For me, it's all about the imagination. The GI Joe universe is about balance--a yin/yang kinda thing, and I don't mean about ninja's. There's the Joe side which represents law and order, and government, and government process.. and a lot of bureaucracy. There's generals above Hawk, politicians, the Jugglers, and others, and those politicians pulling the strings of .... you get the idea. Once you get into the Joe system it's a matter of time before you start going up the chain of command and then realize there's the dark side of government. There's the process .. the pencil pushers, the paper work, and those loveable, caring politicians who care all the world for the Joe team and would never dream of disbanning it.

So comes Cobra, the opposite of much of that. It's a dictatorship, started in a little town called Springfield where mom and pop might enjoy sitting outdoors watching the sunset on rocking chairs. Cobra where things get done via the power of authority. Cobra Commander speaks, and it is done. It's the ultimate power trip! Then comes along the cool vehicles, the cool gear, nameless troopers, faceless troopers.. it could be anyone in those uniforms. Anyone in those Vipers. No real explaination needed to explain the funding for anything, or where those cool vehicles come from.. or why.. they exist, because Cobra Commander wanted them, needed them. Cobra Commander, for the most part, trumps bureaucracy.

There is also the taboo factor. Cobra is bad, pure and simple. We are not supposed to like bad. Especially if we are good ppl. But it's like telling a child not to take a cookie from the cookie jar. In most tests, a child will leave the cookie alone in the jar, but once someone says not to touch the cookies, suddenly there's this drive in the child to break the rule and steal a cookie. It is taboo and yet because it is taboo there is an attracting force.

Ultimately it's probably an issue of human survival. The taboo factor plays a role in all aspects of life. It helps differentiate society, adds diversity in our genes, our culture, lifestyle, and tastes.

And if you think about this more, it all just comes right back to where we started -- Cobra is liked because it's full of bad a$$'s who kick butt. They are nameless and many, and break all the rules of normal.

If you are "playing" Cobra, setting up a story, setting up a shot, the sky is the limit of what you can do as the person in control. For a brief instant of time, you become Cobra Commander as you set up your forces. You call the shots, you are the dictator that all these hundreds of faceless bad a$$'s will follow to hell and back. For that moment, you are the one in full control as you see fit. Contrast that with the Joes--some freedom, but are confined to a fix set of rules and personalities and structure. Not so with Cobra.

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*~~~{==========- Death at Midnight -==========}~~~*