G.I. Joe/YMMV

Franchise in general

• Broken Base: How silly should G.I. Joe be? Should it be, at most, Twenty Minutes Into the Future while keeping a gritty military tone or should it embrace the Science Fantasy?
• Cult Classic: A FANDOM article noted that G.I. Joe‍'‍s main audience is the people who grew up with it in The Eighties as opposed to the multi-generational appeal of My Little Pony or Transformers.
• Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Duke is fairly bland and doesn't have very much characterization aside from being "the leader" and for refusing a promotion so he could stay in the field. His teammates include a silent ninja master with a wolf, a Vietnam veteran who was once a street thug, a heavy machine gunner who surfs and plays bass guitar, and a gourmet chef who wields a massive chain-gun.
• Dork Age: The DiC Entertainment-produced cartoons in the early 90s likely count, being a Lighter and Softer version than the 80s series. One episode even features Cobra plotting in taking over a school with bogus history books, and end up getting defeated by school-children.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Due to Loads and Loads of Characters, this trope is inevitable. Snake-Eyes, for example, is extremely popular among fans. For a later part of the Marvel Comics run, the cover title actually included "Featuring Snake-Eyes."
• Evil Is Cool: After Snake Eyes, Cobra is everyone's favorite thing about the brand.
• Evil Is Sexy: The Baroness of course.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Transformers given the frequent crossovers between the two. Though following G.I. Joe being increasingly prominent in some new Transformers reimaginings, some feelings of Fandom Rivalry have begun to pop up from Transformers fans with no interest in G.I. Joe and wish it would go away.
• Memetic Loser: Given that most, though admittedly not all, G.I. Joe/Transformers crossovers cast Cobra as Always Second Best to the Decepticons, and at least three Shared Universes had Earth decide that Cobra wasn't important when compared to the Decepticons, it's not uncommon to find Transformers fans who have a very low opinion of G.I. Joe as a whole.
• Narm Charm: Yes the franchise is silly and makes no sense, but that's what makes it so fun.
• Replacement Scrappy: Serpentor is never as popular as Cobra Commander.
• The Scrappy:
  • Helix from the first run of IDW comics. When a new Joe beats Snake-Eyes, with ease, in a fight, this is begging to happen.
  • Tiger from the second run isn't hugely well-liked either, though reception to him wasn't as bad as it was for Helix.
• Snark Bait: As Robot Chicken and Community so beautifully said, what sort of militia dresses like that?
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Part of the reason that G.I. Joe is a Cult Classic is that pretty much any change to the set-up of the the original cartoon or comics will inevitably have this reaction from most of the fandom, whose complaints serve to deter any potential fans from getting interested.
• Values Resonance: As the negative effects of capitalism have been more discussed in Western society following the 1990s, some of Cobra Commander's rants about how hollow the American Dream truly is have resonated with people more and more. Doesn't downplay the Commander being a blatant money-hungry Hypocrite but hey.

The Real American Hero universe/continuity

• Alas, Poor Villain: Cobra Commander in The Movie when he is punished by being exposed to mutated spores, one can only pity him as he lays on the ground writhing in pain.
• Awesome Music: Especially the opening theme of the 1987 movie.
• Broken Base: Comic fans vs cartoon fans.
• Fan Dumb: Any classic book/cartoon/series being adapted into a movie will bring these out, but when some of them are also hardcore toy collectors, then best wear your flame-retardent undies when visiting a message board.
• Fashion Victim Villain: Metal facemask, Absolute Pec-Cleavage, and a big old disco collar. Destro almost makes it work, somehow...
  • Besides, his Iron Grenadier outfit compensates for the original one.
• Fridge Logic: So, if they're supposed to be the Real American Heroes, why is their flamethrower-guy Irish? Related to Unfortunate Implications below.
• I Am Not Shazam: G.I. Joe is the name of the organization, not the name of any one character. There is actually a character named G.I. Joe in the series, Joseph B. Colton, the legendary soldier for whom the organization was named--his name was Joe, and he was a GI but he's usually not an active field operative.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Scarlett, as the main female Joe, has this: Official Couple status either with Duke in the cartoon or with Snake-Eyes in the comics, Clutch tried to hit on her in the comics Her interaction with Zartan in the TV episode "The Gamemaster" looks almost flirtatious. And there's even people who pair her with Bumblebee due to them teaming-up in the many crossovers.
• Moment of Awesome: Snake-Eyes is one of these personified, including breaking into Destro's castle to save Scarlett and actually taking on Storm Shadow and his ninjas with little weapons, and breaking free during a Cobra torture session, and going upstairs to rescue the people who were supposed to rescue him. In Snake-Eyes-Land, prisoner saves you!
  • The opening for the 1987 film is made up of several of these. Examples include Snake-Eyes stealing a Trouble Bubble in mid air, Cobra Commander getting punched off the Statue of Liberty, and Duke blowing up the Cobra airship.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • In World War III, Cobra Commander definitely crosses the line.
  • In the opening of Resolute, he kills ten million innocent Russian civilians, just to prove he should be taken seriously.
  • When Overkill was a SAW-Viper, killed many Joes (Breaker, Doc, etc) without any remorse. In fact, he VOLUNTEERED to do the deed.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The episode "There's No Place Like Springfield" will give anyone nightmares for a week. As will the one with the giant shrieking underwater worms.
  • The episode where a rich, old woman wanted a younger woman's face transplanted onto her through some crazy machine. In the end the Joes manage to stop it, but the old woman is left as The Blank.
  • The two-part episode "Worlds Without End", in which some of the Joes are transported to an alternate dimension where Cobra has conquered the world. The characters end up stumbling over the skeletal remains of the Joes of that world, including their own counterparts.
  • In the episode with Mindbender's dream-projector, Lowlight's own nightmare about the junkyard rats is much scarier than anything the villain devises, the moreso in that it enacts an actual childhood trauma. Mainframe's dream that he's turning into an android is nasty too, albeit very brief.
• Older Than They Think: This started out as a 12 action figure for decades before the cartoon.
• Rooting for the Empire: Given how memorable the cartoon incarnation of Cobra was, many a fan associated more with them than the rather generic Joes.
• Unfortunate Implications: Blowtorch, the Joes' fire-based weapons expert, had an Irish accent in the TV show.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Cobra Commander of The Eighties. Things go wrong for him so much that you just want the guy to win one day.