#G.I. Joe Villains

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

SLEEK IN HER SEVERITY -- STRIKING IN HER BEAUTY -- COBRA'S FINEST OPERATIVE.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on assorted pin-ups of the Anastasia DeCobray, a.k.a., "The Baroness," chief intelligence operative for the international terrorist organization, COBRA, artwork by Bruce Timm, various dates.

Sources: www.pinterest.com/pin/538813542894534788, Comic Art Fans, Comic Art Community, various, etc...

[docgold13]

Profiles in Villainy

Cobra Commander 

The fanatical leader who rules the terrorist organization known as Cobra, the enigmatic Cobra Commander demands complete loyalty and allegiance from his followers. His objective is total control of the world's governments, people, wealth, and resources, brought about by revolution and chaos. 

Over the years, Cobra Commander has suffered assassination attempts, and even an imposter posing as him for a time. However, he has always managed to find a way out of every situation, having become a constant foil for the G.I. Joe Team, who have ended up fighting Cobra almost exclusively. No matter how dire or unscathed, the villain’s hatred and drive have only grown more ruthless.

There is some indication that the Commander may have heralded from a secretive offshoot of humanity located in a hidden city known as Cobra-La.  An ambitious soldier, he was sent out into the world of humans so to destabilize humanity’s global defenses and ready it for conquest by the forces of Cobra-La.  He ultimately failed in this regard and was punished by Cobra-La’s leader, Globulous, who transformed the Commander into a snake.  Yet somehow he got better or something happened... whatever the case Cobra Commander ultimately returned as the leader of Cobra, more hysterically driven and maniacal as ever. ��    

Actor Chris Latta provided the villain’s shrill voice in his original appearance on the animated series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.  Subsequent cartoons have seen the villain voiced by actors Chris Latta, Scott McNeil, Michael Dobson, Robert Baker and others.    Cobra Commander first appeared in the debut episode of G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero, airing on September 12th, 1983.  

[kjwaikiki]

Fic Ideas brought to you by the Snake Eyes Origin movie and the Snake Eyes x Tommy Arashikage fandom.

Face Reveal AU:

- Snake Eyes face is revealed to the Joes. I think after how everything went down with Tommy no one really knows how Snake Eyes looks and sounds because he keeps himself covered and silent as a form of repentance or really fucked up form of self-punishment (after all he was a ghost before Tommy found him and after what he did maybe he deserves to be a ghost again). This leads to the Joes constructing an image in their minds that is false but includes the idea of:

1. Snake having a hideous scar

2. Snake being disfigured

3. Snake being mute

4. Snake being very stoic

5. Snake being a stereotypical ninja (it varies depending on the person)

6. Snake not being very attractive/desirable in general

My point with this is that Snake Eyes is not exactly close with anyone. They trust him but no one in the Joes knows him. No one besides Scarlett even knows that he can talk or what he looks like. This eventually comes to a head when Snake Eyes gets hurt and Tommy has to save him. I have multiple scenarios:

1. Snake Eyes is captured and tortured and while that is happening Tommy is with the rest of the Joes who are in a cell. The Joes have no idea about Tommy and Snake Eyes past and only know Tommy by Storm Shadow (Scarlett being the exception). So all of them are surprised when they hear a voice screaming Tommy and Storm Shadow goes rigid/freezes in the midsts of taunting them. Maybe Snake Eyes screams some Japanese or a pet name that he had for Tommy. The end result is that with every scream Tommy gets more and more desperate. He hates Snake Eyes but he also loves him still and surprisingly cannot listen to him getting tortured. Tommy breaks out the Joes (Scarlett persuaded him) and saves Snake Eyes. They go back to base and everyone sees Snake Eyes without the helmet and realizes three things: Snake Eyes is pretty attractive, he can talk, and Storm Shadow is pretty in love with him. The whole story comes out and Tommy and Snake Eyes are left to figure their relationship out from here with Storm Shadow staying faithfully by Snake Eyes’ bedside (he broke out of containment).

2. Something happens and Snake Eyes ends up underwater and drowns. Tommy sees this and jumps in after him abandoning whatever fight or evil scheme he had before. This shocks everyone enough that the Joes are able to push back Cobra. In that time Tommy gets Snake Eyes and drags him onto dry land where he realizes that Snake Eyes is not breathing. Tommy takes off Snake Eyes’ mask and gives him CPR. The Joes are very taken aback by this. Tommy brings Snake Eyes back and Snake Eyes promptly says something to Tommy in Japanese (something sweet and loving) before he passes out. Tommy is pretty shaken up about all of this and is taken into Joe custody. The whole story of their relationship comes out to the Joes and Tommy and Snake Eyes are left wondering where to go from here.

3. There is an undercover mission that involves seduction and what do you know the targets type is Snake Eyes. So in Snake Eyes goes sans mask having to flirt with the target. The Joes are very shocked to see this side of Snake Eyes (and his face in general) but run the op. However, Tommy shows up and is not very pleased to see Snake Eyes flirting with someone. There are a couple ways this could go but ultimately I think Tommy kills the target for a few reasons but mainly out of jealousy (he would never admit it) and corners Snake Eyes. The Joes are really concerned that Snake Eyes is gonna die but instead have to listen to a very intimate conversation between the two (maybe in Japanese maybe in English) that ends with Tommy very close to Snake Eyes warning him off doing this kind of work again. Tommy leaves but not before Snake Eyes make one final declaration about finding him, or loving him, or bringing him home that leaves all the Joes with the distinct impression that their relationship is much more than enemies. Maybe Scarlett or Snake Eyes tells the Joes about the relationship and past between the two men. I’m the end I think it ends on a hopeful note that Snake Eyes will eventually get Tommy back (maybe Tommy left him a gift).

I just love the idea of Snake Eyes’ face being revealed to Joes and many of them realizing that Snake Eyes is very attractive (Henry Golding), and Tommy being both very smug/amused and annoyed by this fact.

[toaarcan]

People are raving about Skybound Transformers and I'm just sitting here like "This comic is so committed to being G1 But Edgy that it's not actually bothering to develop its characters before they get killed off."

Optimus and to a lesser extent Cliffjumper are the only ones who feel at all more three-dimensional than their G1 toy bios. I feel like I know more about fucking G.I. Joe Man than I do about this version of Starscream, who was the main villain of the comic until last issue.

Like, what do we know about Skybound Starscream's personality? He likes killing people and he was allegedly friends with Jetfire. I say 'allegedly' because he lasts all of a page before killing Jetfire for not immediately throwing in with the Decepticons. There's not even a token attempt at manipulation, the fucking cartoon did more with this idea than Skybound did.

The badly-animated 23-minute toy commercial with the budget of two coffee beans and some pocket lint is not a high bar to clear.

And hey, how about a different example? How about Skywarp's sorta-death?

Skywarp gets ripped apart in Issue 4, and used to repair Teletraan 1 so the Decepticons can revive more of their guys. But... why? They're currently surrounded by dozens of corpses they could cannibalise instead, many of whom are much less useful to the cause than the teleporting fighter jet. Like fuck, you've got three of Reflector and he's nearly always useless. The only reason this doesn't immediately backfire on Soundwave is that when the Autobots retake the Ark, Wheeljack accidentally reactivates what's left of Skywarp's brain and he starts blocking their efforts to revive more Autobots. Congratulates my guy, you turned the teleporting fighter jet into a minor software bug, and him being anything besides a corpse wasn't even intentional.

But you can make this work. Let's say that there's a reason Soundwave needs Skywarp gone. Maybe Skywarp, as a Seeker, is ultra-loyal to Starscream, and being as powerful as he is, makes Screamer's position as the leader of the Decepticons basically unassailable. The only way Soundwave can depose Starscream is to first trick him into helping eliminate Skywarp.

And like that, all three Decepticons get some extra character. Soundwave's manipulative side is put on display, an aspect of his character that often gets left out. Starscream's cruelty and ineptitude as leader is elaborated on by demonstrating that he doesn't reward loyalty, being more likely to backstab even someone who has always had his back if he's convinced it will benefit him. Skywarp gets a personality trait before he's violently killed, and now him dying means something other than another demonstration of weirdly organic robo-gore.

Instead we get "Starscream, we need to kill one of our most dangerous soldiers instead of literally any of these other assholes we've got lying around. I am a better leader because this worked out for me accidentally."

[kismetconstellations]

@sockdooe I first encountered this supposed explanation in the comments section of a fanfiction, so it is to be taken with a grain of salt, but I read that Shiro's design was primarily based on what the showrunners thought "looked cool". This includes the prosthetic grafted onto his person by his captors, the scar across his face, and the shock of white fringe in his otherwise naturally dark hair. And, I won't lie, his design serves its purpose. Shiro immediately draws the eye, and not just because of his usual placement front and center in the standard team line up.

It's reasonable for the sort of space soldier, G.I. Joe type of character the staff intended Shiro to be to have these sorts of physical characteristics.

It's also completely reasonable in a Sci-Fi/Action show for a villain as menacing and ruthless as Sendak to have a similarly distinct, eye-catching design. Such features as a sinister, gleaming, red bionic eye, and massive prosthetic arm powered by a core of glowing, magical electric energy pulsing in a line from shoulder to forearm stand out, are easily memorable, and make him instantly recognizable as a really Bad Guy.

The idea of Shiro being a sort of "light, heroic mirror" to Sendak, which the show introduced and continued to attempt to enforce all the way up to Sendak's death, sits incredibly uneasily with me, however. As I've made explicit several times, before.

Content Warning for discussion of sexual assault/rape.

We're shown the recurrent imagery of Sendak looming over and behind an incapacitated Shiro.

Shiro's instinctive response to seeing Sendak heading toward him is to back away out of fear before steeling himself and resolving to fight, if only to protect the Castle and an unconscious Lance.

The very first thing that Shiro says to Sendak is, "You're not getting in", to which Sendak replies, "Yes. I am".

Coran suggests that the Galra might keep him and Hunk as, "some sort of creepy pet to play with how they please", in an appeal to Shay and Rax for assistance concealing their presence on the Balmera.

There's genuine contempt in Shiro's voice when he asks Sendak, "What do you want?", prior to his torture at Sendak's hands.

Sendak delivers a stomach-churning gloating little speech after torturing Shiro via electric shock.

And, Rolo refers to Sendak as a, "real nasty bugger", a term that has an exceptionally crude colloquial meaning.

Now, maybe I'm a cynical weirdo who is reading far too deeply into this, and connecting dots that aren't there. But...

Shiro bears a much stronger resemblance to Berserk's Guts than the Takashi Shirogane from the original Go Lion! that he's named after. Guts is a famous survivor of childhood sexual abuse, having been sold by his adoptive father and purchased for use as a sex slave by an ugly hulking pederast.

There were obvious Neon Genesis Evangelion fans working on this show, and Rei Ayanami, the character that Shiro's story seems to reference with the sheer excess of clones created using his DNA, is also a victim of sexual abuse.

(There's even, arguably, influence taken from The Legend of the Blue Wolves, a relatively obscure yaoi OVA largely set at a military facility which trains soldiers and pilots for combat missions in deep space. It features an extended scene with a virtual flight simulator, and one of the two male leads is-- wouldn't you know it? Raped by an ugly hulking monster.)

Correlation does not imply causation, and perhaps the similarities are entirely superficial, and we're not meant to think too hard about them.

Yet, with the amount of scrutiny that a series as utterly wholesome and innocuous as Bluey is constantly under, I cannot buy for a minute that a series Netflix gave a TV Y7 rating to didn't undergo some level of screening to ensure that its content was appropriate for the intended child audience. Someone had to have asked the staff if bugger was the term they meant to use, aware of the disturbing, far less than child-friendly implications, and was met with a resounding confirmation.

Beyond that, extended proximity to even an imprisoned and inanimate Sendak sends Shiro spiraling into a psychological break down.

Shiro's intensely traumatic experiences in captivity, which his brain seems to have largely repressed in order to protect him ("It's all a blur.") would, by themselves, be enough to convince him that he's been broken and reshaped into something monstrous. His bodily autonomy was, unquestionably, brutally violated, and his innately altruistic, self-sacrificing nature was violently challenged when he was forced to kill or be killed for his captors' entertainment. His right arm was taken from him and replaced with a weapon, and he has the blood of who knows just how many innocents on his hands. He was, indeed, broken down in an attempt to reform him into the Galra Empire's "greatest weapon", and likely very much wars with himself over what he had to do to ensure his own survival, believing himself to be a monster.

What really stands out to me, though, is that this intense, primal terror and the accompanying feelings of "brokenness" and "monstrousness" only surface around Sendak. Despite also being associated with and direct causes of his trauma, neither Haggar nor Zarkon rattle Shiro to his core the way Sendak does.

Neither of them are insistent on drilling into Shiro's head how "broken" he supposedly is, as Sendak is shown doing over and over again. Including taunting Shiro over the non-consensual modifications to his body.

Harboring a deep sense of shame, and viewing themselves as something dirty, ugly, disgusting, broken, or even monstrous is an experience common among survivors of sexual abuse.

Having Shiro's physical condition repeatedly mirror his personal tormentor's would be sick and twisted enough.

Adding the context of rape or sexual abuse to Shiro's torment makes the creative decision to intentionally model his arm after his abuser's outright sadistic.

No one deserves to have a constant physical reminder of their abuser and rapist permanently attached to their person. And, attempting to paint Shiro as a "heroic mirror" to Sendak fails entirely when Shiro doesn't so much as get to best Sendak in combat once.

All of the points you've raised about the function and structure of prosthetics are amazing, informative, and highly appreciated. (The comment about Shiro's abominable floating arm looking like it wouldn't be able to support the weight of a grocery bag makes me laugh.) Sadly, there's a faction of the fanbase who are all too quick to fetishize that arm, like everything else surface-level about Shiro. I've seen a number of fics where its ability to be propelled a great distance with a single thought is used to pleasure a partner while Shiro, himself, is in a different room, where the arm is equipped with a vibrating function for use as a sex toy, and, of course, where the thickness of its fingers is sexualized for... the same reason the bulge in the crotch of Shiro's pants is.

(I beg this fandom to stop reducing this man to a seme stereotype because of his physical build and height. Nothing in his personality suggests that he would be anything even approximating that cursed archetype. Let him be a pillow princess, for God's sake, like he deserves.)

This reply took me forever, and I am sincerely sorry about that. I hope you find something worthwhile in this haphazard collection of thoughts.

And, "Sendick" is how I'm going to be mentally referring to that creep from now on.

[cantsayidont]

October 1983. That's it, that's the show — Cobra Commander (left) and his cadre of opportunists, mountebanks, and scoundrels plot against each other in a scene from G.I. JOE #16. The punchline:

You might well ask what the Commander is planning to do with that wine glass, since he's wearing a full-face helmet. Writer Larry Hama addresses just that point eight issues later, in G.I. JOE #24:

This is really the thing that has kept this ridiculous series alive (it was later revived by other publishers, and recently passed issue #300): Larry Hama's weird sense of humor and flair for eccentricity. The plots are frequently not much and the heroes are mostly no deeper than the plastic action figures on which they're based, but the ludicrous villains are consistently entertaining.

[maxwellatoms]

hey maxwell, got some time to ask some question, have always liked grim and evil since it came on cartoon network in early 2000s. what was the inspiration of evil con carne? besides grim adventure of billy and mandy. and how does it feels to work with voice actress legends grey delisle, who did the voice acting of princess azula from avatar the last airbender and miranda from w.i.t.c.h.? two of my childhood villain i grew up with in early 2000s.

Speaking of...

I always felt like B&M was a homage to the Saturday Morning Cartoons I binged in my youth, but mostly the overt comedies like Looney Tunes or Hanna-Barbera. Evil Con Carne was meant to be a homage to the other half of Saturday Morning and the occasional Weekday Afternoon-- action shows! S.P.O.R.K. is meant to be G.I. Joe in the way that Evil Con Carne is meant to be Cobra. Estroy is a pretty overt parody of Destro. I tried to get a lot of robots and ray guns and radioactive mutagens in there. Basically anything I couldn't easily do on Billy & Mandy.

In the end, we had to move to an eleven minute format, so either B&M or ECC had to go. For only being 13 half-hours, Evil was a lot of fun and I'm thankful we got to close out a full season.

As for Grey, I was lucky to get in on the ground floor. It's been incredible to watch her grow as a talent and collect so many memorable roles along the way. I'm proud to have thrown her inaugural curve-ball.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

FILE UNDER: COBRA COMMAND, G.I. JOE VILLAINS, VARIANT COVER, ANASTASIA DECOBRAY, COBRA...

PIC INFO: Part 1 of 2 -- Spotlight on textless cover art to a "cosplay" variant for "Grimm Fairy Tales" main character Sela dressed as G.I. Joe baddie Anastasia DeCobray, a.k.a., "The Baroness," artwork by David Nakayama, published by Zenescope Entertainment.

EXTRA INFO: The G.I. Joe variant was released as "Grimm Fairy Tales" Vol. 2 #36 (cover dated February 2020), and was available exclusively at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo.

Source: https://x.com/DavidNakayama/status/1224787795257905152.

[gijoe-forever]

'Today Skybound and Image Comics, in collaboration with leading toy and game company Hasbro, announced the upcoming fall release of G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero Compendium Vol. 1, which will collect every issue of the original Marvel Comics series for the iconic franchise in a new reader-friendly compendium format for the very first time.

“This compendium marks the beginning of Skybound collecting Hasbro’s incredible backlist of G.I. JOE comics,” said Sean Mackiewicz, SVP, Publisher, Skybound. “G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero was my first comic, bursting with incredible characters and intense action, and it’s a pleasure to reintroduce readers to the original Hasbro comics that hooked a generation of fans.”

The pop culture world changed forever when Larry Hama’s G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero made its comic book debut, and now fans can experience every issue from the original series and its tie-ins with the all-new compendium release, printed on newsprint for that classic comic feeling,

Featuring the legendary series writer Larry Hama (Wolverine), artists Herb Trimpe (The Incredible Hulk) and Bob McLeod (The New Mutants), with cover art by the incomparable Andy Kubert (X-Men), G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero Compendium Vol. 1, collects issues #1-50 of one of the longest running non-superhero series into a complete compendium for the first time ever.

Readers can expect to discover the incredible heroes of G.I. JOE, the terrifying villains of Cobra, and the unforgettable stories that set them on a collision course, when the first volume hits comic book shops on October 2, 2024. printed on newsprint for that classic comic feeling,

The kickoff to Skybound’s ongoing compendium releases is an integral component of its overall comics partnership with Hasbo. While the Energon Universe has delivered a fresh new start for these franchises in Void Rivals by writer Robert Kirkman (Invincible, The Walking Dead) and artist Lorenzo De Felici (Oblivion Song), TRANSFORMERS by writer Daniel Warren Johnson (Extremity, Do a Powerbomb) and artist Jorge Corona (Middlewest), Duke by writer Joshua Williamson (DC’s Superman, Dark Ride) and artist Tom Reilly (The Thing), and Cobra Commander by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Andrea Milana (Impact Winter: Rook), these compendiums celebrate the rich histories of TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE in comic book form.

Skybound and Hasbro have also brought back the hit series G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero to fans, from series writer Larry Hama and artist Chris Mooneyham (DC’s Nightwing, Sgt. Rock and the Unknown Soldier).

G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero Compendium Vol. 1 (ISBN: 978-1-5343-7150-7| MSRP: $64.99) will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, and at booksellers, along with digital platforms including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, comiXology, and Google Play on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.'

https://www.skybound.com/announcements/g-i-joe/skybound-image-hasbro-announce-g-i-joe-a-real-american-hero-compendium

[kjwaikiki]

I have recently fallen into the Snake Eyes x Storm Shadow fandom thanks to the Snake Eyes Origin movie and I have some fic ideas that I need to put out into the world.

Non Betrayal AU:

- Snake Eyes never betrays Tommy it was someone else in the clan. Maybe, it was a random person. Maybe it was Jinx (in the G.I. Joe movies I think Jinx was Storm Shadow’s cousin??). The point is that it wasn’t Snake Eyes. In fact Snake Eyes was pretty on board with being a part of the Arashikage and having a family. Snake Eyes and Tommy might have also been romantically involved or at least on their way there. However, when Kenya shows up he talks about a traitor in their midsts (maybe he implies it’s Snake Eyes or even outright says it is to fuck with Tommy) everyone immediately thinks it’s Snake Eyes. Everything goes about the same in the movies with Tommy using the jewel being told he will not be the next head. Tommy still leaves believing the man he loved (still loves) betrayed him.

Then comes the next part. The Arashikage punish the traitor. I have two options for this.

1. They throw Snake Eyes in the snake pit. The snakes keep him alive but he stays down there a while. Eventually the real traitor is found/comes forward but Snake Eyes has been down in the pit a while and isn’t doing well. The snakes like him and are protecting him but when the Arashikage finally get to him Snake Eyes isn’t doing well.

2. They slit his throat and leave him for dead in the forest. In this case either Scarlet or Akiko finds Snake Eyes and patches him up.

The end result of both of these scenarios is that Snake Eyes gets better but doesn’t really want to stay with the Arashikage and really wants to find Tommy to explain everything. This is how Snake Eyes joins the G.I. Joes. As for why he doesn’t speak either he has damage to his throat that rendered him mute or he has trauma that does leads to Snake Eyes not wanting to talk to people (because no one believes him anyway).

Snake Eyes is still very in love with Tommy and really only joins the Joes to find him and get him back. Cue a very long chase with periods of intense fighting and Snake Eyes trying to tell Tommy the truth but either he can’t or Tommy won’t listen and believes he is a liar. Eventually things reach a head where Tommy finds out Snake Eyes never betrayed him either by someone telling him (either a Joe or someone from Cobra like the Baroness) or because Tommy goes looking for answers himself.

I imagine Tommy does not take this revelation well and in a rage tries to burn Cobra to the ground. He is probably moderately successful and eventually meets up with the Joes (he really wants to see Snake Eyes) except now Tommy learns about what the Arashikage did to his lover and Tommy is furious. It is easy to be furious at everyone who hurt Snake Eyes than to feel guilty about the fact that he also feels guilty about hurting Snake Eyes. Maybe Tommy even wants to burn the Arashikage down for what they did to him and his lovers. This causes a fight between him and Snake Eyes because while Snake Eyes doesn’t necessarily like the Arashikage he doesn’t want them all dead.

I don’t really know how this ends except with Tommy and Snake Eyes together and the Joes all seeing Snake Eyes’ face for the first time (maybe even hearing his voice) and being very surprised because Snake Eyes is not at all how they pictured him (I also think it would be funny if some of them get crushes/think Snake Eyes is handsome and make Tommy jealous). I just think this would make a great fic with a lot of angst, surprises, anger, manipulation, mistakes, and a lot of outsider pov on the relationship between Snake Eyes and Tommy.

[ragingphantom666]

G.I. Joe: War Files project plan: Cobra Commander (Vol. 1)

This series is not an assured project. It is a concept that can still be changed or scrapped.

Synopsis

During the Vietnam War, Commander Gregory Wilson falls into the trap of a North Vietnamese scientist called Doctor Mindbender. The experiments warp his mind, slowly turning him into the villainous fiend who will one day become Cobra Commander. First though, he must face Mindbender’s evil monsters to gain his freedom.

Characters

Gregory Wilson: A commander of the United States Army Corps. He is captured by Doctor Mindbender and put through genetics experiments.

Dr. Minh Bian/Doctor Mindbender: A rogue North Vietnamese scientist. He keeps his whereabouts secret as he conducts unethical experiments on those unlucky enough to fall into his trap.

Other Information

This series is only planned to have one volume.

The genre of this story is horror for being a creature feature.

Bio-Vipers will be involved.

Gregory Wilson is named after my great-uncle and my Papaw, both served in the Vietnam War. My great-uncle died during the war and my Papaw passed away in December.

Cobra-La is not a part of Cobra Commander’s origin because I am not a fan of that storyline.

[mdhwrites]

How do you feel about Hate Sink characters?

I've actually talked about this semi recently! Here is a link to me discussing my thoughts on them... Or how to do them well. And I put emphasis on doing them well because I kind of want to talk about the other side of the coin. What happens when a writer tries to make a hate sink who is genuinely just a hate sink? Just a god awful person?

Well... Honestly, you've just made an antagonist, especially one off antagonists. When you don't have need for much complexity in a villain or need them to get in, show off why they should get their ass kicked and leave, making them the worst person alive is pretty common as a way to go about it. It's essentially why you'd have a one off villain introduce himself with kicking a cat. The point is to make sure the audience is primed and ready to see them get their asses beat.

Now, this can be very entertaining but it's also not the most relatable. In the original blog, I criticized Umbridge from Harry Potter as a not very good Hate Sink and I still stand by that. She's as deep as a nineties villain, as in that she's pure evil because she gets off on it and profits from it, and so while you are meant to loath her, meant to see the creation of Dumbledore's Army as a reasonable response to her policies... How much do you actually hate her? After all, when she digs such a deep hole for herself, the fall can only be spectacular, right?

And that is where hate sinks fail to be hate sinks. A proper hate sink should be someone who's fall is something you want but even when they're beat, you have a bad taste in your mouth. You know that their EXISTENCE made the world a worse place, especially because you know they could have been real and they would have made our world a worse place. They aren't satisfying to beat because the damage is already done. There's no going back. There's no bring back Shou Tucker's wife or daughter. That hate needs to fester if you want them to really last. You have to want them to have quite literally NEVER EXISTED to earn the word 'Hate' as part of their title.

A regular antagonist on the other hand... Well, the point is that you like them being there so you can kick their ass. You gain catharsis out of making the caricature pay. If you ever have wondered why something like COBRA from G.I. JOE was so exciting to people, it's essentially this principle. We like seeing complete douchebags get their comeuppance. We like seeing non-complicated conflicts be won by the good guys. Black and White storytelling is as prominent as it is because many of us wish the world worked this way and it's nice to see the clearly bad man get his ass handed to him.

This is also where a hate sink can genuinely be a problem as a goal for a writer. See, there's absolutely an uncanny valley where you are both bored by the antagonist's presence and their complexities don't add depth, they just make them more annoying than anything else. Belos from The Owl House to me is a good example of this. He's never so evil as to excite the viewer in getting to see him be smashed, except for like a single good one liner, but he's also not genuinely grounded enough as a person to make you hate every fiber of his being. And you are meant to do that. He is supposed to be indicative of so much real world but the writing is so shallow and weak, and even to some elements contradictory as the LARGE amount of people who think Belos has a case to be genuinely sympathetic would argue, that it doesn't connect. It's too metatextual and just not very entertaining making you lose the strengths of both styles of villainy.

And another reason I don't think it's good for a writer to aim a hate sink is that it's kind of a high risk, low reward gambit. Not many people talk about Medusa because not a lot of people talk about Soul Eater. Lots of people talk about Shou Tucker because he's in Full Metal Alchemist. These are very memorable characters but they're not the core appeal of any given work because it's hard to write your main antagonist as a hate sink, especially in a grand narrative. Not when the strength of hate sinks is their smallness. In their relatability. Unless you are writing a small time drama, the reward is getting a character who might make it on some top ten lists if your work gets popular. If you fail at writing one though, you will have an absolute slog of a portion of your work that just about no one likes. Who's favorite Harry Potter villain is Umbridge? Who can actually back up the claim without easily contradicting evidence that Belos is some grand villain?

I think a writer is better off sinking more time into the parts of the story with which they love then trying to make a part they hate. After all, if you are genuinely excited about how god awful your character is, you'll be able to pump that into your readers way better than if your draining your own energy through a sink. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[cantsayidont]

June 1982. Literally always saying this, also. Our heroes are introduced to the Baroness, one of the more competent of the recurring villains of the G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO series, in G.I. JOE #1. Writer Larry Hama eventually fleshed out her back story to some extent, and she, like her longtime boyfriend Destro, became a somewhat ambivalent figure, particularly after she learned that her perception of some of the events that set her on the road to becoming a radical right-wing terrorist had been mistaken.

[lboogie1906]

Khary Payton (born May 16, 1972) is an actor. He is known for his roles as King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead and Dr. Terrell Jackson on General Hospital, as well as voicing Cyborg across various DC media and Kaldur’ahm / Aqualad in Young Justice.

In the cartoon series Justice League, he provided the voice of the villain Ten from the Royal Flush Gang. He provided the voice of Drebin in the game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Ripcord in G.I. Joe: Renegades, Blade in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Grimlock in Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Quinn Derringer in République and Killer Croc in Batman: Arkham Underworld and voiced Wasabi on the Big Hero 6: The Series.

He has three children. He married Linda Braddock (2001-2009). He married Stacey Reed (2010-2019). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[starscweam]

RISE OF THE BEASTS THOUGHTS BELOW

For the sake of fairness, I'm going to list some of things about the movie that are good:

The designs are good.* The majority were recognizable while also still feeling like alien robots. They are colorful and not too overwhelming to look at.

The humans were good! They were sympathetic and felt well written for the most part. You weren't annoyed when they came on screen and they played an actual part in the events of the movie.

The number of cops that crash and burn in the movie's first hour is beautiful.

Mirage, the transformer that is paired with a human for this movie, is fun! The "You were inside me" line got a laugh out of me.

Optimus actually has an arc in this movie. It's small, but it's there. And the parallels that movie draws between him and the main human character, Noah, actually make sense in the context of that arc.

The movie ensures to avoid the ancient aliens trope. It is explicitly stated that humans were the ones to build ancient structures, which is refreshing to see.

There were some typical marvel movie type lines, but it's not the worst.

Ok. Now onto the bad stuff:

There are only a grand total of 4 beasts wars characters in this movie. Not only are some of the most colorful beast wars characters not in the movie, but the autbots outnumber the maximals 6:4. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE A MOVIE ABOUT THE RISE OF THE BEASTS IF THERE ARE HARDLY ANY BEASTS IN IT?

Out of the 4 of them that are there, only two of the maximals really talk. Cheetor only has one line and rhinox doesn't speak at all.

Airazor dies. She delivers exposition, makes some heroic saves and then dies. We never get to see her transform out of her beast mode either. (Bumblebee also dies but is brought back at the climax.)

The women coded characters are once again second fiddle to the rest of the man coded cast. This is inevitable given the franchise we're talking about here. All of them also fall into the "sensible woman" trope as well. The rest of the cast can have colorful and funny personalities, but they can't. This movie only just barely passes even the bechdel test. Out of the four, two die.

The sense of scale/the stakes of this movie are totally off. Unicron is a planet eating god of chaos and destruction with endless hunger. He is a climax of the narrative level villain. They showed him too much in this movie and diminished any impact he could have had. He is not what you want to start out with, especially if Hasbro intends to make a trilogy. How much bigger than Unicron can you get? Where can you go from here?

It's a little unclear what kind of damage a transformer can walk away from. In order to get visceral fight scenes, the movie made it unclear how much is too much. (Save for head and spine being pulled out. That was pretty clear. )

*Wheeljack. Nothing about how Wheeljack's character was handled in this movie was good. From the bad, unrecognizable design, to the tone deaf bits of dialogue (calling a latino character racist for assuming an alien with a spanish speaking accent could speak spanish is not funny), it was all bad. The whole movie could have benefited from his character not being there.

Mirage could have been replaced by Jazz. Not to say that Mirage's movie personality is a 1:1 match with Jazz, but his original personality would have been a much closer fit that Mirage's original personality.

G.I. JOE? Why in the WORLD would Hasbro think teasing a G.I. Joe crossover for the next movie is a good idea? The worst part of the previous transformer movies was the presence of the military, there is no good reason to bring them into the mix again.

Hasbro wanted too many things in this movie and the pacing suffered immensely for it. This is the root cause of most* of the issues in this film. Many scenes lack impact because they pass by so quick that you can't process them. You are given too much information all at once and it's hard to lose yourself in the story as you are meant to. In my opinion, the story would have benefited more if it was broken up into two movies. The first movie could have been about getting the first half of the key and would have given us time to get to know the characters more so that stakes would feel higher when they were in danger. The emotional impact on the main humans leaving their home in search of the other half of the key would have had more weight if it had taken place in a second movie, and would have given room for the trust between transformers and humans grow more organically.

All in all, in terms of a Transformer movie it's not terrible, but it could be better. Hasbro, sadly, did not manage to learn anything from what Bumblebee did right.

Transformer Movie Score: 7.5/10

General Movie Score: 6/10

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

BARBARIC, CRUEL, CUNNING, & COOL -- THE FIRST LADY OF COBRA COMMAND.

PIC INFO: Resolution at 940x1418 -- Spotlight on Chief Cobra Intelligence officer, The Baroness Anastasia DeCobray, a.k.a., "The Baroness," variant cover to "G.I. Joe" Vol 6 #1. January, 2013. Cover C/ Subscription Variant by Arthur Adams. IDW Publishing.

Source: https://news.hisstank.com/2012/11/16/idw-relaunch-g-i-joe-1-variant-covers-11689.