Characters / Robotech II: The Sentinels

The character page for characters who showed up first in Robotech II: The Sentinels. Characters introduced in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (or Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles) are listed here.

Robotech Expeditionary Force

Jack Baker

• Ambiguously Brown: His Robotech Remix counterpart has an ambiguous ethnicity.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: His frequent partnership with Karen Penn, and its romantic undertones, is frequently mixed with vitriolic arguments and frustration over his antics.
• Idiot Hero: Jack's recklessness frequently got Flanderized to the point of idiocy, particularly in the Waltrip brothers' comic adaptation of Sentinels.
• Kid-Appeal Character: A brash, reckless young pilot with the potential to become an ace, who is frequently compared with Admiral Hunter in his youth.

Karen Penn

• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Karen's by-the-book nature conflicts with Jack Baker's seat-of-the-pants approach to piloting and life.

Adam Reinhardt

• God-Created Canon Foreigner: Originally, this character was named Gunther Reinhardt who, according to the novels, was the same Commander Reinhardt that led the Expeditionary Fleet back to Earth at the end of the Invid occupation. Since he doesn't look much like the lavender haired officer in that episode, it was decided later that this would be his father, Adam. Either of them could be the Commander Reinhardt who was mentioned as Commanding the REF in the Robotech Masters' episode Outsiders.

Gunther Reinhardt

• A Father to His Men: As seen in The Shadow Chronicles.
• Hair Colors: Lavender hair. Along with the hairstyle and facial features, the character looks a lot like an older version of Rio from Jem
• Twinkle Smile: Subverted as Gunther is a no-nonsense kind of guy who rarely smiles. But when he speaks, the animation highlights his pearly whites which seem to glow. Coach Mitaka has nothing on Gunther.

Harry Penn

• The Professor: An REF scientist who hasn't been 'touched by Vorlons', but does what he can and holds a leadership position alongside Dr. Lang.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Harry is Karen Penn's father, who is occasionally frustrated that she's a fighter pilot getting in trouble with the likes of Jack Baker instead of choosing more cerebral or respectable pursuits. The three come to an impromptu understanding in The End of the Circle after becoming emergency roadies for Minmei, Bowie Grant, and the surviving Robotech Muses.

Vince Grant

• The Captain: Vince Grant's role when he mans the Icarus during the events of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. In The Sentinels, he commands the GMU, a gigantic Base on Wheels complete with its own Reflex Cannon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Vince started making appearances in the Macross era once Wildstorm started publishing Robotech comics.
• You Don't Look Like You: The original Sentinels' character design for Vince was not too flattering, given that he was supposed to be Black — long story short, racelifted Dozle Zabi. His redesign for The Shadow Chronicles is a vast improvement and also, possibly coincidentally gives a cool Shout-Out to Richard Epcar's most iconic voice role.

Jean Grant

• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Jean is noticeably shorter than her husband, even after the Shadow Chronicles redesign.

Janice

• Continuity Snarl: Janice is an old acquiantance of both Vince and Reinhart in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. In the movie, both act as if they didn't knew of her existence until she was found in the destroyed Deukalion. This is justified because she got downloaded to a new robot body and had a different look.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: In The Sentinels and the [McKinney] novel Expanded Universe, Janice is based on technology from computers originally found in the SDF-1^note reflecting her original concept as a robotic body for Eve from The Movie before it and Sentinels were retooled. Janice's body in The Shadow Chronicles was built using Haydonite technology, to the point where some of the Haydonites accuse her of being effectively a Half-Human Hybrid because of it.
• Manchurian Agent: Janice was originally created as a partner-slash-handler for Minmei on Earth until the two of them were accidentally folded to Tirol along with the Pioneer Expedition. To assist this, Janice was designed with a personality overlay over a more robotic personality Dr. Lang is able to awaken and directly command. After learning that Rem is accompanying the Sentinels, Lang commands Janice to join them, and attempt to befriend or seduce Rem while searching for information about Zor, the Invid, or Haydon. Her robotic nature is revealed to the other Sentinels, and herself, later in the series.
• Robot Names: Janice, or rather JANICE, stands for "Junctioned Artificial Neuro-Integrated Cybernetic Entity". The original McKinney Television Tie In Novels had Janice's prototype named "JANUS M", but the reprints perfomed an Orwellian Retcon.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After Janice's M-1 body was used to shove Edwards to the Invid biopit, the REF was able to get Janice's data. Thanks to her, they were able to download her into the new M-2 body.

Thomas Riley Edwards

• Big Bad: For the REF civil war that took place within the Robotech franchise.
• Deal with the Devil: Edwards made a secret deal with the Invid secretly, trading the REF's scans of the Sentinels' starship and its weaknesses in exchange for covert access to Invid tech left on Tirol, and open detente with the Regent after the Sentinels were thought dead.
• Gilded Cage: When Edwards becomes obsessed with Minmei, he agrees with her proposal to open a nightclub as a way to gain influence over her.
• It's Personal: The reason why Edwards hates Rick and Lisa so much. During the First Robotech War, he was stationed at the Grand Cannon. The Zentraedi bombardment of Earth, including the cannon, seriously injured him and destroyed an eye. When Rick Hunter rescued Lisa Hayes from the ruins, he didn't bother to check for other survivors while escaping — and Edwards saw the two pass him by. Edwards believed that Rick deliberately left him to die and swore revenge.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Edwards believes that dealing with the Invid Regent was beneficial to help fight the Regess, not to mention that he's fed up with corruption and inefficiency with the United Earth Government. However, he is still a dictatorial xenophobe who wanted to gain control of the REF and the Earth himself, and was willing to use the Regent as a tool for that end.
• Private Military Contractor: Part of Edwards' backstory. During the Global Civil War prior to the first Robotech War, in one version of the backstory, he was a mercenary pilot for the Greater North East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
• Token Evil Teammate: At the start of the series, he plays the Devil's Advocate for the REF at best, while trying to sabotage the Hunters, Dr. Lang, and everyone else in the way of his gaining power and authority.
• Western Terrorists: He's a member of the Anti-Unification League before he was recruited to the United Earth military.
• You Don't Look Like You: With the Wildstorm Comics reboot, Edwards underwent a drastic change in appearance. Originally, he was tall, slim and pale. After the reboot, he became more stocky and muscular with a bit of a tan. The original design was based on the character of B.D. from Megazone 23 (which became Robotech: The Movie in which the character of B.D. was appropriated for Robotech as T.R./B.D. Edwards)^note This refers to the original script for Robotech: The Movie, which was essentially a dub of Megazone 23 part 1 with Robotech references. It was originally set during the year that the SDF-1 was returning to Earth from Pluto orbit. This was rejected by Cannon films as not having enough action, so it was spliced with Southern Cross footage and the time reset to the Robotech Masters era. Since this timeframe overlaps with the Sentinels and Edwards was established as being away from Earth with the REF, the B.D character was renamed B.D Andrews. The reboot design appears to draw from Capcom's Street Fighter'' franchise. In his younger years, he looked somewhat like Guile or Charlie. In his later years, the artist was clearly inspired by M. Bison.

Nolan Benson

• The Dragon: To Edwards after the latter tells hims of his intentions to start a coup.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: Leader of the REF's Ghost Squadron. His unit proved their worth when they engage regular REF forces as they tried to detain Edwards.

Kazianna Hesh

• Ascended Fangirl: A flashback in The End Of The Circle showed that she became a Hero-Worshipper of Breetai after he led a team that saved a Quadrono squadron she led from annihilation. After the Rain of Death and Mirya discovering love with Max, she realized that Zentraedi could also love Zentraedi, and seduced him while they were mining on the planet Fantoma.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Kazianna is pregnant with Breetai's son when he dies in battle with the Invid Regent. His son, Drannin, is a supporting character in The End Of The Circle.

Haydon IV

Veidt

• All There in the Manual: He allegedly appears as one of the Haydonites in Shadow Chronicles, but is only identified in The Art of Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles.
• Evil Chancellor: Veidt serves as the REF's main alien ally in the Shadow Chronicles continuity. His kin decided to take out the REF due to their exposure to Protoculture and he approves of it.
• La Résistance: He's a known Sentinels member who joined up because Prime Administrator Vowad and the majority of Haydonites didn't want to get involved in fighting against the Invid.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Veidt's an antagonist in Shadow Chronicles, but he's otherwise known to be the Haydonite ambassador.

Invid

Invid Regent

• Authority Equals Asskicking: The Regent leads his forces against the REF and against Edwards who goes rogue and fights him.

Tesla

• Boxed Crook: Tesla, the Invid scientist responsible for gathering the original Sentinels as prisoners for the Regent, becomes their prisoner after their rebellion. He is then repeatedly coerced into assisting the Sentinels in their war.
• Evolution Power-Up: Part of Tesla's plan is to gain power by eating raw fruit of the unique Flowers of Life seeded on the Sentinels' homeworlds, which allows him to evolve into a Spear Counterpart of the Regess while gaining Psychic Powers.
• Token Evil Teammate: Despite becoming a de-facto Sentinel, he remains unrepentantly evil, and successfully plots to gain power to free himself and challenge the Regent for control.

Tirol

Cabell

• Mentor Archetype: Cabell was the mentor of the original Zor, as well as guiding Rem in the main story. He also helped create Exedore, the first Zentraedi clone.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Cabell managed to create Rem as a free clone of Zor, his original student, hoping to either make up for his failures with the original or find a way to follow in Zor's footprints.

Rem

• Backup Twin: Rem is another clone of Zor, created without the knowledge of the Robotech Masters or the brainwashing that was performed on Zor Prime. The resemblance is clear, but Cabell is able to play it off the first time Dr. Lang sees Rem in person.
• Genetic Memory: After being tortured by the Invid garrison on Garuda by being forced to breathe the psychedelic atmosphere, the Regess is informed that Rem is experiencing visions of Zor's past. This ultimately sets her on the path to leave the Local Group behind and search for Earth. Later, in The End of the Circle, a combination of the energies of "newspace" and the presence of Minmei drive him toward a deeper vein of Zor's memories.
• Science Hero: A self-proclaimed Robotech Master and student of the original Zor's teacher, Rem is eager to charge into the battlefield when he needs to.

Peryton

Burak

• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Burak feels this after he works with Tesla in fighting alongside the Sentinels.
• La Résistance: He's a known Sentinels member, and the sole leader of the Perytonian faction of the group.
• Messianic Archetype: Largely due to Tesla's manipulations, Burak evolves into a messianic state of mind while representing his people in the leadership councils of the Sentinels. Ultimately, he and a humbled yet repentant Tesla sacrifice themselves to free the world of Peryton from the curse-slash-Negative Space Wedgie plaguing it.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Burak allies with Tesla because the Invid prisoner promises to support the Perytonian's efforts to have the Sentinels liberate his homeworld.

Karbarra

General

• Amusing Alien: They look a little like the Care Bears. The breathmasks that they wear make them look like they are smiling. The Sentinels' comics have a few bit characters that fall into Affectionate Parody territory. In End of the Circle, a Kabarran space captain and his crew are a lot like that of a certain famous starship. The one shot comic special Worlds of Robotech: Smith World (Karbarra) features a Karbarran detective who is assigned to hunt down Invid still hiding on Karbarra after their occupation was defeated. His name is Carnarva Smith but he's a bear shaped alien who dresses, acts like a parody of, and has a gun very similar to Rick Deckard.

L'Ron

• La Résistance: He's a known Sentinels member; along with his wife Crysta, he is the leader of both the Karbarran faction and the captain of the Farrago.
• Named After Someone Famous: He's named after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Crysta

Spheris

Baldan

• La Résistance: He's the leader of the Sentinels' Spherisian faction, and a known resistance fighter before his capture.
• The Nth Doctor: When Baldan is trapped in a fractured stone on Praxis while a dying Genesis Pit is destroying the planet, he's forced to give birth to a stone that Teal eventually helps awaken into a new incarnation of himself. "Baldan II" is treated as a new character, but soon grows to fill his father's shoes thanks to Amnesiac Resonance and the help of the other Sentinels.

Teal

• Heroes' Frontier Step: Teal becomes a more active leader among the Sentinels after she accepts the responsibility of shaping the stone that Baldan left to regenerate himself, essentially becoming the mother of "Baldan II". In the end, she sacrifices herself the same way the original Baldan did while Storming the Castle on the Invid homeworld, despite not even having the option to use the same escape method he used.
• La Résistance: She's a known Sentinels member. However, she wasn't in the resistance before she was captured, and only met Baldan beforehand.

Garuda

Kami

Learna

Praxis

Bela

• Amazonian Beauty: She's about seven feet tall.
• Chainmail Bikini: Most of the Praxians wear this.
• Demonization: Bela and the Praxians get along well with everybody except for the Tirolians Rem and Cabell. This isn't just Fantastic Racism. The Praxians had bad experiences with the Robotech Masters, of which Cabell is one.
• Gentle Giant: Bela is very pleasant and unlike a lot of Amazon warrior tropes, does not dislike men at all. She becomes fast friends with Rick Hunter and Dr. Lang. And acts like a mother towards Jack Baker, teaching him some warrior ways. She does not mind when under the command of men and actually admires the brave men of the REF, except of course Edwards and his henchmen.
• Lady of War: Bela is very level headed and open minded.
• Ms. Fanservice: She wears revealing body armor.
• The High Queen: She becomes this, in a way, to the Praxians after the death of Arla-Non.

Gnea

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Tesla places Gnea and Jack Baker under mind control later in the novels, so he can have them act as his "guards" to avoid suspicion.
• Cute Bruiser: She's almost Bela's height but looks like a teenager.
• Enemy Mine: Gnea, like the rest of the Praxians, do not trust Tirolians such as Cabell or Rem. After Admiral Hunter teams her up with Rem for a guard watch during the Karbarran liberation campaign and something inevitably goes wrong, Gnea is impressed by Rem's bravery during the battle and he wins her over.
• Hooked Up Afterwards: During The End Of The Circle, she and Angelo from Southern Cross get caught in a Negative Space Wedgie while exploring the mysterious planet dubbed "Omphalos" that appeared from nowhere in "Newspace". While exploring the empty void they find themselves in, the two start talking about their respective relationship issues, and things escalate to a sudden Forceful Kiss, and soon to the pair awkwardly realizing that the Regess' disembodied face was looking down on them making out. Fortunately, it ends well; once the main plot is resolved, Angelo takes Gnea home to meet his parents, and they love her, Chainmail Bikini and all.