Ult-imate Ult character analysis (Aka. Why Ult is the best-written pokemon horizons character)
(i love 2 analyse but cant write essays for shit so hopefully this is coherent!!)
I believe Ult has the best character writing in all of Horizons, which is a hot take ik (most of the fandom hate him…) but listen to me ok!! I have a long long list here so hear me out!! Its organised into 4 categories: his Narrative purpose, Societal purpose, Character in relation to Roy, and Miscellaneous. No section merely analysing him alone as those details are sprinkled throughout!! Enjoy the long post!!
Many people complain that Ult appeared out of nowhere or is merely a legends ZA advertisement, which is a fair initial reaction, however looking back i think he was a great choice.
While the ‘annoying boy’ trope was previously filled by Roy (who was a much less sexist execution of it compared to most, with Liko and him being equals, his admiration for Dot and Rhyme as a mentor, singing, etc) , his maturation between seasons to replace the ‘cool but responsible mentor’ of Friede meant that the cast would be lacking conflict. Conflict doesnt mean fights, but just characters disagreeing, behaving irrationally (justifiably or not) or even just having comedic banter. Previous examples would be the various consequences of Dot’s agoraphobia, Roy’s loudness, his enthusiasm to explore new things. These can cause tension or drive the story in interesting directions.
Ult being annoying and selfish is precisely in order to bring back conflict, and i think the writer’s bravery to make him actually rather unlikeable at the beginning allowed him to function extremely well in this role (leaving him shrouded in mystery allows for the audience to build empathy and try to understand him naturally before being implored to, which is just more interesting for the audience). He butts heads regularly with the cast early on (i dont need to give u an example. Think of basically any Ult and Roy interaction.) While tensions are low with Exceed, he causes the character drama between a lot of the cast to keep things interesting. His character growth into a less afraid and more emotionally vulnerable person, which causes the conflict he causes to decrease in intensity and frequency, aligns smoothly with the RVT’s increasing conflict with Exceed. He keeps things interesting by being immature, loud wacky, which is why he tends to get a few lines each episode.
While its clear he was introduced to advertise Legends ZA, he’s not limited to it, instead furthering Emma’s story and serving as a smart way to ease in the cast into lumiose (this was written before the return to lumiose in season 4 so dont @ me lol).
More notably, he serves to ground the RVT’s with his starting role as an outsider to the crew, demonstrating clearly the character development arc and morality that is later applied to other characters. Redemption and further concepts of morality are rarely explored within seasons 1 and 2 of horizons, as the antagonists (spinel and the explorers who had not yet grown to question him) were not particularly those who would abide to moral code. Amethio is the first hint of morality ambiguity within Horizons, however he is not able to fully redeem until season 3 (i will explore this later*).
Season 3 is distinct to the previous seasons in that it introduces wider trainer society as a threat to the RVTs through Spinel’s lies. People such as Bocco/Dash and Ryan (grafaiai kid,, i forgot his japanese dub name) are well intentioned and innocent people who fall victim to strong spheres, and even Ult does at first — he is in essence the perfect victim for the strong spheres as he is vulnerable and power hungry. However it is through the guidance of the RVTs that they realise it is dangerous and prioritise the importance of the bond with their pokémon (the generic ‘message’ of the series: the importance of bonds with others). Ult is the first to undergo this specific variety of arc, and his presence subtly teaches the cast how to convince others unlike them and serves as proof of the concept that people will be willing to listen to them and change. This sort-of-redemption-cycle is so influential its even applied to the Explorers to an extent.
Ult’s joining of the RVTs is simultaneously important for his growth in finding a home and people to trust, and symbolic of an alignment with the morals they teach. Insecure about it at first, he eventually grows into it and is able to reassure others in the way he was by the RVTs: *He says he trusts Amethio because the RVTs do and he trusts them. There are many parallels that can be found between the two (both with complicated family dynamics and having ran away from home, despite VASTLY different childhood financial backgrounds) and i think the scene of them together consolidates both’s development in their ability to accept each other and not feel threatened or insecure. Maybe thats a separate analysis for another day lol.
An often understated factor in Horizon’s writing is the fact that it is made with impressionable children in mind, and thus makes sure to have a good and clear morality as well as positive characters for young audiences to see themselves in. Horizons already stands out in that regard by having a female MC (although i do have my gripes with Liko’s writing), but i think they have a unique, compelling and INCREDIBLY important message to kids through Ult’s character.
A lot of people chalk him up to being a basic ‘annoying chaotic young boy’ character, an often obligatory trope in kids media (e.g. sonic in sonic boom, cat boy in pjmasks… honestly Ash). Unlike most of those, he is allowed to grow and change in a mature way that is INCREDIBLY WELL DONE FOR A KIDS SHOW — his rude and self-centred behaviour is able to be explored as not an inherent personality trait of young boys (that young girls are expected to tolerate, which is a common trope in kids media that i think sets back feminism in younger generations a lot by encouraging women to work harder and be kinder to compensate for irresponsible men-) but as a product of his childhood, and something he improves on.
Ult really shines as a character to encourage empathy in the audience for those from less fortunate backgrounds by allowing them to see how a difficult upbringing can affect a character negatively socially, without it reducing them to those negative traits: giving Ult room to have preferences, goals, good intentions and humanity. Homelessness is such a sensitive topic yet horizons manages not to sweep it under the rug for fear of scaring young viewers while also allowing it to not define Ult’s character.
You can see it in small details such as the foreshadowing before his homelessness was confirmed and the fact he is not portrayed as excessively greedy or desperate for food or other necessities like in the way he eats when with Emma in the Lumiose 3 parter (which is a REALLY negative stereotype im glad they avoided). His enjoyment of food, messiness and occasional hoarding habits are not bad as a shameful or ill-intentioned thing, they are shown to be just a part of him due to his past, which allows him to enjoy living differently or struggle more than others depending on the situation. Even with a dark backstory and ongoing struggles even after he is no longer homeless, his story is undeniably hopeful and i think he is a great role model for kids who ‘’act out’ due to adults not appreciating their struggles’ to be able to view themselves in a positive light.
His character turns a common childrens media trope into something to explore the real life struggles of children with, allowing kids to develop empathy and understanding that those who misbehave are not inherently bad.
What can be seen through his relationship with Roy:
Ult and Roy parallel eachother, with Ult reflecting a younger Roy from previous seasons. It highlights to the audience how much roy has grown: how he has been able to become a more competent person and even leader like Friede whom he admired, yet is unable to be fully comedic and lighthearted with the pressing issue of exceed. Roy views Ult as annoying yet harmless, perhaps a reflection upon his own carefreeness in the past. It is distinctly an unbalanced relationship from the beginning; Ult is younger, is less worldly and has less and smaller pokémon, as well as is often ignored, scoffed at or undermined. Roy has no obligation to be completely kind and tolerant to Ult (although he still knew abt Ult’s history and told him he was off the ship that one time,,, dude wtf) and he tries to tolerate him, but he means far more to Ult than Ult does to him for that to solve their problems.
To Ult, he is an idol; almost perfect in a way he believes he can never be (due to the stagnant state of his childhood, insecurities we’re not so sure about in relation to Salt, and the amount of the world and development he missed out on) and overcompensates with claims of grandiose plans of being the ‘mega-strongest trainer’ (he can definitely be described as ‘chunni’: where 12-13 year olds are dramatic and try to be mysterious despite literally being a normal kid lol) Roy initially was enthusiastic about learning all about the world from his limited experiences on his rural island — current Roy has seen everything whereas Ult is limited to urban lumiose, he naturally views Roy as a freer version of a person like him. This is only reinforced when he hears of all his amazing adventures in laqua with the black rayquaza — Ult is jealous as his strong pokémon refuses to talk to him, while Roy has the respect of something similar, and then gets lucario as well. Ult’s desire for the Black Rayquaza was somewhat out of a jealousy of Roy’s strength from being with Rayquaza, yet more so a desire to attach himself to him (again, doesnt think he can be strong) in a misguided attempt to be like the one he admires, or even to try and even their mismatched playing fields. It hurts him to see Roy successful.
This is why it is impactful when Ult allows Roy to get Rayquaza. Even if it hurts him, Ult has learnt to have faith in himself (over time, notably due to getting dragonite and
Lacey’s training encouraging him to see past brute strength), and Roy has learned to be gentler with Ult when the time is right (over time, mainly after he almost ran away, as he realised Ult was acting out of insecurity and fear), thus they are able to battle together and he is able to actually support Roy in his success, a parallel to his flippancy about ‘taste’ at Roy obtaining Lucario. My prediction for the end of their relationship is that Ult will obtain a Lucario-like pokemon that enjoys battling and is an equal in power to lucario (i thought it would be Hawlucha because of its boastfulness… turns out it was Mustards 😔) in order to cement Ult’s development by showing he is on equal footing with Roy, and is now a well rounded fighter and person :) (horizons pls hire me)
Miscellaneous details i love (aka. Propaganda):
- Forgive me in advance as i am not a native Japanese speaker!! in jpn dub he refers to himself with ‘ore-sama’, which roughly means he views himself as a tough, masculine boss-figure to be respected. His overblown ego is so funny lmao. It goes to show how insecure his inability to help himself as a homeless child made him desperate to be in control of himself.
- Rock collection. So cute. His pokemon also have gems so they’re technically part of it 🥹
- his facial expressions are always amazing. Studying sassology at sass university from graduate Roy who was taught by founder of sass Friede
- Literally just the way he always does stupid stuff in the background. Like the time he falls asleep standing up while the gang talk to Geeta </3
- Sableye is a based pokemon and i love the way he interacts with it
- The way dragonite carries him like a baby… it had to have raised him alongside Salt right
- Now and then he will mix and match complex and simpllistic language, a common trait of those raised with minimal language education who learnt to read or write later in life! From the top of my head he says “wishy-washy” and “i take umbrage with you” in the same dialogue in one sub version of the Quaquaval episode
- Love the complexity of his backstory and how they allow him to feel a multitude of feelings abt it, especially that he is not expected to be satisfied with just livinf with Emma because ‘its better than his life before’ (i.e. the simplification of the desires of those in poverty to be merely that of first world problems, and ignoring their wants and personality past their base needs). This kinda goes in the societal section buuuuut idgaf im tired
Thank you so much for reading!! I hope i convinced someone to at least think of him more kindly lmao. I may add more sometime if anything comes to mind, but these are my main points!
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