I love how this slide show points out the absurd duality in the equation of how we value human life.

We see some deaths of real people on tv - random people we don't know who died in a plane crash or a famous star's life cut short, whatever - and we have a day of mourning. People fall all over themselves online trying to out-grieve others. Happens all the time. Death is the worst thing ever, soooo sad!

But some cartoon tries to sidestep that issue by keeping everyone alive, and our bloodlust demands bodycounts! Kill all those nameless people in the cartoon! The heroes too! Some GI Joes need to die!

I think GI Joe did the smart thing, as they realized that movies/TV have never done "death" well. Characters in TV and movies get offed all the time, and no one ever remembers or cares once the plot no longer demands it. It's silly, and it's not the way death works in real life with people we actually care about.

Um, you really suggest that the show that gave us the dancing dog and the impromptu song ending with "you get slugged" was making a deep comment on how poorly death is handled in the media? They weren't allowed to kill people lest the show be derided as too violent and unfit for children.

No. I didn't say deep. I said smart.

They've also gotten smart concerning their target demographic. Since it's no longer the kiddies, and rather the adults who grew up with the stuff, the recent animated movie added a lot of blood, death, and some actual drama. It's all about the target audience.