“The only reason you’re alive is because of what you used to mean to me.” “But it’s not the Ben move.” “We both know there’s only one thing you understand.” This arc had the HARDEST lines and some of the best dialogue of the entire series!
You know, last year Kuro rewrote the Negative 10 in his way. Does anyone else think that Kuro should create a video about his own version of the Ultimate Kevin arc?
I think it’s really cool that Ben picked Chromastone and Terraspin first in the fight against Gwen because those two theoretically are the biggest counters to Gwen.
"Kevin's got so many powers I forgot what's available to him" - I find this funny because not only would this happen to the writers, but probably to Kevin himself. Whenever you wonder why he doesn't do something I just imagine him going "I forgor". Like, I don't imagine choosing from the overwhelming amount of options he has is easy during the mental toll they take on him.
It would be and interesting headcannon! Maybe Kevin, with all the madness that comes for absorbing too much power, is actually very overwhelmed by all of them, and that's why most of his attacks are kinda simple
It's kind of why AFO from MHA is so terrifying. He knows exactly what powers he has and how to combine them to release devastating attacks. While also having an impressive defense. No wonder it took 8 generations of stockpiling to significantly damage him.
I love that Kevin was at the Total Zone, since that was the first place he met Ben AND Gwen. He told Gwen there that he was trying to avoid her so he would not hurt her. So, being at Total Zone would be somewhere he can remember where it all began.
That point of Ben trying to do things the "right" way, the "heroic" way, only for it to end in absolute failure every time in the Aggregor arc really puts Ben's sudden shift of wanting to outright kill Kevin in a new light. After enough repeated failures it makes sense that he'd eventually say screw it, if killing people's the only way to gets things done then I'll kill. If they did enough to highlight WHY Ben has this sudden change I think a lot of people would like this arc better.
@@kazion4851 I feel this arc sort of restores his morales seeing that things did get fixed. The way been said “you better be right” meant that he would have put Kevin down and continued being like this if the plan failed.
For me the turning point really felt like when Paradox said that, when it mattered most, he'd do what was needed to be done. Which to me seemed like (in Ben's mind) he was implying that Ben wasn't doing what needed to be done up to this point, and only in the final hour would he put a stop to it all.
Had the amazing honor to meet Kuro today at the local town fair and got an amazing portrait done! Got to talk about this episode and how he went from one event, made this video, and went to another. It was really cool to talk to you and meet you Kuro and I hope after this weekend you can take a day or two to rest. You really deserve it!
@@TheInkTank Hey, awesome videos and quick question! Does every species need to reproduce with each other to prevent extintion? like cant they just reproduce with other members of their species and survive? Because iirc the Highbreed were having problems of DNA because they didnt reproduce with other species or am i remembering wrong?
One thing I’ve always loved about this arc is the transition of Kevin’s madness. He’s dead serious and stoic in the Null Void episode. Then in Enemy of my Enemy he starts getting more psychotic and sadistic. By Absolute Power 1, he’s gone off the rails and is clearly relishing in the pain he’s causing. In Absolute Power 2, he’s sunk enough that he’s actively trying to kill Gwen.
I always viewed Argit's ability to dodge Kevin's attacks at the beginning less a say on Argit's abilities and more that given how psychotic Kevin has become, he's just toying with Argit, not actually trying to finish him off in one go. Like a cat playing with a caught mouse, Kevin's pulling his blows just enough to hurt Argit, but still allow Argit to try to run because he's getting a sick twisted pleasure from the chase, and when Argit finally wears himself out enough that he can't even shoot a quill at Kevin, THEN he'd finish him off. At least, that's how had always seen the "fight" between them towards the start of "The Enemy of My Enemy." Kevin toying with his prey.
Yeah especially since Argit stands basically no chance given that Kevin absorbed all the pure strength of the Ultimatrix (every ultimate alien Ben transformed into) and every normal alien (minus Alien X who was locked by the time Kevin Absorbed it) and at least twice the power of the Andromeda five Aliens (it was explained their pure power was in Aggregor and he simple absorbed it out of him). The only thing that bothered me is if he's supposed to have the powers of Ultimate Echo Echo how could he get hurt by him so severely (if they didn't include the ultimates this problem in my mind would be negated entirely)
@@pooppooper9033 Ult Echo Echo is literally made out of sound I feel like its similar to Thor being affected by a shock collar when his body can generate electricity lightning level plus
The fact that max swore to Kevin's dad that he would protect him makes it all the more sad that he would try to put him down. Or even send him to the null void.
@@ToaArcan Which made more sense as it was clear before OV Osmosians clearly were an alien species known to exist (even as far as the Andromeda galaxy as seen with Pandor (who unless you are going as far as to say he gets a false memory too))
@@LokiTheClever Another thing is, is that the servantis faking osmosians makes no sense, when you watch the arc, servantis way to make kevin on his side, is mainly about how Ben did this and that to him, so faking osmosians as a alien species is completely pointless.
30:30 Dwayne explained this once when people asked why Kevin took Aggregor's powers if he already had the andromeda 5's powers. It's not that he needed, it was that he wanted. Regardless of if it'd even work, Kevin wanted more power, and Ben's Ultimatrix was an easy source for it.
"You'll never beat me because you're one of the good guys and good guys never have the guts to finish guys like me". -Kevin Damn that quote really aged well didn't it.
Seeing an unrestrained Ben was one of the most scariest things I’d ever seen as a kid, imagine the most powerful being in the universe not caring anymore.
@@pjdianalan7934 because the Rooters for a solid second we’re a real threat. Kevin seemed to really hate them from what I remember. But idk maybe the god powers just got to his head💀
I love the fact that canonically there is Vreedle DNA in the omnitrix and it's said that "ben would be horrified to learn this" I would have loved to see that in the episode in omniverse when all the Vreedles were trashing the place
I would love to see a "what if "series made by the Ink Tank. The first episode has to be "What if Ben killed Kevin" either in classic or in ultimate alien.
Without kevins support and setting him straight, Ben would likely be inclined to become even darker and Likely succumb to the power of saint Georges sword after defeating vilgax. Ruling the universe as a tyrant.
This arc is one of the most memorable and mature part of Ben 10 history. The only problem for me was it’s sudden resolution, that paralleled with how it had begun. Also, Kudos to Kuro for finishing up the arc for us to see.
Random thought that happened recently. Ben has several aliens that repair high level machines easily, upgrade, jury Rigg, Ben Victor (created an Omnitrix). Why doesn’t he fix Mr.Baumans, Rooks, or Kevin’s car
In an episode of omniverse He uses upgrade to upgrade Kevin's car and when kevin asks why he didn't do this earlier he says that because you nevrr want me to touch your car
"you know why you lost cause you care about not hurting me and that's exactly why you don't have what it takes to deal with kevin" that line gave me chills every time i watched absolute power part 1
Kind of remaind me of Kevin speach to Ben in a original show you will newer beat me becose you are one of a good guys and good guys newer have guts to finish a job or some thing like that
My biggest issue with the arc is that it's too short. Ultimate Kevin is only around for a few episodes, and went down fairly easily. I love it, but I do wish we got to see more of it. Maybe see some more things from Kevin's perspective, since he raises some interesting ideas in the forge of creation episode after he first transforms
I agree, but then again I think keeping it short and concise is better than stretching it out. Something that happens a lot with, I don't know, CW shows like The Flash. Pure filler diluting the good arcs
Which interesting ideas? I remember him referencing something that Aggregor said at the Entropy Pump, with the statement implying that Osmos V has a social hierarchy that wants to keep the power of life energy absorption for itself, but honestly, I wish they would have explored Osmos V more. This arc, _following the Aggregor Arc,_ was the perfect reason to.
44:48 I think Ben is sort of like Spider-Man in the sense that he doesn't usually take fighting his enemies too seriously, but when he buckles down and doesn't hold back he puts in some real work
I like the idea of Ben at Mr Smoothys and he gets four, and when Gwen and Kwvin ask why Ben has two smoothies for himself he just flips his trunk open and hands one to a little Echo Echo sat in there.
this comment chain is great but to not ruin it hopefully Ben: *driving down the highway listening to music* Echo Echo: *flips a seat down from the back and changes the song then casually goes back into his man cave* Ben: *turns the song back* Change my music again and you are officially moved to the engine
The thing I really like about the Ultimate Kevin arc is that we see a lot of fights between him and Ben. In classic the fights between Ben and Kevin 11 were cool but they were too short and too few to really appreciate with the fights themselves lasting for at least a minute and them only being 3 with the ending of framed, beginning of grudge match and ending of grudge match (not counting his debut episode because he just absorbed heatblast to fight him and four arms to fight him, the majority of framed because he was just a physical manifestation of the omnitrix or back with a vengeance because Kevin had vilgax and Ben had master control (which sure re evens the odds but doesn’t change that they tried to change it in the first place) while in these 4 episodes we get pretty much every uaf alien imaginable fighting Ultimate Kevin
The fact that I got a heart by this comment gives it a payoff because I’ve planned on making this comment since the arc started but didn’t feel like it fitted in the previous episode
I always felt like Harvey pulling up was powerful but not as powerful of a scene as it could’ve been. If Kevin’s mom say was in the scene instead and we saw the internal struggle on full tilt because we know how much his mom means to him. Then, if kevin still lost control and Ben had to step in I feel like it would’ve been an insanely powerful moment where even Kevin’s mom, who we all know he cares the most for, can’t shake him? Then he’s truly lost
Personally, Absolute Power is my favourite episode. I think Ultimate Kevin is the best Ben 10 villain as he really feels like an unstable dangerous young man turned into a monster. The scene where he turns on and attacks Gwen is heartbreaking. I love the scene where Ben talks with Max about who he is and how he's willing to take things seriously as well as regretting when he acted like a jerk due to his fame. Also Ultimate Echo Echo is my fave Ultimate alien and I liked seeing him duke it out with Ultimate Kevin while reflecting on their rivalry.
You know, one thing I wish we had in this arc is at least a single scene of Ben talking to Azmuth, since a lot of his actions here can be easily inferred as him taking Azmuth's word to heart. He was the one who kept telling Ben he needed to focus on the bigger picture and ignore heroics, which we see come to a head here. I can see why they avoided it, because Azmuth would be the one person who could pretty much solve this entire plot with his tech and knowledge, but I kinda wish we had at least a scene of him admitting his constant demanding of Ben to focus only on the mission was a mistake after seeing what Ben was turning into.
If Ben focused on the mission rather than being a hero would make Ben an Ultimate God that destroys all conflicts ever occurring in the first place as shown in the series finale of Ben 10 Ultimate, and the Generator Rex Crossover/Generator Rex series finale hence why Azmuth’s methods don’t really work well in a series like Generator Rex or Ben 10 because if Ben focuses solely on the mission without heroics than Teams like Providence and the Plumbers aren’t needed anymore.
I feel like a lot of problems the community has with ben 10 could be solved if the writers were given more time to expand the ideas, and also better execution
@@toe_sucker_4165 Yeah no What i said was if they were given better time, freedom to do their thing, and executed better than the problems would probrably be reduced a lot Some shows simply dont get better even with bigger time and budget, the idea must be good for it to work, and if it isnt, no amount of time, money, freedom will fix that
@@joaoantonio4864 You misunderstood the guy's point. He's saying it's stupid that you would point out something as obvious as "if the show were executed better, people would like it".
It feels kind of weird seeing Ben beat Kevin with a single alien in the end. It makes it seem like he could've soloed Aggregor but just picked the wrong alien.
Honestly, Ben could’ve soloed Greg with high difficulty. Judging by how Aggregor gets taken down, Ben could’ve just went as Jetray and blast Greg’s ass so hard with neuroshock blasts with some quick changes in-between. AF (S1-S2) Ben would’ve whooped Greg’s ass.
@@jasonnguyen2575 Apparently the writers said Ben would have easily beat Aggressor when they first met if he didn't pick Brainstorm since Aggregor's spear is only designed to fight electric aliens
I feel that this storyline could have been a potential set up for Ben turning into Ben 10k. In the classic series we see that Ben 10k has not only mastered his aliens, but shows little mercy towards alien criminals. He becomes a no nonsense kind of person who takes his job so seriously that he loses parts of his morals and humanity. This is exactly what we are seeing in "Absolute Power" as Ben mercilessly beats up the forever knights, and bears a lot of the weight of what Kevin has become. If there was one final moment in which Kevin actually succeeds in killing someone, such as someone close to Ben, it would probably tip him over the edge entirely. We have seen Ben 10k destroy Kevin 11 as waybig in the Ken 10 episode, and it's hinted that Ben did something similar to Vilgax. Just goes to show, if pushed enough becomes someone he may not recognize.
Although the classic never had uaf as canon timeline, I kind of want to imagine that Julie(with ship as her armor) got absorbed or killed by U. Kevin and that may have tossed him off too far. Gwen and Max was still alive till that day, and Ken 10 was supposedly around 10 yrs after episode Ben10000, which means he has been single till his 30s
I noticed this too, while thinking about the recap of _Absolute Power, Part 1_ today. There is at least one person, and he can't have been the only one to notice this, who pointed out that _Omniverse_ *looks* like a prequel to Ben 10,000. Ken 10 manipulates the timeline so that Ben and Kai get together in order to satisfy an obscure info blurb from the info blurb version of the Classic Kai episode that says that they get back together in the future, for example. Kevin is redesigned to meet his Ben 10,000 look almost exactly, minus the chin scar for another example. But this, this is Ben acting like Ben 10,000 *actually acts.* The Ultimate Kevin Arc might have been the perfect moment to make a Ben 10,000 series, or at least a series like Kuro's comic 5YL that's truly a prequel, rather than just looking like one. Honestly, they still have the chance to make that kind of series, if they're not afraid to do what _Young Justice_ did and age up with the audience.
@@jagnestormskull3178small correction. Kevin DID get his chin scar in Omniverse too during the Rooters arc, making him look like a younger Kevin 11,000 completely with the Rooters mission suit on.
43:04 I find it interesting that gwen as the more hopeful one wants to save Kevin and Grandpa max appeals to her since of duty to help her understand ben While Ben is deep down the more pragmatic one so Grandpa max try's to remind him of his more emotional response Then Grandpa max himself as a former soldier makes it clear that he sees a THREAT and that it needs to be killed showing that while he is a good man he isn't afraid of or new to getting his hands dirty
Contrary to most I actually liked seeing this side of Ben cause at the time I was watching a lot of heros who would try to find other ways to stop an enemy that was too dangerous to keep alive and end being saved by the plot, so they could preserve the ‘heroic image.’ I respected that Ben could be cold blooded and ruthless when he needed to, made me see him as more than just a kid living the hero’s dream and learn the same lesson about fame over and over.
1:13:51 That scene always stuck with me cause the screech from that Echo implied he didn't just get vaporized like the previous one. That was a couple second of intense, unfiltered, pain and fear. Like Ben was legit being some-what slowly lasered to death there.
You know the whole “growth spurt” thing made sense to me as a kid because I always figured he didn’t have human biology and just used some biomechanical shenanigans to get YOLKED.
Holy shit Kuro 3 episodes?? You're insane man, your efforts that goes into these breakdowns is awesome! Revisiting episodes like this and listening to your thoughts and commentary on them is really insightful. I really appreciate it
Quick theory: Imagine that statement is true, Ben really does keep a spare echo echo in his trunk. We know that when he does that his personality goes all fry, this could justify why bens personality is off in certain moments, like in season 3 of alien force perhaps this was when he started keeping a spare, it caused a disruption in his personality, a part of himself which made him how we remember in the first and second season of alien force was kept away as an echo echo clone incase of his death, after that close call against the hybrid he wants to keep himself safe at all times.
1:14:28 No, don’t you see, that’s why we had the episode Duped. By Ben always having one of is Echo Echos in the truck it explains why Ben reverted back to his immature self. That Echo Echo held on to the respectable part of his personality.
The biggest issue with the Ultimate Kevin Arc was the stakes was not high enough for Ben to kill Kevin. Kevin's motives in that arc was not taking over/destroying planets. It was Kevin trying to seek revenge to those who he thought wronged him.
@Dawid Stawowski That was tied back to PTSD from the past with Ben if you think about it. He has a sore spot for all Pyronites since it's the first partial transformation he used back in the classic series
It's funny to think that, if Omniverse writers wanted to justify Ben's selfish attitude that negates all of his past introspection throughout the series, they could just say that 1 echo echo got lost and became its own Ben10, only it divided Ben between his most altruistic self and his most egotistic self Of course they are not going to, but it'd be incredibly funny to just make an episode about it out of the blue and make the fandom go nuts about it
see that would've been a really fun concept to explore in Omniverse, especially w it's lighter tone it wouldve been a nice filler episode if they explored the echo echo clone concept again
@@blueguygaming1330 yeah..... but because they seemingly preferred ditto over echo almost as if to make up for ditto getting sidelined for echo echo, they shot themselves in the foot
@@skibot9974 that just sounds like writers wanting to backtrack their lore. Ben does it 1 time not even knowing if it'll work, which it does, and then refuses to do it or is ever mention again.
8:58 it’s likely that Argit was unaware of Kevin’s mutation and were originally going to tell him about Pa Vreedle and ask him for a ride to plumber academy and share some of the profit but after finding out he needed a plan B in the form of the Tennyson cousins
With the inclusion of Harvey, and some of the other stuff regarding the ultimate Kevin stuff, it makes me wonder if a lot of it was scrapped ideas from their original plans with Kevin backing Alien Force. But since they have a shorter time frame, not even a whole season, they couldn't work it all in sadly. It would be interesting to know what the original plan was, and how many things would be the same, and what changed along the way.
Ben seeing Hunk Cooper: "See Gwen, we can kill Kevin! We've got a spare!" Which would be funny because iirc Cooper was the original third member in Alien Force's production.
Idk if you’ll see this Kuro, but I’ve just realised how the trio beat Greg to the forge. Remember what Paradox said? “If we’re going to get there on time, we’ll have to have already left.” They travelled back in time! Don’t ask how the Agrebots were able to attack the ship though
@@christianparrish3292I definitely feel like it was an action scene mandate because beforehand, there weren't any fight scenes before that. The next one is the trio vs. Young Ben and after that it's the trio and Young Ben vs. Ultimate Aggregor.
I absolutely love this Ben, I love it when a character that seems "goofy" or never serious gets serious and determined. Not that Ben was never serious in classic or determined, but you get my point. This was probably one my favourite bits of the entire franchise.
I think it's interesting how in the episode which saw the heroes crossing a lot of very important lines in morality and ethics, we also saw career villains turn towards becoming better people. And how no matter what, that's bad for the Rat-man.
31:00 I like to think that he only gets 1/10 of the alien's powers because he's absorbing them from the watch instead of directly from the individual alien. Like he'd absorb more of NRG's power if it came directly from NRG but Ben would probably die
Eh, you might like to think that but just by watching the franchise you’d subvert your thinking quickly by like a second. Cause in OS, Kevin absorbed more than 1/10 of the Omnitrix taking the Omni-Energy from the bio-feedback. Not to mention he managed to take more while Ben was Heatblast and Four Arms too; didn’t kill Ben there did it. It’s only when Kevin lost control and became Kevin 11 did Kevin only have 1/10. Aggregor means that when absorbing regular energy directly from living beings, they have 1/10; not the other way around.
I won't lie and say this arc was perfect, but even still it's probably my favorite arc of UA. Kevin's own characterization was on point and easily the higlight of it, seeing more context to his history and how his character grew from the OS to UA - before Omniverse came around and ruined it, thanks for nothing - but I'd say I actually think Ben's own character wasn't that off. I particularly remember the scene where he's talking to Max, saying how horrid he'd been acting with his superhero persona, and even later when he's fighting Ultimate Kevin and says that he'd give anything to have his secret identity back. He's seemingly dealing with a lot of self-loathing, and is essentially overcompensating as a result, trying to go back to more how he was during the Highbreed Invasion by taking things seriously, while simultaneously dealing with the betrayal that he genuinely feels from Kevin going berserk, regardless of whether or not it's his fault. Of course it's not entirely justifiable, but the best thing about Ben is that he's not a perfect hero, but he's trying to be. Whether you sided with Gwen in thinking there's a way to redeem him, or feel like Ben and that Kevin was essentially a mad dog, I can at least understand Ben's character here.
@TheGlassesPro Very good point. Have, like, one or two filler eps afterward to take a step back from the intensity, but keep these lingering after effects for later episodes to show it's not all squeaky clean, and have characters like the Helpers I think be more cautious around him and mistrusting. Have Kevin work to build back that trust I think would be great, and show some character growth and that there are moments that have genuine consequences, as opposed to waving it aside and going back to business as usual.
I love that Gwen used the Rock Monsters, it's subtle but it shows that she has also fallen, something that Kevin calls out when he references Charmcaster. Ben was acting more ruthless like Albedo, Kevin was more insane and energy hungry like Michael and Greg, but Gwen is the only one trying to push back when it comes to becoming like Charmcaster. I find that interesting because well Charmcaster is already a character who's flickering on redemption so there's less of a well for Gwen to fall down. Also now that I think about it, if OV Darkstar is meant to resemble Doctor Doom and this episode shows off Michael with the cloak, could him be talking like he's in a play be a reference to Doom's ego and nature?
Ya know I think Kuro had a lot of fun voicing Morningstar in And Beyond and here. It's brilliant. Keep rocking it Kuro! Thank you for you and the teams amazing work!
Even as a kid watching this, I thought it was bizarre that everything went back to normal by the next episode. I figured there would be at least a little tension between the trio after all the drama that went down. Honestly seems like a missed opportunity, but i guess you have to remember this is a kids show.
Tbh, I was always on Ben's side on whether to kill Kevin or not (at least after the opening scene in Absolute Power Part 1). Even though Ben is being more ruthless, in his mind he's trying to step and be the hero everyone else needs him to be. He's not happy about killing Kevin, but he's putting aside his own personal feelings to protect others from Kevin. I think it would've worked better if we had at least one moment where Gwen pushes Ben too far and he snaps at her, asking her how she can possibly think he WANTS to kill his best friend, that he's demonising Kevin so that killing him will hurt Ben less emotionally.
@@GenUrobutcher I think more than seeing Kevin get punished, I would've liked to see him deal with his guilt and take a step back from the main trio to process his own feelings and apologise for his actions. Big brain idea: what if Basic Training was stretched into a solo Kevin arc where he returns to Plumber Academy because he doesn't feel worthy of his Dad's Plumber badge, and he redoes his training while confronting and overcoming his personal flaws. Then he can return at the end of the season to save Ben and Gwen in a "Thor arriving in Wakanda" moment.
I love the Harvey scene and I think that it is one of the most well-written conversations in UA (besides the exposition), however, it definitely comes out of nowhere. Like they could have introduced him a lot earlier (they had DBB available) and shown his relationship with Kevin. Maybe him trying to be nice to Kevin and K rejecting him over and over again, so that this moment where he puts his foot down would be a lot more impactful. My rewrite idea: Have Ben lose control whenever he goes ultimate (from the beginning of season 1 of UA). Say that the DNA is corrupted by the ultimatrix which means that Ben becomes more animalistic, and have the ultimates be used as last resorts rather than just a power-up (so that they feel unique and the series title is justified outside of selling toys). You could even have Ben becoming overreliant on them throughout the season. My opinion is that they should have committed to having Greg as the main villain of season 2 and had season 3 be dedicated to the Ultimate Kevin arc. Both arcs feel way too rushed, being squeezed into season 2, so it gives us more time to get to know the origins. What do Greg want? They could even go the osmosian homeworld and explore Kevin more before he becomes ultimate (this was retconned later but it didn't have to be if they had explored it). Could also give us more time with young Ben on the way to the forge of creation since that felt like a missed opportunity. You could even contrast Ben and Kevin with both of them going mad and integrate the Dagon stuff by having Kevin absorb him instead of Vilgax. Vilgax was ruined in AF s3 and I honestly think that he becomes more boring every appearance (since they never really do anything new with him besides Ben defeating him and him cursing him out) so they could have held of on him for a while. Replacing him with Kevin is a lot more interesting to me. Maybe Kevin attacks the Forever Knights because they did something to him, and he finds the legend of the sword and realizes that absorbing Dagon will give him absolute power. Then the sword somehow becomes the key to curing him and Ben (who is a lot more serious) actually considers using it to reshape reality. The arc feels very rushed and exploring Ben's guilt over not defeating Greg (and Kevin having to clean up his mess), then really showing his descent into being ruthless could have been a great arc.
43:09 I feel that the Ben-Max conversation should have ended like; "It's not play time anymore. It's hero time." Not just because of the catchphrase, but because as he said in Forge of creation, he tryes to avoid being too serious whene er he can.... But now he can't. Also, playing on the double meaning, because it's onviously not a heroic thing to do, yet Ben perspective is that THIS is what a hero should do, not because of it's good, but because of an asumed greater good
I actually enjoy Ben's darker side when it shows up, it shows that unlike other heroes he is absolutely willing to kill, but ONLY when the situation actually calls for it, which keeps him from going either anti-hero or full Injustice. And unlike other heroes, Ben's profession is being an actual Law Enforcement Agent as a member of the plumbers, he is not a vigilante unlike the heroes of DC or even the Green Lanterns who may claim to be police officers, but their authority isn't really recognized by anyone but the guardians themselves. Ben is an actual Cop, he is allowed to make actual legal arrests, which means sometimes he may be forced to kill and while it would be investigated to see if it was necessary, it would be allowed, just like with real life cops.
The only problem I ever had with The Ultimate Kevin Arc was how short it was. It always felt like the Greg story Finale should have been a Season Finale and that þe Kevin Arc should have taken more time to build Ben's journey(I feel like his journey makes sense, but I would have liked to draw it out.)
Kuro I just want to say that I very much agree with you that there's one Octagon and Rhomboyd who actually stay good guys and trying to improve themselves while there are other clones who stay evil.
Im loving the variety in hair styles ❤️ I also think it was the one of the higher rated seasons because if it came out during October 2010 this is when CN was pushing Ben 10 massively with them marketing the tenth month in 2010 with exclusive Ben 10 pretty much
A whole 90-minute long breakdown on one of my favourite arcs? Wonderful. I think the resurrection of the Andromeda aliens just about works for me. Their 'deaths' represented the casual evil of Aggregor, and Ben's repeated failures (which continued through the season). After driving him to his darkest point with Kevin, I quite like that Gwen's optimistic plan also serves as redemption for Aggregor's crime and helps Ben recover some of his humanity. Though, they really should've shown up at some point after that, it feels odd that they vanish without a trace (even if they live in another galaxy so wouldn't be around that much). As a whole, the first airing season of Ultimate Alien (the first 20 episodes), form my favourite chunk of Ben 10. The show goes for this odd structure of shorter interlinked arcs (Andromeda 5, Hunt for the Map, Ultimate Kevin), meaning each one builds off the last one growing more and more heightened in scale, getting more personal and character focused along the way. The show embraces a greater variety of alien locations and plot structures, and expands the alien roster beyond the tired 10 from AF Season 1. As for rebranding the show 'Ultimate Alien', despite the underuse of the Ultimates themselves as a concept, I think the concept does work because the show has a greater thematic consistency, focused on the theme of what that kind of power really means for Ben. The new fame angle (while anticipated slightly by Ben's galactic reputation in AF Season 3), inflates Ben's ego, but is contrasted in Hero Time and Reflected Glory with times where this backfires and Ben faces dark mirrors of his entitled attitude. Aggregor with his obsession with greater power, up to omnipotence, is another great parallel for Ben's growing abilities and what he chooses to do with them, before Kevin takes up the mantle and arguably grows even more powerful (Aggregor is a focused, intelligent being, while Kevin goes for anything and everything in a mad quest, making him a great final encapsulation). The show continued to do similar with Old George and Ascalon, but never quite as focused as in the first 20.
Some of my favorite cartoon arcs are The High breed Arc from Ben 10 Alien Force Spider-Verse arc from 90s Spider-Man Cadmus arc from Justice League Unlimited and the Crystal Cove arc from Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated these arcs provide some of the best emotional moments animation history never talking down to their audience and teaching about deep subject matter my other favorites are the entire Gravity Falls series arc Ultimate Kevin Ultimate Alien the Loki arc from Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes the Dark Signers arc from Yu GI Oh 5D'S and the entire Generator Rex series arc.
Re: Argit's size in the car: relative to human proportions, his legs are really short but his torso isn't quite as short. Since he's sitting, only his height from the bottom of his, well, bottom up is affecting how far above the seat his head is.
In my vast amount of childhood nostalgia for Ben 10, I always remembered the “Ultimate Kevin” arc as being THE BEST arc of Ultimate Alien (and tbh it’s one of my favorite arcs in the entire franchise). I never even knew other people had such an issue with it until I started interacting with the larger Ben 10 fanbase online. Their distaste for this arc always confused me, as I had never had any issues with it, and I appreciated the mature quality of the story even when I was a kid. It’s so different from any other arc in Ben 10, and most other cartoons of the era, but that’s exactly what makes it so GOOD! Ben has legitimate reasons for feeling this way, and yeah he’s ultimately WRONG, but that’s OKAY because it shows he isn’t some perfect infallible being… he’s a human. It’s okay to see our heroes struggle; that’s often where the best stories come from. I’m glad Kuro pointed out the more subtle nuances of this arc that go far beyond what many other cartoons are willing to do.
Agreed. Criticism to this arc always comes across as regurgitated and odd. I agree that it starts too suddenly and ends too suddenly, but that’s it. Kevin is sufficient of a threat and Ben is not completely immoral for wanting to kill him. Going soft on a rampaging behemoth just because he was your friend is not professional plumber protocol let alone moral. Ultimate Kevin is stronger than most individual aliens Ben has, so trying to contain him or subduing him isn’t a foolproof strategy. Trying to reason with him sure isn’t going to work either. Trying to cure him is not guaranteed nor possible before strongly damaging him to immobilize him first. You’re left with two options: either possibly permanently damaging him, or killing him. It’s not that illogical of a decision to make. The only problem is its sudden buildup, but it’s a decision that makes sense.
@TheGlassesPro Yes, but I could definitely see this as a network restriction. I think it should be pretty standard by now to not expect Ben 10 arcs to have lasting short-term consequences because CN would definitely prioritize returning the status quo. The earlier the trio returns, the faster the network can regain full creative control and churn out low effort goofy filler for the kids.
Call me crazy, Ben wasn't exactly in the wrong, yes killing is wrong, but for superheroes it's the hardest part, best example Flash season 2 episode 11, Eobard Thawne from the future goes back in time, Barry beats him but doesn't want him to go back to the future, because he knows that if he does then Barry's mother dies blah blah blah, Barry was so angry when he faught him earlier in the episode it looked like he was ready to kill him, Superheroes and heroes in media get it the roughest, they have to choose if they should kill someone or not, I keep thinking of this quote from Arrow season 4 episode 23, "You didn't kill the man who killed your mother Oliver so I doubt you're going to kill me", "With Slade I had a choice, with you I don't", anyway, Ben's need to kill Kevin is similar to Barry with Thawne in that episode, they've both had enough and think that, that is the only way it can end, and considering the ending of absolute power part 1, can you blame him, he was 100% going to kill Gwen and wouldn't have batted an eye
@@varisrevolver4061 Nope, you’re not wrong at all. All that the show was missing was buildup before and after the arc. I wish they trimmed the repetitive parts of the Aggregor arc and focused on this one instead.
I think that Ben should have started not even considering murder but growing to think it’s the only way rather than thinking so immediately and reaffirming his position. Also near everything after Harvey felt fumbled (aside from the ultimate echo echo bit).
1:05:53 in hindsight, screw Gary, Kevin’s Mom should have been the person to confront him. A perfect chance to show that even if Kevin was a bad kid his mom still took him back.
I'm pretty sure I saw a comment asking this same question back when Kuro covered the season 2 finally of alien force. But I'll ask it again anyways. *Why* *not* *use* *the* *DNA* *repair* *function* *on* *Ultimate* *Kevin* ? Even if the Ultimatrix can't use that feature, ask Azmuth for help as its been established that he has an excellent understanding of DNA contamination/sorting thanks to making the Omnitrix or just ask the reintroduced Cooper (who made a big deal on how he saw Ben use the DNA repair function) to try & make a better (or ultimate?) version of those guns.
Ben's UA arc is very interesting. Ben wanting to kill Kevin shows his maturation. The entire arc for him was going through failure after failure. Basically after a whole season and some where Ben acted like a douche that can do no wrong because he beat highbreeds, Ultimate Alien takes a massive punch on his ego. He learns the hard way, being a hero isn't easy and cool as it seems. That's why wanting to kill Kevin makes sense in context. Because this is a Ben that kept failing because of his arrogance and he just wants to protect the world and resolve those failures despite the personal cost
@Dawid Stawowski Yes that was the most important part of his arc. The moment he realized he can't always have his cake and eat it too by virtue of his power. Sometimes he has to make tough choices
While it's not prison, a military training branch is still going to have holding cells as a punishment and more importantly in case someone at the training site commits a crime and needs to be transferred to an actual prison.
37:56 This has me thinking: did Bad Ben from Omniverse actually kill his universe’s Kevin 11 (assuming there were similar paths)? What turned Bad Ben “bad”?
Derrick J. Wyatt said that Bad Kevin is actually a tanned surfer bro dating a ditzy cheerleader Gwen in Bad Ben's universe. But since we never saw his world, it's pretty vague what happened with the characters in his world.
I won't lie, it _really_ should have been Kevin's mom talking with Kevin. We NEVER get to see her properly despite Kevin kind of making a big deal out of her when Magister Gilhil took their badges.
Ok, but the episode could have had the Wreedles Parallel Ben and Kevin, since all of them are changing their morals, Kevin went evil, Ben is considering murder and the Wreedles (famous criminals) are turning good. This could be a nudge for Ben that even bad people can be good.
The fact that Ben even considered the possibility of having to put Kevin down for good was kinda scary. I can't even begin to imagine how different the show would have been had Ben actually gone through with it
1:18:10 I've had a personal fan theory/headcanon that this was actually where the original point of divergence from the main timeline Into the original future timeline from classic series, and in that timeline, ben tries to finish Kevin off but fails and Kevin ends up getting sent to the null void and it causes a rift between ben and Gwen that takes several years to heal And a more permanent falling out between ben and azmuth which would be why azmuth is never brought up in that timeline and why ben is all business no fun until he meets young ben again
33:00 Wasn't there a prison cell in Omniverse that was designed to keep Albedo in? They may not have it now but honestly they could ask the plumbers or Asmuth to make one.
I think the reason Kevin can use Goop's power with his arm without an antigravity projector is likely because its not just goop's power, since its his transformed diamondhead arm so its likely more solid compared to goop's body
I was expecting "enemy of my enemy" to be together with "nor iron bars a cage", but it works this way as well, I wasn't expecting a 3 episode breakdown, but I'm glad we got it, these episodes are peak ben 10 to me.
If Ben had taken Aggregor seriously, Kevin wouldn't have become a monster. That's why Ben thinks that Ultimate Kevin was his fault and responsibility. Also, the fact that Ben told Cooper about Darkstar's plans means that Ben changed his mind about killing Kevin before the fight started.
![BRASIL vs. URUGUAY [1-1] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 12](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-hWBAuxF1eY/mqdefault.jpg)
“The only reason you’re alive is because of what you used to mean to me.”
“But it’s not the Ben move.”
“We both know there’s only one thing you understand.”
This arc had the HARDEST lines and some of the best dialogue of the entire series!
Yeah, the script writing imo is the best in the entire franchise and probably cn as a whole.
How could you forget the "The reason you lost is because you don't want to hurt me"
Ben (as Ultimate Echo Echo): “Yeah… I lied”.
@@westerfrost3701 such a Schwarzenegger line
“Move or die!”
“Your call.”
You know, last year Kuro rewrote the Negative 10 in his way. Does anyone else think that Kuro should create a video about his own version of the Ultimate Kevin arc?
Maybe since it’s would be harder since this one was only 4 maybe 5 episodes and there are less flaunts in this arc
Sure, I’d be down to see that
Yeah also his own version of the anur invasion (classic season 3 finale)
I think he's saving a rewrite for The Ultimate Enemy
@@Celtic-Firebird As much as I would love to see an Ultimate Kevin rewrite… the Ultimate Enemy desperately NEEDS a rewrite.
I think it’s really cool that Ben picked Chromastone and Terraspin first in the fight against Gwen because those two theoretically are the biggest counters to Gwen.
Gwen got beat by a sparkly rock and a turtle
@@Skitations a beyblade turtle
Didn't one of Aggregor's Aliens straight up deny all mana damage?? He literally says so.
@@GenUrobutcher yes terraspin
@@GenUrobutcher that's the turtle
"Kevin's got so many powers I forgot what's available to him" - I find this funny because not only would this happen to the writers, but probably to Kevin himself. Whenever you wonder why he doesn't do something I just imagine him going "I forgor". Like, I don't imagine choosing from the overwhelming amount of options he has is easy during the mental toll they take on him.
It would be and interesting headcannon! Maybe Kevin, with all the madness that comes for absorbing too much power, is actually very overwhelmed by all of them, and that's why most of his attacks are kinda simple
Duuude imagine if Kevin could use Echo Echos power and clone himself.IMAGINE HUNDREDS OF ULTIMATE KEVINS
@@YABOIMIKEYBOI
That'd be scary.
It's kind of why AFO from MHA is so terrifying. He knows exactly what powers he has and how to combine them to release devastating attacks. While also having an impressive defense. No wonder it took 8 generations of stockpiling to significantly damage him.
Yeah, and unlike Ben Kevin doesn't have an A.I. to sort and assist with the nearly limitless powers.
I love that Kevin was at the Total Zone, since that was the first place he met Ben AND Gwen. He told Gwen there that he was trying to avoid her so he would not hurt her. So, being at Total Zone would be somewhere he can remember where it all began.
That's a cool callback.
That point of Ben trying to do things the "right" way, the "heroic" way, only for it to end in absolute failure every time in the Aggregor arc really puts Ben's sudden shift of wanting to outright kill Kevin in a new light. After enough repeated failures it makes sense that he'd eventually say screw it, if killing people's the only way to gets things done then I'll kill. If they did enough to highlight WHY Ben has this sudden change I think a lot of people would like this arc better.
Tho when vilgax returns in the next series he doesn't seem to think of killing him 🤔
Vilgax returning is when Ben is at a point where he doesn’t really want to kill that much anymore,@@kazion4851.
@@kazion4851 I feel this arc sort of restores his morales seeing that things did get fixed. The way been said “you better be right” meant that he would have put Kevin down and continued being like this if the plan failed.
I completely agree with you
For me the turning point really felt like when Paradox said that, when it mattered most, he'd do what was needed to be done. Which to me seemed like (in Ben's mind) he was implying that Ben wasn't doing what needed to be done up to this point, and only in the final hour would he put a stop to it all.
I wonder if Ben and Gwen even know it was young Ben who gave the idea of absorbing the Ultimatrix's power?
I don't think so. Ben and Gwen were unconscious till after Kevin already beat up Aggregor.
Ben had a vague memory of his dream right? But probably too vague to remember the specifics
@@randomturd1415 Could be why Ben wants to kill Kevin cause he knew it was "his fault" that this happened
Nope
Yes I think he does..... He tells Gwen that it's his fault that Kevin turning a monster
Had the amazing honor to meet Kuro today at the local town fair and got an amazing portrait done! Got to talk about this episode and how he went from one event, made this video, and went to another. It was really cool to talk to you and meet you Kuro and I hope after this weekend you can take a day or two to rest. You really deserve it!
Thanks man - was great meeting you!
You are very lucky, breadstick.
That's sick!
@@TheInkTank Really wish you have used the Ben 10000 voiceline "KEVIN?" At least once here.
@@TheInkTank Hey, awesome videos and quick question! Does every species need to reproduce with each other to prevent extintion? like cant they just reproduce with other members of their species and survive? Because iirc the Highbreed were having problems of DNA because they didnt reproduce with other species or am i remembering wrong?
One thing I’ve always loved about this arc is the transition of Kevin’s madness. He’s dead serious and stoic in the Null Void episode. Then in Enemy of my Enemy he starts getting more psychotic and sadistic. By Absolute Power 1, he’s gone off the rails and is clearly relishing in the pain he’s causing. In Absolute Power 2, he’s sunk enough that he’s actively trying to kill Gwen.
48:00 "God forbid someone owe him $9"
This one really got me
Imagine someone owes him 10 dollars
@@soomitsunami5936 what about 11$
You know Kevin 11
I laughed so hard man
Imagine someone owing him 50k bucks
I always viewed Argit's ability to dodge Kevin's attacks at the beginning less a say on Argit's abilities and more that given how psychotic Kevin has become, he's just toying with Argit, not actually trying to finish him off in one go. Like a cat playing with a caught mouse, Kevin's pulling his blows just enough to hurt Argit, but still allow Argit to try to run because he's getting a sick twisted pleasure from the chase, and when Argit finally wears himself out enough that he can't even shoot a quill at Kevin, THEN he'd finish him off.
At least, that's how had always seen the "fight" between them towards the start of "The Enemy of My Enemy." Kevin toying with his prey.
Kevin was grinning so I think your on to something.
That makes sense.
Yeah especially since Argit stands basically no chance given that Kevin absorbed all the pure strength of the Ultimatrix (every ultimate alien Ben transformed into) and every normal alien (minus Alien X who was locked by the time Kevin Absorbed it) and at least twice the power of the Andromeda five Aliens (it was explained their pure power was in Aggregor and he simple absorbed it out of him). The only thing that bothered me is if he's supposed to have the powers of Ultimate Echo Echo how could he get hurt by him so severely (if they didn't include the ultimates this problem in my mind would be negated entirely)
@@LokiTheClever Ultimate Echo Echo is a very offensive alien. Just because he can shoot sound waves doesn’t make him immune to them.
@@pooppooper9033 Ult Echo Echo is literally made out of sound I feel like its similar to Thor being affected by a shock collar when his body can generate electricity lightning level plus
The fact that max swore to Kevin's dad that he would protect him makes it all the more sad that he would try to put him down. Or even send him to the null void.
Max wasn’t partners with Kevin’s dad, he got false memories of being so from the guy that lead the Rooters (I forgot his name and can’t remember it)
@@mattresskingofnightmares1123 That was an OV retcon. At the time this episode was written, the Kevin's Dad backstory was true.
@@ToaArcan Which made more sense as it was clear before OV Osmosians clearly were an alien species known to exist (even as far as the Andromeda galaxy as seen with Pandor (who unless you are going as far as to say he gets a false memory too))
@@ToaArcan to be fair the promise of Max was also a retcon.
@@LokiTheClever Another thing is, is that the servantis faking osmosians makes no sense, when you watch the arc, servantis way to make kevin on his side, is mainly about how Ben did this and that to him, so faking osmosians as a alien species is completely pointless.
30:30
Dwayne explained this once when people asked why Kevin took Aggregor's powers if he already had the andromeda 5's powers. It's not that he needed, it was that he wanted. Regardless of if it'd even work, Kevin wanted more power, and Ben's Ultimatrix was an easy source for it.
That scene with Ben and Max talking was perfect character writing. Dwayne McDuffie was truly a great writer.
True, and it acted as a perfect contrast to the Gwen and Max scene.
"You'll never beat me because you're one of the good guys and good guys never have the guts to finish guys like me".
-Kevin
Damn that quote really aged well didn't it.
Seeing an unrestrained Ben was one of the most scariest things I’d ever seen as a kid, imagine the most powerful being in the universe not caring anymore.
It’s like Thanos when he time traveled
I mean, remember that time he used Alien X against the Rooters, which is like, super unnecessary and out of character? Yeah.
@@pjdianalan7934 because the Rooters for a solid second we’re a real threat. Kevin seemed to really hate them from what I remember.
But idk maybe the god powers just got to his head💀
Yeah, imagine this arc happened in omniverse while he had full control of Alien X, Kevin would be so screwed
It was actually pretty funny to me considering he was running around looking for Kevin without a plan.
I love that you've given every episode of the Ultimate Kevin arc a full breakdown
Same
imagine if he did the final one as a quick review lol
@@breawen that would be kind of amazing
But now after the season 3 premiere we go back to getting quick reviews
I love the fact that canonically there is Vreedle DNA in the omnitrix and it's said that "ben would be horrified to learn this" I would have loved to see that in the episode in omniverse when all the Vreedles were trashing the place
I would love to see a "what if "series made by the Ink Tank. The first episode has to be "What if Ben killed Kevin" either in classic or in ultimate alien.
They just parodies the intro to the What If...? Series with the art style of and beyond
Without kevins support and setting him straight, Ben would likely be inclined to become even darker and Likely succumb to the power of saint Georges sword after defeating vilgax. Ruling the universe as a tyrant.
@@GreaterGrievobeast55 I always loved how Vilgax was just sitting there in that scene saying, "Do it!!!"
@@Jozombies115 "do it no balls"
Ok but now what if ben got a vilgax transformation in classic or afua
"all the power you stole just went back where it belongs"
kuro:HOW?
ben:fuck you, thats how
Very funny, I even spat what i was drinking.
This arc is one of the most memorable and mature part of Ben 10 history. The only problem for me was it’s sudden resolution, that paralleled with how it had begun.
Also, Kudos to Kuro for finishing up the arc for us to see.
My main problem is Ben and Kevin.
@TheGlassesPro that happens in ov
@TheGlassesPro Allen dosent trust Kevin at all like ether half an ep or a whole ep is about him talking to Allen
Random thought that happened recently. Ben has several aliens that repair high level machines easily, upgrade, jury Rigg, Ben Victor (created an Omnitrix). Why doesn’t he fix Mr.Baumans, Rooks, or Kevin’s car
I also understand it’s a joke gag
In an episode of omniverse
He uses upgrade to upgrade Kevin's car and when kevin asks why he didn't do this earlier he says that because you nevrr want me to touch your car
@@krishnakapadia146 which Ben made a good point about.
lmao because obviously mr bauman doesn’t want ben to touch his shit after he already broke it😂
@@rxhmon exactly. Which he does all the time.
"you know why you lost cause you care about not hurting me and that's exactly why you don't have what it takes to deal with kevin" that line gave me chills every time i watched absolute power part 1
Kind of remaind me of Kevin speach to Ben in a original show you will newer beat me becose you are one of a good guys and good guys newer have guts to finish a job or some thing like that
@@cosmicdoggo9296 and Steel responded with but I do
My biggest issue with the arc is that it's too short. Ultimate Kevin is only around for a few episodes, and went down fairly easily.
I love it, but I do wish we got to see more of it. Maybe see some more things from Kevin's perspective, since he raises some interesting ideas in the forge of creation episode after he first transforms
The series has a habit of having disappointing final acts after building them up so intensely.
I would've liked to see how much money argid owed Kevin who knows maybe that's what happens to people who owe him $10
I agree, but then again I think keeping it short and concise is better than stretching it out. Something that happens a lot with, I don't know, CW shows like The Flash. Pure filler diluting the good arcs
Which interesting ideas?
I remember him referencing something that Aggregor said at the Entropy Pump, with the statement implying that Osmos V has a social hierarchy that wants to keep the power of life energy absorption for itself, but honestly, I wish they would have explored Osmos V more. This arc, _following the Aggregor Arc,_ was the perfect reason to.
44:48 I think Ben is sort of like Spider-Man in the sense that he doesn't usually take fighting his enemies too seriously, but when he buckles down and doesn't hold back he puts in some real work
Total Zone is also where Gwen met Kevin, which makes them fighting there even more poetic
Wasn’t it outside the arcade?
I like the idea of Ben at Mr Smoothys and he gets four, and when Gwen and Kwvin ask why Ben has two smoothies for himself he just flips his trunk open and hands one to a little Echo Echo sat in there.
One of the best head cannons I've ever heard! Just an Echo Echo having a whole room and chilling in Ben's car would be great!
“Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Now, shh! I’m trying to watch Sumo Slammers in here! And shut the trunk! The light’s putting a glare on the screen!”😂
Ben's driving and he hears a little knock from the back. "Ben? Can we stop at Burger Shack™?"
this comment chain is great but to not ruin it hopefully
Ben: *driving down the highway listening to music*
Echo Echo: *flips a seat down from the back and changes the song then casually goes back into his man cave*
Ben: *turns the song back* Change my music again and you are officially moved to the engine
@@izukumidoriya8600echo echo: do that and I show you why Kevin needed an indestructible engine block for his car
The thing I really like about the Ultimate Kevin arc is that we see a lot of fights between him and Ben. In classic the fights between Ben and Kevin 11 were cool but they were too short and too few to really appreciate with the fights themselves lasting for at least a minute and them only being 3 with the ending of framed, beginning of grudge match and ending of grudge match (not counting his debut episode because he just absorbed heatblast to fight him and four arms to fight him, the majority of framed because he was just a physical manifestation of the omnitrix or back with a vengeance because Kevin had vilgax and Ben had master control (which sure re evens the odds but doesn’t change that they tried to change it in the first place) while in these 4 episodes we get pretty much every uaf alien imaginable fighting Ultimate Kevin
The fact that I got a heart by this comment gives it a payoff because I’ve planned on making this comment since the arc started but didn’t feel like it fitted in the previous episode
@@axelnilsson5124 lucky you🔥
@@axelnilsson5124 Grats man. I never pictured their fights like that. Thanks for showing the light on it
57:00 You could say that Total Zone is now a totalled zone.
Man you deserve more likes than you've gotten for this great joke.
I always felt like Harvey pulling up was powerful but not as powerful of a scene as it could’ve been. If Kevin’s mom say was in the scene instead and we saw the internal struggle on full tilt because we know how much his mom means to him. Then, if kevin still lost control and Ben had to step in I feel like it would’ve been an insanely powerful moment where even Kevin’s mom, who we all know he cares the most for, can’t shake him? Then he’s truly lost
Personally, Absolute Power is my favourite episode. I think Ultimate Kevin is the best Ben 10 villain as he really feels like an unstable dangerous young man turned into a monster. The scene where he turns on and attacks Gwen is heartbreaking. I love the scene where Ben talks with Max about who he is and how he's willing to take things seriously as well as regretting when he acted like a jerk due to his fame. Also Ultimate Echo Echo is my fave Ultimate alien and I liked seeing him duke it out with Ultimate Kevin while reflecting on their rivalry.
THE best? ABSOLUTELY not. What lol?
That's nostalgia talking bruh, you know that's not true lol
I didn't say it was the best. I said it was my personal favourite.
oh, i forgot that opinions aren't allowed to exist in ben 10. it's our bad. let's just mindlessly shout uaf bad, ov good.
Honestly Malware is a better villain.
You know, one thing I wish we had in this arc is at least a single scene of Ben talking to Azmuth, since a lot of his actions here can be easily inferred as him taking Azmuth's word to heart. He was the one who kept telling Ben he needed to focus on the bigger picture and ignore heroics, which we see come to a head here. I can see why they avoided it, because Azmuth would be the one person who could pretty much solve this entire plot with his tech and knowledge, but I kinda wish we had at least a scene of him admitting his constant demanding of Ben to focus only on the mission was a mistake after seeing what Ben was turning into.
If Ben focused on the mission rather than being a hero would make Ben an Ultimate God that destroys all conflicts ever occurring in the first place as shown in the series finale of Ben 10 Ultimate, and the Generator Rex Crossover/Generator Rex series finale hence why Azmuth’s methods don’t really work well in a series like Generator Rex or Ben 10 because if Ben focuses solely on the mission without heroics than Teams like Providence and the Plumbers aren’t needed anymore.
I feel like a lot of problems the community has with ben 10 could be solved if the writers were given more time to expand the ideas, and also better execution
DUDE I THINK THE SAME
Really bros
Well, that's stupid. "yeah, I think people would like the show more if it was better."
@@toe_sucker_4165 Yeah no
What i said was if they were given better time, freedom to do their thing, and executed better than the problems would probrably be reduced a lot
Some shows simply dont get better even with bigger time and budget, the idea must be good for it to work, and if it isnt, no amount of time, money, freedom will fix that
@@joaoantonio4864 You misunderstood the guy's point. He's saying it's stupid that you would point out something as obvious as "if the show were executed better, people would like it".
It feels kind of weird seeing Ben beat Kevin with a single alien in the end. It makes it seem like he could've soloed Aggregor but just picked the wrong alien.
Honestly, Ben could’ve soloed Greg with high difficulty. Judging by how Aggregor gets taken down, Ben could’ve just went as Jetray and blast Greg’s ass so hard with neuroshock blasts with some quick changes in-between. AF (S1-S2) Ben would’ve whooped Greg’s ass.
@@jasonnguyen2575 Jetray isn't beating Ultimate Aggregor. Ultimate Echo Echo is the alien Ben should have gone for against Aggregor
@@jasonnguyen2575 Apparently the writers said Ben would have easily beat Aggressor when they first met if he didn't pick Brainstorm since Aggregor's spear is only designed to fight electric aliens
I feel that this storyline could have been a potential set up for Ben turning into Ben 10k. In the classic series we see that Ben 10k has not only mastered his aliens, but shows little mercy towards alien criminals. He becomes a no nonsense kind of person who takes his job so seriously that he loses parts of his morals and humanity. This is exactly what we are seeing in "Absolute Power" as Ben mercilessly beats up the forever knights, and bears a lot of the weight of what Kevin has become. If there was one final moment in which Kevin actually succeeds in killing someone, such as someone close to Ben, it would probably tip him over the edge entirely. We have seen Ben 10k destroy Kevin 11 as waybig in the Ken 10 episode, and it's hinted that Ben did something similar to Vilgax. Just goes to show, if pushed enough becomes someone he may not recognize.
Although the classic never had uaf as canon timeline, I kind of want to imagine that Julie(with ship as her armor) got absorbed or killed by U. Kevin and that may have tossed him off too far.
Gwen and Max was still alive till that day, and Ken 10 was supposedly around 10 yrs after episode Ben10000, which means he has been single till his 30s
Well now that I think of it Kevin never was in the ultimate alien’s alien force on that timeline..so I guess I messed up that part yeah
I noticed this too, while thinking about the recap of _Absolute Power, Part 1_ today.
There is at least one person, and he can't have been the only one to notice this, who pointed out that _Omniverse_ *looks* like a prequel to Ben 10,000. Ken 10 manipulates the timeline so that Ben and Kai get together in order to satisfy an obscure info blurb from the info blurb version of the Classic Kai episode that says that they get back together in the future, for example. Kevin is redesigned to meet his Ben 10,000 look almost exactly, minus the chin scar for another example.
But this, this is Ben acting like Ben 10,000 *actually acts.* The Ultimate Kevin Arc might have been the perfect moment to make a Ben 10,000 series, or at least a series like Kuro's comic 5YL that's truly a prequel, rather than just looking like one. Honestly, they still have the chance to make that kind of series, if they're not afraid to do what _Young Justice_ did and age up with the audience.
@@jagnestormskull3178small correction. Kevin DID get his chin scar in Omniverse too during the Rooters arc, making him look like a younger Kevin 11,000 completely with the Rooters mission suit on.
@@SecretMagician Forgot about that, thanks.
43:04 I find it interesting that gwen as the more hopeful one wants to save Kevin and Grandpa max appeals to her since of duty to help her understand ben
While Ben is deep down the more pragmatic one so Grandpa max try's to remind him of his more emotional response
Then Grandpa max himself as a former soldier makes it clear that he sees a THREAT and that it needs to be killed showing that while he is a good man he isn't afraid of or new to getting his hands dirty
Contrary to most I actually liked seeing this side of Ben cause at the time I was watching a lot of heros who would try to find other ways to stop an enemy that was too dangerous to keep alive and end being saved by the plot, so they could preserve the ‘heroic image.’
I respected that Ben could be cold blooded and ruthless when he needed to, made me see him as more than just a kid living the hero’s dream and learn the same lesson about fame over and over.
It’s kinda like when Anakin killed the Tusken raiders after his mother died in his arms
Honestly same
I think that was the moment I started taking Ben seriously as a hero
15:37 I think it's to show how dangerous Argit's Quills are, they take down a Toku'star later and a Amalgam Kevin form so it's kinda consistent
1:13:51
That scene always stuck with me cause the screech from that Echo implied he didn't just get vaporized like the previous one. That was a couple second of intense, unfiltered, pain and fear. Like Ben was legit being some-what slowly lasered to death there.
40:14
"Medieval Gothic"
Am I the only one seeing VICTOR VON DOOM
You know the whole “growth spurt” thing made sense to me as a kid because I always figured he didn’t have human biology and just used some biomechanical shenanigans to get YOLKED.
Holy shit Kuro 3 episodes?? You're insane man, your efforts that goes into these breakdowns is awesome! Revisiting episodes like this and listening to your thoughts and commentary on them is really insightful. I really appreciate it
I think I like this arc because it’s the most proactive he’s ever been. It’s nice to see Ben fight seriously
Quick theory: Imagine that statement is true, Ben really does keep a spare echo echo in his trunk. We know that when he does that his personality goes all fry, this could justify why bens personality is off in certain moments, like in season 3 of alien force perhaps this was when he started keeping a spare, it caused a disruption in his personality, a part of himself which made him how we remember in the first and second season of alien force was kept away as an echo echo clone incase of his death, after that close call against the hybrid he wants to keep himself safe at all times.
Ye
Maybe
1:14:28 No, don’t you see, that’s why we had the episode Duped. By Ben always having one of is Echo Echos in the truck it explains why Ben reverted back to his immature self. That Echo Echo held on to the respectable part of his personality.
The biggest issue with the Ultimate Kevin Arc was the stakes was not high enough for Ben to kill Kevin. Kevin's motives in that arc was not taking over/destroying planets. It was Kevin trying to seek revenge to those who he thought wronged him.
@Dawid Stawowski Plus he hospitalized a guy because he owed Kevin money
@@Tony-oh a few bucks, too
@Dawid Stawowski That was tied back to PTSD from the past with Ben if you think about it. He has a sore spot for all Pyronites since it's the first partial transformation he used back in the classic series
@@D_0_S I don’t think that’s a thing lol
Also we going to forget that he tried to kill Argit? Or Alan… or hell Ben and Gwen themselves lmao
It's funny to think that, if Omniverse writers wanted to justify Ben's selfish attitude that negates all of his past introspection throughout the series, they could just say that 1 echo echo got lost and became its own Ben10, only it divided Ben between his most altruistic self and his most egotistic self
Of course they are not going to, but it'd be incredibly funny to just make an episode about it out of the blue and make the fandom go nuts about it
see that would've been a really fun concept to explore in Omniverse, especially w it's lighter tone it wouldve been a nice filler episode if they explored the echo echo clone concept again
@@blueguygaming1330 yeah..... but because they seemingly preferred ditto over echo almost as if to make up for ditto getting sidelined for echo echo, they shot themselves in the foot
Apperently the duplicate Ben was an ultimatrix glitch
@@skibot9974 that just sounds like writers wanting to backtrack their lore. Ben does it 1 time not even knowing if it'll work, which it does, and then refuses to do it or is ever mention again.
@@crims0nshad0the writers clearly don't know how to write properly.
8:58 it’s likely that Argit was unaware of Kevin’s mutation and were originally going to tell him about Pa Vreedle and ask him for a ride to plumber academy and share some of the profit but after finding out he needed a plan B in the form of the Tennyson cousins
With the inclusion of Harvey, and some of the other stuff regarding the ultimate Kevin stuff, it makes me wonder if a lot of it was scrapped ideas from their original plans with Kevin backing Alien Force. But since they have a shorter time frame, not even a whole season, they couldn't work it all in sadly. It would be interesting to know what the original plan was, and how many things would be the same, and what changed along the way.
Ben seeing Hunk Cooper:
"See Gwen, we can kill Kevin! We've got a spare!"
Which would be funny because iirc Cooper was the original third member in Alien Force's production.
Wonder why they changed it from Cooper to Kevin (though having Kevin be the third was the better choice at the end)
@@axelnilsson5124 I guess its because Kevin was a lot more popular
@@KaijuGal-rb9ek as a villain perhaps but it would be tough to see Ben and Kevin be friends in the context of Classic
Idk if you’ll see this Kuro, but I’ve just realised how the trio beat Greg to the forge. Remember what Paradox said? “If we’re going to get there on time, we’ll have to have already left.” They travelled back in time!
Don’t ask how the Agrebots were able to attack the ship though
also paradox wants to leave the forge of creation pretty quickly.
I think it was the writers' idea to add the bots. Which was bad writing.
@@christianparrish3292I definitely feel like it was an action scene mandate because beforehand, there weren't any fight scenes before that. The next one is the trio vs. Young Ben and after that it's the trio and Young Ben vs. Ultimate Aggregor.
Coopers growth really surprised me as a kid I thought he was Kevin’s cousin, plus I had a dream that you had a new animated intro
I absolutely love this Ben, I love it when a character that seems "goofy" or never serious gets serious and determined.
Not that Ben was never serious in classic or determined, but you get my point. This was probably one my favourite bits of the entire franchise.
I think it's interesting how in the episode which saw the heroes crossing a lot of very important lines in morality and ethics, we also saw career villains turn towards becoming better people.
And how no matter what, that's bad for the Rat-man.
31:00
I like to think that he only gets 1/10 of the alien's powers because he's absorbing them from the watch instead of directly from the individual alien. Like he'd absorb more of NRG's power if it came directly from NRG but Ben would probably die
Eh, you might like to think that but just by watching the franchise you’d subvert your thinking quickly by like a second.
Cause in OS, Kevin absorbed more than 1/10 of the Omnitrix taking the Omni-Energy from the bio-feedback. Not to mention he managed to take more while Ben was Heatblast and Four Arms too; didn’t kill Ben there did it. It’s only when Kevin lost control and became Kevin 11 did Kevin only have 1/10.
Aggregor means that when absorbing regular energy directly from living beings, they have 1/10; not the other way around.
I won't lie and say this arc was perfect, but even still it's probably my favorite arc of UA. Kevin's own characterization was on point and easily the higlight of it, seeing more context to his history and how his character grew from the OS to UA - before Omniverse came around and ruined it, thanks for nothing - but I'd say I actually think Ben's own character wasn't that off. I particularly remember the scene where he's talking to Max, saying how horrid he'd been acting with his superhero persona, and even later when he's fighting Ultimate Kevin and says that he'd give anything to have his secret identity back. He's seemingly dealing with a lot of self-loathing, and is essentially overcompensating as a result, trying to go back to more how he was during the Highbreed Invasion by taking things seriously, while simultaneously dealing with the betrayal that he genuinely feels from Kevin going berserk, regardless of whether or not it's his fault. Of course it's not entirely justifiable, but the best thing about Ben is that he's not a perfect hero, but he's trying to be. Whether you sided with Gwen in thinking there's a way to redeem him, or feel like Ben and that Kevin was essentially a mad dog, I can at least understand Ben's character here.
@TheGlassesPro Very good point. Have, like, one or two filler eps afterward to take a step back from the intensity, but keep these lingering after effects for later episodes to show it's not all squeaky clean, and have characters like the Helpers I think be more cautious around him and mistrusting. Have Kevin work to build back that trust I think would be great, and show some character growth and that there are moments that have genuine consequences, as opposed to waving it aside and going back to business as usual.
I love that Gwen used the Rock Monsters, it's subtle but it shows that she has also fallen, something that Kevin calls out when he references Charmcaster. Ben was acting more ruthless like Albedo, Kevin was more insane and energy hungry like Michael and Greg, but Gwen is the only one trying to push back when it comes to becoming like Charmcaster. I find that interesting because well Charmcaster is already a character who's flickering on redemption so there's less of a well for Gwen to fall down.
Also now that I think about it, if OV Darkstar is meant to resemble Doctor Doom and this episode shows off Michael with the cloak, could him be talking like he's in a play be a reference to Doom's ego and nature?
This arc really does show the downfall of the trio in terms of character
I always had a head canon that bad ben comes from the universe where he had to kill kevin and has fallen ever since.
Ya know I think Kuro had a lot of fun voicing Morningstar in And Beyond and here. It's brilliant. Keep rocking it Kuro! Thank you for you and the teams amazing work!
Man, I'm really excited for your Omniverse breakdowns when they come.
Even as a kid watching this, I thought it was bizarre that everything went back to normal by the next episode. I figured there would be at least a little tension between the trio after all the drama that went down. Honestly seems like a missed opportunity, but i guess you have to remember this is a kids show.
Tbh, I was always on Ben's side on whether to kill Kevin or not (at least after the opening scene in Absolute Power Part 1). Even though Ben is being more ruthless, in his mind he's trying to step and be the hero everyone else needs him to be. He's not happy about killing Kevin, but he's putting aside his own personal feelings to protect others from Kevin. I think it would've worked better if we had at least one moment where Gwen pushes Ben too far and he snaps at her, asking her how she can possibly think he WANTS to kill his best friend, that he's demonising Kevin so that killing him will hurt Ben less emotionally.
But Kevin did it to save the universe from Aggregor. Who knows what could have happened if Aggregor took the power of infant Alien X??
@@GenUrobutcher I think more than seeing Kevin get punished, I would've liked to see him deal with his guilt and take a step back from the main trio to process his own feelings and apologise for his actions. Big brain idea: what if Basic Training was stretched into a solo Kevin arc where he returns to Plumber Academy because he doesn't feel worthy of his Dad's Plumber badge, and he redoes his training while confronting and overcoming his personal flaws. Then he can return at the end of the season to save Ben and Gwen in a "Thor arriving in Wakanda" moment.
I love the Harvey scene and I think that it is one of the most well-written conversations in UA (besides the exposition), however, it definitely comes out of nowhere. Like they could have introduced him a lot earlier (they had DBB available) and shown his relationship with Kevin. Maybe him trying to be nice to Kevin and K rejecting him over and over again, so that this moment where he puts his foot down would be a lot more impactful.
My rewrite idea:
Have Ben lose control whenever he goes ultimate (from the beginning of season 1 of UA). Say that the DNA is corrupted by the ultimatrix which means that Ben becomes more animalistic, and have the ultimates be used as last resorts rather than just a power-up (so that they feel unique and the series title is justified outside of selling toys). You could even have Ben becoming overreliant on them throughout the season. My opinion is that they should have committed to having Greg as the main villain of season 2 and had season 3 be dedicated to the Ultimate Kevin arc. Both arcs feel way too rushed, being squeezed into season 2, so it gives us more time to get to know the origins. What do Greg want? They could even go the osmosian homeworld and explore Kevin more before he becomes ultimate (this was retconned later but it didn't have to be if they had explored it). Could also give us more time with young Ben on the way to the forge of creation since that felt like a missed opportunity.
You could even contrast Ben and Kevin with both of them going mad and integrate the Dagon stuff by having Kevin absorb him instead of Vilgax. Vilgax was ruined in AF s3 and I honestly think that he becomes more boring every appearance (since they never really do anything new with him besides Ben defeating him and him cursing him out) so they could have held of on him for a while. Replacing him with Kevin is a lot more interesting to me. Maybe Kevin attacks the Forever Knights because they did something to him, and he finds the legend of the sword and realizes that absorbing Dagon will give him absolute power. Then the sword somehow becomes the key to curing him and Ben (who is a lot more serious) actually considers using it to reshape reality. The arc feels very rushed and exploring Ben's guilt over not defeating Greg (and Kevin having to clean up his mess), then really showing his descent into being ruthless could have been a great arc.
Imagine if 10-year-old Ben and Gwen were watching their teenage selfs fight in Absolute Power while sitting back and eating popcorn.
43:09 I feel that the Ben-Max conversation should have ended like;
"It's not play time anymore. It's hero time."
Not just because of the catchphrase, but because as he said in Forge of creation, he tryes to avoid being too serious whene er he can.... But now he can't. Also, playing on the double meaning, because it's onviously not a heroic thing to do, yet Ben perspective is that THIS is what a hero should do, not because of it's good, but because of an asumed greater good
I actually enjoy Ben's darker side when it shows up, it shows that unlike other heroes he is absolutely willing to kill, but ONLY when the situation actually calls for it, which keeps him from going either anti-hero or full Injustice.
And unlike other heroes, Ben's profession is being an actual Law Enforcement Agent as a member of the plumbers, he is not a vigilante unlike the heroes of DC or even the Green Lanterns who may claim to be police officers, but their authority isn't really recognized by anyone but the guardians themselves. Ben is an actual Cop, he is allowed to make actual legal arrests, which means sometimes he may be forced to kill and while it would be investigated to see if it was necessary, it would be allowed, just like with real life cops.
Oh interesting.
The only problem I ever had with The Ultimate Kevin Arc was how short it was. It always felt like the Greg story Finale should have been a Season Finale and that þe Kevin Arc should have taken more time to build Ben's journey(I feel like his journey makes sense, but I would have liked to draw it out.)
I think most people will agree ultimate echo echo is the most bad ass thing to come from this arc.
Kuro I just want to say that I very much agree with you that there's one Octagon and Rhomboyd who actually stay good guys and trying to improve themselves while there are other clones who stay evil.
Imagine an episode when the evil vreedles are Hunt by the good vreedles
@TheGlassesPro Huh...I'd like to read something like that.
@TheGlassesPro Thank you for the info. :)
1:10:15
T-Posing Ultimate Kevin: Asserting Ultimate Dominance
37:18 Even the crossed arm is kinda reminiscent of Ultraman X's Xanadium Beam.
Im loving the variety in hair styles ❤️ I also think it was the one of the higher rated seasons because if it came out during October 2010 this is when CN was pushing Ben 10 massively with them marketing the tenth month in 2010 with exclusive Ben 10 pretty much
Thanks!
Notice that Gwen chose to defend with shield rather than actually shooting back at Chromastone and Way Big
hello fellow Yu-Gi-Oh chad
The chronicles of kuro's hair continue:
Tune in next week to see how this arc continues
No breakdown next week lol.
1:08:35
Me: **glances at Arcticguana freezing future Vilgax from OS**
Me: I mean...
A whole 90-minute long breakdown on one of my favourite arcs? Wonderful.
I think the resurrection of the Andromeda aliens just about works for me. Their 'deaths' represented the casual evil of Aggregor, and Ben's repeated failures (which continued through the season). After driving him to his darkest point with Kevin, I quite like that Gwen's optimistic plan also serves as redemption for Aggregor's crime and helps Ben recover some of his humanity. Though, they really should've shown up at some point after that, it feels odd that they vanish without a trace (even if they live in another galaxy so wouldn't be around that much).
As a whole, the first airing season of Ultimate Alien (the first 20 episodes), form my favourite chunk of Ben 10. The show goes for this odd structure of shorter interlinked arcs (Andromeda 5, Hunt for the Map, Ultimate Kevin), meaning each one builds off the last one growing more and more heightened in scale, getting more personal and character focused along the way. The show embraces a greater variety of alien locations and plot structures, and expands the alien roster beyond the tired 10 from AF Season 1.
As for rebranding the show 'Ultimate Alien', despite the underuse of the Ultimates themselves as a concept, I think the concept does work because the show has a greater thematic consistency, focused on the theme of what that kind of power really means for Ben. The new fame angle (while anticipated slightly by Ben's galactic reputation in AF Season 3), inflates Ben's ego, but is contrasted in Hero Time and Reflected Glory with times where this backfires and Ben faces dark mirrors of his entitled attitude. Aggregor with his obsession with greater power, up to omnipotence, is another great parallel for Ben's growing abilities and what he chooses to do with them, before Kevin takes up the mantle and arguably grows even more powerful (Aggregor is a focused, intelligent being, while Kevin goes for anything and everything in a mad quest, making him a great final encapsulation). The show continued to do similar with Old George and Ascalon, but never quite as focused as in the first 20.
Some of my favorite cartoon arcs are The High breed Arc from Ben 10 Alien Force Spider-Verse arc from 90s Spider-Man Cadmus arc from Justice League Unlimited and the Crystal Cove arc from Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated these arcs provide some of the best emotional moments animation history never talking down to their audience and teaching about deep subject matter my other favorites are the entire Gravity Falls series arc Ultimate Kevin Ultimate Alien the Loki arc from Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes the Dark Signers arc from Yu GI Oh 5D'S and the entire Generator Rex series arc.
The resurrection of the andromeda 5 doesn’t really matter anyways since they’ll never return
Re: Argit's size in the car: relative to human proportions, his legs are really short but his torso isn't quite as short. Since he's sitting, only his height from the bottom of his, well, bottom up is affecting how far above the seat his head is.
In my vast amount of childhood nostalgia for Ben 10, I always remembered the “Ultimate Kevin” arc as being THE BEST arc of Ultimate Alien (and tbh it’s one of my favorite arcs in the entire franchise). I never even knew other people had such an issue with it until I started interacting with the larger Ben 10 fanbase online. Their distaste for this arc always confused me, as I had never had any issues with it, and I appreciated the mature quality of the story even when I was a kid. It’s so different from any other arc in Ben 10, and most other cartoons of the era, but that’s exactly what makes it so GOOD! Ben has legitimate reasons for feeling this way, and yeah he’s ultimately WRONG, but that’s OKAY because it shows he isn’t some perfect infallible being… he’s a human. It’s okay to see our heroes struggle; that’s often where the best stories come from. I’m glad Kuro pointed out the more subtle nuances of this arc that go far beyond what many other cartoons are willing to do.
Agreed. Criticism to this arc always comes across as regurgitated and odd. I agree that it starts too suddenly and ends too suddenly, but that’s it. Kevin is sufficient of a threat and Ben is not completely immoral for wanting to kill him. Going soft on a rampaging behemoth just because he was your friend is not professional plumber protocol let alone moral. Ultimate Kevin is stronger than most individual aliens Ben has, so trying to contain him or subduing him isn’t a foolproof strategy. Trying to reason with him sure isn’t going to work either. Trying to cure him is not guaranteed nor possible before strongly damaging him to immobilize him first. You’re left with two options: either possibly permanently damaging him, or killing him. It’s not that illogical of a decision to make. The only problem is its sudden buildup, but it’s a decision that makes sense.
@TheGlassesPro Yes, but I could definitely see this as a network restriction. I think it should be pretty standard by now to not expect Ben 10 arcs to have lasting short-term consequences because CN would definitely prioritize returning the status quo. The earlier the trio returns, the faster the network can regain full creative control and churn out low effort goofy filler for the kids.
Call me crazy, Ben wasn't exactly in the wrong, yes killing is wrong, but for superheroes it's the hardest part, best example Flash season 2 episode 11, Eobard Thawne from the future goes back in time, Barry beats him but doesn't want him to go back to the future, because he knows that if he does then Barry's mother dies blah blah blah, Barry was so angry when he faught him earlier in the episode it looked like he was ready to kill him, Superheroes and heroes in media get it the roughest, they have to choose if they should kill someone or not, I keep thinking of this quote from Arrow season 4 episode 23, "You didn't kill the man who killed your mother Oliver so I doubt you're going to kill me", "With Slade I had a choice, with you I don't", anyway, Ben's need to kill Kevin is similar to Barry with Thawne in that episode, they've both had enough and think that, that is the only way it can end, and considering the ending of absolute power part 1, can you blame him, he was 100% going to kill Gwen and wouldn't have batted an eye
@@varisrevolver4061 Nope, you’re not wrong at all. All that the show was missing was buildup before and after the arc. I wish they trimmed the repetitive parts of the Aggregor arc and focused on this one instead.
@@UsernameUsername0000 Yeah, it mentioned it would happen but that's it after that
46:20 your voice acting was both spot on and absolutely hilarious
57:40 HAHAHAHA
I always figured Cooper's similarity to Keven was intentional. I thought he'd want to look like the guy that Gwen has feelings for.
I think that Ben should have started not even considering murder but growing to think it’s the only way rather than thinking so immediately and reaffirming his position. Also near everything after Harvey felt fumbled (aside from the ultimate echo echo bit).
1:05:53 in hindsight, screw Gary, Kevin’s Mom should have been the person to confront him. A perfect chance to show that even if Kevin was a bad kid his mom still took him back.
Sorry not Greg, Harvey
I'm pretty sure I saw a comment asking this same question back when Kuro covered the season 2 finally of alien force. But I'll ask it again anyways. *Why* *not* *use* *the* *DNA* *repair* *function* *on* *Ultimate* *Kevin* ?
Even if the Ultimatrix can't use that feature, ask Azmuth for help as its been established that he has an excellent understanding of DNA contamination/sorting thanks to making the Omnitrix or just ask the reintroduced Cooper (who made a big deal on how he saw Ben use the DNA repair function) to try & make a better (or ultimate?) version of those guns.
Ben's UA arc is very interesting. Ben wanting to kill Kevin shows his maturation.
The entire arc for him was going through failure after failure. Basically after a whole season and some where Ben acted like a douche that can do no wrong because he beat highbreeds, Ultimate Alien takes a massive punch on his ego.
He learns the hard way, being a hero isn't easy and cool as it seems. That's why wanting to kill Kevin makes sense in context. Because this is a Ben that kept failing because of his arrogance and he just wants to protect the world and resolve those failures despite the personal cost
@Dawid Stawowski Yes that was the most important part of his arc.
The moment he realized he can't always have his cake and eat it too by virtue of his power. Sometimes he has to make tough choices
He kept underestimating Aggregor and fail to beat him on every occasion. It only took Ultimate Kevin to take him down😂
While it's not prison, a military training branch is still going to have holding cells as a punishment and more importantly in case someone at the training site commits a crime and needs to be transferred to an actual prison.
1:21:15 to be fair Kevin DID kill most his Echo copies rather viciously. HE EVEN EXPLODED ONE. So yea Ben should still have a bit of a grudge
37:56 This has me thinking: did Bad Ben from Omniverse actually kill his universe’s Kevin 11 (assuming there were similar paths)? What turned Bad Ben “bad”?
@Dawid Stawowski That’s also a really good idea
@Dawid Stawowski that idea is so interesting.
Derrick J. Wyatt said that Bad Kevin is actually a tanned surfer bro dating a ditzy cheerleader Gwen in Bad Ben's universe. But since we never saw his world, it's pretty vague what happened with the characters in his world.
@@SecretMagician pretty sure your thinking of nega ben. Bad ben whole thing is his history was the same has prime ben but he made the wrong choices.
@frankspick7544 Oh yeah, you're right. I was mistaken.
I won't lie, it _really_ should have been Kevin's mom talking with Kevin. We NEVER get to see her properly despite Kevin kind of making a big deal out of her when Magister Gilhil took their badges.
Ok, but the episode could have had the Wreedles Parallel Ben and Kevin, since all of them are changing their morals, Kevin went evil, Ben is considering murder and the Wreedles (famous criminals) are turning good. This could be a nudge for Ben that even bad people can be good.
Too bad it went nowhere though
@@axelnilsson5124 It's a minor thing anyway. It's not even the top 5 Ben 10 plots that went nowhere lol
The fact that Ben even considered the possibility of having to put Kevin down for good was kinda scary. I can't even begin to imagine how different the show would have been had Ben actually gone through with it
1:18:10 I've had a personal fan theory/headcanon that this was actually where the original point of divergence from the main timeline Into the original future timeline from classic series, and in that timeline, ben tries to finish Kevin off but fails and Kevin ends up getting sent to the null void and it causes a rift between ben and Gwen that takes several years to heal And a more permanent falling out between ben and azmuth which would be why azmuth is never brought up in that timeline and why ben is all business no fun until he meets young ben again
Ultimate Echo Echo is badass!
“Yeah, I Lied”.
33:00 Wasn't there a prison cell in Omniverse that was designed to keep Albedo in?
They may not have it now but honestly they could ask the plumbers or Asmuth to make one.
Both Ben and Kevin are going through their villain archs/sagas/episodes and Gwen is just over here like “What the heck!”
I think the reason Kevin can use Goop's power with his arm without an antigravity projector is likely because its not just goop's power, since its his transformed diamondhead arm
so its likely more solid compared to goop's body
It says a lot that Ben has to point it out to Kevin that he has all the powers from the Ultimatrix and he hasn't used them.
Three of the best episodes of UA in one breakdown. That's *absolutely* awesome!
I was expecting "enemy of my enemy" to be together with "nor iron bars a cage", but it works this way as well, I wasn't expecting a 3 episode breakdown, but I'm glad we got it, these episodes are peak ben 10 to me.
Man i never get bored of *Ultimate Power*. I watch these episodes every single time
If Ben had taken Aggregor seriously, Kevin wouldn't have become a monster. That's why Ben thinks that Ultimate Kevin was his fault and responsibility.
Also, the fact that Ben told Cooper about Darkstar's plans means that Ben changed his mind about killing Kevin before the fight started.
I have no problem believing Ben feels its necessary to kill Kevin but going that hard on Gwen and even Vulkanus seemed kind of unbelievable.
@Paulo SM yeah not just this arc though she also defended him when he stole the rust bucket