#Also needed more Kenny

[purplerakath]

Cobra Kai S6 - Various Part 3 Thoughts

So I'm not going to go as far as saying 'it stuck the landing' because... it dropped a few things pretty hard, but it did much better than I expected. And at least did something approaching resolve some of my overall issues with the show.

The sorts of things I whine about whenever I post on this.

So please enjoy this rambly hastily cobbled together thing on the whole of it. Spoilers, obviously.

The most Important Thing (to just me)

Sam looked so good in the Cobra Kai gi.

...what? You thought it'd actually be important? I mean- it is, if your whole thing is 'failing to figure out how to conclude a fic where Sam is team Cobra Kai from the start.' But okay, okay, onto the real matters.

The End is the Beginning

So Team Miyagi Do (which in this case means Danny, Sam, and Robby) had the right lessons for it. If you really wanted Robby to win... anything, ever, I'm sorry. But the whole point, the whole thing, of Miyagi Do, is not fighting. Robby didn't need to win, he needed to know he could win. Sam... wasn't really fighting for herself anymore (once S4 and S5 resolved her threads with Tory she was there for Miguel and her dad, nobody else). And Daniel was trying to defeat an enemy that didn't really exist until he made it exist.

Which left only the characters with actual things they needed to fight for.

The Show isn't Miyagi Do

The pivot away from team Miyagi Do winning the tournament to Cobra Kai is one that only works because the show is Cobra Kai. And the only characters left with a thing they needed to prove were all the pinnacle of Cobra Kai.

Which isn't for themselves, for the record. Miguel knew who he was and what he can do. Johnny knew what his purpose was and where he needed to be. Tory knew she was no longer alone (although reminding her helped). And all three knew that those Iron Dragon assholes needed their kick teethed out onto the mat in front of everyone in this very arena!

I don't think they stuck the landing on Axel, balancing 'really is just a sweet kid' that 'happened to be weaponized by his sensei' but they got close enough. Wolf and Zara are entirely deserving of all that happened to them. Which helps, that of the three fights the narrative of fighting monsters was more in the latter two fights, Axel was just... there to be a punching bag for Miguel.

Old Couple's Explosive End to Marriage

So the Silver stuff is gold (pun I do not apologize for), his reason for everything, what's going on. Why he's doing this all worked. It's petty and dramatic and overblown and we love that for him. He's good, love it.

Kreese's sudden heel face was less believable largely due to less foreshadowing this season. There was plenty of it in earlier seasons showing he genuinely cares about his students (and expresses it in destructive bad ways). But this season it came out of nowhere after having him double down on evil.

That. Being. Said. Kreese's final act being to protect his student from Silver did work. He apologized to everyone, expected nothing in return, and died in a way nobody will ever really know. He doesn't get lionized in death. He just- at the last moment, did the right thing in the shadows.

Free Space: Demetri Sucks

We didn't get a lot of the rest of the cast for the finale due to... five episodes with a lot of fights. So naturally we let Demetri fail back into a relationship he blew up by cheating on her and he did nothing to win her back and I hate everything about this.

They never actually wrote this character learning anything about himself and I will be bad about it forever.

Plot Twist: Saying something Nice About Daniel

My other 'the writers do this so wrong' focus is on Daniel, and his 'do this my way and no other way' behavior (which the show never calls out and he never learns from). But he actually learned something once? Weird, I know, but it happened!

He hit Johnny with a Cobra Kai pep talk! He wore the gi, he went to Johnny's side of things and did things Johnny's way! That's way more than I ever expected from him! He even owned up to how much his emotions got hackled by the sign (in a throw away line but I'll take it!)

Odds and Ends

Sam/Miguel's romance stuff was sweet and generally good vibes. It was the right balance of grand gestures and practical 'teenagers moving on with their lives' to it.

Robby/Tory still doesn't work, largely due to it having a very poor basis two seasons ago. Their moment during the Zara fight was aces though.

Devon hugging Johnny after the fight was so wholesome, she'll be a great older sister to Johnny's daughter.

Hawk's hair was great, no notes.

The answer to Miyagi's backstory mystery was... fine? It didn't really do anything long term. It created a plot arc for Daniel he didn't need. But it ended on a message of ACAB so I'll take it.

Deepfaking dead actors is still weird and they need to stop.

The girls training storyline worked better than the boys training storyline, but at least the boys one included Robby being stunned how much his step-brother is more like his dad than he is.

So, overall...

It could have been better, but it could have been so much worse. I wasn't expecting Daniel to step aside and let it all fall to Johnny, to Trust Johnny.

The focus on Johnny getting his dojo at the end, loved that. So I'm pleasantly content with this.

[creativity-deficient]

South Park fans! How many things do you have in common with your favorite character(s)? I’m curious!!

[nicorobinphd]

stg, being an enjoyer of jane twdg is like being forced into an expert-level course on the way misogyny manifests in video game spaces.

god forbid a woman be complex or difficult or provably mischaracterized (see tags) at the end of her arc to service the culmination of a man’s storyline.

[edenfire]

“I know first kisses aren’t always as magical as the movies make them look,” Kyle was saying, “but I don’t want to mess up. I mean, what if—” Then Kenny was standing in front of him, cupping his face in both his hands. He kissed Kyle gently, chastely, right on the mouth. Kyle barely had time to reciprocate, moving totally on instinct, before Kenny pulled back. “There,” he’d said. “Now you’ll always look back and know that you first kiss was, A, with a good kisser…” He waggled his eyebrows at Kyle, who stuttered in response. Kenny’s smile softened. “And, B, with someone who loves you.”

came across my old comic i drew back in 2021 and was feeling nostalgic for my favorite k2 fic, Mysterion Begins by indirectkissesiniceland, and decided to color it <3

this fic is amazing and im always thinking about it years later, so please please read it if you haven't yet <3 <3 <3

[arachnidcakery]

꒰ "And I never felt that I'd be the one to need your help.. / I'm so embarrassed, I could die..." ꒱

This is some old vent art I drew the lineart for back in (I think-) December, but never rlly finished until today <3 ^_^

(Me rambling a bit utc, mainly abt why I drew this :P)

On the day I drew the lineart for this; I felt pretty misunderstood by some of my family members who I had sorta grown apart from, but still rlly liked, so I started doodling this as a way to vent as soon as I got home that day. I felt sad, lonely and misunderstood, and like an idiot for trying to grow closer to them again after I was intentionally distant for so long (for self-esteem related reasons), which is how Doom feels alot of the time (well. partly- mainly the first parts), so I used him for this to represent myself/how I felt ! <3

They're one of my synpaths & copinglinks for reasons similar to this, and it's also why I like him so so much :3 I think we would understand eachother in some ways, which is partly why they've grown pretty special to me after I first found out more abt their personality

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

favourite twdg villain?

I'm a fond enjoyer of the St. John's as villains. I don't know if they're my favorite just because they're only in one episode, but I love the concept of this family almost immediately jumping into cannibalism toward the start of the outbreak, dealing in human flesh to bandits, and casually feeding this group their friend's legs.

Like... what the hell was this family like before the outbreak that all three of them were like, "Hey now listen... nothing should go to waste, the dead are eating people so why shouldn't we? We gotta survive and in our defense, we only target those who were gonna die anyway... like y'all."

Dude, Mark was shot in this shoulder with an arrow. He wasn't going to die from that injury. It's so fucked that these seemingly friendly people took the group into their home and then fed them Mark's legs.

If we take the idea that everyone is infected and have the capacity within themselves to become walkers, to become monsters, then the St. John's were infected long before the outbreak, y'know? Not literally, but something was wrong with them and the outbreak just further spread that infection and changed them.

But again, are they my favorite? I dunno if I can say that since I have a lot more appreciation for Lily now. Yeah, some of her writing gets a little wonky in ep3 of TFS when she goes on her monologues and shit, but y'know what? I'm into it.

You have to remember who we're talking about and the fact that she's the antagonist; Lily isn't some anti-hero in TFS who secretly has a heart of gold that's brought to light because she reunited with Clementine... she's a fucked up woman who did fucked up things in the name of survival. She's full of rot now. She sees kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers to protect her home as a means to an end, but she doesn't actually give a shit about the people she's taking. They aren't people to her, they're as the episode title suggests, toys in her game. The only one she sees as a person is Clementine, and while that makes her hesitate at first, she sees Clementine's a prize to bring back.

She remembers what happened in S1; her father had a heart attack and as she tried to save him, Kenny smashed his face in with a saltlick and then expected Lily to just stand up and help him get back to his family because "he did what he had to, he made the hard choice." Yes, Larry was a piece of shit. No one liked him, and you can even question Lily on him and she'll tell you that he has a lot of pain. Yes, it makes him an asshole, but he's still her dad and he's all she has. I mean... the simplification is daddy issues, but in all seriousness, I don't doubt for a second that many of Lily's issues stem from Larry being a shitty father to her.

Then everyone thought she was losing it when she insisted there was a traitor in the group, which she was right about, but she was unstable. She was unwell, but how do you help someone like that when you don't have training to go about it? Then Lily ends up killing either Carley or Doug and the group turns on her, and either she's left behind or she steals the van and runs away.

Then we don't know what the hell happened to her until we see her again in TFS, but like... a lone woman with decay festering inside of her joining the delta? Exposing her to their methods? I mean, what else did she have to lose? She had nothing, she lost everything, and she has a lot of issues. Survival is easy when you're numb, when you don't care about the individual; they're all just cogs churning to make the system run, and if a piece doesn't cooperate, you get rid of it and find a new one.

Plus I think there's something to say about Lily not wanting to be perceived as weak again. That whole display she put on in the cells? Telling the story of what happened to Minerva and Sophie? I get the criticism that it feels like Lily did a 180 between episodes but like... yeah dude, because it's a performance. It's not just her and Clementine anymore. It's a display of power and authority. She's playing the part and thriving in it as she ensures everyone else is terrified of her.

But then when Clementine and AJ get the upper hand? Again, she's not afraid to play up the pleading to earn enough sympathy to spare her- hell, just to let their guard down enough to strike and get the upper hand again. I mean, she's got nothing else to lose, right? If she doesn't go for it, she'll be killed and sure, you can kill her anyway but at least she tried.

Honestly, I look at Lily in TFS and still see that scared little girl playing the tough bitch, just like Carley said in S1. It's just now escalated from "tough bitch" to a downright vile person. She's so... lost? I suppose? Lost within herself and the monstrous means she's taken to survive.

I get the criticisms of how she was used in TFS, but for me, it's like when people complain about Minerva not getting the redemption arc she supposedly should've gotten, y'know? There's no saving her. Lily was never on our side, and there was no getting her on our side. She wasn't ever going to redeem herself. Even if you spare her and she drifts away on her raft, can someone like her actually find redemption? Or will she just find another group that'll feed into her rot?

Truly, I say let her be horrid. Let her be the piece of shit villain with a few fleeting moments of humanity. Let her drown in the blood she's spilled.

[yayswag]

imagining them as roommates + some writing under this cut!!

Stan and Kenny had managed to adopt a cat while in their shared dorm, mostly at Stan’s behest and under the guise of it being an emotional support animal. Stan didn’t realize the validity of this pledge until they actually had the cat, but he suspects Kenny had, because they made some kind of comment at the shelter about Stan needing one (an emotional support animal) now that Kyle was gone. Stan took offense to this, but prioritized reminding them that Kyle was not, in fact, gone and was only four hours away at another college and also was not an animal, he was their best friend.

Unrelatedly, Stan had wanted to name the cat Kyle. But upon this announcement, Kenny had just stared at him, saying nothing, for long enough that he was forced to choke out a ‘just kidding.’

So, Broflovski the cat had become a staple of Stan and Kenny’s college lifestyle. She had lived with them for over a month, Stan was still yet to mention the name to Kyle, unrelatedly.

Broflovski was not very much like Kyle. She was extremely friendly and had a habit of peeing on Stan’s shoes, neither of which were traits he associated with the real Kyle, not that she was named after him, because she wasn’t, and if she was, it was like an ironic joke.

Not that Stan’s college friends would have really gotten it, or the girls Kenny tended to bring over. Kenny insisted that all they did was practice together, but Stan had his doubts. Kenny was heavily absorbed in the apparently cutthroat and at times surprisingly profitable world of competitive Scrabble, and Stan had questions as to how Scrabble practice could involve so much muffled laughter. Still, it seemed to be- as Kyle put it- a “healthy outlet” and could, Stan guessed, sometimes be fun.

He expressed this to Kyle one night over the phone, they were playing the online Scrabble app that Kenny had been quietly pushing onto them both for months. It was called Wordbuddy. Stan was yet to win a match, but he didn’t mind all that much.

Kyle, on the other hand, was merciless both towards Stan and the app’s AI, which he played against frequently and seemingly with no shortage of emotional investment. He was yet to play Kenny. In group texts, Stan was often subject to both Kenny’s pestering Kyle to “scrabble me bro” as well as Kyle’s somewhat unsubtle dodges, the reason for which Stan was still uncertain.

The point was that Broflovski was a good cat, Stan thought, feeling cheerful as he laced up his Pumas which, these days, smelled like normal shoe smell and only a little like urine. The Pumas were maybe a little ugly anyways, he thought. Broflovski was cuter.

“Broflovski, you are so cute. You beat these shoes any day,” he voiced to her.

Kenny overheard from the next room, yelling slightly over the hiss of the running sink and sounding, as usual, slightly delighted, “your ugly shoes?”

“Um. Yeah,” Stan replied, a little embarrassed.

Despite the ensuing mental debate, contemplated at great measure over several glasses of whole milk from the dining hall, Stan ultimately decided not to get rid of his Pumas.

[rintinningvt]

Started watching the Bayverse movies with my besties and... Are we just too gay for these movies??? Admittedly we only finished the first two and got through a quarter of the third, but the second one was such a drag to sit through at times and it probably doesn't help that we do NOT care about Sam that much. I hope that there is a character arc for him in the rest of the third movie. Because so far he has not been fun to watch in that one. He just comes off as a slight manchild to me, like... I can see why he would be frustrated with where he is in life but the way he acts with others and lashes out does not help him in the slightest. I do have to admit though that seeing him go to Cybertronian Heaven in the second movie was the funniest part for me and my besties lol.

I'll just hope that the other guy in the next movies will be at least a bit more interesting. Doesn't even have to be a good guy, just an interesting guy for me lol

[asteria7fics]

The conclusion to LPM really hit the spot! You really brought everything together in a satisfying way! Loved the mental image of Kyle knocking Cartman's teeth out, cuz he sure had it coming. Compliments to the chef and an extra big tip! :)

Aaah thank you my friend!!

I’ve finally sat down for the night so I can reply to everyone’s lovely comments, but seriously it’s so nice to hear that the ending was enjoyable!

Someone on AO3 left a comment saying they’d like to see Kyle’s POV of the month they were apart, and honestly? An excuse to write Kyle beating the shit outta Cartman? I may have to take the opportunity, someday. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

But again, thank you so much for being along for the ride!! It’s such a relief to hear that the sequel satisfied your appetite (๑>؂•̀๑)

[mychaosart]

Another day another me redrawing my own not too old art because I didn't like the way it looked the first time around

(Based on chapter 19 of @uniquememoria 's Very Good Bad Thing)

^(old)

Tossed in some line weight and textures, also changed that expression. Mysterion was never meant to look pissed off I just messed up. Hopefully, now he just looks grumpy instead of furious.

I also want to redraw the one I did for chapter 18 because I HAAAAAATTTTEEE the way I drew Mysterions face, but apparently PCSM is updating soon, so I think I'll use my time to draw something for that instead(But I will get back to that drawing. I didn't do that scene justice ;;)

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

one year on this blog and still not a single kenny fic in my mlist . i’m ashamed to be alive

[oitotis]

it does frustrates me how people can't see potential that kysterion has, kenny still being a vigilante, kyle's bad luck leading him to be saved by mysterion, mysterion nearly having a heart attack when he thinks kyle recognized him, kyle helping mysterion to investigate, mysterion not wanting kyle to be in danger, kyle not giving a fuck and making plans just to be put in danger, mysterion saving him, the whole spiderman/love interest, stuff really.

[candyunicornsateme]

I like the close ups so I'm just sticking these here too

[bepomepo33]

Candy corn cat!!! Been awhile!! I’ve got some sketches to share but I feel like I haven’t given you much finished art haha so I’ll post this first.

[cyndrastic]

on vacation

i’ve obtained the goods

[allpenance]

complaining about ton tiktok again. am i the only one whos noticed that they all mainly focus on the guitar solos but do not recognize kenny hickey AT ALL?? all the attention goes to peter.