1.) The Actors/Characters
I'll start off by addressing the elephant in the room. The show is in live-action to the dismay of many of the viewers.While I don't find this to be a flaw in of itself, it is connected to many of the shows faults.
The Actors: Aelita(Léonie Berthonnaud) looks like an alternative punk rocker.Her pink hair looked fine in animation but in live action she just looks silly. She lacks the level headed, kind and intelligent demeanor she had in the original series. Odd(Played By Gulliver Bevernaege)while lacking a likeness to the original has actually improved from the original series. Other than that, Yumi(Melanie Tran),Ulrich(Quentin Merabet),Jeremy(Marin Lafitte) and William (Diego Mestanza) as well as Leonie and Gulliver play their roles adequately.
On a side note, I couldn't help but notice the whitewashing of a well known, or should I say the only black character in Code Lyoko, Sam.There were plenty of colored women on set so claiming that there were no auditions is not an excuse.
The Rule Changes: So, it seems now that everyone has the ability to deactivate towers, due to "codes" that X.A.N.A left within our heroes to insure it's survival. If the children lose these codes, they will lose their ability to deactivate towers, including Aelita. This is problematic in numerous ways. First of all, there is Zero explanation as to how X.A.N.A. did this or how exactly the heroes carry them around. Are the codes just floating around in their bloodstreams? Your guess is as good as mine. Does this now mean that X.A.N.A. can take away Aelita's ability to fight it? How does the transfer of these codes into the other kids give it the ability to take away Aelita's predestined abilities? Plot holes like these are rampant in this season. And to retrieve these "codes" from the warriors, X.A.N.A. sends specters to hug the children... Oh, how I wish I was making that up.In order to retrieve the codes from our heroes, X.A.N.A. sends indestructible, polymorphic, superhuman electro-kinetic specters to HUG the protagonists... It's not even a suffocating hug...
The Lack of Progression: What I mean by this is, for something with 26 episodes, there was a noticeable lack of any significant events in the season. There are no new sectors, in fact two of the sectors are missing entirely. There are no new characters... worth mentioning at least, as well as characters straight up missing from the original show. No new locations and very little done with the license.
The Enemies: We have the return of X.A.N.A., the rogue homicidal Artificial Intelligence that terrorized our heroes in the original series, which would have been fine if it wasn't a dry inferior copy-paste cut out of the original. Previously, X.A.N.A. was set on the destruction of humanity, here he just seems set on screwing with a group kids.We have Tyron, who's laughably absurd hair looks like something out of a Dr.Seuss book.I kid you not, Google image him now.The specters,practically the main threat of the original series have been reduced to slowly walking Hugga Bears who pose no threat whatsoever. In the original series, the specters/possessed were sinister villains with taunting dialogue,monstrous features and brutal superhuman abilities. Here, they're just blank silent zombies with nothing to offer but Jason Vorhees style chase scenes and maybe banging on a couple of doors.
5.) X.A.N.A. Itself:Possibly the greatest fault of all. Let's face it,the greatest part of Code Lyoko, was it's villain. It was a clever, decisive and versatile foe that would destroy everyone and anything in it's path. Let's look at the interesting ways X.A.N.A. has left us in awe.
It rampaged through the town as a giant teddy bear, turned flesh to stone, hijacked military assault aircraft and orbital lasers, raised armies of wasps, rats, robotic canines, plants and even zombies for crying out loud.X.A.N.A. was a brilliant super villain and it pains me to see it reduced to nothing, whilst this Tyrone persona replaces it as the main antagonist.
The Conclusion:What conclusion? Beyond my comprehension, the season had the audacity to end on a bloody cliffhanger.That's really funny considering that this was meant to be a series send-off and that years later, no news for a sixth season have been announced.
Update(6/13/17): It has recently come to my attention that the writer of the original series, Sophie Decroisette not only quit mid-production but also disowned this season. She claims that it's "Not Code Lyoko". Need I say more?
I'll start off by addressing the elephant in the room. The show is in live-action to the dismay of many of the viewers.While I don't find this to be a flaw in of itself, it is connected to many of the shows faults.
The Actors: Aelita(Léonie Berthonnaud) looks like an alternative punk rocker.Her pink hair looked fine in animation but in live action she just looks silly. She lacks the level headed, kind and intelligent demeanor she had in the original series. Odd(Played By Gulliver Bevernaege)while lacking a likeness to the original has actually improved from the original series. Other than that, Yumi(Melanie Tran),Ulrich(Quentin Merabet),Jeremy(Marin Lafitte) and William (Diego Mestanza) as well as Leonie and Gulliver play their roles adequately.
On a side note, I couldn't help but notice the whitewashing of a well known, or should I say the only black character in Code Lyoko, Sam.There were plenty of colored women on set so claiming that there were no auditions is not an excuse.
The Rule Changes: So, it seems now that everyone has the ability to deactivate towers, due to "codes" that X.A.N.A left within our heroes to insure it's survival. If the children lose these codes, they will lose their ability to deactivate towers, including Aelita. This is problematic in numerous ways. First of all, there is Zero explanation as to how X.A.N.A. did this or how exactly the heroes carry them around. Are the codes just floating around in their bloodstreams? Your guess is as good as mine. Does this now mean that X.A.N.A. can take away Aelita's ability to fight it? How does the transfer of these codes into the other kids give it the ability to take away Aelita's predestined abilities? Plot holes like these are rampant in this season. And to retrieve these "codes" from the warriors, X.A.N.A. sends specters to hug the children... Oh, how I wish I was making that up.In order to retrieve the codes from our heroes, X.A.N.A. sends indestructible, polymorphic, superhuman electro-kinetic specters to HUG the protagonists... It's not even a suffocating hug...
The Lack of Progression: What I mean by this is, for something with 26 episodes, there was a noticeable lack of any significant events in the season. There are no new sectors, in fact two of the sectors are missing entirely. There are no new characters... worth mentioning at least, as well as characters straight up missing from the original show. No new locations and very little done with the license.
The Enemies: We have the return of X.A.N.A., the rogue homicidal Artificial Intelligence that terrorized our heroes in the original series, which would have been fine if it wasn't a dry inferior copy-paste cut out of the original. Previously, X.A.N.A. was set on the destruction of humanity, here he just seems set on screwing with a group kids.We have Tyron, who's laughably absurd hair looks like something out of a Dr.Seuss book.I kid you not, Google image him now.The specters,practically the main threat of the original series have been reduced to slowly walking Hugga Bears who pose no threat whatsoever. In the original series, the specters/possessed were sinister villains with taunting dialogue,monstrous features and brutal superhuman abilities. Here, they're just blank silent zombies with nothing to offer but Jason Vorhees style chase scenes and maybe banging on a couple of doors.
5.) X.A.N.A. Itself:Possibly the greatest fault of all. Let's face it,the greatest part of Code Lyoko, was it's villain. It was a clever, decisive and versatile foe that would destroy everyone and anything in it's path. Let's look at the interesting ways X.A.N.A. has left us in awe.
It rampaged through the town as a giant teddy bear, turned flesh to stone, hijacked military assault aircraft and orbital lasers, raised armies of wasps, rats, robotic canines, plants and even zombies for crying out loud.X.A.N.A. was a brilliant super villain and it pains me to see it reduced to nothing, whilst this Tyrone persona replaces it as the main antagonist.
The Conclusion:What conclusion? Beyond my comprehension, the season had the audacity to end on a bloody cliffhanger.That's really funny considering that this was meant to be a series send-off and that years later, no news for a sixth season have been announced.
Update(6/13/17): It has recently come to my attention that the writer of the original series, Sophie Decroisette not only quit mid-production but also disowned this season. She claims that it's "Not Code Lyoko". Need I say more?