History Series / AceLightning

* {{Aesop}}: Every freaking episode ends with one of these, carefully tuned to the target demographic of ten to fourteen year old males (but not necessarily tuned to what actually ''happened'' in the episode).

* AmusementParkOfDoom: 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 in the real world, they locate a useful equivalent hideout in the Kent Brother's Carnival.

** It's also interesting to note that the Master Programmer [[spoiler:Rick Hummel has the same first name as the ''producer'' Rick Siggelkow]] though this is likely a coincidence.

* BigNo: In the finale. Interestingly, it's Mark, when he thinks Ace has been shot [[spoiler:turns out it was Lady Illusion in morph]].
** Ace too. ''All the time.''

* TheChessmaster: The Master Programmer [[spoiler:Rick Hummel]] probably thinks it's him, but really, it's [[spoiler:Kilobyte]], who knows more about the game than anyone realizes and is pulling countless strings to make things go his way.

* {{Expy}}: WordOfGod confirmed Mark is based on [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]].

The [[SupportingProtagonist protagonist]] is 13-year-old [[KidHero Mark Hollander]], who has just immigrated to North America from England. However getting to grips with life on the other side of the pond turns out to be the least of his problems, when, on the first night in their new home, the antenna of Mark's house is struck by lightning. As chance would have it, Mark was at that exact moment engaged in his favorite videogame: ''Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom'', and had discovered a level which wasn't supposed to exist. Turns out this isn't an ordinary copy of ''Ace Lightning''. The next thing Mark knows the characters of his videogame - good and bad alike - [[TheGameComeToLife have come to life]] and are engaging in battle in his back yard. Mark is somewhat reluctantly elected as Ace Lightning's new sidekick, and dragged into a quest to locate the seven shattered pieces of [[MacGuffin The Amulet of Zoar]] which will give its wielder power over the entire universe.

** On top of that between seasons it'd apparently been decided Mark wasn't contributing enough just hanging around being a voice of reason for the video game heroes. Come second season, and out of nowhere Mark has a gauntlet that shoots lightning bolts, letting him participate in fights too. So yeah, powers ''are'' a really important thing to have.

* ShowWithinAShow: The game all the heroes and villains come from. A real-life ''Ace Lightning'' game came out between the two series meant to be the one in the game. There are a couple things in the show that it actually provides context for, like Ace having an unreasoning hatred of garden gnomes (One level is full of killer garden gnomes as enemies). However there are things that don't gel with the game's portrayal in the show (For example Sparx doesn't appear in the game at all. She's mentioned in the introduction and waves goodbye to the player with Ace and Random under the end credits, but that's it).

* PlotCoupons: The pieces of the Amulet of Zoar, which both sides are trying to collect.

* MegaNekko: Jessica, though she gets tougher in later series.

* SheCleansUpNicely: [[MegaNekko Jessica]], at the end of series one.

* ShapeShifting: Lady Illusion can shape shift into any form she desires (and [[WordOfGod supposedly also into objects, though this was never observed in the series]]).

The series starts out as a jaunt into the world of One Boy and His Superhero and later develops into a mire of [[OrderVersusChaos Good Versus Evil]], the nature of emotions in [[ArtificialHuman Artifical Beings]], [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld complex social networking while saving the world in your spare time]], 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.

* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld: And try not to lose another girlfriend while you're at it, Mark.

At first glance, ''Ace Lightning'' could be suspected of being pulled straight from the pages of a videogame-related FanFiction. What it actually ''is'', however, is a 39 episode series, which run from 2002 to 2004. It was created as a collaboration between Canadian and British entertainment industries. Many fans believe it was ScrewedByTheNetwork.

''Ace Lightning'' was one of the first weekly television shows to involve CGI animated effects as a substantial part of every episode, making the show both WesternAnimation and LiveActionTV. The series is filmed live-action with the video game characters Ace created in 3D digital and blue screened in afterwards.

The [[SupportingProtagonist protagonist]] is 13-year-old [[KidHero Mark Hollander]], who has just immigrated to [[strike:Canada]] North America from England. However getting to grips with life on the other side of the pond turns out to be the least of his problems, when, on the first night in their new home, the aerial of Mark's house is struck by lightning. As chance would have it, Mark was at that exact moment engaged in his favorite videogame: ''Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom'', and had discovered a level which wasn't supposed to exist. Turns out this isn't an ordinary copy of ''Ace Lightning''. The next thing Mark knows the characters of his videogame - good and bad alike- [[TheGameComeToLife have come to life]] and are engaging in battle in his back yard. Mark is somewhat reluctantly elected as Ace Lightning's new sidekick, and dragged into a quest to locate the seven shattered pieces of [[MacGuffin The Amulet of Zoar]] which will give its wielder power over the entire universe.

The BigBad of the series is [[DemBones Lord Fear]], who has a grudge against Ace for accidentally crippling him and the imprisoning him in the game world. He along with his minions, [[MagicStaff Staff Head]], [[TheDarkChick Lady Illusion]], [[DumbMuscle Anvil]], [[PigMan Pigface]], and [[YouDirtyRat Dirty Rat]], occupy the rundown Kent Bros. Carnival, renaming it the "Carnival of Doom" after their [[AmusementParkOfDoom old stomping grounds]].

** On the other hand, the game proves to have killer lawn gnomes as enemies in one level. Which Mark really should've remembered as a supposed fan of the game [[note]] Granted, the game came out between the two seasons, and the non-boss enemies probably hadn't been imagined up by then. [[/note]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Mr. Cheseborough spends the whole show thinking the game characters are aliens. He's transported into the game world in the last episode and voices a fear that he's about to be "probed"...

* BlackBestFriend: Pete, Mark's best friend while he lived in the UK. Has a bit part throughout the series. Sam is also Heather's best friend.

** [[spoiler: The series finale itself with how hard they were sequel baiting, which didn't work out. Kilobyte's been sent into the game but it's heavily implied he'll find a way back sooner or later and he'll be mighty pissed when he does. Lady Illusion's trapped in the game just as she and Ace finally confirm their love, Lord Fear is still on the loose, and the Amulet of Zoar's been shattered and its whereabouts are unknown.]]

* EvilGenius: [[spoiler:Rick Hummel]] the Master Programmer. Albeit He calls his office his ''Fortress of Solitude''.

* ContinuingIsPainful: The Lightning Knights noticeably have it a lot harder when it comes to being defeated than the villains, who will just step out of their RespawnPoint after enough time passes for their health to regenerate. If a Lightning Knight's defeated, they're sent back into the world of the game, and their allies still on this side have to find two of the PlotCoupons and combine them to summon anyone back. Come second series even that doesn't seem to be an option anymore.

* ContinuingIsPainful: The Lightning Knights noticeably have it a lot harder when it comes to being defeated than the villains, who will just step out of their RespawnPoint after enough time passes for their health to regenerate. If a Lightning Knight's defeated, they're sent back into the world of the game, and their allies still on this side have to find two of the PlotCoupons and combine them to summon anyone back.

* WhatTheHellHero: After the part of his program [[EmotionalEmotionlessPerson controlling his emotions]] is screwed with, Ace finds it... a little difficult to keep control. Manifestations of "what the hell, hero?" include explosive anger at Fear, an outright outburst at a very confused Mark, and his accidentally ''shooting'' Chuck.

* SadisticChoice: Mark, at the end of the series, has the dilemma of choosing whether to allow Lord Fear to take over the world, or deleting the videogame (including Ace, Sparx and Random) from his hard drive, and therefore removing the heroes from existence. (The fact that he even considered it then, and never even thought of it towards the end of the last series, says a lot for his character development.)

* RhinoRampage: Anvil.

* PacManFever: Inevitable to some degree, being written by people who probably didn't play modern video games. Some aspects of the InUniverse game all the characters came from sound iffy to viewers who did (numbered levels were mostly an outdated concept by the time the show was made), and when people are showing "playing" the game it's usually thumping random keys and wiggling joysticks without any regard for what the screen's supposed to be showing.

* PacManFever: Inevitable to some degree, being written by people who probably didn't play modern video games. Some aspects of the InUniverse game all the characters came from sound iffy to viewers who did (not many games still had numbered levels by the time the show was made), and when people are showing "playing" the game it's usually thumping random keys and wiggling joysticks without any regard for what the screen's supposed to be shwowing.

** On the other hand, the game proves to have killer lawn gnomes as enemies in one level. Can you really blame Ace for being suspicious?

* ContinuingIsPainful: The Lightning Knights noticeably have it a lot harder when it comes to being defeated than the villains, who will just step out of their RespawnPoint after enough time passes for their health to regenerate. If a Lightning Knight's defeated, they're sent back into the world of the game, and their allies still on this side have to find two of the Plot Coupons and combine them to summon anyone back.