| Ulrich Stern | |
| |
| Role | Lyoko-Warrior |
| First appearance | Garage Kids |
| English voice actor(s) | Barbara Weber-Scaff |
He lives in campus sharing a bedroom with Odd and Odd's dog, Kiwi.
His feelings for Yumi are very clear, but neither Yumi nor Ulrich seem to have the courage to take the first step. They are undoubtably made to go together, but they don’t want to admit it. Despite him effectively only having eyes for her he is still the object of affection for many girls in the school for his looks, althletic ability and alluring personality. The most notable is Sissi Delmas, who has strong affections for Ulrich and is the most persistent of his admirers, often leading to trouble for the rest of the gang.
On Lyoko, Ulrich is an extremely effective warrior. With his saber he can destroy any monster in close combat as well as deflect attacks.
Ulrich, as well as Yumi, practices Pencak-Silat (an indonesian combat style permitting to strike any opponent), which becomes a great asset for him when defending against X.AN.A.'s plots on both the real world and Lyoko. Indeed, he trains harshly in all sports. He is probably the most dangerous of the gang, in both worlds, and not any schoolboy, even the strongest ones, dare to attack him.
He is in 8th grade for Seasons 1-2 and in 9th through Seasons 3-4. In Season 1 he is 13. In Seasons 2-3 he is 14. He is 15 in Season 4.
Personality
Ulrich 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 appear very quickly. The first example of this is in the first season episode "Killer Music," when Odd is about to be sent to the hospital. A similar situation occurs in the second season episode "Cold War," where he tells Yumi that he needs her and screams when she seems 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 berates Ulrich for going to the soccer game instead of helping to fight XANA, which upset Ulrich. Odd explained Ulrich's reasoning after he had left the room. He went because he didn't want to disappoint his parents, especially his perfectionist father, a businessman. This is later proven in "Final Round", when Ulrich's father appears and berates him for his failing performance in school. A clear example of his bad grades is when he got an D- on a science test in "Nobody in Particular".
In the second season episode "Vertigo", it is discovered that Ulrich has vertigo, which is a chemical disorder that causes dizziness. He shows signs of it when attempting to climb a rock wall, which reveals the condition to his friends. It hasn't seemed to affect him before this point, except in the "XANA Awakens" episodes, when he hesitates to slide down the ropes to the factory floor. Jeremie makes a comment about it. Having vertigo does not seem to be a hindrance on Ulrich when on Lyoko, but in episode "Bad Connection" vertigo does affect him on Lyoko.
Relationships
Ulrich and Yumi:Ulrich has a close relationship with Yumi, based on observation from a distance and repressed admiration, though both he and Yumi constantly waver between just friends and more than that. This admiration can sometimes cause him to do things that one might consider to be stupid. For example, in the episode "Saint Valentine's Day", he writes a poem for Yumi, but when he sees Yumi with William Dunbar, he reads the poem to Sissi instead in an attempt to make Yumi jealous. He later admits that he wrote the poem for her. Ulrich has the habit of getting jealous whenever he sees Yumi with any 15-18 year old male that is not Odd or Jeremie. When he does see Yumi with another boy he becomes obsessively jealous and starts to question his and Yumi's relationship. Ulrich also becomes extremely competitve (as seen in "Marabounta".) Ulrich also has the habit to become extremely protective of Yumi when she is in danger by cradling her in his arms or by screaming her name when she is unconscious. In the episode "The Chips Are Down" when it looked as if Yumi might move back to Japan because of business problems, Ulrich actually tried to write a letter to the president in an attempt to at least keep her near the school. He abandoned this plan once he heard the lotto numbers being announced on the radio. Instead, he copied the winning numbers and activated a return trip in order to buy a lotto ticket and give it to Yumi's parents, allowing them to win the lottery. This action temporarily cost him his position in the group, and he was banished until they could think of an appropriate response.
As of the third season, Ulrich's relationship with Yumi has been reduced to a purely platonic level. Even after this however, Ulrich still shows through his actions that he still considers them to be more than just good friends. In the episode "Tidal Wave" after saving Yumi's life, he tells her that he would do anything for her. Also, in the episode "The Pretender", Ulrich tricks a boy named Johnny, who has a crush on Yumi, into embarrassing himself in front of Yumi, because he couldn't stand the idea of anyone else going out with her. However when Odd playfully teases Ulrich about his relationship with Yumi he defensively shouts "Yumi and I are just good friends and nothing more!" In "Echoes " it is hinted that Ulrich and Yumi finally start on their romantic relationship.
Other Relationships:
Yumi is not the only person interested in Ulrich; Emily, Milly, Sissi, and Tamiya have also expressed interest in him. Sissi is the most notable of the four since she's the most persistent in trying to get him to like her back (usually through mean-spirited jokes or pranks towards him and his friends), and fails to accept any kind of defeat in the matter, at least during the first season. Quite often, Ulrich has been forced to take one for the team in regards to her, meaning he had to distract Sissi to protect their secret or fake being nice to her while the others took care of the problem, much to his displeasure. Although it is very obvious in most episodes that Ulrich dislikes Sissi, in the episode "Ultimatum", Sissi saves Ulrich's life, and then kisses him, just before they returned to the past. For the rest of the episode, Yumi notices Ulrich being stranglely nice to Sissi. However, in all other episodes, this dislike is clearly evident.
Skills
Martial Arts:On Earth, Ulrich is a capable martial artist trained in the art of Pencak Silat. At least part of this training is from Jim (presumably a great martial artist himself), as shown in "XANA Awakens" and "Canine Conundrum". He's also capable with a sword, which is his main weapon in Lyoko. He demonstrates this talent outside of Lyoko in the episode "A Bad Turn" when protecting Yumi from a materialized Krab using a real katana, and in "A Great Day" when using a pipe to sword-fight with a possessed Sissi. As evidenced by a quote by Ulrich in "Rock Bottom?", he also practices other martial arts, and in "Revelation", he copies the famous nosewiping and hopping stance of martial arts movie star Bruce Lee; this occurs during the battle between himself and a polymorphic clone that had transformed into a dark version of Ulrich.
Ulrich has, on several occasions, shown to be the most skilled in Lyoko when fighting. Many times he has defeated multiple monsters with skillful takedowns (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 XANA'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 impresive 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 killed the Kolossus, a powerful fire elemental-like creature, created by XANA by drawing energy from all the Replikas. (However, its corpse fell on him, devirtualizing him).
Lyoko Powers:
Ulrich uses a katana as his weapon in Lyoko. His sword 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 is always devirtualized shortly afterward. If disarmed, Ulrich's sword can also be destroyed through a barrage of regular laser-fire (as seen in The Pretender).
On Lyoko, Ulrich is able to move many times faster than an ordinary human at will, and can do so indefinitely. This enables him to further defy the already lessened laws of physics in Lyoko, allowing him to scale walls and propel himself great distances. In the second season, he gains an ability called "Super Sprint." This allows him to run even faster for short periods of time.
Ulrich also possesses the ability to clone himself. He can create two at a time, and can only do so once per trip to Lyoko. 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 destroyed automatically should the real Ulrich be devirtualized. When using this skill, called "Triplicate", 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 used in a second manner, called "Triangulate". In this instance, 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. The clones can also be drawn back into Ulrich in a process called "Fusion".
Lyoko Avatar
- ID Card: Ulrich's ID card shows three round chrysanthemums.
- Health: 100 Life Points.
- Weapon:
- Saber - Ulrich's primary weapon, he uses it to slice enemies in half. In Double Take, Ulrich gets 2 swords, which are simply called Twin Blades with his new team. His sabers also act as shields, capable of deflecting lasers. 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.
- Triplicate - Ulrich can create two clones of himself to divert XANA's monsters.
- Triangulate - Ulrich can form a triangle along with two clones to confuse XANA's monsters then strike them after the clones are destroyed.
- Vehicle - Overbike. Ulrich overbike is as fast as ulrich while using supersprint. Ulrich also has a Nav Skid that can shoot torpedoes on since season 4.
Trivia
- Ulrich uses a skateboard to travel to the Factory.
- In The Chips Are Down, Ulrich was temporarily banned from the team after Jeremie and the others found out about him activating a time reversion. He was brought back into the group after he confessed that his actions were selfish and disrespectful. There is a dramatic irony in this, as others of Team Lyoko have used the Supercomputer to their advantage.
- Ulrich was on the Kadic soccer team in a few episodes of the first season, most notably Zero Gravity Zone. In the second season, there is no mention of the team or Jim's coaching job, so it's likely that the team was disassembled.
- Ulrich's mobile is a dark blue, flip-style cellphone.
- In Temptation, Ulrich said he didn't know how to activate a return to the past, but he did it flawlessly in The Chips Are Down.
- Ulrich has been devirtulized while using Triangulate
- In "Hard Luck", Ulrich reveals that his least favorite monsters created by Xana are Megatanks. He also says that Hornets are his favorite.
- In season 4, Ulrich was to a scouter like gadget on his eye for the new /lyoko design. however it was dropped in favor of the headband.
- He and Yumi actually almost die in one episode
