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hitachi-haya · 1 year ago

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Code Lyoko fan survey: William Dunbar and trauma

Results are finally in! Thank you for your patience while I got this all sorted.

A while ago I posted a link to a survey asking for your opinions on whether or not William has trauma following his possession by XANA throughout season 4, and if so, how it would affect him. There were also questions about William's relationship with the Lyoko Warriors and whether or not they'd ever let him join the group again. The survey got 80 responses with a range of differing answers and opinions.

I didn't explain the reason why I made the survey at the time, and a lot of people were curious about it in the feedback I got. Let's just say I'm glad a lot of you seem unhappy with the way William was written in Evolution, because part of what sparked the idea for the survey was an analysis of his character in Evolution and questioning whether or not they really did him justice. But outside of that, it was definitely interesting to hear so many people's opinions on the topic.

As some of the responses pointed out, trauma is a complicated topic and there are many what-ifs involved with where William's character could go after the series finale. Some respondents also indicated that they were aware that Code Lyoko is a show aimed at kids, so it wouldn't be allowed to get too dark, and there are some things that probably shouldn't happen but the writers would force it for the sake of drama and whatnot.

I also appreciate the people who mentioned how the Lyoko Warriors have been through a lot of terrible stuff as well, and it's very likely they'd be traumatised and this shouldn't be completely overlooked when discussing William's experiences and potential trauma.

Thank you to the people in the Discord server for letting me bounce ideas off them and helping to refine the set of questions I wanted to ask, especially @souljellied for proofreading and sharing the link around on other sites. And thanks to everyone who filled out the survey! I appreciate people taking the time to fill this out, as well as the kind feedback I received.

Content warning for discussion of trauma/PTSD and various symptoms. Drug use and self-harm are mentioned by name but not discussed. Image IDs are in the alt text.

Now let's get into it! Warning, this post is long.

Methodology

The survey was hosted on Google Forms. There were two multiple choice questions, one asking about the respondent's familiarity with the show and the other being "Do you think William would have trauma after the series finale?" The rest of the questions were long-answer.

In an earlier version, a couple of the questions were going to be multiple choice instead, but I wanted to leave everything open-ended to see what answers people would naturally think of without me leading them to those answers. A lot of the William trauma discussion I'd seen in the past mostly revolved around the fallout of XANA-William, his memories of those events and his relationship with the Lyoko Warriors, so I was curious to see how many people would talk about how William's absence and his clone impacted other parts of his life, such as school and his relationships with friends and family.

I also only gave example answers when I felt the question may be too vague, like I didn't want people to answer the question "Which do you think would be the main source(s) of his trauma?" with "His being possessed by XANA" because that answer isn't very specific. When giving examples, I tried to go for ideas I'd seen people talk about often, like for that question it was "Memories of his time under XANA" and "Pushed away by the Lyoko Warriors," and I avoided mentioning school or his social life for the reasons I explained in the last paragraph.

But long answer questions meant I couldn't get easy numerical data from the raw results... So I read through all the answers, made a spreadsheet with a list of recurring ideas for each question and then tallied up how many people mentioned those ideas in their answers. When an answer was unique, I noted it separately from the tally. The tally data is what I used to create the charts. (I hope you like Google charts because I couldn't find a better program to make them in.)

I'm no statistician by any means. I did my best to analyse the numbers and make the appropriate charts to represent the data. I hope it will get the main points across, but there could easily be correlations that I missed. I've posted the spreadsheet here, along with all the charts I created. If anyone else wants to do their own analysis, I'd love to see it!

I don't currently have any plans to post the original responses, but if there's enough interest I could anonymise the answers (the survey was anonymous but some people voluntarily identified themselves) and post those as well.

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Results Section 1: General questions

Do you think William would have trauma after the series finale? Do you think William remembers any part of his time under XANA? If yes, how much do you think he remembers? How do these memories surface? For example, does he remember only the times when he fought for control, or every moment of his time under XANA? Are the memories fresh in his mind or do they come as occasional flashes or nightmares?

Most people believed that he would have trauma, and he would remember at least some part of the time he spent under XANA's control. It was nice to see that trauma and memory retention weren't always perfectly linked.

I do have to note, although I encouraged people to answer the survey even if they didn't believe William had trauma, I imagine some people who would have answered no simply didn't bother taking the survey. I wouldn't apply this "93% yes/6% no" ratio to the entire fandom, only the people who responded to the survey.

There were 2 people who answered that William does remember being possessed but isn't traumatised by it. One of those people said the memories would come as nightmares or hazy recollections, and he would harbour some anger towards the gang. On the other hand, the second person said he would have full recall and the only effects it would have on his behaviour are that he's more level-headed and is good at thinking things through and giving others advice.

On the other side of it, there were a few people who decided he wouldn't remember anything, but his trauma would come from other sources, such as the knowledge that he had been possessed, being rejected by the Lyoko Warriors, or the months of his life he'd lost and the way it impacted his relationships and school life.

We're told in the show that just like every other victim of XANA, William can't remember anything from when he was possessed, but it's definitely a common fan theory that he was lying or that the memories resurface later on. And that's fine! There's a lot you can do with that idea, so if that's what you want for your story, then go for it. But it's also refreshing to see people discussing William having trauma without those memories, because he was gone for several months and it would have definitely had a significant impact on his life going forward.

Now we break it down into which parts he remembers, and how he remembers them. This was all one question and some people answered one part but not the other, for example saying his memories come to him as nightmares but not specifying which memories they were.

"Lucid moments" is how I've referred to the times he fought for control, like in episode 76 The Lake. "Major events" can include things like lucid moments, fights against the Lyoko Warriors, activating towers, "dying" (being devirtualised after losing a fight) or being sent to Earth. "False memories" refers to memories XANA fabricated and planted in William's mind to confuse him, so he doesn't know what was real.

One person suggested that memories of major events and the times he fought for control would be more repressed, because he couldn't stand to remember the things he did and how he wasn't able to regain control.

"Full recall" means he can clearly remember everything. "Gradual recall" means he doesn't remember at first, but the memories return to him over time. There was some suggestion that the montage of XANA-William fights in episode 95 Echoes was William remembering those scenes himself.

Memory triggers often included the Lyoko Warriors, but also things such as technology or imagery like "Yumi holding a paper fan."

One person said William would know what XANA's plan for the robot army was.

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How do you imagine his relationship with the Lyoko Warriors after the series finale? Do they accept or reject him? Does he try to regain their friendship or does he avoid them?

Most people thought the Lyoko Warriors would accept William as a friend, but a lot of people thought the opposite.

As some people pointed out, it may seem unfair that the Lyoko Warriors pushed William away after they rescued him, especially since Jeremie and Aelita were possessed by XANA on a few occasions. One person brought up episode 31 Mister Pück in particular and the scene where XANA-Jeremie nearly kills Odd, and asks why the gang seem unbothered by that but they decide to reject William. Was it because of his carelessness, or maybe the amount of time XANA-William served as the face of the enemy? We should definitely account for the fact that the rest of the gang were much closer friends with Jeremie than they were with William.

When it comes to discussing the decision to reject William, we do need to consider the Lyoko Warriors' trauma. For almost two years they had XANA trying to murder them every other day - they saw a lot of really scary stuff that William never experienced. If William is traumatised, then it's a very different trauma to that of the Lyoko Warriors. Coupled with William basically being the face of the enemy for several months, I can personally see why the gang wouldn't immediately welcome him back with open arms.

A lot of answers specified which of the Lyoko Warriors would be the most/least accepting, so here's a graph. Bear in mind this only includes the answers where people specifically named individual characters, and doesn't include data for answers like "The whole group accepts him."

Aelita was definitely the clear winner when it comes to accepting William as a friend and offering him help, and not just in this question but in several others as well. Since she's been possessed by XANA several times and made to do terrible things, she can relate to William the most, as shown in episode 94 Fight to the Finish.

Odd was the second most likely to accept William as a friend. Yumi is next on the list but she was also rated the most likely to reject William outright. Jeremie was rated mostly indifferent, and Ulrich was rated to either be indifferent or reject, not accept.

Mixed answers with regards to the nature of their relationship after the series finale. "Chill acquaintance" means William is someone they talk to at school occasionally, but isn't a full-fledged member of the group. "Support group" means the gang offer him support for what he's going through (since he can't really talk to anyone else about the time he got possessed by an evil computer virus).

There was some suggestion that Jeremie would want to get information from William and/or run tests on him. This would tie into people saying William had some memory of XANA's plans.

It's not shown on the graph, but 12% of people mentioned something about William being fully friends with the gang prior to being possessed. Others noted he had very few interactions with Odd, Aelita and Jeremie, so they considered Yumi his only real friend from the Lyoko gang.

Some of the people who talked about William avoiding the gang gave reasons for it.

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Do you think the Lyoko Warriors would invite him to join the group if XANA returned or a new enemy appeared? How would they come to that decision?

Most people said the gang would accept him back as a Lyoko Warrior, for various reasons and with some caveats. There were a lot of big "if"s in this one and a few people gave a few different ideas without being able to settle on a definitive answer.

Of particular note is the fact that William knows about Lyoko and is immune to the return to the past. Even if the gang managed to avoid him noticing them sneaking off, he would definitely notice when an RTTP was launched. One person suggested Jeremie could erase William from the RTTP to avoid this happening.

No one said it explicitly, but I felt there was some slight suggestion that he may be able to use his knowledge to blackmail the group into letting him join again.

One person said he probably shouldn't be allowed back into the group, but the show writers would bring him back for the sake of tension. Some said it would depend on the enemy.

Several answers said it would depend on how hesitant or insistent everyone is, both William and the gang. Some said the gang would be conscious of William's trauma and wouldn't want to drag him back into the fight unless he was ready. Several answers said the Lyoko Warriors would be divided on whether or not to let him in; Aelita was named the most likely to accept him and try to convince the others, while Yumi and Ulrich were most resistant. Whether or not William has insider info on XANA was also a factor in some answers.

The following charts break down people's reasons for their answer yes/maybe/no.

"Because of past behaviour" includes not just his behaviour on Lyoko in episode 65 Final Round, but also his behaviour towards Yumi in particular.

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How do you think his life in general would be affected?

This question was added after an initial round of answers showed that the rest of the questions may have been too specific and didn't get people thinking about the bigger picture of William's long absence. This question allowed for a broader range of answers and allowed people who didn't go to section 2 to give their thoughts. However it did also tie into answers for the next section, so I decided to merge the data.

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Section 2: William's trauma

This section was only seen by people who answered yes to the question "Do you think William would have trauma after the series finale?"

Which do you think would be the main source(s) of his trauma? Note "The time he spent under XANA's control" isn't the preferred answer here because it isn't specific. Yes William was possessed, but how does that leave him traumatised? What are the consequences, how does it impact him personally? "Memories of his time under XANA" or "Pushed away by the Lyoko Warriors" are possible sources of trauma, for example.

A variety of answers as to the source(s) of his trauma.

"No memory" comes up here, referring to William knowing that he was possessed by XANA and his body was used to hurt his friends, but having no idea of the specific things that he did. Particularly when a Lyoko Warrior acts resentful towards him for a specific event he has no recollection of.

"No support/coping mechanism" often went hand-in-hand with the idea of the gang avoiding him after the series finale, so he has no one to talk to about his experience.

"Reality of Lyoko/XANA's existence" is definitely my favourite, just this knowledge that Lyoko exists, XANA exists and is a massive danger to humanity, you can be walking around one day and then this entity comes along and takes control of your body, that's just a thing that can happen! Terrifying!

A couple of people noted that long-term virtualisation, particularly with all the time William spent in the Digital Sea, could potentially cause some distressing physical effects.

Other sources included lingering emotions/intrusive thoughts from XANA-William (e.g. wanting to hurt the Lyoko Warriors), getting repossessed in episode 94, vague feelings of having been possessed (as opposed to specific memories), and being unfairly blamed by the gang.

Some people also got specific about the traumatic memories and aspects of his clone's reputation that would most cause trauma.

There's the question of how well his clone performed in school and what sort of grades would be on his record. Some people thought the clone was intelligent enough to get straight As, then William's grades would drop when he returned. However, people usually talked about William-clone at school in reference to his social life, not his grades.

There was also the idea that he had been replaced by a clone for several months and no one had realised it wasn't really him.

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How do you think the trauma might affect his behaviour?

Note while this whole survey is about trauma and everyone who answered this question also answered yes to "Does he have trauma," this chart only shows the number of people who mentioned PTSD/trauma as a symptom in their answer to this question.

Miscellaneous symptoms include:

Self-loathing for having trauma

Sleepwalking

Obsessively checking the time and date

Fear of: jellyfish, the sea, loneliness, certain sounds, the dark, technology

One person suggested he would get angry at Sissi for buying into the idea that the clone was just him playing a prank, since they'd bonded previously, surely she should have known it wasn't really him.

On the other hand, other people said Sissi could make great friends with William, since they share a lot of similar experiences with strange phenomena, being possessed by XANA and being gaslit (and I do mean gaslit, not just "lied to") by the Lyoko Warriors.

One person said, given the opportunity, William would probably side with XANA again due to how bad his life on Earth was now (in their opinion, failing social and school life, rejected by the gang), which would make for a better explanation of his betrayal in Evolution episode 15 Spartan.

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What sort of coping mechanisms do you imagine he might use to deal with the trauma, if any?

Hobbies included (ones that were mentioned often are in bold):

Art

Writing

Music

Swimming

Social media

Video games

TV/movies

Graffiti

Clay eraser

Martial arts

Techniques for mindfulness and self-reassurance included:

Reminding himself it's not his fault

Breathing exercises

Touching things to remind himself he's not on Lyoko, he's in control

Trips to the factory

Physical and visual checks to see he's not possessed

Talking through his memories to regain control

A couple of people said he would avoid alcohol and other drugs because he never wants to feel like he's not in control of himself again, or to black out and have no memory of his actions again.

Therapy was a very common suggestion for an ideal solution, but the number here is so low because several people also said it would probably be unattainable, either because he just can't access a therapist or because he wouldn't be able to talk openly about his experiences. Some wondered if he would even bother going if he could access a therapist. Some said his parents would force him to go after they witnessed the debacle in episode 93.

Once again, some people suggested he would get support from Aelita specifically, one even calling it a sibling bond.

Some of the people who said William would bottle up his emotions also said it would eventually lead to a breakdown.

A few people suggested him leaving the school, either by choice or because his parents force him to. A couple also suggested he would leave the country. (One of those people said he would still rejoin the group if a new threat appeared, but would assist them remotely.)

There was a broad range of answers to this question, a lot of them unique. Here's a list!

Helping others

Attention-seeking

Physical touch

Making jokes about his traumatic experiences

Meeting new people, partying hard

Avoiding triggers/reminders

Religion

Kiwi as an emotional support animal

Talking to Yumi

Seeking information and proof of XANA-William and his actions

Avoiding Yumi

Crying himself to sleep

Pursuing friendship with Sissi, bonding over their experiences

Avoiding video games

Sticking to crowds

Reckless sex (when he's older)

Studying marine biology

Befriending the Lyoko Warriors

Easing off on his flirtatiousness

Blaming the Lyoko Warriors while ignoring his own faults

Aggressively pursuing Yumi

Pursuing a new relationship

Listening to music on repeat

Training extra hard to be the best on Lyoko

Hold out until graduation, everything will be ok when he never has to see the Lyoko Warriors again

Nothing could help him cope

And in this graph you can see the ratio of positive, negative and neutral coping mechanisms, though there is a degree of subjectivity with determining which was which and what the respondent was going for when they suggested each idea. Largely though, although there were a lot of negative responses, it looks like most people had a more positive outlook on his coping mechanisms and recovery.

Conclusion

Well I hope that's everything, congrats if you made it this far haha. A lot of passionate fans answered the survey, so I hope people find this as interesting as I did, and I hope I did it justice. Thanks again to everyone who participated!

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