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akinoameThere is extremely bad news coming for Emperor Milius of the Incursian Empire. His daughter, Princess Attea, has just been kidnapped by the bounty hunter Sevenseven and taken to the nearest inhabited planet. And he wants her back, and he's willing to hold the planet hostage to do so. Just one little problem: that planet is Earth.
And all of this is unknown to the people of Earth, including Team 10, who are at Mr. Smoothy, trying to decide what to do. When Kevin and Gwen disagree, they turn to Ben for a decision, but just as he comes up with an answer, Incursian warriors beam down in front of them, pointing weapons at them. Their leader is Raff, an old friend of Kevin's who is looking for help to save the Princess and keep his job as the majordomo to the Emperor--and by "keep his job," he means "stay alive." It turns out to be an offer they can't refuse when Kevin's radio picks up the Emperor's message that they must hand over Attea or he'll blow up the planet with his Conquest Ray.
They immediately locate the Princess at the Grande Madre Dam, where she's fighting back against Sevenseven. But before they can go into action, Sevenseven's already caused massive damage to the dam, and it's exploding. Ben watches as his friends are all about to die in the flood, so he searches through the Omnitrix to find any alien that could save them, and he decides it's about time to try Alien X. Sure enough, the new alien is incredible, reversing the flood and repairing the dam. Kevin and Gwen are thoroughly impressed, deciding Alien X is the new default hero with that kind of power. But when Attea is kidnapped right in front of them, they realize there is a big problem--Alien X isn't responding at all.
The story splits into two directions as Kevin and Gwen desperately try to escape the wrath of Emperor Milius and save the planet (all the while carrying Alien X's unresponsive body), and Ben explores Alien X's mind, finding two powerful beings representing two sides of his personality: Serena, the Voice of Love and Compassion, and Bellicus, the Voice of Rage and Aggression. But as always, there's a catch: Alien X is a trifold being, and Ben is his Voice of Reason--anything Ben wants him to do, one of the other two has to agree on. Serena and Bellicus have been in a deadlock for millions of years, eternally arguing between compassion and aggression. Now that there's finally a third personality to settle their conflicts, they don't plan to let the Voice of Reason go. So Ben must try and convince them to save the planet, all the while the clock is ticking.
Meanwhile, things aren't going well for Kevin and Gwen either. Milius doesn't plan to destroy the Earth while there's still a chance Attea's there, but he has no qualms about using Pluto as a demonstration. Worse, Sevenseven finally made his ransom demand, and at the trade, it turns out Attea bribed him not long ago to help her overthrow her father. And she still wants to blow up the Earth as fireworks for her coronation, sparing Kevin, Gwen, and Alien X for their help and to serve as attractions in her zoo. With the countdown really underway, Ben is working his hardest to move Bellicus and Serena into action, finally pissing off Bellicus enough to vote to save Earth. But Ben's not happy with that--Alien X may be one of the most powerful being in the universe, but he's seen now that the guy is useless, and there are nine other aliens who can do the job just as well and without all this deliberation. He finally manages to convince them to let him go, switching to Swampfire's morph, which is just what he needs to break out of the cage and subdue the Incursians and Sevenseven. The Emperor has also broken out, overthrows Attea, and takes back the detonation button for the Conquest Ray. As he arrests his daughter, he agrees to leave Earth alone as thanks for all the help Team 10 has provided. Now that the Earth is safe and they're back home, Ben has one last decision: to avoid Alien X's morph at all cost, since for all that power, it still doesn't outweigh the risks.
Of Ben's thirty alien forms, there always seems to be a problem with the one in each set, and it typically involves a personality clash. Ghostfreak had a genetic memory that always threatened to take over Ben. Eon was similar in Race Against Time, deactivating the safety in the Omnitrix that prevented the alien personalities from overwhelming Ben's. While presumably this has been overcome, judging by the way Ben finally responded to Gwen's pleas to remember, Ben swore off the form. And finally, Alien X is less of a person as much as he is a government, requiring a majority vote before any action can be taken. Indeed, his first course of action occurs with the exclamation "Seconded! Water-stopping motion carried!" It is this set-up that Bellicus and Serena see as a strength while Ben sees as a massive weakness.
Part of what makes Alien X so weak is his personalities. Bellicus is simply rage and anger, and Kevin Conroy pulls every bit of Batman (or at least old Bruce in Batman Beyond) when he yells at Ben. Extinction doesn't matter to him--"They probably had it coming," he says regarding the imminent destruction of Earth, "It's not even a planet! It's a dwarf planet!" he says regarding the destruction of Pluto, and he argued against saving the dinosaurs and even tries to convince Ben to see his point of view on the tabled motion. Ben argues that being rage and aggression, Bellicus should be pissed at the injustice of the Incursians trying to destroy a completely helpless planet that is innocent in Sevenseven's kidnapping plot and has no way of knowing that there's something akin to the Death Star ready to fire on the planet. In the end, Bellicus seems more pissed off that Ben keeps needling him, and that's why he moves to save Earth.
Likewise, Serena's compassion means that she doesn't have true motivation for her arguments of salvation. She is kind to Ben, but she only votes in his favor because she sees that he's upset, and she's trying to make him feel better. Her arguments for salvation fall just as flat as Bellicus's arguments to keep out of it and allow the mass exterminations: she feels bad about the Earth being in danger, and she pities Pluto for being destroyed and being demoted from planet-status too. It simply does not occur to her that Earth is Ben's home and that there are at least six billion people who know nothing about the danger they're facing and are about to be exterminated if she and the others don't do one stupidly simple operation to prevent that, be it getting the Incursians too far away from Earth to be a threat or disabling the Conquest Ray. As Ben points out, they are too focused on following protocol to do anything of importance. Furthermore, they expect Ben to follow the same rules they do--they expect that as the Voice of Reason, he should be impartial and listen to arguments or make arguments to help settle matters. But Ben is not a flat allegory of reason--he is a multi-faceted personality who can't get his mind around these politics and sees that ultimately, he's going to have to be the one to solve this problem.
And as for the Incursian Empire, it definitely subverts the traditional view of an evil empire. They act more as a glorified mob than anything else, and Milius's and Attea's accents definitely fit that. There is no love lost in the royal family, seeing that both Attea and apparently her mother attempted to overthrow Milius, and he's actually proud of Attea's attempts, saying that one day she may very well do that, but for now, she's going to prison. Furthermore, the Incursian race as a whole appears to have a sensitive sense of smell, as Kevin's burned rubber armor knocked out one guard, and Swampfire's smell (previously referenced in "Ben 10 Returns, Part One") knocks out several, and even Attea needs to hold her nose.
Overall, this episode wasn't worth the one-month wait and the hype Cartoon Network built up, making me glad I decided to watch the leaked episode early. However, it is still very enjoyable and utterly hilarious. Sevenseven, who is supposedly an improvement over Sixsix from the original series, turns out to be a complete wimp when Swampfire gets in a good punch, breaking a little bit of his helmet. Where Sixsix in Secret of the Omnitrix had gone berserk after his helmet had been destroyed, Sevenseven ran off with some frantic-sounding growls--either crying or saying that he wasn't being paid nearly enough for this. We also see why Kevin was so reluctant to help Raff--the guy is a hopeless suck-up, switching loyalties at the drop of a hat, or the overthrow of an emperor, just to save his neck. And using a real-life Buttmonkey, the dwarf planet Pluto was destroyed by the Conquest Ray (to which Kevin tries to lighten the mood, saying that Neptune's orbit should smooth out now), and then Bellicus goes so far as to mock its status as a dwarf planet. Sorry, Pluto. You've not only been stripped of your rank, but you've also been blown up like Alderaan and treated like a joke. But the ultimate source of hilarity is Alien X. One of the most powerful beings in the universe is being carried around by Kevin and shoved in the trunk. I swear, I half-expected Kevin to use him as a baseball bat at some point.
"X = Ben + 2" was written by Matt Wayne. Alien X was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal (Ben), Kevin Conroy (Bellicus), and Vicki Lewis (Serena). Raff was voiced by James Arnold Taylor. Emperor Milius was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and Princess Attea was voiced by Tara Strong. Sevenseven (growling, at least) was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
And all of this is unknown to the people of Earth, including Team 10, who are at Mr. Smoothy, trying to decide what to do. When Kevin and Gwen disagree, they turn to Ben for a decision, but just as he comes up with an answer, Incursian warriors beam down in front of them, pointing weapons at them. Their leader is Raff, an old friend of Kevin's who is looking for help to save the Princess and keep his job as the majordomo to the Emperor--and by "keep his job," he means "stay alive." It turns out to be an offer they can't refuse when Kevin's radio picks up the Emperor's message that they must hand over Attea or he'll blow up the planet with his Conquest Ray.
They immediately locate the Princess at the Grande Madre Dam, where she's fighting back against Sevenseven. But before they can go into action, Sevenseven's already caused massive damage to the dam, and it's exploding. Ben watches as his friends are all about to die in the flood, so he searches through the Omnitrix to find any alien that could save them, and he decides it's about time to try Alien X. Sure enough, the new alien is incredible, reversing the flood and repairing the dam. Kevin and Gwen are thoroughly impressed, deciding Alien X is the new default hero with that kind of power. But when Attea is kidnapped right in front of them, they realize there is a big problem--Alien X isn't responding at all.
The story splits into two directions as Kevin and Gwen desperately try to escape the wrath of Emperor Milius and save the planet (all the while carrying Alien X's unresponsive body), and Ben explores Alien X's mind, finding two powerful beings representing two sides of his personality: Serena, the Voice of Love and Compassion, and Bellicus, the Voice of Rage and Aggression. But as always, there's a catch: Alien X is a trifold being, and Ben is his Voice of Reason--anything Ben wants him to do, one of the other two has to agree on. Serena and Bellicus have been in a deadlock for millions of years, eternally arguing between compassion and aggression. Now that there's finally a third personality to settle their conflicts, they don't plan to let the Voice of Reason go. So Ben must try and convince them to save the planet, all the while the clock is ticking.
Meanwhile, things aren't going well for Kevin and Gwen either. Milius doesn't plan to destroy the Earth while there's still a chance Attea's there, but he has no qualms about using Pluto as a demonstration. Worse, Sevenseven finally made his ransom demand, and at the trade, it turns out Attea bribed him not long ago to help her overthrow her father. And she still wants to blow up the Earth as fireworks for her coronation, sparing Kevin, Gwen, and Alien X for their help and to serve as attractions in her zoo. With the countdown really underway, Ben is working his hardest to move Bellicus and Serena into action, finally pissing off Bellicus enough to vote to save Earth. But Ben's not happy with that--Alien X may be one of the most powerful being in the universe, but he's seen now that the guy is useless, and there are nine other aliens who can do the job just as well and without all this deliberation. He finally manages to convince them to let him go, switching to Swampfire's morph, which is just what he needs to break out of the cage and subdue the Incursians and Sevenseven. The Emperor has also broken out, overthrows Attea, and takes back the detonation button for the Conquest Ray. As he arrests his daughter, he agrees to leave Earth alone as thanks for all the help Team 10 has provided. Now that the Earth is safe and they're back home, Ben has one last decision: to avoid Alien X's morph at all cost, since for all that power, it still doesn't outweigh the risks.
Of Ben's thirty alien forms, there always seems to be a problem with the one in each set, and it typically involves a personality clash. Ghostfreak had a genetic memory that always threatened to take over Ben. Eon was similar in Race Against Time, deactivating the safety in the Omnitrix that prevented the alien personalities from overwhelming Ben's. While presumably this has been overcome, judging by the way Ben finally responded to Gwen's pleas to remember, Ben swore off the form. And finally, Alien X is less of a person as much as he is a government, requiring a majority vote before any action can be taken. Indeed, his first course of action occurs with the exclamation "Seconded! Water-stopping motion carried!" It is this set-up that Bellicus and Serena see as a strength while Ben sees as a massive weakness.
Part of what makes Alien X so weak is his personalities. Bellicus is simply rage and anger, and Kevin Conroy pulls every bit of Batman (or at least old Bruce in Batman Beyond) when he yells at Ben. Extinction doesn't matter to him--"They probably had it coming," he says regarding the imminent destruction of Earth, "It's not even a planet! It's a dwarf planet!" he says regarding the destruction of Pluto, and he argued against saving the dinosaurs and even tries to convince Ben to see his point of view on the tabled motion. Ben argues that being rage and aggression, Bellicus should be pissed at the injustice of the Incursians trying to destroy a completely helpless planet that is innocent in Sevenseven's kidnapping plot and has no way of knowing that there's something akin to the Death Star ready to fire on the planet. In the end, Bellicus seems more pissed off that Ben keeps needling him, and that's why he moves to save Earth.
Likewise, Serena's compassion means that she doesn't have true motivation for her arguments of salvation. She is kind to Ben, but she only votes in his favor because she sees that he's upset, and she's trying to make him feel better. Her arguments for salvation fall just as flat as Bellicus's arguments to keep out of it and allow the mass exterminations: she feels bad about the Earth being in danger, and she pities Pluto for being destroyed and being demoted from planet-status too. It simply does not occur to her that Earth is Ben's home and that there are at least six billion people who know nothing about the danger they're facing and are about to be exterminated if she and the others don't do one stupidly simple operation to prevent that, be it getting the Incursians too far away from Earth to be a threat or disabling the Conquest Ray. As Ben points out, they are too focused on following protocol to do anything of importance. Furthermore, they expect Ben to follow the same rules they do--they expect that as the Voice of Reason, he should be impartial and listen to arguments or make arguments to help settle matters. But Ben is not a flat allegory of reason--he is a multi-faceted personality who can't get his mind around these politics and sees that ultimately, he's going to have to be the one to solve this problem.
And as for the Incursian Empire, it definitely subverts the traditional view of an evil empire. They act more as a glorified mob than anything else, and Milius's and Attea's accents definitely fit that. There is no love lost in the royal family, seeing that both Attea and apparently her mother attempted to overthrow Milius, and he's actually proud of Attea's attempts, saying that one day she may very well do that, but for now, she's going to prison. Furthermore, the Incursian race as a whole appears to have a sensitive sense of smell, as Kevin's burned rubber armor knocked out one guard, and Swampfire's smell (previously referenced in "Ben 10 Returns, Part One") knocks out several, and even Attea needs to hold her nose.
Overall, this episode wasn't worth the one-month wait and the hype Cartoon Network built up, making me glad I decided to watch the leaked episode early. However, it is still very enjoyable and utterly hilarious. Sevenseven, who is supposedly an improvement over Sixsix from the original series, turns out to be a complete wimp when Swampfire gets in a good punch, breaking a little bit of his helmet. Where Sixsix in Secret of the Omnitrix had gone berserk after his helmet had been destroyed, Sevenseven ran off with some frantic-sounding growls--either crying or saying that he wasn't being paid nearly enough for this. We also see why Kevin was so reluctant to help Raff--the guy is a hopeless suck-up, switching loyalties at the drop of a hat, or the overthrow of an emperor, just to save his neck. And using a real-life Buttmonkey, the dwarf planet Pluto was destroyed by the Conquest Ray (to which Kevin tries to lighten the mood, saying that Neptune's orbit should smooth out now), and then Bellicus goes so far as to mock its status as a dwarf planet. Sorry, Pluto. You've not only been stripped of your rank, but you've also been blown up like Alderaan and treated like a joke. But the ultimate source of hilarity is Alien X. One of the most powerful beings in the universe is being carried around by Kevin and shoved in the trunk. I swear, I half-expected Kevin to use him as a baseball bat at some point.
"X = Ben + 2" was written by Matt Wayne. Alien X was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal (Ben), Kevin Conroy (Bellicus), and Vicki Lewis (Serena). Raff was voiced by James Arnold Taylor. Emperor Milius was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and Princess Attea was voiced by Tara Strong. Sevenseven (growling, at least) was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
