Anyone else feel bad for Grey Matter on rewatch?
Returning Ben 10 fan here, and damn... I’ve only watched around 15 episodes of the original series so far, yet I already feel bad for Grey Matter. As a kid, I never cared about him at all. I was obsessed with aliens like Heatblast and Four Arms because they were the “cool” and powerful ones, but rewatching the show first time as an adult gives me a completely different perspective.
Now, Grey Matter honestly feels really underutilized to me. I already dislike the constant “Aw, I wanted *insert strong alien*, not this tiny guy” joke. I understand that in most situations Ben can’t realistically rely on him physically, but after how useful and clever he was shown to be early on in the "hunter" episode, you’d expect Ben to use him far more often afterward.
What really bothered me was Episode 15 with the Tick. Sure, Grey Matter couldn’t physically fight it, but he still could’ve helped Ben think through the situation. Even a simple moment like Ben realizing, “Maybe I should destroy it from the inside with Cannonbolt” after using Grey Matter first would’ve made things feel smarter and more natural. Instead, it feels like Ben wastes time figuring things out the hard way. If Grey Matter had been the first transformation, Ben probably would’ve reached the correct conclusion immediately and then switched to the right alien.
And honestly, Episode 11, while it was lowk funny, the transformation made the Grey Matter treatment feel even worse to me. The Omnitrix turns Ben into Grey Matter because of a glitch in the Omnitrix and while the episode still shows him being smart and resourceful, the overall tone treats turning into him like bad luck 💔 instead of something genuinely valuable. A lot of the humor comes from Ben being tiny, helpless and frustrated that he got Grey Matter instead of a stronger alien, which just adds to the feeling that the show constantly downplays him compared to the heavy hitters.
At the same time, I do understand why the show handles him this way. Ben is only 10 years old, he prefers brute strength, and the episode was mainly meant to introduce Cannonbolt. Plus, that’s kind of the whole point of the Omnitrix at this stage that Ben still doesn’t fully appreciate all of his aliens yet.
Still, even though I’m only in Season 2, the Grey Matter slander already feels sad to watch. He’s probably in my top 3 favorites now alongside Xlr8 and Ghostfreak which is something my younger self never would’ve expected lol. He's an adorable alien and deserves more love. Hope he's used often and isn't a mistransformation in the later Episodes i watch.
On a side note if you guys could pick 3 of the original 10 aliens from classic Ben 10, which ones would you choose?