouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVuVgrKdnHirU63g1BCN2fATwitter:
https://twitter.com/ben10club_bgFacebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ben10club.bg
