YMMV / G.I. Joe: Renegades

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • When loading up the Cobra barge during "The Enemy of My Enemy," a disgruntled Scrap-Iron stomps down the container with the defective Bio-Viper in it, damaging it. While it seems like an accident, especially with Mindbender insinuating that he'd screw it up beforehand, it could easily have been deliberate. Scrap-Iron may have done that to get back at Mindbender for his insults, or, seeing as Scrap-Iron works for Destro who was trying to sabotage Mindbender, this was part of a plot.
  • The second half of the season has Cobra Commander losing his Tranquil Fury over the failures of his minions and even going into full-blown rage with them when threatening their lives. Is the Commander losing patience thanks to his terminal illness growing worse and forcing them to shape up to conquer the world before it's too late, or is he slowly suffering a Sanity Slippage caused by the illness poisoning his mind?
  • After the events of "Homecoming" clarify some backstory, it raises the question over Lady Jaye's attachment to Duke. Is she aiding him and his fellow Joes in their run from the law because breaking command by saving her life from a helicopter crash forged them into True Companions and she seeks to repay him back? Or did she develop romantic feelings for him and protects him out of love? The fact that they share a Longing Look here and there, has a past closeness with him, displays heavy concern for him, is not romantically involved with Flint, and even risks her military career just to save him has only fueled both arguments.
• Broken Base: Some people found it to be a great reinvention of the G.I. Joe franchise, some hated it for the liberties it took and/or more or less basically being The A-Team: The Animated Series.
• Cargo Ship: Shipwrecked provides plenty of fuel for both Roadblock x Coyote, and Shipwreck x Courtney (Courtney being his beat-up old boat).
• Complete Monster:
  • Cobra Commander/Adam DeCobray is the cruel, calculating head of Cobra Industries, who uses the supposed philanthropic organization to mask the terrorist activities of the group "Cobra". The Commander utilizes Cobra for a variety of crimes, from developing a bioplague to wiping out entire towns when they halt Cobra development, all while silencing any potential leaks and ruthlessly executing or punishing his subordinates, notably sealing a metal mask around the face of James McCullen and dubbing him "Destro". To combat the Joes, the Commander threatens their entire families with death, kidnaps one of their number to experiment on, and frames them for heinous crimes committed by Cobra itself. After his bevy of plans to Take Over the World through more subtle methods are consistently thwarted by the Joes, the Commander forgoes all attempts at obscurity and tries to lead a full-on invasion of various countries using the M.A.S.S. device.
  • Dr. Mindbender, real name Brian Bender is portrayed here as a more youthful, monstrous incarnation of his usual depictions in media. A psychopathic Mad Scientist who develops the Bio-Viper army for Cobra, Mindbender experiments on innocents to assist in his projects, and works with Baroness in ordering the deranged Firefly to destroy a small town and its inhabitants. Torturing the twin psychics Tomax and Xamot in an attempt to use their powers for Mind Rape, Mindbender later tries to destroy Brooklyn, New York just to distract the Joes from his activities, and interrogates and threatens a young child for information in the same episode. As Cobra develops the M.A.S.S. device, Mindbender cheerfully tests it on Cobra's own soldiers, uncaring of any deaths it causes, before trying to send Snake Eyes through it and kill him while making his best friend Scarlett watch.
• Crazy Is Cool: This incarnation of Snake Eyes. He seems to run on Rule of Cool and Unspoken Plan Guarantee (which is easy since he can't speak). As Duke puts it during one of his many rescues, "What is your crazy friend doing?"
• Evil Is Cool: Many of the Cobra agents to different extents. Major Bludd in particular won a lot of people over by just how determined and capable he was.
• Jerkass Woobie: Duke's younger brother Vince is an angry teenager lashing out at the world and sells out the Joes to Flint, but it's not hard to understand his bad luck. As far as he knows his brother whom he looked up to is a wanted fugitive, his mom went into denial over the unfortunate events, his dad can't even leave the house, and it's implied his entire hometown ostracized their family, viewing them as bad news thanks to their alleged criminal son.
• Love to Hate: As is tradition, COBRA may be monstrous but it's got some amazing villains.
  • The Cobra Commander himself who is a brilliant mastermind with a creepy presence which frightens even his closest cohorts and an unrelenting desire to conquer the world no matter what setbacks he faces.
  • Dr. Mindbender for simply being darkly hilarious as well as surprisingly cunning.
  • The Baroness, who is, well The Baroness.
  • Major Bludd, the best bounty hunter in the world who also has no qualms about harming innocent civilians.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Cobra Commander, aka Adam DeCobray, is the calculating leader of Cobra, a terrorist organization masking itself as a completely legitimate and beloved business. Fooling the world over with his public guise of DeCobray, the Commander uses his ruthless true nature to keep his subordinates in line, weeding out any and all potential leaks or dangers to Cobra's criminal activities and sniffing them out. Outwitting his entire command staff anytime they try to betray him, the Commander frames the G.I. Joes when they nearly expose Cobra, sending them on the run for the whole series. The Commander stares an assassin down without flinching, gives the Joes the hardest fight in the series when he personally duels them, and nearly takes over the world countless times over through sheer strategic brilliance and leadership.
  • Major Sebastian Bludd is an Australian mercenary defined by his determination and quick wit. A top Cobra agent entrusted to take out a Cobra leaker, Bludd quickly located the target being rescued by the G.I. Joes, and despite being up against the entire team, Bludd keeps pace with them all by his lonesome, later ambushing them with a small army when he realizes the threat they are. When a Joe's beloved family member dies, Bludd sets a trap after the funeral, knowing such an event would draw the Joes out, and, when he temporarily loses them in the ensuing car chase, he just blows up the nearby bridge to cut the Joes off from their only escape route, enabling him to capture them and use them as bait to draw in more targets. Bludd is the most personally dangerous and adaptable foe the Joes face, always having a witty remark and ready to get back to the fight even after losing an eye in an explosion and having his arm ripped off by a crocodile, all the while swindling extra cash out of the Baroness for his services.
• Moral Event Horizon: Cobra Commander orders a bomb to destroy an entire college just to murder one blogger who is trying to expose COBRA.
• Narm: The scene where Cobra Commander seals Destro's face inside the mask. Clearly meant to be both awesome and horrifying, and for the most part it is, but, well... With the screws tightening and the Baroness wincing, everything we see seems to suggest that it's literally being nailed into Destro's skull. Except his scream of pain is noticeably absent, which makes it obvious that the censors objected. It's basically on par with substituting "killed" with "sent to the Shadow Realm".
  • Destro himself, on occasion. Clancy Brown is a great actor, and the role is well performed, but sometimes his accent slips and makes him sound less like an amoral Scotsman and more like an evil Mr. Krabs.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Right from the premiere we're treated to some Family-Unfriendly Death. Not only does Ripcord fall in battle, but when Major Hidalgo, who betrays the Joes and steals their evidence thanks to being in the back pocket of the Baroness attempts to extort more money from her, she has him vaporized until he's nothing but a pile of ash.
  • In episode 2, the Bio-Viper absorbs the life out of goats, and you can see their barely alive husks.
    • From the same episode, the loose Bio-Viper swallows a child to use as a Human Shield so the Joes can't directly shoot it, implying that It Can Think. Made worse by the fact that the boy is slowly being digested the longer he's stuck in its belly.
  • Every moment Serpentor is onscreen. This incarnation of the snake is a genetically-engineered massive cobra who devours the fallen minions of the Commander who disappoint him. Which he does several times. The fact that it can also obey commands and spit out victims if his master orders implies it's smarter than it looks.
  • Zartan and his Dreadnoks essentially taking over a small mountain town to bully and torment innocent civilians For the Evulz. Things are made worse when they kidnap a waitress named Wendy to keep prisoner in their motel room to do who knows what to her. Thank goodness Snake Eyes steps in.
    • From the same episode, Snake Eyes' unmasking by the Dreadnoks is so horrific that even Zartan is disturbed by what he sees...
  • Major Bludd's determination to kill his targets. Not only does he not care who's on his hit list, but he can shrug off pain to carry on his bloodlust. Him getting his arm gruesomely ripped off by a gator only pisses him off.
  • Storm Shadow's skills as a ninja warrior are so deadly that he almost feels like a ghost with how swift he is. His first confrontation with the Joes has him nearly succeeding in slaying the entire team without breaking a sweat.
  • The episode "Busted" deals with Duke being locked up in a corrupt prison where he and the other convicts are routinely forced to fight to the death in underground cage matches for entertainment. Which even the warden is totally in on and encourages. Heck, the matches are also an online webshow for all to see. Law & Order imply that this has gone on for a very long time.
  • Possibly Destro's masking, if you imagine those screws being inserted are boring into his skull.
  • Firefly's disturbed fondness to talk to fire reveals how deranged his obsession truly is.
  • "Homecoming" reveals that COBRA has been keeping tabs on all the families of the Joes. The Commander has never bothered enacting any kind of evil upon them until this episode because they proved they were indeed a genuine threat to him when they stole data from him. He could've had their relatives exterminated at any time.
  • The "Brothers or Light" episode practically plays out like a horror movie. Introducing Tomax and Xamot as unnerving cult leaders, they run a commune of brainwashed prisoners forced to obey their every command thanks to their telepathy influencing the minds of emotionally vulnerable lost souls, in order to profit off their loyalty until they die. The Joes unexpectedly become their newest recruits, and we learn if the twins can't profit from you then they force you to become an obedient soldier in the Crimson Guard. Tunnel Rat appropriately compares his stay there to Children of the Corn.
    • The faces of the totally brainwashed cultists.
    • The ending of the episode which features Dr. Mindbender imprisoning the twins to do painful experimentation on in order to harness their power.
  • The sheer amount of Body Horror Ripcord endures when he becomes a human/Bio-Viper hybrid.
  • Dr. Mindbender's sadism often makes him just as violently dangerous as his own creations. The fact that he can assault random civilians such as a swami con artist and even a child in the hospital shows how he can casually harm or even kill somebody with no hesitation. But this is actually the least of his crimes compared to his human experimentations.
  • Cobra Commander's Bad Boss tendencies often cross into pure terror. When he learns a Bio-Viper escaped under Dr. Mindbender's watch, he casually lifts him over a nuclear waste reactor, ready to drop him to his death as a way to pressure the doctor into fixing his error. Even the most valuable member or COBRA and the sole hope who can save his life is unsafe from the Commander's wrath.
  • The finale displays Cobra Commander's unhinged vengeance towards the Joes in full force. He gains a Humongous Mecha battle armor to at last snuff out his enemies for good when they interfere with his plans for the final time, smacking them all away like insects at the push of a button. He even gives Duke his scar from punching him so hard. Not to mention his grisly fate after falling into toxic waste.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Storm Shadow and Jinx are cousins and his affection for her seems to be familial, but it's quite easy to see Incest Subtext and interpret Storm Shadow's possessiveness of her as romantic rather than platonic.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Sorta. In past incarnations, Bludd has been, mainly, a mercenary with a British accent and a bloodthirsty streak. In this version, he still is, but he sucks up punishment from the entire team and keeps going.
  • Serpentor, one of the most infamous examples of a Replacement Scrappy gets reimagined as an utterly horrifying giant cobra who serves as the Commander's personal attack animal. It really is a miracle how a gaudy, Fashion-Victim Villain with anger issues was transformed into the most creepy pet ever.
• Spiritual Adaptation: This show is basically The A-Team: The Animated Series, which most purist fans of G.I. Joe feel is an insult to the franchise.
• Squick: Cobra Commander's pet regurgitating James McCullen; Scrap-Iron's face after "Rage."

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