I've been thinking about Spider-Noir, and the fact that Ben changed his name after war, distanced himself as much as possible from who he was before (on top of needing to relearn how to be a person), found solace in the bottom of a bottle.
And I know that part of the reason he was Ben Reilly, not a clone but a variant, a cover, a deception, is because the makers of the show wanted some distance from who the world has come to expect Peter Parker to be. But also...
Ben wasn't the one attacked. Peter was.
Ben wasn't the one experimented on. Peter was.
Ben wasn't the one who was a hero that fateful day. Peter was.
Ben changed his name, and, in doing so, he put as much distance as possible between him and who he was in France, even before France. It's no surprise then that he does the same thing again when Ruby dies, and he gives up being the Spider. It isn't the first time he's thrown an identity away in the name of pretending that that part of him doesn't exist anymore.
But Peter Parker wasn't the one who became the Spider in this universe. Ben was.
