Fridge / Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

Fridge Brilliance:

• Too Hot To Handle may very well be an aesop on alien nudity. Even if it isn't, thinking of it this way makes it suddenly far funnier!
• In-verse, the reason each alien Ben turns into announces its name is the Ultimatrix loading the file for the DNA sample. Ben isn't doing the announcing himself, as evidenced by his surprise when he hears the name of the alien he got.
  Swampfire: Swampfire! ... was not who I was going for.
• I was fine with her changing sides, to make it as if she atoned. However, Charmcaster's Heel–Face Turn is also believable in that she was distracted from her goal to reclaim her home dimension from an Evil Sorcerer (not Hex, but Ledgerdomain). Not convinced? She initially appeared with her uncle Hex, trying to reactivate magical charms that bestowed power to those who wielded them; the next time she appeared, she tried to take Ben's Omnitrix; finally, she seduced Kevin to her side and attempted to take Gwen's mana for herself. The means to those three goals? She was trying to get strong enough to face her home's usurper, and would do anything to do it, regardless of rules. However, after her second appearance, her animosity towards Ben and (especially) Gwen had grown to the point that she lost sight of her true goal and teamed up with the Tennyson team's Rogues Gallery (twice) to get back at them. Mr. Dwayne McDuffie has once again proven his great skill in Arc Welding. - Metal Shadow X
• Kevin's insanity once absorbing the Ultimatrix had moments of lucidity where he is like his pre-insane self, when that didn't happen the first time he absorbed Ben's aliens. Why? Although we don't see Alien X in his monster form, Bellicus (destruction and rage) and Serena (love and compassion) are in there with him and Serena manages to win the debate only when it comes to Kevin not harming Gwen ...at first.
  • The main problem with that is Alien X is locked. If he didn't get any of its powers, it's unlikely he got its mental issues. How is he even moving if he did?
  • Not the OP, but Alien X was unlocked at the beginning of the episode where Kevin absorbs the Ultimatrix. It may have been re-locked when Paradox turned Ben back to normal, but it wasn't explicitly shown or stated. Besides, getting its mental issues likely came with the powers, and that's why he isn't shown to use any; Serena and Bellicus are blocking him. Since he isn't just Alien X and has DNA from all the other Ultimatrix aliens, this explains why he's still capable of movement.
    • Okay, not citing when and why he was unlocked and giving a horrible explanation for why he's moving. Alien X is the only alien that has a direct effect on Ben's actions. If Kevin would inherit anything from it, it would those two personalities always warring with each other. Let's just go with the canon explanation of absorbing energy driving Osmosians insane, kay? I'm willing to motion that Alien X simply chose not to be absorbed.
    • Per Word of God, Alien X was re-locked in the same episode. Therefore, no Alien X absorption.
    • That being said however it is possible as a seventeen year old Kevin is better able to have flashes of humanity than his child self in the same situation.
• Ben 10,000's Ultimate Human form can use the powers of any of his aliens while still in human form. Humans are shown to pretty much be able to crossbreed with a large number of other species of alien, so the power of Ultimate Human is to combine with the aliens in the Ultimatrix.
  • And speaking of that same episode, we finally get a good explanation as to how non-canon stuff like the original series what-if episode "Gwen 10" and the first live-action movie "Race Against Time" fit in the Ben 10 canon via the Multiverse theory; this also Josses the original series Ben 10,000 episodes as being Ben's canon future.
  • Ben never did visit his future, otherwise Ben 10,000 would've remembered this adventure, which Ben himself points out. Plus, Future Max said that Gwen finally got her time spell working. It's very possible that Future Gwen made a mistake in her spell since this is her first time using it. So instead of going backwards in her own timeline, she went backwards in our Ben's timeline. And considering what happened when Gwen time-traveled in Time Heals, Future Gwen might've created a bad timeline had she succeeded.
  • Another thing from the same episode. Eon was revealed to be an AU Ben 10,000 gone bad. In Race Against Time, he was an old man who looked nothing like Ben and had a different motivation. This makes sense when you remember his plan involved turning Ben into an Eon clone, and he's been moving across the multiverse for a while. It's easy to imagine that Eon tried again in an AU universe and succeeded, then his victim was this Eon. As for Paradox considering this Eon the same? Simple. Eon considered the Ben version himself, even saying so.
• Ben 10,000's Ultimate form can use the powers of any of his aliens while still in human form. It's referred to as Ultimate Ben not Ultimate human, and it's said that the Ultimate forms are created through war simulation. So if Ben were to go through a long war, he would eventually figure out how to use the powers on his own, which is why Ultimate Ben 10,000 can
  • Two things. First of all, Ben makes up his aliens' names, he doesn't use their species names. Thus, Ultimate Humungousaur is derived from a Vaxasaurian, Ultimate Cannonbolt from an Arburian Pelarota, etc., and Ultimate Ben is indeed Ultimate human. Secondly, the war simulations are in the 1,000,000+ years range. So unless Ben's immortal, it's basically saying that, after a one-million-year species-wide civil war, humanity would evolve into something like Vilgax's Mecha-Mooks from the Ben 10: Alien Force series finale. - Classified
• This also doubles as Fridge Horror but in "Prisoner 775 Is Missing", the title character has Colonel Rozem at pretty much knife point and yet lets Ultimate Wildmutt charge right at him without so much a threat. This just seems like stupidity, but then the moment Ultimate Wildmutt has him pinned down, he begs him to kill him. It suddenly becomes apparent that 775 was attempting Suicide by Cop...
• At first, Kevin going from completely sane to Ax-Crazy just from absorbing energy for the first time in years doesn't quite make as much sense, but then you remember he sucked Aggregor dry. Aggregor not only fully absorbed 5 aliens. He (unlike Kevin) had absolutely no qualms about absorbing energy. Since for their race energy = insanity, absorbing all the energy Aggregor already had on top of Ben's aliens drove Kevin completely insane almost instantly.
  • On top of it, Darkstar describes his and Kevin's hunger for energy like an addiction. Kevin hadn't absorbed energy for over five years. When he absorbed it again for the first time, he had a relapse into his addiction. This also explains why he went full blown Sylar this time. A relapse into an addiction often ends up being much worse than the original addition.
  • Actually, it seems to be because this time he absorbed some of Rath as well, so he got the reckless streak from him.
  • Probably not just because of that, but I doubt absorbing Rath helped.
• Considering she's Japanese, the 'ju' in Julie can be read as 'ten'. More fun with Theme Naming!
• After thinking over what happens in "The Forge of Creation", I had a moment of Fridge Brilliance regarding something Paradox said to Ben in Alien Force: "You're much smarter now than when I first met you later". It sounds like a simple example of Time-Travel Tense Trouble, but "Forge of Creation" actually makes sense of it! Ben would have first met Paradox in "The Forge of Creation", back when he was ten years old and temporarily displaced in time. That explains why Paradox said Ben was smarter than he was later on... he was referring to the displaced ten-year-old Ben!
• Ben doesn't just yell out the names of his aliens when he transforms to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies. He's doing it because he's trying to be the opposite of (alternate future) Ben 10,000, who doesn't name his aliens at all.
• In "Fused," Ben is having nightmares. When lightning strikes and thunder rolls, he tries to calm himself down. Perhaps he is having nightmares of the DNAliens and how their disguises were ruined when lightning struck shown in the episode "Max Out" of Alien Force?
• Ultimate Big Chill and Ultimate Cannonbolt not changing much from their base forms has some reason behind it. Big Chill's species reproduces asexually, which has a lot less change between generations than sexual reproduction. This means that it takes a lot longer to have anything change between them. Cannonbolt, meanwhile, had his population undergo a genetic bottleneck via their near extinction. There probably just isn't as much DNA around to make radical changes (the latter one is a bit less concrete than Big Chill, O.P admits).
  • Ultimate Big Chill also has biology against him in this regard: due to the way he reproduces, his DNA simulation has a fixed number of time it is able to reproduce per the canonical "once in eighty years breeding cycle," that being 12,500 times. This is very likely a lot fewer times than most other alien species are able to reproduce and thus pass on more battle ready traits and changes.
  • The reason Echo Echo changed so much compared to most of the Ultimates is a side effect of duplication: Echo Echo has many more numbers on his side and thus can reproduce faster. As such, the million odd years of simulated battle evolution moves at a much more rapid pace for him than it does most of the other aliens.
• The last fight between Ben and Albedo in "Night of the Living Nightmare" in and of itself is Foreshadowing that it's Albedo's nightmare we're in, not Ben's. Notice how Ben's speech pattern, actions and appearance become a lot more ominous and even downright sadistic as the fight goes on? From taunting Albedo about his repeated failure to defeat him, to beating him up in every alien form he takes in human form to announcing that he'll "keep beating [Albedo] forever and ever" in a Creepy Monotone. This behavior directly mirrors that of nightmare Kevin and Gwen, while the absurd power shift emulates the previous fights with nightmare Vilgax, Aggregor, Hex and Julie.
• Why is Ultimate Ben 10,000 so much more lax than the other Ben 10,000's seen? Simple. Per the analysis of Ultimate Alien, it is all in the name of taking steps away from Knight Templar behavior. He never got the new Omnitrix, so he had to take steps from becoming like the original Ben 10,000 (or worse), hence the persona he keeps up.
• Ben's alien choices in his fight with Gwen have a bit more going for them than just being fairly good against her.
  • Chromastone is the guardian of an entire planet, responsible for the protection of the entire Petrosapien race. Ben often sees himself as the protector of Earth, and that means protecting it from Kevin.
  • Both Terrapsin and NRG were scanned from victims of him not ensuring the job was done completely. Taking Kevin down would be doing the job completely.
  • Nanomech was scanned from the nanochips in Alien Swarm, which infected millions before being defeated the first time. Kevin, at this point, was basically infected, and they didn't have a simple queen to go beat up to free him. The sickness needed to be contained this time, i.e. killing Kevin.
  • Way Big's species stands guard at the edge of the galaxy from threats from beyond. Kevin was a threat beyond their means to contain; he could only be stopped. Way Big is also one of Ben's more serious aliens for serious threats, like Kevin at this point. Also note that Way Big did not shout his name when he came out, further highlighting just how serious Ben was at the time.
• You can probably infer some idea of the reasons the simulated evolution for an Ultimate went the way it did by asking what the form adds or takes away specifically.
  • Humungosaur is an entirely close range fighter, and while he does get stronger as an Ultimate he also gains an option for long ranged combat via his finger missiles.
  • Swampfire, while on top of stronger flames, also gains a harder body. It was probably better over time to be harder to hurt than just regenerating off the damage taken as regular Swampfire.
  • Ultimate Wildmutt likely benefited from better communication ability during the simulation, along with smoother skin that was less prone to grabbing or yanking.
  • Ultimate Spidermonkey likely needed more strength, taking a hit to mobility for sheer power.
  • Ultimate Echo Echo got more physically durable and dropped off the cloning for sonic disks that could not betray him like a clone might be able to.
• Word of God has Ben having regained Heatblast and Ripjaws by scanning Alan and natives of Pisciss^note  this troper believes he's seen some Word of God implying the same with Four Arms and Manny, but can't find it again, so one may wonder why he never scanned Helen to regain a Kineceleran slash {=XLR 8=} transformation. Simply put, imagine Ben trying to tell a girl he 'needs to scan her genetic material so he can transform into her species'. There are many ways that can be phrased badly by mistake.
  • Why didn't he ever scan a Galvan despite running into Azmuth and co a lot? A few reasons: the Ultimatrix had enough glitches that he could also scan Azmuth's oldness, he may not see the form as one he necessary wants to have again being one of his least favorites as a kid, he might not want to let Albedo easily access his real form, he might see it as unnecessary between Brainstorm's more combat-effective super intelligence and Nanomech's smaller size alongside flight and stinging making the form somewhat obsolete, and with the Ultimatrix mistransforming again he probably didn't want another 'dud' form he could accidentally become.
• One may criticize Azmuth's decision to give Ben a new Omnitrix that lacks the evolutionary function of the Ultimatrix as severely depowering Ben. However, consider why Azmuth created the Omnitrix in the first place. The Omnitrix was made to be a symbol of intergalactic peace, a way to literally walk a mile in another species' shoes. When Ben used the Omnitrix to become a hero, he became an even greater symbol of intergalactic peace than the Omnitrix could be on its own. Ben became the walking embodiment of all of the galaxy's species coming together to maintain peace throughout the galaxy. Now consider how the Ultimate Forms are created. Ultimate Forms are created by sticking the DNA in a simulation of a million Earth years of war, forcing them to develop combat oriented features as a species to survive. Such a feature spits in the face of Azmuth's intentions for the device, which happens to also be totally in character for Albedo, who build his own Omnitrix to stroke his own ego, completely missing the point Azmuth was trying to make in creating the Omnitrix.
• Relating to the analysis of the Ultimatrix as a weapon: Ultimate Ben 10,000, an alternate future where Ben never got the new Omnitrix, is intentionally designed as the ultimate antithesis to the Omnitrix. With Ultimate Ben, he no longer even has to transform to access his aliens' powers; in other words, he's using the watch purely for the powers, completely missing the point of literally becoming the species to better understand them. Ben 10,000 even mentions he hasn't bothered transforming in years, indicating he's long forgotten its original purpose.
• In The Ultimate Sacrifice, Ben uses Ghostfreak for the first and only time in this Season. Why? Fight fire with fire, since the situation with the Sentient Ultimate Aliens is a lot like the situation with Zs'Skayr.
• The Forever Knights factions diverging from the original point about defeating Dagon actually does give some closure to the abandoned Dragon plotline that was originally planned for Alien Force. With Dagon's ties to the legend of St. George and the Dragon, it is not hard to see how a faction of Forever Knights were trying to follow that logic to trying to destroy a similar creature, even as other details were lost to the centuries.
• Dagon unknowingly stopped every single crime from being committed and every war on Earth by turning everybody into Esoterica. Besides the Forever Knight war, the Earth was in a very brief period of a twisted version of world peace.
• Vilgax feigned weakness to make the Dagon think he wasn't worth his time. The Dagon knew that Sir George was a threat and killed him relatively quickly. Vilgax also needed to stall for time to make sure Psyphon could arrive with his machine. Vilgax was more than capable of destroying the seal, but it would be an exceptionally dumb idea to free the Dagon without being prepared to absorb his power. Vilgax even berates Psyphon's truancy, stating that he "took his time."
• In Night of the Living Nightmare, Goop turns into Ultimate Spidermonkey without going Spidermonkey first. Another clue that the episode is All Just a Dream.

Fridge Horror

• In "Prisoner 775 Is Missing," we discover Colonel Rozum has been keeping aliens imprisoned for decades in horrible conditions, many for likely no good reason. The one we see has been driven insane and is suicidal to the point he breaks down and begs Ben to kill him. It's terrible to imagine what the other prisoners have gone through in that hell hole. Ben even describes the conditions in the prison as "inhuman" (Rozum's response is it's because they're not human).
  • And then, Ben happily turns into the alien's species while announcing the name Overkill, to the dismay of everyone present. Though Ben, being Ben, was probably just trying to lighten the mood.
• At the end of the aforementioned episode, 775 attempts Suicide by Cop by having Ben try to kill him. Ben doesn't kill him, but 775's last seen being taken by the Plumbers. The horror kicks in when one realizes nothing happened to change 775's mind that he has nothing left to live for and is openly suicidal...
• In "The Ultimate Enemy, Part 1," Dagon turns the entire population of Earth, save the heroes and Julie (who was protected by Ship's Powered Armor) into Esoterica soldiers. Given that they all look male, 3+ billion people just got subjected to involutary Gender Bender on top of everything else.
  • Speaking of Dagon, anyone who's read H.P Lovecraft should know that Dagon is a pretty minor figure, not even on the same level as the Great Old Ones. If the Dagon of Ben 10 is this dangerous, then how bad is the Ben 10 version of Cthulhu? Or worse, YOG-SOTHOTH?!
    • His named is spelled Diagon, and he appears to be based more on Cthulhu than Dagon. He is also far more malevolent/power-hungry than Cthulhu, whose stated goal is to give us free superweapons in an inversion of the Prime Directive.
• While they're still terrible people, Hex and Charmcaster's role in the original series makes more sense with the revelation that they're refugees from a conquered realm stranded in a world without magic. Meaning Hex's nasty behavior is him dealing with the trauma of losing his people and damaging his relationship with his niece. And to add insult to injury, some random earth girl is using an artifact of their ways to become a superhero. What's worse is they were both so lost in their own anger they never thought to ask the Tennysons to help save Ledgerdomain, and even then, it's unlikely 10-year old Ben could do anything.
• In Ben 10,000 Returns, it's shown that the second Eon has kidnapped and brainwashed dozens and dozens of alternate Benjamins. Now think about what probably happened to their friends, families, and even enemies. Eon is likely responsible for the deaths of many, many people and broke countless more relationships apart. Since this is the multiverse, this can apply to alternate versions of any of the canonical characters. There's probably 'verses where Ben is hitched with Charmcaster or even Albedo. Destroying the Hands of Armageddon returned them to their homes, but how many of the Benjamins still have homes to go back to?
• As Shocksquatch shows that the Ben 10/Generator Rex crossover is canon with the series, this means that Ben has nanites in his system. As they revealed he has a fresh batch of them in his body, this could mean Ben could go EVO in his world. Now...think about it; an Evo with the power of over 60 aliens making them into mindless monsters...without Rex there.
• In order to create an ultimate form the Ultimatrix takes a DNA sample and simulates it through one million years in a worst case scenario environment. Given that Ghostfreak's DNA is tied to Zs'Skayr, could he utilize this feature to become an evolved Ectonurite?