"Mystery girl,
from another world.
She wanted happiness
and not a lot of stress!
Strength that is true,
a love affair for you..." #2 Seeing is Believing
Names:
- Maya (nickname given by Jeremy, during their first meeting, when Aelita didn't know her real name)
- Aelita
Last names:
- Lyoko when Yumi introduces her to her parents as a Japanese penpal.
- Stones in day-to-day life at school; where she is supposed to be Odd's Canadian (or occasionally Dutch) cousin. This name is inspired by the famous rock band, the “Rolling Stones”.
- Hopper. It's the name we usually give to her, because it would come from her father, according to international tradition. Yet we learn, in episode 90 “Wrong Exposure”, that Hopper is her mother's name, that is an assumed name taken after by Aelita and her father to confuse their trackers. So her real last name is:
- Schaeffer. But it's not the most used name in the series.
Nicknames:
Artificial Intelligence (XANA Awakens part 1)
Maya (Reference to My IA [= Intelligence Artificielle/Artificial Intelligence])
Princess
Height: 1.43m (4'8)
Weight: 35kg (77.1lbs)
Age at the start of the series:
- Her real age is higher than 20 (24 is assumed).
- Her physical age is 13.
- Her official age is 13.
Objects linked to the character:
Her stuff is rather reduced, because Aelita had no things when she was materialized by Jeremy.
Mister Pück is a plush toy that represents a goblin. It belonged to Aelita during her childhood; her parents gave it to her. Later, Franz hides in it the key to the train station locker that contains his diary. The heroes will discover it in the Hermitage thanks to Aelita's visions (episode 31 “Mister Pück”). The young girl will know she is attached to the soft toy even before recovering her memories. Finding this plush toy is a central event of season 2.
Like each of the other heroes, Aelita has a phone. It is pink; so it matches her hair. Jeremy gave it to her at the end of episode 27 “New Order”.
XANA's necklace is a quite common jewel. XANA had it sent to Aelita, to control her thanks to a microchip that was inside (episode 32 “St Valentine's Day”).
Curiously we discover that there is a computer in Aelita's room, through which XANA contacts her in episode 82 “Distant Memory” using Franz Hopper's identity. We don't know how Aelita could buy it. Maybe her friends misappropriated funds from what their parents send to them...
The missing part is all of Aelita's memories that she has lost following the forced shutdown of the Supercomputer by Franz Hopper! XANA has taken possession of this part and it will create a decoy to lure the heroes into a trap in Carthage.
Aelita gets back this missing link in episode 52, when we also learn of its existence.
Thanks to her talent for mixing, Aelita creates a CD in episode 68 “Opening Act”. This CD permits her to be selected for the opening act of Subdigitals concert (episode 89 “Music To Soothe the Savage Beast”).
Other:
When she arrives on Earth Aelita doesn't know a lot of things that every teenager knows, despite her intelligence! As a consequence, in some episodes Aelita the meaning of simple terms like "bowling" (episode 50 « Contact »).
When she comes back to Earth, Aelita discovers lots of feelings she had forgotten... She especially discovers a passion for music and mixing (episode 33 “Final Mix”). It's the only passion we know but we can suppose that she has discovered other passions while on Earth...
Presentation of the character's outfits
School
"And besides, I really like history. But you've got to admit, you fight a lot here, there are wars all the time!"
#26 False Start
On Lyoko, Aelita had an indefinite memory, because it was recorded in the Supercomputer (powerful enough to record five human memories at the same time, remember)! Consequently, she had a large knowledge when she arrived on Earth, which permitted her to not be lost...and even to excel in some fields.
She equals Jeremy's skills in computing and in mathematics. And she had no difficulty in compensating her backwardness in the other disciplines like history, which she finds fascinating (episode 26 “False Start”).
So she manages to have 95.2 as average mark at the year's end. That's less than Jeremy, but it's just as good!
We can suppose that she is appreciated by teachers because of her discretion, her curiosity and her excellence. She most often teams up with Jeremy for excursions (episode 27 “New Order”) or history presentations (episode 59 “The Secret”).
Family
"Schaeffer is my real name! When we moved to the Hermitage my father wanted to make a brand new start. Franz was his middle name, Hopper's my mother's maiden name!"
#90 Wrong Exposure
We don't know what became of her mother. She was probably kidnapped by "men in black", as episode 82 “Distant Memory” suggests. Yet her fate is still unknown at the series' end.
Her father Franz Hopper (or more accurately Waldo Schaeffer) was somewhere on Lyoko in an abstract form. When the world was destroyed, he found shelter on the World Wide Web and became a big luminous ball. He only appeared to save his daughter from XANA's claws (episode 82) or to help the heroes. See his page for more information.
Waldo is the only character in the series who dies and doesn't rise from the dead, even if a lot of fans find theories that make the savant's survival possible.
Powers, abilities
"The Krabes have broken through the sand wall!"
#35 The Chips Are Down
Aelita suffers from a disadvantage: she can't be materialized when she is devirtualized. In this way every trip can kill her on Lyoko. When Jeremy finds the codes for materialization's, thanks to Code Earth, she can be materialized from a Tower. It's only when Franz will give back to her, her missing part that Aelita will be able to be materialized normally. The first time takes places in episode 53 “Straight to Heart”.
Aelita's strength particularly takes after her specific talents that she has on Lyoko.
- Her first talent is her power of synthesis! Often called Creativity, the name synthesis is rather contradictory! Indeed, though Aelita often uses it to create various objects, she can also use it to make things disappear!
This process allows her to act on the virtual data of Lyoko, and to to change the topography of a Sector! Sometimes we underestimate its importance but uses can be numerous! We can't list everything but she can for example: isolate herself from monsters by creating obstacles, link a footbridge to another to reach a Tower or escape from danger, destroy monsters by making the ground under their legs disappear...
Aelita has shown she is capable of more advanced strategies! She can for instance create a decoy of herself to deceive monsters (episode 21 “Zero Gravity Zone”) and William (episode 86 “Canine Conundrum”) or create banisters (to use it with a vehicle like in episode 39 “A Bad Turn” or to send an imprudent Megatank into the Digital Sea like in episode 56 “False Lead”). Consequently this power holds immeasurable faculties and must be used, even if it is often of use to just buy time!
We have to underline that Aelita's creations (or deletions) are always short-lived and are deleted sooner or later! Monsters can destroy them if they fire lasers at them!
We can notice that this power's utilization is connected to the environment! Indeed, formed elements perfectly place themselves in the Sector where they are created: sand barrier in the Desert, ice wall in the Ice Sector, overturned trunk in the Forest or rock in the Mountains. Or, Aelita simply has a very pronounced artistic taste!
Initially, Jeremy said that using this power takes off life points. Now, it doesn't seem true anymore!
This power is often used to counter XANA's twisted actions! What else to say? Except that this ability is invoked or at least accompanied by a soft song chanted by Aelita...
- Aelita can also localise towers, even if they are invisible (episode 40 “Attack of the Zombies”), or hidden. It's like a sixth sense or a double sight.
- Her new ability, for the fans' pleasure, is her energy fields. This power has allowed her to become a full combatant. She can generate it from her palms by concentrating. It's hard to know what contact with an energy field causees, except that it isn't painless... Aelita uses this ability to fight against monsters that used to make her flee when she was defenseless! In spite of a reserved beginning, Aelita seems to be comfortable with her power now! Showing her creativity again, she uses it to protect her from laser fire. In episode 56 “False Lead” she has been able to create a point of contact between two energy spheres to block powerful elliptic fire from a Megatank. Even Ulrich and his virtual saber can't do this! This power is also full of promises. It is very powerful: it often accomplishes one-shot kills without touching XANA's eye. The Lyoko Warriors seem to resist better than monsters. William takes several shots in episode 92 “Cold Sweat”. But Aelita can also increases her power, as she does in episode 70 “Skidbladnir” when she defeats William with a very big and imposing energy field.
- When Jeremy develops the new outfits, Aelita now can spread retractable wings that she creates thanks to the starry bracelet she wears on her wrist. She can also fly very fast or stay in the air. This power is very useful because she can reach towers more easily, avoid falling into the Digital Sea, or quickly cover great distances without vehicles, fighting against terrestrial or aerial monsters.
- And to keep the best for last: Aelita's most important ability! It's the essence of her status as Lyoko's Guardian: her ability to govern the virtual world! We often talk about the Code Lyoko, but there is also her ability to use the towers' and Carthage's interfaces. Aelita has a very particular status in Lyoko and her greater power is still her ability to deactivate activated towers, even on Replikas. She can also enter another code, a darker and more harmful code called Code XANA. This code causes the immediate destruction of a Sector, if we enter it in a Way Tower...
We can mention that Aelita can also act on Earth's networks, as XANA does.
If you combine all these factors with Aelita's knowledge about the virtual world, its paths, its monsters, you would understand why Aelita had been able to survive on this hostile world, even without her energy fields, and why today she is "a perfect Lyoko Warrior"!
Vehicle, weapons and equipment
"Take my fan! Hurry!"
#40 Attack of the Zombies
Aelita has no weapon for now, but her energy fields plenty compensate. In episode 40, she uses one of Yumi's fans, and when she is XANAfied in episode 90 “Wrong Exposure”, she uses one of Ulrich's sabers as well or even better than he does. Her equipment is limited to a pink earring she wears on her left ear, "rosily" matching her clothing! We can mention that her memory contains the Keys to Lyoko, even if it's not really equipment!
Aelita hasn't got her own vehicle! We often say that she shares the Overwing with Yumi; but Aelita feels comfortable on all vehicles and she isn't just good at being a passenger, judging by her performances with the Overboard in episode 39 “A Bad Turn”! She often uses the Overbike too. Nevertheless having no personal vehicle is not important anymore, when she gets her wings in episode 67 “Double Take”.
On the Network, Aelita pilots the Skidbladnir.
Role in the series
"You possess the Keys to Lyoko, Aelita. XANA must never get his hands on them. Do you understand?!"
#57 Aelita
Aelita has a very important role in the series. Indeed the series' plot is directly connected to her story! No evolution of suspense without Aelita! From the beginning Aelita has caused the problem: world's safety or Aelita? Jeremy was in love with her, so it was decided that the Supercomputer
won't be unplugged before Jeremy finds the key to materialization! It's the first part of the story! (XANA Awakens)
On Lyoko everything depends on Aelita! Indeed, she is the only person who can deactivate towers and a devirtualization will be fatal for her! So she must be protected by Lyoko Warriors whatever the price, even if it means sacrificing themselves! Everything depends on her. Lyoko Warriors have to keep an eye on her at all times! She can't fight, but she can use her Creativity power to help the heroes!
On a more human level, Aelita is the driving force behind Jeremy's motor! She is the purpose of his great undertakings.
That won't change in season 2, although Aelita has been materialized! Now they had to find an antivirus (so the heroes thought), but towers still had to be deactivated, so Aelita had to reach them. Moreover it was still imperative to keep her undercover, and even more so with the Scyphozoa's appearance (episode 28 “Uncharted Territory”)...
The series undergoes a very big change when XANA steals Aelita's memory, before Franz Hopper gives it back to her...
Aelita becomes a fighter! Consequently, her role fundamentally changes! She still has to enter the Code Lyoko, but she can actively take part in monsters' extermination in front of towers or in the defense of the Core of Lyoko.
But XANA will continue to harass Aelita; it'll send the Scyphozoa, that must this time infect Aelita so that XANA can control her to destroy Surface Sectors with the Code XANA. After Lyoko's destruction and rebuilding, Aelita's role is still major. She helps Jeremy to manipulate the Supercomputer and to program (Lyoko's recreation in episode 66 “William Returns” and the programming of the Skid hangar in episode 76 “The Lake”). On Lyoko she has to fight against William who wants to make her fall into the Digital Sea. When the war takes place on the Web, Aelita is just like her brothers-in-arms. Although she just pilots the Skid and doesn't fight in the Navskid, she completely takes part in the confrontations when she is on Replikas. When it's to do with tower defense or Supercomputer destruction, Aelita is still very efficient. She sometimes has to use her old cap and deactivate towers on a Replika to stop an attack on Earth.
No matter the season or the context, Aelita's importance always prevails over the others'.
On Lyoko, everything revolves around Aelita, on Earth, it's partially different! It often happened that XANA tries by every possible means to send Aelita to Lyoko by force, because it wants her memory, the Code XANA or Waldo (see the Story section to better understand)! It doesn't change the fact that on Earth, Aelita is temperamentally unsuited to counter XANA's attacks! On one hand, her place is on Lyoko to deactivate towers, and on the other hand she hasn't a physical condition to confront a XANAfied person or anything controlled by XANA. So going to Lyoko is Aelita's role. She is rarely involved in attacks on Earth without a link to going to Lyoko.
To conclude, we can notice that, like her nature, Aelita's role underwent important modifications. The puny and timorous little girl from the beginning is very different to the battle-hardened combatant who witnesses her father's death.
Character and behaviour
"Are you ready for one last run?"
#13 Just in Time
There is so much to say about Aelita!
Like her story, Aelita's nature is the result of a long evolution; she is undoubtedly the only hero who knows such psychological changes.
It seems to me that the Aelita of episodes 40 to 65 is completely different from the Aelita in season 1.
The character we discover can be qualified with a lot of meliorative adjectives, but the best adjective for her is: naïve.
Aelita is nice, shy, calm, and easy to impress. Her angelic face confirms this impression of naïveté.
When Jeremy discovers her, switching the Supercomputer on again, she is very shy and impressed by him, a little like how a child hides from an adult. But she immediately turned Jeremy's head all the same.
Aelita is also very sensitive and sympathetic, as we can see in episode 35 “The Chips are Down”, when she tacitly supports Ulrich to stay strong during his exclusion from the group.
We suspect her of being in love with Jeremy, but what is sure, it is that she often thanks him for everything he did for her...
Nevertheless we can say that Aelia still has a lot to learn about human beings' selfishness and pettiness; in fact it's logical for a person who used to live on a virtual world and used to be isolated from the real world. Anyway, all she wants is to satisfy her curiosity. Aelita is indeed interested in a lot of things, which makes up for her ignorance about the real world. She already had this characteristic when she was a child, but she doesn't lose it when she lost her memories. Episodes of season 1 are often broken by nocturnal discussions between Jeremy and her. During these conversations, she questions Jeremy about Earth, the five senses, human feelings, subtleties of relations between individuals...
Another of Aelita's characteristics is her sense of fairness. By that I mean she wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice herself if she knows that many people's lives are at stake. We have a lot of examples for that, like in episode 2 “Seeing Is Believing” and 13 “Just In Time”. We can sometimes say she sacrifices herself, even if this term repulses some fans. In any case, she can show abnegation... Being selfish is not in her nature. Moreover she is indignant about injustice. She often proves it, for example when she criticized Jeremy's intolerance of his cousin in episode 88 “Cousins Once Removed” or when she reproaches Odd for his selfishness in episode 73 “Replika”.
Aelita is naturally gentle and encouraging, and she has supported Jeremy in his quest many times. She is a girl who trusts her friends a lot and who never loses heart. She effectively cheers people up, even if she has a different way than Odd to do so...
In the group, Aelita is inclined to calm tensions any time: she is the only member of the group who understands Ulrich's misdemeanor in episode 35, and she comes out in favor of William's return to the group in episode 94 “Fight to the Finish”.
In action Aelita is easily intimidated by monsters and XANA's stratagems. She is perhaps the most calm person in the group when they must act and her fear never stops her! Indeed Aelita is a determined young girl, who makes decisions that she thinks they are conscientious. Her stroke of genius in episode 75 “Hot Shower” is a proof of her ability to reason even in the middle of a fight (see episode page for more information). She won't hesitate to rush towards monsters if her friends can't clear the passage.
So don't let us underestimate Aelita's real abilities! She never hesitates to take big risks to save the Earth.
Aelita's nature has evolved a great deal since her return to Earth. Her first reaction is euphoria! She finally discovers Jeremy and all her other friends in the flesh! Furthermore, she is confronted by real sensations. The five senses at first, and then shivers from heat and cold, and finally the happiness caused by a good night's sleep! (episode 26 “False Start”) So she learns very fast to follow the human daily routine, and she manages it very well!
She very quickly suffers from a disappointment when she begins being the target of Sissi's nastiness. She feels a little lost and wants to go to Lyoko... In spite of everything she also learns to snub the little pest, thanks to Odd who has a particularly fraternal behavior with her, complementing Jeremy's patience and attention...
Still sensitive, Aelita is then pushed to want to isolate herself. Either she returns on Lyoko (episode 28 “Uncharted Territory”) or she goes to the Hermitage (episode 57 “Aelita”).
So she normally develops a teenager's psychology: a psychology made more complicated by her half-humanity (although she maintains that she accepts this reality in episode 51), and by great danger she is in because of that (in episode 52 she unplugs the Supercomputer and sentences herself to death). Her visions disturb her, which is reinforced by her impression of already knowing certain places...
Aelita opens her mind to the world just like a flower to the morning. She discovers a natural passion for music and mixing.
Faced with the Scyphozoa, she is still so timid until the end of the series when she bumps into the monster's eye a last time in episode 90. Many times she is confronted by the danger of its tentacles, because she never gives up on the idea of deactivating a tower. In episode 41 “Ultimatum”, she goes as far as giving herself up to try to save Yumi and Odd.
So she goes through slight differences of opinion with Jeremy who sometimes isn't responsive enough to action and danger.
When Aelita recovers her memory thanks to her father, we can notice two main changes!
The first one is the disappearance of the little girl who need to be protected, because her power permits her to fight with the same efficiency as the others (don't think that her gentle nature is erased; Aelita always will be Aelita, incapable of hating anybody, except maybe XANA...)!
The second one is her obsession for her past that becomes more virulent than ever! She tries to find her father at all costs!! Because of that she falls into rather obvious traps (episode 46 “Déjà Vu” and especially episode 82 “Distant Memory”).
But she submits to her duty and launches the final program in episode 94, while her father is dying before her eyes.
Aelita's ignorant aspect fades more and more, while her life on Earth evolves! We can observe that due to the pressure put on her, the young girl sometimes cracks and loses her temper, or even is beside herself (episode 57 “Aelita”)... In episode 65 “Final Round”, she loses her temper because of William's puerile attitude, for instance! Likewise, in episode 60 “Temporary Insanity”, she uses a very authoritarian tone!
Love
"Oh, honestly...it's so hard to imagine! We can be face-to-face in the same room...we can touch each other, even kiss!"
#6 Cruel Dilemma
Love, for Aelita (except of course family love), comes down to a single word, for now: Jeremy (like it or not)!
Though Jeremy's feelings quickly seem clear, for Ulrich in particular, we're not so sure about Aelita's feelings! The young girl immediately finds Jeremy nice, but nothing confirms that she is in love with him!
Yet, after months of struggles, doubt is severely damaged: feelings are reciprocal! We can suppose that, due to spending so much time talking with Jeremy at the evening and due to seeing all his efforts to help her, her feelings has probably flourished quite fast!
It's nevertheless a fact that it's a very naïve love for Aelita! And with good reason, the young girl has only had contact with a very limited circle of close friends! Yumi (a girl {you are surprised, aren't you?}) Ulrich, who only has eyes for Yumi, and Odd, who is a womaniser! But even so, we mustn't think that Jeremy is a way of substitution, Aelita's feelings are real and have causes (Jeremy's work, patience with Aelita, refusal to turn off the Supercomputer).
Yet if it is difficult to love each other when a part of the couple lives far from the other person, so what can we say about love between two people who live in two different worlds? Aelita couldn't come to Earth and Jeremy didn't dare to join her, so their love was jailed to the screen through which they communicate. But that didn't weaken it... Maybe it is for that reason that their love is so touching!
As she didn't understand all subtleties of love's code (among teenagers), Aelita didn't hesitate to be very expressive about her feelings like in episode 6 (see the quotation)...
During season 1, the relationship between Jeremy and Aelita hasn't made progress because of all these constraints.
Their love seems so perfect that an argument between the two teenagers doesn't seem possible! In episode 19 “Frontier”, Jeremy gets angry and starts to grumble aloud, and the poor Aelita thinks it's because of her, so then she breaks off their conversation! Of course, Jeremy feels guilty and believes that Aelita is mad with him! All the same this misunderstanding has a consequence and Aelita ere learns it! Because of her culpability Jeremy asks Yumi to virtualize him on Lyoko in order to apologize. But the transfer bugs up, preventing Jeremy from going to Lyoko or coming back to Earth! Aelita gets back the memory from the Way Towers of the four Surface Sectors; so she manages to bring Jeremy back and succeeds in meeting her impossible love in the intermediate space. But this meeting was very short and just gave grounds for a slight finger's contact, as if their meeting time hadn't yet arrived!
Nevertheless it allows the couple to clear everything up and to begin working on the materialization program again, with assurance!
Aelita is sometimes sad that Jeremy is so shy, but she can't help smiling when she sees his rare revelations (episode 24 “Ghost Channel”: “Aelita! There's something I want to tell you. I'd much rather be entering a virtual world, to find you waiting there for me!”).
Aelita and Jeremy can finally see each other during the final scene in episode 25 “Code Earth”, when Jeremy leans over the scanners to whisper a soft: “Welcome to Earth”.
Next comes a day in the course of which Aelita is quite mixed up, and we can be surprised that Jeremy and she don't become closer! Yet when the evening comes, Jeremy escorts the young girl to Yumi's house and they spend a fabulous evening together; they have fun, carefree, stroll in the streets until Jeremy drops his lover in front of Yumi's home and until Aelita plants a kiss on his cheek and runs inside!
But, after this evening, dead quiet comes back! We can still feel the tie that links the young boy to the young girl, but it's less obvious! The fact that they feel worried about each other (episode 38 “Temptation”) and their mutual protection are the only rare signs!
Shyness is probably hard to overcome...
Perhaps also this tacit love corresponds with Aelita and Jeremy's disposition.
We have to wait for episode 43 “XANA's Kiss” to see, after XANA's clone sows discord in the heroes' love relationships, Aelita gives Jeremy a long kiss to “check something”. This check will stupefy Jeremy for a long time! Who says that Aelita knows nothing about love?
Aelita's feelings won't progress afterwards, but altercations with Jeremy will become more frequent, in particular about Aelita's father (episode 57 “Aelita”)...
Some fans pick out a decline of relationsship between Jeremy and Aelita, in particular in season 3; this weakening would be due to the fact that Jeremy doesn't really enjoy what Aelita wants to do!
As I see it, it's not the case at all, but fans wait for a more demonstrative love relationship between the little couple, since so much time has passed... But this expectation won't be rewarded, because their love relationship is still quite distant and lacking in ostentation. That can be justified by the fact that the teens have gained a strong and mature mentality, following difficulties they have met with. Even love commotion in episode 95 “Echoes” doesn't bring the so excepted kiss, but reminds us about, through all their ordeals, the friendly and sentimental links between members of the group that have formed and are seeming unfailing.
Story
"Aelita's...de...dead...!"
#52 The Key
Aelita's life can be separated into four different phases!
- Her human childhood
- Her virtual life
- Her half-human life
- Her new human life
We don't know a lot of things about her human childhood (episodes 52 ”The Key” and 57 “Aelita”). Aelita is the daughter of Franz Hopper and a woman who we practically don't know! Aelita notably inherits her pink hair from her!
Aelita grows up like any child, she is cherished by her two parents and lives with them at the Hermitage. They gave to her the plush toy Mr Pück. For a reason that is still unknown, her mother has disappeared. In the series, we see this event like so: the mother sits on an armchair and suddenly vanishes, while we hear a scream! Several hypotheses are considered; the only one that seems wrong is the fact that she died giving birth (because Aelita was brought up by her father and her mother). Aelita was already a very talented and open-minded girl, we know she had a gift for maths and her father taught her to play the piano.
Later we see Aelita again, when she already bicycles to school. Her father often plays the piano while she plays in her bedroom.
Her life falls over on that famous day, when everything seems normal. A yell suddenly comes from outside: mysterious men in black are in front of the house's front door. Her father bursts into her room, he seems worried. He asks her if she remembers where Mr Pück is hidden, and then drags her away. Men in black are on their heels. Hopper and his daughter go through the basement, enter the garden and rush into the secret passageway towards the sewer before men in black can see them.
Then Aelita discovers her father's laboratory and is virtualized onto Lyoko at the same time as him!
Arriving there, the young child is confronted by many misfortunes. Her father isn't by her side anymore, but with her in the form of smoke... He and his daughter are targeted by XANA's monsters. Hopper confesses that he intends to negotiate with XANA, who has acquired a consciousness and wants to get rid of them. We don't know how the meeting took place, but when Hopper came back, he was attacked by Hornets and explained to Aelita that XANA has become too powerful and that he had to turn off the Supercomputer.
It's the first turning point in Aelita's life. The Supercomputer is shut down before being restarted many years later by Jeremy. At this time Aelita wakes up but is completely without memory! Her memory of Earth is gone! We know that this memory is contained in a “missing fragment” that XANA has... Aelita is a prisoner in the world created by her father and her devirtualization means her death...
Her virtual life started at this moment. Aelita lived on Lyoko and she had to counter XANA!
The humanoid was the Guardian of Lyoko, with the mission of deactivating towers infected by XANA and surveying the Surface Sectors.
Her big problem was her defense: she was penniless, she had no way to fight against monsters created by XANA, and she couldn't escape from her virtual prison! Consequently, she was at all dangers' mercy, dangers created by XANA as well as dangers that were an integral part of the virtual world, like the Digital Sea for example.
With regards to towers, Aelita is safe in them because XANA's monsters have no access, and her life points can regenerate when she is in a tower, but she can be trapped inside if a monster lays siege to the tower (episode 15 “Laughing Fit”).
Otherwise, she sometimes hides somewhere else, like behind blocks or under rocks (episode 30 “A Great Day”)...
Her life gained a new meaning, when she met four people who would revolutionize everything!
Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi will soon join her on Lyoko, they'll be real warriors to help her to counter XANA. But especially, she met Jeremy. They quickly fall in love with each other and, Jeremy embarks on a major quest.
Indeed he wants to materialize his friend! That being done, they will be able to live together on Earth!
Days follow and the fight against XANA continues while Aelita spends evenings with Jeremy to work on the materialization!
Nevertheless, this quest is far from being finished. Aelita lived for a long time on Lyoko! Her crucial role is deactivation of infected towers and surveying Surface Sectors. To deactivate a Tower, Aelita enters one, and goes into the middle of the first platform. At this moment she can fly towards an upper platform, where an interface is placed in every tower. She places her hand on it, so that the interface can identify her and offer to type a code: the Code Lyoko, that deactivates towers that have a red halo.
When Aelita is alone, there are three possibilities for her: her power of Creativity, the 40 Towers where she can hide and her extraordinary knowledge about everything that concerns the virtual world.
The Aelita/Jeremy couple has some successes, when Jeremy manages to materialize a strand of Aelita's hair, for instance...
However, this event will change Aelita's structure, making her unfit to deactivate towers, without risking being reformatted. She will sacrifice herself anyway to counter XANA's attack. Fortunately she will rise from the dead thanks to Jeremy and genetic information contained in her hair...
But, XANA's threat still hangs over Aelita and is more and more burdensome! When it attacks, Aelita, who can just like XANA take action on Earth's networks, raises the alarm for her friends. And then they come to her aid. Sometimes she tries to do something on her own, either because nobody answers on Earth or because she wants to check before worrying everybody. So it does happen that she manages alone, but it's quite rare and very dangerous for her.
In episode 24 “Ghost Channel”, she saves her four friends from XANA, when they are in a virtual bubble!
After an argument between her and Jeremy, the young boy tries to come to Lyoko to meet her. He stays stuck between the two worlds and is finally brought back. Yet, just before being materialized, he meets Aelita in the intermediate space and the young girl touches the finger of her impossible love (episode 19 “Frontier”).
The much-touted day finally arrives, Jeremy has finished the materialization process, and Aelita can be materialized. XANA tries for the last time to hold her back, we think it fails... Be that as it may, Jeremy enters the Code Earth, and Aelita appears in a scanner, then opens her eyes to a world that she believes she has never known... Aelita's life undergoes a radical change again: she will live at Yumi's home, pretending to be a Japanese correspondent...
But it's not over!
From now on Aelita is an Earthling again, but not 100% human! Indeed, her “missing fragment”, or her terrestrial memory, is still in the “hands” of XANA, but nobody knows that!
Consequently, the Supercomputer can't be unplugged without Aelita losing consciousness, and the young girl can't be rematerialized without the Code Earth, from a tower. Jeremy thinks that XANA has implanted a virus in Aelita, to link her to it, to be sure that the heroes don't dare to deactivate the Supercomputer...
Then Jeremy embarks on research for an antivirus that doesn't exist. All the same he plans a Superscan to locate activated Towers automatically, which relieves Aelita of the weight of searching for towers on the virtual world. Aelita can live on Earth with them, and comes back on Lyoko just to deactivate infected towers. She is a Kadic boarder, and pretends to be Aelita Stones, Odd's cousin.
Her life appreciably changes, she can live with her friends, discover earth's feelings again.
The war against XANA continues, and Aelita still regards that as her mission! Therefore she never hesitates to sacrifice herself to save the world from a XANA attack.
Aelita's life isn't as perfect as she hoped. During her first days she was a target of Sissi's nastiness, but even worse, the young girl is always bombarded with mysterious visions. In parallel, she has the impression that some places aren't unknown to her, as if she had already visited them before... This strange phenomenon is the strongest in one place: the Hermitage, an old disused and ravaged house.
When she has those visions, Aelita often sees her in this house, living in it. But she isn't alone and the house is brand new...
She doesn't know it, but Aelita slowly discovers traces of her past... While the heroes investigate the identity of the Hermitage's owner and his diary (that is Franz Hopper), Aelita discovers, in what was her bedroom, Mister Pück, her plush toy. Feeling the tie that has gone through years, Aelita chooses to keep it. The key inside the soft toy leads them to Franz Hopper's diary in a train station locker.
Besides her disturbing visions, Aelita meets with a new nightmare, directly from her enemy XANA! The machine creates a new monster, called the Scyphozoa. It seems as invincible as it is omnipresent. This monster wants to capture Aelita's memory to extract the Keys to Lyoko, which would allow XANA to escape from the Supercomputer. But, the heroes still didn't know all this truth... The monster with tentacles will never stop trying to steal her memory. Aelita will have to count on all sorts of tricks and on her friends' help to slip away from it...
Her only relief will be that she won't have something to worry about the other monsters any more, because XANA won't take the chance of killing the young humanoid; her memory is too important...
In spite of stressful Aelita's life – XANA will always try to isolate her from the others –, she holds on and continues to deactivate Towers and to collect information on the Sector 5, during her excursions.
Aelita's past ends up becoming clear to the heroes (around the end of season 2). XANA sends them a Franz Hopper clone, who explains to the heroes that he created Lyoko and Aelita. So he would be in a way the “father” of Aelita (episode 49 “Franz Hopper”). Nevertheless the clone is unmasked and destroyed, but a short while later, Franz Hopper turns out to really exist: he activates a tower and manages to send them a weak message, in which he identifies himself, and then says that he wants to help them (episode 50 “Contact”).
The heroes finally discover the truth, when Jeremy manages to decrypt the diary, thanks to Franz Hopper's help. He discovers that the teacher, before going to Lyoko, lived on Earth and had a daughter, who comes with him to Lyoko... Aelita then understands she is the daughter in question (episode 51 “Revelation”).
At this point large disruptions begin to unfold (episode 52 “The Key”). Jeremy discovers that Aelita had no virus but instead a missing fragment! That's why the heroes plan an excursion to Carthage to get back this fragment. But, Aelita is anxious because she also discovers her memory contains the Keys to Lyoko, which XANA wants...
Once in Carthage, the heroes fight outstandingly to reach Aelita's missing fragment. But when the young girl is in front of the little bubble and gets ready to take it, XANA reveals its strategy; this part was just a decoy. Aelita's friends are violently devirtualized and the Scyphozoa bursts into the room, it steals Aelita's memory, entirely... Then the young humanoid is abandoned, lying unmoving on Carthage's ground...
Franz Hopper takes action at this moment. He gives Aelita's memory and her missing fragment back to her, making her a real human.
XANA escaped from the Supercomputer, but Aelita's life goes through a new turning point! She is entirely human again! Which means that when she is devirtualized, she can be materialized in the scanners, just like the others. She still has to counter XANA's attacks by deactivating towers, but, as a free gift, she develops a new power that allows her to become a fighter, as battle-hardened as her friends. The threat of devirtualization doesn't exist anymore, so she can completely dedicate herself to her new task...
Yet, contrary to all expectations, Scyphozoa's threat hangs over Aelita! The monster now has the function of implanting a virus in Aelita, that would temporarily control her, long enough to enter the Code XANA and destroy Surface Sectors! Besides, Aelita won't very often show great caution, or a great will to defend herself against her opponent, that still transfixes her!
When the four Surface Sectors are destroyed, Aelita will see it just one more time, running away after it has XANAfied William. The new victim will devirtualize Aelita and we know the rest: William will destroy Lyoko!
Aelita doesn't want to erase her past, so she wishes to find her father's trace if he is really on Lyoko. She'll find a trace of him on Carthage's interface. That's why Jeremy will help her again.
They'll be that close to materializing Franz Hopper, but the program won't finish before the destruction of the virtual world! Fortunately, Aelita will soon learn that her father has fled onto the Network! The young girl is more determined than ever to find him and destroy XANA.
Work doesn't stop for Aelita and Jeremy; thanks to her father's email, they begin an enormous project to rebuild Lyoko, which they manage to do, recreating firstly the Sector Five and the world's shell, then the Surface Sectors, moreover with new outfits for combat.
Aelita and Jeremy get down to the manufacturing of a submarine, able to explore the World Wide Web...which will be piloted by Aelita.
Work is unfortunately not the only Aelita's worry. William suddenly reappears in the scanners. While the group is delighted with this unexpected return, Aelita bears the cost of the sad reality, in the first place: William is completely under XANA's control. Acting like a XANAfied person, he kidnaps Aelita and virtualizes her on Lyoko. She wakes up with a XANAfied and ultra-powerful William by her side, so she can't flee. The XANA Warrior drags her along outside Carthage with the firm intent of throwing her into the Digital Sea. She is saved just in time by her friends, but she isn't any less glad to notice that XANA isn't finished over with her (episode 66 “William returns”).
Many times, she escapes from William's daring assaults. Unfortunately, defeated by her feelings, Aelita goes into a virtual bubble on Lyoko, where she thinks she'll find her father. But it's not her father she finds there. Prisoner of a trick planned by XANA, she is at William's mercy. Her friends arrive late and they are attacked by monsters, so Aelita can't contain the power of the saturnine boy and falls into the Digital Dea (episode 82 “ Distant Memory”).
Aelita is saved, even if she thought everything was lost. Feeling a familiar warmth, she wakes up on the ground of the Ice Sector, moved here by a ball of energy, which she very quickly identifies: her father. XANA's plan comes out: it was Franz Hopper and not Aelita that XANA wanted. Dashing wholeheartedly in the fight, the young girl allows her father to escape in the Network at the last minute.
Yet Aelita decided to not suffer any more.
The Skidbladnir allows her, with her friends, to explore the Web in order to find her father and XANA. In the waters of the vast digital ocean, the heroes discover Replikas that are worlds similar to Lyoko that XANA creates from Supercomputers to get energy. Jeremy invents a process to transpose the heroes, in their virtual clothes, from a Replika to the base of the infected Supercomputer, in the form of specter. There, with their virtual powers, the heroes can face cyborgs made by XANA, who are XANAfied people, and can also strike a fatal blow to infected Supercomputers, causing the immediate destruction of the Replika generated by the machine.
The virtual war is fiercer than ever.
Fortunately Aelita finds time to relax. The Subdigitals coming to Kadic allows her to stand out with one of her mix CDs (episode 68 “Opening Act”), and to be selected (episode 72 “Crash Course”) to do the opening act of the band's concert (episode 89 “Mucic to Soothe the Savage Beast”). Elsewhere, Aelita finds time to have fun in the new rec' room, in training with Jim (episode 74 “I'd Rather Not Talk About It”) or watching William's clone, created by Jeremy to replace the original. She can also do more serious activities, such as tricking Herb and Nicolas, who discovered the factory, by kissing Odd to make them think that they just hide in the abandoned factory (episode 73 “Replika”). XANA doesn't break with its classic attacks, so Aelita has to improvise a substantial rescue mission for the Skid and Yumi, coming back by bike from an island guarded by an electric monster, in order to start up a program and emergency virtualize herself to deactivate the tower (episode 76 “The Lake”). Saving a class from lightning and a friend from a XANAfied person, deactivating tower, all that in just one episode, that is to say that Aelita's life isn't restful.
Teleporting herself into one of XANA's bases and running a program on one of the Supercomputers, Aelita contributes to William's definitive return (or almost) to the side of good. That comes at the right time. Indeed, the destruction of the Replikas is impossible because they are too many, the Skid is destroyed and a new ultra-powerful monster has appeared: the Kolossus (episode 93 “Down to Earth”).
At this time Jeremy works on the creation of a multi-agent program to eradicate XANA. Things speed up when Hopper reappears to give to his daughter missing elements for the accomplishment of the aforesaid program. XANA immediately reacts: it sends the Kolossus and loads of Mantas to finally get rid of Hopper.
With the data Jeremy finishes the program. Sent to Lyoko, Aelita laments the fact that the heroes are lacking the amount of energy needed to deal the fateful blow. At this moment Aelita sees her father suddenly appear and sacrifice himself to give the missing energy. The young girl is torn between the vision of her father, taking fire from Mantas, and the duty to launch the program to finish off XANA. Unable to save her father, she complains and then launches the program just after she sees her father die before her eyes.
XANA little by little disappears from the Network, definitely.
Aelita comes back to Earth, broken and sobbing (episode 94 “Fight to the Finish”).
While an enormous page has been turned in the heroes' lives, Aelita has trouble coming to terms with this change, and the fact that she is from now on truly an orphan. Jeremy lends his support to her, and then, together, they deactivate the Supercomputer and turn to a better future (episode 95 “Echoes”).
Music heard, for example, in episode 33 "Final Mix".
Aelita's mix 2
Music heard, for example, in episode 33 "Final Mix".
Best of Aelita
The Best of Aelita video, published by Bangoo at the start of the promotional campaign for Code Lyoko Evolution.
Making-of from the episode Hard Luck
This video shows how the race scene between Aelita and the Hornets was created; a "Layout" clip beside the "Rendu final" (final render) for comparison of the scene.
