Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin vol. 10 — Solomon
The war between the Federation and Zeon continues apace in this volume, with Amuro and Char playing their parts either on the battlefield or behind closed doors. Yet their struggles, and those of the supporting cast, aren’t the most interesting part of this volume. The Siege of Solomon is Dozle Zabi’s story and even if you know exactly how it’s going to unfold, the results are equal parts compelling and affecting.
Compared to the rest of the schemers of House Zabi, Dozle has always been the straightforward member of his family. He’s the kind of guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and believes in fighting the enemy face-to-face because wars are won with numbers. That’s why we see him at the beginning of this volume imploring his brother Ghiren to send additional forces to reinforce his base at Solomon. While Ghiren does send him a brand new mobile suit, he will only tell Dozle that he’s “taking the necessary measures” to ensure Solomon’s safety.
This does nothing to reassure Dozle, but he puts on a brave face for his wife Zenna and baby daughter Mineva. After all, he tells them, Solomon is an impregnable fortress that the Federation will be hard-pressed to crack. As he says this, the Federation forces are already staging a probing attack on the fortress with their main forces — including the White Base — waiting in the wings, while his sister Kycilla discusses Solomon’s larger role in the war with Char and how its fall will be the beginning of the end for everyone.
Dozle isn’t exactly being led up the garden path here, but it becomes pretty clear early on what fate has in store for him. Never smart enough to see the big picture, and always focused on the fight in front of him, it was probably inevitable. The thing about the character is that even though he’s on the side of the ostensible bad guys in this story, he’s still immensely likeable. Not only has his honest and loyal nature won him the respect of the men he commands, but he also has the love of his wife and baby daughter as well. The scene where Dozle tries to reassure his wife is a great example of this as we see them reminisce about when they met at the academy and revel in the joys of parenthood. Mangaka Yoshikazu Yasuhiko really makes the melancholy and joy palpable in these scenes, particularly where Mineva is concerned. There’s a series of panels where the baby gets her hands on her dad’s face and proceeds to stretch it out to comical proportions. Unrealistic as it may be, it still speaks to the affection Dozle feels for his daughter that he’s willing to accommodate her in such a way. Then the spark goes out when he gets word that the attack on the base has started, and later on we see him watching over Zenna and Mineva while they’re asleep at night, kept awake by uncertainty over what the future holds for them.
If you didn’t before, these scenes will certainly go a long way towards actually making you care about Dozle. Which is good, because the rest of the volume involves almost everything going wrong for his men and their defense of Solomon. Having to face off against the Federation fleet and the Gundam is bad enough. Worse still is the secret weapon the Federation commander has brought along that makes Solomon’s asteroid-wall defenses almost an afterthought. No, reinforcements aren’t coming, and the worst part is that the reasoning given by Kycilia and Char actually for this makes a good amount of sense in the grand scheme of the war. It is, however, the kind of reasoning that Dozle could never have accepted and we see his reaction to their (unknown) plan when he brings the Big Zam to the battle. He could’ve cut his losses and escaped with his family, but he’s not that kind of man.
What happens to Dozle is a genuine tragedy as he’s unable to overcome his own nature as a warrior in the end. His fate may have been set up as inevitable in the course of this volume’s narrative, but you keep hoping that something will happen to avert it. Everything else here is the usual mix of melodrama and space opera that has made this series an engaging read from the get go. It’s also clear that the narrative is reaching its climax and there’s a good deal of momentum behind the Federation/Zeon conflict right now.
The thing is that Dozle’s story here is the only one that really got to me. Char and Amuro are still around and it’s clear that their conflict will be driving the final battle. Yet Char’s arrogance is wearing thin and Amuro could stand to be “Bright Slapped” a few more times for good measure. Maybe that’ll change by the final volume, but the story of a warrior who also became a family man only to wind up as a sacrificial pawn is a clear high point for the series thus far.
