User blog:X9 The Android/PE Proposal: Zombozo

Hello guys! Today, here's my eleventh PE proposal, and it's about Zombozo, one of the most memorable and distinguished Ben 10 villains who made few appearances in the franchise.

WHO IS HE / WHAT HAS HE DONE?
Zombozo first appears in the Ben 10 episode "Last Laugh", where he is introduced as the clown of a traveling circus who is coincidentally on the town the Tennyson are visiting. Upon seeing Zombozo for the first time, Ben starts suffering from coulrophobia and leaves Zombozo's performance as such when they enter into the tent. While Max and Gwen remain inside watching Zombozo's show, Ben discovers that the Circus Freak Trio, Zombozo's henchmen, are stealing the town, so he defeats them. However, after Zombozo ends his show, Ben discovers that he has kidnapped Gwen along other people in the audience. As such, Ben and Max search him and Ben ends up discovering that Zombozo has the Psyclown, a machine he uses to drain the happiness of people when laughing. However, Ben overcomes his phobia and defeats Zombozo by using Ghostfreak.

Following his defeat at the hands of Ghostfreak, Zombozo never makes any more appearances until the Ben 10: Ultimate Alien episode "Hit 'Em Where They Live", where he makes his long-awaited return. When Ben's identity is revealed, Zombozo comes back and gathers a team to strike on the Tennysons. However, as Max stops most of the attacks, Zombozo teams up with Charmcaster and Vulkanus and kidnaps Sandra to lure Ben, Gwen and Kevin Levin to his hideout, letting Charmcaster and Vulkanus to take them down one by one so he could murder Sandra ina slow and cruel way, but Gwen ultimately stops him and transforms into her Anodite form, terrorizing Zombozo and forcing him to go away to spread the word of leaving the Tennyson family alone.

After that, Zombozo makes at least three more appearances in the infamous Ben 10: Omniverse, where his appearance becomes more and more disturbing, looking in a zombie-like style. While his appearances in "The More Things Chance: Part 1" and "Special Delivery" aren't as pivotal like in previous series yet he still taunts Ben, Zombozo crosses paths with the Tennysons once more in "Something Zombozo This Way Comes", where he tries to feed on the people's fear and turn them into zombie clowns, leading Ben's coulrophobia to resurface and allowing Zombozo to gain more power. However, Ben ultimately overcomes his phobia yet again and Zombozo escapes to fight another day.

However, I'm talking about the original Zombozo. The Zombozo of the 2016 reboot is less villainous because he wants to hypnotize to make people follow his orders.

MITIGATING FACTORS?
While this never appears in the show, writer Matt Wayne has confirmed that Zombozo was bitten by a zombie and left for dead before being retrieved by a circus in the past. Although this could be a hint that Zombozo is a tragic villain, he goes away past from being excused and acts like a sadistic and vile clown who enjoys morbid jokes and feeds on the happiness and fear of people. Interestingly, from all the villains of the series, Zombozo is one of the few who made little to no appearances, but is one of the most memorable not only due his disturbing nature and for developing Ben Tennyson's coulrophobia, but also for allowing Zs'Skayr, Ghostfreak's true form, to resurface.

As previously mentioned, in his first appearance, Zombozo's show is a bait to distract people while the Circus Freak Trio loots the town where they are. While this could be done by any criminal and use Zombozo's act as a mere distraction, Zombozo chooses to kidnap many people on his audience to extract their happiness so he can eat it to feed himself. However, the effects of the Psyclown are extreme and in some cases, like Gwen's, makes its victims age. However, Zombozo's sadism becomes clear when he realizes that Ben has coulrophobia, taking advantage of the young boy and tormenting him so he will surrender and let him feed with all his victims, leaving Ben no options but defeat his phobia and transform himself in Ghostbreak to scare Zombozo away, but Zombozo's actions inadvertently allow Zs'Skayr to resurface, which makes Zombozo party responsible for starting the Zs'Skayr storyline.

When Zombozo reappears in the second series, however, he proves to be more depraved and evil than in the original. Said and done, Zombozo is shown to be more psychopathic and upon becoming aware of Ben's identity he decides to get his revenge on Ben by kidnapping Sandra and planning to kill her in a slow and cruel way. Like in the previous series, Zombozo sends his henchmen, this time Charmcaster and Vulakanus, to do the dirty work for him while he plans to torture Sandra, demonstrating that he is now a more deranged foe, something which Charmcaster herself even realizes when she reflects that she fears Zombozo more than his uncle Hex, another one of Ben's supernatural foes who despite his evil ways even went to redeem himself unlike Zombozo. The episode also implies more of Zombozo's newest murderous ways, hinting that he has buried someone (if he killed him/her or buried him/her alive is something we don't know).

Finally, in his appearances in the third series, Zombozo is shown more terrifying than previously and still loves to taunt Ben. However, in his last appearance, he opts to feed on the people's fear to transform them into zombie clowns, which makes him like a mix between The Joker and the Scarecrow, two other known villains who are mostly depicted as Pure Evils. Zombozo even becomes more powerful when he lets Ben's coulrophobia to resurface again, showing that his sadism is still promiment. To be fair, if you have reached this point, you must have realized why Zombozo was so iconic and one of the most disturbing villains in the show, which makes me wonder how I didn't find him scary yet threatening...

VERDICT
Taking all of this into account, I would say yes about considering Zombozo to be approved as PE.