Cobra Kai is brilliant because it’s still about Daniel and Johnny

Final round of All-Valley Karate Tournament – the epitome of seminal classical karate Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence’s violent rivalry is all but settled. Daniel is hurt from an illegal hit which has left his leg injured. Determined, but a bit afraid, Daniel hobbles towards the mat. Johnny, his bully rival, stands over him, looking like an animal ready to strike. Daniel stands in an unblemished white gi while Johnny’s is black. An inferior movie might have left it that way. However, Karate KidOne of its last moments is used to bring nuance into a black-and-white story. It’s done in three words: Sweep the Leg.

Johnny’s sensei, John Kreese, sees Johnny falling behind and commands him to capitalize on Daniel’s injury. William Zabka’s performance is impeccable. His face screams confusion and anger as he sees his teacher’s ruthless philosophy deployed simultaneously against him and through him. When Kreese tells him “No mercy,” unlike at every other point in the movie, he doesn’t answer. He’s heartbroken and enraged as he follows orders. His anger escalates from being decisive to outright furious. He yells through his strikes, with eyes wild like he’s near tears. As he capitalizes on LaRusso’s injury, the crowd’s boos more with every move. At the outset of the final point he winds up to finish his grim task, but in mere milliseconds, he’s humiliated with a kick to the face and sent cowering to the ground.

This could still be a chance to prove that Johnny is as bad as his audience wants him to be. Johnny that we expected would likely throw cheap shots or make insensitive remarks. He loses his dignity instead. Suddenly the villain we’ve been made to hate the whole film ever so briefly reveals himself as just an angry kid with pain in his heart. They are more similar than they realize. The main difference between them is the way that their anger was directed. Daniel met Mr. Miyagi, who was a stoic and peaceful man. Johnny got taken by Kreese, who’d have better served him as a cautionary tale.

While the rivalry between LaRusso, Lawrence lives on in the films, its nuance is now lost. Johnny’s characterization becomes focused on his cruelty, and the complex emotional journey depicted in his defeat is forgotten. The heartbreaking delivery of “sweep the leg” is reduced to quote fodder for unlicensed novelty tee shirts. Get in Cobra Kai.

Columbia Pictures

COURTESY of NETFLIX

A multi-season series sequel was certainly not in the plans for The Karate Kid franchise. However, The Karate Kid’s surprise quality and subsequent success has brought back the rivalry between Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. The series opens with Johnny in his 50s living in shadows of his own wasted potential. Meanwhile success abounds for Daniel, who’s become the owner of a high-end car dealership in the Valley. Johnny’s hobbled by his defeat and Daniel’s more than happy to smugly recount that defeat to anyone who will listen. Daniel wins the leg, without thinking twice. The show is about rivalry from the beginning.

Johnny decides to reopen the Cobra Kai dojo. He adds an interesting twist: he is using his brutal philosophy to help kids feel less lost. Daniel takes in two Cobra Kai students, believing it to be dangerous. The two butt heads repeatedly as Johnny’s “Strike Hard, Strike First, No Mercy” attitude remains ever at odds with Miyagi-do’s more thoughtful, pacifist approach. The show’s first season culminates in another All-Valley Karate Showdown, this time with audience sympathy built on both sides.

Cobra Kai could’ve stopped its narrative development there and still be an entertaining remix of a story that’s always been satisfying to watch. But at the first season’s end, Johnny’s star student Miguel wins the tournament by taking advantage of his opponent’s injuries. Johnny is left questioning the philosophy that’s turned his star student into the exact type of person he regrets having been in his youth just as the show introduces a new central tension in the form of a familiar villain. Johnny’s former sensei, John Kreese, smokes a cigar in the shadows of the empty Cobra Kai dojo and reveals himself.

The story continues to burn like a firework. Kreese pretends to regret, and Johnny agrees to teach with him. Cobra Kai dojo students move to Miyagi-Do. Miyagi-Do students jump ship for Cobra Kai. The show explores almost every romantic scenario possible. Friends can become rivals. Rivals become friends. This anime is less nostalgic and more shonen-inspired. The fact that these students are schoolchildren takes a backseat to their love of karate and the all-consuming rivalries it’s created in their lives. Miguel is left in a coma after a brawl on campus. The third season ends with another taking place inside the LaRusso home (in one of the series’ best line deliveries, Courtney Henggeler gestures to the wreckage of her home with anguish and says “a small boy was thrown through our window!”). Every season brings our characters closer to the world of the films, but deeper into the logical progression. In a place where combat can resolve any problem, and in a city where juvenile karate is a constant distraction from everyday life, each episode takes them further and farther away. Mr. Miyagi’s pacifism feels quite justified in retrospect.

Netflix Photo

The show’s fourth season seems to explore the madness of violence and rivalry, although it still makes great use of both. At the center of everything is the “villain” that started it all. Johnny, played by Zabka, is a complex mix of pain, charisma and rage. Karate Kidhit the theaters but it appears that the audiences are more open to the nuance. It is possible to get one message across: Cobra Kai has for its audience, it’s that rivals are rarely rivals for long. Terry Silver is the best villain, and even Kreese appears to be on track for redemption.

Even though the cast keeps growing, the story still has time to honor the original rivalry. Now, in season 4, Johnny and Daniel stage a much-anticipated formal rematch of the original fight. The fight ends with a double knockout despite cheering from their students at the sides. With two cartoonish pratfalls, our heroes find themselves on the mat with the answer to the question of “Who would win?” no closer to their grasp. As a viewer, you can’t help but ask: can there ever truly be an answer or is the fight the point? Imagine if our greatest enemy is actually the force that drives us to each other. Is it possible that the rewards for defeating your opponent are just as great?

By Cobra Kai’s estimation, it’s rivalries all the way down. The villains are just angry kids with heartache, just like the ones before them. Perhaps Cobra KaiThe cycle is broken. Or maybe it’s just trying to teach us to relax and enjoy the unending, karate-paved, road to hell.