History Tearjerker / GIJoeARealAmericanHero

* Shipwreck's situation in "There's No Place Like Springfield" is very sad. The FakedRipVanWinkle Cobra puts him through to make him reveal the secret ingredient for Professor Mulaney's formula shows him married to Mara from "Memories of Mara", who has somehow been cured of her inability to survive out of water, and with a young daughter named Alfia. The heartbreak starts with Shipwreck being told that Lady Jaye is dead (which is obviously false) and continues with his family and his surviving friends turning out to be synthoids and threatening him into revealing the secret ingredient to Mulaney's formula. After the real Joes rescue Shipwreck, he walks away from the burning house where he saw his synthoid wife and daughter melt and insists to his teammates that there was nothing important in there.

* The grief and fear the Joes feel when several of their family members are kidnapped in "Captives of Cobra" (and the fear and confusion of some of those family members) is powerful. Notable moments include Shipwreck's BigNo when he sees his pre-teen nephew in a Cobra uniform, Mr. Breckenridge's BigNo when his teenage daughter is dragged to the brainwashing chamber, and Barbecue momentarily thinking that his father has died in a fire.

* The ending of "Sink the Montana!". Admiral Lattimer has betrayed his oath and turned traitor to save his beloved ship from the scrap heap, only to have the Navy blast her out from under him. He's so distraught he would rather [[GoingDownWithTheShip die alongside her]] than leave. Hawk has to literally drag him off the ''Montana'' before she goes down. Later, Shipwreck asks what'll happen to Lattimer. Hawk says he doesn't know but, as a shattered Lattimer watches the ''Montana'' slip beneath the waves, says "he's already received the worst punishment imaginable".

* The ghosts Cobra Commander summons to haunt GI Joe. While this may sound lame, it's played ''totally serious'' in the show: the ghosts are bound by his magic, and must do his bidding, remaining forever in living death doing nothing but killing his enemies. How sad is it? One of them, a "young" American UsefulNotes/WorldWarI pilot, is so tormented that he has literally ''[[ShellshockedVeteran gone mad]]'' and thinks he is still alive: Cobra Commander is his CO, the GI Joe ground forces he strafes are the Kaiser's men, and the war will be over [[BlatantLies any day now]] so he can [[YouCantGoHomeAgain go home]] to [[TearJerker see his fiancée again]]... Also possibly qualifies as NightmareFuel.

* "The Greatest Evil", for all its faults, shows a rather realistic look at the damages that drug addiction can cause. Duke is so ashamed of his half-brother Falcon doing drugs that he all but disowns him, while a member of Cobra seeks vengeance against the Headman because his sister is in a coma from overdosing on his drugs.

* The ghosts Cobra Commander summons to haunt GI Joe. While this may sound lame, it's played ''totally serious'' in the show: the ghosts are bound by his magic, and must do his bidding, remaining forever in living death doing nothing but killing his enemies. How sad is it? One of them, a "young" American UsefulNotes/WorldWarI pilot, is so tormented that he has literally ''[[ShellshockedVeteran gone mad]]'' and thinks he is still alive: Cobra Commander is his CO, the GI Joe ground forces he strafes are the Kaiser's men, and the war will be over [[BlatantLies any day now]] so he can [[YouCantGoHomeAgain go home]] to [[TearJerker see his fiancée again]]... Also possibly qualifies as NightmareFuel.

* The ending of "Sink the Montana!".

** All the more tragic in that COBRA's entire scheme was a vain one. Shipwreck ''doesn't know'' the information that they need, because Mulaney hypnotized him to be incapable of recalling it without a trigger phrase. They inflicted all that confusion and grief on the poor guy ''for nothing''.

* The ghosts Cobra Commander summons to haunt GI Joe. While this may sound lame, it's played ''totally serious'' in the show: The ghosts are bound by his magic, and must do his bidding, remaining for ever in living death doing nothing but killing his enemies. How sad is it? One of them, a "young" American UsefulNotes/WorldWarI pilot, is so tormented that he has literally ''[[ShellshockedVeteran gone mad]]'' and thinks he is still alive: Cobra Commander is his CO, the GI Joe ground forces he strafes are the Kaiser's men, and the war will be over [[BlatantLies any day now]] so he can [[YouCantGoHomeAgain go home]] to [[TearJerker see his fiancée again]]... Also possibly qualifies as NightmareFuel.
** At least [[spoiler: that guy gets a happy ending after the Joes exorcize him, implying that there was an afterlife where [[TogetherInDeath she was waiting for him]]. Still, he has spent a ''lifetime'' as an increasingly mad ghost before that, if he died in 1918]]. And the ''other'' ghosts were hundreds, one literally ''thousands'' of years older ...

-->'''Mainframe''':I wanted to make a pass at you. But you're too decent a lady to treat like that.

* "The Greatest Evil", for all its faults, shows a rather realistic look at the damages that drug addiction can cause. Duke is so ashamed of his half-brother Falcon doing drugs that he all but disowns him, while a member of Cobra seeks vengeance against the Headman because his sister is in a coma from overdosing on his drugs.

** All the more tragic in that COBRA's entire scheme was a vain one. Shipwreck ''doesn't know'' the information that they need, because Mulaney hypnotized him to be incapable of recalling it without a trigger phrase.

* "I Found You... Evy" is in itself a very tragic episode. We learn in this episode that in his youth, Ambush was close friends with a girl named Evy, who he said was the only one who could find him whenever he went hiding. Ambush is heartbroken to learn that after he left to join the military, Evy took it personally and ended up joining Cobra. Even after they meet again, things between the two remain sour.

* Shipwreck's situation in "There's No Place Like Springfield" is very sad. The FakedRipVanWinkle Cobra puts him through to make him reveal the secret ingredient for Professor Mulaney's formula shows him married to Mara from "Memories of Mara", who has somehow been cured of her inability to survive out of water, and with a young daughter named Alfia. The heartbreak starts with Shipwreck being told that Lady Jaye is dead (which is obviously false) and continues with his family and his surviving friends turning out to be synthoids and threatening him into revealing the secret ingredient to Mulaney's formula. After the real Joes rescue Shipwreck, he walks away from the burning house where he saw his synthoid wife and daughter melt and insists to his teammates that there was nothing important in there.

* Shipwreck's situation in "There's No Place Like Springfield" is very sad. The FakedRipVanWinkle Cobra puts him through to make him reveal the secret ingredient for Professor Mulaney's formula shows him married to Mara from "Memories of Mara", who has somehow been cured of her inability to survive out of water, and with a young daughter named Alfia. The heartbreak starts with Shipwreck being informed that Lady Jaye is dead and continues with his family and his surviving friends turning out to be synthoids and threatening him into revealing the secret ingredient to Mulaney's formula. After the real Joes rescue Shipwreck, he walks away from the burning house where he saw his synthoid wife and daughter melt and insists to his teammates that there was nothing important in there.