Benson Mekler

* Debut
* Current
* Child

**Benson Mekler** is a self-assured human scavenger who lives on the surface with his long time best friend Dave and offers to help Kipo find her way home.

## Appearance

Benson is a male teenage human with dark skin, short spiky black hair, and brown eyes. He wears a lilac button-up shirt layered under an off-white sweater with a graphic of a cat head on the chest and a slight tear near the collar, light brown pants, and black, cyan, and white sneakers. He accessorizes the look with a pale-green baseball cap and teal and magenta robot backpack.

## Personality

Like most remaining human survivors, Benson is smart, resourceful, and cunning (enough to outwit Wolf's traps). Different from Wolf, Benson is far more adaptable to change and willing to cooperate with and befriend others. He has a strong sense of self and is incredibly forthright when it comes to recognizing and communicating *his* limits but can be less sensitive to others. He has no problem lying his way out of a sticky situation, opting out of a risky one, or communicating his own sexual orientation. He is very music-motivated, and his cassette player serves as the show's go-to action soundtrack.

In spite of living on the surface, Benson remains upbeat and has managed to forge a strong friendship with Dave, a mute, as well as find joy in an otherwise ruthless world.

## History

Benson is one of the last members of the "Fanatics", a group composed by a ‘human dweeb’ (as said by Dave) 200 years ago that’s main goal was to steal back a small electronic fan the first Dave stole from the ‘dweeb’ when the Mutes surfaced. He met Dave after both were chasing the fan and both fell into their traps.

Benson got into many adventures before meeting Kipo. In a flashback in the episode "Benson and the Beast", Benson climbs down into a bat cave to retrieve his cassette player which was taken from him. The bats, Geli and Jibralta, try to stop him because they need it to contact the aliens. Benson plays the cassette player and the noise irritates the bats and temporarily distracts them, but eventually, they corner him again. Dave transforms and the bats assume that Dave is an alien. Benson lets them think that so that he can get away with Dave.

### Season 1

Benson meets Kipo and Wolf while running back to protect his friend, Dave, who was going through his usual life cycle. He agrees to join Wolf and Kipo in their adventure to find Kipo's family and friends in their underground burrow.

The group encounters many obstacles in their adventures and eventually finds the burrow, albeit destroyed.

After finding a clue, Benson and the gang are able to find the backup burrow. They find Kipo's father and friends and Benson seems thrilled with meeting new people, particularly Troy. The group gets attacked by Scarlemagne and Kipo's father gets captured.

### Season 2

Benson helps Troy and his friends find safety while he goes with Kipo to help fight Scarlemagne. He and Troy have major sparks, as they talk about music and flapjacks. Troy even gives Benson a kiss on the cheek after Benson helps convince the Timbercats to protect Troy and the others while the rest of them go to fight Scarlemagne.

Benson, Kipo, and the gang set out to save the humans from Scarlemagne. Benson accompanies Kipo to the Chevre sisters, where they learn that they must go to Kipos' parents' old burrow to discover more information about Kipo's powers.

After a near-death experience at Brunchington Beach, Kipo, Wolf, Benson, and Dave head to the land of the Deathstalkers to find the entrance to the burrow. Benson and Dave set a few explosions to distract the Deathstalkers from Kipo and Wolf.

They reunite in the burrow to get Kipo's anchor so that they can go fight Scarlemagne and save all of the humans. After leaving the burrow with the anchor, they run into Dr. Emilia who convinces them to come back to her human headquarters to plan the fight with Scarlemagne. Emilia had grabbed a hostage, a human under Scarlemagne's pheromone powers, to ask him questions. The hostage turns out to be Roberto, who is Troy's father. Benson asks his friends to tell good stories about him so that Roberto likes Benson and in turn tells Troy, helping his chances to date Troy.

Eventually, Benson and the others go to Scarlemagne's coronation. Kipo ends up fighting Scarlemagne as he threatens the lives of the humans. Benson and the gang try to help the humans escape. Scarlemagne poured liquid gold into the stadium to trap the humans, so everyone must get away. In the scramble, Benson reaches for a helping hand to get up and out of the stadium. He realizes the hand is Troy's. He blushes and they have a flirty conversation, pausing to chat even though their lives are in danger. They run away to escape from the rising gold flood.

When Kipo fights Scarlemagne and eventually turns into a jaguar to save the day, Benson and the gang are afraid Kipo won't be able to return to her human form because her photo anchor is lost. When Wolf sings "Heroes on Fire", Kipo is able to regain her human form. Wolf, Benson, and Dave realize that they are Kipo's anchor after all.

Benson, Kipo, and the crew hear that Dr. Emilia has turned most of Kipo's people over to her cause of reverting all mutes into normal animals so human civilization can rise again. They know that they must fight back.

### Season 3

Benson supports Kipo and the others as they try to hunt down Dr. Emilia and the rest of the humans, knowing that they are trying to create a cure for the mutes. They can't find her anymore but finally realize she is on a cruise ship.

Benson is there for Kipo as she tries to create the HMUFA, Human Mute Ultimate Friendship Alliance.

After an old acquaintance (and enemy) of Wolf begs her for help rescuing her brother, Wolf agrees and Benson and Dave tag along. The group goes to Deathstalker territory. Benson and Dave try to protect Wolf from Margot, not trusting her.

Margot admits that she is part of Emilia's plan to trap Wolf and the others, but she tries to offer them a chance to escape. Emilia and her people surround them with weapons and say “No you can’t”.

Wolf, Dave, and Benson are tied up in Emilia's lab but Kipo comes to the rescue to save them. They get out and go back to safety.

After a big fight between the mutes and the humans, Benson tries to get the supportive humans on their side to safety in the burrow. Emilia loses the fight and the world is finally at peace.

### Five Years Later

Five years later, Benson and Troy open up a popular restaurant. They are still happily in love.

## Power And Abilities

* **Trapping Intuition** - In "Explosion Berries" Benson is shown to be capable of creating clever traps and modifying existing ones.
* **Stress Empowerment** - Benson seems to be a strong fighter when under stress. An example is when he and his friends were fighting the Newton Wolves, with Benson shown to be capable of throwing one of the mutes.

## Episode appearances

### Season 1

* 02. "Explosion Berries"
* 03. "Real Cats Wear Plaid"
* 04. "Cactus Town"
* 05. "The Astronomers in Turtlenecks"
* 06. "Ratland"
* 07. "Mulholland"
* 08. "Twin Beaks"
* 09. "Mute-Eat-Mute World"
* 10. "Beyond the Valley of the Dogs"

### Season 2

* 01. "Paw of the Jaguar"
* 02. "The Goat Cheese Prophecy"
* 03. "The Ballad of Brunchington Beach"
* 04. "To Catch a Deathstalker"
* 05. "Fun Gus Part I"
* 06. "Fun Gus Part II"
* 07. "Benson and the Beast"
* 08. "Sympathy for the Mandrill"
* 09. "All That Glitters"
* 10. "Heroes on Fire"

### Season 3

* 01. "Everything is Crabs"
* 02. "Code Word Milkshake"
* 03. "A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing"
* 04. "Don't You Forget a Meow Me"
* 05. "Song ReMix"
* 06. "It's A Trap
* 07. "Requiem for a Dave"
* 08. "Hidden Treasures"
* 09. "Prahmises"
* 10. "Age of the Wonderbeasts"

## Trivia

* Benson was originally a tall, bearded man with yellow skin and a sword. Although his current look has greatly deviated from his original design, his tight friendship with Dave is as strong as in the original webcomic.
* Benson is shown to be fond of music and in "Twin Beaks", he is shown to know how to use a DJ console.
* Benson is gay.
* Benson was born on the surface.
* He is one of the last of his kind: the scavengers Dave came across over the last 200 years known as the Fanatics.
* Benson got his hat from Ratland.
* Benson's last name is Mekler, confirmed by Rad Sechrist and Ben Mekler on Twitter.
* Benson's backpack from the first two seasons looks like the Fanatics' suits from Dave's Story.
* It is implied by Rad that Benson's hat was given by Brad and Amy, or he got it from Ratland.

## References

1. ↑ Rad Sechrist, "Kipo Q and A," Reddit, Jun. 21, 2020
2. ↑ Rad Sechrist (Sep 16, 2014). Benson Concept Art.
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/radsechrist/status/1318374640486510592
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/radsechrist/status/1318374640486510592

Mrs. Sartori • Kwat
 Timbercats
Yumyan Hammerpaw • Molly Yarnchopper • Shoelace McCutty • Ruffles
 Umlaut Snäkes
Cotton • Camille
 Newton Wolves
Bad Billions • Good Billions
 Fitness Raccoons
Carton • Tongue Compressor • Label
 The TheaOtters
Puck
 Others
Scarlemagne • Jamack • Pierre • Tad Mulholland
Scarlemagne's Nobles • Scooter Skunks • Humming Bombers • Chevre Sisters • The Narhartz
 Humans