#cobra kai critical

[keen-eye]

something something great premise, bad writing…failure to adapt with the times…writers (white men) projecting their biases and fantasies and showing clear favoritism between 2 main characters…fans following suit…*

narrative not holding aggro “manly” man accountable for his actions…shut up, i’m right, screw you, get punched…but he had a shitty childhood…self-destructive, makes it everyone else’s problem…badass all american guy with a cool car, bitches, burgers, beer, and rock ‘n’ roll, baby…makes sexist and racist remarks, but he’s just a goofy guy…unbridled violence and refusal to mature are excused because he's an Action Hero…stuck in the 80s toxic masculinity mentality…apologizes, maybe means it, doesn’t change…alcoholism is hilarious…don’t let him around children…

less masculine man treated as a scapegoat...why is he whiny and annoying…giving but called entitled and selfish…stuck-up stick in the mud…polite, eats healthy food, likes a clean space, and knows how the internet works, ugh…samantha, danielle…don’t be a bitch/pussy about it…get emasculated, nerd…abused as well but learns to forgive…internalizes his rage and tries to be gentle…compassionate and sees the good in people…emotional intelligence, let’s talk this through…given female character treatment...held to a higher standard, judged more harshly...comfortable in his sexuality…vilified for holding justifiable resentment towards macho man…hate for character carries over to actor

oh and the homoerotic subtext (they break up every other episode)

*i recognize that this is exaggerated and doesn’t delve into the nuances of the characters. none of them are perfect

[italiancarsalesman]

Cringe writing. Johnny's dick riders. Ruined Miyagi character. Fuck ck writers/creators.

[dykesynthezoid]

There’s so many jokes s1 Johnny makes that I can just roll my eyes at like. He’s supposed to be stupid, he’s supposed to have silly outdated beliefs, who cares. Some of them are legitimately funny to me, too. But then there’s like. 1-2 moments where I cannot help getting legitimately heated, and him calling Miguel an ‘illegal’ is the main one. Maybe it’s bc I grew up in the southwest us and so I’m extra sensitive to that shit, but that’s not fucking funny. It’s not. It goes so beyond “haha this guy hasn’t moved on from the 80s.” And yeah Johnny’s a white guy but if he’s spent his entire life in the valley he should have an idea, actually, what it means to call someone that, the violence and disruption it could invite into their life. He should know that.

Granted I think they should’ve just cut the line to begin with. Three white american guys writing a script of their karate kid fanfic don’t need to be making jokes like that. Especially since if it were meant to actually be an interesting character moment, Miguel would’ve been allowed to actually react to it. And feel something about it. But of course he doesn’t get to do that, bc his job is apparently to put up w Johnny’s backward (and intermittently racist) comments 24/7 without complaint.

[sleepyicon]

if you were a fucking good writer who paced the show better, brandon would not be in the background 🤦🏽‍♀️

[bonsai-babies]

[laniidae-passerine]

Oddly for a sequel show, Cobra Kai is putting far too much weight on the original TKK film. They keep acting like this is teenage Johnny and teenage Daniel going toe to toe, but these are adult men. They should have lived adult lives and processed adult experiences and emotions before getting to the beginning of Cobra Kai’s story. Why can’t Johnny ever seem to grow up in a meaningful way? Why does Daniel keep chucking his healthy wealthy family life to the side to get involved in random ass karate shit? Why do they refuse to truly mend the fences between them? I understand showing trauma affecting them and TKK being an important moment in their lives, but the show acts like that was THE important moment in their lives. Nothing was bigger or more life changing than that (basically a high school karate tournament that happened one time) even though they’re decades past it. These characters aren’t truly allowed to be adult men grappling with the past, they’re written like stunted teens who are simply walking through some strange daydream life where they’ve got kids and jobs. And if the writers don’t ever treat them like adults, they’re never going to act like it nor will they ever grow in meaningful and permanent ways.

[nickmarini]

I love the way you play Ayden in downfall it amazing! And the way you talk so soft but with power when you say a line are you going be in more downfall eps

I’m about to ask the most likely question that will probably hopefully not freak you out or make you weirded out but I seen you like most of the post about it so how do you feel about young cobra husbands 👀 I’m actually nervous as hell to ask this lol you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to 😅

Also the way you play young terry silver is beautiful especially in s6

Thank you so much! Both Ayden and Terry have been so much fun to play and are both the young versions of an established character in a funny way! I'm glad you were one of the few people who might have found my Terry Aeor passport amusing! I think the purpose of art is to inspire! If people are taking the time to channel that inspiration into Cobra Husbands, who am I to judge! I think ultimately it is flattering that people respond to a character I partially portray. Once I have completed filming something it ceases to be mine and becomes whatever people receive it as. Cobra Husbands away I say!

[terrence-silver]

80s Terry with a Beloved who is just as eccentric as he is. There’s no need for him to calculate his next move or manipulate things around her because she’s crazy enough to immediately accept anything he says or does no matter how batshit insane it is.

Terry causes enough chaos on his own, but with a Beloved who not only supports him but encourages him? World domination is definitely in discussion at the very least.

“I can fix him? No, I can make him worse.”

Ironically, this just makes him better.

Not good, in the sense of a good person, but better, in the sense that he wouldn't snap mentally and turn, oh, I don't know, suicidal, telling Chozen how he's not afraid to die. Because, consider it; he's loved for exactly who he is. He's getting the devotion he's putting out given right back to him by someone who understands and sees him --- the real him. He's repressing nothing. He's not fabricating a whole personality. He's not hiding his past. His deeds. His machinations. Who he is. He's not fronting. Wearing a mask. He's precisely what he is in front of his significant other and while he's not a good man, total acceptance is something. How many people can boast to have that? Someone who knows all their flaws and bad sides and still cares? In a world where nothing's for free, that sort of thing has no price. Sure, it doesn't turn him into a saint, I don't think, because he'll never be a saint and he never was in the first place, but in equal measure I don't think a repressed Terry living a lie in the company of a bunch of vapid champagne Liberals who barely know a genuine fact about him is any healthier. In fact, it is much, much worse. Terry wouldn't be a good person if he was with a beloved who complements him so fully, but he'd certainly be an infinitely happier one.

[miyagi-hokarate]

It's always going to be a little funny that Cobra Kai has Daniel sympathetically shocked to see people accuse him of racism for being a White Guy showcasing an Asian martial arts. On the Asian martial arts show directed/written by White Guys.

[starryeyedagony]

Just so y’all know, Nick Marini, the Dawnfather incarnate, plays young Terry Silver in Cobra Kai. Billionaire, planet destroyer, but disciplined, dogmatic, and the same slick charm and penchant for gambling as his brother Asmodeus.

[billy-royalton]

i call it the silly karate show because it is the silly karate show but that doesn't make it a bad show like truly whatever they were cooking up in seasons 1-2 was top tier grade a shit ergo i do believe that i get to expect some nuance, heart, and character growth in my silly karate show because they literally proved from the beginning that they know how to do it and do it well so that's on them at this point.

[italiancarsalesman]

Okay I don't know if you talked about this (I wasnt active in the fandom recently), but I hope you know CK writers are zionists. Listen I do enjoy the fandom but like I said in a post recently I won't be watching season 6. Im not even subscribed to netflix anymore. Like no one is forcing to not watching it but ngl I'll consider it spineless as hell.

Same goes for another show I used to love, learned that many cast members are zionists. An actor of the show who happened to be muslim who is pretty vocal about Palestine on social media got fired..... If you know what show im talking about then you know the fandom sucks. Many poc, as myself, were not feeling welcomed and many left the fandom. Like there was legit white people doing blockchain on twitter because of that one white side character as their chosen blorbo (and this side character's actor is also zionist)

[retrokid616]

k so back from break and did light googling and turns out nick (guy thats playing i think exu's jesus) was a young version of this guy in cobra kai

but enough of my upcoming review of that shows final season and other personal bs lets get back to the game

[ignotussomnium]

I love it when different series have characters with the same name. It adds a bit of spice and ambiguity to the dash.

A post comes up about Percy smacking a god for looking at him funny. Is this Percy Jackson or Percy de Rolo?

Another post talks about Danny being an idiot. Do they mean Danny Phantom or the kid from Cobra Kai?

Will this post about someone named Babs gonna be DC Comics or The Locked Tomb?

It's especially fun if I have no idea what the actual source material is, so I'm imagining the character I know doing something that makes no sense. Just a little moment of absurdity.

[bonsai-babies]

Something has been missing for a while...

Every year when a new Cobra Kai season was released, I binged as soon as possible, like any fan. However, after the third season and my first hiatus in this fandom, I had the time to better assimilate the show and figure out my attachments and grievances with the show. I realized I really liked Sam, Daniel, Robby, Miguel, and even Johnny (though I always had many problems with his childishness and irresponsibility). I got attached especially to Samantha, who stood out as the type of character strangely placed in an extremely "macho-man" preaching show. I thought of the many interesting possibilities to approach her development as "the legacy kid" and "the love interest" who now had an extremely violent rival who was also a girl with a contrasting energy and story.

The meta-conversation that could've been explored filled my expectations for the seasons ahead. I anxiously waited, season after season, to see more, to see which of the possibilities they would explore. Though season four was interesting, it ended there.

Season five was the biggest disappointment, it was clear they didn't want to do much with her anymore, she didn't have an arc, they teased an arc, and just... didn't do anything with it. Season six part one was the very same. She was there... Nothing particularly personal going on except the crumbs of her relationship development with Tory. Her motivation to fight barely being touched upon, her anxieties about college and what to do with her future completely ignored or forgotten, she's happy just gathering pamphlets to pick a university. No excitement or tension or even a hint of which direction she would like to go or refuses to. They gave her nothing.

I do not hold any expectations that she'll be given substantial stuff anymore by the writing, if she gets to at least be relevant in the mission to bring Tory back from CK I'll be honestly surprised and reasonably content.

I believe I'm not the only one feeling this way, maybe people feel this way about other characters too -- and I would agree with them. It's just something I felt there was missing for a while, something not easy to excuse or forgive because, in this case, we're talking about a legacy kid, Miyagi's granddaughter, Daniel's eldest child... And she gets too little. It's a shame.

[agnesandhilda]

male characters who are losers but you know if they were female characters with all the same traits you'd be their full-time defense attorney