Where does the “Intergalactic Battle Tournament” Story-line Originate? | The Modern Hidalgo

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Ben 10? The 80s? Roman Mythology? Space?
THE MODERN HIDALGO: Entry_021
Written: Saturday. July 27, 2019.

Once again, I’m here at my friend Kurt’s House. We have a photo shoot later by 7 am. So, we’re supposed to be taking power naps already. But I can’t let myself lose a day of writing a journal entry for this Daily Journal of mine. I mean, I only have 6 days in a week of doing this, cause I made Sundays my rest day. So losing a day is quite crucial.

This journal entry might not be as good of a quality as most of my other entries. Mainly because my focus is not that great whenever I’m writing in an area where there are a lot of loud noises happening, or people talking.
I didn’t bring my earphones, because I’m an idiot.
I do want to share something that I was thinking of while I was packing my things for the trip. It’s about a reoccurring story that I’ve noticed on some cartoons, movies, etc.

If you’re familiar with the movie “Thor: Ragnarok”, skip it to the part where Thor gets trapped in this planet where there’s an ongoing intergalactic battle tournament going on.


That whole scene in particular, is what I spent my whole commute from Manila to Cogeo thinking of.
Cause I’ve seen that before. A couple of times, actually, on several other places.

I first saw it back in the Cartoon Network Original Show, Ben 10. There’s an episode there where Ben gets randomly beamed out of his solar system, to compete in an intergalactic battle tournament. Ben had to use his arsenal of Aliens he could transform into with the help of the Omnitrix, to help him fight off the aliens he gets to face. Eventually, he finds out that his friend, Kevin Levin (an Osmosian—meaning, a individual who could absorb other entities powers), got beamed up in the same tournament as him.


Kevin was currently this mashed up version of all of the 10 prime aliens of Ben’s Omnitrix. And Ben was just his regular self, having to deal with his sometimes malfunctioning Omnitrix. Both Ben and Kevin eventually team up to destroy whoever was running the intergalactic battle tournament, and Ben was sent back to Earth, Kevin remained in the arena.


The second time I saw that kind of story was in the Cartoon Network version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which is arguably the best iteration of the four heroes in a half-shell). Leonardo, Rafael, Michelangelo and Donatello are all beamed up into an intergalactic battle tournament somewhere in the universe. All of them have to fight strong aliens, and eventually team up to destroy the ones responsible for running the intergalactic tournament. And the four turtle brothers get back home, like nothing happened.


The third time I saw it, and this is stretching it, is with the Hunger Games movies. Now, I know it’s technically not intergalactic, but the situation is generally the same. The districts are the different planets, and the Capitol is the one that runs the Intergalactic Battle Tournament, the random selection in each district for a tribute is how the Tournament chooses its champions.

And we all know what happens in the end of the Hunger Games movies. Spoiler Alert: they destroy the Capitol, therefore ending the Annual Hunger Games, which is their version of the Intergalactic Battle Tournament.

I’ve seen some other versions of an Intergalactic Battle Tournament every once in a while, it’s just that Thor: Ragnarok is the most recent iteration of the same old story. So I got curious as to why the same kind of story arc keeps on reoccurring in pop culture.

So I did some research (whenever I say “I did some research”, I just looked up shit on Google), and the results were interesting.

There’s this one article that patterns Thor: Ragnarok’s every movie element, to the movie “The Arena”.


The Arena is a movie from the 80’s, about a Boxing Tournament being held in space, where the strongest of the strong in every planet or race, gets selected as “Champions” in order to compete with other Champions for the title of Master of the Universe.


The main character of the story is a Human, and he gets sent into this planet where the Intergalactic Boxing Tournament is taking place, and has to fight every Champion he gets to face in “The Arena”.

The article explains how that movie might’ve been the basis of Thor: Ragnarok, other than the Planet Hulk story-line. And the analogies hold up.


Although, I guess I have to watch the old sci-fi movie first, before reaching a verdict. But other than that, “The Arena” might be the origin of the Intergalactic Battle Tournament story. It might actually be an actual genre on its own. Or at least, a sub-genre.

To me, I think there’s something more to be looked at with this subject matter. Like where did “The Arena” get the idea for the Intergalactic Battle Tournament in the first place?

I feel like it goes way back to Greek or Roman Mythology or Era, I dunno which term to properly use, but you get the idea.


There was a time or an entire era, where the aristocrats teamed up to create coliseums, where the strongest of the strong men fought to the death. Later on, those tournaments changed and turned into the Olympics. So…just less killing, but more hard work. But still generally the same concept.

I dunno, I’m going to have to research more on it. I’m kind of interested in making my own version of the Intergalactic Battle Tournament. Seems like anybody could do it anyway. Might as well, right?

Man, I already have a lot in my plate when it comes to story projects, and then this came rushing in my head. I can’t let it go to waste either. It’s too good of an idea not to make. I just have to make a hierarchy of what to prioritize, I guess.

Word of the Day: Ubiquit.
  • Ubique means “everywhere” in Latin, so the verb ubiquit literally means “to become ubiquitous”-or in other words, to seem to appear everywhere.

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