| "I'm the one who created Lyoko, and X.A.N.A. too, but then I lost control of it. In the very beginning, it was program that I designed to counter a military project based on a multi-agent system." |
Waldo Franz Schaeffer (commonly known as Franz Hopper) was a highly intelligent scientist who was responsible for creating the supercomputer, the virtual world Lyoko, and the artificial intelligence, X.A.N.A. He was the husband of Anthea Hopper and father of Aelita.
He is currently deceased, as he had ultimately sacrificed his life to protect his daughter, allowing Jeremie's multi-agent program enough energy to temporarily wipe out X.A.N.A.. After moving to the Hermitage near the Kadic Academy, he had taken his wife's maiden name (Hopper) in order to make a fresh start and to stay hidden from his enemies.
Biography
Starting from 1974 to sometime in either the late 1980s or early 1990s, Waldo Schaeffer was working with a group of scientists on Project Carthage, a secret government program he created to intercept enemy communications. Waldo, realizing that the success of this project would have grave consequences on the world, decided to flee with his wife and young daughter.
The family had fled to Switzerland in an attempt to hide from Waldo's employers, who later kidnapped Anthea as a warning to Waldo. He most likely took his daughter and brought her to France, where he got a job as a science teacher at the local boarding school. Waldo changed his first name to Franz, and used his wife's maiden name, Hopper, as his last name.
Franz and Aelita had moved to the Hermitage since he wanted Aelita and himself to have a fresh start. He then began to build his own Supercomputer in a local abandoned factory where he created Lyoko using the files that he stole from project Carthage. He soon used his computer knowledge to create a sentient and autonomous artificial intelligence/multi-agent system, called X.A.N.A. to be his assistant and act as a deterrent against Carthage should the project ever be unleashed. Franz Hopper was forced to repeat the same day over 2546 times so that he could make Lyoko perfect: not realizing at the same time doing so made X.A.N.A. stronger. Given that this was done in a 24 hour time period, this would mean Franz spent a maximum time there of just under seven years (six years, eleven months, three weeks approximately).
By the time Lyoko was nearing completion, he had become very paranoid and mildly insane due to the repeated attempts of returning to the past. Soon, men, who were most likely from Project Carthage were able to track Franz down to his home and attempted to capture him. He and Aelita fled to Lyoko, only to be attacked by X.A.N.A.'s monsters. Franz ordered Aelita to stay inside a tower while he tried to reason with X.A.N.A.. Schaeffer was soon captured and he was taken to an unknown location within Lyoko, most likely the hidden tower in the Carthage Sector, but not before he was able to shut off the supercomputer. His place as a science teacher at Kadic was replaced by Suzanne Hertz after his disappearance that took place 9 years prior to the show.
Season Two
Throughout Season 2, Hopper's presence is felt as the Lyoko Warriors start to research Lyoko's history. He is first mentioned in Uncharted Territory, where it is revealed that he was the owner of the Hermitage, and was a science teacher at Kadic. Later, his diary is located in Mister Puck, and is revealed to be encrypted. X.A.N.A. destroys it, but Jeremie had already uploaded the files into the Supercomputer's restricted access area.
After this, Jeremie starts deciphering small parts of the diary, learning about many of Hopper's experiments. Jeremie learns how to create a multi-agent program known as the Marabounta, but the attempt goes haywire and the program is forcibly destroyed via a temporary alliance between the Lyoko Warriors and X.A.N.A... In Temptation, Jeremie learns about a neuronal head-set that can increase a person's intelligence via the usage of time reversions. He attempts to increase his brainpower to further his research, only for his mental and physical health to deteriorate. Jeremie destroys the device in the end upon realizing that his calculations were wrong from the start, and Ulrich comments on the possibility of Hopper being an enemy, given how his discoveries have given the Lyoko Warriors more trouble than before. Jeremie rebuffs this, stating that while Hopper himself is not an enemy, his discoveries and experiments are out of the league of the Lyoko Warriors.
Throughout Deja Vu, Aelita receives intense visions concerning Hopper, which were revealed to have been caused by X.A.N.A. using his link to Aelita to stimulate them. The mystery concerning Hopper continues. In Franz Hopper, he seems to have finally made an appearance. "Hopper" reveals that Lyoko and X.A.N.A., in the very beginning were used to counter a military project, but since X.A.N.A. has gone out of control, the multi-agent program's destruction takes priority. He then reveals that the scanners were not ready for transportation due to being untested, and that there is now a risk of cellular degeneration. Yumi is found to be suffering from this degeneration, and the group turns on Jeremie, who had claimed the scanners to be safe. "Hopper" says that Jeremie had been playing the sorcerer's apprentice, putting his friend's lives at risk, and had allowed X.A.N.A. to destroy his diary. While this is successful in driving away Jeremie, the boy soon realizes that Hopper couldn't have known about the diary's destruction, and he realizes that the Franz Hopper that the group has been interacting with is nothing more than another of X.A.N.A.'s specters. The Lyoko Warriors manage to stop this plan by X.A.N.A., and Jeremie confirms that there is no cellular degradation from the scanners, stating that the real Hopper is somewhere on Lyoko, but it is not known where he is.
Franz Hopper finally appears in Contact where he took control of Sissi's body. While in control of her body, he told the warriors, "I am Franz Hopper... I can help you!" In Revelation, Franz Hopper assists the warriors in decoding his encrypted electronic diary, using the Decoding Program, and also used his powers to protect the tower used during the decoding process from X.A.N.A.. Later, in The Key, Franz Hopper used his powers to take control of two of X.A.N.A.'s Mantas and had them protect and assist Ulrich and Aelita in recovering a fragment that X.A.N.A. had stolen from her. Upon Aelita reaching the stolen fragment, the room fell apart, causing Ulrich to get devirtualized, and Aelita got trapped. X.A.N.A. stole Aelita's remaining memory from her, and the keys to Lyoko, now allowing X.A.N.A. to escape the supercomputer. Aelita appeared dead on the ground. Soon after, Franz replenished Aelita's memory and also returned the missing fragment that X.A.N.A. had stolen from her, her human/childhood memory. Also, he transferred a fraction of his own keys to Lyoko within his daughter's subconscious and by doing so, he could no longer be successfully rematerialized into the real world.
Season Three
Aelita had found a fragment of her father's DNA within Carthage, so she still hoped that he was alive. Since they found his DNA sequence code, the Lyoko Warriors continued to search for him. In Final Round, Jeremie and Aelita finally managed to track him down somewhere hidden in Carthage's code, but Lyoko was destroyed by William seconds before he could be materialized back on Earth by the warriors. It is later revealed that he was able to escape into the Internet, where he sent an electronic, coded message to the Lyoko warriors, though they mistakenly believe that doing so has rendered him inert. During the time period between Seasons 3 and 4, he helped the warriors to recreate the virtual world so that they could continue fighting the rouge artificial intelligence.
Season Four
Franz was shown in a dream-turned-nightmare of Aelita's in Distant Memory. He was then impersonated by a specter to lure Aelita into a trap. When Aelita was thrown into the digital sea by William, Hopper finally physically appeared (manifesting only as a white orb of pure energy) to save her. With the help from Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita, Franz is able to flee from William and X.A.N.A.'s monsters attack and return to the safety of the Digital Sea. The Lyoko Warriors realize that Hopper was not dissolved into the network, but is rather using it to hide from X.A.N.A., who has been targeting Aelita in order to draw Hopper out and kill him once and for all. In Fight to the Finish, he ultimately sacrifices his life by providing the remaining amount of energy required to initialize and activate Jeremie's Anti-X.A.N.A. Program (a multi-agent system). He dies while shielding Aelita from the Mantas in the Celestial Dome, who turn all of their fire onto him as he transferred the energy needed.
His daughter and her friends mourned his demise, which was the cause for Aelita not wanting to shut down the supercomputer as it would mean closing the book on her past and to her father. In Echoes, He was shown in flashbacks of Aelita when she reminisced about the good times she had had with him as a child, as well as the time when he had first virtualized both himself and her into the Forest Sector of Lyoko.
Season Five (Code Lyoko: Evolution)
Although he had ultimately sacrificed himself to help Jeremie eradicate X.A.N.A. once and for all, his own vital essence seems to be, somehow, linked to the very Heart of Lyoko itself; as in Suspicions, Aelita had gone to the Core chamber to commune with him. She inquired whether he was responsible for X.A.N.A.'s sudden return to life, but received no answer.
In the episode Count-down, Waldo Schaeffer was seen on an incomplete video clip Jeremie managed to obtain from the Cortex data. When the bugs on the video cam were repaired, he was revealed to have been arguing with a fellow scientist, who he had just fired from his work in Project Carthage.
In The Trap, Aelita spoke to her father yet again, who was told that she had actually seen his wife; alive and well. She assured him that she would do whatever it takes to find her.
In Espionage, Waldo was mentioned by a desperate Aelita, who was trying to get her mother to remember her by hearing her voice. She revealed that the reason she was alive now, was because he had saved her by virtualizing her onto Lyoko.
In the 'cliffhanger episode', he was again mentioned by Tyron himself, who revealed that the only reason he had married his wife was so that he could get his hands on Hopper's virtual archives in order for him to effectively create his very own quantum supercomputer, and the Cortex sector that resides in it. However, the full history between Tyron and Hopper is never explained, and many situations regarding the two remain fairly ambiguous.
Abilities
Franz Hopper is the genius who created the Supercomputer, X.A.N.A., and Lyoko, and knows all of their workings and programs that the virtual world is made of.
When he virtualized himself, Franz has become a being that can control the Supercomputer functions much like X.A.N.A. is capable of doing, and has the Keys of Lyoko programmed into him. His first form in Lyoko, a cluster of small white orbs, as he himself noted, was incomplete and fragmented compared to Aelita. In that state, he was capable of naturally levitating and could teleport freely between the Lyoko sectors. Later, he takes on a single, larger white orb form, whereupon he can physically interact with the environment, and draw people into himself to protect them from attacks and the Digital Sea. However, both of his forms lack offensive abilities, making him extremely vulnerable to attacks. Despite this, he is almost certainly the most powerful character in the series save for X.A.N.A.
He is capable of controlling Towers and can protect them from X.A.N.A.'s influence, activating his own Towers to generate spectres that can possess humans, or take control of other active Towers with weak security. He can also program virtual monsters under his control, travel within the Digital Sea without being deleted, and send messages across the network. Franz is also capable of fully restoring a person's digital memory, reactivating the virtual world if it was shut down, and providing energy to run powerful programs, though these abilities take a large amount of resources on his end, which can potentially be fatal.
Appearances
Season Two
- New Order (debut; visions)
- Deja Vu (visions; no lines)
- Franz Hopper (impersonated by a polymorphic specter)
- Contact (as a specter in Sissi's body)
- The Key (digital diary/flashbacks)
Season Three
- Aelita (flashbacks)
- Final Round (in a photograph)
Season Four
- Distant Memory
- Wrong Exposure (photograph)
- Fight to the Finish (no lines)
- Echoes (in flashbacks)
Season Five (Code Lyoko: Evolution)
Appearances in other Media
Video Games
- Quest for Infinity (no lines)
- Fall of X.A.N.A. (no lines)
Etymology
Waldo is an English given name of German origin, which started as a diminutive for several German given names ending in -wald, meaning ruler, and eventually became a name in its own right during the Middle Ages. Schaeffer is an alternate spelling of the German surname Schäfer, which means shepherd, likely referring to Waldo's role as a guide and teacher to the Lyoko Warriors throughout the first two seasons. Franz is a German variant of the Italian name Francis, which comes from the Latin word Franciscus, meaning French person or Frenchman. Hopper is an occupational surname of English origin, referring to dancers.
Trivia
- Grace Hopper was a very influential computer scientist. However, the writers have explicitly stated the code name Franz Hopper is not meant to be a reference to her, and that it is only a coincidence they share a surname.
- Waldo's only physical appearances during the show's present timeline occurred in Distant Memory and the penultimate episode, Fight to the Finish.
- Waldo, at some point in his career, worked with Tyron, one of the main villains in Code Lyoko Evolution.
- During the credits sequence for seasons two, three, and four, the contents of a secret government file regarding Franz Hopper and Project Carthage is shown to the audience.
- Waldo is shown to have been fond of the piano. In fact, the first of Aelita's memories to resurface is of him playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on the grand piano in their living room.
- In The Nameless City, Waldo is mentioned several times and seen on a videotape.
- In Finnish, he was played by Arto Nieminen.
Gallery
Seasons 1-4
Evolution
Quest for Infinity
Other