#cobra kai critical

[mo-hawk]

Still angry about the fact that Demetri just instantly got back into karate after the arm break.

There was absolutely no reason for him to stay with it at that point. He didn’t have a deep, personal relationship with karate ir his Sensei. Karate lost him all his friends and fucked up most of his life: Miguel almost died after a horrible karate brawl, Aisha was forced to move away because of karate, Robby went to juvie for nearly killing Miguel with karate, Sam was horribly traumatized and had literal karate PTSD, and Eli, who he was absolutely in love with, either platonically or romantically, became a toxic, violent bully. All because of karate.

Demetri only started karate because his friends were being jerks and he wanted to protect himself. After Hawk breaks his arm, he has no reason to keep doing it. Karate has done nothing but hurt him and everyone close to him, and Demetri is the character most likely to realize that and duck out. Yet he apparently has no negative feelings about it at all and is right back with Miyagi-do for the season finale 🫠

[landslided]

oh, i'm so sorry you didn't like the finale! if you're comfortable sharing, would love to hear why you didn't like it/what you didn't enjoy.

hi anon!!! of course i'd love to yap, you (must) know by now.

very simply i'd like to start by saying that this is things i disliked and while i do believe some of these things are far more important than others, i do not hold any judgement for whoever enjoyed these last five episodes! i truly mean what i said: really happy for the ones who had a blast!!

now that this disclaimer is made let's get into the Nasty bits:

a reason why i loved cobra kai so much was because to me the fights in the show in season one served the story. miguel's ascension to a role of fighter who protected himself and others from bullies only to then become a bully because johnny's karate and philosophy was still too wrapped with kreese's ideologies and his own personal need for revenge and to "fight" daniel. season one puts an accent on the characters, on miguel and johnny's relationship, on robby's feelings towards that, on daniel's bond with his family (and how his own inability to let the past go influences that). season one is quite low in stakes when you think about it: johnny is struggling to make ends meet and teaching a kid how to fight for an under 18 tournament. the highs and lows of the show are the interactions between the characters, how all of them make up, break up, fight, love, tear into each other. low stakes for high emotional tension. it works wonderfully, especially when miguel brings more importance to beating robby than it actually should if it were real life: cobra kai wins the all valley then but johnny loses. he's brought back something that should have stayed dead. cobra kai has tainted another generation of kids and johnny only understand when he's holding that trophy watching daniel leave with robby.

all of these characters hold weight in the story. they're flawed but real, deeply human, complex and beautiful.

season 6 is about the fights. the plot only exists to put these kids (and johnny) on the mat. and it needs to be flashy. it needs to blow up the choreography budget. we need blood, we need slow mo. we need so many different cameras and we need to make 40 minute episodes spent almost in their majority fighting OR talking about the fights.

it's lazy. it's losing focus of what made cobra kai season 1 such a good revival: giving emotional weight to a 80´s movie villain by showing how much his life has been affected by this one thing.

the laziness doesn't just stop at the amount of fights though. this season of cobra kai (and let's be honest, basically every single season of cobra kai since they joined netflix) has spent less and less time with the characters' emotion. and if they do spend some time on what these characters are feeling they need to tell you in extreme detail because they do not trust us, the audience, to understand something that hasn't been spelled out for us explicitly.

(how many speeches can one person give during a karate fight? how many superlatives can be given to robby, miguel, tory, johnny until it becomes a parody?)

if you look at these characters in season 6 and hold them up to their season 1 version, would you recognize them? actually, maybe you would, because there is no growth. no change. johnny, who has learned time and time again that cobra kai doesn't work, that it's not him or what is right for him, goes back because "that's a cool name for a dojo" and we will still strike first, strike hard and have no mercy and no amount of talking around it changes the fact that kreese's memory haunts those words and that man did not deserve redemption, did not deserve to be hugged and forgiven and seen as someone worth having such an impact on the future generations of valley fighters.

for daniel to be the one pushing johnny towards cobra kai is even more of a narrative failure.

"but the show is called cobra kai!" yes and yet the show cobra kai should have ended with the confirmation that the cobra kai dojo is gone, that this philosophy of life has been beaten by johnny, by daniel, by them and the others moving forward and not backwards.

the show's worst mistake is to believe johnny cannot be a beloved character while being called what he is: a reformed bully. johnny was the bad guy but to just say this is so vague, it doesn't let you know what growth he should have gone through (and yes, johnny does go through character changes but i swear to you that so much more could have been given to him): johnny was a bully. let's say it so we can fix it.

cobra kai refuses to have actual villains (except if they're teenage girls who have sex apparently but zara is yet another story) it will throw you a 100 redemption arcs but it will also tell you that these characters didnt need a redemption arc anyway because they were good, deep down, they were always doing the right thing.

that's not true and that's what makes them compelling characters and stories. cobra kai doesn't manage to ever let itself be uncomfortable with the morality of the story it tries to tell in the later seasons. and why should it? you're here for the sekai takai babyyyyy, not to see your favorite character actually be fleshed out, you're here to see BLOOD!!!!

and it doesn't matter if you sideline time and time again the asian characters and influence within your story, mr miyagi is dead anyway!! let's have him fight some skeletons from the grave!! who gives a shit!! that's BADASS.

it doesn't matter that the female characters of the show can be reduced to woman/daughter/mother/sex object. it doesn't matter that laura, carmen and laura junior all have for roles to be the Women of johnny's life. good on sam to go to okinawa maybe she can buy a story arc over there.

but i mean, it's not just the women so it's okay, we're progressive in cobra kai: robby can also be reduced to a few tropes tied together with a cute little bow and then completely sidelined! he can thank his dad for being there for him a total of... 45 minutes in 6 seasons?

tory can fight for cobra kai after saying times and times again she doesn't want to but hey listen she's BADASS and she gets to be an influencer!! something she and robby have shown a LOT of interest across many seasons.

and miguel can also fight for revenge <3 we can say he did it for him but hey, we know it was to win. and that's okay! it's alright! it's not like it goes against his growth too!

actually, lets have daniel fully accept to be in a cobra kai gi, something even karate kid iii didnt do with such enthusiasm. how about we also have him impersonate john kreese? because that guy was so needed.

and johnny can win. he can win a fight to finally buy back his lost honor even though we've established time and time again that he didn't need this win, that to be so obsessed with victory is bad for him, that it goes against who he wants to be.

zara, axel and wolf are Here. and since the writers say zara didn't sexually assault robby (even though hey! that's what it was!) it means that within canon she's just punished to this degree for the sin of? homewrecking? and axel is There. sure. he has some sort of moral compass but he exists also just to fight and not to do anything else within the story.

a kid dies in the last part of this show and nobody truly gives a shit. kreese and silver? blow up? meh. must be a tuesday at the valley.

very high stakes in this season, very low emotional impact. the total opposite from season one.

i could go on and on, i could try and make a better analysis of the military and imperialism propaganda cobra kai has fallen into but others have done it much better than i could and mostly i am tired.

i will always love cobra kai. i will always love daniel larusso and johnny lawrence. i just wish the writers loved them too and not the tasteless, beige clones of them they've made to fight for our entertainment.

[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.

[kathrahender]

Cobra Kai Ships Analysis

This might me controversial but-

Ali, Kumiko, Jessica >>>> Carmen, Amanda, Mike's wife.

I mean like I ship Lawrusso but if they wanted THAT much to make Daniel and Johnny straight in Cobra Kai, Kumiko and Ali are RIGHT THERE. Sorry for everyone who ship Damanda or Jarmen, but I never saw the chemistry, I don't see the chemistry, and I never will. Like everytime there were romantic scenes between them I was thinking the whole time "Can we get onto more important things? Like karate? Pleaseee?" because I couldn't stand them. (Still can't)

First, I'm going to analyze (a little) Jarmen. We all know how was Johnny in Karate Kid, but we also know how he "changed" in Cobra Kai (yeah, sometimes there was null character development but at the end his rivalry with Daniel ended so I consider that character growth). And I'm pretty sure that it wasn't Carmen who changed him. It was Miguel, it was Robby, it was Daniel. Honestly, if Carmen didn't have a romance with him, do you think he wouldn't have changed??? The show was mostly about his relationship with Daniel and what happened since he lost the tournament. You can get Carmen out of the picture and it wouldn't have changed many things about the show. But with Ali in the picture? Oh, she would have make him want to be a better person (because Ali wouldn't date a "bad" version of him, she would only date him again if he proved he was worthy of dating her again). Besides, Ali (unlike Carmen) has a strong personality, she would have challenged him, he couldn't have been a passive love interest, and she would have confronted him about being a bad father to Robby (making him ALSO start to be a good father to his son). And apart from everything I've said, Ali knew Johnny since he was a teenager, so she knows him better than Carmen, and although their relationship didn't work in 1984, it could have bloom thirty years later with a little effort from both sides (mostly Johnny).

Now onto Darmanda. Unlike Danali, Damiko or Jarmen, we didn't see how Daniel and Amanda changed from being friends to become a couple (and later a marriage) and that, since the beginning, made me feel like something was missing. We saw how Daniel fell in love with Ali and how Daniel fell in love with Kumiko, but we didn't get to see that with Daniel and Amanda, making the ship lack the development that could have sold the ship to some of us. About their personalities: Unlike Carmen, Amanda had a strong personality (like Ali) which maybe could have made Damanda work in one of the movies of Karate Kid. But in Cobra Kai, Daniel didn't need someone challenging, someone defiant like Amanda. He didn't need someone confronting him about his rivalry with Johnny, Kreese or Terry, someone telling him that he was overreacting, or someone who didn't understand (or didn't try to understand) the trauma those rivalries caused to him. Daniel needed someone who didn't pressure him any further, who understood him and comforted him instead of saying that he needed to "let go of their karate rivalries". And Kumiko is a perfect love interest for him because of that. We all know how healthy was Damiko's dynamic in Karate Kid II, and Daniel needed that healthiness in Cobra Kai (at the beginning he could have dated Amanda, but later he could have divorced her and date Kumiko instead).

And thirdly, Mike and his wife. We don't know so many things about her wife, not even her appearance, and although I don't dislike this ship (unlike Jarmen or Damanda) because we didn't even see how their dynamic was, I still think there's a better option of a love interest for Mike than her. Since Mike changed after what happened in 1985 and became a better person, he could have started a relationship with Jessica Andrews. Their relationship in 1985 was a little bad because of what Mike did, but if Jessica saw Mike's change, she could have given him another chance. They could have started as friends who tried to find a common ground, and later they could have become a couple. Besides, if Mike dated Jessica, she could have stopped him from confronting Daniel when Terry burned Mike's furniture store (he could still have the furniture store, but maybe for different reasons than in the canon).

In conclusion: I think Daniel and Johnny's canon pairings in Cobra Kai were terrible and Damiko and Jali are better options.

[sleepyicon]

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

[bonsai-babies]

[bunnybonesstudio]

Demetri and Eli have cat and dog energy

Specifically this cat and dog

[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.

[mo-hawk]

It’s honestly so tiring to see how little Cobra Kai seems to care about its own premise and characters a lot of the time.

Johnny never mentions that Chuck Norris founded the style of karate Cobra Kai is based on, even though realistically he’d be all over that, because the writers couldn’t be bothered to do an hour’s background research.

Hawk’s hair looks like an ugly brick from the front the whole show because whoever’s in charge of hair didn’t want to have to learn how to do a mohawk cut. As a character for whom hair is a HUGE part of his identity, it’s a terrible choice.

Miguel wins his semifinal match with a tornado kick in season 1, but then Johnny only teaches him how to do one in season 4? Apparently the choreographer and everyone else didn’t coordinate at all. Are we just supposed to believe that Miguel picked up an extremely difficult kick and pulled it off flawlessly in competition by seeing Johnny do it at some point?

The fucking karate show embarrases itself by showing the worst (supposedly famous and international) karate tournament imaginable because the showrunners are allergic to the WKF rulebook. Half of those events wouldn’t have worked if the show wasn’t scripted! Karate is not WWE!

These are things that the show should know about. It just doesn’t give a shit.

[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!

[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)

[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.

[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.

[pussyhoundspock]

webweaving but it's jesse breaking bad refusing to squash the bug (what this says about kindness in a cruel world) and johnny killing the fly to end cobra kai (what this says about cruelty in a kind world)

[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.