welcome to the secret masquerade

Background

Comes from a family that hire themselves out as hired muscle

His father raised him to be loyal to his duty; no matter who hired him, their word was law

But Ulrich had staunch morals, and if his employers ever demanded him to do something unsavory or illegal, he would refuse to do it

He and his father got into many arguments because of this, but despite Ulrich desperately wanting his father’s approval, he could never bring himself to hurt innocent people

His father considered him a failure because of this, and signed him up to Carthage as a result

Ulrich considered this an absolute rejection from his father, and he started to act more ruthless in hopes of gaining his approval

At Carthage (and in the criminal world), he gained a reputation for being a ruthless mercenary, willing to do any dirty job

But he drew the line at killing, believing it was the one thing that kept him from becoming an irredeemable monster

Despite his reputation, he stayed well away from the others at Carthage, believing that anyone who would willingly join to protect their dirty secrets was evil, and he was only here because his father forced him into it

In reality, he hated Carthage; they stood against everything he believed in

But he didn’t quit because he still wanted his father’s approval, and he had an emptiness in his life he would be forced to confront without that

As a result, he struggled with a lot of inner conflict between being ruthless and capable enough to do the dirty work, but deeply and desperately wanting to do good

He initially looked down on Odd for coming from a family of killers, and Yumi for coming from a family that (he falsely believed) enabled prostituting girls to criminals

Odd was the first to tear down his walls by just being goofy and genuine

Ulrich initially wasn’t interested in getting to know anyone, but Odd kinda forced his way into his life, and his genuinely friendly personality made Ulrich question how someone like him can work for Carthage

Eventually he learned that Odd also didn’t like working for them, and he was here because he had nowhere else to go

When Ulrich learned of his family situation, and how he had never killed anyone (and was actually belittled for his aversion to it), he sympathized with him and they started to get along

Eventually, through Odd, he got to know Yumi and found out he was wrong about her family, after which he apologized for being an ass

It took a while for Yumi to forgive him, but after making him go through hell a few times, he won her forgiveness in the end

As Aelita’s bodyguard:

He was by far the most bitter about being assigned this new task, especially since he was initially pushed to join Carthage by his father

To him, being reassigned to another task made him feel like he failed, or that there was no way to prove his worth to his father now

All this made him openly hostile to Jeremie and Aelita

At least Yumi knew to keep her personal feelings out and stay professional (for the most part), and Odd still tried to break the ice and make the best of a distasteful situation

But Ulrich would sometimes outright refuse to protect Aelita, only to change his mind at the last second, because he couldn’t just let her die

Despite his initial hostility, he couldn’t deny how rewarding it felt to protect people who are good and do good things

Jeremie and Aelita don’t have any dark secrets to hide; they don’t want to be protected because they want to keep making money – they need to be protected because they’re good people who are targeted by dangerous criminals

Eventually, he questions why he’s even being cold to them, and he starts to let down his walls little by little

Then one day Jeremie almost dies protecting him, and Ulrich sheds all his doubt and fully devotes himself to the job

From then on, he becomes the most devoted to making sure Aelita and Jeremie are safe at all times

He’s the first to jump in and get aggressive if someone even remotely seems to threaten them

But he still refused to kill

He was the guy you called on to intimidate someone or beat them up to get them to talk, but not kill

Odd in particular was surprised by this, because Ulrich’s reputation in Carthage made him think he had done it before

(Yumi knew he hadn’t because she’d asked him point-blank one day)

And even after Odd learned the truth, he was surprised by how stubbornly Ulrich stuck to this principle

But once Ulrich makes up his mind about something, you can’t sway him, no matter how difficult or impractical the decision

At first, he preferred to ignore any kills the others would have to do to protect Aelita, but as the situation worsened, and he met people who were truly deplorable, he shed that limitation and began to accept that sometimes killing would be necessary

Group dynamics:

He’s the group’s designated “muscle” – Jeremie calls on him if he needs to intimidate/threaten someone, if a job needs a lot of brute force, or if there’s just some people who need a quick beatdown

Despite this, he’s far from being just a violent blockhead

He’s quiet, grounded, and reliable, and he does his best to support the group in every way he can think of

Though he can be overly sensitive and moody at times, he cares about his friends a LOT, and most everything he does is fueled by the desire to keep them safe

The others make sure to return the favor

He’s also THE most devoted to protecting Aelita, and protecting his little found family in general

Ulrich was the only one who never received any sort of love from his family (Odd at least had his parents, and his sisters didn’t hate him all the time; Yumi loves her family; Aelita never knew her parents and Jeremie lost his at a young age, but they had each other and the Lyoko Federation), so his found family is more precious than anything to him

Because of that, he feels an incredible sense of responsibility for their wellbeing, and he’s constantly pushing himself to be better, stronger, faster for them

The oni mask on his back serves two purposes:

Make himself a target for people to remember so they’ll go after him and not the others

Make himself known so people who are aware of his strength won’t mess with them

In terms of Aelita specifically, he makes sure she’s never hurt, in danger, or physically unwell

He’s also the most likely to seek revenge if she (or anyone else) is messed with

(He’s not good at cheering people up like Odd, taking care of people like Yumi, solving problems like Jeremie, or supporting people like Aelita, so he fights instead)

Also the most introspective of the group; he often reflects on how much his life has changed since meeting everyone, and how much differently he views himself since agreeing to protect Aelita

He regrets treating them so coldly in the beginning, which is part of why he’s so protective of them now, to make up for it

He’s also prone to spiral if left alone for too long, so the others make sure to watch out for him (especially Odd and Yumi)

There’s a part of him that still wants his father’s approval, and is afraid he really is the failure his father thinks he is

This is partially what fuels his desire to protect his found family; failure isn’t an option for him

Abilities

Ulrich is by far the most adept at combat compared to everyone else, not in small part because he was specifically trained to fight

Odd was trained to incapacitate/kill, while Yumi was trained (self-trained) to protect

Of the Lyoko warriors, his fighting style is the most overwhelming – he’s fast, strong, and tough; once he gets going, it’s hard to counter or stop him

Obviously, his weapon of choice is a sword; he carries around two that he can dual-wield if he needs to, but he prefers to use only one

He also has a bunch of different weapons hidden on his person in case anything happens to his swords

Hidden knives, smoke bombs, brass knuckles – this guy will make it a pain for you to fight him

If you somehow get rid of all his weapons, he’s proficient in several martial arts, and now you have that to deal with

Basically, GL fighting this guy, for real

Where Ulrich flounders is complex strategy and whenever he has to guard Aelita for extended periods under fire

He’s not stupid by any means, but because he’s so strong, he never has to be tricky or creative the way Odd and Yumi (and Aelita) do – he can just rush right in

So the few moments where brute force doesn’t work, and especially if his opponent is being crafty, he struggles

He’s also not bad at protecting Aelita (he was trained to be a bodyguard, after all), but because he’s close-combat oriented, he can’t keep her safe and fight at the same time – he has to choose one or the other

Like I wrote in Yumi’s post, he and Yumi work the best together because of that

He fights, while Yumi focuses on defending Aelita

(In contrast, Odd can adapt to being offensive or defensive depending on who he’s paired up with – or he’ll do both if he’s alone)

And that wraps up the Lyoko trio!! Next will be Aelita and Jeremie, who’ll be posted together (since their roles are pretty intertwined). I’ve already mostly come up with designs for Aelita, but I still gotta brainstorm Jeremie’s (but I’m excited!! I love my computer dork!!)