Sci Reviews: Tech 10: Rebooted

This is the first episode (and likely the only one -- to avoid copyright infringement and the wrath of one purple CaT) of Sci Reviews!, this time featuring Tech 10: Rebooted, as NOT requested by CaT but hey, it's the finale to an anniversary-gift!

Story
The story of T10:R (actually, let's just call it TXR) begins like all Ben 10 stories, with a -trix wielder that comes from the sky and falls into the hands of someone who probably shouldn't wield it.

Oh wait, you mean to tell me that happens in the eighth episode of the series, not the first? This is gonna be one of those in media res kind of stories? Alright, fine. Let's just get started.

For those of you who don't speak Latin (why should you, it's a dead language), In medias res is Latin for "into the middle of things." It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle — usually at some crucial point in the action, and that's where A Blade is a Blade starts off.

Yes, there is technically another first episode of the series: Insert Horrible Title Pun Here. My god. I mean it's supposed to be a bad title but still it is so bad. Luckily, since it's been declared none canon, I've elected to completely ignore it as if it never existed.

"Can't catch me!"



Oh by the way, I'm gay so it's okay to joke about stuff like this. Anyway, the first episode shows Tech, the main character on what appears to be a vacation, going to an underground alien black market known to be incredibly hard to enter due to the extremely difficult password that no one could possibly get...

"Password?" The eyes widened. "Hold on a moment." The brick was replaced, and there was another scuffling sound. "Frank! Frank, wake up! This human knows the password! Whaddo we do?!" "Eh, I dunno."



So Tech gets in and he finds the weapons store, but not before he's mistaken for Ben Tennyson. Because this is a universe where Azmuth allows more than one -trix wielder.... for some reason. Short story short, he meets up with a Galvanic Mechamorph named Alvono and helps him take care of the store clerk.

Alvono figures he'd like to hang out with Tech, and Tech says "Sure", so now we have the latest member of TECH SUPPORT!. Get it? Cause his name is Te- oh nevermind.



Tech Support also includes Tech's co-worker/SpecTrix Operator/best friend Aquadilus - a blue alligator with electrical powers. His habits include yelling at Tech because Tech is being stupid and reading newspapers.

Because REASONS!

So as the first season progresses, we meet a lot of new characters, including Warlord Kroz, a reasonable Emotispecter ruler of several conquered planets via the Galactic Code of Conduct (which is seriously flawed and in desperate need of updating, I should add); Igneoux, a mysterious figure whose true identity is so easy to figure out you're literally hitting your head against a door asking yourself why no one else can figure it out; minor antagonist Xr. Nullamor who is somewhat forgettable so not point in talking about him, and of course....

The Void - an insanity demon that is also an alternate dimension that sucks out the sanity out of people and gives people something called "Void Energy", which is basically a purple energy that does whatever it wants. Oh, and it has this strange relationship with eyes. Eventually, The Void decides to create a human form known as The Jester, and boy oh boy is he a delight. Wait, insanity demon.... alternate dimension.... strange relationship with eyes.... a hat and a cane... fun to read? Hmmm... that reminds of another character.



On the plus side though, at least this demon isn't out to begin the end of the world (that job has been saved for another entity). Eventually, Season 1 kicks in both the Story Arc when it's revealed that the freaky creatures from Into The Pit, the one that killed Dean and put its egg in him...



No, not that Dean, the one that says he's heterosexual yet all evidence points to the fact that he loves a certain angel to the point that when gets a chance he checks the angel out. I mean Dean the mineworker. Ugh anyway, it's revealed that these "Death Hounds" are created by Xr. Nullamor for our first big bad of the series, who goes by the name of Dethrouge.

And then Tech dies.... for the first time. Yeah Tech has a case of Resurrective Immorality, which causes the Death Is Cheap effect. Oh and the SpecTrix is destroyed. In the sixth episode. On one hand, it makes Dethrouge seem like a dangerous antagonist, and he is. But the next episode has him get another SpecTrix, because Galvan 3-D printers take life so much easier now.

Now, there is one thing I wanna mention in regard to Much Ado About Aliens, but first, a copy-paste of my comment:

“I suppose I knew I’d have to say this eventually.” He began. “You see, I’m actually-” “Me from an alternate timeline.” Tech interjected.



“I swear to all that is holy, if you finish that sentence with ‘aliens’, -- -- I am going to deck you across the room.” Tech snapped. “No, no.” Igneoux replied. “They were built by people.” Tech let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. That was about to get really stupi-” “...That just so happened to have had a lot of interactions with aliens.” Tech’s eye twitched incredulously. “...” “...Uh...you okay?” “...” “...” “SON OF A BIIIIIIIIII-”



“As I said, you must have a pure heart.” The lion stated. Tech scratched his chin in thought for a few seconds, then snapped his fingers. “Hold on, my heart is pure!” He exclaimed.



Anyway memes aside, this is the episode where you realize that this show has a Myth Arc, when a certain name is dropped: "Anti-Life Entity". #It'sAllConnected

Oh and we're introduced to a new less threatening villain known as The Puppet Master, setting up the next episode's stor- wait. Is it.... it's happening? Wee're actually gonna find out the origin story? Finally! So we learn a few things, namely that Tech's real name is Isaac Matthew Logical?!



The SpecTrix is revealed to actually be named the “Specialty Omnimatrix", which is cool and all, and we see how Tech is at using the SpecTrix for the first time, the guilt he feels for not saving some people, and apparently Tech doesn't change his clothes often. Aka every animated character ever. Moving on, we arrive at the crossover episode with Not Applicable....



If you're reading this, I would warn you right now that the main character of Not Applicable becomes a main character in Season 2 of this show, so please read Not Applicable's seven episodes before you start Season 2. Things will just make more sense for you now. Okay? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Introduced to the Archives of Oberon and the race known as the Amimam Creari, Tech Support is on a mission to learn more about Dethrouge's "Great Sun Armor", meeting up with three more supporting characters: The Synthetic Magisters of Red, Yellow, and Blue. I don't know why they're called this but you just kinda roll with it. He also meets the main characters from Not Applicable, Napoleon Eldridge and his "friend" Herculian who are on their own quest, as TXR Season 1 and NA appear to take place at the same time. These characters are really just here on the show to help out Tech whenever there's too many badguys to deal with, so they're automatically a part of TECH SUPPORT.

There are two really important moments that happen in this episode, and they're both quotes that you don't really quite understand until later. The first is from my favorite character, The Void/The Jester.

"What do you suppose would happen if you took a machine designed for zero then forced it into one thousand?”

The second is from minor antagonist Zetium, the Obsidian Death’s leading specialist on the usage of mana. Oh yeah, the Obsidian Death is this intergalatic gang who later turns out to be a pretty big deal. Anyway, she says:

“As you may know, nobody has any idea how the Animam Creari are created.”

Well, it's something that is really not important at first, but then when you look back on the whole series, you realize that was actually foreshadowing some of the big reveals of Season 2. I compare this episode to Field Trip, where other heroes from other shows crossover, and even though it's a crossover episode, certain things introduced (Virton in YP/Napoleon joining Tech Support & those foreshadowing quotes) become really essential to the series. Anyway they don't really find out anything because they get too busy fighting, and then we skip to the next episode, Hope Nevermore aka MORE TECH SUPPORT/MYTH ARC SET UP.

Hope Nevermore introduces badass Moranna Ceres, an assassin turned ally in Season 2 as well as Alpha, who is connected to the RYB Magisters. There are only two more things worth noting: another villain connected to the Anti-Life Entity and once again.... Tech dies.

“Wow, you’re back here again? Not that I don’t appreciate the company, but man, are you bad at the whole ‘living’ thing!” - The Void

We reach the season finale, in Part 1 and Part 2 respectively. Puppet Master gets a case of Villainous Breakdown, we realize that The Jester's quote was referring to the Great Sun armor (so they did get info about the armor after all) not being able to withstand too much pressure leading up to an epic way to take down a bad guy, and of course.... RYB become Omega, the latest Power Rangers Megazoid!



That was cool too. In a sense, I'd like to compare this to Gravity Falls. The main antagonist of the first season isn't introduced until a few episodes in, we learn who the true antagonist of the series is gonna be, realize that certain characters are affected that this true antagonist, including our Season 1 main antagonist, a two-part season finale handles the bad guy, and we end with the sense that things are about to change a lot....

And that's Season 1. Are you noticing a pattern throughout this whole season?

I'll cut to the chase: the entire series as a whole is about the formation of TECH SUPPORT to take down the true antagonist of the series, The Anti-Life Entity, this really bad end of the universe thing that motivates Dethrouge and the Season 2 antagonist. So all these characters helping Tech are being introduced in Season 1 so they can officially join Tech Support in Season 2, when the Myth Arc really starts kicking in for the big battle to determine the fate of Earth-83. It just takes a while to realize that.

Now since I've spent so much time on Season 1 setting everything up, I'ma go through Season 2 a lot quicker.


 * Old Foes, New Beginnings: Moranna Ceres becomes an official member of Tech Support, and gets a -trix of her own called the AemuTrix.... for reasons. The Obsidian Death becomes the Season 2 main antagonists. Now I said that the Season 2 antagonist is connected to the Anti-Life Entity. How? You'll find out.
 * Midweek Madness: Napoleon Eldridge, no longer having a show to be a main character on, joins this show & officially joins Tech Support. More Obsidian Death stuff.
 * Full Friction: The Anti-Life Entity causes Tech and Moranna to become more likely an OTP. Because...




 * Spend The Night: I consider this to be one of two episodes that kinda relaxes itself and takes a break from the Myth Arc this season. Really good episode. Basically, Moranna spends the night with Tech at his house. I repeat, a girl spends the night at a boy's house.
 * Rise of Gamma: Part 1 The Obsidian Death becomes an army. The Power Rangers return along with their megazoid.
 * Rise of Gamma: Part 2 Alpha returns and combines with the Megazoid to create an ULTIMATE FORM aka Gamma. Hence the episode's title. Duh. Oh and the main antagonist of the season, Prelude, leader of the Obsidian Death is formally introduced.
 * Duel of the Greats and Unfinished Business are essentially sequels to Welcome to The Void and Into The Pit, tying up loose ends from last season, which I'm glad that happened because it shows that CaT obviously can keep track of what he's written. Duel of the Greats has a great battle between Kroz and Tech, Igneoux joins Tech Support and Kroz oddly enough does not. Even though it's been stated numerous times that...

“[Kroz] can [kill] anything with a nervous system using a single punch”

Like, why would you not want that on your team? I mean COME ON! REALLY?



Oh and there's some "ominous" dialogue: "there's something we're missing.... foreshadowing is obvious foreshadowing.... oooooooh spooky sounds and words", eh you get the point. It's something among those lines. In Unfinished Business, we find out that this is the world of Supernatural, where you have a Judeo-Christian God that is really in control but you also have smaller pagan gods as well, such as Pluto, who makes an appearance in this episode. I'm pretty sure that meeting that Pluto referred to is gonna look something like this:



The next episode is Picking Up Steam, the other not-really-a-part-of-myth-arc episode I mentioned, and it's really enjoyable. This episode messes around with timelines, because those are fun. The return of The Jester is a bonus, although points are taken off for use of the "just hit it/destroy it and everything reverts" cliche.

And now we're at the series finale.... well, okay I lied. It's really the penultimate, but let's be real, it's the beginning of the end. If Earth Could Speak brings back the main antagonist of the season: Prelude. If you're smart enough, think about his name means. Google it? Okay. Now think about what that might mean in the context of this show. What could Prelude be leading up to that's more impo-

OH SHIT. IT'S THE ANTI-LIFE ENTITY.



Prelude's goal has been to summon the Anti-Life Entity. He's essentially the opposite of Dethrouge, who wanted to prevent it from coming. Speaking of Dethrouge, he's back to help stop the threat of the greatest threat the universe has ever known. Kinda like a certain Gravity Falls antagonist.... *cough*Dethrouge is Gideon*cough*.

Anyway, Prelude decides to invade the Earth (unoriginal plan) and Tech Support finally gets to come to good use by uniting with The Plumbers to stop the invasion. However, Tech does a lot of the work himself, taking down a bunch of warships. Azmuth shows up for some good old exposition revealing that humans actually de-evolved thanks to the Galvans' fear of them and what they might do in the future. Luckily one sample was saved and Azmuth gives it to Tech. Good news right? Except The Anti-Life Entity takes Tech out of his timeline so when it finishes waking up it can destroy reality.

Luckily as the series finale begins with Forever To Say Goodbye: Part 1, The Void helps him out one last time, which lets Tech return to his timeline... after several trips to others. This whole episode visits several different timelines, including the Steam Timeline, a Disco Timeline, a female Tech timeline, the original Tech timeline, and Tech reaches his timeline but travels to the future.... where he meets the main characters of Tech 10: Star Spirit. That kind of gives away how the show ends...

The last episode. Forever To Say Goodbye: Part 2. The Anti-Life Entity has arrived at last.... everything in the series has led up to this moment. An unspeakable demonic presence versus our world's only hope: Tech Support. At least, that's what the series led up to believe. Sure, Napoleon and Dethrouge help out a bit, but the real battle against the Anti-Life Entity is primarily with Tech. Albeit, it's his show, but we were led to believe that this was a threat so big that Tech couldn't do it on his own. That Tech would need everyone's help to stop this thing before Tech could give the final blow. But really, the Delta Human transformation negates the point of Tech Support, letting Tech be the OP Protagonist he was always meant to be, I suppose.

Tech succeeds in defeating (and killing) The Anti-Life Entity but at the cost of becoming a Delta Human forever. There's some goodbyes, a few last final words spoken, and then the series wraps up with the one conclusion I've made about this whole universe while reading Tech 10: Rebooted, Not Applicable, and Mack 10:

“The entire universe is weird.”

And that's how the show ends. I've probably recapped too much of the show to be honest, but since I'm not going to be doing this often, I really don't care. I'm moving on now.

Characters
Alright, let's start with the main character, Tech. Tech is weird. Tech is rash. Tech is not good at staying alive. He's a very different kind of -trix user, and I do like that. However, I'm not going to lie that at times, Tech was not interesting to read. Other characters overshadowed him when it came to humor (Alvono or Aquadilus), or personality (The Void). Speaking of personality, and this is also kind of on Not Applicable as well: Napoleon and Tech were not different enough. They were too similar. I mean they're different, but I still felt like at times they were the same character.

Your best characters were Warlord Kroz, a compelling physical character who wasn't really a villain but he was still an antagonistic force when he needed to be and an ally at other times; The Void, a complete joy to read because he's an insanity demon and that's always fun to read, he's not supposed to make sense; and Dethrouge, whose actions were because of the Anti-Life Entity and his fear of it and what it could do.

Your best humor came from Aquadilus and Alvono, who are perhaps the laziest side-kicks I've ever seen on any fanfiction on this wiki. Especially Alvono. Also, why does Aquadilus read the GODDAMN NEWSPAPER EVERY SINGLE FREAKING DAY? I mean, he clearly has access to the internet and extranet, so just use those. I mean, the New York Times are online for only .99 cents. I mean, yeah I'm too cheap for even that but they own one of the most popular alien-related businesses on Earth. They have the monies.

"Yes. All of the moneys. All of them." - Tech, A Blade is a Blade.

The most underused characters were Aquadilus, Alvono, Xr. Nullamor and Zetium, the mana chick from Absolute Knowledge. Like, what happened to her? She was in two episodes and then poof! Never seen again! Same with Xr. Nullamor. He makes like 3 appearances and then poof! Gone!

The most "pointless" characters were the Gamma characters: R, Y, B, A, O, G. I mean, they were essentially extra-firepower but not much too them, which is sad.

The winner of most disappointing character goes to Moranna Ceres. She appeared to be a badass assassin, and that could have been really cool. But then you gave her an Omnitrix, and she just became Tech 4. (Tech is Tech 1, Igneoux is Tech 2, Napoleon is Tech 3). I wish you could have developed more about her story, showed off her assassin skills, and continued with the question of "to kill or not to kill" that we saw in the Season 2 premiere. But you gave her an Omnitrix. Also: unless I missed it, the shipping between her and Tech never happened. Primal and I were looking forward to that. Oh well.

The Anti-Life Entity... I wish we could have seen the full extent of his powers. I mean it was never going to be around that long, but his powers weren't shown as well as something like him could have been I felt. He's disappointing character #2. Prelude was always just a Prelude. I mean he had power, and he was a threat, but he didn't have that same level of OMG HE'S BAD that Dethrouge did. Oh well. The Puppet Master suffered the same fate as well, he just didn't seem as threatening.

My last two comments for characters: Why did Herculian never return in the show so he could reunite with Napoleon? Why were the threads from Not Applicable not fully addressed in Season 2? *sigh*

Writing
Alright, time for the writing.

The writing is pretty good, and usually its the characters that help make it good. Dialogue is your strength. There are a few times when you write so many long paragraphs one by one by one in action scenes that its both hard to understand and hard to gather the willpower to just read through it. I'm not particularly good with noticing grammar, but I do know there are a few extra letters or spaces there and there.

I also noticed that you tend to use the same words or phrases a lot, like the word 'cathartic'. Or whenever there's an awkward moment, you do this:

"..." "..."

I can't really say that it's a bad thing, but it's something I noticed. There is something I do want to note, and you said something very similar on CaT Reviews: The Unitrix Earth!, so I'll just steal from that page:

"One thing I do want to note is that certain aspects of the characters . . . are only explained on their pages, requiring extra reading beforehand if you want to understand everything properly, but it isn't that big of an issue."

- CaT

I also mentioned this on the finale of Not Applicable as well as above, but you start things in media res. I thought the whole point of that was so that you can take the chronological beginning of the story later on, and that would be fine. However, we never get an explanation as to why Azmuth would create the SpecTrix. Or how Aquadilus meets Tech. Or how they started their shop. I mean, details man! Details! There's also no resolution on the Assassin's Guild! No explanation as to why Kroz couldn't help fight the Anti-Life Entity. Oh, and you introduced Greek Mythology in to the series for ONE EPISODE and it NEVER CAME BACK UP. Why. Why.

Conclusions
Good god, this has taken me six hours to make. Well, before I go, I have some final words.

I might be going harsh on this series. I might be sounding like I hated a lot of characters and plot points. That's not necessarily true. I overall enjoyed this series. In fact, I'm surprised as to why I never read it earlier. I should have, and that was my mistake. The faults of the characters and the writing doesn't change the fact that this is overall a good two-season show. Sure, there are things I wish you would have expanded on, and sure I don't like every decision you made with the series, but it doesn't make the series that bad. It's still a fun, enjoyable series that doesn't take itself too seriously. The characters are funny at times, it's definitely creative and original, and it's not overly cliche. In fact, I would dare call it one of the best works this wiki has to offer.

Does the ending live up to the build-up the series has been slowly developing? Not exactly, no.

Is every loose end tied up in a neat bow? I mean no, but at least you tied up a few things.

But, does the series keep its focus on itself and its previous episodes to keep track of what's happened? Yes.

Does it have a myth arc that spans the entire series, making you have to think and try to put things together? Sure, it does.

It's defiantly a good show, but you have to admit, the payoff of this series is somewhat anti-climatic. I mean, look at the three-part finale of Young Plumbers or the three-part finale of Gravity Falls. In both shows, every character introduced had some way to get involved. Hell, even Ben Tennyson got involved in the series finale of Young Plumbers. Where was Ben in this show? There was so much riding on the formation of Tech Support, and while admittedly they did get to play a role in If Earth Could Speak, it wasn't the great battle against the Anti-Life Entity like I quite imagined.

Although, I suppose that the two shows I compared it too were like yours as well. There's a large cast of characters meant to help, but in the end its our main characters who have to take on the greatest evil of the show.

Paper and Sci against Rigon.

The Pines Family against Bill.

And I guess, Tech against the Anti-Life Entity.

Hell, even Ben is the one who ultimately stops the Highbreed by giving them other aliens' DNA in the Alien Force Season 2 finale, as he's the main character of the show.

So in a way, I guess it's fitting that Tech should be the one to stop the Anti-Life Entity. Plus, I guess all those things I wish could have been addressed might be addressed in the sequel, since you have the benefit of one. So who knows?

Tech 10: Rebooted and by extension, Not Applicable is worth the read. Trust me, it's worth it. CaT, I'm sorry I never read Tech 10 till now, but after this show, I'll be reading Star Spirit. I don't know when, but I will.

And so, my final rating for this series is .... 8.5/10,  HAPPY SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Although this isn't a review for CaT Reviews!, please read them. Even if he did give The Black Knight a 2/10 - AND YOU WONDER WHY I WAS SO HARD ON YOU CaT!