u/Intelligent-Scar-373

This is more of a vent than anything else; Steven Seagle was recently interviewed by Kuro and revealed a few things, such as the "Rule of 10" and the fact that Gwen won't have powers in this new Dynamite iteration.

After that, I had to watch countless people whining, complaining, and saying they wouldn't buy the comic anymore (people who claimed to be "Ben 10 fans").

But honestly, is it really that bad? I'll start with the point about Gwen not having powers, and to be frank, I LOVE it.

Gwen's magical powers were simply tacked onto the character out of nowhere in the OS without the slightest bit of development—it was just, "Now you have powers, and that's that."

Gwen was always the resourceful girl who solved problems using her intellect and, when necessary, some solid Karate moves.

But when Gwen turned into a "bootleg Zatanna," that sort of became her *entire* character; we rarely saw her solving things with ingenuity or using her physical moves—it was just "Magic, Magic, Magic" (and it was even worse in UAF where they turned her into a bland Pink Lantern).

Honestly, I think that hurt Gwen's character in the long run. So, a version of Gwen who has no powers and relies solely on "human ingenuity" to solve problems and help her grandfather and cousin is cool and fits the character well. Plus, it gives her more credit (she's doing it on her own without needing stupid magic; she's just being Gwen).

Now, regarding the "evil Rule of 10," I’m also going to defend that decision and share my reasons for agreeing with it:

1. This rule helps from a narrative standpoint by serving as a natural "auto-nerf" for Ben; limiting him to just 10 aliens forces him to be more creative with how he uses his transformations—for example:

Ben: "I need an alien with Chlorokinesis to handle this situation."

He doesn't have any aliens with Chlorokinesis.

Proceeds to turn into Shittrack.

Ben: Okay, this'll have to do.

2. It allows all the aliens to appear and get their moment in the spotlight; one of the main issues with series like UA and OV is the absurdly massive number of transformations.

I mean, what’s the point of having 80 transformations if only a tenth of them actually show up and get any focus? Aliens like Chromastone only appeared about twice, whereas Humungousaur, Rath, Four Arms, and Feedback showed up in almost every episode. DAMMIT, SOME DIDN'T EVEN APPEAR AT ALL! (Spitter, Jetray, Fasttrack, and ChamAlien).

With just 10, every alien has a chance to appear and get some spotlight.

3. And finally, what is the franchise called? There’s a reason it’s named "Ben 10."

Maybe it’s because Ben is 10 years old and has 10 aliens? Seriously, the moment Ben stops being 10 and stops having 10 aliens, the name "Ben 10" loses its logic and meaning—so let's just keep things consistent.