"Grandpa?...what aren't you telling us?" "LOOK we used to DATE for a while OKAY?" This is hilarious on SO many levels when you consider Max's sex life.
@@Savagewolver Yeah a nd look how many other Plumbers had flings with Aliens. Chances are it's that he has to KNOWN romances of many casual flings in his youth...
@@darthva31 😒🤦♂️I thought we agreed to never acknowledge the existence of Omniverse or the 2016 reboot. 😆But yeah, I did like how season 3 played with the idea of the Universal Monsters as aliens, with the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Wolfman. It's too bad we didn't get to see Ben 10's version of a vampire as an alien, 'cause I think it would've been bada-s to see a cool Dracula-ish villain for Ben to fight.
The fact that Max has weird tastes in food is a franchise-long running gag. By Omniverse it gets to the point where he offers Ben *live kraken* for lunch.
Every time Linkara describes one of Ben’s aliens I think about it justifying that every transformation from Alien Force-onwards shouts the name (well, nickname) of the alien species Ben transforms into
@@williamhumes7332 I always thought it was more of the series making anime references. Like how in most action anime, the characters will shout their attack/transformation names
Fun Fact, when Ben turned into the ghost alien, aka Ghostfreak, in Last Laugh the alien said, "Woah, that kind of actually freaked me out." Which was foreshadowing towards the alien trying to escape the Omnitrix and the alien's true name is Zs'skayr (Zuh Scare).
A friend used this theme song to describe what Blue Beetle is to my sister. “It started when an alien device did what it did. It stuck itself upon his back with secrets that it hid.”
Ben 10 has manny aspects of being a comic despite not originating as one,so manny comic industry people behind it,the original series artstyle, the controversial backstory retcons and charcther reinvention
@@bearerofbadnews1375 Omniverse really shows the comic influence. Mostly in how it retcons half the franchise away because the new writing team didn't like them.
@@Mobysimo I really didn't like how they just sort of got rid of all magic and weird things in the world and simplified it down to "everything is an alien, including Gwen." It shrank the universe rather than expanding it.
@@dawkshangout Honestly his appearance in UA is weird. Cause;..yes he was supposed to die in this episode so him suddnly being in UA makes ZERO sense. Then again its UA...UA had some...issues with storytelling at times.
Honestly, while I get why people think he died, (I originally thought so, after all) but the confetti thing was set up as part of his act suggesting he just faked his death.
I'm so happy this happened. I was born in 99, and this was my action show growing up. I don't mean this as a gotcha, or an "um actually", but on the off chance this becomes relevant again, the names of the aliens in order of appearance are: Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8, Ripjaws, Upgrade, Ghostfreak, Stinkfly, and Fourarms. (I should note these aren't the names of their species in-universe, but nicknames Ben gave them). Vilgax is seen throughout the entire first season, but most of it is just him healing in that big tank while yelling at his underlings to "GIVE ME THE OMNITRIX!". Gwen also does get more to do in fights later in the series. And about the noise filter, it's just a stylistic thing, I'm not really sure why they chose that specifically. I'm really glad you enjoyed these episodes. This was a big part of my childhood.
Grandpa Max has spent so much time around aliens hes developed a taste for their cuisine, he objects to it in the flashback episode that gives his and Verdonas backstory
Whoever the patron that requested this and picked these three episodes, yes these are three of the best episodes of season three maybe if we can get Carter to do season two we can do the one framed
@@leephillips4402 XLR8... I didn't get the pun as a teenager, since I watched the show in latin american spanish, and in there, they pronounced the letters and numbers as the spanish counterparts, instead of... well... as Accelerate.
I should also mention that each of the aliens have species names, but are rarely mentioned in the show. So there's no way to remember their names without using wikis. Heat Blast = Pyronite Diamond head = Petrosapian Wildmutt = Vulpimancer Upgrade = Mechamorph XLR8 = Kineceleran Stinkfly = Lepidopterran Ghostfreak = Ectonurite Ripjaws = Piscciss Volann
@@thatonea-holeKinda sorta. Big Hero 6 is actually a Marvel property, but the movie took basically nothing from the original comic outside of the general team makeup. The original comic was actually starred Sunfire from the X-Men.
@Mobysimo Probably won't happen. Big Hero 6's show is over and Ben 10 (2016) is doing it's own thing that I'd rather not have touching Big Hero 6. Ever. We did get a crossover with Ben 10 and another underrated Man of Action property, Generator Rex, which I recommend. Both the show and the crossover movie. If you haven't heard of Generator Rex, the show revolves around the Nanite Event, a lab explosion that dispersed millions of unstable nanites across the world, which cause some of the population to mutate into Exponentially Variegated Organisms, or E.V.O.s. In order to solve the problem of various mutated monsters roaming the world or threatening the innocents, a government program called Providence enlists the help of an E.V.O. teenager named Rex, an amnesiac boy whose nanites can form complex weaponry and machinery to fight the mutated people, but also, can help deactivate and cure without having to kill or destroy them. Along for the ride is a talking chimp named Bobo, voiced by John DiMaggio, Rex's handlers, Agent Six and Dr. Rebecca Holiday, and his best friend, Noah, voiced by Fred Savage. There's also the head of Providence, White Knight, voiced by J.K. Simmons, the only nanite free person on the planet.
i could see it too, and then they broke up when max found out what a homicidal megalomaniac vilgax was "Villllgaaax what did you do?" "What do you mean?" "The crystal aliens, vilgax, what happened to them?" "Oh them! well, I was minding my own business." "uh huh" "then i saw this planet of crystal people." "yeah." "and then I blew up their planet!" "....Villlllgaaaaax that kills people!"
I actually like that Max is revealed to be a former hero of sorts himself. I find I prefer legacy heroes overall, and I just find the idea that this random modern kid is the first person to encounter the strange, supernatural/sci fi to be a bit silly. That they took a while to build up to the reveal I think also works, giving Max some mystery buildup as the kids start to notice. It's kind of the same as making Hank Pym a Cold War superhero in the MCU, and Carol Danvers active in the 90s. It adds texture and history, which makes things more believable for me.
it also helps him be able to guide ben and know that his powers are alien in origin (and later help explain WHY the omnitrix happened to crash near ben)
As much as i like the Zombozo episode, some places online switch the order of the episodes for some reason so you get cases where the episode "Last Laugh" replaces the episode "The Alliance", which actually ties in directly with the Vilgax arc of the first season. The episodes chosen by the patron sound deliberate to follow the build up to Vilgax in the finale but the bad ordering online might have ruined that, replacing the middle episode with an unrelated one.
Oh I always assumed they just wanted to show off the 10 aliens and this combination of episodes showed all ten the most But your assumption is probably right, so I guess the lesson is for Patreon show requests list both episode number and the title to avoid confusion
Its so weird seeing Linkara covering something that I knew and loved before I was even a comic fan. Like, it's not supposed to work this way. Linkara's supposed to introduce *me* to *his* hyperfixations, not the other way around.
Hearing Linkara go through the episodes without nameing the aliens is odd at first, then I think we all memorized the aliens names thanks to advertisements and toys. I THINK! I actualy can't remember
It’s basically for this reason we got the behaviors of later series. I just had the utterances of Humongousaur, Swampfire, Jetray, Chromastone, Echo Echo and Big Chill go off in my head.
Actually sometimes they are mention in episodes, like Ben complaining or cheering for getting one of the aliens. In fact in the last one of this season Ben says "Fly like a butterfly but stings like a Stink Fly". Alien Force just made super sure that you knew them all.
They do say the names in the shows but not as often. Thats why they startet making Ben shot the names in Alien Force cause...they dont always say the name in the episode and it is in charakter fore Ben so they rolled with it
Wouldn’t Max be an irresponsible idiot if he was in the dark about aliens, but still let his 10 year old grandson use an alien device that accidentally let him start a forest fire, is being pursued after by alien forces, and lets him fight armed criminals knowing that’s there’s a time limit for how long on his transformation while not taking Ben back to his parents to discuss on what to do next
From what I see in this episode, I halfway expect one of Ben's ten forms to be an alien reverse version of Smokey the Bear: "Only you can start forest fires!"
25:54 - 26:13 I did like how Gwen got to have her own powers later on via learning magic, first introduced through a magic charm talisman that granted her luck, and becoming her own hero character, "Lucky Girl." When she and Ben fought Hex, the sorcery villain whom the charm belonged to as part of a set called the Charms of Bezel, Gwen ended up destroying them. Later on, she found another charm called the Keystone, which amplifies her original luck powers that she had, but was crucial for Hex's niece, Charmcaster, to try and bring back the other charms. *Luckily-* Get it? - Ben, Gwen, and Max stopped that from happening. I'm glad that Gwen learning magic carried over to Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, putting her on equal footing with Ben as crime fighting partners instead of as a sidekick.
Fun little fact for anyone curious. in the 2016 Reboot Ben DOES get a transformation themed after Vilgax's species which he calls Gax, he loses this form though when the reboots version of Vilgax named Vil (yeah I know) tricks him into turning into that form and stealing it restoring his power and yes he does go by Vilgax the rest of the reboot.
fun fact: The star wars effects was on account that CN got "Clone Wars" at the time, and all of their shows had references to the movies! Everything from "Samurai Jack", to "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy". It was a good time to be a CN fan!
Ah, a classic from my childhood. Funny enough I was the same age as Ben when the show was first coming out, and honestly the sci-fi mixing with superheroics really dragged me in. I was already big on Justice League and Teen Titans, as well as Code Lyoko, so another superhero show really tickled my fancy. Show was great, characters were likeable, and the aliens were made of pure awesome. Just in case anyone was wondering, these are the names of all the aliens Ben used (in order of appearance) Ep. 1: Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8 Ep. 9: Ripjaws, Upgrade, Ghostfreak Ep. 13: Stinkfly We also saw a brief snippet of Fourarms in one of the segments (the red dude with... Well... Four arms), and the tenth alien is a little dude called Grey Matter who gives Ben enhanced intelligence. (Fun fact, we learn the creator of the Omnitrix is the same species as Grey Matter) Season 2 also gave us the awesomeness that is Cannonbolt (a rather chubby alien that becomes a high-velocity giant ball of death) who ended up replacing Ghostfreak for... Reasons. Cannonbolt is def my second favorite after Upgrade.
@@jordanhunter3375 As it happens, nope! Purely in-universe reasons, and very cool ones in my opinion that add a very interesting angle to that part of the show, though I won't say exactly what for spoiler reasons.
Yeah, Ghostfreak is his own beast with his own story. Man, talking about Code Lyoko really brings some memories back. Here we are, going far, to save all that we love!
Also, all of the aliens have official names. They're established in the episodes you skipped. Flame guy - Heat Blast Blind dog - Wild Mutt Crystal dude - Diamond Head Fast man - XLR8 (pronounced the same as "accelerate") Fish monster - Ripjaws Tech goop - Upgrade Little alien - Grey Matter Grey ghost - Ghostfreak Four-armed warrior - Fourarms Flying bug - Stinkfly Starting with Alien Force, Ben shouts his alien's name whenever he transforms.
@@Animestar21 Yeah exactly. But AFAIK, wikis weren't around at the time Ben 10 aired on TV. So all those names you mentioned, I couldn't even look up at the time. Present day it really easy to find out Ben's alien species names thanks to the internet.
Well TBF, I initially started watching Linkara's videos for HOPR content. But since Lewis has mention that as a side project, I tried watching some of his comic reviews, and honestly, I quite enjoyed them. Some of my favorites include: Adventures of the Kool-aid Man, Jell-o Man and Wobbly, Barbi Twin Adventures, Mightily Murdered Power Ringers, Super Man meets the Quik Bunny, Pokemon the Electric Tale of Pikachu, Pokemon Adventures, Digimon Dark Horse comic, and Godzilla Kingdom of Monsters.
So, fun fact. When Ben 10 was first being made, Gwen was Ben's classmate instead of cousin and meant to be his main love interest. However, they couldn't come up with a decent excuse as to why Gwen's parents would allow her to go with Ben & Max for 3 months, so they decided to change Gwen into his cousin instead. As fans will tell you, they made them cousins, but barely changed the writing of the two, meaning one of the biggest memes of the show was that Ben and Gwen acted like an old married couple than siblings/cousins. The writers, rather than scaling this back as the show progressed, leaned into the ship and made Ben/Gwen even MORE like a couple, including Gwen teaching Ben how to slow dance. This is why, when Alien Force came around, Kevin was made a good guy and immediately entered into a relationship with Gwen.
You know, I never saw anything like that. I just saw it as normal sibling arguments and just being taught how to dance. I just never saw a problem with being taught how to slow dance.
@@MartialartfruituserYou're one of the few. The meme/ship was so strong that Tara Strong (VA for Ben) even retweeted fanart of the Ben/Gwen ship, including infamously a fanart piece of Gwen pregnant with Ben's child.
@@ForrestFox626 Not out of character for Tara. She once retweeted a picture of Harley tying up Batgirl in a hogtie to give to Joker and likes any post that compliments her boobs.
Ben is a really good kid hero. He has the attitude and selfishness of a bratty kid but being a kid he really idolizes the idea of superheroes and tries to be like them and it hits a real good balance of that
@playererror4044 Ironically, Kevin Leven gets more character in the future series. Hell, we learn more about his backstory & former friends(criminal & not criminal)
@@playererror4044yeah I felt alien force made him a bit too serious/the standard good guy mold and made him feel not like himself but then omniverse sorta over corrected and made him a bit too selfish/like his kid self and immature. Personally I feel you could have made the character still fun loving and energetic but still feel like they have had lots of experience/some wisdom (or maybe I’m just talking out my ass) Regardless I still I’ve the franchise but the original series is still the best to me
@@playererror4044 yeah main reason i just stopped skipped the sequels. they amde ben and gwen too unlikable in some episodes, like where gwen gets mad at ben for DARING to stop a museum robbery over his girlfriends tennis match. like yeah he should make time for his girlfriend but you think the police can handle dudes armed with alien weapons, you self righteous dingus?
Zombozo does come back at least 2 or three times. But not until the much later sequal series where Ben is a teenager. So for the longest time me, and I'm sure many others, assumed Zombozo died from fright as aplsosed to teliporting away.
@@thenightstar8312 Ya, the show didnt really give us any indication the Zombozo was alive. No one says he escaped or anything like that. And I feel like Ben 10 came out at a time where shows where more willing to kill of characters, as long as it was done in a way were they didn't show anything graphic or have a body.
Dial M for Monkey is a refrence to Dial M for Murder an old crime movie from the 50's. which honestly now thinking back on it, Dial H for hero may be the same seeing as how the first Dial H comic came out in 1966 almost 10 years after Dial M for Murder.
Great episode choices. Ben 10 was (and still is) one of my favorite shows to watch/revisit on occasion. Don't know why the patron chose to cover Zombozo though (unless they plan to secure the slot again later) since it's considered the start of a pretty important arc. I'd have gone with either: 1x07: Kevin's intro (for obvious reasons) 1x10: Lucky Girl (to give Gwen a better showcase alongside Ben in the first episode and Max in the finale) 1x11: the Forever Knights intro (being the OTHER main recurring antagonist over the franchise history)
I was thinking I would've gone with 1x05, Hunted, I feel like if you're hitting the major Vilgax beats of season 1, those three are the big ones for an intro to the show
I always loved how all the aliens were voiced by VA legends like Steve Blum or Dee Bradley Baker. Really added to the mythos in a meta way. In a just world, they be one of the more expensive parts of the production.
@@DigiRangerScott yeah I haven’t kept up with the show since Omniverse but looking at the voice cast for the aliens, I’m glad that tradition had died at least.
@@Igarappappa It does make his filmography page on wikipedia really funny because even in other shows where he voices multiple characters, they will list them out but for both of those shows it’s just “various characters.”
I think the patreon may have one of the episodes mixed up. Since the first and last episode were about Vilgax the three episodes were supposed to be about vilgax Ben's main antagonist. The Zombozo episode was good but i think the episode was supposed to be where Ben sees Vilgax but doesn't interact with him directly. Also wanna go laugh look up a promo where Batman gets jealous over Ben for having superpowers and Aquaman eating Ben's sandwich
"😨😱AHHH!! AAAAHHHH!!! *😫AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!* " 🎵Now I've got a brand new Combine Harvester, And I'll give you the key! Come on down, let's get together in perfect harmony! I've got 20 acres, and you've got 43! 'Cause I've got a brand new Combine Harvester, And I'll give you the key!🎵 " *😵💫😫OH GOD, NOW I'M BLIND!!* "
I kinda wonder if the patron meant to nominate "The Alliance" - which continues the Vilgax storyline - instead of "Last Laugh" and didn't realize there was a difference in airing and production orders
To be fair, Dial 'H' remains one of my favorite hero comics for the creativity it had, and the New 52 version of Robby Reed remains my most aggravating, as he hadn't been seen in a few decades, his last action being saying he's back in the game after being remerged(long story) after years apart from himself. Oh, and the Dial for HERO was only in the later version, the original had a rotary phone dial on his, not buttons, and he could dial any word, and he'd get powers based on that. The 'sequel' which had two characters with dials, a male and female, used them as pendants they wore, and just hit the four buttons in order. Not that they always played nice with it. As his clipped panel shows, you can push the buttons in any order. The guy eventually tried other words you can make with those four letters. One of the words he tried? Horror. He was not a smart man. Mind, still love they got their dials from 'The Wizard' and their archenemy was 'The Master'. Fun times, and the simple names ARE with a purpose.
I think the patreon confused the episodes. episode 8 serves as a prelude to the finale with robot from vilgax merging with the baddie of the week and giving ben visions of vilgax.
12:51 umm, ripjaws (the fish alien) can't breathe on land for very long and he was surrounded by fire which shorted his time on land. Also for anyone who doesn't know, the alien's names are heatblast (fire alien), wildmutt (orange alien), diamondhead (crystal alien), XLR8 (speed alien), ripjaws as you already know, upgrade (tech alien), ghostfreak (ghost alien), stinkfly (bug alien), and fourarms. (the four armed alien)
About your quick aside regarding Invader Zim... wasn't the show actually cancelled because the CGI sequences which Jhonen Vasquez and the other writers were very adamant about, was becoming way too expensive for the network? I remember that being the reason, while Nickelodeon actually going out of their way to say that they WANTED an older audience and were specifically shooting for an older, edgier demographic with it.
I’m guessing the patron picked these episodes probably because these 3 combined showcase almost all of Ben’s original aliens. A large part of what made the show popular was the idea of turning into all these cool aliens with unique powers and so they wanted to have episodes that show all 10 Alternatively they could have picked them because the first was the pilot,which is obviously, and then the third was the episode that had the first real story progression (the show was mostly episodic) and the circus one was to show a typical episode/was possibly a personal favorite
The Green Lantern joke was inevitable, but I think it's funny how Ben 10 has almost exactly the same origin as Earthworm Jim. If it had landed on one of those mealworms they were eating, it would have been exactly the same!
@@estebangutierrez160 no they are half alien, otherwise Gwen couldn't have gotten any Anodite abilities, there has to be some genetic material passed down
I think what made me love this show so much as a kid was its similarity to Power Rangers. A kid or teen getting superpowers from an alien to fight other aliens. Also the whole idea of Ben turning into other aliens by using a wrist device obviously reminded me of morphing. Pretty cool to see you talk about this show Linkara, it clearly had a big impact on my childhood lol
19:44 Well... yes, he does, but to clerify some points Zombozo didn't teleport away... he exploded... he died, as confirmed by his minions on a later appearence. But somehow returns in one of the sequel series, Ultimate Alien, without explanation (where funnily enough it does come up that he knows Ben's identity... but by then Ben had gone public with his powers so it doesn't really matter) Later they would retcon him into being a zombie, which i wonder if it was the original intention giving his name.
This show is fantastic and made me into the sci fi loving nerd I am today. This show is my childhood and seeing you tackle it gets me all forty and excited despite watching it at 3am by the time I’m writing this.
There's no way they weren't at least a little aware of Dial H, probably in in the back of their minds. Like they heard about it, forgot it, then later subconsciously drew on it to create Ben 10, mistaking a half-forgotten memory for genuine inspiration. Episode 9 is the odd man out. I feel like most people who requested you look at Ben 10 episodes would've asked for Kevin 11 (introducing Ben's evil counterpart turned best friend) or Lucky Girl (which gives Gwen some time in the spotlight.) Last Laugh seems pretty random unless the plan to commission the episodes where Ghostfreak turns evil in the future. Boffo! Been a hot minute since we've seen him around. 19:53 The prequel no one was expecting: I Know What You're Planning to Do This Summer. Kinda ironic, you're going from a show where a single kid can become ten different aliens to a show where five aliens can become 35 different teams of Sentai.
Disappointed that episode 9 didn’t end with Ben and his family walking away from an exploding circus tent. (If you get the reference, you deserve a hug.)
Glad to see this episode. I’ve massively gotten back into Ben 10 because of TH-cam so you covering it is awesome to see. I especially like your own brand of jokes to some of the scenes and especially your own insight at the beginning given the dial H for hero comparisons.
This has certainly been a fun episode, but if you do cover this in the future, I feel like knowing the Alien names will help. -Fire Alien: Heatblast -No eyes beast alien: Wildmutt -Crystal Alien: Diamondhead -Really fast alien: XLR8 (pronounced like "accelerate") -Black Lagoon alien: Ripjaws -Tech Possession Alien: Upgrade -Ghost Alien: Ghostfreak (bit of a twist with this one in later seasons) -Bug alien: Stinkfly -Four armed alien: Fourarms -Tiny alien with big eyes (The Sir Not-Appearing-In-These-Episodes): Greymatter Also, the squid in the tube is named Vilgax, and he's basically the big bad for the entire franchise. Unfortunately the first series wasn't too good with naming things right off the bat. Also, if you do decide to watch more, you'll see more of the races that Ben can turn into. They're all technically species of aliens in this universe. Also, the Max dating aliens joke... Just keep that in the back pocket for if you cover some later seasons or series.
Covered this in my own comment, but should help add on by saying Ben's 10th alien is a little dude with a big brain called Grey Matter. He's pretty cool, though kinda weak compared to the other 9.
12:07 did the patron tell you the name of the episodes or just the numbers? Because production and airing order differ a bit. Episode 9 in production order is “The Allience” which is connected more closely to the premiere and finale as it features another plot by Vilgax, and is when Ben becomes first aware of his existence
for what it's worth, there _are_ Ben 10 comics ;) i haven't read them, or watched the show, but i lay hands on some in the juvenile graphic novels section of the library i work at when i'm alphabetizing that area pretty regularly (that one uses single-letter labels instead of author names or decimals and so it's _extremely_ prone to getting out-of-order)
23:37 I remember that I liked the "Not an average plumber" line so much, that I always felt disappointed his MIB organization was honestly called "The plumbers"
My favorite reviewer reviewing my favorite cartoon! 12:49 Actually, what's going on here is that the heat is dehydrating Ben. This alien, Ripjaws, is a humanoid fish that can only stay on land for a short amount of time because he breathes water. 20:06 Vilgax makes two other appearances in the first season (Either of which probably should have been requested in stead of Last Laugh). In one episode, Hunted, Vilgax hires threat bounty hunters to capture the Omnitrix. In the other, The Alliance, one of his robot-drones merges with a biker and he contracts her to capture it.
22:28 Ok this is hilarious considering that... yeah, Max's wife is an alien. Gwen ended up inheriting latent abilities later in the season that I believe allowed her to channel them via magic.
I remember when I was a kid and how they advertised the show. Me watching a sneak peek of it and then watching the show and the different iterations over the years. How I would consult the wiki to learn alien names, species, etc. I just remembered being a kid and watching the new episodes and how things grew and changed.
can't lie, I am glad one of my favourite franchises gets the spotlight^^ Hilariously about half of your jokes turn out true later. Zombozo DOES come back later on and his new plan specifically involves going after Ben's family, Max did date aliens (albeit not Vilgax), and a Mummy does show up later :p But yeah I am glad you enjoyed it^^ part of me hope you'll review some sequel episodes later but I guess we shall see.
13:47 The Magnificent bastard has returned :) 23:45 Funny enough ThirdMarioBrother is also the name of a youtuber. 26:51 Always excited to see Lewis review more Gokaiger. :)
As a note with the fire on the pier thing, it's not the oxygen for once, but the alien he's taken the form of. You're absolutely correct that Ripjaws, the alien form, is amphibious, but his race is primarily water breathers. They can't last for extended periods outside the water, and that's only sped up when fire and extreme heat are involved. I say this mostly cause of the original 10, Ripjaws is my fave. Also, Grandpa Max's voice actor also played Colnel Campbell in MGS. Also also, Zombozo actually stays out of the series for a LONG time after this. Wouldn't show up again until two series later, directly trying to get revenge.
nah the "where bad comics burn" is still a good tagline. also the ghost ben turns into ends up becoming a villain because even the tiniest dna gained from his species is alive and VERY consious and ben just so happened to be turning into an evil alien warlord ghost.
Here's how you can tell The Last Laugh is a memorable one: As far as I remember, I didn't even regularly watch Ben 10 as a child, and yet I *still* have a memory of that one time I tuned in on it by chance.
0:14 I still find it baffling that, we never got a Dial H for HERO Crossover with Ben 10..... YET ironically enough we got a crossover of Ben 10 with Superfriends incarnation of the Justice League, even if only for a promo Or that Dial H for HERO hasn't been covered in this show already. We have the Wonder Comics run, the new 52 run, the classic run, the 80s run, or the H-E-R-O anthology 1:18 So Dial H was part of "the house of mystery" 8:11 I mean.... give them credit for recognizcing the "backfire" technique. asking them to be 100% accurate to real life is asking too much from them. 19:48 considering we are covering the 1st and last episode of the season, i am surprised the patreon didn't ask for another vilgax (the squid dude) episode. like say episode 5, or episode 8. Episode 8 is the reason why Ben even has Nightmares with Vilgax
If you do anymore Ben 10 stuff Linkara, here's a list of Ben's initial 10 aliens in the OG show as listed in the intro, though he does gain more forms as the show goes on, hope this helps for future videos: 1-Wildmutt 2-Four Arms 3-Greymatter 4-XLR8 5-Upgrade 6-Diamondhead 7-Ripjaws 8-Stinkfly 9-Ghostfreak (later seasons have him replaced with Cannonbolt) 10-Heat Blast
Ben 10 is something I was hoping to see covered for a long time, in fact it was one of my ideas to do a Patreon epsiode if I ever got a slot but doenst seem to be strictly nessecary now. Beyond what Lewis stated Ben 10 has LOTS of connections to comic books, or more accurately comic adaptations. I can’t remember if this was started in an episode or on Cartoon Network’s old website, but Ben’s middle name is Kirby, as a tribute to Jack Kirby. Man of Action the team behind the original series and the 2017 reboot would the group who made most of the Marvel shows for Disney XD The next two shows Alien Force and Ultimate Alien hired the late Dwayne McDuffie as the head writer and story editor. He was the guy who headed Static Shock and Justice Leauge Unlimited The fourth series (and last in the original continuity), Omniverse, would be head by the late Derrick J Wyatt. Wyatt had worked as the art director on Teen Titans and was the head writer of Transformers Animated. As we cannot forget Transformers technically started as a comic series The writer of “Secrets” was Marty Eisenberg. Not only is Eisneberg one of the few writers to work on all five shows, but has many writing credits on various superhero shows over several decades. And I don’t mean niche ones he was on several of the big ones: such as Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Spiderman TAS, Ninja Turtles 2003, and Danny Phantom (okay maybe that last one isn’t as big but still). Finally the voice of Ben as a Teenager (Alien Force takes place five years after the original show for those who don’t know) is Yuri Lowenthal the guy who voices Spiderman in the recent PlayStation games. While Sausake from Naruto started his career, I’d argue Ben Tennyson is the role that made him A-List in voice acting. And despite their roles in the sequels being minimal Man of Action clearly had respect for Yuri’s tenure as they cast him as Vilgax in the reboot.
This was great, although I have to say I'm kinda scratching my head as to why these three episodes were chosen. "And then there were 10" and "Secrets" makes sense because it's the beginning and end of that story arc, but for the middle episode I would have picked either "Hunted" or "The Alliance" because it involves Vilgax sending people after the Omnitrix. "The Alliance" in particular, because it's the first time Ben and Vilgax actually talk and start to build the rivalry. Still great review though.
- I mean is not that hard to accidentally come up with the Dial H for Hero idea, I'm pretty sure i did in a previous AT4W episode - the grainy backgrounds is entirely an Stylistic choice, they did the same for their other show Generator Rex, although not as pronounced - yeah it's a running gag that Grandpa Max has very weird tastes in food - so it's not shown in these episodes but Gwen does get to do a lot more in the show - yeah the first Season keeps Max being a "plumber" very secret but drops hints, and then the show ends up doing a lot more with the Plumbers organization in general
One thing I liked from the few episodes I saw was that the watch tended to malfunction, causing him to turn into an different alien than what Ben wanted, making it so he has to solve a problem creatively instead of the way that he planned.
I was in high school when it premiered, the sci-fi aspect hooked me. Much like every kids show, the voice acting has really stuck with me- Tara Strong is a legend while Meagan Smith & Paul Edding are great on their own. Side note Greg Sipes not only played Beast Boy, he also played Kevin Levin in this franchise.
Grandpa Max was familiar with aliens, because his voice actor - Paul Eiding - was Ambassador Loquel from Star Trek Next Generation. But I know him as Aldaris, a protoss judicator from StarCraft.
if i had to guess the patron had you review these because the first and last episode are story heavy and the 9th episode showcases some of the alien forms that weren't shown that much in the other two also because if i don't say this next part my brain is gonna fixate on it until i have an aneurism so please bear with me Diamondhead: crystalline alien Wildmutt: eyeless bestial alien Heatblast: fire alien Upgrade: Amorphous Technology Alien XLR8: Lizard like speedster alien Stinkfly: Insect alien Ripjaws: Amphibious alien Ghostfreak: Ghostlike Alien and the two i only just now realized weren't really shown in the review Fourarms: red muscular alien with four arms Greymatter: small frog like hyper intelligent alien
"Grandpa?...what aren't you telling us?"
"LOOK we used to DATE for a while OKAY?"
This is hilarious on SO many levels when you consider Max's sex life.
"We'll always have Roswell 💙🦑"
Max only has two confirmed romances: xylene and verdona.
@@Savagewolver Yeah a nd look how many other Plumbers had flings with Aliens. Chances are it's that he has to KNOWN romances of many casual flings in his youth...
@@Savagewolverhe has stories fighting across the galaxy, including a war with mud aliens
😂😂😂😂
Chief Wiggum: "We think we're dealing with a supernatural being, most likely a mummy."
Me: *LAUGHS IN SEASON 3*
Oh man, Linkara would *love* the Season 3 story arc.
😂😂😂😂😂
Well, Ben did later visit a solar system full of aliens inspired by Universal monsters in Omniverse
THAT WAS MY THOUGHT
@@darthva31 😒🤦♂️I thought we agreed to never acknowledge the existence of Omniverse or the 2016 reboot. 😆But yeah, I did like how season 3 played with the idea of the Universal Monsters as aliens, with the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Wolfman. It's too bad we didn't get to see Ben 10's version of a vampire as an alien, 'cause I think it would've been bada-s to see a cool Dracula-ish villain for Ben to fight.
The fact that Max has weird tastes in food is a franchise-long running gag. By Omniverse it gets to the point where he offers Ben *live kraken* for lunch.
Ironically to aliens he's considered a gourmet.
Max has a lot of interesting taste in food or women 😉
@@AvatarOfAwesome and his taste in women rubbed off on Ben
Fortunately, that was just before the intergalactic space federation banned the creation of kraken foie gras.
Doesnt ben fet more willing to eat the weird stuff over the course of the franchise
Linkara wasn’t completely wrong with the Vilgax joke. He just has to replace him with Verdona
Or Xylene
@@Nelsito99 or any of the alien Coochie he got
I was thinking the same thing lol!
And those are the ones we know
M'thinks Ben has a couple uncles/aunts out there
Linkara so professional; talking Ben 10 whilst petting a sweet little kitty. 10/10
Every time Linkara describes one of Ben’s aliens I think about it justifying that every transformation from Alien Force-onwards shouts the name (well, nickname) of the alien species Ben transforms into
Got that was dumb.
@@Igarappappa In the context of the show, sure. In context of the review, it sure would’ve helped.
Did you also hate that by chance?
@@williamhumes7332 I always thought it was more of the series making anime references. Like how in most action anime, the characters will shout their attack/transformation names
@@Animestar21No, it was a network mandate so that kids remembered the alien name to tell their parents when they went to buy toys from the show.
Fun Fact, when Ben turned into the ghost alien, aka Ghostfreak, in Last Laugh the alien said, "Woah, that kind of actually freaked me out." Which was foreshadowing towards the alien trying to escape the Omnitrix and the alien's true name is Zs'skayr (Zuh Scare).
Ghostfreak/Zs'Skayr: "😈Aw, and here I thought we were so close. Nice to finally meet, *face to face.* "
The clever thing is that at first sounds like ben is making a bond one liner
And let’s not forget his home system. The frightening Anurr
A friend used this theme song to describe what Blue Beetle is to my sister. “It started when an alien device did what it did. It stuck itself upon his back with secrets that it hid.”
That is glorious!
Ben 10 has manny aspects of being a comic despite not originating as one,so manny comic industry people behind it,the original series artstyle, the controversial backstory retcons and charcther reinvention
Pzqz
Yep noticed the retcons with Kevin 11 origins. IMO I preferred him being an half human alien over a mutant.
@@bearerofbadnews1375 Omniverse really shows the comic influence. Mostly in how it retcons half the franchise away because the new writing team didn't like them.
@@Mobysimo I really didn't like how they just sort of got rid of all magic and weird things in the world and simplified it down to "everything is an alien, including Gwen." It shrank the universe rather than expanding it.
Agreed. It's basically the greatest superhero comic cartoon that's not actually based on a superhero comic.
Zombozo didnt run off, actually. Ben's ghost form, which he calls Ghostfreak, actually scared him to death.
cant even say he was scared to death he does return in later episodes and series so what ever ben did to him didnt stick
Wait really??😅 is that what was supposed to happen 😮
Close, zombozo doesn’t actually die until Ultimate alien since thats the last time we see him pre-omniverse zombification.
@@dawkshangout Honestly his appearance in UA is weird. Cause;..yes he was supposed to die in this episode so him suddnly being in UA makes ZERO sense. Then again its UA...UA had some...issues with storytelling at times.
Honestly, while I get why people think he died, (I originally thought so, after all) but the confetti thing was set up as part of his act suggesting he just faked his death.
I'm so happy this happened. I was born in 99, and this was my action show growing up. I don't mean this as a gotcha, or an "um actually", but on the off chance this becomes relevant again, the names of the aliens in order of appearance are:
Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8, Ripjaws, Upgrade, Ghostfreak, Stinkfly, and Fourarms. (I should note these aren't the names of their species in-universe, but nicknames Ben gave them). Vilgax is seen throughout the entire first season, but most of it is just him healing in that big tank while yelling at his underlings to "GIVE ME THE OMNITRIX!". Gwen also does get more to do in fights later in the series. And about the noise filter, it's just a stylistic thing, I'm not really sure why they chose that specifically. I'm really glad you enjoyed these episodes. This was a big part of my childhood.
What was the name for the tiny gray man alien form with the IQ boost?
@@jordanhunter3375 Grey Matter
Thank you
We now need an episode of Dr. Linksano reviewing the episodes with Dr.Animo, feels like that's the next step
OMG, that needs to happen.
YES😂
Quick someone patron it
Don't forget the ones with Kevin 11, Ben's rival, and then eventually turned best friend in the later Alien Force and Ultimate Alien spin-offs.
Grandpa Max has spent so much time around aliens hes developed a taste for their cuisine, he objects to it in the flashback episode that gives his and Verdonas backstory
Basically, Grandpa Max was going full Kirk mode & especially with how we have seen his old alien 👽 girlfriends
BEN 10 FANS UNITE, WE HAVE BEEN SUMMONED FORTH ONCE MORE
Any ink tank fans here?
@@giorgioguolo7196
We are never far behind either
Whoever the patron that requested this and picked these three episodes, yes these are three of the best episodes of season three maybe if we can get Carter to do season two we can do the one framed
Who was summoned first, second, and third?
@@BaronSengir1008 if you mean, which aliens did he do first it was Heatblast, Wildmutt then Diamondhead
Fire alien- heat blast
Crystal guy- diamond head
Animal thing- wildmutt
Tech alien- upgrade
Speedster- XLR8
gross dragonfly- stinkfly
Creepy ghost- Ghostfreak
Reptile- ripjaws
And I think there were two we didn't see mentioned in this video: Grey Matter and Four Arms (which was briefly seen, but not mentioned by Linkara).
XLR8 is the one clever one, the general variety of name quality on this show makes it believable a kid came up with them.
@@leephillips4402 XLR8... I didn't get the pun as a teenager, since I watched the show in latin american spanish, and in there, they pronounced the letters and numbers as the spanish counterparts, instead of... well... as Accelerate.
To be fair the show doesn't go out of it's way to make these names known until later
I should also mention that each of the aliens have species names, but are rarely mentioned in the show.
So there's no way to remember their names without using wikis.
Heat Blast = Pyronite
Diamond head = Petrosapian
Wildmutt = Vulpimancer
Upgrade = Mechamorph
XLR8 = Kineceleran
Stinkfly = Lepidopterran
Ghostfreak = Ectonurite
Ripjaws = Piscciss Volann
Fun fact - Man of Action were also the ones who created Big Hero 6
*REALLY?!?!*
@@thatonea-holeKinda sorta. Big Hero 6 is actually a Marvel property, but the movie took basically nothing from the original comic outside of the general team makeup. The original comic was actually starred Sunfire from the X-Men.
Goddamn it now I want a Big Hero 6 Ben 10 crossover....
@Mobysimo Probably won't happen. Big Hero 6's show is over and Ben 10 (2016) is doing it's own thing that I'd rather not have touching Big Hero 6. Ever.
We did get a crossover with Ben 10 and another underrated Man of Action property, Generator Rex, which I recommend. Both the show and the crossover movie.
If you haven't heard of Generator Rex, the show revolves around the Nanite Event, a lab explosion that dispersed millions of unstable nanites across the world, which cause some of the population to mutate into Exponentially Variegated Organisms, or E.V.O.s. In order to solve the problem of various mutated monsters roaming the world or threatening the innocents, a government program called Providence enlists the help of an E.V.O. teenager named Rex, an amnesiac boy whose nanites can form complex weaponry and machinery to fight the mutated people, but also, can help deactivate and cure without having to kill or destroy them. Along for the ride is a talking chimp named Bobo, voiced by John DiMaggio, Rex's handlers, Agent Six and Dr. Rebecca Holiday, and his best friend, Noah, voiced by Fred Savage. There's also the head of Providence, White Knight, voiced by J.K. Simmons, the only nanite free person on the planet.
@@Mobysimo The closest crossover you'll get with Ben 10 is with Generator Rex, another Man of Action creation.
“There’s not a single being in the galaxy that dares stand in my way!”
(Proceeds to repeatedly get his ass handed to him by a 10-year-old.)
And continues to get his ass handed to him over the next few years when he puts the Omnitrix back on, even if he gets too confident.
Me about to go to sleep:
Linkara uploading at 3 AM: I'm about to ruin this girl's entire sleep habits
4 am here
Especially since he’s talking about one of my favorite shows
A girl whose a ben 10 fan!?!?! I never knew they existed..
No offence
@@AuraMasterKareem Maybe if you didn't have that viewpoint, you'd have more female friends 🙂
@@StudioInkblot I have female friends. It's just that only my guy friends have even seen ben 10
Vilgax dating Max joke is pretty funny since Max has been going around f-ing aliens on more than one occasion
MANY a Plumber at that XD
i could see it too, and then they broke up when max found out what a homicidal megalomaniac vilgax was
"Villllgaaax what did you do?"
"What do you mean?"
"The crystal aliens, vilgax, what happened to them?"
"Oh them! well, I was minding my own business."
"uh huh"
"then i saw this planet of crystal people."
"yeah."
"and then I blew up their planet!"
"....Villlllgaaaaax that kills people!"
I actually like that Max is revealed to be a former hero of sorts himself. I find I prefer legacy heroes overall, and I just find the idea that this random modern kid is the first person to encounter the strange, supernatural/sci fi to be a bit silly. That they took a while to build up to the reveal I think also works, giving Max some mystery buildup as the kids start to notice.
It's kind of the same as making Hank Pym a Cold War superhero in the MCU, and Carol Danvers active in the 90s. It adds texture and history, which makes things more believable for me.
it also helps him be able to guide ben and know that his powers are alien in origin (and later help explain WHY the omnitrix happened to crash near ben)
As much as i like the Zombozo episode, some places online switch the order of the episodes for some reason so you get cases where the episode "Last Laugh" replaces the episode "The Alliance", which actually ties in directly with the Vilgax arc of the first season. The episodes chosen by the patron sound deliberate to follow the build up to Vilgax in the finale but the bad ordering online might have ruined that, replacing the middle episode with an unrelated one.
It looks like The Alliance was the 9th produced but aired 8th, and Last Laugh was produced 6th but aired 9th.
Oh I always assumed they just wanted to show off the 10 aliens and this combination of episodes showed all ten the most
But your assumption is probably right, so I guess the lesson is for Patreon show requests list both episode number and the title to avoid confusion
I wondered if Zombozo was picked because of Linkara's thing about Evil clowns
Its so weird seeing Linkara covering something that I knew and loved before I was even a comic fan.
Like, it's not supposed to work this way. Linkara's supposed to introduce *me* to *his* hyperfixations, not the other way around.
I know it's weird ain't ❤❤
Often the whole idea of requesting Patreon is that people use it often to get Lewis to watch or read stuff everyone else likes that he never got into.
Hearing Linkara go through the episodes without nameing the aliens is odd at first, then I think we all memorized the aliens names thanks to advertisements and toys. I THINK! I actualy can't remember
It’s basically for this reason we got the behaviors of later series. I just had the utterances of Humongousaur, Swampfire, Jetray, Chromastone, Echo Echo and Big Chill go off in my head.
What, no love for Spider Monkey?
Actually sometimes they are mention in episodes, like Ben complaining or cheering for getting one of the aliens. In fact in the last one of this season Ben says "Fly like a butterfly but stings like a Stink Fly". Alien Force just made super sure that you knew them all.
They do say the names in the shows but not as often. Thats why they startet making Ben shot the names in Alien Force cause...they dont always say the name in the episode and it is in charakter fore Ben so they rolled with it
I remember every single alien and non-canon alien.
5:40 - 5:52 "Green color spaces are X-box, blue spaces are Playstation, and red is Nintendo Switch."
"What're the yellow spaces?"
"Pee breaks."
Wouldn’t Max be an irresponsible idiot if he was in the dark about aliens, but still let his 10 year old grandson use an alien device that accidentally let him start a forest fire, is being pursued after by alien forces, and lets him fight armed criminals knowing that’s there’s a time limit for how long on his transformation while not taking Ben back to his parents to discuss on what to do next
DC comics must have been kicking themselves when Ben ten became a juggernaut of a franchise when they had dial h for hero.
Ben 10 had better writing than Dial 'H'.
I’m sure Ben 10 got some DC presence over the last 18+ years
@@DigiRangerScott yep. Guess who published the Ben 10 comics before they went to IDW in 2013.
@@RabblesTheBinxWait, Ben 10 had comics?!?
@@JennyBlaze253 Didn't everyone?
16:53 Ofc, the only two emotions you need are anger & confusion.
21:29 - Nah, the mummy's not 'til season 3~
From what I see in this episode, I halfway expect one of Ben's ten forms to be an alien reverse version of Smokey the Bear: "Only you can start forest fires!"
I don't think Ben ever actually gets a bear-like alien. He eventually gets a sasquatch, but not a bear.
25:54 - 26:13 I did like how Gwen got to have her own powers later on via learning magic, first introduced through a magic charm talisman that granted her luck, and becoming her own hero character, "Lucky Girl." When she and Ben fought Hex, the sorcery villain whom the charm belonged to as part of a set called the Charms of Bezel, Gwen ended up destroying them. Later on, she found another charm called the Keystone, which amplifies her original luck powers that she had, but was crucial for Hex's niece, Charmcaster, to try and bring back the other charms. *Luckily-* Get it? - Ben, Gwen, and Max stopped that from happening. I'm glad that Gwen learning magic carried over to Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, putting her on equal footing with Ben as crime fighting partners instead of as a sidekick.
Fun little fact for anyone curious. in the 2016 Reboot Ben DOES get a transformation themed after Vilgax's species which he calls Gax, he loses this form though when the reboots version of Vilgax named Vil (yeah I know) tricks him into turning into that form and stealing it restoring his power and yes he does go by Vilgax the rest of the reboot.
Its basically Feedback but worse
@@Animestar21 would have been cool if he kept it though
fun fact: The star wars effects was on account that CN got "Clone Wars" at the time, and all of their shows had references to the movies! Everything from "Samurai Jack", to "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy". It was a good time to be a CN fan!
Dark and gloomy at 11am? It's the smoke and ash from all the fire they keep starting.
Ah, a classic from my childhood. Funny enough I was the same age as Ben when the show was first coming out, and honestly the sci-fi mixing with superheroics really dragged me in. I was already big on Justice League and Teen Titans, as well as Code Lyoko, so another superhero show really tickled my fancy. Show was great, characters were likeable, and the aliens were made of pure awesome.
Just in case anyone was wondering, these are the names of all the aliens Ben used (in order of appearance)
Ep. 1: Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8
Ep. 9: Ripjaws, Upgrade, Ghostfreak
Ep. 13: Stinkfly
We also saw a brief snippet of Fourarms in one of the segments (the red dude with... Well... Four arms), and the tenth alien is a little dude called Grey Matter who gives Ben enhanced intelligence. (Fun fact, we learn the creator of the Omnitrix is the same species as Grey Matter)
Season 2 also gave us the awesomeness that is Cannonbolt (a rather chubby alien that becomes a high-velocity giant ball of death) who ended up replacing Ghostfreak for... Reasons. Cannonbolt is def my second favorite after Upgrade.
Let me guess, Ghostfreak either got less attention than the other aliens, or it got sued as an infringement of Beetlejuice or Danny Phantom
@@jordanhunter3375 As it happens, nope! Purely in-universe reasons, and very cool ones in my opinion that add a very interesting angle to that part of the show, though I won't say exactly what for spoiler reasons.
@jordanhunter3375 Far from it, what really happened was so much more horrific.
Yeah, Ghostfreak is his own beast with his own story.
Man, talking about Code Lyoko really brings some memories back.
Here we are, going far, to save all that we love!
@@bthsr7113 Code Lyoko was amazing.
20:37 fun fact, McDonald’s actually serves dinner until 4 AM, so max will be VERY upset about waiting for breakfast once they reach the next one
Also, all of the aliens have official names. They're established in the episodes you skipped.
Flame guy - Heat Blast
Blind dog - Wild Mutt
Crystal dude - Diamond Head
Fast man - XLR8 (pronounced the same as "accelerate")
Fish monster - Ripjaws
Tech goop - Upgrade
Little alien - Grey Matter
Grey ghost - Ghostfreak
Four-armed warrior - Fourarms
Flying bug - Stinkfly
Starting with Alien Force, Ben shouts his alien's name whenever he transforms.
They also have species names, but the show mentions them so rarely,
that you have to consult wikis for the answer.
@@nine_tails137
Heatblast- Pyronite
Four Arms- Tetramand
Grey Matter- Galvan
Upgrade- Galvanic Mechamorph subspecies
XLR8- Kinecelaran
Ripjaws-Piscciss Volann
Stinkfly- Lepidopteran
Wildmutt- Vulpimancer
Diamondhead- Petrosapien
Ghostfreak- Ectonurite
@@Animestar21 Yeah exactly. But AFAIK, wikis weren't around at the time Ben 10 aired on TV. So all those names you mentioned, I couldn't even look up at the time. Present day it really easy to find out Ben's alien species names thanks to the internet.
@@nine_tails137 Sure you could have. If you'd bought all the toys and red the boxes.
@@MeepChangeling Actually I did buy some of the Ben 10 toys with my own money, and my dad got mad at me for "wasting money".(yes, seriously!)
"Welcome to Atop The Fourth Wall where bad media burns." Tagline fixed. Even if the burn is verbal.
Well TBF, I initially started watching Linkara's videos for HOPR content. But since Lewis has mention that as a side project,
I tried watching some of his comic reviews, and honestly, I quite enjoyed them. Some of my favorites include: Adventures of the Kool-aid Man, Jell-o Man and Wobbly, Barbi Twin Adventures, Mightily Murdered Power Ringers, Super Man meets the Quik Bunny, Pokemon the Electric Tale of Pikachu, Pokemon Adventures, Digimon Dark Horse comic, and Godzilla Kingdom of Monsters.
So, fun fact. When Ben 10 was first being made, Gwen was Ben's classmate instead of cousin and meant to be his main love interest. However, they couldn't come up with a decent excuse as to why Gwen's parents would allow her to go with Ben & Max for 3 months, so they decided to change Gwen into his cousin instead.
As fans will tell you, they made them cousins, but barely changed the writing of the two, meaning one of the biggest memes of the show was that Ben and Gwen acted like an old married couple than siblings/cousins. The writers, rather than scaling this back as the show progressed, leaned into the ship and made Ben/Gwen even MORE like a couple, including Gwen teaching Ben how to slow dance.
This is why, when Alien Force came around, Kevin was made a good guy and immediately entered into a relationship with Gwen.
You know, I never saw anything like that. I just saw it as normal sibling arguments and just being taught how to dance. I just never saw a problem with being taught how to slow dance.
@@MartialartfruituserYou're one of the few. The meme/ship was so strong that Tara Strong (VA for Ben) even retweeted fanart of the Ben/Gwen ship, including infamously a fanart piece of Gwen pregnant with Ben's child.
@@buchiklop110I'm sorry, what?
@@ForrestFox626 Not out of character for Tara. She once retweeted a picture of Harley tying up Batgirl in a hogtie to give to Joker and likes any post that compliments her boobs.
I don’t really see how teaching Ben to slow dance = couple 😅
Ben is a really good kid hero. He has the attitude and selfishness of a bratty kid but being a kid he really idolizes the idea of superheroes and tries to be like them and it hits a real good balance of that
I'd argue it's why most of the sequels aren't as good, Ben loses a lot of character... as does Gwen...
@playererror4044
Ironically, Kevin Leven gets more character in the future series. Hell, we learn more about his backstory & former friends(criminal & not criminal)
@@playererror4044yeah I felt alien force made him a bit too serious/the standard good guy mold and made him feel not like himself but then omniverse sorta over corrected and made him a bit too selfish/like his kid self and immature. Personally I feel you could have made the character still fun loving and energetic but still feel like they have had lots of experience/some wisdom (or maybe I’m just talking out my ass)
Regardless I still I’ve the franchise but the original series is still the best to me
@@playererror4044 yeah main reason i just stopped skipped the sequels. they amde ben and gwen too unlikable in some episodes, like where gwen gets mad at ben for DARING to stop a museum robbery over his girlfriends tennis match. like yeah he should make time for his girlfriend but you think the police can handle dudes armed with alien weapons, you self righteous dingus?
Zombozo does come back at least 2 or three times. But not until the much later sequal series where Ben is a teenager. So for the longest time me, and I'm sure many others, assumed Zombozo died from fright as aplsosed to teliporting away.
Also apparently so did the comment directly above yours.
@@thenightstar8312 Ya, the show didnt really give us any indication the Zombozo was alive. No one says he escaped or anything like that. And I feel like Ben 10 came out at a time where shows where more willing to kill of characters, as long as it was done in a way were they didn't show anything graphic or have a body.
Heck Zombozo’s henchmen come back multiple times WITHOUT him, that seemed to me like a pretty clear indication he was dead.
Dial H for Hero may be a bit obscure, but not so obscure that Cartoon Network shows haven't referenced it in the past. Remember Dial M For Monkey?
Dial M for Monkey is a refrence to Dial M for Murder an old crime movie from the 50's. which honestly now thinking back on it, Dial H for hero may be the same seeing as how the first Dial H comic came out in 1966 almost 10 years after Dial M for Murder.
Great episode choices. Ben 10 was (and still is) one of my favorite shows to watch/revisit on occasion. Don't know why the patron chose to cover Zombozo though (unless they plan to secure the slot again later) since it's considered the start of a pretty important arc. I'd have gone with either:
1x07: Kevin's intro (for obvious reasons)
1x10: Lucky Girl (to give Gwen a better showcase alongside Ben in the first episode and Max in the finale)
1x11: the Forever Knights intro (being the OTHER main recurring antagonist over the franchise history)
I was thinking I would've gone with 1x05, Hunted, I feel like if you're hitting the major Vilgax beats of season 1, those three are the big ones for an intro to the show
@@maskofice9432 Hunted is so fucking good
7:06 Gruncle Stan: "Good thing I'm an uncle."
13:47 Boffo? How long has it been?
Welp, now we need the Kevin episodes, the Ghostfreak saga, the movie, the Highbreed invasion- Oh boy this really opened Pandora’s box didn’t it?
Sounds like it.
I always loved how all the aliens were voiced by VA legends like Steve Blum or Dee Bradley Baker. Really added to the mythos in a meta way. In a just world, they be one of the more expensive parts of the production.
Even Cipes gets in on it in the reboot.
Wish Dee didn't have to do so much of the heavy lifting in AF/UA.
@@DigiRangerScott yeah I haven’t kept up with the show since Omniverse but looking at the voice cast for the aliens, I’m glad that tradition had died at least.
@@Igarappappa It does make his filmography page on wikipedia really funny because even in other shows where he voices multiple characters, they will list them out but for both of those shows it’s just “various characters.”
@@orangeblaster500 He was leading the herd even before Clone Wars.
I think the patreon may have one of the episodes mixed up. Since the first and last episode were about Vilgax the three episodes were supposed to be about vilgax Ben's main antagonist. The Zombozo episode was good but i think the episode was supposed to be where Ben sees Vilgax but doesn't interact with him directly. Also wanna go laugh look up a promo where Batman gets jealous over Ben for having superpowers and Aquaman eating Ben's sandwich
Best part is that ad has Kevin Conroy in it aswell which makes it funnier
@@jadenbryant9283 hearing Kevin Conroy's Batman getting jealous over a ten year old is hilarious
@@raymicheals4127 best part is he's using hsi jormal voice because he voicing the supefriends version so his voice can't really sound deep
@@jadenbryant9283 I think the best part is Ben gives Aquaman a tuna sandwich and Aquaman eats it
21:30 Your use of that clip is actually pretty Apt because there is an episode that features an Alien Mummy.
My theory is when Ghostfreak opens his chest shows an image - it’s Troll from Youngblood showering.
"😨😱AHHH!! AAAAHHHH!!!
*😫AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!* "
🎵Now I've got a brand new Combine Harvester,
And I'll give you the key!
Come on down, let's get together in perfect harmony!
I've got 20 acres, and you've got 43!
'Cause I've got a brand new Combine Harvester,
And I'll give you the key!🎵
" *😵💫😫OH GOD, NOW I'M BLIND!!* "
I kinda wonder if the patron meant to nominate "The Alliance" - which continues the Vilgax storyline - instead of "Last Laugh" and didn't realize there was a difference in airing and production orders
To be fair, Dial 'H' remains one of my favorite hero comics for the creativity it had, and the New 52 version of Robby Reed remains my most aggravating, as he hadn't been seen in a few decades, his last action being saying he's back in the game after being remerged(long story) after years apart from himself.
Oh, and the Dial for HERO was only in the later version, the original had a rotary phone dial on his, not buttons, and he could dial any word, and he'd get powers based on that. The 'sequel' which had two characters with dials, a male and female, used them as pendants they wore, and just hit the four buttons in order.
Not that they always played nice with it. As his clipped panel shows, you can push the buttons in any order. The guy eventually tried other words you can make with those four letters. One of the words he tried? Horror. He was not a smart man. Mind, still love they got their dials from 'The Wizard' and their archenemy was 'The Master'. Fun times, and the simple names ARE with a purpose.
Every Ben 10 fan hearing Linkara say the theme song is just fine
“How dare you”
Literally, I was quite appalled.
I think the patreon confused the episodes. episode 8 serves as a prelude to the finale with robot from vilgax merging with the baddie of the week and giving ben visions of vilgax.
12:51 umm, ripjaws (the fish alien) can't breathe on land for very long and he was surrounded by fire which shorted his time on land. Also for anyone who doesn't know, the alien's names are heatblast (fire alien), wildmutt (orange alien), diamondhead (crystal alien), XLR8 (speed alien), ripjaws as you already know, upgrade (tech alien), ghostfreak (ghost alien), stinkfly (bug alien), and fourarms. (the four armed alien)
ALGORITHM ENGAGEMENT SQUAD... ENGAGE!!!
About your quick aside regarding Invader Zim... wasn't the show actually cancelled because the CGI sequences which Jhonen Vasquez and the other writers were very adamant about, was becoming way too expensive for the network? I remember that being the reason, while Nickelodeon actually going out of their way to say that they WANTED an older audience and were specifically shooting for an older, edgier demographic with it.
Genuinely wondering if the patron chose the clown episode simply to try and get Linkara to make new Boffo jokes
That or they were hoping Linkara would eventually cover the Ghostfreak storyline?
I’m guessing the patron picked these episodes probably because these 3 combined showcase almost all of Ben’s original aliens. A large part of what made the show popular was the idea of turning into all these cool aliens with unique powers and so they wanted to have episodes that show all 10
Alternatively they could have picked them because the first was the pilot,which is obviously, and then the third was the episode that had the first real story progression (the show was mostly episodic) and the circus one was to show a typical episode/was possibly a personal favorite
it also shows a good variety of antagonists. giant mechs, a weird superatural clown monster and of course the classic supervillain Vilgax
The Green Lantern joke was inevitable, but I think it's funny how Ben 10 has almost exactly the same origin as Earthworm Jim. If it had landed on one of those mealworms they were eating, it would have been exactly the same!
does that make Vilgax Queen bloated festering sweaty puss filled malformed slug for a but?
The joke about Max dating Vilgax...Not as off as you'd think seeing as his children are half Alien
And that's the ones we SEE. Max was full on Kirking about
Well actually fully human since Anodites have no DNA.
@@estebangutierrez160 no they are half alien, otherwise Gwen couldn't have gotten any Anodite abilities, there has to be some genetic material passed down
Right, they are legit aliens of pure energy
@@patrickzalatoris3206 it's a good thing they were made of Pure Evil.
I think what made me love this show so much as a kid was its similarity to Power Rangers. A kid or teen getting superpowers from an alien to fight other aliens. Also the whole idea of Ben turning into other aliens by using a wrist device obviously reminded me of morphing. Pretty cool to see you talk about this show Linkara, it clearly had a big impact on my childhood lol
19:44 Well... yes, he does, but to clerify some points
Zombozo didn't teleport away... he exploded... he died, as confirmed by his minions on a later appearence.
But somehow returns in one of the sequel series, Ultimate Alien, without explanation (where funnily enough it does come up that he knows Ben's identity... but by then Ben had gone public with his powers so it doesn't really matter)
Later they would retcon him into being a zombie, which i wonder if it was the original intention giving his name.
This show is fantastic and made me into the sci fi loving nerd I am today. This show is my childhood and seeing you tackle it gets me all forty and excited despite watching it at 3am by the time I’m writing this.
There's no way they weren't at least a little aware of Dial H, probably in in the back of their minds. Like they heard about it, forgot it, then later subconsciously drew on it to create Ben 10, mistaking a half-forgotten memory for genuine inspiration.
Episode 9 is the odd man out. I feel like most people who requested you look at Ben 10 episodes would've asked for Kevin 11 (introducing Ben's evil counterpart turned best friend) or Lucky Girl (which gives Gwen some time in the spotlight.) Last Laugh seems pretty random unless the plan to commission the episodes where Ghostfreak turns evil in the future.
Boffo! Been a hot minute since we've seen him around.
19:53 The prequel no one was expecting: I Know What You're Planning to Do This Summer.
Kinda ironic, you're going from a show where a single kid can become ten different aliens to a show where five aliens can become 35 different teams of Sentai.
Disappointed that episode 9 didn’t end with Ben and his family walking away from an exploding circus tent.
(If you get the reference, you deserve a hug.)
Glad to see this episode. I’ve massively gotten back into Ben 10 because of TH-cam so you covering it is awesome to see. I especially like your own brand of jokes to some of the scenes and especially your own insight at the beginning given the dial H for hero comparisons.
This has certainly been a fun episode, but if you do cover this in the future, I feel like knowing the Alien names will help.
-Fire Alien: Heatblast
-No eyes beast alien: Wildmutt
-Crystal Alien: Diamondhead
-Really fast alien: XLR8 (pronounced like "accelerate")
-Black Lagoon alien: Ripjaws
-Tech Possession Alien: Upgrade
-Ghost Alien: Ghostfreak (bit of a twist with this one in later seasons)
-Bug alien: Stinkfly
-Four armed alien: Fourarms
-Tiny alien with big eyes (The Sir Not-Appearing-In-These-Episodes): Greymatter
Also, the squid in the tube is named Vilgax, and he's basically the big bad for the entire franchise. Unfortunately the first series wasn't too good with naming things right off the bat. Also, if you do decide to watch more, you'll see more of the races that Ben can turn into. They're all technically species of aliens in this universe.
Also, the Max dating aliens joke... Just keep that in the back pocket for if you cover some later seasons or series.
Or the use of the Simpsons Wiggum mummy clip for that matter
Covered this in my own comment, but should help add on by saying Ben's 10th alien is a little dude with a big brain called Grey Matter. He's pretty cool, though kinda weak compared to the other 9.
@@DigiRangerScott Oh, yeah, there is Snare-oh.
Dunno if it actually helps to know what they're named😂
I've been following Ben 10 for ages and until this comment, XLR8 never made sense to me xD
12:07 did the patron tell you the name of the episodes or just the numbers? Because production and airing order differ a bit. Episode 9 in production order is “The Allience” which is connected more closely to the premiere and finale as it features another plot by Vilgax, and is when Ben becomes first aware of his existence
If it is that then he will probably address it in a community post
for what it's worth, there _are_ Ben 10 comics ;) i haven't read them, or watched the show, but i lay hands on some in the juvenile graphic novels section of the library i work at when i'm alphabetizing that area pretty regularly (that one uses single-letter labels instead of author names or decimals and so it's _extremely_ prone to getting out-of-order)
23:37 I remember that I liked the "Not an average plumber" line so much, that I always felt disappointed his MIB organization was honestly called "The plumbers"
though its actually pretty clever, cause he's not technically lying when he says he was a plumber
@@sarafontanini7051 True.
Max is oddly calm about Ben being an alien... Then again he's probably vicariously seen somr crap working with Solid Snake
My favorite reviewer reviewing my favorite cartoon!
12:49 Actually, what's going on here is that the heat is dehydrating Ben. This alien, Ripjaws, is a humanoid fish that can only stay on land for a short amount of time because he breathes water.
20:06 Vilgax makes two other appearances in the first season (Either of which probably should have been requested in stead of Last Laugh). In one episode, Hunted, Vilgax hires threat bounty hunters to capture the Omnitrix. In the other, The Alliance, one of his robot-drones merges with a biker and he contracts her to capture it.
3:44 This comparison is hilarious for reasons I'm not going to mention just yet.
22:28 Ok this is hilarious considering that...
yeah, Max's wife is an alien. Gwen ended up inheriting latent abilities later in the season that I believe allowed her to channel them via magic.
I remember when I was a kid and how they advertised the show. Me watching a sneak peek of it and then watching the show and the different iterations over the years. How I would consult the wiki to learn alien names, species, etc.
I just remembered being a kid and watching the new episodes and how things grew and changed.
When I first saw Ben 10 I never would have expected it to become as popular and recognizable as it is today.
can't lie, I am glad one of my favourite franchises gets the spotlight^^
Hilariously about half of your jokes turn out true later. Zombozo DOES come back later on and his new plan specifically involves going after Ben's family, Max did date aliens (albeit not Vilgax), and a Mummy does show up later :p
But yeah I am glad you enjoyed it^^ part of me hope you'll review some sequel episodes later but I guess we shall see.
Next Episode: More aliens.
22:28 Linkara would be surprise to know how many alien gf Grandpa Max had
FUN FACT/TRIVIA:
The voice actor for Grandpa Max, Paul Eiding also voiced Colonel Campbell in Metal Gear ⚙️
13:47 The Magnificent bastard has returned :)
23:45 Funny enough ThirdMarioBrother is also the name of a youtuber.
26:51 Always excited to see Lewis review more Gokaiger. :)
As a note with the fire on the pier thing, it's not the oxygen for once, but the alien he's taken the form of. You're absolutely correct that Ripjaws, the alien form, is amphibious, but his race is primarily water breathers. They can't last for extended periods outside the water, and that's only sped up when fire and extreme heat are involved. I say this mostly cause of the original 10, Ripjaws is my fave.
Also, Grandpa Max's voice actor also played Colnel Campbell in MGS.
Also also, Zombozo actually stays out of the series for a LONG time after this. Wouldn't show up again until two series later, directly trying to get revenge.
Kind of wish he covered Kevin's introductory episode too.
Especially since in his first appearance he was voiced by Michael Reisz (one of the voices of the Digi-Destined)
Well that's something to patron the 4 Kevin episodes
So good to see Buffo again, it's always fun when he shows up.
"Snake this device known as the Omnitrix by using it you can take on the forms of 10 different aliens"
"Metal Gear?"
"No Snake Aliens"
FINALLY! Someone else did a MGS reference, I was hoping for it. It only took me a few pages of comments to find it.
nah the "where bad comics burn" is still a good tagline.
also the ghost ben turns into ends up becoming a villain because even the tiniest dna gained from his species is alive and VERY consious and ben just so happened to be turning into an evil alien warlord ghost.
Here's how you can tell The Last Laugh is a memorable one: As far as I remember, I didn't even regularly watch Ben 10 as a child, and yet I *still* have a memory of that one time I tuned in on it by chance.
Petting a cat and doing a review of the same time. We have found the chosen one
0:14 I still find it baffling that, we never got a Dial H for HERO Crossover with Ben 10..... YET ironically enough we got a crossover of Ben 10 with Superfriends incarnation of the Justice League, even if only for a promo
Or that Dial H for HERO hasn't been covered in this show already. We have the Wonder Comics run, the new 52 run, the classic run, the 80s run, or the H-E-R-O anthology
1:18 So Dial H was part of "the house of mystery"
8:11 I mean.... give them credit for recognizcing the "backfire" technique. asking them to be 100% accurate to real life is asking too much from them.
19:48 considering we are covering the 1st and last episode of the season, i am surprised the patreon didn't ask for another vilgax (the squid dude) episode. like say episode 5, or episode 8. Episode 8 is the reason why Ben even has Nightmares with Vilgax
If you do anymore Ben 10 stuff Linkara, here's a list of Ben's initial 10 aliens in the OG show as listed in the intro, though he does gain more forms as the show goes on, hope this helps for future videos:
1-Wildmutt
2-Four Arms
3-Greymatter
4-XLR8
5-Upgrade
6-Diamondhead
7-Ripjaws
8-Stinkfly
9-Ghostfreak (later seasons have him replaced with Cannonbolt)
10-Heat Blast
Zombozo’s machine is actually named after a siphon.
22:22 this joke killed me lol. died laughing
Ben 10 is something I was hoping to see covered for a long time, in fact it was one of my ideas to do a Patreon epsiode if I ever got a slot but doenst seem to be strictly nessecary now.
Beyond what Lewis stated Ben 10 has LOTS of connections to comic books, or more accurately comic adaptations.
I can’t remember if this was started in an episode or on Cartoon Network’s old website, but Ben’s middle name is Kirby, as a tribute to Jack Kirby.
Man of Action the team behind the original series and the 2017 reboot would the group who made most of the Marvel shows for Disney XD
The next two shows Alien Force and Ultimate Alien hired the late Dwayne McDuffie as the head writer and story editor. He was the guy who headed Static Shock and Justice Leauge Unlimited
The fourth series (and last in the original continuity), Omniverse, would be head by the late Derrick J Wyatt. Wyatt had worked as the art director on Teen Titans and was the head writer of Transformers Animated. As we cannot forget Transformers technically started as a comic series
The writer of “Secrets” was Marty Eisenberg. Not only is Eisneberg one of the few writers to work on all five shows, but has many writing credits on various superhero shows over several decades. And I don’t mean niche ones he was on several of the big ones: such as Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Spiderman TAS, Ninja Turtles 2003, and Danny Phantom (okay maybe that last one isn’t as big but still).
Finally the voice of Ben as a Teenager (Alien Force takes place five years after the original show for those who don’t know) is Yuri Lowenthal the guy who voices Spiderman in the recent PlayStation games. While Sausake from Naruto started his career, I’d argue Ben Tennyson is the role that made him A-List in voice acting. And despite their roles in the sequels being minimal Man of Action clearly had respect for Yuri’s tenure as they cast him as Vilgax in the reboot.
This was great, although I have to say I'm kinda scratching my head as to why these three episodes were chosen. "And then there were 10" and "Secrets" makes sense because it's the beginning and end of that story arc, but for the middle episode I would have picked either "Hunted" or "The Alliance" because it involves Vilgax sending people after the Omnitrix. "The Alliance" in particular, because it's the first time Ben and Vilgax actually talk and start to build the rivalry. Still great review though.
- I mean is not that hard to accidentally come up with the Dial H for Hero idea, I'm pretty sure i did in a previous AT4W episode
- the grainy backgrounds is entirely an Stylistic choice, they did the same for their other show Generator Rex, although not as pronounced
- yeah it's a running gag that Grandpa Max has very weird tastes in food
- so it's not shown in these episodes but Gwen does get to do a lot more in the show
- yeah the first Season keeps Max being a "plumber" very secret but drops hints, and then the show ends up doing a lot more with the Plumbers organization in general
Don't worry about Gwen not given much to do in the first season. She eventually gets magical powers and her own toxic fan base
One thing I liked from the few episodes I saw was that the watch tended to malfunction, causing him to turn into an different alien than what Ben wanted, making it so he has to solve a problem creatively instead of the way that he planned.
I was in high school when it premiered, the sci-fi aspect hooked me. Much like every kids show, the voice acting has really stuck with me- Tara Strong is a legend while Meagan Smith & Paul Edding are great on their own. Side note Greg Sipes not only played Beast Boy, he also played Kevin Levin in this franchise.
Grandpa Max was familiar with aliens, because his voice actor - Paul Eiding - was Ambassador Loquel from Star Trek Next Generation.
But I know him as Aldaris, a protoss judicator from StarCraft.
I know him best as METAL GEAR SOLID's Col. Roy Campbell, and the AI.I. impersonating him and manipulating Raiden in MGS2.
@@louisduarte8763 He does went around, huh?
if i had to guess the patron had you review these because the first and last episode are story heavy and the 9th episode showcases some of the alien forms that weren't shown that much in the other two
also because if i don't say this next part my brain is gonna fixate on it until i have an aneurism so please bear with me
Diamondhead: crystalline alien
Wildmutt: eyeless bestial alien
Heatblast: fire alien
Upgrade: Amorphous Technology Alien
XLR8: Lizard like speedster alien
Stinkfly: Insect alien
Ripjaws: Amphibious alien
Ghostfreak: Ghostlike Alien
and the two i only just now realized weren't really shown in the review
Fourarms: red muscular alien with four arms
Greymatter: small frog like hyper intelligent alien
Also, in Ben's case, he did start the fire, it was not always burning until he kept lighting things up