YMMV / A Dash of Logic

• Ass Pull: Patty being Real After All at the end of "To Love a Patty", given how prior to that, she was clearly just an inanimate object. Of course, that's the joke.
• Bizarro Episode: The reworked “To Love A Patty” is this, even more than the original episode, due to the ending revealing that Patty was Real After All and that other foods such as hot dogs and donuts are apparently sentient too.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Plankton getting payback on Mr. Krabs by giving him a taste of his own medicine in "One Coarse Meal", considering Krabs tried to drive him to suicide.
  • Admit it, you cheered when SpongeBob finally got kicked out of Mrs. Puff's boating school.
  • Gary punishing SpongeBob in "A Pal for Gary".
  • Sandy putting Mr. Krabs in his place in "Bummer Vacation".
  • Squidward getting payback on Squilliam by locking the latter in his house with SpongeBob and Patrick, along with their antics having driven Squilliam to madness at music college off-screen.
  • The entire premise of "Atlantis Squarepantis", if you hated the songs in the original.
• Character Rerailment: One of the fic's main goals. It's most notable with SpongeBob, who is commonly depicted as his old Hillenburg-era self, on top of "A Pal for Gary" offering an explanation for his fluctuating intelligence in canon. Sometimes, his brain just falls out of his head holes.
• Crack Pairing: SpongeBob and Karen having a secret affair is a Running Gag across the fic, as a meta-joke about their voice actors being married in real life.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Mr. Krabs and Squidward learning nothing from their experience in "Squidward, You're Fired" and repeatedly snubbing SpongeBob's attempts to get them to have an epiphany? What a Cruel Twist Ending. The former brazenly giving three cheers to their Ignored Epiphany while SpongeBob can do nothing but stand there and look increasingly more exasperated with each cheer? Hilarious!
  • From “The Great Snail Race”, Mr. Krabs selling Mr. Doodles to a worm-fighting ring? Horrifyingly inhumane. Two police officers arriving to watch and bet on the fights? Hilarious!
• First Installment Wins: Meta example in “SpongeHenge”, where between the three Neptune figures, the original incarnation of Neptune (the one played by John O'Hurley) ends up being deemed the “real” King Neptune, albeit with off-screen bribery and the help of an expensive Amoral Attorney. The author admitted that he finds that version of the character the most interesting and memorable.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • In "Squid's Visit", the way each one of the other main characters is portrayed reflects how Squidward does or might view them in real life:
    • SpongeBob is a demented stalker who is so obsessed with Squidward that he's willing to hold him hostage and even wishes to literally become one with him. Or in other words, post-Flanderization SpongeBob at his absolute worst.
    • Patrick is literally just a big man-baby who has nothing meaningful to say except for, "Goggo gagga".
    • Mr. Krabs is a horrifying, greedy, all-consuming (in this case literal) monster.
    • Sandy is a demented Mad Scientist who revels in using other people as guinea pigs. It implies that Squidward finds her line of work deeply unnerving, or that he's simply traumatized from the time he was fused to SpongeBob thanks to Sandy's machine, or both.
    • Gary is a refined, intelligent, and (once more, very literally in this case) highly humanized figure who is still willingly subservient to SpongeBob, which matches Gary's usual canon characterization and it implies Squidward is aware of it all (though maybe not consciously).
  • On a related note, SpongeBob keeping Squidward as a prisoner also reflects Squidward's own feelings of being trapped with him in both their neighborhood and at the Krusty Krab, with no means of escape. Likewise, after proposing to him, SpongeBob promptly zips Squidward's mouth shut (quite literally), and Squidward can do nothing but make muffled cries of horror for the remainder of his nightmare, with none of the party guests being able (or caring) to hear him. This reflects Squidward’s perceived lot in real life, as the universe always seems intent on silencing and/or ignoring his cries for help and keeping him trapped in his abusive daily routine.
  • The Krabby Patty formula being a sham could explain all the inconsistent clues given in the show regarding its origins (it being a family recipe, or Krabs having invented it himself) and nature (if “secret ingredient” refers to the patty itself, the specific toppings that go with it, a secret sauce, all of them combined, etc.). Mr. Krabs is just making shit up to placate people and isn’t too concerned about being consistent, since SpongeBob and the customers are all clueless sheep, Squidward is too apathetic to ask questions, and Plankton is a Ditzy Genius who is too naval-gazing and obsessed with stealing it to pick up the inconsistencies.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • "Sponge Cano" has some:
    • Squidward actually thanking SpongeBob for trying (keyword being "trying") to save him from being sacrificed to the volcano, albeit in a very awkward manner. He immediately tries to downplay it but an overjoyed SpongeBob still glomps him.
    • There's also Cetos' Heroic Sacrifice, which gets treated with a lot of pathos and reverence, especially when he swan-dives into the volcano.
    • The ending, where Sandy allows SpongeBob, Gary, Squidward, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and Pearl to crash at her place after their respective homes get destroyed.
  • Speaking of Sandy, any time she is shown standing up for SpongeBob, especially against Mr. Krabs whenever the latter tries to manipulate SpongeBob into doing grunt work for him. Her putting the old miser in his place in "Bummer Vacation" counts as a Moment of Awesome.
  • Speaking of "Bummer Vacation", the montage of Spongebob relaxing reveals he stills hangs out with Mystery the Sea Horse despite not being able to bring her to work. Aww....
  • The beginning of "Waiting", where Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, and Harold Squarepants are planning a surprise birthday party for SpongeBob. Krabs and Harold both fondly reminisce over how much SpongeBob has grown.
  • At the end of “To Love a Patty”, after SpongeBob gets dumped by Patty for a hotdog, Mr. Krabs and Squidward decide to cheer up the heartbroken sponge by promising to take him out for a night of male bonding.
• Ho Yay: "Squid's Visit" very unsubtly portrays SpongeBob's obsession with Squidward as a romantic one. To elaborate: he brings the restrained Squidward to their "melding day" party, proposes to him, all their guests call them a "lovely couple" (with Patchy even outright calling "SquidBob" his One True Pairing) and SpongeBob carries Squidward into Sandy's molecular fuser via Bridal Carry, which Sandy refers to as "their chamber". It was intentionally exaggerated since this was all just Squidward's nightmare.
  • At the end of "Sponge Cano", one of the activities SpongeBob proposes for his and his friends' unscheduled slumber party is Spin the Bottle, even though out of the seven of them, the only girls present are Sandy and Pearl.
• MST3K Mantra:
  • The Running Gag about SpongeBob and Karen having a secret affair. It would obviously never fly on the show and be very Out of Character for SpongeBob for a myriad of reasons, but the author found the idea too funny to pass up (on top of being a meta-joke).
  • In “SpongeHenge”, we never learn who the true king of the seas is (the show’s version of Neptune simply bribes his way into being declared that by the courts), nor does it give any sort of explanation for the existence of three versions of the same character, or why it took until now for them to confront each other. It’s simply there as comedic meta-commentary on the show’s infamous Negative Continuity.
  • “To Love a Patty” ends with the revelation that Patty was a sentient being all along. No explanation is given for why she stayed quiet throughout the chapter, with the characters even acknowledging that it makes no sense.
    Krabs: She’s alive?
    Sandy: But that’s completely illogical? There’s no scientific basis for a burger having…cognitive abilities?
    Squidward: Yeah, what else is new about this show?
• The Woobie:
  • You can't help but feel sorry for poor SpongeBob in "Squidward, You're Fired" as he's being overworked and shamelessly exploited by both Squidward and Mr. Krabs, all while he tries his best to be a good host and employee respectively. And neither of them apologize to SpongeBob or even learn a single lesson in the end, which is Played for Laughs. Even Patrick doesn't do anything to stand up for SpongeBob, as he's too preoccupied slacking off with Squidward and Bubble Bass. At least Sandy and Gary were supportive of him.
  • There's also Cetos from "Sponge Cano", due to his Last of His Kind status giving him an Adaptational Angst Upgrade.