#it’s crazy that at some point Miguel was the main character along with Johnny and Daniel

[elevenenthusiast]

Honestly, if the leaks for part 3 are true, I'm actually really glad with the direction they're taking Miguel's character. His writing has fell down since season 3, and it feels like they’ve kind of sidelined him. I get the frustration, especially since Robby hasn't won any tournaments, but the truth is, he’s gotten way better writing and more main character treatment than Miguel has lately. As a Miguel fan, it’s honestly frustrating because the last solid arc he had was when he went to Mexico to find his dad, but that didn’t even last long, and they never really brought it up again. There was so much potential there. I don’t think Robby fans realize how good they have it he’s been treated much better as a character than Miguel these past few seasons. The only area where the writers have messed up is his relationship with Johnny.

[danwhobrowses]

Cobra Kai Season 3 Review

Well this is definitely one way to start the new year

New Season, New Dojo, and the third season of Cobra Kai was definitely something I wanted to binge right away and y’all gonna hear about it.

Spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 3, watch it because it’s definitely good

So yes, I did enjoy it. I mean it’d be hard not to at this point, Cobra Kai remains one of my favourite spinoff shows ever. It’s not without its flaws, or cheese, but when it’s great it’s great and that’s how we’re gonna run it down.

To start, let’s get the downs out of the way first

What wasn’t so great

Circumstances by misinterpretation It’s a general peeve of mine in movies and shows when conflict is made because characters don’t talk to each other properly or they take what someone says another way. In Cobra Kai’s case this annoyed me the most with Miguel and Tory’s conversation in Episode 6, Tory had a chance to be a much more conflicted character but they made her revert to being ‘all angry’ because she thought that Miguel said she was crazy, there’s also Robby in Episode 8 - who himself is in no position to act like he wasn’t snaking in on Sam back at Season 1 - who decides by one look that Sam and Miguel are back together and then angry at her for not letting him punch Miguel. I get that kids will take things the wrong way a lot but sometimes it’s just a lack of creativity, forced conflict and all just to push more characters into Cobra Kai.

Wherefore art thou, characters? Aisha in the last 2 seasons was frankly a symbol of how to work Cobra Kai’s mantra in a healthy manner. So it stung plenty even before Season 3′s trailers to know that Aisha would not be reprising her role. It was a bit of a crude write-off and I have no idea why we wouldn’t have brought her in, she could’ve left Cobra Kai but also struggle to stop Sam’s aggression or even helped Miguel’s rehab. Likewise being without Stingray did remove a lot of comedy elements, they weren’t pivotal losses but considering we brought back minor characters like Brucks, Anthony (who is in like 1 scene, lost a lot of weight though so good on him), Cousin Louie, Sid, Trey, Cruz, Armand and Yasmin does make you ask questions. In the same vein, we didn’t really introduce anyone new, that girl Tory beat looked like she could’ve been decent and we could’ve had more new characters enter via Johnny’s new dojo but it’s not a big deal.

Johnny is a 2 Time Champion too, why do people forget that? Daniel may have the fame, but Johnny was also a 2-Time All Valley U18 Champion, so when the all valley guy goes to Daniel saying ‘we need the two time champ’ it’s a bit annoying, because Johnny is that guy too.

Johnny’s Choice Right so Elizabeth Shue is hot and Ali is ‘the Ali’ but Vanessa Rubio/Carmen is hot too, there is a connection there not only via Miguel but a genuine attraction is still there too. Basically going on a date with Ali the day after sleeping with Carmen was that cliché daft move and it kinda undoes a lot of Johnny’s character progress over the last 2 seasons to be his own man, rather than a reflection of who he was. I mean yeah we got him to realise it right at the end but he was still going in for the kiss and you can’t undo that.

Sam vs Tory While I’ll get into the Sam progression in the good parts, but the feud of Sam and Tory never has clicked with me. I know it was the whole love quadrangle thing but it just feels like in Season 3 they were forcing it a bit much so Sam could have a Karate Kid 3 moment but Tory is not Mike Barnes the Badboy of Karate. She’s an angry girl but it just feels a bit weak to continue with this feud, especially when it’s because...uh...yeah. I mean it can’t be about Miguel anymore, it needed a lot more substance to be a worthwhile feud.

Daniel the Saviour I wanted Johnny and Daniel to team up and beat Kreese, not Daniel beating up Kreese to save Johnny. It was the problem I had with Season 2′s main fight where the Miyagi-Do lot had all the major wins in the school fight, Cobra Kai is not Daniel’s show, it’s Johnny’s, and it just grinded me the wrong way that the big moment that would finally unite the two together was off the back of Daniel defeating Kreese alone, especially since this is the second fight Johnny has had with Kreese interrupted before he could get the win himself.

Thankfully that’s practically all I have, and none of these kill the enjoyment at all, it’s just that if I was reviewing the script, these would be my editor’s notes. So let’s gush about the great stuff

What was BADASS about it Just to preface, this is not all in ranking, some of it just leads into other points and stuff.

The Cobra-fication of John Kreese The Kreese flashback was very well-done in showing the audience how Kreese became the man he is. There’s of course the multiple swerves which we will get to but we almost humanized Kreese at times especially when using it to keep Tory on the side of Cobra Kai.  Kreese in present day too is just, so good. Easily one of the best villains in tv right now, he’s like a supervillain in the real world: conniving, slimy and manipulative, and unlike Johnny and Daniel he has awareness outside the 80s vacuum, as shown when he gets to Amanda too. Kreese will forever be the top villain of the franchise, and every episode he’s in he shows it. I also like to say I like how Cobra Kai’s origins are the other side of the coin to Miyagi Do’s. Both developed from a martial art in a foreign land, brought back to the homeland of the learner, the only difference is that Cobra Kai was born in war and never learned peace, while Miyagi Do was born in peace and had to adapt in war, this can also be the key factor on what could save Cobra Kai: adopting and adapting in peace, but Kreese is never gonna allow that because of how emotionally numb his regret, guilt and torture has shaped him to be like.

Terry Silver is coming back! When I saw the ponytailed soldier not get named I was a tad annoyed, shouting ‘just admit it’s Terry Silver!’ but boy did they swerve me XD Turns out Terry Silver was ‘Twigs’ all along. Not only that but the finale implies that he will return to back up Kreese in Season 4...he better still have that ponytail.

Miguel and Johnny return to their roots While ‘Eagle Fang’ is intentionally a ridiculous name, Johnny going back to zero allowed Johnny to restore not only his character but his paternal bond with Miguel on his road to physiotherapy. The moments of recovery - while a little fast tracked - felt earned and it also restored Miguel to his kinder and softer self, even to the point where Daniel feels comfortable around him to chat and get along with. Overall it’s good to root for the main characters, and between the shenaniganry of Johnny’s obscure methods and Miguel basically training Johnny to be a normal human being leads to some entertaining moments and some nicer character moments, especially when Miguel starts calling Johnny out on his bullshit.

The many faces of Trauma The theme of this season seems to be dealing with trauma, which of course works in line with the show theme of confronting the past. Sam dealt with trauma the most having suffered PTSD from the whole school fight and it was a good display of how the fear can paralyse you. While it does feel a little weird given how she won that fight it was definitely something to give her character. There was also the confrontation of Miguel’s injury by Sam, Tory, Johnny and Miguel himself, Johnny and Daniel’s downfall in the wake of their dojo war, Hawk and Demetri having to re-encounter Kyler, baggage came for every character and they had to handle it in different ways; Sam particularly went from being very aggressive to compensate before returning to focus after having to confront her fear of Tory.

The New Quiver To add to the long list of Kreese’s manipulations, Kreese decided to overhaul his class with people he better liked, which called for the return of Kyler as well as increasing the aggression of Tory and Hawk. His final masterstroke being twisting Robby’s mind and turning him to Cobra Kai, setting up our primary antagonists for Season 4.

Good Character Redemption Several characters get the chance to redeem themselves in Season 3. While some don’t take that opportunity, the ones we do get are Yasmin, Cousin Louie, Chozen and Hawk. Yasmin’s one was a little undeserved I think, but being less of a bitch isn’t a bad thing, Cousin Louie’s was small but his dedication to family was on positive display now rather than his over the top insufferableness in Season 1, we’ll get to Chozen in a minute because it’s Hawk’s redemption that gets the most impact. While he definitely doesn’t deserve instantaneous forgiveness for his actions in this and the past season, seeing Hawk finally wake up and realise that Kreese is using him and that his change has gone too far was a fantastic moment, I wasn’t even sure he would do it until I saw it myself, finally Eli is back.

Amanda falls down the 80s Rabbit Hole One of the common compliments of Daniel’s wife Amanda is that she seems to be the only sane person in the middle of this karate war. She at least tries to keep Daniel grounded to the real world things, but the incident at the Golf n Stuff completely turned Amanda to confront Kreese. So now Amanda is all in, because she’s had to deal with Kreese’s trickery and manipulations, while we will grieve the loss of Amanda being the ‘Straight Man’, it’s cool that she’s now in this whirlpool of Karate 80s Supremacy Wars.

Ali with an Eye for Psychology Elizabeth Shue’s return as Ali provided us with a lovely episode and a bit where Johnny and Daniel got to relive some of their greatest and worst hits over the first Karate Kid film. While I say making Ali not to blame for the break up with Daniel is a bit pandering the fact that she bridges Daniel and Johnny to be civil with each other is poetic, given how she’s technically the lynchpin of their entire rivalry. While I may not have liked how close Johnny was to making moves on her, getting the reconciliation through Ali was a nice touch and does complete that arc.

Daniel’s Okinawa Adventure The Okinawa portion was probably the second best highlight of the season. I’ve stated enough my love of Part II in previous posts but the nostalgia really hit it right. The return of Kumiko was absolutely beautiful (side for a moment where it kinda looked like she and Daniel were reconnecting, because as I said I like Amanda too so there’s conflicting feelings there) and her reading Miyagi’s letters was extremely emotional. The return of Chozen was great too, I was waiting for the part that he broke his stoicism and they picked a perfect moment for it, Chozen showed a lot more humility as an adult especially that lowkey note that he may’ve considered suicide. Also being happy to train Daniel the pressure point tactics and being relieved by Daniel’s forgiveness was nice to see. And it all comes around with Yuna, the girl Daniel saved from a typhoon, who fixes their sales dealership and thus Daniel’s company, thanks mostly to Kumiko. Overall, the Okinawa portion is great and Kumiko is great too.

WE FINALLY GOT DANIEL AND JOHNNY WORKING TOGETHER I almost put the LaRusso house fight as a down point because it didn’t reach the same heights as the school fight, but I had yet to see what the actual final fight of the season was and ho boy. We had already done the ‘false hope’ episode of Daniel and Johnny working together early in the season when they were chasing after Robbie, so having the ‘break bread’ moment near the end meant there was nothing to stop them to continue working together.  Daniel getting the final fight aside - I think the roles should’ve been reversed and we saw Daniel’s reaction to his house and Miyagi’s picture being destroyed, go for Kreese, see Robby and then Johnny for the save for what he did to Miguel - the final third of the last episode was like a straight up video game in the best way. Got that character twist in Johnny seeing Robby drink the Kool-Aid before going straight for the boss fight, and it is like a video game boss fight: Stage 1 of health in the back room, Stage 2 of health in the main dojo having changed tactics and having to fight the side grunt then Stage 3 of Health outside the Dojo with Daniel. It’s all very well done and culminates in the setup for Season 4, Daniel and Johnny working together, the All Valley stage to determine whether Cobra Kai continues or if it disbands forever, that’s the way to end it.

What to hope for in Season 4? Season 4 can go either way because we don’t know if Season 5 will happen. If it does I do see Robby taking the All Valley to keep Cobra Kai alive, while we do have rivalries in Miguel/Robby, Sam/Tory, Hawk/Kyler it does seem like we just need a couple more rivals to get through, we’ll also see if we can set up feuds for Daniel and Silver so he cannot interrupt the Johnny/Kreese rivalry again - I think Johnny is owed that win. Expect to see Tory and Robby get together as the ‘from the block’ power couple and Daniel and Johnny to have some growing pains. I do wonder what their alliance name will be, I am very curious because they dangled it over us, I wonder if it’ll just be something simple like ‘Karate Kid Dojo’ but we’ll only find out next year.

Notwithstanding is the return of Twigs the Ponytail Silver, but I do wonder if Mike Barnes the Badboy of Karate will show up, alongside Jessica (Part 3′s kinda but not Love Interest) and Julie (from the Next Karate Kid). You have to wonder where Johnny and Carmen’s relationship will go to, I want to hope that Johnny doesn’t screw it up considering that like Amanda to Daniel she keeps him quite grounded. I also hope for more mending with Hawk, not only with the Miyagi-Do but with Johnny himself, because there is a lot of Johnny in Hawk. I wanna hope that there’s a chance for Tory and Robby to see sense but unless it’s the final season I would not hold my breath.

In the end the best thing to look forward to is that it will be awesome, given that it was greenlit a year in advance and continues to be a wave of nostalgic joy. Season 3 kicked off 2021 in a good way, striking first, striking hard and giving fans no mercy...but in a good way.