G.I. Joe Classified Series

[Damien]

Also, my understanding as someone who has never actively studied Kendo etc, is even left handed samurai still use the right hand at the top of the handle to aim the strike and the left at the bottom to deliver the power behind it.

Sort've but not really. It's more that, like with a lot of things pre-1990, it was really common for left-handed people to be taught to use their right hand as their dominant hand because they were being taught by right-handed people in a way designed to teach other right-handed people.

And in many/most forms of fencing, which hand you hold the sword with actually does matter for techniques and how you approach your opponent. Rather than re-configure the entire way of teaching, it seems more like people just taught right-handed techniques and left-handed people had to adapt or try to change the techniques themselves. That's still sometimes true today.

Also, like... left-handed people seem to have been about 10% of any population since before Feudal Japan. And in Feudal Japan, about 10% of the population were samurai. So like... 1 guy in about every 300-year period was a left-handed samurai and therefore no one cared about that guy and how he managed to fight isn't going to be accurately/adequately recorded.

Some people have postulated that Mushashi may have been able to fight with two swords because he was left-handed originally, and being forced to be right-handed essentially made him fully or partially ambidextrous.

That concludes the 'no one actually cares' portion of the Joe thread.

I cannot express how much that damn sword-in-scabbard bothered me as a kid.

Same. I was legitimately furious all the time with Budo and Destro. So close to being my favorite figures but those stupid swords. At least Budo had another sword. Destro just had a glorified decoration. Wild times.

 

[docsilence]

Larry's bios were MASTERPIECES, especially those first four or five years.

Here's a question for everyone: What's your favorite real birth name for a character? I kinda gave mine away already with Kurt "Airtight" Schnurr, but I also gotta nod to Richard Blinken-Smythe aka DICK BLINKEN for Buzzer. Bazooka's name is ridiculously perfect for his look, and I really love that Larry threw very stereotypical Irish-American names on Barbecue and Blowtorch because they're both from the East Coast where firehouses are just chock full of Kellys and Hanrahans.

Also, Cutter 110% lied on his paperwork. There's no way that man's real name is Skip Stone.

 

[Ru1977]

That concludes the 'no one actually cares' portion of the Joe thread.

But really, I do, thank you that makes a lot of sense.

Some people have postulated that Mushashi may have been able to fight with two swords because he was left-handed originally, and being forced to be right-handed essentially made him fully or partially ambidextrous.

And that makes a lot of sense too!

 

[Ru1977]

@docsilence off the top of my head, Shipwreck. Hector Delgado.

 

[Ru1977]

Apparently these preorders will going up two hours after the Livestream starts, same day.

 

[docsilence]

Okay now I'm on a deep dive and I want to know if Larry named Torpedo (Edward Leialoha) after comic book artist Steve Leialoha, who would've been something of a contemporary.

The Dreadnocks names were Dick Blinken, Tom Winken, and Harry Nod, which sounds like the world's worst law firm.

And Tripwire's name sounds like a punishment clocking in as Tormod Skoog, but it turns out Tormod is a Norwegian name, and Skoog is Swedish, and now I have an entire head canon for how Tripwire grew up because that is SO SPECIFIC.

@docsilence off the top of my head, Shipwreck. Hector Delgado.

Hector X. Delgado. Gotta be Xavier, right?

 

[Ru1977]

I can't think of an alternative. I doubt it's Xerxes

 

[Chooch555]

Nah, it's just X like how he signs his name. If any Joe is illiterate it's Shipwreck.

 

[docsilence]

I can't think of an alternative. I doubt it's Xerxes

Hector Xerxes Delgado is some Mythological Naming going on right there. "Mom loved the classics."

 

[Ru1977]

Jesus you're right.

 

[Justice]

None of this will ever be as bad as the real names that Scott Neitlich came up with for the MOTU characters.

 

[AceofKnaves]

Dick Blinken, Tom Winken, and Harry Nod,

“Winkin, Blinkin and Nod” is a children’s nursery rhyme!

The “X” in Shipwreck’s name has gotta be just him goosing, but it could be for, like “Xolo” or something else unexpected and cool.

Then, of course, there is Alpine, whose name is “Al Pine”. Really.

Oh and for more Ninja Force fun, Banzai aka Robert J. Travalino and Bushido aka Lloyd S. Goldfine.

 

[jonaskane]

Okay now I'm on a deep dive and I want to know if Larry named Torpedo (Edward Leialoha) after comic book artist Steve Leialoha, who would've been something of a contemporary.

Yes, he did. Leialoha worked on a few issues of the Marvel run (silent issue 21 most famously).

Blinken, Winken, and Nod is a reference to an old nursery rhyme.

 

[docsilence]

Al Pine is the pun even we at eight years old were like "oh, come on...."

 

[bat]

Bruh Mindbender was absolutely goals and also an absolutely unattainable standard. A massive nerd who is also such an absolute unit that he rocks a bare chest with industrial suspenders, knee-high stormtrooper boots, PURPLE LEATHER PANTS AND A CAPE?!? Even the mustache is amazing. “Silly looking”? Are you kidding!!?! That is my ideal fashion right there, seriously. Dude would CLEAN UP on the floor at any goth club. Epic.

I love that as stacked as this description is, it doesn't even get to the *monocle* on this boss.