Ace Lightning - Television Tropes & Idioms

Get up, go to school, play videogames, save the world, not necessarily in that order.

Move over, Superman, there's a new hero in town.

At first glance, Ace Lightning could be suspected of being pulled straight from the pages of a videogame-related Fan Fiction. What it actually is, however, is a 39 episode series from 2004, created as a collaboration between Canadian and British entertainment industries, and which was unfortunately Too Good To Last.

One of the most notable things about Ace Lightning is its medium: Ace was one of the first shows to involve CGI animated effects as a substantial part of every single episode in a weekly series, making the show both Western Animation and Live Action TV. The series is filmed live action with the “videogame characters” Ace Lightning and his friends and enemies created in 3D digital and blue screened in afterwards.

The hero of this strange tale is 13-year-old Mark Hollander, who has just immigrated to ~~Canada~~ North America from ~~Newscastle Upon Tyne~~ the south of England. However mixing in with his new class mates and getting to grips with life on the other side of the pond turns out to be the least of his problems, when, on his first night in his new home, the aerial of his house is struck by lightning. As chance would have it, Mark is at that exact moment engaged in his favourite videogame: Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom, and has just uncovered a secret level which clearly was not supposed to exist. A message bleeps frustratingly on the screen in front of him: “Level Seven, Activate, stand by.”

It turns out that this isn’t an ordinary copy of Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom. The next thing Mark knows the characters of his videogame –good and bad alike have come to life and are engaging in their typical battles right in the middle of his new back garden. Before he knows it Mark is elected as the titular Ace Lightning’s new sidekick, and is dragged into a quest to locate the shattered pieces of The Amulet of Zoar which will give it’s yielder power over the entire dimension –yes, Mark’s world, despite being the Real World outside of the videogame, still apparently counts. All of a sudden Mark’s new life in America has gotten a lot more complicated.

While Mark is initially reluctant to join the cause, and Ace is delightfully naive about the way things work in “Reality”, the two of them soon grow and develop an understanding which grows into friendship. As the show goes on more characters arrive, both good and evil (some incredibly freaky evils, at that) and eventually it all boils down to an epic showdown between Lightning Knights and the Villains, during which Mark has to make a final agonizing choice which may mean the destruction of Ace Lightning don’t worry they get out of it. And then of course we have the grand finale of the first series, followed by a glimpse into the arrival of a whole new bad guy: Kilobyte, who quite frankly makes Lord Fear look like a mewling bag of kittens.

The series starts out as an entertaining jaunt into the world of One Boy and His Superhero and later develops into a complex mire of Good Versus Evil, the nature of emotions in Artifical Humans, complex social networking while saving the world in your spare time, and the nature of what is truly “real”, and even vague suggestions of Necrophilia and Metaphysical Ethics for the more observant (or obsessive) members of the fandom. For most people, however, it’s just a fun show about a superhero completely out of his depth in the real world, and a human boy trying his hardest not to let his newfound “hero” status impact on his social life. Ace Lightning regularly takes the mick out of itself and the tropes normally associated with the Superhero genre and at no point tries to hide from the fact that it is, essentially, a superhero parody with many more serious themes underlying its initial appearance.

Every single CGI character in the show is, without a doubt, a direct stereotype (or maybe just “archetype”) of traditional comic superheroes. You’ve got your spunky red headed female sidekick, your bewitching black widow of a villainess at first, anyway, your quests for vengeance against our hero, your forbidden romances, and your evil bad guy who just happens to look like a living skeleton. Ace himself is your almost disturbingly traditional, typical superhero –super strong, super fast, able to shoot lightning energy and surviving on electrical power sources, and this program shows the audience exactly what really happens when you stick a person with those kinds of abilities in a world which simply wasn’t built to accommodate them. While the humans, similarly, are perfectly normal (well, mostly) people living perfectly ordinary lives which contrast garishly with the lives of the videogame characters, who just can’t seem to get a lot of this new “mortal” world. Mark and Ace provide foils for each other, and while Ace is learning the finer points of humanity and reality from Mark, so too is Mark learning that sometimes, a hero's gotta do what a hero's gotta do, no matter how much your normal life suffers for it.

Ace Lightning has a small, but loyal fanbase which, ironically enough in This Troper experience, seems to contain a great many teenage females as well as the show’s original demographic of 10- to 14-year-old boys.

This series contains examples of:

Ace Lightning Syndrome: The Trope Namer
Action Girl: Sparx
Adults Are Useless: Mark’s parents are mostly oblivious to what’s going on in their son’s life, however it is slightly subverted when Simon jumped to Mark’s defence in one episode. It’s just the Ace Thing they’re in the dark about. Other adults include a mean-spirited teacher who is half driven barmy by the CGI Villains, a Carnival Owner whose workplace and home gets taken over by aforementioned villains, and a Driving Instructor who is terrified by Mark’s performance (he didn’t realise that the car was being chased by Lord Fear on a killer motorcycle at the time).
A God Am I: Kilobyte, third season.
Amusement Park of Doom: In the videogame, the Ace Lightning characters fought against Lord Fear and his maniacal minions in the creepy and deserted Carnival of Doom. When they arrive it real world, the villains locate a useful equivalent hideout in the Kent Brother’s Carnival.
Anvil On Head: Given that one of the villain’s henchmen is a giant, mutant Rhino with an actual anvil for a hand, you can imagine this happens quite a lot.
All Part Of The Show: Lord Fear invaded Mark's school during the showing of a play which was a somewhat uncreative remake of the Phantom Of The Opera - of course the audience thinks he's just a very convincing actor. Lord Fear relishes the attention, and Mark is the only one who freaks because he's the only one who knows what's going on.
Applied Phlebotinum: The Amulet of Zoar which everyone is after.
- Also, Mark Hollander’s Wrist Cannon, which he can apparantly use despite not being a Lightning Knight.
  - In fact, forget that, any weapon being utilised by the Lightning Knights is basically one of these.
Artificial Limbs: Random Virus (though it is a bit [Nightmare Fuel-ish, what with the giant claw and the tread in place of his feet, and all.)
Author Avatar: Kilobyte has been said to be Rick’s Avatar
- It’s also interesting to note that the Master Programmer Rick Hummel has the same first name as the producer Rick Siggelkow though this is likely a coincidence.
Battle Butler: Sort of. More like Battle Maid in that Lady Illusion poses as a maid, Felicity Fury, for the Hollander’s during the third and final season in order to infiltrate the good guys and . And as anyone who watches this show will know, Lady Illusion can really kick ass.
Bedsheet Ghost: Chuck succeeds in terrifying the living daylights out of the bad guys when he gets caught in a sheet while they’re raiding Mark’s house.
Better Than It Sounds: Videogame superhero comes to life as a result of a well placed lightning bolt. Teenage boy helps videogame superhero save the world on school nights.
Betty And Veronica: Sam and Heather have a mild version of this going throughout series one (afterwards, Samantha is Put On A Bus and Heather suffers significant and unexplained Character Derailment. Both are replaced by an apparent Canon Sue).
Big Bad: Early on Lord Fear. Then Kilobyte, the incredibly overpowered villain of the third season, created by the Master Programmer in order to defeat Ace Lightning – only to Have Kilobyte turn on him and decide to banish all humans to the videogame.
Big Damn Heroes: Ace Lightning, Sparx and Random.
Big No: yeah, they’ve got one of those here too. And interestingly, it’s one of the humans, Mark who does so, when he believes Ace has been “fatally” shot during the final episode turns out it was Lady Illusion in morph.
Bittersweet Ending: The third series.
Black Bestfriend: Pete was Mark’s best friend while he lived in the UK. Sam is also Heather’s best friend.
Brainwashed And Crazy: Ace during one episode, after a bite from Googler's puppets (yes, the puppets bite. They are freaky little dudes.)
Canon Sue: Many fans found that the writers tried a little too hard to make them like Mark’s replacement Girlfriend Kat Adams.
Cant Stay Normal: Ace becomes “human” after losing his powers in one episode –and hates it.
Catch Phrase: The Lightning Knights’ Motto: “Do Right and Fear Not”.
Character Derailment: Heather Hoffs went from potential (and rather spunky) love interest and a potentially positive female role model in the first season to a Bitch with a Grudge against the male protagonist who mistreated her current boyfriend in the last. Possibly a result of the series’ new Canon Sue.
Cliffhanger: One or two of them. Including the final episode, damn it.
Combat Tentacles: Very creepy combat tentacles. Mostly used for power drainage.
Colour Coded For Your Convenience: When Random Virus’ cyborg eye is green; it’s reasonably safe to approach. When it turns red, however, you’d better run for the hills before he sees you.
- The “good” aligned characters also tend to shoot colour coded energy attacks which are either blue or pink. The bad guys are usually sharp green.
Comes Great Responsibility: Mark always eventually comes round to the importance of helping Ace safe the world from evil, regardless of how many relationships it screws up or how often he nearly gets killed.
Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Aplently.
- Ace gets a few, most notably when he let every ounce of power he had loose on Googler in a rage after he sent Sparx back to the sixth dimension, resulting in a massive electrical build up. Which missed its intended target, but he sure as hell got points for trying!
- Another good one for Ace is when he pulls a similar trick to the previous one mentioned in Mark’s school (while the observing fan club members cheering for him think that he’s just a part of the show) virtually creating a literal wall of electrical energy which terrified Fear out of the building, saving Ace from actually having to use this incredible build up to attack.
- Sparx defeating Googler and “evening the score” between them.
Sparx: Ha! That ones for me! Now we’re tied!
- Chuck during an episode in which he obtained Temporary Superpowers –he not only became the star of the football team, but he also gave the resident Jerk Jock and bully Wayne the wedgie of a lifetime. Would’ve been even more awesome if he hadn’t gotten so overconfident and full of himself, only to lose his powers at the worst possible moment.
  - But then he was awesome anyway, scoring the winning goal of the match on a header in the final seconds –after his powers have disappeared.
- Lady Illusion. Just... Lady Illusion. especially when she takes Ace’s place and dies for him during the final episode.
- Sam, explaining to Mark how she wouldn’t be scared or disturbed if she ever saw aliens or anything out of the ordinary – but that she would feel better knowing that they weren’t alone (well this troper thought it was awesome, and the girl was stuck as the protagonist’s girlfriend and has so little to do...)
- Mark, taking on Googler’s puppets with a piece of metal piping –and kicking both their non-existent behinds. It was mostly the expression on his face afterwards that got this troper: pleased with himself bordering on merciless.
Mark: Wanna join your friend?
- Lord Fear tearing up the highway on that freaking Doom Cycle (yes, it’s a motorbike).
Also, it seems unlikely that one could make smashing a Magical Object Plot Device against an organ into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome, but Mark manages it, and it wins them the game.
- It leads to another Awesome Moment for Fear, who gives the typical "This isn't over, hero!" speech, accompanied by creepy, maniacal laughter, as he is fading away into Oblivion.
Crowning Momentof Heartwarming: Many.
- Chuck waits for hours at the dance for his potential girlfriend (a girl geek, who’d have guessed it?) to show up, and eventually convinces himself she isn’t going to show. And then she does, much to Chuck’s joy, and apologises profusely for being late. Chuck plays it cool. It was utterly adorkable.
- Ashley tells her older cousin Mark “You’re a much better superhero anyway” after promising not to tell anyone else about Ace Lightning ever again. Cue hugging. Aww.
- Ace finally works out this whole friendship thing just in time to rescue Mark from Googler’s insane puppets.
- Ace and Lady Illusion’s final dance at the end of series one.
Dating Catwoman: Ace Lightning and Lady Illusion, though she really does love him and ends up saving his life in the final episode by disguising herself as him and being shot in his place.
Downer Ending: Several episodes, including April Fools and Unidentified Flying Superhero: Sparx’s death episode.
Defeat Means Friendship: Intriguingly done with Random Virus and Ace –regularly Ace will have to resort to defeating his friend in a fight in order to quell his evil side and bring back his calmer, kinder personality. He usually reverts back to bad guy status by their next meeting, however.
- Random’s evil side has some odd ideas how good and evil work, defining “evil” as representing bravery, strength and power, while cowardice, goodness and virtue were equated with weakness. On one occasion Random was unable to attack Mark because although he was afraid, he refused to back down. Therefore he was not a coward.
Dramatic Thunder: Occurs multiple times in the first episode and onwards: the CGI characters were initially brought to life by a bolt of lightning striking the aerial of the protagonist’s house while he was playing the videogame.
- Amongst other things. It also occurs at inopportune moment later in the series –when the main character just happens to be in urgent need of a power up.
Evil Genius: Rick Hummel the Master Programmer is this. Albeit a slightly out-of-touch one. He calls his office his “Fortress of Solitude”.
Evil Overlord: Lord Fear in the first two seasons, more Kilobyte in the third, though Lord Fear definitely gained a few competence points.
Fan Nickname: Lady Illusion has acquired the fan nicknames (or rather, fan first names) of Elspeth and Li (made out of her initials). Another fan theory also hangs about that Sparx is secretly a princess who’s “real” name is Amandine.
Fanfic: A surprisingly active section of fanfiction can be located here.
Fire And Brimstone Hell: There is apparrantly a level known as White Hot Oblivion in the Ace Videogame, in which Googler was imprisoned by Ace (he's notably annoyed by this). The audience never sees it.
Genre Blind: The characters from the Ace Lightning videogame clearly have absolutely no idea that the world they knew was nothing more than a highly popular 3D platformer. As a result they are regularly surprised and alarmed by obvious villain traps, and often come out with aNarmingly corny dialogue.
- Oddly enough, Mark (who is mainly supposed to point out Ace’s genre blindness) gets one of these during Episode Seven, Opposite Attraction, speaking about Ace and Lady Illusion.
Mark: ...I don’t get it. Nothing in the rulebook says they could fall in love.

Clearly the boy had never seen a single action hero movie in his life, because everyone knows that the villain’s female, black widow-esque henchwoman always falls for the hero.

Genre Savvy: Mark, most of the time, though trying to explain that “THIS IS REALITY!” to Ace almost never seems to have the desired effect well, not until the end of the first season, anyway.
Fish Out Of Water:
Mark: “Ace, we’ve been through this –they’re gnomes. They’re not going to attack you.”
- Theoretically all of the Lightning Knights and all of the Villains would fit this trope –though Ace is easily the most out of his depth at the beginning of the series –since the characters initially believe that Earth is just another “level” of their “world” (albeit a rather strange one, from their perspective), Ace regularly has instances of confusion involving innocent household appliances and ornaments that he either mistakes for enemies or drains for energy, Random Virus tries to avoid all social interaction, and Sparx just doesn’t seem to have quite the same amount of trouble.
  - Mark can be said to be something of a Fish Out Of Water, being a British Immigrant new to American Culture. Most people seem to pass off his “odd” behaviour as a result of his culture, and not the fact that he’s hiding a living computer game from the rest of the world.
Foe Tossing Charge: Anvil does this to the good guys regularly throughout the series (and he’s a giant mutant humanoid rhino with a literal anvil in place of one hand, just so you know. Ouch).
Frankensteins Monster: Subverted. The original Frankenstein’s monster was merely a misunderstood creature shunned and feared by the world (as well as his creator) so no wonder he turned bad. Ace Lightning’s Frankenstein’s Monster is Kilobyte – a powerful, tattooed villain with tentacles that he used to drain the energy and power of those he catches in them. He wasn’t so much shunned by his creator the Master Programmer as he did rebel against him, unwilling to be a slave to another’s desires and having discovered his identity as a Videogame Character. And damned freaky he was too.
Geek: Chuck Mugel is a geek of the computer-related variety.
Friendly Enemy: Random Virus and Ace are said to have been friends for a great deal of time before the series began (that’s assuming you believe it really happened), but due to Random’s dodgy programming, he has a habit of turning evil at inopportune moments.
Hero For A Day: Chuck gets temporary superpowers in one episode.
Heroic BSOD: Ace has a literal Heroic BSOD when he contracts a virus during a data transfer – completely freezing him solid. In fact, it’s a kiss from Lady Illusion which snaps him out of it.
Heroic Sacrifice: Lady Illusion at the end of series three (may have been selfish since she did it for love.)
I Did What I Had To Do: mark very nearly sets himself up for one of these at the end of the first series when faced with the option of either losing the game and therefore allowing Lord Fear to take over the world, or deleting the videogame from his hard drive – which would delete Ace and all the other CG Is along with it. Fortunately he has a Last Minute realisation and is spared from making the choice.
I Have This Friend: This happens with Mark a few times (who uses it genuinely when he’s trying to figure out ways to help Ace without giving away the fact that the said friend is actually a superhero who emerged from his videogame.)
I Just Want To Be Normal: Mark Hollander throughout most of the series. He gets better.
I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight: Ace is mind controlled during one episode, and Sparx (while being repeatedly attacked by him) tries desperately to remind him that "we're the good guys!" In the end it takes a memory boost from Mark's computer to snap him out of it.
- Also occurs regularly between Ace and Random Virus. Rarely successfully.
I Want You To Meet An Old Friend Of Mine: The character of Pete, Mark’s best friend before he moved to America, appeared regularly in the introductions of episodes speaking to Mark from England via a videophone. He appeared in person in one episode of the second series while visiting Mark in America (kind of subverted at the end, in that Pete decides maybe it would be better if he didn’t meet Ace).
Jerk Jock: Wayne Fisgus
Jonas Quinn: Kat Adams was a replacement for Mark’s first girlfriend Samantha Thompson (who’s actress Shadia Simmons had other commitments).
Jumped At The Call: Whereas Mark was initially confused and reluctant to play the Saving the World Game, videogame fanatic (and leader of the Ace Lightning Fan Club) Chuck Mugel jumped at the call as soon as he realised something was going on.
Lightning Can Do Anything: Including bring the characters of a videogame to life, apparently...
- Also, a deflected bolt of Lightning from Ace once gave Chuck Mugel super strength for an episode. Sort of-not-really justified in that Ace himself mentioned that it was a “good job that was a deflected shot or he’d have been toast.”
Loners Are Freaks: Poor ol’ Random Virus again...
Mac Guffin: The Amulet of Zoar, which is scattered in pieces throughout the carnival and must be completely reassembled in order to win the “game”.
Mad Scientist Laboratory: Well, a mad scientist’s computer laboratory, really...
Magical Computer: Tonnes of them. Mostly courtesy of Chuck.
Mega Nekko: Jessica, though she gets tougher in later series.
Mentor: Ace is a mentor to Sparx (and Mark to an extent). Conversely, Mark often serves to mentor Ace in the ways of the Real World. Chuck also mentors mark in some of the more complex areas of video gaming.
Mystery Meat: Whatever Mrs Kutcher the Cafeteria Lady is serving this week (Chuck’s her favourite and gets special treatment, though.)
Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Lord Fear? Felicity Fury? Anvil? Dirty Rat?
Nightmare Fuel: Several instances.
- The one which stands out the most to this troper is Sparx’s death scene in which Googler’s puppets shoot her in the heart with an energy blast from her own sword . She got better.
- Come to think of it, Googler is Nightmare Fuel in and of himself.
- Anytime Pigface was let loose in a garbage can.
- Lord Fear’s rather... impressive displays of stretching complete with joints creaking and maniacal laughter (particularly creepy given that he’s a walking skeleton).
- Kilobyte’s Tentacles. Enough said.
Perverse Puppets: Googler’s insane venom spitting, tree-chomping hand puppets Zip and Snip. Not only are they creepy, sentient things while attached to him, but they can detach themselves and.. .well... zip and snip around like wild things seeking their prey. Hitting them is kind of like trying to swat flies – it’s near impossible.
Powers That Be: The Master Programmer Rick Hummel had apparently been playing this role, watching Mark and his friends actions secretively since the beginning, waiting for Lord Fear to take over so that he can command them and rule the world, though he was only introduced in the third season. (He clearly hadn’t been doing a very good job until he created Kilobyte because the good guys kept winning).
Power Trio: Ace, Random Virus (when he’s in the right mood) and Sparx for the Lightning Knights. Mark, Chuck and Sam (later Kat) for the humans respectively.
Red Headed Hero: Sparx.
Refusal Of The Call: Mark, initially. Sort of Random Virus.
Revenge: Lord Fear’s beef with Ace Lightning appears to stem from the fact that Ace crippled him in battle a long time ago. Word Of God says there may have been more to it than that.
Running Gag: Ace constantly breaking things in Mark’s household – which his parents discover, sooner or later, and blame on “shoddy American construction”. He gets a little better by the end of the series, though.
Sadist Teacher: Mr Chesborough. Though really he’s more bitter and cruel (and later crazy) than sadistic.
Secret Keeper: Chuck is Mark’s Secret Keeper in the third season, as is Ashley Hollander throughout most of the series’.
Sidekick: Sparx and Mark, both to Ace. (Later on Chuck, too.)
Shape Shifter: Lady Illusion can shape shift into any form she desires (and supposedly also into objects, though this was never observed in the series itself) and uses this to infiltrate the good guy’s home as a housekeeper in the third series.
Shoot The Dog: Mark very nearly has to do this near the end of series one when, anticipating the game being lost and the world being doomed, nearly deletes the file of the Ace Lightning videogame: which would destroy all the bad guys, and all the good guys with them. Fortunately he has a breakthrough at the last minute and doesn’t have to.
- Subverted later when Mark deliberately chooses to help Ace and the other Lightning Knights to do things the Hard Way without even considering deletion.
Squick: Oh boy...
- Kilobyte's tentacles can be utilised for power drainage. This is usually rather... graphic.
- Lady Illusion and Lord Fear are a couple for most of the first series (and yes they behave that way), right? Well he's a uh... skeleton, right? Right. Ew.
- Pigface's er... snot attack. Poor heather gets a faceful of it, once.
Stock Aesop: Every Episode ends with one of these, carefully tuned to the target demographic of ten to fourteen year old males.
Sword Fight: Only one character has a sword, but since it fires lightning, it makes for some pretty spectacular fight scenes anyway.
Sword Sparks: Well, sort of... Sparx’s sword shoots pink electricity.
Tear Jerker:
- —>“Look after Ace, Kid. He needs you more than ever. Do Right and Fear Not.”
  - It’s Sparx’s death scene, in case you’re wondering. Also a bit of a woobie moment for Mark because he looked so damned upset about it. Never mind the fact that Ace damn near blew Googler’s head off afterward.
- Lady Illusion offers to take away the Human Emotions that Ace has been struggling with the entire season after Taking The Bullet for him in the final episode: Her “last gift to him”. He tells her not to. He wants to keep them.
Ace: "No. Let me keep them. These emotions. What I’m feeling for you now... that’s the real gift."
Ten Minute Retirement: Mark, towards the end of series one in the episode Nobody's Hero.
The Call Knows Where You Live: Fortunately for Mark, it’s not a very competent call... It is, however, a highly persistent one.
The Chessmaster: The Master Programmer Rick Hummel probably things it’s him, but really, it’s Kilobyte who knows more about the game than anyone realises, and is pulling countless strings in order to make things go his way.
The Dragon: Oddly enough, The Dragon in question is Staffhead – a talking (cockney for that matter), winged frog creature on the staff that Lord Fear always carries.
The Glasses Gotta Go: Done in a somewhat complicated manner. When Jessica removes her glasses for the first time at the end of series dance, she seems instantly more attractive.
- Also subverted in that the video game expert and “geek” of the series, Chuck, doesn’t get glasses until the third and final season and was cuter then on account of the actor aging.
The Power Of Friendship: Seeing Mark in danger, and finally coming to understand what a friend is exactly, gives Ace the ability to recover his powers after having lost them.
- Occasionally reminding him of their past together helps Ace to snap Random Virus out of his evil mode without having to resort to violence. More often, however, giving him a good whack is the only way to fix him.
The Power Of Love: Lady Illusion brings Ace out of a Heroic BSOD by kissing him.
The Last Dance: is quite literally a last dance for Lady Illusion and Ace Lightning during the finale of the first series, when they quietly and calmly finish the dance that they began several episodes earlier before she vanishes back into the game.
The Lifestream: Called TheDatastream by the characters, this is the swirling purple/blue energy portal that brings the CGI characters to earth from within Mark’s videogame. The portal can be opened by acquiring and putting together pieces of the Amulet of Zoar.
The Man Behind The Man: The Master Programmer behind Kilobyte.
The Undead: The main villain of the first two series (and finally ocne again at the end in a rather awesome fashion), Lord Fear; walking skeleton and the resident Lich.
This Is Reality: Mark even says this to Ace word for word in one early episode. Ace just looks at him funny. Later on, however, Ace becomes aware of the fact that he is “just a game” and is understandably upset.
Tinman: Ace Lightning. He gradually comes to understand his newfound feelings. It isn’t that Ace didn’t have emotions to begin with so much as that he didn’t have access to human ones. His emotions were being kept in check and moderated by his programming. With that program destroyed, his emotions got the better of him and he became a bit of a bastard for a while. He hates it at first, but grows to accept them when Lady Illusion dies for him and he realise she couldn’t let go of loving her, no matter how painful it was. Aww.
- It’s regularly shown that Ace’s emotions appear to have a direct effect on his powers,. Seeing Mark in danger allowed him to recover them after losing them in one episode, and he reacted with incredible enthusiasm (and an insane power burst) aimed directly at Googler after he “wiped out” Sparx.
Trapped In Another World: The Ace characters are stuck in the “real” human world. A few human characters also get trapped in the videogame over the course of the series since its Kilobyte’s ultimate goal to send the entire human population of the world to live inside the Ace game and bring the CGI characters out into our world. He clearly hasn’t thought this through entirely.
Too Good To Last: The show was cancelled after three seasons, leaving the viewers on something of a cliff-hanger and with no hopes for syndication.
Unusual User Interface: Characters access the Sixth Dimension (the videogame world that Ace hails from) by putting together pieces of the Amulet of Zoar.
Villainous Breakdown: Lord Fear during the final episode of series (it’s rather creepy).
Wake Up Go To School Save The World: And try not to lose another girlfriend while you’re at it, Mark.
Welcome To The Real World: Ace Lightning and a gang of villains appear in the real world after lightning strikes the aerial of the house where Mark Hollander is playing the videogame “Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom”. It takes them a while to get used to this Strange New World.
Wham Episode: "Unidentified Flying Superhero": Sparx’s death scene was so unexpected and brutal (not to mention surprisingly handled) that nobody really cared that she would be back within a few episodes.
Wild Card: Random Virus, a powerful cyborg with a damaged program that causes him to switch between good and evil at Random (pun totally intended) intervals.
Woman Scorned: Heather really doesn’t appreciate Mark’s inability to stick with a girlfriend. There were some viewer complaints since she apparently went from Action Girl to petty bitch in the space of a season with no real explanation.
The Woobie: Mostly Ace, though Mark has his moments.
- As does Chuck
  - And Random Virus.
Word Of God: The producer of the show Rick Sigglekow has frequently and informatively responded to several emails and contacts from the fans, he even commented on a fanfiction once. He is beyond awesome.
You Cant Go Home Again: Subverted. Ace and Sparx decide to return to the Sixth Dimension at the beginning of series three (despite the fact that Ace clearly hasn’t told her about the whole “we’re not real thing” and there’s no saying what’ll happen to them if they do return to the computer game.

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