Ulrich Stern is one of the main characters from the French animated television series Code Lyoko. (along with Jeremy, Aelita, Odd, and Yumi, whom he falls in love with during the series and often finds himself dealing with his romantic feelings for her.)
Description[]
Ulrich is the tallest member of the group, with scruffy-looking dark brown hair and dark eyes. In the first three seasons, he wears a vest with a shirt over the top and cargo pants, all in shades of green, with trainers. After season three, his outfit changes to a dark green shirt, army jacket and blue jeans. On Lyoko, Ulrich's form is similar to that of a Samurai, with an Oni drawn on his back and a single Katana sheathed on his left hip. In the fourth season, this changes to a yellow and brown body suit, he also gets a second Katana and they are both sheathed on his back.
Personality[]
Ulrich is the introvert of the group. He doesn't say much about his personal life and is evasive when someone asks him about himself or his family. He seems to have trouble opening up to people and hides his feelings in order to use them all the more explosively in action. Whenever someone is in danger, his feelings tend to surface very quickly. The first example of this is in the episode Killer Music, when Odd is sent to the hospital and later on slips into a coma and Ulrich blames himself for not being there when Odd had needed him. A similar situation occurs in the second season episode Cold War, when Yumi is trapped under a fallen tree during a blizzard and he cries as he tells her that he needs her while holding her, after several failed attempts to free her, and screams when she appears to have died.
Though on the outside, Ulrich appears to be fairly emotionally strong, he deals with hidden issues few could understand. One cause of this are his parents, who are very hard to please and have high expectations of their son. In Zero Gravity Zone, Jeremie Belpois berates Ulrich for going to the soccer game instead of helping to fight X.A.N.A , yet Ulrich does not retaliate or change his mind. Odd explains his reasoning after he leaves the room that Ulrich wants to go because he doesn't want to disappoint his parents, especially his perfectionist father who is a businessman. This is later proven in Final Round, when Ulrich's father appears and berates him for his failing performance in school (and even insults his friends, accusing them of being a bad influence on him, despite having never met them). A clear example of his bad grades is when he receives a D- on a science test in Nobody in Particular and receives a F+ on a test in another episode (the plus being added "so he can do worse on another") despite having tried his sincere hardest to get a passing grade.
Skills[]
On Earth, Ulrich is a capable martial artist trained in the art of Pencak Silat (a martial art system from Indonesia). At least part of this training is from his PE teacher Jim (presumably a great martial artist himself - although he'd rather not talk about it), as shown in X.A.N.A. Awakens, Canine Conundrum and Revelation. He's also capable with a sword, which is his main weapon in Lyoko.
Ulrich has, on several occasions, shown to be the most skilled in Lyoko when fighting. Many times he has defeated multiple monsters with skillful take downs (particularly in the third season), and has outlasted the others, being the last to be devirtualized, such as in the episode Code: Earth. In the second season episode, Revelation, Ulrich is forced to face off against a polymorphic clone of X.A.N.A.'s while in Lyoko. In the beginning, he is shown taunting the clone (which at the time had taken the form of Odd, his best friend) by saying that Odd had never beat him yet. This implies that Ulrich is definitely stronger than Odd. Then the clone transforms into a clone of Ulrich. After a long fight and an impressive display of swordsmanship and martial arts, Ulrich beats the clone, showing once again that he has impressive abilities. Also, in Fight to the Finish he kills the Kolossus, a powerful fire elemental-like creature, created by X.A.N.A. by drawing energy from all the Replikas. (However, its corpse fell on him, devirtualizing him).
Weapons and Powers[]
- Weapon:
- Katana - Ulrich uses a katana/saber as his weapon in Lyoko. Ulrich use it to slice or stab enemies. His katana is capable of absorbing normal laser fire and can deflect it if positioned correctly. He cannot, however, block specialized attacks, such as a Megatank's elliptical laser or a Blok's ice beam. The latter may simply be a matter of timing, as the Bloks tend to catch Ulrich off-guard when using that attack. The Megatank's elliptical laser, on the other hand, has proven to be too much for Ulrich to handle, due to the sheer amount of force behind the attack. Ulrich can only block the attack for a short period of time and the katana is always devirtualized along with Ulrich himself shortly afterward. Ulrich's katana can also be destroyed through a barrage of regular laser-fire (as seen in The Pretender). In Double Take, Ulrich gets 2 katanas, which are simply called Twin Blades. Also Ulrich would seem to be an expert with the sword since he once stated "I could do the same thing when X.A.N.A. attacks in reality."
- Lyoko Powers:
- Super-sprint - Ulrich can run extremely fast in Lyoko. Leaving a line of yellow from where he has been, but in Evolution the line's color changes to blue.
- Triplicate - Ulrich can create two other clones of himself to divert X.A.N.A.'s monsters. But, each clone only has 1 Life Point. The clones appear to be controlled by Ulrich through telepathy. The clones have every ability he does, with the exception of cloning themselves. They can only take one hit before being destroyed, and are automatically destroyed should the real Ulrich be devirtualized. When using this power, Ulrich simply creates the clones as assistants. At first, Ulrich's control of these clones seemed rudimentary at best, since they would often be easily hit. As the series has progressed, his control of them has refined. In the episode Tip-Top Shape, he was able to use his clones to fight three groups of monsters (a Krab, a Blok, and three Kankrelats) without losing a single clone to his opponents. He even toyed with the final Kankrelat, having one of his clones kick it into the air so he could strike it in mid-flight. The clones can also be drawn back into Ulrich in a process called "Fusion".
- Triangulate - Ulrich and the clones form a triangle around their target. A silhouette of Ulrich then runs around the perimeter of that triangle, forming a golden barrier. This is meant to confuse the target so Ulrich can destroy it. After the technique is finished, any remaining clones revert to their assistant state.
Trivia[]
- In the original series, he is the only member of the Lyoko Warriors to have 3 ID cards.
Gallery[]
External Link[]
- Ulrich Stern on the Code Lyoko Wiki