* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Considering her very {{Moe}} behavior, it can be questioned whether [[spoiler:Eve specifically modified Lightning's behavior [[ReplacementGoldfish to replicate her deceased daughter]]]], or if Layla was just always very cutesy, cheerful and energetic. The latter even has a HeroicBSOD when considering the former possibility.
** Is Alexei an unsympathetic [[KnightTemplar would-be tyrant]] who's [[HeWhoFightsMonsters just as bad as the people he fights]]? Or is he still a genuine hero, [[WellIntentionedExtremist albeit one who uses extreme methods?]]
*** Furthermore, does he make a better job of running the Academy than James?
* CrazyIsCool: Gill wouldn't be nearly as awesome if he didn't have such profound tendencies for improvisation.
** Talan and Lightning are Awesome in the form of a cute couple.
* EvilIsCool: Especially with AffablyEvil in full play for many of the villain characters. Swilium, Alexei and Selene border on DracoInLeatherPants at times.
* [[HoYay Ho Yay]]: Plenty of both the male and female varieties to go around.
* {{Moe}}: Invoked in-universe. In one party conversation, [[{{Adorkable}} Val]] jokes that she, [[GenkiGirl Layla]], [[DudeLooksLikeALady Sam]], and [[TheCutie Dawn]] qualify as this.
** [[BrokenBird Tala]] could also qualify at times, considering her vulnerable moments around her close friends.
* MoralEventHorizon: If he hadn't already crossed it before, Jonathan's Moral Event Horizon came when he ordered his guards to imprison Sam and use him as a test subject.
** There are many points where Vilhelm may have crossed it...
*** [[spoiler:Trying to repurpose Blaze, Hydro and Lightning as super-soldiers against their will.]]
*** [[spoiler:Attempting to convert Dr. Ulrich into one of his cyborg lieutenants, ending with her suicide.]]
*** Offering to [[UnwillingRoboticisation "modify"]] people who misbehave in his class.
*** [[spoiler:Going on a mass-abduction spree, butchering and experimenting on innocent people to create his cyborg army.]]
** When they were still together, Eris once dared Talan to wear a dress for her in private. She crossed the line when she took pictures and posted them on the Internet for all to see, driving Talan to deep depression. Upon learning this, Layla vowed to make her pay.
** For Jane, she [[spoiler:drugged and raped James to have his child, only to isolate herself from him and later tell him that Jackson was stillborn.]] She believes she has long since crossed the horizon, though she is trying to redeem herself through her work.
** The many times where the Arbiter kills people, though he tries to justify it all for the greater good.
** Terminus [[spoiler:casually wiping out a small town with a wave of her hand]].
* NightmareFuel:
** Everything about [[MadScientist Vilhelm]]. His plans for immortality boil down to [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul cybernetic]] [[PlayingWithSyringes butchery]], turning people into cyborgs in an attempt to prolong the inevitable.
*** His cybernetic minions. They are half-organic, half-synthetic monstrosities not unlike [[Franchise/MassEffect Husks]], assembled as if by someone with only a rudimentary understanding of human anatomy.
** Snare, the cyborg spider--as the [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes arachnophobic]] Valerie discovers. It's only in appearance, though, as Snare turns out to be quite mild-mannered.
** The goal of the Shadow Court? In Warpen's words, to "[[OmnicidalManiac destroy cities in mass sacrifices]] [[SealedEvilInACan to unlock one of the thousand gates that block]] [[EldritchAbomination the daemon lord.]]" It is seen first-hand in the Battle Re-Enactment Room, where Wardson destroys nearly an entire city.
** In the past, Gill's leg [[AnArmAndALeg is gruesomely hacked off from the knee below]] with his own shovel by Ezekiel.
** Everything about the legend of [[EldritchAbomination Terminus]]...and the fact that she turns out to be real.
* UglyCute: Alderon's skeleton wolf familiar and Midori, Lily's pet venus flytrap.
* TheWoobie: Long story short: most characters. For a detailed breakdown (no pun intended)...
** Layla, upon her spoileriffic backstory being revealed.
** Sam, especially with the horrors he's been through.
** Dawn, thanks to being so painfully shy, as well as being [[NaiveNewcomer the newbie of the team]].
** IronWoobie: Val.
*** Alice certainly counts; though outwardly tough, she's clearly more vulnerable around her friends. She also lived in a hellish, irradiated wasteland with her family for most of her life.
*** Alexei (no pun intended). He has had multiple close brushes with death, and most of his family is dead; the latter is part of what drives him to his KnightTemplar tendencies, making him double as a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.
*** Tala, who was kidnapped at birth and raised by a supervillain family, was treated less like a person and more like an asset. Though outwardly harsh and belligerent around most people, she only shows her vulnerable side to Val, Alderon, and Talan.
*** Surprisingly, Talan qualifies, given the revelation about the incident Eris put him through.
*** As a LivingEmotionalCrutch for James, Lily provides a lot of emotional stability for him. She does, however, show signs of vulnerability after she talks about her past. Her mother was horrifically abusive, but it just ended up inspiring Lily to be the nurturing mother figure she never had.
** JerkassWoobie: Swilium, especially when he is shown breaking into tears.
*** Emily has trouble showing her pain, [[spoiler:coming from (and being rejected by) the same project that created Lightning]]--hence her (albeit fleeting) resentment of Layla. She also mentions that she nearly drowned in a huge flood during a hurricane when she was 13, and it's only because of Magi that she's still alive.
** StoicWoobie: James, easily. Power Academy is his life's work, and he fears he will have nowhere to go if it fails--and it's already in danger of failing. It's not until he opens up to Lily that his inner turmoil is made apparent. His unpleasant past with Jane only increases the woobie factor. [[spoiler:And now his life is on the line thanks to a DealWithTheDevil he made to get the school built on time.]]