☀ PROMPT #2: CANON ☀

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I love this question because I can not give a simple answer. My identity is completely canon compliant, and it has nothing to do with the canon you might know.

See, Ben 10 is a show with time travelling and dimension hopping. In the cartoon alone there are Bens from 7 or 8 (or possibly 12) different dimensions, who, on average, have 2 alternate timeline selves. And that's not even factoring in clones. So the way it works is that there is an untold number of dimensions - some are really similar, like the Prime Dimension and Dimension 23, while others are wildly different, like Dimension 12. And each dimension has a prime timeline from which all other timelines branch off, like a tree.


So what you're watching on the show is the prime timeline from the prime dimension. My own timeline is part of the prime dimension, but started diverging at least a decade before the prime timeline. So through a bunch of random events, the Omnitrix didn't actually get to Earth before I was 13 years old!

All the obvious canon divergences follow - I was more mature when I got the watch, so I didn't abuse my powers quite as much. I didn't bicker as much with Gwen, and we were actually really good friends (and still are! It's a parallel life for me, not a past one). And I was slightly better equipped to process the trauma, which is honestly a bit of a double-edged sword. Prime was so young he barely understood some of the things that were happening around him. I was fully aware that Vilgax was gonna cut me to pieces and murder or enslave everyone on Earth if he got the chance :')
This slight timeline shift also means I didn't really get a break between the Original Series and Ultimate Alien Force events. Basically, from the moment the Omnitrix attached itself to me, it was just part of my life, and it was never removed again for more than a few minutes at a time.

I know my noemata are 'canon,' just because that's how the Ben 10 universe works, but also because I actually met Ben Prime at one point. During the events of "And Then There Were None" and "And Then There Was Ben", a full-scale war takes place between the 'good Bens' and the 'evil Bens' (it's complicated, here's a quick thing I wrote about it once). I got to meet a bunch of my alternate selves and, aside from the deaths and injuries, it was a cool experience.

Other canon-divergent stuff off the top of my head:

• Gwen was more like a sister than a cousin to me. We basically grew up together
• The first playlist I had on my watch was 10 aliens like Ben Prime, but they definitely weren't the same. I haven't figured all of them out, but I know I had Feedback, Bloxx, and one that doesn't appear on the show called Shockwave who's like... and electric eel mixed with a shrew?? with chitin and a flat tail. I should draw him. The only original alien I'm 100% sure I started out with is Four Arms.
• I had (will have? parallel lives are confusing man) a non-romantic marriage with Kai Green and had a kid with her whom I named Ken.
• At some point I came to resent my grandpa for trying to groom me into becoming a space cop. I still loved him though. It's complicated. I'm definitely not a cop like him tho.
• There is no division or distinction between my body and the Omnitrix. We're completely fused. If you zoomed in on it you'd just see a gradient between my arm and the watch. My arm is also full of wires and stuff, and the Omnitrix is full of my tissue. We can't physically be separated unless you enter the right codes into the watch. If you tried to cut it off my arm, it would just die (and so would I, probably. I haven't tested it).
• I don't know how canon-divergent this is because the show never really explains how transformations work but: The Omnitrix doesn't actually change my body. Basically, my consciousness is stored in the Omnitrix (until it's removed, in which case it quickly uploads my consciousness into the body it has built). All the bodies are just fleshy projections made by the watch, and rather than physically changing the current body, it prefers to build an entire new body. This includes my human body which has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times it's technically not the body I was born with. I'm a flesh and blood Theseus' Ship :)
• Unlike the dumbass Ben Prime, I actually went to therapy!

Last updated: March 2022