TacticalOchoa122

Half-sies                                            King Koil
Xingo's Back                                      Double Hex
Bounty Ball                                        Ye Olde Laser Duel
Can I Keep It?                                    Ben Again and Again
Fear the Fogg                                     Drone On
Super-Villain Team-Up                        Safari Sa'Bad
Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom                The Nature of Things
All Koiled Up                                      The Sound and the Furry
That's the Stuff                                  Reststop Roustabout
The Feels                                           Dreamtime
Past Aliens Present                             Innervasion: Part 1-5

With season 2 of the Ben 10 reboot finally over and with me having managed to catch up, I can now provide a part 2 review to this very second season. There's a lot of episodes to cover here but I'm not going to get too much into them. Just going to point out certain aspects of most of these episodes while providing an overall statement of what I think their quality is. After that, I'm going to shift my focus towards the Innervasion season finale and what I thought of it. By the way, I'm not going to cover The Charm Offensive here because, well, I already reviewed it and there's nothing else that I need to add on that. Also, there's going to be spoilers. Let's begin.

First off, remember Tetrax? Remember how in the Original Series he was a bounty hunter/mercenary that put his entire race to near extinction and because of his actions, he decided to redeem himself by helping Ben and turning on Vilgax, thus making him a compelling character that fans and viewers were able to root for? Remember how in Omni-Tricked it was set up where Tetrax, Sixsix, and Kraab were going to take on more of a good guys role due to them trying to stop Vilgax? Bounty Ball threw that out the window. Now Tetrax is just a generic and bland bounty hunter that does things for money. Like almost every other returning character, Tetrax has now become nothing more than just a shell of his former self. We also get introduced to a new villain in this show known as King Koil, some snake-like villain...because we clearly haven't seen that before in Ben 10 as well as plenty of other forms of entertainment media according to some people that I recall discussed about King Koil on a Ben 10 reboot forum. In the episode King Koil, we first get introduced to, well, King Koil and Ben defeats him by using Diamondhead to hide from his infrared vision. Ok, so at this point you'd think that Ben would just use Diamondhead or Heatblast (to overwhelm King Koil's infrared vision) for when he encountered King Koil again in the episode All Koiled Up, right? Nope. Apparently, everyone forgets that King Koil has obviously easily exploitable infrared vision and out of nowhere, King Koil gained the ability to hypnotize people. Where was that ability back in his debut episode, huh? How did King Koil gain hypnosis? There's no explanation behind it. Next, something recently came up that I realized about the episode, Ye Olde Laser Duel. Steam Smythe gives Ben a dilemma where Ben has to decide to either defeat Steam Smythe in their little laser tag duel or give the game up to stop Steam Smythe's machine and thus lose the game. Ben could've just easily took his laser tag vest with him to stop Steam Smythe's machine, thus leaving Steam Smythe with nothing to shoot at to gain points and win the game. Remember Tim Buktu? For anyone that has read my season 1 reviews, remember how I stated how creepy he looked? Yeah, Safari Sa'Bad pretty much made him look even more creepy. I'll give the show this though. There's finally an episode that involved Zombozo where's he's not trying to hypnotize people. In the episode, Dreamtime, Zombozo instead tries to haunt Ben, Gwen, and Max in their dreams using some dream machine that he's hooked up to. Granted, Hex pretty much already tried a similar approach like that to Ben and it's not even the first time in the franchise that a premise like that has happened anyways so it's nothing new (of course).

Other than that, as I stated plenty of times before (including in my part 1 review of season 2), it's really just more of the same as season 1. Often times the action scenes are decent at best but the biggest issues that still plagues them is that they lack tension and are still often used to build up more comedy. It often times doesn't make the action scenes interesting and worthwhile. These are dangerous situations that are happening where people could possibly die and it often times doesn't feel as if these situations are indeed dangerous. Add some more tension to these action scenes. Add some more seriousness. Add some more challenge and difficulty. Ben, Gwen, and Max are still pretty much in the same state they've been in since the beginning of season 1. Gwen and Max still don't feel any more useful than they had been before while Ben still hasn't learned from his past experiences and mistakes and therefore still hasn't really grown as a character. He's still making the same mistakes as before. Lessons and morals that Ben is supposed to learn don't translate to later episodes. In fact, come to think of it, I've been noticing that this show repeats quite a good bunch of lessons and morals pretty often. Most noticeably to me is that there's quite a good number of episodes that covers Ben "learning" teamwork and "learning" to rely on Gwen and Max for help (whenever that happens, that is) as well as Ben "learning" from making mistakes (again, he doesn't learn from his mistakes because he keeps making the same mistakes over and OVER and it makes him such a frustrating and unlikable character to me). Overall, these episodes don't really add much to the show...as usual. Pretty much what I find to be the best part of these episodes is the action scenes and again, they're often just decent at best and that doesn't say much considering the overall quality of the rest of the show. I had a little bit more enjoyment out of Fear the Fogg than other episodes yet that episode is really just, well, decent. Average. Ok. I've heard a good number of people say that season 2 is an improvement over season 1. Maybe arguably by a little. Maybe. Regardless, no, I don't find season 2 to be an improvement. The action scenes are pretty much the same. The characters and villains are pretty much the same and haven't really changed at all. We don't really get an overarching story here until the specials. Anything new that season 2 does add is pretty much just meh or mediocre and bland or freakin stupid or just ok. No, season 2 of the Ben 10 reboot is not an improvement over season 1. Season 2 doesn't really do much, if not anything at all, that's better than season 1...and good lord, I haven't even touched on Innervasion yet because that finale was something. Speaking of Innervasion, I've discussed enough on the other episodes now so let's go ahead and get to the season 2 finale.

When it came to Omni-Tricked and The 11th Alien, despite the issues that they have, we at least get something that's more competent and better quality out of them. It's doesn't really say much though considering the overall quality of the rest of the Ben 10 reboot. I find Omni-Tricked to be decent but it's certainly the best that we got out of the reboot (again, that doesn't really say much). The 11th Alien wasn't as good in quality though as it was more significantly flawed compared to Omni-Tricked. How does Innervasion stack up? It's the worse special episode in the reboot so far. There were so many moments about Innervasion that baffled me. So many moments that made me go "Wait...WHAT?!". Part 1 starts off pretty decently well at least as it does a pretty decent job of building up the events that would transpire in the rest of the season 2 finale. Then things start taking a nose dive after nose dive after nose dive. Remember when I say how Ben keeps making the same mistakes over and over throughout the show? How he seems to have this trend of being the reason that situations happen in the first place and how he tends to make situations worse than they already are? This happens AGAIN in Innervasion. It's because of Ben that the Fulmini (I'll get to them in a bit) were able to open their portal inside the Omnitrix. I know that I said that Ben shouldn't have believed Vilgax so easily back in The 11th Alien but considering the situation that Ben was in at that time and considering that Vilgax was legitimately freaking out over the Fulmini, even almost begging for Ben to run away (not give up the Omnitrix but to instead run away) with such urgency, I think it actually makes sense now for Ben to listen to Vilgax for once, believe him, and do what he says. It's also because of Ben that he ended up getting mind controlled by the High Override (I'll get to him in a bit as well), thus preventing Vilgax from rebooting the Omnitrix, getting Vilgax trapped in the Null Void, and allowing the Fulmini to invade Earth. Ben's tendency to cause situations to happen in the first place and to make situations even worse is what ended up putting Earth in more danger; is what ended up having the events of the rest of the finale to take place. The High Override's plan almost succeeded because of Ben. Our hero, folks. Yes, in the end, Ben does stop the High Override and the Fulmini but this episode is more on the lines of Ben making a mess and cleaning it up...like he's done so before so so so many times in previous episodes of this show.

What about the Fulmini? I've noticed plenty of people being excited for them. Do they bring anything worthwhile to this finale? No, they don't. I don't really find the Fulmini to be interesting nor their leader, the High Override. They don't have much of a personality to them. In fact, they're really generic and bland. The Fulmini act more like mindless drones connected to some hive mind and the High Override is just another power hungry villain that wants to take over the universe. In fact, if that's all that he wants, why use the Omnitrix to create a portal? Why invade Earth first? Why not just go and invade other planets that are closest to Fulmini territory? This isn't the worse part about the Fulmini though. What makes the Fulmini at their worse is that they are incredibly under-powered. It takes such little effort to defeat the Fulmini. Ben, as Heatblast, would shoot little streams of fire at a Fulmini and it would crumble in one hit. Christ, Gwen and Max had to deal with a Fulmini themselves and it didn't die because Gwen and Max got resourceful with their methods of defeating it or because they had something powerful enough to kill it. It died from being too far away from the Omnitrix and it wasn't even that far of a distance either. Why? Why establish that? That just raises a lot of questions. Do the Fulmini have to stay near the Omnitrix to stay alive? Is it because it was too far away from the High Override? How are the Fulmini going to be able to successful invade Earth if they can't even get pass 50 feet without losing all of their energy and become a pile of rocks? A few people have told me that they think the Fulmini were made to be so weak is so that Gwen and Max can defeat one. That just makes them look even worse and makes Gwen and Max look even more useless than they were before since that the Fulmini would have to be brought down to their level. It would've been better to make the Fulmini tougher and more difficult to defeat so that the main characters can actually go through the struggle of defeating them and make their victory in their battle against the Fulmini feel all the more satisfying and rewarding. Even when supercharged by the High Override, the Fulmini still feel under-powered since that they can easily be knocked over or killed by a wooden derby cart, as shown on plenty of instances in this episode. The Fulmini are supposed to be an end-of-the-world threat (as characters like Vilgax emphasized them to be) yet they're as fragile as the leg lamp from A Christmas Story, which kills the tension of fighting off the Fulmini completely. They don't seem as if they're an actual danger to the characters if they're so freakin easy to kill. That's such a blatantly inconsistent thing here because the Shock Rock is a Fulmini and we've seen plenty of instances of Shock Rock receiving much greater punishment than the other Fulmini yet he shakes it off.

That's not the only inconsistency with this show. Another pretty blatant inconsistency is the alien pods that Ben uses to transform into his aliens. When Ben first entered the Omnitrix (like we haven't seen that before), you see him go through multiple alien pods and each time he just transformed between each of his aliens. When Ben goes through those very same exact alien pods in preparation for his fight with the High Override, all of a sudden and with no explanation behind it, Ben's alien forms splice together into one amalgamation. Nothing is indicated that explains why this happens. It just happens. It would've been so simple to explain as well. This episode introduced a new character called Glitch, who is a combination of Ben and Upgrade's DNA. On multiple occasions, Glitch interacts with the Omnitrix using Upgrade's abilities. It would've been so easy to just have Glitch put his hand into a wall and then have the alien pods blink or change color or whatever and there we go, you get a proper explanation as to how and why Ben's alien forms amalgamate when Ben goes through the alien pods. It's that simple and yet the writers screwed that up. As for other things to address, the inside of the Omnitrix doesn't really seem interesting to me. It looked more like the inside of an alien space ship than the inside of an alien watch filled to the brim with alien DNA. Even though Innervasion is over one hour long, it does suffer a little from having issues with its pacing due to the final being split into 5 11-minute-long parts. There are moments where it felt as if things were being rushed a little and the pacing was off. Even Omni-Tricked and The 11th Alien had this issue as well. I don't get why they had to split these specials into 11-minute-parts. Just air the whole thing as one continuous episode. I'm pretty sure that would've helped alleviate some of the issues that Innervasion has...maybe...hopefully. Finally, even when using some of Ben's alien forms, Gwen and Max didn't really seem that useful in this episode. When they do try to help Ben fight the High Override, they don't really do much to it and their assistance was pretty short lived.

Is there at least anything that's good about Innervasion? Pretty much what I find to be the best part of the episode was Glitch. Glitch is overall a pretty decent character that does help out a lot. There's just not much else that they really do with him. He doesn't have much of a personality. There's not really much about him that's interesting. He's just Upgrade with some resemblance to Ben. That's pretty much it with Glitch and by the looks of it, it seems as if the finale built him up to basically be the reboot's version of Ship, who was first introduced in Ben 10 Alien Force. I wouldn't really be surprised if the writers go that direction but it's a direction that I think wouldn't really work out well for Glitch as a character. Other than that, yeah, Glitch is indeed the best part of Innervasion...which doesn't really say much considering the issues with Innervasion. I also did mentioned that part 1 did start things off pretty decently well so there is that. I'm glad that they at least got rid of Shock Rock and the Omni-Enhancements though and I already covered my reasons as to why I don't like Shock Rock and the Omni-Enhancements in my part 1 review so I'm not going any further into that. However, the Omnitrix's appearance changed...again...which means that it's very likely that season 3 is going to introduce another unnecessary gimmick that really exist just to sell more merchandise. So yeah, obviously, I'm not looking forward to that. The action scenes are decent as usual. The two action scenes that stood out the most were in part 1 with Ben fighting that machine controlled by Vilgax and Ben's final fight with the High Override in part 5 and that's pretty much because those two fights offered the most challenge that Ben faced in this entire season finale. To me, that's pretty much it with all of the positives that Innervasion does have.

That's pretty much everything that I want to discuss. In regards to Innervasion, it was freakin mediocre. Compared to Omni-Tricked and The 11th Alien, Innervasion is the worse special episode that we got out of the Ben 10 reboot so far. There were so many issues that caused it to tank in quality. Recently, someone had told me how Innervasion is a positive step for the Ben 10 reboot and how the writers are getting a better idea of how to tell stories. You're freakin kidding me, right? No, Innervasion is not a positive step for the Ben 10 reboot. Season 2 as a whole was not a positive step for the Ben 10 reboot. The writers have not improved in their writing and storytelling at all. Otherwise, Innervasion wouldn't have these issues that I addressed here in the first place. Many of these issues (such as Ben's tendency to cause situations to happen in the first place and his tendency to make things worse than they should be) are issues that have persisted in this show since the beginning of season 1. That's not getting better. That's not making an improvement. That's an example of writers being lazy and incompetent in their work. It baffles me that this is the level of quality that Man of Action and Cartoon Network Studios thinks is suitable enough to give to their fans and viewers. Therefore, for those that haven't seen Innervasion yet, I don't recommend checking it out. There's just too many significant issues with it for me to recommend it to others. If anyone does want to check it out, it's your choice. Regardless, I say that we deserve better with this season finale. No, correction, fans and viewers of Ben 10 deserve better out of this show itself; out of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. Innervasion baffled me and it acts as a pretty good example of at least much of what's wrong with the Ben 10 reboot as a whole. That's my final verdict here. If anyone has any thoughts and opinions of their own about Innervasion, season 2 as a whole, the Ben 10 reboot as a whole, my review, etc., feel free to leave a comment down below.

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After having watched and reviewed The Charm Offensive a while back, I say that the timing is right to cover Charmcaster in-depth and explain what I think are ways to help fix and improve her as a character…because my god, she has not been treated well after the Original Series and really needs some serious help to get her back on her feet. Charmcaster was among the many things within the Original Series that was set up to have so much potential and great opportunities to really shine as a character and, to me at least, she never reached that very potential. This is primarily due to how post-Original Series writers (which apparently now includes Man of Action given how they and CN Studios handled Charmcaster in The Charm Offensive) seem to have little understanding of Charmcaster as a character and her past. Here is what I think went wrong with Charmcaster and how to make things right for her.

What made Charmcaster at her best was how she was portrayed in the Original Series. Not only did she have such a unique, appealing, and pretty much the best design to her appearance and not only did her rivalry with Gwen provide some interesting conflicts and situations for the main characters to overcome but what I find to be the best part about her and where her potential shined the most is her history with her uncle, Hex. As I explained in my review of The Charm Offensive, while the Original Series doesn’t go further into Charmcaster’s past and her experience being raised by Hex, there were some significantly subtle clues that really showed a lot about her and her relationship with Hex; subtle clues that gave Charmcaster a lot of depth and potential as a character. Basically, Hex tormented and abused Charmcaster throughout most, if not all, of her life. He made her fear him and he also made her the very person that she is. Charmcaster acts the way that she did in the Original Series because of how Hex raised and treated her. Even though it doesn’t excuse her actions in the Original Series, this very aspect about her does make Charmcaster feel like a tragic victim that really does deserve to have a better life. While Charmcaster is very much a fitting evil counterpart of Gwen much like how Kevin is to Ben, this aspect about her explained so much about Charmcaster as a character as well as having set up potential to really make her shine as a character in such an interesting and compelling way. I’ll get to more of what that potential can very much be later in this article. Overall, everything that I explained here in this paragraph sums up what I find makes Charmcaster at her best. It’s just a shame though that she never reached that very potential that was set up for her after the Original Series.

So what went wrong with Charmcaster? Pretty much a lot of things that came after the Original Series and that’s due to how little of an understanding of Charmcaster that the writers really have. In Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, Charmcaster was changed into a pretty generic and bland femme fatale with a redesign to her appearance also being quite bland as well. I know that in my review of The Charm Offensive I stated that her UAF design looks more unique than her reboot design. I still stand by that statement. When compared to how Charmcaster currently looks in the 2016 reboot, yes, her UAF design does look better and more unique and does fit that aspect of Charmcaster being a magic casting sorceress. However, if I were to compare Charmcaster’s UAF design to her Original Series and Omniverse design, there’s no doubt that her UAF design certainly looks bland and generic. Even though her UAF design is quite similar of Marvel’s Enchantress, UAF Charmcaster somewhat looks like something out of a fairytale. It doesn’t really fit her well along with that femme fatale approach to her as a character given how she was portrayed in the Original Series. She did improve a little in Omniverse though; especially in regards to her design. The issue though is that the writers decided to make Charmcaster more…kooky than her previous portrayals, from what I recall. Again, like with the femme fatale approach, it doesn’t really suit her. It felt out of place for Charmcaster. It doesn’t help either how the writers decided to change up Hex and made him a more caring uncle to Charmcaster, which very much conflicted with how he treated Charmcaster in the Original Series. Again, Hex tormented Charmcaster for most of her life. He didn’t care about her. He only cared about himself. Suddenly, Hex pulls a 180 and decides to do something that’s so out-of-character for him to do? I stated plenty of times a while back how it was rumored that Dwayne McDuffie and likely Glen Murakami never watched the Original Series when they were making Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. Given how Charmcaster and Hex were portrayed as in UAF and OV, that’s just more evidence to add to the pile. Then we get to Charmcaster in the Ben 10 reboot. For those that haven’t seen my review of The Charm Offensive, the issues that I have (and noticed that others had as well) with Charmcaster in that episode is just how incredibly bland and generic she was, more so than in UAF. Her new design looks just like a typical and generic Goth girl in a typical and generic school that checks off every trope that a typical and generic school would have. Her new backstory is something that we’ve seen done before thousands of times already. As far as I can tell, considering that she’s no longer related to Hex, which already tosses away what I believe to be the most interesting aspect about Charmcaster (that I explained in the previous paragraph) and the potential that it brought to her. Then again, they already screwed Hex up enough to make him no longer redeemable and good. Tara Strong replaced Kari Wahlgren as the voice of Charmcaster and, much like with Gwen and Max’s voice actors being replaced in the reboot, it just isn’t the same. Tara was decent with her performance but it just doesn’t fit the character well. It certainly doesn’t help either that the plot of The Charm Offensive was a copy and paste of the Ultimate Alien episode, Couples Retreat. To think that Man of Action, the very creators of Ben 10, was behind this just makes her portrayal in the Ben 10 reboot even more disappointing. The only part about reboot Charmcaster that made her…well, Charmcaster is that she’s a teenage delinquent with a Gothic look and magic powers, which as I stated in my review, that doesn’t even scratch the surface of Charmcaster as a character and what made her at her best. Overall, all these issues with Charmcaster, and Hex, all stem from the lack of an understanding of both characters and quite the mistreatment and mishandling of them that resulted from it.

So what are ways that I find could help to fix and improve Charmcaster and overall make her a much better character? Well, first off, bring back Kari Wahlgren as the voice of Charmcaster. Second, make Charmcaster and Hex very much like how they were back in the Original Series. Bring those very traits and elements of those two characters from the Original Series back. Make Hex the ruthless, terrifying, and power hungry villains that many fans and viewers liked without turning him into an absolute joke of a villain for comedy sake like how the Ben 10 reboot handled him. Make Charmcaster back into being Hex’s niece who was tormented and corrupted due to the abusive and harsh treatment that he gave her throughout most of her life. I mentioned in the second paragraph how Charmcaster’s experience being raised by Hex and how that made her the very person that she is set up a lot of potential for her as a character. What exactly do I think that potential is? The build up to Charmcaster finding the strength to overcome these hardships that she went through and turn her life around for the betterment of herself and others (especially Ben and Gwen). Charmcaster had always felt as if she deserved to have a better life. In Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker emphasized how one bad day can make a normal, sane person go insane. It could be interesting to see something along the lines of the opposite happening; especially with Charmcaster. I doubt that this would work with Kevin Levin though. In The Killing Joke, the Joker himself knew that it was too late for him; that he crossed the point of no return. In the Original Series, as I have addressed plenty of times before, Kevin had also crossed that point of no return for numerous reasons, which is why I find his transition in Alien Force to still make no sense whatsoever. I say that it should be too late for Kevin to redeem himself but Charmcaster, however, still has that chance. Ultimate Alien looked as if it was going that approach of Charmcaster turning a new leaf but then Omniverse pulled her back. If given various and numerous nudges, I believe that it would be enough to push Charmcaster to make that transition and become a better, stronger, and more compelling character. Have Charmcaster experience some of the better, more positive moments of life that she never got a chance to truly experience. I think that’s one of the ways that can help push Charmcaster towards a better life. Having her get a taste of that better life is something that I find to have quite a significantly positive impact on her but that alone might not be enough for her to walk away from her villainous life.

Another thing that I want to suggest is to stop pairing up Charmcaster with Michael Morningstar. Considering how it was handled in Ultimate Alien felt unnecessary and it felt even more unnecessary when the Ben 10 reboot did that as well…considering how, again, The Charm Offensive copied from Couples Retreat. In fact, you want to know whom I find to be a much better character to pair up with Charmcaster? Kevin Levin. These two characters have so much to them that parallels each other. Both characters went through a lot of abuse. Both Kevin and Charmcaster very much fittingly represent the evil counterparts of Ben and Gwen respectively. Both characters have a strong desire to take revenge on Ben and Gwen. The biggest difference between these two is that Charmcaster is saner and more mentally stable while Kevin is a delusional psychopath. It’s because of this major difference that while I can see this partnership be very much fitting here, it certainly wouldn’t last long given the nature of Kevin. In fact, it would certainly end badly for the two and thus would certainly further encourage Charmcaster to walk away from her villainous life. Regardless, I find this pairing to be a much more interesting and fitting approach to take than Charmcaster and Morningstar. Also, given the type of person that Kevin is, I can see things go badly for Charmcaster here, thus acting as another significant nudge to further push her even closer towards making that transition to a better life.

Regardless of Charmcaster being pushed further and further towards leaving her villainous life behind, there’s still one thing that I guarantee that Charmcaster would have to deal with; a final test for her to overcome and that Hex. As long as Hex remains being around, Charmcaster would never be truly free. Given the nature of Hex in the Original Series, I can imagine how furious he would be towards Charmcaster considering how she double crossed him, which led to Hex’s plan to restore the Charms of Bezel to fail, and how Charmcaster planned to treat Hex after the Fountain of Youth turned him into a child. I can also imagine how Charmcaster would see Hex being turned into a child as an opportunity to pack up and run; to get as far away from Hex as possible in order to avoid his wrath and anger towards. Eventually though, Hex will catch up to her. During this conflict that Charmcaster would find herself facing, this could lead up to a good opportunity for Charmcaster and Gwen to build up their relationship and eventually end up being on good terms with each other. This was something that was pretty much happening in the sequel shows that I do agree on. I do think that it would make plenty of sense for Charmcaster and Gwen to eventually become good friends with each other. I can see Gwen, and Ben, being willing to step in and help Charmcaster deal with Hex. It’s likely that Hex would be too powerful for Charmcaster to handle on her own and there’s certainly nothing wrong with having some help. Granted though, both Ben and Gwen would need a good enough reason to convince them to help Charmcaster. Witnessing Charmcaster being pushed towards the light side would help but regardless, I think what would really convince them (most especially Gwen) to help Charmcaster is for Ben and Gwen to learn more about Charmcaster’s past and thus learn more of the torment that she really went through and witness evidence of it; to learn on how Charmcaster is more of a victim than a villain and thus gain their sympathy. With Ben and Gwen’s help, Charmcaster would finally manage to find the strength to defy Hex and thus defeat him once and for all, thus freeing Charmcaster from his grasp and completing her transition away from her old villainous life and towards a new and better life.

There’s one more thing that I want to cover as well and this is in regards to Kevin’s son, Devlin. I think Charmcaster would be a very fitting choice to be Devlin’s mother…or at the very least a mother figure to Devlin. While plenty of aspects about Devlin parallel Kevin, I say that Devlin really parallels more with Charmcaster. Much like how Charmcaster was raised throughout most of her life being tormented by Hex, Devlin was raised throughout most of his life being tormented by Kevin. Much like how Charmcaster feared Hex due to how he treated her and how powerful he is, Devlin feared Kevin due to how Kevin treated him and how powerful Kevin is. However, implementing this could likely be quite a challenge to face given what I stated before in regards to Charmcaster and Kevin pairing up and how badly that could end for them. I’d imagine that thing would get pretty extreme (not like Kevin is known for being quite extreme himself) in order to make Charmcaster being Devlin’s biological mother work well in Ben 10. Either way, I still find Charmcaster to be a fitting choice to be Devlin’s biological mother (or at the very least be a mother figure to him) and I can see her and Devlin having a strong bond with each other, coming to understand the hardships that they went through, thus encouraging Charmcaster to try and protect Devlin from Kevin and help Ben, Gwen, and Ken give Devlin the better life that he deserves.

So that’s everything that I find would help to fix and improve Charmcaster and overall make her a much better character than how she was handled since after the Original Series. If anyone has any thoughts of their own on what this article covers or on what they think are ways to help fix and improve Charmcaster, feel free to comment down below.

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I was going to make a part 2 to my season 2 review of the Ben 10 2016 reboot but after giving some thought, I decided to save that for when the remaining season 2 episodes finish airing. I will instead try to go back to making individual episode reviews but instead of doing every episode that airs, I'm just going to review specific episodes that I find to be significant enough to be worth making an episode review for. This is mostly because I want to try and not repeat myself as often as possible and try to focus more on addressing newer points in regards to the Ben 10 reboot show. Any of my past points from my previous reviews that I do repeat are mostly going to happen in my season 2 part 2 review. For this episode review, I'll be covering The Charm Offensive, which is the very episode that debuted the return of Charmcaster. As usual of my reviews, spoiler alert.

First off is the plot of the episode...which is a freakin lazy copy of the Ultimate Alien episode, Couples Retreat. I am not kidding with this. Both episodes basically have the same plot. Charmcaster gets into a relationship with Michael Morningstar. Michael Morningstar poorly treats Charmcaster and only views her as an energy source while he still has an obsession towards Gwen. Charmcaster is too blinded by her feelings towards Morningstar to see him as the terrible person that he is. Gwen tries to convince Charmcaster of Michael Morningstar's true nature and eventually succeeds in doing so. Charmcaster uses her magic to overpower Morningstar. These entire plot elements are in The Charm Offensive and Couples Retreat. Christ, even reboot Charmcaster's new name, Heather, came from Couples Retreat. It's the same name that Michael Morningstar incorrectly guessed when Charmcaster asked him what her real name was, which was Hope. That's really what sums up most of this episode. It's another of the many examples of Man of Action and Cartoon Network Studios lazily copying elements and plots from the previous shows into the Ben 10 reboot.

The second worse part of this episode is most certainly Charmcaster herself because much like with almost every other returning character in the reboot, she is basically a shell of what she used to be. This reboot version of Charmcaster is a downgrade compared to her in the previous shows. First off is her new reboot design. She looks like just another typical, generic Goth girl that you would see in a generic and typical high school that checks off every generic and typical students and teachers trope that we’ve seen thousands of times before. Her new design looks bland and uninteresting. There is nothing unique about it and it most certainly doesn’t even compete with Charmcaster’s previous character designs. Even her UAF design looks better and more unique than this new reboot design and I’m not even really a fan of Charmcaster’s UAF design. The writers even changed Charmcaster’s origins in the reboot as well. She’s no longer a sorceress from an alternate magic-based dimension and Hex’s niece. She’s just a typical and generic nerdy girl with low self-confidence who just happens to find a magic book and becomes evil. That’s pretty much it. Someone on a forum on TV Tropes argued how this is such a bland and generic origin that has been done thousands of times before and I very much agree on that. This is such a pathetic origin for such a character like Charmcaster. While there were a lot of issues with Charmcaster and Hex in the sequel shows, at least the concept of Ledgerdomain was pretty interesting. It’s nothing compared to how Charmcaster was handled in the Original Series though (uh oh, I’m referencing the Original Series again). Even though the Original Series didn’t show much of what Charmcaster went through, there were plenty of subtle clues that point to Charmcaster’s past, mostly in regards to what she had to go through with Hex. For most, if not all, of Charmcaster’s life, Hex tormented her. He made her fear him. In fact, Hex was the reason why Charmcaster is the very person that we saw her as in the Original Series. That’s such a more unique and interesting take on Charmcaster being evil. There’s so much more depth to it. In the YMMV section of the Ben 10 reboot on Tv Tropes, I read a claim on how the reboot version of Charmcaster could be the most sympathetic to date due to this episode. The most sympathetic to date? Again, this episode’s plot copied off of an Ultimate Alien episode. Charmcaster goes through a similar experience with Michael Morningstar in Couples Retreat. I don’t exactly remember if Morningstar was as extreme in Couples Retreat as he was in The Charm Offensive since that I haven’t seen that UA episode in a while but I say that it’s still a similar enough experience here. However, I would argue that Charmcaster had it even worse in the Original Series because, again, of the torment that she had to go through with Hex. I see Charmcaster as a more tragic character in the Original Series than in the reboot. I have more sympathy towards Charmcaster in the Original Series. I find that the Original Series provided much greater potential with Charmcaster than the reboot did. One final point about Charmcaster in the reboot, she’s now voiced by Tara Strong…because of course she is. Tara does a decent job here but much like how Max Tennyson is just not Max Tennyson without Paul Eiding, Charmcaster is just not Charmcaster without Kari Wahlgren. There was one part in the episode where Charmcaster almost sounded like Tara Strong’s Harley Quinn voice and that just did not fit her. I have a good feeling that that’s going to reoccur often in Charmcaster’s later appearances if Tara Strong continues to voice the character. Overall, this reboot version of Charmcaster is a downgrade to what Charmcaster was before. Is there at least anything that Charmcaster has that resembles, well, Charmcaster? She’s a teen delinquent that has magic powers. Anything else? She has her color pattern. That’s it? Christ, that doesn’t even scratch the surface of her as a character.

Is there at least anything that’s good about the episode? The action scenes are, as usual, decent but that doesn’t say much because that’s how most of the action scenes have been throughout the entire show. Either mediocre or decent yet still pertaining the same issues that I’ve mentioned plenty of times before. Michael Morningstar was at least pretty dark and vile in this episode. I’ll give the episode that. Granted though, it’s most certainly not the worse thing he’s ever done. I still remember quite well just how much of a predator Morningstar was when he first debuted back in Alien Force. I mean like this guy was freakin charming and seducing schoolgirls before sucking the life force out of them to the point where they were reduced to zombies. I say Morningstar’s treatment towards Charmcaster in this reboot episode is nothing compared to that. Can’t really say much about Ben and Gwen though because they way that they’re handled in this episode reminds me a lot of how they were handled in the Original Series episode, Lucky Girl. Going back to Morningstar, this time around, he’s voiced by Yuri Lowenthal instead of Drake Bell…because of course he is. I will give him this though. He does seem to fit Morningstar decently well. In fact, he’s more fitting for voicing and portraying Michael Morningstar than Vilgax.

There’s not really much else here for me to say. If there were, it would most likely just be more criticism of this episode. Overall, it’s a lazy copy and paste of an episode from Ultimate Alien with Ben and Gwen’s development in this episode pretty much just being a copy from the Original Series episode, Lucky Girl. Charmcaster is another of the many returning characters in this reboot that has been downgraded to a mere shell of what she once was. She is a bland and generic character with a bland and generic design and a bland and generic origin. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, I don’t recommend it.

If anyone has any thoughts of their own on this episode, feel free to comment down below.

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While I do think that a live-action Ben 10 film just doesn't seem necessary for the franchise to have as well as not seem likely either for at least a while, I do want to have a little bit of fun here and therefore give some ideas that I have for who I think would be a great fit for at least some of the characters in the franchise; mainly the main characters. So yeah, again, this is pretty much just for fun. If I were to chose a cast of actors to appear in a live-action Ben 10 film, this is who I would pick.

For who should portray Ben Tennyson, I have some choices. In regards to portraying a younger Ben (most likely in early teen years), it's down to one of these four actors: Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Wyatt Oleff. These four boys all appeared in the 2017 remake of It with Finn Wolfhard also known for starring in Stranger Things. Granted, I don't really watch Stranger Things so I'm going to focus mostly on the It remake film. It (2017) turned out to be a pretty surprisingly good film and one of the major reasons as to why are due to the performances of the actors; most especially Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise and all the child actors portraying the Losers Club. The child actors in the film did such a great job with their roles. It's some of the best acting from a minor that I've seen in recent time. Therefore, if I were to decide on who I think should portray a younger, around early teen Ben Tennyson, it would be one of these four actors that I mentioned. They all look as if they would match Ben's appearance well as well as be able to properly portray Ben's personality and characteristics too. I think out of all four of these actors, Jack Dylan Grazer would likely be my most preferred choice since that from what I recall, his character, Eddie Kaspbrak, seemed to be the most cocky, fun-loving, and impulsive out of all the main characters but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Now if instead Ben would end up being portrayed in either as a later teen or in his adult years, the first actor that comes to mind for portraying Ben would be Tom Holland, the current Spider-Man/Peter Parker actor. Why? A long while back, I made an analysis article comparing Ben Tennyson and Peter Parker together, noting the many similarities to each other. Considering how strikingly similar both these characters are and that Tom Holland did, and still does, a great job of portraying Peter Parker, I find him to be a very good choice to portray Ben Tennyson as well.

As for Gwen Tennyson, I say that possibly my best choice of an actor to portray this character would be Dafne Keen, the actress that portrayed Laura (aka X-23) in the film, Logan (2017). Dafne nailed her role as Laura in the film. She freakin nailed it. She is another prominent example of some of the best performance by a child actor that I witnessed in recent times as well. She even surprised much of the other actors and film crew as well. If you look up some of the behind the scenes footage of Logan, it really shows just how dedicated, hard-working, and well focused that Dafne Keen was during filming and how much fun she had with it as well. Patrick Stewart expressed just how impressed he was after watching Dafne's audition video, which showed her improvising her lines on her second try, mixing Spanish into her performance. Considering just how well talented she is as an actress, I very much find her to possibly be one of the best options to portray Gwen Tennyson in a live-action Ben 10 film. Now if Gwen were to end up being portrayed at an older age (most likely as an adult), I'm not really sure who I would pick so I don't really have an option for that yet. If anyone has any ideas themselves, feel free to comment down below.

As for Max Tennyson, I covered this a long while ago as well but I still find the best actor to portray Max to be John Goodman. Not only does John Goodman very much fit the appearance of Max from the franchise but considering the many performances that he had as all sorts of various different characters, thus showing how flexible he is as an actor, I say that he would very much fit in as the character of Max as well and be able to nail his personality and characteristics. I just can't think of anyone else that could do better as Max than John Goodman himself.

Finally (for now, at least), there's Kevin Levin. Now first off, if Kevin were to appear in a Ben 10 live-action film, I wouldn't want for him to be portrayed as a more heroic character as shown in Alien Force to Omniverse and possibly the Ben 10 reboot as well given the new images of the season 2 finale that were recently released and shown (and oh god, I don't even know what they're trying to do anymore with that freakin show but I'll possibly get to that later). I've already given my thoughts on Kevin as a character many many times now. If I were to have Kevin appear in a live-action Ben 10 film, he would be a villain. He would be portrayed very much like how he was in the Original Series because that was when Kevin was at his best. Therefore, for who I think would be a good choice of an actor to portray a younger Kevin would be Nicholas Hamilton, who portrayed Henry Bowers in It (2017). Finding a good choice for Kevin was a little more difficult. Kevin is an insane, psychopathic thug with quite the hatred towards Ben. After all, Kevin IS the best and most proper evil counterpart to Ben. Given who Henry Bowers is as a character in It and Nicholas' performance as Henry, he could be a good choice to portray a live-action Kevin Levin. If Kevin were to be portrayed as an adult, I'm not really sure on that. Maybe Sebastian Stan, who portrays Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in the Marvel films. His appearance as Bucky does remind me of Kevin in regards to how he looks but I'm not sure if he would fit in well with this character. If anyone has any ideas themselves, feel free to comment down below.

This is all that I have for now. Maybe some time in the future, I'll make a part 2 to this where I could possibly cover other options for these very characters and/or cover other characters in the franchise, such as Charmcaster, Hex, Zombozo, or whoever. If anyone has any thoughts of their own on this topic and even have their own choices for actors to portray these very characters, feel free to comment down below.

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This one is pretty much a quickie here. Shorter than the usual length of my other articles. I'm not really going to criticize Malware here. He's a decent villain. One of the better aspects of Omniverse. There are certain aspects about him that could be improved but he's alright. I have been thinking of this idea about him for a while though. A direction that I've been thinking could be really interesting to see with this villain. Something that could make Malware stand out more. Make him less conventional and more unique. Something that hasn't really been tackled that much or at all in the Ben 10 franchise. Something that could make Malware much more dangerous and challenging than what we've seen him as in Omniverse. Something that is more reflective of his actual name.

Yes, what I've been thinking is having Malware behave more like actual malware or an actual virus. He would remain as a Galvanic Mechamorph but something would happen to him that would change his behavior to be more instinctive and remove his traits of being a sentient being while also having a constant hunger for more technology. Almost like a weaponized, zombified Galvanic Mechamorph. Either Malware could be hacked and corrupted or the classic died and resurrected or something of the likes that could put him in that state and then he would be let loose on whatever the intended target would be, consuming whatever piece of technology that's unfortunate enough to be in his path and he takes a particular interest in. The more technology that Malware absorbs and consumes, the bigger, more powerful and thus less controllable he becomes. This could prove to be a very dangerous situation that Ben would have to handle and resolve; especially since that Ben has one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the universe attached to his wrist and Malware would most certainly take a very strong interest in that. Things can also get very intense, scary, and chaotic really fast as well if Malware becomes powerful enough from consuming all sorts of technology. However, Malware can still suffer from the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities that other Galvanic Mechamorphs, and much of technology in general, have but Ben and his allies would really have to exploit and take advantage of those very weaknesses in order to take down Malware. They would really have their work cut out for them. Granted, I don't find this direction to be as long term as Omniverse's portrayal of Malware and likely not as deep but I find that this could make Ben's encounter with Malware to be quite interesting, challenging, and intense and could work well in a different continuity for the Ben 10 franchise.

Again, this is just a quick topic that I want to make that's shorter than the usual length of my other articles. That's my idea of what I find that could be an interesting direction for Malware. If anyone has any thoughts of their own in regards to this topic, feel free to leave a comment down below.

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