People rarely know what to do when they're hit with a challenge. How they handle it is what distinguishes them from everyone else.
- Arlo to Blyke
Arlo is the trigatonist of unORDINARY and is a fourth-year student of Wellston High, and the third ranked student in Wellston. He was also the school's former King and strove to maintain order in Wellston until he was eventually dethroned by John. He was offered this position again when John resigned but declined. He agreed to aid Seraphina against an organization called Spectre, and joined the Authorities in part to gain influence to help on that front.
Appearance
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Arlo is a young man with wavy blonde hair, angular blue eyes, "angry eyebrows", and small light-blue stud earrings. At the end of his first year and beginning of his second, he was noticeably short, being called a "pipsqueak" when attempting to assert his authority as King. By his fourth year, however, he is very tall; towering over nearly all of his classmates except Holden. He is seen wearing a Wellston school uniform during school hours. His speech bubbles are yellow. When using his ability, his eyes glow with a bright blue light.
Ideology
Duty and Order. Arlo is a strong believer in The Hierarchy, and in every person knowing their exact place on it. In his ideal world, every person would slot neatly into their naturally-assigned role on the social ladder, taking direction from those immediately above them, and managing those directly below them, allowing order to be easily maintained at all levels without abuses of power, or over-burdening the High Tiers.
He believes the stronger have a duty to lead the weaker, finds it shameful when unfair fights between those of widely disparate powers occur, and believes that the strongest are the natural choices for positions of ultimate authority.
Arlo's respect and desire for duty and order arose out of the harmful chaos he witnessed from Rei's reign as King of Wellston, and are the source of his ultimate goal of working for The Authority, which he places a great deal of faith in.
His ideology is flawed, since the majority of those in the hierarchy do not have his sense of duty to maintain it, dislike their position in it, and are more than willing to rely on power differentials to bully those much weaker than them.
Arlo has his ideologies challenged throughout the series by Seraphina, John, and the information discovered about the Authority's corruption. Seraphina first excused herself from her role as a Royal, a choice Arlo could not comprehend, and then upset the Hierarchy when she lost her position and became a cripple. John, whom Arlo initially felt he was required to follow, since John was stronger, demanded that Arlo ignore the new social order by protecting the cripple Seraphina, and made Arlo realize that strength does not automatically mean a person is fit to lead.
Personality
Arlo is known for being very authoritative and domineering. He displays a lot of leadership characteristics and remains cool, calm, and collected in various situations. Almost nothing phases him and he isn't very impulsive. However, his arrogance, manipulation, and cunning nature often makes him dislikable, to the point where readers refer to him as Asslo. In addition, he has a serious fixation on the hierarchy and people abiding by it. He has also been shown to go to extreme measures in order to maintain it. Furthermore, he displays a lot of apathy when it comes to bullying pertaining to the lower tiers, as he deems it normal, all in the name of their social order; hierarchy. Lastly, Arlo is loyal and somehow empathetic only when it comes to the affairs of the royals or his friends.
But after getting beaten twice by John and officially losing his title of King, Arlo seems to have become considerably more humble and understanding towards other people and their situation. He has even stated that he no longer cared about the title of King anymore. This is further exemplified after he discovers the truth of the authorities and Ember. He decides to help Remi with the safehouse and Seraphina in recovering her ability. Further, he declines the title of King when John offers it to him, as he was going to graduate soon, and instead passes the title to Blyke.
History
Young Arlo with his...role model?
Arlo's aunt, Valerie, was a member of the Authorities, and a major influence on Arlo's perspective. When Arlo was little, she told him that her job was to stop all the bad guys, and that he could always come to her if he ever ran into trouble. She instilled within him absolute trust in her, and the Authorities by extension.[3] Eventually, Valerie and Arlo stopped talking for a while, likely around the time Arlo became the king of Wellston.
Arlo was once King of an unnamed middle school he attended.
Three years before the events of unORDINARY, Arlo began his first-year as a student of Wellston and served as the Jack to Rei, the King. Arlo was not fond of Rei's leniency towards the lower tiers and always found himself helping weaker students. Despite this personality quirk, Arlo admired and respected Rei, especially considering he was powerful enough to actually break through Arlo's Barrier and best him in a fight.
Arlo about to use his deadliest weapon, the fork.
Arlo vowed to his graduating predecessor to maintain the King title as long as he remained in Wellston. He became Wellston's King starting from his second year at school, making him the youngest king to ever hold the title. [4] Upon ascending to king however, Arlo found that Rei's rule had left many high-tiers unwilling to cooperate with him; furthermore, Arlo had to deal with the constant fights that broke out in Wellston, with low-tiers attacking high-tiers and high-tiers doing whatever they wished. Slowly but surely, Arlo built up the school's hierarchy, beating down any troublesome student that dared questioned his power and authority.[5]
Arlo in attack mode
Early on during his second year, Arlo met Blyke and Isen, who were causing a racket with their argument. Though Arlo was Wellston's King, neither Blyke nor Isen listened to Arlo's commands; to grab their attention, Arlo threw a fork into a wall and called the two elite-tiers outside. Arlo promptly defeated both Blyke and Isen simultaneously that day.[5]
Former King and Queen
After Remi dethroned Cecile as Queen and Seraphina ascended to Ace, the matter of who would take over as Jack arose. Arlo wanted Cecile to take the role due to her power, but Remi did not. After days of fruitless arguing, Seraphina put and end to the matter by choosing Blyke. Arlo was furious with her decision, seeing it as a betrayal of the hierarchy; ever since his relationship with Seraphina soured.[6]
Powers & Abilities
Being the third ranked student at Wellston and it's former King, Arlo posseses unmatched strength against most of his classmates. Like Seraphina, Arlo has been a destined prodigy throughout his entire life, giving him a massive boost in confidence. He was able to become king of an unnamed middle school. It should be noted that during his second year, Arlo was an elite-tier with a level of 4.8 before ascending to high-tier with a level of 5.4 that same year. At some point, he cultivated his ability to the point where he ascended to a god-tier.[5] With his Barrier active, Arlo possesses one of the highest defense stats in unORDINARY.
Barrier
Arlo has the ability of creating defensive barriers and can use them as force fields and makeshift traps. His barriers also can also inflict damage by reflecting attacks onto the attacker. While his barriers are, for the most part, unbreakable, Arlo can simply walk through them as if they don't exist.[7] However, Arlo can be hurt if one of his barriers are broken.[8]
Physical abilities
Arlo has shown that he is capable of hand to hand combat without using his ability. As shown in his battle against John, Arlo managed to use his arm to knock away John's wind blade, without the aid of his Barrier. According to a Fireside Chat with Uru-chan, Isen, who is capable of stopping a semi truck with his bare hands, is incapable of budging Arlo's arm.
Arlo's passive is invulnerability to most attacks. This is shown multiple times when John punches Arlo and Arlo is unaffected, as well as the time John bruised his forehead when he accidentally walked into Arlo, and remarked that Arlo had a jaw of steel. According to a Discord interview, Arlo's passive is a 6.5 defense stat.
Intelligence
Not only is he powerful, but he is also a cunning planner as he was the one who orchestrated Seraphina's suspension as well as other elaborate plans to wear down John's patience and get him to reveal his true colors.[9] When Seraphina was found unconscious at John's house and was almost captured again, Arlo was able to discern John's plan of stalling while Elaine could not.[10]
Influence
Arlo was not only the King of Wellston, one the most prestigious schools in the area, but also is a god-tier. Not only that, but he has relatives such as Valerie who work for the Authorities.
Weaknesses
As a god-tier, lower-tiered individuals are unable to stand up to Arlo and his high defense. This is shown when Illena punches his barrier, dealing massive recoil damage to herself while the barrier didn't even crack. Even without his Barrier active, his high Defense stat allows him to win battles relatively unscathed. However, Arlo's Barrier is also his greatest weakness; cracking the Barrier also damages Arlo and completely shattering the Barrier can weaken him. The Barrier also appears to retain all damage taken for a period of time, as shown during the Season 1 finale.
Quotes
- (To Rei) "No, I prefer to stand. I enjoy looking down on people."
- (Inner thoughts) John, you have all this power and you keep it all to yourself. Always moping around, pretending to be the lowest, when you can influence so much with your strength. How selfish, you're no good to society.
Notes & Trivia
Arlo, wielding The Fork
- A reoccurring gag in UnOrdinary is Arlo threatening people with a fork. He did this in to Isen in the latter's imagination[11] and to Uru-chan in the UnOrdinary Bonus Episode.
- It's revealed in a flashback in Chapter 137 Isen's imagination stems from his and Blyke's first confrontation with Arlo. Arlo's first demonstration of power was snatching a fork away from a student eating lunch and throwing it hard enough to get stuck in the wall behind the duo.
- Many fans and even Uru-chan have "affectionately" nicknamed him "Asslo". Even Remi calls him this in-comic.[12]
- Some fans have dubbed Arlo "Brolo" in Chapters 47 to 53, in which he seemed to be more friendly to John. This was later rectified when Arlo revealed the full extent of his plan, causing him to get the nickname Asslo back. "Brolo" made a comeback however, when Arlo agreed to help Remi with the safe house after learning the real reason for Rei's death.
- Arlo was the second confirmed God-tier in Unordinary, the others (in order of confirmation) being Seraphina, Narisa, John, Leilah, Jane and Liam. Of these, he is the second least powerful.
- The name 'Arlo' means 'fortified hill'. A good fit, considering his ability.
- When Seraphina broke Arlo's barrier during turf wars, Arlo didn't cough up blood. However, during any other occasion where his barrier has been broken, Arlo started to cough up blood.
Cameos
Arlo, credited as Asslo, appearing in I Love Yoo.
You think you know a guy...
- In Quimchee's webcomic I Love Yoo, Arlo's nickname "Asslo" appears in 10th place in the arcade game Fabio Kart.[13]
- In Enjelicious's webtoon Age Matters, Arlo appears on the TV, singing with John about a petition to stop hair gel. (Episode 13)
- It was revealed in a Twitter exchange between uru-chan and lifelight that Prince Hayashi of lifelight's My Dear Cold-Blooded King had secretly been Arlo all along! When confronted by his creator over this revelation, Arlo merely stated that she had never asked.