Ace Lightning (character) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ace Lightning
Ace Lightning Ace Lightning Ace Lightning is a children's television show co-produced by the BBC and Alliance Atlantis, which has been broadcast in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom and Australia. The show was filmed in Canada, but the program was set in America... character

Name	Ace Lightning
Nicknames	Lightning (called by villains), Ace (called by friends).
Species	Humanoid Humanoid A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
Affiliation	The Lightning Knights
Gender	Male
Age	32
Abilities	Superhuman strength, flight, super speed, can fire lightning bolts from his wrist cannons.
Weaknesses	Must recharge his powers when weak.
Voice Actor	Michael Riley Michael Riley Michael Riley is a Canadian actor and graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal, Canada in 1984. Riley's first appearance was in the film No Man's Land...

Ace Lightning is the protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

children's television show of the same name

Ace Lightning

Ace Lightning is a children's television show co-produced by the BBC and Alliance Atlantis, which has been broadcast in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom and Australia. The show was filmed in Canada, but the program was set in America...

. A superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

from the Sixth Dimension, Ace is really a character from a video game and is brought to life to carry out the game's storyline in the real world. Over time, Ace escapes his original programming as a heroic, wise-cracking man, and into an emotional and human person, even finding love in the form of Lady Illusion

Lady Illusion

Lady Illusion is a hero/villain from the BBC programme Ace Lightning. Originally programmed to be Lord Fear's sidekick, Lady Illusion quickly abandoned her programming and fell in love with Ace, who had never experienced emotions before. Despite the fact she is supposed to hate Ace, Lady Illusion...

, the mistress of his arch enemy Lord Fear

Lord Fear

For the antagonist of the same name featured in Knightmare, see Knightmare.Lord Fear is a fictional character and a primary antagonist from the BBC television programme, Ace Lightning.-Character Outline:...

, whom he is fighting to gain the Amulet of Zoar

Amulet of Zoar

The Amulet of Zoar is a MacGuffin-like item from the television series, Ace Lightning, created by the BBC. The Amulet appears as a large gold and silver-coloured triangular object with four purple gems incrested into it...

and send Lord Fear back to prison in the Sixth Dimension. Ace is voiced by Michael Riley

Michael Riley

Michael Riley is a Canadian actor and graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal, Canada in 1984. Riley's first appearance was in the film No Man's Land...

Personality

Ace first comes off as a stereotypical superhero, courageous, heroic and cracks jokes at the villains' expense. However, it is shown he knows very little about the real world, which he describes as a "dimension", and is very tightly wound when it comes to his duties as a Lightning Knight, following the code ("Do right and fear not"), and believes Lightning Knights are not friends but merely allies, although he changes his view upon realising how valuable his sidekick, Mark Hollander, is to him. Ace is very protective of his friends and mankind, who he refers to as mortals. In the first season, Ace's curiosity gets the better of him, leading him to break multiple objects in Mark's house like a blender

Blender

A blender is a kitchen appliance for chopping or liquefying food.Blender may also refer to:Media:* Blender , a music-themed magazine* Blender , a free and open-source software program for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering...

and the backdoor of Mark's house. In the second season, Ace's emotions become more out-of-control when Lady Illusion affects him with an upgrade that scrambles his original programming. Ace sheds a single tear when Lady Illusion seemingly dies in his arms, in the series' last episode.

Abilities

Ace's abilities seem to be inspired by those of Superman

Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

. He can fly and run at the speed of electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

. He possesses superhuman strength, capable of lifting the heavyweight Anvil into the air and tossing him skywards. In the second season, Ace is upgraded with the abiltiy to shoot projectile fire attacks from his wrist cannon gauntlets. Ace also comes equipped with several Lightning Knight weapons like the Lightning Lance and the Shield of Justice. Ace's trademark attack is the ability to fire electricity

Electricity

from his wrist cannons in a series of forms like electrically-created spear

Spear

A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...

s, an explosive electrical orb, and his standard attacks of firing electrical blasts. Ace can recharge his abilities on a transformer

Transformer

A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...

History

Ace is foremost of the Lightning Knights and leads the war against Lord Fear

Lord Fear

and his army of villains. Despite his powers and status, Ace is shown to be a bit klutz

Klutz

Klutz may refer to:*Most commonly, a clumsy person*Klutz Press is an imprint of Scholastic Press*Klütz is a surname and a town in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany...

y and forgetful (two running gag

Running gag

A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....

s in the first season involve Ace accidentally breaking things around Mark's house and constantly getting Mark's name wrong). Sometime before the events of the show, Ace battled against Lord Fear and crippled his right leg, presumably what made their enemies. Shortly before arriving on Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

, Ace managed to successfully imprison Lord Fear and his gang in chambers of pure energy (according to the yearbook). However, Lady Illusion

Lady Illusion

freed the villains and they stole the Amulet of Zoar

Amulet of Zoar

. A battle erupted over the Amulet but it was ultimately shattered to pieces. The destruction of the Amulet opened a portal to Earth which Lord Fear used to escape Ace. Ace followed and hired Mark Hollander as his sidekick

Sidekick

A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...

. Shortly after his arrival on Earth, Ace was captured by Lord Fear but rescued by Mark.

Ace soon falls in love

Love

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

with Lady Illusion

Lady Illusion

in secret but their relationship quickly ends when Lord Fear shows up looking for vengeance

Revenge

Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...

. When Lord Fear summons Googler from White Hot Oblivion, Ace reveals he and Googler had a history together. Googler drains Ace of his superpower

Superpower (ability)

Superpower is a popular culture term for a fictional superhuman ability. When a character possesses multiple such abilities, the terms super powers or simply powers are used...

s, rendering him human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

. Ace disguises himself as a police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

officer using clothes found at the Thunder Tower, and regains his powers shortly afterwards. The arrival of Random Virus

Random Virus (Ace Lightning)

Random Virus is a neutrally-aligned fictional character from the BBC show, Ace Lightning. A cyborg with a dual personality, Random Virus is often fighting himself, allies and enemies to keep himself under control and from turning evil....

in the human world complicates matters, as Ace briefly has to care for his confused and unstable friend.

Mark eventually summons Sparx from the video game to join Ace. However, Sparx's insulting comments toward Mark cause him to stop being Ace's sidekick. Shortly thereatfer, Googler's puppets zombify Ace and send him to destroy Mark and Sparx, but with help from Chuck, Ace is restored to normal. During Sparx time on Earth, she proves to be an asset and a worthy ally in Ace's battles against Lord Fear, although Ace often finds himself having to rescue her when her impulsive nature places her in danger. When Sparx is killed by Googler and sent back to the Sixth Dimension

Sixth dimension

Six-dimensional space is any space that has six dimensions, that is, six degrees of freedom, and that needs six pieces of data, or coordinates, to specify a location in this space. There are an infinite number of these, but those of most interest are simpler ones that model some aspect of the...

, Ace and Mark are on their own again. While attempting to download new powers from Mark's computer, Ace is hit by a virus and frozen solid, but Lady Illusion restores him to life with a kiss. Ace soon finds another piece of the Amulet, which, after some difficulty, he uses to summon Sparx back from the game.

In the finale of Season 1, Lord Fear gains all the pieces of the Amulet and begins to drain the Lightning Knights of their powers. Ace, Sparx and Random battle the villains at the Carnival of Doom but are beaten severely by them. Mark locates the Amulet and shatters it, sending Lord Fear and his minions (except Lady Illusion) back to the game.

In Season 2, Ace and Sparx decide to return home and take Random with them, because the cyborg is becoming uncreasingly dangerous. Unfortunately, Random refuses to go back, and attacks Ace and Sparx. Mark deletes Ace's game file, which is supposed to return all three of them to the game, but because of Lady Illusion's intereference, only Ace and Sparx are sent back into the game, leaving Random and Lady Illusion stranded. Things get worse when Lord Fear returns somehow. Ace is soon summoned back to Earth by Chuck, leaving Sparx alone in the Sixth Dimension with Googler. Ace shortly afterwards gains an upgrade called the Ring of Flame, which enables him to shoot fire from his wrist cannons.

When Kilobyte appears, he upgrades Lady Illusion, giving her new powers. At Kilobyte's command, she uses these powers to afflict Ace with human emotion

Emotion

Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...

s, which destroy his sense of stability and leave him a wreck. Following various encounters and defeats at the hands of Kilobyte, Ace grows to fear him. Because he is unused to anger

Anger

Anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. It is the way a person indicates he or she will not tolerate certain types of behaviour. It is a feedback mechanism in which an unpleasant stimulus is met with an unpleasant response....

, he has no control over the emotion, and becomes enraged at the slightest things (such as losing to Chuck in a table tennis

Table tennis

Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...

match). When Sparx returns, she tries to help Ace gain control of his emotions, but becomes frustrated by Ace's unwillingness to confront Kilobyte directly. As the series progresses, Ace starts to believe that Kilobyte is being controlled by someone else (The Master Programmer).

In the finale, Ace and Lord Fear join forces to destroy Kilobyte. After taking out all of the minions, Lord Fear, Mark and Ace combine their attacks to defeat Kilobyte. However, Lord Fear then blasts Ace with a new attack, fatally damaging him. In a final twist, it is revealed that 'Ace' was actually Lady Illusion, who had incapactitaed and hidden the real Ace so as to protect him from falling victim to the treachery which she knew that Lord Fear would eventually display. After he and Mark chase off Lord Fear and Dirty Rat, Ace holds the dying Lady Illusion, and she reveals that she truly loves him. As her "last gift" to Ace, she offers to remove the human emotions which have made him weak, but he says that he wishes to keep them, because the things which he now feels for her are "the real gift". Lady Illusion sadly dies in Ace's arms, Ace experiencing his first tear.

In the cancelled Season 3, Ace was to venture into the game to save Lady Illusion, possibly releasing Kilobyte and Rick in the process.

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