#ultimate kevin

[cryptid-paint]

This was basically the plot of ultimate alien right???

[serpentfeverart]

I felt like drawing that one gif of a guy yelling while holding a ferret using Ben and Kevin. Idk who he's talking to but his rant is totally unrelated to nor is it directed at Ben, he just happens to be holding him while doing it lmao.

Here is the original gif btw

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

Is attachment always bad?

All the discourse about attachment being love or not and the “greater good” in the SW fandom has gotten me thinking about Ben 10. Specifically the Ultimate Kevin and Dagon arcs from Ultimate Alien. I sort of used the former as a pro attachment story in a discussion with a pro Jedi blog a while back, that I since deleted. It can definitely be read as a rebuttal of “kill one person for the greater good” and both arcs are an example of love saving someone from evil.

The Ultimate Kevin arc is one of the most controversial in the show, particularly Ben’s decision to kill Kevin with there being a lot of debate over whether it was OOC for him to do so. Ben is normally the Luke type character who tries to save everyone with Kevin and Gwen being the Han and Leia of the group. However, after repeatedly failing against Aggregor which led to Kevin having to absorb the ultimatrix, driving him insane and causing him to go on a rampage, Ben believes destroying Kevin is what’s best, blaming himself for Kevin mutating and Grandpa Max, who’s the Obi Wan/Uncle Ben type mentor in this show, agrees with it as the only “responsible move”.

Gwen, who’s Ben’s cousin and Kevin’s girlfriend, is the only one with faith in him and wants to save him. Talking to him fails but she is able to enlist the help of their friends to build a machine to cure Kevin. Her love for Kevin was what saved his life as Ben was prepared to kill him after a brutal battle and she managed to convince him to let her try. Kevin was cured, he and Ben quickly reconciled and the aliens Aggregor had absorbed who Kevin drained the power from were also restored to life. Some could say this wasn’t attachment but Gwen’s love for Kevin saved his as well as multiple lives despite everyone telling her to let him die for the “greater good”.

The other arc in question is the Dagon arc. Once again, Ben is faced with a test of spirit. Vilgax, who’s kind of like the emperor in this story, tries to manipulate Ben into using the sword, Ascalon, and the power of Dagon he absorbed to remake the universe in his image. Wipe out anyone he sees as evil. One could use the “greater good” argument to say he should destroy all evil, but what would that do to one’s soul? Ben does end up letting go of the power but he does that because of his love for the people in his life.

Julie, his girlfriend, gets him to stop and think about what he’s doing, pointing out that he can’t force his answers on everyone. Ben reflects on his journey throughout Alien Force/Ultimate Alien and the people he’s met along the way. Making his decision, he only uses the power to turn the esoterica back to human and rejects it. Had he abused the sword, he could have become a dictator, obsessed with order, but his love for his girlfriend, cousin and best friend convinced him to let go and realize he can’t strip free will from anyone, even the villains.

Some will respond that these are examples of selfless love and not attachment but are they really? Gwen was willing to throw her life away to save Kevin despite him attacking their friends and becoming extremely dangerous. Julie’s refusal to let Ben be corrupted was what saved him. People will say attachment isn’t love and it’s selfishness. One could argue Julie and Gwen were being selfish but were doing so because they didn’t want their partners to be executed or corrupted. Watching this as well as movies like Weathering With You and Across The Spider-verse begs the questions, is attachment always just greedy and can it save people’s lives or souls? And is it really fair to sacrifice one person who may mean everything to someone else to save the world?

[ossy-serenity]

if i had a nickle for every time i enjoyed a guy in fiction who is a total sweetheart

but can turn into an uncontrollable monster who has been exploited all their life

i`d have three nickles

which isn`t a lot but it is weird that it happened three times

[electraslight]

The reboot gang if they were the same age as their uaf counterparts

(Twitter is telling me Ben looks too gay, little do they know reboot Ben is the gayest Ben no contest)

[mariusageyn]

[aziulpre]

IDK, I wanted to draw this because Ben without his Omnitrix is not strong against big villains or crowds 😂😳🥺🫣NO CANON

[stick-ball]

Happy Women's Day to all who celebrate

[loobonx1]

Tumblr sexymen

Heyy, heres a stupid image of my insanity (the fictional crushes wall)

[radianceofelectra]

kevins a little excited to start a family

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

every time kevin does something morally questionable

ben&gwen: >;O KEVIN

[lizethdraws]

Kevin just using a laser pointer to mess with Rook, and when Ben tells him to cut it out, he points the laser to Ben, and Rook pounces on him.

once, long ago, I knew how to draw kevin levin....I am a different, worse, woman now 😔

[digitulart]

im over here tricking my treats rn im the real spookster

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

In Defense of Ben during the Ultimate Kevin arc

A lot of people have complained about this arc from Ultimate Alien for years. There’s been discourse about whether Ben was OOC for wanting to kill Kevin. Some have called Ben a sociopath or claimed he wanted to kill him because Kevin upstaged him as the hero against Aggregor. While Gwen’s faith in Kevin was what ultimately saved the day, Ben’s anger towards Kevin was not out of jealousy and sociopathy but from a place of hurt from Kevin “betraying” him.

For starters, let’s look back at the OS. Ben befriended Kevin during his debut and knew him more personally than Gwen did. That friendship ended when Kevin was willing to crash a train full of people and showed Ben what he could become had he kept letting his selfishness control him. Despite that, Ben still tried to offer him help but Kevin blew it by trying to take the Omnitrix. Kevin would end up trying to frame Ben for his crimes and teaming up with Vilgax to take the Omnitrix again.

Years later, Kevin was in a healthier state of mind after training with Kwarrel to control his powers. He came across Ben again in Ben 10 Returns and briefly tried to take revenge. He ended up joining the team for selfish reasons but after Labrid’s death, decided to stay as a promise to Labrid, this time accepting a second chance from Ben. The two would slowly trust each other despite rough bumps like Kevin stealing the Rustbucket or Ben mutating him by hacking the Omnitrix. By the time of Ultimate Alien, Ben considered him the brother he never had and Kevin was thankful for being given another chance.

So when Kevin absorbed the ultimatrix to stop Aggregor, to Ben it was a betrayal after all they had been through. In Nor Iron Bars a Cage, Ben insists that Kevin “made his choice” and seems more hurt than Gwen as he had to see the same thing happen beforehand. Kevin was back to being the monster who haunted him in his worst nightmares as a child. You know what this reminds me a bit of? Raven and Terra’s dynamic in Teen Titans which ironically was also produced by Glen Murakami. Raven also had a difficult time trusting Terra at the start but eventually considered her a friend which is why she was furious at the betrayal.

Was Raven a monster or sociopath for believing Terra was evil and beyond redemption? No, she had a difficulty trusting people because of her upbringing and was proven wrong by Beast Boy but her anger was justified. Ben also was implied to have few friends in the OS which is why Gwen and later Kevin became as important to him as they are. I sympathize with Terra and Kevin, but Raven and Ben weren’t evil for wanting to stop them either. Ben didn’t want to kill Kevin either. Believing you have to do something isn’t the same as wanting to do it. He had tried to do things the “Ben” way against Aggregor and kept falling flat on his face. He admits during his talk with Max in the car that he doesn’t want to do this but feels he has to. Plus does this look like a bloodthirsty sociopath who just wants to kill his friend out of jealousy?

Ben made a mistake here and was not presented as being in the right by the narrative. He beat up Vulkanus and the Forever Knights for information and was acting very harsh and aggressive towards Gwen. However, he was convinced that he needed to be this way after letting fame get to his head and Aggregor nearly taking over the universe. Gwen was ultimately proven right and Kevin was able to stop himself from killing her, but Ben didn’t see that due to being knocked out and the next time he saw Kevin, he was trying to kill Alan, making his anger a lot more reasonable. If you don’t like how he acted during this arc, that’s fine, but it wasn’t out of a jealous bloodlust or sociopathy but understandable feelings of betrayal and blaming himself for not being able to stop Aggregor. By the time of OV, Ben has learned this lesson and accepts he can’t beat himself up over failure when he forgives himself for losing feedback, all he can do is try and move forward and be the best hero he can. His whole arc in Ultimate Alien was accepting he can’t be in control. He stopped himself from killing Kevin, accepted having to die to free the Ultimates and gave up the power of Dagon after being tempted to remake the universe in his image.

[benjimarii]

Sillyposting :3 But honestly I used miiverse so much as a kid, I used to draw so much sonic on there lmao

[electraslight]

wow this ben 10 alien force pilot is really weird