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akinoameTo be perfectly honest, the story focuses more on the Vreedle brothers more than the heroes. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin are simply fighting against them, mainly against Ma Vreedle, who is so dangerous that Kevin fears her. This leads to a hilarious moment when he asks Ben just who would be stupid enough not to fear her, only to realize who he’s talking to and groan, “Aw man!” Ladies and gentlemen, this is why Kevin should have his own show.
But ultimately, the story is a question of loyalties, specifically family loyalties. Octagon and Rhomboid are not at all loved by their mother, who berates them to their faces (for being the result of a failed batch of cloning mix—apparently Vreedles reproduce asexually via SCIENCE!, which probably resulted in a mass sigh of “Thank GOD” from the fandom) and forces them to go against their attempts at a straight-and-narrow lifestyle to help her with her scheme. She creates a younger brother, dubbed “Pretty Boy,” who I’m going to say right now: he looks oddly like how Ben 10 would handle Dudley Dursley. So Octagon and Boid, who are flatout emotionally abused (and at times, physically—seriously, throwing a bomb on your sons counts as child abuse) by their mother and are essentially being thrown out in favor of the new little brother, have to choose between their love (well, fear) of mom and their training as Plumbers in “Enemy of My Enemy” last season. Ultimately, once Gwen rescues them from their mother’s attempt to kill them, they have their sudden and inevitable betrayal of Ma and decide that genocide is bad. Yes, this is a thing with this series.
Fighting is pretty creative this episode, such as Gwen having to basically pull an Ankh and throw aCell Medal coin to Kevin to absorb so he can hold off a laser blast bullets-and-bracelets style (note to self: Kamen Rider OOO crossover where Ankh possesses Gwen and Kevin somehow either becomes OOO or absorbs Core Medals by mistake. Will be hilarious). Though Kevin is a fail Wonder Woman in this case. Ben spends much of the fight quite literally tied to Ma’s apron strings (I love you guys for your visual pun) but manages to show he’s the quick-witted Ben we all know and love by tricking her into freeing his wrist, insisting that his watch doubles as a camera (I’m actually going to resist another Ben = Decade reference here because I’m actually impressed at this), then going Big Chill to escape. While it’s not the strongest episode by far, I have to say that it really proves that Matt Wayne knows his way around these characters, and he knows how to do three things:
First, he knows how to write Gwen. She manages to get through to the Vreedle boys, but it doesn’t feel like she’s being shoehorned into the messiah role.
Second, he knows how to balance Ben’s personality. Sure, he may come off as dumb sometimes, but he’s not stupid, and the whole bit with the watch proves it. Likewise, he’s not overly serious like fans complained in season 1 of Alien Force. He even references being mom to the Baby Chills, though he's forced to realize he's a terrible mother when even Ma points out he abandoned them to wherever.
And finally, he knows how to balance Kevin’s role in the plot. Sure, I love the new Kevin. But I feel too much that he’s taking over the show, in a way. That it should be about him instead. That we really should have a Kevin-centric show independent of the other two. He’s become too strong a character that he’s eclipsing the others. So his role in this is fairly minor, and he feels a little more like classic Alien Force Kevin, but not to the extent that it feels like derailment of all the development he went through this series.
“Mother of All Vreedles” was written by Matt Wayne.
But ultimately, the story is a question of loyalties, specifically family loyalties. Octagon and Rhomboid are not at all loved by their mother, who berates them to their faces (for being the result of a failed batch of cloning mix—apparently Vreedles reproduce asexually via SCIENCE!, which probably resulted in a mass sigh of “Thank GOD” from the fandom) and forces them to go against their attempts at a straight-and-narrow lifestyle to help her with her scheme. She creates a younger brother, dubbed “Pretty Boy,” who I’m going to say right now: he looks oddly like how Ben 10 would handle Dudley Dursley. So Octagon and Boid, who are flatout emotionally abused (and at times, physically—seriously, throwing a bomb on your sons counts as child abuse) by their mother and are essentially being thrown out in favor of the new little brother, have to choose between their love (well, fear) of mom and their training as Plumbers in “Enemy of My Enemy” last season. Ultimately, once Gwen rescues them from their mother’s attempt to kill them, they have their sudden and inevitable betrayal of Ma and decide that genocide is bad. Yes, this is a thing with this series.
Fighting is pretty creative this episode, such as Gwen having to basically pull an Ankh and throw a
First, he knows how to write Gwen. She manages to get through to the Vreedle boys, but it doesn’t feel like she’s being shoehorned into the messiah role.
Second, he knows how to balance Ben’s personality. Sure, he may come off as dumb sometimes, but he’s not stupid, and the whole bit with the watch proves it. Likewise, he’s not overly serious like fans complained in season 1 of Alien Force. He even references being mom to the Baby Chills, though he's forced to realize he's a terrible mother when even Ma points out he abandoned them to wherever.
And finally, he knows how to balance Kevin’s role in the plot. Sure, I love the new Kevin. But I feel too much that he’s taking over the show, in a way. That it should be about him instead. That we really should have a Kevin-centric show independent of the other two. He’s become too strong a character that he’s eclipsing the others. So his role in this is fairly minor, and he feels a little more like classic Alien Force Kevin, but not to the extent that it feels like derailment of all the development he went through this series.
“Mother of All Vreedles” was written by Matt Wayne.
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Date: 2011-12-04 11:48 pm (UTC)Great mini-review again, by the way.