Ace Lightning

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

Level Seven: Activate, stand by...

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, which run from 2002 to 2004. It was created as a collaboration between Canadian and British entertainment industries. Many fans believe it was Too Good to Last.

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 Western Animation and Live Action TV. The series is filmed live action with the videogame characters Ace created in 3D digital and blue screened in afterwards.

The protagonist is 13-year-old Mark Hollander, who has just immigrated to 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 favourite 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- 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 The Amulet of Zoar which will give its yielder power over the entire universe. Ace and the villians are convinced that the real world is just another level from the game (albeit, from their perspective, a rather strange one), and treat it as such. Mark's new life just became a lot more complicated.

While Mark is initially reluctant, and Ace is naive about the way things work in 'Reality', the two of them develop an understanding which grows into friendship. As the show goes on more characters arrive, both good and evil, and eventually we have the arrival of the mysterious Master Programmer, and his Avatar, the new head villain: Kilobyte, who makes Lord Fear look like a mewling bag of kittens.

The series starts out as a jaunt into the world of One Boy and His Superhero and later develops into a mire of Good Versus Evil, the nature of emotions in Artifical Beings, 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.

For most, however, it's just a show about a superhero completely out of his depth in the real world, and a boy trying not to let his newfound 'hero' status impact on his social life. You know. The usual.

Ace Lightning regularly attempts to mock the tropes associated with the Superhero genre and at no point tries to hide from the fact that it is, essentially, a superhero parody that occasionally plays things straight. Every CGI character in the show is a stereotype of more traditional heroes. You've got your spunky red headed sidekick, your bewitching black widow, and your villian who just happens to look like a living skeleton. Ace is a typical superhero; super strong, super fast, able to shoot lightning energy from his hands, and surviving on electrical power sources. Ace Lightning shows the audience what really happens when you stick a person with those kinds of abilities into a world which wasn't built to accommodate them. The humans meanwhile, are normal (mostly) people living ordinary lives which contrast garishly with the superheroes. And while Ace is learning the finer points of humanity from Mark, Mark is learning that sometimes, a hero's gotta do what a hero's gotta do.

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


Tropes used in Ace Lightning include:
  • Ace Lightning Syndrome: Trope Namer, before it was renamed to Does Not Know His Own Strength.
  • Action Girl: Sparx
  • Adults Are Useless: Mark's parents are mostly oblivious to what's going on in their son's life.
    • Actually, they're not really "useless" per se. They know nothing about the part-time superheroing but they're pretty genial and understanding about the social side of things. One really can't blame them for not suspecting their son is saving the world with a fictional character.
    • Other adults include a mean-spirited teacher driven half barmy by the CGI Villains, a Carnival Owner whose home gets taken over, 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.)
  • Aesop: Every freaking episode ends with one of these, carefully tuned to the target demographic of ten to fourteen year old males (but not nessecarily tuned to what actually happened in the episode).
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Ace is possessed in one episode, Random Virus has this problem constantly.
  • All Part of the Show: Lord Fear invades Mark's school during a school play (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 out because he's the only one who knows what's going on.
  • 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 in the real world, they locate a useful equivalent hideout in the Kent Brother's Carnival.
  • Angst: From most of the cast, though it's mainly either typical, teenage angst, understandable concern about discovering you're really a videogame character and your whole world is just a fiction cooked up for schoolkids, or the kind of angst generated when your Split Personality can't decide whether to help people or to kill them. It's also not too heavy given the shows nature as a comedy first.
  • 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.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: The Amulet of Zoar, which everyone is after.
    • Also, Mark Hollander's Wrist Cannon, which he can apparently use despite not being a Lightning Knight and without it having any obvious external power supply.
      • In fact, forget that, any weapon being utilised by the Lightning Knights is one of these.
  • Apocalyptic Log: Mark regularly exchanges video communications with Pete: communications which usually took a turn for the serious whenever a series was nearing its end and we were due a showdown.
  • Artificial Limbs: Random Virus.
  • Author Avatar: Kilobyte - 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.
  • Bedsheet Ghost: Chuck terrifies the living daylights out of the bad guys when he gets caught in a sheet while they're raiding Mark?s house.
  • Betty and Veronica: Sam and Heather have a mild version of this going throughout series one (afterwards, Samantha is Put on a Bus, Heather doesn't try to renew the relationship, and Kat becomes the Third Option Love Interest).
  • 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.
  • Bigger Bad: two of them, actually.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Ace Lightning, Sparx and Random. Also a Power Trio.
  • Big No: In the finale. Interestingly, it's Mark, when he thinks Ace has been shot turns out it was Lady Illusion in morph.
    • Ace too. All the time.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The third series.
  • Black Best Friend: 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.
  • Booby Trap: The villains plant these several times, and the heroes fall right in them.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Ace, after a bite from Googler's puppets (yes, the puppets bite. They are freaky little dudes.)
  • Brought Down to Normal: Ace loses his powers in one episode, and gets them back just in time to save Mark's hide.
    • He also accesses him human emotions in another episode, and finds that things aren't quite as simple as they used to be.
  • The Bus Came Back: Sam returns for one episode in the final series. Ironically, the only time we ever see an un-disguised on screen kiss between those two characters. It's that kinda show.
  • Butt Monkey: Usually Mark, who, when he's not getting chewed on by Googler's puppets, dumped into bizzarre life-or-death situations which noone else knows about, or would believe is real if they did, or going face to face with Lord Fear, then he's having his social life ruined in a variety of unusual manners (such as, for example, Lady Illusion morphing into him and taking his place at school, to his family and friends annoyance and confusion, being bullied by a nasty teacher or dealing with Lord Fear preventing him from getting to a date on time.
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Fortunately for Mark it's not a very competent call. It is, however, a highly persistent one.
  • Cancellation: A lack of interest at the end of season three meant the show was cancelled.
  • Can't Stay Normal: Ace becomes 'human' after losing his powers in one episode -and hates it. Mark is also regularly forced to confront the fact that he's a "hero" now, and heroes have responsibilities that outweigh going to a movie with your girlfriend.
  • The Cape (trope): Ace (like most of the archetype roles in this series, this is somewhat subverted in that he really doens't fit in the real world).
  • Catch Phrase: The Lightning Knights' Motto: 'Do Right and Fear Not'.
  • Chase Scene: Occurs during Mark's driving lesson when Lord Fear decides to persue the training car in his Doom Cycle. The tutor is not amused by Mark's... achem, escape attempt.
  • Chaste Hero: Ace doesn't even know how to flirt.
  • The Chessmaster: The Master Programmer Rick Hummel probably thinks it's him, but really, it's Kilobyte, who knows more about the game than anyone realises and is pulling countless strings to make things go his way.
  • Circus of Fear: The Carnival of Doom
  • Cliff Hanger: One or two of them. Including a minor one in the final episode, damn it.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Literally. When Random Virus? cyborg eye is green it's reasonably safe to approach him. When it turns red, however, you'd better run for the hills.
    • The good characters also tend to shoot colour coded attacks which are either blue or pink. The bad guys are usually sharp green.
  • Combat Tentacles: Very creepy combat tentacles. Mostly used for power drainage.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: Mark always eventually comes round to the importance of helping Ace save the world, regardless of how many relationships it screws up or how often he nearly gets killed.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Subverted, Ace thinks that this is what Mark does on a regular basis by putting his homework and girlfriend duties ahead of saving the world. Mark however, is really more in tune with reality than Ace is.
    • Course, Ace does have a point; cgi characters or not, the threat the evils pose to the world is very, very real, and as soon as Mark works that out, he stops making so many excuses.
  • Conspicuous CG - Less obvious in the final season but you can tell they weren't utilising the modern advantages of blue screen nearly enough. Some scenes didn't even use it and the CGI characters and humans rarely came into physical contact because of this limitation. There were three times when humans and CGI's contacted.
  • Cut Short.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul - While it's never outright stated that Random Virus's transformation into a cyborg played a part in his good-evil complex, it's certainly implied that the accident which caused him to be rebuilt had something to do with it.
  • Dating Catwoman: Ace Lightning and Lady Illusion, though she really does love him and ends up saving his life in the final episode.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Mark has his moments.
  • Death Is Cheap At least as long as it's a game character. And that doesn't mean it can't be a Tear Jerker anyway.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Intriguingly done with Random Virus and Ace, where Ace will regularly have to resort to defeating his friend in a fight in order to quell his evil side and bring back his calmer, kinder personality. Random 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 bravery, strength, and power, while cowardice, goodness and virtue were equated with weakness. On one occasion Random was unable to attack Mark because although Mark was afraid, he refused to back down, therefore he was not a coward. Cue programing conflict.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Lady Illusion.
  • Disney Death: Since most of the cast came out of a videogame, death isn't exactly permenant for them not that this makes Sparx's "death" in Unidentified Flying Superhero any less traumatic...
    • Also happens to Chuck in the third season, when Ace shoots him by accident. There are a few moments of panic before they realise he's okay.
      • Well, that was so Ace could learn it doesn't work the same for people who don't come from a videogame, so technically it may not count.
  • Damsel in Distress: Samantha, in at least four episodes. Not that she was aware of it at the time.
  • Does Not Know His Own Strength
  • Downer Ending: Several episodes, including April Fools and Unidentified Flying Superhero.
  • The Dragon: Oddly, The Dragon in question is Staffhead, a talking (cockney, for that matter), winged frog sitting on the staff that Lord Fear always carries.
  • Dramatic Thunder: Occurs all the damn time from the first episode: 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 their videogame.
    • Amongst other things. It also occurs at an inopportune moment later in the series ?when the main character happens to be in urgent need of a power up.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come - In episode twelve, Nobody's Hero, Mark dreams in exacting detail exactly what is going to happen to him by the end of the episode. This trick occured only once, but it got a few fans talking, nonetheless... and you won't believe the theories it resulted in... Though actually, you probably would.
  • Enemy Mine: Realizing he hates Ace less than Kilobyte, Lord Fear teams up with Ace and Mark to retake the carnival in the last episode.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: What will happen if the bad guys obtain all the pieces of the Amulet of Zoar (little thought is given as to how a bunch of computer game characters can really pose a threat to national security, but hey, they can exist and apparantly go some damage, so... Mark figures he'd better play it safe. Then Kilobyte shows up, and the characters know that they really HAVE to take it seriously.
  • Evil Genius: Rick Hummel the Master Programmer. Albeit He calls his office his Fortress of Solitude.
  • Evil Overlord: Lord Fear in the first two seasons, Kilobyte in the third, though Lord Fear gained a few competence points after he was ousted.
  • Extra Ore Dinary: Random Virus's abilities include a partial-control over metal objects. Given that he lives in a junkyard, this comes in handy.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Mark, during the episode Search For Sparx when he and Ace have essentially been thrown to the wolves (or rather the giant killer bee), Ace has given up and won't even try to defend himself. Mark is having none of it, grabs the nearest heavy, blunt object and tries to defend both of them, despite knowing he doesn't have a chance. The threat to him was the only thing which which gets Ace back on his feet.
  • 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 hangs about that Sparx is secretly a princess who's "real" name is Amandine. Fans presumably chose this name specifically because they know it would embarrass the hell out of her were it true).
  • Fanfic: A surprisingly full section of fanfiction can be located here.
  • Fiery Redhead - Sparx.
  • Fire and Brimstone Hell: 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.
  • Fish Out of Water: Ace. Very.

Mark: "Ace, we've been through this, they're gnomes. They're not going to attack you."

    • Theoretically all the Lightning Knights and Villains fit this trope(though Ace is the most out of his depth in the beginning) since the characters believe that Earth is just another level of their world (albeit a strange one, from their perspective). Random Virus tries to avoid all social interaction, and Sparx just doesn't seem to have quite the same amount of trouble as the others.
      • Mark is something of a Fish Out of Water, being a British Immigrant new to American Culture. Most people pass off his odd behaviour as a result of this, and not the fact that he's hiding a living computer character from 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).
    • Ace in Unidentified Flying Superhero.
  • Frankenstein's Monster: Subverted to a degree. The original Frankenstein's monster was a misunderstood creature shunned by the world (as well as his creator). Ace Lightning's Frankenstein's Monster is Kilobyte -a powerful, tattooed villain with tentacles that he used to drain the energy of those he catches. He wasn't so much get shunned by his creator as rebelled against him having discovered his identity as a Videogame Character.
  • A Friend in Need: You can always count on Ace Lightning. Mark may also be annoyed at Ace almost constantly, but he just can't seem to stay out of the game, and usually shows up to help.
  • Friendly Enemy: Random Virus and Ace are said to have been friends before the series began (that's assuming you believe it happened), but due to Random's dodgy programming, he now has a habit of turning evil at inopportune moments.
  • Friendship Moment: When Random isn't trying to kill him, he and Ace have a few of these.
  • Geek: Chuck Mugel: a geek of the computer-related variety.
  • Genre Blind: The characters from the Ace Lightning videogame have absolutely no idea that the world they knew was nothing more than a popular 3D platformer. As a result they are regularly surprised and alarmed by obvious traps, and regularly spurt out 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.

Mark: ...The music. It's been the music all along!

  • Horrible Camping Trip: Episode 22 is this trope. Mark, Chuck, Brett and Simon go camping only to meet up with Wayne and his boastful dad, whilst the villains look for Mark to prevent Ace from giving him a newly found piece of the Amulet.
  • Hostage for Macguffin: Usually Mark ends up being hostage for an amulet piece. It's happened to Sparx at least once, too.
    • And to Sam, who usually doesn't even know it's happening.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Mark 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 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 said friend is actually a superhero who emerged from his videogame.)
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Mark Hollander throughout most of the series.
  • "I Know You're 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!"
    • Also occurs between Ace and Random Virus. Rarely successfully.
  • Ironic Echo

Ace: At least I didn?t break the window.
Mark: Forget about the window! Are you alright?

  • 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, in that Pete decides it would be better if he didn't meet Ace).
  • Jerk Jock: Wayne Fisgus
  • 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 it as soon as he realised what was going on.
  • Just Friends - Mark and Sam, after series two (ironically this is the only time you see them kiss but then this is that kind of show.
  • Kick the Morality Pet - Ace accidentally shoots Chuck after Lady Illusion messes with his program giving him access to human emotions.
  • Kissing Discretion Shot - With the humans, (Mark and Kat kiss in sillouette in the final scene of the series) the CG I characters are less disguised about it.
  • 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. Sniff...
  • The Lifestream: Called TheDatastream, this is the swirling purple/blue energy portal that brings the CGI characters to earth from within Mark?s game. The portal can be opened by putting together pieces of the Amulet of Zoar.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: Including bring the characters of a videogame to life, apparently...
    • A deflected bolt of lightning from Ace once gave Chuck Mugel super strength for an episode. Ace mentioned that it was a "good job that was a deflected shot or he'd have been toast."
  • Loners Are Freaks: Poor old Random Virus.
  • Loves Me Not - With energy bombs no less.
  • MacGuffin: 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, angry scientist's computer lab, really.
  • Mage in Manhattan: Lord Fear, Lady Illusion.
  • Magical Computer: Tonnes of them, mostly courtesy of Chuck.
  • Magitek - The characters claim that the Amulet of Zoar is magic fuelled, but since they're actually characters who came from inside a videogame...
  • The Man Behind the Man: The Master Programmer behind Kilobyte. Or Kilobyte behind the Master Programmer, depends which episode you're watching.
  • Meganekko: 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.
  • Monster Clown: Jesters count, right? 'Cause then Googler qualifies.
  • Mystery Meat: Whatever Mrs Kutcher the Cafeteria Lady is serving this week (Chuck's her favourite for actually liking the goop she serves up in the frst place, and gets special treatment.)

Ms Kutcher: If I told you what was in it, you wouldn't eat it.

  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Lord Fear? Felicity Fury? Anvil? Dirty Rat?
  • Normally I Would Be Dead Now - Chuck gets hit by Ace's lightning bolts twice. The first time gave him superpowers, the second time merely knocks him unconscious for about sixty seconds - not the usual reaction to electrical trauma.
    • Mark is surprised by his continued survival on a regular basis. No wonder, really.
  • Personal Gain Hurts: Creating Kilobyte just to get revenge on the people who laughed at your genius was a really, really bad move, Master Programmer.
  • Perverse Puppet: Googler's insane venom spitting, tree-chomping, scary-joke-telling hand puppets Zip and Snip. Not only are they creepy, sentient things while attached to him, but they can detach themselves and seek out their prey. Hitting them is kind of like trying to swat flies.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Or at least loses you girlfriends, because you keep running off and cancelling dates and generally being really weird? and can't tell her that the reason for all this is NOT because you're a jerk or just plain dense, but because you're trying to save the world in your spare time. Mark loses no less than two girlfriends this way. Ace's reasoning is that if Mark tells anyone else, he's putting them in danger.
    • They do say that Sigglekow created Mark's character based on Peter Parker.
      • But since often, the girls were in danger anyway, their knowing about Ace might actually have given them a better chance of staying in one piece
    • Lady Illusion and Sparx just need to stop shooting at one another and talk for once.
  • The Power of Friendship: Seeing Mark in danger and finally coming to understand what a friend is gives Ace the ability to recover his powers after having lost them.
    • Occasionally, reminding him of their past helps Ace 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.
  • Powers That Be: The Master Programmer Rick Hummel had been watching Mark and his friends actions since the beginning, waiting for Lord Fear to take over so he can command them and rule the world, though he was only introduced in the third season. (He 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.
  • Protectorate: Don't mess with Mark while Ace is around. Just... don't.
  • Redheaded Hero: Sparx.
  • Refugee From TV Land: The entire premise of the show.
  • Refusal of the Call: Mark, initially. Sort of Random Virus, though it depends what mood he's in.
  • 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 better by the end of the series, though.) Also Sparx going off somewhere after she's been told not to (and usually getting in trouble in the process). Chuck throwing up.
  • Sadistic Choice: 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 harddrive, 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.)
    • Then again, maybe Kilobyte can't actually be deleted because he's not a part of the preexisting game. He could be a completely different file. So imagine deleting everyone else aaaand leaving Kilobyte...
  • Sadist Teacher: Mr Chesborough. Though really he?s more bitter and cruel (and later crazy) than sadistic.
  • Screw Destiny: Lady Illusion.
  • Secret Keeper: Chuck is Mark's Secret Keeper in the third season, as is Ashley Hollander throughout most of the series.
  • Serkis Folk (many of whom were Circus Folk.)
  • 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).
  • She Cleans Up Nicely - Jessica, at the end of series one.
  • Shoot the Dog: Mark nearly has to at the end of series one when, anticipating the game being lost and the world being doomed, he nearly deletes the file of the Ace Lightning videogame: which would destroy all the bad guys, but take all the good guys with them. Fortunately he has a last minute breakthrough. In later series Mark chooses to help Ace and the other Lightning Knights to do things the Hard Way without even considering deletion.
  • Sidekick: Sparx and Mark, both to Ace. (Later on Chuck, too.)
  • Split Personality: Random Virus.
  • Sword Fight: Only one character has a sword, but since it fires lightning, it makes for some pretty spectacular fight scenes anyway.
  • Supporting Protagonist: Mark is the protagonist of the series while Ace Lightning is the hero.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial:

"We're a family friendly carnival, we don't have any aliens or mutants here, never have never will!"

  • Sword Sparks: Sort of. Sparx?s sword shoots pink electricity.
  • Take a Third Option: Mark, in the final episode of the second series, when he's left to choose between letting the world be taken over by computer game villians or deleting his new friends from existence, does this instead.
  • Teach Him Anger: Technically, though, Ace already had emotions they were just being moderated and controlled by his program. When Lady Illusion, with a new upgrade from Kilobyte, messes with that program, Ace learns what it's like to have your emotions in control of you, rather than the other way around.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: Mark, towards the end of series one in the episode Nobody's Hero.
  • This Is Reality: Mark says this to Ace word for word in one episode. Ace just looks at him funny. Later on Ace becomes aware of the fact that he is just a game character and is understandably upset.
  • Tin Man: 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 newly uninhibited 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 and when Lady Illusion dies for him, he realises he couldn't let go of loving her, no matter how painful it was.
    • It's regularly suggested that Ace's emotions have always had a direct effect on his powers even before this. Seeing Mark in danger allowed him to recover 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 CGI's are stuck in the real world. A few human characters also get trapped in the videogame over the course of the series. Its Kilobyte's ultimate goal to send the entire human population of the world to live inside the game. He clearly hasn't entirely thought this through.
  • Troubled but Cute: Lady Illusion, later more of a Broken Bird.
  • Tsundere: Heather, Kat
  • The Undead: The main villain of the first two series (and finally once again at the end in a rather awesome fashion), Lord Fear; walking skeleton and the resident Lich.
  • Unusual User Interface: Characters access the Sixth Dimension (the videogame world Ace hails from) by putting together pieces of the Amulet of Zoar.
  • Unstoppable Rage - Do not -repeat, not - get on Ace's bad side.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Lord Fear during the final episode of series (it's rather creepy).
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Lady Illusion is capable of morphing into other beings. And does so regularly.
  • Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: And try not to lose another girlfriend while you're at it, Mark.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Despite being almost invulnerable, having immense strength and the ability to either upgrade characters or suck out their energy, Kilobyte has been fended off by flashlights a few times.
  • Welcome to The Real World: Ace Lightning and a gang of villains appear in the real world. It takes them a while to get used to this.
  • Wham! Episode: "Unidentified Flying Superhero": Sparx's death scene was so utterly unexpected and brutal in the middle of an otherwise light hearted episode, (not to mention surprisingly handled) that nobody really cared that she would probably be back within a few episodes.
  • What Have I Become?: Ace realises how dangerous and uncontrollable he has become now that he has human emotions - specifically when he nearly kills Chuck.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After the part of his program 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.
  • 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 pay attention to his girlfriends. 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.
  • Word of God: The producer of the show Rick Sigglekow has informatively responded to emails and contacts from the fans, he even commented on a fanfiction once. He is awesome.
  • You Are Not Alone: Mark to Ace at the end of series two, and a couple of times throughout the rest of the series. The general theme seems to be when the chips are down, help out your friends.
  • You're Insane!: Mark, to Rick Hummel, the Master Programmer. Because he is.
  • You Can't 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 will happen to them if they do return to the computer game).

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