War, what is it good for? “Simple”
Oct. 10th, 2009 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameBen calls the team together when he gets a holoviewer from a little girl on another planet. Her planet is at war and she hates it, and because Ben is such a great hero who managed to end a war already (“War of the Worlds”), she hopes that he’s their last best hope for peace. Gwen and Kevin, quite naturally, think Ben’s crazy, though Gwen admires his idealism. Kevin, on the other hand, tells Ben to just suck it up and deal, as war is a part of life.
They get to the planet and discover that a line is running down half of it, with red fighters on one side and blue fighters on the other. And they immediately fire upon Ship. Ben goes Jetray to try and reason with the Reds, but they aren’t too impressed. However, their leader recognizes him and insists that the Blues have been attacking the Reds and they’re just trying to defend themselves. So Ben goes Spidermonkey to talk to the Blues…who are even less impressed. They capture him and put him before a firing squad, ignoring when the little girl from the holoviewer insists he’s Ben 10. Gwen manages to shield Ben as he unties himself enough to demorph, and the Blues insist on talking this all out over dinner. Meanwhile, Kevin’s run into Argit (“Kevin’s Big Score”), who has been getting rich by scamming the Reds and Blues by picking up their discarded weapons, painting them the color of the other guys and selling them to the opposing army.
The rest of the episode is essentially Ben trying (and failing) to make peace while Kevin tries (and succeeds) to make a profit. However, if there’s one thing the Reds and Blues can agree on, it’s that they’re not fond of Ben 10. After blinding him and throwing him off a cliff when he shoves them in a cave to work out a treaty, they return to their war, which is over which color the statue of their great ancestor was (whether the guy was Red or Blue--sidenote, guys, Jesus was Jewish). Way Big solves this problem by accidentally destroying the statue, which makes the Reds and Blues unite into Purples…to attack Ben. After they bail on the planet (and Kevin sobs over the loss of the money he made), the little Blue girl starts another holoviewer message, describing how she lost her home and now she’s got to work double shifts at the factory and now she’s found something she hates more than war: Ben. She finds Kevin’s discarded chest of jewels and celebrates…and the viewer is left trying to figure out if there’s supposed to be a moral in this anywhere.
Like “Be-Knighted” and “Birds of a Feather,” “Simple” was written by Stan Berkowitz. I try my hardest not to have a bias against him, but I do feel that his interpretation of Ben is a bit of an exaggeration of his traits throughout the series. Fortunately, this time, it’s completely in-line with what we’ve seen of him this season. Berkowitz’s Ben is very much an idealist, willing to help anyone who needs it no matter who they are, be they his old enemies, people who have yet to earn his trust, or a little girl on a distant planet. Ben comes off as naïve and overconfident, believing he can stop a war in a weekend without realizing that it’s not so simple. The war is being used as an excuse by the leaders for their poor management of their people; the Blue Leader (who I will resist calling Church) tells Ben that the soldiers get to feast while the poor civilians have to starve because the soldiers need their strength. Both he and the Red Leader (who I will resist calling Sarge—he’s not bloodthirsty enough anyway) agree that the war is an easy scapegoat for the miseries of their people. If the people are living in squalor and children have to work in factories instead of going to school and have to deal with substandard nutrition, then it’s because of the war, not because their leaders have royally fucked up—a revelation that pisses Ben the hell off. Furthermore, people like Argit (and of course Kevin) are using the conflict to turn a profit, selling the Reds and Blues their opponents’ weapons just painted a different color so they wouldn’t know where they came from. The interplay of factors in the conflict prove that it’s not as simple as Ben imagines it to be. This episode can honestly be described as Red vs. Blue meets “The Great Divide” in Avatar (Avatar fans still suffering over it can simply choose, “Eh, let’s skip over it,” as the Sokka in “Ember Island Players” did). The Reds and Blues hate each other for completely arbitrary reasons (as the Reds and Blues in the original webseries do), and like Aang in “The Great Divide,” Ben believes that if they just talked over their differences, they’d find a way to make peace. However, Ben doesn’t realize that he can’t force people to settle their differences; the Red and Blue leaders would rather just have a truce long enough to get rid of him, then deal with their issues. Ben fails to create peace—instead, he just gets the mess turned against him. Overall, it’s a not-so-subtle commentary on the stupidity of war and racism while at the same time proving that it’s not so simple for the world to live as one, as people like John Lennon and Ben Tennyson would like.
This episode also premieres a new alien, Lodestar. Judging by his body shape, he is the alien whose silhouette we see in the Omnitrix at the end of “War of the Worlds, Part 2.” As can be derived from his name (which comes from lodestone, a magnetic rock used as a compass in the early days of navigation), he has powers over magnetism. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do a good job stopping them, as he gets hit repeatedly with the weapons he’s trying to stop before he realizes he can reverse the polarity and send the weapons flying back across the battlefield. As with many of the Alien Force aliens, his introduction feels pretty shoehorned in, and he doesn’t provide much of a solution to the problem. However, this only continues the trend of no solutions in this episode.
“Simple” was written by Stan Berkowitz.
They get to the planet and discover that a line is running down half of it, with red fighters on one side and blue fighters on the other. And they immediately fire upon Ship. Ben goes Jetray to try and reason with the Reds, but they aren’t too impressed. However, their leader recognizes him and insists that the Blues have been attacking the Reds and they’re just trying to defend themselves. So Ben goes Spidermonkey to talk to the Blues…who are even less impressed. They capture him and put him before a firing squad, ignoring when the little girl from the holoviewer insists he’s Ben 10. Gwen manages to shield Ben as he unties himself enough to demorph, and the Blues insist on talking this all out over dinner. Meanwhile, Kevin’s run into Argit (“Kevin’s Big Score”), who has been getting rich by scamming the Reds and Blues by picking up their discarded weapons, painting them the color of the other guys and selling them to the opposing army.
The rest of the episode is essentially Ben trying (and failing) to make peace while Kevin tries (and succeeds) to make a profit. However, if there’s one thing the Reds and Blues can agree on, it’s that they’re not fond of Ben 10. After blinding him and throwing him off a cliff when he shoves them in a cave to work out a treaty, they return to their war, which is over which color the statue of their great ancestor was (whether the guy was Red or Blue--sidenote, guys, Jesus was Jewish). Way Big solves this problem by accidentally destroying the statue, which makes the Reds and Blues unite into Purples…to attack Ben. After they bail on the planet (and Kevin sobs over the loss of the money he made), the little Blue girl starts another holoviewer message, describing how she lost her home and now she’s got to work double shifts at the factory and now she’s found something she hates more than war: Ben. She finds Kevin’s discarded chest of jewels and celebrates…and the viewer is left trying to figure out if there’s supposed to be a moral in this anywhere.
Like “Be-Knighted” and “Birds of a Feather,” “Simple” was written by Stan Berkowitz. I try my hardest not to have a bias against him, but I do feel that his interpretation of Ben is a bit of an exaggeration of his traits throughout the series. Fortunately, this time, it’s completely in-line with what we’ve seen of him this season. Berkowitz’s Ben is very much an idealist, willing to help anyone who needs it no matter who they are, be they his old enemies, people who have yet to earn his trust, or a little girl on a distant planet. Ben comes off as naïve and overconfident, believing he can stop a war in a weekend without realizing that it’s not so simple. The war is being used as an excuse by the leaders for their poor management of their people; the Blue Leader (who I will resist calling Church) tells Ben that the soldiers get to feast while the poor civilians have to starve because the soldiers need their strength. Both he and the Red Leader (who I will resist calling Sarge—he’s not bloodthirsty enough anyway) agree that the war is an easy scapegoat for the miseries of their people. If the people are living in squalor and children have to work in factories instead of going to school and have to deal with substandard nutrition, then it’s because of the war, not because their leaders have royally fucked up—a revelation that pisses Ben the hell off. Furthermore, people like Argit (and of course Kevin) are using the conflict to turn a profit, selling the Reds and Blues their opponents’ weapons just painted a different color so they wouldn’t know where they came from. The interplay of factors in the conflict prove that it’s not as simple as Ben imagines it to be. This episode can honestly be described as Red vs. Blue meets “The Great Divide” in Avatar (Avatar fans still suffering over it can simply choose, “Eh, let’s skip over it,” as the Sokka in “Ember Island Players” did). The Reds and Blues hate each other for completely arbitrary reasons (as the Reds and Blues in the original webseries do), and like Aang in “The Great Divide,” Ben believes that if they just talked over their differences, they’d find a way to make peace. However, Ben doesn’t realize that he can’t force people to settle their differences; the Red and Blue leaders would rather just have a truce long enough to get rid of him, then deal with their issues. Ben fails to create peace—instead, he just gets the mess turned against him. Overall, it’s a not-so-subtle commentary on the stupidity of war and racism while at the same time proving that it’s not so simple for the world to live as one, as people like John Lennon and Ben Tennyson would like.
This episode also premieres a new alien, Lodestar. Judging by his body shape, he is the alien whose silhouette we see in the Omnitrix at the end of “War of the Worlds, Part 2.” As can be derived from his name (which comes from lodestone, a magnetic rock used as a compass in the early days of navigation), he has powers over magnetism. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do a good job stopping them, as he gets hit repeatedly with the weapons he’s trying to stop before he realizes he can reverse the polarity and send the weapons flying back across the battlefield. As with many of the Alien Force aliens, his introduction feels pretty shoehorned in, and he doesn’t provide much of a solution to the problem. However, this only continues the trend of no solutions in this episode.
“Simple” was written by Stan Berkowitz.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-10 06:41 pm (UTC)What I find humorous-but definitely something that earns Ben a hairflip-would be Way Big leaning on the statue while stating 'I got nothing but time.' The second I saw Way Big show up the events that happened played out exactly like I figured they would: Ben declaring that he'd stick around as long as it took for them to work out peace, Ben doing something to destroy the statue, and both armies uniting to fight him!
Perhaps Lodestar will show off more of his abilities in the next episode, since his appearance here seemed to me like a blink-and-you'll-miss-it debut. At least we find out he's the good guy version of Magneto.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-10 08:20 pm (UTC)Oh yes. That statue was going down the minute you saw it. Like Pluto. It reminded me of an episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks, when they're all trying to figure out what happened to the statue of Thomas Edison. As soon as you see the school fixing it and the kids are trying to reenact the sequence of events, you know that thing's doomed. Not to mention the Jell-o model Simon made.
Yeah, I hope so. I love Alien Force, but I really wish they'd figure out a better way to introduce the aliens. The original sometimes had this problem too, but I think Power Rangers is the best model on how to do this properly. If you want to introduce a shiny new Ranger, Battlizer form, or Megazord, you dedicate the episode to giving that guy the glory. They should try doing the same with the new aliens.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-11 07:59 am (UTC)And on that note, goddamn do they need a more useful plot. I'm going to be SO PISSED if we just get slapped by three or four episodes of pure story plot before AF finishes in time for Swarm and Evolutions.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-11 03:37 pm (UTC)Yeah, it looks like the next episode is going to be another general, fillerish one, "Don't Fear the Repo." I remember Dwayne McDuffie saying that it was about Ship getting kidnapped by intergalactic repo men. These episodes are fine, but honestly, coming off of a two-season spanning plot? An episodic take on the third season feels so weak. It's the third-season slump again, like with JLU. You have your first season getting used to things, so it's a little rough. Second season carries the story over from first season and makes it epic. Then the third season is made unexpectedly, and it doesn't have as cohesive a storyline. At least JLU had the Legion of Doom to worry about in season 3, much as people complained it wasn't as epic as the Cadmus arc. Ben so far doesn't have a Legion to worry about, and I really hope he does end up with some kind of major threat introduced.
And not the Forever Knights. It's like the Lucian Alliance being used as the major enemy for seasons 9-10 of SG-1.