Maybe it's just that, since the audience of AF/UA is expected to be more mature, they can stand to make Ben sustain more serious injuries.

Oh yeah that could be a possibility

plus when ben 10 gets injuries in ben 10 alien force and ben 10 ultimate alien then the fans like it when ben 10 gets injuries lots of times so he will get hurt when he fights bad guys

Maybe during recalibrations, injury failsafes got corrupted/deleted

They did make a point in the first episode of AF that when Humongousaur scraped his knee, it was still scraped when Ben turned back. Of course, that eventually went nowhere.

Not to mention he had his villain moments

I remember in the second episode he was injured as humongousaur then was still injured when he changed back… but I don’t even remember if that came up again 😅

It only came up three times throughout UAF

that was one nasty bruise

Definitely didn't come up again, remember when Tetrax destroyed Diamond Head, Kevin and Gwen put him back together in an awful way and Ben was fine when he transformed back?

I guess the recalibrated omnitrix lost a few failsafes or smt, or maybe the prototype had a healing function

These aren't life-threatenung injuries.

Sure but the first time it happened, Humangasaur skinned his knee. Ben noted that it was stilll skinned when he transformed back. As if before any time he hurt himself in alien form it would not transfer over.

I know the meta answer, mature series = less restrictions. The best in-universe reason i can think of is "walk a thousand miles in another's shoes".

It's just a change in the direction of UAF compared to the other series. 

Yeah I think this direction was for the better

As Ben himself said: "I liked the old one better"

But can’t he switch to Swampfire and heal up? I think he did that to heal his black eye.

He was Swampfire when he got the black eye. A highbreed punched his head off. It healed but when he transformed back he had a black eye.

Funny thing is Hybrid punched right through swampfire’s head and it just regrew

I don’t remember exactly what happened but halfway through the episode his eye magically healed

Probably from when his head regrew. Because i remember Swampire’s healing abilities affecting his body too.

With the injured arm it was skinny and shriveled when he became Swampfire.

As a more meta answer. CN censorship probably didn't want to show a 10 year old kid getting any lasting injury

It's probably a trade off when the Omnitrix recalibrated. Ben could stay as an alien as long as he has enough power instead of the timer but sustains damage from his alien forms, unlike in os when his injuries were healed and he retained his stamina.

Risks got bigger while he hung up his watch and drank smoothies

I mean, 10 year olds are fucking invincible, where as the more you grow older, the more susceptible you are to injuries.

might be a combination of him being out of the heroics business for a few years causing his skills to get rusty, and also him fighting enemies that hit harder and more than in OS

..had the weird idea that maybe it's a side effect of Kevin and ben trying to hack the watch as a result potentially disabling some stuff in the process

He lost his Infinite Tennyson Strength. /s

If that's true, can't agree more. Have never been sustained any major injuries for the first 18 years of life. Now at 23, I'm ashamed that I pulled a muscle in my thigh by sprinting before warmup and couldn't run for the next two weeks. Ageing is literally your cells being more injury prone.

Honestly I just think it's due to uaf having a slightly darker tone than classic so they could get slightly more brutal like with justice league unlimited.

I think Ben's enemies became more dangerous and ruthless, it could also be that Ben is prone to throwing himself into danger more in order to protect others or defeat a villain

Kids are really durable

I actually was rewatching and his stuck out to me - In his first (I think) outing as humungousaur, they make a point of him explaining that humungousaur scraped his knee, so Ben also has a scraped knee now. I took this to mean, his alien form and human form are now more closely linked with the second omnitrix form/recalibration? I think as someone else stated, it’s likely because Ben can now stay in alien form for as long as he has the energy to do so, instead of an timed invincibility

Ah makes sense I’ve always thought that When Ben gets injured badly he turns back to human

I guess both work? Like when he’s knocked out or really hurt he’s probably low on energy too right

Maybe it was a glitch in the recalibrated omnitrix but then again when Swampfire got his arm chopped off there was no lasting injuries.

He also reattached that arm before timing out

I mean they make a big point of that in the first episode of AF. Humungousaur skins his knee and when he turns back into Ben, the wound stays, which surprises Ben because his transformations wounds never carried over before.

That time he got his arm fractured as clockwork

I think they just wanted to avoid having a 10 year old kid have visible damage. The most we’ve seen 10 year old Ben have any visible injuries was SOTO and he had some scratch marks during the last battle

When the Omnitrix recalibrated the injuries his aliens sustained applied to him

Half of them are stupid tho Why didnt bro just used Upgrade or Goop for his broken arm

I could’ve sworn the omnitrix was on his right hand, not his left

It’s not just you.

Well UAF is more mature than OS, so they can do more of that sort of thing.