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Cobra Kai


The Choc
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I honestly don’t recall if the short has ever been made public. It was basically the first 10-15 of the first episode and is what sold the show.

I think more my pint was if you look at the first season, especially the first few episodes it was about Johnny, and Daniel was more of the foil. The direction they went and the idea that bullying is a never-ending cycle is great, I’m just of the that they have pivoted and expanded so much to keep it going it’s starting to spin it’s wheels a bit.

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One thing I respect about this show is that they don’t shy away from the cheese and the badness of the movie sequels. It’s still part of the universe, and they actively include. Other franchise reboots/continuations only seem to want to acknowledge the good. Afterlife didn’t reference Ghostbusters 2 at all, and the SW sequels barely referred to the prequels at all—can’t recall anything besides a throwaway line about clones. But Cobra Kai owns it all, and I like that a lot about it.

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We don’t know who Egon’s daughter married either. My head canon is that she married Oscar, and he’s a hippie spiritualist flake that she eventually had enough of.

But anyway…

I’m not deep into this season of Cobra Kai yet, but I have seen up to the hockey game that Johnny and Daniel go to. I totally loved Johnny dropping “no be there” as a punchline, perfect 80s one liner usage, felt pretty badass too in that way. lol

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I think they are going to see if they can squeeze in a little more redemption for Johnny. I don't quite want him to go full good guy, that's not who he is. But taking down Silver and seeing what it takes to really fix his relationship with Robbie would be fun to watch. Johnny is going to have to put in work, its not one hug and all is fixed. And he needs to balance how Miguel fits into his life now.

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Is he? Look at Miguel at the tournament. The kid is seriously scared and hurt and all Johnny cares about is him going out and winning. Johnny WANTS to be a good guy, but he never had anyone show him how.  He’s doing a good job, and he’s on a journey, but to say he’s a full on good guy? Nah.

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I think Johnny is a good guy, hero sense, and I think he’s on his way to being a good man as well. Same said for Daniel.

I think what we’ve discovered the most through Cobra Kai is that even though Johnny was a rich kid and Daniel a poor kid they are the same person… sorta Nature and Nurture thing. They are both males that deeply struggle with what being a man is, they are both impulsive, ill-tempered, and quick to judge others. If Kreese had found Daniel, if Miyagi had found Johnny, they would just be each other reversed.

Also no adult I have seen on the show so far, except for maybe what has been implied about Chozen and Kumiko last year, are the type of adults these kids in the show appear to need. I am aware Chozen might be showing up this season, not there yet tho, so maybe this thought about him is already invalidated. Anywho.

No one, adult or child, needs to be perfect ever… in real life or the show. However tragically, because he’s gone, seems like everyone needs a Miyagi in their life though. I dunno, sorta rambling now, but maybe that is ultimately the message in regards to the cyclical bullying that the show is dealing with. Maybe the No Be There defensive philosophy parallels to not just a physical fight, but the fight within. Put yourself, your ego aside, don’t be there, be here, present and available. Sorta a spiritual servant message. I dunno. lol

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Johnny and Daniel are both good fathers and mentors in the present. Obviously in the past Johnny was absent from Robbie's life. They aren't perfect. But just as the show is about the 2 of them its just as much about the kids and the kids having to accept that their mentors are not always right. It doesn't mean their mentors aren;t good though.

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Johnny is such a good father that his son hates him and he wanted his surrogate son to risk serious injury so he could win a bet. And so good that the surrogate son feels the need to run away. Calling Johnny a good father is an insult to anyone who has ever been a father.
 

Daniel is a good father with a lot of flaws. Johnny is someone who is learning to be a father, and will be a good one by the end, but isn’t there now.

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50 minutes ago, Cerina said:

Our societal bar for being a "good" father is so low that it's underground. 

Even with that, Johnny doesn’t pass. He’s objectively a bad father and father figure. He’s actually better when he’s just trying to be a sensei. Season 3 Johnny, helping Miguel walk again? Good father figure. Season 4 Johnny? A man obviously fighting against the bad influences in his life, but not a good father.

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I think back to that scene where Johnny is trying to get a job and the guy asked him about his arrest record. And he sheepishly says assault on a minor... and after he gets going, says man those little ***holes deserved it. Hilarious, but he definitely still struggles with his impulses. Like I know some days I want to punch little turds at the playground being jerks to my kids. But I don't. Johnny does, sometimes.

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As for Johnny being a good dad: Obviously he was absentee with Robbie so not much of a good dad there. With Miguel though here is the thing, this is an exaggerated world where a karate rivalry is near life and death. His mistakes are going to be exaggerated. In comparison to the real world his actions would not make him a good dad but in the world of this show he is a good dad, just not perfect. 

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Eh. Johnny is not a dad at all. He’s technically a father, but that’s just being a sperm donor in Robbie’s case. In Miguel’s case Johnny is just a male authority figure. Nothing in the show displays Johnny as a good parent.

I think you’re getting hung up on the fact that Johnny is the protagonist.

Johnny is the show’s hero, the core journey we’re in here is Johnny bettering himself. He’s a good guy in that sense, as in good guys vs bad guys. However that is like a story centered on Marvel’s Punisher, Frank is a good guy (hero) but he’s not actually a good guy (good person). Frank is a murdering psychopath. Johnny is a good guy, but he’s a complete and total asshole that probably should be in prison for well pick a thing he’s done in the show.

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So no surprise that the writers have Johnny idolizing Iceman in Top Gun… ironically tho Iceman is a “do things the right way, follow the rules, be safe” character which is closer to Daniel’s idealism than anything.

Also, I couldn’t stop laughing at Johnny’s mom saying, “you kept his things?” while holding a box of literal trash.

Later:

”I want to be a father to you, so bad.”

Says the breaking and entering, hot head, drunk, who peed himself.

Meanwhile Daniel continues his emotional abuse of his son, from belittling him over his weight early in the show to literally using force to scare him. Not that the kid isn’t a dink, but still.

I think Miguel’s mom is the only adult in the show, but even her judgement in regards to Johnny is at the least awkward.

Don’t get me wrong, obviously I understand how melodrama works… just, it’s difficult to stay invested without at least one character that is breaking the cycle.

Later still:

When Robbie did the superhero landing in his skills demo I couldn’t help but to hear Florence Pugh. Thanks Marvel, best moment in a few episodes wasn’t even part of the show. lol

The Late Late Edit:

Aww, everyone almost hugged it out.

I guess Barnes will show up next year.

I dunno how odds work, like most things, but here’s to Anthony giving Cobra Kai the secret scroll next season because someone has to be that dumb.

The Much Later Afterthought:

The future…

This is premise breaking or just show ending pretty much, but I feel like this show has to develop like a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Lois Lane expose on the entire All Valley Drama in order to close that out. Like I would have Torrie, Piper, and like I dunno Youngest Blonde Glasses Kid and others team up to do it. Meanwhile Chozen agrees to help Daniel, with his goal actually being to guide Daniel out of this obsession with Cobra Kai and championships.

Chozen then has the most immediate affect on Johnny, who finally just wants to No Be There… which becomes poetically poignant because duh he finally is there for someone in the way they need by adopting No Be There when he wasn’t ever there before. lol Show ends with Daniel teaching in a non-competitive mindset, Johnny just being a better man (shown with at least mentioning he has entered into counseling and AA), etc. In fact, you could do a bit, comedy routine lingo, with Daniel showing up at an AA meeting which Johnny is already a member of.

”Johnny, where are you going?”

”This is supposed to be alcoholics anonymous, I know this guy.”

I think Miguel just needs to find evidence of or meet his donor and just go this dude has “no power over me” Sarah/Labyrinth style. lol.

Then this melodrama gets a fittingly fairytale happy ending imo. With the expose, the shift from championship goals, the AA… to wrap it up, end it, maybe the last scene is Johnny and Daniel drinking non-alcoholic beverages together watching a bonsai tree back lit by a sunset.

Anywho…

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For this show you have to accept  things I think

1-The premise is crazy, the idea that this karate rivalry is life or death ridiculous. You just have to accept it though.

2-The 3 increasingly cheesy movies from the 80s are actually an epic backstory. This plays into the last one but you just have to accept that although Karate Kid 3 kinda sucks that in this show the events of it are taken completely seriously.

If you can accept these things the show is awesome and thematically rich. It teaches great lessons and in it's own way inside of this ridiculous premise is pretty epic. For instance ifyou remember from I think the first movie Miyagi tells Daniel there are no bad students, only bad teachers. Then in this season you have Daniel teaming up with all 3 of his opponents from the movies: Johnny, Chozen and Matt Barnes because it was never them, the students, who were bad. It was always the teachers corrupting them. Thats been a theme throughout this as none of the kids are ever portrayed as being truly bad or beyond hope. 

If the whole thing just seems to have gone to far and the premise is too stretched at this point well everyones mileage will vary on that but if you can just accept this premise the show is still awesome. 

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