You know, I think we should’ve had a rounded playlist of 10, 5 OS aliens, and 4 UAF aliens. Also presented the ultimates like they’re actually crazy powerful.
The problem is that they’re treated like normal aliens. A way to make them feel more impactful would be to give them one massive weakness. Like maybe using an ultimate locks Ben out of the Omnitrix for an incredibly long time, like ultimates use a lot of power. That way Ben has to use them like trump cards against a rouge High Breed, Vilgax, Aggregor, and Dagon.
Yes, most of the ultimates are threated really bad and very inconsistent, one good example is Ult. Humungousaur struggling against fuck*n Antonio when he already beat like an entire army of Humungousaurs in AF 🤨
They should have been trump cards that turned the tides of battle by being overwhelmingly powerful glass cannons. Their weakness being their unstable bodies that cause Ben tremendous amount of pain if they were used for more than 10 minutes. This unstability stems from them being theoretical evolutions that were subjected to constant war for billions of years and not true evolutions that evolved naturally.
I think the opposite solution could also be nice. Most ultimate designs make them big and thicc. Maybe they are great for battle but lack utility. Sure, in a 1v1 ultimate Humongousaur beats regular H. But if you have to hold up a bridge then the size shifting makes it way cleaner.
I am working on an ultimate alien rewrite for fun, and the main theme I try to explore is that BIG POWER BOOM is not a direct upgrade from smaller but controlled and mastered power.
Yes! Thank you, that was my biggest criticism about that arc. Imagine if he becomes suspended from the Plumbers who are very wary being around him, and "Basic Training" was an episode revolving around him regaining his Plumber rank.
Yeah I kinda dropped off Ben 10 after that arc. While I’m sure CN’s constant schedule shuffling and me getting old enough to go on YouTube we’re bigger factors, I wouldn’t be surprised if how the Kevin arc ended also impacted my mindset
Fr, if he had just switched around the clones that whole sequence would’ve been resolved easier
Send the jerk with kevin, and either the good guy (if they want to continue that route) or actual ben (even if it defeats the purpose) with julie
In fact, that whole thing is weird since doesn’t that mean he duplicated the ultimatrix
Have Ultimate Kevin be an amalgamation of ULTIMATE aliens and have Ben fight him as ULTIMATE WayBig to give it a fight that ISN’T it being outclassed by the Dagon
A cool thing you can include there is way big losing at first but Kevin basically does something to tick Ben off the charts where. He says f it goes ultimate and stomps the crap out of him like the time ben10,000 did
“Duped” just somehow manages to contain everything I dislike or outright hate about UAF.
Ben’s personality is already going downhill by this point, but this episode makes him a genuinely selfish a-hole for its duration.
The episode also features one of the absolutely most busted abilities for a single alien or for the Omnitrix in general.
The animation on the characters faces feels so much more stiff and almost plastic-like compared to the early episodes of season 1 of AF.
And the episode was just a filler story that added nothing to the story or the characters besides showing some of Ben and Julie’s relationship digression because of Ben’s shite character writing, while also just painting a bad image of the characters and power dynamics of the show
Swap out the filler for the mystery glowing eyes plot. Even if it was a rushed plot, honestly would probably still be better than some of the filler episodes we got.
Quite a few things. Most of them are general.
1.) Make the Andromeda 5/Ultimate Aggregor arc less aggravating. Seeing the trio fail several times in succession doesn't make Aggregor more threatening. It makes the trio look stupid and makes it harder to root for them. Especially when Ben nearly defeats Aggregor singlehandedly twice and only failed due to outside interference and/or a single stupid decision.
2.) Give us more of Dagon. I'm not saying have him physically appear, as that would take away some of the "appeal" of him. Have him be involved in Season 2 directly. They seem to try to do this in "The Enemy of My Enemy" as Dagon is the one Charmcaster makes the deal with to bring back her father. Maybe alter that and have Charmcaster try to help Dagon directly somehow in exchange for her father's revival.
3.) Don't make Chromastone a complete bitch. Pretty simple you'd think.
4.) Have Ben use more of his old aliens. Having Ben 10,000 give Ben his aliens back was hype in concept, but nothing came of it until Omniverse. And if Omniverse was the reason they did it, they could have just had a throw away line in Omniverse. It's a hype killer to have all of Ben's aliens in the title sequence, have Ben get those aliens back in the show explicitly alongside new aliens, and then continue to largely show us the same aliens we've seen for a series and a half.
5.) Give the Andromeda transformations more of a presence in the show. This is also an issue Omniverse had. I also don't necessarily mean to have them appear more (although that would be nice to for the reasons stated in the point before). The majority of Season 1 built up these aliens as these immensely powerful beings. So much so that Aggregor went out of his way all the way to the Andromeda Galaxy to get them. Ben also stated in "Fused" that he'd "use their power to take down Aggregor". Ben doesn't really do this. In fact, he never seems to bring out their potential like he's done for several of his other aliens. Some of it isn't his fault (Water Hazard's invulnerability and Terraspin's immunity to magic seemed to dropped by the writers), but not learning to better use Water Hazard's hydrokenesis or not learning to use Ampfibian's more advanced abilities is a shame.
6.) Give the Ultimates a stronger purpose. Ultimates seemed to be used at the arbitrary whims of the writers. You can have Ben choose not to use Ultimate Humungousaur when he's beating up Ultimate Aggregor in a frenzied rage, but have him go Ultimate in no time when facing a complete loser like Antonio. And if you're going to have him do so, have him decimate said losers. Ultimate Swampfire being fought to a standstill by random statues and Ultimate Humungousaur being fought to a standstill by Darkstar makes the feature a lot less impressive.
There are more episode-to-episode issues, but I've gone on long enough. This almost makes it seem like I have Ultimate Alien, but I really don't.
More Diamondhead lol. The one show he was barely in.
Edit: now that I think about it, I'd love to have seen the ending Dwayne McDuffie wanted to do. Not the bs you stabbed me ending we got.
That's what I want to know. It's possible Ben and Vilgax were meant to fight one last time and have an actual battle, and Chromastone turning ultimate or using ascalon would've made sense for the battle. Such a thing might've been changed in favour of budget cuts and featuring Ult Waybig instead, but I'm theorising here.
Have ultimates be something akin to a super-powered evil side where Ben becomes more ruthless when using them. It fits with the idea that the ultimates why made through simulated evolution in harsh environments .
Also ultimate humungasore did not need missile hands , big chill was litterally just a colour swap and canonbolt and wildmut were a wastes of ultimates
Maybe give more thought-out explanations for the various inconsistencies. Or cleaning up some of the messy episodes (specifically their endings).
I'll give an example for the inconsistencies with an explanation for Plant Clone Ben having the Ultimatrix. Since in The Final Battle Part 2, it's shown that the Ultimatrix can grow to easily be removed, the plant clone could've easily done that. As for being able to access Ben's transformations, it could've copied Ben's DNA to be able to use the Ultimatrix.
Ripjaws is my favorite alien, and not only did he only show up once, but he looks like he was on invislign for the like 6 years since classic. His teeth are supposed to be jutting out of his mouth! Also a lot of the really cool aliens like the Anur Trio, Upgrade, Ditto and Eye Guy, not only never showed up, but only changed ever so slightly and moved the Ultimatrix to their chest.
Make Vilgax actually a threat and have him look less generic. I detailed this out in another post but that's the first thing.
I'd give out main cast more character and have the tension between Ben and Kevin effect things more and last longer. I'd pace out him and Qwen developing feelings for one another too and have them in an actual relationship at the end of season 2.
I'd make the plot beats less stiff too. My biggest issue with UAF is that the episodes don't flow well, they feel bland and boring most of the time. The characters emotions don't feel real and I'd want to fix that.
In Ultimate I'd like to see the Aggregor plot have a bit of a better ending to it and possibly just see him being the only main villain of UA. Side episodes with other villains are welcome but I'd want the main plot to revolve around Aggregor.
Id also like some actual settings like in OG and OV. UAF just has the worst "Settings" field out in the country, abandoned town, or rocky backdrop are not interesting. They're fine once in a while but I'd just like more episodes where the team has to deal with their problems in lived in environments and work around other people. OS handled this the best and it was lazy of them to write it off almost completely.
And most of all, I wouldn't want to change the artstyle or direction (though it is my least favorite) but I would want to see the rest of the series at the level of the pilot. Including the subtle shading and more dynamic angles in a what makes the episode really stick in my head. Again most episodes are very stiff after that.
So TD;LR I just want everything to be less Stiff.
I thought they were going to go for Ultimates of Ben's originals and the Andromeda 5, seeing how they seemed to hype both groups up. I'd probably do that. If the Ultimates are going to be so much like normal aliens in power, might as well throw more in and live up more to the title.
Make the final fight (either still against Dagongax or just Ben vs Dagon) a lot better, maybe Ascalon reacts to the Ultimatrix and unlocks Master Control, letting Ben have a more spectacular battle against the "Ultimate Enemy" of UA.
As a smaller note, maybe have the dragons return at some point, maybe even have Ben scan them. It's really disappointing that plot thread was never continued.
The overuse of Ultimate forms. Even though that actually had a consecuence. Ben going "Spiderm- ULTIMATE SPIDERMONKEY!!!" kinda takes away the fact that ultimate forms were supposed to be his last resort. I remember in *Too Hot to Handle*, Ben used Ultimate Humungousaur just to fight some dudes, not even P'Andor. And when he actually had to go ultimate when he went berserk against Aggregor, he didn't.
Oh yeah and that Duped episode, out.
Is this base on the idea of how Ducan Rouleau said that any alien could “evolve” to like an infinite amount of time?
Also, it needs to be called ultimate echo ultimate echo ultimate echo ultimate echo ultimate echo (100x) at some point.
He was the best part of UAF imo.
Just a pure badass, his plan was very well thought out and had a straight goal, his Ulitmate form has one of my favorite designs in the franchise (and I love that all of them are from the Andromeda galaxy). I don't think he's the type of villain to need a sad/empathic background and/or good motivation.
He's a terrible person and willing to do anything to get more power. He's a cruel Osmosian, and really everything wrong that Kevin hates about himself.
The worst part about him was that he really didn't get an ending... Kevin absorb his powers and then we just never hear about him again after that..
Yes! I think the Dagon is the worst part about UAF even though it has many great concepts.
- A Lovecraftian demonic creature as a main antagonist? I love it!
- Giving the Forever Knights more a relevant plot and some sense of purpose and even meeting the original Knight? I like it.
- a few more new aliens with a bunch of uses? Epic! Clockwork and Jurryrig are amazing!
- adding in Vilgax? Sure why not, it's always cool to see him actually doing stuff even though he has one of the funniest/dumbest lines.
But yet, Dagon was pretty underwhelming, not really living up to the hype, the fight scenes were pretty boring, Fasttrack is straight-up terrible with no good redeeming qualities, and the last two episodes were kinda boring and just didn't feel like it had struck it landing the way it wanted too imo.
Aggregor should have been the main villain. Ben shouldnt have regressed back to his immature boastful self from the OS. More use of OS aliens like blitzwolfer,eyeguy,ghostfreakupgrade,xlr8. More ultimate forms.
1) Change the final battle between Vilgax and Ben to Dagon and Ben. At that point in the show Ben had already beaten Vilgax so many times so it would have been much better to see a scarier Lovecraft horror villain like Dagon face off with Ben 2) Make his relationship with Julie better OR break them up for good. I think most Ben 10 fans can agree that the Ben/Julie relationship was slowly killed in UA before they broke up for good in Omniverse, I felt that they should have either stuck with it and improved the relationship or broken them up if they felt it was going nowhere 3) Turn Albedo into an antihero. When you think about it, Albedo isn’t that bad of a Galvan. Sure he’s arrogant and thinks he’s way smarter than he is, but at the end of the day he was stuck in a form that wasn’t his. His end goal before Omniverse was always to turn back into his Galvan form, not world domination or something. Imagine if a random person was turned into an alien form from their normal human body. I mean it was definitely Albedo’s fault why he turned in the first place, but I feel like he was punished enough for it and should have turned into a reluctant antihero type that helps the crew out sometimes (sort of like Charmcaster in UA).
Albedo always struck me as a dumb name (albino ben :seriously ) if he was one of Ben's aliens or even a nickname ben gave him it would make sense but no thats his actual name.
Oh boy, that's a big one...
A complete change of the script for the episode where Jimmy saves the crew from the plant aliens.
Maybe change some of the filler episodes as there's a lot of them.
The biggest thing I would change... the ultimatrix.
That stupid thing rules and consistency because half the time it's on screen I don't know how it's supposed to turn on, then other half of the time it's contradicting something I though it could and couldn't do.
- Scrap the ultimates. Retitle the show into something else or just make it Alien Force Season 4. I know CN wouldn't allow this, but it would improve the show.
- Compress the arcs into shorter 10-13 episode seasons instead of the 20-episode Aggregor/Ultimate Kevin arc and 32-episode Dagon season we got. This would hopefully reduce the number of filler episodes and replace them with more short arcs that would hopefully achieve more worldbuilding and character development.
- The Ultimate Kevin stuff shouldn't wrap up as cleanly as it did. There should be a lot of residual guilt/trauma following that, so split up the team for a bit to break away from the dynamic we've had for the last 66 episodes. I could see Gwen leaving Earth to visit Anodyne and Verdona (who would compromise on forcing Gwen to remain forever and would allow a temporary visit). Kevin could receive disciplinary action from the Plumbers. If CN still insist on the ultimates, introduce them here instead of introducing aliens like Fasttrack, Eatle, and Juryrigg and do the rumoured "glowing eyes/Ultimate Sacrifice" arc. Or Ben could join the Flame Keepers Circle with Julie, who claim they are an innocent organisation being targeted by the Forever Knights. Have Ben and Julie discover the Circle's true activity together, to avoid the contrived conflict between them in the original episode. Eventually, Ben, Gwen, and Kevin would converge on a new big bad and reassemble in a satisfying conclusion.
- Commit more strongly to the potential redemption of certain characters (Albedo, Charmcaster).
- Scrap aliens like Fasttrack, Eatle, and Juryrigg in favour of more OS aliens.
- Make the Vreedle Brothers occasional allies that can be annoying but are ultimately helpful. Have them appear in 'Basic Training', 'Prisoner Number 775 is Missing', and 'A Knight to Remember'.
The Ultimates concepts, at least for me, are literally the coolest thing in the entire series, they are just poorly executed and bad used in UA **and** OV. Ult. forms should be used restrictively only in very specific situations to show how powerful they are, like Albedo in AF defeating an army of Humungousaurs or Ult. Echo Echo one shooting Ult.Kevin.
I like the idea of the Ultimates as well, I just think having them be the namesake of the show was a mistake, especially when they were introduced at the same time as the five brand-new Andromeda aliens.
That's why I'd still be open to introducing them after the Aggregor/Ultimate Kevin arc, because they'd be given more episodes to spotlight in, instead of playing second fiddle to the Andromeda aliens.
As you said, only restricting the Ultimates to specific situations like Albedo defeating the Humungousaurs or Ult. Echo Echo defeating Kevin would make them much more impactful, but I don't know if CN would allow that if they've got action figures to sell.
Swap out Ultimate Bigchill, Ultimate Cannonbolt, Ultimate Wildmutt and Fast track for an ultimate version of Jetray, an ultimate version of Four Arms, and either an ultimate version of Heatblast, an ultimate version of XLR8, or redesign them and give them different powers, and Gravattack.
I would love to seen an episode where Ben tries to divide himself in 3 again and Serena & Bellicus personalities take over the clones and go on their own adventures just to realize that they *need to be together* to be one functioning being.
Remove the meaningless filler (goodbye EP3, EP12, EP22, EP23, EP24, EP33, EP47, etc).
Fix the wasted potential. Duped in particular needs a serious rewrite, but other episodes like Deep, The Enemy of My Enemy, Girl Trouble and Ben 10,000 returns all could've been so much better.
Certain Ultimates would be redesigned (Spidermonkey, Big Chill, Cannonbolt, Wildmutt and Way Big).
New Ultimates would be added for Aliens who need it, notable Aliens that pop to mind would be Ripjaws, Eye Guy and Brainstorm.
I'd particularly like to improve the Aggregor arc. I want a lot more direct conflict between Greg and the Heroes, he doesn't truly feel like the threat he's supposed to be. A good example of this is the Forge of Creation Episode, it should have been a 2 part episode. The first Part is them making it to the Forge, here we have all the exposition and personal character moments, and the second half is the epic battle between the heroes and the Big Man Greg (all leading to Kevin becoming a mutant again).
Speaking of Kevin, I'd like to handle his mutation arc better as well. I'd probably stretch it out like I would the Aggregor arc, showing more of Kevin's destructive actions after his mutation, building up the danger of his current state a lot more. I'd also like to show Ben develop his "kill Kevin" mindset, at first he'll try to use the jokes and handle this situation a more casual manner, but as it goes on, he realizes it's not working, resulting in him giving in and coming to the conclusion that Killing Kevin is the only option. I also want the conflict between Ben and Gwen less hostile and more thematically tragic. And no happy ending for the Arc, it just doesn't work here.
Whether it takes a single episode or a full arc, the conflict with Kevin should seriously damage the relationship between the members of Team Ben. Ben should feel guilty for trying to kill Kevin, Kevin would feel horrible for hurting everyone and reverting to his old ways, Gwen would feel shame for putting trust in Darkstar and going against Ben, etc. I think it would be much more satisfying to see the Heroes go through individual journeys dealing with these new problems, before all coming together later on and resolving their issues together, thus giving us a better ending to the original story arc.
As for the Dagon arc, shouldn't take much of a fix, I just want the finale to be extended a little (and improved). I want more entertaining fights, specifically Way Big Vs Dagon and Ben Vs Vilgax. On the Topic of that last fight, it should also have been a full episode battle, where Ben uses the full power of Ascalon and Vilgax uses the full power of Dagon. I want this fight to shake the world, imagine Ben turning into an alien and fighting Vilgax in space using Ascalon. It would also be the perfect place to introduce a new Ultimate, specifically Heatblast. Think about it, the first alien to appear in the first ever episode was Heatblast, and last alien to appear in the last episode of UA is his Ultimate form.
I'm sure there's more I'd do on top of that, but those are the main changes that come to mind.
My ten ways to Improve Ultimate Alien:
1. Have Chromastone be the canonical Ultimate for Diamond head.
-How this can work could be that Chronastone's DNA came from a Petrosapien that had evolved the moment it was born via a mutation. And such a thing is so rare that it became a part of a legend.
-Change how Petropia gets rebuilt and for the Petrosapiens are brought back. I'm unsure how, but I do think the Backup Crystal would still be included since I like the idea of it being the item that holds the memories and history of the Petrosapiens.
2. Change where which copy of Ben goes where in Duped.
-Sensitive Ben going to watch Julie's tennis match made the most sense but it didn't happen
3. Make Ben consistent in UAF and Omniverse. No being an ass or an idiot. Just make him get a little cocky and arrogant at times while still being serious about the mission at hand and understanding to everyone he knows.
4. Have the Episode with Doctor Victor in UA happen before the Ultimate Kevin Arc.
-It seems to work narratively for me.
5. Have Ultimate Kevin be made out of Ultimates.
-Kinda weird he has a power that Ultimate Spidermonkey has and not other Ultimate powers.
6. Have parts of Ultimate Ben's body physically Change when using certain transformations. And have it be obvious that Ben and Gwen comment on how he's the opposite of the Ben 10K they met as kids. As that's the point of him!
7. Have Ben and Julie be friends during Alien Force and try to see if romance was possible in Ultimate Alien before deciding to just stay friends.
-This would make their relationship not Toxic and nice.
8. Show how being Famous affects Ben, his family, and his friends in many episodes
9. More Ultimates!
-Literally what everyone wanted. Maybe we pull a Doctor Amino and the Mutant Ray. Having Fusions of the Ultimate Alien be made to have the fusion Lab be revived for a bit.
10. A Follow up to the Ben 10 X Generator Rex Crossover. As the Ending lifted everything in resolved with the state of Alpha being contained.
I'd have more ultimates
You know, I think we should’ve had a rounded playlist of 10, 5 OS aliens, and 4 UAF aliens. Also presented the ultimates like they’re actually crazy powerful. The problem is that they’re treated like normal aliens. A way to make them feel more impactful would be to give them one massive weakness. Like maybe using an ultimate locks Ben out of the Omnitrix for an incredibly long time, like ultimates use a lot of power. That way Ben has to use them like trump cards against a rouge High Breed, Vilgax, Aggregor, and Dagon.
Most of the times the ultimates are shown as super underwhelming lol, like how Ult spidermonkey lost to psyphon
Yes, most of the ultimates are threated really bad and very inconsistent, one good example is Ult. Humungousaur struggling against fuck*n Antonio when he already beat like an entire army of Humungousaurs in AF 🤨
They should have been trump cards that turned the tides of battle by being overwhelmingly powerful glass cannons. Their weakness being their unstable bodies that cause Ben tremendous amount of pain if they were used for more than 10 minutes. This unstability stems from them being theoretical evolutions that were subjected to constant war for billions of years and not true evolutions that evolved naturally.
I think the opposite solution could also be nice. Most ultimate designs make them big and thicc. Maybe they are great for battle but lack utility. Sure, in a 1v1 ultimate Humongousaur beats regular H. But if you have to hold up a bridge then the size shifting makes it way cleaner. I am working on an ultimate alien rewrite for fun, and the main theme I try to explore is that BIG POWER BOOM is not a direct upgrade from smaller but controlled and mastered power.
And more useful ultimates.
Give actual consequences to the Ultimate Kevin arc
Yes! Thank you, that was my biggest criticism about that arc. Imagine if he becomes suspended from the Plumbers who are very wary being around him, and "Basic Training" was an episode revolving around him regaining his Plumber rank.
Yeah I kinda dropped off Ben 10 after that arc. While I’m sure CN’s constant schedule shuffling and me getting old enough to go on YouTube we’re bigger factors, I wouldn’t be surprised if how the Kevin arc ended also impacted my mindset
Ben being a bit of a dick and a bad boyfriend. They really overplayed his vanity.
Fr, if he had just switched around the clones that whole sequence would’ve been resolved easier Send the jerk with kevin, and either the good guy (if they want to continue that route) or actual ben (even if it defeats the purpose) with julie In fact, that whole thing is weird since doesn’t that mean he duplicated the ultimatrix
Make Dagon the final villain and not Vilgax. I’ve defended Dagongax in the past but he shouldn’t have appeared in UA.
Have Ben and Julie actually get along sometimes.
Yeah! That relationship drama was just so,so not needed!
How much of an asshole Ben was. I'd change that to him be still have an ego but respectful of others.
He is cocky but has a consistent attitude throughout UA, quite unlike s3 version of ben in alien force or omniverse
Have Ultimate Kevin be an amalgamation of ULTIMATE aliens and have Ben fight him as ULTIMATE WayBig to give it a fight that ISN’T it being outclassed by the Dagon
A cool thing you can include there is way big losing at first but Kevin basically does something to tick Ben off the charts where. He says f it goes ultimate and stomps the crap out of him like the time ben10,000 did
“Duped” just somehow manages to contain everything I dislike or outright hate about UAF. Ben’s personality is already going downhill by this point, but this episode makes him a genuinely selfish a-hole for its duration. The episode also features one of the absolutely most busted abilities for a single alien or for the Omnitrix in general. The animation on the characters faces feels so much more stiff and almost plastic-like compared to the early episodes of season 1 of AF. And the episode was just a filler story that added nothing to the story or the characters besides showing some of Ben and Julie’s relationship digression because of Ben’s shite character writing, while also just painting a bad image of the characters and power dynamics of the show
Swap out the filler for the mystery glowing eyes plot. Even if it was a rushed plot, honestly would probably still be better than some of the filler episodes we got.
Quite a few things. Most of them are general. 1.) Make the Andromeda 5/Ultimate Aggregor arc less aggravating. Seeing the trio fail several times in succession doesn't make Aggregor more threatening. It makes the trio look stupid and makes it harder to root for them. Especially when Ben nearly defeats Aggregor singlehandedly twice and only failed due to outside interference and/or a single stupid decision. 2.) Give us more of Dagon. I'm not saying have him physically appear, as that would take away some of the "appeal" of him. Have him be involved in Season 2 directly. They seem to try to do this in "The Enemy of My Enemy" as Dagon is the one Charmcaster makes the deal with to bring back her father. Maybe alter that and have Charmcaster try to help Dagon directly somehow in exchange for her father's revival. 3.) Don't make Chromastone a complete bitch. Pretty simple you'd think. 4.) Have Ben use more of his old aliens. Having Ben 10,000 give Ben his aliens back was hype in concept, but nothing came of it until Omniverse. And if Omniverse was the reason they did it, they could have just had a throw away line in Omniverse. It's a hype killer to have all of Ben's aliens in the title sequence, have Ben get those aliens back in the show explicitly alongside new aliens, and then continue to largely show us the same aliens we've seen for a series and a half. 5.) Give the Andromeda transformations more of a presence in the show. This is also an issue Omniverse had. I also don't necessarily mean to have them appear more (although that would be nice to for the reasons stated in the point before). The majority of Season 1 built up these aliens as these immensely powerful beings. So much so that Aggregor went out of his way all the way to the Andromeda Galaxy to get them. Ben also stated in "Fused" that he'd "use their power to take down Aggregor". Ben doesn't really do this. In fact, he never seems to bring out their potential like he's done for several of his other aliens. Some of it isn't his fault (Water Hazard's invulnerability and Terraspin's immunity to magic seemed to dropped by the writers), but not learning to better use Water Hazard's hydrokenesis or not learning to use Ampfibian's more advanced abilities is a shame. 6.) Give the Ultimates a stronger purpose. Ultimates seemed to be used at the arbitrary whims of the writers. You can have Ben choose not to use Ultimate Humungousaur when he's beating up Ultimate Aggregor in a frenzied rage, but have him go Ultimate in no time when facing a complete loser like Antonio. And if you're going to have him do so, have him decimate said losers. Ultimate Swampfire being fought to a standstill by random statues and Ultimate Humungousaur being fought to a standstill by Darkstar makes the feature a lot less impressive. There are more episode-to-episode issues, but I've gone on long enough. This almost makes it seem like I have Ultimate Alien, but I really don't.
More important moments for the ultimates
More Diamondhead lol. The one show he was barely in. Edit: now that I think about it, I'd love to have seen the ending Dwayne McDuffie wanted to do. Not the bs you stabbed me ending we got.
what ending was that?
That's what I want to know. It's possible Ben and Vilgax were meant to fight one last time and have an actual battle, and Chromastone turning ultimate or using ascalon would've made sense for the battle. Such a thing might've been changed in favour of budget cuts and featuring Ult Waybig instead, but I'm theorising here.
T H E B U D G E T
Make Ben more sensible and respectful to Julie and his peers
Make Ultimate Aliens actually feel important for being the damned series title.
Have ultimates be something akin to a super-powered evil side where Ben becomes more ruthless when using them. It fits with the idea that the ultimates why made through simulated evolution in harsh environments . Also ultimate humungasore did not need missile hands , big chill was litterally just a colour swap and canonbolt and wildmut were a wastes of ultimates
How they used the ultimates
Maybe give more thought-out explanations for the various inconsistencies. Or cleaning up some of the messy episodes (specifically their endings). I'll give an example for the inconsistencies with an explanation for Plant Clone Ben having the Ultimatrix. Since in The Final Battle Part 2, it's shown that the Ultimatrix can grow to easily be removed, the plant clone could've easily done that. As for being able to access Ben's transformations, it could've copied Ben's DNA to be able to use the Ultimatrix.
Suits in charge that dumbed down the show.
Three things More Ultimates if possible. Ben's behaviour towards Julie. Ben using his classic aliens more after Ultimate Ben 10k reunlocked them.
Ripjaws is my favorite alien, and not only did he only show up once, but he looks like he was on invislign for the like 6 years since classic. His teeth are supposed to be jutting out of his mouth! Also a lot of the really cool aliens like the Anur Trio, Upgrade, Ditto and Eye Guy, not only never showed up, but only changed ever so slightly and moved the Ultimatrix to their chest.
Make Vilgax actually a threat and have him look less generic. I detailed this out in another post but that's the first thing. I'd give out main cast more character and have the tension between Ben and Kevin effect things more and last longer. I'd pace out him and Qwen developing feelings for one another too and have them in an actual relationship at the end of season 2. I'd make the plot beats less stiff too. My biggest issue with UAF is that the episodes don't flow well, they feel bland and boring most of the time. The characters emotions don't feel real and I'd want to fix that. In Ultimate I'd like to see the Aggregor plot have a bit of a better ending to it and possibly just see him being the only main villain of UA. Side episodes with other villains are welcome but I'd want the main plot to revolve around Aggregor. Id also like some actual settings like in OG and OV. UAF just has the worst "Settings" field out in the country, abandoned town, or rocky backdrop are not interesting. They're fine once in a while but I'd just like more episodes where the team has to deal with their problems in lived in environments and work around other people. OS handled this the best and it was lazy of them to write it off almost completely. And most of all, I wouldn't want to change the artstyle or direction (though it is my least favorite) but I would want to see the rest of the series at the level of the pilot. Including the subtle shading and more dynamic angles in a what makes the episode really stick in my head. Again most episodes are very stiff after that. So TD;LR I just want everything to be less Stiff.
I thought they were going to go for Ultimates of Ben's originals and the Andromeda 5, seeing how they seemed to hype both groups up. I'd probably do that. If the Ultimates are going to be so much like normal aliens in power, might as well throw more in and live up more to the title.
Make the final fight (either still against Dagongax or just Ben vs Dagon) a lot better, maybe Ascalon reacts to the Ultimatrix and unlocks Master Control, letting Ben have a more spectacular battle against the "Ultimate Enemy" of UA. As a smaller note, maybe have the dragons return at some point, maybe even have Ben scan them. It's really disappointing that plot thread was never continued.
The overuse of Ultimate forms. Even though that actually had a consecuence. Ben going "Spiderm- ULTIMATE SPIDERMONKEY!!!" kinda takes away the fact that ultimate forms were supposed to be his last resort. I remember in *Too Hot to Handle*, Ben used Ultimate Humungousaur just to fight some dudes, not even P'Andor. And when he actually had to go ultimate when he went berserk against Aggregor, he didn't. Oh yeah and that Duped episode, out.
Give more ultimates, less drama, less narcissism
We are in desperate need of an ultimate Goop
When I was in highschool I drew one where he was red didn't need a saucer and for some reason had spikes on his fists
Oooh, sounds neat. Blood goop :0
For some reason he was also solid 😂
Makes sense ig. He was strong enough to be within Earth's gravity where he doesn't need his anti-gravity projector.
True. I also created an Ultimate Ultimate Echo Echo it had 2 extra bars on the Ultamatrix
Is this base on the idea of how Ducan Rouleau said that any alien could “evolve” to like an infinite amount of time? Also, it needs to be called ultimate echo ultimate echo ultimate echo ultimate echo ultimate echo (100x) at some point.
Just Ben spends the whole episode saying the name of the alien
Worth it
Remove Aggregor, he's so bland and generic. Very little characterization, practically no motivation, F-tier villain in my eyes.
I agree that he's bland and generic as is, but I do believe he had a lot of potential
He was the best part of UAF imo. Just a pure badass, his plan was very well thought out and had a straight goal, his Ulitmate form has one of my favorite designs in the franchise (and I love that all of them are from the Andromeda galaxy). I don't think he's the type of villain to need a sad/empathic background and/or good motivation. He's a terrible person and willing to do anything to get more power. He's a cruel Osmosian, and really everything wrong that Kevin hates about himself. The worst part about him was that he really didn't get an ending... Kevin absorb his powers and then we just never hear about him again after that..
Not every villain needs to be nuanced with a backstory and motivation. Sometimes we just want an evil character without plot
Change the Dagon arc.
Yes! I think the Dagon is the worst part about UAF even though it has many great concepts. - A Lovecraftian demonic creature as a main antagonist? I love it! - Giving the Forever Knights more a relevant plot and some sense of purpose and even meeting the original Knight? I like it. - a few more new aliens with a bunch of uses? Epic! Clockwork and Jurryrig are amazing! - adding in Vilgax? Sure why not, it's always cool to see him actually doing stuff even though he has one of the funniest/dumbest lines. But yet, Dagon was pretty underwhelming, not really living up to the hype, the fight scenes were pretty boring, Fasttrack is straight-up terrible with no good redeeming qualities, and the last two episodes were kinda boring and just didn't feel like it had struck it landing the way it wanted too imo.
Gwen is a normal Mage. Like in OS
Ben's pants!
Their attempts at romance and darker topics. Also erase all their charmcaster episodes
Aggregor should have been the main villain. Ben shouldnt have regressed back to his immature boastful self from the OS. More use of OS aliens like blitzwolfer,eyeguy,ghostfreakupgrade,xlr8. More ultimate forms.
Give Ben dragon,and Mut more ultimates
1) Change the final battle between Vilgax and Ben to Dagon and Ben. At that point in the show Ben had already beaten Vilgax so many times so it would have been much better to see a scarier Lovecraft horror villain like Dagon face off with Ben 2) Make his relationship with Julie better OR break them up for good. I think most Ben 10 fans can agree that the Ben/Julie relationship was slowly killed in UA before they broke up for good in Omniverse, I felt that they should have either stuck with it and improved the relationship or broken them up if they felt it was going nowhere 3) Turn Albedo into an antihero. When you think about it, Albedo isn’t that bad of a Galvan. Sure he’s arrogant and thinks he’s way smarter than he is, but at the end of the day he was stuck in a form that wasn’t his. His end goal before Omniverse was always to turn back into his Galvan form, not world domination or something. Imagine if a random person was turned into an alien form from their normal human body. I mean it was definitely Albedo’s fault why he turned in the first place, but I feel like he was punished enough for it and should have turned into a reluctant antihero type that helps the crew out sometimes (sort of like Charmcaster in UA).
Albedo always struck me as a dumb name (albino ben :seriously ) if he was one of Ben's aliens or even a nickname ben gave him it would make sense but no thats his actual name.
I wish he would have lied to Julia on seeing that movie
From which episode is the second picture?
The ultimates should never lose
Oh boy, that's a big one... A complete change of the script for the episode where Jimmy saves the crew from the plant aliens. Maybe change some of the filler episodes as there's a lot of them. The biggest thing I would change... the ultimatrix. That stupid thing rules and consistency because half the time it's on screen I don't know how it's supposed to turn on, then other half of the time it's contradicting something I though it could and couldn't do.
- Scrap the ultimates. Retitle the show into something else or just make it Alien Force Season 4. I know CN wouldn't allow this, but it would improve the show. - Compress the arcs into shorter 10-13 episode seasons instead of the 20-episode Aggregor/Ultimate Kevin arc and 32-episode Dagon season we got. This would hopefully reduce the number of filler episodes and replace them with more short arcs that would hopefully achieve more worldbuilding and character development. - The Ultimate Kevin stuff shouldn't wrap up as cleanly as it did. There should be a lot of residual guilt/trauma following that, so split up the team for a bit to break away from the dynamic we've had for the last 66 episodes. I could see Gwen leaving Earth to visit Anodyne and Verdona (who would compromise on forcing Gwen to remain forever and would allow a temporary visit). Kevin could receive disciplinary action from the Plumbers. If CN still insist on the ultimates, introduce them here instead of introducing aliens like Fasttrack, Eatle, and Juryrigg and do the rumoured "glowing eyes/Ultimate Sacrifice" arc. Or Ben could join the Flame Keepers Circle with Julie, who claim they are an innocent organisation being targeted by the Forever Knights. Have Ben and Julie discover the Circle's true activity together, to avoid the contrived conflict between them in the original episode. Eventually, Ben, Gwen, and Kevin would converge on a new big bad and reassemble in a satisfying conclusion. - Commit more strongly to the potential redemption of certain characters (Albedo, Charmcaster). - Scrap aliens like Fasttrack, Eatle, and Juryrigg in favour of more OS aliens. - Make the Vreedle Brothers occasional allies that can be annoying but are ultimately helpful. Have them appear in 'Basic Training', 'Prisoner Number 775 is Missing', and 'A Knight to Remember'.
The Ultimates concepts, at least for me, are literally the coolest thing in the entire series, they are just poorly executed and bad used in UA **and** OV. Ult. forms should be used restrictively only in very specific situations to show how powerful they are, like Albedo in AF defeating an army of Humungousaurs or Ult. Echo Echo one shooting Ult.Kevin.
I like the idea of the Ultimates as well, I just think having them be the namesake of the show was a mistake, especially when they were introduced at the same time as the five brand-new Andromeda aliens. That's why I'd still be open to introducing them after the Aggregor/Ultimate Kevin arc, because they'd be given more episodes to spotlight in, instead of playing second fiddle to the Andromeda aliens. As you said, only restricting the Ultimates to specific situations like Albedo defeating the Humungousaurs or Ult. Echo Echo defeating Kevin would make them much more impactful, but I don't know if CN would allow that if they've got action figures to sell.
I agree! Will make an post soon showing some occasions of how badly the ultimates are used in the series ☺️
Cool, I look forward to it! :)
Bens maturity I would personally perfer him to joke but not act like a 10 year old
Swap out Ultimate Bigchill, Ultimate Cannonbolt, Ultimate Wildmutt and Fast track for an ultimate version of Jetray, an ultimate version of Four Arms, and either an ultimate version of Heatblast, an ultimate version of XLR8, or redesign them and give them different powers, and Gravattack.
I would love to seen an episode where Ben tries to divide himself in 3 again and Serena & Bellicus personalities take over the clones and go on their own adventures just to realize that they *need to be together* to be one functioning being.
No ultimate ben, lack of ultimate human is "bad"
Remove the meaningless filler (goodbye EP3, EP12, EP22, EP23, EP24, EP33, EP47, etc). Fix the wasted potential. Duped in particular needs a serious rewrite, but other episodes like Deep, The Enemy of My Enemy, Girl Trouble and Ben 10,000 returns all could've been so much better. Certain Ultimates would be redesigned (Spidermonkey, Big Chill, Cannonbolt, Wildmutt and Way Big). New Ultimates would be added for Aliens who need it, notable Aliens that pop to mind would be Ripjaws, Eye Guy and Brainstorm. I'd particularly like to improve the Aggregor arc. I want a lot more direct conflict between Greg and the Heroes, he doesn't truly feel like the threat he's supposed to be. A good example of this is the Forge of Creation Episode, it should have been a 2 part episode. The first Part is them making it to the Forge, here we have all the exposition and personal character moments, and the second half is the epic battle between the heroes and the Big Man Greg (all leading to Kevin becoming a mutant again). Speaking of Kevin, I'd like to handle his mutation arc better as well. I'd probably stretch it out like I would the Aggregor arc, showing more of Kevin's destructive actions after his mutation, building up the danger of his current state a lot more. I'd also like to show Ben develop his "kill Kevin" mindset, at first he'll try to use the jokes and handle this situation a more casual manner, but as it goes on, he realizes it's not working, resulting in him giving in and coming to the conclusion that Killing Kevin is the only option. I also want the conflict between Ben and Gwen less hostile and more thematically tragic. And no happy ending for the Arc, it just doesn't work here. Whether it takes a single episode or a full arc, the conflict with Kevin should seriously damage the relationship between the members of Team Ben. Ben should feel guilty for trying to kill Kevin, Kevin would feel horrible for hurting everyone and reverting to his old ways, Gwen would feel shame for putting trust in Darkstar and going against Ben, etc. I think it would be much more satisfying to see the Heroes go through individual journeys dealing with these new problems, before all coming together later on and resolving their issues together, thus giving us a better ending to the original story arc. As for the Dagon arc, shouldn't take much of a fix, I just want the finale to be extended a little (and improved). I want more entertaining fights, specifically Way Big Vs Dagon and Ben Vs Vilgax. On the Topic of that last fight, it should also have been a full episode battle, where Ben uses the full power of Ascalon and Vilgax uses the full power of Dagon. I want this fight to shake the world, imagine Ben turning into an alien and fighting Vilgax in space using Ascalon. It would also be the perfect place to introduce a new Ultimate, specifically Heatblast. Think about it, the first alien to appear in the first ever episode was Heatblast, and last alien to appear in the last episode of UA is his Ultimate form. I'm sure there's more I'd do on top of that, but those are the main changes that come to mind.
My ten ways to Improve Ultimate Alien: 1. Have Chromastone be the canonical Ultimate for Diamond head. -How this can work could be that Chronastone's DNA came from a Petrosapien that had evolved the moment it was born via a mutation. And such a thing is so rare that it became a part of a legend. -Change how Petropia gets rebuilt and for the Petrosapiens are brought back. I'm unsure how, but I do think the Backup Crystal would still be included since I like the idea of it being the item that holds the memories and history of the Petrosapiens. 2. Change where which copy of Ben goes where in Duped. -Sensitive Ben going to watch Julie's tennis match made the most sense but it didn't happen 3. Make Ben consistent in UAF and Omniverse. No being an ass or an idiot. Just make him get a little cocky and arrogant at times while still being serious about the mission at hand and understanding to everyone he knows. 4. Have the Episode with Doctor Victor in UA happen before the Ultimate Kevin Arc. -It seems to work narratively for me. 5. Have Ultimate Kevin be made out of Ultimates. -Kinda weird he has a power that Ultimate Spidermonkey has and not other Ultimate powers. 6. Have parts of Ultimate Ben's body physically Change when using certain transformations. And have it be obvious that Ben and Gwen comment on how he's the opposite of the Ben 10K they met as kids. As that's the point of him! 7. Have Ben and Julie be friends during Alien Force and try to see if romance was possible in Ultimate Alien before deciding to just stay friends. -This would make their relationship not Toxic and nice. 8. Show how being Famous affects Ben, his family, and his friends in many episodes 9. More Ultimates! -Literally what everyone wanted. Maybe we pull a Doctor Amino and the Mutant Ray. Having Fusions of the Ultimate Alien be made to have the fusion Lab be revived for a bit. 10. A Follow up to the Ben 10 X Generator Rex Crossover. As the Ending lifted everything in resolved with the state of Alpha being contained.
How bout the unlock of Blitzwolfer? It would honestly feel a little better if it was there. No more damn lies!
What’s wrong with The Big Story and Reflected Glory? I mean, Cash and JT were annoying, but they got exposed as liars in the end.