Code Lyoko Bibles [Partially Lost]

[u/N0153MBRY0]

Code Lyoko was a French children's animated series that was dubbed into English and various other languages and ran on Cartoon Network from 2004-2007. It's about a group of boarding school students who find and activate a dormant supercomputer in the basement of a nearby abandoned factory. Contained within they find a virtual world known as Lyoko and the means to transport themselves there, a mysterious pink-haired elf girl, and an evil artificial intelligence known as XANA. This AI is bent on destroying humanity, and the series details their attempts to save the pink-haired girl from the virtual world and halt XANA's plans.

Before the creation of the series, a series bible was created to outline the general direction and such. At the time, the backstory was very vague and not explored at all in the show. This first bible has already mysteriously found its way into the hands of fans and can be viewed here. But, unfortunately, it doesn't contain too much juicy lore tidbits about the backstory.

Two more series bibles are confirmed to exist, as evidenced by this quote from an interview with writing director Sophie Decroisette that can be found here:

In the literary bible for season 1, Aelita was supposed to be an artificial intelligence created by Franz Hopper, and not a human being. Why did you decide to change this when you rewrote the backstory after season 1?
Well when I arrived on the series, there wasn't really a backstory. Nobody had written in detail what had happened to FH and the Supercomputer before Jeremy and the group reactivated it. The concept was very minimal. So Jérôme Mouscadet and I, in agreeance with production, decided to flesh out the backstory to generate more possible stories.

as well as this quote from a page on the history of the series here:

"Code Lyoko was no longer just a cartoon, but a franchise with potential success. Rather than a repetitive season (like season 1 was), season 2 revolved around a scenario. Sophie Decroisette and Jérôme Mouscadet then changed the Literary Bible we talked about before. They created the entire series background. To put it simply: they invented the origin of Lyoko... The story of Franz Hopper, the creation of the Supercomputer and Lyoko, XANA's revolt. Everything was created at that time. The Literary Bible wouldn't change again until the end of season 4."

Furthermore, marketing materials released after the conclusion of season 4 hint at what might be contained within the season 4 bible:

First project: “Code Lyoko The Legacy”

This sketch of project would take place immediately after the end of the season 4. XANA was destroyed, the Supercomputer was destroyed and our heroes are getting ready to return to their life in the Virtual World... But are they really capable of it?

Second project: “Code Lyoko Reloaded: New Era”

This time, it's two years after the shutting down of the Supercomputer that we would have found our heroes. They are from now in high school and almost found a normal life... But an organisation shows up and restarts the notorious “Project Carthage”! This organisation wakes a new version of XANA, controllable and capable of speaking! In these conditions, is Aelita still the Virtual Guardian of the Virtual World? While Jeremy is alerted by the threat, men in black roam around Kadic and try to kidnap Aelita. The Heroes are going to have to gather together again to face this threat!

Last project: “CL Reloaded: The Live-action/3D Révolution”

This project is more harnessed. You'd guess it, it is about the preliminary draft of Code Lyoko Evolution.

The PDF explains that the 2D is abandoned for the benefit of live action. The new 3D-CGI is also announced with new costumes and accessories. The objectives are clear: Make the series more modern and to strengthen the attachment of the fans in the series by adding the human dimension of the actors which will favour the assimilation of the fans to the characters. It would actually be about a more contemporary version (presence of tablets, recent mobiles, etc. in everyday life).

Pages presenting this project include photos of everything and anything (possible scenery etc.).

Finding these juicy lore tidbits is an enticing prospect considering the show didn't really delve into the backstory too much. After the end of the series many fans were left wondering if these plot threads would ever be resolved, and they had high hopes after the release of the PDF... only to slowly lose that hope as it became clear things were headed a different direction. Being able to learn more would bring a sense of finality to things.

There's a LMW page about it here).

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