Hello and welcome back to my complex villain series!

This series is literally whenever I think of another villain that is complex. Last time I talked about Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. This time I shall be talking about Storm Shadow from G.I. Joe Retaliation. I know there’s another movie and cartoons but I didn’t watch the cartoons and I liked Retaliation more. There was more ninja action so of course I loved Retaliation, in fact I have a post about it on here called Silent Action.

Okay so Storm Shadow. When you first meet him in the first movie The Rise of the Cobra he’s a douche bag and his backstory is set up. It’s revealed he and Snake Eyes are blood brothers and that Storm Shadow “murdered” the Hard Master and then ran away and joined Cobra.

Now I don’t know about you but they stunk as detectives. They had no hard evidence that he killed the Hard Master. I mean he’s standing over him but it’s like clearly he looks shocked. I mean no one asked him what had happened? This is what happens when you’re a bratty kid, you’re always blamed when shit goes wrong.

So cut to Retaliation and Storm Shadow has the most badass scene where he breaks out Cobra (I think) and then he gets burnt and then he goes to the mountains to heal. That woman who healed him was using straight up magic because Storm Shadow should be dead ten times over the amount of times he’s nearly died.

Snakes Eyes and Jinx kidnap him so that he can be trialed for killing the Hard Master. But guess what it turns out the sword used to kill the Hard Master was not his sword! Duh Duh DUUUUUUUUUH!

Are you shocked? Because I’m not.

Then Storm Shadow is mad because he’s like, “Which one of you mofos framed me?” But then they point out the obvious, it was Zartan as he wanted him to join Cobra. I swear they all lacked common sense. They could have solved this problem years ago.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for young Storm Shadow? First he finds his uncle dead, then they all think he did it and then the man who welcomed him and comforted him only did it to turn him into a killing machine and further more he’s the one who killed his uncle!

He encountered so much betrayal and heartbreak at a young age. It made me think, was he really a villain or just a prawn in another man’s game?

Also it’s not like all that crap happened in the 15th century, why didn’t they investigate the crime properly? CSIs exist you know. It really took Storm Shadow breaking it to show that it wasn’t his sword? Were they all that slow? No one ever dropped it by accident?Like really?

So for me I was glad he got his revenge at the end of the movie. As you know I don’t endorse revenge, I think it only ends up hurting you. However Zartan needed to go. I mean until his last moment he tried to trick and kill Storm Shadow and it’s like, “Excuse me, Storm Shadow is better than you…. at everything!”

I did however want him to make up with Snake Eyes or for Snake Eyes to at least say sorry. But there’s been too much that has happened since their childhood. It annoys me, kids get caught up in adults games and it ruins their lives. Storm Shadow was a bratty kid sure but he wasn’t evil. He was never evil but they treated him as such and so it became a self fulfilling prophecy and also Zartan was able to capitalise on Storm Shadow’s feelings of displacement.

Storm Shadow is a good example of how one event can change your life forever. He’s also a good example of don’t trust strangers kids!

All in all, he wasn’t meant to be a villain but he was made into one. After he found out the truth though he was freed and he could do what he wanted. It makes Storm Shadow a more interesting character to be honest. I would have liked a whole movie on Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, I swear they’re the best characters.

Can they make this happen?

Anyway, that is all…

Until next time ciao!