The Return: “Voided”
Mar. 22nd, 2009 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoamePutting this up before I have to leave for school tomorrow.
Gwen is frantically waiting in Ben’s room, waiting for Kevin to arrive so she can tell them about a telepathic message she’s received. But just as Kevin gets there, another message breaks through her energy field. It’s Helen (“Plumber’s Helpers”), desperately begging Ben and his team for help in the Null Void. As they lose contact, Kevin warns them that the Null Void is too dangerous for them, and Ben insists that’s why he’s going in alone. Despite the fact that Ben’s decision just screams “Bad idea!” Kevin equips him with a jetpack and a cable so they can pull him out as Gwen opens a portal to the Null Void.
Not even five seconds in, Ben sees one of the Null Void’s Lovecraftian monsters (henceforth known as “Null Guardians”) flying off with a terrified alien in its grasp. After outsmarting the Guardian, Ben managed to free the prisoner, and they set up camp. The alien is babbling almost incoherently about his captor, D’Void, and apparent heroes called the Wrench and the Helpers. He tells Ben to warn the Wrench that the Null Void is becoming destabilized, and he’s surprised when Ben has no idea what he’s talking about. But before Ben can get anything resembling an explanation, they’re fired on by Null Guardians. Ben’s about to go hero to stop them when an insane cry of “Yee-HAW!” cuts through the air, and Manny arrives, riding a dragon and shooting laser guns at the Null Guardians. Helen rushes in and is thrilled to see that Ben got her message, though Manny’s not exactly pleased that she called him. She starts having second thoughts too once Manny says that D’Void is coming, and she warns Ben to get out of there because he’s too important to get captured. Ben isn’t having any of that, and he starts to fly off after them when the tether in his jetpack gets caught. He’s trying to pull himself free as Null Guardians swarm around their leader. But Ben recognizes the voice and looks over in shock: D’Void is his old enemy, Dr. Animo. With D’Void’s attention on Manny and Helen, Ben disconnects the tether and morphs to Brainstorm. He doesn’t advertise his identity, so D’Void is surprised to see that this apparently random alien knows his true name. The confusion gives Brainstorm enough time to knock him out with an electrical jolt and rescue Helen and Manny.
The trio takes refuge on another asteroid, where a couple of farmers are being harassed by the Null Guardians, and one of them, the son, is taken. Ben is enraged by the injustice as they watch the distraught father collapse into tears, but Manny holds him back from rushing after them. It’s then that Ben realizes that Manny lost one of his hands, and it’s been replaced by a mechanical clamp, and the normally trigger-happy Manny reiterates that D’Void is too strong for them. The father manages to get some control over his emotions and gives Ben a much-needed explanation: The Null Void had originally been a penal colony created by the Galvan, but other races discovered it and began sending their more dangerous prisoners there. The Null Guardians were created to protect the more peaceful inhabitants. But then D’Void appeared and used the telepathic control over animals he’d gained in later seasons of the original Ben 10 and took command of the Guardians. He began capturing people to dig for the mineral coremite in his mines, and now only the Wrench and his Helpers dare to stand against him. Ben argues that Animo was never this powerful before and that he’d beaten him in the past. But when he says that because he broke his tether, he can’t go through with Manny’s plan to head back to Earth and get help so they can lead an all-out assault, Manny starts a fight with him. Helen breaks up the fight before it can get started and reminds him that if anyone’s going to know if Ben’s capable of helping them, it’s the Wrench.
Helen and Manny bring Ben to a spire of rock connected to another asteroid by a long, narrow bridge. It’s basically your typical fantasy set, giving you the immediate sense that one does not simply walk into Mordor. And sure enough, they’re stopped by the guardian of the bridge, Helen’s long-lost and presumed dead brother, Pierce, who isn’t happy that his sister called an outsider for help. He warns Helen that Ben might be a shapeshifter trying to fool them and get in to attack the Wrench, but Ben’s pretty much fed up with his paranoia fast. Pierce tells him that the only way Ben’s going to see the Wrench is the old standard: fight the gatekeeper and win. What happens next is probably the best demonstration of Ben’s human-form fighting skills, as Pierce throws him a spike to use as a staff, and Ben immediately gets into a fighting stance. Wikipedia describes the boys’ mixed-martial art fighting style as a hybrid of capoeira and muay thai, and Dwayne McDuffie says they’d make Robin Hood and Little John proud. I definitely have to agree. Pierce eventually manages to break Ben’s staff and throw him off the bridge, but Ben holds on and hides the remaining staff piece so Pierce doesn’t see it when he checks on him. When Pierce threatens to continue fighting, Ben drops the staff piece and gives up. Pierce accepts his surrender and reveals the fight was a Xanatos Gambit he, Manny, and Helen had set up. If Ben was really human, he would have lost. If he was a shapeshifting spy, he would have beaten Pierce in a fair fight and Manny would have shot him. Assured of Ben’s identity, Pierce leads him into the hovel the Wrench calls home. But before Ben enters, Pierce whispers some advice: “Don’t eat anything he offers you.” Hmm…
The inside of the hovel looks like Obi-Wan’s house in Star Wars filled with tons of odd tech. A figure in a cloak is at the fireplace on the back wall, cooking something while Ben basically reenacts The Wizard of Oz, apologizing for interfering in the war and passing along the info the alien prisoner had told him earlier. But then the Wrench removes his hood and turns around, and Ben is shocked to see Grandpa Max. It’s a joyful reunion, and Max explains that when he detonated the bomb in Santa Mira (“Max Out”), he somehow got blown into the Null Void. He’d originally tried to get home, but he couldn’t stand the injustice the Null Voiders were living with, so he stayed and started the rebellion against Animo, attempting to throw a monkey wrench into his plans. He then asks Ben how in the hell he lost to Pierce, and Ben admits that was his own Xanatos Gambit: he let Pierce win because he knew that was the only way he’d be allowed in; he’d figured out Pierce’s gambit and countered it by purposely fighting at a disadvantage. Needless to say, Pierce isn’t happy, but he keeps his temper especially as Ben warns Max that the Null Void is disintegrating.
The Helpers gather as Max explains just what he’s put together from their fight and Ben’s information. D’Void is mining coremite to build a massive drill to pierce through the dimensions and lead an attack on Earth (Gurren Lagann fans, this is a very odd coincidence given Ben and Simon’s voice actor). Pierce recommends launching an assault on the citadel, but Ben’s got a better plan: why fight your way in when you can sneak in? They hide in a shipment of supplies, and sure enough, the Null Guardians bring them right to the drill. The Helpers manage to take down the Null Guardians, but before Ben, Max, and Pierce can destroy the drill, D’Void arrives. He holds off Chromastone’s energy blasts and sends more Guardians after them, forcing Ben to demorph to avoid them. He’s pleased to see that his enemies here are in fact his old enemies, and Ben decides it’s time to show off how many levels in badass he’s taken in the past five years by going Humongousaur and trying to crush him. However, D’Void’s taken his own levels in badass—too many for Humongousaur to handle, and even Brainstorm can’t hold him off anymore. But Ben figures out just why D’Void is stronger and makes his way for the drill, telling Max to hold him off. Ben heads over to the furnace and reveals exactly what he’s figured out: the burning coremite isn’t just powering the drill; it’s powering D’Void too. And so, he lets himself fall back into the furnace, morphing into Big Chill as he’s about halfway down, freezing everything over. Thinking he’s lost Ben, Max is about to make his last stand against D’Void when ice grows all the way up the drill, destroying the citadel. With D’Void’s powers cut off, Max defeats him easily, moments before Ben rises out of the furnace.
The Helpers begin celebrating and are about to begin rescuing the people from the mines when a portal opens, and Gwen peers in, looking for Ben. She’s thrilled to see that Ben found Max, but the fold is closing and she needs to get Ben out now. Ben tells Max to get the Helpers so they can all go home, but Max insists they need to stay and clean up things in the Null Void. Ben offers to stay as well, but Max reminds him that he’s needed more on Earth and he tells him that Ben’s proven he no longer needs his grandfather to help him, but he’ll never lose him again. They’ll find their own way back when their work is done. Struggling to keep the fold open, Gwen reaches for Ben, but she can’t hold onto him and keep the portal open. Then to Ben’s surprise, another hand grabs his wrist, and he looks up to see Kevin holding the other edge of the fold open, simply saying, “It’s time to come home, Ben,” and they pull him out just in time as Grandpa Max watches Ben’s team in pride.
This episode is all about showing off how many levels in badass the characters have taken, and Grandpa Max is no exception. Fans know that he’s badass to begin with, but this really blows everything else out of the water. While people may have expected him to survive in “Max Out” (I know my brother certainly did), who would have expected him to be leading a rebel army in the middle of the Null Void? Like Ben, he was outraged at the oppression the innocent Null Voiders were living under, so he put all of his expertise to great use leading a ragtag rebellion made up of Pierce, Helen, Manny, and all the Plumber kids they’d captured and waging a guerilla war on D’Void. The Helpers respect him as a leader and for damn good reason too, as we see him in his Jedi robe kicking ass with a staff.
The Helpers aren’t too shabby themselves. When we last saw Helen and Manny, they were still haunted by Pierce’s apparent death and trying to continue their mission. Helen was especially in grief, plagued by self-doubts and the fears Pierce confessed in his journal. For her, everything was about trying to do things the way he would have done it. Now, we see her in much better spirits, gleefully speeding through a swarm of Null Guardians and making no attempt to hide the fact that she enjoys this job. She’s more willing to take risks, such as going behind the backs of Pierce, Manny, and Max to bring in Ben’s help. Manny, on the other hand, seems more cautious than the last time we saw him. In “Plumbers’ Helpers,” it had been his plan to use Kevin as bait to lure out Ben and Gwen, and Helen couldn’t for the life of her get him to be careful on their missions. In “Voided,” Manny’s the one holding Ben back from rushing off to rescue the farmer’s son without a plan, emphasizing the point of how strong D’Void is when Ben notices his mechanical hand. He’s still fairly hotheaded and Helen’s still keeping him from blowing his temper, but the changes in them are definitely apparent.
We also get to see Pierce in the flesh this time, and he continues the whole “dark reflection” motif between the Helpers and the Alien Force seen in “Plumbers’ Helpers.” Like Ben, Pierce is the most serious about completing the mission, absolutely following Max’s instructions to the letter and leading his team of Plumbers’ kids to fight a great evil. However, again, Pierce is a bit of an exaggeration. The best words to describe him are “won’t get fooled again.” Where Ben is serious and cautious, Pierce comes off as paranoid, refusing to believe his sister when she reminds him that if it wasn’t for Ben, she and Manny wouldn’t have known to search for him. We also see that Pierce and Helen apparently aren’t blood-related siblings, as Pierce’s powers are incredibly different—more like Spike from X-Men Evolution in that he shoots spines from his body, while retaining a mostly human form. This power leaves him a little cocky, as Ben points out that their battle on the bridge is unbalanced—“walking pincushion” versus unpowered human—and Pierce underestimates the abilities of an unpowered human. In all truth, even Max didn’t believe for an instant that Pierce could stand up to Ben, and now Pierce knows that his counterpart was hiding his strength. It would be interesting to see how Ben and Pierce interact in any future episodes.
The Null Void gives us some surprises as well. Treated as the Phantom Zone for all this time, it was originally something akin to Australia—the less dangerous criminals sentenced there decided to start their lives anew and carve out a living. Expecting them to be prey to the more dangerous criminals of the galaxy, the Galvan created the Null Guardians to protect them. And yet it still wasn’t enough; other races continued to send their criminals to the Null Void—of course including in the original Ben 10 series—and somehow or another, Animo got in and took over. The Null Void also seems to be an easy excuse to give someone a few levels in badass, as seen in the cases of Grandpa Max and the Helpers, and Kevin in the beginning of season one. Not to mention Animo is no longer a joke like he could sometimes be (in contrast with the rest of Ben’s enemies) in the original.
And if there’s anything else this episode is all about, it’s parallels. It starts off continuing the Helpers’ story from “Plumbers’ Helpers,” but soon enough, Ben learns that it continues “Max Out” as well. One of the most striking parallels comes when Ben realizes that D’Void is drawing his power from the furnace. He immediately spreads out his arms and lets himself fall into the flames, while Max screams, “No!” at the top of his lungs, in a role reversal from the previous episode. It’s unknown whether Ben really intended to sacrifice himself or if he knew going Big Chill would protect him, but either way, it was designed to bring on the flashbacks. Furthermore, we really get to see Ben come into his own as a leader. It’s his plan that brings down D’Void, and he’s the one who finalizes it, destroying the drill. He gets to show Grandpa Max how far he’s come in all this time. One thing I’d noticed in one of my fics was that in “Max Out,” Ben was the only one who didn’t get any personal praise from Max—Ken was told nothing was his fault, Kevin was told he had promise to be a good Plumber, and Gwen was told to be good. The rest was a general “complete the mission,” which Ben seemed to desperately cling to. This time, Ben gets a goodbye and gets the praise he didn’t get before: Max tells him that he’s proven he doesn’t need his grandpa to help him anymore. Without even realizing it, Ben took over command of the Helpers, and he’s proven by leading them how well he’s leading his own team back home. All the way back in episode two, the second half of “Ben 10 Returns,” Ben recalled Grandpa Max teaching him to ride his bike. At some point, Max let go and Ben didn’t realize it until he’d been riding alone for a while. Here, we see it again—Ben doesn’t realize that he’s the one leading and Max is following his orders this time; Ben’s truly come to prove his statement back then of “Training wheels off.”
The final scene, where Kevin and Gwen pull Ben out of the Null Void, reminded me greatly of one of the most dramatic scenes in the Justice League Unlimited season 2 episode “Divided We Fall.” In “Divided We Fall,” the Flash had just defeated Brainiac/Luthor by tapping into the Speed Force, but the power came at a price, and he vanished into it. When the rest of the League realized he was still alive, they reached into the Speed Force and pulled him out together—everyone holding onto each other’s hands in a chain strong enough to pull him free. The “Voided” scene was framed similarly, with Gwen reaching in to pull Ben out of the Null Void (just as Shayera had done for Wally), and when it became clear she couldn’t do it alone, Kevin reached in and grabbed Ben’s other hand (similarly, Green Lantern grabbed Shayera’s free hand, followed by the rest of the full-time Leaguers with Superman insisting “We’re all here,” and Batman surprising Wonder Woman by taking her free hand and helping them pull out their teammate). I’m not sure if it was meant to be a homage to that powerful scene, but it was a perfect ending to such a moving episode.
Ben once again proves he has a “saving people thing”—he tells Kevin and Gwen it’s too dangerous for them to go to the Null Void and they’re needed on Earth, and then he insists that he’s the one who should go, which completely destroys his point. This continues a Messiah Creep that’s been getting progressively more obvious since at least “Alone Together,” and it will be even more apparent in “Inside Man.” It’s unknown if they’ll return to the Null Void, but hopefully, we’ll see its liberation by the end of season three.
Other things to notice in here are Chromastone’s energy blasts at one point resembling Green Lantern’s (well, John Stewart’s beams), complete with the Green Lantern sound effect from the DCAU.
“Voided” was written by Jim Krieg. Everyone reprised their roles this time: Paul Eiding as Grandpa Max, Juliet Landau as Helen, Khary Payton as Manny, Adam Wylie as Pierce, and Dwight Schultz as Dr. Animo/D’Void.
Gwen is frantically waiting in Ben’s room, waiting for Kevin to arrive so she can tell them about a telepathic message she’s received. But just as Kevin gets there, another message breaks through her energy field. It’s Helen (“Plumber’s Helpers”), desperately begging Ben and his team for help in the Null Void. As they lose contact, Kevin warns them that the Null Void is too dangerous for them, and Ben insists that’s why he’s going in alone. Despite the fact that Ben’s decision just screams “Bad idea!” Kevin equips him with a jetpack and a cable so they can pull him out as Gwen opens a portal to the Null Void.
Not even five seconds in, Ben sees one of the Null Void’s Lovecraftian monsters (henceforth known as “Null Guardians”) flying off with a terrified alien in its grasp. After outsmarting the Guardian, Ben managed to free the prisoner, and they set up camp. The alien is babbling almost incoherently about his captor, D’Void, and apparent heroes called the Wrench and the Helpers. He tells Ben to warn the Wrench that the Null Void is becoming destabilized, and he’s surprised when Ben has no idea what he’s talking about. But before Ben can get anything resembling an explanation, they’re fired on by Null Guardians. Ben’s about to go hero to stop them when an insane cry of “Yee-HAW!” cuts through the air, and Manny arrives, riding a dragon and shooting laser guns at the Null Guardians. Helen rushes in and is thrilled to see that Ben got her message, though Manny’s not exactly pleased that she called him. She starts having second thoughts too once Manny says that D’Void is coming, and she warns Ben to get out of there because he’s too important to get captured. Ben isn’t having any of that, and he starts to fly off after them when the tether in his jetpack gets caught. He’s trying to pull himself free as Null Guardians swarm around their leader. But Ben recognizes the voice and looks over in shock: D’Void is his old enemy, Dr. Animo. With D’Void’s attention on Manny and Helen, Ben disconnects the tether and morphs to Brainstorm. He doesn’t advertise his identity, so D’Void is surprised to see that this apparently random alien knows his true name. The confusion gives Brainstorm enough time to knock him out with an electrical jolt and rescue Helen and Manny.
The trio takes refuge on another asteroid, where a couple of farmers are being harassed by the Null Guardians, and one of them, the son, is taken. Ben is enraged by the injustice as they watch the distraught father collapse into tears, but Manny holds him back from rushing after them. It’s then that Ben realizes that Manny lost one of his hands, and it’s been replaced by a mechanical clamp, and the normally trigger-happy Manny reiterates that D’Void is too strong for them. The father manages to get some control over his emotions and gives Ben a much-needed explanation: The Null Void had originally been a penal colony created by the Galvan, but other races discovered it and began sending their more dangerous prisoners there. The Null Guardians were created to protect the more peaceful inhabitants. But then D’Void appeared and used the telepathic control over animals he’d gained in later seasons of the original Ben 10 and took command of the Guardians. He began capturing people to dig for the mineral coremite in his mines, and now only the Wrench and his Helpers dare to stand against him. Ben argues that Animo was never this powerful before and that he’d beaten him in the past. But when he says that because he broke his tether, he can’t go through with Manny’s plan to head back to Earth and get help so they can lead an all-out assault, Manny starts a fight with him. Helen breaks up the fight before it can get started and reminds him that if anyone’s going to know if Ben’s capable of helping them, it’s the Wrench.
Helen and Manny bring Ben to a spire of rock connected to another asteroid by a long, narrow bridge. It’s basically your typical fantasy set, giving you the immediate sense that one does not simply walk into Mordor. And sure enough, they’re stopped by the guardian of the bridge, Helen’s long-lost and presumed dead brother, Pierce, who isn’t happy that his sister called an outsider for help. He warns Helen that Ben might be a shapeshifter trying to fool them and get in to attack the Wrench, but Ben’s pretty much fed up with his paranoia fast. Pierce tells him that the only way Ben’s going to see the Wrench is the old standard: fight the gatekeeper and win. What happens next is probably the best demonstration of Ben’s human-form fighting skills, as Pierce throws him a spike to use as a staff, and Ben immediately gets into a fighting stance. Wikipedia describes the boys’ mixed-martial art fighting style as a hybrid of capoeira and muay thai, and Dwayne McDuffie says they’d make Robin Hood and Little John proud. I definitely have to agree. Pierce eventually manages to break Ben’s staff and throw him off the bridge, but Ben holds on and hides the remaining staff piece so Pierce doesn’t see it when he checks on him. When Pierce threatens to continue fighting, Ben drops the staff piece and gives up. Pierce accepts his surrender and reveals the fight was a Xanatos Gambit he, Manny, and Helen had set up. If Ben was really human, he would have lost. If he was a shapeshifting spy, he would have beaten Pierce in a fair fight and Manny would have shot him. Assured of Ben’s identity, Pierce leads him into the hovel the Wrench calls home. But before Ben enters, Pierce whispers some advice: “Don’t eat anything he offers you.” Hmm…
The inside of the hovel looks like Obi-Wan’s house in Star Wars filled with tons of odd tech. A figure in a cloak is at the fireplace on the back wall, cooking something while Ben basically reenacts The Wizard of Oz, apologizing for interfering in the war and passing along the info the alien prisoner had told him earlier. But then the Wrench removes his hood and turns around, and Ben is shocked to see Grandpa Max. It’s a joyful reunion, and Max explains that when he detonated the bomb in Santa Mira (“Max Out”), he somehow got blown into the Null Void. He’d originally tried to get home, but he couldn’t stand the injustice the Null Voiders were living with, so he stayed and started the rebellion against Animo, attempting to throw a monkey wrench into his plans. He then asks Ben how in the hell he lost to Pierce, and Ben admits that was his own Xanatos Gambit: he let Pierce win because he knew that was the only way he’d be allowed in; he’d figured out Pierce’s gambit and countered it by purposely fighting at a disadvantage. Needless to say, Pierce isn’t happy, but he keeps his temper especially as Ben warns Max that the Null Void is disintegrating.
The Helpers gather as Max explains just what he’s put together from their fight and Ben’s information. D’Void is mining coremite to build a massive drill to pierce through the dimensions and lead an attack on Earth (Gurren Lagann fans, this is a very odd coincidence given Ben and Simon’s voice actor). Pierce recommends launching an assault on the citadel, but Ben’s got a better plan: why fight your way in when you can sneak in? They hide in a shipment of supplies, and sure enough, the Null Guardians bring them right to the drill. The Helpers manage to take down the Null Guardians, but before Ben, Max, and Pierce can destroy the drill, D’Void arrives. He holds off Chromastone’s energy blasts and sends more Guardians after them, forcing Ben to demorph to avoid them. He’s pleased to see that his enemies here are in fact his old enemies, and Ben decides it’s time to show off how many levels in badass he’s taken in the past five years by going Humongousaur and trying to crush him. However, D’Void’s taken his own levels in badass—too many for Humongousaur to handle, and even Brainstorm can’t hold him off anymore. But Ben figures out just why D’Void is stronger and makes his way for the drill, telling Max to hold him off. Ben heads over to the furnace and reveals exactly what he’s figured out: the burning coremite isn’t just powering the drill; it’s powering D’Void too. And so, he lets himself fall back into the furnace, morphing into Big Chill as he’s about halfway down, freezing everything over. Thinking he’s lost Ben, Max is about to make his last stand against D’Void when ice grows all the way up the drill, destroying the citadel. With D’Void’s powers cut off, Max defeats him easily, moments before Ben rises out of the furnace.
The Helpers begin celebrating and are about to begin rescuing the people from the mines when a portal opens, and Gwen peers in, looking for Ben. She’s thrilled to see that Ben found Max, but the fold is closing and she needs to get Ben out now. Ben tells Max to get the Helpers so they can all go home, but Max insists they need to stay and clean up things in the Null Void. Ben offers to stay as well, but Max reminds him that he’s needed more on Earth and he tells him that Ben’s proven he no longer needs his grandfather to help him, but he’ll never lose him again. They’ll find their own way back when their work is done. Struggling to keep the fold open, Gwen reaches for Ben, but she can’t hold onto him and keep the portal open. Then to Ben’s surprise, another hand grabs his wrist, and he looks up to see Kevin holding the other edge of the fold open, simply saying, “It’s time to come home, Ben,” and they pull him out just in time as Grandpa Max watches Ben’s team in pride.
This episode is all about showing off how many levels in badass the characters have taken, and Grandpa Max is no exception. Fans know that he’s badass to begin with, but this really blows everything else out of the water. While people may have expected him to survive in “Max Out” (I know my brother certainly did), who would have expected him to be leading a rebel army in the middle of the Null Void? Like Ben, he was outraged at the oppression the innocent Null Voiders were living under, so he put all of his expertise to great use leading a ragtag rebellion made up of Pierce, Helen, Manny, and all the Plumber kids they’d captured and waging a guerilla war on D’Void. The Helpers respect him as a leader and for damn good reason too, as we see him in his Jedi robe kicking ass with a staff.
The Helpers aren’t too shabby themselves. When we last saw Helen and Manny, they were still haunted by Pierce’s apparent death and trying to continue their mission. Helen was especially in grief, plagued by self-doubts and the fears Pierce confessed in his journal. For her, everything was about trying to do things the way he would have done it. Now, we see her in much better spirits, gleefully speeding through a swarm of Null Guardians and making no attempt to hide the fact that she enjoys this job. She’s more willing to take risks, such as going behind the backs of Pierce, Manny, and Max to bring in Ben’s help. Manny, on the other hand, seems more cautious than the last time we saw him. In “Plumbers’ Helpers,” it had been his plan to use Kevin as bait to lure out Ben and Gwen, and Helen couldn’t for the life of her get him to be careful on their missions. In “Voided,” Manny’s the one holding Ben back from rushing off to rescue the farmer’s son without a plan, emphasizing the point of how strong D’Void is when Ben notices his mechanical hand. He’s still fairly hotheaded and Helen’s still keeping him from blowing his temper, but the changes in them are definitely apparent.
We also get to see Pierce in the flesh this time, and he continues the whole “dark reflection” motif between the Helpers and the Alien Force seen in “Plumbers’ Helpers.” Like Ben, Pierce is the most serious about completing the mission, absolutely following Max’s instructions to the letter and leading his team of Plumbers’ kids to fight a great evil. However, again, Pierce is a bit of an exaggeration. The best words to describe him are “won’t get fooled again.” Where Ben is serious and cautious, Pierce comes off as paranoid, refusing to believe his sister when she reminds him that if it wasn’t for Ben, she and Manny wouldn’t have known to search for him. We also see that Pierce and Helen apparently aren’t blood-related siblings, as Pierce’s powers are incredibly different—more like Spike from X-Men Evolution in that he shoots spines from his body, while retaining a mostly human form. This power leaves him a little cocky, as Ben points out that their battle on the bridge is unbalanced—“walking pincushion” versus unpowered human—and Pierce underestimates the abilities of an unpowered human. In all truth, even Max didn’t believe for an instant that Pierce could stand up to Ben, and now Pierce knows that his counterpart was hiding his strength. It would be interesting to see how Ben and Pierce interact in any future episodes.
The Null Void gives us some surprises as well. Treated as the Phantom Zone for all this time, it was originally something akin to Australia—the less dangerous criminals sentenced there decided to start their lives anew and carve out a living. Expecting them to be prey to the more dangerous criminals of the galaxy, the Galvan created the Null Guardians to protect them. And yet it still wasn’t enough; other races continued to send their criminals to the Null Void—of course including in the original Ben 10 series—and somehow or another, Animo got in and took over. The Null Void also seems to be an easy excuse to give someone a few levels in badass, as seen in the cases of Grandpa Max and the Helpers, and Kevin in the beginning of season one. Not to mention Animo is no longer a joke like he could sometimes be (in contrast with the rest of Ben’s enemies) in the original.
And if there’s anything else this episode is all about, it’s parallels. It starts off continuing the Helpers’ story from “Plumbers’ Helpers,” but soon enough, Ben learns that it continues “Max Out” as well. One of the most striking parallels comes when Ben realizes that D’Void is drawing his power from the furnace. He immediately spreads out his arms and lets himself fall into the flames, while Max screams, “No!” at the top of his lungs, in a role reversal from the previous episode. It’s unknown whether Ben really intended to sacrifice himself or if he knew going Big Chill would protect him, but either way, it was designed to bring on the flashbacks. Furthermore, we really get to see Ben come into his own as a leader. It’s his plan that brings down D’Void, and he’s the one who finalizes it, destroying the drill. He gets to show Grandpa Max how far he’s come in all this time. One thing I’d noticed in one of my fics was that in “Max Out,” Ben was the only one who didn’t get any personal praise from Max—Ken was told nothing was his fault, Kevin was told he had promise to be a good Plumber, and Gwen was told to be good. The rest was a general “complete the mission,” which Ben seemed to desperately cling to. This time, Ben gets a goodbye and gets the praise he didn’t get before: Max tells him that he’s proven he doesn’t need his grandpa to help him anymore. Without even realizing it, Ben took over command of the Helpers, and he’s proven by leading them how well he’s leading his own team back home. All the way back in episode two, the second half of “Ben 10 Returns,” Ben recalled Grandpa Max teaching him to ride his bike. At some point, Max let go and Ben didn’t realize it until he’d been riding alone for a while. Here, we see it again—Ben doesn’t realize that he’s the one leading and Max is following his orders this time; Ben’s truly come to prove his statement back then of “Training wheels off.”
The final scene, where Kevin and Gwen pull Ben out of the Null Void, reminded me greatly of one of the most dramatic scenes in the Justice League Unlimited season 2 episode “Divided We Fall.” In “Divided We Fall,” the Flash had just defeated Brainiac/Luthor by tapping into the Speed Force, but the power came at a price, and he vanished into it. When the rest of the League realized he was still alive, they reached into the Speed Force and pulled him out together—everyone holding onto each other’s hands in a chain strong enough to pull him free. The “Voided” scene was framed similarly, with Gwen reaching in to pull Ben out of the Null Void (just as Shayera had done for Wally), and when it became clear she couldn’t do it alone, Kevin reached in and grabbed Ben’s other hand (similarly, Green Lantern grabbed Shayera’s free hand, followed by the rest of the full-time Leaguers with Superman insisting “We’re all here,” and Batman surprising Wonder Woman by taking her free hand and helping them pull out their teammate). I’m not sure if it was meant to be a homage to that powerful scene, but it was a perfect ending to such a moving episode.
Ben once again proves he has a “saving people thing”—he tells Kevin and Gwen it’s too dangerous for them to go to the Null Void and they’re needed on Earth, and then he insists that he’s the one who should go, which completely destroys his point. This continues a Messiah Creep that’s been getting progressively more obvious since at least “Alone Together,” and it will be even more apparent in “Inside Man.” It’s unknown if they’ll return to the Null Void, but hopefully, we’ll see its liberation by the end of season three.
Other things to notice in here are Chromastone’s energy blasts at one point resembling Green Lantern’s (well, John Stewart’s beams), complete with the Green Lantern sound effect from the DCAU.
“Voided” was written by Jim Krieg. Everyone reprised their roles this time: Paul Eiding as Grandpa Max, Juliet Landau as Helen, Khary Payton as Manny, Adam Wylie as Pierce, and Dwight Schultz as Dr. Animo/D’Void.
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Date: 2009-09-09 11:20 pm (UTC)Corny & Caleb!XD)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-10 01:49 am (UTC)Of course!