Hubert Lipton

About
Hubert Lipton is the former Lieutenant General of the Helman Second Army, the son of Thoma Lipton, one of the strongest humans to have ever lived, and the best friend and trusted right hand of Patton Misnarge.

Hubert was born toward the end of the Gi Era to Thoma Lipton and an unknown mother. Due to Thoma's promise to protect Patton after the death of Paelina Misnarge, Patton and Hubert were raised together essentially as brothers and formed a lasting, unbreakable friendship. During this time, Hubert also met and befriended Hunty Kalar, Patton's guardian, and Aristoles Calm, a young archery prodigy who was also taken under Thoma's wing. The three of them usually played together and formed a very solid and long-lasting friendship.

Throughout his childhood, Hubert maintained a rather massive complex about not living up to his father's legacy. As a result, he devoted himself to constant training in order to meet his father's expectations and achieved knighthood at the incredibly young age of 13, but was still dissatisfied with himself as his friends continued to outperform him. As a present for becoming a knight, Hubert was given the sword Shiranui by his father, which he had found while exploring a dungeon in JAPAN. Though he was honored to receive the weapon, Hubert felt that he was unfit to wield something of its caliber.

By his twenties, Hubert had rose to the rank of Lieutenant General of the Helman 2nd Army and served under his friend Aristoles at Fort Banra at the border between Helman and the Monster Realm. During this time, the succession war between Patton and his younger half sister Sheila Helman had been brought to a boiling point. Though Hubert continued to support Patton as the rightful heir, the pressure brought on from the conflict, along with the manipulations of the recently appointed Prime Minister Stessel Romanov, led to Patton losing all the ambition he previously possessed, causing him to become a delinquent and distancing himself from Hubert. When news spread that both Patton and Thoma had died during the 7th Helman-Leazas War, Hubert was saddened by his father and friend's supposed deaths but also felt conflicted over their rash decision to suddenly attempt to occupy the enemy nation.

A few months following the incident, during the events of Rance IV, Hubert was recruited as a member of the Ylapu City exploration team led by aristocrat Bitch Golch, along with Dens Blau, Io Ishtar and Merim Tser. Despite being Bitch's subordinate, Hubert made no attempt at hiding his hatred of him, going against any orders that he disagreed with, such as rescuing Shizuka Masou from his clutches when he attempted to have his way with her. During this time, Hubert formed a close relationship with Dens, who encouraged him to open up about his depression over the deaths of his loved ones as well as his dissatisfaction with the sudden shifts in Helman's government.

After Bitch activated Toushin Upsilon, Hubert narrowly escaped the ensuing massacre due to Dens sacrificing his life for him and a sudden rescue by Freak Paraffin, who informed him of the Holy Magic Sect, the dangers of Upsilon, and Patton's survival. Agreeing to assist Freak in destroying the Toushin, Hubert formed a shaky alliance with Rance and his party, and the group worked together to bring down the Godly War Machine. Hubert and Freak were eventually separated from the group to battle the corrupt Tousho Dio Calmis, but proved to be too weak to battle the powerful metallic warrior. Miraculously, the two were saved by Hunty Kalar, who, through a combination of entering a pseudo-dragon form and Shiranui's full power, defeated Calmis and escaped from the collapsing island with the help of the dragon Cantel. Following this event, the wounded Hubert was reunited with his best friend Patton, who had drastically changed since they last saw each other and had now vowed to become stronger to remove the corruption that had plagued Helman. Impressed by his friend's growth and unwilling to return to the now totalitarian Helman Empire, Hubert agreed to assist Patton in overthrowing Stessel's regime.

In Rance IX he is a member of Patton's rebellion troops under the command of Rance. He uses the magic katana Shiranui and wears a JAPANese armor in battle. Both these items were found in his father's weapon collection, Shiranui being given as a present to him by his father when he was much younger. Due to his inferiority complex Hubert tries to give Shiranui to other members of the rebellion troops such as Rick Addison, but he's constantly told to have more confidence in himself and keep the sword. After Freak's death at hands of the Tousho Bustat he's able to unleash the katana's true form and use its full power, defeating the Tousho in the process, though at the cost of breaking the sword. After the Revolution ended, he became the Commander in Chief of the newly formed Helman Republic's military and the General of the 3rd Helman Army, following the legacy left to him by his father.

Personality and Appearance
Like most Helman men, Hubert is quite tall, standing at 197cm. He has long red hair that is slicked back across his forehead and prominent eyebrows that greatly resemble his father's. He is noted to be quite handsome, as both Ho Raga and Freya Idun express interest in him during Kichikuou Rance. Throughout Rance IX, he is forced to wear a fake mustache to hide his identity while moving around Helman. When wearing the fake mustache he is frequently noted to look much older than he actually is, with several characters mistaking him for a middle-aged man, much to his annoyance.

Hubert possesses a rather laid back and sarcastic personality, exuding a great amount of confidence due to his mellow attitude and dry wit. Despite this, Hubert tends to be much more serious than the other members of the Patton Faction, likely due to his own insecurity over being too weak to support them. His general reservedness brings a much needed stabilizing quality to the generally reckless group and makes him a valuable asset to the team. He has been the best friend of Prince Patton Misnarge since childhood, and has loyally supported him throughout their lives. Though Hubert recognizes Patton as his lord, he does not treat him any differently than he would a person of common birth, and mentions multiple times that his loyalty is out of friendship, not servitude. In return, Patton treats Hubert as an equal and deeply trusts and respects his opinions. The two are frequently described as being as close as brothers, and they often engage in playful banter and teasing with each other, even during tense situations. Hubert's loyalty to Patton overpowers his loyalty to his own country, and is what allowed him to turn his back on Helman to assist his friend in his rebellion against it. Following Stessel's defeat, Patton entrusted Hubert with protecting his beloved younger half sister Sheila during her efforts to rebuild Helman, further showing the depth of their bond.

Since childhood, Hubert has struggled to find his own identity outside of the shadow of his father Thoma. While Hubert deeply respected his father, he was constantly worried about meeting his expectations, causing him to work tirelessly to become a knight comparable to him. Despite this, Thoma felt nothing but pride towards his son, and trusted him with the protection of Patton following his death. Though Hubert was saddened by his father's death, he believed that Thoma had no regrets in his final moments, as it was always his greatest wish to fall in battle against a worthy opponent, causing him to not hold any grudges against Rance for being said opponent.

He held a deep respect for Freak Paraffin, who he viewed as both a friend and a mentor. Their relationship was comparable to that of a grandson and his grandfather, as they were capable of casually joking around with each other while still showing strong love and affection. Following Freak's death at the hands of Tousho Bastet, Hubert was thrown into an incredible rage, allowing him to awaken Shiranui's true power for the first and last time.

He had a very close friendship with his teammate and subordinate Dens Blau. Despite Hubert's attempts to hide it, Dens recognized his emotional stress during the mission, which had followed the apparent deaths of his father and Patton, his best friend since childhood. Dens encouraged Hubert to open up about his conflicted feelings regarding the state of Helman and provided him with emotional support throughout their time together. In return, Hubert referred to Dens as his partner and treated him as his equal despite Hubert's higher military standing.

Of everyone in the Patton Faction, Hubert is the only member who is doubtful of Rance, disliking his manic and brutish nature and often struggling to keep him in line. Nonetheless, Hubert is willing to work alongside him due to his trust in Patton's confidence in Rance's abilities. Rance is generally indifferent to Hubert, to the point of forgetting his name throughout Rance IX. Rather than remember his name, Rance chooses to give Hubert the nickname "Red Beard" due to the fake mustache he wears throughout the game. Rance comes to rely on Hubert's mustache as a means of identifying him so much that he is unable to recognize him when he isn't wearing it, and demands that he continue to wear it, as he claims that his face is too forgettable otherwise.

Abilities
Befitting the son of the strongest man in the world, Hubert is an extremely talented individual, possessing both a very high Level Cap of 60 and several versatile skills. He is recognized as a very powerful warrior by all of his allies, with Patton going so far as to name him alongside the likes of his father and Rolex Gadras, the famed Demon Swordsman of Helman, when asked who he believed the strongest person in his country to be, and even Rance expressing stunned disbelief at his strength following his victory against Tousho Bastet.

He is exceptionally skilled in swordplay, to the point of earning praise from the likes of Rick Addison for his ability. His fighting style is an even mix of strong offensive attacks and firm defensive protection, allowing him to effectively serve as both a warrior and a guard. Beyond his abilities as a swordsman, Hubert also possesses skill in archery and cow-riding, and is competent at military organization and leadership, further increasing his usefulness. Despite these many talents, however, Hubert lacks a single area which he completely excels at, causing him to be overshadowed by the extraordinary people he surrounds himself with, resulting in him developing a sense of inadequacy.



For most of the series, Hubert wielded Shiranui, a katana found by his father at the bottom of a dungeon in JAPAN. It has the amazing ability to increase in power based on the user's fighting spirit, surpassing even the likes of Chaos and Nikkou at its maximum power. Shiranui's power was hampered considerably by Hubert's lack of confidence in himself, however, as his refusal to accept himself as a worthy wielder prevented him from unleashing its full potential. Nonetheless, Shiranui's sharpness and Hubert's skill with a sword allowed for him to still be very effective in combat. Following Shiranui's destruction after the defeat of Bastet, Hubert began wielding a sword known as Homura which, while significantly weaker than Shiranui, is still a quality blade of above average strength, allowing him to remain effective in battle.

In-Game
For more in depth gameplay information of each game refer to:
 * Hubert Lipton/Rance IV
 * Hubert Lipton/Kichikuou Rance
 * Hubert Lipton/Rance IX

Trivia

 * He suffers from katsaridaphobia, more commonly known as a fear of cockroaches.
 * Hubert is one of the few major recurring characters in the Rance series to wear a different outfit in every single one of his appearances, wearing light armor throughout Rance IV, a slightly altered version of standard Helman knight armor in Kichikuou Rance and JAPANese-style armor in Rance IX.
 * He bears a strong physical resemblance to the character Alexander and, by proxy, several other similarly-designed characters. This is referenced multiple times throughout Rance IX, where Rance mistakenly refers to him as both Alexander and Bernard Seramite. Additionally, Hubert's own design was largely recycled into the character of Barbazza Lonbrau in the game Mamatoto, which is also referenced in Rance IX by having him wear a fake mustache and JAPANese armor, causing him to appear nearly identical to Barbazza.
 * He was voted 3rd in the male category of the Rance IX Popularity Poll, making him one of the most popular male characters in the series.