Word. Watched the whole thing start to finish for the first time. Wow. We've seen SE vs SS a 100 different times. This was the best by far. Very well done. Major characters being taken out. I mean the show started with Bludd dead. Blew my mind that they would go that route. I think that is what made the ending feel like such a cop out. They did such a great job with the build up that the end just felt very unresolved. I was expecting more than a sitrep.

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Overall I enjoyed it. Was it realistic no. Realistic for GI Joe, yeah.
I think my biggest criticism was that the whole story seemed rushed. Unless you remembered Springfield from the comics, you'd be going "What the hell?" And they cribbed alot from other movies. Kill Bill, Rob Roy, even the Nth Man comic (when the cargo plane full of commandos lands in the enemy capital. Larry Hama wrote that series.)
The story assumed a basic understanding of the Joe Mythos, especially from the comics, that if you don't have it you could be lost. While its great fun for older fans, new fans are gonna be like "Huh?"

They only way Stormy is coming back is as a clone. His brains got ejected out the back of his head, and for good measure SE spiked both his swords through his body in his grave.

Zartan, OK I could see his armor stopping a pistol round, and him regaining consciousness to crawl into some sort of bunker, but that'd be a stretch. But then again Indiana Jones survived an A-bomb in a fridge so go figure. But right now I'm saying he's toast.

Look, CC apparently made it, Firefly is out there, Destro and Baroness are still alive. So 3 out of 4 Cobra Mercs bought it in this iteration. There's plenty of fodder for a sequel. Plus it gives room for new characters too. New characters are just a license to print money for H.

So it looks like Resolute Duke's rifle is for Resolute what Snowjob's gun was for the original cartoon. And yeah, Cobra really needs to start a basic marksmanship class. And the Joes should go too.

It wasn't bad, overall. Better than DIC and Sigma6. Some poor story choices. The only Joes who get to shine are Duke, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes, really. In Sunbow, B-teamers got their moments. Sunbow always worked hard to make it an ensemble. I miss Cobra temples and the fun locales of Sunbow. Also, no Cobra infighting. Everything felt very constricted and the characters suffered.

I am against killing for the reasons that played out here. The fighting still played into can't aim trap because we don't want the leads to die. I don't see a reason for Bakooka or Major Bludd's death. The troops still sucked, so killing Bludd didn't inspire them. The stuff that went down between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow didn't have anything to do with Bakooka, plus the sabotaging didn't work. Sunbow had much better sabotaging in several episodes.

Duke: Cobra Commander wanted us to watch him win. Umm, how do you know? Better, in Synthoid Conspiracy is Cobra Commander saying point blank, he wanted to humiliate GIJoe before destroying them. There we can see CC's weakness and ego, while here, its all based on conjecture from Duke.

man i love it. now with how it ended i hope there will be more. and if so i hope the 88-89 line up makes it to the show. best joe cartoon ever. i wish the movie would be like this.

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I don't think it was an issue thatthe SS/SE thing had nothing to do with Bazooka; that's fine. After all, it was SS calling out SE. Bazooka just happened to be the poor schmuck stuck on Duty when SS attacked. Do I wish it would've been someone else? Sure, but who? I mean, had they used someone like Ice Cream Soldier, Big Brawler, or some other third stringer, people would be complaining that they killed off a nobody because they were afraid to kill off a name. Somebody had to die to advance the plot at that point, and unfortunately for Bazooka, it was he. Same with Bludd, except I don't think his death advanced the plot and was more to show that nobody was safe. Since the CGs weren't in the show, I kind of wish it would've been a double-murder with the two of them, but that's mainly because I like Bludd better than I like them.
As far as being rushed; yes, it was a bit. However, I find a lot of television rushed anymore, due to time constraints to allow for commercials. Had there been no commercial interruptions (or if this were web-only), they could have thrown in another 5 or 10 minutes of programming, which could've set pacing better.
I could see a weekly series and enjoying it. As far as handling the absence of several big characters, they have two options: a prequel series, like Clone Wars, or do like many shows based off one-shots such as movies and do a mini-reboot where this was more a stand-alone show not to be seen in continuity with the series. Yes, that would be a cop-out, but I'd be fine with it.

Personally, I was glad to see SS die, and wouldn't care if he stayed dead. I'm just not that into the ninja thing. I never really even cared for the ninjas when I was a kid, though. In fact, that subplot was the one thing that took me out of the show briefly. I mean, I expect my heroes to be nearly super human, but to do some of the stuff they did, and to see that they'd both been slammed into rock walls, stairs, etc. hard enough to crush the stone beneath, yet not even break one of their (much softer than stone) bones, that was just too anime for me. That stuff's fine in a show where the whole universe is built that way, but not in a show where less damaging injuries were fatal.

Also, with respect to Duke's injuries, I may be misremembering, but I think he said the bullet bounced off a rib. I took that to mean it was not a direct hit, but a glancing hit that just grazed him. Would've probably busted a rib or two and left some nasty bruising, but a little tape-up and maybe some drugs, I could see him going into the final battle like he did. Granted, that would also mean he shouldn't have been as hard up and close to death as he was in Russia, but I can forgive a bit of that. I also wish they would've dug in for cover, rather than standing up and firing on the Cobra troops like they did, since realistically, they would've taken quite a few hits if the troops were shooting anywhere in their general direction, but even that wasn't too bad for me.

As I said, overall, just killer. It's what I wanted my Joe to be when I was a kid, and really something I could stand to see more of. If the movie turns out to be half this good, I'll be a happy man.

Question ever bust a rib, you are not up running around an hour or two later, even with drugs and tape. Nevermind the fact almost every pain killer is a KO to the system.

Y'all are overthinking the plot devices.

SS's brains did not fly out the back of his head. That was his hood, and maybe an animated shockwave. If it was his brains, he wouldn't have been talking, before he collapsed. I could see a continueing series starting out with Stormshadow's hand reaching out from under those rocks, reaching skyward, and clenching into a fist. (Cliched, yes. But, why not?) and maybe have a bald man with a monocle sneaking Bludd's corpse out of the morgue, to connect it to strange devices in some clandestined labrotory, somewhere.

I could Zartan surviving. Maybe with just enough radiation damage, to cause a mutation that makes his skin turn blue in the sunlight.

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Yeah, but if it's not actually broken but just a small crack, a he-man like Duke could shrug it off.

Technically after watching the whole show, there is room for Cobra Commander to still be alive. That text at the end didn't necessarily say he was dead. I mean yeah conclusion is that you'd think the room and Cobra Commander were vaporized, but I can see that they could pull a cartoon get away out of it. Same with Zartan. Heck look at Duke getting up and fighting after getting shot in the stomach/chest.

I do think it was written so that it could continue. Probably Hasbro has the idea that if this does well and the movie too, we'll probably see more. With a cartoon, there's room to play with the "deaths" if they want to. I'd say Bazooka is gone, all the troopers, and maybe Storm Shadow. I wouldn't even 100% count out Storm Shadow. Or maybe an Arashikage unknown they can introduce specially for Resolute.

But if there is no more Resolute, it was also written so that it can end as is and not require anything added. So it's set either way.

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Huh? CC did survive it said so at the end.

I dunno how I feel about it, it was pretty cool but I felt the lack of moral ambiguity kinda sucked. The Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow thing for example didn't make you sympathetic for Storm Shadow at all.

I dunno, but my idea of a more mature reimagining would have been not to make Cobra EVEN MORE EVIL HURR.

Warren Ellis does this quite a bit though, despite being an otherwise mature writer, he often writes the bad guys as just being complete bastards. Which is fine, because we do often forget that sometimes people are just maniacs. But he took it a bit too far with this, and we should have had some level of sympathy for someone on the other side if it was going to be a more "mature" reminagining. There are always people caught up on the wrong side.

Once Storm Shadow murdered Bazooka, there's no way he was deserving of any sympathy even if his backstory was different. Even in the Hama verse, the way he cut down Appel was a non-heroic moment.

Even a small crack would make breathing a chore. Even a brused rib would make certain movements deathly sharp pain that the person would wince. Fireing a gun the way he did would most definatly set it off.

I have seen guys who could walk on broken toes do the same for brused ribs.

With both Storm Shadow & Zartan dead means that no more Storm Shadow, Zartan & Snake Eyes revenge, ninja story for the sequel (if there is one). There's no where else you can that plot. You can keep stretching it out or end it.

I thought it was really good despite the god mode that Duke and Scarlett had.

yeah, but those are just regular guys. We're talking about Duke here. He's one of the baddest mothers out there. He could lose the top of his skull and he'd still be ready to bark orders and take on Cobra, while playing a game of chess with Hawk over the radio.