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akinoameThe story opens at the same miniature golf course from “Ghost Town,” which made me wonder for a minute or two if Cartoon Network was rerunning Alien Force. But no, Kevin’s human and using his powers to make a golf club. Why not? Ben, as usual, is goofing off and cheats by going Brainstorm and using his advanced brain to calculate the physics to get a hole-in-one on the first try in a difficult course. Really, Ben? You were terrified of flunking physics back in “Good Copy, Bad Copy,” and you never once thought to use Brainstorm to study? Fail. Naturally, he wins, and Julie turns out to be hypercompetitive as all hell, which is hilarious. But as all things do, the fun ends when someone shows up to try to kill Ben—in this case, a Techadon robot (“The Gauntlet,” “Primus”). Ben tries to defeat it as Goop just like he did with the very first one, but it turns out to have learned from that incident and kicks his butt. Stranger still, it’s gunning for him, ignoring Gwen and Kevin (and Julie, who was ready to destroy it with her golf club from hell, but Gwen clearly didn’t want her to take all the glory). The team finally manages to destroy it, and Kevin takes its black box for analysis—and totally not because he’s greedy and has a buyer lined up already, nope! Meanwhile, as Ben’s worrying about who’s out to kill him now, Julie’s more worried about scheduling a rematch because if Ben doesn’t lose to her in golf soon, she’s going to be the first in line to kill him. Scared of you.
Gwen manages to rescue Ben from his hypercompetitive girlfriend, and Ben admits that he’s confused why she’s so tsundere about losing. Gwen explains that it’s only natural, given she’s a tennis player—though, truth be told, I’ve never seen her go after any tennis players she’s lost against and look like the real threat of the season—and then adds that Julie’s just annoyed that Ben doesn’t take things seriously. Even though he works hard to master everything he’s accomplished, he makes everything look so easy. I’m sorry, I just realized that Ben really is Kamen Rider Decade. The one thing that isn’t easy is killing those Techadons, since another one shows up. Rath faces off against it in what is easily the best moment in the episode, culminating in the destruction of Ben’s real one true love, the Mr. Smoothy. Though, to be honest? Several times throughout this episode, I was going, “I hope there was nobody inside there!” since there is an awful lot of property destruction and at least one innocent bystander nearly dies.
It takes time for the team to defeat it, but they do, and Kevin gives them terrible news. The Techadons are custom-built, ordered by someone with a lot of cash and specifically designed to target Ben. Even worse, each learns from his fighting style, so none of them can be defeated the same way. On top of all that, each is stronger than the last, and they won’t stop until Ben is dead. They can’t track down the weapons masters who created the Techadons, but they can track down the factory making them, and Gwen can track down the buyer after Kevin challenges her by saying it’s impossible. She heads to the fake Mos Eisley from “The Con of Rath” and finds the only villain rich enough to afford this custom job, Vulkanus. Who is drinking through a crazy straw. I’m not making this up. She starts yelling at him before Argit butts in, pointing out to Vulkanus that if it were him, he’d want to head down to Earth and make sure he was getting what he paid for: Ben Tennyson dead. Convinced, Vulkanus heads off, and Gwen pays Argit for the help. That’s pretty awesome, to be honest—she hired a guy she can’t stand just so she could con Vulkanus into going to Earth so she could save her cousin. Why doesn’t she get more focus episodes again?
Meanwhile on Earth, Kevin and Ben find the factory—right in the middle of downtown Bellwood. They’re not even trying for subtlety anymore, are they? The thing is shielded so Kevin can’t absorb it and Big Chill can’t faze through it, and its defenses give them hell before another Techadon is released. Even Ultimate Big Chill is no match for it, and after civilians are nearly killed in the chaos, he’s forced to lure it to the Abandoned Warehouse District—no lie, Ben specifically mentions that it’s empty, and it’s an entire district of warehouses. It’s the bizarrely genre savvy Angel Grove city planning at work. He’s still unable to fight it as Ultimate Big Chill, though Gwen arrives and Vulkanus is watching the show. Using their brains, the team realizes that the Techadons are locking onto Ben through some unchanging visual cue, and Ben demorphs and wraps his jacket around his wrist to hide the Ultimatrix, thereby rendering it “blind.” Vulkanus is pissed, and the team goes up to the roof to taunt him, Kevin clapping him on the back as he leaves to slip his ID mask (season 3 of Alien Force) on his back, creating an Ultimatrix symbol per Ben’s instructions. The Techadon locks on, and as the team steps back, it starts firing at Vulkanus, who is forced to flee. Ready to go home, Ben tosses Gwen his keys to drive him home (resolving a pointless subplot that I completely glossed over).
This episode was good, but I feel like it tried to do too much in a single episode. If it focused only on the Techadon plot, it would have been great. But then they bog it down with two subplots: first, Ben’s blasé attitude toward everything and the way things just come so easily to him now, and second, that Gwen wants a car. Really. This is the subplot. Actually, it’s slightly more of a running gag, given how many cars get blown up this episode—more than a Transformers movie—and Gwen just complains a few times that she wants to have her own car, though Ben promises she can drive his and tosses her the keys at the end. But this subplot is completely disconnected from everything. At what point are we supposed to see that it’s a big issue that Gwen doesn’t get to drive much? In “Video Games,” her driving test was actually a big part, given that Ben’s car was targeted by the Omnidroid and she had to help drive them past it during one major scene. Here, it really doesn’t fit.
The other main subplot is one that ties into the general feel I’m getting this season: lack of meaty character development. In this episode, we see Ben’s flippant attitude toward everything being addressed and challenged, but ultimately not resolved. Is this more realistic? To be honest, yes. People don’t change easily. But my question is why bring it up if you’re not going to resolve things even a little? The solution to the Techadon problem was so ridiculously easy (hide the Ultimatrix, put an ID mask “kick me” sign on Vulkanus’s back) that it completely negates the apparent lesson that Ben struggles with things and he shouldn’t treat everything so flippantly. It’s like stressing teamwork in Power Rangers, Digimon, or any other team-oriented show but ultimately leaving it up to the leader anyway (I’m looking at you, Digimon Frontier).
I noticed last episode that my reviews lately weren’t focusing on character development at all, the way they used to, and I thought it was just a transitional side-effect from writing the mini-reviews of Ryuki this summer, where I had to focus on untangling a very complicated plot as well as the character development. But now I realize that it’s more a matter of season two of Ultimate Alien just lacking in character development. We’ve pretty much reached the pinnacle of Kevin’s character, and anything else implied with Gwen and Ben just isn’t here. Instead, they’ve focused exclusively on plot, which is slightly disappointing given the dual concentration on plot and character the previous season.
And overall, I feel like there’s just too many subplots going on since Alien Force that they’re rushing to resolve in Ultimate Alien. The Forever Knights plot, the character-specific plots for the oneshot episodes (Vulkanus, Simian, the upcoming Albedo episode)—all of this is going on at the same time, and it’s making things seem too crowded, especially this season. Now, yes, I enjoy complicated plots; as I mentioned before, I’m reviewing my favorite Kamen Rider series, Ryuki, which features a ton of characters (at least 13, not counting the main villain and the various members of the support staff) and a plot broken up so that each character is holding a piece of the puzzle, and it doesn’t come together until the very end and after you’ve watched it multiple times (Ren’s backstory, Shinji’s knowledge of the time travel, Yui’s secret past, ORE Journal’s quest for Kanzaki and what happened to all of the Monster victims…). It’s incredibly complex, which is a whole ‘nother monster from “complicated.” The plot threads in Ryuki are running concurrently, and only a few times does anybody realize that they’re all working the same case—a good example would be episode 12, when Yui’s looking around her brother’s old lab and trying to learn what experiment he’d been running a year ago, and all of a sudden Ren walks in, remembering that his fiancée had nearly been killed in that experiment. It comes together, which the Ben 10 subplots don’t. Sure, it’s understandable—each of these villains has their own agenda and not all of them want to kill Ben. Some of them want to kill Gwen. Some have issues with Kevin. And bringing them together for a common purpose doesn’t work, as seen in “Hit ‘Em Where They Live.” But the other subplots like Ben’s fame or his issues with Julie or now something major like the Forever Knights killing aliens on Earth, and possibly killing one of his former students? These don’t come together, and they’re mostly left to the side when they try to resolve another subplot. It took seven episodes into the season to establish the main plot of the Forever Knights, and nothing before that alluded to the major plot of Old George and the Lucubra (at least, I think the Lucubra’s going to be the main monster at the end of the season—again, I can’t tell what’s going on with all these subplots). It’s something I hope they resolve in the fourth series—just telling a more cohesive story.
“Greetings From Techadon” was written by Charlotte Fullerton
Gwen manages to rescue Ben from his hypercompetitive girlfriend, and Ben admits that he’s confused why she’s so tsundere about losing. Gwen explains that it’s only natural, given she’s a tennis player—though, truth be told, I’ve never seen her go after any tennis players she’s lost against and look like the real threat of the season—and then adds that Julie’s just annoyed that Ben doesn’t take things seriously. Even though he works hard to master everything he’s accomplished, he makes everything look so easy. I’m sorry, I just realized that Ben really is Kamen Rider Decade. The one thing that isn’t easy is killing those Techadons, since another one shows up. Rath faces off against it in what is easily the best moment in the episode, culminating in the destruction of Ben’s real one true love, the Mr. Smoothy. Though, to be honest? Several times throughout this episode, I was going, “I hope there was nobody inside there!” since there is an awful lot of property destruction and at least one innocent bystander nearly dies.
It takes time for the team to defeat it, but they do, and Kevin gives them terrible news. The Techadons are custom-built, ordered by someone with a lot of cash and specifically designed to target Ben. Even worse, each learns from his fighting style, so none of them can be defeated the same way. On top of all that, each is stronger than the last, and they won’t stop until Ben is dead. They can’t track down the weapons masters who created the Techadons, but they can track down the factory making them, and Gwen can track down the buyer after Kevin challenges her by saying it’s impossible. She heads to the fake Mos Eisley from “The Con of Rath” and finds the only villain rich enough to afford this custom job, Vulkanus. Who is drinking through a crazy straw. I’m not making this up. She starts yelling at him before Argit butts in, pointing out to Vulkanus that if it were him, he’d want to head down to Earth and make sure he was getting what he paid for: Ben Tennyson dead. Convinced, Vulkanus heads off, and Gwen pays Argit for the help. That’s pretty awesome, to be honest—she hired a guy she can’t stand just so she could con Vulkanus into going to Earth so she could save her cousin. Why doesn’t she get more focus episodes again?
Meanwhile on Earth, Kevin and Ben find the factory—right in the middle of downtown Bellwood. They’re not even trying for subtlety anymore, are they? The thing is shielded so Kevin can’t absorb it and Big Chill can’t faze through it, and its defenses give them hell before another Techadon is released. Even Ultimate Big Chill is no match for it, and after civilians are nearly killed in the chaos, he’s forced to lure it to the Abandoned Warehouse District—no lie, Ben specifically mentions that it’s empty, and it’s an entire district of warehouses. It’s the bizarrely genre savvy Angel Grove city planning at work. He’s still unable to fight it as Ultimate Big Chill, though Gwen arrives and Vulkanus is watching the show. Using their brains, the team realizes that the Techadons are locking onto Ben through some unchanging visual cue, and Ben demorphs and wraps his jacket around his wrist to hide the Ultimatrix, thereby rendering it “blind.” Vulkanus is pissed, and the team goes up to the roof to taunt him, Kevin clapping him on the back as he leaves to slip his ID mask (season 3 of Alien Force) on his back, creating an Ultimatrix symbol per Ben’s instructions. The Techadon locks on, and as the team steps back, it starts firing at Vulkanus, who is forced to flee. Ready to go home, Ben tosses Gwen his keys to drive him home (resolving a pointless subplot that I completely glossed over).
This episode was good, but I feel like it tried to do too much in a single episode. If it focused only on the Techadon plot, it would have been great. But then they bog it down with two subplots: first, Ben’s blasé attitude toward everything and the way things just come so easily to him now, and second, that Gwen wants a car. Really. This is the subplot. Actually, it’s slightly more of a running gag, given how many cars get blown up this episode—more than a Transformers movie—and Gwen just complains a few times that she wants to have her own car, though Ben promises she can drive his and tosses her the keys at the end. But this subplot is completely disconnected from everything. At what point are we supposed to see that it’s a big issue that Gwen doesn’t get to drive much? In “Video Games,” her driving test was actually a big part, given that Ben’s car was targeted by the Omnidroid and she had to help drive them past it during one major scene. Here, it really doesn’t fit.
The other main subplot is one that ties into the general feel I’m getting this season: lack of meaty character development. In this episode, we see Ben’s flippant attitude toward everything being addressed and challenged, but ultimately not resolved. Is this more realistic? To be honest, yes. People don’t change easily. But my question is why bring it up if you’re not going to resolve things even a little? The solution to the Techadon problem was so ridiculously easy (hide the Ultimatrix, put an ID mask “kick me” sign on Vulkanus’s back) that it completely negates the apparent lesson that Ben struggles with things and he shouldn’t treat everything so flippantly. It’s like stressing teamwork in Power Rangers, Digimon, or any other team-oriented show but ultimately leaving it up to the leader anyway (I’m looking at you, Digimon Frontier).
I noticed last episode that my reviews lately weren’t focusing on character development at all, the way they used to, and I thought it was just a transitional side-effect from writing the mini-reviews of Ryuki this summer, where I had to focus on untangling a very complicated plot as well as the character development. But now I realize that it’s more a matter of season two of Ultimate Alien just lacking in character development. We’ve pretty much reached the pinnacle of Kevin’s character, and anything else implied with Gwen and Ben just isn’t here. Instead, they’ve focused exclusively on plot, which is slightly disappointing given the dual concentration on plot and character the previous season.
And overall, I feel like there’s just too many subplots going on since Alien Force that they’re rushing to resolve in Ultimate Alien. The Forever Knights plot, the character-specific plots for the oneshot episodes (Vulkanus, Simian, the upcoming Albedo episode)—all of this is going on at the same time, and it’s making things seem too crowded, especially this season. Now, yes, I enjoy complicated plots; as I mentioned before, I’m reviewing my favorite Kamen Rider series, Ryuki, which features a ton of characters (at least 13, not counting the main villain and the various members of the support staff) and a plot broken up so that each character is holding a piece of the puzzle, and it doesn’t come together until the very end and after you’ve watched it multiple times (Ren’s backstory, Shinji’s knowledge of the time travel, Yui’s secret past, ORE Journal’s quest for Kanzaki and what happened to all of the Monster victims…). It’s incredibly complex, which is a whole ‘nother monster from “complicated.” The plot threads in Ryuki are running concurrently, and only a few times does anybody realize that they’re all working the same case—a good example would be episode 12, when Yui’s looking around her brother’s old lab and trying to learn what experiment he’d been running a year ago, and all of a sudden Ren walks in, remembering that his fiancée had nearly been killed in that experiment. It comes together, which the Ben 10 subplots don’t. Sure, it’s understandable—each of these villains has their own agenda and not all of them want to kill Ben. Some of them want to kill Gwen. Some have issues with Kevin. And bringing them together for a common purpose doesn’t work, as seen in “Hit ‘Em Where They Live.” But the other subplots like Ben’s fame or his issues with Julie or now something major like the Forever Knights killing aliens on Earth, and possibly killing one of his former students? These don’t come together, and they’re mostly left to the side when they try to resolve another subplot. It took seven episodes into the season to establish the main plot of the Forever Knights, and nothing before that alluded to the major plot of Old George and the Lucubra (at least, I think the Lucubra’s going to be the main monster at the end of the season—again, I can’t tell what’s going on with all these subplots). It’s something I hope they resolve in the fourth series—just telling a more cohesive story.
“Greetings From Techadon” was written by Charlotte Fullerton