#and him voicing that like that'd be some great development and vulnerability there

[firebirdsdaughter]

Honestly…

… That’s one of my criticisms of Ultimate Alien is how much of an ass Ben is about the whole Ultimate Kevin situation.

Like he acts like Kevin just did/is doing this out of malice or ambition when it’s canon that he did it to save the fucking universe and has had his brain scrambled from the power overload. Like this isn’t old Kevin (who to begin w/ I think was just a seriously messed up eleven year old and not some super genius malicious criminal or anything, mainly a kid w/ now tethers or control), in fact, this is a thing old Kevin would never have done! Kevin effectively, knowingly, sacrifices himself and his sanity to save the universe, and most of the time Ben keeps calling him ‘evil’ and stuff and it’s like. My dude. Could you. Could you at least act a little broken up???

He does have some lines that indicate really the only way I can justify it, which is that it’s guilt—Kevin only had to do that bc Ben wasn’t able to beat Aggregor, so him feeling responsible makes sense. Combined w/ misunderstanding Paradox’s warning, it’s understandable that a kid under that kinda stress, faced w/ feeling like he’s turned his brother friend into a mindless monster and thinking it’s been predetermined he’s going to kill him, would get that aggressive in order to hype himself up to actually do it. But it just feels… Over the top? Like that’s not quite acknowledged enough/the main sticking point is he treats everything like a conscious decision on Kevin’s part which is canonically isn’t, and added to that, Kevin only did this to save everyone. This wasn’t ‘Kevin wanted power’ this was Kevin knew what this would do to him, but he made what is imo a helluva selfless choice and nigh destroyed himself to stop the end of the universe as they know it. Ten year old Ben is one thing (even if he’s also a little guilty bc he suggested it you little wiener), but you’d think older Ben, who’d become friends w/ him, would give more of a shit.

It’s not that they couldn’t pull it off. Like I said, Ben trying to convince/psych himself up for what he thinks is a predetermined result is one thing, but the tone of his attitude pisses me off as much as it does Gwen. I feel like it’d’ve been better to have him be more of the angle that ‘our Kevin is already dead,’ maybe have a moment where he admits he’s telling himself that this is what sane Kevin would want him to do, stop him from hurting innocent people again. And maybe we can work up to super bitter jackass, but I feel like he goes there a bit too quickly (although I’m kinda skirting through, so maybe it’s slower than I remember???).