YMMV / Become Jehovah's Friend

• Alternative Character Interpretation: While Caleb and Sophia's parents are presented In-Universe as loving parents who want to help guide their children through life, several viewers outside of the JW religion instead see them as Abusive Parents isolating their children and making them afraid to step out of line.
• Bile Fascination: Most of its viewers outside of JWs, most of which are from fans of YouTubers like TellTale and Saber Spark, who have negatively reviewed series. The former, TellTale, is an ex-JW and called the parents from the show abusive stemming from his own experiences.
• Designated Hero: Caleb and Sophia's Mother usually can come off as this to non-JW viewers. A noteworthy example is the first episode, in which she makes Caleb throw away a wizard toy that he borrowed from a friend rather than giving it back to the friend. While Mom is obviously intended to be in the right in this situation, many viewers feel that she comes across as extremely manipulative and practically gaslighting Caleb into giving up a toy that he was clearly enjoying greatly, which is not helped by the fact that it wasn't even his toy.
• Designated Villain:
  • Sophia’s classmates, in an episode where Zoey’s grandmother has died. Upon seeing Zoey crying in class, still grieving, Sophia begins to pull out her Bible so she can tell Zoey about Jehovah and Paradise. Her peers, seeing this, whisper at her to stop and glare at her, intimidating her into keeping quiet- at least for that day. We are meant to see the girls as bullies, and the episode reinforces this by having Caleb and Dad wear mean and “stupid” expressions when pretending to be her classmates, but most viewers agree that trying to preach to and convert someone in mourning is insensitive at best, harassment at worst, and that the girls were right to stop Sophia.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Carrie (the girl with two moms) is well-liked by the "fandom" (especially queer fans) for being unapologetic about her family, even drawing her two mommies at school.
  • Dad is also quite popular (albeit ironically) due to how insanely ripped he is as well as his nearly impossible to pin down accent.
  • Sparlock The Warrior Wizard has quite a few fans among non-JW viewers, due to being presented as a "dangerous" toy that Jehovah hates.
• Esoteric Happy Ending:
  • Frequently, Caleb and/or Sophia will make "the right choice," and continuing to follow the rules of their faith in spite of classmates urging them not to… such as Caleb not joining a classmate in playing a video game (thus not making a new friend) or the siblings refusing to join a class party (thus also not making new friends or being able to socialize). In the case of the latter, they even persuade a classmate to also skip the party and listen to them talk about Jehovah instead, beginning their conversion of her.
  • Sophia's Mom encouraging her to preach to her classmate Carrie and tell her that her mother's lifestyle is wrong that they must separate if they want to get into paradise. It's presented as a good, wholesome ending but most people point out that if Sophia actually did follow through with this, she would likely end up in serious trouble, not only with her classmates but with the school itself.
• Fanon:
  • Many non-JW viewers share the headcanon that Caleb and Sophia will leave the religion when they grow up.
  • It has also become quite common to headcanon Sophia as secretly being queer herself, most commonly as a closeted lesbian, with her finally being able to come out once she leaves the religion.
  • Some GoAnimate and Plotagon videos also depict them both as secretly rebellious and evil, like Caillou and Dora. Of course, there's a lot of "You're grounded grounded grounded grounded!" involved.
  • Some people believe that Angela is Carrie's sister/friend, and the reason she picks on Sophia is due to her attempting to preach to her about the supposed immorality of her mother's marriage.
• Les Yay: The looks Sophia gives off to Lidia (another female member of her congregation) and the way she is depicted via her point of view, seems to strongly suggest that she is developing a crush on her (at least for non-JW members).
• Memetic Mutation: Speculations on the dad's accent are frequently seen in the comment sections of videos relating to the series.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: If you're a non-Jehovah's Witness who has heard of this series, chances are you heard about it thanks to the infamous episode "One Man, One Woman", where Mom essentially tells Sophia that gay marriage is wrong, and encourages her to say that directly to the girl in her class with two mothers.
• Tear Jerker: The slow decline and eventual death of Sister Elsa is rather sad, with Sophia taking it the hardest. As she and her family visit her in the hospital (with Elsa implied to be on her death bed) Sophia tearfully asks her mother if Elsa is going to die. For a moment, all Mom can do is kneel down and hug her, and her talk of Heaven and bringing up the story of Lazarus are clear efforts to comfort Sophia. Finally, at the end, Sophia is outside one day and appears to see Elsa - healthy and happy - cheerfully painting at her easel as she always loved doing, a sight that clearly brings Sophia comfort.
• The Scrappy: The Mom is generally the most disliked character, especially among non-JW viewers for her extremely manipulative behavior and her homophobic views.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Caleb is seen in this light among non-JW viewers in the "Obey Jehovah" and "Jehovah Forgives" episodes, where he is clearly meant to be seen as in the wrong for wanting play with a magical toy and wanting to participate in a birthday party respectively. The thing is, Caleb wasn't harming anyone with his actions, and only engaging in normal, healthy childhood activities. The only crime he's guilty of is going against the rules of his religion, which most non-JW viewers tend to view as being entirely arbitrary, and not really warranting the immense guilt, shame and manipulation he's put through.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • In the earliest animations, the character designs (in particular Mom) look very uncanny, like clay models come to life. Their stiff movements certainly don't help.
  • Even in the newer episodes, many of the non-Jehovah's Witness kids tend to look... off, with many appearing to have bags under their eyes as well as other features that make them look uncanny compared to Caleb and Sophia. Although given that many non-JW viewers see these videos as being propaganda, and this does not extend to Sophia’s two friends whom she’s trying to convert, this may have been intentional.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The target audience is children being raised as Jehovah's Witnesses. As such, viewers outside of that denomination, including many other Christians, are likely to be put off by some of the moral values being taught.
  • The episode where Sophia and her mom morally grandstand over Carrie for having two mommies, with the conclusion being that she should preach to her about the ills of homosexuality. That episode cemented her mother as The Scrappy. Thankfully, the rest of the school is implied to be supportive of her (since she felt confident enough to draw them and pin the drawing on a public board), so they have her back in case Sophia actually goes through with it.
  • One episode sees Caleb upset because Dad has punished him. Mom, upon hearing this, tells him that being punished - in any form - is a sign of love and will make Caleb a stronger person. Caleb ends the episode by thanking Dad for punishing him.
• The Woobie:
  • Sophia, who is shown to have few friends and often feels lonely. Some episodes also show her being bullied in school, one instance being so bad she hid in a janitor closet until her bullies got bored and left. When she goes to her parents for help, they are sympathetic but all they can suggest is to pray for strength.
  • Caleb as well, who is forced to give up a toy his friend gave him because it invoked magic, which Jehovah doesn't like, and cannot participate in a friend's birthday party, even though he really wants to. He's also expected to reject any attempts made by outsiders of the religion to befriend and include him into their activities (such as the boy in the green hoodie who offered Caleb to play video games with him).
  • For a character who never physically appears, Carrie gets a lot of sympathy due to the only episode she's mentioned in condemning her two mothers' lifestyle.

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