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Salva nos, Domine: “The Flame Keepers’ Circle”
In a creepy carnival, a guy is charging five bucks to see one of his creatures in the freakshow. A religious man distributing flyers featuring a flame sigil gets a glimpse of the creature, but he’s chased off. Later, the carnie is adjusting the tank for his creature when a bunch of guys in bright gold Jaffa armor show up and start phase-shifting all over the place before knocking him out. They reveal their leader in a creepy red robe (read: their Prior), who looks on the creature in the tank with reverence. They believe it is their god, Dagon, returned to Earth to save us.
Spoiler alert: It’s Vilgax.
Julie brings Ben and Kevin to the office building HQ of the Esoterics, or the Flame Keepers, a religious group dedicated to charity and saving the world through sharing technology, who worship an alien god who brought technology to humankind and is to one day return to bring Earth to a glorious new age of peace.
Warning! Warning! Questioning religion and possibilities of a cult are the focus of the plot. Turn back. You are not qualified enough to touch this topic, Ben 10!
Julie believes that with her celebrity from being a pretty good tennis player (though as Ben points out, not exactly the highest on the list), she can generate enough awareness for their cause. Ben cynically, asshole-ishly, and accurately points out that it seems more like they’re using her to get him on board, since he’s much more of a celebrity. They meet the Conduit—which is essentially a Prior or the Doci if you followed the Ori arc of Stargate SG-1, but both Ben and Kevin are suspicious of the group’s intentions (since they think that they’re funneling all the donations into their own pockets), and when asked to join, Ben breaks into nervous laughter. Which of course, pisses Julie off. He tries to explain his case to her, especially since she’s sold on using alien technology to make a better world, but he argues about the Prime Directive and fails to get through to her. Later, at Burger Shack, he’s pissed off about this and argues to Gwen and Kevin that he thinks Julie’s gotten herself into a cult and he can’t seem to get through to her. But they get a notice of a stolen ship, and while Gwen and Kevin go off to take care of it, Ben decides to sneak into the Flame Keepers’ party and try to find out what’s behind the mysterious door with carvings of Cthulhu on it.
Spoiler alert: It’s Vilgax.
Ben taunts his ultimate enemy for getting himself stuck in an aquarium, and Vilgax explains that he survived the explosion of his ship in “The Final Battle” (though the animation shows the ship exploding in the air, which is wrong; it had exploded underwater) but he finds himself unable to shift back into his normal form or use his powers. I’m guessing it’s all the radiation from the ship’s fusion drive. While Ben confronts him, Vilgax summons the guards—apparently he’s developed telepathy since then? Ben holds them off, but he’s getting his ass kicked when he faces off against their phase-shifting. The Conduit shows up with Julie in tow, threatening to hurl her into the space between dimensions, and Ben surrenders. But Julie explains that the Conduit was never going to hurt her and they were just trying to get him to stop so he could see what they were doing. “Dagon” is supposed to be getting a ship that the Flame Keepers have acquired for him to return to his planet to get all sorts of awesome tech that he’s going to share to bring Earth into a glorious new era. Ben points out the total bullshit and repeats that this is his old enemy, Vilgax, who is every bit a benevolent god as Kevin is a fairy princess. Julie fails to take a hint, and Vilgax tells them all that Ben is their enemy and outright tells Julie that Ben is trying to hog all of the fame for himself.
I. Hate. This. Episode.
Gwen and Kevin show up and prove that they’ve found that ship they were talking about earlier and that it’s the one Vilgax planned to hijack. They sabotaged the engine, so it’s not going anywhere. The trio fights, gets their asses kicked, Julie finally realizes what side she’s on, and Ben shatters the tank by going Echo Echo. They escape, leaving Vilgax with his followers instead of calling the Plumbers or something, Ben promising to finish it another time. Meanwhile, one of the Flame Keepers has a brain and asks if maybe they’re not dealing with their great god Dagon and maybe it’s actually a galactic criminal conning them, but the Conduit finds his lack of faith disturbing and believes in Vilgax’s promise to make the Earth completely unrecognizable.
I can’t hide it. This episode utterly pissed me off. I know that I’ve been having problems with this half of the season as a whole, but this one episode just hit me so many times I’m seeing red and I don’t know where to start.
First off, you have the religious themes. While the Ben 10 sequels have been tackling hard issues like racism (Highbreed and Forever Knights), religion is not something you want to mess with on a kids’ show. Why? Well, because everyone has their own take on it. Some people are religious. Some aren’t. Some believe in a god, some believe in multiple gods, some follow teachings more than gods, some don’t believe in gods at all, and some can’t even explain to themselves what it is they believe. And kids are raised with this. Something that’s inflammatory enough with adults to result in wars going on to this day is not something you want to touch in a children’s show without extreme delicacy.
And they don’t bother with the delicacy. First, there’s the belief itself. The Flame Keepers believe that Dagon, an ancient alien, brought technology to Earth long ago and that he’ll return to bring more technology that they will use to bring peace to the planet. Such themes can be found in shows like Stargate or even in real-world religious beliefs today—for the sake of delicacy, I will not name any.
Julie comes to believe in the Old Wet Ones apparently very fast, given that we’ve never seen hide nor hair of her being involved in a religious charity. She believes strongly in saving the world through advanced alien technology and totally ignores Ben and Kevin’s reasonable warnings that there are things humans are not ready for and that there is a Prime Directive in place because these kinds of things have happened on other planets. Though it’s not like Ben argues it very well. I’ll come back to this in a bit.
Ben and Kevin insist that this group is a cult rather than a legitimate religious organization, and to be the devil’s advocate here, they never really show anything beyond “mistakenly worshipping Vilgax” as cultlike. See, if you look at them before they find Vilgax, there’s nothing that outright says these guys are evil. Ben has a bad feeling about their leader. Yeah, that’s going to hold water. Kevin suggests that these guys are corrupt and are keeping the money that their charities have raised, but there’s no evidence given. So they’re secretive and they believe in something that sounds hokey to Ben and Kevin. It doesn’t prove they’re a cult until they wind up getting conned by Vilgax.
And then we come into the characterization itself, and I’m mostly talking about Julie. When we’ve seen her before this episode, she’s been a strong but sweet girl who trusts Ben and has even fought at his side against some pretty dangerous enemies. She’s faced down the Highbreed, the Forever Knights, a bounty hunter, repo men, the fucking Hive Queen, and she knows just how dangerous Ben’s life is. So she’d know best that if he says “This is a bad idea,” it probably is. Hell, the Forever Knights and Queen Elena are a perfect example of how not everyone on Earth is altruistic enough to be trusted with advanced technology and/or that there are things that are currently beyond our comprehension and we should respect the Prime Directive.
But here, she absolutely refuses to listen to Ben and Kevin on reasonable issues. Sure, I can see where she gets defensive because it seems to be like they’re questioning her beliefs. But these are beliefs and a dedication to said beliefs that come out of nowhere. She seems focused on Ben’s fame, getting suckered into listening to Vilgax when he says that Ben is just jealous of what she’s able to do. Seriously, Julie? You’ve seen Ben do everything he can to help people. You’ve heard him rant about how hard it is to be him. You really think that he’s jealous just because he does enjoy the spotlight when he’s not getting tomatoes thrown at him?
If it were a clear explanation of the group brainwashing her, I’d buy it. But as I pointed out, there’s nothing about these guys’ actions that says they’re a cult beyond worshipping Vilgax and doing what he says. And we’re to assume that Julie’s involvement in them is recent, so there’s no time for her to get so deeply indoctrinated that she outright distrusts her friends even if they are a cult.
I just…I don’t know what to do. I loved Ultimate Alien before this. I’ve only been having serious problems with this half of the season. I keep hoping that we’ll go back to what I loved about it, but I’m not seeing it. And it hurts.
“The Flame Keepers’ Circle” was written by Brian Swenlin. James Remar returned as Vilgax, and John DiMaggio played the Conduit.
Spoiler alert: It’s Vilgax.
Julie brings Ben and Kevin to the office building HQ of the Esoterics, or the Flame Keepers, a religious group dedicated to charity and saving the world through sharing technology, who worship an alien god who brought technology to humankind and is to one day return to bring Earth to a glorious new age of peace.
Warning! Warning! Questioning religion and possibilities of a cult are the focus of the plot. Turn back. You are not qualified enough to touch this topic, Ben 10!
Julie believes that with her celebrity from being a pretty good tennis player (though as Ben points out, not exactly the highest on the list), she can generate enough awareness for their cause. Ben cynically, asshole-ishly, and accurately points out that it seems more like they’re using her to get him on board, since he’s much more of a celebrity. They meet the Conduit—which is essentially a Prior or the Doci if you followed the Ori arc of Stargate SG-1, but both Ben and Kevin are suspicious of the group’s intentions (since they think that they’re funneling all the donations into their own pockets), and when asked to join, Ben breaks into nervous laughter. Which of course, pisses Julie off. He tries to explain his case to her, especially since she’s sold on using alien technology to make a better world, but he argues about the Prime Directive and fails to get through to her. Later, at Burger Shack, he’s pissed off about this and argues to Gwen and Kevin that he thinks Julie’s gotten herself into a cult and he can’t seem to get through to her. But they get a notice of a stolen ship, and while Gwen and Kevin go off to take care of it, Ben decides to sneak into the Flame Keepers’ party and try to find out what’s behind the mysterious door with carvings of Cthulhu on it.
Spoiler alert: It’s Vilgax.
Ben taunts his ultimate enemy for getting himself stuck in an aquarium, and Vilgax explains that he survived the explosion of his ship in “The Final Battle” (though the animation shows the ship exploding in the air, which is wrong; it had exploded underwater) but he finds himself unable to shift back into his normal form or use his powers. I’m guessing it’s all the radiation from the ship’s fusion drive. While Ben confronts him, Vilgax summons the guards—apparently he’s developed telepathy since then? Ben holds them off, but he’s getting his ass kicked when he faces off against their phase-shifting. The Conduit shows up with Julie in tow, threatening to hurl her into the space between dimensions, and Ben surrenders. But Julie explains that the Conduit was never going to hurt her and they were just trying to get him to stop so he could see what they were doing. “Dagon” is supposed to be getting a ship that the Flame Keepers have acquired for him to return to his planet to get all sorts of awesome tech that he’s going to share to bring Earth into a glorious new era. Ben points out the total bullshit and repeats that this is his old enemy, Vilgax, who is every bit a benevolent god as Kevin is a fairy princess. Julie fails to take a hint, and Vilgax tells them all that Ben is their enemy and outright tells Julie that Ben is trying to hog all of the fame for himself.
I. Hate. This. Episode.
Gwen and Kevin show up and prove that they’ve found that ship they were talking about earlier and that it’s the one Vilgax planned to hijack. They sabotaged the engine, so it’s not going anywhere. The trio fights, gets their asses kicked, Julie finally realizes what side she’s on, and Ben shatters the tank by going Echo Echo. They escape, leaving Vilgax with his followers instead of calling the Plumbers or something, Ben promising to finish it another time. Meanwhile, one of the Flame Keepers has a brain and asks if maybe they’re not dealing with their great god Dagon and maybe it’s actually a galactic criminal conning them, but the Conduit finds his lack of faith disturbing and believes in Vilgax’s promise to make the Earth completely unrecognizable.
I can’t hide it. This episode utterly pissed me off. I know that I’ve been having problems with this half of the season as a whole, but this one episode just hit me so many times I’m seeing red and I don’t know where to start.
First off, you have the religious themes. While the Ben 10 sequels have been tackling hard issues like racism (Highbreed and Forever Knights), religion is not something you want to mess with on a kids’ show. Why? Well, because everyone has their own take on it. Some people are religious. Some aren’t. Some believe in a god, some believe in multiple gods, some follow teachings more than gods, some don’t believe in gods at all, and some can’t even explain to themselves what it is they believe. And kids are raised with this. Something that’s inflammatory enough with adults to result in wars going on to this day is not something you want to touch in a children’s show without extreme delicacy.
And they don’t bother with the delicacy. First, there’s the belief itself. The Flame Keepers believe that Dagon, an ancient alien, brought technology to Earth long ago and that he’ll return to bring more technology that they will use to bring peace to the planet. Such themes can be found in shows like Stargate or even in real-world religious beliefs today—for the sake of delicacy, I will not name any.
Julie comes to believe in the Old Wet Ones apparently very fast, given that we’ve never seen hide nor hair of her being involved in a religious charity. She believes strongly in saving the world through advanced alien technology and totally ignores Ben and Kevin’s reasonable warnings that there are things humans are not ready for and that there is a Prime Directive in place because these kinds of things have happened on other planets. Though it’s not like Ben argues it very well. I’ll come back to this in a bit.
Ben and Kevin insist that this group is a cult rather than a legitimate religious organization, and to be the devil’s advocate here, they never really show anything beyond “mistakenly worshipping Vilgax” as cultlike. See, if you look at them before they find Vilgax, there’s nothing that outright says these guys are evil. Ben has a bad feeling about their leader. Yeah, that’s going to hold water. Kevin suggests that these guys are corrupt and are keeping the money that their charities have raised, but there’s no evidence given. So they’re secretive and they believe in something that sounds hokey to Ben and Kevin. It doesn’t prove they’re a cult until they wind up getting conned by Vilgax.
And then we come into the characterization itself, and I’m mostly talking about Julie. When we’ve seen her before this episode, she’s been a strong but sweet girl who trusts Ben and has even fought at his side against some pretty dangerous enemies. She’s faced down the Highbreed, the Forever Knights, a bounty hunter, repo men, the fucking Hive Queen, and she knows just how dangerous Ben’s life is. So she’d know best that if he says “This is a bad idea,” it probably is. Hell, the Forever Knights and Queen Elena are a perfect example of how not everyone on Earth is altruistic enough to be trusted with advanced technology and/or that there are things that are currently beyond our comprehension and we should respect the Prime Directive.
But here, she absolutely refuses to listen to Ben and Kevin on reasonable issues. Sure, I can see where she gets defensive because it seems to be like they’re questioning her beliefs. But these are beliefs and a dedication to said beliefs that come out of nowhere. She seems focused on Ben’s fame, getting suckered into listening to Vilgax when he says that Ben is just jealous of what she’s able to do. Seriously, Julie? You’ve seen Ben do everything he can to help people. You’ve heard him rant about how hard it is to be him. You really think that he’s jealous just because he does enjoy the spotlight when he’s not getting tomatoes thrown at him?
If it were a clear explanation of the group brainwashing her, I’d buy it. But as I pointed out, there’s nothing about these guys’ actions that says they’re a cult beyond worshipping Vilgax and doing what he says. And we’re to assume that Julie’s involvement in them is recent, so there’s no time for her to get so deeply indoctrinated that she outright distrusts her friends even if they are a cult.
I just…I don’t know what to do. I loved Ultimate Alien before this. I’ve only been having serious problems with this half of the season. I keep hoping that we’ll go back to what I loved about it, but I’m not seeing it. And it hurts.
“The Flame Keepers’ Circle” was written by Brian Swenlin. James Remar returned as Vilgax, and John DiMaggio played the Conduit.
no subject
Then when Vilgax tried to jedi mind trick her with that schtick about the fame she did say she didn't believe that Ben would do that.
Ultimately though it's too little too late. I think Julie has fallen into that weird space some minor characters get into where they change significantly depending on the episode becoming more unlikable as the plot demands. Bitchy, stubborn, shot fused, I don't recall these aspects being in her when she was introduced but this season in particular is making her alot more hot blooded ya know?
no subject
Seriously, after watch that episode several weeks ago and reading your review of it now makes me wonder if those episode script writers should hire you instead...which they should!