| “ | Dessler Cannon. FIRE!!! | „ |
| ~ Supreme Leader Dessler's iconic catchphrase |
Supreme Leader Abelt Dessler is the leader of Gamilas and the former antagonist turned anti-hero in the Space Battleship Yamato franchise. he is voiced by late actor Masatō Ibu, who also voiced another famous anti-hero character Gouri in Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection.
Biography[]
Space Battleship Yamato[]
Throughout the Yamato's maiden voyage to Iscandar and save the planet Earth, Dessler's forces constantly antagonize the ship, with all efforts ending in failure. Dessler himself, while not present much in the campaigns to sink her, is quick to berate most of his subordinates for their failures. He does however, admire the ship and her crew's seemingly endless tenacity in escaping his empire's best-laid traps and willingness to soldier on. When the ship finally reaches Gamilas itself, Dessler tries to destroy her using his planet's fragile ecosystem, but ultimately fails in that as well. Escaping in his personal battlecruiser, Dessler tries to destroy the Yamato again when it tries to warp back to Earth with his Dessler Gun, but is defeated once more when the cannon's beam rebounds against a reflective shield-like film (That Yamato crew-member and chief science officer Sanada recently developed) and it directly hit the cruiser, seemingly killing the Gamilas leader and destroying his cruiser.
Space Battleship Yamato 2[]
Shortly before his apparent "death", Dessler managed to flip a switch that teleported his half-destroyed cruiser away and he himself was left floating in space, barely alive due to his robust will to live. Meanwhile, the Yamato returned to Earth and managed to purge the planet of it's radiation. Dessler is later found and revived by the White Comet Empire. The empire's ruthless and tyranical leader, Emperor Zwordar, welcomed him into the empire, though not without objections from his subordinates. A year after being defeated by the Yamato, Dessler walks in on Zwordar's planning sessions for Earth and decides to bring about the issue of the Yamato, with several of his comrades giving him little to no regard. Taking matters into his hands, Dessler leaves his comrades and assembles the remaining strength of Gamilas to Teresart to supplement Admiral Gorand's anti-matter missile planetary defense fleet. Zwodar also gifts Dessler with a new ship.
When the Yamato finally arrives at Teresart, Dessler has an elaborate plan in mind: he first releases a swarm of space bacteria that resemble the Earth's own fireflies. The reason behind this tactic is that the crew of the Yamato, the majority of them homesick, would fall prey to the uncanny resemblance between the bacteria and the fireflies, and take them onboard. Then, the bacteria would slowly eat away at the Yamato's engines and weapon systems, allowing one of Dessler's generals, Vandevel, to attack the hapless ship with his battle carrier. Dessler's plan goes well, that is, until some of the bacteria also get on Vandevel's ship and eat away at it's weapons system, thus rendering the plan redundant. Dessler later shoots Vandevel dead for his failure but has another scheme in mind. The Yamato, in need of repairs, has to have a safe place to repair the damage so Dessler had a hollowed-out asteroid moved not far from the Yamato's location. If the Yamato stops there for repairs, then, he can trap them in there with several well-placed electromagnetic sensors and fire his Dessler Gun at them while inside the asteroid. Again, the Yamato takes the bait and gets trapped inside the asteroid. Dessler then decides to mock the Yamato before he fires his weapon. However, thanks to the meddling of Miru, a Comet Empire advisor (actually a spy), and the crew of the Yamato's quick thinking, the ship escapes the trap. Dessler is then called back by Zwordar's mistress Sabera who tells him that Zwordar has ordered him back due to his recklessness (actually a lie she had made up). Begrudgingly, Dessler follows and orders his fleet to withdraw.
Arriving back at Gatlantis, Dessler is arrested by Sabera who actually tricked Zwordar into thinking that Dessler has abandoned his mission. Dessler is soon jailed but not for long, and a few weeks later, escapes his cell when Sabera tries to have him executed. Kidnapping Sabera, Dessler and Talan, his closest friend, escape the fortress and leave Sabera behind. Fleeing to the Gamilas fleet in a stolen ship, Dessler is almost killed when Sabera attempts to order the fortress to fire upon the Gamilas leader, but Zwordar stops her, having correctly deduced that his mistress had lied to him all along. Zwordar gives back Dessler's flagship, and the Gamilas leader departs from his allies for one last showdown with the Yamato.
A few days later, Dessler gets his chance as the Yamato, having survived the cataclysmic Battle of Saturn, a battle that had ultimately reduced the fleets of the EDF and Comet Empire to mere piecemeal, prepares to warp in near Earth to attack Gatlantis. However, before they can do so, Dessler's fleet attacks the ship and launches several Gamila bombers to harry the Yamato until Dessler can make his attack. After a few minutes of repeated bombing runs, the Yamato prepares her Wave-Motion Gun against the enemy fleet, but Dessler warps in a large number of warp-capable mines near the Yamato. Knowing that the Yamato will get destroyed if they fire their main weapon near all the mines, the crew relent and form up a new plan. Then, as Dessler fires the Dessler Gun, the Yamato short-warps away. Dessler orders his ship to move away, but, as it turns a full 180 degrees, the Yamato warps out and hits the enemy ship right down the middle. Then, a vast majority of the Yamato's crew board the ship and engage in a fierce battle with the Gamilas soilders on the ship. As the battle rages, Dessler soon faces Susumu Kodai at gunpoint, who he had briefly met when Dessler attacked the Yamato on the journey home to Earth. A tense standoff follows and as Dessler prepares to shoot Kodai, the latter unexpectedly collapses due to fatigue. Yuki Mori, Kodai's sweetheart who had been watching the standoff on the sidelines, then rushes to nurse Kodai. Touched by Yuki's love, Dessler renounces his quarrel with Earth and hands over Kodai's pistol to Yuki and gives her an important clue on how to destroy Gatlantis. He then departs with Talan to a carrier that had been on stand-by and orders the fleet to withdraw, leaving Yuki and Kodai alone.
Thanks to Supreme Leader Dessler's advice, the crew of the Yamato were able to successfully infiltrate and destroy the White Comet Empire fortress Gatlantis. However it was at a great cost due to so many sacrifice's by many members of the Yamato's valiant crew including Teresa herself, who sacrificed herself to bring an end to Emperor Zwordar himself.
Yamato: The New Voyage[]
A few months after the Comet Empire is defeated, Dessler (Now reformed), now on a new flagship (a heavily modified bright red battle-carrier), still leading the remnants of Gamilas in the search for a new home. In the midst of the voyage, he assembles his flagship's crew and promises that they will find a new home soon. But first, Dessler plans to return home to Gamilas to have a final goodbye before it is destroyed.
Later when Dessler and his fleet finally reach their home system, Dessler thinks back to his past memories of both Gamilas (before it burned) and Queen Starsha (who he still had feelings for). When Dessler finally sees Gamilas, he stares silently and begins taking in his final view of his home planet. Unfortunately, when Dessler sees something in one of the craters of their old homeworld, Dessler's face quickly changes as he notices that his own planet is already being desecrated by mysterious alien invaders, who are illegally mining the planet. Angered by this, Dessler orders his fleet to go to battle stations and form up behind his flagship. The Gamilas fleet remnants immediately ambush the mysterious invaders and begin decimating their escort fleet, causing the Commander in charge of the mining operation to urgently call Pleiades-class Battleship Pleiades Commander Daeder for reinforcements, who then orders his fleet to immediately begin heading towards Gamilas.
Dessler and fleet continue fighting the invaders, while inflicting massive casualties on the invaders side. However, one of the remaining enemy destroyers shoots down the large mining ship, which brings it crashing down upon the mining facility, causing a massive chain reaction that begins to destroy the planet Gamilas. Dessler and his fleet barely managed to escape, but the remaining enemy escort vessels are consumed in the resulting explosion. Dessler and everyone aboard his flagship look on the remains of Gamilas with complete shock and sadness as Dessler himself knows that his homeworld is fated to be destroyed, yet he never expected such a cruel ending. Talon then notices that the planet Iscandar has been knocked out of orbit and is moving away towards unknown space. Dessler than orders his fleet to follow Iscander while completely unaware that Commander Deader and his fleet started to follow them as well.
Having caught up with Iscandar, Dessler then begins contacting Queen Starsha and her new lover Mamoru Kodai, in order to warn them of the danger. Queen Starsha is both shocked and surprised upon seeing Dessler alive and well and at first is wary of him, but Dessler reassures her that he is no longer the bad person he used to be and he tells her that he only wants to save her as a friend. Convinced, kindly Starsha thanks Dessler, but tells him that she cannot leave Iscandar because she has live there all her life, but she then tells Dessler to please understand as she does understand how he felt about Gamilas's destruction. Mamoru Kodai then tells Dessler to inform his brother Susumu Kodai that he has decided to remain happy with Starsha on Iscandar before the transmission is unexpectedly interrupted and cut off by the build of of magma that again moves Iscandar away from Dessler's fleet much to Dessler's horror. Dessler urgently orders his fleet to again pursue and track Iscandar as it begins to warp. Dessler then asks Talon to inform both Earth and Mamoru's younger brother Susumu Kodai of the situation in order to send in reinforcements to help save both Queen Starsha and Mamoru. Dessler's fleet then proceeds to warp after Iscandar, right after sending the distress signal to Earth.
Sometime later, Iscandar drops out of warp and moves through the gravity well of a nebula, with the Dessler fleet emerging behind Iscandar. Talon warns Dessler that if they aren't careful the gravity well would trap them, but Dessler remains unfazed as he orders his fleet to continue pursuit of Iscander, to which Talon reluctantly complies. Dessler again contacts Queen Starsha and he desperately warns her and Mamoru Kodai to hurry aboard his ship, but she again refuses and tells Dessler to leave quickly. Dessler again tries to tell her of the new threat, but before he could his flagship is suddenly rocked by an explosion, and Dessler is shocked and surprised at realizing that the mysterious enemy fleet has finally caught up with him. Deader's Flagship the Pleiades and her escorts begin mercilessly and relentlessly attacking Dessler's fleet, destroying many of their ships in the process. Dessler immediately orders his remaining forces to pull back and land on Iscandar. Thinking quickly, Dessler orders mines to be launched into orbit, as a distraction which succeeds in taking out several enemy destroyers in the process, while the massive enemy battleship Pleiades then halt's it's advance and begins firing at the mines while also launching fighters to deal with the surviving Gamilas ships.
Dessler's ship managed to land on the ocean near the Iscandarian city Mothertown, and begins to engaged the enemy fighters and bombers in fierce engagement. Dessler then notice's that many of the enemy fighters were attacking Queen Starsha's palace. Dessler then orders his ships to protect Queen Starsha and Mamoru Kodai at all costs. Queen Starsha and Mamoru Kodai could do nothing as they watch helplessly as Dessler attempts to protect them with his flagship. One of Dessler's bridge officer's urgently informs him that the enemy fleet has managed to create a way through the minefield. Dessler then looks on as he begins to lose hope when the enemy flagship Pleiades starts destroying some of Dessler's surviving ships before turning it's main guns towards Dessler's flagship. Before the Pleiades could open fire upon Dessler's flagship, a new challenger appears... the Yamato, much to Queen Starsha, Mamoru Kodai, and Dessler's relief. The Yamato's fighter's led by Susumu Kodai engage and destroy the enemy fighters while protecting the surviving Gamilas ships. Susumu Kodai also saves Dessler from an enemy fighter that attempts a suicidal run at Dessler's flagship, much to Dessler's surprise.
Dessler watches as the Yamato engages and manages to destroy all remaining enemy fighters and destroyer vessel's much to Commander Deader's anger. Deader then order's his flagship Pleiades to attack the Yamato. The Yamato fires back but it's main shock cannons did nothing against the Pleiade's thick armor. The Yamato then prepares it's wave motion gun, however Deader notices this and quickly orders his flagship to position itself deliberately in the path of Iscandar in order to make the crew of the Yamato back off. Fortunately Iscandar's magma activity builds up again and manages to safely move out of the Yamato's firing range, thus leaving the enemy flagship exposed. The Yamato immediately fire's it's deadly wave motion gun, killing and vaporizing Deader, his crew, and his flagship Pleiades instantly. The Yamato together with Dessler's flagship and surviving ships begins to pursue Iscandar through the nebula.
Unfortunately, news of Deader's death and defeat at the hands of both Earth and Gamilas is soon received by General Moelders, the supreme commander of the Black Nebula Empire's forces in the Large Magellanic Cloud, who then reports this to the Great Emperor Skulldart. Meanwhile, Dessler informs Kodai of why the enemy is so interested in capturing Iscandar to which he explains that they want to mine the unstable raw minerals of both Gamilas and Iscandar to make weapons. Iscandar soon stops as soon as it emerges from the Nebula and soon stops. Kodai and the crew of the Yamato attempt to convince Queen Starsha and Mamoru Kodai to leave, but they reluctantly refuse the third time. General Moelder's massive flagship Goruba then arrives and confronts both the Yamato and Dessler. General Moelders then claims that Iscandar now belongs to the Dark Nebula Empire. before ordering both the Yamato and Dessler's remaining ships to leave immediately or else he'll attack the two lovers on Iscandar if they refuse before giving them ten minutes to think it over.
Dessler, overcome with grief and sadness at losing his home planet to this terrifying new enemy, immediately orders his remaining ships and fighters to attack the enemy mother ship Gorba much to Talon's shock. Dessler's ships and fighters start engaging Moelder's forces. Dessler's forces had manage to wipe out all of the enemy fighters, while the crew of the Yamato watch in horror as Dessler attacks the enemy recklessly, despite Susumu Kodai's warnings.
Moelders then orders Goruba's main weapons batteries to destroy the rebelling Gamilas forces, successfully taking out one of the carriers and remaining fighters in the process, while Dessler's flagship in hit. Dessler unfazed then orders Talon to deploy the Dessler Cannon and prepares to fire at Goruba. Dessler fires the Dessler Cannon, unfortunately, it does not do any damage what so ever to Gorba. General Moelders then laughs evilly and taunts Dessler briefly, before turning his attention towards Iscandar. Moelders then tells both Dessler and the crew of the Yamato to watch closely as he then demonstrates Gorba's firepower by unleashing a powerful burst of energy that strikes Iscandar, that creates a large crater on one of the continents. Moelders then orders the weapons officers to turn Gorba's wrath towards Queen Starsha's palace, but Dessler then realizing that Queen Starsha's life is in grave danger, quickly order's his Flagship to ram the enemy's cannon barrel in an attempted suicide run. Realizing that the foolish Gamilions were gonna ram them, Moelders then calmly, yet urgently orders his weapons officer to destroy Dessler's Flagship, but it was too late, as Dessler's Flagship successfully manages to embed itself into the hull of the enemy fortress. Dessler feeling hopeless, then urgently orders Kodai to fire the Yamato's wave motion gun at him as it's the only way to destroy Gorba. Before Kodai could do so Queen Starsha intervenes and pleads with both parties to stop fighting. She then tells General Moelders that he can have Iscandar, much to his delight. Queen Starsha the tells the crew of the Yamato that she will willingly leave Iscandar. Gorba then leaves orbit towards Iscandar, while Dessler's flagship then frees itself as Dessler is unable to do anything.
Unknown to Dessler, Queen Starsha willingly stays behind while saving both her husband and newborn child Sasha to Yamato aboard an Iscandar escape pod, while Gorba, flies right by them. Queen Starsha then sacrifices herself by activating a self destruct mechanism which causes an explosion that quickly heads towards Gorba. General Moelders is caught completely off guard but is too late to do anything as he himself and Goruba are completely vaporized in the process, killing him and his crew, resulting in Iscandar's destruction as well much to Dessler's anguish and sadness. Queen Starsha now ascended then informs both Dessler and the crew of the Yamato not to be sad, as it was better for Iscandar to be destroyed rather then to be subjected to the pain and misery of wars. Queen Starsha then bids farewell to her husband Mamoru Kodai, her daughter Sasha, the crew of the Yamato, and Dessler, before disappearing into the heavens.
Dessler and Kodai's ships then rendezvous near an unknown system where both of them then face each other. Kodai then asks where will he go now that his own planet Gamilas and Iscandar have been tragically destroyed. Dessler then tells Kodai that he vows to rebuilt his people's empire on another uninhabited, yet habitable planet no matter how long it takes. Supreme Leader Dessler then bids farewell to Kodai before boarding and departing on his damaged flagship and heading for parts unknown. Unfortunately, both Dessler and Kodai were both completely unaware that the Dark Nebula Empire and their Emperor were secretly watching from the shadowed darkness of the Dark Nebula itself... as they turn their cold eyes towards Earth intent on getting revenge for the deaths of both General Moelders and Commander Deader.
Space Battleship Yamato III[]
[To be added]
Be Forever Yamato[]
Supreme Leader Dessler does not appear during the Dark Nebula Empire's invasion of Earth the 2nd Earth-Dark Nebula War. However, it can be interpreted that Dessler still had his own personal problems with conquering the remaining Bolar Federation remnants, or he was completely unaware of the mysterious Dark Nebula Empire's return without his knowing.
Final Yamato[]
Dessler plays one last role in helping to save the Earth in a time of great need. Not long after the Bolar Wars ended, Dessler leads a fleet on an off-planet mission. Unfortunately, a titanic "invader galaxy" from another dimension appears close to the Milky Way and crosses it. In the process, plenty of planets are destroyed, the others ruined. Unfortunately, the capital of the Galman-Gamilas Empire is one of those ruined planets. The Yamato, under Kodai, rushes to the planet to save Dessler, but when they arrive, they find a ruined planet, full of destroyed buildings and ruined infrastructure. Mistakenly thinking that Dessler is dead, the crew leave several roses near his palace as a sign of respect and mourning. However, Dessler would arrive not very long after and returns to his planet. Finding the roses, he keeps some and senses that the Earth is in danger once more. He then orders his flagship and several of his ships to warp as fast as they can to Earth.
They arrive close to Earth and find a tritum-loaded Yamato at the mercy of the Denguil, a warrior-race that had commandeered the water planet Aquarius on a collision course with Earth, as their own home was destroyed by Aquarius. Reacting quickly, before any of the Denguil ships can fire, Dessler's fleet opens fire on their enemies as they warp in. Dessler contacts the Yamato for what proves to be the final time to explain his sudden appearance and expression of gratitude on honoring his "death". Shortly afterwards, he attacks and destroys the flagship of Denguil supreme ruler, Emperor Lugal, quickly killing his opponent in the process, via the Dessler Cannon.
Later, as the Yamato self-destructs in order to save the Earth from getting flooded by Aquarius, thus creating an ocean in space, Dessler watches from his flagship silently with tears in his eyes as the ship that had been his enemy and ally sinks silently below the waves of the ocean it had created.
It is unknown as to what happened to Dessler after that, but it can be safely assumed that both Dessler and his remaining forces eventually set out to rebuilt their once great civilization once more and on a newer and much different planet after wishing Susumu Kodai and the people of Earth farewell and after making sure there are no more remaining Enemy Denguil Warships still surviving, since Earth's Defense Fleet is yet again decimated during the Denguil invasion.
Appearance[]
Dessler himself resembles a man in his early thirties, with golden hair, black eyes, and... as with all members of the Gamilas race, he has blue skin. He typically wears a grey officer's suit, complete with a red-on-black cape, boots, and white gloves.
Personality[]
| “ | Kodai, you are... Earth means that much to you, huh? Kodai, a year ago, I fought Earth for the future of Gamilus. You showed me you can risk your lives to fight for Earth. However, you showed me more than that. Even though I fought for Gamilus... I lived my life pursuing beauty in violence and destruction. I was alone. Now that I have defeated the Yamato, I am ashamed for having sided with the Comet Empire. They find pleasure in invasion and pillaging. Compared to them, my soul... my soul is so much closer to that of humans. No more grudges against the Yamato. | „ |
| ~ Supreme Leader Dessler, to Susumu Kodai, while reflecting on what he has become and realizing that both Earth and Gamilus are not so different after all, before putting aside his difference's, ultimately leading to his redemption |
Formally: Dessler, as leader of the Gamilas Empire, was known to charming, flamboyant, nihilistic, cultured, arrogant, having a low regard for failure, and most of all, a skilled military tactician with a superiority complex. However, as the Yamato made her way to Iscandar, more positive facets of Dessler's personality arise - he attacked Earth not out of recreation nor revenge, but out of necessity, as his own homeworld was in danger of being destroyed. When allied with the White Comet Empire, Dessler's negative traits took center stage as he was consumed by his rage against the Yamato, who had managed to defeat him a year earlier. However, in a last-ditch battle to destroy the Yamato once and for all, Dessler has a change of heart after seeing Yuki Mori's open love for Susumu Kodai. He renounces his quarrel with Earth, and even gives Yuki a piece of information that would prove useful in the downfall of the Comet Empire.
Currently: When he fought against the Dark Nebula Empire, Dessler's more honorable, moral, and positive traits were completely dominant. His loyalty and devotion to Starsha is seen, especially in his reaction when she blows Iscandar up to defeat the Dark Nebula forces who have come to strip mine the planet. His newfound appreciation of the human race is also in appearance, as seen when he alerts the E.D.F to send the Yamato to aid him.
During the Bolar Wars, Dessler still retained much of his positive personality traits, though some of his older, negative ones were still in place. One such example is his death threat to Geidel on intentionally clashing with the Yamato and the former's deliberate refusal to stay away from the spiral arm of the Milky Way, where Earth is located. His loyalty to his Earth allies was still much in appearance, as he seems to be more than willing to divert resources and manpower from his empire to aid the Yamato in saving the Earth in any way possible, and when he arrived at the eleventh hour to save his old friends by finishing the last remnants of the hostile Denguil race in the Yamato's final battle.
Memorable Quotes[]
| “ | What's that? How dare they desecrate our mother planet! Fleet to battle positions! Form up behind my flagship! | „ |
| ~ Supreme Leader Dessler both shocked and disgusted upon finding that his homeworld is being invaded by the Black Nebula Empire, before ordering his forces to attack this new enemy. - from "Yamato: The New Voyage" (1979) |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Supreme Leader Dessler was so well received by fans and audiences that he was finally brought back for the Space Battleship Yamato: 2199 reboot series as one of the returning original series former main villains turned anti-heroes.