I’m sure there’s a way for Hawk to be redeemed, he’s a bully not a cold-blooded murderer or anything like that. If Johnny and the old Cobra Kai gang can move forward, then so can Hawk. But just like Johnny, Hawk has to earn redemption for his arc to work. I’m confident the writers can manage that in an interesting way.
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A lot can change given the way S2 ended. Enough time should pass to allow Dimitri to heal and maybe walk again by midseason? Kreese is spreading the evil, so who knows what will happen? Maybe Hawk will go full aggro evil and find redemption? Hard to say.
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DynagripBreak me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPAregular
A lot can change given the way S2 ended. Enough time should pass to allow Dimitri to heal and maybe walk again by midseason? Kreese is spreading the evil, so who knows what will happen? Maybe Hawk will go full aggro evil and find redemption? Hard to say.
If they're going for a Yin/Yang style where there's a balance between Miyagi-Do and Cobra-Kai, I think they need to spend some time exploring why and in what scenarios Miyagi-Do doesn't actually work. All of the failures by the various practicioners, like Robby and Sam and Daniel have been been because they actually strayed from the path; not walking away when they should have. I also don't think they would have had Johnny abandon Cobra-Kai altogether.
The dynamic between Daniel and Johnny is also way too lopsided to really buy into a 'both sides have their points'. Daniel definitely has a blind spot whenever Johnny is involved, but honestly seems like he tries to look past it when he can, except when his family is involved, and in everything else seems to be doing okay? Much more of a standard single-episode 'does a wrong, gets called out, learns his lesson' type of thing, where Johnny just starts from a much lower place (obviously) and seems to struggle in making even the smallest amount of ground.
I think the show also does a good job of showing the long-term effects of bullying can have on people. Like, I've taken a tumble outdoors, but mostly it was my fault or hazardous terrain. I don't think much of it. But if someone intentionally pushed me off my bike and I rolled down a cliff, yeah...that would have lasting memories that would do a number on me for a long time.
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I think the show also does a good job of showing the long-term effects of bullying can have on people. Like, I've taken a tumble outdoors, but mostly it was my fault or hazardous terrain. I don't think much of it. But if someone intentionally pushed me off my bike and I rolled down a cliff, yeah...that would have lasting memories that would do a number on me for a long time.
At the same time, wasn't his last experiences of Johnny being Johnny honorably admitting Danny won and handing him the trophy and then Johnny almost being killed by Kreese? He doesn't have to like Johnny but he's automatically suspicious of everything Johnny does while Johnny seems to have lost his infrastructure that helped him survive a terrible stepfather, and spent the last 36 years spiraling. I know the show doesn't gloss over Danny being a bit of a dick as well, but it is a grating characteristic.
I think it was a mistake for Daniel to create Miyagi-do in the first place. Teaching Sam and Robby is cool, but I doubt Miyagi would approve of Daniel advertising it with commercials, public demonstrations, networking parents, and teaching an entire class.
The entire premise of Miyagi-do was aggression on Daniel’s part against Cobra Kai, which is why it doesn’t work. It was just an escalation that made things worse and Miyagi would never have done that because he understood the difference between defending and attacking, and creating Miyagi-do was an attack.
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Myagi-do is about defense, not running away. Myagi-do avoids fights but does not run away from them. Dmitri becomes a bully in his own right, mostly by not learning ro read the room and not learning when to shut up.
His story isn't different than everyone else in the series. He is no angel, he is just as flawed as everyone else.
I didn't say he was.
I don't know what you mean by differentiating "avoiding a fight" versus "running away from a fight"?
Dmitri absolutely harasses and taunts Eli, as well as the ex Cobras. But you don't get to respond to words with violence, however grotesque or infuriating they may be. Karate is for defending oneself or another person.
"Avoiding a fight" is not starting a fight, or escalating a situation into a fight. Responding to words with violence isn't a "good" action, but if you insult someone who you know is quick to anger and/or prone to violence you are not absolved of fault. The only thing that shows Dmitri has absorbed anything that Daniel was trying to teach was a muscle memory block.
Although, to be fair, Season 2 takes place over the course of 3ish months and only for part of that is Dmitri training and even less is he taking it seriously.
This is 100% victim blaming (or at least adjacent to it). Insulting someone who is abusive may not be a good idea, but like wearing "THAT" dress, it doesn't make you at fault for the perpetrators actions.
Insulting someone is wrong for it's own host of reasons, and it obviously can be bullying in it's own right, but it doesn't change the fact that someone responding to words with violence is entirely their fault.
No, it is at least half the fault of the person doing the insulting. I would even argue it is entirely their fault. I don't know if I would feel like my son should be punished because he responded to a bully by hitting him even if that's what our zero tolerance punishment society says should happen.
If it is specifically done to bully, the person doing the bullying isn't a victim when the bullied person reacts to their bullying. Especially when that's the point. It's a deliberate bullying tactic kids who know "the system" do to the kids they bully so they can pretend like they're actually the victim when their victims respond.
Myagi-do is about defense, not running away. Myagi-do avoids fights but does not run away from them. Dmitri becomes a bully in his own right, mostly by not learning ro read the room and not learning when to shut up.
His story isn't different than everyone else in the series. He is no angel, he is just as flawed as everyone else.
I didn't say he was.
I don't know what you mean by differentiating "avoiding a fight" versus "running away from a fight"?
Dmitri absolutely harasses and taunts Eli, as well as the ex Cobras. But you don't get to respond to words with violence, however grotesque or infuriating they may be. Karate is for defending oneself or another person.
"Avoiding a fight" is not starting a fight, or escalating a situation into a fight. Responding to words with violence isn't a "good" action, but if you insult someone who you know is quick to anger and/or prone to violence you are not absolved of fault. The only thing that shows Dmitri has absorbed anything that Daniel was trying to teach was a muscle memory block.
Although, to be fair, Season 2 takes place over the course of 3ish months and only for part of that is Dmitri training and even less is he taking it seriously.
This is 100% victim blaming (or at least adjacent to it). Insulting someone who is abusive may not be a good idea, but like wearing "THAT" dress, it doesn't make you at fault for the perpetrators actions.
Insulting someone is wrong for it's own host of reasons, and it obviously can be bullying in it's own right, but it doesn't change the fact that someone responding to words with violence is entirely their fault.
No, it is at least half the fault of the person doing the insulting. I would even argue it is entirely their fault. I don't know if I would feel like my son should be punished because he responded to a bully by hitting him even if that's what our zero tolerance punishment society says should happen.
If it is specifically done to bully, the person doing the bullying isn't a victim when the bullied person reacts to their bullying. Especially when that's the point. It's a deliberate bullying tactic kids who know "the system" do to the kids they bully so they can pretend like they're actually the victim when their victims respond.
But, what if the person doing the insulting was doing it because the other person was a bully who had insulted them first by calling them a 'pussy' and a 'nerd' and dumped beer on their head? Not to mention having physically assaulted them in a group some time prior. Because that's what this specific instance was, Dmitri stood up for himself when Hawk was the clear bully / aggressor. If punching a verbally abusive bully is okay, then verbally hitting back against a bully is also okay. Hawk couldn't handle being insulted back and so went to physical confrontation where he felt like he'd win, because he wants to beat up people he sees as weaker than him so that he can feel strong. Hawk got what was coming to him at both the party and the school fight, Dmitri tried to avoid that fight but Hawk forced him into it because he's a bully.
I'm just not seeing where this idea that Dmitri is the real bully is coming from when Hawk has been the one to antagonize him at almost every turn since joining Cobra Kai. Dmitri, as annoying as he can be at times, did nothing more than stand up for himself when Hawk attacked him physically and verbally multiple times.
Myagi-do is about defense, not running away. Myagi-do avoids fights but does not run away from them. Dmitri becomes a bully in his own right, mostly by not learning ro read the room and not learning when to shut up.
His story isn't different than everyone else in the series. He is no angel, he is just as flawed as everyone else.
I didn't say he was.
I don't know what you mean by differentiating "avoiding a fight" versus "running away from a fight"?
Dmitri absolutely harasses and taunts Eli, as well as the ex Cobras. But you don't get to respond to words with violence, however grotesque or infuriating they may be. Karate is for defending oneself or another person.
"Avoiding a fight" is not starting a fight, or escalating a situation into a fight. Responding to words with violence isn't a "good" action, but if you insult someone who you know is quick to anger and/or prone to violence you are not absolved of fault. The only thing that shows Dmitri has absorbed anything that Daniel was trying to teach was a muscle memory block.
Although, to be fair, Season 2 takes place over the course of 3ish months and only for part of that is Dmitri training and even less is he taking it seriously.
This is 100% victim blaming (or at least adjacent to it). Insulting someone who is abusive may not be a good idea, but like wearing "THAT" dress, it doesn't make you at fault for the perpetrators actions.
Insulting someone is wrong for it's own host of reasons, and it obviously can be bullying in it's own right, but it doesn't change the fact that someone responding to words with violence is entirely their fault.
No, it is at least half the fault of the person doing the insulting. I would even argue it is entirely their fault. I don't know if I would feel like my son should be punished because he responded to a bully by hitting him even if that's what our zero tolerance punishment society says should happen.
If it is specifically done to bully, the person doing the bullying isn't a victim when the bullied person reacts to their bullying. Especially when that's the point. It's a deliberate bullying tactic kids who know "the system" do to the kids they bully so they can pretend like they're actually the victim when their victims respond.
But, what if the person doing the insulting was doing it because the other person was a bully who had insulted them first by calling them a 'pussy' and a 'nerd' and dumped beer on their head? Not to mention having physically assaulted them in a group some time prior. Because that's what this specific instance was, Dmitri stood up for himself when Hawk was the clear bully / aggressor. If punching a verbally abusive bully is okay, then verbally hitting back against a bully is also okay. Hawk couldn't handle being insulted back and so went to physical confrontation where he felt like he'd win, because he wants to beat up people he sees as weaker than him so that he can feel strong. Hawk got what was coming to him at both the party and the school fight, Dmitri tried to avoid that fight but Hawk forced him into it because he's a bully.
I'm just not seeing where this idea that Dmitri is the real bully is coming from when Hawk has been the one to antagonize him at almost every turn since joining Cobra Kai. Dmitri, as annoying as he can be at times, did nothing more than stand up for himself when Hawk attacked him physically and verbally multiple times.
At least personally I'm thinking more season 1 Dmitri. Even when he and Eli were ostensibly friends, and he was ostensibly defending Eli, a lot of his behavior came off as really insulting of Eli and others because he's such a negative person. Obviously in the season 2 situations like the comic store and the party, Eli was the clear aggressor.
Also season 2 Dmitri's response to the line "Snitches get stitches" with "I already have stitches! Several! was 100% correct.
At the same time, despite very clearly being a nerd, Hawk did still try to get Demitri to join Cobra Kai. He didn't abandon him when he could. He only turned on him once he wrote the negative review of Cobra Kai after Hawk explicitly told him not to. Not that it justifies Hawk's responses, but where he could have abandoned Demetri, he hadn't at first. But Demetri is the type of person who thinks he is always right, and so he had to be right about reviewing Cobra Kai. Given how indoctrinated Hawk is, it's as bad as insulting his mother.
I think it was a mistake for Daniel to create Miyagi-do in the first place. Teaching Sam and Robby is cool, but I doubt Miyagi would approve of Daniel advertising it with commercials, public demonstrations, networking parents, and teaching an entire class.
The entire premise of Miyagi-do was aggression on Daniel’s part against Cobra Kai, which is why it doesn’t work. It was just an escalation that made things worse and Miyagi would never have done that because he understood the difference between defending and attacking, and creating Miyagi-do was an attack.
I agree with this, but the narrative doesn't. Late season 1, and all of season 2 pretty much ends up vindicating all of Daniel's fears about the re-emergence of Cobra Kai, which is a mistake imo. It makes things too black and white, and only really tries to dig itself out of its hole with how Season 2 wraps up.
I don't think it's framed as an attack by the show. The initial aggression was restarting Cobra Kai to begin with, which is corroborated by pretty much everything the Cobra Kai members do.
Even if Johnny is a sympathetic character and give him due credit for wanting to grow Cobra Kai beyond what Kreese had made it, he never had control over his own ethos, or an undestanding of what the inevitable results of his borrowed teachings would be.
I think it was a mistake for Daniel to create Miyagi-do in the first place. Teaching Sam and Robby is cool, but I doubt Miyagi would approve of Daniel advertising it with commercials, public demonstrations, networking parents, and teaching an entire class.
The entire premise of Miyagi-do was aggression on Daniel’s part against Cobra Kai, which is why it doesn’t work. It was just an escalation that made things worse and Miyagi would never have done that because he understood the difference between defending and attacking, and creating Miyagi-do was an attack.
I agree with this, but the narrative doesn't. Late season 1, and all of season 2 pretty much ends up vindicating all of Daniel's fears about the re-emergence of Cobra Kai, which is a mistake imo. It makes things too black and white, and only really tries to dig itself out of its hole with how Season 2 wraps up.
I don't think it's framed as an attack by the show. The initial aggression was restarting Cobra Kai to begin with, which is corroborated by pretty much everything the Cobra Kai members do.
Even if Johnny is a sympathetic character and give him due credit for wanting to grow Cobra Kai beyond what Kreese had made it, he never had control over his own ethos, or an undestanding of what the inevitable results of his borrowed teachings would be.
I thought the show was showing us Daniel was clearly antagonistic towards Johnny at almost every step, but especially in season 2.
Daniel is understandably concerned when Cobra Kai returned, but the first thing he does when he sees the dojo was confront Johnny about it when Kyler tells him that BS story, and he was rather aggressive when he did it too. Daniel didn’t ask Johnny to explain or be patient to see if they returned to bullying, he confronted Johnny twice before Miguel even beat up Kyler.
Johnny did do the dick graffiti later, but Daniel’s reaction to that was to kick a drink out of someone’s hand and scheme to double the mini-mall’s rent. His wife even calls him out on it, saying it was just a dick on a billboard and that Daniel’s retaliation was unjustified and as juvenile as Johnny.
Season two was similar, Daniel made the first strike when he wasted a chuck of his business’s advertising budget to passive aggressively attack Cobra Kai in a commercial. His wife calls him out on this as well and she’s right when she says Daniel is taking things too far.
I think the show is clear that Daniel is in the wrong and they show it by him either having him make the first move or refusing to let a slight go and retaliating. His wife again calls him out in the hospital after the school brawl in season two; while Johnny is only focused on Miguel being hurt, Daniel is right in front of his injured daughter talking about getting back at Cobra Kai before his wife justifiably tells him enough is enough.
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Daniel's first reaction to Johnny after all those years is to comp him his vehicle repair, BTW. Everything after that is basically 2 way antagonism between the two. That nearly every piece of drama between the two can be resolved by a talking (but neither ever does) is kinda the point of the show. Johnny never once inquires into Kreese's further dipshittery towards Daniel (Karate Kid 3) and Daniel assumes Johnny has fallen right back to Kreese and doesn't bother talking about anything.
Both characters have bad behaviors stemming from childhood issues/toxic environments. Daniel has his wife (formerly had Miyagi) while Johnny just has Miguel and Carmen. These influences are positive to both characters but I forsee the real uniter being a common enemy.
I mean, the whole Daniel/Johnny thing is EXPLICITLY a view on how regardless of how good or bad you've had it, people tend to be informed for their whole lives by major events in their pasts. There is a bit of lampooning how massive importance can be assign to relatively mundane events thanks to movies cliches ("this is all about a karate tournament?"). As evidenced all over the show, these two actually have a lot more in common than they don't, but they can't overlook their pasts. The accidental double date, the time in the bar reminiscing about Alley, all of it.
At the same time, despite very clearly being a nerd, Hawk did still try to get Demitri to join Cobra Kai. He didn't abandon him when he could. He only turned on him once he wrote the negative review of Cobra Kai after Hawk explicitly told him not to. Not that it justifies Hawk's responses, but where he could have abandoned Demetri, he hadn't at first. But Demetri is the type of person who thinks he is always right, and so he had to be right about reviewing Cobra Kai. Given how indoctrinated Hawk is, it's as bad as insulting his mother.
Heh, this presumes that insulting Hawk's mother would justify violence.
(It wouldn't)
As you said Hawk's actions aren't justified. There is no justification, none, for bringing along friends to beat the shit out of someone because they left a bad yelp review about, of all things, a karate dojo.
Why you then tried to qualify it I'm not sure but maybe what you're getting as is that from Hawk's point of view his actions are understandable? If that's the case I agree, they are. The show does a decent job of showing why Hawk would react that way.
Except Hawk's motivations are still toxic/broken/wrong/<insert adjective for fucked up here> and someone's actions being understandable doesn't really factor into whether or not what they're doing means suck as a person.
I can understand Walter White's motivations.
He's still a god damned monster.
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
Just finished watching both seasons over the last 2 weeks or so and enjoyed them. I'd say that overall, I preferred season 1 to 2, but there were plenty of good moments in there. Kind of funny how episode 9 of both seasons had Johnny and Danny forced into getting along for a while.
I look forward to seeing where things go next, and I really hope they don't fuck it up.
So I'm midway through S2, the Miagi dojo got trashed but the guys who bailed on Kai just showed up.
I am enamored with this show and will probably catch up just as soon as we can binge it, but I don't want to just awesome / agree two year old posts because well, media is consumed asymmetric anymore.
I am not skipping to latest pages that might spoil me. And I do like Peyton List from Jesse % Bunked.
This is a god damn good show. It addresses toxic masculinity in a way few things have and really makes me ask a lot of questions about younger self. Was I tough, a bully, a victim, or yes all of that.
I will post more when I get caught up but Robbie belongs with Sam, Miguel is probably going full heel, Johnnu is gonna kick the shit out of Miguel's moms ex eventually,
Hawk is a dick and I'm surprised he didnt beat the shit out of his girlfriend and instead trashed the Miagi dojo. We all know he would have because he is the abuser.
And apparently in this universe people give a shit about karate but not assault or arson but handwave that away because what a good show.
Man, that Karate Kid brings back some 80’s memories.
Literally the only thing I can remember is some vague reference to Miyagi hand chopping trees and Daniel saying something about doing it earlier and insert wisdom here. Like I said, I have vague memories.
The 80’s was both terrible and awesome.
Edit: Talking about the animated series. I am officially an “old” now.
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So we finished S2 last night. Definitely weaker than the first season.
The Double Date episode was fantastic. I want Johnny and Daniel to be friends because they have a hell of a lot more in common than they think, and would make great foils to one another. I foresee the show eventually ending with them teaching together in a 'balanced' dojo.
I also don't mind how they don't shy away from Daniel's flaws. He's a pretty shitty person that summer, neglecting just about all of his responsibilities - job, wife, son, etc to go play karate mostly because of his own ego.
I don't recall if Aisha was in Kreese's group at the end, I hope there are a couple of Cobra Kai students (and Maigi-Do students) who said fuck this and walked away after the fight.
Am I the only person who thought that when Tory got on the PA there would be a fucking SWAT team at that school in about fifteen seconds? I know they lampshaded the teachers noping out of the whole thing, but a brawl like that would have had every cop for fifty miles swarming that place. I know it's the Karate Kid universe not the real world, but the whole lot of them would have gotten expelled, sent to juvie / prison, and Danny and Johnny would have gotten sued into oblivion after that fight.
I was pretty sure Dimitri was the one who was going to get seriously injured / killed when Hawk was chasing him. I was surprised by him defending himself and realize it was sort of earned, but Hawk was really fucking good and doesn't seem like he would get caught out / be down for long from that.
The running joke about Johnny's childlike ignorance when it comes to technology works really well.
Also I thought they just wrote Danny's son out of the show. I'm not sure why he's even a character - there is some interesting stuff they could be doing addressing Danny / Amanda's failures as a parent in letting him be such a little shit, or showing Danny bonding to his son that doesn't come as easy as his daughter or...but instead he's just a little shithead who occasionally pops in to be annoying.
I'm interested in seeing where Season 3 goes, but I really could care less about Ali coming back and would rather they pare down the cast instead of adding even more pieces.
Daniel’s son went to summer camp near the beginning of season 2, but yeah, Daniel was clearly the antagonist between Johnny and himself, outside of the obvious Kreese of course.
I’m interested in how they’re gonna get Daniel and Johnny back into karate after what happened during the climax though, it doesn’t seem like something that can be solved with martial training or fisticuffs.
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Daniel’s son went to summer camp near the beginning of season 2, but yeah, Daniel was clearly the antagonist between Johnny and himself, outside of the obvious Kreese of course.
I’m interested in how they’re gonna get Daniel and Johnny back into karate after what happened during the climax though, it doesn’t seem like something that can be solved with martial training or fisticuffs.
I half expect Danny's son to learn "cool" karate from Johnny since they already went the other way with Robbie.
Daniel’s son went to summer camp near the beginning of season 2, but yeah, Daniel was clearly the antagonist between Johnny and himself, outside of the obvious Kreese of course.
I’m interested in how they’re gonna get Daniel and Johnny back into karate after what happened during the climax though, it doesn’t seem like something that can be solved with martial training or fisticuffs.
I half expect Danny's son to learn "cool" karate from Johnny since they already went the other way with Robbie.
That's where I thought season two was going to go, Miguel and Robbie switch places.
But, given Miguel's injuries and the school brawl I'm not all that sure how this gets ramped up again.
It doesn't look like Season 3 starts with everyone in jail.
I read somewhere Aisha might not be back in season 3. Which is bullshit if true, seeing as she was the second Cobra Kai student and so far has been criminally underutilized for someone who was Daniel's daughter's friend.
I read somewhere Aisha might not be back in season 3. Which is bullshit if true, seeing as she was the second Cobra Kai student and so far has been criminally underutilized for someone who was Daniel's daughter's friend.
Was she featured in the last scene of season 2 with the Cobra Kais?
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
I read somewhere Aisha might not be back in season 3. Which is bullshit if true, seeing as she was the second Cobra Kai student and so far has been criminally underutilized for someone who was Daniel's daughter's friend.
Apparently she announced on instagram that she wasn't in it because they couldn't find a place to put her in the script, whatever that means.
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The dynamic between Daniel and Johnny is also way too lopsided to really buy into a 'both sides have their points'. Daniel definitely has a blind spot whenever Johnny is involved, but honestly seems like he tries to look past it when he can, except when his family is involved, and in everything else seems to be doing okay? Much more of a standard single-episode 'does a wrong, gets called out, learns his lesson' type of thing, where Johnny just starts from a much lower place (obviously) and seems to struggle in making even the smallest amount of ground.
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At the same time, wasn't his last experiences of Johnny being Johnny honorably admitting Danny won and handing him the trophy and then Johnny almost being killed by Kreese? He doesn't have to like Johnny but he's automatically suspicious of everything Johnny does while Johnny seems to have lost his infrastructure that helped him survive a terrible stepfather, and spent the last 36 years spiraling. I know the show doesn't gloss over Danny being a bit of a dick as well, but it is a grating characteristic.
The entire premise of Miyagi-do was aggression on Daniel’s part against Cobra Kai, which is why it doesn’t work. It was just an escalation that made things worse and Miyagi would never have done that because he understood the difference between defending and attacking, and creating Miyagi-do was an attack.
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No, it is at least half the fault of the person doing the insulting. I would even argue it is entirely their fault. I don't know if I would feel like my son should be punished because he responded to a bully by hitting him even if that's what our zero tolerance punishment society says should happen.
If it is specifically done to bully, the person doing the bullying isn't a victim when the bullied person reacts to their bullying. Especially when that's the point. It's a deliberate bullying tactic kids who know "the system" do to the kids they bully so they can pretend like they're actually the victim when their victims respond.
But, what if the person doing the insulting was doing it because the other person was a bully who had insulted them first by calling them a 'pussy' and a 'nerd' and dumped beer on their head? Not to mention having physically assaulted them in a group some time prior. Because that's what this specific instance was, Dmitri stood up for himself when Hawk was the clear bully / aggressor. If punching a verbally abusive bully is okay, then verbally hitting back against a bully is also okay. Hawk couldn't handle being insulted back and so went to physical confrontation where he felt like he'd win, because he wants to beat up people he sees as weaker than him so that he can feel strong. Hawk got what was coming to him at both the party and the school fight, Dmitri tried to avoid that fight but Hawk forced him into it because he's a bully.
I'm just not seeing where this idea that Dmitri is the real bully is coming from when Hawk has been the one to antagonize him at almost every turn since joining Cobra Kai. Dmitri, as annoying as he can be at times, did nothing more than stand up for himself when Hawk attacked him physically and verbally multiple times.
At least personally I'm thinking more season 1 Dmitri. Even when he and Eli were ostensibly friends, and he was ostensibly defending Eli, a lot of his behavior came off as really insulting of Eli and others because he's such a negative person. Obviously in the season 2 situations like the comic store and the party, Eli was the clear aggressor.
Also season 2 Dmitri's response to the line "Snitches get stitches" with "I already have stitches! Several! was 100% correct.
I agree with this, but the narrative doesn't. Late season 1, and all of season 2 pretty much ends up vindicating all of Daniel's fears about the re-emergence of Cobra Kai, which is a mistake imo. It makes things too black and white, and only really tries to dig itself out of its hole with how Season 2 wraps up.
I don't think it's framed as an attack by the show. The initial aggression was restarting Cobra Kai to begin with, which is corroborated by pretty much everything the Cobra Kai members do.
Even if Johnny is a sympathetic character and give him due credit for wanting to grow Cobra Kai beyond what Kreese had made it, he never had control over his own ethos, or an undestanding of what the inevitable results of his borrowed teachings would be.
I thought the show was showing us Daniel was clearly antagonistic towards Johnny at almost every step, but especially in season 2.
Daniel is understandably concerned when Cobra Kai returned, but the first thing he does when he sees the dojo was confront Johnny about it when Kyler tells him that BS story, and he was rather aggressive when he did it too. Daniel didn’t ask Johnny to explain or be patient to see if they returned to bullying, he confronted Johnny twice before Miguel even beat up Kyler.
Johnny did do the dick graffiti later, but Daniel’s reaction to that was to kick a drink out of someone’s hand and scheme to double the mini-mall’s rent. His wife even calls him out on it, saying it was just a dick on a billboard and that Daniel’s retaliation was unjustified and as juvenile as Johnny.
Season two was similar, Daniel made the first strike when he wasted a chuck of his business’s advertising budget to passive aggressively attack Cobra Kai in a commercial. His wife calls him out on this as well and she’s right when she says Daniel is taking things too far.
I think the show is clear that Daniel is in the wrong and they show it by him either having him make the first move or refusing to let a slight go and retaliating. His wife again calls him out in the hospital after the school brawl in season two; while Johnny is only focused on Miguel being hurt, Daniel is right in front of his injured daughter talking about getting back at Cobra Kai before his wife justifiably tells him enough is enough.
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Both characters have bad behaviors stemming from childhood issues/toxic environments. Daniel has his wife (formerly had Miyagi) while Johnny just has Miguel and Carmen. These influences are positive to both characters but I forsee the real uniter being a common enemy.
Heh, this presumes that insulting Hawk's mother would justify violence.
(It wouldn't)
As you said Hawk's actions aren't justified. There is no justification, none, for bringing along friends to beat the shit out of someone because they left a bad yelp review about, of all things, a karate dojo.
Why you then tried to qualify it I'm not sure but maybe what you're getting as is that from Hawk's point of view his actions are understandable? If that's the case I agree, they are. The show does a decent job of showing why Hawk would react that way.
Except Hawk's motivations are still toxic/broken/wrong/<insert adjective for fucked up here> and someone's actions being understandable doesn't really factor into whether or not what they're doing means suck as a person.
I can understand Walter White's motivations.
He's still a god damned monster.
I look forward to seeing where things go next, and I really hope they don't fuck it up.
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At this point I think they somehow are gonna bring back the bad guys from Karate kid 3 and then Hillary Swank shows up.
EDIT: "The 90s, bitches"
That was #4.
What they should be doing is re-using the scripts from the Karate Kid animated series.
I am enamored with this show and will probably catch up just as soon as we can binge it, but I don't want to just awesome / agree two year old posts because well, media is consumed asymmetric anymore.
I am not skipping to latest pages that might spoil me. And I do like Peyton List from Jesse % Bunked.
This is a god damn good show. It addresses toxic masculinity in a way few things have and really makes me ask a lot of questions about younger self. Was I tough, a bully, a victim, or yes all of that.
I will post more when I get caught up but Robbie belongs with Sam, Miguel is probably going full heel, Johnnu is gonna kick the shit out of Miguel's moms ex eventually,
Hawk is a dick and I'm surprised he didnt beat the shit out of his girlfriend and instead trashed the Miagi dojo. We all know he would have because he is the abuser.
And apparently in this universe people give a shit about karate but not assault or arson but handwave that away because what a good show.
Literally the only thing I can remember is some vague reference to Miyagi hand chopping trees and Daniel saying something about doing it earlier and insert wisdom here. Like I said, I have vague memories.
The 80’s was both terrible and awesome.
Edit: Talking about the animated series. I am officially an “old” now.
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The Double Date episode was fantastic. I want Johnny and Daniel to be friends because they have a hell of a lot more in common than they think, and would make great foils to one another. I foresee the show eventually ending with them teaching together in a 'balanced' dojo.
I also don't mind how they don't shy away from Daniel's flaws. He's a pretty shitty person that summer, neglecting just about all of his responsibilities - job, wife, son, etc to go play karate mostly because of his own ego.
I don't recall if Aisha was in Kreese's group at the end, I hope there are a couple of Cobra Kai students (and Maigi-Do students) who said fuck this and walked away after the fight.
Am I the only person who thought that when Tory got on the PA there would be a fucking SWAT team at that school in about fifteen seconds? I know they lampshaded the teachers noping out of the whole thing, but a brawl like that would have had every cop for fifty miles swarming that place. I know it's the Karate Kid universe not the real world, but the whole lot of them would have gotten expelled, sent to juvie / prison, and Danny and Johnny would have gotten sued into oblivion after that fight.
I was pretty sure Dimitri was the one who was going to get seriously injured / killed when Hawk was chasing him. I was surprised by him defending himself and realize it was sort of earned, but Hawk was really fucking good and doesn't seem like he would get caught out / be down for long from that.
The running joke about Johnny's childlike ignorance when it comes to technology works really well.
Also I thought they just wrote Danny's son out of the show. I'm not sure why he's even a character - there is some interesting stuff they could be doing addressing Danny / Amanda's failures as a parent in letting him be such a little shit, or showing Danny bonding to his son that doesn't come as easy as his daughter or...but instead he's just a little shithead who occasionally pops in to be annoying.
I'm interested in seeing where Season 3 goes, but I really could care less about Ali coming back and would rather they pare down the cast instead of adding even more pieces.
I’m interested in how they’re gonna get Daniel and Johnny back into karate after what happened during the climax though, it doesn’t seem like something that can be solved with martial training or fisticuffs.
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Ok, so why was Daniel-san and Mr Myagi beating up south-american natives in what I assume is a south american jungle?
Are we witnessing a hate crime?
I half expect Danny's son to learn "cool" karate from Johnny since they already went the other way with Robbie.
IGNORE ME!
That's where I thought season two was going to go, Miguel and Robbie switch places.
But, given Miguel's injuries and the school brawl I'm not all that sure how this gets ramped up again.
It doesn't look like Season 3 starts with everyone in jail.
That said, I do love how Johnny and Daniel become temporary best buds when they drink together. I hope we see more of that in Season 3.
Was she featured in the last scene of season 2 with the Cobra Kais?
Coran Attack!
Apparently she announced on instagram that she wasn't in it because they couldn't find a place to put her in the script, whatever that means.
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