Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Register
Advertisement
Farm-Fresh balanceYMMVTransmit blueRadarWikEd fancyquotesQuotes • (Emoticon happyFunnyHeartHeartwarmingSilk award star gold 3Awesome) • RefridgeratorFridgeGroupCharactersScript editFanfic RecsSkull0Nightmare FuelRsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out iconShout OutMagnifierPlotGota iconoTear JerkerBug-silkHeadscratchersHelpTriviaWMGFilmRoll-smallRecapRainbowHo YayPhoto linkImage LinksNyan-Cat-OriginalMemesHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconicLibrary science symbol SourceSetting

Ben 10 is the 5th installment in the Ben 10 franchise, following Ben 10: Omniverse and is the franchise's first Continuity Reboot.

The series takes a Revisiting the Roots approach, with 10-year-olds Ben and Gwen on a summer road trip with their Grandpa Max, going on various adventures involving battling supervillains and aliens with an alien device, the Omnitrix, stuck on Ben's wrist.

The series, in a change from the previous four series, features two 11-minute shorts per episode, with a focus on comedy and slapstick, similar to Teen Titans Go! and the 2016 reboot of The Powerpuff Girls.

The series premiered in many European countries first in October 2016 (the earliest being Australia and Asia Pacific) with the United States getting it in 2017. It ended its run in 2021 with "Alien X-Tinction".

Tropes used in Ben 10 include:
  • Adaptation Dye Job: The Galvanic Mechamorphs are now purple and black.
  • Adaptation Species Change: Downplayed with Diamondhead, who is now a Petrosapien Subsapien.
  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Inverted with Phil, whose life is now much happier than his original timeline self.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness:
    • Whilst not exactly handsome, Stinkfly is more humanoid instead of a gigantic insectoid.
    • Strangely enough, a vehicle receives this. The Rustbucket goes from a rusty old RV to a shiny new camper.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • Vilgax. Quite terrifying when you remember just how badass he was in the original series. His arms can detach into individual tentacles, which he uses to great destructive effect. Or just to type faster. He also seems calmer than his original self, less prone to boasting and making stupid mistakes.
    • The Circus Freaks and Zombozo, previously Dumb Muscle and a Non-Action Big Bad, can now fight Ben's aliens on equal footing.
    • Kevin was handy with alien tech in the original continuity, but here, he's able to build his own Omnitrix. Though Vilgax was subtly helping him out.
    • Kraab goes from being the weakest of the bounty hunters to managing to outlast Sixsix and shatter Tetrax's arm.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • Phil Billings is a kind-hearted inventor and old friend of Max.
    • Downplayed with Vilgax. He's still a warlord who is responsible for the destruction of several planets, but his sadism and cruelty are toned down.
    • The Incurseans are now enforcers of the peace.
    • Sixsix and Kraab turn out to have been Good All Along in this version - they were actually trying to prevent Vilgax's return.
    • Dr. Animo's future self is a good guy, as opposed to the unrepentant criminal who revived Vilgax in the original series.
  • Adaptational Jerkass:
    • Zig-zagged with Kevin. On the one hand, he lacked Even Evil Has Standards in the original show, but this Kevin doesn't have the excuse of legitimately going insane by absorbing too much energy and is little more than a spiteful bully.
    • Azmuth - which, considering his original incarnation, is quite an accomplishment. Though he does soften up a bit by the end of his first appearance.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • Tetrax. He may have been an Anti-Hero in the original timeline, but his second appearance here has him going after Ben, specifically for the money it would get him, and he even resorts to some particularly vicious methods in order to take out his target.
    • Many of the alien races. In the original timeline, most species just kept to themselves. Here, a decent amount of them have made their own attempts to conquer other worlds.
    • Alien X, who's a Composite Character with Eon in this continuity.
  • Adaptational Wimp:
    • Grandpa Max starts the series as a Bumbling Sidekick, having no knowledge of advanced alien weaponry.
    • Gwen lacks the magical powers that she developed in the original series. It's unclear if she simply hasn't discovered them yet or doesn't have them at all.
    • The Omnitrix itself. Per Word of God, it currently only allows for ten aliens at a time (though Ben might overcome this in the future), it can't perform genetic repairs, and it doesn't allow the user to unlock transformations by scanning a member of that species.
      • However, it has a greater variety of adaptive functions and can allow the user to directly modify the active list (i.e., one of the active ten can be swapped out for another DNA sample more suited to the current situation).
    • Per Word of God, Upgrade doesn't have Eye Beams like he did in the original timeline.
    • Phil Billings doesn't have any Plumber training or any Terroranchula DNA and all the powers therein, being just a normal human.
    • In The Movie, Celestialsapien DNA doesn't have Reality Warper powers, though some writers have suggested that, with more time to allow the transformation to settle, Vilgax would have unlocked them.
    • Alien X is ultimately defeated by Ben's normal aliens (albeit via a coordinated effort from several Omnitrix wielders from across the multiverse), and loses to Four Arms in a fist fight. He also never displays any reality-warping abilities, though he is able to freely travel between dimensions. A later Shrug of God suggested that, unlike their main timeline selves, Celestialsapiens have to continuously will themselves to be god-level beings.
  • Apathetic Citizens: Aliens, mechas, freak weather patterns? Who gives a damn?
  • Ascended Extra:
    • In a sense, Upgrade, becoming much more plot-relevant. Uniquely, though, his impact comes after he dies.
    • Phil appears much more than he did in the classic continuity.
  • Avengers Assemble: In "Alien X-Tinction", four other Bens from across the multiverse arrive to help Ben defeat Alien X.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Several episodes see Ben being forced to let the bad guy succeed in their current scheme in order to prevent larger damage.
  • Body Backup Drive: The Forever Knight uploaded his consciousness into his helmet, which seeks a host in "Cosplay Day".
  • Broad Strokes: Appears to apply this (somewhat) to the original series. Ben already has the Omnitrix (which is eventually revealed to have occurred in much the same way as the first time around) and has already met most of the villains, such as Dr. Animo and Hex (the only exception appears to be Zombozo).
  • But He Sounds Handsome: The major hint that the narrator for the "Alien Worlds" is this timeline's Azmuth is that he never comments about how weird the Galvans are while he snarks about every other species. He even notes that the Galvans are led by "a great and wise scientist".
  • Cerebus Retcon: The Omni-Enhancements are revealed to be the Fulmini turning the Omnitrix into a wormhole so they can invade Earth.
  • Comically Small Bribe: All it takes for Simon to betray the villains is a juice box.
  • Composite Character:
    • Vilgax looks, sounds and acts like he did in the Original Series, but has his Eye Beams from the Alien Force/Ultimate Alien era. He also takes on Myaxx's status as Azmuth's former Chimeran apprentice.
    • Having a red Evil Knockoff of the Omnitrix, Kevin has a few shades of Albedo.
    • Rather than a whole Nebulous Evil Organisation, there's now only one Forever Knight. He takes on aspects of Driscoll (forming a Legion of Doom and wearing Powered Armor) and Sir George (wanting to kill all aliens).
    • Alien X and Eon are merged into one character here, taking on the former's appearance and the latter's personality.
  • Continuity Reboot: It goes back to the original series premise: a 10-year-old Ben and Gwen traveling throughout the USA along with Grandpa Max in the Rust Bucket.
  • Contrived Coincidence: As Max lampshades in "Cosplay Day", he kind of just bumped into the Forever Knight. And Phil just happened to be right across the street.
  • Cool Gate: The Fulmini make use of them to invade other planets.
  • Crystal Spires and Togas: Petropia. Its surface civilization, at least.
  • Death by Adaptation: Upgrade. Though the producers have said that if Ben got a new sample of Mechamorph DNA, Upgrade could come back.
  • Death World: Khoros, the Tetramand homeworld, is a rather unpleasant place to live.
  • Decomposite Character: Lucky Girl was Gwen's alter-ego in the original timeline. Here, Lucky Girl is a Show Within a Show character.
  • Demoted to Extra: In "Alien X-Tinction" after Alien Force Ben explains a bit about his timeline's version of the Plumbers, Max's reaction shows that they exist in the reboot timeline but that's all we ever hear about them.
  • The Dreaded: Vilgax freaks out when he learns that the Fulmini are going to invade Earth.
  • Didn't See That Coming: Like before, this is Vilgax's main weakness. For all his power, he's bad at coping with curveballs.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: In "Omni-Tricked", Vilgax's only interest in the Omnitrix is that it contains his DNA sample that he can use to regenerate himself, being willing to leave it with Ben and seemingly regarding it as nothing more than a trinket before deciding to take it. Doesn't gel quite too well with the later reveal that he helped build it and was in fact its first bearer.
  • Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion: Going by the "Alien Worlds" shorts, it doesn't take much to repel an invasion.
  • The Empire: The Fulmini.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Vilgax teams up with the Tennysons in the Season 2 finale.
    • All the races of Petropia team up to fight off the Fulmini invasion of their world.
  • Energy Beings: The Fulmini.
  • Eskimos Aren't Real: Ben doesn't believe in camels or reindeer.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Kevin draws the line at killing people, though he claims it's because he's The Only One Allowed to Defeat You.
  • Evil Knockoff: The Forever Knight outright describes Kevin as Ben's.
  • Eviler Than Thou: The High Override to Vilgax. Vilgax doesn't even try to deny this.
  • Expy:
  • Extremely Short Timespan: As in the original series, everything takes place over the course of one summer vacation.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In the opening scenes of "Innervasion", Ben mentions that the Omnitrix glitches whenever he tries to use Upgrade and that he hasn't used him in quite a while.
    • In Part 3 of "Innervasion", Vilgax displays incredible familiarity with the inner workings of the Omnitrix, being casually able to walk through its backdoors and navigate its systems. Because he helped build the thing.
  • Fountain of Youth: Nanny Nightmare's Regressive Baby Powder.
  • Freaky Friday Flip: "Freaky Gwen Ben."
  • Freudian Excuse: Alien X/Benjamin Tennyson saw his timeline's Gwen and Max get murdered by Vilgax, which led to him going insane and embarking on a rampage across the multiverse so he could give the same grief and pain to his alternate counterparts.
  • Galactic Conqueror: Seemingly about half the galaxy has tried their hand at it but the Fulmini seem the most successful.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Glitch. Half-human, half-Galvanic Mechamorph.
  • Hand Wave: Vilgax knows many things about the Omnitrix that he will not explain.
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Tetrax, Kraab and Sixsix fight for whoever has hired them. In their debut, they try and help keep the Omnitrix away from Vilgax. They later return trying to claim the Omnitrix for a buyer: Azmuth.
  • Higher-Tech Species: The Galvans.
  • Hypocrite: Forever Knight is an Absolute Xenophobe but that doesn't stop him from using alien abilities and technology to further his plans.
  • Insignificant Little Blue Planet: To protect it, Azmuth sent the Omnitrix to the most unintelligent planet he could find.
  • Killed Off for Real: Upgrade's DNA sample is destroyed when Ben uses him to fix the Omnitrix in the Season 1 finale.
  • Knight of Cerebus:
    • When Vilgax shows up, the series takes on a much more serious tone.
    • The Forever Knight. Even if the episode has laughs, he's never the source of them.
    • Alien X isn't played for laughs at all.
  • Legacy Character: Turns out Ben isn't the first person to wield the Omnitrix. That was Vilgax.
  • Legion of Doom: The Forever Knight forms one in "Roundabout".
  • Meat Puppet: The High Override can control other Fulmini. For example, using Ben to build a wormhole to bring forth his invading army.
  • Merchandise-Driven: The more humanoid designs of Stinkfly and Wildvine were likely for this reason, in order to make designing toys easier. XLR8 has this too, changing from the modern velociraptor pose into a more Godzilla like stance.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: The Omnitrix gets a redesign and different active list every season.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Ben's hat in "Freaky Gwen Ben" is modelled after Wildmutt's head.
    • "The Sound and the Furry" and "Poles Apart" have Ben wearing his outfit from Ben 10: Omniverse.
    • The Galvans' myth about the Mechamorphs being able to rebuild Galvan-B is how the blobs fixed the moon in Omniverse.
    • The fleet that Vilgax first raised was comprised of copies of his first flagship from the original series.
  • Planet of Hats: All the aliens come from one. The "Alien Worlds" shorts deconstruct this a bit as several races are shown to be stagnating without outside influence.
  • Reality Ensues:
    • As Forever Knight discovers, not every Meat Puppet is in ideal shape. Possessing an overweight, middle aged man results in a slow, unwieldy body.
    • The lack of Plumbers means that there's no prisons to hold the various villains. Ben may be able to defeat them, but he has to let them go as he lacks the resources to contain them.
    • While the Antitrix can turns its bearer into aliens, it's mentioned to not be as powerful as the Omnitrix. Makes sense, considering it was built with sub-standard parts.
  • Revisiting the Roots: Even more so than Omniverse.
  • Scars Are Forever: Vilgax gets his face burnt in the first season finale and retains a dark splotch on his face afterwards.
  • Shapeshifter Default Form: XLR8 seems to be Ben's most preferred alien form.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Spared by the Adaptation: The Petrosapiens (Diamondhead's race) and the Arburian Pelarotans (Cannonbolt's people).
  • Super Mode:
    • The Omni-Enhancements, thanks to Shock Rock's DNA being unlocked. It's all a trap by the High Override.
    • The Omni-Kix armor.
    • The Omni-Naut armor.
  • The Unmasqued World: Thanks to smartphones, Ben doesn't even bother with a Secret Identity this time around. Shrug of God is that someone caught Ben transforming on film and uploaded it.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The common citizen has no shits to give about all the aliens, supervillains and mechas. Even the citizens of Ancient Egypt and Renaissance Era Italy don't react to time travellers and aliens. Even in The Movie, the police are more concerned with the fact that Vilgax is jaywalking rather than the fact that he's a twelve-foot-tall alien warlord with Combat Tentacles and Eye Beams on a rampage.
  • Vile Villain Saccharine Show:
    • Despite the Lighter and Softer tone, the show turns very dark when Vilgax shows up.
    • And it turns even darker when the High Override makes his debut.
    • Michael Morningstar turns out to actually be worse than his original series counterpart.
    • The Forever Knight is unfailingly serious.
    • Alien X/Benjamin Tennyson, the antagonist of "Alien X-tinction" and the Final Boss of the reboot continuity, is one of the most powerful villains in the entire franchise and, in no uncertain terms, managed to defeat and even kill several alternate universe Bens, requiring the efforts of multiple Omnitrix wielders to take down.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Despite pulling a Heel Face Turn and becoming a Sixth Ranger in "Roundabout", Vin Ethanol suddenly drops off the radar until Season 4's "Mock 10" at which point he vanishes once again.
    • After Vilgax is defeated in The Movie, Phil is pretty sure that Glitch can be rebuilt and the gang heads off to Nebraska. What happened to Kevin, who was on the verge of his own Heel Face Turn, after Vilgax tossed him aside is not stated, though everyone is pretty sure he'll turn up eventually. He, eventually, resurfaces in "Ben 10,010".
  • The Worf Effect: To demonstrate how dangerous the High Override and the Fulmini are, Vilgax is freaked out by them before he's banished to the Null Void by the High Override.
Advertisement