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variousqueerthings · 2 years ago

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I still think it's a shame that we haven't had anything in the show related to johnny and miyagi emotionally -- what I mean by that is that, yes, we've had him mentioning larusso's sensei that beat him and his friends up (during his "daniel was the real bully" rewrite of events), and there was daniel in the training-bit that pointed out that miyagi was a badass who defeated kreese (was it in the training bit, I think so), but johnny had nothing really to say to that, and there's "no be there," which was framed as a joke (that's a whole other tangent)

off the top of my head -- which, it has been a few months since I've gone through the whole thing -- that's all we've had, but miyagi saved johnny's life, and I think that's worthy of writing something about. johnny is consistently derisive about miyagi-do, but quite apart from whether or not he thinks teen!daniel could defeat him at the all-valley, miyagi definitely got kreese without breaking a sweat, and johnny's ptsd-envisioned almost getting choked to death several times on this show, but it always ends before he gets rescued

idk, this is kind of not-fully-thought-out, but it's to do with the way that the show never fully completes the inwards spiral it was doing to bring johnny into the karate kid story (it may in s6... but since johnny's storyline is now "new baby out of nowhere, not at all related to any of his growth and certainly not carmen's" it's doubtful). s1 johnny is supposed to be abrasive and unwilling to have anything to do with miyagi-do (except for when he does, episode 9 my beloved), and then bit by bit he's being brought from his "side" of the narrative into daniel's narrative, which he merely played a part in initially (I say, as if I haven't read 100 fics in which he and daniel got it on at prom) and has been unwilling to see what that part entailed, because if they weren't equally matched nemeses and he did just beat him up several times because he didn't like him, then what does it mean that his father-figure tried to kill him for failing to beat him at a teen karate tournament?

they pay lip-service to some of that with the whole miyagi-fang + training montage bit, but of course s5 then does nothing with it, but what I mean is that if johnny really belonged in daniel's story - because this is the miyagi-verse, not the daniel or johnny verse - I really wanted him to acknowledge the role miyagi played in his life, and to be respectful of that. he's acknowledged that kreese was bad for him, and nearly killed him, but that's idk... the anger and betrayal part of it all. on the other side of that was daniel's mentor/father, a story which he didn't belong in (perhaps doesn't feel like he deserved to be in, cycle of abuse etcetc), but for a moment intersected with his, and now deliberately intersects with his, he wants to intersect with his, and miyagi's ghost hovers over all of it

it's unfortunate that they dragged johnny back to a safe place (for them), where his character development barely still applies, and it's probably-definitely to do with getting him away from daniel, so "not-talking-about-miyagi" isn't the highest on the list of things that has jarringly thrown johnny out of the main storyline and into his own weird stepford hellscape, but it's up there for me alongside "you're alright larusso," as the most puzzling omissions from the show, because it's... it's right there. the easiest character development in a show that's all about being incredibly on the nose with its arcs

once upon a time I thought "nah, they'll leave it for the end, because it's the perfect ending," but now we are... here. whatever end s5 was doing. and it's a little bit more *chuckles, you remember that johnny told daniel that he was alright and handed him the trophy right? you remember that miyagi stepped in to save johnny's life when he was a kid right? you remember that those were two significant scenes that happened... right?*

ah well vive le fanfiction, especially with this show 😂

TL;DR I think johnny saying a few words about miyagi (respectful ones, not s1 johnny ones) would bring johnny into the karate kid story properly, by acknowledging the role miyagi played in his life

#johnny lawrence #nariyoshi miyagi #cobra kai #the karate kid #ck #tkk #pet headcanon is that miyagi is the reason that sam happened to be in the car ramming johnny's that night #and that johnny and daniel kept walking into places -- like the double-date in s2 -- where the other person was #miyagi is the deus ex machina and the storyteller and the instigator -- puck and ghost and the ancestor #so you should visit his grave and pay your damn respects johnny! he did all of this just for you to mock his speech patterns?!#cobra kai meta

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justhereforthecupcakes · 2 months ago

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I don’t believe Daniel went to Silver because he thought he was protecting Mr. Miyagi, but because he felt as if Silver was the only one willing to help him.

Mr. Miyagi DID turn his back on Daniel. And it’s not like Daniel was keeping quiet. Daniel tried telling him, but he kept ignoring the situation.

It wasn’t until he saw with his own eyes what Silver, Kreese and Barnes were doing, that he finally realized the gravity of the situation that Daniel had been trying to relay to him this whole time.

That’s a scary reaction that’s carried over to the series and has become a very disturbing trend from characters towards Daniel — not listening… turning their backs on him… blaming him… then riding in at the very last minute.

Daniel only keeps quiet when it becomes clear they are not interested in hearing him or helping him. It’s not until he’s in dire straits do they finally get their head out their asses, but also have the fucking nerve to ask/say “Why didn’t he tell us? I’ve never seen him so defeated.”

Really, bitch?

But back to the main point.

What makes Silver so incredibly creepy and scary is that he specifically targeted Daniel.

*Daniel* was the motive — not the circumstances, him.

Johnny was being a bully, yes; but he wasn’t looking to destroy Daniel personally. He just wanted to feel powerful and get Ali back. It was teenage insecurity (among many other things, yes I know)… and the fact that his attitude towards Daniel has continued well into adulthood is just plain immaturity. (This is whole other topic I could discuss at lengths, but there are treasure troves of posts that articulate this point much more eloquently and thoroughly than me.)

Chozen’s hate was motivated by wanting to prove something to his Uncle, the village, and ultimately himself. That was there long before Daniel. And, clearly, he grew out of this… and into a very very handsome man… where were we?

Barnes just wanted a pay out. It was never personal with Daniel.

Their motives were honestly not about Daniel, himself.

In Silver’s case… I mean holy shit!

Daniel himself is the actual focus, and it was on such a disturbing level… and this was someone who, not only was he a just a kid, he was someone Silver had never met!

Imagine someone you have NEVER in your life met, has such an intense hate and motivation to destroy you… over something so ridiculous.

I disagree that Terry’s intentions were ‘muddled,’ they are exactly what you would expect from a stalker and narcissist.

Ironically TKK3 got it right in portraying someone with a personality disorder hyped by a cocaine addiction in Terry (the manic energy, the unstable personality, the psychotic tendencies, the crazy laugh), and portraying a stalking victim in Daniel, even though it’s clear they weren’t aiming for that.

The internal conflict comes from lack of support. Daniel was living under daily threats of violence and attacks — at a level he’d never experienced. This boy was being terrorized and all of it was orchestrated by Terry, who then (under the guise of being helpful) manipulated him into handling those emotions in ways that were harmful — and as a teenager, he was not going to be able to see that or fight it.

What you’re seeing is a victim who felt powerless against his stalkers and the entire situation, the one person who shoulda been helping him had his head up his ass (he was not as ignorant as the fandom likes to pretend he was), and then his actual abuser comes along and manipulates him into feeling empowered again.

Finally after prolonged fear and terror, there’s a lifeline. This is the answer to his prayers. This is gonna solve the situation. He’s gonna be okay.

And then — to his utter horror — no, he’s not in control, he’s even more out of control. Not only is the problem not even close to being solved, he’s in even more danger than he realized and the source of that danger was someone he never suspected.

Terry Silver was a terrible lesson for a very young Daniel about how dangerous and manipulative people can be. And how insane their motivations can be — a high school karate tournament.

He came across a true predator who wanted to do unspeakable damage to him.

What’s worse is, after all these years, he still has this obsession.

It’s very evident with how he treats others versus Daniel. No matter how many other people get involved, he does not focus on them the way he does Daniel.

Look at Chozen — You could say Chozen “betrayed” Terry, since Daniel turned the tables and tricked him with the exact same ploy Silver used on him all those years ago… a hero/friend riding in to help… and it worked, Terry was set to be his friend and partner, until Chozen accidentally gave himself away.

For this alone, you could say he has reason to target Chozen… he very clearly was jealous towards Johnny… and yet, he continues to all but ignore them. He practically ignored Mr. Miyagi in KK3, when it was very clear Kreese’s hate was geared more towards ‘the old man’ than ‘the kid’. It was Terry that wanted to focus on Daniel.

What we saw in TKK3 was stalking, and every action/reaction we see in Daniel is exactly what you see in a victim of stalking/terrorism.

And Silver cops to that, he openly admits he “terrorized a teenager over a high school karate tournament.”

I feel like Terry does have regrets in that he lost the opportunity to have Daniel as a friend. Even if he doesn’t have a high opinion of him, some part of him understands that, of all the people he knows, Daniel is the one person who would have been a true friend to him... this man, who has no real friends… the one thing he’s always wanted, and could have had, but lost…

But, over the course of the series, you see him come to the realization that it wasn’t Daniel lying to himself, it was Terry… that he doesn’t feel sorry for what he’s done to Daniel, and never did… that he enjoyed it, and he will continue to do it for as long as he can… perhaps (this is just my speculation) he’s never felt more alive than when he’s stalking Daniel. HE felt powerful and free, that whole scene in the convenience store was pure projection and manipulation.

Terry is, at his core, an addict, and somewhere along the way he got addicted to Daniel.

SPOILERS BELOW

Based on the spoilers that Silver is dying… my theory: I think Silver wants Daniel to kill him. I think he’s trying to maneuver Daniel into killing him.

Based on TIG’s interview, he does recognize Daniel as a worthy adversary.

Not only will he die on the battlefield as a warrior like he was meant to (… yeah, okay), but he will succeed in finally making Daniel into something he never wanted to be — a killer... “You got that killer instinct!”… and he will cement that change he intended to make in Daniel and finally finish what he started all those years ago…

But he will fail. He will literally die trying, 😂.

I think Daniel will have him on his knees…. Honk his nose, and walk away. Because for a man with no forgiveness in heart, living is even worse punishment than dying. And because the roots are strong, so the tree will survive.

ok the reason i think silver is such a good villain isnt because of his cartoon-evil cheesiness or his character theme (although those certainly do contribute to it). the reason i think hes so good is what his presence means for daniel's character. throughout the tkk movies (and you can see it continue in ck) there's this really heavy importance put into the lessons that the students learn from their teachers. you see it with mr miyagi and daniel, you see it with kreese and johnny, you see it with sato and chozen. in the latter two cases, you can see the negative light of this, how a teacher with an inherently bad philosophy can carry over to how their student acts. kreese teaches johnny to be unforgiving and merciless so that's what johnny ends up being. sato is fueled by his anger at mr miyagi even years later and thus chozen is an all-around angry little dude that wants to kill daniel.

but in tkk3 you do not get a two-part villain dynamic like this! instead it's daniel who learns under a bad teacher and is taught all the wrong lessons from them. i think this theme is particularly hardlined by the fact that silver deliberately tries to separate daniel and mr miyagi so that he can become a presence in daniel's life. "there's no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher" is something that daniel hasnt experienced at all up until silver takes mr miyagi's place. and this sets up a really interesting internal conflict for daniel that you dont see in the previous movies. you have his inherent kindness + what he's learned from mr miyagi vs the conflicting things he's currently learning from silver. and it causes him to doubt/be frustrated with himself as he isolates himself more and more; he doesnt know whats right anymore, he's angry at himself for how he doesnt know, and thus a part of him doesn't trust himself to be around the people he cares about .

essentially: in tkk3, daniel isn't fighting against a fellow karate student that might have turned out different if they had a better/more forgiving teacher. barnes has always been like that™ from the beginning, even without silver hiring him. daniel's main battle in the movie is with himself, because he is the one that takes the role that was filled by chozen in tkk2 and johnny in tkk1 before that. and it's actually kinda heartbreaking to see bc, again, daniel is a really nice kid and he's unknowingly being manipulated into becoming someone he's not, and he has to struggle to find the person he is again through the midst of all of this .

i think from the beginning the entire reason silver wanted to train daniel wasn't just so that he could separate him from mr miyagi or cause daniel to hurt himself or even teach him to be more like him. it was mainly to construct the internal conflict that i talked about earlier. he knows that his and miyagi's philosophies are fundamentally incompatible and that daniel doesn't really want to hurt anyone. so when daniel takes enough of silver's training to heart to punch a dude in the nose, silver is ecstatic—not because daniel took out his rage on someone, but because of the meltdown that daniel has afterwards. it's why when daniel confronts him about it silver has no qualms about revealing that he's the one that hired barnes and that surprise daniel its been me thats been ruining your life all along. because that part of his plan is essentially done. he has already caused the big emotional damage and from there on out its only a matter of "beat the shit out of this child at the karate tournament". yeah his intentions are kinda weird and muddled (thank you to ck for clearing it up and saying he was high on cocaine the entire time) but you cant deny that his character does a LOT for daniel's arc in this movie .

also kinda unrelated but. love how daniel ends up following silver in the first place primarily bc he got manipulated into thinking "mr miyagi will get hurt if i don't do this/i'm not strong enough to defend him against barnes". it makes me feel feelings and emotions. like daniel just loves his karate dad so much he'll give up being his student if it means his stupid dream tree business can succeed. daniel my son /affectionate. im about to fall over and die

#daniel larusso #terry silver #tkk #nariyoshi miyagi #the karate kid #cobra kai #ck #chozen toguchi #mike barnes #johnny lawrence #mr. miyagi #tkk3

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