Props to Kuro on changing the intro to fit season 3, you didn't have to do it but you did it anyway, it really shows how kuro cares about making these breakdowns authentic
The funniest things about Kevin's new mutation is that: 1. The explosion somehow cleanly disintegrated all of his clothes *except* his underwear, which was not damaged at all 2. He chooses to continue fighting in *only* his underwear, only wearing "fake clothes" using his ID mask (which always gets taken off before battle anyways)
Ben's characterization caught me off guard at the first go. He immediately acting like an ass... Which never calmed down, and it permanently hurt some of my enjoyment of the show. I still love it, but not as much as those first two seasons. I immediately noticed that Gwen was essentially wearing her second costume from Alien Swarm, but without the grey wooly coat. Kevin just looks like the DC hero, Metamorpho. Vilgax being a warrior conquerer with new powers was something was really in to, like he's solving modern problems, with modern solutions.
One of the advantages of foreign countries is the dub, for example, here in Brasil ,Vilgax voice actor kept the same from classic in UAF , and boy this helped a lot to recognize him
Same here in latin america. It's funny though because in the first few episodes of classic he had a different voice actor, but from the season 1 finale of classic up until his last appearance in Omniverse he kept the same voice actor.
In my country ben from UAF until omniverse had the same VA as Finn from adventure time and beats boy from Teen Titans, I don't know how am I supposed to feel about this fact but, it is what it is.
@@mrcuccob6386 brazil is also in latin america, its the biggest country in south america im sorry if i misunderstood you but im saying latin america as a region of america continent
20:26 Ben's response to "Dump the watch" was "It'll take too long. Run for it, both of you.". I've always loved that little detail since I've noticed it. Ben knows how to take it off now. Also, I love that even in this new personality, Ben's first thought when he realises he doesn't have the time to take it off is to get the others out of here.
His personality flip-flops so damn much after the season 2 finale. One moment he's ready to sacrifice his life the next moment he fucking forgets what just happened to Kevin
@@Hypershadic23 that is unfortunate, yes. I just hope they were intending on him being immature asf and only being mature in actually dangerous situations. Sadly, this doesn't hold up in some episodes iirc. Like in the episode where he gets back his Ectonurite transformation.
@@Hypershadic23 as I've been saying I disagree. Ben is 15 he's he's teenager when I was a teenager my personality was always inconsistent. To me it actually makes Ben feel more like a real person you know? However I can understand if you disagree I just think teenagers should act like teenagers be immature sometimes
@@neilstone3583 The problem is Ben was capable of always being mature in dangerous situations throughout the previous seasons. He only ever slacked off when he wasn't on duty. Him being an asshole whenever he feels like it is just bad writing.
With how in your face Ben's new behavior is, it feels like the writers made Ben overly terrible to get back at the executives for telling them to make him childish.
That makes a lot of sense with how they wrote him in this episode. I do wish they compromised better with that new rule so the character wasn't changed so drastically though. Like have his cockiness come not just from all the awards/stopping the Highbreed, but also coming off as relaxed now that they don't have to worry about any major invasion from Earth. Like, it sucks to have executives enforce rules and stuff, but I still think there were better ways to compromise to that new rule than just dog on Kevin's mutation unprovoked.
@@kirbyofthestarsfan I think I heard the creators of the Matrix franchise pulled a similar stunt after WB pushed for another installment in the franchise. Unsurprisingly, the movie didn't do very well. In the case of CN, though, it seems they were too stupid to notice.
I think Ben's behavior was ok if it was only for the first 2 or 3 episodes because he did just save the universe sort of like a phase were his just cocky then just get out of it
That makes sense but it always annoys me when they do that, because ultimately it isn't the executives that suffer for this rebellion, it is us fans who have our favorite franchise harmed for it. Another example is the festering horror that is Buffy season 6, they'd planned on it being over, then told to bring it back, so they made Spuffy the most toxic thing they could think of, torched Xander and Anya's relationship, killed Tara, had team dad Giles abandon Buffy when she needed him most etc, etc.
I actually like the “Is now a bad time?” Line of Vilgax’s. It’s him tossing Ben’s old quippy bravado back in Ben’s face as he arrives to duel, presumably as rough equals. It shows a weird respect for Ben in that Vilgax can acknowledge what kind of person Ben is and has an appreciation for turnabout, which weirdly humanizes the tyrant.
small note at 43:33 I always liked that Kevin and Gwen are using their right arm, while Ben is using his left arm, like a little sign that they really aren't on the same page
42:11 I would argue Ben probably has the most practice with Diamondhead. I mean he’s the only alien we actively see his training with in the Tetrax debut episode.
@@axelnilsson5124 UAF diamondhead is possibly a fusion with chromastone combing and magnifying his powers. It also explains why vilgax didn't have a counter like he did for all other ben's aliens.
While I prefer Vilgax's overall aura of intimidation in the classic series, I do like his new powerset in UAF. It makes him more than just a 'punches really gud' bad guy. And also I like the nods to Thanos and Darkseid with his abilities and designs.
A lot of people agree with an inbetween - a lot of these powers muddle Villy quite a bit, but some of them are worth keeping into Omniverse. Wish he kept the bootleg Omega Beams and kept using a sword and shield into OV.
I think thats what made classic Vilgax so good, Ben has so many aliens at his arsenal with so many powers yet Vilgax wipes the floor with them just by punching. Not to say this version of vilgax is bad tho.
I don't like the new power set at all. The thing that made him intimidating in the classic was that he was just powering through everything with sheer force like a badass. He didn't even flinch at anything and was there for the sole purpose of getting the watch, not caring about revenge or other stupid things
I don't really agree with that. Vilgax was awesome on his own, he didn't need to be crossbred with other more famous villains as a "homage" because he already made his own identity.
I wish Ben's ego was a slow burn instead of immediately blowing up. Example: have Ben be late to help Gwen and Kevin because he thought they could handle it. Or have Ben feel more relaxed since he doesn't feel so stressed having to save the world
The problem with Ben in alien force season 3 is that his a asshole to Gwen and kevin, if he was just cocky and not a asshole, I would be okay with that.
@Zaid Alrasheed It was the network who forced the writers to screw this season up, but you are still correct, trying to emulate classic series Ben in alien force was a bad move.
@Zaid Alrasheed Ben does get more girls later on like Ester and kai, but the way he breaks up with ester is medicore, but his relationship with kai is terrible.
I fee like this would’ve been a better opportunity to introduce Agragor instead of Vilgax. Since Agragor can absorb powers, I feel like it would’ve fit him better.
@TheGlassesPro This coming out of the network wanting more ties to the classic series wouldn’t surprise me. It’s the ultimate hook bringing back the most recognisable bad guy from the classic series. They’ve already done Kevin (as a main protagonist, not as a villain), Forever Knights and Dr Animo as far as recurring classic villains go.
I agree but instead of replacing Vilgax, replace that guy who killed Kevin's dad in that one episode. It would have made his appearance in UA more meaningful and give Kevin a stronger reason to wanna stop him
I always assumed the omnitrix triggered Kevin's osmosian DNA causing his body to cover him with all the materials he'd ever absorbed previously. Kind of like muscle memory and then the muscles got 'stuck' flexing/active
I was always confused by the materials used for kevin mutation form. Like I understand the metal and stone parts because those are his most common coats, but he only used tetinite once and by force and wood wasn't even used in battle and for like 5 seconds. I feel like it would of been better for a little bit of all his previous coats, like rubber for his feet, green metal for half his body, and that red cable for his hair just to mix it up.
I think it would have been better to set up the reason for Kevin mutation is when the onnitrix did its thing blew up kind of I screwed Kevin's DNA they should have done where Kevin was near the materials like would metal etc. And when he gets out of the rubble he could have been Surrounded by the materials like the diamond material I know it's not diamond I don't know how to spell the actual name of it. And have the *diamond* one the table as Foreshadowing
I think what bugs me most about the new vilgax design is he's wearing too many different colours. Along with not having the cybernetics, breather and the new voice it only adds to make him less intimidating.
I think it's the blue pants. The man looks like he's wearing fuckin jeans. If they made em some darker color it would have worked better IMO but the blue throws everything off
His right arm and head are green, his chest is red, his left arm is yellow, his legs are blue, and there's black sprinkled around. It's way too much of a crayola blender.
What would be a amazing plot twists and turns out that the alien Force incarnation vilgax was the original series vilgax son out to get vengeance on Ben Tennyson now that what been a story right there
I feel bad for Kevin in season 3, he went out of his way to try to help Ben but now since Ben is in his "classic attitude" Kevin gets bullied when it's Ben's fault
I feel like Max’s team being quickly defeated by Vilgax makes a bit of sense since he’s fought 3 of those species before: pyronite, kineceleran and tetramand
Probably why she didnt use her powers if she was struggling to concentrate ad not let her fear overwhelm her. The original series had a scene where Max and Gwen were looking for Ben (Ben kidnapped whilst trapped as Greymatter). During the scene Gwen looks somewhere and sees a spider and back away clearly feeling creeped out. Such a vague scene to reference in a later series, especiallt since her Spider fear really doesny get played up as much.
17:11 You can tell that sentiment was shared by the animators. They went out of their way to make Ben's face look as punchable as possible in that shot.
I know it wasn’t a thing yet at this point but terms of lore you’d think that Chromastones “death” would’ve freaked him out way more because of the whole Feedback situation, like if I went through that as a kid and then a similar thing happens later on I would definitely be more freaked out about it
I like to think Ben was actively suppressing his Feedback trauma at the time - we know from OV that Ben refuses to open up about what happened with Feedback, and I'm pretty sure he even casually remarks in The Secret of Chromastone about the Omnitrix weirdly not letting him transform into Chromastone, so I see it as him simply being in denial and refusing to accept that for all he knows he's lost another transformation for good.
My theory for Chromastone automatically getting lasers when first transformed is him absorbing the light energy around him, whether it be from the sun, moon, or some sort of artificial source. It’s sort of confirmed in this episode when Chromastone sucks in the colors from the background to shoot off his laser.
The idea of the Aliens escaping could've taken up it's own episode, so it's strange they decided to try juggle it along with so many other important elements. And thanks for the call out, happy to have helped!
I like to think Kevin got his form by the watch forcing him to absorb the nearby debri. Like how we was forced to absorb that crystal a while back. The stone is concrete, Metal for the machines, wood for building support, and that crystal might had been a part of the machines.
Goop running makes sense. On Viscosia they don’t have the projectors, so they’re probably stuck in a humanoid shape, and thus their instinct is to run.
6:34 As a person who got into ben 10 during the UAF era and had never seen Classic Ben before, I will ratify: I had no f*cking clue what was happening, I just nodded my head and rolled with it
If you look at the first episode, you’ll see that he does have a mouth. It’s just that he was so injured that he had to use that device. Made Vilgax incredibly menacing, though!
In a flashback scene in classics season 2 episode 1, you can see vilgax had a mouth, it wasn't until he was blown up at season ones first episode were he needed the device on his mouth. Him now having a mouth shows that he's recovered.
I don't know why, but when I younger I remember wondering why Vilgax in Alien force looked like that when thinking about how he looked in Classic. As to me the injuries he got were very fatal and that explained why he needed to get his cybernetic implants to make him stronger along with healing him, but the change that happened to him from Classic to Alien force made me think was it either the artstyle change that made him look different or was it the fact VIlgax got the powers of ten different heroes that healed him, thus he no longer needed his cybernetic implants (now thinking about it he probably still has them internally or something like that) or lastly would have been too difficult to explain why Vilgax looks so different between the two iterations along the type of story being told in Alien force with this Vilgax. Just a thought as when it comes to this topic my mind get weighs as I can't decide whether to accept the sudden change or get go with the flow as changes from Classic to Ultimate Alien force range for me it terms if if they're that impactful/sudden or not. But that's just my mindset with change and curiosity of how Vilgax became how he looks in UAF. On the other hand I really like Kevin and Gwen's new season three outfits as it compliments Ben's Green colour scheme with Kevin wearing Blue and Gwen wearing Red as allow loving the previous two seasons designs and are just iconic for the two, their more casual clothes in season 3 are just add a nice scent of fresh air for me at least as I really like when characters have differing outfits from their main ones quite alot as it adds variety to how the character can look. And something that also stuck with me was when rewatching clips from Alien force and the scene where Kevin frees Gwen from Spider monkey's webbing the cutting sound is really oddly satisfying for me as the sound design was just on point and it just stayed in the back of my mind for some bizarre reason. Thanks for reading this long winded comment as it just came to mind and please correct me if I'm wrong about the Vilgax change as it just stuck with me subconsciously throughout the years and it would mean about if anyone could help me with weird thought.
44:42 It did make sense. He is still doing that for his advantage. If he breaks the law and captures Earth, it would invite direct conflict with Galvans and the Plumbers which may end up him losing many planets he already captured using the very same law that he now would have broken. I know he wants revenge from Ben but he'd be smart enough to not to invade Earth just for getting revenge while he'd lose many resourceful and advanced worlds in his control in the process.
Wait I just realized, when Goop covered Ben after he picked up the anti-grav generator, why didn’t the omnitrix take Goop back? He didn’t need to transform there.
Hey Kuro, really enjoying the breakdowns so far!!! Also some things I wanted to point out that that you may have missed: 1: The signboards on the buildings are a lot more detailed, they still say basic stuff like "Hotel" and "Fashion" but there's more pictures and bright diverse colours 2: At about 35:38 one of the weapons Grandpa Max has on his back is the same rifle from "Grounded" 3: In the first episode, Grandpa Max somehow drove his RV through the "impenetrable" force field. That's all, can't wait for the next video!
31:57 maybe you could explain it by having Kevin's body trying to protect itself instinctively absorbing the materials around him and the omnitrix blast locked his cells in that state. If it was a true mutation, the omnitrix could repair Kevin's DNA, but with that explanation Kevin is not really mutated it's like he just contrapted his muscles and can't make them relax back.
The way I always thought about this version of Kevin was that the omnitrix activated and messed with his genetic memory, which caused him to turn into materials he has absorbed previously as I believe those were the most used materials
For S3E1, I’d give Characterization a 1 because Gwen and Kevin are _relatively_ close to their S1-S2 characters. Otherwise, I think I agree with what Kuro said.
Gwen and Kevin struggling with the Serpent Dude is kinda crazy They've fought way stronger opponents It shouldn't even have been a challenge especially for Gwen
Everybody’s downplaying serpent..it’s just pure madness. Sure his powers aren’t as flashy but theres no reason he can’t have the speed and strength feats to boot. They even fought the guy for a whole hour, ben basically went in on him after all that BS. #Respectthesnakethatwalkslikeamancepthedoesnt
I love Vilgax's line about killing Ben. No b.s. just straight to the point. I am not a fan of the new design though. Wish Vilgax kept 1 of his cyborg arms for like a Hulk smash attack.
I couldn’t take it seriously bc I first saw the clip out of context when my friend did an impersonation of it and then showed me the clip, which made me laugh at how his impersonation was word-from-word the same and had the same dull delivery
Thank you for mentioning the fact that he hasn't used Diamondhead in five years. That's always bothered me, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone else bring it up.
People always bring up that Ben has a lot of experience as Diamondhead. Okay, so what? He hasn't used him in 5 years, and even yet there is no way Diamondhead can beat Vilgax so easily even with explosive shards and floating crystals (Vilgax endured way worse than that in the OS)
Also diamondhead couldn't even hurt vilgax in OS. A lot of people say that petrosapiens just get stronger as they age but that was never stated in thr episode.
The drastic character shift of Ben in Alien Force Season 3 hit me as hard as "Fear Factory Phony" from the Battle Frontier season of Pokemon when the English dub replaced the voice actors with new ones that TO THIS DAY I have still not gotten used to (which is why I opted to watch the Japanese version ever since mid-Diamond & Pearl saga). Sad that both awful moments of my childhood/teen years took place on Cartoonnetwork... I was one of those people who DID NOT watch the classic series. I never even watched the series until Alien Force came out. However, all the nods to the classic series in this episode is why I went back to watch it. Good stuff! I remember the first time watching this episode and wondering why a 'snake that walks like a man' would be giving Kevin & Gwen as much trouble as it did. Seriously, they were fighting it and losing FOR OVER AND HOUR before Ben showed up and took it out in seconds?!
34:22 I think the reason Goop runs in a humanoid way is that Goop is still Ben in some way so if that’s off of basic instinct that Goop would run the way Ben would as Goop
When Alien force season 3 came out I was wondering “ was vilgax’s arm steroids be a nerf now or be stronger with the power he gains throughout conquering the planets “
Something with Vilgax I loved in this episode is how you can almost imagine he planned to fight ben’s OG transforms. Like he had a perfect counter to Alan’s pyronite form, he had an un-dodgeable laser for a kineceleran type speedster, and had that gauntlet thing to make sure he’d overpower any strong transformation like four arms or maybe even Way big. It really seems like he planned out exactly how to beat ben for those few years he was training and conquering worlds
and in part 2: it bugs me how Kevin says “of course I’d be looking bad” cause he got hit by a falling roof... but Ben was perfectly fine lmao, what a weird continuity mistake
@@RadiantClaire "could" but he didn’t it just shows how dumb and inconsistent this version of vilgax is. He didn’t use any of his technology or millions of soldiers in the entire season, if classic had this many resources ben in af would get defeated pretty easily.
Something very few people point out: Kevin's new design is an homage to Metamorpho from DC Comics, who has all the same shapeshifting abilities that Kevin gains from his mutation.
I always interpreted the characters downplaying Alien X so often at this point because the one they've seen him, yeah he did something powerful but Ben telling them the whole process probably drilled in their heads that that transformation isn't as trustworthy because of it. Ben having to debate before any action can be made probably sounds like more of a drawback than the power is worth.
25:58 At least to me, I always thought Kevin had some of the materials in his pocket or in his garage, and when the explosion happens he absorbed a lot at once, that's why he is just a mess of every material he uses in combat Also when Ben displays the aliens missing, I think they don't show Cannonbolt and Alien X because Azymuth said in the part 1 finale of season 2 that the omnitrix display a group of 10 aliens to be easier to navigate or something, so probably the aliens missing are in the other display
Gwen did give him those ball bearings of various materials, so I would think that he probably kept them around. All the Omnitrix did was bind them to his DNA.
17:14 Kuro really does not have a lot of faith in the snake guy. 37:27 It's the little grin after that line that always makes me laugh. Vilgax feels so proud of himself for making that quip
Regarding Kevin morphing his hands: this was actually done in season 1. When the 3 were on the highbreed ship in the 2nd episode, Kevin's hand enlarges in response to wanting to fight when Gwen got hurt. It's small enough to be missed but it's there.
Vilgax fighting a fully grown Vaxasaurian: *_I AM UNMATCHED!_* Vilgax when fighting a Petrosapien who once shattered his hands trying to punch him: _Ahhh green rocks._
37:30 that was probably extra painful for Dwayne, cause that was a direct reference (or ripoff) to an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Where Doomsday says the same thing to Superman. Sure, it was never confirmed that it was a reference to that, but come on! Edit: Wow, he actually acknowledged that in the review!
I definitely think season 3 is worse than 1 and 2 and has alot of bad episodes. But I also think people are little too hard on it. People will treat this season like every second of it is the worst piece of television ever. It's bad but not THAT bad
Hot Take: Alien Force Season 3 is my favorite season of the show. After the epicness of the Highbreed Arc, it was nice to have a fun throwback to the original series before they started going overboard with it later on.
@@shack-it2450 That might have been intentional, given how the writers were forced to make Ben more obnoxious despite their efforts to evolve him into a mature, levelheaded leader.
I've seen a lot of this episode's scenes out of context, like the "adorable" one and the aliens escaping, but I didn't think they all came from the same 2-parter. I always figured the aliens escaping was just its own episode, not part of Vilgax's return.
I think I have an explanation for how everyone got in the barrier. Ben: Because Vilgax wanted Ben to enter and fight him, so the barrier could've been made to let Ben in even when up, maybe by scanning for his DNA or the Omnitrix. Gwen & Kevin: Gwen more than likely used some type of spell to get herself and Kevin inside. Way Big: His species are probably powerful enough to power through the barrier naturally, or it's the same as Ben where the barrier scanned the Omnitrix. Max: The plumbers definitely have tech advanced enough where a device that could penetrate a barrier like this one is has to be how Max got in. Given how familiar the plumbers are with Vilgax and his technology, the time Max had to prepare and just all the gadgets he keeps on hand, it definitely makes sense.
On 15:39 when Vilgax blows Alan, I'm pretty sure he's using a power that we saw Ultimos (is that how his name is written?) use back in Classic, which is pretty cool
I like that you pointed out how badly they changed Vilgax his character change, especialy when he speaks. With all the focus on Bens personality change, I kinda forgot about that. Honestly, with Bens in cannon explanation for the personality change (his victory in the highbreed war, he literaly has a pile of medals), I find it easier to forgive him then Vilgax. I get that he wants to diversify his power, similar how Ben has diverse abilities in his different aliens, but the execution at times is very poor. You pointed it out in the breakdown as well, but Vilgax just yielding and going away without any type of resistance is very uncharacteristic of him, no matter how you look at it. I don't like it at all. As for the Diamondhead that we saw, I always tought that form was some kind of fusion between Diamondhead and Chromastone, and the reason why UAF diamondhead could make exploding projections is because of a combination of their powers (pentrosapien projectiles + crystalsapien energy = exploding projectiles)
Personally, this is my favorite version of Vilgax. Of course, the original will always have a soft spot in my heart, cause he's so intimidating and mysterious. But this version just radiates "formidable foe" energy, and I really liked his voice.
Ben isn't as bad here as I remembered. He does say "we" deserve to relax a little because "we" saved the universe, so it's not like he's taking all of the credit. He just thinks the team deserves some time off. He also still shows how much he cares about Gwen and Kevin, most notably when he tells them to run when the Omnitrix is overloading. He had a valid reason for not noticing Kevin's problem, too. Also, it's way more apparent in Ultimate Alien, but do you think Gwen having a ponytail and wearing a red shirt is a reference to her prototype design from that old footage?
I’d imagine the prototype design for Gwen from the original pilot was rather inspiration instead of direct reference. Would be cool if it were otherwise
Vilgax feels like a archetype of Megatron and darkseid. I remember slowly growing on this version of vilgax until they did the space Cthulhu thing with him. That line is this a bad time was hilarious tho
Ben's personality shift could have worked if it wasn't so extreme. If he was less serious in the first 2 seasons, or a little more serious in season 3, it could have worked.
When I saw Classic, I never thought Vilgax was a cyborg. I thought those where just armor working around his biology. So his UAF redesign is just him ditching the armor for more fitting enhancements
You know how Ben always gets so excited whenever there’s any new Sumo Slammers stuff coming out? Well, your breakdowns are like my Sumo Slammers. I immediately get excited when I spot a new one of your breakdowns!
It would've been a nice detail if they had Lieutenant Steel and his guys on standby outside of Vilgax' force field. Wasn't that his whole deal in the classic series? To deal with alien threats? Also, I've always liked how Vilgax took down Ben's 3 favorite alien species from classic (Heatblast, Fourarms, XLR8) only for him to be taken down by the classic alien in which Ben had the most training/improvement throughout the series: Diamondhead. It took me quite a while to get used to Vilgax's design back then especially since I wasn't introduced to the concept of Thanos/Darkseid when I was a kid. His powerset is cool although, I wish this should've been a 3-parter, with Part 1 ONLY focusing on Vilgax' perspective "Infinity War-style" so we can see progression since classic, his thought process on which abilities he needs to combat Ben, which planet leaders he needs to beat in order to get them, and the actual battles Vilgax went through to see how strong his opponents were to really introduce how much of a badass and threat he is for those who haven't seen the classic series. Part 2 focusing on the whole 'capture the aliens' plot if they really wanted to push that whole nonsense, and part 3 purely on the big fight. Or have this entire thing as a whole arc for seasons 3 and 4, showcasing 10 episodes of just Vilgax conquering worlds and acquiring the powers he needs. I feel like Kevin's mutation was only a byproduct of "How can we make Kevin still relevant in terms of the team's powerset?" since Ben has more aliens and Gwen can turn into an Anodite (even though she never used that species' potential). But Kev's mutation was mostly a miss for me just because it looked lame and 'haha hand weapons". Ben's personality shift made sense to me when I was a kid because fame can change a person. But it's not until these Breakdowns that I've come to appreciate and love Ben's maturity and growth in AF seasons 1 & 2, so the change really throws me off these days.
I don't think I'm that mad about the personality, it really looks like these three people are chilling out since they just saved the universe from annihilation
I wish we kept cyborg vilgax, and instead of stealing powers he just continually upgrades himself with more cybernetics. Like the shield and omega beams could definitely be cybernetic enhancements. Maybe each time he fought Ben and was defeated, he could come back with a new upgrade. The shield could be a counter to Ben's ranged attacks like Heatblast's fire, Spidermonkey's webs and Brainstorm's lightning, as well as a way to counter Ghostfreak's intangibility since Vilgax probably doesn't know about Z'skayr and he'd want to counter possession ASAP. The beams would be a great way to escape any restraints or hit speedsters, plus just having a ranged attack is always good. It would've been cool to see Vilgax slowly transform into the amalgam we see in Ben 10k.
Yeah because he was like a horror movie villain and Ghostfreak should have a symbiotic relationship with Ben just like Bruce Banner and Devil Hulk in the Immortal Hulk comics.
@@ilyassebenana3824 I was thinking less actual technology, more like what we see from Ben 10k's Vilgax, where he's obviously been modified artificially. Like maybe he has the yellow gem that makes the shield of Siegel embedded in his wrist.
@@srstriker6420 That would be an interesting take on the character, but I was referring to how classic Vilgax was a lot smarter than later iterations. So he'd probably recognise how dangerous an Ectonurite's possession ability is and come up with a way to either shield his mind or attack intangible foes directly, like how he uses the gauntlet against Big Chill.
Well too be fair the cybernetics were there because he had severe injuries so it was like crotches or a bandage their to help him walk and breath much better and to help him heal and take the Omnitrix this is like five years after so vilgax probably had enough time to heal so he took off the robotic parts and decided to make sure that he can be more powerful and be able to counter the aliens like how he was counter Manny Alan and Helen's attack the wind breath for pyronites the darkseid like lasers for xlr8 or stinkfly the gauntlet for ghostfreak or to block attacks with a shield and the sword to absorb energy from fire or other attacks and maybe even for diamondhead but it seems like he was prepared for bens original aliens not the new ones
I would love to have some badass moment with Ben 10.000 defeating Vilgax again and giving him a speach like: "You know what? I used to respect you, I used to fear you. You terrorized me when I was younger, but I'm not a kid anymore, I've grown up and I've faced beings way more stronger than you. And what about you, Vilgax? You still are the pathetic war-lord-wanna-be that got his ass beaten by a teenager."
I was actually lucky not to have seen the promos growing up and with Diamondhead being my favorite alien I absolutely lost it seeing his return and wreck Vilgax. Totally random, didn’t care. Glad to have Diamondhead back
Something I just noticed at 19:49.Azmuth eyes looks like the screen display of the classic omnitrix. Pretty cool if they were intentionally designed that way!
Kevin likely had the ball bearings in his pocket that Gwen gave him, causing him to become an amalgam of their materials. All the Omnitrix did was bind it to his DNA.
Either Vilgax modified the force-field to allow the wielder of the Omnitrix in, or it was made to keep things inside the force-field in, and that's where the durability is.
@@srstriker6420 Zs’Skayr doesn’t though. He’s basically the Ben 10 equivalent of Zoom from the CW. In that he’s the exact same as the best villain but with more style over substance. Zs’Skayr, much like Vilgax, is a washed up alien overlord who wanted to take the Omnitrix and rule the universe with an ambiguous knowledge over the Omnitrix. No real link to Ben there at all. Zs’Skayr was incomplete during the OS, but he regained his complete form (or the closest version of it) during his final battle.
33:44 Gwens fear of Spiders was only ever hinted/implied in the original series. When Ben is stuck as Grey Matter and some man kidnaps him. Gwen and Max go looking. There a breif scene of Gwen looking somewhere and they cringing/get creeped out after seeing a spider approach and leaving it alone
41:20-14:23 Oh yeah the return of a classic Edit: 41:27-41:33 DANG IT! If they didn't spoil him in the promo imagine the fans going crazy with this surprise reveal. Edit 2: This should've been a one time deal with Ben's attitude for this two-parter premiere and he's back to be the Ben from Season 1 and 2 of Alien Force. Edit 3: I wish they give an explanation on why Vilgax is all healed up and back to normal after the explosion that turned into what he looked like in Classic
Maybe the reason some of the frames were missing from the jetray transformation was because they were going to have more flashes in the scene but thought it might be too seizure inducing so they removed them but forgot to put Ben back in the frames.
As a kid, I always caught on to the fact that I didn’t enjoy the changes between seasons 2 and 3, but I never actually pinpointed exactly what it was, and I still enjoyed enough aspects of it that I didn’t question it too much. But going through these breakdowns and not only having it explained in explicit detail, but having my childhood feelings validated, is absolutely incredibly satisfying. Even in my preteens, I was able to pick up on unusual characterization shifts (and corporate interference) and identify them as things I didn’t like.
40:14 maybe it was to foreshadow The Secret of Chromastone, it reminds of Superman vs the KKK, when a girl pointed out how he doesn't make a crater whenever he lands and it's revealed later on that's he's subconciously using his flight power
9:03 oh my god, I think the television frame they used was one of Butch Lukic’s storyboard demos he made to illustrate to other board artists the intended atmosphere of the show! I’ll link it below if I can find the Twitter thread…
Personally I think the original technoorganic cyborg Vilgax was so much better idea than this ripped off "Thanoseid". AF Vilgax feels like another generic villain, who ofc must to shot lasers from eyes xd while the original one was strategic genius, able to defeat everything just by using a raw strength, thus spreading magnificent atmosphere of the real inevitable threat. The real villain doesn't need any of this fancy stuff and weapons to be dangerous... Also, why Vilgax now follows the rules of the intergalactic council? He never cared in the classic about the law or rules, because he was never an honorable warrior type... This change feels really out of character.
yeah the one thing I can say UAF Vilgax does better than Classic Vilgax is that him having a wide variety of powers makes his status as the universe's number 1 big bad make much more sense, as intimidating as Classic Vilgax was him just being a guy with super strength (post upgrades) was not enough for his title as the badest guy around, especially after the Highbreed showed up and the creators even went out of their way to confirm that the average Highbreed is Classic Vilgax level in terms of strength. and then later on we see guys like Aggregor and the return of the Incursions two well-known terrors who make Classic Vilgax look like a C list threat, and thats not even getting into characters like Ma Vreedle and Ghost Freak.
@@anthonyrodriguez8788 If I was creator I would make classic Vilgax halfway to his 10k form from classic. He still would have abilities to counter Ben 10 aliens, but he didn't need to use laser eyes or other infinity gauntlets.
So I have a few things to say: So I’d imagine Ben (and by proxy way big) could get through the shield because Siphon specifically set it to let Ben get through to fight his master. Max I believe was already inside the dome when Siphon turned it on, which is why he could be there. And Gwen can teleport. Technology is pretty solid in the Ben 10 continuity to have a difficult time countering magic, so it’s safe to assume she could teleport herself and Kevin inside. That being said, I have no idea why Vilgax would ping off the inside of the shield. That one is a mystery.
25:50 I think it’s more of the omnitrix is energy burst interfering with Kevin’s powers and when he instinctually absorbed material from his surroundings to shield himself from the explosion and collapsed building it ended up like this
Remember when cyborg Vilgax slammed down Diamondhead in the original series with such a force it caused cracks on the latter? How the mighty have fallen.
@TheGlassesPro and why wouldn't that be true? I mean, diamond head has great powers but him being breakable makes for a solid weakness in my opinion that the franchise should've brought up more often
i actually loved vilgax’s return as a kid. i loved the way he had new powers and how he killed chromastone. but as i’ve gotten older, the original rendition of vilgax is my favorite.
I can KINDA understand Vilgax agreeing to leave peacefully if you frame it as "I acknowledge I am underprepared for this and am not yet able to take this planet by force. I need to retreat and recuperate and devise a new strategy or come up with a new tactic to ensure victory instead of continuing to pursue now and suffer defeat. I won't nuke the planet from orbit because I'm not after the planet, I'm after revenge." sort of mentality, but that's a little bit of mental gymnastics to come up with that from what is shown.
One thing absolutely worth noting, Vilgax displays hard counters to Helen and Alan, along with strength that puts Manny and later Humungousaur down. All of whom are using Ben's original transformations. Add in the invulnerability attacking against Big Chill as a counter for Ghostfreak, the energy absorption as a counter to either Upgrade's beam attack or Eye Guy's blasts, the fact he has blast attacks to attack fliers, and I think it's apparent Vilgax had been gathering his powers specifically as counters for Ben's original roster. Skill with that original roster comes into play too, but it's why the aliens Ben had less experience with (Humungousaur, Chromastone, Jetray, Big Chill) and the Max Force that doesn't have the training with those powers Ben does, get absolutely destroyed. Also helps Vilgax has the benefit of experience fighting those particular aliens in the case of Max Force, aside from Pierce who... let's be honest, those quills are clearly not as effective as Diamondhead's crystals. Idk I just like that it shows that Vilgax wasn't rushing in to beat Ben like he does in later episodes, he was preparing to fight and counter everything he could manage to with the information he had available.
Props to Kuro on changing the intro to fit season 3, you didn't have to do it but you did it anyway, it really shows how kuro cares about making these breakdowns authentic
True
Attention to detail
Spoilers
@@SpecsTube what?
@@SpecsTube ITS LITERALLY THE FIRST 20 SECONDS OF THE VIDEO
The funniest things about Kevin's new mutation is that:
1. The explosion somehow cleanly disintegrated all of his clothes *except* his underwear, which was not damaged at all
2. He chooses to continue fighting in *only* his underwear, only wearing "fake clothes" using his ID mask (which always gets taken off before battle anyways)
facts.
His underwear was made out of Celestialsapien hairs I guess
What's his pelvic area made out of ???
@Blitz_BlazerGwendolyn Tennyson would really be the best source to provide such an answer really.
I don't think it's underwear just material coincidentally in the shape of underwear
Ben's characterization caught me off guard at the first go. He immediately acting like an ass... Which never calmed down, and it permanently hurt some of my enjoyment of the show. I still love it, but not as much as those first two seasons.
I immediately noticed that Gwen was essentially wearing her second costume from Alien Swarm, but without the grey wooly coat.
Kevin just looks like the DC hero, Metamorpho.
Vilgax being a warrior conquerer with new powers was something was really in to, like he's solving modern problems, with modern solutions.
🤘🏻😎👌🏻
When I look at gwen in season 3 All I see is ben with lipstick
I agree it even carry over in omniverse it gets a bit annoying more than the accidental transformation
@TheGlassesPro exactly
@@rubytrix0 The cockyness carried over into ov but not ben being a dickweed carried over
One of the advantages of foreign countries is the dub, for example, here in Brasil ,Vilgax voice actor kept the same from classic in UAF , and boy this helped a lot to recognize him
Same here in latin america. It's funny though because in the first few episodes of classic he had a different voice actor, but from the season 1 finale of classic up until his last appearance in Omniverse he kept the same voice actor.
In my country ben from UAF until omniverse had the same VA as Finn from adventure time and beats boy from Teen Titans, I don't know how am I supposed to feel about this fact but, it is what it is.
@@mrcuccob6386 brazil is also in latin america, its the biggest country in south america
im sorry if i misunderstood you but im saying latin america as a region of america continent
Wait, you guys have Ben 10 AF-OV in good dub?
@@sylasexd Yep, in fact, all Ben 10 with good dub and a consistent cast
i read the title as "was i wrong as fuck about season 3?" and i was like woah that's out of character for him 😂
20:26
Ben's response to "Dump the watch" was "It'll take too long. Run for it, both of you.".
I've always loved that little detail since I've noticed it. Ben knows how to take it off now.
Also, I love that even in this new personality, Ben's first thought when he realises he doesn't have the time to take it off is to get the others out of here.
Yeah, same, even if Ben is a jerk now, he is still a hero and does care for his friends
His personality flip-flops so damn much after the season 2 finale. One moment he's ready to sacrifice his life the next moment he fucking forgets what just happened to Kevin
@@Hypershadic23 that is unfortunate, yes. I just hope they were intending on him being immature asf and only being mature in actually dangerous situations.
Sadly, this doesn't hold up in some episodes iirc. Like in the episode where he gets back his Ectonurite transformation.
@@Hypershadic23 as I've been saying I disagree. Ben is 15 he's he's teenager when I was a teenager my personality was always inconsistent. To me it actually makes Ben feel more like a real person you know? However I can understand if you disagree I just think teenagers should act like teenagers be immature sometimes
@@neilstone3583
The problem is Ben was capable of always being mature in dangerous situations throughout the previous seasons. He only ever slacked off when he wasn't on duty.
Him being an asshole whenever he feels like it is just bad writing.
With how in your face Ben's new behavior is, it feels like the writers made Ben overly terrible to get back at the executives for telling them to make him childish.
That makes a lot of sense with how they wrote him in this episode. I do wish they compromised better with that new rule so the character wasn't changed so drastically though.
Like have his cockiness come not just from all the awards/stopping the Highbreed, but also coming off as relaxed now that they don't have to worry about any major invasion from Earth.
Like, it sucks to have executives enforce rules and stuff, but I still think there were better ways to compromise to that new rule than just dog on Kevin's mutation unprovoked.
@@kirbyofthestarsfan I think I heard the creators of the Matrix franchise pulled a similar stunt after WB pushed for another installment in the franchise. Unsurprisingly, the movie didn't do very well. In the case of CN, though, it seems they were too stupid to notice.
I think Ben's behavior was ok if it was only for the first 2 or 3 episodes because he did just save the universe sort of like a phase were his just cocky then just get out of it
@@lancelotbustillo6455 Sort of like how whenever in the Pokemon anime Ash getting arrogant will mean he has a big loss later in the episode?
That makes sense but it always annoys me when they do that, because ultimately it isn't the executives that suffer for this rebellion, it is us fans who have our favorite franchise harmed for it.
Another example is the festering horror that is Buffy season 6, they'd planned on it being over, then told to bring it back, so they made Spuffy the most toxic thing they could think of, torched Xander and Anya's relationship, killed Tara, had team dad Giles abandon Buffy when she needed him most etc, etc.
I actually like the “Is now a bad time?” Line of Vilgax’s. It’s him tossing Ben’s old quippy bravado back in Ben’s face as he arrives to duel, presumably as rough equals. It shows a weird respect for Ben in that Vilgax can acknowledge what kind of person Ben is and has an appreciation for turnabout, which weirdly humanizes the tyrant.
the delivery is just so weird tho
I disagree, it feels more snarky then respectful. Which doesn’t suit his character.
The stupid new look didn't suit hus character either.
Vilgax underwent character growth.
@@masterDarts4188 snarky in the face of a snarky rival. Means you’re playing the same game as them.
I do like that Ben drops the attitude as soon as the Omnitrix starts overloading and just tells them both to run.
small note at 43:33 I always liked that Kevin and Gwen are using their right arm, while Ben is using his left arm, like a little sign that they really aren't on the same page
42:11 I would argue Ben probably has the most practice with Diamondhead. I mean he’s the only alien we actively see his training with in the Tetrax debut episode.
Kinda makes me wonder why tetrax hasn’t beaten vilgax
@@axelnilsson5124 UAF diamondhead is possibly a fusion with chromastone combing and magnifying his powers. It also explains why vilgax didn't have a counter like he did for all other ben's aliens.
While I prefer Vilgax's overall aura of intimidation in the classic series, I do like his new powerset in UAF. It makes him more than just a 'punches really gud' bad guy. And also I like the nods to Thanos and Darkseid with his abilities and designs.
Agreed
A lot of people agree with an inbetween - a lot of these powers muddle Villy quite a bit, but some of them are worth keeping into Omniverse. Wish he kept the bootleg Omega Beams and kept using a sword and shield into OV.
I think thats what made classic Vilgax so good, Ben has so many aliens at his arsenal with so many powers yet Vilgax wipes the floor with them just by punching. Not to say this version of vilgax is bad tho.
I don't like the new power set at all. The thing that made him intimidating in the classic was that he was just powering through everything with sheer force like a badass. He didn't even flinch at anything and was there for the sole purpose of getting the watch, not caring about revenge or other stupid things
I don't really agree with that. Vilgax was awesome on his own, he didn't need to be crossbred with other more famous villains as a "homage" because he already made his own identity.
I wish Ben's ego was a slow burn instead of immediately blowing up.
Example: have Ben be late to help Gwen and Kevin because he thought they could handle it. Or have Ben feel more relaxed since he doesn't feel so stressed having to save the world
The problem with Ben in alien force season 3 is that his a asshole to Gwen and kevin, if he was just cocky and not a asshole, I would be okay with that.
@Zaid Alrasheed It was the network who forced the writers to screw this season up, but you are still correct, trying to emulate classic series Ben in alien force was a bad move.
@Zaid Alrasheed Ben does get more girls later on like Ester and kai, but the way he breaks up with ester is medicore, but his relationship with kai is terrible.
@Zaid Alrasheed Bruh.
@@au7923 I don't mind some characters being a bit cocky, but Kuro himself said there's a difference between cocky and being a straight up JERK.
I fee like this would’ve been a better opportunity to introduce Agragor instead of Vilgax. Since Agragor can absorb powers, I feel like it would’ve fit him better.
@TheGlassesPro This coming out of the network wanting more ties to the classic series wouldn’t surprise me. It’s the ultimate hook bringing back the most recognisable bad guy from the classic series. They’ve already done Kevin (as a main protagonist, not as a villain), Forever Knights and Dr Animo as far as recurring classic villains go.
I agree but instead of replacing Vilgax, replace that guy who killed Kevin's dad in that one episode. It would have made his appearance in UA more meaningful and give Kevin a stronger reason to wanna stop him
@@Hypershadic23 Rooter retcon: Hello there.
I always assumed the omnitrix triggered Kevin's osmosian DNA causing his body to cover him with all the materials he'd ever absorbed previously. Kind of like muscle memory and then the muscles got 'stuck' flexing/active
I was always confused by the materials used for kevin mutation form. Like I understand the metal and stone parts because those are his most common coats, but he only used tetinite once and by force and wood wasn't even used in battle and for like 5 seconds. I feel like it would of been better for a little bit of all his previous coats, like rubber for his feet, green metal for half his body, and that red cable for his hair just to mix it up.
To be fair with the Taydenite: He did use that only once but on that one occasion, he was forced to put *so much* into it.
Its a bit of a stretch but its possible he could’ve absorbed some of the DNA in the omnitrix like Diamondhead or Swampfire
I think it would have been better to set up the reason for Kevin mutation is when the onnitrix did its thing blew up kind of I screwed Kevin's DNA they should have done where Kevin was near the materials like would metal etc. And when he gets out of the rubble he could have been Surrounded by the materials like the diamond material I know it's not diamond I don't know how to spell the actual name of it. And have the *diamond* one the table as Foreshadowing
@@dreed138 the only thing I dont get is why and how Kevin absorbed exclusively wood with just his legs, just why with that design
@@LucyWest370 They didn't know where else to put it.
i cant believe Vegence of vilgax premiered in 2009, i literally remember watching it premiere on Cartoon Network
Same dude i remember watching it's first airing back in 2009 on Teletoon... fuck i feel old
You old
@@pemanilnoob bruh i'm only 20
@@The_Blue_Otaku I was talking to OP
@@pemanilnoob oh
I think what bugs me most about the new vilgax design is he's wearing too many different colours. Along with not having the cybernetics, breather and the new voice it only adds to make him less intimidating.
I think it's the blue pants. The man looks like he's wearing fuckin jeans. If they made em some darker color it would have worked better IMO but the blue throws everything off
His right arm and head are green, his chest is red, his left arm is yellow, his legs are blue, and there's black sprinkled around. It's way too much of a crayola blender.
Not to mention his head is a really weird shade of green
@@LucyWest370 A rather ugly shade of green, if I am honest.
And his Head looks a little too pointy for my Taste.
What would be a amazing plot twists and turns out that the alien Force incarnation vilgax was the original series vilgax son out to get vengeance on Ben Tennyson now that what been a story right there
I feel bad for Kevin in season 3, he went out of his way to try to help Ben but now since Ben is in his "classic attitude" Kevin gets bullied when it's Ben's fault
I feel like Max’s team being quickly defeated by Vilgax makes a bit of sense since he’s fought 3 of those species before: pyronite, kineceleran and tetramand
he's a universal level tyrant. He's faced a lot of aliens
But he’s also fought Diamondhead and yet that’s the alien he loses too
@@skibot9974 an alien he wrecked in the past by the way. He cracked Diamondhead's face when they fought in the classic cartoon
@@timeyinsholaye9169and he loses to diamonhead just bcz ben has practiced with him😂😂
Y'know if Gwen has a fear of spiders, imagine how traumatic being wrapped up into a web mummy must've been for her.
Probably why she didnt use her powers if she was struggling to concentrate ad not let her fear overwhelm her.
The original series had a scene where Max and Gwen were looking for Ben (Ben kidnapped whilst trapped as Greymatter). During the scene Gwen looks somewhere and sees a spider and back away clearly feeling creeped out. Such a vague scene to reference in a later series, especiallt since her Spider fear really doesny get played up as much.
17:11 You can tell that sentiment was shared by the animators. They went out of their way to make Ben's face look as punchable as possible in that shot.
I know it wasn’t a thing yet at this point but terms of lore you’d think that Chromastones “death” would’ve freaked him out way more because of the whole Feedback situation, like if I went through that as a kid and then a similar thing happens later on I would definitely be more freaked out about it
I like to think Ben was actively suppressing his Feedback trauma at the time - we know from OV that Ben refuses to open up about what happened with Feedback, and I'm pretty sure he even casually remarks in The Secret of Chromastone about the Omnitrix weirdly not letting him transform into Chromastone, so I see it as him simply being in denial and refusing to accept that for all he knows he's lost another transformation for good.
@@tjamashups I like this idea of Ben being in denial, I think it adds more to the character
I mean feedback was retconned later, I don’t think the writers had that in mind during uaf
I always thought that they were different time lines or dimensions or something. I was under the impression that the classic ended with ultimate alien
@@Yoshsterpalooza Thats the exact opposite of retconning)
My theory for Chromastone automatically getting lasers when first transformed is him absorbing the light energy around him, whether it be from the sun, moon, or some sort of artificial source. It’s sort of confirmed in this episode when Chromastone sucks in the colors from the background to shoot off his laser.
That would be cool if they were consistent with it, I really like that idea
Im pretty sure he just generates his own lasers sometimes
He absorbs the omnitrix flash /j
sometimes he shoots green energy without asorbing energy.
The idea of the Aliens escaping could've taken up it's own episode, so it's strange they decided to try juggle it along with so many other important elements.
And thanks for the call out, happy to have helped!
I like how you switched the characters designs from s1 to s3 also diamond heads return put a smile on my face when u watched it
I like to think Kevin got his form by the watch forcing him to absorb the nearby debri. Like how we was forced to absorb that crystal a while back. The stone is concrete, Metal for the machines, wood for building support, and that crystal might had been a part of the machines.
Goop running makes sense. On Viscosia they don’t have the projectors, so they’re probably stuck in a humanoid shape, and thus their instinct is to run.
6:34
As a person who got into ben 10 during the UAF era and had never seen Classic Ben before, I will ratify: I had no f*cking clue what was happening, I just nodded my head and rolled with it
19:02 Looks the decalibration caused the omnitrix to bring back the mistransformation and some glitches.
I always thought it was weird that vilgax had a mouth when in the original series the majority of vilgax scenes had a device on his mouth
That was helping him breath I guess.
If you look at the first episode, you’ll see that he does have a mouth. It’s just that he was so injured that he had to use that device. Made Vilgax incredibly menacing, though!
In a flashback scene in classics season 2 episode 1, you can see vilgax had a mouth, it wasn't until he was blown up at season ones first episode were he needed the device on his mouth. Him now having a mouth shows that he's recovered.
I don't know why, but when I younger I remember wondering why Vilgax in Alien force looked like that when thinking about how he looked in Classic. As to me the injuries he got were very fatal and that explained why he needed to get his cybernetic implants to make him stronger along with healing him, but the change that happened to him from Classic to Alien force made me think was it either the artstyle change that made him look different or was it the fact VIlgax got the powers of ten different heroes that healed him, thus he no longer needed his cybernetic implants (now thinking about it he probably still has them internally or something like that) or lastly would have been too difficult to explain why Vilgax looks so different between the two iterations along the type of story being told in Alien force with this Vilgax. Just a thought as when it comes to this topic my mind get weighs as I can't decide whether to accept the sudden change or get go with the flow as changes from Classic to Ultimate Alien force range for me it terms if if they're that impactful/sudden or not. But that's just my mindset with change and curiosity of how Vilgax became how he looks in UAF.
On the other hand I really like Kevin and Gwen's new season three outfits as it compliments Ben's Green colour scheme with Kevin wearing Blue and Gwen wearing Red as allow loving the previous two seasons designs and are just iconic for the two, their more casual clothes in season 3 are just add a nice scent of fresh air for me at least as I really like when characters have differing outfits from their main ones quite alot as it adds variety to how the character can look. And something that also stuck with me was when rewatching clips from Alien force and the scene where Kevin frees Gwen from Spider monkey's webbing the cutting sound is really oddly satisfying for me as the sound design was just on point and it just stayed in the back of my mind for some bizarre reason.
Thanks for reading this long winded comment as it just came to mind and please correct me if I'm wrong about the Vilgax change as it just stuck with me subconsciously throughout the years and it would mean about if anyone could help me with weird thought.
Yeah the same because he doesn’t seem like the same guy we know
44:42 It did make sense. He is still doing that for his advantage. If he breaks the law and captures Earth, it would invite direct conflict with Galvans and the Plumbers which may end up him losing many planets he already captured using the very same law that he now would have broken. I know he wants revenge from Ben but he'd be smart enough to not to invade Earth just for getting revenge while he'd lose many resourceful and advanced worlds in his control in the process.
Wait I just realized, when Goop covered Ben after he picked up the anti-grav generator, why didn’t the omnitrix take Goop back? He didn’t need to transform there.
Oh shit ur right
Hey Kuro, really enjoying the breakdowns so far!!!
Also some things I wanted to point out that that you may have missed:
1: The signboards on the buildings are a lot more detailed, they still say basic stuff like "Hotel" and "Fashion" but there's more pictures and bright diverse colours
2: At about 35:38 one of the weapons Grandpa Max has on his back is the same rifle from "Grounded"
3: In the first episode, Grandpa Max somehow drove his RV through the "impenetrable" force field.
That's all, can't wait for the next video!
My head canon for Vilgaxs new look is when he absorbed the 10 hero’s it healed him to his original form with some slight differences
I love that theory, to be honest.
i had no idea about that 't'kustars are peaceful naturally' fact, that makes me so happy, what a nice fella
31:57 maybe you could explain it by having Kevin's body trying to protect itself instinctively absorbing the materials around him and the omnitrix blast locked his cells in that state. If it was a true mutation, the omnitrix could repair Kevin's DNA, but with that explanation Kevin is not really mutated it's like he just contrapted his muscles and can't make them relax back.
Not to mentiom. we know the Omnitrix itself was keeping Kevin in his mutated state as shown at the end of season 3 when Ben blew it up.
The way I always thought about this version of Kevin was that the omnitrix activated and messed with his genetic memory, which caused him to turn into materials he has absorbed previously as I believe those were the most used materials
That would make more since
For S3E1, I’d give Characterization a 1 because Gwen and Kevin are _relatively_ close to their S1-S2 characters. Otherwise, I think I agree with what Kuro said.
I'd give Characterization 2 if I'm feeling a bit generous.
In my opinion
They just made Gwen too hot headed
And Kevin was okay.
Looking forward to seeing Rath and finally getting that "LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING" count this season 😂
Gwen and Kevin struggling with the Serpent Dude is kinda crazy
They've fought way stronger opponents
It shouldn't even have been a challenge especially for Gwen
The only way to explain it its if its not first thing they did and they tired af
Everybody’s downplaying serpent..it’s just pure madness. Sure his powers aren’t as flashy but theres no reason he can’t have the speed and strength feats to boot. They even fought the guy for a whole hour, ben basically went in on him after all that BS. #Respectthesnakethatwalkslikeamancepthedoesnt
I love Vilgax's line about killing Ben. No b.s. just straight to the point. I am not a fan of the new design though. Wish Vilgax kept 1 of his cyborg arms for like a Hulk smash attack.
I prefer it was Steven Blum’s voice in this
Yeah he has a free hand so he could've used one of his cyberarms and still have that gauntlet on the other
That line was ripped from Justice League Unlimited season 2 episode 3 where Doomsday says the exact same thing to Superman inside a volcano
@@harrythompson-heap9754 was hoping I wasn’t the only one who noticed that.
I couldn’t take it seriously bc I first saw the clip out of context when my friend did an impersonation of it and then showed me the clip, which made me laugh at how his impersonation was word-from-word the same and had the same dull delivery
Thank you for mentioning the fact that he hasn't used Diamondhead in five years. That's always bothered me, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone else bring it up.
People always bring up that Ben has a lot of experience as Diamondhead. Okay, so what? He hasn't used him in 5 years, and even yet there is no way Diamondhead can beat Vilgax so easily even with explosive shards and floating crystals (Vilgax endured way worse than that in the OS)
Would have preferred if ben used chromastone to defeat vilgax.
@@au7923
No, not really. Chromastone's ultraviolet beams wouldn't be enough either.
Ben should've used Waybig
@@user-np1hr1ek3f To be honest, that would be way better then this fight.
Also diamondhead couldn't even hurt vilgax in OS. A lot of people say that petrosapiens just get stronger as they age but that was never stated in thr episode.
The drastic character shift of Ben in Alien Force Season 3 hit me as hard as "Fear Factory Phony" from the Battle Frontier season of Pokemon when the English dub replaced the voice actors with new ones that TO THIS DAY I have still not gotten used to (which is why I opted to watch the Japanese version ever since mid-Diamond & Pearl saga).
Sad that both awful moments of my childhood/teen years took place on Cartoonnetwork...
I was one of those people who DID NOT watch the classic series. I never even watched the series until Alien Force came out. However, all the nods to the classic series in this episode is why I went back to watch it. Good stuff!
I remember the first time watching this episode and wondering why a 'snake that walks like a man' would be giving Kevin & Gwen as much trouble as it did. Seriously, they were fighting it and losing FOR OVER AND HOUR before Ben showed up and took it out in seconds?!
cool i guess
The only replacement VA I’d say that’s actively worse is James and Misty by the end of Sinnoh they were all fine
Ash's old voice does not sound good in my opinion.
@@sirmel11 I feel the new voice helps show maturity.. unfortunately since BW Pokemon has had a similar issue to Ben 10
@@skibot9974 how many characters were replaced??? I never even noticed
34:22 I think the reason Goop runs in a humanoid way is that Goop is still Ben in some way so if that’s off of basic instinct that Goop would run the way Ben would as Goop
When Alien force season 3 came out I was wondering “ was vilgax’s arm steroids be a nerf now or be stronger with the power he gains throughout conquering the planets “
Something with Vilgax I loved in this episode is how you can almost imagine he planned to fight ben’s OG transforms. Like he had a perfect counter to Alan’s pyronite form, he had an un-dodgeable laser for a kineceleran type speedster, and had that gauntlet thing to make sure he’d overpower any strong transformation like four arms or maybe even Way big. It really seems like he planned out exactly how to beat ben for those few years he was training and conquering worlds
Not really he didn’t have any kind of technoly to remove the ominitriz and clearly didn’t have enought to beat way big.
and in part 2: it bugs me how Kevin says “of course I’d be looking bad” cause he got hit by a falling roof... but Ben was perfectly fine lmao, what a weird continuity mistake
@@rodrigor.2847 def, but he knows Ben has them so vilgax could’ve went into the fight planning around those transformations
@@RadiantClaire "could" but he didn’t it just shows how dumb and inconsistent this version of vilgax is. He didn’t use any of his technology or millions of soldiers in the entire season, if classic had this many resources ben in af would get defeated pretty easily.
WEll he did beat several of Ben's most powerful aliens in hybrid form. But yeah I thought the same thing when I first saw this episode.
Something very few people point out:
Kevin's new design is an homage to Metamorpho from DC Comics, who has all the same shapeshifting abilities that Kevin gains from his mutation.
I always interpreted the characters downplaying Alien X so often at this point because the one they've seen him, yeah he did something powerful but Ben telling them the whole process probably drilled in their heads that that transformation isn't as trustworthy because of it. Ben having to debate before any action can be made probably sounds like more of a drawback than the power is worth.
25:58 At least to me, I always thought Kevin had some of the materials in his pocket or in his garage, and when the explosion happens he absorbed a lot at once, that's why he is just a mess of every material he uses in combat
Also when Ben displays the aliens missing, I think they don't show Cannonbolt and Alien X because Azymuth said in the part 1 finale of season 2 that the omnitrix display a group of 10 aliens to be easier to navigate or something, so probably the aliens missing are in the other display
Gwen did give him those ball bearings of various materials, so I would think that he probably kept them around.
All the Omnitrix did was bind them to his DNA.
They are on playlist 2
@@parkercomley8126 yeah, I'm just saying because Kuro didn't know why they didn't appear when Ben show the display
17:14 Kuro really does not have a lot of faith in the snake guy.
37:27 It's the little grin after that line that always makes me laugh. Vilgax feels so proud of himself for making that quip
Regarding Kevin morphing his hands: this was actually done in season 1. When the 3 were on the highbreed ship in the 2nd episode, Kevin's hand enlarges in response to wanting to fight when Gwen got hurt. It's small enough to be missed but it's there.
Vilgax fighting a fully grown Vaxasaurian: *_I AM UNMATCHED!_*
Vilgax when fighting a Petrosapien who once shattered his hands trying to punch him: _Ahhh green rocks._
19:14 Even as a kid I ALWAYS hated that line. The way Ben spoke to Azmuth was so disrespectful and juvenile that I felt like slapping Ben in the face.
37:30 that was probably extra painful for Dwayne, cause that was a direct reference (or ripoff) to an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Where Doomsday says the same thing to Superman. Sure, it was never confirmed that it was a reference to that, but come on!
Edit: Wow, he actually acknowledged that in the review!
I definitely think season 3 is worse than 1 and 2 and has alot of bad episodes. But I also think people are little too hard on it. People will treat this season like every second of it is the worst piece of television ever. It's bad but not THAT bad
Welcome to the age of hyperbolism when everything has to be either a masterpiece or a piece of garbage
Hot Take: Alien Force Season 3 is my favorite season of the show. After the epicness of the Highbreed Arc, it was nice to have a fun throwback to the original series before they started going overboard with it later on.
Alien force season 3 is like dragon ball GT
@@smashmaster521 I can understand liking that and I do think there's times where Ben's personality works but they really overdo it alot
@@shack-it2450 That might have been intentional, given how the writers were forced to make Ben more obnoxious despite their efforts to evolve him into a mature, levelheaded leader.
I've seen a lot of this episode's scenes out of context, like the "adorable" one and the aliens escaping, but I didn't think they all came from the same 2-parter. I always figured the aliens escaping was just its own episode, not part of Vilgax's return.
I think I have an explanation for how everyone got in the barrier.
Ben: Because Vilgax wanted Ben to enter and fight him, so the barrier could've been made to let Ben in even when up, maybe by scanning for his DNA or the Omnitrix.
Gwen & Kevin: Gwen more than likely used some type of spell to get herself and Kevin inside.
Way Big: His species are probably powerful enough to power through the barrier naturally, or it's the same as Ben where the barrier scanned the Omnitrix.
Max: The plumbers definitely have tech advanced enough where a device that could penetrate a barrier like this one is has to be how Max got in. Given how familiar the plumbers are with Vilgax and his technology, the time Max had to prepare and just all the gadgets he keeps on hand, it definitely makes sense.
25:50 I don't know about the other pieces, but the crystal, tadinite looking part of his head could be from Diamond Heads species.
On 15:39 when Vilgax blows Alan, I'm pretty sure he's using a power that we saw Ultimos (is that how his name is written?) use back in Classic, which is pretty cool
Aye yo, Vilgax blows Alan!?!
@@Substantial-hf1rm 😳😱😝🤮🤔🤭🤐💀🫣😋🫃👏👽👄👅👁️👁️🗿
I like that you pointed out how badly they changed Vilgax his character change, especialy when he speaks. With all the focus on Bens personality change, I kinda forgot about that. Honestly, with Bens in cannon explanation for the personality change (his victory in the highbreed war, he literaly has a pile of medals), I find it easier to forgive him then Vilgax.
I get that he wants to diversify his power, similar how Ben has diverse abilities in his different aliens, but the execution at times is very poor. You pointed it out in the breakdown as well, but Vilgax just yielding and going away without any type of resistance is very uncharacteristic of him, no matter how you look at it. I don't like it at all.
As for the Diamondhead that we saw, I always tought that form was some kind of fusion between Diamondhead and Chromastone, and the reason why UAF diamondhead could make exploding projections is because of a combination of their powers (pentrosapien projectiles + crystalsapien energy = exploding projectiles)
the “prototype vilgax voice” you showed at the end makes it seem like they were trying to emulate steve blum’s vilgax voice way more at first
Personally, this is my favorite version of Vilgax. Of course, the original will always have a soft spot in my heart, cause he's so intimidating and mysterious. But this version just radiates "formidable foe" energy, and I really liked his voice.
Ben isn't as bad here as I remembered. He does say "we" deserve to relax a little because "we" saved the universe, so it's not like he's taking all of the credit. He just thinks the team deserves some time off. He also still shows how much he cares about Gwen and Kevin, most notably when he tells them to run when the Omnitrix is overloading. He had a valid reason for not noticing Kevin's problem, too.
Also, it's way more apparent in Ultimate Alien, but do you think Gwen having a ponytail and wearing a red shirt is a reference to her prototype design from that old footage?
I’d imagine the prototype design for Gwen from the original pilot was rather inspiration instead of direct reference. Would be cool if it were otherwise
8:21 I remember the first time I saw this episode I thought the medal would be a plot device that would come in handy later. 👍
Vilgax feels like a archetype of Megatron and darkseid. I remember slowly growing on this version of vilgax until they did the space Cthulhu thing with him. That line is this a bad time was hilarious tho
Ben's personality shift could have worked if it wasn't so extreme. If he was less serious in the first 2 seasons, or a little more serious in season 3, it could have worked.
Yea, a less extreme divide would've saved it
I'd personally say do both, so there'd be almost no personality shift to speak of
Vilgax straight up has the infinity gauntlet
When I saw Classic, I never thought Vilgax was a cyborg. I thought those where just armor working around his biology. So his UAF redesign is just him ditching the armor for more fitting enhancements
You know how Ben always gets so excited whenever there’s any new Sumo Slammers stuff coming out? Well, your breakdowns are like my Sumo Slammers. I immediately get excited when I spot a new one of your breakdowns!
It would've been a nice detail if they had Lieutenant Steel and his guys on standby outside of Vilgax' force field. Wasn't that his whole deal in the classic series? To deal with alien threats?
Also, I've always liked how Vilgax took down Ben's 3 favorite alien species from classic (Heatblast, Fourarms, XLR8) only for him to be taken down by the classic alien in which Ben had the most training/improvement throughout the series: Diamondhead.
It took me quite a while to get used to Vilgax's design back then especially since I wasn't introduced to the concept of Thanos/Darkseid when I was a kid. His powerset is cool although, I wish this should've been a 3-parter, with Part 1 ONLY focusing on Vilgax' perspective "Infinity War-style" so we can see progression since classic, his thought process on which abilities he needs to combat Ben, which planet leaders he needs to beat in order to get them, and the actual battles Vilgax went through to see how strong his opponents were to really introduce how much of a badass and threat he is for those who haven't seen the classic series. Part 2 focusing on the whole 'capture the aliens' plot if they really wanted to push that whole nonsense, and part 3 purely on the big fight. Or have this entire thing as a whole arc for seasons 3 and 4, showcasing 10 episodes of just Vilgax conquering worlds and acquiring the powers he needs.
I feel like Kevin's mutation was only a byproduct of "How can we make Kevin still relevant in terms of the team's powerset?" since Ben has more aliens and Gwen can turn into an Anodite (even though she never used that species' potential). But Kev's mutation was mostly a miss for me just because it looked lame and 'haha hand weapons".
Ben's personality shift made sense to me when I was a kid because fame can change a person. But it's not until these Breakdowns that I've come to appreciate and love Ben's maturity and growth in AF seasons 1 & 2, so the change really throws me off these days.
I don't think I'm that mad about the personality, it really looks like these three people are chilling out since they just saved the universe from annihilation
I never even noticed the personality change
I wish we kept cyborg vilgax, and instead of stealing powers he just continually upgrades himself with more cybernetics. Like the shield and omega beams could definitely be cybernetic enhancements. Maybe each time he fought Ben and was defeated, he could come back with a new upgrade. The shield could be a counter to Ben's ranged attacks like Heatblast's fire, Spidermonkey's webs and Brainstorm's lightning, as well as a way to counter Ghostfreak's intangibility since Vilgax probably doesn't know about Z'skayr and he'd want to counter possession ASAP. The beams would be a great way to escape any restraints or hit speedsters, plus just having a ranged attack is always good. It would've been cool to see Vilgax slowly transform into the amalgam we see in Ben 10k.
Kinda like generator rex?
Yeah because he was like a horror movie villain and Ghostfreak should have a symbiotic relationship with Ben just like Bruce Banner and Devil Hulk in the Immortal Hulk comics.
@@ilyassebenana3824 I was thinking less actual technology, more like what we see from Ben 10k's Vilgax, where he's obviously been modified artificially. Like maybe he has the yellow gem that makes the shield of Siegel embedded in his wrist.
@@srstriker6420 That would be an interesting take on the character, but I was referring to how classic Vilgax was a lot smarter than later iterations. So he'd probably recognise how dangerous an Ectonurite's possession ability is and come up with a way to either shield his mind or attack intangible foes directly, like how he uses the gauntlet against Big Chill.
Well too be fair the cybernetics were there because he had severe injuries so it was like crotches or a bandage their to help him walk and breath much better and to help him heal and take the Omnitrix this is like five years after so vilgax probably had enough time to heal so he took off the robotic parts and decided to make sure that he can be more powerful and be able to counter the aliens like how he was counter Manny Alan and Helen's attack the wind breath for pyronites the darkseid like lasers for xlr8 or stinkfly the gauntlet for ghostfreak or to block attacks with a shield and the sword to absorb energy from fire or other attacks and maybe even for diamondhead but it seems like he was prepared for bens original aliens not the new ones
I would love to have some badass moment with Ben 10.000 defeating Vilgax again and giving him a speach like:
"You know what? I used to respect you, I used to fear you. You terrorized me when I was younger, but I'm not a kid anymore, I've grown up and I've faced beings way more stronger than you. And what about you, Vilgax? You still are the pathetic war-lord-wanna-be that got his ass beaten by a teenager."
I love the character growth Gwen and Kevin go through during this season. It goes a long way to what happens in Omniverse.
I was actually lucky not to have seen the promos growing up and with Diamondhead being my favorite alien I absolutely lost it seeing his return and wreck Vilgax. Totally random, didn’t care. Glad to have Diamondhead back
Something I just noticed at 19:49.Azmuth eyes looks like the screen display of the classic omnitrix. Pretty cool if they were intentionally designed that way!
Kevin likely had the ball bearings in his pocket that Gwen gave him, causing him to become an amalgam of their materials.
All the Omnitrix did was bind it to his DNA.
Either Vilgax modified the force-field to allow the wielder of the Omnitrix in, or it was made to keep things inside the force-field in, and that's where the durability is.
Exactly
Idk why kuro just hates s3 so much
That still doesn't explain how Gwen, Kevin and Way Big got in tho
@@wisdomekanem1725 he hates it because it's bad, as easy as that
@@ilyassebenana3824 it's worst than seasons one and two
But it's not THAT bad..it's not HORRIBLE
@@tuby0299 maybe it was modified
Like, things can get in the force field, but not out
Kuro has the same hairstyle throughout the whole video, that’s very rare.
I can't wait for Rath's debut episode to appear in a breakdown! These breakdowns are often the highlight of my day
For Vilgax flying, I think he was shown using it to reach Z's Skayrs prison.
I vaguely remember him flying in the Secret of Chromastone ep too
Yeah he did and I also think Ben and Ghostfreak should have a symbiotic relationship just Bruce Banner and Devil Hulk in the Immortal Hulk comics.
@@srstriker6420 Zs’Skayr doesn’t though. He’s basically the Ben 10 equivalent of Zoom from the CW. In that he’s the exact same as the best villain but with more style over substance.
Zs’Skayr, much like Vilgax, is a washed up alien overlord who wanted to take the Omnitrix and rule the universe with an ambiguous knowledge over the Omnitrix. No real link to Ben there at all. Zs’Skayr was incomplete during the OS, but he regained his complete form (or the closest version of it) during his final battle.
33:44 Gwens fear of Spiders was only ever hinted/implied in the original series. When Ben is stuck as Grey Matter and some man kidnaps him. Gwen and Max go looking. There a breif scene of Gwen looking somewhere and they cringing/get creeped out after seeing a spider approach and leaving it alone
29:17
Not only the first mistransformation, it's also the first mistransformation where he wanted Humungousaur.
*Sigh*
This is going to be painful.
lmao I can't wait for the miss transformations in omniverse related to wanting humungosaur.
41:20-14:23 Oh yeah the return of a classic Edit: 41:27-41:33 DANG IT! If they didn't spoil him in the promo imagine the fans going crazy with this surprise reveal. Edit 2: This should've been a one time deal with Ben's attitude for this two-parter premiere and he's back to be the Ben from Season 1 and 2 of Alien Force. Edit 3: I wish they give an explanation on why Vilgax is all healed up and back to normal after the explosion that turned into what he looked like in Classic
Maybe the reason some of the frames were missing from the jetray transformation was because they were going to have more flashes in the scene but thought it might be too seizure inducing so they removed them but forgot to put Ben back in the frames.
As a kid, I always caught on to the fact that I didn’t enjoy the changes between seasons 2 and 3, but I never actually pinpointed exactly what it was, and I still enjoyed enough aspects of it that I didn’t question it too much.
But going through these breakdowns and not only having it explained in explicit detail, but having my childhood feelings validated, is absolutely incredibly satisfying. Even in my preteens, I was able to pick up on unusual characterization shifts (and corporate interference) and identify them as things I didn’t like.
40:14 maybe it was to foreshadow The Secret of Chromastone, it reminds of Superman vs the KKK, when a girl pointed out how he doesn't make a crater whenever he lands and it's revealed later on that's he's subconciously using his flight power
9:03 oh my god, I think the television frame they used was one of Butch Lukic’s storyboard demos he made to illustrate to other board artists the intended atmosphere of the show! I’ll link it below if I can find the Twitter thread…
That’s a great detail!
I don’t really understand how Kevin is stuck like that but I believe he absorbed most of the debris from the large explosion.
The Omnitrix is keeping Kevin stuck like that.
15:28 He uses his gun on Vilgax Attack's game, specifically DS version but not sure if uses it on the rest
Personally I think the original technoorganic cyborg Vilgax was so much better idea than this ripped off "Thanoseid". AF Vilgax feels like another generic villain, who ofc must to shot lasers from eyes xd while the original one was strategic genius, able to defeat everything just by using a raw strength, thus spreading magnificent atmosphere of the real inevitable threat. The real villain doesn't need any of this fancy stuff and weapons to be dangerous...
Also, why Vilgax now follows the rules of the intergalactic council? He never cared in the classic about the law or rules, because he was never an honorable warrior type... This change feels really out of character.
yeah the one thing I can say UAF Vilgax does better than Classic Vilgax is that him having a wide variety of powers makes his status as the universe's number 1 big bad make much more sense, as intimidating as Classic Vilgax was him just being a guy with super strength (post upgrades) was not enough for his title as the badest guy around, especially after the Highbreed showed up and the creators even went out of their way to confirm that the average Highbreed is Classic Vilgax level in terms of strength.
and then later on we see guys like Aggregor and the return of the Incursions two well-known terrors who make Classic Vilgax look like a C list threat, and thats not even getting into characters like Ma Vreedle and Ghost Freak.
@@anthonyrodriguez8788 If I was creator I would make classic Vilgax halfway to his 10k form from classic. He still would have abilities to counter Ben 10 aliens, but he didn't need to use laser eyes or other infinity gauntlets.
100% agreed. Plus, Steve Blum is the goat and you can't replace him
@@anthonyrodriguez8788 Ma Vreedle is a joke.
@@justinesun631 my point still stands.
So I have a few things to say:
So I’d imagine Ben (and by proxy way big) could get through the shield because Siphon specifically set it to let Ben get through to fight his master.
Max I believe was already inside the dome when Siphon turned it on, which is why he could be there.
And Gwen can teleport. Technology is pretty solid in the Ben 10 continuity to have a difficult time countering magic, so it’s safe to assume she could teleport herself and Kevin inside.
That being said, I have no idea why Vilgax would ping off the inside of the shield. That one is a mystery.
26:25 Azmuth said that all the aliens were in groups of 10 for simplicity
25:50 I think it’s more of the omnitrix is energy burst interfering with Kevin’s powers and when he instinctually absorbed material from his surroundings to shield himself from the explosion and collapsed building it ended up like this
Remember when cyborg Vilgax slammed down Diamondhead in the original series with such a force it caused cracks on the latter?
How the mighty have fallen.
Ben did say he had a lot of practice with diamondhead while in classic it was like 2 weeks
@TheGlassesPro and why wouldn't that be true? I mean, diamond head has great powers but him being breakable makes for a solid weakness in my opinion that the franchise should've brought up more often
i actually loved vilgax’s return as a kid. i loved the way he had new powers and how he killed chromastone. but as i’ve gotten older, the original rendition of vilgax is my favorite.
I can KINDA understand Vilgax agreeing to leave peacefully if you frame it as "I acknowledge I am underprepared for this and am not yet able to take this planet by force. I need to retreat and recuperate and devise a new strategy or come up with a new tactic to ensure victory instead of continuing to pursue now and suffer defeat. I won't nuke the planet from orbit because I'm not after the planet, I'm after revenge." sort of mentality, but that's a little bit of mental gymnastics to come up with that from what is shown.
That mindset in mind also kind of contradicts classic vilgax. Uaf has some moments that just contradict itself when it comes to the classic series.
One thing absolutely worth noting, Vilgax displays hard counters to Helen and Alan, along with strength that puts Manny and later Humungousaur down. All of whom are using Ben's original transformations. Add in the invulnerability attacking against Big Chill as a counter for Ghostfreak, the energy absorption as a counter to either Upgrade's beam attack or Eye Guy's blasts, the fact he has blast attacks to attack fliers, and I think it's apparent Vilgax had been gathering his powers specifically as counters for Ben's original roster.
Skill with that original roster comes into play too, but it's why the aliens Ben had less experience with (Humungousaur, Chromastone, Jetray, Big Chill) and the Max Force that doesn't have the training with those powers Ben does, get absolutely destroyed. Also helps Vilgax has the benefit of experience fighting those particular aliens in the case of Max Force, aside from Pierce who... let's be honest, those quills are clearly not as effective as Diamondhead's crystals.
Idk I just like that it shows that Vilgax wasn't rushing in to beat Ben like he does in later episodes, he was preparing to fight and counter everything he could manage to with the information he had available.