Hey, hey, you, you, I don’t like this girlfriend: “Perfect Girlfriend”

[akinoame]

Note to all Ultimate Alien writers: This is not how you write Julie Yamamoto. I’ve had issues with her characterization all season, and while I still believe that “The Flame Keepers’ Circle” is the worst of the lot, this is really bad too.

The characterization fiasco starts with her having a tennis tournament in Europe. Ben goes to see her off at the airport when Gwen turns off the police scanner, which reveals that Ssserpent is on the loose and is believed to have a hostage. Both Gwen and Julie are against Ben going and putting his heroic obligations over his boyfriendic obligations. Yes, because I’m sure Little Timmy the Hostage will be just fine in the clutches of an evil snake-man. So she’s pissed when Ben goes to fight Ssserpent and go rescue the hypothetical Little Timmy.

He’s rescued from Ssserpent by a second Julie, who is also not the Julie we know and love. Because she’s ultra-subservient to Ben and puts all of his desires ahead of hers. And is trying to kill Gwen and Kevin for getting in the way. It turns out that this Julie is actually Elena. Who is dead. And comprised entirely of Hive Drones. Since she’s pretty much a Cylon now, I’m going to call her Cylena, okay? Because this is not Elena either, and there’s at least a canonical basis behind this: the real Elena was destroyed by the Queen. Her entire body no longer exists because she sacrificed herself to save Ben. So all that remains is a memory held by the Queen. And given that she no longer has any desires of her own—Stan Berkowitz, step away from the Yasuko Kobayashi Kamen Rider series!—she can’t be the same person who was manipulated by her desires. See? Cylena.

But what grates me is this. These are not Julie and Elena. Okay? Julie Yamamoto is a brave, wonderful young woman who is willing to risk herself even though she has no powers to help Ben. She swore to stand by him when his identity was revealed. Now, this does not mean she puts her own desires above his. Hell no. “Pet Project” and “Don’t Fear the Repo” were all about her trying to balance her desire to keep Ship with Ben’s apathy toward the little guy. She’s not afraid to tease him when his ego is inflated, but she knows that he’s got a good heart and he’s doing all he can—especially since half the time, it’s Ben who seems to be sacrificing his desires in order to save the world.

And Elena is extremely tough, but she cares about Ben more than almost anything else in the world—the exception being her father. She’ll lie, she’ll keep secrets, yes. But she’s afraid of hurting him. I can forgive “Revenge of the Swarm” when they reveal just how lost she is, but if we’re supposed to take that she’s the anti-Julie by sacrificing her own desires for Ben’s sake when Julie won’t? I hope the writers take a long look at Julie in Alien Force and Elena in Alien Swarm. “Revenge of the Swarm” even gave them a halfway decent scene together where Julie’s trying to reason with Elena, and Elena even smiles at her when she dies, indicating that had things gone differently, the two might have become friends.

Finally, a letter to the episode’s writer, Stan Berkowitz: Why? Why am I forever complaining about your Ben 10 episodes? You wrote Justice League: The New Frontier. You wrote “A Better World” and “The Savage Time.” “The Late Mr. Kent,” “Future Shock,” “Rebirth, part 2”—all episodes I loved of the DCAU. You even wrote an episode of Power Rangers SPD, the one where the Rangers successfully manage to get a suspect to crack and confess when left alone with the Green Ranger when he’s babbling a mile a minute! Is it just that you don’t get the Ben 10 cast? If so, why do you keep writing for it? You consistently have the characters carrying the Idiot Ball, plotlines are full of unnecessary complications, and nothing ever feels satisfying. “Revenge of the Swarm” was a great episode—it left me with mixed feelings in a good way. It felt like your work on the DCAU. But it was the exception to the rule in Ben 10. Please, Mr. Berkowitz. Don’t make me forget you’re an amazing writer again.

Comments

[galistar07.livejournal.com]

You're not the only person who was disappointed with them portraying the girl's personalities in this episode. Sheesh, Julie and Gwen both know that saving and protecting people lives is important and that's what Ben does. But why? Why in heaven's name are they portrayed like this? Like they think "Oh, relationship is more important so if you want to be my good (boy)friend, you'd better support me first!" And it's not just them, but Gwen's handicapped friend who played the piano, too, back in that old episode about the life of Gwen.

Okay, I like Julie, but the way these guys portrayed her in their scripts lately is starting to bug me, causing me to dislike Julie. And that, I do not like at all!