YMMV / Forged in Fire

• Gateway Series: Needless to say, this show introduced a lot of people to the art of bladesmithing. Several of the contestants even got into bladesmithing because of Forged in Fire. The fact that it, unlike other reality Game Shows actually encourages sportsmanship and camaraderie among its contestants and the judges are as nice, encouraging and constructive as you can find definitely helps.
• Heartwarming Moments: Frequently the contestants will help each other when issues pop up and congratulate each other when their blade does well in a test.
  • Particularly evident in one finale when one finalist's handle cracks and the other finalist looks equally dismayed and asks if there isn't anything they can do to fix it.
  • In the Lion Spear episode of Season 5, one of the finalists accidentally overheats his metal...because he was busy playing with his baby daughter.
  • The sheer joy that so many contestants show when Doug tells them that their blade "will keal." Some bladesmiths even confessed that part of the reason (if not the whole reason) why they got into the show was to hear Doug say that their crafted weapons "will keal".
  • The reason why the term "KEAL" was eventually adopted to replace "KILL". KEAL means Keep Everyone ALive, and, according to Doug, the KEAL test is less about killing a person and more about protecting the user of the weapon as well as their loved ones. It's also why tests are immediately aborted if a blade breaks or bends, or has a lousy handle.
  • In S7 E18, on the first round, one of the competitors, noticing huge cracks on his billet, is ready to quit, so he proceeds to shut down his forge. Wil Willis then approaches him to inspect the situation and gives some encouragement words, which prompts the competitor to turn his forge on and try again:
  "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. I think tou can fix this, but you gotta believe you can fix it."
• Memetic Badass: Doug Marcaida, the resident edged and impact weapons specialist and Kali martial artist. A person with a very high level of proficiency with all kinds of weapons, he knows the most painful ways to slice you into cubes.
• Memetic Mutation: "And more importantly, sir, your weapon, IT WILL KEAL"^note Doug Marcaida's Catchphrase, which he uses whenever he considers a weapon deadly and lethal enough to protect the user and their loved ones, helped by Doug's expressions during the announcement..
• That One Boss:
  • For Knife or Death contestants it's Lifeline. For some it's the chicken, especially if they aim too high. For most, it's the fish, as they don't cut the whole way through, often underestimating it.
  • Longswords (such as the Scottish Claymore and the Landsknecht's Two-Handed Sword) are frowned upon by the contestants, as most of the home forges don't have the required equipment to properly make them, forcing the bladesmiths to take shortcuts and other approaches. Even the judges had a hard time testing them, with the first two Claymores not passing the KEAL test; they even failed in different ways, one bending and the other shattering into three pieces on impact with the pig carcass.
  • Ben Abbott, the former-contestant-turned-judge, became this in challenges, even gaining his own sub-series of episodes where beating him is the only goal for the winner of the preliminary. Dave lost in the Super Champion episode (current record: 3-1, 1 WO), J lost in a the Beat the Judges episode (current record: 1-1), but Ben has never been defeated so far. He is 9-0 in actual competition, two victories as a contestant, winning his two Beat the Judges bouts, and winning all five of the Beat the Unbeatable challenge episodes levied against him. A combination of physical stamina (he's the youngest judge by far), familiarity with the filming studio-slash-forge (you can see his home forge is also closely modelled after the studio), and a behind-the-scenes job of constantly making example weapons for the show do give him a sizeable advantage against the competition, however. In short, Forged in Fire is his Crippling Overspecialization.
• That One Level:
  • Subtle, but the first round usually is the most dreaded for its physicality. No matter how skilled and/or experienced the blacksmiths are, or how old, "The Forge" is noted to be quite a bit hotter than the smiths' home forges, with some finishers commenting it's roughly 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) hotter in the immediate area around the forges allocated to them. Contestants also speak of the harshness of the arena (not just "The Forge", but also the outdoor locations), either extreme heat and humidity (with outdoor coal forges under the sun), or in one occasion, extreme cold. Naturally, the less-fit smiths often struggled with their health and concentration under these conditions.
  • The Strength Test in the final round is always feared by the smiths. As the entire purpose of the test is to beat the hell out of their creation in an attempt to find absolutely any weak points, even something like a tiny crack or loose pommel can sink them. Even contestants who are perfectly confident on other tests admit to anxiety when it's time to see how solid their construction is. In particular, the Ice Block chop and the Wheel of Pain bending tool are dreaded above the others.
  • Animal carcass slices have a surprisingly good record of ruining blades. It's much harder to cut through pig flesh than you might think. Infamously, in the first Scottish Claymore episode, a Claymore that managed to cleave sheet metal in half bent on striking a pig carcass (and the other one shattered outright).

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