The Origins of Gwen Tennyson

Here on this page you will now learn about this next member of Ben’s and her name is Gwen Tennyson. What you should first know is that Gwen is Ben’s cousin and (along with Kevin Levin and Rook Blonko) she is a front line member of his team.

Gwen was first introduced when her parents sent her on a summer-long road trip Grandpa Max and her cousin Ben. She has, as Verdona refers to it as, “The Spark”. In Ben 10: Omniverse, like her boyfriend Kevin, she became a recurring character rather than a main one in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, as she went off to an Ivy League college (which is Friedkin University) early because she skipped a few grades and she is very smart, but during spring break she does visit her home occasionally.

Appearance: When Gwen appeared in the original series as a 10 year old, her appearance shows that she had short red hair that is held up by a blue hair clip and green eyes and wore a blue shirt with a cat logo on her chest and white caprice. She wears a blue hairclip in her bangs. Her Lucky Girl outfit was worn in both episodes Tough Luck and Lucky Girl. When she appeared in the first and second season of Ben 10: Alien Force as a 15 year old, she wore a white shirt under a dark blue sweater, black stockings under a black mini skirt, and black high heels. Her hair has also grown longer and is now down to her waist. In the third season, she wears a red shirt paired with a black vest, gray pants, and black flats. Her hair is worn in a high ponytail. In her Anodite form, she looks like a mini version of her grandmother Verdona. At the beach, Gwen wore a black bikini. Later on, she wore a white one in an episode where she, Ben, and Kevin first met Verdona. In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, when she was now 16 years old, her outfit was similar to the outfit that she was wearing from the first two seasons of Alien Force, but now with a red colored sweater while her hair was now slicked back in a ponytail. In the episode Inspector 13, she was seen wearing a violet colored tank with a white colored skirt and tennis shoes. When she appeared again in Ben 10: Omniverse, still as a 16 year old she did still have the ponytail but now it appeared to be much shorter than it was before. The clothes that she wears were similar to her Alien Force seasons 1-2 outfit, except that she now wears long white socks that go up to here knees with black marry colored jeans along with freckles on her face. When her eleven-year old self appeared in Omniverse her appearance looked just the same as it was before in the original series except that she now has freckles and her dark blue colored cat logo on her light blue colored shirt is now a bit bigger. Later on when she came back from college on spring break with Kevin to visit Ben, her appearance was a lot different that usual, for example her hair is shorter, which is still an orange color, with a blue colored hairclip, a light blue t-shirt with her cat logo on it, a blue plaid colored miniskirt and blue-tinted colored glasses that she wears on her face. When she showed her Anodite form the appearance of it was quite different than usual since it was seen in the Ben 10: Ultimate Alien series. For example her skin turns into purple color, but her hair remains the same length as always, but is now made of mana and is pink and her eyes also turn into a pink color. Her glasses have transformed into a blue mask along with blue colored gloves that she wears on her hands, and her shirt has changed from plaid blue to a darker blue color with a light blue colored stripe on it. Her shirt gets cuts off a little bit to reveal her midriff and naval. She also wears blue colored boots with a dark blue colored miniskirt with a light blue colored stripe and belt. The cat logo on her shirt also changes from blue to black with pink colored eyes.

Personality: Gwen’s personality shows that she use to have an naive nature which is toned down in Ben 10: Alien Force; she is now shown to be more analytical than she was before and she is a pretty quick thinker and an instinctive person. She can handle dangerous situations, despite their often-unfavorable conditions. An example of this happened when Charmcaster drained her magical powers and when Charmcaster hit her with a bolt of magical energy; she immediately reversed the spell and although she had no power left, she showed that she was capable of being able to hold herself. Gwen’s other part of her personality is that at times she is shown to be very concerned with the well being of things around her, such as her surroundings, the people around her, and those that she cares about. She is very strong (physically and mentally) and well mannered, despite her inflating sarcasm and ego at some certain times. Gwen is a very caring, compassionate person, as shown by her acceptance of Kevin’s past and recent actions, as well as her statements that she does not care about Kevin’s appearance. In the episode Hero Time, it is shown that Gwen did get very jealous when Jennifer Nocturne (the famous movie star who said that she was Ben’s biggest fan and managing to kiss him) was starting flirt with Kevin after he was able to save her life from Captain Nemesis a.k.a Overlord. Also Kevin did protected Jennifer a lot, during the course of this episode.

History about her: The thing about Gwen that makes her a good member of Ben’s team throughout the years when she was 10 years old she uses newspapers and her laptop to research any strange people and creatures that she, Ben, and Max might come across. Also since she and Ben were younger at the time they always had plenty of arguments. In the episode Ben 10,000 when Gwen met a thirty-year-old version of herself in an alternate reality her future self that she got a black belt years ago and that it’s come in handy many times. She’s even been shown an almost innate skill in using various complicated devices or objects, such as her “What If?” counter part from the episode Gwen 10, where in an alternate reality Gwen gained the Omnitrix instead of Ben and this proved to be far more adept in its use than he initially was, like for example being able to write her name with fire as Heatblast while Ben took a month to be able to do it. Plus she is very smart because when she turned 16 she has been able to skip a few grades of high school and was able to go off to college early as shown in Omniverse. Also during the course of the series she has developed a romantic relationship with Kevin. They have also been shown to have arguments, usually starting with Gwen always trying to force Kevin to “ask her out” and him always answering “Don’t push me” (which she once did). During the episode Save the Last Dance from Ben 10 Alien Force, where Ben was having a problem with Big Chill Gwen was going to a dance in her prep school and expects Kevin to ask her out which almost didn’t work out until Ben was able to help Kevin out by telling him about things that Gwen likes. The episode was then ended with Gwen and Kevin dancing together in the moonlight. In that very same episode, it has also been revealed that Gwen really likes yellow roses. Another part of Gwen’s history with Ben was that during the two part season premiere episode of Ben 10: Alien Force, Vengeance of Vilgax, where Ben and Gwen are both 15 years old they do seem to have revived an infamous rivalry from the original series, which as you know was in part due to Ben’s cockiness and inflated ego. Plus in that very same episode, Gwen poured a smoothie over Ben’s head, and he nearly tried to return the favor. But the thing of it is that despite their bitter rivalry, they both still have a strong bond, which was shown visible during the episode In Charm’s Way, when Ben was able to defended Gwen and also informed Kevin that she had been spending all of her spare time trying to find a cure for Kevin’s condition and make a normal person again. During the episode Video Games, it was shown that Gwen was trying out for her driver’s license although it was a bit hard when the Stalker robot (a machine that had all of the moves of Ben’s alien forms downloaded into it’s memory by Oliver) tried to destroy Ben’s car because it was looking for Ben, but in the end it showed that she was able to passed her drivers test and was able to earn her license. Also during the episode It’s Not Easy Being Gwen, it’s revealed that Gwen really does take education very seriously. She is shown to have always come home late at all hours of the night and then wakes up at 5:30am, which can sometimes annoy her. She is even involved in many activities, such as jogging, learn the language French, and going to karate classes after school.

Abilities in the field: The abilities that Gwen has when she goes out into the field to battle super villains and aliens is that she is a capable gymnast and has had some training in martial arts and because of that all the training she had Gwen is now a black belt in Karate and the second reason of is that throughout the years she gained magic powers. She is capable of creating energy constructs for nearly any purpose, usually creating platforms to levitate herself (and others), beams to grab enemies, circular blasts to knock enemies back, projecting beams from her eyes that seem to simulate heat vision, and opening up inter dimensional portals. It’s reveled that Gwen’s powers and magical abilities that she uses in the field are revealed to be of alien descent; her paternal grandmother, Verdona, is an energy being known as an Anodite; from the distant planet Anodyne, and surprisingly Gwen found out she seemed to be the only human descendant who inherited Verdona’s powers. Verdona tells Gwen that what she and others originally thought of as “magic” was actually the control of mana, a substance of magic-making Anodites; a magic-wielding race. Verdona offers to take Gwen to her home planet and train her in the immense mystical and magical ways of the Anodites, but Gwen prefers to remain on Earth with Ben and Kevin. She dislikes being called an “energy being”, referring to her Anodite heritage as revealed in the episode Paradox. In the episode Unearthed, an alien baby was somehow able to see her as an Anodite, in which her Anodite form looked very much exactly like her paternal grandmother’s true form, but the form appeared to be slightly shorter than Verdona’s Anodite form which is taller. During the two-part second season finale episode War of the Worlds, when Kevin was being threatened by one of the Highbreed Commanders, Gwen managed to released her dormant innermost Anodite self for the very first time, and was able to easily defeat the commander with an exceedingly strong powerful burst of pure magenta-pink colored glowing energy. She was almost overwhelmed by her own power and almost wanted to defeat the Highbreed commander all on her own before Kevin was able snapped her out of it by saying “I can’t lose you” because he loves her and doesn’t want her to lose her humanity.

Weaknesses: Gwen’s only weakness is at other times when she trusts others too quickly, that of which can be a disadvantage or even injure her, like for example in the episode All that Glitters from Ben 10 Alien Force, and Too Hot To Handle from Ben 10 Ultimate Alien. Another one her weaknesses were shown in the episode Vengeance of Vilgax: Part 2 and in the episode Inferno, that Gwen has appeared to suffer from both arachnophobia and claustrophobia.

First appearance: And Then There Were 10

Here are photos of Gwen over the years: