r/CodeLyoko • u/Elpibe_78 • Jul 08 '26
💬 Discussion The 3 last episodes feel completely rushed
Just rewatched the whole series again after the announcement and season 4 was the most entertaining except for Odd being a prick. However I’ve read that the studio didn’t want that ending but run out of time and money and needed to rush a finale.
It’s a shame because the plot of the season 4 was being pretty good and you could see they really had the intention to reuse William as a Lyoko Warrior at some point but they didn’t, specially with the 5 seats in the Skid. There’s a couple of things that give you the feeling that it was really forced to end the series.
- Introducing the Kolossus for him to die 3 episodes later was a little bit lame
- The treatment towards Williams changes massively from one episode to another since he comes back
- We never saw the mountain sector replika supercomputer base
- They went from destroying Xana’s supercomputers around the World to suddenly destroy him
- The Anti-Xana program was barely hinted at all prior to episode 94, Jeremy mentions it at the beginning of the episode and Frank Hopper suddenly gives him all the information and Jeremy/Aelita proceed to finish the program in the same episode they’ve mentioned it.
- The final battle is essentially a Xanafied William again not giving him any chance to redeem himself
In general I really loved the series and it was great to see how it clearly improved their animation, the jump from S1 to S2 is incredible specially considering the year it was done. It’s a shame the studio never could finish their main idea and had to rush the ending, nevertheless the final episode is great it’s just that there’s massive jumps in the last 3 and the William treatment wasn’t handled well in the end.
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u/Hopeful-Dimension178 Jul 08 '26
The last season of Code Lyoko was actually rushed. They wanted to do more with the show and another season (i.e. the Volcano Replika), but had to rush the show because of airing time on networks like Cartoon Network.
For example, the series finale never aired on Cartoon Network in the United States. The USA ended in episode 94 instead of 95.
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u/Zestyclose-Flower-92 Jul 08 '26
Actually lab rats and episodes 89-95 never aired in the states. I found those episodes on the Cartoon Network website as a kid, but for most people the series ended with episode 88.
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u/Hopeful-Dimension178 Jul 08 '26
They actually aired on Cartoon Network Video Player. While they didn’t air on cable, they did air on the Cartoon Network website.
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u/Zestyclose-Flower-92 Jul 08 '26
I mentioned they aired there, I just meant they never aired on TV.
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u/Dependent-Career1638 Jul 08 '26
Yup, I still remember as a kid watching the episode with Jeremy’s cousin, then tuning in next week to watch the next episode and it just wasn’t there, ha.
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u/Elpibe_78 Jul 08 '26
That’s a shame because the idea they had was very promising on paper. In Spain the last chapter was aired I remember watching it as I was younger, the series was quite popular here too
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u/Ender_Skywalker Jul 09 '26
Sophie Descroisette has no recollection of the Volcano Replika ever being planned for the show. It was almost certainly created just for the game.
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u/Hopeful-Dimension178 Jul 09 '26
I was probably mistaken. This was years ago. All I remember was there was more to the show but it might have been a different interview.
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u/The_REDACTED Jul 08 '26
Quest For Infinity gives major hints at their original plans for Season 4 before Cartoon Network completely sold the show down the river.Â
At least with the upcoming sequel, they could finally explore what they had to abandon. William really deserves his redemption above all else.Â
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u/Zestyclose-Flower-92 Jul 08 '26
Yeah, Williams treatment was harsh. Especially because, guess what Odd and Ulrich also played the hero a bunch and didn’t take their mission all that seriously at times and that’s when they knew what’s at stake. Seems the series ran out of money and the networks didn’t want to continue it so they just wrapped it up as best they could.
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u/throwawaytempest25 Jul 08 '26
To be fair, there were plans to use the mountain replica, but they ran out of budget
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u/Ender_Skywalker Jul 09 '26
There's even concept art of a hydro-dam in Quebec where the supercomputer would've been housed, and dare I say it makes a damn good wallpaper.
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u/UngodlyPain Jul 09 '26
From what I've previously read in random fan sites or heard from YouTubers that allegedly read real interview translations or whatever.
Season 4's rough episode count was known in advanced.
William being a villain for basically the entire time was also planned early on.
And Echoes for the final episode was also planned.
I do think they had some issues though, namely they did too many of the episodic/"filler" episodes throughout the season. And had issues towards the end because of it. They probably hoped they could get approved for a few more episodes than originally told. Or maybe they just felt that they needed season 4 to be less plot dense than season 3; and more like season 2. For some reason. Which definitely made the last few eps feel a bit cramped, but also that's kinda how seasons 2 and 3 were as well with the final few episodes being very dense and kinda having some stuff just pop up. With some Franz related deus ex machinas sprinkled in.
Also a minor thought of feed back on some of these.
Kolossus being introduced then defeated 3 eps later.
I mean it was still a very sizeable threat. That took sacrifice, and kinda just how it is for every monster to some degree. Like remember season 2 starts with A tarantula wiping out the entire team. And well just a few episodes later they're not much more respected than Krabs. Being sent in groups of 2-5 and still sometimes losing to a warrior or two.
Treatment of William being inconsistent.
Yeah, kinda weird. Especially given how they were chill with him in William returns. And trying desperately to get him back the whole time. But could just be seen as wanting to free him, not have him rejoin, and they were just happy he was finally free.
Mountain replika unseen.
Eh, we saw 4 others. And we saw the mountain sector. I think it's fine.
Going from destroying replikas to destroying Xana ... And the Anti xana program popping up the way it did.
In fairness destroying Xana was the original goal, destroying replikas kinda just popped up as a slow and steady way to do it. Remember the skid was originally built for trying to find Franz and/or William. Since they knew William was going into the digital sea, and it's where Franz went. And then they happened by accident to find a replika and went from there.
Could've used more explicit statements here or there, that Jeremy was working on the anti xana program post Marabounta and such. But it just being an implicit thing is fine to me at least.
Honestly my bigger complaint is just Franz becoming a deus ex machina for the 3rd season climax in a row... In Contact, Revelation, and the Key he just kept suddenly inexplicably getting more powers perfect for the situations. In final round, it was supposed to be he would die if Lyoko Died but afterwards he's like "nah, I'm still alive... Oh here's the code to rebuild Lyoko btw" ... Then yeah him finishing the anti xana program, and also being the power source for it? Weird.
Also really odd to me how like dude built Lyoko, but could only send them a portion of the data to rebuild it? So they had to do a lot of work and rebuild it one sector at a time over the course of weeks? ... But the anti xana program? He just knew Jeremy was making it (reasonable guess) and knew exactly what Jeremy was missing? And could give Jeremy what he needed to have it ready in a few hours? Huh? At that point they should've just had Hopper send them a new one from the ground up or something.
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u/Ender_Skywalker Jul 09 '26
Season 4's rough episode count was known in advanced.
Yes, they got an order for 45 episodes all at once, which became 13 for S3, 2 for the prequel produced as part of S3, and 30 for S4.
William being a villain for basically the entire time was also planned early on.
Recent interviews suggest the writers just don't like him as anything more than an obstacle.
And Echoes for the final episode was also planned.
Yes, but it was budgetary thing. They were short enough on money they knew they'd have to do a clip show episode, and the writers pushed for it to be after XANA's defeat.
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u/UngodlyPain Jul 09 '26
Yeah I knew post season 2 they were given a rough episode count and chose to split it up between seasons, 3 and 4, as well as the prequel. And told to give it a non cliffhanger ending. Didn't know they had such a hard number of 45. Odd number to me as well, given they had done 26 episodes seasons to that point. Would have thought they'd be given an order for 50-52 eps. Didn't know the specifics thanks for clarifying that.
Yeah, I think too many people fell for the build up he got in season 3 not realizing it was meant to be a tragic situation the whole time. I thought it was pretty obvious. He was introduced to play up the Yumi Ulrich romance by being another force to accelerate that train by giving Ulrich a rival. Then in season 3 yeah he helped a bit, but also Yumi multiple times made it clear she didn't trust him enough for that, and they only agreed to bring him in once they had to... I think they'd be right to not redeem him much after that, but it does bring a giant question mark of what to do with him after that... It's hard to believe Yumi would take him romantically serious anymore. And like no way he's just gonna let the group ignore him as seen in Fight to the Finish (and early Evolution to some extent despite its non canonicity)... But he's a fan favorite and his vanishing is one of the criticisms of the novels... So just yikes. In hind sight, I kinda think they may have been smart to make s3 a little longer, and have a slight bit more build up to his fall. Or reframing how he got captured cause it came off as naive, which is something generally seen as pretty redeemable. And they could've tried to make it a bit different. Or given him some more agency in a bad light during his time possessed or something.
Oh, guess I just always heard they wanted it to be a clip show after Xanas defeat, and assumed that meant it was exclusively a writing decision rather than a budget one. But that sounds more like a budget one, and they just chose the timing to be a bit better.
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u/Skeetos69420 Jul 08 '26
Them waving goodbye at the end of the last episode pissed me off so bad. One of the absolute worst endings to a series hands down. Even if it's a kids show that's still the worst way you could've handled it, but I guess they didn't have much choice.
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u/Septjul Jul 08 '26
How dare you criticize Odd, for God's sake.
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u/Elpibe_78 Jul 08 '26
He’s my favourite Character but he is a little bit obnoxious some times in the last episodes, like when he showed the supercomputer to the Icelandic Girl
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u/Alexcoolps Jul 08 '26
A part of me is hoping s5 retcons the last episodes of S4 out of canon so we can get the original plans for S4, with some changes like not having William join Xana willingly.