The Skidbladnir

Skidbladnir in Season Five: Evolution.

The Skidbladnir, commonly known as Skid for short, is a virtual submarine that Jeremie and Aelita have created. It is used when the Lyoko Warriors travel through the Internet.

Vehicles stats

• Rider(s): Aelita (Pilot), Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, William
• Mode of Transportation: Hovers; Flies
• Life Points: 1,000 Life Points
• Status: Fully Operational

Design

The Skidbladnir is docked in a hangar (which was created by Aelita) within the Core Zone of Sector Five. It is accessed by the same elevator that carries its riders from the Core Zone to the Celestial Dome. Whenever the Skidbladnir leaves the dock, it rises through a hole, probably located on the north pole of Sector Five. Nav Skids attach to the main body by braces, and each is equipped with torpedo cannons. Jeremie said that if the pods were hit while they were detached from the main ship, the pod could be "lost at sea" along with its occupant.

Every time in Season 4, when the docking pods were seen, there was always one left vacant. This pod may have been created for William by Jeremie and Aelita to enable him to gain access to the Skid after they freed him from X.A.N.A. He finally used it in Evolution.

History

In the episode Opening Act, Jeremie can be seen programming the Virtual Ship on his computer in his room. He also mentioned it when Aelita got her CD for the Subdigitals auditions.

At the beginning of Skidbladnir, Odd suggested that the ship should be christened with the name Melanie (one of his many ex-girlfriends), Ulrich and Aelita make fun of Odd for wanting to name the ship after his latest girlfriend. In Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity, during a cutscene, Odd instead suggests naming it the USS Meatball (an incorrect statement since the show is set in France). During the construction period, X.A.N.A. attacked the Skidbladnir, to prevent the group from completing the ship and from getting into the Internet. After the battle with William in the hangar bay, Jeremie managed to complete the core programs of the Skidbladnir, which completed the ship's construction and made it functional. Aelita retrieved the name Skidbladnir from a book about Viking Gods and Myths that was found in the Hermitage, where it was said to be a boat that could sail on land and always reached its destination no matter what. To make things easier, the Skidbladnir is often called "Skid" for short.

The Skid was first used in the episode Maiden Voyage, the episode begins with Jeremie explaining the concept of the Digital Sea to Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and Aelita. Jeremie explains how he is going to send then to Sector 5, where they will go to the hangar bay so they can go on to the Skid. After the gang is virtualized into Lyoko, they go to the Hangar bay. Where they stand on their respective positions on a docking platform, where they are teleported on to the Skid through Energising, which is a teleportation process that transports the Lyoko Warriors into their respective Nav Skids and in the case of Aelita, the Skidbladnir cockpit. Once they are in the Skid, Jeremie has them leave the doc and dive into the digital sea. Aelita pilots the Skid into the Digital Sea. Unfortunately during the test run, the Navigation system fails causing Jeremie to lose the Skid on the Radar. While Jeremie leaves the factory to get the repair disc so that way he can repair the Skid's navigation system. X.A.N.A. then releases his new monsters that are specially designed for the Digital Sea to combat the Lyoko Warriors. Jeremie then makes it back to the Lab with the debugging program and tells the group that they are burning too much power. Then he tells Aelita to release the Nav Skids to make Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich combat the monsters. At the end of the episode, the Warriors learn that there is a second virtual world. 

The Skid in its hangar

The Skidbladnir appears next in the episode Replika, the Lyoko Warriors travel to the mysterious second virtual world that they saw last they were in the digital sea. In the replika, they explore the area, and find out that X.A.N.A. has created Replikas of Lyoko so he can continue to effect the world.

In The Lake, X.A.N.A. sent the Scyphozoa to steal data from the Skid. It was then destroyed by a program design by Aelita and Jeremie before the ship lost all of its energy. The portion of data that it stole allowed X.A.N.A. to find its weak points, create sea monsters that fire torpedoes, and make the Rorkal for William.

In the episode Lost at Sea, Yumi's Nav Skid, becomes separated from the Skid, and Jeremie believes that she has fallen victim to the Digital Sea, like Franz Hopper. It is only when X.A.N.A. attacks Yumi that Jeremie realizes that Yumi is still alive, and sends the gang back on to the Skid to find her and bring her home.

In Lab Rat, Jeremie perfects his "translation" program, and the rest of them go back to the Forest Replika and connect the Skid to a tower to send themselves to the copy's real-world base. X.A.N.A. uses William to enter the tower and have him punch in Code: X.A.N.A. to sever their link to the real world. It was also able to copy the ship's data about its teleportation program before disconnecting it, allowing X.A.N.A. to replicate its own.

In the episode Down to Earth, the Skid was destroyed by the Kolossus.

The Skid is reprogrammed and put back into operation by Jeremie in the second episode of Code Lyoko Evolution, Cortex. From that point, the Lyoko Warriors uses the Skid to travel between Lyoko and the Cortex.

In Friday the 13th, X.A.N.A infected the Skid with a virus that couldn't be stopped by deactivating the tower. Since everyone else got rematerialized by Jeremie, Odd was the only one left who had to pilot the Skid. Odd did not know how to properly control the Skidbladnir which caused him to accidently push the Skid against the support beams in the hanger, but he quickly learned the controls of the Skidbladnir and flew it away from Sector 5 towards the Digital Sea. Jeremie told Odd to release the Nav-Skids into the Digital Sea, which prevented the Skid from falling down into the Digital sea. The virus was stopped and Skidbladnir survived the virus but it lost the Navskids that Jeremie had previously reprogrammed.

Features

• Supercomputer Relay: The Skidbladnir acts as a relay to the Supercomputer, which allows Jeremie to activate its functions, aid the warriors, and use their programs while they are away from Lyoko. It also allows them to come back in the scanners if they get devirtualized.
• Bio-scan: A special scanner which can track down a person's DNA on the Network.
• Energize: A process that allows the Lyoko Warriors to access and leave the Skidbladnir by teleportation.
• Rotation: Allows the main body of the Skidbladnir to change position from vertical to horizontal modes and back. This is to improve navigation. The process is activated by a lever in the cockpit. In the vertical mode, the Skid can use Network Access Point, Network Access Gates, the Skid Hangar, and towers. In horizontal position, the skid can use its turbo boosts, retro brakes and the Nav Skid release (and reattachment), this position is normally used for quick travel. The Skid can also rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise. The latter was first seen in Lost at Sea when Aelita used it to look at Yumi's Nav Skid, and again in Canine Conundrum when Aelita targeted a Shark.
• Retro Brakes: Causes the Skidbladnir to come to an instant stop. These are controlled by a large button in the cockpit. They are strong enough to resist the gravitational pull of a Replika.
• Turbo Jets: Give the Skidbladnir a boost of speed to escape monsters or to break free of the gravitational pull of Replika's or Lyoko. The jet boosts of the Skidbladnir's Nav Skids are blue, but William's Rorkal has red jet boosts. It was seen in Lost at Sea. These are the main engines that move the ship vertically, and are also used to move the ship when it is not in the digital sea.
• Key: A function used by the main pilot of the skid to access the locking system on a Replika's network gate, this program is accessed through a hand scanner in the cockpit. This was first seen in "Replika", to break into the Forest Replika. Aelita usually uses it, but other people who have piloted the skid have shown proficiency as well. It's probably remotely accessible as well, since the skid can be piloted remotely from the Factory Interface.
• Nav Skid release: Releases the Nav Skids (pods which Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and William occupy), allowing them to attack monsters while the Skidbladnir move away. This is triggered by 4 corresponding levers in the cockpit.
• Lights: Turns on lights that are positioned on the wings and above the cockpit windscreen.
• Energy Shields - Pale blue-colored shields and barriers that protect both the Skidbladnir and Navskids from harm. They have a limited supply of power, but can be supported by transferring large amounts of energy from the supercomputer across the network. This program was created and tested in the episode Hot Shower, and it actually found traces of DNA somewhere on the Network. It has the appearance of a mini Holomap in the cockpit. When sufficiently re-enforced from energy from the towers, they are capable of producing a shock powerful enough to destroy a Scyphozoa.
• Translation: When the team discovered a Replika, Jeremie came up with a Translation program to send Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita to the location of the Replika's supercomputer as polymorphic specters, giving them more power. In order to use the program, Jeremie activates a tower via Skid and teleports any Lyoko Warrior. He usually leaves two warriors behind in case William or other mosters attack the Skid. If a Lyoko Warrior had a bug, like in Hard Luck, he or she can't be translated. If a Lyoko Warrior is devirtualised during Translation, they are sent back into the Skid, sometimes unconscious. The program is said to not last long, possibly since it drains energy. X.A.N.A. may have also stolen or developed the same program since he teleported William in Cold Sweat. The program has a timer, as seen in Lab Rat.
• Tower Docking: It is a function of the Skidbladnir. It allows the Skid to link to a tower on a Replika. As towers are portals to the real world, this link allows Jeremie to materialize the team into the real world. It appears that the Tower Docking system uses the same port as the port used to interface with replikas.
• Tower Release: Detaches the skid from a Tower. The program is used automatically if the Replika is destroyed.
• Remote Control: This is a program designed by Jeremie, which allows him to manually control the Skid from the Factory Interface. He claims that it was written for emergencies. It was seen in Hard Luck and Cold Sweat.
• Torpedos: The Skid Cannons are weapons mounted on the main body of the Skidbladnir. These cannons seem to have more ammuntion and possible more power than those on the Nav Skids. They have been seen on the Skid, but not used until Canine Conundrum when Aelita used them to shoot down a Shark that was pursuing Odd. They also were used in Cousins Once Removed and Code Lyoko Evolution.

Functions of the Nav Skids

• Jet Boost : Gives the Nav Skids a burst of speed.
• Torpedo Launching: Fires torpedo cannons at the base of the Nav Skids. As shown in "Lost at Sea", they appear to have a finite capacity of torpedoes. The trigger and targeting system is built into the controls of the navskid.
• Torpedo Lock/Homing: An aiming screen for easily locking onto and homing in on enemy targets until they are destroyed.
• Reattachment: Automatically reconnects the Navskids to the main body of the Skidbladnir. This feature is activated by Aelita by pulling the Nav Skid Release Lever again to call the Nav Skids back. In Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity, Aelita says "Recovery" when she does this.

Times When Used

Season Four

• Maiden Voyage
• Replika
• Hot Shower
• Lost at Sea
• Lab Rat
• Bragging Rights
• A Lack of Goodwill
• Hard Luck
• Canine Conundrum
• A Space Oddity
• Cousins Once Removed
• Cold Sweat
• Down to Earth

Season Five: Evolution

• Cortex
• Mrs. Einstein
• Suspicions
• Virus
• The Warrior Awakens
• Friday the 13th
• Intrusion
• Confusion
• An Assured Professional Future
• Obstinacy
• Espionage
• Mutiny
• Jeremy's Blues
• Massacre
• Ultimate Mission

Trivia

• Ironically, the feature of the skid to find William and Franz Hopper, The Bio-Scan, was never used successfully. Franz was lured out by X.A.N.A. and The X.A.N.A. destruction programs completion, then terminated. William was brought in by X.A.N.A. and eventually brought back during the skids destruction.
• The tower latching program of the Skid, and the animation of sparks traveling around the skid and tower, is somewhat similar to the animation of an activated tower of Xanadu in Garage Kids.
• The Skid's namesake belonged to the Viking god Freyr. Like Lyoko's Skid, it could fold up, with the original ship able to fit in his pocket.
• When the Skidbladnir is locked onto towers, it makes the same eerie sound as X.A.N.A. William's Super Smoke whenever he's about to carry Aelita to the Digital Sea; this sound can be heard in episodes such as William Returns, Guided Missile, and Canine Conundrum.

Gallery

Season 4

The Skid about to dive into Network Access Point.

Destruction of the Skidbladnir

X.A.N.A.-William attacking the barrier of the Skidbladnir

Ready to takeoff.

The Skidbladnir absorbing energy from a tower

The Scyphozoa draining power from the Skidbladnir

The Skid in the Carthage Replika.

Quest for Infinity

The Skidbladnir above lava waves.

Evolution

The Skidbladnir return in Cortex.

The Skidbladnir in front of Cortex entrance.

Skidbladnir without the Navskids

The Ninja On the Skidblandnir