#Anti ck

[msfbgraves]

From the creators of "Daniel was the real bully all along", aka "Cobra Kai"...

We have Ralphie hinting at a "Daniel second guesses Miyagi-Do, aka Miyagi-Do has always been evil".

Look, Ralphie loves hanging out with Billy for these promos and I love seeing them together because they deserve to have a good time really they do. Yuji, Billy and Ralphie deserve to enjoy themselves because they have brought their absolute A games to the show and it shows and I love them for it.

But ffs, creators. I know you felt so called out by a film about a sweet boy teaching us that bullying is evil and that fighting can be a form of self-expression and helping others rather than a pissing contest in which people get killed you had to make a whole show about why bullies are cool actually, absent fathers are dope and kindness doesn't exist because there is no kindness without an ulterior, sinister motive. Because you haven't been kind a single day in your life and even though some part of your conscience has survived for long enough to understand that there is something wrong with that, making you feel bad, you have spent over six years of your life propping up your ego instead. It had to be somebody else's fault. It had to be Daniel's fault. It has to be Miyagi's fault No way that can't have been secretly evil, and we're going to expose it! Because repeatedly saving someone's life, as Miyagi has done for Daniel, can't not be sus, right? Trying to beat someone to death, now, that is upfront manly behaviour. Saying like it is. All this stealthy defense stuff? There's gotta be something going on there, right? They should have killed Daniel and been on their way in film 1, then the Cobras could have had some sympathising manpain and gotten laid after beating up more people for existing. That is how you live a good life! But no, so now we have to right the wrongs perpetuated by films that tell you that a kind handyman can help you beat up a rich bully while also understanding that this bully was probably a product of his environment he was too young to understand was harmful. Can't have that! That would make them wrong! And they can't be wrong, see? They wrote a story too! So there! Pussies!

My only hope is that Ralph has directed an episode of this first bunch and has always done his best to keep infusing this garbage fire with kindness. I know Daniel can be a little saintly, but his heart, that's all Ralph. And the love between Billy and Ralph is also incredibly sincere. So I know they'll do their best with it, and Ralph acts in between lines anyway. But the underlying message since season three at the lastest has been so terribly unkind. In a show about manhood, apparently, they keep celebrating

-Not taking responsibility

-Solving every problem with violence

-Equating kindness with either weakness or deceit

And that is how recognise that these are boys who are never going to grow up. Taking responsibility, practicing restraint and choosing to be kind because you understand basic empathy is how you become an adult. That is what the karate kid franchise taught! The value of hard work, taking responsibility, protecting others and choosing kindness wherever possible. To have this so called homage literally trying to undermine that message at every turn, is feeling like some kind of moral injury.

I will always be grateful to the series for introducing me to these characters. But I am so sick of middle aged men taking over a beloved series about what it takes for men to be decent, be it Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who or The Karate Kid, and basically raping it to death in the guise of appreciation.

[msfbgraves]

What did you think about the 6 trailer? I was totally and hugely disappointed.

Kreese’s arc is so cringe and stupid, his story was over in the season 3 finale. I especially hate how everyone is apparently buddy-buddy (Sam and Tory pullowfight?? Robby and Miggy beat buds??) and also Daniel and Johnny at odds YET AGAIN. I am so tired of their snippy “friendship”; the writers really have run out of ideas for them.

I’m also just dead sick of alcoholic, deadbeat, never wrong Johnny, he hasn’t been interesting and hasn’t developed since the beginning of season 3. And now he’s got a baby too! What about your biological son???

Also: where is best character Terry??? Chozen should be back in Okinawa wooing Kumiko but he’s in Cali with cutiepie Daniel san. Again! And Mike Barnes…did his wife forgive him? Did he get his life back?? Talk about dragging everyone into the mix. The season looks bad.

I’m so sorry Danny boy, you deserved much better!

I'm going to repeat what I've said before, Nonnie, and that is turn your brain off and enjoy Daniel and Johnny get karate married. I'm glad that Ralph, Billy and Marty did well out of it financially - they've shouldered this legacy for so long, they deserve it. Other than that... I hate the mystification of Miyagi. He was a kind fisherman turned handyman who was also a war hero sergeant and a surrogate father to a lost boy. That is enough. He doesn't need to be more. For the rest of it: the writers have fallen into the first pitfall of fanfic. Ooc ness. You can't treat characters as if prior characterisation doesn't matter. They're not yours. Johnny Lawrence isn't working class because you feel that's more sympathetic. He's the King of the country club! Daniel LaRusso isn't closed minded, I'm sorry if that upsets you. The Karate Kid was remarkably non-sexist for its time. Aly's friends were well enough drawn to stand up to Daniel, let alone Aly herself. Cobra Kai's treatment of its female characters makes no sense. Its refusal to let Johnny take any responsibility towards the son he abandoned... while cheering him having another baby (because HUR HUR, real men impregnate), is atrocious. That man, as written, is an a grade loser. He even abandons his business to Kreese. It doesn't matter that Billy Zabka is a better athlete than Ralph Macchio. All of these men, even Terry and Chozen, act as if they have no responsibilities. It's supposed to be a cool male fantasy but at its core, the way the writers glorify Johnny's immaturity is pathetic. I was promised the story of a man who never took responsibility, screwed up his whole life because of it, and now, late in life, through passion and love really tried to get his life together. The drinking and the random fighting not aspirational, but signs of someone in trouble. Him being enough of a free spirit that he can unstuck Daniel, who has become too set in his ways, and Daniel, through Robby, teaching Johnny what it means to be a father and an adult. By the end of S2 nobody should have been teaching karate in the Valley. I thought that it would have been about that. Whatever does Johnny even do for money? Mooch off of Carmen? Do any of these students pay? It's escapism but it's also ridiculous. I would have loved to cheer Johnny from deadbeat boy to adult man but we didn't get that. He's not grown at all! He still drinks, he still fights, he still neglects his son and he's sabotaged the relationship between Daniel and Robby. When Daniel needed help against Terry, Johnny wouldn't listen to him. It took Daniel nearly getting murdered and their great plan? Breaking and entering and massive vandalism. How is only Terry in jail? It's men playing at being boys and making taking responsibility into something unmanly. Do Carmen and Amanda get to play? No. Women take responsibility, not men. Men should be allowed to stay children forever on account of their somewhat larger genetic ability to cause internal bleeding. OK boomers!

[msfbgraves]

It's so wild to me on a CK rewatch that the writers gave Daniel a son with insane psychological insight who knew:

-His sister was a wanted child and he was an accident;

-His parents demonstrably favoured his sister over him (he's not in the family photos beside their bed for chrissake)

-His parents don't care he knows as he never gets a reaction when he points this out to their face, not even one of reassurance (seriously the heart next to his baby photos in the scrapbook says "gotta love me" - a duty then, not a joy)

-Knew his father has a violent streak he hides even from himself;

-Knew his attention is entirely conditional: you either do what he likes (eating or karate), or he'll ignore you completely unless you act out (case in point: he replaced him with some random kid he moved into the house who did do karate)

-Had "friends" whose love was also entirely conditional, but was so terrified of being alone he was willing to be a bully rather than friendless

-Resented all of this so much he has stopped trying to work for anything, what's the point

-"Anthony you make everything worse"

-Had both an eating disorder and a screen addiction about this at like 12 ("Anthony, stop drinking the butter!")

And then CK went: "Whatever, we only created this kid to show Daniel is a loser who can't parent a Real Man" and promptly forgot about him for the rest of the show

Anthony LaRusso may not be an entirely fun person, but neither is Tory but at least we as the audience get to comiserate with her

The only one we can see give Anthony any positive attention before S5 is his grandma

I bet you Lucille LaRusso is the tech savviest grandma in her whole neighbourhood because she will have shown an interest in him and now she knows how to hack the smartfridges of people she hates

Will someone please make some actual time for this boy....! Even if Daniel was consumed with mad worry and grief over Miyagi right when Anthony was born we've seen Amanda spend more time with Tory than with him and that's his mother!

Yes, he's just some gremlin but under these circumstances, who wouldn't be??