Another iconic character appearing in the Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins trailer is one of the bad guys, the Baroness, who will be portrayed by Úrsula Corberó. We already saw a live action version of the Baroness in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, where she was portrayed by Sienna Miller. In the movie, she used to be Ana Lewis, Duke‘s ex fiance, who he abandoned out of guilt after letting her brother Rex die. Rex actually survived, became Cobra Commander and brainwashed his sister into becoming Anastasia DeCobray, the Baroness, loyal to Cobra. She eventually overcomes her programming for the love of Duke and helps him bring her brother down. This whole redemption arc and her romance with Duke were a movie’s original, and with enough luck we will see a full-fled supervillain in the new film. Right now, we will take our usual look at the original one.
Most of Anastasia Cisarovna‘s past is classified, hidden in layers of lies and deceits. She was born in Europe, most likely in East Germany, the heiress of a family of old nobility. Her parents were decadent aristocrats, and they spoiled their child anyway they could, but as whimsical and cynical as she grew up to be, she eventually developed a political sensitivity quite soon. Living in East Europe, she saw first-hand the hypocrisy of the so-called “free world”, and she came to despise in particular the American propaganda that promised equality and freedom and only presented a different kind of 
oppression. As a student, Anastasia joined several radical groups, then she continued her anti-Americanism with extremist fringe groups, that introduced her to the world of espionage. Trained as a saboteur and a spy in an academy run by an unspecified intelligence agency (most likely KGB), Anastasia developed a remarkable talent in many unusual fields: cryptography, psychological warfare, counter-intelligence, biochemistry, it all came easy to her, to the point that she soon became a world-class expert in all these fields. By the time she graduated from the mysterious academy, she was already one of the best spies in the world, and her feelings towards the “free world” united to her talents made her be noticed by Cobra, a newly born paramilitary organization with ambitious aims. Through surgical acts of terrorism, Cobra aimed at nothing less than world domination, wanting to expose the hypocrisy of America and its allies, and to establish a new world order in which, under their enlightened guidance, people would have finally known true equality and prosperity (as long as they complied with the regime, of course). Anastasia was fascinated by the organization’s plans and ideals, and enthusiastically joined, adopting the codename Baroness, and making it clear from the beginning that she wouldn’t have been some mere subordinate: she was there to command.
Skilled, talented, charismatic and ruthless, the Baroness climbed the ranks within Cobra, managing to win the favor of both Cobra Commander, the undisputed leader of the organization, and Destro, the weapons supplier and second in command (the other “big gun” from Cobra, Doctor Mindbender, never quite trusted Baroness). With Destro, in particular, she had past ties, from the times the villain wasn’t yet known as the masked arms dealer, but she never revealed to anyone what these ties were, nor even the man’s secret identity, that she alone knew even within Cobra. Loyal to both men, but eager to be their equal, Baroness played one against the other until she obtained the position of 
Director of Intelligence, finally becoming part of the Cobra Triumvirate and controlling part of the organization as she saw fit. When Cobra made its public debut, the Baroness knew exactly where to aim to inflict the greatest damage to the free world with a single strike: posing as a reporter, she approached the world’s greatest nuclear physicist, Dr. Adele Burkhart, and successfully abducted her, bringing her to Cobra Commander in one of their hidden bases in the Caribbeans. As Cobra’s plans had become known to world intelligence, however, an elite spec-ops squad had been formed, the G.I. Joe Team, created specifically to counter Cobra: they immediately tracked Burkhart, and located the Caribbean island she had been hidden on. The Baroness, however, had spies of her own, and prepared herself for the soldiers’ arrival: she disguised herself as Dr. Burkhart, and tried to lure them into an ambush… unfortunately, the Joes were more capable than she anticipated, they didn’t fall for the ruse, and freed the real Dr. Burkhart, forcing the Baroness and Cobra Commander to flee. From there on, Cobra started an all-out war with the G.I. Joe, and the Baroness was on the first line, helping Dr. Venom develop a lethal toxin to wipe out all resistance. The Baroness played to win, and if the world was the prize, she would have most definitely claimed it.
Anastasia Cisarovna is a woman full of contradictions: she can be extremely naive and playful, but also dangerously manipulative and utterly brutal, she has quite a romantic side, but she dwells in cynicism, she’s calculative, but also impulsive, a complex woman for a complex time. As the Baroness, she’s an extremely proficient intelligent agent, a spy born with skills in psychological warfare and cryptography; she’s also a formidable field agent, a trained markswoman who can use proficiently any firearm, especially light machine guns and assault rifles, and who is particularly talented in piloting the lethal H.I.S.S. Tank, laying waste on the battlefield. The Baroness is a terrorist out of personal ambition, on one side, and of sheer idealism, on the other, fully believing that she is freeing people from American hypocrisy and falsity, but also quite eager to put her own hands on the entire world… maybe she’s not the villain of her own story, but she’s not exactly a savior either.
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