Why Ben REALLY Gets The Wrong Alien

Don't be fooled!

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The Omnitrix is the single most powerful, versatile, and sought-after device in the Ben 10 Multiverse, especially when it comes to Ben Prime. We have an entire video breaking down every single feature the Omnitrix can do, but one of the most frustrating handicaps for Ben, and sometimes us as the audience, is when it doesn’t give Ben the correct alien he selected to transform into. This trait gives the writers a broader range of scenarios to place Ben into, be it for comedic purposes, or to force Ben to solve a problem in a different way other than hitting it really hard.

This has become a recurring theme throughout all four shows, but we’re never been given a solid answer as to why this happens. Even when Ben receives the completed, official Omnitrix, which is said to function exactly as Azmuth intends, he still has to struggle with getting the alien he wishes, more often than not.

So... why does this happen?

[danieloceansmith]

“If you’re gonna give me the wrong guy all the time, why do you even HAVE a dial?!”
I love that line so much

[loreleihillard]

Me: *hasn't seen Ben 10 in almost 10 years*
YouTube: "Wanna watch?"
Me: Sure

[ShinigamiSamaH]

If we combine "You hit it too hard" and "it is sentient" it become a passive-aggressive action of the device to tell him to cut that shit out.

[desthstride]

There's one scene in Omniverse I feel is relevant. Ben wants to turn into XLR8 to put out a house fire, but gets Rath instead. This time, however, it very clearly shows Ben dialing up Rath's icon on the wheel. So his own clumsiness may have a role.

[visualax]

If the omnitrix didn’t give Ben wrong aliens half the time he’d only ever use like 6 aliens through out the whole show

[filipvadas]

Ultimately there are 3 reasons in total:

1. The one Azmuth gives, that being that because Ben keeps slamming on the Omnitrix, he keeps sending it into random select mode by accident

2. The Omnitrix has a program that activates when Ben is in life threatening danger, that then forces itself to cycle through his transformations in order to find the one most fitting for the task at hand, with the exception of Alien X who is straight up broken

3. Using one alien form too much and too often can not only cause addiction, but it can seriously mess with the user's DNA. Which is why the time limit exists as well and why even future Ben doesn't use Master Control.

[ninjajack]

If it wasn’t for the “malfunctions” then Ben would just spam 4 Arms.

[Crystal_]

I think at least part of the issue in Omniverse is that Ben just.. doesn’t look, or doesn’t recognize the stylized icons. There’s a scene where we see that Ben clearly selects Rath’s icon, then gets upset that he got Rath.

[nedsdeclassified]

The watch picks the alien that has the highest probability of winning, the only time Ben gets the alien he wants is because accidentally pick the correct one what's the highest probability based on the Omnitrix calculations. ( original)

As Ben gets older and has more experience with the Omnitrix, he's able to correctly assess which alien that has highest probability since he Is now better at assessing the battle.

[CornBreadtm]

It's for Ben's mental health. Using only one alien is addicting. As shown of course.

[DreadnoughtHvor]

The omnitrix is this universe's TARDIS. The whole "never takes him where he wants to go, but always takes him where he NEEDS to go" kinda mentality

[lazydoge]

Ben Tennyson gets the wrong Alien because Azmuth programmed it to give him Aliens based on the situation. In the episode where Ben’s hand was severed from him the Omnitrix was self aware. But when Ben gets master control he never gets the wrong Alien. This is because when Azmuth gives him Master Control he trust that Ben will choose the right Alien and is Mature enough to use it correctly.

[kingmuizz]

Be honest here, we all slapped our watches acting like Ben at one point in our lives.

[ashemabahumat]

"It's not a glitch, it's a feature."

[gechomaniwantahippo]

If you look at the end of The More Things Change Part 2, Ben tries to turn into Humungousaur and turns into Spidermonkey. If you look at the Omnitrix in that scene, Spidermonkey’s icon is the one selected. This leads me to believe that sometimes, the mistransformations in Omniverse are actually just Ben not paying attention to what alien he’s choosing.

[IndecisiveGames]

My theory is that the Omnitrix is able to acknowledge the situation Ben’s in and probably chooses the proper Alien for the fight, where some situations Ben chooses the same one?

[nocontent]

Ben Vs Vilgax
Ben: *Slams Omnitrix*
*Turns Into Graymatter*
(Enter Coffin Dance)

[Excellsion]

I really do like the "stop slamming it down" explanation. So simple, makes so much sense, and he really does do that like 90% of the time. Another thing to think about is that the Alien Force Omnitrix recalibrated TO BEN, so maybe in that iteration it compensated for the slamming, while the Omniverse one, (being at "factory default") would not.

[FandomChronicle]

Ben was a kid, with a hero mentality, making him reckless and usually entering dangerous situations with little caution and foresight. The watch chooses for him the alien with the most effective and efficient method of defeating the opponent, cos guess what, smashing everything and brute strength ain't gonna cut it most times. The omnitrix is the most versatile weapon/tool in the ben10 universe

[Qwuik]

I remember in omniverse, Ben was chasing a bad guy so he had to go xlr8 but the omnitrix told him to use clock-work. He would’ve used clock-work to reverse time and then stop him. I think the omnitrix is very smart on bens hard situation.