#while in my shit argit sorta just wants to stay safe and make ends meet at the start

[kariachi]

#it really is SUCH an interesting take for an omnitrix user#like yknow a fan wouldve expected smth like a max or even a kevin#but then the show couldnt include those without having good reason not to keep them on the team#so they add an argit and the expectation is that the heroes r all leaving bc obv hes not worth it#but then u actually think about it. and its not rly funny as much as fascinating#i especially like how given that we see nothing of his universe i can imagine that its peaceful thanks to him#like hes got one of the most peaceful universes#the money wasnt even a bribe it was all just gifts ppl have given him that they wouldnt lket him refuse#its like bens trophy closet#ben 10 (via @expired-blueberries)

It is fascinating as a concept, both because it's far from what you would expect from Argit and because he's so different from the Tennysons that otherwise seem to make up all the Omnitrix wielders. We only have our Argit to go off, but even at his best he's not especially brave, he's not a fighter, his fear responses are flight and fawn, and we don't know if he has the drive the Tennysons do that makes them burn to help people and life just beat it into a paste for him or if he's more of a 'big things' sort of person.

Like, with the various Bens and with Gwen, even though their dimensions are very different they're all coming from approximately the same place. Gwen is the outlier there, in that she has a different immediate family and upbringing, but she's still the same family, and close family at that. Argit, meanwhile, this is an entirely different person starting from an entirely different place. The earliest we see him in the Prime dimension is being held captive by law enforcement for the sake of evil experimentation, he sold his own mom at some point, I think we can reasonably assume that even if we go with a universe in which he got the Omnitrix at the time Ben would have he was probably coming from a far different- and probably far worse- background, and that would affect shit.

Once you stop laughing at the idea and actually think about it, there's a million different questions. How is he using his Omnitrix? Clearly he's doing good because Paradox counted him in the list, so what sort of good is he doing? How does his good differ from the Tennysons'? How does he differ from Prime Argit? What does this say about Prime Argit?

Because dear gods once you step back and actually look at Argit through the lens of 'there's a dimension where he's close enough to Good to count for the hero team'? And then you look at some of the things he's done and said? Like, what is the baseline Argit? Is it something closer to what we see in that Rooters flashback? It would make sense, it's not hard to see how his behavior there could evolve into a form of hero given the right pushes in the right directions. And if that's the case, is there potential for Prime Argit to develop into something closer to that? Fuck, given the differences between him pre and during the Rooters arc (in which he joins a fight he doesn't have to, goes on the run with Kevin when there's no indication he needs to (and if he doesn't then it actively hurts him to do so through lost business), is the only one to retain faith in him, and even seems to be braver given the whole 'not scared enough to quill a Waybad actively trying to catch him even though before just being surprised by one was enough to get him quilling' thing), and that we know Servantis can fuck with shit to get people doing what he wants from them (we see it with the Amalgams), you end up having to wonder how much of his bullshit was cranked up by Servantis? I mean, it would make sense, if his whole plan was for Kevin to kill Ben, to try to isolate him from the guy who stopped him finishing his mission last time, and would explain why an Argit who could quill Kevin to save other people as a child and who took down a WayBad in the future wouldn't even seem to consider quilling Kevin when the guy was actively out to kill him.

And there's me rambling again.

But, yes, it's just- Argit 10, once you look passed the 'haha Argit could never be a proper owner of an Omnitrix' (and lets be real, the staff never expected us to look passed that) it opens so many questions, so many possibilities, and adds a whole new dimension to how you can look at Argit even before the Rooters arc comes along and only enhances it.

I still love that Argit 10 was entirely unbothered by the villain side of that two-parter.

Because here's the thing- Paradox takes No-Watch Ben to five dimensions for this 'good guy specific' recruitment drive.

Prime Ben's. He's unquestionably one of the good guys.

Ben 10k's. He's unquestionably one of the good guys.

Gwen 10's. She's unquestionably one of the good guys.

Ben 23's. He was engaging in villainous behavior (and given we know that there were already aliens living peacefully on Earth before the Omnitrix, yeah this kid definitely made their lives that much harder by encouraging violent anti-alien sentiment among the populace and given his 'wait some aliens aren't pure evil?!' reactions he probably attacked at least some innocent fuckers in his time- good intentions doesn't mean good) up until a recent turnaround, and it's shown with the villains trying to force him back into the fold, but now he's one of the good guys.

And Argit 10's. Who was shown Scrooge McDucking it, but with two key features.

Paradox brought them there. Remember, this whole interdimensional trip is specifically stated by Paradox to be to gather up the good Omnitrix Wielders.

There's no sign of the villains. After 23 turned his life around and they still tried to recruit his ass, by force if necessary, there's nothing to suggest Argit has even been bothered.

The first one is important because it sets a very important stage- Paradox considers Argit 10 one of the good guys. Everyone else he brings No-Watch to is either undoubtedly a good guy or has turned themselves around to become a proper good guy. Not neutral, not 'maybe we can bribe him', he specifically says they looking for the good ones, and then brings them there.

The second one is important because after seeing the villains trying to force 23- the only one on Team Good with his own track record- to join their ranks, that leaves only a few options for why Argit wouldn't have been bothered.

Argit is firmly enough on the good side that they didn't bother- a la Gwen 10, 10k, Prime

Argit is iffy but not about to join Team Bad- a la 23- and avoided the 'we don't take no for an answer' fight by quilling a bitch as soon as they didn't take a no

Argit is iffy- a la 23- but the villains also took one look and said 'fuck that', which honestly I doubt because if nothing else you would think since one would probably assume he was highly bribeable at first glance he'd be a prime target to try to get for Team Bad, that'd be an easy recruitment there

So, yeah. Argit 10 can be reasonably assumed to be one of the good guys, or at worst iffy-leaning-towards-good, and may not even have been considered by the villains- unlike our dear 23- though we can't know whether that was due to morality levels or just everybody looking at him and going 'no thank you'.

It's a brief scene, and it's used as a gag, but it really is interesting and opens some potential doors for our rat.