G.I. Retro - Amusement Park of Terror

In this episode of G.I. Retro, I break down The Revenge of Cobra Part 5 - Amusement Park of Terror! Zartan playing both sides leads to a showdown in his hideout. Plus, it's round 2 of hair or hood? The Weather Dominator is fully operational and G.I. Joe will need all hands on deck to turn the tide. It all comes down to one final battle as the Revenge of Cobra comes to an explosive end! 
Hair or Hood: Round 2? 
Who was YOUR Episode MVP?
Who was YOUR Foul-Up of the Week?
What was your favorite But Did You Die? moment?
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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

It must be G.I. Joe and Cobra. Very well. Take your positions. We shall give them an unexpected education in the art of warfare.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Zartan is playing both sides for control of the Weather Dominator. And speaking of sides, I ask again: which are you on? Hair or Hood? Either way, Zartan and his amusement park are full of surprises. The finale of the Revenge of Cobra awaits. This is G.I. Retro.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Now back to G.I. Joe.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yo Joe and welcome everyone. Back to GI Retro, where we are revisiting and celebrating each and every episode of G.I. Joe, a real American hero, The Sunbow Run. And we are finishing up the second miniseries, The Revenge of Cobra. This is the finale, Amusement Park of Terror, originally aired September 14th, 1984. And as I mentioned in the open, features Zartan quite heavily. So I will put the question back out there. Again, is it hair or is it a hood? But before I sort of resurface all of that, let's pay off the cliffhanger from the end of last episode. If you remember that avalanche of ice hurtling towards Flint and his squad, and this is how they avoided certain death.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Fire your lasers! Ice melts.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

But also, somebody in the comments before said that Lady J is sort of like Green Arrow with those javelins. They just sort of fulfill whatever role they need to in a given moment. And that's really apt. I like that comparison better than when I said Hawkeye. So we'll go with Green Arrow. All right, back to Zartan and the main plot line of the episode. He's got the laser core. He's playing both G.I. Joe and Cobra for the highest bidder, and he sends out a message essentially blackmailing both sides and, you know, by extension, the world for control of the weather dominator.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

G.I. Joe, you have one fragment, but it has little value without the other two components.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Bingo.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

And Cobra, you are also the proud possessor of one fragment. It too, equally useless. Therefore, one of you, the more intelligent one, naturally, will quickly pay my price. And then, with two viable components, reconstruct the third. Or steal it back from your adversary and win the day.

SPEAKER_05 3:24

I have him. I have him.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

So Zartan broadcasting out his demands to both G.I. Joe and Cobra, and a couple things to highlight here. One, the hideout at Bayou World. I really like that a lot for him and his dreadnocks, and definitely gave me some sort of Scooby-Doo vibes. I mean, even the title of the episode, Amusement Park of Terror, is very Scooby-Doo, but it's just fun. And like seeing this sort of old abandoned amusement park be this lair for Zartan and the Dreadnoughts, and just, you know, bringing back memories of going to those sorts of places. You know, I would have, I would have loved to have seen one of G.I. Joe or Cobra get like trapped in some sort of crazy zipper ride or something like that. There was a lot, there were, they had a lot of fun with it, don't get me wrong. And they did a lot of cool stuff, but there were some even more opportunities for this. And I, you know, in looking at it, I thought about like, would this have worked as a playset? You know, it's certainly if they had made it, yes. But it was not something that as a kid I would have been like, oh, why why didn't they make the abandoned amusement park? But now I think one of the companies with the GI Joe license, I think there's some room to maybe do something cool and fun with Bayou World if those plans aren't already in motion already. But Zartan, once again, very prevalent in this episode. And as I'm looking at them, it resurfaced the age-old question, the great debate. One of the most sort of impassioned debates that I've seen in the GI Joe Methos, and that is is it hair or is it a hood? Round two here at GI Retro. If you missed weighing in on it the first time, this is your opportunity to let me know how you come down on Zartan's top there. Hair or hood, I I look at it and I mean, I've never seen a hood with a hairline. Certainly not one like that. And I will restate my sort of premise for what I believe, and that is in every other form of media, it is a hood. And and that's great. And you know, in the comic books, it's obvious it's made to be a hood and everything like that. There's no ambiguity there. I'm talking about in the cartoon. And even if the intent was for it to be a hood, that's not what we got. I think when we look at Zartan in the G.I. Joe cartoon, that is hair. That is absolutely not a hood. Again, I look at the hairline, I look at how it's drawn the vast majority of the time. It looks like luscious, glorious 80s rocker hair. And I love Zartan for it. That's what I always believed growing up as a kid. It wasn't until much later, you know, I started getting into the comic books and, you know, actually, instead of having, you know, getting a brand new Zartan or seeing the box art and be like, oh yeah, no, it's a hood. But the image was set in my mind. And going back and re-watching these, to me, it's still hair, and it will always look like hair to me when I see him in the cartoon. But what say you? Weigh in once again, round two, hair versus hood with Zartan. How do you come down on that? I look forward to reading your takes about it and discussing it yet again because really the first round was, you know, some great comments and just great passion from the GI Joe community. So I love that. But keeping it rolling with this episode, something else about this message with Zartan is that both G.I. Joe and Cobra start, you know, able to trace his location almost immediately. So he did not do a good job sort of encrypting or hiding his location here and not his plan. So his blackmail sort of scheme backfiring immediately here because now both G.I. Joe and Cobra are going to be descending upon Bayou World. So I'll tell you right now, I had Zartan coming into this as a very strong, you know, potential MVP, might be who I gave it to, but also a very strong fallop of the week contender for this alone. I mean, you've got the laser core, you you you have the trump card right now, and you want to make a lot of money off of it, and immediately you give away your position. So that's tough for Zartan. So a dual threat here for our wards, both good and bad, uh, for the Master of Disguise, Zartan. But pivoting away because Cobra and G.I. Joe each still have one Cobra on their way to Bio World to get the laser core, but they're still gonna need the weather dominator fragment that G.I. Joe has and enter Storm Shadow with this just really awesome infiltration sequence where single-handedly Storm Shadow is going to infiltrate the pit and steal this weather dominator fragment for Cobra. It immediately jumped out to me, and I'm sure for those of you that are also fans of the Mission Impossible franchise, this scene definitely evokes Mission Impossible 1 when they're infiltrating the base at Langley, and you know, Ethan Hunt is suspended trying to not even drop a bead of sweat to set off the motion detectors. And and I I'm not saying that they got this from G.I. Joe, but I'm not not saying they got it from it because they are eerily similar. And of course, this came out more than a decade prior, but really cool scene and more badassery from Storm Shadow, adding to his sort of mythic lore within the animated series. All right, before we get to the battle at Bayou World, I do want to check in on Duke, Snake Eyes, Roblox, and Honalo West. It was sort of a bee cliffhanger from last episode that they were in the arena of sport. They had these sort of like Tron-like monsters coming at them, and they've got to deal with that. And so they're trying to figure it out. And earlier in the mini-series, they were able to use those sort of those power conduits to get a Morse code message out to G.I. Joe. So they have the idea to, hey, we can use these to create a power surge and just short out the entire arena of sport. Sure, sounds simple for a daring, highly trained special mission force, but who do they enlist to sort of make this happen? The civilian, Honalu West. They have really no idea of her capabilities, and they launch her on top of this electrified power conduit with the hopes of you know using it to short to connect to another one and short out the whole system. If you're getting what I'm driving at here, this is our but did you die moment of the week.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Did you die? I got shot, but did you die?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

So, yeah, this to me, without doubt, was the DYD. They're in this arena of sport. We've got some heavy hitters here. We've got Duke, Roblock, and Snake Eyes. I would think that the move would be, you know, since Duke and Snake Eyes have been trapped in here, they know their way around a little bit better. Roadblock is so obscenely strong, he could have done something, maybe even ripped the conduit down himself or something like that to create an electrical shortage. But no, they're they're gonna rely on Honaloo West, who, God bless her, gets the job done. But are you telling me she didn't get electrocuted by this as she was still on the pole sliding down it? Uh, that is definitely the did you die moment of the week. But hey, it all worked out. Honaloo West was successful, showing her value to G.I. Joe, another civilian coming up big in these mini-series, sort of a common theme throughout all of them. Uh, excited to talk about the next one as well. But good job, Honaloo. That's still our DYD for the week. But uh, they're able to escape the arena of sport. Duke turns on this homing beacon to let G.I. Joe know where they are and where Cobra's fortress is at. But we'll come back to that. We have to go back to, we are on our way to Bayou World, and G.I. Joe and Cobra's armies both headed that way. The battle is about to begin, and now we wait. But unfortunately, Cobra Commander, like so many of us, hates waiting.

SPEAKER_05 11:35

The final resolution is in motion. And now I must do the one thing I despise. I must wait.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Absolutely unhinged from Cobra Commander, but hey, we've all been there. We've pre-ordered an action figure online, and you just want it there immediately. You want that instant gratification. So, really, Cobra Commander, once again, a man of the people. But yeah, just had to show that. I thought that was a super fun and funny moment. And also the continuity that the console that Cobra Commander destroyed previously in the miniseries is still completely wrecked there. So good continuity. But let's get to Bayou World. Cobra's army is first on the scene, led by Destro and Major Blood, and they're sort of vexed at the idea that Zartan is sort of offering no resistance as they enter the amusement park.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

Is this the contempt in which Zartan holds me?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

You know, we'll talk a little bit more about it, but you know, earlier in this miniseries, I talked about Spirit and Storm Shadow being great rivals, Cobra Commander and Destro. How about Destro and Zartan's rivalry continuing throughout this miniseries and the rest of the animated series as well? So they're definitely contenders for best rivalry, but it wasn't contempt. The kitty cars and everything just lulling Cobra's forces into a false sense of security. And then Zartan unleashes the full power of this amusement park of terror, the rides becoming weapons, the kitty cars exploding. It's a really cool battle. G.I. Joe is also entering the scene. So Zartan is going to have this war on two fronts, but he's really holding his own to begin with here. I mean, Cobra seems kind of overwhelmed, certainly taken by surprise that this amusement park has now come alive of sorts and become weapons and turning it on their forces. And it's for a couple reasons that the battle sort of turns ill for Zartan here. One on the sort of competent side, G.I. Joe blowing the power and shutting down what Zartan had going. But if that wasn't enough, Zartan also undone by incompetence. And I am talking about the Dreadnoughts, and it brings us to our fallop of the week.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

You're here because you're an industrial spray follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Thank you, Sarge. And yeah, if it wasn't enough, the war on two fronts, Cobra and G.I. Joe both taking the attack to Zartan here at Bayou World, but the Dreadnoughts just really blowing it for him here this whole episode. And I love the Dreadnoughts. They're fan favorites for a reason. They're great. But here in this episode, they really are not helping Zartan at all. They are overconfident. They are incompetent. They are falling all over themselves, revealing their position, and then running all the way back to where Zartan's command center is, essentially revealing his position to where they're trying to make this hasty retreat, albeit very cool because it's it's via that roller coaster. And then just to top it off, they've got the laser core. Well, Zartan has the laser core. The dreadnoughts, they just ride off without him, leaving Zartan to be captured by Destro. And, you know, I said earlier, Zartan wasn't perfect. Certainly, he got into this mess because G.I. Joe and Cobra both were able to very easily sort of trace his message, but he still was holding his own really well, improving his competence on the battlefield with his defenses in the amusement park. But the dreadnoughts, they to me earned the foul-up honors, uh, and not particularly close for that matter. So they are the foul-up of the week. But with Destro's capture of Zartan and that laser core, beyond just the dreadnoughts being foul-ups, that means that Cobra has all three pieces of the Weather Dominator. Again, it will be fully operational, and their plans can move forward. And this is the revenge of Cobra. But what I find interesting here, one of the standout scenes from this episode and the miniseries as a whole for me is not the revenge of Cobra, but the mercy of Cobra.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

We have the laser core, Commander. Now, what punishment shall we administer to this turncoat?

SPEAKER_05 16:03

Punishment? Punishment is the price for failure, and we have not failed. Rise, Zartan. But he stole the laser core. Which I now have, as well as the other two fragments. But Zartan must be dealt with. He has been. I forgive him. Now stop sputtering like a wet toaster and get busy.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

What a great interaction. Destro just desperate for Zartan to get his comeuppance, and then Cobra Commander just sort of slyly, I forgive him. And that's and that's it. He knows it's just driving Destro absolutely crazy. Again, we're talking about rivalries. That tension between Cobra Commander and Destro, and this hatred, the contempt between Destro and Zartan. It all comes into play in this scene. It was great. I just I love the Cobra Commander. I I forgive him. And we're off, and you know what, Destro, get up into the weather dominator. It's time to push forward. The past is the past. And the weather dominator, it's operational and the stage is set. This is the climactic clash of the episode and of the miniseries. The full power of the weather dominator unleashed as G.I. Joe, led by Flint, trying to make its assault on Cobra's Fortress. Uh Flint is in the Sky Striker, and Destro is just letting him and his team have it. First with the heat, then with the snow and ice, and then trying to wipe him off the map with the lightning. But through it all, Flint is able to still keep that Sky Striker airborne, still able to lead his way through it. Really, maybe the best flying that we see throughout the entire run of the series. And it doesn't come from Ace or Wild Bill. It's from Flint here in the Sky Striker. Again, everything that Destro and that weather dominator throws at him, he is able to keep that Sky Striker airborne and keep advancing along with the rest of G.I. Joe. But it's it's tough sledding, no pun intended. They're not really able to make that much headway. They're just trying to sort of incrementally, you know, make progress here. They need an opening. And that opening comes courtesy of Roadblock with a real full circle moment as he and Honda Lu and Duke and Snake Eyes had made their escape. Roadblock commandeered some of those creeper vines. Duke sort of, you know, incredulous as to what use, you know, Roadblock's uh hobby of gardening would be, but Roadblock brings it all back around from the earlier part of the miniseries with him fighting off the creeper vines, putting them to good use here. This final bust will annihilate them forever. Cobra Commander is all wrapped up, and Flint and G.I. Joe have the opening that they need. But can they make the most of it? Because Cobra always with the tricks up their sleeve, the base starts to descend into the sand, and they would be ghost and able to escape. But thankfully, Flint has what I call his Death Star moment and able to stop Cobra in its tracks.

SPEAKER_05 19:56

They're trying to take her down. Let's lead them to it.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

So the base was just a dead duck sitting in the sand, academic from there. G.I. Joe finished turning the tide of battle. They are victorious. Cobra Commander is captured. The weather dominator soon to be disabled for good. But now we start to get a couple of mirrors from the first mini-series from the Mass Device, because once again, just like in the Mass Device, they catch Cobra Commander, but Destro making his own separate escape. Only this time, he's not alone.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

A battle lost, but not the war. I shall make G.I. Joe rue this day if it takes me a thousand years.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

I love Destro's commitment to revenge, even if it would take him a thousand years. Not sure how he would make that happen. Also, Zartan's stealth camouflage throughout. Love that. Very metal gear solid. And just hitching a ride. Not sure how Zartan's gonna do with the unforgiving sun atop that glider, but I love that lasting visual of them sort of tussling through the air on that glider, making their escape. And Destro of all people to be stuck with, it's Zartan. And has me really thinking more and more about the rivalries throughout the show. And that's such a good one. And one more mirror image moment from the mass device that is then reflected into the revenge of Cobra. It's in the aftermath, G.I. Joe trying to set things right after the havoc that Cobra had wreaked across the world. And it's once again Breaker trying to fix everything, and he doesn't do it quite right.

SPEAKER_05 22:41

Yo, snow! Well, nobody's perfect.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

No, but we do okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Very similar sequence, right down to the very same dialogue, with notable exception being that instead of Duke delivering the final line, this time it's Flint. Passing of the torch, perhaps. Certainly seemed that way to me, but in any case, everybody strikes their hero pose. G.I. Joe has saved the day once again. And that's how we bring the revenge of Cobra to a close. And I really think the finale stuck the landing. It was a great episode. The battle in the amusement park, the assault on the Cobra base, the weather dominator being full use. It was all great and had some great moments for a multitude of characters. And just like the miniseries overall was phenomenal. I think I do prefer it to the Mass Device. The cast just gets even better with Zartan being introduced, Flint, Lady J, Firefly, Storm Shadow, just to name a few. I mean, they really up the annie in terms of the fan favorites that are in this miniseries. But let me know, which one do you prefer? Mass device or the revenge of Cobra? Eileen Revenge of Cobra. They're both great, but again, just the litany of characters in this one really makes it stand out even more so for me. And speaking of standouts, we have one last bit of hardware to hand out here for the finale of The Revenge of Cobra, and that is, of course, episode MVP.

SPEAKER_05 24:16

On a night where you thought, well, he isn't quite himself.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

For me, there were three standout contenders for MVP. There's Zartan, Flint, and Roadblock. All three had really strong episodes. Roadblock, I loved him bringing it full circle. First of all, he escapes the arena of sport. He acquitted himself well there. He had some more great lines, though not the typical sort of roadblock rhymes that we were accustomed to, but I loved him sort of reveling in the fact that he was gonna sort of get back with the vines themselves, brought that all full circle. And then we have Zartan, great character, continues to be a standout throughout this entire miniseries. The voice acting, stealth camo, the scheming, all the driving the conversation of is it hair or is it a hood? Zartan was great. He was trying to blackmail both G.I. Joe and Cobra. That did fail pretty spectacularly, though. So can't give it to Zartan. The real MVP bringing it home for a third time in this miniseries alone is Flint. He is the real MVP of this episode and of the whole miniseries. He was leading G.I. Joe's forces at the battle at the amusement park, at the final assault on Cobra's base. That coup de gras, that Death Star moment really sealed the deal for him. The fact that Flint was able to take all of that punishment from the weather dominator, still keep that Sky Striker airborne. I mean, it was just really hammering home to the viewer that this is the guy. You know, Flint is him.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

We're still airborne and ready to fight. Yo Joe.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

So top-tier and stands right amongst all of the giants that participated in this animated series. So once again, Flint is the MVP and carries the day in this episode. But let me know your own thoughts. Who was your MVP? What was your DYD, your foul-up, all that good stuff? Of course, hair versus hood. Where do you come down? Where do you rank this miniseries compared to the Mass Device? Let me know. I will I want to know what you think about all this. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter at GI Retro Show. You can email me, James at giretro.com. Be sure to like, subscribe, and most importantly, re-watch. What lays on the horizon now for us here at GI Retro. We will be getting into the pyramid of darkness, but I did want to take a beat because, you know, I want to give this a moment. I like responding to all of the great comments and opinions that you have. So I want to do something a little special, take a quick little beep before we just dive right into the pyramid of darkness. So next time you see me, we'll be doing a little bit of a mail call where I'll be revisiting some of your emails, some of your comments on the videos or tweets that you've sent at me. And we're going to go through them there. We're going to talk about some of these burning questions like hair versus hood and the greatest rivalry and stuff like that. So yeah, we're going to we're going to take a moment and dive into some of that with some of your thoughts as well. So, with that being said, that is going to do it for this edition of GI Retro. This has been the revenge of Cobra. And if you didn't know, now you know. Take it away, Flint.

SPEAKER_05 28:16

And knowing is half the battle.