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Ben and his children

After a long battle with COVID-19 and Alzheimer's which caused him to retire from voice acting in 2021, voice actor Jim Ward has passed away. He played several characters from the Original Series, most notably Diamondhead, XLR8 and Wildvine.

Roles outside of Ben 10 include Captain Qwark in the Rachet and Clank series, as well as Chet Ubetcha and Doug Dimmadome on The Fairly Oddparents.

I know it usually manifests in the disregard of others' feelings and priorities (as well as her own at times) which I'd like more if it was actually discussed in the show proper, but whenever she pulls this move-

-whenever she just chooses to disengage from a situation altogether because of it, that I like. That I can work with. That fits her best too I think. That is a characterization pattern I would've loved to see more of.

Look at her, putting herself in a fucking corner and hugging herself for comfort. She can deal with it only with an external emotional support, otherwise she pretty much goes:

No one else noticed it either! Ben was showing emotional symptoms, and no one besides Gwen knew him well enough to tell he was not acting like himself. But what if he also started showing physical symptoms? We've already seen him carry on injuries he suffered while in alien form so the eggs growing inside of Big Chill certainly wouldn't just leave his system when he's back to his human skin.

Ben notices the bulge in his tummy but there is nothing he can do. He won't tell anyone about it either. Why would he? Just to make them worry over something they can't help him with? There was only one person that could have known what to do, and Grandpa Max is dead.

Julie tries to help as much as she can, bless her heart, but she's even less knowledgable than Ben in this situation. She does find out why Big Chill was overriding Ben's conscious, but the image of her boyfriend emerging from the nest he made out of metal remains with green running down his thighs will follow her for months... If she didn't have her own fears of pregnancy before this, she definitely has now.

It's made me feel bad since the first time I saw him. Every other version of him gets the Omnitrix. Every timeline, every alternate universe, every "what if" the multiverse could come up with.. All of them end with a watch on his wrist and a purpose in his chest. Except for him.

It’s not even the lack of power that hurts. It’s the irony. Because he’s not some wildly different version. He’s not colder, weaker, crueler. He’s exactly the same as Prime. That’s the thing; that out of all the infinite variations, he’s the one who matches perfectly, cell for cell. He’s Prime without the watch

Every time he looks in a mirror, he sees what he could have been. Like, just think; the same face that became a symbol of heroism somewhere else. The same green eyes, the same brown hair. When you think about it, it sounds kind of cool, doesn’t it? Having the same face as a hero. Knowing that somewhere, in some other universe, you are the one who saves the world.

It sounds cool, until you realize what it really means. It means you’ll never be more than the proof that someone else did it better. You don’t just share the hero’s face, you carry the constant reminder of what you’ll never become.

And the worst part? Prime would probably be kind about it. If someone ever asked him what his life would look like without the Omnitrix, he might picture this version; the quiet one, the one who never got the call, who lives an ordinary life in a world that never needed saving. He’d probably think it sounds peaceful. But No Watch knows better. He knows what it feels like to wake up every day knowing there’s nothing wrong with you and yet somehow you weren’t chosen.

Prime can look at him and see proof that you don’t need the Omnitrix to be useful, that even without aliens and hero names you can still matter. And maybe he’s right; No Watch does matter. He’s not weak. But knowing your own strength doesn’t erase the sting of seeing what you could have been.

Because when every other version of you gets to live the dream and you’re the only one who doesn’t; it stops being about power and starts being about identity. Who are you if you were built for greatness but never got the chance to prove it?

If he were different; maybe blue eyes like 23, or black hair, anything else.. maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much. Maybe he could tell himself he’s someone else entirely. But he’s not. He’s Prime, just without the watch. He’s the exact same person, with the exact same potential, standing on the wrong side of destiny.

And i think the cruelest part is: being the perfect mirror of greatness and knowing you’ll never be remembered as anything more than the reflection.

After Ben 10: Classic, people often noticed how Ben’s mood and general energy seemed lower in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. It became one of those quiet fandom jokes. But what if it wasn’t just tone shift or writing change? What if it actually made sense in-universe?

Think about it. In Classic, Ben gets the Omnitrix at the most defining age possible; right when his personality, self-worth and worldview are still forming. For a kid like Ben, that watch didn’t just give him powers. It gave him identity. Every time someone called him a hero; it all shaped how he saw himself. He wasn’t just Ben Tennyson anymore; he was Ben 10, the kid who could turn into anything and save anyone.

Then one day, it’s gone. The Omnitrix gets taken away and so does everything that validated him. He’s suddenly just… Ben again. Normal, and painfully aware that the world doesn’t revolve around him anymore. That’s not just a power loss, That’s a psychological crash. For someone who literally grew up being "the Hero" the quiet must have been deafening.

So when Alien Force begins, it’s not just a time skip, it’s a hangover from heroism. He’s more serious, yes, but also flatter, heavier. He’s trying to sound mature, but there’s a kind of emptiness under it, like he’s still figuring out who he is without all the hero stuff. Gwen and Kevin seem fine, but Ben’s spark doesn’t come back until much later, and even then, it feels forced.

And that ties back to why Omniverse felt so different again. People joked about the "energy returning" the tone being closer to Classic. But maybe that was forcefull. After years of weight and guilt and trying to be the "mature hero" Ben finally found balance. 

The Omnitrix was back to being his, not a burden or symbol of expectations. The humor, the cockiness, that was him healing.

Albedo redem arc???? Lol???