These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: Austin & Ally
Critical Research Failure: In "Costumes & Courage", they at least get the most basic fact about Charles Lindbergh right - but then veer right into "so wrong it's bizarre they even thought they could get away with this unless They Just Didn't Care" territory by mentioning that he invented the artificial heart. A five-minute trip to That Other Wiki would've shown otherwise.
Crossover Ship: Since the All Star New Year special it's become popular to ship Jessie and Austin (even though she has to be several years older than him).
Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Surprisingly averted considering how easy a Straight Man (i.e. Ally) lead can slip into this in the kid-com genre. The reasons could include that only Austin and Ally sing, ruling out the intra-fandom rivalry that other shows like Victorious suffer from. There is also no realistic opponent to the Austin/Ally 'Auslly' Shipping pairing, which would cause Die for Our Ship in the event of a lopsided Fan Preferred Couple that does not include Ally. Finally with such a small cast of four main characters, there is no room for a typical overshadowing Ensemble Darkhorse to suck all the popularity on the show away from the main two cast members.
Fan Preferred Couple: The pairing is in the title. It finally comes to fruition in "Partners & Parachutes". Unfortunately, by "Couples & Careers, it didn't end well.
Many fans feel this way between Ross Lynch and Laura Marano as well.
Fridge Brilliance: The theme song "Without You" appears to just be about Ally, but it shows he can't do it without all his friends, saying "You're my point *
Dez, his best friend
, you're my guard *
Trish, his manager
, you're the perfect chord *
Ally, his songwriter
".
Ally's president of the mall merchants' association. But this basically involves acting as moderator at their meetings for no pay, so it's quite possible that nobody else wanted the job and Ally realized it'd look good on a college application.
Austin's song in "Albums & Auditions" is pretty different (more boy band-ish) from most of the songs he's sung before. Why? Because Ally was busy getting ready to go to that music school in New York, so she probably didn't write it. It was likely from someone at the record label.
Why were Dez and Trish afraid of Face Puncher? Do they not realize that they are minors and him punching either of them would be a serious crime?
It's revealed in "Filmmaking & Fear Breaking" that Austin has a fear of umbrellas because the handle of one got hooked in his pants and made him lose them when he was young. Dez was there that day but not present when Austin lost his pants. This would explain the Running Gag of Dez offering Austin his pants- he feels guilty about not being there to help his friend and is over-compensating as a result.
In Partners & Parachutes, Austin not only read Ally's book again, but he also stole her song, again. With Ally being over her stage fright, its not hard to believe that "I Think About You" was a song written for her to sing. And he gets away with it since they're a couple now and it was so romantic. That said, the book was left on that page along with the card from the flowers. Ally could have subconscious left those hints for Austin. At best, Austin is really nosy, as Dez put it, and was lovestruck and needed an epic romantic gesture to win Ally, even if it meant reading her songbook. At worst he's a dirty song-thief who doesn't respect the privacy of even his closest friends.
Girl Show Ghetto: Averted by using an equal cast of two guys and two girls, giving both the male and female lead important roles and singing time, making Ally an Adorkable nerdy girly girl and Austin a cute Nice Guy to attract both male and female viewers with eye candy. You can take the viewpoint that the show is slightly shifted more towards girls because Ally is just barely more of the lead character than Austin is due to Ally's music store being where the majority of the plot takes place and that it was Ally the audience was introduced to first. However, Austin's name is first in the title and all of the characters are primarily focused on advancing his singing career. They are even referred to a "Team Austin".
Like You Would Really Do It: The idea that Austin would permanently lose his voice in "Successes & Setbacks" was never believable, since that would have reduced the show's premise to a big pile of rubble.
Ally actually leaving to go to the music school in New York in the season finale "Albums & Auditions". As the show was renewed there is no chance they'd have Ally leave for any permanent amount of time.
