How I Think G.I.Joe Season 2 Went Downhill

As a child, I remembered the whole reason why I started disliking the second season of the G.I.Joe cartoon was the replacement of Cobra Commander. Cobra Commander was the true leader of COBRA yet one day the writers decided to install the new character of Serpentor. Destro participating in all the shenanigans of creating the new COBRA leader was anything but surprising. Destro always hated Cobra Commander like Starscream hated Megatron. It's understandable if the High Command were getting FED UP with Cobra Commander's idiocy. However, they ended up creating a bigger idiot than Cobra Commander in Serpentor.

I thought Serpentor was an interesting concept as a new Cobra leader. He tends to assert that he's in charge of COBRA now. The plan of Dr. Mindbender was to use the DNA of the best candidates but he ended up in failure. Remember when he lost Sun Tzu's DNA? He was in China and he could've actually gone to Tiananmen Square to get Mao Zedong's DNA as a substitute. Sidenote, I actually wished that the scene in China happened in Tiananmen Square and Sgt. Slaughter stops them. It could've been more interesting if that happened. Mao's DNA could've been an ideal candidate to complete Serpentor. Mao was a master of the Art of War which he took over China using it. The second season's five-part mini-series just lost buildup especially with how Serpentor turned out to be.

I always thought Serpentor's foolhardy behavior may have made him more entertaining but man is he THAT STUPID. Dr. Mindbender was also stupid to think Sgt. Slaughter's DNA would be the best substitute for Sun Tzu. Also, I was thinking did they really fail to include Sgt. Slaughter's DNA? Again, what if a minor amount got into Serpentor? Sgt. Slaughter is not the best candidate either. I was thinking about how the invasion of Washington DC was really a success at first - only for it to fail. I found it crazy that the American military was caught unprepared. Also, Serpentor announcing his attack on television was Bond Villain Stupidity. Remember, Mao was a master of covert arts. That's why I thought Dr. Mindbender should've gone for Mao's DNA. G.I.Joe was able to get an easy time reclaiming the Capital because Serpentor was stupid. Serpentor should've thought that the surrender was too good to be true. Also, they nearly lost a full attack squad because of running out of gas and G.I.Joe had an easy victory after Cobra's intended takeover.

Basically, Serpentor was ANOTHER Galvatron. Season 3 Galvatron in The Transformers was a joke. Galvatron was really just plain crazy and the guy thinks he's invincible. Serpentor also claimed he couldn't be vanquished. To prove Serpentor was an even dumber leader - he would always use Cobra Commander as his scapegoat. Sure, Cobra Commander was stupid but Serpentor was even stupider. I thought Hasbro at that time could've aimed to make Serpentor more competent than focus on the typical stupid plans such as stealing the face transfer technology or the aging gas. Maybe, make the whole Season 2 focus on G.I.Joe trying to reclaim Washington DC from COBRA hands. Instead, almost every episode after Serpentor took over leadership from its rightful founder was a joke. The G.I.Joe comics made Serpentor a real threat. How many plans did Serpentor also ruin because he was even just as stupid or even more stupid than Cobra Commander? If Cobra Commander's stupidity ruined his own plans then so did Serpentor. That made Golobulus' decision in G.I.Joe The Movie even more laughable than the sudden inclusion of Cobra-La.

The final episode before the movie had Cobra Commander trying to get back his old position. Destro would temporarily side with Cobra Commander because Serpentor was even more useless. However, the movie ended up with Destro siding with Serpentor once more. Again, Destro has NO real loyalty to anyone. I thought that the final episode of the second season also didn't connect to the movie rather well. In fact, the transition between the movie and the DIC seasons was a little smoother. Though the DIC seasons did fail to account for missing COBRA members or at least, state them dead. I think Dr. Mindbender probably had his comeuppance in the movie which may explain why he no longer appeared after that.

Overall, I just felt G.I.Joe went downhill from the time Serpentor appeared up the DIC seasons!