The third season of Code Lyoko originally aired from October 4, 2006 to October 23, 2006.
Story[]
Battle at the Core of Lyoko[]
A brand-new school year begins. Back from their relatively quiet two-month summer vacation, the Lyoko Warriors quickly find themselves back at war with X.A.N.A.. The diabolical, rogue artificial intelligence who has made its way into the World Wide Web has raised the stakes with a new strategy of attack: wipe Lyoko off the digital map by destroying a huge transparent, white sphere, which located in a yet undiscovered chamber in Sector Five directly below the arena of Sector Five: the Core of Lyoko, and the Lyoko Warriors can't get in its way anymore. X.A.N.A. tries to destroy the Core in some episodes, and always fails at the last moment because the Lyoko Warriors prevent it. (Straight to Heart, Tidal Wave, Aelita, Temporary Insanity, Nobody in Particular)
Destruction of Lyoko's four Sectors[]
X.A.N.A. activates a tower in Forest Sector and launches an attack. When they go to Lyoko to deactivate the tower, suddenly, X.A.N.A. possesses Aelita through the Scyphozoa. Aelita enters the Forest Sector's way tower and destroys the sector with the Code X.A.N.A.; but luckily, it also deactivates the tower and X.A.N.A. is no longer able to control people. It repeats the same action in the Desert Sector, and Ulrich fails to prevent it. Some time later, X.A.N.A. possesses Michael Rouiler and damages the Supercomputer, doing a sabotage. It activates a tower in Ice Sector, but due to the sabotage from earlier, the Lyoko Warriors cannot deactivate the activated tower. Realizing the situation is desperate, Jeremie tells the Lyoko Warriors to hurry up. Aelita, seeing the activated tower is too well-guarded, realizes they only have one choice: to destroy the Ice Sector voluntarily. Jeremie reluctantly agrees, and Aelita enters the way tower nearby and types in X.A.N.A., destroying the Ice Sector. Finally, the Mountain Sector is destroyed in the penultimate episode of the season by X.A.N.A. Aelita. (Lyoko Minus One, The Pretender, Sabotage, Double Trouble)
Adding William as the Sixth Lyoko Warrior[]
In Lyoko Minus One and The Secret, William fights against his entire possessed class and a construction worker who is also under X.A.N.A.'s possession, respectively. In The Secret, William knows the secret and deactivates a bomb with seven seconds to spare. Later in the computer lab, William is asking the team if he could join the group, Jeremie then proposes a vote, if anyone voted ‘No’ then William would not be accepted. The votes are counted and there is one 'no', much to William's disappointment. Assuming that Ulrich was the one who voted against him, William states that some people can't help being jealous and leaves. Jeremie then launches a return in time. In Odd and Ulrich’s room, Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie and Aelita discuss the vote and Ulrich reveals that he voted 'Yes' to William stating that he would make a great Lyoko Warrior. Odd, Jeremie and Aelita then realize that the person who voted 'no' must have been Yumi. At the same time, Yumi looks out her window and watches William roll by on his skateboard and says “Sorry, William, but I don't think you can be trusted.” But as fighting on Lyoko becomes harder and harder and X.A.N.A. Aelita has deleted the four external sectors of Lyoko, the group decides to let William join.
At the same time at Kadic, William tells Yumi that he had a dream about her. Surprisingly, he then goes on to quickly recount his involvement with the supercomputer in The Secret, which he should not have remembered after the return trip in that episode. William dismisses it as a silly dream because of the unbelievable nature of it. At the end of the episode, Yumi confirms that William's dream actually happened, much to his surprise. While they talk, Aelita wonders if he'll say yes. Odd insists that William would dive off of a cliff if Yumi asked him to. Jeremie asks Ulrich about the physics test, and for once Ulrich can say that he did well. Odd notes that their group is going though a lot of changes (adding William, Ulrich getting good grades), and the others agree. To symbolize William joining the group, he and Yumi shake hands. (Lyoko Minus One, The Secret, Double Trouble)
William's Possession and the Annihilation of Lyoko[]
In Final Round, the Lyoko Warriors are in the scanner room with William, who was accepted into the group. William swears he will not give away the secret. Soon William steps into the scanner to create a virtual image of himself so he can be immune to the return to the past program. Once that's done, the group warn William how dangerous X.A.N.A. is. The next day, Aelita sees that X.A.N.A's attacking the core in its chamber. She calls Jeremie, who is being interviewed by Milly and Tamiya and he cannot come. Odd is with Samantha Knight, who has returned in a skateboard championship, Ulrich is talking with his father about his failing grades, and Yumi is with Hiroki at home, but her little brother won't let her out of the house. Aelita contacts William, who is training in the forest. Excited about his first mission to Lyoko, he runs off to the Factory. Soon, Aelita and William are virtualized onto Sector Five. They go off to activate the key. Once in the room, they are encountered by Creepers. William joyfully goes to confront the Creepers while Aelita heads off to go and deactivate the countdown. William is destroying the monsters and Aelita is able to deactivate the countdown. However, Aelita and William are then separated.
Suddenly, the Scyphozoa arrives in front of William, but William ignores Aelita's inadvertence, and soon it catches and possesses him. Aelita finally gets to William, but it's too late. A possessed William releases an energy wave at Aelita which devirtualizes her. The rest of the Lyoko Warriors manage to reach the factory, but William goes to attack the heart of Lyoko with several Creepers and are ready to destroy it. Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich are virtualized onto Sector Five, but William manages to devirtualize Odd and Ulrich quickly, and later devirtualizes Yumi, who tells William she knew it was a bad idea for him to join the group. William levitates to the heart, and then stabs it with his Zweihänder, which destroys Sector Five. Jeremie then says he wasn't able to rematerialize Franz Hopper, because he had found him in the Digital Sea. On Lyoko, William is floating in mid air, he opens his eyes and reveals his new form that X.A.N.A. gave to him. In the Hermitage, the Lyoko Warriors are thinking about how they will fight X.A.N.A. now with Lyoko destroyed and what has happened to William. In Jeremie's laptop, a coding message appears in his screen, signed by none other than Franz Hopper himself, implying that he had somehow escaped the annihilation of Lyoko. (Final Round)
List of Episodes[]
Ep No. | Pro No. | Name | Image | French Title | Airdates |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 (53) | 301 | Straight to Heart | Droit au cœur | US: October 4th, 2006 FR: September 9th, 2006 | |
2 (54) | 302 | Lyoko Minus One | Lyokô moins un | US: October 5th, 2006 FR: September 16th, 2006 | |
3 (55) | 303 | Tidal Wave | Raz de marée | US: October 6th, 2006 FR: September 23rd, 2006 | |
4 (56) | 304 | False Lead | Fausse Piste | US: October 10th, 2006 FR: September 30th, 2006 | |
5 (57) | 305 | Aelita | Aelita | US: October 11th, 2006 FR: October 7th, 2006 | |
6 (58) | 306 | The Pretender | Le prétendant | US: October 12th, 2006 FR: October 14th, 2006 | |
7 (59) | 307 | The Secret | Le secret | US: October 13th, 2006 FR: October 21st, 2006 | |
8 (60) | 308 | Temporary Insanity | Tarentule au plafond | US: October 16th, 2006 FR: November 1st, 2006 | |
9 (61) | 311 | Sabotage | Sabotage | US: October 17th, 2006 FR: November 2nd, 2006 | |
10 (62) | 312 | Nobody in Particular | Désincarnation | US: October 18th, 2006 FR: November 3rd, 2006 | |
11 (63) | 314 | Triple Trouble | Triple sot | US: October 19th, 2006 FR: November 6th, 2006 | |
12 (64) | 313 | Double Trouble | Surmenage | US: October 20th, 2006 FR: November 7th, 2006 | |
13 (65) | 315 | Final Round | Dernier round | US: October 23rd, 2006 FR: November 8th, 2006 |
Production[]
Code Lyoko was renewed for 45 episodes while Season 2 was still in production.[1][2] Initially it was planned to split the episodes between two seasons of roughly 22 episodes each.[1] As the plot following X.A.N.A.'s escape from the supercomputer was coming together, the writers envisioned an ambitious story involving the exploration of the Digital Sea, new 2D and 3D outfits for the heroes, and creating new locations in 2D for the heroes to teleport to in their Lyoko forms and do battle.
Due to the scale of the story and the large number of episodes, the writers had to compromise with the producers regarding the budget, which helped inspire the plot for Season 3. As Jérôme Mouscadet recalled: "This is what we negotiated with the producers, in collaboration with them: we were to do a 15-episodes season with no new creation at all, which inspired Sophie [Decroisette] this great concept of “destroying Lyoko” with disappearing sectors, which was quite awesome, and then we could save a lot more new locations for season 4, and many more things to do. So we used season 3’s development for season 4."[3] Moonscoop officially announced the 45 episode order to the public in October 2005.[4] Decroisette clarified they would make up two seasons in November and they were currently writing the first scripts, which started being finished the following month.[5][6]
While Season 3 was in production, the writers again pitched the idea of an origin episode revealing how the heroes discovered the supercomputer, which the show's broadcasters had rejected last season.[1] They had also tried pitching it as a feature film that would've been produced separate from the series, but that was rejected as well. This time the story was approved at the request of Cartoon Network, so two episodes were cut to make it; further shortening Season 3 to 13 episodes.[7]
At the request of producers, romance subplots were largely phased out starting with this season over the American audience not liking them.[2] Sophie Decroisette later revealed she was warned by the producers several times beforehand to avoid focusing on romance too much, as "they didn't want Code Lyoko to become a soap opera".[8]
Several writers who worked on the first two seasons did not return for this season, including Frédéric Lenoir and Alain Serluppus.
Regarding the 2D animation, only Animation Services Hong Kong Limited returned for Season 3, with Fantasia Animation and Welkin Animation no longer being involved with the series.[9] Mouscadet had desired a more consistent animation quality going into this season, which he likened trying to manage it up to that point as: "a little bit like steering an ocean liner with binoculars".[8] As a result a team of animators dedicated to Code Lyoko was set up at Hong Kong Limited, with two members from MoonScoop's Paris office managing them on-site.
Scripting for the season began in December 2005 and ended in April 2006.[6]
Trivia[]
- Chronologically, this season is set during the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year.[10]
- The intro for this season is nearly identical to Season 2's, with two differences:
- During the middle of the intro, "Script Editor: Sophie Decroisette" was added.
- When the opening theme ends, the Code Lyoko logo is colored green instead of orange.
- This was the last season to have Sophie Decroisette as head writer. After this season, she stepped down and was replaced by Bruno Regeste for Season 4, and then David Carayon for Code Lyoko Evolution.
- The Season 3 official artwork (seen above) contains Kongres and a Kalamar, monsters not introduced until Season 4.
- This season and the next season were the only two seasons that were not released in Japan.
References[]
- "From scripts to episodes S3 & Prequel" - CodeLyoko.fr (production numbers)
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "2006 - 2007: The series climax (seasons 3 & 4)" - CodeLyoko.fr
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Interview with Sophie Decroisette" - CodeLyoko.fr (2007)
- ↑ "Interview - Sophie Decroisette et Jérôme Mouscadet, partie 3". Ces Dessins Animés-Là qui méritent qu'on s'en souvienne. March 18, 2014.
- ↑ "Cartoon Network calls for Code Lyoko". C21Media. October 18, 2005.
- ↑ Reply from Sophie Decroisette to Saisons 3 et 4: Réactions à l'annonce officielle: "Hello everyone,
I've come to add a few grams of explanation to your topic.
There will be 45 episodes written, divided into two seasons: 3 & 4.
- Season 3 will be 15 episodes long and will be a direct continuation of season 2 (with lots of new concepts all the same). We're currently writing the first episodes. These 15 episodes will include the prequel (a double episode recounting the meeting of the heroes).
- Season 4 will be 30 episodes long and will be full of conceptual and visual innovations (I won't tell you more). I'm still thinking about the concept.
And there you have it!
Kisses to all,
Sophie". codelyoko.net. November 10, 2005. - ↑ 6.0 6.1 "From scripts to episodes S3 & Prequel" - CodeLyoko.fr
- ↑ "News" - codelyoko.net. November 2, 2005.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Interview - Sophie Decroisette, partie 2". Ces Dessins Animés-Là qui méritent qu'on s'en souvienne. March 11, 2014.
- ↑ "CODE LYOKO ENGLISH - EP53 - Straight to heart" (23:35)
- ↑ "Timeline > The official chronology and clues" - CodeLyoko.fr