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Aelita Schaeffer 
|  |  | "Your dad created Lyoko? (...) Franz Hopper, a computer genius...turned high school science teacher and hides a quantic supercomputer. It's not rocket science. But then...why did he disappear overnight? He chose his research over his daughter? Did he run out on you?"
#16 Confusion |
Aelita is the daughter of Franz Hopper (Waldo Schaeffer) and Anthea Hopper. Central character of Code Lyoko like in Code Lyoko Evolution, she can be considered in a certain way like the hero of this saga, although it is evident that no one from the group is superfluous.
During the first conflict against XANA in Code Lyoko, Aelita went through a number of stages, from the creature prisoner in the virtual world, to Odd's cousin rematerialized by Jeremy, before completely regaining her memory about her past.
Aelita remembers that her mother, Anthea Hopper, disappeared when she was young. Her father, Franz Hopper, ran away with her to Lyoko to escape a secret government project in which he took part. On Lyoko, one of his programs, the artificial intelligence XANA, turned against him. With the help of the heroes, Franz Hopper fought it. But he died at the same time as it.
Aelita is now an orphan living with a fake identity at Kadic. Her pink hair is an atypical physical characteristic. Except that, she's absolutely normal. She is a pretty good student.
About her double life, Aelita is the most versatile character. Very gifted in computers, she can take the role of operator. She helps Jeremy to code the important programs like the Skidbladnir.
Nevertheless, she is also a fighter and a full-time Lyoko Warrior once virtualized. Her status as Franz Hopper's daughter makes her able to deactivate the towers, which makes her an essential character. | | |
| | "I don't want to get her hopes up. (...) Tell the others. But not a word to Aelita."
#23 Jeremy's Blues |  |
Despite the tragic outcome of the first war against XANA with the death of her father, Aelita seems to regain her self-control and become, months after, a smiling young girl surrounded by her friends Odd, Ulrich, Yumi and especially Jeremy. We discover her teasing her blond guy during Jim's CyberSport class (episode 1 “XANA 2.0”).
However, behind the smile, Aelita's worry never really disappeared. That's why she is the first one to sound alarm bells about the return of XANA. We also remark that Aelita never really said goodbye, because she insists to be virtualized on Lyoko, despite a visible disappearance of XANA.
While the heroes' investigation progresses, Aelita is greatly tested. In fact, while she was in the Cortex, searching to learn more about the owner of the Supercomputer where XANA found refuge, her past violently comes back to hit her right in the face: she discovers a picture of her father (episode 2 “The Cortex”). She suffers with all the uncertainties that this discovery raises. Does her father have something to do with XANA's return? What doesn't she know? These doubts reach their height during episode 6 “Suspicion”. The discovery of the video revealing Tyron's treachery (episode 7 “Countdown”) clears Franz Hopper and reassures Aelita.
Nevertheless, she has a second shock in episode 18 “Resolve” during which the heroes learn that Anthea is still alive and beside Tyron. Overwhelmed with doubts, Aelita tries to block it out and wants to destroy the Cortex (only way of communicating with her mother) to avoid facing the reality. Finally, she decides to investigate to learn more about this.
All these successive events leave Aelita tested and hypersensitive. Consequently, we sometimes find her really aggressive, even with Jeremy (episode 11 “Rendezvous”). She is also less open-minded than before towards Odd's rude jokes (episode 4 “Lady Einstein”). Yet, she recovers.
The young pinkette also frequently has her mind elsewhere. She feels very down because of all these questions and she feels the need to talk with her father on Lyoko. These feelings are reinforced by the fact that Jeremy, very busy with the conception of the virus, works a lot with Laura and has little time to take care of her. Aelita consequently and voluntarily draws back to look for her mother on the Web (episode 19 “The Trap”). Jeremy also tries to take care of her when he can (episode 23 “Jeremy's Blues”).
Despite these extreme downs, Aelita is still the girl we've known: an extremely determined girl. She has decided to defeat XANA once again at all costs. She even shows self-denial at the ultimate moment. When Tyron blackmails her and orders her to cancel the destruction of the Cortex, at the risk of never seeing her mother again, Aelita doesn't yield. She knows that her mother would have preferred to see XANA destroyed.
On Earth, Aelita has an exceptional composure. She never gets confused when faced with the unexpected and regularly takes problems in her stride. We remark in particular that she doesn't remain passive in front of adults. In quick succession she deals with Laura's father, undesired guest in the factory (episode 12 “Chaos at Kadic”), and even Graven, Tyron's employee who fusses to manipulate Laura (episode 17 “A Bright Career Ahead”).
In terms of relations with the others, Aelita has a well-denoted new enemy: Laura. Aelita shows herself to be very critical with the team's newcomer. Not only because the latter shows a relatively unbearable character... but also because she encroaches on Aelita's territory by showing too much interest in Jeremy and the Supercomputer. Aelita shows some clear jealousy towards Laura.
The two girls begin a skill war and the stormy sparring matches become par from the course. Yet Aelita thanks Laura once when the young gifted girl saves the day (episode 11 “Rendezvous”). In conflict with Laura. Very aggressive. Reinforced girl compared with the little fragile thing she was before.
As for the rest of the group, the relations are fairly set. Aelita is on good terms with everybody. The resumption of the cyber-adventure brings her once again closer to Jeremy, with whom she is in love, as she makes him understand at many times, in particular during her touching tirade of episode 18 “Resolve” (see quote at the beginning of the frame). Nevertheless, the relationship between blondie and pinkie remains very platonic.
Aelita develops a feminine, almost brotherly complicity with Yumi. She is the only one with whom she openly talks about her love life (episode 26 “The Final Mission”) and Yumi is here to cheer her up when she doesn't feel right, even if it means doing a girl's day out (episode 21 “Imposters”).
If she has less contact with Ulrich and Odd, we remark in contrast that Aelita stays neutral with William, at the beginning of the conflict. She doesn't show a frank hostility at the thought of him coming back into the group. By the way, William is often here to protect her, even save her day on Lyoko (episodes 2, 6...).
To conclude, Aelita is the character who may have evolved the most between Code Lyoko and Code Lyoko Evolution. Though she was a rather shy and reserved girl, appearing as fragile to everybody, we find her with the same determination as in Code Lyoko Evolution...with, in addition, a self-assurance, and a much more spicy outspokenness than beforehand. | | |
| |  | "How weird. It's as if Aelita made it open."
"Maybe this door was programmed by my father?"
#06 Suspicion |  |
Aelita is a full Lyoko Warrior.
Her distinctive characteristic is that she doesn't have physical weapon at her disposal and that she is the only one in such a case. Yet, she doesn't get penalized because her powers are overwhelming enough to fight.
The main one of these powers is the energy field. It is an energy field with a charming pink color. All the more interesting is that it has many uses. The first use and the most widespread: Aelita generates a spherical force field in her hand (having two hands, she can generate two at the same time) and sends it flying towards the enemies. More than satisfying power because it destroys most of the monsters and Ninjas in one shot. It is a simple shot, fast, very precise and which can cover long distances. Its main flaw is that Aelita can't easily shoot in bursts like Odd does with his laser arrows.
By exploding two energy fields at ground level, Aelita blinds two Ninjas and takes the opportunity to conceal herself (episode 20 “Espionage”).
By joining her two hands and focusing, Aelita can also generate an energy field which takes the shape of a vast screen she uses as a shield. This shield is renowned for being unbreakable. Even the powerful shots of the Blok Wall (episode 7 “Countdown”) or the incessant shots from an army of Krabs (episode 4 “Lady Einstein”) didn't manage to overcome it. However, Aelita is most of the time exhausted by its use. In episode 7, Ulrich positions himself behind Aelita to help the young girl hold her position while maintaining the energy field. Nevertheless, fatigue got the better of the shield.
Finally, by launching the shield forwards, Aelita revealed the position of an invisible Tarantula (episode 5 “Rivalry”).
Aelita also has a pair of wings, which she spreads by touching her bracelet. So Aelita can fly. She doesn't have an appointed vehicle for that reason. Her wings are useful from many points of view. They allow Aelita to move in more ways than any other Lyoko Warrior can. She is fast and can dodge shots and get close to the enemies very fast. She can reach high platforms...and above all, she can fly without fear above the Digital Sea to eventually save one of her friends from a deathly fall (episode 23 “Jeremy's Blues”). Yet, if she is hit during flying, she generally also falls. Let's note that Aelita can, thanks to her wings, move through the Cortex, without Megapod, and not have to worry about as many dangers as her companions.
Aelita's ability to fly is also a significant asset when she has to reach a tower quickly.
Nevertheless, the Aelita's martial ability remains mitigated. The young girl came through well in a general way against the Ninjas, who are annihilated from a distance by her energy fields. Yet, she had more difficulties against XANA's monsters which often devirtualized her in one shot. The fact that she has no physical contact weapon makes her extremely vulnerable when a monster comes too close to her. However, Aelita is more focused and wise than her male counterparts of the virtual world. Her martial result is in average.
Distinctive characteristic, Aelita is the usual pilot of the Skidbladnir. She manipulates it through the Network, sometimes taking part in fights, even if it means facing the monsters in the Network alone, like on Lyoko (episode 25 “Disaster”).
Finally, the most important point to pick up about Aelita in the virtual world is her special status. As the daughter of Franz Hopper, Aelita got special abilities. She is considered as “The Guardian of Lyoko”. So she can enter all the Towers on Lyoko and type the Code Lyoko in cases of XANA's attacks, which will have the effect of removing the Tower from XANA's control and stopping the attack on Earth.
Since XANA injected the heroes with source codes and that Ulrich, Odd and Yumi can also deactivate the Towers (episode 3 “Spectromania”), Aelita's role became less dominant. However, Aelita will continue to be able to deactivate the Towers, even if she lost all her codes.
Aelita also has other abilities linked to her status. She has a sort of instinct on the Virtual World. This is how she “senses” the fact that her friends can deactivate the Towers. She also empathetic with the virtual world when she wishes to communicate with her father. Finally, as the Cortex was inspired by Lyoko, Aelita also has prerogative there. She can for example, alone, engage the door of the iris to get into the Dome, which makes her necessary to the ultimate mission of infecting the Cortex with their virus.
Last point, Aelita is the only virtualized person to be competent in computing. So most of the time she's the one who has to work directly in the virtual world, on the virus, on the Cortex interface, or other... | | |
| |  | "Mummy... I saw her in the Cortex. It seems impossible, but it's true. She's alive! Daddy...I swear to you...I won't stop until I find her... Never..."
#19 The Trap |
The history of Jeremy and Aelita is in a way Code Lyoko Evolution's history. So it is tenuous to summarize it. For more information, the simplest way is to consult the Story of Code Lyoko Evolution page.
After losing her father during the first conflict against XANA, Aelita becomes an orphan, registered at Kadic Academy with a fake identity. Luckily, she is surrounded by her friends. Unfortunately, the things don't stay simple for her. Several months after their expected victory against XANA, unusual events happen at Kadic Academy. On the screen of a computer going haywire, Aelita sees unusual and familiar lines of code. While the events multiply, Aelita convinces her friends to turn on the Supercomputer again to check if XANA really kicked the bucket. Forcing Jeremy's hand, she is virtualized with Odd into Sector 5 and is faced with an attack from XANA. Her old enemy is back (episode 1 “XANA 2.0”).
Jeremy discovered that XANA survived by inserting source codes in Aelita, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi. These codes have the advantage of allowing her friends to deactivate the Towers. However, XANA sends specters to pursue the heroes and get the codes back. If it recovers them all, it would reach 100% of its previous power and conquer the Network again (episode 3 “Spectromania”).
The again start their never-ending cycle of Tower deactivations to make the specters disappear. However, XANA always manages to steal some codes. Aelita copes well because she's the one who dodges the specters the best...
Until the moment when XANA traps her. It sends the young girl an email about her parents. Using a specter of her disappeared mother, Anthea Hopper, it dupes the vigilance of the young girl and takes a lot of codes from her (episode 11 “Rendezvous”).
But the heroes don't stay passive. Aelita helps Jeremy to reprogram the virtual submarine, the Skidbladnir. Following XANA's trail, the Lyoko Warriors discover a new virtual world: the Cortex. Searching in it, Aelita discovers amazed a picture of her father (episode 2 “The Cortex”). After many investigations and data theft from the Cortex interface (episodes 6 “Suspicion” and 7 “Countdown”), Aelita learns that the Supercomputer generating the Cortex has been built by an old associate of her father: professor Tyron. The man betrayed Hopper by stealing the plans of his Supercomputer. Since then, he disappeared, on the 25th of June 2003. He built the Cortex, using Hopper's work, then developing it in his way.
The heroes don't have any particular grievances against Tyron. However, as long as XANA is prisoner in his Supercomputer, the best way to get rid of that moving danger, is to destroy the machine and Tyron's Virtual World.
So Jeremy and Aelita work on the conception of a virus. Nevertheless, their abilities aren't enough, because Tyron developed his Supercomputer (episode 8 “Virus”). Jeremy would like to ask for help from Laura, the new genius from their class. It is the beginning of a long enmity between Aelita and the blonde girl. Aelita doesn't stand to see the young girl burst into the Lyoko-adventure. Furthermore, the intellectual complicity she shares with Jeremy and her haughty disposition get on Aelita's nerves. In addition, Laura makes some big mistakes that Aelita is forced to manage. She brings her father to the factory in episode 12 “Chaos at Kadic”, is manipulated by one of Tyron's employees (episode 17 “A Bright Career Ahead”) and she allows herself to search through Aelita's past and to make scathing remarks about her late father (episode 16 “Confusion”).
While XANA increases in power and Jeremy and Laura's virus is completed, Aelita is urged to finish with the Cortex and everything. The situation is urgent because Tyron reveals to be as dreaded an opponent as XANA. He creates virtual humanoids, the Ninjas, to prevent the heroes from sneaking around on the Cortex interface. These formidable fighters give the heroes a hard time.
Worst still, Tyron tries to locate them. He sends a Ninja to Lyoko to place a transmitter (episode 14 “Stowaway”). The heroes spot and evacuate the beacon just in time before being spotted.
Finally, during a particular mission, the heroes are faced with confrontation between Tyron and XANA on the Cortex. They realize that Tyron isn't aware of the presence of multi-agent program in his machine. Jeremy sends Yumi and Aelita as emissaries to talk with Tyron in the room at the Core of the Cortex. The professor doesn't want to know anything about it and tries to virtualize the two young girls forever.
All of this doesn't seem to have any importance: Jeremy and Laura complete their virus and send their comrades in arms to launch it (episode 18 “Resolve”). That sparks a new dramatic turn of events for Aelita. At the moment when she was going to activate the virus in the Cortex interface, she sees her mother on the webcams that spy on Tyron's complex. So Anthea Hopper is still alive... and beside Tyron...
After a short time of refusing, Aelita gives up the idea of launching the virus. Her friends and her make a pact. As long as XANA doesn't reach 95% of its power, Aelita can try to find her mother. If the artificial intelligence reaches the fateful threshold, they will launch the virus which will destroy the Supercomputer and with it, the only way of communication between Aelita and her mother.
Aelita tries to find her mother with the help of social networks. Unsuccessfully (episodes 19 “The Trap” and 21 “False Pretences”). Finally, at the end of a risky mission in the Cortex, she manages to get in touch with Anthea Hopper. Her mother thought she was dead and Aelita only has a few moments to prove the opposite. Anthea seems astonished but Tyron cuts the conversation and sends the Ninjas to devirtualize Aelita (episode 20 “Espionage”).
Alas, the events speed up. After a new untrustworthy action, Laura is definitively expelled from the group, for putting William in danger by trying to make him destroy the Cortex during a solo mission on Lyoko (episode 22 “Mutiny!”). A Return to the Past polished by Jeremy erases her memory.
Tyron almost locates them once again when he traps them in a time loop on the Cortex (episode 24 “Time Warp”)... And above all, after many attacks and one which particularly drains the heroes' codes (episode 25 “Disaster”), XANA reaches the fateful threshold of 95% of its power. Supported by her friends but refusing to put mankind's fate in danger any longer, Aelita make the decision to go and activate the virus in the Cortex.
Unfortunately, after a call from an amnesic Laura and in search of answers, Tyron ends up arriving at Kadic. Aelita learns that her mother has been married to for 5 years, making Tyron Aelita's legal guardian. The man shows her a message from Anthea, urging Aelita to go with Tyron so they can be reunited again. After this message, Tyron talks to Aelita in a much less accommodating tone. He blackmails her: give up the destruction of the Cortex, or never see her mother again. Aelita refuses the blackmail, slips away from Tyron and meets her friends at the factory for the ultimate journey into the Cortex.
Feeling something coming, Tyron orders the shutdown of his Supercomputer. Aelita has the time to launch the virus in the Cortex... but because of the shutdown, it doesn't activate. So the final situation is on stand-by. XANA is asleep in Tyron's switched-off Supercomputer. If the professor switches it on again, the virus will be engaged and will destroy the machine... However, nothing says that Tyron won't develop an antivirus to counter the maneuver.
For Aelita, this outcome is still a more abrupt end. Tyron went back to Switzerland...but as Aelita's legal guardian, there are chances that he'll make a new attempt. Furthermore, the relationship between him and Anthea remains ambiguous. Does Aelita's mother know about how he tried to blackmail her daughter? Is she a prisoner? Manipulated? Or totally siding with the ex-associate of her ex-husband?
One thing is sure, while Aelita joins her friends to shut their own Supercomputer down once again, the path she still has to cover to find her mother will be long. But she can count on all her friends and particularly on her Jeremy. | | |
| |  | The actress portraying and dubbing Aelita Schaeffer in Code Lyoko Evolution is Léonie Berthonnaud. Click on the picture to reach her page! |
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