#since they went all gaga over the scene with the hockey players

[dastardlydandelion]

big ol’ borderline stream of consciousness ramble abt the karate soap opera

for awhile i couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was that *rly* bothered me abt ck s4 and now by george, i think i’ve got it. ck s4 is the show i had expected cobra kai to be when i first came across it: flashy nostalgia bait centering style over substance.

and there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. i think errbody has their own brand of preferred schlock, whether that be cheesy romcoms, goofy b-horror, slapstick comedy, etc. but the thing abt cobra kai is that it began (imo, anyway) better than it had to be to get an audience and now it’s...not.

more rambling under the cut:

i don’t want to be all negative. actually it’s kinda hard to reconcile my mixed feelings abt s4 bc like, the things that i did like?? i REALLY liked! and i’m gonna lead with what i liked rn so i don’t sound like some stabby crabby cranky pants. 🦀🔪

i greatly enjoyed the subplot with amanda and tory. i am so relieved the show finally acknowledged just how much strain tory is under being a teenage girl with head of household responsibilities struggling against poverty in one of the most expensive places to live in the usa. i love that amanda had this huge change of heart when she realized just how much tory was dealing with, that she went from wanting to put her in jail to offering her hand.

i actually thought it was well-written too. amanda doesn’t let tory off the hook for breaking into her house and terrorizing her daughter, she still calls her out on that, but she also realizes the depth of the factors motivating that behavior. she realizes outright charity (buying tory the groceries) is NOT the way to go with tory, so she changes tactics. amanda tells tory the help is there if she needs it, offering her support but putting the ball in tory’s court. this is good for tory, it respects her agency (she clearly has a lot of pride, pained pride tho it is, wrapped up in her status as provider/caregiver) and also challenges her, in a way, to have to be the one responsible for her choice to reach out.

i appreciated amanda having smth to do outside of being daniel’s wife or sam’s mom. i liked the insight into the backstory that she shared with daniel, that she relates to tory’s very helpless kind of anger bc she too lashed out when she was young and angry to no avail. amanda smashing up her tutor’s car didn’t change the outcome with of her parents’ divorce. tory can hurt sam all she wants, and it won’t make her circumstances any less unfair. 

ik there were some complaints that this storyline was more tellling-than-showing but on this point, i’m personally satisfied. i’m fine with having amanda encourage tory to get therapy but not actually seeing tory in the therapist’s office bc imho, the impact was shown. we see tory change as a character. she becomes determined to win the avt to prove she can rather than any desire to maim someone, and she genuinely wanted to win it fairly. the tory of s2 and s3 wouldn’t have hesitated to elbow sam in the face on purpose, and she definitely wouldn’t have cared abt sam's welfare after the match.

on that note, i actually liked the way tory and sam’s rivalry was depicted, for the most part? ngl i’m not a big fan that the tory/robby romance actually happened. i can admit i’m biased on that point bc i don’t particularly care for romance in general and i’m irritated that for female characters in media specifically it feels like there always *has* to be an obligatory hetero romance, that male writers don’t know what to do with female characters if they aren’t prioritizing males or being with males, this idea that girls and women are supposed to care abt romance, that romance *must* be important for them, that their stories *must* include it, etc...but then it also, just. for me it feels cheap to keep pairing tory off with sam’s exes. as if that’s somehow necessary to stoke the coals between them. 🙄

but having said that, the tory/robby thing wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as i expected it to be. it wasn’t rushed. it wasn’t the driving force behind sam and tory’s tension. tory wasn’t reduced to arm candy in this scenario, like i worried she was going to be, she still had a story and development outside of him.

i’ve seen some ppl unhappy with sam’s behavior toward tory this season and declaring it ooc but tbh i understand it. does that make it okay? fuck no. but does it make sense for sam? uh, yeah?

tory left scars in her arm. the s3 finale had tory not only breaking into her home but attacking sam when she was on the floor, non-combative, visibly terrified. sam’s never tried to understand tory as a person so she just views her as this raging obstacle she needs to overcome. sam doesn’t truly understand that tory is in pain so she doesn’t have any sympathy for her. because of her privilege, sam doesn’t understand why tory NEEDS her job. sam doesn’t comprehend the potential consequences of tory losing her job, therefore she has no issue instigating conflict with her while she’s on the clock. from sam’s pov, tory is hardly a person, just this horrible thing that happened to her, so she has no problem treating her like that-- just some horrible thing. and as awful as that all is, it makes sense for sam!!

i don’t hate her for it, while i don’t approve of her behavior, i 100% understand where it’s coming from. sam hates tory and johnny’s influence-- with his encouraging sam’s aggression this season --emboldened her to strike first. and i actually enjoyed the way the final fight went between sam and tory. 

sam was genuinely shocked (and from her pov, ofc she was) that tory asked if she was okay after the match. i’m hoping this might lead to them mending fences come s5, altho i don’t ever expect them to be besties.

uh...am i getting off topic? where was i?

oh, the parts that i liked. yeah! yeah, actually, i was happily surprised by the route tory and sam’s rivalry went this season and while i wasn’t thrilled with the tory/robby romance, i was relieved it didn’t drive that rivalry or eclipse tory as a character.

i wish i could say i liked sam’s solo development as much as tory’s, bc i did like the beats of it. on paper i could enjoy that sam’s development was a rocky one with some of her being a big jerk as she learns (under johnny’s tutelage) to nourish her aggression and eventually comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t have to fight exactly the way her dad does, but. the execution of that development left much to be desired bc of some of this season’s more obnoxious flaws, but right now i’m rambling abt what i did like, so that brings us to...

kenny payne!!!

omfg, i love him sm. he instantly became one of my faves. i would kill anthony larusso for this precious dorky sunbeam. ik some ppl were frustrated with the introduction of new characters this season and the focus it took away from the main characters. and that’s fair. but imo the subplot with kenny suited the overreaching themes of ck. and he’s so much fun as a character. i love that he’s shawn’s brother! i love that we got to see shawn again even tho it was only for like, ten seconds. robby also going into big brother mode for kenny was so cute? 

as a horror fan, i freaking loved that kenny went into g-rated slasher mode in that library. strategically separating his bullies and taking them down one by one by utilizing his environment and popping outta the shadows?? that was so fun.

i adore kenny, that was great, my second fave storyline after the amanda + tory storyline.

what other storylines did i like?

um, ykw, i actually appreciated miguel’s. i think i’m in the minority on that one, at least as far as the engaged fandom goes. but i did. i liked watching him expand his skillset training with daniel. i felt his and daniel’s bonding was sweet and genuine. i’m not hugely surprised johnny began to let him down, nor what that accumulated in. xolo’s a phenomenal actor, i think scenes that easily could’ve been stupid (the fish scene comes to mind) or sappy (episode 8 comes to mind) never actually crossed that line bc the guy gives such a good performance.

i actually thought miggy’s struggles, while quieter and less dynamic than the karate war, were thoughtfully depicted and some of the better writing this season. he feels awkward having dinner with his gf’s rich family, at their fancy encino place. he doesn’t come from money and doesn’t have the security of college guaranteed the way she does. he loves johnny and he wants his mom to be happy so he doesn’t outright object to them dating even though he’s dubious abt the changes this will undoubtedly introduce into his life. he’s still grappling in the aftermath of a serious injury and while it’s not addressed as much as it should be, granted, we do see it impacting his behavior.

miguel tricking cobra kai into going to the baseball diamond to get sprayed with sprinklers in lieu of having a brawl, wasn’t just prompted by his taking daniel’s teachings to heart. it’s also bc he’s intimately aware of how bad a fight can get when there are no mats to fall on, no ref there to step in. more than anyone, miguel understands that all it takes is *one* poorly timed kick to result in grave consequences.

ik there’s much disappointment surrounding miggy choosing to opt out of the avt and even more ppl rolling their eyes at his sudden soapy departure to find his long lost dad but tbvh, i don’t think it’s bad storytelling in context. i think he made the right choice for himself opting out the fight, prioritizing his health despite the pressure johnny was putting on him to get back in there. i think miguel realized he was being used, it made him feel like shit, and he said, ‘no, not today.’ taking off outta the country to go find his dad is defo a soap opera move but rly, errything he wrote in his letter makes sense and a dramatic exit is hardly the wildest thing that’s ever happened on ck...

is there anything else that i liked??

ik i’m getting kinda off topic bc i started this with the realization of what it was that bothered me so much abt s4, but like i said, i didn’t want to be totally negative. bc there were defo things i enjoyed abt s4 and i didn’t hate it...but ig i’ve said all the positive things i had to say, so. 😔

let’s get my first big disappointment outta the way. and a lot of this is more subjective on my part (albeit, i’ll work my way to the more objective stuff), but. here we are.

MARKETING TEAM OVER-HYPED TF OUTTA TERRY SILVER.

i waited months for this psychotic, cartoonishly evil motherfucker and that was all i got??

ahjgsajhgfjhgfhjgf. the trailer! they released that dramatic af trailer where terry just stands there, back to the screen, with his monologue from tkk3 playing as he menacingly cracks his neck. at the end of the trailer, the threat right there in the font boasts, “now the real pain begins.”

what a fucking crock!!! you assholes!! false advertisement! false advertisement i say, false advertisement, there was no pain for anyone but stingray and it didn’t even happen until the end of the season!

okay, okay, this is defo more subjective on my part but u guys see where i’m at, right? the team leaned so hard into marketing terry’s return but come s4 he didn’t rly do all that much until the end. it was a letdown.

but there were things that bothered me abt terry’s return, not just as a viewer let down by my own personal expectations, but from a writing standpoint.

uh. mm. they’re. they’re doing the kreese redemption arc. jfc, they’re rly gonna do it. they’re setting it up. the most they used terry this season was to help set it up. 🤢

i am not the first person to point this out. there are plenty of fans who have already pointed this out. there are plenty of fans who have already eloquently and thoroughly delved into why 1) a kreese redemption arc is not a great idea to begin with and 2) the how and now of it makes it worse. so i’m not going to rant a whole lot abt it, but i will summarize some of my thoughts on it.

personally? i think it’s a betrayal to the karate kid franchise to have a redemption arc for kreese at all. i didn’t mind s2 fleshing out a bit more of his personality since he was so one-dimensional in the karate kid movies. and i didn’t even mind making him a tad sympathetic bc even pos ppl can fall on hard times and it’s human nature to empathize, but. i think it’s important that kreese was the character that he was: a militant, merciless, manipulative macho-man bully who molded students to create violent conflict bc that’s what he knew and what he liked. he was supposed to be that foil to mr. miyagi, a protective, kind, nurturing handyman who kept his medals hidden and stowed away bc war was the worst part of his life. 

the means in which they’re setting up the redemption arc for kreese that shouldn’t be happening are nonsensical and just plain repetitive. in order to set up that redemption, not only have we effectively retconned who kreese was supposed to be in the movies, but we’ve retconned the dynamics of his and terry’s relationship. not once in tkk3 did kreese ever hold vietnam over terry’s head. terry was the one who invited him in, terry was the one who brought up kreese saving him in the war, and bringing it up didn’t bother terry a bit.

i don’t rly mind that in ck s4 we get the reveal that terry was all coked up throughout tkk3. i mean. it was the 80s. and it would defo explain his, uh, energy, lmao. no, the part that i mind is that, like...ck is trying to pin all of terry’s insane behavior on the cocaine. bruh. no. i’m sorry, but no, lmfao. plenty of ppl snort blow without dumping toxic waste in borneo and strategically preying upon teenage boys to force them into karate tournaments.

...tkk3 sure was a trip, huh?

uh, shit, am i getting off track again? no, no, i got it. okay, so in s2 kreese is the big bad behind cobra kai. johnny is misguided and flawed, but well-intentioned, and kreese keeps encouraging increasingly aggressive and violent behavior in the cobra kai kids. johnny is weak for kreese bc at the end of the day, he loves him, and there are the lingering power dynamics between them, johnny having spent his formative yrs as kreese’s pupil and looking up to kreese as a father figure as well as mentor. s2 ends in kreese stealing the dojo out from under johnny.

in s4, terry re-joins cobra kai. he is shown being the big bad behind kreese, who is bad but not as good at it as terry, psychologically intimidating daniel in one of the few scenes we get where their dynamic is explicitly acknowledged, nearly attacking a bratty robby at the avt, bribing the ref at the avt, and beating a guy half to death. s4 ends in terry stealing the dojo out from under kreese.

it’s the same story!! literally. this happened before. what should i expect in the s5 finale, mike barnes to come back to be the bigger bad behind terry and steal the dojo from terry? is that gonna be the s5 finale?

and speaking of finales, the gravity of the s3 finale is never grappled with in s4 and that is just terrible writing, honestly. kreese tried to KILL johnny. like, he srsly tried to KILL him and we aren’t talking abt that, bc???

uh? idfk! that was pretty important, u figure we would’ve addressed that and yet, no??

it is beyond me that it was just swept under the rug so casually. attempted murder is serious? u shouldn’t bring something like that into ur story if ur not willing to write the ramifications. why was that even in the s3 if it was smth that was never going to be brought up again, let alone dealt with? it makes kreese’s poorly set up redemption arc which shouldn’t be happening feel like an afterthought as well as a betrayal of the source material. like, kreese almost killing johnny in the s3 finale was smth they’re trying to walk back for the purpose of setting the foundation for this redemption no one wanted. 

speaking of johnny, why is he getting stupider? ik he was always kinda dumb, but jfc. is it the accumulation of concussions or smth??

or it’s not just johnny, ig, it’s like, this season felt so extrodinarily stupid in so many ways?

i’m not gonna pretend this show was ever an intellectual masterpiece, but good lord. this season they’re actually acting like cobra kai/eagle fang students and miyagi-do students only learn offense and defensive respectively? we’re pretending that johnny doesn’t know how to block and daniel never taught strikes??

that was so fucking stupid, watching it felt like getting my own concussion. once again, other fans have already pointed this out and delved into it more thoroughly than i will now. but i’m going to touch on it anyway because this was such a low point in the show that i simply cannot revisit s4 without addressing it.

KARATE IS KARATE. and yeah, for sure, there are different ways to approach a match utilizing offense/defense, more aggressive and less aggressive styles, but. it’s not like one dojo exclusively practiced offensive moves and the other exclusively practiced defense. for fuck’s sake, the very first thing daniel ever taught robby was how to throw a proper punch!!

speaking of daniel and robby, what happened to that relationship? it practically dissolved into thin air and that’s disappointing, to say the least. daniel used to care abt this kid so much he trained him, took him in, paid for his mother’s rehab, teamed up with someone he loathed to find him when he went on the run, but this season, he didn’t even try for him? daniel had exactly one meaningful interaction with robby where he warned him abt terry and that was it?

idk. it feels wrong to me. actually, i’m frustrated that ck just breezed over errything that transpired in tkk3. daniel was stalked, manipulated, and terrorized by terry for months. his relationship with mr. miyagi suffered for it and he became someone he didn’t want to be, and that’s important bc all of it informs how he responds to terry. and yet. viewers who have only seen ck are never privy to that context, bc besides the *brief* conversation with robby, none of that is ever addressed at all. ur audience should understand the motivations of ur main characters. by failing to address any of this, it sucks the context out of daniel’s behavior.

and i’m all the more frustrated having read some of the writers’ commentary abt the one scene where terry was “apologizing,” to daniel bc, uh. according to these asshats writers daniel’s refusal to accept this half-baked apology from terry is somehow a mistake on his part, yet also the the trigger for terry’s intensified hostility. i’m not even joking, they’re framing daniel as being at fault for not accepting this “apology” even tho it rly wasn’t an earnest apology IF it set terry off. which they also said in the same breath. i’m??

that’s. that’s fucked up. i don’t know else to put it.

what’s also fucked up is that yes, according to the writers, daniel scaring anthony into submission was meant to be portrayed as a good thing. it was meant to portray daniel accepting johnny’s aggressive approach to problems as a good thing. daniel silencing his son and breaking his ipad to scare him into obedience is supposed to be appreciated by us viewers. 

this is not only a frightening, but frankly baffling choice to me. portraying a parent achieving the desired outcome thru violent behavior (breaking things is violence, breaking things is a coercive tactic meant to intimidate and instill fear, always) is bad enough, but for this to be a scene meant to demonstrate daniel embracing johnny’s approach? in the context of parenting??

WTAF. BBY!ROBBY ONLY KNEW JOHNNY EXISTED BC OF A FUCKING VHS TAPE. JOHNNY IS THE FURTHEST THING FROM A GOOD PARENT.

the more i think abt it, the more this scene bothers me. it’s nonsensical bc johnny is a shit parent and daniel should not be modeling his behavior when it comes to fatherhood. and that we’re meant to take away satisfaction from this scene-- from a parent intimidating their child into obedience thru a display of violence --makes me so uncomfortable. and that it’s daniel?? well this just...is it dramatic to say it breaks my heart?

because it kind of does. 😢

cobra kai has steadily been erasing daniel’s gentleness or outright mocking it and i hate it so much. in season 3, they chose to cut out the scenes of daniel worrying abt robby and daniel dancing with kumiko. they’re good scenes! they’re important scenes! how could they cut that?

daniel was a beloved character in the karate kid bc of his gentleness. bc he gave an old dog a bowl of water in the summer heat. bc he was sweet to ali and covered his bruises just to spare his mother stress. bc he tended to bonsai trees and put his drunken sensei to bed on a bad night, gingerly tucked him in.

even in earlier seasons of ck where he’s defo grown up to be smth of a prick and a class traitor, daniel’s gentleness is why viewers sympathized with him in spite of it. he took a troubled kid under his wing with sensitivity and good humor, imparted the most important lessons he himself was ever taught. didn’t push robby to finish in the 2018 avt when he was injured (like johnny just did to miggy), told robby it was okay to bow out, encouraged him to let go of his anger toward johnny. we had flashbacks of daniel and bby!sam, so excited to share his karate with her, hugging her with enthusiasm and love. daniel comforting sam when she begins having panic attacks, daniel learning to have patience with demetri thru his relentless neuroticism, and now??

now daniel’s tenderness is mocked like it’s a weakness not just by johnny, but by the narrative. so much so, the audience is actually meant to take away that the version of daniel who breaks his son’s things is superior??

i genuinely hate this. it leaves the worst taste in my mouth.

since i’ve covered the daniel of s4, ig it’s only sensible that we talk abt johnny next. uh. ykw, ngl, i’ve never particularly cared for this character. he’s amusing, yeah, and his relationship with miguel was so genuinely heartfelt that i actually wanted to root for him even tho he makes it so hard. but it is hard. and the fact that the little character development he did have just up and vanished makes it that much harder??

like, it did vanish, right?? in s1 and s2 i feel like there was some tangible growth for johnny. even tho it was subtle, quiet, it was there. then in s3, he kinda stagnated?? he helped miguel along the road to recovery, that was good, but?? did we rly get any growth from him beyond that? nothing sticks out in my mind. but even a lil bit of stagnation wasn’t rly a dealbreaker for me with this character, that’s how it is irl most of the time. growth is slow. meaningful change most often takes time.

but in s4, it’s like we’re completely back to square one with johnny. dare i say he’s even worse? the misogyny (and borderline homophobia) was dripping from his fucking pores. i can’t believe episode 6 was smth i actually had to sit thru. i can’t believe i was supposed to find it funny. and he made no effort for robby whatsoever??

like, he knew robby was with kreese and daniel presumably told him who terry was (offscreen, so good luck ck-only fans who haven’t seen tkk3 tryna figure that one out) and he?? never checked on him? like at least in prior seasons he made a minimal effort here and there. it was never enough and it was aggravating that johnny continually had the audacity to act like his teenage son was in the wrong for not embracing him with open arms after yrs of neglect, but like!! at least he tried here and there. johnny wanted robby to move in with him at one point. he opened his door for robby when sam was drunk af and bought him some school supplies. in s4 his son is living with two war criminals (one of which tried to KILL him last season) and he does not shit abt it??

okay. then, like, the one thing that johnny has been doing a consistently good (or at least decent) job at-- his relationship with miguel --he just fucking flushed down the toilet. he made little missteps all thru s4, but the finale??

jfc. miguel got hurt and he cried out for johnny, spooked and in pain, and mere minutes later johnny’s putting the pressure on there to get back out and win? not just putting pressure on him, he tried to manipulate him. miguel sat there and dead ass listened to johnny try to pull a kreese on him. and all of this happened after miggy put his drunken ass to bed and told him he loved him just hear, “i love you too, robby.”

and this is where i go back to actually appreciating miguel’s arc this season. even if he had felt up to competing physically, i wouldn’t have wanted him to. not after that. good for miguel for prioritizing himself the moment he realized he was being used...but that’s wherein johnny’s development really just sped back in reverse, for me.

the one thing i could consistently appreciate abt this drunk, stupid asshole of a character was how much he cared abt miguel and how much he tried to learn from his mistakes for miguel’s sake. and then he tried to use him. he actually put the stupid karate war above miguel’s welfare.

and all of that? all of the above, johnny’s backtracking? i could’ve dealt with it if the narrative didn’t reward him for it. sometimes character development is negative instead of positive. that’s not necessarily bad storytelling. but what i feel is bad storytelling is when the character development is negative and the character in question is rewarded as if it had been positive. we’re not supposed to find johnny’s misogyny and obsession with hypermasculinity off-putting, no, we’re supposed to be amused by it. sam isn’t offended, she tacitly consents, offering a smile. we aren’t supposed to find fault with johnny for being a negligent father all season, oh no, bc robby shows up at the end to tearfully embrace him anyway!

btw, this is smth else the writers had stupid shit to say abt. bruh, they did some interview or whatevs (i don’t feel like digging up the links right now, bc i’m just venting, but maybe i’ll go pull ‘em up later) where they more or less put the onus of mending that relationship on robby. some nonsense abt his being able to empathize with the trials of mentoring bc of kenny and understanding johnny better now. bc that makes sense, right?? it’s the teenager’s job to go comfort his father bc he understands that mentoring kids is hard. ajhsgfjhgfjshdgfjs. christ. 

okay, so that brings us to robby...robby...what do i have to say abt robby?

anything else positive before i’m ranting like a stab crab?? already touched on him playing big bro for kenny, that was cute. oh, uh, ykw, i actually liked the fight with hawk! for the most part, anyway.

for starters, i liked that it was robby vs hawk, the elusive rematch pushed to the backburner for the most part, in the face of more overt rivalries. robby and his “dO yOu WaNt tO fIgHt HiM?” snark at terry when the match started to drag out, oof. terry��s brief moment of homicidal rage might’ve been his best moment all season (second to him kicking the shit outta johnny). so that confirmed what i’ve suspected since the kid picked up a cobra with his bare hands, robby rly does have no sense of self-preservation. 😂

i’m glad that hawk won!!! unlike a lot of fans, i didn’t rly mind hawk joining miyagi-do conceptually. i 100% believe the execution was poor, rushed, and left much to be desired, so it fell somewhat flat for me, but i don’t hate the idea of it. i wish it would’ve been better executed but i was still happy that he got his win. i just...don’t understand why they took their tops off. omfg, that was so silly. i did laugh. if they wanted me to take the fight seriously, bad job, but. it was funny, at least. nonetheless hawk’s win would’ve felt more satisfying if his arc wasn’t rushed and he wasn’t more or less pressured into miyagi-do by demetri.

bc that’s what happened. and that was shitty. ‘mi showed up at his house all like, “well we need a male champion and ur the only one with a shot, lol.” which is, um. that was a choice.

actually the more i linger on this, the more i’m thinking abt it, the more it’s bothering me? that could’ve been a rly good storyline, a rly solid arc for hawk if it was set up the right way. but it wasn’t. i find it dumb that daniel, of all ppl, who has been so staunchly anti-bullying barely bat an eye at what happened to him, so that rly puts a cloud over hawk joining miyagi-do for me, even tho on paper this could’ve been smth i could’ve rly dug.

uh, ig i ranted more abt hawk than i was gonna rant abt robby, not that i have too much to rant abt. the things i find fault with in his story weren’t rly bc of him, per se like my aforementioned beef abt johnny being narratively rewarded by their reunion when he did not shit all season. i personally don’t find it ooc that robby sought him out, like i’ve seen some fans express. i don’t think johnny earned that reunion at all, but robby is a teenage boy starved for attention, so. it still makes sense from his perspective to go follow his dad when he was feeling particularly low after the avt. if anything was ooc it could’ve been robby verbally throwing the school fight in miguel’s face even tho he’d clearly been disturbed by what he did, and was remorseful at the start of s3.

BUT kreese has been in his ear since then, so imo it's not wild to think he would’ve changed his mindset around the fight. that’s what kreese did with tory, too-- she was feeling guilty for starting the fight bc of how it ended but then kreese wormed his way in and gave her an out from the guilt, pushed her to redirect her blame and focus more on the unfairness of her punishment. i’m just gonna go ahead and assume he did the same with robby, he was already starting to when he visited robby in juvie. i can fill in the blanks on that one, so i don’t particularly consider it ooc even tho i understand where the sentiment comes from-- it is certainly a sharp turn from the stupefied look on robby’s face after miguel fell.

but on that note, there is smth else i have an issue with. the telling instead of showing with robby’s living situation. i wouldn’t have mined if it wasn’t important to the story, but it was, okay, like. he was living at the dojo. it was important that he was living at the dojo, bc it set the stage for him to join cobra kai and left him especially vulnerable to kreese’s manipulation. we, as an audience, should’ve been SHOWN what happened with shannon and robby’s new living situation.

that too, like?? when tf did shannon get out of rehab?? why weren’t we shown her reunion with her son? did she go looking for him at daniel’s place? did she ever learn he was more or less homeless, sleeping at the dojo?? is she actually prioritizing robby now that she’s been thru treatment? what’s his perspective on any of this? does he forgive her? are they building trust again? or is he just staying with her bc it’s better than sleeping at the dojo?

we’re told but NOT shown that terry is paying for shannon’s living expenses. how. when. why. terry always has an angle, how’d he hook shannon?

this is so frustrating bc it actually should’ve been important with the way the story had been set up, and yet, it felt like an afterthought. thrown together.

speaking of relationships gone unacknowledged, i’m. mm. okay how much more do i rly need to talk abt daniel and robby?? i already ranted abt that, but the seeming dissolution of the existence of that relationship makes robby’s scene with anthony at the avt bittersweet. this scene acknowledges that robby had a relationship with the larussos! it takes him aback to learn that anthony is kenny’s bully. he was concerned for both kenny and anthony, he wanted to talk to him. yes, good!! good, but it also makes me want to pull my hair out bc the rest of the season p much played out as if robby had never lived with the larussos at all. 

so here i am now gonna rant abt another scene that was so bittersweet and frustrating for me. sam’s scene with aisha. on the one hand i don’t hate that aisha gave sam a pep talk conceptually bc 1) they were childhood friends and 2) it paralleled sam giving aisha a pep talk at the 2018 avt. no, what i hate is that this talk completely forgot the existence of aisha and tory’s friendship and even worse than that, IT WAS THE ONLY THING AISHA WAS HERE FOR. 😡

that’s so shitty and maddening. and tbh it feels racist that the writers brought back a fan-favorite black character just to uplift her white friend. that was aisha’s only purpose for the three minutes we had her back, to give sam encouragement. it feels like an especially glaring flaw when opening up the girls’ division would’ve been a PERFECT opportunity to bring aisha back as a character!!

i’m still pissed off they wrote her out in the first place. the actress was told the writers couldn’t think of anything for aisha to do and that’s why she was written out, and i’m not over it, i’ll never be over it. i have no fucking clue how they came to that decision to begin with considering aisha was cobrai kai’s second student, but nonetheless, s4 presented a golden opportunity to rectify that stupid ass decision-- johnny wanting to find a female champion.

frankly, re-recruiting aisha for eagle-fang would’ve been better writing than johnny trying to recruit new girls who had no karate experience whatsoever. it also would’ve saved us the godawful secondhand embarrassment that was episode six. don’t get me wrong, i adore devon, but it’s just ridiculous that she was training for only six wks and able to compete against experienced, seasoned students in the avt.

and it’s not like ck has never been ridiculous, nor that it’s neccessarily bad when it’s ridiculous. but there’s a difference between fun ridiculousness and just plain stupid ridiculousness.

there was some just straight up stupid shit this season, and this is where i finally get to my point. johnny training kids by having them jump off buildings is very stylish. it’s flashy. it feels like insanity considering that miguel was left in a coma and literally had to re-learn to walk after being kicked two stories down. there was so much of that this season: style. the sheer badassery of robby taking down erry ck student without anyone (barring tory) able to land a single hit. the fight at the prom, synchronized couples kicking ass in fancy suits and pretty dresses. the opulant entrance of terry silver, ever a ham even if under-utilized to the nth. the avt, students showing off their skills in slow-mo, each one-on-one match like smth outta wwe payperview. daniel using the mystical pressure point technique in his rematch with johnny. that rematch was purely smth this season also had no shortage of: nostalgia. daniel and johnny on the mat once more. the flashbacks to the og movies. strong classic rock soundtrack. terry’s very entry into the story. chozen’s second return at mr. miyagi’s gravesite.

this season felt like it was just...full of that. fun stuff. and the fun stuff was fun, don’t get me wrong. but what i truly, wholeheartedly enjoyed abt cobra kai when i first started it??

that it was more than the fun stuff. that there was actually something meaty there, miguel being a parallel to daniel and robby being one to johnny, then the two of them swapping roles bc the sweet, even-tempered boy gets trained ‘STRIKE FIRST STRIKE HARD NO MERCY’ and the troubled truant gets trained ‘karate can help u achieve balance and inner peace, if ur going to fight, then fight honorably.’

there was smth more there, in the way johnny had to confront his past as a bully seeing miguel bloodied and broken and limp, the same way he’d once left daniel larusso. in the way johnny had to see the toxicity of kreese’s teachings play out at the avt, watching his son get massacred by cheap tactics and poor sportsmanship at the hands of his own students, getting swatted off by robby when he went to him bc good intentions aren’t enough anymore, not after 16 yrs.

then season two came along and it was just as good imho, there was character development, the relationship between johnny and kreese felt very realistic whilse remaining true to the og movies. daniel was trying way too hard to be mr. miyagi and it was annoying, but we understood why. my favorite character was introduced and ofc she would latch onto cobra kai’s teachings, the world has been nothing but merciless toward her, why wouldn’t she embrace the dojo that promises her she can be just as merciless?? that she can strike back, strike first?? altho the subtext of class relations between tory and sam wasn’t explored as thoroughly as it could’ve been, it was still compelling in the way it shaped their rivalry. there was much to read between the lines there.

the first two seasons felt more thematic. like we were actually consistently engaging with these things beneath the surface, that intergenational trauma errbody is so sick of hearing abt, the culture of bullying kids sturggle against, the potential for competitive violence to be taken too far, the trappings of hypermasculinity, the lifelong impact our mentors (good or bad) can have, etc. and it was still goof. hell, it was ridiculous. but it was ridiculous with these moments of brilliance and underlying depth. neither the nostalgia nor the style ever eclipsed the show.

s3 felt rly plot-driven. very dynamic finale. i had my issues with it, but. it still felt like a continuation of the first two seasons for the most part, still had underlying depth. there were tangible consquences from the s2 finale (stark contrast of how the s3 finale had no fallout or lasting consequences). robby on the run. miggy in a coma. tory on probation. sam with ptsd, also suffering ostracization from her peers bc she isn’t percieved as cool or tough like the boys in the brawl, she’s percieved as crazy. this season leaned a little too hard into the “three sides to every story,” angle for me. and ofc no season of any show is going to be flawless, but this bothered me particularly bc this is where it felt like the narrative truly began to push the idea that johnny and daniel were equally at fault for the events of the karate kid. uh. no, just no. daniel was ganged up on and assaulted several times. johnny targetted him just for talking to ali, ali who johnny also put in a scary lose-lose situation wherein her boundaries were violated and she was coerced into interacting with him bc otherwise, daniel’s safety was at stake. all actions on daniel’s part were retaliatory.

now here in s4, it seemed like the style/nostalgia/fun elements in cobra kai prioritized over *almost* errything that had previously been compelling (i maintain that the high points of s4 were indeed high points). cobra kai was always a stupid karate show, but at least it used to be a stupid karate show with strong heart. now it’s a stupid karate show with an arrythmia.