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Hey ladies and jellyfish, wumbos of all sizes, welcome back to A.S.K.
Air’s videos!
If you’re new here, I do cartoon reviews and give my opinions and if you enjoy that
kinda stuff, consider subscribing.
So today, we are finally reviewing an episode of Ben 10: Alien Force.
I won’t go on my usual intro spiel, but let me just say, this is my second favorite
Ben 10 series after Ultimate Alien and although I’ve already reviewed an Ultimate Alien
episode before, time to go to the other side of the stick, so to speak.
Today we are talking about one of my favorite character development episodes in animation:
Alone Together.
And this is a season 2 episode!
So anyway, don’t forget to like and subscribe and comment down below any future episodes
you would like me to review, and I’ll make sure to get to you!
Be sure to check out my website and second channel in the description below and card
above for spoilers and other videos!
And you’re viewer enjoyment matters to me, so make sure to turn up the quality to the
highest, and turn on captions if you like!
And, as always in these new Super Reviews, link to the best footage of this episode on
YouTube in the description below, so check it out now if you haven’t seen this yet
or kinda forgot what happened.
If you somehow find that the video has been taken down or something, please make sure
to let me know.
Anyways, let’s start!
This episode starts off with Ben, Gwen and Kevin fighting a Highbreed in some old warehouse
somewhere, the most cliché setting, am I right?
Ben transforms into Echo Echo and fights the Highbreed, as Kevin throws a piece of the
ground at it, accidentally hitting a trans-planetary transporter, sucking Ben and the Highbreed
into it.
Although there is the nitpick that it pulled those two in but not Gwen or Kevin, this is
the main problem in the episode, and if pulling the other two in interferes with the main
problem of the episode, which it does, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and say that
they were too far away to be sucked in.
Anyway, Ben and Reiny, as Ben later calls him get transported to another World, a desert
world.
Apparently, the impact Kevin did on the transporter caused it to change its aim, making them fall
not near the other transporter on the other World, but far away.
There are also killer creatures on the planet that will slow them down.
This forces them to work together to try and get to the transporter which Echo Echo tracks
with his sonic screams.
Pretty solid plot, right?
It leaves a lot of room for character development and is so simple it can stretch and be easier
to follow and consume.
It also leaves room for some comedy between the bickering and language barrier between
the two characters and a lot of space for action and overall a lot of fun.
So let’s continue with the episode scene by scene.
So Ben and Reiny, as I’ll be calling him now come across a big worm like creature that
tries to eat them, as Ben as Echo Echo scares the thing off.
Yeah, you heard me.
He scares that large frickin’ Sandworm from the Beetlejuice cartoon!
Then, Reiny agrees to work with Ben to get to the transporter as, like I said, neither
of them can survive alone.
But there’s one condition, he tells Ben to follow him from 10 steps behind.
As they go, they do a lot of jokes about Reiny not understanding Ben’s puns and expressions.
And Reiny falls to the ground because of the heat their species isn’t used to.
Ben turns to Big Chill and cools Reiny.
He sees some water, on another planet, not to mention a desert world, where the last
thing they have is water.
He goes to drink, where he realizes it was a trap made by another creature.
They fight the creature together, which again, causes them to bond a little.
Reiny gets some water with his plant like powers and they drink.
So, they keep walking and Reiny says this line: Haha, that’s actually pretty good.
They keep going until they get faced with another problem: some alien bugs.
They go all over them, until Ben turns to Swampfire and beats them, not to mention saves
Reiny.
When Reiny is unappreciative, Ben gets mad, but they keep walking.
When it’s night, they argue over if they should walk or camp for
the night.
After a few lines of arguing, and Reiny almost leaving Ben completely, they hear a loud noise
and decide to camp, which made for a good joke, by the way.
Then we get this exchange.
I like how he calls Ben “Ben Ben Tennyson” since that’s how humans formally say their
names.
And how Ben just simplifies Reiny’s name.
It is funny and doesn’t feel like filler because this episode doesn’t have to be
super rushed or all over the place.
They’re building a connection, to build character development, which I think is more
important than any action scenes out there.
Ben tries to connect with Reiny yet Reiny backs away less and less each time.
Firstly, before I get into the scene as a scene, what is up with the animation in this
episode?
They play the voice over a looped shadowy face for like a few seconds, I mean, I like
the animation and art style in Alien Force.
I think it looks nice, flows nicely etc.
But just looping two shots for like 6 seconds?
Why?
Also, Reiny saying this really adds to the plot, because now Ben knows where to go from
to befriend Reiny more and understands his point of view.
And remember when I said this line: “They’re building a connection, to build character
development, which I think is more important than any action scenes out there.
Ben tries to connect with Reiny yet Reiny backs away less and less each time.”
Well, in this scene, while Reiny is keeping first watch as Ben sleeps, it looks like Reiny
is gonna kill Ben.
But no, there was a creature about to hurt Ben and Reiny kills the creature, right after
the thing bites off Reiny’s hand.
Wait, wait.
Replay that line.
“But no, there was a creature about to hurt Ben and Reiny kills the creature, right after
the thing bites off Reiny’s hand.”
So yeah, apparently physics don’t apply in this world or the creature was stronger
than the “First Species in the Universe”.
Anyway, Ben turns to Swampfire and connects Reiny’s hand.
And oh does he take his darn longest to do it.
They bond a little more as they reflect on how they both just saved each other.
Immediately after, another worm like creature jumps out of the ground and Reiny jumps on
it.
Before it presumably eats Reiny whole, Ben throws a torch in its mouth, talk about dark,
as it retreats into the ground.
So as such, Ben and Reiny keep walking again.
And here they finally reach the transporter and well, I would show you the full scene,
but it’s so long it’ll get copyrighted, so I’ll trim
it down.
Oh man, what a climax indeed.
Instead of the obvious happy ending, this is what they go with, and honestly good on
them for that.
Ben returns and the episode ends with Reiny walking to live his life making the World
a better place.
Even though, you know, he almost died like 4 times without Ben’s help, but whatever.
So that was Alone Together.
Was it good, was it bad?
What in the frick was it?
Well, I would give it an 8.5, hey what do ya know?
IMDb agreed with me again!
It was pretty funny and slow which made space for tons of amazing character development.
Some cons where some of the chances they took, like how many times some things contributed
to the plot by not being there, even though them being there would’ve made much more
sense.
I would say it is one of the best character development episodes in animation, and its
strong suit is its characters.
It was one of the few episodes to be written by Man of Action themselves, so maybe that
played a big role in its success.
Anyways, don’t forget to leave your thoughts on the episode in the comments down below,
like the video if you enjoyed, and subscribe if you like what you see.
If you’re new, feel free to check out my YouTube homepage for more videos, and check
out my website for links and tons of spoilers!
Links as always in the description and card up above!
Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time!
Peace!