Inside the ExOS: Episode 2 - The Original "Hello Again, Ben 10"

Episode 2: The Origins is the second episode of Inside the ExOS.

Synopsis
Carth talks about the Original Draft of "Hello Again, Ben 10", which was written around February 1st, 2018.

Story
This original version of the episode I'm gonna be talking about was written by myself and our former writer Cell. I don't believe Runny was even involved yet. And both Rosaline and Ethan were definitely not on it yet.

The Original Synopsis
Synopsis: After finding the Rustbucket in shambles and Grandpa Max missing, Ben goes to look for answers, and reunites with an old enemy.

One of the major reasons why we decided to rewrite the entirety of the first two episodes, was because the original version sounded almost beat-for-beat a ripoff of the first episode of Alien Force, and this synopsis really shows it.

The next part that ensues is an early version of Harangue interviewing Ben, this was one of the earliest ideas I had for Episode 1, having Harangue interview Ben to kinda reintroduce where he is after the events of Goodbye and Good Riddance, having just saved Bellwood twice in the public eye, once from Animo and once from Vilgax the night before. We were originally going to write Harangue with some more distaste in his voice, but we decided to save his distaste for Ben until later.

Grandpa Limax
Ah, yes, this is something I mentioned in the trivia for Episode 1, there was a scene where Ben found the Rustbucket in shambles and gets attacked by a Limax. He uses Swampfire in this scene even, so it's basically a truncated version of Alien Force, Episode 1. We also had him accidentally dial up Arctiguana in the process. This was back when I had intended to do a comic version of ExOS, so there would've been visuals to go with this.

Also, minor note, but I like how the phrase "Pile of Sludge" still made it into the final version of Episode 1.

Old: "[The LIMAX turns into a pile of sludge as the Omnitrix times out, Ben is now out of breath]"

New: PILE OF SLUDGE: I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THE LIKES OF YOU, HUMAN!

Gwen's Introduction
I hate how we wrote Gwen in this version of the episode. Something about her just feels...kinda flat. I like what we did in the newer version, where she's not super interested in getting involved with his hero life again. Also, we slipped up once here on the rule of Ben not naming his aliens anymore. He namedrops "Goop". He still technically does in the final? But it's sarcastic, in response to Gwen's name suggestions. Surprisingly, Ben and Gwen going to LeRoy's stayed intact.

Goop being used inside the place also made it to the final, we just rewrote a lot of how it played out.

Believe it or not, we almost threw Magister Labrid even further under the bus, he gets one line of dialogue in this version.

The duo heading to the Hardware Store Plumber Base also remained intact, establishing just a little bit of Race Against Time in this universe.

Kevin 11
Ending Episode 1, leading into Episode 2, a lot of the Kevin dialogue here was written by Cell. He really, REALLY did a fantastic job on the Kevin dialogue, and a good majority of what he said made it into the final in some way. I really liked a lot of his dialogue where he's arguing with Ben.

The Ending
The rest of this draft plays out pretty similarly to the episode, they sneak Kevin onto the ship, and some action happens....the thing is, this draft is INCREDIBLY short. The final versions of both Episode 1 and 2 came out to roughly 22 pages each on Google Drive. This original draft is 18 pages for both episodes. It's so short and paced really awkwardly.

We also barely used any aliens, there was three within two episodes. Swampfire, Goop, and Chromastone. Once again, ripping off the opening to Alien Force.

This is why we (Runny, Rosaline, Ethan and I) essentially rewrote the whole first two episodes at one point, which ended up being the version posted on December 7th, 2018. It became a much more fleshed-out, well thought out version. And I can't thank the others enough for what they've done for the series so far, in the...over a year now, that I've been working on this thing. It really means a lot to me.