See, I'm fine when a character is "annoying" to a limit.
To me, he's annoying. The show is annoying. The side characters are annoying. The villains are annoying. I really just can't get into it.
I hear you. If I didn't like the rest of the show, the crux of Ben being a jerk who needs to learn to be a better person wouldn't be enough for me either.
So far, each one? I thought he was annoying and bland character through each one. He was about as cool and interesting as Johnny Test.
I actually think one of the things that makes the show interesting is exactly that he's an annoying brat, and that the show is very upfront about it. Basically he's constantly getting in trouble and almost losing because he's hugely shallow and arrogant. His friends and the adults are always telling him he's basically a jerk. A lot of the long term arc, where he eventually grows up into Ben 10,000, is about how he eventually learns to not be an annoying brat. We expect the main character of a show to be someone we like, but this show intentionally makes him hard to like. So it's sort of an unusual investigation into what it would be like if an average kid got powers--he would totally be arrogant and thoughtless about it--and how that affects him enough to slowly (vveeeerrrrrrryyy slowly) grow up a bit.
I don't know about you, but when I first saw the show (I was ten and eleven) I actually thought Ben was VERY likeable. Not only because he was a spoiled brat who liked to goof off and show off (like I was and ESPECIALLY like me if I suddenly had an alien watch with powers), but, despite his disposition, he genuinely DID want to help people for the right reasons (as well as the bad, sometimes).
The way I see it, Ben in the series (for the most part) varies from Booster Gold levels when he was just starting off to Johnny Storm and Booster Gold later in his career levels. He's very similar to those two.
Also, who here could HONESTLY say they wouldn't be a bit of a dick if they suddenly got an alien watch as a ten year old? Hell, who here can HONESTLY say they wouldn't be a bit of a dick if they got an alien watch NOW?
Well, that's pretty much what I think. Ben is just like what an actual kid would be like if he got all that power. I think it's good writing for them to make him like that. He is a lot like Booster Gold. What I like is that his friends etc. occasionally point out to him that he's letting it all go to his head, and that he needs to be more thoughtful, etc., and that sometimes, like a real person, he ignores it. But in the end I find him more interesting in an abstract way than actually likeable. Sure, he has a sense of good vs evil, and is slowly growing a sense of responsibility, but he's not the kind of person I would want to be friends with--at least not until he grows up!
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