YMMV / Kickin' It

• Badass Decay: Frank has arguably become this in season 3 where instead of being a bully, he's turned into a prankster and the other kids at school have gone from scared to annoyed, or in Erica's case, angered.
• Designated Hero: As pointed out in this video, Jack in the later seasons comes off as extremely arrogant and self-centered, and in "Nerd with a Cape", while he does apologize, he's completely mean-spirited towards Taylor for simply being from a rival school.
• Designated Villain: Erika from Jack Stands Alone. She may have stolen a live animal belonging to the school and had Frank take the blame, but it's been mentioned that Frank sabotages all the school dance events she plans, yet Frank is never shown getting punished, which justifies her actions to some extent. This also technically makes Jack a Designated Hero since he's defending a bully who was innocent for this one prank but guilty in several others.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Grace is a very minor character on the show but a mainstay of fanfiction.
  • Brody has only appeared in one episode, but has gained some fans due to Billy Unger's acting and helping the Wassabi Warriors fight the Black Dragons in a Heel–Face Turn.
• Hilarious in Hindsight. In one episode, Kim has a crush on a pop singer named Ricky Weaver. He is played by Austin North, Olivia Holt's future co-star on I Didn't Do It.
• Ho Yay:
  • Near the end of "Road to Wasabi" has Bobby Wasabi carrying Rudy Bridal style.
  • In the beginning of the same episode, Rudy goes Fanboy when he gets an autographed picture of Bobby Wasabi and can barely speak when he finds out Bobby will be visiting his dojo.
    • Jack with Kim's Dad in Fawlty Temple.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Black Dragons have crossed the line.
  • Sensei Ty crossed it in the first episode, by ordering Frank to break Jack's leg.
  • In Wrath of Swan, Frank crosses it when he has Brody bring Kim to Swan Cotillion, and then fires gravy on to Jack and Kim
  • Sensei Ty crosses the line again in Kickin It on Our Own, by being brutal to the Wasabi Warriors, taking away Jack and Kim's black belts (he obviously had no right to do that), and forcing Eddie and Milton to drink heavy amounts of water to fight for their right to use the rest room. Most of this, just to make them quit.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • During Jack and Kai's fight in "Kickin' It with China", there's a moment where Kai seizes and punches Jack's broken wrist. That's likely to give many viewers massive shivers.
  • The Monster Clown that pulls off Jack's blindfold and paralyzes him with fear in "Boo Gi Nights". Even if he wasn't deathly caulrophobic, it would be easy to relate to how scared he was.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • There's a large female fan base watching the show for Leo Howard. And, while boys are the intended target audience, some are just watching for Olivia Holt.
  • There's also a sizable female audience watching for Olivia Holt as well (no, not for the usual expected reason), but because they feel Olivia actually does bring a "girl empowerment" element to the show. This element of adding girl power carried on in subsequent Disney XD shows, including Lab Rats and Mighty Med.
• Retroactive Recognition: Apparently Ricky Weaver is Kim's twin brother, separated at birth.
  • Albert moved to Stevens Point, Wisconsin and changed his name to Artie.
  • Smooth's backup dancer Benny is now an supervillain-in-training.
  • Sensei Ty retires from his karate duties, leaves Seaford and becomes a father, raising a child of his own.
  • Claire discovered the world of monsters. Twice.
  • Brody and Sloane have been transformed into bionic superhumans.
    • Jack becomes an android who retains his martial arts skills.
  • Vance has become an irresponsible and indestructible superhero.
  • Mika now has a puppet for a brother.
  • After leaving Seaford, Taylor became best friends with a teenage secret agent.
  • Sydney Sweeney appeared in an episode as a girl Jerry was lying to to impress.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • Season 3 got a bit of fan criticism because not only had Eddie left (with no explanation) but people complained about the characters getting out of personality.
  • Season 4 was received even worse due to Kim leaving and characters such as Rudy and Phil becoming more immature (one episode had Rudy wearing an inflatable muscle suit to trick a man into thinking he (Rudy) was stronger)
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The Literal Cliff Hanger scene from "Dojo Day Care", with Jack holding onto a construction bar with one hand and the principal's baby son with the other. Not only is it very obviously on green screen, but in select shots you can clearly see Jack holding onto a doll that looks like the baby son.
  • In general, this show's special effects are not very well executed.
• Tear Jerker: A lot of people have been upset with Eddie's disappearance in Season 3. The reaction to Kim's departure was just as worse.
• Testosterone Brigade: Some boys watch the show just to see Olivia Holt. Also counts as Just Here for Godzilla.

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