Austin & Ally/YMMV

• Author's Saving Throw:
  • Unlike most Nickelodeon and Disney shows, the child of a divorced couple (Ally in this case) is not the resident Jerkass. With half of all kids in America alone growing up with divorced parents, it was a welcome change to not lean into the stereotype.
  • After critiques of the four being Free-Range Children, Season 2 featured them in school more.
• Anvilicious: Like many a Disney show, it has great morals. And like many Disney shows, it is unsubtle in its delivery. "Magazines & Made-Up Stuff" for example hits you over the head that you shouldn't lie.
• Arc Fatigue: Austin and Ally's "Will They or Won't They?" Not helped by the fact that everyone knew they would.
• Base Breaker:
  • Dez. Is he funny or does he just interrupt the plot with his Cloudcuckoolander antics?
  • Like any Jerkass character on a Nickelodeon or Disney show, Trish. A funny Deadpan Snarker Escapist Character or an Entitled Bastard who is needlessly cruel to people for no good reason? She's probably the most divisive of her archetype as unlike her contemporaries, she never got a Freudian Excuse.
• Die for Our Ship: May god have mercy on anyone, OC or canon character, who comes in between Austin and Ally.
• Dry Docking: The only reason that some fans don't ship Austin and Ally is to ship one with their OC.
• Ear Worm: Many of the songs.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Megan Simms is quite popular for someone who only appeared in three episodes and only drove the plot of her first one.
• Fandom Rivalry: Has a light one with Victorious as part of the light Nick Verse/DCLAU rivalry. Some Victorious fans argue that Team Austin's sudden rise to fame is a tad unrealistic while Austin & Ally fans argued that Victorious never leaned into its premise enough, being content to focus mainly on high school drama rather than anything to do with the performing arts.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Oh take a wild guess which couple.
• Fridge Brilliance: The theme song "Without You" appears to just be about Ally, but it shows he can't do it without all his friends, saying "You're my point (Dez, his best friend), you're my guard (Trish, his manager), you're the perfect chord (Ally, his songwriter)".
• Fridge Logic: Why were Dez and Trish afraid of Face Puncher? Do they not realize that they are minors and him punching either of them would be a serious crime?
  • It's revealed in "Film Making and Fear Breaking" that Austin has a fear of umbrellas because the handle of one got hooked in his pants and made him lose them when he was young. Dez was there that day but not present when Austin lost his pants. This would explain the Running Gag of Dez offering Austin his pants- he feels guilty about not being there to help his friend and is over-compensating as a result.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • While some other shows of the DCLAU warred against each other, no one warned against Austin & Ally.
  • As both focus on up and comers in the performing arts, the show does get along decently well with Victorious, helped by some Counterpart Comparison between Tori and Ally, along with Austin and Beck or André. Just don't let the Bade shippers in.
  • Shares many a fan with Miraculous Ladybug given how much Laura Marano likes that show, guest starred on it, and agreed with the coy suggestion that she and Ross Lynch wouldn't make a half-bad live-action Marinette and Adrien.
  • Many a Creddie fan is fond of this show, finding Austin and Ally's relationship comparable to Freddie and Carly's, only treated with respect instead of being milked for Black Comedy.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "In Bloggers & Butterflies", Ally's Butterfly Song was deemed superior to Tilly's "Ladybug Song." Six years later, Laura Marano would guest star in, and be a huge fan of, a series where the Ladybug always defeats the Butterfly.
• Ho Yay: Dez and Austin are very close.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Many times did Disney tease that the status quo of the show would be irrevocably changed (such as Ally moving or Austin losing his voice) and it never stuck. The show's status quo did change but never to the extent that was teased.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Averted. Given the small cast size and relatively equal showcasing of everyone's skills and talents, along with their being no Ensemble Darkhorse who could pose a real romantic threat to Austin/Ally, shipping wars were never an issue for this show.
• Testosterone Brigade: Some male fans watched the show entirely for Laura Marano being Adorkable.
• True Art Is Angsty: Ally's songs.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Trish in "Beauties & Bullies." With all the times Trish has bullied others, it's hard to feel too bad at others laughing at her for once.
• Values Resonance: Trish's song "You Wish You Were Me". In 2013, it came off as an arrogant It's All About Me boast (and it was indeed written as such). As little as four years later, it wouldn't look out of place as a song of female empowerment.

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