MovieChat Forums > Robotech (1985) Discussion > Rick Hunter - an all around great guy or...

Rick Hunter - an all around great guy or a total jerk?

posted 10 years ago by DarthBill
17 replies | jump to latest

I stumbled upon this thread at www.robotech.com and decided to bring it this way and see what the fans here think.

The question: Rick Hunter, all around great guy or total jerk? From the site -

All around Great Guy:
I mean, look at him! He risks his life many times to help the weaker more innocent people in his life. He comes in the "Nick of Time" and saves Minmei countless times, and does the same for Lisa in his daring rescue in "Force of Arms".

He does gentlemanly things like shopping with Minmei, comes by late at night and gives his brand new Titanium Medal of Valor to Minmei on her birthday. He always gives his Helmet to Either Lisa or Minmei when they ride in his Veritech. He works his butt of to provide for Minmei in "The Long Wait".

Must we mention his integity? The great guy offers HIS bed to Minmei and then procedes to sleep on the couch when she stays at his house.

He also is a AAGG (all around great guy) to his guy friends too. He supports Max in his wedding, helps out Ben Dixon when he is in trouble. He cares for his friends. He even sacrifices his toy plane when he finds out that Roy as died!

Crap, he is the man!

Rick is a JERK
Ok, first off, he is totally unloyal and unfaithful to both Minmei and Lisa. When he is supposedly dating Minmei, he goes after Lisa. When he is supposedly dating Lisa, he goes after Mimei. I mean, the guy Freaking Forgets about Lisa in the episode "Private times" and tries to make it all better by showing up late and giving Lisa Minmei's Scarf! The dirt bag cant even get her a real gift.

He causes Lisa and Minmei a LOT of emotional pain. Rick basically makes Lisa become a Drunk on several ocasions. 1) In the episode "A rainy Night", Claudia invites her over for Tea. However, due to Rick's lack of concern, she is totally deprssed and asks for LIQUOR instead of Tea. 2)I forget the episode, but Lisa goes to a bar and gets WASTED!! All because Rick causes her SO much Grief.

He DOESNT support Max in the wedding at First UNTIL after he sees how sexy Miriya is.

Rick is oblivious to the fact that he causes Minmei and Lisa so much pain and suffering.

He does More bad than good.

Well there are the two sides of the argument, what are your thoughts Robotech fans of IMDB?

Speaking for myself and only myself I... am not a big fan of Rick Hunter. He was an okay protagonist for the first half of MACROSS SAGA (even if he did feel like a bit of a poser and a wannabe at times, especially when compared to someone like Scott Bernard, the protagonist of "New Generation" who felt like a genuinely cool guy) yet despite getting all the classic hero journey tropes & archetypes - the call, the mentor, lots of life threatening & life changing experiences, etc. - he was never as engaging or entertaining as guys like Roy Fokker and/or Max Sterling (of course Max is voiced by that magnificent bastard Cam Clarke so that right there makes him a lot cooler than Rick), and the triangle between him, Lynn Minmay (Minmei? I can never remember the official spelling) and Lisa Hayes was dragged out way too long and became increasingly unpleasant in the "Reconstruction Blues" set of episodes which actually threw a chunk of his character development out the window just to drag the subplot out, even though it took away from more interesting plots/characters and arguably made the intended official couple pairing of Rick/Lisa look incredibly dysfunctional if not borderline abusive. Or perhaps I overestimated his character development by the time of "Fore of Arms".

Maybe I'm looking at Rick with the wrong perspective, having grown up on 90s shows like Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Gargoyles and Exo-Squad, which had the benefits of hind sight among other things (like not being a cut & paste dub), but towards the end of MACROSS SAGA I just found myself caring less and less about him as he continued being obsessed with Minmei and treated Lisa like crap in episodes like "Rainy Night" where he talked trash to her in front of the bridge bunnies and "Private Time" where he stood Lisa up because of Minmei badgering him - and he didn't seem to be treating their date that seriously even before Minmei called, or perhaps that was just Tony Oliver's acting making it feel like Rick was treating the whole thing like he was doing her a favor. While it wouldn't be fair to say that this invalidates his more genuinely courageous and heroic acts in battle it does invalidate more heartwarming moments from earlier episodes like "Showdown" where he used the lights on his veritech to wish Lisa well on her way to Earth & admit he'd actually miss her.

By the time he had his little "wow I really can't relate to Minmei all that well" moment in TO THE STARS and had to tear himself away from her to go do his job I honestly couldn't feel anything for him, other than "Too bad, you made your bed boy, now sleep in it." From that same episode, when Rick's frantically running through the city screaming his lungs out looking for Lisa I honestly couldn't feel bad for him, couldn't even root for him, as the whole scene just did not resonate due to prior episodes and honestly the whole sequence pales compared to him rescuing Lisa at the end of "Force of Arms" where his initial character development invited some sympathy for his efforts at that time. And when Rick finally told Lisa he loved her after finding her with the whole city blowing up around them in bombastic Michael Bay style-fashion complete with the wind-breeze close ups (while strangely evoking the old poster for Gone With The Wind) I actually fell out of my chair laughing (I'm probably the only person in the world who did laugh at that scene, instead of having that "Finally!" moment that the writers intended me to have), since by then I felt like they had done a better job of showing why these two shouldn't be together - just as Minmei is too immature to be with Rick after everything he's been through, Rick is too immature to be with Lisa, the show's reigning queen of the Cannot Spit It Out Trope, despite everything he's been through, and I had a hard time believing that Lisa pouring her heart out to him on his door stop in the worst soap operatic fashion and then almost getting herself blown up suddenly gave him that maturity. And then I laughed some more when they were finally together at the fade out, so... yeah, those last stretch of episodes really soured me on both Rick and his relationship with Lisa, and seeing them get married in the Sentinels feature set 10 years later sadly didn't get rid of the bad taste.

I know Rick is kind of the face of the franchise for some people, since we wouldn't have the Sentinels feature & all those EU comics & novels if not for the fact that fans really wanted to know what had happened to him & the other surviving Macross Saga characters (and people needing to make money off the franchise in some fashion) and for all I know the EU books probably go to great lengths to show what an awesome couple Rick and Lisa are, meaning everything I just wrote is fandom heresy, but I'd be lying if I said I actually missed Rick as I moved on to "The Masters" and "New Generation" portions of the story. I suppose Rick works better as a jerk with a heart of gold type character instead of the truly genuinely nice guy who just needed to grow up a little that the writers intended him to be, but that's about the best view I can manage of him.

But what do you think, long standing fans of the Robotech saga?

For more from the source click here -

http://www.robotech.com/community/forum/read.php?id=64928
I may or may not be9&forumid=11

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 10 years ago

I always found Rick's peacenik attitude a bit annoying, so I gravitated toward Roy. I also became increasingly irritated with his Sweet Valley High romance with Minmei. But I re-read the first-gen novels recently (I know you're likely talking about the series, but their depictions aren't all that different) and I came around a bit on Rick. He's a kid when we first meet him, and his attitude and choices reflect this pretty accurately. I don't find him very interesting, but most heroes of his type aren't.

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

[–] DarthBill 10 years ago

I always found Rick's peacenik attitude a bit annoying, so I gravitated toward Roy. I also became increasingly irritated with his Sweet Valley High romance with Minmei. But I re-read the first-gen novels recently (I know you're likely talking about the series, but their depictions aren't all that different) and I came around a bit on Rick. He's a kid when we first meet him, and his attitude and choices reflect this pretty accurately. I don't find him very interesting, but most heroes of his type aren't.

I haven't had a chance to read any of those but I'll keep them in mind. I finished re-watching "The Macross Saga" today with the Sentinels thrown in for good measure and who knows, maybe I'm too harsh towards Rick as a character. I still feel the triangle between him, Minmei and Lisa got dragged out too long though.

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 10 years ago

There are some contradictions and alterations that don't sit well with some fans (Protoculture has a more mystical aspect to it, there is a sort of symbiotic connection between the Mechas and their pilots), but otherwise they're pretty faithful, and do a good job of fleshing out the story and the characters.

I read them back in high school--before I'd ever seen the cartoon--and loved them. I was surprised by how much I've enjoyed them the second time through as an adult.

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

[–] DarthBill 10 years ago

There are some contradictions and alterations that don't sit well with some fans (Protoculture has a more mystical aspect to it, there is a sort of symbiotic connection between the Mechas and their pilots), but otherwise they're pretty faithful, and do a good job of fleshing out the story and the characters.

I read them back in high school--before I'd ever seen the cartoon--and loved them. I was surprised by how much I've enjoyed them the second time through as an adult.

I'll look into them some time. You are talking about the Jack McKinney novels, right?

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 10 years ago

Yeah, those are the ones (with Jack McKinney being a pseudonym for Brian Daley and James Luceno). They've published them in 3-novel Omnibus form over the years--the first six novels are 1st Generation (The Macross saga), 7-9 are 2nd Gen, and 10-12 are New Gen/3rd Gen. There are also the Sentinels novels--and those Omibus' are perfect for reading, but if you're a collector you might want to consider picking up the original paperbacks. The covers are really fantastic. Some of the best I've seen for books of this type.

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

[–] DarthBill 10 years ago

Yeah, those are the ones (with Jack McKinney being a pseudonym for Brian Daley and James Luceno). They've published them in 3-novel Omnibus form over the years--the first six novels are 1st Generation (The Macross saga), 7-9 are 2nd Gen, and 10-12 are New Gen/3rd Gen. There are also the Sentinels novels--and those Omibus' are perfect for reading, but if you're a collector you might want to consider picking up the original paperbacks. The covers are really fantastic. Some of the best I've seen for books of this type.

Thought so. I'll look for them when I get a chance.

I'm curious to know what superturbo and EngimaticOcean would think of this subject and my unsympathetic rant...

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 10 years ago

I'm curious to know what superturbo and EngimaticOcean would think of this subject and my unsympathetic rant...

I'm sure they'll be around this way eventually. I've been running into Turbo over on the Battlestar Galactica (1978) board of late.

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

[–] DarthBill 10 years ago

I'm sure they'll be around this way eventually. I've been running into Turbo over on the Battlestar Galactica (1978) board of late.

I've never watched either version of "Battlestar Galactica". It's on my to do list, along with Voltron and Battle of the Planets.

And I suppose reason why it's a little too easy for me to dump on Rick is that he disappears after "Macross Saga" so unless you dig real deep into the EU material (which I haven't had a chance to) you don't get to appreciate the person he's meant to be once his particular part of the story ends. "Sentinels" and his brief cameo in "The Shadow Chronicles" are about the closest you get to seeing who he is after he's actually grown up. I know this is due to the cut & paste nature of how the series was put together but it's still frustrating.

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 10 years ago

I've never watched either version of "Battlestar Galactica". It's on my to do list, along with Voltron and Battle of the Planets.

I found the BSG reboot pretentious and off-putting, but obviously a lot of the internet king makers disagree with me on that. The original gets by mostly on nostalgia, but it can be legitimately fun if you're in the right frame of mind. Great production design, F/X and of course that grand theme help as well.

Voltron (Lion and Vehicle) is a childhood favorite. It's repetitive, as you tend to spend 20 minutes or so waiting for them to exhaust every other option and finally form Voltron, but it's entertaining in small chunks (2-3 episodes). I've watched a handful of the original Japanese episodes (Beast King GoLion), which I know I'm supposed to like and find superior, but I didn't. I haven't seen an episode of Battle of the Planets since I was a kid.

And I suppose reason why it's a little too easy for me to dump on Rick is that he disappears after "Macross Saga" so unless you dig real deep into the EU material (which I haven't had a chance to) you don't get to appreciate the person he's meant to be once his particular part of the story ends. "Sentinels" and his brief cameo in "The Shadow Chronicles" are about the closest you get to seeing who he is after he's actually grown up. I know this is due to the cut & paste nature of how the series was put together but it's still frustrating.

Yeah, I watched Shadow Chronicles once, and all I can recall is "Admiral" Hunter walking around looking very Glovalish.

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure:

[–] Enigmatic-Ocean 9 years ago

This is an awesome thread. There is so much to touch on here.

towards the end of MACROSS SAGA I just found myself caring less and less about him as he continued being obsessed with Minmei and treated Lisa like crap

Yes. Ugh, the "love" triangle went on for far too long. It should have ended when the Earth was annihilated and Rick flew his Veritech fighter to Earth and rescued Lisa. It was clear by the point that they were suppose to be together. As for the "love" triangle- it was nonexistent. Minmei didn't really seem to care about Rick at all. I don't even think Rick loved her either. To me it seemed like Rick was in love with Lisa, but was infatuated with Minmei. I have been in that situation (when I was younger) so I can sympathize to an extent, but it went on for WAY too long.

so... yeah, those last stretch of episodes really soured me on both Rick and his relationship with Lisa, and seeing them get married in the Sentinels feature set 10 years later sadly didn't get rid of the bad taste.

I agree. Those last few episodes were overkill for me too. As I said above (and you said too) they should have been together after "Force of Arms", and while I actually did think to myself "finally" when they finally did get together it was just a little too late to make me really care. I still haven't seen "The Sentinals" despite owning it. I really have to get around to watching it one of these days.

I'd be lying if I said I actually missed Rick as I moved on to "The Masters" and "New Generation" portions of the story

I missed Rick during "The Masters" (that's with Dana right?) I have tried again and again to make it through "The Masters" series as an adult and I just can't do it. I really should just make a real effort to get through it, but I had a hard time getting through it even when I was a kid. I actually remember turning of my television set many times when it was on. I remember really liking "New Generation", but I haven't seen it since I was a kid (back when it originally aired)and despite the fact that I own it I haven't watched it because I feel like I should get through "Masters" before I watch "New Generation".

I always found Rick's peacenik attitude a bit annoying, so I gravitated toward Roy. I also became increasingly irritated with his Sweet Valley High romance with Minmei. But I re-read the first-gen novels recently (I know you're likely talking about the series, but their depictions aren't all that different) and I came around a bit on Rick. He's a kid when we first meet him, and his attitude and choices reflect this pretty accurately. I don't find him very interesting, but most heroes of his type aren't.

I agree with your assessment of Rick. Early on he is an annoying kid, but I think back to what I was like at his age and I was very much like him. I wanted the whole world to get along, I saw no need for a military because-again- I thought that we could all just get along, I had girls who craped all over me and I loved them for it, I was overall very immature and kind of obnoxious at times. So, for me I do see the progression of Rick from being an obnoxious kid into an adult who understood how the world (universe in this case) worked. It's just that that realization should have come during "Force of Arms" and the fact that it didn't frustrates the hell out of me.

I'll look into them some time. You are talking about the Jack McKinney novels, right?

I have only read the first book (I bought all of them off of ebay around ten years ago) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was just like watching the series only better and more mature. It went into the rebuilding of the SDF-1 after it crashed, why it was sent to earth, how the Earth governments came together when it did crash, and so much more. The writers were both big fans of the Dune novels and the influence of those novels permeated through out. Which was great because they took the writing and the story VERY seriously. I am going to start the second novel with the next week or so.

but if you're a collector you might want to consider picking up the original paperbacks. The covers are really fantastic. Some of the best I've seen for books of this type.

The original novels artwork looks just like the artwork from the series. I remember seeing the re-released books and being disappointed in the covers.

I've never watched either version of "Battlestar Galactica". It's on my to do list, along with Voltron and Battle of the Planets.

The original Galactica can be a lot of fun as long as you don't take it too seriously. I have tried quite a few times to watch the remake, but I just can't get into it. I loved "Battle of The Planets" when I was a kid. Someone uploaded the entire series to youtube. I still haven't watched it, but I should get around to it one of these days. I share Fluke's opinion on both Voltron and Go-Lion.

I found the BSG reboot pretentious and off-putting, but obviously a lot of the internet king makers disagree with me on that. The original gets by mostly on nostalgia, but it can be legitimately fun if you're in the right frame of mind. Great production design, F/X and of course that grand theme help as well.

The music to the original Battlestar and the special effects are what save it. The special effects were done by many of the same people who worked on the original Star Wars and the concept designs were done by Ralph McQuarie who did all of the original concept designs for Star Wars.

Voltron (Lion and Vehicle) is a childhood favorite. It's repetitive, as you tend to spend 20 minutes or so waiting for them to exhaust every other option and finally form Voltron, but it's entertaining in small chunks (2-3 episodes). I've watched a handful of the original Japanese episodes (Beast King GoLion), which I know I'm supposed to like and find superior, but I didn't. I haven't seen an episode of Battle of the Planets since I was a kid.

There was suppose to be a third Voltron, but it never made it to America. Someone uploaded a trailer for it on Youtube. It looked as if it would have been pretty cool. I haven't seen Vehicle Voltron since it aired, but as an adult I think that I would probably prefer that version over Lion Voltron. Have either of you seen the Voltron movie where both Voltron's team up? It's is entertaining, but it's terrible. Random things blow up, Hagar the witch turns out to be a misunderstood hottie, Keith has an acid trip and... well, that's all I can remember from it at the moment.

VHS>DVD

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 9 years ago

I agree with your assessment of Rick. Early on he is an annoying kid, but I think back to what I was like at his age and I was very much like him. I wanted the whole world to get along, I saw no need for a military because-again- I thought that we could all just get along, I had girls who craped all over me and I loved them for it, I was overall very immature and kind of obnoxious at times. So, for me I do see the progression of Rick from being an obnoxious kid into an adult who understood how the world (universe in this case) worked. It's just that that realization should have come during "Force of Arms" and the fact that it didn't frustrates the hell out of me.

Yeah, I realize that a lot of the complaints I had about Rick many others have had about Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars. But yeah, that's true to how many of us were at that age. At least Lucas did mature Luke as the series went along.

I have only read the first book (I bought all of them off of ebay around ten years ago) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was just like watching the series only better and more mature. It went into the rebuilding of the SDF-1 after it crashed, why it was sent to earth, how the Earth governments came together when it did crash, and so much more. The writers were both big fans of the Dune novels and the influence of those novels permeated through out. Which was great because they took the writing and the story VERY seriously. I am going to start the second novel with the next week or so.

Cool. Keep me posted on what you think of it.

The music to the original Battlestar and the special effects are what save it. The special effects were done by many of the same people who worked on the original Star Wars and the concept designs were done by Ralph McQuarie who did all of the original concept designs for Star Wars.

As I recall, George Lucas was none too pleased about that and tried to sue Glenn Larson.

There was suppose to be a third Voltron, but it never made it to America. Someone uploaded a trailer for it on Youtube. It looked as if it would have been pretty cool. I haven't seen Vehicle Voltron since it aired, but as an adult I think that I would probably prefer that version over Lion Voltron. Have either of you seen the Voltron movie where both Voltron's team up? It's is entertaining, but it's terrible. Random things blow up, Hagar the witch turns out to be a misunderstood hottie, Keith has an acid trip and... well, that's all I can remember from it at the moment.

Wait, huh?! I had no idea such a film existed!

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

[–] vocklabruck 9 years ago

When I was around 12-14 and watched this for the first time I didn't care at all about the so called love triangle... I almost hated Minmei, Lisa was just the gal in the bridge and Rick was just ok. My favorite character was actually Max, not him. In fact, I think I had deleted off my mind the episodes that came after the SDF-1 is established on Earth and they started having a more 'normal' life, but I did remember how I felt in the finale. I was like "that's it? What a disappointment!"

Last year I rewatched the complete package as an adult, and this time I did pay a lot more attention to the characters, not just the mechas, and I understood the story behind... I felt so sorry for Lisa and she became my favorite character. I was the whole time "Oh girl, you are so freaking awesome! You are too much for that jerk! Why are you so fixated on him?" She was even cleaning his house in those last episodes, for Christ sake! And at the end when she went to his door and faced him with Minmei right there, I got totally broken-hearted. I felt really bad for Minmei throughout the entire series as well. With all the things that happened to her in her career, with her cousin, family lost, the war, etc. I found strange that she did not become a drug addict or ended up in a mental hospital, and instead still stayed so lovely!

Coming back to Rick, I think he was a jerk, LOL, not a total jerk but a jerk nevertheless, and not the cool guy he was intended to be. Roy or Max were cooler. But I did miss him during The Masters generation, because there are very few references about him or the others.

[–] bradhig 9 years ago

First he falls for Minmei and then he leaves her for some bridge bunny. He can't decide who to go with?

[–] neomusic 9 years ago

Lisa Hunter is hardly a bridge bunny, to some feminist he would be considered a decent guy and real man cause he married Lisa Hunter.

Lisa Hunter graduated top of her class and smart, intelligent and the descedent of a long line of military officers in her family.

To some guys they would be would be intimidated to date someone like Lisa cause her solid credentials and that is just as qualified as most men to brigade a job typically considered a man's job.

[–] vocklabruck 8 years ago

To some guys they would be would be intimidated to date someone like Lisa cause her solid credentials and that is just as qualified as most men to brigade a job typically considered a man's job.

I agree with that. It just like when a guy next door who does odd jobs finds a women who is a doctor in physics or another great degree. Men usually feel uncomfortable in those situations, because they don't want to be considered "less than women." In fact, I think at some point in the story Rick told Minmei something like "You are a music star and I am no-one." so he probably felt somehow the same about Lisa.

[–] manco82 8 years ago

I never forgave Rick for what he did to Lisa in "Private Time".

[–] DarthBill 8 years ago

I never forgave Rick for the way he treated Lisa in "A Rainy Night", which was just as bad as what he did to her in "Private Time".