Xana (code Lyoko)

This article is about Xana, a fictional artificial intelligence. For other uses, see Xana (disambiguation) .

Xana (also spelled ''XANA'' or ''X.A.N.A.'', in the French Animated Television Series '' Code Lyoko ''.

DESCRIPTION

For some unknown reason, Xana hates humans, most significantly the ones who constantly foil its plans: Aelita , Jeremie , Odd , Ulrich , and Yumi . It seeks to take over the real world through the use of the Towers in Lyoko , but has always been stopped by the aforementioned characters.

Xana attacks the real world by "activating" (also known as "infecting") towers. Once one has been activated (the activated tower glows red as opposed to the normal, neutral blue), Xana can cause varied kinds of chaos in the real world. Xana sends Monsters to guard the activated towers, but they always fail to keep the group away long enough for him to complete a scheme, and a Return Trip wipes out any trace of the attack (if necessary).

Xana's attacks manifest themselves in a variety of ways, but they always begin as a phantom (called "ghosts" or "spectres"). Jeremie describes them as digital impulses that travel through all networks at hyperspeed to gather huge amounts of energy, then are guided to an exit point of Xana's choosing, at which point they appear as a ghost. The ghosts appear as clouds of black smoke. They can take control of almost any type of electronic device or inanimate object, ranging from vehicles to teddy bears. Along with the ability to control most anything, the ghosts seem to be able to reconfigure matter at the subatomic level, allowing Xana to adapt objects for whatever purpose it needs. The most notable instance of this is seen in the first episode, "Teddygozilla", when Xana possessed a teddy bear and rebuilt it into a two-story goliath.

Xana's ghosts can also possess living creatures. In the first season, this was limited to small animals and insects (rats and bees). Xana was able to make a clone of Yumi in the episode "Image Problem", but this was through use of the scanners and not ghosts. In the second season, Xana gained enough power to possess people. This is now its preferred method of attack. Like with inanimate objects, Xana's ghosts can alter the subatomic structure of their hosts to some extent, allowing them to give abilities to their hosts that would be considered supernatural, such as phasing, super-strength, and electrified hands.

Xana's symbol, called the "Eye of Xana" by the group (from here on referred to as the Eye), is found everywhere in Lyoko, appearing as a ringed symbol somewhat similar to a Bullseye , and has many functions. When it's seen on a monster, it marks the weak spot for that monster. Hitting the Eye will destroy the monster. When the Eye is seen on the walls of the labyrinth of Carthage , it marks the shut-off switch for the sector's timer. The Eye appears on nearly every object associated with either Lyoko or Xana. Anything possessed by Xana will have the Eye printed somewhere on it. It even appears on the base of the supercomputer. The Eye is also located in the show's logo, and is heavily associated with the show in general.

EVOLUTION

As Xana continues to evolve, it seems to gain a better understanding of human emotions. Hatred and anger come the most easily to it, due to its inherently evil nature. This is demonstrated by the behavior of its clones and by Xana itself when it was disguised as Jeremie in the fake Kadic seen in the episode "Ghost Channel". Other emotions are rarely seen, as they run contrary to Xana's nature. A sign of respect is seen only once, when Xana is forced to assist in the destruction of the Marabounta .

In the first season, Xana's understanding was rather limited. It only showed a basic understanding of human emotions and often played the part poorly when disguised as a human. It did, however, have a decent understanding of the more violent tendancies of humans, and was quite good in replicating those particular emotions.

In the first episode, "Teddygozilla", it listened to Milly's hatred of the older kids, most notably Sissi , who had made fun of her earlier. After listening to her wish she were bigger that the rest of the older kids, Xana took action. First, Xana possessed her teddy bear and used it to take revenge on Sissi by humiliating her. After increasing the teddy bear's size somewhat (twelve feet would seem appropriate given the size of its shadow), Xana used it to attack Jim . After attacking Jim, Xana once again increased the teddy bear's size, this time making it roughly two stories tall, and used it to attack the city. Though the teddy bear's humiliation of Sissi and subsequent attack of Jim would seem to be revenge on the behalf of Milly, it's doubtful that Xana was actually trying to help her. It's more likely that he used her hateful tendencies as an outlet for his plans.

Further development isn't seen until the episode "Image Problem", where Xana created a fake Yumi to trick the others. The fake still didn't have a good grasp of human emotions, and took several actions that would be considered out of character, like trying to seduce Jeremie in an attempt to get to the scanners. Despite the strange behavior, it was able to pass itself off as Yumi long enough to get to the scanners.

Later in the season, in the episode "Ghost Channel", Xana created a prison disguised as Kadic and trapped Odd , Ulrich , and Yumi within it. Xana disguised itself as Jeremie in order to gain their trust and subsequently delete them. The fake Kadic and the surrounding area was a decent replica, but the people within still behaved strangely, including Jim, Herve, and Nicholas. Many times they would repeat their actions, as if someone had hit the rewind button on the world. This betrayed the illusion. Xana also played the part of Jeremie poorly, which, coupled with the arrival of the real Jeremie and a long discussion between the two Jeremies, exposed Xana as an impostor.

In the second season, Xana's direct possession of humans increased its understanding of human emotions. Its polymorphic clones, which are free from any lingering personality traits, are much more adjusted than the fake Yumi in the first season was. They understand how to manipulate people and even make insults on occasion. In the episode "Franz Hopper", the polymorphic clone disguised as Franz Hopper was extremely skilled in manipulating the others, getting them to turn on Jeremie fairly quickly.

This understanding has also given Xana the weaknesses of humans as well. In the episode "Franz Hopper", the polymorphic clone tried to get Jeremie to admit defeat, causing it to let down its guard. This allowed Aelita and Jeremie to get the better of it.

ORIGIN

Xana was created by Franz Hopper (along with the supercomputer and Lyoko ) in order to destroy Project Carthage, which was a military project intended to disrupt enemy communications. The sector Carthage seems to be a representation of this project. Why Hopper wished its destruction is unclear, but both Lyoko and Xana were made for this end.

For some reason, this plan was never put into action. Instead, Hopper reworked his plan. He redesigned Lyoko as a paradise for him and Aelita . They were eventually forced to flee to Lyoko when government agents showed up to arrest him. Xana apparently took advantage of this and trapped him in Lyoko. It also took Aelita's human memories from her. Finally, instead of destroying Carthage as it was intended to do, Xana took it over and made the sector its home.

Why Xana went rogue is unclear, but several theories exist to explain it.

The first theory is that Xana was corrupted by a virus. The virus would be the artificial intelligence in this case, inhabiting and controlling the supercomputer and causing the events that form the story of '' Code Lyoko ''. This speculation is supported by the continued existence of Xana in the supercomputer after being repeatedly shut down and reactivated, in "False Start" and "Common Interest", suggesting contaminated Kernel programs. This also seems the most common reference among non-fan discussions of the series (e.g. reviews or short blurbs). However, since Franz Hopper makes no mention of any problems before heading to Lyoko other than the suspicion that he's being watched, it would seem that a virus would not be the cause.

Another popular theory is that Xana achieved sentience and went rogue shortly after doing so, much like movies. This is supported by the fact that no mention of any virus or rebellion is made within Franz Hopper's diary right up until the point that he and his daughter travel there. Franz Hopper's increasing paranoia, as seen in his video diary, also lends credit to this. Xana would have only taken direct action once it realized it could do so without fear of retaliation.

The last theory (named and/or plausible) is that Franz Hopper unintentionally drove Xana to madness, if such a term could be applied to an artificial intelligence. In Franz Hopper's video diary, he reveals that he used the Return Trip feature of the supercomputer 2546 times (slightly less than seven years) over the course of his research. Since the supercomputer is made more powerful with each return trip, it's possible that Xana gained enough processing power to become sentient. Then some unforeseen (and unmentioned) event polarized it against the human race. This ties in with the theory above.

The supercomputer itself is powered by nuclear core material ( Uranium ). This core has been depleted at least once, with the side-effect (due to the linkage between the supercomputer and Aelita) of nearly killing Aelita in the real world. The core was replaced in a Shotgun Wedding collaboration between Jeremie and Xana, who had possessed a criminal named Peter Duncan in the second season episode "Common Interest".

Many have speculated exactly what Xana stands for, but nothing can be said with certainty. Some have suggested the name has an obscure reference to , which speaks of Xanadu ; a place of once great beauty, luxury, and contentment. This could allude to the purpose of Lyoko, which is currently one of the biggest unanswered questions in the series, and the possibility that rather than coming into existence bent on evil, Xana was infected with a virus or some influenced by some other outside force or event later on after its construction. In '' Garage Kids '', the precursor to ''Code Lyoko'', Lyoko was actually called Xanadu.

The name of Xana might also have come from the Xana Post-Production , which is a subsidiary of the MoonScoop Group .

HISTORY

In the first season, Xana's attacks were limited. It mostly possessed electronic devices and inanimate objects. A few times it possessed small living creatures, gaining control of mass numbers, probably through some kind of fluid-transmitted disease. Jeremie mentioned in several episodes that Xana couldn't attack humans directly, and this seemed to be true at the time. Xana's attacks would get stronger as the season progressed. By the end of the first season, Xana was capable of sending its monsters into the real world via the scanners, but its attack was stopped by the group and Jim , the campus supervisor.

Xana's concern for the well-being of Aelita was less than noticeable in this season, despite the obvious negative consequence her death would have. On several occasions, the Monsters sent to guard the Towers would often use deadly force in order to prevent her from reaching it. It is possible that Xana was somewhat aware of the consequences of Aelita's death, as the monsters seemed to have much poorer aim in regards to her when compared to the rest of the group. Whether or not their poor aim was a result of concern or merely bad luck is questionable, though. In any case, Aelita's safety was a top-priority for the group in the first season.

In the last two episodes of the season, "Code: Earth" and "False Start", Aelita was finally Materialized . Unfortunately, Xana saw the threat to its existence and took steps to insure that shutting down the supercomputer would result in killing Aelita, which kept Xana safe. Jeremie believed a virus to be responsible for Aelita's link to the supercomputer.

In the second season, Xana's focus narrowed considerably. Instead of focusing on the city as a whole, Xana turned its attention to the group, attempting to kill at least one of them, most notably Jeremie. Xana also went to great lengths to keep the heroes from learning more about the history of the supercomputer.

In the first episode of the season, Aelita was able to start living on Earth thanks to a new tower-scanning program developed by Jeremie. Shortly after settling into her new life, she started having visions. They lead her to a house known as the Hermitage. In response to the discovery, Xana attacked in an attempt to keep them away. The attack was negated before anyone could be permanently injured.

In the episode "Unchartered Territory", Jeremie learned that the owner of this house was a man named Franz Hopper . He suspected that this man had some involvement with the supercomputer, seeing as how the house has a passage to the sewers in the backyard. He eventually discovered that Franz Hopper had once taught at Kadic . At the house, he found a bunch of physics books and one out-of-place book on the Punic Wars . Franz Hopper had written an extensive amount of notes in this book.

Apparently concerned with their continued digging, Xana tried to kidnap Aelita. When Aelita retreated to Lyoko , having been unable to adjust to life at Kadic, Xana took the opportunity to capture her with an entity known as the Transport Orb . The orb brought Aelita to a fifth sector in Lyoko, known as Carthage . Upon her arrival in the sector, Xana began to pursue Aelita with a monster called the Scyphozoa . Unlike other monsters, the only purpose of the Scyphozoa was to steal Aelita's memories. The reason for the action was unknown to the group at the time.

In the episode "Exploration", it was revealed that Carthage was where Xana essentially existed. There, Aelita could access its databanks and learn more about how to remove her link to the supercomputer. Finding the data was easier said than done considering the sheer volume of information contained within Carthage.

In the episode "A Great Day", Xana had even more reason to be concerned now that the group could essentially access its data at will. In response to this, Xana booby-trapped some of the data they took from Carthage. This allowed Xana to take control of the Return Trip feature of the supercomputer and repeat a single day several times in a row. Jeremie eventually realized that Xana was using the return trips to increase its power. He theorized that each return trip increased the base of the supercomputer's calculation capacity Qubits , doubling Xana's power each time. They were able to regain control of the feature, but Xana had already gained enough power to possess humans directly, starting with Sissi .

With the recently-gained ability to possess people at its disposal, Xana did so constantly, forsaking any other means of attack in most cases. Possessing people proved an effective way to get Aelita to Lyoko without anyone to protect her. As with every other attack Xana attempted, the group was able to overcome the odds and shut down the tower that fueled the attack.

Now that they were aware of the unwanted side effect of return trips, the heroes refrained from doing so as much as possible. That way, Xana's power growth was kept in check. Therefore, they had to be exceptionally careful to ensure the integrity of the present Time Stream . Xana tried to make this as difficult as possible, especially in later episodes such as "Attack of the Zombies" and "Ultimatum". Even without return trips, Xana seemed to be getting stronger with each attack.

In the episode "Mister Pück", Aelita's visions become too disruptive to ignore. The group went to the Hermitage to discover their source. The visions eventually led Aelita to a picture on the wall. Behind the picture was a small space that contained a doll, which Aelita inexplicably knew to be named Mister Pück. A key to a train station locker was hidden on the doll. The locker contained Franz Hopper's diary, which was heavily encoded on a set of CDs. Xana immediately took action in response to this, and sent a ghost to possess one of the group. Unfortunately for Xana, Odd and Ulrich (and, by extention, Yumi ) proved too resilient to be possessed, thanks to their exposure to Lyoko. Jeremie, on the other hand, was not. Xana was able to possess Jeremie and have him destroy the diary. Xana then tried to use him to deliver Aelita to the Scyphozoa. The others were able to stop the attack before any harm could come to Aelita. Jeremie was not too concerned over the diary's destruction, having made a backup copy of it beforehand. He went to Lyoko once after this in order to build up some resistance to Xana's possessing ghosts. He was never seen within Lyoko and swore never to go back, having had a less than pleasant experience with a pair of Megatanks .

As the season continued, it became clear that whatever Xana wanted from Aelita's memories was too important to risk losing. Episodes such as "Saint Valentine's Day" and "Marabounta" gave clear examples of this. In "Saint Valentine's Day", the Scyphozoa released Aelita when Odd threatened to destroy her through a barrage of laser arrows. Later, in "Marabounta", when Jeremie's monster, the Marabounta , tried to attack Aelita and devour Lyoko, Xana joined up with the group to destroy it. After the Marabounta was destroyed, Xana's monsters bowed to the gang before leaving. Despite the unusually civil behavior in this one instance, Xana's evil nature did not change.

Xana eventually overcame the need to possess people and created a polymorphic clone that was just as capable as any possessed human. Not only that, but it could also change shape at will and wasn't hindered by any leftover personality traits that a host body would normally carry with it. Despite the superior nature of these clones, Xana would still possess people as a common means of attack.

In the episode "Tip-Top Shape", Xana possessed Yolande Perraduin (the school nurse) and kidnapped Aelita. The others made it to the Factory first, but couldn't get to Aelita. Seeing the predicament they were in, Jeremie decided to try out an experiment he'd been working on. By activating a tower, he was able to give Odd powers equal to those of Yolande. This did not last, however, as Xana was able to takeover the tower Jeremie had been using. Despite having control of the tower, Xana was not able to control Odd. Instead, Xana reversed the ghost's effect, causing the ghost to drain Odd's life-force instead of empowering him. The others managed to deactivate the tower before the drain killed him.

In the episode "Franz Hopper", a man claming to be Franz Hopper showed to to assist the group in their fight against Xana. This help was short-lived, however, as the man turned out to be one of Xana's clones. Though not much good came of the experience, it was discovered that the real Franz Hopper was trapped somewhere in Lyoko.

In the next episode, "Contact", the real Franz Hopper made himself known. By activating a tower, he was able to relay a message to the group through Sissi. Xana took offense to the attempt and sent Megatanks to the towers in order to shut it down. Though Xana did succeed, Franz Hopper was able to possess Sissi long enough to convey his desire to help the group, as well as give them some data pertaining to freeing Aelita from the supercomputer.

In the final episodes of the season, "Revelation" and "The Key", the true nature of Xana's intentions were finally revealed. Thanks to Franz Hopper's decoded diary, it was revealed that Aelita was his daughter and that the two of them contained the keys to Lyoko. These keys would allow Xana to escape from the supercomputer. Xana had already taken Hopper's half when he was first imprisoned. For some reason, it failed to take Aelita's half. Instead, Xana had taken her human memories, which were the real reason why she was linked to the supercomputer.

Determined to break Aelita's link to the supercomputer, the group set out to retrieve her missing memories (called a "fragment"). Near the end, it seemed as if they had succeeded. Xana was one step ahead of them, though. The fragment they thought they found was a fake, and Xana finally succeeded in stealing Aelita's memory. Having taken the other half of the keys from her memory, Xana was able to escape from Lyoko. This left Aelita dead, for all intents and purposes, but Franz intervened to revive her, seemingly at the cost of his own life.

Because of the actions taken in the final two episodes, both Aelita and Xana are free from the supercomputer. Neither has to worry about it being shut down. Unfortunately, this means that stopping Xana has become a lot more difficult, since it is no longer limited by the supercomputer. How they will fight against the attacks can only be speculated on.

TACTICS AND ATTACK EXAMPLES

Xana can control and manipulate almost anything using a black, smoke-like "ghost" that enters our world through any nearby electrical device. The ghost is a Doppelganger -like electrical entity. Anything (or anyone) under Xana's control has the Eye displayed somewhere on it.

Inanimate objects

In most of the first season and parts of the second, Xana's attacks were focused on various inanimate objects, most of which were some type of electrical device. The few that weren't, such as Milly's teddy bear, usually proved just as versatile. The objects possessed by Xana could be modified to do things that they normally couldn't, like the school's electrical sockets emitting high-frequency sound waves capable of cracking cement. Xana is also capable of building advanced robots from spare parts and outdated equipment, as seen in "The Robots".

Xana possessed the supercomputer on two occasions, as well. The first was in "Routine", where it infected the supercoputer with a virus that disabled the materialization program. Later, in the episode "Ghost Channel", Xana imprisoned Odd , Ulrich , and Yumi in a constructed alternate world within Lyoko, made to look like their world, after a Return Trip . Xana was in the world, too, and had disguised itself as Jeremie in an attempt to delete them. Jeremie was able to engineer a way to send himself to the constructed world, allowing him to confront the fake. He managed to convince his friends that he was the real Jeremie, and Aelita was able to shatter the constructed world and free all four of them. The tower used to do this is never actually seen, and is presumably destroyed along with the constructed world. It likely regenerated sometime afterward.

Living things

In the first season, Xana only possessed living things on two occasions. The first was in "Plagued", where it possessed a rat. The rat then when on to bite other rats, spreading the possession, much like a virus. In the next episode, "Swarming Attack", Xana possessed a bee and used the same process to control an entire swarm. In both cases, some of the possessed creatures were used to blockade the Factory while others were used to attack the school.

Starting with the second season, Xana has the ability to actively possess humans; this has been its preferred mode of attack in recent episodes. When possessed, the Eye is superimposed on the person's pupils and their voice is demonically warped (apparently in the fashion of Xana's "real voice" as heard in "Ghost Channel"). The possession also gives its victims enhanced abilities, such as super-strength, the ability to pass through solid objects, and energy manipulation. The latter manifests in different ways depending on the person.

Those possessed tend to keep some of their original personality. This can be seen in the behavior of the victims. They often refer to taking orders from Xana and keep some of their more distinctive traits, such as Nicolas' rather strange laugh.

So far in the series, Xana has possessed eleven people, a dog, and a pack of wolves. The first was in "A Great Day", when Xana possessed Sissi and attempted to kill Jeremie, but was stopped when Aelita successfully deactivated the tower, leaving Sissi with no memory of her encounter. In "Mister Pück", Xana possessed Jeremie , the only member of the group not immune to his ghost, which is related to his limited exposure to Lyoko. Other possessions (in order) include Aelita , Jim , Nicolas, Peter Duncan , Rosa Petitjean (the cafeteria lady), Kiwi ( Odd's dog), Jean-Pierre Delmas (the school principal), a pack of wolves, Yolande Perraudin (the school nurse), and an unnamed nurse at the local hospital.

All those possessed by Xana have roughly the same objective: get Aelita to the Scyphozoa so it can steal her memory. A few of them have had other objectives as a matter of necessity. Xana's victims and clones also tend to target Jeremie once Aelita is in Lyoko, but seem to leave him be before this occurs. Presumably, Xana wishes not to endanger Aelita's ability to enter Lyoko, but is enthusiastic about trapping her there. In the episode "Final Mix", a possessed Jim only tied Jeremie up while Aelita was still on Earth. After he had sent her to Lyoko, he actively attempted to kill Jeremie.

Out of all the possessed people, the school nurse has been the most powerful victim so far, possessing the ability to create focused orbs of electrical energy and hurl them at her enemies. Despite the menacing appearance of these orbs, they seem to do little more than stun those they strike.

Materialization

Xana has used Materialization as a method of attack on three occasions. All three occasions proved ineffective, but were more effective in comparison to some other attacks. Xana's first attempt involved materializing a duplicate of Yumi . The other two attempts involved materializing actual monsters; Kankrelats and Krabes , respectively.

The first time Xana used materialization was in "Image Problem", where it created a duplicate of Yumi in an attempt to destroy the scanners after everyone had gone to Lyoko , which would have resulted in their deaths once they were devirtualized. This was accomplished by pulling out the large wires connected to the backs of the scanners. Though this Yumi looked like the original, it was significantly stronger than an ordinary human. As it tried to find a way to get to the scanners, it attacked both the school nurse and the principal for their meddling in "her" plans, and also tried to seduce Jeremie in an attempt to get him to arrange a mission to Lyoko. This also broke Ulrich's heart, since he was under the impression that it was the real Yumi seducing Jeremie. This plan was foiled when Aelita found the original imprisoned on Lyoko, trapped within a Guardian . There is some speculation as to whether or not the duplicate Yumi was a polymorphic clone; however, this duplicate was not created in the same manner as a polymorphic clone and did not possess the wide range of abilities that normal polymorphic clones do. It's far more likely that it was just an enhanced clone of Yumi.

In the final episode of the first season, "False Start", Xana materialized a squadron of Kankrelats (possibly through Jeremie's materialization program for Aelita) in a concerted attack on the school. The attack was beaten back with the help of Jim , who had been told of the group's secret by Jeremie in the previous episode, "Code: Earth". Jim forgot everything after a return trip was activated to wipe out any trace of the attack.

In the second season episode "A Bad Turn", Xana used the scanners to materialize three Krabes. Unlike with the Kankrelats, each one destroyed the scanner it came from as a result of its size, limiting the total number to three. With William's help, the group was able to disable two of the Crabs. Jim tried to help, too, but was less than helpful overall. The third was shut down when Aelita deactivated the Tower . A return trip was used to remove any trace of the attack.

Polymorphic clones

Xana has also created several polymorphic clones that can assume the shape of anyone they wish. The clones possess the same abilities as people possessed by Xana, but don't have any leftover personality traits. These clones have been used in four different ways so far. In the episode "Xana's Kiss", a clone attempted to divide the group by kissing various people while disguised as different members of the group. In the episode "Is Anybody Out There?", a clone took the form of a four-armed monster that could turn invisible. Coupled with damage caused to the tower-scanning program, it might have been trying to make them think it was a real ghost and not one of Xana's ghosts. The third clone appeared in the episode "Franz Hopper" and disguised itself as Franz Hopper in order to gain the group's trust and turn them against Jeremie. Finally, in the episode "Revelation", a clone disguised itself as Odd and went to Lyoko. Once there, the Polymorphic Clone could transform itself into any member of the group. All four attempts failed, of course.

Future attacks

In the episode "The Key", Xana managed to escape from the supercomputer. Without the supercomputer to limit Xana, its influence is no longer limited to just the city. It can now attack anywhere at any time it pleases. It will more than likely continue to focus on the city, though, as those who have fought with him so far are still there. It is not clear yet how the group will fight against this new threat, nor is it clear how this will affect the nature of Xana's attacks.

VOICE ACTOR INFORMATION

The secondary voice heard in anyone possessed by Xana (Xana's real voice, if you prefer) is done by David Gasman.

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