Line #32 NightmareFuel/CodeLyoko


1	[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/24_t_965.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:256:[[VillainousBreakdown NOT]] [[LogicBomb LOGICAL!]] '''[[VoiceOfTheLegion NOT LOGICAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!]]''' '''''[[EvilLaugh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!]] [[EvilSoundsDeep YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!]]''''']]
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4	The premise may sound like your standard SaturdayMorningCartoon... but a closer look will reveal plenty of horrors.
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6	'''Spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.'''
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8	----
9	[[foldercontrol]]
10	[[folder:Code Lyoko]]
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12	* '''''XANA.''''' Just...'''everything about XANA.'''
13	** The reason being that XANA was, and in fact, still is, unique among the majority of villains in the realm of pop culture is that he never personally appeared or communicated with anyone throughout the entire series, with the exception of four/five episodes at most, out of ''97 total'', meaning the viewers were just in the dark about it as the characters, in fact, to this day, audiences re-watching the series have a hard time pinning down XANA's motives. XANA is literally the result of a villain who is NothingIsScarier as a character. If this isn't enough convince you how terrifying he is, just read the rest of this page to see how much it is related to XANA. It's made even more eerie considering that unlike most villains, XANA ''has'' no face nor voice: It (or "he" as referenced by the cast, [[Main/LostInTranslation due to French grammar]]) simply uses actions to "speak", which basically is '''kill all humans''' for [[ForTheEvulz no other reason other than sadism]].
14	** His behavior aside, XANA is also a prime example of a DigitalAbomination. Unlike most evil computer programs in fiction, XANA's attacks are rather...''arcane'' in how they act. Through the usage of what is known as a Specter, a black ghost-like energy apparition XANA can do just about ''anything'' he wants or thinks of, only being limited by how much power he can use. Season 1 is perhaps the greatest example of this, as almost every attack he unleashes is some kind of natural disaster created from the simplest of things. Animating old samurai armor, making sinkholes, turning basic chemicals into sentient, deadly gas...the list goes on.
15	** Then there's his power. XANA's other terrifying attribute is that he '''[[EvilEvolves evolves in strength]]''' as the series progresses. Yes, his attacks from the ''first season'' are a showcase of XANA at his weakest or less intelligent levels. By the second season, it is revealed that the [[ResetButton Return to the Past]] has been making XANA stronger every single time thanks to his connection to the supercomputer, and he starts possessing ''people'', granting them all kinds of superhuman abilities and directly harming both the Lyoko Warriors and the people around them directly. Oh, and fun fact, ''he's also getting smarter'', creating legitimate strategies that lead to perhaps his closest victories...and then in the Season 2 finale, [[OhCrap he gets out of Lyoko]], as one of these strategies enables him to escape into the network with a program that makes him even more powerful. Suffice to say, Seasons 3 and 4 became a complete uphill battle for the Lyoko Warriors, as the former had him gain more consistent victories with even stronger attacks and bigger monster armies, while the latter confirms that he's just about ''[[NearVillainVictory this]]'' close to unleashing an army of real-life robots and cyborgs thanks to facilities he's taken over all over the world.
16	* The monsters XANA uses in Lyoko. Most of them are partially organic, partially mechanical. Kankrelats are small, cockroach-esque monsters with four mechanical legs on a round base and a single red robotic eye. Sounds unsettling out of context, but they're laughably stupid and often the comic relief of XANA's monsters. Others however are not. Here's a quick list of the more disturbing ones:
17	** Bloks, unlike the Kankrelats, are as large as a person in height, and have four of the creepy Eyes of XANA on each side of their rocklike shell. Their weapons range from [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] to rings of flame to a freeze ray; in Season 1 more than a few Lyoko Warriors have been frozen solid by the Freeze Ray, unable to react to their friends being attacked and devirtualized.
18	** By far the scariest of the standard monsters (we're not even getting into the Scyphozoa or the Kolossus, but be patient, we will.) is the Megatank. Unlike the other monsters which have a real life animal that they're based off of, the Megatanks are just ''alien''. They're huge black bowling balls that split in half, revealing an Eye of XANA, metal framework, and squicky pink flesh connecting its halves. Most monsters use the aforementioned [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], but the Megatank just shoots a ''plane'' of energy in a circular path; causing INSTANT devirtualization on a hit, and impossible to dodge if you're in its way, even if you're above the Megatank. That's not counting it simply flattening you as it rolls.
19	** Then, there's the Tarantula, XANA's first new monster. For people who don't like spiders, [[SarcasmMode rejoice!]] XANA now has a four cannon-legged behemoth that moves very much like a spider. It wipes out the group in the season 2 premiere, and is one of the signs of XANA's power increasing, a plot point that would loom over the Lyoko Warriors' heads throughout all of Season 2.
20	** NOW we get into the Scyphozoa, which is quite possibly put, XANA's most horrific monster and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] for Seasons 2 and 3. Unlike his other monsters, the Scyphozoa is not designed to fight. Rather, it is meant to drain Aelita's memories to allow XANA access to the Keys of the Lyoko locked in her mind, which, if he manages to obtain, will enable him to ''escape the supercomputer'' and infect the world-wide web. It takes the form of a floating jellyfish, using its tentacles to subdue its victims and rip out their memories. Aelita is subjected to it numerous times throughout the series, as is Yumi in Episode 34, and from we can tell, the experience is NOT pleasant and involves draining the life of whomever gets caught by it in order to extract their data. To up the nightmares even further, if the thing catches you, you can't escape unless there's someone else nearby who can cut the tentacles. Worse, it cannot be destroyed by conventional ways, only made to retreat when its tentacles are severed. Through the entire run of the show, the only thing that managed to kill the Scyphozoa was Aelita overloading the Skid's barrier on season 4, and even then XANA just programmed another one.
21	*** And in Season 3? When you thought that with XANA's escape in the network means that it will never appear again? Surprise: it does! In fact, it turns out to have more functions than just data extraction! It can implant viruses in the Lyoko Warriors, viruses that XANA uses to mind control them. Yes, the Lyoko Warriors, who should be immune to XANA's mind control tactics in the virtual world, ''are no longer safe.'' Once again, Aelita is subjected to the process so XANA can have her delete the surface sectors so he can freely attack the Core of Lyoko. Then in the Season 3 finale... William, the SixthRanger, falls victim to the creature. He leads an army of Creepers against Lyoko's core, destroying it and ending up as XANA's [[TheDragon commander]] for most of Season 4.
22	** XANA-William. Now under XANA's control, William has been upgraded into a dark and powerful [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] leading XANA's forces on Lyoko. His expressions are unsettling, and much like his master, he rarely ever talks, except to grunt and yell... until later, when he starts ''taunting'' his former allies and openly threatening them with his [[VoiceOfTheLegion demonically warped voice]]. He's extremely brutal in battle, to the point of the show needing to use a GoryDiscretionShot at times, which it has NEVER needed with XANA's other monsters.
23	** Ditto his-admittedly [[CreepyAwesome awesome]]-[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq1WkNq6p0s leitmotif]]. As soon as those electric guitars start, you know [[ThisIsGonnaSuck the shit has hit the fan]].
24	*** At one point, he comes back to Earth, still under XANA's control, and accomplishes an impressive amount of damage: he busts Jeremie's ankle, deletes the 'good' clone Jeremie made of him, almost critically overheats the supercomputer, and stomps at a harmless little girl to scare her. The entire time, he's either smirking or scowling - and he's quite chatty the entire time, too. Since XANA is not directly possessing him, either this means that whatever ''is'' possessing him has picked up on human cruelty, or William himself has been altered...
25	** The monsters in the Digital Sea, partly due to them having very sharp teeth, or, in the Kalamar's case, a [[ThisIsADrill very big drill]]. Unlike XANA's other monsters, with whom devirtualization is just going back to the real world, a defeat via these creatures equals ''permanent deletion'' due to the nature of the Digital Sea.
26	** Finally, there's the Kolossus. It's a gigantic lava golem that looks very much like an EldritchAbomination. For reference, here it [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/codelyoko/images/8/80/Sueurs_froides_348.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111018190207 is]]. It only appears in three of the last four episodes of the series, but those three leave enough of an impact. It can destroy the Skidbladnir in one hit (and does), and it has two Eyes of XANA that need to be hit SIMULTANEOUSLY in order to destroy it. Note the size of the thing. It can hold Lyoko towers in its hand and instantly put them under XANA's control. Now you can run.
27	* An Alternate Universe example: What if what happened to the Real Life factory in France happened in the show before Jeremie turned on the Supercomputer? That would mean that Aelita and Franz would have ''died!''[[note]]For context who don't know: the real life factory (A Renault factory on a small island between Boulogne-Billancourt and Sèvres in Paris) that was the basis for the Factory in the series was demolished in 2005.[[/note]]
28	* Some of XANA's attacks do border on this, especially if it's a widespread offensive. XANA-possessed characters can be particularly creepy, and many examples of XANA trying to murder the protagonists (like ''electrocuting Jérémie'') can induce nightmares.
29	** Most ways that XANA tries to kill Jérémie can cause Nightmare Fuel. Jérémie gets electrocuted by one of the power sources for the ''Supercomputer'', as well as getting electrocuted by the specters.
30	** Also, when he discovers that the one Franz Hopper is actually a polymorphic specter in disguise, it gets pissed at him, turns into smoke to invade his airways, and proceeds to suffocate him while Ulrich can do nothing but watch.
31	* A lot of the crazed expressions [=XANAfied=] William makes.
32	** Not just him actually, ''any'' [=XANAfied=] person will often wear an unsettling expression with VoiceOfTheLegion to boot.
33	* [[http://i56.tinypic.com/25zqc5i.jpg This lovely shot]] of a XANA-possessed Aelita.
34	** XANA-Aelita herself is pretty disturbing. Her first episode, with XANA using a HypnoTrinket to brainwash Aelita, is rather alarming since it means that XANA has already figured out how to bypass the protection the scanners should give...which of course doesn't change how ''easily'' she manipulates Jeremie, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou and then staring blankly at the audience during the trip to the factory]], before using her powers to [[CurbStompBattle crush each of the Lyoko Warriors]] with ease. Her appearances in Season 3 are hardly any better, where she proves to be a scary NoNonsenseNemesis as XANA's monsters shift gears from firing at her to becoming her bodyguards. Finally, in Season 4, she's as bloodthirsty as XANA-William if not ''moreso'', robbing Ulrich of one of his swords and proceeding to damn near beat him into submission. Ulrich is only saved thanks to Jeremie's new reset program [[HarmfulHealing shocking Aelita back to normal]].
35	** Want to make this concept even scarier? Watch "Ghost Channel" (where Aelita proves she's able to essentially do the same things XANA could do in the first season, and without needing the towers, could do so unopposed if she wanted to) and then imagine what she and XANA could accomplish if he was able to control her more often.
36	*** The thought of XANA-Aelita being ''permanent'' is why Jeremie refuses to use the Return to the Past function during Season 3 should she pop up, due to the very real risk that XANA might gain permanent control over Aelita.
37	*** To add a bit more horror to this, during Season 4, it is implied several times that XANA ''does'' know of what he could accomplish if he had Aelita with him permanently, but intends to kill Hopper first before he does so. Meaning that had the final battle gone the other way around, XANA's next objective likely would've been having Aelita under his control much like William, and given how much he powered up William, one shudders to think of what upgrades Aelita would've had if XANA succeeded in such a goal.
38	* Jérémie scores one with the "Marabounta". Basically, he creates a sort of purple goop that starts covering Lyoko, devouring every XANA monster. And then it goes after Aelita after it mistakes her for another XANA monster. The heroes were definitively {{squick}}ed -- especially when it ''ate Yumi''. (Seriously, just watch the scene where she is EatenAlive by the thing. Imagine how ''she'' must have felt. You have to wonder just why these kids even do this.)
39	* [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies "Attack of the Zombies"]]: XANA possesses Kiwi, Odd's pet dog, and uses him to spread a zombifying virus through the school. Most of the group is trapped in the cafeteria, and William is trying to keep them there (in fairness he doesn't know about Lyoko yet, and in a Main/DeletedScene, he even violently punches Jérémie in the gut, saying he's the one in charge). Odd is bitten and Ulrich and William have to restrain him. Imagine seeing your best friend gagged and tied up and trying to bite you while moaning in the VoiceOfTheLegion.
40	** The worst part? Thanks to LoopholeAbuse, this doesn't counts as [=XANAfying=], meaning that ''the Lyoko Warriors are not immune to this one''.
41	** Jeremie gets bitten before Aelita deactivates the tower and has a horrifying transformation. He can barely gasp out 'Return to the Past now!' and his voice is already ''changing''... if Aelita had been seconds late...
42	* Of course, in animation there's a ''lot'' of ArtEvolution between pilot episodes and the resulting series themselves, but ''Garage Kids'' (in certain scenes) combines OffModel and UnintentionalUncannyValley in a creepy way. To clarify: Ulrich's avatar has eyes that seem like they came from the first ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996''. But still, Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad (see WhatCouldHaveBeen in the [[Trivia/CodeLyoko Trivia tab]]).
43	** Not to mention the darker tone the pilot has a whole. Each scene of virus activity from Xanadu is given a real sense of dread, and the rather unclear boundary concerning the virtual and real worlds has its own slew of horrors. In fact, given how the show creators at the time were taking influence from '''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain''' (A series which is filled with nightmare fuel and whose head writer worked on Anime/DigimonTamers, which has it's own brand of horrors), one can start to understand where all the nightmare fuel on this page could come from... and then wonder just ''how bad'' it could've gone had the pilot concept been used!
44	* "Killer Music" is absolutely nightmareish. Imagine an [=MP3=] becoming a successful hit. Now imagine it being [[SingleStanzaSong a simple, looped sentence]] (The original French version is "You should never ever dare ! No!") creepily reminiscent of synthethizeritis. ''[[OhCrap Now picture it putting each of its listeners in a comatose state.]]'' It's especially terrifying when Odd falls victim to it, as he's stuck with a huge grin on his face, thus looking like he'd been murdered by ComicBook/TheJoker. And not only does he go into a coma, but the attack is undone ''just'' as he flatlines...
45	* Who else [[BowelBreakingBricks shat bricks]] when we saw XANA's disguise of Jérémie breaking down from "Ghost Channel"? XANA Jérémie's "[[LogicBomb NOT LOGICAL! NOT LOGICAL!]]" after the kids decide that he's the fake Jérémie because he doesn't understand that Jérémie ''would'' virtualize himself to save his friends. And then the scene where he screams and then tries to kill the characters.
46	-->'''XANA:''' '''''NOT LOGICAL!!!! NOT LOGICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!!! [[EvilLaugh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH]]! [[VoiceOfTheLegion YOU ARE GOING TO DIE]]!!!'''''
47	** Let's admit it, Ghost Channel was the '''scariest''' episode of [[WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko Code Lyoko's]] first season and still stands out. For a season with episodes that were mostly {{Filler}} and that involved XANA attacking and the team having to deactivate a tower in [[{{Cyberspace}} Lyoko]] (and that were pretty creepy on their own), it really drove home '''what''' kind of a threat this nutcase of a computerized OmnicidalManiac was, to the point where his [[BringMyBrownPants pants-browningly]] horrifying OneWingedAngel form at the climax now serves as the page image. [[WhamEpisode Good Lord]].
48	** The most terrifying thing about this episode? This was the only time XANA ever personally appeared (albeit operating behind the form of the zombie-like Jérémie EvilDoppelganger), so we actually see that yes, ''he does take pleasure in the misery he causes.''
49	* There are also the attacks where XANA [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever takes over animals and uses them to attack Kadic]]. So far, we got wasps, rats, crows, boar, ''wolves''... the latter even had a scene with Ulrich falling in the middle of said wolves, who immediately start to attack him. The Return to the Past barely saves him.
50	** On the subject of the rats in particular, the start of that episode deserves special mention. One little rat is minding its own business and doing its usual thing, scavenging for food. Suddenly, XANA's spectre pins the poor thing down and ''forces itself into the rat's mouth.'' And the kicker is that this is the first time we see XANA taking over a living being, just when everyone was used to him taking over inanimate objects. As if we needed ''more'' ParanoiaFuel...
51	** For the crows, much like in the infamous 1963 horror classic film ''Film/TheBirds'' they almost shred poor Yumi into pieces. Literally she was screaming while they were pecking her into a coma (in a not too similar scenario to the iconic phone booth scene with Melanie) while she was hiding out in garden shed. If it hadn't been for Jim and Principal Delmas arriving at the right moment, Yumi would have been found dead in a horrible mash, and she was still barely alive on the way to the hospital, luckily she was saved with a Return to the Past.
52	* The time XANA took control of a dangerous criminal.
53	** In the episode with the above criminal, just how casually Jeremie informs Ulrich (via cell phone) that after he replaces the Supercomputer's nuclear core, XANA is going to kill him. [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior No 12-year-old should be that calm in that situation.]]
54	** Potentially even worse, XANA has a noticeable sadistic streak. When there isn't obvious pressure to keep him pragmatic he's been shown to take his sweet time killing, maiming, or destroying whatever he so chooses to. There is a very real chance that Jeremy wouldn't have ever been found or would have been found in several hundred pieces by the time XANA was done.
55	** Slight but also very real, XANA forced this career criminal to steal a damn radioactive power source that doesn't seem to have any shielding. The whole factory, that career criminal, Jeremy after he got kidnapped, and the entire path that they took to get to the factory is probably contaminated now with at least some radiation.
56	* Just how quickly Odd and Yumi deteriorate in "Ultimatum" due to being LockedInAFreezer. Yumi starts shivering first and by the time XANA has gotten tired of waiting for Aelita to give herself up, is reduced to being barely able to stand and weakly crying Odd's name as XANA prepares to kill him.
57	** And then there's the added idea that Odd might have accidentally caused XANA's later attack of creating an ''obscenely'' cold blizzard by telling XANA that cold is lethal to humans.
58	** Fun fact, this is the second time XANA ever unambiguously communicates with the heroes. He sends them a text message, simply saying to deliver Aelita to the Scyphozoa within a certain time, else, he'll kill Odd and Yumi. No theatrics like other cartoon villains. Here's the message: cold, simple, and to the point:
59	-->'''XANA:''' Aelita at two o'clock to give herself up to the Scyphozoa. If not, Odd and Yumi will be [[NeverSayDie liquidated.]]
60	* The Zero Gravity episode. Think about it; the evil computer virus has taken control of FREAKIN GRAVITY to the point where it can just LAUNCH PEOPLE INTO ORBIT WITH EASE.
61	* The amount of times Ulrich has nearly died in general. No child would be perfectly fine with that, not even mentioning how many of them were different e.g. burned alive/dehydrated to a dangerous degree, crushed, frozen, mauled to death etc.
62	** The others don't escape either considering Yumi and Odd both nearly froze (Yumi ''twice''), Yumi shared the SaunaOfDeath event and Jeremie, Yumi and Odd all nearly drowned at least once each.
63	*** Odd's drowning is particularly disturbing since it [[LuredIntoATrap involved him taking the bait when XANA pretended to be a girl asking him to meet in the woods]]. It would appear that Odd's parents' hands-off raising method severely hampered his ability to remember 'stranger danger'.
64	** Speaking of Yumi, she got the closest any of the heroes had of being KilledOffForReal (next to Aelita who actually did die temporarily in the Season 2 finale), when XANA took control of the eponymous satellite in "Satellite" to fire on her, how close was she to being incinerated by the laser? A ''millisecond'', had Jeremie and Aelita been a second late, Yumi would have been brutally murdered on the track field. [[note]]Making matters worse was that the blast radius would've incinerated Odd as well as he was nearby Yumi's location[[/note]]
65	*** To make matters worse, Yumi did in fact die temporarily in the same season in the episode "Cruel Dilemma" where she fell into the Digital Sea in the climax where Ulrich arrived too late to save her. Had it not been for Aelita's kindness to offer up a chance of being materialized to Earth to bring Yumi back. '''Yumi would have died permanently in Lyoko!'''
66	** Every member of the group has been badly electrocuted at least once. ''Everyone.'' And it's not PlayedForLaughs, ever.
67	* On paper, "Laughing Fit" sounds ridiculous with XANA using LaughingGas to make anyone and everyone exposed laugh themselves into submission. Then your realize that unless they're somehow exposed to water? The victims ''can't stop laughing''. Meaning eventually they'd all suffocate and die. Jeremie is barely able to perform a "Return to the Past" before he gets exposed and starts laughing as well…
68	* In the second-to-last episode, the group decides not to send William to Lyoko since he just got freed from XANA's influence. XANA decides to make them regret that decision, and immediately possesses William's body again, prompting Yumi to devirtualize herself and fend him off to protect Jeremie. What follows is the most [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutal]] [[CurbStompBattle beatdown]] ever seen in the real world. She gets launched, stalked, and toyed with for several minutes. It's hard to watch, and it isn't treated lightly at all.
69	** Ulrich gets in on it after his devirtualization and though he gets some progress against William, he's kicked so hard against the wall that he's rendered completely unable to defend himself.
70	** XANA's death (Or not, if [[Series/CodeLyokoEvolution Evolution]] or the novels are of any indication). As the multi-agent system meant to destroy him surges through the network, XANA is slowly expelled from William's body, emerging as a giant made of black smoke, clutching his head in pain, [[HellIsThatNoise moaning and screaming]] all the while. Finally, as the last Replika is destroyed, XANA morphs into a massive black mass screaming in agony as he's deleted once and for all. Even Ulrich and Yumi were horrified!
71	--> Ulrich: What's going on? (Referring to the giant, agonized specter)
72	--> Yumi: ...I don't know.
73	--> Jérémie: XANA is dying...
74	** Following that, when XANA is destroyed, after he's forced from William's body (in a scene that's horror in its own right), William is left unconscious in the machinery room. Nobody bothers to pick him up and take him back to the control room. Do they dislike him ''that much?''
75	* Franz Hopper. He may be the BigGood, but back when he was creating Lyoko, he was forced to use the [[GroundhogDayLoop Return to the Past]] 2546 times, living the same day over and over again. To be blunt, the process drove him [[SanitySlippage insane]]. He's quite clearly paranoid and unstable as his diary demonstrates, though thankfully, he seems to have pulled himself together in the present-day of the series.
76	* "Double Trouble": The specter in this episode is one of the most unnerving villains in the show. It gets this close to murdering Jeremie, and is so good at impersonating him it successfully fools everyone it interacts with. It's also much more talkative, and manages to show how deranged and cruel XANA is in spite of being a soulless computer virus.
77	** There is also the way it's defeated. After Aelita destroys the last sector on Lyoko, it uses its last moments to electrocute Ulrich to near death, all the while grinning creepily at the camera, before fading away.
78	** Jeremie calls Odd in the middle of the episode to warn him of the imposter... only Odd is in the presence of the spectre at that exact moment. In the French version, as the spectre approaches him, you can hear it ''growling'' at Odd like an animal. What the hell was ''wrong'' with that clone?
79	* Aelita's flashbacks are above and beyond some of the more intense and darker scenes in the show. Imagine that you've finally been brought into the real world... and then you have nightmares with strange people that you know nothing about, when you aren't dreaming of wolves hunting you through a forest while you're just a little elfin creature. And even after her memories return ...the nightmares ''don't'' stop. Brr.
80	[[/folder]]
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82	[[folder:Novel series (Code Lyoko Chronicles)]]
83	* XANA as Eva has determined the fastest way to get a necessary item is to maim whoever has it. When a passerby woman with her dog sees a girl in a hospital gown, obviously weak and confused, she stops to check if she's alright. XANA realizes it's because duh, humans wear clothes and what he has is considered too little. The next thing we see? [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished XANA-Eva calmly walking away in oversized clothes]] [[DiscretionShot while the lady's dog barks desperately.]]
84	* Hannibal Mago makes much more of an impact than [[Series/CodeLyokoEvolution Tyron]]. He's abused Anthea and erased her memories, is a ruthless criminal who WouldHurtAChild, and starts to go insane as he realizes just what capabilities Lyoko has to offer him.
85	* Whether or not it is canon to the actual series, we learn that the scanners can only properly virtualize children, due to forming an avatar based on their subconscious. [[ChildrenAreInnocent Children do not have much to worry about]], enabling the scanners to form a cohesive avatar for them. Adults, due to having faced the stresses of [[GrowingUpSucks real life]], are too unstable for the scanners to process, and end up as incoherent [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], with only Hopper managing to keep his sanity intact. Again, we don't know if this is fully canon...but still, rather unsettling all things considered.
86	* The flashback of Aelita being ''shot in the head'' while she and her father try to run from TheMenInBlack, followed by Franz's terror for his daughter. Worse, there's no indication the [[WouldHurtAChild man]] who shot her was punished for it.
87	* You remember how terrifying XANA was in the original show? Well, the novel reveals he became that way when he got infected by a virus. Specifically, a virus from [[SealedEvilInACan the castle hosting Project Carthage]]. That suggests Project Carthage was so malevolent that even without being sentient, just ''[[LeakingCanOfEvil being nearby]]'' was enough to turn a once-friendly AI into a monster. No wonder Hopper wanted it destroyed.
88	** Speaking of, Hopper also reveals that he couldn't destroy Carthage no matter how hard he tried, which is why he locked it up and had XANA guard it in the first place. Reminds one of the Marabounta, doesn't it?
89	[[/folder]]
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Context NightmareFuel / CodeLyoko