Keep in mind that I am many combos deep.
Cobra is the only "lolcow" that I have viewed outside of simple morbid curiosity, with a genuine sense of kinship.
The appeal of Cobra in my opinion is that he embodied the fundamental flaw in all of us, in a Homer Simpson/Clark Griswold kind of way. There was something about him that we all could relate with. The Cobra we chastised and laughed at was also a core part of ourselves.
Part of why so many of us are taking Cobra's passing so hard is because in a sense Cobra represented our flaws, and with his death our ability to overcome them comes into question. A sentiment I see echoed so much in my circle and in the community is that Cobra acted as a mirror held up to force ourselves to face our foibles.
Everyone I think held out a certain hope that Cobra would have some kind of come-to-God moment where he would finally turn things around, and so the suddenness of his death feels even more tragic and unfair; as though we were cheated.
For me I had already turned my shitty life around by the time I had found Cobra, and so in the beginning it was hard for me to accept Cobra because he represented so much in myself I was escaping.
I don't think most of us realized, even as we shit on Cobes, that he had become a projection of our own failings. And with his deaths we've lost a kind of innocence that we believed there would always be more time, more opportunity to turn it all around. That in my opinion is why people are taking Cobes death so hard.
If the Boy should have one ongoing legacy within your life it is that there is not time like the present and that tomorrow is too late. To live not only in disregard to how people perceive you but in straight up spite, but to also not let that define you. To never do nothing and wait patiently, but to also keep on rocking.