#I literally haven't watched Ben 10 in forever

[ca-8]

How about yandere ben 10 with a reader who has the same abilities as zuko from atla

"You're a...a what?"

The Tennyson cousins sat with (Y/n) at the dinner table. It was supposed to be a calm Friday night, hanging out like they usually do every now and then, but not this time. Not when they know about their best friend's cousin's secret (well, honestly it's not much of a secret anymore since his identity's been revealed to the entire world, but still).

"A fire bender," (Y/n) clarified. "I can, well, fire bend, and that's pretty much a gift and a technique at the same time. My family's passed it down for generations, and despite its power, we've all been told to never reveal this ability to anyone."

"That's....seriously??" Ben was stone-still, while Gwen looked like a child who's been given their first Christmas gift. The glow in her eyes released a weight off of (Y/n)'s shoulders., their entire body becoming lighter than a young spark's breath of smoke.

(Y/n) smiled. "I know it sounds hard to believe, but I'm telling the truth. I wanna help you guys ou-!"

"NO!"

They jumped at Ben's sudden outburst. He hasn't said a word until his voice bounced off the walls throughout the house.

Gwen shot him a glare. "Ben, what the heck?!"

"(Y/n), you're not fighting with us."

They winced. The Ben they knew since freshman year only raised his voice when he lost in a video game or his favorite snacks were out of stock. But now, pettiness wasn't laced in his words, and his face was no longer softened with a carefree attitude. A confusing glare glowed in those enraged green eyes, which burned right into the soft orange sunset within (Y/n)'s pupils.

"Dude, what's the matter with you?" they asked him.

"What's the matter with me? You're seriously asking me that after trying to volunteer to getting yourself killed?!" he snapped back.

"I wouldn't be saying anything if I knew I couldn't handle it!"

"That's what you always say before charging towards something that leaves you in the hospital! And what, now you're some 'fire wizard' or something? You really expect us to believe that? Even I know that sounds ridiculous!"

Gwen and (Y/n) stared at him for a long minute. Ben opened and closed his mouth a few times before releasing his tensed shoulders. "Okay, maybe I'm not the best person to be saying that, but I'm pretty sure "watch-that-fell-from-space-and-can-turn-me-into-different-alien-species" is more believable than...whatever you just said!"

(Y/n) raised an eyebrow and stood up. With a deep breath, they pulled back their hands, stepped forward, then thrust both hands in front. As if sunlight poured out from their veins, a blast of fire flew from their palms and rushed toward the single cup of water that sat on the far counter. Their attack destroyed it instantly, leaving behind charred remains and light streams of steam.

They turned back to the dinner table and saw them both with their jaws hung open. "If you want, I can do another demonstration," they said. "But I'd rather not risk burning your house down. Fire isn't exactly the friendliest element."

Ben shook his head. "I...God, you just don't get it, do you!?" With a huff, he tore himself from the table and stomped into the shadows of the hallway."

"Geez, what's his problem?" (Y/n) scoffed.

Gwen's face fell, and another sting stabbed their heart. "Um, can I walk you home?"

~

The setting sun's rays gleamed throughout the falling twilight sky. Its last hour's warmth soured in (Y/n)'s fingertips, but not event the tingling surge could prevent the scowl glued onto their lips. They kept their gaze on the sidewalk, letting only Gwen's voice guide them as they both walked to their house.

"I'm sorry about Ben, but... could you cut him some slack?" she said.

(Y/n) snapped their eyes toward her. "Are you kidding me? I was offering my help and he completely flipped out for no reason. Even worse, he talked to me like I'm too feeble to defend myself!"

"Well, can you blame him? Not that I don't think you can defend yourself, I just want you to think about how he might feel about all this. How we both feel."

They stopped in front of their house, and (Y/n)'s eyes softened. Gwen sighed and held her arms as she continued. "The past few years have been incredible, but also... pretty terrifying. And before tonight, every time I'd look at you, I'd always hope that he and I would be able to protect you. Not because you're someone who's weak and feeble, but because we care about you, (Y/n). Especially Ben..."

They stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder. "I get what you're saying. But you guys don't have to worry about me anymore, I can help!"

"That's another thing. This whole fire-bending thing? It's amazing, but after knowing you for so long, it's really overwhelming too..." Gwen trailed off, averting her gaze. "I understand why you needed to hide it from us. I'm not upset at you for that, and I don't think Ben is either. Honestly, we'd be hypocrites if he did otherwise."

"So what's the deal?"

She looked back at them. "He cares about you. A lot, ever since I introduced you to him, and he made me promise not to say anything more. If he knew you got hurt because of him, he'd never forgive himself."

(Y/n) fell silent. The sunset peered over Gwen's shoulder and eased their irritation. "...Look, I'm...I'm sorry," they said. "I've just been pressured all my life to keep this a secret, so when I heard about what happened with you guys, I got excited. I guess...I expected you to feel the same way, too."

Gwen lifted her head and smiled. She embraced them in a hug and let out another relieved sigh. "Thanks for telling me. You should come over again tomorrow when Ben's cooled down a bit. I know we'll all have it figured out by then."

After exchanging goodbyes, she hurried off into the darkening streets back to her house, leaving (Y/n) standing in front of their own. When she disappeared around a corner, they turned and saw only the tip of the sun's head disappearing behind a nearby house. 'So, Ben's got a little crush on me, huh? Something tells me I should be embarrassed not knowing about it sooner.'

~

Gwen was leaning against the door of the bedroom Ben locked himself in. It's been at least an hour since he silently shut himself off, so maybe that was a good time to begin worrying. She can't even remember the last time he's been quiet for this long (or even think it was possible to begin with).

"Ben? How are you holding up?" Normally, she'd enjoy the unlikely peace and quiet, but she just couldn't get his face out of her mind. Before he turned his back to her and (Y/n), she saw rage dancing around his viciously furrowed face, making a shiver run down her spine.

No response. Gwen's face fell. Ben's feelings for (Y/n) were unlike anything she's ever seen. Whenever they were even brought up around him, he would snap out from whatever he was doing and turn into some droned, lovesick puppy. Not to mention how subtly was practically thrown out the window if he was ever near them. It's honestly surprising they never caught on to how he felt...

"Hey, I'm gonna be in the living room, okay? If you ever wanna talk...I'll be here." She waited, expecting his voice to ring from the other side, hoping for a mumble or even a grunt. But silence held still enough for her to sigh and finally walk away from the door.

Though, her reassurance was not in vain. On the other side, Ben sat against the door in the darkened room. He wanted to ease his cousin's worries, but her voice was almost drowned out by (Y/n)'s little show from earlier.

He gripped the picture of them in his hands and tried not the think about his worst nightmare. The sight of their enchanting eyes twitched and strained with hopelessness; their body which he admired for so long bruised and bloody and weak from running; the personality that always brought a smile to his face suddenly drained and replaced with a cowardly pursuit-

It all rushed in so quickly, through his splitting headache, down his tensed shoulders, all the way to his trembling fingertips. Ben's thumb pressed against the picture, and he was forced to a halt when a tiny crack emitted from beneath him. He looked down; the picture was cracked.

The room hummed a somber tune for a few minutes.

'I said I wasn't going to let anything harm a hair on you, (Y/n). And I won't let you be stupid enough to make me break that promise.'

~

".........."

"............Devastation......"

".........Citizens.......already evacuating....."

"...Another attack-"

(Y/n)'s eyes flung open and their head flew from their pillow. First, their attention met the window beside their bed; the midday sun was already nestled high up in its cloudless domain. Next were the words that disturbed them from their usual weird dream of befriending kids that could control air and water and had a giant flying bison for a pet.

They turned toward the TV and froze at the sight. It was a newscast of two otherworldly creatures tearing each other limb from limb. The second it cut to static, they had already fled the room.

~

"Ben!"

(Y/n) shouted to the top of their lungs as they raced through the crowd that poured away from the scene; however, their voice only blended in with the deafening terrorized cries. Pushing past every frantic person was like fighting against rushing water threatening to send them down a nearby waterfall. This didn't quite match their fantasies of making a cool, dramatic entrance before saving the day in an awesomely heroic way.

It certainly didn't pick up when they tripped over their own feet and fell straight onto the road. Thankfully, the rushing river of people ran dry, and they successfully made it to the brawl between two aliens.

Each inch of the sight poured into them, and the only thing louder than a dinosaur-looking creature trying to wrestle a red multi-armed robot was (Y/n)'s heartbeat. The second they wondered where the police were, they looked to their right and spotted several of their decimated cars laying helplessly in the distance. Fortunately, only civilian cars had joined them; looks like everyone not involved successfully escaped.

For now, at least.

(Y/n) stood on their feet and squinted their eyes to get a better look at the two. Immediately, they recognized the dinosaur creature as Ben when they spotted its green sash holding the same symbol his watch possesses. They didn't have time to take in any other information with the giant robot suddenly wrapped its mechanical claws around his neck.

"BEN!"

They were running - why were they running?? As soon as their heart screeched from within, their legs abruptly took off without their permission and charged straight toward the fight. The dinosaur-as-Ben creature quickly twisted his head around and caught a glimpse of their sprinting figure, and those small pupil-absent green eyes widened.

"(Y/n), get out of here!" he roared, reaching up to pry off the robot's claws.

They narrowed their eyes and increased their speed. Balling their hands into fists, they jumped onto a flipped demolished car and pushed themselves up in the air, graciously landing and kneeling on the cracked road. Taking a deep breath, they brought up their foot from behind and swung it above their head, and a line of fire followed their heel. A ring of a baby sun circled around their form as they roughly brought their feet back down in front of them, and the thin wall of flame held in front of their face until their fist thrust forward, sending the wall flying toward the robot.

It collapsed against one of its arms, and a deep scratch was left behind through the smoke.

While electricity shot up from the few exposed wires, (Y/n) beamed. "I did it! Holy crap, I really did-!" But they weren't given then chance to finish their cheer when another one of its arms flung towards them and grabbed them by their throat.

They gasped for air and instantly attempted to pry off the claws, but its grip was strong. Drool rushed down from the corners of their mouth as it slowly squeezed every last bit of precious air from their lungs. Tears caressed their cheeks, and they couldn't stop their hands from dropping to their sides.

'Wait-! Please...I wanted to help-!'

The hand was torn from their body. They couldn't see how. their vision became too blurry to make out the orange blob tearing a hole through the robot's body. All they knew was that the road was suddenly beneath them again and they were holding their throbbing throat and coughing and gasping for any trace of air.

And then, they were being embraced by something huge. (Y/n) felt their head being pushed against something rock-hard by some giant hand, but from the booming voice that erupted soon after, they took a wild guess that it was Ben's alien form.

"Are you okay?" he yelled.

(Y/n) coughed again before answering. "Y...Yeah-"

"Do you have ANY idea how stupid that was?!" He forced them off of him and held them in front of his face. His new eyes were laced in both sorrow and fury.

"I-I was just-"

"Getting in the way! If I wasn't here, you would've gotten yourself killed!"

They weakly held onto his giant wrists. "I'm sorry! I just saw that you were in danger and-"

"I've been doing this for years now, (Y/n)! I think I know how to take on a little robot! Do you know how many things and people I fought that were way bigger and stronger than that thing? More than you ever had!" Ben's watch symbol began glowing a strange mixture of yellow, purple, and green. "This is exactly why I never wanted you to know any of this!"

"Uh, Ben-?"

"People always call me a moron, but you practically outshine me! You always think you can take on anything that threatens you and always lose and end up hurt! You're the reason why I can't stand snakes and tree climbing and high diving! I used to love those things!" With every word that fell from his mouth, the brighter it glowed.

"B-Ben-!"

"I never even cared about rushing into things and getting hurt afterward until you came in! Ever since then, I've always been worrying about you, but you never listen! You were even worse than me, and you still are! The only thing I hate about you is how much you're an IDIOT!"

The glow enveloped (Y/n) entirely, and their world faded to black.

~

The sky darkened. Smoke poured through the streets. Not a single life took a breath except Ben, who started down at his Omnitrix.

Footsteps approached him from behind. "Ben! What happened?" Gwen yelled.

"Did you get him? Oop- wait- no, you don't need to answer that," Kevin shouted, probably spotting the remains of their former enemy.

Ben only kept his sight on the Omnitrix. (Y/n) was nowhere to be seen, but they hadn't disappeared. That didn't explain their panicked voice that occasionally rang through his head ever since that blast of light.

They were inside the Omnitrix. He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but he did know one thing.

"Ben, what's wrong?" Gwen asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

A long silence fell between them, and Ben turned around and flashed them both a grin. "Nothing! Just being an awesome hero, as usual," he said.

Gwen froze for a second before a smile reached her face. "Glad to hear it."

"Yeah. Gwen over here told me something bummed you out yesterday. You all good, man?" Kevin asked, putting a hand behind his head.

Ben turned away and looked up at the sky. "Yeah. Everything's fine now."

(Y/n) was still shouting, pleading and screaming for help. But Ben knew nothing could hurt them anymore. His forms wouldn't dare lay a finger on them, and as long as he protected the Omnitrix with his life, none of his enemies would have the chance to do the same either.

They were safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HERE IT ISSSS! Sorry it took a while to come out...! Dealing with stuff, and had a little trouble with this one ngl since I haven't been too involved with Ben 10 after a while. BUT! I hope you liked it!! I certainly had a lot of fun writing iiitt!~

Anyways, thanks so much for reading, and have a great day/night! <3

[msnihilist]

4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

For the writer ask game.

Honestly? It's probably the fic that I'm currently working on, 'Lysis.' The entire fic has been fun to write, but I'm working on the last chapter now, and that's been my plot bunny — the entire other 25k words were all just build up for this one scene that's been living in my head since at least 2019.

As for why I've never written it, I'm not really sure. I was going to, back in 2019, but then I became demotivated by a lack of interest and my attention switched to other projects that were getting more love.

But now that I'm back in the Ben 10 fandom and more fucked up than ever, I mentioned this idea to a friend... Who then commissioned me to write it, ha! I'm a little over the 7k words that they initially paid me for, but whatever :p This is a story that must be told!

I described the scene in question to a friend over Discord, so I'll put that beneath the cut (so that my followers who don't want spoilers can avoid it).

CW for gaslighting, murder, and, um... consumption, I guess?

Remember that episode of Ben 10 I made you watch with me? This fic is about that character (Elena) manipulating and gaslighting the shit out of Ben, isolating him from his friends and loved ones so that she is literally his only option, and eventually culminates in her killing him to keep him with her forever :)

[context for non-Ben 10 fans: Elena is a yandere love interest of Ben's who attempts to manipulate him into being her lover by creating conflict that pushes him in her direction, and also by kidnapping his girlfriend and trying to kill his friends]

She's made of nanites, so the scene is about Ben (who's given up, because she broke him) coming into her arms willingly. Elena coos and holds him, promising that she's going to make everything better and he won't hurt anymore… And neither of them will ever be alone again. Then her microchips swarm him. They crawl into his mouth and nose, into his lungs and stomach. They're behind his eyes and in his brain, squeezing themselves into his blood vessels. Elena holds every single part of him, inside and out, and then she rips him to pieces. Her microchips absorb on every last one of Ben's cells. And as their consciouses merge, and Ben becomes one with Elena's mind, the last bit of him that's still "him" understands her and can see everything she has done to hurt him. And he accepts it. Elena doesn't let a single drop of his blood spill. She consumes Ben entirely, completely and utterly, and finally feels whole with the person that she loves nestled inside of her, safe and unable to escape

Or something like that, I haven't written the scene yet, lol :p

[dreamwritesimagines]

It’s CMA-

Sad about clover and Ben but Omg the Andrew/Felix ship is sailing!!!! Omg their banter is so cute!!

Wait who does Ben marry in the books? I’m curious if we’ve met them

Ben immediately looking at her when he notices a change despite being engaged with conversation with someone else I just-

Damn between lothany and now Andrew/Felix and also Bess/Josie, clover is third wheeling a lot lmao.

Once she gives herself permission to forgive him, she immediately begins seeking out his presence again😭😭

SHES OPENING UP TO HIM HOLY FUCK AND WE ARE LEARNING ABOUT THE WRIST THING WOKDJSJDNFNNFN

So many feelings, but honestly I’m kind of speechless. I’m glad that she knows that she can trust him, I’m devastated that this is what it led to.

Do you think that she knew she could trust benedict before or that the geraniums sealed the deal?

Also I love that he was looking at her while engaged with Margery(?). That’s such a sweet detail to include, and I’m so glad that clover noticed it.

Wow this story is so sad, honestly devastating, 12/10 absolutely recommend.

The way you write angst ugh it kills me every time

CMA hi my loveeee! ❤️

Andrew and Felix are going to be such a cute couple together! 🥰

Benedict marries Sophie in the books, she was a maid and it's literally a re-telling of Cinderella story❤️ We haven't met her in the fic nope! ❤️

Clover is forever a third wheel omg yes 😂 It's because she's surrounded by people in loveeee😂

She is so in love with him and she doesn't even see it 😁

The wrist thing YESSSSS! It's finally hereeee❤️

I think she definitely did know she could trust Benedict, it wasn't just because of the geraniums ❤️ Even when she was angry at him for the duel, she still knew she could trust him ❤️

He was watching her out of the corner of his eye the whole time he was talking to Lady Margery 🥰

Awww thank you so much for this darling! 🥰❤️

[covntcovntessa]

"I get why he acts the way he does sometimes." ofc you get, the bar here is low and everybody got stuck in 2016!

What is this "Ship is an alien weapon" all over again????? The show is about a kid using an alien weapon and Ship literally protects Julie when Ben cant!

"capable of amazing and terrifying things and being in Bens line of work I understand why he would only see it as that, Hell even both kevin and gwen acknowledge that ship is dangerous" Exactly. Another reason to KEEP the canine tripod close enough so they can control, train, teach or contain him!!!

We saw that Ship in Baz-l's hands was about to be the real danger, meanwhile: Ship with Julie was to Dangerous as he was to Convenient or are we pretending that they didn't take advantage of the bond Julie established with Ship to use him in in plenty of missions, now???

It was literally safer and better with Julie than with anybody else.

And my brother in christ even Ben ignored the Forever Knights on Dupped so he could watch a movie -.-

We didnt overlook anything, he forgot he was a hero as well and thats on him - not on julie, ship or gwen - quit with that "responsable hero" excuse, its 2023!

The rest of this rant its also bullshit AT LEAST and thats why we can tell that its just another ben 10 average fan making up for his poor meow meow protagonist because its never about their actions, its about feelings and identification to justify the clownery...

I mean, seeing the very same "Dupped" shit of argument being recycled over and over again its... something.

The "we might break up as well" thing its also dumb. He had free time to spend, a little, but enough to hang out with Jennifer Nocturne - so she started to feel lonely and realized that they werent going to work... its that a problem? No. Yall overreacted motivated by the harshness of Gwen and Kevin's attitude towards him - Julie was cool tho, she was worried about ship. So was it undeserved? Not at all. He took out a personal frustration on a civilian who was warning about something out of the ordinary over a message..."but he was upset" - If you really believe what you say when you try to defend Ben's conduct as a professional hero, then this moment here would be open to criticism and not Julie's message. Using Ben's routine as a justification for impartiality doesn't mesh very well with the poor guy persona, he's either responsible or he's not.

The strange thing is: he didn't seem upset in the previous episode as he was busy trying to kiss Eunice. Gwen and Kevin were there too. Also - she reached to him to ask for help (glad she did cause baz-l had bad ideas.) - and not to resume.

He refused, she left and Gwen came...thats it!

And heres comes the fandom with the "Hero Life" card again, however, whose initiative to resume was it? Yeah... from him.

If Julie's companionship demands were a problem and if it was so difficult to reconcile heroism with romance, why did he insisted? And had the NERVE to say he would try to be better?

Julie was not the only one being stupid at this point, im sorry, but Ben also did not made up his mind until that ep from OV. So what are we overlooking???

Was the burden of being a hero REALLY the problem??? t's not like we haven't already seen that he had opportunities to share his struggles with her.

She tried to help when Big Chill started having symptoms;

Managed to contain Ship when he was captured;

Helped during the Highbreed invasion;

Saved his life the TWO times Elena filled his lung with nanites;

Was the first person he went to when Sander cut his hand off;

And encouraged him to stand up to people at school while making sure he didn't feel alone (in Fame)

There is no justification for his behavior or infidelity and I'm afraid the super upper dupper master hero 1000000™ card needs to go down because it doesn't make sense.

To be fair, Julie fucked up REAL bad in one episode and Ben actually got shit undeserved. She embarrassed me fr, but it wasnt even one of those that people keep nagging about. It was in The Flame Keepers' Circle....

And even then she apologized, i cant-

I feel like alot of us in the Ben10 fandom talk about how much of a bad boyfriend Ben is and I'm not saying he isn't but I feel like we overlook how much being Ben10 fucks with Ben to the point where I get why he acts the way he does sometimes.

Like first off the whole thing With Julie and Ship. Ship is an alien weapon capable of amazing and terrifying things and being in Bens line of work I understand why he would only see it as that, Hell even both kevin and gwen acknowledge that ship is dangerous. And Julie's insistance on expecting Ben to treat ship like just another ordinary house pet really doesn't make sense.

Like her asking Gwen if Ben would care about ship if he was just an ordinary house pet is a really dumb question when you consider that the main reason she gets into all these dangerous situations is because Ship ISN'T a normal housepet. Like the vreedles/the forever knights would have no use for an ordinary earth animal and if they did of course Ben would go out of his way to save her pet.

There are also moments when i feel like everyone except ben forgets that he's a hero.. Gwen telling ben that he should've just left the forever knights alone cuz they're not a threat in order to be on time for julies tennis game is kind of irresponsible?? Especially when u think of all the wild shit the forever knights end up doing later on in UA. Like yeah atp they are fodder and shouldn't be taken 100% seriousl but Ben's just supposed to ignore them breaking into a bank?.Even in OV we see that Ben just can't really ignore crime even in dimension 23.

Julie being bummed that ben has to run off to do hero shit is understandable and yes her feelings are truly validated but then holding it against him like he's doing it on purpose is kinda fucked up.

Also wtf does "we might as well be broken up mean?" Because I'd take that to mean that we are broken up.

Was ben a dick in the way he acted? ofc he was, was ben at fault for a good chunk of the issues in the relationship? You bet! But they're really moments when it feels like ben is getting shit on undeserved.

Me personally i feel like if ben were to have a steady relationship of sorts it wouldn't be with a regular civilian like julie it would be with someone who is either part alien or someone who's into the whole plumber,hero thing my first pick would be Ester but Kai is ok,just wish they gave her more development.

[ravenwitch45]

What are your favorite trios in animation? Mine are as follows

Fry + Leela + Bender - Futurama

Sam + Clover + Alex - Totally Spies

Anne + Sasha + Marcy - Amphibia

Oh those are top tier trios for sure, Amphibia is still fresh in my mind and I have fond memories of Totally Spies and the girls, I haven't watched futarama in forever but I still liked those threes dynamic, I have a few trios that stuck in my mind

Luz, Willow, and Gus - The Owl House

Three kids made outcasts from their peers for their respective reasons, bonding and supporting each other as a found family, and getting stronger because of it, not to mention they are all POC which is awesome.

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather - Sleeping Beauty

The ACTUAL main characters of Sleeping Beauty, three good fairies tasked with defending the Princess Aurora from a curse cast from the evil fairy Maleficent, literally raising Aurora in the process, one incessantly kind, one naive but well meaning, and one who takes NO nonsense but it is still compassionate. These three deserved their own show in all honesty. Their dynamic is gold.

Sofia, James, and Amber - Sofia the first

Two royalty by birth and their stepsister who's still learning how to handle it all, these three don't start out the best, with jealousy and pettiness getting between each other but together they learn lessons about eachother and become better people through it all. It's one of the most postive while being realistic depiction of sibling hood I've ever seen.

Ben, Gwen, and Kevin - Ben 10 Alien Force

Technically there's several version of these three but their dynamic I loved most in alien force. Ben is carefree but serious if need be, a wildcard, Gwen is the snippy brains of the group, able to plan well, and Kevin is the prickly brute strength, running in headfirst. All together they solve extraterrestrial problems, and sometimes magical ones... sorta. Sci Fi and all.

This was fun, honestly there's one trio I wanted to put here, as there close to my heart but there a video game trio so they don't qualify, this was still fun, I always like your asks, they make me think.

[selfawarejester]

5 shows that make me happy:

I was tagged by @magellanicclouds, thank you so much! So, in no particular order, 5 shows that make me warm and fuzzy on the inside! (Mostly cartoons, but whatever)

1. Teen Titans (2005)

This was one of the shows that I watched when I was a little bby, and I loved it! The character development, the dynamics, the soundtrack, the humor — 20/10, definitely recommend watching. The way it flicked from stupid banter about waffles to real life issues like racism, identity and so much more was so amazing to me as a tiny tot. Also, ROBSTAR FOR THE WIN!

2. Ben 10 (including Alien Force, Ultimate Alien, Omniverse — NOT the Reboot, because I haven't watched it yet so I dunno what's going on there.)

Benjamin Kirby Tennyson was my first ever crush, and he will always hold a special place in my heart. These characters were amazing, and intelligent, and funny (and so not heterosexual, but that's a different post) Sure, there were certain aspects they could have done better (BenKai, Benlie, BenElena, basically Ben's relationships as a whole) and there were some plot holes, but overall this was a mind-blowing show; when they needed to be witty and funny, they were very much so. When they wanted angst and sad stuff, they were tear-jerking. When they wanted something disturbing, they brought it. The aliens and lore were (mostly) incredibly interesting and engaging. Nice artwork, lovely soundtrack and I like that up until Omniverse, they didn't treat any of Ben's relationships as the one that would last forever because, like, he's fifteen/sixteen. He's gonna date for a bit before settling down. And outside of fanon, he isn't some womanizing superhero douchebag, he just plays at being arrogant and is honestly super clueless around women.

You can see how much I love it from this long para. 10,000/10. (Wink, wink)

3. The Flash

The show that brought me into the Arrowverse. The earlier seasons were the best, hands down. I haven't watched s6 fully yet, but it won't compare to S1 I know already. The characters go through so much trauma, and it's never talked about, but god, these actors bring their A-game! I never fail to get misty-eyed at the emotional scenes they deliver. Their humor is on point, and sure, some storylines seem recycled, but hey Barry screwing up the timeline never gets old! 10/10.

4. Castle

*Pterodactyl screaming* Caskett was the one that introduced me to shipping characters! No ship will ever, ever come close to Caskett for me, because that's the kind of relationship I want to have: one of mutual respect, adoration and a-grade banter! Their chemistry was off the charts, and the story was amazing (excepting the last seasons) because it was centered around the female lead, for the most part, despite the male lead being the name of the show. The cast had great dynamics, and great character development, and I've watched it 20-30 times and I can watch it again easily.

5. The Mentalist

Simon Baker's Patrick Jane is the one of the most charismatic assholes I've ever seen and I love him (He's not as obvious as bastard magician John Constantine <3). His mind games never cease to amuse and piss off his team. He's wicked and incredibly intelligent, and he wants you to know. He's always ready to make a fool out of someone while drinking tea and subscribing to borderline/full on illegal feats that make his police co-workers scream and pull out their hair. His tragic backstory consists of a dead wife and child, which is an overdone trope, but they carried it off well, and Baker delivers a sobering performance each time. I like that they didn't pursue the main relationship until he gets justice for them. While I don't like the conclusion to Red John, the characters are able to hold their own against Simon Baker, charismatic and interesting in their way.

I know people were expecting Lucifer (I love buddy cop dynamics, and I love his development but also, he's literally one of the most powerful beings to ever exist, next to y'know, GOD and I'd like to see more of that), Arrow, Agents of Shield, Merlin and The Originals (they kinda biffed it at times, but mostly very good (except Klaroline, screw that mess)) but yeah, it's these guys!

Tagging @catxsnow @justagirlinafandomworld @spacesnappy @mrs-chief Hope I didn't double tag anyone!