#daniels the real bully is a meme that had its run.

[outplacedwriter]

It's funny you arguing that the script or the writing is anti-Johnny and Miguel. The two most spoiled and made-to-look-carismatic despite doing A LOT of dumb shit. Maybe it's the fact that they face consequences that makes you think the writing dislikes them, or maybe is because some of the fandom is learning to see them more critically. But this statement just doesn't make sense.

Your definition of Protagonist Morality explains perfectly why Johnny and Miguel are still not that much judged as you think.

Because you brought up way too many points, I'll focus on only some of them, or this will get even longer.

Danny is a hyper-judgmental asshole due to unresolved trauma from his youth and it's a problem.

First, this very same description could be used for Johnny. A worthless father who is still suffering because he lost a tournament in his youth and never grew up despite being an old ass man.

But Daniel is a victim of bullying reacting emotionally to seeing a real threat. He is not an asshole. When he saw Johnny at the dealership, he didn't react badly, he gave his old BULLY a jab, which no one can blame him for, but despite this jab he immediately offered to PAY for Johnny's repair. Which he didn't do to antagonize Johnny, he did out of camaraderie. Johnny was the immature child who rejected it because he was butt-hurt about losing a Karate Championship.

Because we get shown Johnny's pity-party life before this happens, everyone takes his side without paying attention to what is happening.

Daniel only snaps when he sees Cobra Kai is back, the same Cobra Kai that EVERY TIME that was brought back did serious damage. Why would it be different this time?

Cobra Kai

It's naive to believe just because CK changed teachers it would get better. It doesn't matter who the teacher is, the fundamentals on which this style is based are already toxic, you can't make it work, you can't make it good. "Strike First. l Strike Hard. No mercy", how could that be good at all? Thankfully the show proves this to us in the very first season. Doesn't matter how well intended Johnny was, the way of the fist will always create monsters, no matter who teaches it.

The problem is in the fundamentals.

Daniel not being willing to give his old BULLY a chance to see if he can use this violent philosophy well with his new dojo is being SENSIBLE.

Stop demonizing Daniel for being right about a VIOLENT philosophy that almost killed him and severely hurt him as a child repeatedly!

Sam

Now that we stablished Cobra Kai will always create monsters, Daniel teaching this to his daughter is good-parenting. I would also make sure my kids stay away from the thing that created the bullies from my youth.

Sam didn't believe what Daniel said about CK until Miguel began acting like a possessive asshole BY HIMSELF. He created the drama by not trusting her, by not giving her time to come clean, by making assumptions and by getting aggressive. But because he's the boy hero everyone is willing to only see the "rich bitch" as the evil one because she didn't bend to his every concern.

When it comes to her first scene with Tory, honestly, Sam was being jealous. Which among all the bullshit we see, it's the smallest of sins. But she isn't shown as the right one for being jealous.

Her behavior towards Tory is actually too good for someone who tried to maim her and broke into her house with a violent gang. Sam acts with too much grace, she should have forbidden her to get back to the same school, that girl broke too many bridges and did nothing to repair that damage besides being poor.

And I hate how we use economic class as an excuse to defend mainly Johnny and Tory after so much shit they've done.

I know it's hard to feel sympathy for rich people, but defending their violent attackers because they had sadder lives is just ridiculous.

And you can't say that the so-called writing of the show doesn't constantly use this pity to make characters like Tory likable despite acting unhinged for dumb reasons (a drunk kiss).

Daniel's protectiveness with Miyagi-Do style

We tend to forget that just because Mr. Miyagi isn't around anymore, it doesn't mean his style of Karate changed. His style is objectively the better one. It brings peace, balance, and healthy ways to deal with fear, aggression, and bullying.

Once again, Daniel's unwillingness to let his kid learn the Karate Style of his bully is logical. Johnny's style is based on his macho-man mentality of "the young people are weak you need to learn to be a MAN". We have been discussing toxic masculinity for years now and I'm baffled how people don't realize the way Johnny keeps perpetuating it. The style is also based on a toxic philosophy. WHY would Daniel or Sam want that?

Besides, Daniel's pride is justifiable. He had a great master and he feels the need to protect his master's teachings. He's right on doing so. The fact that he's a bit smug about it is because... I mean... Miyagi's style is fucking the best, it's not problematic, it works... Daniel smugness comes from being right. And after all that happened this man deserves to be smug about it.

Mr Miyagi deserves to have many people being smug about his teachings as a treat for being awesome.

Last but not least:

This show is bad at writing forgiveness and characters making amends. I agree Aisha and Sam's friendship deserved better. But so does Robby and Miguel's rivalry, Hawk being Satan, Johnny and Daniel, Tory and Sam etc etc

MiyagiDo Karate and Protagonist Morality

So when I watched the first two seasons this bothered me and then last weekend I watched everything else (thus far)... and this still bothered me. So here we are.

Spoilers for all five released seasons of Cobra Kai (although I'll mainly be talking about Demetri, Sam, Danny, and Hawk).

Before I get started...

As much as I'm criticizing the writing of these characters, I don't think the characters are bad, or hate the show. I just think more could be done with them, or in the case of Sam they could have started the ball rolling sooner and she could be a better character than she is.

Except Demetri, they really screwed the pooch on his writing.

Protagonist Morality

So I guess I should explain this term. Protagonist morality is where a show doesn't question the behavior of it's protagonists, assuming that whatever action they've taken is morally correct (for the setting). In a video game, you know all those unguarded chests full of stuff for you. The ones all across the countryside and in towns and often people's houses? The ones you can loot freely and nobody cares or is concerned with all the robbery you're doing?

That's protagonist morality. If the game labels you a thief and you get run out of public spaces for your actions, then the game is labeling your actions as maybe less than a paragon of virtue, and giving you reason to think about it. (Then you do it anyway because it's really nice loot.)

So what about the ACTUAL protagonists?

Johnny, Miguel, and Robby are questioned and judged by the narrative constantly. They generally do things right for them, but not universally seen as correct. And generally the narrative is about them moving forward and making less questionable calls.

The whole point of the start of S2 is that Johnny realizes "No Mercy" is a bad motto, because it just gets people hurt, and changes his teachings to match this bit of character growth. Characters backslide, Johnny and Robby both crash spectacularly at the start of Season 3. Each needs to dig themselves out of the hole their in all through Season 3 (Johnny) and 5 (Robby).

So the show never treats them as not needing growth, as the show is all about their growth.

Daniel

Danny is a hyper-judgmental asshole due to unresolved trauma from his youth and it's a problem. But also the show would be a lot less interesting if he worked through all of this in a timely fashion. Primarily the issue is his reaction to "Cobra Kai" just being back at all, and how he never once gets pushed to question if Cobra Kai in Johnny's hands changed.

Some of this is miscommunication, which is the cornerstone of the Unresolved sexual Karate Tension with Johnny. But his absolute refusal to see good in Cobra Kai had a direct hand in breaking up Sam and Miguel in Season 1 and Danny... came out of it believing he was right.

And when he goes out of his way to try and destroy the S1-2 era of Cobra Kai, the narrative never once actively punishes him for his prejudice. He's also never forced to face why he's like this. It's kind of shit but very much a plot lodestone.

Sam

Like her father, Sam often rushes to a moral judgement on bad info and never goes back. Even if she's wrong. So much of her Season 1 behavior is swept under a rug so that other characters (Kyler, Yaz, Miguel) can be her personal villain. And the worst being Season 2 with Tory.

Sam rushed to 'all Cobras are evil' while in a plot trying to fix her friendship with her best friend, she instigated things with Tory, and blamed Tory for all of it without having to think about why she's following her father so readily. Of course, with the end of Season 2 it didn't matter what her behavior was prior, she had every justification to treat Tory as her own personal satan.

Fortunately for me, and everyone else who likes Sam, most of the later seasons focus real hard on having her grow as a person. Maybe not facing all of her personal failings, but she does grow past them in respectable ways. And while her behavior toward Tory is... still bad, Tory is her personal anxiety attack she's allowed it now. (Unlike someone else.)

She also unpacks some of the prejudice she learned from her dad. Sneaking off behind his back to learn Eagle Fang and figure out before Father Dearest that balance is better than pigheaded arrogance of your own greatness. Leading to the Season 4 finale and her mixed styles.

Demetri Hawk

Before I rant about Demetri, I need to explain why Hawk's narrative, regardless of his failures, is better. Eli starts the show with a clearly defined failing (confidence and courage), focuses hard on overcoming it (through Cobra Kai Karate), and turns him into someone new.

That new person is a loud abrasive asshole, but it's a growth arc.

When Hawk behaves badly, it's treated as a start of darkness. As he grows to love having the power his weaker nerdy self lacked. His acts of vengeance make sense as the flexing of power he's never had before. To the point he becomes the sort of bully he feared. His reactions are all overreactions and that's good writing. You understand why he beats Kyler's flunky to a bloody pulp, it's cathartic but also framed as an act of pure violence and destruction. He needs to live in his anger, his violence, listening to the whispers Kreese offers.

Season 3 is Hawk struggling to choose between good and evil, and in the end he chooses good. Leading him on the path toward balance and being better than either side of him before. Honestly of every character in the show his path is the best defined.

Now Demetri

Demetri is a anxious pessimistic leech. He feels he'll fail before he starts, and therefore doesn't try. He rides the coattails of his friends as they become cool and popular and Hawk was right to call him out. But rather than investigate that, he becomes the target of Hawk's new villain arc, and rushes to the arms of MiyagoDo.

Where he proceeds to never actually face who he was, and just... get to be a cool martial artist with a hot girlfriend as the show sweeps his negative traits under a rug and never touches them.

The narrative never confronts how 'it's fine for me to reap the benefits of your hard work' (start of season 2) or 'I can humiliate my best friend by spilling all his secrets then hide behind my badass martial artist friends' (late season 2) were bad calls, because at the end of the season he just... gets to beat up Hawk to establish the full defeat of Johnny's Cobra Kai.

Directly into Season 3 where he's just as aggressive and antagonistic as Sam is, while neither is treated as being 'over the line' by the narrative. Which is all before Hawk breaks Demetri's arm, meaning he doesn't have the extant trauma reason Sam has.

By Season 5 Demetri is a pretty cool person, but as there's no actual focus on how he got there, it feels cheap. Which really sucks.

What I'd Write-

I don't want to rewrite the whole show, and that makes Danny hard to fix. As so much of him is that paranoia of Cobra Kai. Like- best I could ask for is him going to therapy and trying to work past it (and just being bad at it).

Sam the easy answer is Aisha not forgiving her (at least during S1-2). Where Sam tries to get Aisha back, but every time she either says something about Cobra Kai, or Miguel, or Tory and Aisha points out Sam hasn't given any of them a fair shot, and that Sam has no room to talk after dating Kyler and being Yaz's friend.

Bonus points if Sam also gets taken to task for her going after Tory when Tory was working. Because Amanda already got Tory fired once, but she felt bad about it.

Demetri has a similar route of 'best friend does not forget.' A simple 'why should I ever trust you again' after Moon's party would go a long way to rub Demetri's face in what he did, how he was as bad as everyone who made fun of Hawk's lip at school. How Demetri, for one brief moment, was worse than Kyler.

I want all the characters to either get the kind of care in how they change direction that Miguel has, and failing that being absolutely perfect like Devon (the only person to join Silver's Cobra Kai and not turn evil).

[p101recaps]

Broduce 101: Episode 8 (Quick Livestream Recap)

This post contains spoilers.

Alright, I missed a bit of the first half which must have been fanservice, because I was tossed into eliminations straight up.

I recapped the first half here!

It was pretty awful, with the boys talking about their dreams and hopes with the elimination sword swinging above their heads. They keep talking about Jihoon and his number one rank. It was not entertaining.

What was entertaining, however, was the little segment they prepared with Hwiseung and to do that punching strength machine thing.

Kim Dongbin started it off and did surprisingly well. 

Minki expanded his shoulders to go try knock him off the #1 chair. He’s really so good at variety, strutting and playing himself up, but his score wasn’t even near enough to beat Dongbin’s surprising 917.

Sunghyuk, the muscled dark horse topped it easily.

Of course Ong-ssi had to come be casually confident. He snorted derisively at the score, and went to the back of the hall to charge up his power run before punching the machine and....did not reach the 900s. He said sheepishly said he’ll try to be humble.

BNM are embarrassed of their Donghyun hyung and his gags, but the guy outpunched Sunghyuk easy.

A lot of the other trainees tried and got close, until Manly Man Real Oppa Sexy Bandit was hyped and brought on. He gets nervous about the burden before punching the machine hard.

Samuel: OH. MY GOD.

He tied with Donghyun. They both face off, Donhyun got 949 and Sexy Bandit punched to a cool 950. He did a shy little Nayana victory chant.

GET THE HYPE GIGGLY SEXY BANDIT

Thank god BoA is back. She’s perfunctory but not annoying. She’s also really bad at acting to build anticipation so it’s endearing.

Mnet doesn’t clean their audio very well. I keep hearing background audio from floor mics when they walk to their seats.

Yehyun got in in the early 30s (!!!!)

Kwon Hyunbin is in. He said some stuff about working hard (cut to shots of Jonghyun and Auntie Jisung), looking a lot like the Monsta X rapper with pink hair. BoA asked if he’s been working hard and the trainees said yes, because they’re polite kids. 

I’m not sure if they’re trying to Brohye him, but he does have his own section of fans. I believe there were rumours some fans are buying spots for him from voters, but its uncertain how far his looks will carry him even with the helpful edits and apologies. 

Jang Moonbok dropped to a petty 32. He looked beautiful though, they’ve started to style his hair instead of lazily flat ironing it. He had a half ponytail and large gold rimmed glasses. So pretty. His thank you speech was humble, he said he’ll work slow and steady like a tortoise to earn his spot. He’s actually good with his words, his raps mimic his speaking style a lot.

Kenta made it at 31! It’s a risk spot, but lowkey incredible how little screentime he gets. 

RBW Lee Gunhee who was the Amazing Kiss main vocal, BoA points out, and he had the 110,00 vote benefit. His label mate, Hwanwoong, did not :|

Brand New Music Donhyun made it at 29! I was  worried about him too! 

BNW Park Woojin, who’s been getting really popular lately, was 14. He didn’t see Youngmin trying to congratulate him and ran up as though he was ignoring him and then had to run back to hug his hyung properly lol 

God that awful music library with the mournful instrumentals.

Park Woodam made it at 28. He hugged his fellow HF trainee, Woo Jinyoung, whose face started settling into resignation as the numbers went up.

Noona killer Hunus Kim Sanggyun made it!!!! 

Baby maknae Lee Woojin was safe too.

FNC Yoo Hwiseung was not, as handsome as he looked that day. It was awful because he kept smiling and playing around with the camera when it swung past him. I’m really going to miss him, he reminds me of Nam Woohyun so much at some angles too. When will Infinite comeback.

Ardor and Able Ha Sungwoon made it too, thank fucking god. He’s blond now. 

I’m not as excited about that. Please don’t keep the frizzy bleach.

WH Creative Seo Sunghyuk, my unintentional meme boy, has been gaining traction and was safe. He cried a little at his rapid, unexpected rise through the ranks. Even the trainees were a bit surprised at his rank.

Yuehua Lee Euiwoong made it in the early 20s. Ahn Hyunbseob was in at 20, he thanked Woojin and gave him a heart, while also thanking the voters. 

The Chinese Yuehua boys, Jung Jung and Justin, were eliminated. It’s a shame, they were definitely idol material. I’m keen to see what Yuehua has planned with the boys, hopefully after a few more vocal classes.

The Vibe Label Kim Tadeong, the vampire flower boy from SoY was in, along with his teammate Noh Taehyun, who was a rank above at 21.

Pledis Minki made it at 20

Brave Samuel’s dropped to 16 though they mentioned he had one of the highest views on his fancam (Auntie Jisung gave him that reassuring thumbs up). Samuel, thankfully, has gone back to chocolate brown hair.

Chun Arctic Fox Kim Yongguk was safe, so was Bae Jinyoung.

Starship Jung Sewoon dropped to 17, and clarified that he was not scared of Dongho (’Yes, well done!’ piped in Baekho, as he spoke) but Gwanghyun didn’t make it, my poor baby :(

MMO Yoon Jisung made it at 15 and all the trainees hugged him and called him an ajhumeoni lol. His weird clapping thing has become a gag for real.

I love you, Auntie Jisung, the only ray of sunshine in this mess.

Cube Yoo Seonho was 13. Baby Chick knew he was going to be safe, making BoA laugh. He chestbumped his hyungs on stage and called Guanlin a superstar, saying he knew the lower ranked Cube trainee was going to be him lol

Pledis’ “Power Sexy” Baekho was 11. He smiled like a big baby, even though everyone thinks he’s sexy and rough. BoA made him do aegyo and I, his noona, approve. 

He sat down on his 11 chair and said, very cutely, ‘Wow, it’s so high.’

Cre.Ker Joo Haknyeon was 10.

Jaehwan was 9, he got embarrassed seeing his face on the big screen and said he’ll work hard to become a worthy vocal. BoA asked him to sing Sorry, Sorry to fill broadcast time.

MMO Kang Daniel dropped to 8. His wrist seems to be injured. Since he thanked his noonas in Busan satoori last time, he thanked his dongsaengs in Seoul accent this time lol

Ong Sungwoo was in at 7, and apparently he has predominately male fans (Yoo Seonho: I’m a fan too). He did an extra little thank you and reenacted his high note gag from the Get Ugly performance

Pledis Minhyun was 6. Everyone was shook by how handsome he is on that big screen. He picked Jaehwan as someone he wants to debut with.

BNM Im Youngmin was at 5 - he was trending the last few weeks but it’s been found out that he had a girlfriend this week, so it’s safe to assume he’s going to drop rapidly now. 

He did his alpaca dance to celebrate his entrance to top 11. Cute.

BNM Lee Daehwi was 4, which is a relief. After being cyber bullied, he’s being very careful with his words, not revealing his ambition for being number 1. He thanked his mum in America and bounced to his seat, clearly relieved.

Lai Guanlin got ready to stand up as she spoke about handsomeness lol but Park Jihoon was number 3. He thanked his fans and said he loved his mum. We got an unnecessary peek into his journey like he’s being eliminated or something. He only dropped 2 ranks, geez. 

Taiwanese baby chick Lai Guanlin shot all the way up to 2. He feels the burden of being a six month trainee, which means he’s self aware if nothing else because this is a disproportionate and totally unwarranted rise. They can’t actually debut this kid yet along the likes of Jaehwan, Daehwi and Ong-ssi, as much as I like him and think he has potential.

Hilariously though, he asked his CEO to buy them delicious food.

Nation’s Leader Angel GodJonghyun maintains his number 1. Good on you, Wartortle!! 

He did his pose as a victory ceremony and apologised to Jihoon. Aw, he’s scared as much as he’s happy, he said.

OUI Kim Donghan was saved by the skin of his teeth at 35. The anticipation to have to wait till the end and the guilt made him cry (Kenta teared up instantly of course).

HIM Park Sungwoo, aka Tip Toe Oppa, was eliminated. He’s handsome but there wasn’t much to back up his hype, I guess.

Wings’ Kim Youngjin and Kiwi Media Kim Dongbin, who survived the last elims on the back of pity votes, were cut. Dongbin dropped to last after that embarrassing rap position battle mission, while Youngjin, who I think showed actual improvement, was eliminated while he was ahead.

Hong Eunki, Lee Insoo, Sangbin, S.How Namhyun, Yoon Heeseok were eliminated. 

So were Kiwon, The Vibe Jaechan and my man K-Tigers’ Byun Hyunmin. 

There shall be no more acrobatics.

MMO Joo Jinwoo was eliminated too. I mean, I’m thankful he made it as far as he did, but he was so handsome and such a good singer. I hope he gets to debut when MMO prepares their group :(

My poor boy Kim Seonglee too. His voice really was one of my favourites. It had real resonance, and he sounded so well trained, fully in control of his lovely tone. I truly believe he’s too good for this show. I mean, it didn’t even get him any screen time or hype of any sort.

I wonder how FNC will ruin Yoo Hwiseung’s potential idol career for me. He was another person I think could have made it to top 22 at least with more screentime.

Dongsu made everyone cry as he was eliminated at 36. The S.How boys have had a hard time in this industry.

All the tears. Far out.

Woo Jinyoung, he really deserved better, that boy was such a good rapper. Woodam sobbed as they hugged. I almost cried too, but my tears were of sheer bitterness and resentment.

Nation’s Leader GodJonghyun led the bowing to the national producers, with next week (re)splitting the trainees for concept evals. 

It’s going to be interesting to see the rankings shift from now. There’s talk of a 2-trainee per voter shift for the system. It’ll throw off the rankings considerably, going off how turbulent this season’s been.

Below’s a comprehensive top 11 from this week’s ranking.

Kim Jonghyun 

Lai Guanlin 

Park Jihoon 

Lee Daehwi 

Im Youngmin 

Hwang Minhyun

Ong Sungwoo 

Kang Daniel 

Kim Jaehwan 

Joo Haknyeon 

Kang Dongho  

As always, please let me know if you spot any errors or have any questions!