A/N: This is a theory I came up with about where the weapons in Code Lyoko came from. Maybe you already thought of this, maybe you never bothered to think about this because the characters don't give it much thought, but this is what I think happened. In this theory I will explain who created the weapons and why. I didn't really do much research because I didn't really have much internet access for a while and, so I wrote this from memory, but I don't think I got any facts wrong.
One more thing, and that's my spelling. Before anyone tries to correct me and say that Jeremie should be spelt 'Jeremy', I understand, but both names are technically correct. At first, during season 1, 'Jeremie was used as the canon spelling (I think that's how they spell it in French or something) and you can see the spelling in the scene transitions used in the season 1 episodes. But then from season 2 onwards the spelling was changed to 'Jeremy'. But then, I'm mostly talking about events in season 1 and before the events of the show, so I guess it makes sense to use 'Jeremie'. Sorry if that annoys you, it's really just what I'm used to writing. Also, before you tell me, yes, I know XANA should be spelt X.A.N.A, but it's too annoying to have to type it out like that, so I've just been writing XANA. Sorry! None of that really affects the theory anyway.
Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko or the cover image used.
So now finally, enjoy the theory!
A few days ago, I decided to marathon Code Lyoko, and yesterday I was up to episode 26: False Start. Odd ran out of laser arrows. That's when, for the first time, I wondered to myself, why is that even possible?
Let's take a step back and think about where their weapons came from. It makes sense that the weapons came about in the same way as their costumes. In the prequel Xana Awakens, Jeremie surmises that the supercomputer taps into their subconscious desires. This isn't exactly a fact in the show, just an idea Jeremie thinks of, but despite them not really talking about the idea anymore because they didn't consider it all that important, I think Jeremie may be right.
Let's think about the costumes that Ulrich, Odd and Yumi got. Yumi's costume is a Japanese geisha (I hope I spelt that right), which makes a lot of sense. For one thing, I doubt that the supercomputer could know her cultural background unless it did truly tap into her subconscious. Yumi clearly considers her Japanese background of great importance to her, as shown by some of the decorations in her room, as well as the effort the puts into her presentation in the episode The Girl of the Dreams. So, it makes perfect sense that she ended up with a geisha costume if the supercomputer did tap in to her subconscious. I'm not sure what to say about Ulrich though, but I the piece of evidence that I think is the biggest is Odd. When Jeremie suggests the idea, Odd calls it ridiculous, because he doesn't "dream about giant purple cats". But he's taking the idea too literally. I'll admit, Odd seems like more of a dog person than a cat person, and I'm not entirely sure how to explain the cat thing. But probably the biggest piece of evidence is Kiwi. There is a picture of Kiwi on the front of Odd's costume. How the hell would the supercomputer know what Kiwi looks like without tapping into Odd's mind?!
But I got a bit off topic there to prove my point about the costumes. What about the weapons? Yes, it makes sense that they came about in the same way as the costumes. Yumi's fans seem to be of a Japanese style and thus, match her costume. Ulrich's katanas (swords, if you didn't know that word) also match his costume, as it would make sense for a Samurai to use them.
As for Odd, sorry, I don't know how to explain arrows matching a cat. But then, that only helps my theory. The supercomputer can't just create a functioning weapon from nowhere. Or maybe it can, I don't know much about supercomputers. But from what I know about computers, a computer can't do anything unless it has been told how to. You can't get new information from a computer. Any information you learn from a computer is there because someone else put that information there. So, I think that the supercomputer couldn't have just created their weapons. I say that someone else had programmed the weapons, and then when Ulrich, Odd and Yumi were first virtualised, the supercomputer looked into their subconscious, and after creating their costumes, rather than creating their weapons, it used their subconscious to choose the most suitable weapons out of a list of weapons that someone already programmed.
That someone can't have been Jeremie, as we see in Xana Awakens that he is just as clueless as the others as to where the weapons came from. He doesn't say anything when Yumi says "Hey, I don't have a weapon," before she found her fans, and had nothing to say when Odd was jealous of Ulrich's sword, calls his paws "useless" and then accidently shoots a laser arrow. That's because he didn't have anything to do with the weapons. Yes, later on, Jeremie does figure out how to reload the laser arrows, but that doesn't mean he created them. There's too much evidence against it. Besides, it can't have been that hard to figure out how to reload the arrows, because in a later episode (I forget which) Kiwi is able to reload them just by pushing buttons on the keyboard.
The obvious answer is that Franz Hopper programmed the weapons. But when I started thinking about it, I realised that there is so much evidence against it. And I think that Franz Hopper created the powers, but not the weapons.
But before I get into all the evidence, first I should probably explain the difference between what I consider to be a 'weapon' and a 'power'. Basically, the weapons are Yumi's fans, Ulrich's katanas and Odd's laser arrows. Aelita's energy fields are also weapons, but we're going to leave them out of this for now because they are different. They were definitely created by Jeremie, and this doesn't happen until the beginning of season 3. But for now, we're mostly talking about season 1 and the events before the show. So, the swords, fans and arrows are the 'weapons', and Triplicate, Super Sprint, Future Flash, Shield, Telekinesis and Creativity are all 'powers'. Notice that while some people have multiple powers, everyone only got one weapon?
But anyway, getting back to Franz Hopper – I don't think he created the weapons. Let's think about why he originally created Lyoko. (I'm writing all this from memory by the way, so I hope I don't get anything wrong. But hopefully if I do forget something it won't be anything that completely changes the theory.) Franz Hopper created was going to use Lyoko as a place to hide. Around 10 years before Jeremie found the supercomputer, he virtualised himself and Aelita. I don't think Hopper was expecting XANA to be so dangerous and create all the monsters. So, it makes sense that he didn't create the weapons. But here's the interesting thing I noticed. Hopper's plan was to send himself and Aelita to Lyoko. So why program a weapon that can run out? The laser arrows come out of Odd's paws, they come from seemingly nowhere. I think it's entirely possible to program the arrows to just be infinite. Think about this: the only way to reload the arrows is from the computer, or if Odd was devirtualised and then went back to Lyoko, he would probably have his arrows back. But it seems like Hopper wasn't originally planning for either of them to be devirtualised, so why create a weapon that will run out and be impossible to reload from Lyoko? So why did he create them? He didn't.
I think Franz Hopper created the powers, but not the weapons. Think about what I said were powers. They all seem to be mostly defensive. Triplicate is great and all, but just imagine if Ulrich didn't have his sword. There would be three of him, sure, but he still wouldn't really be able to destroy a monster. I think the best use for Triplicate if you don't have a weapon is to use the clones as a distraction so that you can run away from the monster. Triangulate isn't very useful at all without a weapon. You'd just be running around the monster in a triangle shape. I think that Triangulate is really just a technique Ulrich uses by combining Super Sprint with Triplicate. Super Sprint is, of course, defensive as well, being just a way to easily outrun an opponent to escape. As for Telekinesis, while it can be used in an offensive way, Yumi usually uses it in a more defensive way, such as holding rocks floating around herself and her friends as a sort of shield. As for Odd's weapons, Future Flash isn't exactly helpful in attacking, and Shield is just that, a shield. Then there's Aelita's Creativity, which yes, can be used to defeat monsters by making the ground beneath them disappear, this doesn't exactly work with every monster (such as Hornets, Mantas, the Scyphozoa, anything that doesn't need to stand on the ground), and we see from the ways that Aelita uses it that it works best in defensive ways, such as when she blocked off two of the Krabs in the episode Amnesia or one time where she made a clone of herself to distract the hornets (I forgot the episode name but I definitely remember it happened and Jeremie, Odd and Yumi thought she fell into the digital sea but then she was right next to them). Also, did you ever wonder why Aelita doesn't have a weapon? The weird thing is, a lot of people act like she has nothing, forgetting about Creativity. My theory will answer the question of 'why does Aelita have a power but not a weapon?'
Well for one thing, I say that while the powers were programmed by Franz Hopper and chosen by the supercomputer to suit the person when they're being virtualised for the first time, the weapons were created in a separate way. We've already established that Jeremie can't have created them, and I've explained why I think Franz Hopper didn't either. So, who did? Well… This is going to sound crazy, so hear me out for a moment please. I believe… it was XANA.
Now I know what you're already thinking. 'What the hell are you talking about, Astrid? Have you even seen Code Lyoko? XANA's the bad guy! Why the hell would XANA give them weapons?' But after I thought about it for a while, I realised that there is actually a lot of evidence to support this idea.
First let's decide whether or not this is possible, if XANA actually can create weapons. Well for one thing, XANA created the monsters, some of which even have multiple weapons. Most of them just shoot lasers, but then there are the Bloks, which also have a freeze beam (not sure what the official name is) that temporarily freezes the opponent, as well as making them lose life points. Then there are also the Mantas, which drop flying mines. Plus, when William is under XANA's control, XANA is able to give him more powers. It is likely that XANA gave William Super Smoke, as he doesn't use it before he is taken by the Scyphozoa. XANA also gives him Second View, a power that allows him to see things much further away from him. Yes, I know that Super Smoke and Second View are powers, not weapons, but if XANA is capable of creating powers, surely weapons aren't that much more difficult to create? Besides, while we don't see XANA create weapons, but we know he can change them, because when William is under XANA's control, his sword has its appearance changed a bit to include the eye of XANA, and I think it got a bit bigger too. Plus, XANA is able to completely change William's costume from white to black. (Edit: I just remembered something else – In 49. Franz Hopper, the fake Franz Hopper created by XANA is able to upgrade their weapons, making Odd's arrows homing darts.) With all this, I'm pretty sure XANA could create weapons if he wanted to.
'But why would he want to?" I hear you asking. 'Why would XANA give them weapons? That's just helping them to beat him!' Well, in a way, yes, it is helping, but in some ways, it's not. Because think about this: he gave Odd, Ulrich and Yumi weapons, but not Aelita. This meant that even though she still has Creativity, the others are a lot more powerful than her. The others can easily destroy monsters thanks to their weapons, but Aelita can't. That means she needs them. Eventually, it becomes a well-established rule amongst their group that when there is an activated tower, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi have to go to Lyoko to beat the monsters for Aelita so that she can get to the tower. She grows to rely on them and feels like she needs them.
But Aelita's not that weak. She doesn't really need the others to fight for her. We have seen that when she needs to, she can get rid of monsters using Creativity. Maybe XANA knew that. He knew that if he activated a tower, she would just deactivate it. So, he gave the others weapons to make Aelita feel inferior, and so the group got into the routine of sending Odd, Ulrich and Yumi to help because they all believe that she needs them.
Take episode 25. Code Earth, for example. Jeremie tells Aelita that she needs to get to a "passage tower in Lyoko's Forest Region. That's where she's going to get devirtualised. Before she appears in the flesh for the first time inside one of the scanners." She then says, "I'm off to the forest right now." While the others go to class, Aelita uses a tower to travel to the Forest Sector. She finds the tower easily, but because she sees a few Bloks in front of the tower, she says, "Jeremie. I'm going to need help!" When the others get out of class and then go to the factory, Aelita says, "I'm at the passage tower, but three Bloks won't even let me get close!" But that's the thing! How does she know they won't let her get close? If you watch the episode, you'll see that when she says this she is still standing in the exact same place she was when she first saw the Bloks. It's not she tried to run to the tower and the Bloks attacked her. She could have gotten to the tower. She could have used Creativity to create a clone of herself to get the Bloks' attention, act as a target and run away to lead them away from the tower. She could have tried making the ground beneath them disappear, or create a wall around them. She could even just run for it to get to the tower. Yes, she would disappear if she lost all of her life points, but she can take a few hits. And she doesn't have to worry about that too much, because once she got into the tower her life points would come back anyway! But no. She was too scared to even try. Because all this time she has come to understand that she needs someone else to get rid of the monsters for her.
This makes sense because once Aelita has grown to rely on the others, all XANA has to do is stop the others from getting to Lyoko. If they can't get to Lyoko to help her, she won't be able to get to the tower to deactivate it. And yes, maybe if it was an emergency, she might try to get to the tower herself. But even if she tried, because she is so scared of failing, so convinced that she is so weak and fragile because time and time again the others have cleared the path for her, she won't be able to do it. She'll get attacked by monsters, lose all her life points, and she will be no more. And then XANA wins. Because there would be no one left to deactivate towers. So that's the plan: get Aelita to rely on the others, stop the others from getting to Lyoko, then attack Aelita. Even if she tried her best, even if she didn't have a low confidence in herself from the others helping her so much, I really don't think Aelita would be able to hold her own against XANA's monsters. Eventually, she would lose all her life points and disappear.
But then, you may be wondering, what exactly is this "stop the others from getting to Lyoko" part of the plan that I mentioned? Well, a while ago when watching the show, I realised that this is easier than it looks. XANA doesn't have to kill them to stop them from helping Aelita get to the tower. The best way to stop them is to simply break the scanners. Then no one goes in or out of Lyoko. Yeah, breaking the scanners is the best idea. XANA should have thought of that from the start.
Except that he did! Right at the start! Episode 6. Cruel Dilemma. That's the one where Odd drops candy on the keyboard and creates a materialisation program, but then Yumi falls into the digital sea and Jeremie uses the program to bring her back. (Can we just take a minute to think about how amazing it is that this happened? Just by dropping candy on the keyboard, Odd creates a materialisation program that's better than Code Earth? We know it's better because it can bring Yumi back from the digital sea, while Code Earth could only work if Aelita as in a way tower. Anyway, that's irrelevant to the theory.) It's also the episode where XANA attacks the factory with bulldozers. I used to think this was a stupid idea, because XANA can't go destroying the supercomputer when he's still inside it. In season 1, XANA was inside the supercomputer so that if it was turned off, XANA would be gone. But XANA wasn't aiming for the supercomputer. He was probably aiming for the scanners, or the supercomputer's interface (the part with the screens and keyboard). They even explain this in the episode. Jeremie says that if the interface is destroyed, they would have "no more contact with Aelita." And then Odd says, "Not to mention the scanners. Without them, no more transfers to Lyoko." And they're both right. Without the scanners, no one is going to Lyoko. Destroying the interface would be just as effective, because one needs to use the interface to load the virtualisation program. Jeremie even warns Yumi that "if the scanners are destroyed, you're on a one-way trip". Unfortunately for XANA, they deactivate the tower before and major damage is done, but this has got to be one of XANA's best plans ever. Too bad he doesn't try it again.
Oh wait. He does! Image Problem! *Looks at my list of episodes in order* It's actually the very next episode! In episode 7. Image Problem, the fake Yumi that XANA sends breaks Jeremie's computer and tries to disconnect the scanners. Unfortunately, this plan doesn't quite succeed, because it wouldn't be a very fun TV show if the bad guy won. At the end of the episode, the good guys always win.
Later on, we see that XANA switches tactics, and instead tries to just kill them to stop them from getting to Lyoko. To name a few examples:
15. Laughing Fit – He uses the laughing gas, which nearly kills Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremie.
18. Killer Music – Odd nearly dies from the effects of the music XANA creates, and later in the episode he is able to make the supercomputer play the music, causing Jeremie and Ulrich to pass out, and they would have died if they had been stuck listening to the music for longer.
21. Zero Gravity Zone – Ulrich nearly floated off into space.
28. Uncharted Territory – XANA uses Aelita as bait to lure the others into the Hermitage, where Odd and Aelita luckily escaped, but Ulrich and Yumi were trapped in a room where XANA raised the temperature to the point where they passed out. Though I think the original plan might have been to just trap Aelita so that she can't deactivate the tower.
84. Guided Missile – Even in season 4, XANA tries to kill the Lyoko Warriors, by using the fighter jet that Jeremie happens to be in the attack the factory. This is a good plan because at this point, XANA has separated himself from the supercomputer and thus, will still survive if he destroys it.
I know that there are a lot more examples and evidence of this plan but those were just the ones I thought of off the top of my head because I've been writing all this from memory without checking much information.
So, what do you think? Do you agree that maybe XANA was the one who gave Odd, Ulrich and Yumi their weapons? Or if you disagree, please tell me who you think did because I really don't think it was Jeremie or Franz Hopper and I've already explained my evidence for that.
A/N: I'm not even sure if this is really allowed here. I'm not completely clear on what qualifies as 'fanfiction', and this isn't really a story, it's a theory. Although my theory of Mewtwo's true origin didn't get in any trouble, so I assume this is fine. Although, that one was sort of in a story format, it was about a character based on me thinking about Mewtwo and forming a theory about Mewtwo's origin, so I'm not sure. I should probably find the rules about that, but if this does end up breaking the rules, of course I'd be willing to take it down.
Really, I just wasn't sure where to post this. I wanted to share it, I just wasn't sure how. So, if you can think of a website better suited to this kind of thing, please let me know.
But anyway, what do you think? Do you think it really was XANA, or do you think it was Franz Hopper, Jeremie, or someone else? If you disagree I'd love to hear why, and I don't mean that in a mean way, I'd actually be really interested to hear why you think something different so if you have any thoughts about this theory I'd be happy to see a review or a PM about it. Anyway, thank you for reading!
Edit: I want to thank swithinboy59 for the first review on this theory and for helping me out with some info. I'll admit, this theory wasn't very well researched at all. I wrote it completely from memory without looking anything up, (with the exception of looking at a list I have of the episodes in order, so I could know their numbers) so I was bound to miss some things. First swithinboy59 helps by explaining how Odd ended up as a cat. Then he explains an idea for why Franz Hopper may have been the one to make the weapons and I think it makes a lot of sense, so I recommend you read that too. But hey, that's just a theory. A Code Lyoko theory! Thanks for reading (and for not reporting me for using MatPat's catchphrase)
