Ben Dixon (fictional character)

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Ben Dixon is a fictional character in the Robotech universe. In the original Macross version, his name was Hayao Kakizaki.

Ben, along with his best friend Max Sterling, become rookie wingmates under the command of newly promoted Lieutenant Rick Hunter, forming the Vermillion Squadron with Roy Focker watching over them. While Max is quiet and shy, husky Ben is jovial, gregarious and fashions himself (or rather overrates himseslf) as a ladies man. He and Roy are fellow jokesters and often team up to tease Rick over the romantic circle he's involved in with Lynn Minmei and Lisa Hayes. Under the watchful eye of Roy, Ben, Max, and Rick became a tight-knit group during the early days of the war with the Zentraedi.

Ben is similar to the World War I RAF pilots depicted in the 1930 film The Dawn Patrol in that their off duty hours were filled with hedonistic pusuits as a way of coping with the life of a combat pilot. That being said, it always seemed that Ben's cockiness tended to get him in situations that were more than he could handle. His first mission under Rick saw the demolition of his veritech by the enemy. Though not at all an incompetent pilot, Ben was not quite an ace pilot like Rick (who had years of stunt flying experience) or a piloting genius like Max. Nonetheless, he courageously held his own in battle and had an impressive kill record. Out of the three, Ben seems to require the most repairs to his plane after a battle. Sadly, Ben's phenomenal luck runs out when, during a malfunction of the SDF-1's omnidirectional barrier system, the barrier explodes and Ben is caught in the blast. Following the recent loss of Roy Fokker, Ben's death comes as another painful blow to Rick, Max, and Lisa.

[edit] External links

• The Invid Connection (Beyond Reflex Point) - Information on Robotech and Macross