My Opinions On Bengia(+A Borderline Character Analysis Of CT Ben)

My Opinions on Bengia(+A borderline character analysis of CT Ben)

(Obviously, JWCT s3 Spoilers ahead)

Okay, a couple disclaimers before we get into this:

•I like Gia. This has less to do with her as a character and moreso how the relationship itself comes into play.

•I try not to let any hcs/bias get in the way here, there obv may be some because that's just how the human brain works, but this is mostly my opinion with any of those biases put aside.

•This is my opinion as someone whose favourite character has been Ben since the day s1 dropped, and therefore has put a lot of time into "analyzing" him.

Okay, into the opinions.

To put it blunt, I don't like Bengia, wow shocker lmao, but my reasoning is more than just basic hcs.

For starters, when they're together they feel like different people to when they're apart, yeah, couples can seem different together versus with others, but its to the point that their relationship feels like an act to me, something they're trying to make seem perfect and over the top. It feels disingenuous to me. Comparing their "chemistry" to other characters with Ben feels very flat, it feels unnatural. Once again, trying not to let biases get in the way, but fuck dude, Benji's chemistry this entire show has felt more natural (which is a rant in itself), as was Benrius in s1.

I would like what they had in terms of matching each other's freak more if it was platonic, tbh, they just both seem like they're pretending they're something they're not when it comes to a romantic relationship and I don't fw that.

As for how Ben's writing comes into this, this entire show he's been played as a joke character, he hasn't been taken nearly as seriously as the other's, in terms of his trauma, his emotions, how he's allowed to feel about everything going on, etc. The closest things we got to him being taken seriously were his panic attack in s2(which— even that was played as a joke, dwrks writers, not everything to do with Ben needs to be funny !) And his fight with Kenji, which barely lasted and there was never a real, serious resolve, other than ig the plane crash and Kenji protecting Ben just to protect the egg, which I don't like, there was no actual conversation, it was just there, played as a joke, and then it was gone. In s3, when the egg hatches, he's emotional, which is valid, but it's for external reasons. When he has the talk with Gia, he's finally allowed to express some sort of emotion, but it's just to do with their relationship, and I do not like that one bit. This season he felt like he was played down to being Gia's boyfriend, their entire arc felt like watching that couple in the hallway blocking your locker make out and just knowing that as soon as the puppy love phase is over they're gonna break up.

Ben has trauma, so much of it, and yes, people grow up, however when you're ripped out of a moving monorail and face a near death experience, then proceed to NOT get therapy for it, it's still going to resurface as trauma, which we haven't seen at all in CT. I saw someone on twt say that CT feels like the writers never actually watched CC, just read the scripts or something and went from there, and I gotta say that to an extent, I agree. So many characters have had their personalities dumbed down to plot points, and Ben takes a major hit in that area.

Now aside from the character analysis and everything, I *really* hate how the queer relationship was treated, not simply because of the breakup, but because in order to highlight how badly yasammy were fighting, they almost always followed it up with/used it to follow up how "perfect" and happy the white, het passing couple was. I'm sorry, but that's just in poor taste. Using your poc wlw ship to make your m/f ship look better is gross, I'm sorry, like I could be that friend that's too woke but it just leaves a terrible taste in my mouth overall.

I have more opinions surrounding how this show treats queerness, but that's a rant for after s4 comes out to see if they can pull off a miracle and fix it, but for now that is my rant. Yk its bad when I prefer CC Kenlynn's writing over a ship.