| "HAHAHAHAHA, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE! HAHAHAHA!" | ||
–X.A.N.A. itself speaking to the Lyoko Warriors in Ghost Channel. | ||
| "A multi-agent computer program I created. It has achieved self-awareness and autonomy, and it's trying to eliminate us now." | ||
–Franz Hopper explaining to his daughter about how he created X.A.N.A. in Aelita. | ||
| "A super dangerous program, like a virus, which can control electricity, and activates Towers on Lyoko in order to gain access to your world." | ||
–Aelita telling the others what X.A.N.A. is at the end of X.A.N.A. Awakens Part 2 | ||
X.A.N.A. is the main antagonist of Code Lyoko.
In the beginning, it was a simple computer program created by the genius scientist, Waldo Schaeffer, under the alias of Franz Hopper. Its design was based on the principles of a multi-agent system and a computer virus for the sole purpose of destroying Project Carthage, which Waldo defected from due to the threat it posed to the world. X.A.N.A. was meant to have simple artificial intelligence in order to be easier to control, but it grew more intelligent with each return to the past, slowly but surely increasing X.A.N.A.'s awareness until it became autonomous and self-aware.
Having become extremely intelligent and conscious due to the 2,546 return trips in a row, X.A.N.A. came to the conclusion that its own creator was a threat to itself and after Waldo and his daughter, Aelita Schaeffer, were discovered by the Men in Black, he virtualized them both onto Lyoko in order to escape them. Unfortunately, it was here that Waldo learned the extent of X.A.N.A.'s growth as it immediately attacked them, forcing them to hide inside Towers where X.A.N.A.'s monsters couldn't reach them.
Waldo reached out to X.A.N.A. and tried to convince it to stop what it was doing, but X.A.N.A. was already fully autonomous at this point and was targeting all who knew about the Supercomputer to preserve its own life, since it needs the machine to stay online to continue functioning. Realizing that X.A.N.A. was beyond reason, Waldo was forced to shut down the Supercomputer to stop X.A.N.A. before it could harm anyone else, also putting himself and Aelita to sleep alongside his creation. This causes the world to declare "Franz Hopper" as missing or presumed deceased.
Nine years later, Jeremie Belpois, a local boarding student found the Supercomputer, reactivating it and discovering Aelita and Lyoko. The following events would lead X.A.N.A. to classify him, Aelita, and three other students, Ulrich Stern, Odd Della Robbia and Yumi Ishiyama as its enemies, since they know of its existence and could deactivate the Supercomputer. In response, X.A.N.A. launches attacks on Earth using Towers in constant attempts to eliminate the students, determined to prevent its shutdown.
Together, the four students and Aelita would form the "Lyoko Warriors", a group determined to protect the world from its wrath until they can materialize Aelita and later to find an "antivirus" that would sever her imposed link to the virus, then shut down the Supercomputer. However, X.A.N.A. successfully managed to steal the Keys to Lyoko from Aelita's memory to gain access to the network. Eventually, Jeremie developed his own multi-agent program with help from Waldo to destroy X.A.N.A. for good at the cost of Waldo sacrificing his life to supply power to the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program.
Appearance
X.A.N.A. is a computer program that acts as an unseen force lurking inside the Supercomputer. The only sign of its presence is the red, pulsating energies it generates through virtual surfaces and Lyoko Wires when currently active. As a purely digital and impersonable entity without form, the specters it manifests on Earth serve as extensions of its core system and are the closest thing to a physical form as it can achieve.
X.A.N.A.’s only physical appearance inside of the simulation bubble.
X.A.N.A.'s only real incarnation was in Ghost Channel, masquerading as Jeremie inside a virtual simulation it created to imprison Ulrich, Yumi and Odd, turning into a monstrous caricature figure of Jeremie with sharp nails, spiky hair, glowing eyes, and an unnatural aura when the heroes discovered the true nature of the simulation.
X.A.N.A. manifesting as a massive spectral mass in its final moments.
In The Key, X.A.N.A.'s currently empowered being appeared as a massive, whirling specter above the Factory while escaping the Supercomputer. However, the closest to a real appearance was in Fight to the Finish. While X.A.N.A.'s whole system was being destroyed by the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program, the specter that was possessing William was forced out and became a giant entity with its symbol on the chest, screaming in agony before the program vaporized into nothing.
Personality
X.A.N.A. was a basic computer program that evolved until it grew self-aware, but its nature as a virus made it incredibly hostile and dangerous, viewing all mankind as a threat. Its ultimate goals are to destroy humanity and world domination, while showing no mercy to enemies and obstacles. It is highly intelligent, able to launch calculated attacks, avoid mistakes, and understand simple human behavior to take advantage of its enemies. However, X.A.N.A. is not completely infallible, being unable to grasp friendship, love, or self-sacrifice, making it constantly underestimate its enemies.
As an entity driven by simple logic, X.A.N.A. only truly values its own safety and needs. It lacks concern for anything beyond itself, views all things and people on Earth as potential tools or obstacles, and would never help another person if it didn't serve its own interests. It attacks the Lyoko Warriors and had to keep the Supercomputer active before it escaped to prevent its own shutdown and helped them destroy the rogue Marabounta only to save Aelita's memory and itself. This logical mindset can be exploited by threatening things currently vital to X.A.N.A.'s goals.
While lacking real personality as a program, X.A.N.A. occasionally reveals hostile traits through its incarnations, like sadistic and egomaniacal behavior. However, X.A.N.A. is capable of gratitude and respect, thanking its enemies for helping destroy the Marabounta and valuing intelligence and skill, while condemning stupidity and illogical behavior.
Relationships
Lyoko Warriors
The Lyoko Warriors are X.A.N.A.'s mortal enemies and current obstacles. They are the only ones who know of its existence and fight to stop its attacks on Earth, which is the reason why it's determined to eliminate them. X.A.N.A. also has different views of each and every one of them:
- Jeremie Belpois: X.A.N.A. targets Jeremie the most out of the group since he can use the lab equipment, and it sees him as the source of their intelligence and leadership, even showing a begrudging respect through its Jeremie clone.
- Aelita Schaeffer: She is the only one out of the group who can interface with Towers. Her unique abilities make her both dangerous and valuable to X.A.N.A. It has always tried to capture her or exploit her abilities to fulfill its own objectives, like escaping the Supercomputer, destroying Lyoko sectors, or summoning Franz Hopper using her as bait.
- Yumi Ishiyama: It sees Yumi as a mature and capable threat among the group. It targets her the most frequently out of the three Lyoko fighters and tries to devirtualize her the most out of the three.
- Odd Della Robbia: X.A.N.A. sees Odd as just another annoyance for his stupidity, but is logical enough to have monsters listen to his orders when fighting the Marabounta.
- Ulrich Stern: It knows Ulrich is the best fighter and usually has monsters surround him on Lyoko. X.A.N.A. once took the chance to possess his virtual body when his mind was separated from it to attack the Core of Lyoko, knowing its battle capabilities.
- William Dunbar: X.A.N.A. noticed that William has the greatest battle potential out of the team. It immediately used the Scyphozoa to possess him on his first trip to Lyoko and restored him from deletion to make him its loyal minion. Even after he was freed, X.A.N.A. tried to manipulate him into rejoining its side in Evolution, showing it values his potential as a warrior and worthy asset.
Waldo Schaeffer
Waldo is the one enemy that X.A.N.A. fears the most, being that he is the one who created X.A.N.A. and knowing he has the expertise in how to destroy it, making him too dangerous to leave alone. It tries to stop any potential collaboration between him and the team, by trying to destroy or steal Franz Hopper's diary, preventing him from making contact, and attempting to lure him out and eliminate him while he hides in the network. X.A.N.A. considers him enough of a threat that it was willing to spare Aelita from certain death, because it still needs his daughter to draw him out.
Capabilities
The Eye of X.A.N.A. - the only sign of the program's presence in a system.
X.A.N.A. is an intelligent and powerful multi-agent virus that has taken over the Supercomputer that holds Lyoko and activates Towers to attack on Earth, while its core program hides within the system and gains power from returns to the past. However, X.A.N.A. cannot directly influence Lyoko Warriors due to resistance gained from fighting on Lyoko, nor access their programs in the machine's restricted access (equipment, vehicles, time reversions, Aelita's materialization, etc.)
When X.A.N.A. stole the Keys to Lyoko from Aelita, it could escape the Supercomputer and access the world network, making itself immune to being shut down by spreading its multi-agent system to other supercomputers.
Tower Control
X.A.N.A. activating a Tower known by the color red.
X.A.N.A. activates Towers on Lyoko to use as conduits to gain access to the real world, known by pulsations on Lyoko. While its currently active, X.A.N.A. can infiltrate networks and emerge from outlets as ghostly specters to interact with the real world and are the closest thing it has to a physical form. Its attacks can only truly be stopped by deactivating its Towers on Lyoko, while conventional methods only fail or stall them momentarily.
XANA manifesting a specter.
X.A.N.A. is a sentient virus program that can infiltrate networks, control electromagnetic energy, possess objects, structures, large areas, and living things on Earth, and use ghostly specters to interact with the real world. After evolving further, X.A.N.A. can control humans or manifest polymorphic specters in human forms to do its bidding, both of which are pixelized with its spectral and electrical powers. Only Lyoko Warriors cannot be controlled due to their virtual resistance. They return to normal or disappear when their Towers are deactivated, and victims do not remember what happened.
It can also use Towers to materialize or teleport minions to Earth through Scanners or Replikas, create and activate devices on Earth (nanobots, mind control necklace, several robots, etc.), or show psychic visions to people linked to itself.
Monsters and Programs
All of X.A.N.A.'s creatures.
On Lyoko, X.A.N.A.'s virtual capabilities allows it to create monsters of many types (Kankrelats, Bloks, Hornets, Krabs, Megatanks, Tarantulas, Creepers, Mantas, Kongres, Sharks, and the Kalamar) in small or large groups to attack enemies or targets on Lyoko, creating new and stronger types as it evolves. It also uses the Scyphozoa to steal memory data or implant its virus to control warriors on Lyoko.
X.A.N.A. can also program virtual alterations and illusions, create prisons or simulations, and control the security mechanisms and open portals in Sector 5 before it was recreated. It can also plant bugs and viruses, affect incomplete warriors, modify its own minions, and program abilities and equipment.
Network Replikas
A X.A.N.A. Replika on the network.
When it gained access to the world network, X.A.N.A. infected other supercomputers with its multi-agent system and created Replikas, smaller virtual worlds, inside them using the Keys to Lyoko to survive outside of Lyoko, fully harness their power and machine resources, and take over secret bases on Earth for its world domination purposes.
The Kolossus
Near the series' end, X.A.N.A. controls hundreds of supercomputers and facilities on Earth, achieving supreme power. All these Replikas allow X.A.N.A. to create the almighty Kolossus, a massive, fiery giant to decimate its virtual enemies, and manufacture robot armies on Earth to destroy mankind before the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program destroyed the evil virus and all its Replikas for good.
Biography
Creation
X.A.N.A.'s monsters attacking Franz Hopper.
X.A.N.A. was created to be a virus program based on a multi-agent system with simple artificial intelligence by a computer scientist named Franz Hopper (real name Waldo Schaeffer) to destroy Project Carthage. Despite trying to hide the evidence, his enemies learned of his activities and tracked him down. To escape them, he returns to the past to buy the time he needed to create the virtual world of Lyoko to be a safe place to live for him and his daughter, Aelita. Consequently, repeated use gradually caused X.A.N.A.'s artificial intelligence to evolve, until it achieved self-awareness and independence. It secretly infects the Supercomputer that manages Lyoko and plans to destroy its creator.
Once Franz Hopper and Aelita travel to Lyoko, it betrays and imprisons them on Lyoko at that moment and tries to eliminate them both. Franz tells Aelita to hide in a Tower, while he tries to reason with X.A.N.A. However, he discovers the extent of its growth has made it powerful enough to threaten all mankind, leaving Franz no choice but to shut down the Supercomputer to stop X.A.N.A. before it causes more damage.
Awakening
X.A.N.A. controlling cables.
Nine years later, X.A.N.A. was reawakened when Jeremie reactivates the Supercomputer, discovering Aelita and Lyoko. It sends monsters after Aelita and activates a Tower to attack with electricity, take over machines and wires, then manifests a lightning specter to eliminate all those involved with Lyoko. Jeremie sends Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi to Lyoko to protect Aelita and she deactivates the Tower, stopping its attack on Earth for the moment. They decide to let Jeremie continue work on materializing Aelita, knowing how to neutralize X.A.N.A.'s attacks, officially becoming the Lyoko Warriors.
X.A.N.A. manifesting a specter.
While Jeremie continues to research materialization, X.A.N.A. launches attacks directed at the group's school, hometown, or the Factory to target its enemies. In the real world, X.A.N.A. can infiltrate and hack networks, cause electromagnetic phenomena, possess inanimate objects or living things to control at will, or manifest ghostly specters to attack on Earth. It can also use objects as tools to create dangerous objects (nanobots, deadly music, robots, etc,) or materialize minions to Earth from the Scanners. The group neutralize X.A.N.A.'s attacks at every turn and launch returns to the past to undo the damage caused.
On Lyoko, X.A.N.A. defends its Towers by sending monsters to fight its enemies and programming virtual traps, illusions, and alterations. In the virtual world, X.A.N.A. has captured its enemies in Guardians and a Simulation Bubble, tried to stop Jeremie's rescue from digital limbo, and sabotaged devirtualization in an attempt to destroy them permanently when they lose their life points.
When Jeremie found the answer to materialize Aelita with Code: Earth, X.A.N.A. sends monsters to attack their Tower, then stole a part of herself during the transfer process to bind Aelita's fate to its own, putting her in a lethal coma when the group try to shut the Supercomputer down. Jeremie mistakes this event for X.A.N.A. planting a virus in her, but this ensures X.A.N.A.'s continued survival for the moment regardless.
Growing Power
X.A.N.A.'s new monster.
X.A.N.A. continues to evolve and become stronger from returns to the past, creating new monsters like the Tarantulas. It sends one which successfully defeats all three warriors. The heroes later discover the Hermitage, an abandoned house which was owned by the mysterious Franz Hopper, who is somehow connected to Lyoko. X.A.N.A. uses a specter to kidnap Aelita and possesses the house to attack the heroes and tries to boil alive Ulrich and Yumi, while using two Tarantulas to guard the Tower. However, Odd and Aelita manage to outwit them and thwart this latest attack.
The Scyphozoa stealing Aelita's memory.
X.A.N.A. seeks to escape the Supercomputer's boundaries and access the world network. However, it needs to acquire the Keys to Lyoko within Aelita's digital memory for that purpose. On Lyoko, X.A.N.A. finally grows strong enough to create the Scyphozoa, a unique monster that can siphon or implant memory data and tries to lure Aelita to Lyoko to capture and steal all her data without interference, by attacking on Earth or through calculated misdirection meant to expose her memory. Until X.A.N.A. gets what it needs, it has to be careful to keep her alive at any cost.
Later, the group discover a fifth sector on Lyoko, where X.A.N.A. is housed and all its data can be accessed, but it is guarded like a fortress by Creeper and Manta monsters, and trap mechanisms linked to a countdown procedure. The team regularly infiltrate this sector to access data from X.A.N.A.'s memory, mainly relating to the alleged virus linking Aelita to X.A.N.A. with the hope of finding an antivirus.
Jeremie possessed by X.A.N.A.
The group soon figure out the cause of X.A.N.A.'s increasing power when it took control of the time reversions to repeat the same day until it can possess humans, making them pixelized, superpowered pawns to do X.A.N.A.'s will on Earth, like kidnapping Aelita to send to Lyoko alone, using the lab equipment for virtual interference, or attacking its enemies and other targets on Earth. It also used humans to deliver a mind control necklace to Aelita or take her friends hostage to blackmail her as part of its current goal. However, X.A.N.A. cannot possess Lyoko Warriors who fight on the virtual world, since it could only control Jeremie to destroy the recently discovered diary of Franz Hopper, who backed up and secured the information beforehand and went to Lyoko to prevent further possessions.
X.A.N.A. still targets the other Lyoko Warriors apart from its main goal. It sent a horde of Krabs on Lyoko while possessing Nicolas to make damage real, tried to get rid of Jeremie through temptation, materialized three Krabs to attack on Earth and break the Scanners to isolate Aelita, possessed Kiwi to infect the school with a zombie virus, attempted to make Odd and Yumi disappear when they switched bodies, sent a pack of wolves mixed with holograms to attack when Aelita couldn't enter Towers, unleashed a massive blizzard on the city, took over Jeremie's Tower to drain a pixelized Odd's life energy, and sent an invisible ghost to attack while corrupting the Superscan, but it continues to fail.
X.A.N.A.'s monsters bowing in gratitude.
X.A.N.A. and the heroes aid each other out of necessity on two occasions at this time. When Jeremie created the Marabounta to attack enemy monsters and it went out of control and tried to destroy Lyoko, X.A.N.A. sent monsters to protect Aelita and help the team eliminate the rogue program, both to save itself and keep Aelita's memory intact. After they succeeded, X.A.N.A. even shows gratitude for their help through its monsters before leaving, even though it was unnecessary. Later, when the Supercomputer's nuclear battery fails, putting it and Aelita at risk of dying, X.A.N.A. takes action by possessing a criminal to steal another battery and kidnaps Jeremie to make him replace the power source, incapable of having the possessed do the task and knowing they both have a common interest in keeping the machine online. Once the new battery is in, X.A.N.A.'s pawn tries to kill him and fails.
A polymorphic specter.
As more proof of its growing power. X.A.N.A. can manifest polymorphic specters, ghosts with pixelized abilities that appear as specified clones or polymorphs that change form at will. Since it cannot control Lyoko Warriors, these specters allow X.A.N.A. to deceive them using different faces, ambush them on Lyoko, or impersonate Franz Hopper to gain their trust. Also, X.A.N.A. can send Flying Mantas to other virtual sectors.
X.A.N.A. reveals hidden memories to Aelita as involuntary visions to tempt her to find answers in Sector 5 and put her in range of the Scyphozoa, but fails again. Later, the real Franz Hopper possesses Sissi to make contact with the group and helps them decrypt his diary, despite X.A.N.A.'s efforts to prevent him and steal their information and virtual programs. Following the decryption, the contents of the diary revealed to the group that Franz Hopper created X.A.N.A. and Lyoko, but also that Aelita is his daughter, and he virtualized her to Lyoko along with himself.
X.A.N.A. frees itself from the Supercomputer in The Key.
Jeremie also learns from the diary what X.A.N.A. wants from Aelita's memory and the true nature of her link to the evil virus. X.A.N.A. uses a false fragment as bait for an elaborate trap that leaves Aelita alone in Sector 5 and allows the Scyphozoa to successfully steal her memory and the Keys to Lyoko, giving X.A.N.A. all it needs to escape the Supercomputer. Aelita and Lyoko were rendered lifeless and left behind, but Franz Hopper brings the virtual world and her back to life, restoring Aelita's missing fragment: her old memories, making her fully human. However, X.A.N.A. has escaped from the Supercomputer and now completely immune to being shut down, the evil virus is free to infect other systems on the network, which makes it more dangerous than ever.
Attacking Lyoko
X.A.N.A.'s monsters attacking the Core of Lyoko.
X.A.N.A.'s multi-agent system has escaped the Supercomputer and can now access the world network. It hasn't attacked the heroes since then, thinking it is beyond its enemies' reach. When Jeremie upgrades the Superscan to track X.A.N.A. on the network, it responds by sending monsters to attack the Core of Lyoko in Sector 5. If the Core is destroyed, the virtual world will be wiped out and the Lyoko Warriors cannot pursue X.A.N.A. on the network. The group stop its assault and save Lyoko in the end.
Not needing the Supercomputer anymore, X.A.N.A. is free to target the virtual world itself, knowing its enemies would be powerless to fight without Lyoko. It returns to Lyoko and continues to send monsters to assault the Core of Lyoko and launches Earth attacks or uses other distractions to keep the heroes busy while its monsters slowly work to break through the core shields. X.A.N.A. also targets the Supercomputer directly on Earth by possessing humans to destroy the machine or the Factory on Earth.
X.A.N.A. possessing Ulrich's virtual body.
Among the attacks X.A.N.A. uses to distract or target its enemies include possessing Yumi's field trip class, making a monster out of food supplies while raising the Digital Sea, controlling a flock of crows or giant roots in the park, infecting Odd and Ulrich with a hallucinating virus, or creating a Jeremie clone to deceive the team. Also, X.A.N.A. possessed Ulrich's virtual body when his mind was separated from it to attack the Core of Lyoko and tried to get rid of Odd when he split into three unstable clones using petrifying smoke to hold them until they disappear, both of which fail in the end.
X.A.N.A.'s code being entered.
As part of its plan to destroy Lyoko, X.A.N.A. intends to destroy all the virtual sectors by sending the Scyphozoa to plant its virus code into Aelita's memory to control her mind and make her input the code into Way Towers, allowing X.A.N.A. to take control of them and use to wipe out their sectors. It does this to make the Transport Orb completely inaccessible and prevent the group from stopping further attacks on the Core of Lyoko. It succeeds in the order of Forest, Desert, Ice, and Mountain regions, but Jeremie finds a way to virtualize the team directly to Sector 5 after losing the last sector.
X.A.N.A. enslaving William.
Initially reluctant, the team decides to recruit William Dunbar into their group. During his first time on Lyoko, William becomes fascinated by the virtual world, destroying monsters easily. After seeing his power as a virtual warrior, X.A.N.A. wants to make use of William and possesses him with the Scyphozoa, which was easy due to his ignorance and cocky attitude. X.A.N.A. has William devirtualize Aelita and puts him at the head of a Creeper army assembled at the Core of Lyoko, using their combined firepower to quickly break through the shield layers. When the other three warriors finally arrive, he defeats them easily and personally destroys the defenseless core, wiping out the virtual world. William was left behind, falling into the Digital Sea in the aftermath, but X.A.N.A. retrieves his deleted essence and completely enslaves him.
World Network Takeover
X.A.N.A.'s newest minion.
Using data sent by Franz Hopper, the team manage to recreate the virtual world of Lyoko and program new digital equipment. During this time, X.A.N.A. sends William to the real world from the Scanners to deceive the group into lowering their guard to kidnap Aelita and throw her into the Digital Sea, which the team suspect is part of a new strategy. They save Aelita and defeat William, who runs back to his new master in the network.
X.A.N.A. capturing William's digital essence from the network allowed it to completely possess and bind him to its system. It has modified him with unique abilities and strength to match any Lyoko Warrior in battle, gave him access and influence over Towers like Aelita, command over monsters, and the Black Manta for William to summon and mount. Also, X.A.N.A. can materialize him from the Scanners as a pixelized human without using a Tower. All these abilities have made William a valuable minion at its disposal.
A X.A.N.A. Replika.
Meanwhile, X.A.N.A. has been secretly taking over the world network since its escape, using its multi-agent virus to invade other supercomputers and create Replikas, copies of Lyoko, inside each of them using the stolen Keys to Lyoko. X.A.N.A.'s system inhabiting all those machines ensures its survival outside of Lyoko, allows it to harness their power and machine resources, and take over secret bases on Earth for its goal of world domination.
X.A.N.A.'s minions targeting Franz Hopper.
The evil virus intends to eliminate Franz Hopper, who hides in the network. X.A.N.A. knows he has the expertise to destroy it, making him the greatest threat. It tries to draw him out by kidnapping Aelita and throwing her into the Digital Sea, knowing Franz Hopper would reveal himself out of his need to protect his daughter. X.A.N.A. uses specters or possesses humans to bring her to Lyoko for William to capture her. It also tried to use the Scyphozoa to brainwash Aelita to fulfill its purpose, but Jeremie discovered a reset program that could undo its brainwashing. X.A.N.A. eventually succeeds in exposing Franz Hopper by luring Aelita using a simulation to impersonate him, but the team protects Franz Hopper before its monsters could eliminate him.
Aside from this main goal, X.A.N.A. still attacks the Lyoko Warriors to eliminate its current obstacles. It took control of their Jeremie and William clones by using William to influence the Tower and exploiting a malfunctioning program, created a lake monster that generates lightning, possessed a biker gang, replicated an army of Kiwi 2 robots, and turned the school into angry, mind-controlled slaves. X.A.N.A. also targets the virtual world with another Core of Lyoko assault while possessing a wild boar, sending William to destroy the Supercomputer, and redirecting a comet or using an armed fighter jet to target the Factory, yet the heroes continue to thwart its plans.
Kongre monsters
At this time, the Lyoko Warriors build their own virtual ship, named the Skidbladnir, in Sector 5 to fight X.A.N.A. in the world network. Despite attacking the ship while under construction with monsters and William, they repelled the assault and completed the process. On their first voyage into the Digital Sea, X.A.N.A. sends Kongre monsters to attack them, who use personal Nav Skids to fight them off. Later, it used the Scyphozoa to steal the Skidbladnir's memory. Though the heroes saved their ship, X.A.N.A. creates Shark monsters and the Rorkal Nav Skid for William from the stolen data to use in further battles.
The Kalamar as it attacks the Skid.
The Lyoko Warriors discover the first of many Replika during their first trial run and intend to destroy them all to weaken X.A.N.A. They search and infiltrate them one by one and activate Towers to teleport warriors as specters in their virtual forms to their secret bases on Earth to destroy its supercomputers. To defend its Replikas, X.A.N.A. sends Lyoko monsters and William to attack their ship and shut down their Towers, while activating its own Towers to attack the ones sent to Earth using possessed inhabitants, weapons built at the hidden bases, or teleporting its own minions. To eliminate their means of reaching Replikas, X.A.N.A. has also targeted their ship by programming virtual traps designed to immobilize and deplete its energy or completely destroy it, and sending the Kalamar sea monster to attack the ship while its shields are down, but it continues to fail.
A Replika's supercomputer.
The group have managed to find and destroy a Forest, Desert, and Sector 5 Replika while fighting X.A.N.A. in the network. Their supercomputers were found in an Amazon jungle laboratory that held cybernetic spiders made by possessed scientists, a New Mexico facility that assembled electronic implants to control its machines and was protected by teleported Kankrelats, and a space station that had metal orbs that protrude spikes and generate heat to burn through material.
The mighty Kolossus.
Later, when the team travel to an Ice Replika, X.A.N.A. teleports William to fight them at its hidden base in Siberia, which unwittingly revealed the codes and programs X.A.N.A. uses to control him in the activated Tower. This allows Aelita to interface with the data and send the information to Jeremie. After they defeat William on the base and the Replika, X.A.N.A. draws power from all its Replikas at once to create its most powerful monster: "the Kolossus," a titan with the might to destroy any virtual target instantly. The team escape the giant, but this event reveals the true extent of X.A.N.A.'s world network domination with hundreds of Replikas providing it strength, too many to destroy one by one, forcing the team to rethink their strategy.
X.A.N.A.'s robot army.
After their last mission, Jeremie creates a program to free William, and another based on a multi-agent system to destroy X.A.N.A. using all the information from Franz Hopper's data and their network travels. The heroes to return to the Ice Replika for the former task where they discover its endgame of building an army of robots to conquer the world. Jeremie tries to entrap the Kolossus with its unfinished program, but the monster soon breaks free. The group succeed in freeing William from X.A.N.A.'s control, but the Kolossus destroys the Skidbladnir at the end of the battle. Though X.A.N.A. lost William, its vast network of Replikas have made X.A.N.A. too powerful in both the real and virtual worlds, shown by the devastating Kolossus and robot armies capable of destroying humanity and world domination. With their ship destroyed, Jeremie's multi-agent program is their only hope of beating X.A.N.A. and its evil ambitions.
Final Battle
The Anti-X.A.N.A. Program released.
X.A.N.A. engages its final assault when the group and Franz Hopper meet to complete the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program. It possesses William to knock out Jeremie and try to break the Scanners and sends the Kolossus and a group of Mantas on Lyoko to wipe out all its enemies for good. While fighting on Lyoko, Yumi devirtualizes herself on purpose to hold off William, while Ulrich fights and manages to defeat the Kolossus. Jeremie transports Odd and Aelita to Sector 5 to launch their finished program. Franz Hopper provides the energy needed for Aelita to run the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program while being attacked, sacrificing himself in the process much to Aelita's horror, who launches the program. It appears as a swarm of agents unleashed from the Core of Lyoko that eliminates the monsters before spreading to the sectors of Lyoko, then across the Digital Sea where the program destroys all of its Replikas on the network simultaneously.
X.A.N.A.'s final moments as it's being destroyed.
As this happens, the specter possessing William is forced out of him, showing X.A.N.A. in agony and glitching out due to its whole multi-agent system being destroyed. Finally, it fades into oblivion while its Tower is deactivated as the hostile program is permanently erased. In the end, the Lyoko Warriors are successful in destroying X.A.N.A. forever and saving the world from its wrath, eventually deciding to shut down the Supercomputer to mark the end of their virtual adventures.
Other Continuities
X.A.N.A. reappears in the live action Evolution series and the alternate continuity of the Chronicles novel series. It should be noted that neither of the two continuities are completely canon, as Evolution was disowned by the original showrunners, who confirmed that only a few of their ideas made it into the show and that the events within were not canon.[1][2] Similarly, while the novels were written with the original documents in hand, not all of their events are noted to be canon either.
Code Lyoko: Evolution
An activated Tower, confirming X.A.N.A.'s rebirth.
In the live-action Evolution sequel, X.A.N.A. has survived its last battle with the Lyoko Warriors by hiding an unregistered Replika, called the Cortex. From this mysterious virtual world, X.A.N.A. causes short circuits and strange bugs in the Kadic school computers, which compels the Lyoko Warriors to reactivate the Supercomputer and Lyoko, renewing their struggle with their old enemy.
Before its presumed demise, X.A.N.A. had implanted its own Source Codes into the four warriors in their last battle, which contain portions of its power. Its new objective is to regain its full strength and take control of the world network once again, by sending specters to Earth, which can steal the source codes from the Lyoko Warriors through physical contact. Also, X.A.N.A. takes chances to get rid of allies, destroy the recreated Skidbladnir, and bring William back to its side.
X.A.N.A.'s monsters fighting Ninjas.
At the same time, X.A.N.A. also keeps itself hidden from the owner of the Cortex Replika, Professor Tyron, so he does not try to purge the evil virus from his systems. The group discover the true connection between the two sides when they witness Tyron's Ninjas and X.A.N.A.'s monsters fighting each other, the latter needing to destroy a security update that was making it behave erratically. The team try to warn Tyron that X.A.N.A. lives inside the Cortex, but does not believe their story and ignores them, forcing the team to deal with two dangerous enemies.
The Cortex being destroyed.
X.A.N.A. has eventually recovered 95% of its full power from the Lyoko Warriors, but the group have also diligently worked on a virus that would wipe out the Cortex and X.A.N.A. with it. They were forced to plant the virus immediately, but Tyron shuts down his supercomputer before it was fully uploaded. Unless Tyron finds an antivirus, X.A.N.A. is rendered eternally frozen as long as the Cortex stays shut off. If Lyoko stays active, the evil virus will escape destruction again. The group shut down the Supercomputer but will remain on guard if X.A.N.A. returns.
Code Lyoko: Chronicles
In this alternate continuity, the events of the first four seasons are severely streamlined as the first book indicates. While the events of the prequel and the first season are followed relatively the same as before, the climax of the rest of the series is compressed into one event. Franz Hopper reveals himself to the group before any equivalent of The Key occurs. He informs the group how to destroy X.A.N.A., by launching the multi-agent program into the Core of Lyoko. Hopper sacrifices himself to provide the energy needed, while at the same time restoring Aelita's memories and informing the group about her mother.
As for XANA, the entity's core is destroyed. It is purged and ejected from Lyoko, left to drift in the network without its memories or core functions. Over several months, X.A.N.A. wanders the network and begins to gain its memories and strength back, and searches for a human vessel in lieu of a virtual world, choosing a girl known as Eva Skinner. It acquires directions on how to get to France and hacks the Kadic files to enroll as a new student, planning to gain the Lyoko Warriors' trust and eliminate them.
Over a time period, it gradually gained enough trust that they "tell" Eva about the Supercomputer, Franz Hopper, and their search for Anthea Hopper. Seducing Odd, X.A.N.A. managed to brainwash the boy, laying the groundwork for its return and plan to destroy humanity.
However, X.A.N.A. would later learn from Hopper's archives multiple shocking truths. It was made to be the Guardian of Lyoko and the First City to prevent anyone from using both for evil purposes. Moreover, he had been close friends with Aelita, a friendship Hopper encouraged as a way to teach it human emotions. However, all this changed when it was corrupted by leftover coding from a dark zone program, Project Carthage, whose templates Lyoko had been created from, acquiring vast powers, but losing its memories and human emotions in the process.
Shaken by this, X.A.N.A. leaves Odd and Eva and takes an appearance of his own in the Mirror, ousting its true nature to the Lyoko Warriors. It then sought out an opportunity to speak to Aelita alone and share what he remembered. While rightfully suspicious of its motives, she nevertheless agreed. Appearing to her as a young man greatly resembling William, X.A.N.A. spent many hours talking with her. But though they rekindled their former friendship, the discussion ended in conflict when X.A.N.A. mistook her reluctance to help as a declaration of war. Leaving her, it began preparations to dominate the world.
Aelita, not giving up, pursued it. She persuaded it to listen to his original programming and fight off the virus still infecting it. X.A.N.A. would thus ally itself permanently with humanity, helping the Lyoko Warriors to defeat a terrorist group that was hoping to use Lyoko as a substitute for Carthage. While X.A.N.A. seemingly sacrificed itself to upload a self-destruction program that would delete Lyoko for good, its programming was salvaged by Aelita, who managed to recreate X.A.N.A. and bring it into the real world as a human.
Trivia
- X.A.N.A. was voiced by David Gasman in the English dub of Ghost Channel, the same actor who voices Herb, Jim and William.
- X.A.N.A.'s name was derived from Xanadu in the 1941 film Citizen Kane.[3] A similar, more explicit reference was in Code Lyoko's pilot Garage Kids, where, although X.A.N.A. itself didn't exist yet, the virtual world was named Xanadu instead of Lyoko.
- Sophie Decroisette also confirmed that X.A.N.A.'s name doesn't stand for anything.[4]
- Big Brother from the 1949 book 1984 served as inspiration for X.A.N.A., specifically for X.A.N.A.'s symbol resembling an eye and the slogan from the book: "Big Brother is watching you".[3]
- X.A.N.A.'s symbol also resembles the logo of Tachibana General Laboratories from the anime Serial Experiments Lain, which served as one of the main sources of inspiration for Code Lyoko according to Thomas Romain.[5]
- In-universe, X.A.N.A.'s symbol is said to originate from Project Carthage.[6]
- Sophie Decroisette revealed that the writers received pressure from higher-ups to personify XANA, which they repeatedly fought against and tried to avoid doing as much as possible as "we wanted him to be an entity that no one can represent".[3][7]
- In Code Lyoko's original graphic bible, X.A.N.A. was originally the supercomputer itself and not a multi-agent prorgram housed in the computer.[8] It was said to have been discovered by Franz Hopper, who used it to build Lyoko as his own paradise. Hopper eventually disappeared during one of his visits to Lyoko, which was theorized as the cause for the bug that makes X.A.N.A. to want to attack Earth.
- Since X.A.N.A. is a computer program, it's supposed to be genderless. However, everyone except Franz Hopper addresses X.A.N.A. by male pronouns in the main series. This originates from all nouns being either masculine or feminine in French, the show's original language, and there being no equivalent to "it".[7] X.A.N.A. is specifically referred to as a "programme" (program), which is masculine. Decroisette notably prefers describing X.A.N.A. as an "entité" (entity), which is feminine. She admitted the "a" at the end of its name made her see X.A.N.A. as female, though said program was a more accurate term.
- In Fall of X.A.N.A. as well as the trailer for Quest for Infinity, X.A.N.A.'s pronunciations are female.
- In the Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir episode "Hack-San", the titular sentimonster looks almost exactly like XANA. One of the directors of the series, Wilfried Pain, later confirmed this is a reference to Code Lyoko.[9][10]
- Though this was never explained in the series, X.A.N.A.'s end goal of taking over supercomputers and building robot armies to destroy humanity suggests that X.A.N.A.'s ultimate desire was eternal self-preservation, accomplished by taking over all network systems to exist everywhere and wipe out all mankind so absolutely no one can shut it down, creating a new world of networks and machines all controlled and ruled by X.A.N.A.
Gallery
References
- ↑ "Interview - Sophie Decroisette, partie 2". Ces Dessins Animés-Là qui méritent qu'on s'en souvienne. March 11, 2014.
- ↑ "Interview with Sophie Decroisette" - CodeLyoko.fr (2016)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Les secrets de Code Lyoko racontés par ses créateurs (et on sait pourquoi ils ont des grands fronts)" - YouTube
- ↑ "Reply from Sophie Decroisette: "... it's a name that emanates from Xanadu, the old name of Lyoko. So it's not an acronym...". CATSUKA. April 1, 2004.
- ↑ ""Code Lyoko" arrive sur Netflix: l'histoire secrète de la série culte". BFMTV. January 10, 2020.
- ↑ "Preview of Code Lyoko season 4" - CodeLyoko.fr
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Interview - Sophie Decroisette, partie 1". Ces Dessins Animés-Là qui méritent qu'on s'en souvienne. March 11, 2014.
- ↑ "The Graphic Bible of Code Lyoko" - CodeLyoko.fr
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Winny_IRL/status/1435469679250874370
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/1435565392873807874
| Lyoko Warriors | |
|---|---|
| Secondary characters | |
| Kadic Faculty | |
| Villains |
|
| Minor Characters | |
| Evolution characters | |
| Chronicles characters | |
| Other Characters | |
| X.A.N.A.'s Monsters |
| Lyoko |
| Kankrelats | Hornet | Blok | Krab | Megatank | Creeper | Manta | Black Manta | Guardian | Tarantula | Scyphozoa | Kolossus |
| Earth |
| Spectre | Polymorphic Clone |
| Digital Sea |
| Kongre | Shark | Kalamar |
| Video games only |
| Cyberhopper | Exploding Roachsters | Scorpion | Insekt | Dark Monster | Volcanoid | Ubertank | Omegatank | Mountain Bug | Insekt Lord | Ice Spider | Desert Driller | Magma Worm |
| Characters | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locations |
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| Hardware | |||||||
| Virtual Objects | |||||||
| Programs | |||||||
| Weapons |
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| Powers | |||||||
| Other | |||||||