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Cobra Kai


The Choc
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Season 4 didn't work for me and I can't exactly put my finger on it.  I really enjoyed the first three seasons but this one seemed repetitive and didn't really seem to take the characters anywhere they haven't already been.  I found myself getting bored.  

I've never liked Karate Kids 3.  Back in the day, it felt so much different than the first two.  Cheesier and much more unrealistic.  Looking at the three films now, they feel more consistent in tone, though.  Still, part 3 is still a poor film.   

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This is something that i think plays to my criticism of Daniel constantly talking about Miyagi.

Daniel turns to Chozen because despite the dream they made, Cobra Kai must not continue in his mind. True Terry Silver is probably going to be up to nefarious crap. Yes Silver paid off the ref in the Tori-Sam fight, but Daniel doesn't know that. What he saw on the mat was Tori winning a fair fight with what could have easily been a missed call. Daniel can't handle that. For him it's two losses in a row at the tournament. It seems like his pride is what he's trying to fix. It works seem to me that without knowledge of the fix, Miyagi would have told Daniel to move on. 

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2 hours ago, Metropolis said:

This is something that i think plays to my criticism of Daniel constantly talking about Miyagi.

Daniel turns to Chozen because despite the dream they made, Cobra Kai must not continue in his mind. True Terry Silver is probably going to be up to nefarious crap. Yes Silver paid off the ref in the Tori-Sam fight, but Daniel doesn't know that. What he saw on the mat was Tori winning a fair fight with what could have easily been a missed call. Daniel can't handle that. For him it's two losses in a row at the tournament. It seems like his pride is what he's trying to fix. It works seem to me that without knowledge of the fix, Miyagi would have told Daniel to move on. 

I think that is a good point. Pride may be playing a part in it, but I also think Daniel genuinely thinks Cobra Kai will only lead to trouble for their students and is the wrong way of teaching martial arts. It also may be personal since Cobra Kai students attacked his daughter, broke into his house, and made a living nightmare for his family. I don't think Daniel is that prideful though because one of the interesting things in S4 was how both Daniel and Johnny had some influence on each other and agreed to take turns in letting one train the other. Also, at the final of the tournament, Daniel said to Sam to trust herself, which I took it to mean Daniel was open to letting Sam decide her own way (even if that meant using some of what Johnny had taught her). I think though, you are right in that Miyagi would not care about the tournament and Miyagi probably knew he would not be able to stop Cobra Kai (only teach other students like Daniel a better way). However, I still feel that for Daniel, stopping Cobra Kai is about more than just his students losing two tournament finals in a row.

Some of the other things I am interested in seeing from the next season are:

1. What will happen to Kreese after he is thrown in jail? It seems he was a little bit at odds with Silver even before he was arrested (telling Silver to stop hurting Johnny, telling Tori to do what she wants when she was arguing with Silver that she did not want to fight dirty against Sam in the tournament final). It seems like these scenes showed small glimmers of hope that Kreese may become somewhat a decent person again and that maybe he has regret over what he has done in the past. We will see though.

2. What will become of Robby and Johnny? It seems like they were patching things up at the very end of S4. Will Robby quit Cobra Kai? But it was the deal that both Daniel and Johnny would stop teaching if they did not win the tournament. Will they continue to teach in secret? Will Chozen start his own dojo?

3. Will anyone ever find out about how Silver paid off the referee? Tori witnessed that and she seemed upset. Will she spill the beans? It also seems that Amanda may have tipped the balance and started Tori on a path to redemption. But will that be enough for Sam to forgive her and forget about past events?

4. What will happen with Daniel and Chozen? Like I asked previously, will Chozen start a new dojo? Will Johnny also join them in teaching?

5. Will Miguel be able to find his father? At the end, Carmen indicated that Miguel's father does not know he exists. Will Johnny find Miguel and continue to be a father figure to him and at the same time improve his relationship with Robby?

There's probably a lot more, but that is all I can think of for now. Another one of my favorite parts from S4 was after Daniel got done beating up the hockey team and asked where was Johnny, Johnny responds with "No be there." :D

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30 minutes ago, Darth Krawlie said:

Robby and Tori are both turning face next season. It won't be a straight path because this show is very melodramatic, but by the end they'll be on the good guys' side. As everyone has said, they've already started, and Hawk led the way.

It's not a straight path because the writers need to stretch it out somehow. :D

I agree that both could be on the good side by the end of season 5. But what will happen then? All the best fighers will have left (or not even joined) Cobra Kai. Sam, Miguel, Robby, Tori, Eli. Is there anyone I am missing? Will a new fighter rise up? Or will this be the end of the TV show (just 5 seasons)?

That also makes me think of what will happen with Daniel's son and his rivalry with that new kid Kenny? Will Daniel's son take up karate? Will he betray his father by joining Cobra Kai? Or maybe Sam will join Cobra Kai (via Silver's manipulation similar to Karate Kid III)? I doubt Sam would join but who knows what the writers have in store for the next season.

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On 1/8/2022 at 8:04 PM, Jedigoat said:

I've never liked Karate Kid 3.  Back in the day, it felt so much different than the first two.  Cheesier and much more unrealistic.  Looking at the three films now, they feel more consistent in tone, though.  Still, part 3 is still a poor film.   

Early in this season when Silver was refusing to join Kreese I thought it was funny when he said in the 80's he was so coked up he thought he could rule the world and spent months torturing a teenager all for some high school tournament. He was talking for the audience saying how cheesy this whole franchise is if you pull back and think about it too much.  

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8 hours ago, Lord Darth Hunter said:

Early in this season when Silver was refusing to join Kreese I thought it was funny when he said in the 80's he was so coked up he thought he could rule the world and spent months torturing a teenager all for some high school tournament. He was talking for the audience saying how cheesy this whole franchise is if you pull back and think about it too much.  

Yeah, that was a funny line.  And that speaks to what I'm saying about the 3rd film and the Cobra Kai series.   Part 2 does have some silly moments, even right from the opening scene but part 3 feels like a completely different tone almost.   

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I've never liked part 3 because I always thought Chozen was Daniel's greatest opponent. Chozen was a major kick ass karate master, as seen when Daniel watches him beat the crap out of all the students in the Sato dojo one on 10 or whatever it was. He goes after Daniel not for points or a high school trophy, no referees or time outs. Chozen literally wants to kill him. By overcoming that and winning, along with the rest of his journey in KK2, you'd think Daniel would have a newfound perspective on life. Instead in KK3 it's like part 2 never happened and Daniel is back to square one where he's afraid of Johnny Lawrence 2.0. After his duel with Chozen, Daniel should be rolling his eyes at fighting for points in a tournament.  

In fact I found it ironic that the only character who they followed up on this with is Kumiko. In her CK Season 3 appearance she told Daniel she never married because by having a man fight to the death for her, that was a hard act to follow.  

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Like Macchio said, he never liked 3 as much as the others but its giving pretty good fodder for  the show so its like a crappy gift that years later works out. 

The scene where Silver talks about being coked up and all that is so important to this series in pointing out the ridiculousness of it. Like was pointed out Amanda used to fill this role but really can't anymore so they need to give the "wink" once in a while. I thought the All Valley committee meeting did this too my making it so over the top and even ending it with a guy saying "god help us" when all they really did was break it into boys and girls divisions. 

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On 1/11/2022 at 2:36 PM, Darth Wicket said:

It's not a straight path because the writers need to stretch it out somehow. :D

I agree that both could be on the good side by the end of season 5. But what will happen then? All the best fighers will have left (or not even joined) Cobra Kai. Sam, Miguel, Robby, Tori, Eli. Is there anyone I am missing? Will a new fighter rise up? Or will this be the end of the TV show (just 5 seasons)?

That also makes me think of what will happen with Daniel's son and his rivalry with that new kid Kenny? Will Daniel's son take up karate? Will he betray his father by joining Cobra Kai? Or maybe Sam will join Cobra Kai (via Silver's manipulation similar to Karate Kid III)? I doubt Sam would join but who knows what the writers have in store for the next season.

I'd put money down on Sam's heel turn in S5. 

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Part 3 is more along the lines of Iron Eagle, and fits solidly in with the time and place. It’s completely ridiculous but in the original context it somehow wasn’t. But there’s increasing cheese throughout the series. Part 2 is way cheesier than the original. The original has a whole plot about how Daniel can’t learn enough to win, but he can learn a small amount really well, and learn things that Cobra Kai doesn’t know. Then Part 2 he goes up against someone who has had all the same type of training but for his entire life, and somehow everyone in the village knows the drum thing except Chozen?  And the whole drum thing is basically just “Move slightly” so the big thing that lets him beat a vastly superior opponent is swiveling. 
 

Anyways, I’m halfway through episode 6 right now, and the show is at its best when it focuses on Daniel and Johnny or the tertiary characters. Robby and Sam are just sort of boring, and Miguel pretty much just exists to be the physical manifestation of the struggle between Daniel and Johnny. So far, this season is a pretty steep drop in quality from previous seasons, but I’m still enjoying it. Not sure it can handle much more of this quality though. I read the showrunners said they have plans for season 6 and possibly beyond, but it feels like it either needs to wrap up or change dramatically. 

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Besides Silver's line about being coked up and torturing a teen for laughs, I forgot to mention the other standout line from this season that was a wink to the audience about KK3. After Silver goes with Kreese to Miyagi-do to show Daniel he's back, Daniel gives Johnny the rundown of KK3's plot offscreen to catch him up on who Silver is and the history between him and Daniel. Johnny's first words to Daniel are something like, "Wait a minute...you're telling me they let you into the final of the tournament just because you were defending champion???" :lol:  

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Johnny is the best part of this show. 

Really, this would have been the best ending for the show. Johnny and Daniel mess up a bunch of kids, start gang warfare, and then both get reset to where they were at the beginning, except Johnny gets a second chance with his son. The ultimate bad guy wins. End of story. 

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At this point I just trust the guys making the show. At the end of last season like alot of fans it seemed like the set up for season 4 was a set up to end the show. I also thought perhaps it would lose what makes it great which is the idea that the people on the "bad" side arent all bad. Well that certainly didn't happen in season 4. At this point there is no reason to not just say they know what they are doing.

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I don’t know. I didn’t really think this season was nearly as good, and I think it’s ready to end. There were some good points, Eli is a much more engaging character, Silver being the big bad, but overall I wasn’t as impressed. I think that it could have been 5 episodes and been a lot better. 

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Maverick saved Cougars life and was completely exonerated in Goose's death asshole!

As for what Tank said I don't know if I completely agree. Hard to say its unexpected. From what I remember YouTube paid a pretty big price to keep it away from the more established services to try to jump start their own pay service. The first 2 episodes were released in theaters shown after a viewing of the original movie. Anecdotaly I probably got half a dozen texts from friends the day the show was announced. 

Obviously it for more popular and kinda exploded when it shifted to Netflix and I won't say anyone could have envisioned the show being quite as popular as its become but I do think it was thought to be a pretty safe bet to be a hit.

Having said all that why would they want to let a show that is this popular go? I mean plenty of shows stay past their peak due to their popularity. I don't think this show is at that point yet. I still think if anything there is plenty of meat left on the bone.

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11 hours ago, Tank said:

We forget this started basically as a YouTube short that was meant to be an amusing flip to a classic film by showing how the bully’s life turned out. It was an unexpected hit and now they don’t want to give it up.

I know it started on YouTube, but I don’t remember the short. 

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