Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-16747922-20141112232929

I suggest to the admins that they highlight this because it's more than what the title says. It's partially one of those support/oppose threads that invites the full wiki into the discussion over an important topic.

The update that the franchise is still alive talks about some kind of "reboot" of the series... that can mean a lot of things. In most cases a reboot is the restarting of a franchise on a clean slate with ideas unrelated to previous incarnations, but there's ways a reboot can just mean a more drastic step forward in a series that undergoes a great deal of changes while not altering the source material. An example would be in the CBS police procedural The Mentalist - for a full six seasons the series revolved around a mystery serial killer who the protagonist chased and chased due to his tragic history, and after the whole ordeal came to a close last year, the second half of the season switched settings, made a time jump 2 years forward, improved its directing style, changed the tone, changed the characters' lifestyles, and did a whole lot of other things in which the WORLD of the show changed like crazy but the actual SHOW stayed true to its roots.

Similarly here, either possibility is at hand. Ben 10 could do something as big as change networks and be a show about 20-year old Ben, Gwen and Kevin, it could change the way Ben gets his abilities, hell, it could even become an anime, for crying out loud, or it could just devise  a change of setting and plug us into a more developed, evolved world and focus on embracing a theme or goal that deviates from where the show's going now. Anything can happen, but that's all on a conceptual basis. The point and topic I'm addressing here is instead the quality of the show. Likelihood is not a factor here since there's always the possibility, however slim, of a show about Ben as a baby winning Creative Arts Emmys for Achievements in Children's Programming. It all depends on quality. So... I call the powers that be of BTFFville to discuss:

What do you feel will improve the next iteration of Ben 10 to make all its changes be for the better?

For me, that's a number of things. The question is obviously still up to you, and your opinions of course shouldn't be based around what I feel to be, so whatever I put down on here doesn't always have to be followed up by an "I agree with everything you have to say" since I'm interested in hearing your opinion. Now, I don't know if we can round all this up and give it to the producers, as much as the goal of this post appears to be that way, but due to the maturity of you guys on here and how capable you all are of discussing these things, I'm simply wondering what you want to see in the next Ben 10 in terms of quality.

I, for one, have a number of things. Now please don't get me wrong and think that I'm basing this all off of Heroes of Evolution, since my show severely breaks the boundaries of what a kids cartoon would allow, by a long shot. I'd be crazy to expect high-stakes gun violence and serial killers in a Ben 10 show, but there are things I've seen in a number of TV shows and films I admire - concepts that both kids and adults can interpret as admirable and be incorporated into a series that comes out as thoughtful, fleshed-out, and well beyond conventional by the end. Those are the kind of cartoons that excel.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Story, villains and music are things Ben 10 needs to improve on, for me, but what about you? I'm really interested in hearing what you guys think. Again, don't base your responses always off of what I have to say. You can do the support/oppose thing towards my opinions, but for the overall question and topic, it's up to you. Cheers!
 * Now, entertainment value is always a given and a constant in a kids' cartoon - most cartoons go by the assumption that kids are a little stupid and that the number 1 thing to nail hard is entertainment. But we all know how vague that is, right? Are these so-called "stupid kids" supposed to tune in religiously to see buildings smashed every week? NO! My first hope for this new show is a stronger sense of intelligence. The term "maturity" is broad. It doesn't have to mean sex and violence. It can mean intelligence. The word "mature" means developed, and not always "unfit for children". This point is what every other one of my points revolves around, essentially. They can increase the richness of the franchise and add in narrative elements from mature shows that will simply ramp up (from a conceptual basis) what they already have going, and not tarnish it. What does this mean?
 * Richer storytelling. I always liked Ben 10 for its story arcs. I mean, every show needs a story arc. Ben 10, being a kids' cartoon, had to remember not to sustain these for too long since kids' attention spans don't equal those of adults, and they can't spend a whole season connecting the dots with clues and office politics in law enforcement and all that, juggling the number of balls that adult programming is allowed to juggle. That being said, those who have read my essay on the Ben 10 problem in the HoE main page will know what I'm getting at - the producers should have the decency to come back to the older fans of the show and give them something to enjoy that's more accustomed to their tastes, since kids can't be kids forever - the newer fans, however, will be more astounded and impressed by this "above and beyond" stuff that they can understand relatively close to how much the older fans can. This way, it gives the show rewatch value - to understand the deeper concepts later on while being thoroughly entertained by what else it has in store the first time. This includes more depth to the stories. More connecting of the dots. So far, even in AF/UA, the plots have been so linear. Every step is only a development up to some big goal, but it makes everything else insignificant and just "catching up". Things should make sense through past clues so viewers can have more "HOLY CRAP!!!" moments when they see a past clue play in. It shouldn't always just be "new villain! Oh, he's going to this planet! Oh, wait, next planet! He's just collecting the pieces for a goal! Smash! Smash! Villain dead! Did all those individual pieces have any significance of their own? No! Who cares? We smashed stuff and saved the day!" No. They should lay out richer plots rather than just give us more insight on familiar faces with flashbacks that have nothing to do with anything. Same thing happened with the Diagon arc. Sure, it was richer than most of the story, but by the end it just introduced a whole new plot point of Sir George and the Dragon, stuff that was never before brought up and never gave us any form of closure, since there were no questions to begin with.
 * BETTER VILLAINS. God, I cannot stress this one enough. Ben 10's huge problem was always lacking a mystery element. I don't mean things like my "Devil Watcher" character - you don't always need mystery voices and mystery clues, but just mystery SOMETHING, whether it be a big plan, someone's name, someone's face, etc. So many villains in Ben 10 were straight-up introduced, their names given, smash smash smash, Dee Bradley Baker's tiresome growling voices, John DiMaggio's deep-voiced guys trying to sound mean, and you get my point. Aggregor was the one menacing villain they really had and they exchanged his menace for smash value, AGAIN. The concept of absorbing the aliens was nice and made him a sadist, but his repeated choking of people and looking like you couldn't touch him tried exploring some really cliche things (like Ben almost killing him), tried making giant developments, but everything just seemed introductory and linear, which further revisits my previous point. We need villains who deviate from angry-faced horned heavy-armored growling humanoids carrying glowing weapons. Can we at least ONCE have someone who challenges the protagonist like no other, enjoys their work, and carries a strong screen presence and is ENTERTAINING to watch work?
 * DIRECTING IMPROVEMENTS. I don't mean visuals - Ben 10 always had great graphics and alien/planet design and all that. Though it's given that it's a 2D show that can't go about with camera angles and stuff, I've seen efforts at vehicles and other things that provide a greater sense of realism. I'm tired of the boring still shots and redundant campy music and the fights looking like the characters are taking turns punching each other. The fights should feel fluid and swift, the infiltration scenes should be fast-paced and intense and backed up by music that contains more than strings, the city shots should contain some skyline shots and aerial views, and they should take the advantages they have to make the show look a little more stylish.
 * BETTER MUSIC. I already just mentioned this, but aside from the main themes, the music to Ben 10 is horrible. HORRIBLE. The musical score is downright lame. The only thing they have is strings, and it's the same "evil" descending melody made of eighth notes, interjected by loud BAMS of high strings and two-note high-frequency pianos that sound utterly campy and pathetic. They should add synths, drums, bass, and everything from action/sci-fi scores with little twists. And don't say they don't have the budget for orchestras. The main themes are superb. They have everything. I like the AF theme more than UA's mostly because UA has that annoying electric guitar. The reason I hate action themes in kids' shows is because they're so rock-influenced. It's cheesy and irritating. Does everything have to sound like a Hot Wheels commercial? Get it intense, large-scale, then ambient, then uplifting - composers should be capable of this stuff.

 