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Information
Gender: Cisgender male
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality: Caucasian; Germanic descent; German
Profession: Nazi soldier, henchman
Brief Profile
He was almost certainly a German shepherd.
Deserta was a character from an early version of the Trench Rats storyline, dating roughly to the late 1980s/early 1990s. He never appeared in any written works, but certain aspects of his, such as his voice and his occasionally goofy personality, were loosely based on a junior high science teacher of mine, so he and his partner/boss Nightstalker were still considered canon circa 1989-91. He was never given an official name, only his codename.
(EDIT: It turns out I was wrong! Nightstalker and Deserta make a VERY brief appearance in the oldest extant written version of the story, where they are both explicitly referred to as "Nazis" and "soldiers." As the scene features a parody character based on Hitler, I can't post it on Toyhou.se in its entirety, though these two pretty much have only two lines before they depart. This story will eventually be posted on my NeoCities site under the "Childhood Writing" section, so keep checking back. I'll simply include the line Gold Rat uses to describe them: "That doof Hitler keeps sendin' out his 'two best soldiers' who never catch a thing!")
At the time of Deserta's creation, I knew very little about Nazi Germany, and the series had a rather more slapstick/comedic tone; I had likely heard of the Holocaust yet was largely ignorant of the details (it was not taught about in early school, I remember watching a TV movie about it only later, in a high school history class), and so this did not play a role in the earliest versions of the series. Deserta began to be relegated to the background shortly after when the series began to take a more serious tone, and had disappeared completely by the time of the 2002 reboot. By then he no longer fit into the storyline, so I now consider him a "retired" character.
Given my near-complete ignorance of Nazi Party organization--and my then-conflation of them, likely due to the Indiana Jones franchise, with the German military--Deserta's exact rank and/or title was unknown. His particular job was uncertain as well; I know he was a Nazi and some sort of soldier, possibly involved in spying and covert operations, and he likely dressed in a military uniform and Stahlhelm. For this reason I've depicted him as a lower-ranking soldier, perhaps a sergeant, yet I'm unsure whether he would have been in the SS or the Wehrmacht; if the latter, him being Nightstalker's sidekick and henchman would have required additional explanation, with them likely being from different organizations. By extension, he worked for Inspector Dobermann (as the character was called then), and given Dobermann's iffy status at the time (he was both Nazi official and civilian, held the title of Inspector yet seemed unaffiliated with any branch of service), may have even reported to him directly. He was Nightstalker's dimwitted yet loyal sidekick and henchman, while Nightstalker himself was intelligent, shrewd, yet short tempered and prone to outbursts. Despite his partner's/boss's obvious talents, and his own brute strength, the two of them were never skilled enough to thwart the Trench Rats, and they were frequently taken to task by Dobermann and/or Woofwoof Hitler.
It's only recently that it occurred to me that Nightstalker and Deserta could be considered an early prototype of current characters Gunter Hesse and Theodor Schulte, with the primary difference being that Schulte is a Great Dane whereas Deserta was almost certainly a German shepherd. There's the more intelligent, competent officer, paired with the rather dim, goofy yet physically strong henchman. This was not intentional, but was possibly an unconscious decision. This would mean that these two characters have technically been "recycled," yet there are enough differences between them that I consider Nightstalker and Deserta "retired."
When I pictured Deserta at the time, he was almost certainly a black-and-tan German shepherd, like Stephen Gerhardt. My characters back then didn't have hair. I had never heard of the SS or the Wehrmacht, so I wouldn't have known the details of his uniform; I'm hazy on whether it was similar to Nightstalker's or not, though I do have the feeling he was intended to be an actual soldier, given that he wore a Stahlhelm. Given the knowledge I have today, he could have been a former soldier and new recruit to the Allgemeine-SS, a member of the Waffen-SS, or a Nazi member of the Wehrmacht; I suspect this last of the three was most likely, though that raises the question, why was he partnered with Nightstalker? His rather goofy personality and voice (kind of a husky baritone) were loosely inspired by a junior high school science teacher of mine, Mr. Scott; I believe I had him in 7th grade (1989-90). Deserta was quite simple minded and literal, often taking sarcasm at face value and making ridiculous yet completely unironic statements of his own. Unlike Nightstalker, he was rather laid back, not angering easily, and more likely to shrug off (or completely miss) insults rather than take offense; he was frequently the target of Nightstalker's frustration. Although physically stronger than Nightstalker, I believe he was shorter, and nowhere near as physically imposing as similar, current character Theodor Schulte (Schulte's personality is similarly dim, yet he's a more serious character with a great capacity for cruelty, unlike Deserta). He and Nightstalker were talented as Nazis, but bungling/bumbling at pretty much everything else; they were primarily considered to be comic relief.
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