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03-18-2008, 11:43 PM | #31 |
Cobra Commando
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: California
Posts: 835
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I know this is going to sound crazy but the nazis aren't the same as Hitler.
Nazis can be used constantly (Indiana Jones, Hardy Boys, Captain America, WW II movies in general) because they're basically just faceless soldiers of an evil organization than can be punched and stabbed and hurt without there being any sympathy towards them. They're basically the ideal plug-in anywhere enemy. You know, like martial arts movies with the bad guy having a huge clan of black-belts that then get swatted aside by the hero/es. Faceless cronies to use as fodder. But Hitler isn't faceless, we know the guy. We know all too personally how terrible and disgusting he is, and that name in itself is embedded deep under our skin. We use the term 'nazi' everywhere (Fashion nazi, grammar nazi, etc.) but 'Hitler' is nowhere near as easy to use.
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03-18-2008, 11:46 PM | #32 |
Blabbering Immortal Ninja
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Hayward/San Francsico, California
Posts: 2,164
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phorpus
I know this is going to sound crazy but the nazis aren't the same as Hitler.
Nazis can be used constantly (Indiana Jones, Hardy Boys, Captain America, WW II movies in general) because they're basically just faceless soldiers of an evil organization than can be punched and stabbed and hurt without there being any sympathy towards them. They're basically the ideal plug-in anywhere enemy. You know, like martial arts movies with the bad guy having a huge clan of black-belts that then get swatted aside by the hero/es. Faceless cronies to use as fodder. But Hitler isn't faceless, we know the guy. We know all too personally how terrible and disgusting he is, and that name in itself is embedded deep under our skin. We use the term 'nazi' everywhere (Fashion nazi, grammar nazi, etc.) but 'Hitler' is nowhere near as easy to use. And that is why I think Hitler is worse than nazis. English 100 3-18-08 Mrs. Caldwell Phorpus Stone
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03-18-2008, 11:55 PM | #33 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 52
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Without trying to sound too offended, it's ignorance to suggest HItler should have been used and that it's not too soon. There are a number of differences between Captain America's use of Nazi's and putting Hitler into the Serpentor story.
1. First, as has been noted, Hasbro could never do it - the comic AND cartoon were simply media to help sell the toy. A kid's toy. Hasbro had enough issues killing characters. Adding one of the most hated men in history to the show would be impossible. 2. Beyond that, Hitler is synonomous with the Holocaust. As terrible as many of the previous leaders were (Rasputin and Genghis Khan) they don't evoke nearly the same hatred or emotional response as does Hitler. To even put them on the same wavelength is ludicrous. Side note - Stalin would have been an equally terrible choice, as he was responsible for over 20 million deaths during his rule of the Soviet Union. 3. The Cap book uses Nazis as a source of evil, but the group is peripheral. Yes, Red skull is a Nazi - but a fictional one. There isn't quite the same response worldwide to "Red Skull" as there is to Hitler. Also, in Cap, Nazis are written in, in part, because Marvel allows significantly more creative license with its properties than does Hasbro. As for GI Joe, it was using Serpentor as a focal point (unlike Cap's use of the Nazi's) and a marketing/sales tool. You can't sell a toy based on Hitler. Aside from bad marketing, you pretty much eliminate an entire segment of purchasers. I could go on, but in the end, using Hitler would just be plain disrespectful to everyone that lived through one of the worst genocidal rampages in history. Saying it's not too soon is to say the sting of what happened wore off enough where it's okay to satirize or fantasize about its central character. I can't imagine something that would have driven me from GI Joe faster. And I'm a 27 year old that still loves this franchise as much as I did in 1986 when I first began collecting. Last edited by hassidae; 03-18-2008 at 11:57 PM.. |
03-19-2008, 12:01 AM | #34 |
Agent
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 15,325
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There are many tyrants throughout history but few who makes people cringe to this day at the very mention of their name. I think the creators of the cartoon felt that it would be in poor taste to use Hitler in this. It would be like having Bin Laden as a member of Cobra today. There are some evils that just should not be explored.
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03-19-2008, 03:35 PM | #35 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Edmonton, AB
Posts: 306
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The difference between Captain America bashing Nazi's and Serpentor including Hitler is simple:
In G.I. Joe, you have sympathy for and identification with the bad guys. Think about it. Almost every "heel" in the comic or the cartoon has his or her fans. There are people who buy the Cobra toys in preference to the joes - heck, I'm one of them. There's a whole chunk of this very board devoted to "supporting" Cobra. How could you possibly have any sympathy for a character who was the reincarnation of Hitler? Maybe, maybe, kids nowadays might go for it. Of course, you'd have trouble selling the toy in Europe still, but that's a side issue. But in the 80's? When saying "The War" meant WWII? Not. Going. To. Happen. And as was said, the whole point of it all was to sell toys. Without sympathy for the character, no-one will buy the toy, not even to use as a target; and Hasbro would be pilloried for suggesting it.
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