Ben is not, by himself, a good person.
I don’t mean he’s got flaws. I mean he’s selfish, lazy, arrogant, impulsive, annoying, and sometimes, especially in the Original Series, flat out mean.
If you were to look at the stereotypical Superhero, a person who was the epitome of everything it meant to be a superhero, every symbol, every idealistic, bare-bones principle, the premise before you add in the person behind it, and you asked him or her “Why do you save a group of people from a burning building?” He or she would say “Because I can.”
I’m not saying every hero would say this; they’ve got as many motivations as they’ve got costumes, and not everyone would think of that answer, but if you strip them down to their core, that is what it means to be a superhero.
Because 1) There’s no question of morality to it. It’s cause and effect. There’s no, “it’s the right thing to do and I’m a good person therefore I should…” There’s no “I feel bad for them.” There’s no “I’d feel guilty if I didn’t”. It’s just cause and effect. It happens, so I do it. That’s the “Hero” part.
and, 2) “I can”. Which implies that if you couldn’t. You wouldn’t. And that’s what separates superheros from normal humans. They can. They have the power, the strength, the skill, the ability. That’s the “super” part.
Now, Ben loves superheroes. It’s all he wants to do. All he's ever wanted to do and so, yes, he might know that answer. He might say that just because it’s the ‘right’ answer. It’s the answer a True Hero would give and that’s all Ben’s ever wanted to be.
But if you were to strip him down, get down to his true motivations? Ben would say “Because it’s the right thing to do.”
Because Ben doesn’t have a moral compass that the Earth itself aligns to. Ben’s nice to people because that’s how you make friends, because being mean doesn’t get you places. You’ve seen the way he treats people when he feels like it. We all know he prioritized video games over his girlfriend and sometimes even the adoring crowd over actually helping people.
Why do you think there are so many Bad Bens out there? That even the good ones (Like Ben 23) aren’t really all that great?
It’s because deep down, Ben’s not a great person. He wants fame and fortune and everything that comes with being a hero but he’s not innately heroic. He doesn’t win any prizes for being “true of heart” or having “strength of character” because let’s be honest, his character kind of sucks.
But that’s what’s so great about him. He wants to be a hero. He wants to be the savior of the universe. He wants to do the right thing because he wants to be a good person, even though, no, he’s not really that great.
And that’s so inspiring. Because I never stood up to people bullying other people. I had no problem standing by and watching them get hurt. Did I feel bad about it? Yes. But I’m not an innate hero. Deep down, I’m not genuinely a great person. I’m not as big an asshole as Ben is sometimes, but I lie awake at night thinking about what I’m going to with my life, not about what I’m going to do for others.
Even if I got superpowers I would never risk my life by becoming a crime-fighting vigilante, no matter how much I admire them, how much I wish I was a better person.
But Ben doesn’t let who he is stop him from becoming what he wants. He takes what he has and he works with it. Even now, 6 years after he first got the Omnitrix, he's not a superhero. He’s a plumber, a member of law enforcement, a cop. A superhero is, by definition, a vigilante with a secret identity; they do their work outside the law. Ben doesn’t.
Even the omnitrix itself wasn’t meant to be ‘superpowers.’ It was meant to teach species about each other, but how does Ben use it? To achieve what he wants.
Ben sees an opportunity to make his life into something he wants it to be and he takes it. He doesn’t let people tell him that he’s not really a superhero, that he should leave the watch alone, that he should let someone else handle it. And maybe it’s stupid, maybe it’s ill-advised, but he pushes what he wants until he gets it, and he doesn’t give up.
He’s not your ideal person, but he tries to act like one. And he acts out the job he wants, not the job he has.
He didn’t get his dream job by being born ‘special’ or 'unique’ or 'good’ or because he was 'chosen’.
He got there because he worked for it.
And if that’s not a better message than 'you’re such a good person and therefore you deserve to be a hero’ I don’t know what is.
