| “ | Don't talk to me about old. I walk in eternity. | „ |
| ~ Paradox about his life. |
| “ | So many different ways to tell a story, but that's what makes them so interesting; you can never predict how they're going to turn out. | „ |
| ~ Professor Paradox to Ben after saving the Multiverse. |
Professor Paradox is a major character in the Ben 10 franchise.
He's a time traveling professor whose real name has been forgotten after being trapped outside of time for centuries. Paradox uses his ability to travel anywhere in space or time (within reason) to save the universe many times, eventually crossing paths with Ben Tennyson and becoming one of his most trusted allies.
He was voiced by the late David McCallum.
Personality[]
Paradox is portrayed as a calm, easy-going man. He talks much like a stereotypical scientist, with dialogue requiring a greater command of the English language to fully understand. When he was displaced outside of time, he went crazy; however, millennia later, he "got bored of that" and became sane.
In his first appearance, Swampfire tried to capture Paradox (not knowing whether he was friend or foe), but he always "teleported" to a place a few meters away. When Swampfire asked how he did that, the calm Paradox replied: "It's called walking". He really likes gumballs and is often seen offering to anyone he meets.
Paradox has a habit of getting events that haven't happened yet (from the perspective of the viewer and those he's talking to) and those that have (from his perspective) mixed up, due to his travels through time.
Paradox's calm personality also makes it difficult to tell when he's joking or not, such as telling Kevin that if his replacement car (factory new from the past) came in contact with anything else from the same year it was made, it would "explode like anti-matter."
History[]
Background[]
At some point he was working for Area 51. It's not known what his job was exactly, but it had something to do with the alien prisoners there.
In the 1950s, Paradox, having discovered special properties in quartz crystals, received government funding to break a hole in the space-time continuum. However, a slight miscalculation, and an explosion accidentally caused by his panicked assistant Hugo, threw Paradox into the event horizon, where he remained for a hundred thousand years. He was displaced outside of time, where he didn't age, or have to sleep or eat; just exist. He went insane for a while, but then got bored and regained his sanity. He gained complete understanding of the space-time continuum, though he forgot his original name in the process.
At some point Paradox ran afoul of the Celestialsapiens and was forbidden from ever being with 50 light years of them. Possibly because he kept undoing all their meddling with time.
Alien Force[]
Paradox used his understanding to travel across time, making different parts of history better for others. He said he would help Ben save the "whole entire universe".
Paradox soon learns that the accident sent an extra-dimensional creature fifty years from the time of the experiment. He traveled to the Alien Force time to stop it, meeting Ben's younger self. It was at this point that he gained his new moniker, with Gwen bringing it up as the name of his original time travel project. After a few fights with the creature, Ben told Paradox to take them all back to the accident, where it is discovered that Hugo was the creature. He was frightened and confused, but turning everything to dust. By preventing Hugo from being sucked into the event horizon, it negated his time-accelerating existence. After returning to Ben's present, Paradox was stoked that he didn't see it in the first place. He took an older Hugo to a behind-the-scenes look at eternity.
Paradox left the trio one last gift, Kevin's regressed car, factory new from 1976. But a note warns him that if the car comes in contact with anything from that era, it would explode like antimatter. Dwayne McDuffie has confirmed that the note that Paradox left Kevin was merely a joke.
Paradox returns in the two part season two finale, War of the Worlds. He meets up with Azmuth, who greets him as "Time Walker", just as the Highbreed begin to invade Galvan Prime. Paradox convinces Azmuth to escape the planet's destruction, before meeting up with Ben. He informs Ben of the impending crisis, who resorts to gathering all the allies he made. Paradox aids Gwen and Kevin in recruiting Alan, Cooper and Darkstar to help in the fight, by teleporting them to the right location. He then joins Ben's Team and partakes in the following battle against the Highbreed. Here he displays the ability to slow down time using his watch, allowing him to move at high speeds and taking out a large number of DNAliens. Later he accepts a gun made by Cooper and uses it to turn DNAliens back into humans.
Paradox appears in Time Heals where he tries to stop Gwen from traveling back in time to stop Kevin from mutating, but is unable to persuade her. After Gwen succeeds in her endeavor, she returns to the present to discover a post-apocalyptic world enslaved by Hex and Charmcaster. Paradox appears again and informs her that she is the cause of all this, as well as telling her that "time traveling is for immortals and fools". He brings Gwen up to date with the events of this alternate future, which end up with Ben getting captured, Kevin becoming enslaved by Charmcaster, and Gwen being killed. A shocked and guilt-ridden Gwen attempts to repair the damage she has done, to which Paradox cautions her to be careful, only to discover she has already left. He smiles knowingly and states that "youth never listen". After Gwen manages to retrieve the book with the time travelling spell, and manages to fix her mistake, Paradox appears once again in the restored present. Gwen asks him whether there was any more trouble, to which he states there wasn't before mysteriously vanishing again.
Ultimate Alien[]
Paradox appears in the episode of Ultimate Aggregor by giving advice to Kevin. It is revealed he divided the Map of Infinity into four pieces in the past.
In Perplexahedron, it is revealed Paradox created the planet Perplexahedron to hide the final piece of the map from those who would misuse its power.
Paradox appeared in The Forge of Creation, having the key to stop Ultimate Aggregor from tapping into the power of Alien X by helping Ben and his team getting there and he also took 10 year old Ben home. Paradox also can't be within 500 light years of any Celestialsapien, although why he isn't allowed to go near them is currently unknown.
Paradox appeared in Ben 10,000 Returns to visit Ben 10,000 and helps Ben 10,000 and Ben's Team foil Eon's evil plan. At the end of the episode, he asked Ben 10,000 to restore Swampfire and Way Big. He also gives a warning to Ben's team about Old George and the Creature From Beyond before leaving with Ben 10,000.
Omniverse[]
It's revealed that Paradox is aware that the universe was destroyed in So Long, and Thanks for All the Smoothies, and replaced with a near-identical one by Alien X. In the flashback of Blukic and Driba Go to Area 51, he was called by Colonel Rozum to help with the investigation about Blukic and Driba's fall on Earth.
Sometime in his life, Paradox was busy fighting in a Time War, apparently losing his right hand and replacing it with a robotic prosthetic. He had disguised his Chrono Navigator (his pocket watch, noted as a "GPS to the multiverse") for safekeeping,
Paradox managed to trap Eon in the Main Timeline to prevent him from crossing into others to cause chaos.
Paradox returns in Ben Again, where he's lost his professor look and has now, as Ben puts it, undergone a Steampunk general makeover. Following Eon switching the minds of 11-year-old Ben and 16-year-old Ben, Paradox goes fives years into the past to talk with 16-year-old Ben following Max's warning him not to give spoilers about the future. He informs Ben of his involvement in the Time War are the reason for his missing hand and that he has gone to great lengths to prevent Eon from causing havoc.
However, Eon finds him and cuts off his right hand, which is actually his disguised pocket watch, and takes him to an alternate dimension to be interrogated. As he is not a liar, Eon knows he doesn't have the Chrono Navigator with him and goes to take it from 11-year-old Ben. When Eon begins to use the Chrono Navigator to bring his minions into the main timeline, time begins falling apart. He is freed from his shackles thanks to 11-year-old Gwen and 16-year-old Gwen. Instructing both Bens to use Clockwork to place Eon between both periods of time, the timeline is restored to normal and all memory of the event is erased.
Ben 10,000 later comes looking for Paradox in 16-year-old Ben's era, saying that the Chronosapiens have gone rogue and Maltruant's beasts are on an inter-dimensional rampage, said this time war is getting out of hand.
In And Then There Were None, Paradox learns that Eon and Vilgax are abducting and brainwashing alternate Bens into serving them. He and Ben Prime travel to No Watch Ben's timeline, and are surprised that there is no Omnitrix in that Universe. They are confronted by Vilgax and Eon's evil Bens, who are countered by several alternate Bens. As the battle rages, Paradox vanishes, returning only after Vilgax sets off a Chronosapien Time Bomb, wiping out every timeline but No Watch Ben's. Paradox pulls No Watch Ben out of Vilgax's grasp, and tells him they have to restart Ben Prime's timeline.
In And Then There Was Ben, Paradox brings No Watch Ben to Vilgax's ship on the day Ben Prime found the Omnitrix, and directs him to ensure events happen the way they originally did. With that done, they begin recruiting the alternate Bens for the previous battle against Vilgax and Eon. Paradox leaves No Watch Ben behind, then returns to send him to the moment after he pulled him away from Vilgax. When the villains are defeated, Paradox returns all the alternate Bens to their own timelines.
In Let's Do the Time War Again, he and Ben 10,000 come to the present to find that time has stopped (due to a clash of energies between Feedback and a Time Beast). They travel further back in an attempt to prevent this from happening. They rebuild the wreckage of Rook's Proto-TRUK and Ben's Tenn-Speed into Time Cycles, using them to save Ben and Rook when the battle with the Time Beast goes awry once more (creating a black hole). They travel back to the same time as before, where Ben and Rook aid their past selves, and use their Time Cycles to revert the Time Beast back into an egg. Paradox takes the past Ben and Rook back in time to "close the loop."
In Secret of Dos Santos, Paradox appears to Ben, Rook and Kai Green in The Temple of The Sky, revealing that the artifact they'd been seeking was one of Maltruant's parts, which Paradox had scattered through time after Maltruant's defeat. The part they found was the main spring, which Paradox had hid in the temple years ago, under the protection of Ujin. When Exo-Skull attacks, Paradox tells Kai he can't do anything. After Exo-Skull is defeated, Paradox takes Ujin back home.
In A New Dawn, he gives Ben and Rook a Time Beast egg, which powers up their Time Cycles enough to follow Maltruant to a place even Paradox cannot reach: before the beginning of the universe. Following Maltruant's defeat, Paradox reveals that the villain is unknowingly trapped in a time loop, doomed to be defeated again and again, with Paradox hiding his parts each time. Paradox asks Ben and Rook to help hide Maltruant's parts before he returns them home.
Powers and Abilities[]
Due to his time in entrapment for several millennia, Paradox has an in depth understanding of the space-time continuum. This allows him to travel to any point in space and time, as well as slowing down or speeding up time as he pleases. However, he states that there are places he cannot go and things he cannot do, though what restricts him is not yet explained. Paradox's abilities are not limited to this universe, having visited other universes and the space between them.
Paradox is able to regress a person's age, but seems incapable of doing it on something mechanical, instead having to pull it physically out of the past.
Paradox is capable of teleporting people, objects and even places like the Forge of Creation to almost any destination instantaneously without any trouble. However, he does have to follow certain rules; for example, he cannot bring the past and future versions of an individual together unless absolutely necessary.
Additionally, Paradox's time travel powers have left him biologically immortal, leaving him unaffected by accelerated aging fields, nor does he need to eat or sleep.
Paradox is capable of reverting Ben from an alien back to his human form as he did to Alien X in The Forge of Creation.
He's genius scientist. He gained complete understanding of the space-time continuum, allowing him to travel anywhere and to any time he wants.
Weaknesses[]
There are places in existence Paradox cannot reach with his powers, such as before the beginning of time.
Paradox had admitted that he does not lie and Eon has confirmed this.
Getting control of Paradox's Chrono Navigator might give one an advantage over him, though this has proven to be a double-edged sword, as Eon almost destroyed all reality when he tried to use it.
Equipment[]
Chrono Navigator: A multiversal GPS, Paradox states if anyone else but him uses the Chrono Navigator, it would destroy all realities.
True Name[]
Nothing is known much about Paradox's true name. And some characters in the series only referred to him as "Time-Walker"
Paradox's information.
In Paradox, Ben's team found the information about mysterious doctor and his experiment. However, his name’s been censored. They met him once, when they met again later, Gwen decides to name the man "Professor Paradox" as his true name "slipped his mind" several hundred years ago.
Paradox's card.
In Absolute Power: Part 2, Ben found his card, but doesn't have his name written on it.
Quotes[]
| “ | The Chrono-logger is hardly a time machine in the sense of a vehicle, but rather a subatomic drill designed to bore a tunnel in the fabric of space-time. As to cost, I think the alleviation of untold human suffering throughout history is ample justification, General. | „ |
| “ | Have a gumball. It'll calm your nerves. | „ |
| “ | Swampfire! That takes me back - or is it forward? It's so hard to tell, Ben. Have we met? | „ |
| “ | Easy on the jacket. It's 1200 years old. | „ |
| “ | Where have you been? You were supposed to get here six seconds ago - or is this thing running fast? | „ |
| “ | Same old Ben Tennyson. You're more like yourself now than you were in the future, which for obvious reasons I can't really tell you about. | „ |
| “ | Los Soledad was built entirely on MY ingenious theory - a time tunnel utilizing the properties I discovered in quartz crystals which would allow us access to past and future events. | „ |
| “ | You don't know the half of it. Some tiny miscalculation on my part destabilized the experiment and ripped a hole in the fabric of reality. I was hurled into the event horizon. I must have spent one hundred-thousand years there. I didn't age or need to sleep or eat - just exist. | „ |
| “ | At first I went mad of course, but after a few millennia I got bored with that, too, and went sane - very sane. I began to learn. I now have total understanding of the space-time continuum, allowing me to travel anywhere and anywhen I want... within reason. | „ |
| “ | I've spent a dozen lifetimes crisscrossing the time stream, making it a better place. | „ |
| “ | Young Ben has an innate sense of transtemporal metaphysics, which will serve him well in his future - or should I say past? | „ |
| “ | Gumballs last a really long time. Look under your desk at school! | „ |
| “ | You're much smarter than you were when I met you later. | „ |
| “ | (Note from Paradox) "Kevin, try to keep in mind that if this car comes into contact with anything else form 1976, it will explode like antimatter. Enjoy! Paradox." | „ |
| “ | But - and I hesitate to say this to the smartest being in the universe - that's where you're wrong. | „ |
| “ | We do have a chance - the chance you made for us. | „ |
| “ | Paradox: There's an old saying in my field; Time travel is only for immortals and fools. And I speak from experience. Gwen: Professor Paradox? Paradox: Hello, Gwen. Gwen: What are you doing here? Paradox: I'm about to warn you not to go through with this plan of yours. (Looks at his pocket watch) See, I just did. Right on schedule. Now comes the part where you tell me... Gwen: This spell can send me back in time! Back when Ben and Kevin tried to hack the Omnitrix! Paradox: Yes, and you think if you can stop them there won't be any explosion and Kevin won't be transformed into a monster. And everything will be wonderful again! Gwen: Yes! Paradox: No! Generally, 2 out of 3 isn't bad, but in this case however... Trust me, Gwendolyn. Don't do this! Gwen: But I haven't been able to cure Kevin with my magic. It's the only way. Paradox: There's always another way. In fact, sometimes to do something, all you need to do is nothing. Gwen: (starts crying) You're not making any sense. Paradox: I'm often accused of that, but I'm the time walker and I'm generally quite well informed on these matters. Gwen: I have to do this. Paradox: I suppose you do. But mark my words, Gwen Tennyson. You are about to unleash forces that you can neither comprehend nor control. Toodle-doo |
„ |
| “ | I warned you that time travel is for immortals or fools. I'm the only immortal hereabouts. You do the math. | „ |
| “ | Colonel Rozum: That facility is under a read seal. If my men can't retake that base, my orders are to destroy it. Paradox: That would be a major error, or is that a colonel error? I'm not very good with rank. |
„ |
| “ | Paradox: In any case, I have other business demanding my attention, even more crucial. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Kevin Levin: You cribbed that from those movies. Paradox: I'm a time traveller. How do you know I won't eventually say it first? |
„ |
| “ | Kevin Levin: Wait. I thought the universe was everything. Paradox: A common error of the parochial mind. There's always more to reality than one imagines. |
„ |
| “ | If we're going to get there in time, we'll have to have already left. Off we go. | „ |
| “ | It's far from over, old friend. It's barely begun. | „ |
| “ | Yes. If nothing occurs to change it. That's why I've - bent the rules of time and brought you here. | „ |
| “ | Paradox: There are rules, Kevin. I cannot interfer. Gwen Tennyson: Excuse me. But aren't you already interfering? Paradox: Touche... Actuall I've just come to give young Ben a warning. But that can wait. Ben Tennyson: Until what? Paradox: Until I see if you survive. |
„ |
| “ | True. But if you dare procede there is nowhere in all of space and time you can hide from me. | „ |
| “ | Time to go. But first a warning to my young friend. Beware old George. Beware the creature from beyond. So long. | „ |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Due to the nature of his abilities, it is difficult to tell exactly what order the events of the series take place from his perspective. During his introductory episode, he was already familiar with Ben, Gwen and Kevin, and later events in the series. His first meeting with them (from his perspective) has never been shown.
- Though he confirmed Ben turned into Swampfire first at that time.
- Paradox detests the neighbor universe to the Ben 10 Prime universe, stating that the physics are "terribly counter-intuitive".
- When asked if this meant the Real World, Dwayne McDuffie answered "it would be funny if it was".
- Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that Professor Paradox was inspired by The Doctor (especially the Tenth Doctor) of the British television show Doctor Who. Some similarities include their time traveling abilities, character traits, neither being known by their real name, use of the same phrases, and being associated with a fobwatch.
- Professor Paradox stated that guns are "disgusting", much like how the Doctor hates them.
- The pop-up trivia version of Ben 10: Race Against Time states that Paradox also stopped Eon prior to the events of the film.
- Despite the fact he's ageless, Paradox has graying hair in Omniverse; possibly due to Maltruant's time lasers.
- Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that Paradox was joking in the note about Kevin's car exploding if it came into contact with other 1980s material.
