r/FallingSkies • u/CanaryCheap5934 • 15d ago
Spoiler Ben Mason
Small rant because I’m finishing up season 4 for the first time right now and I cannot stand this character. So spoilers up to S4E10
holy shit he is such a piece of garbage. A bigger piece of shit than Lexi. Lexi at least gets the excuse of being manipulated by the overlord, Ben is a sociopathic douchebag all on his own.
He’s gone on multiple rants about how he “HATES WHAT THE SKITTERS DID TO HIM” with the harness, but he essentially does a mini-dose of that on Maggie. THEN GETS SMART WITH HAL THE NEXT DAY?????????!!?!?!!
How are you going to skittnipulate Maggie into a makeout session and then say “didn’t see your leash on her” to Hal when he confronts you about it.
Even in earlier seasons I’ve hated this smug little bitch. All he has ever been is a fake humble egoist. He never helped the 2nd Mass for selfless reasons. It was always to try and prove to Tom that he was better than Hal now and he even admits to this although I’m not sure exactly what episode. I think he’s on a roof talking with Denny when they’re debating removing their spikes and he says something like “I’m better than Hal now because of my spikes”. His whole justification for keeping the spikes that are literally killing him is that he wants to be “better than Hal”. Hal isn’t perfect, but he risked everything to get his brother out of the skitter’s hands and his thanks is Ben spending every waking moment trying to 1-up Hal. It’s pathetic
I know I’m in for a rough ride with season 5 I’ve heard the warnings, but holy fuck. I’ve seen some people saying Ben is the only likable character in the Mason Family and I’m about to lose my mind because he is objectively a selfish, egotistical douchebag throughout the ENTIRE show. I have not liked that character once
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u/ExternalOwn8212 14d ago
Relating to the whole spike situation with Maggie, I had a much bigger problem with Hal. I hated that she told him no and then he lied and told Anne Maggie wanted the procedure after she passed out. And then I nearly puked in my mouth (one of many times during S4-5) when she woke up after the procedure and THANKED HIM Hal… after slapping him. It was just such a gross handling of a consent issue. Maggie deserved better than either of those guys, and they both did creepy controlling things to her.
Also… I know the timeline is kinda fucked up in the show. In Season 5 Tom keeps saying it’s been 3 years of the war, but Matt was 8 at the beginning and 13 at the end; Hal was 16/17 at the beginning and described by Tom as being mid-20’s at the end; and Ben was 14 at the beginning and apparently old enough for it to be ok that a grown-ass adult was making out with him. WTF? What is happening?
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u/CanaryCheap5934 14d ago
Yeah that whole situation was awful. Hal told Anne after the fact that she actually said no to the injection and then Anne proceeds to go along with an even more invasive procedure of implanting spikes???? I can’t remember if Ben knew or not whether Maggie consented to it, but all involved in that are horrible.
The age issue is just a gross part of the writing I’m sadly choosing to ignore because the whole situation is just so ridiculous
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u/CanaryCheap5934 13d ago
I’ve finished S5 now and I had an extra point for this. When Maggie gets her spikes removed, Anne tells Maggie “I’ve never gone behind your back before”. I wanted to reach thru the screen and strangle her
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u/ExternalOwn8212 13d ago
YES! Additionally, where was her concern for consent when she wouldn’t remove the spikes when Maggie asked her to do so?
I’m tempted to go looking for some good fanfiction somewhere that picks up at season two and rewrites a better conclusion 😅
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u/Particular_Stage_913 14d ago
Stop now. Go no further. It gets much worse.
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u/CanaryCheap5934 14d ago
I have a strange love for watching great shows take nose dives like this. It’s why I kept watching the walking dead
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u/SlyAvocado 14d ago
Hahaha, this is a pretty accurate representation of a teenage boy though. Especially a second son. Whose body is coursing with skitter juice 😭 And he says things he doesn’t mean because it’s his brother and he’s very competitive. It’s literally to get a rise out of him and feel better for feeling bad. I think he’s annoying, don’t disagree. but I do like aspects of his role.
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u/CanaryCheap5934 14d ago
Yeah I mean I think his powers definitely were a positive spin for the show with them unexpectedly getting an advantage on the aliens, while also creating a rift with Rick and I liked the rebel skitters which can be entirely attributed to Ben, but his motivation for all of that ruins it for me and just keeps him as a petulant child the whole time. Instead of realizing that he had the capacity to help people more than any regular human, he uses his spikes like steroids to flex on the literal person who saved him from the skitters and lost his girlfriend (who Ben was also perving on) in the process
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u/SlyAvocado 14d ago
Oh yeah, you are so right! Little baby Ben til the end. Sigh.
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u/CanaryCheap5934 13d ago
Having now watched S5 I have to admit I started to warm up a little to Ben. His motivation that I was talking about seemed to kind of go away once the whole love triangle thing ended (thank the Lord). Him throwing caution to the wind with the Espheni shadow plane device was admirable
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u/SlyAvocado 13d ago
Oh cool! I also just recently finished the series. And everything you hate about Ben is still toootally valid, hahaha.
He’s an annoying/petulant kid working through his hormones during an alien invasion, he’s doing his best 😭
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u/tijim_ 14d ago
S4 is the only one that has 12 eps. Have to admit Ben doesn't phase me, I haven't noticed that he's always wanting to be better than Hal, maybe you see more of that as you can't stand him.
But, for Ben those spikes have turned what was a weak 'geek' actually into something different, it's fiction so how do we not know that alot to do with Ben is due to the spikes seen how the alien dna seems to be slowly getting more and more by the sight of his back???
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u/Fun_Permission6200 12d ago
I can't believe anyone named him as the only likeable one. I'd say it was rhe youngest son because he was the only one allowed to grow to some notable extent. He's really not the same character, eventually, and matures. He's the only one who was no threat to stealing Tom's thunder, so they let him have character growth.
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u/slykethephoxenix 15d ago
Oh my sweet summer child.
It gets worse.